LAHORE, Feb 10: Civic, industrial and commercial activities almost came to a halt as most areas of Punjab passed Monday without gas due to an explosion in three main pipelines in Rahimyar Khan the previous day. Gas authorities say the situation will start improving from Tuesday (today).
“It is perhaps the worst-ever gas pipeline blast in Punjab as it caused over 45 per cent gas shortfall (700mmcfd) in the 1650mmcfd quota allocated for the province in winter. Before the incident, 950mmcfd was flowing in the blown-up pipelines,” Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told Dawn on Monday.
He said SNGPL teams had started repair work and hoped that supply to domestic consumers would be restored by Tuesday afternoon and that to industry by Wednesday afternoon.
He said the gas pipelines of 18-, 42- and 36-inch diameter had been damaged by the blasts, but luckily a 24-inch pipeline remained safe. This enabled the SNGPL to provide gas to domestic consumers partially on Monday. “However, most domestic consumers are either facing extreme low gas pressure or getting no gas,” Mr Abbasi said.
He said he had asked an additional secretary of the ministry to hold an inquiry into the blast. Rahimyar Khan District Police Officer Sohail Zafar Chattha said initial police findings suggested that the blasts might have been caused by gas leakage. He said police had collected some metal parts from the site and sent them to a laboratory for analysis. Police will be in a position to say whether it was a terrorist activity or accident only after receiving a report from the laboratory.
Mr Chattha said police had found an IED (improvised explosive device) in the same site a month ago. “We gave a cash award of Rs10,000 to the man who provided the information about presence of the IED.”
He said police had recently provided SNGPL security guards to protect its pipelines and other installations, but the company was required to hire its own guards.
Life was badly affected in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Sargodha, Sahiwal and other towns and cities in the province.
In Lahore, the situation was miserable as a majority of people, including schoolchildren, left homes without having breakfast. There was no gas for commercial ovens (Tandoor), leaving the people with no option but to arrange food from bakeries.
People were also seen either buying firewood or LPG cylinders for cooking.
“You cannot imagine how we spent the whole day. After sending my children to school and husband to his office on empty stomach, I myself came out to purchase some wood to prepare lunch,” said Sakina of Rehmanpura (Ichra).
Aqeel Ahmad, of Wapda Town, said he burnt some waste furniture wood lying at his home to help his wife cook something.
Saleem Shahid adds from Quetta: The banned Baloch Republican Army has claimed responsibility for the blasts in the gas pipelines in Rahimyar Khan. Calling journalists from an unidentified place on Monday, its spokesman Sarbaz Baloch said the BRA had blown up the pipelines because these were supplying gas to Punjab from the Sui gas field in Dera Bugti district, Balochistan.
Baloch youth picked up (Credit: balochistanhcrblogspot.com)
KHUZDAR – Khuzdar administration on Monday exhumed at least 11 more decomposed bodies from a mass grave discovered in Mayy area of Tutak, about 50-kilometre from Khuzdar city. The bodies are too decomposed to be recognised. A couple of days earlier on Sunday, two bodies were recovered from same area.
“At least 11 decomposed bodies were brought to District Headquarters Hospital Khuzdar,” said medics at hospital adding, “The bodies were decomposed beyond recognition like the two discovered earlier in Tutak, a desolate place far away from the main population centre.”
Total 13 bodies have so far been recovered and all of them were buried in Police Line graveyard in Khuzdar in presence of law enforcing agencies.
Deputy Commissioner Khuzdar Waheed Shah said that Balochistan levies personnel have again started digging the area. The identity of the bodies could not be ascertained; however, he added, that DNA test might help determine the identities.
“There could be few more, as we saw human remains,” said an official on the condition of anonymity. Presence of vulture and other wild birds attracted the attention of the shepherds who informed the district administration about the mass grave.
Baloch nationalist parties and relatives of the missing persons claimed that the victims could have been abducted and killed in official custody. “We fear that these bodies belonged to missing persons. Judiciary and Human Rights Watch should press the government to carryout a transparent investigation into this humanitarian issue,” said nationalists.
A shutter-down strike was observed in different Baloch-dominated districts on the call of Baloch National Front. The strike was observed in Turbat, Panjgour, Nushki, Kalat, Mastung and others area of the province where shops and markets remained shut.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan voiced its serious concern over the discovery of decomposed bodies in Khuzdar district, calling upon the federal and Balochistan government to urgently establish identity of the deceased and their killers.
In letters written to the federal interior minister and Balochistan chief minister, the HRCP noted that the bodies were far too decomposed to be recognisable. So far there was no information about who the deceased were and who killed them. Initial reports suggested that the persons had died around a month earlier and parts of their bodies had been eaten by wild animals.
According to reports and eye-witness accounts, there was a camp in the neighbourhood where some proxy gangs operated against the tribesmen who were not supporting them. It is more possible that the opponents were picked up, killed and dumped in the mass grave as a part of policy.
The HRCP demanded that a thorough probe must be initiated and all efforts made to establish the facts in the case and bring the perpetrators to justice. If necessary, DNA tests should be conducted at the earliest to identity the deceased, it added.
“Such an investigation is all the more vital in view of the spate of violence, targeted killings and enforced disappearance and dumping of dead bodies of missing persons in Balochistan in recent years. The HRCP also called upon the government to facilitate relatives of missing persons who are keen to learn if the deceased included their dear ones.
The HRCP also urged the federal and provincial governments to find a solution to the violence, lawlessness and killings in Balochistan and stressed that such a solution must respect due process and human rights and that emphasis should be placed on finding political means to address the challenges.
LAHORE, Feb 7- The US has added the founder of a banned Pakistani militant group to its list of global terrorists, blaming him for the deaths of hundreds of Pakistanis.
Malik Ishaq is the founding member and leader of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), a banned Sunni Muslim organization dedicated to killing or driving out Pakistan’s minority Shi’ite Muslims.
“In 1997, Malik Ishaq admitted his involvement in terrorist activity that resulted in the deaths of over 100 Pakistanis,” the US State Department said on its Web site in a statement posted on Thursday.
It noted he had also been arrested in connection with twin bombings in the western Pakistani city of Quetta that killed about 200 people last year.
“LJ specializes in armed attacks and bombings and has admitted responsibility for numerous killings of Shi’ite religious and civil society leaders in Pakistan,” the State Department said.
The designations means anyone who supports Ishaq or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi could have their assets frozen by the US government.
Ishaq’s deputy and spokesman said the decision to list Ishaq was the result of a conspiracy between the United States and Iran, a majority Shi’ite country.
About 20 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people are Shi’ite.
“The US administration took the step on Iran’s instigation,” said the spokesman, Hafiz Ghulam Rasool Shah.
“Malik Ishaq was acquitted by Pakistan’s courts and he is leading the life of an honorable and peaceful citizen of Pakistan.”
Ishaq has spent 14 years in jail on dozens of murder or terrorism charges and was in prison when some of the attacks happened. He was eventually acquitted.
“The US made the decision in the wake of attack on Sri Lankan Cricket team in Lahore. When the incident occurred, Ishaq was in Multan district jail,” he said, referring to a deadly 2009 attack on the sports team.
“Right now, Ishaq is in jail on the charges of making hatred speeches only.”
In 2012, Ishaq told Reuters that Shi’ites were the “greatest infidels on earth” and that Pakistan should declare them non-Muslims.
“Whoever insults the companions of the Holy Prophet should be given a death sentence,” Ishaq declared.
KLF features book displays (Credit: chowrangi.pk.)
Karachi, Feb 7: The Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) begins in Karachi at the Beach Luxury Hotel till February 9. It will have 100-plus sessions featuring 200 speakers from 11 countries.
Over 180 Pakistani and 34 international authors, poets and academics will grace the Festival.
According to Ameena Sayyid and KLF director Asif Farrukhi awards will be given to authors for three different prize categories: KLF-Coca-Cola Best Non-Fiction Book Prize, KLF-Embassy of France Prize, and KLF Peace Prize.
The panel of judges for the prizes include some of Pakistan’s most eminent critics, writers and scholars, who have short-listed three books for each prize category.
According to the programme, proceedings on the opening day will commence with a discussion with Moni Mohsin; a session titled ‘The Power of the Fourth Estate’; and a session on Faiz. These will be followed by a conversation with Mustansar Hussain Tarar; a session with Bushra Ansari; a session on ‘Literature and Music in Pakistan’ with Tina Sani, Zeb Bangash, and Sarmad Khoosat as panellists; readings by Intizar Hussain with the launch of Silver Jubilee edition of his novel Basti, and a conversation with Rajmohan Gandhi. The first day will end with a Mushaira.
Important sessions on the second day of the festival include ‘Contemporary Fiction at Home and the Diaspora’; New Voices in Sindhi Poetry’; ‘Shayer e Awam: Habib Jalib’; ‘Glitter of the Silver Screen’; ‘Qawwali Music and the Sufi Poetry Tradition’; conversations with Kamila Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan, Zehra Nigah, and Raza Ali Abidi; dramatic storytelling by Nadia Jamil; and Dastangoi by Danish Hussain, Darain Shahidi and Mahmood Farooqui.
Highlights of the third day will include sessions on ‘Baloch Literature and Landscapes’; ‘Karachi: From Stone Age to Cyber Age’; ‘Bringing Down the Gender Walls’; ‘Drama and the Small Screen’ with Haseena Moin, Sultana Siddiqui, Shakeel, Seema Taher Khan and Attiya Dawood as speakers; conversations with Ashis Nandy, Navid Shahzad, Mohammed Hanif, Amar Jaleel, and Abdullah Hussain; Readings by Zia Mohyeddin; ‘Chulbuk Chori’ a play by Thespians Theatre; screenings of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s films; kathak performance by Nahid Siddiqui; and a concert by Laal.
The festival will include launches of about 28 books including Dr Rajmohan Gandhi’s book Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten, The Kashmir Dispute 1947 by A.G. Noorani, I’ll Find My Way an anthology of short stories edited by Muniza Naqvi, The Rest is Silence: Zahoor ul Ikhlaq: Art and Society in Pakistan, Jazeera Sukhanwaran by Ghulam Abbas, Delhi by Heart by Raza Rumi, The Prisoner by Omer Shahid Hamid, Urdu Afsanay by Hasan Manzar, and What’s Wrong with Pakistan? By Babar Ayaz.
ISLAMABAD, Feb 1 — Ramesh Iqbal lives in one of the Pakistani capital’s middle-class neighborhoods and attends college. But on a recent day, he and two friends emerged from a wooded area, their arms full of the logs and branches they had to gathered to warm their homes.
“We never thought we would face such a situation,” said Iqbal, 24, wearing a sweater over a collared shirt. “But due to winter, and cold, we are facing problems.”
In a country where about 20 percent of residents lack basic utilities, generations of poor and rural Pakistanis have relied on timber to make it through the winter. But severe energy shortages are turning even wealthier families into wood scavengers.
They snap branches, uproot saplings and hack trees, and they carry their bounty any way they can — by truck, motorcycle and even bicycle. And with each trip, Pakistan loses another piece of its tree canopy, an alarming trend for one of the world’s least forested countries.
Environmentalists and government officials fear Pakistan is now at a tipping point, having retained just 2 to 5 percent of its tree cover. Officials fear the deforestation will contribute to more lethal floods, disruptive landslides, bacteria-ridden drinking water and stifling air pollution. The country may also become more vulnerable to climate change.
“This is a very dangerous situation for Pakistan,” said Pervaiz Amir, a local forestry and agriculture expert. “The middle class are now cutting trees and burning trees.”
But convincing the public of the value of tree cover has been a tough sell, especially this year, when electricity is out for up to 10 hours each day and the natural gas supply is often too low to power heaters and stoves.
Even in Islamabad, known as one of the greenest capitals in Asia because of the nearby Margalla Hills National Park, wooded areas and vacant lots are being slashed, leaving behind rows of twisted, yellow, ankle-high sapwood.
Shortages of gas, electric
Under British colonial rule, Pakistan was sparsely populated and largely avoided the tree-cutting that stripped many other areas in South Asia of greenery. Pakistan had towering timber forests in the north, coniferous forests in its western hills and lush mangrove forests where its southern border meets the Indian Ocean.
But as Pakistan’s population grew from about 37 million in 1947, when it was partitioned from India, to an estimated 180 million residents today, forests were rapidly depleted. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, more than 1 million Afghans fled into Pakistan, often moving into makeshift camps carved out of previously forested areas.
More recently, Pakistan has struggled to combat a relentless “timber mafia,” a term that loosely defines individuals and organized groups who illegally cut and sell timber without a permit. Over the years, there have been numerous allegations that police and forestry officials have accepted kickbacks from the lucrative industry.
“In my father’s times, some 70-80 years back, there were forests and tall trees on almost every hill, but now most are barren,” said Muhammad Afzal Khan, a former federal minister in the scenic Swat Valley, which has been particularly hard-hit by illegal cutting. “The forest officials are part of the problem — [they are] not the protectors.”
Now, the shortage of natural gas for heating and cooking is increasingly prompting people to build fires in portable fireplaces and stoves. Though Pakistan had a plentiful supply of natural gas a decade ago, a surge in demand and poor efficiency standards have led to a steady decrease in supplies in recent winters.
“This is the first time we’ve had to collect wood, as there was no gas crisis like this before,” said Khalid Nazir, 35, a tailor in Islamabad.
Syed Mahmood Nasir, Pakistan’s inspector general for forests, said he’s particularly concerned that large factories in major cities such as Karachi are also burning wood for heat because of electric and gas shortages.
“This should be a concern not only for Pakistan, but a global concern,” Nasir said.
Even before this year, the World Bank had estimated that just 2.1 percent of Pakistan had forest cover, compared with 23 percent in neighboring India and 33 percent in the United States. Pakistani leaders dispute that figure, saying satellite-generated data reveal a forestation rate of about 5.1 percent.
But government officials acknowledge the problem and fear deforestation is worsening the impact of extreme weather, contributing to tragedies such as the record-setting floods in 2010 that covered one-fifth of the country and killed more than 1,50o people.
Even before this winter, Pakistan was losing 67,500 acres of forestland annually, according to government statistics. Amir estimated that the country needs to plant 1.5 trillion to 2 trillion trees to begin reversing the damage, saying one acre can hold up to 2,500 saplings.
“If you look at satellites, there is no tree cover in public forests; they are all gone,” said Amir, who is also a South Asia expert for the Global Water Partnership, which advocates for sustainable development and water management.
Officials say Pakistan is planting about 100 million saplings each year, but about half of them die within two years. Environmentalists are skeptical of the figures.
Raja Hasan Abbas, secretary of the federal government’s Climate Change Division, said there is only so much that Pakistan’s cash-starved government can do as it struggles with debt, a weak economy and near-daily terrorist attacks.
“The government of Pakistan has limitations,” Abbas said.
Little incentive to sustain
In December, Pakistan secured a $3.8 million grant from the World Bank to study the extent of deforestation and begin drafting strategies for curtailing it. Naeem Ashraf Raja, the director of Pakistan’s biodiversity program, said officials also hope to convince the United States and other foreign donors to help launch programs to compensate landowners who agree not to cut trees. Currently, there is little incentive for Pakistanis to preserve green space on private land.
Azhar Javed, who has run a timber market on the outskirts of Islamabad, said demand has driven up prices by about 30 percent this year. While good for business, the price hike encourages illegal logging, and Javed is worried about the long-term sustainability of his business.
“The people who live in forest areas are uneducated, unemployed . . .so they just cut trees and cut forests,” Javed said. “And they don’t have money for replantation.”
A 48-year-old man who was carrying dozens of branches on his head as he walked on a hillside road above Islamabad said he collects wood for several hours a day, including in the Margalla Hills National Park, and sells what he can carry for about $3.50.
“I have no job,” said the man, Akhtar, who uses only one name. “ And this is the only way I am earning for my four kids.”
Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.
UK prosecutors have asked Pakistan to trace two suspects believed to have been involved in the 2010 murder of Imran Farooq, a senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
He was stabbed outside his home in Edgware, London, close to the Pakistani political party’s international HQ.
Documents obtained by BBC Newsnight name the suspects as Mohsin Ali Syed and Mohammed Kashif Khan Kamran.
They are believed to be in Pakistani custody but not under formal arrest.
The investigation into Mr Farooq’s murder has seen more than 4,000 people interviewed, but so far the only person arrested in the case has been Iftikhar Hussain, the nephew of MQM’s London-based leader Altaf Hussain.
Iftikhar Hussain was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, but is now on police bail. It is an arrest the party says was based on wrong information.
MQM senator Farogh Naseem has described Iftikhar Hussain as “not a person who is really with himself mentally”. He said Iftikhar Hussain had suffered at the hands of the Pakistani authorities.
In November 2011 – 14 months after the murder – Metropolitan Police chief Bernard Hogan-Howe said his force was liaising with Pakistani authorities over two arrests believed to have been made in Karachi.
Since then, however, the force has refused to confirm or deny that it is seeking Pakistani assistance.
The Pakistani government has denied anyone has been arrested and officials have failed to respond to questions about the request from the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service.
The documents, obtained by Newsnight from official sources in Pakistan, suggest Mohsin Ali Syed and Mohammed Kashif Khan Kamran secured UK visas on the basis of being granted admission to the London Academy of Management Sciences (LAMS), in east London.
The documents name two other men. One is Karachi-based businessman Muazzam Ali Khan, of Comnet Enterprises, who is believed to have endorsed the suspects’ UK visa applications and was in regular contact with Iftikhar Hussain throughout 2010.
In 2011, police released an e-fit image of a suspect in the murder case
The other is Atif Siddique, an educational consultant in Karachi, who is believed to have processed them.
Atif Siddique said he was not the agent of LAMS and did not know the two suspects.
Mr Ali Khan has not responded to e-mails and phone calls offering him the chance to respond.
A director of the college, Asif Siddique – Atif Siddique’s brother – has confirmed the two students were meant to study there. One of them registered, but failed to attend.
LAMS is designated as a “highly trusted” partner of the UK Border Agency, which means it is supposed to report the non-attendance of students within 10 days of the 10th missed student encounter with staff. Asif Siddique said the college had reported one of the student’s non-attendance to the UK authorities in May 2012.
‘Under surveillance’
The Home Office has refused to say whether or not it believes LAMS broke the rules for reporting non-attendance, but has said it is not currently investigating the college.
Mohsin Ali Syed, in his late 20s, arrived in the UK in February 2010. He moved between a number of London addresses, including bedsits in Tooting, in south London, and Whitchurch Lane, in Edgware.
Mohammed Kashif Khan Kamran arrived in the UK in early September 2010. Phone records indicate the two moved around together and it is believed they kept Mr Farooq under surveillance.
Altaf Hussain has widespread support in Karachi but is based in Edgware
The murder weapons were left at the scene of the crime and the documents seen by Newsnight state that the British authorities are seeking DNA samples as evidence that could be used in a British court.
Records show that both men left the UK on 16 September 2010, a few hours after the murder had happened, and flew to Sri Lanka, and then on to Karachi on the 19 September.
According to immigration officials in Pakistan, security officials picked them up on the tarmac before they left Karachi airport. Pakistani security sources deny that the men were picked up as a result of a British tip-off.
Whereabouts unknown
Documents lodged with Sindh High Court refer to another man, Khalid Shamim, who is believed to have helped the two suspects return to Pakistan. His wife has started legal proceedings in the court in an attempt to trace his whereabouts.
The MQM, Karachi’s dominant political party, describes itself as a modern, secular and middle class party. Senior party figures say it offers the best chance of opposing the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan’s largest city.
It insists it is a peaceful party, but its opponents complain that the UK allows it to use London as a safe haven from which it can organise its violent control of Karachi.
The party says it wants to co-operate with the murder inquiry, but insists it has nothing to do with the case and accuses UK police of harassment.
Last month, Altaf Hussain complained police were making his life “hell”.
KARACHI, Jan 30: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said on Thursday it had no links with the two persons identified in a BBC programme as suspects in the murder of Dr Imran Farooq, a senior leader of the party.
The party criticised BBC for making a documentary against the MQM and its chief Altaf Hussain and said the purpose of “the media trial” was to “influence the courts as well as the murder investigation in the UK”.
In its Newsnight programme, the broadcaster named Pakistani students Mohsin Ali Syed and Mohammad Kashif Khan Kamran as the suspects. It said the record showed that the two left the UK on Sept 16, 2010, a few hours after the assassination, and flew to Sri Lanka and then on Sept 19 to Karachi. They were detained in the city.
Mr Farooq was stabbed outside his home in Edgware, London, near the MQM’s international headquarters.
At a press conference in Karachi, MQM leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui made it clear that the party had no links with the two “suspects” and that it was the responsibility of the British government to charge them with the murder.
He said the MQM also did not know Atif Siddique, the person named as the sponsor of the two men for their UK visa.
The MQM leader wondered why the British authorities had allowed Mr Syed and Mr Kamran to leave the UK if they were wanted for their involvement in Dr Farooq’s assassination.
Accompanied by Dr Farooq Sattar and Barrister Farogh A. Nasim, Dr Siddiqui said that the MQM was being victimised in the UK. He said Mr Hussain was a coin collector, but the British investigators had seized his collection and also the laptop of his daughter.
Rejecting the report, the MQM leaders said that Muttahida believed in freedom of the press, but the BBC programme was aimed at spreading false propaganda and “we believe it is the media trial of the MQM and Mr Hussain”. Barrister Nasim said the report was based on speculation and contained no fact.
He said he had responded to the allegation of money laundering in the BBC programme, but that part was edited out. He said BBC was being fed misleading information by the MQM’s opponents and announced that a legal course of action would be adopted against it.
PROSECUTORS’ REQUEST: According to the BBC report, British prosecutors have asked Pakistan to trace Mr Syed and Mr Kamran, who are believed to be in Pakistani custody but not under formal arrest.
The investigation has seen more than 4,000 people interviewed, but so far the only person arrested has been Iftikhar Hussain, nephew of the MQM’s chief.
Iftikhar Hussain was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, but is now on police bail. It is an arrest the MQM says was based on wrong information.
Barrister Nasim described Iftikhar Hussain as “not a person who is really with himself mentally” and added that Iftikhar Hussain had suffered at the hands of the Pakistani authorities.
In November 2011, Metropolitan Police chief Bernard Hogan-Howe said his organisation was liaising with Pakistani authorities over the arrests.
The Pakistan government has denied anyone has been arrested and officials had not replied to questions about the request from the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service.
Documents obtained by BBC from official sources in Pakistan suggest Mr Syed and Mr Kamran secured UK visas on the basis of admission to the London Academy of Management Sciences (Lams).
The documents name two other men. One is Karachi-based businessman Muazzam Ali Khan, who is believed to have endorsed the suspects’ UK visa applications and was in contact with Iftikhar Hussain throughout 2010
The other is Atif Siddique, an educational consultant in Karachi, who is believed to have processed them. Mr Siddique said he was not the agent of Lams and did not know the two suspects.
Mr Syed arrived in the UK in February 2010 and Mr Kamran in early September 2010.
Phone records indicate the two moved around together and it is believed they kept Mr Farooq under surveillance.
Two catastrophic temblors jolted Awaran and Kech districts of Balochistan in September last year. While the episode has been obscured by a series of new headlines in media, miseries continue to shake the affectees.
According to the data of the National Disaster Management Authority, 386 people were killed and 816 injured. Malar and Mashkai tehsils of Awaran were the worst hit. The NDMA confirms more than 32,000 houses were flattened out and more than 14,000 partially damaged. Unofficial sources claim that the digits are watered down. Numbers aside, death and devastation is certainly enormous. Life is still scrambling through the heaps of debris particularly in Awaran district. Countless people are still homeless taking shelter with their relatives and acquaintances in neighbouring Lasbela, Hub and other areas.
Local communities bemoan that only a fraction of the promised compensation has been disbursed by the government. Hundreds of hapless families are unable to reconstruct their mud houses. Most of the schools and health facilities are not yet restored.
Balochistan is a chronic victim of natural and unnatural miseries. Earthquakes, floods and droughts keep visiting the province frequently. Socio-economic indicators of the province are at sub-human level and Awaran is among the bottom districts of the province. Awaran is victim of a double whammy i.e. distressful human development indicators and pervasive militancy. The district is among the least developed areas of the country and the disaster has further devastated the poverty-stricken people.
In a national ranking of districts carried out by a renowned research organisation Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), Awaran was 20th most deprived among 26 districts of the province in 2001. It ranked as 93rd most deprived among 100 districts in the country. Another study of SPDC “Social and Economic Development Ranking of Districts of Pakistan” also ranked Awaran at 84th number out of 94 districts. SPDC and the World Food Program reports show 54 per cent population as poor in the district.
Awaran is the 4th largest district of the province, sparsely populated with only four persons dwelling per sq. kilometre. According to the district profile of Awaran published by “Punjab Lok Sujag”, agriculture and livestock are the two major sources of livelihood. Out of 488 villages in Awaran and neighbouring Lasbela district only 83 have dispensaries. Most of these health facilities are ailing from shortage of doctors, paramedical staff, medicine and equipment.
At the time of earthquake, the district-headquarter hospital had only one doctor seen confounded to manage thousands of injured. Even first aid services were not available to meet the unexpected flow of patients. It compelled the authorities to transport hundreds of injured to Karachi and other areas to save their lives.
Poverty is rampant as 88 children out of 1000 live births die within five years and 47 per cent children are underweight. Women are at the bottom of the pit with only 11 per cent girls availing the luxury of secondary education. According to the district profile conducted by Balochistan’s Planning and Development Department in collaboration with the Unicef in 2011, the total population of Awaran district stood at 124,000 and only 49 per cent of the people had national identity cards (NICs). Not having CNIC deprives one from even relief supplies during disaster and invites humiliation when roadside frisking is carried out by security agencies.
Immediately after the earthquake, relief operations were commenced. However, the efforts of national and international humanitarian groups suffered severe impediments mainly because of security related confinements. International aid agencies were not allowed to operate and national humanitarian agencies were denied a sacrosanct NoC and thus restricted from mobilising much-needed resources. All this was done under the pretext of security concerns.
While relief work was going on, an operation was also launched in the worst-hit parts of the district. Militancy is an undeniable reality in the area. There were instances when the government functionaries were intimidated and deterred from working in the area. Rockets were fired when the chief minister visited the area with his entourage. Baloch nationalist groups alleged that security agencies are trying to control the area hitherto dominated by insurgents. It triggered a fresh spate of skirmishes.
In such a hostile situation, local youth and male family members avoided risking their lives and thus couldn’t move to collect relief goods as the routes were unsafe and local people, specially youth, were being stalked. It multiplied the miseries of ordinary disaster victims who suffered agonies and pains merely for belonging to this area. Women suffered the most as they remain immobile due to traditional strictures. Since male-folk could not move fearlessly, it deprived women affectees of food, medicine, water & sanitation and shelter support. Women-specific needs hardly drew any attention in this bedlam and chaos. In fact the government lost an opportunity to reintegrate the disgruntled local communities.
Because of harsh attitude of security personnel, local communities are already dejected. Restricting relief operation has further fortified their alienation. It would have been strategically prudent to facilitate relief work rather than hampering it to provide much needed solace to local communities. Thousands of affectees were denied rightful relief support due to unnecessary confinements.
Realising the intensity of miseries of local communities and lackluster relief work, at one stage the Chief Minister of Balochistan, Dr Abdul Malik, made a desperate appeal for international aid but the federal government rejected his requests and refused to issue no-objection certificates to the UN and other international agencies. Arguably, the appeal for international aid should be the last resort and one should realise that if a chief minister of the province resorted to that, it must have justified reasons.
If provinces are authorised to seek foreign loans and investments, there is no reason to deny their right to seek international support during emergencies if response is listless and insufficient. Whereas international aid appeal injures national self-esteem and pride, absence of adequate relief support hurts thousands of victims as well. Had there been a swift and sufficient local response, no one would have desired foreign charity.
Although international aid agencies were ostracised, some of them were willing to provide support through national humanitarian organisations but the enigmatic demand for NoC blocked all such initiatives. A simple NoC issued by the provincial authorities would have facilitated national humanitarian organisations to mobilize funds even without any appeal for international aid.
Surprisingly, the provincial government did not take up the issue with due seriousness. Although local authorities did not stop national humanitarian organisations from providing relief support, international aid agencies were reluctant to provide funding to national organisations in absence of NoC. Such approach of international humanitarian agencies, specially the UN, can also be questioned. Relief as a humanitarian support should not be subservient to host government’s NoCs. There is no justification to deny humanitarian support through national civil society on flimsy ground of no objection certificate. This confined national humanitarian organisations to rely only on meager local philanthropy which was soon dwarfed by the enormous needs on ground.
National Humanitarian Network (NHN), a network of Pakistani humanitarian organizations, also highlighted the plight of affectees due to insufficient aid, yet it fell on deaf ears of decision makers. Humanitarian response in conflict-stricken areas is a challenging task, yet it cannot be compromised because of security reasons. Thousands of disaster victims cannot be denied their right to receive relief aid at the time of misery, specially when it is a natural disaster.
State, civil society and international humanitarian community are under moral obligation to extend humanitarian aid even in the worse situation. What was even more ironic that while national civil society was restricted through NoC, religious outfits did not need such an exemption and operated freely to provide relief services. Whereas this act deserves appreciation, it has political dimensions as well.
Unlike civil society, faith-based organisations seize such opportunities to penetrate in local communities and proselytise their religious and sectarian dictums. It has been noticed during recent years that faith-based groups are facilitated to make inroads in disaster affected areas whereas civil society is systematically shackled and discouraged. This further shrinks space for already squeezed civil society. Disasters should be considered as humanitarian matter and access to relief should be considered as a basic right of affectees.
Abdus Salam Soomro, a poor cameraman must be rewarded, not only for capturing the historic, although horrifying scene of the killing of a boy, but for his courage to stand and record his statement before the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), which has now led to the sentence to five personnel of Rangers paramilitary force in Karachi.
The Sindh High Court on December 21, 2013 upheld the ATC decision and confirmed the death sentence to one Rangers personnel, life imprisonment to four others and acquittal of one for want of evidence. The trial court had sentenced Shahid Zafar to death in August 2011.
The bench observed that three eyewitnesses had categorically deposed against the appellants and identified them in court. Cameraman Soomro, who captured the scene, also fully implicated them.
The accused can now filed an appeal before the Supreme Court of Pakistan and if the apex court also upholds the decision, a mercy appeal can be filed before the President of Pakistan.
“The officials encircled the victim, one of them opened fire upon him twice. The young boy cried and begged for his life but he was not moved to the hospital and died due to heavy loss of blood,” the verdict stated.
This upholding of the law may not have been possible had Soomro not filmed the entire scene as a journalist on duty. Hats off to him for keeping his cool without giving Rangers men any idea that their actions were been recorded.
Former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry, took suo-moto notice of the case after Somroo’s video, initially made for his Sindhi TV channel, Awaz, which was then picked by all the news channels and described by all as ‘masterpiece journalistic evidence’ abuse of authority.
The footage of the gruesome murder shocked the entire nation, but the courageous cameraman was abandoned by his organization and he was left with no other option but to leave the city and shifted to Islamabad in the face of threats and intimidation.
The several-minute video showed victim Sarfraz Shah pleading with Rangers personnel not to shoot him as one of them pointed gun near his chest. Within seconds he was shot and injured. Later, it was reported that he died on his way to hospital.
Initially, Rangers had claimed that he was a criminal and even the investigation of a Joint Interrogation Team (JIT) bailed out Rangers’ men, and defended the accused, saying they did their work “in the line of duty.”
A few months after the incident in Benazir Shaheed Park, in Clifton neighborhood, I met Soomro at the Benazir International Airport in Islamabad while coming to Karachi. “Are you going to Karachi? I asked. “Yes, to record my statement in the court,” he said. “But have they provided any security,” I enquired. “A police official is with me,” he said.
Soomro had shifted to Islamabad after his organization did not provide much needed support in his defense and security. A leading news anchor provided him a job for his courage and standing before the mighty Rangers.
This young man not only made a historic video of a horrific act of abuse of authority, but when required recorded his evidence despite serious threats to his life.
Many in our society are witness to criminal activities but hardly anyone shows the courage to stand up and that too in an incident where the personnel of law enforcement agencies were involved in violation of law.
Soomro had spent sleepless nights for weeks and months, getting all kinds of threatening calls not to record his statement. His organization asked him to go to Islamabad, but later dumped him.
“This video is now people’s property,” he said. “To be honest I did not even think that I had recorded a historic scene. It was only after it was aired and I started getting calls from all of my colleagues and international media that I realized that I had done something extraordinary. You know I am a poor cameraman and new in this profession. Now I understand the importance of footage, which at times becomes undeniable evidence and serves as a witness.”
KARACHI, Jan 24: The Citizens Education Development Foundation (CEDF) has one goal, “Functional literacy for all”, and if students can’t come to their schools, they take the school to the students — literally.
The foundation purchased their first bus in 1993 which was converted into a mobile school. The purpose of the bus is to deliver education to children in katchi abadis who do not have access to the CEDF home schools.
A new bus was commissioned in 2000 with the help of Hino Motors and painted by Vasl, an art-based NGO. When the bus became too dilapidated to serve its function, a new bus was commissioned in 2000 with the help of Hino Motors who gave CEDF a discount in lieu of a donation. Vasl, an art-based NGO, painted a bright mural on the bus free-of-charge, giving it a cheery, welcoming appearance.
“Everyone can do something, even housewives can do this,” stated Rehana Alam, secretary of CEDF. “We are women of leisure who don’t want leisure, we want to work. We are focusing on the forgotten child here. Our aim is to provide at least enough education to these children so that they can read and write, whether they continue their education is their choice.”
The foundation exists entirely on donations — from other NGOs, its own members and concerned citizens. They provide yearly medical checkups for the students through HELP Pakistan, along with free eye checkups via the Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT).
The foundation operates without an office and only the teachers draw a salary. “We want all of the money to go to the children,” Alam said, while speaking to The Express Tribune.
Electricity for fans in the bus is provided free-of-charge by a neighbour and free water is provided by another.
The bus picks up children before parking in an empty plot within walking distance from Shah Rasool Colony. Equipped with benches, desks and a large blackboard inside, the bus serves 160 students per day with four shifts of two hours each. The students’ ages range between five to 14 years. Since some students are at different learning levels, each one is taught on an individual basis.
A teacher and a teaching assistant teach the students basics of reading and writing. CEDF attempts to provide basic literacy and, for interested students, helps them prepare for entrance exams for regular school. They also sponsor students’ further education in schools, colleges and vocational institutes.
The foundation also sponsors teachers, such as Shehzad, who works at the mobile bus part-time and also attends a private college. Another former student, Shahzeb, is also in college, studying multimedia. He was a student from the first home school of the foundation and son of the first teacher employed by CEDF, Liaqat. Shahzeb currently helps out at the foundation by computerising their records. “The environment [at the school] was brilliant, everyone was always friendly and it was like one big family,” he said proudly, in perfect English.
Some students come back to the home schools after graduating to formal schools, finding that they had difficulty managing. Despite the home schools being dedicated to basic literacy only, Liaqat, along with some members of CEDF helped the children in learning math and English.
“Currently, I’m helping a boy named Shakeel prepare for grade nine entrance exam,” said Samra Mansur.
A hindrance to their expansion, however, is a lack of dedicated volunteers. Currently, the CEDF comprises 16 people with common interests, but they need more volunteers. “Many organizations [like CEDF] are not well known, despite the work they do,” said Alam.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2014.
