India Narrative

After tabling a no-confidence motion, the opposition, now short of single digit numbers, is closing in to topple Prime Minister Imran Khan. The arithmetic to oust the mercurial Khan is simple. The opposition needs to muster the magic number of 172 lawmakers to oust Khan. After the decision of Shahzain Bugti of the Jamhoori Watan Party to step out of the ruling coalition on Sunday, treasury members have been slashed to 178 in the 342-member lower house of the parliament. With that the opposition has 163 in the bag, only 9 shorts of the required numbers. Later on, Monday, the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), an ally of the ruling Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party announced that it was joining the opposition in the no-confidence motion against the premier. Khalid Magsi's parliamentary leader of BAP made the dramatic announcement of ditching the ruling coalition in the National Assembly at a joint press conference accompanied by heavyweights in the Pakistani political spectrum. The bi

Timed with precision, Baloch nationalists launched two spectacular and unprecedented attacks on Pakistani military camps separated from each other by over 400 kilometres. The impressively coordinated strikes took place when the beleaguered Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was in Beijing to unlock funding for the stalled China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. The attacks immediately demolished Khan’s sales pitch to woo the Chinese to revive CPEC funding. Far from believing the Pakistani Prime Minister that Balochistan, through which most of the CPEC passes has been secured and will be stable, it is obvious that Beijing’s confidence in Islamabad’s capacity to secure the corridor would have been severely dented after the bold attacks on the Nushki and Panjgur camps. Clearly, Balochistan is on the boil, and the Chinese know it. Already Beijing has been rattled by the killing of their nine engineers, working at the site of the Dasu power project,  during a pivotal attack in Ju