Saturday, January 22, 2022
Pakistan is paying the price for Dasu attack that killed Chinese workers — $11.6 million
SONIYA AGRAWAL
Beijing had demanded that the Imran Khan government pay $38 million to the families of 36 Chinese workers killed or injured in the Dasu dam terror attack in July 2021. Nine months after a terror attack on Dasu dam killed 10 Chinese construction workers in Pakistan, the Imran Khan government has finally agreed to pay less than half of what Beijing demanded — $11.6 million. The government approved the amount to be given to the families of the Chinese workers killed or injured in the terror attack that took place on 14 July 2021.The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Pakistan, which is the prime minister’s consulting forum, met Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Friday and took the decision. China had previously demanded that the Pakistan government pay $38 million to the families of 36 Chinese workers affected in the attack. The attack had also claimed lives of four Pakistani workers. Allegations suggesting that the Chinese contractor had vacated the site and raised several demands as preconditions to resume work. But these were rubbished by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian in a press conference on Friday. He reportedly said: “I’m not aware of the situation you mentioned. As far as I know, the Dasu hydropower project has resumed.” “Recently, we have seen [the] president of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and some media’s positive comments on the progress made in the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) flagship project,” he added. The Dasu Hydropower Project in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which has now resumed operation, is funded by the World Bank. It, however, is not a part of the CPEC. According to a statement by PM Imran Khan, the dam will provide low-cost, clean energy. “Phase one of Dasu Dam will be completed by 2025, which will add 2160 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. This capacity will increase to 4320 megawatts with the completion of its second phase by 2029,” he had said. Allegations on India In August 2021, former member of Senate Sehar Kamran alleged that the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghan National Directorate of Security was involved in the attack. Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had also made a similar statement, alleging that the bombing was carried out by terrorists backed by the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies.Reports suggested that the Pakistani intelligence found the involvement of Pakistan Taliban in the attack and also claimed involvement of Indian and Afghan intelligence. It was also claimed that the vehicle carrying the explosives was smuggled into Pakistan.India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected the allegations, calling them ‘absurd’. “This is yet another attempt by Pakistan to malign India, in a bid to deflect international attention from its role as the epicentre of regional instability and a safe haven for proscribed terrorists,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said.https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/pakistan-is-paying-the-price-for-dasu-attack-that-killed-chinese-workers-11-6-million/810221/
Pakistan: 'WhatsApp blasphemy' death sentence reinforces dangerous trend
Aneeqa Ateeq, a 26-year-old Muslim woman, was arrested in May 2020 and charged with posting "blasphemous material" as her WhatsApp status, according to a summary issued by the court. A man urged her to change it, but she instead forwarded the material to him, it said.
Caricatures of Muhammad are forbidden by Islam. The court in the city of Rawalpindi found Ateeq guilty, gave her a 20-year jail sentence and ordered her to be "hanged by her neck till she is dead." The death sentence is subject to confirmation by the Lahore High Court. 'Revenge' for refusing 'to be friendly'? Ateeq, who has stated that she is a practicing Muslim, denied the charges. During the trial, Ateeq told the court that she believed the complainant, Hasnat Farooq, deliberately pulled her into a religious discussion so he could implicate her and take "revenge" after she refused "to be friendly" with him.Farooq contended that the accused shared the allegedly blasphemous material as a WhatsApp status and refused to delete it when he confronted her on the messaging platform.She "deliberately and intentionally defiles sacred righteous personalities and insulted the religious beliefs of Muslims," according to the charge sheet. Legal experts, however, said no proper legal aid was provided to Ateeq during the trial. "The defense lawyer failed to defend her during the entire trial period and even admitted her crime in the court proceedings, which led to Ateeq's death sentence," said Saiful Malook, a senior lawyer who represented Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent years on death row following blasphemy allegations before she was acquitted by the nation's top court in 2019. Blasphemy to settle petty disputes and personal vendettas Blasphemy is a sensitive topic in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where about 97% of the 180 million inhabitants are Muslim. In 1947, Pakistan inherited the blasphemy laws from its British colonial rulers, who had made it a criminal offense to commit "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religious belief." In later decades, the Islamic military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq introduced extensions of the laws between 1977 and 1988, including life imprisonment for people found guilty of defiling or desecrating the Holy Quran. Later, the death penalty was declared mandatory for anyone blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad.According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, about 80 people are known to be jailed in Pakistan on blasphemy charges — half of whom face life in prison or the death penalty.People have been lynched and even killed following allegations of insulting Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. In December, a Sri Lankan working in a factory in the eastern business hub of Sialkot was killed by an enraged mob over blasphemy suspicions, an incident that grabbed global headlines. Activists and rights groups believe that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are draconian and are often misused. The laws are often employed in cases that have little to do with blasphemy and are used to settle petty disputes and personal vendettas. Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis — a minority Islamic sect — are often victimized as a result, they point out. "The current version of the blasphemy law is indeed draconian. It is often misused, abused and exploited by individuals for their own ulterior motives and vested interests," Tahira Abdullah, a human rights activist, told DW. Amending the 'untouchable laws' Rights organizations have long called on the government to amend or repeal the contentious laws. "The law should be amended, and, at the very minimum, there is a need to amend the procedural aspects of the Pakistan Penal Code Sections. For example, we need to change FIR filing process, enforcement of the 2017 law for the protection of the accused and witnesses and the judges' protection. The misuse of the cybercrime law (PECA 2016 law) also needs to be stopped," Abdullah said. "No law, including the blasphemy law, is untouchable," she added. Conservative and right-wing groups, however, have vociferously opposed allowing even a slight amendment to the blasphemy laws. Ayesha Ijaz Khan, a lawyer and columnist, told DW that it was impossible to have a rational conversation on the issue given the prevailing climate of fear. "It is impossible to speak freely about matters tied to religion in Pakistan, although calls for reform have cited examples from other Muslim-majority countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia, where prison sentences for blasphemy vary from 3 to 5 years and do not carry the death penalty," she said. Anti-blasphemy politics by religious-political groups Abdullah said Pakistani politicians appeared to lack the courage to tackle the problem. "They are too afraid of the noisy street power of the mullahs and religious-political parties like the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP)," the expert underlined. TLP is a largely Barelvi (a sect in Islam) party, founded in 2015 by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a firebrand cleric who died in November 2020. The core ideology of this party revolves around the "finality of Prophet Muhammad" and the protection of Pakistan's blasphemy laws. "Groups like TLP have been used over the years for short-term political gain while overlooking the damage they do to the fabric of society and rule of law," Khan said. She noted that the group had protested against the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017 after the release of a proposed new version of an oath to be taken by lawmakers that omitted mention of the Prophet Muhammad. "The state capitulated to their demands, emboldening them. Later, this allowed them to demand the expulsion of the French ambassador over offensive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad published in France in 2020, she noted. Multiple reasons for the rise in blasphemy cases At the time of the 2017 protests, Prime Minister Imran Khan — who was then in the opposition — had sided with the protesters instead of with the then government, the lawyer said. "This came back to haunt him when they created mayhem again during his rule." Abdullah said the TLP's cynical manipulation of the blasphemy law to gain political objectives was not the only reason for the increasing number of blasphemy-linked court cases and vigilante killings. "Other factors include the misuse of religion for personal ulterior motives, the ignorance of the masses regarding the Quranic injunctions on the subject, the fear factor among witnesses, judges and lawyers, and the absence of political will to focus on the problems in the law itself," she said. Another big reason, Abdullah said, is "the ease with which vigilante mobs are permitted to carry out extrajudicial killings of blasphemy-accused individuals and then get away with impunity."https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-whatsapp-blasphemy-death-sentence-reinforces-dangerous-trend/a-60511046
Pakistan: Bilawal Bhutto Launches Tractor-trolley March To Protest Against Imran Khan Govt
Farmers protesting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI's) poor agricultural policies were joined by the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in a tractor-trolley march on Friday. As per the report of Dawn, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari told the farmers that "this handpicked government" has harmed the country's agricultural economy as much as it had harmed the overall economy in the last three years. He also stated that agriculture was the country's economic backbone and offered his support to farmers protesting the government's alleged inadequate agricultural policies. Since Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came to power in 2018, he claimed that farmers have not been obtaining adequate prices for their crops, while input costs have skyrocketed.Farmers protesting the government's poor agricultural policies were joined by the chairman of PPP, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in a tractor-trolley march on Friday.
PPP information secretary and MNA Shazia Marri stated on Thursday that farmers are facing major challenges like a lack of urea fertiliser and have been protesting the PTI government's anti-farmer policies, according to Dawn. She stated that a bag of urea fertiliser could get as much as Rs 3,500 on the illicit market and that the federal government was not helping farmers. She also said that the PPP would stage protests against the federal government's anti-farmer policies.Marches would be expanded to other parts of the country in the second phase
The party already held marches in Sindh's Larkana division and Punjab's Sahiwal division's Okara city during the first phase. Such marches would be expanded to other parts of the country in the second phase, beginning January 24, according to Dawn. The protest in Larkana will be led by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, while the farmers' gathering in Okara will be led by Punjab PPP President Raja Pervez Ashraf.https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/pakistan-news/pakistan-bilawal-bhutto-launches-tractor-trolley-march-to-protest-against-imran-khan-govt-articleshow.html
Friday, January 21, 2022
کسانوں سے اظہار یک جہتی کیلیے اوکاڑہ اور لاڑکانہ میں پر امن ٹرالی مارچ کر رہے ہیں،24جنوری کو کسانوں کیساتھ ملک گیر احتجاج ہو گا۔ صدر پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی وسطی پنجاب، راجہ پرویز اشرف
لاہور(۔ )پیپلز پارٹی وسطی پنجاب کے صدر راجہ پرویز اشرف نے کہا ہے کہ کسانوں سے اظہار یک جہتی کیلیے اوکاڑہ اور لاڑکانہ میں پر امن ٹرالی مارچ کر رہے ہیں،24جنوری کو کسانوں کیساتھ ملک گیر احتجاج ہو گا۔کسان کیلیے باہر نہ نکلے تو تاریخ معاف نہیں کریگی۔آج کھاد ناپید ہو چکی ہے۔کنٹرول ریٹ پر نہیں ملتی،بلیک میں مل جاتی ہے۔وہ اوکاڑہ کے ٹرالی مارچ میں شرکت سے قبل ماڈل ٹاؤن سیکرٹریٹ میں جنرل سیکرٹری حسن مرتضی اور سیکرٹری اطلاعات شہزاد سعید چیمہ کیساتھ پریس کانفرنس سے خطاب کر رہے تھے۔اس موقع ہرپیپلز پارٹی لاہور کے صدر اسلم گل، اسرار بٹ، رانا جمیل منج،امجد جٹ۔افنان بٹ،چودھری اختر،ڈاکٹر خیام حفیظ ،ملک ندیم افضل،نیلم جبار،فائزہ ملک،بشری ملک،نعیم دستگیر،محسن ملہی،یاسر بارا،کامران وڑائچ،شاہدہ جبیں،صابر بھلہ،جمشید ملک،بھی موجود تھے۔راجہ پرویز اشرف نے کہا کہ پیپلز پارٹی اپنے۔منشور کے مطابق کاشتکار کا با عزت روزگار چاہتی یے،بھارتی کاشتکار کے احتجاج پر ہم خوش ہوتے ہیں اپنے کسان کو تشدد کا نشانہ بناتے ہیں،تمام مکاتب فکر کو کسانوں کیساتھ اظہار یکجتی کرنا چاہیے۔انہوں نے کہا کہ جنگ و امن میں صرف کاشتکار نے فوڈ سیکورٹی دی۔کسان کیساتھ اظہار یک جہتی پاکستان کیساتھ اظہار یک جہتی ہے۔انکے ہر مطالبے کو ہم جائز سمجھتے ہیں۔
انہیں سستی کھاد،بیج بجلی،ڈیزل اور پانی فراہم کرنا حکومت کی ذمہ داری ہے۔انہوں نے کہا کہ حکومت کی کوئی زرعی پالیسی نہیں،دکاندار،کارخانہ دار تک سراپا احتجاج ہے،حکومت فوری کسانوں کے مطالبات فوری تسلیم کرے۔کسان کوان پٹس فوری فراہم کی جائیں۔کاشتکار کواسکی محنت کا با عزت ثمر دیا جاے،راجہ پرویز اشرف کا کہنا تھا کہ آج کسی چیزپر حکومت کا کنٹرول نہیں۔پاکستان کی معاشی خود مختاری ختم ہو چکی ہے،معیشت کا نظام تلپٹ ہو چکا ہے۔سٹیٹ بنک کا نظام آئی ایم ایف کے پاس ہے۔حکومت کسی معاملے پر سنجیدگی کا مظاہرہ نہیں کر رہی۔سرکاری ملازمین سڑکوں پر ہیں ،
حکومت مسائل حل کرنیکی بجائے انکا مذاق اڑاتی ہے،زرعی یونیورسٹی میں ریسرچ کا فقدان ہے۔زرعی سیکٹر کو فروغ دینا ہو گا۔زرعی گریجوا یٹس کو اہمیت دینا ہو گی۔ساری دنیا میں ریسرچ یونیورسٹیوں میں ہوتی ہے۔ریسرچ کا بجٹ بڑھایا جائے۔،سانحہ مری میں ایس او پیز پر عمل نہیں کیا گیا،برف صاف کرنیوالی مشینیں نازک مقامات پر موجود نہیں تھیں،اسمبلی میں بھی آواز اٹھائیں گے۔یہ نا قابل۔معافی جرم ہے۔چھوٹا سا ہل سٹیشن حکومت مینج نہیں کر سکی۔قرضے لینے کا بھی کوئی طریقہ ہوتا یے،
عام آدمی کا بجٹ تباہ ہو چکا یے۔انکے اپنے ارکان اسمبلی سراپا احتجاج ہیں۔جب ایسے حالات ہوں تو پارلیمان کا کام شروع ہو جاتا یے۔ڈالر کنٹرول نہیں ہو رہا۔علاقائی کرنسیوں کے۔مقابلےمیں روپیہ بہت نیچے ہے،2018میں جنوبی پنجاب محاذ بنا تھا جس کے قریشی صاحب علمبردار تھے۔پونے چار برس پہلے صوبہ جنوبی پنجاب کیلیے خط کیوں نہیں لکھا گیا۔یہ۔مہنگائی بیروزگاری کنٹرول کرنے میں ناکام ہو چکے ہیں،
ایک سوال کے جواب میں راجہ پرویز اشرف نے کہا کہ پیپلز پارٹی کسی ہاتھ کی طرف نہیں دیکھ رہی،تحریک عدم اعتماد جمہوری راستہ ہے،کامیاب کرانے کیلیے زور لگانا چاہیے۔سینٹ میں عدم اعتماد نہ لانے کی وجہ ہمارے دوست ہیں ،اپوزیشن لیڈروں کی لائن وہی ہے جو بلاول بھٹو زرداری کی ہے ۔لانگ مارچ میں کوئی ہمارے ساتھ آنا چاہے تو خوش آمدید کہیں گے۔انہوں نے کہا کہ صدارتی نظام کے شوشے چھوڑنے والے یاد رکھیں،یہ گڈی گڈے کا کھیل نہیں۔حکمران ترقی کامطلب الٹ سمجھتے ہیں۔کوئی ایک معاشی انڈیکٹر بتا دیں کہ ہم بہتری کی طرف جا رہے ہیں۔
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26133/
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asks the nation to participate in the Farmer’s March on January 21
The message of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto
Today I am addressing farmers across Pakistan. As you know, Pakistan’s agricultural economy has been destroyed.
In three years, this selected government has damaged the agricultural economy of Pakistan as much as it has damaged our entire economy. We believe that if the farmers are prosperous, the country is prosperous.
The agricultural economy is the backbone of our economy. If we can build the agricultural economy, the whole economy will prosper.
During the Pakistan Peoples Party era, we used to export Pakistan’s wheat, Pakistan’s rice and Pakistan’s sugar after meeting our required needs.
Today, we are importing wheat, rice and sugar. Ever since Khan Sahib’s government started, farmers have not been getting the price of their crops.
The input cost has increased so much.
Because petroleum is expensive – be it your tube well, or your tractor….Last season, our paddy crop was damaged due to lack of water. Now due to the urea crisis – the fertilizer crisis will damage our wheat crop.
We believe that our agricultural sector is a profitable business. We believe that this sector requires a lot of investment.
If we invest, arrange for the welfare of the farmer, bring the farmer the price of his crop, then the same farmer will not only be able to feed Pakistan, but he can sell his crop all over the world.
This is the call of the Pakistan Peoples Party. We are starting protests from January 21 from Larkana Division and Sahiwal Division of Punjab. We will stand with our farmer brothers and protest with them. God willing, by January 24, the protest will spread across the country.
We will hold our farmer march and tractor march in every division. We will draw attention to the farmers. We will expose this incompetent government and demand that Pakistan’s agricultural economy be saved, and Imran be ousted.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/statement/26129/
I appeal to you, support Pakistan Peoples Party. Pakistan Peoples Party has taken care of Pakistani farmers in every era, has served Pakistani farmers, and will continue to do so inshallah.
#Pakistan - The federal government should bring the issue of terrorism in the country under discussion in the Parliament immediately
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26131/
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Foreign funding fraud by Imran Khan's PTI: Authorities to reveal entire scrutiny committee report
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) urged authorities on Tuesday to make public the whole report of the scrutiny committee set up to audit the ruling PTI's foreign finances.The PTI received donations from foreign nationals and companies, under-reported funds, and disguised dozens of bank accounts, according to the report collected by the monitoring committee. Later, it was discovered that the report omitted eight volumes of requisitioned documents and bank statements from the State Bank of Pakistan. The committee withheld all the original 28 bank statements as well as year-by-year data of foreign money moved to the PTI's accounts between 2009 and 2013. Earlier, the Pakistan Election Commission (ECP) had found that Prime Minister Imran Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), had supplied incorrect information about funds received from abroad and, in fact, had disguised its genuine assets worth PKR 310 million. According to the Singapore Post, the ECP review committee's conclusion came as a shock to the party and its leader at a time when the prime minister is isolated both nationally and internationally. According to the ECP data, the PTI received PKR 1.64 billion in funding on January 5, 2022.In 2019, the ECP established a control committee to audit the PTI's foreign funding. https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/foreign-funding-fraud-by-imran-khans-pti-authorities-to-reveal-entire-scrutiny-committee-report-445776
Woman sentenced to death in Pakistan over ‘blasphemous’ WhatsApp activity
سانحہ مری کی تمام تر حالات کی ذمہ داری ڈی جی ریسکیو، وزیراعلی پنجاب، سمیت لوکل ایڈمینسٹریشن پر عائد ہوتی ہے، ترجمان بلاول بھٹو زرداری، زوالفقارعلی بدر
ترجمان بلاول بھٹو زرداری، زوالفقارعلی بدر کی لاہور میں مختلف نیوز چینلز ، اور قومی اخبارات کے بیورو چیف کے اعزاز میں ظہرانہ، کے موقع پر گفتگو میں پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چئیرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کی جانب سے سی ای سی اجلاس میں ہونے والے فیصلے اور 27 فروری کے لانگ مارچ کے اعلان کے بعد تیاریوں کے سلسلہ میں پارٹی تنظیموں کی جاری ورکنگ پر تبادلہ خیال، ملک بھر میں روز بروز بڑھتی ہوئی مہنگائی لاقانونیت انتقامی کارروائیوں سے جان چھڑانے اور حقیقی جمہوریت کی بحالی جدوجہد کو مزید تیز کرنے کیلئے پارٹی تنظیموں، کارکنوں، وکلا ء تنظیموں، سول سوسائیٹی، نوجوان، طلبا، اداروں کی ٹریڈ یونینز سے وابستہ افراد، تاجر برادری کی بھر شمولیت کو یقینی بنایا جائیگا،
ایک سوال کے جواب میں زوالفقار علی بدر کا کہنا تھا کہ ملک کے اندر صدارتی نظام کی بجائے پارلیمانی نظام بہتر کیا جائے تو بہتر ہوگا، کیونکہ صدارتی نظام کا ملک متحمل نہیں ہوسکتا، اگر ایمرجنسی کی صورت میں کوئی اقدام کیا گیا تو وہ غیر آئینی ہوگا، ایمرجنسی کی آئین میں کوئی گنجائیش نہیں ہے،
ترجمان بلاول بھٹو زرداری کا مزید کہنا تھا کہ سانحہ مری کے اندر تمام تر حالات کی زمہ داری ڈی جی ریسکیو، وزیراعلی پنجاب، سمیت لوکل ایڈمینسٹریشن پر عائد ہوتی ہے جنہیں فوری طور پر استعفی دینا چاہیںے تھا۔
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26123/
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
The U.S. Postal Service has begun taking orders for at-home coronavirus test kits - COVIDtests.gov
Each household order will contain four rapid tests, which the Postal Service says will be shipped for free "in late January."
Some on Twitter reported problems with orders from residents of apartment buildings with multiple units being told that someone from that household had already ordered the tests. According to the Associated Press:
The White House says it will prioritize shipments to Americans from ZIP codes that have experienced high rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths, with the first 20% of each day's orders going to those areas.
President Biden last week announced that the administration plans to buy 1 billion at-home tests for Americans and also said the White House will make high-quality masks available for free, with details coming out this week. There will also be a phone number so those without access to computers or high-speed internet can place orders.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/1073817562/order-covid-tests-free-biden-white-house?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&fbclid=IwAR0J6K1eFmpz_-F5vRJi0rvGOs3c0spw6hb0_sodmLFulahiLMEUy1ekd4g
Opinion | The Al-Qaida Operative, Antisemite and Pakistani National Hero Who Inspired the Texas Synagogue Terrorist
The issue was such a national priority that, in his sole White House meeting with President Donald Trump in 2019, Khan offered a prisoner exchange, swapping Aafia Siddiqui for Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden and who is serving a 33 year jail sentence in an unknown location in Pakistan. It was an exchange initially suggested by the U.S. in 2012 but, at the time, categorically rejected by Pakistan.Of course, no one in Islamabad would want to allude to the fact that Siddiqui herself was actually arrested by Pakistani security agencies as a terrorism suspect in 2003. She remained a wanted terrorist in Pakistan between 2003 and 2008, when she was arrested by the Afghanistan police over a bombing plot in Ghazni province, before shooting at U.S. army and FBI officials during their investigation of her case. Indeed, mental gymnastics is the preferred vocation of the Pakistani leadership, and Imran Khan has now taken them to new heights by. Islamabad’s bizarre duplicity on Siddiqui is both familiar and even understated when one considers that Khan loudly called Osama Bin Laden a "martyr" in parliament, and lauded the Taliban for "breaking the shackles of slavery" while leading a country that has taken over $33 billion from the U.S. to uphold that "slavery." While domestic Islamist parties have rallied for her release over the past 14 years, Siddiqui’s name doesn’t only resonate in Pakistan. Vows to avenge Siddiqui, and offers to exchange prisoners with her, have come from major global jihadist outfits, including the Taliban, Al-Qaida, and ISIS, with attacks being orchestrated as a persuasive tactic towards this aim. Indeed, 57 people have already been killed over the years by jihadis seeking Siddiqui's release.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, known as the Pakistani Taliban, a jihadist group responsible for years of bloodshed within the country, even formed an "Aafia Siddiqui Brigade" dedicated to her release. In addition to jihadists, radical Islamist preachers, even in the West, have rallied behind Siddiqui as a symbol of the West’s alleged victimization of Muslims. Even nominally non-Islamist Muslim representative groups, like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), have designated advocacy days for Siddiqui and not for any of the many other Muslims, including women, being denied fundamental rights in American prisons.And once we start scratching the surface of why Aafia Siddiqui has attracted such vehement backers, from terrorist groups who celebrate suicide bombers to apparently mainstream advocacy groups, we’ll also find the reason as to why the Texas synagogue became the target of the jihadist maneuver designed to free her. It's been confirmed that 20 years ago Faisal Akram, the hostage-taker shot dead in Texas, was banned from a Blackburn court after telling staff he wished he'd been on one of the 9/11 planes attacking the USA. He was described as a "menace" and excluded from the magistrates court. Aafia Siddiqui’s vocal support for jihad was evident in her early years in the early 1990s as an undergraduate student at the University of Houston. Before being involved in the web of global jihad post 9/11, she had raised funds for al-Kifah, which was linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Her long-standing ideological support for jihad against infidels – and the desire to make America a ‘Muslim land’ – is well-documented and collaborated. And that’s precisely what has made her the poster girl for the Islamist cause in the West. By deeming any crackdown on jihad sympathizers or any counterterror measures in the West as ‘Islamophobic,’ no matter that they are also undertaken by Muslim states, many groups seek to shield an Islamist network that rests on jihadist ideology. In Aafia Siddiqui, they’ve found the ideal representation of their ideas and ambitions, but also an ideal poster child for what they consider systematic injustice against Muslims, someone with a sufficient buffer of ‘inconclusive evidence’ to delink her – and in turn themselves – from Islamic terrorism. And the Congregation Beth Israel terror raid, along with the reaction to it, perfectly epitomizes this. In addition to its relatively close physical proximity to the prison where Siddiqui is being held, the synagogue was chosen for the attack as hat-tip to her virulently antisemitic beliefs, which are an inevitable baggage of Islamism. In her trial, Siddiqui maintained she was actually being targeted by Israel, citing the conspiracy theories which are second nature to all jihadists, claiming the verdict came "from Israel and not from America." Seeing in reporting that Aafia Siddiqui said at her sentencing hearing that she doesn’t want violence in her name. That’s true. Also true, two minutes before that she told a federal judge “Israel masterminded 9/11”. Siddiqui wanted jury members to be "genetically tested" for signs of being "Jewish or Zionist" and if found, that they be removed. Likewise, she serially asked to fire her own lawyers because they were Jewish (despite her defense counsel being paid for to the tune of $2 million by the Pakistani government). In a letter to Barack Obama, she wrote that Jews are "cruel, ungrateful, backstabbing… [which is] why ‘holocausts’ keep happening to them repeatedly." She even cited Quranic verses asking Muslims to "not take Jews and Christians as allies," while deriding Pakistan for allying with the U.S. to capture the 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef. Almost laughably, Siddiqui’s trial lawyer claimed her client was "not antisemitic but pro-Palestinian." So how did the so-called ‘representative’ and certainly high-profile Muslim organization CAIR respond to the synagogue attack? While it condemned it, they obviously did so without calling it out as a jihadist attack. Instead, CAIR’s statement makes it appear as though a deliberate attack on a synagogue in the name of a prominent antisemitic jihad sympathizer (if not jihadist) is incomprehensible, even when synagogues, from Paris to Istanbul, Djerba to Copenhagen, have been consistent targets of Islamist terror. CAIR, hence, is also unlikely to address its own antisemitic or jihadist roots, which prompted even the UAE to list it as a terrorist group. Populist leaders in the Muslim world who push an Islamist narrative studded with antisemitic tropes, like Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Imran Khan (who likes to equate caricatures of Muhammad with the Holocaust) do so in the name of "protecting" Muslims. Groups like CAIR in the West are their back-up. Meanwhile, jihadist attacks on Jews will continue to be glorified as "resistance" – to Jewish plots or Zionist imperialism – across the globe. And Islamist ideologues like Aafia Siddiqui, 'living martyr,' folk hero, al-Qaida operative and prisoner number 90279-054, will continue to boost that antisemitic jihad, whether or not they are the ones actually pulling the trigger.
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-the-al-qaida-operative-antisemite-and-pakistani-national-hero-who-inspired-the-texa-1.10545760
Taliban Militants Claim Responsibility for Rare Attack in Pakistan’s Capital
https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-militants-claim-responsibility-for-rare-attack-in-pakistan-s-capital-/6401515.html
#Pakistan #PPP - Bilawal offers conditional reconciliation with PDM
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said his party would rejoin the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) provided that the multi-party alliance dropped its proposal for en masse resignations and adopted his strategy of the no-confidence move.
The PPP chairman offered a counterproposal to PDM and once again broached the idea of bringing a no-confidence motion against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government – a bone of contention that resulted in the party’s separation from the alliance.
Bilawal’s indication towards the prospects of reconciliation constitutes his first statement since his party poured cold water on the PDM’s idea of en masse resignation, leaving the alliance struggling to salvage its plans to oust the incumbent government.
“My demand from the first day was to bring a no-confidence motion against this government,” Bilawal said during his media talk at the Parliament House on Tuesday.
“The government should be dislodged through democratic means,” the PPP chairman said, adding all parties have to play their role to oust the government.
“We have decided to March on Feb 27, and it does not matter if there is a single march or multiple ones. They will only add to the pressure on the government.”
Every democratic party will have to play its role to rid people of this government, he added.
Bilawal said that there was a high possibility of the opposition working together now that the PDM has come to the same conclusion that PPP had reached earlier.
In a PDM meeting on March 16 last year, Asif Ali Zardari had demanded that ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, who is in London for medical treatment, should return to the country, saying that the leaders should be prepared to go to jails in their struggle.
Apart from Sharif’s return, the meeting had witnessed heated exchanges on tendering resignations from assemblies and defeat of the opposition candidates in the election for Senate top slots. PPP had disagreed with the proposal of linking long march against the government with resignations from the assemblies.
During Tuesday’s talk, Bilawal said that PPP rallies will pass through the constituencies of government MNAs and allies and show them the demand of the people, which is to be liberated from the tyranny of this new Pakistan.
The chairperson said that the reservation regarding the prices of essential commodities being multiplied due to the mini-budget has been proved correct, saying Pakistan had already been facing an economic crisis before the mini-budget, which has now led to the historic price hike, unemployment and poverty.
“The people are being crushed under this burden,” he said, adding that PPP has already decided that it will take to the streets against this incapable government and will start the long march from Karachi on 27 February. “We can never resort to undemocratic practices,” he reiterated.
SBP bill
Commenting on the bill pertaining to granting autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), he regretted that opposition’s amendments were not heard regarding the bill.
“This was the biggest economic attack on the country in its history,” he lamented, adding that after the legislation, SBP is not answerable to the government, parliament, judiciary and the people. “Rather,” he said, “it will be run on the dictation of international financial institutions.”
The account of our defence budget will be in the State Bank and the government, parliament or the judiciary will have no control over it, he said, adding the defence expenditure would be for the world to see and the nuclear programme will be threatened. “This government has attacked our economic sovereignty and democratic liberties,” he said.
Presidential system
Regarding the presidential system, he said that the constitution of the Quaid-e-Awam has given a federal, democratic and parliamentary Islamic republic to the nation, adding “there is no space for a presidential system in the constitution.” Talking about the presidential system, he said that it was an effort to distract the people from the price-hike, unemployment, poverty and agricultural crisis.
PPP has always maintained the respect of the country in the international community, he said, adding that Pakistan had discontinued the NATO supply and demanded an apology from the United States during the Salalah incident. For the first time in history, he recalled, a superpower had apologized to an elected government and its people.
The people always come first for a truly elected government of the people as was the case with Quaid-e-Awam, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. PPP's government in the future will follow the same precedent.
LG polls
The first phase of the local body elections in K-P was the referendum against this government. All the opposition parties outperformed the PTI in those elections. Regarding extremism, Bilawal said that there is a false dichotomy in the country as Islam does not allow for women and children to be killed.
#Pakistan #PTI was funded by prohibited foreign funding accounts during general elections – Central Information Secretary of #PPPP and member of the National Assembly Shazia Atta Marri
Central Information Secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and the member of the National Assembly Shazia Atta Marri has said that the so-called transparency of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s foreign funding case has been disclosed publicly which PTI leadership tried to conceal from the Election commission of Pakistan and from the entire nation.
She said that the incumbent government of PTI was funded by prohibited foreign funding accounts during general elections and now the members of the PTI-led government are only talking lies with the nation regarding the foreign funding case. This she said in reaction to a statement of PTI’s member Farrukh Habib hereon today.
Ms. Marri alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-I- Insaf was funded by a few Indians and the cheques of funding were issued on the name of the construction of Shoukat Khanum Hospital in the USA to Imran Khan. PTI leadership committed fraud in the donation of a hospital while the money was invested during the general elections on a political party of PTI.
Ms. Marri added that Akbar S. Babar is a founding member of PTI and he knows all secrets of foreign funding accounts while Imran Khan Niazi is an expert liar and he has done specialization in concealing the facts and truths.
She said that Niazi and company are bewildered after the disclosure of facts and truth regarding the foreign funding bank accounts by the ECP while Pakistan Peoples Party and PPP-P have already provided all records and the details to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Shazia Marri said that those who voted for Imran Khan during general elections are now cursing him and now the time has come for them who made everyone cry to cry themselves.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26119/
سانحہ مری کی تمام تر حالات کی ذمہ داری ڈی جی ریسکیو، وزیراعلی پنجاب، سمیت لوکل ایڈمینسٹریشن پر عائد ہوتی ہے، ترجمان بلاول بھٹو زرداری، زوالفقارعلی بدر
لاہور: ترجمان بلاول بھٹو زرداری، زوالفقارعلی بدر کی لاہور میں مختلف نیوز چینلز ، اور قومی اخبارات کے بیورو چیف کے اعزاز میں ظہرانہ، کے موقع پر گفتگو میں پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چئیرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کی جانب سے سی ای سی اجلاس میں ہونے والے فیصلے اور 27 فروری کے لانگ مارچ کے اعلان کے بعد تیاریوں کے سلسلہ میں پارٹی تنظیموں کی جاری ورکنگ پر تبادلہ خیال، ملک بھر میں روز بروز بڑھتی ہوئی مہنگائی لاقانونیت انتقامی کارروائیوں سے جان چھڑانے اور حقیقی جمہوریت کی بحالی جدوجہد کو مزید تیز کرنے کیلئے پارٹی تنظیموں، کارکنوں، وکلا ء تنظیموں، سول سوسائیٹی، نوجوان، طلبا، اداروں کی ٹریڈ یونینز سے وابستہ افراد، تاجر برادری کی بھر شمولیت کو یقینی بنایا جائیگا،
ایک سوال کے جواب میں زوالفقار علی بدر کا کہنا تھا کہ ملک کے اندر صدارتی نظام کی بجائے پارلیمانی نظام بہتر کیا جائے تو بہتر ہوگا، کیونکہ صدارتی نظام کا ملک متحمل نہیں ہوسکتا، اگر ایمرجنسی کی صورت میں کوئی اقدام کیا گیا تو وہ غیر آئینی ہوگا، ایمرجنسی کی آئین میں کوئی گنجائیش نہیں ہے،
ترجمان بلاول بھٹو زرداری کا مزید کہنا تھا کہ سانحہ مری کے اندر تمام تر حالات کی زمہ داری ڈی جی ریسکیو، وزیراعلی پنجاب، سمیت لوکل ایڈمینسٹریشن پر عائد ہوتی ہے جنہیں فوری طور پر استعفی دینا چاہیںے تھا۔
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26123/
Monday, January 17, 2022
#MLKDay - Americans see Martin Luther King Jr. as a hero now, but that wasn't the case during his lifetime
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/17/politics/mlk-polling-analysis/index.html