Wednesday, February 3, 2016
د پاکستان مرکزي حکومت د پښتنو وظیفې چاته ورکوي؟
د پاکستان وفاقي حکومت په تعلیم کې د فاټا، خیبر پښتونخوا او بلوچستان د پښتنو سره د تعصب نه کار اخلي.
دا خبره د پارلیمنټ د ایوان بالا یا سنیټ د ورسته پاتې سېمو د مسائلو دپاره د کمیټۍ مشر سنیټر عثمان کاکړ کړې ده. وي او ای ډیوه سره خبرو کې سنیټر کاکړ ویل پښتنو طالب علمانو دپاره وظائف وفاقي حکومت د نورو صوبو او د اسلام آباد طالب علمانو ته ورکړې دي.
سنیټر عثمان کاکړ وویل په ٨٠٠٠٠ ورکړی شوو تعلیمي وظیفو کې د فاټا طالب علمانو ته یوازې ١٠٠٠ وظیفې او د بلوچستان پښتنو طالب علمانو ته ٢٥٠٠ وظیفې ورکړی شوي دي. د پښتنو طالب علمانو دپاره تعلیمي وظیفې د اسلام آباد او د نورو لویو ښارونو طالب علمانو ته ورکړی کیږي، سنیټر عثمان کاکړ وايي.
په دې اړه نور تفصیل اسلام آباد نه د وي او ای ډیوه خبریال پیرولایت شاه رپورټ کې اوریدی شۍ:
Saudi Aggression on Yemen - Up to 15 killed in aggression raids on Amran factory
At least 15 people were killed and more than 18 others were injured in an initial toll of Saudi airstrikes on Amran Cement Factory on Wednesday.
A local official explained to Saba that this toll may rise because of the intense air raids, which left large destruction in the factory.
The official pointed out that the hostile warplanes waged several raids on al-Ghail area in Khamer district, which resulted in injuring six citizens and causing big damages in public and private property.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news418166.htm
SAUDI INTERIOR MINISTRY: AL-QAEDA IN AFGHANISTAN FUNDED BY SAUDI MONEY
Saudi Arabia's Major General Mansour Al-Turki, Ministry of Interior spokesman, admitted on Monday that the Saudi money has been used to fund al-Qaeda terrorist group in Afghanistan with billions of dollars.
During an interview with the BBC British news network, Turki justified sending the Saudi petrodollars to al-Qaeda by claiming that certain individuals have convinced Saudi nationals to offer money under the title of charity grants,
"[Saudi] People had been convinced they were providing money to help the poor when in fact the funds were going to finance al-Qaeda in Afghanistan," Turki said.
The Saudi General Administration for Financial Investigations announced earlier that it had received acknowledgements in 2014 about cases of suspected money laundering and terrorism financing crimes.
It said that 88% of the acknowledgments received were related to financing terrorism.
Turki denied that Saudi Arabia has ever funded any terrorist organization, but claimed there had been a "misuse of our financial system."
According to WikiLeaks report issued in 2010 citing leaked US diplomatic cables, private individuals in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states friendly to the United States are the chief source of funding for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups in the Middle East region.
http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/saudi-arab/item/20940-saudi-interior-ministry-al-qaeda-in-afghanistan-funded-by-saudi-money
America's Great Friend Saudi Arabia Will Whip a Poet For His Poetry
The good news is that Saudi Arabia has changed its mind about executing a poet for “the contents of his poetry book.” Then there is the bad news.
The bad news is: Saudi Arabia is America’s closest ally in the Middle East!
Also, the bad news for the poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh in particular is that the Saudi court that tossed out his sentence of beheading has replaced it with a sentence of eight years in prison and 800 lashes.
The good news is that prisoners do not typically die from such floggings, which are administered 50 lashes at a time.
The bad news is that Saudi Arabia, America’s closest Middle Eastern ally and the top destination for U.S. weapons sales, is planning to whip a man 800 times—periodically, as he sits in a prison—for the crime of “apostasy” because they object to the “blasphemy” found in his book of poetry. Fayadh is also being ordered to publicly denounce his own work, which is something I imagine most of us would do in order to avoid being beheaded, but which would bother us greatly, at the same time, although probably not as much as the 800 lashes would bother us.
The good news is that the government of a nation that respects human rights to a greater degree could theoretically have more influence over the government of a nation that respects human rights to a lesser degree by being their ally than by being their enemy.
The bad news is that after more than three decades as America’s closest ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia still treats women like third-class citizens and imprisons those who criticize government authorities and publicly executes nonviolent drug criminals and, with the strong backing of our government, run an authoritarian state that, among many other offenses, plans to whip a man 800 times for writing poetry.
The good news is that U.S. defense contractors have taken in a healthy chunk of change from this dictatorship, which probably helps your retirement portfolio in the long run, assuming you live longer than the average Saudi dissident poet.
The pen has yet to be proven mightier than the sword.
http://gawker.com/americas-great-friend-saudi-arabia-will-whip-a-poet-for-1756817502
Merkel Asks Putin to 'Use Influence' With Ukraine Rebels
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to ensure that the Donbass rebels adhere to the ceasefire declared in eastern Ukraine during a phone talk, the Associated Foreign Press reported Tuesday.
"Here, Russia must use its influence on the separatists," Merkel said according to her spokesman's statement, the AFP reported.
Merkel told Putin that in order to resolve the situation in eastern Ukraine politically, the ceasefire had to be respected and access had to be granted to truce monitors, the AFP said.
During their phone conversation, the two leaders agreed that the Minsk agreements are crucial in resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin press office reported Tuesday.
Merkel also had talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday. Following the talks, she has ruled out lifting EU sanctions against Russia before a full ceasefire has been implemented in eastern Ukraine, international media reported.
The Minsk agreements were negotiated in the capital of Belarus in September 2014 and February 2015 by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France. The agreements includes provisions to deliver a full cease-fire, return control of borders to Ukraine, withdraw heavy weaponry and to hold free elections in the region.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/merkel-asks-putin-to-use-influence-with-ukraine-rebels/558252.html
Putin meets ‘old friend’ Kissinger visiting Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his residence outside Moscow. The Kremlin said that the two have “long-standing, friendly relations” and that they have used the “opportunity to talk.”
The meeting is a continuation of a “friendly dialogue between President Putin and Henry Kissinger, who are bound by a longstanding relationship,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“They communicate all the time, use the opportunity to talk,” he added. Putin “values” this opportunity to discuss pressing international issues as well as exchange opinions on global perspectives, Peskov said.
Putin and Kissenger have had over 10 tete-a-tete meetings so far, according to media reports. When Kissinger visited Russia in 2013 Putin said that Moscow always pays attention to his opinion and called the former secretary of state "a world class politician."
Kissinger, a former US national security adviser and foreign policy head, pioneered the detente policy in 1969 steering the US-Soviet relations to a general ease. For his part in negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam in an unsuccessful effort to put an end to the Vietnam war (1955-1975) he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
In a December interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt, Kissinger said that he believes the West should understand there could be no resolution to the Syrian crisis and unity without Russia’s participation. He also said that one cannot defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISISL) militants in the Middle East using diplomatic means.
When Donald Trump Doesn’t Win
By ANDREW ROSENTHALIt’s impossible to predict when Donald Trump’s supporters will finally have enough of his bombast and bigotry, or when (if ever) he will decide to cancel the 2015-16 season of his reality-show campaign and go home. But if he does, we are getting a pretty good idea of how it will happen – with an epic outburst of petulance.
After he came in second in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Mr. Trump gave a fairly gracious speech. Then he went ominously silent for hours before erupting on Twitter, as Maggie Haberman wrote at The Times.
He blamed the news media, of course, for not covering his second-place win sufficiently. “Got second highest vote total in history,” said Mr. Trump, who under other circumstances would probably have explained to us that the second-place finisher is just the best of the losers.
Mr. Trump blamed Iowa voters for not giving him enough credit for spending his own money on the campaign. “I will keep doing, but not worth it,” he tweeted.
And then he started blaming Ted Cruz, whose campaign workers told caucusgoers at one point on Monday that Ben Carson was planning to drop out of the race. Mr. Cruz later offered an apology, and Mr. Carson woke up from his nationally televised nap long enough to accept.
Mr. Trump is hurling his own accusations. “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he illegally stole it,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!” He later replaced that tweet with one that dropped the word ‘illegally.’
Cruz workers, as it turns out, were guilty of bad behavior at the caucuses. They were probably chewing gum in the hallway, too. Someone should tell the principal.
But the caucuses are not an election, and they are not terribly democratic. Lyndon Johnson and others have compared them to a cactus, unfavorably.
And it’s not clear that the polls were all that wrong. The Cruz/Trump contest ended roughly within the margin of error. It was Senator Marco Rubio’s strong third place showing that was the surprise of the night.
Still, Mr. Trump wants satisfaction! “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” he tweeted. He might want to ask Rick Santorum how much mileage you get out of a recount in Iowa.
Mr. Trump lost in Iowa because his ego blinded him to the fact that he needed data, TV ads and a real ground game in Iowa. It wasn’t Mr. Cruz’s fault, or the fault of the media — not even Megyn Kelly.
But this is the Donald Trump that lurks beneath the surface. Behind that blustering, bullying exterior is a blustering, whining interior. If Mr. Trump decides that people are being unfair to him by not letting him win, he will stamp his foot, pick up his toys and go home. Sounds like a good plan.
At Baltimore mosque, President Obama encourages U.S. Muslims: “You fit in here”
President Obama Wednesday delivered the comforting sermon to U.S. Muslims that their community leaders have been requesting for years, framing Islam as deeply American and its critics as violating the nation’s cherished value of religious freedom. Obama’s comments came in his first visit as president to a U.S. mosque.
The historic 45-minute speech at a large, suburban Baltimore mosque was attended by some of the country’s most prominent Muslims. In what appeared to be a counter to the rise in Islamophobia, Obama celebrated the long history of Muslim achievement in American life from sports to architecture and described Muslims as Cub Scouts, soldiers and parents, pointing out the mother of the premed college student who introduced him at the podium.
“There are voices who are constantly claiming you have to choose between your identities… Do not believe them…You fit in here. Right here. You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America, too,” Obama said, his volume rising as he said he was speaking in particular at that moment to young Muslim Americans. “You’re not Muslim or American, you’re Muslim and American. And don’t grow cynical.”
While Obama has many times, including in the last few months, spoken out against anti-Muslim rhetoric, Wednesday’s visit was the longest and most direct such effort –an intimate conversation between a faith community and a president who has at times seemed to put himself at arm’s length. The atmosphere was one of a pep talk and was interrupted many times by fervent applause.
The speech was one of several almost back-to-back, high-profile Obama addresses to U.S. faith communities, talks he seems to be using to focus on religious tolerance during an election season where faith often comes up in fiery contexts. One week ago he spoke at the Israeli Embassy, saying the impulse to stigmatize people of other faiths is “deep within us.” On Thursday he will address one of the most high-profile evangelical events, the National Prayer Breakfast.
Obama’s comments come at a time when the country is furiously debating what constitutes religious freedom and who has the right to proclaim it: Is it for the Muslim refugee from Syria? The conservative Christian baker or photographer who can’t in good conscience participate in gay weddings? The Orthodox Jewish private schools seeking funding? His comments Thursday will likely be closely watched. Some critics on social media Wednesday portrayed Obama as a hypocrite:
Unless you're a Catholic nun, a cake baker, or a Protestant. twitter.com/whitehouse/sta…
‘Stay home!’ Germany threatens to stop aid if influx of Afghan refugees continues
“We’re staying here as long as it’s necessary. But we also expect that the Afghan population stays here,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said during a visit to Kabul on Monday, as quoted by N-TV news channel.
“We want the influx of refugees to be stopped,” he said, noting that many Germans question why so many refugees are fleeing Afghanistan when Berlin is providing security assistance there.
He called on Afghans to “stay here to build [up] the country,” noting that parts of the country are stable.
“There are still many [safe] provinces in the north. But also inside areas that aren’t so stable, there are safe areas,” he said just hours after a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Kabul police station, killing at least 20 people and wounding 29 others.
Responding to the attack, de Maiziere said: “Of course, the security situation in Afghanistan is complicated. Who could deny? We also have attacks elsewhere in the world. International terrorism threatens not only Afghanistan, but all of us.”
De Maiziere also warned Afghans not to listen to false information spread by people smugglers, telling ZDF that there is “no welcome money in Germany. There is no guarantee of a job or an apartment.”
The interior minister promised to step up deportations of Afghans from Germany, suggesting the use of current flight routes between the two countries and charter planes.
“All these are possibilities and we will begin with them,” he said.
Germany has trained over 73,000 Afghan police personnel over the 14 years since the NATO mission began. However, currently the focus is no longer on the basic training, but on advising the leaders of local police and on training in specific areas. Berlin currently has only 50 police officers in the country.
Last autumn, the German parliament decided to stop withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and authorized a small increase in numbers, from 850 to 980. Those troops perform training and advisory roles in the country.
Afghans are the second-largest group of asylum seekers to have arrived in Germany over the past 12 months. The majority are Syrians. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) registered 150,000 Afghan refugees in 2015 – a sharp rise from the 9,700 Afghans who applied for asylum in 2014.
Haqqani network still the most capable threat in Afghanistan: U.S.
Says the network plans and executes the most violent high profile attacks against Western, Indian interests.
The dreaded Haqqani network remains the most capable threat to U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, planning and executing high-profile attacks, the top American General in the war-torn nation has said.
Commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan General John F. Campbell, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, said the al-Qaeda has been significantly weakened, but as evidenced by the recent discovery of its camp on the southern border, the group is certainly not extinct.
“The Haqqani network remains the most capable threat to U.S. and coalition forces, planning and executing the most violent high profile attacks in Kabul,” he said.
Haqqani network, which is linked to the al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks against Western and Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul.
Taliban controls 2 p.c. of territory
General Campbell has said 70 per cent of Afghan territory is under government control, while Taliban controls only two per cent.
“Of the 407 district centres, eight [or two per cent] are under insurgent control. We assess that another 18 [or 4 per cent] are under what we call insurgent influence,” he said.
“Often, these district centres are in remote and sparsely populated areas that security forces are not able to access very often in force,” he noted.
94 “at risk” district centres
“Additionally, at any given time there may be up to 94 district centres [around 23 per cent] that we view as at risk,” he said. “While over the last eight years, the Afghan security forces have made advancements, beginning as an unorganised collection of militia and developing into a modern security force with many of the systems and processes of an advanced military, a lot needs to be done,” he said.
“Capability gaps still exist in fixed and rotary-wing aviation, combined arms operations, intelligence collection and dissemination, and maintenance,” he said.
Afghan Air Force’s capability limited
One of the greatest tactical challenges for the Afghan security forces has been overcoming the Afghan Air Force’s extremely limited organic close air support capability.
“Admittedly, we began building the Afghan Air Force late and are constrained by the time it takes to build human capital,” he underscored.
Reconciliation the way
Of the view that reconciliation is the path needed to obtain a negotiated settlement and end the conflict in Afghanistan, General Campbell said current reconciliation efforts were an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned initiative.
Noting that it has been over a year since the formation of the National Unity Government, General Campbell has said it has faced institutional and political difficulties, yet it can lay claim to some meaningful reform and progress during its first year.
“The unity government may be fragile, but it is holding despite being challenged, it is making continued progress, and building momentum to create an increasingly viable future,” he said.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/haqqani-network-still-the-most-capable-threat-in-afghanistan-us/article8188478.ece
Pakistan: PIA strike - Daring battle in the class war
By Lal Khan
The month long strike activity of the PIA workers took a dramatic turn on Tuesday, February 2nd, when the deadline of the Joint Action Committee of the PIA workers to stop flight operation was crossed.
In the morning the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) labour unions defied a government ban on union activity, and observed their planned strike against the privatisation of the national flag carrier. Unlike previous showdowns, the government tried to use a weak legal excuse as a weapon. They invoked the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act 1952 against the PIA for six months, outlawing union activity across the country inside and outside major airports.
The management and the regime continued the flights activity with pilots hired from private airlines and leased from the Pakistan Navy. Heavy contingents of riot police and paramilitary Rangers were deployed outside Jinnah International Airport. But when the workers at Karachi’s old airport tried to move towards the main terminal tarmac, to stop flights from operating, the brutal state forces resorted to severe violence. Initially they used water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets and batons to disperse the protesters.
Failing to stop the marching workers, they resorted to live ammunition. “They killed a man. They killed him,” cries went up as the crackles of gunshot briefly subdued the noise of the protesters. Three protesting workers were killed and more than a dozen injured, including some TV reporters. This was from the direct fire of the rangers and police according to the main leader of the JAC, PIA’s senior pilot Sohail Baloch, who has been leading the protests and was able to escape detention.
Later Baloch met journalists at a discreet location. “Paramilitary troops wearing masks fired straight at the protesters… we did give a call to suspend flight operations but we did not ground any flights forcibly.” Immediately after this heinous atrocity air traffic across the country came to a near standstill after about 4pm in the afternoon. The paramilitary force also whisked away three PIA union leaders, including former CBA president Hidayat Ullah Khan and Society of Aircraft Engineers President Zakir Farooq. They were both released later.
Later in the evening events not seen for years unravelled rapidly. The PIA Chairman, Nasser Jaffer, resigned from his post, taking full responsibility for the brute use of force against the protesters in Karachi.
Sensing the predicament of air travellers, the Civil Aviation Authority has requested a private airline company, Air Blue, to commence special flights from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. That has failed to materialise. After all, the Air Blue workers were also indignant at the brutality of the state. As the news spread, the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (Palpa) told its members not to proceed to any airport in the country. More than 35 domestic and international flights had been cancelled by the evening. Pilots, cabin crew and flight dispatchers, who had earlier reported to work, started walking away. Officials feared the Engineering Department, which besides aircraft overhauls is responsible for checking planes before every flight, could technically bring the airline to its knees.
Initially the regime responded forcefully. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was trying to strike a bold posture: “It will not happen at all... the protesting employees would face action, and terminated from service and a year in prison under the Essential Services act. Any concession to such elements would be unfair to the country… the PIA employees who were not part of the protest campaign would be rewarded.”
However the workers defied these outrageous and intimidating threats from the chief of a weak and instable regime deep in crisis to its core. The strike continued the next day with even greater participation. All domestic and international flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were cancelled on Wednesday as the national airline’s employees’ strike against privatization entered a second day. “All PIA flights have been suspended indefinitely,” an airport official told reporters. PIA representatives at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport and Peshawar’s Bacha Khan International Airport, confirmed that all domestic and international flights scheduled for today were cancelled. Rallies and public meetings were being held in most cities till the last reports came in.
All regimes pursuing neoliberal capitalist policies in the last four decades have tried to privatise or exploit the national carrier for their own particular political and economic interests. They are responsible for the sorry state of this institution. The PIA suffers from incompetence, inefficiency, wasteful expenditure, pilferages, declining service standards, nepotism, and gross mismanagement. The result is the accumulation of losses in excess of Rs300bn and yearly losses of between Rs20 and Rs30bn, which the government has to pay to keep maintain the airline.
As always, the media, elite politicians and intelligentsia point their fingers at the workers rather than the present management and long history of political interference. The reality is that the PIA workers are perhaps the lowest paid compared to airline industry workers internationally. There have been huge kickbacks for the top management officials, government ministers and bosses in plane purchases, awarding routes and other agreements with airline-related businesses.
When the incumbent right wing PML-N government came to power in May 2013, it had to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a begging bowl. The $6.7-billion IMF loan programme came with very hard and stringent conditions, including the sale of 26 percent of PIA shares.
When the government unilaterally and without consulting parliament, put forward Presidential Ordinance no. XVII late on the evening of December 4th, 2015, there was outrage in the parliament. “The Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Ordinance, 2015” was meant for “setting up of the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation into a public limited company”.That is, it was a privatisation of PIA.
The Nawaz government was very quickly pushed onto the back foot and forced to withdraw the ordinance and instead introduce a bill which was to be discussed in parliament. This happened after a resolution was hastily passed in the parliament where even the most chronic absentees were whipped into raising their hands. Making the measure a subject of debate in parliament however, led to a debate which became the precursor of the present strike. There was even uproar from the bourgeois opposition parties to this drastic act that could provoke the working class. The present regime is the classical representative of the Pakistan bourgeois and is carrying out its aggressive anti-workers policies in a period of relative lull.
The problem is however, that the PIA needs a massive injection of capital to keep the company going. There are very few capitalists who would be willing to gamble their wealth on such a project. They will hardly find any buyers of this huge and consciously damaged and depreciated institution as a whole. Successive regimes have attempted to sell it to their cronies at throwaway prices.
The Nawaz regime’s experts and their imperialist masters will try to break the corporation into various departments, then sell them as butchers do with various portions of mutton. The workforce has already been chopped from 19,000 to 14,000. After its privatisation the workers will be the first victims, starting with redundancies. This will very quickly move to attacks on wages, health and benefits.
The protracted privatisation process of PIA has faced several resistance struggles by the workers in the last decade and a half. But this strike has so far outshone the previous struggles. It has received the attention of society and the working class in particular. The ferocity and the sacrifices of the struggle has forced the media to give it coverage. Although the corporate bosses, news editors and their anchors have tried to cover other non-issues. However, so intense is the mass interest in this strike, that their ratings crashed when they tried to divert attention from this militant struggle of the PIA workers.
This in itself proves that when workers arisen and move forward in a courageous struggle, the media that is prompted to be the demigod of politics and the public oppinion, fails miserably to undermine the interest and enthusiasm of the workers and youth in society.
This strike started about six weeks ago, initially after a relatively low-key protest by the workers. Soon the pent-up hatred and revulsion towards privatisation, and the renewed instincts and charged energy to fight for the protection of their jobs and basic rights, started to become more and more pronounced. The Joint Action Committee, formed from representatives of the different unions of PIA, linked to all sorts of political parties from the Islamist fundamentalists to the PPP, were united by the pressure of the rising working-class tide of struggle from below. The demand on which this struggle was launched was based on the following PIA employees' four-point agenda:
- The government should immediately rescind the bill passed on January 21st, converting the national flag carrier into a public limited company.
- PIA's employees be provided a chance to reform the airline. If the employees fail to do so, the government will have the freedom to do whatever it finds suitable.
- Privatisation, in any form, whether it is in the form of a strategic partner or selling of thirty-six or onepercent of the organisation's shares, is not acceptable to the employees.
- The government should immediately review the aviation policy and form a committee for this purpose, comprising members from PIA employees' JAC, along with PIA experts Khursheed Anwar, Kamran Hassan and Salahuddin.
There were many obstacles and weaknesses faced by the PIA workers in struggle, ranging from the lack of one united union to the isolation of this struggle from workers of the private and unorganised industrial sectors. More importantly, the isolation from the workers in state enterprises like the WAPDA and the railways, who are themselves threatened with similar privatisations and redundancies.
Such obstacles were smashed once the workers entered the arena of militant struggle with a renewed courage and determination. Hence it is vital that this isolation and a unity and solidarity with the workers of other industries and institutions be built rapidly. On Wednesday morning there were already meetings taking place, particularly in Karachi, of the leaders of different trade union federations ranging from electricity to railways workers, from the postal to the telecommunication unions.
The strike is another spark that shines a light on the class struggle seething below the surface of a society where the working class, and the mass movement as a whole, is faced by a difficult objective situation and a relative inertia of the class struggle. This requires a much wider and bolder approach by the genuine leaders of the workers’ leaders. It is an historical obligation of the leaders and trade union activists to support the PIA strike. A united front has to be created to force the rulers into retreat. But concrete action is needed to win this and other struggles against privatisation and capitalist aggression perpetrated by the ruling classes and the present capitalist regime.
A call for a complete general strike is a given by such a united front of all the trade unions and progressive political forces. For a victorious general strike, the workers and youth of all industries, sectors of the poor students in the educational institutions and poor peasants in the countryside have to be mobilised. Enterprises under public control not only should be defended, but workers must demand that these should be placed under democratic control of the workers.
Several opposition political parties’ leaders are visiting the offices and camps of the striking workers of PIA. All solidarity is welcome, but any intrigue or manoeuvre by political manipulators to make any rotten compromise should be forcefully rejected and quashed.
An extraordinary sympathy prevails among the workers throughout the country. This situation may not last long. A successful general strike could not only bring the regime to its knees, but the other workers struggles will be boosted and receive courage by this victory of the PIA workers to move forward and defeat privatisation and other attacks of the bourgeois, imperialism and the brutal capitalist state.
However, even if the PIA workers’ demands are accepted, at present rotten Pakistani capitalism has no basis and capacity to sustain any concessions or reforms for the workers. Hence in the last analysis these attacks can only be decisively defeated, the woes of the workers and the agonising existence of the oppressed masses can only ve put an end to, by linking this struggle to the transformation of the socioeconomic system through a socialist revolution. Such an historic victory of the proletariat in Pakistan will usher in an era of struggles and revolutions yet unforeseen on the South Asian subcontinent.
#نوازہٹاؤ_ملک_بچاؤ - A full blown crisis - Pakistan
The government should have evolved a feasible and transparent strategy for the privatisation of the PIA. Further, as suggested by IMF’s resident representative in Pakistan, it should have first created a national consensus on the issue through talks with the opposition and negotiations with the PIA union. It could have offered incentives like golden hand shake which would have made the surplus PIA employees swallow what they considered a bitter bill. The government, however, did the opposite. It gave the IMF not only an undertaking but also a cut-off date for the disposal of PIA before settling the matter with the opposition and the trade union. The Prime Minister resorted to his usual working style characterised by opaqueness.
Thanks PML-N government’s penchant for secretiveness, it has a full scale crisis has blown up right in its face which could have been avoided. What is more, it appears that the crisis will take time to subside. Meanwhile, the government has decided to defer PIA’s privatisation by six months. There is a widespread perception that the only way to get rid of the financial haemorrhage caused by some of the white elephants, like the PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills, is to privatise both. The government however needs to ensure that they fetch a reasonable price. In the case of the PIA, it should use the period at its disposal to get rid of the large number of superfluous and incompetent cronies appointed by successive governments, including the present one. It should also take other measures to bring down the losses and to make the PIA more efficient. This would make it an attractive proposition for the investors. The process of privatisation also needs to be thoroughly transparent. Among other things this would help dispel rumours that the government is planning to sell shares of the national flag carrier at a throw away price to certain investors from the UAE through a close confidante of the Prime Minister.
#PIAStrike - Pakistan - Striking PIA
THE government has comprehensively fumbled with its plans for PIA. Invoking the Essential Services Act of 1952 to break the strike of PIA unions against the proposed privatisation plan appeared to be an act of sheer panic.
But the subsequent clashes between striking workers and security officials at the airport, resulting in the tragic death of two employees, have turned the plans into a fiasco.
It must also be mentioned that the reported resort to aerial firing at an airport by the security agencies, where there are aircraft circling overhead, is beyond stupidity — it is downright dangerous and those responsible must be made aware of this.
Beyond the follies of the moment, the entire episode has turned a delicate matter into an open contest of wills of the sort that is usually won by the party with more grit, which in this case would be the unions.
The signs of mismanagement were there all along. Nobody was sure who was overseeing the exercise to find a ‘strategic investor’ for the airline. Was it the aviation adviser or the privatisation minister?
Frequent and, apparently often unwanted, input from the finance minister didn’t help things either.
All felt free to give all sorts of commitments publicly, including reassurances to the workers that nobody would lose his or her job in the process. When the ordinance to convert the airline into a corporation was defeated in the Senate, we had three different committees in the National Assembly overseeing the affairs of PIA. When the Supreme Court restrained the aviation adviser from taking any independent decisions, he gave his resignation to the prime minister which the latter did not accept, creating further confusion about the role of the adviser.
As the government hurtled towards the end-December deadline it had set for itself, matters appeared to be spinning out of control. In response, it leaned on the law-enforcement agencies to get a grip on things as protests spilled out onto the streets. The result is that two people are now dead, the union has gained two ‘martyrs’ to rally around, and is now stronger than ever before. So much for the best-laid plans.
Nobody should doubt that PIA is in grave difficulty, with accumulated losses having risen to Rs300bn, an amount that is almost equal to the circular debt in the power sector.
Few also doubt that the situation can be credibly improved without some sort of game-changing intervention that injects private-sector energies into the management of the airline. But the manner in which the government has pursued this ambitious goal is clumsy and smacks of haste and hubris.
The PML-N has never been famous for its ability to bring people together, to reach out to adversaries and carve a consensus around a highly contested goal. The way in which they have dealt with the restructuring of PIA only reinforces this perception.
#PPPSTANDSWITHPIAEMPLOYEES - Pakistan - PIA protest
After the government’s consistent inability to fathom the magnitude of the issue of Pakistan International Airlines’s (PIA’s) privatisation and address the genuine grievances of the various stakeholders, especially the PIA workers, the matter has inevitably blown up in the government’s face, with a clash between the security forces and the protesting PIA union members, leaving two PIA employees dead and several injured. On February 1, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif enforced the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act 1952 for six months on PIA, criminalising any union activity on pain of one year’s imprisonment and fines in a failed attempt to halt the protest announced by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the PIA unions. Following this, during the protest on February 2, PIA employees as well as journalists were subjected to baton-charging, tear gas shells and water cannons as the police and Rangers attempted to disperse the protesters to prevent them reaching the Jinnah Terminal of Karachi Airport, and later the Sindh Assembly. During the peaceful protest, which included women, children and the elderly, the forces opened fire to halt the protesters’ progress. Reports state two protesters succumbed to their injuries after bullets were fired, while some others are in critical condition. However, the Sindh Rangers spokesperson and the DIG Karachi East have denied firing at the protesters. PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan had on January 29 announced the postponement of privatisation for six months, while threatening that the union must resume work or face the wrath of the provisions of the Essential Services Act. However, even after the February 1 announcement, the Chairman of JAC maintained that protests will proceed since the government had still not called-off the privatisation as demanded, and were instead trying to buy time for its implementation. Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid also tactlessly stated that anyone who continues to protest will not only lose their job but be treated as enemies of PIA and Pakistan. He said back-up arrangements of pilots and engineering staff will ensure unhindered services. But due to the harsh mishandling of the protesters, the conflict has escalated and continues, leading to the closure of several principal airports including Lahore and Peshawar, as well as the obstruction of several flights at Karachi airport.
The severity that this conflict over PIA’s privatisation has acquired is another clear example of the leadership’s remiss and witless manner of governing. The government created this issue firstly by announcing privatisation in a hasty manner, closing their eyes in hopes of sidestepping the opposition they were inevitably going to face. Then they tried to justify the privatisation of the national flag-carrier with immense strategic importance with sketchy reasons that clearly betrayed self-serving motivations, including pleasing the IMF that has been exerting pressure to accelerate privatisation. Since then, the government, wearing ideological blinkers, has taken an increasingly stern and unsympathetic stance. It is beyond comprehension how the government planned on solving the matter by dangling the sword of imprisonment over the workers while ignoring their demands. The final nail in the coffin of the government’s ill-advised course may have been hammered in with the extremely tragic violence against and deaths of some peaceful protestors who were left at the mercy of the law enforcement agencies, who did not even spare journalists in their sweep. The Rangers and police’s incompetence in crowd control has been highlighted in incidents over and over again, where their use of brutal force, under the conviction that they can harm anyone who disobeys them, has claimed many lives in the past too. The coercive measures of the government have created this mess but it seems they are unaware of the enormity of the problems that lie ahead, since now it is not only the unions they have to face. The bloodshed in Karachi has mobilised and united the political opposition too, with the PTI calling for a countrywide protest from February 6. While the PM claims he is unafraid of any such measures, it would do him well to recall the state Imran Khan’s protest had landed him in last time. The government must ready itself for the withdrawal of the concessions it has been enjoying from the opposition in the latter’s hope of establishing a strong democracy, and that it had been taking advantage of, but may no longer be available.
#PPPSTANDSWITHPIAEMPLOYEES: ASIF ZARDARI SAYS GOVT SHOULD ACCEPT DEMANDS OF PIA EMPLOYEES
In a statement today the former President said that he was profoundly shocked at the killing of PIA employees in what is alleged to be straight firing saying that those responsible for it must not go unpunished.
Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar quoted the former President as also warning that the people will not permit cover up of the incident a la Model Town Lahore incident sometime back that resulted in the killing of 14 innocent people. The PPP will not permit any cover up, he said.
The incident has exposed the government’s inept handling, sheer panic and knee jerk response resulting in miserable failure in handling the PIA issues, he said.
The double speak of the federal ministers on privatization, on finding ‘strategic investor’, invoking the Essential Services Act to browbeat the workers and the aviation advisor continuing to work despite having been restrained by the Supreme Court raise serious questions and falsify the claims to transform the national airline from a loss making state enterprise into a viable commercial entity.
Resorting to gun fire at the airport when aircraft with hundreds of passengers were circling overhead is stupid and dangerous. The sheer stupidity and panic of the government is as appalling as it is unpardonable, the former President said.
No doubt, that with accumulated losses of nearly 300 billion rupees threatening national economy the PIA is in a serious mess and needs to be reformed, he said.
The threat to national economy from the mess of over 500 billion circular debt also needs to be addressed, he said.
Despite sitting on windfall gain of nearly 7 billion dollars due to massive fall in petroleum prices the government’s inability to turn around and reform loss making units with skill and confidence is pathetic, the former President said.
The former President also prayed for those killed and offered sincere condolences to the bereaved families.
https://ppppunjab.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/pppstandswithpiaemployees-asif-zardari-should-accept-demands-of-pia-employees/