Pakistan Press on: Sanity, Hysteria, War: New Age Islam's Selection, 30 April 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
30 April 2025
Dreaming Of Sanity Amidst Hysteria
India’s War Dance
Protect Our Children
Securing Pakistan Conclusively?
Disturbing Escalation
Minerals And National Wealth
Ghosts Of Vietnam
-----
Dreaming Of Sanity Amidst Hysteria
By Abdul Sattar
April 30, 2025
The Pahalgam attack in Occupied Kashmir has prompted war-mongers in the region to spring into action and incite war hysteria. Anti-Pakistan sentiments are running high in several parts of India, with goons from right-wing Hindu extremist outfits attacking Muslims, Kashmiri students in particular. Some zealots have vowed to kill at least 2,600 Muslims to avenge the deaths of the 26 Indian citizens.
The Indian government is also employing the coercive apparatus of the state to suppress Kashmiris, raiding the homes of hundreds of suspected rebel supporters and arresting more than 1,500 Kashmiris since the attack.
The BJP-led government is particularly furious because the Indian prime minister had claimed to have created a ‘new Kashmir’ last September, vowing to turn the disputed region into a hub for tourism. Modi’s government seems to have based its claims on the large influx of tourists. This highly militarised zone, among the most heavily fortified in the world, attracted only a meagre 0.4 million tourists in 2020, but over the years, tourism witnessed a phenomenal surge, with 3.5 million visiting the area in 2024. However, the Pahalgam attack has shattered the myth that everything is hunky-dory in Occupied Kashmir, where the BJP has established the silence of a graveyard by crushing all dissenting voices and breaking all promises made by former Indian prime ministers or top leaders of the country.
Instead of blaming Pakistan for everything that happens in the occupied territory, many believe that the so-called largest democracy needs to carry out some introspection. If Kashmir is in turmoil because of Pakistani infiltration, then how is the strife in other parts of the country to be explained? Around 11,841 people have been killed in the Maoist insurgency since 2000 – an insurgency that many critics assert has nothing to do with Islamabad. The movement has been raging across hundreds of districts since the 1960s, and there is little chance it will dissipate anytime soon. The north-eastern states of India have also been smouldering for decades, while the inhuman treatment meted out to Dalits by Indian society continues to make the people at the bottom of the social hierarchy deeply resentful toward Indian democracy.
It is true that the Pakistani state had supported Kashmiri militants in the past, but the construction of fencing along the borders has made infiltration virtually impossible. If the claim of infiltration is accepted as fact, it raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the security measures the Indian state has put in place over the years. Even in that case, the first course of action should be to hold accountable those whose negligence led to the security lapse.
However, instead of holding anyone accountable, the Indian state appears to be using this unfortunate incident to rally support for its communal agenda just months before elections in Bihar state. It has already suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and reduced the size of the Pakistani diplomatic staff. And it is not only the Indian government that is fueling anti-Muslim hysteria; Indian society at large also appears to be embracing this narrative of hate. It seems no sane voice can prevail against the storm of war-mongering brewing in the region.
The desire for conflict is also gripping the minds of some in Pakistan who assert that the country can teach India a harsh lesson in the event of war. But in reality, there are no winners in modern warfare, especially one fought between two nuclear powers. What the ruling elites in both countries must remember is that a war between the two South Asian rivals would not remain confined to conventional means. It would almost certainly escalate into a nuclear armageddon, triggering a nuclear winter and potentially killing over two billion people across the globe.
This tension is intensifying at a time when the world appears to be without a clear hegemon. The US is embroiled in a trade war with both allies and adversaries. The world’s leading power seems to be slipping into the abyss of isolationism. It is prepared to allow the flames of war in Ukraine to die out in pursuit of mineral wealth, but Trump and his tedious acolytes show little interest in resolving the long-standing issue of Kashmir.
The recent statement by President Trump, asserting that Pakistan and India would sort out the issue themselves, reflects his lack of seriousness toward the situation. Even though the armies of the two nuclear-armed neighbours have exchanged gunfire in recent days along their disputed border, Washington has yet to make any concrete efforts to douse the flames of a possible war. It also appears to have ignored the reckless Indian decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, a decision that prima facie constitutes a blatant violation of international norms and traditions.
Pakistan has made it very clear that the abrogation of the treaty would amount to an act of aggression. The water of the Indus River is a lifeline for the people of Pakistan. Not only is Pakistani agriculture heavily dependent on it, but the very survival of the country hinges on the uninterrupted flow of this water. It is entirely natural that the country would react furiously if this lifeline were suspended or blocked.
However, it is not only Pakistan that would suffer in the event of a conflict. The catastrophic consequences would not spare India either. Any potential conflict would significantly slow Indian economic growth and create panic among investors. The so-called largest democracy has attracted over a trillion dollars in foreign direct investment since 2000. All of this could be jeopardised in the event of war.
Therefore, both countries need to de-escalate. Severing channels of communication could lead to grave misunderstandings. India and Pakistan must reconsider their decisions to reduce diplomatic staff. New Delhi should also provide assurances that it does not intend to undermine the water treaty. Such an assurance could go some way toward alleviating fears that India is planning to disrupt Pakistan’s lifeline.
Islamabad has already extended an offer of cooperation, asking New Delhi to present any evidence indicating Pakistan’s involvement. If India truly possesses concrete evidence, it should share it. If it is unwilling to do so with Islamabad directly, it can engage countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil or South Africa, which may serve as effective mediators.
The US, which has a big leverage of investment, should prevail upon the war-mongers sitting in the power corridors of New Delhi. The European Union could also use its influence to let sanity prevail in the region, because in the case of any war, it is the heavy investment of Western companies that is likely to be badly affected.
Pacifists in India and Pakistan should also make hectic efforts to counter the narrative of hate peddled by right-wing forces of the two countries. This region is the land of great pacifists who were against the very idea of killing. So, how can over a billion people of two countries allow a game of destruction that could incinerate the very existence of civilisation, reducing everything to ashes, from scenic valleys to lush green fields and bustling cities to vibrant towns? Bollywood actors should especially step in to challenge this collective insanity.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1306598-dreaming-of-sanity-amidst-hysteria
------
India’s War Dance
By Dr Raashid Wali Janjua
April 30, 2025
So, what does India want now? Indian sabre-rattling and accusations in the wake of the Pahalgam killings reflect a consistent Indian tendency to scapegoat Pakistan in pursuit of political and strategic objectives.
This time, the Indian objectives can be discerned within the prevailing geopolitical environment in South Asia. This environment features a global power rivalry, with India acting as the regional gendarme, enforcing the diktat of one global power to contain another. Despite its supposed reputation for strategic autonomy, India has clearly compromised that autonomy due to the short-sightedness of its obscurantist statecraft philosophy.
Freed from the moral and legal encumbrances of interstate relations due to its self-assigned role as a regional surrogate, India now exhibits no moral compunction to respect international law. Like a bull in a China shop, it is wreaking havoc on regional peace, heedless of the consequences. The Indo-Pacific alliance's relevance, coupled with the mollycoddling by G7 countries, has emboldened India with a lemming-like, self-destructive hubris. It is this hauteur that has rendered India oblivious to the catastrophic consequences of its war dance as a nuclear state. The war hysteria being stoked by the stronger protagonist in the subcontinent’s nuclear conflict equation is fraught with dangerous portents.
When nuclear adversaries enter into a conflict, their greatest challenge is finding space for an elusive conventional engagement, while their gravest vulnerability lies in the potential escalation towards a mutually annihilating nuclear exchange. Herman Kahn’s escalation ladder operates on steroids when the rivals are neighbours and the leadership is ideologically driven. The rung-by-rung escalation may quickly collapse into a rapid escalation to the nuclear level due to the increased tempo of operations under India’s proactive operational doctrine and Pakistan’s New War Fighting Concept (NWFC).
If India attacks Pakistan along the Line of Control to seize a few posts, it would receive a quid pro quo response, likely losing an equal number of posts in a vulnerable sector along the LoC. Aerial attacks by India would invite similar embarrassment as witnessed during the Balakot incident in 2019, while a naval blockade comes with its own complications and limitations.
The pursuit of conventional war space remains a holy grail for India, whereas Pakistan’s grand strategy is based on the denial of such space. Pakistan appears to have outmanoeuvred India through this strategy of war space denial, prompting India to resort to indirect methods such as proxy warfare to achieve its objectives.
Having failed to realise its goals through terror financing and proxy warfare in Pakistan’s Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, India has now shifted its focus to victim-playing in Kashmir to justify its actions. Several Indian sources have acknowledged that their proxy warfare strategy in Balochistan is proving ineffective, and have suggested that India should prioritise Kashmir, claiming that ‘the road to Balochistan passes through Kashmir’. The current Pahalgam narrative, blaming Pakistan for attacks on tourists, arises from this Indian strategic calculus, through which they aim to achieve multiple objectives with a single stratagem.
The strategy involves framing terrorist attacks in Kashmir as the work of incited Kashmiris who are fighting to reclaim their political and cultural identity – an identity that was stripped away by India in 2019 through the revocation of Article 370. The Indian objectives behind this stratagem include consolidating their tenuous grip on the illegally annexed region, altering property ownership, and changing the state’s demographics.
Following the recent incident, Indian authorities have begun demolishing several properties owned by Kashmiris. These demolitions, carried out under the guise of counterterrorism operations, will eventually result in the confiscation and transfer of these properties to Indian nationals settling in Occupied Kashmir. Plans to construct hotels and casinos are being facilitated through incidents like Pahalgam, where land is being forcibly acquired from native Kashmiris and handed over to non-state-subject settlers.
Another Indian objective is to demonise Pakistan as a terror-sponsoring nation, leveraging that label to pursue its diplomatic isolation while simultaneously destabilising it through proxy groups such as the TTP and BLA. A third objective is to obstruct the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a task India has assumed as part of its role as a regional gendarme in the broader strategy to contain China.
India also seeks to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), a goal advanced by the staged Pahalgam incident. As the upper riparian in the Indus basin, India resents being constrained by treaty obligations, despite Pakistan’s and the World Bank’s sustained efforts to preserve the treaty’s integrity.
The IWT was signed in 1960 between India and Pakistan to prevent water wars between the two countries, which India appeared intent on imposing on Pakistan following the expiration of the standstill agreement in 1948. The IWT allocated the three western rivers of the Indus Basin to Pakistan, while granting the waters of the three eastern rivers to India. The treaty included no clause permitting unilateral withdrawal; any modification or termination required the mutual consent of both parties. It also established a permanent commission tasked with oversight and the resolution of concerns raised by either country, in addition to a dispute resolution mechanism involving a neutral expert or a court of arbitration.
India, following several other reckless ventures under the Modi government, turned its attention to the IWT and began searching for pretexts to exit the treaty based on unfounded justifications. In October 2023, India issued a notice to Pakistan seeking to renegotiate the treaty, while Pakistan maintained that the existing provisions, if implemented in good faith under Article 26, adequately addressed the technical and legal concerns of both riparian states. According to the IWT, the World Bank has two primary roles: first, to administer the Indus Basin Development Fund, and second, to oversee the dispute resolution mechanism.
The treaty is binding on both parties, and India is now in material breach of its obligations. Its unilateral invitation to Pakistan to renegotiate the treaty is unsupported by any provision within the agreement and is, therefore, patently illegal. If India had legitimate concerns regarding Pakistan’s handling of the treaty, it should have submitted a formal request for arbitration before the Court of Arbitration, as stipulated in the treaty. However, due to its mala fide intentions, India instead opted for a unilateral withdrawal. If China were to adopt the same approach regarding the Brahmaputra River, it would place India in a significantly vulnerable position.
Pakistan needs to be fully alert to respond in kind to any possible Indian attack across the LoC or international borders and ramp up its media and diplomatic offensive to expose the Indian violation of international law. Pakistan must initiate immediate high-level contacts with China and other regional and global powers to thwart India's aggressive designs, besides taking up the case of IWT revocation in the UN Security Council under Chapter 7 provisions. Indians are at it as per their Hindutva-driven pugnacity and stopping this madness would require an equal resolve and international support.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1306599-india-s-war-dance
------
Protect Our Children
By Mehnaz Akber Aziz
April 30, 2025
As the World takes cognisance of the International Day to End Corporal Punishment of Children which falls today (April 30), the question again arises: where does Pakistan stand in protecting its children from being beaten in institutional settings?
Pakistan’s issue is two-pronged. One, it houses the world’s second-largest out-of-school children’s population at around 24 million; school dropouts mostly report being beaten by teachers as the main reason. Second, due to poverty and large families children work in various institutional and domestic settings where they are subjected to severe violence and there are cases of even murder.
The Sindh Province Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act 2016 prohibits corporal punishment in schools, alternative care settings and daycare. After the bill was passed, it took till July 2021 to finalise the rules of business. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010, which prohibits corporal punishment in schools. The Gilgit Baltistan Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act prohibits corporal punishment in schools, alternate care settings and daycare.
At the federal level, the Islamabad Capital Territory Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act, 2021 was passed in a joint session. I had tabled the bill in 2019 and it took more than two years of constant lobbying inside and outside parliament. The passage of the bill was seen as a historic moment by the international media. The bill details penalties for beating children, and bans all types of corporal punishment in: one, educational institutions where any kind of instruction is imparted in a formal or non-formal way, whether full-time or part-time, including boarding houses and madrassas. Two, a workplace is identified as a place where an organisation or employer operates, including shops, workshops, farms, residential hotels and restaurants. And, three, foster care, rehabilitation centres and any other alternative care settings, including the juvenile justice system.
‘Corporal’ or ‘physical’ means any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain and discomfort, however light it may be. It involves smacking, slapping, spanking with hands or whip, stick, or belt, wooden spoon etc as well as kicking, shaking, throwing a child, pinching, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing a child to remain in uncomfortable positions, burning and scalding.
The bill even details non-physical forms of punishment that are cruel and degrading. The rules were framed and passed by the cabinet and launched in May 2023. Unfortunately, the law awaits implementation by the Federal Ministry of Training and Education. The same goes for the other provinces, which have the legislation but no track record of implementation.
The most recent global attention to this was given at the first Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children – hosted by the Governments of Colombia and Sweden and supported by Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO) – in Bogota, Colombia. The conference brought together representatives from 130 countries, including survivors, children and community activists. It is seen as a positive step forward, with key takeaways focused on revitalising national commitments, launching new initiatives and strengthening political will to end violence against children.
Violence can severely impair a child's ability to thrive and may increase the risk of them becoming perpetrators themselves in adulthood. There is widespread recognition that physical violence – or even the threat of it – affects children in every country, community and culture around the world. Tragically, much of this violence takes place in educational settings, often at the hands of teachers and caregivers. While corporal punishment by school staff is not the only form of violence faced by children in schools, it is among the most egregious and harmful.
As well as violating children’s rights, overwhelming evidence shows that the use of corporal punishment has serious negative impacts on children, including their educational achievements. A recent study found that the brains of children who had been spanked were altered in the regions that regulate emotional responses, the same regions that change in children who had experienced sexual abuse, physical violence or psychological maltreatment, typically viewed as ‘worse’ than spanking.
Currently, 68 countries have fully prohibited corporal punishment, while 27 have committed to reforming their laws to achieve a complete ban. Sixty-seven countries, mostly in Europe and Latin America, have taken measures to ban. Today, on the International Day to End Corporal Punishment of Children, Pakistan should pledge to support all provinces to legislate and implement, and budgetary provisions should be made for doing so. Laws must lead to implementation
Laws alone are not enough. To be effective, the prohibition of corporal punishment in schools must be supported by a comprehensive set of measures that foster a culture of teaching and learning free from violence. The passage of such laws should serve as a foundation for implementing national strategies, which must include strong political will and regular assessments of progress.
First, widespread and sustained public education and accessible awareness-raising campaigns are essential to clearly communicate the purpose and implications of the law.
Second, clear guidance and training must be provided to teachers and other school staff, equipping them with positive, non-violent disciplinary strategies.
Third, independent reporting mechanisms – such as child helplines – should be available to children, staff, and others, with protections in place for those who report incidents of corporal punishment.
Finally, a robust monitoring strategy is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the law and ensure compliance, including regular public opinion surveys and consultations with children.
School should be a place of hope and opportunity, where children are safe to learn and develop the skills and experiences they need to thrive. Corporal punishment is incompatible with that vision. Making the physical and degrading punishment of children unlawful should be central to the efforts to tackle illiteracy and poverty. The state of Pakistan should rise to the occasion, and the private sector needs to be a partner. This is about Pakistan and its future.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1306601-protect-our-children
-----
Securing Pakistan Conclusively?
By Farhan Bokhari
April 30, 2025
As tension mounts between Pakistan and India after the latest terrorist attack in Indian occupied Kashmir, Islamabad is faced with a sudden challenge coupled with an opportunity.
India’s decision to immediately, forcefully and conclusively place the onus of responsibility for the terrorist attack on Pakistan has not only left many in disbelief but also presented Pakistan with an unprecedented test.
Within minutes of the attack on Pahalgam, the holiday resort targeted by militant gunmen, the Indian government had concluded its findings. And once the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made up its mind, there was no turning back for Delhi as it targeted Pakistan.
The pace and direction of India’s escalation in the matter has fuelled speculation of a coming attack, without clarity on its intensity, timing and location.
For Pakistan, the timing of the crisis related to India could not have been more inopportune. Just as Pakistan was hoping to emerge from a major economic challenge of recent years, the standoff with India creates the danger of at least slowing down Islamabad’s journey towards stability.
Yet, just like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, there is indeed scope for Pakistan to create an opportunity here. As Pakistan’s ruling structure races ahead to forge greater national unity in this moment of crisis, the moment for such unity to be turned into decisive action must not be lost.
For Pakistan, a series of reforms is long overdue for turning around its outlook in key areas. For equally long, however, vested interests representing powerful lobbies across the country have defied progressive initiatives and blocked forward-looking change. Now, for Pakistan, a moment to take action has arrived.
The immediate priority must be to de-escalate the tension with India. Towards this end, Pakistan’s national narrative machinery, led by politicians, members of the civil society, academia, the media and other interest groups, needs to undertake action urgently.
Together, their collective voices must forcefully deliver a pro-Pakistan message that underlines Islamabad’s commitment to fighting terrorism in all its forms, while defending our motherland. This exercise will be essential to work as a cornerstone for defending Pakistan and securing the country from the brink of disaster, if indeed armed conflict comes.
In tandem with defending Pakistan must come a fresh push to undertake broad internal reforms. Pakistan has suffered from institutional decay for decades, which has undermined the performance of its key essential services. Lifting Pakistan’s internal outlook is no less a service than securing the country’s geographical frontiers.
A chronic disorder surrounding Pakistan’s revenue and tax collection mechanism has deeply undermined its outlook. Faced with an adverse moment, the country needs to begin an aggressive fresh push on this vital front.
Fundamentally, any individual, group or community with means must be forced to pay their dues. For too long, proverbial tax holidays have essentially further fattened the fat cows across Pakistan.
The exercise to lift Pakistan’s tax reforms has been delayed for far too long. Its pursuit must now be undertaken to save the nation from the adversities surrounding its future.
At the same time, Pakistan’s highly distorted development model needs to be fundamentally altered. For the past three or four decades, the nation’s developmental direction has tilted hugely in favour of urban areas, all at the cost of rural Pakistan.
As Pakistan grapples with monumental challenges, notably the powerful impact of climate change, an urgent push to revitalise rural areas is essential. This is all the more vital as Pakistan faces the highly disturbing reality of increasing food insecurity, such as with this year’s wheat crop output, whose production is likely to fall below target.
The crisis surrounding the wheat crop has escalated from a series of events that followed last year’s decision in spring 2024, when the government of Punjab abruptly withdrew from the promised price that it had undertaken to pay to farmers. Consequently, the returns to farmers fell by at least 35 per cent or more, leaving the farming community in crisis.
At the same time, the Punjab government’s constant pursuit of fanciful ideas such as launching Pakistan’s first provincial airline must be opposed vigorously. Alongside other fanciful ideas, such as the planned launch of bullet trains or indeed a glass-covered train from Rawalpindi via Islamabad to Murree, are flawed pursuits.
As Pakistan tackles bread-and-butter issues, these plans need to be shelved immediately and indefinitely. If Pakistan ever launches a new urban train project, the city of Karachi deserves it more than any other urban area – given the size of its low to lower-income dwellers, in need of reliable public transport. On the contrary, the number of such projects already established in Lahore now must make it the last candidate for more urban transport pursuits.
Securing Pakistan must come with actions where it matters the most: for the people of Pakistan who are suffering the most.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1306600-securing-pakistan-conclusively
----
Disturbing Escalation
Zahid Hussain
April 30, 2025
THE war clouds have thickened with India’s rising bellicosity.
The terrorist attack in Pahalgam in occupied Kashmir and the massacre of some two dozen tourists seem to have provided the excuse the Modi government has been looking for to escalate its warmongering. Jingoism has reached new heights. Rational voices are being drowned in a cacophony of insanity. The Line of Control is already heating up with the exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops.
New Delhi is building a case for its aggression by trying to blame Pakistan for the Pahalgam terrorist attack. But it has failed to substantiate its allegation. The major reason for India’s vehemence is that the terror attack has shattered the narrative that the situation in occupied Kashmir is completely normal and that the people have accepted New Delhi’s decision to abrogate the held territory’s autonomous status. The Modi government is not willing to accept its own intelligence failure.
Some Indian analysts say that such a daring attack in one of the most protected areas could not be possible without local support for the militants. The fact is that even the use of brute force has failed to crush the Kashmiris’ struggle for their right of self-determination. According to the New York Times, “India has not officially identified any group as having carried out the massacre, and it has publicly presented little evidence to support its claim that Pakistan was behind it.”
While Indian officials maintain that their investigation is still continuing, the Modi government has already implicated Pakistan in the terrorist attack.
To back their assertion, according to international media reports citing officials, “In the briefings to diplomats at the foreign ministry, Indian officials have described Pakistan’s past patterns of support for terrorist groups… .” Interestingly, within hours of the terrorist attack, New Delhi announced a series of punitive actions against Pakistan. While addressing an election campaign in Bihar, the Indian prime minster warned of “unimaginable punishment for the attackers and their backers”.
It’s apparent that the Modi government’s war cry against Pakistan is an attempt to divert the world’s attention from its own failure in the occupied territory. There are strong indications that India plans to launch military strikes on multiple targets despite the absence of any evidence of Pakistan being linked to the latest terrorist attack.
Even a limited military strike by India could lead to a wider conflagration. The Indian calculation that military actions against Pakistan could be kept below the nuclear threshold is fallacious. It would be an extremely dangerous escalation in one of the world’s most volatile regions. The two South Asian nations have been on the brink of conflict many times previously. But the situation today appears to be far more serious with the cessation of all diplomatic channels between the two countries.
India’s decision to unilaterally suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, whic has survived three wars between the two countries, is ominous. Although it may not be possible to block the water flow, Pakistan sees India’s reckless action as a “declaration of war”. Islamabad has announced its own retaliatory actions.
New Delhi seems to have forgotten the lesson of its 2019 air incursion and Pakistan’s swift response that downed an Indian fighter plane. It was American diplomatic intervention that prevented the further escalation of a situation that could have gone completely out of control, with disastrous consequences for regional peace. Indian leaders in their hubris seem to forget the perils of military escalation in a highly combustible environment. The belief that war can produce quick results is extremely dangerous. It’s much easier to start a war than to end it. However powerful a country may be, it cannot command the outcome.
There are so many lessons to be learnt from various wars in recent history, which ended in humiliation even for the most powerful countries. One cannot but agree with the words of an international diplomat that “the more the conflict goes on, the more difficult it will be to have a diplomatic solution”.
The illusion of achieving quick military success often leads to endless quagmires. It is particularly pertinent in the India-Pakistan case. The two countries have been locked in a forever war — overt as well as covert. They have long been blaming each other of fighting a proxy war. The slogans of punishing Pakistan or punishing India only close the door for the resolution of outstanding issues.
What happened in Pahalgam must be condemned, but the tragedy should not be used for warmongering. There is also a lesson for Pakistan, where, too, there is no shortage of warmongers flaunting the country’s nuclear capability or making some other irresponsible remarks, as the defence minister did. It’s not in our interest to exacerbate the situation. There is a need to adopt a more rational approach even in the face of provocation. There is a need to step back from the brink.
The outcome of war is always uncertain, and fighting often produces unintended consequences. There is a tendency for wars to expand, become costlier and last longer than expected. The breakdown of diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan has certainly made communication more difficult, but there are other international channels that should be used to bring down the temperature and create an atmosphere for dialogue.
In 2002, there was imminent threat of a full-fledged war between the two countries, but sanity prevailed. Not only was war prevented, but a more substantive peace process between India and Pakistan was also witnessed. Unfortunately, the war hysteria orchestrated by the ultranationalist Modi government has closed all avenues for negotiations.
India is under the illusion that it has the military superiority to dismantle Pakistan. New Delhi has chosen this time to escalate matters when the world is preoccupied with other major conflicts. But it must understand that the flames of war could also cost India dearly.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1907518/disturbing-escalation
-----
Minerals And National Wealth
Shahid Mehmood
April 30, 2025
IT was in 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence, that celebrated economist Adam Smith’s magnum opus Wealth of Nations was published.
While almost everyone in the economics fraternity — and a considerable number outside of it — is aware of the work, not many bother to delve into what he wrote or to contemplate what he said. (It is amusing to see folks, who have never read a word of the book, embarrass themselves by holding forth as if they were an authority on the subject.)
A major aim of Wealth of Nations was to dispel and discredit an economic theory holding sway in Europe since at least the 16th century — mercantilism. One of the basic tenets underlying mercantilist thought was that the wealth of a nation lies in the number of minerals at its disposal, especially valuable ones like gold and silver. The more the stock of mineral wealth, the greater the power and standing of a nation.
Smith took the mercantilists to task, arguing against their zero-sum thinking that produced endless conflicts in the race to get a hold of precious metals. Instead, he advocated for more trade, instead of closed markets, and argued that a nation’s real wealth did not lie in accumulating minerals.
What reminded me of Smith is the sudden love that Pakistan’s policymakers have developed for minerals, the latest in the line of recycled ideas dangled before the world as a sweet offering, and aimed at attracting much-needed greenbacks to finance our gluttonous consumption and payment obligations. This idea has actually been peddled for long but without much success. (The April 1956 issue of Pakistan Affairs, for example, carries the statement of a leading government luminary about exploiting Pakistan’s mineral wealth).
This is besides the other sweeteners we have offered to the world, like ‘the gateway to Central Asia’, ‘connectivity hub’, ‘regional transport and logistics hub’, ‘front-line state against terror’, ‘best-kept tourism secret’, ‘CPEC game changer’, etc.
Despite all the enticing offers, and whatever mineral wealth we have found and already utilised, the trajectory of GDP growth in Pakistan remains topsy-turvy, and human capital indicators have been persistently poor. This shows that the presence of mineral deposits does not in itself guarantee sustainable development or economic growth. In fact, they could well be the purveyors of trouble, as the residents of Sui discovered over time, and the residents of Waziristan have recently been finding out.
Let us contemplate the question of ‘national wealth’. What should policymakers look at in terms of increasing the national wealth? We turn to Adam Smith and his book again: “The annual produce of the land and labour of any nation can be increased in its value by no other means, but by increasing either the number of productive labourers, or the productive powers of those labourers who had before been employed.”
The ‘productive power’ of labourers implies labour productivity. In fact, Smith gave productive labour so much importance that he made capital a subset of it (capital, in turn, helps propel labour specialisation). Almost 400 years before Smith, Ibn-i-Khaldun reached more or less the same conclusion regarding labour productivity and specialisation.
A final seal of approval on their thought came via Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer. His articles in 1986 (’Increasing returns and long-run growth’) and 1990 (’Endogenous technical change’) settled the debate over long-run growth determinants in favour of human capital as the most critical component.
So what should Pakistan’s policy be? Well, start with changing the traditional infatuation with the ‘game changer’ slogan and concentrate on what’s really important. The most critical game changer in any place is its labour force and its productivity, with other factors complementing it in the formation — and growth — of national wealth. And where do we stand when it comes to productive labour and the overall quality of human capital? The less said the better.
It’s not that minerals cannot contribute to national well-being; they can. But for that to happen, there needs to be a complementary system — top-class institutions, technological prowess, quality human capital, excellent management, property rights, an efficient legal system, etc — to maximise the potential of mineral wealth. Pakistan, unfortunately, has none of these attributes.
What does all this leave us with? Unless there is some drastic change in variables such as economic management and the quality of human capital, all talk of the country’s fabulous mineral wealth will not help it achieve sustainable growth or show any marked improvement in development indicators.
At best, given our experience and the present circumstances, the flow of foreign exchange from selling minerals would cater well to our consumption-based growth model and create partial relief in terms of our foreign payment obligations (this assumption holds only if we don’t keep on piling up more foreign debt).
Let me take the reader back to the 16th-century Spanish conquistadors who found a much-sought-after mineral — silver — in the Potosi mines of Bolivia. Its abundance led to Potosi being called the ‘Treasury of the World’. Suddenly, the Spanish empire found itself less pressed by the perennially pressing fiscal demands as huge quantities of silver started flooding its cities, making it easier to print loads of silver coins and help Spain’s colonial expansion. (It was only gradually that they found out that an exponential rise in money supply gives rise to exponential inflation).
What of the residents? Except for wages — which barely helped them survive — it brought misery, forced labour, high mortality rates and environmental pollution. In our times, Africa and its fabulous mineral wealth is perhaps the nearest example of Potosi-type expropriation (remember Leonardo di Caprio’s Blood Diamond, or residents slugging it out in cobalt mines?).
The lesson is that mineral wealth on its own is nothing without complementarities such as quality labour and institutions. So stop dangling it as a miracle cure to our economic ills.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1907519/minerals-and-national-wealth
-----
Ghosts Of Vietnam
Mahir Ali
April 30, 2025
THE reclamation of Saigon by indigenous forces 50 years ago today spelt the end of what the Vietnamese refer to as the ‘American war’. It wasn’t their first triumph in the struggle against Western imperialism. Almost 21 years earlier, Viet Minh forces had cornered the French army into a humiliating defeat at Dien Bien Phu, in a battle described as “the Stalingrad of decolonisation”.
Had the UK and US abided by the self-determination clause relating to European colonies in their 1941 Atlantic Charter, the liberation of Vietnam could have been sealed in 1945, after Japan’s surrender. After all, the Viet Minh forces had been instrumental in resisting the Japanese occupation of Indochina, alongside Chinese and Allied troops. But for post-Roosevelt US and Britain alike, colonial brutality was preferable to even a hint of communism.
Hence, Douglas Gracey — the British general who later served as the Pakistan Army’s commander-in-chief for nearly three years — led pre-partition Indian troops into Saigon until the French could return in sufficient force to re-establish control. Equally ignominiously, the Allies also deployed Japanese soldiers to keep the Viet Minh at bay.
It’s worth noting that the brutal Nazi occupation of France had evidently failed to awaken the French to the inherent moral turpitude of colonisation. The lessons of Dien Bien Phu did not deter them, for instance, from the atrocities in Algeria, until they were obliged to retreat. But that’s how the colonial or neocolonial mentality tends to operate.
The so-called Vietnam syndrome served only briefly as a barrier to America’s neoconservative ambitions. Its role in Afghanistan during the 1980s was described as the CIA’s largest covert operation since Vietnam. The subsequent semi-colonisation from 2001 lasted almost 20 years, much like the US role in Vietnam, and the eventual exit, with helicopters whirring across Kabul, evoked memories of Saigon in 1975.
The failure to learn history’s lessons, or to misinterpret them, is more or less universal. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the colonisers of Palestine refuse to recognise the echoes in their current actions of what their ancestors suffered in Europe, or that the likes of Germany — the nastiest offender against Jews, Gypsies and communists in the 1930s-40s — prefer to condone the horrors that the children of their victims feel free to perpetrate.
Two Vietnams were accommodated at the Afro-Asian conference in Bandung 70 years ago this month, after the Geneva conference had established the 17th parallel the previous year between North and South Vietnam. It was intended to be temporary, with reunifying elections scheduled for 1956. As Dwight Eisenhower conceded in his memoir, the consensus was that “possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh”.
That served as sufficient cause to avoid any elections, and to perpetuate the regime the Japanese had established in the south. And, ultimately, to segue from a French to an American war that continued for another two decades, at the cost of up to three million Vietnamese and more than 50,000 American lives. Vietnamese losses included 504 victims slaughtered at My Lai in 1968. As Seymour Hersh put it, “24 families were obliterated — three generations murdered, with no survivors. Among the dead were 182 women, 17 of them pregnant. 173 children were executed, including 56 infants. 60 older men died.” You’re not alone if you think it sounds like Gaza.
Vietnam did not feature much on the Bandung agenda, given its decolonisation was still expected. But the conference itself was a landmark, bringing together the leaders or representatives of 29 African and Asian states that had either recently been liberated or were on the verge of independence. The leading lights in the Indonesian city were the prime ministers of Asia’s largest nations, China and India, but it was also the first outing on an international stage for Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser. Jawaharlal Nehru, alongside Sukarno, was a dominant figure at Bandung, but Zhou Enlai stole the show on China’s behalf with his conciliatory attitude, bereft of ideological fervour.
Sukarno accurately hailed the Bandung gathering as “the first international conference of coloured peoples in the history of mankind”, but its direct consequences were limited, not least because several participants (including Pakistan) were already wedded to the Cold War-era US, and suspicious of its radical adversaries. That included North Vietnam, one of the only two purportedly communist countries represented at a gathering that many US media outlets envisaged as a ‘Red’ endeavour.
Who can doubt that the ghosts of the Cold War echoed in Trump’s current crusades against ‘the radical left’ and ‘Marxism’, minus any knowledge of what either of those terms might mean?
https://www.dawn.com/news/1907517/ghosts-of-vietnam
----
URl: https://www.newageislam.com/pakistan-press/sanity-hysteria-war/d/135367
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism