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Pakistan, one of just two countries where polio is still endemic, has never been closer to eradicating the disease. But as @mafasaad & I warn in this @AtlanticCouncil essay, terrorism is threatening efforts to reach the finish line.
Michael Kugelman
21.5K posts
Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
Senior Fellow, South Asia @AtlanticCouncil. Writer of @ForeignPolicy's weekly South Asia Brief. Nonresident Senior Fellow @AsiaPacificFdn. Ex-@thewilsoncenter.
Washington DC
Joined November 2011
- Pakistan was put on FATF gray list in early 2018, when PMLN govt was in power. FATF’s evaluation of Pakistan’s efforts to complete its action plan for gray list removal mainly covered period when PTI was in power. So FATF decision today will be based on what was done in PTI era.
- Today, Imran Khan did what he does best-mobilize people, and in very big numbers. He will try to keep doing this in the coming weeks and months, in order to maintain pressure on a new government that won’t have it easy.
- Today I accepted an invitation to go on a far-right Indian TV channel. I wanted to push back against the absurd allegation that the "Western media" is "peddling fake news" about the New Delhi riots. I tried my best. But it was like speaking to a loud, huge, and angry wall. Sad.
- PMLN leader Nawaz Sharif has declared victory. But final results haven't been announced, and results so far show PTI independents still in the lead. The Army, with its intervention in the electoral process, and now its preferred party have conspired to subvert the public will.
- After today's remarkable electoral performance by PTI, will we finally see the end of those "PTI isn't really that popular, it's just hyped on social media" takes? It's PTI's mass popularity that enabled it to persevere and defy the electoral odds, and in such a big way.
- Today was a downright dreadful day for democracy in Pakistan.
- Greta Thunberg, the world's most famous climate activist, is the latest celeb to express solidarity w/India's protesting farmers. Ironically, those farmers are no exemplars of climate change mitigation, not by a long shot (stubble burning, heavy groundwater extraction, etc.).
- The die is cast. If the final results show anything other than a PTI victory, PTI will reject it as a rigged result, and understandably so: Its early gains led to a long delay in announcing final results. The military, intent on denying power to PTI, intervened in the process.
- PTI leaders jailed. PTI electoral candidates' nomination papers denied. PTI online rallies/fundraisers blocked. Top PTI rival's legal woes melt away. SC justices perceived as siding w/PTI step down. PTI denied use of election symbol. This is brazen, not subtle, pre-polls rigging.
- What a dominant performance by Pakistan. What a triumph for Pakistani cricket, and for Pakistan itself. #INDvPAK
- Unless I missed it, Prime Minister Modi has not said one word publicly about the 20 Indian soldiers that lost their lives in the Galwan Valley. No statement, no address to the nation, and not even a tweet about it. This is monumentally surprising.
- Tensions are building in Pakistan. After preliminary election results showed surprising gains by the PTI, the party the military is dead set against returning to power, election results have been delayed for hours. Vote tampering and rigging fears are rife, and for good reason.
- Stunning, horrific news about Arshad Sharif, a top Pakistani journalist, killed while in Kenya.
