S M Hali

The Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) recent decision to 'grey list' Pakistan for its failure to take satisfactory preventative measures against terror financing has added to the country's woes. Pakistan may suffer a risk downgrade by multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and also a reduction in risk-rating by Moody's, … [Read more...] about FATF needs to have a closer look at India

The 2018 edition of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), was held in the southern Chinese province of Hainan from April 8 to 11. The theme for the event was "An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity". This event garnered significant international attention, which can be attributed to the ongoing trade friction between the United States (US) and China. The US actions pertaining to … [Read more...] about Xi Jinping and the Boao Forum

With the diplomatic storm brewing in the backdrop of the attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, southern England, one would have expected the Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) to be a damp squib. According to the British government, a military-grade Novichok nerve agent of a type developed by Russia was used in the attack. The incident … [Read more...] about Moscow ups the ante

It is the opinion of Pakistan's Ministry of Interior that the continued stay of Afghan refugees in this country is a threat to security.Many of these refugees have been found to be involved in numerous crimes, including offenses of moral turpitude. However, attempts by the government of Pakistan to send the Afghan refugees homes have been met with great resistance by the Afghan … [Read more...] about New Delhi’s anti-Pakistan agenda

Earlier this week, China’s national legislature adopted Constitutional Amendments enshrining Xi Jinping’s philosophy on socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a new Era into the Constitution. Two important contents of the amendment are the inclusion of Xi’s thought into the country’s fundamental law — which reflects the common aspirations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese … [Read more...] about China’s constitutional amendments

India, which has been opposed to China since it received a drubbing from it in the 1962 Sino-Indian War, spares no stone unturned to denigrate it. Pakistan was never accepted as a sovereign state by India and every machination in the Chanakyan book on guile and deceit has been tried out to subjugate Pakistan. India had believed that following the severance of its eastern wing in 1971, West … [Read more...] about India’s derision of CPEC

The highly decorated American writer and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes Steve Coll, has recently published his new book titled, Directorate S — the CIA and America’s secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Coll’s earlier book titled, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 described the CIA-ISI joint campaign in … [Read more...] about Steve Coll’s inquisition of the ISI

Nearly ten years after the Mumbai terrorist attacks — also referred to as ‘India’s 9/11’, we are no closer to finding out who was responsible for the heinous attacks despite a crescendo of Indian accusations. To help discern facts through a cloak of perfidy, Elias Davidsson’s book The Betrayal of India: Revisiting the 26/11 Evidence provides some insight. The narrative, that India had … [Read more...] about The Mumbai attack perfidy

Laws criminalising blasphemy were introduced to India by the British in 1860, and further expanded in 1927.When Pakistan came into existence, it inherited these laws. Between 1980 and 1986, a number of clauses were added to the Blasphemy Laws by General Ziaul Haq’s military government, which wanted to Islamize them and also legally separate Pakistan’s Ahmadia community from the Muslim population. … [Read more...] about International impact of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws