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Critical Thinking Must for Objectivity in Journalism
The importance of objectivity and critical thinking in journalism is paramount as it separates truth and facts from propaganda and dogmas. As a matter of impartial reporting on issues of communal and national concern, the journalists must not convey their own opinions, feelings or biases in their reporting to ensure dispassionate coverage. These ethos of journalism were discussed during a training workshop “Working for Collective Peace and Development: How to Defeat Fake News”, organized by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) for Baloch journalists representing different districts of Balochistan. Mr. Zaigham Khan, Political Analyst and Columnist, The News, noted that only through access to credible sources of information and critical mindset, can a journalist inform the public opinion positively. A huge onus lies on the broader journalism fraternity to prevent the truth from being distorted and separate their biases from profession. Mr. Iftikhar Shirazi, Bureau Chief, Dawn TV, emphasised how the proliferation of fake news on social media has become a major concern in recent years. An alarming trend in this regard is how people tend not to critically evaluate news which happens to resonate with their preexisting beliefs. Responsible journalism – as well as citizenship – demands verification of the sources of news and only share ones with evidential support. Given how the adversaries of Pakistan have been systematically promoting dogmatic narrative and fake news and information to polarize Pakistan’s minority groups, religious sects, and ethnic communities, the regulation of social media becomes crucially important to safeguard the sociopolitical fabric of the country already dealing economic and security challenges. Mr. Sabookh Syed, President, Digital Media alliance of Pakistan, stated that the role of journalism goes way beyond merely helping with the flow of news and information where it can effectively deter hate speech and foster an environment...
Work Together Towards a Peaceful and Stable Afghanistan
H.E. Special Envoy Dr. Yue Xiaoyong made a speech at the International Conference on Afghanistan held in Tashkent on 26th July, 2022. In his speech he emphasised the need to continue raising worldwide awareness of the Afghanistan situation, helping the country in achieving peace, stability, and reconstruction while moving towards good governance. China, along with its regional partners, established the Mechanism for Coordination and Cooperation among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan, to shape the international community's engagement and regional efforts to stabilise Afghanistan. Also, in March 2022, China announced its 1 billion yuan of humanitarian and development aid to Afghanistan and provided 50 million RMB yuan’s worth of urgent humanitarian assistance at the earliest possible time. H.E. also highlighted that frequent natural catastrophes, unilateral sanctions by multiple major nations, and a sharp decline in foreign aid have all had detrimental effects on the country's economy and standard of living. At the moment, nearly 23 million Afghans are experiencing a food scarcity, 38% is unemployed, and 72% live below the poverty line. However, stability is increasing in Afghanistan as a result of international cooperation from its neighbours, and there hasn't yet been any significant refugee exodus. The meeting produced concrete and significant results, including Joint Declaration, which emphasised ongoing support for Afghanistan, and the Tunxi Initiative, focusing on economic reconstruction and practical cooperation. H.E. further emphasised that China wants to improve coordination and collaboration with all national, regional, and international partners in the following categories listed below, to help Afghanistan address issues such as governance, stability, the economy, and people's livelihood. Offer Afghanistan necessary guidance for its internal and external policies so that it may establish a fair, inclusive form of government and effectively carry...
Ukraine War and its Impacts on Asia
Ukraine war has had multilateral effects on geopolitical scenario of the world. One of them is the global polarization forcing nations to make new alliances based on their situation. It has led European Union, United Kingdom and USA to take side with Ukraine while Iran, Turkey, and China (all from Asia) are overtly or covertly siding with Russia. The war has further strengthened the European unity and their reliance on USA for their protection under the umbrella of NATO. Russia, on the other hand, escalated its efforts to establish its relationship with other countries on new terms and conditions. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia made a special trip to Iran on 19 July 2022 to muster Iran’s support to its war against Ukraine. The New York Times reported, “He (Putin) met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who issued a declaration of support for Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine of the kind that even other countries close to Russia have so far stopped short of making. Mr. Putin also held a three-way summit meeting focusing on Syria with the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, and their Turkish counterpart, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was also in the summit. Mr. Khamenei’s endorsement of the war went well beyond the much more cautious support offered by another key Russian ally, China, embracing Mr. Putin’s claim that the West had left the Kremlin no choice but to act[1].” A war in Europe is now leading Asian countries to form new alliances that can act as a counter-force against the US and European powers. The new alliances couldn’t hold Iran from warning Turkey against its military attack in northern Syria. Iran and Russia have been staunch supporters of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria during more than a decade of civil war while Turkey has backed armed groups fighting against Mr. Assad and has...
China’s endeavors for self-reliance: Lessons for Pakistan
The COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine have turned the table against the United States as Russia and China are competing more dominantly. The United States and China are employing multiple tools and policies to maintain their stronghold. The battleground to conquer is surely Asia as both sides are intensifying their positions in the region. China’s rise is threatening the position of the United States in the South Asian region due to which the country is engaging more rapidly with its allies such as South Korea and Japan and at the same time, it is developing new initiatives to gain more supremacy. China’s growth is a prime example for Pakistan to follow rise in multiple domains ranging from military to economy. One of the major reasons for China’s rapid growth is its upgradation of industrial capacity. Through the “Made in China 2025 Strategy”, the country is moving towards self-reliance by reducing export-led growth. The hi-tech industry of China is expanding abruptly as the country is creating awareness for its companies and aims to meet green development targets. However, China has not completely neglected the international sector rather the country is actively integrating itself into global affairs through free-trade agreements. It recently signed the world’s largest free-trade agreement with 14 Asia-Pacific countries through Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Similarly, in September 2021 China applied to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership after President Trump left the initiative. Despite being termed as a competitor of the BRI, China does not see PGII through skeptical lenses. It has welcomed the investment initiatives from the G7 countries and seems to follow a cooperative approach. Thus, China is committed to strengthening its internal and domestic industries but at the same time, it maintains a healthy global engagement due to which the country is strongly deterring the United States. The model adopted by China is indeed a road...
Wang Yi says South China Sea not a ‘fighting arena’ for great power games
Chinese foreign minister calls on Southeast Asian countries to resist involvement of ‘certain external powers’ in regional disputes The remarks come as military tensions with the US and its allies grow over naval exercises in the area Beijing has said the South China Sea is not a “fighting arena” for great power games and called on Southeast Asian countries to jointly resist the involvement of external powers in disputes. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday said issues in the South China Sea must be handled properly by countries in the region, which must not be a “hunting ground” for outside nations. He made the comments during a video conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), a guideline for China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on handling South China Sea disputes. Wang accused “some certain external powers” of “deliberately expanding conflicts and provoking tensions, jeopardising the legitimate rights and interests of coastal countries and the normal order of the sea”. “To that, China and Asean countries should make our positions clear: if you come for peace and cooperation, we welcome you; if you come for disruption and destruction, please leave!” Wang said. Wang’s remarks came as military tensions in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, continued to grow between China and the US and its allies. Beijing has claimed most of the waters, while Taipei and Asean members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all have overlapping claims. Mainland China has significantly strengthened its control of the region over the last two decades despite an international court’s ruling against it. The US considers the South China Sea critical to its Indo-Pacific strategy and has been conducting regular “freedom of navigation” operations and increasing naval exercises in the area – sometimes with allies from outside the region,...
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO): Are new alliances a threat to the existing world order?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit will be held in September among growing global concerns regarding the Ukraine war, the global commodity prices, the situation in the middle east, and a growing new alliance against the U.S. which calls for different rules of the business. The United States, being a hegemonic power, has been dictating terms of the world on trade, geopolitics and forming alliances to support/sustain that hegemony, and so on. But growing powers like China are now calling for a different mechanism for the functioning of the global order by launching their development programs and by forming alliances based on the idea of cooperation, democracy, and justice in the world, rather than that of a single country. SCO and BRICs and alternative platforms presented through which the status quo is challenged, and thus the SCO conference in September is much anticipated. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China at the beginning of February 2022 on a one-day visit to discuss global security and international relations. The joint statement was worth reading for it laid bare the case for new world order, as the statement read: “The sides [China and Russia] call on all States to …… respect the rights of peoples to independently determine the development paths of their countries and the sovereignty and the security and development interests of States, to protect the United Nations-driven international architecture and the international law-based world order”. And perhaps the most interesting part was: “Certain States’ attempts to impose their own “democratic standards” on other countries, to monopolize the right to assess the level of compliance with democratic criteria, to draw dividing lines based on the grounds of ideology, including by establishing exclusive blocs and alliances of convenience, prove to be nothing but flouting of democracy and go against the spirit and true values of democracy. Such attempts at hegemony pose serious threats...
Global Sanctions – A Chilling Effect On Afghan Infrastructure
Afghanistan has a deteriorating economy along with a hotchpotch of multifaceted perils. Food is available in Kabul marketplaces, but few people can afford it. Flour might cost as much as $30 per bag. Lack of access to bank accounts or foreign cash makes it difficult for businesses to purchase materials. Even if salaries for teachers and government employees have restarted, incomes are still lower. Cash is exchanged while selling silverware and furniture. This is Afghanistan in the months following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, the overthrow of the Afghan government, and the American withdrawal. The US and NATO-led 20-year war ended, but economic catastrophe soon followed. The western sanctions on the de facto Taliban government have made it worse for the Afghans to make both ends meet. However, the intervention of the UN in the aid processes has helped the Taliban handle state affairs to some extent. Adam Weinstein, Senior Researcher at the Quincy Institute, while speaking to Afghan Studies Center, said: Lifting sanctions is not going to resolve matters overnight. If sanctions are lifted today, we’d still be left with a landlocked country – is a crippling economy and an unattractive place for investors. Now, when I say lifting the sanctions, I mean the broad, sweeping sanctions. It might make sense to keep individual sanctions on individual Taliban figures. But, so far, as the way the sanctions work now, they were essentially intended for the Taliban as it was an insurgency, not for the Taliban as the de facto government of Afghanistan. And the effect of these sanctions has been a chilling effect on the country. “UN engages in the sanctions, but the U.S. is the leader in their application globally, and in some cases, they have been overdone. Afghanistan is the ideal illustration of a situation in which sanctions currently serve no purpose whatsoever. Due to realpolitik considerations, the Biden administration gladly collaborates with Saudi Arabia while ignoring...
The Dollar’s Strength is Weighing Down the World
The U.S. dollar's value is the strongest it has been in a generation devaluing currencies around the world and raising concerns about the future of the global economy by upending everything from the cost of international travel to the profitability of multinational companies. At a Glance: The diagram below shows how the U.S. dollar is demonstrating extraordinary strength against other global currencies this summer touching highs against the euro, the Japanese yen and others, with broad effects globally and within the United States. The chart illustrates the percentage change to July 15 from Dec. 31 of each country’s official currency versus the U.S. dollar When markets closed on 19th July in the U.S, it cost $1.02 to buy one euro, $1.20 to buy one British pound, and less than $0.01 to buy one yen. All are at or near historic lows against the dollar. The world economy is fueled by the dollar. Prior to the pandemic, it was responsible for $6 trillion in daily activity, which encompassed everything from tourists using their credit cards to companies making substantial international investments. About 90% of all transactions involving foreign exchange are made in this manner. However, as the world’s most important currency, the dollar often rises in times of turmoil, in part because investors consider it to be relatively safe and stable. Recently, it has been on a major surge against major global currencies as a result of inflation, high interest rates and deteriorating economic concerns.
ANNUAL SECURITY REPORT-2022
Casualties from Terror Attacks and Counter-Terror Operations Terrorist violence touched a new height in 2022. From 850 fatalities in 2021, the figure jumped to 980 in 2022 – indicating an over 15 percent rise in violence from as many as 512 terrorist incidents and counter-terror operations. The highest rise in violence was recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where fatalities went up from 399 in 2021 to 633 this year – a nearly 59% rise. Balochistan recorded a marginal increase of 1% in violence but it could not bring any relief to the region as it had the second-highest number of fatalities in the country. All other regions witnessed a drop in violence with Punjab, the largest province of the country, recorded a 61% drop in violence, followed by Sindh 50% down, and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) registered an 11% decline, while Gilgit Baltistan (GB) had no incident of violence this year (Table 01-A and Table 01-B). Both KP and Balochistan together suffered nearly 90 percent of all fatalities across the country, with the last month of the year i.e., December emerging as the deadliest for the security forces that lost at least 42 personnel in over two dozen attacks. Officials attributed the concentration of violence in KP and Balochistan to the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, where thousands of Pakistani militants and wanted terrorists – mostly linked to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - reportedly enjoy safe havens and the necessary support for planning acts of terror in Pakistan.
CRSS Annual Security Report 2021
Introduction The Center for Research and Security Studies is pleased to release the Annual Security Report 2021. This report, compiled with the help of open-source data such as newspapers and web-based news portals, mirrors the trajectory of various forms of violence across Pakistan to help readers understand the dynamics of terrorist and extremist violence in the country , which suffered a renewed surge in violence in the latter part of 2021. Much of it was ostensibly linked to the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021. They promised to deny terrorist groups such as TTP, IMU, ETIM , and ISIK the use of Afghan soil for their operations in Pakistan, Central Asia, China, and elsewhere in the region. Yet, terrorist violence spiked after August and continued to claim casualties into 2022, particularly among Pakistani security forces in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.