The US is planning a new wave of strikes on Iran. Iran has already warned Gulf states it will hit back. Earlier warnings named US assets & energy facilities across the Gulf. Pakistan is caught in the middle – in fact not in the middle anymore. We have become a party in this war now. We share a 900+ km border with Iran which is now closed for trade. We have about 15,000 troops and fighter jets in Saudi Arabia. Things are becoming difficult for Pakistan.

is it happening?

I am not a big fan of Jaishankar's foreign policy. I think his vision is terrible vis-a-vis Pakistan. But, I appreciate him for once when he was in Finland justifying their purchase of Russian oil. His answer to some non-sense question was pretty wise. "I buy oil based on cost and availability. At that point of time much oil available in the market was Russian because EU was buying Middle Eastern oil, which was our traditional supplier. So circumstances pushed us in a certain direction." He later bashed the selective criticism by West. He was clear that countries protect their own interest above anything else particulalry when energy security of 1.4B people is at stake. I think he was proven right if you see in today's context when Trump agreed to buy Russian diesel. Keeping national interest on top of any other value is what policymakers of countries must do in today's world. This also leaves a lesson for Pakistan that how we should not cut our trade relationship with Iran on behalf of West. They might very well announce buying Iranian oil very soon if it suited them.

Ok.

I don't believe this is true.

When we are discussing KP’s minerals, it appears that the Chairman of KP’s Standing Committee on Minerals is missing. He is member of the KP Assembly from Mansehra, a very dynamic young man with a lot of ambition. I remember him to be very active in Hazara's student politics since being young & in PTI was not in fashion. I would assume he was working with ISF in same manner what Murad Saeed & Sohail Afridi were doing in Peshawar. I tried to find his Facebook page, where he was otherwise quite active, but the page no longer exists. I would imagine he has been picked up by the police, or that he was threatened with being picked up and is now in hiding. This is the current state of affairs in KP.

In South Korea there was a culture. I did not like it then but I like it now. If you are going to 2nd or 3rd floor only in a building, using elevator was kinda taboo. You should use stairs. One was supposed to use elevator only if they were going to 4th floor or up. That was for energy conservation. Well, if this were 3 mins drive, you could have walked 10 mins. If you were in South Korea you would be pushed to do so.

@ThinkDemocracy ko apny ghreebān main jhankā chaiyay. waisy being blocked you are not missing much.

My faith in his work will only restore if he decided to change his bio in twitter.

It shows the limits of his imagination that he cited Balakrishnan et al. to somehow justify the emergency. He could have used some muslim mufakareen to legitimize it better. That would perhaps have made more sense.

If you look closely at the details in this poster, it’s a beautiful demonstration of how you can support Alberta’s oilpatch and still want to remain part of Canada. The pump jack represents oil and gas resources, while the options marked on the ballot support the idea of remaining in Canada. The separatists wanted to spread the message that the oil & gas industry and being Canadian are mutually exclusive. They are wrong. The two can coexist. They will. #ableg

Ehnu lahore le jao

I saw his visit to the school where they killed Che Guevara in Bolivia. I loved his explanation of Che's struggle in such a brief but beautiful way.

میں آپ کی باتوں سے سو فیصد متفق ہوں۔ میرا خیال ہے کہ مائنز اور منرلز کے حوالے سے جو بحث بلوچستان، گلگت اور پختونخوا میں ہو رہی ہے اس میں کچھ بنیادی نقطے نظرانداز ہو جاتے ہیں۔ جس سے مضبوط مقدمہ بھی کمزور ہو جاتا ہے۔ البتہ یہ اہم ہے کہ نثار باز خان قانونی اور آئینی معاملات کو اسی انداز میں بیان کررہے ہیں۔ یہ پختونخوا کی سیاست میں خوش آئند اقدام ہے۔

علی بھائی، ثمر مبارک مند صاحب ڈگری والے آغا وقار تھے۔ ایک خبر یہ بھی ہے کہ جب ریکوڈک پراجیکٹ افتخار چوہدری سے گزرتا ہوا لندن کی عدالتوں میں پہنچا جہاں ہمیں پاکستانی موقف بتانا تھا تو مند صاحب کو بھی بھیجا گیا۔ مند صاحب نے وہاں جج کے سامنے ایک تقریر جھاڑ دی۔ اور لندن والے جج کو بتایا کہ ہمارے ریکوڈک کے وسائل کھربوں ڈالر کے ہیں جو سستے میں ہتھیائے جا رہے ہیں۔ جج نے کہا آپ درست کہہ رہے ہیں۔ جرمانے کی مد میں چھ سات ارب ڈالر ان موجودہ کمپنیوں کو دے دیجیئے اور اپنے کھربوں کے وسائل بچا لیجیئے۔ راوی بتاتا ہے کہ اس کے بعد مند صاحب نے پوری بحث کے دوران ایک بھی بات نہیں کی۔ یہ بات مجھے اس مقدمے میں پیش ہونے والے پاکستانی وفد میں شامل ایک اہم شخص نے بتائی ہے۔

Somewhere on LinkedIn Dr. Aasem Bakhshi explained a similar situation like, "what a great mess, and now we need 'novel' GenAI solutions to clear this mess. An infinite regress of generating mess and clearing it."

I have voted against the separate Alberta. - No to 9. - Yes, in 10th. Alberta should remain province of Canada. #AlbertaIndependence #ableg #abpoli

@AliArqam for your kind review.