Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Balochistan Students Beaten for Demanding Internet Access
By Veengas
Students in Quetta, Balochistan, were beaten up by the police last week when they protested the lack of internet access across the province.
With no internet connectivity in several districts of Balochistan, and very poor network in others, the students cannot attend the online classes announced by the Pakistan government as schools and colleges remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of the students in the province come from villages and small towns with limited facilities for internet access. The Inclusive Internet Index 2020, which surveys 100 countries to determine who gets internet access and who is denied it, ranks Pakistan at No. 76, stating that “low levels of digital literacy and relatively poor network quality are major impediments to internet inclusion” in the country.
‘Digital Pakistan’ cuts internet access
Balochistan has had poor or no internet connectivity since 2013, claims 25-year-old Mahrang Baloch, who is part of the Baloch Students Action Committee that is leading the protests across the province. Others, however, say that internet problems arose two years ago.
“People claim that this problem has existed in Kech district only for two years, but I visited Turbat (the Kech district headquarters) in 2013 and there has been no internet since then,” says Mahrang.
Mahrang has been jailed four times for her stand on various issues. The first time she went to prison, it was because she raised the issue of her missing father. This year, she has so far been jailed twice for demanding rights for students.
Pakistan’s FATA region (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) has also had no or poor internet access since 2016. Gilgit and Baltistan complain of the same problem.
Internet access in these places was deliberately limited by the Pakistan government on the basis of demands from security agencies who say that all these areas tend to be politically unstable and sensitive to security issues, making internet access a threat to the nation.
This is in direct contrast to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government’s aim to create ‘a digital Pakistan’. The government website shows that the country has facilities for digital education, but Balochistan students have no access to the internet.
“Our demand for the restoration of the internet is not illegal,” says Mahran. “We (the Baloch) are treated badly. First, we have to fight when our loved ones are abducted and now we must flight for the simple right of internet access.”
One of Mahrang’s fellow students who lives in Khuzdar has to travel for two hours to a mountain area so she can attend her online classes. This is both a waste of her time and hazardous for her health while the coronavirus pandemic continues. “When she gets there, sometimes there is no internet there either, or the teacher has changed the class timings,” claims Mahrang.
The Kashmir paradox
Because of the lack of internet access, Baloch students cannot apply online for scholarships. Nor are they able to supplement their textbook learning with new information available on the internet. Now, because there is no or poor internet access and all classes are online only due to the pandemic, they get no education at all.
This is despite the fact that they have paid their school and college fees. If they cannot complete the semester currently in session, they will have to pay fees again for a new semester since schools and colleges refuse to return the fees already paid or carry them over for a new semester. One of Mahrang’s fellow students has lost 50,000 Pakistani rupees in fees.
“The authorities don’t seem to understand our anguish,” says Mahrang. “It is as if our issues do not bother them.”
Mahrang is bitter about the Pakistan government’s calls for the full restoration of internet connectivity in Kashmir when much the same situation exists in Balochistan. The Government of India had cut Kashmir’s access to the internet in August 2019, immediately after reading down Article 370 of the constitution, which had granted Jammu and Kashmir special status. Internet services – only 2G – were partly restored in January 2020, but access was granted initially only to white-listed websites. The restoration of 4G services in what is now the union territory of J&K is still being “considered” by the Government of India, though a special committee the Indian Supreme Court tasked for the review has yet to be notified.
“I don’t believe Pakistan even cares about Kashmir; they just use Kashmir as a tool for its own interests,” says Mahrang.
Balochistan’s internet access was cut completely when a Pashtun youth was lynched and killed in Quetta on May 29 this year by a mob in Hazara Town. According to Mahrang, it was restored in two days. However, swathes of Balochistan has suffered the lack of internet connectivity for years, she adds.
The students are not demanding 3G and 4G connectivity, says Mahrang. All they want is a simple PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Private Ltd) connection. But that has been banned by the security agencies.
“If the Baloch people are security risks, then kick them out of all cities, because their very existence is a security risk,” says Mahrang.
Media ignores Baloch students
For the Pakistani media, Balochistan might as well not exist, alleges Mahrang. “I do not ask journalists to report what we say, but at least do justice to your work and write balanced reports,” she says. “Unless we (the Baloch people) get beaten up, no one pays attention to our cries. Baloch news only matters to the media when there are bomb blasts in the province.”
Students said that if their demand for the restoration of internet access was illegal or used as a ploy by a Baloch nationalist group, then how come Baloch senator Mir Kabeer Ahmed presented a letter to the chairman of the senate on June 12, asking for internet access for seven districts in Balochistan?
Mir Kabeer Ahmed’s letter.
Author Mohammad Ali Talpur, whose columns are banned in the Pakistani media because he writes about Balochistan’s issues, says Baloch’s problems do not fit into the framework of Pakistan’s interests. The internet issue, he says, is genuine and must be a basic right for Baloch students.
“The Pakistan government and activists and journalists can cry for Kashmir and demand the restoration of the internet there, but what are they are doing in their own home?” Talpur demands. “Do Baloch students have no right to even an education? If the government does not want to educate Baloch students, then what do they want to do with them?”
While the provincial government has held talks with the protesting Baloch students, Mahrang says they were disappointing. She calls them “political talks,” nothing more.
“Balochistan has had an internet blackout for years now. We will continue to fight for its restoration,” she says.
#Balochistan: Families protest for the release of their abducted loved ones
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On the 11th anniversary of the forcible abduction of Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch, a protest rally was organised by the families of the abductees on Sunday and protest demonstration was also recorded in front of the Quetta Press Club.
The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons had announced on the completion of Dr Deen Muhammad Baloch 11 years of his abduction, very emotional scenes were witnessed during the protest as sisters, daughters and mothers of abducted Baloch spoke of their struggle, suffering and psychological pains.
People from all schools of thought took part in the protest including a large number of women and children. Protesters held banners and placards with pictures of the abducted people with various slogans.
Addressing the protesters, the families of the abducted people said that in accordance with international human rights law, disappearances by state [Pakistan], are a crime even in its own constitution. “These crimes and inhumane act against the Baloch nation have been taking place from past several years with impunity,” the speakers said.
The participants added that when it comes to Balochistan, neither international law nor the state enforce its own law, but the people of Balochistan have been forced to live their lives under a shadow of anguish, pain, suffering and oppression.
In an emotional speech, Mahlab Baloch, daughter of the abducted Dr Deen Muhammad Baloch, said, “this unending oppression in Balochistan today continues unabated due to our indifference, detachment and alienation because if we [Baloch nation] has raised voice against the abduction of Ali Asghar Bangulzai, who was abducted 19 years ago.
“Later Zakir Jan and Dr Deen Mohammad might not have been abducted and tortured for nine years, but our own alienation has pushed many of our loved ones into the dark cells of violence.
Since then, it has become a customary norm for the state to abduct anyone at any time and make them disappear, to keep them missing for years, to torture them and not to hold them accountable.”
Mahlab Baloch further said that all the prisoners including Dr Deen Mohammad should not be called ‘missing persons’ as they are not missing. “We know of their whereabouts in Kulli Camp [Pakistan military concentration camps in Quetta] and other such torture chambers, where they are being subjected to severe physical and mental abuse.”
Hasiba Qambrani said that unless we [Baloch] raise our voice, we will not be given justice.
Addressing her brother’s abductors she said, “You kidnapped my elder brother first, tortured him. I remained silent that there may be justice in the world and that justice may be available to the unfortunate Baloch but as a result, I received my abducted brother’s dead body. Today if continuously protest, it is because of you.
“You have put me in a position where if I am not strong enough at the moment to fight you and free my brothers from your unnatural strong claws but I have one voice to tell the whole world and my people will join me in giving more energy to this voice and this voice will surely shake your houses.”
Hasiba Qambrani added that you are a tyrant and oppressor.
“You only know how to oppress and by using it you are making our world [our future] dark. You have taken away our happiness. You have robbed us of our livelihood. You have taken away the shadow of our heads from us and then expect us to remain silent? We will shout and tell the world the stories of your atrocities.”
He further said that if anyone loses even a small thing, he/she will become restless and starts looking for it. You snatched our loved ones from us and despite that, we’re not even allowed crying for them.”
Shabir Baloch’s sister Seema Baloch said that if our loved ones have been martyred then we should be informed and if they are still alive we should know about it.
“There is still some reassurance about the deceased that he will never return, but the families of the missing go through an endless ordeal forever as long as their loved ones remain disappeared,” she added.
Seema Baloch further said, “when joined protests before, family members were threatened that if I did not remain silent, my brother would not be released. I kept silence for a while but to no avail.”
She said that they resorted to all peaceful means but no one listened to them and added they are being threatened to stay quiet which is no longer possible.
Seema Baloch added, “You have courts. If they [our loved ones] have committed a crime, try them and punish them, but God sake do not disappear them like this.”
All the participants in the demonstration, including children, were shocked to see the condition of their families and very painful and upsetting scenes were witnessed during the demonstration.
The writing is on the wall: Pakistan’s Imran Khan govt is on the edge of collapse
VINAY KAURA
The army has always wanted an increased role in managing politics in Pakistan. Imran Khan’s ministers are giving it just that.
Pakistan’s government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan seems to be on the edge of collapse. Internal divisions in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, have become so intense that it is no longer possible to keep them under wraps. Senior government ministers are openly accusing their cabinet colleagues of backstabbing, conspiracy and breach of trust. Within the government, there are multiple fault lines, which are likely to increase by the day. This leaves the PTI government structurally vulnerable to being pushed around by the more professional and organised institution – the Pakistan Army, which has become significantly more assertive.
According to media reports, at a crucial cabinet meeting recently, PM Imran Khan had to intervene to stop ministers from hurling allegations against one another. The immediate reason for the cabinet meeting, in which Khan advised his ministers not to discuss the party’s internal issues in open forums, was an explosive interview given by Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry.
Fawad, in his interview to Voice of America (VOA), had discussed internal differences within the PTI and accused senior leaders of conspiring to remove each other; and that senior leader Jahangir Tareen hatched plans to get federal minister Asad Umar removed from the cabinet while the latter was behind the removal of Tareen from the key position of general secretary of the party, also known as the real powerhouse of the PTI.
Underlining the Pakistani people’s high “expectation from PTI and Imran Khan”, Fawad said the national government had failed miserably to make the system more professional and autonomous through systematic reforms. He argued that “the public had not elected us or the prime minister to fix nuts and bolts but to reform the system”.
Fawad was echoing the disappointment felt by most Pakistanis, who, having voted Khan’s party into power, have been holding their breath, in desperate anticipation that the transformative moment in their nation’s destiny would come soon. According to a survey, “The percentage of Pakistanis who believe that the current PTI government’s performance up to this point in its tenure is worse than that of the previous government has increased from 35 per cent in December 2018 to 59 per cent in February 2020.”
This public airing of differences by those in the government has its reputational dimension; the consequences of irreconcilable internal rift within the PTI are far more perilous because the stakes are higher in a government dependent on support from smaller coalition partners. With PM Imran Khan struggling to bring a semblance of unity among his party colleagues, it is only a matter of time before his government is brought down under the unbearable weight of the army’s relentless psychological warfare as well as its own inherent contradictions.
Deserting allies
The PTI government has also been highly inept in dealing with the Covid-19 health emergency. This has resulted in a steep decline in public trust in the government’s capacity to rule effectively. Things have come to such a pass that Imran Khan’s allies in the government are deserting him, with many joining the opposition camp.
Accusing the PTI of not keeping its promises, the chief of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M), Sardar Akhtar Mengal, has left the government. His party has four seats in the National Assembly. Expressing his annoyance over insufficient funds for development projects in Balochistan, Mengal regretted the diminishing role of the National Assembly in policy-making, and said, “The parliament has become the speakers’ corner in Hyde Park (in London) where the members vent their frustration through their speeches but nobody is listening to them seriously.” Mengal has since met with the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and is believed to be planning to topple the Imran Khan government.
Now, other coalition partners such as Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), on whose support the government depends for its majority in the National Assembly, are likely to step up their bargaining power vis-à-vis the PTI. The government will be under additional pressure to keep these small allies happy at all costs. As argued by a Pakistani analyst: “Do not be surprised if you see the allies becoming a bit more vocal in their grievances, a bit more aggressive in their dealings and a bit more demanding in their requirements. They may do all this because they can see the larger political canvas groaning under the weight of PTI government’s problems.”
The lack of internal cohesion and trust within the PTI has created deep fractures in the government’s ability to manage, as reflected in the marginalisation of trusted advisers of PM Khan. Most important among them is Tareen, who was a political heavyweight deciding tickets for the 2018 parliamentary election. His removal has left Imran Khan without someone who can manage the complex game of political alliances in a fragile government.
Besides domestic governance problems, the undeniable realities of corruption, cover-ups, abuse of power, and all the macroeconomic indicators trending downwards, Pakistan currently faces multiple challenges on security and foreign policy fronts such as Afghan peace process, military tensions with India, and American pressure to shift the focus away from China.
Giving more power to military
Since there is a clear division of labour between the government and the army, the latter is the de-facto decision-maker on security and foreign policy issues. But the PTI government’s failings on domestic governance, including on Covid-19, have led to many key civilian positions being infested with people from military backgrounds.
Previous civilian governments in Pakistan often tried to resist the army’s dominance in domestic policy-making, but the PTI government has made no such attempt. Consequently, military interference or hold over routine aspects of governance such as airlines, finance, railways, and media has gradually increased.
For instance, the state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is headed by Air Marshal Arshad Malik, who was appointed as CEO in October 2018. Malik’s management of the PIA has recently come under scrutiny following a fatal plane crash in Karachi in May. Similarly, Lt Gen. Asim Bajwa, a former Pakistani military spokesman, was appointed in April as the new special communication adviser to the PM. He is also heading the Chinese-sponsored Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Pakistan, under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). These appointments are in sync with the broader trajectory of the collapse of institutional autonomy in the civilian sphere of governance under the PTI government.
Don’t forget the past
There is increasing speculation of Pakistan’s military establishment being extremely unhappy with the manner in which the national government is being run. The army has always desired an increased role in managing politics in Pakistan, but it doesn’t mean that a civilian government’s inefficiency, incompetence and venality should be used as an excuse to garner more power for itself. That is a logically absurd and tactically irresponsible proposition.
While the present seems bleak, the future does not augur well for change either. It is true that barring a few exceptions, political leaders in Pakistan often turn to the army, behind the curtain, to resolve their differences rather than work things out through the democratic process of dialogue.
But it is equally true that the rule of law cannot effectively survive without civilian supremacy. And unfortunately, Pakistan has already paid a huge price for extra-constitutional interventions by the army. History’s lessons must not be forgotten by generals in Rawalpindi.
بلاول بھٹو کا کل شام پریس کانفرنس کرنے کا اعلان
چیئرمین پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کل شام لاہور میں پریس کانفرنس کرنے کا اعلان کیا ہے۔
سماجی رابطے کی ویب سائٹ ٹوئٹر پر پیغام میں پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ کل شام بلاول ہاؤس لاہور میں پریس کانفرنس کروں گا۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ ہمیں پاکستان کے لیے وزیراعظم چاہیے، بدقسمتی سے ہمارے پاس پی ٹی آئی کا وزیراعظم ہے۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ عمران خان خود کو واحد آپشن قرار دے رہے ہیں، اس حکومت کو اب جانا ہوگا۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ عمران خان کو معلوم نہیں پاکستان کے عوام کو اُن کے علاوہ کوئی بھی شخص بطور وزیراعظم منظور ہے۔
Monday, June 29, 2020
How pilots acquire 'dubious' licenses in Pakistan
Pakistan has announced it will ground 262 airline pilots whose credentials may have been falsified. A probe into their qualifications claimed that the pilots cheated on their exams or had others sit in their place.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is once again in hot water after nearly a third of its pilots were suspected of holding fake or "dubious" licenses and dodging exams following inquiries into their qualifications.
The 262 grounded pilots pending conclusion of inquiries against them included 141 from PIA, nine from Air Blue, 10 from Serene Airline, and 17 from Shaheen Airlines, Pakistani Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan announced on Friday. They included 109 commercial and 153 airline transport pilots.
The purge has sparked global concern, raising questions over how the Pakistani pilots acquired licenses from Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and worked for international airlines across the world.
The license scandal emerged in the wake of last month's plane crash in the southern port city of Karachi that killed 97 people on board. The crash prompted a preliminary report, which found that the pilots had failed to follow standard procedures and disregarded alarms.
Khan said authorities had been investigating collusion between pilots and civil aviation officials since late 2018 to circumvent examinations. He said all the pilots were accused of having someone sit one or more exam papers for them, and sometimes even all the eight papers required for an airline pilot's licence.
Details of the government's review of the pilots' qualifications were made public on Thursday, indicating 262 of Pakistan's 860 pilots have fake flying licenses. The PIA then stated it would ground all pilots with the "dubious" licences.
"We will restructure the airline, and a clean-up process will be completed by this year," the aviation minister said.
Global humiliation or reform?
Pakistan's investigations into pilots' qualifications began after a 2018 crash landing and found that the test date on the licence of the pilot involved had been a holiday - suggesting it was fake as testing could not have taken place on that day. As a result, 16 PIA pilots were grounded in early 2019.
Aviation experts are divided over the license scandal. Khan said the grounding of the pilots was aimed at making the Pakistani airline industry credible and that it would also dispel global concerns surrounding PIA.
"The institution has reached the point of moral bankruptcy, not financial. Pakistan now has a choice to make whether to keep or alter its reputation for crashes. I think reforms are a good idea and that the institution needs to be fixed through proposed reforms," Shahzad Chaudhary, a retired vice air force marshal, told DW.
"Losing people's lives is far worse than losing a temporary image before institutional reforms. There is a lack of induction, lack of trainings and lack of oversight in the PIA," Chaudhary added.
However, others see the purge as a global humiliation for Pakistan's aviation industry and doubt the promised reforms.
"This is the sweeping statement from the government and the list [of grounded pilots] issued by the government is doubtful. It has many mistakes and it will lead to disaster. People will not even think of boarding the PIA with fake license pilots flying the planes," said Ijaz Haroon, who was managing director of the airline until 2011.
"It is now an uphill task to revive the PIA. When the confidence level in the flying crew is lost, everything is lost. This move is going to be the last nail in the coffin," he added.
Doubt looms over pilot list
Khan said the list of pilots to be grounded had been sent to airlines and would also be available on the civil aviation website. He said all the airlines and clubs had been told that "these pilots shouldn't be allowed to fly anymore."
The Pakistan Air Line Pilots Association has challenged the authenticity of the list and asked the judiciary to probe the issue, citing distrust in a transparent government investigation.
"I have my doubts about the list and the way the government is dealing with it," said Haroon, calling for an independent judicial commission to investigate the matter.
A senior pilot who has been grounded over allegations of a fake license and declined to be named told DW: "The civil aviation authority has the right to issue the license after exams, but the list prepared by the government is full of blunders and was prepared in haste without knowing the consequences."
Having 19 years of flying experience, the pilot said he was shocked to see his name on the list. "I don't know what the government is going to do and I doubt their intention. Either they are going to privatize the national carrier or completely shut it down to acquire big hotels abroad," he told DW.
List tarnishes global reputation of Pakistani pilots
Pakistani former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, also an aviation expert, told DW: "The premature sharing of the list is not a good step from the government. This is a serious matter and it should be investigated as 40% of our total pilots are dubious now. The government first issued the list without any investigation and only announced an investigation later."
Abassi added that the move has tarnished the image of Pakistani pilots worldwide, citing Turkish Airlines' decision to ground 16 Pakistani pilots because one of them was named on the list.
Vietnam's aviation authority announced on Monday it had grounded all Pakistani pilots working for Vietnamese airlines, adding that the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) is coordinating with Pakistani authorities to review the pilots' profiles.
Air transport bodies have expressed concerns over such a large number of pilots having dubious credentials and said they are seeking more information on the matter.
"We are following reports from Pakistan regarding fake pilot licenses, which are concerning and represent a serious lapse in the licensing and safety oversight by the aviation regulator," said a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) stated, "We are investigating the matter but cannot comment further at this stage."
Successive governments in the past have tried to privatize and overhaul the loss-making carrier but failed due to political pressure. PIA, which has a fleet of 31 aircraft and 434 pilots, plunged into further financial woes as a result of frequent cancellations and mismanagement.
Bilawal Bhutto Slams Imran Khan's 'Shaheed Osama' Remark; Asks 'What About Benazir?'
By Suchitra KarthikeyanSlamming Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's 'shaheed' Osama bin-Laden remark, Pakistan People's Party chairman - Bilawal Bhutto asked 'what about Benazir?'
Slamming Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's 'shaheed' Osama bin-Laden remark, Pakistan People's Party chairman - Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on Monday, questioned Khan's remark in the Pakistan National Assembly. He pointed out that Khan had called UN-designated terrorist - Osama bin-Laden a 'martyr', but not the deceased PM Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated. He lashed out at Khan, accusing him of not standing upto terror but cheating the public with his corrupt cabinet.
Bilawal slams Imran Khan for 'Shaheed Osama' remark
"Our Prime Minister has called Osama Bin Laden a 'martyr'. That Osama Bin Laden, whose Al-Queda has been responsible for the 1993 killings of our soldiers to the assassination of our former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. This Prime Minister will not call Benazir Bhutto - Pakistan's first female Prime Minister a 'martyr'. He does not have the guts to talk against the various terror agencies - Taliban, Al-Queda, but has cheated our people," he said.
Imran Khan calls Osama bin-Laden a 'martyr'
On Thursday, speaking in Pakistan's National Assembly in Islamabad, PM Imran Khan referred to Al Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden as a "martyr". He opined that Pakistan had suffered tremendous losses by participating in the US-led War on Terror after the 9/11 terrorist attack. He termed the US killing of Bin Laden in 2011 as a shameful incident, lamenting the fact that their former ally US had not even informed the authorities before entering the country and killing Bin Laden.
He remarked, "The manner in which we supported the US in the War on Terror and the trouble that my country had to face...They call us names. If they don't succeed in Afghanistan, they blame Pakistan. I still cannot forget- there were two incidents which made all Pakistanis feel ashamed. One was when the US entered Abbottabad and killed Osama Bin Laden, martyred him. After that, the entire world abused us. Our ally is entering our country and killing someone and is not even telling us. 70,000 Pakistanis have died to their war. You should see what Pakistanis living overseas had to face. I still remember this is an incident from 2010. After that, there were drone attacks in Pakistan. The Pakistan government said that we are doing nothing."
Previously on 22 July 2019, Khan had told Fox News that the ISI had given information which led the CIA to the location of the Al Qaeda founder. This position had caused a great amount of uproar back then because it went against the official narrative of Pakistan's military. Currently, US which has brokered a peace deal with the Taliban, have reduced their troops to 8600 in Afghanistan as part of its phased withdrawal, as per US news reports.
https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/pakistan-news/ppp-chief-bilawal-bhutto-slams-imran-khans-shaheed-osama-remark.html
Bilawal meets JWP’s Bugti, discusses NFC Award, 18th Amendment
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) leader Shahzain Bugti discussed various matters of national interest during a meeting held here on Monday.
Among the issues of national interest that the PPP chief and Bugti talked about were 18th Amendment, National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, and the rights of Balochistan and its people. The two leaders agreed on going forward together and working collaboratively on the country’s affairs, a statement issued by the PPP media cell stated.
Bilawal lauded and supported the JWP leader’s stance on the NFC Award and the 18th Amendment. During former president and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari’s tenure, Balochistan received a specialised package for the commencement of the province’s rights, Bugti said.
The PPP has been compassionate towards the Baloch people and their wounds, the JWP leader added.
On the other hand, Bilawal said ignoring Balochistan was another one of the incumbent government’s significant incompetence. The PPP would never allow any compromise over the rights of the province, he added.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/06/29/bilawal-meets-jwps-bugti-discusses-nfc-award-18th-amendment/
اسٹاک ایکسچینج حملے کو سندھ پولیس نے ناکام بنایا، بلاول بھٹو
پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کا کہنا ہے کہ کراچی اسٹاک ایکسچینج پر حملے کو سندھ پولیس نے بہادری سے بروقت ناکام بنایا۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے اپنے بیان میں کہا کہ تمام پاکستانی سندھ پولیس کے مشکور ہیں۔
پی پی چیئرمین نے مزید کہا کہ سندھ پولیس نے کامیابی سے انسانی زندگی اور ملکی معیشت کے مرکز کا دفاع کیا۔
حملہ ناکام، 4 دہشتگرد ہلاک
پاکستان اسٹاک ایکسچینج پر دہشت گروں کا حملہ ناکام بنا دیا گیا سیکیورٹی فورسز نے 4 دہشت گروں کو ہلاک کردیا ہے، فائرنگ کے تبادلے میں پولیس اہلکار سمیت 4 سیکیورٹی گارڈ بھی جاں بحق ہوئے ہیں۔
ترجمان سندھ رینجرز کے مطابق حملےمیں ملو ث تمام دہشت گردوں کو ہلاک کر دیا گیا ہے ،جبکہ کلیئرنس آپریشن جاری ہے، بی ڈی ایس کے عملے کو طلب کرلیا گیا ہے۔
پولیس کے مطابق پیر کی صبح 10 بجے کے قریب 4 دہشتگردوں نے پہلے اسٹاک ایکسچینج کے گیٹ پر دستی بم حملہ کیا اور پھر اندھا دھند فائرنگ کی۔
ڈی آئی جی ساوتھ کا کہناہے کہ دہشت گرد جس گاڑی میں آئے تھے اسے بھی قبضے میں لے لیا گیا ہے، پولیس حکام کے مطابق دہشت گردوں کی فائرنگ سے 2 افراد بھی جاں بحق ہوئے ہیں۔
ذرائع کے مطابق دہشت گروں کی جانب سے پاکستان اسٹاک ایکسچینج پر جدید اسلحہ اور دستی بموں سے حملہ کیا تھا۔
ایس ایس پی سٹی مقدس حیدر کا کہنا ہے کہ فائرنگ سے پولیس اہلکار اور 4 سیکیورٹی گارڈ جاں بحق ہوئے ہیں ، جبکہ سول اسپتال میں 7 زخمیوں کو منتقل کیا گیا ہے۔
پولیس اہلکاروں کیلئے 20 لاکھ کے انعام کا اعلان
انسپکٹر جنرل پولیس سندھ مشتاق احمد مہر نے پاکستان اسٹاک ایکسچینج میں دہشت گردوں سے لڑنے والے اہلکاروں کےلیے 20 لاکھ روپے انعام کا اعلان کیا ہے۔
پولیس حکام کےمطابق دہشت گردوں سے سب سے پہلے مقابلہ ریپڈرسپانس فورس کے جوانوں نے کیا ۔
پولیس حکام کے اسٹاک مارکیٹ میں دہشت گردوں سے مقابلے میں ریپڈ رسپانس فورس کا افسر شہید ہوگیا لیکن اس کے ساتھ اہلکار لڑتے رہے ۔
ریپڈ رسپانس فورس نے دہشت گردوں کو مرکزی دروازے پر ہی مار دیا ،وہ عمارت میں داخل ہی نہیں ہوسکے۔
پولیس حکام کےمطابق دہشت گرد حملے میں 1 پولیس افسر اور 3 سیکیورٹی گارڈ باہر ہی شہید ہوئے جبکہ 3 پولیس اہلکار ،3 سیکیورٹی گارڈز اور ایک شہری بھی باہر ہی زخمی ہوا۔
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Biden Criticizes Trump Over Intelligence on Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops
The White House denied that President Trump was briefed on the classified assessment, even though his staff has been discussing the matter since March.Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. assailed President Trump on Saturday for failing to punish Russia for offering bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, while the White House denied that Mr. Trump had been briefed on the months-old classified intelligence assessment about Russia’s activities. Citing officials briefed on the matter, The New York Times reported on Friday that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly paid Taliban-linked militants to target coalition troops in Afghanistan, including Americans and that Mr. Trump had been briefed about it. The article also reported that the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, but no response had yet been authorized.
Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, portrayed that as shameful.
“Not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Biden said in a virtual town hall event held by a voter group, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote.
“His entire presidency has been a gift to Putin, but this is beyond the pale,” Mr. Biden added. “It’s a betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation, to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way.”
The officials briefed on the matter said the intelligence assessment was based at least in part on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals. The officials said the assessment had been treated as a closely held secret but that the administration expanded briefings about it over the past week — including sharing information about it with the British government, whose forces are among those said to have been targeted.
But as criticism of the administration’s inaction swelled on Friday and Saturday, the White House claimed that Mr. Trump had never been told about the intelligence assessment.“While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the C.I.A. director, national security adviser and the chief of staff can all confirm that neither the president nor the vice president were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence,” the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said in a statement Saturday afternoon, about 25 hours after the article was posted on The Times’s website.About six hours later on Saturday night, the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, issued a statement echoing the White House’s assertion that Mr. Trump had not been briefed on the intelligence finding.
But one American official had told The Times that the intelligence finding that the Russians had offered and paid bounties to Afghan militants and criminals had been briefed at the highest levels of the White House.
Another said it was included in the President’s Daily Brief, a written document which draws from spywork to make analytic predictions about longstanding adversaries, unfolding plots and emerging crises around the world. The briefing document is given to the president to read and they serve as the basis for oral briefings to him several times a week.
Asked on Saturday evening how the president could not have known about the report if it had been in his daily brief, a National Security Council spokesman did not immediately respond.
Ms. McEnany notably did not question the substance of the intelligence assessment, saying only that her statement “did not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence.” She also did not challenge the Times’s reporting that the National Security Council had convened an interagency meeting about what to do about the report in late March.
Ms. McEnany did not explain why such an important report would have been withheld from Mr. Trump. Nor did she indicate whether Mr. Trump was upset at his subordinates for purportedly withholding the information from him.
American officials reached on Saturday said it strained credulity to think that White House national-security officials would be discussing such an important matter for months and even brief British officials about it and never provide the information to Mr. Trump.
The Times article did not say whether Vice President Mike Pence had been briefed.
Ms. McEnany also said in her statement that “the United States receives thousands of intelligence reports a day and they are subject to strict scrutiny.” It was not clear why she portrayed the report as if it were a tip merely received by the government from an outside source, when it was instead an intelligence assessment developed by the American government itself, based on analyzing intelligence.
Mr. Trump is particularly difficult to brief on critical national security matters, according to a recent examination by The Times that drew on The president veers off on tangents and getting him back on topic is difficult, they said. He has a short attention span and is said to rarely, if ever, read intelligence reports, including the written President’s Daily Brief document prepared for him.
Mr. Trump is said to have chosen to sit for intelligence briefings two or three times a week, rather than every day. Those briefings are based on the daily brief documents.
Press officers with the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the State Department and the C.I.A. declined to comment on Friday before the article was posted online. The security council and Pentagon spokesmen also declined to comment when asked again after the article was published. Both Russia and the Taliban have denied the American intelligence assessment. On Saturday, Russia’s embassy in Washington posted a screenshot of the Times report to Twitter with “FAKE” superimposed over it in big red letters. The embassy also accused American intelligence officials without evidence of involvement in drug trafficking in Afghanistan, suggesting they were floating erroneous information to distract from that.
In a statement, a Taliban spokesman dismissed the intelligence assessment as rumors, meant to interfere in the peace process with the United States to end the long-running war there.
“We reassure our nation and the entire world that the Islamic Emirate is not a tool of anyone nor is it employed for foreign agendas,” the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said. The pushback followed a fierce expression of outrage at the Trump administration’s inaction. Much of it, like the statement from Mr. Biden, came from Democrats. But a few Republicans took public notice as well.
Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is an outspoken supporter of Mr. Trump but sometimes tries to push him to more hawkish positions — such as opposing his plan to pull out of Syria — said on Twitter that he wanted the administration to take the intelligence assessment seriously and brief Congress on the matter.
“I expect the Trump Administration to take such allegations seriously and inform Congress immediately as to the reliability of these news reports,” Mr. Graham wrote.
The United States concluded months ago that the Russian intelligence unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.
In response to the intelligence assessment, senior administration aides developed an array of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other more aggressive possible responses, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.
But the White House has yet to decide on taking any step, the officials said in recent days.
Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.
The officials familiar with the intelligence did not explain the White House’s delay in deciding how to respond to the intelligence about Russia.
Afghanistan has been the site of proxy battles between Washington and Moscow before. In the 1980s, while the Soviet Union was mired in its own bloody war in the country, it was the United States that covertly helped arm the mujahedeen to fight against the Red Army in one of the last major confrontations of the Cold War.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Russia was largely supportive of the American effort to destroy Al Qaeda and topple the Taliban government. Russia declared the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003, but recently their relationship has been warming, with Taliban leaders traveling to Moscow for peace talks.
US: Spies and Commandos Warned Months Ago of Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops
By Eric Schmitt, Adam Goldman and Nicholas Fandos
The recovery of large amounts of American cash at a Taliban outpost in Afghanistan helped tip off U.S. officials.
United States intelligence officers and Special Operations forces in Afghanistan alerted their superiors as early as January to a suspected Russian plot to pay bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, according to officials briefed on the matter.
The crucial information that led the spies and commandos to focus on the bounties included the recovery of a large amount of American cash from a raid on a Taliban outpost that prompted suspicions. Interrogations of captured militants and criminals played a central role in making the intelligence community confident in its assessment that the Russians had offered and paid bounties in 2019, another official has said.
Armed with this information, military and intelligence officials have been reviewing American and other coalition combat casualties since early last year to determine whether any were victims of the plot. Four Americans were killed in combat in early 2020, but the Taliban have not attacked American positions since a February agreement to end the long-running war in Afghanistan.
The details added to the picture of the classified intelligence assessment, which The New York Times reported Friday has been under discussion inside the Trump administration since at least March, and emerged as the White House confronted a growing chorus of criticism on Sunday over its apparent failure to authorize a response to Russia.
Mr. Trump defended himself by denying the Times report that he had been briefed on the intelligence, expanding on a similar White House rebuttal a day earlier. But leading congressional Democrats and some Republicans demanded a response to Russia that, according to officials, the administration has yet to authorize.
The president “needs to immediately expose and handle this, and stop Russia’s shadow war,” Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Twitter. Appearing on the ABC program “This Week,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had not been briefed on the intelligence assessment and had asked for an immediate report to Congress. She accused Mr. Trump of wanting “to ignore” any charges against Russia.
“Russia has never gotten over the humiliation they suffered in Afghanistan, and now they are taking it out on us, our troops,” she said of the Soviet Union’s bloody war there in the 1980s. “This is totally outrageous. You would think that the minute the president heard of it, he would want to know more instead of denying that he knew anything.”Spokespeople for the C.I.A., the director of national intelligence and the Pentagon declined to comment on the new findings. A National Security Council spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Though the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, claimed on Saturday that Mr. Trump had not been briefed about the intelligence report, one American official had told The Times that the report was briefed to the highest levels of the White House. Another said it was included in the President’s Daily Brief, a compendium of foreign policy and national security intelligence compiled for Mr. Trump to read.
Ms. McEnany did not challenge The Times’s reporting on the existence of the intelligence assessment, a National Security Council interagency meeting about it in late March and the White House’s inaction. Multiple other news organizations also subsequently reported on the assessment.
The officials briefed on the matter said that the assessment had been treated as a closely held secret but that the administration expanded briefings about it over the last week — including sharing information about it with the British government, whose forces were among those said to have been targeted.
Republicans in Congress demanded more information from the Trump administration about what happened and how the White House planned to respond.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican, said in a Twitter post on Sunday: “If reporting about Russian bounties on U.S. forces is true, the White House must explain:
1. Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed? Was the info in the PDB?
2. Who did know and when?
3. What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?”
Multiple Republicans retweeted Ms. Cheney’s post. Representative Daniel Crenshaw, Republican of Texas and a former member of the Navy SEALs, amplified her message, tweeting, “We need answers.”
In a statement in response to questions, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he had long warned about Russia’s work to undermine American interests in the Middle East and southwest Asia and noted that he wrote an amendment last year rebuking Mr. Trump’s withdrawal of forces from Syria and Afghanistan.
“The United States needs to prioritize defense resources, maintain a sufficient regional military presence and continue to impose serious consequences on those who threaten us and our allies — like our strikes in Syria and Afghanistan against ISIS, the Taliban and Russian mercenary forces that threatened our partners,” Mr. McConnell said.Aides for other top Republicans either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday, including Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican; Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; and Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In addition to saying he was never “briefed or told” about the intelligence report — a formulation that went beyond the White House denial of any formal briefing — Mr. Trump also cast doubt on the assessment’s credibility, which statements from his subordinates had not.
Specifically, he described the intelligence report as being about “so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians”; the report described bounties paid to Taliban militants by Russian military intelligence officers, not direct attacks. Mr. Trump also suggested that the developments could be a “hoax” and questioned whether The Times’s sources — government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity — existed.
Mr. Trump then pivoted to attack former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who criticized the president on Saturday for failing to punish Russia for offering bounties to the Taliban, as well as Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, who is the target of unsubstantiated claims that he helped a Ukrainian energy firm curry favor with the Obama administration when his father was vice president. “Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than the Trump administration,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “With Corrupt Joe Biden & Obama, Russia had a field day, taking over important parts of Ukraine — Where’s Hunter?”
American officials said the Russian plot to pay bounties to Taliban fighters came into focus over the past several months after intelligence analysts and Special Operations forces put together key pieces of evidence.
One official said the seizure of a large amount of American cash at one Taliban site got “everybody’s attention” in Afghanistan. It was not clear when the money was recovered.
Two officials said the information about the bounty hunting was “well known” among the intelligence community in Afghanistan, including the C.I.A.’s chief of station and other top officials there, like the military commandos hunting the Taliban. The information was distributed in intelligence reports and highlighted in some of them.
The assessment was compiled and sent up the chain of command to senior military and intelligence officials, eventually landing at the highest levels of the White House. The Security Council meeting in March came at a delicate time, as the coronavirus pandemic was becoming a crisis and prompting shutdowns around the country.
A former American official said the intelligence analyst who briefs the president and the national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, working with his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, would have been involved in any decision to brief Mr. Trump on Russia’s activities. The director of the C.I.A., Gina Haspel, might have also weighed in, the former official said.
Ms. McEnany cited all three of those senior officials in her statement saying the president had not been briefed.
National security officials have tracked Russia’s relationship with the Taliban for years and determined that Moscow has provided financial and material support to senior and regional Taliban leaders.While Russia has at times cooperated with the United States and appeared interested in Afghan stability, it often seems to work at crosscurrents with its own national interest if the result is damage to American national interests, said a former senior Trump White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security assessments.
Revenge is also a factor in Russia’s support for the Taliban, the official said. Russia has been keen to even the scales after a bloody confrontation in 2018 in Syria, when a massive U.S. counterattack killed hundreds of Syrian forces along with Russian mercenaries nominally supported by the Kremlin.
“They are keeping a score sheet, and they want to punish us for that incident,” the official said.
Both Russia and the Taliban have denied the American intelligence assessment.
Ms. Pelosi said that if the president had not, in fact, been briefed, then the country should be concerned that his administration was afraid to share with him information regarding Russia.Ms. Pelosi said that the episode underscored Mr. Trump’s accommodating stance toward Russia and that with him, “all roads lead to Putin.”“This is as bad as it gets, and yet the president will not confront the Russians on this score, denies being briefed,” she said. “Whether he is or not, his administration knows, and some of our allies who work with us in Afghanistan have been briefed and accept this report.”John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, said on “This Week” that he was not aware of the intelligence assessment, but he questioned Mr. Trump’s response on Twitter.
“What would motivate the president to do that, because it looks bad if Russians are paying to kill Americans and we’re not doing anything about it?” Mr. Bolton said. “The presidential reaction is to say: ‘It’s not my responsibility. Nobody told me about it.’ And therefore to duck any complaints that he hasn’t acted effectively.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/us/politics/russian-bounties-warnings-trump.html?searchResultPosition=2
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