Sunday, October 11, 2020
EDITORIAL BOARD #NYT - Elect Joe Biden, America
Joe Biden has vowed to be a president for all Americans, even those who do not support him. In previous elections, such a promise might have sounded trite or treacly. Today, the idea that the president should have the entire nation’s interests at heart feels almost revolutionary.
Mr. Biden has also vowed to “restore the soul of America.” It is a painful reminder that the country is weaker, angrier, less hopeful and more divided than it was four years ago. With this promise, Mr. Biden is assuring the public that he recognizes the magnitude of what the next president is being called upon to do. Thankfully, he is well suited to the challenge — perhaps particularly so.
Kathleen Kingsbury, acting editorial page editor, wrote about the choice to endorse Joe Biden for president in a special edition of our Opinion Today newsletter. You can read it here.
In the midst of unrelenting chaos, Mr. Biden is offering an anxious, exhausted nation something beyond policy or ideology. His campaign is rooted in steadiness, experience, compassion and decency.
A President Biden would embrace the rule of law and restore public confidence in democratic institutions. He would return a respect for science and expertise to the government. He would stock his administration with competent, qualified, principled individuals. He would stand with America’s allies and against adversaries that seek to undermine our democracy. He would work to address systemic injustices. He would not court foreign autocrats or give comfort to white supremacists. His focus would be on healing divisions and rallying the nation around shared values. He would understand that his first duty, always, is to the American people.
But Mr. Biden is more than simply a steady hand on the wheel. His message of unity and pragmatism resonated with Democratic voters, who turned out in large numbers to elevate him above a sprawling primary field.
His team has put together a bold agenda aimed at tackling some of America’s most pressing problems. The former vice president is committed to working toward universal health care through measures such as adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act — which he played a significant role in passing — lowering the age for Medicare eligibility to 60 years old and cutting the cost of prescription drugs. He recognizes the fateful threat of climate change and has put forward an ambitious, $2 trillion plan to slash carbon emissions, invest in a green economy and combat environmental racism.
Mr. Biden will not be morphing into an ideological maximalist any time soon, but he has acknowledged that the current trifecta of crises — a lethal pandemic, an economic meltdown and racial unrest — calls for an expanded governing vision. His campaign has been reaching out to a wide range of thinkers, including former rivals, to help craft more dynamic solutions. In midsummer, he rolled out an economic recovery plan, dubbed “Build Back Better,” with proposals to bolster American manufacturing, spur innovation, build a “clean-energy economy,” advance racial equity and support caregivers and educators. His plan for fighting the coronavirus includes the creation of a public health jobs corps. Progressives who want even more from him should not be afraid to push. Experience is not the same as stagnation.
Mr. Biden has a long and distinguished record of accomplishment, including, as a senator, sponsoring the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and, as vice president, overseeing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, passed in response to the Great Recession. In a 2012 interview on “Meet the Press,” his remarks in support of gay marriage — which blindsided the Obama White House and caused a public kerfuffle — proved a watershed moment for the cause of equality. In 1996, Mr. Biden had voted as a senator in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages, making his evolution on the issue particularly resonant.
He has an unusually rich grasp of and experience in foreign policy, which, as traditionally understood, has not played a central role in the presidential race — though the pandemic, the climate crisis, a more assertive China and disinformation wars against the American public argue strongly that it should. The next president will face the task of repairing the enormous damage inflicted on America’s global reputation.
Mr. Biden has the necessary chops, having spent much of his career focused on global concerns. He not only took on thorny diplomatic missions as vice president, he also served more than three decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Aware that an “America First” approach in reality amounts to “America alone,” he would work to revive and refurbish damaged alliances. He has the respect and trust of America’s allies and would not be played for a fool by its adversaries.
Certainly, not all of Mr. Biden’s foreign policy decisions through the decades look sage in hindsight, but he has shown foresight in key moments. He fought a rear-guard action in the Obama White House to limit the futile surge in Afghanistan. He was against the 2011 intervention in Libya and skeptical of committing American troops to Syria. He opposed renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2007 and 2008 because it gave the government too much power to spy on Americans. He’s supported closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay. Little wonder that he has the backing of a who’s who of the foreign policy community and national security officials from both parties.
Mr. Biden is not an ideological purist or a bomb-thrower. Some will see this as a shortcoming or hopelessly naïve. Certainly, it’s unlikely that if Republicans retain control of the Senate, their leader, Mitch McConnell, will abandon his policy of fanatical obstructionism of any Democratic president.
That said, as the emissary often dispatched by President Barack Obama to deal with Republican lawmakers during tough legislative fights, Mr. Biden has intimate experience with the partisan gridlock crippling Congress. He knows how the levers of power work on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and he has longstanding relationships with members from both parties. More than any of this cycle’s other presidential hopefuls, he offered weary voters a chance to see whether even a modicum of bipartisanship is possible.
He is also offering a glimpse of the Democratic Party’s future in his choice of running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California. Ms. Harris would become a number of firsts — a woman, a Black person and an Asian-American — as vice president, adding history-making excitement to the ticket. A former prosecutor, she is tough, smart and can dismantle a faulty argument or political opponent. She is progressive, but not radical. In her own presidential campaign, she presented herself as a unifying leader with center-left policy proposals in a mold similar to Mr. Biden, albeit a generation younger. Mr. Biden is aware that he no longer qualifies as a fresh face and has said that he considers himself a bridge to the party’s next generation of leaders. Ms. Harris is a promising step in that direction.
If he wins election, Mr. Biden will need to take his governing agenda to the people — all of the people, not just his party’s loudest or most online voices. This will require persuading Americans that he understands their concerns and can translate that understanding into sound policy.
Mr. Biden has a rare gift for forging such connections. In his younger days, he, like so many senators, could be in love with the sound of his own voice. Time and loss have softened his edges. He speaks the language of suffering and compassion with a raw intimacy. People respond to that, across lines of race and class — ever more so in this time of uncertainty. The father of the police-shooting victim Jacob Blake described his phone conversation with Mr. Biden as full of “love, admiration, caring,” in one of many recent examples of the former vice president’s hard-earned empathy.
Mr. Biden knows that there are no easy answers. He has the experience, temperament and character to guide the nation through this valley into a brighter, more hopeful future. He has our endorsement for the presidency.
When they go to the polls this year, voters aren’t just choosing a leader. They’re deciding what America will be. They’re deciding whether they favor the rule of law, how the government will help them weather the greatest economic calamity in generations, whether they want government to enable everyone to have access to health care, whether they consider global warming a serious threat, whether they believe that racism should be treated as a public policy problem.
Mr. Biden isn’t a perfect candidate and he wouldn’t be a perfect president. But politics is not about perfection. It is about the art of the possible and about encouraging America to embrace its better angels.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/opinion/joe-biden-2020-nytimes-endorsement.html
Pakistan's Former President Asif Zardari shifted to hospital after feeling unwell
Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has been shifted to hospital after his condition deteriorated.
According to sources, doctors are conducting medical check-up and various tests of former President Zardari.
It may be recalled that Bilawal Bhutto had said in a press conference last year that doctors had instructed his father to undergo an important test for heart, while the bail application filed by Farooq H.Naik said that three stunts have been inserted in the heart of former President Zardari.
Zardari has a disease called ischemic , in this disease heart does not get enough blood and oxygen.
#Pakistan - Rootless PTI regime discrediting country, demolishing economy and discouraging meritocracy, says Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that incompetent and selected government of Imran Ahmed Niaz become a burden on the country as well its masses and the economy hence it should step down before the public ire kicks this dispensation into the dustbin of the history.
Presiding over a meeting of Party’s Karachi Coordination Committee at Bilawal House today, the PPP Chairman said that PDM Jalsa on the occasion of anniversary of Shuhda-e-Karsaz in Karachi would be a referendum against the puppet regime from the country’s commercial capital on October 18. “The Imran regime imposed on the people through stolen mandate has destroyed everything in the country and people are fed up with its anti-people policies of promoting unemployment, inflation, diplomatic isolation and economic assassination of Pakistan,” he added.
He said that PTI regime has no roots among the people and it has been selected to demolish and discredit the country and discourage meritocracy in every field.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asked the KCC to facilitate the people of Karachi to reach the venue of the public meeting without any hindrances and organize the Party’s and other democratic workers of PDM for better arrangements of the mammoth gathering.
The KCC Coordinator Waqar Mehdi, PPP Karachi Division President Saeed Ghani, MNA Qadir Patel, Lal Bux Bhutto, Najmi Alam, MPA Sajid Jokhio, Khalid Lateef, Ghulam Mohammed Samoon and others were present at the meeting.
Fair trial concerns plague world’s largest death row in Pakistan
By Asad Hashim & Asad HashimCourts handed out record 632 death sentences last year in a country where the criminal justice system lacks an international standard, legal experts say. When the judge read out a sentence of death, 17-year-old Muhammad Iqbal could scarcely believe it, and reached out for his brother. As guards converged upon him to escort him away from the courtroom and back to prison, the teenager was desperate to speak to his family. “The words ‘sentenced to death’, I didn’t know much at that time about appeals and everything else,” he recalls, sitting on a rope bed in the winter sunshine in his native Mandi Bahauddin, in central Pakistan. “I thought they were going to execute me [right then]. “My brother was in the courtroom at the time of the verdict, I called to him, to see him one last time and to say goodbye to him.” Iqbal, now 39, would spend 21 years on death row before a court ruled earlier this year that he had been sentenced incorrectly, commuting his sentence and releasing him on June 30. During his trial, where he was convicted for murder, he says he was largely unaware of how the legal proceedings functioned, a concern that is emblematic of fair trial concerns in a country where the death penalty is applied widely, according to lawyers and activists. Pakistan is one of 56 countries worldwide who retain the use of the death penalty in law and practice. In 2019, it continued to hold the world’s largest recorded death row population, with more than 4,225 people awaiting execution, according to rights group Amnesty International. Pakistan’s penal code carries the death penalty for at least 33 crimes, ranging from murder, gang rape and kidnapping to blasphemy, adultery, treason and various narcotics charges. The Pakistani government is currently considering a proposal to expand the use of the penalty and to add public hanging as a form of execution. “The reason [for expanding the scope for rape cases] is that there is no deterrence,” says Faisal Javed Khan, a senator for the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. “We want severe punishments for rapists because there is no deterrence whatsoever.” In 2019, Pakistan held the record for the most death sentences handed out by its court system, with more than 632 convicts sentenced to death, which is 27.3 percent of all death sentences worldwide, according to Amnesty’s data. For prisoners like Iqbal, accused of murder, the problems begin right from the moment of arrest. ‘Needed to escape that hell’ “They tortured me, telling me to confess to the crime,” he says, of the days after he was arrested by police in connection with a robbery near his home in which a man was killed.“Under torture, I confessed that I had done it, I was so desperate that I accepted responsibility for it. I just needed to escape that hell somehow.”Pakistani police deny the use of torture officially, but rights groups have documented its routine use by police across the country, particularly in cases of violent crime. Iqbal, whose family owns a small farm where they grow rice, wheat and fodder for their five buffaloes, did not have the resources, or knowledge of the justice system, to hire a competent lawyer, and his trial was conducted swiftly, taking no note of his allegations of a confession obtained under torture. “I had […] the kind of lawyer who just files 13 bail applications a day. My father didn’t have the money to hire anyone else,” he says. “He never met me. I only saw him many months later during a hearing, to know that this man is my lawyer.” Access to the right lawyer, in a justice system like Pakistan’s, where a case depends greatly on proceedings at the trial court level, can be the difference between life and death, say experts.“It really does make a huge difference – if you have a committed lawyer or if you have a lawyer who knows the judges, which comes with a heavy price tag,” says Reema Omer, South Asia legal adviser for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).“Who you are plays a huge role in the kinds of lawyers you will get, how quickly the case is decided, the kind of facilities you get in prison, and whether you are even aware of your rights as an accused or a convict.”The Pakistani legal system mandates the right to a legal defence for those who cannot afford lawyers, but does not state guidelines or qualifications for lawyers to be appointed by the state.“The majority of people on death row are from indigent backgrounds and so they have state-appointed counsels,” says Sarah Belal, executive director of legal aid organisation Justice Project Pakistan (JPP). “That state counsel has no money to do investigations, he never meets you, he gets the file a few days before [the hearing] and goes and argues the case. There is no minimum standard applied for what effective legal representation means.” For many death row convicts, Iqbal says, that results in a situation where they have never spoken to their lawyers during the trial, and are often unaware of what the charges against them are, or their fundamental legal rights.“There are some people who don’t even know when their case is being heard,” says Iqbal, of prisoners he was jailed with. “Elderly parents, their child in jail, who have no idea that there is a hearing or that they need to get a lawyer.”At one stage, Iqbal says, his appeal had been suspended pending a response from a lower court, but his lawyer told his father that the appeal had been rejected. For almost a decade, as he remained on death row, Iqbal believed that this was the case, and his family pursued the matter no further. ‘Felt my life had ended’ “In Punjabi we have a saying: ‘Even the most friendly dog, if you tie it up it will go mad’,” says Iqbal, of the mental toll that being on death row takes. “It makes a man more irritable and makes you very frustrated. Any person who has been a victim of injustice, he starts to think that even those working for his betterment are trying to cheat him.”Death row prisoners in Pakistan are held in cells that are, on average, roughly eight feet (2.4 metres) wide by 10 feet (three metres) long, with at least five prisoners held to a single cell. Conditions, Iqbal says, are difficult. “There was just one daal, [and] it was black as night. Other than two times in the week … that was all that was cooked,” he says. “Sometimes I would even find insects crawling in it.” Pakistani prisons have separate sections for those sentenced to death. “We would be shut in the cell for 23 hours a day,” says Iqbal, who was incarcerated in three different prisons during his 22 years in jail. “Half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening, we would be let out, but with handcuffs on.” The afternoons, he says, were the hardest. “In my experience, from the morning until the early afternoon, you are passing your life in routine. You can [pass the time], or speak to other people, or someone new comes in or someone leaves.” He pauses, his eyes darting from left to right. “But when the jail is shut, and no one is entering or leaving, that’s a very heavy time for a convict. You spend it just thinking. Thinking about where you are trapped, what will happen to you.” In 2016, a prison officer came to his cell on one such afternoon, informing him that death warrants had been issued for his execution, in four days’ time. He was swiftly shifted to another prison, one equipped with a gallows to carry out the sentence.“I had fought so many cases, so many writ [petitions], so many appeals, thinking that through some appeal or writ my voice would be heard. I felt like my life had ended.”He was escorted to a small cell, where he was alone, and under strict guard to prevent him from doing any possible harm to himself. “The time passed very slowly,” he says. “Each day felt like a year. It was very difficult. The nights felt very long, and the days felt long as well.” Hours before he was due to be executed, the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution, as it considered a petition lodged by his lawyers. ‘I had stopped climbing’ Pakistan’s Supreme Court is the court of final appeal in the country’s justice system, and hears dozens of cases a day. Lawyers and activists say the country’s overloaded justice system places a huge burden on the higher courts to overturn trial court verdicts that may be faulty due to inadequate police investigation, faulty evidence or incompetent legal representation. Omer, the adviser at the ICJ, says the legal system does not have clear sentencing guidelines or standards for when the death penalty is to be applied. “Judges have taken polar opposite positions, with some judges who believe that the death penalty should be the norm in the murder cases, while other judges have said it should only be applied in serious aggravating circumstances,” she says. “It’s very problematic because the justice system should be a lot more consistent and you should be able to predict the penalty someone is given. In death penalty cases, it’s crazy, because it’s a case of someone’s life.” Belal, of JPP, agrees that there is a lack of standardisation of how the law is applied in capital cases. “Trial court is like breakfast, it’s like the most important meal of the day. They are the most important forum. They have the time and ability to hear all the evidence and call all the witnesses. You need to invest more in ensuring that we have better standards for the trial court.” The data on criminal proceedings in capital cases appears to bear out the assertion that trial courts in Pakistan often get it wrong. According to a 2019 report by rights group Reprieve, prepared in consultation with Pakistani legal aid organisation the Foundation for Fundamental Rights (FFR), an overwhelming majority of capital cases are either overturned or commuted on appeal at the Supreme Court. From a dataset of 310 capital crime cases heard by the Supreme Court between 2010 and 2018, Reprieve and FFR found that 73 percent resulted in acquittals, commutations or orders for a review by the lower court. In 2018, the latest year included in the dataset, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in only three percent of cases. For Iqbal, whose sentence was commuted in February ahead of his release later in the year, the intervention of the high court was something he could scarcely believe. “My mind couldn’t accept it, that my case had really changed,” he says. “Because look, a man is constantly beaten down, beaten down, and he keeps climbing, keeps climbing in the belief that he will reach the top of the mountain eventually. “At that time, I was exhausted, and I had stopped climbing.” He spent his last day in prison on June 30, before he walked out into freedom. One thing, he says, stood out for him, and continues to fascinate him every day. “It was amazing, to see the open sky. I have spent most of my life within a few feet, and when I came out I felt like I was seeing the open sky for the first time in my life.” https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/10/9/fair-trial-concerns-plague-worlds-largest-death-row-in-pakistan
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Power Play, Morality and … a TikTok Ban in Pakistan
#Pakistan: Is Political Change in the Air?
Mohammad Taqi@mazdaki The opposition, particularly Nawaz Sharif, is going after the Imran Khan government and Pakistani army all guns blazing. Over the past two weeks, Pakistan’s political opposition has gone after Prime Minister Imran Khan and his benefactor, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, with all guns blazing. The three-time former premier, Nawaz Sharif, has unequivocally indicted General Bajwa and the incumbent and former Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) – Generals Faiz Hamid Chaudhry and Zaheer-ul-Islam, respectively – for blatantly meddling in political affairs. The former prime minister named the two generals for first, attempts to topple his government through orchestrated street protests, and failing that, by influencing the judiciary and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to disqualify him from holding the high office. He called them out for subsequently installing Imran Khan as their puppet prime minister, after rigging the 2018 election in his favour. Sharif fired the first salvo at an All Parties Conference (APC) hosted by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. They were joined by nationalist Pashtun and Baloch parties, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), and above all, the Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam (JUI) of the cleric-politician Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, who had led a march onto Islamabad, a year ago with the intent to topple the Imran-Bajwa hybrid martial law regime. The maulana failed at the time, simply because both the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) opted to play it safe in the end and had jumped off the wagon. The APC formed an alliance dubbed Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), issued a 26-point charter of demands, and resolved to start street protests shortly. What has changed since the maulana’s fizzled out march? I had noted here that to topple the Imran-Bajwa regime, the maulana would need help from the PMLN and to a lesser extent, the PPP. But the two had left him hanging simply because their priorities, at the time, were different. The PPP has the provincial government in its power base, Sindh, and did not wish to lose that, lest it may not be able to return to power. It is still lukewarm to the idea of mobilising on the street for the same reason. The PMLN had abandoned the maulana because there is a sizeable faction within its leadership, headed by the party president and current opposition leader in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, which pushed for a rapprochement with the army brass in the aftermath of the 2018 elections. Nawaz Sharif, the Quaid or supreme leader of his party, had ostensibly allowed his brother Shehbaz to pursue that track. Whether it was a good cop/bad cop routine, or the younger Sharif’s chance to appease, he gave it his best shot – for two years, no less – but had little to show in return. In fact, instead of the army backing off from using the courts and the NAB to hound and arrest the Sharifs and other PMLN leaders, remained relentless. Shehbaz Sharif was arrested days after the recent APC. The army through its civilian fig leaf, Imran Khan had recently pushed a set of laws through the parliament, which, prima facie, are supposed to bring Pakistan into compliance with the requirements of the anti-terror financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). But Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) rammed these bills through the parliament, despite the opposition’s protests, with verbiage that not only immixes terror financing with white-collar crime, but gives the notorious NAB and the intelligence agencies sweeping powers to go after the suspects. The opposition had initially defeated these bills in the parliament’s upper house, the Senate, where it has a majority. The Imran-Bajwa regime circumvented that roadblock by steamrolling the legislation in a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate. But not leaving anything to chance, the junta hounded dozens of the opposition parliamentarians and forced them to stay away from the joint session, eking out a slim majority. The opposition rightly fears that in the garb of fulfilling the FATF requirements, these laws have been passed to further persecute the political opponents. The army has overplayed its hand. This legislation might have the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The opposition has sensed that more of the same will follow if something is not done urgently. Another major milestone less than six months away is the Senate elections in March 2021, when half the senators are up for a reelection. The senators are elected indirectly by the provincial assemblies, in a process that is historically infamous for manipulation. Control over the Senate would complete the hybrid martial law’s vice-like grip over the country’s political system. The constitution could then be tinkered with or even defaced beyond recognition, by changing its character from parliamentary to presidential. Pakistan’s army dictators have trampled upon the existing constitution(s), introduced virulent mutations and anomalies into it, or replaced with warped ones of their own. The army brass’s sole aim has been to have a controlled democracy either under it, when it ruled directly or in front of it, when it has ruled from behind the scenes. The latter arrangement is the idea behind the army’s Imran Khan project. The project ostensibly was conceived to last at least ten years, and the army appears inclined to perpetuate at any cost. Khan is a perfect marionette who is doing exactly what his puppeteer wants him to do. The army, therefore, has no plans to change its horse midstream, despite Khan driving the country’s economy into the ground. In fact, both a JUI leader and Nawaz Sharif have charge-sheeted General Bajwa for first actively conniving to oust the PMLN government and then to keep Khan in power by keeping Sharif, his family and party, on the ropes. While Nawaz Sharif had always wanted to take the army head on, his brother and some lieutenants were able to restrain him for the past two years. His daughter and political heir-apparent, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, on the other hand, worked hand-in-glove with him to buttress his narrative summed up in their slogan ‘vote ko izzat do’ i.e. the army must respect the people’s mandate. The father-daughter duo faced disqualification and prison in their quest for civilian supremacy but did not back off. After the APC volley, Nawaz Sharif has been on fire. He has barraged the army almost every other day in speeches to his party, short media talks and Twitter postings. He has raised questions about family of the former military spokesperson Lieutenant General Asim Salim Bajwa, going from rags to riches in tandem with his rise to power in the army. The army then leaked information about various parliamentarians from many opposition parties and (separately) another party leader from the PMLN meeting the army chief with a clearly malicious intent to undermine the narrative evolving since the APC. It backfired, big time. Nawaz Sharif upped the ante by barring his party leaders and cadres from meeting with members of the armed forces. If naming and shaming Generals Bajwa, Faiz and Zaheer-ul-Islam, was unprecedented, proscribing even the social interaction with the servicemen – read army brass – is virtually unheard of, in Pakistan, let alone doing so in writing via a directive from his party’s secretariat. It simply means that there’s no turning back for the PMLN supremo. What Nawaz Sharif has done by naming the generals is to pry away the civilian fig leaf this hybrid martial law had. The strength of the hybrid regimes is in wily use of a civilian façade to prevent people from directly challenging the army brass’ hegemony. A declared martial law draws a clear line between pro-democracy and anti-democracy forces, whereas an indirect martial befuddles even the well-meaning democrats at times. The army, especially General Bajwa, has been flayed proverbially naked by Nawaz Sharif and the maulana. So, what’s next? The PMLN and the maulana can count on each other and assorted Pashtun and Baloch nationalist parties, and sections of the PTM. The PPP while casting its lot with them, on paper, would probably play it safe still. And that usually is name of the game in loosely allied movements. If the agitation gains steam, the fence-sitters would jump into the fray, on the winning side. The JUI had demonstrated last year that it can mobilise its dedicated cadres and religious seminary students in droves, across Pakistan. The PMLN has rather limited history of agitational politics but with Nawaz Sharif mincing no words and Maryam Nawaz holding no punches, their workers are charged and motivated. In fact, the sentiment within the PMLN cadres has gone from palpably anti-establishment to outright sloganeering against General Bajwa in the heart of Lahore. Nawaz Sharif, who had gone to London for medical treatment, has given no indication of returning anytime soon. And he certainly shouldn’t till the proverbial iron is hot for the final strike. It is highly likely that Maryam Nawaz would be arrested sooner than later. That the PMLN cadres may put up resistance to her arrest is not outside the realm of possibility but having the party patriarch guide the movement from outside the country, is all the more imperative, if she indeed is incarcerated again. The way the APC and its aftermath were handled by both the army and its civilian veneer, the PTI, indicates that they have opted to fight back. While the army tried to smear the opposition for meeting the COAS, Imran Khan ludicrously blamed India for helping Nawaz Sharif. The dictum in Pakistan goes that chief is the army and army the chief. The army behemoth acts in unison. But the tenure extensions and out-of-turn promotions, invariably leave many in the general staff very sour. Additionally, the blatant intrusions by General Bajwa – beneficiary of an extension – in political affairs, does not sit well with some in the brass and soldiery. Add to the mix that the Punjab province is the power base for both the army and Nawaz Sharif, and there is a possibility that sections within the brass may tacitly approve of a shakedown if not a complete toppling of the applecart. Civil and military bureaucracies have an uncanny ability to sense when the political sands may be shifting. Nawaz Sharif’s recent speeches getting live airtime on the otherwise tightly controlled media, suggest that there may be a few sensing that something is afoot. But that couldn’t be lost on the Imran-Bajwa regime either. What do they plan on doing, then? Chances are that they’d resort to both carrots and sticks to play off the opposition against each other. Various parties would be promised different rewards – electoral or material – to stay out of the fracas. Failing that, they would be threatened by NAB cases, leaks of personal and political nature, and eventually arrests. If the PDM is able to hold the trifecta of its street and parliamentary power – the PMLN, JUI, nationalist groupings – together, it can give Imran-Bajwa regime hell. By resigning en masse from the assemblies, they can create a crisis of moral legitimacy, if not a constitutional one. One’s calculated hunch is that General Bajwa is extremely vulnerable on many counts. By resorting to childish leaks about meeting politicians, he may have blinked first. To protect Imran Khan, the junta would have to expose itself further, and in the process become more vulnerable. Clamping a direct martial law is always an option but definitely not a viable one. It would unite the political forces within Pakistan and an international outcry with deep financial repercussions, which no dictatorial regime would be able to handle. General Bajwa and his coterie had opted to sink or swim together with Imran Khan. At the present time, they can barely keep their head above the political waters. Sinking together seems quite plausible. It is unlikely that one would survive without the other. https://thewire.in/south-asia/pakistan-nawaz-sharif-opposition-imran-khan
Bilawal Bhutto challenges Imran Khan, says ready to go to jail
While addressing a press conference in Karachi, Bilawal claimed that the Prime Minister is using Army as a political bloc and the government appears nervous due to the rallies carried out by the opposition, reported Dunya News"He said that the opposition is ready to protest against this system, adding that we are trying to get the people out of this predicament," quoted Dunya News.
Bilawal further said that the army was not an institution of one party, and that the Prime Minister should not use it as a political bloc.
He also added that the government has pushed the masses against the wall with rising inflation.
The opposition parties of Pakistan have alleged that Khan's government had belittled the expectations of the general people and had left them in tatters amid the economic havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Imran Khan-led government have launched multiple crackdowns against several opposition leaders, with the latest case under the sedition law filed against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir "premier" Raja Mohammad Farooq Ahmed Khan on October 1.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by a local resident in Shahdra police station against the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader on the charges of criminal conspiracy for the "provocative speeches" he made in London to "defame Pakistan's institutions".
Sharif's daughter, Khan and three retired generals among 40 PML(N) leaders have also been named in the FIR.
As many as 11 Pakistani opposition parties, prominent among which are the PPP, PML-N, Awami National Party, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), at the conclusion of an All Parties Conference (APC) on September 20 announced the formation of a joint platform, PDM. (ANI)
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/266645731/bilawal-bhutto-challenges-imran-khan-says-ready-to-go-to-jail
پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے یوم شہدائے کارساز کے موقع پر پاکستان ڈیموکریٹک موومنٹ کے تحت 18 اکتوبر کے جلسے میں خطاب کے لئے مریم نواز کو دعوت دے دی،
کراچی: پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے یوم شہدائے کارساز کے موقع پر پاکستان ڈیموکریٹک موومنٹ کے تحت 18 اکتوبر کے جلسے میں خطاب کے لئے مریم نواز کو دعوت دے دی، انہوں نے یہ دعوت سابق وزیراعظم شاہد خاقان عباسی کے ذریعے مریم نواز کو دی، چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری سے ملاقات کے لئے مسلم لیگ ن سے تعلق رکھنے والے سابق وزیراعظم شاہد خاقان عباسی، مفتاح اسماعیل کے ہمراہ کراچی میں بلاول ہاؤس پہنچے تھے،
اس موقع پر پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے سینئر رہنما اور رکن قومی اسمبلی سید نوید قمر بھی موجود تھے، چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کو سابق وزیراعظم شاہد خاقان عباسی نے 16 اکتوبر کو گوجرانوالہ میں ہونے والے پاکستان ڈیموکریٹک موومنٹ کے جلسے میں خطاب کی بھی دعوت دی،
اس موقع پر دونوں رہنماؤں نے ملکی سیاسی صورت حال پر بھی تبادلہ خیال کیا، چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے مسلم لیگ ن کے وفد سے گفتگو کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ عمران خان تحریک سے پہلے بوکھلا کر گرفتاریوں کی دھمکیاں دے رہے ہیں، اگر پی ڈی ایم نے جیل بھرو تحریک چلائی تو قیدخانوں میں جگہ کم پڑجائے گی،
انہوں نے مزید کہا کہ حکومت کی غریب دشمن پالیسیوں کی بدولت ملک پیچھے جارہا ہے، ملک میں مہنگائی، بے روزگاری اور لاقانونیت اپنے عروج پر ہے، ایسی صورت حال میں سلیکٹڈ حکومت کو اب زیادہ عرصہ برداشت نہیں کیا جاسکتا، چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے اس عزم کا بھی اعادہ کیا کہ پی ڈی ایم کی تحریک اس ظالم حکومت کو گھر بھیج کر دم لے گی۔
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/23890/
Friday, October 9, 2020
In Pakistan, ‘Modi ka jo yaar hai, woh ghaddar hai’ mood is on
If Pakistan continues the onslaught of giving out ‘traitor' and 'Indian agent’ certificates, then the day is not far when Indian population will increase by about 22 crore.
Winter is coming, but in Pakistan, the season of ‘Modi ka jo yaar hai, woh ghaddar hai’ is setting the mood. Yes, whoever is Narendra Modi’s friend in Pakistan is a traitor. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government is telling opposition leaders that when they criticise Prime Minister Imran Khan and his policies, they tend to make India happy. And when you make India happy, you make Indian Prime Minister Modi happy. That’s not all. According to this new doctrine, anyone happy on this side of the border is making Modi happy. Makes no sense, right?
However, in all this happiness, the ‘Prime Minister’ of Pakistan’s Kashmir has been made unhappy. Raja Farooq Haider just became the latest victim of the government’s hobby of declaring every opposition politician an agent of India and by virtue, a traitor. Haider was named in the mysterious sedition FIR against 40 leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). He was in the august company of two former Pakistani prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, three retired army officers, former Sindh governor, and former defence, interior and law ministers.
The FIR stated that Nawaz Sharif’s speech was aimed to indirectly “benefit his friend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.” The complainant believed Sharif supported the policies of India and his speeches were to divert world’s attention from Indian atrocities in Kashmir. Also, Sharif wanted to isolate Pakistan globally and defame Pakistan Army as “an anti-democratic institution”.
Kashmir cause with a bias
So, what did PM Haider do that made him ‘Raja Hindustani’? He heard Nawaz Sharif’s fiery speech on Zoom, then raised his hands in solidarity — and the rest, as they say, is history. So much for the ‘Kashmir cause’ that an elected prime minister is booked for raising hands while watching an online speech. A self-goal for a government that claims to be the loudest voice for the Kashmiris living in India but takes a U-turn when it comes to Kashmiris at home. But let’s focus on the bigger issue of making Modi happy.
Looking at this performance of PM Khan, the self-proclaimed ambassador of the Kashmiris, even Sharif took a dig at him saying that Iske sar mein bhoosa bhara hua hai (his head is full of hay).
After facing harsh criticism on the obnoxious sedition case and labelling others as traitors, the Imran Khan government first distanced itself from the complaint and then the complainant, a PTI labour wing office-bearer with a criminal record. While the sedition charge can’t be registered without the State’s compliance, it was said that PM Imran Khan was unhappy over such a case. Also, that the government doesn’t know who was behind the case. Now that is hardly surprising anymore since the PTI government also doesn’t know who runs it. As a great leader once said, “Doing a U-turn to reach one’s objective is the hallmark of great leadership.” The U-turn of social distancing from the sedition FIR was taken. After all, it is the hallmark of the PTI government.
It’s difficult to understand, though, why such a U-turn would be taken. PM Khan is what he calls ‘100 per cent convinced’ that Nawaz is working on India’s behest and foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says India and its media are happy over Sharif’s revelations. What, then, stopped the government from pursuing the sedition case? Or is it difficult to measure Indian happiness?
PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz clapped back that India gets happy when a three-time elected former prime minister is booked for treason, and when the ‘Fall of Kashmir’ takes place. India becomes happy when you present Kashmir on a tray to them or when elections are rigged in Pakistan. As a result, a selected government weakens the country, then India gets happy.
بلوچستان کی بیٹیاں: جبری طور پر گمشدہ افراد کے خاندانوں کا نوحہ
کل کوئٹہ کے سڑکوں پر،کڑکتی دهوپ کے چهاؤں تلے،اداس چہروں میں ایک امید لے کے بلوچستان کی دو بیٹیاں سراپا احتجاج تهیں۔ ان میں سے ایک اپنے بهائی اور دوسرے اپنی شوہر کی بازیابی کے لیے آئی تهی،دونوں میں خاص خاندانی و علاقائی فرق نہیں تها۔ ایک شبیر بلوچ کی بہن اور دوسرا شبیر بلوچ کی بیوی تهی.
شاید آنے والے حکمرانِ وقت ان سے کچھ سیکھ جائیں،شاید بلوچستان کی محرومیوں کا خاتمہ انکی بدولت ختم ہو،شاید ان کی بدولت کل کا بلوچستان “پسمانده” نہ ہو۔
https://urdu.nayadaur.tv/47262/
عدم اعتماد اور استعفوں کا آپشن ہے، قمر زمان کائرہ
پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے سینئر رہنما قمر زمان کائرہ نے کہا ہے کہ ہم اداروں کی سیاست میں مداخلت کے خلاف ہیں، ہمارے پاس عدم اعتماد اور استعفوں کا آپشن ہے۔
جیو نیوز کے پروگرام ’آج شاہزیب خانزادہ کے ساتھ‘ میں اظہار خیال کرتے ہوئے قمر زمان کائرہ نے کہا کہ اگر ہم حکومت کو ہٹادیتے ہیں تو تمام جماعتوں کو پہلے سے زیادہ ووٹ پڑیں گے۔
انہوں نے مزید کہا کہ اگر دوبارہ الیکشن ہوں تو ہمیں پہلے سے زیادہ ووٹ ملنے کا امکان ہے، بتائیں تو ہم کیوں نہ استعفے دیں؟
قمر زمان کائرہ نے یہ بھی کہا کہ اداروں کی سیاست میں مداخلت نہیں ہونی چاہیے، ہمارا مطالبہ ہے کہ شفاف انتخابات ہوں اور تمام ادارے آئین کے تحت کام کریں۔
https://jang.com.pk/news/829906
چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے جزائر کے متعلق صدارتی آرڈیننس فی الفور واپس لینے کا مطالبہ کردیا
پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے جزائر کے متعلق صدارتی آرڈیننس فی الفور واپس لینے کا مطالبہ کرتے ہوئے کہا ہے کہ موجودہ صورتحال میں ہم اِس معاملے پر وفاقی حکومت سے مزید کوئی بات نہیں کریں گے۔ آج رات کے اندھیرے میں صدارتی آرڈیننس جاری کرکے جزائر پر قبضہ کیا جا رہا ہے، کل اِس طرح شہروں پر بھی قبضہ کرلیا جائے گا۔ ان خیالات کا اظہار انہوں نے کراچی میں میڈیا سیل بلاول ہاوَس میں پریس کانفرنس سے خطاب کرتے ہوئے کیا۔
پی پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ ہم نیک نیتی سے کام کر رہے تھے، ہمیں اندازہ ہی نہیں تھا کہ وفاقی حکومت اس طرح رات کے اندھیرے میں صدارتی آرڈیننس جاری کرے گی۔ کوئی پاکستانی اسے برداشت نہیں کرسکتا کہ ایک صدارتی آڈیننس کے ذریعے سندھ یا بلوچستان کے جزائر پر قبضہ کرلیا جائے۔ ہم مطالبہ کرتے ہیں کہ اس تضحیک آمیز و غیر آئینی آرڈیننس کو واپس لیا جائے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ پورے صوبے نے ایک آواز ہوکر اس قدم کی مذمت کی ہے، حکومت اپنی غلطی مانے اور آرڈیننس واپس لے، ہم کسی بھی صورت میں اپنی زمین کے ایک بھی ٹکڑے پر بھی غیرآئینی طریقے سے قبضہ نہیں کرنے دیں گے۔ پی پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ جب ایک کرکٹر کو جب وزیراعظم بنایا جاتا ہے تو اس کو سمجھ نہیں آتا کہ اِس قسم کی حرکتوں سے وفاقی نظام کو کیا نقصان ہوگا۔ بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ عمران خان کو اپنے سیاسی مقاصد کی خاطر ریاستی اداروں کو استعمال کرکے متنازعہ نہیں کرنا چاہیئے، فوج کسی ایک پارٹی نہیں، بلکہ پوری قوم کا ادارہ ہے۔ ایسا نہیں کہنا چاہئیے کہ فوج آپ کے ساتھ ہے، جبکہ کرپشن کو دیکھنا فوج کا کام نہیں ہے۔
انہوں نے مزید کہا کہ اندرونی و بیرونی فورمز پر ہمارا ملک اس لیے ناکام ہورہا ہے کیونکہ ایک نالائق و نااہل سلیکٹڈ وزیراعظم کے عہدے پر برجمان ہے جسے میں کام کرنے کی صلاحیت ہی نہیں ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ ملک سلیکٹڈ حکومت کا مزید بوجھ برداشت نہیں کرسکتا، وقت آگیا ہے کہ اب عوام کو نہیں، بلکہ عمران خان کو گھبرانا پڑے گا۔ سلیکٹڈ حکومت کی الٹی گنتی شروع ہو چکی ہے۔ بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ موجودہ حکومت کا رویہ غیرجمہوری ہے، مخالفین کے بغض میں انتقامی سیاست پر اتر آتی ہے اور آزاد کشمیر کے وزیراعظم پر بغاوت کے الزامات لگا دیتی ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ عوام اب سلیکٹڈ حکمرانوں کا ظلم برداشت نہیں کرسکتے، جو ہر روز نیا ظلم کرتے ہیں۔ دن بدن بجلی کی قیتموں میں اضافہ ہوتا ہے، صوبے کو اس کے آئینی حق کے مطابق گیس نہیں دی جارہی، جبکہ گیس کی لوڈ شیڈنگ کا بھی سامنا کرنا پڑ رہا ہے۔ موجودہ حکومت نے عوام کو دیوار سے لگا دیا ہے۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی پہلے دن سے موجودہ حکومت اور اس کے سہولت کاروں کے خلاف آواز اٹھاتی آئی ہے اور آج تک اپنے مؤقف پر قائم ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ ملک میں عوامی حکومت اور جمہوری نظام کو واپس لانا ہوگا۔ جمہوری نظام میں عوام کا اسٹیک ہوتا ہے، انہیں سنا جاتا لیکن اِس نظام میں ایسا کچھ نہیں ہے، پارلیمینٹ کو ربر اسٹیمپ بنا دیا گیا ہے، اسپیکر اسمبلی نے حکومت کے کہنے پر آمرانہ طریقہ کار اختیار کیا ہوا ہے۔ ایک سوال کے جواب میں پی پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ گلگت بلتستان میں آئندہ انتخابات صاف و شفاف ہی ہوں گے، اگر نہ ہوے تو اس کے نتائج کو سلیکٹڈ حکومت اور اس کے سہولتکاروں کو بھگتنا پڑے گا۔ ہم کب تک برداشت کریں گے کہ کوئی ہمارے ووٹوں پر ڈاکہ ڈالتا رہے۔
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/23880/
په پاکستان کي د زيارتونو، پیرانو او ځاى ناستو سیاسي ګټې
ژباړونکى: ح حقوېش،
دا وخت په پنجاب کي د زيارتونو شمېر 598 دى، په دې کي د 64 زيارتونو مينجور(ملنګان)، متوليان او پیران مستقماً په سياست كي برخه لري. سرګوده (سرګودھا)، جنګ (جهنګ)، پاکپتن، ساهیوال، وهاړي، منډي بهاوالدین، اوکاړہ، حجرہ شاہ مقیم، ملتان، چشتیان او د خیرپور ټامیوالا ګدۍ نشين مستقيماً په ټولټاکنو کي برخه اخلي. د دې ځاى ګدۍ نشين لومړى ځل د ازادۍ په جنګ کي د مجاهدينو د ځپلو لپاره د ختیځ هند (ايسټ انډيا) کمپنۍ سره لاس يو کړ او د انګريزانو په حق کي يې فتوې ورکړې جنګ يې بغاوت ياد کړ او په امتياز کي يې مځكي ترلاسه کړې. همدا لامل وو چي دا ګدۍ نشين انګريزانو د نوې آبادي د واک سره په پاور سټرکچر کي ورګډ کړل او د کورټ آف وارډز له لارې هغوى ته مستقل سیاسي طاقت ورکړل شو، د کورټ آف وارډز سسټم له لاري چي کومو ګدۍ نشینو ته مځكي ورکړل شوې د هغوى تفصیلات په لاندي ډول دي:
په 1930ز کال کي د شاہ پور غلام محمد شاہ، ریاض حسین شاہ ته 6423 ایکټره مځکه، د اټک سردار شېر محمد خان ته 25185 ایکټره، د جهنګ د شاہ جیونا کورنۍ خضر حیات شاہ، مبارک علي، عابد حسین ته 9564 ایکټره، د ملتان سید عامر حیدر شاہ، سید غلام اکبر شاہ، مخدوم پير شاہ ته 11917 ایکټره، د ملتان ګردیزي سید جن کي سید محمد نواز شاہ، سید محمد باقر شاہ، جعفر شاہ ته 7165 ایکټره، د جلالپور پیر والا سید غلام عباس، سید محمد غوث ته 34144 ایکټره، ګیلاني سید آف ملتان په هغه كي سید حامد شاہ او فتح شاہ په نوم 11467 ایکټره، د دولتانه کورنۍ اللہ یار خان آف لډھن ته 21680 ایکټره، د ډیرہ غازي خان میاشاہ نواز خان آف حاجي پور ته 726 ایکټره، د مظفر ګړ د ډیرہ دین پناہ کورنۍ ملک اللہ بخش، قادر بخش، احمد یار او نور محمد ته 2641 ایکټره او د ستپور مخدوم شیخ محمد حسن ته 23500 ایکټره مځكه ورکړل شوه. نن ددې کورنيو ځاى ناستي او اولادونه د ولايتي شورا(صوبائي اسمبلي) او ولسي جرګې(قومي اسمبلي) په څوکيو ناست دي او د ولسواکي دفاع کوونکي دي.
بریتانیايي استعمار د مځکو ورکولو سره سره د درباريانو ګدۍ نشينو کورنيو ته د ذیلدار(چي يوڅه سيمي يې تر واک لاندې وي) عهدې هم ورکړې، په دې کي د مظفر ګړ څخه دیوان محمد غوث، سید باندې شاہ، خان صاحب مخدوم محمد حسن، سید تراب علي شاہ، سید عامر احمد شاہ، سید غلام سرور شاہ، سید جندوډا شاہ، د میانوالې څخه سید قايم حسین شاہ، غلام قاسم شاہ، د شاہ پور څخه پیر چن پیر، سید نجف شاہ، فیروز دین شاہ، پیر سلطان علي شاہ، علي حیدر شاہ، د جهنګ څخه محمد شاہ، اللہ یار شاہ، محمد غوث او بهادر شاہ ته د ذیلدار عهده ورکړل شوه.
په هندستان د برتانيې له تسلط څخه 180 کاله وروسته په 1937ز کال کي محدود جمهوري انتخابات ترسره شول چي په یونینسټ ګوند کي شامل همدا مځکوال، ګدۍ نشین او پیران انتخاب شول. د 1946ز کال په انتخاباتو کي بيا هم دغه کورنۍ واکمنۍ ته ورسېدلې، د جنوبي پنجاب څخه ګیلاني، قریشي، د ډیرہ غازي خان څخه پرته د منځني پنجاب څخه پیر نسیر الدین شاہ آف کمالیه، شاہ جیونا آف جهنګ، مخدوم سید علي رضا شاہ آف سندھلیانوالي، مخدوم ناصر حسین شاہ، پیر محی الدین لال بادشاہ آف مکهد شریف له اټک څخه په نښه وو. دې کورنيو د یونینسټ ګوند پرېښود په آل انډیا مسلم لیګ کي ورګډ شول او خپلي ګټي يې د پاکستان د حمايت سره وتړلې.
د پاکستان له جوړېدو وروسته دا ګدۍ نشينه پيران د قومي جمهوري او مارشال لا په سياست کي په مستقل ډول ورننوتل. د ایوب خان د ولسواکۍ له فکر څخه رانيولې د ضیاء الحق په مجلس شوریٰ کي د اسلامائزیشن فکر ته وده ورکول او د جنرال پرویز مشرف د روشن خیال فکرونو څخه په حمایت کي دا ګدۍ نشین له هر چا څخه لومړي وو.
په ملي او ولايتي سياست کي د درباري نمايندګانو د همدې اثر لرونكي ګدۍ نشينو او پيرانو حلقې که وڅېړل شي، نو دلته به د تعليم کچه په بوږنونکي ډول سره کمه وي. د دربارونو همدا مذهبي نمايندګان د خپلو مُریدانو څخه نظرانې، خوړې او خيراتونه اخلي. او د اوقافو په ادارې هر وخت ددوى کنټرول وي، څه موده وړاندي د پنجاب اسمبلۍ ته د اوقافو وزير راپور ورکړ چي د ادارې تر انتظام لاندې د 544 زيارتونو څخه د کال څه باندې 150 ميليارده روپۍ د حکومت ماليې ته د مُریدانو او سيلانيانو له خوړې او نظرانې څخه ورکول کيږي. او ددې مځکوالو مځكي سلګونه ايکټره دې، د ځينو زيارتونو ګدۍ نشين په اصل كي اوس په جانشين اوښتي دي، او هغوى د ګدۍ نشينو يا متوليانو په مټ د کلني عرُس لمانځغونډې جوړيږي.
https://www.taand.com/
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Poll: Majority believe Harris won VP debate against Pence
Nearly 6 in 10 voters who watched Wednesday's vice presidential debate between Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Vice President Pence came away with the impression that Harris had outperformed Pence, according to a poll.
In the CNN/SRSS poll of registered voters who watched Wednesday's matchup, 59 percent said that Harris had performed better onstage while 38 percent said that it was Pence who had outperformed his opponent.
Perceptions of the debate were split along gender lines, with 69 percent of female debate watchers saying they thought Harris had won, compared to 30 percent for Pence, while 48 percent of male debate watchers said that Harris had performed better, with 46 percent siding with the vice president.
Pence's favorability among respondents, who skewed Democratic according to CNN, remained at 41 percent after the debate while Harris's favorability rose from 56 percent to 63 percent.
While 55 percent of voters added that the outcome would likely have no effect on their vote, a majority of those who said it would have an effect reportedly indicated that the debate made them more likely to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden (D), Harris's running mate.
The CNN/SRSS poll contacted 609 registered voters in the hours after the debate, and the margin of error is 5.3 percentage points.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/520162-poll-majority-believe-harris-won-vp-debate-against-pence?__twitter_impression=true