Terroristan - April 24, 2018

[ramana]

There was Tweet urging folks to not vote for Immy as the plot is to hang Badmash and beti for corruption as an example

[Falijee]

Dollar Rise ( One Of The ) Greatest Against Paki Rupee According To This Index

[Falijee]

Get Ready For Pakistan's Dirtiest Election !

Viewpoint: Pakistan's dirtiest election in years
Gul Bhukhari
BBC
July 23, 2018

Until a few months ago, protest chants accusing Pakistan's powerful military of terrorism were rarely heard in the country's main cities.
But they came to central Lahore on 13 July, the day former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam returned from London to begin their prison sentences.By last Friday, the chant - "ye jo dehshat gardi hai, is ke peehchay wardi hai" ("the military uniform is behind this terrorism") - could be heard on the streets of Rawalpindi, not far from military headquarters.In a stunningly brazen move, a hearing for a seven-year-old narcotics case involving Mr Sharif's PML-N party stalwart Hanif Abbasi was moved forward from August to 21 July, and a life sentence handed down at 23:30 on Saturday, four days ahead of the general election, effectively knocking him out of the race.

The timing is NOT coincidental !

Mr Abbasi was the frontrunner in his constituency against Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who served in both Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf's governments and is an ally of Mr Sharif's arch-rival Imran Khan, who leads the PTI party. Any focus on the merits of the case was overshadowed by outrage at the timing of the verdict.
Thousands attended rallies to welcome Nawaz Sharif back, but the media did not carry any of the protests in Lahore or Rawalpindi. Social media, in contrast, was flooded with pictures, videos and discussion.

The Paki Establishment's statement that the media is not being muzzled is bogus !

Contrary to the establishment's expectations, the popularity of Mr Sharif and his party held its ground after he was ousted on corruption charges in July last year. His accusations of military interference caught the public's imagination.To counter this, a fierce crackdown on the media was unleashed. Market leader Geo Television was taken off air in April, and the distribution of Pakistan's oldest newspaper, Dawn, has been disrupted since May.

After months of financial losses, Geo reportedly agreed to the security establishment's demands to self-censor and abide by strict guidelines. After this surrender, the industry as a whole fell into line and none of the media houses dared show Mr Sharif's political rallies or his daughter's fiery speeches.

And the father-daughter duo are themselves mistreated in Adiala jail if press reports are to be believed !

With the media on its knees, it was left to activists on Twitter and Facebook to continue the fight. The voices here remained feisty and openly angry at the judicial-military nexus, accusing them of violating their mandate and preventing voters from exercising their will in the general election.The conversation on social media continues to survive and thrive amid a terrifying onslaught of threats and abductions. Journalists, too, have taken to social media to air what they cannot on their screens or in their newspaper stories and op-eds.

IMO, by and large, the Deep State has been successful in muzzling the local media !

Mr Sharif seems to have won this round of the battle. Seen as a man who could have lived a comfortable life in exile and attended to his seriously ill spouse, he has returned to Pakistan to face certain incarceration in his fight for civil supremacy.Successive opinion polls putting him ahead against all opponents, and the social media backlash, indicate he has managed to win sympathy for himself - and resentment at attempts by the judicial-military nexus to re-engineer the political landscape.

For daring to return back, he is punished in jail and denied proper medical treatment for his heart and diabetes conditions !

Clearly, with scores of candidates disqualified, jailed or coerced away from standing for the PML-N, and journalists and social media users harassed amid an atmosphere of terror, Mr Sharif's party is no longer expected to sweep the polls come 25 July.

But if his party bags anything over 90 of the 272 directly elected seats in the National Assembly, down from about 130 in 2013, it could well remain the largest party in parliament. That would be viewed as a vindication of Mr Sharif's open defiance of the military, which has ruled Pakistan for nearly half of its history.

As they say, it is not over, until it is over . Time will tell !

PS: Just a few weeks ago, the author ( Gul Bukhari) was herself "roughed up" by goons of the Deep State , who did not know that she is a holder of HM coveted Blue Passport as well ! She was immediately released. And the Paki Establishment denied that it had anything to do with her being roughed up !

[Falijee]

Pakistani Involved In Toronto Shooting . Many Do Not Buy Into The Theory Of "Mental Illness"

Danforth shooter identified as Faisal Hussain of Toronto
City News, Toronto

The SIU has identified the 29-year-old gunman in the horrific shooting on the Danforth that left two people dead and 13 others injured on Sunday night. In a statement on Monday evening, the province’s police watchdog said “due to the exceptional circumstances of this tragic incident and the public interest in knowing the man’s identity, the SIU is identifying the man as Faisal Hussain of Toronto.” The SIU says it spoke with a member of Hussain’s immediate family and a family representative to confirm his identity. The Hussain family released a statement expressing their condolences to the families “who are now suffering on account of our son’s horrific actions.”

“We are utterly devastated by the incomprehensible news that our son was responsible for the senseless violence and loss of life that took place on the Danforth,” they said They added that Hussain had “severe mental health challenges” and was struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life.“Medications and therapy were unable to treat him. While we did our best to seek help for him throughout his life of struggle and pain, we could never imagine that this would be his devastating and destructive end,” they said.

The investigation is still in the initial stages, but many local activists like Tarek Fatah do not buy this theory of mental depression . Th suspect lived in the Thorncliffe area of Toronto, an area well known for men walking the streets in shalwar kameez and women in Burkha, Nikhab or Hijab !

A total of 15 people were shot when the gunman opened fire outside a restaurant at Danforth and Logan avenues in the heart of Greektown said Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders.Saunders said the deceased woman, identified as Reese Fallon, (pictured below) was from Toronto. A 10-year-old girl from the Greater Toronto Area was also killed in the shooting, but her identity has not been released as per the family’s wishes.

SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon said the shooter was involved in a brief exchange of gunfire with two Toronto police officers on Bowden Street, just south of Danforth Avenue. “He was found deceased (on Danforth Ave.) after the interaction,” she confirmed. No officers were injured.

Saunders would not speculate on what the motive may have been behind the attack, including the possibility that it may have been a terrorist incident. “I’m keeping everything open, I’m looking at absolutely every single possible motive for this,” said Saunders. “When you have this many people struck by gunfire it’s a grave concern. I certainly want to find out exactly what it is, so I’m not closing any doors or any chapters on this and I certainly don’t want to speculate as well.”

[Bart S]

Britshit Asians Pakjabis covering themselves with glory again:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44798829

On a December night in west London, Fatima Khan approached her boyfriend as he lay dying from multiple stab wounds on the pavement.

But instead of helping him, or even calling emergency services, she took out her mobile phone and videoed him.

Witnesses who were trying to help the fatally injured man, Khalid Safi, challenged her, asking what she was planning to do - put the video on social media?

That is exactly what Fatima did.

She posted the image of her dying boyfriend on Snapchat with a warning that that was what happened when people messed with her. She used an expletive instead of the word "mess".

Ilford's 'Snapchat queen'
The 21-year-old self-confessed "Snapchat addict" orchestrated the killing of Khalid.

She arranged for a rival for her affections, a man called Raza Khan, to kill him, her trial at the Old Bailey heard.

[Falijee]

This American Apologist For Pakistan, Writing For Al- Jazeeri Says That He Is Not Sure If Imran Khan Is Army's Favourite Son

Is Imran Khan the Pakistani military's 'favourite son'?
Michael Kugelman
Al- Jazeera
July 23, 2018

A big storyline in the lead up to Pakistan's July 25 election has been the nature of the relationship between Imran Khan, the cricket star-turned-politician and leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, and the country's powerful military.

According to the insinuations of some top leaders with the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, the military is working behind the scenes to engineer an electoral outcome that results in a government helmed by Khan. It's a theory - one could certainly call it a conspiracy theory - embraced by many commentators inside and outside Pakistan.

Indeed, Pakistan's army - which has held direct power for nearly half of Pakistan's 70-year existence, and has enjoyed an outsize role in politics when not in direct control - does have a strong incentive to undercut the PML-N, with which it sparred frequently in recent years, and to help propel the PML-N's main challenger, the PTI, to victory.

Indeed, events of recent weeks - arrests of PMLN members; dozens of parliamentarians throwing their support behind the PTI; the sentencing of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to prison less than three weeks before the poll; the sentencing of another top PML-N leader, Hanif Abbasi, to life in prison on drug smuggling charges just four days before the election; and the censoring of media outlets perceived to produce favourable coverage of Sharif - all point to the possibility of efforts by the military and a politicised judiciary to undercut the PML-N's electoral prospects.

However, the notion that the military would actually be comfortable with Khan as its man in Islamabad is questionable. Indeed, given considerations of personality and policy positions, there's reason to doubt that Khan is the military's blue-eyed boy.

Imran has an (false) image of being a liberal . The military is comfortable with that , at least IMO !

The army prefers a predictable and pliable civilian leader. Khan, however, is known for being mercurial and stubborn. Even some of Khan's positive traits - like his charisma and supreme self-confidence - could be liabilities for the military, because these qualities suggest he would be unwilling to defer to higher authority. Cult of personality types aren't known for being submissive. At least for now, both are happy with each other !

Ironically, a potentially more palatable prime minister choice for the military hails from the very party that the armed forces may be trying to undercut. Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of Nawaz, would be the PML-N's candidate for premier if it wins the election. The Army does not want the Sharif family in power !

While lacking his brother's charisma, he has a solid reputation as a capable and steady politician, and he gets along well with the military. Strikingly, in a recent interview with the Financial Times, Shehbaz Sharif called for the PML-N and the military to improve their ties. If the military truly has a favourite son, Shehbaz Sharif may have a better claim to the title than does Imran Khan.

If Shahbaz in power, the Army will not be "comfortable" in dealing with Nawaz ! They want to make an "example" of Nawaz for defying the fauj !

In a fractious coalition, even a strong-willed and determined leader like Khan may struggle to carve out policy space and act independently. In fact, there's a fair chance that if Pakistan's next government is a coalition, Khan would not serve in it. In an interview with BBC Urdu this month, Khan declared that the PTI would not partner with the PML-N or the Pakistan People's Party in a coalition.

He is well known for making U Turns , so if he changes his mind after elections, no one should be surprised!

With the July 25 election promising to be a closely contested affair and likely to result in a hung parliament - whereby no one party gains an absolute majority, necessitating the crafting of a coalition - the military may well get what it wants. As it so often does in a nation where it has always cast such a long shadow.

[abhijitm]

-IMO, the Pakistani Army is hand in hand with the Feudals . . .

I have a different take.

The PA will leverage everyone who is subservient to them. Everyone in TSP is subservient to PA, the reason being that the narrative set by the founding fathers of Pakistan, that of enduring hostility with Hindu India, is subscribed to by every Pakistani wholeheartedly and they also believe that the PA is the only institution that can be trusted to execute that narrative. That's why there is such a uniform and huge support for terrorism in that country against us because PA approves of it and pursues it. But, elections are slightly different because biradari loyalties come into play.

Mostly feudals became army officers as per the recruitment patterns before (like those Prussian officers) but later when the selection became broadened, even non-feudals joined but soon they became feudals as soon as they became Army officers. So, we get the illusion that you describe.

SSridhar, I am trying to get to see if analysis of other influence hold water instead of pure feudalism narrative. We have seen in the history feudal fights because they put their own interest above everything else. Army's cohesiveness and transfer of power seem above that mentality. Is that they have evolved? If everybody else outside of Army is fighting war with one another why we don't see that in Army? Its not like Army generals are some outsiders. There should have been infighting even control of provinces within generals. But it seems Army as one organism where others not.

We have discussed feudalism and birth of pakistan umpteen times. I think we need to relook at the case of their Army differently if we want to break them. Feudalism is a weakness of society. I see that rampant in pakistan but I don't see that prominently in the Army. Why Army is unbreakable when others are so vulnerable. They are not professional like other Armies, heck they don't even maintain journals. They make so many blunders year after year. Yet somehow they don't break as a unit. I am doubting narrative of hate, feudalism is somewhat oversimplification. Yes, all those factors are there, but the question is, is that all?

Keen to read your thought. Thanks.

[ramana]

I think #Bhaiwood should make a movie about Immy Khan based on Reham Khan's book.

Shahrukh can play that title role.


Will revive his sagging career.
With Pakis.

[Peregrine]

A volatile election season in Pakistan

On July 25, Pakistan is set to hold a general election, with an elected government having completed its full five-year term for the second consecutive time. What should have been a celebration of democracy consolidation in the country, however, has turned into a period of instability and uncertainty amid allegations that the military is manipulating the electoral landscape. Here are some of the main factors shaping Pakistan’s 2018 election, and what we know and what we don’t.

VIOLENCE RETURNS

In recent years, thanks largely to military offensives against the Pakistan Taliban (also known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP) that have weakened the group, terrorist attacks and fatalities have fallen drastically in the country. However, the current election campaign, with a week to go, has been marred by greater violence than Pakistan has seen in recent months. On July 10, a TTP-claimed attack in Peshawar killed one of the leaders of the Awami National Party, Haroon Bilour, along with 21 others. Mr. Bilour’s father was also assassinated in 2012 by the TTP. The ANP is a largely secular, Pashtun party that has held power in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK) multiple times, most recently from 2008 to 2013.

Last Friday, July 13, an attack in Mastung, Baluchistan, killed nearly 150 people, and injured scores more. This ISIS-claimed blast targeted a Baluch Awami Party meeting, and killed one of its leaders, Siraj Raisani, and more than a hundred party workers.

Though Raisani was a known nationalist (from Baluchistan, a province racked by a separatist insurgency), it is notable that both parties that were attacked are regional ones. Terrorist violence doesn’t target Pakistan’s dozens of parties in equal measure—partly because of variable security provided by the state and partly because terrorists tend to target parties and politicians that lean secular, although Islamist parties have come under attack periodically as well.

THE THREE PARTIES IN PLAY

Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, holds 141 of the 272 directly elected electoral constituency seats that compose the country’s parliament, or National Assembly; this means that the party to win Punjab more or less wins Pakistan. Current attention is thus largely focused on two parties that seem competitive in Punjab: the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), an opposition party that only emerged as a third party in Pakistan’s historically two-party system in the 2013 election. Punjab is the PML-N’s stronghold, but after its leader and namesake, three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification from office on charges of corruption last year and his recent indictment, and the PTI’s cooptation of some “electables” (candidates who are thought to command local political power independent of their party), the conventional wisdom is that the PML-N stands weakened in Punjab, opening up space for the PTI.

National polls reflect a rise in PTI’s popularity and the most recent ones show it neck-to-neck against the PML-N. But pre-election constituency-level polling is not undertaken in Pakistan—given this, constituency-level results, and thus the overall outcome, cannot be predicted with any real confidence.

And while electables matter, there may be more than one electable in a single constituency. Empirical research from Punjab shows that in many constituencies, two dynastic politicians—who could be one type of electable—compete with each other in elections. That means that Khan’s choice of electables may not necessarily win in their constituencies.

The Pakistan People’s Party, which has alternated power with the PML-N through Pakistan’s democratic years from 1988 to 1997, and then again from 2008 to 2018, is thought to largely be relegated this time around to the province of Sindh, its stronghold. This is the first time the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s son, 29-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is contesting election—he is the most liberal of Pakistan’s current crop of politicians, but inexperienced, and the PPP remains mired in perceptions of mis-governance and lack of delivery from its 2008 to 2013 term in power and running the Sindh provincial government in the most recent political cycle. Still, Bhutto Zardari is running a vigorous campaign and drawing out large crowds in his rallies.

The PTI has scored some wins while governing the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province—notably a relatively non-corrupt record and introduction of a health insurance scheme —but the overall view on its governance is mixed. The party also consorts with the far-right, drumming up Pakistan’s regressive blasphemy laws and riling up crowds on the Ahmadi issue (Ahmadis are a persecuted religious minority in Pakistan who have been declared non-Muslims by the state).

On the other hand, the PML-N’s signature policy achievement this time around, as it was in its past two terms, is transport infrastructure—something Pakistani voters tend to reward. Its government has been unable to solve Pakistan’s energy crisis as it promised when it came to power in 2013, though there have been pockets of improvement on that front. The loss of Nawaz Sharif is significant for the party, though his brother Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister behind Punjab’s metrobuses and roads, holds weight in the PML-N and with the public as well. Nawaz Sharif’s voluntary return to Pakistan to be arrested on July 13 was good strategy for the party—and will likely win it some sympathy votes. Shahbaz will be more palatable to the military anyway—he has had a better relationship with the country’s establishment in recent years, and in contrast to Nawaz, has indicated a willingness to work with it in recent weeks.

PUPPETEERING

Pakistan is currently abuzz with claims of election engineering by the military, akin to the 1990s. Khan is thought to be the military’s favored candidate. Nawaz Sharif frequently butted heads with the military as prime minister, and his disqualification and indictment by Pakistan’s courts on corruption charges most benefits Khan politically. In the run up to the election, various parties other than the PTI have faced campaign restrictions—for example, in terms of delayed or denied licenses to hold rallies. PML-N workers protesting Sharif’s arrest on July 13 were subject to a crackdown by Punjab’s caretaker government and have reported intimidation tactics by the state. Media outlets seen as pro-Sharif, notably the English daily Dawn, have also faced censorship and difficulties in distribution in some areas of the country.

But there has also been an outcry, especially online, on the restrictions parties and the media have faced in recent weeks, forcing the military to deny charges of meddling; it has said publicly that the only role it will play in the election is to provide security on polling day. Therefore, despite the pre-poll meddling, there is a chance that election day itself may go relatively smoothly.

POLITICAL WHIPLASH

Party politics in Pakistan has long been characterized by horsetrading, or politicians switching parties, especially when they see the star of their party falling. (As I have documented, Pakistani politicians tend to face an incumbency disadvantage, which may be a factor that leads to horsetrading.) This election is no different. In addition, a large number of candidates have defected from the PML-N (Sharif claims that the security establishment has pressured them to do so), and have declared their candidacies as independents. Curiously, the Election Commission has allotted the same symbol, a jeep, to at least 119 independent candidates—the very symbol it assigned to a prominent PML-N defector (the former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar). In Pakistan, party symbols matter, especially for illiterate voters, who may vote based on the symbol they see on the ballot alone. And independent candidates are significant because they may, post-election, declare their allegiance to a particular party—this time around, they may join the PTI if it does well enough to be in a position to form a coalition government.

EXTREMIST CONTENDERS

Pakistan’s Islamists have typically performed poorly in elections, other than once in 2002, when they formed an alliance of six parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which won a majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and formed a coalition government in Baluchistan. The MMA alliance has been reprised this time around as well, but it is by no means the farthest on the right of the spectrum contesting election in 2018. Two fundamentalist groups have burst on the political scene in recent years—the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), whose platform is based on upholding and implementing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s political wing, the Milli Muslim League (MML). Though the MML was barred from contesting elections, its contenders have been subsumed under the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek party, and roughly 200 of them will contest election on July 25. And the TLP is the only party other than big three (the PML-N, the PTI, and the PPP) to field more than 100 candidates in Punjab’s constituencies. A recent report from a constituency in Karachi has documented the vigorous campaign the TLP is running there. These parties are very unlikely to do well, but having their rhetoric in the political mainstream is unprecedented, and is a real setback to any hope of countering extremism in Pakistan.

THE CHOICE VOTERS FACE

Pakistani voters typically vote on some mix of candidate and party preference, which—in the absence of clear candidate and party ideologies, horsetrading and party defections, and lack of polling data—means that the outcomes in this election are nearly impossible to predict. But given incumbency disadvantage and the lack of a level playing field for the incumbent PML-N, Khan’s PTI has more of a shot than he ever has had before. If he ekes out a plurality of seats, he may just be able to cobble together a coalition government with the help of independents and other smaller parties. The 2018 election is thus the first one in decades where there is a chance that the victor may emerge from a party other than the PML-N and the PPP, signifying a change in course for Pakistan. Election day on July 25 is one to watch.

Cheers

[Peregrine]

X Posted on the PESW Thread

At PSX, money may have been lost, but not hope

KARACHI: It has not been a pleasant ride for stock market investors in the last 13 months. A peak of 52,876.46 on May 24 has been followed by periods of turmoil, uncertainty, rupee devaluation, worsening economic indicators and dent on companies’ earnings.

But investors, especially those vested in the stock market, may have lost money, but rarely lose hope.

Analysts and experts now believe the worst could very well be over for investors at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The KSE-100 Index, a benchmark for market performance, has already given a taste of things to come. It gained over 2% a day before the elections, but only after losing close to the same amount a day earlier.

A majority of participants and stakeholders have now reached consensus that stocks could now see an upside on a path that was unclear before.

The pace of the recovery, however, would largely depend on the outcome of the general elections scheduled for Wednesday (today).

A clear majority for a political party would mean quicker decision-making and bode well for the economy. On the other hand, a hung parliament could stall the same process, and create uncertainty – a scenario investors abhor.

What analysts and experts say

JS Global Research Head of Equity Sales Atif Zafar said he anticipates a rally in the post-election period. “The stock market has maintained an uptrend in the post-election era in four of the previous five elections,” said Zafar.

However, Arif Habib, the chief executive of Arif Habib Group, said timely elections and smooth transition of democratic power – only the second time in Pakistan’s history – will weigh more on investor sentiment than the outcome.

“Irrespective of any form of government (simply majority or hung parliament) that comes into power, the KSE-100 would go back to 50,000 points by the end of December,” he said.

His statement is a reminder to stock market investors of the healthy bull run the PSX enjoyed in calendar year 2016, when Pakistan emerged as the top-performing market in Asia. Inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and an economy on course to register higher GDP growth, along with a stable government in place, gave impetus to the bullish sentiment.

However, change in the taxation regime and lower-than-expected inflows post-MSCI inclusion, along with upheaval in the political arena, has more than disturbed the growth.

“Two factors would dominate recovery in the post-election era. Firstly, stock prices have dropped to attractive buying levels and secondly, political instability would come to an end,” Habib added.

AKD Securities Chief Executive Officer Farid Alam said the worst is behind investors. “The elections would bring an end to the worst [political developments] in Pakistan. Political instability and noise, which painted a negative image of Pakistan and its markets, [fiscal, trade and current account] deficits on the higher side; all this would become part of history with the upcoming election.

“If any of the two leading political parties, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) or Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), takes over 100 seats in the National Assembly, it would give clarity to the market to maintain its momentum,” he said.

The pace of the recovery would also depend on the speed with which foreign exchange reserves, which have dropped to an alarming level, recover.

“If the incoming government quickly arranges [borrows] $10-12 billion from unilateral and multilateral donors or lenders, it would help the economy and the market recover quickly,” he added.

He, however, said he expects the rupee to weaken further to Rs132-133 against the US dollar from the current Rs128.5 in the post-election period. “This would also impact the market accordingly,” he said.

All, however, agreed that banks, export-oriented companies (like value-added textile), import substitute companies (like chemicals and fertilisers) and independent power producers would lead the rally.

They expected mutual funds and foreign investors (the two large segments of investors at the PSX) would return to their buying spree after the rupee settles.

Cheers

[ramana]

So what happens if PML-N and PTI manage to snuff out PPP from Pakjab and confine it to Sindh only.
Looks like PTI will win Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with MMA.

Baluchistan seems inconsequential.

Will PPP win all of Sindh?
What about Karachi?

[Falijee]

Surprise ! Xerox Khan WILL not Support Immy ! Comes Out In Favour Of Khadim Rizvi Party, Tehreek Labbaik (TLP) !

[Falijee]

"INDEPENDENT" Newspaper Of UK Predicts Imran Khan As Prime Minister Of Pakistan

It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister – here's what we can expect of him- Editorial

It is tempting to see the rise of Imran Khan in Pakistan as a sort of counterpart to the En Marche! phenomenon in France that propelled Emmanuel Macron to power. As Mr Khan enjoys a surge in support for his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice, or PTI), and every chance of winning the elections this week, there are some parallels between the young French president and the youthful (though 65-year-old) Mr Khan.

Mr Khan enjoys a legendary charisma, mostly born of his cricketing prowess, as if Gareth Southgate or Harry Kane were running to be prime minister of Britain. We know him in Britain too as the former husband of Jemima Goldsmith, and thus brother-in-law to her brother Zac.

color=#0000FF]This kind of (Jewish) connection has negative connotation in Pakiland ! [/color]

He has glamour, then, and a common touch that has seen his party make inroads in the populous Punjab, without which none can rule in Pakistan. Mr Khan has also made radical, reformist noises, pledged to rid his land of endemic corruption, and, more predictably, attacked the United States from its drone powered incursions into the Islamic Republic’s territory.

Mr Khan and the PTI has done well in recent years in building support, mainly at the expense of two older parties, the vaguely progressive Pakistan Peoples Party, currently led by another member of the Bhutto dynasty, and the more conservative Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), whose ex-leader, and former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was recently jailed on corruption charges.

The generals, a ruthless though stabilising force in Pakistani society, are reportedly “pre-rigging” the election in Mr Khan’s favour, including the arrest of Sharif (which is not to say that the move was unjust). It seems that the PTI has suffered less from electoral violence than some of its rivals, including a terror attack at a rally in Baluchistan that killed 149 people.

Last, Mr Khan is no better placed to deal with tribalism than his rivals. He too enjoys a regional base of support in Punjab, and has had to rely on old-school defecting politicians from other parties and prominent families to bolster his support. He optimistically describes these mercenary politicians as “electables”, though corruptibles might be a better sobriquet.

Pakistan, then, may change under Mr Khan, and for the better, but it will take formidable skill to make this happen. Mr Khan has won for Pakistan many times on the cricket pitch; he will find his new job a much stickier wicket.

The personal life style and Reham Khan's Book about Imran should have warranted a few lines as well in the above write-up !

[yensoy]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1422164/dream-team-for-gibran
Apart from the unintended hilarity, it betrays how delusional even the so-called moderates in Pakistan are, especially when it comes to India.

Unfortunately for us, this treasonous piece of work is an Indian.

[Kashi]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1422164/dream-team-for-gibran
Apart from the unintended hilarity, it betrays how delusional even the so-called moderates in Pakistan are, especially when it comes to India.

Unfortunately for us, this treasonous piece of work is an Indian.

If one did not know Jawed Naqvi you could be forgiven for passing this off as satire.

Not equipped to name a dream team for Pakistan, let’s attempt one for India.
Prime minister, the resolute Mamata Banerjee or Mayawati;
home minister a determined Mayawati or Lalu Yadav;
finance minister, the peerless Arvind Kejriwal;
external affairs minister, Nehru’s heir Rahul Gandhi;
defence minister, the fearless Hardik Patel;
education minister, the reasonable Pinarayi Vijayan;
agriculture minister, the hands-on Jignesh Mevani;
information minister — abolish the post. It doesn’t go with a free democracy.

Note the names and the accompanying plaudits.

[Vikas]

So what happens if PML-N and PTI manage to snuff out PPP from Pakjab and confine it to Sindh only.
Looks like PTI will win Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with MMA.

Baluchistan seems inconsequential.

Will PPP win all of Sindh?
What about Karachi?

Ramana ji, PPP anyways hardly exists outside Sindh and is not even a player in Punjab, so it is already sniffed out of Paki heartland.
Karachi will still goto one of the MQM factions (not sure which one though), no Mohajir is going to stake his future with anyone but other Mohajirs.
PPP will win rural Sindh for sure and some part of urban barring Karachi and Hyderabad.
My prediction is that PTI will get loads of seats but not sufficiant enough to form a govt and Dus-Percenti will come in play.

I don't think native Sindhis have the resolution,fire power or even heart to fight for their province and rights. They like so many others are a lost tribe waiting to be overrun by Mohajirs and Pushtoons/Pathans.

Googly Scenario: Paki Army lets PML-N party to form the Govt but don't let NS and his daughter come out of the prison.

Question: What would TSPA want from new govt which they already don't have. Maybe use them as a towel to cover themselves but that they already had ?

[menon s]

seat predictions;
PTI --110. PML N--70. PPP--50. REST--42.
PTI will form a co alition with the small parties and set up administration.

[Kashi]

Ramana ji, PPP anyways hardly exists outside Sindh and is not even a player in Punjab

PPP has a reasonable base in South Punjab. Groper is from Multan and so if Im the dim's sidekick Qureshi who was with PPP earlier. Former Paki president Leghari was from Dera Ghazi Khan.

Of course it's true that since BB's departure and Zardari takeover, PPP is now largely restricted to Sindh. Not sure how much influence they retain in South Punjab beyond areas bordering Sindh.

[menon s]

Pakistan can only be managed if its split up, into KP, Sindh, Punjab and Baloch. Things are moving in that direction, with the 18th amendment and the NFC award, the center as become weak and the provinces have more share on financial resources. This election will see no party having pan pakistan influence.

[la.khan]

Advance Planning For Paki Election

1,000 'kafans' ready for election day as ‘preemptive measure’ in Peshawar

Falijee,

For a bunch of pakis, this looks like good planning As if on cue: Pakistan election: 25 people killed in explosion at polling station in Quetta

[partha]

x-bosting from benis on this historic din. sorry for the interrupshun.

elecshun or selecshun
may allah increase our nashun's
bheek collecshun

AoA biraders. Happy and safe goating.

[SSridhar]

. . . 25 people killed in explosion at polling station in Quetta[/url]

A resurgent TTP is very active in thw last few weeks.

Now that the controversial Fazlullah is dead and a Mehsud is back as the Emir, the factions have a chance to unite too.

[Bart S]

We have discussed feudalism and birth of pakistan umpteen times. I think we need to relook at the case of their Army differently if we want to break them. Feudalism is a weakness of society. I see that rampant in pakistan but I don't see that prominently in the Army. Why Army is unbreakable when others are so vulnerable. They are not professional like other Armies, heck they don't even maintain journals. They make so many blunders year after year. Yet somehow they don't break as a unit. I am doubting narrative of hate, feudalism is somewhat oversimplification. Yes, all those factors are there, but the question is, is that all?

It is a complex system of patronage where there is a lot of interdependency on the other layers, a little bit like how the GST tax system works in keeping everyone interested in paying tax. Anybody breaking the chain and going against the system that is their gravy train, not only hurts their own interests but has a lot of people involved in shutting him down (though they otherwise might not have much in common other than being in the army system).

You have the odd person standing out like Air Marshal Asghar Khan, but the numbers of such people are so few that they have no impact in a nation where all narratives are forcibly controlled by the army.

[chetak]

twitter

Pakistan. (Illustration, Pawel Kuczynski)

[Vikas]

What are the odds that it is Punjab that will fuel disruptive forces and get out of Pakistan before anyone else ?

[Falijee]

Gen (r) Raheel Sharif casts vote in Lahore for General Elections 2018






Surprise No Security For Raheel ,In Town, Casting His Vote, Standing In Line And Chatting Like An Aam Abdul , Short Leave From Yemen Front

[anupmisra]

Surprise No Security For Raheel ,In Town, Casting His Vote, Standing In Line And Chatting Like An Aam Abdul , Short Leave From Yemen Front

judging by the way the others are dressed, shaved and overall presented, this voting booth is likely to be in the safest and poshest part of garrison-e-'slummabad.

[chetak]

Surprise No Security For Raheel ,In Town, Casting His Vote, Standing In Line And Chatting Like An Aam Abdul , Short Leave From Yemen Front

judging by the way the others are dressed, shaved and overall presented, this voting booth is likely to be in the safest and poshest part of garrison-e-'slummabad.

The picture is posed carefully. The celebrity subject is the only one in shalwar kameez. All the other posh residents are dressed in "american" casuals.

How is it possible that in pakiland, no one will even look at/towards the COAS and the defacto head of state??

The security is very much present and it is just very carefully kept out of the frame.

[Falijee]

"Mom" Commutes To Cast Vote !

Nawaz Sharif’s mother dashes to polling station for casting vote

Did she "encounter" Raheel at the voting site

[anupmisra]

Imran Khan’s vote may be cancelled for violating ‘secrecy of ballot’, say reports
I'm the Dim.

Imran Khan’s vote may be cancelled for violating electoral rules, reports said on Wednesday

Pakistani television channel Express News reported Khan was captured on video while exercising his franchise in violation of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s “secrecy of ballot” code.

A video of the PTI chief casting his vote has also been sent to the election body, it added.

The punishment for failing to maintain secrecy while voting is six months jail and a fine of Rs 1,000 under section 185 of the Election Act, 2017.

According to the latest opinion polls, neither Khan nor Sharif are likely to win a clear majority in the election.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-ne ... NGJ8N.html

[SSridhar]

I am trying to get to see if analysis of other influence hold water instead of pure feudalism narrative. We have seen in the history feudal fights because they put their own interest above everything else. Army's cohesiveness and transfer of power seem above that mentality. Is that they have evolved? If everybody else outside of Army is fighting war with one another why we don't see that in Army? Its not like Army generals are some outsiders. There should have been infighting even control of provinces within generals. But it seems Army as one organism where others not.

We have discussed feudalism and birth of pakistan umpteen times. I think we need to relook at the case of their Army differently if we want to break them. Feudalism is a weakness of society. I see that rampant in pakistan but I don't see that prominently in the Army. Why Army is unbreakable when others are so vulnerable. They are not professional like other Armies, heck they don't even maintain journals. They make so many blunders year after year. Yet somehow they don't break as a unit. I am doubting narrative of hate, feudalism is somewhat oversimplification. Yes, all those factors are there, but the question is, is that all?

Keen to read your thought. Thanks.

abhijitm, you have raised two issues.

One, "How is it that warring factions outside otherwise become a cohesive unit within the PA?".

Two, "You dismiss the theories of feudalism and hate as not sufficient binding glue and search for other binding elements like the gluons within the nucleus of an atom".

The first question has to be answered in two parts, from the PoV of the ranks and that of the officers.

It is my belief that for the ranks, the cohesion comes from recruitment patterns. The foot soldiers had largely come from the various tribes of the Potohar plateau and the officers from fairly elite background. The tribes are traditional, well-knit and consist of retired servicemen that have for generations served the Army. They ensure that loyalty never falters among their kith & kin serving the PA. Of course, this is no guarantee against occasional deviation as several military men tried to kill Musharraf during those turbulent days and years after 9/11. But, the times were extraordinary and the deviants were swiftly put down violently. Today, largely it is peaceful and no great divisive force is operational that could also reflect on the PA. One can be sure that the PA played upon the clannish sentiments to ensure that the new recruits do not come under 'bad' influence. It is also a fact that except for TTP or Hizb-ut-Tahrir, for example, the rest of the three or so dozen terrorist jihadi terrorist tanzeems were /are PA-controlled. So, there is not much scope for revolution among the lower-levels. In a sense, the 'good' & 'bad' Taliban dichotomy was not only to pull the wool over gullible western eyes but also to ensure loyalty within.

As for the officers, they know that their real worth is in the 'entitlement' that is due to them at the end of service depending upon the rank they achieve. Like the ranks, the officers also come from traditional elite families and there is an honour involved. After all, Pakistan is an 'honour & dignity' based society, as we all know, which excludes every other trait. There could be a few mavericks like Lt. Gen. Javid Nasser or the Ashiq brothers et al but the PA, since 1972, has been radically Islamized sufficiently anyway that even sufficiently extreme Islamist views would be par for the course. For example, it transformed from the ethos of the British Indian Army into a force that also 'protected the ideological frontiers' of not only Pakistan but also the entire Ummah! The 'Islamic bomb' added to its credentials even more. In fact the evolution of Islamization of the PA happened in step with the same evolution of the Pakistani society. If the PA used the NWFP tribals to launch a covert jihad against us, it changed to something more open when the PA launched war in 1965 in the name of Islam. The loss of PA to wrest J&K from India in 1947-48 led to the 'Rawalpindi Conspiracy' because the officers wanted to remove less ideological forces from governance! The PA was thus well aware of the potential of an 'Islamic call' from the beginning. That was not surprising because of the actions of Jinnah and his Muslim League in the united India. It evolved further in 1971 when ideological forces were let loose on their own people in East Pakistan in the form of JI cadres. Then Zia came and we all know what happened. There is no need to recall these. The Afghan jihad and the transformation within the PA reflected the same transformation out in the society. Simultaneously, it tested its terror template in our Punjab in the 80s. Then, from the 90s, the PA prepared the ground within Pakistan to support its jihad in J&K first, followed by jihad all over the country and indeed the world. Therefore the officers and the ranks were all involved in (a) project(s) of national and ideological importance that kept them satisfied.

Simultaneously, the PA has always liked the role of the Turkish Army {Turkey is a magnet for most Pakistanis from Jinnah downwards} under Ataturk (and later too) in taking the country forward after the glorious period of Ottoman and its painful end in WW-I (for Pakistan, that would be Mughal & pre-Mughal Islamist Kings and then the rule passing into the hands of the British in 1857), thereby justifying its similar interference in the State. All these were, apart from other compulsions, compulsions of time to keep the flock together. If this evolution had not happened, then there would have been a possibility of a break in ranks within the PA. In fact, we can even say that it is the PA which has controlled the Islamist discourse within Pakistan all along. We must not also lose sight of the fact that Islamism & jihad were twin tools that the PA used in its aspirations for regional hegemony as well against countries such as India, Afghanistan and even Iran.

Then, of course, there is the larger and permanent canvas of India. People in India under-estimate the hatred. They are too quick to latch on to something here or there to claim that the Pakistanis are turning 'lily white'. This cannot happen unless and until the hatred for Hindus and by extension India as well as the jihadi narrative are effectively eliminated from school curricula and state media. That has not happened at all. I would say safely that once Pakistan returns to normality, if at all it happens, it would still take two or three generations for us to establish a normal state-to-state neighbourly relationship. We are far from that. In fact, the oppression of Indic-minorities has become even more oppressive. Pakistan is now targetting them even in Afghanistan.

IMHO, these twin things subsume other divisive forces such as sub-nationalism (Seraiki vs. Punjabi, Sind vs. Punjab) Berelvi/Ahl-e-Hadith/Deobandi/Wahhabi, mohajir vs. natives etc. We have never come across any retired military officer taking part or poking in these issues so far. For the PA, these distracting things strike at the very root of the 'milbus', the corporate PA. Every officer has a share in the loot, even after retirement perhaps, that they keep mum on issues that do not directly concern the PA. They toe the line of the COAS and his dozen Corps Commanders, who effectively rule the country and distribute the loot.

Essentially, nation states or even those who fraudulently claim so, like Pakistan, don't change their objectives quickly. And, in the case of Pakistan, there is no real compulsion to do so either.

My two paise.

[Kashi]

My two paise.

Brilliant analysis as always SSridharJi. You've explained the motivations and the factors underlying the apparent cohesiveness of TSPA very well. Just curious to know your views on a couple of things

1. Christine Unfair in one of her recent presentations pointed out that TSPA has substantially stepped up their recruitment from provinces and districts apart from Potohar.

2. Pashtuns constitute a sizable chunk of TSPA ranks. They too have their own biraadarai and "honour" code that may often be at odds with those of the Punjabis.

How do TSPA manage to reconcile these different groups? Jaagirdaari and Fauji foundation?

[anupmisra]

Must post this for those who still think that there is a remote possibility for peace between secular India and islamgarh-e-toiletistan. With all the "love and affection" being thrown at TSPA's mard-e-momeens during these election, a paki lowlife posted this photo on teetar:

[anupmisra]

Karak: Burqa-clad man enters women's polling station, flees after cover gets blown

A burqa-clad man reportedly entered a women's polling station in Karak, Khyber Pakhtukhwa but fled after his cover got blown. Security at the polling station has been tightened following the incident.

How did his cover get blown? "mohotrma, zara shakl toh dikhayen. ID se match karein"

https://www.dawn.com/elections/blog/#1422681

[chetak]

https://youtu.be/VLHrJjPcqm8

The boss casting his vote.

[SSridhar]

1. Christine Unfair in one of her recent presentations pointed out that TSPA has substantially stepped up their recruitment from provinces and districts apart from Potohar.

2. Pashtuns constitute a sizable chunk of TSPA ranks. They too have their own biraadarai and "honour" code that may often be at odds with those of the Punjabis.

How do TSPA manage to reconcile these different groups? Jaagirdaari and Fauji foundation?

Kashi,

1. IIRC, the C.Fair report was wrt officer class. The officer class used to be gentry from elite, landed Ashraf families. Even if that has been liberalized, the conditions that will make them emulate the other officers are overwhelming and they cannot swim against the tide.

2. The Pashtuns are not overly significant. Of course, their representation has increased from 13.65% in c. 2001 to 14.18% in c. 2007 to an estimated 14.50% in c. 2011 as per an ISPR release. I am pretty sure that there are enough Punjabi officers to oversee Pashtun officers.

[yensoy]

Then, of course, there is the larger and permanent canvas of India. People in India under-estimate the hatred. They are too quick to latch on to something here or there to claim that the Pakistanis are turning 'lily white'. This cannot happen unless and until the hatred for Hindus and by extension India as well as the jihadi narrative are effectively eliminated from school curricula and state media. That has not happened at all. I would say safely that once Pakistan returns to normality, if at all it happens, it would still take two or three generations for us to establish a normal state-to-state neighbourly relationship. We are far from that. In fact, the oppression of Indic-minorities has become even more oppressive. Pakistan is now targetting them even in Afghanistan.

Sirji,first thanks for a great piece of analysis. Without such a theory and psychology of the enemy in place we are bound to repeat our mistakes.

As for the elimination of hate and the jihadi narrative... It wouldn't be a stretch to say that every time there has been an apparent rapprochement in ties, there is some kind of asinine Pak Army action that leads to war or war-like conditions. We saw that in 1965 - it was a Paki minister who was the chief guest at that year's Republic Day and then we had Op Gibraltar. I used to think that the Pakfauj was stupid in launching that operation, now I think maybe it was necessary to ensure continued hatred and therefore a warlike situation that would allow unquestioned resource capture and authority over the population. We had Kargil right at the time of a breakthrough. Then Mumbai, Pathankot, etc. This is a pattern, the net beneficiary is the Pak deep state. Since each time Pak as a country loses, and its army suffers losses, we tend to give them a free ride or get misled by picking on the wrong chain of causation.

Stating this differently, it is my claim that Kargil or Gibraltar were Pak operations not primarily directed at India, rather at ensuring the Paki military's supremacy in their own country.

[Falijee]

A Good Analysis: Army Vs Nawaz Sharif
Mohammed Taqi
Indian Express
July 25, 2018
POSTED IN FULL

Pakistan will hold its 11th general election since 1970 today, only the second that would result in an uninterrupted transfer of power from one nominally democratic dispensation to the next. In 2008, Pakistan had transitioned from an overt military rule to a façade of democracy. While the centre-left Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) formed a coalition government then, the country’s all-powerful army really has held the power since. The ousted dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, was sent off with a guard of honour. The Army subsequently maintained its chokehold over the country’s foreign and national security policies as well as key domestic affairs.

The 2013 polls saw the country’s first peaceful transition from one elected government to the next, led by Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Sharif’s tiff with the army started right off the bat. Having been ousted indirectly and directly by the army twice before, Sharif was bent on bringing Musharraf to book and even threatened to make public the Kargil debacle report. He also chose to pursue a policy of reconciliation with the neighbouring countries, especially India, and, to the army’s chagrin, attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 inauguration.

The stage was thus set for the army, which has ruled Pakistan directly for over 30 years, and indirectly for the rest, to lock horns with Sharif. The army propped up the playboy cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI or Pakistan Justice Movement), to bring Sharif down through street protests. Khan held Islamabad hostage through a dharna in 2014 and twice thereafter in an attempt to dislodge the Sharif government. An unexpected break for the army came in the form of the so-called Panama Papers leak, in which Sharif’s children were named for holding off-shore companies and properties. The army exploited the Panama papers to the fullest, first forcing Sharif via protests by the PTI, to hold a judicial inquiry, and subsequently by leaning on the judiciary to fast-track the proceedings and declare the three-time PM guilty. The judiciary, which has been the handmaiden of the Pakistani army since the first coup d’état in the 1950s, dislodged Sharif on the flimsiest legal grounds. Days before the present elections, the judiciary dispatched Sharif and his political heir apparent, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, to prison.

In addition to nailing Nawaz Sharif, the army has worked on overdrive to tame the Pakistani media. It has targeted, harassed and gagged columnists and newspersons as well as the country’s largest media houses viz. the Geo/Jang Group and the Dawn Group. The army has explicitly told newspapers to drop columnists and purge stories. It prevented the delivery of the Jang and Dawn newspapers in cantonment areas and blacked out their TV channels to the extent that the former group apparently made peace with the army while the latter took to the BBC to air its grievances. The army hounded social media as well and went to the extent of abducting pro-democracy bloggers and opinion-makers. The net effect of this muzzling was that the media was coerced into self-censorship and most outlets, especially TV channels, ended up singing the paeans of the army and its blue-eyed man, Imran Khan. It is in this backdrop of the army tripping an elected government, coopting the judiciary and coercing the media into submission, that Pakistan goes to an election today

Despite the media and judiciary’s collusion, the army and its PTI quislings are not sure of the outcome as Nawaz Sharif remains popular in his home province of Punjab, which also holds the most seats in the national assembly, and thus, the key to power. The elections are too close to call with the contest being among the outgoing PML-N and the challenger PTI, with the PPP being a distant third. However, hell bent on denying Sharif an electoral victory, the army has already done everything to ensure PML-N loses. It has proactively inducted — dubbed euphemistically as mainstreaming — the political fronts of jihadi-terrorist groups, Jamat-ud-Dawa, Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat and the Tehrik-e-Labbaik Ya Rasulallah, into the electoral fray. These disparate groups that are Salafi, Deobandi and Barelvi, respectively, have two things in common — an anti-Sharif sentiment and the army’s backing. The plan was to have these obscurantist groups chip away at the PML-N’s conservative voter base

Additionally, Imran Khan — whose ex-wife has charged him with sexual promiscuity and hard drugs abuse — has been peddling a bigoted religious refrain against Pakistan’s beleaguered religious minority, the Ahmadiyyah. An odious religious narrative was commissioned by the army to ensnare Nawaz Sharif, ostensibly the only leader since Benazir Bhutto who could challenge the army’s preeminence in the Pakistani polity. Similarly, the army has tried to undercut the PPP in its Sindh province stronghold by propping up an electoral arrangement of its opponents called the Grand Democratic Alliance despite the PPP’s tacit indications to the army that it would be content to play second fiddle to it.

In contrast to Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shehbaz Sharif is considered acceptable to the army due to his limited provincial stature and pliable political nature. It is hard to say whether the army would prefer the younger Sharif over Imran Khan, who has been tight with the army but is deemed a maverick nonetheless. The army’s political engineering notwithstanding, the current elections remain a toss-up. The PML-N and the PTI are neck-and-neck with each other in Punjab — the electoral grand prize. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, a three- or even four-way split between the PTI, the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party, the PML-N and others is a foregone conclusion. The PPP will retain a plurality, if not its majority, in the Sindh province. The restive Balochistan province will deliver a fractured mandate as always, split equally among the Pashtun and Baloch nationalists, the Islamists and the pro-army political cliques. If the PML-N is able to muster a large voter turnout, it may still defeat the army and the PTI’s best designs and eke out a plurality in the national assembly and end up being a formidable opposition if not a weak coalition government.

Foreign policy and regional affairs were off the campaign radar. The army’s firm grip over the pre-electoral process, the narrative and multitude of prime ministerial candidates, if not the outcome, however, pretty much guarantees that the incoming political dispensation will toe the junta’s line vis-à-vis India, Afghanistan and the US, wForeign policy and regional affairs were off the campaign radar. The army’s firm grip over the pre-electoral process, the narrative and multitude of prime ministerial candidates, if not the outcome, however, pretty much guarantees that the incoming political dispensation will toe the junta’s line vis-à-vis India, Afghanistan and the US, w

The army thought it had purged the foremost challenger to its political clout. However, by returning to Pakistan, Sharif has thrown a spanner in the army’s works. The present election is about whether Sharif and his allies can prevail over the army’s allies through the ballot and thereby reverse the lopsided civil-military balance in Pakistan. The only thing certain at this point is that Pakistan is headed for prolonged political uncertainty

IMO, the (s) election of Imran Khan will serve the Army Agenda fine. Already the Establishment Media is "sending out advance signals" that "India is afraid of Imran Khan as PM " . The basis of arriving at that conclusion is not stated, but presumably the Deep State - and Imran Khan also - "believed" that Ganja was an Agent of India !!!
Secondly , the image of the Kaptaan , in the western world , as a so-called liberal and a so called reasonable person, will help - when it comes to "beg for dollars" !

[Falijee]

Imran Khan Ready To Rule

Pakistan’s military has its fingerprints all over the elections
Ishaan Tharoor
July 25, 2018

Pakistanis will cast their ballots on Wednesday in national elections that have been clouded by acrimony and violence. A string of suicide blasts have led to dozens of deaths at campaign rallies. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam were sidelined by corruption convictions that many Pakistanis say were politically motivated, while activists warned that a host of candidates were compelled to switch parties, and journalists and media outlets were intimidated and silenced. Amid the chaos, a glut of extremist Islamist candidates entered the field, a worrying sign of the country’s political drift.

The run-up to the election has been defined by “blatant, aggressive and unabashed attempts to manipulate” the result, declared Pakistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission.

And he is not the only one who has expressed these sentiments !

The country’s top brass has a long history of intervening in Pakistani democracy. Pakistan’s generals have run the nation several times over the past seven decades; when not openly in power, they have exerted outsize control over foreign policy, the economy and local politics. The ISI, the military’s shadowy and influential intelligence wing, continues to maintain ties with militants abroad while stifling civil society at home. And though this election will mark the third consecutive transition of power from one civilian government to another — a success story by Pakistani standards — it has the fingerprints of military meddling all over it.

A host of prominent retired military officers have rallied behind the 62-year-old Khan. The charismatic, Oxford-educated former playboy has morphed into a pious nationalist since entering politics, decrying the “toxicity” of the West and the decadent detachment of his rivals. He sees both Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N and the center-left Pakistan People’s Party of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto as corrupt, dynastic factions embezzling the nation’s wealth.

“Liberals are thirsty for blood. They have absolutely no idea,” Khan told British journalist Ben Judah earlier this year. “They sit in the drawing room. They read the English-language newspapers which bear very little resemblance to what is real Pakistan. I promise you, they would be lost in our villages.”

This man ( Imran) is well known for speaking from "both sides of the mouth" !

But even with the scales now tipped in his favor, Khan is no shoo-in. The PPP is expected to do reasonably well in Bhutto’s native Sindh province. Sharif’s incarceration — and the abiding sense that the military is still calling the shots — has galvanized support for his party, particularly in his native Punjab. If Khan’s Movement for Justice party ends up with a majority of parliamentary seats, it will have to reverse Sharif’s momentum there.

The Army will help him there! !

Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani diplomat who now lives in Washington, told Today’s WorldView that the military’s ability to wholly control Pakistan’s civilian leadership has faded. “The way I see it is the military is panicking,” he said. Their attempts to gain back power may create more havoc.“There is a higher likelihood than there has been in the past that this could end up in a political crisis that makes governance virtually impossible,” Moeed Yusuf, a South Asia expert at the U.S. Institute for Peace, told The Post.

Beyond preserving its extensive economic interests, the military leadership sees itself as the custodian of the nation, one still defined by its birth in the bloody partition of the Indian subcontinent. “They have convinced themselves over years that India is an eternal enemy and that they are the only saviors of the country,” said Haqqani, an outspoken critic of the army who now lives in de facto exile. “They still have this general suspicion of civilians.”

Sharif, once also the anointed candidate of the military, is by no means an exemplary democrat. But his party’s success in this election would raise new headaches for the top brass, including whether to release him from prison. Cyril Almeida, a prominent Pakistani columnist, suspects the military will find a new accommodation to its satisfaction no matter the outcome.

“A section of the public and politics has been primed to loudly cheer [Sharif's] incarceration; the section of the people and politics that may lean against incarceration can be drowned out; and the few quaint, democratic types left can be easily suppressed,” Almeida wrote in Dawn. And if the public mood compels Sharif's release? “Well, then cut a deal with him, let him out again and start the cycle all over again. Heads they win, tails everyone else loses.”

[VKumar]

Things are getting active in Baluchistan. Lots of ambushes taking place.

On another note, an ad offering residential property in Gwadar is circulating in Terrorists.