http://voiceofrussia.com/The Russian Foreign Ministry says it is outraged by operations the Kiev authorities launched in the southeastern part of Ukraine early on Saturday. "The situation around Slavyansk in the Donetsk region dramatically worsened in the early hours of May 17. Ukrainian troops supported by aviation once again attempted to storm the city. This time, civilian installations were shelled by heavy artillery. Some people were wounded. A real threat to peaceful civilian lives was created. All this provokes Russia's rightful outrage," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. "We are insisting once again on the immediate stoppage of military actions by Kiev in the southeastern part of Ukraine," it said. "Such punitive actions against their own citizens show the hypocrisy of the Kiev authorities who falsely declare their willingness to comply with the provisions of the Geneva Declaration concluded on April 17, 2014 and with the road map, developed by the OSCE," the Foreign Ministry said. "The question also arises can the [presidential] election truly meet the democratic norms of the electoral process, when it is carried out against the backdrop of the continuing military crisis in Ukraine?" the Russian Foreign Ministry concluded. The Russian Foreign Ministry expects that the West will have a "drastic influence" upon Kiev to encourage reconciliation in the country. Moscow doesn't want an ostentatious approach but a straightforward demonstration of willingness to find a solution. On Saturday night the situation around Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region, ratcheted up sharply. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ukrainian military, with the air support, once again attempted to storm the city, heavy artillery is bombarding civilian buildings; several people are injured. " There's a real threat to the lives of civilians. All this arouses rightful indignation in Russia," the report of the Foreign Ministry reads. "Saber-rattling" arouses a particular bewilderment, since it is today that the second "round table" discussion on ways out of the political crisis in Ukraine is taking place in Kharkov,” the Foreign Ministry says. "It seems that the self-proclaimed Ukrainian authorities simply use this forum to cover up their aggressive actions,” the statement says. "We hope that our Western partners will have a drastic influence on Kiev in order to start a real, not ostentatious work on moving towards national reconciliation in the country," the message of the Foreign Ministry reads. Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_17/Moscow-demands-halt-of-military-actions-in-Ukranes-southeast-Russian-Foreign-Ministry-0439/
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Moscow demands halt to military action in Ukrane's southeast - Russian Foreign Ministry
China’s Xi and Russia’s Putin to make Substantial Statement
A Chinese top-diplomat announced on Thursday, that President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will make a substantial statement during Putin’s visit to China later this month.Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is scheduled for an official state visit to China on invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi invited Putin to pay a visit to China and to attend the Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) from May 20 in Shanghai. During a press briefing, the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping announced that the two top-leaders will exchange views on cooperation, coordination in international affairs as well as on major issues of common concern. The meeting is the second meeting between the Chinese and the Russian Presidents in 2014, and Putin’s first visit to the Chinese People’s Republic since Xi took office. Vice Foreign Minister Cheng stressed that Xi and Putin will be showing the two countries willingness to firmly support each other with regard to their country’s path with regard to national development, as well as with regard to the strengthening of the two countries strategic cooperation on major international affairs. Cheng added, that the two presidents also would witness the signing of a series of important bilateral cooperation agreements. The meeting has been scheduled against the backdrop of the deepening crisis in and over Russia’s neighbor Ukraine, where predominantly US and UK backed post-coup government’s military escalation and the deployment of 30.000 heavily armed troops to the countries southeastern regions has cast the country into a de facto civil war. The visit also comes against the backdrop of increased international tension over Ukraine and sanctions against Russia by the G7, the US and EU. Additionally, Japan announced earlier this week that it had suspended talks about a peace treaty with Russia, to coordinate its policies with the G7. So far, neither Beijing nor Moscow lift the veil about what Xi’s and Putin’s “substantial statement” contains. It is noteworthy, however, that sanctions have prompted Moscow to diversify payments in international trade to increasingly use national currencies instead of the dollar. Within this context it may be worth noting that Xi and Putin, at the sideline of the 2013 G8 summit in St Petersburg, in September 2013, announced that the planned BRICS development bank would become operative by late 2015 or early 2015.
Friends of Hillary
The American economy has gone through some tough times lately. But, happily, we still lead the world in the production of corn, soybeans, beef, cheese and stories about Hillary Clinton. Clinton has become famous in a unique, remarkable way. She’s practically an organizing principle for the American consciousness. We see her everywhere. How could Barbara Walters have signed off from “The View” this week without a drop-in from H.R.C. — who holds the record for multiple appearances on Walters’ annual Most Fascinating People roundup? How could Gloria Steinem have celebrated her 80th birthday party without a video visit from the former first lady/senator/secretary of state? How could the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries have gotten through its Las Vegas convention without a Hillary speech? O.K., they had to pay her for the last one. But while she was there, somebody threw a shoe at her. At once, the nation had something new to talk about. People were trudging through their days amid dreary domestic headlines about crime, bad weather and congressional gridlock. Then suddenly it was — Hillary! Shoe! It’s so interesting how interested we are in her. Of course, she’s a potential presidential candidate. But she’s also got the critical national role of being someone Americans all have in common. Ever since the industrial revolution, when Americans abandoned small-town life for anonymous cities, they’ve bonded by talking about celebrities. In 1800, people chatted over their back fence about the neighbors. In 1900, the guys on the assembly line no longer shared mutual friends, but they all knew that boxing champion John L. Sullivan was a terrible drunk, and had opinions about singer Lillian Russell’s generous figure. Today, the media’s getting so fractured we don’t even know the same famous people. We’re long past the era when 100 million viewers would turn in to see how “M*A*S*H” turned out. There’s still the Super Bowl, for which a large chunk of the country gathers around the TV in a touching show of faith that this is going to be the year when it isn’t boring. But mainly we surf around for our own special favorite things — the Danish drama on Hulu, the Miley Cyrus video, the blog about “Hogs Gone Wild.” Then on weekends we get together for a multigenerational dinner and talk about ... ourselves. Or the salad. Or Hillary. It must be an ungodly burden to be both the most important political figure outside the White House and perhaps the last great all-purpose celebrity on the map. She’s so familiar she’s like a family member — even to the political right, although in that case it’s something along the lines of a wicked stepmother. Rush Limbaugh recently entertained the theory that Clinton had “staged or set up” the shoe-throwing incident, although, really, if you were going to try to get attention with that kind of event, you’d have picked someplace more elevating than the scrap recyclers. For the right, Clinton is responsible for nearly everything bad that occurs in the world, including the terrible kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls — which happened either because Benghazi made us look weak (Laura Ingraham) or because the State Department never formally designated Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization. Also, Chelsea got pregnant because her mother wanted the positive press. Somewhere, right now someone is working on a story that will reveal that Hillary Clinton started the elevator fight between Jay-Z and his sister-in-law. Everybody — right, left and middle — is talking about her presidential candidacy even though we’ve got more than two years before the presidential nominating convention. Karl Rove made headlines when he reportedly mused that Hillary might be able to conceal a “traumatic brain injury” during a run for the White House. (His estimate that she had spent “30 days” in the hospital after a fall last year was a mere 26 days off.) But Rove was not really worried that the public would fail to take a look at the health issues of all the presidential candidates when the race really begins. He was just keenly aware that without Hillary gossip, he might be stuck analyzing the presidential prospects of the current Democratic field: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. It’s hard to imagine what it must feel like to belong to everybody in such an intimate way. There’s no one else in the same situation. Barack Obama is universally known, but these days, if you have a conversation at the dinner table about him, the real topic is going to be something like health care or the unemployment rate. We’re so aware of his enormous responsibilities, we’ve sort of lost interest in Obama as a person. He may try to be diverting with the odd comment about sports or his dog, but, really, it doesn’t work. This is why Hillary Clinton is going to run for the White House. She wants to be president so people will stop talking about her.Gail Collins
Pakistan: Asif Zardari felicitates Narendra Modi
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PRIME MINISTER MODI
India: Does the elections verdict signal decline of the Gandhi dynasty?
India's Modi gets hero's welcome as he brings new era to New Delhi
US likely to spend $10bn a year in Afghanistan after troops pullout: SIGAR
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, has said that the US spending in Afghanistan is likely to continue at a pace of $6 billion to $10 billion a year even with the US war effort winding down.
Sopko said the embattled Afghanistan will be lucky to keep the lights on despite billions of dollars from the American taxpayers have been spent to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
Sopko said the US agencies largely failed to assess the price tag it would cost one of the world’s poorest countries to maintain its new infrastructure.
In prepared remarks for the Middle East Institute think tank, Sopko said the U.S. could be spending up to $10 billion annually as far as the eye could see.
Sopko pointed to a 2010 report about Kabul’s construction of its new 105-megawatt power plant as an example, and said the government of Afghanistan promised to get an outside commercial partner to cover the plant’s operational costs after its completion, but that never materialized.
He said the plant will need outside support for several years and warned that thousands of homes in Kandahar will be in the dark without outside support, unless the country continues to be subsidized by foreign governments by 2015.
According to Sopko, US has never put so much money into the rebuilding of another nation and the US funding for Afghan reconstruction has topped the amount spent rebuilding Britain or Germany following World War Two.
He said annual payments to Afghanistan are more than what Washington gives to Israel, Egypt and Pakistan combined.
Sopko also expressed concerns regarding the security gap following the withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan and said the draw down will also leave some key reconstruction projects too dangerous for U.S. government employees to visit and “kick the tires,” to make sure the funding is being used correctly.
Pakistani:Threats to Girls’ Education: Extremists Burn Student Vehicle, Beat School Owner, Flash Victory Sign
The Baloch Hal News
Unidentified gunmen, suspected of having links to an underground religious extremist group opposing girls’ education, attacked and burned a school van carrying female students in Panjgur District on Wednesday, local residents confirmed. The students remained unhurt but the attackers beat the school owner who was driving the van.
Tanzeem-ul-Islami-ul-Furqan, an unknown underground religious extremist group, had disseminated threatening letters among all private schools in Panjgur district calling them to stop girls’ education or prepare for attacks.
An eyewitness to the latest incident told The Baloch Hal that Major (retired) Hussain Ali, the owner of the Oasis School in Panjgur district, was stopped on his way in Gramkan township by armed men when he was driving female students to school.
“Mr. Ali was on his way to school with his female staff on his vehicle when he was attacked. The attackers pulled him and the ladies out of the vehicle,” said a family member of the head of the school.
Local residents said the attackers wanted to shoot Mr. Ali but the female students resisted the attackers and prevented a possible shootout. The attack took place when Mr. Ali was in front of the house of some female students to pick them up.
“The attackers burned the student vehicle and threatened him to shut down the school,” said one eye-witness who added that after burning the vehicle, the attackers then escaped by riding their bikes in the presence of the Frontier Corps (F.C.) patrolling convoy at Football Chowk.
“They fired in air and showed victory signs when they reached the convoy,” said another eye-witness. ”They left towards west and the F.C. followed them slowly.”
Community members gathered in Gramkan area to express support for Mr. Ali who had been attacked and promised to support the private schools. A meeting of all the private schools was held soon after the attack. The representatives of the private schools had previously met with the district administration and shared the threats they had received but the local government had failed to offer any tangible security to the schools, female teachers and students.
“All private school owners have decided to shut down the schools for an indefinite period considering the lack of security provided to us, ” said Zahir Baloch, a prominent local educationist, while talking to The Baloch Hal.
Pakistan's LoadShedding: Still A Crisis
Around this time last year, the PML-N promised to end load shedding in 60-90 days and overcome the energy crisis for good. Shahbaz Sharif still believes that his party can overcome the shortage, although the word ‘soon’ has replaced a specific date. Dar is commending himself and the rest of the government for prioritizing the energy crisis and taking steps to fix it. But beyond these general statements, the PML-N has replaced its motto from ‘yes we can’ to ‘we try our best’. This is probably for the better, considering that the head of the IMF mission to Pakistan, Jeffery Franks recently stated that it would take about 6 years for load shedding to end in Pakistan.
The fact that the media has completely missed out on this statement is shocking. The head of the IMF mission to Pakistan is well-acquainted with the problems of Pakistan, and since his job entails coming up with potential solutions, his estimate might just be correct. The government however, is painting an entirely different picture.
It was always obvious that the government could not end load shedding in three months, and now that a year has passed, let’s analyse how close they have come to solving the problem their election victory was predicated on. The energy policy of 2013 gave precedence to short term measures such as bringing down electricity theft and prioritizing cost-effective production techniques like hydel generation and coal-based production. The national grid is still losing an incalculable amount of electricity through theft, and the cost of electricity has only risen over the past year. The PML-N never meant for their political promises to be taken seriously, but at the same time this tenure will be judged primarily on whether their policies led to an increase in the overall supply of electricity in the country. Initiatives such as the coal power plant at Port Qasim are nothing more than stop gap measures, which fail on two counts. Firstly, they do not add substantial amounts of electricity to the national grid, which is still facing a shortfall of around 5000 MW, and secondly they give the public a false impression that things are taking a turn for the better. The energy policy devised by the PML-N was surprisingly well-informed about the energy crisis. Preventing theft and line losses was the way to make things better immediately and yet, it seems that the government has been reluctant to follow its own advice. If Jeffery Franks is indeed correct, we’re in for a long haul.
Pakistan: Extremism in Balochistan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/Recent developments in Balochistan have brought a new set of problems to that already troubled province. For the last two years we have seen growing sectarian massacres and attempts to intimidate, in fact annihilate, the minority Hazara and other Shia communities in the province. Concurrently there has been a mushrooming in the activities of sectarian militias associated with banned or proscribed militant Sunni organisations. Often these are old organisations with a new face. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ), through its public face the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), and other militant groups with the avowed aim of ethnically cleansing non-Sunni Muslims from Pakistan have in recent months staged several demonstrations in Balochistan, the largest in Quetta in March where speakers applauded scoring a 'century' when referring to the killing of over 100 Hazaras in two terrorist attacks. The radicalising trend has spawned a new group called the Islam Al-Quran, which has become a security threat to the education sector. Recent reports from the Makran areas of Turbat and Panjgur say that three weeks ago private schools received pamphlets telling them to stop co-education immediately or face violent consequences. Several private schools in the area have been attacked by ‘unknown persons’ since then. Several days ago a school van was intercepted by armed men in the Khudabadan area and after offloading the children and teachers, they set the van on fire, firing into the air all the while. Given the propensity to violence of these groups, the next attack may not be so ‘benevolent’. The process of extremist radicalisation has other by-products. Bringing sectarian terror to the fore diminishes and distracts from the Baloch insurgency, which is a nationalist movement without any religious overlay. When seen in this context and with the track record of the establishment in creating and propping up jihadi proxies, there is a possibility that increasing the foothold of radical groups is a move to marginalise the Baloch nationalists in the province’s narrative. Of course such a move is likely to backfire, with horrific consequences for the whole country. Radicalisation and using religious fundamentalists as proxies has netted this country a surplus of violence, bloodshed, and the destruction of vital infrastructure. Nothing is more vital than schools since this country’s human capital is its greatest resource. Education, particularly modern education that teaches the value of human rights and analytical thinking, is a threat to those who aim for total control of the population and its potential. Ultimately the goal is nothing less than the eradication of the ability to question and the complete servitude of the many to a powerful few. The Taliban and other extremist groups aim to be at the top of the pyramid, and their handlers hope to be there with them. Threatening to destroy incipient nationalism using religious radicalisation will end up creating an extremist religious narrative that will roll over obstacles in its path. We have seen this happen in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas. It must not be allowed to happen in the rest of Pakistan too.
Pakistan: Rs400,000, or hand over your son to the madrassa
It is one of the weirdest school enrolment drives ever: Surrender a son to the madrassa (religious seminary), or pay 400,000 rupees (US$4,000) instead. The militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas are openly coercing families to hand over their sons, or buy out their freedom. Only a few miles from Peshawar, posters have appeared on walls in the Bara district asking parents to enlist at least one son with a seminary affiliated with Ishat-o-Tauheed, a subsidiary of Lashkar-i-Islam (LI), an outlawed militant group headed by Mangal Bagh Afridi. The directives are clear. Only those enrolled in seminaries affiliated with LI will count. The militants perhaps are running short on beachheads or suicide bombers. The Taliban’s rank-and-file are made up of orphans or children abandoned by parents because of abject poverty. Militancy, devastating floods, and the earthquake in October 2005 forced the poor affected households to give up their children to religious seminaries.Some children were turned into religious mercenaries, who became fodder in the war on terrorism. As militants continue to fight against the State and amongst themselves, fresh blood is needed. Hence, the conscription. After decades of sustained neglect and fuelled by anger against the Nato intervention in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s tribal areas have become willing breeding grounds for religiously inspired orthodoxy and militancy. The rise of militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas is partially due to the State’s failure to extend the same privileges of citizenship that are enjoyed by others in settled parts of Pakistan. Political representation, franchise, and protection under the constitution are some examples of a discounted citizenship afforded to residents of tribal areas. An access to education, healthcare, and judicial redress have remained remote. The recent drive for conscription by the Mangal Bagh-led LI raises several concerns and questions. The brazen attempt to recruit in the name of madrassas suggest the absence of the State’s writ in the tribal areas. The presence of posters on walls in the Bara District confirms that the militants have a free hand in running their operations in the tribal areas. Knowing that poor households do not have access to $4,000, militants are certain to expand their ranks with young conscripts whose parents would have no other option, but to comply. Mangal Bagh’s ascent to leadership in just a few years’ time is a remarkable story. Most accounts of Mr. Bagh’s early life suggest that he was raised by his mother after his father passed away. There are no records of education for Mr. Bagh. His last known profession was that of a cleaning assistant for a truck. He had spent time fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He took over LI from its founder and through carefully crafted alliances over the years, Mr. Bagh now commands a force whose strength is disputed between 10,000 and 100,000. He settles disputes for people and collects taxes in areas under his control. In 2008, he collected an $11,000 fine for malpractice from Dr. Shakeel Afridi, the doctor who led the CIA to Osama Bin Laden. Mr. Bagh is schooled neither in religious text nor in humanities. His fluency with armory though enables him to recruit the young to madrassas from where they would likely graduate as militants. While many madrassas are directly involved in militancy, most are not. Most madrassas do impart religious knowledge to students. There are challenges even with those madrassas that do not condone violence. Their graduates are not ready to join the real world where a different set of skills and knowledge base is required. The oversupply of madrassa graduates is imposing huge burdens on Pakistan. While some madrassas have tried to modernise their curriculum, most are stuck in the curriculum devised centuries ago to meet the religious needs of South Asian Muslims. The madrassa-based messaging has played a huge role in radicalising the entire society. It is no longer the madrassa alumni who depict a fundamentally regressive world view. The entire society, with some exceptions, has embraced fundamentalist ideals. The goal should be to eradicate the fundamentalism that promotes militancy in Pakistan. The State should step up and prevent the LI from conscripting in the Bara district. The government must open schools and colleges to allow the next generation of tribal area children a decent chance at a decent living. Otherwise, the State should dispense with $4,000 per household to prevent children from being forced into militancy. A small price to secure an entire generation against violence.
Pakistan: 13.27m children to be vaccinated against measles in Sindh
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Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Sindh has finalised the arrangement for upcoming measles vaccination campaign being launched from May 19 to 30, 2014 in Sindh province.
A senior official of EPI said all necessary arrangements have been made for measles vaccination, which would be started from coming Monday.
Around 13,269,690 children under six-month to 10-year age group would be vaccinated against the measles in province. The EPI has decided to establish 1,599 permanent measles vaccination centres and arranged 98 mobile teams across the province for maximum coverage of children.
EPI is going to launch 11-day-long measles drive in 1120 union councils of province in comprehensive manner.They said provincial government had assured the foolproof security for measles vaccination teams and local police would also assist the teams during campaign. Acting Inspector General of Sindh police Ghulam Haider Jamali had already issued directions for making foolproof security arrangements across the province during the upcoming vaccination drive in Sindh.
Executive District Officer Health Karachi Dr Zafar Ejaz when contacted said approximately 4 million children would be administered measles vaccination in Karachi city. He said strategy of measles vaccination was different from polio campaign and all necessary arrangement has been finalised for upcoming drive.
Friday, May 16, 2014
#boycottPakistan: Blasphemy accused Ahmadi man gunned down in Punjab
A teenager walked into a police station on Friday and shot dead a 65-year-old man from a minority community accused of blasphemy in a Punjab village, their spokesman said, the second murder involving Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws in as many weeks.
Rights activists said the attack, and a spike in the number of blasphemy cases, was evidence of rising intolerance in the country.
Victim Khalil Ahmad and three other Ahmadis had asked a shopkeeper in their village Sharaqpur – about 55 km (33 miles) northwest of the Punjab capital, Lahore – earlier this week to remove inflammatory stickers denouncing their community, said Saleemud Din, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community.
In retaliation, the shopkeeper filed blasphemy charges against the four men on May 12. Ahmad, a father of four, was in police custody when the teenage boy walked in, asked to see him, and shot him dead, Din said.
He said police told him that the shooter, a high school student, had been arrested.
Din said the lapse in security would have to be investigated. Pakistani police are notoriously poorly trained and security is often lax, critics say.
“They told us the person who shot Mr. Khalil is just a boy,” Din told Reuters.
“The hate campaign carried out against us by the mullahs is going on and on and on.”
Ahmadis have been arrested in Pakistan for reading the Holy Quran, holding religious celebrations and having Quranic verses on rings or wedding cards. Four years ago, 86 Ahmadis were killed in two simultaneous attacks in Lahore.
The colonial-era law does not define blasphemy but says it is punishable by death. Anyone can file a blasphemy case claiming their religious feelings are injured for any reason.
The accused are often lynched, and lawyers and judges defending or acquitting them have been attacked. Rights groups say the laws are increasingly used to seize money or property.
Two politicians who suggested reforming the law were killed, one by his own bodyguard. Lawyers showered the killer with rose petals when he came to court.
The number of accusations is rising, according to a 2012 study by the Islamabad-based think tank, the Center for Research and Security Studies. In 2001, there was only one such complaint, but in 2011 there were 80.
No more recent figures are available but 2014 looks set to be a record.
Earlier this week, 68 lawyers were charged with blasphemy for using the name 'Umar' in protest slogans against a police official of the same name.
Last week a prominent human rights lawyer defending a Pakistani university professor accused of blasphemy was shot and killed after being threatened in court by other lawyers.
Advocate Rashid Rehman Khan had been representing the professor, who taught English and was accused by hardline student groups of making blasphemous remarks on his Facebook page in March 2013.
Turkey Kicking Them While They’re Down
Emma Sinclair-WebbBy Friday morning, the bodies of 284 miners had been recovered from the fire at the Soma mine in western Turkey, with the death toll likely to rise to over 300 in the coming days. Turkey is a world leader in mining fatalities, particularly in the coal sector, as research by the Turkish think-tank TEPAV shows, and this is the worst mining disaster in the country’s history. At a chaotic and heated press conference broadcast live on Turkish TV on Friday morning, the mine owner and managers stated there was an ongoing investigation into the cause of the deadly fire. While simultaneously insisting there was no negligence involved, they admitted that the mine currently lacked functioning emergency safe rooms where miners could seek shelter but that the regulations anyway did not require there to be. The government response has been in turns defensive and angry. While pledging a full investigation leaving no stone unturned, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Wednesday statement seemed to normalize the tragedy saying that mining accidents are “in the nature of the job” and offering a Wikipedia-style list of historical mining accidents reaching back to the mid-nineteenth century, as though admitting that labor conditions in Turkey in 2014 resemble Victorian Britain. The Prime Minister did not raise the need for due diligence by companies or pledge to strengthen inspection mechanisms. Nor did he commit to the government authorities taking every step to prevent such accidents in the workplace in the future and address Turkey’s very poor record, or explain why the MPs from the ruling party had blocked a call by opposition parties last month for an inquiry into safety at the Soma mine. Public anger about the deaths and the government’s botched response has spilled into protests throughout the country which again have been met with police dispersing demonstrators with water cannon and teargas, by Friday afternoon even in Soma. The ruling party’s spokesman Hüseyin Çelik seemed on Friday to defend Erdoğan’s aide Yusuf Yerkel, who was photographed kicking a protestor who had been tackled to the ground by police in Soma. Citizens have a right to demand accountable government and governments have a duty to enforce health and safety rights in the workplace and to hold private companies accountable for deaths arising from negligence - these are principles the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has yet to acknowledge in this tragedy. Instead, Turkey is a country where a government aide can kick a citizen while they’re down and remain in his job, and where a government spokesman directs his anger not at the mine owners, but at those who protest the mine deaths.
Opinion: Soma disaster threatens Turkey's fragile social contract
The Soma mining disaster is already the deadliest industrial catastrophe in Turkey's history. Yet Turks are unable to grieve for the appalling loss of human life. Utter shock and fury are the overriding public sentiments against the brazen lack of humility and sense of responsibility displayed by those in positions of power, both in the government and private sector.
But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's scandalous attempt to justify the death of more than 280 miners by pointing to mining disasters that occurred in France, Britain and the United States more than a century ago reveals more than the worldview of a ruthless politician with a skewed sense of chronology.
It also exposes Turkey for what it has become: a grim 21st-century Dickensian dystopia, where a new class of political and business elite grows rich and powerful on the back of cheap labor and expendable lives. The comparison with 19th century Europe is hardly superfluous: worker's rights have been systematically weakened and are routinely violated in Turkey since the 1980s, to the extent that the country was "blacklisted" by the International Labor Organisation (ILO) in 2008. Trade unions, once powerful and influential, have been emasculated and seen their ranks dwindle. Over a million subcontracted workers in the public and private sector are without job security, deprived of their right to join unions and participate in collective bargaining.Cheap labor and weak regulation make Turkey an attractive destination for industrial production and fuel the country's construction sector, which has been driving growth over the past decade. Yet they also come with a terrible price tag: the ILO ranked Turkey first in Europe and third in the world for fatal work accidents in 2012. Coal mining is among the deadliest of professions. According to a 2010 report by the Turkish think tank TEPAV, the ratio of deaths to production capacity in Turkey was five times the figure for China and 361 times the figure for the U.S., two of the world's leading coal producers. An overwhelming majority of the work related deaths are caused by poor working conditions, inadequate training and a general lack of job security, and are thus preventable. Erdogan seems to disagree. "Dying," he declared following an explosion that killed 30 workers at a Zonguldak mine in 2010, "is the fate of the miner." In Soma, he casually suggested that accidents were in the nature of this work; they were "usual things." As he spoke, his normally animated face remained calm and expressionless, devoid of any visible sign of remorse or empathy. He accepted no responsibility, including for his party's rejection of a parliamentary proposal by the opposition CHP only three weeks ago to investigate a string of past accidents and deaths at the very mining facility in Soma. It would appear that Erdogan views such "accidents" as unfortunate but unavoidable side effects of Turkey's rise as a regional power under his leadership. After all, no empire is built without the blood and sacrifice of the nation, whose "will" he claims to embody and grandeur he seeks to restore. As in Britain and France at the turn of the last century, tales of imperial glory constitute a central part of the ruling AKP's populist discourse. And in a country that is deeply divided along identity issues, especially along the secular versus religious fault line, such discourse has powerful appeal. But even Erdogan cannot sustain his tremendous popularity through nationalist propaganda and perpetuated feelings of social resentment, if he and his aides continue to dismiss the plight of "his people" and respond to their ultimate sacrifice with kicks and punches. In this regard, the Soma disaster may turn out to be a watershed moment. Numerous times in recent years, the government's security apparatus harassed those who were experiencing unspeakable agony for having lost loved ones, some at the state's own hands. The families of those killed in an airstrike near the Kurdish village of Roboski in December 2011, in the terror attack in Reyhanli in May 2013, or during the anti-government protests across the country since last June have been deprived of their right to grieve and forced into a continuous state shock and outrage. But these were mostly poor Kurds, Alevis or secular Turks, who are unlikely to support Erdogan's party. In Soma, on the other hand, the AKP is popular. It carried the town comfortably both in the general election in 2011 and the municipal election held in March this year. And it is here that the AKP's headquarters have been ransacked, and the prime minister hackled and called on to resign by furious residents. In Huxley's Brave New World, "soma" was the hallucinogenic substance used by the state to induce a feeling of contentment and happiness among citizens. It remains to be seen whether in Erdogan's Brave New Turkey, Soma will have the opposite effect.
Crimean Tatars should not be small coin in disputes between Russia and Ukraine — Putin
The Russian president pledged Russia would do everything to make Crimean Tatars feel full-fledged owners of their landRussian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that it was wrong to turn Crimean Tatars into a small coin in settling disputes between Russia and Ukraine. “Under no circumstances can we allow that Crimean Tatars become a small coin in disputes, especially in inter-state disputes such like the one between Russia and Ukraine,” Putin said at a meeting with representatives of the Crimean Tatars.
“I should call your attention to one thing. We, including the federal authorities, regional and local power bodies, are ready to work with all people who genuinely, I would like to note that specially, want to improve the life of people on their land,” Putin said at a meeting with representatives of Crimean Tatars.
“Nevertheless, under no circumstances can we allow that Crimean Tatars become a small coin in disputes, especially in inter-state disputes such as the one between Russia and Ukraine,” Putin stressed.
The Russian head of state stressed it was impossible to drag Crimean Tatars who had suffered immensely in previous decades in any new disputes. He called on all forces who were trying to use the Crimean Tatar factor to their advantage that the interest of Crimean Tatars was now closely linked to Russia.
“It is impossible to use the Crimean Tatar factor to defend the interests of other, third, countries,” the president emphasized, saying that would do nothing but harm to Crimean Tatars.
Putin pledged Russia would do everything to make Crimean Tatars feel full-fledged owners of their land.
“Naturally, we will be unable to do that effectively without Crimean Tatars and the people who really want to develop these territories. We will also need the support of people who live there,” Putin explained.
“This, in fact, concerns representatives of all other ethnic groups residing in Crimea, including ethnic Russians, Ukrainians and other repressed peoples: Greeks, Bulgarians and Germans,” Putin said.
'Person's ethnic identity is no problem for career in Russia'
At the meeting with Crimean Tatars on Friday, Putin said that the individual's ethnic identity is usually not a problem for building a successful career in Russia, on the whole.
“Russia is a large country and there are lots of opportunities for high-qualified specialists here,” Putin said in response to a complaint from a participant in the meeting that in the Soviet Union it was hard for Crimean Tatars even for those who had graduated from the schools of higher learning to find a job.
“And, take my word for it, here in Russia on the whole - because I don’t know how the things stood in Crimea before [when it was part of Ukraine] - so here in Russia nobody pays any attention to a former entry in a passport, which said 'nationality',” he said.
Scotland will not be guided by London on independence issue – Scottish MP
The people of Scotland will not be "lectured" on the Scottish independence issue, Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament Angus Robertson has told RIA Novosti.
"To be lectured by them about timetables and for democratic processes is something that could only happen in Westminster,” Robertson said.
Scottish MPs should be barred from having any say on the UK's negotiations on a deal to set up an independent Scotland if there is a yes vote in the referendum, an influential Lords committee has stated.
The House of Lords constitution committee said Scotland's 59 MPs should be strictly limited to dealing with constituency issues and Scottish affairs immediately after a yes vote and then quit Westminster on the day Scotland declares independence.
But the committee, chaired by the former Labour minister Lady Jay, said that Scottish members of the Lords should still be allowed to sit in the upper chamber if they continued to pay UK taxes after independence, a recommendation denounced by the Scottish National party.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron is heading to Scotland for a two-day visit as polls show a steady rise in numbers supporting Scottish independence. The trip comes as Cameron and his colleagues are unhappy with the anti-independence campaign. The Prime Minister will campaign for a "No" vote in September's referendum, when Scots will be asked whether they to remain in the UK.
The "Better Together" campaign is being led by Labour MP Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor. But the Prime Minister is unhappy with his performance as he understands that nothing can stop the Scots from supporting their independence.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_16/Scotland-will-not-be-guided-by-London-on-independence-issue-Scottish-MP-0120/
UN Report on Ukraine Attempts to Justify Punitive Op on Protesters – Russian Foreign Ministry
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday that the authors of a United Nations report on Ukraine attempting to justify the punitive operation in the country were carrying out a political to “whitewash” the self-proclaimed authorities in Kiev.
“We are obliged to state that the report has little to do with the overall real situation in Human rights field in Ukraine. The total absence of objectivity, the flagrant irregularities and the ‘double standards’ leave no doubt that the authors have carried out a political order on ‘whitewashing’ the self-declared authorities in Kiev,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Friday.
“It is deeply regrettable that the report actually justifies the criminal punitive operation in Southeastern Ukraine, and is silent on the victims among civilians, attempting to place the responsibility for human rights violation on the ‘pro-Russian forces,’” Lukashevich added.
The report by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights commenting on the situation in Crimea was a step back from the United Nations charter endorsing the principles of impartiality and neutrality, Lukashevich said.
“Declaring that the referendum in Crimea was illegal immediately after Kiev and their Western protectors, the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights endorses that fact that they do recognize the embodied in the international pacts on human rights, the right of people to self-determination, only if it is dictated by political conjunctures,” he said.
The new report by the UN monitoring team in Ukraine was released in Kiev and Geneva on Friday. The research covers the period from April 2 to May 6.
The 34-pages report shows the growing tendency of “violent confrontations” in the country, the official statement said.
The problem has been especially marked in and around the town of Slaviansk, in the Donetsk region, according to the report.
The UN notes that “in most cases, local police did nothing to prevent violence, while in some cases it openly cooperated with the attackers.”
However, the monitoring mission also noted the Ukrainian army had also been accused of murder and other crimes.
“Security and law enforcement operations must be in line with international standards and guarantee the protection of all individuals at all times,” the report said.
Following a regime change in late February, the citizens of the predominantly Russian-speaking southeastern regions of Ukraine refused to recognize the legitimacy of the country’s interim government and called for federalization and referendums on greater autonomy, with rallies sweeping through the region.
Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov launched a special operation last month to crack down on pro-federalization protests.
Russia has called the Western-backed military operation against the protesters a “punitive act,” and accused Ukraine’s authorities of waging a war against their own people.
Afghan Contenders Accept Results and Move On
Before the results were announced, Mr. Abdullah had complained about last-minute changes in election rules, improper counting and other aberrations. But on Thursday he chose to take the high road, sounding an almost triumphal note. “Anyway, the story is over — the others are 14 percent or 13.5 percent behind,” Mr. Abdullah said, referring to Mr. Ghani. He added that, with support in the runoff from several candidates who had smaller showings, he expected to win the next round easily.
Mr. Ghani, on the other hand, criticized the complaint commission and said it should have discarded closer to 800,000 votes. He sought to rally his own supporters and those of Mr. Rassoul, saying, “Together, the victory is ours.”
Though Mr. Rassoul threw his personal support to Mr. Abdullah for the runoff, many of his backers did not follow suit. It is difficult to forecast how the runoff will turn out, despite Mr. Abdullah’s substantial lead in the first round. Ethnic fault lines may play a bigger role in the second round than they did in the first. In particular, Pashtuns, the largest group in the country, see themselves as underrepresented in Kabul, and Mr. Ghani, who is a Pashtun, may be able to tap into that resentment and win votes that were cast for others in the first round. Mr. Abdullah is half Pashtun and half Tajik, but is heavily identified with the Tajik ethnic group. Whoever wins the runoff had better do so by a wide margin, said a former adviser to one of the campaigns, who asked not to be identified because of sensitive negotiations among candidates. “There has to be a mega-gap between the winner and the loser for the winner to have a mandate, and for the loser not to turn into a sore loser and create a crisis,” the former adviser said. “If it ends up being 52-48 or 50-48, then that’s not accepted. Three percent is a margin of error in this country.”
India election results 2014: How will the country change under Narendra Modi?
www.independent.co.ukModi campaigned on a platform of development and growth. He promised to offer a “red carpet” for investors and not more red tape. Large parts of the corporate world, both domestic and international, have supported his rise. Economist Vivek Dehejia said there were several things Mr Modi could do quickly, such as change labour laws which businesses complain are overly restrictive. He could also offer a clearer taxation policy; large numbers of foreign companies were stunned by an attempt in 2012 by the Congress party to retroactively tax the British company Vodaphone for a 2007 deal. One controversial issue will be Foreign Direct Investment. The BJP has said it will welcome FDI in all areas which create jobs, but not in multi-brand retail, which includes supermarkets, because it does not want to upset the large numbers of small shopkeepers that make up much of its support. Yet Mr Modi has indicated this could change. The retail business in India is expected to grow to $750-850bn by 2015 from the current $518bn. Organised retail accounts for just eight per cent of this. The government has so far given permission to the UK retailer Tesco, the only applicant in the multi-brand retail sector, to purchase 50 per cent stake in Tata group’s Trent Hypermarket Ltd. India allowed 51 per cent foreign ownership in supermarket chains in September 2012. “He will leave the multi-brand issue alone for a while. There is little profit for him in pushing it,” said Mr Dehejia, co-author of Indianomix: Making Sense of Modern India. Cultural There is a clear cultural element contained within Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist party’s plans. Under the last BJP government, school text books were changed to reflect a certain view of history and that is likely to happen again. The manifesto also promises to build a temple in dedication to Hindu deity Lord Ram at a disputed site in Uttar Pradesh, that was once the location of a mosque. The mosque was pulled down in 1992 leading to widespread clashes between Hindus and Muslims. The BJP has also vowed to introduce a “Uniform Civil Code” that would end the use of traditional laws by religious communities. It also plans to scrap so-called Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to Kashmir. The RSS, a Hindu nationalist organisation of which Mr Modi was once a member, is likely to have considerable influence on the BJP government. Siddharth Varadarajan, a journalist and broadcaster, said he expected Mr Modi would avoid making controversial comments or remarks on these issues himself. “He has other people in the food chain to do that,” he said. Foreign policy Most believe Mr Modi feels much easier looking eastwards, to Asian nations such as Japan, Singapore and Indonesia, than he does towards the West. It may be one of these countries that Mr Modi chooses for his first overseas visit as PM. The US famously refused him a visa in 2005, something that still hugely rankled with both him and his supporters, and while the US has since sought to engage with Mr Modi the visa issue remains unclear. Milan Vaishnav of the Carnegie Endowment in Washington believes that in economic terms, India and the US could help each other and that bringing in investment would support Mr Modi’s campaign vow. Yet he said that India’s strategic relationship with the US would be more problematic He said he believed Mr Modi will attend the UN General Assembly in New York in September. “What I don’t think has been decided yet by the US is whether or not to invite him to DC for a meeting with Obama in the Oval office,” he said. Relationship with Pakistan Mr Modi and advisors have talked about getting tough with Pakistan and have criticised the way they claim Manmohan Singh failed to respond to repeated border provocations and the killing of Indian troops. But another theory is that Mr Modi, as a conservative, may have more chance of brokering a breakthrough with his counterpart in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif. Analysts point out that in 1999, it was the BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee, who reached out to Pakistan – then also led by Mr Sharif – by taking a bus to Lahore and trying to strike a deal. “If a deal is to be done, there has to be a BJP government this side and a right-wing government that side,” said Vikram Sood, an analyst and former senior official with India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing Britain and India In the aftermath of the 2002 killings of Muslims in Gujarat, Britain and much of the west enacted a de facto boycott of Mr Modi. That ended in October 2012 when the UK saw Mr Modi’s rise. There had been widespread lobbying from Britain’s Gujarati population to end it. British diplomats say UK businesses could benefit from a quicker decision-making process and less red tape that Mr Modi has promised to introduce. “Britain is desperate for increased access to India’s markets, demonstrated by the visits of David Cameron to India. Britain needs India more than India needs Britain in this regard,” said Professor Katharine Adeney of the University of Nottingham. “While there are many who question Modi’s human rights record, and fear for the minorities in India under his watch, pragmatism will prevail over principle.” Communal relations Mr Modi has never escaped the accusations levelled at him over the 2002 killings in Gujarat but his supporters point out there have been no communal clashes there since. During the campaign he largely stressed development and growth and said all communities would benefit form them. However, a number of his senior colleagues made communal comments and were accused of fomenting tension. Many Muslims clearly distrust Mr Modi, who has never apologised for what happened on his watch or made any effort to engage the Muslims. In Gujarat today, Hindu and Muslim communities are largely polarised – politically, geographically and socially. The BJP selected barely any Muslims candidates for the campaign. Yet while some Muslims will remain anxious, most observers believe Mr Modi will work to ensure there are no clashes. “It would be counterproductive to Modi to let it happen,” said journalist and writer Hartosh Bal Singh.
Pakistan: Father of Christian Rape Victim Demands for Justice and Security
A Father of Christian girl blamed the police for mistreating and mishandling the rape case of his immature daughter and defending the accused. Furthermore, he complained that he was being warned that he would be involved in a blasphemy case if he does not stop pursuing the justice.
Talking to a local newspaper, Sarfraz Andrew, father of a victim, Sheikhupra, told that his daughter, Maria, was kidnapped by unknown people when she was going to school on April 24. He further said that the 14-year-old was recovered from Multan after three days.
He added that his daughter testified in a court that two local people named Safdar and Mehboob had raped her. In addition, he told that the medical checkup also proclaimed that she had been raped during three days.
He said that the accused and a local powerful named Riaz Dogar had threatened him (Andrew) of terrible consequences in case he does not stop following the case. He added that the accused wanted to convert his immature daughter to Islam which is not only against the law of the land but was also against his religious beliefs. He said that the accused were also compelling him into making a patch up.
Moreover, the pursuer appealed to the chief minister and police high-ups to provide protection and justice to his family calling it a most atrocious case of religious discrimination.
420,000 Pakistanis develop tuberculosis each year
www.dailytimes.comAround 420,000 people develop active tuberculosis each year in the country with 65% case detection rate.According to reports, the remaining 35% of tuberculosis patients which is around 147,000 develop the diseases but do not participate in the screening programme. It said that 35% patients remain undiagnosed and unmanaged in the country, while tuberculosis is endemic and is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality. Pakistan ranks fifth among the 22 high TB burden countries in world that share 81% of the global TB burden. The international research shows that the TB patients if remained untreated and unmanaged, two thirds of them would die within two to three years of disease onset. Similarly, such patients who remain untreated transfer disease to 10 individuals in a year.A public heath expert, Sobia Faisal, said that the delay in diagnosis of tuberculosis after the onset of related signs and symptoms, and inappropriate treatment result in mortality and longtime morbidity. She said that the non-participation as well as the delayed participation of TB suspects in tuberculosis control programme is a daunting challenge for the health authorities concerned. She added that these unmanaged TB cases cause spread of disease in community and also introduce much dangerous form of disease which is drug resistance TB.In Pakistan, the National TB Control Programme is implementing the WHO’s recommended DOTS strategy where diagnostic and treatment services including free medicines are given to all TB patients free of cost at government health facilities, she said. She said that some of the highly committed general practitioners all over country in collaboration with the TB control programme are giving free medication to the patients. Sobia said that TB is treatable disease, and the person who develops this would be 100 percent perfect and back to normal if he or she would takes proper medication. She said that the patient must visit doctor as soon as possible having signs and symptoms, including cough that would not go away for more than two weeks, feeling tired all the time, weight loss, loss of appetite, low grade fever, coughing up blood, and night sweats. She said that these symptoms can also occur with other types of lung disease so it is important to see a doctor and to let the doctor determine if the disease is present or not. She said that the patient is usually given a combination of several drugs for a specific period of time which depends on the type of TB and its resistance to drugs.The patient would probably begin to feel better only a few weeks after starting to take the drugs. It is very important, however, that the patient continues to take the medicine correctly for the advised full length treatment. Medical expert, Wasim Khawaja, from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) said if the medicine is taken incorrectly or stopped, the patient may become sick again. He said that the multi-drug resistant TB is very dangerous, so patients should be sure that they take all of the medicine correctly. He said that some minor side effects of treatment such as reddish colour urine, nausea, abdominal pain, and itching of skin are very common and should not be worrisome.Wasim said that regular checkups are needed to see how treatment is progressing. He said that it is important for the people who are undergoing preventive therapy and people being treated for the disease to immediately let a doctor know if they begin having any unusual symptoms. If a family member has TB, other people living in the same house must have their sputum test for diagnosis of TB as it spreads through respiration, coughing, sneezing, he added.
Lahore: Noor Jehan's daughter Zile Huma passes away
http://dunyanews.tv/Zile Huma, a well known singer and youngest daughter of Madam Noor Jehan passed away in Lahore today. According to details, the singer died in a private hospital on Friday morning. Few days back, she was admitted in ICU in critical condition due to diabetes and kidney failure. The doctors said that her leg was also amputated during her treatment. Zile Huma was born in Lahore on February 21, 1944. She was the youngest of the three children of Noor Jehan and Shaukat Husaain Rizvi. The late singer was married to a jeweler Aqeel Butt. The couple had three sons and a daughter. In 1990s, Zile Huma started her music career. She got formal education in music from Ghulam Muhmmad. During her music career, she also released an album to pay tribute to her late mother.
Asif Zardari offers condolences over Turkish mine accident
http://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/Former President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed profound grief and shock over the tragic mine accident Tuesday in western Turkey resulting in the death of more than two hundred people. On behalf of the Pakistan People’s Party and on my own behalf I wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to and stand in solidarity with our Turkish brethren in this hour of trial and grief, he said in a statement today. The former President also offered heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for the early and safe recovery of those still trapped in the mine.
Pakistan's Polio: A grim story
Pakistan: Blast in Bannu leaves 4 police officials including ASI injured
http://tribune.com.pk/
A blast targeting a police mobile injured four police officials including an assistant-sub inspector (ASI) near Mandan Chowk in Bannu, Express News reported on Friday. According to police, the bomb was planted in a motorcycle. Six other people were also injured in the explosion. The injured including the ASI, identified as Amin, were taken to a local hospital for medical assistance.
Pakistan: Of Ahmedis, sects and blasphemy
Gulmina Bilal Ahmad
When university educated Pakistanis who are social media savvy have this need to kill in order to homogenise and fit everyone into their personally preferred lifestyle, religion or sect, it is no wonder we are where we areUnderstanding has its own benefits and gratification. For years, in various newspaper columns and increasingly lately on blogs and social media, I have expressed my inability to understand the seemingly irrational and barbaric actions of fellow citizens. This inability to understand extends to the actions of the government too. Not to pinpoint any government but a cursory glance at our history would show that there is very little governance and a lot of institutionalised discrimination spearheaded by each successive government. I could start off a list of institutionalised discriminations here through history but former Supreme Court Bar President Mr Hamid Khan has detailed them in his book, The Constitutional History of Pakistan. However, even after laboriously reading through the book, I could not address the nagging question: why? Why are we barbaric? I found the answer this week and in the most unlikely places — at the University of Sargodha. The University of Sargodha has a Facebook page, which, in my case, served to be quite enlightening. The official post was that Ahmedis are non-Muslims and, therefore, need to be killed. It further went on to elaborate that this pure and holy country, Pakistan, needs to be purged of them. Although not one to put much stock in Facebook posts and ‘likes’ as people even like status updates such as “My father died this morning”, it bears considering that the post received quite a few comments. All of the comments that I have seen agreed with the original post of killing all Ahmedis plus added their own rhetoric to it. All accept one young man who pleaded not to spread hatred, but he was largely ignored. After the killing of Rashid Rehman, I think that being ignored is the best thing that can happen to this young dissenting voice. Going through all the comments, given what has been recently described as my “pseudo-liberal mindset”, was certainly not pleasant. However, it was enlightening. I now know the reason for our societal and institutionalised barbarism. When university educated Pakistanis who are social media savvy have this need to kill in order to homogenise and fit everyone into their personally preferred lifestyle, religion or sect, it is no wonder we are where we are. In fact, it would be surprising if we become tolerant, diverse and pluralistic. This week, having gained this enlightenment, I no longer shook my head while reading the morning papers. In Gujrat, a young man confessed to killing homosexuals as “he abhorred this practice”. Therefore, he played God and, after having sex with the men, he killed them. He did not mention whether or not he was inspired by yet another man-God who used to kill homosexuals in Lahore but apparently it is catching on. I certainly disagree with this man-God but I do not ask why he was compelled to do it. The society around him and certainly his education have taught him that there is virtue in this. Prof K K Aziz, Dr Rubina Saigol, Professor Dr A H Nayyar and Mr Ahmed Salim have, in their respective researches, documented the hate speech that is prevalent in our school curriculum. In school whatever is taught as an interject to the child is internalised and that is why it is important that the curriculum should reflect pluralism. However, I would like to argue that in university a young person has the mental capacity to critique and question. To blindly accept societal interjects around you while at that age and educational level is baffling. There I express astonishment again but then I remind myself that we live in a country where, on the floor of the provincial assembly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for primary and secondary education, Mr Atif Khan, declares that the government is trying to adjust teachers from different religious sects to their respective areas in Hangu district due to threats posed to their lives. He said teachers of one sect were facing problems in going to areas of the other sect. So now we have a ‘naya’ (new) Pakistan that will be neatly divided into homogenous blocks and never the twain shall meet. More proof of my new found ‘enlightenment’ is my complete understanding of what last week would have had me baffled. There was a tiff between the police and the lawyers in Jhang. The police official who the lawyers were protesting against is named Umar Daraz. While the lawyers were raising slogans against this Station House Officer (SHO), complainant Arshad Mehmood moved an application in the police station alleging that his religious feelings were offended because the lawyers used the name ‘Umar’ in their protest, and lodged charges. The concerned senior police official issued a statement to the press that a blasphemy case against eight protesting lawyers and their 50 companions had been registered as “they were shouting slogans derogatory to a Caliph of Islam and a companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)”. The lawyers, in their defence, argue that they were referring to the SHO. If we follow the fate of blasphemy cases and the accused in them, the eight lawyers and their 50 protesting companions should be very concerned now. Oh, what a web of venom we weave, when first we practice hatred.
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