Among the three, Zhang Zhan was formally sentenced to four years in prison in December 2020 and has been transferred to the Shanghai Women’s Prison…reports Asian Lite News
Four citizen journalists were arrested last year for trying to share information about the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. On this World Press Freedom Day, a year after their arrests, they are yet to be free.
According to DW, only Li Zehua has appeared in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel on last April. The other three journalists haven’t been seen by the public.
Among the three, Zhang Zhan was formally sentenced to four years in prison in December 2020 and has been transferred to the Shanghai Women’s Prison. Authorities have not allowed her mother to visit her so far.
She was found guilty in December of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for her reporting on the pandemic in Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected.
“After being informed that Zhang was transferred to prison, her mom tried to apply for visitation at the prison, but she was told that she had to make an appointment through a phone call,” a source told DW.
“When she called the number on the official document, she couldn’t reach the staff at the prison, and when she finally got in touch with them, they told her she could only send money but not clothes to the prison for Zhang,” the source further mentioned, adding that the government has also deprived Zhang of her right to write letters to her family.
Zhang was on a hunger strike in prison when her lawyer visited her the last time.
“After receiving some postcards written by her supporters, Zhang told her lawyer that if she could make it out of the prison alive, she wanted to go to Wuhan again and relive some of the experiences with her friends,” said the source.
Meanwhile, another citizen journalist, Chen Qiushi, has been out of public sight after his arrest in February 2020. A Chinese YouTuber revealed that he was sent back to his parents’ house in September, but the state of his physical and mental health remains unclear, reported DW.
The YouTuber, Xu Xiaodong, also revealed that Chen was not able to have any contact with the outside world.
“I think Qiushi could possibly re-appear in the public’s view by September or October, and he will maintain his long-term style, which is not forming any ties with international organizations or having any contact with them. He is patriotic and everything he does is for the country and the people of this country,” he said in his video.
Chinese human rights lawyer Li Dawei told DW that the family of journalist Fang Bin hasn’t been willing to share information about his case with Fang’s friends or anyone else.
“If he is willing to soften his stance, he may be released sooner, which is what happened to Chen Qiushi and Li Zehua. However, if he keeps insisting that he is right, then the chance of him being released will be very low,” said Li.
Last month, a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that China continues to take internet censorship, surveillance and propaganda to unprecedented levels making it one of the world’s worst countries for journalists and the ‘biggest jailer’ of scribes.
Is it possible to develop a healthy relationship with Social Media? (Photo: pixabay)
Al Jazeera reported that in its annual press freedom index, published on Tuesday, the global watchdog also highlighted an increase in repression and attacks on journalists worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Media outlets report that as many as seven journalists are still being held for their COVID-19 pandemic coverage, and more than 450 social media users were briefly arrested for sharing “false rumours” about the event.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses the standard operating procedures of “national security investigations” and surveillance systems to track and impose crackdowns on foreign journalists and they were subject to intimidation and harassment.
In 2020, just as the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) reported in 2019, foreign journalists, their Chinese colleagues, and all those whom they tried to interview were subjected to harassment, intimidation, and expulsion. (ANI)
Pakistan has promised the IMF to increase taxes by 1.272 trillion PKR and raise electricity tariff by almost 5 PKR per unit…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said that the demand by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to hike electricity tariff to release more funds could lead to further inflation in the country.
It is unfair to push Pakistan to increase its electricity tariff as it will only affect the country’s economy negatively, Tarin said during a meeting of the National Assembly’s sub-committee on finance on Monday.
While hinting at reviewing the program with the IMF, the Minister said Pakistan has assured the lender of reducing circular debt, but the demand of increasing electricity tariff is not understandable, reports Xinhua news agency.
If the GDP growth is not increased by at least 5 per cent, the country will be facing serious crisis in next several years, the Minister said, adding that the growth rate will only improve if the economy is moving swiftly, with special focus on agriculture and industries.
He said the government has been working toward broadening the tax net, but could not force people to pay more taxes under the current scenario.
Pakistan has promised the IMF to increase taxes by 1.272 trillion PKR and raise electricity tariff by almost 5 PKR per unit, according to local media.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has suspended the entry of pedestrians from Afghanistan and Iran through land border terminals for over two weeks from May 5 in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The revised land border management policy will be implemented till May 20 and applicable only to inbound pedestrians without effect on existing cargo or trade movement, Xinhua news agency reported citing the notification as saying.
Pakistani nationals in Afghanistan and Iran will be allowed to return, said the notification, adding that extreme medical emergency cases and funerals of Afghan nationals will also be exempted “as per procedure in vogue”.
Border terminals will remain open for seven days a week while employment strength of the law enforcement agencies and health staff at border terminals will be increased for implementation of testing protocols and to control high traffic density.
The floods also destroyed tens of residential houses and orchards in the districts and caused closure of several roads…reports Asian Lite News
At least 12 people were killed as heavy rains and flash floods hit parts of Afghanistan’s Herat province, the local government said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Flash floods engulfed vast areas in Adraskan district and neighbouring areas on Monday,” Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.
Among the dead were one woman and four children, according to a local government source.
Refugees from Afghanistan arrive at Skala Sikaminias, on the island of Lesvos, Greece(Xinhua/Marios Lolos/IANS)
The floods also destroyed tens of residential houses and orchards in the districts and caused closure of several roads, the statement said.
The rescue personnel have arrived in the affected areas, and scores of local households have so far been evacuated to safe areas, according to the statement.
Heavy rains hit many areas in the country in recent weeks.
Security Council strongly condemns Afghan terror attack
The Council members reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation…reports Asian Lite News
The UN Security Council condemned “in the strongest terms” the terror attack in Afghanistan’s Logar province on April 30 that killed at least 26 people and injured 71 others.
In a statement on Monday, the members of the Security Council expressed their sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Afghan government, wishing the injured a speedy and full recovery, reports Xinhua news agency.
Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, the Council members said.
They underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of the attack accountable and bring them to justice, urging all states to cooperate with the Afghan government and all other relevant authorities.
Afghanistan’s killing fields: Taliban and its mentors have blood on their hands
The Council members reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.
They reaffirmed the need for all states to combat threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts, while observing relevant laws and regulations.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Taliban has conducted 141 attacks in Afghanistan, mostly in Uruzgan, Zabul, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Badakhshan and Takhar provinces, sources said.
Information obtained by TOLO News shows that at least 20 people were killed in the attacks.
Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry said that more than 100 Taliban fighters were also killed in the last 24 hours. The militant group has however, rejected the figure.
Data collected by TOLO News revealed that in the last 30 days, 438 members of Afghan forces and civilians were killed and more than 500 others were injured.
The data shows that 190 bombings, targeted attacks and offensives took place in the last month.
The figures come as US forces started their withdrawal from Afghanistan on May 1.
The Defence Ministry said that Camp Antonik in the Washir district in the southern province of Helmand was officially handed over to the Afghan National Army’s 215 Maiwand Corp on Sunday.
The Ministry said the camp will be used as a base for Afghan special forces.
With no change in its name, the camp will be used as a base for Afghan Special Operations Forces…reports Asian Lite News
The US forces in Afghanistan have handed over a key operating base to the Afghan National Army in the restive southern Helmand province, reported local media.
“Camp Antonik in Helmand province was officially handed over to the Afghan Army’s 215 Maiwand Corps on Sunday,” Tolo News reported.
With no change in its name, the camp will be used as a base for Afghan Special Operations Forces, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying on Monday.
Helmand province, notorious for poppy growing, is a known Taliban insurgents’ stronghold.
The violence lingers in war-torn Afghanistan as the US and NATO troops have been leaving the country.
About 3,500 American forces and 7,000 NATO troops will be withdrawn before September 11, the day which is the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that drew the US into war in Afghanistan.
The White House has said the US military will send additional forces to Afghanistan to protect US and coalition forces during the withdrawal.
“Elements of an Army Ranger Task Force will temporarily deploy to Afghanistan to assist with the force protection of forces on the ground as we initiate withdrawal operations,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin (Photo: @SecDef/Twitter)
She also said Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had directed that a carrier strike group would provide sustained additional force protection capabilities in the region throughout the withdrawal.
“While these actions will initially result in increased forces levels, we remain committed to having all US military personnel out of Afghanistan by September 11, 2021,” she added.
The Pentagon last week said that B-52 bombers and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier will deploy to the region to protect U.S. and coalition forces as they withdraw from Afghanistan.
US troops in Afghanistan.
Citing defence officials, CNN reported that fewer than 100 troops and military equipment had been pulled out of the country largely by aircraft to implement the withdrawal order announced by President Joe Biden earlier this month.
The US State Department on Tuesday ordered non-essential staff to leave the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. US Charge d’Affaires to Afghanistan Ross Wilson tweeted that the departure was approved “in light of increasing violence & threat reports in Kabul.”
India's External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar
Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar extended profound thanks to community organisations in the UK and across the world, to the nations for supporting India to fight against the Covid pandemic …. … a special report by Ragasudha Vinjamuri
Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar thanked the British government for its timely help to support Delhi during one of its toughest phase in recent history.
Manoj Ladwa in conversation with India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar
He was participating in the Global Dialogue Series organised by India Inc in association with High Commission of India in London.
The visiting Indian minister, who is attending the ongoing G7 foreign ministers’ meet, extended profound thanks to community organisations in the UK and across the world, to the nations that made airline space and capabilities available, extended logistics and shipping, besides other means of support provided.
He thanked the British government for sending the much-needed Oxygen Concentrators and his counterparts across the world for being in constant touch to find what is required. He extended his thanks to Singapore for the first set of medical supplies, to USA and to Gulf countries UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia who feel sense of solidarity. He said he felt the same in G7 in the UK, the sense of solidarity in diplomacy.
Answering a question on the most prominent part of the agenda of G7, apart from Covid19, the minister mentioned Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and mentioned that counterparts felt there may be a huge Gender Cost to Covid19.
Answering a question on Sino-Indian relations, the minister does mention that the relationship is going through a difficult phase, especially as China deployed large military force without explanation, and in violation, the actions which disturbed peace and tranquillity on border areas.
Dr Jaishankar says some progress has been made in disengagement, but not yet in de-escalation. However, since Covid is a bigger issue, the request to China to take a look at logistics has resulted in timely actions.
UAE’s special cargo of medical aid arrives in India(Twitter)
Answering on the economic outlook, he underscores that Covid has extracted an enormous cost for countries around the world and gave big lessons. For India, focusing on Atma Nirbhar Bharat started building more economic security, alongside reforms in 13 sectors, including Labour Reforms, Farm Reforms, Educational Reforms and Financial Reforms.
On UK-India ties, the minister spoke of Foreign Trade Agreements with the UK, India being one of the early countries to do so and Agreement on Talent Flows which shall encourage more Indian talent to come to the UK.
Lastly, answering on the issue of British Parliamentarians discussing Indian Domestic Policies in the British Parliament, the minister opined Parliamentarians must be more responsible in such matters. He says that the language, characterisation and epithets used indicate a deeper propaganda game that only sours the relationships.
The conversation concluded with quickly answering the questions from audiences on Foreign Investor Protection, Shortages of Doctors and Nurses, Dual Citizenship, Tackling negative press, Migration and Vaccine Supplies.
Talks among the countries of the region and between Iran and Saudi Arabia will result in more peace, stability and progress, said Official…reports Asian Lite News
Iran has always been ready for talks “at any level and in any form” with its neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, to settle issues, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said here.
“Changes in tone and discourse help a lot to reduce tensions,” Xinhua news agency quoted Khatibzadeh as saying at a weekly press briefing on Monday.
He added that the talks will lead to serious practical results only if coupled with a change in behaviour.
Dialogues among the countries of the region and between Iran and Saudi Arabia will result in more peace, stability and progress, the spokesman noted.
Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry had dismissed a report that Tehran is preparing to free five prisoners in exchange for access to bank accounts that have long been frozen due to diplomatic disputes with the UK and the US.
“As a rule, we don’t confirm reports and statements by so-called informed sources,” dpa news agency quoted Ministry spokesperson Saeid Khatibzadeh as saying.
The comments were prompted by a report by Lebanese broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, which reported on Sunday that Iran is poised to free five people, all with dual citizenship in either the UK or the US, for access to funds that have long been frozen because of ongoing diplomatic disputes about Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes.
The report, which the authors said was based on information from informed sources, was cited in Iranian media several times at the weekend.
Although Al-Mayadeen did not name the prisoners, it is believed that the four Americans refer to three business executives and one environmental activist incarcerated in Iran.
According to the report, their freedom would give access to 7 billion dollars currently frozen.
The fifth person is allegedly Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who also has British citizenship and was recently released after five years in detention.
But she was quickly sentenced again to another year in jail for participating in a demonstration 12 years ago.
United States President Joe Biden
According to the report, the UK was prepared to free up 400 million pounds out of frozen accounts in exchange for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s freedom.
Khatibzadeh said there was no link between the frozen funds and any talks about releasing prisoners.
However, he did say there are routine conversations with the US about the status of the prisoners.
London and Washington have already denied the report.
The two countries have routinely accused Iran of using the prisoners as leverage in an effort to regain access to the frozen funds, a charge Iran regularly denies.
There are many in the higher levels of policymaking in Washington and Delhi who cling to the belief that the possibility of large-scale kinetic conflict over the Himalayan massif, the South China Sea or Taiwan is an impossibility, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat
The absence within the Joe Biden administration of high-level in-depth expertise on today’s India resulted in the earlier errors made by wings of the US Government in dealing with the 21st century’s most consequential partner for the United States. Despite its puny trade figures, the Sino-Pakistan lobby within the Biden administration ensured that India was placed alongside China both as a currency manipulator and as a country where freedom of worship has been severely curtailed. The claim is that this took place since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. At the same time as assistance from the Indian side was needed to ensure that President Ashraf Ghani (the elected Head of State and Government in Afghanistan) does not go the Najibullah way at the hands of the Taliban and its GHQ-linked affiliates, a US Navy vessel not only entered India’s exclusive economic zone but made a public song and dance about the incursion, in tones that once again equated China with India.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price had during his long stint in the CIA established cosy relationships with that longstanding auxiliary force of the PLA, GHQ Rawalpindi. Where the Pakistan lobby is active, the China lobby cannot but be close, and Price lived up to their expectations by insensitive comments regarding the need for India to scale up vaccine production with the help of the US. If the State Department spokesperson were to be taken seriously as reflecting the views of the US Government, he would have made Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sound less than sincere in the latter’s outreach to India. Fortunately, unlike some of his subordinates, the US Secretary of State has shown a comprehensive understanding of the security paradigm consequent to the onset of Cold War 2.0 between the PRC and the US.
SINO-PAK LOBBIES TOGETHER IN U.S.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the idealism of Senator Bernie Sanders, his 2019 Presidential campaign staff got infiltrated by elements that were embedded in the Sino-Pakistan lobbies working hard in Washington to further the interests of Beijing and Rawalpindi. The Sanders campaign also contained idealists of the stamp of the Senator himself, and fortunately, such elements were a majority, but their “street smarts” were limited. In contrast, skill in inserting themselves into key slots within the US administration ensured that members of the Sino-Pakistan lobby infiltrated the government headed by President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. It must be added that only a segment of the Pakistani-American community backs GHQ Rawalpindi and its longstanding and generous mentor, the PLA.
Most belonging to this group have family in Pakistan that are beneficiaries of the control of much of the economy by the army. Other Pakistani-Americans understand that the military in Pakistan is a parasitical force that is draining away the resilience of the country of their origins. The army has, especially since the resignation as Chief of Army Staff by General Pervez Musharraf in 2007, been firmly within the PRC camp while declaring fealty to US interests and occasionally performing errands for their former mentor. The GHQ Rawalpindi lobby within Washington functions closely with the PLA lobby, which is among the primary reasons why Beijing continues to be so generous to the Pakistan military even after the value of that force as a means of constraining India has declined. Both in India as well as the US, the Russian and PRC lobbies function apart from each other, while the Pakistan and China lobbies work closely together. Apart from “influence operations” seeking to ensure that India and the US do not get into a military alliance, Moscow is not active in any of the measures designed to weaken India, although its associates are intensely active in the US, much as the Sino-Pakistan lobby is in India.
Unlike earlier estimates about Joe Biden being “soft and predictable” on China, the 46th President of the US has shown himself to be no different from the O’Brien-Pompeo camp in the Trump administration in tackling the danger to US interests represented by the challenge posed by Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping. Wall Street retains considerable influence within the Biden administration, mainly through the Clinton and Obama camps. However, both Biden as well as Kamala Harris have demonstrated their unwillingness to put the interests of Wall Street above those of Main Street. Financial barons in the US have long profited by the PRC at the cost of participating in the hollowing out US manufacturing and working against US influence and interests.
Their mindset appears to be that even if the country as a whole suffers, their own personal fortunes would grow. Those tasked with tracking developments in the ongoing battle being waged by China and Russia to displace the US dollar as the global reserve currency have suggested “active” rather than “passive” defence. This would involve (i) the delisting of PRC-linked ADRs that fail to comply with US accounting rules, and (ii) freezing of assets located in the US of Communist Party of China (CCP) bigwigs. Should Canada and some in the EU join in such a freeze, the impact on the personal wealth of the CCP tigers would be severe, unless they and their families were to relocate to the US or other major democracies. Even the “people’s President”, Barack Obama, gave a free pass to Wall Street operators even after they sent several million US citizens into poverty in 2008, but such immunity may not get continued under Biden, especially in the case of fund managers who send US capital to PRC-controlled entities active in the production of weapons such as missiles and aircraft carriers.
Experts in financial warfare have pointed out that the PRC is seeking to topple the US dollar from its perch at the top of the currency scale. The CCP leadership expects to take advantage of the fact that essential spending plus military expenditures closed in on 140% during the Trump administration, and the gap is rising further under Biden. The US Federal Reserve Board is printing trillions of dollars in order to enable President Biden and Vice-President Harris to restructure society in a manner that ameliorates the inequities of the past. Through hoarding gold rather than buying US treasury bills since the time Xi Jinping took charge of the PRC in 2012, his introducing the Digital Currency Electronic Payment system and the emphasis on overtaking the US in Artificial Intelligence by 2024, the primacy of the US is under a challenge led by Beijing that has not been seen for over a century.
Getting countries to de-link from the US dollar to other currencies, preferably the RMB, has been an objective of the CCP leadership that has been visible since 2017. As a Hong Kong-based expert on currency wars pointed out, what the CCP leadership seeks to displace is the US dollar as the “unit of account”. To this end, even US allies such as Saudi Arabia are being encouraged to abandon the petrodollar in favour of a more unwieldy basket of currencies. President Biden is aware that although 80% of world trade is still denominated in dollars, as is 63% of foreign bank reserves, these could slide towards the much smaller share of the US in global GDP. Such a reset of the dollar would affect global demand for the currency and make it more difficult to keep printing trillions of dollars to fund the operations of the US Government in the manner both Republican as well as Democratic administrations have been doing. Losing the currency war would significantly degrade the ability of Washington to prevail over Beijing in matters of trade, security and technology, besides limiting its longstanding superpower freedom of action significantly.
President Xi Jinping Speaks with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan
SINO-PAK LOBBY TARGETS INDIA
The Russian lobby in the US has been seeking to ensure that the Democratic Party loses control of the House of Representatives in 2022, besides losing further ground in the US Senate and in gubernatorial races. The Pakistan lobby has a single-point agenda, which is to drive apart the US and India, mainly through scare stories about the domestic policies of the Narendra Modi government. The PRC lobby is focused on ensuring that its “kaizen” tactics of constantly improving its overall trade and military competitiveness vis-a-vis the US are ignored in practice by the US administration, so that its continuing expansionism passes without any, except verbal and symbolic, challenges. While the Sino-Russian lobby has been active in using social media to increase fault lines in US society, the Sino-Pakistan lobby has been similarly active in performing the same task in India.
They see an opportunity in the lack of preparations by the Union Government to the second wave of Covid-19 infections. The last thirteen months could have been used in creating local stockpiles of medication, oxygen supply and hospital bed space across India, but attention appears to have been diverted towards Assembly elections, especially in Bengal. Rather than decentralise authority and operations, these were concentrated in the Central government and appears to have been lost sight of until the full force of the second wave struck two months ago, by which time it was too late to save tens of thousands of lives and to ensure that unbearable misery in millions was avoided. For the first time since 2013, there has been a visible dip in the personal popularity of the Prime Minister, the fulcrum on which the present government rests, but which is expected to get rectified through innovative action and personnel choices by the close of July.
GIVE INDIA THAAD
The Lutyens Zone is characterised by the silo model of functioning, in which each agency views a situation or a project from its own perspective without factoring in its impact on others. Given the accumulated knowledge on the US side of the mode of functioning of GHQ Rawalpindi, the adoption of the THAAD system would have ensured a sufficient body of information and intelligence sufficient to neutralise Pakistan’s lethal force in the event of a kinetic conflict involving that country. At the same time, the technological consanguinity of China and Russia makes it risky to believe that methods of dealing with the challenges to an attacking force caused by the S-400 system have not been shared by Moscow to Beijing.
A missile defence system of the magnitude of the S-400 (which is undoubtedly a testament to Russia’s excellence in matters of defence production) needed to be looked at through a comprehensive scan, rather than through the lens of a particular service or agency. It may still be possible to persuade the Biden-Harris administration to install the THAAD system in India in the manner that it is already functional in Japan and the Republic of Korea. Given the benefits to US security interests of such a move by India, it would be worthwhile for Washington to install the system at concessional rates, thereby defraying part of the expense that would be involved in walking away from the S-400 deal. Not that relations with Russia should be put on a lower trajectory than at present. Whether it be in the Vladivostok-Chennai corridor or in the development of Siberian resources, Moscow and Delhi need to substantially increase their engagement, including in terms of capital expended.
Someday in the future, it may become possible that the Russian Federation emerges as a neutral player during the PRC-US Cold War 2.0, rather than as an essential part of one side, in the manner that Moscow is now. Russia, a close friend of India, may also “do a China” in Cold War 2.0, and switch to the US side in the manner that Beijing pivoted to the side of Washington during the latter part of Cold War 1.0 (between the USSR and the US). President Putin must surely be aware of what happened during Cold War 1.0, grandmaster of geopolitical chess that the President of the Russian Federation is.
PREPARE OR LOSE
Given the rise in expectations generated among the Chinese people by President Xi, it is essential for him to ensure that China and its allies are seen to be prevailing over the US and its partners in the ongoing contest between them. The present crisis created in India by the second wave of SARS CoV-2 was caused by the refusal to factor in the possibility that things could get much worse rather than continue to improve. In much the same way, there are more than a few in the higher levels of policymaking in Washington and Delhi (although no longer in Moscow or Beijing) who cling to (a) the belief that the possibility of kinetic conflict over the Himalayan massif, the South China Sea or Taiwan is an impossibility, and who (b) ignore the manner in which what may be termed “comprehensive war” is being waged by the PRC against countries that it regards may challenge it in future, if not kneecapped in the present.
Understanding the situation and preparing for a scenario which may not just be “worst case”, but an inevitability is needed on the part of both Prime Minister Modi and President Biden. A series of steps are needed to ensure that the kinetic challenge of the future will end with the victory of the two biggest democracies on the planet. The lobbies that are working to stifle the action needed to prepare for the evolving situation need to be neutralised. Had some hitherto unknown elements in the bureaucracy not succeeded in ensuring that hospitals across India were denied the oxygen generation equipment that they needed, equipment that was easy to install were the necessary permissions given for supplying them, lives would have been saved. Prime Minister Modi acted about a month ago to remove some of these, and lives will be saved because of his move, although those lost can never be brought back.
The time has come for Prime Minister Modi and President Biden to discuss and agree upon what is essential for both countries to do to ensure that the sovereignty and territorial rights over sea and land of the littoral states of the Indo-Pacific are protected from extremist violence and expansionary authoritarianism. Otherwise, both will face the anger and dismay of their people as they confront a situation that will be much more difficult to control than would have been the case, had they made better preparations to face the storm that is coming the way of both democracies. The time for ensuring such readiness is now, just as the time for the Government of India and the state governments to prepare for the second wave of Covid-19 was this time last year, rather than last month this year.
In an editorial on the World Press Freedom Day, Dawn said that journalists’ safety appears to be very low on the government’s list of priorities….reports Asian Lite News
The Pakistan government’s claim that the country’s press is free is a “bald-faced” lie as journalists continue to face threats from state elements and news editors are coerced into censoring “undesirable” information or giving stories a certain slant, country’s leading newspaper Dawn has said.
In an editorial on the World Press Freedom Day, Dawn said that journalists’ safety appears to be very low on the government’s list of priorities.
“Today is World Press Freedom Day: for Pakistan’s beleaguered journalist community, it is a reminder of how the space for them is steadily shrinking. But this grim reality should also be of concern to those who understand the critical importance of a free press in a democracy,” the newspaper noted.
Pakistan has emerged as the riskiest place to practice journalism, according to the Freedom Network’s annual state of the Press Freedom 2021 report.
— Society of Professional Journalists (@spj_tweets) May 3, 2021
It has been ranked 145th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’s (RSF) 2020 World Press Freedom Index, three places lower than in 2019.
Dawn noted that Pakistan documented at least 148 attacks or violations against journalists across the country from May 3, 2020 till April 20, 2021.
These include six murders, seven attempted assassinations, five kidnappings, 25 arrests or detentions, 15 assaults and 27 legal cases registered against journalists.
“And state authorities, responsible for protecting constitutional rights, emerged as the biggest threat to media practitioners — perceived as the perpetrators in a whopping 46 pc of the documented cases,” it said.
“Meanwhile, threats from known and ‘unknown’ state elements continue to be hurled at journalists; news editors are coerced into censoring ‘undesirable’ information or giving stories a certain slant; media outlets are threatened with financial ruin if they refuse to toe the line. In the midst of this, for government functionaries to insist that the press in Pakistan is free, as they are wont to do sometimes, is no less than a bald-faced lie.” it added. (ANI)
PML-N to launch protest against Imran govt's failure
Pakistan is currently in the midst of a deadly third wave of the coronavirus that has forced the government to impose lockdown…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) plans to launch an agitation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Eidul Fitr in protest against the government’s failure to control inflation and unemployment.
“We are going to launch an agitation against the government after Eidul Fitr for its failure to control growing inflation and unemployment if the current coronavirus situation subsides,” The News International quoted Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, the senior vice president of PML-N, as saying on Sunday.
Sardar Yousuf, who is also the PML-N parliamentary leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, said that a delegation of the senior party leaders met Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore and finalised an agitation strategy after Eid.
“Shahbaz Sharif would address public gatherings at divisional level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the Eid. And if the COVID-19 prevails with the same pace then he would address workers conventions at the planned cities,” he said.
He further stated that PML-N’s President Shahbaz Sharif was committed to pulling the country out of the prevailing crises as the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has lost the public mandate, The News International reported.
“Our street agitation would mostly be focused on the high inflation and unemployment as people couldn’t afford two times meals because of the wrong government policies,” said Yousuf.
Meanwhile, over 3,000 children in Pakistan between the age of 1 to 10 years had tested positive for COVID-19 in April, according to data issued by the federal health ministry.
The data showed that 3,315 children between the ages of 1 and 10 years and 12,162 boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 20 years contracted COVID-19 in April, Geo News reported.
Pakistan is currently in the midst of a deadly third wave of the coronavirus that has forced the government to impose lockdown in many areas.
The total tally of COVID-19 cases of the country with the new cases now stands at 834,146. (ANI)
