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Militants go on Killing Spree of Polio workers in Pakistan

Polio health worker killed (Credit: livemint.com)
Polio health worker killed
(Credit: livemint.com)

Islamabad, Dec 19  — Health workers administering polio vaccinations came under fresh attack in Pakistan on  Wednesday, a troubling development in a nation that remains one of three in the world where the disease has yet to be eradicated.

Three workers were killed in separate attacks, a day after five others died in similar circumstances. All of them were part of a massive vaccination campaign nationwide. The attacks prompted authorities to suspend the campaign throughout the country.

— Two men opened fire on an 18-year-old worker as he was vaccinating children on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar. The worker died of bullet wounds to the head, said Dr. Janbaz Afridi, the provincial director of the polio campaign.

— Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying a vaccination campaign supervisor and her driver in Charsadda — killing them both.

— Also in Charsadda, two female workers narrowly escaped when some men began shooting at them.

— Three other female workers also escaped unhurt when they were shot at in Nowshera district.

All the attacks Wednesday took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province rife with Islamic extremists.

On Tuesday, five workers were killed: four in Karachi; and a 14-year-old volunteer in Peshawar as she and her sister were leaving a house after administering vaccines.

Pakistanis have viewed polio vaccination campaigns with suspicion after the CIA’s use of a fake vaccination program last year to collect DNA samples from residents of Osama bin Laden’s compound to verify the al Qaeda leader’s presence there.

Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in May 2011.

In June, a Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan announced a ban on polio vaccines for children in the region as long as the United States continues its campaign of drone strikes in the region, the Taliban said.

CNN was not able to reach the Taliban for comment regarding the latest attacks. Polio, a highly infectious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis in a matter of hours, has been eradicated around the world except for three countries where it is endemic: Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

After the number of cases spiked sharply last year, Pakistan stepped up its eradication efforts. The numbers fell from 173 last year to 53 this year, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

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‘Heavy fighting’ in Pakistan’s North Waziristan

North Waziristan (Credit: tribune.com.pk)
North Waziristan
(Credit: tribune.com.pk)

Heavy fighting involving artillery fire and helicopter gunships is taking place in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, military sources say.

The army say that it killed at least 23 militants overnight on Wednesday, but there is no independent confirmation of these figures.

On Wednesday it said at least five soldiers were killed by militants.

On Tuesday the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Mullah Fazlullah, ruled out peace talks with the government.

He vowed to continue attacks against Pakistani forces who he said were preparing to launch an operation in Waziristan.

Military sources said on Thursday that the 23 militants had been killed in exchanges of fire with security forces late on Wednesday night.

“[The] terrorists tried to ambush a convoy of security forces which was returning back from Khajori post,” they said.

“The convoy had gone to rescue injured soldiers who were attacked by a suicide bomber yesterday while they were offering prayers in a mosque at the post.

“Security forces valiantly responded and encircled [the] fleeing terrorists, inflicting heavy casualties on them. A fire fight continued for some time… and a search operation is in progress in the area.”

Locals say that at least two civilians have been killed and several houses destroyed by artillery fire in the Mir Ali area. They say that injured people cannot get to hospital because of a military curfew and continuing shelling.

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that the violence comes after several years of comparative calm in North Waziristan and that locals now fear a wider ground operation in the area and large-scale population displacement.

On Wednesday militants drove an explosives-laden truck into a major security post at Khajori in North Waziristan, killing the five soldiers and injuring more than 20, military sources said.

The post and and a nearby military fort guard the main highway that connects the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan with Bannu, a city in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

The soldiers man the check-post near during daytime to monitor traffic entering and exiting North Waziristan, but move inside the fort at sunset.

The little-known Ansarul Mujahideen militant group said that it carried out the attack. Analysts say unfamiliar names are often used by Pakistani and foreign militant groups to avoid identification.

Ansarul Mujahideen has also been blamed for warning PTI party leader and former international cricketer Imran Khan not to take his anti-polio campaign into KP province.

The Taliban oppose the polio vaccination schemes, which they see as a cover for international espionage.

Mr Khan’s PTI party says that it is taking “precautionary measures” and has restricted Mr Khan’s movements.

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Pakistan protests may make US fly war cargo out

PTI blockade (Credit: thenews.com.pk)
PTI blockade
(Credit: thenews.com.pk)

WASHINGTON, Dec 19: US officials, frustrated that hundreds of military shipments heading out of Afghanistan have been stopped on the land route through Pakistan because of anti-American protests, face the possibility of flying out equipment at an additional cost of $1 billion.

More than a week after Pakistani officials promised Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that they would take ”immediate action” to resolve the problem, dozens of protesters are still gathering on the busy overland route, posing a security threat to convoys carrying US military equipment out of the war zone before combat ends a year from now.

US officials said Wednesday they have seen no effort by the Pakistanis to stop the protests, which prompted the US three weeks ago to halt Nato cargo shipments going through the Torkham border crossing and toward the port city of Karachi.

A Pakistani official says the government is looking for a peaceful settlement but notes that citizens have the right to protest as long as they are not violent.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the planning, said flying the military equipment out of Afghanistan to a port will cost five to seven times as much as it does to truck it through Pakistan.

About a hundred trucks are stacked up at the border, and hundreds more are loaded and stalled in compounds, waiting to leave Afghanistan.

The shipments consist largely of military equipment that is no longer needed now that the Afghan war is ending.

Sending the cargo out through the normal Pakistan routes will cost about $5 billion through the end of next year, said a defense official.

Flying the heavy equipment, including armored vehicles, out of Afghanistan to ports in the Middle East, where it would be loaded onto ships, would cost about $6 billion if it continued through next year, said the official.

A northern supply route, which runs through Uzbekistan and up to Russia, was used for about seven months last year when Pakistan shut down the southern passages after US airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two border posts.

That northern route, however, was used primarily to bring shipments into Afghanistan, and is much longer, more costly and often requires cargo to be transferred from trucks to rail.

The deadlock, if not resolved, could also be costly for Pakistan.

In private meetings in Islamabad early last week, Hagel warned Pakistani leaders that unless the military shipments resumed, political support could erode in Washington for an aid program that sends them billions of dollars.

Hagel received assurances from Pakistan leaders during the meetings that they would resolve the problem, but no progress has been made.

Pentagon spokesman Adm. John Kirby said Hagel is concerned about the issue and has talked with his top commanders in the region about it. ”He knows they (the commanders) are working the issue very hard,” Kirby said.

But Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top US commander in Afghanistan, was in Pakistan on Monday for a meeting with Pakistan’s new Army chief, and it wasn’t clear if he broached the issue with him.

The protesters are demonstrating against the CIA’s drone program, which has targeted and killed many terrorists but has also caused civilian casualties.

The group gathers daily at a toll booth on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Peshawar, in Pakistan’s northern Khyber Paktunkhwa province.

All traffic going into the tribal areas and on to the Torkham crossing must pass through the toll booth.

Earlier this week, a group of about 40 protesters were at the toll booth, including about 10 who were waving flags as vehicles and trucks drove past.

A makeshift enclosure was set up on the side of the road, complete with chairs arranged under a tent encircled by barbed wire to keep the protest from spilling into traffic.

A few police officers stood nearby, with orders to allow the protests to go on but ensure that no one got unruly or attacked the drivers.

”We will continue this sit-in until there is a good decision on the drones,” said Fayaz Ahmed Khalid, a political organiser with the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party.

”It’s for ourselves, for our country.” He said the group has been stopping container trucks going into Afghanistan and looking at their papers to determine whether they are carrying cargo bound for Nato troops.

If so, the protesters force the trucks to turn around.

Khalid said the group got instructions not to stop trucks coming out of Afghanistan into Pakistan, and added that they’ve also noticed there has been little traffic coming from Karachi and heading into Afghanistan.

Companies know, he said, that they will be turned back at the checkpoint. He said it has been about a week since the protesters encountered a truck carrying Nato goods.

The protesters, however, appear to be in this for the long haul — Khalid had a schedule listing who would be manning the sit-in each day through mid-January.

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Karachi to Grow Quietly Nuclear

KANUPP (Credit: theguardian.com)
KANUPP
(Credit: theguardian.com)

WORK has started on preparing the site for two large nuclear power plants in Karachi. Each of these reactors will be larger than the combined power of all the nuclear reactors currently operating in Pakistan.

This will be by far the largest nuclear construction project ever in Pakistan. It is not too late to ask a few basic questions so that people, especially those living in Karachi, know what they may be letting themselves in for.

Everyone knows the new reactors are being purchased from China. They will be designed and built by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

What people may not know is that the reactors will be based on a design known as the ACP-1000 that is still under development by this Chinese nuclear power company. In effect, Pakistanis are buying reactors for the Karachi site that so far exist only on paper and in computer programmes — there is no operating reactor in China based on this design.

It was reported in April 2013 that the CNNC, the developer of the ACP-1000, had completed a “preliminary safety analysis report”, and was “working on construction design”.

This means so far there is not even a complete design. Since the new Karachi reactors will be the first of a kind, no one knows how safe they will be or how well they will work. The 20 million people of Karachi are being used as subjects in a giant nuclear safety experiment.

The Fukushima nuclear accident has shown that safety systems can fail catastrophically. The accident in 2011 struck Japanese reactors of a well-established design that had been operating for decades. Still, all kinds of things happened that were not expected by the reactor operators or managers or by nuclear safety authorities.

An important lesson of Fukushima is that nuclear establishments underestimate the likelihood and severity of possible accidents. Another important lesson is that these same establishments overestimate their ability to cope with a real nuclear disaster.

At Fukushima, the nuclear authorities failed dismally despite Japan’s legendary organisational capability, technological sophistication and social discipline.

Nearly 200,000 people living close to the Fukushima reactors were evacuated and some may never be allowed to return. Radiation was blown by the wind and contaminated the land to distances of over 30 km.

The US suggested its citizens living in that area of Japan move at least 80km away from the reactor. The government of Japan considered forced evacuation of everyone living within 170km of the reactor site and organising voluntary evacuation for people living as far as 250km from the plant.

Contaminated food and water was found at distances of 250km.

The financial cost of the clean-up so far is estimated to be about $100 billion and could eventually be much higher.

So how big, how dangerous and how costly is the nuclear experiment about to be carried out in Karachi?

An analysis undertaken two years ago, in 2011, by the science magazine Nature and Columbia University in New York showed that the nuclear reactor site in Karachi has more people living within 30km than any other reactor site in the world.

It found that, in 2011, there were eight million Karachi citizens living within this distance of the reactor. All of Karachi falls within 40km of the reactor site.

So far, there have been no public hearings or discussions of the suitability of the site for the new Karachi reactors. There is no report of an Environment Impact Assessment for the proposed new Karachi reactors. Neither the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission nor the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority has explained what will happen in case of an accident at the proposed reactor.

A preliminary study by one of the authors found that the plume of radioactive material that could be released from a severe nuclear accident could be blown eastward by the wind over the city, engulfing the most populous areas of Karachi.

There is also no information on the terms for the supply of nuclear fuel, such as how long the very hot, intensely radioactive spent nuclear fuel will stay at the site and how will it be safely stored until it is returned to China, if it is returned at all. The spent fuel stored at Fukushima was damaged in the accident and led to the release of radioactivity.

Finally, there is no information on what emergency plans, including for possible evacuation, have been drawn up as part of preparing for these large new reactors. There is no information whether such plans even exist.

Here is a question for those in charge of Karachi, in charge of Sindh and the federal authorities in Islamabad: how do you propose to evacuate many millions of people from Karachi in case of a severe nuclear accident at the new reactors?

One expects mass panic, with people deciding to save themselves and their families as best as they could, clogging the roads, and delaying the escape of others closer to the reactor. Can any plan work in such an environment?

Finally, there is the cost in terms of money. Reports suggest the two reactors may cost $9-10 billion. They will be paid for by taking loans from China. There is little information on the details of the financing of the reactors, including the final cost of decommissioning and waste disposal.

There is not even a publicly available government study showing that these reactors are the least-cost option for producing the expected amount of electricity.

The issue of cost also must include the consequences of accidents. If there is an accident at the new Karachi reactors due to a problem with the reactor design or the construction, who will pay the vast sums needed to cover the damage and clean-up — Pakistan or China?

The people of Karachi have a right to know the answers to these questions. It is time they started asking.

The writers are physicists with an interest in nuclear issues.

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How Pakistan lost its East: the Bangladesh Saga – (The News International) By Naseer Memon

Bangladesh remembers (Credit: abc.net.au)
Bangladesh remembers
(Credit: abc.net.au)

December dusts searing past to remind a reality that was preposterously denied for a quarter century and was recognized only after leaving an indelible trail of blood. While creation of Bangladesh entails a petrifying human catastrophe and an everlasting reference to state-perpetrated fratricide, it also trivialised a waffle narrative of Islamic-nationhood.

The episode reiterated that a multi-nation federation can only exist with socio-political justice, absence of which derides all ideological conjectures. Creation of Bangladesh reinforced the fact that Pakistan was not a creation of any Islamic ideology but was in fact a derivative of an ominous political alienation of Muslims in India. For Bengalis, Pakistan turned out to be a mere perpetuation of the same alienation. Flippant negation of their culture, abominable economic exploitation and brazen denial of their right to rule culminated into the birth of Bangladesh on December 16, 1971.

Undeniably, the social fabric and political configuration of East and West Pakistan were diametrically opposite to each other. While West Pakistani politics and society was yanked by a myopic feudal oligarchy, East Pakistan inherited a much refined middle-class lead socio-political ambiance. After 1857 insurgency, Bengal became the first province under British democracy. It was the first regulation province of India under the jurisdiction of a high court. Society and politics in Bengal was erected on starkly different building blocks and it did not chime-in with the other provinces of Pakistan where British rule clamped typical colonial structures.Snobbish civil and military leadership grossly underestimated the powder keg of East Pakistan that left deep scars of embarrassment in the national history. While language and culture are central to most of the ethno-national movements, economic and political marginalisation are key triggers to stoke irreversible hatred.

Landed aristocracy that shaped today’s Pakistan was trounced in Bengal in 1950 with the introduction of “East Bengal Estate Acquisition and Tenancy Act”. It effectively routed the landlordism in Bengal by fixing individual holding at only 3.3 acres per head or 33.3 acres of land per family whichever was less. Agriculture census of 1963-64 shows that out of 6.2 million farms some 6 million were of less than 12.5 acres size and 50 per cent of them were only 2.5 acres or less.

On the contrary, West Pakistan was marked by large landholdings specially in Punjab and Sindh provinces. For example, 30 per cent of the land in Sindh in 1952 was owned by only one per cent of the owners and the average holding was above 500 acres. In Punjab, 50 per cent of the land was under the control of Zamindars. This sufficiently indicates the distinct social and political milieu of the two wings. Since West Pakistan held hegemony over the decision making, the vibrant middle class-led East Pakistan often loathed the policies manufactured and imposed by the landed aristocracy of West Pakistan.

Resource hemorrhage and discrimination in pecuniary matters against East Pakistan was the key cause of conflict. In 1948-50 when East Pakistan had a net balance of payment surplus of Rs622 million, West Pakistan had a net deficit of Rs912 million. Similarly, the foreign and inter-wing trade balance of the two wings from 1949-50 to 1957-58 shows East Pakistan having a surplus of Rs3,636 million as balance of trade with foreign countries against the net deficit of Rs3,047 million of West Pakistan on the same account. The trend remained consistent during the first and second five years plans when East Pakistan had net surplus and West Pakistan had net deficit in foreign trade and the surplus of East Pakistan was used to offset the deficit. This prompted Shaikh Mujib to demand for two separate currencies for the two wings under his popular six-point formula.

Conflict on resource sharing could have been assuaged had avaricious establishment of West Pakistan maintained a judicious balance in benefit sharing. What irked Bengalis was relentless discrimination in development opportunities. For example, GDP growth in East Pakistan during the period was 2.2 per cent against the heavily skewed 3.1 per cent of West Pakistan. During the same period per capita income in East Pakistan dwindled to -0.1 per cent against +0.8 per cent increase in the West Pakistan. Likewise during five years from 1954-55 to 1959-60, GDP growth in East Pakistan was only 1.6 per cent i.e. half of the West Pakistan’s 3.2 per cent. Per capita income in East Pakistan plummeted to -0.7 per cent against +1.2 per cent in the West Pakistan.

East Pakistan having almost 54 per cent population was also discriminated in public sector development. During the first five year plan, total revenue expenditure in East Pakistan was Rs2,540 million which was less than one third of the Rs8,980 of the West Pakistan. It was marginally jacked-up in the second five-year plan from 1960-61 to 1964-65 when East Pakistan received Rs6,254 million under public sector development programme against Rs7,696 million of the West Pakistan, yet it was still 19 per cent less.

Not only that East Pakistan was kept economically deprived and politically suppressed, it was also under represented in the state structure. Share of Bengalis in senior level civil services was also flagrantly violated. During the first five years of the country, senior cadres of several departments were completely bereft of Bengalis. There were no Bengalis on any senior positions in the Departments of Commerce, Intelligence& Statistics, Supply & Development, Petroleum, Paper & Stationery Wing, Inspection Wing, General Concession Wing, Central Engineering Authority, Coal Commissioner and Textiles.

Apart from economic exploitation, West Pakistani leadership always demeaned and demonised Bengalis. General Ayub rabidly detested Bengalis. He once vented his spleen by saying that “I am surprised by Bengali outlook. They have cut themselves off from Muslim culture through abhorrence of the Urdu language…..making themselves vulnerable to Hindu culture.” On 7th September 1967, he wrote “God has been very unkind to us in giving the sort of neighbours [India] and compatriots [Bengalis]. We could not think of a worst combination. Hindus and Bengalis…. If worst comes to the worst, we shall not hesitate to fight a relentless battle against the disruptionists in East Pakistan. Rivers of blood will flow if need be, unhappily. We will arise to save our crores of Muslims from Hindu slavery”.

Gen. Ayub was no exception in his fulmination against Bengalis. Major General Khadim Hussain Raja, the then GOC, who threatened to “raze Dhakah to the ground” if Shaikh Mujib proclaimed independence during his speech at Race Course ground on 7th March 1971, has made startling revelations about moral bankruptcy of military leadership. In his recently published book “a stranger in my own country”, he has quoted nauseating turpitude of General Niazi during a debriefing meeting. He writes “Niazi became abusive and started raving. Breaking into Urdu he said: ‘Main is haramzadi qaum ki nasal badal doon ga. Yeh mujhey kiya samjhtey hain’. He threatened that he would let his soldiers loose on their womenfolk. There was pin-drop silence at these remarks. Officers looked at each other in silence, taken aback by his vulgarity. The meeting dispersed on this unhappy note with sullen faces. The next morning, we were given sad news. A Bengali Office, Major Mushtaq, who had served under me in Jessore, went into a bathroom at the Command Headquarter and shot himself in head. He died instantaneously.”

What happened in 1971 was certainly worse, yet the worst is the unremitting obnoxious intransigence of the unfazed perpetrators. Fundamental rights are denied with same zeal, forced disappearance, dumping of corpses in the name of national interest continues with alarming madness and natural endowment of federating units are being exploited ruthlessly. Oppressed segments who demand their rights are inexorably construed as traitors. What prevails in Pakistan today can potentially repeat what happened yesterday.

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Nation to View Fight against Child Mortality in Fishing Village

Rehri fishing village (Credit: hopengo.tumblr.com)
Rehri fishing village
(Credit: hopengo.tumblr.com)

ISLAMABAD, Dec 12 : A Pakistani doctor won a $1 million grant on Tuesday to fight early child mortality in a small fishing village in southern Pakistan in a contest financed by an American entrepreneur to find innovative ways to save lives, The Caplow Children’s Prize said.

A proposal by Anita Zaidi, who heads the pediatrics department at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, beat out more than 550 other applications from more than 70 countries.

The prize was founded and funded by entrepreneur Ted Caplow to find impactful and cost-effective ways to save children’s lives, according to a press release announcing the results.

Zaidi said in a telephone interview that her project will focus on reducing child mortality rates in Rehri Goth, on the outskirts of Karachi.

According to Zaidi, 106 out of 1,000 children born in the town die before the age of five. That is almost double the worldwide under-five child mortality rate of 51 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011, according to Unicef.

Few of the women in the area of roughly 40,000 people have access to medical care during pregnancy or money to pay for things like multivitamins, said Zaidi.

There is no nearby hospital, and women usually give birth accompanied by a birthing attendant with little or no formal training.

When women do run into complications giving birth, the babies often die while the women seek medical care, the doctor said.

The money will be used in Rehri Goth to eliminate malnutrition among expectant and new mothers and their babies, ensure that children have access to primary health care and immunisations and train a group of local women at Aga Khan University to become midwives.

Women taking part in the program would get two medical checkups to monitor their pregnancy, multivitamins to promote a healthy fetus and food if they are malnourished, she said.

Zaidi has been working in the area for the last ten years on various health-related research projects carried out by the university so she was familiar with its needs.

”I know this community. I know what its problems are,” Zaidi said. ”It’s a really good match between what the community needed and what this prize was offering.”

Caplow said Zaidi ”really gave reassurance that she would be able to do exactly what she said she would do and it would have the impact that she said it would have.”

He added that he and his wife conceived of the prize after they gave birth to triplets who spent a month in an intensive care unit.

The prize, which Caplow said would continue next year, was a way to address the disparities in medical technology available around the world.

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Pakistan’s Exports Win Access to European Markets

Pak garment industry (Credit: dawn.com)
Pak garment industry
(Credit: dawn.com)

ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: The European Parliament has allowed duty free access to Islamabad in a move that will augment its exports by $1 billion annually amid calls to implement international conventions on human rights, good governance, labour and environmental standards.

The EU Parliament approved the Generalised System of Preference, known as GSP Plus status, with 409 to 182 votes for 10 developing countries including Pakistan, according to a statement issued by the EU’s Embassy in Islamabad.

The GSP Plus status means there will be zero duties on over 90% of all products that Islamabad exports to the bloc of 27 nations.

The EU is Pakistan’s largest trading partner. The GSP Plus status will become effective from January 1, 2014.

“The award of GSP Plus status shows confidence of the international markets on the excellent quality of Pakistani products,” said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his written statement. He congratulated the nation for the achievement.

The premier said that gaining access to European markets was the top-most priority of the government as part of the economic development agenda. The status would enable Pakistan to export more than $1 billion worth of products to the international markets each year.

“The textile industry [alone] would earn profits of more than Rs100 billion per year,” said the prime minister. He said the increase in exports would resultantly facilitate economic growth and help in the generation of additional employment.

textile

Pakistan has been suffering from huge losses after it became the frontline state in the global war on terrorism. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that the country suffered over $100 billion in direct and indirect losses due to the war.

In order to compensate for the huge losses, Pakistan had long been demanding the United States and EU give it preferential treatment in trade and investment – a wish that the US has yet to fulfil despite making promises.

The European Commission’s preliminary assessment is that Pakistani exports, including textiles but also other products, such as leather, would increase by 574 million euros annually, said the EU Embassy. The Pakistani textile industry estimates that exports of textiles to the EU alone under GSP Plus will increase by $650 million in the first year, it added.

“While there is every reason to celebrate this milestone in EU-Pakistan relations, the GSP Plus regime calls for Pakistan to fully implement its commitments under 27 international conventions on human rights, good governance, labour and environmental standards,” said the EU’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Lars-Gunnar Wigemark.

He said the grant of GSP Plus shows the importance the European Union attaches to its relations with Pakistan. “We have listened to Pakistan’s plea for more trade and not just aid,” Wigemark added.

The business community can play a significant role, for instance by ensuring labour rights, employing more women in workplace and making sure that there is no exploitation of child labour. “Improving human rights, including labour standards, is win-win situation for Pakistan and the EU,” the ambassador said.

However, he stressed that there is a need to improve the business climate in Pakistan, including access to energy.

The analysts say there are apprehensions among the business community that the energy shortages may deprive the exporters to get full benefit from the GSP Plus status.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2013.

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People of Pakistan at mercy of state & non-state actors: Asian Human Rights Commission report

Pak terrorism (Credit: 3quarksdaily.com)
Pak terrorism
(Credit: 3quarksdaily.com)

Karachi, Dec 10: In 2013, the people of Pakistan have remained at the mercy of state and non-state actors which resort to violence as a means to secure power, the Hong-Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said on Monday.

The detailed report has been released to mark Human rights Day that falls on December 10 (today). Rights violations are widespread due to the failures of, and lack of reform in, the country’s institutional framework, in particular key institutions of the rule of law: the police, prosecution and judiciary, according to the report.

Throughout the year 2013, the AHRC has documented how too many lives, and the dignity of those living, have been snatched by a callous state and inhuman cruelty in Pakistan.“This year, absence of a functioning criminal justice framework has allowed, or even caused, torture in custody and extrajudicial executions to increase rapidly.

“During the year, hundreds of incidents of sectarian violence, targeted killings, terrorist attacks, and suicide bombings were witnessed, as well as killings conducted,” the report said.But that is not all. In 2013, the nation faced the promulgation of two draconian ordinances that have restricted freedoms further. It also witnessed the absence of the rule of law, killings of persons from Muslim minority sects, honour killings, trafficking of women and children, torture in custody, disappearance after arrest, and extrajudicial executions, suicide attacks on religious sites, persecution of the religious minorities, forced marriages, assassination of journalists, enslavement of children, poverty levels rising to 34 percent and power blackouts that brought industrial and commercial activities to a standstill, the report said.

The year 2013 also witnessed, for the first time in Pakistan’s history, peaceful transfer of power from one civil government to another following a general election. Every political party, including that which won the May 11 election with a two-thirds majority, complained about gross vote rigging.

“The new government, on assuming power, immediately began acting on its distaste for human rights. It merged the Ministry of Human Rights with the Ministry of Law and Justice, denying the people opportunity for redress for human rights abuses. The government has turned a blind eye to the arrogance of the police and armed forces in its refusal to comply with the orders of the courts,” the report said.

The government – in attempt to limit freedom of expression, freedom of movement, constitutional protection from arbitrary arrest, security of individuals, right to property, and civil liberty – promulgated two ordinances (Pakistan Protection Ordinance and an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997). With these ordinances it has provided law enforcement and security agencies unlimited powers to search houses without warrant, shoot suspects on sight, confiscate property, tap telephones, and hack computers, and has established a parallel judiciary, creating special courts and special prosecution. These ordinances were promulgated to bypass parliament and open debate.

 

“Balochistan remains in a grave situation in 2013. Thousands of people are missing after arrest. Human rights abuse is the norm.,” the report said.

“In 2013, four hundred and fifty (450) persons disappeared after their arrest by the Frontier Corps (FC) and other forces in Balochistan. In Sindh province 35 persons disappeared this year; the number of disappeared for KPK province is 110 persons. In Pakistan-held Kashmir, nationalists struggling for independence of both India-held and Pakistan-held Kashmir disappeared constantly – 52 such persons disappeared after their arrest.”

“As many as 180 bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch missing persons have been found this year. In Sindh, during joint operations of Pakistan Rangers and Police, 53 persons were extra-judicially killed in vast numbers of encounters. In Karachi alone, 34 persons were killed in extra-judicial executions,” the report said.

“However, intelligence agencies brazenly ignore Supreme Court’s orders to produce the missing victims. Two judicial commissions established to probe cases of disappearances have been unable to get explanations from the intelligence agencies, and their recommendations have been ignored.”

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Altaf fears ‘British establishment’ plotting to eliminate him

Altaf Hussain address (Credit: news.com.pk)
Altaf Hussain address
(Credit: news.com.pk)

LONDON, July 1: MQM leader Altaf Hussain opened a new front on Sunday by naming the British establishment and openly accusing Britons of hatching a plot to eliminate him and “frame” him in the murder case of Dr Imran Farooq, one of the founders of the MQM.

In an unprecedented broadcast watched by millions of Pakistanis on private TV channels on Sunday, the London-based MQM supremo, who has made Britain his permanent home after fleeing Pakistan in 1992, admitted that the Metropolitan Police had raided his home in North West London.

Dr Imran Farooq, who had been living in exile in London since 1999, was stabbed to death on his way home from work in Green Lane on September 16, 2010, outside his residence. The Met Police believe he was killed because he wanted to start his own independent political career.

The news of the search warrant being executed one of the MQM leader’s residential addresses was broken exclusively by Geo TV, stunning Pakistan. The police seemed to have taken direct aim at the MQM leader, by first raiding his home and then arresting Iftikhar Hussain, when he landed at Heathrow after attending Hussain’s niece’s wedding in Toronto,and kept him for nearly 34 hours at a police station to question about Dr Imran Farooq murder.

In his address, the MQM leader was clearly agitated and complained that the police had taken away belongings from his property and were refusing to communicate. It was in this context that he announced to relinquish charge of the party in the early hours of Sunday.

Hussain retracted his decision of leaving reins of the party in a live speech after hours of emotional appeals by the workers present at the 90 headquarters of MQM and warned that the consequences of his arrest or trial in relation to Dr Farooq’s murder may be too serious for Britain to bear.

Hussain spoke as a man who is convinced that he will be implicated in the investigation of Dr Farooq’s killing. He spoke as if it was a fait accompli. He spoke candidly and appealed to his workers to stay united if he is eliminated, charged, put on trial, or sent on a path yet unknown to him and others.

He suggested that there was a conspiracy against his leadership of the MQM and wanted a referendum from his workers if they wanted him to stay or go in obscurity. Unanimously, the workers asked Hussain on live TV to stay on or else no other leader will be accepted. It’s either you, Bhai, or no one else is worthy of leading us, they assured. Hussain took his resignation back but that was only a sideshow to the big development.

What Hussain said in his speech about Dr Farooq investigation, Britain’s role in hideous games and the alleged plot against him by his hosts, actually marks a turning point for the party that set its camp in London more than two decades ago.

The MQM has controlled Karachi from its International Secretariat in Edgware without any trouble at anytime, but those times have changed and the party leadership at the moment has three investigations going on about them, directly or indirectly: the murder investigation of Dr Imran Farooq, a money-laundering investigation and an investigation into Altaf Hussain’s ‘teen talwar’ speech.

In fact, for the first time Altaf Hussain admitted that some kind of a money laundering probe is also going on against the MQM after the raids on MQM Secretariat or the residences of MQM leaders.

The raid on his house and the arrest of Iftikhar Hussain shook the party leadership to the core and has puzzled its think tanks who have for long thought that they are always tolerable to the west because of their general liberal and secular outlook. That assessment is right and the MQM has been treated as such in Britain, but the killing in London and the rise in confrontation in Britain has set the party on a path which it didn’t choose.

“I may not be the chief in the eyes of Britain, but I am the chief in the eyes of party workers,” said Hussain.It is known that recently George Galloway, MP, instructed lawyers to seek legal action against Altaf Hussain and he has been proactively campaigning in British Parliament regarding Altaf Hussain’s activities. Lord Nazir Ahmed and Imran Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader, were also mentioned, by the MQM chief as canvassing the British government.

Imran Khan had also looked at the possibility of bringing legal action against Altaf Hussain in 2007. However, it is unlikely that Galloway, Imran Khan and Lord Nazir will have had much influence on the government as the Metropolitan Police are independent of the government pressure.

It must be noted that the Met Police do have connections with the secret services of Britain, MI-5 and MI-6, and the police force works closely with both the external and internal arms of the secret service.

Hussain said he would not seek legal counsel, barrister or a solicitor if charged with the conspiracy to kill his colleague, Dr Imran Farooq. He gave the clearest indication that the police were headed in the direction and the net was closing in.

He also said that the Met Police had full cooperation from his party but also warned the Met against framing him. In Pakistan, the MQM leadership made their disgust at the Met investigation clear when they protested outside British Consulate in Karachi and warned the Met not to cross the red lines.

Altaf Hussain questioned why the house of a leader who represents millions has been raided in such a blatant manner. It is believed that the MQM is aware that the Met Police are close to taking further action which would be in the form of bringing criminal charges against certain individuals, and his speech may be seen as a pre-emptive attempt to soften the blow to his party faithful.

A foreign and commonwealth office spokesman in London says: We are aware of a planned demonstration outside our Karachi consulate. It’s a concern for us, but we will not go into details of what these concerns are. We have taken measures.”

Speaking about the comments of Altaf Hussain, the spokesman added: “Metropolitan Police are investigating the murder case of Dr Imran Farooq. The Met Police is completely independent of the government influence. It’s an independent organisation. Her Majesty’s Government doesn’t interfere with the police investigation. Whether to charge, release or raid an address—it’s nothing to do with the government. The Met Police deal with such matters.”It should be noted that conspiracy to commit murder, contrary to Section (1) 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, can attract a custodial sentence and imprisonment for life.

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QUETTA, PESHAWARROCKED BY BLASTS: SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 28 HAZARA MEN AND WOMEN

Hazara massacre in Quetta (Credit ipsnews.net)QUETTA, June 30: At least 28 men and women of Shia Hazara community were killed and 60 others injured in a suicide blast in the Aliabad area of Hazara town on Sunday night. “A suicide bomber blew himself up near a barrier close to Ali Ibn-Abu-Talib Imambargah,” DIG (Investigation) Syed Mobin Ahmed told Dawn.

The proscribed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the group who identified himself as Abubakar Siddique told a private TV channel that his group had carried out the attack in the Hazara town.

At least nine women were among the dead.

Sources said that an unidentified man on a bicycle tried to enter the area and when people standing near the barrier tried to stop him he blew himself up.

The blast occurred at the Balkhi Chowk which is near to the Imambargah.

Capital City Police Officer Mir Zubair Mehmood told reporters that prayers were being held inside the Imambargah when the blast took place.

He said the target of the bomber was Imambargah but he could not reach there because people responsible for security of the Imambargah stopped him at the barrier.

He said the head and parts of the bomber’s body had been found.

Eyewitnesses said a large number of people, including women and children, were at the place at the time of the blast.

Press photographer Saeed Ahmed told Dawn that human flesh and limbs were lying all over the place.

Soon after the blast, the sources said, security personnel rushed to the blast site and cordoned off the area. They did
not allow even rescue personnel to enter the area for fear of a second blast.

Hazara town resounded with gunfire after the explosion.

Two hand-grenades were found at the blast site which the suicide bomber reportedly carried.

The injured and the bodies were taken to the Bolan Medical College Hospital and the Combined Military Hospital.

Hospital sources said the death toll could rise because at least 10 of the injured were stated to be in serious condition.

Several nearby buildings and vehicles parked in the area were badly damaged by the blast.

This was second bomb attack in Hazara town over the past five months.

The previous blast, caused by explosive in a water-tanker on Feb 16, killed about 100 people and left over 200 injured.

Balochistan Governor Mohammad Khan Achakzai and Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the blast and expressed grief over the loss of lives. They expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.

Official sources at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat told this reporter that the chief minister who was in Islamabad on an official visit, decided to return to Quetta after coming to know about the attack.

“The chief minister has directed officials concerned to ensure adequate medical treatment of the injured,” they said.