New Delhi: Even as politicos bickered over foreign aid and concerns over interference by big powers, active political activity, economic issues like power and gas shortages continued to plague several of the six South Asian countries surrounding India.Ahead of the coming week, here is a quick recap of what had happened last week, as reported by the local English-language media.AfghanistanTaliban’s acting defence minister Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid claimed that Pakistan had not been permitted to continue to fence the Durand Line. Pakistan had been on an accelerated schedule to fence the disputed boundary even before the Taliban took over the entire country last August.“We have proposed this issue to the Council of Ministers, as well as to the leadership. Consultations are underway on this issue, and we will act on any guidance given to us by the leadership. We have not allowed anyone to fence so far,” Mujahid said, as reported by Tolo News. Pakistan has claimed to have finished 90% of the fencing.The Afghan news channel wrote that Pakistan was not only putting up a fence “but also regularly attacks their villages with artillery, which has made life difficult for people living in border villages near the Durand Line”.On Tuesday (February 15), Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul denied reports that the director-general of ISI, Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, had held talks with Afghan opposition leaders in Turkey.Even as the Taliban government remains officially unrecognised, Taliban officials continue to visit and meet with senior authorities of other countries.Talibani foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi spent five days in Qatar, meeting with EU ambassadors. While the EU repeated that they had not recognised the Taliban, the western bloc pledged $11 million to assist Afghanistan’s education sector. EU special envoy Tomas Niklasson stated that the Taliban has committed to reopen primary and secondary schools for boys and girls by March.The United Kingdom announced that it would be organising an international aid conference in March with the United Nations to raise financial aid for cash-strapped Afghanistan.The US had previously announced that it would hold half of the Afghan central bank’s $7 billion foreign reserves to repatriate 9/11 terror victims and free up the rest for humanitarian efforts. The Taliban responded strongly on Monday (February 14) that it would “reconsider” its policy towards the US if the latter does not change this “unjustified” decision.“If the United States does not deviate from its position and continues its provocative actions, the Islamic Emirate will also be forced to reconsider its policy towards the country,” said the Taliban spokesperson.More than six months since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban’s ministry of transport and civil aviation has still not been able to sign a deal with Qatari and Turkish companies for the operationalisation of Kabul airport. According to the ministry spokesperson, both sides were still discussing the legal aspects of the contracts.Meanwhile, Afghan embassies abroad continue to be in a precarious situation, legally and financially. Tolo News reported that the US State Department demanded that the Afghan embassy hand over its properties. “The letter we received on February 1 by the US Department of State, we were asked to accept a date to transfer the property of the embassy to the State Department,” said deputy Afghan ambassador to the US, Abdul Hadi Najrabi.On Friday, the Afghan diplomat told Tolo News that the ambassador to the US, Adela Raz, has stepped down from her post due to the US state department’s missive. “The letter sent by the US State Department to the embassy said only the ambassador is allowed to continue work from home, but not on political and diplomatic activities. The rest of the diplomats cannot work anymore,” he said.On Thursday, a former member of the security forces, Javad Jafari, returned home after being detained by the Taliban, despite the general amnesty. “I was detained by the Islamic Emirate for five days. The misunderstanding they had was resolved,” he told the media. Taliban has denied that he was ever detained.Meanwhile, acting defence minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob Mujahid has asked Afghan soldiers who had gone abroad for training to return home and join the army. “The country is expected to have a 110,000-member army in the future. I call on all military students who were sent abroad for training by the former government to return to the country and take part in the development of their homeland,” Mujahid said.BangladeshThe major political news in Bangladesh last week continued to be about the work of the search committee set up to decide the appointment of the Election Commission.On February 5, the Bangladesh president set up the search committee to recommend the names for the EC within a week. Over 320 nominations were received by the search committee, out of which 136 were from political parties.The names received by the search panel were published on a website of the Cabinet division on Tuesday (February 15). At least 100 nominations were of former bureaucrats. The second highest nominees were academics, followed by former members of the judiciary.Out of the 31 registered political parties, only 24 have sent their nominations. The main opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has refused to send any names, describing the search panel as an “Awami private committee”. However, BNP had previously nominated five names for the EC in the last such process in 2017. Besides BNP, nearly all the opposition political parties have not submitted their names. BNP has boycotted the previous two general elections, claiming that the polls were not free and fair.The EC search committee finalised a shortlist of 20 names for five posts but refused to disclose the names.“So far, our decision is that we won’t reveal the names. We will recommend the names to the president, and it will be up to him to decide whether the names will be disclosed or not,” an unnamed member of the panel told The Daily Star.According to the law, the search committee will propose a list of 10 names to the president, who will then make a choice to appoint the chief election commissioner and four election commissioners.The Election Commission’s tenure ended last week, with recriminations between the retiring members. The outgoing chief election commissioner, K.M. Nurul Huda, had a media briefing on February 14 to defend his legacy, but it was not attended by EC Mahbub Talukdar, who spoke to reporters separately. “I didn’t join it because I may not be able to speak there freely,” said Talukdar.On his last day in office, he said that there was “no democracy”, and the elections did not reflect the will of the masses. “I am one of the five [EC commissioners]. There were instances where I was not allowed to speak in [commission] meetings. I lost my battle as I was a minority among them.”Bangladeshi media also reported on the firing of an official of the Anti-Corruption Commission, who had been active in bringing to light several high-profile irregularities, including the issuance of national identity cards to Rohingya refugees. Deputy assistant director Sharif Uddin’s irate colleagues reportedly formed human chains to protest his sacking.Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International Bangladesh stated that ACC would suffer a deep crisis of credibility if it did dispel the doubts over the firing.The Financial Express, citing sources in the finance ministry, reported that China has cut down its financial aid to Bangladesh, assuring funding only in two out of five projects.“Dhaka has looked to a concrete response from Beijing over the last couple of years regarding the top-priority five projects, assured earlier of bankrolling for execution, they said,” said the report.China has so far confirmed soft loans worth $7.80 billion for eight projects.The Dhaka-based business paper also reported that the gas shortage faced by power plants are likely to continue for another two weeks. It wrote that around 25 power plants were closed as state-run Petrobangla could supply about 766 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas against the demand of 2,252 mmcfd.The high court on Monday (February 14) asked the Bangladesh government to explain why the customary laws and usage of the Dayabhaga school of thought of Hindu religion that deprives Hindu women from inheriting property from their fathers should not be declared illegal. The court’s observations were made in a writ petition brought by a businesswoman Ananya Das Gupta. She had sought an equal share in her father’s property of 30 crore taka as her brother.BhutanThe Himalayan kingdom ended the week with rising concerns of COVID-19. On Friday (February 18), it recorded the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic two years ago. According to state-run BBS, 527 new cases were reported on Friday, out of which 356 were community cases. The border town of Phuentshogling, where mass-testing was undertaken over the last couple of days, alone reported 347 cases.Since January 24, Bhutan has witnessed more than a hundred cases of COVID-19 every day.Meanwhile, the Bhutanese government is importing the paediatric Pfizer vaccine and will start vaccinating children between 5 and 11 years from the end of this month.Amidst the spectre of the return of a lockdown, construction firms, dependent on foreign workers, had appealed to the Bhutanese government to allow them to operate “in containment mode”. “The contractors are still spending money on the workers or their daily expenses, but there is no output at the end of the day, which is causing huge losses to the firms,” said the letter, reported by Kuensel on February 18.Construction Association of Bhutan executive director Tshering Younten wrote that foreign workers came to Bhutan to work for a nu 600 daily wage and earn more from overtime work.With foreign workers threatening to return as they were unable to work due to lockdown restrictions, Younten stated, “Should they be released, it would be a huge loss to the firms as well as to the country since a huge amount of money has been spent to bring them into the country.”Meanwhile, Kuensel reported that work has restarted at Punatsangchhu hydroelectric project (PII) under COVID-19 guidelines earlier this month.Since the entry of foreign workers was suspended in early January, the timeline for the project has already been impacted. A PII official told Kuensel that around 2,040 persons were looking at the “self-contained” zone.The Bhutanese quoted the health minister Dechen Wangmo as stating that if the COVID-19 restrictions were removed, the country’s health system would collapse, and 29,573 additional Bhutanese would get infected.According to Bhutan’s ministry of finance, Bhutan’s external debt to gross domestic project ratio rose to 117.7% at the end of December 2021. External debt accounts for 92.9% of Bhutan’s total national debt. The total national debt to GDP ratio stood at 126.8%, reports Kuensel.MaldivesTop Maldivian ministers and diplomats were deposed before the Parliamentary Committee on National Security services as part of an inquiry into the consequences of the opposition’s ‘India Out’ campaign.According to The Edition, defence minister Mariya Ahmed Didi drew parallels with the “intensifying Russia-Ukraine situation to analogise the “India Out” movement initiated by the opposition”.The opposition has been running an India Out campaign on the premise that there were Indian military officials based in the Indian Ocean archipelago. The campaign is aimed at cornering the MDP-led coalition government, which has close relations with India. MDP has already submitted a bill to parliament to criminalise the ‘India Out’ campaign.Didi told the parliamentary panel that her opinion about the opposition campaign being detrimental to national security was shared by the Maldives National Defence Forces (MNDF). “We are all on the same page when it comes to this ‘India Out’ campaign, we know this movement is a threat to the national security,” Didi said on Friday.Besides the defence minister, the Maldivian minister for economic development also gave testimony to the panel earlier in the week. He informed that the Maldives could import essential items from India due to a special quota. “He added import of such materials from other countries would add significant costs,” said a news report.Foreign secretary Abdul Gafoor Mohamed told the panel on Monday (February 14) that not only India, but other nations have also expressed concern about the security of their diplomatic missions in the Maldivian capital due to the opposition campaign. “Other countries that have embassies in the Maldives have also raised concerns. They have also requested to heighten security at their embassies.”Meanwhile, the opposition raised the demand made by former president Abdulla Yameen to have his trial for money-laundering live-streamed online. The Criminal Court’s chief judge ruled against the request, observing that the necessary resources were unavailable.After the opposition raised the matter in parliament on Wednesday (February 16), Speaker Mohamed Nasheed said that he would clarify the reasons from the judiciary.Later, former Vice President Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who is also Yameen’s lawyer, again pushed for the trial to be live-streamed. “I grievously suspect that government officials’ influence is entering courts. Please write this. I have clear suspicions of undue influence on courts by the government, and individuals belonging to the main ruling party,” he told The Sun.The Maldives marked a special milestone on 50 years of its largest industry, tourism, on February 16. The tourism ministry launched a special series of postage stamps on the occasion. A special guest at the event was George Corbin, a tour operator who brought the first batch of tourists to the Maldives on February 16, 1972. Eight months later, the first resort was opened at Kurumba village.“I can still visualise how Malé was in the ’70s. Cycles and cars were not there then. The roads were sandy. I still have those memories…The progress made by Maldivian tourism over the past 50 years is difficult to believe,” Corbin told local media.Tourists huts stand on a reef at a resort island at the Male Atoll December 8, 2009. Photo: Reuters/Reinhard KrauseCurrently, an average of 4,812 tourists arrive in the Maldives every day, spending an average of eight days. On February 12, Maldives recorded 7,668 tourist arrivals in a single day, the highest number of daily arrivals since the re-opening of borders in June 2020.Meanwhile, six NGOs have demanded the cancellation of a massive land reclamation project at Maldives’ second largest island, Addu, as it would cause “irreparable damage” to the environment.The voluntary groups pointed out that the project’s Environment Impact Assessment report had raised concerns that the Addu biosphere will be “destroyed” and contaminate 21 hectares of coral, along with 120 hectares of seagrass.The project is being financed under an $800 million line of credit from India’s Exim Bank.In other news, the United Kingdom became the first European country to open a resident mission in Malé. The premises were jointly opened by Maldivian state minister for foreign affairs, Ahmed Khaleel and UK minister of state for South and Central Asia, the UN and the Commonwealth, Tariq Ahmad.NepalThroughout the week, the fate of the ruling five-party coalition hung by a thread, as the US-backed $500-million loan by the Millennium Challenge Corporation threatened to collapse the government.The week began with an impeachment motion filed against Chief Justice Rana Cholendra Shumsher Rana by 98 lawmakers from the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist). The registration of the motion meant automatic suspension of Rana.However, a successful impeachment motion requires a two-thirds majority in the 271-member parliament. The three parties have only 133 votes. The principal opposition, CPN-UML, has already expressed its objection to the impeachment move of the chief justice opposed the motion but has not taken a final decision.There are two politically important cases before the Supreme Court, directly impacting the government. The first one is about the suspension of 14 MPs expelled by CPN-UML who joined the ruling coalition’s CPN Unified Socialists. The apex court has to also adjudicate on a petition filed against Maoist leaders, including parliament speaker Agni Sapkota, for abduction and murder.According to the weekly Nepali Times, “Rana was expected to rule against the Communist parties, while his successor, acting Chief Justice Deepak Karki is said to be more favourable to them.”Therefore, the suspension of Rana, the magazine argues, helps the Nepali Congress-led government as it creates space “to appease both the Maoists and the Unified Socialists to allow the MCC project to be ratified”.The government had scheduled – and postponed – the tabling of the required legislation twice last week as the coalition partners sought time from Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for internal party consultations. As per media reports, Deuba has been determined to pass the long-pending MCC through parliament, primarily due to the looming deadline of February 28 from the US side.On Wednesday (February 16), the decision to table the MCC compact was withdrawn after Maoist Centre informed their inability to support it. Two days later, it was the turn of the Unified Socialists to seek more time. There were also street protests by the student wings of the coalition parties to oppose the signing of the MCC.In between, the coalition held a meeting on Thursday (February 17) but failed to reach a consensus. Deuba, determined to table the MCC bill this time, even met with the opposition leader, UML’s K.P. Sharma Oli, on Thursday, who reportedly told him that he would have to lose his political allies.On Saturday (February 19), the Unified Socialists softened their stance, allowing the government to table the MCC compact in parliament. However, they still insist that ratification can only take place after their concerns are assuaged.The MCC also continued to dominate on the diplomatic front. The US envoy to Nepal Randy Berry told a group of journalists on February 14 that there had been no coercion from Washington. “We have not threatened Nepali leaders – that is false. But we are asking Nepal to follow through on its commitments,” said Ambassador Berry. “Whether the Nepali leaders ratify MCC is a decision for Nepal to make, as a sovereign democratic nation, and Nepal’s decision alone.”Earlier in February, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu, had held phone conversations with all the top Nepali leaders, starting with Deuba, Maoist chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former PM Oli.China publicly stepped into the MCC controversy, with Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin asserting that cooperation should “come with no political strings attached”.“However, such cooperation should be based on full respect for the will of the Nepalese people and come with no political strings attached. We oppose coercive diplomacy and actions that pursue a selfish agenda at the expense of Nepal’s sovereignty and interests,” Wang said at the daily briefing in Beijing on Friday.A day later, the United States embassy issued a statement that the ratification of MCC is a sovereign decision for Nepal to make alone.“This $500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation grant is a gift from the American people and a partnership between our nations that will bring jobs and infrastructure to Nepal and improve the lives of Nepalis. This project was requested by the Nepali government and the Nepali people and designed to transparently reduce poverty and grow the economy of Nepal,” the US embassy stated.In other news, Indian visitors will be able to use UPI, an online payment system, during their visit to Nepal from May. According to Kathmandu Post, Nepalese payment service operator Gateway Payment Service Private Limited has entered into an agreement with the National Payment Corporation of India to deploy UPI in Nepal.“Industry insiders say that the move would provide a great relief to the Indians travelling to Nepal because there are restrictions on using high denomination Indian currency notes in Nepal. Since December 2018, Nepal allowed the use of only Indian rupees 100,” said the Post’s report.PakistanPakistan’s foreign office announced that Prime Minister Imran Khan will be visiting Moscow next week, which will mark the first bilateral visit by a Pakistani premier in 23 years.The Express Tribune had reported that Khan would raise the issue of finalising two mega gas pipeline projects during the Russia visit. “Sources told The Express Tribune that the civilian and military leaderships were on the same page on signing the Pakistan Gas Stream Project and the gas pipeline from Kazakhstan project with Russia,” the report said.The critical factor that has brought the two cold-war foes together is Afghanistan, where both have convergence on their attitude towards the Taliban government. Incidentally, Pakistani army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa had met with EU officials in Brussels for discussions about Afghanistan on Thursday (February 17).While the foreign office did not share the date, Pakistani media reported that Khan would travel to Russia on February 23.Meanwhile, the Pakistani government attributed the cancellation of the scheduled session of the National Assembly on February 18 to the forthcoming visit of the PM Khan to Russia. The opposition had claimed that the cancellation of the session without any official announcement was the government’s effort to destroy constitutional norms.PML(N) leader Shehbaz Sharif had alleged that the NA session had been postponed as he had to appear before a special court in Lahore on the same day on a money laundering case. He claimed that the government deferred the session so that the opposition politician could not get relief from the court on the grounds that he had to attend parliament. There was an expectation that Sharif would be indicted, but it was postponed.The NA session’s cancellation had caused controversy as there had been no formal notification from the president’s office.Meanwhile, the opposition parties continued to make efforts to find ways to table a no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan government successfully.On February 13, PML-N’s Sharif, who is also the leader of opposition in the National Assembly, met with allies of Imran Khan, PML-Q’s Chaudhary brothers, to seek their support to oust the government. This was the first meeting of Sharif with Chaudhry Shujat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi after a gap of 14 years, Geo News reported.Pakistani media also reported that Shehbaz Sharif had a secret meeting with ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s estranged member Jehangir Tareen. “A credible source told The News that the two leaders met a few days ago to discuss the Imran Khan government and its fate. Tareen, when contacted, did not offer any comment on this critically important meeting in the wake of the opposition’s announcement to move a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.”Tareen, who claims to have the support of over 30 PTI MPs, has expressed concern about Pakistan’s economic woes.Earlier on Thursday (February 17), PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif stated that the opposition’s no condition move was a “risk that should be taken” as PM Khan was “on his last legs”. Pakistan People’s Party’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf asserted that all opposition parties were on the same page on tabling the no-confidence motion in the parliament as it was their fundamental democratic right. He revealed that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari would be contacting the Jamaat-i-Islami leadership to join the forthcoming Long March and no-trust motion.Addressing a public meeting in Punjab province on Friday (February 18), PM Khan said that the opposition’s plan for a no-confidence motion would be thwarted. He asserted that the opposition’s “haste” in moving on the no-trust move was due to Sharif facing imminent indictment on money-laundering charges.He also claimed that allowing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to go abroad on medical grounds was his government’s “big mistake”.The opposition parties also criticised the arrest of journalist Mohsin Jamil Baig by the Federal Investigation Agency’s cyber-crime wing. The prominent news anchor was taken into custody on charges of shooting at officers raiding his residence on a case registered by federal communication minister Murad Seed. During a talk show on a TV channel, Baig had reportedly said that Saeed’s ministry was recognised as the top-performing ministry due to an alleged affair with PM Khan. Based on a petition by Baig’s wife, the Islamabad high court directed the Inspector General of Police to probe allegations of torture of Baig in custody.Earlier in the week, FIA’s cybercrime wing had arrested a man for allegedly running a social media “propaganda campaign” against the PM’s wife, Bushra Bibi. The minister of state for information and broadcasting, Farruk Habib, had warned of action against those pushing “fake stories” of estrangement between the PM and his wife.The Friday Times reported that there had been rumours that Bushra Bibi had left the PM’s residence to stay with Farah Khan, a close friend in Lahore, due to differences. Farah Khan even tweeted on February 15 that all such reports of Bushra Bibi leaving Khan were propaganda.In response, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz Khan said that Khan should set the same standards that he wanted for his wife in treating other women. He asserted that “the standards the prime minister wants for his wife should also have been shown for late Kulsoom Nawaz when she was fighting for her life at a hospital [in London].”In other news, the president of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Islamabad chapter has threatened to stop the Aurat March held across Pakistan every year on International Women’s Day, with batons.Speaking at a demonstration held in Islamabad to protest India’s hijab row, Abdul Majeed Hazarvi said that at Aurat March, “obscenity is spread in the name of women’s rights“.The Lahore high court freed Qandeel Baloch’s murderer and brother, as their parents had pardoned him. After being arrested for social media star Baloch’s murder, Muhammad Waseem had told media that he had no remorse as her behaviour had been intolerable. He had been sentenced to a life term but has been acquitted after less than six years in prison.Four days after a mentally-ill man was stoned to death over alleged desecration of the Quran, police authorities in Punjab’s Khanewal district claim to have arrested 119 suspects, with 38 accused of taking the leading role in executing the crime.The front pages of Pakistani newspapers were emblazoned with the visit of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who also attended the meeting of the National Task Force for Polio Eradication. Pakistan President Arif Alvi conferred the country’s second-highest civilian honour, Hilal-e-Pakistan, on Gates.On Thursday, Pakistan PM’s office tweeted the photo of a luncheon in honour of Bill Gates. There was a visible gap between two leaders at the round table, where the pixels seemed to have been disturbed. The Current reported that the ‘missing’ person was ISI chief Nadeem Anjum, who was photoshopped out of the photo. Last December, the News had reported that the new DG ISI had asked all authorities not to release his picture or video footage made during any official events.Sri LankaAt the start of the week, unidentified men attacked the residence of journalist Chamuditha Samarawickrama in Colombo. Samarawickrama, who was previously a media director to former President Maithripala Sirisena, runs a talk show on Youtube and reports for the local TV channel Hiru News.As per his complaint, a white van arrived at around 2 am on February 14, with about three men wearing helmets. They fired shots and threw stones and excrement at the house.Claiming that he did not know who was behind the attack, Samarawickrma stated, “I cannot be silenced by attacks on my house.” A local court directed the police to provide protection to Samarawickrama on Friday (February 18).The 2019 Easter Sunday attacks continue to reverberate in Sri Lanka, with Sri Lanka’s high court acquitting the former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando and inspector general of police Pujith Jayasundara accused of war crimes for not preventing the bombing. They had been accused of failing to act on a warning sent by an Indian intelligence agency that local jihadists were planning attacks in April 2019. The state had indicted them with 855 charges, all of which were dismissed by the court.The court order, delivered on February 18, implied that the former head of the State Intelligence Services, Nilantha Jayawardena, had tried to make Fernando the scapegoat to deflect any blame.A day later, Sri Lankan media reported that then director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Shani Abeysekara, had told the Supreme Court that top intelligence services actively prevented criminal investigators from closing in on the Easter Sunday bombers.Abeysekara had filed a fundamental rights petition before the Supreme Court, requesting an interim order to restrain President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from issuing a detention order to arrest him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.Former director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Shani Abeysekera has filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka requesting an interim injunction preventing his arrest or detention again by the CID.The former CID chief alleged that intelligence agencies planted ‘evidence’ to mislead investigators on several occasions.“Abeysekara said the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and the State Intelligence Service (SIS) conspired to show that the murder of two police constables at Vavunathivu in November 2018 was carried out by former Tamil Tiger cadres and not the work of Islamic extremists,” reported EconomyNext.The “explosive revelation” accuses SIS and DMI of preventing the CID from getting close to Zahran Hashim’s National Thowheeth Jama’ath in the run-up to the Easter Sunday bombing. He specifically accused Jayawardena of personally misleading CID officials by ‘planting’ evidence.Earlier on Wednesday (February 16), Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said that he was working with the Vatican to find justice for the victims of the East Sunday bombing. The Church has accused the Rajapaksa government of shielding his predecessor Sirisena, a key ally, from being accountable for the attacks which killed 279 people.“It is the government which has to be responsible for the consequences which Sri Lanka has to undergo if the church seeks international assistance to mete out justice to those who were affected by the Easter Sunday mayhem,” the Archbishop told the media.A soldier stands guard outside the Grand Mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019Credit: ReutersThe senior Church officer also denounced the Attorney General for arresting social activist Shehan Malaka Gamage, who had been seeking justice for the Easter Sunday attack victims. Gamage had been arrested on February 14 on the grounds of “exciting or attempting to excite feelings of disaffection to the State” for remarks that he made during a media briefing in August 2021.On the economic front, Sri Lanka continued to battle a foreign exchange crisis that has adversely impacted its ability to import fuel.Sri Lanka’s Public Utilities Commission Janaka Ratnayake said that there was a shortfall of 400 megawatt due to a lack of fuel for power generation.“Therefore, we have no choice but to implement scheduled load shedding from today starting from 230 pm,” he said on Friday (February 18). He added that the grid had to also ease from drawing heavily from hydropower, as it had been kept aside for agriculture.The electricity regulator’s announcement to have load shedding was made just a couple of days after Ratnayake claimed that there would be no power cuts till April this year.Further, Sri Lanka’s energy minister Udaya Gammanpila stated that oil importer Ceylon Petroleum Corporation was under so much economic distress that it might have to make the “highest price hike in the history of Sri Lanka” in fuel costs. He also informed the media that the finance ministry had been requested to remove taxes imposed on imported fuel and increase prices.On Saturday, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal tweeted price increase was “long overdue”.Earlier, the energy ministry’s secretary K.D.R. Olga had stated that CPC’s debt crisis had worsened “with $700 million required by the end of this month for fuel purchased so far”.Gammanpila also batted for Sri Lanka approaching the International Monetary Fund. “I have expressed my view that we should go for IMF. Now, most of the cabinet ministers are for an IMF deal,” he said on February 18.He admitted that tankers were stuck at offshore unload points near the capital as banks and CPC scrambled to get the required funds. “A ship from Petro China had to keep waiting at sea for 11 days because we did not have dollars,” the energy minister said. “We had to keep two ships like that.”With CPC having arranged funds for fuel from two tankers, there were no scheduled load shedding on Saturday (February 19), only intermittent ones.India had earlier last week sent a 40,000-litre shipment of diesel to Sri Lanka. The soft loan of $500 million from India is expected to be operational from April.Sri Lanka’s top automotive body, Ceylon Motor Traders Association, warned that the forex crisis might lead to vehicles going off the road, as agents found it difficult to open letters of credit to import spare parts. “These unofficial strictions by banks have begun to cripple Sri Lanka’s vehicle fleet maintenance, which would have a direct impact on goods and people transportation as well as the overall economy,” CMTA said.On the political front, the Tamil National Alliance and the UK-based Global Tamil Forum issued a joint statement calling on M.K. Stalin, chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, to take an active position on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. “A continued focus on this issue at this critical time is crucial for the long-term peace and prosperity of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. It is also intrinsically linked with the interests of Tamils on both sides of the Palk Strait, and the greater India,” the joint statement said.
