Mohib, who is critical of Pakistan over its ties with the Taliban, recently accused Islamabad of enabling a violent offensive by the terror group in Afghanistan…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan once again hit out at Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib for what it called his “repeated impertinent and unwarranted remarks” and accused him of trying to “disregard and nullify” the progress made in the Afghan peace process.
In a rejoinder to a tweet by Mohib on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s interview with Afghanistan’s Tolonews, the Pakistan Foreign Office said: “Repeated impertinent and unwarranted remarks” were “a calculated attempt by his office to disregard and nullify the progress in the peace process so far”, Dawn reported.
Mohib, who is critical of Pakistan over its ties with the Taliban, recently accused Islamabad of enabling a violent offensive by the terror group in Afghanistan.
In the interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has sought to absolve the Taliban for the high levels of violence in Afghanistan.
The Afghan NSA had tweeted that Qureshi’s interview “comes as Taliban launches violent offensives against Afghan people across the country, we know how & why they continue to be enabled to do this. Quraishi is either uninformed, ignorant or accomplice. Maybe he also rejects that, Osama was found next to Pakistani Military HQ.”
The war of words erupted between Pakistan officials and Mohib last month when the latter called Pakistan a ‘brothel house’. Islamabad in protest over the remarks ended all official contacts with the Afghan NSA.
Last month, in a public speech in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan National Security Chief, Hamdullah Mohib called Pakistan a “brothel house”
Pakistan’s foreign ministry reacted sharply to remarks by Mohib and called on him to reflect on his statement.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: “The national security adviser of Afghanistan carefully listen to me … as the foreign minister of Pakistan I say that no Pakistani will shake your hand or talk with you if you don’t desist from the kind of language you are using or the accusations you’re making against Pakistan.”
The diplomatic spar comes at a crucial time when US forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan. In the absence of a political settlement, Afghanistan can potentially face another cycle of civil war, reported The Express Tribune.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government has longstanding reservations that Pakistan may be using the Afghan Taliban as a proxy. Pakistan has been long blamed for providing support to Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan. (ANI)
Both Pakistan and Russia have been working to materialise Putin’s visit….reports Asian Lite News
After Pakistan and Russia signed a fresh agreement to lay a gas pipeline, prospects of Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting Islamabad for the very first time were on the cards.
The project, previously named The North-South Gas Pipeline, has now been renamed as Pakistan Steam Gas Pipeline, in which a gas pipeline will be laid from Pakistan’s Karachi city to Kasur.
It is a flagship project between the two countries, which intends to remove the memories of rivalry of the Cold War and bring both countries on the road to bilateral ties.
Both Pakistan and Russia have been working to materialise Putin’s visit.
In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Islamabad after a gap of at least nine years.
As per official details, Lavrov came with a message that Moscow was willing to extend all possible help to Islamabad and create pathways for bilateral relations.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has already extended a formal invitation to President Putin.
Experts have said that with the signing of the Pakistan Steam Pipeline agreement, the visit of President Putin has become even more significant and important.
Pakistan is anxious to have President Putin inaugurate the groundbreaking of the gas pipeline project, which is expected to be held later this year or in early 2022.
Pakistan and Russia are also seeking more avenues of cooperation.
As per sources, Russia is keen on selling arms to Pakistan, something it avoided in the past because of opposition by India.
It is pertinent to mention that both countries have been holding regular joint military exercises since 2016.
Russia and Pakistan are also in close contact in the peace process and ongoing regional security issues including Afghanistan.
The Pakistan Steam Gas Pipeline is a stepping-stone in normalisation of relations between the two countries, which has been strained for years due to Cold War rivalry.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
The project was originally signed in 2015. However, it could not be initiated due to possible sanctions by the US on Russian companies.
Initially, Russia was to built 100 per cent of the pipeline under the “build, operate and transfer” model.
However, with the new and amended agreement, Pakistan will have at least 74 per cent stakes.
The total cost of the project is around $2.25 billion. It will be beneficial in meeting the gas shortage in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Analysts say that the project not only has economic significance but also holds great strategic importance for Pakistan.
Khan had recently directed the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to launch a probe into the RRR project…reports Asian Lite News
Evidence has emerged that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and (Pakistan’s) Punjab chief minister had endorsed the Rawalpindi Ring Road (RRR) project that was being called a scandal.
Khan had recently directed the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to launch a probe into the RRR project and had taken notice of the alleged changes in the route of the project allegedly at the behest of certain private interests, reported The News International.
The changes referred to had been endorsed the PM and the CM themselves. On February 4, 2021, while referring to a meeting held under the chairmanship of PM Imran Khan on the Ring Road and Margalla Highway, the PM Office issued directions that interestingly endorsed what is now seen as the scandalous addition of the ‘Attock loop’ and ‘Paswal Zigzag’ in the RRR project, reported The News International.
According to the PM Office directive, “Keeping in mind the original alignment of the Margalla Highway, part of the Ring Road falling in the Islamabad Capital Territory shall be required and developed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) from its own resources. This will be connected with the Rawalpindi Ring Road leading to the M1 eventually. CDA will acquire the right of way for the road in Zone-2 for development and beyond the ROW, the area will be fenced to make it controlled access.
The above part of the PM’s directive actually talks about what is now known as the ‘Paswal Zigzag’ which connects the Margalla Road with the RRR at Sangjani in Zone-2. Connecting the Margalla Road with the RRR is only possible via Sangjani, which is now being scandalised because the land has been owned by the family of senior bureaucrat Dr Tauqir Shah for centuries and also because Special Assistant to the PM Zulfi Bukhari’s mother belongs to the same Shah family. Zufli Bukhari’s family, however, does not enjoy good relations with the Shahs of Sangjani, reported The News International.
The second part of the Khan’s February 4 directive gives a direction to the Punjab government and it reads: “The eastward portion from the M1, falling in Punjab, be constructed and fenced by the Government of Punjab.”
The “eastern portion from the M1” is what is now being objected to and termed the ‘Attock loop’. According to an informed source, “This decision by the Khan undermines the ‘Attock loop’ and “Paswal zigzag’ story scandal. The PM himself said ‘connect the Margalla Road with the RRR in Zone 2 of the ICT’ — which in a way is like endorsing the alignment adopted by the R3”, reported The News International.
Almost 23 days after the PM’s directive, the Project Review Committee of Punjab’s Public Private Partnership Policy and Monitoring Board met on Feb 17, 2021 under the chairmanship of Dr Salman Shah, advisor to the CM on Economic Affairs. It not only approved the RRR alignment that included the Attock loop and Paswal zigzag portion but also did the costing and financing for the project.
Documents show that the RRR’s alignment, which is now seen as a scandal, was there even in 2020. A CDA document dated March 25, 2020 shows that the Authority issued an NOC to the Rawalpindi Development Authority to connect the RRR with the Margalla Avenue in the Sangjani area.
Another document shows the Chief Minister Punjab chairing a meeting of the PPP Policy & Monitoring Board in September 2020 and deciding to authorise the RDA to develop a “Solicited Project Proposal” for the RRR project on a fast-track basis, reported The News International. (ANI)
PML-N to launch protest against Imran govt's failure
Pakistan is currently in the midst of a deadly third wave of the coronavirus that has forced the government to impose lockdown…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) plans to launch an agitation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Eidul Fitr in protest against the government’s failure to control inflation and unemployment.
“We are going to launch an agitation against the government after Eidul Fitr for its failure to control growing inflation and unemployment if the current coronavirus situation subsides,” The News International quoted Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, the senior vice president of PML-N, as saying on Sunday.
Sardar Yousuf, who is also the PML-N parliamentary leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, said that a delegation of the senior party leaders met Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore and finalised an agitation strategy after Eid.
“Shahbaz Sharif would address public gatherings at divisional level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the Eid. And if the COVID-19 prevails with the same pace then he would address workers conventions at the planned cities,” he said.
He further stated that PML-N’s President Shahbaz Sharif was committed to pulling the country out of the prevailing crises as the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has lost the public mandate, The News International reported.
“Our street agitation would mostly be focused on the high inflation and unemployment as people couldn’t afford two times meals because of the wrong government policies,” said Yousuf.
Meanwhile, over 3,000 children in Pakistan between the age of 1 to 10 years had tested positive for COVID-19 in April, according to data issued by the federal health ministry.
The data showed that 3,315 children between the ages of 1 and 10 years and 12,162 boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 20 years contracted COVID-19 in April, Geo News reported.
Pakistan is currently in the midst of a deadly third wave of the coronavirus that has forced the government to impose lockdown in many areas.
The total tally of COVID-19 cases of the country with the new cases now stands at 834,146. (ANI)
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. (File Photo: IANS)
Blame the dressing for rape! What an excuse! The prime minister should have known that he could not have satisfied everyone. He worsened his problem, and confirmed his own image as a misogynist, when he sought to defend the indefensible by blaming rising incidence of rape on ‘vulgarity’ from outside and on ‘obscenity’ of women dressing and behaving in public …. Dr Sakariya Kareem
Pakistan is again found fighting its demons within – of misogyny that encourages rape of women and children – by pointing fingers at the demons outside, like ‘vulgarity’ purveyed by the Western nations. A non-Western India is also brought in as a convenient alibi for the people to swallow.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, a Western-educated man heading a nation of overwhelmingly conservative Muslims, walked into a dangerous minefield of contrasting views on this vexed subject by addressing a long question-answer telethon.
He should have known that he could not have satisfied everyone. He worsened his problem, and confirmed his own image as a misogynist, when he sought to defend the indefensible by blaming rising incidence of rape on ‘vulgarity’ from outside and on ‘obscenity’ of women dressing and behaving in public.
That opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box. Now, rights groups, the glitterati and the Tweeterati are all trolling him. At the other end of the social spectrum, it is doubtful if he has made the conservatives and the Islamists happy. But his political opponents, most of them who have been misogynists themselves, would be chuckling.
Mr Khan did not touch upon this but the major reason why the crime of rape is so grossly under-reported in Pakistan, with an estimated nine out of 10 cases not even being registered with the police. That hurdle is the tendency of a misogynistic society to blame adult female victims for ‘bringing’ the crime on themselves by their appearance, actions, etc.
For one who spent his young years in the West, with a reputation of having enjoyed the social life, he should have known that whatever he said would open him to criticism. But then, as a politician for nearly three decades, Mr Khan has also been close to and mentored by those, like late Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, who preached religious extremism, violence and terrorism. As opposition leader he had earned the sobriquet of “Taliban Khan.”
Mr Khan would have realised that it is one thing to preach the “rule of Medina”, and quite another to govern a society that, howsoever conservative, is diverse and where women have begun to speak up, even if oppressed, and the media spreads the message, even if suppressed.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), battling admirably on a myriad issues from violence, prison conditions, disappearance of dissenters, attacks on religious minorities and many more, is now compelled to focus on a closely related issue: attacks on women who staged the “Aurat March”, a women’s solidarity movement that occurs annually in many Pakistani cities since 2018 to coincide with the International Women’s Day. The opposition to it was particularly bad this year since the organisers were accused of engaging in saying things – which they clarified they did not – that could attract the dangerous blasphemy law.
“HRCP condemns the use of unethical and inappropriate language against women in the daily Ummat. The newspaper must publish an unconditional apology and refrain from using such language in future,” the commission said.
The HRCP tactically skirted the controversy over the prime minister’s telethon over what he said and/or implied, and chose to focus on Ummat newspaper that used expletives against the marching women and held 14 countries responsible for spreading ‘vulgarity’ that promoted crime against women in Pakistan.
The Ummat list looked like an elaboration of what the prime minister said. Both agreed on one issue: that women attract crime and criminals by dressing ‘inappropriately.’ Both blamed women and Mr Khan, while condemning crime, explained that not every male in the society had ‘self-control’ to resist what he considered ‘vulgarity’ in women venturing out alone, and dressing and behaving in public. He implicitly put the onus largely on women, wanting them to ‘behave’.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) tactically skirted the controversy over the prime minister’s telethon over what he said and/or implied, and chose to focus on Ummat newspaper that used expletives against the marching women and held 14 countries responsible for spreading ‘vulgarity’ that promoted crime against women in Pakistan
Mr Khan did not touch upon this but the major reason why the crime of rape is so grossly under-reported in Pakistan, with an estimated nine out of 10 cases not even being registered with the police. That hurdle is the tendency of a misogynistic society to blame adult female victims for ‘bringing’ the crime on themselves by their appearance, actions, etc.
In a highly publicised case last November of a woman with two minor children stranded on the highway being raped, the then Lahore city police chief had suggested that the motorway rape victim bore some responsibility for her ordeal by being out late at night. He had asked why she was not accompanied by a male family member.
After a spate of such horrific rape cases – another being rape and murder of a six year old Sabina kidnapped from outside her house, President Arif Alvi last December promulgated the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020. It expanded the definition of rape in terms of what acts constitute this crime and who can be defined as a victim, a much-needed step. The ordinance also stipulates measures to make the offence more prosecutable and act as a deterrent to its commission. These include anti-rape crisis cells; special courts for speedy trials of such cases; the establishment of a countrywide registry of sex offenders; and chemical castration of rapists, which is controversial on several fronts.
Mr Khan admitted that enacting laws alone was not enough and the society had to fight misogyny together. But, Dawn newspaper said in its editorial: “He mentioned several times that we as a society should fight rape and “vulgarity” but he never mentioned educating people on why this is wrong. By blaming vulgarity, he’s removing the onus from the rapist. What he should be saying is we must teach men that rape is wrong regardless of what the victim is wearing or doing.”
Undoubtedly, rape is not exclusive to any single country or society and occurs globally. But as Maria Amir writes in Dawn: “In Pakistan, rape culture is not only systemic, it is reinforced at every level. The idea that men simply cannot be expected to control their baser impulses in the presence of women has been normalised.”
