Notorious takfiri terrorists opened fire upon Malik Shehzad Hussain in Hangu. He sustained critical bullet injuries and shifted to a Peshawar hospital where he was being operated upon at Intensive Care Unit.
Monday, May 14, 2018
په سوات کې د ځوانې شاعرې د کتاب مخکتنه شوې
نیلم ارزو د دیر ده او په پښتو ژبه کې یې ماسټري کړې. د یکشنبې یا اتوار پر ورځ د ۲۸ کلنې ارزو د شاعرۍ د لومړۍ ټولګې مخکتنه وشوه چې ورته
نومیالي ادیبان او شاعران ورغلي ول چې د نوموړې د هڅې ستاینه یې وکړه. ویډیويي رپورټ.
#Pakistan - Christian charity apprehensive over a bill making Quran classes in all schools mandatory
By Madeeha Bakhsh
CLAAS-UK a Christian legal and charity group has expressed great concerns over a legislation passed by the Punjab Assembly according to which teachings of Holy Quran were compulsory for every student in all schools and colleges across Punjab. A new bill, Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Bill 2017 was passed by the provincial assembly on May 4, Friday.
CLAAS-UK a Christian legal and charity group has expressed great concerns over a legislation passed by the Punjab Assembly according to which teachings of Holy Quran were compulsory for every student in all schools and colleges across Punjab. A new bill, Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Bill 2017 was passed by the provincial assembly on May 4, Friday.
Raising grave concerns over this matter, CLAAS-UK has stated that the rights of religious minorities will be violated. Remarking about the situation, Director of CLAAS-UK Mr. Nasir Saeed stated: “It is sad that for minorities, especially Christians who are living in large numbers in Punjab, their religious and fundamental rights are totally ignored.
He continued that the provincial government did not announce alternate for minorities’ students. “No alternative programme has been announced for non-Muslim students of Punjab”, he said while adding that this step will fan religious intolerance. “It will promote bigotry and hatred against non-Muslims in Pakistani society, something which is already on the rise.”
This bill was tabled by MPA Dr. Waseem Akhtar, from Jamaat-e-Islami on January 30, earlier this year. During the 34th session of the Punjab Assembly he introduced the ‘Punjab Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Bill.’ In line with this bill all government schools and colleges in Punjab provinces will teach Holy Quran to all students as a compulsory subject.
'As you sow, so shall you reap': Pakistan's Interior minister Ahsan Iqbal and the Karma without a deadline
Ironies of the Blasphemy Law
Munir uz Zaman
Ahsan Iqbal was targeted for blasphemy despite hailing from a family responsible for legislating capital punishment for it
Interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, who narrowly escaped death at the hands of a “blasphemy killer,” comes from a family that was responsible—during Nawaz Sharif’s first term as prime minister—for setting capital punishment as the minimum penalty for insulting Islam’s Prophet. His mother, Appa Nisar Fatima—the daughter of Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Khan, a famous Ahrar Party member from Jalundhar devoted to the cause of punishing blasphemers—was the driving force behind the promulgation of the current anti-blasphemy law, often used to target the very Christians whose gathering Iqbal was attending in his constituency of Narowal when he was attacked.
Fatima was a Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker in 1986 when she took up the blasphemy cause. Writing in daily Jang on Jan. 12, 2011, Ansar Abbasi noted that he and a number of conservative lawyers in Lahore got together in 1984 to file a petition before the Federal Shariat Court, asking for a law that would punish insults to Islam’s Prophet. This was prompted by a July 1984 speech by human rights activist Asma Jahangir in which she had allegedly insulted Islam’s Prophet.
On this, Fatima raised the issue in Parliament and presented the infamous 295C clause of the Pakistan Penal Code. While lawmakers approved it, then-law minister Iqbal Ahmad Khan changed the text at the last minute to assign “death or life” as punishment for blasphemy. On this, Fatima took the matter back to the Federal Shariat Court, claiming punishment for blasphemy was “hadd” (mentioned in the Quran) and could not be less than death.
Hearings in the matter started on April 1, 1987. Advocate generals from all four provinces agreed with the petition and the judges agreed to declare death as the sole punishment. Dr. Tahirul Qadri, then adviser to the Federal Shariat Court, held that blasphemers could be put to death before even establishing evidence of intention. The court then gave the government until 1991 to amend the Penal Code Section 295C. P.M. Nawaz Sharif wanted to challenge the verdict, but was forced to accept it after being informed that any further changes could cause unrest. The same chaos plagues us today: any discussion of the blasphemy law must be tempered with caution lest lawmakers risk become targets—much like the PPP’s Salmaan Taseer in 2011. Or the PMLN’s Ahsan Iqbal today.
http://newsweekpakistan.com/ironies-of-the-blasphemy-law/
#Pakistan's Shia Genocide - ASWJ terrorists shot Shia religious scholar in Hangu
#Pakistan - A bleak outlook for press freedom in Balochistan
By: Mariyam Suleman
Although, Pakistan has constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, expression and press, according to Amnesty International 2017-18 report, the crackdown on freedom of expression is growing. With no improvement, this year Pakistan again ranked 139th out of 180 on annual World Press Freedom Index released last month. As much as cases of attacks on journalists and threats to media houses in provinces with larger population have contributed to this deteriorating situation, Balochistan, as one of the deadliest places for journalists, has also contributed equally for such instances.
In its annual report, Freedom Network, a Pakistan-based media rights watchdog, said that out of every ten cases of attacks and violations against media and journalists in Pakistan, two cases were from Balochistan.
In the last two decades, press freedom in Balochistan plunged to worst levels where journalists faced violence, prosecution, and assassination. Several newspapers were blocked while last year threats forced the closure of press clubs across Balochistan for a period of three months. At least more than 40 journalists were killed in the last fifteen years in Balochistan according to media reports.
In the rest of the country, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 was used to harass and subjectively detain human rights defenders for online journalism and comments specially on blasphemy-related cases – in Balochistan with limited access to internet in most of its districts, there has been very little role of this law and its consequences. Instead, there is a different list of predators of press freedom, intimating and target killings of journalists. Being critical of the government policies and running stories of human rights violations in Balochistan have reportedly remained one of the top dangerous things in the list.
Many believe this increased government censorship and decline in press freedom, in Balochistan, amplified after the assassination of veteran Baloch nationalist leader and former Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Akbar Khan Bughti in 2006. It was when human rights abuses in Balochistan faced a black out from the mainstream media and journalists or news outlets covering such issues faced severe consequences by law enforcers. In 2009, the offices of widely read and distributed Asap – a “nationalist” daily newspaper were closed down and the editor in chief after surviving an assassination attempt was forced to go into exile. This process of blocking newspapers continued and consequently Baloch Hal, Balochistan’s first independent web-based English language newspaper was blocked, distribution of Daily Tawar, a widely read newspapers in Balochistan, was halted, access to a Baloch human rights blog and several other websites covering stories of human rights violations were blocked. However, not all newspapers faced the same fate, some, including daily Azadi and Balochistan Express continued to suffer.
This technique of threatening the press freedom worked, and ultimately rather than risking their lives, most journalists quit publishing about the human rights violations and on-going movements, meanwhile many international organizations including; Committee to Protect Journalists named the province as one of the most dangerous places for journalists.
On the contrary, the press in Balochistan last year paid another price – Press clubs across Balochistan were forced to remain close by the insurgent groups and distribution of newspapers was halted after an ultimatum issued in October last year. At one end, state actors have restricted journalists in Balochistan with threats to remain in a limited circle and on the other end, they are pressured by the insurgent groups to publish their statements. This ultimatum was followed by attacks at a news agency in Turbat and press club in Hub Chowki, Although, the press clubs were reopened after three months, but the air is still filled with fear while press freedom does not exist in the region anymore.
Today Balochistan faces near total control of news and information. Unfortunately, not only the authoritarian regimes, but freedom of press is under attack in a “democratic government,” which has definitely affected Balochistan but Pakistan’s largest news outlets and channels are no more free to cover many important issues either, specially the on-going civil rights movements in the country. Where the presence of constitutional laws guarantees protection of all citizens and allows freedom of expression and press, there is near to no implementation of these laws.
#Pakistan - Interim rules for FATA mere eyewash
By Iftikhar Firdous
This is the case with a law the federal government has put together to replace the FCR. It is called the ‘FATA Interim Governance Regulation, 2018’, which is nothing but a set of rules for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The idea is to get the president to sign it into law. And those interim rules are to apply in Fata until it merges with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ‘within a timeframe of two years’.
The good thing is that those new rules do away with the FCR that the British had imposed on the region in 1901, ensuring over a century of misery for the people. But that is also where the good stuff ends.
The Express Tribune has obtained a copy of the draft law. Right at the top of the 20-page document, it says that the government wants to ensure ‘administration of justice, maintenance of peace and good governance’ in Fata. Those certainly are good intentions.
Changes being proposed
Tribal agencies will be called tribal districts, so Kurram Agency, for example, would now be called Kurram district. Tehsils and frontier regions would be renamed as sub-divisions, so, FR Bannu would be referred to as Bannu sub-division. This is a simple enough change. Doing away with old names is a tried and tested formula for cosmetic change. NWFP is now called Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It gets slightly more complicated, however, when you rename the political agents, who, up until now, virtually ruled the agencies. The government is now proposing that they be called deputy commissioners. Their additional and assistant political agents will be called additional and assistant commissioners. Assistant commissioners will enjoy magisterial powers. The government says its intention is to provide justice in Fata. It is also doing away with the FCR. So, why then the interim set of rules says: If there ‘appears to be a good reason to believe’ that the people of any village have helped with a crime, failed to help arrest people, or suppressed evidence, deputy commissioner can levy fines on whole villages.
If any tribe or a member acts in a ‘hostile, subversive or offensive manner towards the state’, then the deputy commissioner can arrest them and seize their property. He can keep them in detention and bar them from going to settled areas of Pakistan.
The deputy commissioner can banish a man if he is “dangerously fanatic” or is a tribal who has no “ostensible means of subsistence”. He can ban a man who cannot give a “satisfactory account of himself”. Under the new rules, criminal cases would be referred to a Council of Elders, which is, in essence, a jirga. The deputy commissioner will refer cases to a jirga or Council of Elders. But he also appoints members of the jirga which then conduct hearings and submit their findings to the deputy commissioner. The interim rules also say that if someone is found guilty of a crime, the deputy commissioner can forfeit any “assignment or remission of land-revenue or allowance payable out of public funds” from them.
This applies to people who have ‘colluded with or harboured any criminal’ or someone who has ‘suppressed’ evidence or failed to ‘render loyal and proper assistance to the authorities’.
Perhaps the oddest rule is that people can’t establish new villages or towers or walled enclosures on the frontier without the deputy commissioner’s permission. This applies to any place within 120 yards of the centre of a road. What is more, the federal government can remove any village close to the frontier, so long as it awards compensation to the inhabitants. Civil disputes that threaten peace can be assigned to the council of elders or a Qaumi Jirga that is supposed to settle them according to Rewaj.
One of the most questionable clauses says that no civil court can question the legality of anything done in Fata.
The deputy commissioner can convict people, pass sentences of imprisonment (for under 14 years), and fine them. The deputy commissioner also has the authority to pardon accomplices directly or indirectly involved in a crime, so long as they become prosecution witnesses. “It’s a combination of the FCR and a draft bill called the Rewaj Act of 2016. The regulation has not taken care of the contradictions that have arisen as a result of borrowing from the two documents,” an official with the background knowledge told The Express Tribune. “It gives extreme discretion to the authorities concerned. Some of the powers being conferred now were not there even in the original FCR. This will certainly raise a lot of criticism on the human rights grounds,” said a source with the knowledge of the draft proposed.
“The regulation has not mentioned either the Supreme Court or the high court, the jurisdictions of which have recently been extended to Fata,” the source said.
“Instead, it mentions the Fata Tribunal and other appellate authorities. It creates conflict at various levels,” he observed.
#Pakistan - Manzoor Pashteen: we are still confused about our heroes
By- - Ali ABBAS
If the army chief says that peace is restored in tribal areas, then why are the locals making demands for the restoration of peace?
Pakistan has a unique ‘production unit’, producing heroes and villains, traitors and patriots or whatever you want to manufacture at will. Labelling someone a hero or villain isn’t new to this country. There are countless traitors in this country, and an equal number of heroes.
If you are a nationalist and demand equal rights, you would no more be in good books of the ruling elite. Your criticism of even the founders of Pakistan can be ignored but not that of the holy cows.
Bloggers and rights activists are being detained in this country for their views. So much for the freedom of expression.
Few days ago, I was sitting in a café shop in a posh area of Lahore when a lady in her 30s whispered to her male friend: “You know, Manzoor Pashteen is a traitor? He is working for the Indian intelligence agency ‘RAW’. Jalila Haider is also a spy who is trying to sabotage China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)…”
I was shocked to listen to these remarks. Manzoor Pashteen and Jalila Haider have become celebrities without even taking up arms. Although Jalila ended her five-day hunger strike on May 2 after a successful meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, she started her sit-in because nine Hazara Shia Muslims had been killed since March this year and, obviously, this was not the first such instance.
I remember the historic long march of Mama Qadeer who was also ‘trying to malign the peaceful image of Pakistan’.
72-year-old Mama Qadeer started his journey with some female activists from Quetta and ended it in Islamabad. I joined the long march from Lahore. Mama Qadeer’s major demand was to release illegally detained Baloch rights activists.
I affirm that this long march was an extraordinary effort of peaceful resilience. But, apparently, the state doesn’t like ‘peaceful movements’.
It is not a new phenomenon. We saw Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s Salt March some 90 years ago. Mama Qadeer’s long march broke that record too. But then we observed with sorrow the end of Mama Qadeer’s movement with the killing of young and energetic rights activist Sabeen Mahmud.
We also have seen brutal terrorism in Kurram Agency, which is one of seven tribal agencies of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and after every terrorist activity we saw protests and sit-ins, but the government remained unmoved.
Many analysts, who claim expertise on every issue, remained silent.
The security observers have been expressing concerns on the continued massacre of Shia Hazara Muslims and terror activities in Kurram Agency, but due to the media blackout, we never get to know about it.
If you have seen some posters hanging on the electricity poles in Swat stating that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) supports PTM, it is possible that this is true, but if it is, it also means that TTP is still alive in Swat valley
In June and August 2017, two major sit-ins of Shia community were held in Parachinar, and they only got media attention when the peaceful protestors were fired at. COAS promised to visit the area, but he couldn’t fulfil his promise for some undisclosed reasons.
Similarly, media didn’t cover Manzoor Pashteen’s peaceful movement properly, and misuse of social media also raised misconceptions about him.
The COAS said some days ago: “Just after peace returned to FATA, people have started another movement.”
Fascinatingly, the present movement has nothing to do with the militants or militancy. Pashteen too is demanding peace. It may just be that his definition of peace is different from that of the army chief, who of course has lived a significant part of his life on the war front.
But the recent graduate of DI Khan’s Gomal University, Manzoor Pashteen, doesn’t agree with this definition of peace as he is demanding normalisation in his region. And that is why he had founded Mehsud Tahaffuz Movement (MTM).
MTM was founded on the bases of tribal affinity but after the extrajudicial killing of young Naqeebullah Mehsud in January this year in Karachi by the ‘brave kid’ of former President Asif Ali Zardari, Rao Anwar. MTM became a leading nationalist group of all Pakhtuns and the group leadership has now renamed it to Pakhtun Tahaffuz Movement.
So, the state should tackle the newly founded nationalist organisation carefully which is also demanding the release of the missing persons. Right now, Pakhtuns, Baloch and Sindhis, all are demanding release of their loved ones whom they believe are subjected to enforced disappearance.
We also need to deeply observe the claims of returning peace in Waziristan where according to the locals, ‘People are facing multifaceted challenges from the 80s. Security establishment needs to understand the concerns of the community.’
If the army chief says that peace is restored in tribal areas, why are the locals demanding restoration of peace? In the words of former US President Ronald Reagan: “Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
Media has no access to the tribal belt. Majority population of the mainland does not even know what’s happening in the tribal belt.
Jalila Haider’s five-day sit-in also proves that we are still trying to restore peace because we are facing violent activities across the county. COAS met Jalila Haider, and her sit-in ended peacefully. If we want to avoid the emergence of another MQM, we need to listen to the grievances of Pakhtuns too.
Propaganda is not always effective.
If you have seen some posters hanging on the electricity poles in Swat stating that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) supports PTM, it is possible that this is true, but if it is, it also means that TTP is still alive in Swat valley.
We need to accept that we are ignoring Pakhtuns’ basic right to live a peaceful and prosperous life without the fear of terrorism. Therefore, we need to give them a sense of ownership on their own land and thus avoid sit-ins in future.
People often unite on one-point agendas. It is possible that PTM has political motives too, but at present, they are united for peace, and it is a fact that Pakhtuns from Peshawar to Chitral are supporting PTM in big numbers. We need to talk to them.
#Pakistan - #PPP asks for an Explanation from Nawaz Sharif
Senate Opposition Leader, Senator Sherry Rehman, slammed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for what she calls, “Irresponsible, self-serving and damaging statement”.
“Nawaz Sharif should really explain his position as a third time elected Prime Minister. He cannot make such an irresponsible statement inimical to the national security of Pakistan and to its stated foreign policy, even during his own time,” said the Senator while addressing a press conference at Media Cell Bilawal House on Sunday. PPPP Information Secretary Dr Nafisa Shah and others were also present on the occasion.
The Vice-President of PPPP asked, “How can he use the term ‘allow’? No democratic state would ever ‘allow’ non-state actors to go maim, plunder and loot across its border. What is Nawaz Sharif trying to do apart from serving his own interest?”
The Vice-President of PPPP asked, “How can he use the term ‘allow’? No democratic state would ever ‘allow’ non-state actors to go maim, plunder and loot across its border. What is Nawaz Sharif trying to do apart from serving his own interest?”
“Pakistan is fighting a huge inland war against terrorism against all odds alone and constantly under international criticism and he is adding fuel to that highly critical narrative. Instead of pointing a finger at his own country, we want to ask what he has done as the head of a ruling party for accelerating the fight against non-state actors. Terrrorism and violent extremism threaten the stability and prosperity of Pakistan. It is Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who gave her life to this fight against terrorism and the PPP government that started operations against terrorism in 2009z What did the ruling party do to the National Action Plan? He totally ignored it but just wants to raise his international profile by asking provocative questions that put Pakistan in the dock,” the Senator reiterated.
“If he wants cooperation from state actors, he should certainly not be framing the narrative against Pakistan’s national interest. He is a three times elected PM, whose voice gets heard. There is no concrete evidence linking Pakistan to the Mumbai attacks or for Mumbai to proceed with a trial. Pakistan, too, wants a judicious resolution of the the Mumbai case and we are still waiting for the requisite evidence from India,” asserted Rehman.
“The PPP has always stood for bringing the peace dividend to the region. India’s current conditional position liking terrorism to dialogue is non-conducive to sustained conversation , but this too needs to change. South Asia needs trade, cooperation against terrorism and climate change among other things. Unfortunately the constant hostilities and escalation of violence in the LoC and Kashmir are making it more difficult,” concluded Rehman.
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