“If our people have committed any sort of crime against the state, then by all means, try them in a court of law. Don’t kidnap them and leave the families wondering if their loved ones are dead or alive,” said Sammi Deen Baloch, her voice quivering with emotion.
Protesters gathered outside Karachi’s Frere Hall on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author
She was one of the 100 or so protesters — including children — who had gathered outside Karachi’s Frere Hall yesterday to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, a day that recognises and amplifies the concerns of those whose loved ones have disappeared. They then marched to the Karachi Press Club (KPC), where activists and family members delivered speeches describing the cruelty of enforced disappearances.
Even though the UN has designated this one day to highlight the pain of the loved ones, the agony of Sammi, and others like her, is year-round.
Protesters sitting outside Karachi Press Club on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author
She was at the tender age of 10 when her father went missing. Now 24, she joins countless others at protests seeking the well-being — or closure — of their missing family members. Protesters like Sammi have marched from Quetta to Islamabad to demand answers, petitioned the courts, sat on highways and staged rallies, only to be faced with apathy.
Sammi Deen Baloch sitting outside the Frere hall on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author
For these families, navigating the legal and political labyrinth in the country in search of their loved ones is like walking through a revolving door: they end up exactly where they started, leaving without what they came for in the first place. But unlike the rotation of the revolving door, which has some semblance of movement, these families are paralysed, stuck in the moment their loved ones were taken away.
For them, death is not the worst tragedy to befall their families. Living this painful reality is.
‘Families destroyed’
Remembrance. Hopelessness. Anguish. These were the common words that the family members of those who are missing frequently uttered as they pondered over the fate of their loved ones. But there was one overarching question that was central to their wretched existence: “Where are our loved ones?”
“We are not asking for big projects or schemes in Balochistan, nor are we sitting here striking against inflation,” Sammi said. “All we are asking for is the fate of our loved ones.”
Sammi has been tirelessly campaigning for the return of her father Dr Deen Muhammad Baloch since he went missing on 28 June, 2009.
Five-year-old Meroz joined her mother and older sister Saeeda Baloch at the rally, holding up a poster of her missing father. Sharing the fate of Sammi and several other young women, Meroz has mostly known a life without her father, Abdul Hameed Zehri. According to a poster they were holding, he went missing on April 10, 2021.
Five year old Meroz holding a banner for her father, Abdul Hameed Zehri who went missing on April 10 2021.
Like Sammi, Saeeda has forged on in her efforts to find answers on the whereabouts of her father.
“When you kidnap one person you end up destroying their whole family. We don’t even know yet if we’ve been orphaned or not,” Saeeda told Dawn.com.
“My mother has lost all her health waiting for my father to come back. She’s been both a mother and father to us in the last couple of years trying to raise us,” Saeeda said, sharing praise for the women who have desperately tried to carry on with their lives with a burden they should not have to carry any longer.
“This (enforced disappearances) isn’t just an issue for these family members. It is an issue for the whole nation,” said Qazi Khizar Habib, vice chairperson of the Sindh chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
The HRCP had organised the event at Frere Hall and later at Karachi Press Club (KPC) in conjunction with other human rights groups.
Activists who attended the rally sat in solidarity with family members at the steps of Frere Hall, where they had laid out posters, personal belongings and even school certificates of young children who had been kidnapped recently.
‘We have no happiness anymore’
“All of us are dead when you kidnap one person. We have no happiness anymore,” said Mazib Baloch.
Fauzia Baloch, whose brother Daadshah Baloch went missing on August 11 this year, echoed a similar sentiment: “Don’t punish us just for being Baloch.”
She said that in previous rallies, it was mostly Baloch families protesting the enforced disappearances of their loved ones, but they are now joined by Sindhi and Pakhtun families too.
Over the past 20 days, Fauzia along with other families protested at various places, most recently at Mauripur Road, where the police forcibly dispersed them.
“If we demand justice, who do we demand it from? When we go to the police they don’t do so much as file an FIR for us. When we go to court, they don’t tell us where our loved ones are or where they’ve been taken,” she lamented.
Till today, Pakistan has not acceded to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED), according to a 2022 report from Amnesty International, which means that enforced disappearances are not currently criminalised in Pakistan.
At present, approximately 8,700 cases of missing people have been registered with the Committee of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, created in 2011.
Protesters gather outside Karachi’s Frere Hall on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author
But a report by the International Court of Jurists said that the committee has “done nothing to advance access to justice and remedy and reparation for the family of the victims, or to hold accountable perpetrators of the crime of enforced disappearance”.
Activists and lawyers within Pakistan have long criticised the state’s response, or lack thereof, to the missing people endemic plaguing the country.
Protesters gather outside Karachi’s Frere Hall on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author
Just last year, the Islamabad High Court acknowledged the committee’s lack of effectiveness, headed by retired Justice Javed Iqbal. That same year the National Assembly passed a bill criminalising enforced disappearances, however, it wasn’t cleared by the Senate. But while committees have been made and shortcomings acknowledged, families of the victims of enforced disappearances are still waiting for answers.
‘Lies and false hopes’
Speaking to Dawn.com, Sammi Deen Baloch joined Fauzia and Mazib in their stance.
“The state has made it clear to us time and time again that we are not citizens of this country, that we do not have equal rights.”
Sammi has met with several governments and ministers and knocked on all the doors she could have, she explained, only for her pleas to fall on deaf ears.
Now, all she wants to know is the well-being of her father.
“What crime have us sisters and mothers and daughters committed to be put through such mental anguish day in and day out?” Sammi asked.
Renowned artist and activist Sheema Kermani expressed her solidarity with the victims, most of whom are women and children.
Protesters gathered outside Karachi’s Frere Hall on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author
“I know so many of these women who have been waiting for years for their husbands and brothers, and I share their pain,” Keermani told Dawn.com.
She recited original poetry highlighting the enforced disappearances, explaining how she fuses together her art and activism to draw awareness to political issues through various mediums of art.
“I hang my head in shame that as a fellow citizen of this country, I cannot do anything except join in their voice of protest.”
Additional reporting by Nadir Guramani
Header photo: Protesters gather outside Karachi’s Frere Hall on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author
The social media platform X will begin offering video and audio calling, owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday, a step towards turning the former Twitter into an “everything app”.
“Video & audio calls coming to X,” Musk wrote in a post on the platform, without specifying when the new features would be available.
The calling features would work on iOS, Android, Mac and PC systems, and no phone number would be needed, he said.
“X is the effective global address book,” the billionaire added. “That set of factors is unique.”
Last month, Musk and his newly hired chief executive Linda Yaccarino announced the rebranding of Twitter as X, saying it would become an “everything app” inspired by China’s WeChat that would allow users to socialize as well as handle their finances.
X’s payment branch Twitter Payments LLC was granted a “crucial” currency transmitter license from the US state of Rhode Island on Monday, allowing it to “engage in cryptocurrency-related activities” such as exchanges, wallets and payment processors, the crypto website CoinWirereported this week.
The license allows X to “securely store, transfer, and facilitate the exchange of digital assets on behalf of its users,” according to CoinWire.
Since Musk bought Twitter last October, the platform’s advertising business has collapsed as marketers soured on his management style and mass firings that gutted content moderation.
In response, the tycoon has moved towards building a subscriber base and pay model in a search for new revenue.
Many users and advertisers alike have responded adversely to the site’s new charges for previously free services, as well as its changes to content moderation and the return of previously banned far-right accounts.
Musk also killed off the Twitter logo, replacing its globally recognized blue bird with a white X.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has stated lawyer Jibran Nasir and his wife Mansha Pasha’s inclusion in the watch list — which led to them being stopped from travelling to Dubai last month — was done “secretively”, adding that the move to bar them from travelling abroad was “without lawful authority”.
Earlier this month, Nasir — who was “picked up by unidentified men” outside his residence in Karachi in June and released 24 hours later — revealed that he was stopped from travelling to Dubai by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) last month.
“We checked in our luggage, got boarding passes, cleared immigration and got the exit stamps but while approaching the departure lounge we were called by an FIA official who appeared to be receiving instructions from someone on his phone,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
The official, he continued, took their passports and read the names to the person he was on the phone with. Nasir quoted the officer as saying “yahi log hain aap kay (these are your people)” after which “we were made to miss our flight, our baggage returned and offloaded stamps affixed on our passports”.
“No formal explanation was given except for ’samjha karain sir, hamain instructions hain aap ko janay nahi dena (please understand sir, we have been given instruction to not allow you to leave),” the activist said.
Nasir said neither he nor his wife received any information pertaining to the matter from the interior ministry. He also shared photos of passports, which showed an “offloaded” stamp.
Subsequently, Nasir had approached the SHC against the move. The plea had urged the court to declare actions of offloading Nasir and restraining his travel abroad “illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional”.
The SHC order, penned by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, said, “Under the law, to prohibit any person from leaving Pakistan must be exercised by means of an order which should be communicated to the affected person(s) as soon as the order is passed.
“This means that if any order is passed but the same is not communicated to the person concerned, it would be a case of arbitrary exercise of power if the order is kept secret only to surprise the person later the moment he is leaving the country,” it said.
The SHC further said that a person could not be placed on a no-fly list without issuing a show-cause notice or providing an opportunity of hearing.
“Since the placement of a person on the watch list or Exit Control List (ECL) curtails the freedom of movement of a citizens, it is settled that a person cannot be placed in the said list unless a show-cause notice, and an opportunity of hearing is provided to him before the adverse action is taken against him/her,” the order said.
“So far, as the facts of the present cases are concerned, inclusion of petitioners’ names in the watch list was done secretively as the petitioners were never served with any notice that their names were included in the watch list, let alone providing them an opportunity of hearing before placing them in the watch list. On these grounds alone, the acts of the Ministry of Interior/FIA, culminating in the offloading of the petitioners, who are husband and wife, from the plane was without lawful authority.”
The court also said that Karachi Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Pir Riaz Muhammad Shah placed on record a copy of a letter dated June 23 that was issued by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general to the FIA deputy director (immigration) at Jinnah International Airport which showed that Nasir and his wife had been placed on the watch list.
“In the said letter, reasons are not assigned as to why the names of the petitioners have been placed on the watch list. Particulars of the individuals or petitioners that in which inquiry/matter they are required and cannot travel abroad are also not mentioned.
“Admittedly, the names of the petitioners are not on ECL. DAG has also failed to produce any material or show-cause notice issued against the petitioners placing their names on the watch list,” the order said.
The SHC declared the letter issued by the ISI DG to “have been issued without any lawful authority and of no legal effect”. It said that the letter on the part of the federal government prohibiting the petitioners from proceeding abroad was “without lawful authority and of no legal effect”.
“Consequently, it is ordered that the petitioners shall be allowed to proceed abroad without any obstruction of hindrance by the federal government or any of its agencies or authorities,” the order said.
Responding to today’s development, Nasir said he was “grateful” to the SHC for “declaring that restricting our travel and offloading us was unlawful and the letter issued in this regard to place my name on the watch list was without lawful authority”.
“The court directed that no hindrance be created in future travels. The judgement is a good precedent to challenge similar actions taken against any citizen in violation of the law and constitution,” he said on X.
The Pakistani rupee extended its losses on Thursday, sliding another Rs1.10 against the US dollar in the interbank market.
According to the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, the greenback was changing hands at Rs305.55 at 12:30pm. Yesterday, it closed at 304.45.
The consistent devaluation of the rupee is not only causing inflation but is also compelling the central bank to raise interest rates to mitigate the repercussions of uncontrolled depreciation of the local currency, according to bankers who manage exchange rates and imports.
“The market is not in control of anyone. The steep devaluation will continue and even cross the limit given by the IMF,” a senior banker had said, adding that nobody knows what is next for the exchange rate.
“This fast deprecation of local currency is alarming for the government in charge. There must be some pause in the frequent free fall of the rupee,” Atif Ahmed, a currency dealer in the inter-bank market, had said.
Captain Babar Azam said his team will be brimming with confidence for Saturday’s Asia Cup blockbuster against arch-rivals India after kicking off their campaign with a comprehensive victory against Nepal on Wednesday.
Babar led from the front with a masterly 151 and Iftikhar Ahmed produced an unbeaten 109 to power Pakistan to a commanding 342-6 at the Multan Cricket Stadium.
The tournament co-hosts returned to skittle out Asia Cup debutants Nepal for 104 in 23.4 overs for what was their third-biggest victory in a one-day international.
“This game was good preparation for the India game because it gave us confidence,” Babar, who was named Player of the Match for his 19th one-day hundred, said.
“India-Pakistan will always bring high intensity. We want to give 100 per cent in every match, hope to do that there as well.”
Babar is the top-ranked ODI batter and the stylish right-hander proved why with his excellent pacing of his knock.
Pakistan lost both their openers early but Babar combined with Mohammad Rizwan (44) to arrest the slide before Iftikhar joined the party.
Babar took 72 balls to bring up his 50 but soon stepped on the gas and raced to a 109-ball hundred. After that, he batted in T20 fashion, milking 51 off the next 22 balls he faced.
“When I went in, the ball wasn’t coming on properly, so I was trying to build an innings with Rizwan,” Babar explained.
“Iftikhar also played a great innings when he came on. When he came in, I told him to play his natural game and he was comfortable after hitting two-three boundaries.”
The Green Shirts now fly to Pallekele to face India, who are playing their matches in Sri Lanka having refused to travel to Pakistan because of soured political relation between the neighbours.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has for the first time approved direct US military aid to Taiwan under an assistance programme aimed at foreign governments, officials said on Wednesday, as worries grow over China.
The State Department informed Congress on Tuesday of the $80 million package, which is small compared with recent sales to Taiwan but marks the first assistance to Taipei under the Foreign Military Financing programme, which generally involves grants or loans to sovereign countries.
The move is sure to anger China. For five decades, the United States has officially recognised only Beijing although Congress, under the Taiwan Relations Act, requires the supply of weapons to the self-governing democracy for its defense.
Successive US administrations have done so through sales rather than direct aid to Taiwan, with formal statements speaking in the tone of business transactions with the island’s de-facto embassy in Washington.
The State Department insisted that the first-ever aid under the programme did not imply any recognition of the sovereignty of Taiwan.
“Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act and our longstanding One China policy, which has not changed, the United States makes available to Taiwan defense articles and services necessary to enable it to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“The United States has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is critical to regional and global security and prosperity.”
Taiwan’s defense ministry expressed gratitude. “The aid will help in regional peace and stability,” it said in a short statement.
The State Department did not formally announce the aid or give details, but a person familiar with the notice said the assistance would involve support to improve awareness at sea.
Growing tensions
The assistance needs approval from Congress, which is virtually certain as lawmakers from both parties widely support Taiwan.
Representative Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and frequent critic of Biden’s foreign policy, praised the step.
“These weapons will not only help Taiwan and protect other democracies in the region but also strengthen the US deterrence posture and ensure our national security from an increasingly aggressive CCP,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
China and the United States in recent months have resumed dialogue with hopes of bringing greater stability to the turbulent relationship between the world’s largest developed and developing nations.
But Taiwan remains a clear point of friction, with Chinese officials repeatedly issuing warnings and viewing the United States as bent on supporting formal independence by the island.
China has carried out major military exercises three times in little more than a year in response to Taiwanese leaders’ interactions with the United States, raising the prospect it is practicing moves for an invasion.
Senior US officials have said they believe Chinese President Xi Jinping is taking steps away from the status quo in Taiwan, although American analysts debate to what extent both China’s recent economic concerns and Russia’s struggles to subdue Ukraine will dissuade Beijing.
It is the second time in as many months that the Biden administration has broken new ground in supporting Taiwan.
In July, Biden approved $345 million of military aid to Taiwan from leftover US stockpiles, taking a cue from one means of US support to Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion.
Israel is the top recipient of Foreign Military Financing, to the tune of more than $3 billion a year.
A policeman was martyred in Quetta on Wednesday when unidentified assailants opened fire at him while he was heading home, an official said.
Sariab Superintendent of Police (SP) Zia Mandokheil told Dawn.com that Akhtar Husain, deployed at the entrance of the Special Branch office in Sariab Mills Colony, was heading home after completing his night duty when armed men opened fire at him.
He added that the policeman embraced martyrdom on the spot and his body was shifted to Civil Hospital, Quetta, and later to the Quetta Police Lines for funeral prayers.
The SP further said that police reached the incident’s site to initiate an investigation and collected shells of a 9mm pistol.
In a similar incident on Monday, two police officials were martyred and three were injured in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat when unidentified gunmen attacked a patrolling vehicle.
Late on Sunday, a senior officer of Balochistan’s Khuzdar Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and his team members survived an armed attack by unknown men, who were forced to flee after the CTD personnel returned fire.
4 alleged terrorists killed in operation in Pishin
Separately, four alleged terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed in an exchange of fire during an operation conducted by the Quetta CTD in Balochistan’s Pishin on Tuesday.
A statement issued by the Balochistan CTD said the Quetta CTD received information from a credible source that “notorious TTP sharpshooter” Shakar Din alias Umar Khalid, along with his other associates, was “spotted at a hideout in Surkhab Muhajir Camp in Pishin, and he fully armed, in preparation of another terrorist attack”.
The statement identified Din’s associates as Ahmadullah, Aminullah and an Afghan citizen, Abdul Fateh. It added that they had been involved in various terrorist activities as part of the TTP and at the behest of Pir Ainuz Zaman Akhunzada.
After receiving information about their hideout, the Quetta CTD deputed a specialised combat team to Surkhab that cordoned off the area where the hideout was located and asked the terrorists to surrender, the statement said.
It added that the terrorists opened indiscriminate fire on the CTD team, following which a shootout ensued.
“The CTD team took precautions and returned fire. When the firing stopped, four terrorists were found dead.”
The statement said assault rifles and pistols with live rounds, hand grenades and a bike were seized from the terrorists.
According to the CTD, the slain militants were involved in the target killing of a CTD Officer in Pishin, the facilitation and transportation of explosive materials, the facilitation of collection of funds for the TTP and an alleged armed combat with Frontier Constabulary border troops during an attempt to infiltrate the Pak-Afghan border near Speen Taza Gulistan in April this year.
It said a case was being registered at the Quetta CTD police station and an “investigation has been launched to arrest the remaining members of the network”.
“More raids are planned for other areas of Balochistan,” it added.
Over the past few months, the law and order situation in the country — especially in KP and Balochistan — has worsened with terrorist groups executing attacks across the country.
Since the talks with the proscribed TTP broke down in November, the militant group has intensified terror attacks, particularly targeting the police in KP and areas bordering Afghanistan. Insurgents in Balochistan have also stepped up their violent activities and formalised a nexus with the outlawed TTP.
Human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir’s counsel, Barrister Salman Akram Raja, on Wednesday said the Islamabad High Court (IHC) made it clear that his client could not be arrested in any cases registered after August 20, the day she was taken into custody.
In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) by journalist Asad Toor, Barrister Raja can be heard explaining the IHC order in Imaan’s case, saying that that the court issued directives to present a record of all the FIRs registered against her throughout the country so that they could be reviewed by the judges.
“The court has said that since she was arrested on Aug 20, if any FIR is registered after that date, she will not be arrested in that,” her lawyer said.
“If this court can grant relief, we will take it from here otherwise from other concerned courts,” Barrister Raja further said. “Or we will file for a protective bail in this court.”
“We contended before the court that the fundamental rights mentioned in the law and Constitution are for every citizen of the country. If any citizen says something, no matter if you like it or not, even if you think that it shouldn’t have been said, despite all that, the Constitution trumps it.
“The Constitution is not just for people who say good things or say things that we want to hear. It is also for those who utter things that we think shouldn’t have been said.
“Now we will see what comes in the order tomorrow,” Barrister Raja further said. “Today’s hearing went pretty well.”
He also confirmed that the high court had ordered to not shift Mazari out of the jurisdiction of Islamabad in any case.
On Aug 20, Mazari and former lawmaker Ali Wazir were arrested “for investigation” hours after the activist posted on social media platform X that unidentified people were breaking into her home.
She was re-arrested outside the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Aug 28, hours after an Islamabad anti-terrorism court granted her bail in a sedition case.
Confirming the arrest, the Islamabad police had said Imaan was taken into custody in a terrorism case registered at the Bhara Kahu police station.
On Aug 29, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad had handed her over to the police on a three-day physical remand.
The fresh FIR has been sealed, but according to a copy seen by Dawn, the case was registered under Section 11-N of the Anti-Terrorism Act, as well as sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Section 11-N of the ATA deals with punishment under sections 11-H to 11-K, which include charges of fund-raising, use and possession, funding arrangements, and money laundering for the purpose of terrorism.
The case was registered on Sunday at 1:15am in response to a complaint lodged by one Shahzad, resident of Nai Abadi Bhara Kahu, against Imaan, Wazir, and others, they added.
Sources had quoted the FIR as mentioning that a man, Kamran Khan, met Shahzad in the area of Bhara Kahu on August 8 and introduced himself as a human rights activist. He also told the complainant about human rights issues in his area, expressed his intention to work with him to improve the situation, and sought his assistance to achieve it, according to the report.
The Sindh Wildlife Department on Wednesday shifted a lion, that managed to escape from its owner’s custody on Sharea Faisal a day earlier, to the Karachi Zoological Garden as five suspects were booked for allegedly keeping the animal in their custody.
On Tuesday evening, the lion being illegally transported in a vehicle managed to escape from its owner’s custody near Aisha Bawany College, creating a panic among commuters and pedestrians who saw the big cat prowling on the streets and forcing the police and the wildlife staff to capture the wild animal.
The young lion was later caught with the help of its keepers and handed over to the wildlife department. According to Sindh Chief Wildlife Conservator Javed Mahar, the wild animal was a pet.
Following the episode, the owner of the lion, identified as Shamsul Haq, was taken into custody along with four houseworkers by the police.
Today, a first information report was registered against the suspects by Wildlife Inspector Aijaz Ali Naundani.
The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, invokes sections 21 (no one shall hunt, kill, trap and capture or smuggle, possess and trade in wildlife animals unless permitted), 32 (any officer below the rank of wildlife officer shall seize any wildlife that has been captured or hunted), 49 (certificate of law possession) and 50 (lawful possession) of Sindh Wildlife Act 2020.
It stated that the complainant received information at 6:45pm on Aug 29 that Shams and four of his employees were “illegally transporting” a lion and one turtle in a Suzuki. The lion had managed to escape and was roaming on Sharea Faisal.
The complainant said he along with his team rushed to the spot where they saw the lion was captured in a building’s car parking area, which was later handed over to Karachi Zoo.
The FIR added that the suspects, meanwhile, had been taken into custody by the Saddar police station house officer.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Mahar confirmed that the lion had been moved to the zoo, adding that the vehicle used in the offence was also seized.
He further stated that the case would be heard by a trial court at the District and Sessions Courts Karachi South.
Meanwhile, a zoo official, who did not want to be named, told Dawn.com that the animal was handed over to them late Tuesday night and has now been moved to its enclosure.
He estimated that the animal was three years old and a male. According to the official, the condition of the lion was “okay” and it had been fed.
Wildlife laws in Sindh
Reports have earlier suggested that several people in upscale areas keep wild animals as pets, as some owners see big cats — such as leopards, lions and tigers — as symbols of wealth and power.
According to officials, Sindh is the first province in the country to enact a new wildlife law three years ago — called the Sindh Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management Act 2020 — to protect 326 species of birds, 107 species of crawling animals and 82 species of other animals.
Under the act, the lawful possession of any wildlife species has been attached with several stringent conditions, unlike the past practice of granting a two-liner official permit for setting up a mini-zoo, and that too without mentioning any specific species.
For instance, lawfully possessing exotic big cats is attached with 39 conditions, including one under which the owner is required to get the DNA certification for the animal, which can only be done at a handful of institutes across the country.
Besides, under the 2020 law, no new application for importing big cats will be entertained. The permit also bars citizens from keeping big cats in residential areas, and an applicant must acquire a no-objection certificate from the relevant union council, town committee and cantonment board.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and opted to bat in the opening match of the Asia Cup against Nepal in Multan on Wednesday.
The six-nation Asia Cup is being co-hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a hybrid model agreed after World Cup hosts India refused to tour Pakistan, with the final on September 17 in Colombo.
Pakistan will fly to Sri Lanka to play India in Pallekele on September 2 before playing a Super Four match in Lahore and then returning to Sri Lanka for the remaining matches.
Pakistan, India and Nepal are in Group A while defending champions Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are in Group B.
Nepal qualified for the Asia Cup after winning the Asian Cricket Council Premier Cup in April at home, beating Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
“We are playing in the Asia Cup for the first time and it’s a big occasion,” said captain Rohit Paudel a day earlier. “We want to give a competitive game to Pakistan and India as well.
“We deserved to be here. We have been playing for more than two decades and this is the highest opportunity for Nepal and a great learning experience against a world-class team,” he added.
Squads
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Nepal: Rohit Paudel (captain), Kushal Bhurtel, Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi Umpires: Chris Gaffaney (NZL) and Masudur Rahman (BAN) Tv umpire: Langton Rusere (ZIM) Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
The Pakistani rupee continued its downward march on Wednesday, sliding Rs1.45 against the US dollar in the interbank market.
According to the currency rate list of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, the dollar was changing hands in the interbank market for Rs304.50 at 12pm. It had closed yesterday at Rs303.50, according to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data.
In the open market, however, the dollar was trading for much higher — Rs323, similar to yesterday’s rate. However, the ECAP quoted the open market rate at Rs318.
Currency experts have said the dollar rates quoted by the banks and exchange companies are not real.
The banks are reluctant to depict the real situation fearing the central bank’s reaction, while the exchange companies don’t want to tell the truth fearing action taken against them, they had added.
Sources in banks had said that with the opening of imports — a condition of the IMF — the banks feared that poor dollar inflows were not enough to meet the high demand from importers. Under this situation, the currency dealers in banks resist the opening of letters of credit for imports.
The banks are responsible for providing dollars for the opening of L/Cs.
Bankers had dismissed as rumours reports circulating in the financial circle that a huge amount of dollars would land in Pakistan next month and talks with the IMF are in the final stage.
The bankers had said they don’t believe in such speculative reports and would continue to follow the ground reality which demands an extremely cautious approach towards imports and the exchange rate.
“With the induction of the interim government, the situation is going from bad to worse. Within 18 days of this government, the dollar appreciated by Rs14.40 to Rs303.05 from Rs288.65 on Aug 11 in the interbank,” Atif Ahmed, a currency dealer in the interbank market had said.
The open market reported the dollar price at Rs318 on Tuesday, while it was Rs296 on Aug 11 — the day the interim government took charge.
The dollar appreciated by Rs22 per dollar since Aug 11.
On May 24, earlier this year, in response to protests outside the Supreme Court premises in Islamabad, during the pendency of a review petition filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told AGP Mansoor Usman Awan to ask the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition to restrain from criticising the court. PDM leaders had staged a sit-in outside the SC, accusing it of granting unprecedented relief to Imran Khan.
This incident was reminiscent of similar public uproar that had erupted against the United States Supreme Court after the draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organisation had leaked in May, last year. A week after the leak, Justice Alito was scheduled to speak at George Mason University in Virginia, but protests and ensuing security issues forced him to deliver the speech via video link, from inside the US Supreme Court building.
In an interview given to the Wall Street Journal later, Justice Alito explained that public demonstrations were only just the tip of a concerted campaign devised to prevent the leaked draft from becoming the court’s decision.
The campaign included unlawful assemblies outside justices’ homes and death threats against those justices who were suspected to form part of the majority in the Dobbs decision. According to Justice Alito, excessive criticism has only served to question the legitimacy of the US Supreme Court. It represented bad faith efforts and failed to identify tangible problems that needed to be resolved.
These episodes bring to mind four interrelated issues: (i) Can criticism be categorised into good and bad (ii) Is criticism against state institutions ever justified (iii) Should institutions be responsive to public criticism and (iv) Does criticism play an important role in regulating state institutions.
The answer to all these questions, as will be elaborated in this article, is ‘absolutely’.
Good vs bad criticism
To address this issue, let us turn to Greece, the birthplace of modern democracy. The word ‘parrhesia’ appears regularly in ancient Greek literature, particularly in writings of theologians, philosophers, and playwrights. Parrhesia is ordinarily translated to free speech, and ‘parrhesiastes’ are those who speak the truth. In a series of lectures delivered in 1983, philosopher Michel Foucault explained the meaning and evolution of the word.
Under parrhesia, the speaker says everything that is on their mind. Parrhesiastes do not hide anything. They open their heart and mind to other people through discourse.
While parrhesia is the opinion of the speaker, Foucault believes that as the speech is unadulterated and authentic, parrhesiastes say what is actually true and not just what the speaker believes to be true. However, there is one important qualification given by Foucault before speech can be categorised as parrhesia.
According to Foucault, parrhesiastes put themselves in danger because there is a power imbalance between the subject and the object of criticism. For example, philosophers who addressed sovereigns of ancient civilisations and criticised their policies as tyrannical and unjust took a grave risk. The tyrant may have punished, exiled, or even killed the philosopher for speaking out.
But it does not always have to be a risk to life. People who see their friends doing something wrong and choose to reprimand them for it are also using parrhesia as they risk losing their friendship. According to Foucault, courage in the face of personal risk creates parrhesia, and such criticism merits consideration as it is the truth.
Parrhesia, therefore, is the standard by which all criticism should be judged. And when viewed from this angle, bifurcating good and bad criticism becomes easier. In modern society, criticism directed at public figures from individuals hiding behind the veil of social media anonymity is not parrhesia.
To go back to our earlier example, anonymous death threats directed at Justice Alito and other judges forming the majority in the Dobbs case is not parrhesia as the mail is unlikely to be traced back to the senders. It is axe-grinding at best. However, social activists raising their voice for religious minorities in a hyper-religious nation risk majoritarian persecution. So, they are using parrhesia and such criticism deserves to be heard, properly considered, and given due importance in society by policy makers and stakeholders.
Naturally, this leaves considerable room for grey areas, which requires a case-by-case analysis. Does the sit-in staged outside the SC in Islamabad qualify as parrhesia?
Protesters present at the sit-in were PDM leaders. Others gathered had done so at the behest of those leaders. Law enforcement agencies would in no circumstances have acted against the protesters, as the PDM was in power at the time. The establishment, being on the ‘same page’ as the governing coalition, had most likely given the green light. Meanwhile, the SC would have never used its contempt powers against the protesters, as they were already under considerable pressure to prove they were not favouring one side over the other.
The protesters faced no risk and, hence, were not using parrhesia. Their protest can at best be seen as a pressure tactic against a state institution to get favourable outcomes.
Is criticism against state institutions justified?
In September last year, at a rally in Faisalabad, Imran Khan said that the PPP and PML-N were opposing fresh elections because they wanted to “appoint an army chief of their choice”, and that the two parties were afraid that “if a strong and patriotic army chief is appointed then he would ask them about the looted wealth”.
The comments created wide-scale public uproar. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a statement, saying they were “aghast at the defamatory and uncalled for” remarks about the army’s senior leadership. PDM leaders slammed Imran for levelling “poisonous allegations” and “putting blots” on the new army chief’s appointment. Political differences aside, was this criticism against a state institution justified?
Democracy is based on the trichotomy of powers. The executive, legislature, and judiciary are expected to remain within their constitutional bounds. Any institution that performs functions within the public domain should be open to public criticism, because good governance is impossible without accountability. So let us consider two scenarios here.
In the first instance, an institution remains within its constitutional limits but performs its legally mandated duties poorly. It also fails to uphold the democratic ideals of a just and equitable system, rule of law, and constitutional liberalism. Criticism against such state institutions is completely valid.
In a private establishment, poor performance will be noticed, and your superior will speak to you about it. Persistent bad performance may be grounds for termination. If private sector employees are expected to adhere to, and maintain employment standards, why should state institutions be given a free pass?
In the second instance, state institutions exceed their constitutional limits, and perform functions that are not theirs to perform. The Pakistan Army has done this repeatedly throughout our chequered history — this much has been acknowledged by former army chief retried Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. It is also public knowledge that the army exerts undue influence, suppresses, and usurps power from other institutions. This was also Imran’s connotation when he made the aforementioned speech in Faisalabad. So, given this background, is criticism against the army justified? Absolutely.
However, was Imran justified in making the remarks he made? One might even argue that he was using parrhesia as he made the statement, knowing there was a grave personal risk involved. No one needs to be reminded of what the army is capable of in this country. But Foucault would argue that the speech was not justified, and here is why.
According to Foucault, parrhesia and rhetoric have a non-symbiotic relationship — they are independent of each other. Continuous long speech is a rhetorical device, while dialogue through questions and answers is more typical of parrhesia.
This does not mean that a back and forth is a requisite of parrhesia. Rhetoric can also be parrhesia. However, speeches where the speaker is trying to intensify the emotions of the audience through “simulated or artfully designed” means can never be parrhesia. Imran’s approach to politics is best categorised as populism — appealing to ‘the people’ by pandering to people’s emotions and creating ‘us’ vs ‘them’ groups. Imran’s statement at the rally was not parrhesia.
So, is the army, or any state institution for that matter, above criticism? No. Criticism is justified but must be judged by the standard of parrhesia.
Should state institutions be responsive to criticism?
‘Individualism’ is an analytical school of philosophy which states that society is made up of individuals that aggregate into institutions. The assumption here is that institutions need no consideration beyond the consideration of the individuals aggregated.
This can be compared and contrasted with ‘collectivism’, which stresses the importance of the community as a whole. Collectivism has a strong focus on group bonds and structures of mutual support and advancement. Prime among them are the institutions of governance. To embrace the individualist mindset is to ignore the collective, as was done by certain social scientists in the Enlightenment era.
Joseph Agassi and Ian Jarvie addressed this approach, explaining that social and political thinkers of that era dodged discussions of institutions. This meant that “economists discussed not the market but trade; politologists discussed not the state but the relations between the rulers and the ruled.”
One can already see the fallacy in this approach. It goes without saying that the market affects trade, and trade affects the market. Similarly, rulers affect the ruled, and the ruled affect the rulers. To focus on one while overlooking the other, is to not see the forest for the trees, or the trees for the forest. To focus on institutions while ignoring the individuals, and vice versa, is a recipe for disaster.
Having established this, we can understand the intertwined relationship between individuals and institutions. In an essay, Bertrand Russell wrote, “institutions mould character, and character transforms institutions”.
Without input from individuals, institutions remain abstract, but can gradually grow more concrete if they allow themselves to be transformed by character.
In the local context, recent amendments made to the Pakistan Penal Code through the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2023, are problematic for exactly this reason. The amendment introduces a maximum five-year prison term for anyone who publishes or shares information, through any medium, with the intent to “ridicule or scandalise” the military and judiciary or its members.
Without regard to the nature of the criticism, the amendment weaponises laws to curb free speech and weaken public scrutiny and criticism of state institutions. It is another step towards shutting out society at large.
This is counter-productive to say the least. Institutions must in fact keep their eyes and ears open to any and all public criticism. In any society, criticism varies from parrhesia to mudslinging to death threats. Each institution must develop their own checks to determine which criticism warrants consideration.
Does criticism play an important role in regulating state institutions?
Going back to the United States Supreme Court, history guides us that the court has changed its ways in response to mounting public criticism. Let us go through a few examples.
The 1937 case of West Coast Hotel vs Parrish is perhaps the most prominent example of this. Leading up to 1937, Justice Owen Roberts along with other conservative judges of the SC had blocked most of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal measures which were meant to revive the country back from the Great Depression. Roosevelt started campaigning against the SC and public backlash soon followed. As a reactionary move, Roosevelt announced his court packing plan in 1937 to increase the strength of the court to 15 judges.
Around this time, the Parrish opinion was announced, and surprisingly, the SC upheld the constitutionality of minimum wage laws, sanctioning a New Deal measure.
This happened because Justice Roberts switched sides to vote with the liberal bloc. What followed was a realisation by Roosevelt that court packing was no longer necessary and he withdrew his plan. Professor Thomas Reed Powell of Harvard Law School famously dubbed this as “a switch in time saves nine”.
As a more recent example, the SC has faced public backlash in the US against their excessive use of emergency relief powers, used to freeze or unfreeze lower court rulings during the pendency of the case. Will Baude, a University of Chicago professor calls this the “shadow docket”. A shadow docket is a range of orders and summary decisions that defy its normal procedural regularity.
According to a report in the Chicago Policy Review, recent cases have indicated that the SC has used the shadow docket more frequently in controversial cases, and also in an inconsistent and partisan way. For example, the court stepped in to allow President Donald Trump to carry out a series of immigration policies struck down by lower courts. The SC also stepped in to protect religious liberties by blocking New York’s occupancy based restrictions on religious services during the Covid-19 pandemic.
By contrast, the court refused to step in to protect President Joe Biden’s policies or to block controversial conservative laws, like the Texas six week abortion ban which the SC allowed to go into effect in September 2021, 10 months before Roe vs Wade was overruled. According to the report, the court’s shadow docket rulings appear to favour Republican policies over Democratic ones. Perceived use of the shadow docket by the court to achieve political ends has drawn widespread criticism. Justice Elena Kagan described the court’s use of the shadow docket as “unreasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend”. But then there was an interesting shift.
In October 2021, the US SC refused to use the shadow docket to block Maine’s vaccine mandate. Two conservative judges of the court, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, concurred to state that just because an applicant had made a case for emergency relief does not mean the SC had to intervene. Later, in 2022, Chief Justice John Roberts, another conservative judge, joined a dissent with the liberal bloc of the court to emphasise concerns about the SC’s excessive use of the shadow docket.
Since then, the shadow docket has been used far less often. Just consider the fact that in April 2023, the court preserved nationwide access to the abortion drug mifepristone. Stephen Vladek, author of a book on the shadow docket, believes that the Texas abortion ban case was a tipping point. It drew tremendous public backlash, forcing the court to self-regulate its powers.
Let us focus on the flip side of this argument — what happens when state institutions are completely shielded from public scrutiny.
In Pakistan, military courts set up time and again to prosecute terrorism suspects stand out as a glaring example. They have been criticised for suspending suspects’ constitutional rights in favour of high conviction rates. There have also been concerns about the accuracy of the testimonies against the accused, and discrepancies between the charges and evidence provided, as well as the lack of legal training of military courts’ officers.
Sam Zarifi, former Asia director of the International Commission of Jurists, also criticised the military courts for being opaque and operating “in violation of national and international fair trial standards”.
Ask yourself whether a civilian court can operate with the same level of impunity. The answer is no, for the obvious reason that civilian institutions have more transparency and accountability, however flawed these concepts might be in Pakistan.
Judicial decisions have political ramifications and there will always be a split opinion on whether criticism is fair, and whether the court should be responsive to it. But as argued earlier, institutions cannot exist in a vacuum, shielded from societal forces and preferences. That is why the Constitution must be interpreted as a living, breathing document. It must evolve with the society around it.
As this article argues, criticism is neither always good, nor always justified. But what cannot be denied is that historical and recent examples from across the world show that criticism and pressure from the public play a crucial role in holding institutions accountable.
Institutions must develop strong internal mechanisms to filter, register, and devise policies around good criticism. The sooner it is realised that institutions and the public are mutually dependent on each other, the better it will be for our country.
India’s Supreme Court has asked the Narendra Modi-led government if there was a “timeframe” and a “roadmap of progression” to restore the special status of held Kashmir, Indian media outlets reported on Tuesday.
The remarks were passed by a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud during a hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the reading down of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which bestowed special status on India-held Jammu and Kashmir.
The move allowed people from the rest of the country to have the right to acquire property in occupied Kashmir and settle there permanently.
Kashmiris, international organisations and critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government had termed the move an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.
During the hearing today, The Indian Expressquoted the CJI as asking Solicitor General Tushar Mehta: “We understand that these are matters of national security… the preservation of the nation itself is the overriding concern. But without putting you in a bind, you and the attorney general may seek instructions on the highest level— is there a timeframe in view? Is there a roadmap?”
According to the publication, Mehta is representing the Indian government and the administration of held Kashmir.
In his arguments, Mehta touched on the reorganisation of states and told the bench about decisions taken with regard to held Kashmir in the aftermath of the Article 370 changes.
“As we see the creation of UTs, you have on one hand, examples like Chandigarh, carved out of Punjab and remained a UT. Then you have a progression where certain areas become UTs… you can’t immediately make them states,” The Indian Express quoted the CJI as saying.
Justice Chandrachud also asked if the Indian parliament should not be permitted to convert a state into a union territory for a limited period of time in view of national security needs.
“Why was it not possible for the union to say that right now in the case of a state, we have such an extreme situation in terms of national security, that we want for a certain period that a UT should be created? But this is not permanent and this shall be back as a state… can a union not do that for a certain period, to bring stability? Because let’s face it, whether it’s a state or UT, all of us survive if a nation survives.
“Should we not permit parliament to postulate that for a certain period, in the interest of the preservation of the nation itself, we want for a certain period that this particular state shall go in fold of UT — on the clear understanding that this shall revert back to a state,” the CJI was quoted as saying.
He added that “the government also has to make a statement before us that progression has to take place. It can’t be a union territory permanently”.
Mehta, the Indian publication said, told the bench that a similar statement was made by a minister in the parliament as well.
Separately, the Hindustan Timesreported the solicitor general as saying that there was “enough material to show that the constitution of held Kashmir is subordinate to the constitution of India and the constituent assembly of [held] Jammu and Kashmir was in reality a legislative assembly making laws”.
“On November 21, 2018, the legislative assembly of the state was dissolved but there was no contemporaneous challenge by any political party or any citizen or leader.
“Till, today there is no challenge to the dissolution of the assembly,” Mehta said, further adding that the Governor’s rule was imposed in the held Kashmir due to the failure of constitutional machinery in the state and only one petition was filed against it after 14 months.
The Indian Express reported that after the arguments, the CJI said “we take your point that progression has already begun” and, rising shortly before the lunch break, asked Mehta to explain the roadmap.
A meeting of the interim federal cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, is currently under way in Islamabad during which the Ministry of Energy’s recommendations on inflated electricity bills are to be considered, according to state broadcaster Radio Pakistan.
The meeting takes place as people take to the streets in large numbers over exorbitant electricity bills on the back of a significant increase in the national average tariff.
The outrage prompted interim PM Kakar on Saturday to summon an “emergency” meeting for Sunday to discuss the issue, a second round of which was supposed to be held yesterday.
However, a source told Dawn that the caretaker prime minister did not preside over the meeting, and instead, asked the ministers for energy, finance, information and others to hold the meeting and come up with a solution that would be presented before the federal cabinet today.
Meanwhile, interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said the energy ministry had finalised a list of proposals to provide relief to the inflation-hit populace, which would be presented in today’s meeting.
The energy ministry confirmed this on X, formerly Twitter, earlier today.
Expected decisions
Regarding decisions expected at today’s meeting, Solangi told Dawn the interim government intended to take measures to provide relief to the public.
“If we have taken the responsibility to run the country even for a limited time, we have to give some relief to the masses,” he said. However, the minister was reluctant to give details about the relief to be given to the electricity consumers — especially those whose deadline for the power bill was August 28 (Monday).
Separately, a source told Dawn the interim government could convert these bills into instalments as well as adjust some of the amounts in power bills for winter months because of low power consumption during one cold season. Similarly, some taxes may be reduced while one-slab benefit could also be extended to consumers, he said, adding that the facility of free electricity units enjoyed by Water and Power Development Authority and other institutions was also likely to be withdrawn.
It was reported after Sunday’s meeting that a plan was devised to withdraw subsidised electricity availed by Discos and government officers in grade 17 and above.
Situation
The rising electricity costs appeared to have put the power companies in a vicious cycle of declining consumption and shifting resultant additional capacity charges to consumers, compelling the government to seek the staggered imposition of Rs146 billion quarterly charges in six months, instead of three months to minimise the ‘price shock’.
The situation emerged at a public hearing organised by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on the government request for Rs5.40 per unit additional quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) to consumers for April-June 2023 when the Power Division made a departure from its petitions. It requested that consumers be charged at a rate of Rs3.55 per unit for six months, instead of Rs5.40 per unit for three months, to reduce the price shock on consumers still struggling to absorb 26pc increase in base national rates notified last month.
Also, the Power Division proposed that even the Rs3.55 per unit additional charge should be imposed after September when an existing quarterly adjustment of Rs1.24 per unit would lapse, thereby further reducing the cost increase. The net increase in tariff for six months — October 2023 to March 2024 — would thus stand at Rs2.31 per unit, a Power Division official pleaded before the regulator.
Wicketkeeper-batsman K.L. Rahul will miss India’s opening two games of the Asia Cup, including the clash with arch-rivals Pakistan, because of injury, coach Rahul Dravid said on Tuesday.
India open their campaign in the 50-over championship on September 2 with a showdown against Pakistan followed by a match with debutants Nepal two days later.
The Asia Cup, which starts Wednesday, is a final chance for teams from the region to size each other up before the World Cup in India starting in October.
The 31-year-old Rahul has not played any competitive cricket since he was injured during the Indian Premier League in April-May.
He has developed an injury niggle unrelated to the original thigh problem.
He will be assessed again on September 4, before the start of the Asia Cup Super Four stage, Dravid said.
“He’s progressing really well on the route that we want to take,” Dravid told reporters.
“But he will be unavailable for the first part (of the Asia Cup), for the Kandy leg of the trip.” Ishan Kishan is likely to keep wicket in Rahul’s absence, Indian media said.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka are co-hosting the Asia Cup, a hybrid model agreed after India refused to tour Pakistan.
India and Pakistan, who only play against each other in international tournaments due to their long-standing political tensions, will face off at Pallekele stadium in Kandy.
They are likely to meet again in the Super Four stage and could play again in the final in Colombo on September 17.
A Levies police officer was unharmed on Tuesday after a bomb went off near his vehicle in the Torghar area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The blast, which investigators believe targeted Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Gul Faraz of the Levies Police Department, occurred this morning at Judba, the district headquarters of Torghar.
Torghar police spokesperson Wazeer Khan told Dawn.com that the SDPO remained unharmed because he drove away from his parking spot, where the bomb was planted.
Police officer examining the area of the blast.— Photo provided by the author.
The police spokesperson said that the area had been cordoned off and was being examined by the bomb disposal squad trying to learn about the nature of the blast and determine which explosives were used.
He added that the security of top police officials in the district had also been tightened at the directives of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Torghar.
Police officers examining the area of the blast.— Photo provided by the author.
The Torghar explosion comes just days after a patrolling police van was targeted by an improvised explosive device (IED) on Saturday, August 27, followed by an exchange of fire between suspected militants and the police in Kurram, about 500km away from Torghar.
Two police officers, Habibur Rehman and Zakir Masozai, sustained injuries.
Pakistan has faced an uptick in terror activities, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year.
On August 12, two people were killed in what police described were targeted attacks in North Waziristan. On August 8, two policemen were among four people killed in separate attacks in North Waziristan and Peshawar.
Last month, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police said 665 militant attacks, including 15 suicide bombings, were reported in the province between June 18, 2022, and June 18, 2023.
A report released in July by think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the first half of the current year witnessed a steady and alarming rise in terror and suicide attacks, claiming the lives of 389 people across the country.
In a press conference in June, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry had said that the security forces conducted 13,619 intelligence operations this year in which 1,172 terrorists were killed or arrested.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not go to the funeral of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died last week in a plane crash, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Prigozhin — a Putin confidant turned “traitor” — was killed last Wednesday two months after ordering his troops to topple Russia’s military leadership, in what observers deemed the biggest challenge to Putin’s authority since he came to power.
“The president’s presence is not envisaged,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether Putin would attend the funeral.
There have been no public announcements of when or where Prigozhin, who was 62, will be buried.
“We have no information specifically about the funeral. The decision in this regard is made by family and friends,” Peskov added.
Putin, last week, described Prigozhin as a man who had made “serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results.”
The Kremlin has dismissed speculation that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June.
Air pollution is more dangerous to the health of the average person on planet Earth than smoking or alcohol, with the threat worsening in its global epicenter South Asia even as China fast improves, a study showed on Tuesday.
Yet the level of funding set aside to confront the challenge is a fraction of the amount earmarked for fighting infectious diseases, said the research from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).
Its annual Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report showed that fine particulate air pollution — which comes from vehicle and industrial emissions, wildfires and more — remains the “greatest external threat to public health.”
If the world were to permanently reduce these pollutants to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline limit, the average person would add 2.3 years to his or her life expectancy, according to the data, which has a 2021 cutoff.
Fine particulate matter is linked to lung disease, heart disease, strokes and cancer. Tobacco use, by comparison, reduces global life expectancy by 2.2 years while child and maternal malnutrition is responsible for a reduction of 1.6 years.
Asia and Africa bear the greatest burden yet have some of the weakest infrastructure to deliver citizens timely, accurate data. They also receive tiny slices of an already small global philanthropic pie.
For example, the entire continent of Africa receives less than $300,000 to tackle air pollution.
“There is a profound disconnect with where air pollution is the worst and where we, collectively and globally, are deploying resources to fix the problem,” Christa Hasenkopf, director of air quality programs at EPIC, told AFP.
While there is an international financing partnership called the Global Fund that disburses $4 billion annually for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, there is no equivalent for air pollution.
“Yet, air pollution shaves off more years from the average person’s life in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Cameroon than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other health threats,” the report said.
Bangladesh tops ranking
Globally, South Asia is the worst impacted region. Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are in order the top four most polluted countries in terms of annualised, population-weighted averages of fine particulate matter, which are detected by satellites and defined as particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5).
Air pollution concentrations are then fed into the AQLI metric which calculates their impact on life expectancy, based on peer-reviewed methods.
Residents of Bangladesh, where average PM2.5 levels were 74 micrograms per cubic meter, would gain 6.8 years of life if this were brought to WHO guidelines of 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
India’s capital Delhi meanwhile is the “most polluted megacity in the world” with an annual average particulate pollution of 126.5 micrograms per cubic meter.
China, on the other hand, “has had remarkable progress in terms of its war on air pollution” which began in 2014, said Hasenkopf.
Its air pollution dropped 42.3 per cent between 2013 and 2021. If the improvements are sustained, the average Chinese citizen will be able to live 2.2 years longer.
In the United States, legislative actions like the Clean Air Act helped reduce pollution by 64.9pc since 1970, helping Americans gain 1.4 years of life expectancy.
But the growing threat of wildfires — linked to hotter temperatures and drier conditions due to climate change — is causing pollution spikes from the western United States to Latin America and Southeast Asia.
For example, California’s historic wildfire season of 2021 saw Plumas County receive an average concentration of fine particulate matter more than five times over the WHO guideline.
North America’s story of air pollution improvements in recent decades is similar to Europe, but there remain stark differences between western and eastern Europe, with Bosnia the continent’s most polluted country.
The rupee remained under pressure and slid further against the US dollar in the open market on Tuesday, trading above Rs320 to the greenback.
According to the Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP), the rupee had depreciated to Rs323 in the open market against the dollar, while remaining under pressure in the interbank market, where it lost 70 paise more to the greenback. It was being traded at Rs302.70 by afternoon.
The rupee had fallen by 0.33pc yesterday to the dollar in the interbank market, with trade closing at Rs302, according to the State Bank of Pakistan data.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday unveiled the national team’s official kit for the World Cup 2023 at a ceremony at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
The World Cup is scheduled to take place from Oct 5 to Nov 19 in India. Pakistan’s opening match in the tournament is set for Oct 6 against the Netherlands in Hyderabad, while the highly anticipated match against arch-rivals India will take place in Ahmedabad on Oct 14.
In a press release issued on Monday, Zaka Ashraf, head of the PCB Management Committee, termed the unveiling of the kit a “momentous stride” forward as the national team gears up for the upcoming mega event.
Dubbed the “Star Nation Jersey,” the PCB emphasised that the official kit holds significance beyond being just a piece of apparel.
According to the press release, the jersey embodies the “profound connection between Pakistan’s cricketing heroes and their steadfast supporters”.
Drawing inspiration from “celestial bodies, each star symbolises brilliance, aspiration, and the radiant glow” of the achievements of the number one ranked One Day International (ODI) team, the statement said.
“This design philosophy encapsulates the spirit of cricketing excellence, resonating deeply with every Pakistani cricket enthusiast,” it added.
The PCB statement quoted Ashraf as saying that the jersey bore witness to the bond between the cricketers and their fans who had supported the national outfit in every game.
“This jersey encapsulates our rich cricketing heritage and the luminous future that awaits,” Zaka added.
Road to World Cup
Pakistan’s participation in the tournament was first put in doubt following a row over the hosting of the Asia Cup, for which India had refused to send its cricket team to the country.
In turn, Pakistan had made its cricket team’s visit to India for World Cup conditional on the Indian team’s visit to the neighbouring country for the Asia Cup.
A truce was eventually called after Pakistan agreed to host the Asia Cup in September on the basis of a hybrid model.
Then in June this year, after the schedule for the World Cup was announced, the Pakistan Cricket Board said that it would still need government clearance for any tour to India, including World Cup match venues.
Later in a statement, released by the foreign office on August 6, the government approved sending the cricket team to India to participate in the World Cup, maintaining that Pakistan has always believed: “sports should not be mixed with politics”.
A school on Indonesia’s main island has partially shaved the heads of more than a dozen girls, its headmaster said on Monday, after they were accused of wearing their Islamic hijab headscarves incorrectly.
Activists say Muslim and non-Muslim girls have been forced for years to wear a hijab in conservative parts of the nation of 270 million people, which moved in 2021 to ban schools from such mandatory dress codes.
An unidentified teacher at state-owned junior high school SMPN 1 in the East Java town of Lamongan partially shaved the hair of 14 Muslim girls last Wednesday, headmaster Harto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said.
Harto said the school had apologised and the teacher had been suspended. He said the schoolgirls did not wear inner caps under their headscarves, leaving their fringes visible.
“There is no obligation for female students to wear hijab, but they were advised to wear the inner caps for neat appearance,” Harto told AFP.
“We apologised to the parents and after mediation, we reached a common understanding.” The school has promised it would provide students with psychological assistance, he said.
Rights groups called for the teacher to be sacked.
“The Lamongan case is probably the most intimidating ever in Indonesia,” Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“No teachers who have cut their students’ hair have ever been sanctioned.
The education office in Lamongan should sanction this teacher, at least removing her from the school and assigning psychologists to deal with the trauma among the victims.“
The group said in a 2021 report that some schoolgirls have had their hijabs cut if not worn correctly, while others have had marks penalised or faced expulsion for not wearing hijabs.
The headscarf issue grabbed headlines in 2021 after a Christian student in West Sumatra was pressured to wear a hijab in a case officials described as the “tip of the iceberg”.
