Friday, October 11, 2019
#SaudiArabia: Provide Justice for Khashoggi Killing
Following the Saudi government’s belated admission of responsibility for the October 2, 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it should move promptly to provide justice for its role in the crime and release jailed government critics, Human Rights Watch said today. It should also provide redress and an apology to injured family members and associates and end illegal surveillance and persecution of citizens expressing their opinions, at home and abroad.
Saudi authorities have obstructed meaningful accountability for Khashoggi’s murder. The ongoing trial of 11 people remains shrouded in secrecy and the government has refused to cooperate with an investigation led by the UN special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard. Moreover, Saudi authorities have not stopped the sweeping campaign of repression against dissidents and activists, of which Khashoggi was a victim. During an interview with the news program 60 Minutes on September 29, 2019, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he did not order Khashoggi’s murder but took “full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia,” noting that the killers were government agents.
“Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman taking responsibility but not the blame for Khashoggi’s murder is insufficient,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “If he’s serious, the crown prince and his government should provide transparency into the ongoing trial and reveal everything they know about the planning, execution, and aftermath of Khashoggi’s murder. Instead, Saudi authorities are doubling down on repression and continuing to silence independent Saudi voices that Khashoggi sought to defend.”
In response to this and other egregious Saudi abuses, other countries should support targeted sanctions on members of the Saudi leadership responsible for ongoing human rights violations and retain the sanctions until they end the violations, Human Rights Watch said.
Saudi authorities do not appear to have probed the potential role of top Saudi leaders in the murder, and they have never disclosed the location and condition of Khashoggi’s remains. Under international law, a state is responsible for the unlawful acts of its agents acting in their official capacity – in this case, the deliberate, premeditated, and extrajudicial execution of a government critic. For international crimes such as torture, commanders up to the highest level can be held liable for crimes committed by their subordinates under the principle of command responsibility.
Callamard noted on June 19, when releasing her findings, that there is evidence that responsibility for Khashoggi’s murder extends beyond the 11 people on trial and that the mission to execute Khashoggi required “significant government coordination, resources and finances.” She concluded that there is credible evidence warranting a United Nations criminal investigation of high-level Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, for their role in the murder.
While she did not find definitive evidence linking the crown prince to the murder, she did not rule out his involvement. She said that he “had played an essential role in a campaign of repressing dissidents” and that experts found it “inconceivable” that such a large-scale operation could be carried out without the crown prince being aware that a “mission of a criminal nature, directed at Mr. Khashoggi, was being launched.” “The Saudi Arabian government should make clear to the world that it would be willing to cooperate with a UN investigation, including allowing access to evidence and suspects implicated in the crime in Saudi Arabia,” Whitson said. “If the Saudi government seeks a UN investigation into the recent attack on its oil facilities, then it should also show that it is committed to and will cooperate with an investigation into this murder.”
The Saudi government also should offer some remedy to those injured by its crime by apologizing to Khashoggi’s family, friends, and associates, and apologizing to the US and Turkish governments for murdering a US resident on Turkish soil, Human Rights Watch said. It should compensate those harmed, not with secretive payoffs in exchange for silence, but with an admission of wrongdoing.
The Saudi Arabian government, after an admission of responsibility, should assure the international community that it will end its attacks on journalists, writers, and others criticizing the government, as well as releasing those unjustly detained. Khashoggi’s murder took place amid successive waves of arrests of Saudi dissidents, clerics, journalists, intellectuals, businesspeople, royal family members, and women’s rights activists after bin Salman became crown prince in July 2017. The authorities have subjected many of them to unfair trials, and some have alleged that authorities tortured them in detention.
Releasing those languishing in prison for expressing their opinions is the most urgent action needed, Human Rights Watch said. Then the government should accompany their release with a serious commitment to a host of reforms to ensure that Saudis can speak freely. It should revamp its intelligence forces that target dissidents, as well as establish laws that enshrine peaceful critics’ rights, a penal code that articulates elements of real crimes, and an independent judiciary.
Human Rights Watch has previously called for individual sanctions against Mohammed bin Salman over the Saudi-led coalition’s indiscriminate bombing and unlawful blockading of essential goods to Yemen’s civilian population. His government’s responsibility for continued major human rights violations, some which amount to war crimes in Yemen, only strengthens the case for sanctions against top Saudi leaders as long as the serious abuses continue.
In addition to supporting targeted sanctions, countries should halt sales of advanced surveillance equipment to Saudi Arabia until it stops targeting independent dissidents and activists for repression and releases those convicted in unfair trials. Companies doing business in Saudi Arabia should adhere to international human rights standards and create monitoring systems to ensure that their business activities do not harm human rights.
“Businesses are quietly returning to their profit-making activities in Saudi Arabia, but they remain on the hook for their own human rights responsibilities,” Whitson said. “That includes verifying that their business will neither contribute to nor benefit from ongoing human rights abuses in the Kingdom.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/02/saudi-arabia-provide-justice-khashoggi-killing
Video Report - #Pakistan - #ANP announces support for Fazl’s ‘Azadi March’
Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali has announced his party’s full support for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) ‘Azadi March’ – a protest march scheduled for October 31 to oust the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Addressing reporters here on Friday, the ANP chief said he himself would participate in the protest rally once it reaches Islamabad. “Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister would be held responsible if political workers are stopped or subjected to torture,” he added.
JUI-F chief Maualan Fazlur Rehman has announced that his party would march on the federal capital on October 31 in an attempt to overthrow the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which it alleges has come to power through rigging. Other opposition parties – the PPP and the PML-N in particular – are in two minds over joining hands with Fazl.
Wali, during today’s media interaction, said the joint opposition demands an end to this “selected government” with fresh polls in the country. “Efforts are afoot to roll back 18th Constitutional Amendment through this selected prime minister… Action in Aid of Civil Power is as bad as imposing martial law and it contradicts with the Constitution.”
Commenting on the current situation of the country, the ANP chief blamed the PTI government for prevailing rise in inflation, saying a further increase of seven per cent, as predicted by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), is nothing less than a security threat to the country.
“Opponents are being politically victimised… PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari are being targeted through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB),” said the senior politician.
The NAB chairman on the other hand is totally oblivious of BRT, billion tree tsunami project and Malam Jabba scandal, he added.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2077649/1-anp-announces-support-fazls-azadi-march/
Fazlur Rehman calls Bilawal Bhutto, thanks him on supporting 'Azadi March'
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Thursday thanked the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto in a telephonic conversation for supporting the ‘Azadi March’.
According to sources, mutual interests were discussed between both leaders, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Bilawal Bhutto. JUI-F chief expressed gratitude towards PPP Chairman for supporting his political march against the incumbent government.
Earlier, Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had announced complete support for JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s ant-government protest and said that his party would welcome Azadi March.
“We have not yet been told anything about the march, however, we completely back JUI-F,” he said.
Earlier, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the Azadi March convoys from across the country will leave for Islamabad on October 27 to enter jointly in the federal capital on October 31.
#Pakistan - #PPP - Bhutto dynasty’s turbulent history keeps Bakhtawar away from politics
Now, Bakhtawar, 29, and her siblings Bilawal, 31, and Aseefa, 26, are faced with yet another ordeal: in June this year, their father former President Asif Ali Zardari was arrested in an investigation into fake bank accounts and money laundering in what is being seen as a major blow to one of Pakistan’s leading political dynasties and its once mighty political-machine, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
The Bhutto-Zardari family denies any wrongdoing and says the cases against Zardari are meant to pile pressure on the party. Khan’s other rival, ex-premier Nawaz Sharif, is also in jail on corruption charges.
“There is no doubt about the vindictiveness of this trial,” Bakhtawar told Arab News in response to emailed questions about her father’s incarceration, calling the Khan government’s anti-corruption crusade “nothing but hypocrisy and political victimization of the opposition.”
Zardari has been the subject of news media fascination since his marriage in 1987 to Bhutto. The accusations of corruption too, Bakhtawar said, were born out of an attempt to undermine her mother’s political career in the 1990s and have since followed her father each time he has taken bold steps as a politician, including in 2010 when his government introduced a set of constitutional reforms which saw the removal of crucial presidential powers introduced by military rulers in the past.
“Our father endured 11 years of incarceration before on fabricated charges, all of which he was acquitted of, but back then we were sheltered by our mother and the innocence of our youth … we were protected from the gruesome reality of the brutalities and torture he faced in prison,” Bakhtawar said. Now, however, the vacuum created by his absence was “suffocating,” she added.
Not being able to speak to Zardari regularly over the phone or see him other than at court hearings is not his children’s only concern; they also worry about his health and fear for his life. Bakhtawar said her father suffered from heart disease, high blood sugar and other ailments and the government was not allowing proper medical tests.
“He is being denied basic facilities entitled to him not only as a citizen but also a former president,” Bakhtawar said. In his jail cell, she said, “he is not even allowed a fridge to store his insulin.”
With Zardari in jail, his son Bilawal, an Oxford-educated firebrand who made his political debut in 2014, has vowed to resurrect the PPP party’s flagging fortunes.
The left-of-center PPP ruled Pakistan from 2008 to 2013, but became tarnished by a series of confrontations with the powerful Supreme Court over corruption scandals and was voted out in a landmark election in 2013 — the first time in Pakistan’s short but turbulent history that one elected civilian government replaced another.
Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, right, and his sister Bakhtawar wave to supporters at a rally in Karachi on Nov. 30, 2013. (AFP/File)
The party came third in the 2018 general elections, though Bilawal’s own fortunes have continued to rise since, as he has delivered fiery speeches in parliament and in his home province of Sindh accusing the government of deliberately targeting political opponents. But one of the major challenges for Bilawal remains the image of his father, a co-chairperson of the PPP and often contrasted with Imran Khan’s relentless anti-graft message.
“Bilawal has always remained consistent in his stance for parliamentary supremacy, protection of human rights and a pluralistic equal and democratic Pakistan,” Bakhtawar said in response to a question about whether her brother was a ‘misfit’ in Pakistan’s deeply polarized polity and society. “He is passionate, prescient and principled and serves the interest of the forthcoming generations. In that respect — he is the perfect fit.”
For her part, Bakhtawar, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, says she has no immediate interest in politics and is happy serving as chairperson on the board of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) university, founded by her mother in 1995 and named after her grandfather. She also likes to rap in her free time and learn about new farming methods. The family owns huge tracts of farmland in their home province of Sindh. When her father is freed, Bakhtawar hopes they get to spend “more time together as a family.”
“I remain very vocal [about politics] especially on Twitter but I am not involved in matters of government,” she said. “We lost our grandparents, our uncles, our mother — I think enough blood of one family has been spilt in politics.”
“Bilawal has always remained consistent in his stance for parliamentary supremacy, protection of human rights and a pluralistic equal and democratic Pakistan,” Bakhtawar said in response to a question about whether her brother was a ‘misfit’ in Pakistan’s deeply polarized polity and society. “He is passionate, prescient and principled and serves the interest of the forthcoming generations. In that respect — he is the perfect fit.”
For her part, Bakhtawar, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, says she has no immediate interest in politics and is happy serving as chairperson on the board of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) university, founded by her mother in 1995 and named after her grandfather. She also likes to rap in her free time and learn about new farming methods. The family owns huge tracts of farmland in their home province of Sindh. When her father is freed, Bakhtawar hopes they get to spend “more time together as a family.”
“I remain very vocal [about politics] especially on Twitter but I am not involved in matters of government,” she said. “We lost our grandparents, our uncles, our mother — I think enough blood of one family has been spilt in politics.”
This Pakistan Twitter General @OfficialDGISPR protects his people with tweets & only follows himself
My work is hard and entails risks but have I ever shied away from taking those risks? Pakistanis can’t compare me with anyone else because there is no one else who does what I do on a daily basis.
In the history of Pakistan, there hasn’t been a soul like me. It takes just about a hundred characters for me to reject a sitting prime minister’s notification, like I did with PM Nawaz Sharif’s directives on the Dawn leaks issue.
When I face backlash, I say I’m withdrawing my tweet, but I don’t really delete the tweet. Why should I delete my tweets? My tweets are the first and last draft of history.
Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected.
19.7K people are talking about this
I can tell the leaders of an indigenous rights movement that their time is up, I can talk back at politicians, I can bully journalists, I can even take to task those nasty creatures across the Line of Control. I don’t need guns or ammunition, my battalion of fake accounts like Papa ki princess and PatriotcYouth is enough to win battles.
My very humble request to @BushraGohar is to please avoid tweeting while being in front of mirror or using wrong glasses. Enjoy the good performance & match victory of Pakistan, belongs to all of us. Try make it for next match & support the team. Can be my personal guest.
5,448 people are talking about this
Dear @AmitShah yes ur team won a match. Well played.
Two things with different denominators can’t be compared. So are strikes & match. If in doubt please see results of our Nowshera counter strikes & response to IAF violation on 27 Feb19 downing two Indian jets.
Stay Surprised. twitter.com/AmitShah/statu…
12.5K people are talking about this
I hope BURNOL is available out there? If not, a favour can be done by my fellow Pakistanis on demand. Offer open to many more including for such alike in india.
20K people are talking about this
IAF acknowledges Mi17 fratricide.
Remaining acknowledgments soon..
• 26 Feb PAF denied IAF strikes across LOC
• 27 Feb
~ 6 Strikes by PAF across LOC from within Pak Airspace
~ PAF shot down 2 IAF Jets
~ IAF pilot arrested, no F16 shot down
• Heavy losses to Indian Army on LOC
10.9K people are talking about this
My press conferences are a treat to watch, I can talk all day and not complain. When Pashtun or Baloch people make a fuss about missing persons et al, I tell them everything is fair in love and war, but our love for Pakistan has more victims.
I am a peace lover, I don’t like wars, that’s why I make songs. I don’t like it when my army’s songs are stolen by inimical forces without acknowledgement. After all, that song was all I had to show to my boss.
Pakistani media isn’t covering the ‘so called’ song. In rest of the world this is called something else...
Second sentence of previous tweet ie “But copy to speak the truth as well” stays valid as expected.
This lie too not a surprise. That’s what was said, we can’t be surprised. twitter.com/TigerRajaSingh…
5,692 people are talking about this
I make photo collages to teach a lesson to my foes, when they don’t understand, I share their tweet screenshots.
By now, should know how to do it, the way we do...
Alhamdulillah.#NotByBreaking twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/…
4,431 people are talking about this
I have been asked so many questions about Balakot, the so-called surgical strike by India. I will try to explain that soon in my new drama serial with my pet dog Zoro in the lead.
I am a dog lover. I once got upset with an anti-Pakistani element, I tweeted at him that stray dogs are the responsibility of the community corporation. I’m still wondering why it offended so many.
As far as wandering & stray dogs are concerned, the nation not only shoots them on #SocialMedia, but also kicked out these dogs out of their respective territories & constituencies, But it's not our circle authority to shoot such a crazy, stray & wandering dogs or poison them.
See Oranxaib 
's other Tweets
's other Tweets
Kashmir, like the rest of Pakistan, is my jugular “vain” too, and nothing can take it away from us. I tell that to India in every tweet, if that’s not enough, check out the trends that my troops manufacture in Pakistan to convince the Pakistanis that Kashmir is really ours.
I am gifted with many talents. I am a doctor and an economist, that’s why I ordered chemotherapy for our economy. On the political front, I am a minister of all ministries. I am a scientist and an astronaut, it bothered me that India spent ‘900 billion’ on Chandrayaan-2 when clearly all that money could have been given to me.
Loss of 900 Billions to indian govt for losing communication with #Chandrayan2.
How much for blocking communication in IOJ&K?
Much much more.... and not financially alone.
In Shaa Allah.#کشمیر_بنے_گا_پاکستان
18.6K people are talking about this
I love my followers to the moon and back. It is true that mine is a thankless job, so I don’t complain when my followers want to trend hashtags thanking me for doing nothing. Our “bondage” is beyond such gestures alone.
Dear Pakistanis u are desirous to put on military style caps/shirts during PSL Final. Pak Armed Forces humbly acknowledge your love & support. Sports are beyond politics & we believe that our bondage is beyond such gestures alone. Enjoy the game in CityOfLights.#PakistanZindabad
21.8K people are talking about this
People have attacked me for promoting the business of antiseptic Burnol – I scolded a commentator for calling out my PM’s speech at the UN – but they don’t have the wisdom to understand how it will enhance our business and turnaround our economy. Everything has a price to it and I know that. Even crudeness.
Not many people know this secret but I am my favourite. On Twitter, I follow myself and no one else. That’s my message to the youth of this wonderful nation called Pakistan. Life is tough, you have to follow your dreams, my dream was to follow myself and I am living my dream.