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Pakistan still failing to protect religious minorities

By Kamran Chaudhry

Federal and provincial governments did not implement landmark judgment on safeguarding minorities, says rights body.

Pakistan has failed to protect its religious minorities and their rights as directed by the Supreme Court eight years ago.

The apex court in its judgment on June 19, 2014, had ordered the setting up of a national council (commission) for minorities, curbing hate speech, implementing job quotas, developing a curriculum for peace, and inculcating religious tolerance among a host of measures to safeguard minorities.

The order by former Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani was passed in the wake of the deadly Peshawar church bombing in 2013 that killed 85 Christians.

“The federal and provincial governments have achieved 22 percent compliance in eight years,” said Peter Jacob, executive director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), while pointing out that at this rate it would require 24 years to ensure full implementation of the judgment.

Punjab province, which is home to 2.06 million Christians, scored a zero for its failure to implement the measures.

Speaking at a media conference organized by CSJ to mark the eighth anniversary of the pro-minority judgment on June 18, Jacob cited “the lack of good governance, indifference towards human rights, non-serious practices and the plight of minorities amongst legal duty-bearers” as the main reasons for the continued failure to protect minorities.

“The findings and directives of the landmark judgment had the potential of reforms and scope to contribute to advancing religious freedom and building a tolerant society"

“A Supreme Court bench had conducted 28 follow-up hearings that passed 80 supplementary orders to the federal and provincial governments for implementation of seven original orders given in 2014,” he said.

A one-man commission on minority rights was constituted in 2019 to oversee the implementation of the judgment, but according to data collected by CSJ, the federal and provincial governments failed to promptly act against violations of minority rights.

In Punjab, the provincial government, instead of introducing religious studies in the school curriculum, went on to establish an Ulema Board made up of Muslim scholars to review all textbooks.

Christian attorneys continue reporting deliberate delays by trial courts when hearing blasphemy cases, a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, citing alleged pressure from hardline religious and political groups.

Advocate Saroop Ijaz termed the non-compliance with the 2014 judgment as a missed opportunity.

“The findings and directives of the landmark judgment had the potential of reforms and scope to contribute to advancing religious freedom and building a tolerant society,” he said.

He said it was unfortunate that governments failed to realize equality of rights and respect for diversity in Pakistan, which he said could be due to a lack of political will or institutional capacities.

 

Samsung latest to face ‘blasphemy’ wrath in Pakistan. Protesters find a QR code anti-Islam

NIKHIL RAMPAL 

 Samsung, which has nearly 23 per cent market share in Pakistan’s handset market, was quick to issue an apology and order an internal investigation. Violence in the name of the Prophet and alleged blasphemy—Pakistan saw it again on Friday. Except this time, it wasn’t an individual but a simple QR code and a wifi device that flared tempers. At the receiving end was Samsung. The streets of Karachi witnessed angry mobs of men burning down billboards of the South Korean multinational. According to a report by local news agency The Namal, the protest was allegedly led by Pakistan’s Right-wing religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan. The TLP has, however, denied any involvement in the vandalism and protest, according to Pakistani journalist Waqar Gillani. Pakistani journalist Naila Inayat wrote in a Twitter post that a wifi device had allegedly aired blasphemous content. 

 Pictures posted by The Express Tribune showed the mob burnt down posters of Samsung in Karachi’s streets.

So far, the police have made 27 arrests in the blasphemy protests. However, all arrested are employees of Samsung, according to a Dawn report.

Samsung, which has nearly 23 per cent market share in Pakistan’s handset market, was quick to issue an apology and order an internal investigation.

Samsung Pakistan reiterates its objectivity on all matters of religious significance and aims to ensure that the company’s vision and operations are known to be unbiased and respectful towards religion”, read the company’s press release shared on Twitter by its Pakistani handle. The release also added that the company has utmost respect for Islam and that it has “started internal investigations into the matter”.

“With reference to the recent developments in Karachi, Samsung Electronics stands firm on its stance that the company has utmost respect for all religious sentiments and beliefs and holds the religion of Islam in utmost respect”, it said. This is not the first time that a multinational company had to face the wrath of a group of angry Pakistanis over a computer generated code. In December last year, a QR code imprinted on a cold drink bottle had generated headlines when a man alleged that the code inscribed the Prophet’s name and threatened to burn down an entire truck full of soft drink if the company did not remove the code.

Though it is not confirmed what exactly was the objectionable content on the Samsung’s device/QR code, however, according to local journalist Waqqar Gillani – the TLP has actually denied its role.

Social media was both surprised and angry. A Twitter user named Tasawar Suleman recommended that these protestors should “burn their Samsung phones” and boycott Samsung.

https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/samsung-latest-to-face-blasphemy-wrath-in-pakistan-protesters-find-a-qr-code-anti-islam/1021639/

Brain power — Israel's secret weapon - There are lessons here for Pakistan

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

IS it some international conspiracy — or perhaps a secret weapon — that allows Israel to lord over the Mid­­dle East? How did a country of nine million — between one-half and one-third of Karachi’s population — manage to subdue 400m Arabs? A country bui­lt on stolen land and the ruins of destroyed Pal­estinian villages is visibly chuckling away as every Arab government, egged on by the khadim-i-haramain sharifain, lines up to recognise it. Economically fragile Pakistan is being lured into following suit.

Conspiracy theorists have long imagined Israel as America’s overgrown watchdog, beefed up and armed to protect American interests in the Middle East. But only a fool can believe that today. Every American president, senator and congressman shamefacedly admits it’s the Israeli tail that wags the American dog. Academics who chide Israel’s annexation policies are labelled anti-Semitic, moving targets without a future. The Israeli-US nexus is there for all to see but, contrary to what is usually thought, it exists for benefiting Israel not America.

It was not always this way. European Jews fleeing Hitler were far less welcome than Muslims are in today’s America. That Jewish refugees posed a serious threat to national security was argued by government officials in the State Department to the FBI as well as president Franklin Roosevelt himself. One of my scientific heroes, Richard Feynman, was rejected in 1935 by Columbia University for being Jewish. Fortunately, MIT accepted him.

What changed outsiders into insiders was a secret weapon. That weapon was brain power. Regarded as the primary natural resource by Jews inside and outside Israel it is an obsession for parents who, spoon by spoon, zealously ladle knowledge into their children. The state too knows its responsibility: Israel has more museums and libraries per capita than any other country. Children born to Ashkenazi parents are assumed as prime state assets who will start a business, discover some important scientific truth, invent some gadget, create a work of art, or write a book.

Brain power makes teeny-tiny Israel a technological giant before which every Arab country must bow.

 

In secular Israel, a student’s verbal, mathematical, and scientific aptitude sets his chances of success. By the 10th grade of the secular bagut system, smarter students will be learning calculus and differential equations together with probability, trigonometry and theorem proving. Looking at some past exam papers available on the internet, I wondered how Pakistani university professors with PhDs would fare in Israeli level-5 school exams. Would our national scientific heroes manage a pass? Unsurprisingly, by the time they reach university, Israeli students have bettered their American counterparts academically.

There is a definite historical context to seeking this excellence. For thousands of years, European anti-Semitism made it impossible for Jews to own land or farms, forcing them to seek livelihoods in trading, finance, medicine, science and mathematics. To compete, parents actively tutored their children in these skills. In the 1880s, Zionism’s founders placed their faith solidly in education born out of secular Renaissance and Enlightenment thought.But if this is the story of secular Israel, there is also a different Israel with a different story. Ultra-orthodox Haredi Jews were once a tiny minority in Israel’s mostly secular society. But their high birth rate has made them grow to about 10 per cent of the population. Recognisable by their distinctive dress and manners, the Haredim are literally those who “tremble before God”. For Haredis, secularism and secular education are anathema. Like Pakistan, Israel too has a single national curriculum with a hefty chunk earmarked for nation-building (read, indoctrination). In the Israeli context, the ideological part seeks to justify dispossession of the Palestinian population. Expectedly, the ‘Jewish madressah’ system accepts this part but rejects the secular part ie that designed to create the modern mind.

The difference in achievement levels between regular and Haredi schools is widening. While all schools teach Hebrew (the holy language), secular schools stress mastery over English while ‘madressahs’ emphasise Hebrew. According to a Jerusalem Post article, Haredi schools (as well as Arab-Israeli schools) are poor performers with learning outcomes beneath nine of the 10 Muslim countries that participated in the most recent PISA exam. A report says 50pc of Israel’s students are getting a ‘third-world education’.

The drop in overall standards is causing smarter Israelis to lose sleep. They fear that, as happened in Beirut, over time a less fertile, more educated elite sector of society will be overrun by a more fertile, less-educated religious population. When that happens, Israel will lose its historical advantage. Ironically, Jewish identity created Israel but Jewish orthodoxy is spearheading Israel’s decline.

There is only one Muslim country that Israel truly fears — Iran. Although its oil resources are modest, its human resources are considerable.

The revolution of 1979 diminished the quality of Iranian education and caused many of Iran’s best professors to flee. But unlike Afghanistan’s mullahs, the mullahs of Iran were smart enough to keep education going. Although coexistence is uncomfortable, science and religion are mostly allowed to go their own separate ways. Therefore, in spite of suffocating embargos, Iran continues to achieve in nuclear, space, heavy engineering, biotechnology, and the theoretical sciences. Israel trembles. Spurred by their bitter animosity towards Iran, Arab countries have apparently understood the need of the times and are slowly turning around. Starting this year, religious ideology has been de-emphasised and new subjects are being introduced in Saudi schools. These include digital skills, English for elementary grades, social studies, self-defence and critical thinking. Of course, a change of curriculum means little unless accompanied by a change of outlook. Still, it does look like a beginning.

Israel has shown the effectiveness of its secret weapon; it has also exposed the vulnerability of opponents who don’t have it. There are lessons here for Pakistan and a strong reason to wrest control away from Jamaat-i-Islami ideologues that, from the time of Ziaul Haq onward, have throttled and suffocated our education. The heights were reached under Imran Khan’s Single National Curriculum which yoked ordinary schools to madressahs. But even with Khan’s departure, ideological poisons continue to circulate in the national bloodstream. Until flushed away, Pakistan’s intellectual and material decline will accelerate.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1697781/israels-secret-weapon

Pakistan reports speedy increase in COVID-19 cases after nearly 4 months

The latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic worsened day by day, and Pakistan has seen a significant increase in infections in the last 24 hours (Friday).

According to statistics released by the National Institute of Health Pakistan on Saturday morning, Pakistan has reported 818 coronavirus infections and four deaths in the last 24 hours, with Karachi being the most affected city, reporting 528 Covid-19 cases with a 17.06 percent infectivity rate.

According to NIH data, the death toll in Pakistan has risen to 30,399 following the four fatalities, while the overall number of illnesses has risen to 1,537,297 after the new 818 cases.

In the last 24 hours (Friday), 18,305 tests were performed across Pakistan, with a positivity rate of 4.47 percent. The total number of patients in critical care was 126.

Sindh can take “strong COVID-19 measures”

Sindh’s coronavirus taskforce convened a day earlier to discuss the issue, with Murad Ali Shah, the province’s chief minister, warning of “strong measures” if the COVID-19 situation worsened in the state, particularly in the port city.If the number of coronavirus infections rises, the government may have to take more serious steps, according to CM Shah. However, it was noted that the hospital admission rate remained low.

“Karachi has the highest number of weekly cases,” the CM said.

The Punjab government has also banned entry into government offices including of Chief Minister’s House of any person not wearing facemask.

https://dailytimes.com.pk/961402/pakistan-reports-speedy-increase-in-covid-19-cases-after-nearly-4-months/