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Balochistan Erupts in Protests Over a Murdered Mother and Her Injured 4-Year-Old

By Mariyam Suleman

Having witnessed years of war and violence, Balochs hardly need a reminder that no one is safe in the province – not even inside one’s home.

A viral video shows a 4-year old girl crying and repeating the same word again and again, “Amma” [mother]. She is fresh out of surgery and is still in her hospital bed, barely having any idea her “amma” can now never return.

This is little Bramsh, who was seen happily dancing in another of her viral videos. In the time between the two videos, she had seen her mother be taken from her forever. Bramsh and her mother are victims of sheer brutality.

In Makran, the southwestern division of Balochistan, political appraisals and systematic violence have been the norm for decades, but it was rare to witness assaults on women and children. This changed in the night of May 26 in Dannuk, Turbat. Three armed men jumped into a house where a family was sleeping under the open sky to stay cool – a normal practice in a place like Turbat, where temperature can go as high as 50 degrees Centigrade (122 degrees Farenheit).

The armed men asked for cash and whatever they could possibly benefit themselves with. When the woman, Malik Naz, resisted, she was shot on the spot, along with her 4-year-old daughter. The other family members managed to catch one of the robbers and handed him over to the local police. Two other suspects have also been detained but the alleged head of the gang is still “nowhere to be found” almost a week after the incident.

Like the meaning of her name, Bramsh has sparked a fire into people to resist and rebel against abusers of power and years of injustices and silence. She has reminded the people of Balochistan that they are in peril no matter where and who they are: women, men or even infants.

At first, this fire gave rise to an online campaign, #JusticeForBramsh. Scores of people from Balochistan, whether in Pakistan or abroad, participated and asked government authorities to intervene. After the government’s inaction and silence for the last week, people in different cities of Balochistan took to the streets demanding justice – the arrest of the alleged head of the gang and hanging all the culprits involved in the assault.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of protesters gathered at Turbat city’s “Shaheed Fida Chowk” on June 1. On June 2, citizens of Washok and Bulaida rallied to question the provincial government’s safety measures and demanded the arrest of all the culprits.

A similar protest overtook the port city of Gwadar on May 30, where protesters rallied to Gwadar Press Club in support of the justice campaign for little Bramsh. Civil society members in the provincial capital, Quetta, have also announced they will gather at Quetta Press Club on June 4; a similar protest has been announced for Karachi in front of Karachi Press Club and citizens in Panjgur city also announced a demonstration at Shaheed Javeed Chowk on June 3 to protest the assault.

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Protesters in all these cities warned that if all the culprits are not held accountable under the law, the protests will continue and spread to different cities of Balochistan.

For many the case of Bramsh is “very personal” as it is a “direct attack” on “Baloch honor.” In Baloch society, it is considered an attack on one’s “honor” when women are assaulted — that too in the premises of one’s own home.

However, many question this patriarchal, barbaric, and primitive idea of “honor” and reject any connection between this slogan and the case. They consider the recent attack the result of an absence of law enforcement, prolonged unauthorized support for such armed gangs in the region, and continuous silence by citizens against aggressive authorities that have been abusing their powers.

In the last few years, there has been a rise in crime rates in Makran region: robberies, murders, and an increase in abusive authorities. As a result citizens have lost trust in the law and law enforcement authorities but have still remained silent.

Bramsh’s tragedy, however, has now fired a shot for justice, law enforcement, and safety measures. An evolution is on display as demonstrators streaming into these protests take a stand against injustice and question the tension between residents of these cities and the higher authorities abusing their power to support armed gangs in the region.

People are no longer willing to accept a trade-off between justice for Bramsh and the law and order situation in the region. Both are interlinked parts of a whole, and now people are daring to demand it all.

https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/balochistan-erupts-in-protests-over-a-murdered-mother-and-her-injured-4-year-old/

#Pakistan - Covid-19: Murad says ‘mixed messages’ muddying the waters

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday again pointed to what he termed “mixed signals” as the reason behind the drastic surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has time and again accused the federal government in general and Prime Minister Imran Khan in particular of employing “confused strategy” and sending “mixed signals” in the fight against the pandemic that has so far affected over 83,000 nationals, leaving some 1,729 dead.

Addressing newsmen in Karachi, Murad said that he does not blame the public for violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) as “mixed messages” have created confusion regarding the seriousness of the crisis.

The chief minister demanded that a “unified message” be given to people so that they can obey SOPs set by governments.

He said that he has never criticised the federal government in any of his press conferences, even if he disagreed with the steps taken by Centre. The pressers he held were to clarify the “mixed messages” being conveyed to people.

Murad said that “nothing was more important than the lives of people”.

“The poor people everyone is supposedly concerned about — and we should be concerned, it’s a good thing — but if a daily wage worker […] dies from the virus, how will his children eat for the rest of their lives,” he questioned.

Murad observed that the relaxations in quarantine that were introduced in April had inflicted huge damage on the economy. He was of that decisions should be made while taking the entire country into consideration, including Sindh.

“Sindh is not an island. It is a part of Pakistan,” the chief minister added.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/06/04/covid-19-murad-says-mixed-messages-muddying-the-waters/

After #Pakistan's lockdown gamble, #COVID-19 cases surge

Four weeks ago, with its most important festival coming up and millions of people facing starvation as economic activity dwindled, Pakistan lifted a two-month-long coronavirus lockdown.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said despite rising infections and deaths, the country would need to learn to “live with” the virus to avert pushing tens of millions living on daily wages into destitution.

Now, a Reuters review of government data shows over 20,000 cases of the virus were identified in the three weeks before the lockdown was lifted, and more than double that figure were identified in the three weeks since.To be sure, testing rates have also increased. But of those tested, the daily average of positive results climbed from on average 11.5% in the three weeks before the lockdown was lifted, to 15.4% on average in the subsequent three weeks. The ratio is around 23% this week, according to the data.

Pakistan has officially identified over 80,000 cases of COVID-19, with 1,770 confirmed deaths.

“Those numbers are concerning, since they do suggest there may still be widespread transmission in certain parts of the country,” said Claire Standley, assistant research professor at the Department of International Health at Georgetown University.Experts say measures that could curb cases – like limits on religious gatherings and crowded shopping areas and emphasising social distancing – should be reinstated and some doctors are raising the alarm.

According to a letter seen by Reuters, a committee of experts backed by the local health department in Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, told the provincial government the lockdown needed to continue. The letter said random testing suggested more than 670,000 people in the provincial capital Lahore had likely contracted the virus, many of them asymptomatic.

The Punjab Health Minister Yasmeen Rashid said the letter had not been disregarded, but set aside in light of a Supreme Court decision that lockdowns should be lifted.

Most hospitals in Lahore are now full and are sending cases to Mayo Hospital, a public facility with more than 400 beds dedicated to COVID-19 cases, said Salman Kazmi, general secretary of the Young Doctor’s Association, who is treating coronavirus patients there.

Asad Aslam, the CEO of Mayo, however disputed claims that Lahore hospitals were saturated. “We can handle further burden of patients,” he said.

“HERD IMMUNITY”

Pakistan lifted its lockdown on May 9, about two weeks before the Eid al-Fitr festival that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and is celebrated with family gatherings and feasting. Transport and most businesses have re-opened but cinemas, theatres and schools remain closed.

There has been growing debate among experts globally on whether populous developing nations can afford comprehensive social distancing measures to contain the coronavirus while avoiding economic ruin.Some officials have suggested “herd immunity” could contain the virus, a situation where enough people in a population have developed immunity to an infection to be able to effectively stop that disease from spreading. However, the World Health Organization has warned countries that have “lax measures” in place against counting on herd immunity to halt the spread of COVID-19.“The Pakistan government is setting itself up for a huge gamble but it’s also a test case for herd immunity because South Asia has no other choice,” a senior European Union official who oversees South Asia told Reuters.

Yet even those advocating rolling back strict lockdowns in developing nations are alarmed at the teeming crowds in Pakistan’s streets, shopping malls and mosques, the ramping up of domestic flights, and the movement of millions of people for the Eid holiday.

“It’s not about this dichotomy between complete lockdown and fully open,” Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, a professor of economics at Yale University, told Reuters.

He said a smarter strategy would be to allow people out for core economic and public health activities, rather than a total relaxation of rules.

“There should still be complete bans on religious gatherings and social gatherings...those are things for which we need to see much better leadership,” he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-pakistan-lockdown/after-pakistans-lockdown-gamble-covid-19-cases-surge-idUSKBN23C0NW

#Coronavirus: Rumours, fear and rising Covid deaths in Pakistan

By Secunder Kermani

Doctors in Pakistan are warning that the country's already weak healthcare system could soon be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.

So far, with fewer than 2,000 deaths, the outbreak hasn't been as deadly as some initially feared. But with the rates of new cases and new fatalities at their highest levels yet, and lockdown restrictions lifted, doctors say intensive care units are now being stretched almost to capacity in many major hospitals.

In Karachi, a city of 15 million people, data shows only a handful of ICU beds still available for Covid-19 patients. Whilst in Lahore, a doctor recounted to the BBC being forced to turn away a patient who needed a ventilator, after he had already been rejected by two other hospitals. Medics in Peshawar and Quetta described being under similar levels of pressure.

Officials acknowledge some hospitals are full but insist there are still large numbers of beds available elsewhere, and are making public information about where are they are, whilst new facilities are in the process of being built in Karachi. But doctors fear the number of critical cases will continue to rise, and say their efforts to treat patients are being hampered by conspiracy theories and mistrust.

"Many ill people try and stay at home… Only when their condition has gotten a lot worse do they come to the hospital," a leading doctor in Quetta told the BBC.As a result, he said, large numbers of his patients died shortly after arrival or in the ambulance. "They don't even give us the chance to try and treat them," he lamented.

As well as concerns about the quality of medical care, and a reluctance for family members to be quarantined, bizarre rumours are swirling around, including claims that doctors are being paid by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to falsely declare patients as coronavirus sufferers.

One doctor from Karachi, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC she was recently contacted by a friend asking for medical advice, saying: "'My son is having flu and fever but I do not want to take him to the hospital because doctors are just declaring every fever is Covid, and they're taking 500 rupees ($3; £2.40) per case'." The theories might sound risible, but they have dangerous consequences - and not just for the patients. Hospitals in Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore have all seen incidents of patients' families attacking staff.

At the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi, an isolation ward was trashed by a mob when the body of a patient wasn't handed over immediately to the family. In Pakistan, funerals are normally carried out as soon as possible, as per Islamic tradition, with large numbers of mourners attending - neither of which are possible if someone dies, or is suspected of dying, with coronavirus. Dr Yahya Tunio a leading doctor at the hospital, told the BBC medical staff are "fighting both coronavirus and ignorance".

Dr Jamal Awan, who works at Mayo Hospital Lahore, told the BBC security had to be increased on the wards after a number of recent violent flare-ups. He described the incidents as being rooted in a mix of anger at a lack of resources, and a fear that doctors are secretly killing patients through "poisonous injections".

At the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi, an isolation ward was trashed by a mob when the body of a patient wasn't handed over immediately to the family. In Pakistan, funerals are normally carried out as soon as possible, as per Islamic tradition, with large numbers of mourners attending - neither of which are possible if someone dies, or is suspected of dying, with coronavirus. Dr Yahya Tunio a leading doctor at the hospital, told the BBC medical staff are "fighting both coronavirus and ignorance". Dr Jamal Awan, who works at Mayo Hospital Lahore, told the BBC security had to be increased on the wards after a number of recent violent flare-ups. He described the incidents as being rooted in a mix of anger at a lack of resources, and a fear that doctors are secretly killing patients through "poisonous injections".

In fact, hundreds of doctors have been infected with coronavirus in Pakistan. At least 30 healthcare workers are reported to have died from it.

At one major hospital in Peshawar, the entire gynaecological department was temporarily closed down after an outbreak amongst staff. A doctor from the hospital told the BBC about 100 of his colleagues had tested positive in total, the vast majority of whom were not even directly working with coronavirus patients.

He added that whilst levels of protective equipment had improved, he was sharing a face shield with colleagues, taking turns to use it on their respective shifts. Like many other doctors, he raised particular concerns about the lack of kit handed out to staff who aren't, in theory, on the frontline against the virus, but remain exposed by caring for patients who may have been infected but have never been tested.

Many doctors fear the worst is yet to come, and have expressed frustration with the decision to lift the bulk of lockdown restrictions last month.

Dr Rizwan Saigol, who works at the Mayo Hospital in Lahore, told the BBC that even prior to the pandemic he had seen families "begging for ventilators". Now, he said, the situation feels "really scary". If the number of cases continues to rise, he added, "our hospitals will get exhausted… We do not have enough ICUs or ventilators".

Prime Minister Imran Khan, however, has insisted the cost of a lockdown is simply too severe for those in the country already living a hand-to-mouth existence."Twenty-five per cent of our population lives below the poverty line - that means there are 50 million people who can't afford to eat two meals a day… If we implement a lockdown like they had in Wuhan or Europe, what will happen to them?" he asked during a televised address earlier this week.Mr Khan has appealed to people to follow social distancing rules, and face masks have been made compulsory in public. But he has clashed at times with local authorities like those in opposition-controlled Sindh province who were the first to impose strict restrictions on movement back in March.

Many healthcare workers, like Dr Yahya Tunio, from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi, say they have seen a "surge in cases since lockdown restrictions were eased" a few weeks ago.

Dr Tunio told the BBC that ICU beds in the hospital, one of the largest in the city, were "full", and that new patients were regularly having to be diverted elsewhere for critical care, even though most other hospitals are also in a similar state. "It is stressful and tense," he added.

Another medic in Karachi, worried about infecting her relatives at home, and exhausted from long hours of work in a hazmat suit in high temperatures, described her feelings on seeing the continued large number of people on the streets. "It's heart wrenching… why are we going through all that for these people who just don't care about themselves, who blame us for taking bribes?"

"Still," she said, "we are doing it for them."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52925286

#Pakistan - Sherry Rehman questions lifting the lock down and the role of Tiger Force

 In her response to PM Khan’s address, PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman said, “According to the PM, Pakistan can not afford another lockdown but when did the Federal government enforce one in the first place? Had there been a proper lockdown, the outbreak would not have escalated out of control. Saying that the lockdown has hurt the poor and our economy, and then also firing 9000 plus steel mill workers is ironic”.

“The PTI government does not understand what the whole point of lockdown is. This was the best time to ramp up our healthcare facilities, increase testing and trace cases but this precious time was also spent criticizing Sindh government who is actually trying its best to control the pandemic,” she added.

Rehman questioned, “How can the PM say that Coronavirus was not spread from Mosques? We may be the only Muslim country which opened the mosques for Taraweeh prayers but anybody who went for Taraweeh anywhere in Pakistan can testify how no SOP was followed anywhere”.

Saying that we have we do have to ‘live with the virus’ does not have to mean killing 1000s daily. Instead of taking the lockdown seriously, restrictions on the tourism sector are being lifted. We have left China behind and our per capita death rate from COVID-19 is now on a different level altogether to the rest of South Asia. This is the time to lead by example but the PM himself is not wearing masks in meetings and nor are the government officials observing the SOPs. Hospitals are being attacked because the Federal government makes people think Corona is not a big deal. All this will only end up in a disaster and the only one who will be responsible for this, will be the Federal government and its mixed messaging,” she said.

Questioning the role of Tiger Force, the Senator said that, “Now the PM says that Corona Tiger Force volunteers will also help fight locusts. Have they helped control the virus that now they will fight against the locust invasion? Are they going to exercise state authority to enforce SOPs? Are they going to become vigilante gangs?

PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman concluded by saying that, “The Federal government cannot place the responsibility on people when it is continuously giving them mixed messages”.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/2020/06/05/sherry-rehman-questions-lifting-the-lockdown-and-the-role-of-tiger-force/