Imran Malik

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday congratulated the nation on the 50th anniversary of the historic parliamentary resolution affirming the finality of the Prophet-hood of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).

SANGHAR - The 44th death anniversary of eminent classical singer and Pride of Performance Ustad Manzoor Ali Khan would be observed by the music lovers on today (Monday) by organising different commemorative programmes. Various organizations will hold programs in his honour. Ustad Manzoor Ali Khan was born in 1922 in Shikarpur. His father, Ustad Jamal Khan, was also a great singer of his time, from whom Ustad Manzoor Ali Khan learned music. Ustad Manzoor Ali Khan's style of rag was so captivating that listeners would be moved by his performance. He was highly skilled in the rag of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai's Sur Marvi. He often sang at shrines and gatherings and used to perform Sur Rano at the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai every Thursday. He was not only a singer but also an excellent creative musician. Ustad Manzoor Ali Khan served music for 50 years and trained many students, often covering all their expenses during their training. Among his students were Ustad Muhammad Yousuf, Anwar Hussain Wistro, Ustad Waheed Ali, Qamar Somro, Gulzar Ali, Din Muhammad Damsaz, and Mukhtiar Ali Sheikh. Ustad received numerous awards, including the Pride of Performance, Shah Latif Award, Sachal Award, and others.

Shaikh Hasina Wajid's fifteen-year reign in Bangladesh (BD) came to a rather sudden, unceremonious end. The people, led by their dynamic student community, rose in protest against her autocratic, authoritarian, and despotic rule forcing her to flee to her obvious safe haven, India. Her rule was overtly India-centric allowing it aggressive, intrusive, at times even controlling ingress into sensitive governance, policy formulation, and decision-making fora. Shaikh Hasina Wajid's ouster has created a vacuum of massive proportions in the geopolitics of the region at large. Major powers like India, China and the US are now scrambling to acquire advantageous geopolitical positions. Pakistan's interest in BD has got an immense boost, too!

Israel's current war in the Middle East seems to be ratcheting up the escalation ladder rather swiftly. Was the scope of the war planned to expand gradually from Gaza to the West Bank to Lebanon while simultaneously tackling Syria, Yemen, and Iran? Or did it suffer from a crucial, unplanned mission creep? Did PM Netanyahu's domestic, political and legal troubles have something to do with this dangerously escalating war?

There is a massive paradigm shift underway in the geopolitical, geostrategic, and geoeconomic dimensions of the world. The global power and economic structures

The SCO has the potential to become the vehicle on which the Sino-Russia Combine eventually challenges the geopolitical status quo. It is therefore imperative that it now acquires a more dynamic purpose than hithertofore. It must become an authoritative, assertive, persuasive geopolitical force and project power and influence in the region and beyond. It must define its own sphere of influence and secure it. It should express itself as the formidable centre of power that it is and emerges as the security provider of choice in the larger Eurasian context. It could start radiating tangible authority at the regional-global levels by adopting collective, unified positions on vital international issues. It should become the leader of the global South and usher in a modicum of balance in geopolitical matters. It must counter the aggressive and arrogant projection of power by the US-led West in the Middle East, and East Europe and if possible, pre-empt it in the Indo-Pacific. The SCO therefore, must become an alliance, a positive force, that brings about and maintains strategic balance at the regional-global levels, redefining geopolitical imperatives in the process. Time is nigh that it expands exponentially to include amongst others Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Egypt, KSA, UAE, and other members of the GCC, ASEAN, etc. It must emerge as the most viable alternative to the current centres of power!

Disagreements, conflicts, clashes and wars are inevitable, integral parts of international relationships. Conflict management (CM) and conflict resolutions (CR) thus become the logical processes needed to deal with, control and resolve such enduring issues in interstate relations. CM denotes that the conflict has been addressed, mediated, handled and coped with pending eventual resolution whereas CR signifies that a conflict has been resolved, settled and brought to a fruitful closure. A rational progression of a conflict therefore moves from its inception to its peaceful management and on to its eventual mutually agreed to resolution.

President-elect Trump will inherit very serious geopolitical and geostrategic challenges as he steps into his second term. The Indo-Pacific confrontation and trade war with a rising, increasingly confident China, the proxy war with a resurgent Russia through Ukraine, Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the expanding theatre of war in the GMER will demand his attention straight away. However, it is in Gaza-Palestine and GMER at large that he needs to re-visit his policies. His idea of peace there is that Israel must achieve its objectives, military, territorial, diplomatic and political swiftly and be done with this war expeditiously!

At one stage, it appeared that Pakistan was being managed and maintained in a state of controlled chaos. Now, it seems to be hurtling at breakneck speed towards a stage beyond all checks, balances, controls, and pretensions of justice, rule of law, and morality. It portends uncontrolled chaos—unqualified mayhem! The nation looks on bewildered, perplexed, and stupefied as its so-called political elite runs berserk and amok, fighting internecine battles of egos and unsatiated ambitions, quite oblivious to the violent, long-term polarisation it is engendering within the nation. Its priorities are clearly self-centred and skewed. It seems unmindful of the existential threats that beset the country, focusing solely on self-preservation and perpetuation in power. Critical national interests come a distant second, or even further down the ladder.

General Wesley Clark, a four-star US general claimed in his book, “The Clark Critique”, that post 9/11 the US had planned to take out seven Muslim