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Posts Tagged Hypocrisy

Robbers Versus Rangers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Robbers Versus Rangers

 

 

Irfan Hussain

 

THE recent exchange of artillery salvos between Islamabad and Karachi over the Rangers’ operation in Sindh exposes the tension between the federal and provincial governments.

As the PPP government in Sindh continued to drag its feet over renewing its approval of the operation, Chaudhry Nisar, the abrasive interior minister, upped the ante by hinting at governor’s rule in the province. While clearly a setback for democracy, such an extreme step would not be unwelcome among large segments of the population.

When the MQM was the focus of attention from the Rangers with its headquarters being raided, its senior members being arrested, and its activists — many of them alleged killers — being hounded, the PPP was a silent witness. But when its own Aman Committee thugs were targeted, and its bagmen locked up, there were loud squeals of anguish.


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Insisting that investigation of corruption by provincial bigwigs was outside the remit granted the Rangers, the PPP cited constitutional provisions about the rights of the provinces. Clearly, the party feels that its leaders should be allowed to suck the province dry without let or hindrance from the centre.

The irony here is that some of those in Islamabad pressing for tough action against violence and corruption in Sindh have apparently not been above helping themselves to the national exchequer. And for months, the PML-N leadership delayed action against the Taliban. Even today, some of its members are on the same wavelength as the jihadis.

But while this may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, any improvement in security in Sindh — and especially in Karachi — is to be welcomed. Although the leadership of both the MQM and the PPP have reason to oppose the intrusion of the federal government in their fiefdoms, most people have welcomed it. Demonstrations in favour of the operation being conducted by the Rangers across the province are testimony to its popularity. Even though there are rumours that some of these protests were instigated by the Rangers, everybody I have talked to in Karachi and in rural Sindh supports the operation.

The truth is that things had got so bad in the province that millions were desperate for protection, no matter where it came from. A battalion of horned demons would be applauded if they could make Karachi’s mean streets safe again. The Rangers, not subject to the same political interference that had hobbled the police, have smashed several criminal syndicates that enjoyed protection from party leaders who shared in the spoils.

There have been several reported incidents where the Rangers have misused their powers. But by and large, their crackdown has been effective and focused. Probably the most controversial step they have taken is the arrest and detention of Dr Asim Hussain, allegedly Asif Zardari’s frontman and close buddy.

After the 90-day remand period, he was handed over to the police who have recommended his release as, according to them, there is no proof linking him to any terrorist activity. The Rangers are moving the Sindh High Court to block his discharge as they claim the police have destroyed the relevant evidence.

This extraordinary case between two state agencies again underlines the friction between the federal and provincial governments. Obviously, the police reports to the provincial administration that has every interest in getting Dr Hussain freed. The Rangers, on the other hand, want him tried for allegedly giving terrorists sanctuary in his hospital.

This newspaper has argued in a recent editorial that the Sindh government has every right to seek the assembly’s approval for an extension. Of course it does. But such an exercise in democratic procedure should not have been allowed to turn into the farce that it became. Now, with a diluted approval, it remains to be seen how effective the Rangers will be, and how much acrimony it will generate between the centre and the provincial government.

The reality is that the provincial assembly is seldom used to discuss and debate the abysmal state of law and order, health, education and the infrastructure. Both the PPP and the MQM use the assembly to squabble over irrelevant issues. Issues vital to Sindh’s beleaguered population are seldom aired, let alone resolved.

An online survey conducted by this newspaper found that 84pc of the 4,000 or so respondents polled support the operation. Being online, it is not really representative of Pakistan. But the handful of politicians opposing it benefit from the lawlessness they preside over, and resent any interference in their misrule and corruption.

If anything, the recent local bodies elections showed how the PPP used its muscle to bully the opposition into abandoning the field. The unopposed victory of many of its candidates is testimony not of its popularity, but its undemocratic practices. For this party now to claim the democratic high ground to oppose the Rangers is pure hypocrisy.

[email protected]

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2015

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The Spineless servitude of Pakistan and the Hypocrisy of the French & the West by Haider Mehdi

 

 

 

 

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The Spineless servitude of Pakistan and the Hypocrisy of the French & the West

Haider Mehdi’s Perspectives

TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015  ​

The spineless Pakistani Nation and The Hypocrisy of France, the West & the Muslim World
The killings in France were tragic whoever the pepetrators.  Even more tragic and heartbreaking for us in Pakistan was the senseless mowing down of little children in their so neat little green and greys in Peshawar. Nobody has the right to take life.

Pakistan’s schizophrenia and public hypocrisy had never been so starkly contrasted till after the French incident. After the Peshawar tragedy there was no call for a national rally to show resolve against the terrorists. The person who had kept the nation on tenterhooks for nearly 130 days, the one and only Dharna Khan, capable of this call, whimpered and mumbled and APC’d as did other political leaders.

It’s now clear that on top of mind for Dharna Khan then were his nuptials as 130 mothers wept at their children’s graves.

Only the MQM called for a public rally. A few hundred brave souls lead by Jibran Nasir picketed Abdul Aziz and Lal Mosque.

The rest was a deafening silence from 200 million spineless souls except for a few safe twitters and facebook comments by armchair twitteratis like me.

Shame on us, Pakistan. Shame on all of us.

In contrast France rallied the nation and the globe around its so called liberty and managed to collect 40 leaders and 3 million people to defend a rag sheet.

While it has been shocking to see the servitude and insensitivity of the Pakistani nation it was even more shocking to see the crass hypocrisy at Public display in France not just in the 40 leaders who made up the spectacle but the millions who joined in support in Paris.

Many of these were Muslim leaders who, oh so, sombrely linked arms in the chain with Netanyahu, that great defender of Palestinian rights and freedom and free speech. One such Muslim leader was from the great land of Nejd and Hejaz, freshly arrived from the flogging of a social media activist in his own country, to show his solidarity for a gutter rag publication. The same publication and its wretched people who defiled the image of this man’s professed religion’s most revered and cherished figure.

Sickening and disgusting hypocrisy.

Little does one know that French comedian Dieudonné has been banned from public appearances in France because of his anti semitic jokes.

Pro Palestinian demonstrations are banned in France by law.

So while France can selectively choose to curb the civil liberties and free speech of some it continued to allow a rag of a newspaper to continously and deliberately and baitingly insult the sensitivities of a community in the name of liberty and free speech.

This publication has never chosen to insult Jews and or Prophet Musa despite the many opportunities, Israeli injustices against the Palestinians,  has provided it.

And may it never insult Prophet Musa, a deeply revered figure in Islam as well or for that matter any personage for which any community has sacred and reverential emotions and feelings.

While Western social orders get extremely upset if words like Nigger for African Americans or Nazis for Israeli soldiers, are used,  but it’s perfectly acceptable for these same societies to ridicule, insult, humiliate the Prophet of Islam, in the name of free speech.

So my issue is twofold. 

1) ​A feeling of terrible sadness at the spineless servitude of the Pakistani Nation and it’s so called leaders especially Dharna Khan when our own were mowed down.
​ And​
​2) ​the sickening hypocrisy of the West, France and our Muslim Countries in showing solidarity with a rag and its double standards.

Prayers and Best Wishes
Haider Mehdi

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CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE BY PAKISTAN MEDIA, IMRAN KHAN,& DR.QADRI ON STUDENT DRUGS AB– — USE & 300 BROTHELS IN “ISLAM” ABAD?IS THIS HYPOCRISY OR FEAR OF PMLN?

DR.TAHIR-UL-QADRI & IMRAN KHAN WHY ARE YOU SILENT ON 300 PROSTITUTION DENS UNDER “ISLAM”…ABAD MNAS PATRONAGE?

300 PROSTITUTION DENS IN ISLAMABAD: MNAS HOSTEL-A PROSTITUTES PARADISE, PEDOPHILIA,WHISKEY & BEER — — USED FREELY,SADO-MASOCHISM

PAKISTAN IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOM INVOLVED IN CENTRAL ASIAN PROSTITUTES SMUGGLING

HUGE BRIBES BEING PAID BY ISLAMABAD PIMPS & MADAMS

CENTRAL ASIAN WOMEN SUPPLIED TO ZARDARI PRESIDENCY AND PPP MNAs

References

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/foreign-prostitutes-go-to-work-as-pakistan-closes-for-ramadan-1046222.html

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/04/02/national/central-asian-girls-being-trafficked-to-pakistan-for-prostitution/

http://www.thenewstribe.com/2014/02/04/central-asian-women-imported-to-pakistan-for-prostitution-as-official-eyes-closed/

http://weeklypresspakistan.com/2012/04/2102

CENTRAL ASIAN GIRLS BEING TRAFFICKED TO PAKISTAN FOR PROSTITUTION

The Central Asian Prostitution Rates

WHERE IS FBR?DO ISLAMABAD MADAMS PAY TAXES?WHAT DEFENCE SECRETS THESE WOMEN FERRET OUT FROM ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL?

MAJOR NEWS CHANNELS LIKE ARY,AAJ,DUNYA HAVE A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE

THE COST OF FANTASY

CIS GIRLS NOW DOMINATE THE HIGH-END ISLAMABAD SEX MARKET OFFERING SEXUAL PLEASURE AS LEISURE

SERVICES 

TIME IN HOURS 

RATE IN RUPEES/PER HEAD 

ONE TRIP (SEXUAL INTERCOURSE) 

TWO 

8,000 

TWO TRIPS 

TWO 

10,000 

TWO TRIPS 

FOUR 

15,000 

UNLIMITED TRIPS 

EIGHT OR OVERNIGHT 

25,000 

ORGY (AT LEAST ONE GIRL PER PERSON) 

EIGHT OR OVERNIGHT 

25,000 

ESCORT SERVICE (TRAVEL OUTSTATION WITH THE CLIENT, ALL EXPENSES ARE MET) 

PER DAY 

25,000 

PLAY HOSTESS AT A STAG PARTY 

FOUR HOURS 

15,000 

POSING AS NUDE MODEL FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AND SKETCHING 

ONE HOUR 

5,000 

PAYMENT IS IN ADVANCE/ALL CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED, CASH IS PREFERRED. THE WEBSITES GUARANTEE CONFIDENTIALITY. 

Human trafficking from Central Asian Countries to Pakistan is going on and highly educated girls from Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are forced to prostitutions, the trafficking victims have said. At least six girls, trafficked from Central Asian region, say they are doctors by profession and were offered jobs in their field in Pakistan. “But we were deceived on fake jobs offer with high incentives. We were deprived of traveling documents and passports once we arrived in Pakistan so that we could not contact law enforcement agencies,” they told Online. The girls from Uzbekistan said on condition of anonymity that they were persuaded to apply to a job in the health sector of Pakistan that apparently offered high incentives, 10 times greater than a doctor earns in their home country. “But after arriving here the person who was presenting himself as a recruiting agent snatched our documents,” they said. Uzbekistan’s embassy confirmed that they had complains of human trafficking from the country and then using them as prostitute. “Yes it is an open secret, human trafficking causes several other crimes, but we remain unaware of their identities and whereabouts,” said Lutfullah, First Secretary at Uzbekistan’s embassy said. The Central Asian girls declined to give details of the person, who brought them to Pakistan fraudulently and then handed over to two females forcing them for prostitution. A girl in a guest house in the capital’s F-8/3 sector told Online, “Now, I cannot go to a police station as I have no document and they (the characters involved in the crime) have threatened us of losing life if I or five others girls, two of them from Azerbaijan, cross the limits of uncovering the network”. Three of the girls from Uzbekistan and one from Azerbaijan said that they have contacted their respective embassies to have new passports and documents but they are also delaying provision of support. When asked for his version over the issue of helping in re-issuance of passports and documents, Lutfullah said, “Yes, usually females come to the embassy in routine claiming that their passports and travelling documents were lost. Basically the passports are being issued by Uzbekistan’s Interior Ministry and not the embassy. We deal here only in travelling documents, but we need certain proofs for issuing such documents.” Online tried to contact the press attaché of the Azerbaijani embassy but he was not available to comment on the issue. Meanwhile, a senior official of the FIA who was not authorised to speak to the media said that human trafficking to Pakistan is continuing from CARs and China but some time it become hard to take a step or fully stop it due to legal complexities. “For example the immigration department is careful about issuing visas to girls from China but still human trafficking is continuing. The reason is that some Chinese workers in Pakistan show prostitutes as their wives and smuggled them here,” he further said. According to an official of FIA’s Anti Human Trafficking Cell more than 400 human traffickers involved in the heinous crime using air, land and sea routes for their activities. According to certain media reports every day 75-100 illegal immigrants are reached the country airports. There are reports that Pakistan is a destination for men, women and children from Central Asian Countries, Bangladesh and Iran who are subjected to forced labor and prostitution. According to FIA officials investigation from members of this kind of groups revealed that the three main frequent routes used by traffickers in Pakistan include Makran coast, Thar and porous border with Afghanistan, the sea routes of Karachi, Ormara, Pasni Gawadar and Jiwani are easy routes of the trafficking. Reports suggest that trafficked women are sold into brothels for $1,000 to $2,000 depending on age, beauty, race and their virginity.

CENTRAL ASIAN WOMEN “IMPORTED” TO PAKISTAN FOR PROSTITUTION AS OFFICIAL EYES CLOSED

HT

ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has busted a four-member gang involved in trafficking of foreign women for sex trade and has arrested a member, sources said.

The Racket was headed by a former assistant director immigration and son of a former legislator from Faisalabad.

According to details, two women from Central Asian countries had arrived at Islamabad Airport from Turkish Airline on 30th January. They were cleared from the airport’s International lounge without due immigration procedure with alleged support of FIA officials.

Out of two, one of the lady passed through lounge reserved for special personalities and the other one got out of airport from common lounge.

It was astonishing that other agencies personnel were providing protocol to these ladies, seemingly as per designs of gang.

When contacted, FIA Islamabad Zone director Captain (Retd) Zafar Iqbal Awan confirmed the report and said they sent anti-smuggling personnel to the airport after the information.

Initial investigation stated that gang comprises of an ex assistant director immigration, Bahram Baloch, and Mustafa, who tells himself as a secret agency personnel.

Whereas trafficking women were used as prostitutes in Islamabad. The gang had allegedly paid Rs. 1 lac to immigration personnel to skip immigration procedure.

Bahram Balooch resides in I-8 Area of the capital.

On a query, Director FIA informed that names of women and others had been kept secret to arrest other members of these gang.

On the directions of the FIA director, anti-smuggling cell has registered case against the gang member.

THREAT TO PAKISTAN ARMED FORCES & NUCLEAR DEFENCE SECRETS

PAKISTAN’S LEGISLATORS ARE INTO DRUGS AND PROSTITUTION AS DISCLOSED BY JAMSHED DASTI, ONE OF THE FEW HONEST POLITICIANS IN PAKISTAN’S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
PROSTITUTES ARE FOUND EARLY MORNING LEAVING ROOMS ALLOCATED TO MNAs.
SOME MNAs ARE PEDOPHILES AND AB– — USE YOUNG BOYS & GIRLS in MNA HOSTELS
RIGHT UNDER THE NOSE OF ISLAMABAD POLICE.
THEY ARE PMLN UNTOUCHABLES. POLICE’S HANDS ARE TIED. IF ARRESTED, THEY ARE RELEASED IN HOURS, AFTER CALLS ARE RECEIVED FROM PRIME MINISTERS SECRETARY
THE SAME POLITICIANS ARE ALSO ON COCAINE, HEROIN, ECSTASY & LSD
PAKISTAN IS BEING LOOTED & ENJOYED FOR PERSONAL CARNAL PLEASURE BY NAWAZ SHARIF’S PMLN POLITICIANS
F,G,& H BLOCKS IN ISLAMABAD ARE INFESTED WITH HO– — USES OF PROSTITUTION. WOMEN FROM CENTRAL ASIA, UZBEKISTAN, TAJIKISTAN,TURKMENISTAN, KAZAKHISTAN,
THAILAND, PHILIPINES, MYANMAR ARE FOUND UNDER PAKISTANI PIMPS & MADAMS. 
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS EARMARKED FOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN EACH MNAs JURISDICTION ARE SPENT ON ALCOHOL & WOMEN
THIS IS QUAID-I-AZAM PAKISTAN UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF KIM BARKER FAME SEXUAL HARASSER NAWAZ SHARIF, WHOSE WIFE HAS GROWN TOO FAT TO SERVICE HIS SEXUAL ADDICTION.
FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS ARE USING THESE PROSTITUTES TO GATHER INTELLIGENCE ON PAKISTAN’S  STRATEGIC & NUCLEAR SITES

300 PROSTITUTION PLACES FOUND IN ISLAMABAD

December 23, 2013 in News insightPakistan

Prostitution Islamabad: It is a very shameful news for all the Pakistani Nation who calls themselves as the believer of Islam and proud to have the name tag of Islamic Republic of Pakistan should lay down their heads because 300 Prostitution places are found in the Federal Capital Islamabad. All the high commands designated persons hold their offices in the capital but how come it is possible that they are unknown of this fact. According to the report published in the newspaper some Police officers have react to this news immediately and raided on the mentioned places in the various areas of Islamabad. The police have also arrest many persons and took them in their custody. The Islamabad police is continuously working on this and it is also conducting out the raids at constant interval on the mentioned places. While this is very shameful that all these types or centers are operating in Islamabad. The allegedly mention places where these centers found are G-11, G-10, Shahzad Town, Ghauri Town, Alipur, Burma Town, Pakistan town and others.

– See more at: http://www.desitvonline.org/300-prostitution-places-found-in-islamabad/#sthash.OKNM01tT.dpuf

 

At 15, Shiny was the brightest student and scored straight A’s in her O-Level Examinations. Her parents were busy doctors minting a fortune and wanted her to score straight A’s in A-Levels to join a medical college in the UK. Pressures on her to perform were very high and parental care nonexistent. Browsing on the internet, she found names of anti-sleeping pills to stay awake. She used them, but fell into a depression. Within a year through friends on Facebook, she progressed to charas, heroin injections and amphetamines. Her parents, too busy with their routine, attributed dark circles around her eyes and loss of hair to over work, but never bothered to check her arms for punctures. She fell back in class and died of drug overdose before she was 17. Adnan’s mother is a widow with two sons and a daughter. She has worked hard to educate her two elder children who are now employed aboard with hefty salaries. Five years ago, they moved to Baharia Town. With no supervision, Adnan got hooked to sheesha, hash and ecstasy. He started becoming violent and would often injure himself or cut his wrists. He was expelled from the college. He reacted by bringing gangsters outside the schools and colleges where his friends studied and involved in fights with firearms. He has abandoned education and operates a gang of drug addicts, who are involved in fights outside schools and colleges. The mother, who once defended him stoutly, is now helpless. For Adnan, it is a matter of time. Meena is a foreign educated business developer. Working in a BPO, she got hooked on to drugs through young executives working at night at call centres. Out of job due to drug abuse, she now heads a gang of young addicts and peddles for the elites of Islamabad and Bharia in heroin and crack. Two of her friends have died of overdose. These are alarming events and tip of the iceberg. It is a devil that haunts the urban elite education centres and call centres where youngsters are vulnerable and the nouveaux riches, who have no time for their children.

A decade back, hash and heroin was deemed to be a poor man’s refuge due to the prohibitive cost of imported liquor. However, the trends are now changing. Hash, heroin, amphetamines, hallucinogens, ecstasy and Ketamine compounds have proliferated into the urban elites of Pakistan. The route of entry is invariably private education institutions and BPOs operating night shift of youngsters, who attend school or college at day. Invariably, it always begins with efforts to keep awake and ends in tragedy. Outside the premises of these institutions, peddlers and criminals operate with impunity to befriend new customers. Rave parties, dancing events and attractive satanic captions splash pages on the social media. Sheesha centres in urban malls and posh localities located in farm houses are the high points of the nouveaux riches addicts where ecstasy, syringes and crack are a token of status. Once hooked there is no return. Pakistan’s drug statistics are shocking. According to one report, over eight million Pakistanis are using drugs. The numbers are likely to touch 15 million in the next few years. Over 57 percent amongst these use heroin. According to another report amongst the women, 47 percent are college or university educated professionals. Nearly half of all urban addicts are school/college going students studying in private institutions and live in posh upcoming housings. According to DG Narcotics, private educational institutions are more vulnerable than the government educational institutions to attract the students towards drug addiction, mainly because the elites can spend more. He also expressed the opinion that addiction rate was proportional to tuition rates, where both parents were working and where parents don’t have enough time for their children. The drug of choice for the rich urban elites is not heroin but crack, a derivative of cocaine traded in dollars and euros. Private education institutions from schools to universities have failed to check this rising menace within and outside their bounds. Most hostels of boys and girls also have dens from where this trade is run. In hostels, students experiment with chemicals to manufacture stimulants and hallucinogens in which Ephedrine and Ketamine are the basic drugs of choice. Recently, a hostel in Islamabad was found to be both a drug and prostitution den. In street corners, Garda, a lethal mix of tobacco, charas and stimulants in readymade cigarette rolls is available to anyone across the counters; usually the high school students. In Pakistan’s urban centres, no one seems willing to take on the challenge. The district and municipal administrations despite tremendous civic powers at their disposal prefer looking the other way. Action by police is usually to extort more money from the peddlers and addicts. Private educational institutions in their desire to earn money prefer to keep their eyes closed, even to galas and dinners held in their own premises. Academicians lack the administrative fist and the leader’s prowess to deter, cajole or convince students. Nobody cares to inspect the hostel premises or why students have dropped semesters. Tutorial and social care groups are nonexistent. Visiting faculties consider having their hands washed of all responsibility and accountability. Cases instead of being reported to police and ANF are hushed up by disciplinary committees. There is a total absence of any dissuasive or punitive policy. The time for holding ceremonial seminars on drug abuse as a compulsive expenditure should now be over. It is time to act. Detecting and preventing drug abuse is a social, civic and collective responsibility and not confined to police and ANF. Urban administrators, cantonment boards, institutional administrations and civil society groups need to wake up to this challenge and evolve aggressive action plans to combat this menace before we lose more youngsters to this social evil.

The writer is a retired officer of Pakistan Army and a political economist.     Email: [email protected]

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Islamabad: The country’s capital Islamabad, has become a hub of drug addicts. Saach.TV, after receiving complaints from the people, visited several areas and found shocking incidents that involve also the premises of a fast-food chain. The areas also include parking lots. Youth of Islamabad often come around here to enjoy their evenings and conduct social gatherings. However, this recreation now involves drug use, besides sale and purchase. A visit by the scribe revealed the amount of drug consumption in the parking lot as well as the adjacent park near the restaurant. Unfortunately, there are no checks and balances, though there are check posts of police round these corners. There is no police present inside the premises as the restaurant has its own security outside to inspect the vehicles for any security-threatening object. Such activities are also taking part in different areas of Islamabad including prominent universities. A student of Quaid-e-Azam University disclosed to the scribe that weed is very much open in university premises and there is no check from the police. An ex-addict told the scribe that the weed is easily available in Islamabad. He said, “Mostly people take drugs to relax themselves. The culture has been imported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and most of the weed comes from that place.” Talking about the suppliers of weed, he said, “The suppliers of weed are easily available at different places and they work on a small scale. Main handlers of the suppliers operate from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” Giving his expert opinion on the matter, Dr. Wahab Yusufzai, a Consultant Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor at Shifa College of Medicine told Saach.TV that it is very unfortunate that this epidemic has spread in our society. He praised the role of media in identifying the issue and urged the government to run an awareness campaign. He strictly criticized the increasing culture of Sheesha among the youth and termed it as a catalyst to take youth at the verge of drugs. Talking about the technicalities and solutions to eradicate this menace from the society, he emphasized, “Police has to take measure in controlling the supply and trafficking being done. Stopping the supply will surely decrease the addiction.” He also asked the parents and universities to play their part in monitoring the youth. He said, “There should be a strong liaison among the parents and teachers and they should keep a watchful eye over the children. Parents must scrutinize the behaviour of children and also put a full stop on the increasing habit of youth to stay awake at night and sleep all day.” Saach.TV tried to contact the Inspector General of Police, Islamabad but he was unavailable. His Public Relations Officer (PRO) said, “Islamabad Police has been cracking down on these elements daily and it is evident from their daily press releases.”

– See more at: http://www.saach.tv/2012/05/18/islamabad-an-easy-drug-place/#sthash.2VrHmAUd.dpuf

Who is this Pakistani Spy?

Posted on January 18, 2010 by alaiwah

About two years ago, a British military attaché in Islamabad was dismissed after he “lost the confidence of the British High Commission” following what London called his “inappropriate relationship” with a Pakistani female ‘spy’.

Brigadier Andrew Durcan, 56, was recalled in January 2007.

All hell broke loose after Aroosa Alam of an Islamabad daily, Pakistan Observer, ventured with what she claimed was an expose on how the drama involving the British military attache and the female spy played out.

Alam pointed to a certain research fellow, who happens to work for the ISS as the spy in question. This infuriated Dr Shireen Mazari, the ISS boss, who then went to town with a rejoinder that attempted to cut Alam down to size, but which in turn, drew the fury of the offended daily. Credibility was at stake, after all.

It is no secret that in diplomatic missions, some officials serve time for work other than their stated job-description. It is quite probable that Brigadier Durcan had a few skeletons in his cupboard, which is, in part explained by his rather secretive dismissal following a “loss of confidence” at the High Commission. Islamabad’s statement that it was never informed of the decision is, again, a pointer.

British Ministry of Defence, which seconds senior officers to the Foreign Office as military attaches in embassies around the world, confirmed the dismissal but declined to discuss the disgraced official’s future postings or whereabouts.

“The High Commissioner in Islamabad considered his platonic friendship with a Pakistani national inappropriate and, as a result, lost confidence in him. He has been investigated and cleared over potential breaches of security,” is what a statement from the ministry said following the revelation.

The married Durcan is a former commander of the Gordon Highlanders, 52nd Lowland Brigade and deputy inspector-general of the Territorial Army. He was nicknamed “the tartan barrel” by officers under his command in Scotland because of his girth.

But to most Pakistanis, it is the alleged involvement of their compatriot, a female at that, which is the most intriguing element of the soap opera.

Aroosa Alam, the daredevil reporter, decided to put them out of their misery with this expose:

“Careful and thorough investigation and a number of background interviews with military diplomats close to Brigadier Durcan revealed that a research fellow from Institute of Strategic Studies is the lady behind the whole affair. “Holding dual nationality, one Pakistani and other British, Ms M K, has been associated with the Institute for many years. She deals with a number of defence-related issues and has written many research papers particularly on conflict resolution, non-proliferation, and EU. “She frequently travelled between England and Pakistan. In Pakistan, she sought many interviews with various high-level defence officials even in Pakistani military hierarchy. She came under suspicion by M16 undercovers in Islamabad mission when she sought interviews with defence officials of the High Commission to be used in her research papers. “According to sources, she would ask some very pointed and pertinent questions. But when she went back she never used these interviews and wrote nothing on these issues. Intelligence authorities in the High Commission were then alarmed and started suspecting that these questions were asked by her for not her own research papers but for the consumption of some one else. This was some time last fall. The girl and the Brigadier were monitored. Phones were bugged. Even the room and the house of the British Military Attache were bugged. “Some sources claimed that some filming was also done to prepare incriminating evidence. Both were also spotted intimately together at some social functions. Sources claimed that the Brigadier also travelled to England many times to spend time with her and his engagements in England were also watched and closely monitored. “A team arrived from London in early January this year after Christmas holidays and the Brigadier was confronted for the first time about the status of his relations with the young lady. He was asked to report back to London where, according to sources, he appeared before a three-member military tribunal along with the internal inquiry report, and evidence based on phonic conversations and perhaps with some pictures”.

Aroosa Alam drew a swift riposte from Mazari, who called a press conference the very next day, refuting the allegations point-by-point. She said although the research fellow mentioned in Alam’s report did work for ISS, all references to her subordinate’s name – right from the work specifics to foreign travel and dangerous liaisons with the disgraced British official – were factually wrong.

Mazari was clinical in her assertion and rounded off the rearguard by demanding an apology from both the reporter and her paper, failing which she threatened to seek legal redress.

However, her charge that the paper was undermining national interests and becoming a tool for vested interests, drew a scathing rejoinder from the paper, which made no secret of its displeasure by stating that it did not need a sermon from someone under the microscope.

In fact, it went on to suggest that it had done a favour to Mazari by publishing what it did since that “put an end to wild guesses being made in the city about some of the known media-related female academics, including Dr Mazari herself, for being the lady in question”.

The prime time battle was apparently, won by Mazari, when the paper finally, issued a front-paged “clarification” by its editor, regretting the “inadvertent” nomination of the ‘spy’ (MK) in the story, which it denied was true.

It has now emerged that the alleged ‘spy’ is, indeed, not the one named in Alam’s controversial story but someone else. However, some contents of her story, apparently, do hold ground.

For instance, the incriminating evidence one got to see clearly belies London’s claim that its official did not have the kind of relations with the ‘spy’ that a certain Bill Clinton allegedly had with the most known intern in history.

TRAFFICKED|BY DEMAND

Palwasha*, 18-year old Afghani girl, has been a commercial sex-worker since she was 14. A year later, she was forced to marry her rapist, who was also addicted to drugs. Then she was taken to Iran and forced into commercial sex work to make money for her husband. “He used to beat me up very badly every day besides forcing me to make money for him,” she was quoted as saying in the AIHRC report. “After a year or so he sold me to an Iranian drug seller for a huge amount of money before my family found out about it in Afghanistan and my mother came to Iran to rescue me.”

The cause of the prevailing international trafficking on all continents, stems from the demand. Like others trades, be it arm-dealing, drug trafficking, the human trafficking is also an illicit market and is controlled by the basic economic theories of supply and demand. As is common knowledge in the field of economics, once the demand lowers so does the supply.

Unfortunately, no one wants to go anywhere near the sensitive, controversial topic of “demand.” There are very few international organizations, government programs or NGOs that even touch on the topic of demand in human trafficking and the organizations that do focus on demand tend to center their efforts on abolishing sex trafficking. Amongst the handful of organizations that are unanimously in agreement to eradicate the demand and are concentrating their efforts for countering the demand side of human-sex-trafficking are the STOP DEMAND, THE Sage Project and Global Centurion. 

It’s essential to truly change the mindset of the slave buyer to eradicate modern-day slavery and end the demand for slaves. And to end demand, involved people  (men and women both) need to be held accountable for their participation in buying women and children for sex.

Understanding patterns of organized criminal networks are also important to consider. The situational context is vital to also develop awareness of the recruitment practices. Many girls like Palwasha” and others fall into the hands of human-traffickers due to their vulnerable conditions such as poverty, illiteracy and impoverished house-holds.

Their recruitment usually takes place by “agents” or middle-persons (more than 65% are women) that lure their victims through girls through force (drugging/kidnapping); or coercion via promises of fake opportunities or boyfriends who trick young girls in to running away with them.

In starkly poor villages of Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, the women agents visit houses and speak face-to-face with parents, elderly establishing a trust within a  community. This helps in getting significant large number of children, sometimes an extortion fee is also taken from the victim’s family to make think that their children will get better rewards after reaching their destinations or this amount will cover their basic needs.

Being a woman, it disgusts me to observe that more than often “women” are working as trust agents that engage to establish themselves quickly within communities.

At Islamabad, in the previous years, the dark side of diplomacy has also come to the surface. When media broke out the story that consular staff at the Switzerland Embassy was involved in a human trafficking racket. Switzerland immediately replaced all its embassy and consular staff in Pakistan. It also shut down its visa-section at Islamabad, that followed a Pakistani investigation into the illegal Swiss visas that has led to a number of arrests.

Switzerland also launched visa fraud investigations in countries  Oman, Peru, Russia, Nigeria, Serbia and Eritrea.  These issues came to the surface after local media started highlighting the plight of Pakistani visa applicants complaining about the various forms of harassment by Swiss embassy officials.

A few weeks ago, Pakistan Embassy in Libya sent the Foreign Ministry  an official letter that alleged that Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Immigration department in Islamabad, is involved in human trafficking. The embassy provided sustainable evidence to back its claims that travel documents were being used for opening bogus vacancies in fake companies, and added that the officials at FIA Immigration department in Islamabad are charging between Rs25,000-50,000 (150-350 EURO) per person to smuggle them abroad.

The letter added that hundreds of Pakistanis contact the embassy every day saying that they have no money to eat and appeal to be sent back to Pakistan. This is why, the letter urged, a ban should be imposed immediately on all people traveling to Libya and action should be taken against FIA officials involved in the fraud. Further more, the report claims that thousands of  Pakistanis sent illegally to various places across the world are dwelling in jails, fallen into hands of trafficking networks and being meted out inhumanly treatment. It adds that countless have already died in the dire conditions.

On one-hand the human-flesh trade continues, but inside Pakistan, the prominent internationally recognized campaigner of human rights, Ansar Burney continues to serve are a whistle-blower.

Burney is a man with a mission. The mission that is not so impossible includes crimes against humanity, degradation, child abuse, sex-slavery, human trafficking and other more subtle forms of human and civil rights violations without any discrimination or affiliation.

He has been working on issues of sexual slavery in Pakistan, the Middle East and Africa for two decades now. During this time, with assistance from the various governments and authorities, through his organization the Ansar Burney Trust, he has secured the release of thousands of persons from false imprisonment and slavery across the world; these have included young girls sold in the sex trade and young children used for modern-day slavery.

In 2005, the Ansar Burney Trust was involved in the release and repatriation of 13,967 victims(under-age) from the Middle East alone. A shocking case came to light, when Burney rescued a group of under-age trafficked girls sold into prostitution in Middle Eastern countries.

During the investigations, it was revealed that the greater demand of “under-age virgin” girls continues to rise in the Middle East.  The traffickers used the horrible method of blood capsules on the girls’ bodies in order to “prove”  their virginity.

In an interview with local media, Burney denounced this inhumane practice  and warned that “use of such blood packed in capsules used by human traffickers to show that girls are virgin, may contain viruses that can spread AIDS or other contagious diseases.”

The issue of children both boys and girls being trafficked into sexual slavery highlights other dimensions within the demand chain. As young boys too fall prey to such traffickers for sexual exploitation. A a non-governmental organization Modar (working in Tajikistan) says said there was a growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation abroad.  It reports that s groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as $70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12.

Unfortunately, human trafficking is one of the longest established, yet most neglected problems in all continents. Palwasha’s* story is a tip on the iceberg of the many cases of human trafficking which happen, literally under our noses, every day.

She may be lucky to be rescued but the scars inflicted upon her soul may not perish. Others many not be teeny-weeny bit lucky as her to get rescued at all.

Reference

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Islam & Wahabi Saudi Hypocrisy: Medina: Saudis take a bulldozer to Islam’s history:Buying American Girls for Sex

 

Authorities are building a mosque so big it will hold 1.6m people – but are demolishing irreplaceable monuments to do it

FRIDAY 26 OCTOBER 2012

 
 
 
 

Three of the world’s oldest mosques are about to be destroyed as Saudi Arabia embarks on a multi-billion-pound expansion of Islam’s second holiest site. Work on theMasjid an-Nabawi in Medina, where the Prophet Mohamed is buried, will start once the annual Hajj pilgrimage ends next month. When complete, the development will turn the mosque into the world’s largest building, with the capacity for 1.6 million worshippers.

But concerns have been raised that the development will see key historic sites bulldozed. Anger is already growing at the kingdom’s apparent disdain for preserving the historical and archaeological heritage of the country’s holiest city, Mecca.  Most of the expansion of Masjid an-Nabawi will take place to the west of the existing mosque, which holds the tombs of Islam’s founder and two of his closest companions, Abu Bakr and Umar.

Just outside the western walls of the current compound are mosques dedicated to Abu Bakr and Umar, as well as the Masjid Ghamama, built to mark the spot where the Prophet is thought to have given his first prayers for the Eid festival. The Saudis have announced no plans to preserve or move the three mosques, which have existed since the seventh century and are covered by Ottoman-era structures, or to commission archaeological digs before they are pulled down, something that has caused considerable concern among the few academics who are willing to speak out in the deeply authoritarian kingdom.

“No one denies that Medina is in need of expansion, but it’s the way the authorities are going about it which is so worrying,” says Dr Irfan al-Alawi of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation. “There are ways they could expand which would either avoid or preserve the ancient Islamic sites but instead they want to knock it all down.” Dr Alawi has spent much of the past 10 years trying to highlight the destruction of early Islamic sites.

With cheap air travel and booming middle classes in populous Muslim countries within the developing world, both Mecca and Medina are struggling to cope with the 12 million pilgrims who visit each year – a number expected to grow to 17 million by 2025. The Saudi monarchy views itself as the sole authority to decide what should happen to the cradle of Islam. Although it has earmarked billions for an enormous expansion of both Mecca and Medina, it also sees the holy cities as lucrative for a country almost entirely reliant on its finite oil wealth.

Heritage campaigners and many locals have looked on aghast as the historic sections of Mecca and Medina have been bulldozed to make way for gleaming shopping malls, luxury hotels and enormous skyscrapers. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of the 1,000-year-old buildings in the two cities have been destroyed in the past 20 years.

In Mecca, the Masjid al-Haram, the holiest site in Islam and a place where all Muslims are supposed to be equal, is now overshadowed by the Jabal Omar complex, a development of skyscraper apartments, hotels and an enormous clock tower. To build it, the Saudi authorities destroyed the Ottoman era Ajyad Fortress and the hill it stood on. Other historic sites lost include the Prophet’s birthplace – now a library – and the house of his first wife, Khadijah, which was replaced with a public toilet block.

Neither the Saudi Embassy in London nor the Ministry for Foreign Affairs responded to requests for comment when The Independent contacted them this week. But the government has previously defended its expansion plans for the two holy cities as necessary. It insists it has also built large numbers of budget hotels for poorer pilgrims, though critics point out these are routinely placed many miles away from the holy sites.

Until recently, redevelopment in Medina has pressed ahead at a slightly less frenetic pace than in Mecca, although a number of early Islamic sites have still been lost. Of the seven ancient mosques built to commemorate the Battle of the Trench – a key moment in the development of Islam – only two remain. Ten years ago, a mosque which belonged to the Prophet’s grandson was dynamited. Pictures of the demolition that were secretly taken and smuggled out of the kingdom showed the religious police celebrating as the building collapsed.

The disregard for Islam’s early history is partly explained by the regime’s adoption of Wahabism, an austere and uncompromising interpretation of Islam that is vehemently opposed to anything which might encourage Muslims towards idol worship.

In most of the Muslim world, shrines have been built. Visits to graves are also commonplace. But Wahabism views such practices with disdain. The religious police go to enormous lengths to discourage people from praying at or visiting places closely connected to the time of the Prophet while powerful clerics work behind the scenes to promote the destruction of historic sites.

Dr Alawi fears that the redevelopment of the Masjid an-Nabawi is part of a wider drive to shift focus away from the place where Mohamed is buried. The spot that marks the Prophet’s tomb is covered by a famous green dome and forms the centrepiece of the current mosque. But under the new plans, it will become the east wing of a building eight times its current size with a new pulpit. There are also plans to demolish the prayer niche at the centre of mosque. The area forms part of the Riyadh al-Jannah (Garden of Paradise), a section of the mosque that the Prophet decreed especially holy..

“Their excuse is they want to make more room and create 20 spaces in a mosque that will eventually hold 1.6 million,” says Dr Alawi. “It makes no sense. What they really want is to move the focus away from where the Prophet is buried.”

A pamphlet published in 2007 by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs – and endorsed by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al Sheikh – called for the dome to be demolished and the graves of Mohamed (PBUH), Abu Bakr(PBUH) and Umar(PBUH) to be flattened. Sheikh Ibn al-Uthaymeen, one of the 20th century’s most prolific Wahabi scholars, made similar demands.

“Muslim silence over the destruction of Mecca and Medina is both disastrous and hypocritical,” says Dr Alawi. “The recent movie about the Prophet Mohamed(PBUH) caused worldwide protests… and yet the destruction of the Prophet’s birthplace, where he prayed and founded Islam has been allowed to continue without any criticism.”

Mecca and Medina in numbers

12m The number of people who visit Mecca and Medina every year

3.4m The number of Muslims expected to perform Hajj (pilgrimage) this year

60,000 The current capacity of the Masjid an-Nabawi mosque

1.6m The projected capacity of the mosque after expansion

JEROME TAYLORThe Independent: United Kingdoms

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