By Amy Kazmin
NEW DELHI — Even before Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza building collapsed this week, killing at least 300 garment workers, the country’s $19 billion clothing-export industry was feeling the pressure of a worsening confrontation between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her political enemies.
Since the beginning of February, Bangladesh has been virtually shut down for 33 days by strikes, protests and political violence pitting secular supporters of Hasina’s Awami League against its bitter rivals from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party.
While garment factories supplying Western brands try to operate normally despite the disruptions, the shutdown of transportation, including roads and ports, and government offices, including customs offices, has prevented the import of raw materials and timely shipment of finished goods.
Western buyers’ patience had already begun to fray. On Monday, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association held a news conference to complain that it had lost $3 billion in new orders and seen $500 million in existing orders redirected to neighboring India since January because of the unrest.
Many garment manufacturers believe that the Rana Plaza tragedy, coupled with the threat of more disruptive political turmoil ahead, will prompt retailers such as Wal-Mart gradually to shift production away from Bangladesh, the second-largest garment exporter in the world after China.
“The situation is becoming grave,” said Rubana Haq, managing director of the Mohammadi Group, a large manufacturer that supplies retailers such as H&M, Zara, Wal-Mart and Esprit. “We will start feeling the pressure from the buyers now.”
Western retailers cannot abandon Bangladesh overnight, given its capacity, with more than 3.6 million workers. But Haq says she expects local garment exports to contract by at least 10 percent this year, and possibly more in the long term, as capacities grow elsewhere.
“We will suffer from a serious image deficit,” she says.
The numerous delayed deliveries stemming from the political turmoil have also given buyers an excuse to slash payments to manufacturers by 5 to 25 percent. “Buyers’ maximum tolerance is a two-week delay,” Haq said. “After that, they are canceling orders or imposing discounts.”
The Rana Plaza tragedy comes less than five months after at least 110 people were killed in a fire at Tazreen Fashions, a factory supplying Wal-Mart, albeit without its knowledge. The two disasters have raised serious questions about the standards and management practices of Bangladesh’s garment industry.
This week, thousands of angry garment workers have taken to the streets to protest poor industry conditions and to demand the arrests of the Rana Plaza owner and the owners of the factories inside.
Ominously, the political violence hampering the industry even before the disasters is unlikely to abate any time soon. Bangladesh, which gained independence from Pakistan after a brutal war in 1971, remains divided between secular ethnic nationalists and Orthodox Muslims, who would have preferred to remain with Pakistan.
Those simmering tensions have been reignited by a war crimes tribunal that Hasina’s government has established to try those accused of atrocities during the liberation war, mainly leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami.
When the first conviction was issued in February, supporters of Hasina’s Awami League took to the streets to demand the death penalty. However, Jamaat leaders, and their ally the BNP, argue that the tribunal is overtly partisan and that Hasina is using it to destroy rivals ahead of parliamentary elections.
Rival political groups have held dueling protests about the convictions and subsequent sentencing. Activists from Jamaat’s youth wing have also been accused of vandalizing train tracks, causing derailments and attacking police officers.
The political violence has claimed at least 100 lives, and verdicts by the tribunal are expected in May and June, raising the prospect of further unrest.
Meanwhile, a new Islamic organization, Hefajat-e-Islam, or protector of Islam, mobilized about 100,000 people for a demonstration in central Dhaka this month demanding mandatory Islamic education and a ban on women mixing freely with men — an agenda that critics say would amount to a “Talibanization” of Bangladesh. The group has set a deadline of early May for its demands to be fulfilled, threatening more protests if they are not.
Ifty Islam, the managing partner of the Dhaka-based boutique consultancy Asian Tigers Capital Partners, says the country appears to be descending into chaos, which could prompt a state of emergency or a military intervention.
“The deterioration of law and order is occurring at an increasingly rapid and alarming pace, with concurrent massive economic dislocations,” he wrote in a recent report. “A worrying new element in the political maelstrom is the nascent emergency of Islamic nationalism.”
All this forms a gloomy backdrop for Bangladesh’s garment industry as it struggles to retain the confidence of its image-sensitive customers after two high-profile disasters.
“We will probably see a phase of violence until December,” Haq said. “I’m not very optimistic.”
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Bangladesh’s economic outlook darkens after factory collapse
By Amy Kazmin
NEW DELHI — Even before Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza building collapsed this week, killing at least 300 garment workers, the country’s $19 billion clothing-export industry was feeling the pressure of a worsening confrontation between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her political enemies.
Since the beginning of February, Bangladesh has been virtually shut down for 33 days by strikes, protests and political violence pitting secular supporters of Hasina’s Awami League against its bitter rivals from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party.
While garment factories supplying Western brands try to operate normally despite the disruptions, the shutdown of transportation, including roads and ports, and government offices, including customs offices, has prevented the import of raw materials and timely shipment of finished goods.
Western buyers’ patience had already begun to fray. On Monday, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association held a news conference to complain that it had lost $3 billion in new orders and seen $500 million in existing orders redirected to neighboring India since January because of the unrest.
Many garment manufacturers believe that the Rana Plaza tragedy, coupled with the threat of more disruptive political turmoil ahead, will prompt retailers such as Wal-Mart gradually to shift production away from Bangladesh, the second-largest garment exporter in the world after China.
“The situation is becoming grave,” said Rubana Haq, managing director of the Mohammadi Group, a large manufacturer that supplies retailers such as H&M, Zara, Wal-Mart and Esprit. “We will start feeling the pressure from the buyers now.”
Western retailers cannot abandon Bangladesh overnight, given its capacity, with more than 3.6 million workers. But Haq says she expects local garment exports to contract by at least 10 percent this year, and possibly more in the long term, as capacities grow elsewhere.
“We will suffer from a serious image deficit,” she says.
The numerous delayed deliveries stemming from the political turmoil have also given buyers an excuse to slash payments to manufacturers by 5 to 25 percent. “Buyers’ maximum tolerance is a two-week delay,” Haq said. “After that, they are canceling orders or imposing discounts.”
The Rana Plaza tragedy comes less than five months after at least 110 people were killed in a fire at Tazreen Fashions, a factory supplying Wal-Mart, albeit without its knowledge. The two disasters have raised serious questions about the standards and management practices of Bangladesh’s garment industry.
This week, thousands of angry garment workers have taken to the streets to protest poor industry conditions and to demand the arrests of the Rana Plaza owner and the owners of the factories inside.
Ominously, the political violence hampering the industry even before the disasters is unlikely to abate any time soon. Bangladesh, which gained independence from Pakistan after a brutal war in 1971, remains divided between secular ethnic nationalists and Orthodox Muslims, who would have preferred to remain with Pakistan.
Those simmering tensions have been reignited by a war crimes tribunal that Hasina’s government has established to try those accused of atrocities during the liberation war, mainly leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami.
When the first conviction was issued in February, supporters of Hasina’s Awami League took to the streets to demand the death penalty. However, Jamaat leaders, and their ally the BNP, argue that the tribunal is overtly partisan and that Hasina is using it to destroy rivals ahead of parliamentary elections.
Rival political groups have held dueling protests about the convictions and subsequent sentencing. Activists from Jamaat’s youth wing have also been accused of vandalizing train tracks, causing derailments and attacking police officers.
The political violence has claimed at least 100 lives, and verdicts by the tribunal are expected in May and June, raising the prospect of further unrest.
Meanwhile, a new Islamic organization, Hefajat-e-Islam, or protector of Islam, mobilized about 100,000 people for a demonstration in central Dhaka this month demanding mandatory Islamic education and a ban on women mixing freely with men — an agenda that critics say would amount to a “Talibanization” of Bangladesh. The group has set a deadline of early May for its demands to be fulfilled, threatening more protests if they are not.
Ifty Islam, the managing partner of the Dhaka-based boutique consultancy Asian Tigers Capital Partners, says the country appears to be descending into chaos, which could prompt a state of emergency or a military intervention.
“The deterioration of law and order is occurring at an increasingly rapid and alarming pace, with concurrent massive economic dislocations,” he wrote in a recent report. “A worrying new element in the political maelstrom is the nascent emergency of Islamic nationalism.”
All this forms a gloomy backdrop for Bangladesh’s garment industry as it struggles to retain the confidence of its image-sensitive customers after two high-profile disasters.
“We will probably see a phase of violence until December,” Haq said. “I’m not very optimistic.”
8 arrested after deadly Bangladesh building collapse
Bangladeshi authorities arrested eight people, including two factory owners, after 334 people died in a building collapse near the capital this week. Many others were trapped under concrete rubble.
Several relatives of the owners and two engineers also were arrested, the state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported.
Police identified the owners as Mahmudur Rahman Tapash and Bazlul Samad Adnan.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday had ordered police to arrest the owners of the building and the garment factories in it so that they can "face legal actions," her spokesman said. Most of the victims appear to have been garment factory workers.
"It is not an accident, it is a killing incident," Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told reporters. "All, including owners and administrative officials concerned, must be put on the dock for the killing of people."
Amid the arrests, the death toll mounted as families of the missing hoped for a miracle.
Rescuers pulled out a woman who had given birth in the mangled mess of the crumbled eight-story building, Sangbad Sangstha reported. It was unclear Saturday how the mother and the baby were doing a day after they were rescued.
But most reports coming from the fallen structure near the capital, Dhaka, were of woe.
Officials coordinating the operation have said the rescue efforts would end Saturday morning and heavy equipment will retrieve the remaining bodies and cart away the rubble.
The announcement ignited protests Friday from crowds near the rescue site, many of them relatives showing pictures of the missing to whomever would pay attention.
Police used tear gas to disperse them, the news agency said.
Protests continued Saturday as large crowds took to the streets in four districts in Dhaka.
At a nearby medical college hospital, "thousands of survivors have been treated," said Sajjad Hussein, a spokesman for an anti-corruption agency.
"The crisis for blood is acute and the hospital authority is urging people to donate blood for the victims. There is also a shortage of medicine. The local military hospital is also treating patients."
Looking for loved ones
The picture of despair was clear Friday at a nearby local school, where bodies were being kept. Hundreds amassed, many of them relatives desperately searching for loved ones.
"People with photos of their relatives, mostly workers of the apparel factories, are asking the officials there for help. Whenever an ambulance is arriving at the spot, everyone is rushing towards (it) hoping to find at least the body of their near and dear ones," Hussein said. Nineteen people had been rescued alive, Dhaka District Police Chief Habibur Rahman said Saturday morning.
In all, more than 2,300 people had been rescued, police said.
But it may take some time until the full extent of the destruction will be known. Late Friday, relatives reported 595 people still missing, police said.
The collapse occurred Wednesday morning, a day after cracks appeared in the structure. It has stirred outrage in Bangladesh over lax safety standards in the country's key industry.
The cracks led the bank to order its employees not to report for work Wednesday, and the shops in the mall were closed because of a strike. But garment factory workers were told to report to work despite their concerns that the building's structure was not sound
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association announced Friday that all garment factories would be shut over the weekend "for treatment of victims of the Savar building collapse and completion of the rescue operation successfully."
Imran hits hard on Nawaz, says jackals can't be leaders
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has once again challenged Pakistan Muslim League President Nawaz Sharif to debate and asked him (Nawaz) not to be scared too much, Geo News reported.
Speaking to party election campaign rally here at Hockey Ground on Saturday, Khan hit hard on Nawaz Sharif and said ‘jackals can not be leaders’.
Criticizing policies of Sharif brothers, Imran Khan said they did nothing in five terms what they could do so at sixth time. He said Mian Sahab and his younger brother were asking masses for vote on the basis of experience, adding with this experience they had only raised number of factories.
PTI chief said provinces can generate electricity as per the constitution and asked Mian Sahab why he could not do so.
NATO Commander: ‘Cautious Optimism’ Ahead of Afghanistan Withdrawal
It’s been nearly four years since Stavridis took over at U.S. European Command, and a few days later as commander of NATO operations worldwide.
Since then, he has made numerous visits to Afghanistan to provide strategic guidance to troops and commanders from dozens of countries, and to monitor progress.
But four years later - and after more than 11 years of Western military involvement, thousands of casualties and billions of dollars spent - he can muster only ‘cautious’ optimism that in the end the Afghanistan effort will succeed. “I think we've gone, over the four years that I've been in command, that I can speak to personally, from a period of time in which I had doubts about our ability to succeed to today, [when] I think we will succeed. And I remain cautiously optimistic that we will,” said Stavridis.
That optimism is based in large part on what the admiral sees as significant improvements in the Afghan security forces, which showed him some of what they can do during a visit two years ago.
More broadly, he said Afghanistan’s civilian society also is changing for the better.
Meanwhile, Taliban attacks continue in several parts of the country. But the admiral said that when foreign troops, except for trainers and counter-terrorism experts, leave at the end of next year, the Taliban’s ability to convince Afghans to help them will be severely reduced.
“The Taliban narrative throughout this period, throughout this decade, has been 'we're fighting the foreigners.' And that was their rallying call. Well, guess what. At the end of 2014 they're not fighting the foreigners, they're fighting Afghans - their own brothers, and by the way their sisters, in the Afghan armed forces. So their narrative breaks at the end of 2014,” he said.
It could still all go wrong, but Afghanistan researcher Matthew Willis, at London’s Royal United Services Institute, has a view similar to the admiral’s.
“I think they will hold it together. A lot of people are concerned that, following 2014, Afghanistan will revert to a 1990s sort of situation, which ultimately was civil war. But there is no reason that history should repeat itself,” said Willis.
After years of war and dashed hopes, however, no one is expressing confidence, only hope and caution.
And as he prepares to retire after 37 years in the U.S. Navy, Admiral Stavridis shares one lesson he has learned, partly from the Afghanistan war.
“In the end, in this 21st century, we won't deliver security from the barrel of a gun. We won't deliver security from the barrel of a gun,” he said.
The admiral said security and freedom will be gained through international cooperation and a communications strategy to explain and promote democratic values, with only sparing use of the military to which he devoted his career.
Seeking asylum in Afghanistan
http://www.dw.de/The plight of Afghan refugees is known, but less familiar are the dissidents and victims of civil war who have sought refuge in Afghanistan although the war-torn country has no asylum law as yet. Amir Hamza Halimov fled to Kabul in the early 1990s. He was one of tens of thousands of Tajiks who crossed the border to Afghanistan when Emomali Rahmon became president and civil war broke out in Tajikistan. Most returned after the end of the war but Halimov, a dissident who feared repercussions because of his anti-regime activity if he returned, stayed in Afghanistan. He and his two sons live in a guesthouse provided by the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations. The ministry has provided accommodation to about 150 asylum seekers from Iran, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iraq. Although there is no asylum law, it acts according to the tradition of nanawatai that allows a beleaguered person, even an enemy, to enter the house of any other person and make a request of him which cannot be refused, even at the cost of the host's own life or fortune. There are also countless numbers of separatists from Indian-administered Kashmir who have taken refuge in Afghanistan as well as Muslims from China's Xinjiang province. Confused status Until now, Halimov's food and living expenses had been covered by the ministry but he says this support stopped three months ago. Now he has to buy food on credit. He cannot work because his status is unclear. He has spent six years going from one authority to the next to clear his case but in vain. He is still not officially recognized as an asylum seeker nor does he have Afghan nationality. The Afghan president has the right to grant Afghan nationality if he wants to. Earlier this month, four Iranians who fled their country after taking part in post-election protests in 2009 were granted Afghan nationality by President Hamid Karzai.The government is currently drafting asylum and nationality legislation. Finally Afghanistan will be "a country that can provide refuge in the classical sense" says Karl Kopp from German rights organization Pro Asyl. People persecuted for political reasons or fleeing civil war will be able to apply for asylum. The country can be a "corridor of protection" in a region where there is no traditional system of protection. However, Kopp points out that the main problem is still how to create stable, secure conditions in the devastated country.
How Sarabjit Singh Was Attacked in Lahore Jail
http://www.indiatimes.com/The main suspect in the brutal attack yesterday on Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh had quarrelled with him a few days ago but Pakistani authorities at Kot Lakhpat Jail did not take notice of the incident, official sources said. Death row prisoner Amer Aftab tried to attack Sarabjit a few days ago and abused him, the sources told PTI. The reason for the altercation could not immediately be ascertained. Aftab, who was being held in a barrack near Sarabjit's barrack in one of the most secure sections of Kot Lakhpat Jail, was among six prisoners who attacked the Indian national at about 4.30 pm. The prisoners gathered near Sarabjit's barrack after evading guards, a jail official said on condition of anonymity. The prisoners overpowered two jail wardens and Aftab snatched the key of Sarabjit's cell and opened the door. Sarabjit was hit on the head with bricks and his face, neck and stomach were cut with blades and sharp pieces of a ghee tin. "When the staff found Singh, he was unconscious and bleeding profusely. The staff removed his clothes which were covered with blood. They put on the shirt and pants of a jail warden and took him to Jinnah Hospital," the jail official said. Earlier, unnamed officials of Kot Lakhpat Jail were quoted by Pakistani TV news channels as saying that only two prisoners Amer Aftab and Mudassar were involved in the attack. The officials were also quoted as saying that Sarabjit was attacked when he and other prisoners were brought out of their cells for an hour-long break. However, the sources rejected these claims and said Sarabjit was assaulted by at least six prisoners within his barrack. Aftab, who was sentenced to death for murdering a mayor's brother, and Mudassar were locked up after the attack and interrogated, sources said. Malik Mubashir, Deputy Superintendent of Prisons in Punjab province, was appointed to head the inquiry into the attack. Mubashir would probe all aspects of the incident and ascertain whether some jail officials may have been involved or linked to the attack on Sarabjit. He will also ascertain whether the attackers were motivated by "religious elements", the sources said. Sarabjit was admitted to the state-run Jinnah Hospital with a severe head injury this evening and his condition was described as critical. Authorities had tightened Sarabjit's security after the recent execution in India of Afzal Guru, who was convicted for his involvement in the 2001 terror attack on the Indian parliament. In January, another Indian prisoner in Kot Lakhpat Jail, Chambail Singh, died after allegedly being assaulted by prison staff. Though he died in mysterious circumstances, Singh's autopsy was performed almost two months after his death. Sarabjit was convicted for alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990. His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf. The outgoing Pakistan People's Party-led government put off Sarabjit's execution for an indefinite period in 2008. Sarabjit's family says he is the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated state. Sarabjit Singh Still in Coma Lahore: Sarabjit Singh, an Indian man who is on death row in Pakistan, continues to be in critical condition in a hospital in Lahore where he was admitted yesterday after he was brutally attacked by a group of prisoners at a jail. Sources say he is in "deep coma" and doctors will not be able to perform any surgery on him till his condition stabilises. He is believed to have suffered extensive internal bleeding caused by a severe head injury. Sarabjit, 49, is on ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit of the state-run Jinnah Hospital in Lahore. Yesterday, he was brutally assaulted within his barrack at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. Sources say at least six prisoners hit him with bricks, blade and sharp pieces of a ghee tin. Pakistani TV news channels quoted their sources as saying that next 24 hours would be crucial for Sarabjit. "Doctors attending to Sarabjit Singh have informed Indian officials that he is in coma on ventilator and receiving intravenous drip," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said. Even as Sarabjit was in coma, doctors carried out X-rays, MRI, CT scans on him. They are now waiting for his condition to stabilise before conducting further tests, Mr Akbaruddin added. He also informed that Indian High Commission officials are in regular contact with the Medical Board of Jinnah Hospital. Sources quoted doctors at Jinnah Hospital as saying that Sarabjit's condition was measured as 5 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which indicates the level of damage or injury to a person's central nervous system. The GCS comprises tests of eye, verbal and motor responses. The three separate values and their sum are considered in deciding a person's status. The lowest possible GCS score is 3 while the highest is 15. Two Indian High Commission officials got consular access to Sarabjit Singh in the ICU of Jinnah Hospital this morning and spent some time with him there. Some news channels reported that a team of Indian doctors might visit Lahore to assist in Sarabjit's treatment though this could not be independently confirmed.
Sarabjit Singh: Punjab CM Najam Sethi’s Deobandi friends attack Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore jail
Indian national Sarabjit Singh, currently on death row in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, was seriously injured on the head after being attacked by six prisoners (Deobandi militants of banned sectarian outfit Sipah Sahaba ASWJ) and rushed to a hospital, where his condition was described as “critical”.
Sarabjit was admitted to the intensive care unit of the state-run Jinnah Hospital this evening, Indian and Pakistani officials said.
The attack occurred when Singh and other prisoners were brought out of their cells for an hour-long break. The six prisoners (Deobandi militants) assaulted Sarabjit with blunt objects and he sustained a severe head injury.
Jails in Pakistan are practically ruled by Deobandi militants of banned Jihadist-sectarian terrorist outfit Sipah Sahaba (operating as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and Lashkar-e-Jhangvvi) which is alleged to have tacit support of the ISI. In the past Deobandi militants in Pakistani jails have killed a number of Shia prisoners, e.g., Basharat Hussain Zaidi in Karachi, Qalandar Bakhsh in Sukkur; a number of blasphemy accused Christians and Ahmadis too have been attacked in jails by Deobandi militants.
The attack took place in Pakistan’s Punjab province which is currently ruled by senior journalist (caretaker) Chief Minister Najam Sethi who is known to have close links with Pakistan’s military establishment. In recent past, Njam Sethi has been seen promoting and humanizing Deobandi terrorist clerics including Ahmed Ludhianvi of Sipah Sahaba (ASWJ) who was promoted in his TV talkshow (Aapas ki baat) and magazine The Friday Times (edited by his employee Raza Rumi). Ever since Sethi took over as caretaker Chief Minister a few weeks ago, Sipah Sahaba (ASWJ) has been given full freedom to contest elections in various constituencies in the Punjab (Jhang and other areas) and there is a surge in attacks on Christians, Ahmadis and Shias.
The main suspect in the brutal attack yesterday on Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh had attacked him a few days ago but Pakistani authorities at Kot Lakhpat Jail did not take notice of the incident, official sources said. Death row prisoner Amer Aftab Deobandi tried to attack Sarabjit a few days ago and abused him, the sources told PTI.
Aftab, who was being held in a barrack near Sarabjit’s barrack in one of the most secure sections of Kot Lakhpat Jail, was among six prisoners who attacked the Indian national at about 4.30 pm. It was well-planned systematic attack, and Deobandi prisoners were well coordinated while the police stood by. The prisoners gathered near Sarabjit’s barrack after evading guards, a jail official said on condition of anonymity. The Deobandi prisoners allegedly “overpowered” two jail wardens and Aftab snatched the key of Sarabjit’s cell and opened the door. Sarabjit was hit on the head with bricks and his face, neck and stomach were cut with blades and sharp pieces of a ghee tin.
“When the staff found Singh, he was unconscious and bleeding profusely. The staff removed his clothes which were covered with blood. They put on the shirt and pants of a jail warden and took him to Jinnah Hospital,” the jail official said.
Earlier, unnamed officials of Kot Lakhpat Jail were quoted by Pakistani TV news channels as saying that only two prisoners Amer Aftab Deobandi and Mudassar Deobandi were involved in the attack. The officials were also quoted as saying that Sarabjit was attacked when he and other prisoners were brought out of their cells for an hour-long break. However, the sources rejected these claims and said Sarabjit was assaulted by at least six prisoners within his barrack.
Malik Mubashir, Deputy Superintendent of Prisons in Punjab province, was appointed to head the inquiry into the attack. Mubashir would probe all aspects of the incident and ascertain whether some jail officials may have been involved or linked to the attack on Sarabjit. He will also ascertain whether the attackers were motivated by “religious elements” (ie Deobandi militants of Sipah Sahaba ASWJ), the sources said.
Sarabjit was admitted to the state-run Jinnah Hospital with a severe head injury this evening and his condition was described as critical.
In January, another Indian prisoner in Kot Lakhpat Jail, Chambail Singh, died after allegedly being assaulted by prison staff in Pakistan. Though he died in mysterious circumstances, Singh’s autopsy was performed almost two months after his death.
Sarabjit was convicted for alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990. His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf. The outgoing Pakistan People’s Party-led government put off Sarabjit’s execution for an indefinite period in 2008. However, Pakistan’s military establishment, ISI in particular and its Deobandi Jihadist proxies of Sipah Sahaba wanted to expedite Sarabjit’s execution.
Sarabjit’s family says he is the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated state.
Owais Sheikh, Sarabjit’s lawyer said, “Yes, this is very much disturbing. This is not something that we can ignore.
Naturally, this will have very very serious consequences.
“Sarabjit told me and a CID (Crime Investigation Department) official after the execution of Afzal Guru that a prisoner in Kot Lakhpat Jail had issued death threats. I brought this to the knowledge of prison authorities and the Punjab Home Department but they did not beef up his security,” Awais Sheikh said.
“Whatever has happened, our jail authorities are responsible for that. Hope god saves Sarabjit Singh. He has been seriously hurt,” he said.
Leading Human Rights activist Ansar Burney said, “I am going to file another mercy petition to Pakistan President to immediately release him and send him to India”.
“There were serious threats to Sarabjit. After Chamel Singh’s death, I alerted authorities that he may be in danger,” Burney said.
“This was a murderous attack and the outcome of a conspiracy. How can a death row prisoner, who is held in strict security, be attacked?” he questioned.
The Kot Lakhpat jail currently has some 17,000 prisoners though its official capacity is only 4,000.
There have been instances in the past of prisoners being attacked and even killed within the prison.
Sarabjit Singh Still in Coma
Lahore: Sarabjit Singh continues to be in critical condition in a hospital in Lahore where he was admitted yesterday after he was brutally attacked by a group of prisoners at a jail. Sources say he is in “deep coma” and doctors will not be able to perform any surgery on him till his condition stabilises. He is believed to have suffered extensive internal bleeding caused by a severe head injury.
Sarabjit, 49, is on ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit of the state-run Jinnah Hospital in Lahore. Yesterday, he was brutally assaulted within his barrack at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. Sources say at least six prisoners hit him with bricks, blade and sharp pieces of a ghee tin.
Pakistani TV news channels quoted their sources as saying that next 24 hours would be crucial for Sarabjit.
“Doctors attending to Sarabjit Singh have informed Indian officials that he is in coma on ventilator and receiving intravenous drip,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
Even as Sarabjit was in coma, doctors carried out X-rays, MRI, CT scans on him. They are now waiting for his condition to stabilise before conducting further tests, Mr Akbaruddin added. He also informed that Indian High Commission officials are in regular contact with the Medical Board of Jinnah Hospital.
Sources quoted doctors at Jinnah Hospital as saying that Sarabjit’s condition was measured as 5 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which indicates the level of damage or injury to a person’s central nervous system.
The GCS comprises tests of eye, verbal and motor responses. The three separate values and their sum are considered in deciding a person’s status. The lowest possible GCS score is 3 while the highest is 15.
Two Indian High Commission officials got consular access to Sarabjit Singh in the ICU of Jinnah Hospital this morning and spent some time with him there.
Some news channels reported that a team of Indian doctors might visit Lahore to assist in Sarabjit’s treatment though this could not be independently confirmed.
Pakistan: More Christian parties join campaign to Boycott Elections
(PCP) Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC have welcomed three more Christian political parties on joining campaign of “Christian to Boycott Election 2013”
without assurances to repeal blasphemy law and allocation of Dual Voting Rights to Christians and other religious minorities to elect their representation in parliament instead of Selection under imposed Joint Electorate system.
Military Dictator Pervez Musharraf imposed Joint Electorate for minorities in 2002, which bared religious minorities to elect their representatives in parliament on reserved seats and empowered Muslim political parties to select minorities’ leaders on these seats.
Nazir Bhatti commented on claims of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) President Ch. Shujat Hussain in a election rally in Gujrat that PML (Q) awarded “Dual Vote” to minorities said “The PML (Q) which was ally party of Pervez Musharraf after national general of 2013, gave right to elect their representatives in local government but in National Assembly of Pakistan and Provincial Assemblies religious minorities were denied their right to elect their MNA and MPA with their votes and substandard Selection system was practiced”
PCC Chief said that Pakistan is first state on globe where democracy have different definition as 272 seats of National Assembly of Pakistan are elected by franchise vote while 60 reserved seats for women and 10 reserved seats for religious minorities are being filled under undemocratic and unconstitutional system of selection.
The Muslim political parties as PPP, PML (N), PML (Q), PML (F), PTI, MQM, ANP, JI, JUI and others have nothing for religious minorities in their election 2013, manifestos. These Muslim parties are enjoying vote bank of minorities but select Christian, Hindu, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyia and Parsi on reserved seats of their choice or after taking bribes.
“Christians and other religious parties have nothing for their social and economic uplift in these elections being held under Selection system instead of Elections on their reserved seats and their decision to participate in such elections and their decision to Boycott is just” added Nazir Bhatti
Nazir Bhatti said that Christian supporting Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Syed Munawar Hassan are playing with fate of Christians in Pakistan as violence rose against Christian on pretext to blasphemy laws while PPP, MQM, ANP and PML (Q) government failed to protect life and property of Christians in Punjab province of Pakistan.
Nazir Bhatti said that now 8 leading Christian political parties have joined “Boycott” campaign and more will join before Election Day and May 11, 2013, will be observed as “Black Day”
Teachers refuse to discharge election duties in Balochistan
Teachers in several districts of Balochistan have refused to carry out their duties during elections due to terrorism threats from the Taliban, Geo News reported Saturday.
While confirming the stance, sources of Government Teachers Association told that the decision was taken after Taliban issued threats to carry out terrorism acts in different districts of Balochistan during the upcoming polls.
The districts where the teachers have refused to discharge their duties include Turbat, Khuzdar, Kallat, Chaghi, Kharan, Gwadar, Panjgur, Mastung and others.
The instructors are of the view that they have concerns regarding their duties during general elections on May 11. Therefore, the caretaker chief minister, chief secretary and Election Commission have been informed in writing about their stance.
Pakistan: The widening threat to 2013 election
The forces opposed to democracy in Pakistan are on the rampage, living up to their promise to foil the nation's will to have election on May 11. As the D-day nears, the incidence of violence is notching up and is inexorably spreading far and wide. Tuesday was one such day which presented the grim picture of the wreckage the anti-polls forces can cause, as there were no less than four bomb blasts in Quetta (and it seems there is no end in sight as yet because Wednesday morning there was the fifth bomb) and one in Karachi - of course in addition to many more isolated incidents of violence in other places.
A blast near an ANP meeting in Site-Orangi Town rattled the entire Karachi yesterday evening. According to initial reports, this terrorist attack claimed at least 11 lives and caused injuries to scores of people. That the militants' bete noire Pervez Musharraf miraculously escaped a murderous attack in Islamabad some kind of divine power seems to be still weighing in with democratic forces, otherwise it was said to be a touch-and-go situation.
Imagine how devastatingly it would have foreshadowed the possibility of on-time election. Sometime back, the prevailing prognosis was that incidence of violence being confined to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and violence in Quetta was sectarian in nature and Karachi was recovering given the law enforcing agencies' clean-up operations. But that's no longer the case as there are now more bomb blasts, and almost all aimed at disrupting the electoral process. Apparently, the caretaker governments are even more ineffective than their predecessors which were then accused of being soft over violence in line with their political scheming. That is no more the case, and the situation is getting desperate by the day.
The violence being employed as a political tool by the anti-democratic forces is condemnable, but understandable given that these forces have always been opposed to democratic system for Pakistan. But what is extremely disturbing and no less intriguing is the indication that the targets of almost all recent bomb attacks are three political parties. While PPP and MQM are centre-left and ANP appears to be a shadow of a secular (leftist) outfit. Whether they have earned the terrorists' ire for their whatever credentials, or if they are paying for anti-militancy stance when in power, there is no clear answer to it. Isn't it diabolic that the ANP cannot come out in the open in its so-called home province fearing violence, but others are free to address huge rallies in there?
This is absolutely unacceptable that the shadow of violence should so comprehensively overpower the PPP that its chairman has to launch the party's election campaign via a video. No less disturbing is the fact that as the trio has come under the terrorists' intense fire, others practically enjoy immunity courtesy the terrorists' perceived 'soft corner' for them. No doubt for the ANP, PPP and the MQM this is no more a level-playing field - something the Election Commission of Pakistan has to bother about in order to ensure the election on May 11 is fair, free and transparent.
The MQM leadership has decided to shut its election offices for the time being and called for a province-wide lockdown that's perhaps the only way it could lodge its protest. Should the party fail to receive adequate assurances of protection against violence one would imagine it could go for the next step: boycott of the election on May 11. Such a decision will please the forces that are hell-bent to sabotage the electoral exercise like nothing else.
We hope and expect it will not go for that drastic step, insisting that boycott of the upcoming election has a make-or-break significance, unlike the previous and others in the field would remain indifferent to it at their own peril. Isn't it small-mindedness, if not short-sightedness, on the part of the parties who enjoy immunity not to share concerns of the parties that are now under attack? They feel safe and free to hold big rallies the comfort is quite delusional given that that forces which are now attacking ANP, PPP and MQM are not for democracy in Pakistan.
That they are being spared of violence it is certainly a tactical move on the part of these forces; their endgame strategy is aimed at depriving Pakistan of democracy. Before it is too late all the political stakeholders need to sit together and hammer out a consensual approach and put up a united front against the agents of violence, keeping in mind that the caretakers and the ECP, separately or together, haven't the wherewithal with them to give adequate protective coverage to the contenders in the election. The political leaderships should realise that it's democracy in Pakistan that is at stake; a battle lost here would be the war lost to the enemies of democracy.
Pakistan: Seeking an end to terrorists funding
Notwithstanding the deaths and injuries the terrorists' caused on Friday, the scorecard of terrorists' strikes in Pakistan reads: two explosions took place one each in Hangu and Kohat's Dhoda area; a cracker bomb was thrown at an Awami National Party (ANP) National Assembly candidate in Landhi; and a convoy of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in Mach faced gunfire from the militants. In Islamabad, an advisory issued by the Intelligence agencies claims that the Tahrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has reportedly made a comprehensive plan to kidnap former President Pervez Musharraf for which it has constituted different teams. This is not the first time that the intelligence agencies through its mouth-piece the interior ministry have made revelations, predicting more bomb blasts and suicide attacks in various parts of the country.
Some of these predictions, during the period of the previous regime even came true, giving the former interior minister Rehman Malik a chance to brag. But practically, the non-stop chatter of Rehman Malik miserably failed to counter or to foil the attacks he had predicted. Thus the militants gained a significant strength in the previous regime, leaving him with the title of 'motor-mouth'. He is gone. Hopefully he will never come back but the spirit of modus lingers on in the ministry. The ministry still believes in telling the people about the information it gathers. It is not the ministry's job to tell people about terrorists' plan; rather, its prime duty is to protect the people from the destruction the terrorists wreak. Mere vague predictions of the coming evil without any effective plan to make them not come true, create panic and better when avoided. The repeated failure of the government agencies in performing their duties has rendered the entire country vulnerable to the terrorists. Numerically terrorists' ratio to the Pakistan military might is insignificant but the militants' tactical planning, conviction and courage to execute what they believe in is arguably far more superior. The militants, on both sides of the Durand Line, strike at will the Pak security forces' check posts, kidnap the personnel there with the dreaded outcome of finding the slaughtered bodies of the abducted personnel on the roadsides. All these incidents are not mere acts of terrorism rather it is a proxy war that the Blackwater agents and their cronies have unleashed on Pakistan. Islamabad should take up the matter with the USA leadership in categorical terms to seek an end to the foreign support and funding to the terrorist outfits, failing which Pakistan cannot win against militancy, otherwise, Islamabad would need to revisit its policy on the war on terror. In fact, Pakistan must withdraw its support and cooperation to the foreign forces in Afghanistan till they stop backing the militants operating in Pakistan.
Our forces have been stretched to the limit; yet, they are putting up a brave fight. The patience of the people, however, is running short, and the time is not far when the people of Pakistan first will throw out the American stooges sitting in the corridors of power and then stand up against meddling of the foreign forces in the country. The masses have already turned back on all the coalition partners-ANP, PPP and the MQM--who had served Americans' interests in the region without caring much about the loss of human life and material that Pakistan suffered during last five years or so. The verdict of the people is already in the form of 'writing on the wall. Read it, come May 11.
Elahi questions Sharifs' failure to implement manifesto
The Frontier PostPML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Friday questioned Sharif brothers’ failure to implement its manifesto during five years of rule in Punjab. “Why did Sharif brothers not implement their manifesto. Shahbaz Sharif makes allegations to cover his poor performance,” he said while addressing a public meeting here. “Sharif wasted Rs70 billion in jangla bus service. There is no medicine in hospitals.” He said that Shahbaz Sharif remained chief minister of Punjab thrice. The PML-Q leader said that his party’s performance was before people.
Pakistan: Political parties being attacked
Daily TimesSpreading terror all around, the militants have stayed true to their promise of interrupting these elections by targeting the parties whose ideologies they find go against their hardline views. In the latest incident, an election office of the MQM was bombed in the North Nazimabad area of Karachi on Thursday, killing six people and injuring many more. On Tuesday, another office of the MQM was bombed in Karachi in an attack that killed four people. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has taken responsibility for the attacks and has vowed to continue attacking the campaign trail of the political parties they have threatened and blacklisted: the MQM, PPP and ANP. The ANP has already suffered many casualties with some of their most prominent leaders being killed by militant bomb attacks. It must be stressed that only those parties are suffering that have been put on the TTP hit list. This will inevitably skew electioneering. These political parties’ chances in the upcoming elections are being weakened because they are not being allowed to gather and organise their supporters. They are not being allowed to appeal to the public and every time they venture out of their fortresses, they are easy targets for the militants who leave no opportunity to make a hit. Parties with a right-wing or centre-right agenda and a soft spot for the Taliban and their types have been left out of the crosshairs and are free to conduct their campaigns vigorously during this crucial time in the run up to the landmark elections. One cannot help but wonder what the caretaker government is up to. Is it sleeping? It was very clear the moment the assemblies were dissolved and the caretaker set up put in place that this was no ordinary interim period. These pre-election weeks are dangerous days with some mainstream political players being forced to stay behind in the race out of security concerns. The TTP had made its course of action clear but where was the course of action of the caretaker government? Why has no high profile meeting and attempt at ensuring a safe environment for those contesting the elections been made? It is unimaginable that the interim government has not chalked out a clear and concise plan with the security and law enforcement agencies to streamline the election process. We have leaders and workers of key political parties being repeatedly massacred and there is no support from the system. These are hardly fair elections. The caretaker Interior Minister Habib Malik Khan needs to wake up and smell the carnage. He needs to identify that all is not well with these elections and that the militants are up in arms against the state and the democratic process. He is the ‘acting’ interior minister and he needs to ‘act’ the part. Does he not know or care that if the militants are allowed to run free like this, causing havoc and destruction, there is no guarantee for the safety of the citizens who are expected to turn out in droves on election day? Why is no one thinking about the fact that the militants are just waiting for a chance to inflict the maximum amount of damage to the state, democratic politics and citizens? It is time the interim set up started doing its job. That is, after all, the only way to ensure the historic democratic transition Pakistan is experiencing.
ANP observes day of mourning against Karachi blast
The Awami National Party (ANP) today observes a day of mourning against the deadly attack near its office that killed at least nine people and injured over 50 in Orangi Town area of Mominabad, Geo News reported.
ANP Sindh chapter leader Shahid Syed appealed to people of Karachi to mark the day of mourn peacefully keeping their businesses open and transport on the roads.
Condemning what he said a cowardly assault, he said that such attacks could not restrain ANP from its struggle. He also advised party workers to avoid provocations and donate blood to the injured.
A bomb went off near an ANP office when party candidate Bashir Jan was about to address a public gathering.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Bilawal Bhutto to bring big change while leading PPP
http://www.brecorder.com/Central leader of PPP and sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur has said that election campaign of the party was gaining momentum and people were responding enthusiastically. In a TV interview on Friday, Faryal Talpur said that delay in election campaign of the PPP was due to scrutiny of the candidates for national and provincial assemblies elections. She expressed the confidence that the people of Pakistan were with the PPP and vote for it in the elections. In reply to a question, the PPP leader said that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would contest elections from NA-207 Larkana after two years. She said Bilawal’s future was tied with the youth of PPP and Pakistan. She was confident that future of Bilawal was bright and there would be a major change when he would himself lead the party. She said in the coming days, PPP would hold major public meetings while corner meetings were going on and attended by large number of people.
Blast near ANP office in Karachi kills three
At least three people were killed and more than 30 injured in an explosion near an Awami National Party (ANP) office in the Mominabad area, Orangi Town of Karachi on Friday, reported Express News.
The explosion, targeting a corner meeting of the party, was heard in several areas of the city including North Nazimabad, Gurumandir and Soldier Bazaar.
DIG West Zafar Bukhari said that the blast targeted ANP candidate Bashir Jan, but he remained safe in the incident.
An emergency was declared in the Abbasi Shaheed hospital, and the police cordoned off the site of the blast.
The caretaker chief minister of Sindh condemned the attack and ordered the IG Sindh to submit a report of the incident.
On Thursday, a blast had targeted Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s election office in the North Nazimabad area of the city, claiming five lives.
The party had called for a day of mourning across the city on Friday (today).
The Taliban have directly threatened the three main parties in the outgoing government, the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Awami National Party and the MQM, which are often described as secular.
ANP, one of the largest political forces in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, is being targeted with increased frequency. The party has come under attack in K-P at least seven times over the past few weeks.
Afghans Wary of Pakistan’s Role in Brussels Peace Talks
In Afghan society today there is a palpable sense of frustration about the state of the country and Pakistan’s role. In particular, Afghans resent their neighbor’s build up at the Durand Line, the border that Afghanistan has never accepted. Kabul claims Pakistan’s construction of checkpoints at the edge of the Goshta District of eastern Nangarhar Province are an incursion into its territory.
However, Afghans are more upset over what they claim to be Islamabad’s obstructive role in the peace process. The prevailing view in Afghanistan is that Pakistan is playing a destabilizing role in the country. According to this view, the peace process with the Taliban has failed to make headway as a result.
During a recent debate in Afghanistan’s senate, Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin came down heavily on Islamabad, saying that Pakistan represents the greatest threat to security in Afghanistan, and has sent conflicting messages during its talks with the government of Afghanistan.
Cynicism prevails in Kabul over the Brussels talk that the U.S. has organized in the hope of reconciling differences between Afghanistan and Pakistan. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hosted a meeting that brought Afghan President Hamid Karzai together with Pakistan army chief general Ashfaq Kayani and senior Foreign Ministry official Jalil Jilani, with the ultimate aim of bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table.
Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai was quoted by the Guardian as saying, "Unfortunately Pakistan today is changing the goalposts on its support for the peace process once again. Pakistan somehow decided now to put down certain preconditions for its support for the peace process which are completely unacceptable to Afghanistan and to any other independent country."
According to the article, the establishment in Islamabad wants Kabul to sever ties with India, send its army officers to Pakistan for training and sign a strategic partnership deal.
Some have claimed that the goal is to give Taliban members based in Pakistan a greater say in the peace talks. Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, denounces the idea.
The Council was set up three years ago to initiate the peace process with insurgent groups. Mujahid, who was the former Taliban government’s ambassador to the UN, told The Diplomat, “There is no doubt that the Taliban movement in Afghanistan has its own agenda with the national interest in mind. Taliban (members) in Pakistan have their own agenda in their own country. So they are totally different. We are working for peace and reconciliation – not with the Taliban movement in Pakistan but with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.”
He added, however, that he “hopes Pakistan will remain faithful to its promise of supporting the peace process.”
But Afghans are leery of trusting their neighbor.
“Tell me when Pakistan has thought about Afghanistan’s welfare,” Fathullah Naimzai, an educator in Kabul, told The Diplomat. “They have always thrived on destabilizing us and Pakistan’s intention is quite suspect. Had Pakistan not interfered in our country’s affairs we could have been really a peaceful country.”
Reports in Afghan newspapers also reflect the collective sense of helplessness surrounding efforts to engage Pakistan in Brussels. According to a report in Daily Outlook Afghanistan, the current atmosphere and accusations are not conducive to a positive outcome in Brussels.
When the High Peace Council came into existence there was a modicum of hope that the peace process would gain traction and help to stabilize Afghanistan following the withdrawal of foreign troops. In light of recent events, however, this hope looks increasingly forlorn.
India: Pornography and rape
Daily Times
The rape debate in India just started sizzling. Former adult film actress Sunny Leone, who is of Indo-Canadian origin, has been dragged into the rape fiasco that is being heavily debated in the Indian media especially after the string of brutal rapes taking place all over the country, particularly in New Delhi. The actress has left her blue-movie past and has entered the Bollywood mainstream. The porn star is being linked to the rape wave because of her history in the adult film industry especially after the anti-porn campaigners in India — as in many places the world over — started blaming porn films and clips as being behind the startling frequency of rape in the country. The vicious attack on a five-year-old girl by five drunken men, who, apparently, were aroused by adult movie clips on their mobile phones just before the rape, has strengthened this argument and it is Sunny Leone who has been caught in the crosshairs. Efforts are also being made to ban pornography in India.
Whilst no one is advocating pornography, it feels as if campaigners in India are barking up the wrong tree. There have definitely been studies that link pornography with violent sexual crime but, the world over, adult movies do exist and rape also exists but nothing except for the crime is dealt with and punished. The trouble with India is that rape is an epidemic and Indians are misdirecting the blame. It is the attitude Indian men have about women that is the problem. It is the fact that anything as trivial as what a woman wears seems to trigger the primal male instinct, which results in the most atrocious of crimes. The fact that Delhi is known as the rape capital of the world seems to point to something more embedded within the Indian psyche than anywhere else in the world. Banning pornography and targeting an actress, who is a woman herself, seems to be lifting the responsibility off the shoulders off the man, who is the perpetrator of the rape. The oppressive and patriarchal view that Indian men have of women needs to change otherwise the news headlines never will.
Violent clashes erupt over Bangladesh building collapse
Police in Bangladesh fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters during a mass rally by garment workers outside of the capital Dhaka on Friday, two days after a building collapse killed more than 300 people and left scores more unaccounted for.angladeshi police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators on Friday as they attacked factories and smashed vehicles near the capital Dhaka, two days after a building collapse killed more than 300 of their colleagues.
Police opened fire with rubber bullets after protesters, some of whom were armed with bamboo sticks, blockaded roads and forced factories at Gazipur, just outside Dhaka, to close for the day.
"The situation is very volatile. Hundreds of thousands of workers have joined the protests. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them," M. Asaduzzaman, an officer in the police control room, told the AFP news agency.
FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Bangladesh, David Bergman, said attempts to reach the scene of the disaster were blocked by “protestors concerned about the collapse of the building and the decisions by the manager and the owner of the building to allow the workers in.”
“Clearly there’s an enormous amount of anger among the garment workers,” Bergman said.Mustafizur Rahman, the deputy police chief of Gazipur, said workers had attacked factories, smashed vehicles, burnt tyres on the roads and tried to torch roadside shops on the sidelines of the rally.
"They are demanding the arrest and execution of the owners of the factories and the collapsed building at Savar," he told AFP.
Meanwhile, the search for survivors from Bangladesh's worst-ever industrial accident stretched into its third day, with the death toll passing 300 after an eight-storey building housing five factories collapsed on Wednesday morning in Savar, a town near Dhaka. Rescuers expect that the number of those killed will continue to rise.
Almost miraculously, 113 people have been rescued alive since late Thursday, all of whom were found in the same room of the collapsed Rana Plaza building. But there are fears that hundreds more may still be trapped under the rubble, with scores still unaccounted for.
It is the latest disaster to befall the garment industry in Bangladesh after a fire at a factory making clothing for Walmart and other Western labels in November.
Survivors have said the building developed cracks on Tuesday evening, triggering an evacuation of the roughly 3,000 garment workers employed there, but that they had been ordered back to production lines.
Local television channel Somoy said the protests by workers also spread to several districts in the capital including at Mirpur, home to dozens of garment factories.
Benazir Bhutto still leading her party in election
By Richard Leiby
Benazir Bhutto,The most popular politician in Pakistan's largest party won’t be staging any rallies or participating in debates as May’s historic national election nears. The reason: She's dead. Yet Benazir Bhutto, assassinated more than five years ago, is still the standard bearer of the Pakistan People's Party. In its TV commercials and banners, she has been pushed to the forefront of the party’s uphill campaign to return to power in Parliament after a widely criticized five-year term.
Hers is the face of the party on its official manifesto. She looms over smaller photos of her widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, and their son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who lead the party but are rarely seen in public.
The PPP’s campaign in the run-up to May 11 vote has been proscribed by security concerns. The Pakistani Taliban, which asserted responsibility for Benazir Bhutto’s murder, has warned the secular party that its candidates and rallies will be attacked. In recent weeks the militants have killed several leaders and workers in the parties that formed the PPP government’s ruling coalition.
That may be part of the reason Benazir Bhutto, who served twice as prime minister and was Pakistan’s only woman premier, has become a constant presence in race.
But her embattled party really has no other option but to stress its lineage, analysts say. The newly ended government was marred by an economic meltdown and persistent corruption cases against top officials.
Even though the party and its coalition partners made history as the first civilian government in Pakistan’s 65-year history to complete a full term — and thereby shepherd in a democratic transition of power — that hasn’t lowered the price of wheat or gasoline, given people jobs or diminished poverty.
Zardari polls miserably. The former prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, was drummed from office by Pakistan’s Supreme Court last year for refusing to submit to its orders to reopen a money laundering case against Zardari. And the public blames Gilani’s successor, Raja Pervez Ashraf, a former energy minister, for crippling electrical and natural gas shortages.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, 24, is too young to contest for a seat in the May 11 election — the minimum age in Pakistan is 25.
In a video released Tuesday, the party heir reassured voters that he “wanted to launch the election campaign in the streets of my country alongside my workers,” but said it was too dangerous.
“Once again the enemies of peace and prosperity are standing in front of us,” Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said.
So the party is left with only ghosts to burnish its image.
In campaign ads and on placards, Benazir Bhutto is always clad in a fashionable headscarf — in some photos merely casting a serene gaze, in others raising an arm forcefully, as if at an eternal rally. The latter image has been paired with one of her son giving a victory sign.
In placards hung around the capital, Islamabad, touting one of the party’s National Assembly candidates, Benazir Bhutto takes the top position — usually reserved for living prime minister candidates in other parties’ signs.
The PPP’s signage and literature also rarely fail to invoke the memory of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who founded the party and later served as Pakistan’s premier and president.
Both of them are bestowed the title “shaheed,” or martyr, whenever mentioned in party speeches and materials.
Zulfiqar Bhutto was deposed in a 1979 military coup and later hanged. Today his stolid visage is also an election-season staple, as the party makes a direct photographic appeal to his legacy as a socialist reformer.
“You would hear people say, ‘I will vote for his grave, even, because of what he did for me,’” said Usman Khalid, a former Pakistan army brigadier general who resigned to protest Zulfiqar Bhutto’s execution.
The 78-year-old Khalid runs a one-man Pakistani political party — based in the U.K. and on paper only — and comments on events. He said he knew both Zulifqar and Benazir Bhutto and understands the point of the current ads.
“She has got a cult status and the Bhutto name has got a cult status,” he said. “Martyrdom and martyrs matter.”
As the old PPP slogan goes: “Bhutto is still alive today and Bhutto will still be alive tomorrow.”
Pakistan to seal Afghan border May 11 for election
Associated PressPakistani officials say they'll seal their border with Afghanistan and restrict the movement of Afghan refugees on May 11 during parliamentary elections. Officials at the Interior Ministry and the election commission said Friday the measure is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks during the vote. Officials did not say how they would restrict the movement of hundreds of thousands of people spread out across the country or close the porous border. Pakistan announced similar measures in the past but failed to take action. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. About 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees and 1 million other Afghans live in Pakistan. They are a legacy of their home country's repeated conflicts. Pakistanis often accuse them of importing terrorism and crime.
Pakistan : Elections scenario
Daily TimesThe coming elections present a scenario familiar in some respects but unrecognisable in others. The string of blasts in Quetta, Karachi, Peshawar and DI Khan bear the imprimatur of the Taliban that have vowed to disrupt, if not stop, these elections. One can therefore only sympathise with and admire the courage of those who have put life and limb on the line to carry through the democratic process. Three parties in particular, the PPP, the MQM and ANP, have been singled out by the terrorists as targets because of their secular leanings. The rest may be cocooned in silence, but post-elections they may not be able to remain as sanguine that they are safe, since the Taliban have made no secret of their antipathy for democracy. The winners in particular may well prove to be at risk across the board in the future. Given the rash of violence, voices are being heard asking for the postponement of the elections. These have been categorically countered by President Zardari and Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebraheem with the vow that the polls will not be delayed even one day. Overseas Pakistanis will not be able to vote in this election given the inability of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the caretaker government to put the arrangements for their voting in place in time. However, given the Supreme Court’s interest (and ire at the prolonged delay of two years in the matter before it), there is every likelihood that this will come to pass long before the next elections. The final tally of candidates for 1,170 seats for the National and four provincial Assemblies makes impressive reading, despite the controversial process of scrutiny of nomination papers that brought the strange behaviour and approach of the returning officers into the limelight. According to the ECP, for the National Assembly’s (NA’s) 272 general seats, 4,671 candidates are in the field. For the 60 reserved seats for women in the NA, 258 candidates are in the running. For the reserved seats for minorities in the NA, 71 candidates are vying for 10 seats. For the 577 general seats in the four provincial Assemblies, 10,958 candidates are in the running, with 559 for 128 women’s reserved seats and 175 for 23 reserved seats for minorities. In any electoral contest, let alone one in a country beset with myriads of problems compounded by violence, this would be an impressive tally, testifying to the strength of commitment of the political class to the democratic process. However, despite the impressive numbers of candidates and the by now universally acknowledged critical importance of this democratic transition for the first time in the country’s history, there is a dark side too. First and foremost, it has to be admitted that barring a few new faces, the same cast of characters is likely to return to the Assemblies. As a class, the politicians have not exactly come out smelling of roses over the last five years. The former incumbents in particular are facing the chickens coming home to roost of five years of largely ineffectual government whose bad odour is made worse by allegations and charges (unproved so far in any court of law, it must be pointed out) of unbridled corruption and mismanagement. The PPP and its ally ANP stand squarely in the dock on this count, with the president being forced to approach the ECP regarding the campaign of ‘vilification’ being carried out against the person of the president, particularly by the PPP’s main rival, the PML-N. The president feels constrained to reply to these allegations after the Lahore High Court case in which he pledged to distance himself from partisan politics, but the fact that until recently he was the Co-Chairperson of the PPP has left him open to being dragged into the electoral fray without the right of public reply. The received wisdom at the moment amongst analysts is that the PML-N is on the rise, the PPP weighed down by the incumbency factor as much as internal problems of leadership and the threat from the terrorists, the PTI, despite its vigorous campaigning, albeit a credible challenger by now, still has a mountain to climb before it can displace the two main parties. The MQM and ANP, despite relatively stable constituencies in their areas of influence, are directly in the line of fire of the terrorists and having to tailor their campaigns accordingly. Whichever way the chips fall on May 11, the sceptics hold to the pessimistic view that the problems confronting the masses, whether unemployment, inflation, energy or sundry others are unlikely to yield to betterment no matter who wins. This mood of pessimism amongst the masses may dampen enthusiasm for the polls and affect turnout, but the historic juncture this election represents nevertheless is undeniable.
Pakistan: TTP leaflets: A wake up call
The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has distributed pamphlets in Buner, Peshawar as well as in different parts of Karachi warning citizens not to participate in upcoming elections. They have done it before and are doing it again yet are not visible to any of the official security agencies put in place all over the country. Notwithstanding the panic such rebellious and threatening material creates, the worrisome aspect is that Taliban come to the public places to distribute leaflets without any fear of being noticed or challenged. Yes! The TTP men are daring volunteers, having no fears of any security force but the failure, negligence or inefficiency of the security agencies to give a matching response to the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is a major source of anxiety and concern for the masses that are exposed to these threats. It is a rude shock that the local administration and the security officials have been caught unaware of any such incidents.
Taliban's earlier threats have scared the Pakistan people's Party, Awami National Party and the MQM. All three political parties have curtailed their political activities in public in their respective areas to save lives of its leadsers. Having achieved the desired impact-the TTP leaflets, distributed in various areas of Karachi, Peshawar and Buner--are throwing warnings to the people against attending political rallies and casting their votes at polling stations else wise they would themselves be responsible for their own lives. Calling democracy Un-Islamic, the TTP has vowed to continue its fight against secular forces. Hardly there is anything new in the pamphlets to surprise the people. But the TTP penetration in Peshawar's Badaber, Mattni and Adizai areas and in Shalbandi area of Buner to distribute the leaflets confirms the fact the TTP network is operative in the cities unchecked and can strike ahead of the general elections, foxing the government's high security alters.
The TTP's ploy will shake the people's confidence in the Government's security agencies and in their anti-terrorism measures. The TTP, so far, has succeeded to out-maneuver the security mechanism raised by the Election Commission. Yet the people of Pakistan have to wither the violence whether it comes from the TTP or from any other quarter for the sake of the country. Salvation of the Country and the nation lies in bringing in the next elected government through polls not in accepting the rhetoric of the terrorists using the name of religion.
The entire nation has to stand by the armed forces to counter the terrorists' threats, out-rightly rejecting self-proclaimed righteousness by any group or individual. Yet the TTP threats should not be taken lightly. The TTP leaflets are nothing to be afraid of but certainly are another wake-up call for the entire Pakistan. The security agencies must earnestly stand up to the challenge thrown at them for saving the lives of the people and the sovereignty of Pakistan. The Election Commission must hold solemn discussions to put up foolproof arrangements to see through the process of the electing new government.
FIA joint investigation team to interrogate Pervez Musharraf
The Anti-Terrorism Court on Friday gave the FIA physical remand of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto murder case. Geo News reported.
The retired General who is already serving a two-week house arrest, set to expire on May 4 for sacking judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007, was presented before the ATC on Friday morning where he was served the fresh remand order which he will serve concurrently.
Joint Investigation team to Interrogate
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) says a joint investigation team will interrogate General (retired) Pervez Musharraf regarding why Benazir Bhutto’s post mortem was stopped, whether the retired General threatened Bhutto in 2008 over the phone, and on whose authorization did the Interior Ministry conducted the press conference after Bhutto’s death.
Mark Siegel agrees to testify
The FIA has also contacted American journalist Mark Siegel, an important witness whom the FIA has requested to appear before a trial court to record his testimony. Sources add, that Siegel has agreed to the FIA’s request.
In Court today
Pervez Musharraf appeared before the ATC in Rawalpindi for his remand hearing under tight security. He is accused of conspiracy to murder former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who died in December 2007.
"We requested a three-day remand of retired general Pervez Musharraf and
judge Chaudhry Habib-ur Rehman gave a three-day remand and adjourned the case until Monday," prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told.
The formal application seeking physical remand of Musharraf had been submitted before the ATC on Thursday.
The ATC had also allowed the FIA to include Pervez Musharraf in the investigation of Benazir Bhutto murder case. Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar represented FIA and presented his arguments while Afshan Adil Advocate represented Pervez Musharraf.
After listening to the arguments, the court had allowed FIA to formally arrest Musharraf and include him in the investigation.
Musharraf is accused of involvement in a conspiracy to murder Benazir Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007. It is one of the three cases he is fighting in the courts since returning home last month after four years in self-imposed exile.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Blast near MQM office kills four, injures ten in Karachi
At least four people were killed and ten others injured when a blast ripped through an election office of a political party in Karachi on Thursday night, DawnNews reported. Initial reports suggest the bomb was placed in a motorcycle near the election office of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi’s Nusrat Bhutto Colony. The explosion damaged nearby buildings and vehicles. Police and security agencies have cordoned off the area and an initial investigation is underway.
BANGLADESH: Massive building collapse in Savar
WE are hugely jolted by utter shock and grief at the tragedy that befell the occupants of the nine-storey building which collapsed Wednesday morning at Savar. The death toll has risen above 100, while over 600 are reported to have been injured. It is feared that that the casualty figure may rise further.
What saddens us still is that the lives of several hundred others are hanging in balance as they remain trapped in the collapsed structure.
The rescue operation carried out by the army, Rab, fire-fighters and civil defence units is being severely constrained in absence of appropriate equipment in their hands. They are racing against time to save as many of those trapped people as feasible with their limited capacity.
This is a wake-up call for the authorities concerned to have adequate measures in place to improve the existing infrastructure of the agencies responsible for meeting such tragedies.
It is worthwhile to note that the misfortune was not completely out of the blue, since experts had already issued warning about a possible disaster after cracks were detected in the building’s walls. Accordingly, the garment factories and the bank had been closed since Tuesday.
What puzzles us is why the predictable collapse of the Savar building should have been associated with such enormous human tragedy? Why those who fell victim to the tragedy were allowed to enter a building that was already declared hazard-prone?
Why had the local administration and those in charge of managing the building not sealed it off beforehand?
Clearly, the avoidable human tragedy has been due to unpardonable callousness on the part of those who were supposed to keep the building closed to workers and visitors.
Reports have it those employees were compelled join work at the garment units in the tragedy-stricken building. If that is the case, then the culpability of victims’ employers becomes more serious.
The dreadful memory of a similar building collapse in 2005 in which some 70 workers of Spectrum Garments lost their lives has not yet been wiped off the memory.
How many more such disasters with incalculable loss of human lives will be necessary to make all those concerned to be more respectful towards human lives?
The government should mount a survey to identify the other such defective buildings in and around the city and take measures to retrofit them, if only to save similar misfortunes in the future.
Bangladesh: Death toll shoots to 250
The death toll from Savar building collapse reached 250 Thursday as the rescuers continued their frantic effort to save those trapped inside the rubble of the building.
Wali Ashraf Khan, an inspector of Detective Branch of police who has been acting as the in-charge of corpse management control room, confirmed the rise in death toll.
A total of 101 bodies were pulled out of the debris of the sandwiched building till 5:50pm Thursday. During Wednesday’s rescue operation till 2:30am 142 bodies were retrieved.
Of the recovered bodies, 199 have been handed over to the victim’s relatives so far.
In a total of 1500 injured people — trapped inside the debris — were rescued and admitted to different hospitals till 3:30pm Thursday, Abdul Wazed, director general of the Department of Disaster Management told The Daily Star.
“We do not have the exact account of those injured victims who went to their homes with the help of their relatives,” Wazed said.
All the bodies were recovered from the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors of the building.
Visiting the place around 9:50am, State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanok asked the authorities concerned to take all necessary steps to rescue the trapped ones.
The country is observing a national mourning day on Thursday in memory of the Savar victims.
Rana Plaza, a nine-storey building, housing five garment factories, a shopping complex and a branch of Brac Bank collapsed Wednesday morning, trapping inside a huge number of people.
Army, police, Rapid Action Battalion personnel, fire brigade workers and volunteers were found digging through the debris in a frantic search for survivors.
Thursday morning three people were pulled out of the debris alive, reported our correspondent covering the event.
Earlier, more than 1,200 injured people were rescued.
Rescuers located 25 people alive trapped inside the sandwiched building in the eastern part.
Four people including a woman were also spotted alive at the fifth floor of the building. They were trapped under a pillar.
One of the trapped people termed Babul, a rescuer, as his father and urged him to rescue him, if necessary, cutting his legs which were trapped under pillar.
The rescuers could also hear the screams of trapped people coming out from the gap of the shattered building.
They are shouting for help and some for oxygen.
Nobody can actually say how many are trapped.
The rescue operation is now turning into a race against time. The entire nine-storey is sandwiched into a two-storey height. How to reach the bottom without upsetting the structure now poses the main challenge.
Thousands of people thronged the scene after the disaster. Many of them were in tears without having any clue whereto look for their loved ones.
The ill-fated building had no approval from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) that authorises the construction of buildings.
NATION MOURNS
The country is observing a national mourning day Thursday in memory of the victims of the Savar tragedy.
Special prayers are being offered in mosques, temples, pagodas and other places of worship for the salvation of their departed souls.
DONATION
The government on Wednesday donated Tk 55 lakh to the victims.
The family of each deceased would get Tk 20,000 while every injured person would receive Tk 5,000.
CRACKS DEVELOP
On Tuesday morning, some cracks developed on some pillars and a few floors of the building following a jolt, causing panic among the people working there. They rushed out of the building and some even got injured in the process, said a number of garment workers and locals. The industrial police visited the building that day and asked them [the building authorities] not to open the building.
But the warnings and instructions were ignored.
Workers of at least two garment factories at Rana Plaza were forced to join their workplaces following a false assurance on the building’s safety from a local engineer, relatives of the victims alleged.
Five factories housed in the building employed a total of 3,122 workers, according to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
Group urges Afghanistan to protect female police
Associated PressHuman Rights Watch has urged Afghanistan's government to force police stations to build restrooms for female officers to protect them from sexual harassment. The group said Thursday that only a handful of provincial police stations have separate, safe and lockable toilets or changing rooms for women officers, leaving them at risk in a nation where some have reportedly been raped by male colleagues. The report said the provinces have repeatedly ignored previous orders to provide women officers with such facilities in a nation where females make up only 1.4 percent of the nation's 157,000 police officers. Sidiq Sidiqi, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which oversees the Afghan police, said that while women do have their own facilities at major police stations they often are lacking in the provinces.
Pervez Musharraf formally arrested in Benazir murder case
The Express Tribune NewsThe Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) formally arrested former president Pervez Musharraf in relation to the Benazir Bhutto murder case on Thursday, reported Express News. FIA’s joint investigation team recorded Musharraf’s statement at his farmhouse in Chak Shahzad, which is currently serving as a sub-jail for the ex-president in the judges arrest case. In his statement, Musharraf denied involvement in the Bhutto murder case and said that he was being falsely implicated. The FIA held an emergency meeting in which it unanimously decided that his statement was not satisfactory and ordered his arrest. The ex-president will appear in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi tomorrow. Earlier during the day, the ATC issued orders for Musharraf’s arrest in the case and granted permission to the FIA to investigate him. On April 17, the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench had granted Musharraf pre-arrest interim bail in the murder case till April 24 against two surety bonds of Rs 5 million each. Musharraf is accused of conspiracy to murder Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007. It is one of three cases he is fighting in the courts since returning home last month after four years in self-imposed exile. His arrest and disqualification from contesting elections on May 11 have been a humiliating blow for the former ruler of nuclear-armed Pakistan, previously a key ally of US president George W Bush in the war on terror.
Punjab government should have used funds on energy projects not metro bus: Imran
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman, Imran Khan said Thursday that if the Punjab government would have used funds on energy and not the metro bus, there would not be loadshedding for 18 hours in the province.
“Eliminating the energy crisis and corruption was the responsibility of the Punjab government not Zardari.”
Addressing an election rally here, Khan said Nawaz Sharif was afraid to face him because he would be “bowled out on the first ball.”
Khan added that Nawaz Sharif had supported President Asif Ali Zardari during all difficult times and was now scaring people into not voting for the PPP.
The PTI chairman promised to bring an end to corruption adding that this was the reason behind unemployment and inflation in the country.
Amnesty urges Pakistan to probe election violence
Amnesty International called on Pakistan Thursday to investigate a wave of attacks and threats against politicians and election workers that have marred the run-up to key polls next month.
At least 26 people have been killed by bombers and gunmen since April 11, including 16 mown down by a suicide bomber at a rally by the Awami National Party (ANP) in Peshawar, according to an AFP tally.
The Taliban have directly threatened the three main parties in the outgoing government, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the ANP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which are often described as secular.
The May 11 polls are due to mark the first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has served a full, five-year term in a country.
"This has been a particularly deadly election period marked by an alarming surge in attacks and intimidation of political activists and election officials," said Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty's Pakistan researcher, in an open letter.
Amnesty said at least 37 people had been killed and 183 injured in attacks on election officials and party representatives and supporters countrywide.
As a result of the threats, there have been few large-scale political rallies leading to a lacklustre campaign for the May 11 polls.
"With these deliberate attacks, the Taliban and other armed groups have shown flagrant disregard for human rights, including the rights to life, freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly," Qadri said.
Amnesty said the authorities must ensure adequate protection and protect freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association and the right to life.
"Candidates themselves also have a responsibility not to incite violence against rivals or segments of society such as religious minorities," Qadri said.
Amnesty also urged parties and candidates to make human rights a priority in their election pledges and policies.
President Zardari’s message on World Malaria Day
President Asif Ali Zardari has said the World Malaria Day has been observed as a reminder of the need to undertake concerted efforts for raising awareness among the people and to curb the disease in endemic areas of the country.
The day has been observed on April 25 every year. Malaria is a preventable disease, easy to diagnose and can be treated successfully.
In a message issued by Bilawal House, the president said, “Let us on this day rededicate ourselves to implement the global malaria control programme and testing every suspected malaria case followed by treatment with quality anti-malarial medicines.”
He added the rapid advances in malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment during recent years have improved the situation and decreased manifold the malaria-related mortality and morbidity. However, Pakistan is still a long way from achieving the global, regional and national malaria control targets. “One of the challenges in controlling malaria is the need for adequate investment in the health sector.”
Kerry: Afghan-Pakistani Talks 'Productive'
http://www.rferl.org/U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and senior Pakistani officials he hosted in Brussels were "productive." Speaking after the meeting, he said, "We had a very extensive and, I think everybody would agree, productive and constructive dialogue...but we have all agreed that results are what will tell the story, not statements at press conferences." Karzai, who met with the Pakistani Army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, and Foreign Secretary Jalil Jilani, called the April 24 meeting "important." The talks, which lasted around three hours, were aimed at repairing ties between Kabul and Islamabad. Kabul has grown increasingly frustrated with Pakistan, saying Islamabad is not fulfilling its promises to the reconciliation process with the Taliban. Kabul suggested Islamabad wants to keep Afghanistan unstable until foreign combat forces leave at the end of 2014. Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary to Afghan insurgents on its soil. Pakistan denies this.
Pakistan: Let Pandora's box open, but...
The people who think Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's fear that a hasty trial of Pervez Musharraf in the treason case could burst open the Pandora's box stems from his personal concerns may be right. After all he and many others who are making such noises now were part of the government on November 3, 2007 when Musharraf abrogated the constitution and imposed emergency. And it's also a fact and that has been the former General's consistent position that his action followed a series of consultations with his colleagues and the then PML(Q)-led coalition government headed by Shaukat Aziz Chaudhry Shujaat was chief of the PML(Q).
Given that Article 6 of the constitution also seeks treason trial of "any person aiding or abetting" in this offence, the trial of Pervez Musharraf is bound to expand its scope sucking in many more. Hence the warning of the Pandora's Box is expedient. The question is, was the November-2007 imposition of emergency by Pervez Musharraf the only Pandora's box in Pakistan? Isn't that the host of other mega financial and political scams and constitutional violations such explosive issues? Should all of the dirt be swept under the carpet? No; for the rule of law to prevail in Pakistan all such boxes should be opened. Let heavens fall and the law and constitution prevail - for, without this being done we will irretrievably move to the precipice of self-destruction. It's a bitter pill but the only remedy left to be tried to survive as an independent country and a functional polity.
But having said that, it would be extremely pertinent to point out that law must take its course and justice should not only be done but also seen to have been done. Of course, there are heightened sentiments on both sides that have come to obtaining in the wake of petition seeking treason trial of Pervez Musharraf. His decision to come back was founded on an 'ill advice rendered by the sycophants' or as some say 'he was led up the garden path by the social media' that may be true. But there is also a strong possibility that he is convinced of righteousness of his moves and actions as long as he was in power and is now ready to face the courts. Let's give the devil his due, and let him have a fair and transparent trial. You cannot condemn a person of his stature and history without following due process of law and justice. That the pressures with potential to lend bias to the trial should come from the lawyers is most unfortunate and highly regrettable. One gets the feeling that the respect the black-coats earned for their movement for the independence of judiciary is being frittered away by a section of politically-motivated lawyers. Being an enlightened section of society the lawyers are expected to be pragmatic enough for reason and justice to triumph over pride and prejudice. It is patently clear that most of the lawyers have political affiliations, a common phenomenon in former British colonies.
However, that consideration should outbid their professionalism is indeed disgusting.
The truth is, that the treason trial of Pervez Musharraf is not of one single person, but of a person who was chief of army staff, and the President of Pakistan and now head of a registered political party. He does have a lot of haters but he has also a lot of supporters in Pakistan, some out in the open and some hidden. It would be unthinkable that a military commander who can command his soldiers to walk into the jaws of death does not enjoy the love and support of his juniors and comrade-in-arms. What can be the fallout of a hurried trial? A sample has been made available by a clutch of retired generals who have publicly warned against 'humiliating' Pervez Musharraf, saying 'the army would not tolerate if the lawyers continued pushing their former army chief to the wall'. Should Pervez Musharraf's treason trial be a hurried, hush-hush affair it would amount to witch-hunting and demoralising the rank and file of the military particularly the jawans, removing some of the shine the higher judiciary has of late come to enjoy. We expect the representative leadership of the lawyers' community, particularly at the level of the bar councils, to stand up and declare they support the cause of justice without bothering a bit about the result of this treason trial. Now that we have come so close to securing justice in this crucial case we need to ensure that its outcome is remembered not recorded by history as a latter day inquisition.
Assault on the ANP
By: Dr Mohammad Taqi
The ANP on its part has not only energised its ideological base but has also given the rest of Pakistan a fair warning of what is coming their way
The Awami National Party (ANP) has come under a series of terrorist attacks in the last two weeks. The terror spree started with a bomb attack in Peshawar on the party’s former provincial minister Arbab Ayub Jan, who narrowly escaped. The ANP leader from Swat, Mukkaram Shah, was not that fortunate. He was assassinated in an improvised explosive device attack. And then came the carnage in Peshawar city last week when a suicide bomber targeted the ANP leaders Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and his nephew Haroon Bilour, whose father Bashir Bilour was martyred in a similar attack in December 2012, as they were about to address an election rally. Fortunately, Haji sahib and Haroon survived the attack in which several policemen, party workers and young children died. But the ANP cadres and leaders did not buckle. The Pashtun nationalist party did not cave in ideologically or politically. The fearless Mian Iftikhar Hussain rushed to the tragic scene. Along with the late Bashir Bilour, he has been the ANP’s first-responder to many such bombings, charging in when others would flee. A knee jerk response might have been to call for boycotting the elections; Mian Iftikhar cautioned against delaying the elections even by a second. Similarly, unflinching statements came from the ANP’s senior leadership including the party chief, Asfandyar Wali Khan.
But a flurry of callous remarks and loose talk by the rightwing political parties, particularly the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), blamed the ANP — the victim — for bringing it upon itself. While Nawaz Sharif has kept mum about Taliban terrorism, the PTI chief Imran Khan has reiterated that the terrorists target the parties that sided with the US in the War on Terror (WoT). Khan is also a candidate from the Peshawar National Assembly constituency where scores perished in the explosion that targeted his opponent Haji Bilour. If the ANP is being targeted for going after the terrorists, are Khan and his ilk safe because they sided with the terrorists and provided the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ideological space for over a decade portraying them as ‘nationalist freedom fighters’? Frankly, Khan’s slurs linking attacks on the ANP to the WoT are an insult to the Peshawarites who lost children and loved ones and whose vote he seeks. Another poisonous remark came from Maulana Fazlur Rehman who called the ANP a dead snake that has become politically irrelevant.
Notwithstanding the disingenuousness and hate of the anti-ANP elements, they go to show that the elections, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at least, would not be decided on the basis of the ANP’s performance as the outgoing ruling party but its stance vis-à-vis the Taliban terrorists. And it is becoming increasingly clear that the bullet not the ballot may be the deciding factor. While the terrorists have failed to confine the ANP candidates and cadres to their homes, the latter continue canvassing door-to-door, imperilling their lives. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the provincial and federal caretaker governments are nowhere to be seen as if in a sinister coincidence. If anything the ECP had ordered the candidates’ security removed but later denied issuing such a directive. The relentless Taliban assault on the ANP, complete inaction of the present authorities and the Taliban apologists like Khan and Rehman going into overdrive is making the elections a lopsided affair. Cornering the ANP this way may not technically be pre-poll fraud but has most certainly rigged the scales against it. It appears that the stage is being set to either keep the ANP out of the future assemblies or worse, delay the polls to have a political dispensation ideologically aligned with the Pakistani deep state as the latter gets ready to play its final hand in Afghanistan post-2014.
The Pakistani security establishment has claimed for some time that it desires peace in Afghanistan but not many are buying it. In his opening statement at the US Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing with General Joseph Dunford on the Situation in Afghanistan, the committee chair US Senator Carl Levin said last week that “the greatest challenge to Afghanistan’s security isn’t the Taliban but the Pakistan-based sanctuaries for militant extremists launching cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan has said that it supports a stable and secure Afghanistan, but its actions belie its words.” General Dunford, Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, in his testimony reiterated, “There have been intelligence reports that link the ISI particularly to the Haqqani network.” What was not mentioned at this testimony but is well known is that the TTP continues to use the logistic and training facilities run by the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. Of note is that several Pakistani analysts and the so-called foreign policy elite nominally condemned the attacks on ANP but for years have vociferously advocated a greater future role in Afghanistan for the Taliban and the Haqqani network.
The Pakistani establishment getting its ducks in a row before a major showdown in Afghanistan is not without precedent. At the height of its proxy war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Pakistani deep state created a pliant party-less parliament in 1985. Benazir Bhutto was considered too ‘unreliable’ to be allowed at the helm in the post-Soviet withdrawal period and was shown the door in 1990 to bring in a then military-friendly Nawaz Sharif. The religious parties conglomerate, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, whose acronym MMA was dubbed ‘military-mullah alliance’ by many, was eased into power in 2002 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to provide an irritant-free sanctuary to the Taliban in the post-2001 period. The results of all these maneouvres have been utterly disastrous for the Pakistani people, especially the Pashtuns. But it seems that the deep state continues with its policy of using the Pashtun lands as a buffer zone and the Pashtuns as a sandbag against the monsters it unleashes in Afghanistan.
The ANP on its part has not only energised its ideological base but has also given the rest of Pakistan a fair warning of what is coming their way. Unfortunately, barring the MQM’s Altaf Hussain and some muffled voices from the PPP, not many have heeded the ANP’s call. The beleaguered ANP has revived a slogan from the PDPA’s final phase in Afghanistan: Watan Ya Kafan (Fatherland or death/shroud). This defiant note also has a certain resignation in it that makes me deeply worried. But I also know that the death that was rained on Kabul in 1992 did not stop there and it won’t stop with Peshawar, something the Pakistani heartland does not realise yet.
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