Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday set aside a ruling by the deputy speaker of the national parliament that had blocked a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The controversial house ruling on Sunday led to the dissolution of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, by President Arif Alvi, acting on Khan’s advice. The president had also called for fresh elections.

However, the five-judge panel of the top court, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, unanimously declared as unconstitutional all the steps stemming from the deputy speaker’s ruling.

The verdict also restored Khan as the prime minister and his cabinet as well, ordering the session of the National Assembly to reconvene on Saturday morning to reorganize the vote of no-confidence to determine the fate of the embattled prime minister.

Khan had lost the majority in the 342-member house in the run-up to Sunday’s no-confidence vote after nearly two dozen lawyers from his ruling party defected and main coalition partners switched sides and joined the opposition.

The 69-year-old former cricket star’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party won the 2018 election but it did not win the majority, forcing Khan to form a coalition government with a thin majority.
…

India’s power sector has been targeted by hackers in a long-term operation thought to have been carried out by a state-sponsored Chinese group, a U.S.-based private cybersecurity company detailed in a new report.

Over the last several months, the Insikt Group, the threat research division of Massachusetts-based Recorded Future, said it has collected evidence that hackers targeted seven Indian state centers responsible for carrying out electrical dispatch and grid control near a border area disputed by the two nuclear neighbors.

The group primarily used the trojan ShadowPad, which is believed to have been developed by contractors for China’s Ministry of State Security, leading to the conclusion that this was a state-sponsored hacking effort, the group reported.

“ShadowPad continues to be employed by an ever–increasing number of People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of State Security-linked groups, with its origins linked to known MSS contractors first using the tool in their own operations and later likely acting as a digital quartermaster,” Recorded Future said in the report late Wednesday.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Thursday the report had been “noted” by Beijing, but that China “firmly opposes and combats any form of cyber attacks, and will not encourage, support or condone any cyber attacks.” “I would like to advise the company concerned that if they really care about global cyber security, they should pay more attention to the cyber attacks by the U.S. government hackers on China and other countries, and do more to help promote dialogue and cooperation among countries, instead of using the cyber attack issue to stir up trouble and throw mud at China,” he told reporters.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday and Minister of Power R.K. Singh said the report was not a cause for concern.

“We are always prepared,” he said. “We have a very robust security system. We are always alert.”

Insikt Group already detected and reported a suspected Chinese-sponsored hack of 10 Indian power sector organizations in February 2021 by a group known as RedEcho. The more recent hack “displays targeting and capability consistencies” with RedEcho, but there are also “notable distinctions” between the two so the group has been given the working name of Threat Activity Group 38, or TAG-38, as more information is gathered.

Following a short lull after its first report, Recorded Future said the Insikt Group again started tracking hacking attempts on India’s power grid organizations. Over the last several months, through late March, it identified likely network intrusions targeting at least seven of India’s so-called “State Load Dispatch Centers” — all in proximity to the disputed border in Ladakh, where Chinese and Indian troops clashed in June 2020, leaving 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese dead.

“Recorded Future continues to track Chinese state-sponsored activity groups targeting a wide variety of sectors globally — a large majority of this conforms to longstanding cyber espionage efforts, such as targeting of foreign governments, surveillance of dissident and minority groups, and economic espionage,” the report said.

“However, the coordinated effort to target Indian power grid assets in recent years is notably distinct from our perspective and, given the continued heightened tension and border disputes between the two countries, we believe is a cause for concern,” it added.

Hackers are thought to have gained access through third-party devices connected to the internet, like IP cameras, which had been compromised, the company said.

Investigators have not yet determined how they had been compromised, but Recorded Future suggested they may have originally been installed using default credentials, leaving them vulnerable.

Because the prolonged targeting of India’s power grid “offers limited economic espionage or traditional intelligence-gathering opportunities,” Recorded Future said it seems more likely the goal is to enable information gathering around surrounding critical infrastructure systems, or to be pre-positioned for future activity.

“The objective for intrusions may include gaining an increased understanding into these complex systems in order to facilitate capability development for future use or gaining sufficient access across the system in preparation for future contingency operations,” Recorded Future said.
…

Pakistan’s Supreme Court Wednesday adjourned without deciding whether the blocking of an opposition-tabled no-confidence vote in parliament to oust embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan was in line with the country’s constitution.

The five-judge panel of the highest court, led by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, will reconvene Thursday when it is likely to conclude the hearing and announce a verdict.

The legal proceedings stemmed from Sunday’s special session of the 342-member National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, where lawmakers were set to vote on the no-confidence motion that Khan was expected to lose.

Khan, the 69-year-old former cricket star, had lost his majority in the run-up to the vote after some two dozen lawmakers from his ruling party defected and key coalition partners abandoned the government to join the opposition.

However, Deputy Speaker Qasim Shah Suri, a member of the ruling party, blocked the no-confidence motion, calling it unlawful for having been sponsored by a “foreign power” to bring down the Pakistani government.

Suri prorogued the session after announcing his ruling amid strong protests by opposition lawmakers. Pakistani President Arif Alvi, swiftly acting on Khan’s advice, dissolved the parliament and called fresh elections in 90 days, citing constitution provisions.

The disputed moves threw the nuclear-armed South Asian nation of 220 million people into a political crisis and prompted the Supreme Court to immediately launch a hearing to determine their legitimacy.

Khan has alleged repeatedly that the United States conspired with the opposition to topple his government to punish him for his recent visit to Russia and for not supporting the West in condemning President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Pakistani opposition leaders have ridiculed the charges and Washington vehemently rejected them.

“There is absolutely no truth to the allegations,” State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated to reporters on Monday when asked if the U.S. was behind an effort to oust Khan.

“We do not support one political party over another. We support the broader principles, the principles of rule of law, of equal justice under the law,” Price added.

Khan has been a strong critic of the two decades of U.S.-led foreign military intervention in neighboring Afghanistan, which ended with the withdrawal of international troops and the return of the Islamist Taliban to power last August.

On Wednesday, President Alvi instructed election authorities to propose a date for the general election even as the court considers the legality of the house ruling and the moves ensuing from it.

“In order to carry out the mandate of the constitution of announcing the date of general elections, consultation with the Election Commission is required,” said a presidential statement.

Alvi used his constitutional authority Monday to allow Khan to work as an interim chief executive until a caretaker prime minister was appointed in consultation with the opposition leadership to supervise the election.

Pakistan’s powerful military has distanced itself from the political crisis.

Previous political crises in Pakistan have prompted the military to seize power on three occasions, leading to prolonged dictatorial rules, which critics blame for the fragility of the country’s democracy.

Khan admitted ahead of Sunday’s no-confidence vote that the army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, offered to help resolve the political turmoil.

The prime minister praised Bajwa’s initiative, saying the two agreed on holding snap elections in Pakistan, but the opposition rejected the offer and instead went for what Khan denounced as the “foreign-funded” no-confidence vote against him.

While the opposition and many legal experts have denounced the speaker’s ruling as an extra-constitutional step, government attorneys defended the move as legal and argued Pakistan’s constitution bars the judiciary from intervening in parliamentary proceedings.

“The constitution unambiguously states that the parliament cannot intervene in judicial proceedings,” Ali Zafar, who is representing Alvi’s actions, explained to reporters at the end of the hearing Wednesday.

“Similarly, the court cannot interfere in internal proceedings and business of the parliament,” Zafar stressed.

The senior attorney said he underscored the separation of constitutional powers in his arguments and cautioned the judges that if they start monitoring parliamentary affairs there would be no end to it.
…

India has condemned the killing of civilians in Ukraine, marking the first time New Delhi has publicly criticized actions blamed on Russia but also said that Moscow continues to be a critical economic partner.

So far Delhi has refrained from censuring its long-time ally Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, despite mounting pressure from the United States and its allies.

“We strongly condemn the killings in Bucha,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in parliament Wednesday. “This is an extremely serious matter and we support the call for an independent investigation.”

Officials and residents in Ukraine have reported more than 300 civilians had been killed by Russian troops during the occupation of the town of Bucha near Kyiv. Moscow has denied any involvement and blamed Ukrainian “radicals.”

“We are strongly against the war and we believe that no solution can be arrived at by shedding blood and at the cost of innocent lives,” Jaishankar said, reiterating India’s push for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the conflict. “If India has chosen a side, it has chosen side of peace and it is for an immediate end to the violence.”

The foreign minister’s statement came a day after India also condemned the civilian killings in Bucha at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, calling the reports “deeply disturbing.” India has abstained from several U.N. resolutions criticizing Russia.

“It marks a shift in stance on India’s part,” says Manoj Joshi, distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. ”You cannot stay neutral on human rights issues.”

However underlining Russia’s importance to India, the Indian foreign minister told parliament that “efforts are underway to stabilize economic transactions between India and Russia because this is very important for us.”

Although trade between India and Russia is only around nine billion dollars, India is critically dependent on Moscow, its Cold War ally, for much of its military hardware. In recent weeks, its oil companies have also sealed deals to buy crude oil from Russia being offered at a discounted rate. India has defended the purchases, citing its energy security and pointing out that Europe is also continuing to buy energy from Russia.

India and Russia are exploring using a mechanism to trade in their local currencies to bypass sanctions by Western countries, according to reports. Jaishankar told parliament that a group of ministers is seeing how the payments issue can be addressed.

India’s stance has frustrated the United States and its allies, which have repeatedly called on India to join them in strongly condemning Russia. Last month U.S. President, Joe Biden said India was “somewhat shaky” in acting against Russia.

Analysts say India is trying to navigate a middle ground between Moscow, which it needs for its defense supplies, and Washington, with which it has built a strong strategic partnership over the last two decades amid their growing convergence on the need to counter China.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Washington Tuesday that it expects India to scale down its dependence on Russian military equipment, going forward. He was addressing a congressional hearing on the annual defense budget.

“If the war intensifies, the pressures on New Delhi will mount. India is in a very tough spot. The point is how long can it juggle its ties with Russia and its Western partners? says analyst Joshi. “The more prolonged the conflict is, the more challenging will be the situation for India.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited India last week, praised New Delhi for “not taking a one-sided view of the conflict” and said that ties between the two countries have sustained them through difficult times in the past.
…

VOA’s Zubair Dar brings us the story of ‘Pencil Village’ where a factory provides two-thirds of the wood needed to make pencils in India, which exports the old-school writing implement to scores of countries. This report is narrated by Aisha Khalid.
…

The U.N. human rights office is urging the Sri Lankan government to engage in peaceful dialogue, not violence, to quell rising discontent over the country’s economic crisis.

Tensions have been rising since Sri Lanka announced a state of emergency and other restrictions a few days ago. The action was taken to rein in mass gatherings of people protesting the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell said there are worrying signs that the government is losing patience with the largely peaceful demonstrations taking place across the country. She said people are demanding action to stem the rising cost of living, shortages of fuel and other essential commodities.

“We have seen brutality in the past and I understand that there were a number of arrests, dozens of arrests. Fifty or so people were detained in response to one of the protests. And there was, as I said, reports of excessive and unwarranted police violence against protesters,” she said.

Throssell said there is concern that the state of emergency will be used to stifle dissent and peoples’ right to freedom of expression and assembly. She said using emergency powers to prevent people from expressing grievances through peaceful protests would violate international human rights law.

She said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet previously has voiced concern about repressive measures taken by the government in response to criticism of its policies.

“As the high commissioner noted in her recent report to the Human Rights Council in February, the drift towards militarization and the weakening of institutional checks and balances in Sri Lanka have affected the state’s ability to effectively tackle the economic crisis and ensure the realization of the economic, social, and cultural rights of all people in Sri Lanka,” said the spokeswoman.

Throssell said the high commissioner believes meaningful dialogue between the government and political and civic critics would offer solutions to the economic and political crisis facing the country. She adds the human rights office will be closely watching developments.
…

The Delhi High Court has allowed prominent Indian journalist Rana Ayyub to travel abroad, six days after she was prevented from taking a flight to Europe to speak in a series of lectures there about harassment and intimidation of journalists in the world’s largest democracy.

On Tuesday, March 29, the independent investigative journalist, who writes for The Washington Post, received an emailed summons from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates financial crimes, 14 minutes before her flight for London was to depart from Mumbai.

Known as a Look Out Circular [LOC], the summons was related to an investigation the directorate is conducting into the alleged misuse of donations that Ayyub collected for relief work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, the court quashed the LOC, noting that it was “mala fide,” or “devoid of merits,” and infringed on the “human right [of Ayyub] to travel abroad and exercise her freedom of speech and expression.” The court has now allowed Ayyub to travel abroad on condition that she share her detailed itinerary with the ED and return to India by April 11.

Neither the EC nor the government has commented publicly on the ruling.

Ayyub is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist ideology of his Bharatiya Janata Party and the activities of Hindu right-wing groups and political leaders. On social media, far-right Hindu supporters of Modi regularly abuse and threaten her for her articles highlighting the harassment and persecution of Muslims in India.

Attacks against Ayyub have escalated since the ED froze her bank accounts, accused her of laundering money and launched an investigation into the case in February.

Ayyub has denied the allegation that the ED leveled against her. She has called the actions by the agency an attempt to intimidate her.

Lawyer Vrinda Grover, who represented Ayyub in the Delhi court, said that her client was being harassed by the ED because she was a critic of the government.

After Ayyub was prevented from taking the flight last week, the London programs where she was scheduled to speak on April 1 were canceled. With the Delhi court lifting the ban on Ayyub’s travel Monday, she is scheduled to take part in an event, organized by the International Journalism Festival, in Perugia, Italy.

Ayyub is to deliver a lecture titled, “When the State Attacks: journalism under fire in the world’s biggest democracy,” as the scheduled keynote speaker, on Friday, April 8.

Several participants of the festival expressed joy and relief on learning that Ayyub would be at the festival.

Julie Posetti, vice president of global research at the International Center for Journalists, or ICFJ, and an expert in online attacks against women journalists, said she is “thrilled that the New Delhi High Court has delivered justice and overruled the totally unjustified ban on Rana Ayyub’s right to travel to speak at international events about press freedom erosion in India and threats to women journalists online.”

“The ban slapped on her as she attempted to board a flight to London at the invitation of ICFJ and UK-based human rights lawyers at Doughty Street Chambers was a bald and ham-fisted attempt to silence her critical journalism and commentary and crush her spirit – but it ultimately failed,” Posetti, who will be the moderator during Ayyub’s lecture at the journalism festival, told VOA.

It is essential that Ayyub be able to tell her stories and speak her truth within the international journalism community if the world is to believe that press freedom and genuine democracy have a future in India, Posetti noted.

“More power to her for confronting the Indian authorities and demanding her rights be upheld,” Posetti said.
…

Pakistan’s Supreme Court adjourned until Wednesday a hearing to decide the legality of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s blocking of an opposition bid to oust him, a dispute that has led to political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country.

Former cricket star Khan lost his parliamentary majority last week and had been facing a no-confidence vote tabled by a united opposition that he was expected to lose on Sunday.

But the deputy speaker of parliament, a member of Khan’s party, threw out the motion, ruling it was part of a foreign conspiracy and unconstitutional. Khan then dissolved parliament.

The stand-off has thrown the country of 220 million people, ruled by the military for extended periods since independence in 1947, into a full-blown constitutional crisis.

The opposition challenged Khan’s decision in a legal case in the Supreme Court that began on Monday.

The panel of five judges has not said when it might give a ruling.

“Our concern is about the legality of the ruling of the speaker,” Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said at the hearing. “We don’t want to indulge in policy matters.”

Opposition lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan said Khan’s actions were a violation of the constitution.

“This is not just a matter of procedure but it is in negation of parliamentary democracy,” he told the court.

The hearing was adjourned on Tuesday after legal arguments against the move were concluded. The court will hear from Khan’s team on Wednesday.

The court could order that parliament be reconstituted, call for a new election or bar Khan from standing again if he is found to have acted unconstitutionally. Read full story

The court could also decide that it cannot intervene in parliamentary affairs.

Lengthy legal proceedings would create a power vacuum with implications for issues such as talks with the International Monetary Fund to secure funds to support the cash-strapped economy.

No evidence of plot

Political chaos would also worry the powerful military, which has stepped in to remove civilian governments and rule on three occasions, citing the need to end political uncertainty.

The turmoil also threatens to damage ties with long-time ally the United States, after Khan accused it of being behind the plot to overthrow him.

The United States dismissed the accusation.

Pakistan’s security agencies have not found credible evidence to confirm Khan’s complaint of a foreign conspiracy, an official with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Khan and the deputy speaker had said Pakistan’s National Security Committee, a top panel that groups civilian officials as well as the military and intelligence chiefs, had confirmed a plot to overthrow him.

However, the official, who is privy to such proceedings, said the security agencies had not come to the same conclusion as Khan and had communicated their view to him.

Khan, who was for years critical of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, also accused opposition parties of being part of a foreign conspiracy.

Shehbaz Sharif, the opposition candidate likely to replace Khan as prime minister should the court rule against Khan, told media that he had urged army and intelligence chiefs to look into Khan’s accusation.

Political analysts say the military viewed Khan and his conservative agenda favorably when he won a general election in 2018 but the generals’ support has since waned.

Khan denied ever having the backing of the military and the military says it has no involvement in the political process.
…

In Afghanistan, the Taliban have issued a decree prohibiting the growth of opium poppy plants as well as the use and trading of narcotics and have banned other illicit drugs and alcohol. Ibrahim Momand has the story from Kabul, Afghanistan, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
…

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August following a chaotic U.S. withdrawal has led to “unprecedented” suffering among Afghans, a new survey finds. 

According to a Gallup poll, 94% of Afghans “rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering.”  

Though it was the highest level since 2005, suffering has been on an upward trend since 2017, when the Taliban began a long offensive to take the country back, Gallup said. 

Among women, 96% reported suffering, compared with 92% of men. There were no notable differences in the level of suffering among Afghanistan’s regions. 

Women are also pessimistic about their futures, Gallup said, as the Taliban have reneged on promises to reverse banning women from secondary and higher education. Women have been restricted from working in every field except health care and primary education. 

The need for humanitarian aid in the country is desperate, but attention has shifted away from the country since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Gallup said. 

“Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and other countries pledged substantial amounts of aid. However, in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine, it is unclear how much additional aid will be forthcoming,” Gallup said in a press release. 
…

Pakistan’s Supreme Court began Monday an urgent hearing into opposition allegations the blocking of a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan was a violation of the country’s constitution.

The hearing stemmed from Sunday’s special session of the 342-member National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, where lawmakers were supposed to vote on the opposition-launched motion seeking Khan’s ouster for allegedly misruling Pakistan.

But the acting speaker, Qasim Shah Suri, unexpectedly rejected the motion at the outset for not being in line with the constitution and swiftly ended the session being telecast live.

“No foreign power has the right to topple an elected government under any conspiracy. So, I rule the no-confidence resolution as against the national integrity and sovereignty, and I… disallow the no-confidence resolution,” Suri said.

The speaker’s ruling referred to Khan’s accusations that the United States had plotted the no-confidence vote to bring down his government to punish him for a recent Russia visit and not supporting the West in condemning President Vladimir Putin’s military aggression against Ukraine.

Washington has repeatedly rejected the allegations, saying there was “no truth” to them. “We respect and support Pakistan’s constitutional process and the rule of law,” a State Department spokesman told VOA while responding to Sunday’s developments.

Soon after the speaker ended the session, Pakistani President Arif Alvi, acting on the prime minister’s advice, dissolved the parliament and called fresh elections in 90 days, citing relevant constitution provisions.

Khan also dissolved his Cabinet. The successive moves have thrown the nuclear-armed South Asian nation into a political crisis.

The 69-year-old former cricket star lost his thin majority in parliament after around two dozen lawmakers from Khan’s ruling party defected and main coalition partners switched sides to join the opposition in the run-up to Sunday’s vote.

Khan came to power in the 2018 general elections as the head of a coalition government with a thin parliamentary majority because his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party fell short of winning a simple majority.

Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif condemned the blocking of the vote against the prime minister as “nothing short of high treason,” demanding the Supreme Court reverse it and all other ensuing actions.

All eyes are on the outcome of the hearing underway in Pakistan’s highest court that will determine the fate of the political crisis. The top court adjourned the hearing until Tuesday.

Pakistan’s military spokesman, Major-General Babar Iftikhar, told VOA on Sunday the military has nothing to do with the political turmoil, dismissing widespread speculation that a military intervention was imminent.

But critics remain skeptical as Pakistan has experienced several military coups, leading to prolonged dictatorial rules, and generals allegedly continue to influence elected governments in policy making matters when not in power.

Analysts blame direct and indirect military interventions for the fragile democracy in Pakistan’s 74-years of existence, where no elected prime minister has been able to complete his or her full-five-year term mainly due to developing differences with the military leadership.

“This is a good omen. It is good to see, at least, that the executive, the parliament, and the judiciary are all claiming their due constitutional space and asserting their writ,” the Express Tribune newspaper wrote in its editorial Monday, referring to the army’s denial of having nothing to do with the unfolding crisis.

“It is a worthy achievement for the people of Pakistan who awe and aspire for representative rule. One hopes this constitutional hiccup too would be a passing reference in our checkered politics, and institutions will triumph over personalized whims and wishes.”

Alvi, the largely ceremonial president, used his constitutional authority Monday to allow Khan to work as an interim chief executive until a caretaker prime minister was appointed to supervise the general election.

A presidential statement said Alvi also wrote to both Khan and Sharif, asking them to put forward names for a caretaker prime minister within three days. But the opposition leader, while addressing a news conference, rejected the offer Monday and demanded the Supreme Court undo Khan’s actions and restore the parliament.

For his part, Khan proposed Monday the name of Pakistan’s former chief justice, Gulzar Ahmed, to be the caretaker prime minister.

Gareth Price, senior research fellow in the Asia Pacific program at London-based Chatham House, questioned Khan’s claims the United States was behind the no-confidence vote against him.  

“While U.S. criticism of Khan’s fence-sitting regarding Ukraine and general anti-Americanism is eminently plausible, a call for regime change, as Khan claimed, seems more far-fetched,” Price said in written comments shared with VOA.   

“A court ruling on whether or not the move (that blocked the no-trust vote) is legal is imminent. Either way, recent events have done little to resolve political polarization,” he observed.  “Like many populists, Khan seems happy to conflate himself with Pakistan, describing his opponents as “dacoits” (bandits) and “traitors.” 

Price noted that if the political turmoil eventually leads to fresh elections in Pakistan, whoever ends up leading the nation will have to grapple with serious economic crises, including rising inflation. 

Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
…

But some industries have missed out and are urging Australia to include them in the future, updated deal 
…

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s entire cabinet aside from the president and his sibling prime minister resigned from their posts Sunday as the ruling political clan seeks to resolve a mounting economic crisis, with a social media blackout failing to halt another day of anti-government demonstrations. 

The South Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials — along with record inflation and crippling power cuts — in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948. 

All 26 ministers in the cabinet aside from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted letters of resignation at a late-night meeting, education minister Dinesh Gunawardena told reporters. 

The move clears the way for the president to appoint a new cabinet on Monday — and some of those stepping down may be reappointed. 

It came with the country under a state of emergency imposed after a crowd attempted to storm the president’s home in the capital Colombo, and a nationwide curfew in effect until Monday morning. 

Earlier, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Sri Lanka’s main opposition alliance, denounced a social media blackout aimed at quelling intensifying public demonstrations and said it was time for the government to resign. 

“President Rajapaksa better realize that the tide has already turned on his autocratic rule,” SJB lawmaker Harsha de Silva told AFP. 

Troops armed with automatic assault rifles moved to stop a protest by opposition lawmakers and hundreds of their supporters attempting to march to the capital’s Independence Square. 

The road was barricaded a few hundred meters from the home of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and the crowd engaged in a tense stand-off with security forces for nearly two hours before dispersing peacefully.  

 Eran Wickramaratne, another SLB lawmaker, condemned the state of emergency declaration and the presence of troops on city streets.  

“We can’t allow a military takeover,” he said. “They should know we are still a democracy.” 

Social media blackout  

Internet service providers were ordered to block access to Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and several other social media platforms but the blackout did not deter several small demonstrations elsewhere in Sri Lanka.   

Police fired tear gas to disperse university students in the central town of Peradeniya, though protests in other parts of the country ended without incident. 

Private media outlets reported that the chief of Sri Lanka’s internet regulator resigned after the ban order went into effect. 

The blackout was rescinded later in the day after the country’s Human Rights Commission ruled that the defense ministry had no power to impose the censorship. 

The streets of Colombo stayed largely empty on Sunday, apart from the opposition protest and long lines of vehicles queued for fuel.  

But police told AFP that one man had died by electrocution after climbing a high-tension pylon near Rajapaksa’s home. Residents said he was protesting rolling power cuts. 

Mass protests had been planned for Sunday before the social media blackout went into effect, but organizers have postponed the rallies until after the curfew is lifted on Monday. 

Internal rifts 

The escalating protests have led to fissures within the government, with the president’s nephew Namal Rajapaksa condemning the partial internet blackout. 

“I will never condone the blocking of social media,” said Namal, the sports minister.  

He was among three members of the Rajapaksa family who later resigned, along with finance minister Basil and the eldest brother Chamal, who held the agricultural portfolio. 

A junior party has also hinted it may leave the ruling coalition within a week. 

The move would not affect the government’s survival but threatens its chances of lawfully extending the country’s state of emergency ordinance. 

Western diplomats in Colombo have expressed concern over the use of emergency laws to stifle democratic dissent and said they were closely monitoring developments. 

Sri Lanka’s influential Bar Association has urged the government to rescind the state of emergency, which allows security forces to arrest and detain suspects for long periods without charges. 

Solidarity protests were staged elsewhere in the world over the weekend, including in the Australian city of Melbourne, home to a large Sri Lankan diaspora. 

A critical lack of foreign currency has left Sri Lanka struggling to service its ballooning $51-billion foreign debt, with the pandemic torpedoing vital revenue from tourism and remittances. 

The crisis has also left the import-dependent country unable to pay even for essentials. 

Diesel shortages have sparked outrage across Sri Lanka in recent days, causing protests at empty pumps, and electricity utilities have imposed 13-hour blackouts to conserve fuel. 

Many economists also say the crisis has been exacerbated by government mismanagement, years of accumulated borrowing and ill-advised tax cuts. 

Sri Lanka is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. 
…

A high-profile Indian journalist failed to obtain interim relief from the Delhi High Court that would have allowed her to travel to Europe to speak about harassment and intimidation of journalists in the world’s largest democracy.

Rana Ayyub is a prominent investigative journalist and fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalist ideology of his Bharatiya Janata Party. She was stopped from boarding an international flight at Mumbai airport Tuesday.

Ayyub was scheduled to fly to London to address a conference organized by the International Center for Journalists or ICFJ and deliver a speech at the editorial meeting of The Guardian newspaper April 1.

She was then due to fly from London to Rome to take part in the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, where, as the scheduled keynote speaker, Ayyub was to deliver a lecture titled, “When the State attacks: journalism under fire in the world’s biggest democracy,” April 8.

The April 1 programs in the United Kingdom were canceled after Ayyub failed to fly to London.

According to Ayyub, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates financial crimes, issued a summons while she was already at Mumbai airport to catch the flight to London. Known as a Look Out Circular (LOC), the summons that prevented her from flying Tuesday was related to an investigation the directorate is conducting into the alleged misuse of donations collected by Ayyub for relief work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The journalist denies the charges.

Ayyub petitioned the Delhi High Court Thursday, seeking permission to travel outside of India. Following opposition from the ED, however, the court refused to quash the LOC, meaning she cannot travel abroad for now. While the court directed the ED to file a status report on its case against Ayyub, the matter has been listed for a new hearing April 4.

Ayyub, 37, is an independent journalist who also writes for The Washington Post. She has faced social media harassment including rape and death threats, from Hindu right-wing groups, that mostly began when her book Gujarat Files was published in 2016. In the book, she alleged that officials of the BJP-led government of Gujarat had been complicit in an anti-Muslim massacre that shook the state in 2002.

Ayyub is often critical of the activities of the Hindu right-wing groups and political leaders. In social media, far-right Hindu supporters of Modi regularly abuse and threaten her for her write-ups highlighting the [alleged] harassment and persecution of Muslims in India. Attacks against Ayyub have escalated since the ED froze her bank accounts and accused her of laundering money in February.

Ayyub has denied the allegation that the ED leveled against her. She has called the actions by the agency an attempt to intimidate her.                          

Lawyer Vrinda Grover, who represented Ayyub in the Delhi court said, that her client was being harassed by the ED because she was a critic of the government.

The Washington Post recently put out a full-page advertisement in support of Ayyub, saying that free press in India is under attack. In February, rights experts at the United Nations sought that the “judicial harassment against her [be] brought to an end at once.”

Media watchdogs have condemned the Indian government’s actions against Ayyub.

“Preventing Rana Ayyub from traveling abroad is another incident in a growing list of unjustified and excessive actions taken by the Indian government against the journalist,” Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement.

“Indian authorities should immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against Ayyub.”

Julie Posetti, vice president of global research at ICFJ and an expert in online attacks against women journalists, said that Indian authorities are trying to criminalize Ayyub’s practice of journalism.   

“Not only is Rana Ayyub subjected to the most prolific orchestrated online violence I’ve ever witnessed or studied, she’s experiencing state-linked legal harassment, and now she’s had her right to freedom of movement violated. These acts are clearly a form of retaliation for her critical reporting and commentary on the ruling BJP party and PM Modi’s government,” Posetti told VOA.

Ayyub’s attackers want to silence and isolate her from the international journalism community, Posetti noted.  

“But we are standing at her side and demand that she be allowed to travel to Italy to deliver her keynote address at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia,” she said. 
…

The Taliban have outlawed cultivation of drugs, including opium poppy, across Afghanistan, the world’s biggest opium producer, which accounts for 85 percent of global production.

A decree issued Sunday by the ruling Islamist group’s reclusive supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, also banned the production, usage, transportation, trade, export and import of all other drugs.

“If anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to the Sharia law,” according to the order announced by the Taliban Interior Ministry at a news conference in Kabul.

The hardline group seized power from the now-defunct Western-backed government days before the United States and NATO-led foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August.

Since then, the Taliban have been under pressure from neighboring and regional countries to combat the production as well as trafficking of drugs.

The opium harvest in Afghanistan increased by 8 percent in 2021, compared to last year, to 6.800 tons, according to a report that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) released in November.

The report warned that the output could lead to markets around the globe being flooded with around 320 tons of pure heroin trafficked from the country.

The UNODC estimated in its report that income from Afghan opiates amounted to $1.8- to $2.7 billion in 2021 inside Afghanistan, but much larger profits are made in the illicit drug supply chains outside the country.

Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis and economic upheavals have worsened since the withdrawal of Western troops after 20 years.

Years of war, persistent drought and financial sanctions imposed on the Taliban after the withdrawal of foreign troops are blamed for the unprecedented increase in humanitarian needs in the South Asian nation.

Analysts say the dire economic conditions have prompted many Afghan farmers lately to stop growing legal crops such as wheat and instead cultivate the illicit opium poppy crops because it brings faster and higher returns.

The Taliban had banned poppy growing when they were previously in control of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and the move had significantly reduced the harvest, according to the UNODC estimates at the time.

The removal of the Islamist group from power by the U.S.-led military invasion of the country after the September 2001 attacks on the United States led to a resurgence in opium poppy cultivation despite billions of dollars of investment by Washington to help Afghan authorities combat narcotics production.

A U.S. government watchdog documented in a recent report that Washington spent “nearly $9 billion on counternarcotics efforts since 2002, in part due to concerns that trafficking funded” the Taliban insurgency at the time.

“Despite the investment, the cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan has trended upward for two decades, and insecurity has made it difficult to reverse the growth,” said the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR.
…

Armed troops in Sri Lanka blocked a Sunday opposition protest march staged in defiance of an emergency curfew to protest the island nation’s worsening economic crisis, after authorities imposed a social media blackout to contain public dissent.

The South Asian island nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials, along with sharp price rises and crippling power cuts, in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa imposed a state of emergency on Friday, the day after a crowd attempted to storm his home in the capital Colombo, and a nationwide curfew is in effect until Monday morning.

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Sri Lanka’s main opposition alliance, denounced a social media blockade imposed Sunday to quell intensifying public demonstrations, and said it was time for the government to tender its resignation.

Armed troops moved to stop a protest by more than 100 opposition lawmakers and supporters attempting to march to the capital’s Independence Square from the home of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

“President Rajapaksa better realize that the tide has already turned on his autocratic rule,” SJB lawmaker Harsha de Silva told AFP.

Fellow SJB legislator Eran Wickramaratne said the spiraling situation raised the prospects of martial law.

“We can’t allow a military takeover,” he said. “They should know we are still a democracy.”

Anonymous activists had called for mass protests Sunday on social media before the ban order went into effect.

There was a heavy presence of troops elsewhere in the capital as the curfew was strictly enforced.

News photographers were denied access to Independence Square, a popular venue for demonstrations in Colombo.

Overnight, however, hundreds defied the curfew and staged small demonstrations in various Colombo neighborhoods and dispersed peacefully, police and residents said.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp were among the platforms shut down Sunday on the orders of defense authorities, internet service providers told their subscribers.

Private media outlets reported that the chief of Sri Lanka’s internet regulator resigned after the order went into effect.

Demonstrations trending

Cracks in the government have emerged, with the president’s nephew Namal Rajapaksa publicly announcing he had urged the government to reconsider the partial internet blackout.

“I will never condone the blocking of social media,” said Namal, also the country’s sports minister.

“The availability of VPN, just like I’m using now, makes such bans completely useless.”

The anti-government hashtags “#GoHomeRajapaksas” and “#GotaGoHome” have been trending locally for days on Twitter and Facebook.

A social media activist was arrested Friday for allegedly posting material that could cause public unrest. He has since been bailed.

Hundreds of lawyers have volunteered to represent any anti-government protesters arrested by the authorities. Sri Lanka’s influential Bar Association has also urged the government to rescind the state of emergency.

Western diplomats in Colombo expressed concern over the use of emergency laws to stifle democratic dissent and said they were closely monitoring developments.

A critical lack of foreign currency has left Sri Lanka struggling to service its ballooning $51 billion public debt, with the pandemic torpedoing vital revenue from tourism and remittances.

The crisis has also left the import-dependent country unable to pay for sorely needed goods.

Diesel shortages have sparked outrage across Sri Lanka in recent days, causing protests at empty pumps, and electricity utilities have imposed 13-hour blackouts to conserve fuel.

Many economists also say the crisis has been exacerbated by government mismanagement, years of accumulated borrowing, and ill-advised tax cuts.

Sri Lanka is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.
…

An explosion in the center of the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday wounded at least 15 people, according to witnesses.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the blast, and no one immediately claimed responsibility. Taliban authorities didn’t immediately comment.

Video shot by AP showed wounded being removed from the site, carried by passersby.

Wais Ahmad, a money changer, said the explosion happened inside a market where money changers operate. The market was closed immediately after the explosion and Taliban security surrounded the area.

The blast was the first in the Afghan capital in months. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have stepped up security throughout most of the country since sweeping to power in August.

Taliban troops man dozens of checkpoints throughout the city.

The greatest threat facing the Taliban comes from the Islamic State group affiliate known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or IS-K. The Taliban have cracked down on the affiliate in its stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.

In a statement, IS-K said late Saturday they targeted a Taliban vehicle in Kabul, killing everyone inside the vehicle. However, there was no confirmation from the Taliban rulers or signs of an explosion Saturday.

The IS statement also claimed an explosion in western Herat province targeting the country’s minority Shiite Muslims. There was no confirmation of any explosion in Herat and the IS often makes exaggerated claims.
…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister has survived an effort to remove him from office.

As soon as the national assembly session to consider Imran Khan’s removal began, Law Minister Fawad Hussain urged the house speaker to declare the no-confidence vote unlawful because it was being sponsored by the United States.  The minister in his brief speech cited an article of the constitution that reads “loyalty to the state is the basic duty of every citizen.”

The speaker then declared the no-confidence vote against prime minister Imran Khan illegal and unconstitutional and immediately adjourned the special session.

The United States has denied any role in the effort to unseat the prime minister.

Shortly after the adjournment of the session Khan briefly addressed the nation saying he has advised the president of Pakistan to dissolve all the provincial and national legislative assemblies and call for fresh elections.   
…

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s career was at stake Sunday as he faced a difficult vote to oust him, potentially leading to fresh political instability in the nuclear-armed country of 220 million people.

A united opposition has tabled a no-confidence motion against Khan for a parliamentary session starting at 11:30 a.m. (0630 GMT). If they remain united, Khan is set to fall below the 172 votes needed to survive the no-confidence vote.

On the streets of the capital Islamabad, there was a heavy police and paramilitary presence, with shipping containers used to block off roads, according to a Reuters witness.

The opposition blames Khan for failing to revive the economy and crack down on corruption. He says, without citing evidence, that the move to oust him has been orchestrated by the United States, a claim Washington denies.

The opposition and analysts say Khan, who rose to power in 2018 riding on the powerful military’s support, has fallen out with it, a charge he and the military deny.

No prime minister has finished a full five-year term since independence from Britain in 1947, and generals on several occasions have ruled the country, which is perennially at odds with fellow nuclear-armed neighbor India.

In addition to an economic crisis, with Islamabad seeking help from the International Monetary Fund, Pakistan faces challenges including an attempt to balance global pressure to prod the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan to meet human rights commitments while trying to limit instability there.

Khan lost his majority in parliament after allies quit his coalition government and a spate of defections within his ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Pakistan’s most popular English language newspaper, Dawn, has said Khan is “as good as gone,” but the former cricket champion has urged his supporters to take to the streets on Sunday ahead of the vote, and has indicated that he would not accept an unfavorable vote.

“How can I accept the result when the entire process is discredited?” Khan told foreign journalists at his office on Saturday. “Democracy functions on moral authority — what moral authority is left after this connivance?”

“The move to oust me is blatant interference in domestic politics by the United States,” he said, terming it an attempt at “regime change.”

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, head of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said on Saturday night Khan would attempt to hold on to power despite losing his majority. “We fear the prime minister is up to some unconstitutional measures to save his seat.”
…

Pakistan’s military chief Saturday slammed Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, calling for immediate cessation of what he described as a “huge tragedy” being inflicted on a smaller country.

General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s rare criticism of Moscow evidently was at variance with that of his country’s embattled prime minister, Imran Khan, who has advocated Islamabad’s neutrality in the conflict and refused to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.

“Sadly, the Russian invasion against Ukraine is very unfortunate as thousands of people have been killed, millions made refugees and half of Ukraine destroyed,” Bajwa told an international security dialogue in Islamabad.

“Despite legitimate security concerns of Russia, its aggression against a smaller country cannot be condoned. Pakistan has consistently called for an immediate cease-fire and cessation of hostilities,” Bajwa said.

The general advocated support for an urgent dialogue between all sides to resolve the conflict, praising the Ukrainians for effectively resisting the Russian aggression.

Bajwa used the example of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in his televised speech to caution Pakistan’s massive arch-rival India against launching another war with his country.

“This has given a heart to smaller countries that they can still defend their territory with smaller but agile forces against an aggression by a bigger country by carrying out selective modernization in equipment and adopting noble ideas,” the Pakistani military chief said.

Critics noted Bajwa’s comments have marked a significant departure from the policy Prime Minister Khan has been advocating on the Ukraine crisis.

Khan, who faces an opposition-launched parliamentary no-confidence vote Sunday, maintains Pakistan made a mistake by joining the West during the Cold War and wants to remain neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict to have good ties with both the countries.

The Pakistani leader has refused to condemn Putin and publicly criticized Western diplomats in Islamabad for urging his government in a rare joint letter last month to denounce Moscow’s aggression against Kyiv.

“Why would we condemn Russia? Are we your slaves that we would do whatever you say?” he asked in televised speeches to large recent public rallies organized by his ruling party.

Khan visited Putin on the day Russian forces attacked Ukraine. The Pakistani leader defended his visit, saying it was planned long before the conflict erupted.

He alleged this week in an address to the Pakistani nation that the no-confidence vote seeking his ouster from power was being orchestrated by the United States to punish him for visiting Russia, charges Washington vehemently rejected.

On Friday, Khan told local ARY television that his government had formally protested to the U.S. for meddling in Pakistani politics.

“It’s evident now that the conspiracy has been hatched from abroad! Everyone knows it. We have handed a demarche to the American Embassy, telling them that you have interfered in [the no-confidence vote],” asserted the Pakistani leader.

When asked whether the embassy had received the demarche, a State Department spokesperson told VOA that “as a standard practice, we don’t comment on diplomatic correspondence.”

“In terms of U.S. involvement in Pakistan’s internal affairs, there is no truth to these allegations,” the spokesperson said.

The political turmoil reportedly has strained Khan’s relationship with Bajwa, though both leaders deny any tensions. 

In his Friday interview, Khan said Bajwa offered him the opportunity to resign, hold new elections or face the no-trust vote, and he decided to fight the vote in parliament. 

Pakistan has suffered several military coups leading to long periods of dictatorial rule, and critics say the army continues to influence elected governments from behind, though Bajwa’s spokesman has rejected accusations they are behind the current turmoil. Khan recently lost his simple majority in parliament after dozens of his party’s lawmakers defected and key allies abandoned him to join the opposition.

In his Saturday speech, Bajwa apparently attempted to ease diplomatic tensions with Washington, saying his country wants to broaden and expand bilateral ties.

“We share a long history of excellent and strategic relationship with the United States, which remains our largest export market,” the army chief said. “Similarly, European Union, United Kingdom, the Gulf, Southeast Asia and Japan are also vital for our national development and progress,” he added. 

However, Khan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while addressing the same security conference after Bajwa, reiterated his government’s neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“Pakistan has maintained a principled and nonpartisan position on the matter,” Qureshi said, but he did not question or criticize the Russian aggression.

“We have consistently emphasized the fundamental principles of the U.N. Charter, including non-use and threat of use of force; respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states; and pacific settlement of disputes,” the Pakistani foreign minister said.

“We believe that a diplomatic solution through dialogue and negotiations is indispensable – and must be pursued as a matter of priority,” Qureshi said.
…

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a nationwide public emergency late Friday following violent protests over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Rajapaksa said in a government gazette notification that he took the decision in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and essential services.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with police and military on Thursday outside Rajapaksa’s residence in a suburb of the capital, Colombo.

Police arrested 53 people and imposed a curfew in and around Colombo on Friday to contain sporadic protests that have broken out over shortages of essential items, including fuel and other goods.

The Indian Ocean island nation of 22 million faces rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day as the government scrambles to secure foreign exchange to pay for fuel imports.

The country’s lucrative tourism industry and foreign workers’ remittances have been sapped by the pandemic, and public finances were hit further by deep tax cuts promised by Rajapaksa during his 2019 election campaign.

Ordinary Sri Lankans are also dealing with shortages and soaring inflation, after the country steeply devalued its currency last month ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund for a loan program.

An alliance of 11 political parties has urged Rajapaksa to dissolve the Cabinet and form a government with all parties to deal with the crisis, local media said, in a nation where both India and China are competing to build influence.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds near Rajapaksa’s residence Thursday, after they torched several police and army vehicles.

At least two dozen police personnel were injured in the clashes, an official said, declining to comment on the number of protesters hurt.

Tourism minister Prasanna Ranatunge warned such protests would harm economic prospects. “The main issue Sri Lanka is facing is a forex shortage, and protests of this nature will hurt tourism and have economic consequences,” Ranatunge said.

The United Nations representative in the country, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, called for restraint from all groups involved in the clashes. “We are monitoring developments and are concerned by reports of violence,” she said on Twitter.

Trading on the country’s stock market was suspended for a third consecutive day on Friday after the main blue-chip index fell 10%.
…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said Friday that his government had formally protested to the United States for allegedly backing his opponents in a parliamentary no-confidence vote seeking his ouster from power.

“It’s evident now that the conspiracy has been hatched from abroad! Everyone knows it,” Khan told local ARY television.

“We have handed a demarche to the American Embassy, telling them that you have interfered in [the no-confidence vote],” the prime minister said in a reference to the diplomatic note delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

When asked if the embassy had received the demarche, a State Department spokesperson told VOA that, “as a standard practice, we don’t comment on diplomatic correspondence.”

“In terms of U.S. involvement in Pakistan’s internal affairs, there is no truth to these allegations,” the spokesperson said.

The diplomatic note was issued hours after Khan stated in a nationally televised address that a foreign country was conspiring to punish him for his “independent foreign policy” and for paying an official visit to President Vladimir Putin on the day the Russian leader ordered his forces to invade Ukraine.

In what appeared to be a slip of tongue during the live telecast, the Pakistani leader named the U.S. as the origin of a “memo” that he believes confirmed a “foreign conspiracy” was behind the no-confidence vote due on Sunday.

“They say they are angry with Pakistan. … They say they will forgive Pakistan if Imran Khan loses a no-trust motion. But if the vote fails, Pakistan will have to face serious consequences,” Khan said, citing the text of the memo, which he has not made public.

Officials said Islamabad’s ambassador in Washington relayed the “message” back to Islamabad after meeting with senior State Department officials on March 7.

Khan said the Pakistani ambassador was summoned to the State Department a day before the opposition submitted the no-confidence motion against him on March 8.

While responding to the allegations on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said there was “no truth to them.”

“We are closely following developments in Pakistan. We respect [and] we support Pakistan’s constitutional process and the rule of law,” Price told reporters in Washington.

The no-confidence vote against Khan is the most serious political challenge to his leadership since he came to power in 2018 as the head of a coalition government with a thin majority in parliament.

Since that time, some two dozen lawmakers from Khan’s ruling party have defected, and key coalition partners have abandoned the government to join the opposition in the run-up to the vote.

The departures have left Khan short of the 172 votes he needs to survive the no-confidence motion in the 342-member National Assembly, or lower house of parliament.
…

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

UN seeks humanitarian cease-fire in Ukraine

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that his aid chief would immediately begin exploring with Moscow and Kyiv possible arrangements for a humanitarian cease-fire in Ukraine. Martin Griffiths is scheduled to fly to Moscow on Sunday.

UN to Seek Humanitarian Cease-fire in Ukraine

Humanitarian evacuations from Mariupol fail Friday

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that its team was unable to reach the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol to evacuate civilians and would make another attempt Saturday.

ICRC Operation to Evacuate Civilians from Mariupol Remains Uncertain

International donors rally for Afghanistan

On Thursday, many international donors overcame their frustration with the Taliban’s recent decision to suspend school for girls from secondary level up and rallied around the Afghan people, pledging more than $2.4 billion to help alleviate the country’s dire humanitarian crisis. The U.N. requested $4.4 billion — its biggest appeal ever — to meet humanitarian needs. The U.N. Development Program says that following the change in government in August, the country is facing a potentially non-reversible economic collapse, a frozen banking system and liquidity shortage, leaving as many as 80% of its people in debt.

Donors Pledge $2.4 Billion for Afghan Relief

Rainy season threatens South Sudan

Aid agencies warned Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese are likely to suffer devastating consequences during this year’s wet season without emergency international support to head off the worst impacts.

Thousands in South Sudan Brace for Potentially Disastrous Rainy Season

In brief

— The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that he had reached separate agreements with Ukrainian and Russian authorities on what assistance his agency would provide to safeguard Ukrainian nuclear sites. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told reporters after a field visit to Ukraine and meetings in Russia that they had delivered some equipment and had agreed on a “structured set of activities” that would start next week. There are eight nuclear plants in the country, including the defunct Chernobyl reactor, which in 1986 was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident.

— Eight U.N. peacekeepers were killed in a helicopter crash in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday. The DRC’s army has blamed M23 rebels, saying they shot down the helicopter. The U.N. says it is investigating the circumstances and cause but acknowledges there were hostilities in the area. Six of the peacekeepers were from Pakistan, the other two were from Russia and Serbia.

— Secretary-General Guterres told the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission on Wednesday that 2 billion people — one-quarter of the planet — live in conflict-affected areas. He said last year 84 million people were forcibly displaced because of conflict, violence and human rights violations. The U.N. estimates that this year, at least 274 million will need humanitarian assistance.

Some good news

In a breakthrough, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen announced Friday that the parties to that war had accepted a U.N. proposal for a two-month truce that goes into effect Saturday — the first day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Envoy Hans Grunberg said in a statement that the parties agreed to halt all offensive military air, ground and maritime operations inside Yemen and across its borders; they also agreed for fuel ships to enter Hodeida ports and commercial flights to operate in and out of Sanaa airport to predetermined destinations in the region. The truce can be renewed beyond the two-month period if the parties agree.

Quote of note

“In Kabul, I visited the Indira Gandhi hospital and saw severely malnourished children and newborns — newborns — clinging to life, sharing run-down, rickety incubators. These babies were emaciated, listless and far too small.”

— U.N. Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, who visited Afghanistan this week, to international donors on the dire humanitarian situation.

What we are watching next week

As the war in Ukraine grinds on, humanitarians are trying to mitigate the suffering of millions of people in besieged cities with both aid and evacuations. The U.N. Security Council will be briefed on Tuesday on the efforts.
…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised India for not judging the Ukraine crisis in a “one-sided way,” and said that the two countries would find ways to trade using local currencies.

“Our relations were very sustainable during many difficult times in the past,” the Russian foreign minister said during a visit to New Delhi Friday. “We appreciate that India is taking this situation in the entirety of facts.”

New Delhi faces intense pressure from Western countries to join them in taking tougher action against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

India has not condemned the invasion, abstaining from United Nations resolutions censuring Moscow and is pursuing deals to purchase crude oil from Russia at discounted prices, irking the United States and its allies.

Lavrov also met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who conveyed his country was ready to contribute to the peace efforts.

India’s foreign ministry said that during discussions with Lavrov, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar emphasized the importance of cessation of violence, ending hostilities in Ukraine and called for resolving differences through dialogue and diplomacy.

Lavrov, who arrived in India from China, which has also not condemned the invasion, is seen as trying to shore up support among Moscow’s two big Asian allies in the face of tough Western sanctions.

Talking to reporters after his discussions with the Indian foreign minister, Lavrov said that Moscow developed a system to trade in national currencies many years ago and that “more and more transactions” would be done through this mechanism for trade with countries such as India, bypassing the dollar, euro and other major currencies.

Lavrov said Russia is ready to supply India with any goods it wants. “I have no doubt that a way would be (found) to bypass the artificial impediments, which illegal, unilateral sanctions by the West create. This relates also to the area of military technical cooperation.”

More than two-thirds of India’s military hardware is of Russian origin and the supply of spares is critical for New Delhi, whose tense border standoff with China shows no sign of easing.

The Indian foreign ministry, in a statement, said that that during Friday’s discussions, Foreign Minister Jaishankar stressed that “it is important to both countries that their economic, technological and people-to-people contacts remain stable and predictable.”

India has defended its decision to pursue oil deals with Moscow, which is offering crude at discounted prices.

“When the oil prices go up, I think it is natural for countries to go out into the market and look for what are the good deals for their people,” Jaishankar said on Thursday. He pointed out that Europe has remained a major buyer of Russian oil and gas even after the crisis in Ukraine unfolded.

On Thursday, U.S. and British diplomats were in New Delhi to try to persuade India not to undermine the Western sanctions on Russia.

U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics Daleep Singh, who met Indian officials in New Delhi, said Washington did not want to see a “rapid acceleration” in oil purchases from Russia or mechanisms that “are designed to prop up the ruble” or circumvent financial sanctions.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, said at a briefing on Thursday that it is not seeking to change the relationships different countries have with Russia but to “do all we can to see to it that the international community is speaking in unison, speaking loudly against this unjustified, unprovoked premeditated aggression, calling for an end to the violence using the leverage that countries including India, have to those ends.”

India’s ties with Russia, which date back to the Cold War years, have remained strong, even as it has built close ties with the United States in recent years. India is a part of the Quad alliance along with the U.S, Japan and Australia.

Analysts say India is attempting a balancing act as it navigates ties with both sides. Although annual trade between India and Russia adds up to only about $9 billion, New Delhi depends on Moscow for much of its military hardware, while it sees its partnership with the U.S. and its allies as important to countering an aggressive China.
…