Haqeeqat.Org Face it…

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Zawahiri ridiculed US president-elect Barack Obama and warned him against sending more troops to Afghanistan, in an Internet audio-message released on Wednesday.

Using racist language, Zawahiri insulted Obama and other black Americans who have held high office in the US administration with the term used by the late Muslim black militant leader Malcolm X for slaves serving their white masters.

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“It is true about you and people like you … what Malcolm X said about the house negroes,” he said, naming former secretary of state Colin Powell and the current secretary, Condoleezza Rice.

An English transcript of the speech in Arabic purportedly by the Al-Qaeda number two was provided by Al-Qaeda’s media arm As-Sahab.

The tape features an old speech by Malcolm X in which he used the two terms, referring to house slaves who were considered more docile and on better terms with their masters than the slaves out in the field.

Obama’s transition team declined to comment on the tape, in which Zawahiri accuses the president-elect of siding with Israel. But the US State Department said the insult exposed the anti-democratic values of Al-Qaeda.

“It’s just, you know, more despicable comments from a terrorist,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

“And if anybody needed … more of a contrast between what … the West and the United States stand for, in terms of democracy and what these terrorists stand for, I don’t think you need to go any further than those comments.”

On the political front, Zawahiri said: “What you have announced before … that you will withdraw (US) troops from Iraq (and send them) to Afghanistan is a policy that is doomed to failure …

“If you still want to be stubborn about America’s failure in Afghanistan, then remember the fate of (President George W.) Bush and (Pakistan’s ex-president) Pervez Musharraf, and the fate of the Soviets and British before them.”

In the message made available by SITE Intelligence Group in the United States, Zawahiri warned Obama of a “heavy legacy of failure” awaiting him in office.

“Beware that the (stray) dogs of Afghanistan have savoured the taste of your soldiers’ flesh, so do send them in thousands,” said the closest aide to Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

In a major interview aired on Sunday, Obama vowed no retreat from his campaign promise to begin pulling troops out of Iraq and switch the military focus to Afghanistan.

A US counter-terrorism official in Washington said Zawahiri’s new message “holds few, if any, surprises.”

“It shows how out of touch Al-Qaeda is with so much of the rest of the world. But make no mistake: this is still a group that can do serious damage,” said the official who requested not to be named.

The November 4 election of Obama as the first black president-elect of the United States was widely applauded around the world.

In his message, Zawahiri said Bush had succeeded only in “passing the misfortune and embroilments of America to his successor,” and that the American people had elected the leader who will rid them of the Iraq burden.

“By voting in (Barrack) Obama, the American people have proclaimed their fear of the fate that they could be led into by the policies of the like of Bush,” he said.

“They have decided to support the one who calls for withdrawal from Iraq,” Zawahiri said.

The message was aired in a videotape showing a portrait of Zawahiri wearing a white turban, next to Obama’s picture with a kippa praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem during a pre-election visit to Israel.

The backdrop also shows a picture of Malcolm X, the African American Muslim leader who was assassinated in 1965.

“You represent the opposite to honourable Black Americans like … Malcolm X,” Zawahiri said, while old footage of Malcolm X’s speeches on human rights and equality was played.

He scolded Obama for “choosing to be an enemy of Islam and Muslims,” saying that the Muslim “nation had bitterly received” Obama’s pledge of support to Israel.

“You have chosen to stand in the ranks of the enemies of Muslims and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim that your mother is Christian,” Zawahiri added.

Source: Yahoo! News

As you must have viewed the two pictured posts already, kindly find the pictures video below:

Well, on the high demand of my viewers, I have agreed to put remaining pictures of Salman Taseer’s family and the so-called modernists among rest of Salman Taseer’s family.

Mr. Salman Taseer, owner of Daily Times, Daily Aaj Kal, Worldcall Multimedia Ltd., Worldcall Broadband Ltd., Business Plus (Television Channel), Pace Shopping Malls and now, Governor of Punjab!

Rumors also has it that Mr. Asif Ali Zardari (Awfully Zardari) was given a hot night party at Governor House the first time he visited Lahore after having formed the Government. A convoy of vehicles had been observed transporting the girls and materials!

Lahorites know that well how Governor House in fact is being used; Sharab & Shabab parties (alcohol & mujra parties) are thrown for People’s Party’s Youth Wing and Junior workers often. Also, the dance and sex parties are conducted by Mr. Junior Taseer and his friends. *(A Governor House official reports.)

Give much of a look on the F&F of the pimp-alike Salman Taseer below:

Well, that’s not all to Salman Taseer’s Family Pictures, view below to learn more about his blood type:

by Fatima Tassaduq

Mustafa Kamal, Altaf Hussain and other MQM leaders never told us a lie. They, from the onset, told us that Mustafa Kamal was a “2 number″ mayor, and that was also vetted by a world body, though now the world body is stunned at the whole episode.

According to their website, the FOREIGN POLICY Magazine is the premier, award-winning magazine of global politics, economics, and ideas.

What You WON’T Find in FP

- Cliché sound bites masquerading as reportage

- Predictable, read-them-a-hundred-times analyses of examined-to-death global stories

- Polite essays that fail to challenge your assumptions, excite your passions, or raise your ire

All hell broke loose some days ago, when Karachiite woke up to find their city littered with banners congratulating the city Nazim of his receiving the title of No. 2 Mayor in the world by the Foreign Policy. Mayor not only received the facilitations, but also thanked his Quaid Altaf Hussain and the whole MQM machine started parading the mayor in the load-shedding.

Then Joshua Keating of FP publishes this:

At issue is a sidebar from FP’s recent Global Cities Index that names Kamal, Berlin’s Klaus Wowereit, and Chongqing’s Wang Hongju as “mayors of the moment” who have found innovative ways to globalize their cities. The mayors are not ranked, nor are we implying that they are objectively “better” than any other mayors, but that didn’t stop the Karachi City Government from issuing a press release on its Website (they’ve changed the text since being contacted by FP) congratulating Kamal for being the No. 2 mayor in the world. For the record, the three names are not listed in any particular order.

Conspiracy of Silence by Rohail Butt

Pakistanis have been screwed and then re-screwed many times since their independence; sometimes in the name of democracy and sometimes in the fight for democracy, sometimes in the name of Jihad and then sometimes in the name of religion and then sometimes in the name of greater national interest and so on, but the sheep like people have always maintained a criminal silence over the high-handedness handed over to them by the civilian and military dictators, and after suffering through one dictator, Pakistanis wait for the next one, and the whole process gets restarted all over, just to repeat it self once again.

This vicious cycle is going on and on and there is no apparent stoppage to that. In order to escape the blame, the people open half eye from their slumber and meekly utter that it’s all the conspiracy from the West and behind West it’s the Israel, and then they go back to their oblivion and apathy. The truth is that the biggest conspiracy is hatched, weaved, maintained, groomed, cultivated and flourished and even implemented by all of us. We are the conspirator against us, and the biggest conspiracy is to maintain this conspiracy of silence.

It’s true that the nations become successful due to powerful leadership, but the followers of the leaders have to be equally up to the mark, and the top notch true leaders only emerge from the able followers. They have stopped coming from the Mars. We lashed and thrashed at the military dictator Musharraf and talked fervently and feverishly about the supremacy of parliament and the collective wisdom, but now as Musharraf has gone and we have got civilian setup, once again we have a civilian dictator on our heads, and we are hating him with full might and waiting for another dictator while suffering in silence.

It’s us who are at fault.

by Saleem Khan

One wealthy man wrote this advice,

True economy consists in always making the income exceed the outgo. Wear the old clothes a little longer if necessary; dispense with the new pair of gloves; mend the old dress; live on plainer food, if need be; so that, under all circumstances, unless some unforeseen accident occurs, there will be a margin in favour of the income. A penny here, and a dollar there, placed on interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is obtained. It requires some training, perhaps, to accomplish this economy; but when once used to it, you will find there is more satisfaction in rational saving than in irrational spending.

In the household and in business, little savings amount to more than one would suppose. Savings provides the most important economic link between past, present and future of any country. The aggregate savings of a country have three components namely private, corporate and public sector savings. These components are dependent on spending behaviors of the people and government. The more they spend, the less is left to save and that results in less investment, because Savings are equal to Investments in economics. It is possible to make money off your savings is because these savings are used by other agents in the economy who have the ability to pay you back later on; fundamentally these savings are used to invest.

A low rate of savings if maintained over a long period of time, an economy entraps in a vicious cycle of low investment, low per capita income, low growth, and low productivity and so on. A higher savings is the only solution for getting out of low saving – low growth equilibrium. Sadly, far too many Pakistanis spend more than they earn and rely too heavily on plastic money and borrowed funds, and most are not saving enough (if anything) for their futures.

The national savings rates of Pakistan is estimated at 13 percent of GDP, where as our neighbouring country India’s current national savings rate is about 24% of GDP. The difference in the saving and consumption within both countries can be clearly seen in the manner Pakistanis spends on marriages, social functions and religious ceremonies. The Indian culture is pro-saving, while Pakistani culture is pro-consumption. This pro-consumption culture is actually compelling our government and financial institutions for tight monetary policy to tackle problems like high inflation and low savings.

It’s clear that we drifted badly from two bedrock virtues: thrift and personal financial responsibility. And now that the economy is struggling, we’re all … well, paying the price. A shift toward thrift is required for economic stability and growth in Pakistan.

One should be a civilized man, saving something, and not a savage, consuming every day all that which he has earned. Some of the most famous sayings stress thrift — and the foolishness of wasteful spending like “A penny saved is a penny earned”, “He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing” and “The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.”

“Be it ever so humble, is a sentiment that does not appeal to the modern home. Individuals and nations would be better if they would love the home more and its furnishings less. There would be more happy homes if there were more thrift and economy,” a writer writes in his book The Real Home.

Let’s strive and pray to conduct our future financial affairs with wisdom. Let’s add our share in the growth of Pakistan’s economy by strictly following thrift as a ruling habit. Let’s practice it from today because “Thrift is of great revenue” (Marcus T. Cicero).

References:

The Empire of Business, by Andrew Carnegie.

Economist.com

Business Plus, Pakistan

Dawn News

by Rohail Butt

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has once again left for United States of America. This time he has left for attending the Interfaith Conference slated November 12-13 under the aegis of United Nations (UN). This conference is being held on the initiatives of the Saudi Arabia King Shah Abdullah. President Bush, Shah Abdullah, President Asif Ali Zardari besides several other world leaders will be attending this conference.

There have been many such seminars, conferences, meetings, declaration and claims over the years after the world came abreast of the notion regarding war on terror and the result was always zilch. Bush of United States doesn’t know a heck about the interfaith harmony and he has been rejected thoroughly and disgustingly by his own people due to his faith mongering. Shah Abdullah of KSA has also been acting as a stooge of America and he has provided himself and the other Muslim leaders an excuse to enjoy the colors of USA in the name of interfaith.

What will they do there? Speeches, hugs, smiles and enjoy. While they will be doing that, the US drones will be killing Pakistani people in FATA area, and US marines would be torturing people in Baghdad, and US security people would be insulting the Quran in Gitmo.

Such useless hypocritical conferences are where Zardari thrives.

In 1997, when the lawyer Babar Awan was defending late Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in the SGS reference before an accountability court comprising Justice Qayyum and Justice Najmul Hasan, he suddenly started writing “Dr.” before his name, and on inquiry from the media, he so proudly presented his PhD degree, which he obtained through a distance learning program from the University of Monticello, after paying a hefty sum in fee.

Like many other international students, Dr. Babar Awan also thought that by paying some dollars and by spending some time while enrolling through a distance, he would become a doctor, a rare specie in Pakistan back in 1997. He did become a doctor, but from an unaccredited university, which existed on paper.

In April 2000, Monticello University operator Leslie Snell was found guilty in Hawaii and Kansas of issuing invalid degrees without state authority and was fined in excess of $1.7 million. The organisation was ordered to refund tuition to all the students.

Now let’s see whether Babar Awan carries on writing “Dr.” with his name or not.

By Saleem Khan

On one side, military is snatching lands from poor farmers at very low rate for building Military empire and on other hand, the same military Generals are using it for their housing societies and paying as bribe. One reason for the anger of Balochis is also the same, when our last President announced Cantonment in Gawadar, regardless of fact that Pakistan don’t need cantonment in an area where there is no external threat. Every body knows that what is the reason of building cantonment at lucrative places of Pakistan. Supreme court remarks against such steps are now an open secret for Pakistanis.

Anyway, please read the report pasted below for your information and discussion. Now a days Army is trying to build confidence so they get an other chance after few years to come back in government. We have to realise that no body is there to work for common man. We have to select right people for right positions.

Report from The News: The mystery behind General Pervez Musharraf’s success in convincing Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI in 2004 not to oppose his uniform has been partially solved — the general had doled out hundreds of acres of military land worth millions of rupees to the near and dear ones of the Maulana.

Documents of these land allotments obtained by The News explain why the Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) always remained a friendly opposition to General Pervez Musharraf, bailed him out at critical times and why its JUI-led provincial government was able to complete a five-year term in the NWFP.

The scale of the buyout price of the JUI, which has now been confirmed, is massive in terms of state land and money paid to the JUI leaders and their relatives.

It is not clear whether the Pakistan Army could actually cancel these allotments of its lands to relatives of a politician even if it wanted to.

Musharraf’s dubious promise of taking off his uniform by December 2004 was first quietly accepted by the MMA and then when he went back on his promise the JUI-led MMA never created any problem, except for low-level noises made off and on for public consumption.

This was done all because JUI’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman had been allotted hundreds of acres of state land, mostly in the name of his relatives, staff and employees. Documents of these allotted lands, now in the possession of The News, reveal the blatant corruption of the JUI leaders, who use Islam to fool the people but never stop from compromising themselves and their principles for material and monetary gains.

The ousted dictator is now known to have secretly allotted 1,200 Kanals of military land in D I Khan to his opposition leader in the last National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his chief minister in the NWFP Akram Khan Durrani in 2004.

Though the military land was transferred in the names of those who are either closely related to these two JUI-F leaders or are their relatives, the Revenue Department in DI Khan confirmed that both these leaders had at least 600 Kanals each in their personal possession.

A senior member Board of Revenue in the Frontier government was also allotted 400 Kanals of the same land for his role in this highly controversial allotment from the land earmarked for soldiers, who are given this land for their services and in line with the policy derived by the GHQ.

The allotment letters, relating to 1200 Kanals, were issued by the Army’s General Headquarters Adjutant General (Welfare and Rehabilitation Directorate), Rawalpindi under the signatures of Lt-Col Muhammad Zafar on behalf of the adjutant general and countersigned by Brigadier DWR-I Zafar Iqbal Shah on Oct 23rd 2004 — a little over two months prior to the deadline set for Musharraf’s stepping down as Army chief.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman could not be reached for comments despite all efforts. However, his party spokesman categorically said that there was no truth in this and that it was a vilification campaign launched against the party and its leader.

The spokesman said that the land was neither allotted in the name of the two leaders nor in the names of their close associates or relatives.

Former JUI chief minister Akram Khan Durrani, however, admitted that some of his close associates/relatives were allotted lands but he said he had nothing to do with those.

But the documents, available with The News, confirm that six men connected with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Akram Durrani were allotted 200 Kanals each whereas a senior Revenue officer, serving in DI Khan, also acknowledged that the said land was actually in the possession of these two leaders.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s main ally in the MMA at that time Qazi Hussain Ahmad of the Jamaat-e-Islami, when approached, said that he and his party did not have the hint of this wheeling and dealing.

The documents show that whole of this land was allotted in Rakh Ghass, Tehsil and district Dera Imail Khan where the provincial government had allotted almost 136,000 Kanals of land to the Pakistan Army for its scheme under which the officers and JCOs and their families are allotted agriculture land of different sizes on the basis of their performance, seniority, sacrifice etc under a well determined formula.

Adjutant General’s Branch, W&R Directorate, in its six separate letters dated Oct 23, 2004 and clearly tagged as “restricted”, allotted 200 Kanals of agriculture land in Rakh Ghass D I Khan to each of the following beneficiaries:

1. Abrar Ahmad Khan son of Muhammad Ismail Khan, street 41 Sector I-9/4 Jamia Masjid Farooq-e-Azam, Islamabad.

Generally known as Mufti Abrar, this allottee is the personal assistant of Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He has been allotted land in Khasra No 717, 716 and 715, the document shows;

2. Sharifullah son of Mr Rahmatullah, Mohallah Mehmood Khel, village Abdul Khel, district D I Khan. He is attached with the brother of the Maulana, Maulana Lutfur Rehman, and is considered as their family member. He has been allotted land in Khasra No 718, 719 and 720;

3. Muhammad Ramzan son of Mr Feroz Khan, Mohallah Mehmood Khel, village Abdul Khel district D I Khan. He is closely related to Sharifullah and is also close with the Maulanas. He was allotted land in Khasras No 715 and 714;

4. Ibrar Ali Shah son of Asghar Ali Shah, Mewa Khel, Fazal Haq Malwana, Bannu. He is cousin of Durrani, who admitted the same and asserted that his father is a retired soldier so the son got the land. He was allotted land in Khasra No 718, 719 and 720;

5. Muhammad Ashraf Ali Khan son of Muhammad Shahzad Khan, village Khutti, Tehsil and dist D I Khan. He is included in the personal staff of Maulana Fazlís brother Maulana Lutfur Rehman. He was allotted land in Khasra No 717, 716 and 715; and

6. Muhammad Shahzad Khan son of Alam Sher Khan, Hibak Sharzah Khan P/O Sikandar Khel Bannu. He is the uncle of Durrani as admitted by the former chief minister. Durrani said that his uncle was a retired soldier so was given land by the GHQ. Shahzad Khan was allotted land in Khasra No 715 and 714.

Following these allotment letters issued by the GHQ, the land was formally transferred by the concerned Revenue officer to the above mentioned on 26 January, 2005.

After the issuance of the allotment letters, the provincial government referred the case of Reayat Khan, the then senior member Board of Revenue, to the GHQ for the allotment of 400 Kanals of land in the same Moza for the officer, who had reportedly played an important role in getting 1200 Kanals transferred in favour of the men of JUI-Fís top leaders.

Though Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not accessible, party spokesman Maulana Amjad told this correspondent that this was all disinformation and aimed at maligning the name of the Maulana. He said that neither the land was transferred to the two top JUI leaders nor to any of their front men. Maulana Amjad said that they did not believe in the politics of opportunism.

Akram Durrani clarified that the land was actually allocated to the Pakistan Army before he took over as the chief minister of the province. He said that during his rule, he tried his level best to get the decision reversed but in vain. He denied that the land allotted in 2004 to his close men belonged to him.

He argued that his uncle was allotted plot because he was a retired soldier whereas his other relative was gifted 200 Kanals because his father was in the Army.

“I have nothing to do with all this,” he said. Durrani, when asked about Maulana, said that he would not respond on behalf of his party head.

The former chief minister of the Frontier province suggested to this correspondent that the media should focus on what is going on in Islamabad. When asked if he was the beneficiary of the four Agro-plots that the CDA was recently pressurized to allot, he said that it was just media gossip.

A senior district Revenue official, serving in the D I Khan, however, said that the land in question was in possession of the Maulana and Durrani. He said he did not know under what law the then Army chief had made this allotment because such a military land was only allotted to army officers and NCOs or to the families of the martyred.

Source: Ansar Abbasi (Hundreds of acres of Army land given as bribe to JUI)

by Amna Gilani

Senator Israrullah Zehri and the senator Jan Mohammad Jamali first said with arrogance that the English newspaper columnists of Islamabad cannot understand the Baloch traditions and principles. They both were adamant to defend the gruesome sin committed in their areas and they were of the opinion that those traditions are carrying on for the thousands of centuries and it was very imprudent for the people in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore to raise voice against such incident.

Who knows how many women are buried alive daily in Balochistan? Somehow nature leaked this incident, otherwise who would have known about this tragedy? The traditions like Wani, Karokari and host others are the forms of same tradition and the killings in the name of “Ghairat” have really taken a sharp rise in the recent years. Whenever I look at the dead bodies of those women in TV or newspapers who became victims of wani or karokari or such dignity-killing, I always noticed that such women look impoverished and very old, and one wonders as how could such pitiful creatures could dare to challenge the “Ghairat” of the tribes.

No tradition is barbaric and no tradition allows the killing of fellow human being. Such horrendous crimes occur because of the ego and lordliness of the tribal leaders and lords. What these women wanted after all? They wanted to marry with their own will, that’s it. The mental powers of such tribal leaders start and finish over the women. They spend their whole days in their baithaks to decide which women has committed which crime and how could they make the life more miserable for their sisters, mothers, wives and daughters.

These people are even worst than the Kafirs of Ignorant-Era before Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The brother of that minister of PPP who has committed this crime has reported to have done such things routinely in the past. He has also challenged the writ of the government. Will Rehman Malik act?

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a remote area of Balochistan province, that five women were buried alive, allegedly by the younger brother of Mr. Sadiq Umrani, the provincial minister and a prominent leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, the ruling party. However, police have still not arrested the perpetrators after one month of the incident.

CASE DETAILS:

The Umrani tribe is mainly concentrated in the Jafarabad and Naseerabad districts of Balochistan provice that are about 300 kilometers from Quetta city, the provincial capital. Mr. Sadiq Umrani, the provincial minister for housing and construction, was elected to the Balochistan Assembly in the February 18, 2008 elections from Dera the Murad Jamali constituency of district Naseerabad.

The incident of the women being buried alive occurred in a remote village, the Baba Kot, 80 kilometers away from Usta Mohammad city of Jafferabad district. It is believed that due to the influence of the minister and his brother the incident was not reported in the media.

According to the information received, five women were Ms. Fatima, wife of Umeed Ali Umrani, Jannat Bibi, wife of Qaiser Khan, Fauzia, daughter of Ata Mohammad Umrani, and two other girls, aged between 16 to 18 years. They were at the house of Mr. Chandio at Baba Kot village and to leave for a civil court at Usta Mohammad, district Jafarabad, so that three of the girls could marry the men of their choice. Their decision to have marriage in court was the result of several days of discussions with the elders of the tribe who refused them permission to marry. The names of two younger girls were not ascertained because of strong control of tribal leaders in the area.

As the news of their plans leaked out, Mr. Abdul Sattar Umrani, a brother of the minister, came with more than six persons and abducted them at gun points. They were taken in a Land Cruiser jeep, bearing a registration number plate of the Balochistan government, to another remote area, Nau Abadi, in the vicinity of Baba Kot. After reaching the deserted area of Nau Abadi, Abdul Sattar Umrani and his six companions took the three younger women out of the jeep and beat them before allegedly opening fire with their guns. The girls were seriously injured but were still alive at that moment. Sattar Umrani and his accomplices hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones. The two older women were an aunt of Fauzia and the other, the mother of one minor. When they protested and tried to stop the burial of the minors that were plainly alive, the attackers were so angry that they also pushed them into the ditch and buried all alive. After completing the burial, they fired several shots into to the air so that no one would come close.

The minors were educated and were studying in classes from 10 to 12. They were punished for trying to decide about their marriages.

After one month the police have still not registered the case and it is difficult to get more detailed information. The provincial minister is so powerful that police are reluctant to provide details on the murder. When the AHRC contacted Mr. Sadiq Umrani, provincial minister, he confirmed the incident by saying that only three women had been killed by unknown persons. He denied his or his brother’s involvement. He went on to say that the police will not disclose any information about the case as to do so now would be implicate themselves. However, concerned officers of two different police stations have confirmed the incident and explained that no one is providing any information. Also as they could not find the graves of the victims it is difficult to register the case. The victim’s family members have since left the place and their whereabouts are unknown.

The alleged perpetrator, Mr. Abdul Sattar Umrani, the brother of the provincial minister, was also involved in murder of three persons, including one young woman, in January 2006. That case was similar in that a school teacher, Mr. Mohammad Aslam, was going with his lover in a taxi to a civil court to court marry. The perpetrators stopped them at Manjo Shori, sub district Tumboo, District Naseerabad and killed all three persons by gun fire. The dead included the taxi driver, Mr. Jabal Aidee. The police were unable to institute a murder case for five months until the intervention of Mr. Iftekhar Choudhry, the deposed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and also the deputy speaker of Senate. But only one person was arrested and the perpetrator Abdul Sattar Umrani remained at large.

ADDITIONA INFORMATION:

Every year in Pakistan hundreds of women, of all ages and in all parts of the country, are reported killed in the name of honour. Many more cases go unreported. Almost all go unpunished. The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions, which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men many of whom impose their virtually proprietarily control over women with violence. For the most part, women bear the traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies, speech and behaviour with stoicism, as part of their kismat (fate), but exposure to media, the work of women’s rights groups and the greater degree of mobility have seen the beginnings of women’s rights awareness seep into the secluded world of women.

But if women begin to exert these rights, however tentatively, they often face more repression and punishment: the curve of honour killings has increased parallel to the rise in the awareness in rights. State indifference, discriminatory laws and the gender bias of much of the country’s police force and judiciary have ensured virtual impunity for perpetuators of honour killings. It is paradoxical that women who enjoy such a poor status in society and have no standing in family should become a focal point of a false and primitive concept of family honour, which they are accepted to uphold at the expense of their inclinations and preference in the matters of marriage. [Honour Killings in Pakistan by Neshay Najam].

Originally a Baluch and Pashtun tribal custom, honour killings are founded in the twin concepts of honour and commodity of women. Women are married off for a bride price paid to the father. There is no concept for girls to get marriage on their own choice and if it is found then, they are killed in the name of honour. (Please also refer to LESSON Series 35 May 2004 of Human Rights Correspondence School).

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the following mentioned authorities demanding to file the case of murder of five women by burial alive by the perpetrators.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions calling for an intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

Source: AHRC

By Rauf Klasara

There is more to the bone-chilling account of the 17-year-old Taslim Solangi of Khairpur who was thrown to dogs!  She was 8-month pregnant and was forced to give birth to her baby prematurely. The baby was immediately thrown into the nearby Ubhal Wah canal after her killer father-in-law passed a judgement that the child was illegitimate and did not deserve to be allowed to live.

Meanwhile, a new report said hit men have also been dispatched to Karachi to kill the absconding mother of Taslim who had fled the village. Top level inside sources have now confirmed to The News on good authority that at the time of her murder Taslim was to give birth to her first child in two-week time.

But, once the decision to eliminate her was taken by her father-in-law Zamir Solangi, she was taken to a local midwife Mrs Badshaan alias Baashi for forced delivery of the child. Soon after the delivery, the baby was thrown into the nearby canal and later the mother was put to death.

In Islamabad, President Asif Ali Zardari reacted sharply to the report of killing of Taslim and has asked lady MNA Nafeesa Shah to investigate the shocking event and submit him a report. President spokesman Farhatullah Babar told The News that the president was greatly disturbed over the incident and had immediately asked Nafeesa Shah to investigate the matter.

Mr Babar said the lady MNA, who was scheduled to leave for Turkey along with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has cancelled her trip and decided to go to her village and probe the incident.

Meanwhile, source said, an influential assistant commissioner serving in the Sindh government, who heads the Solangi tribe, is said to have played a key role in facilitating the murder of the 17-year old girl. Mrs Zakran, the mother of the victim, is hiding in Karachi as Zamir Solangi has now dispatched hit men to kill her.

A source said: ou are talking about some one who was murdered in March, but no one is talking about the mother of the victim whose life is in serious danger after she decided to take on the killers of her daughter.?

The murderer is still at large, telling every body that he has sent hired assassins to eliminate the mother of his daughter-in-law. The police have instead arrested the husband of the girl, who volunteered to confess that he has killed his wife.

Gul Sher had married a woman of the adjoining Kanhar tribe from whom he had two sons and as many daughters. Taslim was the elder daughter, who was married to the son of her real uncle Zamir Solangi. One day, the mother of Taslim borrowed jewellery from her neighbours and fled the village along with her children. It is not known why she left her house, leaving her husband behind in the village.

She settled in Karachi with her children. After some time, she got her daughter Taslim married to a young man of Kanhar tribe of the same area. This marriage had taken place in Karachi. Having no idea that the young man belonged to the adjoining village of her own village, she married off her daughter to him. The Kanhar tribes have many houses adjacent to Hajana Shah, Pir jo Goth (the area of Pir of Pagara). One day, the young man took his wife Taslim to his village, as he did not know the history of her mother-in-law. By chance, some women from Hajna Shah came to visit the very house of the Kanhar tribe and learnt that Taslim had remarried to another man. They went back and informed their elders the whole story. This became a matter of enmity between the Solangi and Kanhar tribes. However, the chief of Solangi tribe and a serving assistant commissioner Sain Dad brokered a deal between the two tribes.

The assistant commissioner decided that the Kanhar tribe would pay a fine of Rs 400,000 to the Sloangi family for remarrying the girl. Likewise, Sain Dad also made the Kanhar tribe to hand over Taslim to an old man Khajan of Hajana Shah village as 蕆maanat?till a final decision. The girl was handed over to one Mulla Ajao who later handed her over to Mr Khajan who kept her in his home.

But one morning Zamir Solangi came to Khajan with holy Quran in his hands to assure him that if he handed over his daughter-in-law, he would not harm her. He vowed on Quran that he would not kill her and would keep her at his house. Zamir also gave a word on Quran to her frightened niece and daughter-in-law Taslim that he would not kill her. Khajan agreed and handed over the girl to Zamir Solangi.

After taking the girl to his home, the first thing he did was to take the pregnant Taslim to a midwife Baashi to arrange the delivery of the child whose actual date of delivery was still fifteen days away. The moment the child was born, he was thrown in the Ujhal Wah canal.

Zamir Solangi forced his son Ibrahim Solangi to declare that his wife was a 蕱aali? He asked his son it was better that he confessed to police that he had killed his wife for being 蕱aali? as it would be easy at the later stage to get him out of jail after some compromise, as happens in the cases of honour killing. Ibrahim went to the police station and confessed to have killed his wife in the name of honour. Thus the real killer managed to escape arrest.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedpur police station officials did not show any interest in further investigating the whole issue after the husband of girl surrendered before the police. Talking to The News, DSP Khairpur Liaqat Abbasi said it was a simple case of honour killing, as the husband had confessed to the crime and was in jail. He claimed that there was some dispute over the payment of money, which had actually led to big hue and cry.

Meanwhile, MNA Nafisa Shah, who belongs to Khairpur, has condemned the incident of Taslim Solangi murder, which she termed as cruel, inhuman and barbaric. She also condemned the role of the Jirga.

There have been numerous cases where the MNA, a former Nazim, has taken personal risks and saved lives of many women. There have been other cases when she learnt of deaths months after the incidents and ordered enquiries and the culprits were brought to justice. This has been duly acknowledged nationally and internationally, as she received a number of citations on peace and human rights.

by William Sparrow

BANGKOK - Prostitution in the Islamic nation of Pakistan, once relegated to dark alleys and small red-light districts, is now seeping into many neighborhoods of country’s urban centers. Reports indicate that since the period of civilian rule ended in 1977, times have changed and now the sex industry is bustling.

Early military governments and religious groups sought to reform areas like the famous “Taxali Gate” district of Lahore by displacing prostitutes and their families in an effort to “reinvent” the neighborhood.

While displacing the prostitutes might have temporarily made the once small red-light district a better neighborhood for a time, it did little to stop the now dispersed prostitutes from plying their trade. Reforming a neighborhood, instead of offering education and alternative opportunities, appears to be at the core of early failures to curb the nascent sex industry. This mistake would become a prophetic error as now the tendrils of the sex trade have become omnipresent in cities like Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore, not to mention towns, villages and rural outposts.

An aid worker for an Islamabad-based non-governmental organization (NGO) recently related a story: quickly after his arrival in the capital, he realized the house next to his own was a Chinese brothel. The Chinese ability to “franchise” the commercial sex industry by providing down-trodden Chinese women throughout Asia, North America and Europe would be admirable in a business sense if it were not for the atrocities - human trafficking, sexual slavery and exploitation - which cloud its practice.

Chinese bordellos, often operating as “massage parlors” or beauty salons, are across Pakistan, even spread even to war-torn and restive locations such as the Afghan capital Kabul. Chinese in the sex industry have developed a cunning ability to recognize areas where the demand for sex far outstrips the supply.

The NGO worker said that after months of living adjacent to the brothel things were shaken up - literally. One evening a drunk Pakistani drove his car into the brothel. Later the driver told authorities the ramming was a protest by a devout Muslim against the debauchery of the house and its inhabitants. The NGO worker, however, had seen the same car parked peacefully outside the house the night before.

The local sex industry comprised of Pakistani prostitutes has also grown in recent years. One can easily find videos on YouTube that show unabashed red-light areas of Lahore. The videos display house after house with colorfully lit entranceways always with a mamasan and at least one Pakistani woman in traditional dress. The women are available for in-house services for as little as 400 rupees (US$6) to take-away prices ranging 1,000 to 2,000 rupees. These districts are mostly for locals, but foreigners can indulge at higher prices.

Foreigners in Pakistan have no trouble finding companionship and may receive rates similar to locals in downtrodden districts. More upscale areas like Lahore’s Heera Mundi or “Diamond Market”, cater to well-heeled locals and foreigners. At these places prettier, younger girls push their services for 5,000 to 10,000 rupees for an all-night visit, and the most exceptional can command 20,000 to 40,000 rupees for just short time.

Rumors abound online that female TV stars and actresses can be hired for sex. “You can get film stars for 50,000 to 100,000 rupees but you need good contacts for that,” one blogger wrote after a trip to Lahore.

“The Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi sex scenes are totally changing and it’s easier and easier to get a girl for [sex],” another blogger wrote. “Most of the hotels provide you the girls upon request.” Bloggers also reported that it is easy to find girls prowling the streets after 6 pm, and foreigners can find young women hanging out near Western franchises like McDonald’s and KFC. Such women, the bloggers claim, can lead the customer to a nearby short-time accommodation.

Short-time hotels offering hourly rates can be found all over major cities, underscoring the profits being reaped by the sex industry.

Pakistan can also accommodate the gay community with prostitution. Unfortunately, this has also given rise to child prostitution.

A Pakistani blogger wrote, “We [ethnic] Pathans are very fond of boys. [In Pakistan] the wives are only [had sex with] once or twice a year. There are lot of gay brothels in Peshawar - the famous among them is at Ramdas Bazaar. [One can] go to any Afghan restaurant and find young waiters selling sex.”

As in many societies, access to technology, the Internet and mobile phones has only facilitated the sex trade in Pakistan. “Matchmaking” websites serve the male clientele, while providing marketing for prostitutes.

The root causes of prostitution in Pakistan are poverty and a dearth of opportunities. Widows find themselves on the streets with mouths to feed, and for many prostitution offers a quick fix. A local Pakistani prostitute can earn 2,000 to 3,000 rupees per day compared to the average monthly income of 2,500 rupees.

Forced prostitution is not rare. Women in hard times are often exploited and pushed into prostitution. Sandra (not her real name), said that after the death of her father she was left alone; friends and relatives deserted her after the grieving period. As a middle-class, educated woman she was surprised to find herself forced into prostitution from her office job.

“My boss initially spoiled me at first,” she told Khaleej Times. “[But] now I am in [the sex industry].” Sandra first thought her boss was being gracious, but quickly learned he was grooming her for sex for his own pleasure, and then acting as her pimp.

Many of Pakistan’s contemporary sexual mores may have evolved from traditional practices. For example, the polygamy permitted in Muslim society stemmed from the need for larger family units, the better to support familial ties and tend for widows. Until such ancient customs are updated, women such as Sandra will continue to be bought and sold.

It’s time for Pakistan to admit that prostitution is doing a roaring trade within its borders, and will continue to prosper until it is addressed in a modern manner. Let us hope that the people and government of this proud Muslim country will stop pretending the problem simply isn’t there.

Source : Whiz News