Monday, July 20, 2020
Pakistan: Skeletons In The Cupboard Of History – OpEd
By Hidayat Ullah
The checkered history of Pakistan is marked by several erroneous decisions and culpabilities. Some of the substantial blunders that had changed the fate and nemesis of Pakistan needs to be march pasted. In order to be assiduous and put an end to all the blunders, we need to critically analyze those perpetrated in the past. After the inception of Pakistan the first ever blunder was the decision of civil- Military Elite’s to make a strategic alliance with USA. This was the primordial idiocy and absurdity. The leadership of that time decided not to be part of any bloc or remain non-aligned. They contemplated USA as our saviors, who would extricate us from chaos and in the wake of Military and Economic assistance the integrity of the country was sold.
We become reliable on foreign aid, imperialist powers and our colonial masters. From defense pacts to CENTO, and from SEATO , to Baghdad pact, this country if funded by US witnessed an Economic growth and development and if not our economy is in danger to be sunk in Arabian sea essentially as the fate of Two Nation theory was seized. As a consequence of this blunder, Military became a supreme force and they imposed coups and the implications of these Military coups were more catastrophic.
The dismantling of constituent Assembly in 1954 by the then Governor General Ghulam Muhammad was yet another Skelton in the cupboard of History. Moulvi tameez ud din who was the speaker of Sindh Assembly provoked this act of Ghulam Muhammad in Sindh High court. The court decided that a Governor General can not disband a constituent Assembly and ordered the restoration of constituent Assembly. In 1955, the federal court which we now call the supreme court issued a judgement by the name of “ Law of Necessity”, which concluded that the decision of Governor General to dismantle the constituent Assembly is equitable, unerring and valid. That Law of Necessity till this day has proved as a dangling sword for the democratic system of Pakistan, as it justified the coups of all Military dictators. Justice Munir concedes his fault in his book “ From Jinnah to Zia”.
As it is said that one thing leads to the other. The nefarious intentions of Military might and the unscrupulous politicians to grab the upper Echelon of power and to not transfer the powers to the majority party (Awami league of sheikh Mujib) marked a watershed event in the melancholic history of Pakistan. Our direct neighbor (India) kept a vigilant eye on the sitch and state of affairs. She swiftly moved to disintegrate the already disbanded and splintered parts of one homeland. India supported sheikh Mujib in every way possible. India adopted the policy of “ the enemy of my enemy is my friend” in the charged political atmosphere. What added fuel to the fire was the Military operation “search light” carried out by Pakistani Army in East Pakistan. The situation deteriorated and an embryonic state Bangladesh came into being.
The fragile, callous and incompetent policies of Musharraf regime to fathom out the 9/11 crisis was a colossal and gargantuan clanger that lead Afghanistan into an endless war, and we as the counter parts of USA remain a proxy in the so called “ War on Terror”.
Instead of resolving the problem of USA Musharraf regime preferred to stuck Bush administration in a Quagmire. Mula Omer the then Amir of Afghanistan had provided safe sanctuary to American declared terrorist Osama Bin Laden. America asked Pakistan’s assistance to held talks with Mula Omer in handling Osama Bin Laden to them. America was never against the regime of Mula Omer rather it was busy in negotiations to do trade via Afghanistan and bring the oil reserves from Central Asia. The American oil company UNOCAL negotiated for almost three years with afghan government on this issue.
The protégé’ Mula Omer whom Pakistan had given recognition from UAE and Saudi Arabia would have easily persuaded to hand over Osama Bin Laden but the then ISI chief stimulated a matter of rejection while negotiating with Mula Omer. The repercussions of the so called War on terror and strategic partnership are endured till this day. The country lost 80 thousand civilians, Para Military forces, a major set back to Economy and the infrastructure of country turned into ruins.
These and many other fiascos contributed to the Economic decline, a hindrance to the democratic culture, and impediment to the prosperity of country. Moreover these blunders proved to be calamitous and cataclysmic.
#Coronavirus: Is low testing behind Pakistan's falling daily new cases?
PM Imran Khan's government says the drop in the daily number of new coronavirus cases in July is due to its "smart lockdown" strategy. But observers say the trend could be a result of misreporting and inadequate testing.
On July 15, the World Health Organization in Pakistan held a technical working group virtual meeting and acknowledged that COVID-19 cases seemed to be slowly falling in the country. Pakistan had reported just 2,165 new cases in the past 24 hours.
The South Asian country has so far registered over 261,000 COVID-19 infections, with 5,505 deaths and 183,737 recoveries. The number of active cases currently stands at 70,787.
The WHO groups Pakistan among the 10 countries with the fastest-growing number of new COVID-19 cases. In a leaked letter in June, the global health body also criticized the government for hastily removing lockdown restrictions.
Pakistan's overall testing rate also remains low. Prime Minister Imran Khan's government argues that the drop in the increase of daily new cases is due to its policy of "smart lockdowns," but data shows a correlation between the drop in testing and declining new cases.
Asad Umar, a federal minister, dismissed talk of a correlation between the two in a tweet on July 15, instead crediting the government's actions for the positive development.
Decline in testing
According to Our World in Data, the latest estimate of Pakistan's daily tests per thousand people is 0.1 as of July 16, a rather sharp decline from 0.13 tests in June. Experts believe that current testing has dropped by at least a quarter.
As per the National Command Operation Center (NCOC), Pakistan has a total testing capacity of 71,780 tests per day, with 133 testing laboratories in total. Currently, it is utilizing only about 40% of the capacity, according to the Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination.
The NCOC data shows that the government conducted 24,262 tests on July 15 and reported 40 deaths. In contrast, a month ago, on June 13, the total tests done per day were 29,546 and the reported deaths were double the figure recorded on July 15.
Last month, the government said it would increase the rate of testing to 50,000 tests a day from July, a target which is yet to materialize. On June 19, Pakistan conducted 31,681 COVID-19 tests, the highest officially recorded number so far.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a government official in a semi-urban district in Punjab province noted that he had direct orders from his superior to omit numbers by almost half. This month he reported 34 new cases, instead of 63.
This is indicative of willful misreporting at the district level and raises concerns regarding the accuracy of the official figures. Misreporting, coupled with a decrease in testing, greatly skews the recorded prevalence of cases in the country, say experts.
Widespread social stigma
Given the rise in the total number of infections in the country, people are now more aware of COVID-19 symptoms and are not coming to hospitals unless they become severely ill, Hina Shah [name changed], a doctor at PAF Hospital in Islamabad, told DW.
"Whole affected families are not coming to hospitals, there is some stigma attached but also many people choose to quarantine themselves," she added, underlining that the decline in numbers is also due to people opting not to go to hospitals and get tested.
This view is shared by Maham [name changed], a doctor at Services Hospital in Lahore city. She explained that people are scared of going to hospitals or getting tested for fear of being ostracized in case of infection.
She also noted that at her hospital and others like Mayo Hospital, tests are free but can take almost a week for results to come, which renders the testing pointless. "There is also no real follow-up to check if family members are also infected like there was in June," she added.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), tracking new cases is imperative to avoid new outbreaks and surges of coronavirus cases, as well as to allow those recovered from the infection to return to work and help revitalize the economy.
Khan's government has opted for "smart lockdowns" as a way to curb the virus' spread while ensuring economic activity continues unperturbed. For this strategy to succeed, experts say, testing and tracing is key, but the recent decrease in testing rates could be counterproductive and hamper the efforts to overcome the immense health emergency.
#Baloch seek answers from #Pakistan as more disappear in conflict
Balochistan separatists say more than 5,000 people have gone missing in decades of conflict in southwestern Pakistan.
For more than 11 years, relatives of people who disappeared in the murk of a separatist movement in southwestern Pakistan have gathered outside the Press Club of Quetta wanting to know who took their fathers, husbands and sons.
The daily sit-in protest in the provincial capital of Balochistan began on June 28, 2009, after a doctor, Deen Muhammad, was abducted by "unknown men".
Relatives suspect Muhammad, like many other missing ethnic Baloch, was snatched by Pakistani security forces hunting separatists, who for decades have waged a campaign for greater autonomy or independence.
Sometimes less than a dozen join the daily protest, other days many more, but Muhammad's two daughters have been among the regulars since they were eight and 10 years old.
"Our little hands were holding pictures of our father back then; now we have grown up and we still have no clue if he is alive," Sammi Baloch, now 21, told Reuters news agency by telephone from Quetta.
When the weather is too extreme in Quetta to hold protest, a sit-in is observed by Baloch in front of the press club in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and a melting pot for different ethnic groups.
'Stop disappearing people'
The separatist movement in Balochistan, a sparsely populated, mountainous, desert region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, has both waned and intensified over the years.
Last month, the Balochistan National Party (BNP) quit Prime Minister Imran Khan's parliamentary bloc, frustrated by unfulfilled promises to address Baloch grievances including the festering issue of the disappeared.
When he led the BNP into an alliance with Khan's coalition two years ago, Akhtar Mengal gave the government a list of 5,128 missing people.
Since then, more than 450 of the people on the list have been found or returned to their families, but during the same period, Mengal says another 1,800 were reported to have disappeared.
"If you cannot recover people, at least stop disappearing more people," said Mengal.
Another Baloch party - set up in the months prior to the 2018 elections with backing from the military establishment, according to political analysts - is in a coalition with Prime Minister Khan's party at federal and provincial levels.
Balochistan Awami Party Senator Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar told Reuters the numbers of the missing are "exaggerated".
But Mama Qadeer, who heads a group called Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, keeps his own count.
"In the last six months, the number of Baloch missing persons has risen," he told Reuters by telephone. His son disappeared 10 years ago.
In February last year, Qadeer's group handed a list of 500 missing people to provincial officials. Since then, nearly 300 have been returned to their homes but 87 others disappeared in the first half of this year, according to the group.
#Pakistan #PPP - #PML-N delegation, Bilawal Bhutto discuss APC agenda
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday deliberated on agenda of the planned All Parties Conference (APC).
Three-member PML-N delegation comprising Ahsan Iqbal, Ayaz Sadiq and Khawaja Saad Rafique called on PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at Bilawal House where PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Chaudhry Manzoor and Syed Hassan Murtaza were also present.
Leaders from both parties discussed the APC agenda which included coronavirus, inflation and flour, sugar and medicine scandal along with economic and financial situation of the country.
Furthermore, debate was held over possible amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws and vindictive actions by the government.
PPP suggested to bring a no-confidence motion against National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser.
Final recommendations will be shared with heads of other parties, who have already expressed their support to Bilawal Bhutto, following today’s meeting between PML-N and PPP.
https://nation.com.pk/20-Jul-2020/pml-n-delegation-bilawal-bhutto-discuss-apc-agenda
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