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2 Pakistani Christian nurses charged with blasphemy, could face life in prison

Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province arrested two Christian nurses on blasphemy charges after hospital staff accused them of scratching a sticker with a verse from the Quran written on it off a cupboard. One of the nurses was allegedly attacked with a knife by a colleague.

The nurses, identified as Maryam Lal and third-year student Navish Arooj who work in Civil Hospital in Punjab’s Faisalabad city, were arrested on Friday, according to the United Kingdom-based nonprofit Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement.

The police complaint alleges that a Muslim nurse, identified as Rukhsana, witnessed Arooj scratching and removing the sticker on a hospital cupboard and handing it to Lal.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based American Center for Law and Justice, a video circulated over social media showed an employee, identified as Mohammad Waqas, calling Lal vulgar names and telling a room full of other employees that she tore down a sticker carrying a Muslim prayer. “Then he said that when he found out about it, he confronted the Christian nurse Mariam. He said, ‘I am a Muslim; how can a Muslim sit quietly over blasphemy of his Prophet,’” the ACLJ report states. “Then he proudly told the employees gathered in the room that he attacked Mariam with a knife, but failed when the blade broke, only injuring her arm.”

An aggressive mob gathered outside the hospital when police came to make the arrest and threatened to kill the two nurses, according to a video posted by Pak Adam TV Ministries.

According to ACLJ, charges have been filed under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code outlawing the desecration of the Quran or “extract therefrom,” which is punishable by life in prison. “This is not the first incident of this kind, but in the past, we have seen how people use this law to settle their personal grudges or punish their rivals,” said CLAAS-UK Director Nasir Saeed in a statement. “I still remember 2009 when a Lahore Muslim factory owner was accused of committing blasphemy for removing an old calendar inscribed with holy Quranic verses from a wall. A factory worker killed him and two other men, and the enraged mob also assaulted management employees and set the factory on fire.”

Saeed argues that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws continue to imprison and claim the lives of innocent people. Without government action to reform the blasphemy law, Saeed said that people like Waqas are emboldened to take the law into their own hands. In January, another Christian nurse, 30-year-old Tabitha Nazir Gill, was accused of blasphemy at Sobhraj Maternity Hospital in Karachi city in Sindh province, where she worked for nine years, the U.S.-based persecution advocacy organization International Christian Concern reported at the time.

A Muslim co-worker, who was not identified, allegedly made the accusation after a personal dispute over receiving cash tips from hospital patients.

According to the ICC report, the hospital’s head nurse instructed all medical staff not to receive cash tips from patients. Gill reportedly reminded the co-worker who she saw collect money from a patient about the instruction. The co-worker then accused Gill of committing blasphemy.

Hospital staff reportedly beat Gill after tying her up with ropes and locking her in a room before police arrived.

The blasphemy law, embedded in Sections 295 and 298 of Pakistan's penal code, is frequently misused for personal revenge. While it permits the death penalty for those convicted of insulting Islam or its Prophet Muhammad, it carries no provision to punish a false accuser or a false witness of blasphemy.

Islamic radicals also use the law to target religious minorities — Christians, Shias, Ahmadiyyas and Hindus.

A Lahore-based group, Centre for Social Justice, recently reported that 200 people were accused of blasphemy in 2020 — a record number of cases in one year. In total, the group reports that at least 1,855 people have been charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws since 1987.

International advocates have long called on Pakistan to reform its penal code as it is often used to persecute religious minorities.

A Pakistani Christian, Shahbaz Bhatti, who served as minister of minority affairs, was assassinated in March 2011 after calling for the blasphemy laws' repeal. Former Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was also assassinated for his opposition to the country’s blasphemy law. Both men advocated for Christian woman Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy. She was acquitted years later by the Pakistan Supreme Court.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/2-pakistani-christian-nurses-charged-with-blasphemy.html

EDITORIAL - #Pakistan - Bending over backwards for IMF

We are at that point in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program that the government must now take some very difficult decisions in order to retain the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and keep the fiscal space that it so desperately needs. Surely it realised during the year or so in the wilderness – when the bailout program was suspended – that the country is just not in a position to try and survive on its own at the moment. Therefore, even though Prime Minister Imran Khan resisted all sorts of pressure to raise taxes and power tariffs for many months, he had to cave in eventually to get the tap to run again.

And now, with news headlines shouting about another Rs1.3 trillion hike in taxes committed to the IMF for the next budget, on top of increasing electricity rates by almost Rs5 per unit for the remainder of the current fiscal year, it is clear to see just how much pressure the government is under and, at the same time, how desperate it is for some hard reserves. It doesn’t take too much to realise that all this will not sit very well with the people or the business community, of course, so it is also beginning to make sense just why the new finance minister made controlling inflation his top priority very recently. The government seems to be trying to soften the blow that will now surely start to build and get much worse with the next year.

These are very difficult decisions for the government. There is of course the desperate need to restructure almost everything about the economy, from expanding the revenue base to fine tuning gas tariffs and adjusting the petroleum levy. Yet setting unrealistic targets, which always happens when we’re working with the IMF, should be avoided. To expect the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to really collect Rs5.963 trillion in the next fiscal is clearly wishful thinking more than anything else. Such estimates lead to cutting down the development budget even before the document is prepared, making the most needed aspect of budget making the first casualty of pleasing the IMF. It ought to really worry policymakers, therefore, that under the agreement the government is bringing down the current year’s development program from Rs1.324 trillion to Rs1.169 trillion.

But it’s not really as if the government has much of a choice at this time. When it has to subsidise and sell expensive electricity cheaply, it has to bear the deficit itself, which adds to the circular debt. The reserves position simply does not allow this practice, which is also present in the gas sector, to go on any longer. In fact the way previous governments entered into contracts with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) laid the foundation for this problem. So it’s basically a choice between continuing to milk reserves, grant subsidies and allowing the circular debt to skyrocket or taking the bull by the horns now, hiking tariffs and initiating reforms.

The government is truly in a Catch-22 situation. The IMF program might bail it out of a very sticky fiscal situation, but it is unlikely to do the people or the business much good in the near term. They are already struggling with high inflation and input costs. All this will only add to their problems. But there is an important lesson in this. When you live beyond your means for too long as a country, then you have to bend over backwards to please your lenders even at the cost of the people’s interests for a while. Hopefully things will start to improve during the next fiscal year.

Pakistan Army’s ‘Culture Of Entitlement’ – OpEd

By Nilesh Kunwar 

 If an outsider was to say that there’s rampant corruption in Pakistan army, especially within the top echelons, Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] would label that person a “RAW agent” trying to malign the military and terming such assertions as “motivated”, outrightly dismiss the same. However, what explanation can ISPR offer when patriotic and well-meaning people in Pakistan level similar charges against Rawalpindi?

In her extensively researched book “Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy” published in 2007, noted Pakistani activist Ayesha Siddiqa reveals the highly opaque manner in which Pakistan army conducts its commercial activities. Infact, after realising that it’s “a completely independent genre of capital,” she felt it necessary to coin an appropriate term- “Milbus” [military business], and defines it as “military capital that is used for the personal benefit of the military fraternity, especially the officer cadre, but is neither recorded nor part of the defense budget.”

Elaborating further on “Milibus,” Ms Siddiqa notes that its “most significant component is entrepreneurial activities that do not fall under the scope of the normal accountability procedures of the state, and are mainly for the gratification of military personnel and their cronies… in most cases the rewards are limited to the officer cadre… The top echelon of the armed forces who are the main beneficiaries of Milbus justify the economic dividends as welfare provided to the military for their services rendered to the state.” The scale and extent of Pakistan armed forces involvement in commercial activities is indeed mind boggling as they seem to have interests in almost every business under the sun!

During July 2016, in his written reply to a question asked by a Senator, Defence Minister Khwaja Asif informed Parliament that the armed forces of Pakistan were running nearly 50 commercial entities. These included banks, bakeries, petrol pumps, schools and universities, shoe, woollen, apparel, food processing production units, milk dairies, stud farms, cement plants, an insurance company and even restaurants and wedding halls! They also have an exposure in insurance, agriculture, fertilizer and aviation sectors. So much so that in 2008, Pakistan army’s Fauji Foundation even floated a company called ‘Pakistan Maroc Phosphore SA’ in faraway Morocco.

Three years later, Pakistan’s Supreme Court Judge Justice Gulzar Ahmed passed strictures on the army to cease commercial activities on military-owned land. In a scathing attack, he observed that “Defence Housing Authority [DHA] of Karachi have encroached so far into the sea. If they had their way, they would build a city on the sea. The owners of DHA would encroach on the entire sea all the way to America and then plant their flags there. The owners of DHA are wondering how they can make inroads into India!” Infact, Pakistan army’s phenomenal lust for land, [at both individual and organisational levels] is understandable as it gives maximum returns. Ms Siddiqa reveals that Pakistan army owns 12 per cent of the country’s land, and out of this, with two-thirds being owned by senior ranking military officials.

In an investigative piece (‘Bajwa family business empire grew in four countries in sync with Asim Bajwa’s rise in military’, Fact Focus, August 27, 2020), noted Pakistani investigative journalist Ahmad Noorani published very specific and verifiable details that retired Lt Gen Asim Bajwa and his family members ” own a business empire which set up 99 companies in four countries, including a pizza franchise with 133 restaurants worth an estimated $39.9 million.” Whereas, there’s nothing wrong in a former General creating wealth, but two things make this case suspicious- one, he didn’t declare his offshore wealth or assets, and two, though he termed these assertions a “malicious propaganda story,” Lt Gen Bajwa surprisingly didn’t consider it necessary to approach the courts to redeem his honour by slapping a defamation suit against Noorani.

In his 2008 book ‘Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within,’ Shuja Nawaz mentions about how a self-created “culture of entitlement” is rampant in the military, especially amongst its top brass. Last year, while ruling on a case regarding the Federal Government’s housing project, Justice Qazi Faez Isa of Pakistan’s Supreme Court invoked this book saying that even though gifting land didn’t have constitutional or legal sanction, “nevertheless, senior members of the armed forces get plots and agricultural lands and continue to be given additional plots and agricultural lands as they rise up the ranks.”

There was a time when Pakistan army’s first chief Gen Douglas David Gracey turned down Gen Ayub Khan’s request for a plot of land. However, this happened long-long ago and if Gen Ayub was alive today, he would have had just no problems as his successors have successfully ‘institutionalised’ land allotment to themselves. Justice Isa rightly opined that “If lands are given to only one category like the members of the armed forces and the civilians in the service of Pakistan are disregarded, it constitutes discrimination and offends the fundamental right of equality.” However, when there some rumblings against allotment of 90 acres of land to former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, Dawn newspaper quoted a security establishment official as saying that there was “nothing unusual” as it was “in accordance with the existing rules and purely on merit.”The “existing rules” on grant of land to Pakistan army chiefs are indeed very interesting for two reasons. One, they lack any approval from Government of Pakistan, and two, the entire process right from putting forth the proposal to identifying land to be gifted and its final approval rests with General Headquarters [GHQ]. Records of all land along the borders is maintained by Border Area Committee [BAC]. Its chairman is an army officer of Brigadier or Colonel rank with an assistant commissioner as the civil member assisted by a revenue officer [tehsildar] and his staff. The BAC projects the requirement of land to the concerned Provincial Board of Revenue [PBR], which in turn passes on the details to the district collector [DC]. The DC the same to the establishment officer who issues the land allotment order.

So, while it’s surprising that all this is done without any written rules on the subject, what’s even more perplexing is that civil officials still consider that an establishment officer is ‘legally bound’ to implement the orders of the BAC chairman! So, by involving the civil administration but making sure that it has no other option but to honour the GHQ’s ‘request’, Rawalpindi has cunningly given this patently illegal practice a veneer of legitimacy.

More than three decades ago, the then Jamaat Islami Amir Qazi Husain Ahmed had quipped that corps commanders of Pakistan army were actually “crore” [millionaire] commanders, a rather embarrassing sobriquet that Rawalpindi has been unable to playdown. How badly has Pakistan army’s land grab has riled the public became evident during the 2007 protests that broke out when Gen Musharraf removed Chief Justice of Pakistan, when lawyers carried banners proclaiming “Ae watan ke sajeele Genrailon; saaray ruqbey tumhare liye hain [O’ handsome Generals of the country, all the plots are there just for you],” even though this issue wasn’t in anyway connected to the protests!

Infact, with National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Interior approving the bill for amending Pakistan Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 to criminalise any attempt to ridicule Pakistan’s armed forces, it’s clear that public resentment against Pakistan army’s “culture of entitlement” has reached tipping point! But whether the “crore” commanders of Pakistan army will reform themselves or throw the book at those who object to their financial impropriety remains a million dollar question!

 https://www.eurasiareview.com/11042021-pakistan-armys-culture-of-entitlement-oped/

#Pakistan's selected PM links Rape to 'Vulgarity' - Can he read? Leaders must be careful what they say

By Rabia Ahmed

Murder and rape are generally surreptitious affairs, and most of us have not actually witnessed either taking place. Yet, some of us can read, and we do, so we know the state of affairs in the world, including in the country we call the Land of the Pure.

We know for example that Pakistan is an extremely dangerous place for women. Human Rights Watch carried out a study on the subject and found that in this country there is a case of a woman being raped every hour, and gang-raped every two. As for what is most deplorably called an ‘honour’ killing, thousands take place every single year. And unlike other murders these killings are often neither surreptitious nor considered wrong by the segment of society they take place in.

So given our PM’s statement saying that the reason for rape is because women dress the way they do, you wonder if our PM can read, and missed discovering those statistics exactly the way he missed knowing about the devaluation of the rupee a couple of years ago, when he said he only found out about it via reports in the media.

Leaders need to mind their own morals, and also what they say, because the public takes note of both. Or perhaps that’s the crux of the matter. Blaming women is as easy said as done and safe to boot since this country can boast of almost no females in its armed forces, therefore such statements will not contravene the respect to the army bill that has just been approved.As for domestic violence, in a survey in 2008 published in the Journal of Political Studies, 70 percent of women who participated had experienced domestic violence. According to another Human Rights Watch Report, ‘70-90% Pakistani women suffered from some kind of domestic violence. About 5,000 women are killed annually from domestic violence in Pakistan, and thousands others maimed or disabled.’ These cases of abuse and death include those who are abused and/or killed because they are viewed as having brought insufficient dowry at marriage, those who are killed or abused for asking for divorce, and those who are victims of acid attacks for any number of reasons…including just because. Domestic violence and death are also often associated with child marriage, and forced conversions, where women are forced to leave their religion of birth and forced to marry a Muslim.

The worst part is that where domestic violence is concerned ‘Law enforcement authorities do not view it as a crime, and usually refuse to register any cases brought to them.’

If not submitting to the general concept of purdah (which is a distortion of the Quranic concept) were the reason for these overwhelming cases of violence, Pakistan would hardly be at the bottom of the rung where safety for women is concerned, yet it is. Therefore, our Prime Minister’s statement regarding the matter where he placed the blame for this violence squarely at the door of every woman in the country was sickening in the extreme.

A leader who cannot recognize the obvious reasons for problems, who blames the wrong half of the country for the distress of the victimised other half is a danger to the entire population. Those given to abusing law and morality recognize this weakness and take advantage of it.

A feeble analogy would be in cricket where a fielder keeps dropping catches every time the ball comes his way. The opposite team recognizes this weakness and makes a point to aim in that less well-defended direction. Perhaps this analogy will be understood but there can be little expectation of it being applied to the current scene, the way religion is rarely applied to anything that occurs after the Prophet (PBUH) and his companions.

Will it really make any difference if women in Pakistan cover themselves even more than they do at present? If they kill themselves covered in fabric in the sweltering sun? Or is the real problem the mindset of this society’s men who consider women to be objects to be leered at, owned and treated any way they wish? God forbid that modesty and kindness should ever be expected of boys and men.

An article published just this month reported a four percent increase in child abuse cases in 2020. Of these 51 percent of the victims were girls and 49 percent boys. Were these little girls abused because they were not in purdah? And how about the little boys? Where does their fault lie in this case?

Words matter. In the long run they pile up and the largest pile carries greater weight. It remains in people’s minds and influences actions and thought. As when Jinnah spoke of everyone being free to visit their temples and mosques, a wish may that has still to be realised but it does occur to us all every time a person is victimized using the blasphemy law, every time a place of worship is destroyed. And who knows, one day it may come into its own.

Leaders need to mind their own morals, and also what they say, because the public takes note of both. Or perhaps that’s the crux of the matter. Blaming women is as easy said as done and safe to boot since this country can boast of few females in its armed forces, therefore such statements will not contravene the respect to the army bill that has just been approved.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/04/10/can-he-read/

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In CEC meeting, Bilawal tears apart PDM's show-cause notice, say sources

 

With all eyes on PPP's Central Executive Committee meeting in Karachi today, reports have emerged of the party chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, tearing apart the show-cause notice served to PPP by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). 

Sources told Geo News that during the CEC meeting at Bilawal House, Karachi, Bilawal read out the show-cause notice served to PPP by PDM's secretary-general Shahid Khaqan Abbasi — and after that, he tore it into pieces.

Following Bilawal's move, the party leaders present during the meeting lauded his action and started clapping, sources said.

Addressing the CEC meeting, Bilawal said he had come into politics for respect, and nothing was greater than respect.

The meeting, which has 50 PPP leaders in attendance, is discussing the current political situation and the relations between the Opposition parties and the overall anti-government strategy of the party. Former president Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal are presiding over the meeting.

The PPP had earlier delayed the April 5 CEC meeting that was called to decide on resignations from assemblies citing a Senate session summoned by the president on the date. While all major parties showed their willingness for the move, the PPP had sought time to deliberate on the matter.

It is pertinent to mention here that the ANP has withdrawn from the PDM after the Opposition alliance served it a similar show-cause notice seeking an explanation for the party supporting PPP's Yousuf Raza Gillani for the Opposition Leader in the Senate's office.

PPP, on the other hand, was asked in the notice to explain why it did not first obtain the consent of the Opposition alliance before getting Gillani elected to the seat.

Gillani's declaration as Opposition leader in the Senate has become a major cause of division within the PDM.

The PML-N says one of its own should have assumed the role as was "pre-decided" at the time of the Senate chairman election, while PPP argues it had the numbers to its favour in the Senate, and so, its party candidate had a right to the position.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/818584-in-cec-ppp-tears-apart-pdms-show-cause-notice-say-sources

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demands immediate withdrawal of the PTI government’s decision to drastically cut the number of scholarships

 

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has demanded immediate withdrawal of the PTI government’s decision to drastically cut the number of scholarships from 265 to just 29 for the students of formerly FATA areas and Balochistan.

In a press statement, the PPP Chairman said that students from ex-FATA and Balochistan have the right to quality education because these areas have suffered gravely due to terrorism. “This withdrawal of scholarship quotas by the PTI Government is tantamount to snatching pen from these poor students and giving gun in their hands,” he added.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said depriving these students of scholarships proves the ugly face of the Imran Khan regime, which is bent upon to destroy the higher education through cutting the funds. PTI government had announced education and health emergency but its attitude displays a lethal approach to ruin these key sectors of the country, he added.

He said that PPP won’t tolerate injustice and discrimination by the regime against the students from backward and remote areas of ex-FATA and Balochistan.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari strongly condemned the approach of PTI government and demanded that higher education scholarships to the students from ex-FATA and Balochistan should be restored and further increased.

PPP Chairman expressed solidarity and sympathy with these students holding protests in Islamabad nowadays.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24631/

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari extends felicitations to the newly elected office bearers of Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ).

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has extended felicitations to the newly-elected office-bearers of Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ).

In a message to Aijaz Ahmed and Aajiz Jamali,President and General Secretary respectively of KUJ, the PPP Chairman said that journalist fraternity and the PPP have fought together for democracy and freedom of press. This bond will continue to be cemented because a free press has a pivotal role for building an egalitarian democratic society, he added.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari hoped that all the newly-elected office-bearers of KUJ will strive for resisting the growing gagging of press in the country besides the rights of the journalist community ensuring better wages and facilities for them.

 https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24634/