Thursday, July 25, 2019
سلیکٹڈ حکومت کیخلاف علم بغاوت بلند کرتے ہیں، بلاول #یوم_سیاہ
پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا ہے کہ ہم سلیکٹڈ اور جعلی حکومت کے خلاف علم بغاوت بلند کر رہے ہیں، کٹھ پتلی حکومت، سلیکٹڈ اور سلیکٹرز کے خلاف بغاوت کا اعلان کرتے ہیں، ابھی پارٹی شروع ہوئی ہے، ہماری تحریک جاری رہے گی۔
کراچی کے باغ جناح میں متحدہ اپوزیشن کے بڑے جلسہ عام سے خطاب کر تے ہوئے بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ اس وقت جمہوریت، سیاست، آزادی صحافت، انسانی حقوق، غریب مزدور، کسان، تجارت، صوبے اور وفاق نشانے پر ہیں، جب تک سلیکٹیڈ اور کٹھ پتلی حکومتوں کے خلاف جدوجہد نہیں ہو گی، کوئی مسئلہ حل نہیں ہوگا۔ پاکستان کو مسائل سے نکالنے کے لیے متحدہ اپوزیشن کی جماعتیں ایک ساتھ مل کر کام کر رہی ہیں۔
جلسے سے جمعیت علمائے اسلام (ف) کے سیکریٹری جنرل مولانا عبدالغفور حیدری، پاکستان مسلم لیگ (ن) کے سینئر نائب صدر ایاز صادق، اے این پی خیبرپختونخوا کے صدر ایمل ولی خان، پختونخوا ملی عوامی پارٹی کے رضا محمد رضا اور نیشنل پارٹی کے اسحاق بلوچ نے بھی خطاب کیا۔
جلسہ گاہ میں متحدہ اپوزیشن کی سیاسی جماعتوں کے کارکنوں اور حامیوں کی بڑی تعداد موجود تھی۔
اسٹیج پر وزیر اعلیٰ سندھ سید مراد علی شاہ، سابق وزیراعلیٰ سندھ سید قائم علی شاہ، سید خورشید احمد شاہ، سعید غنی، وقار مہدی، راشد ربانی عاجز دھامرا، جاوید ناگوری، آصف خان، مسلم لیگ (ن) کے سید شاہ محمد شاہ، اے این پی کے شاہی سید اور دیگر رہنما موجود تھے۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ 25 جولائی 2018 پاکستان کی تاریخ کا ایک اور بدترین اور سیاہ ترین دن ہے۔ اس دن ایک جعلی اور سلیکٹڈ حکومت قائم کی گئی۔ آج ہم اس جعلی حکومت کے خلاف علم بغاوت بلند کرتے ہیں۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ میں عوام کا شکر گزار ہوں، جنہوں نے ہماری آواز پر لبیک کہا۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے متحدہ اپوزیشن کی سیاسی جماعتوں کے ساتھ پیپلز پارٹی کے تعلق کا تذکرہ کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ذوالفقار علی بھٹو نے مفتی محمود اور دیگر کے ساتھ مل کر 1973ء کا آئین بنایا۔ پیپلز پارٹی نے مسلم لیگ (ن) کے ساتھ میثاق جمہوریت کیا، جس کی وجہ سے 18 ویں ترمیم منظور ہوئی اور 73 کا آئین بحال ہوا۔ پیپلز پارٹی نے عوامی نیشنل پارٹی کے ساتھ مل کر خیبر پختونخوا صوبے کا نام دیا اور صوبے کے لوگوں کو اپنی شناخت دی۔
پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ ہماری اپنی اپنی سیاسی جماعت ہے۔ ہم نے لڑائی بھی لڑی ہے۔ سب محب وطن اور پاکستانی ہیں اور ہم نے مل کر جمہوریت کے لیے جدوجہد کی ہے۔ آج ہم سب کو نظر آ رہا ہے کہ جمہوریت خطرے میں ہے۔ وفاق پر حملے ہو رہے ہیں۔ پاکستان کے بہت سے مسائل ہیں۔ کوئی ایک سیاسی جماعت یہ مسائل حل نہیں کر سکتی۔ اس لیے آج ہم پھر متحد ہوئے ہیں۔
انہوں نے کہا آج پارلیمان ہی نہیں، جمہوریت نشانے پر ہے سیاست دان ہی نہیں، سیاست نشانے پر ہے۔ میڈیا اور صحافی ہی نہیں، آزادی صحافت نشانے پر ہے۔ انسان ہی نہیں، انسانی حقوق نشانے پر ہیں۔ غریب، کسان اور مزدور نشانے پر ہیں۔ تاجر ہی نہیں، تجارت نشانے پر ہے۔ سیاسی کلچر ہی نہیں، اصول نشانے پر ہیں۔ غریبوں کو گھر کیا دیں گے، غریبوں کے گھر ہی نشانے پر ہیں۔ چند قوانین ہی نہیں، پورا آئین نشانے پر ہے۔
انہوں نے کہاکہ مرضی کے انتخابی نتائج نہ ملے تو آر ٹی ایس سسٹم بٹھا دیاگیا۔ پھر بھی مرضی کے نتائج نہ ملے تو پولنگ اسٹیشنز سے عملے کو باہر نکال دیاگیا۔ پھر بھی مرضی کے نتائج نہ ملے تو رات کو جیتے ہوئے امیدوار کو ہرا دیا گیا، پھر بھی مرضی کے نتائج نہ ملے تو سابق چیف جسٹس کے ذریعہ گنتی رکوا دی گئی۔ پھر بھی مرضی کے نتائج نہ ملے تو فارم 45 غائب کرا دیا گیا اور 90 فیصد فارمز پر دستخط نہیں تھے۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ کراچی کے مینڈیٹ پر ڈاکا ڈالا گیا اورکراچی سے اپنی مرضی کا نتیجہ حاصل کرنے کی روایت برقرار رکھی گئی۔ لیاری سے نائن زیرو تک کا مینڈیٹ چرایا گیا۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ پھر بھی جعلی حکومت نہ بن سکی تو آزاد ارکان کو جہانگیر ترین کے جہاز سے اٹھوا کر بنی گالا پہنچا دیا گیا۔ عمران خان نے جن لوگوں کو قاتل اور ملک دشمن کہاتھا، ان لوگوں کو عمران کی جھولی میں ڈال دیا گیا۔
بلاول بھٹو نے سوال کیا کہ یہ سلیکشن نہیں تو کیا ہے۔ میں انہیں سلیکٹڈ نہ کہوں تو کیا کہوں۔
Black Day: Shehbaz, Kaira rally Opp in Lahore, as Karachi prepares to join with Bilawal
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira were leading their respective party rallies across the provincial capital as the Opposition joins forces to commemorate the Black Day.
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on the other hand, was all set to join in the protests from Karachi to observe the Black Day, a year after the General Elections 2018 were held on the same day in Pakistan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had emerged victorious.
Shehbaz was leading a rally towards Lahore's Mall Road, with the Punjab government and Opposition coming to a face-off. He addressed workers in Model Town, saying those who have wreaked destruction on Pakistan would have to pay and those who stole people's jobs would be held accountable
The PML-N workers, in addition, broke through the barriers installed on their routes by the police.
On the other hand, Kaira, the PPP leader, was leading his rally simultaneously with Shehbaz's, starting from the Charing Cross Road in Lahore.
In Karachi, preparations for the rally at Bagh-e-Jinnah were completed as of reporting time, with Bilawal set to speak to his party workers and other participants.
Further, a rally was also underway in Peshawar, where PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal was speaking to the crowd. Iqbal said the government was incompetent and had neither the vision nor a team of professionals to govern the country's affairs.
The PML-N leader said the PTI had said it would not take loans from anyone but went to almost every other nation. Prime Minister Imran Khan also ended up going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) despite lambasting the Opposition over it in the past, he added.
PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb had earlier said the public’s mandate was stolen on this date a year ago.
Pakistani opposition holds rallies to demand PM step down
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan's opposition parties are rallying across the country, urging Prime Minister Imran Khan to step down over what they say is his failure in handling the nation's ailing economy.
Thursday's rallies, dubbed the "Black Day," marked the first anniversary of the parliamentary elections that brought Khan into office.
Khan's political opponents say Pakistan's military intervened in those elections on his behalf, allegations denied by the army.
About 10,000 people attended an opposition rally in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Similar rallies were to be held in other major cities.
The rallies came less than two weeks after Pakistani businesses observed a daylong strike against taxes, which the opposition says were imposed as part of the International Monetary Fund's recent $6 billion bailout package for Pakistan.
India may move terror funding watchdog over Imran Khan remark on militants in Pakistan
“30,000 to 40,000” militants — trained in Afghanistan and Kashmir — are still operating in Pakistan, Mr. Khan has admitted.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s dramatic admission that “30,000 to 40,000” militants — trained in Afghanistan and Kashmir — are still operating in Pakistan, may become a serious issue for Islamabad with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), government sources in New Delhi said.
They indicated that India was considering making the remarks a part of its submission ahead of the next meeting in October of the international terror financing watchdog.
Speaking at a think-tank in Washington on Tuesday, Mr. Khan said though Pakistan’s government had launched a “National Action Plan” against terrorism after the Peshawar school attack in December 2015, implementation began only after his government came to power last year.
“Until we came into power, the governments did not have the will to [implement the National Action Plan], because if you talk of militant groups, they still have about 30,000-40,000 people who are armed and who have been trained in some sort of a theatre, who fought either in Afghanistan or maybe in Kashmir,” Mr. Khan said at the United States Institute of Peace, in the first clear admission by Pakistan that thousands of terrorists and training camps which have been active in Kashmir, still operate in Pakistan. Later in the day, Mr. Khan also pointed to the existence of at least “40 militant groups” in the period after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
‘Owning up’
In New Delhi, government sources said they were “glad” the Pakistani Prime Minister was “owning up” to the existence of these groups.
“It is, however, equally important for the Pakistani leadership to act on this knowledge by destroying the breeding ground of terrorists in areas under the control of Pakistan by taking credible and irreversible action,” an official told The Hindu.
Mr. Khan’s remarks contradict the Pakistan Army’s position on the existence of terror groups. In April this year, after FATF strictures spurred a crackdown on religious extremist institutions, the Pakistan army spokesperson had said there were “no terrorist organisations” in the country.
“We are the first government who has now started disarming the militant groups; this is the first time it is happening. We have taken over their institutes, their seminaries and we have now got administrators there,” Mr. Khan had added during his comments in Washington, where he accused previous Pakistani governments of withholding “the truth on the ground” from the United States.
FATF fodder
Government sources pointed out that the numbers given by Mr. Khan were considerably higher than those submitted by Pakistan at the FATF. Pakistan could face a “blacklisting” in October if it fails to comply with commitments on ending terrorism according to its action plan. In Schedule-4 of Pakistan’s “Anti-Terrorism Act”, which details banned organisations, the government has listed only 8,000 active militants.
“[Mr. Khan’s statement] has opened up the question of effectiveness in Pakistan's much publicised compliance of the FATF Action Plan, and would allow countries like India to raise the issue at FATF,” a source added.
This is not the first time Mr. Khan has sparked a controversy by speaking plainly about terrorism. In April this year, he was criticised in parliament for declaring that anti-Iran terror groups operated from Pakistani soil, during a meeting with Iranian President Rouhani in Tehran.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
'Compulsive Liar, An Advocate of Terrorists': Pakistan Opposition Slams PM Imran Khan over US Visit
Reacting to Khan's address to US think tanks, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) secretary general Nafisa Shah said that Khan was regarded as 'Taliban Khan without beard' by the victims of terror activities.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is a "compulsive liar" and an advocate of terrorists, Pakistan's opposition parties said on Wednesday, asserting that he tried his best to mislead the international community during his visit to the United States.
Reacting to Khan's address to US think tanks, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) secretary general Nafisa Shah said in a statement that Khan was regarded as "Taliban Khan without beard" by the victims of terror activities.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is a "compulsive liar" and an advocate of terrorists, Pakistan's opposition parties said on Wednesday, asserting that he tried his best to mislead the international community during his visit to the United States.
Reacting to Khan's address to US think tanks, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) secretary general Nafisa Shah said in a statement that Khan was regarded as "Taliban Khan without beard" by the victims of terror activities.
سینیٹ چیئرمین کا الیکشن حاصل بزنجو ہی جیتیں گے، بلاول بھٹو
پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا ہے کہ سینیٹ چیئرمین کے الیکشن میں حاصل بزنجو ہی کامیاب ہوں گے۔
بلاول بھٹو نے کراچی میں پارٹی کے میڈیا سیل میں وزیراعلیٰ سندھ سید مراد علی شاہ، نفیسہ شاہ اور سعید غنی کے ہمراہ پریس کانفرنس کی۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ 25جولائی کو پورے ملک میں یوم سیاہ منایا جائے گا، عوام اپوزیشن کے جلسوں میں بھرپور شرکت کریں اور سلیکٹڈ حکومت کے خلاف باہر نکلیں۔
پی پی چیئرمین نے مزید کہا کہ این اے 205 کا ضمنی الیکشن کٹھ پتلیوں کے لئے پیغام ہے، گھوٹکی الیکشن ایک ٹریلر تھا، دوسرا الیکشن سینیٹ کا ہے۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ ہمارے سینیٹرز کو بہت سی آفرز ہورہی ہیں، انہیں یقین ہے کہ حکومت کے نمبرز پورے نہیں ہوں گے۔
بلاول بھٹو نے یہ بھی کہا کہ وزیراعظم عمران خان نے دورہ امریکا میں جھوٹے دعوے کئے، پاکستان کو افغانستان کے معاملے میں زیادہ وعدوں سے گریز کرنا چاہیے۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ عمران خان وزیراعظم بنیں، فاشسٹ نہ بنیں، ریاست کی ذمہ داری ہے کہ وہ نواز شریف سمیت تمام قیدیوں کو صحت کی سہولتیں فراہم کرے۔
بلاول بھٹو نے استفسار کیا کہ کیا امریکی صدر کے کہنے پر وزیراعظم عمران خان کو سلیکٹڈ کہنا چھوڑدیں؟ سلیکٹڈ، سلیکٹڈ ہوتا ہے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ کسی نے وزیر اعظم سے این آر او نہیں مانگا، وہ خود اپنی حکومت بچانے کے لئے این آر او کی باتیں کرتے ہیں۔
ایک سوال کے جواب میں بلاول بھٹو نے کہا کہ سی پیک پاکستان کے مفاد کا منصوبہ ہے، اس پر پیپلز پارٹی کوئی سمجھوتہ نہیں کرے گی۔
Even when representing country abroad selected PM can’t get off container: Bilawal
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Monday that even when representing the country aboard the selected prime minister could not get off his container.
“Pitty even when representing the country abroad Selected PM can’t get off his container. Imran is a ruler, not a leader,” Bilawal tweeted.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is on a three-day visit to the United States and is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump at the White House.
According to Bilawal Pakistan was in need of a leader who spoke for all Pakistanis not just himself. “If the government does opposition and opposition does opposition then who is left to run the country?”
Addressing overseas Pakistanis on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said opposition leaders facing corruption cases wanted an NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance), but he would not rest until his government recovered the looted national wealth.
He particularly referred to jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari and said they had a way out, which was simply to return the looted public money.
He announced to withdraw the A-class jail facilities from Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari and jail them along with the ordinary prisoners.
Censorship is a sign of fascist government- Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly condemned media censorship by the government of the rally of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and said that it is a proof that Imran Khan is a Selected Prime Minister and his government is a selected government.
In a statement Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the party which staged a sit-in in front of parliament for 126 days is not able to tolerate a single rally of opposition which proves that Imran Khan is unable to listen to any voice of dissent. PTI government censored the coverage Maryam Nawaz’s rally in Faisalabad. This is the worst form of fascism, he said.
PTI government is not tolerating opposition so it cannot be called a democratic government. Whenever opposition speaks in the parliament, the selected Prime Minister stops attending sessions of National Assembly. Production orders of opposition members are refused because this government and Prime Minister do not want to hear the truth about the callous government which has made the lives of people hell. Gagging orders are issued by the government for journalists who criticizes the government. When the government failed to crush the voice of opposition by arrests of opposition leader it started censor on media. This kind of censorship is only witnessed in dictatorships, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari concluded.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/censorship-is-a-sign-of-fascist-government-bilawal-bhutto-zardari/
In a statement Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the party which staged a sit-in in front of parliament for 126 days is not able to tolerate a single rally of opposition which proves that Imran Khan is unable to listen to any voice of dissent. PTI government censored the coverage Maryam Nawaz’s rally in Faisalabad. This is the worst form of fascism, he said.
PTI government is not tolerating opposition so it cannot be called a democratic government. Whenever opposition speaks in the parliament, the selected Prime Minister stops attending sessions of National Assembly. Production orders of opposition members are refused because this government and Prime Minister do not want to hear the truth about the callous government which has made the lives of people hell. Gagging orders are issued by the government for journalists who criticizes the government. When the government failed to crush the voice of opposition by arrests of opposition leader it started censor on media. This kind of censorship is only witnessed in dictatorships, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari concluded.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/censorship-is-a-sign-of-fascist-government-bilawal-bhutto-zardari/
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Video Report - The New Silk Road, Part 1 & 2: From China to Pakistan | DW Documentary
The New Silk Road, part 2: From Kyrgyzstan to Duisburg | DW Documentary
#Pakistan - Fatema Sohail says women 'afraid' to speak of abuse due to financial dependence on husbands
Fatema Sohail, the wife of Pakistani actor Mohsin Abbas Haider, whom she accused of cheating and domestic abuse, said Monday she was "getting so many messages from women saying that they’re going through similar situations".
Sohail spoke to the media following a visit to the local police station. She talked about how the case had changed for her because it was not just herself that she was fighting for but other women as well.
"The women told me ‘we did not — we still don't — have the kind of courage that you have but we're living with abusive husbands who beat us very often’," she said.
"I sort of went into shock because I [spoke up and] was going to fight for my child's rights but this is so prevalent … this is something else. I’m now fighting for my women as well. Take a stand, come out, and speak up!
"God is the one who takes care of us all. These women are often financially weak, they think ‘who will take care of me, who will take care of my children?’," she noted.
Fatema Sohail further underlined that "these women are afraid" of being utterly financially dependent on their husbands and "it’s worrisome".
She urged the women who were facing domestic abuse and violence to take a step forward. "Please come out and speak up. Women have said to me they want to soak up but I’m not sure if they would actually be able to or not. They just have the same fear — being financially weak.”
Later, outside the police station, she said she was going to stay determined about her application. "Whatever they asked, I'm telling them," she noted.
However, she said: "The FIR [first information report] is still not being registered. I don't know what the reason behind this is or if there is any kind of pressure from somewhere but the FIR was not registered."
In response to a reporter's question about how she should have a medical test done in order to file the FIR on the basis of a subsequent report, Sohail said: "I have told you over and over again that the pictures I shared on social media were from 2018 and in the four years of my marriage, I was abused often.
"I never had the intention to come out in the public" about this. "I couldn't open my mouth because he slapped me so hard," she said.
#Afghanistan asks for explanation after Trump claims US could wipe it 'off the face of the Earth'
By Veronica Stracqualursi
Afghanistan has demanded the United States clarify remarks made by President Donald Trump, who said the country "would be wiped off the face of the Earth" if he wanted to win the war in Afghanistan.
"The Afghan nation has not and will never allow any foreign power to determine its fate," Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesman for the President of Afghanistan, said in a statement. "Given the multifaceted relationship between Afghanistan and the United States, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for clarification on the US President's statements."
Trump on Monday had suggested that he could put an end to the Afghanistan war in a week, but that it would cost millions of lives and wipe the country "off the face of the Earth."
"If we wanted to fight a war in Afghanistan and win it, I could win that war in a week. I just don't want to kill 10 million people," Trump said, seated beside Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House on Monday. "I have plans on Afghanistan, that if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth. It would be gone. It would be over in -- literally, in 10 days, and I don't want to do -- I don't want to go that route."
The US has been pursuing a diplomatic strategy to end the 18-year war in Afghanistan, holding on-again, off-again talks with the Taliban in Qatar to reach a peace deal. Earlier this month, a group of prominent Afghans —including some Afghan government officials acting in a personal capacity — held two days of joint talks with the Taliban, unofficially agreeing on a roadmap on how they might reach a peace deal.
Despite the breakthrough, attacks have continued since then, including a suicide bombing at a wedding, a car bombing outside Afghanistan's Kandahar City police headquarters, and a deadly explosion outside the gates of Kabul University.
The US is hoping Pakistan can help push the Taliban to directly meet with the Afghan government.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that the US is prepared to remove American troops from Afghanistan, but has not agreed on a timeline. Pompeo said he "hopes" a deal will be reached by September 1, ahead of the Afghan presidential elections later that month.
The Afghan government was the second country since Monday to push back against Trump's remarks made during that Oval Office meeting with Khan.
Trump had claimed that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally asked him if he would like to be a mediator in the decades-long conflict between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region.
A spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs, Raveesh Kumar, denied Trump's claim, saying on Twitter that "no such request has been made" by Modi.
In #Pakistan, a Feminist Hero Is Under Fire and on the Run - Gulalai Ismail
By Jeffrey Gettleman
Gulalai Ismail is one of Pakistan’s best-known women’s rights crusaders, speaking out about forced marriages, gang rapes and crushed dreams.
Her groundbreaking work has carried her around the world, winning her awards and audiences with high-powered women such as Michelle Obama and Queen Elizabeth II.
But in her own country, Ms. Ismail has become an enemy of the state, accused of inciting rebellion. And now she is on the run.
For two months, practically no one has seen her. Pakistan’s security services, known as among this region’s most cunning and brutal, can’t find her. They have raided her house several times and deployed scores of officers, and, according to Ms. Ismail’s family, abducted and tortured family friends to extract information.
Her associates said Ms. Ismail, 33, is leading a phantom-like existence, shifting from house to house, timing her movements carefully, stepping out only with a scarf over her face and relying on an underground network of fellow feminists across Pakistan’s cities who are risking everything to hide her.Her family says they have had no contact with her since she vanished in May — “All our phones are bugged,” said her younger sister, Saba.
Rumors keep surfacing that she was spotted here or arrested there. But security officials said that she was not in custody and that they were relentlessly pursuing her.The hunt has continued even though Pakistan has recently presented itself as turning a corner, moving away from years of repression and a long record of sponsoring militant Islamic groups.Its prime minister, Imran Khan, held talks on Monday with President Trump at the White House (mostly about Afghanistan). To sweeten the mood ahead of Mr. Khan’s visit, Pakistan stepped up arrests of militant leaders and tried to ease tensions with its archrival, India.
But as Ms. Ismail’s case shows, many Pakistanis still live in deep fear of their own security services. The intensity of the pursuit reveals how domineering and perhaps unnerved the country’s security services — referred to as “The Establishment” — remain.
“We are in a gray area,” said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a professor of political science at Lahore University of Management Sciences. “There’s a lot of actual and political chaos in this country right now.”
But, he said, he could not see any legitimate reason to go after Ms. Ismail.
“What she has been saying, however harsh, falls under freedom of expression,” Mr. Rais said. “But the institution she has talked about doesn’t want to be talked about.”
That institution, he said, was Pakistan’s military.
Pakistani security services have accused Ms. Ismail of a litany of serious offenses including sedition, financing terrorism and defaming state institutions, though the authorities have not filed formal charges against her.No Pakistani government official agreed to comment publicly on her case, but several spoke on the condition of anonymity. Her family provided more than a dozen pages of documents, including police reports and copies of the allegations against her.
The Pakistani officials said they had no issue with Ms. Ismail’s advocacy for women. But they maintained that she had crossed a line in recent months by spreading divisive messages at unlawful rallies held by a grass-roots Pashtun rights movement known as P.T.M.
As P.T.M. has grown, holding boisterous protests and inspiring more and more young people, the government has cracked down viciously, arresting some of its leaders and firing on unarmed demonstrators, according to witnesses.Ms. Ismail is an ethnic Pashtun, one of Pakistan’s largest groups, and she has become a prominent P.T.M. supporter. She has appeared onstage at P.T.M. events and spread one of P.T.M.’s core messages — that Pakistan’s military has victimized civilians in Pashtun areas.In January, she aired allegations, on Facebook and Twitter, that government soldiers had raped or sexually abused many Pashtun women. She has also joined chants in which P.T.M. supporters belted out: “The ones responsible for terrorism are the ones in uniform!”
“Her speech against the state and army is an attempt to divide people on ethnic lines and incite them to commit treason,” read a police complaint registered May 21.In the past week, Pakistani officials accused her and her parents of money laundering and financing terrorism, saying that they had received large transfers of money from India.
The Ismail family denies this.
“Everything is false,” said her father, Mohammed, who now spends his days inside the family’s modest home in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, staring out the windows at two nondescript sedans with tinted glass permanently stationed just up the road — police officers.
Mr. Ismail says that the police are frustrated they can’t find his daughter and are closing in on her inner circle. In July, he said, agents raided the family house, where Ms. Ismail lived with her parents, for the fourth time and carted off computers, phones, cameras and DVDs — and the family driver.The driver returned hours later, barely able to speak. He had been electrocuted and injected with an unknown substance, tortured in an attempt to make him reveal where Ms. Ismail had gone, Mohammed said.
“He was weeping and weeping and weeping,” said Mr. Ismail, a retired teacher of Urdu, who shared photographs of marks on the driver’s body.
Pakistani officials declined to comment on these allegations. “If she’s hiding somewhere, you find her, you don’t harass her parents,” Mr. Ismail said, his voice shaking.
Pakistan presents an extreme version of the misogyny that women face around the world — girls are still murdered here by their own fathers to protect the family’s sense of honor, countless women are denied education, and, in many areas, beating a woman is not considered a crime.
But this only fueled Ms. Ismail. She became well-known in the global human rights community for speaking out about these abuses, her moral conscience developing early.
When she was around 16, a female cousin who dreamed of becoming a pilot was married off to a man nearly twice her age, abruptly ending her education — and her dreams.That motivated Ms. Ismail to start an advocacy group, Aware Girls, that has trained thousands of young Pakistani women about their rights. One was later shot in the head: Malala Yousafzai, whose resilience has inspired millions.
As Ms. Ismail progressed through high school and college, eventually earning a master’s degree in biotechnology, she focused her attention outside the classroom on human rights, gender-based violence and countering extremism. She ran workshops, set up a domestic violence hotline and was invited to events in Iceland, Britain, the United States and South Africa.
“She is my pride, I am proud of her,” her father said.
On a glass table in the living room, he keeps all of her awards close to him, among them: the Chirac Prize, the Commonwealth Youth Award and the prestigious Anna Politkovskaya Award (named after the Russian journalist who was killed).
He worries, deeply, and says his wife often wakes him up as he cries during his sleep. He warned his daughter not to speak up about the rape allegations against the army; he knew it was extremely dangerous to provoke the military.
“But she got very harsh with me and said, ‘I am a human-rights activist, I have to stand with them,’” he remembered.
Ms. Ismail’s family believes that if she is apprehended she will be charged, subjected to an unfair trial and, potentially, imprisoned for years.
Her associates and Pakistani security officials said they have no evidence she has died. Both sides believe she is hiding.
Long before the hunt for her began, Ms. Ismail seemed to sense danger.
“When you work on changing the status quo,” she said in an interview in Paris in 2016, “it’s risky. And because we have a high impact, there are actors or groups who want to silence us.”
But, she added, “If you are afraid, then fears lead to hatred. And our world needs bravery and courage.”
After Trump’s Kashmir Claim, India, US Work Together on Damage Control
New Delhi and Washington have been scrambling to minimise the cost of the political firestorm, with supportive messages from other wings and branches of the US government.
After President Donald Trump made an incendiary claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him to mediate on Kashmir, both New Delhi and Washington have been scrambling to minimise the cost of the political firestorm, with supportive messages from other wings and branches of the US government.
With visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on his side, Trump claimed that during their meeting at Osaka, Modi had asked him to be a “mediator or arbitrator” on Kashmir.
Within a couple of hours, India moved fast to issue a denial, just two minutes before midnight in Delhi. Later on Tuesday morning, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar “categorically” assured both houses of parliament that “no such request was made by the Prime Minister to the US President”.
From the US side, the official response came a few hours later with a tweet from acting assistant secretary of state, Alice G. Wells. Without referring to Trump’s remarks she reiterated the traditional US position that Kashmir is a bilateral dispute, and India and Pakistan should talk to each other.
While the Indian statement was categorical, the specificity of Trump’s so-called recollection of their conversation apparently led officials of both sides to check their written records of the meeting on June 28.
#WATCH US President Donald Trump meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the start of Session 3 at #G20Summit in Osaka, Japan
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Japan: Earlier pictures of G20 leaders attending dinner party hosted by Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe at #G20Summit in Osaka.
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There was not even a mention of Kashmir in the records, as per sources. The US also informed India that a scan of their own records also brought up a similar absence of Kashmir at G-20 summit.
On Tuesday morning in Washington, the state department spokesperson also mirrored acting assistant secretary Well’s words that Kashmir is a bilateral dispute. She added that US would welcome India and Pakistan “sitting down” and was ready “to assist”.
The spokesperson said that the “first and foremost” step to create an atmosphere conducive for dialogue would be tackle the “menace of terrorism”.
When asked about the claims made about Trump-Modi meeting at Osaka, she said that there are usually “no (public) comments or readouts of President’s meeting”. The spokesperson also said that the two leaders “may have” have talked about the need for Pakistan to take “irreversible” action against terror groups based on its soil.
This line echoed the phrase in the “fact sheet” issued ahead of the conclusion of the bilateral meeting between the US President and Pakistan prime minister.
Indian officials were pleased that the “fact sheet” stated that Pakistan had to take action to “shut down all groups once and for all”. The sentence before this phrase also acknowledged that Pakistan had taken “some steps against terrorist groups operating within Pakistan”.
The Indian government’s statement, while definite in denying Trump’s claims, had to also take into account that the US president cannot be publicly called out for his verbal innovations.
As sources indicated, the Indian government will have to deal with Trump for another year and a half. If he wins the re-election bid in 2020, it means yet another four years.
‘Will not impact India-US relationship’
No country has yet learned how to handle the unpredictability of President Trump, so his surprising statements are now taken in stride, they added. Officials asserted his ‘inventive’ words will not actually impact the India-US relationship, which is largely managed by more junior administration officials and career bureaucrats.
During the parliament proceedings, the opposition may keep asking for a statement from Modi, but the government plans to ignore it for now. The strategy is not to intentionally stretch out this controversy, with the bet being that mainstream media would also move on to the next topic within a day or two, if they were starved of any “developments”.
In Washington, US officials have to walk a more precarious line. Not only they can’t publicly repudiate their leader, but US officials had to factor in the ongoing visit by a foreign leader, whose cooperation was required for an issue close to Trump’s heart.
For Trump, the key sign of success for Khan’s visit would be to get an assurance on Afghanistan, so that a quick peace agreement with Taliban could lead to all US troops returning home. Pakistan has been quick to grasp this opportunity, with Imran Khan effusively complimenting him that they are both on the same page.
Therefore, not surprisingly, the tweet from the US state department senior official made no reference to Trump’s actual words, which could have been interpreted as a denouncement.
After the Oval Office press interaction, voices from the Democrat-controlled house of representatives of the US legislative branch, the Congress, reiterated that Kashmir was a “bilateral dispute”.
Democrat Brad Sherman was the most outspoken, describing Trump’s words about Kashmir mediation as “amateurish” and “embarrassing”. Sherman also said that he had apologised to the Indian ambassador to the US, Harsh Shringla.
The senior Indian diplomat also spoke to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Democrat Eliot Engel, who stated that pace and scope of any dialogue will have to be determined by India and Pakistan. “He reaffirmed that in order for dialogue to be meaningful, Pakistan must first take concrete and irreversible steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure on Pakistan’s soil,” added the read-out issued by the House committee.
The co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans also issued a statement that they wanted a bilateral resolution to the Kashmir dispute “consistent with decades of US policy”.
Making no reference to Trump or his words, they said, “The Republic of India is one of America’s closest and most important allies, and we look forward to working with Prime Minister Modi and Indian officials to combat terrorism and extremism throughout the region.”
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