#Pakistan - Persecution of Hazara minority must be stopped

By IMAD ZAFAR

Being a minority in a conservative or extremist society is the worst thing a community can experience. The Hazara community residing in the Pakistani city of Quetta, capital of Balochistan, is experiencing the worst surge of killings by Sunni outfits in five years. Life for them is all about praying that bullets will not kill them or their loved ones.

The Shiite Muslim Hazara community, which traces its origin to Afghanistan, has been the target of ethnic cleansing by terrorist outfits such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. They have been protesting for ages, but the authorities have never addressed the issue.

According to the latest report from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, around 509 members of the Hazara community have been killed over the past five years.

The Shiite-Sunni rift was brought to Pakistan in the 1980s by the military dictator General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq in a bid to legitimize martial law. Pakistan has since then been facing ethnic and sectarian wars between Shiites and Sunnis. Saudi Arabia and Iran have also fueled the violence in Pakistan by funding the religious clerics and seminaries of both sects.

Members of the Hazara community are easy to recognize, and extremist Sunni outfits, mostly backed by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, take advantage of this.

The people of this community are forced to live in separate colonies with high concrete walls surrounding them and multiple check posts at the entry gates, which make them like jails. They are advised by the law enforcement agencies not to roam freely in the city of Quetta and they usually stay at home after 8pm, as it is not safe to leave their residential areas after dark.

Their inability to move in different parts of the city has resulted in a lack of job opportunities and hurt them financially. Killings of Hazara people during the month of April have sparked widespread outrage in the community, and a female activist and lawyer, Jalila Haider, went on a hunger strike to protest against these acts of genocide.

On the other hand, the banned extremist group Lashkar-e-Jahngvi, which usually claims responsibility for the killings of Hazara people on the basis of their faith (declaring Shiites to be non-Muslims), is still distributing pamphlets against the Hazara community and vows to banish them completely from the country, as for them Shiites are non-believers and a great threat to their Sunni faith.

Meanwhile, the state is busy fighting against insurgency and unrest in Balochistan, and it seems that protecting the Hazara community is not a priority.

Shiites are not the only minority facing extremism and threats; Ahmadis, Christians, and Hindus are all subject to exploitation, and life for them in Pakistan mean just to live another day.

Ahmadis are a Muslim sect who follow Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as their prophet. They are deemed blasphemers and have to hide their identity most of the time in order to survive.

Hindu women in Thar, a desert area of Sindh province, are subject to forced marriages by landlords and other influential local people and forced conversion are also practiced against them.

The persecution of Christians mostly takes the form of accusations of blasphemy, and in most cases, the allegation is leveled against them to settle matters of personal enmity or for a small monetary gain.

While the world is discovering new methods and social contracts to make life easier for humanity, fanatics in Pakistan are busy day and night discovering new ways of making life difficult for their fellow human beings, and after doing this they still wonder why the world thinks of their nation as a terrorist state.

It is the height of hypocrisy that while settling abroad in Western countries, such people demand equal rights and freedom of expression. They criticize US President Donald Trump for being unjust to Muslims and Pakistanis but proudly usurp the rights of minorities in their own country. In fact, it is not only minorities, but any dissident voices that  do not buy a particular religious interpretation or agrees with a certain set of beliefs is accused of contempt or blasphemy.

The mindset of not listening to criticism and the belief that we are superior to all others because of our belief is actually the main cause of atrocities and injustice prevailing in society in the name of protecting religion or a certain sect. Sadly, it is not understood that truth needs no protection and no guardians to ensure it prevails. Reality can neither be changed nor destroyed by propaganda or the use of force.

Haider began her hunger strike despite the repeated promises by the interior minister of Balochistan, Mir Sarfraz Bugti, to address the issue and to take every possible step against the killings of Hazara people. Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javad Bajwa arrived in Quetta and on Wednesday, after meeting with members of the Hazara community, was able to persuade them to call off their protests, including Haider’s hunger strike. Soon after Bajwa’s visit, a suspect allegedly involved in the targeted killings of members of the community was arrested, and the Supreme Court of Pakistan took notice of the issue.

Whether Bajwa’s prompt response will stop the persecution of the Hazara community remains to be seen. It is not the duty of the chief of army staff to devise strategy and policies for structural changes in society. If the elected governments cannot even form policies to discourage the extremist mindset just because they fear the right-wing vote bank, then they cannot complain about democracy being undermined.

It is very easy to understand that in any society, there are different communities of people whose beliefs, ideologies and concepts of life are different from one another. This is the reason that modern states do not try to create a social fabric based on a religious narrative. In fact, in modern social structures, states do not have anything to do with the beliefs of the people living in their society. A social structure is always created to accommodate every single citizen so a society can be formed that is diverse in nature, is peaceful, and where every single human can live freely according to his own personal ideology.

There is a dire need for the state of Pakistan to stop the marginalization of minorities by playing a role in discouraging extremist mindsets and denouncing support toward religious clerics and extremists. It should try to promote a culture of debate on interfaith harmony and other sensitive issues related to religion and faith. It is time to eliminate banned outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, or else members of the Hazara community and other minorities will continue to suffer at the hands of these fanatics.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari invites PTI’s Imran Khan to hold public meeting at Hakeem Saeed ground in Karachi on May 12 and asks PPP Karachi Division to find another location to hold Jalsa

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has invited PTI’s Imran Khan to hold public meeting at Hakeem Saeed ground in Karachi on May 12 and asked PPP Karachi Division to find another location to hold Jalsa.

In a series of tweets and a statement, the PPP Chairman said that his Party’s 14 innocent and unarmed workers were martyred on May 12, 2007 during the struggle for restoration of judiciary. “To pay tribute to our martyrs, PPP planned to hold a Jalsa at Hakeem Saeed ground in district East, as most lives were lost in District East,” he added.
He said that PPP had applied for and received all necessary legal permissions. PTI always said they would hold a Jalsa at Mazar-e-Quaid on 12th May – not that they have anything to commemorate.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pointed out that while our preparations were on-going, PTI arbitrarily changed their Jalsa venue and set up a camp at our ground – which was a provocative step.
He said that stones were thrown at PPP workers from PTI’s camp. Our trucks were set on fire. PTI leader’s guards fired weapons. More than 20 PPP workers sustained considerable injuries.
PPP Chairman said that to attack us in such a way on this tragic day, is a sad commentary on the fascist tendencies of PTI and called for a complete enquiry to hold all those responsible accountable.
“PTI has shown such an appalling attitude. However in the interest of peace in Karachi, which we have fought so hard for, I not only ask my Party to find another location, but also invite PTI’s Imran Khan to hold his Jalsa at Hakeem Saeed ground,” he said adding that Karachi is our city – we can hold a Jalsa anywhere.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/05/08/bilawal-bhutto-zardari-invites-ptis-imran-khan-to-hold-public-meeting-at-hakeem-saeed-ground-in-karachi-on-may-12-and-asks-ppp-karachi-division-to-find-another-location-to-hold-jalsa/

Attack on Pakistan’s interior minister: the lynching of society

By IMAD ZAFAR

Pakistani Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal survived an assassination attempt on Sunday in his home town of Narowal. He suffered a bullet wound on his arm and narrowly escaped death.

The man in his early 20s who allegedly shot Iqbal was taken into police custody immediately, where he reportedly confessed that he attempted to murder Iqbal because of alleged blasphemy by the PML-N government.

The present government is being accused by the religious outfit Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan of trying to change the law related to the finality of prophethood in the guise of an election reform bill. Last November the extremist cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi led a sit-in at Faizabad, an entry point of the capital Islamabad, and virtually paralyzed the whole country. Eventually, the state surrendered to his demands and the law minister at the time, Zahid Hamid, was fired on the demand of Rizvi.

Every sane individual knows who was supporting the sit-in at Faizabad since the beginning; the use of proxies to get the desired result has actually brought us Pakistanis to a position where the whole world makes a mockery of us.

First Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was toppled by using the same proxy of religious clerics and by launching the famous Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) movement ultimately resulting in Bhutto’s ouster and hanging, but the cost we paid as a state and society for that adventure was too high.

Religious clerics brought in a culture of jihad and hatred against other sects and minorities in the country, resulting in the deadly bloodshed in the 1990s in the name of religion. It is Nawaz Sharif’s turn now and the religious card is being played again. The way things are going it seems that Sharif and his party will not even be able to run an election campaign amid more attacks from religious fanatics and banned outfits. Unfortunately, the cost of this adventure will be paid by generations to come in the form of more religious fundamentalism and violence.

Militants like Hafiz Saeed, Mullah Fazlullah and Omar Khalid Khorasani and many mullahs were patronized and perceived as strategic assets to counter enemies, but they actually became Frankenstein monsters and started killing their creators. Now history is being repeated again.

The Tehreek-e-Labbaik movement is playing the blasphemy card, and new strategic assets like Khadim Rizvi are being launched to counter political dissidents and progressive voices. Sadly, the establishment that controls and dictates the religious and defense narratives of the state is not willing to learn from past mistakes. It is also not willing to understand the simple point that the world is being ruled by logic and knowledge, not by weapons and religious beliefs.

In order to control and manipulate the state narratives, the mighty establishment has actually weakened the state itself by going against the basic ideologies of the founding father of the nation. The alliance of the establishment and mullahs has actually given birth to millions of potential extremists who are virtually ticking time bombs, it only being a matter of time before they explode and take everything down with them. We have seen it in the past – almost 70,000 people died in a decade as the result of this extreme mindset, and if we are still not ready to quit the habit of nurturing religious fanatics, then we will surely see many more dead bodies.

It is not the government or Sharif’s party that is losing, it is actually the state that is weakening. The fanatics, armed with sticks and stones and burning public property, attacking anyone who does not accept their narrative of religion and patriotism, are portraying an image of a failed state and society to the world.

It is not the government or Sharif’s party that is losing, it is actually the state that is weakening. The fanatics, armed with sticks and stones and burning public property, attacking anyone who does not accept their narrative of religion and patriotism, are portraying an image of a failed state and society to the world.

Using religion to gain authority or to counter the enemy has actually buried the concept of a “social state” and resulted in a state that is only hallucinating with countering conspiracies and threats that are actually not there in reality. After all, a society busy with self-destruction does not need any external threat or enemy to diminish it.

Ahsan Iqbal is a vocal political leader who strongly advocates civilian authority and often criticizes the role of the judiciary and military in undermining Pakistan’s civilian governments. Meanwhile Nawaz Sharif recently launched his election campaign accusing the mighty military establishment of political engineering, declaring them “aliens,” and openly told his supporters in a public gathering that his contest is not against any political opponent but against these “aliens.”

Some fear that the weekend attack on Sharif’s close aide Iqbal was the result of the direct fight between Sharif and the establishment and was a message for Sharif and his party members not to cross the red line. Some also believe that this attack also means that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will not be allowed to run its election campaign, paving the way for the electoral result desired by the establishment.

Alternatively, the general elections scheduled for July could be delayed by targeting a few more politicians citing law and order situations. In either scenario, it is the establishment that will benefit.

It may seem a temporary victory for the establishment, but this victory will have come at a very high price. The social fabric and structure of the Pakistani state is being destroyed in this fight. The trend of mob justice is being set and very soon establishment figures will understand that this trend will not even spare them.

The whole world is watching a nuclear state being held hostage to fanatics whose only motive in life is to kill others in the name of religion. After all, if the interior minister of the country is not safe from the wrath of fanatics, who can be?

The almighty establishment, in an effort to undermine the sitting government and Nawaz Sharif’s party, has actually undermined the state of Pakistan. Sharif’s electoral constituency has certainly been damaged and many PML-N candidates will not participate in elections on the party ticket, fearing attacks from fanatics on charges of blasphemy.

But getting this desired result has also resulted in losing the writ of the state. It will bring further chaos and extremism into Pakistani society, and extremists like Khadim Rizvi will continue to exploit millions of minds to gain their interests.

Unfortunately, this ugly blasphemy card has not only weakened Sharif’s party but has also undermined the state itself. It can be termed a lynching of a state by the deep state.

The fact that for the very first time masses of people in Pakistan are showing resistance against political engineering and refusing to bow down in front of establishment figures and fanatics is a good sign, but at the same time it could lead the country into a civil war at any time, as the bullet fired at a political leader actually was a bullet fired at the electorates.

#Pakistan - No excuse to delay general polls 2018, says Bilawal Bhutto

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari the narrative adopted by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif was not in the interest of democracy.

He was addressing a public gathering in Mandi Bahauddin.

“There is no excuse for delaying general polls 2018. To delay elections can only be a wish of Imran Khan [Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief]”, asserted the junior Bhutto.

The junior Bhutto ruled out alliance with Imran Khan-led PTI before elections. While condemning attack on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Bhutto urged all political parties to practice progressive politics instead of spreading hatred among country’s youth.  

https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/438603-No-excuse-to-delay-general-polls-2018-says-Bilawal-Bhutto

Video Report - President Karachi Division Saeed Ghani holds press conference at Media Cell Bilawal House Karachi

Pashto Music - Irfan khan - Pekhawar kho Pekhawar de kana

Music Video - Chan Mahiya- Afshan Zaibe

#PPP - Kal Bhi Bhutto Zinda Tha,Ajj

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addresses Workers at PPP Membership Camp in Gojra

Islamist terrorism wanes in Pakistan, but religious fervor threatens national unity

By Pamela Constable

By voting last week to revoke an honor bestowed on the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in science, Pakistan’s National Assembly opted for political expediency in the face of a fast-rising Muslim group that denounces members of the late physicist’s faith as blasphemers. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan.

Abdus Salam, who died in 1996, was a member of the Ahmadiyya minority sect, and no politician was eager to challenge the Muslim group, known as the Movement in Service to the Prophet. So lawmakers decided to take his name off a renowned physics center.

But on Sunday, when a young member of the movement shot and severely wounded Pakistan’s interior minister at a public gathering, there was immediate condemnation across the political spectrum and a flood of horrified comments on social media.

“This menace of hatred will destroy everything,” tweeted former foreign minister Khawaja Asif. “For God’s sake, we have to work together for our country.” In another tweet, Afrasiab Khattak, a retired senator and a human rights activist, warned, “Weaponizing religion is a path to horrible disaster.”

While Pakistani officials claim to have eradicated Islamist extremism and terrorism from their country after years of conflict, a new threat to public order and religious peace has risen in their place. The Movement in Service to the Prophet, which professes the benign agenda of defending Muhammad as the final prophet of Islam, also exhorts followers to violence in that cause and targets members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, called Ahmadis, as dangerous heretics because they believe in a later prophet. Neither the legislative resolution against Abdus Salam nor the assassination attempt on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was openly supported by officials of the movement. But analysts here said there was no doubt that the group’s emotional fervor, widespread appeal to mainstream Sunni Muslims, demonization of Ahmadis and relentless attacks on political opponents had played a role in both.

And while insulting a long-dead scientist did no actual harm, the close-range attack on Iqbal, who was hospitalized with a gunshot wound in the shoulder, was a terrifying response to his official role in trying to quell aweeks-long sit-in in November by the movement. The 23-year-old attacker said the idea to kill the minister came to him in a dream.

The protest leaders charged that an election law had been stealthily changed to give more political rights to Ahmadis; officials denied this and apologized. But the protests persisted until police were sent to quell them and failed. Later, the army was called in to negotiate and agreed to many of the group’s demands. “When State surrenders before bunch of extremists and political parties try to exploit” religious causes, “then attacks like #AhsanIqbal happen,” newspaper columnist Mubashir Zaidi said in a tweet Monday. “Now the monster is out.” The attempt on Iqbal’s life also brought a chilling reminder of the 2011 death of Salman Taseer, who was governor of Punjab province. He was killed by his own bodyguard for criticizing the country’s harsh blasphemy laws. The guard was hanged in 2015, but many Muslims viewed him as a martyr to Islam, and the Movement in Service to the Prophet was created around his example.

Pakistan’s uncertain leadership situation has added fuel to the combustible mix of religion and politics as the Muslim-majority nation heads toward national elections later this year. The most bizarre aspect concerns the contradictory roles played by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his son-in-law, Safdar Awan. Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court last year after facing corruption charges.

It was Sharif, then a popular premier, who decided 16 months ago to honor Abdus Salam by naming a physics center at the prestigious Quaid-i-Azam University after him. Human rights groups hailed the gesture as a hopeful turning point in the history of discrimination and violent attacks against Ahmadis in Pakistan. “The government should be congratulated for correcting a historic injustice,” Pervez Hoodbhoy, a physics professor and rights activist, said at the time. Now, he added, perhaps Pakistan is “ready to move ahead in science, irrespective of faith. It will help soften Pakistan’s image” as “intolerant and terrorist.” But one of the most outspoken critics of the honor was Awan, the husband of Sharif’s daughter Maryam. Last year, Awan gave a vituperative speech against Ahmadis in Parliament, and he sponsored the resolution to remove Abdus Salam’s name from the building and give the honor instead to 12-century Byzantine astronomer Abu al-Fath Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini.

Some Pakistani commentators said Awan had come under political pressure from the Movement in Service to the Prophet. Others suggested that he was playing a good cop/bad cop role to appease the group and help the sagging fortunes of the Sharif family’s political party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, which will face stiff competition in the upcoming polls.

But the shooting of Iqbal, a well-liked and longtime aide to Sharif and the Muslim League, seemed to eclipse party politics and bring the potential dangers of fomenting religious hatred into sharp national focus. While the Movement in Service to the Prophet has galvanized fervent support from Muslims across the country, the attack has also aroused popular concern that the group may have gone too far. Among Ahmadis, already accustomed to being ostracized and misunderstood, there is a growing sense that their place in Pakistani society is even more perilous — and that the increasing influence of the Movement in Service to the Prophet is making antagonism to Ahmadis an unprecedented litmus test for millions of mainstream Muslims.

“The fight against Ahmadis has become a struggle for the soul of the country,” Ahmad Usman, a photographer and journalist based in Pakistan, wrote in the online Naya Daur Media. “The good Pakistani and the good Muslim [are] increasingly defined by their hatred of Ahmadis.”

Abdus Salam and others like him “are exactly the kind of heroes Pakistan needs,” Usman added. But when public life is infected by the “virus of hatred, they are not the heroes the country deserves.”

#Pakstan - OP-ED - The sorrows of tribal areas

Munir Ahmed

The state has a responsibility to give satisfactory and justifiable answers to the questions being raised by the locals of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). There is no family from the tribal region which has not lost a beloved member or suffered significant financial losses. These are wounds which time cannot heal. They have suffered at the hands of terrorists — both ‘good’ and ‘bad’, attacks from abroad such as drone attacks, and have even been a part of the ‘collateral damage’ of our own army’s operations in their homeland. The state must also explain the numerous missing person’s cases from FATA.

I wrote the aforementioned few lines with all possible punctuation. But, the tribal people speak without any comma or full stop about the atrocities they have suffered over the decades. Two parliamentarians were on my television talk show. They remained quite composed on the camera, but they were quite blunt off the camera. The opening paragraph is the moderate crux of the off camera conversation. Both parliamentarians had strong reservations on complete media blackout of the protests carried out by the Pakhtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) that is also known as Pakhtun Protection Movement.

The Pakhtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), formerly known as the Mahsud Tahaffuz Movement (MTM), is a social movement demanding human rights for the Pakhtuns of Pakistan. The movement originally started in 2014 to demand the removal of land mines from Waziristan.

It later rose to prominence in January 2018 when aspiring model and shopkeeper Naqeebullah Mahsud was killed in Karachi by the ‘encounter specialist’ police officer Rao Anwar. Following the heinous crime, the PTM protested against Naqeebullah’s murder very strongly, and now have launched a movement for the rights of Pakhtuns in FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Karachi and Balochistan. Many FATA elders believe that the state is answerable to the questions being raised by the PTM. They also believe that the complete media blackout of the PTM protests is on the directions of this country’s strong military establishment and other undemocratic forces.

When people are deprived of their rights and their voices are not heard, it creates unavoidable chaos, and the situation goes out of control

The state can kill the protesting Pakhtuns, but cannot silence their voices. Though according to the official state narratives Zarb-e-Azb has ‘cleansed’ FATA of terrorism, but in truth the insurgency has only been suppressed. Peace will not come to FATA until its locals are provided with the solace they want and need. Lets not forget, the epicentre of America’s ‘Jihad’ against the Soviet Union was in FATA, and it was the people of this region who sacrificed their lives and land for the American cause.

Despite their sacrifices and suffering, the promises of rehabilitation of the tribal Pakhtuns largely remained unfulfilled. A special package of Rs 100 billion was announced last year for FATA, but it is not clear how much they received. A few initiatives were taken up by the military. The question is if they are sufficient. Now once again the government has announced Rs 100 billion special package for them. Who will ensure the dissemination of funds?

What is it that keeps the FATA reforms package from being implemented? Soon — but perhaps several decades too late —the Supreme and High courts’ jurisdiction may finally be extended to FATA territory. However, this is much less than what the tribal people were expecting. They opted to be a part of Pakistan decades back. We cannot give them the status of Pakistani while treating them as outsiders. Yet, the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains in doldrums. Bravo.

Lets not forget, the epicentre of America’s ‘Jihad’ against the Soviet Union was in FATA, and it was the people of this region who sacrificed their lives and land for the American cause

Meanwhile, we do not even allow them to broadcast their grievances in the media. It seems we have learnt nothing from the fall of Dhaka in 1971. When people are deprived of their rights and their voices are not heard, it creates unavoidable chaos, and the situation goes out of control. How long the state can control the uncomfortable voices of the people? Certainly, they cannot stop them for very long. If there is any history of conquering the Pakhtuns or who would be able to do it.

When the state fails to listen to dissenting voices, their rage spreads like a forest fire. The state can snub or kill dissidents all it likes, but their slogans will live for centuries. Bhagat Singh and Dullah Bhatti’s voices remain alive in Punjab today. They are an inspiration for all those who believe in the struggle against tyranny. Who can forget the Kashmiri freedom fighter Maqbool Bhat? A more recent example is Burhan Vani — who lives on in the hearts of the Kashmiris. It matters not whether he was a terrorist or not, what matters is that the Indian security forces turned him into a martyr.

Pakistan was divided in 1971 primarily because it ignored the dissenting voices of a big chunk of its population. Instead of ensuring their rights and accepting their lawful and legitimate demands.

Those who undermine the voices of the PTM need to recheck their strategies, and once again analyse the content of the speeches of the PTM leadership. The media blackout won’t serve the state objective. The state institutions should prepare itself for rational and truthful responses to their questions. That is the only viable way forward.

Video - PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addresses Workers at PPP Membership Camp in Mandi Bahauddin

Alliance with PTI impossible before elections: Bilawal

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday said an alliance with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was not possible before the upcoming general elections.

Addressing a press conference in Mandi Bahauddin, the PPP scion said, “We want security for everyone during elections. Even when there is violence, it doesn’t mean we postpone elections,” Bilawal said. “Even Afghanistan and Iran conduct elections.”

“Imran Khan expressed his own wishes to delay elections, but I don’t see any reason to do so,” Bilawal said, adding that there is no constitutional clause calling for delayed elections.” The PPP chairman also called for the eradication of politics of hatred. “We need to ensure that the youth don’t get effected by these politics.”

Bilawal also condemned the attack on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal.

Commenting on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal said that ousted premier Nawaz Sharif is a propaganda expert. “Even after the Panama case, he went on passing odd remarks everywhere he went,” the PPP leader added.

“PPP members are in jail but no member of the PML-N is in jail. Their propaganda will not be successful,” said the PPP leader. “This region doesn’t belong to a single man. Bahauddin is the main constituency of the PPP.”

Iqbal survived an assassination attempt in his home constituency during a corner meeting at the hands of a 23-year-old man on Sunday evening. A bullet hit Iqbal’s right arm from a 30-bore pistol from at least 15 yards.

Doctors said that the minister was out of danger and in a stable condition. He underwent medical treatment at the Lahore Services Hospital. The accused, Abid Hussain, a resident of Kanjror, a village in Tehsil Shakargarh, opened fire at Iqbal just before he stepped inside his vehicle after addressing at Kanjror.

Hussain, who was overpowered and disarmed by security guards before he could fire another shot, was later handed over to police. Later, the suspect was shifted to an unidentified location for interrogation.

#Pakistan - #PPP supports downtrodden and poor masses: Senator Kirshna Kumari

Pakistan Peoples Party has always assisted and supported poor, peasants, down-trodden and helpless people.These views were expressed by Senator Kirshna Kumari, while addressing a gathering of Kolhi community at Badin on Sunday.

Ms. Kumari said PPP chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Asif Ali Zardari were striving for the vision of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. She said some persons were wishing for damage and non popularity of PPP but PPP was still popular among the masses. She said PPP leadership pleased her to become Senator from very poor and supressed community. She said PPP has always encouraged and supported workers from lower and middle class to send them parliaments. She further said it would be her prime priority to raise voice of poor and helpless masses in the Senate and parliament.The ceremony was also addressed by PPP district Badin president,Haji Muhammad Ramzan Chandio, Haji Sain Bux Jamali, General Sec PPP, District Coordinator, Gul Muhammad Jakhrani, PPP MNA, Sardar Kamal Khan Chang and others.

http://www.thesindhtimes.com/sindh/05/ppp-supports-downtrodden-poor-masses-senator-kirshna-kumari/

#Pakistan - Bilawal Bhutto Zardari strongly condemned attack on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal

In a statement, Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly condemned attack on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal in Narowal adding that armed attack on the Interior Minister was an open challenge to the state.

The PPP Chairman that those involved in the firing on Ahsan Iqbal should be taken to task. He also prayed for his early recovery.

Oxford University to screen documentary on #Pakistani Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam

Oxford University will screen a documentary on Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate, Dr Abdus Salam, on May 12.

This will be the first screening of Salam – The First  Muslim Nobel Laureate in the UK. It is a feature-length documentary about the life of the Pakistani physicist. According to the synopsis, “it is the story of a man who traversed two worlds with ease: one of science and religion, modernity and tradition, war and peace and obscurity and celebrity.”

A question-and-answer session with the makers of the documentary will follow the screening. The Oxford University Ahmadiyya Muslim Students Association is hosting the event. Oxford Pakistan Policy Council and Bloomsbury Pakistan are supporting it.

Dr Salam was born in 1926 in a remote Punjab village. He grew up in a small brick house with a large family. In 1979, he became the first Pakistani to have won the Nobel Prize.

On Line News.

Pakistan: Dr Abdus Salam's name to be dropped from varsity's Physics dept

 Pakistan's National Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution to rename the Physics department of Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, which was named after Pakistani physicist Dr Abdus Salam, belonging to minority Ahmadiyya community.

The Ahmadis are not recognised as Muslims after the anti-Ahmadiyya ordinance was made in the Constitution of Pakistan in 1984, which restricted the freedom of religion for Ahmadis.

The Abdus Salam Centre for Physics was named in hounour of Dr Abdus Salam, who won Pakistan's first Nobel Prize in sciences 1979, for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory.

A resolution presented by lawmaker, Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar sought to rename the department after Pakistani scientist Abu al Fatah Abdul Rahman Al-Khazini, contending he was the "biggest name for Muslims in Physics," Geo TV reported.

In 2016, then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had approved renaming of the National Centre for Physics after Dr Abdus Salam.

Safdar, who is also Sharif's son-in-law, is known for his anti-Ahmadiyya stance, and has previously gone on record to criticize the decision to rename QAU's physics centre after Dr Salam.

"Today, this Parliament has signed a resolution to highlight that the Physics department of Quaid-i-Azam University should be named after the famous scientist Abu al Fatah Abdul Rehman Al-Khazini who was the biggest name for Muslims in Physics," the resolution read.

The resolution hailed Al-Khazini for following in the footsteps of his teacher Al-Biruni and stated that "the whole European world used the works of this prominent Muslim scientist." 

http://timesofahmad.blogspot.com/2018/05/pakistan-dr-abdus-salams-name-to-be.html

#Pakistan- We are sorry, Dr Salam

We are sorry, Dr Abdus Salam.

We are sorry that Pakistan has said that you are not worthy of honoring.

From the defacing of your grave. Now to the attempts to remove your legacy from one of the country’s leading universities that paid tribute to your outstanding contribution to the world of science. We are sorry that a Nobel Prize, Pakistan’s first, was not enough for the religious right to see beyond your faith. Just as we are sorry that the criminalisation of the latter occurred on democracy’s watch.

But most of all, we are sorry that we, the citizenry, from civil society to the fourth estate to the defenders of Jinnah’s secular vision did not do more to fight back. For you. In your name. And that of the entire Ahmadi community. In short, all those who were left behind in this hostile land. We are sorry that we did not grasp that once extremism has been appeased, there is little, if any, chance of ever going back.

We are sorry that your religion today stands desecrated by a state intent on taking what should be the personal and regurgitating it as the political. From making the right to citizenship dependent upon denouncing you and yours. To maintaining separate electoral rolls that take the hard legwork out of witch-hunts.

Our head hangs in shame as we mourn the way in which this modern democratic state that we call home has, in recent times, capitulated to those firebrands that will not rest until they have bludgeoned to death the rich tapestry of religious pluralism. The bereavement is ours, too.

Indeed, we have no words when confronted with that bitterest of pill; the one that we have all been forced to swallow as the custodians of blind justice gorge out her eyes as they make declarations of faith a matter of public consumption. Or when the elected representatives of we, the people, let a certain retired captain run rampage on the Assembly floor uninterrupted as he termed you, Dr Salam, and your religious brethren, a threat to the country. With the only workable solution being to bar an entire community from the armed forces. Thereby positioning the latter as defenders of a certain faith as opposed to the citizenry.

But what we wish to apologise most profusely for is this. The way in which those who have untold blood on their hands are allowed to repent their sins while the state turns the other cheek. As the latter does its best to mainstream these reformed assets that will see them down arms in favour of the ballot. Thus the message is clear. It is easier to forgive murders, terrorists than it is to respect the right to religious diversity. And still we maintain democracy’s charade.

For all this and more, we are sorry. Yet the time has come for steeled resolve. For all progressive forces to find a collective tipping point; to swing the scales of injustice the other way towards de-politicising religion. It is the only way. To fulfil the dream of Pakistan first.

This, Dr Abdus, is the very least that you deserve.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari strongly condemns massacre of innocent labourers at the hands of terrorists in Kharan

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly condemned the massacre of innocent labourers at the hands of terrorists in Kharan, Balochistan and called upon the government to provide secure environment for the labour in all the projects, big and small in the province.

In statement issued here, the PPP Chairman said that terrorists have committed barbaric crime and there was tears in every eye over the bloodshed of the toiling labourers.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed solidarity with the bereaved families of the victims and demanded adequate compensation to them besides providing improved security to labourers working in far-flung sites.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/05/04/bilawal-bhutto-zardari-strongly-condemns-massacre-of-innocent-labourers-at-the-hands-of-terrorists-in-kharan/

Video - #QuettaMainTeerChalayga - Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto addresses to the public gathering in Quetta

Music Video - Ariana Grande - No Tears Left To Cry

Video - Leila Forouhar - Jooni Joonom | لیلا فروهر - جونی جونم

Persian Music Video - sahara monadi (GOOGOOSH)

Video Report - France commemorating 50 years since 1968 uprising

Video Report - Cars set on fire as masked protesters rage in Paris on May 1 demo

#LabourDay - #Pakistan - From Karachi to KPK: Child labor on May Day

Parvez Jamil

It is highly revealing how the entire nation and indeed the whole world commemorates the 1st of May as Labour Day, while countless children sweat and struggle for their livelihood throughout the entire year.

The holiday, moreover, means little for the impoverished children who work even on May Day in Karachi’s Kharadar, Meethadar, Ranchor Line, Jacob Lines, Orangi, Korangi areas as monkey, snake and street-charmers, batlipaper walas, chana jorgaram walas, golaganda walas, champi malish walas, car cleaners, flower-sellers, cart-pushers, street vendors etc. 

Unfortunately, the world continues to celebrate May Day, oblivious to the pitiful little ones who struggle for what amounts to a meager income as puncturewala helpers in Gulberg or in Chaburjee, Lahore, or as the little “chai walas” in the back lanes of Jinnah Road, Quetta, or as minor helpers for plumbers, masons and electricians in Saddar Road, Nothia, Chowkyadgar, Peshawar.

Indeed, one of Pakistan’s greatest and most renowned assets are our cute little laboring Sialkot kids whose magical fingers stitch the world’s best footballs that are used in tournaments which boast audiences numbering in the millions. These footballs along with other sporting goods serve as a major source of foreign exchange for Pakistan.

A similar story underlies the helpers in our cottage industry which produces carpets, textiles, embroidery, jewelry, ceramics, cutlery, woodwork, quilt art, leather bags, hats, glass works, pottery, basketry, needle work, leather craft and metalwork, all of which act as a significant fillip for the national economy.

Although it remains true that these talented kids are exploited by their employers, we must incorporate ethical values and stringent labor standards into these industries without attaching the stigma of child labor to these children.

We must aim to achieve a balance between the rapacious profit motive of industrialists and the national interest, and this includes taking care of the minor children working in different areas of the economy.

It is, therefore, essential that we provide these kids with a decent work schedule, good stipends, basic education in English, Maths and general knowledge, and recourse to healthcare and recreation.

The solution in fact is quite simple: It is only child labor if creative little kids’ promise and potential are exploited solely for enriching the financial coffers of industrialists and proprietors. It is not child labor if for national and humanitarian concerns, we remain conscious of our little magicians’ dignity of labor and personal development.

 It will truly be a success if private-public partnership can design an able, noble, humble and gentle policy that replaces the stigma of child labor and at the same time spurs growth in our industries. Such a policy will also lead us towards a better and brighter Pakistan.

For as the adage goes, if there is a will, there is indeed a way.

#LaborDay2018 - Nearly 12000 workers of Pakistan Steel Mills face humanitarian disaster

Central Information Secretary PPPP Nafisa Shah has said that nearly 12000 workers of Pakistan Steel Mills are facing a humanitarian disaster as they r deprived of work, dignity, salaries, pensions.

 As a result, hundreds have lost their lives in the past 5 years. In her Twitter message on the occasion of Labour Day she has demanded that government should urgently addresses their plight.

http://www.thesindhtimes.com/sindh/05/nearly-12000-workers-pakistan-steel-mills-face-humanitarian-disaster-nafisa-shah/

PPP will continue struggle for rights of laborers, working class: Bilawal Bhutto

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has held out assurances to the working and labour class in the country that PPP will continue its struggle for their rights and privileges in future also because they are the backbone for the Party and the society as well.
In a message on the eve of International Labour Day being observed across the world on May 1, the PPP Chairman pointed out that Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto unveiled first-ever Labour Policy on February 10, 1972 and introduced trade union rights in the country. Peoples government launched Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme (BESOS) to offer free shares to the staffers state enterprizes, he added.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also hailed the Sindh government for announcing first-ever tripartite Labour Policy, which was unanimously approved by government, workers and employers as all the three agreed on the need of working through joint cooperation. No other provincial government could achieve this milestone because labour class had never been on priority of other political parties, he added.
He further said that it was again the PPP, which allotted lands to landless women peasants in Sindh and launched Union Council-based poverty alleviation programme enabling 600,000 families to break the shell of poverty and are earning livelihood through small businesses.
PPP Chairman called upon that toiling labour and working class people to join his Party and strengthen its power to empower and protect their rights.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pledged that PPP would introduce more labour-friendly legislations in future and stands like a rock against all the forces of exploitation at work against the labour community.

http://www.thesindhtimes.com/pak/05/ppp-will-continue-struggle-rights-laborers-working-class-bilawal-bhutto/

Bilawal Bhutto strongly condemns the perpetual increase in the PoL prices by PML-N government

Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly condemned the perpetual increase in the PoL prices by PML-N government to create unbearable economic conditions for the masses through unprecedented rise in commuting costs directly hitting the lower strata of population.

In a statement issued here, the PPP Chairman said PML-N increased PoL prices continuously since several months and its latest “parting petrol bomb attack” on masses has reflected its intentions to drag them into a slough of poverty and an economic disaster at ground level.

“PML-N’s is the government of rich, for the rich and by the rich as it started schemes favouring the elite to whiten their black money and thrive. The poor majority of the nation is being grinded between inflation and hopelessness,” he stated.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that PPP wont remain silent while PML-N government policies were sky-rocketing the prices of commodities and fleecing the poor. “PPP will raise its voice against PoL prices hike in all available forums adding that people will avenge the cruelties and ruthlessness of the Panama League in the next elections,” he added.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/bilawal-bhutto-zardari-strongly-condemns-the-perpetual-increase-in-the-pol-prices-by-pml-n-government/

Video Report - #PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addresses a press conference in Karachi.

Video Report - Hopes growing for Scottish independence after Brexit