#Pakistan: Persecuted #Hazara Demand Justice

 By Kamran Chaudhry

When Tahir Khan visited a Quetta highway blocked with the bodies of 11 slain coal miners, he was greeted by women wearing white blindfolds.

“All of them were family members of the victims enduring a freezing temperature of minus nine. They denied being blackmailers and even tied their hands to prove they are harmless. They only appealed for a visit by Prime Minister Imran Khan to share their pain and ensure the future safety of our community,” the leader of Hazara political workers told UCA News.

“Many still carry the Quran on their heads cursing the killers and planners of the tragedy. Our graveyards are full. The visit of the premier is of no significance. We have met many ministers in the past.”

He referred to a Jan. 8 statement by the prime minister, who accused Shia Hazara protesters of blackmailing him as they refused for a sixth day to bury the bodies of miners killed in a brutal attack claimed by the Islamic State. The killings in Balochistan province on Jan. 3 were filmed and later posted online.

“No prime minister should be blackmailed like this, otherwise everyone will start blackmailing the prime minister,” said Imran Khan, adding that he would only visit Quetta once the funerals had taken place.

The 11 miners from the minority community were kidnapped near a coal mine in Mach close to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

More than 3,000 protesters ended their protest at the weekend and buried the bodies after the PM assured them of his visit. But his remarks caused an immediate stir on social media. The hashtag #PMshouldapologize became a top trend.

“HRCP is appalled at PM Imran Khan’s statement on being ‘blackmailed’ by the Hazara mourners. The Hazara have long been relegated to the margins and persecuted to the point of genocide; to dismiss them as ‘blackmailers’ is disgraceful,” stated the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a Jan. 8 tweet.

“The PM has a duty of care to the community and must respect them. The state should take immediate steps to secure their lives and liberty.”

Lahore protest

More than 50 activists, including children, gathered on Jan. 8 at Lahore Press Club to protest against the massacre. They held placards demanding rights and security for the Hazara community. One placard read: “We stand with Balochistan.”

Some moved the crowd of protesters with their heartfelt poems. These included Muzammil Khan, whose relative, a Hazara revenue officer in Balochistan, disappeared in 2018. 

“Our province is destroyed. There is no education, business or peace. We have become psychotic. The education budget is being spent to pay the salaries of paramilitary Frontier Corps,” he said.

Dominican Father James Channan, regional coordinator of United Religions Initiative Pakistan, joined another protest on Jan. 9 in Lahore.

“I condemn the tyranny against the Hazara community. We share your grief. I salute the martyrs who were killed for their faith. I demand the government provide justice to the community. Shia Hazara remained peaceful despite the ongoing violence. All local religious minorities are Pakistanis. They should be treated equally,” he said.   

The genocide

The impoverished southern province of Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and poorest region. It has been wracked by violence perpetuated by Islamist militants and separatists. Attacks have increased on Christians, Shia Hazara and security forces. Many Sunni Muslims regard the Hazara as infidels.

The Hazara in Balochistan find themselves particularly vulnerable to attack because of their distinctive facial features and Shia religious affiliation.

Despite 10 check posts and 19 Frontier Corps platoons in the two main Shia Hazara settlements — Marriabad and Hazara Town — according to the home department, more than 500 Hazara have been killed and 627 injured between 2014 and 2019. According to the Hazara Democratic Party, 75,000 to 100,000 Hazaras have fled violence and left for elsewhere in the country or abroad.

“Security measures for Hazara areas have led to the extreme ghettoization of the community. Community traders that leave their settlements are forced to take Frontier Corps protection with them, and Hazara students have been forced to drop out of university for fear of attacks. This has led to a separation of the community from the rest of the city and the country, and an inability of the community to live a regular and normal life,” stated the latest annual report of HRCP.

In 2018, the minority Muslim group held a four-day hunger strike over targeted killings of eights Hazara after meeting army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, who flew to Quetta and met representatives of the Hazara community on May 1.

In 2016, nine worshippers were killed in a suicide bombing at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta.

In 2013, the Hazara community refused to bury 96 people who died in a suicide bombing, sparking countrywide demonstrations in solidarity. Three days after the attack, Pakistan’s government suspended the provincial government and imposed federal rule in response to the demands of the Hazara community.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/14012021-pakistan-persecuted-hazara-demand-justice/

#Pakistan virginity test: How rape victims go through a 'second trauma'

Rights activists in Pakistan have hailed a Lahore court's decision to outlaw intrusive rape tests in sexual assault cases. They demand that other anti-women laws also be scrapped.

On Monday, a court in Lahore outlawed invasive examination of rape victims — a long-standing practice in the Islamic country that is used to assess a woman's so-called honor.

The test involves a medical examiner inserting two fingers into a woman's vagina to determine her virginity. According to the World Health Organization, the procedure holds no scientific merit.

The Lahore High Court judges ruled the practice "offends the personal dignity of the female victim and therefore is against the right to life and right to dignity."

In March, rights activists filed a case against the practice and demanded that it be outlawed. A similar case is being heard in the Sindh High Court and women's rights activists hope the Lahore court ruling will set a precedent for a nationwide ban.

Neighboring India banned the "two-finger" test in 2013, and Bangladesh followed suit in 2018.

Psychological torture and trauma

Rape victims describe the test as a "second trauma" after the sexual assault, which leaves psychological scars.

Mukhtaran Mai, a rights activist who survived a gang rape in 2002, told DW that the test discouraged women from reporting sexual assaults. "It is used to humiliate women in courts," Mai said. "I also went through it, and I cannot describe the humiliation."

"It feels like a second trauma," Mai said. "From the police station to hospital, everyone stares at you."

Even after a rape victim goes through the test, Mai said, police could still manipulate its result, which creates more problems for victims.

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Setting a precedent

Sexual crimes against women are widespread in the South Asian country, with recent rape cases in public places causing huge uproar in society.

Rape victims often face social stigma, and sexual assaults are vastly underreported in the country. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that weak laws and complicated procedures for prosecution make it difficult to punish the culprits.

Sahar Bandial, one of the lawyers who filed the petition against intrusive rape tests, told DW that the practice is a violation of a woman's body. "It is character assassination. The victim's testimony is discredited in the court of law. The test is a violation of human dignity, the right to life, the right to medical care. In short, it is discriminatory," Bandial said.

Activists and lawyers took the case to the Lahore High Court because the Parliament would not abolish the practice, Bandial said. "It is not a law," she added. "It is a decadeslong practice."

Although the court's decision applies only to Punjab, Bandial said, it is likely to set a precedent for other provinces.

The rights activist Farzana Bari hailed the court's decision and told DW that other anti-women laws need to be abolished, as well. "For instance, the woman's age is discredited in adultery cases, and a woman's testimony is not considered equal to that of a man's in rape and gang rapes cases," she said. "These laws must be scrapped."

Bushra Gohar, a former parliamentarian, says she hopes that the government will implement the court's decision at all levels.

Rising rape cases

Pakistan ranks sixth on the list of the world's most dangerous countries for women. Since 2015, more than 22,037 rape cases have been reported in the country, according to government data. Activists say it is just the tip of an iceberg as a large number of rape cases are not reported in the country.

The conviction rate in rape cases is also very low. Out of the 22,037 rape cases, 4,060 are pending in courts, while only 77 offenders have been convicted.

On September 9, two men dragged a woman and her children out of their car on a highway, raped her in front of her kids and robbed her. The incident took place near the eastern city of Lahore.

A call for help to police did not receive a response, a family member said. Lahore's former police chief, Umer Sheikh, sparked an uproar after he said that the crime was the woman's fault as she left the house at night and drove on an empty road.

Amid public outrage, the government last month approved chemical castration and death penalty as part of a new anti-rape law. Rights groups have criticized the legislation as regressive, saying it would not solve Pakistan's rape problem.

https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-virginity-test-how-rape-victims-go-through-a-second-trauma/a-56144918

Aphrodisiac, meat & sport — why Arab royals hunt bustard in Pakistan & why India banned it

 SANDHYA RAMESH

Hunting of Asian houbara bustard, a vulnerable species, is banned in Pakistan, but is used as something of a foreign policy instrument since Arab royals are allowed to do so.

Over the past weekend, 11 members of the UAE royal family reportedly arrived in Pakistan — with hunting gear and falcons — to hunt down the houbara bustard.The Asian houbara bustard, also known as MacQueen’s bustard (Chlamydotis macqueenii), is a vulnerable species and its hunting is banned in Pakistan, but an exception is made for Arab royals who are allowed to do so via special permits.

The Asian houbara bustard is a bird native to Central Asia that migrates to the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan, during winter months. It is one of multiple bustard species and similar to the Great Indian Bustard, which is native to India.

The Arab royals hunt the bird as a sport and also because its meat is believed to be an aphrodisiac.

The controversial practice of Arab royals being allowed to indulge in falconry was also followed in India until the 1970s, the target being the Great Indian Bustard.

However, it was brought to an end amid a massive public outcry. Even so, the Great Indian Bustard remains critically endangered and faces imminent extinction risk if urgent intervention is not made.

At great risk

The Great Indian Bustard (GIB) or the Ardeotis nigriceps is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world, with an average adult male weighing 15 kg. The birds have long white necks and brown bodies with black and grey colouring. Males have a larger black crown and a black band across the breast. They are ostrich-like in appearance but smaller. The birds breed during the monsoon and have an omnivorous diet comprising seeds, insects, and even rats. They are native to grasslands and scrublands. Known locally as godawan, the GIB is found in Kutch (Gujarat), Solapur and Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Bellary (Karnataka), and in pockets of Rajasthan, primarily concentrated near the Desert National Park (DNP).

It is now classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and has suffered a drastic drop in their numbers from hunting and loss of habitat. High-tension electricity wires that run along its flying route constitute one of the biggest threats to the Great Indian Bustard.

Their numbers are believed to have dropped to 150 in 2018 from 1,260 in 1969.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, along with the Rajasthan government, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), and Abu Dhabi’s International Fund for Houbara Conservation is currently undertaking a captive breeding project to save the GIB species. There are about 30 birds for now in their care, with the researchers looking to capture and incubate the eggs to ensure the health and safety of chicks.

Conservationists have also called for power cables to be shifted underground or be covered with deflectors to prevent loss of life in this species.

Conservation

Over the past decades, many conservation projects have been launched for the GIB, the largest of which is the Desert National Park (DNP) in Jaisalmer. The DNP is spread over 3,000 square km in Jaisalmer and Barmer, and was established in 1980 to protect the desert ecosystem.

Monitoring for bird safety is stringent in DNP. GIB eggs are at a risk of destruction from not just larger animals but also crows, so nests are intensely patrolled and water facilities provided for the birds. Poaching still persists in many countries.While the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 made it illegal to hunt bustard, poaching continues to be a threat amid a demand for the bird’s meat. However, increased awareness among local residents has reportedly helped tackle poaching to some extent in the DNP area. The 75-odd villages surrounding the DNP area are actively involved in monitoring GIB individuals and population, while working with authorities to ensure their safety.

‘Policy’ on houbara bustard

Hunting bustards is illegal in most countries. It was also banned completely in Pakistan by the country’s Supreme Court in 2015, but the decision was withdrawn in 2016 because the practice has become something of a foreign policy instrument for Pakistan. While official figures are not available, a 2016 BBC report quoted a Pakistan senator as saying that the “dignitaries who come to hunt the bird have not only established certain welfare projects but are also paying 10m Pakistani rupees [$95,000; £66,500] for hunting 50 birds in season”.

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TRUMP THOUGHT HE COULD CONVINCE PENCE TO OVERTHROW THE ELECTION BY CALLING HIM A PUSSY

 BY BESS LEVIN

As a reminder, Pence is the guy who calls his wife “mother” and refuses to eat alone in a room with a woman he’s not married to.

Something that‘s been pretty well established over the last four years is that Donald Trump is not a smart man. Oh sure, he likes to claim otherwise—“my two greatest assets [are] mental stability and being, like, really smart,” is a thing he once said, in addition to challenging one of his own Cabinet members to an IQ test—but of course he is not. There are obviously many examples of the president’s tiny brain, including the time he gave a speech claiming the sound windmills emit causes cancer, his suggestion to stop a hurricane by dropping a nuclear bomb on it, and his attempt to buy another country. Now, we have a new data point re: him not being very bright.

According to a report from The New York Times, in the days leading up to last Wednesday, Trump spent a series of meetings “relentlessly” pressuring Mike Pence to overturn the results of the election, “alternately cajoling and browbeating him.” Just before Pence headed to the Capitol to certify Joe Biden’s victory, the president called the V.P.’s residence in a last-ditch effort to get him to stop the Electoral College count. In that conversation, according to two people briefed on it, Trump told Pence: “You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy.”

Now, when Trump was just another crooked real estate developer dealing with other wannabe gangsters, this kind of tactic might have worked. But as New York points out, “This is Mike Pence,” i.e. the evangelical, born-again Christian who won’t eat alone with a woman who is not his spouse—who he calls “mother”— and, per Politico, responded to the Access Hollywood tape by “cutting himself off from the outside world, praying with his wife about what to do next and telling his advisers that he wasn’t sure he could continue with the campaign.” The pussy line, as New York writes, was never going to work. And, of course, it didn’t work, with Pence choosing to stick with the Constitution instead of his boss, for whom the Constitution is “like a foreign language.” (Not everyone wanted to throw a parade in Pence’s honor for refusing Trump’s demands; “I’m glad he didn’t break the law, but it’s kind of hard to call somebody courageous for choosing not to help overthrow our democratic system of government,” Representative Tom Malinowski told the Times.)

But if invoking the “p” word upset Pence, it probably was less offensive to the V.P. than the president’s decision to unleash an angry mob on the Capitol that wanted to kill him. Per Politico:

After four-and-a-half years of unbending loyalty, Vice President Mike Pence is ready to move on from Donald Trump. All it took was the president inciting a riot that, quite literally, put Pence’s life in danger. “Pence is done with Trump’s bulls--t,” said a former Pence adviser. “He’s not going to give a prime time speech saying, ‘F you Donald Trump,’ but in his own way he is going to just get to the finish line and keep his head down.”

While Trump traveled to the Southwestern border on Tuesday as part of an effort to shift the conversation away from last week’s deadly rampage, Pence’s team scaled back a similar farewell tour that would have dispatched the vice president to several events this week to tout the administration’s accomplishments…. In a sign of Pence’s eagerness to go his separate way, he plans to attend Biden’s inauguration on January 20 apart from Trump, who has vowed to skip his successor’s swearing-in and is expected to depart for his West Palm Beach estate prior to then.

Of course, like a politician who supported the president, and his worst instincts, up until the very last second, Pence hasn’t completely turned on Trump, whose base he would presumably like to tap for a potential 2024 run. On Tuesday, Pence sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refusing to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office, writing: “I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our Constitution,” adding “I urge you and every member of Congress to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment.”

Also on Tuesday, Trump refused to take responsibility for inciting the mob that attacked the Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence,” instead claiming his speech prior to the siege was “totally appropriate.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/mike-pence-donald-trump-attack

Donald Trump becomes the first US president to be impeached for a second time

 Lauren Gambino 

 @laurenegambino

The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached Donald Trump for inciting a violent insurrection against the government of the United States a week after he encouraged a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol, a historic condemnation that makes him the only American president to be charged twice with committing high crimes and misdemeanors.

After an emotional day-long debate in the chamber where lawmakers cowered last week as rioters vandalized the Capitol, nearly a dozen House Republicans joined Democrats to embrace the constitution’s gravest remedy after vowing to hold Trump to account before his leaves office next week.

The sole article of impeachment charges the defeated president with “inciting an insurrection” that led to what the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said would be immortalized as a “day of fire” on Capitol Hill.

The president, Pelosi said, represented a “clear and present danger to the nation we all love”.

The final count was 232 to 197, with 10 members of the president’s party supporting his unprecedented second impeachment, making it the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history. Among them was Liz Cheney, the No 3 House Republican and daughter of Dick Cheney, George W Bush’s vice-president. Though she did not rise to speak on Wednesday, she issued a blistering statement announcing her decision, in which she said that there had “never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States” than Trump’s conduct on 6 January.

“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said Cheney in a statement.

Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, attempted to carve a middle path for his caucus. He said Trump “bears responsibility” for Wednesday’s attack, while warning that impeachment would “further fan the flames of partisan division.” As an alternative, he proposed a censure.The House was prepared to immediately transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate after Wednesday’s vote. In a statement, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said there was “simply no chance” of concluding a trial before Trump leaves office, ensuring that the affair would begin during the inaugural days of Joe Biden’s presidency.Though consequences for Trump will not include premature removal from office, the Senate trial would not be entirely symbolic. Two-thirds of the 100-member body are required to convict a president, meaning 17 Republicans would have to join Democrats to render a guilty verdict.

If convicted, it would then only require a simple majority to disqualify him from ever again holding public office.

“Make no mistake,” said New York senator Chuck Schumer, who will become the majority leader when his party takes control of the chamber later this month, “there will be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate; there will be a vote on convicting the president for high crimes and misdemeanors; and if the president is convicted, there will be a vote on barring him from running again.”

While it is currently considered unlikely that enough Senate Republicans would break with Trump, two have called on the president to resign, and the New York Times reported that McConnell believes the president had committed impeachable offenses.

McConnell’s souring on Trump is significant, because as Washington’s most powerful Republican his view could make it easier for others in his party to turn against the president.

In a letter to colleagues on Wednesday, McConnell said he had “not made a final decision on how I will vote, and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”

The deadly assault a week ago came as the House and Senate were in session to certify Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election, a result Trump refused to accept. Five people died during the siege, including a police officer.“We are debating this historic measure at an actual crime scene, and we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the president of the United States,” said the congressman Jim McGovern, a Democrat of Massachusetts and the chair of the rules committee, opening Wednesday’s session.

All around as members argued the merits of impeaching a defeated president were reminders of the the destruction wrought by rioters – the first occupation of the US Capitol since British troops burned the building during the war of 1812.

The building lawmakers call the People’s House, poorly defended last Wednesday, had been turned into a fortress, protected by thousands of national guard troops and with metal detectors stationed outside the chamber doors. Some Republicans rebelled against the new safety protocols, evading the security check.

A remorseless Trump on Tuesday called his inflammatory language at a rally immediately before the mob marched on the Capitol “totally appropriate”. Efforts to hold him accountable were nothing more than a “continuation of the greatest witch-hunt in the history of politics”, he said.

On Wednesday, Trump issued an official statement via the White House that said: “In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind.”

Few Republicans were willing to defend Trump’s incendiary behavior last week. But those who oppose impeachment objected to the rushed nature of the proceedings.

“I can think of no action the House can take that is more likely to further divide the American people,” said Tom Cole, a Republican of Oklahoma, who was among the more than 120 House Republicans who voted last week to reject the electoral votes of key swing states that Biden won, despite officials at every level calling November’s vote the most secure election in US history.

Democrats were incensed by calls for bipartisanship, particularly from Republicans who refused to recognize Biden’s election victory and voted to overturn the results of a democratic election even after the assault on the Capitol.

“It’s a bit much to be hearing that these people would not be trying to destroy our government and kill us if we just weren’t so mean to them,” said Jamie Raskin, a Democratic Maryland congressman who will serve as the lead impeachment manager.The House proceeded with impeachment on Wednesday after Mike Pence formally rejected calls to strip Trump of power by invoking the 25th amendment to the US constitution, which allows for the removal of a sitting president deemed unfit to perform his job.

Pence’s signal came just hours before the House passed a resolution calling on him to take the unprecedented action.

Trump’s day of reckoning on Capitol Hill comes less than a year after he was acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial for pressuring Ukraine to open investigations into Biden and his son. But with just days left in his presidency, the political landscape had shifted dramatically. No House Republicans voted in support when Trump was impeached in 2019 over his attempts to persuade the leader of Ukraine to investigate the family of Biden, then his election rival. But as fear turned to fury in the days since the attack on the Capitol, senior Republican leaders signaled – tacitly and explicitly – a desire to purge the party of Trump. Their break with the president came only after months of tolerating and indulging his campaign of lies about a stolen election, long after it was undeniably clear he had lost.

وفاقی وزیر کورونا پر کریڈٹ لینے کی بجائے دو کروڑ لوگوں کے بیروزگار ہونے پر نااہل وزیراعظم کو مستعفیٰ ہونے کا مشورہ دیں۔ شازیہ عطاء مری

پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی پارلیمنٹیرینز کی سیکریٹری اطلاعات اور ممبر قومی اسمبلی شازیہ مری نے وفاقی وزیر اسد عمر کی پریس کانفرنس پر ردعمل کا اظہار کرتے ہوئے کہا ہے کہ وفاقی وزیر کورونا پر کریڈٹ لینے کی بجائے دو کروڑ لوگوں کے بیروزگار ہونے پر نااہل وزیراعظم کو مستعفیٰ ہونے کا مشورہ دیں۔ دو کروڑ لوگ کورونا کی وجہ سے بیروزگار نہیں ہوئے تھے ، عمران خان کی نالائق ٹیم اور اس کی غلط پالیسیوں کا نتیجہ ہے۔ قوم کی بدقسمتی یہ تھی کہ اس صورتحال میں ان پر نا تجربہ کار اور نااہل لوگ مسلط تھے۔ شازیہ مری نے کہا کہ 50فیصد لوگوں کو جو کھانا کم مل رہا ہے اس کی وجہ کورونا نہیں بلکہ نیازی حکومت کی طرف سے کی جانے والی مہنگائی ہے۔ 54فیصد لوگوں نے خریداری کم نہیں کی ان میں قوت خرید ہی نہیں رہی۔ 50فیصد نسبتاً کھانے کی سستی چیزیں خریدنے کی بجائے فاقہ کشی پر مجبور ہوئے۔ 47فیصد لوگوں نے حکومت کی لاپرواہی کی وجہ سے اپنی جمع پونجی استعمال کی، 30فیصد لوگوں نے قرضہ لے کر گزارہ کیا۔ شازیہ مری نے کہا کہ اسٹیل ملز، ریڈیو پاکستان، پی ٹی ڈی سی اور پی ٹی وی سمیت دیگر سرکاری محکموں سے نکالے گئے لوگوں کا تو اسد عمر نے ذکر ہی نہیں کیا۔ شازیہ مری نے سوال کیا کہ وزیر موصوف یہ بتانا پسند کریں گے سرکاری ملازمین سلیکٹڈ حکومت کے خلاف ہڑتال پر کیوں جا رہے ہیں؟ نااہل حکمرانوں نے ملک میں سرمایہ کاری ختم اور صنعتیں تباہ کر دی ہیں، غربت، بیروزگاری اور معاشی بدحالی وزیراعظم کی جعلی ٹریننگ کا نتیجہ ہے جبکہ آئے روز بجلی اور گیس کی قیمتوں میں اضافہ عام آدمی کو شدید متاثر کر رہا ہے۔ 

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24292/ 

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Pakistan: Gunmen target polio workers, kill policeman

 Haroon Janjua

A police officer was shot dead in northwestern Pakistan when gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a polio vaccination team that he was escorting.

Armed gunmen on Tuesday shot dead a police officer guarding a team of polio vaccine handlers in northwestern Pakistan, according to local officials.

The attack took place in Karak, a remote town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on the second day of a five-day national polio immunization drive. According to official figures, Karak and adjoining areas recorded 15 of province's 22 cases polio cases last year.

"Two gunmen came on a motorcycle and attacked our colleague Junaid Ullah while he was escorting the polio team. They opened fire on the van carrying polio workers," Muhammad Ishaq Khan, a police official in Karak, told DW.

"Police teams have launched an operation to catch the attackers. The polio vaccination campaign has been temporarily halted; we will resume it in the area tomorrow," he added.

The latest polio campaign aims to vaccinate more than 40 million children under the age of five across Pakistan, with the help of around 285,000 frontline workers.

Islamist attacks

Islamist militants regularly carry out violent attacks against polio vaccination workers in northwestern Pakistan.

The Taliban claim that polio eradication campaigns are being used by the West as a cover for spying. They allege that the drives are similar to a hepatitis vaccination program run by the imprisoned Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi, who allegedly helped the CIA find al Qaeda's former chief Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was killed by the US Special Forces at his Abbottabad hideout in May, 2011.

"Polio vaccination is considered a foreign drive and a propaganda campaign in these areas of Pakistan," Rahim ullah Yousafzai, a security analyst, told DW.

Rising polio cases in Pakistan

Polio is now only found in two countries — Afghanistan and Pakistan — with the latter struggling to cope with a surge in cases over the past few months. The Muslim-majority South Asian country has registered 68 polio cases since the start of the year.

The disease, which mainly affects children under the age of five, can infect the spinal cord, causing paralysis.

Pakistani authorities brought down polio cases to as low as eight in 2017 and 12 in 2018. However, in 2019, cases rose to 148.

Pakistan started its first nationwide polio eradication campaign in 1994. At the time, the country was recording 20,000 polio cases each year on an average. By 2004, 10 years into the campaign, the number of cases in the country had dropped to only 30 per year. Health experts dubbed it a major achievement.

However, the campaign lost momentum after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the deteriorating security situation in the years following the US invasion of Afghanistan. The US-led war on terror in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region made it difficult for authorities to focus on polio eradication.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has also had an impact on polio vaccination campaigns, with the government's focus shifting to curb COVID-19 in the country.

#Pakistan #Balochistan Neglected by Policymakers, Ballnigwer Faces Educational Crisis the Most

Sher Jan P. Shohaz

@SheeranRind

Entertaining most of its audience, CM Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan’s tweet on 13 December on upgrading secondary schools read, ” Our government has decided to upgrade 53 girls primary schools into middle and 53 from the middle to high schools”, is a straight emphasis on economic statistics aiming to build a tall statue of his virtue in his regimen rather actually reforming education sector in Balochistan.

Having the highest illiteracy rate countrywide, Balochistan welcomes every initiative which helps in recovering it from the clutches of illiteracy based on trimming the breakneck rise in illiteracy rather than making huge discussions on economic statistics which never happen to be real development to the occupants of the province.

Concentrating so heavily on upgrading primary schools into middle and middle into high, our policymakers and government; following the traditional ways of educational provisions, are ignoring danger signs that the rest of the students in the province, especially those who belong to rural areas, couldn’t reach to lessen illiteracy ratio of the province is due to not getting enrolled in higher education which exposes that the establishment of colleges was one of the major aspects always neglected by the government.

Many districts in the province don’t facilitate the inhabitants their educational demands respectively. Each district owns a number of tehsils and sub tehsils that are yet to be provided higher education. This neglected need enriches the illiteracy rate in the province further if the policymakers don’t recognize themselves making decisions on the basis of quantity than quality. The federal efforts of the government give the impression of erecting a political statue of doing something in the regimen on low budgets rather than forming an experience of educational rise.

It’s a fact that attaining a higher education can increase your opportunities and improve your overall quality of life. Unfortunately, there are many far-flung areas in Balochistan, having a large number of people, are yet to be facilitated colleges.

Located 90 KMs in the west of Turbat, Ballnigwer, a sub-tehsil, is one of those regions where higher education is yet to be introduced. Students completing matriculation from the region, having financial burdens on them, are interested less in the number to move to the nearby cities for the seek of higher education. This pause in their education includes several reasons making poverty one of the most common in all. As the region is an agricultural site is left with the only profession of agriculture. It is hard to manage the expenditure of every adult of a family in moving to other cities.

As a result, it’s hard to find a student persuading higher education in a family living in such regions.

Nazila, 16, a secondary student from Ball, wishes to become a lecturer after completing her degree. “I have always thought to be a professional in life. After completing my matriculation from the village, I have been asked by my parents to pause my study since we are financially powerless.” Said Nazila, “I read books at home but I dream of being enrolled in a college and university where i can grow my intellectual journey more strong and can achieve the desire i keep. I wish we were built a college in our village.”

Comparatively, a number of girls from the village are destitute from higher education which even counts a great focus on growing illiteracy in the region.

17-year old Nayaz, the only son of his parents, after completing matriculation, is working in the field in Ballnigwer. Nawaz was an extremely intelligent student, according to his Math teacher, when he was a school student. Nawaz said that would grow an artist after he completes his higher education in a university.

“I love painting and sketching a lot. I wish we had a college here in Ballnigwer where we could complete our at least higher education. I wanted to learn and join a government job, but my father can’t afford me on sending other cities for higher education since he’s the only one to earn and feed.” Said Nayaz.

Recently, the only boys high school in Ballnigwer has been administered to provide HSSC certificates to the students enrolled in registers. Unfortunately, the school has not been managed to conduct classes for the very students. No teacher so far has been hired for college classes. This upgrading leaves the locals amazed.

The female students of the region are entirely dependent on one school. Located at the epicenter of the region Ball, Government Girls High School Ballnigwer has rejected many students coming from far-flung areas such as Dezder, Kocho, Kapkapar, Kashap, Talvi, ShayZangi, Drachko, Hochath, and many more. What does the word “Emerging Balochistan” mean to them?

It’s even worse to inform those female students from Talvi, Shayzangi, Sorik, and few other areas, pay walk to the school taking them 1 and a half hour to reach there.

A primary girls school in Talvi town in Ballnigwer has been promoted to the middle which let us raise many questions to policymakers. Keeping the number of high schools in the region in mind, the idea of promoting primary to the middle should have been introduced. Since we have one high school in the region for girls, this promotion from primary to the middle is equal to zero reform. Why not promoting from primary to high directly? This could have been considered a more innovative and accepted move.

According to civil society representatives and NGOs in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, Balochistan has the lowest female literacy rates anywhere in the world where women and girls have extremely poor access to education.

Increasing institutions in number will never help in decreasing the illiteracy ratio but quality education does.

Balochistan has the lowest literacy rate than all other Pakistan’s provinces that stands at 40pc.

The greater contribution to illiteracy is often noted from rural areas of the province where opportunities for education aren’t entertained. With that said, illiteracy causes unemployment, low community involvement, and low self-esteem. Unemployment leads to poverty and poverty gives rise to criminal activity, child labor, poor health, homelessness, child marriage, and many other struggles. This all worst is given birth since awareness via education is denied.

I believe upgrading primary institutions into the middle of rural areas contribute nothing to educating Balochistan. To be productive, the provincial government must undo its ask for this and emphasis upgrading primary into high. It doesn’t cost the regime a giant pocket to replace middle by building high schools and providing colleges to each far-flung tehsil and sub tehsil which locate a great number of people living.

https://balochistanvoices.com/2021/01/neglected-by-policymakers-ballnigwer-faces-educational-crisis-the-most/

#Pakistan - #PPP deplores and condemns vicious lies purveyed by a section of media

 Pakistan People’s Party deplores and condemns the vicious lies propagated by a private television alleging back channel contacts of the Party with the government as a result of which the Party is alleged to have backtracked from its criticism of the NAB in the Parliament.

In a statement the Secretary General of the PPP Parliamentarians Farhatullah Babar said that neither there are back channel contacts with the government nor the Party has relented from its condemnation of the NAB as a tool of political re-engineering. It was on the PPP’s initiative that the motion was taken up in the Senate that lay bare how NAB was working as the political arm of the regime, he recalled.

The PPP believes that the country can neither achieve economic progress nor political stability as long accountability is used for political witch hunting by the NAB in its present form and legislation. No accountability will be genuine unless everyone who is paid out of the national exchequer is judged under the same accountability mechanism and the same accountability law which also respects constitutional requirements of due process and fair trial as in Article 10-A of the Constitution.

Article 10-A states, “For the determination of his civil rights and obligations or in any criminal charge against him a person shall be entitled to a fair trial and due process”

It is most unfortunate that the TV channel allowed itself to be used as propaganda arm of the regime to sow dissensions within the combined opposition that is determined to pursue its democratic campaign against the selected government as well as its selectors, he said.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24294/

US invites Bilawal,Asif Zardari to Biden’s oath-taking ceremony

 

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto and former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari have been invited to the oath taking ceremony of the US President-elect Joe Biden. The ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20, 2021, on the West Front of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

Bilawal Bhutto is expected to attend the oath taking ceremony; however Asif Zardari cannot attend this ceremony because his name is listed in the Exit Control List. Peoples Party circles claimed that their leaders were the first who received the invitation in Pakistan. The invitation came from the Democratic Party, which has close links with the Pakistan People’s Party. Last month, Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister of Sindh, visited USA and held meeting with the members of the Democratic Party, sources said.

Asif Zardari and Obama governments had worked closely on different issues including War on Terror and Kerry Lugar Bill. Earlier The Correspondent had reported that Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) politics, and its leadership, will be effected by the recent election of Joe Biden as the US President Elect has close relations with the PPP.

https://www.thecorrespondent.pk/2021/01/12/bilawal-zardari-invited-for-joe-bidens-oath-taking-ceremony/