What began as a whisper in 1894 wherein a certain Mullah Powindah assumed the mantle of Badshah – e – Taliban has since then led to massive turmoil over the world especially in the rough terrain of Afghanistan which boiled over to the predominantly Pashto Region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The writ of the Pakistani Government as it extends only to its cities & maybe in Punjab & Sindh wherein the Tribal leaders mostly rule the wildlands of what is known to the world as FATA, KPK & NWFP etc. The US push in Afghanistan after 9/11 lead to an even more deteriorating condition in Swat wherein the mullahs who were as it is radicalized came into an even grander fervor as they fled with their tails between their legs from Afghanistan to their traditional breeding grounds of the so-called Mujahid movement during the Af-USSR war in Pakistan. Probably no bigger example of the snake coming back to bite its master exists in the world today.
The Pak Army began its disastrous insurgency campaign in 2002 against the terrorists it had trained itself. The sub optimal forces present in this lawless land continues to be the Frontier Corps which is basically a Para Military Force which is even lower in standards than the infamous Pak Army. The attacks against the few government officials in the area & the Paki forces came to a head in 2009 wherein almost 1800 attacks in various forms such as IED, Suicide Vests & Fidayeen attacks were carried out. The Pak Army never in its wildest dreams envisage that, being a harbinger of terror would it have to face the same on its own soil. It had a pitiful experience in dealing with local uprising which was evident in 1971 & continues to fumble to this day. Its inability to understand its local population & a devil may care attitude towards Khyber Pakhtkunwa has lead to a dismal state of its population which continues to rise up in arms. It was neither equipped nor mentally aligned to take on this insurgency which it had created.
Hence when a little-known Mullah Fazalullah brought the Pak Army to its knees, they had to make an attempt to respond as per their US Masters. This little-known person was an intermediate student from Government College Swat; husband of daughter of Maulana Sufi Mohammed became the member of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) which is a wahabi organization seeking to implement Sharia Law in Pakistan & Taliban society. Mullah Fazalullah rite to passage was his participation against US in the aftermath of 9/11 wherein he was subsequently jailed for 17 months, became a chairlift operator, opened a radical radio station, however gained large sympathies in the aftermath of 2005 earthquake in Pak. The entire gambit of the Pak Army since 2007 to 2009 was to capture this one individual as its final aim which ultimately failed in 2009.
Op Rah – e – Rast (The Correct Path) began in Apr 2009 & the hilarious part was that the Pak Army particularly the ISI called it a routine training exercise!!! The official reason given for conduct of this operation was the breakdown of law & order wherein TNSM & TTP were banning right to education of females, taking over the judiciary & implementing their own blend of rules & regulations. This was further compounded by the poor economic conditions of the residents, abhorrent medical facilities & no rule of the Federal Government. It is pertinent to note that this was just an excuse & this regrettable state of affairs probably existed since the independence of Pakistan.
The Pak Army probably committed its largest force level till date coupled with heavy caliber weapons for this operation against its own people. It is estimated that upwards of 40000 personnel including 350 or so commandos & Attack Helicopter or Gunships were employed alongwith sizeable numbers of the Frontier Corps. The abhorrent part was that the Pak Army in absolute disregard for the local population, displaced over Three Million men, women & children to leave their homes & were left to fend for themselves. In all probability only a few hundred thousand were placed in official camps when their homes were being bombarded by aerial & artillery weapons.
At the end the Pak Army begrudgingly did manage to gain certain gains however at great cost to its Army & its own people. The massive damage to infrastructure, morale of the people as well as the imprints left on the populace first as they were left to their own designs by a nation which did not care only to bombard their homes to flush out terrorists which the Government or more so the Pakistani Army only had created in the first place which cannot be evaluated in numbers. Furthermore, the resurgence of TTP in only a year in 2010 and the recent incidents in 2022 as well as the current year only further the belief that if you breed snakes in your backyard…. they will come back to bite you…

CPEC: The Road Leads to the Middle East and China’s Hegemony!
One of the most driven and motivated components of the colossal infrastructure project of BRI is indeed China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC)

Khan Sikendr Bashir

In the world’s scenario, China is the second most powerful economy after the USA and a military giant. Its GDP is 18.1 trillion US dollars, six times more than India. With economic growth, its demand for energy and the markets increases proportionally. Thus, given the necessity for energy press and the new bazaars, it has designed the Belt Road Initiative(BRI).
Belt Road Initiative (BRI), reminiscent of the Silk Road, is a massive infrastructural project intending to connect Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. It is a two-pronged ambition to build the overland Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. The massive and ambitious infrastructure project includes a vast network of railways, energy pipelines, highways, and streamlined border crossings both westward and southward. Experts estimate the colossal project cost is as much as $8 trillion.
One of the most driven and motivated components of the colossal infrastructure project of BRI is indeed China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC). The estimated cost of the project: a combination of transportation and energy infrastructure projects, is $ 60 billion. Since its launch in 2015, the project (CPEC) has invited international media’s attention towards itself and has become a heated debate.

CPEC: The Flagship Project

Among the six economic cooperation corridors: New Eurasia Land Bridge, China-Mongolia-Russia, China-Indochina Peninsula, Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, China-Central Asia, China-Pakistan, China-Pakistan Corridor is going to be more potent and impactful than any other in the entire BRI projects, therefore, makes it the flagship project among the mentioned connectivity projects.
The connectivity and infrastructural project, CPEC, given the transportation and security of oil and natural gas from the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, will be remarkably secure and more economical than the current sea route, which China has been using through the North Pacific and Indian oceans. The corridor reduces the present sea-route distance of 11619 km (6274 nm), from Shanghai (China) to Muscat (Oman) in the Persian Gulf, to 420 km (227 nm) from Gwadar port in Pakistan to the said Muscat port. That is how the corridor curtails 28 days-long, panic-stricken, economically burden some and security-demanding travel, making it just a one-day
journey from Gawadar to the Muscat ports.
Besides CPEC’s advantage concerning trade and security, it places, from the military vantage point, China strategically in a stronger position. Its Gwadar port, the nucleus of CPEC, offers China the most convenient naval access to the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Without Gwadar Port, CPEC is a non-existent entity whose imagination is even unlikely. Even China has converted a $230 million loan to Pakistan into a grant to construct Gwadar airport.
In case of military urgency, military hardware, personnel, and workforce transportation will be incredibly advantageous. Thus, strategic enhancement, by dint of Gwadar Port, in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea will eventually ossify China’s geopolitical influence on Middle East Countries.

China’s Diplomatic Investment In The Middle East: CPEC’s first call!

Since the inception of the 21st century, China’s trade in the Middle East has steeply grown. It seems as if the business has put wings to expand it. Commerce in the region witnessed an incredible expansion. For example, its worth in 2019 was $180 billion, whereas it rose to $259 billion in 2021. And interestingly, trade between the Middle East and the USA has declined from $120 billion to $82 billion in 2019 and 2020. It reflects that China is cementing its position across the region as the largest trading partner. The other side of this trade transition is that the Middle East is slipping away from the USA and embracing China, mirroring a remarkable Middle East political shift.
Following the natural principle that opposites replace each other, China shifted from a zero-interference policy to mediation, utterly in contrast to the USA’s blueprint, to conciliate the ongoing political frictions in the Middle East, particularly Arab-Iran: focal and the most indignant and bitter. Arab-Iran rivalry, in actuality, is the epicentre of the conflicts in the Middle East. Since 2011, escalations in the Saudi-Iran rivalry have exacerbated and entrenched conflicts that have fueled proxy wars in Yemen. They have also frustrated stability efforts in Iraq. They also prolonged the crisis in Lebanon and a political stalemate in Syria.
Once the rivalry ends between the two bitterest rivals: Arab and Iran, stability in the region will find a convincing foundation by itself.
While compromising its neutrality approach, China is entering into the stormier political waters of the Middle East to prove to the world in general and the USA in particular that its diplomatic mettle is potentially deeper. China’s accomplishment in the Arab-Iran conflict settlement will be an assertive thwack on the USA and an unclaimed proclamation of its world hegemony.

Email:------------------bashirahmadkhan330@gmail.com