The Baloch House

26/06/18Viking Bohman, Jacob Mardell and Tatjana RomigThe Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promises to advance global development but also carries daunting risks. If left unchecked, the project could both challenge EU cohesion and undermine European standards. The EU needs the institutional capacity to assess these risks and a coherent narrative to compete with China's. This article is part 1 of a mini-series to present the outcomes of the MERICS European China Talent Program 2018.Image by ImagineChinaThe BRI has contributed to the creation of an impressive network of infrastructure across Asia, Europe and Africa over the past five years. Some EU member states have welcomed Chinese investment with open arms, while others have been more vocal in their criticisms of the initiative.As China charges ahead, it is time for the EU to come up with a unified evaluation and response. The EU needs a better mechanism to gather and exchange information on the BRI. It must also respond to the BRI…

Syed Ali ShahJuly 30, 2018
BAP President Jam Kamal Khan Alyani (C) at the joint press conference called by BAP and HDP in Quetta on Sunday. —DawnNewsTVThe Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) and Awami National Party (ANP) on Sunday pledged their support to the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) for the formation of a coalition government in Balochistan."We pledge our complete support to the Balochistan Awami Party for the formation of the forthcoming government in Balochistan," HDP Chairman Khaliq Hazara announced while addressing a joint press conference alongside BAP and ANP leaders in Quetta.Hazara said that the party's efforts will be geared towards resolving the issues faced by the people of the province."HDP has never supported the spread of religious propaganda. Our doors are open to everyone," he said.ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADAsghar Achakzai, the provincial chief of ANP, said his party had decided to support BAP in the interest of the people of Balochistan."W…

“In order for things to remain the same, everything must change” – Giuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaHere’s the problem: the winning party, the Election Commission and other institutions involved in last week’s national polls say there is nothing wrong in the way the results were announced, and that the outcome of the electoral exercise is the will of the people. They say it’s fair play.Those affected by the unprecedented delay in poll results announcements and almost surreal developments in vote counting and tabulation, among other things, cry brazen foul play. They allege that the umpire’s thumb and finger both were at work in ensuring the PTI’s victory (and their loss). So while Imran Khan wants to make government at the centre and in Punjab, the broad coalition of parties (PML-N, MMA, ANP, PPP, PSP, MQM, and the rest) wants to expand their protest and question the very foundation on which the PTI’s victory stands.Whom do you believe? What do you believe? This is a hard one. It can tear …

New Yorker
By Steve Coll
July 27, 2018For many Pakistanis, the optimism that accompanied Khan’s initial rise has yielded to wariness, if not outright cynicism.Photograph by Akhtar Soomro / ReutersIn 2011 and 2012, when Imran Khan, the former international cricket star and London night-club Lothario, first emerged from Pakistan’s political wilderness, he rode an Arab Spring-inspired wave of urban middle-class hopes for cleaner politics and better government. If Khan, a celebrity with his own income, came to power, the thinking went, then he might sweep away the family-based nepotism and corruption that had so curtailed Pakistan’s progress since independence, in 1947, and perhaps also loosen the Army’s grip on the country. Hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic, educated young people attended his rallies in cities such as Lahore, the country’s cultural capital. Khan fired them up by talking about a coming revolution in Pakistani politics, one that would modernize governance, attack ineq…