Ban the burning tire

Given the widespread shortages of gas and electricity and the breakdown in law and order in our society, “dharnas” or protests have now become a way of life in towns and cities across Pakistan, as people demand better governance. Often traffic is blocked, public property is destroyed and tires are burnt during many of these protests. Yesterday, I attended a different type of dharna held in Islamabad, to protest the brutal killings of the Hazara community in Quetta. I was relieved to see people sitting quietly on the road, lighting candles and listening to the speakers. These peaceful protests erupted all over the country from Quetta to Karachi and from Lahore to Islamabad, uniting the country in the shared grief of the gentle Hazara community.

At the protest in Islamabad, there were dozens of people young and old, including children and women. The sit-in on an otherwise busy road had been well organised by members of the civil society of Islamabad and the highly educated Hazara youth living in the city. Blankets and food were also provided by the organisers, while the road in F-6, behind the Supermarket was blocked off by a couple of parked vehicles. There was not a single burning tire in sight.

I wish other protestors would realise that the burning of tires releases a toxic soup of pollutants into the air, which are extremely harmful both for the protestors and those living in the area. Hundreds of different toxic pollutants are created by burning tires, including a large number of small particles that settle deep into the lungs. Children, fetuses, nursing babies, the elderly, asthmatics and immune suppressed individuals are all much more vulnerable to these pollutants. The small particulates released by burning tires worsen asthma.

Tires are not designed to be burned and contain hazardous ingredients, which are suspected human carcinogens. In fact, the burning of tires releases Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). These are toxic substances composed of organic (carbon-based) chemical compounds and mixtures. POPs include industrial chemicals like PCBs and pesticides like DDT and are primarily products or by-products from industrial processes, chemical manufacturing and resulting wastes. The existence of POPs is relatively recent, dating to industrial production after the 2nd World War.

Balochistan already under army control, says Mengal

Former Balochistan chief minister Akhtar Mengal has said governor’s rule will not have a positive effect on the situation in the province because it has already been under the control of the army.

According to the BBC Urdu website, the Balochistan National Party – M chief said when veteran Baloch nationalist Nawab Akbar Bugti could be traced and killed in the mountains one would ask why the terrorists involved in sectarian killings could not be reached.

“No safe haven of terrorists is hidden from intelligence agencies. The army and intelligence agencies are responsible for all ills,” he said, adding that although the provincial government was incompetent, governor’s rule was no solution to Balochistan’s problems.

It was a superficial change and the situation would be the same as before, he said.

Mr Mengal said not a single member of terrorist organisations had been arrested over the past five years. The bullet-riddle bodies of Baloch activists were found dumped in different parts of the province, but terrorists were not arrested and produced before courts, he added.

Passenger has baby aboard flight

A passenger has given birth to her first child aboard an Armenian airline and named her daughter after one of the flight attendants who helped with the delivery. The birth of the healthy baby occurred on Saturday, two hours before the long Armavia airline flight from Siberia was scheduled to land in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Flight attendant Asmik Gevondyan noticed that 31-year-old passenger Armina Babayan appeared to be in labour and organised the delivery conducted by several crew members. “Even our male colleague, Grigor, did his part, bringing water and napkins,” Gevondyan told reporters. In gratitude the passenger, who had claimed to be six-and-a-half months pregnant during check-in, named the baby Asmik, local television reported. agencies

Runaway boy drives father’s car across Europe

A 13-year-old boy who lives in Italy with his adoptive parents took his father’s Mercedes and drove more than 800 kilometres through Europe in an apparent attempt to reach his birth family in Poland, Italian police said on Saturday.
He set off on Thursday afternoon from the small town of Pederobba in northern Italy with 200 euros in his pocket and drove the high-powered automatic car for almost 24 hours before being stopped by German police on a motorway near Leipzig.
“The boy’s sister and natural parents are in Poland and it seems he was going there to meet his sister,” said an Italian police spokeswoman.
Media reports said the boy had an argument on Thursday afternoon with his adoptive mother.
“The boy has told his parents he is sorry and has recognised he was in the wrong,” the police spokeswoman said, adding that he was on his way back to Italy.

Youth festival: ‘Education system not fostering creativity’

The education system in Pakistan lacks the ability to inculcate original thinking and creativity in the youth,” said Shehzad Ghias Sheikh, founder of Cogito, a theatre production company which is these days holding a youth performing arts festival in the city.

Themed Speak Up; Act Now, the festival is being organised jointly by the Cogito, The Knowledge Factory (TKF) and local partners Talent Idols, Danka.pk and Dramducation with support from the US Consulate General.
“In the absence of social platforms for people to express their creativity, such festivals help break shackles in the society,” said 24-year-old Sheikh, who has been teaching theatre since 2011.
“This is so far the longest festival we have organised,” said Sheikh about the 11-day event which kicked off on January 11 at The Knowledge Factory in Defence Housing Authority.
The Cogito had organised festivals of a similar kind in Karachi in 2010 and in Lahore in 2012.

Sheikh said the previous festivals had lasted three days each. “We realised that smaller events are more successful,” he said. The festival this year includes workshops besides performances. Creative skills and arts were vital for any individual, especially the young, Sheikh said.
Dedicated workshops are being organised on theatre production, acting, singing, music, fiction writing, kathak and improvisation.
The previous festivals had hosted 600-700 people. The venue of this year’s festival accommodates 120 to 130 people, Sheikh said.
TKF CEO Saad Tariq said they around 100 people were participating in the performances and 25 in workshops. He said as the event partners, they had employed social media to market it.
There is no charge for participation except registration which the TKF administration says is mandatory. The festival is also hosting a “Lahore’s Got Talent” competition. The 2-day event is expected to be a highlight of the festival, Tariq said.

Women’s rights in Pakistan: NGOs compile report to show the ‘real’ picture

Nearly two dozen NGOs launched a “shadow” report on Tuesday to disclose the condition of women’s rights in the country.
Earlier, the government submitted a similar report to the United Nations ahead of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw). Now both the reports will be presented before the Cedaw committee when it meets in Geneva in February next year.
Rubina Brohi of the Aurat Foundation, said that the “NGO Alternative Report on Cedaw 2012” highlights the gaps that the government left in its official report. “The government only talked about positive things, and failed to discuss the real picture [of women’s issues] in the country.” The official report covers the period from 2007 to 2010, while the one compiled by the NGOs includes events during 2011 as well.
Cedaw was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. According to its website, the 30 articles in the convention “define what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination”.

Jobs for votes

As the story goes, a distant relation of a nawab once begged him for a job. The nawab, in his infinite generosity appointed him head of the treasury. When it was submitted to his highness that the post was very critical and that the applicant didn’t possess the relevant credentials, the nawab thundered that, being the ruler of the state, it was for him to decide whether a person deserved a job and that it was beneath his high office to turn down a job application, especially when approached by someone related to him. The new man in charge of the treasury made a mess of the finances of the state and in a few years it was reduced to insolvency.

This anecdote, of course, doesn’t apply to Pakistan where democrats rule, rather than nawabs. However, one may still ask whether there’s anything wrong with the government providing jobs to people? Not in the slightest. The public sector being the largest employer all over the world, including Pakistan, government departments take the lead in job generation. It’s therefore hard to find fault with the employment creation role of the government. However, what may come under question, and at times does, is the way this role is performed.

Governments generate jobs in three broad ways. One, they create jobs directly by filling situations in government, semi-government and autonomous departments. Even in a relatively small economy like Pakistan, normally thousands of vacancies arise in the public sector every year and are filled.

Two, through economic policies and administrative measures the government creates conditions which are conducive to employment creation in the private sector. Fiscal and monetary policies drive up the aggregate demand in the economy, which makes businesses step up their production and, in the process, hire additional labour. The right industrial policy shores up the productivity of the economy, while investment and trade policies may push up capital formation and exports, which serve as instruments of employment creation. Sustained economic growth, macroeconomic stability, improved law and order situation, overcoming supply-side constraints such as energy shortages, and a business-friendly environment also contribute to job generation.

A question of India’s honour?

The writer is a former member of the foreign service

The three separate but related incidents of deadly armed clashes and firing across the Line of Control which took place on January 6, 8 and 10 are the most serious violation of the ceasefire agreed in 2003, which had been holding well so far despite the ups and downs of the ‘peace process.’ Two soldiers from each side have been killed in these incidents. This may not by itself be very ‘unusual’ in the history of LoC violations. But the current round of fighting, which is not over as yet, is different from other, more ‘routine’ incidents of firing and small skirmishes. It involves not just shooting across the Line of Control but also allegations of cross-LoC raids. In India, moreover, public hysteria has been whipped up by allegations that bodies of their dead soldiers were mutilated.
The full facts will probably never be known. But even the filtered information which has come to public knowledge through the Indian media shows that the original provocation came from the Indian side. One Indian newspaper (The Hindu) has reported that last September Indian commanders in the Haji Pir sector, where a Pakistani soldier was martyred in the first of the three incidents, ordered the construction of new observation posts in the area in breach of the nine-year-old ceasefire agreement. Pakistan’s objections, conveyed over a loudspeaker system, were ignored. This led to firing across the LoC. Then, on January 6, an Indian brigadier known for his “very aggressive track record,” according to the Indian Daily News and Analysis (DNA), decided to counter-attack. The newspaper reported that a commando platoon of the 9th Maratha Light Infantry (MLI) carried out the raid which resulted in the shahadat of Lance Naik Aslam. Officially, however, India continues to dispute that its soldiers attacked the Pakistani post and claims that they only fired small arms.
Not surprisingly, a spokesman of the Indian defence ministry has also denied the construction of new posts by India. Instead, he asserted, there had only been “routine maintenance of [Indian] fortifications” in the area and “this could not be considered a ceasefire violation.” The Indian newspaper’s claim that the raid was the result of an individual initiative by a particularly “aggressive” Indian commander is also hard to accept because the Indian army is a highly structured force.

Governor’s rule imposed in Balochistan

President Asif Ali Zardari has signed the summary regarding imposition of Governor's rule in Balochistan after which Governor Zulfiqar Ali Magsi have become cheif executive of the province, 

The notification in this regard is expected to be issued soon.

Earlier, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf announced that invoking article 234 of the constitution, Governor's rule in Balochistan has been imposed for ttwo months effective from Monday.

Talking to protestors of the Hazara sit-in, PM Ashraf expressed hope that as an executive of the province, Governor Zulfiqar Ali Magsi would take all necessary steps to hold those behind the Quetta bombings accountable.

He also said that FC has been given all powers of police in the province.

The prime minister asked protestors to inform Governor Balochistan and FC Commander about their problems, adding that action would be taken immediately.

He assured the protestors that federal government would fully cooperate with the governor.

Long march: In the name of security, mobile services suspended

LAHORE / ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: Cellular services have been suspended in parts of Pakistan on Sunday owing to reports of attacks on Tahirul Qadri and the long march participants.
Services were suspended at 5pm and will remain off until further notice by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Lahore
Areas where services are made unavailable include Gulberg, Link Road, Model Town, Faisal Town, New Campus, Dharampura, Gari Shahu, Imamia Colony, Minar-e-Pakistan, Railway Road, Badami Bagh, Ravi Road, Shadra, Nau Lakha Chowk and Do Moria Pul as well as some areas of the district Sheikhupura. However, services were restored in some of the mentioned areas.
Twin cities
Apart from Lahore, mobile phone services will be suspended in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and its adjacent areas on Monday.
Officials associated with the Crisis Management Cell (CMC) told The Express Tribune that the services will remain suspended in twin cities from Monday afternoon onwards.
Karachi
Cellphone services were suspended in Karachi’s Clifton and Defence area today reportedly because of a protest held outside Bilawal House against Shia killing.
Long march security threats
Intelligence reports have confirmed that several terrorist outfits have planned attacks on the January 14 long march of Minhajul Quran International (MQI).
According to a Special Branch (SB) report – a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune – confirmed that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is planning an attack on the rally.
The group is also planning the assassination of influential scholar Mufti Muneebur Rehman and Dawat-e-Islami chief Maulana Ilyas Qadri.
A report by the interior ministry’s National Crisis Management Cell supported the Special Branch report regarding possible TTP attacks on Qadri’s rally.
Another SB report suggested that the Saifullah Baqi-led Ghazi Fidai Force is planning suicide attacks on the march.
The National Crisis Management Cell of Interior Ministry and Special Branch recommended foolproof security and vigilance for Qadri’s caravan.
Preventive measures
In the light of these intelligence reports, a circular was issued to the administration, police department, other Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), Corps Commander, Corps 4, Home Department, Joint Director Intelligence Bureau(IB), Sector Commander Military Intelligence (MI), Sector Commander Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Additional Inspector General of police Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).
The circular called for increased coordination between all the departments.
Ban on pillion riding
A ban on pillion riding has been imposed in Karachi effective immediately, Express News reported.
The interior ministry issued the ban, which will remain in effect until further notice.