NO FOREIGN AID FOR IDP'S

When Operation Zarb-e-Azb was declared against militant strongholds in North Waziristan last month, the federal government made a very surprising announcement: it said that it does not wish to receive any international foreign aid from donor agencies, the UN and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for the management and care of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were fleeing from their homes in North Waziristan. With the number of IDPs rising fast — latest estimates put them at close to one million — the government has once again reiterated its position on the subject of international aid with the Foreign Office announcing that no appeal had been made to the international community for help in meeting expenditures concerning the IDPs. One wonders why the PML-N government is so adamant about this point seeing that we can ill-afford to pass up any chance in which we are helped in the IDP crisis. We need money, rations, food items, clothing, shelter and all sorts of rehabilitation tools to aid in the timely relief of the many hundreds of thousands who are homeless and resourceless in the wake of the ongoing operation where their homes used to be. 
This is a mindboggling decision of the government. Operation Zarb-e-Azb is an ongoing war against the militants without any specific timeline or schedule. It is a full-scale operation for which the army has brought out its big guns: air strikes and ground offensives. When the battle is as big as this, the trauma being faced by the IDPs is bound to go on for an indefinite amount of time. Where are all these people supposed to go? How are they supposed to survive? The government’s track record really does not provide any solace to the people when it comes to taking care of their welfare. We still have IDPs from the army’s offensives in South Waziristan and Swat who are suffering without homes and relief. We even have flood-affected IDPs from the catastrophic floods of 2010 stuck without a hope in the world. How on earth is the government going to cater to this new influx without welcoming all the help it can get with open arms?

The Nawaz government has to come clean on why it is snubbing potential international efforts to help the IDPs. They are our people who have sacrificed their homes and peace of mind for the security of the nation. How is the government planning on doing them justice? While it is being reported that the UAE is donating to the IDP cause, we need to make a concerted effort to appeal to the international community to help the IDPs. It is the least we can do. 

Courtesy Daily Times 

PAKISTAN PROTECTION ORDINANCE (BILL)- GRADE 15 OFFICER & VICTIMIZATION

Now that the Protection of Pakistan Bill has been passed, a few points need to be considered very seriously. True, the security situation warrants extra ordinary measures, but just what extent should security agencies be allowed to go, and for how long, is important.

First of all, the Bill did not command complete unanimity among political parties. PTI stayed on the sidelines, and the Jamat and JUI-F were against it. MQM, too, agreed, but not without controversy. The chief, it turns out, was not in the loop when the decision was made. And he eventually agreed because the party had taken a position, but only grudgingly.

There is little doubt that the Bill incorporates some truly draconian measures. It is not very often, after all, that grade 15 officers are given the authority to kill. And anybody even vaguely familiar with the way our security agencies are used to operating will realise just what manner of political victimisation can be facilitated when such laws are put in place. Therefore, oversight will be very important, and high offices will need to be held to account in case of excesses.

It is also important to note that while Zarb-e-Azb is central to national survival, and government offices must facilitate the drive against insurgents in whichever way possible – and there will be blowback in cities – this law is not specifically for the operation. It is meant to deal with overall security breakdown which, actually, led to the operation.

Altaf Hussain has asked to law to be scraped immediately after the North Waziristan sweep, even though it is given an official lifeline of two years. Ironically, sections within law enforcement agencies are also skeptical about certain features incorporated in the Bill; they might not be able to walk away scot free from disputed incidents like the old days.

Surely the government would not want to be put in an awkward position because of initiatives meant to restore law and order. Two years might be too long, it should be rolled back sooner.

TALIBAN’S ‘SECRET LOVE’ FOR USA

A store owner from Miranshah confirmed that Taliban likes American soap and ladies perfume more than Pakistani products.

Rasheed-ur-Rehman who has migrated to Bannu with his family amid military action against TTP added that Taliban always paid high prices for US commodities.

Talking to a private news channel here, he said the daily sale at his shop was worth Rs 1.25 lakh and that the North Waziristan operation badly affected his business.

The vendor revealed that the Taliban who claim to be anti-America admire branded western products including Secret Love, Blue Lady, Rasasi perfumes among others. He added that Taliban did not like products manufactured in Pakistan.

Agencies

WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH

When a person like him dies, a library burns to the ground.

In Memory of

Alhaj Allama Bashir Hussain Nazim

 (January 01, 1937 – June 17, 2012)

 Please join us

as we commemorate the loss of eminent Naat poet, reciter, linguist, intellectual, religious scholar and above all our great father 

BASHIR HUSSAIN NAZIM

 (Pride of Performance)

on his 2nd death anniversary on 15^th June (Sunday), 2014.

  

Program (In Sha Allah)

Qura’n Khawni/ Naa’t Khawni ………. 10:00 am
Dua’ ………. 12:30 pm
Lunch ………. 12:45 pm

At House # 2026, Street # 32, I-10/2, Islamabad

RSVP

Mahtab Bashir & family

0345- 5069323

0333- 5363248

THE BUDGET (2014-15) & THE POOR

"It seems that the fiscal budget for the year 2014-15 has been made by 'A Clerk' rather 'An Economist'. -anonymous 

Stung by criticism that the Budget 2014-15 is tilted in favour of the rich and offers only scraps and crumbs from the table for the poor, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was at great pains to defend the Budget as not anti-poor during his post-Budget press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday. However, persistent questioning by media people on the concessions and relaxations to the busi

ness community and the impact, for example, of the withdrawal of subsidies on the electricity tariff put the minister on the mat. 

Dar admitted that over 50 percent more than 90 million people are below the poverty line of an income of $ 2 a day some estimates put this figure at 69 percent. He claimed his government was committed to raising this huge mass of people out of poverty. However, the consensus on the Budget is that it is business-friendly, with hardly any relief for the poor, the youth loan schemes, Benazir now National Income Support Programme and educational facilitation for deserving students notwithstanding. 

Laudable as these schemes are in themselves, they are a drop in the ocean of poverty that laps our shores. Admittedly, the straitened finances of the state leave little if any room for meaningful interventions, innovations and creative measures to offer the people groaning from inflation, unemployment and insecurity anything meaningful except token sops. Dar threatened those intending to increase prices using the excuse of the budget with strict measures “iron fist” to control prices. It is strange to hear an advocate of the market economy as the panacea for all our woes speak in this language. How would this ‘iron fist’ control the market and its inherent dynamic was left to the imagination. 

The claim that the fiscal deficit, which panned out at 8.8 percent of GDP last year, would be incrementally reduced over some years to four percent was not fleshed out, while critics point out that the raise in salaries and pensions was likely to act in the opposite direction, with resort to borrowing to meet the gap the most likely course, having its own implications for inflation. The measure to impose higher taxes on non-registered non-filers of tax returns is both a punitive step as well as an incentive to document the informal economy, a laudable objective that seeks to broaden the tax net, a badly needed policy to raise revenues and lighten the burden as far as possible on the honest tax payer being treated as the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg. Large scale retailers such as shopping malls and smaller retailers in the bazaar have been dealt with by imposing the condition of electronic sales registers for the former and a presumptive tax based on electricity consumption on the latter. Parliamentarians have been put on notice, quite rightly, that they would be deprived of all allowances if they fail to file tax returns by June 10.

The finance minister may have bent his back to defend the budget from charges of being pro-business and anti-poor, but the reactions of the respective communities says it all. The business community has been full of praise for what they call a growth oriented budget, while the working classes see nothing in it for themselves. That perhaps is why the clerks and teachers protesting against the budget were dealt with harshly in Islamabad on Wednesday (beaten black and blue according to accounts. The trade unions are up in arms, the agriculture sector feels it has been treated like a poor relative and the apprehension that without some relief to the masses the government may face more than its share of protest over the coming fiscal year cannot be dismissed lightly. 



The problem with the government’s approach is that it still adheres to the theory that the business class will pull the economy out of the doldrums and the discredited trickle down theory will do the necessary for the people at large. A perceived business-friendly government may have the luxury of indulging in such flights of fancy that recent history belies even in stronger economies than ours. But the government will have to burn some midnight oil to find ways and means to lighten the crushing burden of the masses or face increasing trouble on the streets ahead.

Courtesy: Daily Times

MEDIA: THE DANGER FROM WITHIN

The already deeply worrying events in the media landscape have taken a frightening turn with the reaction in several quarters to the Geo morning entertainment show debacle. The Geo programme, Utho Jago Pakistan, made a critical error of judgement by trying to fuse sensitive religious material with crass entertainment.

Arguably though, it was an accident waiting to happen. With no real professional editorial control at the channel and owner-management dictating what goes on air from another country, the channel is always likely to trip up now and again. Realising its error, Geo issued a serious and unreserved apology to its viewers — which is where the matter should have ended. But the lapse occurred at a time in which the media house’s rivals are trying everything to cut the channel down to size, perhaps even see it taken off air permanently.

Yet, for several media groups and their on-air and in-paper henchmen to deliberately, repeatedly and violently inflame religious sentiments in a country with an already alarming extremism problem has shown a shocking escalation of hostilities. The alacrity — some may say glee — with which the religious right has pounced on the Geo morning show debacle is impossible to miss, and ought to alarm even those media houses, led by ARY and Express, that have vigorously fanned the flames of religious hatred and bigotry.

The religious right would like nothing better than to have a veto over the Pakistani media, to decide what can go on air and in print and what must remain unseen, unheard and unread. But that dangerous and dark place is precisely where the national media seems to be dragging itself, oblivious apparently to what it would mean for everyone involved.

Certainly, Geo/Jang is far from blameless: for years, the group has given space to ugly and hateful views in the name of freedom of speech. Now, those very views and many of their rabid proponents are being used against it.

Two sets of actors must bear primary responsibility for events leading to what, arguably, is the logical conclusion of years of irresponsibility and a free-for-all in the TV news industry. The first set is the publishers and news channel proprietors themselves. While there is often a tendency to romanticise the past, there is a case to be made that once upon a time proprietors were more aware of the news business being different from other businesses and media ownership being a public trust of sorts.

Gone are those days. Now several media barons seek to use their media outlets for increasing their power, influence and wealth. And they do so by structuring newsrooms and programming operations in a way that they personally dictate what goes on air, and even in print. The recent wretched events in the media are a direct result of the excessive editorial control proprietors have accumulated.

Yet, the senior professional journalists working in the agenda-twisting media houses must surely bear some of the guilt, and shame, too. Powerful as the proprietors may be internally, a united journalistic front could surely put up some resistance. The proprietors need the aura of legitimacy professional journalists endow a media group with and so they cannot afford to totally alienate or lose that journalistic core and still hope to stay relevant or credible as a news organisation nationally.

But far too many senior professional journalists seem to have simply abdicated their basic responsibilities to their profession and their peers. Despite all its problems, despite the many controversies, the Pakistani media had grown to be a national institution that many could be proud of. But what dictators, anti-democrats and right-wing extremists could not achieve in decades, the media seems to have done to itself in a few short weeks. It is time for the few good men and women left in this profession to stand up and be counted.

                                                                       Courtesy: dawn.com

D-Chowk - HYDE PARK OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL ISLAMABAD

MAHTAB BASHIR

mahtabbashir@gmail.com

+92 333 53 63 248

ISLAMABAD

Some named it D-Chowk (for reasons unknown), few called it Khuni Chowk and last but not the least ‘Sheikh-ul-Islam’ Allama Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri ahead of his long March on 14 January, 2013 promised to convert this avenue into Tehrir Square (a major public town square in Downtown Cairo, Egypt).No one really knows how, when and why this place is named as D-Chowk, neither anyone has the knowledge enough who for the first time ever staged protest and Sit-in (Dharna in local lingo) at the very spot. 

Once remembered for an annual graceful congregation of National Armed Forces jawans, marking Pakistan Day (23rd March) with full-fledged display of armaments, Parade Avenue aka D-Chowk (on Jinnah Avenue) in the red zone area adjacent to the president House and Parliament House, now has become a Hyde Park for the protesters of in and outsiders of Islamabad, perturbing the office goers and other travellers.

 

The increased understanding about the right to freedom of expression amongst the people of the federal capital is a step to form the basis of a true democratic state. But this does not mean exercising the right at the cost of inconvenience to hundreds of employees working in public and private offices, including PNCA, PTV, PTCL, PTA, Awami Markaz and other private offices and residential area of Gulshan-e-Jinnah in F-5. It is not ideal for a democratic society to march on the roads to glorify the show of dissent over various social, economic, religious and political issues.

Instead of staging protest at Parade Avenue, National Press Club (NPC) in F-6/1, Super Market (F-6 Markaz) and Aabpara Chowk (G-6) are the other favourite picking spots for the demonstrators.

This trend has gained momentum with the series of protests organised by lawyers to seek justice for the chief Justice in 2007. The sufferers might be justifying but the sole aim should be to record their protest in the media so that it could be conveyed to the government.

The wave of terror that has swept the people with fear was the point of discouragement for the people to come on the roads amid the alarm of terrorist attacks, especially for Islooites, but in recent months, every now and then people are in a move to show disapproval on the national and international issues. The police officials cordon off the chowk once protesters reach Parade Avenue, causing traffic jams and flow of traffic becomes slow.

The people feel that marching on the road in front of the presidency is a way to inform the government of their sufferings. On almost daily basis, protests-cum-sit-in demonstrations are held at Parade Avenue by various private, public bodies and NGOs. The other hot spots for such protest rallies are Aabpara Chowk and National Press Club (near Super Market). The sits-in and rallies are held by FDE employees, OGDC, PTCL, NEF, NCHD and political as well as religious parties and university students on regular basis these days here at Parade Avenue.

The residents of the nearby localities often complain that these protests on daily basis have hampered their routine activities. “I am a student. Whenever I go out with my family at evening time for shopping, I have to wait for hours wasting time and fuel,” said Ahad Ahmad. He urged the authorities to arrange a single spot for these protesters to register their complaints without disturbing others.

 

Talking to this scribe, spokesperson for ICT Chief Commissioner Khalid Mehmood said a comprehensive policy was being devised to make arrangements for protests in red zone area of the city and other spots like Aabpara and National Press Club near Supermarket. “Under this policy, a spot will be fixed for protesters to hold rallies, sits-in and demonstrations to register their protest against the authorities concerned. “This policy is being drafted under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner to solve the problems of commuters, patients, students and office goers,” Mehmood said.

My mentor Imran Naeem Ahmad also adds for my blog in his crispy write-up under the title ‘Siege mentality Islamabad facing change’: Keep reading, here it goes!!!

Where people once roamed free, the markets were crowded, businesses thrived and life seemed untroubled – Islamabad may never be the same again, so believe the residents.

Such are the security concerns that police, paramilitary Rangers, guns and pickets are now the significant features of a town that was known for its peace and quiet.

Gone are the days when people said 'cheese' and had their photos taken in front of the landmark buildings along the Constitution Avenue. Gone too are the pleasure drives on the wide and inviting roads and so have the evening strolls at the Parade Square.

Police pickets today dot the down and concrete barricades and steel barriers are up virtually everywhere. Traffic has to weave past these obstacles as the cops look for a prize cache, without much luck though.

There is a sense of fear among the residents who have had an overdose of bomb blasts and suicide attacks for many years now. The assault on Marriott Hotel in 2008 was the bloodiest of them all.

In the wake of security threats the talk seems to be about walls, big and small. Already some of the United Nations offices have fortified their offices by erecting such walls. The government too has plans of walling the entire Red Zone.

How extensive such precautionary measures need to be ring on everyone's mind but residents think that the government needs to go for enhancing the capabilities of its intelligence agencies to thwart terror.

"Putting the town under siege is not the answer, do not alienate the people," stressed Tahir Shafi pointing out that more money should be spent on intelligence gathering.

Agreeing to his suggestion, Abdul Jabbar said that shutting off roads and streets only means inconveniencing the public. "Please do not trouble the locals while trying to catch terrorists," he pleaded.

The residents recall with fondness the free movement in places like the Diplomatic Enclave, the lovely drives on the road leading to the Quaid-e-Azam University and a string of other spots that are now under siege.

MK Sufi, who has seen Islamabad in its infancy, remembers the days when as a youngster he used to cycle through the areas that are today completely fenced.

"Islamabad is being turned into a civil cantonment and it appears that in the days ahead, the movement of residents would be restricted to the very sectors where they live," he said.

A member of the Islamabad Citizen's Committee, Sufi thought that all the barricades and police pickets had been set up only to harass the people. "These posts are manned by burly security personnel who have no concept of security," he claimed.

Muhammad Abid, an Islooite for three decades said this town wouldn't be the same again. "Because of flawed government policies, we are being made to pay the price," he said.

The business community too is suffering as a result of recent terrorist strikes with an office-bearer of the Aabpara Market Traders Union pointing out that they had to endure big losses. "Security fears and load shedding have forced people to stay away from markets," he said.

Although security in the Capital was first enhanced during the Lal Masjid operation, it has continued to be more or less intense due to events that followed. Among them were the emergency rule, the lawyers' movement, the general elections and a spate of suicide bomb attacks.

Largely the people are unhappy with the state of siege and feel that security does not mean cordoning off roads and building walls all around. Rather, they stress that it is all about intelligence.

The writer is an Islamabad based Journalist who can be accessed at mahtabbashir@gmail.com