Sunday, January 23, 2022
#Afghanistan - Taliban 2.0 aren't so different from the first regime, after all
The international community is closely monitoring the Taliban, after the group re-seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. There is legitimate reason for concern. The Taliban are again ruling through fear and draconian rules.The Taliban's last regime, in the mid-1990s, was marked by human rights violations, including massacres, mass detentions and rape. The regime collapsed on Nov. 14, 2001, shortly after the U.S. launched its global war on terrorism. Even after the Taliban officially fell from power, their subsequent two decades of insurgency produced various gross human rights violations, an encompassing term under international human rights law.When the Taliban regained control over Afghanistan last year, some outside observers speculated that an evolved version of the group might materialize. These spectators assumed that the Taliban recognized it cannot govern merely with fear and bans. Many Afghan people still expressed widespread fear and skepticism about the Taliban's return. Branding Taliban 2.0 The Taliban have now been in power for almost five months. A clearer image of the human rights and personal freedoms situation in Afghanistan is emerging.As political science professors specializing in conflict and violence, we find that the Taliban's changes are limited to international public relations campaigns on social media and other outlets. While promoting a moderate face to the world, with promises of living "peacefully" and respecting women's rights, the regime has continued to systematically violate human rights and strengthen its autocratic grip. Theories about what experts called "Taliban 2.0" continued after the group assumed control over Afghanistan. Representatives from countries such as Turkey and Qatar encouraged the international community to engage with the Taliban. While international donors have frozen about $5 billion in foreign aid to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, some Western countries, including the U.S., have announced increases in aid to address the country's humanitarian crisis. Limiting the flow of information The Taliban have undertaken a systematic media crackdown to achieve their contradictory goals of presenting a softer face to the international community while violating Afghans' rights. The group is forcing media to follow two of the Taliban's dogmatic and moral regulatory bodies' guidelines. The Taliban also announced the "11 journalism rules," which include forbidding journalists from publishing or broadcasting stories that are "contrary to Islam" or "insult national figures." About 40% of the country's media sources have shut down, 6,400 journalists lost their jobs, including 84% of female journalists. Violence against media and journalists has again become widespread. Many other journalists have left the country. The media crackdown has a practical reason: limiting the flow of information about the regime's continued rights violations. United Nations human rights experts say they have received credible reports of the Taliban killing civilians, as well as hundreds of former Afghanistan security personnel across the country. The Taliban have shown gruesome hangings of dead bodies and stoning of people to death. An emerging humanitarian crisis Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated under the Taliban. Approximately 23 million Afghans are facing hunger, including 3.2 million children who are suffering from severe malnutrition. The Taliban leadership denies any responsibility for alleviating the looming humanitarian crisis. In November 2021, Taliban Prime Minister Mullah Hasan rejected the regime's responsibility for food insecurity in Afghanistan and asked people to "cry to God to alleviate famine and drought." Anas Haqqani, a senior member of the Taliban negotiation team in Doha, also downplayed the seriousness of the looming hunger crisis by rhetorically asking a BBC reporter if she had ever witnessed someone dying of hunger. Regressing on women's and girls' rights The Taliban's conduct toward girls and women also reveals a return to previous ways.The Taliban has banned women from traveling more than 72 kilometers from home without a male relative.In early December, the Taliban released a decree saying a woman is a "noble and free human being" and should not be forced into a marriage. The international community largely welcomed the announcement.However, a closer look at the decree reveals that the Taliban formalizes the regime's right to determine whether a woman actually consents to a union.The Taliban have systematically reinstated old restrictions on girls education and female employment.While most primary girls schools are closed across the country, secondary and tertiary education remains completely banned for girls.In 2017, U.N. Children's Fund figures showed that 3.7 million Afghan children were out of school, 60% of them girls. This percentage is now likely much greater with the Taliban's ban on girls education. This differs from the Taliban's recent public messaging on girls' and women's "right to education and work." To the domestic audience, the regime's messages are vague. Leaders condition reopening girls education, for example, to unclear economic and moral conditions. Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said recently that once "economic challenges are resolved, we will provide education for all those who want to pursue their studies." The Taliban have also banned most female government workers from returning to their jobs, resulting in a workforce restriction that would result in economic losses totaling $1 billion. The only indication of a "new Taliban" is a much more sophisticated and strategic public relations approach for masking ongoing human rights violations.
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/taliban.2.0.arent.so.different.from.the.first.regime.after.all/138058.htm
#Pakistan - Growing terrorism threat - The Afghan Taliban are not fully cooperating with Pakistan in dealing with the TTP
THE terrorist attack on a police check post in the heart of the federal capital earlier this week was a dangerous happening. It is good that the security agencies have taken the incident very seriously (they should be equally concerned about the security of other cities such as Lahore that witnessed a blast on Thursday). But what is questionable is the state’s penchant for talking to the notorious banned group that claimed the attack. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has escalated terrorist attacks in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban took power in Afghanistan, and the interior minister has indicated that the trend may continue in the coming weeks.
Last year too, two terrorist attacks were recorded in Islamabad in which the banned TTP killed three policemen and injured a couple of others. Indeed, the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have witnessed sporadic terrorist violence in recent years despite perceptible security. During the last two years, the TTP and its factions have carried out 11 terrorist attacks in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, resulting in the deaths of 13 security, mainly police, officials. This week’s attack in Islamabad also targeted policemen. The second worrying aspect is that in the past the TTP remained active mainly in the outskirts of the federal capital, but the latest attack was reported from a busy sector in the heart of Islamabad.The attack reveals the intention of the terrorist group to create fear. If more such attacks happen, barricades and check posts on the roads of Islamabad will be brought back. Only recently, a sense of security had returned when the number of security check posts was reduced to a minimum. Though Islamabad has a functional safe city mechanism, the security of the federal capital remains critical and security departments can take any measures to counter threats. It will not be surprising if Islamabad comes under increased security surveillance when a so-called pro-Pakistan regime in Kabul is reluctant to hand over or act against terrorists causing insecurity in this country.
The Afghan Taliban are not fully cooperating with Pakistan in dealing with the TTP.
Some media reports indicate that certain Afghan Taliban leaders are trying to restrict the movement of the TTP leaders and impose an arms embargo on the group. But the situation on the ground is different and the TTP’s confidence is gradually improving. Meanwhile, Pakistan has reportedly initiated another round of peace talks with the TTP through a tribal jirga, which can only be interpreted as extending one more olive branch to the terrorists. One wonders why security institutions are obsessed with talking to the TTP, especially when the latter has taken a hard stance on talks and continues its attacks against Pakistan.
The killing of Mufti Khalid Balti, a former spokesperson of the TTP, has further increased the trust deficit between negotiators from both sides and their guarantors. In that context, if the mantra of talks is merely a tactic to create rifts in the TTP leadership then the cost is very high and still may not be enough to eliminate the threat. The TTP will continue to cause damage to Pakistan, and over time, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan will learn the tactics to avert pressure from Pakistan. After all, the TTP is their ideological brigade and shares the same view of establishing an Islamic order of governance.
Security institutions have to carefully craft the approaches to deal with groups like the TTP and Al Qaeda which are under the protection of the Taliban regime. The TTP is not only a major actor of violence in Pakistan, it is also a facilitator of the regional operations of Al Qaeda and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Al Qaeda has maintained its ties with the Afghan Taliban and has reportedly also helped the TTP recover and regroup in recent years; some Al Qaeda-aligned Pakistani groups even joined the TTP. In April 2021, CNN claimed, based on its interviews with two Al Qaeda operatives, that the group would step up its operations in the region after the US exit from Afghanistan. The report claimed that the group was planning a comeback by relying on its partnership with the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.
Any probable operational alliance between the TTP and Al Qaeda or with ETIM against Chinese interests in Pakistan can prove lethal and cause a diplomatic crisis. The TTP can overcome its internal differences and restructure its networks. The group has seen many crises but has not lost its sting. It was involved in 87 terrorist attacks in 2021, an 84 per cent increase over its attacks across Pakistan the year before. Apart from these, most of the cross-border attacks from Afghanistan in 2021 (12 out of 14) were also perpetrated by the TTP. The geographical spread and number of TTP attacks in 2021 indicate that while the group carried out most of the assaults in former Fata, it also showed it had a presence in northern Balochistan and the Rawalpindi-Islamabad area.
One can imagine the potential lethality of the group which it has already displayed. Its core strengths include its close association with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and a narrative that still attracts youth from the peripheries and religious institutions. The Afghan Taliban have proved themselves a liability for Pakistan and have been negatively affecting the country’s counterterrorism policies. They are not fully cooperating with Pakistan in dealing with the TTP, nor are they collaborating with it to secure Pakistan’s western border.
The TTP itself and Pakistan’s tendency to negotiate with it are encouraging other terrorist groups. The militant Islamic State group’s so-called Khorasan chapter has also become active in Pakistan, where it carried out multiple attacks in 2021 on Hazara Shias, alleged Afghan Taliban members and associated religious scholars, as well as political leaders/workers in Balochistan and KP. Several of its associates were arrested from parts of Sindh and Punjab in multiple search operations conducted by law enforcement during the year.
Pakistan has to devise a different approach to deal with the TTP threat. A timely change of course can save many precious lives and damage to the country.
President Asif Ali Zardari’s message on the farmers’ tractor march
In a statement issued from Media Office Islamabad, the former president said that a prosperous farmer is the guarantee of an agriculturally stable Pakistan.
The PPP will uphold its tradition of justice to the farmers and make it easier for the farmers to get their crops to the market. He said that the manifesto of the PPP is an agriculturally strong Pakistan. The former president said that the purpose of the farmers’ tractor march is to raise a voice against injustice with the farmers.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26142/
#Pakistan - Message of Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on International Day of Education
In his message on the eve of International Day of Education being observed globally tomorrow, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that education remains top priority of his Party as it believes that the future belongs to our children and youth, and the dream of a bright future without education will remain unfulfilled. PPP governments always increased the education budget, whenever in power and established record number of universities and other technical education institutions in the history of country, he added.
He said that professional and technical education are key to a better future and for this purpose the share of education in budget has to be increased. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pointed out that expenditure on education has dropped to 1.5% of the GDP during the selected regime of Imran Khan, which shows a sorry state of affairs. After winning the next general elections, PPP government will further increase the education budget, he vowed.
PPP Chairman said those compromising on the educational promotion and making unbearable cuts in the budget of universities and their allied centers are in fact causing great disservice to the nation. “Such approach is extremely hostile to the people, when on the one hand, about 25 million children between the ages of 5 and 16 are out of schools, while on the other, there is a big difference in access to quality education among the children of poor and privileged classes in the country,” he added.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pointed out that this is PPP’s manifesto that we will have to move beyond the traditional curriculum and teaching methods to an education system that will inculcate in children creative and critical problem-solving and decision-making skills. He pledged that after winning the next general election, PPP would ensure that, in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan, the State provides equal access to quality education to all children, adding that, the peoples government will increase expenditure ratio of education to more than 3% of GDP initially and continue to maintaining our own record of establishing more and more universities, colleges and other technical education institutions.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26140/
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