Tag: home-politics

  • Zartaj Gul under fire for seeking credit for global ‘Climate March’

    Zartaj Gul under fire for seeking credit for global ‘Climate March’

    Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul has drawn ire of hundreds of activists for “taking credit for Friday’s Climate March” in various cities of Pakistan and around the world.

    The minister, from her Twitter account, posted pictures of the march and wrote, “Held an engaged public awareness in Islamabad to trigger a more committed behaviour from civil society, and to affirm focus on sustainability initiatives.”

    But since the march was actually a citizens-led global event organised by Climate Action Now to help stop global warming in a call answered by Pakistanis as well, Twitterati didn’t let go of Gul’s claim easy.

    The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) minister faced severe criticism for her claims from participants of the march, including environmentalists, journalists and lawyers, as she didn’t really have much to do with the demonstrations.

    Gul’s tweet has since been deleted.

  • Lahore’s Orange Train the new Peshawar BRT? Delays cost taxpayers Rs11 billion

    Lahore’s Orange Train the new Peshawar BRT? Delays cost taxpayers Rs11 billion

    Delays in construction of Lahore’s Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) has escalated its premium cost by 50 per cent as suspension of development work on the mega project has served a Rs11 billion blow to the national exchequer, The News reported.

    The estimated premium cost of the project was Rs22 billion, but it has increased to Rs30 billion, reports quoted a Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMTA) official as saying and added that an additional Rs3 billion has been allocated for the construction of footpaths for the project, escalating the total premium cost to Rs33 billion.

    The OLMT has two components. The first component of the project is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) whereas the second one is to be funded by the Punjab government.

    The estimated cost of the first component, which includes the civil as well as electrical and mechanical (E&M) works, is unchanged and stands at $1.458 billion. All funding for the CPEC component has been done by the Chinese government; however, the estimated premium cost of the local component, which is to be funded by the Punjab government, has escalated from Rs22 billion to Rs33 billion.

    In order to cut the project’s expenditures, the government has slashed some components of the project, such as the 0.4 kilometers long moving walkway from Lahore Railway Station to Metro Bus Station and the Anarkali-MAO passenger transfer section, reports said.

    PMTA officials were quoted as claiming that the local component price escalation was not because of any delays in civil or E&M works, but because of court cases, some issues on part of the provincial Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), Special Protection Unit (SPU) and some other reasons.

    They added that 96.5 per cent work on OLMT had been completed and it was on the punch list stage, but they couldn’t give an exact deadline for the inauguration as it “depends on the present government when it decides to complete the remaining part”.

  • NAB seizes luxury cars, gold, weapons in raid on ex DG’s house

    NAB seizes luxury cars, gold, weapons in raid on ex DG’s house

    The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested the former parks and horticulture director-general, Liaquat Ali Qaimkhani of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) in Bagh Ibne Qasim scam, Dawn reported.

    According to the details, the anti-graft body has seized eight luxury vehicles, weapons, property files, jewellery and official records of the KMC from ex DG’s custody.

    Moreover, ‘original files’ of the KMC were also seized from the held suspect’s home including two lockers, six and four feet high.

    Reports also reveal that the held suspect had granted a “fake contract” of Bagh Ibne Qasim when he was parks DG of the KMC.

    A day prior, ex-DG parks Qaimkhani was arrested but a three-day transit remand was approved for him.

    When asked by a journalist how someone earning Rs1.5 million a year could afford such luxuries and a big house, the former DG parks said that he belonged to a landlord family and that was his ancestral home.

  • Toyota Indus shuts down plant due to low demand

    Toyota Indus shuts down plant due to low demand

    Due to a continuing fall in demand, Indus Motors Company (IMC), the maker of Toyota vehicles, has decided to shut down all production for the remaining days of September, Dawn reported.

    As a result, reports said, the total number of Non-Production Days (NPDs) this month will reach 15 and quoted an IMC official as saying that the company had already observed eight NPDs in July and 11-12 NPDs in August.

    Claiming that “half of the month was off”, the official said that the federal excise duty (FED) leveled on various engine capacity cars, the skyrocketing prices of the cars owing to the rupee-dollar parity and high-interest rates had made their cars too costly.

    A Toyota vendor was also quoted as saying that IMC’s production would remain shut from September 20-30.

    Toyota Corolla production and sales dropped to 5,308 units and 3,708 units respectively in July-August from 8,804 and 8,770 units in the same period during last fiscal year, representing a fall of 40 per cent and 57 per cent, respectively.

    “Toyota Hilux production and sales have also plunged while that of Toyota Fortuner have come down to 232 units and 162 units from 484 units and 424 units, a drop of 52 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively,” the report said.

  • Guilty – of being a woman

    Guilty – of being a woman

    Likening women to uncovered candy or screaming about the virtues of the hijab or issuing thoughtless circulars regarding schoolgirls and what they should wear — none of these can be solved by a quick-fix order from a government.

    I don’t know about you but I’m not particularly keen on being likened to a lollipop — or any other candy, really. But, judging by social media posts and general attitudes towards harassment and women’s bodies, men in Pakistan seem very (disturbingly) comfortable with being likened to the house fly or the common ant.

    In keeping with the way women are seen (as candy that needs to be covered up, in case you didn’t get the idea), a week or so back schoolgirls in Haripur were instructed to cover up lest something unfortunate were to happen to them.

    “Instruct all students to use gown/abaya or chador to veil/conceal/cover up their-self in order to protect them from any unethical incident.” With these words, District Education Officer (DEO) Samina Altaf put the onus of sexual harassment or anything else that comes under ‘unethical incident’ on young girls. Altaf’s Haripur circular was followed by one for Peshawar. The usual debates ensued on social and traditional media and — as is now pretty much what is expected from this government — the circulars were taken back.

    That the original notification was issued by a woman needs to be unpacked in a whole other article, but let’s just say that the patriarchy and right-wing morality we all grew up with is not confined to one gender and needs to be fought from within.

    Child rights organisation Sahil has said that from January to June in the current year, 1,304 cases of sexual abuse of children have been reported by the media in the country, which means that at least seven children are abused daily in Pakistan. Let the numbers sink in: seven children every single day are either raped or sodomised or otherwise abused — and some are then even murdered. That is not a joke and no number of inane circulars can help correct this without some deeper corrective measures.

    We live in a country where a district in Punjab — Kasur — has almost become synonyms with child abuse, and yet nothing seems to be done about it other than some ineffectual and bizarre reshuffling in the police order. We live in a country where colleges in a big city like Karachi find it perfectly normal to police girls clothing by checking if the kameez/shirt they’re wearing covers their posterior. We live in a country where the only solution to child rape is the death penalty for the rapist (which is not a deterrent) but never a campaign to raise awareness regarding child sexual abuse or sexual harassment generally.

    It is not odd then that in this same country we would have a ‘#HijabIsProtection’ Twitter trend soon after the Hairpur/Peshawar circulars and smack in the middle of three fresh cases of abuse and murder in Kasur. The only thing that reinforces is the absolutely incorrect belief that covering up is the solution to harassment — whether in school, on the street or at home. And it reinforces all the guilt, shame, fear that women here (and in other parts of the world too) grow up with when it comes to their bodies and what harassment is all about (hint: it has nothing to do with what you’re wearing).

    Likening women to uncovered candy or screaming about the virtues of the hijab or issuing thoughtless circulars regarding schoolgirls and what they should wear — none of these can be solved by a quick-fix order from a government. We need a change in attitudes, in the way women are perceived and what little girls are taught about themselves and their ‘virtue’. That requires a change in how society sees ‘safety’. And that then requires a change in how the state perceives issues of security and safety — not of the state but of the people it is meant to serve.

    You will not protect our little girls and boys by asking girls to cover up, or asking parents to employ guards at homes and at school. That’s not deterrence, that’s fear and state’s incompetence. You will not protect our little girls and boys just by hanging one rapist and thinking your work’s done. It’s not. The monsters created by a sick society won’t go away if you just close your eyes. We need your eyes open, your minds working and your people — state representatives — doing much more than issuing ill-thought-out circulars.

  • PML-N leaders mistake own ‘corruption’ for PTI’s

    In a rather embarrassing development, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders have shared audit reports highlighting financial irregularities from their own tenure, while mistaking them as “shortcomings of the now ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)”.

    As per the details, Dawn on Friday shared contents of an audit report pointing out irregularities worth over Rs15.67 trillion money in affairs of federal ministries and divisions during the audit year 2018-19.

    PML-N central spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb besides other leaders, including Maiza Hameed and Khurram Dastgir, tweeted the report while criticising the PTI government for its “corruption”.

    They, however, failed to realise that the funds audited were of the fiscal year 2017-18 — a time when the PML-N was in power — which is described as the audit year 2018-19.

    With screenshots of the said tweets starting doing rounds over the internet, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry and Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar also took a dig at the PML-N leaders for “exposing their own corruption”.

    The tweets have since been deleted.

  • Govt not responsible for kid’s death by rabies: Bilawal

    Govt not responsible for kid’s death by rabies: Bilawal

    Reacting to the death of the 10-year-old who was bitten by a stray dog in Larkana, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that his party-led Sindh government cannot be blamed for it.

    Minor Mir Hasan died of rabies on Tuesday. He was first taken to a hospital in Shikarpur, however, he was not given the treatment because there was no vaccine available there, reports said.

    Hasan’s parents were quoted as saying that they later rushed him to Larkana’s Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Hospital, but it had also run out of the required vaccine.

    A video of the boy, breathing his last in his mother’s arms outside the hospital, was widely shared over the internet as people blamed the PPP-led Sindh government for his death.

    However, Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani said it wasn’t because of a shortage of anti-rabies vaccines. “He was bitten by a dog in his village two days before Eidul Azha, which was 40 days before his death.”

    The child was not brought to the hospital immediately after the dog bite and there is no record of him at any hospital in Shikarpur, said an initial investigation report submitted by the district commissioner.

    According to the report, the anti-rabies vaccine was available in stock at the hospitals Hasan was brought to, however, it needs to be administered immediately after a dog bite.

    Once hydrophobia has been developed, the vaccine does not work and is not administered, it said.

    Rubbishing reports regarding the shortage of vaccine, Bilawal, while speaking to reporters on Thursday night said, “The child was brought to the hospital beyond the time. He was bitten on Eid and brought to the hospital now.”

    WATCH VIDEO:

    When questioned about the alleged negligence of the doctors involved, the PPP chief said that investigations were underway and the government had nothing to do with it.

    “The [Sindh] government isn’t responsible for it, but both the selected government and media keep fixating on that,” he said.

  • Indian defence minister trolled for posing in IAF uniform

    Indian defence minister trolled for posing in IAF uniform

    Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is being brutally trolled over Twitter for posing for a photograph in the uniform of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

    The photograph started doing rounds over the internet after Singh flew on board India’s indigenously-built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas in Bengaluru, becoming the first Indian defence minister to do so.

    “Visit us for tea sometime,” journalist Ajmal Jami wrote while retweeting the image. Other Twitterati, including Indians, also took some time out to troll the defence minister.

    https://twitter.com/AMEYTRIVEDI/status/1174552243955060736

    Earlier in the day, Singh said that the 30-minute sortie was “very smooth and comfortable”, not knowing that the subsequent ride won’t be.

    The IAF has already inducted a batch of Tejas aircraft. The naval version of the LCA is currently in the development stage.

    Recently in Goa, Tejas successfully carried out an “arrested landing”, a key performance demonstrating its ability to land on board an aircraft carrier, making it a major milestone in the development of the naval variant of the fighter jet.

  • Crippling state: Striving for a polio-free Pakistan

    The commitment to eradicating polio from Pakistan is now a national cause led by the prime minister himself.

    The question that I ask myself every day since assuming office is that Pakistan’s polio programme is 25 years old, but why haven’t we been able to eradicate polio till this day?

    The answer is complicated, to say the least.

    My days and nights are consumed in brainstorming strategies and constructing innovative methodologies on how to reach all the children of Pakistan consistently, so one day in the near future I can hand over the keys of the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC); the headquarters of the polio eradication in Pakistan, to the prime minister and we raise the flag of a polio-free Pakistan.

    To begin explaining the scope of the problem, it’s important
    to understand the enemy you are dealing with. The poliovirus is ferocious and
    with evil-intelligence leaves crumbs behind for us to follow. One of our
    biggest mistakes has been taking its bait, fighting it in territories that it
    poses to be its home. While it has kept us engaged fighting its proxies, it has
    multiplied and expanded its arsenal to the extent that we now have to revise
    our strategy to counter it, more aggressively in it is home. We have had 158
    cases of polio in the last five years, and 64 this year alone.

    To me, the number of cases is not mere statistics or a reputation hazard, but these figures represent actual children that have been paralysed for life. We must acknowledge it for what it really is — a daunting and horrific reality of what this virus is capable of, and a stark reminder of just how urgently we need to bring polio to an end.

    But the cases are a mere symptom of the number of children we are missing in every polio campaign — this is where the real problem begins.

    The current outbreak the country is facing was not unpredictable. The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), one of the highest bodies that evaluate the success of the strategies countering the poliovirus, had predicted the outbreak a year earlier than it actually happened.

    The fact is that the data being collected during polio
    eradication campaigns had been misleading operational priorities. The number of
    children recorded as ‘missed’ aided by fake finger markings has had disastrous
    connotations on campaign quality and in return has not accurately reflected ground
    realities leaving hundreds and thousands of children unvaccinated and
    vulnerable to the virus. The root cause of which boils down to the communities
    resistance to being vaccinated.

    This past year saw an upsurge of anti-vaccine propaganda
    spreading like wildfire on social media platforms. As time went on, community
    distrust in the programme fueled by propaganda ended up sparking catastrophic
    incidents like the one in Peshawar on April 22, 2019. Consequently, motivation
    levels of polio eradication teams dwindled as refusals to the vaccine continued
    to spike across the nation.

    I am no newcomer to the programme. I have been associated with polio eradication efforts for over eight years. In all that time I’ve seen people committing the same mistakes over and over again, with my voice unheard. It was immediately clear to me that our traditional approaches had failed. We had to think out of the box and the transformation had to happen soon.

    To this end, I am proud to say that the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme has worked long and hard over these past few months to adapt to the growing myriad of challenges and to transform and re-vitalise its efforts to bring polio to a halt.

    The commitment to eradicating polio from Pakistan is now a national cause led by none other than the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, himself. Such is the commitment that the premier asks for text updates on an almost daily basis and this goes all the way down, right to the frontline workers.

    To make the requisite changes for the desired impact, I have
    been personally involved in the review of the entire programme structure. This
    review has already identified many of the operational deficiencies embedded
    within the programme, including issues with programme structures and has
    reconfirmed the fault-lines that were evident to everyone but were never fixed.

    But, I believe that there needs to be an accountability
    framework that not only measures our success but also guarantees that everyone
    is accounted for their assigned role and nobody is allowed to play with the
    future of our children.

    A 24/7 WhatsApp helpline has also been established to provide direct responses to all parent and caregiver queries, concerns and complaints. Any and all queries, concerns or complaints are logged by the programme, responded to instantaneously, or then forwarded to district officials for remedial follow-up. The Polio Helpline is being initiated in the following months as a 24/7 call centre as well.

    I also believe that one of the biggest hindrances to the
    success of the polio programme is the way it is perceived in the eyes of the
    masses. For this, my team is working with the most creative minds in this
    country to design and launch a Perception Management Initiative which does not
    only aim to counter propaganda and helps builds trust within the community but
    aims at creating demand for the polio vaccine, which has been only a topic of
    several discourses but not been achieved to date.

    I am confident that this transformation of the programme will deliver the results we desperately need. I reassure all Pakistani citizens that I along with my team will not sit idle until Pakistan is certified polio-free.

    The writer is prime minister’s focal person on polio. He tweets at @babarbinatta.

  • Kasur: Shahid Afridi wants rapists hanged publically

    Kasur: Shahid Afridi wants rapists hanged publically

    In light of the return of child abuse and murder case in Kasur, former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi has demanded that the rapists should be hanged publically to set an example for everyone.

    The 44-year-old former athlete in a Twitter post wrote that that time had come to turn Pakistan into ‘Riyasat-e-Madina’, adding that it hurt him to see what was happening in Sindh and Punjab.

    Earlier today, protests broke out across the country, a day after remains of three missing children were found. The kids had been raped and killed, police said.

    With people recalling the horrifying story of Kasur’s minor Zainab, a protest was also held outside City Chunian police station, where people demanded the arrest of those behind the act and an end to such activities for once and for all.