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00:00:30Good morning, you're watching Pakistan TV live from
00:00:34of of Islamabad studios, I am Ali ahmed and here are the top stories making the
00:00:37headlines.
00:00:53of a Asper the advice
00:00:54of the Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif,
00:00:58President Asif Ali. imposes emergency
00:01:01in khibar Pakhton kwah under articles 232 and
00:01:05234
00:01:06of the constitution of Pakistan after citing the gravity
00:01:09of the
00:01:09situation.
00:01:15The government defends the imposition
00:01:17of of emergency in Khabar Pakhtunkwaa as a constitutional measure amed
00:01:21rising terrorism and forms an 11 member advisory council to
00:01:25oversee the key provincial
00:01:26departments.
00:01:31Governor Faisal Kareem Kundi chairs the first meeting
00:01:34of the newly
00:01:35of constituted KP advisory Council by zero tolerance for the corruption
00:01:39prioritizes peace, good governance and effective utilization
00:01:42of the mineral
00:01:43resources.
00:01:49At least 12 people have been killed and 309 oters
00:01:53wounded in attack on king Khalid international airport prompting
00:01:57authorities to suspend operations.
00:02:02of Prime Minister Shahbas Sharif strongly condemns the hoosi
00:02:05militiaus attack on King Khalid international airport
00:02:09reaffirming Pakistan's unbavoring solidarity with the kingdom of
00:02:12Saudi Arabia, its leadership and brotherly people saying that Pakistan will
00:02:16stand shoulder to shoulder with the kingdom in every time of
00:02:22of trial. The
00:02:25European Union's talks with the Afghan Taliban faces
00:02:29criticism. with the concerns that migration priorities over
00:02:33shadow counter terrorism, girls education and women's
00:02:36rights and terrorist
00:02:38a groups presence in
00:02:39Afghanistan.
00:02:44US president Trump says that Russian Ukraine agreed to
00:02:47immediate energy cease fire, urging both sides to
00:02:51honor the
00:02:51agreement.
00:03:01flash floods destroy homes and bridges in central Nepal, 49
00:03:04rescued, five missing as the country continues to recover from the deadly
00:03:08floods and
00:03:09landslides.
00:03:14Pakistan beach Sri Lanka by 82 runs in the second T20 International at
00:03:18in Ravalpendi cricket stadium to take a two nil lead in the three match
00:03:24of series.
00:03:39That is all the latest we have for you for the moment from our news room, but for more details and
00:03:43live streaming, log to our website
00:03:47of www.pakistantv.com, find us on our socials in the name of pakistan tv global, say
00:03:51goodbye for
00:03:52now.
00:04:03a
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00:04:20a a
00:04:30Pakistan faces evolving security threat as militant groups increasingly
00:04:34return to modern technology to challenge the state from
00:04:37explosive laden commercial drones used by tarike
00:04:41Taliban Pakistan to reported cross uh
00:04:44border drone insertions involving Afghan
00:04:48Taliban forces, the changing
00:04:50of nature of warfare is raising serious concerns for
00:04:53Pakistan's national security. Islamabad is repeatedly emphasized the
00:04:57Afghan Taliban uh of accused of course
00:05:01with proof of providing Afghan Taliban
00:05:04sanctuaries to the TTP. Meanwhile Pakistan is
00:05:08strengthening its counter drone capabilities in pursuing operation.
00:05:13against militant networks across Khaiba and
00:05:16Balochistan. The challenge is not just intercepting
00:05:20drones, but dismantling the networks that finance,
00:05:24supply and deploy them. Meanwhile, in India, Prime Minister
00:05:27Narendra Modi's government faces mounting questions over its
00:05:31commitment to democratic democratic freedoms, the detention of
00:05:35protesters and journalists in New Delhi, restrictions on
00:05:39demonstrations and allegations of large scale voter.
00:05:42exclusion have intensified scrutiny the country's
00:05:46electoral institutions. Opposition parties accuse the
00:05:50authorities of undermining the public's right to political
00:05:53representation, while the BJP and election commission deny
00:05:57manipulating electoral roles. Of course, with Rahul Gandhi
00:06:01backing the protest protests and the UN human rights
00:06:04office raising concerns over arbitrary
00:06:07detentions. The controversy presents a serious
00:06:11challenge to Modi's. government, can a government
00:06:14claim democratic legitimacy while facing growing
00:06:18questions about electoral transparency, freedom
00:06:22of expression and the right to peaceful
00:06:25descent? tonight on perspective examine the modi government's
00:06:29handling these protests, of course the controversy surrounding
00:06:33vote of registration and the widening debate over
00:06:37constitutional rights in India. we have with us Richard
00:06:40Levi, former bureau chief. the Washington Post joining us,
00:06:44a little later, a little later on we'll have other guests during the course the
00:06:48program. Thank you for joining us. Richard,
00:06:52as far as the TTP, Afghan Nexus is
00:06:55concerned, when we look at what's happening, of course, the
00:06:59TTP has expanded its operational capabilities,
00:07:02intensified attacks inside Pakistan. Given your
00:07:06experience of covering the Afghan war and the
00:07:10TTP insurgency. How would you assess the
00:07:13relationship between TDK Taliban Pakistan
00:07:17and the Afghan Taliban today? Is it
00:07:21primarily an ideological alliance, a
00:07:25strategic partnership or has the TTP also become
00:07:28a source of regional pressure against
00:07:32Pakistan?
00:07:35first let me sayid, I appreciate the opportunity to
00:07:39talk again on Pakistan TV and and your
00:07:42questions are right spot on, it may the answer
00:07:46may be all three. um, proxy wars
00:07:50have to be funded, supplied and
00:07:54maintained by an opposing
00:07:57force that wants to allie with the proxies. in this case, the
00:08:01proxies are the TTP, in this case it's
00:08:05a pretty good bet that the supporters are the Afghan
00:08:09taliban. um, these wars... are
00:08:13not unknown throughout the world, of course, um, and
00:08:17eliminated, eliminating insurgency is
00:08:20tough work for a standing
00:08:23army. um, up until very recently, the
00:08:27TTP had no air, air force. it does
00:08:30now, it has drones, called
00:08:34often the poor man's air force,
00:08:38which are able to hammer sites in
00:08:41Pakistan. um, it has clearly some
00:08:45sort of support network supplying the drones
00:08:48and it has
00:08:50purely not just
00:08:53purely ideological reason to support the
00:08:57TTP, but a political reason
00:09:01that extends, I
00:09:02think,
00:09:05to a continuing conflict between
00:09:09the two, the two states, Afghanistan and...
00:09:14when we look at you know the evolution of TTP
00:09:18capabilities, of course it seems that they've moved beyond conventional
00:09:22ambushes, suicide bombings, bombings and
00:09:25improvised explosive devices to of course you
00:09:28increasingly sophisticated attacks including drone
00:09:32use, surveillance and coordinated
00:09:34attacks. what what and who has driven this
00:09:38evolution in your opinion and to what extent?
00:09:42does it reflect the group's own adaptation in terms of
00:09:46of course their battle field experience, access to
00:09:49expertise, from other militant networks, what what
00:09:53is this evolution about and what has given rise to
00:09:56it? well, pakistan right now is
00:10:00dealing with
00:10:00what i call feast of snakes, there are militant
00:10:04groups obviously out of
00:10:06baluchistan, and there are other militant
00:10:10groups, possibly...
00:10:25has any eyes on Pakistan, I'm sorry, eyes on
00:10:28Afghanistan, the um intelligence
00:10:31services have been withdrawn,
00:10:35before, as you know, the intelligence services of
00:10:38CIA and the US Air Force in conjunction
00:10:42were able to have drone strikes their
00:10:46own against the terrorist networks in
00:10:50Pakistan and help diminish their role uh
00:10:53that "air power isn't any
00:10:57longer available,
00:11:00and also the intelligence gathering, I
00:11:04believe the number of actual
00:11:07militants in Afghanistan is estimated to be
00:11:119,00, and obviously that's
00:11:14sizable force for to operate within
00:11:18a another country,
00:11:21the goal then of..."
00:11:25I think should be continuing
00:11:29to vitiate or eliminate this
00:11:32force, easier said than done,
00:11:35however, especially when it appears
00:11:39the EU has some interest in engaging the Taliban
00:11:43regime, which I know has gotten coverage
00:11:47there, because
00:11:50to stop you right there, when we look at the drone warfare and
00:11:54access to... this kind of drone drone technology or
00:11:58you know Pakistan of course has reported militant you
00:12:01know the the militant drone attacks, they've also
00:12:05reported you raised concerns about the use of commercially
00:12:08available cod copters I believe, and and for
00:12:12surveillance, offensive operations,
00:12:16commercially available quad copters, where might the
00:12:19TTB be obtaining this kind of
00:12:23sophisticated. technology and and obtaining
00:12:27its drones, comp you, components, technical
00:12:30expertise, because what is this development
00:12:33reveal about the accessibility of this
00:12:37kind of technology you know to to militant groups and of
00:12:41course then obviously the challenges it creates for
00:12:44Pakistan, well a
00:12:47quadcopter probably costs in the vicinity of
00:12:51$2,500 us. um
00:12:55they can be assembled from kits, so
00:12:58they're available and they're available
00:13:02reportedly from Turkey and
00:13:05China. do I have
00:13:09confirmation of that? no, it's what I read in
00:13:12reports, the um
00:13:15availability, availability becomes
00:13:18obvious because they're being
00:13:20used, perhaps being
00:13:23assembled, some... where in
00:13:26the northwestern regions of Pakistan,
00:13:30perhaps being assembled in Afghanistan,
00:13:34it's a very difficult situation to
00:13:36assess, I'm not in the intelligence
00:13:40agency, and it's
00:13:44increasingly difficult because the
00:13:48United States has very little regard anymore for what's
00:13:51happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
00:13:55because the troops were withdrawn, as you know five years
00:13:59ago, um, President Trump has essentially said,
00:14:03you're on your own to
00:14:05Pakistan, although
00:14:07it is still the most favored
00:14:11non-Nato ally the United States for good
00:14:14reason, the incredible importance of
00:14:18Pakistan to the region, I
00:14:21don't want to push the...
00:14:26point, but insurgencies have a way of taking on their
00:14:30own life, they
00:14:31are asymmetric and they can gain
00:14:35momentum because the people want
00:14:39to cast off the state, that is
00:14:41trueshistan as i understand it, so
00:14:45they the
00:14:46of course richard with sustaining these
00:14:50operations of course require funding,
00:14:53equipment, supply of it, and of
00:14:57course the reliable supply channels also, how
00:15:00might the TTP finance and its activities,
00:15:04procure drones and and explosives, other equipments
00:15:08a steady supply so to speak, and what role
00:15:12can informal financial systems, criminal
00:15:15networks, external facilitators
00:15:18play, how can these channels be disrupted and
00:15:22and you know weaken of course to weaken the... groups
00:15:25operational capacity in
00:15:27particular, the
00:15:31um answer that is a again a bit
00:15:35blurry um...
00:15:37the UN recently sanctioned
00:15:41any support for terrorism
00:15:44carried out against Pakistan. um, sanctions
00:15:48mean something, but there's
00:15:52no, let's put it
00:15:55regular effort or ability to
00:15:58enforce, except through um
00:16:02say the international police
00:16:05agencies, interpol.
00:16:08"and that takes a lot of focus and
00:16:12commitment by the authorities. I'm
00:16:16certain the ISI is tracking where these are coming
00:16:19from, and that's
00:16:23something that has to be sustained and and
00:16:26well-focused, the
00:16:30because the inexpensiveness of
00:16:34drones
00:16:35um or the and the ability to..." assemble them, the ability to
00:16:39get them up there, I mean a 14-year-old kid
00:16:43in America could assemble
00:16:47a serviceable drone, not for warfare, but I hope you take
00:16:51my point, um, it's a large
00:16:54scale problem, it's a problem for the United
00:16:58States, um, I i want to mention that the United
00:17:01States lost two service members to a drone attack
00:17:05from Iran uh, uh against personnel in
00:17:09Jordan um and
00:17:12obviously drone warfare has now
00:17:16spread so so many places across the globe that it's
00:17:20it's being it used to be what was called a boutique weapon, it is
00:17:23now a pervasive weapon and drone
00:17:27control arms control richard for for a country for a country like
00:17:31Afghanistan,
00:17:32this is you know war ravaged land in terms of funding that's
00:17:36available.
00:17:37how what we know about the funding in terms the aid that is
00:17:41accessible to the Afghan Taliban, you
00:17:45think that you you
00:17:45know think there are external source source of steady
00:17:49funding and and what do they indicate
00:17:53and and the regions and the areas and the countries that they are coming
00:17:56from? well, as I said at the top the
00:18:00conversation, a proxy war requires
00:18:03uh weaponry, shelter, um...
00:18:08supplies food for the
00:18:11army it's supporting
00:18:14um
00:18:15I believe it remains
00:18:18opaque to a certain degree to
00:18:21the uh United States we we have no
00:18:25NATO I'm sorry we Nato has no
00:18:27presence um and it's it's
00:18:31as I said before kind of looking into a black box I think you
00:18:35can assume that the Afghan
00:18:38Taliban government and military
00:18:42is providing some sort of
00:18:46protection and access
00:18:50to to the TTP and other radical
00:18:53groups um that that
00:18:57would explain why there's more of a
00:19:00proliferation these
00:19:02weapons. the the role, what
00:19:06about the nexus that we seen as far as India is
00:19:50course there are dosiers, there's also Kul Bushan
00:19:53Yadav, you
00:19:54know, other cases in point that have
00:19:56you know been cases in point that have proven the
00:20:00role of infiltration, the role of cross border terrorism, the
00:20:04role of perpetration of terrorism that comes through the... Indian
00:20:07territory, but moving on, as far as the Afghan Taliban
00:20:11responsibility themselves is concerned, as far as cross border
00:20:14militancy is concerned, of course Pakistan has
00:20:18repeatedly raised this concern, as far as TTP
00:20:21sanctuaries are concerned, operational freedom inside Afghanistan, of course
00:20:25arguing repeatedly that these networks
00:20:27contribute -
00:20:31irrevorcably to the kind of terrorism that
00:20:34then seeps into the Pakistani territory. How
00:20:38would or how should the Afghan Taliban be held accountable
00:20:42for preventing this kind of cross border
00:20:45militancy, barring of course consequences that
00:20:49are then you know that that are then of course lashed out
00:20:53on their people and their women and their children also, so how do you
00:20:57assess that situation? I would
00:21:01like to go back to the EU overchore,
00:21:04um, that is diplomatic
00:21:08path, considering how
00:21:11much af taliban two
00:21:15looks like taliban one in terms of um,
00:21:18it's uh... complete
00:21:22and utter devastation the
00:21:26rights of women and girls, um, and
00:21:30if the taliban is going
00:21:34to want any legitimacy, it's going to have to deal with those concerns, and
00:21:38once it gains some legitimacy, I would say it can deal more
00:21:41effectively, and Pakistan can be be more effective in its
00:21:45diplomacy, um, it surgencies can't last
00:21:48forever, they have... have to have some sort of
00:21:52bridges to um the the
00:21:55principal state that they're attacking, i
00:21:58think. um, and then you can get
00:22:02back to even playing field
00:22:05diplomatically. um, the united states
00:22:09settled the
00:22:09vietnam
00:22:14war,
00:22:15and the um Iranian, sorry, the Iranian, iraq war was settled,
00:22:18the... point I'm making is war
00:22:22doesn't help anyone and that may sound like a
00:22:26complete um piety uh but I
00:22:30think governments eventually realize that there are track
00:22:34to overchores um
00:22:36and eventually people come to their
00:22:40senses one would think I mean it doesn't always happen human
00:22:44nature being what it is and perhaps I'm overly
00:22:47optimistic. "you
00:22:51no, we would all like to be optimistic, but when we look at the Afghan Taliban and of course,
00:22:55the insertions that have contributed to Afghan Taliban
00:22:58adding another dimension to the tensions
00:23:02between Islamabad and Kabul, when we look at
00:23:06Pakistan security, when we look at you, of course the talks that were
00:23:10earlier held, even in
00:23:12Turkey, in terms of this, this
00:23:15confrontation, the cross border militant attacks, what steps are
00:23:19assent?" in your opinion for for there to be
00:23:23some kind of background to credible diplomacy
00:23:27or successful diplomacy at this
00:23:29time,
00:23:33well certainly you have to have a mandate from
00:23:37the top, unfortunately
00:23:41a mandate like that doesn't always
00:23:42work,
00:23:45as you know, because sometimes the civilian government is out-ranked
00:23:48um "I just
00:23:52think that again, I'm not trying not trying to
00:23:56be too optimistic, but does either side really want another
00:23:59kinetic war, um, to the
00:24:03extent that it is not perhaps going to
00:24:07end anywhere, but a cease fire or
00:24:10truth.
00:24:12Look at what happened with the United States in Iran, there's it's essentially sease fire
00:24:16and a um pausing."
00:24:20because both sides are realizing the the damage that it's
00:24:24done and so on the
00:24:27ground, journalism has no boots on the ground in
00:24:31in this conflict between pakistan
00:24:34and always go by
00:24:37the maximum that the first casualty in war is the
00:24:41truth, so you don't
00:24:43have
00:24:45independent interlocutors even in
00:24:49med. to say this is really what's happening,
00:24:53we only know what both sides PR agencies said, say and both sides
00:24:57armies, now technically
00:25:01the the taliban does not
00:25:05have pr
00:25:07apparatus,
00:25:11but always hunger for both sides, let's hear
00:25:15why they are doing this, let's hear whether truly and find
00:25:19out whether truly. Afghanistan is supporting
00:25:21them um and you can tell I'm cautious because
00:25:25again I say having been a journalist a long time I don't have dog in
00:25:29the fight um the United States I mean
00:25:33I'll be blunt at this point doesn't care uh
00:25:37Trump has talked about retaking
00:25:39Bagram airbase in
00:25:43Afghanistan I don't think that's going to
00:25:46happen um so the US is very standoffish and I'm not.
00:25:50saying the US has to be involved or
00:25:54wants to be involved or should be involved, but without a
00:25:57US roll, sometimes nothing gets
00:26:01settled forgive. me for
00:26:20that you said that of course, as far as India's role is concerned,
00:26:23in terms the proof that is available, when we look
00:26:27at India's role and balot separate
00:26:31groups for... example, pakistan of course has repeatedly
00:26:35raised concerns, we've raised concerns about the Indian support for militant
00:26:39groups, operating against it, including the
00:26:42BLA, Islamabad has also again, like I mentioned earlier,
00:26:46cited the example of Kulbushan Yadav and other
00:26:50incident presenting its position on external
00:26:54involvement in militancy, which is not only
00:26:57interestingly, you know,
00:27:01relegated
00:27:01to Pakistan only, we've
00:27:02seen what... happened in Canada also, we've seen, as far as Indian
00:27:05involvement is concerned in external territories, I mean just to quote
00:27:09examples, so when we look at for example army
00:27:13commander, when we look at the Boloach National Army Commander reported,
00:27:16reportedly disclosed Indian financial support for separatist
00:27:20elements while Bras claimed that its actions including
00:27:24its involvement in 2022 lesbela helicopter
00:27:27crash, so they were directed by India,
00:27:31so so these are cases. point, I'm basing my
00:27:34question on, when you say that, how do you respond to that, and how
00:27:38should Pakistan respond to this when we are looking at this available
00:27:42evidence to expose and disrupt external support for the
00:27:46Afghan Taliban and its groups that then flows into
00:27:50Pakistani territory? I think you
00:27:54present very solid
00:27:55foundation
00:27:58for suspicions and or
00:28:02pro'. of indian involvement, let me go back to the
00:28:05bigger picture again, India and Pakistan fought
00:28:09a brief air war,
00:28:12and actually the border and line conflict has been
00:28:15declared an active war, active
00:28:19war, so we know
00:28:22this, what we don't know is
00:28:25whether there's a way to solve the problems
00:28:29and I Again,
00:28:33do you want a kinetic solution, that is uh,
00:28:36missiles firing across lines, or do you want
00:28:40diplomatic solution, and that's up to both
00:28:44governments, India and and
00:28:46Pakistan to lay aside and
00:28:50persistent historical enmities and suspicions
00:28:54if possible, and certainly I'm,
00:28:57I'm not privy to any diplomatic
00:29:01overtures, I went... on one track to assignment
00:29:04to um New Delhi um
00:29:08and both sides at the launch table that
00:29:12I was at Indian general
00:29:16um was was optimistic but that never
00:29:20happened um obviously never
00:29:23happened so if there's a way
00:29:27to solve these issues without more people being
00:29:30killed. that would be wonderful, how
00:29:34would you, i
00:29:38understand richard, yeah, but would you in, if you if you look back at history and
00:29:42in terms of how things are, when we look at the landscape
00:29:45overall with Modi's India at this time, how would you rate
00:29:49diplomatic success between Pakistan and India
00:29:53on such such a for example trading of evidence on
00:29:56such a you know sort of sitting across the table in terms
00:30:00of some kind of serious? solution, how would you rate it?
00:30:04because we've also seen what happened in the the war
00:30:08recently between pakistan in India, in which of course we
00:30:12saw the role the US president also, so so there is
00:30:16you know a certain background to what happened, so so what are your thoughts at
00:30:19this time of that kind of diplom success of of that kind of
00:30:23diplomatic
00:30:24effort?
00:30:3010%? uh at
00:30:33first, but then you bring in the
00:30:37the um global powers, including the global south,
00:30:40including the western powers, and you start to make
00:30:43progress. um, and the Vietnam
00:30:46settlement, years were
00:30:50spent debating the size the
00:30:53table that diplomats would sit at, and and how many
00:30:57people would be at that table, so...