#DailyShow #TrevorNoah Trump’s Voter Fraud Claims May Hurt Republicans’ Odds in Georgia | The Daily Social Distancing Show

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Trump thought courts would help him snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

 President Donald Trump and his allies say their lawsuits aimed at subverting the 2020 election and reversing his loss to Joe Biden would be substantiated, if only judges were allowed to hear the cases.

There is a central flaw in the argument. Judges have heard the cases and have been among the harshest critics of the legal arguments put forth by Trump’s legal team, often dismissing them with scathing language of repudiation.

This has been true whether the judge has been appointed by a Democrat or a Republican, including those named by Trump himself.

The judicial rulings that have rejected Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud have underscored not only the futility of the lame-duck president’s brazen attempt to sabotage the people’s will but also the role of the courts in checking his unprecedented efforts to stay in power.

The rebukes have not stopped the litigation. On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, alleging that they violated the Constitution based on a litany of already-dismissed complaints. Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate their 62 Electoral College votes for Biden — a move that would swing the election to Trump and would be unprecedented in American history.

The high court on Tuesday separately rejected another plea to intervene in the election, from Pennsylvania Republicans who wanted the court to undo the certification of Biden’s victory in the state.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker threw out a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s election results that had been filed two days after the state certified the results for Biden. Parker, appointed by President Barack Obama, said the case embodied the phrase “This ship has sailed.”

“This lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief plaintiffs seek … and more about the impact of their allegations on people’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government.”

The lawsuit filed on behalf of a group of voters claimed Biden benefited from fraud, alleging, as in much of the other litigation, a massive Democrat-run conspiracy to shift the results. It sought to reverse the certification and impound all voting machines for inspection — “relief that is stunning in its scope and breathtaking in its reach,” the judge said.

“Plaintiffs ask this court to ignore the orderly statutory scheme established to challenge elections and to ignore the will of millions of voters. This, the court cannot, and will not, do,” she said. “The people have spoken.”

Her ruling stands alongside others in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada that have a common thread: They all rejected Trump’s claims.

Even in the face of these losses in court, Trump has contended that, in fact, he won the election. And he’s moved out of the courts to directly appeal to lawmakers as his losses mount. He brought Michigan lawmakers to the White House in a failed bid to set aside the vote tally, and phoned Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, asking him to order a special legislative session to overturn the states results. Kemp refused. Trump also called Pennsylvania Republican House Speaker Bryan Cutler, who said state law did not give the legislature the power to overturn the will of voters.

And Trump tweeted in all caps, “I WON THE ELECTION, BIG.”

While that is not the case, what is true is that Trump is rapidly running out of legal runway. Out of roughly 50 lawsuits filed, more than 35 have been dropped or dismissed. The U.S. Supreme Court was expected to weigh in later this week in a case from Pennsylvania. A great deal of the lawsuits highlight a lack of understanding of how elections actually work.

In Georgia, U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten, appointed by President George W. Bush, dismissed a lawsuit filed by attorney Sidney Powell, who was dropped from the Trump legal team a few weeks ago but has still continued to spread faulty election claims.

The lawsuit claimed widespread fraud meant to illegally manipulate the vote count in favor of Biden. The suit said the scheme was carried out in different ways, including ballot stuffing, votes flipped by the election system from Trump to Biden and problems with absentee ballots. The judge summarily rejected those claims.

Batten said the lawsuit sought “perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election.”

He said the lawsuit sought to ignore the will of voters in Georgia, which certified the state for Biden again Monday after three vote counts.

“They want this court to substitute its judgment for that of two-and-a-half million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden and this I am unwilling to do,” Batten said.

Trump has appointed more than 150 federal court judges who have been confirmed by the Senate and pushed through three Supreme Court justices.

Much like Trump, his lawyers try to blame the political leanings of the judge after their legal arguments are flayed.

When a federal appeals panel in Philadelphia rejected Trump’s election challenge just five days after it reached the court, Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis called their work a product of “the activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania.”

But Trump appointed the judge who wrote the Nov. 27 opinion.

“Voters, not lawyers, choose the president. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote as the 3rd U.S. Circuit panel refused to stop the state from certifying its results for Democrat Joe Biden, a demand he called “breathtaking.”

All three of the panel members were appointed by Republican presidents.

And they were upholding the decision of a fourth Republican, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, a conservative jurist and Federalist Society member. Brann had called the campaign’s legal case, which was argued in court by Rudy Giuliani, a “haphazard” jumble that resembled “Frankenstein’s monster.”

In state courts, too, the lawsuits have failed. In Arizona on Friday, Judge Randall Warner, an independent appointed in 2007 by Democratic former Gov. Janet Napolitano, threw out a bid to undo Biden’s victory.

Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward challenged of ballots in metro Phoenix that were duplicated because voters’ earlier ballots were damaged or could not be run through tabulators.

Warner wrote: “There is no evidence that the inaccuracies were intentional or part of a fraudulent scheme. They were mistakes. And given both the small number of duplicate ballots and the low error rate, the evidence does not show any impact on the outcome.”

In Nevada on Friday, Judge James Todd Russell in Carson City ruled that attorneys for Republican electors failed to provide clear or convincing evidence of fraud or illegality.

Nevada judges are nonpartisan. But Russell’s father was a Republican governor of the state from 1951-59.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-thought-courts-would-help-him-snatch-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat/ar-BB1bKJWZ?ocid=msedgdhp

Opinion: Republicans Can’t Handle the Truth

By Paul Krugman 

  You shouldn’t be surprised that they’re still backing Trump. 

President Trump’s continuing attempts to overturn an election he lost decisively more than a month ago is, like so much of what he’s done in office, shocking but not surprising. Who imagined that he would go quietly?

What some people may not have been fully prepared for is the way Trump’s party as a whole has backed his dangerous delusions. According to a survey by The Washington Post, only 27 Republican members of Congress are willing to say that Joe Biden won. Despite the complete lack of evidence of significant fraud, two-thirds of self-identified Republicans said in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that the election was rigged. But you really shouldn’t be surprised by this willingness to indulge malicious, democracy-endangering lies. 

After all, when was the last time Republicans accepted a politically inconvenient fact? It has been clear for years that the modern G.O.P. is a party that can’t handle the truth. Most obviously, Republican refusal to accept the election results follows months of refusal to acknowledge the dangers of the coronavirus, even as Covid-19 has become the nation’s leading cause of death, and even as a startling number of people in Trump’s orbit have been infected.

Sure enough, virus denial and vote denial converged almost perfectly on Saturday, when Trump addressed a large, mostly unmasked crowd in Georgia — creating a potential superspreader event — and demanded that the governor overturn the state’s election results. The next day Rudy Giuliani, who has been directing Trump’s efforts to cling to office, was hospitalized with the virus.

The thing is, Republican rejection of reality didn’t start in 2020, or even with the Trump era. Climate change denial — including claims that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by an international cabal of scientists — has been a badge of partisan identity for many years. Crazy conspiracy theories about the Clintons were mainstream on the right through much of the 1990s.

And one half-forgotten episode in particular seems to me to have foreshadowed much of what we’re seeing right now: Republican reactions to the mostly successful introduction of Obamacare.

The Affordable Care Act went into full effect in 2014, amid dire predictions by Republicans. The act, they claimed, would drive insurance premiums sky-high, fail to reduce the number of uninsured, and have a devastating effect on employment.

None of that happened. Instead, millions of Americans gained health insurance coverage. Job creation continued, with three million jobs added in the year following the A.C.A.’s implementation. Obamacare may have fallen somewhat short of its sponsors’ hopes (although nobody expected it to yield universal coverage), but from the beginning it helped many Americans, and was nothing like the disaster opponents predicted.

As far as I can tell, however, no prominent Republican was willing to admit that the party’s apocalyptic warnings had been proved false, let alone talk about why they were wrong. Nor, of course, did Republicans make any effort to come up with a better health plan. (It has been almost 11 years since Obamacare was signed into law, and we’re still waiting.) Instead, party leaders simply pretended that the promised catastrophe had, in fact, materialized. For example, John Boehner, the speaker of the House at the time, insisted that there had been a “net loss” of people with health insurance. After that three million-job gain, Jeb Bush (remember him?) insisted that Obamacare was “the greatest job suppressor in the so-called recovery.”

And in a move that prefigured the Trump team’s desperate attempts to find evidence for election fraud, right-wing groups went in search of health care horror stories, tales of ordinary Americans devastated by Obamacare.

To be fair, while there is no evidence of significant electoral fraud, some people really were hurt by health reform — mainly young, healthy individuals who previously had cheap policies and made too much money to be eligible for subsidies. But these weren’t the victims Republicans were looking for. Instead, they peddled tales of older, working-class Americans who supposedly had lost access to affordable insurance. None of these tales stood up to scrutiny. But that didn’t matter to the G.O.P. As I wrote at the time, Republicans had already — pre-Trump — entered the era of post-truth politics. Now, there’s obviously a big difference in immediate impact between refusing to accept evidence that contradicts your policy preconceptions and refusing to accept the results of an election. But the mind-set is the same.

The point is that once a party gets into the habit of rejecting facts it doesn’t want to hear, one fact it’s bound to reject sooner or later is the fact that it lost an election. In that sense there’s a straight line from, say, the Republican embrace of climate denial to the party’s willingness to go along with Trump’s attempts to retain power.

And the G.O.P.’s previous history of dealing with inconvenient reality gives us a pretty good idea about when the party will accept Joe Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 election — namely, never.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/opinion/republicans-election-lost.html

#USElection2020 - Supreme Court refuses request from Pennsylvania G.O.P. to overturn state’s election results.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn the state’s election results. The justices said they would not block a ruling from Pennsylvania’s highest court that had rejected a challenge to the use of mail ballots in the state. The Supreme Court’s order was all of one sentence, and there were no noted dissents.

The request that the Supreme Court intercede had faced substantial legal hurdles, as it was filed long after the enactment of the challenged statute that allowed mailed ballots and was based on questions of state rather than federal law.

In late November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiffs, led by Representative Mike Kelly, a Republican, on the first ground, saying they could have challenged a 2019 law allowing vote by mail for any reason more than a year ago.

“At the time this action was filed on Nov. 21, 2020, millions of Pennsylvania voters had already expressed their will in both the June 2020 primary election and the November 2020 general election,” the court said. “Petitioners failed to act with due diligence in presenting the instant claim. Equally clear is the substantial prejudice arising from petitioners’ failure to institute promptly a facial challenge to the mail-in voting statutory scheme, as such inaction would result in the disenfranchisement of millions of Pennsylvania voters.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/08/us/joe-biden-donald-trump

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سازش اور شک - مریم نواز , بلاول بھٹو کی جان کی حفاظت ریاست کا فریضہ ہے - سہیل وڑائچ

ہر طرف سازش اور شک کا دور دورہ ہے، جب ریاست میں قانون کی عملداری اور انصاف کی بالا دستی نہ ہو تو سازش اور شک کا کلچر پروان چڑھتا ہے، ہر ایک کو دوسرے پر شک ہے کہ وہ اُس کے خلاف سازش کر رہا ہے۔

وزیراعظم کو علانیہ شک ہے کہ اپوزیشن اُن کے خلاف سازش کر رہی ہے، اپوزیشن کو شک ہے کہ حکومت، اپوزیشن کے خلاف سازش کر رہی ہے اور اُس کی طاقت کو مٹانے کے درپر ہے۔ اسٹیبلشمنٹ کو حکومت اور اپوزیشن دونوں پر شک ہے، اپوزیشن پر اُسے شک ہے کہ یہ حکومت اور اسٹیبلشمنٹ کو لڑا کر اُنہیں الگ الگ کرنا چاہتی ہے تاکہ دونوں کمزور ہو جائیں۔

اسٹیبلشمنٹ کو حکومت سے گلہ ہے کہ وہ اپوزیشن اور اسٹیبلشمنٹ کو آمنے سامنے لاکر خود کو محفوظ بنانا چاہتی ہے۔سازش اور شک کے اِس ماحول میں جہاں پارٹیاں اور ادارے ابنارمل ہو جاتے ہیں وہاں سازش اور شک افراد کو بھی غیرمحفوظ بنا دیتا ہے۔

مریم نواز شریف کو اُن کے کسی بہی خواہ نے اطلاع دی ہے کہ انتہائی اعلیٰ سطح پر اُن کو جان سے مار دینے کی سازش سوچی جا رہی ہے، اُنہیں شک ہے کہ اُنہیں فضائی حادثے میں پار لگانے یا پھر سازش سے ہٹا دینے کے بارے میں باتیں کی جا رہی ہیں۔

مریم نواز اِس طرح کی اطلاعات کو صرف دھمکی نہیں بلکہ حقیقت پر مبنی سمجھنے میں حق بجانب ہیں، جب ماحول ہی شک اور سازش کا ہو تو ایسے میں مریم نواز شک کو حقیقت کیوں نہ سمجھیں؟

جب شفافیت نہیں ہوتی، جبر اور ظلم کی دھند چھائی ہوتی ہے تو پھر سوشل میڈیا پر خادم حسین رضوی، جج ارشد ملک اور جسٹس وقار سیٹھ کی موت بھی مشکوک بن جاتی ہے، یہی نہیں قیامِ پاکستان سے لیکر آج تک کے واقعات سازش اور شک کی داغدار چادر سے ڈھکے ہوئے ہیں۔

بیمار قائداعظم محمد علی جناح کو سازش کے تحت خراب ایمبولینس بھیجی گئی اور ملک کا بانی کئی گھنٹے سڑک پر دوسری ایمبولینس کا انتظار کرتا رہا۔ شک کا پھن پھیلائے سانپ ہمارے دو وزرائے اعظموں لیاقت علی خاں اور بےنظیر بھٹو کو راولپنڈی کے لیاقت باغ کے اندر اور باہر قتل کو بھی سازش قرار دے تو اسے حقیقت مانے بغیر چارہ نہیں۔

اِسی طرح ایک وزیراعظم ذوالفقار علی بھٹو کو راولپنڈی جیل میں پھانسی اور دوسرے کئی وزیراعظموں کی اسمبلیوں کو صدور اور عدالتوں کے ذریعے جبراً قتل پر اگر ایک سازش اور شک کا الزام لگے تو کون اِس سے انکار کرے گا؟ اِسی طرح یوسف رضا گیلانی اور نواز شریف کے خلاف عدالتی فیصلوں کے ذریعے اُنہیں وزارتِ عظمیٰ سے نکالنے کو سازش اور شک کے زمرے میں شامل کئے جانے کے علاوہ چارہ کار کیا ہے؟

شک اور سازش کی عمومی صورتحال کے باوجود ریاست سے یہ سوال اُٹھانا پڑتا ہے کہ ریاست کا پہلا فرض تو فرد کے جان و مال کی حفاظت ہے، ایسے میں مریم نواز کو اگر حکومت اور ریاست سے ہی اپنی جان کا خطرہ ہو تو کون ہے جو اُسے دلاسہ دے اور کون ہے جو اُسے اِس پریشان کن صورتحال سے امان دے؟ نہ یہاں قانون نافذ کرنے والے ادارے غیرجانب دار نظر آ رہے ہیں اور نہ ہی عدل و انصاف فراہم کرنے والے ایوانوں پر مسلم لیگ ن کا اعتماد ہے۔

جب اداروں پر اتفاقِ رائے نہ ہو، نہ ہی کوئی ضمانتی یا متفق علیہ ہو، ہر کسی کو دوسرے پر شک اور سازش کا گمان ہو تو پھر گھڑمس، تصادم اور کشمکش سے کیسے بچ سکیں گے؟ میری رائے میں کسی ریاست کے جمہوری اور انصاف پسند ہونے کا معیار یہ ہے کہ وہاں اقلیتوں اور مخالفوں کے ساتھ کیسا سلوک روا رکھا جا رہا ہے۔

مریم نواز کے والد لندن میں، چچا اور چچا زاد بھائی یعنی شہباز شریف اور حمزہ شہباز شریف جیل میں ہیں، وہ اپوزیشن کی اہم رہنما ہیں، اکیلی جنگ لڑ رہی ہیں، اگر ایسے میں اُنہیں جان سے مارنے کی دھمکیاں دی جا رہی ہیں یا واقعی اُنہیں جان سے مارنے کی سازش ہو رہی ہے تو یہ ایک بہت بڑا المیہ ہے۔

میرے خیال میں تو ریاست کے اعلیٰ ترین عہدیداروں اور وزیراعظم کو خود یہ اعلان کرنا چاہئے کہ مریم نواز کی جان کی حفاظت ریاست کی ذمہ داری ہے اور جو کوئی، جس بھی سطح پر اس بارے میں سوچ رہا ہے، اُس کا احتساب کرنا چاہئے۔

حکومت اور ریاست یہ موقف اختیار کر سکتے ہیں کہ مریم نواز کو محض وہم ہے، اُن کا شک ناجائز ہے، حکومتی یا ریاستی سطح پر اُنہیں مارنے کی کوئی سازش نہیں ہو رہی مگر کیا اتنا کافی ہے؟ مجھے ذاتی طور پر یقین ہے کہ ریاستی اور حکومتی عہدیداروں میں اِس وقت کوئی بھی ایسا نہیں جو مریم نواز کی جان لینے کا ارادہ کرے لیکن ریاست اور حکومت کے دشمن غلط فہمیاں پیدا کرنے کے لئے ایسے وسوسے اور شک تو ڈال سکتے ہیں۔

ہو سکتا ہے کہ حکومت، اپوزیشن پر سازش کا جو الزام لگا رہی ہے، وہ بھی صرف شک ہو اور اپوزیشن، حکومت سے جن سازشوں کا سامنا کر رہی ہے وہ بھی محض شک ہوں مگر فرض کریں کہ ریاست کے کسی ادارے یا ملک کے کسی فرد کے ساتھ کوئی حادثہ ہو گیا، کسی سازشی نے، کسی ملک دشمن نے، کسی غدار نے، کسی لڑائی کروانے والے نے بےنظیر بھٹو جیسا کوئی نیا حادثہ کر دیا تو پھر ذمہ داری کون لے گا؟

عظیم قومیں اپنے کارناموں اور غلطیوں دونوں سے سیکھتی ہیں، ہمیں اپنے ماضی کی غلطیوں سے اپنے مستقبل کو بہتر بنانا ہے تو غلطیوں کا اعتراف کیا جانا چاہئے۔

بےنظیر بھٹو کا قتل ہماری اجتماعی غلطی ہے، ریاست نے محترمہ کی حفاظت کا فریضہ حرزِ جان سمجھ کر پورا نہیں کیا، حکومتِ وقت نے اطلاعات ہونے کے باوجود سربراہِ مملکت جیسا سیکورٹی باکس بنانے پر توجہ نہیں دی، عوام نے محترمہ کی سیکورٹی کو یقینی نہ بنانے پر حکومت اور ریاست کا احتساب نہیں کیا، اور تو اور پارٹی کے رہنمائوں نے بھی محترمہ کو گاڑی سے نکلنے کی اجازت دیدی حالانکہ اُنہیں محترمہ کو روکنا چاہئے تھا۔

اجتماعی غلطیوں کا کفارہ تبھی ادا ہو سکتا ہے کہ دوبارہ سے وہ غلطیاں نہ دہرائی جائیں، ہم نے جو سلوک مشرقی پاکستان کے ساتھ کیا وہی سلوک چھوٹے صوبوں سے کرینگے تو نتیجہ بھی وہ ہی نکلے گا جو بنگلہ دیش کے قیام کی صورت میں نکلا۔ اِس اجتماعی غلطی سے یہ سبق سیکھنا چاہئے کہ صوبوں کے ساتھ مساوی اور منصفانہ سلوک کیا جائے تاکہ دوبارہ ایسی غلطی کا اعادہ نہ ہو سکے۔بےنظیر بھٹو کے قتل کی اجتماعی غلطی کا کفارہ تبھی ادا ہو سکتا ہے کہ آئندہ ملک کے لیڈر چاہے وہ حکومتی ہوں یا اپوزیشن کے ہوں، اُن کے جان و مال کی حفاظت کا فریضہ ریاست پوری ذمہ داری سے ادا کرے، اگر وزیراعظم اور وزراء قوم کے شعور کا اجتماعی اثاثہ ہیں تو اپوزیشن کے لیڈرز کو بھی عوام کی حمایت حاصل ہے۔ وہ بھی اجتماعی اثاثے کا اہم ترین جزو ہیں، اس لئے ریاست، سیاست سے بالاتر ہو کر اپوزیشن لیڈرز کی پوری طرح حفاظت کرے۔

بھارت میں اپوزیشن لیڈرز کو ریاست سیکورٹی فراہم کرتی ہے، امریکہ میں بھی حکومتی اور اپوزیشن دونوں لیڈرز کو سرکاری سیکورٹی ملتی ہے، حکومت کے ساتھ ساتھ اپوزیشن لیڈرز کی جان کی حفاظت بھی ریاست کا فریضہ ہے، اِس فریضہ میں ریاست کی کوتاہی برداشت نہیں کی جانی چاہئے۔

کیا قیامِ پاکستان کے سات دہائیوں بعد اب وہ وقت نہیں آگیا کہ اپوزیشن کی لیڈر مریم نواز کی جان کی حفاظت بھی اتنی ہی اہم ہو جتنی وزیراعظم عمران خان کی، یا پھر بلاول بھٹو کی جان کی بھی حفاظت ویسے ہی کی جائے جیسے صدر پاکستان عارف علوی یا بڑے بڑے ریاستی عہدیداروں کی کی جاتی ہے؟

https://jang.com.pk/news/855188 

Video Report - #PDM #NayaDaur Lahore Jalsa, And Decisions Made At PDM Meeting

Pakistan’s Bhutto-Zardari siblings can show India’s dynasts how to fight the good fight

JYOTI MALHOTRA 

 

Like Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, the Bhutto-Zardari siblings have been ghettoised by their parents’ politics. But unlike the Gandhis, they are also a symbol of hope for their people.

Rahul Gandhi needn’t take the trouble to read up his Machiavelli, even if it were to do him a world of good, or Priyanka Gandhi take inspiration from elsewhere – there’s a living, breathing example of a brother-sister duo in politics, next door in Pakistan, both of whom are determined to fight the good fight, come what may.

The Bhatta-Parsaul outing was such a long time ago. And as hundreds of farmers protest at Delhi’s borders, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has continued his holiday in Goa, with his mother Sonia. But back in Pakistan, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari knew that since her brother and chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto, had been temporarily felled by Covid-19, she couldn’t let the side down at the big rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in Multan on 30 November.

The fledgling PDM — a conglomeration of opposition parties that ranged from the Centre-Right Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to the Right-wing Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam led by Fazlur Rehman to M.J. Dawar’s Pashtun Tahafuz Movement to the Centre-Left Pakistan Peoples Party – was returning to Pakistan’s Punjab after holding jalsas or rallies across the country over the past several weeks.

This was an important show of strength. Permission had been withdrawn by the Imran Khan government. Bilawal, 32, had taunted the prime minister, saying there weren’t enough jails to hold the workers of the PPP. Democracy and ‘izzat’, that unbeatable combination of a not-so-recently awakened people, reared its head. Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari’s youngest child stepped in.

Next-door dynasts don’t have it easy either

She sounded so much like her mother. Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari’s speech was accented, from long years of living abroad; like Bilawal’s, it was full of elongated vowels, as if she were participating in a mass keening, instead of addressing a few hundred thousand people.

But Aseefa seemed to understand that it wasn’t her that stood in front of the crowd, but a fragile and nascent symbol of hope in a country that fast seemed to be losing its moorings.

“Inko lagta hai, saathiyon, ki hum giraftariyon se dar jayenge, toh yeh inki bhool hai,” young Aseefa said. (If the government believes that we will be frightened because they are arresting us, then they are mistaken.)

Aseefa was only 14 when her mother Benazir was assassinated in 2007 – today, she’s 27. Bilawal was 19, today he’s 32. They both stand accused of perpetuating the dynastic principle so beloved across South Asia – Rahul and Priyanka are card-carrying members of that club, as is Maryam Nawaz Sharif, likely born with a diamond spoon in her mouth, considering the wealth the Nawaz Sharif family both own and flaunt.

There’s one big difference between the Indian and Pakistani dynasts, though: Maryam Nawaz is playing the toughest role of her life and political career; losing would mean self-exile and if she insists on remaining in Pakistan, then the nearby Kot Lakhpat jail, just like it is for her uncle Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza.

Meanwhile, Bilawal and Aseefa know that if they don’t work hard for their people’s affections, they may as well go back home to Larkana and play at noblesse oblige for the rest of their lives.

Both realise they must shelve their political rivalry – the PPP and PML(N) are Pakistan’s biggest parties and have taken turns at sitting on the throne of Pakistan, that is, when it hasn’t been ruled by an army general – if they have to take that long shot at ushering and keeping democracy at home.

Strange time to be a young politician in Pakistan

This column is not about Rahul and Priyanka – whose refusal to learn the lessons of political defeat is exacerbating the angularities of the Modi mandate – but about young politicians in a country that finally understands the maxim they should have imbibed with their mother’s milk. United we stand, divided we fall.

Like Rahul and Priyanka, the Bhutto-Zardari siblings — Bilawal and Aseefa and Bakhtawar, who got engaged last week – have been ghettoised by their parents’ politics, in life and death. Theirs are extraordinary lives, stalked by shadows lurking over their shoulders and uncertainty around every corner. If you hide, there’s no knowing the bullet won’t get you; the only option is to relentlessly move forward, believing tomorrow may be a better day than yesterday.

This is a strange time in Pakistan. The economy is crashing, the prime minister is increasingly dependent on his military masters, and the media remains wary of confrontation. Elections are three years away. But there is also a new game in town intent on fighting the military establishment and its protégé-PM, and it’s called the PDM.

The gauntlet was first thrown in Gujranwala in October. Since, jalsas in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Multan have followed. Maryam Nawaz is now preparing for the big one in the party’s bastion in Lahore on 13 December, despite Imran Khan’s refusal to give permission for the rally. Asif Ali Zardari has already called Nawaz Sharif in London and confirmed that Bilawal, now Covid-free, will attend.

The last of the spectacles will be held on 27 December in Larkana, the hometown of the Bhuttos, on the day Benazir was assassinated 13 years ago.

Time to don the thinking hat, India 

Is Pakistan on the cusp of another turn in its history? Surely, its people will decide whether they are stronger than the military establishment or will ultimately be co-opted by it. The answer is sure to have a huge impact on the rest of the region.

Still, one thing is clear. With the region in such tumult, from the rampaging effect of Covid-19, expanding Chinese influence as well as a new power in the United States, nations are taking the first steps to both heal the wounds of history and hedge for the future. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s meeting with Pakistan high commissioner in Dhaka last week is notable in this regard – even when she told him off about Pakistan’s refusal to apologise for its 1971 misdeeds, she did not refuse to meet him.

Perhaps, New Delhi should ask why Dhaka is talking to its enemy; after all, there can be nothing worse than speaking to those who once tormented you. Perhaps Hasina realises that she must play with the cards she has, which includes India’s determination to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) – not just wait to get those she wants.

The question is, why is PM Modi, who understands the churning of history, reducing his own options by refusing to dialogue within and abroad? In the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the 1971 war, the break-up of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh, which India has begun to celebrate, this could be something to think about.

https://theprint.in/opinion/global-print/pakistans-bhutto-zardari-siblings-can-show-indias-dynasts-how-to-fight-the-good-fight/562678/

US names #Pakistan, China, Myanmar as countries of concern for violating religious freedom

7 more countries are on the list. The State Department also placed Comoros, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia on a Special Watch List for govts that tolerated violations of religious freedom.

The US has designated Pakistan and China among eight other countries that are of particular concern for violation of religious freedom, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.Pakistan and China along with Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were placed in the list for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom , Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.

The State Department placed the Comoros, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia on a Special Watch List (SWL) for governments that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom .

“Religious freedom is an unalienable right, and the bedrock upon which free societies are built and flourish. Today, the United States — a nation founded by those fleeing religious persecution, as the recent Commission on Unalienable Rights report noted — once again took action to defend those who simply want to exercise this essential freedom, Pompeo said.

The US also designated al-Shabaab, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and the Taliban as ‘Entities of Particular Concern’.

Pompeo said the US did not renew the prior ‘Entity of Particular Concern’ designations for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS-Khorasan due to the total loss of territory formerly controlled by these terrorist organisations.

“While these two groups no longer meet the statutory criteria for designation, we will not rest until we have fully eliminated the threat of religious freedom abuses by any violent extremist and terrorist groups,” he said.

Pompeo said Sudan and Uzbekistan have been removed from the Special Watch List based on significant, concrete progress undertaken by their respective governments over the past year.

“Their courageous reforms of their laws and practices stand as models for other nations to follow,” he said.

However, our work is far from complete. Pompeo said, adding that the US will continue to work tirelessly to end religiously motivated abuses and persecution around the world, and to help ensure that each person, everywhere, at all times, has the right to live according to the dictates of conscience.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) praised the State Department’s move to put 10 nations in the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs), including Nigeria for the first time, and four countries on the SWL for severe violations, pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

We are gratified that the State Department has named 10 countries as CPCs. We particularly welcome Nigeria’s designation for the first time as a CPC for tolerating egregious violations of religious freedom, which USCIRF had been recommending since 2009. Nigeria is the first secular democracy that has been named a CPC, which demonstrates that we must be vigilant that all forms of governments respect religious freedom,” said USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin.

We are encouraged to see that the designation this year also reflects significant advancements in religious freedom in Uzbekistan and Sudan, which were both removed from the SWL. While USCIRF recommended earlier in 2020 that these two countries stay on the SWL, it is undeniable the historic progress that has been made in these two countries. We hope that their progress encourages positive change in other places around the world,” said Vice Chair Tony Perkins.

Notably, the State Department did not accept the USCIRF recommendation that India, Russia, Syria and Vietnam be also designated as CPCs.

https://theprint.in/world/us-names-pakistan-china-myanmar-as-countries-of-concern-for-violating-religious-freedom/562509/

#Pakistan #PDM - PDM leaders vow to hold Lahore rally despite govt warnings

Leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Monday said they will go ahead with the Lahore public meeting scheduled for Dec 13 despite the government warning of legal action.

The statement comes a day before heads of PDM's constituent parties meet in Islamabad to review arrangements for the Lahore rally and to finalise a strategy for the next phase of its anti-government campaign.

The opposition alliance has decided to move forward with the Lahore rally despite the government citing concerns about the risk of Covid-19 spreading and warning of legal action.

Addressing today's press conference in Lahore, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said the government had changed its tactics to try and stop the opposition from holding the rally. "The premier doesn't realise that these things don't stop rallies. Martial law used much harsher tactics but rallies and movements did not stop." He added that the people of Pakistan were fed up with the government and the country's state of affairs. "The time has come for them to go," he said, adding that the government was "fascist".

"There used to be some back and forth in politics, but the mud-slinging and culture of swearing that they [government] have brought during their tenure has never been seen before," he said.

He added that the PDM had reviewed the situation and formed committees to prepare for the upcoming rally in Lahore. "The PDM leadership has decided that the Dec 13 jalsa will take place," he said. PML-N's Rana Sanaullah said heads of the constituent parties will meet tomorrow and will visit the site of the rally and deliberate over the preparations. "Hundreds of thousands of workers will participate in the Lahore rally. This requires complete arrangements. They cannot be addressed without a proper sound system." He added that it was the job of the Lahore deputy commissioner to talk about administrative measures, not the premier's. "[Imran] is saying that he will not allow arrangements for chairs and lights and will not allow a stage to be set up. And [in the same breath] he says he will not stop us from holding the rally".

In an interview with a private TV channel on Saturday, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said the government would not grant permission to the opposition parties to hold their public meeting, but at the same time declared that it would not stop them from doing so.

The prime minister had said that cases would be registered against the opposition leaders and all those who would facilitate them in making arrangements for the public meetings in violation of the standard operating procedures to stop the spread of Covid-19. “We have decided not to give them (the opposition) permission to hold its public meeting. FIRs will be filed against those providing them with a sound system and chairs,” the prime minister had said during an interview with Hum TV.

They tried to stop us in Multan, but we still held the rally, Sanaullah said. "When the government uses such tactics then the number of people that gather doesn't matter. What matters is whether the rally was held or not." He added that the government and its representatives should have felt "ashamed" after the Multan power show.

"The jalsa will happen at any cost. People from across the province and the country will gather in Lahore and will express their dissatisfaction with the current government and will vow to put an end to the game that has been played for the last 70 years. The sanctity of the vote will have to be honoured." JUI-F's Mohammad Safiullah said that the party's stance since day one has been that the government is not the people's elected representative and should go home. "On Dec 13, the people of Pakistan will show the government that they cannot stay as rulers and that they have been rejected." In response to the "threats" made by the premier, we want to say that this rally will be organised and will be held at Minar-i-Pakistan, he said. "There are no two opinions on this."

He added that instead of issuing threats using the interior ministry, the premier should don the uniform of a station house officer. The JUI-F leader was referring to a notification by the interior ministry dated Dec 6 through which it directed the provincial governments to take "immediate cognisance of the threat [posed by militias of political and religious organisations]" and adopt steps to check their functioning and development.

It stated that "certain political and religious organisations have established their militias which have even resorted to wearing uniforms/ ranks like formal armed forces/ law enforcement agencies" and considered themselves as military organisations which was a violation of Article 256 of the Constitution and point 3 of the National Action Plan. The ministry said that it would aggravate the complex security situation if left unchecked. During today's press conference, Sanaullah stressed that the venue of the jalsa would not be changed at any cost. He added that the PDM leadership had decided that at least 500 workers will be tasked with handling security and traffic arrangements. "Now if we give them a specific uniform or a cap, will they become a militia? This is ridiculous and a sign of the government's panic. Our movement is peaceful," he said.

Maryam also took the opportunity to invite the people of the city to the PDM's upcoming rally. "The Lahoris will show their true colours. If this fake government stops you, will you stop? If permission for the rally is not given, will it not happen?" She added that she had very "high hopes" for the city of Lahore as it had given Pakistan a "son like Nawaz Sharif". She said the Lahore rally will show the government that its days in power are numbered.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1594510/pdm-leaders-vow-to-hold-lahore-rally-despite-govt-warnings

تمام ارکان اسمبلی 31 دسمبر تک استعفے اپنی قیادت کو جمع کرا دیں

عبداللہ جان 

 AJKhan65@ 

پاکستان جمہوری تحریک (پی ڈی ایم) کے کنوینر مولانا فضل الرحمٰن نے منگل کو اتحاد میں شامل تمام سیاسی جماعتوں کے ارکان اسمبلی کو ہدایت کی ہے کہ وہ 31 دسمبر تک استعفے اپنی قیادت کو جمع کرا دیں۔

یہ فیصلہ منگل کو اسلام آباد میں پی ڈٰی ایم کے ایک اہم سربراہی اجلاس میں طے پایا، جس میں موجودہ سیاسی صورتحال اور حکومت مخالف تحریک پر غور کرنے کے بعد کئی اہم فیصلے کیے گئے۔  

اجلاس کی صدارت پی ڈی ایم کے سربراہ اور جمیعت علما اسلام ف کے امیر مولانا فضل الرحمٰن نے کی جبکہ سابق وزیر اعظم نواز شریف، سابق صدر آصف علی زرداری اور بلوچستان نیشنل موومنٹ (بی این پی مینگل) کے سربراہ سردار اختر مینگل ویڈیو لنک کے ذریعے شریک ہوئے۔  

حال ہی میں کووڈ19 سے صحت یاب ہونے والے پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے اس اہم بیٹھک میں شرکت کی۔ یاد رہے ان کا تقریباً دو ہفتے قبل کرونا وائرس کا ٹیسٹ مثبت آیا تھا جس کے بعد وہ ازخود تنہائی میں چلے گئے تھے۔ اجلاس میں مسلم لیگ ن کی نائب صدر مریم نواز، سابق وزیر اعظم شاہد خاقان عباسی سمیت اپوزیشن کے دوسرے رہنماؤں نے بھی شرکت کی۔ 

سربراہی اجلاس کے بعد میڈیا سے گفتگو کرتے ہوئے مولانا فضل الرحمٰن نے اہم فیصلوں سے آگاہ کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ’13 دسمبر کو مینار پاکستان پر ہی جلسہ ہوگا اور اگر رکاوٹ ڈالنے کی کوشش کی گئی تو ملتان سے زیادہ برا حشر ہوگا۔‘

انہوں نے کہا کہ وزیراعظم عمران خان نے آج ایسی باتیں کیں جس سے لگا وہ ڈائیلاگ نہیں بلکہ ہم سے این آر او مانگ رہے ہیں۔ انہوں نے بتایا کہ نو دسمبر کو سٹیئرنگ کمیٹی کے اجلاس میں ملک کے اندر پہیہ جام ہڑتال، شٹر ڈاؤن اور اسلام آباد کی جانب لانگ مارچ کی تاریخوں کا تعین کیا جائے گا۔ گرفتاریوں سے متعلق ایک سوال کے جواب میں ان کا کہنا تھا کہ ’ہم نے سوچا بھی نہیں کہ گرفتاری کیا چیز ہوتی ہے؟ حکومت کو فرق پڑچکا، کرسی کی چولیں ہل چکیں، اب ایک دھکے کی ضرورت ہے۔‘ 

استعفوں سے متعلق  ایک سوال پر انہوں نے حکمران جماعت پر طنز کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ’ہم نے استعفے دیے تو واپس نہیں لیں گے، تحریک اس پورے نظام اور دھاندلی کے خلاف ہے، دھاندلی کرنے والے خود سوچیں کہ ان کا 

انجام کیا ہوگا۔

https://www.independenturdu.com/node/54431