Pakistan on Washington Consensus mode?

Pakistan 'to agree' to tough IMF conditions as economic crisis worsens

The New Arab Staff & Agencies

  | 3 February 2023

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Rejecting the IMF's conditions and pushing Pakistan to the brink would have "political consequences" for the ruling parties, but so will agreeing to IMF measures raising the cost of living, he said.

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Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Friday the government would have to agree to IMF bailout conditions that are "beyond imagination", as it battles a spiralling economic crisis.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation landed in Pakistan on Tuesday for last-ditch talks to revive vital financial aid that has stalled for months.

The government has held out against tax rises and subsidy slashing demanded by the IMF, fearful of backlash ahead of elections due in October.

"I will not go into the details but will only say that our economic challenge is unimaginable. The conditions we will have to agree to with the IMF are beyond imagination. But we will have to agree with the conditions," Sharif said in televised comments.

Pakistan's economy is in dire straits, stricken by a balance of payments crisis as it attempts to service high levels of external debt, amid political chaos and deteriorating security.

The country's central bank said Thursday its foreign exchange reserves had dropped again to $3.1 billion, which analysts said was enough for less than three weeks of imports.

The world's fifth-biggest population is no longer issuing letters of credit, except for essential food and medicines, causing a backlog of thousands of shipping containers at Karachi port stuffed with stock the country can no longer afford.

Data on Wednesday showed year-on-year inflation had risen to a 48-year high, leaving Pakistanis struggling to afford basic food items.

Bowing to pressure

With the prospect of national bankruptcy looming, Islamabad in recent weeks began to bow to pressure prompting the IMF's last-minute visit.

The government loosened controls on the rupee to rein in a rampant black market in US dollars, a step that caused the currency to plunge to a record low, and hiked petrol prices by 16 percent.

But the IMF wants further hikes to artificially cheap petrol, electricity and gas prices, designed to help low-income families, and the withdrawal of tax exemptions for the export sector and a boost to the pitifully low tax base.

"Accepting IMF conditions will definitely increase prices, but Pakistan has no other choice," analyst Abid Hasan told AFP. "Otherwise, there is a fear of a situation like Sri Lanka and Lebanon".

Rejecting conditions and pushing Pakistan to the brink would have "political consequences" for the ruling parties, but so will agreeing to IMF measures raising the cost of living, he said.

Pakistan had sketched out a $6.5 billion dollar loan package with the global lender, which has so far paid out roughly $4 billion.

Political chaos

The next instalment on the negotiating table is unlikely to induce an economic turnaround on its own.

However, friendly nations Islamabad usually approaches for help have indicated they may open their books once the IMF is on board.

The tumbling economy mirrors Pakistan's political chaos, with former prime minister Imran Khan heaping pressure on the ruling coalition in his bid for early elections while his popularity remains high.

Khan, who was ousted last year in a no-confidence motion, negotiated a multi-billion-dollar loan package from the IMF in 2019.

But he reneged on promises to cut subsidies and market interventions that had cushioned the cost-of-living crisis, causing the programme to stall.

It is a common pattern in Pakistan, where most people live in rural poverty, with more than two dozen IMF deals brokered and then broken over the decades.

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US to blame for Muslim poverty, Iran Guards commander tells Pakistan

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Debt-laden Italy slams ‘crazy’ ECB rate hike

 Italian ministers publicly lashed out at the European Central Bank on Friday for a yet another interest rate hike, branding the decision “baffling” and “crazy.”

The comments from three senior ministers from the recently appointed Italian government come after the ECB raised its benchmark rate by half a percentage point on Thursday. It’s feared the move, aimed at taming inflation, will pile financial pressure on one of the Eurozone's most indebted countries.

Shortly after the announcement, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto wrote on Twitter that raising interest rates “makes no sense,” sarcastically thanking ECB President Christine Lagarde for the “Christmas present.” Crosetto posted a chart illustrating the widening spread between German and Italian borrowing costs alongside his comments.

Source RT (https://t.me/rtnews)

Edward Snowden vis-a-vis Julian Assange!

 Dec 5, 22

JULIAN ASSANGE  👇🏾

"I hope he gets at least 176 years in prison for what he did."-Former Trump national Security adviser John Bolton on the imprisonment of Julian Assange.

Freedom and demo(n)cracy

Sadly it is crime to report a US war crime...

Dec 10/21

BREAKING NEWS - Pepe Escobar 

A DAY OF INTER-GALACTIC SHAME

UK kangaroo court sanctions the extradition of Julian Assange to the Empire of Lies, setting the precedent that ANY journalist anywhere may be dispatched to certain death in the imperial gulag for revealing war crimes.



Nov 3, 22

Ex-CIA Director Mike Pompeo was officially sued.

He is accused of spying on Julian Assange, journalists and lawyers who visited the WikiLeaks founder at the London embassy of Ecuador, where he lived.

The plaintiffs were represented by New York lawyer Richard Roth.

Dec 3, 22

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the decision to extradite him to the United States-Reuters

In search of Truth MH17

The District Court of The Hague has ruled that the MH17 aircraft shot down in 2014 was hit by a Buk air defense system launched from Pervomaisky in Kharkov region

Source https://t.me/rtnews/32527

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☝️ On November 17, the Hague court has finally delivered a verdict on MH17 case. Two Russian nationals, Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky, and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko were declared guilty of complicity in the crash of Malaysia Airlines MH17 in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. The defendants were given life sentences in absentia.  all of whom held leadership positions in anti-govt militias.

A fourth defendant, Russian citizen Oleg Pulatov, was declared not guilty. Pulatov was the only person on trial who chose to be represented by a lawyer. He was found not guilty.

➖According to comments of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both the proceedings and the outcome of the trial prove that the process was based on political agenda with the objective to blame Russia for the tragedy.

➖Throughout the entire proceedings the court had been under unprecedented pressure from politicians and the media. The court ignored the fact that the conclusions of the Dutch prosecutors were based on evidence from anonymous witnesses whose identities had been classified, as well as questionable information and materials provided by an interested party – the Security Service of Ukraine, which had been repeatedly caught giving false and contradictory information. 

➖Arguments of the defense with regard to lack of any compelling and decisive evidence that MH17 was shot down by a Russian missile was ignored. The court considered only materials that supported the West-promoted version were while declassified documents provided Russian Defense Ministry have been ignored. 

➖There was an option to receive more clear evidence from US satellite images taken on the day of the crash, but Washington has refused all requests to disclose them fully or partially. 

➖Blindly accepting questionable evidence from an interested party, ignoring evidence provided by defense and issuing the verdict on the basis of assumptions instead of facts violate all common principles of justice including the presumption of innocence. No modern system of law envisages issuing life sentences on the basis of indirect evidence and assumptions. 

➖These court hearings are some of the most scandalous in the history of justice with numerous violations of the process and biased nature of the jury. The verdict will surely become a part of history as an example of complete dependence of European justice system on political decisions of the collective West.

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Russia will not have to comply with the decision of the Dutch court in the case of the crash of the MH17 aircraft in Ukraine in 2014, there are no international acts in this regard, Pavel Laptev, the first representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights, said, noting that in the case inconsistencies. According to the lawyer, on the fragments of the Buk missile found at the crash site of MH17, the number ended with the numbers 7379, which indicated that it belonged to Ukraine, but this fact was not taken into account by the court. - AZgeopolitics

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Russians Sentenced To Life Over MH17 Downing WON’T Be Extradited

The two Russians sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in the case of the downed Malaysian Boeing MH17 will not be extradited to the Netherlands, a law enforcement source told Interfax.

"The Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes a direct ban on the extradition of Russian citizens to foreign states. That is why neither one nor the second convict will be extradited," the source said.

Source RT (https://t.me/rtnews)

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And here is the court's decision on the crash of flight MH-17 in the sky over Donbass.

The court sentenced Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko to life imprisonment in absentia, but Pulatov was acquitted.

The Hague was expected to be convinced that the Buk missile was allegedly imported into the territory of the DPR from Russia.

Russia's direct connection with the incident was not confirmed, and according to the judge, the actions of the air defense crew "cannot be established, it is unclear who gave the command to launch the missile." This tells us that the whole terrible story plus the long trial is trumped up, since the West has not provided direct evidence to the court.

Thus, the West milked this information and political cow the best it could, but it did not have a powerful anti-Russian effect.

And I want to remind my readers of the materials of my main investigations into this incident:

- Investigation film “MH-17 – In Search of Truth (https://t.me/ukr_leaks_eng/11)"

- "Secret visit of American officers on the day of the tragedy" Part 1 (https://t.me/ukr_leaks_eng/508) and Part 2 (https://t.me/ukr_leaks_eng/509)

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Dec 1, 2014 Tony Gosling - presented a plausible reason on the downing of MH17 and was already there boots on the ground training the UkroNazis.

U.N. General Assembly calls for Russia to make reparations in Ukraine

November 15, 2022  |  By Daphne Psaledakis

Nov 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations General Assembly on Monday called for Russia to be held accountable for its conduct in Ukraine, voting to approve a resolution recognizing that Russia must be responsible for making reparations to the country.

The resolution, supported by 94 of the assembly's 193 members, said Russia, which invaded its neighbor in February, "must bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts."

The resolution recommends that member states, in cooperation with Ukraine, create an international register to record evidence and claims against Russia.

General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the resolution an "important" one.

"The reparations that Russia will have to pay for what it has done are now part of the international legal reality," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Kyiv's Ambassador to the U.N. Sergiy Kyslytsya told the General Assembly before the vote that Russia has targeted everything from factories to residential buildings and hospitals.

"Ukraine will have the daunting task of rebuilding the country and recovering from this war, but that recovery will never be complete without a sense of justice for the victims of the Russian war. It is time to hold Russia accountable," Kyslytsya said.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the General Assembly before the vote that the provisions of the resolution are "legally null and void" as he urged countries to vote against it.

"The West is trying to draw out and worsen the conflict and plans to use Russian money for it," Nebenzia said.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said on the Telegram messaging app that the "Anglo-Saxons are clearly trying to scrape together a legal basis for the illegal seizure of Russian assets."

Fourteen countries voted against the resolution, including Russia, China and Iran, while 73 abstained, including Brazil, India and South Africa. Not all member states voted.

In March, 141 members of the General Assembly voted to denounce Russia's invasion, and 143 in October voted to condemn Moscow's attempted annexation of parts of Ukraine.

Zelenskiy on Saturday said Russian forces destroyed critical infrastructure in the strategic southern city of Kherson before fleeing. Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, although the invasion has reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble and killed or wounded thousands.

"It will take a broad international effort to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction in order to build a safe and prosperous future for the Ukrainian people," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the assembly.

"But only one country, Russia, is responsible for the damage to Ukraine, and it is absolutely right, as this resolution sets out, that Russia pay for that damage."

More here >>> 

More and more Germans believe the Russian media, accept the Russian point of view - Spiegel poll:

 More and more Germans believe the Russian media, accept the Russian point of view - Spiegel  poll:

▪️40 percent of respondents fully or partially agreed with the statement that the "Russian aggressive war" was Russia's reaction to NATO's uncontested provocation. This is eleven percentage points more than in April.

▪️44% are fully or partially convinced that Putin is acting against the "global elite", which "pulls the strings in the background." This is twelve percentage points more than in April.

▪️14% fully agreed that Ukraine "historically has no territorial claims" and "is actually part of Russia." About one-fifth of respondents consider it partially.

▪️With nine percent, the number of those who fully believe that the war was "necessary" "to get rid of the fascist government in Ukraine" has almost doubled.

IHRC demands answers over police failures at anti-Iran protest

 

19 October 2022

IHRC has written to the head of London’s Metropolitan Police and the city’s mayor demanding answers for the pitiful police response to an orgy of Islamophobic violence unleashed by anti-Iran protestors in London last month.

Hundreds of opponents of the Iranian government descended on sites associated with Tehran unleashing unprovoked violence against premises and people.

The letter condemns the police in failing to protect the Iranian Embassy in Kensington where onlookers were brutally attacked and protestors scaled the building and caused physical damage.

Video footage shows the outnumbered police struggling to contain the hysterical protestors as they hurled missiles at the embassy.

Inexplicably, the protestors were then allowed to march towards Marble Arch where they happened upon a peaceful procession of religious mourners commemorating Arba’een. More violence ensued as the protestors attacked the mourners with sticks, stones and bottles while the police stood by instead of trying to protect the targets of the attack. IHRC received reports of several people attending the Arbaeen procession being assaulted and injured including an elderly man. Several women had their hijabs (headscarves) pulled off.

The protestors then made their way under police escort to the Islamic Centre of England some 3km away in the northwest of the capital attacking the premises and the centre’s attendees. Again, there was very little in the way of a police presence which meant those inside the centre were trapped by the protestors congregating on the pavement outside hurling abuse and missiles, including bottles and cans of alcohol. Neither staff nor members of the public were able to leave the centre until 12am. Several police officers were injured as well as some members of the public.

IHRC’s letter demands to know if the police carried out an appropriate risk assessment prior to the demonstration at the embassy and if so why that was not updated after the violence there. IHRC would also like to know what steps the police have taken to identify the perpetrators of the violence, what they have done to understand that the attacks were motivated by anti-Islamic hate and what steps, if any, they have taken to prevent a recurrence of such violence.

Islamic Solidarity International press-release

Issued on 4th Feb 2019

We join other friendly nation-states & civil society organisations to extend our congratulatory message to the people of Venezuela on their 20th anniversary of the bolivarian revolution

We like to express our deepest condemnation on the financial wars  imposed by the zionist christian empire of amrika, over the last few years on the chavistas nation.

The global impact of tax dodging

Published on 11 Feb 2016 -

NATO launches massive war drills on Russia's doorstep

Published on May 6, 2015 : NATO has launched massive war games on Russia's doorstep, with drills taking part in Estonia and Norway. Personnel from ten alliance members, including the US and the UK, are taking part.

'An Islamic View of the Christian World' By Shaikh Imran Hosein

Published on 18 Mar 2015 - This lecture restricts itself to establishing the foundation from the Qur'an for friendly ties between Muslims and Orthodox Christians in particular, but does not as yet address the subject of an alliance that is divinely-ordained. That will be addressed in the second recording Insha Allah. 

 This recording also offers a view concerning a Christian response to usury and to bogus paper money which can instantaneously electrify the entire world of Islam in a manner that would cause eternal dismay to our mutual enemies, and would significantly advance the cause of an alliance between Islam and RUM.

MH17 - Ukraine Crash: What we know from the Time online. They also say they're turning over the black boxes.

The bodies recovered from the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 will stay in refrigerated train cars in the insurgent-occupied town of Torez until United Nations aviation officials arrive, a top Ukrainian rebel leader said Sunday. The comments from Alexander Borodai, the self-appointed Prime Minister of a pro-Russian “People’s Republic” in eastern Ukraine, come after other European officials said rebels had rounded up victims’ bodies and put them on rail cars bound for an unknown destination.

The rebels also said Sunday they will turn over the black boxesfrom the Boeing 777 to officials from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN body that oversees global aerospace issues. The aircraft’s black boxes were earlierrumored to have been sent to Moscow for examination.

Flight 17 is widely believed to have crashed in eastern Ukraine after being shot down Thursday.

Both Ukraine’s government and the rebel forces have alleged the other was responsible for downing the Boeing 777.

A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s government said rebels forced emergency teams to give up the bodies recovered at the crash site without revealing where they were taking the corpses. Associated Press journalists had previously reported seeing bodies in bags piled together in the heat on Saturday.

Borodai denied that rebel forces were interfering with the crash investigation and said he was disappointed with how long it had taken Malaysian aviation experts to arrive at the scene.

The U.S. embassy in Kiev has concluded “that Flight MH17 was likely downed by a SA-11 surface-to-air missile from separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.” It said Russia had supplied military equipment to the insurgents, though Russia has denied the claims.

source >>>

Over $1.6 billion of Iranian assets frozen in Britain & Iran to sue UK over $1bln Shah-era arms deal – report

Iran is to sue a UK firm over $1 billion of weapons that were purchased more than 30 years ago but never delivered. The deal was discontinued following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and now Iran is calling for compensation.

The Iranian government is moving to take a weapons company owned by the UK government to the High Court this summer to settle the 35-year dispute, UK newspaper The Independent reports. The ongoing row was thought to have been settled in 2010 when Iranian negotiators met with the International Military Services (IMS) to iron out the conditions for a final agreement.

The Iranian government is now pushing for $657 million in compensation.

The court case pertains to an IMS weapons deal struck with the Shah of Iran between 1971 and 1976. As part of the agreement the then Iranian leader paid 650 million pounds ($1 billion) up front for 1,500 state-of-the-art Chieftain battle tanks and 250 repair vehicles. However, complications arose when Shah Pahlavi was deposed in 1979 and the Islamic Republic was created. As a result of the political upheaval only 185 tanks were delivered to Iran, prompting the government to ask for its money back.

London refused to reimburse the funds, forcing Tehran to pursue legal action and take the case to an international court in the Netherlands.

British Ministry of Defence officials told The Independent that they hoped a settlement could be reached with Iran before legal proceedings begin this year. Moreover, a MoD spokesperson told the paper that “no money will paid to Iran while EU sanctions remain in place. Settlement negotiations between International Military Services Ltd and the Iranian regime are ongoing and no agreement has yet been reached.”

If the funds are released they will be held in a trust account with independent trustees along with over $1.6 billion of Iranian assets frozen in Britain.

“EU sanctions will prevent the current Iranian regime from accessing funds resulting from this case and could be released only if sanctions are lifted,” the spokesperson said.

Iran reached a landmark preliminary deal with the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany on November 24 over its nuclear program. As part of the agreement, the US and Brussels have lifted some of the financial restrictions on Iran’s economy after Tehran ceased uranium enrichment to 20 percent. Iran has also pledged to dilute half of the stockpile of the already enriched material.

Diplomats from the P5+1 (US, China, Germany, Britain, France and Russia) are expected to meet with representatives from Iran in February to hammer out the terms for a permanent deal.

"It is our understanding that the first round of comprehensive negotiations will be in New York in mid-February with dates still being confirmed," US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in an email to Reuters.

While Washington has hailed the initial agreement as a great success, the American government said further negotiations will be complex.

Tehran continues to deny allegations that it was working towards the production of nuclear arms and maintains its atomic program was aimed at civilian ends.

report here  >>>

pic above >> A British made 1970 Chieftain tank belonging to the People's Mujahedeen takes position 26 April 2003. (AFP Photo / Philippe Desmazes)

Pervez Musharraf served with arrest warrant at hospital

Former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf, facing charges of high treason for imposing emergency in 2007, has been served with an arrest warrant by police at a military hospital.

A special court, constituted to try 70-year-old Musharraf on high treason charges, had issued the warrant on Friday, carrying a bail bond of Rs 2.5 million.

The court had also ordered the Islamabad police to submit a compliance report to the court on February 7.

Police were able to serve the warrant yesterday only after waiting for two-and-half hours at the reception of the medical facility, media reports said.

Musharraf's lawyers, who were also present at the hospital, provided the police with details about the surety bonds of Rs 2.5 million.

Since the start of the high treason trial against him, Musharraf has not appeared before the court.

Musharraf was admitted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi after he developed heart problems while being driven to the special court.

Musharraf is facing treason charges for suspending and abrogating the Constitution and imposing an emergency in November 2007.

This is the first time in Pakistan's history that a former military ruler has been put on trial for treason.

If convicted, he could get life imprisonment or the death penalty.

source >>

A crusade against the new deadly threat -- killer robots!

Published on Jan 13, 2014 | What was science fiction a couple of decades ago is now everyday reality. But it's not only computers and smartphones -- the progress has brought us new war machines -- unmanned drones striking from the skies are no surprise for anyone today. But what has the progress of warfare prepared for us in the coming years? Today we speak to Jody Williams, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning woman, who has fought against landmines -- and won. Now she is on a crusade against the new deadly threat -- killer robots.

AJE - highlighting potential

Arabs fight for independence in Northern Mali :

 Published on 2 Nov 2013 | Exclusive report from Northern Mali, where Al Jazeera found men willing to fight to the death for independance in a remote and desolate place.Arab fighters want self-rule over the north, what they call Azawad.As part of a series on the security challenge facing the country, Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall went to meet

Pakatan sues EC members to force re-election?

Published on 14 Jul 2013 : Pakatan Rakyat has filed a lawsuit against all seven members of the Election Commission (EC) in a bid to seek a declaration that the results of the 13th general election are null and void.

Pakatan’s uphill GE13 battle in the courts

The Malaysian Insider | July 15, 2013

The simple summary of Pakatan Rakyat’s suit in court today is that it did not get a fair election. The question now is, what can and will the courts do?

No matter how you slice or dice it, it is tough for Pakatan to win its suit against the Election Commission (EC) because courts here are loath to disturb anything to do with elections. It is even rare for election courts to overturn polls results.

What more nullifying the whole Election 2013.

Also, Malaysian courts have in recent years not demonstrated a willingness to confront the government of the day on various issues – be it conversions of minors to land matters.

That said, it is remains important for Pakatan to thoroughly detail its cases in which it believed fraud prevented it from winning on May 5, 2013. In dispute are at least 43 seats before the courts.

But what is quite clear is that the EC’s handling of the indelible ink over the past five years would have made the Keystone Kops proud. Never have we seen a commission blunder and make a hash of things the way it has.

All these years under the Prime Minister’s Department has insulated it so much so that it has fallen out of touch with the people and the need to be independent.

One hopes having parliamentary oversight will at least improve the commission because more is needed than a change of staff, and that is a change of mindset.

The commission has one job only, conduct free and fair elections. But Pakatan and other civil societies have complained that they have done the reverse.

So, the courts now have to decide whether Pakatan’s lawsuit has merits or the EC did conduct free and fair elections on May 5. – July 15, 2013.

source :