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E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
Issue 67 August 2013 1
E-MAGAZINE
minorityconcrenpk@googlemail.com Edited by: Aftab Alexander Mughal - Issue No.67 (July’s events) August 2013 Struggle for a better Pakistan
Discrimination And Hatred
LAHORE: Becoming aware of the discrimination, injustice, prejudice of whom Christians in Pakistan face and are victims, about 3% of the population, and the necessity to report these issues to the new government: with these intent Christian leaders of different denominations recently met in Lahore, noting "the deteriorating situation of Christians and the growing threats from Muslim extremists towards minorities." Fides offers a summary of the text.
1. Religious discrimination: Minorities live in fear and are discriminated against religion, culture, social class. Christians are generally regarded as "second class citizens".
2. Economic persecution: The law states that 5% of public jobs destined to religious minorities are not implemented. In many public services only Muslims are accepted. Christians are deprived of the right to work in the private sector only because of their faith.
3. Religious hatred is one of the most serious problems. Radical groups and Islamic extremists argue that Pakistan is a land reserved for Muslims and that there should be no non-Muslim Pakistanis. This mentality creates insecurity among minorities.
4. Blasphemy Law: The promulgation and the abuse of the blasphemy law against Pakistani Christians is one of the biggest concerns. The law continues to be abused and misused for private disputes, and does not provide penalties for those who formulate false accusations.
5. Violence and impunity. Christians are victims of violence based on religion. There have been sensational mass episodes but also in the private and social life. Violence remains unpunished most of the time.
6. Prejudice against textbooks and schools. Public schools in Pakistan are "factories of hatred." In school textbooks that are used discredit Christian and Hindu minorities and contribute to creating a climate of hatred and prejudice in the minds of children and young people. (Agenzia Fides July 3)
1.크리스찬에 대한 2등 시민으르 차별
2.공공기관의 5%는 소수종교인으로 해야하나 지켜지지 않는 경제적 차별
3.극단주의자들의 공격
4.신성모독법의 무차별적용
5.종교적 이유의 폭력의 무처벌
6.소수 종교에 대한 차별과 반감을 조장하는 공공교육
Islamic Fundamentalist Attack Against A Peshawar Protestant Church
PESHAWAR: On June 5 morning two Islamic fundamentalists attacked a Protestant church, the Assembly of God Church, in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, shooting at a policeman on guard several times. Before they fled the scene, they took the dead officer's weapon and fired at the church. Two clergymen were inside the building at that time.
Tensions had been running high in the area after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that Muslims could not be street cleaners or janitors, who are in short supplies, "only minorities could do those jobs."
Minority groups reacted with outrage calling for his resignation. Khattak is a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Movement for justice), led by former cricket star Imran Khan. Following this statement, the church that was attacked received threats from Islamic extremists and asked for protection from local authorities, who responded by deployed two police officers to guard the church. (News by Asia News and the picture by UCANews)
Malala Brings Message to the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS: The Pakistani schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, then 15, shot by the Taliban last year for campaigning for girls' education celebrated her 16th birthday at the U.N., telling an audience of young activists "the extremists are afraid of books and pens." She was shot in the head at point-blank range in Swat, northern Pakistan, in October as she rode the bus home from school. Lucky to survive, she endured months of hospitalization and reconstructive surgery on her face. On July 13, the U.N. marked her birthday as she addressed a gathering of more than 500 activists from around the world at U.N. headquarters in New York. (The Wall Street Journal)
E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
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BLASPHEMY CASES
BLASPHEMY LAWS Since 1988, more than 1,000 cases have been filed in Pakistan alleging the desecration of the Qu’ran and making derogatory remarks against the Prophet Mohammed, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. (Asia Focus, July 23) People accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are often subject to vigilante justice. Mobs have been known to attack and kill people accused of blasphemy and two prominent politicians who have discussed changes to the blasphemy laws have been killed. (Guardian.co.uk, July 1, 2013) While Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are an outrage against international human rights norms, Rimsha’s case was especially notorious. Blasphemy allegations targeting Pakistan’s tiny Christian community sometimes fail to produce convictions, but they rarely fail to provoke lynch-mob violence, pogroms and assassinations. (Ottawa Citizen, July 1, 2013) Few politicians have been willing to publicly criticise the country’s blasphemy laws. One who did was Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab. He was subsequently assassinated by his bodyguard in January 2011. Another politician opposed to the blasphemy laws was Shahbaz Bhatti. For four years he was the only Christian member of the federal cabinet and served as minister for minority affairs. He was gunned down in March 2011. No one has yet been found guilty. Paul Bhatti, the former minister for national harmony and minority affairs in Pakistan said, some (Madrassas) are teaching only to the children a specific kind of ideology interpreted in their own way. And these children are brainwashed, and they are attacking people who are against their ideology. (Aljazeera, July 13, 2013) It is shameful and a true blot on the nation to see that many of those who face threats to their lives because of blasphemy charges have to seek sanctuary in foreign lands after being forced to abandon their native country. No wonder the whole world looks at us in a negative light. (Editorial, Daily Times, July 1, 2013)
Churches Urge EU To Pressure Pakistan On Blasphemy Law
Church groups have urged the European Union to raise questions with the Pakistan government concerning growing religious intolerance and persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan. Representatives of church and ecumenical organizations from Pakistan and different European nations recently met in Brussels on June 24 and 25 to talk about the issue at the headquarters of the European Union. (EN, July 3, 2013)
Pakistani Girl Accused Of Blasphemy, Finds Refuge In Canada Rimsha Masih and her family given visas to help get them out of hiding after allegations she burned the Qur'an
A Christian girl who was accused of burning Islam's holy book in a case that focused international attention on Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws is in Canada with her family after spending months in hiding, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said. Rimsha Masih was arrested in August last year in Islamabad after a Muslim cleric accused her of burning the Quran. She was held in jail before getting bail, but the cleric was later accused of fabricating evidence and the case against the girl was dropped. The case received widespread attention in part because of the girl's young age and questions about her mental abilities. An official medical report at the time put her age at 14, although some of her supporters said she was as young as 11.
Christian Sentenced To Life Imprisonment
LAHORE: The controversial blasphemy law continues to claim victims in Pakistan: Sajjad Masih Gill, a 28-year-old Christian, residing in the district of Pakpatan, in the province of Punjab, was sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of 200 thousand rupees (about $ 2,000) by a court of first instance in Gojra (Punjab). The ruling was issued on July 13. Gill had been indicted for blasphemy (in particular for insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam) by some Muslim religious leaders and other influential people for sending an SMS from his mobile phone with blasphemous content. As reported to Fides, this is the first case of "blasphemy vis SMS" recorded by the police in Pakistan". The verdict which condemned Masih was a big surprise, because there is no evidence against him", comments to Fides Agency the Catholic lawyer Nadeem Anthony, who has followed the case.
According to a reconstruction of the case sent to Fides by Aftab Alexander Mughal, Editor of the e-magazine "Minorities Concern of Pakistan," on Dec. 18, 2011, Malik Muhammad Tariq Saleem, a Muslim resident in Gojra, a
E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
Issue 67 August 2013 3
merchant, received some blasphemous text messages from a unknown phone. The next day, Tariq was reported to the police in Gojra who registered a complaint ("First Information Report") for blasphemy, indicting and arresting Sajjad Gill. (Agenzia Fides, July 15, 2013)
Christian Couple Charged With Blasphemy In Gojra
A Christian couple in Gojra has been charged under the blasphemy law for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages to a local Muslim. According to details, the Gojra City Police Station registered a case [FIR No. 407/13] under Section 295-C of the country’s blasphemy law against Shafqat Masih, 43, and his wife Shagufta, 40, on July 15 on a complaint filed by one Rana Muhammad Ejaz who alleged that he had received blasphemous text messages from a number registered in the name of Shagufta. Shagufta works at Gojra’s Saint John’s School as a maid. Her husband is physically handicapped but takes care of the campus as a night watchman. The couple reportedly has four children between the ages of five and 11, according Pakistan Today, July 23. The couple lives in Gojra, a town in Punjab where eight Christians were burnt alive in 2009.
Instead of investigating the affair, police forced the two to accept the charges. A local priest warns that "false allegations like this lead to years in prison for the innocent, Asia News reported 0n July 23.
(Picture: “Only one punishment for the blasphemer; sever his head from the body... Life imprisonment not acceptable, not acceptable and not acceptable,” - World Watch Monitor)
Sikh Holy Book Desecrated Again In Sindh
KARACHI: Before police could arrest culprits who desecrated Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib in Pano Aqil, a similar incident happened in Shikarpur, in which unknown people tore 24 pages of the sacred book. (By Amar Guriro, Daily Times, July 20, 2013)
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Hindus, Shias, Minorities Worse Off In Pakistan: US Report
Washington: The already poor religious freedom environment for Christians, Ahmadis and Hindus has continued to deteriorate in Pakistan over the last eighteen months; according to a US body monitors violations of religious freedom abroad. Releasing the findings of its Pakistan Religious Violence Project July 17, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said it had tracked 203 publicly-reported incidents of sectarian violence resulting in more than 1,800 casualties, including over 700 deaths. (ZEENEWS.com, July 18, 2013 – Graph by Daily Times, July 19, 2013))
Sectarian Killings
This year alone, more than 400 people have been killed in sctarian attacks. Ahmadis, Hindus, and Christians have also been victims of religious intolerance. (Aljazeera, July 13)
AHMEDIS Banished From Place Of Worship
LAHORE: Ahmedis in Fatehpur, Gujrat district, have been banished from their own place of worship in Ramazan and fear that they will be deprived of the property by the local government and clerics. On July 11, the first day of Ramazan, a group of Sunnis beat up the Ahmedis and kicked them out of the place of worship, telling them not to return, according to members of the Ahmedi community. The police did not register a case, nor heeded their request for protection. Instead, they sealed the place of worship, which is located on a four-marla plot. (The Express Tribune, July 31, 2013)
Declan Walsh, The New York Times Pakistan bureau chief, has officially been placed in category A of the Black List (BL), with the government declaring him persona non grata, documents available with TET (July3)
E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
Issue 67 August 2013 4
CHRISTIAN MINORITY
Chief Minister Pervez Khatak Statement On Cleaning Jobs For Minorities
Tensions had been running high in Peshawar after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Kharrak said that Muslims could not be street cleaners or janitors, who are in short supplies, "only minorities could do those jobs." Minority groups reacted with outrage calling for his resignation, according to the Asia News on June 5.
Kharrak is a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Movement for justice), led by former cricket star Imran Khan.
President of Pakistan Christian Congress Dr. Nazir S Bhatti has strongly condemn statement and said that in every Municipal Committee or Municipal Corporation of KPK province there are 15% Muslims who are on payroll of sanitary workers but Pervez Khatak failed to see it before issuing such statement which have hurt feelings of Christians of KPK, according to the PCP of July 4, 2013.
Dr Uzma Ali writes in the LUBP on July 6, “It is not only a disgrace to the Christians but to the teachings of the founder of the Pakistan as well as the teachings of Koran which clearly states that Christian religion is closest to that of Islam. Christians in Pakistan have expressed extreme distress at this action and foresee it as an attack on their religion & religious sentiments.”
Christian Girl's Rapists Will Be Prosecuted
KASUR: A court in Pattoki in the district of Kasur, Punjab province, has formalized the charges of rape against two Muslim men who in February raped the Christian 15-year-old Fouzia Bibi. Shabir Ali and Sher Muhammad, the two accused have been charged with rape and will be brought to trial. The girl had been kidnapped and raped repeatedly by the two, who worked on the same farm where Fouzia was employed.
Fouzia’s Christian family had been pressured by the police to withdraw the complaint. The police officer who intimidated them, however, was discovered and fired. (Agenzia Fides, July 5, 2013)
3 Christian Women Paraded Naked In Pakistan, Probe Ordered
Over a month after a Muslim landlord allegedly paraded three Christian women naked in Pakistan's Punjab province, the Lahore high court on July 12 has finally taken notice of the matter and directed a judge to investigate the incident. The district and sessions judge, Kasur, to probe the matter and submit a report within two weeks. (Hindustan Times, July 13, 2013))
A Girl And A Catholic Nun Threatened And Forced To Flee
HYDERABAD: Tension, fear and the need to leave the country for a certain period: this is what a Catholic family in the village Padri Jo Goth, in the district of Sanghar, in the Pakistani province of Sindh is experiencing.
Among the members of the family, currently in danger, there is also Sister Marie Khurshid, responsible of the Catholic Hospital Santa Teresa in Mirpurkhas, a nearby town. The nun is the aunt of a Catholic girl, Nazia Masih, watched by a local Muslim, a landowner who tried to kidnap her, marry and convert her to Islam. Nazia and Sister Marie, who strongly opposed, intend to temporarily leave Pakistan.
Nazia is a nurse who worked in the hospital in Cheniot. The Muslim Ghulam Muhammad began to harass her and put pressure to force her into marriage and convert to Islam, threatening to disfigure her with acid, if she did not accept. As reported to Fides, the man has already kidnapped and raped several Hindu girls from nearby villages. The fear is that Nazia may suffer the same fate and could be a victim of women trafficking who once kidnapped, then disappear to be sold. (Agenzia Fides, July 25)
AWAM organised a regarding Persons with Disabilities Rights in Faisalabad on June 15.
A seminar and rally on child rights was organized by Arooj-e-Mariam Catholic Church, Faisalabad.
Police Acquit Themselves Over Death Of A Christian
Pakistani police officials involved in the alleged torture and death of an 18-year-old Christian during an illegal detention have been exonerated by an internal inquiry. The decision, announced on July 10, sparked angry reactions from activists, lawyers and the boy’s family. Adnan Masih, a resident of Sheikhupura in Punjab province, was arrested on June 2 in connection with a missing Muslim girl. Although Adnan pleaded innocence, he was kept in police custody for over a week at Sharaqpur Sharif police station. (UCANews, July 12)
E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
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Christians Keeping The Faith In Pakistan Despite 'Intimidation And Violence' LAHORE: From January 2012 to June 2013, the Religious Violence Project compiled and catalogued all publicly recorded attacks on religious minorities, including torture, rape, and shootings. Over the 18 months, at least 11 Christians were confirmed killed and 36 injured, though the report authors note the real numbers are likely higher. In spite of these sobering statistics, over the past few weeks, every church service I attended in Lahore was packed, from Catholic mass at the grand Sacred Heart Cathedral to Presbyterian worship at the more austere St. Andrew’s Church. Over and over again, I encountered the same attitude: people are aware of the risks of being a Christian in Pakistan, but they choose to go attend the services anyway. (Global Post, July 25, 2013)
Pakistani Christians Angered By ‘Sweeper’ Comment 'Only non-Muslims will be recruited as sweepers,' says Khyber Minister
Pakistani Christians have been angered by a statement by the Chief Minister of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that only “non-Muslims will be recruited as sweepers”. The province, known for short as KPK, borders Afghanistan. Its Chief Minister, Pervez Khattak, who is in former international cricketer Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), says that he was quoted out of context and misinterpreted.
Christians took Khattak’s remark to be deeply offensive, with many saying that it showed the “true” stance of PTI, whose election slogan in May was “Justice, Humanity and Self-Esteem”.
The Municipal United Workers’ Union President Mushtaq Masih told World Watch Monitor that in Peshawar Municipal Corporation there are 935 sanitary workers and 111 of them are Muslims. “Muslim sweepers are like kings,” he said, “they do nothing but regularly receive their salary.” He said recruitment of these Muslims was politically motivated, and so their workload is shifted to the Christian sweepers.
Christians account for around 2% of the almost 180 million population. However, representation of Christians in the occupation of cleaning and sweeping is extremely high.
Lahore is the capital of the Punjab, the largest province in Pakistan. Its population is estimated at more than 10 million. According to Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), there are 7,894 sweepers working there and most of them are Christian.
In Islamabad, the capital, there are about 1,500 sanitation workers, according to the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Sanitation Directorate figure. CDA Workers’ Union General Secretary Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin says all the sweepers are Christians. (World Watch Monitor, July 24, 2013)
Pakistan Bans Indian Hindu-Muslim Romance Film
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has banned an Indian film about the love affair of a Muslim-Hindu couple on the grounds that it could offend viewers in the conservative Islamic republic, officials said July 5. "Raanjhanaa" was scheduled for release in June, but Pakistan's Film Censor Board refused to clear it for cinema showings. According to press reports the film is the love story of a Hindu man and a Muslim woman.
Pakistani movie distributors boycotted Hollywood film "Zero Dark Thirty" about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US troops in Pakistan on May 2, 2011 to the country's humiliating. (Fox News, July 5)
The Impasse Over Youtube Access In Pakistan Continues
KARACHI: The 9th hearing of the Pakistan Internet Freedom case (Bytes for All vs. Federation of Pakistan) concluded on June 5 at the Lahore High Court (LHC), presided over by the honourable Justice Mr. Mansoor Ali Shah. YouTube was initially blocked in Pakistan on September 18, 2012, after violent protests broke out all over the country in reaction to a blasphemous film uploaded on the website’s servers that outraged Muslims all across the world. The ban was lifted in early 2013, but only lasted for a few hours, and the website has remained blocked to Pakistani users ever since then. (Daily Dawn, June, 5, 2013)
E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
Issue 67 August 2013 6
SHIA MINORITY
SHIA MINORITY: Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim state, but around 15% percent of the population are Shias. Most Sunnis and Shias live together peacefully in Pakistan, though tensions have existed for decades. (The Guardian, July 27, 2013)
Mainstream Discourse On Shia Genocide And Sectarianism
Pakistan is home to a strong 40 million Shia community which has been subject to persecution for decades. To date, more than 22,000 Shia have been killed in an organised campaign, nothing short of a genocide. The mainstream discourse on this ruthless killing of the Shia suggests that the Shia are killed because of ideological differences and abuse of Sahaba, thus blaming the victims i.e. the Shia community for their persecution. (View Point Online, July 5, 2013, Online Issue No. 158)
The Plight Of The Hazaras In Pakistan
In the most recent incident, an Imam Bargah (a place of worship for Hazara Shiite Muslims) in the Aliabad area of Hazara Town in Quetta was targeted June 30 in an attack that left almost 28 dead and over 60 injured. The attack was carried out by a suicide bomber and was followed by gunfire in the nearby area. It was not the first: two horrific incidents in January and February 2013 left nearly 200 dead and over 450 injured in the Hazara Town area of Quetta, Baluchistan.
The persecution of Hazaras is not a new phenomenon. Hazaras are historically residents of Afghanistan, where they form almost 19 percent of the population. Nearly one million Hazaras live in Iran, while more than 650,000 reside in Pakistan, mostly in Quetta. Almost all Hazaras belong to the Shiite Muslim community.
Hazaras have also been a target of ethnic cleansing, targeted killing and genocide in Afghanistan. The Afshar Operation, Mazar-i-Sharif massacre, the Robatak Pass massacre and the Yakawlang massacre of Hazara community in Afghanistan by the Taliban represent just a small slice of the historic ethnic grudge against the Hazara community.
Theories suggest the persecution of Hazaras in Quetta and Baluchistan are a continuation of these extremist sentiments, given that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), the group claiming responsibility for most of the attacks on Hazara community, has had strong ties with al-Qaeda. Moreover Lashkar-e- Jhangvi (LeJ), though considered a terrorist organization by the Pakistan and U.S. governments, is believed to have some support among right-wing political parties in Pakistan. The support may also extend to Pakistan’s military, which has not taken any strong action against the terrorist groups and is rather busy with its own covert operations in Baluchistan. (Malik Ayub Sumbal, The Diplomat, Tokyo, Japan, July 4, 2013)
Wave Of Sectarian Violence: Factors That Sustain Lej’s Reorganisation
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) is considered a sectarian terrorist group with a monolithic identity. The LeJ is divided into many factions; though efforts are going on to bring these factions into one fold. Ideologically, it is more diverse than in late 90s when it was proscribed. The LeJ nexus with Al Qaeda and TTP has not only broadened its ideological horizon but also equipped it with lethal operational tactics. The LeJ is now an ultra-sectarian organisation, which is working for Sunni supremacy in state institutionalisation. To achieve this purpose killing of the Shias is one of the operational tactics, but could use it to hit other targets as well such as security forces, foreign interests and political leadership. (Muhammad Amir Rana, TNS, July 7)
Bomb Attacks Kill At Least 57 Shia Two bomb attacks in a busy marketplace in Parachinar, north-west Pakistan, have killed 57 people and injured 167. (The Guardian, July 27)
Hazaras Gunned Down
QUETTA: Gunmen on July 16 opened fire on a vehicle in Quetta on Masjid Road, killing four people from the Hazara community. In another incident on July 22, gunmen killed two people from Pakistan’s Shia community when they opened fire on a taxi in Quetta.
Worshippers react nervously when they hear raised voices outside the mosque.
Lady Reading Hospital is expanding to cope with a rising number of casualties
(Pictures by: BBC, July 16, 2013)
E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
Issue 67 August 2013 7
AHMADI MINORITY
Ahmadis Killed And Gravely Wounded In Attacks
The persecution of the Ahmadis, a minority sect, by police and fundamentalist Muslim groups is continuing unabated. In the month of June, two persons from the Ahmadiyya sect were gunned downed by 'unknown killers' in Karachi and Lahore. Another Ahmadi was shot and seriously injured.
In the city of Sialkot, Punjab province, the Ahmadis were stopped from offering Friday prayers and police asked them to produce a No Objection Certificate (no such thing exists) for offering prayers. When Ahmadis went to a senior police official for help, he instead instructed Ahmadis not to observe their Friday prayers until he had spoken to the Mullahs, the Muslim fundamentalists. The authorities do not allow Ahmadis to build a place for worship, nor do they allow them to pray at home. This is the freedom to worship – Punjab style.
The Ahmadis are not allowed to call their places of prayer a mosque and if holy verses of the Quran are written on their mosques the police and the Mullahs (fundamentalists) desecrate and erase them. If any person erases such holy words he/she is accused of blasphemy by fundamentalists but, in relation to religious minorities, the Muslim fundamentalists and law enforcement agencies are allowed to erase them. This practice against the Ahmadiyya sect has been continuous over the past six months. (Asian Human Rights Commission, July 12, 2013)
EDUCATION
Schooling In Pakistan
The ranking of Pakistan on the list of countries with the most out-of-school children, with around 5.4 million primary school age children lacking access to education. How many times more that Pakistan invests in military spending than in primary schooling. This coming fiscal year, Pakistan has increased its defense budget by 15 percent, to $6.4 billion, while education spending has decreased from 2.6-to 2.3-percent of GNP over the past decade. Only seven other developing countries in the world spend less than Pakistan does on education.
50 percent of rural females who have never been to school. The disparity in Pakistan's education system reflects not just gender, but class lines. Along with this figure, the number of teens who make it to high school is twice as high in urban areas than in the rural regions.
33 percent of primary schools that cater to girls. In Pakistan, of the 154,000 primary schools, a mere 51,000 are girls' schools. And as the schools get further away from a girl's home, the less useful they become: female enrollment is shown to drop 20 percent with each half-kilometer increase in the distance to get to school.
75 percent of primary school-age girls not in school. There are many factors contributing to why girls are kept from an education, with poverty and fear of attack playing central roles in keeping them out of school. “Females in Pakistan face discrimination, exploitation and abuse at many levels, starting with girls who are prevented from exercising their basic rights to education either because of traditional family practices, economic necessity, or as a consequence of the destruction of schools by militants,” a joint report by the United Nations and Pakistani government found in December.
75 percent attendance drop in a girls' school near the Afghan border after the Taliban bombed it in December.
800: schools in northwestern Pakistan’s tribal belt that have been attacked by Taliban militants since 2009. The mountainous tribal area of Mohmand near the Afghan border has been hit 100 times alone. (The Daily Beast, July 14, 2013)
Pakistani Girls’ Schools
More than 800 schools in the region have been attacked since 2009. The Pakistni Taliban see schools as symbols of both Western decadence and government authority, also see girl’s education un-Islamic. (The New York Times, July 12, 2013)
The Taliban destroyed 400 of the 1576 schools in Swat (70% were girls' schools) (The Friday Times, July 19, 2013)
A ‘Red Carpet’ For CJP’s Son
LAHORE: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary’s son, Arsalan Iftikhar was given special protocol when he arrived at Lahore Airport by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-615. A special vehicle was detailed to pick him up as soon as he stepped on the airport right from the stairs descending from the plane. Arsalan Iftikhar has been charged with seeking millions of rupees in profit from former Chairman Bahria Town Malik Riaz during his foreign trips. The Shoaib Saddal Commission is investigating the matter. (Pakistan Today, July 7, 2013)
E-Monthly magazine of minorities for religious freedom, tolerance, peace and harmony in Pakistan
Issue 67 August 2013 8
MILITANCY
Afghan Army Chief: 'Pakistan Controls Taliban'
Fighting in Afghanistan could be stopped "in weeks" if Pakistan told the Taliban to end the insurgency, the head of the Afghan army Gen Sher Mohammad Karimi has told the BBC. (BBC, July 3)
Pakistan Wants To Talk To Its Taliban, But Doesn't Know What To Say
Pakistanis favor comprehensive peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban, but the process has been held back by disagreement over how to compromise.
Despite the Pakistani Taliban’s recent deadly attack on 10 foreign climbers, many Pakistanis still want to hold talks with the group to end a decade long conflict that has killed more than 50,000 people, mostly civilians.
(Umar Farooq, Christian Science Monitor, July 2, 2013)
JAILBREAK: TALIBAN FREE 248
Taliban militants have freed 248 prisoners in an assault on a prison in north-west Pakistan, officials say. Militants armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and bombs blasted down the walls of the jail in the town of Dera Ismail Khan and streamed inside, reports said, BBC reported on July 30. The new Pakistani government has been in power for only 50 days but the terrorist attacks have increased, it is myth that the drones strike at the heart of the terrorists, a senior retired officer of the Pakistani Air Force Sultan Hali told RT on July 30.
Analysts said the spate of violence highlighted the failure of the country’s civilian and military leaders to deliver on promises of a coordinated counterterrorism strategy, according to The New York Times. Some blame for the Taliban jailbreak fell on the former cricketer Imran Khan, whose party has led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, where Dera Ismail Khan is, since the election in May. Mr. Khan favors talking to the Taliban instead of fighting them, and has frequently attributed the chaos in the region to the presence of American troops in Afghanistan and C.I.A. drone strikes in the tribal belt, the newspaper reported.
According to a report by The New York Times on July 27, groups of Taliban fighters are spilling out of the tribal belt in northwestern Pakistan into the region’s largest city, Peshawar, where they are increasingly showing their presence through a campaign of intimidation and violence, according to residents, the police and city officials. Mr. Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party favors talks with the Taliban over fighting, and his officials frequently frame militant violence as a reaction to American drone strikes in the tribal belt. “What we need is a pat on the back, not daily derision,” one senior official said. “If Khan says this is not our war, then what does he think we are doing here sacrificing our lives?” (Cartoon by TET, July 31, 2013)
JuD Chief Hafiz Saeed Warns Pakistan Against Mending Ties With 'Arch Enemy' India
Jamaat-ud-Dawa Chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has warned Pakistan to be careful of ties with India. Saeed said India is responsible for energy crisis in Pakistan, as it has constructed 62 dams on their rivers, creating water shortage in the country.
He added that India is hatching conspiracies against Pakistan, promoting terrorism by sending its agents into their country. (DNA, July 8)
Abbottabad Commission
ISLAMABAD: The Abbottabad Commission Report, which is yet to be made public, contains a treasure trove of information on the hunt for the world’s most wanted man – Osama Bin Laden. It was not possible to find out whether or not the report has investigated and/or made any recommendations to prevent fugitives such as OBL from hiding in Pakistan. Neither is it clear whether or not the commission has held anyone responsible for the presence of OBL in the country or the May raid by the Americans. (Daily dawn, July 10, The report can be found at this link: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/binladenfiles/2013/07/201378143927822246.html)
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Taliban Ban Tight Men's Clothing In Waziristan
WANA: The Pakistani Taliban have banned tight or see-through clothing for men, threatening to impose a fine and shutter businesses selling the items, traders from the country's restive tribal belt said July 14.
Shopkeepers in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border told AFP the written warning came ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan which began on Thursday in Pakistan. (Daily Dawn)
DEMOCRACY
Pakistan Chooses Next President, PPP Boycotted
As predicted, Mamnoon Hussain, a little-known textiles magnate from Karachi and a loyalist of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, won the presidential vote on July 30 in the national and provincial legislatures. He will take over from President Asif Ali Zardari, a contentious figure who is due to step down on Sept. 8, The New York Times reported.
Controversy surrounded the vote. The country’s former ruling party, the Pakistan People’s Party, which has the second highest number of seats in the National Assembly, boycotted the election over the Supreme Court’s decision to move the vote forward to Tuesday. It had been scheduled for Aug. 6, but lawmakers asked for it to be pushed to Tuesday so they could travel to Saudi Arabia toward the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, according to Washington Post.
In a report on July 24, The Nation stated, the judicial activism has invited criticism about the conduct of the courts.
The court’s decision once again has proved that Pakistan is not a democratic country, but an Islamic state.
A general house meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association adopted a resolution on July 30 demanding presidential references against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawad S. Khwaja and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed for their alleged violation of the constitution in their judgment on the election of the president, daily Dawn reported.
PAKISTAN TV SHOW GIVES AWAY BABIES TO AUDIENCE
KARACHI: Plumbing new depths in the battle for television ratings, abandoned babies are being given away on a controversial prime-time game show in Pakistan. TV host Aamir Liaquat Hussain presented baby girls to two unsuspecting couples during his show, which is broadcast live for seven hours a day during the month of Ramadan. Some viewers praised the show's baby giveaway but others declared it a publicity stunt. (CNN, July 31, 2013)
Civil-Military Ad-Hocism
Despite the continuing momentum of democracy, the civil-military relationship is still problematically imbalanced. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Balochistan where the facts on the ground belie the rhetoric in the corridors of power. The military insists that there are no "troops" in Balochistan. This statement is aimed at distancing the military from charges of human rights violations, especially relating to the "disappearances" of hundreds of alleged Baloch nationalist-activists, in the province by the FC, MI and ISI.
But the fact is that the FC and Rangers are military organisations just like the Pakistan Army, the only difference being that they are formally under the control of the Ministry of Interior while the latter reports to the Ministry of Defence, and their role is restricted to provincial duties while that of the army relates to all of Pakistan. The fact is that the Generals leading the Rangers and FC formally take their orders from the civilians, much like the army chief or the DG-ISI, but in reality take over-riding orders from GHQ and coordinate closely with the Corps Commanders in their region. The fact also is that all military organisations are obliged to come to the "aid of civilian power" under various laws enacted for the purpose. But when they do, they acquire a degree of autonomy and freedom from civilian accountability that is not allowed to the regular law enforcing agencies like the police.
Therein lies the rub. The military narrowly and exclusively defines "national security" and brooks no civilian dilution or enlargement of the concept. And it acts, openly and secretly, via GHQ or the ISI, to protect and defend it. This "national security outlook" is currently at the root of the "problem" of Balochistan: the military sees the Baloch nationalists as an arm of the Baloch separatist-insurgents, who in turn are viewed as anti-Pakistan proxies of foreign powers which must be crushed and eliminated. (Najam Sethi, TFT, July 05, 2013, Vol. XXV, No. 21)
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Altaf Hussain, The Notorious Mqm Leader Who Swapped Pakistan For London
Altaf Hussain lives in London but leads Pakistan's powerful, controversial MQM party, which has millions of supporters. He has also been acccused of inciting murder and violence in his home country.
Owen Bennett-Jones, The Guardian, July 29, 2013
Pakistan's most vibrant, vivacious and popular 24-hour news channel, Geo TV, generally has little difficulty recruiting staff. Its headquarters are in Karachi, Pakistan's so called "city of dreams" – a massive, sprawling conurbation with 20 million residents seeking a better life. And yet there was one vacancy recently that Geo TV could not fill. The channel wanted a lookalike for its popular satirical show, in which actors play the parts of the country's leading politicians. It was a job offering instant stardom and good money. And not a single person in Karachi was willing to do it.
The man Geo TV sought to satirise was Altaf Hussain, the leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). And the reason no one applied was the fear that if Altaf Hussain were unamused by the performance, the actor playing him would be murdered.
Anxiety about the MQM is not restricted to Pakistan. One member of the British House of Lords who has been openly critical of the MQM recently said: "If I went to Karachi now I would be killed." Another peer has similar worries: "This is one issue I don't ask questions on. I have my child to worry about."
The man who has everyone looking over his or her shoulder does not even live in Karachi. For more than 20 years, Altaf Hussain has operated from the north London suburb of Edgware, beyond the reach of Pakistani prosecutors. He is almost completely unknown in the UK: his four-million-plus devoted supporters live thousands of miles away.
It's difficult to know how many murder cases have been registered against Altaf Hussain, but perhaps the most authoritative number was released in 2009 when the then Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf implemented his National Reconciliation Order, granting most of the country's senior politicians an amnesty. One of the biggest beneficiaries was Hussain, against 72 cases were dropped, including 31 allegations of murder. The MQM rejects all the murder charges lodged against Hussain.
When Pakistan was created in 1947 it had a population of 70 million. As well as the Bengalis in East Pakistan (who split away to form Bangladesh in 1971) there were four main indigenous groups: the Sindhis, the Baloch, the Pashtuns and the Punjabis. Partition brought a new element: Muslims who had fled Hindu-majority India. They were called the Mohajirs and most settled in Karachi, which was then the capital of Pakistan. This is the group represented by the Mohajir Qaumi Movement or, as it's now named, the Muttahida (United) Qaumi Movement or MQM.
At first the Mohajirs fared well. As many had spearheaded the campaign to create the country, they slipped naturally into leadership positions. But their disproportionate influence could never last. By the 70s a political backlash, especially from Punjabis and Sindhis, was in full swing and many Mohajirs found themselves unable to secure jobs or even places in schools and universities. For a group that thought it had the right to govern, it came as a heavy blow. And the first man to exploit the Mohajirs' sense of grievance was Hussain.
In 1988 MQM candidates broke through, and suddenly the party was the third largest in the National Assembly and has dominated Karachi politics ever since. Hussain has periodically flirted with demands for some kind of territorial settlement: "When everyone else had a province," he said in March 1984, "we said the Mohajirs should have one too." But for the most part he has accepted that such a demand is plainly unacceptable to the rest of Pakistan and has restricted himself to demands for greater Mohajir rights within the existing national framework.
The MQM's most vocal critic today is cricketer-turned-playboy-turned-Islamist-politician Imran Khan. In 2007, portraying himself as the man who dared to confront even the most entrenched political interests, Khan paid a visit to the Metropolitan police in London to hand over, he claimed, evidence of Hussain's wrongdoing. Apparently unimpressed with the quality of that evidence, the police did not bring any charges and Khan let the issue drop. But in May this year when one of his best-known party activists in Karachi, Zahra Shahid Hussain, was shot down outside her home, Khan openly accused the MQM of her murder. Thousands of his social media-savvy supporters were encouraged to complain to the British police. More than 12,000 did so and the police responded by, for the first time, formally investigating Altaf Hussain's London activities.
There are a number of strands to the Met's inquiries. First there is the issue of whether the MQM leader is using his London base to incite violence in Pakistan. In assessing that, the police have a huge amount of material to sift through, much of it online. At his birthday party in 2009, for example,
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he regaled his guests with a remark aimed at Pakistan's rich landowners and businessmen: "You've made big allegations against the MQM. If you make those allegations to my face one more time you'll be taking down your measurements and we'll prepare your body bags."
Because he is in London, Hussain addresses rallies in Karachi over the telephone. Crowds gather to listen to his voice through loudspeakers. In one such speech he had this message for TV anchors: "If you don't stop the lies and false allegations that damage our party's reputation, then don't blame me, Altaf Hussain, or the MQM if you get killed by any of my millions of supporters."
Most of his threats have been aimed at people in Pakistan but at least one was directed at the UK journalist Azhar Javaid who asked a question once too often. At a press conference in September 2011 Hussain warned Javaid that his "body bag was ready".
Adressing those whom he accused of denying the Mohajirs their rights, in December 2012, Hussain ranted: "If your father won't give us freedom just listen to this sentence carefully: then we will tear open your father's abdomen. To get our freedom we will not only tear it out of your father's abdomen but yours as well."
Partly because of the difficulty of establishing unchallengeable translations of Hussain's words, it might be months before the police decide whether to recommend a prosecution. In the meantime there is talk of a private prosecution. Long-time MQM critic George Galloway MP recently set up a fund to pay the legal fees of such an initiative.
On two occasions British judges have found that the MQM is a violent organisation. In 2010 a Karachi-based police officer sought asylum in the UK claiming the MQM was threatening to kill him in revenge for his having registered a case against one of its members. The judge, Lord Bannatyne, granted asylum and in his judgment accepted that: "the MQM has killed over 200 police officers who stood up to them in Karachi".
The figure is often cited by the Karachi police themselves, and refers to those officers who were closely involved in Benazir Bhutto's anti-MQM crackdown, Operation Clean-up. It came in 1995, during Bhutto's second government. Unable to rely on the slow, intimidated and corrupt courts, which were always nervous to convict MQM defendants, the security forces resorted to hundreds if not thousands of extrajudicial killings of MQM activists. Many of the police officers responsible have subsequently been murdered. MQM, however, refutes any allegations of inciting violence from London.
When asked about these allegations, MQM issued the following statement to the Guardian: "We'd also like to point out here that it is the MQM that has been the worst victim of violence in recent history of the country. The Taliban and other jihadi elements have killed scores of MQM members … "
As well as the incitement investigation, the British police are currently running another MQM-related inquiry. It concerns the September 2010 murder of a senior MQM member, Imran Farooq, who was stabbed to death outside his flat in Green Lane, Edgware. For the UK authorities, his murder crossed a red line. London is open to outsiders – but they have to leave their violent politics back home.
The Counter Terrorism Command have launched a massive and sustained investigation into Farooq's death. In December last year they raided the MQM's Edgware offices where they found substantial thousands of documents. Since most of the material is in Urdu and some, from MQM lawyers, is subject to client privilege, assessing it is extremely time-consuming. But with 12 officers working on the case full-time and a whole range of specialists available to carry out specific tasks when needed, the police are still showing real determination to trace Farooq's killer.
In its statement to the Guardian, the MQM said: "MQM understands that as part of that ongoing investigation, the Metropolitan police have interviewed several hundred people. MQM has assisted the ongoing police investigation whenever it has been requested to do so. A number of MQM party members have also voluntarily offered to be witnesses to assist the ongoing police investigation. Mr Altaf Hussain, MQM's party leader, has not been arrested nor charged with any criminal offence. The police are treating Mr Hussain as one of a large number of potential witnesses in their investigation and not as a suspect."
Right from the start the police raids in the investigation have produced rich material. Shortly after the 2010 murder the police found a significant number of papers stashed in Farooq's home. Some of the documents gave credence to the confessions made by a number of suspected MQM militants in Karachi. Repeatedly, MQM activists there had told the Pakistani authorities they were trained in India. Asked on numerous occasions over a period of several weeks about its relationship with the MQM, Indian government officials have failed to make any statement on the matter. Recent police raids have turned up £150,000 at the party's Edgware's offices and £250,000 at Hussain's house in Mill Hill.
The police say they are making significant progress in the Farooq murder case and have an ever-clearer understanding of what they believe was a conspiracy to kill him. Their investigation, however, is complicated by the fact that the MQM has supporters deep within the Pakistani state who want to
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protect it, and more cynical actors such as Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, which want to control it.
However, the recent elections in Pakistan have left the MQM politically weaker and there is a distinct possibility that the government of Nawaz Sharif will be less protective of the MQM than the last administration.
Aware that Farooq's killer or killers may be thousands of miles away and, the British Police believe, back in Pakistan, the UK investigation has focused on who might have ordered the murder. Having promised full co-operation with the British authorities Hussain has also complained that he is the subject of a witch-hunt and a conspiracy.
Recent British police actions have included the arrest (he is now bailed until September) of Altaf Hussain's nephew, Ishtiaq Hussain. The police won't divulge why he was arrested. Intriguingly, Altaf Hussain also let slip that he himself and MQM were being investigated for money laundering. This is now one of the most active elements of the British police's work. The question is: where does all the money seized in the raids and that used to buy the MQM's extensive UK property portfolio come from? In the statement to the Guardian, the MQM deny the laundering allegations.
"It is reiterated here that the party, its leader Mr Altaf Hussain or any other member of the Party has never dealt with any money that is the proceeds of crime. MQM's legal team has already submitted effective answers to questions concerning the cash seized from the party's office, whereas legal responses would be submitted shortly concerning the cash seized from Mr Altaf Hussain's residence."
With a condescension that is increasingly grating to the Pakistani public, Washington and London produce a regular flow of statements expressing concern about various Pakistani human rights abuses. But the whole issue of human rights monitoring is suffused with double standards. The abuses listed by the US and the UK are in fact little more than diplomatic ammunition held in reserve and deployed should the need arise.
The UK itself has questions to answer. It has resisted repeated Pakistani requests to hand over Hussain so that he can stand trial for murder in Pakistan. Hussain arrived in London in February 1992 and just three years later, Benazir Bhutto – then prime minister – was asking for London's help. "I think the British government has a moral responsibility to restrain Mr Altaf Hussain and say you cannot use our soil for violence," she said. Eighteen years later, Imran Khan's appeal was strikingly similar: "I blame the British government. Would they allow someone to sit in Pakistan and threaten people in the UK? They know about his track record."
If Hussain were a suspected London-based jihadi, many Pakistanis believe, he would have been arrested years ago.
Pakistanis point to other instances where they believe the UK has favoured Hussain. In 2002 he was issued with a UK passport. Off the record, British officials admit that the process by which he obtained nationality was flawed – a decision in January 1999 to grant him indefinite leave to remain in the UK was made as a result of a "clerical error". Despite repeated questions, the Home Office has refused to disclose what that error was.
Most Pakistanis dismiss the idea of a clerical error as risible. They point to a letter No 10 received from Hussain as evidence of how the UK and the MQM have tried to conceal the true nature of their relationship. Written just two weeks after 9/11, in it Hussain says that if the UK wanted hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Karachi denouncing terrorism he could lay that on with just five days' notice. He claimed he could also organise human intelligence on the Taliban and could set up a network of fake aid workers in Afghanistan to back up Western intelligence gathering efforts there.
After a copy of the letter appeared on the internet, the MQM denied its authenticity. Disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act have established that the letter is in fact authentic. Faced with that information, the Foreign Office admitted it had received the letter.
As Hussain suggests in the letter, British interest in the MQM is largely driven by the perception that the party offers a defence against jihadis. But there is more to it than that. The MQM is British turf: Karachi is one of the few places left on earth in which the Americans let Britain take the lead. The US consulate in Karachi no longer runs active intelligence gathering operations in the city. The British still do. When it comes to claiming a place at the top table of international security politics – London's relationship with the MQM is a remaining toehold.
And there's something else. The FCO's most important currency is influence. Successive Pakistani governments, when they are not demanding Hussain's extradition, have included his parliamentary bloc in various coalition governments. From the FCO's point of view, it's a great source of access. Right on their doorstep, in London, they have a man with ministers in the Pakistani government.
For its part the UK government insists there is nothing unusual about its contacts with MQM and that its meetings with MQM officials are: "a normal part of diplomatic activity around the world". I spoke to a British official recently about the MQM and asked why the UK government, so keen to declare its commitment to human rights, seemed so willing to deal with the party despite officials privately saying that it uses violence to achieve its goals. She said: "There is one thing I can assure you of – it's not a conspiracy." Which in a sense is true. It's not a conspiracy. It's just policy. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/29/altaf-hussain-mqm-leader-pakistan-london
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