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In March 2022, a former prime minister accused a high-level functionary in the US State Department of interference in our domestic affairs. A strong demarche was issued to the US government, which with practised insouciance it ignored. This month, the same person, in an unverified audio conversation, allegedly appealed to a senior US Congress woman Maxine Waters (Democrat) for her country's support in his ongoing battle against the Pakistan government and the Pakistan Army.
In April 2022, 123 PTI MNAs "resigned from their seats by writing under their hand". Last week, the Lahore High Court set aside the decision of National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to accept the resignations of at least 53 PTI lawmakers and their subsequent de-notification by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The Lahore High Court now wants the speaker "to hear out the relevant PTI members again and then take a decision regarding their resignations". If re-notified, they will return to the same parliament they rejected with vehement contempt last year.
Pakistan's negotiations with the IMF have come full circle to their starting point. The desperately sought IMF tranche is still not in the treasury. We are as bankrupt as we were a year ago, despite window-dressing deposits by the Chinese, the Saudis and the UAE. Worse, the IMF has declared that Pakistan's economy has shrunk from six per cent in 2022 to under 0.5pc this year.
The Pentagon must be concerned about another attack on its Pakistani counterpart. It will recall that on Oct 10, 2009, a group of militants belonging to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi staged a daring attack on GHQ in Rawalpindi. Many military and civilian hostages were held. "It took the Pakistan Army’s elite commandos, the Special Service Group (SSG) more than 20 hours to kill or capture all of the militants and free most of the hostages."