Wednesday, July 28, 2021
What you need to know about the highly contagious delta variant
The highly transmissible coronavirus variant called delta is now the dominant strain in the United States, and continues to gain steam. Modeling shows the variant now accounts for 83.2 percent of all new infections in this country, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House news briefing Thursday that delta is “more aggressive and much more transmissible” than previous strains and is “one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career.” “We are yet at another pivotal moment in this pandemic, with cases rising again and some hospitals reaching their capacity in some areas. We need to come together as one nation, unified in our resolve to protect the health of ourselves, our children, our community, our country and our future with the tools we have available,” she said. The good news, Walensky has said, is that all three coronavirus vaccines authorized in the United States offer strong protection against severe disease and death from covid-19. Preliminary data from several states over the past several months suggests that 99.5 percent of covid-19-related deaths occurred among unvaccinated people, she said. Here are answers to commonly asked questions about the delta variant and how to protect yourself. What is the delta variant?
The variant first identified in India last year is now dominant in the United States.
The delta variant, also known as B.1.617, was first detected last year in India, where it has been ravaging the nation and has since spread to dozens of other countries, upending plans for a return to normalcy.
Delta has several lineages with slightly different sets of mutations. One of those — B.1.617.2 — is also now the dominant coronavirus variant in the United Kingdom, where it accounts for the vast majority of all covid-19 cases in that nation.
Health experts describe delta as the most “fit” variant of the coronavirus. That means it’s likely to outcompete other variants and make more people sick from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, said Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease expert at the University of California at San Francisco. “It’s the one that is most likely to latch onto cells in a host, and it attacks that host better than the other variants, because it can replicate itself better.”Why is the delta variant a concern? Early research suggests the delta variant is about 50 percent more contagious than the alpha variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom and became the predominant variant in the United States during the spring. Alpha was already about 50 percent more transmissible than the original variant of the coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. Although there is compelling evidence that delta is more transmissible, there is limited data on whether it is more likely to result in severe illness.
Public Health England (PHE) found that the variant may be associated with a higher risk of hospitalization, and some early research from Scotland suggests that the risk of hospitalization with covid-19 from the delta variant is about twice the risk from the alpha variant — with unvaccinated people at the greatest risk.But health experts caution that there is not yet conclusive evidence that delta causes more severe disease. Hospitals serving areas where it is surging have reported admitting more young and middle-aged covid-19 patients, but that may be because they are less likely to be vaccinated. How effective are the vaccines against the variant? Real-world data suggests that all three vaccines authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration offer strong protection against severe disease and death from the delta variant, although they appear to offer less robust protection against minor to moderate infections.
Such data has come not only from the United States but also from other countries. “I think this is a really important point, because that’s our primary goal with our vaccination effort: to prevent severe disease, to prevent hospitalization, to prevent deaths,” said William Moss, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In the case of the two-dose messenger RNA vaccines, both shots are needed to mount a strong response against the delta variant. A study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 36 percent effective against symptomatic disease caused by the delta variant after the first shot of the two-shot regimen, but 88 percent effective after the second shot. This confirms earlier findings from PHE.In terms of preventing hospitalizations from delta, a separate PHE paper suggested that the Pfizer vaccine was 94 percent effective after the first shot and 96 percent effective after the second.
Health experts said that, because the Moderna vaccine uses the same technology as the one from Pfizer, they extrapolate that it offers similar protection.
As for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, one journal preprint showed that it had a diminished immune response to the delta variant in laboratory tests. However, other studies including one recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that it can provide robust protection for months after vaccination. Some researchers believe the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may end up showing similar results to the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was included in the PHE studies and found to be 60 percent effective against symptomatic disease and 92 percent effective against hospitalization after both doses. The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved for use in the United States.“The good news is that our vaccinations are highly effective,” President Biden has said. “Fully vaccinated Americans have a high degree of protection, including against this delta variant.” The president said the rapid spread of a more easily transmissible and potentially more dangerous variant “should cause everybody to think twice.” “And it should cause reconsideration, especially in young people who may have thought that they didn’t have to be vaccinated, didn’t have to worry about it, didn’t have to do anything about it up to now,” he added. How will the delta variant affect the United States? With more than 160 million Americans now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the delta variant is not expected to cause massive outbreaks across the United States. Instead, health experts anticipate that it will cause surges in communities where vaccination rates are lower, posing the most serious risk to those who are older, sicker and unvaccinated.
How will the delta variant affect the United States?
With more than 160 million Americans now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the delta variant is not expected to cause massive outbreaks across the United States. Instead, health experts anticipate that it will cause surges in communities where vaccination rates are lower, posing the most serious risk to those who are older, sicker and unvaccinated.
“We’re going to have to face it throughout the United States,” said Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine and executive vice president at Scripps Research.
Topol said the states that are most vulnerable are the ones that have had fewer coronavirus cases and lower vaccination rates, meaning they do not have as much natural and vaccine-induced immunity. States with higher vaccination rates, such as Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, have “a delta wall,” he said.
Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, has said he is “very concerned” about the variant, because it could lead to “two Americas”: one largely protected because of high vaccination rates, the other experiencing surges because of low vaccination rates.
“When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions — be that states, cities or counties — you’re going to see these individual types of blips. It’s almost like it’s going to be two Americas,” he said.
Do symptoms from delta infections differ from infections from other variants of the coronavirus?
There is little research on this, but some people have reported symptoms such as a headache, sore throat and runny nose, without the hallmark covid-19 signs, such as a loss of taste and smell.
Will booster shots be needed?
That is an open question. Federal health officials are not recommending them at this time but at least one of the vaccine makers said it plans to seek approval for a booster shot.
Data recently released earlier this month by Israel’s Health Ministry showed waning vaccine efficacy against the coronavirus in that highly vaccinated country as the delta variant became more widespread. The data showed that vaccinated people retained protection against severe disease and hospitalization, but had markedly lower protection against infection and symptomatic illness.
Citing that data, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech released a statement July 8 saying they would seek federal regulatory approval for a booster shot following studies that found such a shot caused disease-blocking antibodies to increase five to 10 times higher than after the two-shot regimen. “We continue to believe that it is likely, based on the totality of the data we have to date, that a third dose may be needed within six to 12 months after full vaccination,” the statement said.But hours later, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a rebuke, saying “Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time.”The HHS statement said “a science-based, rigorous process” headed by the CDC, FDA and the National Institutes of Health would determine when or whether boosters were necessary. What else can people do to protect themselves?
Health experts say that people who are not yet vaccinated should continue to wear masks and make plans to get vaccinated as soon as they can.
While the CDC no longer recommends masking for those who are fully vaccinated, because the vaccines provide a high degree of protection, Fauci said individuals may make their own assessments of risk based on their age, health status and circumstances.
Those living in areas where vaccination rates are low and delta cases are high may want to continue covering their faces, particularly in high-risk settings, such as indoor gatherings, areas with large crowds or places such as senior living facilities, where the consequences of transmission could be grave. Los Angeles County announced July 15 that it was reinstituted an indoor mask mandate for everyone.
The World Health Organization is still urging people around the world to mask up. Mariângela Simão, the WHO’s assistant director general for access to medicines and health products, recently told reporters: “People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves.”
Gandhi said that recommendation makes sense coming from the WHO, which is dealing with very mixed populations across the globe, many with high amounts of circulating virus, low vaccination rates and less effective vaccines. Only about 13 percent of the world’s population has been fully vaccinated against the virus.
“The likelihood of getting a breakthrough infection with any variant is not just dependent on your vaccination status but the amount of virus you’re seeing circulating in your community,” she said. “It’s why health-care workers in India, even though they were fully vaccinated, still had breakthrough infections, because they were seeing so much virus.”
Health experts also urge vaccinated people to get tested for the coronavirus if they experience any symptoms related to the illness, to rule out potential breakthrough infections and to seek treatment if they test positive.
What about people who are immunocompromised?
Vaccination is still the top recommendation to protect against the virus, including the delta variant, although not all immunocompromised people may mount a robust response. But others will build immunity from the shots, and there appears to be no harm from getting immunized, said William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Beyond that, individuals with compromised immune responses should practice social distancing, wear masks and avoid crowds, particularly indoors. “Those things continue to pertain to these highly susceptible people,” he said.
Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases and preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, said it’s also important for immunocompromised people to get tested if they experience symptoms, especially as the new influenza season rolls around, so they can get treated appropriately — either for flu or covid-19. In some cases, for example, antiviral medications may be used to treat influenza and monoclonal antibodies may be used to treat covid-19, which can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death when used early in the course of the disease.
What about the risk to children, and how can parents protect them?
There is no indication the delta variant is more virulent if it infects children, said Paul A. Offit, a pediatrician and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
However, because delta is more contagious than earlier variants, children are at somewhat greater risk of infection. Those who are 12 and older are eligible for vaccines, and federal health officials recommend they be immunized for greater protection.
Offit suggests parents make sure that unvaccinated children ages 2 or older, if not eligible for the vaccines, wear masks if they are in public spaces indoors, in accord with CDC guidance.
The CDC also recommends that parents make sure their unvaccinated children wash their hands often with soap and water, avoid close contact with those who are coughing, sneezing or complaining of feeling unwell, and limit interactions with people who are at high risk of developing severe disease.
The bottom line is that people need to take measures to protect themselves and their loved ones against the delta variant.
“If you haven’t had covid, you’re not vaccinated and you’re not wearing a mask, you’re basically asking for delta trouble. It’ll find you. It’s the most efficient form of the virus for finding hosts, by far. If you’re not vaccinated, a mask is important right now,” Topol said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/07/delta-variant-covid/
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir elections 'rigged': Huge protests against Pakistan Army in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir
Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is set to form government in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Opposition has alleged 'rigging' in PoK Legislative Assembly elections.
Amid reports of poll-rigging in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections, huge demonstrations were held in PoK against the Pakistani Army.
Thousands of people took to the streets against Pakistan Army as several reports emerged that Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) interfered in the election process of PoK which as conducted on July 25.PTI won 25 seats, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) 11 and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) bagged 6, reports suggested. The PoK assembly has a total of 53 members, however, only 45 are directly elected.
The opposition parties are up in arms with the Imran Khan government and have termed the election process in PoK a farce.
"The assembly elections were nothing but a farce exercise to hoodwink the people," PoK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider said.
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz has refused to accept the PoK assembly election results. PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also alleged that the polls were rigged and rejected the results of the elections.
India had slammed Pakistan for conducting elections in Gilgit-Baltistan and said any action to 'alter the status of the militarily occupied region has no legal basis'.
“We have seen reports regarding announcement of elections to the so-called "Gilgit-Baltistan” Legislative Assembly to be held on November 15, 2020. The Government of India has conveyed its strong protest to the Government of Pakistan and reiterated that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of so-called Gilgit and Baltistan are an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947. The Government of Pakistan has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it,” the MEA statement had said.
https://www.timesnownews.com/international/article/pakistan-occupied-kashmir-elections-rigged-huge-protests-against-pakistan-army-in-pok/790733
Gunman in Pakistan Fires on Car Carrying Chinese Engineers
By Saeed Shah and Waqar Gillani
The attack is the latest on China’s citizens in the country, which is a close ally of Beijing.
A gunman opened fire on a car carrying two engineers in the southern port city of Karachi, the latest attack on Chinese nationals in close ally Pakistan. One of the engineers was hit four times, mostly in the arm, police said, but was in stable condition. The other engineer and a Pakistani driver were uninjured in the attack.Chinese nationals have been the victims of multiple recent attacks in Pakistan. Earlier this month, a bombing killed nine Chinese construction workers in a bus being taken to the site of a dam being built in northern Pakistan. That was the deadliest attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan in recent years.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing Wednesday that China was closely monitoring the incident, which it described as an isolated event, but said that it was still under investigation. “We have full confidence in Pakistan’s ability to protect Chinese citizens and property in Pakistan,” he said. The engineers targeted Wednesday had come to Pakistan earlier this month to fit Chinese equipment at a Pakistani-owned plastic manufacturer in Karachi. They were being taken to work in the morning, by a driver and car provided by the factory, when a motorcycle pulled up alongside, police said. One of the people on the motorcycle opened fire at the back of the car. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting. “This shooting will cause problems with the Chinese who will be livid at another incident so soon after the other attack,” said Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, located in Singapore. “Pakistan may have to now revisit security for all Chinese in Pakistan, which is a big job.” Chinese interests in Pakistan have been targeted mostly by separatists from the western province of Balochistan, who accuse Beijing of exploiting the resources of their region. It remains unclear whether the other main set of insurgents in Pakistan, jihadists such as the Pakistani Taliban, are also going after the Chinese targets. According to Islamabad, both Baloch separatists and Pakistani Taliban have bases across the border in Afghanistan, which makes their presence there also a source of worry for Beijing. China was so concerned after the attack on the workers on the dam this month that it dispatched its own investigators to Pakistan, which was followed by a visit of Pakistan’s foreign minister and intelligence chief to Beijing. No group claimed responsibility for the explosion. In April, there was a bombing in the parking lot of a hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying in the Western city of Quetta. He was unhurt, and it is unclear whether the ambassador was the target. The group claiming responsibility, the Pakistani Taliban, said they had targeted the security guards outside the hotel. Targets of other attacks in recent years include the Chinese consulate in Karachi, the partly Chinese-owned stock exchange in Karachi and a hotel in the Chinese-run port of Gwadar.China and Pakistan are close allies. Beijing is working on a multibillion-dollar building spree in Pakistan, a flagship for its global Belt and Road Initiative to spread Chinese influence through infrastructure projects. Thousands of Pakistani army, paramilitary personnel and police are deployed to guard the construction sites and Chinese citizens involved in the projects. There are also Chinese construction projects and commercial activities that are separate from the Belt and Road, which often have much thinner security provided. The Chinese workers targeted in the bombing earlier this month and in the Wednesday shooting weren’t working on Belt and Road projects. The Chinese engineers targeted in the shooting Wednesday hadn’t been provided with any security, and police said they were previously unaware of their presence in the city.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/gunman-in-pakistan-fires-on-car-carrying-chinese-engineers-11627477869
عمران خان سے کشمیر میں پی پی پی کی جیت ہضم نہیں ہوئی اور انہوں نے امورِ کشمیر میں غیرآئینی مداخلت کرکے جیالے امیدوار سے سیاسی انتقام لینا شروع کردیا، چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری
پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے آزاد کشمیر میں پی پی پی رہنما چوہدری یاسین اور ان کے خاندان کو سیاسی انتقام کا نشانہ بنائے جانے کی مذمت کرتے ہوئے کہا ہے کہ قاتلانہ حملہ چوہدری یاسین پر ہوا اور پولیس نے حملہ آوروں پر مقدمہ درج کرنے کے بجائے الٹا چوہدری یاسین کے خلاف ایف آئی آر درج کرلی گئی جبکہ کوٹلی سے ان کے نامزد امیدوار چوہدری یاسین نے اپنے خلاف ہوئے قاتلانہ حملے کی ایف آئی آر درج کرانے کی کوشش کی مگر پولیس نے درج نہیں کی،
میڈیا سیل بلاول ہاؤس سے جاری اپنے ایک بیان میں چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ اگر میرے کارکنوں کے خلاف سیاسی انتقام کا سلسلہ بند نہ ہوا تو وہ آزاد کشمیر میں خود احتجاج کی سربراہی کریں گے، ان کا کہنا تھا کہ عمران خان سے کشمیر میں پی پی پی کی جیت ہضم نہیں ہوئی اور انہوں نے امورِ کشمیر میں غیرآئینی مداخلت کرکے جیالے امیدوار سے سیاسی انتقام لینا شروع کردیا، انہوں نے یہ بھی کہا کہ عمران خان نے تحصیل چڑھوئی میں ہوئے دو افراد کے قتل کے افسوس ناک واقعے میں براہ راست جج بن کر پی پی پی امیدوار کو مجرم ٹہرادیا، اس موقع پر چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے سوال اٹھاتے ہوئے کہا کہ یہ کیسی مدینے کی ریاست ہے کہ عمران خان کے خلاف تقریر کرلو تو نیب نوٹس بھیج دیتا ہے، سیٹ جیت لو تو قتل کا مجرم بنادیا جاتا ہے،
پی پی پی سربراہ نے یہ بھی کہا کہ انصاف کا تقاضہ تو یہ تھا کہ دو افراد کے قتل کے افسوس ناک واقعے میں چوہدری یاسین کے مطالبے پر ہونے والی جوڈیشل انکوائری کے نتائج کا انتظار کیا جاتا، اس موقع پر انہوں نے اس خدشے کا بھی اظہار کیا کہ برطانیہ میں مقیم پاکستانی کمیونٹی میں عمران خان کے چوہدری یاسین کے خلاف سیاسی انتقام کی وجہ سے پیدا ہونے والی بے چینی کے اثرات دور رس ہوں گے، ان کا کہنا تھا کہ دو نشستوں سے کامیاب ہونے والے چوہدری یاسین سے عمران خان کا سیاسی انتقام چھوڑی جانے والی ایک نشست کو ہتھیانے کے لئے بھی ہے جبکہ عمران خان کی ایماء پر پی پی پی رہنما چوہدری یاسین کے گھر کے محاصرے سے لے کر چادر اور چار دیواری تک کا تقدس پامال کیا گیا۔
#Pakistan # PPP - What sort of Riasat e Madina is this where you are accused of murder if you win a seat? -Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25287/
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
As Infections Rise, C.D.C. Urges Some Vaccinated Americans to Wear Masks Again
By Apoorva Mandavilli
Revising a decision made just two months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that people vaccinated against the coronavirus should resume wearing masks in public indoor spaces in parts of the country where the virus is surging. C.D.C. officials also called for universal masking for teachers, staff, students and visitors in schools, regardless of vaccination status and community transmission of the virus. With additional precautions, schools nonetheless should return to in-person learning in the fall. The recommendations are another baleful twist in the course of America’s pandemic, a war-weary concession that the virus is outstripping vaccination efforts. The agency’s move follows rising case counts in states like Florida and Missouri, as well as growing reports of breakthrough infections of the more contagious Delta variant among people who are fully immunized. “The Delta variant is showing every day its willingness to outsmart us,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the C.D.C., said at a news briefing on Tuesday. The C.D.C. said Americans should resume wearing masks in areas where there are more than 50 new infections per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days, or more than 8 percent of tests are positive for infection over that period. Health officials should reassess these figures weekly and change local restrictions accordingly, the agency said. By those criteria, all residents of Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana, for example, should wear masks indoors. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. counties qualify, many concentrated in the South. The agency said that even vaccinated Americans in areas without surges might consider wearing a mask in public indoor settings if they or someone in their household has an impaired immune system or is at risk for severe disease, or if someone in the household is unvaccinated. That includes vaccinated parents of children under age 12, who are currently ineligible for the shots. C.D.C. officials were persuaded by new scientific evidence showing that even vaccinated people may become infected and may carry the virus in great amounts, perhaps even similar to those in unvaccinated people, Dr. Walensky acknowledged at the news briefing.
In communities with growing caseloads, vaccinated and unvaccinated people should return to wearing masks indoors in public areas, health officials said.
Data from several states and other countries show that the variant behaves differently from previous versions of the coronavirus, she added: “This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendation.”“This is not a decision we at C.D.C. have made lightly,” Dr. Walensky added. “This weighs heavily on me.” Americans are tired and frustrated, she said, and mental health challenges are on the rise. After the agency’s announcement, White House staff were instructed to begin wearing masks again indoors. The Biden administration is considering requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated or to submit to regular testing and workplace restrictions, requirements similar to those being imposed in New York City and California. “We have a pandemic because of the unvaccinated, and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” President Biden told reporters on Tuesday. “The more we learn about this virus and the Delta variant, the more we have to be worried and concerned. And there’s only one thing we know for sure — if those other hundred million people got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.” The C.D.C. needed to revisit its recommendations, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the administration’s lead adviser on the pandemic. “I don’t think you can say that this is just flip-flopping back and forth. They’re dealing with new information that the science is providing.” The vaccines remain remarkably effective against the worst outcomes of infection with any form of the coronavirus, including hospitalization and death. But the new guidelines explicitly apply to both the unvaccinated and vaccinated, a sharp departure from the agency’s position since May that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most indoor spaces. Those recommendations, which had seemed to signal a winding down of the pandemic, were based on earlier data suggesting that vaccinated people rarely become infected and almost never transmit the virus, making masking unnecessary. But that was before the arrival of the Delta variant, which now accounts for the bulk of infections in the United States. And it may be followed by others. “The big concern is that the next variant that might emerge — just potentially a few mutations away — could evade our vaccine,” she said. Whether masks become ubiquitous again may depend on local surveillance and outreach efforts, which vary from state to state. Many Americans simply do not know what infection rates and positive test rates are in their area on a week-by-week basis. Based on what scientists are learning about the Delta variant’s ability to cause breakthrough infections, “this is a move in the right direction,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, the two leading teachers’ unions, strongly endorsed the C.D.C.’s move to universal masking in schools. “Masking inside schools, regardless of vaccine status, is required as an important way to deal with the changing realities of virus transmission,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the A.F.T. “It is a necessary precaution until children under 12 can receive a Covid vaccine and more Americans over 12 get vaccinated.” Other union officials said the guidance did not go far enough, and would fail to protect frontline and essential workers in supermarkets, retail stores and meatpacking plants. “A national mask mandate is the only way we can finally take control of this virus,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International. Whether state and local government officials are willing to follow the agency’s guidance is far from certain. And there is sure to be resistance from pandemic-fatigued Americans, particularly in regions of the country where vaccination rates are low and concerns about the virus are muted. Some jurisdictions, like Los Angeles County and St. Louis County, have already reinstated mask mandates in response to rising cases. But officials in some communities in Los Angeles County have said they will not enforce a mandate. And the Missouri attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the city of St. Louis to stop the measure. Businesses, too, are likely to find that new mask recommendations complicate plans to return to their offices in places where the virus is spreading and may necessitate new mandates for employees to get vaccines. The Washington Post, for example, on Tuesday said it would require proof of vaccination as a condition of employment when workers return to the office in September, after hearing concerns from many employees about the emergence of coronavirus variants. If businesses believe that such mandates would be beneficial, “we encourage them to do so,” Dr. Walensky said at the news briefing. “We’re encouraging, really, any activities that would motivate further vaccination.”
As recently as last week, a C.D.C. spokesman said that the agency had no plans to change its masking guidance, unless there was a significant change in the science. Now researchers have begun to turn up disturbing data.The Delta variant is thought to be more than twice as contagious as the original version of the virus. Some research now suggests that people infected with the variant carry about a thousandfold more virus than those infected with other variants, and they may stay infected for longer. C.D.C. officials were swayed by new research showing that even vaccinated people may carry great amounts of the variant virus in the nose and throat, suggesting that they also may spread it to others. Large so-called viral loads may help explain reports of breakthrough infections in groups of vaccinated people. For example, an outbreak that began in Provincetown, Mass., after Fourth of July festivities there, has grown to include at least 765 cases, according to Steve Katsurinis, chair of the Provincetown Board of Health. Of the 469 cases reported among Massachusetts residents alone, 74 percent were in people who were fully immunized, Mr. Katsurinis said. Smaller clusters of breakthrough infections have been reported after weddings, family reunions and dinner parties. Some of the infected people had symptoms, but the vast majority were not seriously ill, suggesting that immunity produced by the vaccines quickly curbs the virus. Vaccines “are not a force field,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Instead, vaccination trains the immune system to recognize cells that become infected with the virus. “The term ‘breakthrough infection’ is probably a bit misleading,” she said. “It’s probably more realistic that we talk about ‘breakthrough disease’ and how much of that is occurring.” Dr. Walensky acknowledged that some vaccinated people can become infected with the Delta variant and may be contagious, but maintained that it was a rare event. So far vaccinated people account for just 3 percent of hospitalizations, officials have found. Dr. Gounder and other experts said that it is unclear how often vaccinated people transmit the virus to others, but it may be more common than scientists had predicted as the original virus was spreading last year. Vaccinated people — particularly those with weak immune systems or otherwise at high risk — should consider wearing masks even in areas of low transmission, he said: “Masks can effectively reduce the amount of virus that we breathe in and prevent us from getting sick, and so they augment the impact of our vaccine. Almost everywhere in the U.S., it’s a good idea.” Infections have been rising swiftly in the United States, to more than 56,000 daily cases on average, as of Tuesday, more than four times the number a month ago. Hospitalizations have also been ticking up in nearly all states, and deaths have risen to an average of 275 per day. Federal officials need to articulate clear plans for testing and long-term masking, experts said. “The question is, what are the offramps for masking?” asked Dr. Nuzzo. “If we want to continue to ask people to step up, we need to give them a vision of what we’re working toward.” The C.D.C. should have simply have told all Americans to wear masks indoors, said Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist at University of Washington and former C.D.C. scientist. ''If you look at the country, every state is seeing a rise in transmission,” Dr. Mokdad said. “So why not say, ‘Everybody in the U.S. should be wearing a mask indoors?’ The whole country is on fire.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/health/covid-cdc-masks-vaccines-delta-variant.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
طالبان دې په افغانستان کې د ولس رایې ته احترام وکړي: منظور پښتين
د پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ مشر منظور پښتين په افغانستان کې په جګړه کې پر ښکېلو طالبانو او نورو بااختياره خواو غږ کړی چې د 
افغان ولس رايې ته دې احترام ولري.
د پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ لخوا د جنوبي وزيرستان په مکين کې نن د جولای په ۲۷مه د افغانستان په امنيتي حالاتو رابلل شوې جلسې ته په وينا کې د غورځنګ مشر منظور پښتين وويل چې جنګ د مسلې حل نه دی او بايد ټولې ستونزې په خبرو هوارې شي.
پښتین وویل، په افغانستان کې اوس سړکونه، پلونه، پوهنتونونه او ښوونځي ودان شوي دي، خلک تعلیم حاصلوي، او یو داسې تیار افغانستان ړنګول پر ټول لر او بر پښتانه یو بوج اچول دي. او هلته چې د خلک یوڅه ژوند راجوړ شوی دی، هغه خرابول دي. دا ورانی دې نه کېږي. بلکې د افغان ولس رایې ته دې درناوی وشي. د افغانستان مخکینی او اوسنی حکومت د ولس په رایه راغلی او راتلونکې حکومت دې هم د ولس په رایه جوړ شي. د ولس د رایې پرته حکومت به په زور جوړول وي او په زوره راغلی حکومت د مسلې حل نه دی او پي ټي اېم په افغانستان کې یوازې د ولس په رایه حکومت مني. ده وویل پر ټولو ښکېلو غاړو ږغ کوي چې د ولس رایې ته دې احترام وشي.
نوموړي د پاکستان له عالمانو او سياستوالانو هم غوښتنه وکړه چې په افغان سوله کې دې خپل رول ولوبوي. پښتین زیاته کړه چې د افغانستان او پاکستان د پښتنو له مشرانو سره به په دغه سيمه کې د امنيت او پرمختګ راوستو په هدف غونډې کوي. هغه د پاکستان پر دولت غږ وکړ چې د پښتنو حقونو ته دې احترام ولري.
د پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ مشر له حکومته غوښتنه وکړه چې سيمه دې له ماينونو پاکه کړل شي او د جګړو پر مهال دې د ړنګ شوو کورونو مالکانو ته معاوضې ورکړل شي. منظور دا هم وويل چې د وزيرستاني ځوان نقيب مسيد په وژنه تورن پوليس چارواکی راو انوار خلاص ګرځي او د پي ټي اېم مخکښ او د قامي اسمبلۍ غړی علي وزير په جېل کې دی. ده دا غوښتنه هم وکړه چې پوځ دې لادرکه کسان عدالت ته وړاندې کړي.
منظور پښتین خپله وینا د پښتونخوا ملي عوامي پارټۍ د صوبايي مشر عثمان خان کاکړ د مړینې له پېښې پیل کړه او زیاته یې کړه چې هغه تل د خپل ولس او وطن خبره کوله، تل یې د دې علاقې (وزیرستانونه) خبره کوله، تل یې د لر او بر افغان خبره کوله. د ده په وینا چې ''دا ټوله جلسه د عثمان لالا شهادت ته سلام کوي. د ده ژوند ته سلام کوي. منظور پښتین وویل چې دوی (پښتون ژغورنه غورځنګ) د عثمان لالا د مړینې په معامله کې د هغه له کورنۍ او ګوند سره تل ترڅنګ ولاړه ده.''
د مکين نننۍ جلسې ته په وينا کې د پيپلز پارټۍ مخکښ فرحت الله بابر وويل چې په سيمه کې د پښتنو جنګ ته د ورداخلولو لپاره بيا کوششونه روان دي او بايد پښتانه له دې ځان وساتي.
د پي ټي اېم يو بل مخکښ او د قامي اسمبلۍ غړي محسن داوړ بيا جلسې ته په وينا کې وويل چې څومره طالبان دي، که هغه په افغانستان کې دي او که په پاکستان کې، دوی د تشدد له لارې قبضه کول غواړي او د ده په خبره دوی د افغان ولسمشر اشرف غني د جمهوري حکومت ملاتړ کوي. د مشال رېډيو خبريال وايې د جلسې پر وخت نېټ او ټیلیفون سګنلې بند کړل شوې وې او شا او خوا پنځلس زره کسانو د مکين په جلسه کې ګډون وکړ.
https://www.mashaalradio.com/a/31379555.html
EDITORIAL: Delta Variant and Pakistan
With the Delta variant turning out to be a cause of grave concern in Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan, their provincial governments have taken drastic steps for lockdown measures that may be difficult to absorb for a great number of businesses but remain vital for public safety. While the national positivity average hovers around 6%, the 25% rate in Karachi is unprecedented with hospitals unable to cope the additional burden. Similarly, an approximately 9% rate for Gilgit-Baltistan is equally concerning. Even the district administration in Gwadar recently chose to close down the entire city for the next two weeks. Notably, just 3.2% of Pakistan’s population has been fully vaccinated which substantiates the notion of slow vaccination process. A number of factors are responsible for such a meagre rate including conspiracy theories and general hesitations.
A lax attitude on part of sections of the public is also contributing to the staggering rise in number of cases as unvaccinated people are going out and about without realising the consequences. While vaccination does not ensure total immunity, it does help reduce the chances of fatalities despite some rare exceptions. Even SOPs are being ignored in large number of places which the authorities need to be strict about.
Reportedly, domestic air travel is being conditioned with full vaccination from next month.
This is a step in the right direction for the greater good of the public which needs to cooperate with state authorities. Though a bit late to the vaccination rollout plan, the arrival of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is a great sign for international travellers. This would assist them in securing quarantine exemptions in tourism and business-oriented countries.
However, a lot more needs to be done for containing this menace of a pandemic which is here to stay for longer than expected. For this, global efforts need to remain collective and devoid of any political manoeuvrings.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/796394/delta-variant-and-pakistan/
Imran Khan And Taliban: An Impending Disaster – OpEd
By Raza Shahani
When I had touched the consciousness of watching the black-and-white television, I saw the Taliban using heavy weapons against their compatriotsto occupy Soviet-left Afghanistan. While the Taliban were rooting out their opponents with the blitzkrieg speed, the people and state in Pakistan were walking swagger and hubris. Needless to say, Pakistan, along with the Saudi Arabia and the UAE, promptly recognized the Taliban regime and established the diplomatic relations. Similarly, a batch of millions was born in Pakistan during latter half of the 1990s; the period, during which the Taliban were establishing their rule in Afghanistan. Today, those Pakistanis born in mid-90s have reached the age of their mid-20s. This is the prime age for getting on work, job or begin a business to sustain their family and make life going. However, the situation is otherwise.
After capturing Kabul in 1996, the Taliban hosted Al Qaeda, the international terrorist organization. Thus, Al Qaeda began operating from Afghan soil against the US interests in the different countries. Finally, it blew up Twin Towers with striking hijacked plans. The Taliban rejected the US pleas and warnings to dissociate from Al Qaeda and handover its leadership to the US. Forced to bomb the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda, the US demanded Pakistan to join the international coalition against the terrorist organization and its host. In fact, being a weak country, Pakistan couldn’t resist the US demand and joined the coalition forces unwillingly as a frontline state against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The war dragged on for two decades. As its spillover effect, the war entered the Pakistani territory. The cost of war for Pakistan has been unimaginable – in terms of both men and material. The life of youth was ruined. They were wasted!
In fact, when the war was ending after two decades, the Pakistani youth born in 90s was expecting peace and opportunities here in Pakistan. Yet, again they are seeing the Taliban, weapons, war and no opportunity to undertake the responsibility. However, once again Khan Regime and the system-beneficiary people and institutions are celebrating the Taliban gains in Afghanistan!
Ironically, up to entering politics, Khan had spent his life dancing and debouching with wine and women in the clubs, ball parties and on the beaches in the West. His own nearly necked photos and video clips with his so many western girl friends litter the internet. However, Khan perfectly knew that Islam can be easily sold out to the Pakistanis, especially to the Punjabis. He then rightly sensed the tilt of the security establishment towards the Taliban and the like. So, Khan, a playboy, put on the garb of a piety teacher. Besides, Khan assumed the role of the political mouth piece of the Taliban. This was the reason the Taliban had nominated him as the head of their negotiating team to hold dialogue with the Pakistani government. These two factors, peoples’ frustration with the traditional parties and last but not least the help of the establishment helped him come in power. But, Khan brutally failed to deliver. The people again felt cheated.
Nevertheless, Khan succeeded in concealing his governance failure under the cloak of religion. The first thing he did was to purchase Ertugrul, a Turkish drama series. The drama series was based on Jihad and in it was eulogized cutthroat culture! This cutthroat culture enamored, especially the people of the Punjab, who constitute more than 50 percent population of Pakistan. Moreover, the next misleading tact Khan employed was to exaggerate the subject of Islam phobia. Khan’s hyperbole against Islam phobia further captivated the people in the Punjab.
The result was further radicalization of the society to the point of terrorism and rebellion against state. In Baluchistan religious terrorists abducted Hazara Shia coal-mine workers and beheaded them. Besides, a frightening scene was seen in the Punjab, where hundreds of thousands militant-protesters filled the streets of the nearly all cities of the Punjab to coerce the government to oust the French ambassador on the blasphemy caricature charges. The protesters were so radicalized that they killed, brutally beat and paraded cops on the roads. Nearly around a week, the Punjab was hijacked by the zealots. The state then kneeled before the lynching crowds and signed a peace deal with them while promising to bring the issue of ambassador in the parliament.
Thus, with the government of the Taliban in the brethren neighboring Afghanistan connected with the long, rugged and porous border, already hyper-radicalized society would be further radicalized. Pakistan is not a homogenous society. It is divided on the sectarian lines. So, the sectarian violence would be revived. Furthermore, drugs and weapons would inundate the country.
Apart from all aforementioned pearls of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the frightening scenario is that the Taliban may encroach upon the Pushton areas of Pakistan, as the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan Pushton are the same people connected by the blood, language, history, culture and geography. What severs them is the Durand Line drawn by the British during ending part of the 19th century. Then Pakistan army will be fighting the Taliban. This scenario is possible because the ethnicity and religion can mix!
As a consequence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, war, weapons, drugs and violence would deprive the Pakistani youth their future! Again this batch born in the mid-90s would be wasted and ruined!
https://www.eurasiareview.com/26072021-imran-khan-and-taliban-an-impending-disaster-oped/
Pakistan minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed can ride horses, row boats. But he’s just a meme for many
Imphal: A lot is happening in Pakistan: Covid-19 positivity rates are soaring, a civil war in Afghanistan is threatening to spill over into the country, and the murder of an ex-diplomat’s daughter has caused a nationwide uproar. But what is Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed keeping himself busy with? He is riding horses and rowing boats at his Freedom farmhouse in Rawalpindi. It sent Pakistanis on social media into splits, who called him ‘nalaeq’, ‘donkey’, ‘Ertrugul Ghazi’, and ‘another play boy’. His house? “(Press) Freedom (Slaughter) House.”
Ahmed took time off during Eid and posted pictures and videos of himself relaxing at his mansion, which he calls ‘Freedom House.’
The minister is known for his candour and media savviness, but social media users haven’t taken kindly to this display, and have been trolling him ever since.A few comments even betray a sense of frustration with Rashid Ahmed’s performance as Interior Minister. “Please be honest to fix the problems under your ministry this time,” said a user on Facebook under a video of Ahmed paddling in a boat.
Besides the farmhouse, the minister also owns a Lal Haveli in Rawalpindi, which has its own YouTube channel. He appears in comedy shows, where he jokes that the young follow him because he is in “second-hand good condition”. If the host didn’t laugh repeating it, it’s possible to miss the humour there. And before you could dig into his past to uncover some uncomfortable truths, Rashid Ahmed himself would tell you he has been jailed several times, all through his school and college days.Freedom farmhouse But it’s Rashid’s Freedom House that gets everyone’s goat, especially the Pakistani media. The property is treated by the news channels like a celebrity mansion to be explored. Dunya News once did a special feature on the “undrooni manzar (insides)” of the mansion. They reveal a “model” house inside the property, which was made for “only” Rs 17 lakh. The farmhouse’s main attraction, though, according to the channel, is a deep cavern which was designed by none other than Rashid himself. Dreamy stuff. But this is what they don’t mention: Rashid Ahmed caused huge embarrassment for the Pakistani government when JKLF chief Yasin Malik claimed that this same farmhouse was used to give arms training to Kashmiri separatists, including himself. Apparently, this is why the farmhouse is named ‘Freedom House’. Of course, Ahmed denied the claim. But that’s not all. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz accuses him of having “grabbed” the land.While news channels may have to skip such coverage, social media users aren’t as forgiving, questioning Ahmed from where he acquired all the wealth to build properties.“What business did his father have or does he have? This farmhouse was made of the money stolen from the people and the money given to the Army with the money donated to Italy [sic],” a user commented on Facebook. Some also wondered how Rashid Ahmed was able to fill the lake with water to paddle around in when Rawalpindi is reeling under a dry spell. An ‘embarrassing’ minister Rashid Ahmed has been in politics for a long time, and over the last 35 years, has been in charge of 15 ministries, interior being the latest. Often a subject of memes, he found his place in one alongside Prime Minister Imran Khan “planting pine trees” — only this time he is riding a horse as Khan is shown digging graves named Economy, Kashmir, CPEC, Rupee, Decency, Merit in Freedom farmhouse.
https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/pakistan-minister-sheikh-rashid-ahmed-can-ride-horses-row-boats-but-hes-just-a-meme-for-many/703699/
Why a Taliban victory may not be everything Pakistan wished for
By Scott Peterson
@peterson__scott
In 2017, then-President Donald Trump singled out Pakistan for giving “safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror,” the same groups “that try every single day to kill our people” in Afghanistan.
At the time, it was seen as long-overdue recognition of an open secret: that Pakistan, a U.S. ally, was backing its enemy, the Taliban.
“We have been paying Pakistan billions … at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting,” said Mr. Trump. “But that will have to change.”
WHY WE WROTE THIS
Pakistan’s heavy investment in the Taliban was vital in leading to America’s military defeat in Afghanistan. But is the prospect of a sweeping Taliban victory giving Pakistan second thoughts?
Fast-forward four years, and what has changed instead is that the Taliban are today sweeping across Afghanistan and threatening the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, as U.S. forces withdraw unconditionally.
Pakistan has invested heavily in just such an outcome. Despite consistent denials, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has been instrumental since 2006 in boosting the insurgents with explosives, cash, ideological recruits, and a cross-border safe haven, analysts say.And yet, as the Taliban juggernaut has accelerated its advance and vowed to re-establish a strict Islamic Emirate, signs of concern are emerging in Pakistan about the dangers of an outright Taliban victory over the United States and the government in Kabul.
Key players in Islamabad may be changing their thinking, as they weigh the prospects of a relatively friendly Taliban-led state against the risk of sparking renewed civil war and instability in Afghanistan, a refugee exodus, and an emboldened cadre of Pakistan’s own recently regenerated jihadists.
“Pakistan wants the Taliban to take power [as] a culmination of the long-term strategy of bringing the Taliban back,” says Asfandyar Mir, an expert in political violence at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.
“But at the same time it is nervous. It certainly appears to have some buyer’s remorse [with] concerns that the Pakistanis are starting to express more and more,” says Mr. Mir, speaking from Islamabad.
Pakistan’s homefront
One Pakistani concern is that the “Taliban’s dependence on them is going down, which has manifested itself in testy, poor behavior in meetings with senior military intelligence officials,” he says, giving Pakistani officials the impression that today’s Taliban are “harder to control” than in the past.
A larger concern for Pakistan is the energizing impact the Taliban’s ascendance is having on Pakistan’s own jihadist insurgents, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which has close ties to the Afghan Taliban and has recently regenerated a campaign to overthrow the Pakistani state.
Pakistani intelligence and army chiefs reportedly have briefed Pakistani lawmakers that the Taliban and TTP – which has targeted numerous Pakistani intelligence and military officials – are two sides of the same coin.
“Our jihadis will be emboldened. They will say that ‘if America can be beaten, what is the Pakistan army to stand in our way?’” an unnamed senior Pakistani official told The Wall Street Journal of the Taliban advance.
“The TTP has really stepped up its violence against Pakistan. They have been hitting various military targets the last 6 to 12 months,” says Mr. Mir. “Pakistan probably underestimated that if you bring the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, that will obviously embolden Islamist insurgents inside the country. Due to the TTP’s stepped-up attacks, that reality is starting to crystallize.”
The Taliban now control more than half of Afghanistan’s 400-plus district centers – most of those seized since June – but none of the 34 provincial capitals. The United Nations reported Monday that 5,183 civilians were killed or wounded the first six months of this year – a 47% increase over the same period last year.
The United States, Russia, and China have all pressured Pakistan to convince the Taliban not to advance on Kabul, and to instead find a political solution. In March, all four nations issued a joint statement opposing the “restoration of the Islamic Emirate” – the name the Taliban used for their state when they ruled in the late 1990s, which was recognized then only by Pakistan.
The Taliban immediately rejected the statement as “against all principle and not acceptable.”
Khalilzad’s visit to Islamabad
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, visited Islamabad July 19 and met with the ISI chief and top officials. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said his country, in the past, “made a mistake by choosing between warring parties” in Afghanistan and now has “no favorites.” After meeting Ambassdor Khalilzad, he said instability would cause “serious challenges” for Pakistan.
Just days before, Pakistan had tried and failed to convene a meeting in Islamabad between senior Afghan leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani and former President Hamid Karzai, with top Taliban leaders, to hammer out a power-sharing deal. Pakistan’s national security adviser, Moeed Yusuf, told Indian television Saturday that Pakistan was “obsessively focused” on a political settlement but had “very limited leverage” over the Taliban.
Kabul has complained bitterly for years about Pakistan’s support of the Taliban, and seen few signs of change. Whatever its security concerns, Pakistan has not stopped the Afghan Taliban from using its territory to recruit Pakistani fighters, provide safe haven, or care for wounded fighters.
President Ghani on July 17 said Pakistan had, in the previous month, allowed more than 10,000 “jihadi fighters” to enter Afghanistan.
“Can Taliban convince a single [Afghan] including themselves that they aren’t puppets of Rawalpindi’s GHQ [Pakistani military headquarters]? They are just a kill and destruction squad in the hands of Pakistan,” tweeted Amrullah Saleh, the Afghan first vice president and former spy chief, earlier this month. “Pak has once again opted for a very dangerous and costly adventure,” he said in another tweet.
Peace talks as cover
Afghan officials say Pakistan has also abetted the Taliban’s use of intra-Afghan peace talks, which began last September but made little progress, to prepare for continued war.
Back in January, for example, Taliban negotiators were late in returning to the Gulf state of Qatar for talks scheduled to resume on the 5th.
“Where were the Taliban?” Ahmad Shuja Jamal, head of international affairs and regional cooperation on Afghanistan’s National Security Council, asked rhetorically during a webinar this month hosted by the Frontline Club in London.
The answer, he said, came a few days later, when videos from Pakistan showed Taliban leaders “parading across a line of suicide bombers of the Taliban” and visiting “wounded Taliban terrorists” treated in Pakistani hospitals.
Mr. Jamal accused the Taliban of planting explosive devices manufactured with Pakistani-produced ammonium nitrate “in people’s orchards, in people’s crops, in people’s abandoned homes and pathways into and out of their villages.”
The solution, he said, is for the U.S. and others to “pressure Pakistan, so that they actually do play, finally, a constructive role that only they can play in this equation.”
Pakistan, however, despite stated concern about Afghan Taliban victories, appears to have done little to meaningfully knuckle down.
“There was a big push to mobilize fighters in the last few months, in the [Pakistani] tribal areas and in the Pashtun areas around the south of Afghanistan in Baluchistan,” Carlotta Gall, a New York Times correspondent who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for more than a decade, said in the webinar. “We know there are a lot of bodies coming back, including of Pakistanis,” said Ms. Gall, author of “The Wrong Enemy.” The Nangarhar governor’s office tweeted Sunday, for example, that 39 dead Pakistani fighters were sent home the past two weeks. Videos show funerals of fighters in Pakistan, with white Taliban flags held aloft. “It’s a massive, state-organized campaign, and it’s been going on for 20 years,” said Ms. Gall, whose book title invokes Richard Holbrooke, the late U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, who once said, “We may be fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong country.” “Pakistan has never given up on its idea to have a client state in Afghanistan,” she said. “It hasn’t changed. It hasn’t stopped. The Americans knew it all along.” A colonial power That has been most clear to Afghans, who have been shocked by the speed and scale of destruction of the current Taliban campaign – and are suspicious of any claimed Pakistani change of heart.“Every Afghan now knows that the name used for these invasions is Taliban, but it’s actually the Pakistani Army in the uniform of the Taliban,” says Orzala Nemat, a Kabul-based analyst. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2021/0726/Why-a-Taliban-victory-may-not-be-everything-Pakistan-wished-for
Monday, July 26, 2021
How elections happen in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Time to take lid off the biggest scam
By TARA KARTHA
@kartha_tara
Thanks to both Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif governments, the ‘AJK’ legislative assembly is completely toothless. Why have an election at all?
It’s election time in what the Pakistanis like to call ‘Azad Kashmir’ — that thin slice of territory that is meant to showcase Kashmiri ‘independence’. It’s a different issue that it’s not independent at all, and that its legislature has the powers equivalent to a District Magistrate in India. But the pretence is maintained, once every five years, glamorous political leaders descend on Muzaffarabad, give speeches, and disappear, not to be seen again till the next round. It’s all rather delicious irony, given the beating of Pakistani political chests on self-determination in Kashmir.
The Azadi of ‘AJK’ elected bodies
For the uninitiated, ‘AJK’ is a territory of about 13,000 sq km that was once part of the kingdom of the Maharaja of Kashmir, as is the rest of what we call PoK ( Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), which includes the much larger over 72,000 sq km of Gilgit Baltistan.
A hugely strategic area since British times, Islamabad quietly divided PoK into two through the still secret Karachi Agreement 1949, in complete violation of UN Resolution 47. Essentially, the ‘Azad Kashmir government’ handed over 12 subjects, like defence, foreign policy, and the coordination of all affairs of Gilgit Baltistan to Pakistan. In other words, ‘Azad Kashmir’ found itself a quarter of its former size, without any consultation with its own people. Subsequently, the basics of a presidential, and later a parliamentary system were set up, which meant a president, a prime minister, a legislative assembly etc, all of which sounded fine on paper. In reality, actual power resides with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who chairs the upper house called the Kashmir Council in Islamabad, which is dominated by establishment cronies. The Council decided on everything from publication of newspapers to the appointment of the auditor general, leaving the legislative assembly with basic day to day running of the state. It does levy taxes, but tax officials are appointed by Islamabad. In 2018, the outgoing Nawaz Sharif government tried to overturn this state of affairs with the Thirteenth Amendment, which quietly transferred the huge powers of the Council to the legislature and changed the terminology of ‘Interim Constitution’ to just ‘Constitution’. That would have given ‘AJK’ a certain independence. Then, Imran Khan’s government reacted with a hammer that was the Fourteenth Amendment in 2020. It took away even the few powers of the state, and indeed banned the use of the word ‘state’ at all. Among other changes, a new clause allowed any bill passed by the Council to become law, without the assent of the ‘President’ of PoK, completely eroded judicial autonomy, and further restricted political activity. It was virtual annexation, and was opposed ‘in totality’ by the Cabinet of ‘AJK’, but the legislative assembly was reported to have accepted it in December 2020. So, as of now, the ‘AJK’ legislative assembly is completely toothless. And it is to this body that elections are being fought. One wonders why anyone even bothers. The election game It is this sad travesty of a democratic institution that is going to elections. The legislative assembly consists of 55 seats, 45 of which are general, and 8 are reserved for women, technocrats and religious scholars. Of the 45, 12 seats are reserved for refugees from Jammu and Kashmir. In the past, most of these seats were usually usurped by the ruling party in Islamabad, because most refugees live in Punjab and Sindh. For instance, Jammu-1constituency’s voters are spread over Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan provinces in 48 districts. This segment has little interest in local issues, and votes from provincial viewpoints. Another 8,000 families who migrated after 1990 have been settled near Garhi Dupatta by the Pakistan army. These voters are even more eager to please the powers that be. A large number of seats are therefore already in the hands of Islamabad including some obvious candidates from 32 registered political parties, like the Tehreek-e-Labbaik, which assisted the deep State in defeating Nawaz Sharif in his home state in the 2018 general elections. It is now contesting elections despite being a proscribed organisation, in a typical sleight of hand of the deep State, with its candidates up for all seats including the refugee constituencies. Then are the mainland parties like the Pakistan Peoples Party and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which have huge resources, compared to local parties like the Muslim Conference or the Jamaat-e-Islami, who usually opt to be a small minority in a government dominated by the Pakistani parties. Despite this, it seems that Islamabad still likes to make sure it has the seats. Federal Minister Amin Ali Gandapur who presides over the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, was reported to have paid some PKR 500,000 in cash to his party’s political workers in Mirpur, just weeks before elections. The money was ostensibly to repair a link road. Apparently, the exalted minister takes a deep interest in what should have been the job of local government. As before, it is widely expected that the ruling PTI will swing the elections. Nonetheless, Prime Minister Imran Khan was in election mode, drawing large crowds. His speeches at Bhimber and Mirpur focussed almost entirely on the corruption of Nawaz Sharif, and how his own government had changed Pakistan from a beggar state to prosperity. The first one might be true, but the World Bank would certainly disagree with the second. Being Imran Khan, he could hardly resist a dig at Prime Minister Modi, but the Kashmir issue was largely mentioned only in passing. Party leaders hardly ever talk of Kashmir during elections in PoK. Benazir Bhutto didn’t, neither did Nawaz Sharif. Nor does Imran Khan now. It seems it’s not quite the soul-searing issue that Islamabad would have everyone believe. Essentially, it doesn’t get votes. That for India is the most interesting thing. Meanwhile, the sitting ‘Prime Minister’ Raja Farooq Haider has accused Imran Khan and his ministers of ‘direct meddling’ in the elections. He should be careful. Last year, he was nearly charged with ‘treason’ against Pakistan, a charge hastily withdrawn as Rawalpindi realised the effect it would have on an apparently ‘Azad’ territory. And so the charade continues. Pakistani leaders will object to the creation of local bodies in Kashmir, the delimitation process, and upcoming elections, even as their legislative body is reduced to nothing at all. That process needs to be shown to Srinagar’s feisty politicians, the public, and the so-called international community. It’s time the lid was taken off the biggest scam of all.https://theprint.in/opinion/how-elections-happen-in-pakistan-occupied-kashmir-time-to-take-lid-off-the-biggest-scam/702425/
Noor Mukadam's murder exposes toxic misogyny in #Pakistan
Noor Mukadam, a 27-year-old woman and daughter of Pakistan's former ambassador to South Korea, was brutally killed in Islamabad on July 20. The alleged killer, Zahir Zamir Jaffer, was reportedly her acquaintance. According to police reports, he beheaded Mukadam after shooting her. Violence against women is widespread in Pakistan, but the recent spate of women killings has shocked the South Asian nation. On Sunday, a man burned his wife to death in the southern Sindh province, while another man shot dead his wife, his aunt and two underage daughters in Shikarpur city on the same day. A 30-year-old woman who was raped and stabbed on Saturday in Rawalpindi city succumbed to her injuries on Sunday. On July 18, a woman was tortured to death by her husband in Sindh. Last month, a man killed two women, including his former wife, in the name of "honor" in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The recent cases have triggered a debate about the state's failure to protect women, the culture of impunity, and the reasons behind society's tendency to curtail women's independence and inflict pain on them.
Culture of impunity
Pakistan ranks as the sixth most dangerous country in the world for women and is currently witnessing a rapid rise in cases of sexual crimes and domestic violence.
Rights activists blame a culture of impunity for the recent spike in violence against women.
"A man who stabbed a young female lawyer more than 12 times was recently released by the court. What message does it send to the perpetrators of violence against women?" Yasmin Lehri, a former lawmaker from Balochistan province, told DW.
Mukhtar Mai, a women's rights activist and a 2002 gang rape survivor, shares the same view: "Those who commit violence against women are not afraid of legal consequences," she told DW, adding that for most Pakistani men, beating a woman is not even a form of violence. Pakistani society is still entrenched in feudal and tribal customs, she says.
Other activists also blame society's patriarchal attitudes . "Women are taught to obey men, as they have a superior status in the family," said Mahnaz Rehman, a Lahore-based feminist, adding that when a woman demands her rights, she is often subjected to violence.
Patriarchy and religion
Shazia Khan, a Lahore-based activist, believes that in certain cases, men feel emboldened by religious teachings.
"Islamic clerics interpret religion in a way that it gives the impression that it allows men to beat women. They also support underage marriages and tell women to obey their husbands even if they are violent toward them," she said, adding that these clerics actually encourage men to commit violence against women.
PM Khan's 'victim blaming'
Many rights activists in Pakistan blame Prime Minister Imran Khan's "victim blaming" for the rise in violence against women in the country.
Last month, the conservative premier faced backlash following his comments that appear to put the blame for sexual abuse on women.
"If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots," Khan said during an interview for documentary-news series Axios, aired by US broadcaster HBO. He proceeded to say that this was "common sense."Earlier this year, he made similar remarks during a question and answer briefing with the public, suggesting that the rise in sexual violence in Pakistan was due to the lack of "pardah," the practice of veiling, in the country."PM Khan and his ministers continue to make anti-women remarks that encourage misogyny, and in a way violence against women, in Pakistan," said activist Shazia Khan.
Former lawmaker Yasmin Lehri believes that Khan's government hasn't done anything to protect women. Instead, she said, the government sent a bill to stop torture against women to Islamic clerics, who have stalled it.
Conservatives blame 'Western culture'
Just like PM Khan, the country's conservative sections, too, blame the "Western culture" for sexual and physical violence against women.
Samia Raheel Qazi, a former parliamentarian, says the recent incidents of violence involve people who have drifted away from Islamic teachings.
"In Noor Mukadam's case, the alleged perpetrator is a Westernized atheist," she told DW, adding that the weakening of the family system amid an onslaught of Western culture in the country is responsible for these crimes.
Lawmaker Kishwar Zehra agrees. "We need to revive our family values to stop these crimes."
https://www.dw.com/en/noor-mukadams-murder-exposes-toxic-misogyny-in-pakistan/a-58645017
European Parliament to withdraw Pakistan's GSP+ status over abuse of blasphemy laws
Amid abuse of the blasphemy laws and cases widely reported across Pakistan, the European Parliament has moved to withdraw Islamabad's GSP+ status.
Philippe Jeune, writing in EU Political Report said that the European Parliament has criticised Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws and called for a review of the status quo.
Pakistan is a major beneficiary of the trading opportunities offered by the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).
From January 1, 2014, Pakistan has benefited from generous tariff preferences (mostly zero duties on two-thirds of all product categories) under the so-called GSP+ arrangement aiming to support sustainable development and good governance.
In order to maintain GSP+ status, Pakistan is obliged to ratify and effectively implement 27 core international conventions on human and labour rights, environmental protection and good governance.
On April 24th of this year, in a Joint Motion for a Resolution, supported by all major political groups, MEPs called for an immediate review of Pakistan's eligibility for GSP+ status, and considered appropriate, the withdrawal of that status, said EU Political Report.
Such a move, which apparently enjoys the support of the majority of the house, would be highly damaging for Pakistan's economy: from 2010 to 2020, EU27 imports from Pakistan have almost doubled, with much of the growth coming in the aftermath of the award of GSP+ in 2014, wrote Jeune.
According to figures released by the European Commission, the EU is now Pakistan's second most important trading partner, accounting for 14.3 per cent of Pakistan's total trade in 2020 and absorbing 28 per cent of Pakistan's total exports.
Parliamentarians alleged that the blasphemy laws are used to "incite harassment, violence and murder against those being accused, causing people who are accused of blasphemy have to fear for their lives regardless of the outcome of judicial procedures."
They further stated that "it is widely known that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are often abused by making false accusations that serve the personal interests of the accuser," the report added.
Moreover, EU Today reported that as per a US news agency investigation, sexual harassment, rape and physical abuse by Islamic clerics teaching in madrassas or religious schools throughout the country is a common phenomenon.
It is in these schools - known as Madaris-e-Deeniya in Urdu - that many of the country's poorest, and most vulnerable study.
Whilst the government has promised to modernise the curriculum and make the madrassas more accountable, police say the problem of sexual abuse of children by clerics is pervasive and the scores of reports they have received, none of which have resulted in the conviction of a cleric, are just the tip of the iceberg, reported EU Today.
Religious clerics are a powerful group in Pakistan and are united. Whenever any allegations of abuse are brought against them they join hands to defend each other.
They have often been able to hide the widespread abuse by accusing victims of blasphemy, defamation of Islam, or defamation of the prophet, which carries a mandatory death sentence, reported EU Today.
In such a scenario, the family of any young girl - or boy - alleging sexual abuse by a cleric, faces two options.
To report the offence, knowing that no action will be taken against the cleric, who will invoke Pakistan's draconian and internationally condemned blasphemy laws, and stigmatising the victim for life, or worse: those accused of blasphemy often face the wrath of the mob or they can say and do nothing.
On April 28th, 2021, the European Parliament adopted a joint motion, supported by all major political groups, for a resolution on the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, calling for more comprehensive approaches to address such abuses of the laws as described above in Pakistan, reported EU Today.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has previously called for the elimination of blasphemy laws throughout the world - globally, 84 countries have such laws, although few if any are as far-reaching, draconian, or as open to abuse as those of Pakistan.
Pakistan has the highest rate of enforcement of blasphemy laws, with Iran the second highest. They impose the death penalty for defaming the Prophet Mohammed.
https://in.news.yahoo.com/european-parliament-withdraw-pakistans-gsp-164709614.html
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