5 takeaways from yesterday:

1. Deeply disturbing & deplorable level of state brutality against unarmed protestors many of whom were actually women, children & old. The images & videos will haunt this nation for a long time. Shameful to justify or celebrate it. 2. The state machinery especially Police requires urgent reforms to save this country from implosion. The police is meant to serve people, not act as a private militia for any political party in power against all those out of power.

De-politicise the police. Period.

That the "Jalsa turnout" & "social media" presence doesn't really translate into votes may be true in the past but this conventional wisdom is probably not accurate anymore & requires serious adjustments based on the new data driven by disruption in technology. Here is why: 1. Increased Mobile users:

2018: 110 million
2022: 187 million

Just between 2021-2022, over 10 million new mobile connections were added.

If the goal is to increase public sector performance, here is what is needed:

1. 4/4.5 days work week

Forget about Sat, officials barely work even on Friday after Jummah. Smart thing to do is to make a 4/4.5 day work week with Fri dedicated only for trainings/capacity building Adding more days, especially Saturday, will only add more pressure on domestic family life while reducing motivation & productivity. If cellular biology teaches us anything it is that people perform best when well rested in a friendly & conducive environment - not under pressure.

“Of course there is no foreign interference”, said nobody in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and entire Latin America.

Selective amnesia should be a national sport here in Pakistan. Every major leader has at some point complained about foreign interference. ZAB, Benazir, Nawaz, Musharraf & now Imran Khan.

My issue is how the idea that foreign powers play politics in Pakistan is laughed off as “conspiracy theory” when there is ample evidence otherwise

Here is how the Indian Fake News Industry processes a fake news into an international news:

Step 1: Tweet a #fakenews as #Breaking attributing it to “sources” that can of course never be verified. Step 2: Get the entire Indian news media outlets to pick it up as a major national story to be then processed for the international media.

The recent crisis in #Afghanistan has exposed many but none more than the Western powers. Be it human rights, academia or sports the Western hypocrisy is now well established.

Some home truths by @GeorgeDobell1

espncricinfo.com/story/george-d… "What Monday's announcement from the ECB confirming the cancellation of their tour to Pakistan sustained, was a culture of double-standards which appears to view some nations are far less important than others." @GeorgeDobell1

US took 19 days to successfully start a war in #Afghanistan & next 20 years to unsuccessfully forge peace.

Why is making war so easy while achieving peace so hard? Here are some thoughts covering both the theoretical & functional reasons [Thread] 1.Theoretical: Nations are still governed by classical Pol Sci/IR theories that are not just Eurocentric but also War Centric. Such theories continue to place "war" & "balance of power" instead of "peace" & "prosperity" as key features of nation-states making peace impossible

Past one month I’ve come across mostly fiction & propaganda writing on #Afghanistan.

Here is my response to another such fiction writing published by Bloomberg with totally tone deaf & historical inaccuracies. [Thread]
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl… 1. Imagine invading a foreign country with no war plan & then occupying it for 20 years wasting 2 trillion dollars sponsoring corruption & warlords.

Then having the audacity to blame a neighbor for all your failures that advised to the contrary.

Here is how I'd respond to the members of the Congress [Thread]

To @USRepKeating:

1. Pakistan didn't have to play a duplicitous role, the US was lying itself to the teeth on gains in #Afghanistan for 20 years. The question is why the American people were lied to about Afg? 2. Backing warlords & crook regimes of Karzai & Ghani wasn't Pakistan's doing, it was all the US plan.

3. Since Oct/Nov 2001 Pakistan kept advising to the US that there was "no military solution", yet you all thought it was a winnable war. Duplicitous much?

Trying to articulate my commemoration for #September11 but at loss of words after 20 years of what followed 9/11 & especially all what happened in last 1 month.

But here are a few thoughts from a Pakistani that takes D.C. as a 2nd home & can empathise with Americans [Thread] 1. 9/11 was a great tragedy to hit the US. But what followed was an even greater tragedy that the US inflicted upon itself along with the rest of the world - the price so many had to pay without even knowing why.

The US had the options, it chose the most catastrophic one.

Given all the misinformation, I decided to invest in a new handbook on key IR concepts. Starting from the top 15:

1. Double game: When a weaker country tries to protect its national interest.

2. Pragmatism: When a Western country protects its national interest 3. Do More: When you want a weaker nation to lift the burden of your blunders

4. Lack of Will: When an ally refuses to meet your unreasonable expectations