Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Opinion: THE STONE - Humans Are Animals. Let’s Get Over It.
By Crispin Sartwell
It’s astonishing how relentlessly Western philosophy has strained to prove we are not squirrels. If one were to read through the prefaces and first paragraphs of the canonical works of Western philosophy, one might assume the discipline’s primary question to be this: What makes us humans so much better than all the other animals? Really, it’s astonishing how relentless this theme is in the whole history of philosophy. The separation of people from, and the superiority of people to, members of other species is a good candidate for the originating idea of Western thought. And a good candidate for the worst. The Great Philosopher will, before addressing himself to the deep ethical and metaphysical questions, pause for the conventional, ground-clearing declaration: “I am definitely not a squirrel.” This is evidently something that needs continual emphasizing. Rationality and self-control, as philosophers underline again and again, give humans a value that squirrels lack (let’s just stick with this species for the time being), a moral status unique to us. We are conscious, and squirrels, allegedly, are not; we are rational, and squirrels are not; we are free, and squirrels are not. We can congratulate ourselves on the threat averted. But if we truly believed we were so much better than squirrels, why have we spent thousands of years driving home the point? It’s almost as though the existence of animals, and their various similarities to humans, constituted insults. Like a squirrel, I have eyes and ears, scurry about on the ground and occasionally climb a tree. (One of us does this better than the other does.) Our shared qualities — the fact that we are both hairy or that we have eyes or we poop, for example — are disconcerting if I am an immortal being created in the image of God and the squirrel just a physical organism, a bundle of instincts. One difficult thing to face about our animality is that it entails our deaths; being an animal is associated throughout philosophy with dying purposelessly, and so with living meaninglessly. It is rationality that gives us dignity, that makes a claim to moral respect that no mere animal can deserve. “The moral law reveals to me a life independent of animality,” writes Immanuel Kant in “Critique of Practical Reason.” In this assertion, at least, the Western intellectual tradition has been remarkably consistent. The connection of such ideas to the way we treat animals — for example, in our food chain — is too obvious to need repeating. And the devaluation of animals and disconnection of us from them reflect a deeper devaluation of the material universe in general. In this scheme of things, we owe nature nothing; it is to yield us everything. This is the ideology of species annihilation and environmental destruction, and also of technological development. Further trouble is caused when the distinctions between humans and animals are then used to draw distinctions among human beings. Some humans, according to this line of thinking, are self-conscious, rational and free, and some are driven by beastly desires. Some of us transcend our environment: Reason alone moves us to action. But some of us are pushed around by physical circumstances, by our bodies. Some of us, in short, are animals — and some of us are better than that. This, it turns out, is a useful justification for colonialism, slavery and racism. Every human hierarchy, insofar as it can be justified philosophically, is treated by Aristotle by analogy to the relation of people to animals. One might be forgiven for thinking that Aristotle’s real goal is not to establish the superiority of humans to animals, but the superiority of some people to others. “The savage people in many places of America,” writes Thomas Hobbes in “Leviathan,” responding to the charge that human beings have never lived in a state of nature, “have no government at all, and live in this brutish manner.” Like Plato, Hobbes associates anarchy with animality and civilization with the state, which gives to our merely animal motion moral content for the first time and orders us into a definite hierarchy. But this line of thought also happens to justify colonizing or even extirpating the “savage,” the beast in human form. Our supposed fundamental distinction from “beasts, “brutes” and “savages” is used to divide us from nature, from one another and, finally, from ourselves. In Plato’s “Republic,” Socrates divides the human soul into two parts. The soul of the thirsty person, he says, “wishes for nothing else than to drink.” But we can restrain ourselves. “That which inhibits such actions,” he concludes, “arises from the calculations of reason.” When we restrain or control ourselves, Plato argues, a rational being restrains an animal. In this view, each of us is both a beast and a person — and the point of human life is to constrain our desires with rationality and purify ourselves of animality. These sorts of systematic self-divisions come to be refigured in Cartesian dualism, which separates the mind from the body, or in Sigmund Freud’s distinction between id and ego, or in the neurological contrast between the functions of the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. I’d like to publicly identify this dualistic view as a disaster, but I don’t know how to refute it, exactly, except to say that I don’t feel myself to be a logic program running on an animal body; I’d like to consider myself a lot more integrated than that. And I’d like to repudiate every political and environmental conclusion ever drawn by our supposed transcendence of the order of nature. I don’t see how we could cease to be mammals and remain ourselves. There is no doubt that human beings are distinct from other animals, though not necessarily more distinct than other animals are from one another. But maybe we’ve been too focused on the differences for too long. Maybe we should emphasize what all us animals have in common. Our resemblance to squirrels doesn’t have to be interpreted as a threat to our self-image. Instead, it could be seen as a hopeful sign that we will someday be better at tree leaping.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/opinion/humans-animals-philosophy.html
Christian leaders slam Minister Shah: Pakistan does not protect its minorities
By Shafique KhokharPakistan's Anti-Narcotics Minister Ijaz Shah spoke recently at the centennial of the Saka Nankana or Nankana massacre. His controversial speech sparked outrage. At the ceremony held last Sunday in Nankana Sahib, Lahore (Punjab), the politician said that all minorities in the country are respected and protected, while in India they are the subject of “atrocities”.This elicited an immediate response from some prominent individuals, including some Christians, who cited many examples of violations, evidence that minorities are protected only “on paper”. The minister spoke at an event marking the centenary of the Nankana massacre, an anniversary that brought many Sikh pilgrims from across Pakistan and also abroad.The anniversary commemorates the killing of more than 260 Sikhs, some as young as seven, at the hands of the last Udasi Custodian, Mahant Narayan Das, and his mercenaries when the area was still part of British India. The three-day observance coincided with the birthday of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism, which was celebrated in the presence of politicians, religious leaders, minority representatives, activists and worshippers gathered in Nankana Sahib. Addressing those present, the Anti-Narcotics Minister said that “good treatment of minorities is one of the obligations of the Islamic religion” and “the white colour in our national flag represents minorities”. Guru Nanak, he added, “taught the lesson of peace and love to people”. Mr Shah also noted that the Baba Guru Nanak University was under construction, and that it would bring an educational revolution in the area, paid entirely by the Pakistani government. The minister's celebratory words raised concern, even outrage, in many representatives of religious minorities who say that it is false to say that “religious minorities enjoy full respect in Pakistan”. For Rev Javed Bashir, a pastor with the Voice of Christ Pentecostal Church in Karachi, Ijaz Shah's words are contrary to reality “because not only Christians, but all minorities face a difficult situation” that is getting worse “day to day”.” “Let us pray for the leaders and authorities of our country, that they may bring true peace and prosperity to our nation,” the Christian leader said. “We are concerned about the future of our young people” and it remains essential to “educate children”. Citing a recent report by International Christian Concern, Rev Bashir noted that non-Muslims are at critical moment, subjected to many abuses and acts of violence. The report, he points out, documents at least 38 episodes of persecution that include “discrimination, sexual assaults, kidnappings, forced conversions, forced marriages, spurious accusations of blasphemy, and even murder.”
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Christian-leaders-slam-Minister-Shah:-Pakistan-does-not-protect-its-minorities-52422.html
On Pakistan’s Minority Persecution ‘Concerns’ – OpEd
By Nilesh KunwarLast Thursday, while speaking at a virtual meeting of United Nations Economic and Social Council on “Reimagining Equality: Eliminating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination for all,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister [FM] Shah Mahmood Qureshi was at his eloquent best, pitching strongly for the “forging a global alliance against the rise and spread of Islamophobic as well as other violent nationalist and racist groups.” He lamented that hateful political rhetoric and inciting violence against vulnerable ethnic and religious groups being practiced in ‘Pakistan’s neighbourhood’ had “resulted in discriminatory citizenship laws, attacks on places of worship and repeated state-sponsored pogroms against minorities.” Even though Qureshi didn’t specify who was responsible for what he in his wisdom perceives to be a replay of the Holocaust, there are no prizes for guessing at whom this barb had been directed as this completely unsubstantiated and patently motivated refrain has become Islamabad’s staple fare. What’s most intriguing is that despite having failed to garner any meaningful support for its puerile and ineffectual Kashmir narrative, Islamabad still continues to reiterate it on every conceivable occasion. So, it’s not at all surprising that the exasperated international community has even abandoned the diplomatic nicety of at least acknowledging Pakistan’s concerns, even if they don’t necessarily agree with them. Domestic compulsions driving Islamabad’s anti-India tirade are understandable. That’s why its insistence to continue harping on a narrative that’s been univocally rejected by both UN and the international community is indeed intriguing-unless of course, the persistent reprise is inspired by Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels’s dictum that “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” However, it seems that Islamabad isn’t aware of, or doesn’t believe in the adage that ‘whenever one points a finger at others, three fingers are pointing back at the accuser’. Since Prime Minister Imran Khan had in 2018 announced with great flourish that “We will show the Modi government how to treat minorities,” Qureshi being anguished by “state-sponsored pogroms against minorities” in Pakistan’s neighbourhood is comprehensible. However, it appears that foreign affairs are keeping him so busy that he’s completely ignorant about pitiable conditions of minorities in his own country on which several international organisations have voiced serious concern. However, since both Khan and Qureshi would outrightly “reject” any such report prepared by an external agency no matter how impartial and credible it may be, let’s restrict ourselves to what the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan [HRCP] itself has revealed. In its annual report [‘State of Human Rights in 2019’], HRCP has listed two damning observations. One, it notes that “Religious minorities remained unable to enjoy the freedom of religion or belief guaranteed to them under the constitution[Emphasis added]. For the Ahmadiyya community in Punjab, this included the desecration of several sites of worship.” Two, that “Both the Hindu and Christian communities in Sindh and Punjab continued to report cases of forced conversion. In Punjab, girls as young as 14 were forcibly converted and coerced into marriage. In Sindh, the case of two Hindu girls whose families claimed they had been kidnapped for marriage and converted forcibly, drew widespread attention when the Islamabad High Court ruled that the girls were not minors at the time of marriage and allowed them to return to their spouses.” [Emphasis added]. Enforced disappearance is another grave issue that ethnic minorities in Pakistan have to grapple with. The 2019 HRCP report makes the shocking revelation that “Pakistan has yet to criminalise enforced disappearances even after a commitment to this effect made by the incumbent government on several occasions” goes on to state that “The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances falls short of being an effective agency to provide relief to the citizens, apportion responsibility and bring perpetrators to justice.” It also mentions that “Since the inception of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, KP [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has topped the list in the numbers of missing persons. At end December 2019, the total number of cases registered in KP stood at 2,472.” [KP is home to Pakistan’s Pashtun minority]. Islamabad will most certainly deny any institutionalised persecution of the Pashtun minority. However, if this is true, then how does it explain Director General [DG] of Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] warning Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement [PTM], a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in KP and Balochistan, by saying that “their time is up”? Is the fact that within a month of the DGISPR issuing this not-so-cryptic threat,13 PTM supporters were killed and over 25 others injured near Kharqamar check post in North Waziristan when the army opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, just a mere coincidence? If Rawalpindi’s contention that soldiers at Kharqamar check post resorted to firing as a last resort after they were attacked by violent PTM demonstrators and had exercised full restraint is really true, three questions still arise. One, if the Pakistan army had really exercised outmost restraint, then how come it ended up inflicting such heavy casualties? Two, if soldiers had acted purely in self-defence, then why was HRCP’s fact finding team stopped by the army from proceeding to the check post for an on-site-investigation? Lastly, as per Rawalpindi, one soldier was killed while five were seriously injured when PTM protesters attacked the Kharqamar check post. So, if PTM workers had indeed been instigated to attack the check post and had both killed and injured soldiers, then why did the government withdraw the cases against National Assembly members Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar who had been arrested by security forces for having incited protesters? The people of Balochistan too have been bearing the brunt of a brutally violent campaign being carried out by Pakistan army in the garb of anti-terrorist operations and today, this region has become inextricably associated with enforced disappearances. In its ‘Public Statement’ of 12 November 2020, Amnesty International [AI] notes that “Enforced disappearances targeting students, activists, journalists and human rights defenders continue relentlessly in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan.” In its recommendation, AI has called upon Pakistani authorities to “Ensure that all measures are taken to immediately end the practice of enforced disappearance.” Though AI’s explicit statement and recommendation addressed to “Pakistani authorities” gives a clear indication of institutional complicity in the repulsive practice of disappearing people, the Government of Pakistan will obviously reject the same. However, even if AI’s observation as well as recommendation is disregarded and Islamabad is given benefit of doubt, this issue doesn’t disappear. Readers may recall that during a media interaction session in 2019, when senior journalist Hamid Mir of Geo TV expressed concern about enforced disappearances in Balochistan and elsewhere, DGISPR replied, “You have a deep attachment with missing persons [but] so have we. We don’t wish that anyone should be missing. But when its war, you have to do a lot of things- as they say, all is fair in love and war; war is very ruthless.” [Emphasis added]. Now with Pakistan army’s media chief himself admitting that Rawalpindi considers military actions against its own citizens who are resisting exploitation of the region’s natural resources and excesses against their people as ‘war’ and follows the “all is fair in love and war” approach to justify enforced disappearances, is any further proof of institutionalised persecution of ethnic minorities in Pakistan necessary? So, rather than levelling unproven accusations in an attempt to malign opponents, it would certainly do Islamabad a lot of good if it focuses more on setting its own house in order, because at the end of the day, the international community neither has time nor the inclination to suffer hypocrites peddling lies.
https://www.eurasiareview.com/22022021-on-pakistans-minority-persecution-concerns-oped/
France summons Pakistan envoy over criticism of ‘separatism’ bill
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/23/france-summons-pakistan-envoy-over-criticism-of-separatism-bill
Monday, February 22, 2021
Pakistan army preparing to escalate its offensives in Balochistan
The Pakistani army is preparing for fresh offensives in different areas of Balochistan including Kohistan Marri’s Kahaan region, Bolan, Harnai and surrounding areas.
According to the details, a large number of the Pakistani army have been seen moving toward the Kahaan area from the military cantonment in Kohlu.
Locals fear the extraordinary movements and sudden increase of troops in the number suggests that the Pakistani army plans to intensify its offensives in Kohistan Marri’s Kahaan region where Baloch freedom fighters have been frequently attacking them.
Similar bloody aggressions were carried out last week in Kharan, Bolan, Harnai and many other areas of Balochistan in which many innocent Baloch were killed and injured.
Several people including women and children were abducted during the latest offensives.
On Sunday, the federal interior minister Sheik Rashid met the Inspector General Frontier Corps North, Major General Muhammad Yousuf Majoka in Quetta and appreciated the role of “FC Balochistan in maintaining law and order.”
Pakistani media sources quoted Rashid as saying, “implementation of all points of the National Action Plan (NAP) will be ensured.”
He also said steps would be taken to ensure internal security and ‘enemies of the country would not be allowed to succeed in their nefarious designs.’
He also warned, “Terrorists who want to destabilise Balochistan would not have a place to hide.”
The federal minister who is known for his hatred for the Baloch people is on a four-day-tour to Balochistan.
The latest military development and increase in deployments of troops is being seen as the result of Rashid’s go-ahead to escalate military offensives in Balochistan.
https://balochwarna.com/2021/02/22/pakistan-army-preparing-to-escalate-its-offensives-in-balochistan/
Concerns over Pakistani PM's visit to Sri Lanka
https://www.ucanews.com/news/concerns-over-pakistani-pms-visit-to-sri-lanka/91491#
4 Aid Workers Are Shot Dead in #Pakistan
By Zia ur-Rehman
The attack could portend a resurgence of militant violence in the former tribal areas of Waziristan, once a hub of the Pakistani Taliban.Gunmen killed four aid workers in an ambush in the northwestern Pakistani district of North Waziristan on Monday, police officials said, an attack that could signal a revival of insurgency in the region bordering Afghanistan that was once a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.A vehicle carrying the aid workers, who were all Pakistanis and who were affiliated with a program for developing household skills for women, was fired upon by unidentified attackers in the town of Mir Ali, the police said.The four aid workers, all women, were killed and the male driver was wounded. A fifth aid worker, also a woman, survived the attack by taking refuge in a nearby house, the police statement said. The attackers fled into the nearby mountains. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the attack and demanded that the government bring the attackers to justice. “It is the responsibility of the authorities to protect the lives and property of citizens at all costs,” the commission said in a statement. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the ambush. But the shooting fits a pattern of attacks against aid workers and anti-polio medics across the country that officials have attributed to the Pakistani Taliban. Waziristan was the hub of the insurgent group for years, until a strong push by the Pakistani military around 2014 cleared most of the militants, bringing a semblance of security to the region. Analysts and residents now fear that various factions of the Pakistani Taliban who had sought shelter from military operations in the bordering provinces of Afghanistan have regrouped. Frequent reports of targeted assassinations of tribal elders, roadside bomb attacks, and clashes with security forces have raised fears that the region, which had a tribal status before fully integrating into the rest of Pakistan through legislation in 2018, will relapse into militant control. Mohsin Dawar, a member of Parliament elected from North Waziristan and a leader of an ethnic Pashtun movement that seeks equal rights, wrote on Twitter, “The wave of indiscriminate killings continues unabated in our region with no end in sight.” “Where is the State?” he asked. In a separate attack, five members of the military were killed and another wounded when militants attacked a security checkpoint in South Waziristan late Thursday night, according to the Pakistani military. The Pakistani Taliban, in a statement, claimed responsibility for that attack, saying that the military unit had been conducting an active operation against the group in the region.The military also said that two militants and a member of the army were killed during a search operation carried out on Friday night.Muhammad Amir Rana, director of Pak Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based research organization, said that the rise in assaults in the former tribal districts was a cause of concern for national security. But, he added, the militants might not be able to regain their old strength because the security forces continue to hunt them actively. “Reunification of the Pakistani Taliban has been posing a threat in former tribal districts, but now they are not in a position to gain the strength it had before 2014,” Mr. Rana said. The killing of the four aid workers has also renewed security fears among charity and aid groups working in Pakistan, particularly in the former tribal districts. An aid worker in the tribal areas, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a fear of reprisals, said that both the government and the militants viewed him and others who work for aid groups with suspicion since the raid on Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in 2011. The United States intelligence service had reportedly staged a fake vaccination campaign in the area to gather DNA samples to confirm Bin Laden’s presence. The aid worker said that the recent attack would again force aid organizations to rethink their security measures and decide whether they could continue to work in the former tribal areas. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/world/asia/pakistan-aid-workers-killed.html
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Biden Aiming For Bigger Vaccine Numbers Beyond 100 Million In 100 Day Goal
By Zeke MillerIt sounded so ambitious at first blush: 100 million vaccination shots in 100 days. Now, one month into his presidency, Joe Biden is on a glide path to attain that goal and pitching well beyond it to the far more ambitious and daunting mission of vaccinating all eligible adults against the coronavirus by the end of the summer. Limited supply of the two approved COVID-19 vaccines has hampered the pace of vaccinations — and that was before extreme winter weather delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses this past week. But the United States is on the verge of a supply breakthrough as manufacturing ramps up and with the expectation of a third vaccine becoming available in the coming weeks. That means the act of delivering injections will soon be the dominant constraint, and it’s prompting the Biden administration to push to dramatically expand the universe of those who will deliver injections and where Americans will meet them to get their shots. “It’s one thing to have the vaccine, and it’s very different to get it in someone’s arms,” Biden said Friday as he toured Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in Portage, Michigan. The company is set to double its pace of vaccine deliveries in the coming weeks. Since their approval in December, more than 75 million doses of the two-shot-regimen Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been distributed, of which 63 million have been injected, reaching 13% of Americans. Nearly 45 million of those doses have been administered since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. The pace of deliveries of those vaccines is about to take off. About 145 million doses are set for delivery in the next 5 1/2 weeks, with an additional 200 million expected by the end of May and a further 200 million by the end of July. That’s before the anticipated approval by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use of a third vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson. The single-dose J&J vaccine is expected to help speed the path to immunity and requires half the vaccination resources of the two-shot regimens. But there is no massive stockpile of J&J doses ready to roll out on Day One. “We’re going to be starting with only a few million in inventory,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said this past week. Still, when combined with the anticipated increases in the other vaccines, the J&J doses could prove the pivotal advance in delivering enough shots for nearly all American adults by the end of June, at least a month earlier than currently anticipated. The daily inoculation average climbed to 1.7 million shots per day last week, but as many as double that number of doses are soon expected to be available on average each day. The focus of Biden’s team is now quickly shifting to ensuring those doses can get used, though the administration has resisted the calls of some health experts to publicly set a “moonshot” target for how many daily doses it hopes to deliver. Biden first set his target of 100 million doses in 100 days on Dec. 8, days before the first vaccines received emergency use authorization. By Inauguration Day, it was clear the U.S. was on course to attain that goal. Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, said she would like to see the administration commit to a more ambitious 3 million shot-per-day target. “I want to see them put that stake in the ground and ask everyone to help them achieve that goal,” she said. The current pace of vaccination dipped markedly in recent days as winter weather shuttered administration sites in Texas and across the South, and icy conditions stranded supplies at shipping hubs in Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee. One-third of the delayed doses have already been delivered, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, announced Sunday. The White House anticipates that remaining delayed doses will be injected by March 1 and that the daily pace of vaccinations will continue to climb. Much of the increase, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comes from people receiving their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. The pace of first-dose vaccinations, meanwhile, has been largely steady over the past several weeks, hovering around an average of 900,000 shots per day. Increasing both the rate of first-dose administrations and the rate of overall vaccinations will be key to achieving herd immunity — estimated to require vaccination of about 80% of the population — in hopes of ending the pandemic and curtailing the emergence of potentially even more dangerous “mutant” strains of the coronavirus. That means keeping demand high. The administration has expressed concerns about public surveys showing that tens of millions of Americans are reluctant to get the vaccine and it is stepping up public outreach to overcome that hesitancy as the U.S. death toll nears 500,000 — “a terribly historic milestone in the history of this country,” as Fauci put it, and “we’re still not out of it.” Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, the White House COVID-19 data director, said in an interview that the administration is “focused on going out to communities and making sure people know these vaccines are safe and how they can get them, with a goal of vaccinating nearly all Americans,.” The administration has also turned its focus toward identifying new delivery paths for the vaccines beyond those already used by states, including federally run mass vaccination sites, smaller community health centers and retail pharmacies. The White House’s goal is to stand up the sites now so that they will be ready to handle the influx of vaccine in the coming weeks. “They can push a lot more volume through those channels, through those big box stores, through the community health centers,” Scott Gottlieb, a former Trump administration FDA commissioner, told MSNBC on Friday. He praised the Biden administration for setting up those sites in advance. The Pentagon, at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has started deploying thousands of active-duty troops to open mass vaccination centers across the country, with plans in place for as many as 100 sites capable of delivering 450,000 doses per day. The first of those facilities opened this past week in California, with locations in Texas and New York due to open in the coming days. “We always knew along the way we would have to provide predominantly federally supported sites,” FEMA’s acting administrator, Robert Fenton, said this past week, describing the initial locations as a “pilot” for the larger deployment. “These will continue to grow as supply comes onboard.” The administration also rolled out the federal pharmacy program that had initially been announced by the Trump White House. It has delivered doses directly to chains such as CVS and Walgreens, leveraging existing distribution chains for injections like the flu vaccine. Governors, along with the CDC, identified specific retail chains to begin administering the vaccines in their states, with an eye on reaching underserved communities and also testing the pharmacies’ capacity to scale up injections. In its first four days of operation, with about 15% of pharmacies nationwide participating, the pharmacy program administered more than 700,000 of the initial 1 million doses per week allotted by the federal government. That led the White House to quickly double it to 2 million doses this coming week. Further increases are likely, as the White House monitors the pharmacies’ capacity to deliver injections. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores estimates its members alone have the capability to deliver more than 3 million doses per day. The additional federal channels for delivering inoculations have drawn some grumbling from governors who want even more vaccines to flow through their state allocations. That figure has risen from fewer than 9 million doses per week to 13.5 million in Biden’s first weeks in office. “Everyone wants more vaccines,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., “I do know that the continuous increase is great news for all of us.” “The more ways we can bring the opportunities online the better,” she added. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-increases-vaccine-goal_n_6032f06bc5b66dfc101f9372
Opinion: What Are Sperm Telling Us?
Something alarming is happening between our legs. Sperm counts have been dropping; infant boys are developing more genital abnormalities; more girls are experiencing early puberty; and adult women appear to be suffering declining egg quality and more miscarriages. It’s not just humans. Scientists report genital anomalies in a range of species, including unusually small penises in alligators, otters and minks. In some areas, significant numbers of fish, frogs and turtles have exhibited both male and female organs. Four years ago, a leading scholar of reproductive health, Shanna H. Swan, calculated that from 1973 to 2011, the sperm count of average men in Western countries had fallen by 59 percent. Inevitably, there were headlines about “Spermageddon” and the risk that humans would disappear, but then we moved on to chase other shiny objects. Now Swan, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, has written a book, “Count Down,” that will be published on Tuesday and sounds a warning bell. Her subtitle is blunt: “How our modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development, and imperiling the future of the human race.” Swan and other experts say the problem is a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors, which mimic the body’s hormones and thus fool our cells. This is a particular problem for fetuses as they sexually differentiate early in pregnancy. Endocrine disruptors can wreak reproductive havoc. These endocrine disruptors are everywhere: plastics, shampoos, cosmetics, cushions, pesticides, canned foods and A.T.M. receipts. They often aren’t on labels and can be difficult to avoid. “In some ways, the sperm-count decline is akin to where global warming was 40 years ago,” Swan writes. “The climate crisis has been accepted — at least by most people — as a real threat. My hope is that the same will happen with the reproductive turmoil that’s upon us.” Chemical companies are as reckless as tobacco companies were a generation ago, or as opioid manufacturers were a decade ago. They lobby against even safety testing of endocrine disruptors, so that we have little idea if products we use each day are damaging our bodies or our children. We’re all guinea pigs. Aside from the decline in sperm counts, growing numbers of sperm appear defective — there’s a boom in two-headed sperm — while others loll aimlessly in circles, rather than furiously swimming in pursuit of an egg. And infants who have had greater exposures to a kind of endocrine disruptor called phthalates have smaller penises, Swan found. Uncertainty remains, research sometimes conflicts and biological pathways aren’t always clear. There are competing theories about whether the sperm count decline is real and what might cause it and about why girls appear to be reaching puberty earlier, and it’s sometimes unclear whether an increase in male genital abnormalities reflects actual rising numbers or just better reporting. Still, the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the President’s Cancer Panel and the World Health Organization have all warned about endocrine disruptors, and Europe and Canada have moved to regulate them. But in the United States, Congress and the Trump administration seemed to listen more to industry lobbyists than to independent scientists. Patricia Ann Hunt, a reproductive geneticist at Washington State University, has conducted experiments on mice showing that the impact of endocrine disruptors is cumulative, generation after generation. When infant mice were exposed for just a few days to endocrine disrupting chemicals, their testes as adults produced fewer sperm, and this incapacity was transmitted to their offspring. While findings from animal studies can’t necessarily be extended to humans, after three generations of these exposures, one-fifth of the male mice were infertile. “I find this particularly troubling,” Professor Hunt told me. “From the standpoint of human exposures, you could argue we are hitting the third generation just about now.” What if anything does all this mean for the future of humanity? “I do not see humans becoming extinct, but I do see family lines ending for a subset of people who are infertile,” Andrea Gore, a professor of neuroendocrinology at the University of Texas at Austin, told me. “People with impaired sperm or egg quality cannot exercise their right to choose to have a child. That may not devastate our species, but it is certainly devastating to these infertile couples.” More research is necessary, and government regulation and corporate responsibility are crucial to manage risks, but Swan offers practical suggestions for daily life for those with the resources. Store food in glass containers, not plastic. Above all, don’t microwave foods in plastic or with plastic wrap on top. Avoid pesticides. Buy organic produce if possible. Avoid tobacco or marijuana. Use a cotton or linen shower curtain, not one made of vinyl. Don’t use air fresheners. Prevent dust buildup. Vet consumer products you use with an online guide like that of the Environmental Working Group. Many issues in headlines today won’t much matter in a decade, let alone in a century. Climate change is one exception, and another may be the risks to our capacity to reproduce. The epitome of a “low blow” is a kick to the crotch. And that, friends, may be what we as a species are doing to ourselves.Scientists are concerned by falling sperm counts and declining egg quality. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be the problem.
#Pakistan - National Commission for Minorities: A toothless commission?
It has been almost a year now since the National Commission for Minorities, a state-patronised body to oversee rights and freedom of religious minorities of Pakistan, has been under criticism for “lacking independence”.
An order by the chief justice of Pakistan, last week, in which the court directed the rebuilding of a Hindu temple in Karak, appears to have been a further endorsement of the impression about the NCM that it is a ‘cosmetic fix’ for a complex problem.
The temple in question, a pilgrimage site for Hindus, was vandalised and later set on fire by a large extremist mob on December 30. The temple had been non-functional for decades and was given back to the Hindu community and converted into a pilgrimage site on the orders of the apex court a few months ago.
The Supreme Court, while deciding the case ordered the government to immediately rebuild the temple and submit a timeline for its completion. It further directed the provincial government to recover money for the construction of the temple from those who had burnt it. In making its decision, the SC relied on the one-member Commission on Implementation of Minorities Rights, constituted by the court, rather than seeking assistance and a report from the NCM.
The federal government, through merely a notification, reconstituted its National Commission for Minorities in May last year to formulate a “national policy to promote peace and interfaith harmony”. Many minority rights groups and human rights bodies, however, have voiced concerns on the composition and task of the commission. The formulation of the commission, these groups point out, was not according to the directions of the SC in 2014 to set up an independent council to safeguard minority rights. The official body also lacks proper legislation by the parliament, a requirement reiterated by the SC as “mandatory”, while hearing a case regarding religious minorities’ rights.
The SC, after a terrorist attack on a church in Peshawar, had taken up the matter of safeguarding religious minorities and their constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms by urging the government to form a body through parliamentary legislation to protect minority rights. In 2019, the SC also formed a one-member commission to ensure the implementation of the SC judgment. A retired civil servant, Dr Shoaib Suddle heads the implementation commission.
Contrary to the SC’s directions, last year, the federal government notified a 16-member National Commission for Minorities with Chela Ram Kewalani from Hindu community and a senior loyalist of the ruling party as its head. A couple of Muslim clerics are also part of the commission, which sections of civil society believe amounts to making the problem a part of the solution.
Kewalani, the head of the NCM, however, defends the body and its working and considers it to be “a great step by the government to protect rights of religious minorities”.
“The commission also existed in the past, since 1990s, but nobody knew about it. And now that the government has taken this major step some elements are opposing it for political reasons,” he says.
“There is no objection and harm in taking up such matters before (international) media if they are not heard by the respective forums,” he views. He says legislation for the NCM is “under way and a draft bill has been prepared and will be sent to the federal cabinet soon”.
To the question on objections on the NCM for not taking up all serious violations independently and forcefully, the head of the NCM says the proper official forums to take up such matters of violations of rights of religious minorities are bodies like the NCM and judiciary rather media, especially, international media. He alleges that “some non-government organisations (NGOs) highlight incidents of religious minorities rights’ violations unnecessarily in international media” for “their vested interests” and to “secure foreign funding”.
“There is no objection and harm in taking up such matters before (international) media if they are not heard by the respective forums,” he views. He says legislation for the NCM is “under way and a draft bill has been prepared and will be sent to the federal cabinet soon”.
In an early meeting of the NCM, the commission had discussed and focused on issues and problems faced by religious minorities in neighbouring India. The commission urged New Delhi to “protect rights of minority groups, especially Muslims”, the biggest minority group in the neighbouring India and a majority religion in Pakistan.
Civil society groups, however, expect that the commission should seriously focus on the violations of rights of religious minorities in Pakistan where faith-based persecution of Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus, Sikhs and victimisation of minority Muslim sects like Shias is growing and governments remain quiet to please the majority Muslim vote bank.
Civil society groups and the one-member implementation commission, set up by SC, have also moved the apex court against the constitution of this allegedly toothless state-owned commission calling it “contradictory to the directions of the court”. The recent judgment by the SC, these groups hope, may lead the SC to give directions to process a consensus draft bill on the NCM to make it independent and a credible body to oversee religious minority rights.
The SC, in its 2014 judgment clearly stated that “A National Council for Minorities’ Rights be constituted. The function of the said Council should inter alia be to monitor the practical realisation of the rights and safeguards provided to the minorities under the Constitution and law. The Council should also be mandated to frame policy recommendations for safeguarding and protecting minorities’ rights by the Provincial and Federal Government(s).”
The official commission is also considered not up to the defined standards of the United Nations and Paris Principles which give a fair description of the formulation of such rights bodies with a view to financial, administrative autonomy, independent working and formulating its own policy and guidelines with a clear mandate and as a statuary body recognised by the government.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/792508-a-toothless-commission
‘Blacklist Pakistan’ — Exiled dissidents hold protest outside FATF headquarters in Paris
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will, during its plenary session from 22-25 March, decide on Pakistan’s ‘grey list’ status on alleged terror financing.
Around 30-40 exiled dissidents from Balochistan, Tibet, Hong Kong and of the Pashtun and Uyghur communities Saturday protested outside the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) headquarters in Paris urging action against Pakistan.
The top anti-money laundering and terror financing watchdog is set to decide on Pakistan’s ‘grey list’ status at its plenary session from 22-25 March.
Protestors held up placards saying “blacklist Pakistan” and “Why no action against Maulana Masood Azhar?”.
Azhar is the founder and leader of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
The idea of this protest is to remind the FATF of Pakistan’s continued support to terror groups and terror financing, said Paris-based Pakistani journalist and organiser of the protest, Taha Siddiqui, in a video sent to ThePrint.
Siddiqui began living in exile in France in 2018 after armed men from Pakistan government agencies allegedly tried to abduct or assassinate him.
In 2018, Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s list of “jurisdictions under increased monitoring”, more popularly known as the ‘grey list’. It was given an Action Plan comprising 27 points for compliance with regard to prosecutions, money laundering, terrorism financing, and targeted financial sanctions to choke the flow of funds to designated terrorist organisations, terrorists and their associates.
In October 2020, the watchdog declared that Pakistan complied with 21 of the 27 points of action and decided to keep the country on its ‘grey list’.
‘Pakistan-China nexus’
Alleging a “Pakistan-China nexus” that is protecting Pakistan from being blacklisted, Siddiqui said in the video, “The FATF should not come under the pressure of China, it should not be blackmailed by China.”
In a press release, the protesters said China has defended Pakistan at various multilateral forums on the issue of terrorism.
For example, China blocked the listing of Azhar as a global terrorist at the United Nations Security Council for a decade arguing that there wasn’t enough evidence against Azhar and citing “procedural problems”,” stated the protestors.
They also cited the recent acquittal of terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced for the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, by a Pakistani court.
Speaking to ThePrint, Hong Kong activist Kenneth Yeung, 37, who moved to Paris last July, said, “The FATF decision will not only help pushing Pakistan to a relatively healthier condition of financial reforms in the future, but also acts as an indirect but significant role in stopping the spread of Chinese imperialism and genocide in Xinjiang.”
The protesters have also urged the FATF to take cognisance of China-Pakistan projects such as the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that they say “lack transparency”.
https://theprint.in/world/blacklist-pakistan-exiled-dissidents-hold-protest-outside-fatf-headquarters-in-paris/608950/
تحریک انصاف کو ضمنی انتخابات میں اپ سیٹ شکست
پاکستان میں مختلف اراکین کی وفات اور دیگر وجوہات پر قومی و صوبائی اسمبلی کی خالی ہونے والی نشستوں پر ضمنی انتخابات کے غیر سرکاری اور غیر حتمی نتائج کی آمد سے قبل ہی کئی تنازعات سامنے آئے ہیں۔
پنجاب کے ضلع سیالکوٹ کی قومی اسمبلی کی نشست این اے 75 پر ہونے والے ضمنی الیکشن کے نتائج روک لیے گئے ہیں۔ اس حلقے میں انتخابات میں ہونے والی ہنگامہ آرائی اور فائرنگ میں دو افراد ہلاک بھی ہوئے تھے۔
دوسری جانب مسلم لیگ (ن) نے خیبر پختونخوا میں اپ سیٹ کرتے ہوئے سابق وزیر اعلیٰ خیبر پختونخوا اور موجودہ وزیرِ دفاع پرویز خٹک کے آبائی علاقے کی صوبائی نشست پر کامیابی حاصل کی ہے۔
ان انتخابات میں اب تک کے غیر سرکاری اور غیر حتمی نتائج کے مطابق حکمران جماعت تحریک انصاف صرف ایک نشست این اے-45 کرم ایجنسی میں برتری ہوئی ہے۔
حکومتی وزرا کی جانب سے ضمنی انتخاب کو شفاف قرار دیا جا رہا ہے۔
وفاقی وزیر فواد چوہدری نے ایک بیان میں کہا کہ پہلی بار پاکستان میں ایسے انتخابات ہوئے ہیں جن میں حکومت کی کوئی مداخلت نہیں تھی۔
انہوں نے مزید کہا کہ پیپلز پارٹی اور مسلم لیگ (ن) جس طرح ضمنی انتخابات کراتی تھی لوگ کہتے تھے الیکشن تو رسمی ہی ہیں جیتنا تو حکومت نے ہی ہے۔
پی پی-63 نوشہرہ میں تحریک انصاف کو اپ سیٹ شکست
ملک بھر میں ضمنی انتخابات کے موقع پر سب سے اہم اور دلچسپ مقابلہ سابق وزیر اعلیٰ اور موجودہ وفاقی وزیرِ دفاع پرویز خٹک کے آبائی ضلع نوشہرہ کے صوبائی اسمبلی کے حلقے پی کے-63 پر ہوا۔
اس حلقے میں 19 فروری کو ہونے والے الیکشن کے غیر سرکاری اور غیر حتمی نتائج کے مطابق مسلم لیگ (ن) کے امیدوار اختیار ولی نے حکمران جماعت تحریک انصاف کے میاں محمد عمر کو شکست دے کر اپ سیٹ کر دیا ہے۔
یہ نشست میاں محمد عمر کے والد اور سابق صوبائی وزیر جمشید الدین کے انتقال کے باعث خالی ہوئی تھی۔
منتخب امیدوار اختیار ولی نے 21122 ووٹ حاصل کیے جب کہ محمد عمر 17023 ووٹوں کے ساتھ دوسرے نمبر پر رہے۔
مبصرین کے مطابق نوشہرہ کی اسی نشست پر حکمران جماعت تحریک انصاف کے امیدوار کی شکست کی اصل وجہ مسلم لیگ (ن) کے امیدوار کو حزبِ اختلاف کے تین اہم جماعتوں پیپلز پارٹی، جمعیت علماء اسلام (ف) اور قومی وطن پارٹی کی حمایت حاصل ہونا ہے۔
رپورٹس کے مطابق اس کے علاوہ پرویز خٹک سے ناراض ان کے بھائی صوبائی وزیر لیاقت خٹک اور ان کے بیٹے سابق تحصیل ناظم احد خٹک کی حمایت بھی مسلم لیگ (ن) کے امیدوار کو حاصل تھی۔
مقامی میڈیا کی رپورٹس کے مطابق وفاقی وزیرِ دفاع پرویز خٹک نے ضمنی انتخابات کے موقع پر پشاور میں وزیر اعلیٰ محمود خان اور گورنر شاہ فرمان سے ملاقات کی تھی جس میں پرویز خٹک کے بھائی لیاقت خٹک کو صوبائی وزارت سے علیحدہ کرنے کے سلسلے میں بات چیت کی گئی تھی۔
تحریک انصاف کے ذرائع کے مطابق ضمنی انتخابات میں لیاقت خٹک اپنے بیٹے احد خٹک کو تحریک انصاف کے ٹکٹ پر نامزدگی کے خواہش مند تھے۔ چند روز قبل لیاقت خٹک نے وزیرِ اعظم عمران خان سے ملاقات کے لیے وقت مانگا تھا اور کہا تھا کہ وہ صوبائی وزیر کے حیثیت سے مکمل طور پر بے اختیار ہیں۔
صوبائی وزیرِ محنت و ثقافت شوکت یوسف زئی نے ضمنی انتخابات پر ردِ عمل دیتے ہوئے کہا کہ نوشہرہ میں تحریک انصاف کو تحریک انصاف نے ہی شکست دی ہے۔ ان کے بقول نوشہرہ کی سیٹ پر شکست پی ٹی آئی کے اندرونی اختلافات کا نتیجہ ہے۔
دوسری جانب اس شکست کے بعد لیاقت خٹک سے وزارت واپس لے لی گئی ہے۔
وزارت واپس لینے کا باقاعدہ اعلامیہ بھی جاری کر دیا گیا ہے۔
سرکاری اعلامیہ سوشل میڈیا پر شیئر کرتے ہوئے وزیرِ اعلیٰ کے مشیر برائے اطلاعات کامران بنگش کا کہنا تھا کہ صوبائی وزیر لیاقت خٹک کو مسلم لیگ (ن) کے امیدوار کی حمایت پر عمران خان سے منظوری کے بعد کابینہ سے فارغ کیا گیا ہے۔
این اے-75 سیالکوٹ میں نتیجہ روک لیا گیا
قومی اسمبلی کا یہ حلقہ موجودہ ضمنی انتخابات میں اب تک کا سب سے متنازع حلقہ ہے جہاں پر الیکشن کمیشن نے نتیجہ روک لیا ہے۔
ڈسکہ سے قومی اسمبلی کی نشست این اے-75 پر ضمنی انتخابات میں تحریک انصاف کے علی اسجد خان اور مسلم لیگ (ن) کی امیدوار سیدہ نوشین افتخار کے درمیان کانٹے کا مقابلہ تھا۔
اس حلقے میں 19 فروری کو الیکشن کے بعد 20 پولنگ اسیٹشنز کا عملہ نتائج کے ہمراہ ریٹرننگ افسر کے پاس نہیں پہنچ سکا تھا جس کی وجہ سے رات گئے تک مکمل نتائج سامنے نہیں آ سکے تھے۔
غیر سرکاری و غیر حتمی نتائج کے مطابق مسلم لیگ (ن) کی امیدوار کو اپنے مد مقابل پر معمولی برتری حاصل تھی جس کی وجہ سے دونوں جماعتوں نے اپنے اپنے امیدوار کی کامیابی کے دعوے کیے۔
الیکشن کمیشن نے کہا ہے کہ پریذائیڈنگ افسران سے متعدد بار رابطے کی کوشش کی گئی مگر اس میں ناکامی ہوئی۔
الیکشن کمیشن کا مزید کہنا تھا کہ کافی تگ و دو کے بعد صبح 6 بجے پریذائیڈنگ افسران، پولنگ بیگز سمیت واپس آئے۔ ڈی آر او اور آر او کو ان پولنگ اسٹیشنز کے نتائج میں رد و بدل کا شبہ ہے۔ اس لیے مکمل تحقیقات کے بغیر این اے-75 کا نتیجہ جاری کرنا ممکن نہیں ہے۔
سامنے آنے والے غیر حتمی اور غیر سرکاری نتائج کے مطابق 360 پولنگ اسٹیشنز میں سے 213 پولنگ اسٹیشنز میں مسلم لیگ (ن) کی سیدہ نوشین افتخار 61571 ووٹ لے کر آگے تھیں جب کہ پی ٹی آئی کے علی اسجد خان 55872 ووٹ لے کر دوسرے نمبر پر ہیں۔
اس حلقہ میں ووٹرز کی کل تعداد چار لاکھ چار ہزار ہے۔
اس حلقہ میں فائرنگ اور ہنگامہ آرائی کے بعد بعض پولنگ اسٹیشنز پر پولنگ روک دی گئی تھی۔ مسلم لیگ (ن) نے دعویٰ کیا کہ پریزائیڈنگ افسر ووٹوں کا تھیلہ لے کر فرار ہو رہا تھا جسے مسلم لیگ (ن) کے حامیوں نے پکڑ لیا اور اس کی ویڈیوز بنا کر سوشل میڈیا پر شیئر کی۔
وزیرِ اعظم عمران خان کے معاونِ خصوصی شہباز گِل نے اس حلقے کے ضمنی انتخاب میں پی ٹی آئی کی جیت کا اعلان کیا۔ ان کا دعویٰ تھا کہ پی ٹی آئی این اے-75 کا الیکشن سات ہزار 827 ووٹوں سے جیت چکی ہے۔
شہباز گِل کا کہنا تھا کہ این اے 75 کا نتیجہ صبح پانچ بج کر 40 منٹ پر آ چکا ہے تاہم آر او نارووال کے رہنے والے ہیں، جو احسن اقبال کے دباؤ میں نتائج روک کر بیٹھے ہیں۔
دوسری طرف اپوزیشن کی طرف سے اس حلقے میں کامیابی کا دعویٰ کیا جا رہا ہے اور ان کا کہنا ہے کہ مسلم لیگ (ن) کی امیدوار سیدہ نوشین جیت رہی تھیں۔
پی پی 51 وزیر آباد میں مسلم لیگ (ن) کی کامیابی
پنجاب اسمبلی کے حلقہ پی پی-51 وزیر آباد میں 19 فروری کو ضمنی انتخاب میں 162 پولنگ اسٹیشنز کے غیر حتمی اور غیر سرکاری نتائج کے مطابق مسلم لیگ (ن) کی بیگم طلعت محمود 53903 ووٹ لے کر کامیاب آگے رہیں۔ جب کہ تحریک انصاف کے چوہدری یوسف 48484 ووٹ لے کر دوسرے نمبر پر رہے۔
حلقہ پی پی 51 کی نشست مسلم لیگ (ن) کے شوکت منظور چیمہ کے انتقال کے باعث خالی ہوئی تھی۔ یہاں ووٹرز کی کل تعداد دو لاکھ 53 ہزار 949 ہے۔ جب کہ 162 پولنگ اسٹیشنز پر پولنگ ہوئی۔
اس نشست پر بھی سخت مقابلہ دیکھنے میں آیا ہے اور مریم نواز بھی یہاں انتخابی مہم میں شریک ہوئی تھیں۔
پی ایس-43 سانگھڑ میں پیپلز پارٹی کی نشست برقرار
رواں ماہ 16 فروری کو ہونے والے ضمنی انتخابات میں سندھ اسمبلی کے حلقہ پی ایس-43 سانگھڑ کے غیر سرکاری و غیر حتمی نتائج کے مطابق پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی (پی پی پی) کے امیدوار جام شبیر علی نے کامیابی حاصل کی ہے۔
الیکشن کمیشن کے مطابق 132 پولنگ اسٹیشنز کے غیر حتمی اور غیر سرکاری نتائج کے مطابق پیپلز پارٹی کے جام شبیر علی 48 ہزار ووٹ لے کر کامیاب ہوئے۔
غیر سرکاری اور غیر حتمی نتائج کے مطابق پی ٹی آئی کے مشتاق جونیجو چھ ہزار 925 ووٹ لے کر دوسرے نمبر پر رہے۔ واضح رہےکہ اس حلقے میں ووٹرز کی کل تعداد ایک لاکھ 57 ہزار 210 تھی۔
یہ نشست پیپلز پارٹی کے جام مدد علی کے انتقال کے بعد خالی ہوئی تھی۔
اس نشست پر ہونے والے ضمنی انتخاب میں مجموعی طور پر سات امیدوار حصہ لے رہے تھے۔ تاہم اصل مقابلہ پیپلز پارٹی کے جام شبیر علی اور پی ٹی آئی کے مشتاق جونیجو کے درمیان قرار دیا جا رہا تھا جس میں پیپلز پارٹی کے امیدوار کامیاب رہے۔
پی ایس-88 کراچی میں پیپلز پارٹی کی کامیابی
کراچی کے سندھ اسمبلی کے حلقے پی ایس-88 میں ضمنی انتخاب میں پیپلز پارٹی کے امیدوار نے کامیابی حاصل کی۔
اس حلقے میں پیپلز پارٹی کے یوسف مرتضیٰ بلوچ 24 ہزار 251 ووٹ لے کر کامیاب رہے۔
اس حلقے کے تمام 108 پولنگ اسٹیشنز کے غیر سرکاری اور غیر حتمی نتیجے کے مطابق دوسرے نمبر پر تحریک لبیک پاکستان (ٹی ایل پی) کے سید کاشف علی نے چھ ہزار 90 ووٹ لیے۔
پی ٹی آئی کے جان شیر جونیجو چار ہزار 870 ووٹ لے کر تیسرے نمبر پر رہے۔ جب کہ متحدہ قومی موومنٹ (ایم کیو ایم) کے ساجد احمد نے دو ہزار 635 ووٹ لیے۔
یہ نشست پیپلز پارٹی کے غلام مرتضیٰ بلوچ کے انتقال کے بعد خالی ہوئی تھی۔
اس حلقہ میں پولنگ کے دوران بعض پولنگ اسٹیشنز اور کئی علاقوں میں صورت حال کشیدہ رہی۔ میڈیا رپورٹس کے مطابق پیپلز پارٹی اور تحریک انصاف کے کارکنان آمنے سامنے آئے اور شدید نعرے بازی کی گئی۔
ایس ایس پی ملیر نے الیکشن کمیشن کے حکم پر سندھ اسمبلی میں اپوزیشن لیڈر اور پی ٹی آئی کے رہنما حلیم عادل شیخ کو پی ایس-88 کے حلقے سے بے دخل کیا تھا۔
پی بی-20 پشین میں جے یو آئی کی جیت
بلوچستان کی صوبائی اسمبلی کے لیے رواں ماہ 16 فروری کو ہونے والے ضمنی انتخاب کے دوران یہ نشست جمعیت علماء اسلام (ف) کے سید عزیز اللہ آغا نے 16 ہزار 86 ووٹ لے کر جیتی۔
اس نشست پر دوسرے نمبر پر آزاد امیدوار آغا عصمت اللہ چار ہزار 681 ووٹ لے سکے۔ جب کہ بلوچستان عوامی پارٹی کے عصمت اللہ ترین دو ہزار 963 ووٹ لے کر تیسرے نمبر پر رہے ۔
یہ نشست 2018 کے انتخابات میں جے یو آئی کو ہی ملی تھی اور ایم پی اے سید فضل آغا کے انتقال کے بعد خالی ہوئی تھی۔
سینیٹ انتخابات کے حوالے سے بلوچستان اسمبلی کے اس انتخاب کو بہت اہمیت دی جا رہی تھی۔ لیکن جے یو آئی اے نے اس میں اہم کامیابی حاصل کی۔
این اے-45 کرم میں انتخابی نتائج پر تنازع
خیبر پختونخوا میں ضم ہونے والے قبائلی علاقے کرم ایجنسی کے قومی اسمبلی کے اس حلقہ میں غیر حتمی و غیر سرکاری نتیجے کے مطابق تحریک انصاف کے امیدوار ملک فخر زمان 16911 ووٹ لے کر باقی امیدواروں سے آگے رہے۔
ضمنی انتخابات کے دوران یہ واحد نشست ہے جس پر پی ٹی آئی کو سبقت حاصل ہوئی۔ جب کہ جے یو آئی کو اپنی نشست سے دستبردار ہونا پڑ رہا ہے۔
حلقے کے تمام 134 پولنگ اسٹیشنوں کے غیر حتمی و غیر سرکاری نتیجے کے مطابق تحریک انصاف کے امیدوار ملک فخر زمان 16313 ووٹ لے آگے رہے گئے۔ جے یو آئی (ف) کے امیدوار ملک جمیل خان 15760 سے زائد ووٹ لے کر دوسرے اور آزاد امیدوار سید جمال 15145 ووٹوں کے ساتھ تیسرے نمبر پر رہے۔
این اے 45 ضلع کرم کی یہ نشست جے یو آئی کے ایم این اے منیر خان اورکزئی کے انتقال کے بعد خالی ہوئی تھی۔
اس حلقے کے نتائج پر تنازع بھی ہے کیوں کہ جمعیت علماء اسلام (ف) اور آزاد امیدوار جمیل خان چمکنی بھی کامیابی کے دعوے کر رہے ہیں۔
جے یو آئی (ف) کے قبائلی اضلاع کے لیے سربراہ اور رکن قومی اسمبلی مفتی عبد الشکور نے ایک بیان میں حکومت پر نتائج تبدیل کرنے کا الزام عائد کیا ہے۔
حکومتی ارکان نے اسے محض الزام تراشی قرار دیا ہے۔
جے یو آئی (ف) کے مفتی عبدالشکور کہتے ہیں کہ این اے-45 میں دھاندلی کسی صورت منظور نہیں۔
انہوں نے یہ بھی کہا کہ آخری لمحات میں جے یو آئی کی کامیابی کو شکست میں تبدیل کیا گیا۔
ان کے بقول وہ قانونی کارروائی کے لیے درخواست دے رہے ہیں اور احتجاج کا آپشن بھی موجود ہے۔
https://www.urduvoa.com/a/holding-by-elections-in-four-constituencies-20feb2021/5785969.html