Petroleum Industry: Deregulate Or Bust !
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The Complete Magazine for the Region JULY 2020 www.southasia.com.pk ASIF ALI ZARDARI Man for all Seasons! He has been through it all. From a care-free life to being the spouse of Pakistan’s Prime Minister – and then keeping the country together after her assassination. Asif Zardari is a man for all seasons! SPECIAL EDITORIAL FEATURE Petroleum Industry: Deregulate or Bust ! CONTENTSLUGS Cover Story 13 What is the future of PPP? Editor’s Desk 05 Peace Deal Readers’ Thoughts 06 Bumpy Ride 40 Who Said That! 07 Border Dispute Grapevine 07 Locking Horns 42 News Buzz 08 Opinion Cover Story The Devil in Us 44 PPP’s Leadership Crisis 13 International A Man for All Seasons! 15 Ankara There is a Dilemma 17 Lost Glory 46 The Future 19 Beijing Region Chinese Puzzle 48 Nation’s Saviours New York Centre of Gravity 21 Key Questions 49 Ladakh Brussels Wisdom or Folly? 22 Eye of the Storm 50 Mumbai Features 49 Clueless with Coronavirus 24 Psychology New Delhi The Suicide Bomber 52 Murky Waters 25 The Curve Islamabad Public Health for All 53 55 A Sweet Crisis 27 Air Safety Covid-19 May Day! May Day! 55 Never Too Late 28 Trends BRI-CPEC New Fashion Aesthetics 56 Development Continues 30 Tributes Markets Iqbal Akhund 58 Close Encounters 31 Syed Munawar Hassan 58 Governance Tariq Aziz 58 Into the Darkness 33 Reviews Society Books Towards Utopia 34 Hermes Explains: Thirty Questions Colombo about Western Esotericism 59 Reaping the Whirlwind 35 Pakistan’s Foreign Policy 1947-2019 60 Dhaka TV Serial 56 Disaster Within 36 Dirilis Ertugrul 61 Kabul Now or Never 39 24 27 SOUTHASIA • JULY 2020 3 COMMENTSLUG Karma Strikes Back! The BJP win for a second consecutive term in 2019 was a phenom- JULY, 2020 VOL.24 ISSUE 7 enal success for Narendra Modi. The junta was looking at him to PRESIDENT & EDITOR IN CHIEF help them get rid of hunger, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy Syed Jawaid Iqbal and other socio-economic evils. In August 2019, the BJP-dominated EDITOR Parliament revoked the Indian-occupied Kashmir’s constitutional Javed Ansari autonomy and split it into two federal territories: Jammu & Kash- CONTRIBUTING EDITOR mir and Ladakh. The unilateral action annoyed both Pakistan and S. G. Jilanee China. Modi followed with a legislation spree that targeted the 20 ASSISTANT EDITORS Faizan Usmani million Muslims of India. Syeda Areeba Rasheed These were the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Citizenship Amendment SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Bill (CAB), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Security Act (NSA). Rafi Khan - UK The legislation was primarily aimed at changing India from a secular to a Hindu state where Muslims would be relegated as second-class citizens. Modi thus revealed himself CONTRIBUTORS as a hardcore member of the RSS rather than the prime minister of India, a constitution- Aadil Nakhoda – Abdul Rasool Syed – Amjad Ali Siyal Asma Nisar – Atif Shamim Syed – Azhar Ali ally secular country and demographically a multi-religious, multi-cultural state. He rep- Cynthia Ritchie – Dr M Ali Hamza resents India’s fast-developing patronizing attitude towards its neighbours. Modi also Dr. Ahmed Saeed Minhas – Dr. Moonis Ahmar expedited the execution of India’s strategic plans in Iran and Afghanistan, primarily to Imran Jan – Khalid Hussain – Khawaja Amer Labbaba Jahangir – Meriam Sabih isolate and destabilise Pakistan by sponsoring terrorism through Afghan soil, fuelling Muhammad Ali Khan – Muhammad Omar Iftikhar an insurgency in Balochistan and sabotaging CPEC. Murtaza Talpur – Nadya Chishty-Mujahid However, karma (fate, destiny) tends to strike back as a result of one’s own actions. Nikhat Sattar – S.G. Jilanee – S.R.H. Hashmi Sabria Chowdhury Balland That started hap- pening earlier Saira Baig – Shahrukh Mehboob – Sophiya Qadeer in May 2020 when the Indian Syed Kamran Hashmi – Taha Kehar defence minister inaugurated the Wajid Shamsul Hasan – Zara Maqbool 80km Darchula- Lipulekh Pass GRAPHICS & LAYOUT link road, cutting across Kalapani, Haroon Rasheed a disputed bor- der area between Kamran Ghulam Nabi Nepal and India. The Nepal Communist Party, the country’s ruling party, termed the Riaz Masih - Hassan Raza road as a sheer violation of Nepal’s sovereignty as well as a stark example of bullying by its much larger neighbour. In retaliation, an irate Nepalese Parliament approved a new GENERAL MANAGER-MARKETING Syed Ovais Akhtar map that included Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani, the areas claimed by India. PRODUCTION & COORDINATION The map is indeed a severe blow to India’s overblown geo-strategic interests in the re- Aqam-ud-Din Khan gion. Then the Galwan River Valley of the Ladakh region near the Line of Actual Control CIRCULATION & DISTRIBUTION (LAC) with China was turned into a graveyard of 20 Indian soldiers who were beaten to Shehryar Zulfiqar death in a border clash with Chinese forces. Showing India its true place, the Chinese also detained 10 Indian soldiers, who were later freed. India’s relations with China, Paki- EDITORIAL & BUSINESS OFFICE stan and Nepal may have been on the boil but its government does not get along very 20-C, Lane 12, off Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase II Extension, DHA, Karachi - 75500, Pakistan well with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka either. Quite surprisingly, with all the bad blood Phones: 92-21- 35313821-24 on its borders, India’s years-long diplomatic efforts came to fruition when it recently Fax: 92-21-35313832 became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a Website: www.southasia.com.pk Email: [email protected] two-year term. India now needs all the more to act with responsibility so that its mem- bership of the UNSC is truly justified. The situation at the LAC is still tense and could SouthAsia is published every month flare up into another border war between India and China. The Covid-19 pandemic has by Syed Jawaid Iqbal for and on behalf of India really cornered, along with its on-going economic crisis. The 1962 defeat is still JAWZ Communications (Pvt.) Ltd. and printed by fresh in India’s mind as it braces itself for another military hu- Ibn-e-Hasan Offset Printing Press, Karachi. miliation by China. It is a pity for Chanakya’s followers who Views expressed by the contributors are believe in befriending the enemy’s enemy that they are now not necessarily shared by the editors. Published since 1977 as Thirdworld, the magazine was losing their age-old friends next doors. For India, the law of re-launched in 1997 as SouthAsia. karma has come full circle. Syed Jawaid Iqbal Read our digital edition at: President & Editor in Chief www.southasia.com.pk SOUTHASIA • JULY 2020 5 READERS’ TSLUGHOUGHTS Social Catastrophe Brave New World his is regarding the article ‘Biting his is related to your story on the Tthe Hand’ by Sabria Chowdhury Tthe novel coronavirus that has Balland about the plight of garment taken the world by storm. The tittle workers in Bangladesh, especially ‘New World Order’ emphasises the women. With businesses closing due kind of world we now live in - with to the pandemic, many in Bangladesh masks and gloves and sanitizers. are deprived of their basic salaries Easing lockdown protocols and their families are starving. The in many countries, the world workers had already survived hand- has once again stood up to to-mouth and, with not getting bear the brunt of the economic salaries, they have started protesting havoc caused by the pandemic. and ignoring social distancing. For an However, as more people come economy which is heavily dependent out on the streets and start going to jobs, the virus has begun spreading rapidly. Though manyb countries are working to manufacture a vaccine, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the virus is here to stay and that the people have to learn to live with it. Wasay Sheikh, Karachi, Pakistan. of resources and awareness, they are decisions and encourage them being used by tamers to earn a living. to go that extra mile to fulfil the on its garments manufacturing and In order to end the animals’ miseries, needs keeping in view the extent to export industry, it is surprising that its better laws need to be imposed to which demands can be fulfilled. workers are treated this way in times of rescue and transfer the animals to Betty Cooper, crisis. Shame on you, Sheikh Hasina! countries with better facilities and, for Brighton, England. Mita Haque, that, we all need to work together. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sachini Bandara, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Gender Bias Justice for Animals here have been a number of debates Learning to Say Ton how we stereotype a man and a his is with reference to the article woman. For a long time, one witnessed T‘A Bear Story’ by Labbaba Jahangir ‘No’ how women were taught to adjust and about the illegal trade of wildlife. compromise in a male-centric world Although animal rights and animal he phrase ‘the customer is always but gone are those days. Now, where welfare movements have improved in Tright’ is long gone. Yes, we must on the one hand, women are acquiring the 21st century, we still see animals satisfy the needs of customers but almost 50% in the corporate sector and being tortured and ill-treated for sometimes their demands are just not balancing both their jobs and home entertainment reasonable. We are taught never to say tremendously, men are cooking, doing purposes in circuses ‘no’ to a customer laundry and taking care of the kids, or individually. The but what we along with doing wonders at their IUCN Red List has don’t realise is workplace.