Entertainment

IG Sindh AD Khawaja called on Provincial election commissioner Mohammad Yousuf Khan Khattak at his office in Karachi on Tuesday.Provincial election commissioner directed IG Sindh to adopt tight security measures during general elections.Source: Radio P...

AJK President Sardar Masood Khan has strongly condemned martyrdom of innocent Kashmiris by Indian occupation forces in Kupwara on Sunday.In a statement issued today, he said this is the worse act of state terrorism.The AJK President said so-called sear...

It was a calmer summit, but drew far less Western media attention than the fractious G7 gathering in Canada, which ended in disarray in an escalating dispute over trade and tariffs.

Half a world away at a carefully choreographed annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Qingdao, China, there were no death-grip handshakes, personal jibes or Twitter skirmishes between the leaders of Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

And Russian and Chinese officials, as well as their state-run media outlets, Sunday sought to stress the contrast of unity in the Chinese port city of Qingdao with the division and ill-temper in Quebec as a tale of two summits.

During a Sunday, news conference in Qingdao, Russian leader Vladimir Putin offered an oblique commentary on the G7's disarray, noting the combined purchasing power of the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is greater than that of the G7.

And Putin didn't hesitate to note growing friction between the U.S. and Europe. It is a theme he has pressed repeatedly in recent weeks, notably during a recent trip to Austria, revealing a growing confidence in trying to drive a wedge between Washington and its Western allies, according to Ivan Kurilla, a history professor at the European University at St. Petersburg.

In Qingdao, the Russian President highlighted the possibility of the U.S. imposing tariffs on foreign-manufactured cars, something the Trump administration has threatened to do. This might really hurt the economic interests of many countries, first of all, of course, of the European ones, Putin said.

His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping also referenced the disputes at the G7 meeting over President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, warning against selfish, short-sighted policies and extolling free-trade.

He failed to note, though, China's own tariffs on imports and mounting criticism by Western states of what they see as protectionist trading practices.

Founded in 2001, the SCO was created as a forum to resolve border and security issues, but experts say that increasingly in recent years Moscow and Beijing have used it as platform to counter American and Western influence in Central Asia.

This year, saw India and Pakistan join as full members, which Chinese and Russian leaders saying their entry marks a new chapter for the SCO.

Chinese and Russian leaders deny they are using the bloc as a tool of geo-strategic rivalry with the West.

On Sunday a Communist Party newspaper, The Global Times, contrasted the SCO with NATO and the G7, saying that the American-led multilateral organizations want to consolidate the global economic order that is favorable to the Western world. The SCO is not a tool for geopolitical games, seeking hegemony or engaging in international confrontation, the paper editorialized.

Nonetheless, it crowed: [The] G-7, the rich countries' club which is supposed to better promote development of Western economies, is now all dog-eat-dog. And in the past Russian leaders have pointed to the SCO as important in trying to build a "multipolar world order."

More subtle than their media outlets, the bloc's leaders in Qingdao maintained the counterpoint with the G-7 at their two-day meeting, singing each other's praises. Xi Jingping announced Putin is his best, most intimate friend and noted the SCO is a model for international win-win cooperation that will benefit not only its eight members, but also the world at large.

Unquestionably there is a shared belief, or vision, held by all SCO members that the age of American domination, and of West-dominated global institutions, is coming to an end and that new global institutions should be developed with a much stronger Asian influence [and possibly African and Latin American as well], at least in parallel with the Western order, and in some areas in defiant competition, says David Howell, a former British foreign minister and now chairman of the House of Lords international relations committee.

But for all of the talk of a new era of cooperation between SCO members, some analysts see the Beijing and Moscow-led organization as more of a propaganda platform used to paper over sharp differences between its members and one whose aims remain to be defined.

Russia and China differ over the organization's exact purpose and scope, argues Alexander Cooley, a political scientist at New York's Columbia University.

In a commentary on the eve of the Qingdao meeting, he noted, Many of the organization's high-profile initiatives continue to be aspirational and unfilled � especially in the area of economic and energy cooperation � while the organization's strong norm of consensus effectively means that the body is rarely used to 'problem-solve' or host contentious debates among its members.

Source: Voice of America

The caretaker Chief Minister Sindh Fazlur Rehman has set up a General Elections Complaint & Coordination Cell at the Chief Minister House in connection with public complaints regarding the ongoing electoral activities across the province.According to n...

Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will soon launch short-courses for working journalists, facilitating them to further strengthen their professional skill in relevant disciplines.According to a press release issued by the university today, eminent me...

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Heather Nauert:?On June 7, Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan met at the Department of State with Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai. During their meeting, they discussed the importance of the upcoming summ...

ISLAMABAD �

The United States appears to be easing public pressure on Pakistan in a bid to encourage the country to help promote peace and reconciliation with the Taliban to bring an end to the war in Afghanistan.

The optimism, analysts say, stemmed from Wednesday's rare telephone conversation U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held with Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The two leaders discussed ways to advance bilateral relations, said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert. She said "the need for political reconciliation in Afghanistan, and the importance of targeting all militant and terrorist groups in South Asia without distinction," was also discussed.

Pakistani officials describe Bajwa's first direct conversation with Pompeo as "positive and productive."

On Thursday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Nasir ul-Mulk to congratulate him on assuming office and conveyed "good wishes" from President Donald Trump.

An official statement said Mulk and Pence "agreed upon the importance of strengthening bilateral relations as well as pursuing the common objective of achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan."

The prime minister told the U.S. vice president his caretaker government is committed to holding free and fair elections scheduled for July 25 and the smooth transition of power to the constitutionally elected new government.

Relations between the two uneasy allies in the "war on terrorism" have deteriorated since August when U.S. President Donald Trump announced his South Asia Strategy. The policy blamed Pakistan for not preventing Taliban and members of the terrorist Haqqani network from launching attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, charges Islamabad rejected.

While Washington has cut civilian assistance to Pakistan and suspended all military aid in January. Both sides have recently imposed tit-for-tat travel restrictions on each other's diplomats and have had no high-level political contact until Wednesday when Pompeo called Bajwa.

New dialogue

Analysts say the U.S. statement issued after the phone call marked a significant departure from Washington's traditional stance regarding terrorist groups allegedly running sanctuaries in Pakistan.

"[The] Trump Administration seems to be easing public pressure on Islamabad by not using its standard Pakistan based groups' accusation and by replacing it with a more general reference to South Asia," said Talat Hussain, Pakistani television talk show host and columnist.

"The aim appears to be to create more space for a peace process in Afghanistan inclusive of the Haqqanis," Hussain observed. "This is placing diplomacy above guns and negotiations before fighting."

Just two days before Pompeo spoke to Bajwa, the Pakistan army offered to use "whatever leverage" Islamabad has to try to get Afghan insurgents to the negotiating table for peacefully terminating the war.

Army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor acknowledged Pakistan's relations with the United States "are under stress", but said his country would still like U.S. forces to succeed and go back from Afghanistan "with a notion of victory."

But Ghafoor said the goal is achievable only through political means, because neither side is in a position to win the war on the battlefield.

"The Afghan Taliban cannot conquer Kabul militarily, but no force can eliminate all of them either to bring peace to Afghanistan. So, there has to be a midway to achieve a political reconciliation acceptable to all sides," Ghafoor noted.

"Whatever leverage Pakistan has [over the Taliban], although it is receding with the passage of time, we will try to use it to help find an amicable solution for Afghanistan," the general noted. "But the Afghan government will have to play the lead role in any such effort, together with America who is the main stakeholder by all means."

"No one desires more than Pakistan to see peace in Afghanistan,"the Pakistan military spokesman said. "We want the U.S. to go back from Afghanistan with a notion of victory, a notion of success. We don't want them to leave behind a chaotic Afghanistan like they did before."

Ghafoor said sustained military-led operations have pushed out or eliminated all terrorist groups on Pakistani soil, including the Haqqani network, and "organized infrastructure" of any terrorist organization. Pakistan has suffered tens of thousands of casualties, including security forces, while countering terrorism, he said.

U.S. officials allege the Haqqanis maintain ties to the Pakistani spy agency, charges Islamabad vehemently rejects. The militant network has long been an integral part of the Afghan Taliban. The leader of the Haqqani network, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is believed to be militarily guiding the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Ghafoor noted his country has secured its traditionally volatile regions along the nearly 2,600-kilometer Afghan border, saying ongoing fencing and construction of new forts will further boost security and prevent illegal cross-border movements and terrorist infiltration.

Source: Voice of America