Staff Report
QUETTA: Balochistan University remained closed on Wednesday to mourn the killing of lecturer Muhammad Danish, who was shot dead by unknown assailants the other day.
Balochistan Academic Staff Association announced a three-day mourning period to condemn the killing. “The association off and on asked for the protection of teachers in Balochistan, but the government turned a deaf ear to this demand. We lost five university teachers. All the murders should be investigated,” said Kalimullah Barech, president of the association.
According to the university’s public relations department’s statement, academic activities in Balochistan University would be restored today (Thursday). A senior police official termed the killing as sectarian targeted killing. However, no group has so far claimed responsibility for the murder. Danish was a lecturer in Science and Informational Technology Department of the University of Balochistan.
Daily Times
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Not all deaths are mourned the same
BY MURTAZA HAIDER ON NOVEMBER 30TH, 2011
Pakistanis of all political and religious persuasions are equally enraged by the tragic death of their soldiers caused by an indiscriminate air attack by the Nato forces. Pakistani soldiers, stationed at a border post in Mohmand region, were attacked by Nato planes and helicopters killing 24 and injuring several more.
Several politicians and citizens in general are enraged over the violation of their sovereignty. While this outburst of grief is understandable and very much justified, one wonders why other acts of violence against ethnic and sectarian minorities in Pakistan have not stirred the same outpour of grief and anger that we witness today. Could it be true that we are enraged only when others stand accused of violence against us, but when its Muslim-on-Muslim violence, we are much complacent.
The purpose here is not to undermine the ultimate sacrifice offered by Pakistani soldiers, who continue to lay their lives in hundreds while defending Pakistan against the militant fundamentalists. The motive here is to point out the lack of or, at best, muted response to the senseless violence committed against Ahmadis, Balochis, Christians, Shias and other minorities in Pakistan.
It was only in September 2011 when 29 Shias from Quetta’s Hazara community were killed in a premeditated attack. They were travelling to Iran in a bus that was intercepted near Mustang by armed militants who killed 29 while gravely injured several others. Compared to the anger and grief over the death of 24 soldiers, the reaction to Hazara murders has been mute at best. The list of political and community leaders from Punjab and Sindh who visited Quetta to condole with the Hazaras is very short and did not include any mainstream politician. Not even 50 students from a Punjab-based University marched in solidarity with the Shias of Quetta even when Shia academics were being killed by the unknown assailants (Professor Danish Alam was murdered earlier today). However, thousands marched in Lahore today for the slain soldiers while being led by their professors.
The State’s indifference to the plight of Hazaras drove Syed Nasir Ali Shah, a legislator belonging to the ruling Peoples Party, to stage a month-long sit-in in front of the Parliament. It took Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani a month to react to the protest staged by a member of his own party. On the other hand, the Gilani government reacted with a sharp rebuke to Nato within hours of the attack on troops in Mohmand region.
Hundreds of Shia Hazaras have fallen victim to the terrorist violence perpetrated by the extremist elements belonging to hardline sects of Islam. While many have been killed in dark alleys (who jo tareek raahon main maray gaey), the Hazara community is striving to ensure that the victims of sectarian violence are not forgotten. The community has prepared a list of 435 victims who have been killed since 1999 in sectarian violence. The bulk of killings took place in the past few years. More than 90 Shias from Hazara community have been killed since July 2011 alone.
The list of victims deserves a considerate read and reflection. Hazara community’s sacrifices are indeed supreme. The list includes children as young as five, as well as the elderly. The very unfortunate victims include father and son pairs who met violent death on the same day. A mother and daughter pair met the same fate. Hundreds of dead are young students.
The targeted attacks including bomb blasts have caused havoc in the Hazara community. What to say of a city where places of worship are the most hazardous sites. The July 2003 attack at the old Imam Bargah in Quetta killed 51, including 5-year old Ali Akbar. A year later in March, an attack on the 10th of Muharram killed 36 members of the Hazara community. In September 2010, when Shias marched in Quetta in solidarity with the displaced Arabs, they were rewarded with an attack that left 62 Shia Hazaras dead.
The Hazara community is not safe even in the cemeteries. In May 2011, militants attacked visitors at the Bahisht-e-Zahra cemetery in Hazara Town and killed seven Shias. Even hospitals fail to offer refuge to the community. An attack in April 2010 in Quetta’s Civil Hospital left six Shia Hazaras dead. Earlieri n July 2008, when the community sought legal redress, their lawyer, Ghulam Mustafa Qureshi, was assassinated. Several Hazara police officers, including 13 young cadets, have also become victims of targeted sectarian killings.
If Pakistan’s civil and military leaders are serious about addressing the grievances of the Hazara community, they could take the first step by visiting the two cemeteries in Quetta, Bahisht-e-Zahra in Hazara Town and Bahisht-e-Zainab on Alamdar Road, where the Hazaras have buried over 350 victims of sectarian violence. These cemeteries are a testament to the courage and resilience of a community whose right to live in peace has been violated in the presence of a democratically elected government.
Many in Pakistan believe that the Nato’s attack in Mohmand is an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty. If sovereignty implies “having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area” then Pakistan has lost sovereignty in most of Balochistan, including Quetta. Hundreds of Shia victims are proof that the State has lost control of Quetta.
The State restores law and order in Quetta. It has to reestablish its writ neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood, street-by-street. It can start with Saryab Road where more than 50 members of Hazara community have been killed in several attacks over the past few years.
Meanwhile Pakistanis have to learn to embrace all victims of violence as equals. While we grieve for our fallen soldiers, we should do the same for the civilian victims of sectarian violence. If our anger and grief is determined not by the innocence of the victims but by their ethnicity and sectarian affiliations, we will continue to drift towards even a more violent future.
Murtaza Haider, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean of research and graduate programs at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto. He can be reached by email at murtaza.haider@ryerson.ca
Several politicians and citizens in general are enraged over the violation of their sovereignty. While this outburst of grief is understandable and very much justified, one wonders why other acts of violence against ethnic and sectarian minorities in Pakistan have not stirred the same outpour of grief and anger that we witness today. Could it be true that we are enraged only when others stand accused of violence against us, but when its Muslim-on-Muslim violence, we are much complacent.
The purpose here is not to undermine the ultimate sacrifice offered by Pakistani soldiers, who continue to lay their lives in hundreds while defending Pakistan against the militant fundamentalists. The motive here is to point out the lack of or, at best, muted response to the senseless violence committed against Ahmadis, Balochis, Christians, Shias and other minorities in Pakistan.
It was only in September 2011 when 29 Shias from Quetta’s Hazara community were killed in a premeditated attack. They were travelling to Iran in a bus that was intercepted near Mustang by armed militants who killed 29 while gravely injured several others. Compared to the anger and grief over the death of 24 soldiers, the reaction to Hazara murders has been mute at best. The list of political and community leaders from Punjab and Sindh who visited Quetta to condole with the Hazaras is very short and did not include any mainstream politician. Not even 50 students from a Punjab-based University marched in solidarity with the Shias of Quetta even when Shia academics were being killed by the unknown assailants (Professor Danish Alam was murdered earlier today). However, thousands marched in Lahore today for the slain soldiers while being led by their professors.
The State’s indifference to the plight of Hazaras drove Syed Nasir Ali Shah, a legislator belonging to the ruling Peoples Party, to stage a month-long sit-in in front of the Parliament. It took Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani a month to react to the protest staged by a member of his own party. On the other hand, the Gilani government reacted with a sharp rebuke to Nato within hours of the attack on troops in Mohmand region.
Hundreds of Shia Hazaras have fallen victim to the terrorist violence perpetrated by the extremist elements belonging to hardline sects of Islam. While many have been killed in dark alleys (who jo tareek raahon main maray gaey), the Hazara community is striving to ensure that the victims of sectarian violence are not forgotten. The community has prepared a list of 435 victims who have been killed since 1999 in sectarian violence. The bulk of killings took place in the past few years. More than 90 Shias from Hazara community have been killed since July 2011 alone.
The list of victims deserves a considerate read and reflection. Hazara community’s sacrifices are indeed supreme. The list includes children as young as five, as well as the elderly. The very unfortunate victims include father and son pairs who met violent death on the same day. A mother and daughter pair met the same fate. Hundreds of dead are young students.
The targeted attacks including bomb blasts have caused havoc in the Hazara community. What to say of a city where places of worship are the most hazardous sites. The July 2003 attack at the old Imam Bargah in Quetta killed 51, including 5-year old Ali Akbar. A year later in March, an attack on the 10th of Muharram killed 36 members of the Hazara community. In September 2010, when Shias marched in Quetta in solidarity with the displaced Arabs, they were rewarded with an attack that left 62 Shia Hazaras dead.
The Hazara community is not safe even in the cemeteries. In May 2011, militants attacked visitors at the Bahisht-e-Zahra cemetery in Hazara Town and killed seven Shias. Even hospitals fail to offer refuge to the community. An attack in April 2010 in Quetta’s Civil Hospital left six Shia Hazaras dead. Earlieri n July 2008, when the community sought legal redress, their lawyer, Ghulam Mustafa Qureshi, was assassinated. Several Hazara police officers, including 13 young cadets, have also become victims of targeted sectarian killings.
If Pakistan’s civil and military leaders are serious about addressing the grievances of the Hazara community, they could take the first step by visiting the two cemeteries in Quetta, Bahisht-e-Zahra in Hazara Town and Bahisht-e-Zainab on Alamdar Road, where the Hazaras have buried over 350 victims of sectarian violence. These cemeteries are a testament to the courage and resilience of a community whose right to live in peace has been violated in the presence of a democratically elected government.
Many in Pakistan believe that the Nato’s attack in Mohmand is an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty. If sovereignty implies “having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area” then Pakistan has lost sovereignty in most of Balochistan, including Quetta. Hundreds of Shia victims are proof that the State has lost control of Quetta.
The State restores law and order in Quetta. It has to reestablish its writ neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood, street-by-street. It can start with Saryab Road where more than 50 members of Hazara community have been killed in several attacks over the past few years.
Meanwhile Pakistanis have to learn to embrace all victims of violence as equals. While we grieve for our fallen soldiers, we should do the same for the civilian victims of sectarian violence. If our anger and grief is determined not by the innocence of the victims but by their ethnicity and sectarian affiliations, we will continue to drift towards even a more violent future.
Kabul doles out mineral mining rights
Published: Nov. 30, 2011 at 7:21 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Exploration of mineral deposits in Afghanistan could begin as early as 2015 after Afghan mining ministry officials said new development rights were awarded.
A consortium of Indian companies led by state-owned Steel Authority of India landed a $10.3 billion deal for three mining sites in central Afghanistan, the BBC reports.
U.S. defense officials estimated in 2010 that there could be as much as $1 trillion worth of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium in Afghanistan.
U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt has said disclosure of the resource potential in Afghanistan might allay concerns about investing in such frontier areas.
A 2007 survey found an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of potential rare earth resources in southern Afghanistan. The international community gets more than 95 percent of its rare earth minerals from China.
Afghan officials said production of iron ore deposits in Bamiyan province could begin in 2015. The awards, they said, represent some of the biggest foreign investments in Afghanistan.
The British broadcaster added that Canadian mining company Kilo Goldmines also secured exploration rights in Afghanistan. The company, in a statement, said it had submitted a bid to explore iron ore deposits in Bamiyan but hadn't been notified by Kabul of the outcome of the bidding process.
UPI
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Exploration of mineral deposits in Afghanistan could begin as early as 2015 after Afghan mining ministry officials said new development rights were awarded.
A consortium of Indian companies led by state-owned Steel Authority of India landed a $10.3 billion deal for three mining sites in central Afghanistan, the BBC reports.
U.S. defense officials estimated in 2010 that there could be as much as $1 trillion worth of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium in Afghanistan.
U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt has said disclosure of the resource potential in Afghanistan might allay concerns about investing in such frontier areas.
A 2007 survey found an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of potential rare earth resources in southern Afghanistan. The international community gets more than 95 percent of its rare earth minerals from China.
Afghan officials said production of iron ore deposits in Bamiyan province could begin in 2015. The awards, they said, represent some of the biggest foreign investments in Afghanistan.
The British broadcaster added that Canadian mining company Kilo Goldmines also secured exploration rights in Afghanistan. The company, in a statement, said it had submitted a bid to explore iron ore deposits in Bamiyan but hadn't been notified by Kabul of the outcome of the bidding process.
UPI
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Balochistan University lecturer killed in Quetta
By Shehzad Baloch
Published: November 29, 2011
QUETTA: A lecturer of Balochistan University was killed by unknown assailants in the Zarghoonabad area of Quetta on Tuesday.
Mohammad Danish Alam, a lecturer of the Science and Information Technology Department, was travelling on a motorbike and was headed to the university when gunmen opened fire on him and escaped.
Alam received gunshot wounds to the head and chest. He died on the spot.
The body was shifted to Provincial Sundeman Hospital and was later handed over to the heirs after medico legal formalities.
“The victim received five bullets,” doctors said.
A senior police official, while speaking with The Express Tribune, said that Alam belonged to the Shia sect and added that there was a possibility that the incident was a sectarian target killing. “Police are investigating the murder,” he added.
“Danish belonged to Gilgit and had no enmity with anyone. He spent seven years as a lecturer in the Science and Information Technology Department of the university,” one of his colleagues said.
The Academic Staff Association has demanded that the government launch a probe into the killing and bring the culprits to justice.
The university will be closed on Wednesday to mourn the lecturer’s killing.
Alam is the second university lecturer to have been targeted this year. Five university professors and lecturers have been killed since 2008.
Professor of Islamic Studies, Saba Dashtiari was shot dead on Sayrab road this year. The other victims include Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Safdar Kyani, Nazima Talib, lecturer of Media and Journalism Department and Professor Library and Sciences Department Khurshed Ansari. There has been no progress in any of the cases so far.
The Express Tribune
Published: November 29, 2011
QUETTA: A lecturer of Balochistan University was killed by unknown assailants in the Zarghoonabad area of Quetta on Tuesday.
Mohammad Danish Alam, a lecturer of the Science and Information Technology Department, was travelling on a motorbike and was headed to the university when gunmen opened fire on him and escaped.
Alam received gunshot wounds to the head and chest. He died on the spot.
The body was shifted to Provincial Sundeman Hospital and was later handed over to the heirs after medico legal formalities.
“The victim received five bullets,” doctors said.
A senior police official, while speaking with The Express Tribune, said that Alam belonged to the Shia sect and added that there was a possibility that the incident was a sectarian target killing. “Police are investigating the murder,” he added.
“Danish belonged to Gilgit and had no enmity with anyone. He spent seven years as a lecturer in the Science and Information Technology Department of the university,” one of his colleagues said.
The Academic Staff Association has demanded that the government launch a probe into the killing and bring the culprits to justice.
The university will be closed on Wednesday to mourn the lecturer’s killing.
Alam is the second university lecturer to have been targeted this year. Five university professors and lecturers have been killed since 2008.
Professor of Islamic Studies, Saba Dashtiari was shot dead on Sayrab road this year. The other victims include Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Safdar Kyani, Nazima Talib, lecturer of Media and Journalism Department and Professor Library and Sciences Department Khurshed Ansari. There has been no progress in any of the cases so far.
The Express Tribune
SAIL-led group bags $10.3 billion mining contracts in Afghanistan
29 NOV, 2011, 01.56PM IST, AFP
A consortium of Indian companies has won the rights to develop Afghanistan's largest iron ore deposits, a mining ministry official said on Tuesday, underscoring growing ties between the two countries.
Seven Indian companies, led by the state-owned Steel Authority of India ( SAIL), won a $10.3 billion deal to exploit three of four blocks at the Hajigak mine in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, said ministry official Abdul Jalil Jumrani.
A fourth block was awarded to Canada's Kilo Goldmines, he said, with contracts due to be signed in February or March and exploitation of the mine's estimated two billion tonnes of iron ore deposits expected to begin by 2015.
Last month, Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership deal with India aiming to boost trade, security and cultural links, triggering consternation in neighbouring Pakistan, India's arch-rival for influence in the region.
Afghanistan is believed to have mineral reserves worth as much as $3 trillion which could theoretically generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the troubled country.
But exploitation of these resources faces massive hurdles due to ongoing instability after 30 years of war in the country, woeful infrastructure, and endemic corruption.
As part of the Hajigak deal India has pledged to invest in surrounding infrastructure projects, including $1 billion to build a railway and monies for a 800-megawatt power plant and 200-kilometre (140-mile) road, Jumrani said. Kilo Goldmines will invest $3.2 billion, he added.
The Economic Times
A consortium of Indian companies has won the rights to develop Afghanistan's largest iron ore deposits, a mining ministry official said on Tuesday, underscoring growing ties between the two countries.
Seven Indian companies, led by the state-owned Steel Authority of India ( SAIL), won a $10.3 billion deal to exploit three of four blocks at the Hajigak mine in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, said ministry official Abdul Jalil Jumrani.
A fourth block was awarded to Canada's Kilo Goldmines, he said, with contracts due to be signed in February or March and exploitation of the mine's estimated two billion tonnes of iron ore deposits expected to begin by 2015.
Last month, Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership deal with India aiming to boost trade, security and cultural links, triggering consternation in neighbouring Pakistan, India's arch-rival for influence in the region.
Afghanistan is believed to have mineral reserves worth as much as $3 trillion which could theoretically generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the troubled country.
But exploitation of these resources faces massive hurdles due to ongoing instability after 30 years of war in the country, woeful infrastructure, and endemic corruption.
As part of the Hajigak deal India has pledged to invest in surrounding infrastructure projects, including $1 billion to build a railway and monies for a 800-megawatt power plant and 200-kilometre (140-mile) road, Jumrani said. Kilo Goldmines will invest $3.2 billion, he added.
The Economic Times
Karate team received by huge crowd on return
By Shahzada Usman
Published: November 26, 2011
The Pakistani mens and womens karate teams are garlanded at the Wagah border, after returning triumphant from the South Asian Karate championship in India. Pakistan defeated the Indian team to claim gold. PHOTO: NNI
LAHORE: The triumphant Pakistan contingent arrived at the Wagah Border yesterday after clinching the inaugural South Asian Karate Championship held in New Delhi.
Pakistan bagged 14 medals, including seven gold, four silver and three bronze, to stand on top of the podium, ahead of India and Sri Lanka.
The team received a vociferous reception at the border with a huge crowd praising its effort in the eight-nation tournament. The female players clinched eight of the 14 medals, with Kulsum winning two gold, a silver and bronze medal and Beenish Akbar claiming two gold and a bronze medal. Beenish Khan won one gold, while in the men’s events, Saadi Abbas, Imtiaz and Baz Mohammad clinched gold medals for Pakistan.
Abbas termed the triumph as a huge achievement for the country and praised the performance of the 23-member squad.
“I’m very happy about my team’s performance,” Abbas said after his arrival. “We worked hard for the tournament and this is a very special moment for all of us. Beating India wasn’t easy since they’re a tough side. We were received with a warm reception in India and it felt really good. Tours like this one will improve relations between the two countries.”
The female members were ecstatic as well and appreciated the work put in by the coaching staff that yielded the positive result.
“We had a good time in the championship and were welcomed by the hosts,” said Akbar. “The coaching staff worked really hard with us for this championship and this is a result of our hard work and concentration.”
While the Pakistan contingent arrived via the border, the Indian wrestlers, who took part in the Indo-Pak dangal, left for their country via the same route as well.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2011.
Published: November 26, 2011
LAHORE: The triumphant Pakistan contingent arrived at the Wagah Border yesterday after clinching the inaugural South Asian Karate Championship held in New Delhi.
Pakistan bagged 14 medals, including seven gold, four silver and three bronze, to stand on top of the podium, ahead of India and Sri Lanka.
The team received a vociferous reception at the border with a huge crowd praising its effort in the eight-nation tournament. The female players clinched eight of the 14 medals, with Kulsum winning two gold, a silver and bronze medal and Beenish Akbar claiming two gold and a bronze medal. Beenish Khan won one gold, while in the men’s events, Saadi Abbas, Imtiaz and Baz Mohammad clinched gold medals for Pakistan.
Abbas termed the triumph as a huge achievement for the country and praised the performance of the 23-member squad.
“I’m very happy about my team’s performance,” Abbas said after his arrival. “We worked hard for the tournament and this is a very special moment for all of us. Beating India wasn’t easy since they’re a tough side. We were received with a warm reception in India and it felt really good. Tours like this one will improve relations between the two countries.”
The female members were ecstatic as well and appreciated the work put in by the coaching staff that yielded the positive result.
“We had a good time in the championship and were welcomed by the hosts,” said Akbar. “The coaching staff worked really hard with us for this championship and this is a result of our hard work and concentration.”
While the Pakistan contingent arrived via the border, the Indian wrestlers, who took part in the Indo-Pak dangal, left for their country via the same route as well.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2011.
Monday, November 28, 2011
EDITORIAL: Murder in Muharram
Whenever an occasion even remotely religious in nature comes round in Pakistan, everyone braces themselves for the potential dangers ahead. That the occasion — Muharram — is one that is specially revered by Shias is all the more cause for worry and security concerns. These concerns were quickly realised in the very beginning of the holy month of Muharram this year when Karachi was targeted by an apparent sectarian crime. A protest rally taken out by members of the Sipah-e-Sahaba near Numaish Chowrangi turned violent when its members started firing indiscriminately into a Shia camp that had been set up in that area as part of a Muharram procession. Two people were killed and some 11 people were injured in the incident. It is fortunate that the police arrived on time at the scene as the assailants were apprehended. However, a mob gathered and demanded that the gunmen be handed over so that they be delivered some ‘mob justice’. As we all know, after the Sialkot lynching case, such action has seriously negative repercussions. The crowd grew quite rowdy and had to be diffused after a round of baton charging. The enraged crowd torched vehicles and created a riot. Muharram has only just begun.
In light of how Muharram has come and gone in past years with violence and bombings taking place at venues and processions where Shias have gathered to commemorate the occasion, it is a wonder that our security and law enforcement agencies still leave so much to be desired. There is always potential for trouble in Muharram with so many hate groups against the Shia community thriving in Pakistan, Sipah-e-Sahaba being one of them. Why was there no security in place at a very likely target such as this Shia camp? Why were law enforcement bodies so obviously missing in action that members of a hate group were able to fire into the crowd and kill and maim so many people? Authorities are well aware of the risks that many religious communities face in this country yet they still have not done enough to prevent sectarian strife. Agreed, the security forces in our country have been stretched very thin due to the war that is raging in the tribal areas and the urban centres but that does not mean that the many crimes against different sects in this country go ignored. One need not remind our law enforcement agencies of the kind of hate Shias face in Pakistan — the brutal murder of Shia Hazaras in Balochistan is a case in point. When they can be gunned down on just about any day of the year, what makes our security agencies feel that they can relax on an occasion of specific importance to the Shia community?
The malaise of sectarian killings is not confined to the boundaries of any specific area or metropolis. It is a whirlpool of brutality that knows no limits. The rampant running amok of groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba, which are allowed to hold rallies in the cities of this country, is an example of how we are leaving behind any last remnants of civility and gradually falling into the abyss of barbarity. Such fanatical Sunni groups are waging their own war against the state and the law enforcement agencies seem unconcerned. Instances such as this one in Karachi, right at the beginning of Muharram, ought to serve as a warning to our security agencies that more such attacks could be right round the corner.
Daily Times
In light of how Muharram has come and gone in past years with violence and bombings taking place at venues and processions where Shias have gathered to commemorate the occasion, it is a wonder that our security and law enforcement agencies still leave so much to be desired. There is always potential for trouble in Muharram with so many hate groups against the Shia community thriving in Pakistan, Sipah-e-Sahaba being one of them. Why was there no security in place at a very likely target such as this Shia camp? Why were law enforcement bodies so obviously missing in action that members of a hate group were able to fire into the crowd and kill and maim so many people? Authorities are well aware of the risks that many religious communities face in this country yet they still have not done enough to prevent sectarian strife. Agreed, the security forces in our country have been stretched very thin due to the war that is raging in the tribal areas and the urban centres but that does not mean that the many crimes against different sects in this country go ignored. One need not remind our law enforcement agencies of the kind of hate Shias face in Pakistan — the brutal murder of Shia Hazaras in Balochistan is a case in point. When they can be gunned down on just about any day of the year, what makes our security agencies feel that they can relax on an occasion of specific importance to the Shia community?
The malaise of sectarian killings is not confined to the boundaries of any specific area or metropolis. It is a whirlpool of brutality that knows no limits. The rampant running amok of groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba, which are allowed to hold rallies in the cities of this country, is an example of how we are leaving behind any last remnants of civility and gradually falling into the abyss of barbarity. Such fanatical Sunni groups are waging their own war against the state and the law enforcement agencies seem unconcerned. Instances such as this one in Karachi, right at the beginning of Muharram, ought to serve as a warning to our security agencies that more such attacks could be right round the corner.
Daily Times
SAIL consortium gets rights to develop 3 Afghan mines
Press Trust of India / New Delhi November 28, 2011, 20:37 IST
A seven-member consortium led by state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has bagged the development right to mine three out of four iron ore reserves at Hajigak in Central Bamiyan province of Afghanistan, sources in the know said.
However, when contacted SAIL Chairman CS Verma said there was no official communication from the Afghanistan government as yet.
"We are yet to get any official communication from the government of Afghanistan. I am in touch with the embassy," Verma said.
Sources said the Indian consortium had got the rights to mine B, C and D, having reserves of 930 million tonne, 357 million tonne and 175 million tonne respectively. Mine A has gone to a Canadian firm.
The mines, located across the Hindu Kush Mountains, between Bamyan and Maidan Wardak provinces, are known for rich source of iron ore. The cumulative reserves in the four mines are estimated to be over 1.8 billion tonne.
SAIL will have the majority 20% stake in the special purpose vehicle (SPV), which is to be created for the development of the mines, while two other state-run firms - Rashtriya Ispat and NMDC - would have 18% stake each.
Private players - JSW Steel and Jindal Steel & Power will have 12% stake each in the SPV. JSW Ispat and Monnet Ispat would have the remaining between them.
The Central Bamyan province is largely peaceful. However, the Afghan government has already started construction of security posts around the mine, sources said, adding that law and order would unlikely to cause any problem to carry out the mining job.
In fact, Verma had also earlier said he would not like to think security could be a concern as development stands always atop over terrorism. The $6 billion likely investment by the Indian firms would also be a boon for the cash-strapped and war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Business Standard
A seven-member consortium led by state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has bagged the development right to mine three out of four iron ore reserves at Hajigak in Central Bamiyan province of Afghanistan, sources in the know said.
However, when contacted SAIL Chairman CS Verma said there was no official communication from the Afghanistan government as yet.
"We are yet to get any official communication from the government of Afghanistan. I am in touch with the embassy," Verma said.
Sources said the Indian consortium had got the rights to mine B, C and D, having reserves of 930 million tonne, 357 million tonne and 175 million tonne respectively. Mine A has gone to a Canadian firm.
The mines, located across the Hindu Kush Mountains, between Bamyan and Maidan Wardak provinces, are known for rich source of iron ore. The cumulative reserves in the four mines are estimated to be over 1.8 billion tonne.
SAIL will have the majority 20% stake in the special purpose vehicle (SPV), which is to be created for the development of the mines, while two other state-run firms - Rashtriya Ispat and NMDC - would have 18% stake each.
Private players - JSW Steel and Jindal Steel & Power will have 12% stake each in the SPV. JSW Ispat and Monnet Ispat would have the remaining between them.
The Central Bamyan province is largely peaceful. However, the Afghan government has already started construction of security posts around the mine, sources said, adding that law and order would unlikely to cause any problem to carry out the mining job.
In fact, Verma had also earlier said he would not like to think security could be a concern as development stands always atop over terrorism. The $6 billion likely investment by the Indian firms would also be a boon for the cash-strapped and war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Business Standard
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Afghan National Tagged for Deportation Amidst Criticisms from Rights Group
By Erik Pineda | November 16, 2011 3:53 PM EST
The Australian government is set to deport an Afghan national, whose application for political asylum has been turned down by immigration authorities, soon, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Immigration Ministry.
In a statement, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen identified the Afghan deportee as 27-year-old Ismail Mirza Jan, who according to The Associated Press (AP) left his native country as a teenager at the height of the radical Taliban rule.
In his application for refugee protection, which AP added has been previously rejected in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Jan claimed that his life would be in extreme danger the moment he sets foot anew in Kabul, Afghanistan.
"I told immigration, it's OK ... if you send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way, I am dead," Jan declared during an interviews with ABC earlier this week in a reaction about the government's decision to forcibly send him home.
Human rights group Edmund Rice Centre scored the latest immigration move to deny refugee status on Jan, who is part of more than 1000 Afghans currently detained in Australian detention facilities, despite the obvious perils that wait him in the war-torn Afghanistan.
As a member of the Hazara ethnic group, Jan, according to Edmund Rice Centre Phil Glendenning, is a natural target for liquidation by armed groups roaming the cities of Afghanistan and killing with near-impunity that only highlights the helplessness of the country's government under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai.
"We have very serious concerns about the safety of Hazaras in Afghanistan," Glendenning was reported by ABC as saying.
He added that by his group's latest findings, 11 Afghans who went home from Australia have been gunned down during the last seven years and a number of these victims, Glendenning noted were part of the Hazaras that Jan call as his ethnic group.
Bowen, however, remains adamant of his office's decision and insisted that Jan's safety has been assured by Karzai's government, which assured Canberra that voluntary returning Afghans do not face persecution in the country.
"It's a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees, that they should be removed," Bowen was reported by AP as saying in justifying the government decision, scored by advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition as a chilling prospect for all refugee applicants seeking protection inside Australia.
"Jan's deportation sets a dangerous precedent and we're hoping that Afghanistan won't accept him," Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told AP in expounding on the likely repercussions of the controversial government decision.
Supporting the group's stance is an assessment provided by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commissioner Mohammad Farid Hamidi, who called on Canberra to reconsiders its action on the Jan case.
"The situation in Afghanistan is not good enough ... and the security (situation) is getting worse day by day," Hamidi told ABC.
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com
International Business Time
The Australian government is set to deport an Afghan national, whose application for political asylum has been turned down by immigration authorities, soon, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Immigration Ministry.
In a statement, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen identified the Afghan deportee as 27-year-old Ismail Mirza Jan, who according to The Associated Press (AP) left his native country as a teenager at the height of the radical Taliban rule.
In his application for refugee protection, which AP added has been previously rejected in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Jan claimed that his life would be in extreme danger the moment he sets foot anew in Kabul, Afghanistan.
"I told immigration, it's OK ... if you send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way, I am dead," Jan declared during an interviews with ABC earlier this week in a reaction about the government's decision to forcibly send him home.
Human rights group Edmund Rice Centre scored the latest immigration move to deny refugee status on Jan, who is part of more than 1000 Afghans currently detained in Australian detention facilities, despite the obvious perils that wait him in the war-torn Afghanistan.
As a member of the Hazara ethnic group, Jan, according to Edmund Rice Centre Phil Glendenning, is a natural target for liquidation by armed groups roaming the cities of Afghanistan and killing with near-impunity that only highlights the helplessness of the country's government under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai.
"We have very serious concerns about the safety of Hazaras in Afghanistan," Glendenning was reported by ABC as saying.
He added that by his group's latest findings, 11 Afghans who went home from Australia have been gunned down during the last seven years and a number of these victims, Glendenning noted were part of the Hazaras that Jan call as his ethnic group.
Bowen, however, remains adamant of his office's decision and insisted that Jan's safety has been assured by Karzai's government, which assured Canberra that voluntary returning Afghans do not face persecution in the country.
"It's a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees, that they should be removed," Bowen was reported by AP as saying in justifying the government decision, scored by advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition as a chilling prospect for all refugee applicants seeking protection inside Australia.
"Jan's deportation sets a dangerous precedent and we're hoping that Afghanistan won't accept him," Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told AP in expounding on the likely repercussions of the controversial government decision.
Supporting the group's stance is an assessment provided by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commissioner Mohammad Farid Hamidi, who called on Canberra to reconsiders its action on the Jan case.
"The situation in Afghanistan is not good enough ... and the security (situation) is getting worse day by day," Hamidi told ABC.
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com
International Business Time
Balochistan imbroglio
Published: November 18, 2011
Balochistan is both the largest and the least developed province of Pakistan. The terrain of this sparsely peopled part of the country is a blend of mountains and desert. This land of opportunity full of minerals and fossil fuels is dominated by the feudal lords. Moreover its demographics are diverse: tribes speaking different languages and holding different religious beliefs, including those who voyaged here to settle for good. The beauty of this land comes to life by incessant expanses of plains as they open up its allure through foothills, orchards, and valleys. From Quetta to Chaman, the train, moving on a narrow - gauge track, majestically passes through hairpin turns, tunnels, gorges, defiles and wilderness manifesting the nature in its true colors. The wild holds back when rolling through clumps of trees and small dwellings. It is a land fascination which is without any rovers to relish its splendor; as if life has ceased to exist.
And it is talk of the past when Quetta, that sits like a cup surrounded by hills, and where I did my professional course in 1980, would, one day be visited by series of misfortune. Oh! That was the “Waris”, a TV serial that would take the whole populace to their homes in the evening to watch it. No barriers of language, caste, color, and tribal leanings could hold back the shopkeepers and shoppers. A complete shutter-down phenomenon would prevail. It was peace, serenity, and tranquility that obtained there. Baloch, Pushtun, Hazaras, Hindu and Punjabi lived in harmony as one community. Not today! Quetta is studded with road blocks, check posts and security walls and fences, easily portraying a prison. You feel your soul is hostage to mysterious lug. The worsening law and order has gripped the province in its shackles.
Balochistan has large deposits of gas and coal and natural resources that could easily provide for half of Pakistan’s energy needs. Unfortunately, criminal activities and lawlessness have made the energy security extremely frail. But the poor is devastatingly poor. The famed jungles have disappeared. Disease has crippled already knocked down corrupted health sector where no doctors and paramedic staff are visible; especially at the hospitals encompassed in small cities and towns. Lack of proper education facilities, and rudimentary healthcare is providing fuel for radicalism. Drug paddling is also stoking up insurgency and inciting the Baloch insurgents to make extensive political capital out of it. Since government writ is not discernible, non-state actors have filled ‘the vacuum of non-governance and subverted the tribal system’.
The economy, which is free fall for years is grinding towards halt; consequently it has hit the rock bottom. Schemes like Waseela–e-Haq introduced by the government have met their fate. Families living for more than a century have fled. Social fiber has disintegrated. The bazaars are deserted and yearning for the customers. The business is down to trickle. The shops that boasted off the abundance of saleable items are almost empty. Ethnic cleansing has touched new heights and in the last few years more than thousand people have been butchered. Unfortunately leading businessmen have been killed or forced to migrate. New businesses are non-existent. A society which slays its teachers, locks its schools, slaughters its doctors and intellectuals has nothing to showcase in the arena of pride. Henceforth, something is amiss. Is dor kay sultan say kutch bhool hui hey. (The king has somewhat erred here). Target killings and kidnappings for vengeance and ransom have decimated the size of Balochistan society. Both ‘ethno-nationalist and sectarian’ militancy are all the rage. Shia–Sunni ethnic conflicts are norm of the day. The infighting has left large number of people dead including 380 Hazaras since 2001 and many more wounded. Militants like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the nationalists Baloch have teamed up not only against the Hazaras but have merged with the mafias, and racketeers and gangsters.
BRIG (RETD) M NAZIR SHAMS,
Islamabad, November 16.
The Nation
Balochistan is both the largest and the least developed province of Pakistan. The terrain of this sparsely peopled part of the country is a blend of mountains and desert. This land of opportunity full of minerals and fossil fuels is dominated by the feudal lords. Moreover its demographics are diverse: tribes speaking different languages and holding different religious beliefs, including those who voyaged here to settle for good. The beauty of this land comes to life by incessant expanses of plains as they open up its allure through foothills, orchards, and valleys. From Quetta to Chaman, the train, moving on a narrow - gauge track, majestically passes through hairpin turns, tunnels, gorges, defiles and wilderness manifesting the nature in its true colors. The wild holds back when rolling through clumps of trees and small dwellings. It is a land fascination which is without any rovers to relish its splendor; as if life has ceased to exist.
And it is talk of the past when Quetta, that sits like a cup surrounded by hills, and where I did my professional course in 1980, would, one day be visited by series of misfortune. Oh! That was the “Waris”, a TV serial that would take the whole populace to their homes in the evening to watch it. No barriers of language, caste, color, and tribal leanings could hold back the shopkeepers and shoppers. A complete shutter-down phenomenon would prevail. It was peace, serenity, and tranquility that obtained there. Baloch, Pushtun, Hazaras, Hindu and Punjabi lived in harmony as one community. Not today! Quetta is studded with road blocks, check posts and security walls and fences, easily portraying a prison. You feel your soul is hostage to mysterious lug. The worsening law and order has gripped the province in its shackles.
Balochistan has large deposits of gas and coal and natural resources that could easily provide for half of Pakistan’s energy needs. Unfortunately, criminal activities and lawlessness have made the energy security extremely frail. But the poor is devastatingly poor. The famed jungles have disappeared. Disease has crippled already knocked down corrupted health sector where no doctors and paramedic staff are visible; especially at the hospitals encompassed in small cities and towns. Lack of proper education facilities, and rudimentary healthcare is providing fuel for radicalism. Drug paddling is also stoking up insurgency and inciting the Baloch insurgents to make extensive political capital out of it. Since government writ is not discernible, non-state actors have filled ‘the vacuum of non-governance and subverted the tribal system’.
The economy, which is free fall for years is grinding towards halt; consequently it has hit the rock bottom. Schemes like Waseela–e-Haq introduced by the government have met their fate. Families living for more than a century have fled. Social fiber has disintegrated. The bazaars are deserted and yearning for the customers. The business is down to trickle. The shops that boasted off the abundance of saleable items are almost empty. Ethnic cleansing has touched new heights and in the last few years more than thousand people have been butchered. Unfortunately leading businessmen have been killed or forced to migrate. New businesses are non-existent. A society which slays its teachers, locks its schools, slaughters its doctors and intellectuals has nothing to showcase in the arena of pride. Henceforth, something is amiss. Is dor kay sultan say kutch bhool hui hey. (The king has somewhat erred here). Target killings and kidnappings for vengeance and ransom have decimated the size of Balochistan society. Both ‘ethno-nationalist and sectarian’ militancy are all the rage. Shia–Sunni ethnic conflicts are norm of the day. The infighting has left large number of people dead including 380 Hazaras since 2001 and many more wounded. Militants like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the nationalists Baloch have teamed up not only against the Hazaras but have merged with the mafias, and racketeers and gangsters.
BRIG (RETD) M NAZIR SHAMS,
Islamabad, November 16.
The Nation
Friday, November 25, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Asylum seekers to be released into community: minister
Twenty seven asylum seekers who arrived by boat will be released into the community on bridging visas today for the first time, the Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said today.
The federal government has also announced it would stop treating boat arrivals as a separate stream of asylum seekers - and all asylum seekers arriving by boat would have access to the Refugee Review Tribunal from next year. The tribunal is now only available to asylum seekers who arrived by plane.
Until now, boat arrivals faced interview and assessment for refugee status under a special system, with separate rules.
Asylum seekers to be released into community: minister
Kirsty Needham, Immigration Correspondent
November 25, 2011 - 1:41PM
Kirsty Needham, Immigration Correspondent
Twenty seven asylum seekers who arrived by boat will be released into the community on bridging visas today for the first time, the Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said today.
The federal government has also announced it would stop treating boat arrivals as a separate stream of asylum seekers - and all asylum seekers arriving by boat would have access to the Refugee Review Tribunal from next year. The tribunal is now only available to asylum seekers who arrived by plane.
Until now, boat arrivals faced interview and assessment for refugee status under a special system, with separate rules.
Advertisement: Story continues below
However, decisions in this system were being overturned at high rates this year when they reached the Federal Magistrates Court on appeal, which found high rates of lack of procedural fairness.
Boat arrivals had to fund their own cases in the Federal Magistrates Court, and were only able to access judicial review this year because of a High Court decision in December last year.
"With the legislative impasse and the resulting move towards greater community placement, there is no longer any benefit to parallel processing arrangements for offshore entry persons," Mr Bowen said.
It is the first time bridging visas have been used for boat arrivals by the Gillard government, which has maintained a policy of mandatory detention for boat arrivals. All in the group all single men, mostly from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The men will need to report to the Immigration Department regularly and will have the right to work and access health services.
"These men have gone through an assessment process prior to their selection, including identity, security and behaviour checks.
"They will live in the community on bridging visas while their asylum claims are completed and their status is resolved," Mr Bowen said.
Priority for community release under the new bridging visa program will go to asylum seekers who have spent the longest time in detention, he said.
"This will be an ongoing, staged process to ensure an orderly transition to the community and that only suitable people are released.
"We would expect to see at least 100 IMAs eventually being released every month," Mr Bowen said.
He indicated that immigration detainees who have been found not to be refugees and have refused to return to their country of origin are unlikely to be issued bridging visas.
"Those people who are assessed to pose an unacceptable risk to the community will remain in an immigration detention facility," he said.
smh.com.au
The federal government has also announced it would stop treating boat arrivals as a separate stream of asylum seekers - and all asylum seekers arriving by boat would have access to the Refugee Review Tribunal from next year. The tribunal is now only available to asylum seekers who arrived by plane.
Until now, boat arrivals faced interview and assessment for refugee status under a special system, with separate rules.
Asylum seekers to be released into community: minister
Kirsty Needham, Immigration Correspondent
November 25, 2011 - 1:41PM
Kirsty Needham, Immigration Correspondent
Twenty seven asylum seekers who arrived by boat will be released into the community on bridging visas today for the first time, the Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said today.
The federal government has also announced it would stop treating boat arrivals as a separate stream of asylum seekers - and all asylum seekers arriving by boat would have access to the Refugee Review Tribunal from next year. The tribunal is now only available to asylum seekers who arrived by plane.
Until now, boat arrivals faced interview and assessment for refugee status under a special system, with separate rules.
Advertisement: Story continues below
However, decisions in this system were being overturned at high rates this year when they reached the Federal Magistrates Court on appeal, which found high rates of lack of procedural fairness.
Boat arrivals had to fund their own cases in the Federal Magistrates Court, and were only able to access judicial review this year because of a High Court decision in December last year.
"With the legislative impasse and the resulting move towards greater community placement, there is no longer any benefit to parallel processing arrangements for offshore entry persons," Mr Bowen said.
It is the first time bridging visas have been used for boat arrivals by the Gillard government, which has maintained a policy of mandatory detention for boat arrivals. All in the group all single men, mostly from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The men will need to report to the Immigration Department regularly and will have the right to work and access health services.
"These men have gone through an assessment process prior to their selection, including identity, security and behaviour checks.
"They will live in the community on bridging visas while their asylum claims are completed and their status is resolved," Mr Bowen said.
Priority for community release under the new bridging visa program will go to asylum seekers who have spent the longest time in detention, he said.
"This will be an ongoing, staged process to ensure an orderly transition to the community and that only suitable people are released.
"We would expect to see at least 100 IMAs eventually being released every month," Mr Bowen said.
He indicated that immigration detainees who have been found not to be refugees and have refused to return to their country of origin are unlikely to be issued bridging visas.
"Those people who are assessed to pose an unacceptable risk to the community will remain in an immigration detention facility," he said.
smh.com.au
National Assembly session: PM ends Balochistan protest
By Qamar Zaman
Published: November 24, 2011
Nasir Ali Shah had staged sit-ins in parliament over attacks on Quetta’s Hazara community. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
ISLAMABAD:
A month-long protest against the government’s record in Balochistan ended on Wednesday, after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani assured the disgruntled Syed Nasir Ali Shah of the PPP-led government’s sincerity in improving law and order in the province.
“Target killing in the province is not acceptable,” the PM said as he came to convince Shah to end his protest and attend the National Assembly session.
The PM assured Shah that he would soon convene a meeting of heads of the security forces to evolve a strategy for improving the law and order situation in Balochistan.
Shah had been boycotting the NA and staging sit-ins at the entrance of Parliament House since the last session when 14 people from the Hazara community – an ethnic minority that follows Shia Islam – were gunned down outside Quetta.
When Shah rose up from his seat to address the house, members welcomed him through desk-thumping. “I urge all the lawmakers not to indulge in mudslinging and start focusing on problems of the masses,” he said, while questioning the steps taken for the welfare of Pakistanis over the past 64 years.
Meanwhile, the lower house of Parliament was back to business as it moved on from the memorandum scandal that had dominated discussion over the past few days. Three bills were passed without any interruption from the opposition.
Anti-Dumping Duties Ordinance, 2000 [The Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2009], Banks (Nationalization) Act, 1974 [The Banks (Nation-alization) (Amendment) Bill, 2010] and Islamabad Consumers Protection Act 1955 [The Islamabad Consumers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2010] were quietly passed by the NA. The house also unanimously passed a resolution that maternal health be considered a basic human right.
In addition, Fauzia Wahab, chairperson of the standing committee on finance and revenue, planning and development, presented reports of the standing committee on the Bill for the imposition and collection of gas infrastructure development cess [The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Bill, 2011].
The Islamabad Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2010 is aimed at implementing the Islamabad Consumer Protection Act, 1995 to curb profiteering, hoarding and black-marketing, adulteration, selling of expired items of food and other items unfit for human consumption or charging excess of the prices fixed by the competent authority.
Later on, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) legislators asked the Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar to consider the non-payment of electricity bills by 132 government organizations.
The minister said that “there is a zero tolerance policy against defaulters,” adding that the government would try to collect dues from all 132 departments within a few months.
Speaking on a point of order, Engineer Amir Maqum of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) said that he had filed a petition before the Election Commission of Pakistan against malpractices in which political parties were engaged ahead of the by-election in Kohistan scheduled to take place on Thursday (today).
Maqum claimed that political parties are openly using money to buy votes. He alleged that Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Hoti’s father and Senator Talha Mehmood were the main players.
“The Election Commission should take notice and stop this practice, otherwise it will be replicated in the next general elections,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2011.
Published: November 24, 2011
ISLAMABAD:
A month-long protest against the government’s record in Balochistan ended on Wednesday, after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani assured the disgruntled Syed Nasir Ali Shah of the PPP-led government’s sincerity in improving law and order in the province.
“Target killing in the province is not acceptable,” the PM said as he came to convince Shah to end his protest and attend the National Assembly session.
The PM assured Shah that he would soon convene a meeting of heads of the security forces to evolve a strategy for improving the law and order situation in Balochistan.
Shah had been boycotting the NA and staging sit-ins at the entrance of Parliament House since the last session when 14 people from the Hazara community – an ethnic minority that follows Shia Islam – were gunned down outside Quetta.
When Shah rose up from his seat to address the house, members welcomed him through desk-thumping. “I urge all the lawmakers not to indulge in mudslinging and start focusing on problems of the masses,” he said, while questioning the steps taken for the welfare of Pakistanis over the past 64 years.
Meanwhile, the lower house of Parliament was back to business as it moved on from the memorandum scandal that had dominated discussion over the past few days. Three bills were passed without any interruption from the opposition.
Anti-Dumping Duties Ordinance, 2000 [The Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2009], Banks (Nationalization) Act, 1974 [The Banks (Nation-alization) (Amendment) Bill, 2010] and Islamabad Consumers Protection Act 1955 [The Islamabad Consumers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2010] were quietly passed by the NA. The house also unanimously passed a resolution that maternal health be considered a basic human right.
In addition, Fauzia Wahab, chairperson of the standing committee on finance and revenue, planning and development, presented reports of the standing committee on the Bill for the imposition and collection of gas infrastructure development cess [The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Bill, 2011].
The Islamabad Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2010 is aimed at implementing the Islamabad Consumer Protection Act, 1995 to curb profiteering, hoarding and black-marketing, adulteration, selling of expired items of food and other items unfit for human consumption or charging excess of the prices fixed by the competent authority.
Later on, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) legislators asked the Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar to consider the non-payment of electricity bills by 132 government organizations.
The minister said that “there is a zero tolerance policy against defaulters,” adding that the government would try to collect dues from all 132 departments within a few months.
Speaking on a point of order, Engineer Amir Maqum of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) said that he had filed a petition before the Election Commission of Pakistan against malpractices in which political parties were engaged ahead of the by-election in Kohistan scheduled to take place on Thursday (today).
Maqum claimed that political parties are openly using money to buy votes. He alleged that Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Hoti’s father and Senator Talha Mehmood were the main players.
“The Election Commission should take notice and stop this practice, otherwise it will be replicated in the next general elections,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2011.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
PPP MNA Syed Nasir Ali Shah ends NA boycott on PM’s assurance
ISLAMABAD, Nov 23 (APP):The Pakistan Peoples Party’s member of the National Assembly from Quetta Nasir Shah here on Wednesday ended boycott of the NA session after the Prime Minister’s assurance to meet his demands.Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani went to Nasir Shah who was camping outside the National Assembly building.The Prime Minister requested Nasir Shah to end the boycott and join the NA proceedings.
Talking to newsmen on this occasion, the Prime Minister said he would take a briefing from the provincial and federal law enforcement agencies on the law and order situation in Balochistan.
He said target killings in Balochistan were not acceptable as all the victims are Pakistanis whether they belong to any school of thought.
He assured the MNA that he would resolve any issue related to the development projects of Quetta and the province.
“When you agree to disagree it is democracy,” he remarked as he went inside the National Assembly building with the MNA.
Nasir Shah thanked the Prime Minister for understanding his viewpoint and concerns.He said he was committed to the manifesto of Pakistan Peoples Party and philosophy of Shaheed Bhutto.
Nasir Shah said he would continue to raise his voice for the people of his province.
Associated Press of Pakistan
Talking to newsmen on this occasion, the Prime Minister said he would take a briefing from the provincial and federal law enforcement agencies on the law and order situation in Balochistan.
He said target killings in Balochistan were not acceptable as all the victims are Pakistanis whether they belong to any school of thought.
He assured the MNA that he would resolve any issue related to the development projects of Quetta and the province.
“When you agree to disagree it is democracy,” he remarked as he went inside the National Assembly building with the MNA.
Nasir Shah thanked the Prime Minister for understanding his viewpoint and concerns.He said he was committed to the manifesto of Pakistan Peoples Party and philosophy of Shaheed Bhutto.
Nasir Shah said he would continue to raise his voice for the people of his province.
Associated Press of Pakistan
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
TED; Ancient Wonders captured in 3D
Ancient monuments give us clues to astonishing past civilizations -- but they're under threat from pollution, war, neglect. Ben Kacyra, who invented a groundbreaking 3D scanning system, is using his invention to scan and preserve the world's heritage in archival detail. (Watch to the end for a little demo.)
Ben Kacyra uses state-of-the-art technology to preserve cultural heritage sites and let us in on their secrets in a way never before possible.
As a child, Ben Kacyra was taken to visit the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh near his home town of Mosul in Iraq, giving him an abiding appreciation for the value of history. So when the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in 2001, the Iraqi-born civil engineer was dismayed. In 2002, he founded California-based nonprofit CyArk in order to apply a highly accurate, portable laser-scanning technology he’d originally developed for monitoring nuclear power plants and other structures – to preserving the world’s cultural heritage sites, what Kacyra calls “our collective human memory”.
CyArk’s methods are fast and accurate: pulsed lasers generate 3D points of clouds, which render surfaces at accuracy to within millimeters. Combined with high-definition photography and traditional surveying techniques these data make it possible to create highly detailed media – photo textured animations, 3D fly-throughs – that digitally preserve our knowledge of heritage sites against natural disaster, war, and neglect, and make them accessible to the world. Among the sites already scanned are ancient sites in Mexico, the leaning tower of Pisa, and Mount Rushmore.
Crossing borders, this Afghanistan girl has fans in Pakistan too
Posted: Wed Nov 23 2011
Spectators watching the first round bout of the 1st South Asian senior Karate championships between K Wathsala of Sri Lanka and Meena Asadi of Afghanistan would have been surprised by the cheers for the Afghan girl. The majority of the cheers — Mashallah Meena — were coming from the Pakistani contingent. Although she was wearing the badge of Afghanistan on her karate outfit - gi - till only a few months ago she was winning medals for Pakistan.
Hazaras (a tribe) from Kabul, Meena’s family had fled to Quetta during the civil war in Afghanistan in the early 1990’s. While money was tight, Meena says that wasn’t as big a problem as the society’s refusal to come to terms with a girl playing games. This was a contact sport.
“I was very headstrong so when I turned 13, I went up to the coach at a club and said that I wanted to learn. He had no problem as long as I could pay. He would make me train in the corner, but I was thrilled just to learn,” says the slightly built 19 year old who competes in the sub 48 kg category. It turned out that she was pretty good at it. Just three months after she joined she won a local competition, which was also the first time her parents came to know of their daughters passion.
Indian Express
Spectators watching the first round bout of the 1st South Asian senior Karate championships between K Wathsala of Sri Lanka and Meena Asadi of Afghanistan would have been surprised by the cheers for the Afghan girl. The majority of the cheers — Mashallah Meena — were coming from the Pakistani contingent. Although she was wearing the badge of Afghanistan on her karate outfit - gi - till only a few months ago she was winning medals for Pakistan.
Hazaras (a tribe) from Kabul, Meena’s family had fled to Quetta during the civil war in Afghanistan in the early 1990’s. While money was tight, Meena says that wasn’t as big a problem as the society’s refusal to come to terms with a girl playing games. This was a contact sport.
“I was very headstrong so when I turned 13, I went up to the coach at a club and said that I wanted to learn. He had no problem as long as I could pay. He would make me train in the corner, but I was thrilled just to learn,” says the slightly built 19 year old who competes in the sub 48 kg category. It turned out that she was pretty good at it. Just three months after she joined she won a local competition, which was also the first time her parents came to know of their daughters passion.
Indian Express
Sunday, November 20, 2011
PPP MNA continues to protest govt inaction over Hazara killings
By Qamar Zaman
Published: November 21, 2011
MNA Nasir Ali Shah says party has failed to deliver. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
ISLAMABAD: At a time when the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government is a target of the opposition’s scathing criticism, its member in the National Assembly from Quetta, Syed Nasir Ali Shah, seemed to have joined the opposition chorus saying that the PPP had failed to “deliver”.
“The PPP has distracted from its manifesto and has failed to deliver,” said the PPP leader while talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday with special reference to the Hazara community killings last month outside Quetta.
“I had stated this in party meetings and even in a meeting at the President House,” said Shah while adding: “I had joined the PPP for its manifesto and the vision given by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.”
“The party should stop promoting personalities and give preference to its manifesto.”
Shah had boycotted the NA and staged a sit-in at the entrance of the Parliament House in October after 14 people of the Hazara community – an ethnic minority that follows Shia Islam – were gunned down outside Quetta in the second such incident within a fortnight. Shah is still not attending the NA session.
The onslaught against the government by Shah, who is an ethnic Hazara himself, was vehemently backed by the opposition. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had staged a token walkout to express solidarity which was joined by some members of the ruling PPP and its coalition partners as well.
The PPP leader from Quetta has not participated any NA session thereafter but the government seems be indifferent to his opposition.
The MNA said that the Balochistan government had lost all credibility and was incompetent to handle the law and order situation in the province. “The only solution to the problem is imposition of the governor’s rule and new elections in Balochistan,” he added.
“I will continue my protest till the day the government accepts my demands of a governor rule and fresh elections,” he said in response to a question regarding future plans of his ongoing protest.
Shah revealed that the government has made several attempts at defusing his sit-in.
“There had been statements on PTV that I have ended the protest on government’s behest,” he claimed, saying he had never made any such announcement.
It is quite unfortunate that the law and order situation in Balochistan has even worsened due to government’s apathetic attitude, he lamented.
Responding to a query whether he approached the leadership prior to or after his ongoing sit-in, Shah said: “It was the last option for me as I already had raised the issue on all forums.”
When asked whether he had any plans of following the footprints of former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who bid farewell to the PPP recently, Shah said: “I would continue my struggle while staying within the party.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2011.
Published: November 21, 2011
ISLAMABAD: At a time when the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government is a target of the opposition’s scathing criticism, its member in the National Assembly from Quetta, Syed Nasir Ali Shah, seemed to have joined the opposition chorus saying that the PPP had failed to “deliver”.
“The PPP has distracted from its manifesto and has failed to deliver,” said the PPP leader while talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday with special reference to the Hazara community killings last month outside Quetta.
“I had stated this in party meetings and even in a meeting at the President House,” said Shah while adding: “I had joined the PPP for its manifesto and the vision given by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.”
“The party should stop promoting personalities and give preference to its manifesto.”
Shah had boycotted the NA and staged a sit-in at the entrance of the Parliament House in October after 14 people of the Hazara community – an ethnic minority that follows Shia Islam – were gunned down outside Quetta in the second such incident within a fortnight. Shah is still not attending the NA session.
The onslaught against the government by Shah, who is an ethnic Hazara himself, was vehemently backed by the opposition. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had staged a token walkout to express solidarity which was joined by some members of the ruling PPP and its coalition partners as well.
The PPP leader from Quetta has not participated any NA session thereafter but the government seems be indifferent to his opposition.
The MNA said that the Balochistan government had lost all credibility and was incompetent to handle the law and order situation in the province. “The only solution to the problem is imposition of the governor’s rule and new elections in Balochistan,” he added.
“I will continue my protest till the day the government accepts my demands of a governor rule and fresh elections,” he said in response to a question regarding future plans of his ongoing protest.
Shah revealed that the government has made several attempts at defusing his sit-in.
“There had been statements on PTV that I have ended the protest on government’s behest,” he claimed, saying he had never made any such announcement.
It is quite unfortunate that the law and order situation in Balochistan has even worsened due to government’s apathetic attitude, he lamented.
Responding to a query whether he approached the leadership prior to or after his ongoing sit-in, Shah said: “It was the last option for me as I already had raised the issue on all forums.”
When asked whether he had any plans of following the footprints of former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who bid farewell to the PPP recently, Shah said: “I would continue my struggle while staying within the party.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2011.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
BBC; Why hunger looms in aid-rich Afghanistan
18 November 2011 Last updated at 05:12 ET
Snows will soon arrive to cut off remote villages where crops have failed
Continue reading the main story
More than 2.5 million people face hunger in drought-stricken areas of Afghanistan despite billions of dollars of aid that have poured into the country in recent years, aid agencies say. Many villagers have only limited supplies of food left as winter looms, as the BBC's Mike Thomson reports from the central province of Bamiyan.
In the far north of mountainous Bamiyan Province, to the east of the capital, Kabul, a mother sits in despair with a small boy on her lap. Bibi Nakiba tells me that all she has left is some dried fruit and a few potatoes.
"Whatever we have in our house we give, but we've come to the time when there is little left. We have to say no to our children, there is nothing for you. Sometimes they cry because they are so hungry."
She fears that things will only get worse as snow, which already caps the many mountain peaks surrounding her village, cuts her isolated community off from help.
"We've sent so many messages to the government about our plight but they never listen. Our children could die here this winter," she says.
Bibi Nakiba says she has little left to feed her children
"Even if our neighbours have food they would not be able to help us because they will need all they have for themselves. In these times everyone has to think of themselves, not others."
Aid groups say 14 of the country's 34 provinces, most of them in the north, have been hit by the drought, believed to be one of the worst this decade.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says harvests in some areas have been almost completely wiped out, doubling the price of wheat and causing other food prices to soar.
Some 90% of households in affected areas are living in debt and many schools have closed because children have been sent to find work. The WFP says only half the funds needed were raised after an earlier appeal for assistance.
Bibi lost everything she owns in the spring when floods, which preceded the drought, washed her home away along with everything she owned.
She now lives with brother, Abdul Kadir, and his family. They too are struggling.
Abdul says his crops failed, many of his animals have died and local food prices have soared. His community, he says, has had no help at all, either from the government or international aid agencies.
Yet he has heard on the radio that large sums of aid have come to his country, though not, Abdul insists, to peaceful areas like his.
"There is no fighting here and nobody cultivates poppies. All the international aid seems to go to Kandahar and Helmand, none of it comes here," he says.
"Maybe people in those provinces are powerful, or maybe because they are fighting they send all the aid to them."
Abdul's theory may not be far from the truth. Aid agencies have been concerned for some time about the amount of aid directed towards conflict areas of Afghanistan.
Much of it is designed to win hearts and minds through "quick impact projects" in insurgency-plagued provinces in the south and east of the country. According to a US Congressional study, 80% of US aid has gone to troubled regions.
For example, last year Kandahar province received four times more US aid per head than Bamiyan, while the equally quiet neighbouring Daykundi province saw five times less.
It is a policy that is roundly defended by the US ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker.
A drought has ruined this year's crop
"We have put substantial assistance into the south. You know, we are trying to end an insurgency here and that means, in part, funding a better future and giving people alternatives," he says.
"You know, that's part of a counter-insurgency strategy."
Oxfam's policy and advocacy director in Afghanistan, Louise Hancock, insists that such a policy means that political and military objectives are often being allowed to outweigh humanitarian need when the allocation of aid is decided.
"Militarised aid is a major issue here. They are aiming on winning hearts and minds by implementing quick fix, quick impact projects," she says.
"These result in schools being built in areas where there are no roads going to them, where needs are not at their greatest or where there are not enough teachers to staff that school. This is what we say should not be happening."
Villagers in north Afghanistan complain that food aid is being directed to more troubled regions
Other aid agencies, including Save The Children, take a similar view. They further argue that more longer term development aid is needed and that blurring the lines between aid work and military objectives puts their staff, as well as the people they help, at more risk.
The UN World Food Programme's country director in Afghanistan, Louis Imbleau, refuses to get drawn in to what he regards as "politics" but is passionate about the urgent need to help those here suffering from drought.
The UN, he says, has already supplied more than 20,000 metric tonnes of food to the country's worst-affected areas, but more is urgently needed before the snows fall. If it does not arrive in time, Mr Imbleau insists, malnutrition could cause permanent damage to the health of many of Afghanistan's children.
"They will not achieve either the physical stature they could as well as the mental ability. It could reduce their IQ by upwards of 15 points, which is substantial," he says.
"It's very sad, it's irreversible and should just not be allowed to happen. It should not be allowed to happen."
BBC
Continue reading the main story
More than 2.5 million people face hunger in drought-stricken areas of Afghanistan despite billions of dollars of aid that have poured into the country in recent years, aid agencies say. Many villagers have only limited supplies of food left as winter looms, as the BBC's Mike Thomson reports from the central province of Bamiyan.
In the far north of mountainous Bamiyan Province, to the east of the capital, Kabul, a mother sits in despair with a small boy on her lap. Bibi Nakiba tells me that all she has left is some dried fruit and a few potatoes.
"Whatever we have in our house we give, but we've come to the time when there is little left. We have to say no to our children, there is nothing for you. Sometimes they cry because they are so hungry."
She fears that things will only get worse as snow, which already caps the many mountain peaks surrounding her village, cuts her isolated community off from help.
"We've sent so many messages to the government about our plight but they never listen. Our children could die here this winter," she says.
"Even if our neighbours have food they would not be able to help us because they will need all they have for themselves. In these times everyone has to think of themselves, not others."
Aid groups say 14 of the country's 34 provinces, most of them in the north, have been hit by the drought, believed to be one of the worst this decade.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says harvests in some areas have been almost completely wiped out, doubling the price of wheat and causing other food prices to soar.
Some 90% of households in affected areas are living in debt and many schools have closed because children have been sent to find work. The WFP says only half the funds needed were raised after an earlier appeal for assistance.
Bibi lost everything she owns in the spring when floods, which preceded the drought, washed her home away along with everything she owned.
She now lives with brother, Abdul Kadir, and his family. They too are struggling.
Abdul says his crops failed, many of his animals have died and local food prices have soared. His community, he says, has had no help at all, either from the government or international aid agencies.
Yet he has heard on the radio that large sums of aid have come to his country, though not, Abdul insists, to peaceful areas like his.
"There is no fighting here and nobody cultivates poppies. All the international aid seems to go to Kandahar and Helmand, none of it comes here," he says.
"Maybe people in those provinces are powerful, or maybe because they are fighting they send all the aid to them."
Abdul's theory may not be far from the truth. Aid agencies have been concerned for some time about the amount of aid directed towards conflict areas of Afghanistan.
Much of it is designed to win hearts and minds through "quick impact projects" in insurgency-plagued provinces in the south and east of the country. According to a US Congressional study, 80% of US aid has gone to troubled regions.
For example, last year Kandahar province received four times more US aid per head than Bamiyan, while the equally quiet neighbouring Daykundi province saw five times less.
It is a policy that is roundly defended by the US ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker.
"We have put substantial assistance into the south. You know, we are trying to end an insurgency here and that means, in part, funding a better future and giving people alternatives," he says.
"You know, that's part of a counter-insurgency strategy."
Oxfam's policy and advocacy director in Afghanistan, Louise Hancock, insists that such a policy means that political and military objectives are often being allowed to outweigh humanitarian need when the allocation of aid is decided.
"Militarised aid is a major issue here. They are aiming on winning hearts and minds by implementing quick fix, quick impact projects," she says.
"These result in schools being built in areas where there are no roads going to them, where needs are not at their greatest or where there are not enough teachers to staff that school. This is what we say should not be happening."
Other aid agencies, including Save The Children, take a similar view. They further argue that more longer term development aid is needed and that blurring the lines between aid work and military objectives puts their staff, as well as the people they help, at more risk.
The UN World Food Programme's country director in Afghanistan, Louis Imbleau, refuses to get drawn in to what he regards as "politics" but is passionate about the urgent need to help those here suffering from drought.
The UN, he says, has already supplied more than 20,000 metric tonnes of food to the country's worst-affected areas, but more is urgently needed before the snows fall. If it does not arrive in time, Mr Imbleau insists, malnutrition could cause permanent damage to the health of many of Afghanistan's children.
"They will not achieve either the physical stature they could as well as the mental ability. It could reduce their IQ by upwards of 15 points, which is substantial," he says.
"It's very sad, it's irreversible and should just not be allowed to happen. It should not be allowed to happen."
BBC
Thursday, November 17, 2011
PEL in clear and present danger of losing PPFL berth
Nabeel Hashmi
Friday, November 18, 2011
KARACHI: Pak Elektron Limited (PEL) is facing a possible ouster from Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) and could end up being banned from Division ‘B’ too, it was learnt by ‘The News’ on Thursday.
PEL were not able to appear in their match against KRL at the Municipal Stadium in Rawalpindi and KRL were awarded the walkover.
This correspondent has learnt that security issue is the main reason why they did not appear because the authorities have failed to provide security to their players.
Seventy percent of PEL’s team are ‘Hazaras’ and since their home ground is in Quetta playing there is a big risk as they are being targeted by terrorists in the Balochistan capital.
“PEL has written to Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and has described that their players have faced life threats that’s why they won’t be able to appear in their matches,” a top PFF official told ‘The News’.
“It is the responsibility of departments to provide security not the responsibility of PFF so we take it as a failure on the part of PEL. Their further matches in the event will be counted as walk-overs. We are preparing a case against them and would forward it to our disciplinary committee. It’s the discretion of the committee to decide their fate. However, we would recommend them to ban PEL from Division B as well.”
When asked whether two teams other then PEL be relegated, the official replied that there is a window for two teams to be relegated and no matter for whatever reasons a team has been disqualified or banned from division B, they will be counted as relegation candidates.
He added one more team other then PEL will go down because the team which will end up in bottom third would feel betrayed as the league was played with the spirit that two teams at the bottom will go down.
Meanwhile, when PEL coach was contacted, he said that they cannot replace seventy percent of players on emergency basis.
“The tragedy with us is that most of our team is formed by players from Hazara community and 13 players of our team had already migrated to Europe because of security concerns,” Asghar Anjum told ‘The News’.
“The families of the players were concerned for their kids’ lives and thus have sent them abroad. Most of them have moved out to Czech Republic through Iran while others who are left are in a state of shock.”
He revealed that they were facing transportation problem as well as people were not willing to even allow the players of Hazara to board public buses.
PEL’s coach added that he even tried to arrange air-travel for his side but that did not work as well.
“At the end of the day the responsibility falls on my shoulders that I picked up players from one region but my intention was clean and I never knew that circumstances will get out of control,” he added.
“I have not been able to sleep because of all this and it’s really disheartening because I gave my all to build this side.”
Meanwhile he said that they plan to fight in Division B but their future is not clear since it is up to the owners that whether they are willing to invest again to rebuild the team.
He added that it is sheer disappointment for owners as well as not a single match of PEL was televised after hefty investment.
In other matches of PPFL, WAPDA thrashed Police 3-1 at the Railway football stadium in Lahore while Army-HBL tie ended in a stalemate.
THE NEWS
Friday, November 18, 2011
KARACHI: Pak Elektron Limited (PEL) is facing a possible ouster from Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) and could end up being banned from Division ‘B’ too, it was learnt by ‘The News’ on Thursday.
PEL were not able to appear in their match against KRL at the Municipal Stadium in Rawalpindi and KRL were awarded the walkover.
This correspondent has learnt that security issue is the main reason why they did not appear because the authorities have failed to provide security to their players.
Seventy percent of PEL’s team are ‘Hazaras’ and since their home ground is in Quetta playing there is a big risk as they are being targeted by terrorists in the Balochistan capital.
“PEL has written to Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and has described that their players have faced life threats that’s why they won’t be able to appear in their matches,” a top PFF official told ‘The News’.
“It is the responsibility of departments to provide security not the responsibility of PFF so we take it as a failure on the part of PEL. Their further matches in the event will be counted as walk-overs. We are preparing a case against them and would forward it to our disciplinary committee. It’s the discretion of the committee to decide their fate. However, we would recommend them to ban PEL from Division B as well.”
When asked whether two teams other then PEL be relegated, the official replied that there is a window for two teams to be relegated and no matter for whatever reasons a team has been disqualified or banned from division B, they will be counted as relegation candidates.
He added one more team other then PEL will go down because the team which will end up in bottom third would feel betrayed as the league was played with the spirit that two teams at the bottom will go down.
Meanwhile, when PEL coach was contacted, he said that they cannot replace seventy percent of players on emergency basis.
“The tragedy with us is that most of our team is formed by players from Hazara community and 13 players of our team had already migrated to Europe because of security concerns,” Asghar Anjum told ‘The News’.
“The families of the players were concerned for their kids’ lives and thus have sent them abroad. Most of them have moved out to Czech Republic through Iran while others who are left are in a state of shock.”
He revealed that they were facing transportation problem as well as people were not willing to even allow the players of Hazara to board public buses.
PEL’s coach added that he even tried to arrange air-travel for his side but that did not work as well.
“At the end of the day the responsibility falls on my shoulders that I picked up players from one region but my intention was clean and I never knew that circumstances will get out of control,” he added.
“I have not been able to sleep because of all this and it’s really disheartening because I gave my all to build this side.”
Meanwhile he said that they plan to fight in Division B but their future is not clear since it is up to the owners that whether they are willing to invest again to rebuild the team.
He added that it is sheer disappointment for owners as well as not a single match of PEL was televised after hefty investment.
In other matches of PPFL, WAPDA thrashed Police 3-1 at the Railway football stadium in Lahore while Army-HBL tie ended in a stalemate.
THE NEWS
Simple remedies that are cutting deaths in Afghanistan
17 Nov 2011
Afghan doctor Abdul Javid sadly recalled the deaths of two one-year-old babies as he stood nearly 9,000 feet up in the mountains of his country's most isolated regions.
"Poor hygiene killed them. It was so unnecessary," he said. "They were dehydrated through illness, but they didn't need to be. That is what we are trying to stop." Dr Javid explained that preventable deaths are common in the remote districts of Bamiyan province, where he works for international charity Medair. Disease and dehydration caused by poor hygiene are bigger killers than guns and bombs.
The charity's life-saving work involves providing free washing lines, plastic buckets and nail clippers, plus latrines, washrooms, piped spring water and wells.
The pipes and wells bring clean water for villagers previously forced to use potentially disease-bearing ponds and streams, while the latrines mean that human faeces are no longer deposited outside homes.
Dr Javid said that Medair's efforts to change cultural attitudes towards cleanliness would also save lives. "People are used to drying their clothes on the ground, even though it is covered in manure from the village animals, so we tell them the dangers and give them washing lines so that they can hang them up safely," he said. "There is also a tradition that it is bad to cut your nails. But that means that dirt gets in their mouth and causes illnesses so we give them nail clippers."
The free buckets come with lids to keep clean water untainted. Other gifts include toothbrushes and toothpaste to improve dental hygiene.
Medical research in the area shows that diarrhoea among children could be cut by nearly half simply through regular hand-washing.
As Dr Javid speaks, the good hygiene message is being drummed home in the village of Sar-e-Qalat in a class organised by Medair as part of a six-month health project in isolated Bamiyan communities.
The teacher, 18-year-old local girl Najibah, uses an illustrated flip chart to teach her largely illiterate audience of women and children, with images showing how to combat diseases by keeping food free of dirt and flies, washing fruit and vegetables, and using latrines.
Mother-of-four Parigul, 40, said: "We are learning a lot and our children are much healthier. There used to be a lot of diarrhoea and illness, but now they look handsome and well and we are very happy."
With funds limited, Medair has been unable to help all of those scattered among the mountains. In Shuiek, one of the villages to miss out, father-of-eight Ibrahim, 56, said he hoped that latrines, a well and hygiene training might one day be provided.
"In the winter we have to go half an hour by donkey in the snow to fetch water," he said. "So it would make a big difference to us if the spring nearer to us could be piped here. We also have no latrines so people go near the houses and you can imagine what that is like."
Back in Sar-e-Qalat, Ali Jumah, a 70-year-old village elder, thanked the departing Medair staff for their help. "Before this, up here in the mountains we were the forgotten people of Afghanistan," he said.
London Evening Standard
Afghan doctor Abdul Javid sadly recalled the deaths of two one-year-old babies as he stood nearly 9,000 feet up in the mountains of his country's most isolated regions.
"Poor hygiene killed them. It was so unnecessary," he said. "They were dehydrated through illness, but they didn't need to be. That is what we are trying to stop." Dr Javid explained that preventable deaths are common in the remote districts of Bamiyan province, where he works for international charity Medair. Disease and dehydration caused by poor hygiene are bigger killers than guns and bombs.
The charity's life-saving work involves providing free washing lines, plastic buckets and nail clippers, plus latrines, washrooms, piped spring water and wells.
The pipes and wells bring clean water for villagers previously forced to use potentially disease-bearing ponds and streams, while the latrines mean that human faeces are no longer deposited outside homes.
Dr Javid said that Medair's efforts to change cultural attitudes towards cleanliness would also save lives. "People are used to drying their clothes on the ground, even though it is covered in manure from the village animals, so we tell them the dangers and give them washing lines so that they can hang them up safely," he said. "There is also a tradition that it is bad to cut your nails. But that means that dirt gets in their mouth and causes illnesses so we give them nail clippers."
The free buckets come with lids to keep clean water untainted. Other gifts include toothbrushes and toothpaste to improve dental hygiene.
Medical research in the area shows that diarrhoea among children could be cut by nearly half simply through regular hand-washing.
As Dr Javid speaks, the good hygiene message is being drummed home in the village of Sar-e-Qalat in a class organised by Medair as part of a six-month health project in isolated Bamiyan communities.
The teacher, 18-year-old local girl Najibah, uses an illustrated flip chart to teach her largely illiterate audience of women and children, with images showing how to combat diseases by keeping food free of dirt and flies, washing fruit and vegetables, and using latrines.
Mother-of-four Parigul, 40, said: "We are learning a lot and our children are much healthier. There used to be a lot of diarrhoea and illness, but now they look handsome and well and we are very happy."
With funds limited, Medair has been unable to help all of those scattered among the mountains. In Shuiek, one of the villages to miss out, father-of-eight Ibrahim, 56, said he hoped that latrines, a well and hygiene training might one day be provided.
"In the winter we have to go half an hour by donkey in the snow to fetch water," he said. "So it would make a big difference to us if the spring nearer to us could be piped here. We also have no latrines so people go near the houses and you can imagine what that is like."
Back in Sar-e-Qalat, Ali Jumah, a 70-year-old village elder, thanked the departing Medair staff for their help. "Before this, up here in the mountains we were the forgotten people of Afghanistan," he said.
London Evening Standard
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
32 cameras installed in Quetta
Muharram security plan
QUETTA: Thirty-two closed circuit cameras have been installed in the city to keep close check on anti-peace elements during Muharram-ul-Haraam gatherings, sources said on Wednesday. According to sources, a high-level meeting was held here to review the security arrangements with regard to the Muharram religious processions. It was decided to install as many as 32 cameras at various points of the provincial capital. Steps were afoot to chalk out foolproof security plan ahead of Muharram. Check posts of the Balochistan Constabulary, Frontier Corps and police would be set up in the sensitive areas, including Mariabad, Hazara Town and Aalmdar Road to avert any untoward incident.
THE NEWS
QUETTA: Thirty-two closed circuit cameras have been installed in the city to keep close check on anti-peace elements during Muharram-ul-Haraam gatherings, sources said on Wednesday. According to sources, a high-level meeting was held here to review the security arrangements with regard to the Muharram religious processions. It was decided to install as many as 32 cameras at various points of the provincial capital. Steps were afoot to chalk out foolproof security plan ahead of Muharram. Check posts of the Balochistan Constabulary, Frontier Corps and police would be set up in the sensitive areas, including Mariabad, Hazara Town and Aalmdar Road to avert any untoward incident.
THE NEWS
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
China, India Scramble for Afghan Mines
Article
By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | November 14, 2011 11:39 AM EST
War-torn Afghanistan may have yet to create a concrete and definitive framework to be able to attract more foreign investments, but regional investors interested in its mining treasure remain undeterred even as the country still remotely sees the end of its inner problems.
Embattled as it continues to be, but competition heat led by China and India is on for its more than $1 trillion worth of minerals.
Even if corruption is prevalent, China and India chose to move on.
Concessions by foreign investors have been strictly monitored and carried out under the supervision of American experts and a host of institutions.
"Corruption is impossible. We are committed to transparency. We are committed to best practice," Nasir Durrani, deputy minister of mines, told AFP.
On one hand, in 2007, China won the extraction rights into the Aynak mine south of Kabul. According to Soviet-era data and a newer study by the United States Geological Survey, the mine could yield over 11 million tonnes of copper.
India, on the other hand, has its sights on the two-billion-tonne Hajigak iron ore mine in central Bamiyan province, where Durrani estimates could give up to $6 billion to the government.
Even Australia, itself a minerals and metals producing nation, has been wooed to invest in Afghanistan when Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited Kabul last week.
The predicted combined payout from the Aynak and Hajigak mines could earn the Afghan coffers at least half a billion dollars a year, according to a U.S. mining expert whom AFP did not identify. The figures will be a significant input to its largely foreign aid-dependent economy, but not until 2016.
Feasibility studies for rail projects have been lined up.
To be financed by the Metallurgical Corporation of China, the first will run a line from the Pakistani border to the Aynak mine, which it owns, and onwards to Kabul. It will link the Hajigak project to the capital and up to the Uzbek frontier.
The second rail route, which is being studied by the Asian Development Bank, will head south to Iran, where mineral supplies could be shipped to India.
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com
ibtimes
By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | November 14, 2011 11:39 AM EST
War-torn Afghanistan may have yet to create a concrete and definitive framework to be able to attract more foreign investments, but regional investors interested in its mining treasure remain undeterred even as the country still remotely sees the end of its inner problems.
Embattled as it continues to be, but competition heat led by China and India is on for its more than $1 trillion worth of minerals.
Even if corruption is prevalent, China and India chose to move on.
Concessions by foreign investors have been strictly monitored and carried out under the supervision of American experts and a host of institutions.
"Corruption is impossible. We are committed to transparency. We are committed to best practice," Nasir Durrani, deputy minister of mines, told AFP.
On one hand, in 2007, China won the extraction rights into the Aynak mine south of Kabul. According to Soviet-era data and a newer study by the United States Geological Survey, the mine could yield over 11 million tonnes of copper.
India, on the other hand, has its sights on the two-billion-tonne Hajigak iron ore mine in central Bamiyan province, where Durrani estimates could give up to $6 billion to the government.
Even Australia, itself a minerals and metals producing nation, has been wooed to invest in Afghanistan when Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited Kabul last week.
The predicted combined payout from the Aynak and Hajigak mines could earn the Afghan coffers at least half a billion dollars a year, according to a U.S. mining expert whom AFP did not identify. The figures will be a significant input to its largely foreign aid-dependent economy, but not until 2016.
Feasibility studies for rail projects have been lined up.
To be financed by the Metallurgical Corporation of China, the first will run a line from the Pakistani border to the Aynak mine, which it owns, and onwards to Kabul. It will link the Hajigak project to the capital and up to the Uzbek frontier.
The second rail route, which is being studied by the Asian Development Bank, will head south to Iran, where mineral supplies could be shipped to India.
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com
ibtimes
Quirky film of Afghan boy’s coming of age in a time of war
15 Nov 2011 15:08
Source: Alertnet // Emma Batha
Afghan boys play soccer in front of the gaping niche where a giant Buddha statue used to stand in the town of Bamiyan some 240 km northwest of Kabul, April 13, 2007. The Taliban destroyed two of the statues in 2001. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
By Emma Batha
LONDON (AlertNet) - When documentary maker Phil Grabsky was filming in Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban, a small boy with a cheeky grin and brightly coloured hat leant into the shot. His name was Mir.
Grabsky was captivated. Over the next decade he returned numerous times to film Mir, his family and community, watching as the boy turned into a man – all against the backdrop of a country at war.
The result is The Boy Mir, a surprisingly humorous film which gives a very different view of Afghanistan to the one conveyed in television news footage.
At the start Mir is eight years old and living among 200 refugee families in caves alongside the ruins of the colossal Buddhas of Bamiyan which were blown up by the Taliban in 2001.
“Who would have thought we would end up living in a cave eating grass?” comments his mother Fatima.
Despite their extreme poverty, Mir has big ambitions: “I want to be a headteacher … or president,” he says.
When his family fails to get one of the houses aid workers are building for the cave-dwellers, they return to their home village in the north where they rebuild their war-damaged house.
Mir starts school and gets good grades. But his father Abdul is ailing and Mir sometimes has to miss class to plough fields with two donkeys he calls “my jet plane and my motorbike”.
By his early teens he is working in a coal mine. His grades slip. It’s a dangerous job, not least because the lamps are known to explode and kill people. But the ever cheery Mir retains his irrepressible spirit – even breaking into song and dance as he works.
Despite the unrelenting grimness there is much humour. In one scene Mir and his friends are seen jumping into a tank of brown water. They blow into their wet shorts to inflate them so that they can float.
In another scene his much older step-brother Khoshdel stands on a desolate mountain top waving a mobile phone around. He has climbed for two hours simply to get a signal, but he can’t pick one up. “I’ll just have to go to another mountain,” he comments.
SCHOOL
At 15 Mir is still shovelling coal for a pittance and has pretty much dropped out of school.
Abdul and Khoshdel urge him to continue studying if he doesn’t want to end up poor and exploited. But Mir is not sure. His work at the mine helps him fulfil his dream of buying a motorbike – or at least a share in one that promptly breaks down.
But by the end of the film he seems to be heading back to education.
Speaking after a recent screening at London’s Frontline Club, Grabsky said he had read that the spread of the mobile phone in Afghanistan is encouraging a new interest in school because if you are illiterate you can’t text.
Although Mir’s home region now appears free of fighting, the conflict continues to affect people’s outlook and their prospects for bettering themselves.
By his late teens Mir’s ambition is no longer to be a teacher - he simply wants to survive the war.
Towards the end of the film there is much bemusement when foreign troops turn up with a few notebooks as goodwill gifts. The locals are taken aback by the physical size of the soldiers, but also notice that they seem quite fearful.
They are unimpressed by the gift. “We can’t solve our problems with four notebooks,” comments one villager.
“The Boy Mir” is an update on Grabsky’s first film about Mir, “The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan”, which followed the family for a year in 2002.
Grabsky describes Mir as an “ordinary boy living at an extraordinary time”.
“There are elements of Mir’s character to be optimistic about,” he adds. “But Afghanistan is extremely bleak and it gets bleaker all the time. I think it is worse now than at any time since…2002.”
Half the population is under 18. They do not want to fight, they just want food, an education and work, but there is no job market, Grabsky says.
He suspects Mir will still be living in the village in five years’ time, but adds that the Chinese may well eventually buy the mine and move Chinese workers in.
However, Mir is more fortunate than his peers in one respect.
The production company has teamed up with Save the Children and Afghan Aid to set up a fund. Donations will go towards Mir’s education, Afghan Aid’s community work in northern Afghanistan and Save the Children’s rural education programmes.
The Trust
Source: Alertnet // Emma Batha
By Emma Batha
LONDON (AlertNet) - When documentary maker Phil Grabsky was filming in Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban, a small boy with a cheeky grin and brightly coloured hat leant into the shot. His name was Mir.
Grabsky was captivated. Over the next decade he returned numerous times to film Mir, his family and community, watching as the boy turned into a man – all against the backdrop of a country at war.
The result is The Boy Mir, a surprisingly humorous film which gives a very different view of Afghanistan to the one conveyed in television news footage.
At the start Mir is eight years old and living among 200 refugee families in caves alongside the ruins of the colossal Buddhas of Bamiyan which were blown up by the Taliban in 2001.
“Who would have thought we would end up living in a cave eating grass?” comments his mother Fatima.
Despite their extreme poverty, Mir has big ambitions: “I want to be a headteacher … or president,” he says.
When his family fails to get one of the houses aid workers are building for the cave-dwellers, they return to their home village in the north where they rebuild their war-damaged house.
Mir starts school and gets good grades. But his father Abdul is ailing and Mir sometimes has to miss class to plough fields with two donkeys he calls “my jet plane and my motorbike”.
By his early teens he is working in a coal mine. His grades slip. It’s a dangerous job, not least because the lamps are known to explode and kill people. But the ever cheery Mir retains his irrepressible spirit – even breaking into song and dance as he works.
Despite the unrelenting grimness there is much humour. In one scene Mir and his friends are seen jumping into a tank of brown water. They blow into their wet shorts to inflate them so that they can float.
In another scene his much older step-brother Khoshdel stands on a desolate mountain top waving a mobile phone around. He has climbed for two hours simply to get a signal, but he can’t pick one up. “I’ll just have to go to another mountain,” he comments.
SCHOOL
At 15 Mir is still shovelling coal for a pittance and has pretty much dropped out of school.
Abdul and Khoshdel urge him to continue studying if he doesn’t want to end up poor and exploited. But Mir is not sure. His work at the mine helps him fulfil his dream of buying a motorbike – or at least a share in one that promptly breaks down.
But by the end of the film he seems to be heading back to education.
Speaking after a recent screening at London’s Frontline Club, Grabsky said he had read that the spread of the mobile phone in Afghanistan is encouraging a new interest in school because if you are illiterate you can’t text.
Although Mir’s home region now appears free of fighting, the conflict continues to affect people’s outlook and their prospects for bettering themselves.
By his late teens Mir’s ambition is no longer to be a teacher - he simply wants to survive the war.
Towards the end of the film there is much bemusement when foreign troops turn up with a few notebooks as goodwill gifts. The locals are taken aback by the physical size of the soldiers, but also notice that they seem quite fearful.
They are unimpressed by the gift. “We can’t solve our problems with four notebooks,” comments one villager.
“The Boy Mir” is an update on Grabsky’s first film about Mir, “The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan”, which followed the family for a year in 2002.
Grabsky describes Mir as an “ordinary boy living at an extraordinary time”.
“There are elements of Mir’s character to be optimistic about,” he adds. “But Afghanistan is extremely bleak and it gets bleaker all the time. I think it is worse now than at any time since…2002.”
Half the population is under 18. They do not want to fight, they just want food, an education and work, but there is no job market, Grabsky says.
He suspects Mir will still be living in the village in five years’ time, but adds that the Chinese may well eventually buy the mine and move Chinese workers in.
However, Mir is more fortunate than his peers in one respect.
The production company has teamed up with Save the Children and Afghan Aid to set up a fund. Donations will go towards Mir’s education, Afghan Aid’s community work in northern Afghanistan and Save the Children’s rural education programmes.
The Trust
Afghan to be forcibly deported from Australia
AFP
Updated November 15, 2011, 12:41 pm
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Afghan asylum seeker who fears for his life if returned home is to be forcibly deported from Australia, the first such case under a new deal with Kabul, the government said Tuesday.
Ismail Mirza Jan, 26 and of the Hazara ethnic minority, fled Afghanistan 10 years ago and made his way to Australia via Pakistan, Iran, Greece and Britain, where he was refused refugee status in 2004.
He failed to disclose his British rejection when he arrived in Australia in February 2010 on false documents, claiming he had come directly from Afghanistan, the Sydney Morning Herald said.
A fingerprint trace revealed his earlier application, leading to the ultimate failure of his Australian asylum bid.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said Jan would be the first forced return under a deal struck in January with Kabul.
"Never before today has there been an involuntary return from Australia to Afghanistan so this underlines the importance of today," Bowen told reporters.
"Without today's agreement it would be impossible to contemplate involuntary repatriation to Afghanistan."
The deal allows Australia to forcibly deport Afghans whose claims for asylum have failed, and it was signed off as part of efforts to curb the thousands of refugees arriving here from the strife-torn central Asian nation.
Jan's father was killed by the Taliban and his family have fled to neighbouring Pakistan. He told ABC television he fears for his life.
"If I go there, I will be dead in my country. I have no-one there to protect me. I have no friends, no family there. So how can I live, relocate in Kabul?" said Jan, who claims he was coached not to reveal his failed British asylum claim by people smugglers.
"I told immigration it's okay, if they send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way I'm dead."
A spokesman for Bowen declined to comment specifically on the case for privacy reasons but said only "Afghans not considered to be genuine refugees" were returned under the policy.
"People are only removed where their refugee claim has failed at multiple levels of assessment," the spokesman told AFP.
"This government is committed to a proper and robust assessment of asylum claims as a signatory to the Refugee Convention," he added.
According to the Herald, Jan will be charged Aus$32,782 (US$33,460) for his escorted deportation, which will take place on Saturday.
Australia temporarily froze all Afghan asylum claims in April 2010 after a surge in rickety asylum-seeker boats from Asia -- a move condemned by groups including UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency.
The freeze was lifted in September last year, but growing numbers of Afghans have been refused asylum after the government updated its safety assessments of the war-ravaged nation.
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
Updated November 15, 2011, 12:41 pm
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Afghan asylum seeker who fears for his life if returned home is to be forcibly deported from Australia, the first such case under a new deal with Kabul, the government said Tuesday.
Ismail Mirza Jan, 26 and of the Hazara ethnic minority, fled Afghanistan 10 years ago and made his way to Australia via Pakistan, Iran, Greece and Britain, where he was refused refugee status in 2004.
He failed to disclose his British rejection when he arrived in Australia in February 2010 on false documents, claiming he had come directly from Afghanistan, the Sydney Morning Herald said.
A fingerprint trace revealed his earlier application, leading to the ultimate failure of his Australian asylum bid.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said Jan would be the first forced return under a deal struck in January with Kabul.
"Never before today has there been an involuntary return from Australia to Afghanistan so this underlines the importance of today," Bowen told reporters.
"Without today's agreement it would be impossible to contemplate involuntary repatriation to Afghanistan."
The deal allows Australia to forcibly deport Afghans whose claims for asylum have failed, and it was signed off as part of efforts to curb the thousands of refugees arriving here from the strife-torn central Asian nation.
Jan's father was killed by the Taliban and his family have fled to neighbouring Pakistan. He told ABC television he fears for his life.
"If I go there, I will be dead in my country. I have no-one there to protect me. I have no friends, no family there. So how can I live, relocate in Kabul?" said Jan, who claims he was coached not to reveal his failed British asylum claim by people smugglers.
"I told immigration it's okay, if they send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way I'm dead."
A spokesman for Bowen declined to comment specifically on the case for privacy reasons but said only "Afghans not considered to be genuine refugees" were returned under the policy.
"People are only removed where their refugee claim has failed at multiple levels of assessment," the spokesman told AFP.
"This government is committed to a proper and robust assessment of asylum claims as a signatory to the Refugee Convention," he added.
According to the Herald, Jan will be charged Aus$32,782 (US$33,460) for his escorted deportation, which will take place on Saturday.
Australia temporarily froze all Afghan asylum claims in April 2010 after a surge in rickety asylum-seeker boats from Asia -- a move condemned by groups including UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency.
The freeze was lifted in September last year, but growing numbers of Afghans have been refused asylum after the government updated its safety assessments of the war-ravaged nation.
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
Govt defends forced return for Afghan asylum seeker
Sally Sara reported this story on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 08:06:00
TONY EASTLEY: Refugee advocates have condemned the Federal Government's decision to forcibly deport for the first time an Afghan asylum seeker back to Afghanistan.
Ismail Mirza Jan is scheduled to be deported on Saturday. The 26-year-old says his life will be in danger if he's sent to Kabul.
Afghanistan correspondent Sally Sara reports from the Afghan capital.
SALLY SARA: This will be the first deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker from Australian soil.
Ismail Mirza Jan is in high security at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney.
Mr Jan told the ABC's Lateline program that he fears he will be killed if he returns and says the department should just send back his body instead.
ISMAIL MIRZA JAN: If you send me, you can send my dead body back to my country because either way I am dead.
SALLY SARA: Ismail Mirza Jan arrived in Australia in February 2010 on false travel documents. His previous claims for asylum had been rejected by the United Kingdom and Ireland. He left Afghanistan as a teenager in 2001.
Mr Jan will be sent to Kabul but he says he's never been there and doesn't have any relatives in the area.
ISMAIL MIRZA JAN: I don't know what to do actually. So it's days of helplessness.
SALLY SARA: Refugee advocates in Australia have condemned the decision to deport Mr Jan.
Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, says sending asylum seekers back by force will put lives at risk.
IAN RINTOUL: It's going to be a terrible, terrible precedent if the Government thinks that this removal is going to be the basis for sending so many other people back. Like, we haven't seen a forced removal to Afghanistan yet in the history of the refugee detention process in Australia and I think it is going to create a huge amount of anxiety for the people who are presently in detention awaiting their fate.
SALLY SARA: Back in January this year Afghanistan, Australia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees signed a memorandum of understanding. At the time Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen stated clearly the deal would allow involuntary returns of asylum seekers who were not entitled to remain in Australia.
CHRIS BOWEN: Never before today has there been an involuntary return from Australia to Afghanistan so this underlines the importance of today. Without today's agreement it would be impossible to contemplate involuntary repatriation to Afghanistan.
SALLY SARA: Commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Mohammad Farid Hamidi, says Australia should stop its plans for involuntary returns.
MOHAMMAD FARID HAMIDI: If a government or a state deports those Afghans they have a real problem in their own country. I think it is against all the international standards and international instruments which is providing support and protection for the refugees.
SALLY SARA: Ismail Mirza Jan is scheduled to arrive in Kabul on Sunday. Refugee advocates in Australia are trying any final legal avenues to delay or stop the deportation.
This is Sally Sara in Kabul for AM.
ABC
TONY EASTLEY: Refugee advocates have condemned the Federal Government's decision to forcibly deport for the first time an Afghan asylum seeker back to Afghanistan.
Ismail Mirza Jan is scheduled to be deported on Saturday. The 26-year-old says his life will be in danger if he's sent to Kabul.
Afghanistan correspondent Sally Sara reports from the Afghan capital.
SALLY SARA: This will be the first deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker from Australian soil.
Ismail Mirza Jan is in high security at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney.
Mr Jan told the ABC's Lateline program that he fears he will be killed if he returns and says the department should just send back his body instead.
ISMAIL MIRZA JAN: If you send me, you can send my dead body back to my country because either way I am dead.
SALLY SARA: Ismail Mirza Jan arrived in Australia in February 2010 on false travel documents. His previous claims for asylum had been rejected by the United Kingdom and Ireland. He left Afghanistan as a teenager in 2001.
Mr Jan will be sent to Kabul but he says he's never been there and doesn't have any relatives in the area.
ISMAIL MIRZA JAN: I don't know what to do actually. So it's days of helplessness.
SALLY SARA: Refugee advocates in Australia have condemned the decision to deport Mr Jan.
Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, says sending asylum seekers back by force will put lives at risk.
IAN RINTOUL: It's going to be a terrible, terrible precedent if the Government thinks that this removal is going to be the basis for sending so many other people back. Like, we haven't seen a forced removal to Afghanistan yet in the history of the refugee detention process in Australia and I think it is going to create a huge amount of anxiety for the people who are presently in detention awaiting their fate.
SALLY SARA: Back in January this year Afghanistan, Australia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees signed a memorandum of understanding. At the time Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen stated clearly the deal would allow involuntary returns of asylum seekers who were not entitled to remain in Australia.
CHRIS BOWEN: Never before today has there been an involuntary return from Australia to Afghanistan so this underlines the importance of today. Without today's agreement it would be impossible to contemplate involuntary repatriation to Afghanistan.
SALLY SARA: Commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Mohammad Farid Hamidi, says Australia should stop its plans for involuntary returns.
MOHAMMAD FARID HAMIDI: If a government or a state deports those Afghans they have a real problem in their own country. I think it is against all the international standards and international instruments which is providing support and protection for the refugees.
SALLY SARA: Ismail Mirza Jan is scheduled to arrive in Kabul on Sunday. Refugee advocates in Australia are trying any final legal avenues to delay or stop the deportation.
This is Sally Sara in Kabul for AM.
ABC
Washington Post; Australia to forcibly deport 1st failed Afghan asylum seeker under new agreement with Kabul
By Associated Press, Published: November 14 | Updated: Tuesday, November 15, 1:16 AM
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia will for the first time forcibly deport an Afghan asylum seeker whose application for protection was rejected, the government said Tuesday.
Refugee advocates have condemned the decision, saying those deported face persecution
Ismail Mirza Jan is to be deported Saturday from Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Center to Afghanistan under a new agreement with Kabul, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said in a statement. Jan had argued that as an ethnic Hazara, he faced death at home, but Australian immigration authorities have determined that he could return to Afghanistan safely.
Afghanistan is the main source of a growing number of asylum seekers who travel to Australia by boat, adding political pressure on the Australian government to deter new arrivals.
It is not clear how many other Afghan asylum seekers Australia could force to return home. But at the end of June, 1,055 Afghans were in Australian detention centers fighting decisions that deny them refugee visas.
Bowen said an agreement reached with Kabul in January stipulates that Afghanistan will readmit any national not entitled to Australian protection. Afghanistan has previously refused to accept Afghans who would not return voluntarily.
“It’s a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees, that they should be removed,” Bowen said.
Jan left Afghanistan as a teenager and said he no longer has family there. He told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he would die if sent to Kabul.
“I told immigration, ‘It’s OK — if you send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way, I am dead,’” the 27-year-old told ABC in an interview broadcast late Monday.
The Hazara were persecuted when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, but their standing has improved since the war began. Many are active in the business world and several hold government positions, including one of Afghanistan’s vice presidents.
Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Australian advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition, said Jan flew into Australia last year on a fake Turkish passport and failed to tell Australian authorities that Britain and Ireland had previously rejected his asylum claims.
Australia did not reject his claims due to dishonesty but because authorities did not believe he would be persecuted in Afghanistan, Rintoul said.
“His deportation sets a dangerous precedent and we’re hoping that Afghanistan won’t accept him,” Rintoul said.
The Australian government won’t release details of Jan’s case, citing privacy concerns.
Afghan Ambassador to Australia Nasir Ahmad Andisha declined to comment Tuesday.
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commissioner Mohammad Farid Hamidi urged the Australian government to review Jan’s case.
“The situation in Afghanistan is not good enough,” Hamidi told ABC. “The security is getting worse day by day.”
Phil Glendenning, director of Sydney-based human rights group Edmund Rice Center, said his research found that at least 11 failed asylum seekers who returned voluntarily to Afghanistan from Australia in the past seven years were killed, including some Hazaras. He suspected the true figure was higher.
“We have very serious concerns about the safety of Hazaras in Afghanistan,” Glendenning said. “I think it’s deteriorating.”
Washington Post
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia will for the first time forcibly deport an Afghan asylum seeker whose application for protection was rejected, the government said Tuesday.
Refugee advocates have condemned the decision, saying those deported face persecution
Ismail Mirza Jan is to be deported Saturday from Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Center to Afghanistan under a new agreement with Kabul, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said in a statement. Jan had argued that as an ethnic Hazara, he faced death at home, but Australian immigration authorities have determined that he could return to Afghanistan safely.
Afghanistan is the main source of a growing number of asylum seekers who travel to Australia by boat, adding political pressure on the Australian government to deter new arrivals.
It is not clear how many other Afghan asylum seekers Australia could force to return home. But at the end of June, 1,055 Afghans were in Australian detention centers fighting decisions that deny them refugee visas.
Bowen said an agreement reached with Kabul in January stipulates that Afghanistan will readmit any national not entitled to Australian protection. Afghanistan has previously refused to accept Afghans who would not return voluntarily.
“It’s a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees, that they should be removed,” Bowen said.
Jan left Afghanistan as a teenager and said he no longer has family there. He told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he would die if sent to Kabul.
“I told immigration, ‘It’s OK — if you send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way, I am dead,’” the 27-year-old told ABC in an interview broadcast late Monday.
The Hazara were persecuted when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, but their standing has improved since the war began. Many are active in the business world and several hold government positions, including one of Afghanistan’s vice presidents.
Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Australian advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition, said Jan flew into Australia last year on a fake Turkish passport and failed to tell Australian authorities that Britain and Ireland had previously rejected his asylum claims.
Australia did not reject his claims due to dishonesty but because authorities did not believe he would be persecuted in Afghanistan, Rintoul said.
“His deportation sets a dangerous precedent and we’re hoping that Afghanistan won’t accept him,” Rintoul said.
The Australian government won’t release details of Jan’s case, citing privacy concerns.
Afghan Ambassador to Australia Nasir Ahmad Andisha declined to comment Tuesday.
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commissioner Mohammad Farid Hamidi urged the Australian government to review Jan’s case.
“The situation in Afghanistan is not good enough,” Hamidi told ABC. “The security is getting worse day by day.”
Phil Glendenning, director of Sydney-based human rights group Edmund Rice Center, said his research found that at least 11 failed asylum seekers who returned voluntarily to Afghanistan from Australia in the past seven years were killed, including some Hazaras. He suspected the true figure was higher.
“We have very serious concerns about the safety of Hazaras in Afghanistan,” Glendenning said. “I think it’s deteriorating.”
Washington Post
A Hazara about to be deported to danger
15 NOVEMBER 2011
ABDUL KARIM HEKMAT
Ismail Mirza Jan, a 27-year-old Hazara asylum seeker, is about to be forcefully deported this Saturday to Kabul.
He has spent nearly two years in the Villawood Detention Centre. His refugee appeal application has been rejected. He was told by the Immigration Department that it was safe for him to return to Kabul, Afghanistan. Fearing for his life, he said, "I can't go back to Afghanistan and [it's] better to die here than to be killed in Afghanistan. Then they should send my dead body."
It is the first case of deportation under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Australian and Afghan governments in January 2011. The agreement allows the forced repatriation of Afghan refugees "judged not to be in need of international protection". Currently, over 730 Hazara asylum seekers have been rejected in Australian detention centres and will be deported if judicial appeals are exhausted. At the time the MOU was signed, the Australian Government argued that Afghanistan had become safer, including for the Hazaras.
The evidence shows the contrary. Afghanistan's security situation has gradually worsened over the past few years. According to the United Nations, the first six months of 2011 have been the deadliest months since the Taliban was ousted. The month of August in 2011 has been the worst month in terms of the average monthly incidents of violence (2,108), 39 per cent up compared to the same period in 2010. A recent UN report suggests that "the focus of suicide attacks was no longer southern Afghanistan, the central region currently accounting for 21 per cent of such attacks".
Attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups have intensified, and so have Afghan and NATO counter-attacks, producing a mounting civilian and combatant death toll. One only has to look at the recent Australian causalities. In a period of over two weeks three Australian soldiers have been killed and 10 wounded by both sides - by the Taliban and Afghan soldiers. So far the coalition military fatalities stand at about 2,800, including 32 Australians.
The Taliban and insurgent groups target government officials, civil servants, teachers, journalists and anyone who is seen to be supporting the government and foreign forces. Like all Afghans, Hazaras live in a volatile, rapidly changing and dangerous environment.
My own research on the situation of Hazaras on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan last year shows the opposite to the government's advice that Hazaras are safe.
Hazaras suffered enormously under the Taliban rule. The Taliban branded the Hazaras, who are Shiite, not Sunni Muslims like them, "infidels". They said that "Hazaras [are] not Muslim. You can kill them, it is not a sin." Australians may be far more aware of the destruction of Buddha statues in 2001 by the Taliban rather the massacres of its people - the Hazaras. Thousands were killed in the town of Bamiyan and surrounding valleys between 1998 and 2001. For this reason, Hazaras were the first to support the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 by Coalition forces and to back the new government and democratic process in the post-Taliban period.
In the post-Taliban period, the Hazara situation has improved in some respects; many participate in social, civic, political and social life and many Hazaras go to schools and universities, hold government jobs, or work for non-government organisations or the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Many Hazaras I spoke to believe these improvements depend on the presence of the international community in Afghanistan. If the ISAF were to withdraw, many believe the situation would deteriorate for Hazaras. Discrimination against Hazaras is entrenched in Afghan culture, government departments and educational institutions, and many Hazaras stated they were treated as inferior and second-class citizens.
In 2010 Hazaras became politically marginalised in the Afghan government as Hazara nominees for ministerial posts failed to achieve the required vote of affirmation on three occasions in the Afghan parliament. Thus there is no Hazara minister represented in the current Karzai government, only acting ministers.
Under the Karzai administration, Hazara areas are receiving little benefit from the international aid to Afghanistan. In Bamiyan, and many other Hazara areas, there has been minimal reconstruction; local people blame this on the prejudices of the Afghan government against the Hazaras.
Hazaras remained prone to attacks by Kuchi in the central highlands in Behsud and Daimirdad districts, which is part of Maidan Wardak. Since 2004, the Kuchis, mainly Pashtun pastoralists, have attacked Hazara areas, killing and injuring tens of people, burning down their houses, destroying their harvests, and forcibly displacing thousands of people. The Afghan government has failed to protect Hazaras against the Kuchi attacks, and its inaction appears to have encouraged Kuchi incursions in the central highlands, which are believed to be supported by the Taliban. The man about to be deported is from Behsud.
Yet, the worst threats come from the Taliban. The increased Taliban activities in Afghanistan pose serious threats to the lives, security and freedom of Hazaras. They still live in fear of persecution from the Taliban and dread their returns. Most of the Hazara areas are sandwiched between areas controlled by the Taliban and are subject to constant searches, arrests, and attacks by the Taliban. In June 2011, in a particularly gruesome attack, nine Hazaras were beheaded in Uruzgan, revealing an ethnic motive behind the killings.
For many Hazaras in Pakistan, whether they be refugees or citizens, life has become increasingly dangerous. Hazaras in Quetta, in western Pakistan, are now under unprecedented terrorist attacks by a banned organisation, Lashkar-e-Jangavi, which is affiliated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Since 2003 nearly 500 Hazaras have been killed and over 1,500 injured as a result of targeted killing. The terrorist group specifically targets the Hazaras and pick them out from the non-Hazara population and kill them.
The government of Pakistan, in particular, the local government, does not protect the Hazara population or punish the perpetrators. In fact, some elements within the Pakistan government are seen to collaborate with and support the terrorists as they do in Afghanistan.
In light of the deteriorating security situation for Hazaras in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Australian Government must halt its plans to send Hazaras back to danger.
Abdul Karim Hekmat is a long-time researcher on Hazaras and is the author of Unsafe Haven: Hazaras In Afghanistan And Pakistan.
ABC
ABDUL KARIM HEKMAT
He has spent nearly two years in the Villawood Detention Centre. His refugee appeal application has been rejected. He was told by the Immigration Department that it was safe for him to return to Kabul, Afghanistan. Fearing for his life, he said, "I can't go back to Afghanistan and [it's] better to die here than to be killed in Afghanistan. Then they should send my dead body."
It is the first case of deportation under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Australian and Afghan governments in January 2011. The agreement allows the forced repatriation of Afghan refugees "judged not to be in need of international protection". Currently, over 730 Hazara asylum seekers have been rejected in Australian detention centres and will be deported if judicial appeals are exhausted. At the time the MOU was signed, the Australian Government argued that Afghanistan had become safer, including for the Hazaras.
The evidence shows the contrary. Afghanistan's security situation has gradually worsened over the past few years. According to the United Nations, the first six months of 2011 have been the deadliest months since the Taliban was ousted. The month of August in 2011 has been the worst month in terms of the average monthly incidents of violence (2,108), 39 per cent up compared to the same period in 2010. A recent UN report suggests that "the focus of suicide attacks was no longer southern Afghanistan, the central region currently accounting for 21 per cent of such attacks".
Attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups have intensified, and so have Afghan and NATO counter-attacks, producing a mounting civilian and combatant death toll. One only has to look at the recent Australian causalities. In a period of over two weeks three Australian soldiers have been killed and 10 wounded by both sides - by the Taliban and Afghan soldiers. So far the coalition military fatalities stand at about 2,800, including 32 Australians.
The Taliban and insurgent groups target government officials, civil servants, teachers, journalists and anyone who is seen to be supporting the government and foreign forces. Like all Afghans, Hazaras live in a volatile, rapidly changing and dangerous environment.
My own research on the situation of Hazaras on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan last year shows the opposite to the government's advice that Hazaras are safe.
Hazaras suffered enormously under the Taliban rule. The Taliban branded the Hazaras, who are Shiite, not Sunni Muslims like them, "infidels". They said that "Hazaras [are] not Muslim. You can kill them, it is not a sin." Australians may be far more aware of the destruction of Buddha statues in 2001 by the Taliban rather the massacres of its people - the Hazaras. Thousands were killed in the town of Bamiyan and surrounding valleys between 1998 and 2001. For this reason, Hazaras were the first to support the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 by Coalition forces and to back the new government and democratic process in the post-Taliban period.
In the post-Taliban period, the Hazara situation has improved in some respects; many participate in social, civic, political and social life and many Hazaras go to schools and universities, hold government jobs, or work for non-government organisations or the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Many Hazaras I spoke to believe these improvements depend on the presence of the international community in Afghanistan. If the ISAF were to withdraw, many believe the situation would deteriorate for Hazaras. Discrimination against Hazaras is entrenched in Afghan culture, government departments and educational institutions, and many Hazaras stated they were treated as inferior and second-class citizens.
In 2010 Hazaras became politically marginalised in the Afghan government as Hazara nominees for ministerial posts failed to achieve the required vote of affirmation on three occasions in the Afghan parliament. Thus there is no Hazara minister represented in the current Karzai government, only acting ministers.
Under the Karzai administration, Hazara areas are receiving little benefit from the international aid to Afghanistan. In Bamiyan, and many other Hazara areas, there has been minimal reconstruction; local people blame this on the prejudices of the Afghan government against the Hazaras.
Hazaras remained prone to attacks by Kuchi in the central highlands in Behsud and Daimirdad districts, which is part of Maidan Wardak. Since 2004, the Kuchis, mainly Pashtun pastoralists, have attacked Hazara areas, killing and injuring tens of people, burning down their houses, destroying their harvests, and forcibly displacing thousands of people. The Afghan government has failed to protect Hazaras against the Kuchi attacks, and its inaction appears to have encouraged Kuchi incursions in the central highlands, which are believed to be supported by the Taliban. The man about to be deported is from Behsud.
Yet, the worst threats come from the Taliban. The increased Taliban activities in Afghanistan pose serious threats to the lives, security and freedom of Hazaras. They still live in fear of persecution from the Taliban and dread their returns. Most of the Hazara areas are sandwiched between areas controlled by the Taliban and are subject to constant searches, arrests, and attacks by the Taliban. In June 2011, in a particularly gruesome attack, nine Hazaras were beheaded in Uruzgan, revealing an ethnic motive behind the killings.
For many Hazaras in Pakistan, whether they be refugees or citizens, life has become increasingly dangerous. Hazaras in Quetta, in western Pakistan, are now under unprecedented terrorist attacks by a banned organisation, Lashkar-e-Jangavi, which is affiliated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Since 2003 nearly 500 Hazaras have been killed and over 1,500 injured as a result of targeted killing. The terrorist group specifically targets the Hazaras and pick them out from the non-Hazara population and kill them.
The government of Pakistan, in particular, the local government, does not protect the Hazara population or punish the perpetrators. In fact, some elements within the Pakistan government are seen to collaborate with and support the terrorists as they do in Afghanistan.
In light of the deteriorating security situation for Hazaras in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Australian Government must halt its plans to send Hazaras back to danger.
Abdul Karim Hekmat is a long-time researcher on Hazaras and is the author of Unsafe Haven: Hazaras In Afghanistan And Pakistan.
ABC
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)