Sunday, June 30, 2019
اکیسویں صدی میں بھی غاروں کے مکین پاکستانی
70 سالہ میمی بی بی گذشتہ تین عشروں سے ضلع خیبر کی تحصیل جمرود کے ایک غار میں رہائش پذیر ہیں۔ ان کی روزمرہ زندگی پر ایک نظر
اکیسوی صدی میں جہاں لوگوں کو اپنے گھروں میں ہی ہر طرح کی آسائشوں بھری زندگی میسر ہوتی ہے، وہیں پر ضلع خیبر کی تحصیل جمرود کے کچھ علاقوں میں لوگ آج بھی غاروں میں رہنے پر مجبور ہیں، جہاں نہ پانی ہے اور نہ ہی کھانا پکانے کو گیس میسر ہے۔
غاروں کی زندگی کیسی ہوتی ہے؟ یہ جاننے کے لیے انہی غاروں میں رہنے والی ایک 70 سالہ بزرگ خاتون میمی بی بی کے گھر جانے کا اتفاق ہوا۔ جمرود شہر سے باہر کچھ کلومیٹر کی دوری پر موجود یہ علاقہ ’گودر‘ کہلاتا ہے، جہاں جانے کے لیے آپ کو کافی پیدل سفر کرنا پڑتا ہے۔
میمی بی بی کی دو بیٹیاں اور ایک بیٹا ہے۔ ان کی بیٹیاں شادی شدہ ہیں اور وہ اپنی بیوہ بہو اور پوتے پوتیوں کے ساتھ اس غار میں گذشتہ 30 سال سے رہائش پذیر ہیں۔ 30 سال پہلے وہ تیرہ کے علاقے سے یہاں آئی تھیں اور پھر یہیں کی ہوکر رہ گئیں۔
میمی کے خاندان کے باقی افراد میں ان کے دیور اور اس کا خاندان ان کے غار کے قریب رہتے ہیں۔ان کے دیور نور شاہ نے انڈپینڈنٹ اردو سے گفتگو میں بتایا: ’ہمارا تعلق کوکی خیل قوم سے ہے اور ہمارے آبا و اجداد تیرہ میں رہتے تھے لیکن اب ہم یہاں 30 سال سے رہائش پزیر ہیں۔ ہمارے پاس بجلی کا ٹرانسفارمر تو ہے لیکن ان میں بجلی نہیں ھوتی۔ ہم نے خود پیسے جمع کرکے یہ اپنا ٹرانسفارمر لگایا جس میں آدھا گھنٹہ بجلی آتی ہے اور پھر دس گھنٹے نہیں ہوتی۔‘
میمی بی بی کا کہنا تھا: ’ہمارے پاس نہ تو پانی ہے اور نا بجلی۔ ہم شمسی طریقے سے بجلی حاصل کرکے غار میں ایک بلب جلا لیتے ہیں، جس کی روشنی میں بیٹھ کر میرے پوتے اور پوتیاں سکول کا کام کر لیتے ہیں۔ کھانا پکانے کے لیے ہم گوبر سے بنے اوپلوں کا استعمال کرتے ہیں۔ میں اپنے گھر میں خود ہی گوبر سے اوپلے تیار کرتی ہوں، جس کی مدد سے کھانا بن جاتا ہے۔‘
60 سالہ موری گلا، میمی بی بی کی دیورانی ہیں، انہوں نے انڈپیندنٹ اردو کو بتایا: ’ہم دونوں خاندان 30 سالوں سے یہیں رہتے ہیں۔ میمی کا اکلوتا جوان بیٹا مرگیا لیکن اس نے ہمت نہیں ہاری اور آج دن تک بہادری سے حالات کا مقابلہ کر رہی ہے۔ وہ خود باہر جا کر دور دراز پہاڑوں سے پانی کے مٹکے بھر کر لاتی ہیں لیکن اپنے پوتے اور پوتیوں سے کام نہیں کرواتی تاکہ وہ اپنے سکول کا کام کرسکیں۔ انہوں نے اپنے سب پوتے پوتیوں کو سرکاری سکول میں داخل کروایا ہوا ہے کیونکہ ان کو نجی سکولوں میں پڑھانے کی حیثیت نہیں رکھتیں۔
Dozens of Christian Girls in Pakistan Targeted for Rape, Abduction, Forced Conversion
By Steve Warren
A poor Christian family in Pakistan is calling for justice after their teenaged daughter was reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint and raped by five Muslims.UCANews.com reports the girl named Maria, 15, was taken from her house in Sheikhupura city of Punjab province on June 9. Her father, Jalal Masih, was at his job at the time, working as a laborer.
Masih filed a police report accusing Muhammad Sajid, a local businessman, and four others in the attack in which there were several witnesses. "The locals saw them abducting her at gunpoint in a vehicle. I reached his (Sajid's) office but he was absent," Masih said in the First Information Report (FIR) filed six days after the incident. "We made contact the next day and he threatened to return her dead body if we informed the police."
"Sajid escaped after leaving Maria on our doorstep on June 10 night. She was extremely scared," her father said.
As the news of the attack spreads on social media, Christian activists are calling for the arrest of the suspects. According to Legal Evangelical Association Development (LEAD), a non-profit advocacy group providing legal aid to persecuted minorities, 28 Christian girls became victims of abduction, torture, sexual harassment, rape, forced conversion and forced marriages in Pakistan from November 2018 to June 2019.
"The number of unreported cases will be higher as the families of victims usually avoid getting help from biased police officials who support cruel and influential culprits. Only Christian and Hindu girls are victims in such cases," LEAD national director Sardar Mushtaq Gill told UCANews.com. "Crimes against religious minorities are increasing at a high scale in Pakistan."
"In Pakistan, abduction of girls from Christian and Hindu minorities' communities has been on the higher side since years," Gill wrote in his online blog. "These girls after abduction are sexually assaulted, forcibly married to the abductors and forced into conversions. Some human rights groups define persecution in old fashion(ed) way but the persecutors have changed their ways to persecute religious minorities in a new ways and they called it policy and it could be implemented at both by Government sector and at private sector.""So it is the need of time to define religious persecution in a broader-way and to believe it or not Pakistani Christians and Hindu are most vulnerable who are being persecuted by Islamic extremists objectively because their poor status and poor defense in society," he continued. The news website also reports the interfaith group Rwadari Tehreek launched an anti-rape campaign with a protest on June 15 in front of the Punjab Assembly in Lahore.
"It is a sad reality that dozens of male and female children are subjected to sexual abuse and violence almost every day," Chairman Samson Salamat told the website.
"Unfortunately, governments and concerned authorities have turned a blind eye toward these serious violations of human rights and the victims are being denied justice because of the lacunas in the justice system," he said.
Salamat also called local officials to organize sessions to educate police officers and other law enforcement officials on the issue.
"Most cases are dealt with in a wrong manner because of the bad treatment and attitude in police stations. The victims only become more victimized. Safe and fully equipped rehabilitation centers should be established for the victims of rape and child sexual abuse," he said.
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2019/june/advocacy-group-says-minority-christian-girls-in-pakistan-targeted-for-rape-abduction-forced-conversion
Asia Bibi Has Won Her Battle, But Many More Christian Minorities Struggle For Justice In Pakistan
Ewelina U. OchabIn recent years, the world observed how Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, fought for justice in Pakistan. She was accused of making blasphemous statements during an argument about drinking water from a well. She was acquitted last year after spending eight years on death row. Several months later, she has managed to leave Pakistan in pursuit of a safe haven. She endured years of struggle and threats made to her life. While her story is one that was ultimately successful, there are more such Asia Bibis in Pakistan, members of religious minorities who bravely stand up to laws and procedures (or lack thereof) that are designed to give them little if any redress. This type of situation is not only confined to cases of blasphemy. The case of minority girls and young women abducted, forcibly converted and forcibly married to Muslim men deserves attention too. Just recently, a 16-year-old girl Christian girl, Sheeza Riasat, faced exactly this fate. Sheeza Riasat was reportedly abducted from her family home, by armed men, at the age of just 15. (It is noteworthy that the legal age for a girl to marry in Pakistan is 16. Only in April 2019, the Pakistan Senate voted on the Child Marriage Restraint Bill which would put an end to child marriage and increase the marriage age for girls to 18.) She was converted to Islam and forcibly married to a Muslim man on February 12, 2019. While Sheeza was under the age of 16 when she was forcibly married, her age in the marriage certificate was reportedly indicated as 18. There are further concerns surrounding the case. For example, the marriage certificate is dated one day before her abduction. Although her family reported the abduction and forced marriage to the police, the police reportedly have inextricably dropped the case. As a result, the family have taken the case to court. Sheeza’s parents are fighting for her return. The case is expected to be heard soon. It is crucial to emphasize that Sheeza’s case is not an isolated one. According to the Movement for Solidarity and Peace (MSP), a human rights organization located in Pakistan, around 1,000 Christian and Hindu girls and women are kidnapped each year, forced to convert and to marry Muslim men. The victims are usually girls and women between the ages of 12 and 25. Despite these already shocking statistics, the number of victims may be even higher as many cases remain unreported, often due to the families’ limited financial means. Considering other such cases in Pakistan, there is little hope that the situation will change. For example, Laveeza Bibi was 23 when she was abducted from her home by two armed men. She was forced to convert to Islam and marry one of her abductors. It was reported that despite her family’s attempts to report her abduction, the police were reluctant to accept and investigate the case. A Christian girl, Mehwish, was kidnapped when she was just 14. It was reported that the police have not taken any steps to investigate her case or made any attempt to rescue her. Two teenage girls, Farzana and Sehrish, aged 14 and 16 respectively, were abducted and subjected to gang rape perpetrated by three Muslim men. Despite one of the perpetrators being apprehended, the family was pressured to settle the case outside of court. Similarly, the case of Maria Sarfraz, an 11-year-old girl abducted and gang-raped for three days, was forcibly settled outside of court. Pakistan must take steps to ensure that it combats child marriage. It must ensure that the recent Child Marriage Restraint Bill passes through the National Assembly. However, considering that even the current minimum marriage age for girls at 16 is not being enforced, more needs to be done to ensure that the higher marriage age is adhered to. This could be achieved by strict punishment for failure to do so. Furthermore, Pakistan needs to ensure that any alleged cases of child marriage (but also of forced marriage) are adequately investigated and the victims have effective legal avenues for redress. Nonetheless, legislation and its enforcement can do only as much. Men need to be educated that a forced wife is not a wife, she is a slave. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2019/06/20/asia-bibi-has-won-her-battle-but-many-more-christian-minorities-struggle-for-justice-in-pakistan/#5e1ffac863ee
Elected or selected PM? A debate is on in #Pakistan
Mehmal Sarfraz
Last Sunday, Qasim Suri, Deputy Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly (NA), asked Members of Parliament not to use the word ‘selected’ for Prime Minister Imran Khan. Federal Minister of Power Omar Ayub Khan was speaking on a point of order when he asked the Deputy Speaker to stop the Opposition members from using the word. Mr. Ayub Khan threatened to use privilege motions against those who would use this word.
It all began with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s maiden speech at the National Assembly in August last year. “I’d like to thank and congratulate the Prime Minister-select and wish him good luck” is how Mr. Bhutto concluded his speech. Prime Minister Khan thumped his desk after Mr. Bhutto’s speech. It is said that he must have missed the word ‘select’ and may have thought he was being called ‘Prime Minister-elect’.
People commented on Mr. Bhutto-Zardari’s wit and since that day, the phrases ‘Prime Minister-select’ and ‘selected Prime Minister’ have often been used by Opposition members both on the floor of the House and outside. This has obviously irked the Prime Minister as well as some members of his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Mr. Ayub Khan’s threat and the Deputy Speaker’s consequent directions to lawmakers are a testament to this fact. The Opposition has been criticising this ‘ruling’ ever since.
Mr. Bhutto-Zardari told The Hindu that over the course of the last year, “we have seen how PM Khan’s naya Pakistan slips from authoritarianism towards fascism”. Now, for the first time in Pakistan’s history, parliamentarians are being censored on the floor of the House, he said.
“Banning the word ‘select’ doesn’t change the fact that the PTI won a selection, not an election. This government has no legitimacy... They can censor all they want, send the entire Opposition to jail. That won’t change the fact that Imran Khan is no different to Zia ul Haq’s [Muhammad Khan] Junejo or [Pervez] Musharraf’s Shaukat Aziz,” he said.
According to journalist Sana Bucha, a House of 342 politicians “is being disciplined to serve the vanity of an individual”. “PM Khan should learn to distinguish between the Assembly and the dressing room,” she said.
Barrister Omar Sajjad said the ruling of the Speaker/Deputy Speaker cannot be challenged under the Constitution. However, courts have in the past entertained such petitions. “If rules require to adopt a certain procedure then that procedure can only be dispensed with by suspension of the rule by the majority of the members present. This is done by a motion to suspend the rule,” Mr. Sajjad said.
Irrespective of what the Opposition can do to counter it, the Deputy Speaker’s decision appears to be counterproductive, say analysts. Amber Shamsi, journalist and anchorperson, said that if the purpose of banning the word ‘selected’ from being used for the PM in the NA was to spark a debate on prime-time television, generate international headlines and launch a thousand memes, then it succeeded. “If the ban was meant to demonstrate that the Opposition was poking the government in the soft underbelly, then it succeeded,” she said.
‘Subtle taunt’
Ms. Shamsi said the ‘soft underbelly’ seems to be “the accusation that the PTI clambered to power on the back of the military.” ‘Selected’ is a subtle and subversive taunt, delegitimising the party in power. It’s a tip of the hat to the ultimate historical shame — a political leader created by the military elite rather than through popular vote.
Ms. Shamsi recalled how Mr. Khan often called Nawaz Sharif the political offspring of military dictator Zia. She added that if the point of banning the word ‘select’ was to force the Opposition to respect the Prime Minister, then it hasn’t succeeded. It has just given the Opposition further ammunition to accuse the PTI of undermining democracy. “After all, freedom of speech is a parliamentary privilege protected in the Constitution: a parliamentarian is not liable to court proceedings based on what he or she says during a session.”
She added that there are plenty of synonyms for the word ‘select’. “Can the government ban them all?” she asked.
#Pakistan #PPP - Protests against inflation in KP
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) workers led by party’s provincial general secretary Misbah-ud-Din and Naghat Orakzai protested rising inflation in front of Press Club Peshawar on Saturday, media reported.
The protesters raised slogans against the PTI government and told media that prices of essential day-to-day commodities are getting out of affordability.
They said that the government is not concerned for a common man anymore and it has turned a deaf ear towards the complaints of the general public.
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