PM thanks UNSC members for showing concerns over HR abuses in IIOJ&K-Pak Radio

PM Imran Khan has welcomed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for taking up the JnK dispute and thanked its members for showing concerns over the human rights abuses in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

On Pakistan’s request, the 15-member body held a closed-door meeting on the first anniversary of India’s illegal action to end the special status of the disputed territory.

Pakistan paid back $1b Saudi loan

• Pakistan has paid back Saudi Arabia $1 billion out of a $3 billion loan that it secured one and a half year ago to avoid default on international debt obligations after the kingdom decided to reduce its financial support, highly placed sources said.
• Pakistan’s time-tested friend, China, has immediately come forward and extended $1 billion in loan to help Islamabad avoid any adverse impact of the partial withdrawal of the Saudi lifeline, sources in the Fin. Min and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
• The IMF is of the view that the rollover of these loans is also critical to reduce gross financing needs to 19.5% of GDP by fiscal year 2025.
• In his column “Zero Point”, The Express News anchorperson, Javed Chaudhry, also wrote that at a time when Pakistan was changing its political map, the brother Islamic country, Saudi Arabia, withdrew its financial support from Pakistan. Chaudhry highlighted the lack of cooperation from Muslim countries in his article.
• The PTI government took over $13 billion in foreign loans in the previous fiscal year – the second highest amount in history – to repay maturing external debt and cushion the shrinking foreign exchange reserves.
• Since coming into power, the PTI Govt received $26.2 bn loan and out of that $19.2 bn was used to repay the maturing external debt and the remaining balance was added to the external public and publicly guaranteed debt.
• Recently, Pakistan Foreign Min. Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: “OIC’s leadership should stay away from this attitude of being careful and if they can’t do this, then our prime minister will call the meeting“.
• Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, while talking to Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing in Islamabad on Fri, ML-I railway project, (1872 km, 6.8 billion dollars) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor framework will further strengthen relationship between Pakistan and China.
• Interestingly, Pakistan’s entire developmental budget this financial year was $7.9 billion. China’s debt-trap diplomacy is well-known, but what about Saudi Arabia.
• It’s surprising how the cash strapped nation is getting submerged deeper and deeper into China’s debt trap. According to an October 2019 report, Pakistan needs to repay China more than double the amount it owes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the next 3 years.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan might end up regretting its new ‘political map’. Here is why: HT

• PM Imran Khan’s new political map sounds the death knell to the self-determination movement among separatists in Kashmir as it leaves no scope for plebiscite, or to sell the dream of an independent Kashmir
• The so-called new political map released by PM Imran Khan sounds a death knell to the self-determination movement among separatists in Kashmir Valley as Islamabad has now co-opted JnK, leaving no space for either plebiscite or independent Kashmir.
• This does not come as a surprise to Kashmir watchers in New Delhi as both self-determination and so-called freedom struggle was a ruse for cross border terror activities.
• By showing the northern areas of Gilgit-Baltistan as part of Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad’s promise of greater autonomy to this mountainous region stands nullified as the region has been merged with predominantly Sunni regions of Mirpur and Muzaffarabad as also the Valley.

Turkey’s comments on Kashmir unwarranted, says India

• The MEA on Thurs described Turkey’s latest statement on the Kashmir issue as “unwarranted”.
• Speaking during the weekly briefing, Official Spokesperson of the Ministry Anurag Srivastava responded to the comments that came on the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 regarding special status for Jammu and Kashmir.
• On Wed, a spokesperson of Turkey’s MEA said abrogation of Article 370 had caused the situation in Jnk to become “further complicated”.
• Turkey has maintained a critical position regarding India’s Kashmir moves over the past one year, with frequent comments from its top leadership, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s tentacles in India go deeper than thought, says new intel warning

The intel report also accused the Turkish Embassy in Delhi of forging alliances with Indian NGOs, pointing that Indian activists who serve Ankara’s agenda are increasingly being sent to Turkey on exposure trips and encouraged to speak against India.

• Erdoğan’s government did not make any reference to Pakistan’s new map that had been issued just hours earlier that counts Indian territories as its own.
• But this isn’t all that Ankara has been doing.
• Agencies said the role played by fronts for the Turkish Govt last month accused Ankara of efforts to radicalize Indian Muslims and recruit fundamentalists.
• Turkey had emerged as the “the hub of anti-India activities” next only to Pakistan.
• A second report handed over to national security planners over the past week said fronts for the Turkish government or the outfits it supports – some of them directly linked to Erdogan and his family – appeared to have made deeper inroads in India than assessed earlier.
• Much of this effort is directed via three sectors: Turkish state media, educational institutes and NGOs.
• The intelligence assessment identified individuals and groups, some of them also suspected to be in touch with ISI, who had been lured to work with entities in Turkey that had strong links with the Erdogan regime.
• In particular, the report listed organizations that had started accelerating what it described as “lucrative scholarships” to Indians to study in Turkey.
• “Turkey has been providing lucrative scholarships and running exchange program for Indian Kashmiri and Muslim students to study in Turkey through state-sponsored NGOs.
• Once the students land in Turkey, they are approached and taken over by the Pakistan proxies operating there,” the report said.
• The list of outfits that sponsor the scholarships is long, the report said. It includes Turkey Youth Foundation (TUGVA), Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), Turkish Airlines, Yunnus Emre Institute (YEI), Turkey’s Diyanet Foundation (TDF) and Turkist Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).
• “Most of these organizations have direct connections with the Turkish government, President Erdogan or his family,” a counter-terror official said.
• The TUGVA, which functions under Erdogan’s son Bilal’s patronage, has developed strong links within India by establishing connections with Islamic outfits in India including Jamaat-e-Islamic Organization’s student wing, Student Islamic Organization (SIO), the report said.
• SIO’s Fawaz Shaheen, however, denied that the students’ body had anything to do with any Turkish group or entity related to Erdogan or his family.
• “We have nothing to do with either Turkish or other groups involved in anti-India activities,” Fawaz Shaheen said.
• The intel report also accused the Turkish Embassy in Delhi of forging alliances with Indian NGOs, pointing that Indian activists who serve Ankara’s agenda are increasingly being sent to Turkey on exposure trips and encouraged to speak against India.
• Some of the Turkish organizations that have been used to launch coordinated attacks on India are its International Humanitarian Relief Foundation, the TDF (also funds scholarships) and Pak-Turkey Cultural Association.