Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah Tuesday demanded of the government to convene a session of the lower house over Rawalpindi incident, Geo News reported.
“The opposition will submit a requisition for calling the National Assembly session in case the government failed to do so,” said Shah while talking to media persons here.
The opposition leader said that the Rawalpindi mayhem appeared to have been planned in advance and in which the local administration could also be involved.
He said if a foreign hand was behind the deadly incident then it gives rise to the question: “Where were the agencies?” The Rawalpindi carnage is a sensitive issue and it should be resolved by taking the religious clerics (Ulema) on board.
At least 10 people lost their lives and dozens others sustained injuries in a sectarian clash during Ashura procession last Friday in Rawalpindi.
Commenting on the November 3, 2007 emergency, Khursheed Shah described it as the continuation of a similar action taken on October 12, 1999.
He said Article-6 of the Constitution is not only applicable on Pervez Musharraf but also the associates. “If government wants to protect someone it should state things candidly,” he added.
The opposition leader asserted: “Pervez Musharraf’s cabinet was also on board in connection with the decisions taken on November 3, 2007.”
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Khursheed Shah for NA session over Rawalpindi incident
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah Tuesday demanded of the government to convene a session of the lower house over Rawalpindi incident, Geo News reported.
“The opposition will submit a requisition for calling the National Assembly session in case the government failed to do so,” said Shah while talking to media persons here.
The opposition leader said that the Rawalpindi mayhem appeared to have been planned in advance and in which the local administration could also be involved.
He said if a foreign hand was behind the deadly incident then it gives rise to the question: “Where were the agencies?” The Rawalpindi carnage is a sensitive issue and it should be resolved by taking the religious clerics (Ulema) on board.
At least 10 people lost their lives and dozens others sustained injuries in a sectarian clash during Ashura procession last Friday in Rawalpindi.
Commenting on the November 3, 2007 emergency, Khursheed Shah described it as the continuation of a similar action taken on October 12, 1999.
He said Article-6 of the Constitution is not only applicable on Pervez Musharraf but also the associates. “If government wants to protect someone it should state things candidly,” he added.
The opposition leader asserted: “Pervez Musharraf’s cabinet was also on board in connection with the decisions taken on November 3, 2007.”
Pakistan's Shia Genocide: A Shia Muslim shot martyred in Quetta due to firing of Sipah-e-Yazid
www.shiitenews.comotorious Yazidi takfiri nasbi terrorists of outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba shot martyred a Shia Muslim in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan province on Tuesday. Shiite News Correspondent reported here that Mohammad Qasim was ambushed on Brewery Road Quetta near Hazara Town. He embraced martyrdom due to targeted firing. Shia parties and leaders have condemned the targeted murder of a peaceful law-abiding Shiite in Quetta. They demanded immediate arrest of the culprits and due punishment to them.
In Kabul, clinic funded by U.S. military closing because of lack of government support
By Kevin Sieff
By next month, there will be no more doctors at the clinic once deemed a model for Afghanistan. The shelves of the pharmacy are already empty. The modern X-ray and dialysis machines, rarities in one of the world’s poorest countries, sit unused in a building that was inaugurated by a top U.S. general.
The project, launched by the Pentagon in 2007, is closing — its funding depleted and the Afghan government unable to provide support. Earlier this month, a patient came to see a doctor but found the clinic nearly abandoned.
“They might as well turn it into a soccer field,” he said.
As the United States’ longest war winds down, hundreds of aid projects are being handed over to Afghan ministries, which sometimes lack the capacity or interest to sustain what foreign donors started. The Urgent and Primary Care Clinic in Kabul is a small but telling example: one of the few medical facilities in Afghanistan with state-of-the-art American equipment, a place that once saw nearly 5,000 patients per month and will soon see none.
The clinic was the brainchild of Asad Mojadidi, an Afghan-born doctor who moved to the United States in 1982 and practiced in Jacksonville, Fla. The doctor, who comes from one of Afghanistan’s most influential families (his brother was once president), decided to use whatever clout he had to improve the country’s failing health-care system.
He pitched his idea for the clinic to contacts at the Pentagon, who told him that they could commit $750,000. At the time, the military had billions to spend as part of its foreign assistance program, called the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP).
Buoyed by the Pentagon’s investment, Mojadidi secured hundreds of thousands of additional dollars from private donors and Western aid groups and embassies.
America’s Heart, a Florida-based nonprofit organization that provides medical assistance to developing countries, donated more than $100,000 in equipment. The World Health Organization donated vaccines. The Canadian government donated a refrigerated storage container.
The whole enterprise, like many development projects here, was predicated on the Afghan government’s promise to assume responsibility for the clinic once it was built and outfitted. In theory, that shouldn’t have been a problem. Thanks to international support, especially from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health has a budget of more than $300 million a year.
As a senior adviser at the Ministry of Public Health, Mojadidi thought he was in the right position to direct resources to the project. He estimated that keeping the clinic running at the standards envisioned by U.S. donors would cost about $100,000 per year. But that money never arrived. Mojadidi watched as the Afghan government refused to pay even for electricity.
Withered potential
When it opened, the clinic had 42 employees, including six doctors, six nurses, and several pharmacists and X-ray technicians. Soon after Gen. Karl Eikenberry, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, led the groundbreaking ceremony, patients flocked to the medical facility from across the country.
It became part of Afghanistan’s rapidly improving public health sector, where some of the most lauded assistance projects were having a noticeable effect. A 2011 USAID survey found that life expectancy in the country had jumped from 42 years — the second-lowest rate in the world — to about 62 years from 2004 to 2010.
Despite that improvement, the majority of Kabul’s clinics and hospitals that have modern equipment are private — and affordable only to the elite. Afghan government clinics are free but generally very basic. The Urgent and Primary Care Clinic’s directors and doctors hoped to use their donations — and their connection to the U.S. medical community — to provide quality care for Afghanistan’s massive underclass.
“We operated in a modern way, with a higher ethical standard than any other Afghan hospital,” said Habibullah Aini, a doctor, who will quit the clinic this month. He has not been paid since July.
Initially, Mojadidi and the Ministry of Public Health charged small fees to some patients, depending on their income, but decided not to seek any payment from those living in abject poverty, especially widows, people with disabilities and orphans. Such a system, they thought, would bring at least some money directly to the clinic — enough to pay for medicines, maybe.
The Afghan Justice Ministry nixed that plan a year later, arguing that the government could not accept money from patients. Still, Mojadidi thought, the Ministry of Public Health, which had expressed gratitude to the Pentagon for its initial donation, would have no problem filling the small gap in funds, given its pledge to support the clinic.
The hospital’s needs were modest: Doctors made $400 per month. Nurses made $150. Many of the medicines were donated. The clinic had all the equipment it needed.
Initially, the government contributed to the staff members’ salaries. But by 2012, most of the government’s funding had vanished. Mojadidi said he went to the public health minister and pleaded for money but was told that none was available. He resigned from his advisory position shortly thereafter.
Kanishka Baktash, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, denied that the clinic was on the verge of shutting down.
“The clinic is active,” he said. “We are providing financial support.”
But when a reporter visited the clinic this month, there was no sign of activity. Many rooms were locked. Baktash would not say how much money the ministry is providing, nor how it is being spent.
Out of options, Mojadidi went to President Hamid Karzai with a glossy brochure about the clinic, which described its “American standards,” but the meeting didn’t produce any concrete promises. He pleaded for more funds from visiting Pentagon officials but said he received no additional assistance.
After relying on small private donations for more than a year, Mojadidi acknowledged this summer that the clinic would have to close, even though patients continued coming for treatment. Aini, the last doctor at the clinic, had begun to apply for jobs at Western nongovernmental organizations in Kabul.
“There’s no money and medicine. What else can I do here?” Aini said. “Because of the mismanagement of the government, now nothing is possible.”
A fundamental problem
In September, the Office of the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that because of “financial management deficiencies” at the Ministry of Public Health, $236 million in USAID assistance was potentially subject to “waste, fraud and abuse.”
Although the Kabul clinic received funding from the military, not USAID, the fundamental problem is the same: How can U.S. officials ensure that their investment isn’t squandered as Afghan ministries take on more responsibility for the projects?
That’s a particular problem for the thousands of projects that received one-time U.S. military grants. In such cases, oversight often ends when troops leave a particular province. About $1.5 billion in CERP funds were spent from 2004 to 2011.
“We are not aware of any U.S. military programs in Afghanistan that require the monitoring and evaluation of a facility’s use once we have transferred it to the Afghan government,” said Jeffrey Hawk, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “As a sovereign entity, the Afghan government determines how to budget and allocate funds for various needs and requirements, including staffing, operations and maintenance.”
Baktash said the Afghan government could not provide support to workers at clinics built by the U.S. military in areas torn by conflict. But the Kabul clinic is just a few miles from the headquarters of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force and close to the seat of Afghan power.
“There was so much potential, and look at what is left,” Mojadidi said this month, standing in the empty hospital. “Thanks to the government’s mismanagement, we lost everything.”
Spreading dissent: Anti-polio drive postponed in Nowshera as LHWs demand pay
The Express Tribune
The anti-polio campaign in Nowshera – earlier scheduled to be held from November 20-23 – will now begin from November 25.
The campaign was postponed after lady health workers (LHWs) refused to participate due to non-payment of salaries. LHWs said they would not attend their duties unless their salaries for the past few months were released. Some also demanded the provincial government regularise their services.
Nowshera District Coordinating Officer (DCO) Zakaullah Khattak told journalists the anti-polio drive has not been cancelled. He assured the issue surrounding salaries will soon be resolved and confirmed the campaign will commence from November 25.
Khattak added the provincial and federal governments deal with salaries, adding the district government has nothing to do with it. “It’s not a bad thing to delay the campaign as we will have more time to ensure tighter security measures and better planning.”
The DCO said he talked with the lady health workers and would hold another meeting with them. He was adamant they would take part in the upcoming campaign.
Anti-polio drives have also been postponed in Charsadda and Swat for the same reason. Though the drive in Swat is also expected to commence from November 25, medical experts remain skeptical over its effectiveness since LHWs have been replaced by educational staff.
عاشورہ فسادات: راولپنڈی کی دیوبندی مسجد غلام اللہ میں ہونے والی تقریر کا متن
http://lubpak.com/archives/291549خفیہ اداروں کو راولپنڈی کی دیوبندی مسجد و مدرسہ تعلیم القران المعروف مسجد غلام الله کے نائب خطیب مولوی امان الله دیوبندی اور مولوی شاکر دیوبندی کی تقاریر کی ریکارڈنگ موصول ہو گئی ہے – عربی کے خطبے میں کوئی قابل اعتراض بات نہیں ملی البتہ اردو کی تقریروں کو جان بوجھ کر ساڑھے تین بجے سہ پہر تک طوالت دی گئی جبکہ جمعہ نماز دو بجے تک ختم ہو جاتی ہے اس طوالت کا مقصد عاشورہ جلوس کا انتظار کر کے نفرت بھڑکانا تھا – مولوی امان الله دیوبندی اور مولوی شاکر دیوبندی کی تقریروں سے قابل اعتراض مواد درج ذیل ہے: ============== عاشورہ کے روز حکومت پاکستان نے شیعہ روافض اور سنی بریلوی قبر پرستوں کو امیر المومنین یزید رحمہ الله کی توہین کی کھلی چھٹی دے دی ہے جو پاکستان کے ستانوے فیصد دیوبندی اور اہلحدیث بھائیوں کے لئے نا قابل قبول ہے – عاشورہ اور میلاد کا جلوس بند کرو شیعہ کا کفر سب پر واضح ہے مولانا رشید احمد گنگوہیؒ ’’ہدایۃ الشیعہ‘‘ میں فرماتے ہیں کہ ’’شیعہ بے ادب ہیں، چند کلمہ توحید زبان سے کہتے ہیں اس کی وجہ سے وہ مسلمان نہیں ہوسکتے‘‘۔ علامہ ابن تیمیہ رحمۃ اللہ علیہ الصارم المسلول میں فرماتے ہیں کہ: ’’اگر کوئی صحابہ کرامؓ کی شان میں گستاخی کو جائز سمجھ کر کرے تو وہ کافر ہے، صحابہ کرامؓ کی شان میں گستاخی کرنے والا سزائے موت کا مستحق ہے، جو صدیق اکبرؓ کی شان میں گالی دے تو وہ کافر ہے، رافضی کا ذبیحہ حرام ہے، حالانکہ اہل کتاب کا ذبیحہ حلال ہے، روافض کا ذبیحہ کھانا اس لئے جائز نہیں کہ شرعی حکم کے لحاظ سے یہ مرتد ہیں‘‘۔ شیعہ عزاداری کی آڑ میں جید صحابہ کرام حضرت ابو سفیان، سیدنا حبشی، حضرت ہند، حضرت یزید رضی الله عنہم اجمعین کی شان میں گستاخی کرتے ہیں سید نا یزید رضی الله کی بیعت پر کبار صحابہ بشمول عبداللہ ابن عمر کا اتفاق تھا – حضرت حسین ہاشمی غرور میں آ کر خطا کر بیٹھے اور خلیفہ بروقت کی نا فرمانی کی شیعہ سبائی فرقہ نے حضرت حسین کو بہکا دیا آج کے نام نہاد سنی بریلوی بھی اپنے شرک کی آگ میں رافضیوں کی طرح محرم مناتے ہیں دونوں دوزخ کی آگ کا ایندھن ہیں یہاں پر مسجد میں موجود سپاہ صحابہ کے دیوبندیوں نے کافر کافر شیعہ کافر جو نہ مانے وہ بھی کافراور مشرک مشرک بریلوی مشرک کے نعرے لگوائے جو مسجد سے باہر سنی بریلوی اور شیعہ پر مشتمل محرم کے جلوس نے سنے دار العلوم دیوبند کے جید علما کے مستند فتویٰ کے مطابق حضرت یزید کو مطلق خلیفہ یا مسلمانوں کے امور کو انجام دینے کی وجہ سے امیرالموٴمنین کہہ سکتے ہیں چونکہ حضرت یزید تابعی تھے اس لیے ان کو امیر المومنین یزید رحمت الله علیہ کہنا چاہیے حوالہ کے لئے ملاحظہ کرو دارالعلوم دیوبند کے دار الافتا کے فتاویٰ نمبر 2257 اور 6134 – یہ ان کی ویب سائٹ پر بھی موجود ہیں http://darulifta-deoband.org/showuserview.do?function=answerView&all=en&id=6134 http://darulifta-deoband.org/showuserview.do?function=answerView&all=ur&id=2257 یہاں پر سپاہ صحابہ کے لوگوں نے یزیدیت زندہ باد، شیعہ کافر، سنی بریلوی مشرک کا نعرہ لگوایا جس کامسجد میں موجود کچھ لوگوں نے جواب دیا کچھ خاموش رہے ہم حضرت ابن تیمیہ، حضرت محمد ابن عبد الوہاب، حضرت حقنواز جھنگوی، حضرت ملا عمر ، حضرت اسامہ بن لادن، حضرت حکیم الله محسود شہید جیسے عظیم رہنماؤں کے نظریات کو لے کر چلتے رہیں گے اور پورے پاکستان میں درباروں، مزاروں، امام باڑوں کی آڑ میں کفر اور شرک کے اڈوں کو مسمار کرتے رہیں گے – ہمارا مطالبہ ہے کہ میلاد اور عاشورا کے کفریہ بدعتی جلوسوں پر پابندی عائد کی جائے ورنہ دیوبندی علما حق کی قیادت میں ہم کافروں اور مشرکوں کو خود جہنم رسید کریں گے - See more at: http://lubpak.com/archives/291549#sthash.kLlOmRO5.dpuf
LAHORE: Yazidi terrorists put 3 Imam Bargahs and houses of Shiites on fire in Lahore
https://www.shiitenews.com
Notorious Yazidi takfiri nasbi terrorists of outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba set three Imam Bargahs and houses of Shia Muslims in Lahore, provincial capital of Punjab province on Tuesday.
Shiite News Correspondent reported that Yazidi terrorists stormed into Bheep Pura area in Lahore and attacked three Imam Bargahs and houses of Shiites. Then, they set the buildings on fire.
The gory attack occurred under the nose of Punjab government whose Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has struck a deal with notorious Yazidi terrorists Ahmed Ludhianvi and Malik Ishaq.
Unfortunately, Punjab government has taken no action against the terrorists and surrendered to them by delaying the hanging of two notorious terrorists after the outlawed Yazidi terrorist outfit Taliban had threatened that they would kill bigwigs of the ruling PMLN in reaction to the hangings.
Shia parties and leaders have demanded of the United Nations and world human rights bodies to take notice of the brutalities being perpetrated to harm the Shiites. They said that in theory Shia Muslims have inalienable cultural and religious rights but they are forced not to enjoy those rights in practice. They said that for that purpose, Shia Muslims and their religious places have been under constant attacks under the PMLN government’s patronage.
Pakistan: Mullah and military
GETTING mad at Munawar Hasan for attempting to subvert the resolve of our soldiers to fight the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan by challenging the moral legitimacy of their mission is one thing. Learning lessons from the Jamaat-i-Islami’s hostile response to Hakeemullah’s death and taking corrective action is quite another.
If the text of the ISPR statement criticising Hasan and the JI’s reaction to it is anything to go by, what we are witnessing is not a break-up but an estrangement between lovers with a shared desire to woo the other back.
As a matter of principle, the ISPR had no business seeking an apology from a political party, even one as vile as the JI. Issuing a release putting on record the angst felt by families of martyrs and soldiers putting their lives at stake to defend us from the barbarians in our midst, and a restatement of continuing resolve to defend the country from national security threats within the framework of the Constitution would have been enough.
The JI deserved to be condemned and asked to apologise. But that demand should have come from political parties and civil society.
Condemnation of the JI has been significant. Our people have the good sense not to undermine the valiant sacrifices of our soldiers merely because our generals have continued to bungle. It was not our soldiers or a majority of our officers who decided that Pakistan would join the ‘good’ Afghan jihad alongside the Americans in the 1980s. It was not these soldiers and officers who decided that Pakistan would run with the hare and hunt with the hounds faced with the ‘bad’ jihad post 9/11.
It was not these soldiers and officers who decided that the army would employ non-state actors deliberately indoctrinated with violent religious ideology to pursue ill-conceived national security objectives.
It was not these soldiers and officers who forged the military-mullah alliance and decided to get into bed with the JI and other religious parties to manufacture bigoted and irresponsible notions of national interest and use morality derived from religious diktat as an alternative to legitimacy flowing from the law and the Constitution.
But highlighting the sacrifices of soldiers to distract attention from the toxic choices made by politically ambitious self-serving generals who sowed and cultivated the seeds of confusion that we now find in full blossom is not a sustainable strategy. The correction that we yearn for today cannot come about without unambiguous admission by the khaki leadership of the wrong choices made in the past and the resolve to undo them.
The mullah-military alliance is cemented by each partner’s belief in its ability to control the other. The content of ISPR’s release and the JI’s reaction suggests that such belief has survived Munawar Hasan’s vitriol. In celebrating Maudoodi’s ‘sacrifices’, the khakis seem to be signalling to JI leaders and followers that the current emir might have deviated from the path of the founder. And in reiterating historical support for the army (with references to 1971), the JI is suggesting that it is eager to stand with the army, but the latter must return to fighting only righteous wars.
Has our khaki leadership been woken up by the JI or is it in snooze mode? The JI and its jihadi cousins have not changed. The world has and so have our national security needs.
When the military first employed the mullah through state patronage it didn’t realise that as the national army continued its transition towards an ideological army, control and initiative would steadily shift from the military to the mullah. Today, the military labelling the JI as a traitor is of no consequence to the JI.
But the JI denouncing the army for becoming a mercenary force in service of infidels carries the potential of causing sedition within army ranks. When faced with the prospect of death every believer derives strength from God, whether in a tumbling aeroplane or in a war zone. In a country comprising 97pc Muslims, the army’s battle cry would always be ‘Allah-o-Akbar’. But what does our army primarily fight for — the cause of Islam or the cause of Pakistan?
When the two mean the same things, there is no confusion. But when self-appointed guardians of faith define the cause of Islam in a way that conflicts with what rational citizens would see as the cause of Pakistan (or even Islam), as presently in the face of the existential threat posed by the TTP, where does the army stand?
The idea that khakis can out-manoeuvre the JI and more violent takfiris such as Al Qaeda and the TTP in a battle over control of the ideological narrative is not only fanciful but a manifestation of the arrogance that itself qualifies as a national security threat.
Let’s make this not about blame but correction. The army’s self-perception must be that of a national army and not an ideological one that is vulnerable to internal discord caused by proclamations issued by our bigoted brigade.
The alliance between our national security apparatus and jihadis or non-state actors, however described, must end, and verifiably so. If we wish to put out of business those within Pakistan who have assumed the right to distinguish good Muslims from bad, the military must first get out of the business of distinguishing good jihadis from bad.
Fighting and talking are not either-or solutions. We must talk to those who can accept Pakistan as a Muslim state as opposed to a jihadi state. We will have to fight those committed to killing or getting killed in order to annex Pakistan as the next goal in their global jihad.
We need a jirga to calm our wild west. But it must not be with the TTP but the representatives of all tribes in Fata to agree on steps to empower our tribal citizens and redefine their responsibilities towards Pakistan and the world within the framework of our Constitution and the nation-state system.
We can do without JI, but Pakistan needs a strong national army. A clean break-up is often better than a bitter consumptive relationship between partners with divergent worldviews.
Pakistan: Jalozai IDPs decline to vaccinate children
Lady health workers on Monday boycotted polio campaign in Mardan district. The boycott comes in line with a decision of LHWs made during a meeting at the District Headquarters Hospital, Mardan. Leaders of LHWs, including Shahrukh Begum, Ara Begum, Hashmat Begum and Saira Begum, said they had not been paid salary for three months and therefore, their families were in distress. They also said most LHWs had yet to be paid for the May 11 election duty. The leaders of LHWs said the boycott of polio campaign would continue until their dues were paid and their services were regularised.
Pakistan's Shia Genocide: Gujrat University professor shot dead
The Express Tribune NewsStudent services director of the University of Gujrat Professor Shabbir Shah was killed by unidentified gunmen on Tuesday, Express News reported. Gunmen on motorcycles stopped his car outside the university and opened fire at the vehicle, shooting the professor and his driver Khadim Hussain. Both of them died on the spot. Police sources said that a search operation is underway. The motive behind the attack is not known as yet. On September 26, a professor of Islamia College was shot while driving his car in Karachi. According to the police two unidentified men on a motorcycle had fired on Professor Ghulam Nabi Wassan’s car. Wassan was immediately rushed to hospital. In June, Professor Azfar Rizvi, along with his driver, was gunned down by unknown assailants in Karachi. In March this year, poet and former principal of Liaquatabad College Professor Sibte Jafar was shot dead in Karachi. He too was gunned down by unidentified men riding a motorcycle.
Musharraf treason trial: not-so-brilliant diversion
Brilliant, sayeth anyone? This is downright pathetic and we are supposed to take it seriously. When other problems cry for attention, when the Taliban vow vengeance and the government (stricken by fear) knows not what to do, when breathtaking administrative incompetence leads to a complete breakdown of law and order in Rawalpindi on the 10th of Muharram and the army has to be called in and curfew imposed to restore order, what is the government’s answer to all this? With a straight face the interior minister announces the decision to prosecute Gen Pervez Musharraf for treason – for imposing emergency on Nov 3, 2007. Do we laugh or cry? If this is all the leadership we get, we might as well give up and entrust our fate to the stars. The former interior minister, Rehman Malik, was also given to saying pretty funny things, most of which required a generous sprinkling of salt before anyone could swallow them. But at least he had a sense of humour which, even under the most trying circumstances, he never lost. Nisar, his successor, has no sense of humour, at least none in public. He is solemn and expects you to take him seriously, even as he drones on and on, putting everyone’s intelligence and patience to a severe test. If he were only interior minister, it wouldn’t matter so much. But he’s a key figure in this government. If there was any politburo ranking here, like in the old Soviet Union or present-day China, he would be third in the PML-N’s pecking order, after the PM and talented brother Shahbaz. In George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby, Svengali is a character with great powers of hypnosis. From the book the name has entered the English language to signify someone who manipulates and exerts excessive control over another. Who is the PML-N’s Svengali? When Bhutto chose Gen Zia as his chief of staff, and lived to rue his decision, he had no one to blame except himself. The decision was his. Gen Yahya was Ayub’s decision. But Musharraf was a choice sold to the Sharifs by Nisar. Was this the reason why after the coup and later exile to Saudi Arabia, Nawaz Sharif’s attitude towards his bright acolyte was a bit distant? After the 2013 elections Nisar was again under a bit of a cloud because of the PML-N’s relatively poor showing in Rawalpindi district and because Nisar himself lost two out of the four seats he was contesting. But he’s been in politics for a long time. The art of the comeback at least he seems to have mastered. His great political skills are evident even in the way he has tried to handle the aftermath of the recent flare-up in Rawalpindi. This was administrative bungling at its worst, the Pindi administration, from top to bottom, unable to control events, one thing leading to another before the situation went completely out of hand and the army had to be called in. Who was to blame? Primarily, the administration. But who was behind the administration? Musharraf was responsible for the ’99 coup but there was somebody responsible for his elevation to the position of army chief. Similarly, somebody is responsible for all the top appointments in the Pindi administration. I am not spinning a yarn; this is common knowledge. No top appointment or transfer in Pindi can be made without Nisar’s approval: commissioner, RPO, etc, etc, all his hand-picked choices, because Pindi district is his bailiwick, or at least he thinks it is. To be fair to Nisar, this happens not just in Pindi. Ministers and even influential MNAs/MPAs try to influence appointments and transfers everywhere, one reason why we’ve managed to wreck our administrative services. But in Pindi this practice is more pronounced. Other stalwarts have to lobby, or even abjectly entreat, the chief minister. Not Nisar whose closeness to the CM puts him above that necessity. So the standard excuse that law and order is a provincial subject does not really apply in this case. In Rawalpindi law and order is a provincial subject, making the CM ultimately responsible for it, but it is also, for reasons cited above, an interior ministry subject. Where does the buck stop then? Who’s really responsible? We have to hand it to Nisar, however, for playing his cards deftly by trying to deflect attention from the real issue on the table, the trouble in Pindi, to the bogey of Musharraf’s trial. Not that everyone is falling for his ploy. The morning after his hurriedly-called press conference there was no shortage of scepticism in the media about the motives behind this move. But if not the media’s attention, the government’s attention will be deflected. As if there was not enough on his plate already, when Nawaz Sharif returns from his foreign tour, in the form of Musharraf’s treason case he will have another mess to deal with. Who knows, he may welcome this distraction. After all, it is so much nicer and more comfortable thundering about treason and the sanctity of the constitution instead of figuring out how to deal with terrorism and the Taliban. So Nisar could well end up being congratulated for another smart move. But since we are on this subject consider for a moment the amazing selectivity we are bringing to this treason affair. So focused are we on November 3, 2007 that it almost seems as if the Musharraf era began on that date and not eight years before, on Oct 12, 1999. November 3 was a minor affair compared to the original sin of 1999 but the government doesn’t want to talk about it, the judiciary doesn’t want to talk about it, because the original sin was validated by the Supreme Court in 2000, in the so-called Zafar Ali Shah case. Irshad Hasan Khan was CJ, and on the bench, among others, sat My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry. Not only did the SC give Musharraf’s action a clean chit it also empowered him to amend the constitution. This means the army and the judiciary were hand-in-glove, which has been the regular pattern of all our coups, Ayub Khan onwards. We cannot run away from our past, but shouldn’t a recognition of the past inculcate in us some modesty and humility? If we ourselves have sinned should we not pause a bit before casting stones at others? “Mein ne majnoon pe larak mein Asad, sang uthaya toh sar yaad aaya.” Kuch Ghalib se hee seekh lein. (By the way, Saigal singing this ghazal, it’s incomparable.) The restoration of the judiciary should have brought with it some humility. It has had just the opposite effect, leading to an explosion of self-righteousness. The judicial wheel is about to turn. Let us see what awaits us when that is done. Nisar also had another trick up his sleeve. He said a commission was to be set up to investigate the Asghar Khan case – relating to ISI money distributed to a long line of politicians in order to influence and steal the 1990 elections – elections which saw Benazir Bhutto comprehensively defeated. In that treasured list figure the names, among others, of Nawaz Sharif and talented brother Shahbaz. Only certified fools can think that the brothers or any of the others will be indicted. This is just the first step in another cover-up that will take care of the Asghar Khan case once and for all, consigning it to that limbo where dwell forgotten things. And there are 20-year-old bank loans of which not a penny has been returned. No one will ever ask what’s happened to them. But we’ll continue to talk of justice and accountability. But look at the sunny side of things. What if our problems are many and great? At least we have our talent for low and small cunning, and who one can take away that from us?Ayaz Amir
Pakistan: Musharraf’s fate
Uncertainty prevails despite lifting of curfew in Pindi
Daily TimesLife in the garrison city started limping back to normalcy on Monday, while activists of a sectarian outfit remained on their toes to protest against the tragedy that took place a few days ago.
Pakistan:‘MURDER, WHAT MURDER?’
http://newsweekpakistan.com/A PHANTOM BODY, CLUELESS COPS, AND BUSY SPIES: THE FALLOUT FROM THE SHOOTING OF A SENIOR HAQQANI NETWORK LEADER WILL DO LITTLE TO DAMPEN SUSPICIONS OF PAKISTANI COMPLICITY WITH ISLAMIST MILITANTS. Nasiruddin Haqqani, the chief moneyman for one of the most feared factions fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, died in a hail of bullets outside a bakery on the edge of Islamabad on Nov. 10. After his death it has emerged that he had been living since 2010 in the suburb, Bhara Kahu, as a respected local figure known as “Doctor sahib.” But at Bhara Kahu police station, just 100 meters from the scene of the shooting, duty officer Khalid was adamant: “Murder, what murder? We have no information about a murder.” Like with the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011, there has been no plausible explanation from Islamabad as to how a man so wanted by the U.S. could live easily for years on the edge of the capital. What happened in the immediate wake of the shooting will do nothing to stem the accusation that Pakistan may be playing a “double game” by secretly helping militant groups it deems as favorable to its interests. According to witnesses, after the shooting at around 8:30 p.m. that Sunday, Pakistani agents came, collected all the bullet casings from the scene, and washed away the blood from the pavement outside the bakery. By then Haqqani’s body was already gone, taken away immediately by his driver to the nearby house where Haqqani had lived since 2010, a discreet one-story brick building. News of the death of “Doctor sahib” spread quickly through the area, but police seemed curiously unhurried, only arriving at the house at 11 p.m., according to neighbors. They found nothing, and it was hardly surprising. At least two hours earlier, Haqqani’s body had been taken for burial in North Waziristan. The journey of nearly 400 kilometers was hardly done discreetly—a source close to the Haqqani family said the body was carried in a convoy of seven vehicles, including four 4x4s. It was a substantial caravan to pass unchallenged through the countless police and military checkpoints that lie between Islamabad and North Waziristan. Haqqani was buried the next day in Dandey Darpakhel, the North Waziristan village where Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a U.S. drone strike on Nov. 1. The Pakistani Taliban blamed the spy agency ISI for Haqqani’s death, but others, including Afghan intelligence, have pointed to a potential rift in the jihadist movement. As the head of financial operations for the Haqqani network, it is also possible Nasiruddin Haqqani fell out with ruthless business contacts. For the Bhara Kahu police, the case is closed. “Officially only one person was wounded in the attack—the baker. We never saw a dead body and no one has reported one, so technically speaking, this ‘doctor sahib’ doesn’t exist for us,” duty officer Khalid said on Wednesday. He was quickly drawn away by intelligence agents who happened to be visiting the police station that day. The once-peaceful suburb has seen some worrying incidents in recent months, including an attempted suicide attack on a Shia mosque. Some residents complain of a “Talibanization” fed by an influx of Pakhtuns. “Two minutes from here, there are places where you don’t go out at night, where convoys of cars with blacked-out windows pass by regularly,” a shopkeeper said. After Haqqani’s killing, locals were astonished to learn who their neighbor had been. “Doctor sahib had an excellent reputation, he prayed five times a day, said hello to people,” said Nasir Abbasi, an estate agent living on the same street. Only once in recent years did the area mobilize to kick out an undesirable—a bachelor who dared to entertain female guests. “People thought, ‘this does not conform to Islam,’ and called the police and he had to move,” said Abbasi, who was still shocked by such behavior—far indeed from the spotless reputation of the peaceful and popular “doctor sahib.”
Monday, November 18, 2013
Israel’s Mossad and Saudi Arabia Plan to Attack Iran
Jews help Syria’s innocent victims in Bulgaria
Former pop musician Yank Barry is teaming up with celeb boxers, aiming to knock out hunger and homelessness among Syrian refugees, while Jewish group Shalom offers medical careIn escaping the horrors of the Syrian civil war, Hadirdrami Yantar hoped he would find solace in Bulgaria. Lured by dreams of a better life in a Western country, the 39-year-old Syrian and his family of four arrived in the town of Harmanli, only to be met by a harsh reality.Living as squatters in the makeshift trailer park that serves as a camp for new arrivals, Yantar’s family were forced to brave low winter temperatures with only outdoor fires to keep them warm. Unable to handle the growing number of refugees, the Bulgarian authorities are helpless to offer anything more than overcrowded camps in poor condition with little medical care or food. “We count on external assistance,” admitted Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski during a meeting with Jewish Canadian philanthropist, pop musician/jingle writer Yank Barry on November 13. Driven by personal ties to Bulgaria and his humanitarian mission, Barry is among the most recent contributors to join the relief effort to aid the Syrian refugees in Bulgaria, the European Union’s least wealthy member. Recently, Yantar, his wife and three children, moved to a private hotel. Their rent for the next six months is paid for by the Global Village Champions Foundation, co-founded by Barry and famous boxer Muhammad Ali, which is spending $1 million to help fund the housing of 50 refugees. Superstar boxer Evander Holyfield accompanied Barry on this recent trip.“I don’t know why I’m the one leaving the camp, but I have three children and my wife is pregnant. This is a chance for us,” Yantar told a local TV station after exiting Harmanli.
US-Afghan security pact collapsing after Karzai refusal
Bilawal Bhutto urges crackdown against hate-mongers
http://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/
Paranoia from Soviet Union collapse haunts China's Communist Party, 22 years on
http://www.scmp.com/
In the heyday of Sino-Soviet socialist brotherhood in the 1950s, Chinese liked to say that “today’s Soviet Union is tomorrow’s China”, as Beijing faithfully followed Moscow’s every footstep in development.
But since the collapse of communist rule and the Soviet Union in early 1990s, the old saying has become an evil omen haunting China’s communist leaders.
And there are renewed shudders among the Beijing leadership following a warning from President Xi Jinping calling for the need to pay greater attention to the dramatic events in Moscow more than two decades ago.
Significantly, officials ranging from top central government ministers to heads of grassroots party organs have been called on to watch a four-part DVD documentary about the historic events.
The video, In Memory of the Collapse of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, is jointly produced by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and its affiliated Research Centre of World Socialism. It tells the story on how a once great power stumbled to become a second- or third-class nation.
The video blames Mikhail Gorbachev’s radical moves to introduce Western-style democratic reform and to relax the party’s monopoly control of ideology and also Boris Yeltsin’s rush to privatise state-owned enterprises as the main reasons behind the collapse of Communist rule and the dismantling of the Soviet empire.
Another new video co-produced by the National Defence University that was leaked late last month tells how the West, the United States in particular, has schemed for a Soviet-style collapse in China.
Entitled The Silent Contest, the 100-minute video begins with a lament for the end of the Soviet Union, and proceeds through recent history to show the supposedly evil motives behind America’s relations with China and other communist countries.
General Liu Yazhou, political commissar of the military institution and son-in-law of former president Li Xiannian, produced the work.Analysts pointed out that the renewed fear of a Soviet-style nightmare in China might reflect the leadership’s anxiety over slowing economic growth, rising social tensions and growing calls for political reform following the leadership transition last November.
They said that whether the new generation of Chinese leaders will pursue reform in the next few years lies in how they interpret the Soviet collapse.
Xi, the party’s general secretary, appears more fascinated by the ideological aspects of the Soviet downfall than his predecessors.
In an internal speech early this year, Xi told party officials that China must still heed the “deeply profound” lessons of the former Soviet Union, where political rot, ideological heresy and military disloyalty brought down the governing party.
“Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse?” Xi asked, according to a summary of his comments that has circulated among officials, but has not been published by the state-run news media.
“An important reason was that their ideals and convictions wavered,” he said.
The mainland’s propaganda machines have responded to Xi’s call, publishing more articles warning about the possibility of a Soviet-style collapse in the last major communist-ruled state.
Steve Tsang, director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham, said Xi was clearly setting out his “policy line”, which is to strengthen the party’s capacity and determination to adhere closely tight to the existing system, and resist any demand for democratisation or constitutional rule as understood in the West.
“The sense of crisis has been reintroduced to warn the rest of the party not to be complacent and to embrace changes that he is introducing,” he said.
Kerry Brown, executive director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, said that although Chinese think tanks had expended huge effort and time on trying to understand why communism in the Soviet Union failed, there remains a lack of consensus over the cause.
Was the most critical issue a lack of economic reform, over-hasty political reform, issues intrinsic to the structure and culture of power within the USSR, or the failure to reach consensus within the leadership?
“The one point upon which most Chinese intellectuals, politicians and officials seem to agree is that, contrary to mainstream opinion in the West, the collapse was not a good thing and the results were to cost Russia and the states created out of the ruins of the USSR dearly,” Brown said.
He said that one of the great paradoxes of our time was that the world’s second-biggest, and most dynamic, economy happens in name at least to be governed by a system that was written off two decades ago.
“This is no cause for celebration in China however,” Brown said.
Xiaoyu Pu, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, said that while the Communist Party had maintained its legitimacy through economic performance and nationalist mobilisation, it faces many challenges.
Thus, the primary security concern of the party leaders is not national security, but regime security.
“For the CCP, the collapse of the Soviet Union has always been regarded as a ‘negative example’,” Pu said. “The party has put a lot of energy and resources into examining what lessons the CCP could learn from the collapse of the Soviet Union.”
However, Pu said the implications of the documentary programmes should not be over-estimated as they “might reflect the voice of the leftist and conservative faction within the party”
“It is hard to say the programmes reflect the consensus of the CCP leadership,” he said.
Tsang noted that the USSR lasted 69 years and the People’s Republic of China had now been in existence for 64 years. In other words, the Chinese Communist Party could surpass the Soviet Communist Party during Xi’s tenure.
Xi has every intention to ensure the People’s Republic will outlast the USSR and thus has every reason to get the Communist Party to re-learn the lessons of why their comrades failed.
Amnesty slams Qatar migrant worker exploitation
Construction companies in Qatar, which is experiencing a massive building boom ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, are involved in widespread abuse of migrant workers, according to Amnesty International.Qatar’s construction sector is rife with unacceptable working conditions for migrant labourers, according to a report released by Amnesty International on Sunday.
The report, titled “The dark side of migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup”, details widespread abuse of migrant workers that the international human rights organisation claims often amounts to forced labour.
“We have met workers that have been unpaid for many, many months, up to nine months or a year in Qatar,” said James Lynch, Amnesty International’s researcher on migrant workers in the Gulf, in a film accompanying the report.
“Then they can’t leave the country because their employer won’t return their passports, won’t give them an exit permit, which is required under Qatari law, won’t buy them tickets,” he added.
These factors combined, he said, meant life in Qatar for many migrant workers was “deeply traumatic”.
Preparing for the 2022 FIFA World Cup
The report is published as the Gulf Emirate experiences a massive construction boom ahead of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
According to Amnesty International, there are now around 1.35 million foreign nationals – mostly from Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka – working in Qatar, making up some 94 percent of the total workforce.
Nepalese workers employed by a supplier to build the FIFA headquarters in Doha told the NGO they were being “treated like cattle”, with employees working up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week in Qatar’s searingly hot summer months.
“Please tell me - is there any way to get out of here? ... We are going totally mad,” said one Nepalese construction worker, who had not been paid in seven months and prevented from leaving Qatar for three months.
Amnesty researchers said they had witnessed 11 men sign papers to declare falsely that they had been paid their wages simply to get their passports back so that they could leave the country.
Qatar must ‘seize the opportunity’
“It is simply inexcusable in one of the richest countries in the world, that so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
The human rights group has called on the Qatari government to “seize the opportunity” to set an example on the protection of migrant workers’ rights.
The organisation has also called on FIFA to work with the Qatari authorities to prevent abuses.
“FIFA has a duty to send a strong public message that it will not tolerate human rights abuses on construction projects related to the World Cup,” said Shetty.
“But unless critical, far-reaching steps are taken immediately, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who will be recruited in the coming years to deliver Qatar’s vision face a high risk of being abused,” he concluded.
The bloody disaster of Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan is laid bare
Forty-three people died on Friday in clashes between militias in Libya, as did 22 on Sunday from bombs in Iraq. In Helmand, a return of the Taliban to power is now confidently expected. Why should we care? Why should it feature on our news? The answer is that we helped to bring it about. Britain's three foreign wars in the past decade were uninvited military interventions to topple installed governments. All have ended in disaster. In each case – Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan – it was easy to see evil in the prevailing regime. These are bad guys that we need to go after, said the Americans. Yet the removal of law and order from a nation is devastating, however cruel that order may have been. Iraqis today repeat that, whatever the ills of Saddam Hussein, under his rule most ordinary citizens and their families could walk the streets at night without fear of murder or kidnap. Religious differences were tolerated. Iraq should have been an oil-rich modern state. Even the Kurds, scourged by Saddam in the past, enjoyed autonomy and relative peace. In each of these cases Britain and its allies, chiefly America, intervened to overthrow the army, disband government, dismantle the judiciary and leave militias to run riot. Little or no attempt was made to replace anarchy with a new order. "Nation building" was a fiasco. The British bombs that flattened government buildings in Kabul, Baghdad and Tripoli did not replace them, or those who worked in them. Those who dropped them congratulated themselves on their work and went home. It is hard to exaggerate the misery and chaos created by so-called "liberal interventionism". It is hard to think of a more immoral foreign policy, roaming the (chiefly Muslim) world, killing people and sowing anarchy. That is why the blood-stained consequence should be splashed across headlines. Those who seek political kudos by visiting violence on foreign peoples should never be allowed to forget their deeds.Bombs and militia violence make clear the folly of Britain's wars – the removal of law and order from a nation is devastating
Sectarian violence spreads in Pakistan after days of unrest
Sectarian violence spread in Pakistan on Monday after clashes between minority Shi'ite and majority Sunni Muslims near the capital Islamabad prompted the government to impose a curfew and block mobile phone services over the weekend.
Clashes confined to areas in and around the capital at the weekend spilled over on Monday into two towns in the volatile northwest.
Tensions are high this month as Shi'ites mark Muharram, an annual period of mourning which has often sparked bouts of violence.
Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad, remained under curfew and tight security for three days after a Shi'ite procession on Friday degenerated into sectarian clashes which killed at least eight people.
On Monday, a mob set shops on fire in a predominantly Shi'ite district in the northwestern town of Kohat in clashes that killed a policeman and a civilian, police said.
Tensions were high in the northwestern city of Hangu, also subject to a curfew, local media reported.
During Muharram, a period of mourning to mark the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, Shi'ites hold long processions where they flagellate, beat or cut themselves to show their grief.
The authorities imposed a mobile phone blackout on Rawalpindi, the seat of the Pakistani army, and parts of Islamabad over the weekend. The curfew was lifted only on Monday, but the city remained tense.
Attacks on Pakistan's Shi'ites, who make up about a fifth of the 180 million population, have worsened in recent years.
Most of the attacks are the work of Sunni extremists affiliated with banned groups, such as the Taliban or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which wants to drive all Shi'ites out of Pakistan.
Hundreds of Shi'ites were killed in bombings and other attacks last year, including children gunned down on their way to school and doctors heading for work.
Deadly sectarian unrest hits Pakistan
At least three people have been killed after renewed sectarian clashes in northern Pakistan, with the army being called in to establish control over the affected areas, officials say.
The violence centred on the city of Kohat, where members of the Sunni Muslim armed group Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat held a rally on Monday to protest against the earlier killing of several Sunnis in Rawalpindi.
The deaths occured after firing by unidentified assailants near a Shia Muslim mosque in the city, which is located in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
"The activists were rallying against the Rawalpindi violence when unidentified gunmen opened fire on the procession from near a Shia mosque in the area, killing two people," Saleem Khan Marwat, district police chief, told the AFP news agency.
Pakistani media, quoting local police station chief Mazhar Jaan, said that the death toll was three, including two policemen. That toll was confirmed by Fazal Naeem Khan, a local police official.
Jaan said that there had been an exchange of fire between the two sides.
Marwat indicated that the ASWJ activists had been fired upon, before retaliating with their own gunfire.
Police and army troops later cordoned off the area and ordered markets to be closed. Troops were also called into the nearby city of Hangu, where tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims were also high.
Friday's violence in Rawalpindi erupted when a procession of Shia Muslims marking the most important day of the mourning month of Muharram coincided with a sermon at a nearby Sunni mosque.
That violence resulted in nine deaths, and the imposition of a curfew in Rawalpindi, a twin city of the capital Islamabad, that was only lifted on Monday morning.
A ban on gatherings of more than five people remains in force.
Troops were also deployed in Rawalpindi as well as in the southern Punjab city of Multan to keep the peace on Monday.
Pakistan is facing rising sectarian violence, with armed Sunni groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan often attacking gatherings of Shias, who make up some 20 percent of the country's overwhelmingly Muslim population.
Pakistan Imposes New Curfews After Sectarian Clash
Authorities imposed curfews and deployed troops in two different areas of northwest Pakistan on Monday after three people were killed during a sectarian clash, police said.
The violence occurred in Kohat city, where members of a hard-line Sunni Muslim group, Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat, were holding a rally to protest a sectarian clash in Rawalpindi city on Friday that killed 10 people, including at least eight Sunnis, said police officer Fazal Naeem Khan.
Shooting broke out during Monday's rally, killing three people, including a policeman and two civilians, said Khan. It was unclear if the civilians who were killed were members of Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat. The Sunnis then clashed with police and Shiites, and several shops were set on fire, Khan said.
Authorities responded by deploying troops and imposing a curfew in Kohat district and neighboring Hangu district, Khan said.
The development came shortly after officials on Monday lifted a curfew in Rawalpindi that had been imposed after the clashes there on Friday, said police officer Mohammad Amir. Army troops will continue to patrol the city for several more days, and there is still a ban on more than four people assembling in one place, said Amir.
The sectarian clash in Rawalpindi occurred when hundreds of Shiites were holding a procession to mark Ashoura, one of the sect's most important religious occasions. The Shiites clashed with members of an Islamic seminary affiliated with Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat.
Ten people were killed in the clash and 56 were wounded, said the Rana Sanaullah, the law minister for Punjab province, where Rawalpindi is located.
At least eight of the dead were Sunni Muslims. The identities of the other two were not made clear.
Outbursts of sectarian violence occur regularly in Pakistan. Hard-liners from the Sunni majority who consider Shiites to be heretics have targeted the sect with bombs and shootings, with Shiite attacks on Sunnis less common, at least in recent years.
Yazidi terrorists attack Shia mosque, Imam Bargah & Market in Kohat
www.shiitenews.com
Yazidi nasbi takfiri terrorists of outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba attacked Shia mosque, Imam Bargah and a commercial market in Kohat of Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa province on Monday.
A police cop was martyred and several others were hurt in the terrorists’ attacks.
Shiite News Correspondent reported that the armed terrorists attacked Imam Bargah Syed Habib where one police cop was martyred and three were hurt. In Teera Bazar, they put a market owned by Shiites, on fire.
The terrorists also attacked a Shia mosque in Kohat and latest reports had it that they were harassing people by sporadic firing despite imposition of curfew.
Tension also prevailed in Hangu where rockets were fired by the Yazidi terrorists on the day of Ashura with intention to sabotage peaceful observance of Ashura. Curfew was imposed in Hangu also.
Curfew imposed in Kohat after two killed by gunmen
The Express TribuneA curfew was imposed in Kohat and Hangu after unidentified gunmen killed two people, including a police official, Express News reported on Monday. The curfew was later lifted in Hangu after situation returned to normalcy. The shooting happened in the city of Kohat while activists from the Sunni organisation Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ) were demonstrating against Friday’s violence in Rawalpindi which left nine people dead. “The activists were rallying against the Rawalpindi violence when unidentified gunmen opened fire on the procession from near a mosque in the area, killing two people,” district police chief Saleem Khan Marwat told AFP. Another local police official, Tanweer Ahmad, confirmed the incident. Marwat said the ASWJ activists retaliated by firing bullets in the air, which sparked tension in the area. Some shops were set on fire in a market near Shah Faisal gate. Police and the army cordoned off the area and ordered markets closed. A search operation is underway.
Former president Zardari condemns violence in Rawalpindi
Former president Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the clashes in Rawalpindi on the eve of Ashura on Friday that left 10 killed and injured scores of others, and called it as barbaric and inhuman that had nothing to do with religion but was aimed at fanning sectarianism to harm the country and its people.
The former president said that no words were strong enough to condemn the senseless killing and wounding of innocent people. He said he was shocked and grieved over the loss of so many lives and injuries to many others and prayed for those who lost their lives and early recovery to those injured.
Zardari cautioned the people against those who were bent upon destroying peace and tranquillity of the state and society in the name of religion to achieve their nefarious agenda. “We must be conscious against the machinations of the enemies of our society who by perpetrating such acts wanted to provoke reprisals and retaliation from the aggrieved persons to further fuel the fire,” he said.
Protestors force closure of several markets in Rawalpindi
Protestors shut several markets here on Monday after the curfew imposed following clashes during an Asuhra procession in the city.
Protestors demonstrated against the Rawalpindi tragedy and forced the closure of shops in Raja Bazaar, Bara Market, Sabzi Mandi, Urdu Bazaar and other markets of the city.
Earlier on Monday, authorities lifted the curfew which was imposed in the city on Friday. The city administration said that section 144 would remain imposed in the city, while the army would remain on standby.
At least ten people were killed following clashes during the Ashura procession in the city. According to Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah,
all facts regarding the tragedy would be made public and the culprits would be brought to justice.
Pakistan: Cracks in the reactionary monolith
The masses know, consciously or unconsciously, that Islamic fundamentalism and US imperialism are two sides of the same coin The statement of Munawar Hasan, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on martyrdom and the fierce reaction by the Pakistan army reveals nothing but the rottenness of the Pakistani ruling class, its state and politics. The army quickly demanded an apology and the JI’s subsequent response of “intervention in politics” by the army is quite sardonic. Historically, the JI is known as the most organised Islamic party, having close ties with the Pakistani state and US imperialism. In the decades of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the JI was active as a vicious representative of the domestic and international right wing. Its student wing, the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, has always been used as a tool by the state and imperialism against left wing student organisations. After the victory of Gamal Abdul Nasser in the 1956 Suez war against Britain, France and Israel, the slogan of Arab Socialism was echoing in one country after another in the Middle East. Like the Arab Revolution of 2011, a revolutionary wave swept across the whole region in the 1950s and 1960s, sweeping aside old puppets of imperialism and replacing them with left-leaning parties and leaders in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Algeria and other Arab countries. These left wing governments under enormous pressure of the masses embarked on a process of large-scale nationalisation. This endangered imperialist interests in the Middle East, while the reactionary monarchies were trembling. To stem this revolutionary fervour against capitalism, the CIA started propping up Islamic fundamentalism. From Indonesia to Egypt, Islamic fundamentalist parties were strengthened as a counter-revolutionary force through financial and political support. The real creator of this Islamic fundamentalism was the US president Dwight Eisenhower’s secretary of state, John Foster Dulles. Dulles himself was a Christian fundamentalist and pathologically detested communism. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Nahdat-ul-Ulema (which played a key role in killing over a million communists and trade unionists in 1965) in Indonesia were contraptions of this reactionary onslaught. In Pakistan, the JI was the centre of this imperialist policy. This explains why it remained hand in glove with military dictatorships. The 1968-69 revolutionary movement of the masses in Pakistan swept across both wings of the country. But after the abdication of the movement by Maulana Bhashani and other left wing leaders, this class movement was derailed on nationalist lines and was ensnared by Mujibur Rehman’s Awami League. In the civil war that followed, the atrocities and massacres of the Bengali masses committed by the Pakistan army in connivance with the vigilantes of the JI in the shape of its armed wings — Al Badar and Al Shams — were carried out with vicious brutalities against innocent people. The deep involvement of the JI in this ‘Operation Blitz’ is revealed in the book, The Indo-Pak War by Major General Hakeem Arshad Qureshi, who was a battalion commander in the Dinapur district of East Pakistan during the operation. He narrates: “Maulana Tufail Mohammad (Amir) of the Jamaat-e-Islami visited us after the military action...The Maulana was particularly concerned about the performance of the ‘razakaars’ (volunteers) belonging to his party... He jokingly remarked that his party cadres had always come to the rescue of the Army in tough situations.” The first Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government embarked upon a welfare programme for the masses and reforms were introduced in health, education, transport and other sectors through massive nationalisation. The JI came out against these reforms and supported the feudals and capitalists against the PPP. The JI had the full backing of US imperialism. The JI spearheaded the Pakistan National Alliance movement against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, which led to the military coup and hanging of Bhutto. This was organised on a religious basis and was actively supported by the Pakistani ruling classes and US imperialism. They not only supported the vicious dictatorship of Ziaul Haq but also played like a B-team of that brutal dictator. During this dark period of history, the military used the JI and its vigilantes in intimidating, arresting and torturing political activists. The Saur Revolution of April 27, 1978 in Afghanistan (18 months before the invasion of the Soviet forces) under the leadership of Noor Muhammad Tarakai of the Khalq Party threatened the interests of landlords, capitalists and imperialists in the whole region. To sabotage this revolutionary government in Kabul, which was making huge efforts for the downtrodden masses, the CIA initiated the ‘Dollar Jihad’, flooding the area with dollars managed by the ISI and distributed through the JI to its sister organisation Hizb-e-Islami led by Gulbadin Hikmetyar. But when huge sums of money started pouring in for this “Jihad” through smuggling of narcotics, many other obscurantist sects and organisations jumped on the bandwagon for this loot. The clergy became rich overnight and were riding SUVs instead of bicycles. With the withdrawal of the Soviet forces, imperialist funding suddenly came to an end. That was replaced by the multibillion dollar business of smuggling narcotics and arms, resulting in many of these groups not only turning against US imperialism but also against each other. Zia’s generals were deeply involved in that criminal business network, but the proxies fragmented and clashed in the lust for a greater share of black money. The JI remained and still is an integral part of this harrowing orgy of bloodshed and terror. The JI’s frustration with the US is in part due to dollar supplies drying up and in part due to the contradiction of the pro-US and anti-US factions of the Pakistani state, particularly within the military. In the absence of mass left wing forces, religious parties are struggling among themselves to exploit the anti-imperialist sentiments of the people. In this cutthroat competition, vitriolic statements like Munawar Hasan’s are a part of that process. To recapture the intoxication of potent power enjoyed with the patronage of imperialism and the Pakistani army, the JI, a party that always remained a fifth column of the army, has come out in open conflict with an important faction of the army. However, the support of the JI and other religious parties among the masses is very fragile and limited. The masses know, consciously or unconsciously, that Islamic fundamentalism and US imperialism are two sides of the same coin. The JI is doomed either way. If it withdraws its statement it will face the wrath of religious extremists, and if it does not it will face the severe displeasure of the generals. Religious parties and US imperialism, the liberal and secular rulers are all on board on the preservation of this capitalist system because their vested interests rest in it. These conflicts are temporary and superficial. The JI and army cannot do without each other. Let us not be in any doubt; as in the past, these forces of dark reaction will unite to save this system in the wake of a rising revolutionary movement of the oppressed. The working classes will have to unite to dislodge this reactionary monolith for its emancipation and should ignore this pseudo-wrangling.Lal Khan
Pakistan: Looming sectarian threat
Sindh CM condemns Rawalpindi incident
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has strongly condemned Rawalpindi tragedy, which took place on the eve of Ashura procession. In a statement issued on Sunday, the Sindh CM said that the elements involved in the incident are the enemy of the people. The Sindh CM expressed deep grief over the incident and condoled with the families of the victims. He appealed to the ulema to play their role for promotion of inter-faith harmony. The Sindh CM also called upon the people to remain peaceful and united to foil the conspiracy of anti-Islam and anti-state elements.http://mediacellppp.files.wordpress.com/
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