Tag Archives: CPEC

Is Pakistan dealing with economic hitmen who are ensnaring it in debt which can lead it to financial insolvency and eventually result in compromising its sovereignty?

The thoughtless rush for coal-fired energy by a politically motivated Pakistani ruling elite is both alarming and questionable.

Chinese officials and those associated with Gwadar projects seem very happy with the development of roads as well as the raising of the Northern and Southern Special Security Divisions for their protection. What they, however, want is prompt decisions and objection-free executions and expect the central government to put to rest the controversy over eastern and western routes. 

Since the news of civilian-military rift over Pakistan’s secret support to armed groups, whether right or wrong, was leaked from a meeting pertaining to national security, those leaking the information should have their “security clearance” revoked and barred from public office.

Given the volatile and precarious security environment, Pakistan Army's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee is militarily not an effective entity, notes defense analyst Ikram Sehgal and recommends that this status quo needs correction.

Pakistan faces the unavoidable specter of an ever-growing Indo-US-Afghan alliance that  requires it to do more in the anti-terror fight. It also needs to clean up its image that became tainted because of its alliances with or support for non-state actors.

With the present nexus between corruption and organized crime morphing into financial and logistics support for terrorism in Pakistan, politicians who “cry wolf” about support from hidden hands this time around may make it a self-fulfilling (and not-so-hidden) prophecy.

It appears that a lack of conversation has led to Afghan misgivings on the CPEC. Pakistan probably should have been formally more articulate about how it wanted to help extend the CPEC to Central Asia via Afghanistan. Despite statistically proven marked progress against non-state actors of all hues, Pakistan has yet to prove much more.

Self-interest motivates most friendships and partnerships, particularly between nations. Failing to take pro-active foreign policy initiatives, what can one expect from a political leadership who are mostly in London and Dubai for Umrah, Eid or for other reasons at a time when the country is undergoing serious domestic and external challenges?

A small area at the center of the dispute between two tribes and two provinces is critically delaying the Diamer Bhasha dam and the China-Pakistan economic corridor.