Is ISIS making inroads in Pakistan?

On Sunday Dawn Pakistan’s leading English newspaper published from Karachi ran a story on signs of emergence of ISIS in the country.  According to details ISIS is attracting the attention of radicals in Pakistan and Afghanistan, unnerving authorities who fear a potential violent contagion. The successes of ISIS play a very dangerous, inspirational role in Pakistan, where more than 200 organizations are operational. A banned outfit the TTP says it broadly support both ISIS militants and Al-Qaeda.

The report also quoted US officials saying the group is generating tens of millions of dollars a month from black market oil sales, ransoms and extortion. This financial heft is proving a big draw — including for the five Pakistani Taliban commanders who announced their support for the ISIS. The splinter groups are facing financial crisis, so they are contacting Daesh, another name for IS. They also say they have sent 1,000 fighters in recent years to help the militant struggle in Syria and plan to send 700 more.

By late evening there was a horrendous blast in which more than 60 people died and over 100 critically injured near Wagah border, the responsibility of which was claimed separately two outfits Jundullah and TTP affiliated Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. Jundullah and TTP are among loosely aligned militant groups that frequently share personnel, tactics and agendas but claims for specific incidents are often hard to verify.

One is completely taken aback by the statement of Rehman Malik, Interior Minister of previous PPP government. He has urged the government to immediately convene a joint session of parliament and share information about Jundullah with the lawmakers. If a person like Malik is not aware of the details, what else can one expect from PML-N government, which is often alleged for having contacts with extremists groups operating in Pakistan? This statement is based on the fact that PPP and ANP came under severe attack but PML-N didn’t during the election campaign.

As Dawn has rightly alarmed ISIS could be serious threat for Pakistan. Although ISIS is a product of the Western super powers, it also draws support from many Muslim countries. It could not have emerged without support from western powers and their regional allies. These facilitated the travel of jihadis from 80 countries into Syria, funded them, and then trained and armed them.

Terrorism is a product of relations of domination. As long as such relations are not addressed, we can see no end to it. ISIS is not an internal phenomenon of Syria and Iraq but an international one. The US, Europe, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf Arab regimes are often alleged for creating a monster that is now threatening their interests. All the countries involved in the disaster in Syria through which ISIS has emerged and who are responsible for the present catastrophe need to get together and agree to stop funding and arming the parties involved.

Shiites and Sunnis must know that any action or remark, including insulting one another, leads to increased sensitivities and ignite flames. This will certainly benefit the common enemy of all Muslims. The supposed grand plan hits two birds with one stone: to pit Arab against Arab until they are too weak to face Israel, and to gather the Sunnis against Shiite Iran, foment a sectarian cross-border conflict and encircle Iran.

Can Saudi Arabia survive the US oil assault?

Many had wondered why Saudi Arabia was supporting United States in keeping oil prices high. Now it has become evident that the US wanted to keep crude oil prices high as it was working on shale oil extraction. In this exercise first Iraq was encouraged to attack on Iran and war continued for almost a decade. Then sanctions were imposed on Iran to curb its oil export.

Turmoil was created in Iraq in the name of regime change to disrupt its oil export. Libya was also a victim of oil vultures. And the latest drama is being staged with the connivance of ISIS. Many of the countries are facing US bombardment in the name of demolishing ISIS hideouts. Have the Muslims ever bothered to find out the rise of ISIS, its funding and colossal military might. The reply is simple ISIS has not emerged overnight but part of the Zionist agenda to destroy Muslim countries, particularly those producing oil and Saudi Arabia is the prime target

Ironically Saudi Arabia still suffers from a dilemma that United States is its best friend. Saudis have been completely brain washed as they say ‘Iran is a bigger enemy as compared to Israel’.  This perception has also enabled the US to sell billions of dollars arms to Saudi Arabia. Oil prices were kept high to facilitate Saudi Arabia to earn more of petrodollars that were taken back as price of arms. Saudis were annoyed when the US refused to attack Syria, mainly due to the opposition of Russia. The breach between Saudi Arabia and the US further widened after the super powers arrived at an agreement to ease sanctions on Iran.

While Arabs remained engrossed in their petty matters, the work on shale oil continued at full swing and the result is that today United States has emerged as world’s largest oil producers. This means that not only the biggest oil market will be lost but United States will also emerge as the biggest competitor of Saudi Arabia in the global oil market. The signs of oil glut have already started appearing,  oil prices have plunged substantially and the fall is likely to continue because the US does not seem in a mood to curtail shale oil production.

The US cronies have already started putting pressure on OPEC to curtail production to resist further fall in oil prices. As opposed to this Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil supplier among OPEC members seems adamant to retain its share in the global market by selling oil to Asian buyers at a discount. This is killing two birds with one stone, retain its petro dollar income and snatch share of Iranian market, Iran supplies oil to Asian buyers that include China, India, Korea and Japan.

In the prevailing scenario it seems that Saudi Arabia has no solution, except drift with the tide. If it considers that it has got the muscles and can also afford to flow against the tides, it has to let oil prices slip to a level where production of shale oil becomes uneconomical.

It is true that in the short-term Saudi Arabia may emerge as the biggest looser and other OPEC members may not subscribe to the strategy. However, it is the question of collective survival of OPEC members who control 40 percent of global oil production.

Muslim countries, particularly Arab monarchs have to come out of ‘Iran phobia’ and identity their real enemies. They have wasted trillions of dollars in fighting US proxy war and the time has come to protect the interest of Muslim collectively irrespective of which language they speak or sect they belong to. The enemies have prevailed over by deepening the sectarian divide and spreading animosity in the name of Islam. The enemies are trying to portray killing as prime mission of Islam, which is totally incorrect. Islam is religion of love and peace for all irrespective of faith, cast and creed.  

PSO the biggest beneficiary of margin hike

The Government of Pakistan has increased margins of oil marketing companies for motor gasoline and high speed diesel. Pakistan State Oil Company (PSO) is expected to be the prime beneficiary considering its market leader position both in motor gasoline (27% share) and high speed diesel (53% share) of the segments. PSO earnings will be bolstered by Rs6.18/share on an annualized basis. In the near term, This will help the Company in diluting the negativity on account of inventory losses expected to be brought on by declining domestic petroleum product prices. For details visit shkazmipk.com

PSO profit nose dive

Pakistan State Oil Company (PSO) has released its July-September (1QFY15) results on Tuesday posting profit after tax of Rs5.2 billion (EPS: Rs19.30) as compared to net profit of Rs7.8 billion (EPS: Rs28.70) for 1QFY14, a decrease of 33%YoY. The Company’s 1QFY15 result came as a surprise. Despite declining sales, the company improved its gross margins to 4.0% in 1QFY15 as compared to 3.87% for the same period last year. Key highlights of the result included: 1) revenue and cost of sales both going down by 5%YoY , 2) marginal decline of 2%YoY in gross profits which highlights lower than initially estimated inventory losses, 3) a massive decline 67%YoY in ‘other income’ owing to very little to no penal income received from the IPPs,  4) operating expenses going down by 40%YoY highlighting lower than expected exchange loss incurred by the company during 1QFY15 and 5) reduced financial charges by 15%YoY to Rs2.7 billion in 1QFY15 as compared to Rs3.2 billion during the same period last year.