Remember when Pakistani officials and regime-backed media pundits were praising Iran just a few months ago? Now, the same voices are condemning it. What changed so dramatically? Iran, or Washington’s demands?
This is how colonial contractors such as Pakistan operate: from praise to condemnation, from embracing trade to closing borders overnight. The direction changes not according to the interests of Pakistani society but to meet the expectations of Washington.
Pakistan’s claim that Murad Saeed @MuradSaeedPTI is in Afghanistan directing protests is no extraordinary revelation. First, where is the evidence? Second, even if true, he is a civilian politician, not a terrorist, and has the right to seek refuge.
Pakistan’s establishment spent decades providing sanctuaries and training camps to extremist militants to use against Afghanistan. Today, Pakistan provides sanctuary to ISIS-K to use it against Afghanistan and Central Asian countries. You cannot nurture the fire of extremism in your neighbours’ homes and expect your own house to remain safe. The blowback will come and it will be devastating.
According to news reports, on October 11, the KP chief minister was alone in his locked room when the door was broken open and two officers entered.
Whether the atmosphere was cordial or not, or that he was not taken away in handcuffs, is beside the point
The elected chief minister of a province is now missing from public view, and even his family does not know where he is.
https://t.co/kWiCxGUpqi
UNAMA has confirmed that at least 10 civilians were killed, most of them children, and 9 people injured in airstrikes carried out in #Afghanistan's Kunar and Helmand provinces earlier today.
Deeply concerning to see Aleema Khan, sister of jailed former PM Imran Khan, arrested and detained for 30 days under the Maintenance of Public Order law — days before PTI’s planned Sept 27 protest.
I interviewed her in December about her brother’s imprisonment.
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#AfghanStudents#Pakistan@pmdcofficial It is very sad that the #PMDC has asked all Afghan medical students to return to #Afghanistan. No reason has been given in the notification which has put in danger the education of thousands of Afghan medical students and doctors. @MIshaqDar50 The @ForeignOfficePk and other officials always say they don’t have any issue with Afghans then why medical and other students are deprived of education. Afghan students say there are hundreds of female students in Pakistan who would also suffer. The PMDC notification says “No admission, placement, transfer, migration or any other form of facilitation of
Afghan nationals is permitted for the current academic session until further orders.” It further says “Afghan nationals previously enrolled in medical or dental programs in Pakistan are required to return to Afghanistan, in accordance with the prevailing policy directions. The concerned institutions shall ensure that all administrative formalities, including issuance of requisite NOCs and facilitation for their
departure are completed accordingly.” Plz join me to launch an appeal to the @GovtofPakistan to save the education of Afghan students who study in Pakistan legally and are ready to fulfill the requirements to continue education. Students say main issue is Pakistan is not extending visas to Afghan students. All have applied for extension.
This Iranian diplomat in Kabul says that d annual trade between Iran & Afghanistan has reached 4 billion dollars & the 2 countries intend to take it up to 10 billion dollars. International trade is like a river, if you block it on one side, it finds its way on d other side.
Dear Mr. Zaigham,
Salam
Mansoor sb is a highly experienced and respected diplomat, and many Afghans still remember his valuable services in Kabul. I personally witnessed his services in Afghanistan.
My humble request: please don’t disrespect him over a tweet. Words like “sending him back” are neither appropriate nor helpful. We should respect and tolerate differing opinions, even when we strongly disagree with them.
And about your opinion about the Saudi-Afghanistan agreement:
I think that if the Afghan government enters into an agreement with anyone for investment, we should let them do it. Afghanistan needs foreign investment, whether it is worth one penny or $200 million. We should demonstrate generosity. Afghans have the right to make their own decisions, so please let them do so. We should try for foreign investment in Pakistan.
Adding my support here to GC and the other former international captains. I hope the court ordered medical assessment be allowed to run its course, and that family visits continue. I hope Imran Khan is treated with the dignity anyone deserves
Imran Khan's medical reports are alarming. I have gone through them with several specialists, and I am writing this in plain language so every Pakistani can understand exactly what is happening.
In order of priority, this is what worries me most: his anxiety and stress levels, his palpitations, and his high blood pressure. Sleeplessness is not mentioned in the report, but looking at the medications, it is almost certainly there too.
I have known Imran Khan for more than 35 years. Stress was never his weakness. That it is now at peak levels tells you everything about what three years of imprisonment and total isolation have done to him.
The causes are not hard to understand: the state of the country, his colleagues in jail, those sentenced, the killed, and their grieving families. His own isolation, no newspapers, no books, no knowledge of what is happening outside. And yes, his anxiety over Bushra Bibi, his sisters, his workers and his party.
Look at the medications, as there is no diagnosis. He is on Citanil and Lexotanil, three times a day. That is not sleeplessness being treated. That is daytime anxiety being treated. Read that twice.
His heart rate is 54 bpm. Doctors will call that "normal." It is not normal for him. His resting heart rate has been in the low 40s his whole adult life, the mark of a lifelong elite athlete. A jump to 54 is a real shift.
He has reported heart palpitations. That is not something to note and move on from. It needs a 24-hour Holter monitor immediately, to catch the frequency and get him on the right medication. Even an Apple Watch linked to an Apple ID outside Pakistan (as that function is disabled in Pakistan) can flag Atrial Fibrillation and palpitations in real time.
He is on three separate BP medications now. That requires proper daily AM/PM monitoring to titrate correctly, not once-a-week guesswork. He is also on a cholesterol-lowering drug. Raised cholesterol at his age is both genetic and stress-driven, and needs diet, exercise, and medication working together, as does his blood pressure. Less salt. More movement. Real monitoring.
And the following tests that must happen now, without further delay:
1) A Stress Test
2) An Echocardiogram
3) Cardiac MRI
4) Cardiac Artery Calcium (CAC) scan, because of raised cholesterol to check for calcified deposits that block arteries and lead directly to heart attacks or the need for stents.
5) Cardiac CT Angiogram and other tests if indicated.
I am deeply worried. Isolation is taking a physical toll on his body. If this is not addressed immediately, the damage may become irreversible with more complications to follow.
@ImranKhanPTI definitely needs to be moved to a hospital environment now, under an independent panel of doctors. Neither his family nor the people of Pakistan trust government-appointed doctors alone. We have already seen reports manipulated before, numbers exaggerated or suppressed, platelets among them.
The next three months will decide whether his condition is reversed or becomes permanent.
We all are alarmed.
The country needs him more than ever before. May Allah keep him healthy. Ameen. 🤲
I just watched heartbreaking images from Landi Kotal. Thousands of Afghan families are forced to wait for days under a 45°C sun, while humanitarian aid trucks have reportedly remained stranded for months at the Durand Line. To me, Pakistan’s treatment of Afghan civilians bears a disturbing resemblance to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians at Gaza’s crossings: civilians paying the price for political decisions they did not make. Collective punishment has no place anywhere. Humanity cannot have double standards. #Afghanistan #Gaza
These Afghan doctors/students were awarded scholarships in the name of supporting Afghan. Now, instead of being allowed to complete their education, many face detention and uncertainty.
For God’s sake, don’t punish people-to-people ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Governments and policies change, but ordinary people remain. Let these students complete their studies and issue their visas.
The Taliban were not created by ordinary Afghans. No doubt Taliban emerged from Pakistan in 1994 and 2021 , while the Afghan people continue to bear the consequences. Afghan students should not be held responsible for political decisions or for the actions of the Taliban.
ONCE AGAIN! Pakistan bombed Khost and Kunar tonight and, as always, the victims are Afghan civilians. not terrorists.
In Kunar, a young Afghan girl was killed, two children and a woman were injured, and a family home was destroyed. Every time Pakistan launches these attacks, they claim they are targeting militants. Yet somehow it is always Afghan children buried under rubble, Afghan mothers crying over bodies, and Afghan villages left in ruins.
For decades, Pakistan’s military establishment has played this double game: create extremism, shelter extremists, then bomb Afghanistan in the name of fighting extremism.
Not one Taliban minister dies. Not one major terrorist leader dies. It is always ordinary Afghans paying the price.
The world must stop accepting these lies while Afghan civilians continue to bleed. @hrw@amnesty@IMFNews@un@antonioguterres@SR_Afghanistan