Current Projects
Ulasi Taroon Showcase: Multiculturalism and Social Cohesion
The 32nd radio program as part of the Center for Research and Security Studies’ (CRSS) counter-radicalization initiative Ulasi Taroon (Social Cohesion) was aired on August 24, 2018, on the topic of “Multiculturalism and Social Cohesion”. “Culture can be defined as a way of life people of a certain territory have chosen for themselves. Culture is also a dynamic phenomenon that may change with the passage of time. No country in the world has a unified and singular culture but a host of different local cultures and traditions”. These were the opening remarks of the guest on show, Mr. Shakeel Waheed Ullah, a writer and social activist. He noted that the community elders can play a vital role in the revival of positive cultural values to promote tolerance and cohesion in the society. Taking into account the role of media, he said that this tremendous platform needs to realize the significance of its role in promoting such indigenous cultural norms and positive values which are critical to social cohesion, as most of the content on our media is influenced by the foreign media. We should exhibit tolerance not only towards the diverse cultures but also for the different faiths around us. The second in-studio guest, Mr. Hassan Madni said that any culture or civilization takes centuries to evolve and is directly influenced by the religion, cast, race and traditions of that area, however, the role of every individual is pivotal for peaceful coexistence with the people of different cultures. He said the constitution of Pakistan clearly describes the fundamental protections available to the citizens on equal basis, however, the implementation remains the real challenge. “We should sensitize our youth on the virtues of a multiculturalism and harness their potential to promote the fundamental constitutional principles to respect others regardless of the cultural, traditional or religious differences. Only by cultivating these seeds, can we have a cohesive society”, said Syed...
Nobody can spoil Pak-China relations: Chinese Ambassador
Only days ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s maiden trip to China, the message from Chinese officials is loud and clear: Beijing will do whatever it can to help Pakistan expand its manufacturing sector and increase its export potential. Imran Khan, accompanied by his foreign minister, will lead a delegation to China from November 02-05 which will sign several agreements on "diverse fields". After visiting Beijing, Khan is set be a key note speaker at the First China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is just one dimension of the Pakistan-China brotherly relations which stand on mutual respect, mutual goodwill and confidence in each other, Ambassador Yao Jing told reporters on Friday at the sprawling Chinese embassy in Islamabad. “We should guard against negative forces out there which don’t want to see China prosper and which are also opposed to the close and exemplary Pakistan-China relations,” Jing said, underscoring that Chinese capital and technology will be put to use to reinforce and expand Pakistan’s manufacturing capacity, which he said is key to increasing exports. On the occasion Zhao Lijian, the deputy head of mission, explained the status of the $ 19 billion that has sofar been injected into Pakistan as soft loans and commercial investments – leading up to the completion of 22 energy and infrastructure projects. Of the $19 billion, six billion dollars are a soft loan at 2.5 percent mark-up, with a one-time 7 percent insurance cost to it. The total cost for this loan would hardly exceed 6 percent on the average during the 20-year repayment period that starts in 2022, he explained. Both officials brushed aside speculation on Chinese being concerned about “concerns expressed by PM Khan or his colleagues” as a non-story. The talk to this effect is totally irrelevant since the bilateral relationship as well as the entire CPEC process rest on mutual consultation and coordination. We are determined to invest...
Energy Security, The Cornerstone Of Sustainable Peace And Development In Afghanistan
Only 41% of Afghanistan’s population has access to electricity, including both on-grid and off-grid, with the average consumption of the country standing at approximately 25kWh/capita per annum or lower in comparison to the world average of 3060 kWh/capita per annum. Even this low per-capita level of electricity access masks significant urban-rural disparities, as even less than 10% of the supplied electricity reaches rural areas. To meet the remaining electricity demand, alongside imports, the untapped domestic energy resources of Afghanistan could significantly aid in catering to the energy needs of the Afghan people, if utilized optimally, said Engineer Arshad H. Abbasi – energy expert and glaciologist – who was the Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker at the 17th Pak-Afghan Youth Dialogue at Afghan Studies Center on the theme “Economic Growth in Afghanistan Using Cheap Energy as Engine for Regional Peace” on October 24, 2018. Speaking to the youth present at the dialogue from Afghanistan and Pakistan, he stated that Afghanistan should now move towards employing natural resources as a primary source of energy instead of conventional non-renewable resources. The dialogue was attended by more than 20 young Afghans and Pakistanis belonging to Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad, Kabul, Jalalabad, Kunduz, and other cities from both countries, and mostly enrolled in universities across Islamabad. According to World Bank’s statistics, the potential of power generation through hydropower resources in Afghanistan is about 23,310 MW. In the same manner, Afghanistan has even greater potential of power generation through its wind and solar resources. However, while donors have overstretched their funds to other issues, energy needs have been greatly overlooked. To progress in this direction, there is a need to undertake proper strategies and planning. Energy projects with regards to the massive potential of coal, oil and gas can also bring a lot of investors by creating a win-win...
Pakistan’s image and diplomacy: will somebody stand up please!
The absence of Pakistani ambassador at a rare two-day Pakistan-focused conference, jointly organized by the Woodrow Wilson Center and the NGO Indus, at Washington yet again underscored the missing zeal that top diplomats must possess and demonstrate on such occasions. The ‘Pathways to Change Pakistan’ brought together various Pakistan watchers and a big number of diaspora to discuss various dimensions of our society, and offered an excellent change – also for our ambassador to lend the official support to the symposium. Two junior officers diligently represented the Pakistani embassy throughout the day but the deputy head of mission showed up only for a reception at the end of the day. We were told the ambassador was scheduled to come but the presence of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Zubair Hayat held him back from the conference. A ludicrous excuse, indeed. What was important indeed: accompanying a general whose institution initially had displayed contempt for a political appointee, who is also facing cases at the National Accountability Bureau, or his presence at a conference meant to rub off some of the predominantly negative perception of the country. The environment – as far as the US and Afghan serving and retired officials or think-tankers is concerned – was largely hostile and it required the best of responses in Pakistan’s new domestic and the geo-political context. We were told that the new ambassador had made inroads and was getting unprecedented access to higher levels of the US administration. But the keynote inaugural speech that Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Henry Ensher delivered at the conference ran contrary to the image and aura that the ambassador reportedly had created around himself. Ensher’s emphasis on Washington’s two ‘highest priorities’ in Pakistan – continued existence of safe havens and the stockpiles of nuclear weapons and materials – was a stinging reminder that the narrative on Pakistan remains unchanged at all. “We can...
US is Watching our Nuclear Arsenal, and it hasn’t gotten Over Safe Havens
Make no mistake; “safe havens” and (Pakistani) “nuclear weapons and materials” remain the preoccupation of the US administration, and it will continue to exert “pressure of all sorts” to bend Pakistan into compliance to President Trump’s South Asia Strategy. “We can no longer be silent about the fact that some externally focused terrorist groups enjoy safe haven in Pakistan’s territory,” Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Henry Ensher said in the keynote speech he delivered at a recent Pakistan-focused conference, jointly organised by the Woodrow Wilson Center and Indus. Delivered before a largely Pakistani-American audience plus a number of American South Asia watchers, the blunt, though not entirely unexpected, speech in fact brought out the real contours of President Trump’s Pakistan policy. And surprisingly, it also spelt out Washington’s two “highest priorities” in Pakistan and throughout the region: a) concerns about continued existence of safe havens that enable terrorists to carry out attacks that threaten regional and global security, and b) need to prevent nuclear weapons and materials from coming into the hands of terrorists. Ensher shocked many among the audience with this crudely direct identification of the priorities vis-a-vis Pakistan, as well as the to-do-list on Pakistan – a display of the typical carrot-and-stick approach. The entire speech in fact was actually loaded with concerns, demands and expectations from Pakistan. His salient points were: i) Efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan is our primary and major area of policy divergence with Pakistan at this moment. No partnership can survive such a disconnect. As long as that continues, it will continue to colour and take centre stage in the bilateral relationship. ii) Even as we have broadened our regional diplomacy, there remains a special role for Pakistan … we have sharpened our approach to Pakistan with an eye to improving mutually favorable outcomes. iii) Pakistan can address...
Ulasi Taroon Showcase: Youth as Harbinger of Change
The 31st radio program as part of the Center for Research and Security Studies’ (CRSS) counter-radicalization initiative Ulasi Taroon (Social Cohesion) was aired on August 17, 2018, on the topic of “Youth as Harbinger of Change”. The first guest on show, Mr. Usman, a youth activist, lamented that the core constitutional values – critical to social cohesion and peaceful coexistence – are not included in the educational curricula. He underscored that the educational institutions must educate the students on democratic tenets and citizens’ basic rights and responsibilities to develop a responsible future leadership. The religious leaders from all the faiths can also play a very crucial role to sensitize the youth leaders on their peacebuilding roles for a socially cohesive society. Social media is one of the most powerful tools of the contemporary times which has both uses and abuses. However, the youth, the major user of this critical tool can decide to either use it negatively that can lead to disintegration, intolerance and extremism or opt to harness its potential to disseminate positive messaging and tolerance perspectives for social peace and cohesion. Mr. Usman said that Pakistan will be the country with the largest youth population in the whole world in coming years. At present, the youth in Pakistan comprises over 60 percent of the total population. The situation presents itself as a great opportunity to foster development and positive change in the country through harnessing the future leaders and helping them channelize their potential into the national socio-political life. The second guest on the show, Ms. Maha was of the opinion that our youth can go places and make a great impact for social cohesion and peacebuilding if provided with the platforms like Ulasi Taroon Youth Capacity Building Workshops offered by CRSS. Such initiatives are important to equip them with the skills needed to articulate themselves and effectively participate in the decision...
Pakistan’s Public Denunciation And Media Trial Vis-À-Vis Afghanistan Must Stop – Imtiaz Gul At Woodrow Wilson Symposium
CRSS Executive Director Mr Imtiaz Gul, while speaking at the Pathways to Change: Pakistan Policy Symposium at Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, has said that the talk on Afghan peace should move beyond ‘support for terrorists, terror sanctuaries and do more mantra’ when it comes to Pakistan and its role in Afghan peace. While speaking at the symposium’s Afghan panel, Mr Gul further said that Pakistan should be granted the same geo-political considerations as others in the region. He further asserted that the Afghan nation is hopeful that dialogue and direct Afghan-American negotiations will resolve the Afghan quandary and end the war birthed by occupation. Find the full speech below: “Let us contextualise the current scenario. From a Pakistani perspective, the pendulum in the triangular US-Afghan-Pakistan relations seems to have moved from negativity to the willingness to seek joint solutions. The US-led narrative has earlier been negative all through. President Trump spiced it up further through his intimidating South Asia Strategy, only to start backpedalling with the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as a special envoy for peace and reconciliation. This also underscores a deviation from kinetic approach by the US to the search for a political settlement – a goal common to both Pakistan and the US itself. Why? Because the 14 months since Trump’s South Asia strategy have been the bloodiest compared to the corresponding period in previous years, with 39 percent increase in violence between January and September 2018. UNAMA documented 8,050 civilian casualties (2,798 deaths and 5,252 injured). Let us first focus on key messages from three of the major stakeholders: Message from Zalmay Khalilzad, Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation in Afghanistan: “Bring authoritative Taliban delegation to the table. We want a negotiated way out of the conflict”. The Taliban welcomed the direct talks because they see their viewpoint strengthened i.e engaging with the Afghan...
Q3 Security Report – 2018
Executive Summary The third quarter of 2018 was very volatile for Pakistan, owing to a wide array of factors. After a long trend of steadily declining militancy and attacks, and despite an unprecedented deployment of security forces during election campaign, the militants targeted several political parties and candidates that they were in disagreement with. Surprisingly, the upsurge in militancy in Pakistan also remained confined to Balochistan and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) regions reflecting its links to the Afghan based militants. The regional challenges pose a serious threat to the security situation in Pakistan. This will remain a serious concern for the security agencies and the analysts. Readers can approach CRSS for information related to this report. Alternately, you may send your queries to mail@crss.pk, directly to Mohammad Nafees, Senior Research Fellow, CRSS – the author of the report (mohammad.nafees@yahoo.com), or Zeeshan Salahuddin, Senior Research Fellow, the editor. Acronyms Casualties from Violence in Pakistan The casualties of violence in Q3, 2018 took a turn for the worse at 964 (397 dead, 567 wounded) up from 521 in the previous quarter. More than 50% of these casualties were recorded in Balochistan alone, followed by KP, Sindh, FATA, and Punjab (table 01). While GB, Balochistan and KP regions witnessed a significant rise in violence, all other regions of the country recorded a considerable decline in violence, especially Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) (table 02). Monthly data shows July (election month) as the most violent month. In the next two months the security situation reversed and the violence receded considerably (table 03). The epicenter of violence shifted this quarter from the capital cities of the country to other places. Lahore, the capital of Punjab, had zero report of violence while Karachi and Quetta showed significant decline. Peshawar was the only provincial capital where occurrences of violence...
Deciphering CPEC’s ‘Debt-Trap’ Myth
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the new buzz word for the international media and power corridors nowadays. CPEC, once again, has come under vicious attacks, apparently after recent tug of war between China and the United States. The strategy to malign the project has become part of a greater hybrid warfare for dominance in global political landscape. CPEC, seen as a window of opportunity for Pakistan, has become a source of discomfort for some regional players who are not comfortable with the scale of the project, and therefore have started propagating conspiracies against it. One of the biggest recent conspiracies regarding CPEC is related to Chinese loans and its repayment by Pakistan. The scoffers of CPEC are apparently off the beam when they pronounce that Pakistan would not be able to service the loans and repatriate the profits to Chinese investors, due to diminishing exports and exhausting foreign reserves. According to some analysts, the country would be trapped in grim debt obligations to China which would allow the latter to take the steering wheel of the Pakistan’s assets including the deep sea port of Gwadar – CPEC’s pivot. An unbiased and dispassionate analysis would divulge that the nitty-gritty of all these apparent problems lies in the energy crisis that led the Pakistani exports to recede gradually over time. Export orders could not be fulfilled as the exporters did not have dependable and consistent power and gas supply. Had the energy limitation been absent, a growth rate of around 10 percent per annum would have been attained in the (last) few years’ time (as evident by growing exports in 2018 as the energy crisis eased up). In that regard, Pakistan’s exports would have touched USD 36 billion in fiscal year 2018 if all variables remained constant. Current account deficit with the unchanged volume of imports would have been lower by at least USD 15 billion and the need for short term commercial borrowing would not have arisen....
Letter from Islamabad: From Past To Present To Past Again
One of Afghanistan’s most intrepid and long-term observers in the region is Canadian journalist Kathy Gannon of the Associated Press. In April, 2014, she was severely injured in an attack against her vehicle while covering the war with Geneva-based AP Pulitzer prize winning photographer, Anja Niedringhaus, who was mortally wounded. Here Gannon shares her thoughts on covering this never-ending war from her base in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Focus on Afghanistan: 40 years of war. This article is part of Global Geneva’s special series exploring 40 years of war in Afghanistan. It is scheduled to be published in our November 2018-January 2019 print & e-edition. It’s been more than 30 years since I first came to Afghanistan. Then, like now, Afghanistan was at war. The Soviets were the invaders then, and the mujahideen, or Islamic holy warriors, were backed by the United States and heralded as freedom fighters by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. At the time, the University of Nebraska had devised a curriculum to teach Afghan refugee children in camps in northwest Pakistan the English-language alphabet. It went like this: ‘I’ is for Infidel, ‘J’ is for jihad and ‘K’ is for Kalashnikov — all terms used in the battle to fight the godless communists, who had invaded their homeland. Mathematics was little different. It was taught with problem-solving questions such as: If you have 20 communists and you kill 12 Communists, how many Communists do you have left? That was then. Mujahideen during the 1980s. Shomali region. Many former guerrillas became Taliban. (Photo: Edward Girardet)The mujahideen of the 1980s are today both friend and foe Today the United States and NATO are often referred to as invaders. Those same mujahideen of the 1980s are today both friend and foe. Some are now Taliban, the enemy, and some are mujahideen-cum-warlords-cum-politicians, supposedly friends, who either influence or are members of the present-day U.S.-supported government in Kabul....
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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.