Sunday, July 5, 2020
Pakistan’s Black Day How the military engineered its July 5, 1977 coup, leading to 11 years of martial law.
By Ahsan Chaudhary
July 5 is a “Black Day” (not necessarily the only one) in Pakistan’s political and constitutional history. Exactly 39 years ago on this day in 1977, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, then Chief of Army Staff (COAS), imposed martial law in the country and dissolved national and provincial assemblies—all in one go. In his first post-coup speech, General Zia clarified that the decision to impose martial law was taken as a last resort and only to save the country from the tumult and chaos that had ensued in the wake of controversial March 1977 parliamentary elections. According to Zia, the parleys between the government and the protesting opposition conglomerate, Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) were going nowhere; a schism within the ranks of junior army officers was taking hold; and the country was at the brink of collapse.
However, in the same breath he reaffirmed that “the survival of this country [Pakistan] lies in democracy and democracy alone,” and that his “sole aim is to organize free and fair elections, which would be held in October this year,” or within 90 days of Zia’s coup. Emphasizing his commitment to parliamentary elections, Zia proclaimed, “Soon after the polls, power will be transferred to the elected representatives of the people. I give my solemn assurance that I will not deviate from this schedule.” (Quotes in this paragraph come from Hasan-Askari Rizvi’s The Military and Politics in Pakistan, pp. 289-93).
Although there’s little conclusive evidence that General Zia’s declaration of martial law was premeditated, or that he extended active support to PNA leaders to create conditions favorable to the military take-over, the events leading up to the 1977 elections and what transpired later however, cast doubt on the credibility of men in uniform. It seems unlikely that the coup was anything but carefully thought out. By 1977, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then-prime minister of Pakistan, had already successfully averted two botched coups by the military establishment since he assumed office in 1971. The military was constantly looking for excuses to get power back from civilians. Bhutto gave plenty of excuses to the generals by arbitrarily sacking government officials, persecuting his political opponents, and nettling the generals by making new security and intelligence agencies — notably the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Federal Security Force (FSF) — that arguably set Bhutto on a collision course with GHQ. However, that alone was not enough to help military wrestle power from the most popular and charismatic leader with a wide and ferocious fan-base in Sindh and Punjab.
Clearly, the military wanted something concrete to hedge their bets which, according to Husain Haqqani, could reasonably be achieved if a legitimacy crisis was engineered through a “political disorder.” As Haqqani wrote in Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, “Bhutto’s legitimacy as a civilian leader derived from his success in a general election; only electoral defeat or election victory attained by questionable means could render Bhutto’s political legitimacy questionable. The military could not topple Bhutto without [first] delegitimizing his leadership position [among the populace].”
Hence, as Haqqani argues, the Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) position paper to Bhutto recommending that he hold early elections should be interpreted—although not conclusively—as an incipient attempt by the military leadership to entrap Bhutto. The first paper came in April 1976 and a second followed on October 5. Entitled “General Elections” and signed by General Jilani, then director-general of ISI, the 53-page paper suggested that “Bhutto was at the height of his popularity and would sweep the polls in the face of a divided opposition.” Indeed, in hindsight, while facing trial before the Supreme Court and in the deposed prime minister’s private conversations, Haqqani notes, “Bhutto hinted [at] the possibility of having been trapped in a conspiracy by the military and intelligence services.” However, as Haqqani cautions, Bhutto would likely not have taken the military’s recommendations on their face if the empirical evidence had not strongly laid on his side.
In the article “The March 1977 Elections in Pakistan: Where Everyone Lost,” Marvin Winbaum notes the many reasons Bhutto had to be confident: “the rate of inflation at 6 percent was down from an average of 25 percent between 1972 and 1975. Real GNP was growing at 5 percent, up from a 3 percent a year earlier. The agricultural sector was growing after years of stagnation with the help from ‘heavy public investment in tube wells and subsidies for fertilizer, pesticides and other farm inputs.’” Overall, although Bhutto had several potential pitfalls on his side in terms of mass-scale nationalization of industries and his suppression of opponents, he fared well in many sectors, including law and order, political stability, economic progress, and human development. That might have convinced him to reap the political dividends before any spoiler could arise.
Thus the polls date for national assembly elections was set as March 7, 1977, with elections for the provincial assemblies on March 10. The elections, however, did not go as smoothly as predicted. There were incidents of violence and the stealing of ballot boxes from polling stations. The Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) government was accused of rigging the elections and the conglomerate of opposition political parties took to the streets. Bhutto ordered the military to “act in aid of civil power”—a constitutional right of the federal government— to control the protesters. Nearly 200 people died with even more wounded in less than four months, from March 7 to July 4.
However, that does not mean the warring parties could not have come to the negotiating table. In fact, Saudi-brokered negotiations followed on the heels of the demonstrations. By mid-June, Bhutto had agreed to hold parliamentary elections afresh in October and the PNA agreed to drop its insistence on Bhutto’s resignation. However, Bhutto then went on a tour of Middle Eastern countries, leaving everything up in the air. Although he might have breathed a sigh of relief in the hope that an agreement had been reached and a political cyclone had passed, the opposition and military, on the other hand, got the impression that Bhutto perhaps was insincere or indifferent to the grievances of the opposition.
Upon his return Bhutto was amazed to learn that the opposition was still up in arms. In fact, there are indications that the military was playing the role of a “spoiler” rather than of a “facilitator.” Asghar Khan and a coterie of his PNA hardliners, for instance, tried to block the conciliatory efforts of the PNA moderates under the “iron-clad guarantee from the army headquarters” that generals would hold “free and fair elections within three months of ousting Bhutto,” according to Aqil Shah in The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan. This account is corroborated by Ghafoor Ahmed, then-secretary general of the PNA and a key negotiator in the talks, who later admitted that “we were under constant pressure from the hawks to abort the negotiations. It could not have been just a bluff. Asghar Khan could not have claimed to speak on behalf of the army without the high command’s nod.” Similar claims were made by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, a key figure in the PNA. In his words, “the ISI was playing each side against the other, sowing mistrust in the minds of the PNA regarding Bhutto and vice versa” (For more, see Shah, pp. 137-138 and Haqqani, pp. 124-25).
The military’s spoiler role, if any, notwithstanding, the warring political parties still reached an agreement in the first week of July 1977. As host Farrukh Sohail Goindi explained in an interview with General Faiz A. Chishti, “the government and PNA had reached an agreement on July 3, 1977. On July 4, both parties had a press conference and on July 5, they were set to sign the agreement. But before that could happen, Zia struck the axe of martial law on the night of July 5.” According to Chishti however, when asked if it was the right decision by the military establishment to impose martial law on July 5, the answer was yes. Chishti explained that the decision to impose martial law was justified but what came later—the prolongation of martial law and reneging on the promise to hold elections within 90 days—was not.
It’s plausible. Martial law is a slippery slope, whereby a general and what Chishti calls his “loyal lieutenants” (and Chishti himself was one of them), initially driven by a desire to stabilize law and order later deem themselves too indispensable to cede power to civilians. However, the fundamental question remains: was the sky really falling when General Zia imposed martial law? In other words, was it really the case that law and order was in shambles and the country was at the brink of collapse?
The empirical evidence on ground does not fully support coup-makers’ claim that the situation was so terribly bad or that the country was on the brink of disintegration. Intuitively, the crisis should have peaked before the negotiations started and incrementally deflated after the parleys seemed to be working. If accounts from Goindi, Shah, and Haqqani, among others, are reliable, then the parties had reached a workable agreement on July 2-3. In that case, the crisis should have subsided if not fully eliminated, (assuming there were only two parties to the agreement and no one was left aggrieved) and the coup would have become anything but warranted.
Indeed, as Shah notes, “After the initial wave of heightened protest and violence between March and April, the levels of violence had [actually] gone down, and curfews in the main cities had been relaxed.” According to PPP sources, “the general law and order situation in the country had remained calm since at least May 26, and there was no immediate necessity for action on July 5, 1977.”
Counterintuitively named as “Operation Fairplay,” the martial law declared on July 5 would be the longest and the most brutal in Pakistan’s politico-constitutional history. Initially, both the senior leadership of PPP, including Bhutto, and the PNA leadership were taken into custody, but later released. Only Bhutto was taken into custody again. He was convicted in a sham trial for the murder of a political opponent and executed. Zia would not hold elections for more than 90 months, after originally promising polls within 90 days. But before that, Zia got himself elected president in a questionable referendum that gave him 97.7 percent support from the electorate.
Yet, despite winning a nearly absolute majority, Zia never doffed his military uniform and continued to wear two hats—the chief of army staff and the president. During that period, most of the parties that made up the PNA (including Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Democratic Alliance) joined Zia’s cabinet rather than pressing for early elections. However, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, the head of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance, later withdrew from Zia’s cabinet and joined the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), which he co-founded with the PPP to oppose the military rule and restore the democracy. The government brutally tortured and killed the MRD activists and leaders but never ceded power to the civilians.
In 1985, General Zia held parliamentary elections—albeit on a non-party basis—and devolved power to the newly elected prime minister, Muhammad Khan Junejo. Critics such as Craig Baxter argue that Zia organized elections under U.S. pressure and never transferred real power to the prime minister—simply because the power to sack the government, notably under article 58(2)b, still remained with Zia himself. Burki and Baxter cite evidence to point out that the first victim of article 58(2)b was none other than Junejo himself, as Zia dismissed the government when he saw Pakistan’s controlled democracy getting out of hand.
Nonetheless, it’s significant to note that in 1985 Zia still kept his promise to hold elections and devolved power to the elected government. The fault for the new government’s inability to perform better and stay in power however lay with the civilians not with the general.
وسعت اللہ خان کا کالم بات سے بات: مندر نہیں بنے گا!
حالانکہ اسلام آباد ہائی کورٹ نے پاکستان کے دارلحکومت میں تین ہزار ہندو شہریوں کی سہولت کے لیے پہلے مندر کمپلیکس کی تعمیر روکنے سے انکار کر دیا۔ حالانکہ حکومت نے اس منصوبے کے لیے دس کروڑ روپے کی اعانت کا بھی اعلان کیا۔
مگر اسلام آباد کے انتظامی ادارے کیپیٹل ڈویلپمنٹ اتھارٹی (سی ڈی اے) نے اس مندر کے لیے مختص اراضی کے گرد احتیاطی چار دیواری کی تعمیر یہ کہہ کر رکوا دی کہ تعمیراتی نقشے کی منظوری تک کسی بھی اراضی پر کوئی تعمیراتی سرگرمی قانوناً نہیں ہو سکتی۔ چنانچہ ہندو پنچائیت نے اجازت ملنے تک چار دیواری کی تعمیر روک دی ہے۔
تعمیراتی قوانین کے نفاز میں سی ڈی اے کی سنجیدگی قابلِ قدر ہے۔ سنہ 2015 میں وزارتِ داخلہ کے سروے سے معلوم ہوا کہ سی ڈی اے کی حدود میں 492 مساجد آباد ہیں مگر ان میں سے 233 یعنی 47 فیصد مساجد قبضے کی زمین پر بغیر کسی قانونی منظوری کے قائم ہیں اور کئی مساجد کے ساتھ بلا اجازت مدارس بھی متصل ہیں۔
کیا سی ڈی اے میں اتنا دم ہے کہ وہ ان مساجد و مدارس کی ایک اینٹ بھی ہلا سکے؟کیا کوئی عالمِ حق ببانگِ دہل آج کل کے ماحول میں کہہ سکتا ہے کہ قبضے کی زمین پر نماز نہیں ہو سکتی۔
مسجدِ نبوی کی زمین کے مالک دو یتیم بچوں نے اسے تحفتاً پیش بھی کر دیا مگر پیغمبر اسلام نے اس قطعہِ اراضی کو قیمتاً حاصل کیا تاکہ آنے والے ادوار کے لیے مثال قائم ہو۔
اسلام آباد میں مکتبہ دیوبند کے علما کرام نے گذشتہ ہفتے پریس کانفرنس کی کہ اسلامی مملکت میں بت خانے کی تعمیرِ غیر شرعی ہے اور صرف پرانے مندروں کی بحالی و توسیع ہو سکتی ہے۔
البتہ ایک عالم مفتی راغب نعیمی نے کہا کہ مندر کی تعمیر میں سرکاری پیسہ استعمال نہیں ہو سکتا تاہم ہندو برادری اپنے سرمائے سے قطعہِ اراضی خرید کے مندر تعمیر کر سکتی ہے۔ اب یہ معاملہ حکومت نے اسلامی نظریاتی کونسل کو بھجوا دیا ہے۔
اس دوران پنجاب اسمبلی کے سپیکر چوہدری پرویز الٰہی بھی بحث میں کود گئے اور انھوں نے دو ہاتھ مزید آگے بڑھ کے کہا کہ اسلامی ملک کے دارالحکومت میں مندر کی تعمیر ریاستِ مدینہ کی روح کے خلاف ہے۔ صرف پرانے مندر بحال ہو سکتے ہیں۔
اس پوری بحث میں کسی نے نہیں کہا کہ ہمیں اس بارے میں اسلام آباد ہائی کورٹ کے فیصلے کا احترام کرنا چاہیے ظاہر ہے کہ یہ فیصلہ آئین کی روشنی میں ہی دیا گیا ہو گا۔
آئین میں اقلیتوں کو برابر کے حقوق اور مذہبی عبادت کے حق کے تحفظ کی ضمانت دی گئی ہے۔ آئین میں کہیں نہیں کہا گیا کہ برابر کے شہری ہونے کے باوجود وہ کوئی نئی عبادت گاہ تعمیر نہیں کر سکتے یا ٹیکس دینے کے باوجود ریاست سے عبادت گاہوں کی تعمیر و مرمت کے لیے گرانٹ نہیں لے سکتے۔
جس طرح پاکستان میں مسلمان شہریوں کی آبادی بڑھ رہی ہے اور اس بڑھتی ہوئی آبادی کی ضروریات کے اعتبار سے نئی مساجد اور قبرستانوں کی تعمیر ہو رہی ہے اسی طرح غیر مسلموں کی آبادی بھی بڑھ رہی ہے مگر ان کی عبادت گاہوں یا آخری رسومات کی سہولتوں میں اضافہ نہ ہونے کے برابر ہے۔
مثلاً آل پاکستان ہندو رائٹس موومنٹ کے سروے کے مطابق تقسیم کے وقت موجودہ پاکستان کی آبادی ساڑھے تین کروڑ تھی جبکہ 428 مندر آباد تھے۔ 73 برس کے دوران 20 کو چھوڑ کے باقی تمام مندر گوداموں، گھروں، دفاتر، تعلیم گاہوں وغیرہ میں غائب ہو گئے۔
ملک میں اس وقت ہندو آبادی 40 لاکھ کے لگ بھگ ہے۔ اس 40 لاکھ کے لیے سندھ میں 11، پنجاب میں چار، بلوچستان میں تین اور خیبر پختونخوا میں دو مندر فعال ہیں۔ ہندو کمیونٹی سینٹرز عنقا ہیں جبکہ شمشان گھاٹ کی سہولتیں سینکڑوں میل کے فاصلے پر ہیں۔
حکومت نے چار ماہ پہلے اعلان کیا کہ لگ بھگ چار سو مندروں کو دوبارہ بحال کر کے ہندو برادری کے حوالے کیا جائے گا مگر رفتار کا عالم یہ ہے کہ 73 برس میں صرف چار مندر بحال ہو سکے۔
چکوال میں کٹاس راج (یہ عبادت سے زیادہ نمائشی مقاصد کے لیے ہے)۔ سیالکوٹ، پشاور اور ژوب میں ایک ایک مندر بحال ہو پایا۔ یہی رفتار رہی تو باقی 396 مندر زیادہ سے زیادہ اگلے ایک ہزار برس میں بحال ہو جائیں گے۔
سعودی عرب اور ایران دو مسلمان ممالک ہیں جہاں قانوناً کوئی نئی غیر مسلم عبادت گاہ تعمیر نہیں ہو سکتی۔ اس کے علاوہ کسی اور ملک میں قانوناً اس کی مناہی نہیں البتہ شرعی تشریحات الگ الگ ہیں۔
جیسے خلیجی ممالک میں عبادت گاہوں کی تعمیر کو آبادی کے تناسب اور مذہبی سہولت سے جوڑ کے دیکھنے کا چلن ہے۔ چنانچہ اومان میں سوا سو سال پرانا شیو مندر مسقط میں قائم ہے۔ بحرین میں ہندو کارکنوں کے لیے آٹھ مندر ہیں جنھیں سرکاری و بین الاقوامی سرپرستی حاصل ہے۔
دبئی میں سنہ 1958 میں ایک کمرشل عمارت کی چھت پر مندر قائم تھا۔ ابھی دو برس پہلے متحدہ عرب امارات کی حکومت نے ابوظہبی میں 27 ایکڑ رقبہ سوامی نارائن مندر کی تعمیر کے لیے عطیہ کیا۔
اس وقت امارات میں تیس لاکھ کے لگ بھگ ہندو کارکن ہیں اور نیا مندر کمپلیکس ہندو آبادی کے تناسب سے بنایا جا رہا ہے۔ توقع ہے کہ اس سال کے اختتام تک یہ مندر عبادت و سماجی سرگرمیوں کے لیے کھول دیا جائے گا۔
SHIRAZ HASSAN
پہلے بڑے مسلمان ملک انڈونیشیا کے جزیرے جاوا میں نویں صدی کا پرمبنان مندر جنوب مشرقی ایشیا کا سب سے بڑا مندر اور عالمی وراثت کی یونیسکو فہرست کا حصہ ہے۔
سرکار نے تمام قدیم مندروں کو محفوظ اور پرکشش بنانے کے لیے خطیر رقم مختص کی چنانچہ مذہبی سیاحت میں پچھلے ایک عشرے میں دوگنا اضافہ ہوا۔
دوسرے بڑے مسلمان ملک بنگلہ دیش کے دارالحکومت کے ڈھاکیش واری مندر کو مسجدِ بیت المکرم کی طرح قومی عبادت گاہ کا درجہ حاصل ہے۔ وہاں ہر صبح کا آغاز قومی پرچم لہرانے اور ترانے سے ہوتا ہے۔ یاد رہے کہ سنہ 1988 میں اسلام ریاست کا قومی مذہب قرار دیا گیا۔
جبکہ تیسرے بڑے مسلمان ملک پاکستان میں یہ بحث ہو رہی ہے کہ ہندو شہریوں کے لیے نیا مندر جائز ہے کہ ناجائز۔
یقین نہیں آتا کہ یہ وہی ملک ہے جہاں 60 کے عشرے تک جو 22 سرکاری چھٹیاں ہوتی تھیں ان میں 25 تا 31 دسمبر کرسمس کی ایک ہفتے کی چھٹیوں کے علاوہ ایسٹر، بیساکھی، دسہرے، دیوالی اور ہولی کو بھی قومی تعطیل کا درجہ حاصل تھا۔
ریاست اس دور میں بھی تھی، حکمران اس دور میں بھی تھے اور علما کرام تب بھی تھے۔ پھر شاید یوں ہوا کہ ذہنی قد چھوٹے ہونے لگے اور سائے لمبے۔۔۔ ارے یاد آیا، آج پانچ جولائی بھی تو ہے۔
Governing Ineffectively: Has Pakistan’s Ruling Party Turned a Health Crisis Into a Political Crisis?
Pakistan’s political crisis is deepening with the rise of COVID-19 cases.
Pakistan’s national government has followed a highly politicized approach to dealing with the COVID-19 threat. The result has reignited fears that the current government is not fit to rule the country let alone deal with a raging health crisis that is fast becoming a national security issue.
Over the last few months, there has been a steep decline in public trust about the capacity of the government’s efforts to deal with the COVID-19 threat. After putting in some surface-level effort, the government has nearly left the entirety of the country’s population at the mercy of the virus.
The government’s top decision-makers remain unprepared and unwilling to take the threat seriously. A few days ago, the Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir presented a novel definition of COVID-19 by saying that “COVID-19 means that it has 19 points that can be applied to any country in any way.” Another senior leader of the PTI who is also Sindh province’s Governor recently said that COVID-19 is nothing more than the flu and people shouldn’t worry about it.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that the current government’s approval ratings have fallen sharply in recent months. According to a recent Gallup survey, “The percentage of Pakistanis who believe that the current PTI government’s performance up to this point in its tenure is worse than that of the previous government has increased from 35 percent in December 2018 to only 59 percent in February 2020.”
The government’s political allies are either estranged or walking away to join the opposition parties. In the province of Punjab, several disgruntled lawmakers of the ruling party have been threatening to form forward blocks if they are not given development funds. A weak chief minister in the province often cites the phrase “I am not aware” regarding key decisions related to his province. A looming wheat crisis in the country has involved several top ministers of the government that manipulated the domestic market to make billions. The problem is expected to morph into a serious food crisis in Pakistan in the coming months.
The issue has created deep divisions within the government as Prime Minister Imran Khan has sidelined one of his key advisers, Jahangir Tareen, after his role in the wheat crisis was proved recently. Tareen, who has been credited with managing the ruling party’s political alliances, has not only fled the country, but has also left a vacuum to fill in the government. In the absence of Tareen, no one could effectively reach out and satisfy the government’s political allies.
Thus no one in the government has the political clout to negotiate with the head of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M), Sardar Akhtar Mengal, who recently left the government to join the opposition. A few days ago, Mengal met with the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, to chart out a plan to potentially bring the government down. “In our meeting, we discussed the changes that have already taken place in the country and the changes which are about to come,” said Mr. Mengal.
Understandably, Mengal’s departure from the coalition has made the government weaker and its other political allies stronger. “MQM, PML-Q, GDA, and BAP may not walk out like Mengal did … but their threat of walking out will now hold greater weight for PTI. Do not be surprised if you see the allies becoming a bit more vocal in their grievances, a bit more aggressive in their dealings, and a bit more demanding in their requirements,” notes an op-ed published in Dawn.
Adding to the crisis are rising incidents of terrorism across the country. Last week, three consecutive explosions claimed by a little-known separatist group, Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA), has put policymakers on alert. Reports indicate that the group’s leadership operates from the province of Sindh and “wants the province to break from the Pakistani federation.”
In another incident on June 22, an officer and a soldier of the Pakistani Army were killed in clashes with militants in North Waziristan. Over the last few months, groups such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic State (IS), the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), the Baluchistan Liberation Tigers (BLT), and others carried out attacks across Pakistan. The list of militant organizations targeting Pakistan has now been joined by a new militant group known as the SRA.
It is a worrying development for Pakistan for two reasons. First, the rise in militant attacks is taking place at a time when a governance and health crisis is consuming law enforcement agencies majority of the focus. Second, the growth in attacks, particularly from new organizations, underscores that militant networks in the country or aspirations from different ethno-nationalist groups in this regard, remain strong. Thus, any sense of weakness from the state would be taken as an opportunity to mobilize operations to weaken the state further. Certainly, COVID-19 has exposed Pakistan’s looming governance and security woes.
Pakistan’s all-powerful military is monitoring all these developments closely. It would not be imprudent to argue that the military itself is strained due to the existing political and governance crisis that COVID-19 has brought to fore. Pakistan’s security establishment may want an increased role in managing politics in Pakistan, but it doesn’t mean that the institution is interested in running everything for the government.The next few months are going to be very important for Pakistan as COVID-19 exposes the current government’s inability to govern effectively and manage its allies aptly. As political uncertainty grows in Pakistan, issues lying on the periphery have started to move to the core, challenging the country’s national security.
48 doctors in #Pakistan resign citing shortage of protective gears
The health department of Pakistan's Punjab province said the doctors, mostly young ones, resigned from govt teaching hospitals & their resignations were accepted.
Pakistan on Sunday suffered a setback in the fight against COVID-19 as 48 doctors working in the teaching hospitals of Punjab province resigned, citing non-provision of safety gear to protect them from the virus that has killed more than 4,700 people in the country.According to a notification of the Punjab health department issued here on Sunday, 48 doctors, mostly young ones, resigned from the posts at the government teaching hospitals. Their resignations have been accepted, it said.
The doctors who resigned were from Lahore’s Mayo, Services, Jinnah, General, Lady Aitcheson, Children and Sheikh Zayed hospitals, Allied and Civil hospitals in Faisalabad, SZH Rahim Yar Khan and Nishter Hospital Multan.
“The doctors in question have resigned after the government’s failure to their repeated requests to provide them protective gear against the deadly coronavirus and other inadequate facilities,” a senior doctor of a public hospital Lahore told PTI.
He said the government seems to be least interested in the protection of the medics.
“We are front-line soldiers in the war against COVID-19 and see what the Imran Khan government is doing with us. A couple of days ago police baton-charged doctors in Muzaffarabad (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), whose only sin was that they were protesting for not getting protective medical kits and salaries, he lamented.
Following the arrest of 23 young doctors in Muzaffarabad the Young Doctors Association shutdown emergency wards in all hospitals in PoK.
The senior doctor warned that more doctors will quit their job if the government does not pay attention to this issue. Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid, however, claimed that the government was providing required safety kits to doctors, nurses, and para-medical staff.
More than 70 medics, most of the doctors, in Pakistan have lost their lives to COVID-19 and over 5,000 infected so far.
According to a report of the National Institute of Health, more than 70 health professionals including 47 doctors have lost their lives to the coronavirus. Of them, 35 victim doctors belong to Punjab province.
Over 5,000 health professionals including 3,000 doctors and 600 nurses have been infected by the deadly virus so far in the country.
Till Sunday, there are over 228,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases with over 4,700 deaths reported in Pakistan.
https://theprint.in/world/48-doctors-in-pakistan-resign-citing-shortage-of-protective-gears/455088/
'زندگیاں داؤ پر، غیرمحفوظ مستقبل': پنجاب میں 48 ڈاکٹروں کے استعفے
ینگ ڈاکٹرز ایسوسی ایشن کے مطابق پنجاب حکومت نےجب سے میڈیکل ٹیچنگ انسٹی ٹیوٹ (ایم ٹی آئی )ایکٹ لاگو کیا ہے اسی وقت سے ڈاکٹرز اپنی نوکریوں کو غیر محفوظ سمجھ رہے ہیں۔
پنجاب میں مستعفی ہونے والے 48 ڈاکٹروں کے استعفے منظور کر لیے گئے ہیں۔
پنجاب میں مختلف سرکاری ٹیچنگ ہسپتالوں کے 48ڈاکٹروں نے نوکریوں سے استعفے ایک ساتھ نہیں بلکہ جنوری سے جون تک مختلف اوقات میں جمع کروائے تھے۔
جن سرکاری ہسپتالوں کے ڈاکٹروں نے استعفے دیے ان میں لاہور کے میو ہسپتال سے تعلق رکھنے والے 14ڈاکٹر شامل ہیں۔
اسی طرح پنجاب کے دیگر شہروں کے ہسپتالوں سے بھی ڈاکٹرمستعفی ہوئے۔
محکمہ سپیشلائزڈ ہیلتھ کیئر کو یہ استعفے مختلف اوقات میں موصول ہوئے لیکن محکمے کی جانب سے اجتماعی طور پر انہیں 27جون کو منظور کر لیا گیا۔
مستعفی ہونے والے تمام ڈاکٹر گریڈ 17 میں کام کر رہے تھے۔
ینگ ڈاکٹرز ایسوسی ایشن کے مطابق پنجاب حکومت نےجب سے میڈیکل ٹیچنگ انسٹی ٹیوٹ (ایم ٹی آئی )ایکٹ لاگو کیا ہے اسی وقت سے ڈاکٹرز اپنی نوکریوں کو غیر محفوظ سمجھ رہے ہیں۔
محکمہ صحت نے ان استعفوں کو معمول کا عمل قراردیدیا۔
کرونا کے دور میں استعفے کیوں نہ روکےجاسکے؟
پنجاب کی صوبائی کرونا کمیٹی کے وائس چیئرمین،سی ای او میو ہسپتال لاہور ڈاکٹر اسد اسلم سے یہ سوال پوچھا گیا تو انہوں نے کہا کہ یہ معمول کی بات ہے ڈاکٹرز استعفے دیتے رہتے ہیں اور نئے ڈاکٹرز کی تعیناتی بھی ہوتی رہتی ہے۔
انہوں نے کہا بعض ڈاکٹرز کو کوئی اور اچھا موقع مل جاتا ہے، کوئی اپنا کاروبار شروع کرتا ہےیا کسی لیڈی ڈاکٹر کی شادی ہوجاتی ہے اور وہ ملازمت نہیں کرنا چاہتی تو وہ مستعفی ہوجاتے ہیں۔
ان کا مزید کہنا تھا کہ اس مرتبہ بھی معمول کے مطابق ڈاکٹروں نے استعفے دیے ہیں لیکن اس بار مختلف اس لیے لگ رہاہے کہ محکمے کی جانب سے گزشتہ کئی ماہ سے موصول ہونے والے استعفے ایک ساتھ منظور ہونے کے بعد نوٹیفکیشن جاری کیاگیا ہے۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ پنجاب کے ہسپتالوں میں بہت ڈاکٹر ہیں، استعفے اتنے زیادہ نہیں کہ کرونا کے دور میں کمی کا خدشہ ہو۔
ڈاکٹر کیا سمجھتے ہیں؟
ینگ ڈاکٹرز ایسوسی ایشن کے صدر ڈاکٹر سلمان حسیب نے انڈپینڈنٹ اردو سے بات کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ محکمے کی طرف سے غلط بیانی کی جارہی ہے کہ یہ معمول کا حصہ ہے۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ حقیقت یہ ہے کہ جب سے حکومت پنجاب نے میڈیکل ٹیچنگ انسٹیٹیوٹ (ایم ٹی آئی)ایکٹ لاگو کیا ہے تمام ڈاکٹر کنٹریکٹ پر منتقل ہوگئے ہیں اور انہیں ملازمت چلے جانے کا خطرہ ہے۔
اس لیے تمام ڈاکٹر سرکاری نوکریاں چھوڑ کر یا بیرون ملک جارہے ہیں یا اپنے کلینک بنانے کو ترجیح دینے لگے ہیں۔
انہوں نے کہا ڈاکٹرز کے استعفے معمول کی بات ہیں تو پہلے کا ریکارڈ دکھایاجائے جس میں کم عرصے کے دوران اتنی بڑی تعدادمیں ڈاکٹروں نے نوکری چھوڑی ہو۔
انہوں نے کہا کرونا کے دور میں بھی حکومت نے ڈاکٹروں سے نامناسب سلوک کیا، انہیں کٹیں فراہم نہیں کی جارہی تھیں جس سے کئی ڈاکٹرز کرونا کاشکار ہوئے اور کئی جان کی بازی ہار گئے۔ ایسے حالات میں کون زندگیاں داؤ پر لگاکر اپنے مستقبل کو غیر محفوظ سمجھتے ہوئے نوکری کرتاہے؟
واضح رہے کہ کرونا وائرس کے پھیلنے سے پہلے ڈاکٹروں کی جانب سے ایم ٹی آئی ایکٹ کے خلاف احتجاج جاری تھا اور کرونا وبا
کے دوران بھی حفاظتی سامان نہ ملنے پر احتجاج کیاگیاتھا۔
#Pakistan - #PPP leader Ayatullah Durrani passes away
He had been seriously ill for the past few days and under treatment at the Fatima Jinnah Chest Hospital in Quetta. The former minister breathed his last Sunday evening. His funeral prayers will be offered in Mastung.
https://www.samaa.tv/news/pakistan/2020/07/ppp-leader-ayatullah-durrani-passes-away/
#BlackDay #5JulyBlackDay - COMMENTARY / INSIGHT: Remembering July 5, 1977
It was July 5, 1977, past midnight at 0130 hours, “Operation Fair Play” was put into action on the orders of the chief of the army staff Gen Ziaul Haq, and the first directly elected prime minister of Pakistan along with the cabinet ministers and the opposition leaders were taken into “protective custody”. This was the start of a long eleven years of one man rule with absolute powers. That was the day when the democratic institutions of Pakistan were brutally murdered and crushed to make “A horrible example” of a man who initiated the atomic program for his country, who brought all the Muslim leaders under one roof in Lahore and who was adored and admired by all the world leaders of his time, and as a result of that “Operation fair play” the judicial murder of the most charismatic and popular leader of Pakistan took place on the early hours of April 4, 1979.
July 5 will always be remembered as one of the unfortunates darkest days in the history of Pakistan. It was the day when the democratic forces of the country suffered an unbearable loss, the inverse effects of which are still being felt. Had there been no such dark day in our history, Pakistan would have been standing proudly among the developed countries of the world with strong democratic institutions in place.
ZAB was the voice of the poor masses of the country; he was not only the undisputed leader of a very vast majority of the country but also of the third world
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) who was the prime minister of Pakistan and the chairman of the Islamic Conference till that unfortunate hour of July 5, 1979, took oath of the president of Pakistan on December 20, 1971, with the aim to “Pick up the pieces, very small pieces “.
ZAB was the voice of the poor masses of the country; he was not only the undisputed leader of a very vast majority of the country but also of the third world. The reasons behind the coup of 1979 will never be made public, and real faces behind that tragic event will always remain behind the curtain. The man who had at his credit historic achievements such as Shimla Summit in 1972, the constitution of 1973, unanimously adopted and agreed by all the federating units of the country, the Islamic summit of 1974, the starting of atomic program, the introduction of labor reforms and many more was removed from the scene of Pakistani politics at the darkness of night. The man who wanted to “make a new Pakistan, a prosperous and progressive Pakistan, a Pakistan free of exploitation, and a Pakistan envisaged by the Quaid-e-Azam”. Bhutto wanted to “rebuild hope in the future”, the hope of millions of poor man in the street. He was removed from the corridors of power to be hanged and his body was flown to Ghari Khuda Buksh to be buried in his ancestors graveyard under the cover of darkness, with his wife and Daughter of the East under house arrest and his sons living in a forced exile. His followers were barred from attending the funeral.
General elections were held on March 7 for the National Assembly and March 10 for four provincial assemblies. The results of the National Assembly gave a clear cut two third majority to the Pakistan People’s Party; the main opposition constituting of nine major political parties Pakistan national alliance refused to accept the election results alleging mass rigging on the direct orders of the prime minister and boycotted the provincial assemblies elections. A movement was launched by the PNA and after some months, the opposition and the ruling party agreed to come to the table to negotiate for a amicable solution and its said and widely believed that the opposition and the government had reached on an agreement which was to be signed on July 5, 1977, but before that an elected government was toppled.
Independent observers believe that though there were insistences of rigging in some constituencies and not on the instructions of the prime minister himself as ZAB was conscious of his name in history, such a person so widely read and respecting the democratic institutions would have never ordered a mass rigging. There were clear cases of rigging, snatching of ballot boxes, forcefully filling the ballot boxes by the opposition party PNA in the cities like Karachi and many other places where they had a clear support and charged workers force.
After the passage of many decades, it’s an open secret that the charges of rigging were simply a pretext for a plan of removing ZAB and his People’s Party from the corridors of power and to make ZAB “a horrible example”, which turned out to be “horrible” for Pakistan.
During the PNA movement against the so-called “rigging in general elections’ ‘, retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan wrote letters to the armed forces chiefs urging them to fulfill their constitutional duty that indirectly inviting the armed forces of Pakistan to interfere in the political set up of the country.
The events leading to “operation Fair Play” and its effects on the political economical and democratic institutions of the country became the subject of renowned, celebrated and distinguished writers and scholars who after in depth research and probe found out that there was not a mass scale rigging in the general elections and that certain foreign powers never wanted a man of such a caliber (ZAB) to be in power in Pakistan.
In 1985, UK based Pakistani writer Tariq Ali was asked by BBC to pen down a series based on the events of overthrow, trial and finally execution of ZAB which he did with the name of “The leopard and the fox”. As the rehearsals were about to begin, the BBC under pressure from foreign office decided to cancel the project. The serial is now available in the book form. BBC as is known around the world is an independent media house definitely there must be unavoidable circumstances or external pressure which even BBC could not stand and had to cancel the project. This is indicative of the role of foreign powers in the overthrow and subsequent hanging of ZAB.
The events of July 05,1977 were the result of week democratic institutions of the country, the greed of political leaders and parties to come into power by any means, taking refuge ad help of undemocratic forces.
Today after 43 years while observing this black day, it’s the duty of every Pakistani to learn a lesson from history to show faith in the elected governments and to follow the democratic principles of tolerance and respect for all, and pray to Almighty that we don’t see another July 5.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/634625/remembering-july-5-1977/
#BlackDay #5JulyBlackDay - OP-ED: Remembering the dark night of the 5th July
M Alam Brohi
We had lost the bigger part of the country just six years ago. We had sustained defeat, humiliation and dismemberment of the Jinnah’s Pakistan. Our military and civilian leadership knew that the main cause of the disgruntlement of the Bengalis was the absence of a participatory democratic rule. The political jerry mandering of the early years and the abrogation of the first Constitution of the country (1956) in Martial Law, followed by a long autocratic rule by a General had sowed the seeds of separatism in the former East Pakistan. After a decade’s effective rule, he handed over power to his Commander in Chief, General Agha Yahya Khan in violation of his own Constitution of 1962. The separation of former East Pakistan was a devastating blow to this hapless nation. The People were shell shocked and gripped by a fear of the collapse of this part of Pakistan; the young army officers were seething with anger and up in arms against their senior leadership. The situation had spiraled out of the control of the ruling junta. Some sound minds in the GHQ took control of the fast aggravating situation and contacted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to take over.
The broken and half-sunk country was handed over to him to rebuild it. This was the greatest political challenge to Bhutto. The political acumen of a leader comes to play into a crisis of this magnitude
Thus, the broken and half-sunk country was handed over to him to rebuild it. This was the greatest political challenge to Bhutto. The political acumen of a leader comes to play into a crisis of this magnitude. He passed this litmus test with remarkable achievements. He virtually picked up the pieces of the broken ship to rebuild it; he raised the sinking morale of a despairing people and restored the confidence of a disillusioned nation. He addressed the post-war issues with India and recalibrated the country’s relations with the neighbours, superpowers and the Muslim world. He rebuilt the army as a fighting force, restored the economy of the country and achieved a marked political consensus for the new Constitution and the political dispensation. He accomplished this gigantic task within a span of three years.
Bhutto was the product of the chequered political history of the country. He had his political grooming under Iskander Mirza and General Ayub Khan, though he had always displayed an independent bent of political thinking. His evaluation of the global power politics remained at odds with that of his mentors. His aversion to strategic alliances or placing the country’s eggs in one basket was evident. He believed in exploring avenues of independent bilateral relationships. He considered Pakistan a vital part of the Muslim world and the Afro-Asian bloc of nations. This fully crystallized in his foreign policy when he was at the helm.
It was the economic and political domains where he erred phenomenally. He went the whole hog for nationalization. The nationalization of banks, insurance companies, and big industries to prevent the exploitation of the labour was understandable but the takeover of small industries like foundries, rice husking, cotton ginning and Ice factories, private schools and colleges was unfathomable. This inflicted a heavy blow to the private investment in the country. Though riding on a high crest of popularity, he fell back on the traditional strong arm tactics in the politics showing intolerance for the opposition and the media. He jailed many opponents on frivolous grounds. He also dealt sternly with the vocal left wingers in his party. In the last years of his rule, he drifted from his original constituency – the poor masses – wooing traditional political dynasties. He paid heavily for this political waywardness.
The political turmoil ignited by the controversial general elections of 1977 lingered too long and revived the praetorian ambitions of the Generals lurking in the background and playing on both sides of the wicket to sabotage the dialogue between Z.A. Bhutto and the opposition. Bhutto failed to gauge the ambitions of his General. Overconfident about the loyalty of his handpicked Army Chief, Bhutto also displayed complacency. An agreement covering all the main demands of the opposition had already been ironed out. Bhutto wanted to sign it after his suddenly-arranged visit to a couple of Muslim countries. On his return, the 5th July was appointed for the signing of the agreement. A senior civil servant in the bureaucracy sounded the General to strike or be ready for crucifixion. In the early morning of the 5th July when the clock struck 2.0, the military surrounded the vital buildings in Islamabad including the Prime Minister’s House near the GHQ. The Prime Minister and the main PPP and opposition leaders were rounded up and whisked away.
Behold the coincidences that the rules were relaxed and the same ominous hour of 2.0 was chosen for the execution of Z.A. Bhutto on 4th April and the same aircraft of C-130 which had fetched him from Rome to rebuild the country was used to carry his mortal remains to Larkana. Bhutto was physically eliminated and the PNA leaders did not even get a crumb of power. They had to bite the bullet to work as adjuncts to the PPP for the restoration of democracy in 1984. In the meantime, the country had been set on the path of religious bigotry and militancy and sectarian polarization and plunged into the Afghan war with all its concomitant consequences. We have not yet been able to rid the country of this extremism. Even then, neither our politicians nor our military leadership have learnt any lesson from the retrogressive cycles of our short history.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/636050/remembering-the-dark-night-of-the-5th-july/
#BlackDay #5JulyBlackDay - Present puppet regime is the culmination of the crime of July 5, 1977: Bilawal
Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has termed July 5, 1977, as the most shameful and darkest day in the history of Pakistan.
In his message to the nation, Bilawal said that the people’s elected government and first directly elected Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was ousted by the elements who had either vanished into mid-air or living a shameful life.
“The way all the characters involved in it met their fate proved that crime and sin have no legacy. Still, every illegitimate ruler of the time, like today’s puppet, fails to grasp and realise this universal reality,” Bilawal said.
The PPP chairman said that the constitution was suspended on July 5, 1977, wrapping the democracy, suspending all the civil rights and forbidding the process of development and hoisting the colours of the authoritarianism in all directions.
He said that just by promoting and protecting the dictator’s personal vested interests, the foundation of dictatorial rules was laid through inventing corruption and unleashing intimidation.
“Dictators have been interested in petty personal gains developing hotbeds of intolerance and extremism,” he added.
Bilawal said that even today after four decades, the scourge of July 5, 1977, is not leaving the Pakistani nation behind and democracy is still in its teething stage, the ground for implementation of provincial autonomy is narrow, the poor are at the mercy of plagues and locusts, the swords of unemployment hanging over the heads of the workers, the bread of two times, justice is expensive and poor is getting poorer by each passing day.
He said that the present puppet regime is the culmination of the crime of July 5, 1977, and at the same time, now this chapter in Pakistan is about to be closed forever.
He said that the day is not far when the people’s right to sovereignty and the use of religious extremism, militancy, sectarianism and linguistics as weapons in government buildings to perpetuate their aggressive rule will be removed in the same way that many racist and hate-mongering societies today are tearing down statues of fake greats.
Bilawal said that PPP has made unparalleled struggle and eternal sacrifices for the constitution and democracy of the country, this struggle will continue till the final victory of the people.
#BlackDay #5JulyBlackDay - Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has termed July 5, 1977 as the most shameful and darkest day in the history of Pakistan
He said that the people’s elected government and first directly elected Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was ousted by the elements who had either vanished into mid-air or living a shameful life. The way all the characters involved in it met their fate proved that crime and sin have no legacy. Still, every illegitimate ruler of the time, like today’s puppet, fail to grasp and realise this universal reality.
In his message to the nation on the occasion of Black Day, the PPP Chairman said that the constitution was suspended on July 5, 1977, wrapping the democracy, suspending all the civil rights and forbidding the process of development and hoisting the colours of the authoritarian in all directions.
He said that just by promoting and protecting dictator’s personal vested interests, the foundation of dictatorial rules were laid through inventing corruption and unleashing intimidation. Dictators have been interested in petty personal gains developing hotbeds of intolerance and extremism, he added.
He said that even today after four decades, the scourge of July 5, 1977 is not leaving the Pakistani nation behind. Democracy is still in its teething stage, the ground for implementation of provincial autonomy is narrow, the poor are at the mercy of plagues and locusts, the swords of unemployment hanging over the heads of the workers, the bread of two times, justice is expensive and poor is getting poorer by each passing day.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the present puppet regime is the culmination of the crime of July 5, 1977 and at the same time, now this chapter in Pakistan is about to be closed forever.
He said that the day is not far when the people’s right to sovereignty and the use of religious extremism, militancy, sectarianism and linguistics as weapons in government buildings to perpetuate their aggressive rule will be removed in the same way that many racist and hate-mongering societies today are tearing down statues of fake greats.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that PPP has made unparalleled struggle and eternal sacrifices for the constitution and democracy of the country, this struggle will continue till the final victory of the people.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/2020/07/04/chairman-ppp-bilawal-bhutto-zardari-has-termed-july-5-1977-as-the-most-shameful-and-darkest-day-in-the-history-of-pakistan/
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