Ahmed Quraishi Profile picture
Journalist. National security & human rights MENA. War correspondent: Lebanon 2006, Iraq 1995-2003. Iran. Afg. Pakistan. Ex blue tick. Views strictly personal.
4 subscribers
May 23, 2023 14 tweets 13 min read
PM @CMShehbaz congratulations #Pakistan's spy chief for success in #ISI's "most complex intelligence operation" in intelligence service's recent history.

What did the ISI exactly do? Some details are listed in this #thread. /1 #Pakistan's premier spy agency, the #ISI captured wanted #Balochistan terrorism commander Gulzar Imam Shambay in a sophisticated intelligence operation that spanned more than a year and involved cooperation from eleven spy agencies in eleven states. /2
May 21, 2023 4 tweets 4 min read
Evidence reviewed by investigators shows #ImranKhan masterminded organized and preplanned arson & vandalism against state+military buildings across #Pakistan. Khan incited hate against State+Mil for months; #PTI media wing joined; party executed attack. /1 #BlackDay9May2023 An image of a walking Imran... On May 12, law enforcement sources I spoke with confirmed they have seen evidences that the arson and vandalism on 9 May 2023 was preplanned and that #PTI preplanned the attacks under direct orders from #ImranKhan.

See details here ⬇️ /2

May 12, 2023 6 tweets 3 min read
@MoeedNj Dear Moeed, you're an intelligent man trapped by this mafioso cult under Imran Khan, just like my friend Arshad was. Don't trust them with anything. Stay safe. Pakistani govt & military writings are easy to catch. I never done that. Pakistani CivMil media managers are ... /1 @MoeedNj ..hopeless anyway. This is my information gathering work, as a lifelong investigative journalist. If you read my tweet again, you'll see I'm actually nudging them to share information, bcz they are not. I'm urging them to make info that I referenced public. /2
May 11, 2023 6 tweets 5 min read
Authorities in #Pakistan are yet to release the full details of a high-level probe that involved close to a dozen intelligence agencies that uncovered a plan that #ImranKhan approved to storm military buildings, bases, and officer houses after his arrest, which was expected. /1 The plan, allegedly approved by #ImranKhan, was based on ignoring court hearings in corruption cases that would naturally result in arrest, which then will be used to divert national attention against the military, which has refused to help Khan become PM like it did in 2018. /2
May 11, 2023 6 tweets 4 min read
#Pakistan's police and military did not open fire when hundreds of young men stormed and vandalized Army & Govt buildings; a planned bloodbath on #Pakistan streets, a brainchild of #ImranKhan and some of his #PTI party aides. It's not over yet. Khan is pushing for a civil war./1 In a statement, #Pakistan's military patted itself on the back for not falling in #ImranKhan & #PTI's trap. But it faces a bigger challenge: legions of young Pakistanis radicalized by Khan's messaging: that the state is a Western vassal & that Khan is a savior from corruption. /2
May 9, 2023 4 tweets 3 min read
#ImranKhan's political story is complex. He is a source of tension since his launch in 2011 in a feat of political engineering to sideline two largest parties #PMLN+#PPP; failed as PM, messed up #Pakistan's economy+foreign policy. Now turns anti-military.
wsj.com/articles/forme… /2
After 2019, #ImranKhan relaunched himself as a religious cult. Clips of his followers comparing Khan to the Prophet and other Islamic figures abound. Fans call him Murshid, a supreme leader. Khan recently referenced his wife receiving instructions from supernatural powers.
May 9, 2023 6 tweets 5 min read
Moments before the arrest of oustedb#Pakistan ex-PM #ImranKhan. He is wanted in multiple corruption cases, incl the multi-billion rupee Al-Qadir religious university corruption case that allegedly implicates him and his wife. Arrest was violently resisted. 📸 via @TheSaadKaiser Ousted ex-PM Imran Khan loo... /2
Ousted ex-PM #ImranKhan's supporters resist the execution of a legal arrest order in a multi-billion rupee corruption case. More than a dozen #Pakistan law enforcement personnel injured by Khan's supporters.

May 8, 2023 4 tweets 5 min read
After a blunt yearlong anti-military smear campaign, unprecedented in #Pakistan's 75 years, military media arm #ISPR has responded with a statement replete with words of condemnation against ousted ex-PM #ImranKhan. Met by more ridicule by Khan's online troll armies. /1 ImageImage Trolls sympathetic to ousted ex-PM #ImranKhan and his party #PTI responded to #Pakistan military's official statement by trending #PressReleaseRejected. The statement was issued by @OfficialDGISPR.
/2 Image
Mar 9, 2023 9 tweets 8 min read
A lively #Hindu #Holi festival celebration at Quaid-e-Azam University, the largest university in #Pakistan's federal capital #Islamabad. Felicitations to Pakistanis celebrating #Holi2023 and to friends worldwide. /1 #Hindu festival #Holi celebrated with fanfare in #Karachi, #Pakistan's second largest city.

#Holi2023 /2
Mar 8, 2023 8 tweets 12 min read
#UN Human Rights Chief @volker_turk alerts #HRC52 on "the worrying human rights situation in #Kashmir" and says he has discussed it "with both #India and #Pakistan," and that his office is seeking "meaningful access" to the region.
/1

🎞️@sultan1913 @UN_HRC
#UN Human Rights Chief @volker_turk's update on the situation in #Kashmir is significant, comes three years since the last update.

In 2018 & 2019, @UNHumanRights released two UN reports calling for international inquiry by @UN_HRC into multiple violations, mostly by #India.

/2
Mar 1, 2023 8 tweets 8 min read
DC lobbyists working for ousted ex-PM #ImranKhan in action. No Pakistani politician had such meets out of govt. Until recently, Khan accused Pakistanis meeting 🇺🇸 officials of "slavery" & championed one of the biggest campaigns of anti-Americanism #Pakistan has seen in decades./1 /2
#ImranKhan from Absolutely No to #Pakistan cooperating with the #US to Absolutely Yes.

Jan 21, 2023 7 tweets 6 min read
Ousted ex-PM #ImranKhan admits he illegally diverted $3 million that Pakistanis gave him for a hospital into a real estate project, confirming reports that swirled for 30 yrs of charity funds abuse & strengthening probe into his fundraisers in #UK+#UK. /1

tribune.com.pk/story/2397114/… In July 2022, while investigating his link to Arif Naqvi of Abraaj Group, the Financial Times @FT unearthed a case of a fundraiser in #UK for a hospital in #Pakistan whose funds were illegally diverted to support #ImranKhan's election campaign.
/2


Jan 14, 2023 5 tweets 3 min read
#Pakistan Instability Update | A country mired in economic uncertainty & bereft of political direction has just added to its woes today. This happens just as the world steps up to signal it won't let the state collapse economically under a climate disaster and bad governance. /1 Local parliament of #Pakistan's most consequential province (in terms of federal seats) has been dissolved. Hardly a win for democracy. It marks a success for one man's destructive 9-month campaign to return to power by any means possible, or else destabilize the country. /2
Jan 14, 2023 4 tweets 5 min read
#Pakistan's ousted ex-PM #ImranKhan convinced #Saudi Crown Prince to discard plans to attack #Iran, claim social media accounts close to Khan and his #PTI party. But don't take it seriously just yet: This claim could be an attempt to disrupt PM @CMShehbaz Govt ties with #KSA./1 The claim that #ImranKhan stopped #Saudi Crown Prince from pursuing plans to attack #Iran circulated on Pakistani social media, timed with a crucial visit by #Pakistan PM+Army chief to Riyadh. A columnist sympathetic to Khan published it on 13 Jan. The paper removed it later. /2
Jan 2, 2023 7 tweets 5 min read
#Pakistan Instability Update |

Pakistan started #NewYear2023 under the fog of intense rumors that the Establishment can bring in a govt of technocrats to take unpopular economic decisions to stave off default and to help parties in ruling coalition avoid losing popularity. /1 #Pakistan's boldest experiment in technocratic govt was probably Establishment-backed #ImranKhan's 2019-2022 tenure, where every economic theory and bizarre foreign policy notion popular among Pakistanis were tested, with spectacular failure. /2
Dec 27, 2022 5 tweets 5 min read
The audio leaks show @ImranKhanPTI enjoys creative imagination. But @husainhaqqani as the architect of political power in #Pakistan is both a testament to former Amb's political genius and a sign that a desperate Khan is running out of people to bash to stay relevant in the news. Latest #ImranKhan fake-news story after #QamarBajwa Card has expired. Looks fake since no US citizen can lobby in DC without registration. Amazing now Khan can get away with so many brazen lies and fake news in such a short time in Pakistani politics./2

Dec 27, 2022 12 tweets 11 min read
15 yrs after her assassination, today, 27 Dec 2007, I want to come clean on the organized smear campaign that intensified in the lead up to #BenazirBhutto's murder, a campaign in which I inadvertently joined. Which is why she was going to see me at 10 pm that night. /1 I received a call from Dr Asif Khan, #BenazirBhutto's quiet operator in #Islamabad and a friend to ex-PM @RPAPPP around 4 pm to reconfirm a meeting with her at Bilawal House. I was at state-run PTV, in a suit, making cuts to my weekly show, ready to leave for the meet at 10 pm./2
Nov 24, 2022 5 tweets 6 min read
Second major blow dealt today to #ProjectImranKhan 2011-2022. First was Khan's failure to secure Parliament support in April. Today, the worst infowar against #Pakistan Armed Forces, meant to divide country's strongest institution from within, waged by Khan's party, fell flat. /1 The failure of ousted ex-PM #ImranKhan in influencing top appointments within #Pakistan Army through blackmail, and the failure of the sophisticated and vicious disinformation campaign by Khan's #PTI Media Cell, is a win for the institution an for 🇵🇰. /2

Nov 23, 2022 5 tweets 6 min read
Official holiday in #SaudiArabia today for the #Qatar2022 win against #Arg. Some of the viral clips and tweets on Saudi timelines: /1

Commentators in #Türkiye side with #KSA against the referee in the #Qatar2022 match against #Arg. /2

Nov 22, 2022 7 tweets 9 min read
Embarrassing moment for #Iran's embattled Govt when members of its national team at #Qatar stadium boycotted the anthem of the Khomeinist Republic, which is different from Iranian national anthem pre-1979. /1

#Qatar2022
#FIFAWorldCup
#IranRevolution2022
Some Iranian fans at #Qatar stadium for #EnglandVIran booed the national anthem of post-1979 Khomeinist #Iran, and took to social media to explain difference btwn the Khomeinist anthem and national anthem pre-1979. /2

#Qatar2022   
#FIFAWorldCup   
Nov 13, 2022 6 tweets 7 min read
The colorful ousted premier @ImranKhanPTI is now ready to make the #US a friend again after leading one of the most intense campaigns of anti-Americanism in modern #Pakistan history. The biggest U-turn so far in the decade-long 2011-2022 #ImranKhan Project. /1
📋@Wabbasi007 Image The latest U-turn by @ImranKhanPTI in an interview with @FT effectively rolls back a yearlong #PTI anti-#US campaign, and will shock party stalwarts like @ShireenMazari1 who played a key role in pushing Khan's anti-Americanism agenda. /2