M WAQAR.....
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
--Albert Einstein !!!
NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.''
تل ده وی پثتونستآن
In a move that raised eyebrows both in Pakistan and abroad, the government succumbed to the pressure of Islamists by asking renowned economist Atif Mian to step down from membership of the prime minister's Economic Advisory Council, solely because he is a member of the persecuted minority Ahmadi community.
Mohammad Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in science, and the second person from an Islamic country, after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, ever to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in any field.
Mohammad Safdar, a prominent legislator, launched a verbal attack on Ahmadis, calling them a "threat to this country, its Constitution and ideology... Because their's is a false religion, in which there is no concept of jihad for Allah."
Let us hope that the Pakistani leadership's abandonment of Mian is the last such incident.
Radical Islamists took to the streets of Pakistan on September 1, to protest Prime Minister Imran Khan's appointment of former Princeton University scholar Atif Mian, a minority Muslim of the Ahmadiyya faith, to the Economic Advisory Council (EAC). Demanding that Mian be removed from the EAC, a key forum that advises the prime minister on economic issues, demonstrators threatened to lock down Pakistan's major cities, including Islamabad, its capital.
Mian's appointment was opposed by Pakistan's right wing political parties including "Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP)", which strongly objected to his Ahmadi faith.
In addition, a well-orchestrated social-media smear campaign is being waged against Mian -- the only Pakistani on the International Monetary Fund's 2014 listof the world's "25 brightest young economists" -- for the sole reason that he adheres to the Ahmadiyya faith.
Then, in a move that raised eyebrows both in Pakistan and abroad, the government succumbed to the pressure of Islamists by showing the door to Mian: he was asked to step down from membership of the EAC.
Federal Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhary confirmed the development to Gatestone Institute by telephone.
"The government requested Atif Mian, internationally acclaimed economist, to resign from the EAC because it wants to avoid a confrontation," Chaudhary said.
This was not the first incidence of a well-qualified Ahmadi Muslim being targeted by extremist Islamists in Pakistan. In fact, discrimination against prominent members of this minority group is widespread.
Take the case of Mohammad Abdus Salam, a Pakistani Ahmadi Muslim who in 1979 shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles." Salam was the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in science, and the second person from an Islamic country, after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, ever to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in any field.
Soon after the Pakistani Parliament declared Ahmadis to be "non-Muslims" in 1974, Salam left Pakistan for London in protest. He died peacefully in Oxford on November 21, 1996, and was buried in Bahishti Maqbara, an Ahmadi cemetery in Rabwah, Pakistan. In 2014, his grave was desecrated and the word "Muslim" removed from the headstone, "on the orders of the government." This shameful erasure illustrates the way minorities in Pakistan cannot escape humiliation, even after death.
The history of persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan is long and bloody. Since being declared non-Muslim in 1974, the small community of Ahmadis has been under constant threat by the hardline members of the Muslim majority. The following are just few examples of countless hate crimes that Ahmadis have had to suffer:
In May 2010, simultaneous attacks on two Ahmadiyya mosques in Lahore during Friday prayers left 94 Ahmadis dead and more than 120 injured.
In December 2012, one hundred graves in an Ahmadi cemetery in a Lahore were desecrated by masked gunmen.
In October 2017, Mohammad Safdar, a prominent legislator -- and the son-in-law of former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif -- launched a verbal attack on Ahmadis, calling them a "threat to this country, its Constitution and ideology... Because their's is a false religion, in which there is no concept of jihad for Allah."
That same month, a court in Pakistan's Sheikhupura district sentenced three Ahmadi youths to death on blasphemy charges. The defendants had been accused in 2014 of tearing down posters -- reportedly inscribed with Islamic verses -- which urged villagers to boycott Ahmadis.
In May 2018, an angry mob of extremist Muslims attacked an Ahmadiyya mosque in the Sialkot district of Pakistan's Punjab province.
The Pakistani government's succumbing to pressure from radical Muslims, and its cancellation of the appointment of an Ahmadi to a key advisory position, is a step backwards and further highlights the plight of minority groups. Ahmadis are still widely viewed in Pakistan as "non-Muslims" at best, and infidels at worst. Let us hope that the leadership's abandonment of Atif Mian is the last such incident.
The staggering figure of annual toll of around one million suicides across the world and 6,000 in Pakistan, according to World Health Organization (WHO), is no doubt one of the biggest challenges for rulers, economists, psychologists and sociologists.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds worldwide. The recent episodes of suicide cases which surfaced in Chitral - mostly of depressed students who were either failed in securing good grades or obtaining passing marks in schools are dreadful. Earlier last month, another three students living in different areas of the valley attempted to end their lives after receiving their intermediate exam results. However, majority of suicide cases go unreported due to police inaction.
A recent study “Psychological autopsy review on mental health crises and suicide among youth in Pakistan” thoroughly investigated the possible causes of suicide among the youth (aged 12-26 years) and comprehensively evaluated clinical and psycho-social factors potentially associated with suicide in 63 youth from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The data examined mental health clinical files, forensic reports and qualitative psychological autopsy interviews from multiple sources for each youth who died of suicide between May 1st and December 31st, 2015 in the province.
This is the second psychological autopsy study undertaken in Pakistan and the first where interviews were conducted with several information sources and mental health clinical notes examined. Internationally, the most common methods of death by suicide are noted as hanging, drowning or jumping from a height. Contrary to it, due to high accessibility to firearms in the province, it is perhaps not surprising that this method was most commonly employed. In another region of the country, where a lower access to firearms is evident (Faisalabad), the most common method of suicide was reported as hanging.
The research thoroughly investigated the peculiar characteristics of the individuals (suicide victims) and clinical causes of the deaths along with the region specific strategies for committing suicide. The study finds that in majority cases, males were found to use firearm while females were found to use self-poisoning by pesticides as the two most common methods of suicide. The most common mental health difficulties were found either major depressive disorders or harmful use of psycho-active substances. The other clinical features particularly evident included thoughts of self-harm, irritability and aggression, low-self-esteem, treatment non-adherence, family dispute and financial distress.
The study also identified significant clinical, psycho-social and environmental factors that were present prior to the individuals' death including factors noted as easy access to firearms and limited mental health support services. The region has the third largest population (approximately 27.5 million people) in Pakistan and shares a border with Afghanistan as access to firearms has widely been reported with young people often possessing firearms without license.
Other socio-demographic factors in this region include relatively low literacy levels (50- 60%) high unemployment rate of 8.5% particularly in females 16.3%, both previously noted to be associated with higher rates of suicide. In addition, the region has the highest rate of psycho-active substance use in the country (10.9%), with cannabis (4.7%), opiate analgesics (4.4%), tranquilisers or sedatives (2.4%) heroin (1.0%) and opium use (0.6%). Furthermore, dearth of mental health facilities and limited access to mental health care are also some of the factors responsible for suicides.
The abuse or dependence of alcohol and/or psycho-active substances and a diagnosis of a personality disorder (particularly borderline personality disorder) have also highlighted as putative risk factors for suicide. In addition to male gender; other demographic factors associated with an increased rate of suicide include low educational attainment and/or low socio-economic class.
The research interviews allowed data pertaining to a wide range of socio-demographic (employment, relationship and socio-economic status) and clinical factors (recent mental health status, expressed thoughts of self-harm, treatment adherence, psycho-social stressors, substance use) to be attained. A multitude of psychosocial factors have been linked with an increased risk of suicide. These include childhood traumas such as exposure to family violence, the loss of a parent or separation of parental figure and childhood sexual abuse (CSA).
The first clinical theme related to symptoms consistent with a depressive disorder or a co-morbid depressive disorder with anxiety symptoms examples of individuals who exhibited depressive symptoms prior to their death. The study suggested that the efforts to reduce the ease of access to firearms and pesticides would have beneficial effects in reducing the suicide rate in the region. The study also suggests that greater community based mental health programmes for the detection and treatment of mental disorders and strategies are required to reduce lethal means of suicide including pesticides.
The availability of pesticides, including those of a particularly toxic nature in markets and small shops (“Khodas”) with transportation of pesticides into this region (often illegally) from Afghanistan and Central Asia require strict enforcement of laws. The KP Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has also recently formed a four-member committee to look into the causes of growing suicide cases and conduct psychotherapy of those with suicidal tendency and submit a report as soon as possible in Chitral district of the province also identified significant clinical, psycho-social and environmental factors that were present prior to the individuals' death including factors noted as easy access to firearms and limited mental health support services.
The verdict is in. The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld its earlier ruling on the Jahangir Tareen case. Thus the PTI leader remains disqualified from holding public office for life over failure to declare all assets.
The question of an offshore company and Rs500 million in concealed wealth lie at the heart of the matter. All of which represents a moral set-back for the ruling party. Not least because the joint opposition will likely jump on the SC order as proof of PTI not practising what it preaches on the corruption front. After all, Tareen was reportedly the ‘mastermind’ of Imran Khan’s aggressive pursuit through the courts of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on identical charges resulting in Panamagate.
Tareen is a seasoned politician; having been elected to Parliament thrice. In fact, he has long acted as the PTI chief’s right-hand man. Not to mention generous benefactor. In short, he is someone who should have known better. And even though his permanent removal from the political scene has come right at the start of the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tenure — the timing could not have been worse. For he is still facing charges of poll-rigging; levelled by his opponents. And then there is the question of having inducted his close aide Zulfikar Bukhari into the cabinet.
This has proved a controversial move. Especially considering that the latter holds dual Pakistani and British nationality. Yet this has not stopped him from being appointed special assistant to the PM on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development; with the status of minister of State. This is not to mention whisperings of blatant nepotism. Though Khan has long opposed the barring of dual nationals entering politics here in Pakistan. Even as he previously issued his own party members an ultimatum: either dump foreign passports or quit the party.
The PTI supremo faces an increasingly long charge-sheet of political U-turns.
Including pledges of not jaunting off on foreign trips for the first three months of government. Or of travelling on official state business by commercial airlines. Not forgetting the ban on ministers also travelling overseas in their official capacity. That being said, there is one way for Khan to possibly bounce back from accusations of violating his own mandate as well as cabinet decisions. And the denouncing and distancing of the party from Jahangir Tareen holds the key. This will not only silence those who will gleefully conclude that that the PTI has hoisted itself with its own petard. It will also serve to polish the increasingly tarnished image of a NayaPakistan that does not play favourites; where the rule of law applies to all. If nothing else, the turning away of Tareen from the fold will act as a gesture of intent moving forward.
The question remains as to whether this is a sacrifice that PM Khan is willing to make.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senior leader Syed Khursheed Shah on Saturday reiterated his support for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam but said the party is against the construction of a water reservoir at Kalabagh, Express News reported.
The senior PPP leader also questioned the chief justice over his “involvement in the country’s politics”.
Addressing the media, Shah said dams cannot be constructed by imposing fines and crowd-funding. He urged the chief justice and the federal government to allocate 15 per cent of the budget for the dam fund.
Shah also criticised the PTI-led government for not providing adequate employment opportunities for the people. He further said every government inherits circular debt and added that the country lacks adequate reserves of water.
Furthermore, he lauded the PPP for focusing on job creation during its tenures.
In July, Shah requested had CJP Nisar to focus on judicial reforms, instead of getting involved in the controversial issue of Kalabagh dam. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1814334/1-favour-diamer-bhasha-kalabagh-khursheed-shah/
M Ahmed Ludhianvi, chief of notorious outlawed Deobandi terrorist outfit, was also one of the invited guests of Saudi monarchy at Saudi National Day programme held in Islamabad.
Apart from notorious terrorist ringleader Ludhianvi, another Deobandi cleric Tahir Ashrafi who was caught red handed when he was drunkard in the past, also attended the Saudi National Day party hosted by Saudi embassy in Islamabad.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Noorul Haq Qadri hugged notorious terrorist ringleader Ludhianvi and their loud laughter were noticed by all on occasion. It showed that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is chief patron and supporter of Deobandi takfiris of banned terrorist outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba/Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. It also showed that PTI government is also a hypocrite and it is also an ally of Saudi Kingdom and it too is friend of Ludhianvi as vindicated by embrace, hugging and laughter of its minister with Ludhianvi.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday they had killed four militants at a border crossing with Pakistan in an area where armed Sunni groups often attack military and civilian targets.
Iran has stepped up security in border areas after five gunmen killed 25 people at a military parade in the southwest on Saturday. The incident reported on Friday happened on the other side of the country in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
“Iranian forces killed four terrorists and wounded two. Other members of the terrorist group fled to the neighboring country (Pakistan),” the Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement published by state broadcaster IRIB.
No Iranian forces were harmed, it said.
The Guards said the group was linked to the “world’s arrogant power”, without elaborating. Tehran accuses the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia of funding Sunni militants, something they deny.
Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of the Guards ground forces, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as identifying the group as Jaish al-Adl, and said its second-in-command was among the dead.
Jaish al-Adl (the Army of Justice) is a Sunni militant group that has carried out several attacks on Iranian security forces mainly in Sistan-Baluchestan. It claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 10 border guards near Pakistan in 2017.
In a clash between Jaish al-Adl and security forces in June, three Iranian soldiers and three militants were killed.
The mainly Sunni province of Sistan-Baluchestan has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and separatist militants.
Iran says militant groups have safe havens in Pakistan and has warned it will hit their bases there if Islamabad does not confront them.
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday made a strong statement on terrorism threatening peace and stability in South Asia at a meeting of SAARC ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Regional cooperation in South Asia is not possible without an environment of peace and security, said the minister.
In a sharp retort to Pakistan’s accusation that India was sabotaging the dialogue process, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said talks cannot be pursued in the midst of “terrorist bloodshed” with a nation that “glorifies killers” and refuses to see the “blood of innocents”. Addressing the 73rd United Nations General Assembly debate, the foreign minister said despite India extending the olive branch for talks many times, it had to be stopped only because of the behaviour of the neighbouring country.
On talks with Pakistan
“We are accused of sabotaging the process of talks. This is a complete lie. We believe that talks are only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes. Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of their behaviour,” she said.
Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi were slated to meet on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly session in New York. However, India called off the meeting last week citing the brutal killing of three policemen in J&K and Islamabad releasing postage stamps “glorifying” slain Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani.
Swaraj said she had personally gone to Islamabad in December 2016 for the resumption of comprehensive bilateral dialogue. “But soon after, Pakistan-sponsored terrorists attacked our air force base in Pathankot on January 2. Please explain to me how we could pursue talks in the midst of terrorist bloodshed,” she asked.
On terrorism
Swaraj said the neighbouring country was not only an expert in providing safe haven to terrorists but also at trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity. The minister said the most startling evidence of Pakistan’s duplicity was the fact that Osama Bin Laden, the brain behind 9/11 terror attack, was given safe haven in the country.
“In India’s case, terrorism is not bred in some faraway land, but from across our border. Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent human lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behaviour, not of human rights,” Swaraj said, referring to a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which had called for an international probe into the numerous violations in Kashmir.
Describing terrorism as an “existential threat” to humanity, Swaraj said, “Pakistan’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit. Neither has its belief in hypocrisy.”
On United Nations reforms
Stressing that India does not believe that the United Nations should become the instrument of a few at the cost of the many, Swaraj said the UN must accept the need for fundamental reform. “Reform cannot be cosmetic. We need to change the institution’s head and heart to make both compatible with the contemporary reality,” she said.
India, along with Brazil, Germany and Japan, has repeatedly reaffirmed the need for an early reform of the UN Security Council, including the expansion of both permanent and non-permanent categories of membership, to enhance its legitimacy, effectiveness and representativeness.
“If the UN is ineffective, the whole concept of multilateralism will collapse. India believes that we must move forward together or we sink into the swamp of stagnation,” she said.
On the definition of terrorism
Reminding the UNGA that India’s proposed draft on Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism had not made much headway even after 22 years, Swaraj said, “Till today, that draft has remained a draft, because we cannot agree on a common language. On the one hand, we want to fight terrorism; on the other, we cannot define it.” CCIT will provide a legal framework to prevent global funding and safe havens to terror groups.
On threat of climate change
Saying that under-developed and developing nations were the worst victims of climate change, Swaraj asserted that the countries that have exploited nature for their immediate needs cannot shun their responsibilities.
“Those who have exploited nature for their immediate needs cannot abdicate their responsibilities. If we have to save the world from the adverse effects of climate change, then developed nations must lift the deprived with financial and technical resources,” Swaraj said.
Earlier this week in the high-level meeting on climate change convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Swaraj said India is willing to take the lead in climate action and the country’s commitment to combat climate change is rooted in its ethos, which considers Earth as the mother.
Swaraj’s attack on Islamabad comes after her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi made personal remarks against her on Friday following the diplomatic snub at the informal meeting of SAARC foreign ministers in New York.
Speaking to reporters at the Asia Society, a day after Swaraj walked of the SAARC meeting without waiting for her Pakistani counterpart’s speech, Qureshi said, “I was quite concerned when I saw the Minister for External Affairs. When I was in the room she looked pale to me. She looked very worried. I wish we could have smiled at each other.”
Qureshi also alleged that India’s “domestic political and electoral compulsions” were behind New Delhi’s reluctance to talk to the new government in Islamabad. “I could see the immense strain and when she left, she wasn’t even willing to engage with the media. I had no problem, but I could see the pressure, but I could see the political pressure on her, politics, nothing else, politics, domestic politics,” the PTI leader said.
A Pakistani bureaucrat was caught on camera stealing wallet of a Kuwaiti delegate on Friday. In a CCTV footage, Investment and Facilitation Joint Secretary Zarar Haider Khan was seen stealing the wallet of the Kuwaiti delegate. The incident took place at Pakistan-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission meeting in Islamabad.
One of the Kuwaiti delegates complained that his wallet was missing. During the investigation, authorities were checking footages of CCTV cameras when they found Zarar Haider Khan, a grade-20 officer, picking wallet of the Kuwaiti delegate and keeping it in his pocket. Following the revelation, an FIR was lodged against Khan, and he was later arrested.
“All officers of the Ministry of Industries and Economics Affairs Division, as well as other participants, were shocked when the head of the Kuwaiti mission complained about the incident. This is a very unfortunate development that has brought a bad name to the country as well as the officers working here,” an official of the Pakistani finance ministry, told Pakistan Today.
Pakistani officials returned the wallet and apologised to the delegate. However, the delegation left the conference in anger. An investigation was underway against Khan.
Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has paid glowing tributes the 16 martyrs of the MRD movement from village Punhal Chandio in Shaheed Benazirabad division on their 35th martyrdom anniversary being observed on Saturday.
In his message on the occasion, the PPP Chairman said that MRD’s was very tough and nerve-wracking political struggle by the people after the independence movement where in the masses participated from Karachi to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and from Gwadar to Khunjerab Pass and made a history fighting for democracy and basic human rights under the leadership of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
Bilawal said that Pakistani nation was indebted to the 16 martyrs of village Punhal Chandio who sacrificed their lives for the People’s right to rule themselves and against the dictatorship of Gen Zia.
He saluted to all the martyrs and those PPP leaders and workers who suffered torture and imprisonments during their struggle with steadfastness, commitment and loyalty and pledged that their mission would be carried on for the accomplishment of peace, progress and prosperity in the country as the it would be the people of Pakistan who will be the ultimate victors.
It may be recalled that sixteen PPP workers were martyred during MRD movement on September 29, 1983 at village Punhal Khan Chandio Taluka Sakrand in Shaheed Benazirabad division. The martyrs were: Tharoo Khan Chandio, Rajab Ali Chandio, Ali Sher Chandio, Ghulam Mustafa Chandio, Peer Bux Chandio, Uris Chandio, Siddique Chandio, Gulab Chandio, Hashim Khaskheli, Janab Khaskheli, Meero Khaskheli, Ali Gul Khaskheli, Mohammad Ramzan Khaskheli, Mehboob Ali Solangi, Allah Rakhio Solangi and Hussain Bux Manganhar.
