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۔