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Syed Talat Hussain The good news is that the Stock Exchange Attack was foiled from becoming a big catastrophe. Going by the preparation of terrorists, their arms, ammunition and the ready to eat meals (REMs) they looked set to make a longer stay in this financial nerve center of the country and extend the damage to the repute and image of the business and investment climate in Pakistan. Another good news is that the opposition in the assembly session on the budget roundly condemned the attack. You can ask what else can the Opposition do at any rate if not condemn it? Well, for a perspective, see this. Imran Khan’s usual take on terrorism during the previous government’s tenure used to be suggestions that such acts of terror were perhaps the handiwork of Nawaz Sharif’s alleged friends in India who wanted to help him in his times of political trouble. Beginning to wonder why whenever Nawaz Sharif is in trouble, there is increasing tension along Pakistan's borders and a rise i...

  Syed Talat Hussain   When the Pakistan Foreign Office was crafting a stern response to the State Department’s 2019 report on terrorism that devalued Pakistan’s efforts to fight the threat internally and globally, there was some debate on how Delhi might exploit both the unflattering report and Pakistan’s retort. No one had imagined, however, that the challenge to their stance would come not from Delhi and Washington, but from their own prime minister. But that is exactly what happened. There is every possibility that none of the 388-words of the foreign office press release that listed several steps the nation had taken in fighting terrorism, had passed Prime Minister Imran’s notice. And this wasn't because he was making a rare appearance in the parliament when the press release was issued and was busy. PM Imran has a hyperactive phone and reads the communication of his liking even in the middle of the night. But for serious documents, he does not have the time. So e...

Syed Talat Hussain Quietly, but emphatically organized terrorism is making a return to Pakistan. Two provinces, Balochistan and Khayber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering Afghanistan, and, traditionally, the starting point and target of induced violence, have witnessed a steady increase in terrorist activity in the past months. Sindh too has seen attacks in Ghotki, Karachi, and Larkana. In Balochistan Mand, Turbat, Bolan apart from other areas Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) combined with firing have taken precious lives of law enforcement forces. Across KP’s Waziristan area even more frequent terrorism has occurred. North Waziristan, the old stronghold of Haji Gul Bahadur and also support base of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement has been particularly violent. Gun-battles, targeted killings, encounters---the full range of terrorism has been on display with audacity and planning. Kohat and Peshawar are also on the radar for heightened terrorism concerns. A few things are obvious from these develo...

Syed Talat Hussain 1. What does Justice Faez Isa get out of the Supreme Court verdict? He gets redemption and endorsement of his plea that this reference was only aimed at destroying him as a judge was simply worthy of being trashed. Also, he becomes a symbol of resistance to the executive’s manipulation and engineering. 2. What does he not get out of it? He doesn’t get a full burial of the issue of “properties”, “money”, “trail” etc. With seven judges asking FBR to investigate his wife’s tax returns and send fresh notices, the matter is allowed to linger. Also involving Supreme Judicial Council in tax matters of Justice Faez’s wife who is an independent tax payer is bizarre, to say the least. This means the judge continues to be held to account for his wife’s assets. Seven judges on this side of the argument and one dismissing his petition while accepting others against the reference should tell Justice Faez about the real state of affairs of the brotherhood of the judges. He can ask:...

Syed Talat Hussain The killing of dozens of Indian soldiers in clashes with the Chinese border forces in Eastern Ladakh and subsequent warnings from Beijing to Delhi to not meddle in what the Chinese call their side of the Line of Actual Control has given Prime Minister Narendra Modi a bloody nose and a broken ego. If the shooting down of the Indian plane by Pakistan and the capture of its pilot Abhinand Varthaman after a quick dog-fight last year punched large holes in the Indian Airforce’s competence claims, the Ladakh clashes have shown the Indian ground forces’ extreme limitations. But for Mr Modi, who likes to portray himself as an avatar of Hindu gods of war and conquest, this is a blow right on the jaw and one that has led to total paralysis of his military strategy. For someone who likes to pretend as India is always battle-ready, and will go to any length to achieve its strategic goals---hot pursuit, incursions, cold start etc---he has had to hunker down in humiliation, lickin...

Syed Talat Hussain With two Indian High Commission employees spending time in Pakistan’s custody (now released) on a hit-and-run traffic accident charge, the tit-for-tat game of bilateral diplomatic degradation is now in full swing. Remember Delhi two days ago had caught two Pakistani officials and deported them after slapping them with espionage accusations. Both countries’ missions are already working at the Deputy High Commissioners level after the last year’s Indian move in Occupied Kashmir to revoke the disputed territory’s special status, and attach its broken parts with the Indian Union. This might seem like small news against the backdrop of a long history of jingoism that has come to define their relations, but at present they reflect a worrying drift towards an impending or accidental adventurism that could light up the borders at a large scale. Islamabad is rife with the talk of the Line of Control heating up and the army leadership is in a state of high alert about a surpri...

Syed Talat Hussain There are lies, damned lies, and budget. But the Imran government did not have to lie much in this year’s budget. The economy stands naked, stripped of all pretension with zero room for misleading propaganda. Facts are dreary. Last year’s 1.8 percent GDP growth is now in the negative. In the last 15 months, the country has borrowed itself sick, 18 billion rupees a day, almost double the speed of borrowing of the previous governments. The country’s production in all sectors has declined, nay, collapsed. Even the agriculture sector’s potential has shrunk to its bare minimum. No one is investing and the government has shown no intention of bringing its non-development expenditure under control, from pensions to supporting a bloated bureaucracy. Tax collection targets remain delusional. This is partly because of a mind-boggling incapacity to reform the FBR and partly because desperate measures need to be taken to somehow keep the economy breathing, and additional tax...

Syed Talat Hussain The dash to Kabul by the chief of army staff General Qamar Bajwa and DG  ISI General Faiz Hameed, and their meetings with Ashraf Ghani and  Abdullah Abdullah, have again bred optimism that the final peace deal  on Afghanistan can be secured, paving the way for the US to pull out  with some grace and some workable political arrangement to emerge in  its wake. Those familiar with the proceedings in Kabul have told me that there  are strong chances of intra-Afghan peace talks formally starting in  the next few days in Doha. The Taliban are waiting for the last batch  of their 1500 prisoners to be released and when that number is  reached, the table will be laid for the intra-Afghan dialogue in all  earnest. This may sound too good to be true; the more so since the February  2020 landmark peace deal between the Taliban and the US  administration has been collapsing in slow-motion with violence  escalating an...