The Pakistani volcano is under the Asia Times



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It was a breathtaking week that was in the shadow of a fussy, zealous, political-religious volcano, which is Pakistan's Imran Khan.

And this multi-faceted development of the week can only signal the seismic shift of Pakistani internal and external relations in the foreseeable future.

Before moving on the more delicate issues, let's start with the "Mr. Khan Go to China" episode – it is essential to review all the aspects that both parties enthusiastically describe as "all weather strategic partnerships".

Xi financial rescue rope for Khan?

Prime Minister Khan led the new government elected in July and faced enormous colossal challenges, beginning with the sound. Not cut words.

"Countries are cyclical, have a high point, low point," he said. "Unfortunately, our country is currently at a low point, with two very large deficits due to a budget deficit and a current account deficit. And so, as I said, they came to learn."

Probably few teachers have beaten Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom Khan praised as an exemplar. "China's wonderful results are worth emulating," said Khan. "No other country has dealt with poverty and corruption, as China has solved it."

The strategic partnership lynchpinja is inevitably a priority project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the new Silk Road or the Road Trip Initiative (BRI). Prior to becoming Honorary Honorary Officer of First China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Khan Beijing played a decisive role in CPEC funding: Jin Liquan, President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Pakistan's new design minister, Makhdoom Bukhtiar, from the beginning trusts that Islamabad does not have to renegotiate the $ 2.7 billion of Chinese loans due for 2018 repayment. Instead of what the cards are, is a better economic package that focuses on the CPEC level.

Financially stable Pakistan is an indispensable condition for BRI's success. Pakistani control of projects approved by the previous Nawaz Sharif administration called for and simplified CPEC simplification. Now, the Khan team does not take the CPEC concept as a debt trap.

As it entered cash with Saudi Arabia and China, Islamabad could avoid the IMF and the "strategic adjustments" trademark of the global Southern countries feared by a daunting mix of moderation and inflation.

Pakistan juggles China, Iran, Saudi, Turkey

Pakistan is its most important geopolitical situation, South Asia, Central Asia and Western Asia.

For Beijing, Pakistan is a key BRI junction, reflecting its new role as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). As Khan has clearly defined, interconnection can only boost the geo-economic position of Pakistan – within the institutional framework of the SCO. The Xi-Khan partnership can actually focus on Pakistan and SCO's economic victory.

Of course, there are countless challenges ahead.

Take, for example, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang to clarify that "all cooperation between China and Pakistan has nothing to do with territorial disputes".

Kang referred to the loop surrounding the fact that a Pakistani company launched a shuttle bus from Lahore to Kashgar via Islamabad; basically via the North CPEC route through the Karakoram highway to Kashmir. China does not want any interference in the ultraviolet Kashmir dossier.

Saudi Arabia does not do too good moves either. Islamabad's official view is that Riyadh's recent financial offer did not contain any lines. This is probably not the case; Saudi traditionally has a long shadow in every Pakistani case. "No strings" means that Islamabad must stay closer to Riyadh, not Tehran.

House of Saud – paralyzed by the bloody Istanbul fugitive – will be avoided to prevent Islamabad coming closer to Tehran. (Or Ankara). An eventual, long-term, changing game-Turkey-Iran-Pakistan alliance was the talk of the city – at least in the first half of the week.

This will lead us to the Kenyan critical visitors who came to Islam in Islamabad: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Last month, 14 Iranian border guards were abducted by Pakistani-based Jaish al-Adl Salafi-dzihadi fanatics. Pakistani security forces have so far been powerless.

Khan and Zarif talked about it – but he also spoke about Khan's offer of mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia when he tried to find a solution to the Yemen tragedy. The fact that the approach of Tehran-Islamabad is already in progress.

This is a sophisticated geopolitical game that Khann has to play. Meanwhile, she needs to get off at home and be dirty when she is in violent domestic religious turmoil.

"Go Legal – Or …"

Since Monday I have been in Islamabad – right on the volcano's lips and enjoy my privilege to be part of one of the most fascinating geopolitical conferences in recent times, which is only in Asia and not in the current polarization dynamics. But this is another story.

As I analyzed the reality on the geopolitical chessboard, reality intervened.

Or – perhaps – it was a graphic briefing that Pakistan could only get better.

Street blocks paralyzed the nation's most important hubs because Aasia Bibi, a Christian female worker, finally imprisoned for nine years by the Supreme Court on charges of blasphemy. In Pakistan there are less than 4 million Christians out of the total population of 197 million.

I was with a small group on the highway in Peshawar before going to Taxila-Alexander-the-Great, where further research was planned on ancient silkworms-when we stopped suddenly.

The mullah's voice was heard through a loudspeaker. Some fans have prevented blood circulation.

The police did not want to let go of this small group on any issue that Khan is undeniably new in Pakistan. The highway station embodies high-level traps between state and religion.

In Islamabad, while driving at Campus of National Defense University, Timoor Shah, at the Political Studies Center, a bright young man gave me a crash on shades.

This global audience needs to understand. On one side are the state, the military and the judiciary. (The prosecution continued to make Khan privileged in the July elections – the supreme Pakistani institution – and an activist justice.) On the other hand, religious mothers and opportunistic, discredited opposition are standing.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a small, extreme political party whose only platform was to punish blasphemy, was a deadly threat to the three Supreme Court judges. Pakistan is worse than importing a throttle / bone saw / unlocking acidic Saudi executive team to address such groups.

It should be noted that the chief commander of the chief intelligence service, chief of department chief of Asif Ghafoor, should say: This is a legal issue and the Pakistani army should not be involved. Ghafoor also stressed: "We are close to winning the war on terrorism and our attention should not be redirected."

Ghafoor said politicians-religious parties protesting the supreme court judgment – some of them strongly in the moonlight – were legal. In this regard, TLP boss Khadim Hussain Rizvi swears that the army threatened to "destroy" her party.

The army sent delegations, including ISI officials, to speak to religious protesters. Ghafoor cautiously emphasized that ISI is an intelligence unit that reports to the prime minister.

The government finally kicked. Despite the fact that Aasia Bibi is confronted with fundamentalist anger and the only way to security is a one-way entry, they agreed to name a so-called "exit check list". does not prevent TLP fanatics from "threatening a war if they have sent Asia Bibi from the country".

"Taliban goddess" was murdered

It's as if it were not toxic enough, Friday night Maulana Samiul Haq – the legendary "goddess of the Taliban" – was shot dead at his home in Rawalpindi, Islamabad's two cities.

Haq led the extreme Darul Uloom Haqqania, a madrassa or religious school in the Akhora Khattak near Peshawar, founded in 1988. In madrassa not only Mullah Omar, but also other Taliban tickets.

Haq embodies the turbulence tower in modern Pakistani history, including Senator role in the offices of Zia ul Haq and Nawaz Sharif. She was also known for Sharif's last term.

But for me the story was personal. Samiul Haq saved my life in a twisting way – with an introductory letter that he signed after I visited Madrigal to follow the ongoing Taliban indoctrination.

When Jason Florio captured the Taliban on the military base of Ghazni in the summer of 2000, we only waited six months for testing as a spy for Samiul Haq's letter.

This is clearly cruel when compared to the far-reaching and principled steps of the Pakistani Supreme Court to save Asia Bibi from the death sentence.

But this may be the first napkin in the Khan era Pakistani war against religious fundamentalism.

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