December 16-31, 2019 August 01-15, 2021 SeSe 1 Table of Contents 1: August 01, 2021………………………………….……………………….…03 2: August 02, 2021………………………………….……………………….....12 3: August 03, 2021…………………………………………………………......19 4: August 04, 2021………………………………………………...…................31 5: August 05, 2021………………………………………………..…..........….. 43 6: August 06, 2021………………………………………………………….…..50 7: August 07, 2021……………………………………….………………….......53 8: August 08, 2021……………………………………………...……………….56 9: August 09, 2021……………………………………………………...............67 10: August 10, 2021………………………………………………………….….74 11: August 11, 2021……………………………………………………………. 77 12: August 12, 2021…………………………………………………………..…84 14: August 13, 2021………………………………………………………….….90 13: August 14, 2021……………………………………………………………. 101 14: August 15, 2021……………………………………………………...………103 Data collected and compiled by Rabeeha Safdar, Alishba Aslam and Zohaib Sultan Disclaimer: PICS reproduce the original text, facts and figures as appear in the newspapers and is not responsible for its accuracy. 2 August 01, 2021 Daily Times Debunking the Indian Myths against CPEC Salis Malik The Indian tales of libel and slander concerning Pakistan have always gotten off on the wrong foot for India. Continuously holding Pakistan liable over unsubstantiated claims is a telltale sign of how the Indian media and government have been concocting propaganda against Pakistan. This very propaganda seems to be brewing up a storm again. This time, the eye of the hurricane is focused on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and China‘s cooperation with Pakistan. Recently, the Indian state minister for external affairs laid a false accusation; claiming that CPEC and BRI were encroaching upon Indian sovereignty as the project ran through the territory of a disputed area on which India claimed its sovereignty. The foreign office spokesperson for Pakistan, Zahid Hafeez, straight out debunked and rejected the claim; explaining that India‘s accusations were just a shroud of deceit to divert the public attention from India‘s illegal occupation and human rights violations in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This can be accentuated by the fact that India wrote misleading letters by using fake platforms to various countries in a bid to falsely accuse China of abusing human rights. Truth is that ever since the start of CPEC, India has not been able to digest Pakistan becoming an economic giant in the future and is trying underhanded tactics to cause hindrance in the BRI project. Ever since the start of CPEC, India has not been able to digest Pakistan becoming an economic giant in the future. Indian propaganda to malign Pakistan has become par for the course of India. The Indian government had never been shy from spreading disinformation against Pakistan and this proved to be true when a study conducted by the EU Disinfo Lab, an information distribution group, provided undeniable evidence that India had been involved in a systematic disinformation campaign against Pakistan, China and CPEC. According to this study, the Indian disinformation campaign, codenamed ―Indian Chronicles‖ created a labyrinth of lies and deceit. This brought back deceased opinions makers and NGOs as a part of India‘s fifth-generation hybrid warfare– 5GW–against Pakistan. Under this campaign, more than 700 news outlets were resurrected and various ―zombie‖ NGOs were set up to allow the repackaging and distortion of information. Fallacies in global search engines were targeted by the manipulation of over 500 website domains. The main intent of this project was to underpin and enhance anti-Pakistan and anti- China sentiments and help promote a positive image of India on the global stage by damaging the reputation of countries not in line with ―Indian Ideology.‖ One such NGO, dubbed as ―environment‖ falsely accused how Indian rivers were being diverted for hydropower projects 3 under the CPEC. The NGO misinformed that how the CPEC project was damaging the Indian ecology by diverting all the water and causing a shortage. The Indian media has also used a plethora of other propaganda by utilising muckraking and yellow journalism as well. There has been a mushrooming of rumours laid out by their journalists, claiming that the appearance of China in Gwadar has actually reiterated the Baloch insurgency. The Indian media is swift to make false claims about how Gwadar seems to be not safe for investing in foreign business but that‘s where the Indian media is twisting the facts. Yes, in the past, there have been attacks in the Baloch region but has the Indian media ever wondered who the ring leader is behind all of this? Why doesn‘t the Indian media reveal or report the connection between Mama Qadeer and India? Why is the Indian media always silent about Kulbhushan Yadhav, the Indian infiltrator and spy, who himself took responsibility for pulling the strings in a surfeit of terrorist activities in the country, especially in Balochistan, Karachi and against CPEC? This is what the Indian media will not tell. They will not reveal how Kulbhushan Yadav was aiding Baloch separatists at RAW‘s decree, in a bid to derail advancements in the CPEC project but they will blatantly lie that the ensuing violence in Balochistan is due to the presence of a foreign investor. The Indian media hasn‘t been shy about starting new campaigns against CPEC at the behest of many foreign powers. One such campaign was the ―Chinese Debt Trap‖ that assumes Chinese investments as being synonymous with burying Pakistan under debt. However, if we examine and analyse previous data about the global debt patterns, we will realise that debt traps often occur when countries accumulate consumptive loans, which are mostly non-productive. The CPEC, on the other hand, is very different in that regard as it has created more than 80,000 jobs and will continue to create a plethora of more jobs once this project completes. Moreover, the CPEC provides an opportunity for several countries to benefit from this trade route namely Central Asian and South Asian countries. This will boost the Pakistani economy to a great extent. Another important aspect that debunks the ‗debt trap‘ propaganda is the overall percentage the CPEC investment constitutes. With being just 5.6 per cent of the Pakistani debt, the farcical Indian claims of CPEC being a debt trap is a far cry from what it actually is. The Indian media has often tried to compare this investment with the Chinese investments made in Sri Lanka and Sudan, but the political and economic situation, when compared to Pakistan, is like comparing apples to oranges. The debt trap prevalent in those countries is actually the result of borrowing money from Western powers. More importantly, the eventual change in the US interest rates had buried Sri Lanka and Sudan under severe debts. https://dailytimes.com.pk/799720/debunking-the-indian-myths-against-cpec/ Pakistan leads South Asia in BRI infrastructure development Despite the unexpected shock from the COVID-19 Pandemic, Pakistan has elevated one place to the 5th in infrastructure development, against the trend of an overall decline in the South Asia 4 region, according to the annual report on the Development of Belt and Road Infrastructure Development Index (2021). According to China Economic Net (CEN), 71 countries were covered in the report, including 63 nations involved in the BRI and eight Portuguese-speaking countries. Among the seven regions, Southeast Asia ranked No.1, with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam taking the top four places. The Central and Eastern European region ranked at the bottom as it did last year. While South Asia was the only region suffering a major fall, declining from 3rd to 6th place in the index, due to a severe blow to the infrastructure development undermined by the rampant spread of the coronavirus in India. The report, jointly published by the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA) and the China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, was released at the 12th International Infrastructure Investment and Construction Forum (IIICF), a two-day event kicked off in Macao on July 22. The report pointed out that the overall index in 2021 rose to 113 from 110, turning the downward trend in 2020. This was largely attributed to easy fiscal and monetary policies put forward by major economies around the world and the global campaign of accelerating vaccination. Besides, the economy of the BRI countries has been recovering from the pandemic, driving the rebound of the infrastructure sector. Speaking at the launching ceremony, CHINCA Chairman Fang Qiuchen said carbon neutrality will lead the way of infrastructure development and new renewable energies will become a priority. Countries along the belt and road have been promoting the new energy and optimising the energy mix, and several financial institutions have announced they would stop financing fossil energy projects and enhance support for new energy projects instead. In addition, in the post- pandemic era, projects related to people‘s livelihood, such as housing, medical and health care, have become a priority in national infrastructure plans in order to expand social employment and stimulate the economy, and small and medium scale infrastructure projects that can deliver results in a short term are preferred in this period. https://dailytimes.com.pk/799699/pakistan-leads-south-asia-in-bri-infrastructure-development/ Pakistan Observer CPEC breaks Indian plan ! Attiya Munawer THE China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a process of revolutionary improvement of economic conditions not only for Pakistan and China but for the entire region, is causing great uneasiness to India and it is openly speaking out against this project. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the remarks made by the Indian Deputy Foreign Minister regarding the Pak-China corridor and Afghanistan. The situation in Afghanistan 5 and the Pak-China Economic Corridor are the issues in which India is not a party, yet India is not shying away from intervening. India has invested heavily in Afghanistan during the U.S.