The UN-banned Pakistani terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has been seen openly raising funds in Peshawar, according to several accounts in the presence of security personnel. Shaukat Ali Kashmiri the exiled leader and founder of the United Kashmir People’s National Party (UKPNP) tweeted, “open fund-raising by banned terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Peshawar. Pakistan has raised concerns about the resurgence of extremist groups in the country. The group is responsible for several terrorist attacks”.

The JEM re-emerged last year after the relaxation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). They are overtly supported by Pakistan’s security forces. The global watchdog on the financing of terrorism, FATF, announced in October 2022 to remove Pakistan from its grey list, saying that the country has implemented its action plan against money laundering and terrorist financing. Pakistan had been on FATF’s grey list since June 2018.

Jaish’s fund raising is not limited to Peshawar but is also seen in Pakistan’s Punjab, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and other areas. Thousands of users on Twitter who witnessed it, were seen discussing the incident on the social media platform. One of them deactivated his account after the tweets went viral.A Twitter user, Asif Afridi, narrated his experience during Eid prayers where he saw members of the banned outfit openly collecting funds in the presence of security personnel in Peshawar.He said, “Members of a banned organization were openly collecting money in Peshawar in the presence of security personnel. My father, my brother and I (six members in total) were there to offer Eid prayers.”

Another Twitter user Ehsanullah Khan Jadoon expressed his disappointment saying that such fundraising is common in Pakistan. “It is very unusual for someone to stand up after prayers and openly ask for funds to wage jihad in Palestine and Kashmir,” he said. “He was often seen in our mosque in Karachi”.

The ease with which these groups can openly raise funds raises concerns about the government’s ability to crack down on terrorist activities.

It has been 14 years since the Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attack on Mumbai. Evidence of Pakistani links behind the three-day bloodshed in Mumbai was in front of everyone. Notably, Pakistan has chosen to ignore India’s pleas over the past 14 years to bring the perpetrators of this act to justice.

FATF should continue to pressurize the country as it uses only symbolic actions to curb terrorist financing. The country was included in the grey list at the FATF plenary meeting in Paris in June 2018.

The name of Pakistan was included in this list for the third time. Pakistan was previously on the FATF grey list between 2008-2010 and 2012-2015 and was removed from the list in February 2015. Islamabad may not accept that it is systematically supporting terrorist organisations, but uses loopholes in the system to support terrorists who not only engage in terrorism within Pakistan but also expand their terrorist activities in other countries such as India, as a clear case of Mumbai. Attacks in 2008, Pathankot and Uri attacks in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019 have also been reported by SSRI.

No concrete action has ever been taken against those involved in and financing the terror attacks in Mumbai, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), leaders like Hafiz Saeed, Zakir Rehman Lakhvi and Sajid Mir. No action was taken in the case, perhaps because Hafiz had support in the country. After being accused of involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, Hafiz organized a rally in Islamabad in September 2013, against India used inflammatory language, even as the US announced a US$10 million reward for information on Hafiz.

Sindhis are fed up of Pakistani atrocities. Abductions, rapes, murders and enforced disappearances are happening on a daily basis across Sindh at the behest of Pakistan Army. Sindhis have understood that the only way to save them from daily horrors of Pakistani regime is to have a separate homeland, Sindhudesh.

Braving police blockades and barriers set up Pakistani ‘establishment’ the Sindhi men, women and children converged at Sann city in Jamshoro on April 25 to commemorate the death anniversary of Sain (Saint) GM Syed and used the occasion to vent their grievances against Pakistani atrocities. The impromptu rallies and protest marches were marked by loud sloganeering against Pakistani regime and chants for a free Sindhudesh. Sindhi protesters also shouted slogans against forceful abduction of Hindu girls and loot of natural resources in the name of CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor).

Sindhi protesters carried large banners that read “Stop Forced Conversion of Sindhi Hindu Girls”, “Stop Disappearance & Genocide of Sindhi and Baloch”, “No China Go China”, “Sindhis reject CPEC corridor”. All Sindhi protesters carried national flag of Sindhudesh.

“Mian Mithu is the symbol of evil and provides an easy path for criminals to kidnap young and underage Sindhi girls in the name of Islam and forcibly converts them to Islam. Thereafter he allows these criminals to rape/gangrape those innocent Sindhi girls,” said Suhail Abro Chairman JSFM (Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement).

Abro explained that JSFM convoys from across Sindh reached Sann city– the birthplace of Sain (Saint) GM Syed– resisting state violence and oppression. Thousands of Sindh-loving families along with their children joined the caravan from different cities of Sindh through wagons and buses to commemorate the 28th death anniversary Sain (Saint) GM Syed, founder of modern Sindhi Nationalism.

The central leadership of JSFM stated that Mian Mithu and Pirs of Bharchundi are agents of Pakistani Punjabi establishment and are in Sindh only to harass the Sindhis. JSFM strongly condemned all the evil efforts of these so-called mullahs and their evil accomplices.

JSFM leaders Suhail Abro, Zubair Sindhi, Ghulam Hussain Shabrani and Amar Azadi said in their joint statement that it is time for Sindhis to unite and be ready to face dangerous situation in the near future as Punjabi rule (in Pakistan) is nearing its end. “The Punjabi Pakistan Army will reveal its naked fascist face and if we do not unite it will be a great loss of Sindhi nation in the coming days. We have to follow our leader Sain (Saint) GM Syed’s struggle for the freedom of Sindhudesh as this is the only way to get freedom for Sindhudesh from Punjabis.”

That Hindus and Muslims have co-existed in India for centuries is an indisputable historical fact, but Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah didn’t think so. In 1940, while delivering the All India Muslim League’s presidential address in Lahore, he argued that Hindus and Muslims “belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions” [Emphasis added]. He went on to add that “it is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality, and this misconception of one Indian nation has troubles and will lead India to destruction. . .” [Emphasis added].

Hindus and Muslims had not only lived together, but even fought side-by-side to throw off the yoke of the British rule in 1857, and continued to do so subsequently. Yet, Jinnah saw things quite differently, and he intentionally sowed the seeds of communalism by maintaining that “Hindus and Musalmaans [Muslims] derive their inspiration from different sources of history.” He even went to the extent of fuelling communal passion by remarking that, “They have different epics, different heroes, and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other and, likewise, their victories and defeats overlap.” [Emphasis added].

Eight decades and three years after Jinnah propounded his questionable Hindu-Muslim incompatibility theory, by being able to “evolve a common nationality”, both these communities in India have proved him wrong. Furthermore, Hindus and Muslims living together did not “lead India to destruction” but instead, made the country an impressive success story. At the same time, Jinnah’s vision that an exclusive sovereign nation for Muslims would ensure that his community thrives in Pakistan ran into rough weather just within a few years of its creation, and the reason for the same isn’t hard to find.

By taking refuge in religion to garner support of his community members for a separate Muslim nation, Jinnah did great harm to the very country he forced the British to create as Pakistan was founded on the completely unsubstantiated notion that an inherent and irreconcilable animosity existed between Hindus and Muslims that made their cohabitation impossible.So, it was but natural that anti-India sentiments became the building block and the core determinant of patriotism in Pakistan.

While friendly relations, economic cooperation and healthy competition with India would have spurred progress, but by making it a Hindu versus Muslim issue and indoctrinating the people of Pakistan into believing that India was an existential ‘enemy’, Islamabad consciously embarked on a self-destructive course. Grossly over playing a non-existent threat of unprovoked aggression from India, Pakistan Army was able to apportion a lion’s share of the national budget and Rawalpindi’s obsession to match India militarily. This stymied infrastructure development and retarded commercial progression. 

To say that everything in Pakistan is pathetic while all is rosy in India would be incorrect. However, there’s a discernible difference. While New Delhi has its own set of problems, it possesses requisite political stability as well as the diplomatic, economic and military capability to effectively manage thorny issues, both at international level and on the domestic front.

On the other hand, Pakistan is plagued with a host of issues that continue to defy resolution-be it political instability due to an overbearing military, a host of separatist movements with armed groups challenging the state’s writ with brazen impunity, rising fundamentalism and sectarianism, excesses against religious minority communities, and most importantly, a rapidly failing economy. So, while India is well on its way to progress, it’s Jinnah’s Pakistan that seems to be staring at ‘destruction’!

Most of Pakistan’s problems are on account of its distinctive anti-India stance. In a recent article published in Dawn, Islamabad based nuclear physicist, author and activist Pervez Hoodbhoy accurately points out that “From Pakistan’s birth onward, patriotism and nationalism was conflated with anti-Indianism. This became a substitute for nation-building or working towards high positive goals. Hence, loving Pakistan means hating India; liberating Kashmir is the topmost priority; nuclear weapons are our most precious national assets; and an oversized army must be provided with every resource else we shall be swallowed up by India.” [Emphasis added].

Hoodbhoy isn’t the first or sole Pakistani to have brought out the issue of how ‘anti-Indianism’ is perceived as a non-negotiable patriotic and nationalistic imperative in Pakistan. In an interview given to The Wire in 2016, Pakistani journalist, academic, political activist, and former ambassador of Pakistan to Sri Lanka and the United States, Husain Haqqani mentioned that “Pakistan’s nationalism currently is defined by militarism” and that “the army has been the dominant reality in Pakistan”.

He also mentioned how army officers “act as if they are the guardians of Pakistan’s identity,” stressing that “they have defined Pakistan’s identity in a certain way in which ‘anti-Indianism’ is more important.” During an interaction related to his book ‘India vs Pakistan-Why Can’t We Just Be Friends’, Haqqani said, “My argument as a Pakistani is why do we even want to be [militarily] equal [with India]? Why do not we want to be happier and prosperous and successful?.”

He went on to add, “What is this obsession about being ‘equal’ and trying to equalise the field with crazies like Hafiz Saeed [Lashkar-e- Taiba co-founder] because he will only create hatred, which will only bite us back.” Haqqani rightly maintains that “Pakistan always had this presumption that India has a tremendous conventional military advantage and Indian Army will be much more bigger than Pakistan’s. So, Pakistan needs irregular methods to be able to be equal.” [Emphasis added].

 Haqqani’s revelation about Pakistan Army’s proxy war in Kashmir has been corroborated by none other than Pakistan’s former President and ex-army chief Late Gen Pervez Musharraf himself. In a 2015 interview, he admitted that “In the 1990s, the freedom struggle began in Kashmir. At that time, Lashkar-e-Taiba and 11 or 12 other organisations were formed. We supported them and trained them as they were fighting in Kashmir . . .”

Let’s return to the question of why can’t Pakistan befriend India? The answer is that for the highly propagandised masses in Pakistan, any attempted rapprochement with New Delhi is the ultimate perfidy. Hence even though cordial Indo-Pak relations and unfettered commercial activities between the two neighbours will definitely benefit Pakistan much more than India, no one in the seat of power and authority in Pakistan would dare to try and mend fences with India, as any such attempt would be tantamount to political hara-kiri!

So, despite the crying need for Islamabad to consider normalisation of relations with India, the harsh reality is that there can be no business as usual in the foreseeable future, at least. And despite a Pakistani armed forces delegation attending the recent SCO working group meeting in New Delhi, the hope that this development would raise the possibility of Pakistan’s defence minister attending the SCO meet later this month, may well turn out to be a case of great expectations.

Postscript: How damaging any attempt to normalise Indo-Pak relations can be for any Pakistani can be gauged from the fact that former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan chose this very emotionally sensitive issue to target his arch-enemy ex-army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

By alleging that “Gen Bajwa wanted me to develop friendly ties with India [and] he put pressure on me for this”, the wily Khan has tried to portray the retired army chief as a person willing to compromise national honour by developing friendly ties with India and hence a downright ‘traitor’.And by going on to say that “it was one of the reasons that our relationship deteriorated”, he has tried to highlight his own unmitigated Indophobic credentials and thereby project himself as a consummate Pakistani ‘patriot’!  

The impending general elections in Pakistan will further dent the economy. The cost of holding elections is estimated at around Rs 50 billion. In 2018, general elections in Pakistan cost a little more than Rs 21 billion while in 2013 it was Rs 4.73 billion. Among other things, the cost has expanded due to a drastic devaluation of the local currency.

Much to the Shehhbaz Sharif government’s embarrassment, the country’s Supreme Court, earlier this month, called the country’s Election Commission’s decision to postpone the Punjab Assembly polls till October, unconstitutional. Unsurprisingly, the Supreme Court’s decision has boosted former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) top boss Imran Khan’s sentiments and prospects.

The rising political uncertainty has prompted Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who was slated to visit Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to cancel his trip.

Holding elections—the most crucial facet of a democracy is a costly affair.

Today Dar tabled a bill in Parliament to seek approval for release of funds required to hold elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa though he expressed surprise at the Supreme Court’s decision. He noted that in the past, elections in the country have been delayed after assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, or in the wake of floods and earthquakes.

The standoff between the Supreme Court and the ruling coalition led by PML-N has led to further uncertainty in the political landscape, directly impacting the economy.

A blog published by Brookings Institution in January said that for politics-obsessed Pakistan, the biggest question remains who will win the next general election. However, according to the blog, regardless of the outcome of the elections, “the direction of the country is unlikely to change.”

In addition to this the security situation in the South Asian nation has deteriorated too.

The worst impacted are the common citizens of the country. Even as the inflation rate in March rose to 35.4 per cent, they are now preparing for worse with prices likely to further go up.

“What makes the crises in Pakistan today extremely worrisome is the domination of the political crisis over all other challenges and the resulting distraction from finding solutions to the more important economic and security issues,” Dawn said in an article.

The question that many are now asking is this: Can Pakistan afford to hold elections?

(This article was first published in India Narrative)

Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Manzoor Pashteen has said on the social media platform Twitter that after the decision to conduct a military operation in the meeting of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, a narrative is being created in the Pakistani media as if terrorism is rampant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and an operation is needed, whereas the reality is that terrorist organizations are created and used by the state itself to destroy Pashtuns.

He said that the government is preparing a war narrative with the blood of Pashtuns for the upcoming elections and for the military’s general business war, so that the people can be mentally prepared before the future events.

He warned that under no circumstances would they allow Pashtun land to be used again for dollar wars and political and strategic engineering.

Manzoor Pashteen said that the results of the past 20 years of military operations are that the military generals have given mansions to big commanders like Ehsanullah Ehsan and others, and facilitated their escape, while more than 200,000 homes, dozens of markets, complete villages, over 80,000 martyrs, millions of wounded and disabled Pashtuns, control over resources, thousands of missing persons, landmines, bad governance, target killing, kidnapping for ransom, and countless other disasters have been inflicted upon them.

Manzoor Pashteen said that these dramas must come to an end, the situation needs to be fixed by closing the five checkpoints and then destroying Pashtuns in the name of peace operations, looting their resources, and using the same name for oppression, discrimination, and atrocities. He demanded the release of missing persons, the clearance of landmines, and the provision of basic facilities to the affected areas.

It should be noted that a meeting of the National Security Committee of Pakistan was held recently. A ‘comprehensive operation’ against terrorism was approved in the meeting.

The 41st meeting of the National Security Committee was held at the Prime Minister’s House on Friday. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the meeting in which federal ministers, chairman joint chief of staff committee, service chiefs and senior officials of related institutions participated.

According to the statement issued at the end of the meeting, ‘as a result of the soft corner and reckless policy with the TTP, the terrorists were not only allowed to return without hindrance, but the dangerous terrorists of the TTP were given confidence. He was also released from prisons in the name of Sazi.

The statement said that the meeting emphasized on comprehensive national security in which the relief of the people was given the central position and informed the forum that the government was taking steps in this regard.

In the meeting, it was approved to start the all-round comprehensive operation. This comprehensive, all-round and comprehensive operation to eliminate the scourge of all forms and types of terrorism from Pakistan will also include efforts at political, diplomatic security, economic and social levels. In this regard, a high-level committee has also been formed which will make recommendations regarding its implementation and its limitations in two weeks.

According to the statement, the successful operation of Moqtadar Intelligence Agency in which they arrested the most wanted Baloch independence leader Gulzar Imam alias Shambe was greatly appreciated in the meeting.