Sunday, April 4, 2021
#Pakistan #PPP - Zardari, Bilawal pay glowing tribute to ZA Bhutto
“The PPP will never compromise on the principle that people are the source of power,” he said in a statement on Saturday on the martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Asif Ali Zardari said, “Today we reiterate our resolve to continue to defend the country and its Constitution. The PPP gave the 1973 Constitution and restored it in its original form by the 18th Amendment and fulfilled the promise of provincial autonomy made by the Quaid-e-Awam to the people,” he said, adding that PPP will defeat all the conspiracies against 18th Amendment.
He said the Quaid-e-Awam built this nation from the ashes of defeat and gave the downtrodden masses a voice and courage to fight for their rights. “He changed the trend in politics and established the rule of people and showed the world that the true leader of the people accepts death with grace but does not compromise on principles,” he said.
While Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said dictators and their selected unguided missiles imposed on this nation, subsequently destroyed the democratic, societal, and economic fabric, decimating all gains of transferring power to the people by concentrating it back into the hands of a few. “We need to turn back to the teachings and vision of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and course correct the country onto the path of true democracy once again,” he added.
He said that Pakistan would have been a welfare state with a vibrant economy and society, seen as role-model Muslim country in the world, had the prime minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto not been hanged.
Paying glowing tributes to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the PPP chairman said those who martyred Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in fact murdered the dreams of our founding fathers and laid to rest the future of Pakistani generations.
Bilawal said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was an iconic leader who had laid the foundations for equitable economic, political and democratic infrastructure. “Things we take for granted today, such as universal suffrage, constitutional guarantees of equality under the constitution, the right to freedom of movement, religion, political affiliation, and unionisation were codified under the unanimously adopted Constitution of 1973. The passing of the 1973 Constitution remains till today the greatest democratic achievement of this country.” he added.
He said that the policies of Bhutto Shaheed had led to the establishing of huge industrial, economic and commercial ventures that had revolutionized the country by redistributing wealth from the hands of the few to the many.
Bilawal pledged that his party would carry on the mission of its founder Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, continuing the struggle for a strong, democratic, egalitarian and progressive Pakistan.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/814674-zardari-bilawal-pay-glowing-tribute-to-za-bhutto
#Pakistan - Z.A. Bhutto: an icon of resilience
One of the students in those days who later on became a close aide of SZAB and a minister in his government was my father Abdullah Baloch whose memoirs about his leader are shared below as a tribute on SZAB’s 42nd death anniversary that falls today. My father narrates that: “During the late 60s, one named echoed all around: people used to talk about and discuss Bhutto everywhere – from drawing rooms to tea cafes to public forums. As a youngster, I was fascinated by the charisma of Bhutto and during one hot summer day in 1967 I made up my mind and went to 70 Clifton where Mr Khar received me and took me to Bhutto Sahib who was having tea in his drawing room along with Hafeez Pirzada, Hayat Mohammad Sherpao and Meraj Mohammad Khan. “I introduced myself and expressed my desire to work for his party; he asked me to visit the party office and start working. The first party office of the PPP in Karachi was at SMCHS; the office was rented in the name of Mohammad Khan Ghangro as it was Yahya’s martial law, and nobody was willing to give us space on rent for the party office. “SZAB had impeccable style when it came to his clothes. Even his ministers were given a particular dress code – white for the day and black for the evening with different collar strips for the president, prime minister, senators, ministers, MNAs and MPAs, quite similar to the attire in China; this was later on replaced in Zia’s regime by the sherwani. SZAB was so charismatic that many of the party leaders including me used to follow his dress sense. “He was a great admirer of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and as an Auqaf minister he assigned me to install the golden gate gifted by the Shah of Iran; as a mark of respect, he always used to salute it on entering the dargah. “The late 60s was the peak of socialism; the red book was a proud possession of every leftist in those days. During the Hala convention the leftist group of the party led by Meraj Khan were of the view that the party should not contest elections, but SZAB said “Don’t give me examples from the red book; you have read it, but I have done dialogue with them. We cannot serve the people unless we contest elections and come in power.” “In 1970, he formed a parliamentary board for general elections and nominated me as its member. He emerged as a challenger for Ayub, such that the feudals of those times used to avoid any encounter with Bhutto to avoid Ayub’s wrath. And believe me those were the tough days – when Ayub’s government was struggling before the might of the rising leader, Bhutto. In 1972, when I was an MPA my house was burnt in the Karachi riots. SZAB called me to 70 Clifton, consoled me and tapped my shoulder to which I said this is a very small sacrifice for the party and the cause. This resulted in a smile on his face and he responded: “I expected the same from you”. “SZAB was very encouraging. Seeing my passion, he appointed me in charge of the party secretariat. He used to encourage competition within his party to extract the best amongst all. The classic example of this was to keep extreme leftist Meraj and Hafeez, both poles apart, together in the Karachi chapter. He inculcated trust and confidence in the youth by inducting a young person like me in the cabinet as I was just 28 years old at that time; he also appointed me general secretary Karachi with Kamal Azfar as president, again poles apart. “In 1976, during the super flood despite being an MPA from Karachi I was appointed minister for flood relief by SZAB. I tried my best and saved Sehwan and Dadu from being inundated by the floods with his guidance. Later he appreciated me for my efforts in his historic speech. He called labour conferences yearly where I used to participate as labour minister of Sindh and saw firsthand that he always wanted to have a grip on the pulse of the proletariat class. “Once I went to see off SZAB at the Karachi Airport. He asked me: ‘where will you head from here?’ I replied home, as I was not feeling well. He immediately took out some tablets from his pocket and told me: ‘even though I am not well but still travelling; now you should also go back to work.’ He worked tirelessly and inspired all of us. “Every passing year, April 4 reminds me what an enormous loss his death has been for the country. Shaheed Bhutto was a mentor and leader for me. I will always cherish the time spent with him, the lessons learnt from him and the pearls of wisdom he shared with me. His words still echo in my ears. Such leaders are born in centuries.” https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/814300-bhutto-an-icon-of-resilienceIt was the late 60s and this part of the world also witnessed the wave of socialism. It came with the downfall of Ayub and the rise of a new phenomenon in Pakistan’s politics: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, an icon of resilience and symbol of democracy who faced dictatorship with utmost valour.
Saturday, April 3, 2021
#PPP demands apology from PML-N
Rizwan Shehzad
It is no crime that PPP elected its opposition leader as the majority party in Senate, says PPP leader.The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) sought on Saturday an apology from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for electing unopposed senators in Punjab and for helping a candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) win over the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)’s unanimous candidate Farhatullah Babar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A day after five opposition parties announced to form a new opposition bloc in the Senate and decided that a “show-cause” notice be issued to PPP and Awami National Party (ANP) for “deviating” from an earlier formula of seat distribution in the Senate, PPP lambasted PML-N for supporting PTI in Punjab and criticized a “secret meeting” of PDM parties after which they made the new bloc of 27 senators. PPP leadership also believes that a conspiracy was hatched against PDM’s long march by suddenly linking it with en-mass resignations from the assemblies, saying it was an attempt to save the PTI government. “PML-N should apologise to PPP for defeating PDM’s unanimous candidate Farhatullah Babar and helping a PTI senator win,” PPP Central Secretary Information Shazia Marri said, “Rana Sanaullah should apologise to PPP for electing unopposed senators in Punjab with the help of PTI instead of seeking an apology from PPP.” The opposition is in disarray and the rifts over the office of the Senate’s leader of the opposition deepened on April 2 when five opposition parties – PML-N, JUI-F, PkMAP and BNP-Mengal and PkMap – agreed to form a separate bloc of 27 opposition senators in the upper house of parliament. Serious differences emerged between the parties – both part of the anti-government alliance PDM – after PPP appointed its stalwart Yusuf Raza Gilani as Senate’s opposition leader, apparently in violation of what had earlier been agreed upon in a PDM meeting.In the statement, PPP MNA Shazia Marri said that “if PML-N brings a charge sheet against PPP then we also have a charge sheet against PML-N.” MNA Marri has said that “PPP will ask at whose behest a conspiracy was hatched against the long march to save the PTI government by suddenly insisting on resignations.”On last night’s meeting of the PDM parties, the PPP leader said that PPP and ANP will ask in the PDM meeting “why a secret meeting of certain parties of the opposition alliance was called.” She said that PDM is the name of the alliance against the government and “PML-N will have to explain its use against the opposition parties”. Marri added that PPP will ask the PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman why the opposition alliance is being used against the opposition parties. On the issue of resigning from the assemblies, Marri asked if resignations were so necessary then why is the PML-N still sitting in the assemblies. “On one hand, there is talk of running an opposition alliance without the PPP and on the other hand, the PML-N is not ready to resign without the PPP,” she said. Replying to PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz’s criticism on PPP for accepting votes from the senators of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), 'which follows the commands of its Baap (godfather),' Marri said that if PPP had the godfather’s hand on their shoulder, then there would have been no talk of opening cases against former president Asif Ali Zardari. After the federal cabinet’s meeting on Thursday, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry had announced that the Broadsheet Commission has found the original record of the Swiss Bank Accounts and handed it over to the government, adding that legal teams were examining the record and Swiss account cases against Zardari could be reopened. Marri further said that all the senators who voted for Gilani were elected independently and “it is a childish attitude of the PML-N to prove that independent senators belonged to BAP party. BAP is considered to be a brainchild of the security establishment and the PDM blames it for the current political morass. Moreover, she said that if PML-N wanted an opposition leader in the Senate, they should have asked PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for the post once, “he would have gladly given it”. The PML-N leadership also made a similar claim that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif would have gladly given the office of the opposition leader had PPP asked for it instead of taking support from BAP. “PPP approached the PML-N leadership to agree on the name of Yousuf Raza Gilani, which was admitted by Ishaq Dar,” she said while referring to a statement of Dar wherein he admitted that Zardari had approached him to get support for Gilani but he had turned down the request on grounds that the decision was already made in a PDM meeting and no new message should now be given to Sharif from Zardari. “It is no crime that PPP elected its opposition leader as the majority party in Senate,” she concluded.
#Pakistan - Remembering Z A Bhutto
The Lahore High Court announced the ruling of death penalty for Bhutto on March 18, 1978. Not only heads of various countries but even the secretary general of the United Nations made appeals for clemency to General Zia. It was an open secret that bias and personal grudge was evident in the conduct of the then CJ of the Lahore High Court, Molvi Mushtaq Hussain.
On April 4, 1979, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged. Ziaul Haq killed his most daunting rival in a false murder case. This news generated a strong protest from around the world. World leaders condemned this act and international newspapers deemed it as a political murder. The common consensus: ‘Bhutto was denied justice’.
Pakistanis residing abroad, especially in London and Europe, registered their protest in large demonstrations. Mir Murtaza Bhutto launched a global protest movement from Birmingham. The Pakistani and Kashmiri community came together in an exemplary chain of unity. A large number of people attended his funeral in Hyde Park. This was followed by a demonstration where the streets of London resounded with ‘Jiye Bhutto!’
Everyone across the world who believed in democracy was devastated on the eve of April 4, 1979, as they mourned the death of the strongest voice for the people of Pakistan. A voice that brought together the Muslim World. A voice that spoke against the callousness of the world on the plight of the Kashmiri people. This voice was silenced. It was a great loss and a severe setback to the dream of an independent, democratic Pakistan ruled by the common people.
There is no doubt that Bhutto was a master of the table and of dialogue. His successes in foreign policy are innumerable. He was a bridge between the third world countries and the rich and mighty, without compromising dignity. He promoted friendly relations with China and our country is still reaping the benefits of that. His determination in setting up an atomic reprocessing plant meant that Pakistan could become a nuclear power.
Bhutto chose to be a voice for the downtrodden, and highlighted the issue of Kashmir in the UN. He took politics from the drawing rooms to the common people. In true spirit, he worked towards empowering the people and brought them to the parliament. One of his many noteworthy achievements include the 1973 constitution that provided the framework for relations between the federal and provincial levels.
The military dictator, Ziaul Haq, could not accept a popular leader who had such a stronghold on the hearts of the common people and so he devised a way to sever this connection. In a special interview to Masawat Weekly London, Begum Nusrat Bhutto said, “This was not a murder case against the prime minister but a murder of justice. We want justice for an innocent person who was the elected representative of the people. His people demand justice.”
Justice was not easy to come – but the people won, and Bhutto’s legacy was carried forward by his children and his grandchildren. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s contributions have been recorded forever in the annals of history and his memory is etched in the hearts and minds of people of all generations of this nation.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/813886-remembering-z-a-bhutto
پارٹی کے بانی قائد عوام ذوالفقار علی بھٹو شہید کا فلسفہ اور افکار ہمارے لیئے مشعل راہ ہیں، صدر آصف علی زرداری
سابق صدر مملکت اور صدر پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی پارلیمنٹیرینز آصف علی زرداری نے کہا ہے پارٹی کے بانی قائد عوام ذوالفقار علی بھٹو شہید کا فلسفہ اور افکار ہمارے لیئے مشعل راہ ہے ملک میں پارلیمانی نظام کی حفاظت کرتے رہیں گے ، طاقت کا سرچشمہ عوام ہیں کے اصول پر کوئی سمجھوتہ نہیں کرینگے ۔ پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے بانی چیئرمین قائد عوام ذوالفقار علی بھٹو شہید کے یوم شہادت کے موقع
پر اپنے پیغام میں آصف علی زرداری نے کہا قائد عوام ذوالفقار علی بھٹو شہید نے اس ملک کی تعمیر کی، قوم کو سوچنے کیلئے شعور ، بولنے کیلئے زبان اور فخر سے سر اٹھاکر جینے کا ڈھنگ سکھایا ،آصف زرداری نے کہا دنیا کی سیاسی تاریخ گواہی دے رہی ہے کہ قائد عوام نے سیاست
کے انداز تبدیل کیئے اور عوام کی حکمرانی قائم کی ۔ آصف علی زرداری نے کہا قائد عوام ذوالفقار علی بھٹو شہید نے تختہ دار پر چڑھ کر دنیا کو بتادیا کہ عوام کا لیڈر موت کو بھی شان سے قبول کرتا ہے
مگر اصولوں پر سمجھوتہ نہیں کرتا ، آصف زرداری نے کہا کہ آج کے
ہم اپنے اس عہد کی تجدید کرتے ہیں کہ ملک اور آئین کی حفاظت کرتے رہیں گے ۔ آصف علی زرداری نے کہا کہ پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کی حکومت نے 18 ویں آئینی ترمیم کے ذریعے صوبوں کو خود مختاری دیکر
شہید ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو کے وعدے کی تکمیل کی ، کچھ عناصر 18 ویں آئینی ترمیم کے خلاف سازشیں کر رہے ہم ان سازشوں کو ناکام بنائیں گے ،
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24573/
Friday, April 2, 2021
Pakistan’s sweet deal with India could’ve helped consumers. But domestic politics came in way
Pakistan deferring sugar and cotton imports from India should be seen as parking the car by the side of the road rather than a full U-turn.
The test flight of a trade kite lasted a mere day before jingoism pulled it down. The common refrain has been that enhancing trade between India and Pakistan will help handle the more difficult challenges that bedevil relations, but this time, ironically, trade followed the more contentious issues. Pakistan announcing the import of sugar and cotton — its two most important cash crops and India’s most politically influential crops — following a two-year gap came after the Line of Control ceasefire.
The late February LoC ceasefire came out of the blue, and was obviously the result of some sophisticated back-channel communication and diplomacy between India and Pakistan. Not to mention the recent letters exchanged between PM Imran Khan and PM Narendra Modi that exuded uncharacteristically warm language.
The positive announcement of sugar and cotton imports could have paved the way for further enhancement of India-Pakistan trade relations. Given that the initial ice-breaking covers possibly the most politically important crops in both countries, any success in handling the fallout is likely to help bring in other items into the trade basket. But India-Pakistan relations are always fraught with many imponderables, since they constitute essentially domestic rather than foreign policy issues. Not surprisingly, the Pakistan cabinet has now decided to defer the decision on importing from India less than 24 hours after the ECC had recommended easing of trade. What it was easing was, in fact, the plight of the Pakistani consumer, but that is, of course, of lesser importance than the atmospherics of holding India responsible for all ills. Consumption is slated to go up during the month of Ramadan, but with high prices, the burden on the consumer isn’t about to get lighter. The deferment should be taken more as parking the car by the side of the road rather than a full U-turn. The India-Pakistan forward motion of the recent past has, of course, slowed. Why sugar and cotton matter Pakistan’s newly appointed finance minister, Hammad Azhar, began his tenure with a politically significant proclamation of importing sugar and cotton yarn from India.
Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Council (ECC), as part of a slew of announcements, recommended the import of these two vital crops from India. Rising retail prices of sugar and shortfall in the cotton crop were the stated reasons for allowing the import from India. The initial announcement to reopen trade in ‘influential’ crops followed a series of bilateral announcements that have eased tensions between the two endlessly squabbling neighbours.Pakistan would have imported 500,000 tonnes of white sugar from India to ease the extraordinarily high retail prices in the market. Consumers have been paying upwards of Pakistani Rs 110 for a kilo of sugar, a sharp jump from 2019-20 when it averaged a little less than Pakistani Rs 80. And with an annual average per capita consumption of about 25 kgs, Pakistan was staring at a sugar crisis. The import of cotton yarn was slated to begin at the end of June, by when the stocks of the previous crop would pretty much have been consumed. And were likely to last until the new crop is available by end of the kharif season. While the import of sugar would have somewhat eased the situation for the consumer, the stated purpose of buying cotton from India was to help the small and medium exporters handle the shortfall in Pakistan’s cotton crop. Indian cotton mill owners, who have stocks of cotton yarn, would have expected a windfall as their six-month-old investment was likely to pay dividends from the end of June when the Pakistan import window opens. Textile exports are critical to Pakistan’s economy, so, coincidentally, trade in cotton can benefit merchants of both countries. The fasting month of Ramadan begins in a matter of weeks, and with food inflation being an issue of deep concern, a positive move on critical consumer items would make eminent sense, economically and politically. A two-front situation for both Before the sugar and cotton imports were green-lighted, for a short while, Pakistan PM Imran Khan and his Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa had spoken positively about turning a new leaf in relations between the two countries. Gen. Bajwa, as the key player in Pakistan, especially when it comes to relations with India, in the recent Islamabad Security Dialogue declared: “A nation at peace and a region in harmony are thus essential prerequisites for attainment of national security in the true spirit…I also firmly believe that no single nation in isolation, can perceive and further its quest for security…And finally, it is time that we in South Asia create synergy through connectivity, peaceful co-existence and resource sharing to fight hunger, illiteracy and disease instead of fighting each other.” It is easy to dismiss the statement from Gen. Bajwa with a yawn and ‘heard it all before’ attitude. But that would not just belittle him, but also Indian interests. Since China began its Ladakh incursions in April 2020, India has looked at the very real spectre of a two-front situation involving neighbours to the east and west. Since the 1960s, it has haunted Indian security planners but 2020 was the closest it ever came to a two-front conflict. A very live, and bloody, daily exchange on the LoC coupled with China’s brutish behaviour in Ladakh was evidence if it was ever needed. So, getting out of a two-front situation is always in India’s interests, and coupled with a quiet LoC, it sets the stage for a normalised relationship with Pakistan. Islamabad/Rawalpindi too cannot accept its own two-front situation, with both India and Afghanistan sniping at it. Since there is no knowing which way Kabul will blow with its peace process, a sugary deal with India is always a good beginning to a hot summer.
https://theprint.in/opinion/pakistans-sweet-deal-with-india-couldve-helped-consumers-but-domestic-politics-came-in-way/632679/
Balochistan: Pakistani forces abduct five Baloch youth from Surab
The Pakistan forces have abducted five Baloch youth including two nephews of the Vice-Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons from Surab region of Balochistan on Wednesday.
According to details, Pakistan FC and plain-clothed intelligence officials conducted an offensive raid in the main Bazaar of Surab and abducted the five youth from a shop.
The abductees include two nephews of Mama Qadir (Abdul Qadir Baloch) who is currently the Vice-Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing persons.
The victims have been named Muhammad Asif Reiki and Allah Din Reiki son of Shabbir Ahmed Reiki, Mohammad Irfan son of Mohammad Hakeem Reiki, Zulqarnain son of Haji Farid Reiki resident of Dumb Sorab. The identity of the fifth youth could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Pakistani forces have beaten up the youth on spot, covered their heads, dragged them to their vehicles and took them away.
The whereabouts of all five youth remained unknown at the time of filing this news report. The relatives of the abducted Baloch youths have lodged an FIR with the local police regarding their enforced disappearance.
It may be recalled that Mama Qadir’s son Shaheed Jalil Reiki was forcibly disappeared by the Pakistani from Quetta Sariab Road on February 13, 2009. Mr Reiki’s dead body was found along with the dead body of Mohammad Younis Baloch in the November of 2011 Mand area of district Kech Balochistan.
The bodies of both men bore marks of gruesome torture and bullets wounded and it’s believed that they were torture in custody and executed in cold blood.
https://balochwarna.com/2021/04/02/balochistan-pakistani-forces-abduct-five-baloch-youth-from-surab/
Covid 19: Pakistan among new countries added to England's travel ban list
Travel bans are intended to reduce the risk from new coronavirus variants like the South Africa strain, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. They are based on advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre. Data has shown that most cases of the South Africa coronavirus variant found in the UK so far have been linked to international travel, with very few having come from Europe, said the DfT.
Which countries are on the red list?
Nearly 40 countries are currently on the UK government's red list of countries from which travel is banned:
- Middle East: Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Africa: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
- Asia: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines
- South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela
No direct flight bans from the four countries will be put in place, but passengers are advised to check their travel plans before departing for England.
Simon Calder, travel editor at The Independent, said the government has "plenty of evidence that there's a risk from new variants of concern coming in from these countries" and is alarmed about numbers.
But he said the changes could cause a "great deal of problems" for many in the UK whose family live in the four affected countries as they now have less than a week to get home if they are overseas.
He said "bookings are soaring" ahead of next Friday.
Under the current rules, foreign travel from the UK is banned apart from for exceptional reasons.
The earliest date people from England will be able to travel abroad for a holiday is 17 May, when the government hopes to move to step three of its lockdown exit plan.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56614950#:~:text=Travel%20from%20the%20Philippines%2C%20Pakistan,of%20new%20Covid%2D19%20variants.
اتحادیوں نے لاڑکانہ میں اسٹیبلشمنٹ سے مل کر پی پی کی مخالفت کی، بلاول بھٹو زرداری
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ اس کے باوجود پیپلز پارٹی آزادی مارچ کا ساتھ دیتی ہے اور جے یو آئی کو پی ڈی ایم کا سربراہ مانتی ہے۔
پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ وہ ن لیگ جے یو آئی ف اور پی ڈی ایم کو تجویز دیں گے کہ آرام سے سوچ سمجھ کر فیصلے کريں۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ مریم شریف صاحبہ کے ساتھ ہمارے اچھے تعلقات رہے ہیں، ہم نہیں چاہتے کہ سوالات کی وجہ سے کوئی ایشو پیدا ہو۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے براڈشیٹ کمیشن کی رپورٹ بھی مسترد کردی۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ تیس سال سے سوئس کیسز کا سنتے آرہے ہیں، آخر کتنی بار یہ لوگ ایک کیس کو ہارنا چاہتے ہیں، آصف زرداری سوئس کیس میں بری ہوچکے ہیں۔
بلاول بھٹو نے یہ بھی کہا کہ عمران خان کوئی ذمہ داری لینے کو تیار نہیں، جب کوئی مسئلہ ہوتا ہے وہ کسی نہ کسی کو قربانی کا بکرا بنادیتے ہیں۔
پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ دنیا کے قانون کے مطابق نیب پکڑا گیا ہے، نیب کو سزا ملی ہے 60 ملین ڈالر کا براڈ شیٹ کیس میں نقصان ہوا، حساب کون دے گا۔
https://jang.com.pk/news/906392
Thursday, April 1, 2021
US envoy Kerry to skip Pakistan in 'climate crisis' trip to India, Bangladesh
"First Pakistan was left off the invitation list for the White House's upcoming global climate summit. Now US climate czar John Kerry is headed to India and Bangladesh for consultations. Ouch."
The Foreign Office had last week hinted that Pakistan was not invited to the White House summit because it was "one of the lowest emitters – with less than one percent of the global emissions".
Responding to a question on the alleged snub by the US, the FO spokesman had said:
“Looking forward to meaningful discussions with friends in the Emirates, India, and Bangladesh on how to tackle the climate crisis,” Kerry tweeted.
India says it will not only stick to the Paris accord to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35 per cent from its 2005 levels by 2030 but will likely exceed those goals as it ramps up use of renewable energy.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1615823/us-envoy-kerry-to-skip-pakistan-in-climate-crisis-trip-to-india-bangladesh
The PM is trying to sit between two stools - At stake, the government’s credibility
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/04/01/the-pm-is-trying-to-sit-between-two-stools/
Biden Must Press Pakistan to End Persecution of Religious Minorities
By Qasim Rashid
Last year the U.S. State Department labeled Pakistan a country of particular concern over its increasing persecution of religious minorities.
This label is the State Department’s strongest condemnation under the International Religious Freedom Act, and normally mandates sanctions for the designated country. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo intervened, however, with a presidential waiver to avoid such punishment.
The alliance between the two nations has sent $70 billion in economic and military aid to Pakistan since Pakistan’s founding. If not for the sake of sheer justice, then at least for the sake of protecting American interests, President Joe Biden must hold U.S. ally Pakistan accountable to repeal its discriminatory anti-Ahmadi legislation and actions. While the legislation particularly targets Ahmadi Muslims, it tragically also enables societal discrimination and violence against Pakistan’s Christian, Sikh, Hindu, and Shia communities.
Most recently, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has intensified the government’s decades-long violent persecution of religious minorities — particularly that of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. For the first time, the PTA has filed a lawsuit against two American citizens who belong to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, seeking to shut down a U.S. based website, trueislam.com. The PTA argues that because Ahmadis built the U.S.-based website, it violates Pakistan’s anti-Ahmadi laws. The PTA applied the same convoluted logic to order Google to remove any app built by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from the tech giant’s Play store.
Google has, sadly, capitulated to the draconian demands. Sam Brownback, the former U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, has compared Pakistan’s persecution of Ahmadi Muslims to the Chinese dictatorship, exclaiming, “[This is] Pakistan following in the China model.”
A Brief History of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was founded in 1889 by a man named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the awaited Messiah to reform Muslims, peacefully revive Islam, and reject all forms of religious violence. Despite suffering decades of violent religious persecution, it is well documented that Ahmadi Muslims have maintained their position against all forms of religious violence. Pakistan’s persecution of Ahmadis escalated in 1974, when, in an unprecedented vote, the General Assembly amended the country’s Constitution to formally declare the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community ‘outside the fold of Islam.’
Imagine, for a moment, if the United States passed a constitutional amendment declaring Catholics outside the fold of Christianity? Notwithstanding this absurd amendment, in 1984 Pakistan added Ordinance XX to its penal code, criminalizing any Ahmadi Muslim who proclaims to be a Muslim with arrest and fine. By 1986, Pakistan added Section 295-C, mandating up to and including the death penalty for Ahmadi Muslims.
These draconian laws have predictably left Ahmadi Muslims to languish in apartheid conditions. All books, literature, events, speech, and websites belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan are criminalized. Pakistan denies Ahmadis free and fair voting and forces Ahmadi Muslims to declare their faith on their passports as a means to prevent them from performing the Hajj pilgrimage. To perform Hajj, a Pakistani citizen must have “Muslim” on their passport for religious affiliation. To obtain a passport with “Muslim” as the religious affiliation, Pakistan requires applicants to complete a form declaring Ahmadi Muslims as “non-Muslim.” Since Ahmadis refuse to declare themselves non-Muslim, they are identified as “Ahmadis,” and thus denied the ability to perform Hajj. In other words, Pakistan’s government has created special ID cards to single out Ahmadis.
These apartheid conditions have led to systemic persecution of Ahmadi Muslims, including mass murder, grave desecration, expulsion of school children for their faith, and a complete lockdown of all religious practice. Pakistan has faced repeated condemnation from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for its incessant violation of religious freedom, yet the discriminatory laws remain.
The U.S. Must Demand Justice for Ahmadi Muslims
When President Biden repealed the ‘Muslim Ban’ his first day in office, he condemned the ban as “contravening our values, undermin[ing] our national security, jeopardiz[ing] our global network of alliances and partnerships and a moral blight that has dulled the power of our example the world over.” Indeed, we cannot ignore the connection between persecution of religious minorities and collapse of national and economic security. Look no further than the last four years in the United States. The United States has seen historic highs in hate crimes targeting American Muslims, Jews, and Black, Indigenous, and persons of color (BIPOC) individuals — all of which has undermined American national security.
Pakistan’s government has traversed this dangerous road for several decades, suffocating its own national security, and becoming “a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups,” according to the State Department. Pakistan’s economy also suffers as a consequence. For example, in the 1960s—prior to enacting discriminatory legislation—Pakistan’s economy grew at a rate of 6% per year, double neighboring India’s growth. By the 1990s, as Pakistan was in full swing of enforcing discriminatory legislation and implicitly legitimizing extremist groups, India surpassed Pakistan’s growth, and has never looked back. Major U.S.-based companies have already threatened to leave Pakistan due to its censorship laws.
The persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan is increasing, with yet another innocent Ahmadi gunned down last month in a spate of targeted murders. The U.S.-Pakistan alliance should continue. However, it should not be indiscriminate. If we do not emphatically demand justice of Pakistan’s government to its own citizens, we give a greenlight to not only continue that violent persecution, but also escalate in targeting American citizens. Advancing the U.S.-Pakistan alliance on the principles of justice and protecting religious minorities is imperative for a just, prosperous, and secure future.
https://www.justsecurity.org/75383/biden-must-press-pakistan-to-end-persecution-of-religious-minorities/
No Place For Minorities In ‘Naya’ Pakistan – OpEd
Two years ago, while speaking on the occasion to mark 100 days of his government being in office, Prime Minister Imran Khan made many a boast and promises. Besides waxing eloquent on turning Pakistan into a “model Islamic welfare state,” he also hit out at his Indian counterpart by saying, “We will show the Modi government how to treat minorities.” Unfortunately, despite this bold assurance, instances of atrocities against minorities in Pakistan have increased manyfold under Khan’s watch.
US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Samuel Brownback has made things embarrassing for Khan by making it clear that as far as Pakistan was concerned, “a lot of their actions [against religious freedom] are done by the government.” So, it’s not at all surprising that Washington has designated Pakistan a ‘country of serious concern’ for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” To make matters even more humiliating, Khan’s “how to treat minorities” barb directed at Modi boomeranged when US State Department summarily rejected US Commission for International Religious Freedom’s recommendation to designate India a ‘country of serious concern’.
Khan wants everyone to believe that his “Naya [new] Pakistan is Quaid’s [Jinnah’s] Pakistan” in which “minorities are treated as equal citizens, unlike what is happening in India” but this claim has hardly any takers. Au contraire, in its ‘World Report 2020’, Human Right Watch [HRW] has noted that along with women and transgender people, religious minorities in Pakistan “continued to face violence, discrimination, and persecution, with authorities often failing to provide adequate protection or hold perpetrators accountable.” Even Human Right Commission of Pakistan [HRCP] has been extremely critical about the PTI led government’s abysmal failure in protecting minorities, which it rightly feels are “doubly vulnerable”.
Islamabad dismisses widespread international criticism for failing to institute adequate safeguards to prevent religious persecution of its minorities by terming it an ‘opinion based on disinformation’. However, in its annual ‘State of Human Rights in 2019’ report [released in 2020], HRCP has noted that “Religious minorities remained unable to enjoy the freedom of religion or belief guaranteed to them under the constitution” adding that “Both the Hindu and Christian communities in Sindh and Punjab continued to report cases of forced conversion.” It also confirms that:
- “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.”
- “For the Ahmadiyya community in Punjab, this [religious persecution] included the desecration of several sites of worship.”
Contrary to Khan’s promise to ensure “that our minorities are treated as equal citizens,” the year 2020 saw an alarming swell in incidents of persecution of minority communities-the most common being the repugnant practice of Hindu, Christian and Sikh girls [some as young as 12 to 13 years] being abducted and after being converted, being forced into marriage. Even Pakistani NGOs estimate that about 1,000 such incidents occur every year and this is why no one takes Khan’s assurance of minorities in Pakistan being “treated as equal citizens” seriously.
Another issue of concern is brazen desecration of holy sites of worship sites belonging to minority communities. On Jan 03, 2020, a mob attempted to vandalise the historic Nankana Sahib Gurdwara and the entire incident was captured on video. However, Pakistan’s Foreign Office [FO] played down this incident by calling it a “scuffle” between two Muslim groups over a “minor incident” at a tea stall. In reference to New Delhi’s complaint against desecration of this holy Sikh shrine, the FO stated that “Attempts to paint this incident as a communal issue are patently motivated.”Whereas one would have really loved to believe that this incident had no communal angle, but following facts belie the FO’s assertion:
- If the incident was merely a minor scuffle between two Muslim groups, then how come the Gurudwara became the target of their ire?
- In the video, a mob can be heard cheering lustily as a speaker tells them that “We will ensure that there is not a single Sikh left in Nankana. And the name of this place will soon be changed from Nankana to Ghulam-e-Mustafa”.So, if this incident was just a row between two Muslim groups, then what explains the rabid anti-Sikh tirade of the speaker and its frenzied endorsement by the crowd?
- Lastly, if it was genuinely a minor and inconsequential incident as the FO claims, then why did Khan term this incident as “condemnable’ and take all the trouble of downplaying its distinctly communal character by saying that there’s a “major difference between the condemnable Nankana incident and the ongoing attacks across India on Muslims and other minorities”?
Besides Nankana Sahib Gurudwara, places of worship belonging to other minority communities in Pakistan were also subjected to vandalism last year. On May 9, 2020, a mob damaged the main gate and boundary wall of a church in Hakeempura area of Shekhupura district in Pakistan’s Punjab district and desecrated the Church’s Holy Cross. Once again, the authorities tried to brush this patently communal act under the carpet by terming it a property related dispute. In February, three Pakistani Christians who were constructing a church in Punjab’s Sahiwal district were assaulted and just two months later, a Pastor, his wife and son were attacked for building a wall on their own land. Once again, these incidents of intimidation of minority community members were passed off as instances of personal rivalry!
2020 also saw multiple incidents of Hindu religious shrines being either destroyed or desecrated. On Jan 26, idols of deities in Mata Deval Bhittani temple in Tharkarkar district of Pakistan’s Sindh province were desecrated and burnt holy texts kept inside. The police claimed that the perpetrators were minors and had broken into the temple just to steal money. What the police didn’t explain is that if their motive was only robbery, then why did the juveniles waste their time and energy in defacing idols and burning holy books?
On October 10, idols of deities inside Shri Ramdev Temple in Kario Ghanwar area of Badin district, Sindh, were destroyed, and the police once again ruled out communal angle by saying that the culprit was of unsound mind and a drug addict! Just two weeks later, a mob vandalised Nagarparkar Temple in Sindh province, damaging the idol of Goddess Durga during the holy ‘Navratri’ period. No one has been arrested. On November 2, a huge mob descended on Sheetal Temple in Karachi’s Lee Market area and destroyed idols of deities and other holy relics. This time the police sought to justify this highly communal act by terming it public reaction to blasphemous statements made by a Hindu boy.
On December 27, a mob not only vandalised and set ablaze a 100-year-old shrine housing samadhi [memorial] of a revered Hindu saint in the Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Dawn News TV quoted an eyewitness saying that the incident of desecration and arson occurred after “More than a thousand people led by some local elders of a religious party held a protest and demanded the removal of the Hindu place.” Two developments make official apathy [or tacit complicity?] obvious. One, according to news reports, “The locals also revealed that residents of the nearby villages had announced a protest demonstration with demands of removal of the Hindu shrine, adding that the police totally ignored it” and two, it was Chief Justice of Pakistan and not Prime Minister Khan who was first to take official cognisance of this sacrilegious incident.
Once again, the police tried to obfuscate reality. The District Police Officer [DPO] refused to acknowledge that the shrine had been vandalised and instead told media that a mob “attacked and demolished the under-construction building [within temple premises].” But Federal Minister for Human Rights Ms Shireen Mazari graciously acknowledged reality by tweeting- “Strongly condemn the burning of a Hindu temple by a mob in Karak, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa” – which is clearly visible in videos of this incident.
But desecration of religious shrines and abduction of girls followed by their forced conversion and marriages aren’t the only problem minorities face in Khan’s ‘Naya’ Pakistan. Even their settlements are being illegally demolished, often with official patronage. In May, a HRCP tweet mentioned that “HRCP is gravely concerned at reports that houses belonging to the Hindu and Christian communities of Yazman in Bahawalpur have been demolished, allegedly by local authorities with political influence.” It also stated that “evictions, the demolition of people’s houses, and land grabbing, esp. [especially] when such communities are doubly vulnerable, are highly condemnable.”
But if the administration is to be believed, then all’s well in Pakistan as far as minorities are concerned. Girls from minority communities aren’t being abducted but are of their own accord, eloping with their beaus [who at times are almost double their age]. Vandalism of holy shrines belonging to minorities isn’t due to the prevailing communal frenzy but the handiwork of petty thieves, drug addicts, mentally deranged persons, or consequences of some land dispute and occasionally, ‘justified’ collective punishment of a minority community for some alleged blasphemous utterance by one of its members. Coupled with this, since Khan keeps harping on how “minorities are treated as equal citizens,” in his “Naya Pakistan,” why worry or lose sleep over this issue?
https://www.eurasiareview.com/01042021-no-place-for-minorities-in-naya-pakistan-oped/