Bangladesh - Pakistan's War Crimes - Turning the leaves of history

Nizamuddin Ahmed

In the light of the hullabaloo, albeit ludicrous, raised last week by the Pakistan government, here's a sampling of what this column has been saying for the last two decades. 

May 30, 1995: Perhaps each trait of the Bangalee has its good and bad sides. But the one peculiarity amongst some of us that is unpardonable is the short-lived memory, particularly with reference to politics. While the emblematic Bangalee will be envious of the Jews hunting down Nazi war criminals and profusely acknowledging their nationalism, the same Bangalee this far has tried to brush under the carpet any suggestions of bringing to book the culprits opposing our liberation at home and abroad.

December 16, 1996: On December 16, 1971 despite our grief and agony, we celebrated as a nation. From Teknaf to Tetulia; in the refugee camps strewn along the border; in the torture camps of Pakistan; from this corner of the earth to another, we rejoiced the victory of Bangalees. All for one and one for all. Twenty-five years later, everything seems to be spinning in a realm of confusion. There is mistrust everywhere. Each of us has our own version of history, distorted immeasurably over the years. One man's belief is another's object of ridicule. The one nation of Bangalees has been shred to pieces. The nokshi kantha has fallen off at the seams.

August 17, 1996: But, perhaps we are no less a Razakar than the gun-toting enemies of the Bengali people; for to this day we have failed to bring to justice the self-proclaimed killers of the symbol of our independence, our liberation struggle, our very existence. Yes, we are but sinners in our own domain!

October 13, 1997: Whereas newspapers in West Pakistan (not in the East) carried pictorial advertisements of their night club dancers; whereas sex, violence and vulgarity were the hallmarks of West Pakistani movies (not of the East), the West Pakistani Muslims had the audacity to call us in the East 'non Muslims' as an excuse to let loose their barbaric armed assailants on our innocent civilians. And, did we not give them a befitting reply? Our glorious War of Liberation was a jihad, yes a holy war, against their blasphemy and non-Islamic demeanour.

April 23, 1997: As the Northern line train of the London Underground disappeared into the tunnel, I opened the book on our Liberation War that I had picked up on Oxford Circus. In it were pictures of Pakistani atrocities, death, fleeing refugees, hunger, triumphant freedom fighters, joy... I was accompanying a relative to meet one of his distant (Bangladeshi) cousins, Keshtu. On introduction Keshtu looked like a decent guy; clean shaven, neatly dressed, etc. As a matter of conversation, I offered Keshtu the book on Liberation. He would not even touch it, saying “There was no liberation war”. What about the millions of martyrs? The women who were raped in their thousands? 14th December? Did none of these happen? Do pictures lie? These are pictures taken by the foreign media. Keshtu was unmoved and summed up his nationalism with the terse comment, "That was all a propaganda by western journalists".

August 26, 1997: In our War of Liberation we had come across many brutes among the Pakistani officers whose actions would have made Dyer* tremble in fear. Yes, many of them today lead a cosy life in havens far from the anguish of the dear ones of their victims for whom every new day is to live yet another in pain. Have we not heard of Bangalee children being flung into the air only to test the sharpness of Pakistani bayonets? Have we not been shamed by the rape of our mothers and sisters? Have we not seen the murder of innocent Bangalees, streets and alleyways littered with our soul and body? Yet, have we ever made a concerted effort to seek an apology from Pakistan?

(*Colonel Reginald Dyer of the British Army, on whose orders 379 unarmed satyagrahis were killed at Jallianwalabagh, April 13, 1919)

February 13, 1998: Md. Siddiq Khan Kanjoo, the Pakistan deputy foreign minister, said that there was no question of asking for forgiveness for the mass killings during the 1971 war. Well, if he has admitted that mass killings took place, it's a big start because, “Deen kaal ja porche”, some Bangladeshis who seem to have lost their memory now sincerely believe that nothing happened in 1971. A Pakistani official also said, “We now need to develop more friendly relations. Bringing up the past will only reflect adversely on the relations.” Do we sniff a veiled threat? At whose cost will relations be spoilt? Perhaps the Pakistanis need reminding that whereas a full-fledged military operation of the savagest brutality could not silence unarmed Bangalees, such hollow attempts of frail intimidation could not even tickle us.

Pakistan - Sialkot: Family of a 13-year-old Christian girl forcefully given in marriage to a Muslim

Dejected family of a 13-year-old, Christian girl victim of gender-based religious persecution implore the authorities to help them in setting the Christian teen free.

In keeping with details, a Christian teen resident of Haji Pura, near Silakot; was allegedly kidnapped by a 21-year-old, Muslim namely Waheed Akhtar who reportedly married her forcefully in order to convert her to Islam. Waheed Akhtar is adamant that she converted to Islam before marrying him.

On the other hand, Shahid John father of the victimized Christian teen, says, “I was shocked to hear the news. My legs were trembling when I heard what had happened. Hina (te victim’s sister) was accompanying her on her way back from school. Waheed Akhtar forcibly took her away. Hina came back to home and informed the family.

We went to Waheed Akhtar’s house, which is also in the vicinity. Waheed and his father are butchers by profession. They kept saying that Waheed will be back soon but when he did not turn up I went to police station and registered my complaint.”

In his statement to Fides, Shahid John said, “In Pakistan there is no justice for the poor and, above all, no one cares for Christians, no one has heard my cry. The police do not pursue the culprits; no one is doing anything for us.”

Since so many days have passed and no substantial progress has been made by police in recovering the girl from the custody of Waheed Akhtar, a Pakistani NGO “Life for All” in a note to sent to Fides stated that it has initiated an appeal in order to save the girl and make sure that she is returned to her family. The girl’s has been missing since the morning of 9 November, after she had left home for school.

Through “Life for All”, the girl’s family has launched an appeal to the authorities for justice. The NGO “Life for All” in an official statement regarding this case said, “These are frequent cases: influential people use their power in order not to get punished. Thousands of underage girls are abducted and forcibly converted each year. Cases are reported, but the courts and authorities turn a blind eye and the marginalized suffer. How long will we have to tolerate this injustice?”

- See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/sialkot-family-of-a-13-year-old-christian-girl-forcefully-given-in-marriage-to-a-muslim-implores-authorities-for-help/#sthash.7hY0SIJr.dpuf

Pakistan’s witch-hunt against Ahmadiyya Muslims

By Rabia Mehmood

It was pitch dark at 2:30am in the morning. The only sounds that Imran* could hear were coming from the factory that was set ablaze a kilometer away, and the slogans against Imran and the rest of the Ahmadi community in Jehlum. I was almost whispering, convincing my fellow Ahmadis to come out of hiding and show themselves to me, so that I could take them to a safe distance but there was no response, Imran told me over phone. However after repeated assurances, Ahmadi families hiding nearby revealed themselves to him. Out of fear that I could be one of the mob who were hunting down Ahmadis in the area near Jehlum factory that every time I tried to call out to them, they would further hide downwards into the shrubs.

A few of the families who escaped from the factory during the mob attack had their toddlers hidden in their jackets. Ahmadi women can be identified by the distinct cut of their burqa, so they were asked to remove them and only cover heads with dupattas. Imran is one of the Ahmadis who worked at the old chipboard factory, more than 4 decades old and owned by an Ahmadi businessman in Jehlum, Punjab. There are about 300 employees at the factory out of which Ahmadis are just ten percent, Imran claims. At 5pm on November 21st, Imran was sitting in his office at the factory getting ready to leave for his living quarter across the road from the factory compound, when police personnel on motorbikes and a vehicle entered the factory. The policemen arrested the security in-charge of the factory who had an office at the entrance of the compound. Qamar Tahir, the head security officer at the factory, an Ahmadi by faith, was arrested on blasphemy charges, allegedly on a complaint from a factory staffer. Imran: I am only telling you what I saw. That was the first time we had heard of any such thing as a blasphemy allegation against one of our own at the factory—it was a shock for us. The environment in the area surrounding the factory was not actively hostile towards Ahmadis. In recent years, there was a seminary built nearby which was a cause for some concern but nothing severe had happened to us, just regular everyday bigotry, which we’re used to as Ahmadis.

Police came with their minds made up that Qamar Tahir had burnt pages of the Holy Qur’an and thrown them in one the factory boilers. God forbid, why would he commit such a heinous act? We are practicing people, but the police pointed at Qamar Sahib saying that he had committed that act. On Tahir’s arrest, his sons questioned the police, so police arrested them also. One of the boys is still a young teenager, less than 18-years-old. I saw that they were manhandling the boys, slapping them and pulling their hair, says Imran. After the arrests, police personnel arrived again at the factory twice, within a span of 30 to 45 minutes. On the last trip, the District Police Officer arrived and went to the boiler where the religious scripture was allegedly thrown. The factory staffer who is allegedly behind the blasphemy charges was the one with the police, Imran says. I did not see the DPO consulting any senior managers of our office. Instead, he went straight to the boiler with the complainant and then left. Qamar’s boys were later released.

That is when factory staffers saw men gathering outside the factory on motorbikes, and began to be alarmed. Imran and his Ahmadi colleagues quickly gathered and decided to leave the area. Within 45 minutes, Imran and a few families from the colony nearby which holds about eight homes of Ahmadi residents, had begun to organize an escape. Because Imran and some of the others did not have families, it was easy for them to leave the residential area. However, the youth were told by their elders to return to the area near the factory. The mob was at the brink of breaking down the factory gate, and loudspeakers had begun calls of protest and violent actions against Ahmadis. The young Ahmadi youth were needed to assist those hiding out and get them to safety. It was a miracle how families inside the factory compound and those outside managed to gain some distance, as the hunt had started by the mob then. The night had grown darker. The mob began to loot, and then, to set the factory on fire. When the angry men moved towards our quarters, they were told by some non-Ahmadis to only target the living quarters of Ahmadis, I was told by my contact. They stole from our residences and then set them on fire. They had also started running in the direction of Ahmadis who had managed to flee with batons and torches.

Ahmadis hid in the fields behind small hills, in deep nallahs (canals), and in thorny shrubs, hungry and scared for hours. The subsequent rescue operation by the volunteers of the community – without any help from the law enforcement personnel – went on till 6am. By 3am, I took some of the families, and through alternate routes, and once with the help security guards from another colony, I managed to take them to our cars on the main road, after which I had to help with ensuring that Ahmadi residents of Jehlum city leave the town also. The police told Ahmadi volunteers guarding the community’s worship places that leaving the premises was the only way of saving Ahmadi lives. The Ahmadi volunteer at our mosques in Jehlum city were advised by the police to leave. They told our men that they could not guarantee safety of Ahmadis inside the mosque from the enraged mob, and assured them that mosques would be protected. The arson attack at the factory, the incitement of violence against the community, the looting of valuables and a roadblock on the Grand Trunk road went till early hours of the morning too. Within 24 hours of the arson attack on the factory, an area near Jehlum city, Kala Gujran, saw another wave of violent attack on Ahmadis. An active anti-Ahmadi hate campaign had been going on in that area for a while, the community says. But despite the presence of heavy contingent of law enforcement personnel, one of the places of worship could not be protected. When the enraged mob reached the said worship place, the police had to intervene and in a rare incident of fairness rescued three Ahmadi youth from inside the worship place. The 25-year old-Imran is friends with those men, My friend told me that the mob wanted to lynch them, so police told them that they are arresting us – the Ahmadis, and this is how they took us out. Now, almost 40 displaced Ahmadi families from the burnt factory, and Jehlum city and Kala Gujran are stranded and unsure of their return despite the start of a police investigation into the incident. Internal displacement is not rare for Ahmadis of Pakistan. Many from Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber-Paskhtunkhwa and parts of Punjab have moved due to threats to their lives or due to the increasing vulnerability they feel living outside the town of Rabwah—the town with highest number of Pakistani Ahmadis living in an area.

Gujranwala Mob Attack of 2014

Muhammad Boota and his fellow Ahmadis from Gujranwala still do not have a stable life, more than a year after the murders of his mother, two daughters and the unborn baby of his sister at the hands of a similarly violent mob in Gujranwala in July 2014. A violent mob wanted to burn the women and children alive inside their homes in the Arfat Colony area of Gujranwala as penance for alleged blasphemy by an Ahmadi youth. About 120 Ahmadi residents of Gujranwala fled their homes for safer locations after murders of innocent unarmed woman and children. Those who dared to come back and restart their lives are failing. Boota: Some of my extended family have tried to resettle, but their previously smooth running businesses are not enough to get by now. Nobody is giving our boys jobs. When anyone enters into our stores for services, people in the area tell them to avoid doing business with Ahmadis. In fact, nobody is willing to buy my property, which is on a prime location.

Boota and his family are homeless. For them, living in Gujranwala is impossible but he cannot be so far away that he cannot follow up on the murder cases of his loved ones. There is also a constant pressure from the cohorts and families of the five men who are in prison for the murder of Boota’s mother and daughters. After losing his children and his mother, Boota wanted due procedure to be carried out by the police and the courts. But the investigation for the murder cases was not initiated until well into 2015 — after the young man accused of blasphemy was acquitted. The message government officials were sending was clear: they would consider the murders of Boota’s family justified if the young Ahmadi man had been found guilty of blasphemy. The police would call us, take the side of the attackers and murderers, tell us we are small in number and those men could target us again, so the best solution was to forgive them the murders. Even now, the man Sadam, whose Facebook post and false allegation led to the arrest of the Ahmadi youth and murders of my family is out on bail. Boota tells me that on November 22nd, a congregation at a banquet hall called Bhatti Marriage Hall in Gujranwala sang praises for Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of Punjab governor over a blasphemy allegation, and complimented the men arrested for the murder of his loved ones’; those arrested and charged with murder include Shia and Deobandi men. I keep getting these messages that if we did not take our case back, our community will be targeted again in a more violent attack. Now Muhammad Boota looks at the Jehlum attacks and his hopes diminish further because he sees persecution thriving in Punjab. As for Imran, he never thought that the situation in Jehlum would escalate to the point where Ahmadis would have to flee. While there are no deaths or injuries from the Jehlum incidents so far, the trauma and fear is immense. A few years ago, Imran had witnessed a hate crime against an Ahmadi acquaintance in Punjab and had to take the bleeding man to the hospital after he was shot. That physical violence was nothing compared to the utter fear of Jehlum. There is no comparison. After the unveiling of the National Action Plan in the country, there have been efforts to curb hate speech and arrests have been made. But the government has itself also demonized the Ahmadi community. Aside from anti-Ahmadi laws on the books, government officials recently banned religious literature of the community by categorizing it as hate literature. Many Ahmadis continue to languish in jails on blasphemy and other faith-based allegations with little attention paid to their legal rights. While Ahmadis cannot assemble for religious purposes and are still forced by law to deny their religious identity, groups like Aalmi Majlis-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat are free to incite violence against Ahmadis. The government does appear to be cracking down and arresting people over the factory fire and the mosque attacks in Jehlum, but for affected Ahmadis, life will never be the same. *Names have been changed where indicated to protect the identity of interviewees.

Read more at: https://www.rabwah.net/pakistans-witch-hunt-against-ahmadiyya-muslims/

Pakistan's Ahmadi Muslims under attack by Sunnis - Fires of hatred

Sunday mornings in Jhelum are usually slow, but today an uneasy quiet pervades. For the Pakistan Chipboard Factory, located by the Grand Trunk (GT) Road, doomsday already occurred on Friday (Nov 20).

The decades-old facility has been turned into a vast heap of ashes and charred structures by an arson attack launched by a crazed mob. The crowd gathered in the wake of announcements made from mosques’ loudspeakers, calling on people to burn the facility down after one of its employees was arrested over allegations of blasphemy. What they didn’t burn down, they looted.

The main gate has been pulled down and the guard-post is burnt. The path leading into the premises is partially blocked by the melted and overturned hulks of two cars. At the reception, the computer monitors have been hacked into pieces, fragments of them strewn all over the floor.

Chipboard sheets manufactured just before the attack have been reduced to a smouldering mound in the main production area, still emitting smoke, which rescue staff are trying to douse with sprays of water. In the main factory building, too, machines are broken and half burnt.

The compound also contained the residences of the factory owner, senior staff and servants’ quarters. These have all been ransacked and destroyed, their walls broken down, the cars parked in the porches now ash.

In a veranda, flower pots are shattered and shards of glass cover every surface. A sofa-swing is still hanging, badly blackened. In the drawing rooms, carpets and furniture have been destroyed and in kitchens, meals — half-cooked and half-eaten — are laid out. Fine china crockery sets have been smashed to pieces and the refrigerators are burnt-out wrecks. Floors, walls and ceilings — all are damaged and the pungent smell of incinerated materials hangs over everything.

The boiler, which used to keep the factory running through burning material such as scrap and old books, has itself been burnt. The material being used as fuel at the time of the attack is still there: paper, newspapers, magazines, books in Arabic, which rescue workers are collecting.

Some yards away, in front of the factory’s hall, a building had been furnished with soft carpets to serve as a place of worship for the Ahmadi owners and the factory employees. The windows of this building have been broken also, and the carpets are now covered with glass shards. Three books are still lying on a reading table, though, and a bookshelf still hangs on the wall.

As the rescue workers go about their work to quell the embers, a convoy of police vehicles arrives. From a glittering black car disembarks the Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer (RPO), Muhammad Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja — clearly upset and even frightened. Moments later, Inspector General of the Police, Punjab, Mushtaq Sukhera, arrives in another convoy. The RPO and rescue officials give him a tour of the factory premises and the damaged houses.

As he leaves, a patrol contingent of the army takes over at the main gate. There, a few men and women are huddled in the corner, confused and worried, the women with tears in their eyes.

“We work and live here in this factory,” says Muhammad Kaswar, adding that his wife worked in the house of the factory owner. “We have come here to take our belongings; we left everything and ran for our lives when the attack took place. We were trapped inside the factory when the mob gathered and were rescued by the police.” Shamun Masih and his wife Samina Shamun, who also worked in the owner’s house, nod in agreement.

A few kilometres east of the torched factory, in the congested Kala Gujran area of Jhelum city, dozens of armed soldiers and policemen stand guard in front of an Ahmadi place of worship. But the place has now been inscribed with the title of ‘Masjid Allah Wali’ and displays the slogan ‘Khatm-e-Nabuwat Zindabad’.

“These were written by the protesters who briefly took over this place yesterday and offered their prayers here,” says Malik Basharat Jameel, a native of the area. “They took three motorcycles, two generators, some furniture and files out from this building and set it all on fire.”

The authorities promise to act against the culprits.

“Those responsible for this arson will face the music,” says Zulfiqar Ahmad Ghumman, the Jhelum District Coordination Officer.

But Nasir Butt, a local journalist, believes the police were responsible for the chaos.

“The police failed to apply a strategy to counter religious unrest,” he says. “Surprisingly, the second attack occurred after the RPO himself had arrived here to control the situation. The police simply vanished when the crowd arrived.”

Sami Zuberi, a senior journalist in Islamabad, believes that the government machinery has been proved incapable of being able to handle such sensitive issues.

“We have been facing blasphemy cases and retaliatory protests and ransacking for decades now, but the authorities have been unable to tackle them. They need to be sensitised about it,” he says.

http://ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.com/2015/11/pakistan-fires-of-hatred-mirza-khurram.html

Pakistan - THREAT OF TERRORISM, QUAID’S MAUSOLEUM CLOSED FOR PUBLIC

Due to possible threat of terror attack Quaid e Azam’s mausoleum had been closed down for public and security was beefed up.

According to sources, Federal Interior Ministry had sent a letter to Sindh government in which Sindh government was directed to enhance the security measures at Quaid’s mausoleum due to possible terror attack. Sindh government conducted a meeting with the management board of Quaid e Azam’s mausoleum, after the warning, stopped public entry and increased the security. 

http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/pakistan/item/19796-threat-of-terrorism-quaid-s-mausoleum-closed-for-public

Pakistan’s most un-Pakistani institution

By Ayaz Amir

The Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation is an aberration that doesn’t fit into the national landscape. The creed animating its work is pure craziness: that the sick are entitled to not just free treatment, from start to finish, but the best treatment, the fancy phrase being state-of-the-art treatment.

Now in a land otherwise dedicated to greed and plunder, where cutting corners is the true faith, if this is not craziness what other name do we give it?

SIUT has not only upheld the creed of free treatment as a verbal proposition for the past 40 years, it has against the odds made it come true. From the moment you enter, as a sick person, the urology department of the Dow Medical College in Karachi, for that is what it is, till the time you leave after completing your treatment, you pay not a penny.

The most elaborate tests may have been carried out on you. You may have had a kidney transplant and received the most expensive medicines. But you pay not a penny. Throughout the vast expanse of SIUT, for over the years from its small beginnings it has grown into a mighty oak, there is no paying counter, not even for an entrance slip. This would be anyone’s definition of craziness.

In the old Soviet Union the same thing was in vogue. You entered a hospital and came out, whether the same day or after a month, and you were required to pay nothing. It was all free, taken care of by the state. No wonder, smart economists called it an unworkable system. The same thing prevails to this day in Cuba which has one of the best healthcare systems on the planet, all free. No wonder, American capitalists so hated the Cuban revolution. It set a bad example for the rest of the continent.

SIUT’s Fidel Castro is Dr Adeebul Hasan Rizvi – a onetime leftist. There you have it, the secret is out. It had to be a leftist, of the fraternity dubbed as subversives, closet commies, in the first decades of our glorious republic.

SIUT now has a huge budget, some coming from the Sindh government but the bulk of it from private donations. Tycoons otherwise careful about their money have given generously to SIUT over the years because they know their money will not be pilfered or stolen. Lesser mortals too give what they can, Prof Rizvi telling me once that he was most proud of such donations – 100 or 200 rupees being sent from a remote part of the country by a school teacher or someone like that.

So the sums of money involved in the running of SUIT are huge. But figure this out: the last time I visited the place a few years back with Ava, Ardeshir Cowasjee’s daughter, she showed me the Prof’s car parked outside: a Suzuki Swift which you could see had done its bit of running around. 

Judge for yourselves: the first order of priority for anyone else in his place would have been swanky transport. I would have done it and besides would have done up my office, leather sofas and stuff, and put two staff nurses – not male, you can bet your life – in the outer office. That would have been the right thing to do. Every boss, however lowly, does it: SUV and staff nurses. And here was this battle-scarred Swift.

Ah well, I said to myself, this may be austerity on parade, so to speak. Let’s go inside and I went looking for dirt, slovenliness and inefficiency, the standard Pakistani combination which sets us apart from other nations and other peoples. Travel the world and when you come at last to a Pakistani airport you know you have arrived: the slovenliness of the FIA official, the general air of lassitude, the hyena-like look in the eyes of the customs official, you’ll find these traits hard to match anywhere else.

So I went looking for the same when in Ava’s company I stepped inside the building. This was my first surprise and still over the years I have not been able to get over it: the corridors, the wards, the labs…everything was spotless. The wards were painted not in the drab whitewash which is the signature tune of all government-constructed buildings here but in bright and friendly colours, especially the children’s wards. On the windows were bright curtains.

There was no VIP ward, no private rooms, not for love or money. Even a middling Pakistani VIP would consider this outright communism. And to my amazement there were no separate wards for men and women, male and female patients laid out in the same wards, without the heavens falling. There was Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi – that other un-Pakistani Pakistani – on a bed. He had come for dialysis, and there were women on other beds. Boys and girls were together in the children’s wards. What would the Office for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice say about this?

As we rounded a staircase I saw a man praying in a corner. Was there no mosque, I asked. No, there was none; if you felt like it, you prayed wherever you wanted to.

The true revelation, however, was the treatment procedure. There is a central hall where patients first arrive. Round it are consulting rooms and labs. You sit in the hall and when your turn comes you walk just a few paces to your doctor. If tests are to be carried out the labs are right there. And if you have to be hospitalised, up to the wards you go, no questions asked. 

The central dialysis room has a hundred machines, working day and night, donated by the Dawoods. Procedures are in place to ensure that the equipment used on a patient stays reserved for him and is not passed around. There is a separate dialysis room, with about a dozen machines, for patients infected with Hepatitis C. These machines were donated by the Cowasjees. There is a laser room where kidney stones are treated by laser…these machines also from the Cowasjees. The Dewans have given crores – I don’t have the exact figures – for the new building. There was a room dedicated to the memory of a Saigol lady. There must be other donors as well but these names stick in my mind. 

And the Prof, like a ghost, prowls the corridors at all hours – seeing to this and that. And the team he has built up…all workaholics like him. (Here I can’t help mentioning another work-besotted individual – Maj Gen Azhar Mahmood Kayani, who headed the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and now heads the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology. I saw him working first hand when I had an angiography done at the AFIC. He would begin working at 6.30 in the mornings, six days a week. On Sundays he would go to his village in Jhelum to attend to patients there.

And he had a droll sense of humour, always a smile playing on his lips. I suppose Pakistan has its share of such people. After the angiography he said I must cut down on the good stuff. What was acceptable, I asked. Thrice a week, he said, with a twinkle in his eyes, confirming me in my opinion about his sound judgement.)

After a blood test at SIUT – this was in the Zia era – I was given such a fright that I wrote a column titled ‘Valedictory’, by token of farewell to the golden mead. As Mark Twain said of smoking, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world…I’ve done it hundreds of times”, similarly my farewell to arms then was the first in a long series. 

The Prof has a ruddy complexion which one can only envy. Comes from all his prowling, I guess. Here’s to him and may he be around for a long time. And his baby which he has nurtured all these years and seen grow to such stunning heights is soon commemorating its 40th anniversary. Here’s to SIUT and long may its healing hand reach out to the sick, the homeless and the deprived. There is so much talk of Islam in this country and so little actual Islam in practice.

Being labelled anti-Pakistan

By Zeeba T. Hashmi

Liberalism has become a taboo word in Pakistan, and secularism has become almost criminal. However, the good news is that, in logical terms, the right-wing narrative, with endorsements of fabricated national history, seems to be losing ground.

The rightist and nationalist ideologies have been entrenched so effectively in public discourse that any voice countering or opposing them, no matter how rational the dialogue may seem, gets easily intimidated by threats and humiliation. It is, in fact, easier to be termed a traitor than be considered one having common sense and empathy. In the face of intolerance and actual violence meted out for speaking one’s mind, freedom of expression has become a far cry for many here. And this is a sad predicament for those who get conveniently labelled as anti-Pakistan just for expressing their criticism of certain acts of the state that have caused great harm to the people here in the name of national interest.

So, who are these people who are homogenising the national mindset by condemning free minds? One must recall how Malala was targeted on social media and the whole episode of her getting shot played as a ‘CIA drama’. No matter how ridiculous this idea is, it holds sway with the irrational reasoning of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the like. They criticise her and consider her to be an agent of the CIA, who got herself shot by the CIA and went abroad to malign Pakistan and the army. They became insecure because the Malala episode had in fact exposed the fissures in our country whereby schoolchildren are targeted, directly or indirectly, by the militants and the state remains unable to give protection to schools and the children within them.

The question that needs to be asked is: why is ridiculous logic being allowed to be presented by fundamentalists in the mainstream? And, most importantly, who is encouraging them and using them to steer public opinion in their favour? Liberalism has become a taboo word in Pakistan, and secularism has become almost criminal. However, the good news is that, in logical terms, the right-wing narrative, with endorsements of fabricated national history, seems to be losing ground. Because of Nawaz Sharif’s speech in which he indicated that he would steer his country on a liberal and democratic path, he was severely criticised by the right-wing parties and their media affiliates. Nawaz Sharif had a previous beef with the military establishment about which he is now quiet since coming to power has also subjected him to much ridicule, media trials and, perhaps, a threat to his political ambitions.

Nawaz Sharif may feel pressurised to aid Saudi Arabia in its aggression towards Yemen. He can feel the flickering of right-wing operatives under the umbrella of the Pakistan Defence Council (PDC) to protest parliament’s decision to refrain from sending troops into Saudi Arabia’s war, unless the country faces a direct threat to its sovereignty. The plausible reason behind this was the apprehension that this act that represented the will of the people could affect military contracts and relations with Saudi Arabia. A profitable venture that the establishment feared losing, it attempted to create a public discourse in this regard. Thankfully, this did not work as people are becoming more aware of what their national interests should actually be versus the national interests that are working against them. It is indeed only through the democratic principle that the voice of the will of the people is respected.

What we suffer at the hands of fundamentalists is the paranoia of the state, which has a tendency to disown the people’s resentment towards certain policies. There is a vicious cycle of how the nexus of the state with right-wing parties, fundamentalists and even with militants at times results in emboldening religious parties to pressurise the government into meeting their political demands. This politicisation of religious groups is a living example of creating ideological chaos in the country. They come out in full force to dictate societal trends through their unchecked propaganda machine, which is the reason why we see intolerance and violence against minorities. The present government is finally realising the dangers of such radical inculcation in society. We should be worried about the fundamentalists taking over political and public space because they form their opinions on a limited knowledge of Islam and vigilantly persecute those who challenge their unwritten dictates.

The hardened blasphemy, anti-Ahmedi and Hudood laws, for instance, were issued by a military dictator, General Ziaul Haq, to appease the clergy who held the reins of society and its institutions. It was done during an Islamisation process, a fallout of the Cold War that propelled Pakistan to side with the US, which financed the jihadist organisations to fight off Soviet forces based in Afghanistan. It was more than a token of thanks to the fundamentalists for fighting the 'infidels' in another country.

The institutions in Pakistan are weak and they usually fail to deliver to the people. There are more pressing issues that need to be addressed by the state than investing in religious institutions that have damaged our collective ability to tolerate and appreciate diversity. It is time to do away with nationalist and religious indoctrinations, and adopt policies that are pro-people’s development in every democratic and liberal term. Being critical does not mean one is anti-Pakistan or anti-Islam; in fact, it should have more to do with keeping in view the best interests and prosperity of the people of Pakistan.

Pakistan - Interview - “The Paris attack is a copy of the tactics used by Lashkar-e-Taiba

By Ather Naqvi, Farah Zia

Ahmed Rashid puts the Paris attacks in context and explains what it means for the Western world and the rest,

The News on Sunday: What is the context and significance of the Paris attacks?

Ahmed Rashid: This is not an isolated incident. It follows the bombing of the Russian plane, the Beirut and Ankara bombings, and lastly Paris — all in the space of the last eight weeks. To many commentators, this means the ISIS has declared war on the West in the same way as Osama did before 9/11 and then carried out 9/11. But I don’t think so. I think what the ISIS is doing is that it is punishing those countries that have been part of the coalition that is bombing it. And we can expect more punishing attacks against other countries.

ISIS is not acting in a defeatist mode. And by these tactics it can split the coalition; it can try and get the countries to leave the coalition. But the reaction so far seems to be that every country is going to step up the bombing of the ISIS. This makes it very different from al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda wanted to destroy the West and the capitalist system. It wanted to accentuate the West’s problems vis-a-vis the Arab states, etc.

The second thing to note is how this attack copies the tactics used by Lashkar-e-Taiba and the anti-Indian groups. And if we compare it to the Mumbai attacks of 2008, the splitting of the group into three teams, the very good reconnaissance of soft targets, the use of hand weapons and suicide bombings as the last resort, it is very similar. It also shows the ideological bent of the ISIS: they are not out there to commit suicide. They are using the old tactics which was to fight to the death. But they carry suicide belt so that they blow themselves up and be not captured. That is something they want to avoid. If they can’t be killed, they will kill themselves.

TNS: You have written about it in your recent piece in The New York Review of Books. Is it just on the level of inspiration or is the LeT involved in a more physical way with ISIS?

AR: There is no evidence to suggest that the LeT is a part of the ISIS. But I think as a tactic of war, they are very impressed [with Let]. Of course, such attacks are very complicated. You have got to get explosives, guns, bomb makers and trained personnel to use those weapons. For ISIS, to do all this in the heart of Europe is complicated. It is not like training someone in Iraq’s desert which is very easy to do compared to this.

TNS: To go back to what you said about al-Qaeda and ISIS and how they are different, is ISIS more serious about establishing a caliphate and this is only a reaction?

AR: Al-Qaeda’s aim was to first fight the faraway enemy — to fight the United States and to topple capitalism. They wanted to destroy the economic system of the West. And that is why those towers were chosen as they were in the heart of the financial system of the United States. I don’t think the ISIS is saying to the West we want to topple you and destroy your capitalist system. ISIS would probably describe these attacks as part of a defensive and not as an offensive strategy.

I think the entire focus at the moment is at defending the territory they have captured and to capture more territory, to spread wider in the Muslim world. We have seen them in Afghanistan; it seems they are in Bangladesh, they’re expanding in South Asia. I don’t think they will be very successful here. Nevertheless, they do want to expand across the Muslim world.

Read also: Europe’s open borders now a slippery slope

TNS: Do you think this attack would weaken the ISIS in some way?

AR: What we have seen in the last forty eight hours is complete reluctance of the Western countries to put boots on the ground. Unless there is a commitment to put troops in, either to help the Iraqi government or the Kurds or the Syrian moderate opposition, we have seen a very trepid response so far from the West. Obama seems to have made that clear. Obviously, they have stepped up bombing but we all know that, after Iraq and after Afghanistan, bombing is not a sufficient answer.

TNS: Why this reluctance at this point in time?

AR: Obama wants to leave a legacy whereby he has pulled out US troops from around the world. It’s essentially a non-interventionist policy. He’s got fourteen months to go for his presidency. So, there is huge reluctance not to speak of the financial cost and there is a very strong anti-war lobby in the US. They have to be very careful because you can’t judge at the moment which way the US public will go. The sense of all this is that after all these useless wars, which they have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, they have yielded very little in terms of stability. Obama is reluctant to put troops on the ground and no European country is going to do this on its own. So, the US is now going to be the deciding factor.

What I hope and what should happen and can happen is that the US and Russia come back together again and evolve a common strategy, what these Vienna talks are hoping to do. If the next round of Vienna talks is successful and after Paris we see the Russian coalition (with Iran) and the American coalition joining hands and taking on the ISIS collectively, that could be a huge improvement.

TNS: When you talk about bringing the US and Russia together as a unified front, do you mean looking at some kind of a diplomatic solution of this problem?

AR: There are two very big cleavages today. The first is the superpower cleavage which is between Russia and America as America has imposed sanctions on Russia because of Ukraine and Russia is backing Assad, prolonging Assad’s rule. It has put troops on the ground, it is bombing, etc. The US is opposed to all this.

The second cleavage is even more dangerous — the regional cleavage between the Arab states and Iran. The Arab states consider Iran to be a greater threat than ISIS. By Arab I mean the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia, their coalition is fighting not against the ISIS but in Yemen. Many people would say that this is a complete waste of time and effort. The Arab states, which are committed to fighting the ISIS and early this year did send in bombers and air force etc., have moved out of the coalition and are focused against Yemen. That cleavage also needs to be healed. Iran is to take some positive steps to convince the Arabs that they are not trying to infiltrate into the Arab peninsula. The Arabs also need to take some positive steps towards Iran, acknowledging the nuclear deal and welcoming Iran and stop harassing the Shia populations in their territories.

So, if these two cleavages are dealt with now and healed, we could see a diplomatic solution to Syria happen quite soon. And that would be of enormous help.

TNS: Are these cleavages going to fall in the purview of the Vienna talks?

AR: It is too early to say if these cleavages are going to fall within the purview of Vienna talks. I was at a conference in the Gulf recently. Even after Paris, the antagonism against Iran by these Arab states is very severe. It will need a lot more diplomacy and measures taken by both sides before this gulf is bridged. A political solution in Syria will change the whole scenario against the ISIS. It would bring about a legitimate government in Syria, which could then ask for help from the Arab states, from the West — to combat the ISIS and regain its lost territory.

Related article: The Paris wakeup call

TNS: It took quite some time to weaken al-Qaeda. How long is it going to take to destroy the ISIS?

AR: It is very difficult to say but the answer lies in what kind of unity the world is going to show against the ISIS. Remember the alliance against al-Qaeda after the 9/11. It was the whole world, including Russia. Don’t forget Nato was part of the deal and no Muslim country was left out. You have a very different situation right now where half of the world is not with the Americans; it is with the Russians. Big powers like India don’t want to get involved. They are standing out. India was giving help to America during the 9/11. So, we are looking at a very different scenario compared to 9/11.

TNS: Is it also time to look back, on the making of the ISIS and the conditions under which it came into being?

AR: I agree. ISIS has come about because of the accumulation of mistakes made by the Bush administration and its failure to rebuild Iraq after conquering Iraq and laying claim to it and allowing the situation in Syria to fester. For example, if the Vienna process had started three years ago, we would not have been in this mess. There wouldn’t be an ISIS, if we had a Russia-US rapprochement two-three years ago to save Syria.

The fact is that everybody stepped back from Syria and let the civil war continue. You know the price the Syrians have paid; half their population has become refugees and three to four hundred thousand people have been killed. It is tragic but perhaps this is not exactly the moment to start reflecting on whose mistake it was. But, historically and academically, it would be proved that the Americans really messed it up very badly.

TNS: What repercussions do you see for the Muslims in Paris and Europe, especially the refugees, the immigrants?

AR: I think the main impact is going to be on the refugee policy. This welcoming of refugees in many of the European countries is going to end. It has already ended. Sweden, the second most-friendly country to refugees after Germany, has put up border control. So has Austria. And it is going to lead to huge confrontation because the flow is not going to stop but the limits as to where this flow would go and how it will be dispersed is going to stop. And we are already reading that the Germans have sent back hundreds of Afghans who they think are economic refugees and many Pakistanis are likely to be sent back.

TNS: What do you think should be the response of the Muslims living in the West now? Is there going to be a change?

AR: There was a wonderful statement by a maulvi in Lyon or somewhere yesterday, who was saying that everybody now looks at us Muslims with suspicion and stares at us as though we were a foreign body but he said he was as much French as anyone else with a white skin. So, they have to act responsibly and convince the people around what our faith stands for.

That is a very warming message. They have to integrate better into the French society. I was saying the other day that none of these European countries who had colonial empires and who imported labour from their previous colonies have had a productive, positive integrationist policy. All their policies for creating the so-called integration have been a big failure. There is so much ghettoisation. Muslim populations are shut into a corner; they can’t seem to get ahead, educate their children, integrate, etc. So, we are dealing with a Europe which has actually failed completely. They all have different policies but no policy has been a success.

Right now, Europe is faced with two challenges: one is to evolve a new integration policy which actually does integrate Muslim communities into the mainstream and then, secondly, deal with these migrants on an emergency basis.

Imagine what would happen if a fascist or neo-fascist party came to power in Europe? It would be very serious.

http://tns.thenews.com.pk/attack-copy-tactics-used-let-interview-ahmed-rashid/#.Vlh4c3arSUk

ASEEFA BHUTTO VISITS RESIDENCE OF SHAHEED PILOT MARIUM MUKHTIAR

 

Aseefa B Zardari‏@AseefaBZ

Met with #MariumMukhtiar family they raised an amazing woman she is an inspiration to women and girls across Pakistan. I salute Marium

Aseefa Bhutto Zardari visited the residence of Shaheed Marium Mukhtiar, the first female fighter jet pilot who embraced martyrdom during a mission near Mianwali, in Malir Cantonment and offered Fateha and condolence to the bereaved family today.
Talking to Mukhtiar Ahmed Shaikh father of the martyred jet pilot and her other family members, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari paid glowing homage to Shaheed Marium Mukhtar adding that her martyrdom raised the heads high of entire Pakistani nation especially the women. She told the bereaved family that “they raised an amazing woman, she is an inspiration to women and girls across Pakistan. I salute Marium,”.
Aseefa Bhutto Zardari said that it was a dream-turned-mission of her mother and former Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto that women of Pakistan play their role shoulder-by-shoulder with the men for the development, progress and defence of the country.
One of her family members requested Aseefa Bhutto Zardari for renaming a school by Shaheed Marium Mukhtar to which she agreed to take efforts.
Aseefa Bhutto Zardari sympathized with the members of martyr’s family and remained with them for quite some time to share their grief.

https://ppppunjab.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/aseefa-bhutto-zardari-visits-residence-of-shaheed-pilot-marium-mukhtiar/