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Pakistan

Pakistan And China Partner To Build Climate Resilience

November 23, 2022 Ruqiya Anwar, The Real News. , , , ,
As part of an ambitious initiative to build climate resilience in the aftermath of disastrous floods, Pakistan has, with Chinese assistance, put up a high-tech environmental observation station to anticipate weather and research climate change. Disasters such as floods, droughts, and cyclones have struck Pakistan in recent years, causing widespread destruction. Since the monsoon season started in mid-June, Pakistan has seen extremely heavy rains—about three times higher than the country’s 30-year average. As a result, Pakistan is facing its worst floods this century, with rivers spilling their banks, flash flooding, and bursting glacial lakes. The climate minister of Pakistan has declared that floodwaters have spread across one-third of the country, making this the worst flooding event in the country’s history.

Failed Assassination Of Imran Khan May Push Coup Regime To Tipping Point

November 9, 2022 Junaid S. Ahmad, Multipolarista. , , ,
Pakistanis have been out on the streets protesting in the millions over the past few months. Even though the country has been afflicted by the horrific floods, the political momentum for radical change has not abated. An assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Imran Khan this November has brought matters to a tipping point. Today, Khan’s popularity as a political leader and public figure is at its peak – a fact even his detractors will concede. And this is precisely what has got him into trouble. Khan was ousted in a regime-change operation at the beginning of April. We can now conclusively say that the group responsible for the ouster included virtually the entire corrupt feudal-dynastic political class, the chief of army staff and some of his cohorts in the military high command, and of course the godfather overseeing it all: the United States.

Pakistan Coup Regime Bans Imran Khan, Dissidents Killed

October 27, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. , , , ,
After Prime Minister Imran Khan was overthrown in a US-backed soft coup, Pakistan’s unelected “imported government” has banned the country’s most popular politician from office, sparking huge protests. Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad spoke with Multipolarista editor Ben Norton about the army chief’s friendly trip to Washington and US efforts to pressure Pakistan to weaken ties with China, arm Ukraine in its war with Russia, and recognize apartheid Israel. Ahmad also addressed the growing political violence and assassination of dissident journalist Arshad Sharif, a prominent critic of the coup regime who had been reporting on its corruption. Fearing for his life, Sharif fled to Kenya, where he was shot in the head on October 23. Ahmad said Pakistan is “caught” in the middle of Washington’s new cold war on China.

Will The Samarkand Spirit Revive The Word ‘Mutual’ In World Affairs?

September 22, 2022 Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
In mid-September 2022, the nine-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for its 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State. Because China, India, and Pakistan are members of the SCO, the organization represents about 40% of the world’s population; with the addition of Russia, the SCO countries make up 60% of the Eurasian territory (the other member states of the organization are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and now Iran). In its Samarkand Declaration, the final declaration of this meeting, the SCO represented itself as a “regional” organization, although the sheer scale of the SCO would allow it to claim to be a global organization with as much legitimacy as the G-7.

We Will March, Even If We Have To Wade Through The Pakistani Floodwaters

September 9, 2022 Vijay Prashad, The Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research , , ,
Calamities are familiar to the people of Pakistan who have struggled through several catastrophic earthquakes, including those in 2005, 2013, and 2015 (to name the most damaging), as well as the horrendous floods of 2010. However, nothing could prepare the fifth most populated country in the world for this summer’s devastating events, which began with high temperatures and political chaos followed by unimaginable flooding. Cascading frustration with the Pakistani state defines the public mood. Taimur Rahman, the general secretary of the Mazdoor Kisan Party (‘Workers and Peasants Party’), told Peoples Dispatch that after the 2010 floods, there was ‘enormous outrage about the fact that the government had not done anything to ensure that… when there is an overflow of water, it can be controlled’.

Pakistan’s Floods Show The Climate Crisis Is Also A Debt Crisis

September 3, 2022 Heidi Chow, Tribune Magazine. , , ,
The flood in Pakistan is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Entire towns, vital infrastructure, homes, farmlands, and crops are being washed away.  With a third of the land under water, 33 million people affected, and the death toll over a thousand and rising, the human and economic cost is set to be astronomical. It is estimated that the extensive damage to the country will cost at least $10 billion. The country faces both the immediate challenges of immense displacement, homelessness, hunger, and the spread of water-borne diseases as well as the longer-term costs of rebuilding and reconstruction. Pakistan faces a deepening debt crisis to pay the costs of a climate catastrophe it did not cause.

Climate Change Causes Torrential Flooding In Pakistan

August 29, 2022 Molly Rosenzweig, Left Voice. , , ,
Devastating floods are occurring across Pakistan due to monsoon rains. Since June, more than 1,000 people have been killed by floods, with thousands more being displaced and having to go without food. Capitalism makes these disasters the new normal, with workers, particularly those of the Global South, bearing the brunt. Just this weekend, tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes in Northern Pakistan due to floods. There are many more that still need to be rescued. More than 33 million people have been affected over the past few weeks, millions of homes have been destroyed, and infrastructure such as roads and bridges have been damaged or destroyed along with millions of acres of farmland. This is not merely just one or a few bad storms.

One Out Of Seven Persons Affected By Floods; Pakistan Declares Emergency

August 28, 2022 Bharat Dogra, Popular Resistance. , , ,
30 to 33 million persons are reported to be seriously affected by floods in Pakistan, a country with a population of 220 million. Due to this a national emergency has been declared in Pakistan. The previous worst floods in Pakistan were recorded in 2010 when nearly 20 million people were affected, causing damages estimated at $10 billion. This was followed by a very serious flood situation next year in Sindh. What is more, there was some serious flood event or the other for the next five years. This year Sindh and Balochistan are reported to be the worst affected, although serious harm has been reported from elsewhere too. From mid-June to the last week of August, nearly 1000 persons have perished in floods and a higher number have faced injuries.

Pakistan: Coup Regime Hits PM Imran Khan With ‘Terrorism’ Charges

August 27, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. , , ,
Pakistan’s elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was overthrown in a US-backed regime-change operation due to his independent foreign policy. Now the coup regime has charged him with “terrorism.” Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad discusses the desperate attempt to crush the mass movement and protests that Khan has led.

How To Manipulate Readers With ‘Expert’ Slanted Reporting

August 24, 2022 Moon of Alabama. , , ,
Imran Khan, a former cricket star who went into politics and became Prime Minister of Pakistan, had been ousted by bribing and threatening politicians of his coalition to turn against him. Khan had developed good relations with China and Russia and was against allowing the U.S. military to use Pakistan as a base for attacks in Afghanistan. The new Pakistani government under Shehbaz Sharif has turned out to follow opposite policies. But it is increasingly unpopular. Imran Khan has used his popularity to raise a public ruckus against the ruling elite and the military and judicial forces behind it. He and his PTI party have good chances to win in the next election. U.S. media reporting about Khan is thus conflicted.

Victory For Powerloom Workers In Pakistan

August 23, 2022 Shriya Singh, People's Dispatch. , ,
For two weeks, several thousand workers and their families participated in a sit-in protest on Jhang road, blocking the route to Faisalabad International Airport, demanding an increase in wages. The workers claimed that the Labor Department in Punjab had failed to implement the new minimum wages set by the provincial government. After several rounds of negotiations and backtracking by the district administration and the powerloom owners, an agreement was reached  between them and the leaders of the Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM), the umbrella body of powerloom workers in Faisalabad. Most of the demands of the nearly 300,000 workers have been met. Some of them include a 15% increase in workers’ wages and assurances of social security, as well as steps to improve the working environment.

Imran Khan Rewrites Pakistan’s Political History

July 19, 2022 M. K. Bhadrakumar, The Cradle. , , ,
It is an unsavory proposition always, be it in India or Pakistan, when political power is usurped by fly-by-night operators who engineer defections from a ruling party, and an established government gets overthrown despite its mandate to govern. In India — so far, at least — such shenanigans leading to regime change at the federal or state level have not been manipulated by foreign powers — except, perhaps, in the ouster of the first  communist government in the southern state of Kerala, way back in 1959. In South Asian politics, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives have been chronic cases where foreign interference in their domestic politics has become endemic. But they are either small countries or weak states, vulnerable to external pressure.

To Save The Planet, We Must End Instruments Of Corporate Power

April 25, 2022 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
On April 10, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in what is believed to be a US-backed soft coup. One of the likely reasons for the coup is that Khan was taking action to end excessive corporate power bestowed by bilateral trade agreements. Clearing the FOG speaks with Manuel Perez Rocha of the Institute for Policy Studies about Khan and how trade agreements function to force countries into allowing corporations to exploit their workers and devastate their environment. Perez Rocha explains why ending corporate abuse is essential to addressing the climate crisis and how trade could be structured to uphold human rights and protection of the planet. He also speaks about the risks of extraction for minerals that are required for a green economy. 

How Much Involvement Did The US Have In Pakistan’s Coup?

April 20, 2022 Alan MacLeod, Mintpress News. , , , ,
Islamabad, Pakistan – Following weeks of high drama and controversy that have racked the nation, Imran Khan has been removed from office. The Pakistani prime minister suffered a vote of no confidence and a loss in the supreme court, ending his rule after less than four years. Coalition partners abandoned him, leaving his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in the minority. The cricket-star-turned-political-leader had been warning for some weeks that a foreign power – assumed to be the United States – was seeking to overthrow him because of his independent foreign policy, which saw Pakistan grow closer to Russia and China. Then, in a long public address on April 8, he directly named Washington as a prime instigator in the regime-change conspiracy, accusing the U.S. of bribing his political allies with tens of millions of dollars to desert his coalition.

Was Imran Khan Trying To Address Plunder Of Poor Countries By Wealthy?

April 19, 2022 Sam Husseini, Substack. , , ,
Manuel Pérez-Rocha at Inequality.org just wrote a piece "Ousted Pakistani Leader Was Challenging Investment Treaties That Give Corporations Excessive Power: Mexico and many other countries are facing anti-democratic corporate lawsuits like the case that pushed Khan to withdraw from international investment agreements." He notes: The parliament of Pakistan recently ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan in a no-confidence vote. The reasons for the former cricket star’s political downfall are not entirely clear. His economic policies were a mixed bag at best, but he deserves credit for one thing: he’d taken a bold stand against international investment agreements that give transnational corporations excessive power over national governments. This piece led noted author and activist Maude Barlow to tweet: "Wonder if this is why he was thrown over…"
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