Saturday, October 9, 2021
#China - Chinese President Xi Jinping expounds on what past 110 years have shown to Chinese since 1911 Revolution
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday expounded on what the past 110 years have shown to the Chinese people since the Revolution of 1911 while addressing a meeting marking the 110th anniversary of the historical event.
"The past 110 years have shown us that to realize national rejuvenation, the Chinese people must have a strong force to lead us forward, and that force is the Communist Party of China (CPC)," said Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Without the Communist Party of China, there would be no new China and no national rejuvenation, he said, stressing efforts in ensuring the Party always firmly stands as the most reliable backbone of the Chinese nation and people.
"The past 110 years have shown us that to realize national rejuvenation, the path we take is of fundamental importance. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has proven to be the only correct path," Xi said.
"We will ensure coordinated implementation of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy, deepen reform and opening up across the board, modernize China's system and capacity for governance, and work tirelessly to fulfill the people's aspirations for a better life and realize common prosperity for all," he said.
"The past 110 years have shown us that to realize national rejuvenation, the Chinese people must rely on our own heroic efforts," Xi said.
"Through courage and skill, we will overcome all major risks and challenges that may impede our path to national rejuvenation and resolutely safeguard our national sovereignty, security, and development interests," he added.
"The past 110 years have shown us that to realize national rejuvenation, the Chinese people and nation must stick together through good times and bad and rely on our strong unity to overcome all risks and challenges on the road ahead," Xi noted.
"On the journey ahead, we must fully promote patriotism, foster a strong sense of national dignity and confidence among our people, and strengthen the Chinese nation's sense of community. We must rely closely on the concerted efforts of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, uphold great unity and solidarity, and continue to consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front," he added.
"The past 110 years have shown us that to realize national rejuvenation, we need not only a stable and united domestic environment but also a peaceful and stable international environment," Xi said.
"Aggression and hegemony are not in the blood of the Chinese people. Our people hope to successfully realize national development, but they also hope to see all peoples of the world leading happy and peaceful lives," he said.
On the journey ahead, China will always fly the flag of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, strive to promote the building of a human community with a shared future, and endeavor to improve the global governance system, Xi noted.
"We will promote the shared human values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom, work to strengthen solidarity with the peoples of all other countries, and engage in common efforts to oppose hegemony and power politics," Xi said.
"China will remain a champion of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order, and we will do our very best to make even greater contributions to humanity," he added.
http://en.people.cn/n3/2021/1009/c90000-9904997.html
Pandora Papers Unravel Imran Khan’s ‘Anti-Corruption’ Narrative
Even as he became a beneficiary of the military’s puppeteering, an unforeseen triumph, described as “God-sent” by Khan himself, came in the shape of the 2016 Panama Papers, the precursor to the Pandora Leaks. The Panama Papers revealed offshore companies linked to the then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family, and Khan made investigation into the Panama Leaks his political rallying cry. In 2017, Sharif was disqualified from office by the Supreme Court on a technicality related to the non-declaration of wages he received from his UAE-based company, following a probe by a joint investigation team (JIT) featuring members of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). With Sharif ousted, the Panama Leaks fast shifted to the backdrop. Khan was brought to power through the 2018 elections the following year. “It was only one prime minister that was taken down by the Panama Papers. What happened to probes and investigations into the corrupt elite named in those leaks and elsewhere?” said political scientist and former Punjab chief minister Hasan Askari Rizvi, the author of “The Military and Politics in Pakistan: 1947-1997” in an interview with The Diplomat. “Like other leaders before him, Imran Khan said things in opposition that can never be implemented when in government. Corruption cases against the elite can have ethical and political value, but legally they are difficult to prove,” Rizvi argued. Instead of launching an all-out campaign against the misappropriation of the elite after coming to power, and addressing the legal challenges that prevent the powerful from being held accountable, Khan was seen echoing the past vitriol against the Sharif and Bhutto families, only now as the prime minister. In fact, after triumphing in the 2018 election owing to the same “electables” of the system that he had rallied against, Khan’s cabinet was brimming over with the very corrupt elite that he had built his political narrative against. Manzoor Wattoo, among the veteran politicians who joined the PTI in 2018, told The Diplomat that like his predecessors Khan too misused accountability as a tool to target his political opponents, more so than doing anything to challenge the powerful. “From Nawaz Sharif to Farooq Leghari to now Imran Khan, the so-called accountability has always been one-sided. The army leaders say they have their own system of accountability. The rulers of the country treat it as their kingdom, and hence put themselves above law,” Wattoo said. A long-pending amendment is in the works to reform the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which has largely been limited to targeting opposition politicians, even more so under Imran Khan. On Thursday, the two major opposition parties – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – rejected the NAB amendment ordinance, which continues to empower the bureau’s head, in turn directly benefitting the government. “The government shouldn’t have anything to do with the accountability process. A neutral institution should be empowered; until then political victimization in the garb of corruption would continue,” Wattoo believes. While the NAB has continued to launch cases against the PML-N and PPP leaderships over the past three years, major misappropriations scandals have sprung up from within Imran Khan’s own government. Probes into last year’s wheat and sugar crises underlined how cartels created artificial shortages to hike up prices, leading to 76 billion Pakistani rupees ($445 million) worth of profits for sugar mill owners and 5.35 billion rupees ($31 million) worth of irregularities in wheat stocks. Among those named as the chief beneficiaries of the sugar crisis was the PTI’s Secretary General Jehangir Tareen, a chief funder of the party and orchestrator of “electables” queuing up to join Imran Khan. Other beneficiaries of the sugar scandal included PTI leader Khusro Bakhtiar, the current federal minister for industries and production, and Federal Minister of Water Resources Moonis Elahi, a senior leader of the PTI’s allied Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) once dubbed by Khan as “Punjab’s biggest dacoits.” Elahi and Bakhtiar are among prominent PTI leaders and advisors named in the Pandora Papers, which also include current Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin. “Imran Khan has failed in the parameter that he himself set for the Panama Papers investigation: How will there be a fair investigation [over the Pandora Leaks] if the top positions are being held by those named in the leaks and their allies? Why hasn’t anyone resigned?” asked Member of National Assembly Mohsin Dawar, who has been affiliated with the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, and last month launched his National Democratic Movement. While Khan has been lambasted by his critics for his relentless spree of volte-faces since becoming the prime minister, his continued contradiction of his much advertised position on corruption, the raison d’etre of the PTI, might be a U-turn too many. Khan’s rivals hope it ends up being politically damaging for the Pakistani prime minister. Even so, while talking to The Diplomat, Dawar maintained that the opposition won’t be able to capitalize on the Pandora Leaks. “The opposition hasn’t been able to take up the Pandora Papers as they should. Perhaps it is because generals are named in the leaks,” said Dawar, who was among the founders of the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement before leaving it last year. While politicians’ corruption hogs the limelight, numerous army officers, including a former corps commander and ISI director, have been named in the Pandora Papers. These names, however, aren’t being similarly highlighted by the increasingly military-shackled media. No action was taken in the aftermath of last year’s corruption exposé against Lieutenant General (retired) Asim Bajwa, who continued to serve as the chairperson of the lucrative CPEC Authority. Using its absolute clout over the country, the Pakistan Army has developed the country’s largest business empire. At least 50 entities affiliated with the military, worth over $20 billion, have been cited in the Senate. But they are believed to be a fraction of the actual worth of the Pakistan Army, which exercises complete control over much of Pakistan’s resources, from farmlands to budget allocations. The corruption of the Pakistan Army, which continues to be peddled as the “custodian of Pakistan’s ideological frontiers” and a bulwark against corrupt political leaders, is an officially kept secret safeguarded by engineered civilian regimes throughout the country’s history. Imran Khan is only its latest gatekeeper. Political scientist Ayesha Siddiqa, author of “Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy,” doesn’t believe the army is going to be held accountable anytime soon. “[But] are the civilian leaders any better? They all extort in different ways. On plunder they will be on the same page, but will publicize the loot of others to protect themselves,” she told The Diplomat. Siddiqa believes the duplicity on corruption might not be as damaging for Khan as the current state of Pakistan’s economy. With the Pakistani rupee reaching an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, and ominously high inflation, Khan’s vows of accountability and financial uplift are both unraveling before the masses. “The main damage to Imran Khan will be done by the [economic crisis] and not [the Pandora Papers], as he has been cultivating his image as a good man who is not being allowed to end corruption,” says Siddiqa. Khan is likely to push the narrative, already being peddled by his backers, that he individually is incorruptible despite the fact that he’s surrounded by figures who aren’t clean. This narrative has also been used in recent times to sell a presidential system as the political solution for Pakistan, nullifying parliamentary democracy and provincial autonomy. It is also reflected in Khan’s jibes directed toward various “mafia,” even now as the prime minister of the country. If Khan can remain in the military leadership’s good books, he might continue to provide the quasi-democratic front for the power centers, regardless of the form they take. For, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and along with it the trillions worth of American investment, the untouchable military leadership would increasingly rely on domestic resources to run its mega empire.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/10/pandora-papers-unravel-imran-khans-anti-corruption-narrative/
Pakistan PM Khan's conversion comments cause outrage
Kamran Chaudhry@kamangle Church leaders demand justice for women from religious minorities. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing a growing backlash after he assured clerics that his government will not enact any anti-Islamic law. During his Sept. 27 meeting with Islamic scholars in Karachi, the PM said government bills addressing domestic violence and forced conversions will not be enacted as they have provisions which are “in direct conflict with the teachings of Islam.”He requested the clerics keep him informed of any such act so that he could intervene in time and ensure that no policy or law which conflicts with Islam is made during his tenure. Church leaders and rights groups including the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation, a Lahore-based Catholic NGO, released a statement on Sept. 29 demanding justice for minority women. “So it is OK for women to be battered and tortured, and it is also OK for underage non-Muslim girls to be forcefully converted to Islam? The prime minister needs to realize that all are not Muslims in Pakistan. The state must protect the rights of religious minorities; effective legislation against forced conversions is pivotal. No two ways about it,” it stated in a Facebook post. Camillian Father Mushtaq Anjum even described Khan as "a clean-shaven Taliban." Exploitation of vulnerable minorities shouldn’t be equated with opposition to Islam “Clearly he is trying to save his Islamic vote bank. Nobody is demanding a law against Islam; our struggle is against pedophiles using religion as their shelter for criminal activities. Exploitation of vulnerable minorities shouldn’t be equated with opposition to Islam,” he told UCA News. Last week the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony rejected a bill that proposed regulations on conversions to Islam. A day later, Lahore High Court ruled that mental capacity outweighs age in child religious conversion cases. Addressing a Sept. 28 press conference in Islamabad, the Peoples' Commission for Minorities’ Rights and Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) expressed utter dismay at the reduction in religious freedom relating to child marriages and forced conversions. According to the CSJ, the highest incidents of forced conversions (52 percent) were reported in Punjab, followed by 44 percent in Sindh.
Participants in the press conference demanded that the Ministry for Religious Affairs should stand up and be counted for protection of minorities or it will go down in history as one abetting the worst crimes against minorities. “Every individual or group is at liberty to convert or reconvert another by argument or persuasion, but no individual or group should attempt to do so or prevent its being done by force, fraud or other unfair means. Persons under 18 years of age should not be converted unless it be along with their parents or guardians,” said CSJ director Peter Jacob.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/pakistan-pm-khans-conversion-comments-cause-outrage/94353#
It’s up to Imran Khan govt to show us forced conversion is a crime in Pakistan
NAILA INAYAT
When he wasn't PM, Imran Khan used to raise the issue of abduction and forced conversion of Hindu and Christian girls in Pakistan. Now, he appeases the religious Right.The haunting clip of Reena Kumari Meghwar calling for help from the rooftop of her alleged abductor’s house in Badin district of Sindh province encapsulated the horrors of forced conversions of minority Hindu and Christian girls in Pakistan. In February this year, Reena was allegedly abducted and forcibly converted to Islam by her neighbour Qasim Khaskheli, who then forcibly married her. Reena had reportedly tied Qasim a rakhi in childhood. Reena was rescued by the police in July and sent to her parents on court orders. A Christian rickshaw driver from Faisalabad, Gulzar Masih, is fighting for the custody of his 13-year-old daughter Chashman, who too was allegedly forcibly converted and married to Muhammad Usman after her abduction. While the police mentioned her age as 17 in the FIR filed by Gulzar, the nikahnama (marriage certificate) claims she is 19. The Lahore High Court, which rejected the father’s petition, said in its order that “Muslim jurists regard mental capacity of a child as of crucial importance” when considering the question of conversion, adding that there is no minimum age for conversion mentioned either in Quran or hadith. Who should minorities turn to? Reena and Chashman are not isolated cases. Forced conversion of girls belonging to minority communities has registered a surge in Pakistan in recent years. Countless families still wait for their daughters to return home. But they are seeking justice from a system that is stacked against them. From police to judiciary, everyone looks the other way if the girl is a minor, if she was kidnapped, raped and even if her so-called marriage certificate is forged. There is no justice to be found when faith is used as an excuse to persecute. The much talked about anti-forced conversion bill that aimed at criminalising the act of forced conversions has now been sacrificed at the altar of religiosity. The draft of the bill, which has been in the works since 2019, was turned down by the ministry of religious affairs which said the bill was against the Shariah law. Religious affairs minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri was of the view that the clauses of 18-year age bar for conversion, appearance before a judge and a 90-day waiting period in the proposed bill were against Shariah and violate human rights. Twice in Sindh assembly, the anti-forced conversion bill failed to be passed due to mounting pressure from religious groups.
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| Mian Mitho with the Army Chief |
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| Mian Mitho with the Taliban Khan |
The man seemingly running the conversion factory is called upon to weigh in on how to put an end to his business. What a cruel joke!
Imran Khan’s double talk
Speaking of cruel jokes, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who till yesterday was of the view that forced religious conversions are actually un-Islamic, now assures Islamic scholars that no new law against Islamic principles would be enacted during his rule. He made this promise reportedly during discussions on bills pertaining to forced religious conversions and domestic violence. Even Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which termed the anti-forced conversion bill as ‘against Islam’ while rejecting the amnesty offer from Pakistan, would be relieved to hear about this capitulation.
More details of the PM’s interaction with the Ulema were shared by Mufti Tariq Masood who claimed that Imran Khan called such bills a ‘sazish (conspiracy)’ but that there was nothing to worry. Mufti Tariq is the same person who was once baiting his followers to marry three widows/divorcees and that he’ll find them minor virgins as the fourth wife – if he can’t find them a 16-year-old girl, then he would find two 8-year-olds or four 4-year-olds for them.Imran Khan’s U-turn is hardly surprising considering he didn’t vote for the 2006 Women’s Protection Act that amended the oppressive rape and adultery provisions of Ziaul Haq’s Hudood Ordinance. According to Khan, the General Pervez Musharraf (retd) government had passed the bill to “introduce a made-in-Washington Islamic system in the country.” Since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf came to power, the Child Marriage bill that sought to raise the age of marriage for a female child to 18 years was also shot down in cahoots with the Council of Islamic Ideology. While the domestic violence bill despite being passed by the National Assembly didn’t become a law as it was declared un-Islamic and its clauses “contradicting social values” by the Council of Islamic Ideology and religious affairs ministry.
Before assuming office, Imran Khan used to address Hindu and Christian minorities and raise the issue of their abduction and forced conversion, and used to find it absolutely unacceptable that Hindu girls were being abducted daily in Sindh and would promise them equal rights. Now, he is simply proving those were empty promises because every time he gets a chance to do right by the beleaguered minorities, his government runs to appease the religious Right for political brownie points.
Imagine the irony that the biggest crusader of minority rights for the rest of the world doesn’t want to lead those crusades at home.
Forced conversion is a human rights issue. Painting those who demand an end to this rights abuse as ‘foreign agents’ trying to ‘implement Western agenda’ doesn’t whitewash the fact that these conversions continue with impunity in this country. A law that sets a minimum age for conversion and criminalises abduction and coercion is essential and will go a long way in declaring that Pakistan considers forced conversion a crime, unless we have got that wrong.
https://theprint.in/opinion/letter-from-pakistan/its-up-to-imran-khan-govt-to-show-us-forced-conversion-is-a-crime-in-pakistan/747929/
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