With less than a month left till the Independence Day celebrations and the Azadi March to be held in the same place, Nawaz Sharif has dubbed protest politics an archaic political tactic, and claims that his government cannot be destabilized by protests held by the minority. But with this statement the Prime Minister reveals his ignorance of the democratic process. It is not something that reveals itself once every four years, after which the people must sit silently and wait for the next term before they can make themselves heard. It is in fact, this constant holding to account that is the hallmark of a democratic style of governance. It is the constant influence of the people on political decisions, and having the right to question and express one’s displeasure against the government.
Has the PML-N government managed to uphold its responsibility to its voters in the past year to any degree? The energy crisis still looks to be as unsolvable as when the PML-N came into power. On matters of security, the army’s operation in North Waziristan is apparently going well, although no independent reports exist to confirm this. Added to this, the government’s failure to treat the PTI with due dignity, has exacerbated the issue of rigging- now with the likes of notorious former President Asif Zardari joining the chorus and likening the Premier to a monarch.
Which brings us to protests and the PTI’s Azadi March. What was to be a march to make the government start the recounting of votes in four disputed constituencies has now evolved to a complete audit of the general elections of May 2013. The Prime Minister must realise that no matter what the demand, if the third largest political force in the country is pushing for it, then it requires proper addressing. Protest politics is just the new word for exercising a democratic right. As far as the need for a transparent system goes, the country recognises it is there, but as far as the timing is concerned, the PTI has ill-timed its movement. For one, Imran Khan must look towards what should be his immediate priority- hundreds of thousands of IDPs- sitting in his province. This is his opportunity to prove his leadership, and many look on with knowing cynicism, as he pursues the Azadi March on the capital. Whether he is power-hungry or the great electoral reformer this country needs is irrelevant. How he is perceived now, is most important. And right now, amidst the political instability, the war and humanitarian crisis before the nation, he isn’t the saviour; not even relatively speaking.
Awami National Party (ANP) senior leader and former federal minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour on Tuesday termed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protest against loadshedding as a political gimmick.
Speaking at a press conference, he said Imran Khan was misleading the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by staging the protest in Peshawar. “The PTI should stage the protest against the blackouts at an appropriate place like Islamabad or Lahore,” he added.
Flanked by ANP Peshawar district president Malik Ghulam Mustafa, general secretary Sartaj Khan and deputy general secretary Sabz Ali, the nationalists leader said the nation would not support the PTI if Imran Khan tried to derail the democratic dispensation in the country by unconstitutional means. “Imran Khan is trying to become a prime minister despite the fact that he had failed to run the affairs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he added. Ghulam Bilour said inflation had increased by 50 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the government had failed to control crimes, act of extortions and kidnapping for ransom.
“The party has failed to bring about the change it had promised with the people of the province,” he added.He said the province was producing 4500 megawatt of electricity against its total consumption of 2200 megawatt but was denied its due right.
Ghulam Bilour said the federal and provincial governments’ response to the influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) was not encouraging. “The IDPs are facing host of hardships in the Ramazan and in the sizzling summer heat due to the indifferent attitude of the governments,” he added. He said the ANP condemned the killing of the innocent Palestinians at the hands of Israel which was carrying out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip unabated.
Regarding the Pakistan People’s Party deal with general (R) Pervez Musharraf, Bilour said that it was the internal matter of the PPP, adding the ANP didn’t make any deal with anyone. He said the ANP supported the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance as it was the need of the hour.
Minister of Water and Power Khawaja Asif, in a press conference, apologised to the nation for failing to ensure supply of electricity during sehri, iftaar and taraveeh, as directed by the Prime Minister, and explained why the government was forced to resort to unannounced power outages.
The reasons behind the energy shortfall have largely remained the same as were evident during the PPP-led coalition government and include: (i) a transmission system that is unable to accommodate more than 15000 MW and any additional supply leads to tripping; (ii) a massive inter-circular debt, which currently stands at 300 billion rupees. This is despite the fact that Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar cleared around 400 billion rupees on 29th June, 2013 - a day prior to the end of fiscal year 2012-13 (which increased our indebtedness without reducing loadshedding) as well as the proactive implementation of the Ministry's policy to disable supply to areas where pending bills are in excess of 80 percent of total receivables; (iii) inability to compel provincial governments to pay their dues continues; and (iv) the loss of 1500 MW from the system, the word used by the Minister was "disappeared" because of fault in two transformers in Lahore causing a drop in total generation to 13000 MW.
The supply side issues are compounded by rising annual demand, around 800 MW each year, and a marked escalation during the summer months. At present Minister Asif stated demand has escalated to between 19,000 to 20,000 MW, which several independent analysts maintain is understated with actual demand hovering around 22,000 MW to 23,000 MW. Within the context of supply and demand, he stated that the country should pray for rains that would relieve demand immediately enabling the government to reduce the existing 7000 MW shortfall thereby reducing loadshedding hours which, at present, have risen to 14 hours a day in Lahore - the stronghold of the PML-N.
Critics of the government argue that within one year the government should have shown some results. In its defence the PML-N points out to several ongoing energy projects as proof that the government is engaged in raising generation capacity and cited Nandipur as well as Guddu power plant inaugurations of the Prime Minister amidst much fanfare as proof that generation has increased. A little more than a year later Nandipur remains non-operational as it is furnace-based and the cost to produce simply too high (22 rupees per unit) to justify its operation while Guddu continues to suffer from technical faults. Not one MW of electricity has been added to the system the country has now been informed and all the threats and bravado of the Minister of State Abid Sher Ali has not reduced payables of the sector.
The question is could the government have done different and better? One would have to respond in the affirmative because a look at the PML-N's own manifesto reveals that identified reforms have not yet been implemented. Granted that privatisation of discos and gencos is in the works and the process is scheduled to commence soon but the government has to accept the fact that after the end of its first year supply-demand gap is higher than during the PPP government's last year in power - a year may not be a long time in terms of developing and implementing infrastructure projects but the government needs to explain why it has performed so poorly.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, who is currently on a visit to the United States, has demanded judicial probe into fresh allegations levelled by PTI Chief Imran Khan on Tuesday of tampering with results of various constituencies by a team at the Information Technology University.
According to a statement issued by the PPP provincial secretariat here on Wednesday, Wattoo expressed these views while talking to party leaders and workers in New York. PPP Lahore leader Misbahur Rehamn was also present there.
Wattoo said that the government should have readily accepted demands of the PTI regarding thumbprints verification in four constituencies of Lahore, adding their foot dragging had created much political tension in the country when it was fighting the war of its survival.
The PPP Punjab president expressed his disapproval over delaying tactics of the PML-N government regarding thumbprints verification on one pretext or the other, thus giving credence to the impression that they had some skeletons in their cupboards, which they were hiding.
He also supported PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s statement as compatible to the aspirations of people in which the former president had demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to conduct himself like an elected prime minister and not like a monarch, who acted on his whims without any regard to the problems of the people.
Wattoo regretted that the mandarins had learnt no lesson from the history and that their personal style of governance confined within the family clan was grossly incongruous to the democratic ethos because collective wisdom was its essence.
Describing the PML-N government’s rule as anti-people, he added that the PPP, being the party of the poor, could not afford to align itself with those, who were pursuing policies against the masses. He said that electricity outages cobbled with skyrocketing inflation, worsening law and order, poverty and lack of health and education facilities had made the lives of the people miserable.
In particular, he said, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was showcasing his performance through aggressive advertisements campaigns on taxpayers’ money but the ground realities were quite opposite. Shahbaz Sharif’s personal and unsubstantiated self-projection was being taken as insult to their injury, he opined.
The former Punjab chief minister reiterated that for the PPP, democracy was non- negotiable because it stood for the people’s politics and said that any entity that distanced itself from serving the people, would not find the PPP as its supporter and would lose its sympathy eventually.
Akbar Jan Marwat
With financial support from both the US and Saudi Arabia, religious desperados of all hues were recruited to come to Pakistan from all over the world to take part in the Afghan jihad
Today, religious extremism, in its various forms and manifestations, is the biggest threat faced by Pakistan. These forms of religious extremism range from the right-wing views of a great majority of our citizens to the outright militant movement of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who declare their avowed goal to be the overthrow of, what is in their opinion, the ‘un-Islamic’ government of Pakistan. Many of our religious and rightist political parties, and their followers, may disagree with their violent means but are generally sympathetic to the cause of these militant Islamists.
Due to the overt religious policies and propaganda of successive regimes, Pakistan over the years has become a reactionary and intolerant place. This was not always the case. In its earlier years, Pakistan was more liberal and pluralistic, where members of other faiths and minority groups were tolerated. In today’s Pakistan, when most people are riding high on a crest of false religiosity, such tolerance is rare. To fully comprehend the phenomenon of religious extremism, it would be helpful to briefly delve into the history of the Pakistan Movement, and the political and religious orientations of our various governments and state institutions.
Intellectual confusion has been pervasive in our society ever since the conception of Pakistan. Liberal leaders like Jinnah had to use the religious card to get the overwhelming support of Muslims, required for the creation of the new state. This was, however, to be a temporary phase. In view of Jinnah and his associates, a Muslim welfare state, and not an Islamic theocratic state considering itself responsible for the woes of the entire Muslim ummah (community), was the goal. It was only after Jinnah’s death that the narrative of the Islamic state gained ascendency through an alliance between the military, mullahs, right-wing politicians and pro-establishment bureaucrats.
The Objectives Resolution of 1949, for the first time, clearly highlighted the Islamic character of the Pakistani state. This resolution was passed against the opposition of the minority members in the Legislative Assembly at that time. Religious parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which initially opposed the creation of Pakistan, became very close to the army and played an important role in dictating the Islamic agenda. The Jamaat spearheaded the anti-Ahmedi riots of the 1950s and the creation of al Shams and al Badr for the persecution of Bengalis in East Pakistan in 1971. The JI was an important partner of the Zia regime in its initial years also.
These retrogressive religious forces, to make certain decisions thought to be in conformity with Islam, forced even a secular and pro-socialist leader like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to do their bidding. The declaration of Ahmedis as non-Muslims was the most important of these decisions. Pakistan thus became the first and perhaps the only country in the world to declare Ahmedis non-Muslims.
The self-serving and opportunistic Islamic policies of General Zia gave a further nod to overt religiosity, leading to religious extremism. On the external front, Zia shortsightedly involved Pakistan neck deep in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet invasion. Pakistan became a refuge for over three million Afghan refugees. Various Afghan jihadi outfits established their headquarters and training camps in Pakistan. With financial support from both the US and Saudi Arabia, religious desperados of all hues were recruited to come to Pakistan from all over the world to take part in the Afghan jihad. The Arab and Islamic fighters brought their Wahabi and Takfiri ideologies with them, which are haunting Pakistan to this day. Many militant and sectarian organisations like the Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were created with the active support of our government and military intelligence agencies. All these measures led to the religious radicalisation of Pakistani society.
The erroneous concept of ‘strategic depth’ prompted our defence establishment to help and nurture the Afghan Taliban in order to have a friendly government in Kabul. A jihadi culture was thus established in Pakistan from where militants went to fight not only in Afghanistan but Kashmir as well. The saddest part of all this was the total oblivion of our governments and defence establishment to the pernicious long-term effects of this jihadi enterprise, carried out right under the nose of our authorities.
Saudi Arabia has no doubt been a good friend to Pakistan in its time of need but it has played a very dangerous role in radicalising our society and in financing Wahabi and Deobandi projects. Saudi largess was lavishly used to set up rabidly anti-Shia militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which have been involved in a full-scale genocide of Shias.
Our army and its intelligence agencies were involved in setting up an alliance of right-wing parties — the IJI, against a more secular PPP. The right-wing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) it seems also has a share of its sympathisers in the defence establishment of Pakistan.
The turning point for Pakistan came after 9/11 when Musharraf, under US pressure, had to take a U-turn against the Afghan Taliban. Many of the Afghan Taliban, along with their al Qaeda supporters, took refuge in the Pakistani tribal areas. Very soon after, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was born, turning their guns towards the state of Pakistan. An existential threat to Pakistan from this religious militancy was thus created. The existence of our state, as well as our way of life, came under threat. Our successive governments and even our army did not respond to this threat as earnestly as was required because of the influence of right-wing religious and political forces. Pakistan suffered tremendous human and financial losses due to this delay in a decisive action against the militants.
Even in the present North Waziristan operation it seems the army forced the hand of the PML-N government to agree to a full-fledged operation rather than wasting more time. Many religious parties like the JI and JUI-F are still against the operation. The PTI has very reluctantly and perhaps insincerely supported the operation. The deliberate overplay of the religious card by various governments and state institutions has led our society to become reactionary and intolerant. In the absence of any counter-narrative by our governments, the retrogressive jihadi narrative preached by religious parties and militant outfits holds the field in Pakistan.
In my opinion, we need to go back to the narrative of a modern Muslim nation state. It will not be easy as the theocratic forces are so well entrenched. The combination of jihadi culture and weak state institutions has led to stiff resistance towards modernisation in education and outlook, so essential for survival and progress of a society as complex as ours.
An armed clash between security forces and suspected militants during a search operation early Thursday in a compound situated in Lahore’s Raiwind Road area killed seven suspected militants while one elite force man was also killed and five others had been injured, Punjab Minister for Anti-Terrorism Col. (retd) Shuja Khanzada said.
Speaking to media representatives, Khanzada said that the exact figure of militants present the area could not be established and several of them appeared to have fled.
He said security forces wanted to apprehend the militants alive, adding that terrorism could not be eliminated in a single day.
The clash began when security forces, acting on a tip off, conducted a search operation in Araiyan Pind near Raiwind Road.
According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Investigation Nawaz Marwat, the operation started at 2am during which security forces surrounded the compound where suspected militants were present.
An intense clash erupted between security forces and militants who used heavy arms and ammunition against the forces’ personnel, Marwat said.
Also during the operation, at least eight explosions were reportedly heard while recurrent bouts of firing continued between militants and security forces.
Police sources have claimed that at least seven militants hiding in the compound had been killed during the operation which is still ongoing.
A fresh contingent of elite force personnel has also been called in to manage the situation as the area has still not been declared clear.
The Express Tribune News
Breaking barriers placed outside the Wapda House in Peshawar, angry demonstrators broke into the building during a protest organised by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government against load-shedding in the city.
The protest was led by K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and most of the demonstrators were workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). A few members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) also took part in the demonstration.
Khattak says federal govt doesn’t deserve to... by ExpressNewsHD
The K-P chief minister said that the province is getting only 1,300 megawatts (MW) instead of 2,000 MW.
Khattak demanded that cheap electricity be supplied to K-P and load-shedding be decreased.
“If Wapda doesn’t solve this issue, I will not cooperate anymore,” he also threatened.
He further remarked that the federal government does not have the right to run Wapda House as well as the government if it cannot solve this issue.
In a show of solidarity with the people of his province, Khattak on July 13 had vowed to lead demonstrations on July 16 if the issue of prolonged and widespread load-shedding was not resolved.
He had claimed the provincial government could eliminate the electricity shortage if the Centre handed over the control of power supply to K-P.
Former President and co-Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Asif Ali Zardari has advised the party leader, Senator Rehman Malik to take all possible measures regarding the release of ARY News’ reporter, Faizullah Khan, who was recently convicted in Afghainstan and sentenced to four years imprisonment – ARY News reports.
According to details, former Interior Minister, Rehman Malik met Asif Ali Zardari here on Wednesday and discussed with him the matter of ARY News’ reporter, Faizullah Khan’s imprisonment in Afghanistan.
The former President directed Rehman Malik to take all possible measures for the release of Faizullah Khan and to speed up efforts in this regard.
On this occasion, Senator Rehman Malik also held a telephonic conversation with the father of Faizullah Khan, who thanked the ex-Interior Minister for taking personal interest regarding the release of his son.
See more at: http://arynews.tv/en/zardari-asks-malik-to-speed-up-efforts-for-faizullah-khans-release/#sthash.gaWIaMPS.dpuf
By Mirwais Jalalzai
Afghan and international media rights groups are condemning the sentence of a Pakistani journalist by a court in eastern Nangarhar province, located near the Durand line.
On July 12 Khan, a reporter for ARY News TV based in Karachi, was sentenced to four years in jail for entering Afghanistan without proper documentation. A local court in Jalalabad dropped espionage charges that had also been made against him. Khan was on an assignment to interview a Taliban leader when he was arrested.
Afghan authorities had accused Khan of spying but no formal espionage charges were brought against him, according to ARY News officials.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in its criticism of the harsh prison sentence imposed on TV journalist Faizullah Khan and is demanding the Afghan government immediately review the case with a view to granting Khan early release.
The Pakistani journalist was arrested in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar in April after traveling to the nearby Pakistani city of Peshawar to interview members of the Taliban.
The IFJ urges the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments to act swiftly for the safe return of the journalist and to respect the rights of journalists gathering information.
The IFJ said: “It is deplorable the court has handed down such an excessive punishment when Faizullah Khan was merely carrying out his duty as a journalist. Journalists continue to take huge risks to investigate stories for the betterment of the society. We strongly believe this situation could be handled better rather than recourse to a wildly excessive jail term.”
Reporters Without Borders and the Pakistani NGO Freedom Network on Wednesday called for Afghan authorities to quash the “utterly disproportionate” sentence on appeal.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are dangerous regions for journalists to operate in, with poor safety and security situations, and impunity in attacks on journalists. The IFJ urges journalists operating in the region to remain vigilant about the possible dangers especially when traveling to remote areas.
The Pakistani Embassy in Kabul is said to be involved to helping Khan in his legal fight.
The Taliban on Thursday said they were responsible for an ongoing assault on Kabul airport.
"A number of our mujahedeen armed with heavy and light weapons have launched an attack on Kabul International Airport," the insurgents' spokesman Zabiuhallah Mujahid said in a statement.
By Eltaf Najafizada
Gunmen have attacked Kabul airport in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported, citing a military official.
The militants have taken over two buildings near the airport and are using it as a base to fire rockets, the AP cited Afzal Aman, a general in the Afghan army, as saying. Two attackers were killed by Afghan forces, according to the report.
Today’s assault is the second major militant raid in Afghanistan after the U.S. brokered a deal to audit votes in a disputed presidential election. Forty two people were killed in a suicide attack at a crowded market in the eastern part of the nation on July 15.
Afghan civilian casualties rose 24 percent in the first half of 2014 from a year earlier, the United Nations reported this month, as the nation prepares for its first transfer of power since the U.S invasion in 2001. Both candidates vying to replace President Hamid Karzai have vowed to sign a pact that would keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond this year.
U.S. President Barack Obama plans to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 9,800 by the end of this year, with only a small force at the embassy by the end of 2016, when he will be preparing to leave office.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that U.S. sanctions will take relations with Russia to a "dead end" and damage U.S. business interests in his country.
"Sanctions have a boomerang effect and without any doubt they will push U.S.-Russian relations into a dead end, and cause very serious damage," he said to reporters on a visit to Brazil.
The U.S. government on Wednesday, because of what it views as Russia's interference in Ukraine, imposed its most wide-ranging sanctions yet, on key players in the country's economy, including Gazprombank and Rosneft Oil Co, and other major banks and energy and defense companies.
Putin said he needed to see the details of the sanctions to understand their full scope. But he added that he was sure the sanctions would damage the national interests of the United States in the long run.
"This means that U.S. companies willing to work in Russia will lose their competitiveness next to other global energy companies," he said.
Putin said the sanctions will hurt Exxon Mobil Corp which has been given the opportunity to operate in Russia.
"So, do they not want it to work there? They are causing damage to their major energy companies," he said.
The new sanctions also target senior Russian officials, including the deputy head of the State Duma, or parliament, the minister of the Crimea, a commander of the Russian intelligence agency FSB, and a Ukrainian separatist leader, several of whom had already been targeted by the European Union.
The sanctions, posted on the U.S. Treasury Department website, stopped short of targeting Gazprom, Russia's biggest gas company, which provides much of Europe's energy supplies.NAW
www.buzzfeed.com
Anita Badejo
Daniel Rugg Webb, a 32-year-old cashier at Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas, had been hearing the rumor all day on Thursday: President Obama was stopping by. He and his co-workers didn’t give much credence to the idea—that is, until eight secret service agents, and then some, walked into the restaurant in the afternoon.
“[They] frisked everybody, which was kind of my favorite part,” Webb recalled in an interview with BuzzFeed Saturday night. “Then he just showed up.”
Webb, who is also a comedian and retired musician, wasn’t about to miss his opportunity to say whatever he wanted to a sitting president. So, after he had introduced himself and the president was signing a reportedly $300 bill, he slammed his hand on the counter.
“Equal rights for gay people!” he exclaimed.
Obama reacted without missing a beat. “Are you gay?”
Taken aback by the directness of the question, he said, Webb responded, “Only when I’m having sex!”
The president laughed, then, realizing there was a group of children near the two, said, “Not in front of the kids!”
The two men bumped fists and that was that.
“As a comedian, it was cool to have a moment where I was making a sitting president laugh — over something that might be considered inappropriate is a bonus,” Webb said of the experience.
He said he had been hoping to get in a joke about Texas Governor Rick Perry, who he described as “famously anti-gay.”
While Webb said he appreciates Obama’s social progressiveness, he expressed hope that the president will close the gap between his own relative forward-thinking on gay rights, and his general quietness on the anti-gay views of many state leaders before he leaves office.
“It would be interesting if he could call some people out for it. People can use a lot of things—religion, freedom of speech—to be anti-gay, but I need people to understand you can call people out for civil rights things,” Webb said.
“We are an anti-gay state. We are a state with a whole bunch of hungry children and sick old people, and [Rick Perry is] grandstanding on things that will get him a better election,” Webb said. “And it’s glaringly obvious. He’s kind of primitive in his social beliefs. I would like to see Rick Perry negatively influenced by any kind of attention. Even Obama laughing at something as, hopefully, acceptable as sexuality can show the difference.”
Emerging powers agree details of US$50 billion lender to rival the IMF
Leaders of the five BRICS nations agreed on the structure of a US$50 billion development bank by granting China its headquarters and India its first rotating presidency.
Brazil, Russia and South Africa were also granted posts or units in the new bank.
The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa also formalised the creation of a US$100 billion currency exchange reserve, which member states can tap in case of balance of payment crises, according to a statement issued at a summit in Fortaleza, Brazil. Both initiatives, which require legislative approval, are designed to provide an alternative to financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where BRICS countries have been seeking more say.
"The BRICS are gaining political weight and demonstrating their role in the international arena," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said after a signing ceremony.
Until the eve of the summit, India and South Africa had vied with China to host the headquarters of the bank, dubbed the New Development Bank.
The administration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave in after it was reminded that his country's previous administration had agreed to Shanghai as the bank's headquarters, according to an Indian official.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the BRICS nations decided in favour of Shanghai because the city offers better infrastructure, opportunities to capture private funding and is home to more investors than the competitors.
Chinese media yesterday hailed the creation of the development bank, and blamed Western countries and multilateral agencies for flaws in the global financial system.
"The plans of the emerging-market bloc of BRICS to establish a development bank usher in a long-awaited and helpful alternative to the Western-dominated institutes in global finance," Xinhua said in an editorial.
An opinion piece in the Global Times newspaper, known for its nationalistic editorial stance, said competition from the BRICS bank could prompt the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to carry out much-needed internal reforms.
"BRICS countries have to blaze a new trail to reduce losses as well as safeguard interests," wrote Liu Zongyi, a research fellow at the government-linked Shanghai Institute for International Studies. "Loans from the World Bank are not able to meet the demands of the developing nations ...
"The IMF also failed to play an active role in stabilising the turbulent emerging financial markets during the global financial crisis."
For President Xi Jinping , the meetings represent a new push by Beijing to gain influence in a region traditionally seen as a US backyard.
The situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate. As the largest foreign investor in Iraq's oil fields, China will naturally be affected by the situation.
Influence in the short-term
The impact of the Iraq crisis on China's energy security is very limited, despite China's growing reliance on imported oil resources. China's overall imports of Iraqi crude oil represent less than 1% of China's total energy demands.
There are more than 10 000 Chinese citizen working for Chinese companies. They are generally in safe areas - southern and eastern Iraq, controlled by Shiites - where most Chinese investments are located. The Chinese government has announced that it attaches great importance to the security of Chinese citizens and companies, as well as the protection of their legitimate rights in Iraq. It has demanded that the Chinese embassy in Iraq and the Iraqi side both take effective measures to protect them. It has transferred its Chinese staff from relatively risky areas to safer areas.
Long-term impact
The continuation of the volatile situation in Iraq and other areas in the Middle East will affect the creation of the economic belt on the Silk Road of China in the long term. The strategic alliance between China and Russia has facilitated the establishment of an economic belt on the new Silk Road. On this basis, the preservation of peace in the Middle East will help China to open new markets and enhance cooperation with Europe across the Middle East. It will also help China to break the U.S. 'siege' on Asia. However, continuing long-term chaos in Iraq will increase the power of extremist forces. If the Iraqi crisis continues to spread into surrounding areas, the establishment of the economic belt on the Silk Road will face significant challenges. Thus, the impact of the current situation in Iraq on China will not be immediate, but in the future.
Based on this fact, China must refrain from direct interference in the current problems in Iraq; otherwise it will be dragged down into the swamp. However China cannot simply watch the growth of extremist groups in Iraq and let the current chaos in Iraq expand to Europe, Central Asia, Africa, and even to China This will have a very negative impact on China's development in long term. The Chinese government will support the efforts of the Iraqi government to achieve stability and territorial integrity. China will provide financial support and equipment to the Iraqi government through special channels, while at the same time encouraging Iran, Russia and other countries to increase their support to Iraq, in order to help restore stability and promote political reconstruction and national reconciliation in Iraq.
Fifteen Ukrainian servicemen were hospitalized on Wednesday in Russia's Rostov Region and received qualified medical treatment after being wounded in firefights with armed militia in eastern Ukraine, the regional branch of Russia’s Federal Border Guard Service said.
“Fifteen wounded have been placed in hospitals in the town of Gukovo,” the service said in a statement.
The wounded were transferred to the Russian side on emergency request by Ukrainian border guards in late afternoon at the Chervonopartyzansk border crossing connecting Ukraine’s Luhansk Region and Russia’s Rostov Region.
A representative of the Russian Health Ministry told RIA Novosti that two other Ukrainian border guards are to be operated on after they were wounded as a result of a shelling. One officer reportedly received injuries to his abdomen, while the second one has severe splinter wounds and burns. Both are in a critical condition.
Vasily Malayev, a spokesman with the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) in the Rostov region, said Russian border guards at the Kuibyshevo border crossing were informed about two their Ukrainian colleagues in need of urgent medical treatment at about 2 pm Moscow time (10:00 GMT). They were immediately transported to a local clinic in the city of Kuibyshev.
As of 7:30 pm Moscow time (15:30 GMT), one of the Ukrainian servicemen has been undergoing surgery, Malayev said.
Running artillery battles continue between the pro-Kiev troops and self-defense forces in the east Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry invited military attaches from 18 countries, including the United States and Germany, to assess the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border that has been hit multiple times by Ukrainian artillery.
This came after at least seven artillery shells landed in southern Russia near the border with Ukraine on Sunday, leaving a man dead and two women injured. Russian investigators are currently trying to determine those responsible for the shelling.
Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacked a Shiite mosque in Istanbul last week, a human rights association has claimed in report, refuting official statements about the incident.
On July 8, a fire caused significant material damage at the Muhammediye Mosque in the Esenyurt neighborhood of the city. Three Qurans and a 300-volume hadith collection were destroyed in the fire at the mosque, which belongs to the local community from the Ja’farite school of Shia Islam.
Turley’s Human Rights Association (İHD) prepared a report on the incident based on the testimonies of witnesses and official statements. The findings of the report were announced to the public on July 15 in a press conference at the İHD headquarters in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu neighborhood.
The report quoted Seçkin Çengeloğlu, a local police chief, who ruled out the possibility of arson. He described the fire as “a coincidence” that occurred during a burglary in which the clock of the mosque was stolen by a local drug user acting alone.
However, citing the testimonies of witnesses, including the imam of the mosque, İHD Istanbul head Abdulbaki Boğa said the report concluded that the fire was a “planned assault,” contradicting the official police statement.
Imam Hamza Aydın was quoted in the report as saying that an individual between the ages of 25 and 30 had visited the mosque with two teenagers 10 days before the fire, asking him which Islamic sect he belonged to. “You’re Shiite, you have no right to live, we will burn you,” the person reportedly told the imam after getting an answer.
The report concluded that ISIL was behind the fire, without presenting direct evidence linking the incident to the militant group.
“ISIL is in Istanbul now. We knew it, but this is their first attack against a belief group in Turkey,” claimed Hulusi Zeybel, a central executive board member of the İHD.
“The attack against Ja’faris is an attack with a political message,” Boğa added.
Bahrain's main opposition group has revealed a series of documents, shedding light on the Al Khalifa regime's harsh crackdown on dissent across the Persian Gulf Kingdom.
Al-Wefaq said on Wednesday that new documents indicate several cases of torture and mistreatment in Bahraini jails.
According to the opposition, the Bahraini regime forces detained at least 114 people last month alone. Sources say 18 of the detainees were children.
The developments come as several international organizations and human rights activists have criticized Manama for refusing to disclose the cause of the protesters' deaths in an attempt to protect their killers.
Juan Mendez, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, has repeatedly confirmed that Bahraini judiciary has issued harsh sentences against peaceful protesters and activists. Mendez says he had received complaints of torture, coerced confessions and denial of medical treatment.
The Bahraini regime has also blocked requests of visits by Mendez and other international rights officials.
In June 2014, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights censured the Manama regime for human rights violations. A total of 46 members of the international body expressed deep concern over the Al Khalifa regime’s crackdown on peaceful protesters.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling on the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.
In March 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to help Manama quash the anti-regime protests.
Scores of Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
The Bahraini regime troops imposed massive security alert and flew helicopters at low attitude in the area of Damstan as pro-regime websites circulated news about shooting a police station, with no injuries recorded.
Students of a school in Rajasthan today held out their plates to be served by Bill Clinton.
The former US president doled out "rotis" to over two dozen children of a government-run school in Jaipur. He was joined by Avi Glazer, the businessman who owns the football club Manchester United.
The meal was special in more ways than one. Along with their khichdi staple, the children today got cake.
In return, they performed a folk dance for Mr Clinton, and ran to him for autographs soon after. Asked about his favourite sport as a student, he replied, "Basketball." The children responded with the chorus of "cricket!"
Mr Clinton is visiting India as part of the Clinton Foundation's initiative to collaborate with NGOs related to education and malnourishment. One of these programmes is the "Akshay Patra", which provides mid-day meals to 1.3 million children in more than 10,000 schools across India.
"I love the midday meal programme because it helps keep kids involved in schools, it prevents dropouts and improves learning," the former president told NDTV.
"In my last year as president I secured 300 million dollars to give to 20 countries to provide meals in schools and I know what happens. The involvement goes up and dropouts go down, learning improves."
Mr Clinton announced a two million dollar donation from Caterpillar, a US based company that will support a similar mid-day meal programme in Lucknow.
By Erin Cunningham
Just days after Secretary of State John F. Kerry brokered an end to Afghanistan’s election crisis, the deal has run into trouble because of disagreements among the two rival presidential candidates.
The agreement was intended to resolve a weeks-long impasse that had threatened to split the country. But implementation of the deal has been held up by confusion over whether Afghan or international institutions will lead the inspection of the 8.1 million votes cast in a June 14 runoff that was marred by fraud.
The electoral dispute has raised alarm that conditions could deteriorate further in a country already battling a resilient insurgency. Highlighting the country’s fragility, a suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives killed at least 45 people in a crowded market in the southeastern province of Paktika on Tuesday, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. The Afghan Defense Ministry said 89 people had been killed. The conflicting death toll reports could not immediately be reconciled.
The White House had dispatched Kerry to Kabul last week to forestall possible violence after candidate Abdullah Abdullah’s threats to declare his own government. An ambitious deal to recount the votes and form a national unity government was clinched in marathon talks that ended Saturday.
But on Monday, the audit of the ballots, meant to begin within 24 hours of the announcement of the accord, was postponed indefinitely to addresstechnical disputes, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) said. Western officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they expected the vote counting to begin Wednesday or Thursday.
The campaign of former foreign minister Abdullah — who last month accused the IEC of helping rig the vote — said it was promised that international bodies would take charge of the audit.
The team of the opposing candidate — former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani — says no such stipulation was included in the deal. According to Afghan law, the IEC is required to carry out the audit. The United Nations can play only a supervisory role, Ghani’s campaign says.
“There was an agreement in the discussions that there would be an international audit, not an Afghan-led audit,” said Mohammad Mohaqiq, one of Abdullah’s two vice-presidential candidates and a former warlord who commands strong support among Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazara community. “If the IEC is in charge of this audit, then all of these efforts will translate into nothing — a zero.”
It was not clear Tuesday why the two sides had such differing accounts of what the agreement involved.
But a senior U.S. official said Monday that although the IEC “technically conducts the audit, it’s being done under the auspices of and the supervision by the U.N.”
“Obviously something of this complexity is still being worked out,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. “There will be many, many moving parts of this over a period of at least another month.”
On Tuesday, a senior State Department official said that “all parties continue to meet together” to discuss the process. “We’ve seen nothing to indicate that there’s any walk-back from commitment” to the deal, the official said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity.
But that such a high level of uncertainty over the process has cropped up so soon after negotiations underscores the polarized nature of Afghanistan’s political landscape.
The first round of elections was held April 5. Abdullah won the most votes but fell short of the majority needed to take the presidency. In the second round, elections officials said, Ghani secured 56 percent of the votes, according to a preliminary count. But authorities acknowledged that the results were tarnished by vote tampering.
The new president’s inauguration was initially scheduled for Aug. 2. But the United Nations requested that President Hamid Karzai postpone the date to allow for the audit and negotiations over a national unity government to take place.
Should the rift over the audit process remain unresolved, it could endanger one of the central goals of the accord: the formation of a consensus government that would eventually choose a prime minister, transitioning Afghanistan from a presidential to a parliamentary system of government.
Right now, Karzai possesses extensive powers. The new political framework would immediately create a chief executive post subordinate to the president, Mohaqiq said. The chief executive position would be a prototype for the prime minister job. The hope is that a parliamentary system would ease ethnically based grievances by enshrining a more even distribution of power, U.S. officials said.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing in Paktika. But Afghan forces are struggling against a Taliban-led insurgency that has killed a growing number of the country’s soldiers and civilians. According to a U.N. report released last week, civilian casualties here rose by 24 percent during the first half of the year.
Foreign troops under the command of the International Security Assistance Force are scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2014, a rapidly approaching deadline that has Afghans and international observers worried that the country could face increasing Taliban advances or the kind of ethnic bloodshed that tore Afghanistan apart in the 1990s.
Abdullah, of mixed Tajik and Pashtun heritage, enjoys the backing of the country’s Tajik community in the north and west. Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, is popular among Pashtun populations in the east and south.
The United States is eager to leave behind a more stable Afghanistan, having invested hundreds of billions of dollars since 2001, when U.S. troops invaded to topple the Taliban government.
http://centralasiaonline.com/
By Zahir Shah
Militant sexual abuse of the boys they recruit to join their cause apparently is rife in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the months after a Central Asia Online exposé about the Taliban's sexual assault of boys, Afghan and Pakistani officials have discovered instances of such abuses among other militant groups.
"I was dressed in women's clothes and was raped over four nights," Samiullah, a teen victim who was recruited by the Haqqani Network, said in a video statement posted last year on YouTube. "A friend of mine named Muhammad was also raped."
NDS evaluates Samiullah's case
Samiullah was 16 and had been working at a restaurant in Khost city, Afghanistan, when a man named Hamayun recruited him to join the Haqqani Network.
After going through training in Pakistan's tribal region, militants sent Samiullah on a mission to assassinate the governor of Khost Province, but security officials caught him before the suicide bombing was carried out.
During his interrogation, Samiullah detailed some of the tactics the militants used during training, the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) said.
"Haqqani Network commanders are sexually abusing teenage boys who are being trained to carry out terror acts," the NDS statement said in a December statement.
NDS officials recently told Central Asia Online they take such allegations seriously, especially when a boy provides specific information.
Samiullah, for example, named Haqqani Network commanders Musa and Mohammad Kaleem, who are brothers, as two who raped him.
Long-term effects
Sexual assaults are a social issue that needs to be dealt with, psychiatric specialists said, because the ramifications can be far-reaching for society.
One concern is the spread of disease, but more worrying, psychiatrists said, is the lasting mental anguish that can destroy families and the social fabric.
"Children passing through the agony of abuse start hating males, even the male members of their family," psychiatrist Khalid Mufti said. "The trauma can even influence marital life later."
Sexual abuse can also lead to anger issues, he said, where the victims will view violence as the best way to solve problems.
And the reported cases likely represent only a fraction of the violations, psychiatrists assert.
Not a new practice
Samiullah's case is not an anomaly.
Naematullah, a would-be suicide bomber arrested in Herat Province, told officials that he and many others were sexually abuses during militant training, according to an NDS statement.
And the allegations of sexual abuse are not new.
The Taliban in the 1990s were accused of sexually abusing boys, University of Peshawar professor Dr. Sarfaraz Ahmed said. "It's a deep-rooted phenomenon … [that has] always happened in the war that has been going on the Pak-Afghan tribal belt."
Indeed, the concept of such paedophilia is so commonplace it is colloquially called bacha bazi, or "boys for pleasure."
Militant abuses are condemned
But the idea that the problem has been going on for years – and sexual abuse of youth in general being such a long-standing issue – makes it no less condemnable, Ahmed said.
"It's the criminalisation of the society that the religious extremists were playing in the name of religion and also involved in such gruesome acts," Prof. Ijaz Khan of the International Relations Department, University of Peshawar, said in agreement.
Recently, though, a broad spectrum of society has been calling for justice.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has also urged that urgent steps be taken to stop the sexual abuse and slavery of young boys, according to Khamma press.
And activists in Pakistan are stressing that it is the state's responsibility to protect the children.
"It’s really a dangerous trend," former Awami National Party (ANP)-affiliated Pakistani parliamentarian Yasmin Zia said. "The Taliban or any warlord involved in such acts of inhumanity must be punished as abuse is a major sin and there are clear-cut punishments for its perpetrators."
"If we can't protect our children, then it's our failure," she said.
A large number of Pakistani Christians are leaving Pakistan preferring asylum in foreign countries.
According to a latest report sent to Fides by a Pakistani NGO- World Vision in Progress claims that about 14,000 Pakistani Christians have sought asylum in foreign countries. The World Vision in Progress clarified that as a result of the increasing terrorism, insecurity and harsh living conditions the religious minorities are abandoning Pakistan. In the past year for instance about 14,000 Pakistani Christians have sought asylum in Asian countries but also in Western countries, in Europe and America.
Farrukh H. Saif- Executive Director of the World Vision in Progress stated: The situation is serious; minorities, especially Christians and Hindus are being targeted for acts of terrorism, mass violence and abuse of the blasphemy law. Because of this situation an increasing number of families choose to leave Pakistan. Thousands of Pakistani Hindus seek refuge in India, while Christians, Ahmadis, Shias and other religious groups have reached East Asia and South Asia and have registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), hoping to be able to settle in a country where they can enjoy equal rights.
He continued: flight of Christians began in 2009, when Christian neighborhoods and villages in Punjab were attacked by Muslim extremists. Hundreds of homes were burned and hundreds of Christians from Gojra and Korian took refuge in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Also in March 2013 Islamic fanatics attacked the ‘Joseph colony’ Christian area in Lahore. According to our investigations, last year 14,000 Pakistani Christians sought asylum in countries of East Asia and South Asia.
He noted: in order to stop the exodus, the Pakistani government should stop terrorism and provide security to Pakistani Christians and other religious minorities. A few months ago – he continues – Pakistani authorities intercepted a thousand Christians who were travelling to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong and stopped them. In the second week of June, the Sri Lankan police launched an operation against Pakistani Christians seeking asylum, and arrested them; an action contrary to the rules and international principles. In fact, a host country cannot arrest refugees if they are registered under the auspices of the UNHCR.
World Vision in Progress has appealed to the international community to help curb the suffering of religious minorities in Pakistan. The NGO has also urged the countries in which refugees seek asylum to respect of humanitarian law and the rules of international law concerning the refugees. World Vision in Progress strives to bring to end religious minority discrimination in Pakistan and to uphold respectable living conditions for them in the country.
- See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/14000-pakistani-christians-left-pakistan-in-2013/#sthash.GU8i8cbV.dpuf
The country is facing an ‘education crisis’ which, if not tackled now, can become insurmountable. But, given political will and resources, a reformed education system can still produce a tolerant citizenry accepting religious, ethnic and cultural diversity, and help Pakistan return to its moderate roots.
This is the crux of a report on “education reforms” in Pakistan recently released by the International Crisis Group.
In its major conclusion, the Brussels-based NGO working to prevent conflict worldwide says: “If Pakistan is to provide all children between the age of five and 16 years free and compulsory education, as its law requires, it must reform a system marred by teacher absenteeism, poorly maintained or ghost schools and a curriculum which encourages intolerance and fails to produce citizens who are competitive in the job market.”
It says that curriculum reform is essential and overdue and urges the provincial governments to ensure that textbooks and teachers no longer convey an intolerant religious discourse and a distorted narrative based on hatred of imagined enemies – local and foreign. “The working-age population will continue to grow in a country with so many young people. Without substantial and urgent efforts to improve access to quality schools, illiteracy and poor learning outcomes will result in rising levels of unemployment and under-employment, hampering economic development and – if the most attractive jobs are available with the jihadi forces and criminal groups – contributing to violence and instability.
“The rot can still be stemmed by reversing decades of neglect of the fast failing, under-funded education sector and opting for meaningful reform of the curriculum, bureaucracy, teaching staff and learning methodologies,” it says. According to the report, poorly qualified and poorly trained teachers and rote pedagogy discourage learning. Improvements in methodology have yet to make it to the classroom, and what is taught is problematic.
An unreformed curriculum continues to promote religious intolerance and xenophobia as do madressahs which flourish in the absence of a credible public education sector.
Private schools are flourishing but few, except those which cater to the elite, provide quality education. Attempts are being made to harness private sector support, including through partnerships and philanthropy, but the scale of the challenge requires a government-led approach and political ownership of reform.
“To counter the challenge posed by private schools and madressahs, which fill the gaps of a dilapidated public education sector but contribute to religious extremism and sectarian violence, the government will have to do far more than just increase the number of schools and teachers, it says.
Since the 18th Constitution Amendment devolved education to the federating units, provincial governments have taken some steps to meet their obligation to educate children. Yet, not all provinces have the required legislative apparatus, rules and regulations in place. Budgetary allocations, despite increases, are insufficient to meet growing needs.
The report deplores that millions of five- to 16-year olds, now entitled to free and compulsory education, are still out of school and the quality of education for those enrolled remains abysmal.
Nepotism and corruption permeate the system, including in the employment, posting and transfer of teachers.
It points out that militant violence and natural disasters have exacerbated the dismal state of education. Earthquakes and floods have destroyed school buildings, disrupting the education of hundreds of thousands of children. More than nine million children do not receive primary or secondary education and literacy rates are stagnant. The country is far from meeting Millennium Development Goals of providing universal primary education by 2015. The primary school enrolment rate in 2012-13 registered a mere one per cent increase from the preceding year.
There are significant gender disparities and differences between rural and urban areas, the report notes. The combined federal and provincial budgetary allocation to education is the lowest in South Asia, at two per cent of GDP. It all shows how grave the education sector is in Pakistan.
The ruling Sharif clan may not know that the time is running out, and running out very fast. The public discontent with it is skyrocketing with not just the day but by every hour of the day. Of course, incumbency is a very deadly monster that ruins and ransacks even promising ruling hierarchies. But then the Sharif coterie does not even figure on that scale any where remarkably. Its spin doctors may be weaving yarns after yarns to show it up as a performer par excellence. But a screaming public tells that all that is a big, big lie. In fact, ever nook and cranny of the land is crying out shrilly that the people never had had as worst of time as are they having on its watch.
But once in the saddle, the hierarchy started gradually to backtrack on what it had promised the electorate. As the shortages stay now as persistent and unrelenting as in the past, some of its grandees have now even taken sheepishly to apologising to the people for betraying them with false, deceptive and misleading promises of obviating power load shedding immediately after ascending the Islamabad throne. So obviously, it had been using the ploy of inaugurating of power plants and foundation-stone-laying of new projects by the prime minister to impress the public with its efforts to deliver on its poll promise of shooing off power scarcity from the land. But the trick has not worked. Rather, the people are livid that the Sharif ruling clan is taking them for a ride with such contrivances.
But the people's discontent with the Sharif ruling clique is not due to the power scarcity alone. It runs far deeper and far inflammably on many an other account. Indeed, the utter collapse of this coterie in alleviating the people's biting travails on account of increasingly unaffordable food prices and a galloping unemployment has taken away all the people's trust and confidence in it. Even those who once were its fond supporters have now turned against it. And on the street, it is all anger that is dancing giddily against this Sharif coterie.
It really is so astonishing that the incumbency has flung in so early to gore this ruling clan. It had stridden into office, bragging deafeningly that it had had the experience of governance as well as an experienced team to tackle the adversities tormenting the people so woefully. But just in a year's time, it has become just dust on the street. And quite perilously. One knows not how the people would respond to the calls of Imran Khan for a people tsunami and Tahirul Qadri's people revolution. But a storm is brewing up on the street.
And if the Sharif ruling clique doesn't act at once and wisely to mitigate what really is making the people's miserable lives a living hell, a real people's tsunami is sure to break out from some obscure niche of the street to flare up and engulf the whole land with unforeseen consequences. The Sharif clan as also its peers in various political comps must know that the so-called democracy which in effect is a patent plutocracy may be their darling baby. But on the street it has no takers left. The people's patience with this sham system has run out.
None out there in the street would stick his neck out to be chopped off for this spurious system that serves the needs of a privileged oligarchy of landed aristocrats, waderas, landed pirs, sardars, chieftains, robber barons and the moneyed upstarts. Not the people's. They have no love lost for it; not at all.
Malala Yousafzai has managed to achieve global recognition due to her tireless efforts to end the struggle of young women. She now travels around the world speaking out to different audiences, highlighting the need for female education, female emancipation and dignity. On one of her most recent journeys, she flew to Nigeria where she met with the families of the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, following her pledge to devote her efforts towards their rescue. As photographs of Malala meeting with Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, flash across the nation’s newspapers and ignite the admiration of the Pakistani social media, perhaps it is important to remember who she really is to Pakistan. Despite her overwhelming patriotism and loyalty to the country to which she belongs, can we really lay a claim to the accomplishments of this extraordinary child? During her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, she was shunned, laden with accusations and conspiracy theories that painted her in one clean stroke as an “agent of the West,” a foreign pawn, and a theatrical tool for garnering sympathy.
It is important to draw the distinction between Malala the national symbol, and Malala the international humanist. Pakistan belongs to her, and to the countless courageous young people like her who will inherit this land. But we can lay no claim to the development of this truly global hero, because we disowned her in spirit. Her work transcends the topicalities of any one nation, any one war or any one injustice. In many ways, the national disownment freed her from Pakistan’s unforgiving gaze and judgment. As she travels to spread her international message of peace with the grace of an adult thrice her age, her country can only observe with pride and amazement, the seventeen year old girl who has survived in the throes of its deepest evil and emerged victorious. But no more, can we claim ownership of this free child of the world.
http://newsweekpakistan.com/
COURT RULED AGAINST ZULFIQAR ALI FOR WRITING BLASPHEMOUS SLOGANS ON WALLS IN A SUBURB OF LAHORE.
An Additional District and Sessions court on Tuesday sentenced a man to death after he was convicted under controversial blasphemy laws, according to his lawyers.
Pakistan has strict laws against insulting Islam, which can sometimes carry the death penalty, but rights activists say they are often misused to settle personal disputes.
Zulfiqar Ali, aged in his 50s, was arrested in April 2008 in Lahore and accused of writing blasphemous slogans on walls. Ali’s lawyer said his client was insane but Judge Naveed Iqbal passed the death sentence on Monday, said prosecution lawyer Chaudhry Ghulam Mustafa.
The country has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangings since 2008. Only one person has been executed since then, a soldier convicted by court martial.
“Accused Zulfiqar Ali has committed the act of blasphemy by writing the abusive sentences toward Islam’s Prophet on the walls of Nehru Park, Islampura,” the judge said in his ruling, seen by AFP. “He was caught red-handed. Police came there. He was also used to utter derogatory remarks on hearing the call for prayers.”
Ali also must pay a fine of Rs. 1 million, otherwise he will have to spend one year in jail before going to the gallows, the order said.
Defense lawyer Kashif Ali Bokhari said Ali was brought to court from the psychiatric ward of the jail. “I pleaded in the court that he was insane but this plea was ignored,” Bokhari said.
The judge in his order said he checked Ali and found him mentally competent.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive subject in Pakistan, where the majority of the 180 million population is devoutly Muslim. Even unproven allegations can provoke a violent public response.
A recent report from a U.S. government advisory panel said Pakistan used blasphemy laws more than any other country in the world. It listed 14 people on death row and 19 others serving life sentences for insulting Islam.
By BILL ROGGIO
During a raid in South Waziristan, the Pakistani military reportedly captured Adnan Rasheed, a Taliban commander who was broken out of prison in 2012. An al Qaeda commander known as Mufti Zubair Marwat was also arrested in the raid.
Rasheed, Marwat, and two guards are said to have been captured on July 10 in the Shakai valley in South Waziristan, according to Dawn. Rasheed is thought to have been wounded.
Marwat "is the brother of Mufti Sajjad Marwat - an al Qaeda spokesman for Afghanistan and Pakistan," Dawn reported.
The reports of their capture has not been publicly confirmed by the Pakistani military, however.
If Rasheed's capture is confirmed, he will be the first big-name Taliban commander to have been killed or captured by the Pakistani military since it launched an offensive in North Waziristan on June 15. The Pakistan military has claimed to have killed more than 400 terrorists, but has not named any of them.
Rasheed is currently the emir of the Ansar al Aseer Khorasan ("Helpers of the Prisoners"), a group that includes members from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Taliban and was founded to free jihadists from Pakistani prisons.
Rasheed has a long history with Pakistani terrorist groups as well as al Qaeda. He was involved in the Dec. 14, 2003 assassination attempt against then-President Pervez Musharraf. A member of the Pakistani Air Force, Rasheed was sentenced to death for his role in the assassination attempt, but the sentence was never carried out. While in prison, Rasheed owned several cell phones and frequently communicated with journalists. He also got married while in prison and fathered a child.
Rasheed worked for Amjad Farooqi, the Pakistani terrorist who engineered the two assassination attempts against Musharraf in December 2003 at the behest of al Qaeda leader Abu Faraj al Libi; Farooqi is suspected of involvement in other terror attacks as well. Farooqi was a member of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan; the Harkat-ul-Ansar and its successor, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen; Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami; and Jaish-e-Mohammed. He served as a close aide to Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. In addition, Farooqi served as the group's representative to al Qaeda's International Islamic Front, which issued the 1998 fatwa that declared war on the US.
On April 15, 2012, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan launched a successful operation to free Rasheed and nearly 400 prisoners, including an estimated 200 Taliban fighters and jihadists, being held at a prison in Bannu. The operation was directed by Hakeemullah Mehsud, the former emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Waliur Rehman Mehsud, the group's former emir for South Waziristan (both Hakeemullah and Waliur Rehman were killed by the US in drone strikes). More than 150 fighters assaulted the prison. Rasheed was later featured in a videotape celebrating the jailbreak.
Since the Bannu jailbreak, Rashid has featured in several Taliban propaganda tapes. In January 2013, he appeared in a joint Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan video that announced the formation of the Ansar al Aseer. The video also featured Yassin Chouka, a wanted German commander in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and Abdul Hakeem, a Russian IMU member.
In March 2013, Rasheed released a video in which he claimed to have formed an assassination squad to kill former President Musharraf. Rasheed said the "death squad" is split up in groups of "fedayeen, sniper team, special assault team, and close combat team." The term 'fedayeen' is often used to describe suicide bombers.
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/07/taliban_leader_adnan_rasheed_r.php#ixzz37bzMtBj2
Dr. Sanchita Bhattacharya
The act of condemning an individual or a particular group for following ‘certain religious practice’ in the name of kufr – blasphemy – has intensified the acts of violence in Pakistan.
In the latest blasphemy case the police in Jhang district of Punjab Province said on May 13 that they had filed blasphemy charges against a group of 68 lawyers. Reportedly the main architect behind the incident is Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, leader of the banned group Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, and the lawyers mostly belong to the Shia sect of Islam. Interestingly enough, Ludhianvi’s group was banned in the year 2012 and is infamous for inciting sectarian and extremist violence with its stronghold in Jhang district.
Lately, in Pakistan the ‘pretext’ of blasphemy is devised not only to persecute the religious minorities but also prominent political figures, as has been evident in the case of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, and Shahbaz Bhatti the then minister for minority affairs. Both were brutally murdered in 2011 for raising question on such violent acts.
During the year 2013, 19 cases for offences relating to religion were reported against 24 Muslim citizens. Five of the accused were charged under the blasphemy provision, 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). In addition a total of nine cases were lodged against 14 Christian citizens on religious grounds. Nine Christians were also arrested in these cases. Four Christians, including two women, were arrested for allegedly sending blasphemous messages. While one was awarded life imprisonment. Three Christians were sentenced to death upon conviction in two blasphemy cases.
The partial data provided by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) further states that in 2013, there were 275 such cases in Punjab, followed by 14 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Balochistan. Moreover, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Annual Report of 2014 at least 17 individuals are on death row and 19 more serving life sentences [for blasphemy]. Many others have been charged and await trial.
As is well evident from the above mentioned data, the targets in these cases of violence are mostly minorities both within and outside the realm of “Islam” often preached by the clerics to instigate and cause divide in already fragmented Pakistani society. Pakistan is one of more than 30 countries that have blasphemy laws, which are usually enacted under the auspices of promoting religious harmony.
However, human rights groups say the law, instead of promoting communal harmony, is frequently used to settle personal disputes, disproportionately targeting religious minorities – Christians, Hindus, or members of minority sects of Islam. According to the 2013 Asian Human Rights Commission Report, the known blasphemy cases in Pakistan show that from 1953 to July 2012, there were 434 offenders of blasphemy laws in Pakistan, and among them 258 were Muslims (Sunni/Shia), 114 Christians, 57 Ahmadis, and 4 Hindus.
Attacks on religious minorities have been exacerbated by Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which have fostered a climate of religiously-motivated violence and persecution. Accusations of blasphemy have frequently resulted in the murder of both Muslims and members of religious minorities. Since 1990, at least 60 people have been killed outside the Pakistani justice system in cases relating to blasphemy, according to the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
In the initial phase of Pakistan as an independent state, there was no legal provision on religious discrimination. However, changes occurred during the military regime of Zia-ul-Haq (1978-1988) and accordingly, the Blasphemy Law was promulgated in 1985, and in 1990 the punishment of life imprisonment under this law, which sought to penalise irreverence towards the Holy Quran and insulting the Holy Prophet, was included.
In 1992, the government went a step ahead and introduced death penalty for a person guilty of blasphemy (strangely under the democratic government of Nawaz Sharif), under Article 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The law is very dangerous as blasphemy related “crime” does not require proof of intent or evidence to be presented after allegations are made and does not include penalty for false allegation.
Making the situation worse legally, in September 2013 the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) ruled that there is no need to amend the blasphemy law but its misuse needs to be stopped. The CII is a constitutional body that advises the legislature whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam. Tahir Ashrafi, a member of CII and also chairman of the Ulema Council of Pakistan, said: “We will not allow anyone to touch this (blasphemy) law”. Further in December 2013, the Federal Shariat Court ordered the government to delete life imprisonment as a punishment in blasphemy cases, stating that death was the only sentence in case of conviction and awarding any other punishment would be unlawful.
The blasphemy law, while purporting to protect Islam and religious sensitivities of the Muslim majority, is vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced by the police and judiciary in a way which amounts to harassment and persecution of religious minorities. The 2013 Asian Human Rights Commission Report further critically states that alleged incidents of blasphemy by religious minorities is often used to fuel mob violence, targeted sectarian killings, looting, burning of houses, burning of places of worship and holy books, land grabbing etc.
It won’t be inappropriate to say that the prevailing blasphemy law is consuming Pakistani society from within. In a way, these laws provide legitimacy to commit heinous crime and human rights violation in a country that is ranked 157 out of 162 countries in the 2013 Global Peace Index.
It is an all-purpose tool in the service of intolerance. The law has often been used against religious minorities, but Muslims are paying the price as well. Unfortunately, there is hardly any possibility to repeal the law.
There is no end to the miseries that seem to be descending upon hapless Pakistani citizens in the holy month. Not only are they observing their fasts at a time when the prices of essential food items have risen astoundingly, they have the added burden of suffering through prolonged hours of load shedding. The situation has gotten so bad that many localities are being subjected to as much as eight to 12 hours of electricity load shedding every day — and that is the urban centres; one shudders to think about the misery rural inhabitants are going through. It is being reported that the electricity shortfall has risen to a mindboggling 7,000 MW. The federal government seems dumbfounded and unable to give a solid answer to its grave failure in fixing the energy crisis.
The latest statement coming out of the PML-N camp is that the national grid is ill-equipped to handle the excessive overload of electricity in these hot summer months — reaching as much as 20,000 MW — and that is why load shedding has increased.
This is a far cry from the promises we heard before Ramzan where we were ensured that iftari and sehri times would be load shedding-free. Not only are people keeping and breaking their fasts in pitch darkness, they are also suffering from the bane of voltage issues and ‘tripping’ whereby the electricity comes on for hardly a minute or two and then disappears again, with this exhausting cycle being repeated frequently, causing not just household appliances to burn out but also bring life, work and industrial production to a complete halt.
There is no way the PML-N government can pussyfoot its way around this one. After the spectre of terrorism, the energy crisis is the most devastating issue in the country, one that must be dealt with on a war footing. For all its promises, election campaign speeches and the many power projects it boasts of initiating, the woes of the masses have not been addressed — in fact, they only seem to be getting worse. Any power project that is inaugurated today will not see the ‘light’ until a good many years; till then, what are the masses supposed to do? Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif went as far as saying that he would change his name if load shedding did not finish three months after their win in the elections. There is only so much baloney the people will swallow. If the power crisis is not addressed, the PML-N government may face the fiercest protests from the public it has ever seen.
The Express Tribune News
A drone strike in North Waziristan’s Datta Khel tehsil killed 15 people and injured four others, Express News reported on Wednesday.
The unmanned aircraft targeted a house and a vehicle.
Four missiles were fired in this latest attack.
dunya news
Former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) stands by its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari ‘s statement regarding votes recounting in four constituencies, adding that establishment did not let PPP-led government function when it was in power, Dunya News reported.
Gilani claimed that there was General (retd) Pasha and General (retd) Kayani were on one hand and Nawaz Sharif went to court while wearing black blazer on the other hand.
Talking to the media on an Iftar party, former Prime Minister said that the parliament is very weak at this time whereas other institutions are very powerful. He said Prime Minister should do his part to strengthen the institutions, adding that the country cannot afford any clashes.
He said the party is with Zardari over his statement regarding four constituencies against whom Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has been demanding a vote recount.
He claimed that the establishment did not let the party function when it was in power.
He said PPP-led government also had to face former president Pervez Musharraf and former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Gilani said his party took Hussain Haqqani’s resignation over the memogate issue within three days. He said Nawaz Sharif went to the court even when the memogate issue had been resolved.
http://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/
Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has called upon the government to give up its “callous attitude” towards the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan who are stranded in camps in Bannu and gear up the relief efforts on war footing.
In a statement on Monday, PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar quoted the former president, saying, “The IDPs are our national heroes in the war against terror and neglecting them in this hour of trial is a criminal and callous act that will not be condoned under any circumstances.
According to the statement, Zardari said that the government’s “neglect” of the IDPs and reports that defunct militant groups are secretly engaged in indoctrinating the displaced people under the cover of philanthropy is a sure recipe to turn the IDPs into sympathisers of militants and extremists.
The former president recalled that the IDP crisis faced by the PPP-led coalition government in 2009, as a result of military action against anti-state elements in Swat, was resolved within a few months.
He added that there was no reason why the challenge posed by the displacement of people from NWA cannot be handled.
The PPP co-chairman that in the wake of floods and huge displacements caused by it in 2010, the PPP government had invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who had launched a global appeal to help the flood victims.
He said that the war against terror is a global fight and the international community should not be barred from rehabilitating the IDPs in accordance with the recognised principles of such assistance.
“The government should shed its ego and mobilize the entire nation to assist in the relief and rehabilitation of the IDPs,” he said.
