Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Anthony Fauci: Booster Shots Will Likely Be Needed But When Remains Unknown
By Nina Golgowski
“I don’t anticipate that the durability of the vaccine protection is going to be infinite — it’s just not,” he said Wednesday.Americans vaccinated against the coronavirus will likely need a booster shot to ensure they remain protected. But exactly when still remains unclear, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday. “I don’t anticipate that the durability of the vaccine protection is going to be infinite — it’s just not,” the infectious disease expert testified before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. “So I would imagine we will need, at some time, a booster. What we’re figuring out right now is what that interval is going to be.” Fauci said researchers are continuing to monitor those involved in the vaccines’ original clinical trials to determine their resiliency. Thus far, it’s been determined that the protection can last anywhere from six months to a year. The CEOs of vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna also suggested last week that Americans could need a booster shot eight to 12 months after completing their inoculations. “People at highest risks (elderly, healthcare workers) were vaccinated in December/January. So I would do [a] September start for those at highest risk,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Axios. Fauci has discouraged naming a timeline, however, until one is certain. “We may not need it for quite a while,” he said in an interview last week with The Washington Post. “We are preparing for the eventuality that we might need boosters, but I think we better be careful not to let the people know that inevitably X number of months from now, everyone is going to need a booster. That’s just not the case.” Offering increased protection against emerging variants may also be a reason for booster shots, as one infectious diseases expert recently told HuffPost. “We know increasingly reassuring information about durability, but the variant question remains open — and a little ominous, I think, as you see what’s happened across the subcontinent, and how we’re getting a rise here in the United States of the Brazilian variant,” said Cameron Wolfe, an associate professor of medicine specializing in infectious diseases with Duke University’s School of Medicine. Vaccine makers have said they are preparing to make alterations to their vaccines to better fight variants. Moderna recently announced that it has developed a variant-specific booster shot that has been shown to protect those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 against the variants from Brazil and South Africa. Both of those variants were detected in the U.S. in January of this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
OPINION: The Public Deserves to See This Legal Memo About Donald Trump
By Neal K. KatyalThe Biden Justice Department appears to be making a serious mistake by trying to keep secret a Trump-era document about former Attorney General William P. Barr’s decision to clear his boss, former President Donald Trump, of obstructing justice. The American people have a right to see the memo. Then they can decide whether Mr. Barr used his power as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer as a shield to protect the president. This month, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington ordered it released. Were this an ordinary criminal case, her order would represent a remarkable intrusion into prosecutorial secrecy, and I would have appealed when I was acting solicitor general. But the document is anything but ordinary. It concerns attempts at the highest levels of government to shield the attorney general’s boss from criminal liability. It is, in essence, the people’s memo, and with its appeal, the Justice Department is attempting to hide it from public scrutiny.Faced with a Freedom of Information Act request from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to release the document, Judge Jackson engaged in a thorough review of the material. Her conclusion was startling: Mr. Barr was “disingenuous.” And the affidavits the Justice Department used to justify withholding the materials “are so inconsistent with evidence in the record, they are not worthy of credence.”As an institutionalist, I believe the long-term interests of the Justice Department generally do not swing from one administration to the next. My tenure in the Obama administration running the Solicitor General’s office, which decides for the federal government whether it will appeal judicial orders, was devoted to that principle.So it’s understandable how the Justice Department reached its decision in this case. We generally don’t want prosecutors to have their internal analysis released to the public, for fear of undermining ongoing law enforcement investigations and for chilling frank advice and discussion. That is, I suspect, why the Justice Department authorized the appeal. It doesn’t want the Freedom of Information Act to be used as a weapon to undermine prosecutors. But in this case, absent additional information, that rationale seems wrong. The appearance, if not the reality, of what Mr. Barr did to the Justice Department cannot be ignored: He used his mighty prosecution powers to protect the Trump administration and its friends, including the president. That is what Judge Jackson’s opinion, in the end, was all about. After reading a full set of documents related to the memo, she said: “So why did the attorney general’s advisers, at his request, create a memorandum that evaluated the prosecutorial merits of the facts amassed by the special counsel? Lifting the curtain reveals the answer to that too: getting a jump on public relations.” These shenanigans came after Mr. Barr was revealed to have written a memo for Mr. Trump while a private citizen, a long document that concluded that, yes, you guessed it, the president was not guilty of obstruction of justice. The Justice Department is the one cabinet agency that has a value in its name — “justice.” Its iconography — a blindfolded Lady Justice — underscores the idea that everyone has to play by the same rules. Mr. Barr appears to have desecrated that cardinal principle. The public has a right to know what he and his Justice Department lawyers did and why they did it.We already had one by-the-book official, the special counsel, Robert Mueller, try to apply regular principles to a deeply abnormal presidency, and we witnessed the result: a distorted impeachment and the nullification of potential criminal charges.The problem for the new Justice Department is: What does it do now? Should it depart from ordinary rules because the last administration did so? If it doesn’t appeal Judge Jackson’s decision, isn’t the department allowing a precedent to be set that private litigants can ask for and get all sorts of prosecutorial materials?No. Good surgeons don’t always operate, and good appeals lawyers don’t always appeal. Here, Justice Department lawyers could have safeguarded the department’s interests by saying they disagreed with the decision, but because it was a trial court decision, it was not precedential for other cases and not appropriate to appeal.And the department then could have voluntarily released the memo without conceding that it was required by the Freedom of Information Act. When the Justice Department doesn’t appeal a decision, that doesn’t mean it agrees with it. Lawyers there decide not to appeal all the time for many reasons. In short, there were better solutions here that would have walked the tightrope between the public’s need to know and the Justice Department’s general need to protect prosecutorial interests. In the end, there must be a zone of confidential government decision-making and privacy. Good government depends on it. But that zone is a two-way street: It also depends on government officials who behave as if they deserve to be there. The Justice Department’s decision to appeal Judge Jackson’s order treated this case like any other garden-variety case. It wasn’t. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/opinion/trump-barr-obstruction-justice-doj.html
Both the incumbent and former federal government has deprived the people of lower riparian of their rightful share of water – says Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
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https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24905/
PPP demands not to use the name “PDM” without the PPP
Secretary General Pakistan Peoples Party, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari has said that “like-minded” people should not use the name PDM without PPP which is the party that has laid the foundation of this platform. He said that PPP as a political party believes in mutual respect in politics and defamatory attitude is intolerable.Nayyar Bukhari said that PML-N and JUI’s bipartisanship is hurting democratic forces. He further said that the formation of Pakistan Democratic Alliance is based on the vision of Chairman PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Maulana Fazlur Rehman should tell us that who is benefitting from the criticism of PPP which is the leading party of PDM?
Nayyar Bukhari said that on one hand, Shahbaz Sharif invites the PPP at a dinner and on the other, his party’s second tier leadership hurls accusations at the same PPP. He said that the PPP was right to think that the people using the name of PDM were escaping from the action plan to get rid of the rulers and were also avoiding taking part in the elections.
Nayyar Bukhari said that the IMF backed people are preparing to impose more heavy taxes on the people in the budget and the PPP is opposing the government which has brought the tsunami of inflation and unemployment.
Pakistan Peoples Party will continue its struggle for constitutional, economic and human rights of the citizens of Pakistan and for strengthening democracy.
#Pakistan - Asad Ali Toor - Another day another journalist attacked
The journalist was taken to a private hospital and images of his bleeding elbows were posted by several people. Later, it was reported that his condition is stable.
The matter gained popularity on social media however, the platform seems divided. Some are blaming the military establishment while others are claiming that the incident was staged.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry took notice and ordered the Islamabad police chief to look into the matter.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari tweeted on the matter saying that this incident will only allow Toor’s voice to grow “stronger and louder”.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif stated her shock and sent prayers to the journalist in a retweet.
Moreover, Fatima Bhutto an acclaimed author and niece of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto condemned the attack in a tweet.
Amnesty International also took notice of the incident and tweeted on the contrasting incidents of presentation of the Protection of Journalists Bill in the National Assembly and the attack on Toor.
Last year, the journalist was accused of defaming the military and faced charges against him. The FIR lodged against him accused him to indulge in propaganda against Pakistan and its institutions on social media. However, the Lahore High Court absolved him of the charges as no evidence was found to support the charges.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/761798/another-day-another-journalist-attacked/
صحافی اسد طور پر حملہ، آصفہ بھٹو بھی بول پڑیں
اسلام آباد میں صحافی اسد طور پر نامعلوم افراد کے تشدد کے واقعے پر سابق صدر آصف زرداری اور شہید محترمہ بے نظیر بھٹو کی چھوٹی صاحبزادی آصفہ بھٹو کا بھی بیان سامنے آگیا۔
سماجی رابطے کی ویب سائٹ ٹوئٹر پر جاری کیے گئے بیان میں آصفہ بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ ’اسد علی طور پر حملہ کسی فرد پر نہیں بلکہ یہ ہماری بنیادی آزادیوں پر ہے۔‘
آصفہ بھٹو زرداری نے اپنے بیان میں موجودہ حکومت پر شدید تنقید بھی کی۔
اُنہوں نے کہا کہ ’حکومت کا یہ یقین بالکل غلط ہے کہ دھونس، ہتھکنڈوں اور ٹارگٹڈ حملوں سے حقیقت خاموش ہوجائے گی۔‘
آصفہ بھٹو کے ٹوئٹ پر صارفین کی بڑی تعداد اُن کی حمایت کرتے ہوئے کہہ رہی ہے کہ وہ اسد علی طور کے ساتھ کھڑے ہیں۔
دوسری جانب چیئرمین پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری، مسلم لیگ نون کی نائب صدر مریم نواز اور جمعیت علمائے اسلام (ف) کے سربراہ مولانا فضل الرحمیں کی جانب سے بھی صحافی اسد علی طور پر حملے کے واقعے کی شدید مذمت کی گئی ہے۔
واضح رہے کہ اسلام آباد میں نامعلوم افراد نے صحافی اور بلاگر اسد طور پر گھر میں گھس کر بہیمانہ تشدد کیا۔
جیونیوز نے صحافی پر تشدد کے بعد ملزمان کے فرار کی سی سی ٹی وی وڈیو حاصل کرلی، وڈیو کے مطابق تین ملزمان کو اسد طور کے فلیٹ سے فرار ہوتے دیکھا گیا۔
ویڈیو میں اسد طور کو بھی بندھے ہوئے ہاتھ پیروں کے ساتھ زخمی حالت میں اپارٹمنٹ سے باہر نکلتے اور مدد کے لیے پکارتے بھی دیکھا گیا۔
https://jang.com.pk/news/932376
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Prosecutors Convene Grand Jury That Could Weigh Potential Trump Charges: Report
سعودی عرب کی زیر زمین ثقافت - سعودی معاشرے پر رکھے تقدیس کے مہین پردے کے نیچے ہر طرح کی عیاشی عام ہے
بین الاقوامی ذرائع ابلاغ میں ان دنوں سعودی معاشرے کی منافقت کا چرچا ہو رہا ہے۔سعودی عرب میں وقت گزارنے والے مغربی شہری پےدر پے انکشاف کر رہے ہیں کہ سعودی معاشرے پر رکھے تقدیس کے مہین پردے کے نیچے ہر طرح کی عیاشی عام ہے۔ نوجوان لوگ شراب اور منشیات میں دھت نظر آتے ہیں اور ایسی پارٹیوں کا منعقد ہونا عام ہے جہاں کھلے عام جنسی افعال سے لطف اٹھایا جاتا ہے۔ سعودی عرب کی سخت گیر پولیس ان سرگرمیوں سے چشم پوشی کرتی ہیں۔برطانوی میڈیا میں سعودی عرب پر تنقید کا یہ سلسلہ تب شروع ہوا جب سعودی حکام نے ایک بزرگ برطانوی شہری کارل آندرے کو وائن کی بارہ خانہ ساز بوتلیں رکھنے پر 350 کوڑوں کی سزا سنائی۔
نامعلوم برطانوی شہریوں نے سنڈے مرر کو بتایا ہے کہ سعودی عرب کے اشرافیہ کے بچے اسلامی قوانین کی کھلے عام خلاف ورزی کرتے ہیں۔ ٹنڈر جیسی موبائل سہولتوں کی مدد سے طوائفیں حاصل کی جاتی ہیں۔ چرس کا استعمال عام ہے ۔ زیر زمین مارکیٹ میں اسقاط حمل کی ادویات آسانی سے مل جاتی ہیں ۔ گھریلو طور پر تیار کی ہوئی ایسی وہسکی عام طور پر مل جاتی ہے جس میں الکحل کی مقدار ننانوے فیصد تک ہوتی ہے۔
سعودی حکومت دنیا بھر میں اپنے سخت مذہبی قوانین پر فخر کرتی ہے لیکن تقدیس کی اس چادر کے نیچے صحیح قیمت ادا کرنے پر سب کچھ دستیاب ہو سکتا ہے۔ دنیا کے چند امیر ترین ممالک میں سے ایک ہونے کے باعث بہت سے لوگوں کے لیے پیسہ کوئی معنی نہیں رکھتا چنانچہ پولیس کی ہمدردیاں جیتنا بہت آسان ہے۔ جن علاقوں میں مغربی گھرانے آباد ہیں وہاں آلو سے ننانوے فیصد پروف والی شراب تیار کی جاتی ہے اور اسے کھلے عام سعودی عرب کے تمام بڑے شہروں میں خریدا جا سکتا ہے۔ بتایا گیا ہے کہ پلاسٹک کی بوتلوں میں الکحل صرف چند پاﺅنڈ کے عوض خریدی جا سکتی ہے ۔ پولیس افسروں کی تنخواہ عموماً سات سو پاﺅنڈ ماہانہ سے زیادہ نہیں ہے چنانچہ انہیں بالائی آمدنی کی ضرورت رہتی ہے۔
ایک اخبار نے لکھا ہے کہ سعودی عرب میں زیر زمین پارٹیاں مغربی معیارات سے کئی گنا زیادہ کھلی ڈھلی ہوتی ہیں۔ بہت سے گھروں میں گرم پانی کے تالاب موجود ہیں اور وہاں لوگوں کو کھلے عام جنسی سرگرمیوں میں مصروف دیکھا جا سکتا ہے۔ بہت سے سعودی نوجوان ایسی ادویات استعمال کرتے ہیں جو داعش اپنے لڑاکا فوجیوں کا حوصلہ بلند رکھنے کے لیے استعمال کرتی ہے مثلاً کیپٹا گان۔ سعودی نوجوان یہ دوا استعمال کر کے تیز رفتار گاڑیوں میں خوفناک کرتب دکھاتے ہیں۔
چند برس قبل برطانیہ میں دو لاکھ دس ہزار افراد نے ایک عرض داشت پر دستخط کیے تھے جس میں وزیراعظم ڈیوڈ کیمرون سے درخواست کی گئی تھی کہ وہ 74 سالہ کارل آندرے کو ملنے والی کوڑوں کی سزا پر عمل درآمد ر کوائیں۔ کارل کے بیٹے سائمن نے کہا ہے کہ اس کا 74 سالہ باپ تین دفعہ کینسر میں مبتلا رہ چکا ہے اور دمے کا مریض بھی ہے۔ اس کا امکان کم ہے کہ وہ اس سزا سے جانبر ہو سکے۔سائمن نے بتایا ہے کہ اس کی معلومات کے مطابق سعودی حکام نے برطانوی حکومت کو یقین دہانی کرائی ہے کہ کوڑوں کی سزا پر عمل درآمد نہیں کیا جائے گا۔ سعودی قوانین کے مطابق شراب پینے اور زنا کرنے پر کوڑے مارنے اور سرقلم کرنے تک کی سزائیں دی جا سکتی ہیں۔
سندھ میں غربت کی شرح میں واضح کمی اس بات کا ثبوت ہے کہ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی نے ڈلیور کر کے دکھایا ہے، چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری
کراچی/اسلام آباد(—–) پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا ہے کہ پی پی پی حکومت نے غربت کی کمی کیلئے بینظیرانکم سپورٹ پروگرام شروع کیا اور عمران خان نے اس کا نام بدل ڈالا، میڈیا سیل بلاول ہاؤس سے جاری اپنے ایک بیان میں چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی نے ایک ایسے وقت میں بینظیر انکم سپورٹ پروگرام شروع کیا کہ جب دنیا میں معاشی بحران تھا، عمران خان بتائیں کہ بینظیرانکم سپورٹ پروگرام کا نام تبدیل کرنے کے علاوہ انہوں نے غربت میں کمی کیلئے اب تک کیا کیا؟ انہوں نے کہا کہ عوام کو سب پتہ ہے کہ احساس کفالت پروگرام دراصل بینظیرانکم سپورٹ پروگرام ہی ہے، عمران خان کی غربت میں کمی کے بینظیر انکم سپورٹ پروگرام کی چوری پکڑی جاچکی ہے اور اب عمران خان بینظیر انکم سپورٹ پروگرام کا نام کچھ بھی رکھ دیں، پاکستان کے عوام سب جانتے ہیں،
چیئرمین پی پی پی نے بتایا کہ بینظیرانکم سپورٹ پروگرام دراصل شہید محترمہ بے نظیر بھٹو کا ایک آئیڈیا تھا جسے پی پی پی حکومت نے عملی جامہ پہنایا، پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی نے ایک بڑے سماجی بہبود کے بینظیر انکم سپورٹ پروگرام کو شروع کرکے دنیا میں ایک مثال قائم کی اور یہی وہ وجہ ہے کہ آج عالمی ادارے پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کی حکومت کی جانب سے شروع ہونے والے بینظیر انکم سپورٹ پروگرام کی اہمیت کا اعتراف کررہے ہیں،
پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کا کہنا تھا کہ سپریم کورٹ میں بینظیرانکم سپورٹ پروگرام کے نام کی تبدیلی کے اعتراف کے باوجود احساس پروگرام کو نیا منصوبہ قرار دینا عوام سے دھوکا ہے، وزیراعظم منصوبوں، اداروں اور عمارتوں کے نام بدلنے سے عوام کے دلوں سے شہید محترمہ بینظیر بھٹو کا نام نہیں مٹاسکتے، ان کا کہنا تھا کہ جھوٹ اور دھوکے کو یوٹرن کا نام دے کر اس پر فخر کرنا عمران خان کے مزاج کا حصہ بن چکا ہے،
اس موقع پر پی پی پی چیئرمین نے سندھ حکومت کے حالیہ عوام دوست منصوبوں کا ذکر کرتے ہوئے بتایا کہ پی پی پی نے عمران خان کے معاشی سونامی کے دوران سندھ کی لاکھوں دیہی خواتین کو فنی تربیت دی تاکہ وہ خودکفیل ہوسکیں جبکہ سندھ میں پی پی پی حکومت نے عمران خان کی مسلط کردہ مہنگائی کی ستائی لاکھوں دیہی خواتین کو کاروبار شروع کرنے کیلئے بلاسود قرضے بھی دئیے، انہوں نے بتایا کہ یہی وہ وجوہات ہیں کہ پی پی پی کی سندھ حکومت نے اپنے عوام دوست اقدامات سے صوبے کی فی کس آمدنی کو ملک بھر میں سب سے زیادہ کردیا جبکہ سندھ میں غربت کی شرح میں غیرمعمولی 7.6 فیصد کی کمی بھی اس بات کا ثبوت ہے کہ پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی نے ڈلیور کرکے دکھایا ہے
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24898/
All that the incompetent PTI government can do is put up new plaques on old projects initiated by PPP – says Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
In a statement issued from the Media Cell Bilawal House, the Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that PPP government launched BISP to alleviate poverty and provide aid to the poor at a time when the world faced the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. PPP then implemented the programme to provide the needy with financial assistance. The past two and half years of this government have shown that selected PM lacks the vision or the ideology to launch a project so big that it attributes to reducing Pakistan’s poverty levels.
The ongoing Ehsas Kafaalat Programme is originally the BISP, and the puppet Prime Minister has exposed himself to the people. This government’s petty attempts to erase the legacy of Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister would always fail, as Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is synonymous with the welfare of the poor. It does not matter how the puppet Prime Minister tries and change the name to erase the name of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, she lives in the hearts of the people and they will always see through these petty and regressive steps.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stated, “PPP implemented the social welfare programme under the title of BISP, and the project is recognised and admired by international institutions as a unique and progressive way of addressing extreme poverty and the need for women empowerment.”
Today, the PTI-led Federal government is shamelessly trumpeting the drums of pioneering the Ehsas Kafaalat Programme despite previously confessing before the country’s apex court that the BISP’s title has been amended to the Ehsas Kifalat Programme. The PTI-led Federal government is deceiving the people, he remarked.
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is the most incapable and incompetent PM in Pakistan’s history. All he can do is rename projects and put up new plaques on old projects initiated by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. “No matter what the illegitimate selected Prime Minister does, he can never erase the love and respect people have for Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. In contrast, the only legacy Imran Khan will leave behind is one of economic turmoil, unemployment, and poverty. This governments lack of direction, as is evidenced by its constant U-turns on all matters of national importance, is an apt reflection of the lack of vision of the Prime Minister himself.”
Referring to the people-friendly, social welfare projects in Sindh by the PPP-led government, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stated that though PTI has exposed the people to economic ruin, the Sindh government is doing its best to stem the tide of destruction and protect the most vulnerable. One of Sindh’s flagship initiatives, the Peoples Poverty Reduction Program, has imparted Vocational training to millions of women of the province so as to make them economically self-reliant. Interest-free soft loans have also been released to aid them in establishing and growing their enterprises, he added.
The PPP-led Sindh government has also successfully managed to boost the per capita income in Sindh through its public-friendly social welfare programmes. In addition, the decline in the poverty by 7.6 percent is proof that the social welfare policies and measures the PPP government has adopted are reaping dividends for some of the most marginalized communities in the province, he asserted.
Pakistan: Government attempts to 'Islamize' mainstream curriculum
Prime Minister Imran Khan's administration is preparing to implement a uniform education system in the country with a strong focus on an Islamized syllabus and teaching the Quran.
Pakistan's government is all set to implement a uniform education system across the country, which critics fear could increase Islamization of schools and universities.
The first phase of the implementation involves primary school students in the first through fifth grades. The plan mandates the students to read the entire Quran with translation, learn Islamic prayers and memorize a number of hadith (words, actions and approval of the Prophet Muhammad).
It also stipulates that every school and college must employ a pair of certified Hafiz (a person who has memorized the Quran) and Qari (a Quran reciter) to teach these subjects.
Critics believe that the move will increase the influence of Islamic clerics, sharpen sectarian fault lines and greatly damage the social fabric.
Urdu, English and social studies have been heavily Islamized, Abdul Hameed Nayyar, an Islamabad-based academic, told DW. He added that students will also study the Quran's 30 chapters and a translation of the entire book at a later stage, besides the book on Islamic studies.
Nayyar said critical thinking was a basic tenet of modern knowledge but the government seemed to be promoting ideas that are antithetical to this through the syllabus.
Kowtowing to Islamic forces
Since Pakistan's creation in 1947, there has been an alliance between the state and Islamic conservatives.
Though Islamization creeped in gradually during the 1950s and '60s, it picked up pace in the 1970s before intensifying in the '80s, under the dictatorship of General Zia-ul Haq.
Haq launched a vigorous drive to change the liberal nature of the constitution. He also introduced Islamic laws, Islamized the educational curriculums, opened up thousands of religious seminaries across the country, inducted Islamists into judiciary, bureaucracy and the army and created institutions headed by Islamic clerics to oversee the affairs of the government.
Since his death in 1988, almost all governments have tried to appease the religious forces through Islamization.
The current government, under Prime Minister Imran Khan, has also been accused of kowtowing to the Islamic establishment.
'Madrassification' of schools
In 2018, Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party promised to introduce a uniform education system.
Many hoped that the new curriculum would emphasize science, arts, literature and other contemporary subjects.
But, in 2019, Khan's government unveiled its plan, which focused heavily on Islamized syllabus. Implementation has been delayed during the coronavirus pandemic, but is expected to begin this year.
Books for primary school students have already been published, with Islamized content featuring heavily in textbooks for English, Urdu, social studies, and other subjects.
In the next phase, the government intends to introduce the new Islam-heavy syllabus for middle school students and possibly for high school students in the 11th and 12th grades.
Rubina Saigol, a Lahore-based educationist, told DW that the "madrassification" of public schools would have serious ramifications.
"The syllabus is likely to produce students with an Islamic conservative global outlook, who would view women as subservient souls who do not deserve freedom and independence," Saigol said.
Over 30% more Islamic content
Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physicist based in Islamabad, told DW that the new syllabus could inflict damage upon Pakistan's education system in a manner never seen before.
"The systemic changes hidden in it go far deeper than the ones conceived and executed by General Zia's extremist regime," Hoodbhoy said. A deep analysis of the syllabus shows that "it will impose more rote learning of religious materials on ordinary schools than even madrassas," he added.
Some have already challenged the proposed changes in the nation's highest court.
Peter Jacob, a Lahore-based human rights activist, told DW that about 30-40% of the content in compulsory subjects was religious in nature.
"Many people have approached the court because it is against the constitution," Jacob said. He added that members of minority communities do not believe that such text should be in compulsory subjects.
'We should learn from Bangladesh'
It is not just liberal academics or minorities' groups that are voicing concern about the Islamization of the school syllabus. Even some government allies have also expressed reservations.
Kishwar Zehra, a parliamentarian of Muttehida Qaumi Movement, which is part of Khan's ruling coalition, strongly opposes the Islamization.
"We should learn from Bangladesh, which is promoting secular values," Zehra told DW, asserting that the current drive to further Islamize the syllabus is aimed at appeasing the Islamic right-wing forces.
Instead of increasing religious content, Zehra said, the government should incorporate the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which she believes Pakistani students desperately need to know.
The government, however, has so far dismissed the criticism.
Muhammad Bashir Khan, a parliamentarian from the ruling party, said the Islamization of the syllabus is was the right step.
"Pakistan is an ideological Islamic state and we need religious education," he said. "I feel that even now our syllabus is not completely Islamized and we need to do more Islamization of the syllabus, teaching more religious content for the moral and ideological training of our citizens."
The Islamization of curricula has not been limited to schools. Recently, the government in Punjab province has also made teaching of the Quran with translation mandatory for all university students.
According to the provincial government, students will not be awarded degrees if they do not study the Quran.
https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-schools-islamization/a-57640587
Indian Army has new strategies for Pakistan, China: Punitive deterrence, credible deterrence
SNEHESH ALEX PHILIP
With tensions continuing with China, India has deployed more troops along the Line of Actual Control this summer than before.The Indian military is bringing a series of key changes, including in the Order of Battle (ORBAT), with the strategy being punitive deterrence against Pakistan and credible deterrence against China, ThePrint has learnt.This strategy, which called for integrated formations rather than just corps-level response, forms the foundation of the Indian military’s re-balance from the western borders with Pakistan to the northern and eastern borders with China. Government sources told ThePrint that the overall strategy does not involve the military alone but also diplomacy and economics. “From a military point of view, the western theatre has always been the focus area. Our strategy there has been that of punitive deterrence. This means that India has overwhelmingly higher military power for punitive action,” a source said. Explaining the nuance of the strategy against China, the source said the aim is credible deterrence. “Under credible deterrence, the opposite side should know that India has the ability for a counter operation and to inflict damage. China sees itself equal to the US in terms of military power. However, it has realised that while militarily it might be bigger, India won’t budge and can actually hit back. This affects the image that they want to portray internationally. This is called credible deterrence,” the source said, refusing to go into the key changes planned and set in motion. Sources gave the example of the last year’s August 29/30 operation by the Indian forces when they outflanked the Chinese and occupied the heights in the southern banks of Pangong Tso, much to the discomfort of the Chinese.
Sources explained that this strategy is for along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and not just Ladakh which comes under the Northern sector. This means that the strategy will extend to the Central and Eastern sectors too.The Army chief Gen M M Naravane had in January this year said the force was “re-balancing” its deployment and strategy along the western, northern and northeastern borders to deal with any kind of threat that might emerge — be it from Pakistan or China. The re-balance strategy came following an internal study conducted by the Army on how to prepare for the threat from China and Pakistan. ThePrint had on 12 April reported that a summer strategy has already been put in place in Eastern Ladakh and also implemented key changes in the ORBAT.
More troops along the LAC than before
Focus on integrated battle and not just Corps level responseUnder the changes in ORBAT, while India earlier had three Strike Corps focused against Pakistan, it now has two. And instead of just one Strike Corps against China, it has two now. “The focus is not just on corps-level response to an aggression but also a more integrated response,” said a source. This means not just the Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs), the brainchild of Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat when he was the Army chief, but also a joint response from the three Services — Army, Navy and Air Force. Incidentally, the Army had in October 2019 put into action its concept of IBGS for the first time. The IBGs were carved out of the Panagarh-based 17 Corps’ (Mountain Strike Corps) 59 Mountain Division. The plan was that this would be a study case and the IBGs would be rolled out after fine-tuning. Each IBG would be based on specific operational requirements considering the topography as well as threat perceptions. Gen Naravane had in May last year said the IBGs would be operational “soon”. However, the process got hit because of the pandemic and the tensions that broke along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. https://theprint.in/defence/indian-army-has-new-strategies-for-pakistan-china-punitive-deterrence-credible-deterrence/663748/
Monday, May 24, 2021
Israel should take note: the weight of opinion is turning against it
Thanks in part to a global focus more intense than on any other conflict, western attitudes to the Middle East may be shifting.It’s not over, because it’s never over. But there is at least the hope of a pause. After less than a fortnight in which nearly 250 people have been killed, both Hamas and Israel agreed late on Thursday to hold their fire, each crafting a victory story to tell the world and themselves. For Hamas, the narrative is simple enough. Despite being caged in a tiny terrain, and with a fraction of their foe’s resources, they managed to surprise the enemy and strike at its civilian heart. They unleashed a torrent of missiles, more sophisticated than before, some of them breaching Israel’s Iron Dome defence system and landing not only on Israel’s peripheral towns but also its central city of Tel Aviv. It can claim, ahead of its Fatah rivals in the West Bank, to be the guardian of the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem. What’s more, it watched with satisfaction as a hole was ripped in Israel’s social fabric, with the country’s Jewish and Arab citizens attacking each other on streets they once shared. For Israel, the generals are briefing that Operation Guardian of the Walls degraded Hamas’s military capacity, that most of those it killed were Hamas fighters, and that more has been done in the last 10 days than the equivalent offensives of 2009, 2012 and 2014 combined. But they’re not fooling anyone. Israel knows that it has endured a strategic disaster, the “most failed and pointless border war” in its history, according to Haaretz’s editor, Aluf Benn. It did not see the Hamas attack coming and its vulnerability under fire will have been noted by Hezbollah to the north, which holds a much more powerful arsenal than Hamas’s, and by Hezbollah’s patron in Tehran.Still, the bigger failings predate and go beyond this latest eruption. Israel told itself all was quiet on the Gaza front. More than that, it thought it had stilled the Palestinian issue altogether, convinced that its “Abraham accords” with Gulf states and others had made the Palestinians all but irrelevant. It has now seen the folly of that delusion.Which points to the other strategic danger for Israel. It could yet prove ephemeral; the international attention span is short, people might soon scroll on to the next big thing. But plenty of credible observers wonder if a turning point was reached this last fortnight in the way the Israel/Palestine conflict is seen around the world and especially in the west. For a loud and influential segment of opinion, it is being reframed not as a national conflict of competing claims, but as a straightforward matter of racial justice. Note the placards at last weekend’s demonstration in London: Palestine Can’t Breathe and Palestinian Lives Matter.Framed that way, #FreePalestine could be on its way to joining #MeToo or #BlackLivesMatter as an issue that a global generation regards as of paramount importance, championed not just by politicians but by the leading lights of popular culture, from footballers to singers to fashion influencers with millions of followers. The intercommunal clashes between Jews and Arabs inside Israel reinforce that reading, with incidents of police brutality or discrimination in the criminal justice system that seem to map neatly on to the BLM template. Those with a strong connection to Israel scratch their heads at this, wondering why, of all the appalling things going on in the world, this is the one that cuts through – bringing huge crowds on to the streets of European capitals, filling up social media timelines. They note that people who have barely stirred at the detention of a million Uyghur Muslims in China; who have not so much as “liked” a tweet about the tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims murdered by Myanmar; who rarely get agitated by the 200,000 civilians butchered by the Assad regime in Syria or by the 130,000 killed in Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen; and who might be wholly unaware of the 52,000 estimated to have been killed in the Ethiopian-Tigray conflict since November, have nevertheless been filled with fury by events in Gaza. Much of the explanation is that Israel/Palestine is simply more visible, with media coverage on a scale unmatched by any of those other catastrophes. When 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed in a single month, the major broadcasters did not fly out their presenters to anchor coverage on the spot or nearby. There are no hourly updates of the death toll in Ethiopia, and few interviews with or photographs of the grieving relatives of Yemen. A former Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem has written that he was one of more than 40 staff journalists covering Israel/Palestine, which was then “significantly more news staff than the AP had in China, Russia, or India, or in all of the 50 countries of sub-Saharan Africa combined”. The effect, he wrote, is to signal to readers that Israel/Palestine is “the most important story on Earth” – and, by implication, that the wrongdoing there is worse than anything else on the planet. You could fill many doctoral dissertations asking what explains this intensity of focus. It can’t be the number of deaths, because many, many more have been killed in those other places. It can’t be the fact that Israel is a favoured western ally; so is Saudi Arabia. Perhaps it’s simply that the Israeli occupation has now endured for 54 years, though Turkey, a Nato member, has waged a war on the Kurds nearly as long. In a way, the search for an explanation is secondary. More important are the consequences. Jewish communities know they have to brace themselves every time violence erupts: this latest episode brought a sixfold increase in reports of antisemitic incidents in the UK, according to the Community Security Trust. Of course, most pro-Palestinian campaigners stress they have no grievance against diaspora Jews. But the fervour stirred up by this conflict can get so hot, it is not always easy to control. As for Israel, for its leaders to complain about the scrutiny they get is, as the old line has it, like a sailor complaining about the sea. Instead, they need to adjust to the fact that they could soon face a new strategic reality in which the politics of their closest ally, the US, is changing especially. No less striking than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez branding Israel an “apartheid state” was this week’s move by longtime pro-Israel Democrats in Congress to delay the transfer of an arms package to Israel. At the moment, it’s easy to dismiss this as a passing fad – to note that even if Capitol Hill might be shifting, plenty of continental European politicians are heading in the opposite direction, becoming more, not less, sympathetic to Israel. But Israel should read the warning signs. Those of us who have long condemned the occupation always argued that if Israel did not do the right thing and end it, it would eventually be branded a pariah state. If the last two weeks are anything to go by, that day is getting closer.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/21/israel-opinion-western-attitudes-middle-east?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other