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Pakistan Press on Morocco-Israel Ties, Human Rights in Pakistan and Israeli- Saudi -Indian Engagement: New Age Islam's Selection, 12 December 2020


By New Age Islam Edit Desk

12 December 2020

• Morocco-Israel Ties

The Dawn Editorial

• Afghan Peace Talks And Its Many Hurdles

By Rustam Shah Mohmand

• Protecting Human Rights

By Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani

• Israeli- Saudi -Indian Engagement: Impact On Pak- Saudi Ties?-II

By Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi

• The Academic Rankings Racket

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

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Morocco-Israel Ties

The Dawn Editorial

12 Dec 2020

 

King Mohammed VI of Morocco (L) and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu

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THE slow but steady wave of normalisation between Arab states and Israel rolls on, with Morocco being the fourth nation in recent months to establish ties with the Jewish state. The development was announced on Thursday via Twitter by outgoing US President Donald Trump, who has made cobbling together a ‘coalition of the willing’ of Arabs and Israel a central plank of his foreign policy.

Mr Trump has labelled it a “massive breakthrough”, while Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel chimed in by terming the scheme “another great light for peace”. In return for establishing ties with Tel Aviv, Rabat has won American recognition for Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.

Where Arab politics is concerned, Morocco is an outlier, so it is difficult to be convinced by the American and Israeli exuberance over the latest deal. However, Arab regimes know well that the road to Washington goes through Tel Aviv, which explains their eagerness to ditch their Palestinian ‘brothers’ and Arab consensus over the Palestine question, and embrace Israel. Moreover, the UAE and then Bahrain — which were the first Arab states in decades to recognise Israel — have found a kindred spirit in Tel Aviv that also seeks to ‘contain’ Iran.

More Arab and Muslim states will expectedly follow, paying lip service to the just cause of Palestine while booking the next flight to Tel Aviv. Yet the elephant in the room is Saudi Arabia. There has been fervent media speculation over covert Saudi-Israeli meetings; one report even said Mr Netanyahu flew to northern Saudi Arabia for clandestine parleys with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudis have officially denied this as it is a sensitive matter, with the kingdom hosting Islam’s holiest cities. In fact, senior Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal was highly critical of Israel at a recent summit in Bahrain, with the Israeli foreign minister attending remotely. This shows that even within Saudi Arabia there is resistance to embracing Israel fully, without an equitable solution to the Palestine question.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1595279/morocco-israel-ties

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Afghan Peace Talks and Its Many Hurdles

By Rustam Shah Mohmand

December 12, 2020

 

Intro-Afghan Peace talks in Doha

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The agreement that was reached between the Taliban and the Afghan government representatives on December 1, in Doha, offers some hope for moving forward on substantive issues. In a way it is a significant step forward. But it is just a framework of rules that ‘would guide’ deliberations on major issues in the months ahead. This framework of how talks should proceed should have been worked out in the first few days. It has taken three months of discussions on seeking common ground on how the discussion should proceed. That would give an idea of the attitude of the participants seeking a consensus on how to bring a long conflict to an end.

The euphoria generated by the agreement on how to conduct meetings may have been prompted by an urge to see “some visible progress” on the way to a comprehensive agreement. But fast on the heels of the so-called agreement there was an uptick in violence in Afghanistan. The Taliban, the Afghan Security Forces and US Air Force launched deadly attacks causing the deaths of civilians and combatants on a large scale across the country.

The Afghan peace process would now be impacted by the internal dynamics of a conflict and by the changing regional environment. Then there is a change of leadership in the US. The new leaders in Washington would have to deal with the prospect of a quid pro quo — the Taliban agreeing to allow some notional US forces in the country in exchange for a transitional government dominated by the Taliban. The possibility of the US rejoining the JCPOA and its impact on the Afghan scenario is another imponderable. But what the new administration in Washington would certainly have to face is the rising level of violence if a settlement is not reached soon enough.

In its assessment of the current situation in Afghanistan, the US administration would have to take cognisance of the following ground realities:

The Taliban have severed all links with Al Qaeda. If anything, Al Qaida is now an adversary.

The Taliban have no trans-border ambitions. They are just a ‘shariah’ enforcement movement confined to Afghanistan.

No government that does not include the Taliban would be able to defeat Daesh, the Turkistan Islamic Movement or other militant outfits operating in the country. Only a Taliban inclusive government can deliver durable peace to the war-ravaged country.

Ashraf Ghani’s government remains the biggest obstacle to any settlement with the Taliban.

The key to resolving the impasses in talks lies with the US — the Kabul government cannot survive without external financial support. Any real pressure brought to bear upon a beleaguered Kabul government would yield a tangible outcome.

The way out of the deadlock is a multi-ethnic, broad-based government that includes the Taliban as a major partner and other factions including those currently in the government.

The new transitional government will be established by convening a Loya Jirga — the traditional and time honoured Afghan institution that is respected all across the country.

Continuance of the status quo will be dangerous because the increasing polarisation would spread chaos that could engulf the neighbouring countries also.

These are some factors that would need to be incorporated in any approach or initiative for ending the conflict and ushering the country on a path to sustainable peace. Contrary to the opinions expressed by certain quarters there are no ‘spoilers’ of the peace process other than those currently at the helm of affairs in Kabul. All regional countries would benefit hugely from a stable and peaceful Afghanistan that would reach out to all regional and world powers to protect its stability and make progress to change the lives of an impoverished people who have suffered for too long.  Any prolongation of the conflict would spell disaster.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2275634/afghan-peace-talks-and-its-many-hurdles

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Protecting Human Rights

By Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani

December 11, 2020

Every year, December 10 is marked across the globe as International Human Rights Day, commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. This was the era when the international community was looking at the damage caused by the horrific World War II.

At that critical time, the biggest challenge before the UN was to restore the trust in peace; and so in this regard, 48 member states of the United Nations signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948 in Paris.

The UDHR is no doubt a remarkable achievement in our modern history. Under the auspices of the United Nations, for the first time the human rights for every person in the world were defined in a very comprehensive way, regardless of race, colour, religion, gender, language, or any other difference.

Eleanor Roosevelt played an instrumental role as chairperson of the drafting committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. First lady of the United States of America from 1933 to 1945, she was appointed as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. Besides her, various other women diplomats and activists from other parts of the world, including the USSR, Poland, Denmark, Lebanon, also proactively contributed in shaping the document.

Available in more than 400 languages, the UDHR is considered the most translated such document in the world. Consisting of 30 articles, the declaration is known for its "universalist language", which equally addresses all humankind with no discrimination for or against any particular nation, culture, political system, or religion. According to Article 1, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Similarly, Article 3 proclaims that: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Article 4 used to discourage slavery and the slave trade in all their forms.

Articles 18 and 19 urge the signatory member states to ensure that everyone must have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Further, the right to freedom of opinion and expression must include freedom to hold opinions without interference.

In my view, every article of the Universal Declaration is the voice of the heart of human rights activists around the world. The golden words of the Universal Declaration provide hope and courage to everyone who is engaged in serving humanity. We must understand that every person deserves to be respected with due dignity and honour. That is why every religion in the world also emphasizes respect for other human beings.

Human history is witness to this undeniable fact that peace and prosperity is directly linked with the protection of human rights. All those countries that ensured respect for human rights made amazing achievements in the national journey of progress and prosperity. On the other hand, the main reason for the collapse of many powerful and mighty states was the violation of human rights.

Pakistan is among those pioneer founding countries that signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. However, it is a matter of great concern that today our beloved country is being criticized by the international community for human rights violations. It is therefore our national, religious, moral and social responsibility to follow the peaceful vision of Quaid-e-Azam. We must keep struggling to transform Pakistan into a role model country where every human being, be it a man, a woman or a child, a minority or a majority, must have freedom to live happily within constitutional limits. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights should also be broadcast on Pakistani media with Urdu translation.

Today, it is also the responsibility of all member states of the United Nations, especially the superpower America, to play a leading role in protection of human rights across the globe.

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Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani is a member of the National Assembly and patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/756675-protecting-human-rights

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Israeli- Saudi -Indian Engagement: Impact On Pak- Saudi Ties?-II

By Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi

December 11, 2020

Precisely, Saudi Arabia- crafted policy towards Pakistan largely revolves around three important considerations in the given geo-economic/ geopolitical context: Firstly is Pakistan’s military power and nuclear capabilities articulating the strategic requirements for Saudi Arabia. Secondly, the economic limitations of Pakistan. And thirdly, the core factor of the Islamic identity of Pakistan- the idea of working in partnership for the larger welfare of Muslim ummah- must be an important orientation of Saudi Arabia in the given regional dynamics.

The Saudis must also realise our concern that we cannot ignore our brotherly relations with Tehran, our close neighbor at the cost of our warm relations with Riyadh. And yet, the Saudi dilemma is that while improving its economic ties with India, Riyadh has lost its fervour to raise the Kashmir issue on the OIC forum-an issue that has been creating tension between the two sides-India and Pakistan. Pakistan ‘s logical expectation that the Saudi leadership must adopt a bold stand on the Kashmir issue as it has adopted on Palestine as India cleverly exploits the OIC forum to remain inactive on Kashmir.

Notwithstanding the fact Pakistan has skillfully maintained a neutral position with respect to the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the evidence still endorses that Pakistan has leaned closer to the Kingdom. Some strong converging interests notwithstanding, there emerged few reservations in the bilateral engagement. Pakistan has expressed its concern over the observer status given to India at the OIC summit in the backdrop of  Balakot strikes  that India conducted after the Pulwama attacks. Saudi Arabia actively remained engaged with India in the recent past and both the states have extended the cooperation to numerous sectors.

Truly, one thing is clear that the two political powerhouses of the OIC—Saudi Arabia and Pakistan can hardly afford to downplay with each other

The MBS vision for 2030 gives a special place for India-Saudi Arabia relations because of India’s economic potential. India is one of the leading customers of Saudi Arabian oil and close cooperation with India in securing Riyadh’s interest in the Indian Ocean Region remains vital. The statistics show that bilateral trade between India and Saudi Arabia is $27 billion annually, while Pakistan-Saudi trade is just $3.6 billion. The sweeping implication is that Saudi Arabia is reluctant to displease India by asserting itself on Kashmir. But this Saudi policy on Kashmir is not a good departure.

Notably, the Malaysian summit-2019 had raised concerns in Riyadh (albeit unwarranted) that the meeting of Muslim leaders could change the OIC leadership status quo. Riyadh’s accentuated engagement with India caused discomfort to Islamabad. Nevertheless, in the post, August 5, 2019 phase, the UAE-Saudi initiative of honouring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (the butcher of the Kashmiri and Indian Muslims ) with a prestigious award while inviting him to a glittering investment forum in Riyadh created a feeling of deep resentment among Muslims around the globe.  Both countries –KSA and the UAE have developed their security ties to India while Mossad’s chief has currently visited the UAE. Riyadh has to understand that the GCC -formed alignment against Iran is not pragmatically sustainable.

As for the Iranian- Saudi rivalry, since taking office, PM Imran Khan has repeatedly tried to mediate between the two rivals. In 2019, after attacks on Gulf oil facilities, the prime minister travelled to Riyadh and Tehran to soothe tensions. After the US assassination of Iranian general  Qassem Soleimani  in January, Qureshi visited the two capitals. It is further revealed that Saudi expectations from Pakistan are not based on realism but on delusion. Pragmatically and realistically, Pakistan’s thinking is correct on the issue of Palestine that any compromise on the issue of the Palestinians will be sufficient enough to kill the fundamental core of Kashmiris’ freedom. PM Khan’s current statement is a true reflection of our national policy sentiment. “Our stance is very clear from day one and Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had said Pakistan can never accept the state of Israel until the people of Palestine get rights and state,” he said in an interview with a private news channel on last Tuesday.

And most significantly, the military relations between the two countries keep a milestone since, like Pakistan’s role in UN’s Peacekeeping Mission, our troops have been protecting the two holy-sites in Jeddah and Medina. Pakistan’s military has remained the mentor of Saudi military skills training and professional enhancement. The PAF revitalised the status of the Royal Saudi Air Force in the 1960s and Pakistani pilots flew RSAF fighter jets during KSA’s Al-Wadiah conflict with Yemen (1969). In Addition, the Pakistan Army played a pivotal role in assisting the Saudi government in suppressing the Grand Mosque Seizure in 1979. In the current scenario, General Raheel Sharif has been performing a significant role as commander of the IMAFT.

Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa visited Riyadh on August 17 to settle the dust. A brief Pakistani army statement via ISPR said Gen Bajwa met with Saudi Arabia's Gen. Fayyad bin Hamid Al-Ruwaili, chairman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and other top commanders to discuss military ties, including training exchanges. The role of Pakistan’s military diplomacy has been instrumental in mending the fences. Despite President Trump’s fool expectation that KSA has to join the current UAE-Israel deal, the Saudi stand is clear that they will not join the deal until the resolution of the Palestinian freedom and territorial rights “The notion that Saudi Arabia will be next to normalise relations with Israel was far-fetched," said Aziz Alghashian, a lecturer at Essex University. Make no mistake for Riyadh, any means of reconciliation with Israel will be tantamount to jettisoning the core principles of its own foreign policy.

Truly, one thing is clear that the two political powerhouses of the OIC—Saudi Arabia and Pakistan can hardly afford to downplay with each other. The long-standing Pak- Saudi alliance will continue on the basis of strong strategic, political and economic convergences remain pivotal for Islamabad and Riyadh now more than ever before as both countries keenly quest for securing the regional power postures in the Middle East and South Asia respectively. Pakistan welcomes the UAE-KSA entry into China’s BRI.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an energy Islamic power–refashioning itself towards a promising future under MBS’ dynamic leadership.. Pakistan is a nuclear power with immense untapped potential being the fastest growing economies in Asia. Pragmatically, it suggests that the KSA establishment will not follow the precedent set by the UAE– as being the founder member of the OIC– Riyadh cannot escape the role it has been bound to play for the betterment of Muslim Ummah, and hence a foreign policy based on the dynamics of pragmatic revisionism– via diplomatic magnanimity- seems imperative vis-à-vis Kingdom’s policy towards Malaysia, Iran, and Turkey (the ideological arms of the OIC). Hence, the call for the revitalization of the Pakistan-Saudi relations is the order of the day.

https://dailytimes.com.pk/700156/israeli-saudi-indian-engagement-impact-on-pak-saudi-ties-ii/

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The Academic Rankings Racket

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

12 Dec 2020

OVER half a dozen international “well-reputed” university ranking organisations annually publish their ratings. They tell you which university or department is better than which other, both within a country as well as between countries. Feel free to swallow their poisonous bait but do so at your own risk. These cunning ones easily take simpletons for a ride. At best, you will get questionable stuff. More likely, it will be meaningless nonsense or a fat bunch of lies.

An example: from the website of Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities — which ranks thousands of universities globally — the department of mechanical engineering at Quaid-e-Azam University was rated 76-100 in 2017. This placed it just below Tokyo University and just above Manchester University. Wow! Thereafter every year QAU improved its score and in 2020 it jumped into the 51-75 range putting it under McGill University but higher than Oxford University. The reader can google this and may discover other such gems too.

Better than Oxford? Having taught at QAU for the greater part of my life, I could jump for joy. But let the truth be told: QAU does not have a mechanical engineering department! In fact, it does not offer engineering of any kind and none is planned. A clerical mistake might explain a one-off report. But what software generated the precise numbers charting QAU’s progress year after year?

Laugh if you want but not too loudly. Save some breath for Times Higher Education which declared Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan as Pakistan’s top university. Unknown for research or teaching, AWKUM is top-most for violent intolerance. In April 2017 a 23-year-old AWKUM student, Mashal Khan, was accused of blasphemy then beaten with sticks and bricks before finally being shot to death. Hundreds of students cheered as he was dragged naked across the campus. They video-recorded the murder with smartphones, then posted it onto their FB pages.

By rewarding professors with phony achievements Pakistan has damaged universities beyond repair.

A week later, yet another university ranking organisation called QS put Nust (Islamabad) at Pakistan’s number one and drove AWKUM off the scene. Such fatuous fabrications are galore. These commercial organisations never send inspectors to the thousands of overseas universities they rank. Instead, they simply email forms to university officials who fill them at will. The ranking criteria are adjusted to benefit the client. Everyone (except the student) makes a fast buck.

Across the world, ranking organisations have been exposed as inconsistent, changing metrics from year to year, and omitting critical pieces of information. Crooked university professors have also learned to game the system. This speeds up their promotions and brings in cash. In countries with strong academic ethics, success is partial. But in Pakistan, where academic honesty has been in free fall since 2002, it has worked better and better.

Consider: three weeks ago, newspaper headlines across Pakistan blazed with soul-lifting news. Eighty-one Pakistani scientists had been chosen from 159,683 scientists in universities across the world, ranked by their number of research publications and how often they were cited. Stanford University reportedly declared these 81 luminaries in the world’s top two per cent of scientists.

That’s a total lie! Stanford University has not sanctioned any such report. This doctored news wrongly draws upon the enormous prestige of Stanford. Only one of the four authors, John P.A. Ioannidis, has a Stanford affiliation. He is a professor of medical statistics while the other three authors are from the private sector. Their published work inputs numbers from an existing database into a computer that crunches them into a list.

That list is meaningless for Pakistan. It does not represent scientific acumen or achievement. Here’s why: generating scientific research papers without knowing any science or doing actual research has been honed into a fine art by academic crooks at home and abroad. At the second stage, the stuff produced has to be published, for which clever professors have developed 99 tricks. The third — and most difficult stage — is to generate citations after the paper is published.

At this point, the crooked professor relies upon crooked friends to cite him and boost his ratings. Those friends have their friends in India, China, South Africa, or elsewhere. This international web of connections is known as a citation cartel. Cartel members generate reams of scientific gibberish that the world of mainstream science pays no heed to. But in Pakistan the rewards are handsome — you soon become chairman, dean, vice-chancellor, or influence peddler. These gatekeepers shunt out all genuine academics lest they be challenged from below.

Knowing a few individuals who made it to the exalted ‘Stanford scientist list’, I would be surprised if they could pass a tough high-school-level exam for entering undergraduate studies in a decent university like Stanford. Others I cannot judge: some could certainly be genuine. But for one scientist to judge across fields has become harder in the age of super specialisation. So how to tell?

Given what few genuine academics Pakistan has, no satisfactory answer exists. One can expect nothing from the present gatekeepers of academia because fraud is a way of life for most. To spot even 100 genuine academics from among thousands is hard. Pakistan’s university system may well have crossed the point of no return and be beyond repair. But suppose one refuses to accept this pessimistic conclusion. How to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Simple: every university and HEC must demand that any professor claiming credit for a scientific paper must present that work before an informed audience and be appropriately questioned. Credible foreign specialists should be included. Technology allows this to be done remotely (Zoom, Skype, Webex, etc) and to preserve videos for later viewing. Each presentation must explain what that paper has contributed to knowledge production.

This has many pitfalls. Transparency is not a magic wand. Still, it will whittle down the so-called Stanford list by 80pc to 100pc. Self-congratulations, and official policies that encourage academic dishonesty, have inflicted massive damage upon Pakistan’s higher education system. Without extreme measures, the rot will continue forever. We must begin now.

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Pervez Hoodbhoy taught physics and mathematics at Quaid-e-Azam University for 47 years.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1595282/the-academic-rankings-racket

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