Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Links Kidnapping Plot To Trump’s Hate Rhetoric

By Sara Boboltz

When leaders “encourage or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions, and they are complicit,” Whitmer said.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drew a strong line between an alleged plot to kidnap her and the rhetoric of President Donald Trump, whose recent comments have been interpreted by right-wing militia groups as encouragement.

“Just last week, the president of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Six men involved with a militia group called Wolverine Watchmen are facing federal charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and an additional seven people are facing state charges in connection with the alleged scheme. The men wanted to “storm” the state Capitol in Lansing with 200 men to take hostages including the governor, court documents say.

Whitmer said Thursday that the suspects aimed to “possibly kill” her.

Trump failed to speak out against hate groups during his first presidential debate with Democratic contender Joe Biden last Tuesday. Pressed to condemn the Proud Boys, a group of violent right-wing extremists, Trump replied: “Proud boys, stand back and stand by.” Members of the Proud Boys quickly turned the president’s words into a T-shirt and other merchandise. 

JEFF KOWALSKY VIA GETTY IMAGES

Heavily armed anti-lockdown protesters began showing up at the Michigan State Capitol in April around the time President Donald Trump tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN.”

Trump also deflected criticism at the debate by claiming ― against the analysis of his own top law enforcement officials ― that the problem comes mainly “from the left wing, not the right wing.” The FBI warned as recently as two weeks ago that right-wing militia groups pose a “violent extremist threat,” particularly as the election approaches.

“Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry — as a call to action,” Whitmer said.

She continued: “When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions, and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.” 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to Whitmer in a statement claiming that Trump “has continually condemned white supremacists and all forms of hate,” and that the Michigan governor was “sowing division.”

Trump has danced around hate groups that profess to support him throughout his presidency; it took him two days after the debate to say the words “I condemn all white supremacists,” which he eventually did on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program.

Whitmer had been attacked by the president at the start of the coronavirus crisis for issuing strict lockdown orders that are credited with preventing statewide outbreaks. In April, Trump reacted to news of Michigan lockdowns by tweeting, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN.” Heavily armed Michiganders began showing up in Lansing around that time to intimidate lawmakers and demand an end to lockdown measures.

When asked by reporters whether he thought Trump’s tweet had influenced militias like Wolverine Watchmen, Biden responded Thursday afternoon, “Yes, I do.”

“Why won’t the president just say ‘stop. Stop, stop, stop,’” Biden said.

One of the men charged with plotting against Whitmer, Adam Fox, called her a “tyrant bitch” in a private Facebook group, according to the FBI.

“Snatch and grab, man. Grab the fuckin’ Governor. Just grab the bitch,” Fox allegedly wrote. He is currently facing life in prison.

Whitmer called the decisions she has had to make in the pandemic “gut-wrenching,” adding that “2020 has been a hard year for all of us.”

“It’s been hard for the teachers, students and parents. Hard for those who have had to stay isolated to stay safe. But here’s what I know. We are Michiganders. We have grit. We have heart. And we are tough as hell,” she said.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer-connects-kidnapping-plot-to-trump_n_5f7f6546c5b664c95bd6cb58

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Video Report - #NayaDaur #Pakistan Sedition Charges Against PML-N Leaders, And The History Of Treason In Pakistan

#Book - The Nine Lives of Pakistan by Declan Walsh review – first-rate reportage

 

Julian Borger

The acclaimed correspondent captures a country torn apart by military aggression and religious extremism, and tries to work out why he was expelled.

Declan Walsh begins his captivating new book on Pakistan with an account of how he came to leave the country for the first time, abruptly and involuntarily in May 2013. “The angels came to spirit me away,” is the way he puts it, using the Urdu slang for the all-powerful men of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), whose presence is felt, even when not seen, throughout The Nine Lives of Pakistan.

The ISI goons give Walsh no hint as to why he is being kicked out, and the government officials he quizzes simply shrug. His quest to unravel that mystery drives the narrative of the book as he goes back through his nine years as a correspondent in Pakistan, first for the Guardian and then for the New York Times, in search of an answer. The solution to the riddle, which emerges out of the haze, says a lot about the turbulent, fractious country Walsh is trying to understand.

The subtitle of the book is Dispatches from a Divided Nation and the author criss-crosses those political, religious, ethnic and generational fault lines, assembling a portrait of the vast country of 220 million people through his travels and the lives of the nine compelling protagonists.

Walsh is a wonderful writer, with a gift for sketching an impression of a place, time and ambience with a few brief lines. He knows how to interweave travelogue with an account of the relentless tensions that always threaten to burst through each vignette in the book. What also shines through is the relish with which Walsh throws himself into the far corners of Pakistan, into crowds, celebrations and rites, with a drive born of fascination with the land and its people.

He is not a war correspondent. Most of the time he is not looking for trouble, and it is hard not to envy him all the parties and feasts to which he finds himself invited. He seeks out oversized characters and makes sure not just to interview them, but to linger at their shoulder to experience Pakistan through their eyes and ears. These are eight of the nine lives of the title. The ninth is Pakistan’s conflicted and complicated founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a spectral presence.

It says a lot about Pakistan’s bloody history that only one of the nine subjects is still alive by the end of the book. Five of them meet violent ends, either killed by jihadists or the security forces. “You see, this murder and fighting business is very tricky,” as one brave Pashtun politician says, summing up local politics in the northwest. Accompanying him as he went from village to village campaigning, Walsh observes drily: “I didn’t see a single woman. Guns, on the other hand, were everywhere.”

By the end of The Nine Lives of Pakistan, it seems almost unbelievable that the author himself has survived the experience. The death rate among his subjects is just one measure of the dangers of doing Walsh’s job. As Pakistan’s home-grown Taliban rise in 2006 and 2007, more and more areas become unsafe, and the violence eventually surges into the capital, Islamabad. Within a few blocks of Walsh’s home, a courthouse, a UN office and an army checkpoint are all bombed.

Many extremist groups looked on western journalists as legitimate targets, for kidnapping at least, and at one point Walsh is saved by the man he has hired a car from. Overhearing a group of men discussing the logistics of grabbing Walsh, the rental man bundled the Irish journalist into the vehicle and sped away.

Islam or the army were supposed to be the glue holding the place together. Yet both seemed to be tearing it apart 

Declan Walsh

There was nothing inevitable about Pakistan’s association with extremism. After wrestling with the issue, Jinnah recommended a secular republic from his deathbed. After Partition in 1947, Walsh explains, imams lost their sway in society, sinking to a status somewhere between a teacher and a tailor in the villages. That all changed when a pious general, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, seized power in 1977, hanging the democratically elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and opening the door to a “harsh unyeielding brand of Islam” imported from Saudi Arabia, whose princes and clerics Zia allowed to seed his country with madrassas.

Then the Soviets invaded Afghanistan at the end of 1979 and Zia’s Pakistan, instead of becoming an international pariah, was embraced by the west as a bastion against communism. Jinnah’s dream for the “land of the pure” has been sacrificed to the two beasts of violent religious extremism and militarism. “Depending on who you asked, Islam or the army were supposed to be the glue holding the place together,” Walsh writes. “Yet both, in their own way, seemed to be tearing it apart.”

By the end of Walsh’s time in Pakistan, the winner in this epic struggle is clear: the ISI and the military machine that stands behind it. “It seemed to boil down to one hard truth: the military always wins,” his realises as he prepares to leave, never to return. 

“When the ISI men come to the door, the illusion of a democratic state melts away.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/08/the-nine-lives-of-pakistan-by-declan-walsh-review-first-rate-reportage

پی ڈی ایم کی تحریک کو منطقی انجام تک پہنچاکر دم لیں گے، بلاول

پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کا کہنا ہے کہ پی ڈی ایم کی تحریک کو منطقی انجام تک پہنچا کر دم لیں گے۔

لاہور میں پیپلز پارٹی پنجاب کے صدر قمر زمان کائرہ سے ملاقات کے دوران بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ عوام کو پیغام دیں کہ اس حکومت کا خاتمہ بہت قریب ہے۔

بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ عوام کی امنگوں کے مطابق جلد نئی منتخب حکومت قائم ہوگی، عوام حکومت سے تنگ آچکے ہیں، پنجاب کے تفصیلی دورے پر آرہا ہوں۔

انہوں نے کہا کہ گوجرانوالہ اور ملتان کے جلسوں کو کامیاب بنانے کے لیے جیالے بھرپور شرکت کریں۔

قمر زمان کائرہ نے کہا کہ گوجرانوالہ جلسہ کو کامیاب بنانے کیلئے پیپلز پارٹی پنجاب تیار ہے، حکومت کے فاشسٹ ہتھکنڈوں کے خلاف جیالے پہلے ہی متحرک ہوچکے ہیں۔

قمر زمان کائرہ نے کہا کہ مزاحمتی تحریکوں کو کامیاب بنانے کا تجربہ صرف جیالوں کے پاس ہے۔

https://jang.com.pk/news/829463 

پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی نے ایم آر ڈی اور اے آر ڈی کی طرح پی ڈی ایم کے قیام میں کلیدی کردار ادا کیا، چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری

کراچی/اسلام آباد( – ) پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا ہے کہ پی پی پی نے ایم آر ڈی اور اے آر ڈی کی طرح پی ڈی ایم کے قیام میں کلیدی کردار ادا کیا، پاکستان ڈیموکریٹک موومنٹ عوام کی امید بن چکی ہے،

 چیئرمین پی پی پی نے کہا ہے کہ عمران خان کی حکومت مکمل طور پر ناکام ثابت ہوچکی ہے، اب عوام نہیں بلکہ عمران خان کے گھبرانے کا وقت ہوچکا ہے، انہوں نے یہ بھی کہا کہ عوام دشمن حکومت کے پاس ماضی کی حکومتوں پر الزام دھرنے کے سوا بتانے کو کچھ بھی نہیں، چیئرمین پی پی پی بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے یہ گفتگو اپنی سربراہی میں بلاول ہاؤس کراچی میں ویڈیو لنک کے ذریعے ہونے والے ایک اجلاس میں کی، ورچوئل اجلاس میں پاکستان ڈیموکریٹک موومنٹ کے بیانئے کی تشہیر کے حوالے سے تفصیلی مشاورت کی گئی،

 اس ویڈیو لنک اجلاس میں ڈاکٹر نفیسہ شاہ، مولا بخش چانڈیو، چوہدری منور انجم، پلوشہ خان، عاجز دھامرا، حسن مرتضی، سربلند جوگیزئی، روبینہ خالد، نوابزادہ افتخار، سعدیہ دانش، جاوید ایوب، سعید غنی، ناصر شاہ، شرجیل میمن، مرتضی وہاب، بیرسٹر عامر، سسی پلیجو، شاہین ڈار اور نذیر ڈھوکی موجود تھے۔

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/23874/ 

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Pakistan: Kill And Dump In Balochistan – Analysis

 

By Sanchita Bhattacharya

On October 1, 2020, a bench of the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed, while hearing a petition at its Quetta registry seeking recovery of missing persons in Balochistan, categorically rejected the inquiry report submitted by the Police. The SC bench ordered that the person who prepared the inquiry report must be removed from service and sent back home. “Is this a report? Person who prepared [this] must be fired from service,” the CJP remarked.

The CJP observed, further, “Police officials do not know how to investigate cases. Missing persons’ cases were reported between 2017 and 2018 while the police performance in their recovery has been zero.”

The report was submitted to the bench by Senior Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch (Investigation), Muhammad Akbar Raisani. The Court remarked, “You are a PSP [Police Service of Pakistan] officer but you do not know how to investigate.”

The hearing of the case was adjourned for four weeks, with direction for the Balochistan Inspector General of Police Mohsin Abbas Butt to appear through video link in the next hearing to be held at the Supreme Court in Islamabad.

During the hearing, the Court also expressed concern over the plying of smuggled vehicles on roads, aerial firing and other illegal acts committed daily in Balochistan, and ordered the authorities concerned to take action in this regard.

On September 20, 2020, Mama Qadeer Baloch, the vice-chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) – a group which pursues and monitors cases of enforced disappearances – asserted that state-backed death squads had spilled the blood of the Baloch in several areas of Balochistan.

On October 3, two dead bodies were recovered in separate incidents from Panjgur District and Lasbela District of Balochistan. The body of a man identified as Muhammad Niaz was found in the Kahen-Zangi area of Panjgur. The dead body of a 56-year-old man, Sabir, was discovered close to a hill near the Sakran Attock Cement Factory in Hub city.

On September 10, the mutilated dead body of Hafizullah Mohammad Hassani, who had been missing for four years, was found at Pul-Choto in Dalbandain area of Chagai District in Balochistan. Hassani was a resident of Killi Qasim and a farmer by profession. He was forcibly disappeared on August 30, 2016. According to locals, the body was discovered due to the recent rains.

Fiveincidents were reported in August 2020:

August 28: The bullet riddled body of a man, identified as Ashraf Dadain (50), resident of Buleda, was discovered from the mountains of the Kulbar area in Kech District, Balochistan. According to the locals, the man was abducted by unidentified armed persons a few days earlier.

August 11: A missing person’s body was recovered from the Buleda area of Kech District in Balochistan. Rahim,son of Dad Baksh, was abducted along with two others about a week earlier, allegedly during a raid by the Security Forces in the Kuchag area of Buleda. The other abductees are still missing.

August 6: The body of a man was recovered from the Killi Gishkori area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

August 6: The body of an unidentified man was recovered from the Labour Colony area of Hub town in Lasbela District.

August 6: The body of man, identified as Hussain-ul-Deen, was recovered from Sibi District.

According to Pakistan’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances data, as on August 31, 2020, atleast 509 cases cases of alleged Enforced Disappearances have been registered from Balochistan since March 13, 2011, when the Commission was formed.

However, the VBMP stated in 2018 that, between 2002 and September 2018, at least 6,428 persons have gone missing in the Balochistan Province.

Indeed, on June 17, 2020, the Balochistan National Party (BNP) quit the Imran Khan-led Federal Government saying it was upset over unfulfilled promises of the Government to address Baloch grievances, including the worsening issue of the missing people. As reported on July 20, 2020, when he led the BNP into an alliance with Khan’s coalition about two years ago, Akhtar Mengal gave a list of 5,128 missing people. Since then, Mengal claimed, another 1,800 were reported to have disappeared.

Shockingly, Pakistan is now practising the method of enforced disappearance on the Baloch Diaspora abroad as well. On March 2, 2020, a Baloch journalist and activist Sajid Hussain was ‘disappeared’ from Sweden. His body was later found in a river in Uppsala on May 1, 2020. Earlier, another Baloch social activist, Rashid Hussain, was arrested and ‘disappeared’ from Sharjah, by UAE secret agencies on December 26, 2018. Rashid had been living and working in UAE for several years. After six months Rashid Hussain was illegally deported and handed over to Pakistani authorities by UAE.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ‘kill and dump’ policy in the Province continues. Mutilated dead bodies, in different stages of decomposition and beyond recognition, dotting the roads of Balochistan are a common occurrence. These are part of the nefarious ‘kill and dump’ policy of the Pakistani state.

According to a March 2019 report, mass graves were found in Balochistan for the first time in 2014 in the Turbat District. Since then, every year, the people of the region have discovered similar graves in different areas. In each case the discovery follows the same pattern – the Army and intelligence agencies cordon off the area, keeping people away. Nobody really knows how many bodies are buried there or who they were. The report further states that, according to the Federal Ministry of Human Rights, since the year 2011, nearly 1,000 dead bodies have been found, mostly in the areas of Quetta, Kalat, Khuzdar, and Makran. 

As reported on March 15, 2020, acknowledging the grievous situation, Nigel Adams, the British Minister of State Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, noted,

We are aware of reports of mass graves in Khuzdar, Turbat and Dera Bugti in Balochistan. These would be of deep concern to the British government… The British government regularly raises its concerns about human rights at the highest levels of the Government of Pakistan.

Enforced disappearances and recoveries of dead bodies have become rampant in Balochistan. Though the Supreme Court’s latest observations highlight the existing lawlessness, it is highly improbable that Rawalpindi will make any changes in its practice of using unbridled force against Baloch nationals.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/06102020-pakistan-kill-and-dump-in-balochistan-analysis/

Is rapid urbanization making Pakistan's cities less livable?

 

For developing countries, urban development is synonymous with economic growth and progress. In Pakistan, however, city planning experts say rapid urbanization is starting to cause more harm than good.

Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province, is shrouded in plumes of smog from October to February every year as crop burning  exacerbates the city's air pollution problem. 

The monsoon season this year brought the southern city of Karachi, Pakistan's financial hub, to a standstill as the city experienced its heaviest rainfall in a single spell since 1931 and massive flooding. Its poor waste disposal and drainage systems aggravated the problem of water logging in parts of the city, which is home to roughly 15 million people.

Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, is a "planned city" that came in to being in the 1960s. Over the years, however, many informal settlements and ad hoc developments have worsened housing and traffic woes for the city's residents.

"I couldn't have imagined a few years ago that I would get stuck in traffic but now it is an everyday reality. The authorities keep widening roads as a solution but it's making traffic worse and making this once green city, grey," said Islamabad resident Amir Tariq.

Rather than being sites of development, democratization and opportunity, Pakistan's cities are fast becoming hubs of gross inequality and unlivable for many people, particularly as private economic interests outweigh public goods.

Overpopulation means more trash, like the pile of garbage seen here in Islamabad

Economic growth and inequality

According to the United Nations Development Program, Pakistan has the highest rate of urbanization in South Asia, with 36.4% of the population living in urban areas. The UN estimates that by 2025 nearly half of the country's inhabitants will be living in cities.

Globally, it is estimated that cities generate about 80% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Cumulatively, cities in Pakistan generate 55% of the nation's GDP. Multi-dimensional poverty in cities is also generally lower compared to that in rural areas.

However, income inequality and limited access to mobility and resources such as water, job opportunities and housing are growing problems in every major city of the country.

Compounding the problems are the government's and city planners' focus on economic growth.

"Our cities are planned for exclusion and are poor unfriendly. Cities are over-planned rather than organic as the colonial paradigm is still used. So the privileged get resources and space, while poor people are in shantytowns," Nadeem ul Haque, vice-chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, told DW.

'Least livable' city

The United Nations' world cities report named Karachi's Orangi town, home to around 2.4 million people, as the largest among the world's five biggest slums. Karachi has also found a place in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 10 least livable cities in the world.

Around a quarter of the world's urban population live in slums — and the figure is rising fast.

Slums in Pakistan are the lifeblood of the city, housing people engaged in all sorts of professions – from cleaners, drivers and electricians to cooks, plumbers and domestic workers, among others, who allow the city to function optimally.

Karachi's Orangi Town slum is one of the largest in the world

Nevertheless, there is no state-funded housing or welfare for these workers.

Impoverished slum residents sometimes turn to suicide. In February, a 44-year-old Orangi town resident died by setting himself on fire. A letter addressed to Prime Minister Imran Khan was found in the deceased person's pocket, in which he criticized the government for not providing Pakistanis opportunities for adequate income and housing.

Noman Ahmed, director at Karachi Urban Lab, believes that the government alone cannot tackle Pakistan's urban housing problem. To make cities more livable, he said, there must be an integrative approach to urbanization that views housing as a process and not a product.

"No housing census has been done since 1998, which poses problems in proper planning. Housing cannot be directly subsidized due to the enormity of the cost and resource intensiveness. The government can help create enabling options for people to build their own houses and other facilities," Ahmad told DW.

Reclaiming cities

Citizen-led sustainable urban organizations are steadily mushrooming across the country. Mome Saleem, executive director of the Institute of Urbanization, started a campaign called "Reclaim Green Islamabad" in 2015.

"In 2016, we successfully rallied against the cutting of 240 very old trees in Islamabad and even though the trees were eventually cut, it was the first time citizens of Islamabad came out in large numbers to demand a greener, cleaner city," Saleem told DW.

The Orangi Pilot Project's low-cost sanitation, health, housing and microcredit programs empowered residents to make this slum much more livable for themselves as it was a squatter community, and did not qualify for government aid due to their "unofficial" status.

Shehri, meaning "citizen," is an organization that's successful in shaping dialogue and organizing resistance to various government policies and actions that are detrimental to urban prosperity.

As urbanization in Pakistan increases rapidly, Saleem underlined, problems are growing, but so is citizen action against them. So there's still hope to turn around Pakistan's urbanization from problem to progress.

https://www.dw.com/en/is-rapid-urbanization-making-pakistans-cities-less-livable/a-55162735

Should it be the right of those in power to decide who is a patriot and who is not? - Anti-state mantra

Zahid Hussain

A RELIC of the British colonial past, sedition laws have been used with impunity as a tool to suppress fundamental democratic rights in this country. There have been very few Pakistani leaders who have not been accused of sedition and anti-state activities. Even writers and journalists have not been spared.A large number of opposition leaders including two former prime ministers, retired generals, and other former holders of important public offices have now been booked on sedition charges and for anti-state activities. Interestingly, the case has been filed on the complaint of an obscure individual.

It was apparently Nawaz Sharif’s virtual address from London to an opposition conclave in Islamabad that has raised the spectre of this draconian law against the former prime minister. The others are accused of listening to the ‘seditious’ speech that was telecast live on electronic media. The government maintains that it didn’t have anything to do with the filing of treason cases. But can a police officer act on his own on such a politically sensitive issue?

The three-time former prime minister has been accused of being an ‘Indian agent’. It was the incumbent prime minister who fired the first salvo blaming Sharif of ‘working on an Indian agenda’.

Taking their cue from their leader, the party spokesmen launched a campaign of vilification against the opposition leaders. Politics now seems to have descended into sheer vulgarity with rival groups questioning each other’s patriotism. Such an ugly spectacle may not be new to Pakistani politics, but things had never hit such a low before.

The PM needs to focus on governance, and not on policing the patriotism of his rivals.

Sharif’s scathing criticism of the role of the security establishment in the country’s politics seems to have been the main reason for action against the former prime minister. There has been little in Sharif’s speech that other political leaders have not said before. It has been criticism of the unlawful and unconstitutional indulgence of a state apparatus acting outside its mandate. How can it be described as an act of sedition and anti-state activity?

Justifying the sedition allegation, the prime minister’s spokesman maintained that criticism of the security establishment is defiance of the Constitution. He did not refer to the other, more important clause of the Constitution that prohibits members of armed forces’ involvement in politics. This country has repeatedly witnessed the suspension of the Constitution and usurpation of power by the security establishment. Over the decades, the latter’s deep involvement in political affairs under civilian rules has also not been a secret.

Virtually all elected civilian governments have had the bitter experience of what is commonly described as a ‘state within a state’. Their own failings notwithstanding, elected governments have never been fully autonomous in taking decisions on key national issues. It’s also no secret how the intelligence apparatus was used to destablise the civilian leadership and prop up pliant politicians. This dark game has been going on for the past seven decades. Political parties would all too willingly assume the role of pawn in this game of chess. This has also been a major cause of perpetual political instability in the country. The involvement of the security establishment is perceived as much more pronounced in the present political set-up than under previous civilian dispensations, pushing the establishment much deeper into political affairs. Naturally, this makes it the target of the opposition’s attack.

What makes establishment elements more controversial is the perception of their involvement in extra-constitutional activities and partisan role. From the opposition parties’ perspective, the establishment leadership has become a part of the current political dispensation which affects its professional responsibilities.

Criticising the establishment for wrong policies and excesses doesn’t make anyone anti-state. In fact, greater harm is done when there is a perception that national security institutions have become involved in politics. Observers have alleged that there are elements among them who did more damage to the institution’s reputation than its critics over the years. Today, the sedition cases filed against the opposition leaders will once again drag the establishment deeper into the political battle between the government and the opposition. This campaign of labelling opposition leaders ‘anti-state’ and ‘Indian agents’ indicates the government’s weakness and state of panic. It’s not the threat of the opposition alliance, as much as its own ineptitude that has caused this nervousness in the ranks. The prime minister needs to focus more on improving his government’s performance than policing the patriotism of political rivals. A number of recent scandals have worsened the Khan government’s predicament making it more vulnerable to the opposition’s attack. The latest sensational revelation by a former FIA chief that he was asked by the ‘highest authority’ to file cases under anti-terrorism and treason laws against some senior PML-N leaders raises serious questions.

The prime minister allegedly admonished the former chief for not pursuing corruption investigations against the Sharif family. The revelation came in an interview, exposing the government’s claim of strengthening state institutions.

There is a view that the current civilian set-up has done more damage to civilian institutions than any administration in the recent past. As previously, there is an attempt at using law-enforcement agencies against political opponents. In fact, it is such actions that have brought the opposition parties together to challenge the PTI government. Despite the perception that it is supported by the establishment, it will be hard for the Imran Khan government to defend itself.

Labelling the opposition ‘anti-state’ may not help the government to confront the most serious challenge yet to its rule. Such charges are certainly not good advertisement for the government that has come to power on the promise of delivering good governance and to establish the rule of law.

It should not be the right of those in power to decide who is a patriot and who is not. Many of those who are not tired of displaying their ‘patriotism’ may not consider it wrong to usurp the rights of other people.

بلین ٹری منصوبہ اور بی آرٹی منصوبہ عمران خان کے سینہ پر میگا کرپشن کے تمغے ہیں

قومی اسمبلی کے سابق ڈپٹی اسپیکر اور پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے پی کے جنرل سیکریٹری فیصل کریم کنڈی نے کہا ہے کہ بلین ٹری منصوبہ اور بی آرٹی منصوبہ عمران خان کے سینہ پر میگا کرپشن کے تمغے ہیں۔ اس طرح مالم جبہ کرپشن اسکینڈل کے اصل کردار بھی عمران خان ہی ہیں۔

 انہوں نے سوال کیا کہ آخر ایک ارب درخت کہاں گئے؟ کیا ان کا تیل نکال کر سلائی مشین میں ڈالا گیا ہے اور بھوسہ کٹے کھا گئے ہیں؟ 

سابق ڈپٹی اسپیکر قومی اسمبلی نے کہا کہ عمران خان نے پشاور بی آرٹی منصوبے کا افتتاح کرنے کے لئے اس لئے جلد بازی کی تاکہ وہ اپنی لوٹ مار پر پردہ ڈال سکیں مگر بی آرٹی کا ایک ایک انچ عمران خان کی کرپشن کی گواہی دے رہا ہے۔ فیصل کریم کنڈی نے کہا کہ سات سال سے کے پی کے عوام کا خون نچوڑ کر بنی گالہ کے سلطان کو کھلایا جا رہا ہے۔

 انہوں نے کہا کہ نیب اندھا بھی ہے، گونگا بھی اور بہرا بھی اس لئے اسے وفاق ، پنجاب اور کے پی میں ہونے والی کرپشن نظر نہیں آرہی۔ 

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/23866/ 

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#COVID19 : US military leaders quarantine after official tests positive

Top US General Mark Milley and other military leaders are self-quarantining after a senior Coast Guard official tested positive for coronavirus.

Admiral Charles Ray, vice commandant of the US Coast Guard, tested positive after experiencing mild symptoms.

Other officials were quarantining "out of an abundance of caution" after attending meetings with Adm Ray last week, the Pentagon said.

None of them had tested positive or exhibited symptoms, it added.

It is not known how Adm Ray contracted the virus, but officials told the Associated Press news agency it was not believed to be related to the outbreak affecting President Donald Trump and others at the White House.

The Coast Guard said in a statement that Adm Ray tested positive for coronavirus on Monday and was now isolating at home. It added that any Coast Guard personnel who were in close contact with him would also quarantine.

BBC partner CBS News reported that nearly all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - a body consisting of senior military officials who advise the US president - were in quarantine after attending meetings with Adm Ray last week.

In addition to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen Milley, it said others in quarantine included the vice chief of staff, Army chief of staff, chief of naval operations, Air Force chief of staff, CyberCom commander, the Space Force chief, chief of the National Guard and deputy commandant of the Marine Corps.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters there had been "no change to the operational readiness or mission capability of the US Armed Forces."

"Senior military leaders are able to remain fully mission capable and perform their duties from an alternative work location," he said.

The Pentagon is conducting contact tracing related to last week's meetings.

Cases rising at the White House

Meanwhile, since President Trump tested positive last week, a number of senior Republicans and others close to him have been confirmed as having the virus as well.

This includes First Lady Melania Trump, aide Hope Hicks, and a number of Republican senators. Several junior White House staff members have also tested positive.

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was the latest person close to the president to test positive, announcing her diagnosis on Monday.

US media said two other aides to Ms McEnany had had positive results. The press secretary was seen speaking to journalists without wearing a mask on Sunday but said no members of the press had been listed as close contacts by the White House medical unit.

Many of the people in Mr Trump's inner circle who have tested positive attended a gathering at the White House Rose Garden on 26 September that is being scrutinised as a possible "super-spreader event".

The latest coronavirus case to emerge from that event, at which the president unveiled his nominee for the US Supreme Court, is a Christian minister from California.

Pastor Greg Laurie, who is said to have mild symptoms, was also with US Vice-President Mike Pence earlier in that day at a prayer march in central Washington DC.

Plexiglass will be used to separate Vice-President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Kamala Harris and limit the risk of Covid transmission when they go head-to-head in a debate in Salt Lake city, Utah, on Wednesday. Both candidates have recently tested negative.

President Trump, meanwhile, returned to the White House yesterday after being hospitalised with the virus.

While at Walter Reed Medical Center, he was treated with dexamethasone - a steroid medication usually given to severe and critical Covid patients - and supplemental oxygen.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54441986

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#BashirMemon #ImranKhan #NAB سابق ڈی جی ایف آئی اے نے احتساب کا بھانڈا پھوڑ دیا، وزیر اعظم کیا کہتے

Covid-19 recoveries cross 300,000 mark in Pakistan

Punjab crosses grim mark of 100,000 infections: 12 marriage halls, 193 restaurants, 4 schools, 23 shops sealed in Karachi.

The number of patients recovered from coronavirus in the country has now crossed 300,000 mark, reaching 300,616 with more than 95 per cent recovery ratio of the affected patients, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Monday.

According to the latest statistics shared by NCOC, 467 new cases of coronavirus surfaced in the country after tests of 28,280 people were conducted over the last twenty-four hours, lifting the national tally of infections to 315,727. There are now 8,588 active cases in the country. The pandemic claimed the lives of six more people during the last twenty-four hours. So far, 6,523 Covid-19 related fatalities have been reported across the country.

Since the pandemic outbreak began, 315,727 infections have been detected in the country, including 138,593 in Sindh, 100,033 in Punjab, 38,105 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 15,420 in Balochistan, 16,845 in Islamabad, 2,874 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 3,857 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). A total of 3,702,607 coronavirus tests have been conducted so far.

Meanwhile, Punjab crossed the grim mark of 100,000 Covid-19 infections with 92 new cases in the province during the last 24 hours.

Overall cases of coronavirus in the province have reached 100,033, provincial health department spokesperson said in a statement.

Most of the new infections, 39 were reported in Lahore, while nine cases surfaced in Rawalpindi and two in Attock, the spokesperson said. Three coronavirus patients, who were under treatment in hospitals, died in the province, increasing fatalities by the virus to 2,243 spokesperson of the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department said.Meanwhile, local administration in Karachi continued its crackdown against marriage halls, restaurants, and schools violating Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) amid rising virus cases.According to details, the district administrations in Karachi imposed heavy fines and sealed marriage halls, restaurants and schools violating the Covid-19 SOPs, besides issuing a warning to some of them. The authorities sealed 12 marriage halls, fined five others and issued a final warning to 47 marriage halls in the city.

Around 193 restaurants were sealed over severe violations against precautionary measures, besides imposing a fine of Rs300,000 against 38. Four schools and 23 shops were also sealed during the drive of the district administrations in the city.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/10/06/covid-19-recoveries-cross-300000-mark-in-pakistan/#comment-1241246997748759026

#Pakistan’s Drug Habit Is Endangering the Region

 

By Habiba Ashna Marhoon

In the past, Pakistan’s clandestine services have used profits from drug trafficking to fund proxy groups in South Asia.

The Golden Crescent of South Asia – a region comprising Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan – is a principal site for the production and distribution of opium and heroin. Over the past few decades, war, terrorism and a shifting political landscape have facilitated an active heroin trade throughout the region.

There are three well-defined heroin trafficking routes that originate in the Golden Crescent region. The Balkan route operates through Iran and Turkey and traffics the bulk of Afghan heroin to Europe. The northern route supplies heroin to the Russian Federation and Central Asia. Due to increased law enforcement along these two routes, alternate routes have emerged, collectively called the southern route, which traffics heroin to Iran and Pakistan, and from these countries, via sea and air, to other parts of the world.

Pakistan’s geographic location next to Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opium, places the country in a veritable front-row position in terms of drug trafficking. Its establishment has left no stone unturned in exploiting this geographic location to its own advantage. The money generated from the drug trade has been used to fund proxy terror groups. The role of narcotics in funding terror activities by Pakistan was revealed by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main accused in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. During his interrogation in 2010, he revealed the role played by Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in linking drug lords and terrorists and facilitating the transportation of weapons, along with drugs, to India.

While poppy cultivation has largely been eliminated in Pakistan, the crop is still grown in large parts of southern provinces of Afghanistan like Kandahar and Helmand, where the Taliban has a strong  influence. Analysts say opium poppies and heroin are among the main sources of income for the Taliban, which controls 80 percent of the drug production area in Afghanistan. The problem for them is how to transport these drugs to other countries. Here, Pakistan acts as a facilitator. The drug consignments, in connivance with Pakistan’s authorities, are smuggled through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. From there, these consignments head for Pakistan’s air and seaports and, hence, to further destinations in China, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

As United Nations World Drug Report 2012 reported, “Pakistan provides a vital transit route for smuggling of drugs worth $30 billion from neighboring Afghanistan.” Though not a major reason, Pakistan backs restoration of Taliban rule in Afghanistan because if the group returns to power, all these drug cartels could be resuscitated and its major benefactor Pakistan will have even more funds with which to sponsor its proxy terror groups.

Pakistan’s role in drug proliferation is validated by a number of arrests of its nationals in other countries on charges of drug trafficking. Shahbaz Khan, a Pakistani national, was the leader of a drug trafficking organization (the “DTO”) based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which produced and distributed massive quantities of narcotics around the world. He was arrested by Liberian authorities in December 2016 and later deported to the United States, where in 2019 he was sentenced to 15 years for conspiring and attempting to import heroin into the U.S. In May 2017, officials for the U.K.’s Border Force impounded a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Islamabad at London’s Heathrow airport. Later, the National Crime Agency said that a quantity of heroin had been found hidden in different panels of the plane. In March 2018, two members of the cabin crew of a PIA flight, traveling on an Islamabad-Paris flight (PK-749), were caught smuggling narcotics on board the flight.

Of late, speculations abound that PIA has come under the scanner of Qatar authorities who have recently discovered narcotics smuggling modules by Pakistani nationals who arrive in Doha, taking advantage of the country’s Visa on Arrival (VoA) facility. Some suggest that Qatari officials have photographic and video evidence of arrested drug smugglers from Pakistan. If these speculations turn out to be true, then it is quite possible Qatar could suspend the VoA facility for Pakistan’s nationals if it does not take action to prevent the smuggling of narcotics into Qatar.

The issue of narcotics smuggling has the potential to derail Pakistan’s bilateral relations and besmirch its international reputation. Indeed, the question arises as to why Pakistan would jeopardize its relations with other countries in order to benefit from narcotics. The answer is that the money derived from drug smuggling serves Pakistan’s larger agenda of sponsoring proxy terror groups. With the plenary session of the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) scheduled for later this month, Pakistan’s role in funding terror organizations through drugs/narcotics smuggling is sure to come up for discussion, as the FATF determines the country’s listing. If Pakistan does not want to be blacklisted, it must take action to stop drug proliferation. Blacklisting by FATF could spell ruin for Pakistan’s already dwindling economy.

#Pakistan - Sindh islands illegally annexed by Imran Khan govt: #PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto

President Dr Arif Alivi on September 1 promulgated the ordinance for establishing Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) for "development and management of islands in internal and territorial waters of Pakistan".

A presidential ordinance by the Imran Khan government to take control of two islands in Sindh province has been slammed by the Opposition parties in Pakistan, with PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto calling it an “illegal annexation”.

President Dr Arif Alivi on September 1 promulgated the ordinance for establishing Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) for “development and management of islands in internal and territorial waters of Pakistan”. Its ultimate objective was stated to be development of cities on the islands of Bundal and Buddo along the Karachi coast.

While the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government managed to keep it out of limelight, Bhutto on Monday posted the development on Twitter, vowing that his party would oppose the federal government’s move in the National Assembly, Senate and the provincial assembly.

“The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will oppose the illegal annexation of Sindh’s Islands through Presidential ordinance by the PTI government,” he said in a tweet on Monday.

“The PPP rejects this unconstitutional ordinance establishing island development authority. This is no less than a land grab and occupation of islands that belong to the people of #Sindh under article 172/2 of the Constitution,” said PPP central information secretary Dr Nafisa Shah on Twitter.

Former chairman of Senate and PPP leader Raza Rabbani termed the ordinance a crude attempt to bring under control of the federal government the coastal areas of the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan,” the Dawn newspaper reported. Under the ordinance, PIDA would be exempted from paying income tax for one full decade. It is also empowered to retain, lease, sell, exchange, rent of otherwise dispose of any land vested in it, the report said.Sindh based political parties, civil society organisations as well as the PPP led Sindh government on Saturday expressed their dismay and anger over a presidential ordinance.

Several nationalist parties, writers, intellectuals and poets also announced to launch a massive movement against the decision by organising rallies and demonstrations in various cities and towns if the decision was not taken back, The Express Tribune reported. Human rights activist I A Rehman said these islands were property of the people.

“You cannot take them without their consultation. Any takeover of the islands will be against the country,” Rehman said.

“Due to this recent decision, 800,000 fishermen who live there for centuries would be displaced. The federal government’s decision is not only against the Constitution of Pakistan but it is also against international conventions and agreements, which provide social, economic and cultural sovereignty to the indigenous people,” said Pakistan Fisher-folk Forum (PFF) Chairman Mohammad Ali Shah.

Noting that this was not the first time the islands (over 12,000 acres of land) were being snatched, Shah said such an attempt was also made in 2007 when a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to hand over two islands to Dubai based investors.

Former PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had announced a movement against the decision to take over the islands during General Pervez Musharraf’s regime in 2007. After protests by the PPP, the national parties and the civil society organisations, the government had to take back the decision.

https://indianexpress.com/article/pakistan/sindh-islands-illegally-annexed-by-imran-khan-govt-ppp-chairman-bilawal-6705690/

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