The Mullah-Military Takeover of Pakistan

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

A Musharraf-Saeed alliance could provide the political face of the mullah-military takeover underway in Pakistan.

It might still be premature to read too much into former military dictator Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf talking about a political alliance with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). Not because these groups are officially banned in Pakistan, but because Musharraf is a largely irrelevant political entity these days.

However, events of recent weeks suggest that the unlikely merger of the Musharraf-led “grand alliance of 23 political parties” with the Hafiz Saeed-led proscribed groups would perfectly symbolize the mullah-military takeover of Pakistan.

Four days before the state surrendered to radical Islamist thugs in the capital, the Lahore High Court review board refused to extend Saeed’s 10-month detention period owing to “lack of evidence.” Saeed’s release, coupled with the civil-military leadership kowtowing to a radical Islamist group that has already contested two by-elections in the country, is the formal completion of the political mainstreaming of jihadists in Pakistan.

This mainstreaming has not only been planned by the military leadership, it has also been pushed by them, resulting in the Dawn Leaks episode last year, from which the civilian government never managed to recover.

On cue, the JuD’s first statements following Saeed’s release was accusing the government of “taking orders from India” to further delegitimize the civilian leaders as “anti-national.” Fittingly, Saeed also confirmed that he will be taking part in the 2018 elections under the banner of the Milli Muslim League (MML) – the latest LeT/JuD offshoot, which is yet to be registered by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The military’s support to the Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) protesters was epitomized by the video of the DG Rangers handing out cash coupons to those prisoners released as per agreement with the state.

For the military establishment, bolstering these Islamist groups not only dents the vote bank of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which 12 months ago was the overwhelming favourite to win the 2018 elections with an even bigger majority. Giving formal political shape to the decades-old mullah-military nexus also further aids the military’s strategic interests in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

This is where Musharraf joining hands with Hafiz Saeed to represent a mega coalition of Islamists and the fringe parties that he already has on board would carry symbolic value, if nothing else.

The ongoing treason trial against Musharraf, which the former army chief escaped from, was among the first sources of conflict after PML-N took over in 2013. Musharraf has further been declared an absconder in the murder case of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.  And so for a former army chief, who has been sanctioned as an absconder in cases pertaining to breaching the Constitution and killing a former elected prime minister, to return to Pakistan and head a political coalition would complete civilian subjugation to the Army.

Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) is among the parties that are a part of Musharraf’s coalition. PAT had joined the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) in 2014 to demand then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation in a four month long protest in the capital – a plot backed by a section of the military establishment.

Qadri is now in Lahore, plotting the overthrowing of the Punjab government, which has been targeted by a damning report of the leaders’ involvement in the 2014 Model Town killings.

Even so, Musharraf’s coalition, even if it takes MML on board, or the potential resumption of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) – an alliance of nationwide Islamist parties – would do little in terms of electoral damage, let alone have a chance of forming the government following next year’s elections.

That means that the military establishment’s main player would remain the PTI and its chief Imran Khan, who have not only gone toe-to-toe with the PML-N in by-elections over the past four years, but have gained the most from the PML-N’s losses in recent months.

And so, what the military leadership is ideally looking at is a PTI government with perhaps a Musharraf and/or Saeed-led coalition a part of the opposition – just to rub in who’s actually in charge, if nothing else.

Why #Pakistan Is Hyphenating #Palestine and #Kashmir

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

The rest of the world has long distanced itself from the Islamist struggle in Kashmir – unlike Palestine.

In his meeting with Palestinian ambassador Walid A.M. Abu Ali on Tuesday, Pakistan Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa said that “Pakistan views the unresolved Palestine issue at par with the Kashmir issue.”

In the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also juxtaposed Palestine and Kashmir, maintaining that Israeli control over Palestine is similar to Indian occupation of Kashmir.

Similar efforts were witnessed on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly in September, where Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif met Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit to express “grave concern on the ongoing situation in Palestine and occupied Kashmir.”

The conflation perhaps got a bit carried away when the Pakistani envoy to the United Nations presented a picture from Gaza to make Islamabad’s case for Kashmir.

While Pakistan has always maintained that it sees the Palestinian issue with the same lens as Kashmir, it has traditionally been a gesture to highlight how important the former is for Islamabad. However, not only has Pakistan upped the ante on hyphenating the two in recent years, it seems to be using the Palestine cause as a vehicle for its narrative on Indian-administered Kashmir.

This has been visible since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel earlier this year, which not only symbolized tighter ties between the two states, but also gave birth to outrageous conspiracy theories in Pakistan.

Modi’s trip also had multiple joint references to “terrorism” affecting India and Israel, as exemplified by the Israeli foreign ministry’s reiteration of “mutual cooperation in the fight against terrorism.” And since militancy in Palestine and Kashmir has metamorphosed from nationalist to Islamist nature, these vows for counterterror unity was an attempt to collectively delegitimize freedom fights in both regions.

With Islamist leaders orchestrating militancy in Kashmir being sanctioned by the West – like Syed Salahuddinand Hafiz Saeed, who was recently released by Lahore High Court – the rest of the world has long distanced itself from the Islamist struggle in Kashmir – unlike Palestine.

Pakistan has been instrumental in delegitimizing its own narrative on Kashmir, by backing jihadist usurpation of the indigenous freedom struggle and also curbing human rights in its own administered Kashmir.

This is why there hasn’t been a single UN Security Council resolution on Kashmir since 1957, and 47 on the Israel-Palestine issue.

By hyphenating Kashmir and Palestine, Pakistan is clearly bidding to bring its own narrative to the forefront. But what this is inadvertently doing is further damaging not only Islamabad’s own position, but also both struggles, by reducing the conflicts to the Muslim-non Muslim binary, which is the way the jihadists see them.

Relying on the Islamist card has long been Pakistan’s strategy not only to ensure that the jihadist groups it backs remain ideologically fueled, but also because it has not had a leg to stand on when it comes to human rights. This is not only true for Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Balochistan – two conflict areas – but also the rest of the country, where many fundamental rights are constitutionally curbed.

But Islamabad remains inconsistent even in the aforementioned Islamist binary, considering that China remains its economic lifeline while Beijing implements anti-Muslim policies, most notably in the Xinjiang region. That the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor connects Xinjiang and Balochistan at its two ends perfectly symbolizes not just disregard for human rights, but Islamabad’s own duplicity over a non-Muslim majority subjugating a Muslim separatist movement.

And yet, ironically, Pakistan’s own contradictions make the Kashmir-Palestine hyphenation a perfectly rational strategy.

Pakistan can’t speak up for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, obviously fearing Chinese backlash. And it can’t undo many human rights breaches at home since both Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Balochistan have separatist movements of their own, while the rest of the country is increasingly coming under the influence of the perilous mullah-military alliance.

Hence, Islamabad is pinning its hopes on Palestine to keep the Kashmir issue alive.

Pakistan moves to evict 21 foreign aid groups

By Munir Ahmed

Pakistan has ordered 21 foreign aid groups to wrap up their activities and prepare to leave after they failed to re-register under tough regulations introduced two years ago, officials said Thursday.

The officials said Open Society Foundations, the charity founded by George Soros, and the South Africa-based ActionAid were among the groups informed of the decision this week, without providing a complete list. The non-governmental organizations have been given two months to close their offices and vacate the country. The government is scrutinizing the documents of another 19 foreign aid groups to determine whether they should be allowed to remain in the country. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters.

Pakistan has long treated foreign aid groups with suspicion, fearing they could mask efforts to spy on the country. It stepped up its monitoring after the CIA used a vaccination campaign as a front to gather information on Osama bin Laden ahead of the U.S. commando raid that killed him in 2011.

Jonathan Birchall, the spokesman for Open Society Foundations, confirmed receiving a letter from the Interior Ministry rejecting the group’s re-registration. He declined to provide further details.

The group said Monday it was seeking clarification after the Interior Ministry told it and other organizations that they must halt operations in Pakistan within 60 days. It said that in 2015 Pakistan ordered all NGOs already operating in the country to register with the ministry, a process that entailed submitting detailed accounts of their funding.

“At the end of November, the Interior Ministry issued letters advising more than a dozen international NGOs that their applications to register had been rejected but giving no reasons. The affected organizations may lodge an appeal within 90 days, but it is not clear how this process will be managed,” Open Society Foundations said.

Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, which represents scores of foreign aid groups, says their work directly benefits about 29 million people in Pakistan. Foreign aid groups contributed some $285 million in funding for development and emergency relief in 2016, and employ over 5,000 local staff, it said.

The Open Society Foundations first started working in Pakistan in 2005, providing $3 million of emergency relief for victims of a devastating earthquake. It provided another $6 million in emergency funds after severe flooding in 2010.

#PPP mulls over reorganisation strategy in #Lahore

A meeting to discuss the reorganisational matters and mobilising party workers was held at Bilawal House in Lahore on Thursday. 

The meeting was presided over by the party's Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and attended by important leaders in the province including the party's Central Information Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, PPP's Central Punjab President Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, and PPP's Lahore President Mian Azizur Rehman Chan.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/172303-nab-to-use-interpol-to-bring-ishaq-dar-back-to-pakistan

#Pakistan - Corruption rampant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government

President Pakistan Peoples Party Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Humayun Khan has said that corruption is wide spread in KP Government and the Chief Minister KP and his cabinet is busy in charming Imran Niazi.

Humayun Khan said that Pervaiz Khattak also failed to complete quorum in KP Assembly. Accountability institutions have been locked and corruption is continued unchecked. Imran Niazi claim about education institutions in government sector are false as over a thousand government educational institutions have been closed down in the province.

He said that contracts of all natural resources have been given to Jahangir Tareen and all the money is being siphoned to Bani Gala. On one hand KP government is on a deforestation drive and millions of trees have been cut down and on the other billions have been gulped in the name of tree planting drive. Imran Niazi is a fake individual in every respect, Humayun Khan concluded.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/corruption-rampant-in-kp-government-humayun-khan/

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Blockade could push Yemen into 'humanitarian catastrophe': WFP

By Heba Kanso

Yemen, ravaged by war, hunger and disease, is seeing a spike in diphtheria cases that will inevitably erupt into a larger, deadly outbreak because so few people have been immunized, aid officials said on Wednesday.

At highest risk are children, who account for many of the more than 280 suspected diphtheria cases and 33 associated deaths reported as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Most of the cases and deaths involved children who had not been immunized against the disease, a contagious and potentially fatal bacterial infection that spreads easily, WHO said. “Left unchecked, diphtheria can cause devastating epidemics, mainly affecting children,” Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email.

The diphtheria spread is inevitable in Yemen due to low vaccination rates, lack of access to medical care and so many people moving around and coming in contact with those infected, said WHO and officials with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

Civil war in the Middle Eastern country, which lies at the tip of the Arabian peninsula south of Saudi Arabia, has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than two million others. Diphtheria spreads as easily as the common cold through sneezing, coughing or even talking, according to health officials.

Yemen also is battling a cholera epidemic that has infected about one million people. The epidemic, which worsened this past April, has caused more than 2,000 deaths, WHO said in October. Diphtheria could be more fatal than cholera, especially among unvaccinated children under 5 years old, according to MSF. As many as two in five diphtheria cases end in death, MSF said. “There is the potential for a larger-scale outbreak of diphtheria, given that not everyone has been vaccinated,” said Marc Poncin, emergency coordinator in Yemen for the medical charity, also by email.

Calling it “very worrisome,” Caroline Boustany, an aid worker with the International Rescue Committee, told the Foundation: “We have a spike in cases of a very easily preventable disease.” Yemen also faces soaring food prices and fuel shortages, and some 8.4 million Yemenis are considered to be a step away from famine, the United Nations said on Monday.

A Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen’s civil war blockaded ports last month. The blockade has eased, but its impact limited supplies of desperately needed fuel, food and medicine, aid officials say. “Even for patients who want to seek treatment, the blockade on fuel and consequent surge in prices means that they cannot afford to travel to the very few health centers still operational,” said Poncin of MSF.

Israeli Intel Minister to Saudi Media: Israel Can Strike Iranian Missile Plants in Lebanon, 'As Is Happening in Syria'

Noa Landau and Hagar Shezaf


Yisrael Katz invites Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit Israel ■ Describing Saudi Arabia as leader of Arab world, Katz proposes that kingdom would be sponsor of Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Intelligence Affairs Minister Yisrael Katz told Saudi Arabian media that Israel will act to prevent an Iranian military presence in Lebanon on Wednesday, and invited Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to visit Israel.

Katz confirmed to Haaretz that he extended the invitation in an interview to the Saudi online newspaper Elaph, however, the online publication chose to edit the invitation out.

Saudi Arabia does not have official diplomatic ties with Israel.

Describing Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Arab world, Katz proposed that the kingdom would be a sponsor of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Katz added that Israel would be happy to participate in such negotiations.

Katz said Israel is aware that Iran has been building weapons plants in Lebanon. "We have information that Iran is building advanced missile plants in Lebanon, and I want to emphasize that we have drawn a new red line, and we will not allow them to do this at any cost."

Asked by his interviewer whether Israel views the visit of an Iraqi militia leader to south of Lebanon as an Iranian attempt to send a message to Israel, Katz said Iran doesn't need to send a message, adding that Israel knows exactly what the Iranians are doing in the region. When his interviewer asked whether Israel could bomb the missile plants in Lebanon, Katz replied: "Yes. We will also act militarily and prevent them, as is happening in Syria."

"The more accurate that Hezbollah's missiles get, the stronger and wider Israel's strike will be. This time, all of Lebanon will be a target."
Referring to the Second Lebanon War that Israel fought against Hezbollah in 2006, Katz added: "What happened in 2006 will be a picnic compared to what we can do. I remember a Saudi minister saying they will send Hezbollah back to their caves in south Lebanon. I am telling you that we will return Lebanon to the Stone Age."
"At the same time, we don’t want war, and we have no interest in destroying Lebanon, but we will not accept a Lebanese assault on us. For example, I recently suggested to Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu that we act militarily and economically to implement [United Nations Security Council Resolution] 1701 that was adopted unanimously after the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and that we apply sanctions on Hezbollah and Iran and that, under the leadership of the United States and with the consent of China and Russia, we intervene militarily if there is a need."

Katz continued: "The prime minister spoke about this with French President [Emmanuel] Macron and with the European Union. This is a decision that was taken unambiguously, and instead of adopting new resolutions, we will invoke this to deprive Hezbollah of its weapons. The Arab League considers Hezbollah as a terrorist organization as does Saudi Arabia [as does] Egypt and Jordan. The entire world. And in my view, this is a particularly excellent opportunity following [Lebanese Prime Minister] Saad Hariri's decision and his resignation from Saudi Arabia," a decision that Hariri has since retracted. "In practice, he pulled the rug out from under Hezbollah and Iran," Katz said.

Also on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman commented on U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying that the Palestinians have a right to East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Salman made his comments as Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Istanbul to discuss Trump's decision.

King Salman appointed his son, 32-year-old Mohammad bin Salman, also known by his initials MBS, as Saudi Arabia's heir to the throne in June. Many expect that in the not-too-distant future, King Salman, who is elderly and ill, will step down and hand the scepter to bin Salman.

The prince's firm anti-Iranian position makes him an important partner to the U.S. and Israel. Several Arab websites have reported in the past few years that bin Salman has met with several top Israelis.

According to these reports, one such meeting took place in Eilat in 2015; another on the margins of the Arab summit in Jordan this March, and there are regular meetings between Saudi and Israeli officers in the joint war room where Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United States coordinate.

Last month, Elaph published an unprecedented interview with the Israeli military chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, marking the first time any senior Israel Defense Forces officer, let alone the chief of staff, was interviewed by a media organization in Saudi Arabia.

In the interview, Eisenkot called Iran the "real and largest threat to the region." He said Israel and Saudi Arabia are in complete agreement about Iran's intentions and noted that the two countries have never fought each other.

read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.828759

China slams HRW’s report on alleged Xinjiang human rights violations

By Li Ruohan

China on Wednesday slammed a report that accused the country of violating human rights by collecting DNA samples in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, saying there's no need to spend time on such false statements. 

According to a Wednesday report from the New York-based Human Rights Watch, authorities in Xinjiang are collecting DNA samples, fingerprints, iris scans and blood types of all residents in the region between the age of 12 and 65, quoting experts as saying it's "a gross violation of international human rights norms."

Collecting such information has been partly advocated in Xinjiang, such as the cities of Yining and Korla, since the second half of the year, for accurate demographic and diverse biological information in the regions, government documents show. For instance, in Korla, photos and finger prints are collected and will be included in the new version of ID cards, while DNA, iris and blood type information will be entered in a local biological database, government documents show. 

In Yining, such information would be collected for a demographic database to help accurately identify people and for information-sharing among government departments.

China's government has the right to take measures it deems as proper to protect national security, and the collection of such information is not harmful to the residents, nor does it affect people's rights, Turgunjan Tursun, a professor at Zhejiang Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Such measures, as well as the collecting of fingerprints in other cities in China, help secure public security, and claims of human rights violations are groundless, he added. 

The organization has always made false statements on issues involving China and I suggested there's no need to spend time on such remarks, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily briefing on Wednesday.

"Xinjiang has witnessed economic development and social stability, and the people there are living and working in a joyful mood, a scene that some people overseas might be unwilling to see," Lu said.

China's government will continue to protect the national unity and the prosperity in the region and promote the development of the region, he added.

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GOP Committing Political Suicide As Two-Thirds Of America Think Tax Proposal Is A Scam

By Sean Colarossi 

The poll comes as GOP lawmakers have reportedly come to an agreement on a final plan they believe would have the votes to pass through Congress.

Donald Trump and Republicans marched forward with their tax plan on Wednesday, fresh off a stunning defeat in the Alabama senate race, but a new poll shows that most of the country believes the proposal is a massive scam. According to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, nearly two-thirds of the country – 64 percent – oppose the GOP bill, which has been exposed as a massive handout to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of middle and low-income folks.

The numbers are worse when independents weigh in on the plan, as 70 percent of that voting bloc opposes the proposal. Unsurprisingly, 89 percent of Democratic respondents say the legislation is garbage. A majority are also against the central staple of the plan: lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, which is the proposed rate under the new plan.

The poll comes as GOP lawmakers have reportedly come to an agreement on a final plan they believe would have the votes to pass through Congress. As The Hill reported on Wednesday, “Senate and House Republicans have struck an ‘agreement in principle’ on a sweeping tax-cut bill that if passed would be the first major piece of legislation signed by President Trump.” The report notes that Republican leaders believe they could pass the proposal as early as next week, just before the Christmas holiday.

If the GOP thinks that they will improve their political fortunes by passing a tax scam that the vast majority of the country doesn’t want and has been exposed as a massive handout to the wealthiest individuals and corporations, they will be in for a rude awakening come Nov. 2018.

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USA Today bashes Trump as ‘not fit to clean the toilets’ in Obama’s presidential library

USA Today isn’t known for its blistering opinion pieces. Which makes the one the paper’s editorial board just published on President Donald Trump all the more savage.

“With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office,” reads the editorial. “Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low.”

The reference here is Trump’s tweet Tuesday morning in which he said that Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York was “begging” him for campaign contributions not long ago “and would do anything for them.”

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!

8:03 AM - Dec 12, 2017

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White House press secretary Sarah Sanders insisted Tuesday that only people with their minds “in the gutter” could possibly conclude that there was sexual innuendo in that tweet language.

The USA Today editorial didn’t buy that explanation.

“A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush,” reads the piece.”This isn’t about the policy differences we have with all presidents or our disappointment in some of their decisions. Obama and Bush both failed in many ways. They broke promises and told untruths, but the basic decency of each man was never in doubt.”

This is not the first time that the editorial board at USA Today has made its views on Trump’s fitness for office known.

In September 2016, the editorial board broke with its long-standing tradition of not endorsing a candidate in presidential elections by penning an editorial entitled “Trump is ‘unfit for the presidency.” It wasn’t so much an endorsement of Hillary Clinton as it was an anti-endorsement of Trump.

“This year, the choice isn’t between two capable major party nominees who happen to have significant ideological differences,” read the piece. “This year, one of the candidates — Republican nominee Donald Trump — is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.”

Trump — and his allies — will undoubtedly cite that history as a way to lump USA Today’s editorial board in with the biased liberal news media who hate the President so much that they are blind to the everyday realities of the average American.

And, for a chunk of Republicans loyal to Trump, that rhetoric will work. But USA Today is far from a reactionary leftist operation. And the disdain dripping from every word of the editorial board’s condemnation of the president is truly searing.

These words, which end the editorial, are particularly striking: “A president who shows such disrespect for the truth, for ethics, for the basic duties of the job and for decency toward others fails at the very essence of what has always made America great.”

http://wgntv.com/2017/12/13/usa-today-bashes-trump-as-not-fit-to-clean-the-toilets-in-obamas-presidential-library/

#AlabamaSenateElection - Roy Moore Loses, Sanity Reigns

That Alabama’s voters chose Doug Jones for the United States Senate is cause for celebration. A triumph for decency and common sense in a state that seemed for a time at risk of abandoning both, Mr. Jones’s win narrows the Republicans’ Senate majority and delivers a deeply deserved rebuke to President Trump. It is hard to get too intoxicated by a slim victory over an atrocious candidate, a suspected sexual abuser with bigoted politics, but Alabama, the Senate and the nation will be a whole lot better off with Mr. Jones than with Roy Moore.

Alabama’s deep-red politics argued against Mr. Jones’s chances. A former federal prosecutor, Mr. Jones won convictions of two Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four girls, and no Democrat had won a Senate race in two decades. But a report in The Washington Post in which four women accused Mr. Moore of sexually harassing or abusing them as teenagers turned the race into a close contest. Mr. Jones’s victory came thanks to overwhelming support from Alabama’s African-American voters.

Mr. Jones received support from various luminaries, including Barack Obama, as well as an unexpected assist from Alabama’s senior senator, Richard Shelby, a Republican. “I couldn’t vote for Roy Moore,” Mr. Shelby said. “The state of Alabama deserves better.” Maybe it shouldn’t count as statesmanship to oppose a cartoonishly unfit candidate, but during the degrading and hyperpolitical Trump presidency, it does. Mr. Moore’s campaign has been a shame for Alabama, one of the nation’s poorest states, whose need for better-paying jobs, health care, education and infrastructure he almost entirely neglected. He did not abandon the race even as the sex abuse charges multiplied; instead, aided by the political nihilist Steve Bannon, he doubled down, insisting the women were lying, part of a plot by the “establishment” and “fake news” to prevent him from changing Washington.

Mr. Moore was twice removed from Alabama’s Supreme Court, once for flouting a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument that he’d commissioned for the court building, later for ignoring the United States Supreme Court’s protection of gay marriage by ordering Alabama probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses, saying it was their “ministerial duty.” After that uproar, he decided to run for the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, when Mr. Trump appointed him attorney general.

Mr. Moore repulsed many Alabamians even before the campaign. He has referred to Native Americans and Asians as “reds and yellows,” called gay people “perverts” and homosexuality “an inherent evil,” and falsely claimed that Shariah law exists in Illinois and Indiana. Until Mr. Moore (and Mr. Trump) came along, it was difficult to find many candidates so unfit that credible charges of child molestation could seem only the latest disqualifying feature. Their popularity underscores some Christian conservatives’ seeming determination to apply the law, constitutional or moral, only to their opponents. Some Republicans have taken to describing Mr. Moore as a type of biblical plague visited upon them. That ignores the complicity of a party in thrall to its extremists. At every pivotal moment, Mr. Moore was aided by party leaders unwilling to take a united, moral stand against him.

“Roy Moore will always vote with us,” Mr. Trump tweeted on Election Day. Alabamians said there was more at stake in this race, choosing a candidate whose record was cause for pride, not shame, one who spent his career battling bigotry, not exploiting it.

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Amnesty Germany protests over forced disappearances in Pakistan

Afnan Khan

An urgent appeal issued by Amnesty International’s Germany chapter demanded the government of Pakistan to produce missing human rights activist Raza Khan who has been reported missing by his family and friends since December 2, 2017.

A German group of Amnesty International Hagen organized a march protesting over the trend of forced disappearances of human rights and political activists in Pakistan urging the government to produce the abducted people and try all the accused through the due process of law.

The protestors were demanding Pakistan authorities to end the environment of impunity that the state’s law enforcement agencies enjoy in terms of abducting and torturing the civilian citizens.

An urgent appeal issued by Amnesty International’s Germany chapter demanded the government of Pakistan to produce missing human rights activist Raza Khan who has been reported missing by his family and friends since December 2, 2017.

The statement added that Raza Khan, a rights activist based in Lahore was actively involved in different peace initiatives and human rights campaigns raising fears that he might have been subject to an enforced disappearance.

Amnesty added that over recent years, enforced disappearances – once limited to the restive parts of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces – have spread deep into Pakistan’s main urban centres.

Pakistan’s Commission on Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances received nearly 300 cases of alleged enforced disappearances from August to October 2017, by far the largest number in a three-month period in recent years.

Over the past two months, Amnesty International has received credible reports of an alarming number of disappearances of Baloch students and activists. Amnesty International has already started to send letters to the government officials including the Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Inspector General of Punjab Police urging them to order an immediate investigation into Raza Khan’s fate and whereabouts while keeping his family fully informed and updated on the issue. The rights activists are also seeking immediate, impartial, independent and efficient investigation into this and all other possible enforced disappearances while publicly disclosing the findings and bringing anyone suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials. Amnesty International also urged Pakistan authorities to end the practice of enforced disappearances and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance while ensuring that the activists, human rights defenders, journalists, academics and members of the political opposition are able to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association.

The Amnesty group, which works on the issue of enforced disappearances in Pakistan was previously focusing on the abduction of an activist Wahid Baloch, who was abducted July 26 last year from Karachi and was later released after a campaign launched by the Amnesty International for his recovery.

The Amnesty Hagen specialises on the issue of forced disappearances in Pakistan and is seeking release of hundreds, if not thousands, of activists across the country. The group is demanding immediate information about the whereabouts of Masood Janjua, a 45-year-old businessman from Rawalpindi, Atiq-ur Rehman, a nuclear scientist, Shabbir Baloch (24), a student activist, and key figures of a student organization named BSO-Azaad, Zakir Majeed Baloch, an activist, and scores of other missing persons mainly from Balochistan.

The Amnesty Hagen group organizers told Daily Times that they specialize in the cases of torture and disappearances in Balochistan province and last year they had organized an exhibition in Germany about the lives and activities of many missing activists in Pakistan from 31.10.2016 to 21.12.2016.

They mentioned that the group joined the campaigns for the release of many activists in Pakistan including Wahid Baloch, who was later released by the security agencies. However, they are still awaiting the news about many missing persons including Zakir Baloch who was picked up by men wearing plain clothes in front of Wahid Baloch in year 2009 and was never released or informed about. The protestors in Hagen, Germany also collected 113 signed letters from the German citizens for Pakistani authorities to ensure the release of missing persons across the country. The activists showed concerns over the fact that victims of these enforced disappearances were at high risk of torture and even death, whereas not a single perpetrator of these abductions could be brought to justice till date. The human rights activists were also alarmed by The Commission on Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances receiving nearly 300 cases of alleged enforced disappearances from August to October 2017 in Pakistan, expressing that this was by far the largest number in a three-month period in recent years.

The German rights activists also pointed that the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances had stated in 2012 that there was “a climate of impunity in Pakistan with regard to enforced disappearances, and the authorities are not sufficiently dedicated to investigate cases of enforced disappearances and hold the perpetrators accountable.”

They added that Amnesty International believes that this situation has not improved over the past five years and rather leads to deteriorating circumstances under current developments.

Leading rights activist and former Amnesty International South Asia researcher Mustafa Qadri stated that it is a serious concern that those responsible for the apparent enforced disappearance of individuals exercising their peaceful right to freedom of opinion, belief and expression continue to operate with impunity.

He added that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has itself acknowledged the role of state authorities in perpetrating at least some of these violations, which are a crime under international law. That may explain why the state has been so poor at seeking justice for victims of enforced disappearance.

“The repercussions are significant: failure to recover the victims alive and to ensure those responsible are brought to justice sends a chilling signal that the perpetrators can get away with literally disappearing people”, he warned.

Qadri, who is also known for his well acclaimed report about CIA’s drone strikes in Afghanistan-Pakistan region, was of the view that Human rights defenders are critical to a safe, just and open society because they shine a light of accountability on those within the state and broader society who commit abuses and other unethical practices. That is why activists are targeted – to prevent them from exposing the faults of those who know their actions are illegal and therefore should be prosecuted.

He urged people to write to their parliamentarians demanding justice for the victims of enforced disappearances. People living in EU countries should contact their state officials to ensure they demand answers from Pakistan – the country receives favourable trade preferences from the EU that are tied to meeting its fundamental human rights obligations: that includes preventing torture, and other violations associated with enforced disappearance.

Pakistan - Peace activist Raza - Another one goes missing

Sher Ali Khalti

On December 2, around 15 youngsters gathered at Lowkey Lokai, a public space located in Al-Qadir Heights, Lahore, all concerned about the ever-deteriorating political condition of the country. They discussed the future and who would protect citizens if the civil and military forces played against each other? They also discussed the narratives furthered by Barelvi militancy in the context of extremism. It was an open debate. Youngsters presented their points of view on the occasion, discussed the clerics’ role in the country, and after this discussion ended, returned home.

The same evening, Raza Mahmood Khan’s fellow activists tried to reach him by phone but found that it was switched off. Raheem Ul Haq, who is a very close friend of Raza, and a teacher and activist, decided to search for him in person, along with his other friends. They reached his house and found it locked from outside but the light was on. Raza’s friends had the lock broken in the presence of Naseerabad Lahore’s police. All his belongings were present in his room except his computer.

Raza belongs to a very humble family of Kasur and has always maintained a low profile. But what might have brought him to prominence recently is the fact that he had become a torchbearer of peace, particularly between Pakistan and India.

An FIR was registered against unknown persons on the complaint of Raza’s brother Hamid Nasir Mahmood. According to Hamid, the police were reluctant to register the First Investigation Report (FIR) for unknown reasons, but after repeated efforts Raza’s friends and family members managed to have this formality completed.

Hamid says the whole family is disturbed because of Raza’s abduction, who he says is a loving person always ready to help out others. “We are worried about his fate and are having sleepless nights since the day he was abducted,” says his brother. He requests the government of Pakistan and the provincial government to make efforts for his early recovery.

Raza’s friends are also equally worried for him. Safia Bukhari, an activist who has always remained in touch with him, says he is a hardcore peace activist. “We have been working for peace in the country as a team. We want to bring people from all religions close to one another, and our purpose is to eliminate hatred based on religions, class and other biases.” She adds that Raza is an advocate of peace in South Asian Association Regional Countries (SAARC) and aims to eliminate poverty, extremism, terrorism and illiteracy in this region which has suffered endlessly due to wars and mutual conflicts.

For many there is curiosity about who Raza is and from where he has come, besides they want to know what were his activities that might have created risks for him. Was he a person who had nurtured enemies, had developed family feuds or was he just a peacemonger?

The details are that Raza belongs to a very humble family of Kasur and has always maintained a low profile. But what might have brought him to prominence recently is the fact that he had become a torchbearer of peace, particularly between Pakistan and India. He would never miss a protest or demonstration carried out to press for human rights and friendship.

Diep Saeeda, Chairperson of the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies (IPSS) says Raza was a member of Aghaz-e-Dosti/ Beginning of Friendship initiative. The organisation named after this initiative works for peace between the people of India and Pakistan. She says since Raza disappeared after attending a session on extremism, it creates some doubts about who could have been his abductors.

She shares it with TNS that she will stage protests across the country for the safe recovery of Raza. “A writ petition will also be filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) besides contacting the interior ministry and Justice retired Javaid Iqbal who is the head of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance. A forceful campaign shall be launched for the early recovery of Raza. Every single day that passes will be disastrous and may lead to irreparable harm to him,” she fears.

The common stance of several human rights activists and civil society organisations gathered under the platform of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is that such disappearances are unconstitutional, implying he has been picked by organisations working for the state. The fact that only his computer was taken away strengthen their belief. They stress no one is beyond the law, even the forces who pick or detain people for interrogation.

Why can’t they bring it to the notice of authorities that they are investigating a person, and follow prescribed procedures like presenting a person in the court and then taking his physical remand. Asad Jamal, an advocate struggling for human rights, says Enforced Disappearances are a sheer violation of human rights. “No-one is allowed to detain any person illegally. Unfortunately, the desire to punish people has seeped into our social fabric and is fuelled by the concept that the superior can punish the mediocre or inferior.”

Jamal states that it is the duty of the state to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens. “Even terrorists should be produced in court and provided legal rights to defend themselves according to the law,” he stresses. He believes only those found guilty in a court of law should be punished and not just anybody who is picked up and ‘disappeared’, without his relatives and near ones having a clue whether he is dead or alive.