Imran Khan late in November responded to a news article where the Indian military proposed an Israeli like approach to handling its border tension with Pakistan. He then describes the recent tensions in Kashmir as a brutal violation of human rights. While there is a mixed perspective on the morality of both sides fighting over Kashmir, it is well within Khan’s right to be upset at this statement when you consider that the Israeli military approach to their rivals is controversial, to say the least. The question must be asked if India will actually adopt a more aggressive military strategy in the months to come along the border or if the statement was just a way to respond to increasing tensions without actually taking action.

https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Pakistan Makes an appearance at COP25 (the 25th climate change conference). The country announced they are taking up the lofty goal of planting 10 billion trees in their country and have coopted the 10 billion tree tsunami hashtag on twitter. This is interesting when you consider that Pakistan is one of the top 12 most pollutant countries in the world.  The question this begs is whether Aslam’s tweets and actions are to lessen international attention or a genuine attempt to improve matters.

https://twitter.com/aminattock?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Muhammad Mustafa is a famous Pakistani blogger from Karachi Pakistan. Mustafa frequently writes on the topic of Pakistani sports, frequently covering the Pakistani national soccer and cricket teams. Pakistani culture is obsessed with the sport of cricket, an obvious byproduct of their former status as a British colony. I find Mustafa’s blog post was unique because although they are not inherently political, they still have a pro-Pakistan agenda always showing the Pakistani teams in a positive light.

In his most recent post “#PakvsZim: When your haters are silent, you know you’ve made it!”, Mustafa describes the recent victory against the Zimbabwe national team. What was interesting about the blog, was how some of the rhetoric blurred the line between sports analysis and nationalistic rhetoric. Mustafa describes the Zimbabwe team as “dispirited” and unable to counter Pakistan’s “dominance”. This writing offers some interesting questions, for instance to what extent can sports be used to create national identity and pride. Large events like the world cup seem to generate a surge of patriotic fervor and in the case of Pakistan, it is no different. Can successful national sports teams be used by oppressive governments to mask their acts or is the event to insignificant to have any real pollical implications?

 

 

https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/69520/pakvszim-when-your-haters-are-silent-you-know-youve-made-it/

Inspector General of Punjab Police has announced to make internal investigations to fight corruption in the Punjab  Police in Pakistan. The investigation was inspired by recent reports of carelessness and misconduct amongst the ranks of Punjab Police leadership. What is not mentioned in the article is how notorious the police forces in Pakistan are for turning a blind eye to political and ethnic violence in the state. It appears that this article may be a front as an “effort” for improvement in the police forces, but it is unlikely that real change in the Punjab Police will actually occur. While there have been a few dismissals of police leadership, the corruption still occurs and the police for is still generally apathetic to violence in the state.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/10/03/igp-orders-internal-inquiry-against-corrupt-police-officials/

Ethnic Tensions in Pakistan

The city of Karachi is the epicenter of Pakistan’s latest surge in political violence. This is because the port city is home to large scale ethnic and sectarian divisions that are always primed to explode on the streets. The largest ethnic group in the city are the Mohajirs, descendants of those who fled from India in the 1947 partition. They make up half of the population with the Punjabis and Pathans making up the other respective quarters. The Mohajirs of Pakistan have organized into a radical pro-government group called the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and are at the head of political tension in the city.

The violence has claimed several dozen lives in the past few years and left the city paralyzed in a general strike. The pro-government Mohajirs stage rallies to protest opposition movements, and these rallies often end in violence. The Mohajirs round up opposition members hold public trials and often publicly execute the ethnic minorities. At times the Mohjairs grab people who are not even in an opposition movement and execute them simply because of their status as Punjabis or Pathans.

 

Situation:

There is little action from law enforcement against Mohajir rallies which has given undue legitimacy to their actions on the streets of Karachi. However, recent foreign intervention has placed a temporary hold on the Mohajir’s ability to organize. The founder of MQM Altaf Hussain was recently arrested in London under investigation for inciting political violence in Pakistan and Europe. With Hussain imprisoned the MQM are at the moment unorganized and not able to mobilize more violence. It is unlikely that Hussain will be incarcerated for his acts and might soon be back into the fold of his organization. However, with the MQM increasingly be looked at on the global stage the Pakistani government may be more inclined to control the actions of this groups before they have more incidents on their hands that could lead to greater repercussions that they rather avoid (I.E. sanctions).