Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 16 July 2018 | 页面 9
VOLATILE ASSETS
A
FTER demonetisation,
whatever will those
Indians do to their rupee
next? It’s impossible to say,
so we had best be cautious.
Well, that’s the approach
taken by a spooked Royal
Monetary Authority (RMA)
of Bhutan. In a state-
ment about limits
on the mo vement
of currency to and
from India—up to
Rs 25,000 per per-
son—it advised citizens to
avoid holding Indian rupees
as cash and to deposit any
such holdings in their bank,
saying that “The RMA shall
not be liable or responsible
in case of any policy chan
ges by the RBI, including
demonetisation of
INR currency notes
in the future.” The
Indian rupee is legal
tender in the Hima-
layan monarchy.
THE LAND OF GREEN GOLD
T
HE Swat valley, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pak
htunkhwa, is known as an archaeological
treasure trove, but it may soon have another
claim to fame. The region, which was defores
ted by the Pakistani Taliban between 2006
and 2009, is now filled to the brim with pine
saplings. These, along with more than 9,00,000
quick-growing eucalyptus trees planted in the
Heroshah region, are being grown under the
provincial government’s ‘Billion Tree Tsun
ami’ programme. Officially, the Rs 1,163-crore
initiative has seen a total of 120 crore new trees
planted or regrown in the province.
A STAND-OUT TALKING HEAD
T
HERE’S a fresh...
head...on the telly.
A long-haired, turbaned
head. A Lahore-based
Urdu channel, Public
News, has recruited one
Harmeet Singh as a news
anchor, and declared
him to be Pakistan’s first
Sikh television anchor.
Harmeet, 28, is a Saha
jdhari Sikh who has
recently begun to grow his
hair out and wear a tur-
ban—seemingly not due to
any religious compulsions
but because, as he admits
with candour, it “enhances
my personality and makes
me stand apart.” Chosen,
according to his employ-
ers, for his flamboyant
looks and voice pitch,
Harmeet, a native of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is
reportedly fluent in Pas
hto, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi
and English.
The Newest Jacket
I
NDIAN initiatives or mounting international pressure
notwithstanding, Pakistan always finds innovative ways of
shielding proscribed terrorist outfits operating from its soil.
The latest move is to mainstream them by encouraging act
ive members of such organisations to participate in the elec
toral process. An example is how attempts are being made to
allow the Lashkar-e-Toiba to morph into a legitimate political
party. The LeT and its leader Hafeez Mohammed Saeed are
blamed by India as being responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai
terror attack and other attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
When the LeT was banned under international pressure,
the “deep state” in Pakistan allowed it to function as a
charitable organisation under the banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
When JuD was also forced to be banned, it was encouraged
to join the mainstream through the electoral process.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s new political face is now the
Milli Muslim League, which
is contesting the forthcoming
The Lashkar’s
elections in Pakistan.
electoral face,
The MML, under the umbrella
the MML, is
of Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek, has
fighting polls
decided to field 79 candidates for
and is fielding
the National Assembly (Pakistan’s
parliament) and 181 for the four
10 women in
provincial assemblies polls that
major cities
are to be held on July 25.
as well as
Though Saeed is not contesting,
professionals
his son, Hafiz Talha Saeed and
to shed its far-
son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, figure
right image.
among the list of candidates ann
ounced by the MML, which was
forced to contest under the name ‘Allah-o-Akbar-Tehreek’ as
the Election Commission failed to register the MML.
According to Dawn, the list of MML candidates also has
10 women, including three for reserved seats. Spokesman
Ahmed Nadeem Awan said the MML has given tickets to
women out of conviction, not compulsion.
“We have given tickets to candidates considering their
political background and fighting spirit. They include lawyers,
doctors and professionals who have been office-bearers in
other parties and have recently joined the MML.”
The party has fielded 36 National Assembly candidates
from the Punjab, 29 from Sindh, 28 from the Khyber Pakh
tunkhwa, 14 from Balochistan and eight from erstwhile
FATA. It has put up five candidates in Karachi and four in
Lahore. It has also fielded women candidates in major cities
(Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad) to dilute its
far-right image and make it attractive to the urban middle
class. If the anti-Indian rhetoric in Pakistani parliament
gets shriller in the coming days then you know where it
is coming from.
16 July 2018 OUTLOOK 9