Thursday, November 17, 2022
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Saturday, November 12, 2022
#Pakistan - The FAO has warned that about 6m people can face acute food insecurity in 28 vulnerable districts of Balochistan, Sindh and KP.
JANIB Gul Mohammad can feel a pall of gloom as he enters his home. And when his wife Kasbano serves him a meat dish, otherwise a rarity, he knows why. Another animal has perished. For his wife, it is a day of mourning; to him, another huge economic loss.
As if the floods had not caused enough devastation — destroyed their home and the rice crop — it is sapping life out of their livestock too. A few days ago, it was the fourth time in the last one month that he ate meat.He and his wife rescued all their six animals when they fled the floodwaters that submerged their home and took refuge on the embankment of a canal for two weeks before returning.
However, soon after being displaced, one pregnant cow, a calf and two goats died, Gul Mohammad said over the phone from his village in Fateh Ali Buledi, in Sindh’s Kamber Shahdadkot district. The cow and goat that are still alive will soon succumb, he said, estimating a total loss of Rs250,000.
“Our animals are dying from hunger and sickness,” he said. Insufficient fodder and the stress of displacement is making them weak. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 85 per cent of farmers have observed signs of animal disease outbreak in their communities.
Dr Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro, director general of the Sindh Institute of Animal Health at the provincial government’s livestock department, said the situation was alarming. In Balochistan, an estimated 500,000 animals perished; followed by 436,435 in Sindh; 205,106 in Punjab and 21,328 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. An estimated 1,164,270 animals have perished, while many more are on the verge of death.
Some animals drowned while others died of starvation as grazing land was covered with water. Consumption of contaminated water and eating wet fodder led to parasitic diseases making them weak.
With the veterinary infrastructure compromised the animals could not get vaccinated.
Livestock, the largest sub-sector in agriculture, contributed 60.1pc to agriculture value addition and 11.5pc to GDP during the 2020-21 financial year, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey. More than eight million rural families are engaged in livestock production and deriving more than 35pc-40 pc of their income from this source.
There are 42m buffaloes and almost 51m cattle in Pakistan, according to the Ministry of National Food Security & Research.
Sindh has an estimated 40m-50m livestock population, said Dr Kalhoro; it is also the worst-affected province in terms of losses, which he estimates to be Rs27,864,065,000. “Balochistan may have lost more animals, but it had smaller ruminants for personal use, not cash or dairy animals like the ones in Sindh.”
With no income, the farmers are selling their livestock to middlemen from Punjab, at a huge loss. Last month alone, Dr Kalhoro said, an estimated 4.5m animals were sold. According to several studies, faced with a crisis, small farmers are often forced to choose between selling their assets to buy food for the family or reducing their food intake to protect assets. Either way they face a loss — economic or nutritional — pushing families into poverty.
According to the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, the poverty ratio in Pakistan had declined from 57pc to 24.3pc in 2015 but has increased to 35.7pc recently.
Before the floods, the World Food Programme had carried out an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis of 28 vulnerable districts in Balochistan, KP and Sindh and estimated about 5.96m people to be in IPC phase 3 (crisis) and 4 (emergency) between July and November 2022, that would increase to 7.2m by March 2023. After the floods, the WFP and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) project the number of people requiring emergency food assistance (IPC3/4) to increase to 11m.
There was an acute shortage of fodder even before the floods. A major portion of by-products needed to make fodder was exported and small farmers were forced to import food for their animals. Now the situation has worsened and this has already resulted in a surge in the price of milk, meat, chicken and eggs, pointed out Shakir Umer, president of the Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association.
The loss of buffaloes and cows means an acute shortage of milk. Although Punjab manages 90pc of the country’s milk requirements, for small farmers in Sindh it will result in the loss of income.
The FAO has warned that about 6m people, which is 30pc of the rural population, can face acute food insecurity in 28 vulnerable districts of Balochistan, Sindh and KP and about 15pc-16pc of the population overall. In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, Pakistan is 99th out of 121 countries. The situation is bound to get worse with crops destroyed and food prices rising daily. Latest official estimates show that the area affected by the floods represents about 35pc of the total area where cereal, sugarcane and cotton were sown for the 2022 Kharif season.
Unicef estimates half a million children to face severe acute malnutrition, needing immediate treatment, and an additional 80,000 needing urgent medical interventions.In addition, 18,624,000 (or 11.24pc) poultry and 1,156 poultry farms have also been lost to the floods. This can have a huge impact, not only on the nutrition, but also on the livelihood of women in rural households.
It can take as many as 15 years to recover if things remain the same. Dr Kalhoro has come up with an emergency livestock rehabilitation plan for Sindh and if that is implemented, he is sure the sector can recover in four years.
This entails restocking among others. In the first phase, for instance, some 10,000 most vulnerable households may be provided with one milking buffalo; another 50,000 with five goats (one male among them) and 10 birds (one male). In addition, they can be provided with vaccination services, treatment of sick animals, feed, mosquito nets and spray, as well as construction material for the reconstruction of animal sheds.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1720440/livestock-loss
Imran Khan Pushes Pakistan to the Edge
The former prime minister challenges the idea that it isn’t a state with an army but an army with a state.
Is Imran Khan Pakistan’s savior or its destroyer? His legion of passionate supporters hope his continuing confrontation with the country’s army will allow him to return to power—Parliament ousted Mr. Khan in April—and cleanse Pakistan of corruption and misrule. More likely, the 70-year-old former cricketer’s vainglory and taste for brinkmanship could tip an already turbulent nation into chaos. Either way, the U.S. and its allies should brace for instability in the nuclear-armed Islamic Republic.
The latest flashpoint came last week after a failed assassination bid interrupted a protest march by Mr. Khan and his supporters to pressure the government to call early elections, which aren’t due for about a year. The shooting killed one person and wounded Mr. Khan in the leg. Authorities say they quickly arrested the would-be assassin, a religious zealot. In a confession video leaked on social media, he accused Mr. Khan of seeking to rival the prophet Muhammad.
Mr. Khan isn’t buying this explanation. He blames the attack on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Faisal Naseer, a major general in the army’s Inter-Services Intelligence. Messrs. Sharif and Sanaullah have denied Mr. Khan’s charges, as has the army. In a statement, the army called his accusation “baseless and irresponsible” and suggested Mr. Khan was threatening “the honour, safety and prestige of its rank and file.”
Mr. Khan’s public tirade against a senior officer “suggests a vendetta and signifies a major breach in civil-military relations,” says Aqil Shah, a Pakistan expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This is all the more remarkable given both Mr. Khan’s longstanding friendliness with Pakistan’s army and the central role it plays in the country’s government. In the 75 years since independence, generals have directly ruled Pakistan for about 33 years. For much of the rest, the army chief has been the power behind the throne. As the old axiom goes, Pakistan isn’t a state with an army but an army with a state. Now that is threatened by a politician who used to be viewed as the army’s puppet.
Angered by the shooting, Mr. Khan’s supporters have blocked traffic and clashed with police in Lahore and Rawalpindi. In Peshawar an angry mob gathered outside the fortified home of the general in charge of the region. On Thursday, Mr. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, resumed its march to Islamabad, without the injured Mr. Khan. Mr. Shah thinks that Mr. Khan’s message to the army is clear: “If you don’t play ball with me, I will go all the way and discredit and shame you as an institution.” Since his ouster, Mr. Khan has called on the army to pressure Mr. Sharif for early elections, accusing him of delaying so that his government can appoint an army chief after the current one retires later this month.How the crisis unfolds matters beyond Pakistan’s borders. The military’s outsize role in Pakistan’s government has long presented a security problem for the U.S. and India, among other nations. The army has fueled a long-running insurgency in India-controlled Kashmir and provided safe haven to the Taliban during its successful campaign to oust NATO forces from Afghanistan. After the 9/11 attacks the ISI reportedly established a special cell to hide Osama bin Laden a stone’s throw from the country’s premier military academy. Jihadists as far apart as Bosnia, the Philippines and Indonesia have been linked to Pakistan. The army reportedly aided rogue nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan’s smuggling operations in Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Despite this malign record, the army has also earned a reputation as the most functional institution in a dysfunctional country. Its officer corps has largely resisted factionalism and remains bound to its chain of command by intense unity and discipline. Moreover, though the army controls vast business interests, it is generally regarded as immune to the kind of day-to-day bribery that marks the country’s civilian institutions. Some scholars regard the military as the glue that holds the country together. If the army collapses, Pakistan might collapse along with it.
Mr. Khan’s public broadsides leave the generals with few good options. Firing or transferring Gen. Naseer, the ISI official responsible for domestic politics, would signal weakness in the face of Mr. Khan’s bullying. But not acting places them on a collision course with arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician. In either case, ordinary Pakistanis—already reeling this year from floods and a tanking economy—likely face even more instability.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/imran-khan-pushes-pakistan-to-the-edge-inter-services-intelligence-army-parliament-assassinations-election-taliban-11668115875?mod=opinion_featst_pos2
Friday, November 11, 2022
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Pakistan, Saudi FMs discuss political and security affairs
The two Foreign Ministers held these discussions as they jointly chaired inaugural session of the Ministerial Committee of Political and Security Pillar of the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Committee, held here in the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Underscoring the longstanding fraternal and strategic ties between the two countries, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed his resolve to further strengthen cooperation across entire spectrum of bilateral relations to realize the aspirations of the leaderships of the two countries, achieve common objectives and push their relationship to reach greater horizons.
The two sides shared assessment of the changing regional and global environments and reaffirmed their commitment to continue coordinating positions on all issues of common concern including, among others, Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reiterated Pakistan’s firm support for safety and security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad said.
He stressed the importance of continued coordination between the two countries on combating activities of terrorist groups that aim to undermine the security and stability of the regional countries.
The Foreign Minister also highlighted the need to further strengthen institutionalized linkages between the two countries to counter threats in the security domain; including cyber security, counter terrorism and its financing, organized crimes, drug trafficking and money laundering.
He expressed satisfaction on existing military and defence ties between the two brotherly countries and underscored Pakistan’s commitment to further bolster cooperation in this area.
The meeting was held under the framework of Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council which is chaired by the Prime Ministers of both countries.
Senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign, Defence, Interior and the Security and Intelligence Services of both countries also attended the meeting.
https://www.app.com.pk/global/pakistan-saudi-fms-discuss-political-and-security-affairs/
Pakistan wants to further strengthen institutional linkages with GCC, members states: Bilawal
The Foreign Minister, who met with Dr. Nayef Falah M. Al-Hajraf, Secretary General of GCC in Riyadh, said that Pakistan would be ready to host the next round of Strategic Dialogue at an early mutually convenient date in Islamabad, a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Highlighting the importance attached by Pakistan to its relations with the brotherly countries of the Gulf, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Pakistan sees GCC as an important player in the region that can play a vital role in further expanding political and economic ties between Pakistan and Gulf states.
The Foreign Minister and the Secretary General reviewed the status of Pakistan’s ongoing engagements and cooperation with the GCC and its member states.
He expressed satisfaction on the trajectory of the relationship and underscored the need for continuing this momentum going forward.
The Foreign Minister also highlighted the need for early finalization of the ongoing negotiations on Pakistan-GCC Free Trade Agreements and asked technical teams from both sides to synergize their efforts to achieve this common objective.
The Foreign Minister and the Secretary General also shared views on regional and global issues including Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Afghanistan and Yemen.
He briefed the Secretary General on Pakistan’s position and assessment on these issues and highlighted that Pakistan and the GCC countries have convergences of interests and positions on all issues of common concern.
https://www.app.com.pk/global/pakistan-wants-to-further-strengthen-institutional-linkages-with-gcc-members-states-bilawal/
#Pakistan #PPP - Bilawal in Riyadh on two-day Saudi visit
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reached Riyadh on Wednesday on a two-day official visit to Saudi Arabia to attend the Joint Sub-Committee meeting of the Political and Security pillar of the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council (SPSCC).During the visit, Bilawal would also hold bilateral talks with his Saudi counterpart. He would also meet with the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Foreign Office said. The foreign minister would also have an interaction with the local media and other dignitaries.
Bilawal reached Riyadh from Sharm el-Sheikh, where he was part of the Pakistan delegation, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to attend the COP27 summit. The Foreign Office said that the foreign minister’s visit would deepen Pakistan’s “engagement with Saudi Arabia for enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation”. In the Egyptian Red Sea resort, Bilawal met with his French counterpart, Catherine Colona, on the sidelines of Conference of Parties (COP27) summit. During the meeting, the two foreign ministers agreed to strengthen bilateral ties in diverse fields.According to the Foreign Office, both sides expressed desire to collaborate on addressing the challenges of climate change. Bilawal lauded the efforts of French President Emanuel Macron as part of global campaign to mitigate the effects of climate change. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Bilawal also met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry and Iraqi Foreign Minister Dr Fouad Hussein. During the meetings, the foreign ministers discussed bilateral relations and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest. Bilawal congratulated Shoukry on the excellent arrangements for the COP27. He invited the Egyptian foreign minister to visit Pakistan early next year to commence the bilateral activities for celebrations of 75 years of friendly relations.In the meeting with Dr Hussein, Bilawal reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for Iraq’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. He acknowledged Iraq’s success in the fight against terrorism and appreciated the resilience of Iraqi people in their efforts to overcome challenges and rebuild the country.Matters pertaining to Pakistani pilgrims visiting Iraq and the people-to-people contacts also came under discussion. While appreciating the measures taken by the Iraqi government for the well-being of the pilgrims, Bilawal requested his counterpart for facilitating the Pakistanis during Ashura Muharram and Arbaeen.
Bilawal reached Riyadh from Sharm el-Sheikh, where he was part of the Pakistan delegation, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to attend the COP27 summit. The Foreign Office said that the foreign minister’s visit would deepen Pakistan’s “engagement with Saudi Arabia for enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation”. In the Egyptian Red Sea resort, Bilawal met with his French counterpart, Catherine Colona, on the sidelines of Conference of Parties (COP27) summit. During the meeting, the two foreign ministers agreed to strengthen bilateral ties in diverse fields.According to the Foreign Office, both sides expressed desire to collaborate on addressing the challenges of climate change. Bilawal lauded the efforts of French President Emanuel Macron as part of global campaign to mitigate the effects of climate change. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Bilawal also met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry and Iraqi Foreign Minister Dr Fouad Hussein. During the meetings, the foreign ministers discussed bilateral relations and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest. Bilawal congratulated Shoukry on the excellent arrangements for the COP27. He invited the Egyptian foreign minister to visit Pakistan early next year to commence the bilateral activities for celebrations of 75 years of friendly relations.In the meeting with Dr Hussein, Bilawal reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for Iraq’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. He acknowledged Iraq’s success in the fight against terrorism and appreciated the resilience of Iraqi people in their efforts to overcome challenges and rebuild the country.Matters pertaining to Pakistani pilgrims visiting Iraq and the people-to-people contacts also came under discussion. While appreciating the measures taken by the Iraqi government for the well-being of the pilgrims, Bilawal requested his counterpart for facilitating the Pakistanis during Ashura Muharram and Arbaeen.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2385639/bilawal-in-riyadh-on-two-day-saudi-visit
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Sunday, November 6, 2022
THE EDITORIAL: NYT - America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both.
Over the past five years, incidents of political violence in the United States by right-wing extremists have soared. Few experts who track this type of violence believe things will get better anytime soon without concerted action. Domestic extremism is actually likely to worsen. The attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the House of Representatives, was only the latest episode, and federal officials warn that the threat of violence could continue to escalate after the midterm elections.
The embrace of conspiratorial and violent ideology and rhetoric by many Republican politicians during and after the Trump presidency, anti-government anger related to the pandemic, disinformation, cultural polarization, the ubiquity of guns and radicalized internet culture have all led to the current moment, and none of those trends are in retreat. Donald Trump was the first American president to rouse an armed mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened lawmakers. Taken together, these factors form a social scaffolding that allows for the kind of endemic political violence that can undo a democracy. Ours would not be the first.
Yet the nation is not powerless to stop a slide toward deadly chaos. If institutions and individuals do more to make it unacceptable in American public life, organized violence in the service of political objectives can still be pushed to the fringes. When a faction of one of the country’s two main political parties embraces extremism, that makes thwarting it both more difficult and more necessary. A well-functioning democracy demands it. The legal tools to do so are already available and in many cases are written into state constitutions, in laws prohibiting private paramilitary activity. “I fear that the country is entering a phase of history with more organized domestic civil violence than we’ve seen in 100 years,” said Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, who pioneered legal strategies to go after violent extremists earlier in his career. “We have done it in the past and can do so again.” As the range of violence in recent years shows, the scourge of extremism in the United States is evident across the political spectrum. But the threat to the current order comes disproportionately from the right. Of the more than 440 extremism-related murders committed in the past decade, more than 75 percent were committed by right-wing extremists, white supremacists or anti-government extremists. The remaining quarter stemmed from a range of other motivations, according to a study by the Anti-Defamation League. There were 29 extremist-related homicides last year: 26 committed by right-wing extremists, two by Black nationalists and one by an Islamic extremist. The Department of Homeland Security has warned again and again that domestic extremism motivated by white supremacist and other right-wing ideologies is the country’s top terrorism threat. Some of the most spectacular recent episodes of political terrorism are etched into the nation’s collective memory: mass shootings in El Paso and Buffalo, bomb and arson attacks against mosques and synagogues, a plot by a paramilitary group to kidnap Michigan’s governor, the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. There have been attacks on conservatives, too: In June, a man was arrested outside Brett Kavanaugh’s home after he said he wanted to kill the justice, and in 2017, Representative Steve Scalise was shot at a baseball field. But the number and nature of the episodes aren’t comparable, and no leading figures in the Democratic Party condone, mock or encourage their supporters to violence in ways that are common from politicians on the right and their supporters in the conservative media. In addition to these high-profile events, the threat of violence has begun to have a corrosive effect on many aspects of public life: the hounding of election workers until they are forced into hiding, harassment of school board officials, threats to judges, armed demonstrations at multiple statehouses, attacks on abortion clinics and anti-abortion pregnancy centers, bomb threats against hospitals that offer care to transgender children, assaults on flight attendants who try to enforce Covid rules and the armed intimidation of librarians over the books and ideas they choose to share. Meanwhile, threats against members of Congress are more than 10 times as numerous as they were just five years ago. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a senator or House member were killed,” Senator Susan Collins told The Times this fall.
Many — far too many — Americans now consider political violence not only acceptable but perhaps necessary. In an online survey of more than 7,200 adults, nearly a third of people answered that political violence is usually or always justified. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and released in October, came to the alarming conclusion that “MAGA Republicans” (as opposed to those who identified themselves as traditional Republicans) “are more likely to hold extreme and racist beliefs, to endorse political violence, to see such violence as likely to occur and to predict that they will be armed under circumstances in which they consider political violence to be justified.”Any violence suppresses participation in democratic decision making, and it can negate the decisions that are made. “The damage that this violence itself and the conspiracies driving it are causing to our democracy are already substantial and are likely to produce significant democratic decline if not arrested soon,” Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the Jan. 6 committee. There are four interrelated trends that the country needs to address: the impunity of organized paramilitary groups, the presence of extremists in law enforcement and the military, the global spread of extremist ideas and the growing number of G.O.P. politicians who are using the threat of political violence not just to intimidate their opponents on the left but also to wrest control of the party from those Republicans who are committed to democratic norms. Over the coming weeks, relying on extensive reporting and deep analysis, this series plans to explore solutions, such as identifying members of violent paramilitary groups who may work in law enforcement or the military, stemming the money and technology that fuel these movements and describing how the Republican Party can fight its worst, violent fringes. Preserving the health of our democracy is as much a matter of preventive care as it is the application of a tourniquet. A promising place to start combating political violence is with extremist paramilitary groups. While the majority of such violence in the United States comes at the hands of people not strictly affiliated with these groups — the man who is accused of attacking Mr. Pelosi, for example, echoed their hatred of Nancy Pelosi, but it’s not clear whether the man had links to any of them — they are nonetheless often the vanguard of violent episodes, such as the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and they are active in spreading their brands of ideological extremism online. They go by many names: the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Bois, the Three Percenters, the Wolverine Watchmen. Some fancy themselves militias, but they aren’t, according to the law. These groups have been around in their modern incarnations since the end of the Vietnam War, and their popularity has waxed and waned. In fact, political violence is as old as the nation itself; right-wing frustrations with democratic outcomes have birthed militia movements throughout American history. Most notably, the Ku Klux Klan has spent over a century and a half, from Reconstruction to the present day, terrorizing Black Americans and others in service of political ends. Today, levels of political violence are high and climbing. In 2020 the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that violence from all political ideologies reached its highest level since the group began collecting data in 1994. And extremist paramilitary groups have again become a common presence in American life, on college campuses, at public protests and at political rallies. But it is unacceptable in a democracy for organized groups of men armed with military-style firearms and dressed in body armor to appear regularly at political rallies or to act as security for public officials and office seekers. Indeed, in nearly every state the subordination of the military to civil authorities is written explicitly into their constitutions. “When private armies organize into military-style units that are neither responsible to, nor under the command of, the civil power of the state authorities, they may violate this constitutional command to the detriment of civil order,” concluded a report from the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, which compiled a state-by-state compendium of laws banning so-called militias. There is no federal anti-paramilitary law, though Congress should consider one. States, however, do have legal instruments to deal with these extremist groups, even if they rarely show the will to use them. When they do, these laws are effective. In 1979 in Seadrift, Texas, the tension between white fishermen and newly arrived refugees from Vietnam who had begun to work the same waters turned deadly. A Vietnamese American fisherman shot and killed a white fisherman on the town dock in a dispute over fishing that, by 1981, had grown into a campaign of boat burnings, cross burnings and death threats from a group called the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. One Klan flier posted in Seadrift at the time echoed the language of so-called great replacement theory: “After years and years of whites fishing along the Texas coast, the government has brought in Vietnamese replacements for them. White people are being replaced by nonwhites all over the United States.”White fishermen, wearing hoods and holding AR-15 rifles, would cruise the waterfront to intimidate Vietnamese American fishermen. Kirk Wallace Johnson, in his new book, “The Fishermen and the Dragon,” describes an incident in which the white fishermen dangled an effigy from an outrigger. In 1981, the Vietnamese Fishermen’s Association turned to lawyers, including Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Mr. Zelikow. They brought a case against the Klan using an anti-paramilitary statute that was on the books in Texas.It was the first time in more than a century that the law had been used, Mr. Zelikow said, and it was the premise for the request to a judge to shut down the Klan campaign and its paramilitary training facilities. The lawyers developed a standard to define the illegal activity — one that distinguished hunters from paramilitary extremists. Illegal paramilitaries had, as an expert who testified put it, “command structure, training and discipline so as to function as a combat or combat support unit.”The judge found in their favor and shut down the Klan. The strategy was used again in the mid-1980s by the Southern Poverty Law Center to shutter another Klan organization in North Carolina, which also explicitly outlaws paramilitary groups. “We prohibit the existence of private military groups because they are a danger to society and to democracy. Unless we want to accept their presence and proliferation, we need to be willing to use the legal tools that we have to disrupt their activities,” Mr. Zelikow said in an interview. In 2017, Mr. Zelikow, who lives in Charlottesville, Va., wrote about this legal strategy after the Unite the Right rally. He assisted another team of lawyers, led by a former federal prosecutor, Mary McCord, who soon after used a similar approach to bar nearly two dozen extremist paramilitary groups and their leaders from returning to Charlottesville on the first anniversary of the rally. And last month, Ms. McCord led a successful effort to get a court injunction against a paramilitary organization in New Mexico. Maintaining a monopoly on force is, after all, a basic function of any government, and the Supreme Court upheld the legality of anti-paramilitary laws in 1886. Still, some legal scholars worry that the current court may decide that anti-paramilitary statutes run afoul of the Constitution’s guarantee of the right of free association and free speech. The current ultraconservative Supreme Court’s expansive view of the Second Amendment may also one day lead it to overturn anti-paramilitary laws, though the court did say in its 2008 decision on the individual right to bear arms that the amendment didn’t prevent states from outlawing paramilitary groups. These laws are some of the best available tools the nation has to stop political violence without infringing on First Amendment freedoms, they have been effectively used in both liberal and conservative states, and they have overcome political opposition. In Idaho, for example, critics of the state’s ban on private paramilitary activity called it an infringement on rights and freedoms. The state’s House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill in February to repeal it. Then, in June, police arrested dozens of masked members of the Patriot Front white supremacist paramilitary group who, officials said, were in the back of a moving truck en route to disrupt an L.G.B.T.Q. Pride event. Confronted with the immediate possibility of violence, Gov. Brad Little, a Republican who initially backed the effort to repeal the anti-militia law, spoke out forcefully against the threat of violence. “Intimidation, scare tactics and violence has no place in our great state,” he said. “All Americans should be able to peacefully express their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech without the threat of violence. It is what has always set America apart from other nations.” While the repeal bill passed the Idaho House, it died in the Senate and doesn’t appear likely to become law. The power of the law to disrupt even the most prominent purveyors of extremism is on display in the trial of Stewart Rhodes and four other members of the Oath Keepers. In relation to their participation in the Jan. 6 attack, they are facing federal charges of seditious conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Mr. Rhodes’s defense is that the group is an educational group or a veterans’ assistance group, and he offers a variety of other excuses designed to show that they do not meet the legal standard of an unsanctioned paramilitary group. This standard and the laws against paramilitaries draw a clear line between repugnant ideology, which our democracy has always allowed, and politically motivated violence, which no democracy can survive. The American public is gradually and alarmingly becoming inured to the presence of this violence, but it is the duty of our lawmakers to take this threat seriously and to use the tools they have to stop it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/opinion/political-violence-extremism.html
منظور پشتین: د خیبر خلک د ناامنۍ له وجې بیا کډوالۍ ته تیار نه دي
پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ (پي ټي اېم) د خیبر ضلعې په باړه کې د امن پاڅون په نوم په جلسه کې ټینګار کړی دی چې د امنیت 
ټینګښت د دولت (ریاست) ذمه واري ده چې باید یې پوره کړي.
د غورځنګ مشر منظور پشتین د نومبر پر شپږمه جلسې ته په وینا کې وویل چې د تېرو کلونو برعکس به دا ځل د خیبر خلک د زیاتېدونکې ناامنۍ له وجې کډې نه کوي او قبایلي ولس به هم دا ځل "امن لښکرونه" نه جوړوي ځکه چې د امنیت ټینګښت د دولت او حکومت دنده ده.
پشتین په خپلو خبرو کې د خیبر ضلعې یوشمېر نورې مسلې هم یادې کړې او تور یې پورې کړ چې په تورخم کې د پوځ د سامانونو ټرانسپورټ ادارې (نیشنل لاجېسټېک سېل یا اېن اېل سي) د ځايي خلکو روزګار اغېزمن کړی دی او پر "مزدورانو" یې محدودیتونه لګولي دي.
اېن اېل سي د نوموړي د څرګندونو په ځواب کې څه نه دي ویلي خو تر دې مخکې تېر کال په مارچ کې هم په تورخم کې سوداګرو له مشال راډیو سره په خبرو کې شکایت کړی وو چې د اېن اېل سي کارکوونکي یې "بې ځایه او غیر ضروري تالاشي" اخلي.
هغه مهال په تورخم کې چارواکو او امنیتي ځواکونو د سوداګرو تورونه ناسم بللي ول او ویلي یې ول چې ټولې کاروباري چارې له قانون سره سمې پر مخ ځي.
په باړه کې د پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ د جلسې ګډونوالو د ترهګرۍ ضد او د سولې او امنیت لپاره نعرې ووهلې او یوشمېر سیاستوالانو او فعالانو په خپلو ویناګانو کې له حکومته یې د امنیت ټینګښت غوښتنه وکړه.
دا په داسې حال کې ده چې د خیبر اوسېدونکو په وروستیو کې د مظاهرو او غونډو له لارې له حکومته غوښتي چې هلته دې امنیت ټینګ کړي. دوی وايي، په سیمه کې له یوې مودې راهیسې بریدونه کېږي چې پکې د ځايي مشرانو او دیني عالمانو په ګډون پولیس او امنیتي سرتېري هم په نښه شوي دي.
خو په خیبر ضلع کې انتظامي چارواکو او امنیتي ځواکونو د اکتوبر پر ۲۹مه د یوشمېر مشرانو تر جرګې وروسته ویلي ول چې په تیرا کې یې د وسلوالو پرضد عملیات پيل کړې دي.
دوی ویلي ول چې د ناامنۍ ختمولو ته چمتو دي او هېڅکله وسلوالو ته د امنیت خرابولو موقع په لاس نه ورکوي.
په باړه کې جلسه پر داسې مهال شوې ده چې پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ د نومبر پر څلورمه د جنوبي وزیرستان په اعظم ورسک کې هم د امن لپاره ولسي غونډه وکړه او له حکومته یې د امنیت ټینګښت لپاره د کوټلیو اقداماتو غوښتنه وکړه.
په تېرو شاوخوا پینځو میاشتو کې خلکو په شمالي وزیرستان، جنوبي وزیرستان، باجوړ، کورمه، اورکزیو، خیبر، مومندو، کوز دیر، سوات، بونېر،بنو، لکي مروت، ټانک او پېښور کې د امنیت ټینګښت لپاره احتجاجونه، لاریونونه، جرګې او جلسې کړې دي.
صوبايي او وفاقي حکومتونه وايي چې د صوبې امنیت ته ژمن دي او دا چې د دې لپاره یې امنیتي او استخباراتي عملیاتو ته دوام ورکړی دی.
https://www.mashaalradio.com/
#Pakistan #PPP - Bilawal, Iraqi FM exchange views on bilateral, regional issues
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar met the Foreign Minister of Iraq Dr. Fouad Hussein on Saturday and exchanged views on bilateral relations, as well as regional and global issues of common interest.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 13th annual meeting of Sir Bani Yas Forum in Abu Dhabi.
They reaffirmed the long-standing ties of amity and cooperation between the two countries, rooted deep in shared faith, common values and cultural affinities; and reiterated the desire to further strengthen bilateral relations in all fields.
FM Bilawal reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for Iraq’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. He acknowledged Iraq’s success in the fight against terrorism and appreciated the resilience of Iraqi people in their efforts to overcome challenges and rebuild the country.
Matters pertaining to Pakistani Zaireen visiting Iraq and people-to-people contact between the two countries also came under discussion. While appreciating the measures taken by the Iraqi government for the well-being of the Zaireen, the Foreign Minister requested his counterpart for further facilitation in visas and travel, particularly during Ashura Muharram and Arbaeen.
The ministers also exchanged views on ways to expand commercial cooperation and improve connectivity between the two countries.
Both sides reaffirmed their resolve to continue collaborating closely to further strengthen bilateral ties and coordination at the multilateral foram.
https://www.app.com.pk/national/bilawal-iraqi-fm-exchange-views-on-bilateral-regional-issues/
Saturday, November 5, 2022
#Pakistan #PPP - Sheikh Abdullah meets Pakistan FM Bilawal Bhutto
The foreign ministers of the UAE and Pakistan met in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, on the sidelines of the annual Sir Bani Yas Forum.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, held talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The Pakistani official expressed his gratitude to the UAE leadership for its generous support for the flood-hit communities in the South Asian country.
Sheikh Abdullah welcomed the visit of Zardari, affirming the historical relations between the two countries and the growth and development they are witnessing at various levels.Zardari also highlighted the depth of UAE-Pakistani relations and the keenness of the two countries to strengthen these ties.
"This was a manifestation of the deep and time-tested brotherly ties between the two nations that have always stood by each other in an hour of need. The UAE was one of the largest donors of humanitarian assistance during difficult times," Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
During the meeting, both ministers agreed to further deepen their cooperation in all fields, including economy, trade, energy, and investment.Zardari emphasised the need for increased trade volume and investments between the two countries.
The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and international issues.
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/government/video-sheikh-abdullah-meets-pakistan-fm-bilawal-bhutto
Friday, November 4, 2022
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Monday, October 31, 2022
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Saturday, October 29, 2022
OPINION: The Pelosis and a Haunted America
By MAUREEN DOWD
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I loved putting up twinkling bats and watching midnight monster-chiller-horror movies.
Not this year.
The world is too scary. Politics is too creepy. Horror is too real.
When I was a child, on Oct. 31, my older brother would put on a vinyl LP of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” that he had carefully cleaned. The eerie music was used by Walt Disney in the segment of his animated masterpiece “Fantasia” about the surreal celebration of evil during the night of the witches’ Sabbath.
Chernabog, the lord of evil and death, wrapped in a dark cape, stands atop a jagged peak, summoning ghosts, witches and vampires to swirl out of the mountain and pay homage. I was so relieved when, at dawn, church bells rang and drove them off.
But now the bad spirits are lurking all around us. They will not be driven off.
America seems haunted by random violence and casual cruelty every day. In New York, subway riders getting pushed onto the tracks and innocent bystanders being shot. Officials across the country facing kidnapping plots, armed visits to their homes, assaults and death threats. No place seems safe, from parks to schools to the supposedly impregnable, guarded Capitol and homes of the wealthy and well known.
In some states, women — and girls — seeking abortions are treated as criminals. In Uvalde, Texas, terrified children frantically calling the police are slaughtered by a teenage psychopath with an AR-15-style rifle as 376 police officers lingered in and around the elementary school waiting for … what?
On Friday, The New York Post broke the news that someone I know, the former Obama official and former New York City Transit president Sarah Feinberg, was sucker-punched in the face in Chelsea by someone walking by in the bike lane.Now comes news of a maniac breaking into a house in the middle of the night, bludgeoning an 82-year-old man in the head with a hammer while demanding to know where his famous wife was. Perfect Halloween movie fare. Except it actually happened.One of the most macabre stories to come out of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and democracy, ginned up by Donald Trump, was when the mob roamed the halls, pounding the speaker’s door with bloodcurdling taunts of “Where’s Nancy?”
Speaker Pelosi was not there, thank God. She was huddling with other top officials in a secure bunker, placing call after call for help that was slow to arrive.
Luckily, she was safe, in D.C. with her security detail, when a man broke into her Pacific Heights home in San Francisco early Friday morning. He smashed the patio glass door and attacked her husband, who struggled with the attacker for control of a hammer. In a tingly echo of Jan. 6, the man shouted at Paul Pelosi, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” When police arrived, the man said he was “waiting for Nancy.”Mr. Pelosi, a genial investor who likes to star in amateur musicals and who has been married to Nancy for 59 years, called 911, The Times reported, bringing police to his home and potentially saving his life. He was hit several times on his hands and head with the hammer and was taken to the hospital for surgery for a skull fracture and is expected to recover.
The police said the intruder was David DePape, a 42-year-old from Berkeley, Calif. CNN reported that DePape’s relatives confirmed that a Facebook account spewing Trumpian conspiracies on topics ranging from climate change to Covid was his. In his posts, he cast doubt on the validity of the 2020 election — sharing pillow pusher and Trump lickspittle Mike Lindell’s absurd videos. And he defended the Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol.
With his usual level of class, Donald Trump put out a message of sympathy to the family of Jerry Lee Lewis, “the Killer” of rock ’n’ roll, who died Friday at age 87, but said nothing all day about the Pelosi family.
On Twitter, Adam Kinzinger urged G.O.P. candidates and elected officials to speak out against the “horrific” attack. He probably didn’t have in mind the sort of speaking out that Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia did. Youngkin made a joke of the assassination attempt: “There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California.”
Democrats had a nice run, on climate change and gun legislation, and enjoyed some backlash to the Dark Prince of the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito. Now Republicans seem set to win back the House, and maybe the Senate, with a range of incompetent and hypocritical candidates.
“I cannot believe anybody would vote for these people,” Pelosi told The Times’s Carl Hulse on a fund-raising swing.But a feral mood has taken hold. If you think Washington is monstrous now, just wait.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/opinion/pelosi-nancy-paul-attack.html
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Pakistan No Country for Minorities? Kidnapping, Rape, Forced Conversions of Hindus, Sikhs on Rise - 'COUNTRY OF ‘PARTICULAR CONCERN’
From kidnapping to rape and forced conversions, the atrocities against minorities in Pakistan are on the rise, said sources. More than 10 Hindu girls were abducted and raped in 2022.
- Amid the floods in Sindh, a Hindu girl was raped by two locals on the pretext of providing food.
- In another incident, two Hindu women foiled a rape bid by an unknown person on road side tents in Sindh.
- In June, a Hindu teenager, Kareena Kumari, told a court in Karachi that she was forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man.
- In March, three Hindu girls – Satran Oad, Kaveeta Bheel, Anita Bheel – were abducted, converted to Islam and married to Muslim men within eight days.
- On March 21, Pooja Kumari was brutally shot dead outside her home in Rohri, Sukkur. Apparently, a man wanted to marry her but she refused, so they killed her.
A 13-year-old Sikh boy was gang-raped in Jacobabad, Pakistan. The Sindh Police arrested accused Mohsin Jamali and Takri Lashari, but they managed to escape from the civil line police station Jacobabad.In September, a married Hindu woman and two teenaged girls were allegedly abducted, forcibly converted, and married to Muslims in Sindh province.
Demanding action, the communities have questioned the “silence of human rights activists”.The forcible conversion of young Hindu girls has become a major problem in the interior of Sindh province, which has a large Hindu population in Thar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Ghotki and Khairpur areas. Most of the Hindu community members are labourers. On July 16, 2019, the issue of abducting and forcibly converting Hindu girls in various districts of Sindh province was taken up in the Sindh Assembly, where a resolution was debated and unanimously passed after it was modified over objections of certain lawmakers that it should not be restricted to Hindu girls only. But the bill which criminalised forcible religious conversions was later rejected in the assembly. A similar bill was again proposed but rejected last year. In 2021, the United States placed Pakistan on a list of “countries of particular concern” for religious freedom violations. Human rights organizations and the US media report estimates that every year, nearly 1,000 minority girls are being kidnapped or forcibly converted to Islam. Catholic news site Aleteia reported that in 2020, the number of forced conversion cases rose to more than 2,000.
https://www.news18.com/news/world/pakistan-no-country-for-minorities-kidnapping-rape-forced-conversions-of-hindus-sikhs-on-rise-exclusive-6143617.html
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