“If Your Child Disappeared, What Would You Do?”

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances concludes its official visit to Pakistan
A delegation of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances concluded its ten-day official visit to Pakistan. The visit took place from 10 to 20 September 2012. The delegation of the Working Group was composed of Mr. Olivier de Frouville, Chair of the Working Group, and Mr. Osman El-Hajjé, member of the Working Group. During the visit, the Working Group received information on cases of enforced disappearances and studied the measures adopted by the State to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances, including issues related to truth, justice and reparation for the victims of enforced disappearances.

The Working Group wishes to thank the Government of Pakistan for extending an invitation to visit the country. It acknowledges the efforts undertaken before and during the visit to facilitate it, in particular for the assistance in terms of the security arrangements in cooperation with the United Nations. The Working Group also wishes to thank the United Nations Pakistan Country Team as well as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Secretariat, for their support.

During its ten-day mission, the Working Group visited Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. In Islamabad, the Working Group met the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Interior. The Working Group also met with the Advisor to Prime Minister on Human Rights, the Governor of Punjab, the Additional Secretary in charge of the United Nations and Economic Coordination at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Inspectors General of various provincial police agencies. In Lahore, the Working Group met with the Home Secretary, the Additional Home Secretary and the Secretary Prosecution of Punjab. In Karachi, the Working Group met the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary, and the Advocate General of Sindh. In Quetta, the Working Group held meetings with the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary of Baluchistan. In Peshawar, the Working Group met with the Home Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In Islamabad, the Working Group also held meetings with the Chief Justice and the judges of the High Court of Islamabad, the Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances and the parliamentarians of the Standing Committee on Human Rights.

Regretfully, some of the meetings that the Working Group had requested with a number of important actors both at the federal and provincial levels did not take place, notably with the Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the Minister of Defence, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Directorate for ISI, the Inspector-General of Frontier Corps in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces and the Chief Justices of the High Courts of Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar.

The Working Group held a number of meetings with representatives of all sectors of the civil society including NGOs, activists and lawyers. The Working Group also met a number of relatives of disappeared persons in all parts of the country.

The Working Group received allegations according to which some of the persons with whom we met had been threatened or intimidated. We call on the State to guarantee the safety of those who have met with us and protect them against any form of reprisals, threat or intimidation.

In addition, the Working Group met with representatives of the diplomatic community in Islamabad, as well as with Heads of various United Nations Agencies.

The invitation extended by the Government to us and other special procedures of the Human Rights Council is a testimony of its will to cooperate and take human rights issues seriously. The WGEID welcomes this opening and hopes that other special procedures mandate holders will be invited in the near future to visit Pakistan.

The Working Group also welcomes the ratification by Pakistan of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and of the Convention against Torture. It calls on the Government to ratify the Convention for the protection of all persons against enforced disappearances.

The Working Group undertakes its visits in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation and aims at formulating constructive recommendations.

Before stating our preliminary conclusions and recommendations, please note that we did not make any public statements before the press conference today. Any declaration quoted from one of the members of this Working Group has thus incorrectly been attributed to us.

I.  Mandate of the WGEID

The WGEID is tasked with two main mandates. The first mandate is to deal with cases of enforced disappearances. We receive allegations of cases of enforced disappearances and we transmit those cases to the States, asking them to take all necessary measures to find the fate or the whereabouts of the concerned person. This is done in a “humanitarian spirit”, that is to say that once the person is found, the case is considered clarified. We do not look for individual or State responsibilities. But we always remind the State of its obligations to investigate the case, punish the perpetrators and provide integral reparations to the victims.

The other mandate entrusted to the WGEID is related to the Declaration for the protection of all persons against enforced disappearances, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1992 (thereafter ‘the Declaration’). The WGEID promotes the implementation of the standards of the Declaration and encourages States to implement those standards at the national level. In this respect, we receive general allegations concerning violations of the Declaration that are transmitted to the State, with the request to explain their position and describe the steps they have undertaken in relation to those allegations.

There have been a lot of discussions during the visit about the mandate of this Working Group, in particular on the issue of whether this was a “fact-finding” mission. This expression can have different meanings. If one means by that a body which is tasked with collecting evidence, with the view to initiate criminal proceedings, this is not the role of the WGEID, as the WGEID has always interpreted its mandate, as far as individual cases are concerned, as “humanitarian”. Within this mandate of dealing with cases of enforced disappearances, the WGEID always receives information about alleged individual cases of enforced disappearances, as it did during this mission. Furthermore, the WGEID receives information with respect to its second mandate, which is related to the implementation of the standards of the Declaration by States.

II. General context

Pakistan has been on the road to democracy since its independence. As in all countries worldwide, this road has been difficult and met with many obstacles. Pakistan has endured several periods of military dictatorship throughout its history, which resulted at times in massive violations of human rights. The perceptions of different groups in the society of not being treated on an equal footing with others created frustrations and demands which were often responded to through violent means and further inequalities. Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan provides that “All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law” and this principle should lead all policies of the State.

Since 2008, there has been a new phase of parliamentarian democracy, bringing much hope to the people of this country. Pakistan’s political and institutional life is characterized by a multi-party system, a strong independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society and a lively press, discussing all kinds of matters, including the problem of enforced disappearances.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is facing important security challenges. There is a widespread perception, among the population, that their security is not sufficiently ensured.

The State has to deal with multiple threats, coming from terrorist movements or violent groups. The conflicts taking place in neighbouring countries or territories is an additional factor of insecurity. The Working Group acknowledges these threats and the need for the State to ensure the right to life of their citizens. However, it also underlines that actions taken to deal with security threats, and in particular with terrorism, must at all times respect nationally and internationally recognized human rights. Human rights violations in the name of the fight against terrorism does not achieve its aim but can only, on the contrary, lead to further violations.

III. The phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Pakistan

1. Cases pending before the WGEID

A number of cases of enforced disappearances filed with the WGEID have allegedly occurred in 1985 and in the beginning of the 1990s, in the north-west region, in relation to the conflicts taking place in Afghanistan. A number of cases were also reported to the WGEID to have taken place in the 1990s, in relation to the military operations carried out in Karachi and its aftermaths (Sindh province). At the beginning of the 2000s, the Working Group started receiving cases of persons allegedly abducted in the context of the so-called “war on terror” and sometimes said to have been transferred to other State’s territories or detention centres. Those cases mostly concerned the provinces of Punjab and KPK, between 2003 and 2006. Starting from 2005-2006, a number of cases were received from Sindh and Baluchistan. In 2011, as noted in its annual report, the Working Group transmitted five new cases to the Government, including two cases through its urgent action procedure. The 2011 annual report of the WGEID also indicates the latest public information on the reported 107 cases concerning Pakistan, pending before the WGEID.

2. Allegations received during the mission

According to various official and unofficial sources met during the visit, it is in the post 9/11 period that the question of “missing persons” began to raise real attention at the national level. There is acknowledgement that enforced disappearances have occurred and still occur in the country. Cases continue to be reported to the national authorities. But there are controversies both on the figures and on the nature of the practice of enforced disappearances.

The figures communicated to us range from less than a hundred to thousands. In Baluchistan alone, some sources allege that more than 14,000 persons are still missing, while the provincial government only recognizes less than a hundred. To date, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances still has more than 500 cases in its docket concerning the whole country. The number of officially registered allegations, although may not be reflective of the reality of the situation, is itself an indication of the existence of the phenomenon.

As far as the nature of the practice is concerned, the authorities at the federal and provincial levels with whom we met often declared that most of the “missing persons” were in fact not victims of enforced disappearances. According to those authorities, some of those persons had been under criminal charges and had chosen to go in hiding, while some others have fled to another country to join illegal armed groups. Others, according to the same authorities, have been the victims of abductions by non state actors for various reasons. Cases of enforced disappearances by State actors, in this context, would be the result of misconducts and ultra vires behaviour by some agents of the State.

However, nongovernmental sources allege that there is a pattern of enforced disappearances in Pakistan, imputable to law enforcement agencies in conjunction with intelligence agencies.

During our visit families told us their stories and each story, while being different, revealed the same pattern. The abduction, often taking place in front of witnesses, is reported to be perpetrated by law enforcement agencies, like the police or the frontier corps, jointly with members of intelligence agencies in civilian clothing. When asked whether they had filed a complaint for illegal arrest, families generally say they tried to file a first information report (FIR) with the police, but were turned down or discouraged to do so. Most of them finally filed their cases with the provincial High Court or the Supreme Court of Pakistan, so that the Court would issue an order to the police to initiate an investigation. In a large number of cases, families reportedly received threats or were intimidated to try to prevent them to file such cases. Some families were promised that if they would not file a case, their loved ones would be released, which did not happen.

Some other families were threatened that if they did file a case, their loved ones will be harmed, or another member of their family would also be abducted. According to the families we have heard, witnesses who were called to testify before the courts were threatened and in some cases victimized. In a few cases, the lawyers defending the families were reportedly themselves victims of enforced disappearances.

Some of the abducted persons were released while others were never seen again by their relatives. A number of those who have returned have testified to being held in unofficial places of detention. Many of those who came back were allegedly threatened not to speak about their period of disappearance. Some however have chosen to take high risks to give statements before courts or before the Commission of Inquiry. In Baluchistan, since 2010, a number of persons whose whereabouts were previously unknown were found dead, generally with signs of torture and sometimes decomposed to the point that their relatives were unable to identify them. Sometimes those bodies were found far from the place where they had been abducted, for some in deserted areas. The practice of “delivering” dead bodies has allegedly accelerated in the years 2011 and 2012. Most of the families we have met, telling their stories, felt abandoned and hopeless.

They implored that if their loved ones were being accused of any crime, he or she should be presented before a judge and, if recognized guilty, be convicted.

It is the responsibility and duty of the State to investigate thoroughly these serious allegations. The State of Pakistan, acknowledging the existence of the problem of enforced disappearances, has already taken positive steps to try to address this issue. The WGEID welcomes the declared will of the Government to tackle this issue and look at the current shortcomings in order to find the truth about the disappeared and finally eradicate the crime of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. Nevertheless, serious challenges remain when it comes to the prevention and the eradication of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. The WGEID emphasizes that, under article 3 of the Declaration, the State must take effective measures to prevent and terminate acts of enforced disappearance in any territory under its jurisdiction.

The WGEID also underscores that in order to prevent any act of enforced disappearances, it is of outmost importance that, as enshrined in the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, any person deprived of liberty shall be held in an officially recognized place of detention and be brought promptly before a judicial authority (art. 10(1)).

IV. Efforts made by the State of Pakistan to deal with the problem of enforced disappearances

The Working Group welcomes the role played by the judiciary to shed light on the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Pakistan and to trace missing persons. In 2007, the Supreme Court filed a number of petitions presented by individuals or NGOs. It was followed by provincial high courts which also began to take up cases under their jurisdiction to protect human rights. In a number of cases, the Supreme Court also took suo motuactions, showing its determinate will to tackle the problem. After the independence of the judiciary was reinstated in 2009, the courts continued to play a major role in the search for the disappeared persons and a number of persons resurfaced after having been kept in unlawful custody for several months, sometimes for years. The WGEID was told that the courts were also instrumental in facilitating the filing of FIR by families in relation to the abduction of their relatives, when they had previously been turned down by the local police.

Two special bodies were set up successively on the issue of enforced disappearances. In April 2010, the Interior Ministry set up a committee to investigate the fate of the disappeared persons. In March 2011, the Supreme Court decided to institute a specific body to deal with cases of enforced disappearances, initially for six months, but its mandate was then extended for three years. The two-member Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances is tasked with following up on the work done by the Interior Ministry’s Committee and to deal with cases already received by the Supreme Court, as well as with receiving new cases. The Commission can hear the families and the witnesses, in general in the presence of the representatives of most of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The Commission has held hearings in different parts of the country. It can order the setting up of a “Joint Investigation Team” (JIT) at the provincial level, in charge of investigating the matter. It can also summon any potential perpetrator. The JIT must report to the Commission on the result of the investigation.

In May 2012, the Statute of  the National Commission on Human Rights as a national human rights institution (NHRI) has been adopted by the Parliament. The authorities have told the WGEID that the Commission will, among other mandates, have the responsibility to deal with the issue of enforced disappearances, including the exercise of quasi-judicial powers.

There have been commitments from several official authorities to “solve” the problem of the “missing persons” in Pakistan. In particular, as far as Baluchistan is concerned, the Baluchistan “package” adopted by the new government included a provision according to which all persons being in custody should be either released or brought before a court.

V. Challenges faced by the State of Pakistan in resolving the issue of enforced disappearances

1. The judicial inquiries

Efforts made by the courts proved to be efficient in a number of cases, where the persons could effectively be traced and found, and could finally return to their family. However, in the greatest number of cases, the investigations initiated under the orders of the courts remained inconclusive.

Reportedly, the courts have avoided using compelling methods to ensure the cooperation of law enforcement and intelligence agencies whose agents were accused of having perpetrated an enforced disappearance. Some families informed the WGEID that, although they had brought witnesses before the court to substantiate their claims, the court before which the case was filed satisfied itself with the oral declaration by the representative of the said agency, denying the custody of the person. Others told the WGEID that the court failed to use its power to summon an agent suspected of having participated in an enforced disappearance.

The main complaint was that the courts’ proceedings failed to result in prosecutions of the named perpetrators, even when evidence was, according to their lawyers, sufficient to do so.

2. The Commission of inquiry

The same criticism was also made of the Commission of Inquiry, which is said to have limited authority on the various law enforcement or intelligence agencies, allegedly involved in the enforced disappearances reported to the Commission. As in the case of courts, the WGEID received reports that the Commission satisfied itself with the denial of the accused agency that it had the concerned person in custody.

The Commission informed the WGEID that should its orders not be complied with, it had the power to initiate criminal proceedings against the potential perpetrators. But the WGEID has received no report of such criminal proceedings.

Some families also reported to the WGEID that the Commission, after having reviewed a case, gave oral assurances to the family that their loved ones would soon return back home, which in fact never happened. They were not aware of whether or not a formal order had been delivered to the authority allegedly having the disappeared person in its custody.

The families we met had different feelings about the fact that the hearings took place in the presence of representatives of different agencies, including those being accused of having abducted their loved ones: some said they had no fear to confront them, whereas others felt intimidated. The Commission has told the Working Group that families were given the choice to be heard alone with the two members of the Commission, if they preferred to do so. The Working Group is of the opinion that this should be the rule, rather than the exception.

If families are willing to confront and tell their stories in front of the agencies, they should be given the possibility to do so. But generally, the families should be heard by the two members of the Commission in a confidential meeting.

There is no doubt that the courts and the Commission are facing enormous difficulties in their task related to cases of enforced disappearances. The fact that they are being criticized by some families is reflective of the frustration, anguish and fear endured by these families. It is also a sign that those institutions ought to be further strengthened. The WGEID is in particular aware of the limits imposed on a two-member Commission, notably with respect to the limited capacities in terms of staffing.

3. Impunity

As the High Commissioner for Human Rights said when recently visiting the country “Impunity is dangerously corrosive to the rule of law in Pakistan.” Listening to authorities and to victims, we could feel that impunity was a concern for the whole society. Some officials conveyed their concerns that criminals, terrorists or militants from armed groups enjoyed a great impunity because, even when investigations were initiated against them, they managed to get out of them, by using threats against the police, the judges or witnesses. There were hints that this might explain why some law enforcement or intelligence agents might resort to illegal practices such as enforced disappearances.

The WGEID is aware of the difficulties encountered by law enforcement officials to bring criminals to justice and acknowledge the security challenges faced by Pakistan in different areas. However, it underscores that these challenges cannot be accepted as a justification to commit such a heinous crime as enforced disappearances. We draw attention, in this respect, to Article 7 of the Declaration which provides that: “No circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked to justify enforced disappearances.”

Furthermore, according to the information received by the WGEID, the practice of enforced disappearances was also a tool to target political or human rights activists, who are legitimately exercising their freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.

Victims complained that, even when clearly identified by witnesses, the perpetrators were not only never convicted, but even never submitted to any effective investigation. The WGEID, despite its reiterated requests, has received no information related to convictions of state agents in relation to acts of enforced disappearances.

We were told by government officials that families of disappeared persons were not so keen to file complaints against named perpetrators and that in the absence of any complaint, no prosecution could be initiated. However, the WGEID would like to recall article 13(1) of the Declaration which provides that whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that an enforced disappearance has been committed, the State shall promptly refer the matter to a competent and independent State authority for investigation, even if there has been no formal complaint. No measure shall be taken to curtail or impede the investigation.

It was also reported to the WGEID that some victims and witnesses received serious threats when reporting their cases to the police, the courts or the Commission of Inquiry. The WGEID was pleased to hear from official authorities of the Sindh and Baluchistan, but also at the federal level, that laws and regulations relating to the protection of victims and witnesses were in the process of being adopted. As provided in article 13(3) of the Declaration, “steps shall be taken to ensure that all involved in the investigation, including the complainant, counsel, witnesses and those conducting the investigation, are protected against ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisal.” A strong and comprehensive program for the protection of victims and witnesses should be set up, with a special attention to women as relatives of disappeared persons.

The WGEID notes that the Prime Minister promised to the High Commissioner, during her visit, that there would be a “zero tolerance” policy for such abuses, and hopes that this policy will be implemented with urgency.

Investigation against, and punishment of perpetrators, should be in accordance with the law, and with all the guarantees of a fair trial.

Perpetrators should be punished with appropriate penalties, with the clear exclusion of the death penalty. Enforced disappearances can also be punished on the basis of other crimes, as defined in the Criminal Code of Pakistan, such as the offence of “kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person”. However, it is recommended the creation of a new and autonomous crime of enforced disappearances, following the definition given in the 2006 Convention or the protection of all persons against enforced disappearances, and with the legal consequences flowing from this qualification (see the WGEID’s study on the best practices on enforced disappearances in domestic criminal legislation, doc. HRC/16/48/Add.3).

The WGEID also notes that, in Pakistan, military personnel cannot be submitted to trial before civil courts. This might constitute a factor of impunity for human rights violations and should be changed. Article 16 §§ 1 and 2 of the Declaration states that persons alleged to have committed an enforced disappearance shall be suspended from any official duties during the investigation and shall be tried only by the competent ordinary courts, and not by other special tribunal, in particular military courts.

4. Supervision and training of law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies

During its visit, the WGEID repeatedly received allegations according to which there was a lack of supervision and accountability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to the Government.

Accountability and full oversight of law enforcement and intelligence agencies is all the more essential in a situation where the State has to face multiple threats, like terrorism or political violence. In these circumstances, there is a risk that intelligence agencies would acquire new powers to interrogate, arrest and detain individuals, to the detriment of the law enforcement agencies. This shift can ultimately endanger the rule of law, as the collection of intelligence and collection of evidence about criminal acts becomes more and more blurred.

Furthermore, agents in charge of intelligence may be tempted to abuse the usually legitimate secrecy of intelligence operations and commit violations of human rights under the cover of this secrecy.

For these reasons, it is of major importance that the executive effectively supervise and direct the actions of the intelligence agencies. The Parliament has also a role to play in this regard, as it is to hold the executive branch and its agents accountable to the general public.

Appropriate training should also be given to members of law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the field of human rights, with particular focus on enforced disappearances. It should be made clear to all, in particular, that, as stated in article 6(1) of the Declaration that: “No order or instruction of any public authority, civilian, military or other, may be invoked to justify an enforced disappearance. Any person receiving such an order or instruction shall have the right and duty not to obey it.”

5. Assistance to the families and reparation

Victims of enforced disappearances are not only those who have been disappeared, but also their families. Relatives are enduring pain and anguish, as a consequence of the continuous uncertainty about the fate or the whereabouts of their loved ones. In the immense majority of cases, the disappeared persons are men and it is the women who are left alone. The gendered dimension of the phenomenon of enforced disappearances should be duly taken into consideration.

Family members are also prevented from exercising their rights and obligations due to the legal uncertainty created by the absence of the disappeared person. This uncertainty has many legal consequences, among others on the status of marriage, guardianship of under age children, right to social allowances of members of the families and management of property of the disappeared person. When asked, officials told us that there were no specific legal institutions designed to deal with these complex issues. To address this issue, the State of Pakistan should enable the issuance of a “declaration of absence by reason of enforced disappearance.”

During some meetings with officials, we heard that relatives of the disappeared are often taken care of by the extended family and that, in any case, they can file a civil claim in court in order to obtain compensation. But the issue of “compensation” should be clearly distinguished from the aid that should be provided to the families to cope with the dire consequences of the absence of the main breadwinner.

The WGEID recommends the establishment of mechanisms providing for social allowances or appropriate social and medical measures for relatives of disappeared persons in relation to the physical, mental and economic consequences of the absence of the disappeared. In this respect, we welcome the information provided by the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Human Rights that there is an existing fund dedicated to women which could be used for this purpose.

In no case should the acceptance of financial support for members of the families be considered as a waiver of the right to integral reparation for the damage caused by the crime of enforced disappearances, in accordance with article 19 of the Declaration.

In addition to the punishment of the perpetrators and the right to monetary compensation, the right to obtain reparation for acts of enforced disappearance under article 19 of the Declaration also includes the means for as complete rehabilitation as possible. This obligation refers to medical and psychological care and rehabilitation for any form of physical or mental damage as well as to legal and social rehabilitation, guarantees of non-repetition, restoration of personal liberty, family life, citizenship, employment or property, return to one’s place of residence and similar forms of restitution, satisfaction and reparation which may remove the consequences of the enforced disappearance.

6. Recommendations

The WGEID would like now to share a number of preliminary recommendations to the State of Pakistan. It is to be noted that these recommendations – as well as the conclusions we have just exposed – are not exhaustive and will be complemented in the final report, which will be presented before the Human Rights Council at one of its sessions in 2013:

- As a preventive measure against enforced disappearance, any person deprived of liberty shall be held in an officially recognized place of detention and be brought promptly before a judicial authority.

- The Commission of Inquiry should be reinforced. Its membership should be extended, so as to allow parallel hearings. Its staff and resources should be strengthened and the Commission should be given its own premises.

- The courts and the Commission of Inquiry should use all powers they have to ensure compliance with their orders, including the request of sworn affidavits and writs of contempt of courts.

- As a rule, the families should be heard in confidential meetings before the Commission of Inquiry, without the presence of representatives of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

- A new and autonomous crime of enforced disappearances should be included in the Criminal Code, following the definition given in the 2006 Convention or the protection of all persons against enforced disappearances, and with all the legal consequences flowing from this qualification.

- Investigation against and punishment of perpetrators should be in accordance with the law, and with all the guarantees of a fair trial. Perpetrators should be punished with appropriate penalties, with the clear exclusion of the death penalty.

- Investigations should be initiated whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that an enforced disappearance has been committed, even if there has been no formal complaint.

- Measures should be taken to ensure that, in case of human rights violations, suspected perpetrators, including army personnel, are suspended from any official duties during the investigation and are tried only by competent ordinary courts, and not by other special tribunal, in particular military courts.

- Clear rules and dedicated institutions should be created in order to ensure the oversight and the accountability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

- Appropriate training should be given to members of law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the field of human rights, with particular focus on enforced disappearances.

- A comprehensive program for the protection of victims and witnesses should be set up, with a special attention to women as relatives of disappeared persons.

- The State has to guarantee the safety of those who have met with the WGEID during this visit and to protect them against any form of reprisals, threats or intimidation.

- A system of declaration of absence as a result of enforced disappearance should be issued in order to address the legal uncertainties created by the absence of the disappeared person.

- Financial aid should be provided to the relatives of the disappeared persons, in particular women and children, in order to help to cope with the difficulties generated by the absence of the disappeared person.

- A program of integral reparation should be set up for all victims of enforced disappearances, including not only compensation but also full rehabilitation, satisfaction, including restoration of dignity and reputation, and guarantees of non-repetition.

- Ratify the Convention for the protection of all persons against enforced disappearances, and recognize the competence of the Committee to consider individual and inter-state complaints under article 31 and 32.

- If requested by the Government of Pakistan, the United Nations and other international organizations should stand ready to provide technical assistance and consultative services, so as to implement the Working Group’s recommendations.

To conclude, a mother of a disappeared person has asked us to convey a message to all persons in charge of public affairs in Pakistan. She asked: “If your child disappeared, what would you do?”

This question summarizes the ordeal families are going through. As far as the WGEID is concerned, our only – but unsatisfactory response – to such a torturing pain is to recall that the relatives of the disappeared persons have the right to the truth, the right to justice and the right to reparation, and it is the duty of the State of Pakistan to take all necessary measures to make those rights effective.

Some Suggestions for the Next Pakistan Elections

The next general elections — Some pre-requisites

The primary objective of a fair and free democratic election has to be the creation of truly representative institutions at all levels, federal, provincial and local government levels – a truly representative and sovereign parliament, capable of giving expression to the genuine aspirations of each and every segment and section of the citizens of Pakistan in the domains of legislation, policy making and democratic governance.

Pakistan being a multinational federal state, the parliament ought to be so constituted as to ensure fair and adequate representation to the people of all the federating units, including especially the marginalized and disadvantaged sections and groups – women, workers, peasants and those labeled as “minorities or non-Muslims”. Secondly, considering the glaring imbalances in social, economic and political power existing along class, community, gender, religious and ethnic lines, electoral mechanism must also aim at correcting such imbalances, which have been the root cause of the distrust and disharmony at various levels of the national polity.

The real issue facing Pakistan continues to be the need to ensure the top-to-bottom democratisation of both the state and the society. Unfortunately, the politically and economically dominant elites, who happen to be the beneficiaries of the prevailing lop-sided political, social and economic structures and systems, believe that holding elections by the state and casting votes by the people is all that is required to achieve this objective. The vast majority of the people of Pakistan, however, are looking forward to seeing the next elections usher in an era of the emergence and consolidation of truly representative institutions and responsible and accountable governments, committed to protecting their fundamental social, political, economic and cultural rights as equal citizens without any discrimination whatsoever..

The national scene and special significance of next election

On the one hand, the steadily deepening crisis in Balochistan calls for a radical change in attitudes and priorities on the part of our ruling classes. On the other, the entire Pakistani society seems to be passing through a self-destroying process of social decay – rampant corruption at all levels, fast-growing number of target killings, kidnappings for ransom, crimes against women and children, an utter contempt for the basic social values that regulate a modern civilised society. In such a situation, the coming election assumes extraordinary importance. The parliament and provincial assemblies that will emerge out of the next elections must reflect a serious and firm national commitment to address the above issues. In order to ensure this to happen, the political parties, who will participate in the coming elections, ought to give top place in their election manifestos to these issues and pledge before the nation that they will fulfill their commitments in this regard after they get elected, unlike in the past when pre-election promises were invariably left abandoned outside the Assembly buildings, to wait for the next elections to happen!

Distribution of Population and Representation in Parliament:
Some glaring Facts and Imperatives

Given the vast differences between the federating units, in terms of size, population, level of literacy and economic development and respective share in the overall political and economic power, it is patently erroneous to consider the size of population alone as the basis for determining the percentage of seats allocated to each federating unit. In this context, one should not overlook certain peculiar features of the distribution of population across the country.

Take for instance, two provinces – Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Their populations in their entirety do not reside within their geographical boundaries. For example, according to the 1981 census, Punjabis and Pakhtuns formed 7 and 4 percent respectively of the population of Sindh. The 1998 census notes that in Karach, which is an integral part of Sindh, Punjabis and Pakhtuns constituted 13.94% and 11.42% respectively, of the population of the metropolis. This fact is clearly reflected in the election of a couple of Punjabi and Pakhtun representatives to the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly.

Census figures only reflect those migrants who have for the time being or permanently decided to enlist as residents of Sindh. There is likely to be an equal or even larger number of those who do not enlist but will continue to migrate and / or reside in these provinces. This population shift cannot be ignored.

Table 01. Distribution of population and seats by provinces

Province	Population	% of total	General	Women	Total	% of total
Punjab	73621290	55.63	148	35	183	53.40
K. Pakht	17735912	13.38	35	8	43	12.40
FATA	3176331	2.42	12	0	12	3.60
Sindh	30439893	22.98	61	14	75	22.30
Baloch	6565885	4.98	14	3	17	5.00
Islamabad	805235	0.61	2	0	2	0.60
Non-Muslims			10		10	2.70
Total	132344546	100	282	60	342	100

As shown in the Table, according to the last (1998) census, Punjab has 55.63% of Pakistan’s population and has been allotted 53.4% of total seats in the National Assembly (183 out of 342). Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with 13.38% population, has 12.4% (43 out of 342) seats. FATA, an inexplicable political and administrative anomaly, has 2.42% of population but has 3.6% (12 out of 342) seats. Thus, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA together have 15.8% population and 16% (55 out of 342) seats. Sindh, with 22.98 % population and hosting around 15% of it hailing from Punjab and Khyber Pakahtunkhwa, has 22.3% (75 out of 342) seats. Whereas Balochistan, with 4.98% population but comprising 45 percent of Pakistan’s land mass, has only 5% (17 of 342) seats!

Punjab’s special role vis a vis Balochistan’s peculiar status

The ‘simple’ majority of Punjab in the National Assembly has been one of the ‘irritants’ fomenting discontent in the smaller federating units, especially Balochistan.

It would be pertinent at this point to recall two examples from our history, one from pre-partition and the other from post-partition period. In the united Punjab, the Muslims, despite constituting 55% of the population, voluntarily settled for 45% share of seats in the legislature, in the interest of inter communal harmony in the province. The other example, a patently negative one, was the imposition of the so-called Parity Formula (1956-70) by which the majority status of East Pakistan was forcibly subverted and brought at par with West Pakistan’s. It is noteworthy, however, that the former Punjab province (after its merger into One Unit of West Pakistan) had agreed to accept 40 percent of the total seats in the then West Pakistan Assembly.

In the united Punjab, it was done to ensure inter communal harmony. In the framework of West Pakistan, it was done for the sake of ‘strengthening’ One Unit. If Punjab today once again demonstrates the same large-heartedness as it did twice in the past and agrees to 48% of the total seats instead of its population-based entitlement of 53.4%, it will amount to making a significant contribution to strengthening inter- provincial harmony and national unity. The 5.4% seats thus made available, should be allotted to Balochistan, raising its total from 5% to10.4% (i.e. raising its seats from 17 to 36). Consequently, the number of National Assembly and Provincial Assembly constituencies in the province will need to be correspondingly increased. Such a gesture will help to provide the people of Baluchistan a fairly balanced representation in the National Assembly and a sense of participation in Pakistan’s parliamentary democratic process. Eventually, it will help Pakistan to emerge as a vibrant, progressive, parliamentary democratic state.

A suggestion for:
** Increase in the number of seats in National Assembly
and Provincial Assemblies;

** Rationalisation of budgetary provisions for MNAs and MPAs

Ensuring full, inclusive representation of the entire people of the country in the elected bodies is the prime objective of a free and fair democratic election. Presently, the strength of the National Assembly (342 seats) is too small to meet this requirement. It will be in the fitness of things if the number of seats in the National Assembly is raised to 500 and of the Provincial Assemblies in the same proportion, in order to ensure fair and equitable representation to the people of all the federating units on the one hand and all the marginalized and deprived sections of society – labour-peasants, women, non-Muslims etc on the other.

By rationalizing the budgetary provisions for MNAs and MPAs covering their travel, accommodation and other facilities, sufficient funds can be generated to take care of the legitimate needs of the increased number of MNAs and MPAs. The best way to achieve this objective is to apply certain restrictions on the free of charge facilities availed by MNAs and MPAs, who possess more than sufficient means to fend for themselves. This should apply to members, whose authenticated incomes exceed the minimum taxable annual income or 5 times the national minimum wages in vogue. Such members should be content with a reasonable allowance to compensate for their attendance in Assembly sessions. For instance, from Multan, Lahore and Peshawar, MNAs can travel to Islamabad by road instead of by air and those owning their own apartments/bungalows in Islamabad-Rawalpindi would surely not need accommodation in parliament lodges and MNA hostels. Same reasoning can apply to MPAs travelling to their respective provincial capitals and to their accommodation during assembly sessions.

Addressing the Special concerns of Sindhis

To make amends for the demographic disorientation of Sindh caused by the incessant inflow of migrants from outside, which threatens to numerically over-run the Sindhi population, apart from effective measures by the government to regulate/control/restrict it, 55 percent of the seats from Sindh in the National Assembly and a similar percentage of seats in the Sindh Provincial Assembly shall remain permanently allocated to indigenous Sindhis, with iron-tight constitutional guarantees against its violation. .

Some essential steps to promote participatory democracy and federalism

(1). Proportional Representation and Party List system

The system of Proportional Representation has its roots in the recognition of the fact that power and wealth in most societies are always unevenly distributed and this imbalance prevents a vast section of the society from being represented in the parliament and other elected bodies, thus negating the principle of democratic representation and participatory governance. It is thus meant to institutionally regulate and eventually moderate the role of power and wealth in the electoral process, through direct participation of the less privileged and marginalised sections of society in the process of legislation and policy making.

In a country like Pakistan, if one wants to correct the existing state of imbalances and anomalies, the entire election should be held on the basis of proportional representation. It may not be possible to adopt this system in toto for the coming election, which is fast approaching. To pave the way for such healthy changes in the system of elections in the future, the following steps are suggested:

•  Elections for 50% of the seats shall be constituency-based, which would naturally mean representation of the elite class who alone could afford to contest the constituency-based seats.
•  In order to facilitate the participation of persons with limited or no means – the marginalized sections of society – the election to the remaining 50% seats shall be conducted on the basis of Proportional Representation/Party List.
•  The formula of 33% labour-peasants and 33% women in all the elections and elected bodies shall be ensured.
•  Alternately, or till necessary constitutional, legal and administrative mechanisms are put in place, the political parties committed to a democratic political order, shall voluntarily ensure that their nominated candidates shall comprise 33% labour-peasants and 33% women.

(2). Participatory Democracy at grass roots level

A genuine federal democratic system is incomplete without the establishment of a truly democratic local government system, empowered to address people’s problems at the local ‘grass roots’ level, free from bureaucratic meddling and red-tape. The anomaly in Pakistan has been that the local government system has been misused by dictatorial rulers to serve their vested interest at the cost of its defined task of serving the people at the lowest tier of the social structure. On the other hand, the elected political governments have displayed a studied apathy for the institution itself, as they apparently regarded it as an encroachment on the freedom of action of the elected members of the Provincial Assembly. The bureaucracy has its own axe to grind in not allowing a genuine representative local government system to function freely, as that would erode their dominant status in the overall administrative system of the province. It is, therefore, imperative to give the Local Government system its due place in the democratic polity and provide it iron-clad constitutional protection, to prevent its blatant misuse by dictatorial regimes and calculated disuse by elected political governments.

Seats of Non-Muslims

Non-Muslims have been raising their genuine grievance that while the total number of seats in National and Provincial Assemblies have been increased from time to time, automatically raising the number of seats of Muslims, the number of seats allocated to non-Muslims has remained static at 10. This anomaly needs to be rectified and the seats for non-Muslims should be increased in all representative bodies in the same proportion as the seats of the majority community have been increased.

Karamat Ali and B.M.Kutty
Karachi, 26 September 2012
“Ali Karamat” <karamatorama@gmail.com>

 

Is the ISI Behind Hina Rabbani Khar & Bilawal Zardari Scandal?

By Dean Nelson

South Asia Editor

The Daily Telegraph/ 27 Sep 2012

Claims of an affair between Hina Rabbani Khar, the 34-year-old glamorous foreign minister, and the 24-year-old scion of the country’s most powerful dynasty have fuelled feverish speculation and outrage in Pakistan since they were reported in a Bangladeshi tabloid earlier this week.

According to Blitz Weekly, the married foreign minister, who has two young children with her millionaire husband, and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the PPP co-chairman, want to marry and have been regularly talking on the telephone and sending one another cards.

The tabloid claimed President Zardari is firmly opposed to their alleged relationship and had sought details of their mobile telephone conversations to establish the facts.

As per Bangladeshi tabloid, The Blitz, Hina’s husband Firoze Gulzar had called up his wife, who is New York for the UN summit with Pakistan President Zardari, to seek clarification on the “scandal” being tossed around by the media. Tabloid says Hina and Bilawal appear to be on a collision course with their families over their desire to turn their love affair into marriage. The tabloid claims that Hina told her husband to send the link of the news story that he was referring to and Gulzar subsequently sent the same to his wife. When he called her up again, Hina reportedly asked him: “where did you get all of this rubbish stuff?” and cut the line.

However, Gulzar is said to have known about the secret relationship between his wife and Bilawal for a while now. He got suspicious when he realized that his wife was brining souvenirs for Bilawal on each of her foreign tours.

He also saw her spend long hours chatting on the internet with Bilawal. When he asked Hina about what was that made her spend long hours on the internet with Bilawal, his wife reportedly tried to convince him that she was discussing political and diplomatic issues with the president of PPP with the aim to enrich his knowledge.

The Blitz, which was the first to report the story, claims that Feorze was not convinced and tried to argue with Hina, to which she turned furious and warned him that she would leave him if he doesn’t change his attitude.

The seeds of the distrust between Hina and Gulzar were sown after Hina caught him having extra-marital affair with a female staffer in one of his business ventures, The Blitz claimed, adding that Hina was terribly shocked at the betrayal of her husband and had attempted to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills.

Hina also crossed swords with Bilawal’s father Zardari after he came to know about the contents of the romantic greetings card sent by his foreign minister to his son.

The Blitz says that the President immediately called Hina and expressed anger for her extra-marital affairs with his ‘minor son’, but Hina was unperturbed and replied in a harsh tone that Zardari was being mean and asked him to refrain from interfering in her personal affairs”.

When Bilawal came to know about his father’s rudeness towards his lady love, he threatened to leave the post of the chairman of PPP and leave the country by the end of the year. Hina would also resign by then and marry Bilawal, the report added.

The paper cited “western intelligence agencies” as the source of details of messages the ‘couple’ had sent each other.

Hina Rabbani Khar and her husband have dismissed the claims as “reprehensible” and “trash”, but they have been reported widely in Pakistan where they spawned conspiracy theories among Islamabad’s political classes.

Senior PPP figures on September 27 said they believed the claims were part of a plot by the country’s feared ISI agency to damage Rabbani Khar’s reputation because it blames her for her part in facilitating a UN investigation into thousands of missing people detained by the security forces.

One PPP official said that the ISI expects the United Nations’ Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances to recommend senior army and intelligence officials be charged for their role and blame Rabbani Khar for allowing the delegation into the country.

“They are not happy with her,” the official said. “The UN mission received a cold reception but Hina was called in by the president to meet him and the army chief. She crossed some red line.”

The government has not officially commented on the allegations.

Ms Rabbani Khar, the daughter of a powerful Punjab landowner, has been the subject of rumours concerning her private life since she first became a minister in General Musharraf’s government in 2004.

There was speculation then that she might marry the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz, but instead she married businessman Firoze Gulzar. She later stood as a PPP candidate in the 2008 elections and was appointed as finance minister in the new PPP-led government. She won many admirers for her stylish clothes and designer bags during her visit to India in 2011 where the two countries made significant progress in improving their relationship.

Yellow Journalism & An Immoral and Unethical Internet Attack on Khar

By William Gomes

Yellow journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury has recently propagated falsehood against Hina Rabbani Khar. He claims that Weekly Blitz is a tabloid newspaper published in Bangladesh every Wednesday but in reality it is not available in the market.

Yellow journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury has cheated many people among them two women who came in public and flashed his criminal face.

Brenda West wrote “Choudhury operates a shady website called Jethro Conglomerate, for which a scam alert has been posted by an organization that regulates the business dealings of the commodities Choudhury sells. (In case you are curious or are impressed with Choudhury’s interest in things Jewish, Jethro is the Hebrew word for Choudhury’s preferred moniker, Shoaib.)

Choudhury states on the Jethro Conglomerates website that he represents a company called Noca. Noca itself does not seem legitimate. It is not licensed. It provides no information about who owns or runs the company. The representatives they do list could be of interest to law enforcement. The Noca site says it is located in Canada but it gives an unpublished Nevada phone number. There is an odor of mobster activity connected with this enterprise, as well as Choudhury’s involvement in it. As we shall see in Choudhury’s published resume, Choudhury worked closely with the indicted mobster, Aziz Mohammed Bhai, who fled Bangladesh in 2009 to avoid imprisonment for various charges, including murder.”

Brenda West wrote “In June 2011 Tass (info@itar-tass.com) spokeswoman Lora Potopova confirmed in an email and subsequent phone conversation with this reporter that the wire service never had a bureau in Bangladesh, and had no record of employ for Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury — as a stringer or otherwise. Potopova reported that her thorough search of all Tass branches found no trace of Choudhury or a Tass office in Bangladesh. “

Using the banner of media outlet Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is running his criminal business for years.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury has coined the falsehood. Weekly blitz is a part of a syndicate of Hindustan times. The propaganda was subsequently reported by Hindustan times and other India media

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury became successful in his plan when it was published in India and then he started lobbying with the friends in Bangladeshi media to get it reported in different media outlets.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is deliberately running this falsehood against Hina Rabbani Khar and Bilawal Bhutto to be discussed by international media to use that discussion for further criminal business.

William Nicholas Gomes
80/ B Bramon Chiron, Saydabad,
Dhaka-1203, Bangladesh.
Cell: +88 019 7 444 0 666
E-mail:William [at] williamgomes.org,editorbd[at]gmail.com
Skype: William.gomes9

“Mr Speaker, please stop this yellow taxi from leaving the House,” Muslim League MP Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called out, as the then prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, left her seat to go out of Parliament. Benazir, then in her first term as PM (1988-90) and clad in a yellow kamiz shalwar suit with her trademark white duppata over her head, did not bother to respond as she exited.

PPP workers were livid; they worshipped the very ground Benazir walked on, and called her ‘Bibi’ out of reverence. It is another story that later Rashid Ahmed was jailed for possession of unlicensed weapons. At least he was safe from diehard PPP supporters.

Earlier, during the election campaign, the Muslim League had resorted to a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign against Benazir and her mother Nusrat, where their photographs were printed in newspapers in a crude cut-and-paste job. The man who had orchestrated that campaign was Hussain Haqqani, the former Pakistan ambassador to the US.

As coarse attempts are being made to defame foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar and the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, it is the irresponsible social media that appears to be carrying on a systematic campaign to this end.

Contrarily, latest photographs showing Khar and President Asif Ali Zardari talking relaxedly at the UN General Assembly sessions speak louder than the tasteless stories being bruited around.

The real issue is not about the Bhuttos or Khars. It is that if you are young, beautiful and a high-profile female politician in Pakistan, you are a soft target for sick minds and their ‘dirty tricks’ that seek to damage your  reputation. Social media helps turn malicious gossip into scandals that turn viral on the net. These stories, where no distinction is made between movie stars and politicians, sell internationally. There are even sites dedicated to “beautiful Pakistani female politicians”.

Young and glamorous women politicians in Pakistan have been hounded for years. If it is Khar today and Benazir in the past, ambassador Sherry Rehman, parliamentarian Kashmala Tariq, speaker of the National Assembly Fehmeda Mirza and several others continue to be mired in unwanted gossip. All of these women ignore the rumours and continue to have successful careers.

In fact, when Khar first came into the assembly, she refused to be put into a ‘zanana dabba’ or ‘special women’s compartment’. When asked by Newsline what she would do for women’s rights, an inexperienced Khar said, “My father got me elected from a general seat. In our country, both men and women have issues that need to be resolved. Neither have what you may consider basic rights—the right to clean drinking water, the right to enough water to irrigate their lands, the right to basic health and sanitation facilities, the right to educate themselves, the right to have access to electricity and roads. Let us please try to give them these rights and then we can talk about women’s rights and men’s rights.”

It is common sense that most voters who have reposed their faith in  women leaders in the region are uneducated and illiterate. But at no time have they ever stooped low and spread vile canards about them. Never have they shown such inclination to gossip or scandal.

“In fact, it is this post-modern era, with its high-tech social media, controlled and consumed by the educated and the so-called liberals, that is responsible for targeting high-profile women, whether they are in politics or in other fields. You will not see an ordinary party worker in Pakistan ever discussing such trash. Whether Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi or Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the majority of their supporters were illiterate but had more grace than the class that goes around as the ‘educated’ today,” says TV host and columnist Nusrat Javeed.

Recently, another very young politician, Iman Hazir Mazari, daughter of the well known Dr Shireen Mazari, left Imran Khan’s Tehreek e-Insaf. Amongst other reasons for her resignation is her continuous, abusive hounding in the social media. Mazari is barely 20.

“One thing I have put up with for the past six months is abuse and character assassination. My self-respect and principles are more important to me than a party that continues to attack me. Being called a ‘prostitute’, or hearing/reading insults regarding my late grandfather by PTI workers is unacceptable. Yes, I wear what I want and I live my personal life the way I want to—that is between me and myself; no one…will ever have a right to comment on it. I will never make any apologies for the way I choose to live my personal life,” she wrote on her blog.

The ‘story’ involving Khar and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was first planted in an obscure Bangladeshi publication. Needless to say, the merely dressed up gossip  was handled in an unprofessional manner. No attempts were made to get the viewpoint of the subjects. The publication might have sold well, but in the process the publishers sacrificed and traduced all principles of journalism.

As expected, Indian publications and broadcast media picked the story up, as befits their obsession with Khar’s ‘glamorous looks’. In this case, the ‘glamour’ surrounding the gossip involving Khar and Bilawal was lapped up greedily, as both are highly saleable. It was the Indian media that went berserk over Khar’s looks, apparel and accessories when she visited New Delhi in July 2011.

However, in Pakistan itself, the report has been roundly rubbished. No newspaper or TV channel has touched it. They know fully that it is trash, and have treated it as such. The government so far has not even dignified it with a response. Khar has not only been the country’s youngest and first female foreign minister, but one of the successful ones at that. Her diplomacy and handling of her portfolio has been lauded in the corridors of power in various countries, whether Washington DC, Kabul or Berlin.

It is quite clear that these speculations started when Khar was in New York to represent Pakistan in the UN general assembly, and was designed to divert attention to her equation with Zardari, who is also there as head of state. It’s also significant that her visit as foreign minister comes at a very crucial point in Pakistan-US relations. Also, Khar has recently had a very successful trip to Berlin, and stole the thunder from her Indian counterpart in Islamabad during bilateral talks in early September.

On the eve of the general elections, political opponents know how such a scandal could damage Khar’s image in her conservative constituency. Pakistani foreign ministers have rarely returned to parliament, as they remain out of touch with voters due to constant travel. Khar had an advantage as her father, a seasoned parliamentarian, was doing much of the work at the ground level.

The Hate Campaign Against the Muslims in New York

The Sin of Sowing Hatred of Islam

By Rick Jacobs

NYT/ September 25, 2012

Two weeks ago, on the morning of Sept. 11, I noticed a woman wearing a traditional Muslim head covering on the packed platform of the train station in Scarsdale, N.Y. Her attention was focused on a billboard ad that announced “19,250 deadly Islamic attacks since 9/11/01” and pre-empted those who might dispute that claim with the refrain: “It’s not Islamophobia, it’s Islamorealism.” I could only imagine what she was feeling.

For Op-Ed, follow@nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow@andyrNYT.

On another morning commute to Grand Central Terminal, I sat on the train with Yawar Shah, a Muslim friend from Scarsdale whom I met years ago at my synagogue when he would attend a bar or bat mitzvah service of his friends’ children. Yawar told me how painful these ads are to his family and what an insult they are to our community in Westchester County and to our way of life.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative is the group spearheading this provocative anti-Islam campaign. In July, a federal judge in New York ruled in favor of the group in a freedom of speech case, forcing New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to place an ad that denigrates Islam in subway stations, and now, time may have run out for further appeals. It reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” Those ads went up Monday.

What is the message of this ad, directed at the multitude of subway riders of countless faiths and ethnicities?

By using the term “jihad” in the context of a war against savages, the ad paints Islam as inherently violent, evil and bent on overthrowing the Western democracies and their key ally in the Middle East, Israel — even though, for the vast majority of Muslims, “jihad” refers to a spiritual quest, not the more politicized idea of holy war.

Yes, these ads are lawful. But they are wrong and repugnant.

What other purpose can they have but to incite hatred against Muslims? In addition, they reinforce a terrible stereotype — presenting me and others who love Israel as people who believe themselves to be superior to Muslims. That characterization will only incite hatred of Jews, too.

Further, the group’s effort to co-opt our nation’s commitment to and support of Israel — a commitment embraced by countless millions of Americans of many faiths — suggests that if you love Israel, you must stand up for this distorted formulation of Islam. And it defines support for Israel with a false dichotomy between “civilized “ Jews and Muslim “savages.”

Israel is at the core of my identity. I am unshakably committed to Israel’s security. And I am not naïve about the real threats faced by Israel. We must unequivocally denounce and remain vigilant against terrorist attacks, whether from Al Qaeda, loners or states like Iran and the proxies it sponsors. But we must also defend against those who peddle hate, who would impose the sins of the extremists on more than a billion Muslims. They not only offend Muslims and those of us who value religious diversity and liberty for all; they pollute America’s own public square at a time when our society is desperate for civility and respectful discourse.

Fall in New York is always a special time for me. In addition to relief from oppressive heat, the brisk breezes of autumn herald new beginnings like the start of a new school year for our children. Fall also brings the Jewish High Holy Days, which offer America’s six and a half million Jews (of whom roughly one-third live in the New York area) a time to reflect on the past year and to rededicate themselves to a fresh start in their relationships at home, at work and with friends.

This fall, when religious hate speech appears in public places, when several mosques across the nation have been desecrated and burned, when Sikhs have been murdered, it is time for our nation to raise our voices in repudiation of all manner of hate mongering.

This Yom Kippur, we will once again read these words from Deuteronomy 11:26: “See, this day I set before you blessing and curse.” Those same choices are before us today. Let us, as a nation, reject the curse of hatred and instead choose the blessings of faith, acceptance, understanding and respect for all.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs is the president of the Union for Reform Judaism.

 

Nishat Cinema in Karachi Up in Flames

Tolerance, Up in Flames

By Steve Inskeep

NYT/ September 25, 2012

For Op-Ed, follow@nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow@andyrNYT.

For 65 years, the Nishat cinema stood in Karachi. A giant screen showed blockbuster films from around the world, reflecting Pakistan’s relative openness compared with neighboring Muslim nations. Vast billboards over the door featured handsome movie stars flanked by young women with revealing clothes and long, luxurious hair.

The cinema also symbolized the country’s resilience. Opened in 1947, the year of Pakistan’s independence, the Nishat became a landmark in a lively district of theaters, nightclubs and cafes. An Islamist dictator closed the bars and many theaters after 1977, but the Nishat survived. Crowds attended movies even though boys and girls who sat together risked harassment by religious conservatives.

The show went on until last Friday, when a mob set the Nishat on fire. Although it happened on “Love of the Prophet Day,” a state-sanctioned holiday devoted to protesting an anti-Muslim video made in the United States, the attack was the latest episode in a long-running pattern of self-destruction.

The Nishat fire shows just how much mob violence and misgovernment have damaged Pakistan. The attack wasn’t about American influence or anti-Muslim videos. Small numbers of Pakistanis are wrecking their country’s values and traditions. At the theater in 2010 I met Masih ul Hasan, who had been working there for 46 years. He led me from the ticket booth to a tiny office, where he pored over handwritten ledger books as he told of the theater’s constant adaptation.

The Nishat drew thousands to see films made in India, Pakistan and Hollywood — “Terminator 2,” Mr. Hasan’s favorite, played for 16 weeks. Pakistan’s Urdu-language movies were popular for a time; Bollywood movies were banned because of conflict with India, but later returned. The cinema stayed closed for days in December 2009 after a bomb exploded down the street but reopened in the new year for “Avatar,” which drew huge crowds for five weeks before the theater closed because of more violence. By the time of my visit the Nishat was busy again, with moviegoers’ motorcycles parked on the sidewalk, and street vendors waiting for the movie to end.

The theater was temporarily closed again last week when the mob broke through its gates. Neighborhood residents told me that rioters, including teenagers, stole soft drinks from the snack bar before starting the fire. The roof and a wall collapsed, leaving only the blackened Art Deco facade. As several Karachi theaters burned, The Express Tribune of Pakistan quoted a teenager declaring, “The United States doesn’t know who they have messed with.”

He was right, in a way. Until recently, virtually no Americans knew of the offending video, and American life will be completely unaffected by this supposed act of revenge. Nor will such acts wipe out supposedly decadent outside influences. As the number of cinemas has declined, people have been watching movies at home; and a law against Muslims’ drinking alcohol has not stopped alcohol from being consumed.

What the protesters really oppose, though they may not realize it, is the nature of their own country. Pakistan is a cultural crossroads with many languages and religious sects, and the Nishat’s eclectic screenings mirrored the nation. Cultural diversity, like alcohol, quietly persists, but it is being driven underground by intolerant brands of Islam. And the recent protests have severely damaged the freedom of expression for which earlier generations fought.

Pakistan’s history is one long struggle to speak out. Both India and Pakistan won independence thanks to decades of speech and expression that were offensive to the men in power. British viceroys and soldiers tried in vain to stop their nonviolent protests. Since 1947, Pakistanis have been ruled by military dictators four times. Except for one who died in office, those strongmen never surrendered until Pakistanis spoke out so fiercely that the army stepped aside.

Given this history, it’s no surprise that many Pakistanis are admirably frank about their country’s problems and speak with scorn about their government’s failings. This is as true of Islamists as it is of liberals. Members of every political group, including Islamists, recall times when their leaders were unjustly imprisoned for what they said.

Their imprisonment was part of another, more oppressive, strand of Pakistani history. Dictators threatened their critics with death. The government branded an entire Muslim sect, Ahmadis, heretical and decreed the death penalty for blasphemy. Today, real or imagined blasphemy is punished by the state, by mobs or by a government that plays to the mob, as happened last Friday.

Criticism opens the way for improvement — but it requires the freedom to speak. The protesters had every reason to be angry about the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad in a cheap American video. But when they burned the Nishat cinema, they were burning a part of themselves.

Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR’s “Morning Edition” and the author of “Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi.”

 

Asif Zardari versus Manmohan Singh

RESUME-1

Resume -I

President of Pakistan Asif Zardari

زر   داری

Education: no formal qualifications proved, he claims he has done graduation from london but we are still unable to find that college or university , and zardari is unable to remember its name as well.

claims that he had a diploma in buisness administration from UK…but no formal degree…..(as education is not necessay to lead the country or to become member of parliament according to our supreme court….you need to be a big liar)

University :    unknown.

Claim to fame : Husband of a famous, now ex (RIP) Prime Minister whom he hardly lived with after his release from Pakistani prisons as they constantly avoided each other by living in different cities.

Previous Laurels : Involvement in several murders most famously of his brother in law, possibly wife (not proved yet!)

Involvement in famous events : Wrapping a bomb to the leg of a famous UK businessman to ask for money!

Services to Pakistan : Embezzlement & looting of Billions of Pakistan’s wealth, Suspected  of killing his wife .

Family Business :   Playing  x-rated movies in family cinemas (His father’s major business was to run Bambino cinema in Karachi).

Personal Qualities :   He never sticks to his words , and has no diplomatic manners
Indian PM Manmohan Singh

EDUCATION /Qualification:

1950: Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh ,
1952; Stood first in MA (Economics), Panjab University , Chandigarh,
1954; Wright’s Prize for distinguished performance at St John’s College, Cambridge,
1955 and 1957; Wrenbury scholar, University of Cambridge ,
1957; DPhil (Oxford), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on India’s export competitiveness

OCCUPATION /Teaching Experience: 

Professor (Senior lecturer, Economics, 1957-59;
Reader, Economics, 1959-63;
Professor, Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh,
1963-65; Professor,
International Trade, Delhi School of Economics, University
of Delhi,
1969-71; Honorary professor, Jawaharlal Nehru
University,New Delhi,
1976 and Delhi School of Economics, University of
Delhi,1996 and Civil Servant

Working Experience/ POSITIONS: 

1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade
1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance
1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India; Director, Industrial Development Bank of India;
Alternate governor for India , Board of governors , Asian Development Bank;
Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, IBRD
November 1976 – April 1980: Secretary, ministry of finance (Department of economic affairs);
Member, finance, Atomic Energy Commission ; Member,finance, Space Commission
April 1980 – September 15, 1982: Member-secretary, Planning Commission
1980-83: Chairman, India Committee of the Indo-Japan joint study committee
September 16, 1982 – January 14 , 1985: Governor, Reserve Bank of India.

1982-85: Alternate Governor for India, Board of governors, International Monetary Fund

1983-84: Member, economic advisory council to the Prime Minister

1985: President, Indian Economic Association

January 15 , 1985 – July 31, 1987: Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

August 1, 1987 – November 10, 1990: Secretary-general and commissioner, south commission, Geneva

December 10 , 1990 – March 14, 1991: Advisor to the Prime Minister on economic affairs

March 15, 1991 – June 20, 1991: Chairman, UGC

June 21, 1991 – May 15, 1996: Union finance minister

October 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam on Congress ticket

June 1995: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

1996 onwards: Member, Consultative Committee for the ministry of finance

August 1, 1996 – December 4 , 1997: Chairman, Parliamentary standing committee on commerce

March 21, 1998 onwards: Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha

June 5, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on finance

August 13, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on rules

Aug 1998-2001: Member, committee of privileges 2000 onwards: Member,
executive committee, Indian parliamentary group

June 2001: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

Aug 2001 onwards: Member, general purposes committee

BOOKS:

India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth -Clarendon
Press, Oxford University, 1964; also published a large number of articles in various economic journals .

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Adam Smith Prize , University of Cambridge, 1956

Padma Vibhushan , 1987

Euro money Award, Finance Minister of the Year, 1993;

Asia money Award, Finance Minister of the Year for Asia ,
1993 and 1994

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:

1966: Economic Affairs Officer

1966-69: Chief, financing for trade section,
UNCTAD

1972-74: Deputy for India in IMF Committee of Twenty on International Monetary Reform

1977-79: Indian delegation to Aid-India Consortium Meetings

1980-82: Indo-Soviet joint planning group meeting

1982: Indo-Soviet monitoring group meeting

1993: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Cyprus 1993:
Human Rights World Conference, Vienna

RECREATION: 

Gymkhana Club , New Delhi; Life Member, India International
Centre, New Delhi

Name: Dr Manmohan Singh 

DOB: September 26 , 1932

Place of Birth: Gah (West Punjab)

Father: S. Gurmukh Singh

Mother: Mrs Amrit Kaur

Married on: September 14 , 1958

Wife: Mrs Gursharan Kaur

Children: Three daughters
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Sex in the Kerala Churches

“Later, I’m taken to the priest’s room for coffee. While I’m having coffee sitting on the cot, the only place in the room to sit, he comes and embraces me hard, almost suffocating me. When I struggle to escape from his clutches, he squeezes my breasts and asks me to show them to him. ‘Have you seen a man?’ Stunned, I shake my head ‘no’. In no time, he undresses himself.”

Sister Jesme in her book Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun

***

“The convents and nunneries are being converted into brothels. The priests have sex with the nuns at night in these convents. Because of these acts, the chastity of the priests and nuns has come under suspicion. Their love for God has shrunk…some of the clergy protect their chastity by watching pornography and reading pornographic material. They lose themselves in this habit. These books and DVDs are kept in secret places and can’t be found easily.”

Father Shibu Kalamparambil in his memoir Oru Vaidikante Hrudayamitha (The Heart of a Priest)

“The cry of a baby came from the bathroom of one of the inner rooms along with the sobs of a woman. We used our might to force open the bathroom door and what we saw would break anyone’s heart. A nun who had given birth to a child was pushing the head of the baby into the closet. The bathroom was filled with blood. The legs of the child, which were sticking out of the closet, were kicking for life.”

Sister Mary Chandy in her autobiography Nanma Niranjavale Swasthi(Peace to the One filled with Grace)

***

On the gentle slopes of Pulpally, Wayanad, where the Naxal movement once sent terror into the hearts of the land-owning gentry, a lone ex-nun, Sister Mary Chandy, is raising the hackles of the Catholic church. Her autobiography, Nanma Niranjavale Swasthi, a no-holds-barred account of her life in the convent, is littered with pregnant nuns and wayward priests. The 67-year-old Sister’s memoirs comes a good 14 years after she walked out of the congregation of the Daughters of Presentation of Mary in Chevayur, Kozhikode, in north Kerala. The Church was quick to proclaim that Sister Mary was never a nun in any of their convents and asked the laity in Wayanad not to associate with her.

So what happened after she saw the nun trying to kill her newborn baby in a convent in Mananthavady in Wayanad, as she has described in autobiography? “After I broke open the door with the help of another nun, I grabbed the child and held it to my chest. I thought I was doing the right thing but the sisters turned against me. I want to know why. In a previous incident, when I hit a priest on his head with a stool when he tried to grab me, the nuns sympathised with the priest. From then on, I was watched carefully.” After 40 years, Sister Mary fled the convent life.

Mary Chandy’s book has many more such harrowing tales. Like the nun who had tried to commit suicide many times over telling her of priests coming to the convent well past midnight and taking nuns out to the nearby schools. When this nun was called, she would not open the door. She was terrified the priests would break down the door and come for her. She said she hated this life of fear and wanted to end it. In one chapter, Mary Chandy recounts how porn magazines and CDs are commonplace among the priests. In one instance, she says a young nun came to her crying as another senior nun was forcing her to watch these videos with her. Elsewhere, Mary describes feast days in the seminaries when wine flows freely and there is dancing and much else. Once a father asked her to join in the revelries saying life is meant to be enjoyed. When she refused, he threatened her with dire consequences.

Tell-all memoirs are not new in Kerala, nor are church scandals. The Sister Abhaya murder case (1992) has still not seen closure and in the last five years there have been three other cases of alleged nun ‘suicides’. But a nun coming out, writing an autobiography, warts and all, was a first even for Kerala. Sister Jesme’s autobiography three years ago caused quite a stir and embarrassed the church no end. Following close behind was Father Shibu Kalamparambil’s effort in 2010, which described in excruciating detail the depraved lives that many priests and nuns led. And now comes Sister Mary Chandy’s memoir, about nuns who got pregnant by priests and aborted foetuses and other such horror stories.

Noted writer and feminist Sara Joseph, whose novel Othappu incidentally explores the life of a nun who leaves the convent, says, “Most of the nuns and priests suffer in silence for suffering is a quality that they are conditioned to accept as a virtue. What you see here is the expression of the individual’s conflict with the establishment. They did not have the courage till now to take on the establishment but now they are openly questioning it.” Joseph Pullikunnel, editor ofHosanna and director of the Indian Institute of Christian Studies, says he hasn’t heard anything like this against the Catholic church, in such an open manner, ever before. “Perhaps the church was ‘whitewashing’ itself,” he says hesitantly.

Ex-MP and commentator Dr Sebastian Paul is a bit more unabashed about the sociological implications of these revelations: “These autobiographies have become bestsellers but the allegations they make have not been publicly debated. So there is not much impact on the organisation. The Catholic Church is a highly centralised organisation and there is very little criticism happening within.”

So will a soon-to-be-released film, aptly titled Father, Son and Holy Ghost, on the hardships and dilemmas faced by nuns, put things in perspective? “The Church is traditionally patriarchal. I have explored the lives of two nuns in a nunnery in my film and have touched on various aspects, including homosexuality and abortion,” says director T. Deepesh.

That doesn’t sound like things are going to get better. Father Paul Thelakat, spokesperson of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, says the fathers and nuns who have left the order and are writing books now are the ones who could not cope with the spiritual life. As he puts it, “If one cannot stay celibate, it is better to get out, marry and live happily. One is called to a difficult way of life; it needs an ascetic’s will to live a life of celibacy happily. It is always better to marry than to ‘burn’ mentally. I do not appreciate those who make a hue and cry of something they fail to live up to and then blame others for their failures. It is too naive to say, ‘since I could not, nobody can’.”

Kerala, incidentally, has now around 50,000 priests and nuns. And, incredibly, there are about 1,35,000 of them outside the state, serving in various institutions in India and abroad. Malayalis constitute a sizeable 15 per cent of the world’s Catholic priests and nuns. For the past few decades, their strength has been growing while the reverse is the case in the West. Brother Mani Mekkunnel, national secretary of the Conference of Religious India, points out that one cannot disregard the importance of Catholic institutions and the yeoman’s service they do to society. He feels the media picks on stray incidents and “unsubstantiated accounts” to judge the entire edifice of the Church and millions of its devout followers. “Why don’t you focus on the hundreds and thousands of priests and nuns who are living for a noble cause? Today, English education is synonymous with convent education. Catholic institutions have contributed in an immense way to India’s economic growth. Why not highlight that?”

Sara Joseph too stresses the unsubstantiated clause, saying if these writers want to be taken seriously they must reveal names. “Only if they are exposed can they be questioned,” she says. Take, for instance, Sister Mary’s book. It takes no names nor are dates clearly mentioned. Fr Stephen Mathew, director of Neethivedi, an NGO in Wayanad, points out, “We are suspicious because they haven’t revealed everything. A small minority may be behaving like this…but it is not good to generalise.”

The Church’s critics, though, offer a different view. They feel even if it’s only a handful of priests and nuns who have spoken out, it’s still a brave effort as it is unthinkable for the majority to speak against the strict order. There is both fear and subservience. Those who dare to leave this cloistered life are often not accepted by even their family and are ostracised by society. And most don’t even have a place to stay.

“Judas! Fallen Angel! Mad! These are some of the epithets being hurled my way by the church,” says Sister Jesme, 56, a former principal of St Mary’s College, Thrissur, fully at ease in a pair of red tights and a black T-shirt, enjoying her freedom in her tiny flat in Guruvayur. “I am foisted as an example to quell dissidents within the nunneries and seminaries. They preach that I have been disowned by my family and by the Church and the same would befall anyone who dares to be another Sr Jesme.” Fr Shibu says his parents were threatened by the Church. They were even told that they would not be buried in the church cemetery if they accepted him back home.

Curiously, this comes at a time when the Vatican itself is under attack. A tell-all bestseller,Sua Santita, has outed confidential personal letters between the Pope and his associates revealing many embarrassing details. Last month, the head of the Vatican bank was sacked on money-laundering charges. Many connected with the Church say the kind of depravity prevalent among the priests and nuns in Kerala and abroad is because of the arcane rules and practices. This perhaps is the time to usher in some much-needed reforms in the Catholic Church. As Dr Valson Thampu, principal of St Stephen’s College, Delhi, puts out, “Every institution stands in need of continual reform. What is not reformed or renewed is headed for death. Only those who are spiritually insensitive will resist reform.” So will the Church let more light into its pews or wait for another book by one of its own to rake up another scandal?

Sins Of Our Fathers

The Little Flower convent nuns who took the church to court

Do nuns and priests have civil rights?

The canon law and the Catholic Church say the professed people have no right to sue the Church. It took six brave sisters of Little Flower Convent, Narakkal, in Ernakulam district, to prove it otherwise. They created history of sorts when they sued a Syro-Malabar bishop of the Ernakulam diocese and the priest of St Mary’s Church for criminal intimidation and forgery.

In the normal course, the sisters would have had to take up their problems with the ecclesiastical forums and, under the precept of obedience, listen to them. What made the sisters take this drastic step? The sisters run two schools and a poor home on three acres of land in Narakkal. From the late 1930s, successive parish priests of St Mary’s church had been helping them to manage the school. The sisters knew the priests collected money illegally as donations but they kept quiet for awhile. In 1971, unknown to the sisters, the priest of St Mary’s church forged documents and transferred the management of the Little Flower School to the church. Then, after over 30 years, in 2007, the sisters were asked to shift their second school, St Joseph’s, to another location. They refused and filed a complaint with the department of education and were allowed to keep the school. But this riled the priests. Soon hoodlums, instigated by them, began harassing the sisters. They were not allowed into church, some of them were roughed up, and in one incident, were held hostage by over a hundred men. The sisters could not bear it anymore and sued the church. The lower court ruled in their favour but it has been appealed. Sister Annie Jaise says, “Traditionally, the CMC sisters, brides of Jesus, are quiet…but we had to stand up for the truth.”

Sixty-seven-year-old Sister Mary Chandy walked out of the Congregation of the Daughters of Presentation of Mary in Chevayur, Kozhikode, 14 years ago. She wrote her autobiography,Nanma Niranjavale Swasthi (Peace to the One Filled with Grace), in April 2012. Excerpts from an interview:

What did you do after you left the convent?

I only had the clothes that I was wearing. I did not have any money. I remember envying men for they can sleep at night under a tree but a woman cannot do that. I would visit houses and ask for donations. My dream was to open an orphanage and look after unwanted children.

Is there one incident that made you quit the order?

There are so many incidents that hurt me. After I left the convent, I went through many trials and tribulations. It has been a long journey outside.

Both the priests and nuns drink wine and foreign liquor. When the priests drink, what spews from their mouths is absolute filth.

The Church says that you were only a cook for a brief period and not a nun in the convent?

If that is so, why have they kept my baptism certificate? It is now in their hands to prove I was not a nun.

What you say about the priests…does it hold for the majority of them?

No, there are many good priests and nuns who do a lot of good work. But then there are also the bad ones. My advice to young Catholic girls is to not to go for counselling or confession to the priests.

Father Shibu Kalamparambil, 40, was defrocked from the Vicentian Congregation after 12 years as a priest. His memoir Oru Vaidikante Hrudayamitha (The Heart of a Priest) was published in 2010.

Why did you decide to write the book?

I had aired my views about the sexual misconduct of priests and financial irregularities many times but they were not willing to correct themselves. So I wrote this book and for four years I showed it to near and dear ones and to those inside the Church. They advised me not to publish it, they said it would be catastrophic. They kept saying that things will be corrected but they never were so I published my book.

What is the Church establishment’s response when a priest makes a complaint?

The complaints are dealt with by the bishops and they influence the laity. If a woman among the laity becomes pregnant because of a priest or a bishop, they build houses or give money to them and hush it up.

What happens when a nun gets pregnant?

A life is not born in the church. When it comes to the nuns, they either make her abort the child or she is sent out of the church. If the nun tries to take it up, then she is ostracised by society.

What about the financial irregularities?

Financial irregularities are rampant. The priest collects money in the name of reconstruction of the church. The laity who come to church donate in good faith. But some of the priests, they never reveal the exact amount to the parishioners…they take their share and hand over the remaining to the church.

‘Let Not The Sins Of A Few Vest Upon The Church’

Rejoinder to all of the above by John Dayal

It is no consolation that the media also covers the sexual peccadilloes of Hindu savants including Shankaracharyas and even those who think of themselves as avatars of God. And while sex and sexuality have been much discussed within the Church and outside in the wake of the crisis in Ireland, Germany, the UK and the US, I must admit it came as a great shock to the Church and to ordinary Christians when Outlook in its July 23, 2012, edition ran a cover with the lurid headline, ‘Sex Scandal and the Church’, with the publicity photograph of a rather bad actress playing a nun in what promises to be a salacious film, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Patently, it is no longer a matter of hushed rumours or jokes in seminaries and lay meetings. Morals and morality amongst priests and nuns is cause for deep concern. Though small and perhaps marginal at present, it may grow to threaten the Church in the 21st century if urgent remedial action is not taken. A state of denial will not do, nor a conspiracy of silence in a highly structured, hierarchical Church. It is also not a problem for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church alone, or of the Latin Catholic Church. Protestant, Evangelical and even Pentecostal churches, which do not enforce celibacy in the clergy like the Catholic church does, grapple with their own demons of corruption and moral turpitude.

Self-appointed protectors of the Church in some places have raised the bogey of persecution by the media. They see in it an outrage and a conspiracy. Some senior Catholic and Protestant bishops, including contemporary thinkers such as Bishop Joab Lohara of a Methodist Church denomination, also point out that the magazine expose comes at a time when the Indian right-wing and fundamentalist groups have been mounting a campaign against the Church. A look at the Organiser and Panchajanya, official organs of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is evidence of this. Sanghi trolls are on my neck on my Twitter account.

The Church is indeed under sustained attack, and persecution rages, specially in states such as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, even Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The body politic and governments at the Centre and in the states show an increasing tendency to put curbs on the Church as a political strategy to curry favour with the majority votebank. Witness the increasing clamour for anti-conversion laws in several states. Even in Maharashtra and other states where there is no anti-conversion law, pastors are routinely harassed by the police and civil administration, accused of trying to convert people. The Union government does not give visas to internal guests of the Church. The denial of constitutional rights to Dalit Christians and the utter miscarriage of justice to the victims of the violence in Kandhamal in 2007 and 2008 are a case in point. It does not matter which political party rules—even the Congress governments are guilty. The BJP governments, of course, lead the pack.

We are not responding with references to Mother Teresa whose love for the poor puts her in the list of top 10 Indians after Mahatma Gandhi. Or to St Stephen’s and Loyola Colleges or the Vellore Christian Medical College. But it is proper to remind the Indian people of the work done by missionaries, priests, nuns and others. This is not to claim any special dispensation, or even as a boast, but just as a plain reminder, as a duty done to the homeland and its people. A part of the calling that any good Christian, following in the footsteps of Christ, would do. It would also be important to remind the media in general and Outlook in particular that sensationalism can tarnish the image of communities and institutions, and that the sins of a few ought not to be vested upon the rest of the Church. The damage has been done, and a mere apology alone won’t do. Perhaps we need a future cover on this silent but industrious minority whose wealth isn’t in the steel or diamond industries but in the smile of its fellow citizens.

But the Church too has to take steps. A group of Protestant, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches has come together to address issues of corruption and alienation of property as evil not just under the Indian Penal Code but more so in the eyes of God. Church leaders must accept that such things happen, though not in the alarming manner Outlook’s cover made it seem. We ought to analyse the reasons, and it cannot be just as simple as celibacy and ‘clericality’ as being the root cause of all sexual crimes. In the big wide world, married men rape, some of them rape little children. Some of them are ministers, politicians, scientists, policemen, artistes and journalists. This holds true among Muslims, Buddhists and, most of all, Hindus, because of the sheer large numbers, as several TV programmes have shown. Some may have forgotten that the Weekly and Blitz, now defunct, did cover stories on the late Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, accusing him of homosexuality. It is besides the point that its editor, R.K. Karanjia, later became a bhakta of the godman.

I mention these to assure the hierarchy they are not an exception. The exposition in the West by media, including Catholic journals, over the last few years of paedophilia and child abuse has made the state apparatus intervene. But the Church hierarchy has to take its decisions in India. It needs authentic data for this. Former chief justice of India S.P. Bharucha has famously said that 20 per cent of the Indian judiciary is corrupt. Anna Hazare says every politician is corrupt, including the new President of India. I know of many journalists who are very corrupt. We expect zero tolerance in the Church, but priests too are human beings and the temptations of the flesh can be strong.

Fr R.S. Pinto responded to my intervention in a Google group, pointing out that “no Catholic likes to hear about these things, said or published…no one will take pleasure in these things. It’s abhorrent. But though we are less than three per cent, the work done by yesteryear’s missionaries in setting up schools and colleges, hospitals, orphanages and homes for the destitute is probably unparalleled. But all that is past. The victims [who wrote their books] must have tried to get justice within the Church first, before writing their books, without success. Many in the leadership want to sweep everything under the carpet. They consider the image of Church as paramount…at any cost the image should not be sullied, even if that means shielding the guilty.”

Communications expert Allwyn Fernandes, often a critic of the Church, told me, “There is enough good work that has been done to stand out amidst the filth. Let us rather work to flush out the filth than try to hide it further.” I feel strongly that the ordinary Christian and Catholic does not want to defend the indefensible. But he abhors sensationalism of the sort Outlookindulged in.

The people want the leadership to be more open and provide space for suggestions towards improvement. Work needs to begin from the very beginning. We know that the vocation is falling, and is now almost limited to the tribal belts. But even in times of scarcity, a certain level of filtering has to be done. The candidate is the building block of the Church. The seminary is where that block is moulded. If the foundations are strong, the products of these seminaries will be worthy of their training and of their vows.

I think it’s time strong signals came from the Indian Church hierarchy, as they have come from Rome. Perhaps zero tolerance may not be possible day after tomorrow, but it is a laudable target and needs to be pursued. The first step would be a roving enquiry, including social scientists, human resource experts and theologians, and a sprinkling of those with some forensic experience. That would be a good beginning. And it needs to be done before the State, for ulterior motives, intervenes, or the media mocks us for TRPS and circulation.

---

(Dr John Dayal, member, National Integration Council, is past national president of the All-India Catholic Union and secretary-general of the All-India Christian Council.)

The Muslim World Cannot Have it Both Ways

It cannot place Islam at the center of political life — and in extreme cases political violence — while at the same time declaring that the religion is off-limits to contestation and ridicule.

September 22, 2012

By Roger Cohen

Islam is one of the world’s three great monotheistic religions. Of them it is the youngest by several centuries and, perhaps for that reason, the most fervid and turbulent. It is also, in diverse forms, a political movement, reference and inspiration.

Politics is a rough-and-tumble game. If the emergent Islamic parties of nations in transition — like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Ennahda in Tunisia — are to honor the terms of democratic governance they will have to concede that they have no monopoly on truth, that the prescriptions of Islam are malleable and debatable, and that significant currents in their societies have different convictions and even faiths.

The past couple of weeks have been discouraging.

Nobody expects a U.S. standard of freedom of speech to be adopted — or even fully understood — in these societies; they will set their own political and cultural frameworks inspired by a still fervent desire to escape from despotism, whether secular or theocratic, and by the central place of faith.

But the failure in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to control violent mobs of Salafis enraged by mockery in America and Europe of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad suggests an unacceptable ambivalence: The rule of law here on earth must override divine indignation.

The world has tried Islamic republics. It found them oxymoronic. As Iran illustrates, they don’t work: Republican institutions, shaped by the wishes of men and women, fall victim to the Islamic superstructure, supposedly shaped by God.

The great challenge of the Arab Spring is to prove that, as in Turkey, parties of Islamic inspiration can embrace a modern pluralism and so usher their societies from a culture of grievance and victimhood to one of creativity and agency.

Just how deep the grievances remain in the Arab world — over loss of power, economic stagnation, colonial intrusion, Western wars and Israel — has been clear in the latest eruption. Change will be slow.

But it is coming: These societies will not return to tyranny. The West has an overwhelming strategic interest in supporting transitions that offer the youth of the Arab world opportunity: Egypt now dwarfs Afghanistan in its importance to fighting Islamic extremism.

But the West will not do so by compromising its own values. The porn-grade American movie that started the unrest was pitiful. The murderous violence that followed from Cairo to Benghazi was criminal. Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper, then had a strong editorial case for mocking the religious fundamentalism that produced the killing;it chose to do so through caricatures of Muhammad.

Gérard Biard, the editor in chief of Charlie Hebdo, put the case well: “We’re a newspaper that respects French law. Now, if there’s a law that is different in Kabul or Riyadh, we’re not going to bother ourselves with respecting it.” Alluding to all the violence, Biard asked: “Are we supposed to not do that news?”

He is right. There are too many hypocrisies in Islam — deploring attacks on it while often casting scorn on Judaism and Christianity, claiming the mantle of peace while inspiring violence — for it to expect to be spared the cartoonist’s arrows.

The video insulting Muhammad reflected the visceral Islamophobia of its authors. Charlie Hebdo was driven by a different agenda: the refusal to be cowed by a spate of atavistic Islamist religious violence.

Still, I defend the right of the video’s authors even if I loathe what they produced. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its 1969 Brandenburg v. Ohio decision, overturned the conviction of a Ku Klux Klan leader who had menaced political officials with violence, saying that “the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force.” As Glenn Greenwald wrote in The Guardian, “Obviously, if the state cannot suppress speech even where it explicitly advocates violence, then it cannot suppress a video on the ground that it implicitly incites violence.”

The rich maelstrom of ideas in the United States is inextricably tied to this fundamental freedom. It cannot be compromised.

As for the new leaders of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, and the great mass of moderate Muslims, they might recall the words of the late Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeriprotesting the stolen Iranian election of 2009 — an example of God’s supposed will imposed over the will of the people:

“A characteristic of a strong and legitimate government — Islamic or not — is that it is capable of respecting all opinions, whether they support it or oppose it. This is necessary for any political system, in order to embrace all social classes and encourage them to participate in the affairs of their nation, and not dismiss and repulse them.”

Montazeri fell out with Ayatollah Khomeini because his Iranian theocracy was incapable of “respecting all opinions.” Decades on, in this Arab awakening, that challenge remains for political Islam.

Should the Customers or the Prostitutes or Both Be Punished?

A Misguided Moral Crusade

By Noy Thrupkaew

September 22, 2012/ NYT

Beaten. Burned. Branded with a bar code or with a pimp’s name carved into her thigh. Thrown into the trunk of a car for punishment. Forced to provide sexual services for countless callous and violent men. This is the dominant image of young people in the sex trade, and it is fueling deeply flawed campaigns against prostitution.

Galvanized by public outrage and advocacy groups, policy makers have started to push to eradicate all prostitution, not just the trafficking of children into the sex trade. Under the catchphrase “no demand, no supply,” they advocate increasing criminal penalties against men who buy sex — a move they believe will upend the market that fuels prostitution and sex trafficking.

These tactics have gained significant momentum, prompting an initiative by the National Association of Attorneys General, law-enforcement stings and sweeps across the country, and even attempts to prosecute clients as traffickers. The problem is that the “end demand” campaign will harm trafficking victims and sex workers more than it helps them.

In a ballroom at Boston’s upscale Westin Copley Place Hotel this spring, more than 250 law-enforcement officers, advocates and survivors of the sex trade, sat riveted, some openly weeping, as they watched a video of a young woman in a dreary motel room, taking her clothes off, telling her grim life story to one uncaring, unhearing man after another. The videos’s final message: If men didn’t buy her, pimps couldn’t sell her.

For these modern-day abolitionists, ending all prostitution is the only solution. As Lina Nealon, director of Demand Abolition, told the gathered participants through tears, “Because of the work you are doing, my 2-year-old daughter and my soon-to-be-born daughter will find the idea of buying people for sex as incomprehensible as separate water fountains are to me.”

End-demand advocates’ prototypical victim — an abused teenage girl raised in the blight of the inner city and forced into the sex trade by an older man — does exist. But they disregard the fact that individuals, including boys, men and transgender people, enter the sex trade for a variety of reasons. The pimped girl who has inflamed the public’s imagination needs government services and protection, not to be made into a symbolic figure in an ideological battle to eradicate the entire sex industry, which, like many other sectors, includes adults laboring in conditions ranging from upscale to exploitative, from freely chosen to forced.

Unfortunately, despite their righteous anger, the end-demand crowd is quick to dismiss what many sex workers actually have to say. Some activists have gone so far as to brand those who criticize their campaign as “house slaves” unable to recognize their own oppression.

The end-demand crusade is premised on the idea that all prostitution is inherently exploitative. Some end-demand advocates came to their position from their work against pornography in the 1980s; others worked with a coalition of conservatives and evangelical Christians during George W. Bush’s presidency to abolish prostitution. Not surprisingly, these abolitionists ignore the legal distinctions between prostitution and human trafficking. Federal law states that trafficking for forced prostitution occurs only when a commercial sex act is induced through force, fraud or coercion, or when the person induced to perform it is under 18. Indeed, not all prostitution is trafficking, and not all trafficking — as those exploited and sexually assaulted in homes, fields and factories across our nation know too well — is prostitution.

Although it emerged out of anti-trafficking rhetoric, the end-demand campaign is actually a movement to change prostitution policy from our current legal framework — the criminalization of both buying and selling sex — to the “Swedish model,” in which selling sex is not illegal, but buying sex is a criminal offense. (Two other models exist: full legalization with government regulation and registration of sex workers, as in the Netherlands, and full decriminalization of both buying and selling sex with minimal state oversight, as in New Zealand.)

Based on an appealing, proactive vision of gender justice, the Swedish model has caught on in Iceland and Norway — even though it hasn’t panned out as planned in Sweden, where street-level prostitution dropped temporarily after the law took effect in 1999, only to climb again. Sweden’s sex workers say they are forced to rush negotiations and have to rely more on intermediaries to access wary clients. Prostitution hasn’t gone away; it’s simply gone underground.

Translating Swedish laws into an American context presents even more problems. America lacks the extensive services of Sweden’s social welfare state, which are vital to anyone leaving the sex trade. And American politicians don’t want to be seen as soft on crime or morally lax, making it unlikely that selling sex could ever be decriminalized here.

In this environment, any uptick in law-enforcement actions aimed at buyers inevitably results in increased criminalization of those selling sex. New York City’s “Operation Losing Proposition” earlier this year resulted in nearly 200 arrests; the operation allegedly targeted the demand side of prostitution, but it netted 10 individuals who sell sex as well. Attempting to implement the Swedish law in our punitive environment would most likely mean the criminalization of even more of those it’s intended to help — without a Scandinavian-style safety net for those leaving the life.

“You will see that in any country, when you criminalize both parts, the police go for the women,” said Kasja Wahlberg, a Swedish detective and the country’s rapporteur on human trafficking. According to Meagan Morris, a Colorado researcher who has studied law-enforcement approaches to prostitution, even so-called “victim-centered” approaches disproportionately hurt women, leaving them more vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation because they have criminal records, which limit their access to affordable housing and sustainable-wage jobs.

End-demand strategies could also lead to more pressure on sex workers from pimps and traffickers. “Pimps don’t accept the rationale that there’s a new law and fewer johns now,” said Paul Holmes, a counter-trafficking expert and former Scotland Yard official. “So if a girl is working 16 hours, she’ll have to work 20, and under more brutality. You’ll also drive the trade underground, which makes it more dangerous for them and more difficult for us.”

However well-intentioned law-enforcement strategies might be, they have been engineered with little attention to the wants and needs of sex workers — and to the violence many of them have faced from government employees.

A study in Illinois found that police account for 30 percent of all reported abuse, compared with just 4 percent arising from pimps. According to one young person cited in the Young Women’s Empowerment Project’s study: “I was going to meet a new john. It turned out to be a sting set up by the cops. He got violent with me, handcuffed me and then raped me. He cleaned me up for the police station, and I got sentenced to four months in jail for prostitution.”

In New York, a woman who was trafficked into the sex trade as a minor told me sometimes “the cops are the ones abusing you, taking your money, beating you up” and they offer no help “even if I get raped” by a john. “I’ve had to provide services more than once in exchange for not being arrested,” she added. “Who is really going to hold them accountable?”

THE best law-enforcement strategy to prevent trafficking into forced prostitution is not an end-demand campaign that harms current sex workers. What’s needed instead is a commitment to seriously investigate and prosecute traffickers and impose harsh punishment on those who rape and assault sex workers. Police departments also need public ombudsmen, tough internal-affairs bureaus and vigorous monitoring to combat corruption and abuse. If those in the sex trade felt comfortable reporting rape to the police rather than running from them, police departments would have a much easier time discovering cases of trafficking.

But law enforcement is only one part of the solution. Many young people living on the streets turn to “survival sex” in exchange for food or shelter — and many do so without an intermediary. “I ran away from all the drug activity at home at 11,” one woman in Chicago told me. “I had to do it just to have somewhere to sleep, something to eat.”

Nearly 90 percent of the minors profiled in a John Jay College study indicated they wanted to leave “the life” — but cited access to stable housing as one of the biggest obstacles. In New York City alone, almost 4,000 homeless youths lack stable housing, yet there are barely more than 100 long-term shelter beds to serve them.

Starting in 2008, staff members at the Queens County AIDS Center could barely get the door open on cold days: the office was packed with young people sleeping on the floor. One of them was Donna, a transgender 25-year-old who started selling sex at 13 after running away from abusive foster and group homes.

For people like Donna, ending demand for prostitution is not the answer; satisfying the demand for basic social services is. Shelter, job opportunities and a responsive and sensitive law-enforcement system are vital to those who want to leave the trade. “People call you a survivor after you leave the life,” Donna told me. “But I was a survivor when I was in it.” She added: “I didn’t really like prostituting. But then, I had no other way out.” 

Save These Documents Going Waste at the Karachi University

Important historical documents from before and after the creation of Pakistan lie locked away in a forgotten room in the basement of Dr Mahmud Husain Library at Karachi University. Box files, made of cardboard and wood are stacked on top of one another next to a window on an iron shelf.

The room hasn’t been cleaned in so long that besides the cupboards and files, even framed pictures in a see-through glass and wood shelf are coated with a thick layer of dust.

The documents used to be known as the Archives of the Freedom Movement. Now, the section is simply referred to as the Pakistan Section or the Muslim League Section. It was set up when the university acquired the original records of the All India Muslim League (AIML) in 1966.

According to Muslim League Documents (Vol.I:1876-1937) (1990), compiled by Professor Sharif Al Mujahid, when General Ayub Khan declared martial law in 1958 and all political parties were banned and their records seized and assets frozen, the documents were stuffed in bags and dumped on the rooftop  of the Muslim League House whose premises had been allotted to Pakistan Insurance Corporation.

Syed Shamsul Hasan, the joint secretary of the AIML, who kept the records and brought them to Pakistan from Delhi, requested the then foreign minister, Manzoor Qadir, to look into the matter. The records were then moved to the barracks of a building which served as the Pakistan Secretariat.

In 1966 Dr Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, the vice chancellor of Karachi University and Dr Zawwar Hussain Zaidi, who was a senior lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the UK, decided to salvage the documents.

Dr Qureshi approached President Ayub Khan who passed the formal orders on October 7, 1966, for the transfer of documents to the KU. Thus, the records stuffed in 123 gunny bags and 46 steel trunks made their way to Dr Mahmud Husain Library.

Over the years, 13 private collections and newspapers dating back to 1943 have been included in the archives.

The English dailies present in the archives include, the Morning News (from 1943 till 1956), The Times of India (1959) and Dawn (from 1944 till 1947). The private collections include those of Sardar Abdurrab Nishtar, Haji Abdullah Haroon, Sir Ali Imam, the Quaid-i-Azam and Manzar-i-Alam.

However, in 1997, the federal government decided to centralise all the Muslim League documents. All the 625 volumes were photocopied and the originals were shipped to the National Archives in Islamabad.

The photocopies were kept in the university and the Quaid-i-Azam Academy. The rest of the documents are still housed in the little forgotten room.

But with the passage of time and continuous neglect, the condition of the records has come to a state that if they are not preserved immediately, they will be lost in a few years. The pages have turned pale and brittle with age and crack when they are touched. Dust has even penetrated inside the box files and dust mites have grown inside it.

The library also had microfilms of the Dawn newspaper before 1947 but they were destroyed because the temperature of the room they were kept in was not maintained. What could be salvaged from the remaining films was burnt onto six CDs, said Khalid Hussain, who has worked here for 35 years.

“They are the primary sources of history,” said Professor Sharif Al Mujahid, who has served as the director of the Archives of the Freedom Movement and the Quaid-i-Azam Academy. “We will not be able to reconstruct our national history without them.”

Professor Mujahid also played a key role in compiling the documents and adding to the archives themselves. He told Dawn that he had bought the collection of Dawn newspapers, from 1948 to 1957 and included them in the archives, from the records of a former assistant editor who had left the country.

A corridor away from the archives is another room called the Quaid-i-Azam Section. Though the room is in a much better condition, its musty smell and layers of fine dust on dark wooden furniture give away that this room is just as forgotten.

Two beautiful book cases of delicately carved oak line two adjacent walls of the green-carpeted room. In the centre are two wooden sofas and two centre tables. On one of the tables lies a book titled ‘Quaid-i-Azam in Pictures’. Its glossy pages which are turning yellow from the edges have photographs from the beginning of Mr Jinnah’s political career to the bed on which he lay when he left this world.

On the top of the bookshelf in the centre of the room, there are framed originals of the letters written to Mr Jinnah and his sister Fatimah Jinnah from various political leaders and heads of organisations.

On one shelf at the end of the room, is a pamphlet on Direct Action Day of 1946, passed unanimously by the Muslim National Parliament in then Bombay, with Mr Jinnah’s signature adjacent to the proposed map of Pakistan.

The big khaki piece of paper has turned brown and brittle over the years and its clumsy cover of translucent butter paper is torn from several places.

This section was established when a part of the Quaid-i-Azam’s book collection was donated to the university when Mohtarma Fatimah Jinnah died in 1967.

Even after more than three decades the room is a surprise to many, even to some faculty members. There are 1,995 books which date back to as far as 1826. The Quaid took great care of his books and all of them are in excellent condition. The room stays locked, unless a special visitor comes along.

A professor of the KU history department said that the department had planned a two-year diploma course for archival management and was also able to get funds for the project. But they could not find any trained archivists so the project had to be abandoned.

However, Waseem Rana, the incharge for both the sections, claimed that the rooms were open to all. If anyone wanted to come they could ‘take permission’ and see the records.

“We get a lot more visitors now,” said Ms Rana five minutes after her assistant had dusted off the sofas in the Quaid-i-Azam Section.

When she was asked if any steps were being taken to preserve the documents, she said that they were being scanned and burnt onto CDs, but it would take time and there were a lot of projects to be completed before that.

The chief librarian, Rashida Aman, didn’t seem to be aware of the fact that there were still original documents present in the archives.

She insisted that there were only photocopies of the original documents. But when she was informed about the many documents which had not been shipped to the National Archives, she said that she had written to the university administration many times, but hadn’t received a reply.

She also claimed to have spoken to ‘an expert’ and a firm about restoration of the documents, but could not remember their names because she was not in her office.

She later said that she had also requested to close the open ceiling, which opens up in the reading room, of the archives’ room but, she added that the KU was a big place and these things took time.