Megalomaniac

Earlier this month, a press statement by US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said that Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, have been designated as Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom”. Some analysts pointed out that this was only done because the US wants to exert pressure on Pakistan for various reasons, especially vis-à-vis Afghanistan. They think the US wants Pakistan to take action against militants based in Pakistan and also wants it to help in its negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. Pak-US relations have seen a fair share of ups and downs. The US mantra of ‘Do More’ has become a norm and is part and parcel of its ‘carrot and stick policy’. Putting Pakistan on a religious freedom list may be just a pressure tactic by the US. Others believe that this list ...

I first visited India back in 2007. When I returned, I wrote: “It had always been my dream to visit India one day because the country fascinates me. India’s rich culture and history and the fact that both India and Pakistan share a common history, including bittersweet memories, only added to my fascination.” I have been to India many times since then; my passports are filled mostly with Indian visas. The last time I visited India was in July 2016 for a friend’s wedding. This is the longest stretch that I have gone without visiting India since my first trip. And it is not for want of trying. Unfortunately, Pakistanis are not being given Indian visas. And we may not get visas till the 2019 Indian elections. This is a result of the tumultuous relationship Pakistan shares with India. Due to the tense relations between the two nuclear-armed states, the people of both countries suffer. With the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, I see a glimmer of hope. In his victory speech after winni...

On October 31, a three-judge special bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar acquitted Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of blasphemy. She was on death row. Many people hailed the verdict and commended the judges who were brave enough to hear Aasia Bibi’s final appeal in a court of law. Justice had finally been served. Chairman of the Senate’s Functional Committee on Human Rights, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, said: “Aasia Bibi is free because justice was dispensed wisely and without any fear. This should be the practice in all such cases. Innocent people should not suffer incarcerations due to a fear of backlash.” A woman who had spent almost a decade in jail due to false charges of blasphemy was finally free. It was heartbreaking to read an AFP report in which Aasia asked the reporter in disbelief if she was actually free and whether they would finally let her out. Her disbelief wasn’t misplaced. Within hours of the verdict, we saw violent protests...

India and Pakistan share both history and geography yet they are constantly in a state of war – not always literally, but figuratively speaking. People on both sides of the border have suffered a great deal due to the tense relations between the two sides. States always have their own reasons to behave a certain way but at the end of the day, it’s the people who suffer. Apart from the general public, journalists in India and Pakistan have also suffered – if relations between the two sides are bad, they will not get visas. This also leads to more negativity on the media. If people-to-people contact is encouraged, it will only bring normalcy to a region that is still battling the ghosts of a bloody partition. Thus it was quite heartening to see 22 Indian journalists cross the Wagah border to cover the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor. They were invited and hosted by the government of Pakistan. On the first night of their visit, Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar hosted...

It was shocking to hear the news of SP Tahir Dawar’s martyrdom. Dawar was kidnapped from Islamabad on October 26 and his dead body found in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The government did not make much noise about it, which is unbelievable given that a valiant police officer was kidnapped from the capital city. Not only did the government not make any noise but as per Iftikhar Durrani, Special Assistant to Prime Minister of Pakistan on Media, he was given information by the police that SP Dawar was back in Peshawar on October 28. Mr Durrani gave a beeper to VoA on October 28 and claimed that SP Dawar was safe and sound. If it is indeed true and the police had misinformed the government, action must be taken against those who filed this fake report. How was a serving police officer kidnapped from the capital and then his kidnappers managed to cross the border into Afghanistan without being noticed? Did the government investigate properly why he was kidnapped? How come the governm...

Free media is a prerequisite for any democratic country but the media in Pakistan is facing the worst kind of censorship. I joined journalism back in 2005. There was censorship back then as well, which got worse during emergency but even then we could fight back to a certain extent. But now there is another sort of pressure on the media. Journalists may not be ‘killed’ anymore but they are either ‘picked up’ and given a ‘message’ or the same message is given by beating up journalists or threatening them. Just last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a damning report on the state of the media in Pakistan. It said that journalists “painted a picture of a media under siege”. The report further said: “The military has quietly, but effectively, set restrictions on reporting: from barring access to regions … to encouraging self-censorship through direct and indirect methods of intimidation, including calling editors to complain about coverage and even allegedly inst...

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s maiden visit to China has come under scrutiny for many reasons — primarily because he left the country at a time when violent protests had erupted in the aftermath of the Asia Bibi verdict. Another reason is that the details of a much-awaited financial package from China are not yet out. Before the visit, Prime Minister Khan and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said that China would give the same financial package as the one announced by Saudi Arabia to help Pakistan ease its balance of payments crisis. Saudi Arabia had earlier announced a $6-billion package — $3 billion in foreign currency support and $3 billion in loan. “But since the visit, we haven’t been clearly told how much money has been given,” said senior journalist Shahzad Iqbal. “Finance Minister Asad Umar has given us some indications but has maintained that they cannot share the exact details with us. Mr. Umar quoted an incident where President Xi (Jinping of China) assure...

The Christian woman was facing death for ‘insulting Islam’; SC says prosecution failed to prove charges The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday acquitted Asia Bibi, a Christian woman on death row for alleged blasphemy. This was her final legal appeal before execution. Ms. Bibi was falsely accused of committing blasphemy in 2009. In 2010, a trial court sentenced her to death. In 2014, the Lahore High Court upheld the trial court’s verdict. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel finally overturned the conviction. yesterday The ruling said: “Keeping in mind the evidence produced by the prosecution against the alleged blasphemy committed by the appellant, the prosecution has categorically failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.” Imran’s warning Prime Minister Imran Khan took a clear and unequivocal stand on the verdict by addressing the nation in a televised speech on Wednesday eve...

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lost three National Assembly (NA) seats in the October 14 byelections, two of which were won by Mr. Khan in the July general election and vacated later, in what is widely seen as a reality check for the Prime Minister. Byelections took place for 11 NA and 24 Provincial Assembly seats. Both the PTI and and the Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won four NA seats each. While the PTI should be worried after the results and the PML-N was celebrating, the real winner of these elections was the Results Transmission System (RTS), which did not crash this time around. The Election Commission and all political parties can never forget the disaster that was the RTS during the July general election. Opposition parties allege that the RTS crash was a ploy to rig the polls. But over the byelections, there were hardly any such allegations. Journalist Imtiaz Alam said the results were the first indicator of the downturn of th...

The media in Pakistan is facing a tough time. Last week, the Lahore High Court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Dawn Assistant Editor Cyril Almeida. The court also ordered the authorities to put Mr. Almeida’s name on the Exit Control List for not appearing before the court. This happened during the hearing of a petition that sought registration of treason cases against former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for an interview Mr. Sharif had given to to Mr Almeida earlier this year. The interview became controversial because Mr. Sharif said the 2008 Mumbai attacks “were carried out by people from Pakistan”. In an Editor’s note, Dawn stated: “Mr. Almeida has no immediate plan to travel abroad, and will attend the proceedings of the case whenever desired by the honourable court.” There was widespread condemnation of the charges. Senior journalist Imtiaz Alam said the case shows how the media is being intimidated in Pakistan. “And without media freedom, t...

Islamabad High Court says NAB could not bring evidence against the Sharifs in corruption case Members of Nawaz Sharif’s party celebrated his release on Wednesday after the Islamabad High Court suspended the jail sentences handed to the former Prime Minister, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd.). National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutors have been criticised for presenting a weak case in the High Court. As reported in Dawn newspaper, Justice Athar Minallah remarked that “the NAB, after conducting thorough investigation, couldn’t bring any evidence of Nawaz Sharif’s ownership of the Avenfield apartments (in London), but you want us to admit his ownership on mere presumption”. The High Court order comes a week after Mr. Sharif’s wife Kulsoom passed away. Mr. Sharif, Ms. Maryam and Captain Safdar were granted parole for five days to attend her funeral. They were sent back to Adiala Jail on Monday. Supreme Court lawyer Faisal Chaudhry said the c...

Imran Khan’s dream has finally been fulfilled 22 years in to his political career: a career that started with idealism and came to be marked by pragmatism. His real political career has just begun. We all knew the outcome of these elections but what did surprise a lot of us was the way it was pulled off a few hours after polling ended on July 25. The results of the elections in Pakistan were pre-determined. But what happened before the final results were announced left many of us shocked at how the powers-that-be did not even want to hide how much they were influencing the results. Even in a country where manipulating elections is nothing new, this brazenness was something new altogether. I have been in the media for more than a decade now and have seen/covered the previous two elections, but have never witnessed the kind of censorship that we faced this time around. It was as if we just couldn’t tell the truth. We had to talk in a roundabout way to say that these elections were ri...

'Naya Pakistan' with old rules Pakistan's general elections are over. Or are they? Well, technically the election results are in. The leading party is Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. While the process of government formation is still in progress, it is all but clear that the next prime minister of Pakistan would be none other than Khan. His dream has finally been fulfilled. Or has it? Could this 'dream' turn into a 'nightmare' for Mr Khan soon after coming to power? Only time will tell but we have already seen some teething troubles for the PTI. It was but obvious to all and sundry that Khan and his party, the PTI, would form the next government in Pakistan. No surprises there, given the pre-poll rigging. The night before the elections, most of us in the media were giving our predictions as to which party would bag how many seats. My own prediction about the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pakistan Peoples Party was close enough but des...

A messy general election stage-managed by the military and the deep state may well see Imran Khan crowned ‘Kaptaan Pakistan’. General elections in Pakistan are just three days away. Two successive democratically elected governments have completed their tenures since the 2008 general elections. A third election should have consolidated Pakistan's fragile democratic process. Instead, it is in a shambles: pre-poll rigging, coercion, intimidation and much more. Whatever the results, the outcome of these elections has already been tainted. They have lost all credibility due to the open manipulation by Pakistan's all-powerful military establishment. "These are the dirtiest elections of Pakistan; they are not even in a thousand-mile radius of being 'free and fair'. Political engineering and media coercion is at its peak. We have never seen such brazen manipulation ever," says commentator Marvi Sirmed. She isn't alone; the same sentiment is being echoed by m...

With the PML-N and PPP facing the worst form of election engineering, the road is clear for Imran Khan's PTI and a coalition of independents and some other 'favourites' to form the next govt The general elections in Pakistan are going to be held one week from now on July 25. Besides the two largest political parties -– the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) -– most experts and commentators have already called these one of the worst elections in Pakistan’s history. I A Rehman from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called these the “dirtiest, costliest election in Pakistan’s history”. Both the PML-N and the PPP have already alleged pre-poll rigging and arm-twisting by the military establishment. While the army spokesman clarified in a recent press conference that the army is not siding with any political party, Mian Nawaz Sharif named a senior ISI official of arm-twisting PML-N candidates while the PPP’s Farhatullah ...

In Pakistan, the democratic process is in danger again Elections in Pakistan are all set to take place. It is quite clear that two of the largest political parties in the country - the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pakistan Peoples Party - are being pushed against the wall while the establishment's new favourite party, Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is being propped up. The former PPP senator, Farhatullah Babar, put it aptly when he said, "Seldom before has the pre-poll process been so vitiated, so unfair and so grotesque. The invisible political engineers seem desperate for a fragmented and divided parliament that is easier to manipulate." He added that "a silent coup has taken place, far softer and subtler than any previous coups". Babar is, of course, referring to the manipulation of the electoral process which is taking place behind the scenes by those who must not be named. Both the PML-N leadership and the PPP leadership have sa...

After being sentenced to prison, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz are set to return to the country on July 13, as the establishment tries to finish off their political careers “We cannot play ostrich. Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage … We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust” — Thurgood Marshall, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. On July 6, former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (retd.) Safdar were sentenced by an accountability court in the Avenfield reference case. Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years’ jail time, Maryam Nawaz was given 7 years while her husband has been given 1 year jail time. The accountability court’s decision was not unexpected. Last July, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Sharif in the Panama Papers case, after which he stepped down from...

Pakistan may be headed towards an election that is compromised The general elections in Pakistan are all set to take place on July 25. With the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government completing its tenure and a caretaker set-up in place, we are seeing our second democratic transition. The electoral process has started. Political parties have almost finalized party tickets to candidates, nomination papers are being filed, the election campaign has started and will be in full swing post-Eid. On July 25, Pakistanis will vote in another government. The second democratic transition will be complete once a new democratic government comes to power. Who will form the government - the PML-N, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or the Pakistan Peoples Party? This is the question that is on everyone's mind. In 2013, it was quite apparent that the PML-N would bag the majority of seats, but this time around nothing is clear. Or there seems to be no clear winner. There are a lot of conspiracy theo...

Religion and politics in Pakistan Pakistan's interior minister, Ahsan Iqbal, survived an assassination attempt. Iqbal was attacked during a corner meeting in his constituency in Narowal. Thankfully, the bullet did not hit any of his vital organs and he is out of danger now. In February, a man had hurled a shoe at Iqbal at a PML-N workers' convention in Narowal. The two incidents — one with a shoe and another with a pistol — do raise questions over the security details of one of the most important federal ministers of Pakistan. Then again, there is not much that can be done vis-à-vis security during election campaign season but any minor loophole can lead to a major catastrophe as witnessed on Sunday. While the assassination attempt itself is shocking, there is a more alarming factor: the shooter, Abid Hussain, is affiliated to the Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah. He carried out the shooting due to the ' Khatam-e-Nabuwat (Finality of Prophethood)' issue. I had writt...