Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Conor Lamb Wins Pennsylvania House Seat, Giving Democrats a Map for Trump Country
By ALEXANDER BURNS and JONATHAN MARTIN
Conor Lamb, a Democrat and former Marine, scored a razor-thin but extraordinary upset in a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania after a few thousand absentee ballots delivered Democrats a win in the heart of President Trump’s Rust Belt base.
The victory still may be contested, but Mr. Lamb’s 627-vote lead Wednesday afternoon appeared insurmountable, given that the four counties in Pennsylvania’s 18th district have about 500 provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count, county election officials said. That slim margin, out of almost 230,000 ballots cast, nonetheless upended the political landscape ahead of November’s midterm elections and emboldened fellow Democrats to run maverick campaigns even in deep-red areas where Republicans remain bedeviled by Mr. Trump’s unpopularity.
Republican officials in Washington said they were likely to demand a recount through litigation, and the National Republican Congressional Committee put out a call for voters to report any irregularities in the balloting. Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the committee, said the party was “not conceding anything.”
But absent significant adjustments in the tally, Mr. Lamb, a 33-year-old former prosecutor from a local Democratic dynasty, pulled off a staggering upset over Rick Saccone, a Republican state legislator, in a district that Mr. Trump carried by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016.
The hairbreadth outcome in the race belied its sweeping consequences. The battle for a district in suburban and rural areas around Pittsburgh underscored the degree to which his appeal has receded across the country. And it exposed the ways in which both parties are weighed down by divisive leaders: Democrats by Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader; Republicans by Mr. Trump and Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House.
Just as vividly, the race showed that only one party appears willing to grapple with the implications of campaigning under a radioactive figurehead.
In Pennsylvania, Mr. Lamb presented himself as independent-minded and neighborly, vowing early he would not support Ms. Pelosi to lead House Democrats and playing down his connections to his national party. He echoed traditional Democratic themes about union rights and economic fairness, but took a more conservative position on the hot-button issue of guns.
Throughout the race, Mr. Lamb said he welcomed support from people who voted for Mr. Trump, and he saved his most blunt criticism for Mr. Ryan, highlighting the speaker’s ambitions to overhaul Social Security and Medicare. Mr. Lamb’s approach could become a template for a cluster of more moderate Democrats contesting conservative-leaning seats, in states like Arkansas, Kansas and Utah. Democrats in Washington have focused chiefly on Republican-held seats in the upscale suburbs where Mr. Trump is most intensely disliked.
But they are hungry for gains across the political map, and in red areas they have encouraged candidates to put local imperatives above fealty to the national party, even tolerating outright disavowals of Ms. Pelosi.
Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois, a Democrat who represents a farm and manufacturing district Mr. Trump narrowly carried, said the party’s recruits should feel free to oppose Ms. Pelosi if they choose. She noted that she was helping one such anti-Pelosi candidate, Paul Davis of Kansas, who was in Washington this week raising money.
“If they want somebody else to be a leader, then they ought to express that,” Ms. Bustos said. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
Representative Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, a veteran Democrat from a neighboring district, said Mr. Lamb had benefited from “buyer’s remorse” among Trump supporters and had wisely tailored his message to the conservative-leaning area.
“This guy has made a lot of promises that aren’t being kept,” Mr. Doyle said of the president.
On the Republican side, Mr. Saccone, 60, campaigned chiefly as a stand-in for Mr. Trump, endorsing the president’s agenda from top to bottom. He campaigned extensively with Mr. Trump and members of his administration and relied heavily on campaign spending from outside Republican groups that attempted to make Ms. Pelosi a central voting issue. Conservative outside groups also sought to promote the tax cuts recently enacted by the party, but found that message had little effect.
Yet the Republicans’ all-hands rescue mission was not enough to salvage Mr. Saccone’s candidacy. Mr. Saccone has not conceded and Republicans have indicated they may challenge the results through litigation, a long-shot strategy.
In a meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday morning, Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, who leads the party’s campaign committee, described the race as “too close to call,” according to a person who heard his presentation. But Mr. Ryan and Mr. Stivers also called the election a “wake-up call” for Republican lawmakers, telling them that they could not afford to fall behind on fund-raising, as Mr. Saccone did. Mr. Lamb raised $3.9 million and spent $3 million, compared with Mr. Saccone’s $900,000 raised and $600,000 spent as of Feb. 21. But Republican outside groups swamped the district. Between conservative “super PACs” and the National Republican Congressional Committee, Mr. Saccone had more than $14 million spent on his behalf.
Mr. Lamb got just over $2 million.
As Republican lawmakers spilled out of their morning conference meeting, few seemed willing to come to grips with how much Mr. Trump is energizing Democrats and turning off independent voters. Some of them even argued that Mr. Saccone only made the race close thanks to the president’s rally in the district on Saturday.
“The president came in and helped close this race and got it to where it is right now,” said Mr. Ryan.
Others in the conference, however, talked more openly about the political difficulties of breaking with Mr. Trump. “There is no benefit from running away from the president,” said Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a member of his party’s leadership, noting that Republican candidates need core conservative voters to show up and this constituency still backs the president. “It doesn’t get them the same thing as Lamb opposing Pelosi,” said Mr. McHenry.
Even Mr. Stivers, who is tasked with re-electing a contingent of lawmakers from districts that backed Hillary Clinton, declined to say Republicans should feel free to break from Mr. Trump.
“I am not going to tell anybody to be against the president,” he said. But Mr. Lamb’s margin and the turnout levels in the district’s suburban precincts proved crucial, and a handful of Republican House veterans conceded this broader vulnerability. “We know that’s probably where the president’s appeal is the weakest,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a longtime party strategist, adding: “It’s a pattern we’ve seen throughout.” But he argued that Mr. Trump’s unpopularity in high-income areas would not as adversely impact incumbents who have their own identity and are steeled for difficult races. Yet even as most of the Republicans pinned the blame on Mr. Saccone’s fund-raising weakness or held up Mr. Lamb’s willingness to oppose Ms. Pelosi, refusing to fault Mr. Trump, one retiring lawmaker was more blunt. “Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt,” said Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, a frequent critic of the president. “I’ve been through wave elections before.”
Democrats were buoyant at Mr. Lamb’s victory, viewing his upset as both a harbinger of a November wave and perhaps a sign that the party had overcome some of the most stinging Republican attack lines of the Obama years. Polling in both parties found Ms. Pelosi widely disliked among voters in the district, but the Republican ads featuring her failed to disqualify Mr. Lamb. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, said Mr. Lamb’s campaign showed that the Republicans’ anti-Pelosi playbook had real limitations. The race, he said, should embolden Democrats to contest difficult districts in the Midwest with an economic message that appeals to elements of Mr. Trump’s base.
“Conor Lamb was talking about redevelopment and economic growth, and the Republicans were talking about Nancy Pelosi,” Mr. Peduto said. “It’s like they couldn’t help themselves.” Mr. Peduto urged the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the electioneering vehicle for House Democrats, to expand its target list in the Trump-aligned Midwest. “Look through the Rust Belt, in areas that used to be blue,” Mr. Peduto said. “If you’re in a congressional district that’s 8, 10 or 12 points carried by Trump, I would hope that the D.C.C.C. is now putting that in the target.”
To the extent that Democrats attempt further incursions into Trump country, it may test their party’s willingness to tolerate Lamb-like deviation on matters like gun control, and perhaps more widespread rejection of Ms. Pelosi.
Democrats in Washington have already faced criticism from liberal activists for intervening in primary elections, in states like Texas and California, to promote candidates that they view as more electable. Putting forward a slate of moderates in Republican areas could prove more controversial than boosting just one in a special election. Up to this point, however, Democratic leaders and their campaign tacticians have taken a just-win approach, encouraging candidates to attack Mr. Ryan but taking a far more permissive view of party loyalty than their Republican counterparts.
Clarke Tucker, a Democratic state legislator in Arkansas who is challenging Representative French Hill, a Republican, said on Wednesday that he took Mr. Lamb’s victory as a validation of a throw-the-bums-out message he planned to deliver in his own race. Campaigning in a seat that comprises Little Rock and its suburbs, Mr. Tucker said he seldom spoke about Mr. Trump and announced up front that he would not back Ms. Pelosi.
Mr. Tucker, who was aggressively recruited by the D.C.C.C., said he had told Democrats in Washington that he was “very frustrated with the leadership of the House in both parties” and no one attempted to dissuade him from delivering that message. “That district is a lot like the one I’m running in,” Mr. Tucker said of Mr. Lamb’s seat. “I think voters are interested in changing the leadership in Washington.”
#Pakistan - Bilawal rejects conspiracy theories about fate of 18th amendment
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said his party will not compromise on the integrity of country's constitution.
Rejecting what he said conspiracy theories about the fate of the 18th amendment, the PPP chairman said in a tweet that the fundamentals of the 18th amendment and 1973 constitution are non negotiable.
"Come hell or high water we will not compromise on our constitution’s integrity," said he.
There seems to be a lot of conspiracy theories about the fate of the 18th amendment. Let me make #PPP position clear; the fundamentals of the 18th amendment & 1973 constitution are non negotiable. Come hell or high water we will not compromise on our constitution’s integrity.
The 18th amendment was passed during the PPP tenure by the National Assembly in 2010, removing the power of the President of Pakistan to dissolve the Parliament unilaterally .
#PashtunTahafuzMovement - Cases filed against #Pakistani activist for 'criticizing military'
An FIR has been registered against Manzoor Pashteen, who organised rallies highlighting profiling of Pashtuns.
Pakistani police have registered cases against a young ethnic Pashtun rights activist for criticising the country's powerful military during the latest in a series of rallies his organisation has held across the South Asian country.
Police registered cases in the western districts of Zhob and Qila Saifullah on Tuesday, accusing Manzoor Pashteen of "wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause [a] riot".
If convicted Pashteen, 26, faces a maximum of five years in prison.
Pashteen is one of a group of young men leading the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), which has organised rallies in solidarity with a Pashtun youth who was killed by the police.
The rights group gained prominence while leading a sit-in demanding justice for the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud in the southern port city of Karachi in January.
Mehsud had been accused by police of being a Pakistan Taliban fighter, but an inquiry after his killing in a police 'encounter' found him innocent of any links to the group.
Rao Anwar, the senior police official held responsible for the youth's killing, went into hiding shortly after the inquiry, and remains wanted in the case.
"The registering of this case is extremely saddening, and we cannot condemn it strongly enough," said Alam Zeb Mehsud, a PTM leader.
"We have stood up for our rights. We have only spoken of what has happened to us - we have not lied, and we have never said anything unconstitutional."
Pashteen and Mehsud are among a number of young activists from the northwestern district of South Waziristan who have led a movement calling for the rights of ethnic Pashtuns to be respected.
They hold the state and military responsible for what they call the ethnic profiling of Pashtuns as "terrorists", and widespread rights violations in South Waziristan and elsewhere, including the collective punishment of civilians for attacks on security forces.
The Pakistani military denies any wrongdoing. In a statement to Al Jazeera issued in January, responding to the PTM's allegations, the military said while it investigated the possibility of locals facilitating attacks, it did so "strictly as per [tribal] traditions".
PTM leaders say they have been receiving threats from unidentified callers for years, since they first started organising their grassroots movement to protest alleged rights violations by the military.
"As time passed, we lost our fear. Now we are at a stage where if we get a call from the intelligence agencies, we don't care anymore. Because we have gotten used to it. They bother us on an almost daily basis," said Muhammad Idrees, 25, a founding member of the group.
Taking on the military
Direct criticism of the military, which has ruled the country for roughly half of its 70 years since independence, is rare in Pakistan.
Since May last year, the government has led a campaign targeting dissent against the military expressed on social media and on other online platforms.
"The PTM is not an engineered movement, it has been created by the situation," said Mehsud. "It has been created by a context of killings ... we have been the victims of terrorism, and then we are accused of being terrorists to boot. We have been facing this injustice for years."
PTM rallies held across the country since the Islamabad sit-in have attracted thousands of participants, although they have seen scant coverage in the country’s press.
At a recent rally, a local religious leader attempted to direct the young participants' anger towards the United States, signaling that armed groups such as the Pakistan Taliban were a US creation.
He was met by strident criticism, and forced to step off the stage, after the crowd loudly chanted an oft heard Pakistani leftist Urdu slogan: "This terrorism, it is backed by the military!"
PTM leader Mehsud denies his group is demanding "any kind of rebellion or anything against the State".
"We just want the protection of our life, our property and our honour.
"These three things, nothing else."
#Pakistan - At least nine, including five policemen martyred in Raiwind blast
At least five police personnel and four citizens were martyred Wednesday evening in a suspected suicide attack in the Raiwind area on the outskirts of Lahore, officials said.
Rescue 1122 and hospital officials confirmed the toll, saying the explosion injured at least 25 others, including 13 police personnel, who were being treated at different hospitals.
Senior police official, Deputy Inspector General Operations Dr. Haider Ashraf, said police personnel appeared to be the target of the attack as the explosion took place close to a police check-post and near the vehicle of a deputy superintendent.
DIG Ashraf said the bomb exploded when police were changing guards at the checkpoint.
It appears to be a suicide attack, he said, adding that body parts had been recovered from the site of the blast. Police officials added that a motorcycle near the blast site had also been completely destroyed.
Thousands of people from Punjab province and across the country participate gather in Raiwind every year to take part in the Raiwind Ijtema (congregation), one of the largest gatherings of religious devotees in Pakistan. The attack targeted the police vehicle close to the venue of the annual religious congregation.
This was the first explosion targeting the provincial capital since the start of 2018. Lahore underwent a series of terrorist attacks last year in which more than 60 people were killed.
Our struggle will continue for the women’s rights in #Pakistan: sherry Rehman
Our struggle will continue for the women’s rights in Pakistan. It was stated by Senator Sherry Rehman during a rally in connection with Karwan-e-Benazir here on Thursday.
http://www.thesindhtimes.com/blog/2018/03/08/struggle-will-continue-womens-rights-pakistan-sherry-rehman/
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
#PashtunLongMarch2Quetta - Listen to Pakistan’s Marginalized Pashtuns
Saroop Ijaz
Authorities Should End Discrimination, Stereotyping
This week, police in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan registered a criminal case against Pashtun activist Manzoor Pashteen for criticizing the government and state security agencies. Pashteen’s alleged crime is to demand equal citizenship for Pashtuns, the second largest ethnic group in Pakistan, who have been protesting for the past two months, calling for an end to discrimination and ethnic stereotyping.
The protests were sparked by the alleged extrajudicial killing by police of Naqeebullah Mehsud, 27, in Karachi in early January. The peaceful demonstrations have now spread across the country. For instance, last week, a group of Pashtun students held a sit-in outside the office of the vice-chancellor of the Punjab University Lahore, protesting discrimination by the university administration.
Many Pakistani Pashtuns live in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the embattled area bordering Afghanistan that in recent years has endured attacks by the Taliban armed group, government military offensives, and US drone strikes. FATA is still governed by colonial era regulations that allow “collective punishment” for entire communities, including property destruction, and largely denies people access to courts to enforce their rights. In 2016, when about a million displaced residents returned home following 2014 military operations against the Taliban, they had to produce special identification cards not required of other Pakistanis.
Provincial governments have added to the tensions. In February, the Punjab government issued a notification “asking the population to keep an eye on suspicious individuals who look like Pashtuns or are from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and to report any suspicious activity by them.”
Pakistani officials should recognize the country’s diversity as a strength and not a weakness. All persons are equal before the law. Critically, the government needs to end its longstanding discriminatory laws and practices against Pashtuns and act to end hostile attitudes toward them. This process could start by dropping the criminal cases against Manzoor Pashteen and other protest leaders wrongfully charged, fully investigating and fairly prosecuting those responsible for Naqeebullah Mehsud’s death, and letting Pashtun voices be heard.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/13/listen-pakistans-marginalized-pashtuns
#PashtunLongMarch2Quetta #Pakistan - Pashtun resistance
The young Pashtuns are marching again. This time they are in Balochistan. Mainstream media has once again failed them. Whether the media blackout is a result of express advice by the state or a mode of self-censorship or linked to corporate imperatives, it is a matter of grave concern. A generation of young, displaced and war-torn Pashtuns has grown up in contemporary Pakistan, which rightly feels marginalised. The young men and women of federally administered tribal areas are far better informed and networked than their predecessors. They are outraged at the fact that state treats them as second-class citizens. There have been many plans for FATA reform, proposals on mainstreaming and integration and nothing much has happened. Nor is it likely to until Pakistan’s security is viewed through the prism of Afghanistan and by extension the fear of Indian influence on the western borders.
Those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are also aware of the everyday insecurity that has affected thousands of families. In fact KP has suffered the most in the war on terror. The internally displaced Pashtuns have had to face the stereotyping, economic hardship and brutal state violence as was demonstrated in the case of Naqeebullah Mehsud – the young man who was killed in a police encounter by an illegally empowered yet rogue police unit in Karachi. Are these not issues of public interest? Are the demands of young Pakistanis not worth the airtime? Inordinate coverage has been given to mainstream power players especially Imran Khan in recent years. The 2014 and 2016 dharnas were brought to people’s living rooms. How is the issue of alleged corruption by Sharifs more important than the embedded corruption in FATA and denial of rights to a sizeable part of country’s population?
The young Pashtuns have taken the path of non-violent and peaceful resistance. It is reflective of democratization that has been underway for the past one decade. This should be acknowledged and appreciated. The colonial constructions of the Pashtun as the ‘warrior’ and ‘violent’ type have been reinforced for decades after independence; and have also been conveniently employed to prop up militias aimed at Afghanistan.Young Pashtuns are demolishing all these stereotypes by exercising their rights under the constitution.
Our colleagues in electronic media, and to some extent the print media, need to revise their policy. The state is likely to be offended for the ethos of Pashtun resistance is a direct challenge to the decades-old security policy that has treated the FATA badlands and KP as instruments of the war theatre in Afghanistan. Pakistanis have a right to ask their state why young men go ‘missing’ in the twenty-first century. And calling for fair and rule-based law enforcement is also not a crime under the law.
Therefore, decision makers in Islamabad and Rawalpindi cannot term the Pashtun movement as anti-state. It is all about constitutionalism and enforcement of fundamental rights. Our state has to come to terms with a changed Pakistan with a youth bulge, new media and information revolution. Unlike the past, information and ideas cannot be controlled with the rise of digital media. The same holds true for the corporate mainstream media that are only undermining their credibility by ignoring the young and angry Pashtuns.
Saudi Arabia: Scant Justice For Pakistanis, Says HRW
The Saudi criminal justice system tramples the rights of Pakistani defendants to due process and fair trials, Human Rights Watch and Justice Project Pakistan said in a report. The glaring defects in the criminal justice system are especially acute for Pakistanis, who face substantial difficulties finding legal assistance, navigating Saudi court procedures, and getting consular services from Pakistani embassy officials.
The 29-page report, “‘Caught in a Web’: Treatment of Pakistanis in the Saudi Criminal Justice System,” documents the Saudi criminal justice system and Saudi courts’ rampant due process violations in criminal cases involving Pakistanis. The violations include long periods of detention without charge or trial, lack of access to legal assistance, pressure on detainees to sign confessions and accept predetermined prison sentences to avoid prolonged arbitrary detention, and ineffective translation services. Some defendants reported ill-treatment and poor prison conditions.
“Despite years of promising reforms, Saudi authorities blatantly disregard the rights of both Saudis and non-Saudis in criminal cases,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Its treatment of Pakistani defendants shows just how far Saudi Arabia has to go to improve the rule of law.”
Saudi Arabia hosts 12 million foreigners, over one-third of the country’s total population. About 1.6 million Pakistanis, most of them foreign migrant workers, make up the second-largest migrant community in Saudi Arabia.
Human Rights Watch and Justice Project Pakistan interviewed 12 Pakistani citizens detained and put on trial in Saudi Arabia in recent years, as well as seven family members of nine other defendants. They were involved in 19 criminal cases, ranging from petty theft and document forgery to murder and drug smuggling, which are often capital offenses in Saudi Arabia.
Due process violations were most consequential for defendants involved in the most serious cases. Since the beginning of 2014, Saudi Arabia has executed 73 Pakistanis, more than any other foreign nationality, nearly all for heroin smuggling. Three of the drug-related cases reviewed resulted in the death penalty, four in prison sentences from 15 to 20 years, one in a prison sentence of four years, and three remained on trial.
Family members said that four of the defendants had been forced by drug traffickers to serve as “drug mules.” But they said that Saudi courts were not interested in the circumstances and did not attempt to investigate or appear to take coercion claims into account during sentencing.
In all the non-death penalty cases, judges did not give defendants an adequate opportunity to mount a defense. They said that at their first court hearings, judges issued predetermined convictions and sentences based solely on police reports and asked defendants to accept them. They were allowed to challenge the decision in writing, but judges presented the same rulings at subsequent hearings, leaving the impression that not accepting sentences would mean indefinite detention.
“The judge had our case files in front of him,” one person said. “He passed our sentences without listening to our stories.”
Nine defendants said that court officials pressured them to agree to rulings without the opportunity to read, review, or fully understand them. One said he was sentenced to 10 days and 80 lashes for alcohol and fighting, and was later shocked to discover that the sentence also ordered his deportation.
Only one of those interviewed had a defense lawyer largely because the others did not have the resources to locate or pay a lawyer while in prison. Four said that court-appointed translators did not provide adequate services, sometimes intentionally misrepresenting detainees’ statements or failing to accurately describe the contents of Arabic-language court documents.
Some of the detainees and family members described poor prison conditions, including overcrowding, unsanitary facilities, lack of beds and sheets, and poor medical care. Two former detainees and one current detainee said that Saudi prison authorities had subjected them to ill-treatment, including slapping, beating with a belt, and shocking with an electrical device during interrogations. The family member of another detainee said that authorities had beaten her husband with “sticks.”
Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which Saudi Arabia ratified in 1988, Saudi Arabia has an obligation to inform Pakistani consular officials when they arrest a Pakistani citizen. In the cases reviewed, however, it did not appear that Saudi officials informed Pakistani consular officials about the arrests. Justice Project Pakistan wrote to Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry officials about all of the Pakistani detainees but received no response. Family members interviewed generally did not know which government agency to contact when their relatives were arrested in Saudi Arabia.
Most of the Pakistanis did not seek consular services from the Pakistani embassy in Riyadh or consulate in Jeddah because they did not believe Pakistani officials would offer any assistance. One person had met with a consular official, but others who contacted embassy officials received help only with deportation procedures. They said that Pakistani officials rarely if ever visited Saudi prisons, unlike representatives of other countries.
“There is no excuse for Saudi Arabia’s treatment of Pakistani citizens, but Pakistani authorities should dramatically improve consular services for those in detention or on trial,” said Whitson. “Improved services will give Pakistani citizens more of a fighting chance to survive Saudi Arabia’s arbitrary and unfair justice system.”
#Pakistan - Pro-Wahabi Ruling Party supports Terrorists - '' The ‘Prescribed’ ASWJ ''
What is problematic here is the political berth awarded to such proscribed outfits whose activities have continued without any significant pressure or checks from the government. Despite being connected to sectarian violence, ASWJ remains openly engaged in politics and openly campaigns to sway state institutions and major political parties through rallies and gatherings. Such organisations are sponsored to hold audience at universities and colleges, mainstreaming their ideologies despite being flagged as radical; such an audacious endeavor without tacit state sanctioning is not possible. While the National Action Plan (NAP) decries that such outfits should not be allowed to get an inch of space in Pakistan, the proscribed party has been allowed to operate on its soil with minimum checks, is granted public limelight, legitimising its political clout, inciting negative sentiments against Muslim minority communities in the country, and mainstreaming its opposition to reforms of the blasphemy laws.
Where most of the party leaders had been declared ‘proscribed persons’ under the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), the toothless law or the much touted NAP doesn’t restrict such persons from contesting elections. Such organisations’ successful campaign further sustains itself with alliances and support of various major and small political parties under seat adjustment agreements and pandering. Such kowtowing and to militant outfits by local political parties for illicit electoral gains is the main reason why there is not a more forceful clampdown on their activity.
Where the ECP should categorically deny such parties registration, they have freely registered under different names and obscure stand-in party heads; a gaping hole in our electoral system. The proposed amalgamation of proscribed outfits under the noses of the establishment speaks volumes of the states attitude towards militant groups and their ilk. It points to the very crevices of our state matrix where religious ideologies get peddled and demarcated in the bartering of political patronage and favors. PML-N had long prescribed to unwritten agreements with the ASWJ , an alliance that might have favored the flailing party previously in the short term, but now stands to be another thorn its side. With Allama Khadim Rizvi and his devotees stand with shoes unsheathed at a flailing PML-N, the ruling party has turned to currying favor with the less antagonistic Pirs and various Barelvi factions. Such political maneuverings by political parties have exhibited deep ramifications for our socio-political fabric at a time when we should be actively breaking away from the tincture of terrorism.
Zia’s opener defeated: Bilawal Bhutto
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari on Monday said that the opening batsman of Zia has been defeated in the elections for Senate top slots.
Bilawal in his tweet said, “Zia’s opening batsman defeated. Balochistan wins. Federalism wins.” He dubbed the win of opposition alliance a win of Balochistan and federalism. Later, after taking charge as Senate Chairman, Sadiq Sanjrani held meeting with Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at Zardari House. Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Qudus Bizanjo was also present in the meeting.
While in a reaction to criticism of the PML-N ministers on the PPP and former president Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Secretary General Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari said the that Asif Ali Zardari has become a symbol of fear for anti-PPP elements and bad mouthing Asif Ali Zardari by the PML-N ministers shows that PML-N is a bad loser. “It is about time that PML-N leaders themselves realise that every heavy mandate Nawaz Sharif was awarded was wrong and false. Asif Ali Zardari has strengthened federation by getting elected Senate chairman from Balochistan,” he said.
Nayyar Bukhari said that Nawaz Sharif has always conspired against democracy and he was the one who wanted to become Ameer-ul-Momineen. “Nawaz Sharif will never change and he will always be a byproduct of dictator Ziaul Haq,” he said.
He congratulated Mir Sadiq Sanjrani and Saleem Mandviwala on being elected as chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate.
http://www.thesindhtimes.com/blog/2018/03/13/zias-opener-defeated-bilawal-bhutto/
Monday, March 12, 2018
اسفندیار: فاټا دې د خیبر پښتونخوا برخه شي
د عوامي نيشنل ګوند مشر اسفنديار ولي خان د اتوار پر ورځ د سيدو شريف په ګراسي ګراونډ کې يوې ولسي غونډې ته په وينا کې يو وارې بيا ټينګار وکړ چې قبايلي سيمې بايد په خيبر پښتونخوا صوبه کې شاملې کړل شي.
نوموړي پر هغو سياسي ګوندونو او مشرانو نيوکې وکړې چې په خیبر پښتونخوا د قبايلو د ورګډولو مخالفت کوي.
د عوامي نيشنل ګوند يو مخکښ او پخواني سينيټر زاهد خان مشال راډيو ته وويل، دوی د فاټا او خيبرپښتونخوا د يو ځای کولو خبره تر هغې وروسته لا هم تېزه کړه کله چې د قبايلو ځوانان راپاڅېدل او د خپلو بشري او اييني حقونه لپاره يې غږ پورته کړ.
((چې کله زموږ قبايل وروڼه راپاڅېدل، په تېره ځوانان، نو موږ ورسره ودرېدو. همدا وجه ده چې اسفنديار خان په سوات کې يو وارې بيا خپله دا غوښتنه تکرار کړه چې قبايل دې په خيبرپښتونخوا صوبې ورګډ کړل شی. د حيرانۍ خبره خو دا ده چې حکومت خپله د دغې کار لپاره کميټي جوړه کړه، او بيا په حکومت کې شامل دوه کسان، چې هغه هم پښتانه دي، يو مذهبي ليډر دی او بل د پښتنو په نوم سياست کوي، هغوی دواړو يې مخالفت وکړ. موږ نه پوهيږو چې دوی ولې داسې وکړل؟ موږ وايو چې په قبايل بايد هرو مرو د خيبرپښتونخوا له پښتنو سره يو ځای کړل شي. د فاټا حالت موږ ته ښه معلوم دی. هلته ميډيا نه شي تلای، پوليټيکل ايجنټ راپاڅي او ټول خاندان بندي کړي. د قبايلو لپاره هسپتال، يونيورسټي، سرک، روزګار، هېڅ نشته. دا خلک به اخر تر کومې همداسې په تيارو کې ساتل کيږي؟))
د فاټا اصلاحاتو په اړه د پښتونخوا ملي عوامي ګوند او جميعت علمای اسلام ف ډلې دريځ دی چې په دغه کار کې بايد د قبايلو رای وپوښتل شي.
د فاټا او خيبرپښتونخوا صوبې د يو ځای کولو پر مساله د قبايلي مشرانو تر منځ هم اختلافات موجود دي.
خو يو شمېر ګوندونه بيا وايي چې په پارليمان کې ناست د قبايلو استازي کولای شي د خپلو ولسونو د راتلونکي په اړه پرېکړې وکړي.
د پاکستان مرکزي حکومت ويلي، فاټا اصلاحات به په تدريجي ډول عملي کوي.
د پاکستان قامي اسمبلۍ قبايلي سيمو ته د هېواد د اعلی عدالتونو د واک غځولو قانوني مسوده منظور کړې، خو لا هم سينيټ په دغه برخه کې اقدام نه دی کړی.
https://www.mashaalradio.com/a/29094291.html
Pakistan under pressure to rein in blasphemy law
One of the most frightening things about Pakistan’s blasphemy law is that the simplest act can spiral into charges that can bring the death penalty. In the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman, it started when she brought water to her fellow women workers on a farm.
On that hot day in 2009, Bibi had a sip from the same container and some of the Muslim women became angry that a Christian had drunk from the same water. They demanded she convert, she refused. Five days later, a mob accused her of blasphemy. She was convicted and sentenced to death. Later this month, the Supreme Court is expected to hear her appeal.
Pakistan is under new international pressure to curb Islamic extremism, and activists at home say one place to start is by changing its blasphemy law.
In January, the U.S. State Department cited the law as one of the reasons it put Pakistan on a watch list of countries accused of “severe violations of religious freedoms.”
The move came as the Trump administration is ratcheting up pressure on Islamabad, freezing security aid until it cracks down on militant networks operating from its soil to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. Moreover, the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental agency that combats money laundering and terror financing, has given Pakistan until June to show how it will tackle radicalism or else be put on a black list, a step that could hurt its international financial ties.
Opponents of the blasphemy law say it has turned into a force corroding Pakistani society, feeding extremism, implicating the justice system in radicalism and ultimately undermining rule of law. Often the law is used to punish rivals in personal feuds. Just making an accusation is enough to convince neighbors or others in the community that the defendant is guilty and must be punished, whipping up a vengeful anger even if the courts find the accused innocent. Authorities are often too afraid to push back against the public fury. In at least one case, officials have kept a man acquitted of blasphemy in prison, fearing riots if he is freed.
Militant groups have embraced the law, using it to cultivate support and attack those who try to break their power.
“It has become much more dangerous over the last few years. The reason is that they have created a sense of fear,” said Zahid Hussain, a political analyst and the author of two books on militancy in Pakistan. “It has become a ready tool not only against non-Muslims, but also against Muslims who do not agree with their world view.”
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, 71 countries have blasphemy laws — around a quarter of them are in the Middle East and North Africa and around a fifth are European countries, though enforcement and punishment varies.
Pakistan is one of the most ferocious enforcers.
At least 1,472 people were charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws between 1987 and 2016, according to statistics collected by the Center for Social Justice, a Lahore-based advocacy group. Of those, 730 were Muslims, 501 were Ahmedis — a sect that is reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics — while 205 were Christians and 26 were Hindus. The center said it didn’t know the religion of the final 10 because they were killed by vigilantes before they could get their day in court.
While Pakistan’s law carries the death penalty and offenders have been sentenced to death, so far no one has ever been executed.
A key test will come when Pakistan’s Supreme Court rules on the case of Aasia, whose world was turned upside down after a mob of villagers accused her of insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad after the water incident.
Aasia’s case even reached the Vatican, where Pope Francis last month met with her husband, Ashiq Masih, and daughter Eisham, who traveled to Rome to witness the Colosseum being bathed in red light in a sign of solidarity with persecuted Christians around the world.
During the emotional encounter, Eisham gave the pope a kiss that she said her mother asked her to deliver.
“The blasphemy law is misused in Pakistan,” Masih told The Associated Press in a rare interview. “It has nothing to do with the Holy Prophet or Islam, it is just to settle grudges.”
He spoke at a small Christian-run school in Lahore which Eisham and a younger, disabled daughter, attend. The school’s principal and owner, Joseph Nadeem, has become a guardian to Masih and his children.
Masih, who said his wife was innocent, points to his arm where a bullet struck him, fired by a protester outraged with his wife’s alleged crime. He never lives in one location too long, because it is potentially dangerous, he said. Aasia’s lawyer, Saiful Malook fears the Supreme Court will buckle to extremists’ pressure and reject his client’s appeal when it hears it later this month. Her only hope in that case would be a presidential pardon, he said.
Just defending her is dangerous. Malook’s home in Lahore is protected by police. He also is a target because he prosecuted Mumtaz Qadri, the elite police guard who killed Punjab’s provincial governor, Salman Taseer, in 2011, after Taseer defended Aasia Bibi and criticized the misuse of the blasphemy law.
Qadri was hanged for his crime, but he has since become a martyr to millions, who make a pilgrimage to a shrine erected in his name by his family outside the federal capital. Giant posters of Qadri emblazon buildings not far from the school where The AP interviewed Aasia Bibi’s husband. Fear of being connected with a blasphemy case is so strong that Nasreen Abid, a Christian woman, moved out of earshot of others and whispered as she told the AP her family’s story. She spoke outside Lahore’s Mayo Hospital, where she was waiting to learn the condition of her son, Sajjid, who suffered multiple injuries, including two broken legs, after he jumped from a third-story window of a police investigation unit.
She said the police called in Sajjid after his cousin, Patras Masih, was arrested on accusations of sharing a blasphemous picture on Facebook. Police wanted to check Sajjid’s phone but found nothing, said his mother.
Then police stripped Sajjid and his cousin, taunted them and told them to have sex with each other, she said. Instead, her son flung himself out the window. Police say they are investigating the incident. In Jand Wala Saroo, a small village near Pakistan’s border with India, Razia Bibi wonders whether she will ever again see her brother, Muhammad Mansha.
Mansha spent nine years in jail accused of blasphemy until the Supreme Court acquitted him last year, saying the evidence was insufficient. But he remains imprisoned because authorities say his release would start a riot in the village.
“I pray the village will forgive him, but no one wants him back here,” Razia said, sitting on a traditional rope bed surrounded by her many children. “All the villagers are agreed. He shouldn’t come back. Some even said they would kill him.”
Two local men accused Mansha of destroying pages of the Quran at a mosque, though neither witnessed the alleged act. The only purported witness was a child who can neither hear nor speak.Speech
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