Kenyan Christians Oppose Islamic Provisions in the New Constitution

When two bulls fight, it is only the grass that suffers.

Kenya’s 44 million people will vote on in August on a new constitution.

The debate over the constitution suddenly became much more than an exercise in civics in mid-June, when grenades exploded at a rally organized by churches against the new constitution. Six people were killed in the blasts and the stampede that followed.

Police arrested three members of Parliament who oppose the new constitution on accusations of hate speech.

Much of the debate has focused on church groups’ opposition to two things.

One is the Muslim courts that rule in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance for believers. They are also enshrined in both the current constitution and the new draft, leading to opposition from Christian church groups playing on the fears of greater Muslim dominance in Kenya.

The other hot issue is that the new version of the constitution explicitly states that abortion is legal in cases where the life of the mother is endangered, a proviso that currently exists only in the country’s legal code.

Church groups fear the clause could open the door to wider abortions. They have been encouraged by some American Evangelical groups, including the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), an antiabortion group founded by Pat Robertson. The ACLJ’s international director said that the measure “opens the door to abortion on demand, which is why Christian organizations that are pro-life are so opposed to that provision.”

For their part, church leaders have shown remarkably little restraint in pointing out who they think is to blame for the violence. Just after the investigation into the bomb blasts got under way, the National Council of Churches of Kenya issued a statement saying it had “no doubt that the government, either directly or indirectly, had a hand in this attack.”

Kenyans who support the rewritten constitution blame entrenched leaders who have profited handsomely from Kenya’s corrupt status quo and don’t really want things to change all that much. You’re talking about very large landowners, you’re talking about people who are comfortable with the current arrangements of power. There is a lot of fear among those associated with old money and those who have maintained power in this country.

Kenya’s next presidential elections take place in 2012, and politicians have already begun jockeying for position ahead of the vote.

Kenyans generally agree that the proposed constitution, while not perfect, is a huge improvement over the old constitution, a colonial-era document that gives almost total power to the President and leaves out any mention that the government serves at the behest of Kenya’s citizens. In the revamped version, the President’s powers are greatly reduced, the legislative and judiciary branches are beefed up and explicit rules are spelled out against corruption, a huge problem in Kenya.

The allegations of hate speech are disturbing because they suggest that some Kenyan politicians did not take all the talk of national reconciliation to heart after the violence of 2008, which also forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. Leaders still exploit ethnicity for political gain even though such talk was so obviously a big reason the killing got so bad last time. Even promises from the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to hold the perpetrators accountable seem to have had little quieting effect.

Given that recent polls show the constitution has the support of nearly 60% of Kenyans, it was hard not to see the bomb blasts — and the alleged hate speech — as things meant to keep people away from the polls. That plays on people’s residual fears from the postelection violence. Some believe that not voting will protect them from any potential fallout.

Indian Commonwealth: Misplaced Sense of Pride & Distortion of National Priorities

Holding the 10-day, Rs 20,000 crore-jamboree reflects a misplaced sense of pride and distortion of national priorities. If not on development of a chronically poor nation, the money could have been well spent on bringing basic sports to every mohalla and panchayat. 

Justice A P Shah, the best judge the Supreme Court never had, released a few days ago a sober, deeply researched, fact-based indictment of the Commonwealth Games by the Housing and Land Rights Network — devastating precisely because it is so understated.

The report has been met with thundering silence by the same media that is driving itself ballistic over the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict although the Rs 20,000 plus crore being spent on the Commonwealth Games extravaganza would have been more than adequate to compensate the victims of Bhopal beyond their wildest dreams. 

My fundamental objection to the Games is the distortion it has introduced in national priorities and our sense of social justice, that privileges a “spectacular Games”, as the PM has assured the nation, over a spectacular reduction in child malnutrition — running at 47 per cent of children under five. Is it fair that thousands of the poorest families entering the national capital — migrant workers fleeing desperate poverty in the rural hinterland — should suffer their shanty town on the right bank of the Yamuna being destroyed overnight in the environmental interests of protecting the unimpeded flow of the sewer we call Delhi’s principal river while promoting the Akshardham temple and now the Commonwealth Games Village on the left bank of the same river, ironically almost exactly opposite the demolished slum of Yamuna Pushta? In Gandhi’s India, does anything go in the name of God and Mammon? 

And why, in the name of that same God and Mammon, the Commonwealth Games for the most prosperous part of the most prosperous city in India — the posh heart of New Delhi? The Commonwealth Games in Manchester were leveraged to rejuvenate the utterly rundown eastern section of the city where every family had undergone unemployment for at least a generation and some for two or three. Now, Walmart has its largest global store, employing 18,000 boys and girls, and Microsoft its European headquarters, in East Manchester thanks to the fillip given by the Games. Consequently, the 2012 Olympic Games are designed for the “spectacular development” of the 10 most underdeveloped counties of the Lea Valley on the far fringes of London. 

Why then was the spectacular development of Bawana on the poverty-ridden edges of the capital not picked up, as originally proposed, for our Commonwealth Games? Indeed, why not the Games in Dantewada — which could well do with a Rs 20,000 crore-bonanza to cock a snook at the Maoists? Only because the partyhopping glitterati of the Organising Committee would not know poverty from plum pudding. They rate the Games as a party for themselves and their ilk — not the dirty, filthy, evilsmelling aam admi of the real Bharat. 

As an officer of the Indian Foreign Service, I paid Rs 3 lakh for a flat in the Mayur Vihar complex. The Commonwealth Metro has increased its market value to over a crore while smashing to smithereens over 40 slum colonies, several in the immediate vicinity of Mayur Vihar, and driving the most wretched of the wretched — our beggars — off the streets so that no foreign visitor to the Games goes away with the “wrong” impression that 836 million Indians live on under Rs 20 a day, and 239 million of them on less than even a tenner (reference: the Arjun Sengupta Committee report). Whom are we trying to kid: the videshi mleccha or ourselves? 

And what kind of an impression of our degradation will that same foreign visitor whose delicate eyes have been shielded from the gross reality of our poverty carry when he finds himself solicited at every Games corner by escort agency pimps offering desi maal at cut rates? 

This national shame began when the Indian Olympics Committee hoodwinked Atal Bihari Vajpayee in May 2003 into authorising an Indian bid on the solemn assurance that the Organising Committee would require no more than a “loan” of Rs 150 crore of public money — all of which would be reimbursed to the exchequer from ticket sale proceeds, sponsorships and advertisements. In the event, for the opening and closing ceremonies alone, the sanction has soared to nearly Rs 400 crore, and the total advance to upward of Rs 1,600 core — a cost escalation of a thousand per cent, and still counting! Meanwhile, ticket sales on the opening day, announced in screaming headlines next morning, have crossed Rs 20 lakh. At this dramatic rate, it will be close to the 22nd century before the Organising Committee even begins to discharge its debt to the country. 

And, of course, the innocent Vajpayee did not care to ask what the infrastructure expense would be. So sanction was given without a khota paisa being set aside for Games venues, flyovers and underpasses, shiny new airports, metro lines from nowhere to nowhere, and what not. No one knows — or, at any rate, tells — what that infrastructure expenditure might amount to: the most modest estimate is upwards of Rs 20,000 crore and the wildest printed estimate suggests Rs 60,000 crore. 

And for the privilege of spending this humungous sum (on, inter alia, relaying pavements on the best pavemented roads of Lutyens’ Delhi!), Vajpayee, on the telephone, in the middle of the Indian night, agreed to the Indian delegation at Montego Bay offering an “incentive” of $100,000 to every Commonwealth country — Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand included — to “train” their participants. Would I be inviting defamation charges in calling this sweetener a “bribe”? 

When the government changed, we could — and should — have revised our offer to host the Games, or at least put a lid on what government would spend. Instead, the same finance ministry and Planning Commission which solemnly reminded us that we are a “poor” country when Rs 600 crore was sought to finance gram nyayalayas to bring justice to the doorstep of the poor became completely open-handed in meeting every demand of the Organising Committee and every estimate of the infrastructure implementation agencies. Why are we like this, only? 

Just one reason: false prestige, a belief that we can earn standing in the international community by financing a 10-day sports circus while retaining the position we have held on the UN Human Development Index for the last 15 years — position no. 134 (almost the same as we would have held in medal tallies if the number of Commonwealth countries was 134). 

Poor, poor Mahatma Gandhi, who said the “India of my dreams” is an India in which the poor of India will be the focus of public attention and every Indian, however poor, will feel he is a participant in the building of new India. Go, tell that to the tribals of Abujmarh — and perhaps they will tell their Naxal cousins. 

Our middle class and our political class are so committed to these false values, this loot of the moral legacy of our Freedom Movement, that not even the ticking of the adding machine could stop the relentless forward movement of the expenditure clock. 

As minister of sports, I tried to stop it — and found myself in a minority of one. I was soon out on my ear. The Planning Commission, which was not even squinting at the Organising Committee’s demand for Rs 6,000 crore for a 10-day tamasha, found itself unable to agree to the same sum being spent over 10 years on bringing basic sports facilities to every panchayat and every mohalla of this viciously poor nation. 

China not only hosted the Olympics, it also picked up the highest number of medals because their sports authorities first ensured that every Chinese child plays sports and games — and thus widens to the full the net which catches the top-rung talent. We do next to nothing about bringing our children in the sporting net — and, therefore, show up our comic side when medals are announced. 

The only good that will come out of the Commonwealth Games would be a decision to never again bid for such games until every Indian child gets a minimum to eat, an assured basic education and a playground with trained coaches to discover the sportsperson in himself or herself. That, alas, is no part of our self-satisfied middle class dream for India — which is why the Maoist is knocking at our gates. 

- Mani Shankar Aiyar

Indian & Pakistani Players Play as Doubles in Tennis

Two tennis players are trying to bridge the gulf of mistrust between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Indian doubles partner Rohan Bopanna are through to the third round of Wimbledon.

Together, they have captured the imagination of tennis fans everywhere by forming a successful partnership.

They have also heightened interest in the sport throughout South Asia.

‘Indo-Pak Express’

Qureshi said:

“When we started out in tennis the tension between India and Pakistan wasn’t something I cared about, I was playing with my fri”Over the passage of time, we’ve seen a bigger picture apart from tennis, and it’s about changing people’s views. If we can change even one person’s view, we’ll take it as a positive.

“It’s really nice to see Indians and Pakistanis sitting together supporting one team. You don’t see that anywhere else, in any sport. Our on-court and off-court relationship proves that Indians and Pakistanis can get on fine.”

The duo has been nicknamed “The Indo-Pak Express” on the ATP World Tour. At Wimbledon they have been seen practising with “Stop War Start Tennis” track suit tops.

Rohan Bopanna has been nominated as a Champion for Peace by an international organisation under the patronage of Prince Albert of Monaco.

He said that he hoped to use the title to promote peace in India.

Qureshi, a fellow Champion of Peace, said it was important to spread the message of peace through tennis.

“The situation in Pakistan has been turbulent over the past two to three years, with terrorism and war. It’s about spreading a positive message about my country,” he said.

“We are loving people, we are hospitable. Pakistanis are basically not terrorists.”

Controversial pairings

The pair won their first ATP Tour title together at the South African Open in Johannesburg in February 2010, performing well in other tournaments since then. Coming from cricket-loving countries, both players say it is not always easy to get recognition in their home countries.

The pair say that they are now trying to organise a friendly tennis match at the Wagah border, the only overland checkpoint on the frontier between India and Pakistan.

“We’ve asked the prime ministers and presidents from both countries. If we can pull it off, I will be playing on the Pakistani side and Aisam will be on the Indian side,” Bopanna said.

Qureshi is no stranger to controversial pairings.

He was threatened with expulsion from the Davis Cup by the Pakistan Tennis Federation for his doubles pairing with Israeli player Amir Haddad.

In 2003, they both won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award for playing together despite pressure.

White Upper Middle Class Loses Interest in Sex

WILL women soon have a Viagra of their own? Although a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recently rejected an application to market the drug flibanserin in the United States for women with low libido, it endorsed the potential benefits and urged further research. Several pharmaceutical companies are reported to be well along in the search for such a drug.

The implication is that a new pill, despite its unforeseen side effects, is necessary to cure the sexual malaise that appears to have sunk over the country. But to what extent do these complaints about sexual apathy reflect a medical reality, and how much do they actually emanate from the anxious, overachieving, white upper middle class?

In the 1950s, female “frigidity” was attributed to social conformism and religious puritanism. But since the sexual revolution of the 1960s, American society has become increasingly secular, with a media environment drenched in sex.

The real culprit, originating in the 19th century, is bourgeois propriety. As respectability became the central middle-class value, censorship and repression became the norm. Victorian prudery ended the humorous sexual candor of both men and women during the agrarian era, a ribaldry chronicled from Shakespeare’s plays to the 18th-century novel. The priggish 1950s, which erased the liberated flappers of the Jazz Age from cultural memory, were simply a return to the norm.

Only the diffuse New Age movement, inspired by nature-keyed Asian practices, has preserved the radical vision of the modern sexual revolution. But concrete power resides in America’s careerist technocracy, for which the elite schools, with their ideological view of gender as a social construct, are feeder cells.

In the discreet white-collar realm, men and women are interchangeable, doing the same, mind-based work. Physicality is suppressed; voices are lowered and gestures curtailed in sanitized office space. Men must neuter themselves, while ambitious women postpone procreation. Androgyny is bewitching in art, but in real life it can lead to stagnation and boredom, which no pill can cure.

Meanwhile, family life has put middle-class men in a bind; they are simply cogs in a domestic machine commanded by women. Contemporary moms have become virtuoso super-managers of a complex operation focused on the care and transport of children. But it’s not so easy to snap over from Apollonian control to Dionysian delirium.

Nor are husbands offering much stimulation in the male display department: visually, American men remain perpetual boys, as shown by the bulky T-shirts, loose shorts and sneakers they wear from preschool through midlife. The sexes, which used to occupy intriguingly separate worlds, are suffering from over-familiarity, a curse of the mundane. There’s no mystery left.

The elemental power of sexuality has also waned in American popular culture. Under the much-maligned studio production code, Hollywood made movies sizzling with flirtation and romance. But from the early ’70s on, nudity was in, and steamy build-up was out. A generation of filmmakers lost the skill of sophisticated innuendo. The situation worsened in the ’90s, when Hollywood pirated video games to turn women into cartoonishly pneumatic superheroines and sci-fi androids, fantasy figures without psychological complexity or the erotic needs of real women.

Furthermore, thanks to a bourgeois white culture that values efficient bodies over voluptuous ones, American actresses have desexualized themselves, confusing sterile athleticism with female power. Their current Pilates-honed look is taut and tense — a boy’s thin limbs and narrow hips combined with amplified breasts. Contrast that with Latino and African-American taste, which runs toward the healthy silhouette of the bootylicious Beyoncé.

A class issue in sexual energy may be suggested by the apparent striking popularity of Victoria’s Secret and its racy lingerie among multiracial lower-middle-class and working-class patrons, even in suburban shopping malls, which otherwise trend toward the white middle class. Country music, with its history in the rural South and Southwest, is still filled with blazingly raunchy scenarios, where the sexes remain dynamically polarized in the old-fashioned way.

On the other hand, rock music, once sexually pioneering, is in the dumps. Black rhythm and blues, born in the Mississippi Delta, was the driving force behind the great hard rock bands of the ’60s, whose cover versions of blues songs were filled with electrifying sexual imagery. The Rolling Stones’ hypnotic recording of Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster,” with its titillating phallic exhibitionism, throbs and shimmers with sultry heat.

But with the huge commercial success of rock, the blues receded as a direct influence on young musicians, who simply imitated the white guitar gods without exploring their roots. Step by step, rock lost its visceral rawness and seductive sensuality. Big-ticket rock, with its well-heeled middle-class audience, is now all superego and no id.

In the 1980s, commercial music boasted a beguiling host of sexy pop chicks like Deborah Harry, Belinda Carlisle, Pat Benatar, and a charmingly ripe Madonna. Late Madonna, in contrast, went bourgeois and turned scrawny. Madonna’s dance-track acolyte, Lady Gaga, with her compulsive overkill, is a high-concept fabrication without an ounce of genuine eroticism.

Pharmaceutical companies will never find the holy grail of a female Viagra — not in this culture driven and drained by middle-class values. Inhibitions are stubbornly internal. And lust is too fiery to be left to the pharmacist.

Camille Paglia, a professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts, is the author of “Sexual Personae.”

Indian & Pakistani Colonels Interact with Eachother

Colonel Riaz Jafri (retired)
I am a retired Indian Army officer, writing for the first time to my counterpart across the border since I found your above article to be excellent and highly informative. 

You do have a deep and intricate knowledge of political happenings before partition and I fully agree with your analysis of separating politics from religion. 

What has happened in Lahore about a month back has saddened us also. One of my friend(course-mate) who is from Ahmedi community sent me a mail stating that he considers himself lucky and thanks Allah to be born in India and also there is no Taleban type movement here.

Pakistan should take a cue from India where people of different religions, castes and creeds live under one roof with peace and harmony. I feel your rulers must re-launch Pakistan as a secular state after taking all right minded people like your good self and opposition into confidence. Religious extremism and inequality breeds violence and slows progress of a country. 

Situation in Pakistan is too complicated and alarming, therefore steps like changing curriculum in Madressas and text books, banning hatred sermons against particular communities and mosques must be undertaken at the earliest. 

Colonel RS Johar (retired) India

Colonel Riaz Reply: 

Dear Col. Johar:

Assuming your good name to be Ranbir Singh Johar, allow me to greet you with Sat Sri Akal.  

It was indeed a pleasant surprise to hear from a comrade in arms though from across the border, more so because I could somehow read between the lines a message and a piece of sincere advice in it for the betterment of Pakistan. Col. Johar, thank you for wishing us well. 

Yes, it is unfortunate that sectarian and religious strife has been going on for sometime now in Pakistan. What happened in Lahore is really condemnable and it gives us all a ray of hope that the incident was condemned unequivocally by all segments of society here.  Killing of innocent people and that too at a place of worship cannot be by any stretch of imagination permitted in Islam – the religion of peace.  And the irony is that the perpetrators of such heinous crimes claim to do it in the name of Islam!  

I am glad to know that your Ahmedi colleague feels better and safer being in India and probably he has a reason to think it so. Unfortunately, the distrust between our two neighbouring countries has been hyped so much by the politicians and to some extent by the media on both sides that such statements look strange. Minds of the people over here are much affected by incidents like 2002 killings in Gujrat, the Godhra train carnage and the role played by Colonels Purohit and Jayant in it, demolition of Babri mosque, the threats and the utterance of Bal Thakery and likes and of all the persons even Advani (Karachi born) reducing Pakistan to nothingness (May 1998 after Pokhran detonations by India). 

The images of Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, RSS, Mahasabha etc. are anything than savoury here. 

We have our share of such parties and religious and political good for nothing braves too and Qazi Hussain Ahmed (ex- Ameer Jamaat Islami) bragged about flying the Pakistan flag on Red Fort Delhi – God alone know how?  

Better sense has to prevail on both side, though admittedly we need it a little more than you. 

You may come to the conclusion that Pakistan being a smaller country has reasons to be apprehensive of its bigger neighbour. Whatever, we may call it, the fact remains that India did dismember Pakistan in 1971.  

You may be a post-partition born officer but if dig a little deeper you will find Pakistan to have been wronged on a number of occasions before 71 also. It was created on the night 14/15 August 1947 but its boundaries were announced three days later on 17th August 1947. Imagine a country coming into existence but without any borders! What happened in those three fateful days is the bone of contention till today between the neighbours. 

Gurdaspur district was divided to provide India with a land route link to Kashmir. 

Ferozepur district was divided to give Fazilka, Abohr and Head Sulemanki to India. 

To this day we are fighting each other over Kashmir and God alone knows for how long we would keep on doing it.  

Just imagine the amount of colossal resources both countries are wasting on the upkeep of their armed forces. If only all this money had been spent instead on the welfare of the masses on both sides, imagine where would we have been today among the comity of the nations?   

India is too big a country that it cannot survive without Kashmir. 

Would not the giants like Baghilar and drying out of Chenab render the fertile lands of the plains of our Punjab into desert? Why is India doing it to us? 

Col. Riaz Jafri (retired)

Rawalpindi Pakistan
Tel: (051) 546 3344
E.mail: jafri@rifiela.com

580 Indian Fishermen & 125 Pakistani Fishermen Remain in Jail

The foreign secretaries and the Interior Ministers of India and Pakistan ended their so-called peace talks in the comfortable environment of Serena Hotel in Islamabad in June 2010. But hundreds But 125 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails and 580 Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails continue to remain in prison in this unbearable heat for no serious crime committed by them. They are poor and nobody on either side of the border appears to be interested in their plight.

Some Pakistani fishermen had been in Indian jails for the past 15 years.

Fishermen from both countries go for fishing but get caught by the marine security agencies since the international border in the disputed Sir Creek between the two countries has not been clearly defined. It is for this reason that most fishermen do not know if they are fishing in their own territorial waters or have strayed into the other’s jurisdiction.

Till the time the territorial dispute is resolved, the two countries should declare 100 nautical miles as a buffer zone and issue permits to fishermen after proper verification.

There are 125 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails and about 17 of them have completed their sentences but still not being released. Similarly, there are over 580 Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails and around 450 of them have already completed their sentences but not being released.

Some time back a pundit from Indian-occupied Kashmir filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India for the release of 17 Pakistani fishermen who had completed their sentences. While the court ordered in his favour, the Indian government has not sent back the Pakistani fishermen.

Prisoners could be detained for three more months under the Pakistani law after they have completed the sentence. However, after the three months, either the prisoners should be freed or the government has to seek permission from the Supreme Court review board for further detention. In this case, the government sought permission from the review board, which allowed that these fishermen be kept in jails. God knows why the review board was allowing the government to keep these fishermen in Pakistani jails.

Instead of Getting Justice, Gang Rape Victim’s Brother Killed

On June 27, 2010, a large number of people held a sit-in on the main Abdullah Haroon Road in Karachi in protest against the murder of a brother of a gang-rape victim.

Sabir Soomro’s body was found in an area of Balochistan bordering Karachi on June 26.

The rape victim, Kainat Soomro, her family and other supporters gathered and tried to take the body to the Governor’s House to lodge a protest against the killing. However, a heavy contingent of police blocked roads and stopped the protesters near Zainab Market. The protesters staged a sit-in on the busy street, causing suspension of vehicular traffic.

MNA Marvi Memon of PML-Q joined the protesters and demanded justice for the victim’s family.

Sabir was picked up by police in Dadu a few months ago on the pretext that he was a suspect in a robbery case.

The hour-long protest forced Capital City Police Officer Waseem Ahmed to come to the place and to persuade the family to end their sit-in.

Mr Ahmed assured the protesters that an investigation would be carried out after the bereaved family lodged an FIR. He also arranged a telephonic conversation between Kainat Soomro and Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza, who assured her of his full cooperation in the probe. After the assurance, Kainat Soomro and her family ended their protest.

Ambulances and police escort were arranged so that the body could be taken to Dadu for burial.

Subsequently, relatives of Sabir Soomro, the slain brother of rape survivor Kainat Soomro, held a demonstration on VVIP road in Mehar on June 28, demanding arrest of the killers.

SPO of Mehar Murtaza Mirani arrived at the spot, assured the family of Sabir of justice. Later they took the body to their house and then buried it at Baqar Shah graveyard under police security.

A police contingent, comprising an ASI and 10 police officials were deployed at the house of Kainat Soomro.

Sabir’s father Ghulam Nabi Soomro said that Warah police accompanied by Ali Hassan Buledi, father-in-law of Sabir, picked him up from their house on March 28 on the pretext that he was wanted in a robbery case. When they arrived at the police station, Ghulam Nabi said, the police said that they had not arrested Sabir.

He said that Ali Hassan Buledi and police officials killed his son after keeping him in illegal detention for three months.

On January 10, 2007, Kainat was gang-raped by Shaban Shaikh, Ihsan Thebo, Roshan and Ali Murad Thebo when she was student of class eight. She said that she had demanded justice and held series of protests with her family for the arrest of the accused but none of them was arrested.

On the other hand, she said, five fake FIRs of murder, theft and other crimes were registered against her and her family at different police station to pressure them to withdraw the case and settle the dispute through a jirga. She said that some people belonging Shaikh and Buledi communities had lodged cases against them.

She said that another brother of her, Bilawal, was also arrested and sent to jail for two months.

She alleged that Ali Hassan and other accused were annoyed with her and her family because she had refused to withdraw the case , therefore, they murdered her brother after kidnapping.

Zakia Soomro, mother of Sabir, said that Ali Hassan had received Rs5 million from the accused of gang-rape case to force them to withdraw the case. She said that Ali Hassan, Shaban Shaikh, Noomi Thebo besides some police officials were involved in the murder of her son. She threatened to commit suicide if killers of her son were not arrested.

DPO of Dadu Ghazi Salahuddin said the murder of Sabir had taken place in Balochistan and the FIR was lodged at Naal police station and expressed the hope the Naal police would properly investigate the case.

He said that that the home minister and IG of Sindh had asked him to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

He said that victim family can lodge an FIR of kidnapping and torturing Sabir against any accused, including police officers of Mehar police station, and assured that accused nominated in FIR would be arrested.

He said that security would be provided to family of Kainat.

Gang Raped For 50 Days

A woman, who received a stay order from court over a dispute on ownership of her house, was picked up by policemen and their informers and taken to a private detention centre where she was gang raped for more than 50 days.  

The rape victim’s cases against the accused policemen and their henchmen were withdrawn due to the controversy of the geographical jurisdiction of the police.  

The medical report of the rape was not issued even after one month following the medical examination. The victim and her family are in hiding because of continuous police threats to withdraw the case. The deputy inspector generals (DIGs) of the two districts of Karachi metropolitan city refused to entertain the complaints of the victim on the grounds of jurisdiction.

This has happened in a country, which claims to be an Islamic Republic and proudly announces that it is protecting the women’s rights. This case is one of the worst examples of how the police protect their own on the pretext of jurisdictions.

 

Mrs. Ruby Masih, aged 32 years, wife of Mr. Aijaz Masih, resident of N-37, street number 50, Sector 50, Mohammad Khan Goth (village) Korangi number 3-1/2, Karachi, was raped in a private detention center of the police for more than 50 days (from August 10 to September 30, 2010) by police constable Ishaque Masih of Mehmoodabad police station and plain clothed policemen known as informers.

Ruby purchased a house in April 2004, where she was living as tenant since 2000, from Mr. Iqbal Masih, son of Mr. Inayat Masih, a police informer of Mehmoodabad police station. She paid off the whole price of the house except Rs. 40,000 (USD 471) as per condition that it would be paid after possession of all papers regarding the ownership of the house. In the meanwhile, Constable Ishaque allegedly forged the papers and declared the property in the name of one Mrs. Marium Bibi. Ruby challenged the issue in a civil court vide case number 578/2010 against Marium Bibi, Constable Ishaque and Iqbal Masih, a police informer.

On 31 May, the court passed a stay order in favour of Ruby. On the same night in late hours, Police Constable Ishaque, Police Constable Shahid and others broke into the Ruby’s house and threw away all the belongings of her family and occupied it. She and her family shifted to another house on rent as the police refused them entry to their own premises.

On 7 June, Mr. Aijaz Masih, Ruby’s husband, a carpenter by profession, lodged a case of illegal occupation of his house and theft of gold ornaments with the Zaman Town police station against constables and their henchmen. The Zaman Town police did not take any action against the alleged perpetrators. Instead, the police filed a case against the complainant Mr. Aijaz, his uncle and his cousin for trespassing the house, assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, damaging property and other offence.

On 10 August when Ruby went to attend the court hearing of her case, Constable Ishaq Masih of Mehmoodabad police station, Karachi with the help of constable Shahid and police informers, Shahbaz Masih, Iqbal Masih and Ms. Marium Masih abducted her from outside the court premises in a car. Ruby was taken to Qaidabad, 30 kilometers away from the city court premises, at gun point. She was asked to withdraw the case against police men for occupying her house illegally. On her refusal she was dumped into a house, an illegal detention center used for torture, and was forced to drink a coloured water. She fainted and when she came to she found herself lying naked on a cot. Then constable Ishaque and Marium again asked her to withdraw the case against them. On her refusal constable Shahid, Constable Ishaque, police informers Iqbal Masih, Kamran and Munir allegedly raped her during her illegal detention of 52 days.

On 30 September, she was thrown onto the railway line at Cantonment Railway Station from where she was taken away by an ambulance and admitted in the Jinnah Hospital. She informed her husband and then she was shifted to Civil Hospital on instructions of doctors. Before her release from illegal detention, her husband, Aijaz, has filed an application before the Court of District and Session Magistrate on 19 September, pleading that his wife has been abducted by police constables and their henchmen and police refusing to file case against police officials. On the orders of the court the Korangi Industrial police station lodged an FIR (First Information Report) against the accused police officials and their henchmen for abducting Ruby and keeping her incommunicado.

On the same night police officials threw her in the jurisdiction of another police station, the Risala police station so that the FIR at Korangi police station should become ineffective.

A 13-Year Old Girl Gang Raped by PPP Men

In another tragic incident, the Sindh police has stopped the investigation into the case of a gang rape of a 13-year old girl as a result of the case involving powerful people, among them two lawyers belonging to People’s Party.  

A doctor, who is affiliated with the PPP, stopped the completion of the medical report, which confirmed the rape.  

The journalists reporting on the case were threatened by the provincial ministers to stop reporting on the involvement of the lawyers.  

In retaliation, the perpetrators of the gang rape filed a case of abduction against the victim’s father. The district executive health officer (DEO-Health) has shown his inability to issue the provisional medical report, which was already prepared by the government hospital.

The minor girl, Miss Naveeda Kalhoro (13), is a resident of Bhiria road, Ratey mohalla, Bhiria taluka, district Naushahro Feroze, Sindh province.

On October 26, 2010, she filed a First Information Report (FIR), a police document for legal process, accusing two lawyers from Peoples Lawyer Forum (PLF), a lawyer’s body of the ruling PPP, for subjecting her to gang-rape in a sugarcane field.

According to her statement, on October 26 at 6:30 p.m. six persons, armed with firearms, rushed into her house while she was cooking. They abducted her and took her on a motorcycle to a car parked at the roadside pushing her inside. The accused persons sitting in the car were identified as lawyer Mr. Abdul Salam Luhrani, general secretary of Peoples Lawyer Forum (PLF)–a lawyer’s organization of the ruling party in the Naushahro Feroze district; and his brother, lawyer Abdul Karim Luhrani “alias Abdul Raheem Lurahni”, former vice mayor of Bhiria taluka (Bhiria town).

They told her that she is being abducted because a girl from the Luhrani tribe (a tribe that the perpetrators belong to) has married a young man from her tribe, the Kalhoro tribe, in a love marriage. The marriage was conducted before the civil magistrate with the help of one of Naveeda’s brothers. The perpetrators wanted to take revenge on her brother for his help in arranging the love marriage.

Naveeda identified the men who have gang raped her as: Mr. Abdul Karim, alias Abdul Raheem Luhrani; Mr. Abdul Salam Ruhani, Mr. Hashim Luhrani, Mr. Baig Bux, alias Baigo Luhrani; Mushtaq Luhrani, Zaman Luhrani, Nisar Luhrani and an unknown person. However, later on, two of the accused, Abdul Salam Luhrani and Abdul Karim Luhrani, were dropped by the police due to pressure by the ruling party and a member of the provincial assembly who belong to the same area. The policemen were expected to have accepted a huge bribe to delete their names.

Naveeda explained that she was found on a roadside by the District Superintendent of Police (SP) and Bhiria Road police party, where she was thrown in a depleted condition. She was quickly admitted to the Naushahro Feroze district hospital, a government hospital. The doctor on duty conducted a medical examination and confirmed that she had been raped by more than one person.

The accused persons were arrested, but they were quickly granted interim bail because the medical report at that time was not made available. The female doctor Mamoona explained that she could not release the medical report without being cleared by the district Executive Health Officer (DEO-Health).

MQM killed 650+ Sind Police Officers?

By Dr Shahid Qureshi

Few years ago I asked Shoib Shuddle former of Director General of Intelligence Bureau and Inspector General Police in London, ‘what is your input about the cold blooded targeted killings of Sindh Police officers who took part in the ‘operation’ ordered by Benazir Bhutto’ in 1995.

He acknowledged the fact that there was a problem.

MQM is a mercenary group whose HQ is in London and possibility of its leader to go to Pakistan is Zero? It exaggerate everything no doubt death one person is too many but their claim that 25000 MQM workers disappeared is the extreme.

Where is the list of those 25000 people and where are they buried?

The South Africa branch of MQM and its activities are very suspicious especially the Nishtar Park – Karachi terrorist incident when whole leadership of Sunni Tehreek was eliminated.

According reliable sources that to those who examined and conducted post-mortems of the bodies found bullet marks and some of them were shot in head. It seems that cause of death was bullets then shrapnel’s of bomb explosion?

According to a source that people who were involved in this terror might have been provided safe passage to South Africa? It is reported that the whole operation was monitored by a MQM leader from a minority group?

It seems a case of targeted killings. Only a high powered judicial investigation into this act can expose the crime.

How To Make Our Financial Systems More Accountable & Transparent?

By Naeem Sadiq

“When I send my child to the market with Rs10 to buy something, I demand an account of the money when he returns home. Similarly, when the government spends my money, I have the right to ask for an accounting of these expenditures.” — Susheela Devi

A GHOST project is like a ghost school. It consumes money and resources, benefits a small group of delinquents and does nothing for its intended beneficiaries. With 30,000 ghost schools already under its belt, Pakistan is now well on its way to achieving the next milestone — to be a market leader in ghost projects.

The daily newspapers carry sickening doses of how the rich and powerful scrape away the last pennies from projects created ostensibly for the good of the ordinary people. The billion-dollar poverty alleviation program only alleviated the poverty of bureaucrats and consultants. The $350m ‘Access to justice’ ADB loan did not make our justice system any better. A scam of Rs3.6bn was discovered in the execution of Tawana Pakistan Project (TPP).

The former PM Shaukat Aziz spent over Rs1bn on 47 foreign visits during 2004-07. The Rs16bn clean drinking water project is bogged down by delays and complaints of unfair bidding.The KPT’s purchase and subsequent theft of a Rs320m water fountain remains unchallenged. The details of payment for the two chartered aeroplanes carrying 240 freeloaders to Saudi Arabia still remain unexplained. Irresponsible expenditure coupled with heavy leakages have left the country reeling under a formidable foreign debt of $45.6bn (not counting the latest $7.6bn IMF loan). Clearly the problem of Pakistan is not the size of its kitty, but the holes in the kitty.

The numerous watchdog committees like the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), the audit department, NAB, and the NACS have not only failed to curb this menace. They have themselves become a huge burden on the exchequer. These bodies primarily operate in a reactive manner, often moving into action long after the curtains have been dropped and the actors gone home.

There is little that these organisations can show in terms of their contribution towards accountability, especially for those who yield power or influence. On the contrary there are examples of the NAB dropping corruption cases involving Rs500bn of the taxpayers’ money under the influence of the NRO.

How do other countries make their financial systems more accountable and transparent? The best method is a proactive disclosure of financial information by each department and agency. By making this information readily available on departmental websites, ordinary citizens can directly evaluate if public funds are being managed effectively. If not, they can hold the government officials accountable for their actions. The second method is the use of the Access to Information Act (at present in the process of being revised), which enables citizens to obtain any non-classified public information for scrutiny and questioning.

The Canadian government offers one of the best models for financial monitoring and accountability. It requires each department to make quarterly disclosures on its website showing: (i) details of the travel and hospitality expenses of ministers, parliamentary secretaries, political staff, and senior public service employees; (ii) details of contracts awarded; and (iii) grants and contributions that were given to any individual or organisation (http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pd-dp/gr-rg/index-eng.asp). The system further provides protection for any one who exposes misuse of public funds, mismanagement or a breach of a code of conduct. The Canadian system makes it obligatory for the head of the department to disclose the identity of the person found to have committed the wrongdoing, any corrective action taken or the reasons why no corrective action was taken.

At the project level, Sri Lanka has developed an excellent web-based project monitoring system that displays monthly updated information about all foreign- and local-funded projects. The system has 12 modules which include project profile, monthly financial report, activity monitoring report, cash flow report, reimbursable foreign aid, loan covenant, procurement monitoring, financial progress on each component, project review report and comments by the public (http://www.fabm.gov.lk/index.html).

Despite the existence of an Electronic Government Directorate (EGD), the government seems to have little understanding of what is meant by the term ‘e-governance’. A recent Planning Commission advertisement (Nov 22, 2008) claims that its website now contains an “interim report on economic stabilisation with a human face, speeches of the prime minister, projects identified for foreign assistance, and a ‘Synoptic View’ of the Planning Commission”.

The government departments seem to consider their websites as instruments of self-publicity (pictures of ministers, comments, speeches and notifications) rather than putting hard facts and figures about each project, its cost, purchases, suppliers, contractors, completion dates, overruns and various other details of expenses. A good example of the data that may be included for any project monitoring may be seen at www.good-governance.com.pk , a sample website set up by a private Pakistani citizen at a modest cost of Rs7,000.

The people of Pakistan have a right to demand an end to this unending financial plunder. They have a right to demand an account of how and where their money is spent. Using Public Document Rules, 2004 the government could immediately ask every department to proactively (on its website) provide complete and ongoing details of its projects. This should be a precondition for the release of any further funds. Transparent projects and an independent judiciary may be the two key factors that could rid us of ghost projects and help us move towards a progressive Pakistan.

Kashmir: India’s War at Home

By Jyoti Thottam

Srinagar Abid Baig is a salesman in a dried-fruits shop in Lal Chowk, the central shopping district of Srinagar, Indian Kashmir’s capital.

But Baig’s real calling is as a stone thrower. A familiar figure at protests for azadi, or freedom, that regularly clog Srinagar’s streets, 21-year-old Baig is angry, blaming the pervasive Indian security presence for choking off his chance at a decent life. His parents pulled him out of school when he was just in 10th grade because they worried that their only child would be picked up by police trolling for militants. Baig speaks intensely and deliberately, looking down at his hands, so an arc of black hair droops over his forehead. “Everybody wants to be something,” he says. “I wanted to be a doctor.” Instead, he hurls stones to vent his frustration.

“They don’t allow us to live in peace.” Peace in Kashmir — as in Afghanistan, Iraq and much of the Middle East — has long seemed out of reach, but it is just as urgent. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the territory since 1947, when Muslim-majority Kashmir acceded to mostly Hindu India, over Pakistan’s objections. Kashmir is much more than an unresolved border dispute, however.

To Pakistan, it is an endless grudge against an old enemy that seems to supersede even its own war against the Taliban. To India, Kashmir is the most potent reminder of the violence it has been unable to escape while aspiring to a more prosperous future. The two countries negotiated a Line of Control dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir in 1971, but that unofficial border has been a source of constant conflict and tension.

In 1989, a homegrown movement of Kashmiri separatists rose up against India; Islamabad supported some of them, as well as groups of cross-border militants. To put down this multi-headed insurgency, New Delhi sent in what amounts now to a presence of 700,000 troops (among a civilian population of just 5 million). The military’s hard-line tactics have sparked considerable anger among the local populace.

The presence of those troops — despite the decline of the separatist movement — is the core complaint for ordinary Kashmiris like Baig. India ignores the rage of these young men at its peril. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, head of Srinagar’s central mosque and chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat group of separatists, warned that if the concerns of the Kashmiri people are not heard, “the mind-set of those individuals, particularly youth, will likely deteriorate into a continuous feeling of occupation and endangerment, leading them to pick up arms again.”

Baig and his friends are the new icons of Kashmiri hostility toward the Indian state. The stone throwers are often photographed in action, yet little is known about them. On a recent afternoon, however, I actually met several.

There was Amir, a reedy 17-year-old who sneaks out to the protests without telling his parents; Asif, a muscular 24-year-old rickshaw driver; and Muddasar, 20, with soft blue eyes and a dark red bullet wound in his left shin.

Their de facto leader is Imran Zargar, 24, who spent 11/2 years in jail after one ugly clash. His police record then disqualified him from any job with the government, by far Kashmir’s largest employer. Says Zargar: “I found that I had no future.” Will such disillusionment evolve into a more serious threat against the Indian state? In their jeans and Nikes, the resentful young men of Srinagar identify most closely with youths on the streets of Gaza and the West Bank, not those in jihadist training camps.

But they also insist that religious heads support what they do, and that if they die in a protest, they will be considered martyrs. A military intelligence official in New Delhi who has served in Kashmir worries, “Many young Kashmiris have taken arms and embraced radical Islam because there is no hope of a good life.” Indian forces in Kashmir have traditionally been more focused on jihadists based in Pakistan, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group that Indian and U.S. authorities blame for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Indian officials say that Pakistan has not only failed to prosecute any top LeT leaders, it has continued to support their incursions into Indian Kashmir. They hold up as evidence several recent incidents, including a Sept. 12 car bomb set off next to a police bus in Srinagar.

“Two Lashkar commanders masterminded the attack,” claims Farooq Ahmed, inspector general of police for Kashmir. Ahmed says that one of them, Abdur Rehman, “is hiding somewhere in south Kashmir.” In this climate, resolving Kashmir may seem to have little chance, yet diplomacy has picked up a bit of pace. Over the past few months, there have been signs of a thaw and hints that the two countries, prodded by Washington, would reopen a dialogue that has been stalled since the Mumbai terror attacks last year.

On June 16, Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Zardari shook hands at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Russia, where Zardari acknowledged that Pakistan’s greatest threat was the Taliban — a remarkable admission for a country that has long considered India its most dangerous neighbor.

Indian authorities, meanwhile, may soon start talks with the Hurriyat separatists. But every gesture of reconciliation — most recently, meetings between top diplomats on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City — has been followed by tough talk and accusations from both sides.

A Spreading Rage

The formative event for Kashmir’s angry youth was the August 2008 protests over Amarnath, a Hindu shrine about 88 miles (141 km) from Srinagar.

A massive movement opposed the Kashmir state government’s controversial decision to allocate 100 acres (40 hectares) of land to a local Hindu pilgrimage group, and drew as many as 500,000 protesters on one day. The police fired on the crowds (Muddasar, the young stone thrower, was among those injured) and as many as 20 people were killed in the most intense week of protests.

For Basharat, just 14, Amarnath was his initiation. I asked him what he felt the first time he threw a stone. “Anger,” he says. But throwing wasn’t enough. “It has to hit its target.” The Amarnath controversy alone is not behind the resurgence of local protests against New Delhi — although most of the protest leaders are closely linked with separatists.

The more lasting effect has been a pervasive sense of cynicism. The Amarnath killings have been added to a long list of grievances against the Indian security forces, who pretty much run Srinagar on their own — they have wide powers to shoot, arrest and search without fear of repercussions — while Indian and Pakistani politicians and bureaucrats ponder their next moves.

The recent rape and murder of two young girls in the town of Shopian, allegedly by Indian soldiers, is the latest outrage. Bashir Dabla, a professor of sociology at Kashmir University who has studied the social impact of the 20-year conflict, says that young people feel abandoned as the issue drags on:

“This has given the impression among Kashmiri youth that both these countries are just following their own interests.” That sentiment extends well beyond the young and disaffected. Meraj Gulzar, 36, is the owner of a small information-technology-services firm, one of about 40 companies employing 2,000 people in Srinagar’s tiny IT industry.

Gulzar wants to bring Srinagar a piece of the economic boom that has transformed so many other Indian cities. “We would like to be as successful as Bangalore, Pune or Delhi,” he says. Kashmir has a big advantage — a large population of well-educated but unemployed college graduates whose salaries are far below those in India’s established IT hubs.

But the state government and the army are virtually Gulzar’s only clients; multinational companies are reluctant to outsource work to Kashmir. “Unless and until there is a political solution,” he says, “it won’t happen.” There’s also the psychological impact of living under constant stress, worrying about whether family members will be stopped by security forces. For a visitor to Kashmir, the number of checkpoints and bunkers, all manned by soldiers carrying AK-47s and sometimes just feet apart, is hard to ignore.

But more unsettling are the curfews, called during major protests, elections or any time authorities see fit. They are unpredictable, and breaking curfew can mean arrest. So Srinagar tends to empty out after dark; some shopkeepers who used to keep late hours have simply given up, pulling down shutters before 8 p.m. Talking the Talk The terms of any likely deal between India and Pakistan are widely known. Earlier negotiations, including so-called “back channel” talks between unofficial representatives of India’s Singh and Pakistan’s former President, Musharraf, had moved the two countries toward soft borders, free trade and some kind of joint governance of Kashmir.

“Nothing more needs to be done,” says Sardar Qayyum Khan, former PM of Pakistani Kashmir. I heard repeatedly from Kashmiris that an end to the political uncertainty is more important than the details of any proposal. “Anything,” says Yasser Kazmi, founder of Myasa Network Solutions, one of Kashmir’s oldest IT firms. “Any solution that is acceptable to the people of Kashmir.” Reaching a solution will require overcoming 60 years of deeply entrenched positions held by India’s political and security establishment, for whom Kashmir has always been the defining foreign policy issue.

Ever since a 1948 U.N. resolution calling for a plebiscite on Kashmir’s future — a move categorically rejected by India — any concession is read as an affront to national pride. Pakistan, too, will have to move past decades of mistrust of its larger, better-armed neighbor. The Mumbai terror attacks proved that Pakistan has not let go of its longstanding policy of supporting jihadist groups to destabilize India.

Under months of intense international pressure, Pakistani authorities twice detained Hafiz Saeed, an LeT founder who now leads another banned organization, but released him on Oct. 12 citing lack of evidence. Several other suspected top LeT commanders were arrested last December, but none of them have so far been prosecuted.

“Without the progress on Mumbai, I don’t see very much being possible,” says Radha Kumar, director of the Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. While there has been no large-scale attack in Indian Kashmir since last November, Indian authorities say that the number of suspected militants trying to cross over from Pakistan has increased noticeably since last year.

In late March, Indian troops fought a five-day gun battle in the border district of Kupwara. Eight Indian commandos were killed, as well as 25 suspected LeT militants, but others are assumed to have entered successfully. By late summer, violent attacks returned to the heart of Srinagar after a respite of nearly three years. On Aug. 1, two men from the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) were shot, point blank, in the busy Regal Chowk area.

On Aug. 31, two more CRPF men were shot in Lal Chowk in an almost identical attack, this time coordinated with a grenade tossed at the Srinagar police chief’s office nearby. September witnessed a further escalation. A Sept. 12 car bomb killed four policemen outside the Srinagar Central Jail; 10 days later, security forces say they killed two suspected terrorists, including a commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin, a group based in Pakistani Kashmir.

On Sept. 28, CRPF killed three militants; a day later, three CRPF men were gunned down in a market in the town of Sopore. It could get worse. I ask the young men why they persist if, as they say, the police fire at the known stone throwers first. Most laugh off the question with bravado. But Baig is darkly serious. He will keep throwing stones, he says, “until death.” If there is another future for him in Kashmir, the time for it is running out.