by Farooq Yousaf, for South Asia Democratic Forum" A featured story recently published by Forbes magazine read “Pakistan: The Next Colombia Success Story?” For many, this story could ring surprise - or shock – bells, but for some, the story also holds truth in certain aspects of the recent developments taking place in Pakistan. The country is currently going through final phases of its major Operation Zarb e Azb against the Taliban in the FATA region, whereas the internally displaced residents of the region have also started heading home. Although the war against terrorists and insurgents is far from over, the signs and outcomes of Zarb e Azb, consequently resulting in lower terror attacks this year, surely present a somewhat positive security picture of the country. In terms of national politics, a healthy competition is also taking place between Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf (Justice Movement Party) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League in the Centre. On the economic front, the Sharif government has been somewhat able to strengthen the value of the Pakistani rupee against the US Dollar, whereas foreign investments are also on the rise. One such investment, making headlines recently, is the China Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) - China’s largest investment in the country to date. The project is one of the many links joining China’s ambitious (or some may call it over-ambitious) “One Belt One Road” vision for the region. The CPEC is a 46 billion project announced by the Chinese supremo Xi Jinping that would help Pakistan build highways, develop energy projects, as well as install oil and gas pipelines - all via Chinese companies PM Sharif recently announced that many sections of Karachi-Peshawar highway under the CPEC would be completed by 2017, whereas a number of associated energy projects would also be completed on a fast track basis in the near future. The PM also believes that the CPEC could breathe a fresh air of prosperity...

A series of new developments in Balochistan suggest there is change on the horizon. Firstly, Dr Allah Nazar, the mercurial chief of the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) – one of the four major separatist groups in the province – has reportedly been killed in an operation in the Awaran district of Balochistan. “The operation was successful. Many key militants were killed and there has been no trace of Dr Nazar since then,” Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told reporters on September 8. Led by the Frontier Corps, security forces destroyed the communication centre that the insurgents were using to coordinate their campaign, he said. Weeks before that, the Khan of Kalat responded positively to a delegation sent by Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch – once a hardline comrade of Dr Allah Nazar. Senior provincial minister Sanaullah Zehri met with the Khan in London, but the latter played the meeting down as an informal get-together. The military establishment has finally given space to the political leadership The third key development is Brahumdagh Bugti’s statement that he is ready to return to Pakistan. That too is the outcome of the quiet diplomacy initiative by Dr Baloch. If the grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti heads back to Balochistan, that will certainly strengthen the government’s position. Fourthly, in the weeks before and after the Independence Day, several hundred Baloch “rebels” surrendered – initially drawing scorn and skepticism from critics. Most observers played down the development as stage-managed surrender ceremonies. But consequent interviews with stakeholders in Balochistan did confirm that a majority of those laying down arms were genuine insurgents. As the government continued to reach out to Baloch insurgent groups, residents of the troubled district of Panjgur celebrated the Independence Day. In Naushki, perhaps for the first time in the province’s history, people celebrated August 14 mingling with FC men and doing the Attan...

Until May 2009, Sri Lanka was one of the worst-affected countries by terrorism. The island nation struggled against the scourge for more than three decades. Formed in 1975,the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) wrought havoc across Sri Lanka before it was finally smashed in a three-pronged attack in 2009. The nationalist-separatist movement was striving for the creation of an independent homeland ‘Elam’ for the Tamils of northern Sri Lanka. During the thirty year terror campaign of LTTE,  70,000 people lost their lives in 2,953 terrorist incidents (Global Terrorism Database, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism). The LTTE was formed to the backdrop of ethnic violence with roots in the Sinhala-Tamil language riots of 1958, more than 300 people, mostly minority Tamils, lost their lives in the riots. The deep rooted hatred between the two communities paved the way for the emergence of several Tamil terror groups in Sri Lanka by the mid-1970s. The Velupillai Prabhakaren-led LTTE managed to wipe out all other Tamil violent groups, claiming to be the sole representative for the rights of the Tamil community. Though initially the LTTE restricted itself to acts of terrorism, it gradually managed to carve out large swaths of territories in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, with capital of the de facto state at Kilinochi. At its peak the LTTE had a force of 25,000 men and women, with about $300 million annual revenues. The LTTE had its own training facilities, a small navy comprising of few customized gun boats and an air force with two light Cessna aircrafts, which were occasionally used for manually dropping bombs in aid of ground troops.The LTTE Special Forces called Black Tigers reported directly to Prabhakaran and were the primary force behind its suicide attacks. By early 1980s and 1990s the LTTE was sending waves of suicide bombers to hit military and civilian targets in the Sri Lankan cities. The Black Tigers were successful in...

Is there another financial fraud in the making around the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM)? This question flows straight from the recommendations of the financial advisers appointed by the government on the transaction structure for the PSM sale. The advisers say that an initial investment of $289 million, uninterrupted power supply and a new management could turn around the PSM’s fortunes and it could become a profitable enterprise before its eventual privatisation. The advisers have proposed a mouth-watering three-phase development and expansion plan, with a capital investment of $885 million in three phases, a fantastically construed plan that palpably aims at minting money from a company that is currently reeling under losses and liabilities running into billions. “The way for the PSM to achieve three-phased transformation and revitalisation is through privatisation, formation of a new management team and overall optimisation of the supply chain,” said the advisers. Interestingly, back in August 2013, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) was informed that the PSM could be turned around with Rs28.5 billion to fetch a better price for its privatisation or else it would “close by the end of September”. At the time it was running at 11 per cent capacity. Ever since then, the steel mill has not run beyond 20 per cent of its actual 2.2 million tonnes/year capacity. Today, its entire working capital stock is gone, with no hope of revival. Reportedly, as of July 31, 2015, the cumulative losses and debt liabilities have reached a staggering Rs325 billion. Successive chairmen, their cronies, contractors and suppliers have all prospered, but the PSM itself has continued to bleed. Strangely, the latest recommendations by the advisers run contrary to a recent summary from the ECC. “The present state of PSM was due to unchecked corruption, inefficiency, over-employment and government’s lukewarm attitude towards its revival,” the summary had said. A black, bottomless pit...