Monday, November 8, 2021
Bill Clinton Saved His Presidency. Here’s How Biden Can, Too.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/opinion/biden-democrats-2022-2024.html
#Pakistan - Cricket is not a Jihad
Arbaz Ahmed CheemaWhere victory against arch-rival India in T20 cricket match made everyone happy inside and out of the country few remarks by some senior politicians were very unprofessional. These remarks not only highlighted the internalized patterns of thinking of senior politicians but also help one make sense of the rising performative religiosity in the country. It shows how people have now limited religion to antagonism instead of using it as a force of peace. This trend was visible from the leaders to the layperson level. Everyone in a video clip saw Sheikh Rasheed saying, “It’s not mere a match but victory of whole Islamic religion all around the globe”. I don’t know what Sheikh Rasheed meant by his statement but comparing a game with religion is no less than stupidity and short-sightedness. One cannot imagine a Muslim in Algeria or Senegal feeling victorious because Pakistan won a cricket match from India. Moreover, Prime Minister Imran khan also said in a speech, “After thrashing India during last night’s cricket match it’s not a good time for talking about peaceful relations”. One can imagine the impact of such statements by senior politicians and even the prime minister of the country on the future of Pakistani cricket. Even such statements by Pakistani politicians can put Indian Muslims in trouble who are already suffering much under BJP leadership. Moreover in Srinagar, the BJP government has filed cases against the students who enjoyed Pakistan’s victory extravagantly. Mixing sports with politics and religion doesn’t do anything good but can change the real purpose of any sport as well as can hurt the feelings of many sports lovers. Cricket is recreation, not jihad and it must remain so. The real purpose of any kind of sports is to unite the people and bring happiness as the recent Pak-India match did. Everyone in the country was very happy and was chanting the slogan, “Pakistan Zindabad”, regardless of their community, culture, language, and province. There is no place for religion-based national identity in the contemporary world; remarks like these from national leaders only harm Pakistan’s diplomatic image across the world. Given the diversity of local communities and their faiths, it is offensive that national leaders use religious identity to talk about the national cricket team at such a sensitive time. In the absence of recreational activities, the T-20 cricket series is a rare opportunity for Pakistanis to enjoy something as a nation. Our politicians and everyone other with such remarks should change their mindset regarding sports and consider the harm that they do to the national image by making such statements.
https://en.humsub.com.pk/3348/cricket-is-not-a-jihad/
Pakistan is mourning another journalist death. One who exposed illegal hunting by Arab VIPs
Another handle shared a portrait of him and said, “Let’s get United and destroy feudalism once for all for prosperous Sindh.” While user Ghulam Akbar Bhutto said that “a fedulaist [sic] who has been accused of murdering a man is free from handcuffs.”
Journalists on Twitter also highlighted how the Imran Khan government had let Jokhio down, and called for greater accountability by the legislators.
https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/pakistan-is-mourning-another-journalist-death-one-who-exposed-illegal-hunting-by-arab-vips/762330/
افغانستان کے متعلق پالیسی، تحریک طالبان پاکستان سے مذاکرات اور تحریک لبیک پاکستان سے معاہدے پر یکطرفہ فیصلے نہیں لئے جا سکتے، چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری
چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے پیر کے روز پارلیمنٹ ہاﺅس میں
پارلیمنٹ کی قومی سلامتی کمیٹی کے اجلاس میں شرکت کی۔ اس اجلاس میں پارلیمنٹیرینز کو قومی سلامتی کے امور پر بریفنگ دی گئی۔ اجلاس کے بعد پارلیمنٹ ہاﺅس میں صحافیوں سے گفتگو کرتے ہوئے بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ وہ اس بریفنگ کے متعلق کوئی گفتگو نہیں کریں گے کیونکہ یہ آن کیمرہ بریفنگ تھی اور آف دی ریکارڈ تھی۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ جہاں تک افغانستان کے متعلق پالیسی، تحریک طالبان پاکستان سے مذاکرات اور تحریک لبیک پاکستان سے معاہدے پر یکطرفہ فیصلے نہیں لئے جا سکتے۔ پارلیمنٹ کی منظوری کے بغیر ان امور پر کوئی بھی پالیسی نہیں بنائی جا سکتی۔ کوئی بھی ایسی پالیسی جس کی منظوری پارلیمنٹ سے نہ لی گئی ہواس کی کوئی قانونی حیثیت نہیں ہے۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ صدر پاکستان، وزیراعظم اور وزیر خارجہ کے ٹی ٹی پی سے مذاکرات کے متعلق بیانات پر انہوں نے پہلے بھی تنقید کی تھی اور وہ آج بھی تنقید کریں گے کیونکہ کسی کو آن بورڈ نہیں لیا گیا اور نہ کوئی اتفاق رائے پیدا کیا۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ یہ لوگ کون ہوتے ہیں جو ٹی ٹی پی سے مذاکرات کی بھیک مانگیں اور یکطرفہ طور پر ان لوگوں سے مذاکرات کریں جنہوں نے ہمارے سپاہیوں، قومی قیادت اور اے پی ایس کے بچوں کو شہیدکیا ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ ان امور پر پارلیمنٹ سے منظور کردہ پالیسی ہی بہتر اور قانونی ہو سکتی ہے۔
بعدازاں بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے پارٹی کے دیگر اراکین پارلیمنٹ کے ساتھ اپوزیشن لیڈر کے چیمبر میں مشترکہ اپوزیشن کے ایک اجلاس میں شرکت کی۔ اس اجلاس میں شرکت کے بعد صحافیوں سے باتیں کرتے ہوئے انہوں نے کہا کہ مہنگائی کے مسئلے پر ساری اپوزیشن متحد ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ ای ایم ایف سے معاہدوں کے بعد عوام مہنگائی کے بوجھ تلے دب چکے ہیں۔ حکومت کی جانب سے الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ مشین کے ذریعے ووٹ چوری کرنے اور نیب آرڈیننس کے ذریعے سیاسی انتقام کی کارروائیاں کرنا سب کے سامنے ہیں۔ ہم عوام کے لئے پارلیمنٹ میں مشترکہ آواز اٹھائیں گے اور ووٹ چوری کرنے اور سیاسی انتقام کی سازشوں کو شکست دے دوچار کریں گے۔
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25747/
Sunday, November 7, 2021
Pakistan - Alarm Bells
There is a whiff of change at the citadel of PML(N). Though Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s camp may rant and roar about playing centre-forward, former CM Shehbaz Sharif is back in the game. As senior Sharif extends an olive branch to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and says hello to PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the opposition parties are very likely to set their house in order. The very pubic spat between Islamabad and Rawalpindi landed as much-needed manna from heaven, right in its lap. Amid power shows all over the country and talks to muster support for the anti-government movement, the ruling PTI would be very naive to take a breather.
Nevertheless, any political storm–no matter how confident Mr Sharif may seem–would still be less back-breaking of a crisis. For, the nightmares are bound to get even worse. If the PTI’s voters are deeply concerned by the way their bills continue to soar high, it cannot pass the buck to Ishaq Dar’s rupee melodrama. Not anymore. Neither can the government keep referring to corruption sagas of the yore to defend the freefall of the Pakistani rupee. There are no plans in sight to slam the brakes on double-digits food inflation. The mega relief package heralded as a gamechanger was widely ridiculed after the overnight price hike in petrol. Power and gas tariffs are next in line to weigh excruciatingly on poor masses. To put it in layman’s terms, Islamabad does not need any external force to reshuffle the political cards. Its apparent failure to push the proverbial genies of sugar, wheat and even ghee mafias back inside the bottle can do the job well on its own.
More worrisome is the nauseating deja vu to Ayub Khan’s spinning of the economic hats. The uncanny resemblance is hard to look past. He, too, had proclaimed to steer his debt-ridden country out of its troubles. But just like today, prosperity was low-hanging fruit to a selected few. Going by the press conferences, Pakistan is on a steady track for its economy to grow nearly five per cent. The IMF programme is back on the table. But if life is all sunshine and rainbows, why is an average Pakistani contemplating how to put two meals on his table? Clearly, something sinister has been in the making. The turnover of the ’50s Green Revolution was said to have been circulated between some 80 families. In 2021, the carcass of Pakistan’s economy is being scavenged by sugar barons, concrete captains and Mister Bigs of the textile industry. The government has, indeed, delivered its promise regarding lifelines to large-scale manufacturers. May it be the automobile industry or the construction channel, big wheels are having a night on tiles. But when would these sweeteners trickle all the way to the common man is a quandary no one in the top echelons is ready to give their two cents on!
https://dailytimes.com.pk/838357/alarm-bells/
#Pakistan - A dark future
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Students emerging from the Single National Curriculum’s shadow will be hugely
disadvantaged in a competitive global environment.
What awaits children studying under the Single National Curriculum (SNC) in the years ahead? The SNC is an ideological project conceived by Prime Minister Imran Khan that conjoins all regular schools with madrassahs. Doing so, he contends, will level the playing field. But now that implementation is proceeding rapidly in three provinces, parents of school-going children are worried.
The pre-SNC situation was bad enough. Pakistani children stand at the bottom end of global educational achievement, with surveys showing sinking learning levels. Inferior to their counterparts in Iran, India and Bangladesh, they are often absent from competitions like the international science and mathematics Olympiads. When they do compete, they perform poorly. The solitary exception is invariably an O-A level or IB student linked to a foreign examination system. Non-elite school students are generally unable to express themselves coherently and grammatically in any language.
This under-achievement is severely restricting employment possibilities at home and abroad. Although many students do get higher degrees later, yet, bad early education means few do well as practicing engineers and scientists. Last year, Pakistan’s software exports – a measure of brain power – stood at only $2 billion (India’s were $148 billion). Our overseas workforce is mostly unskilled or semi-skilled labour. The GIZ-ILO statistics show that only 3 percent is high-level (engineers, doctors, teachers, top management, etc); the remaining 97 percent includes labourers, house helpers, bus drivers, carpenters and electricians etc.
Poor learning habits start from Pakistani schools where kids learn examination techniques, and are taught just enough to get by. Students with low reasoning ability but high memorisation capacity – or illegal access to smartphones during examinations – emerge as “toppers”. Presently, dozens of students are scoring 1,100 out of 1,100 marks in examinations held across the Punjab. Cheating is socially tolerated. Parents – including those who emphasise religious rituals – encourage their children to cheat as a way to get ahead.
The SNC will drag down standards further. Here’s why: rote learning is a bane for modern education but is central to madrassah education where holy texts must be committed to memory. The SNC has made the rote system stronger. On one hand, everyone will need to memorise much more religious material; on the other, a single official textbook is specified for each subject. A student memorising selected parts of that book can get full marks.
What the SNC’s clueless managers do not understand is that the world has zero use for a hafiz-i-science or hafiz-i-riyazi. He will not be hired. Instead, businesses, industries and research laboratories want people with a broad scope of knowledge, reasoning capacity and ability to navigate new situations.
Of course, everyone agrees that mathematics, science and English should be taught in madrassahs. Without these, one cannot know how the modern world works. But 99 percent of madrassah students will never use mathematics or science in any significant way. So why set equal standards for both? And have the same books? The SNC requires students of both streams – madrassah and regular – to take the same board examinations and be graded similarly. Examination setters know that any “out-of-course” questions may cause hell to break loose on the streets.
Actual equity in education needs major government investment in public school facilities, teacher training and books.
It makes no sense to conjoin madrassah and regular schools because madrassahs have a very specific mission objective – that of preparing one for life after death. This explains their permanence, and is why the dars-i-nizami curriculum, developed in pre-colonial India, was never changed to accommodate new ideas. You cannot have a student asking why this or that is true. Therefore, critical faculties must be deliberately dulled; a student must accept and obey. To do otherwise could be dangerous.
Regular schools cannot function as madrassahs (and vice versa) because worldly subjects – art, business, science, mathematics, poetry and literature – have diametrically opposite requirements. Here, good education means encouraging curiosity, enhancing reasoning powers, exposing the student to a wide variety of writings and helping create new forms or new thoughts.
Experience of the Ottoman Turkey and Mohammed Ali’s 19th Century Egypt shows that yoking madrassahs and regular schools into a single hybrid system is futile. This is why Arab countries today are fast changing their curricula into modern ones. Pakistan is trying to be an exception, but it will pay a heavy price. Masses of the SNC unemployed graduates – even those with PhDs – will be the result of a failed experiment.
Can a uniform national curriculum level the playing field for all Pakistanis, rich and poor? This idea appears hugely attractive, striking a lethal blow to the abominable education apartheid that wracked Pakistan from day one. Beneficiaries of elite private education became widely separated from those crippled by bad public schooling. So, what could be better than having the rich child and the poor child study the same subjects from the same books and being judged by the same standards?
But this is wishful thinking. The old curriculum actually never stood in the way of equity. In fact, any curriculum is just a list of things to be done. Across countries that list is identical when it comes to teaching languages, geography, arithmetic and basic sciences. Actual equity in education needs major government investment in public school facilities, teacher training and books. Pakistan has extreme wealth disparities; education equity also demands these inequities be ameliorated. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government has taken no steps in this regard.
The SNC is a fake, cost-free, propagandistic solution to a fake problem. Hypocrisy is written across its face. As affirmed by Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, the SNC will not touch Cambridge O-A levels and International Baccalaureate. Thus, the children of parents paying a monthly fee between Rs 15,000 to Rs 45,000 per child in O-A level and IB schools have no cause for worry. The SNC is opium for the masses. The sooner we see it this way the better.
Today, some Muslim countries are trying hard to meld modernity with tradition. While their curriculum does include some religious education, they have sharply decreased the amount of time reserved for memorisation. Instead, the emphasis is on building cognitive capacity, comprehension, critical thinking skills and citizenship issues. For Pakistani children to have a future, our education system must move in a similar direction. The curriculum changes introduced by the PTI government are a menace that should be abandoned forthwith.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/906286-a-dark-future
#Pakistan - A dangerous ‘truce’
https://www.dawn.com/news/1656259/a-dangerous-truce
Saturday, November 6, 2021
Friday, November 5, 2021
#Pakistan - The cost of surrender
THE terms of surrender may not have been made public but the capitulation could not have been more humiliating. There was nothing surprising about the government succumbing to a lawless brigade. The writ of the state has yet again crumbled in the face of violent extremism. After two weeks of blowing hot and cold, the PTI government has apparently signed on the dotted line. It is the seventh time in the past five years that the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has brought the state to its knees. Each time it has returned more empowered.
The group that does not have any representation in the national parliament and has been proscribed as a terrorist outfit seeks to determine the country’s political and ideological course. The little-known Barelvi militant outfit saw its rise after its first siege of the capital in 2017. It was the civil-military divide, and not its popular mass support, that turned it into a force to be reckoned with.
A few thousand zealots led by a foul-mouthed cleric virtually paralysed Islamabad for more than three weeks. A troubled civilian administration was rendered helpless because of the alleged support of the intelligence agencies for the mob. Justice Qazi Isa’s damning ruling in the 2017 sit-in case sheds some light on the role of the intelligence agencies and some political leaders in encouraging the mob in order to weaken the then federal government. An oversight in a bill passed by parliament was used to whip up religious sentiments.
A besieged PML-N government was forced to accept the demands of the protesters that also included the resignation of the then federal law minister. The engineered anti-government protest empowered the radical Barelvi clerics. The siege of Islamabad also saw the rise of the TLP as a major religio-political force. It galvanised Barelvi militancy.
Curiously, the sectarian outfit that preached violence in the name of faith was allowed to participate in the 2018 elections. Although it didn’t win any National Assembly seat it emerged as the fourth largest bloc in Punjab in terms of the share of votes. Political machinations legitimised a militant sectarian group that hailed Mumtaz Qadri, the murderer of Salmaan Taseer who was the governor of Punjab. The TLP’s main support comes from the urban and rural lower-middle classes and traders. It has also made inroads into the support base of other established Islamic parties which have been virtually wiped out in Punjab. The frequent agitations are seen as a way of keeping the TLP politically alive and maintaining its financial lifeline. It would shake the government into submission each time it marched into Islamabad, further emboldening its supporters. The 2020 agreement signed by the PTI government was perhaps the most shameful. But it didn’t stop the group from launching another protest march a few months later. In panic, the PTI government declared the TLP a terrorist outfit early this year and arrested its leaders under the anti-terrorism laws. But days later, it started backing down, stalling the process required under the Constitution to provide a legal cover to the ban. The group continued its activities with impunity. The administration seems to have deliberately kept its proscription decision ambiguous. It has continued with its appeasement approach despite the TLP’s violent activities. Many in the PTI, including the prime minister, would assure the group that there was no difference between their and the TLP’s allegiance to the faith. The PTI’s increasing emphasis on religiosity, however, doesn’t seem to have appeased the radical clerics. What happened over the last two weeks was predictable. The banned outfit was once again out on the streets choking GT Road and threatening to storm Islamabad. The TLP has once again made the country hostage, attacking the civilian law-enforcement agencies. The confusion was manifested in the contradictory statements emanating from federal ministers. The widening gap between the civil and military leadership may have also been a reason for the policy disarray. The administration appeared completely helpless against a few thousand zealots blocking the highways. The oft-repeated mantra of ‘establishing the writ of the state’ became a joke with the zealots paralysing the administration. While the federal government was bending over backwards pleading with the banned terrorist group for negotiations the violence continued unabated, leaving several policemen dead. The writ of the state was nowhere to be seen. One must appreciate the opposition parties for not jumping into the fray and exploiting the situation in order to put the government under more pressure by siding with the TLP. This sane approach was markedly different from the PTI’s opportunistic politics during the 2017 siege of Islamabad. How can one forget Imran Khan’s speeches at that time whipping up religious sentiments? There was hardly any difference between the TLP’s and PTI’s position on the demand for the law minister’s resignation. Now the PTI government faces the same extremist challenge which it seems incapable of dealing with. Its capitulation was very much predictable. Its latest agreement with the TLP has worsened the internal security situation arising from increasing faith-based extremism. Apparently, the government has agreed not to pursue criminal cases against TLP activists allegedly involved in the killing of policemen and destroying state and public properties. It also appears that the government will not pursue the legal process in its decision to proscribe the group. The deal came through after the prime minister’s meeting with a group of clerics most of whom are considered ideologically close to the TLP. On their insistence, the prime minister also changed the government’s negotiating team and included those ministers who are believed to have strong conservative views and considered sympathetic to the TLP’s retrogressive sectarian ideology. While the government claims that the crisis is over, the TLP has yet to call off the agitation saying it would wait for the government to implement the agreement. The deal has legitimised a banned terrorist group. The crisis is far from over. Emboldened by their latest triumph, the radical clerics will soon be back with new demands. The country remains hostage to a terrorist band threatening to tear apart national security.The oft-repeated mantra of ‘establishing the writ of the state’ has become a joke.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1655672/the-cost-of-surrender
#Pakistan - Editorial: The govt's duplicitous approach in dealing with the TLP and the PTM is shocking
WHEN it comes to individuals the state deems a nuisance, the double-dealing is shocking. Take the case of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan activists, who paralyze major roads, allegedly kill policemen, destroy public property and use choice words to hit out at the civil, military, and judicial leadership.
Though the TLP has been banned, branded anti-state, and accused of terrorism, even of links with RAW, the reverential tone and sentiment of forgiveness the government has adopted when dealing with them these days is in sharp contrast to the treatment meted out to others the state sees as anti-national.
The indictment this week in Karachi of MNA Ali Wazir by an anti-terrorism court — on the basis of a questionable case prepared by the police — is an example. Time and again, both the federal and provincial governments have shown they have little patience with Mr Wazir and others representing the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement. Though restraint, middle paths and solutions have been painstakingly sought for the TLP, when it comes to the PTM, astoundingly it appears there is a no-tolerance policy.
Ali Wazir has been indicted for sedition, the go-to charge for those who question, criticise and challenge certain power quarters. Mr Wazir was detained in Peshawar in 2020 on the orders of the Sindh Police for an allegedly anti-state speech made in Karachi, and has remained in custody without bail. He, along with 10 others, have denied the charges. It is appalling enough that an MNA should have been repeatedly denied bail, but it is even more shameful that the lawmaker is being tried in an anti-terrorism court.
The Sindh government’s role in this is unacceptable and mirrors the approach taken by the KP government when it arrested PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen, as well as the federal government that has in the past arrested PTM supporters. As far as our rulers are concerned, the movement falls into the category of those anti-state groups our rulers do not negotiate, engage or make deals with but instead, hound, arrest and punish.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1656085/duplicitous-approach
Why Saudi Arabia decided to bail out bankrupt Pakistan despite its Iranian tilt
On 31 October, Pakistan’s troubled prime minister expressed his gratitude to Saudi Arabia for its recent commitment “to deposit $3 billion and financing $1.2 billion refined petroleum products during the year”, and further opined that the two states enjoy “long-standing and historic fraternal relations, rooted deep in common faith, shared history and mutual support”. Khan further effused that the move “reaffirms the all-weather friendship between the two states”. However, this verbiage is a small fig leaf for the bigger truth: There has long-been trouble in paradise for the two states. Why has Riyadh sought to begin closing the otherwise gaping chasm in relations now? Afghanistan likely explains the move in some measure, but Riyadh's growing economic ties with India will constrain the limits of Saudi-Pakistan ties.
Paradise lost?
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s ties predate the latter’s acquisition of massive wealth. In the 1960s, both sides valued each other for reciprocal reasons. Saudi appreciated Pakistan’s willingness to train Saudi armed forces as a countermeasure to Gamal Abdel Nasser’s socialist regime in Egypt. The kingdom sent troops to Pakistan for training and later, following an agreement in the mid-1960s, retired Pakistani military officials went to Saudi Arabia both to help build up the kingdom’s armed forces while enabling Pakistan to forge an international presence in the wake of its defeats to India in 1965 and 1971. Saudi Arabia became even closer to Pakistan after the loss of East Pakistan.
Events in the late 1970s bolstered Saudi’s interest in strengthening its security with the military help from the Land of the Pure, including the dissidents’ 1979 siege of the mosque at Mecca, the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. By 1981, the Pakistan government admitted that “1,500 to 2,000 military men are on duty in Saudi Arabia in what they describe as engineering and training assignments”. In return, Saudi Arabia paid Pakistan perhaps as much as $1 billion. Throughout this period, Western intelligence agencies were aware of Pakistan’s efforts to build a nuclear bomb. Throughout the 1980s, Pakistan became the beneficiary of Saudi largesse while Saudi Arabia benefited from Pakistan’s military assets.
As Pakistan’s economic situation became ever more shambolic, its reliance upon Saudi Arabia deepened. Saudi Arabia was more than happy to oblige: It deferred loan payments for subsidised Pakistani oil imports; helped build large networks of madrassas, dampened impacts of sanctions following Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear tests in exchange for Pakistan military assistance while shoring up its regional interests. Moreover, remittances from Pakistani migrant workers in Saudi Arabia comprise about one-fourth of Pakistan’s overall foreign remittances while providing the kingdom with much-needed human resources.
Given the inordinate financial dependence upon Saudi Arabia and Riyadh’s expectation that Pakistan would be a reliable military partner, Saudi Arabia was miffed when Pakistan demurred from contributing ships, aircraft, and troops to Saudi’s brutal campaign in Yemen to restore President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in April 2015 after Pakistan’s parliament voted to remain neutral. Despite then prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s close ties with Saudi Arabia, Sharif’s opposition to Pakistan’s military made his government unreliable in the eyes of Riyadh. In an effort to smooth over Riyadh’s ruffled feathers, Pakistan participated in the 2016 “North Thunder” military exercise with Saudi Arabia and its allies as well as joint exercises between the special forces of both countries.
The Sharif government additionally dispatched more than 1,000 troops to the Kingdom, which augmented the 1,600 already deployed to Saudi Arabia to “secure Islamic holy sites and serve in other internal security roles”. In November 2017, Sharif’s government joined the Saudi-led Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition, which is comprised militaries from 41 Islamic countries ostensibly to fight terrorist groups and their activities throughout the Muslim world. Pakistan’s retired Army chief Raheel Sharif commanded the group.
In August 2018, the Pakistan Army selected Imran Khan as the prime minister, which suggested a greater degree of alignment between Rawalpindi and Islamabad. For a brief period, Prime Minister Khan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman enjoyed bonhomie. As Khan came into office, Pakistan’s military had secured an economic package from Riyadh and the crown prince personally invited Khan to come to the Kingdom to attend a conference on investments. Other high-profile invitees withdrew following the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist residing in the United States. Within a month of the conference, the first $1 billion of a $3 billion loan was delivered to Pakistan.
Riyadh’s junior partner in the region, Abu Dhabi, followed through with a comparable offering. As if to reward a pliant client, in February 2019, Mohammad bin Salman arrived in Islamabad with an entourage of businessmen with pages in over $20 billion, including an Aramco oil refinery in Gwadar. In March 2019, Pakistan’s willingness to join a Saudi-led coalition against Iran appeared to have patched up any lingering concern about Pakistan’s commitment to the Kindom.
A short-lived respite
In August 2019, India dispensed with Kashmir’s special status. Pakistan was incensed and was discomfited when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates kept mum on the matter and remained so. In contrast, Turkey and Malaysia lent their outcry to that of Pakistan. The three countries considered forming an alternate Islamic bloc given Arab insouciance about India’s bold move.
Malaysia put a December summit on the books. Malaysia’s prime minister intimated that it would serve as an alternative bloc “to the inert, Saudi-dominated Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.” Ultimately, under vituperative Saudi threats, Pakistan withdrew from the Kuala Lumpur summit, which was attended by Saudi’s regional rivals Qatar, Turkey and Iran.
On the one-year anniversary of India’s decision to strip Kashmir of its special status, and after accumulating frustration with Saudi inaction over the outrage, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi demanded that Saudi Arabia show leadership on the matter and convene a special meeting of the OIC to inveigh upon the matter. Failing to do so, Qureshi threatened to turn to Malaysia, Turkey and Iran which had vocally sided with Pakistan.
Riyadh was not amused. It demanded that Pakistan immediately repay $1 billion, which was part of the $3 billion lent to Pakistan in November 2018. While China stepped in to bail out Pakistan, but the question lingered: What leverage does aid-dependent Pakistan have over its long-standing benefactor?
The long haul?
So what happened? Economics happened. The fact of the matter is that even Saudi Arabia has seen the long-term writing on the wall. In 2019-20, bilateral trade between India and Saudi Arabia was valued at more than $44 billion while trade with Pakistan was a meager $3.6 billion.
Under Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia cares about cash not concord across the Muslim world. To underscore this point, Mohammad bin Salman endorsed China’s policies in Xinjiang, which other states have decried as a genocide. China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner.
However, Saudi Arabia has been shut out of the most important developments in the region: The Taliban victory in Afghanistan, due to Pakistan’s unstinting military, diplomatic and political support. In 2013, the Taliban opened its first overseas office in Doha. Since then, Doha and China — along with Pakistan, Turkey, and the United States — have shaped the events in Afghanistan without any substantive role for Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia wants to reassert its prominence in the region after being eclipsed by its regional rivals for several years. While Saudi Arabia has no interest in limiting ties with India at Pakistan’s behest, it does want to limit the temptation for Pakistan to reassert ties with Iran. Pakistan’s partnership with Beijing, based nearly entirely on loans, cannot replace the Kingdom’s heft in the Islamic world even if it can influence it with the allure of its economy. While Pakistan won’t get Saudi’s support on Kashmir, it is perfectly happy to cash Riyadh’s check. And that’s enough for both.
Thursday, November 4, 2021
‘RIP minorities of Pakistan’ — politicians junk bill meant to stop forced conversions
PTI lawmaker Lal Chand Malhi said that the 'conservative mindset' of some members in his party was an additional roadblock for the bill.A Pakistani Parliamentary Committee Wednesday rejected the proposed anti-forced religious conversion bill, a move that was met with protests and criticism from lawmakers belonging to the country’s minority communities, as well as from some sections of the media and Twitter. According to a Dawn report, the proposed law would have criminalised forced religious conversions by awarding a punishment of 5-10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1-2 lakh. Abettors to forced conversion could be imprisoned for 3-5 years and fined Rs 1 lakh, according to the bill.The Express Tribune reported that the bill was struck down by the Parliamentary Committee to Protect Minorities from Forced Conversions due to opposition from the country’s Ministry of Religious Affairs, with minister Sahibzada Noorul Haq Qadri stating that the current environment was “unfavourable” for such a bill to be passed into law. Qadri spoke further on the bill Friday in his appearance on Shahzeb Khanzada’s GEO News show, claiming that forced religious conversion was a problem limited to “three districts” of Sindh while remaining a rarity in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan provinces.
Senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and member of the Jamaat-e-Islami Mushtaq Ahmed Khan was also among those who opposed the bill, labelling it “anti-Islam”.Among the critics of the decision to reject the bill were Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) lawmakers Lal Chand Malhi and Ramesh Kumar Vankwani. While Malhi said that the rejection would make minorities’ lives in Pakistan a “living hell”, Vankwani alleged that Hindus have been lured into forced religious conversion through monetary bribes and promises of marriage, Dawn reported. In an interview with The Express Tribune, Malhi added that the “conservative mindset” of some PTI members was an additional roadblock for the bill. The Tribune also interviewed the parliamentary committee’s chair senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar who argued that forced religious conversion arises more often from “financial, social and sexual context, than religious and spiritual.” “Ninety eight per cent of forced conversion cases take place with underprivileged girls, who run away from their homes. There’s seldom been any case like such for women who are doctors and engineers, or just higher up the social class,” ul-Haq added.Editorials in Pakistani dailies Dawn and The Tribune also criticised the bill’s rejection. While the former lamented the “majoritarian view” prevailing, the latter said the minority lawmakers’ criticisms were “valid”.“Ask the right-wing lobby and they will all largely agree that forced conversions are wrong from a religious point of view. But they refuse to countenance any practical measures that will stop this reprehensible practice,” Dawn said. “…no one should be disgraced and forced to convert. At the same time, Islam too ensures that religion is by choice of faith after learning it by head and heart. The need is to reevaluate the bill’s fine print, in an attempt to ensure communal harmony in good faith,” The Tribune said. Some users on Twitter also weighed in. “Shahzeb Khanzada grilled Religious affairs minister Peer Noor – ul- Qadri on forced conversion bill. Minister clearly refused to carry the forced conversion bill & told this will bring conflict in country. Rip minorities of Pakistan,” journalist Abdullah Momand said.
“Forced conversion targets young women, in a systematic pattern of abuse, and is a key way in which militarized masculinities operates in Pakistan, because remember these actors have protection. Hate crimes against all genders and minors go up when this is condoned,” user Nosheen Ali claimed.
“This whole narrative around forced Conversion in Pakistan was/is a hoax. You people don’t have a shred of evidence to prove your claim and yet you lie to your teeth day in and day out,” Mohammad Saad said in response to Ali, citing research papers in an attempt to debunk Ali.“You’re responsible for the forced conversion of little girls, snatching them from their families, & their sexual abuse by pedophiles who kidnap them,” filmmaker and activist Usama Khilji called out the politicians who opposed the bill.
https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/rip-minorities-of-pakistan-politicians-junk-bill-meant-to-stop-forced-conversions/751268/
نیا لالی پاپ، پیکیج مذاق کے سوا کچھ بھی نہیں، عمران کا استعفیٰ ہی قوم کیلئے بڑا ریلیف ہوسکتا ہے، اپوزیشن
اپوزیشن رہنماؤں نے وزیراعظم کے مہنگائی پر ریلیف پیکج کو نیا لالی پاپ قرار دیتے ہوئے کہا ہے کہ وزیراعظم کا پیکج مذاق ہےعمران خان استعفیٰ دیں،قوم کیلئے سب سے بڑا ریلیف پیکیج ہو گا، پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ وزیراعظم عمران خان کا پیکیج مذاق کے سوا کچھ نہیں ہے آٹا، گھی اور دالوں پر 30 فیصد رعایت سے صرف6ماہ کیلئے کچھ خاندانوں کو فائدہ ہوگا، تین سال کے دوران گھی کی قیمت میں108فیصد، آٹے میں 50فیصد اور گیس میں300فیصد اضافہ ہوا۔ تاریخی مہنگائی، غربت اور بیروزگاری کا سامنا کرنے والے 20 کروڑ لوگوں کیلئے 30 فیصد رعایت بہت کم ہے،شیری رحمٰن نے کہا معاشی اعداد و شمار خطے میں سب سے خراب ہوگئے،حکومت معیشت کی صورتحال پر پوری قوم سے معافی مانگے، سراج الحق نے کہا کہ حکومتی کشتی ڈوب رہی ہے، ڈبونے والے ملاح خود ہیں،
شازیہ مری نے کہا عوام کچھ خریدنے کے قابل نہیں رہے،حمزہ شہباز نے کہا وزیراعظم نے عوام کے زخموں پر نمک چھڑکا ،پوری قوم کو سبسڈی کا مستحق بنادیا،مریم اورنگزیب نے کہا کہ آپ ملک چلانے کی اہل ہی نہیں، جس دن عمران خان گھر جائینگے ملک سے مہنگائی ختم ہو جائیگی، سینیٹر ساجد میر نے کہا چینی اور آٹا چور مافیا کو ریلیف دیدیا گیا، حافظ حسین احمد نے کہا کہ2کروڑ عوام کیلئے سبسڈی باقی20کروڑ کیا کرینگے۔
تفصیلات کے مطابق پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے لاڑکانہ میں کارکنوں سے خطاب اورٹویٹر پیغام میں کہا کہ پی ٹی آئی والے جھوٹے ہیں، یہ ریلیف کے نام پر تکلیف دیتے ہیں۔ عمران خان آج بھی اپنی ناکامیوں کا ملبہ پچھلی حکومتوں پر ڈال رہے ہیں۔ عوام کو لالی پاپ نہیں بلکہ عمران خان سے حساب چاہیے۔آج کے خطاب کا نتیجہ بھی پچھلے خطاب کی طرح بے فائدہ ہوگا،عمران خان نے آج بھی کسی ریلیف پیکیج کا نہیں بلکہ لولی پاپ پیکیج کا اعلان کیا ہے۔ عمران خان کا پیکیج عوام کیلئے نہیں بلکہ چند خاندانوں کیلئے ہے،عمران خان جھوٹ بولنے اور وعدہ خلافی کرنے والے سلیکٹیڈ وزیراعظم ہیں۔ بلاول بھٹو نے کہا عوام کو عالمی امداد سے ملنے والا فنڈز نہیں ملا، عوام کب تک برداشت کریں گے، گلگت سے کراچی تک عوام کا نعرہ ہے کہ پیٹ پر ڈاکا نامنظور۔ عمران خان جہاں جاتے ہیں، بھیک مانگتے ہیں اور جو پیسہ مسلم اُمہ کے ممالک یا آئی ایم ایف سے آئے، کسی کو نہیں پتا وہ کہاں خرچ ہوتا ہے۔بلاول کا کہنا تھا کہ پی ٹی آئی کو نہ معیشت کا پتہ ہے اور نہ ہی سیاست اور خارجہ معاملات کا کوئی علم ہے۔
پیپلز پارٹی کی نائب صدر سینیٹر شیری رحمن نے قائمہ کمیٹی برائے خزانہ کے اجلاس کے بعد میڈیا سے گفتگو کرتے ہوئے کہا حکومت خود اعتراف کر رہی ہے کہ مہنگائی بڑھے گی۔ انہوںنے کہاکہ بنی گالا کا ہیلی کاپٹر تو عوام کے ٹیکسز سے چلے گا، پاکستان کے معاشی اعداد و شمار خطے میں سب سے خراب ہیں،گور نر اسٹیٹ بینک اپنے بیان کی وضاحت کریں اور معافی مانگیں ،معیشت کی صورت حال پر پوری حکومت کو عوام ست معذرت کرنی چاہئے ،حکومت نے پاکستان کا مستقبل گروی رکھ دیا ہے۔پیپلز پارٹی کی رکن قومی اسمبلی شازیہ عطا مری نے کہا ہے کہ پٹرول کی قیمتیں پہلے ہی خطے کے ممالک کے مقابلے میں بہت زیادہ ہیں،تین سالوں میں لوگوں کی آمدنی خوفناک حدتک اور قوت خرید ختم ہو چکی ہے۔مسلم لیگ (ن) کی ترجمان مریم اورنگزیب نے کہا ہے کہ عوام کیلئے سب سے بڑا ریلیف پیکیج عمران خان کا استعفیٰ ہے۔اسلام آباد میں پریس کانفرنس کرتے ہوئے مریم اورنگزیب نے کہا کہ عمران خان کی پالیسیوں نے ملک کو غریب، عوام کو بھکاری اور نوجوانوں کو بے روزگار کردیا عمران خان نے عوام کو 3سال بیروزگاری، مہنگائی اوربھوک کا پیکیج دیا ، چینی، بجلی اور گیس کی قیمتوں میں اضافہ ہوا، ملک کو مقروض کیا گیا ، مہنگائی، قرض اور پیٹرول کی قیمتوں کا ریکارڈ ٹوٹ رہا ہے، بجلی کی قیمت 11 سے 24 روپے کرنے سے ریلیف نہیں دیا جاتا، ادویات 500 فیصد مہنگی کرنے سے عوام کو ریلیف نہیں دیا جاتا۔ آپ کے وزیر خزانہ خود کہتے ہیں کہ مہنگائی مزید بڑھے گی تو آپ کیسے ریلیف دینگے ؟
مریم اورنگزیب نے وزیر اعظم کو مخاطب کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ آپ سے یہ ملک نہیں چل سکتا، آپ صرف عوام کو لوٹنے اور اپنی اے ٹی ایمز کو فائدہ دینے آئے ہیں، آپ جس دن ریلیف کی بات کرتے ہیں اسی روز چینی، آٹا اور پیٹرولیم مصنوعات سمیت ہر چیز مہنگی کرتے ہیں، آپ کہتے تھے کہ کوئی بھوکا نہیں سوئے گا؟ مگر لنگر خانے کھول کر وہ بھی بند کردیے، آپ کواعلان کرنا ہے تو استعفے کا اعلان کریں، یہ عوام کیلئے حقیقی ریلیف کے لئے سنگ میل ہوگا۔ ترجمان (ن) لیگ کا کہنا تھا کہ ایسا لگتا ہے عمران خان خود شہزاد اکبر بننا چاہتے ہیں، اسی لئے نیب کا نیا آرڈیننس جاری کیا ،ایک سوال پر انہوں نے کہاکہ قومی سلامتی کمیٹی میں شرکت کا فیصلہ پارٹی کریگی۔ دوسری جانب امیر جماعت اسلامی سراج الحق نے کہا کہ حکومتی کشتی ڈوب رہی ہے، ڈبونے والے ملاح خود ہیں، حالات اس نہج پر پہنچ چکے ہیں کہ پی ٹی آئی کو اقتدار میں لانے والے بھی مایوس دکھائی دے رہے ہیں۔ حواس باختہ حکمران صلاحیت سے عاری، سوا تین سال میں محرومیاں اور مایوسیاں بانٹیں۔ پی ٹی آئی کے اپنے سپورٹرز بھی مایوس ہیں اور اس وقت کو کوس رہے ہیں جب حکمران جماعت کا ساتھ دیا۔ کمرتوڑ مہنگائی، طوفان بے روزگاری، شریعت سے متصادم قانون سازی اور سود پر اربوں ڈالر کے تاریخی قرضے اس حکومت کے 22کروڑ عوام کے لیے تحائف ہیں۔
اپوزیشن لیڈر پنجاب اسمبلی حمزہ شہباز شریف نے اپنے ردعمل میں کہا ہے کہ وزیراعظم کا خطاب عوام کو ریلیف کے اعلان کے بجائے محض زخموں پر نمک پاشی تھاعمران خان آئے سبسڈی کا اعلان کرنے تھے لیکن پیٹرولیم مصنوعات کی قیمتوں اور مہنگائی میں مزید اضافے کی نوید سنا گئے۔انکا خطاب غریب عوام کیلئے ایک اور سبز باغ تھا۔وزیراعظم صاحب 2 کروڑ پاکستانی نہیں بلکہ آپ کی حکومت نے 22 کروڑ پاکستانیوں کو سبسڈی کا مستحق بنا چھوڑا ہے جبکہ اس حکومت کی نااہلی کے سبب پاکستان کے متوسط طبقے کی کمر بھی ٹوٹ چکی ہے۔یہ ریلیف کا پیکج ایک کروڑ نوکریوں کے جھانسے اور پچاس لاکھ گھر کے جھوٹ کی نئی قسط ہے۔ حمزہ شہباز نےسوال کیا کہ کیا اس سبسڈی سے روٹی 10 روپے سے سستی ہو جائے گی کیا عام عوام کے لئے 125 روپے کلو چینی سستی ملے گی کیا دوائیوں میں ہونے والے 500 فیصد اضافے پر بھی حکومت سبسڈی دے گی اور کیا 220 روپے کلو ملنے والی ایل پی جی بھی سستی ملے گی۔ سینیٹر علامہ پروفیسر ساجد میر نے اپنے ردعمل میں کہا ہے کہ یہ تو سب کو معلوم تھا کہ آئندہ پٹرولیم مصنوعات کی قیمتوں میں اضافہ ہونا ہے، اس کیلئے قوم کو بھاشن دینے کی کیا ضرورت تھی۔ ایک پریس ریلیز جاری کردی جاتی، کافی تھی۔