Dalits at Islamabad roads to protest against death of 11 in India

Hundreds of low-caste Hindus or Dalits have reached Islamabad to hold protest demonstrations against the Indian government on the deaths of 11 people of a scheduled caste Bheel family in last August. On Wednesday (September 24), hundreds of participants tried to enter the Diplomatic enclave where mostly foreign missions are located to register a protest outside Indian High Commission, however, they were not allowed to enter due to security reasons.

They were later allowed to hold a sit-in in front of the Indian High Commission on Thursday. The sit-in is joined by Hindus and Sikhs from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Many Hindu leaders from Sindh attended the protest camp outside the Indian High Commission.

Chief Patron of Pakistan Hindu Council is talking to the media at the rally

According to a report by BBC at least 11 persons of a single peasant, family were found dead in an agriculture field in the Indian state of Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district on 9^th August. The Bheel family actually belonged to the Sanghar district in Sindh and had migrated to India from Pakistan in 2015 and only one member of the family now remained alive after the gory incident.

Local police in India have found pesticides near the bodies and it was presumed that they might have been poisoned due to personal enmity. Pakistan government has sought details of the case, but so far not shared by the Indian government.

This peasant family had migrated to India due to economic and religious reasons. Most of the Bheel family members were doing peasantry at agriculture fields in the Sanghar district, but due to a shortage of irrigation water and lack of employment opportunities, they were left unemployed for quite some time.

A female relative of the deceased Shrimati Mukhi, wife of Bhontrio Bheel in a press conference at Hyderabad (Sindh) Press Club told the media-men that she believed that the Indian agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had killed her family through the goons of Rashtriya Swaya­msevak Sangh (RSS) after it failed to convince him to act as a spy against Pakistan (Dawn, dated September 7, 2020).

In Sindh peasants are mostly working as share-cropper under the Sindh Tenancy Act 1950 but there is no implementation of this law so their labour is exploited by influential landlords. The landlords often offer peasantry at lower rates (20 to 25 percent crop sharing basis instead of 50 percent under the law). The Tenancy Tribunals to settle the disputes under the Sindh Tenancy Act 1950 are non-functional in the province and there is no effective mechanism to fix their wages or to provide relief to them in case of a dispute. In some areas, the landlords employ peasants on daily wage basis at lower wages. Minimum wages are not paid to agriculture workers.

The unfortunate Bheel family had left their village Tajan Dahri, about 30 kilometers from Shahdadpur town in Sanghar district for India as a relative told BBC reporter in Hyderabad that in-laws of head of the family Tajan Bheel were living near Jodhpur India and they had asked to come there because of better employment opportunities in agriculture sectors in India.

Thousands of Hindu families have migrated to India in recent years due to various reasons including discriminatory attitudes toward religion basis to them in Pakistani society. In many cases, Hindu girls are abducted and when cases are registered with Police the girls often surface in the media declaring that she has got married and embraced Islam.

Two centres of (forced) conversion to Islam are notorious in Sindh which is located at Bharchoondi (led by Mian Mitho) in Ghokti district in upper Sindh and Samaro in Umerkot district (led by Pir Ayub Jan Sirhandi) in lower Sindh.

Earlier, only upper-caste Hindus used to migrate to India due to religious reasons, but now low-caste Hindus or Dalits (scheduled caste) have also started migrating to India as they feel insecure in Pakistan where an overwhelming majority are Muslims. Most Dalits prefer to settle in border Indian states like Rajasthan and Gujarat as their relatives are already settled there since partition.

The Indian government is not treating well to Pakistani Hindu migrants as many families have come back after migrating to India and complained about the bad attitude to of the Indian government.

Most Pakistani Hindus have to stay in asylum or as immigrants for decades without any right to do a job. They have to work at lower rates. There is a very harsh policy of the Indian government to provide citizenship to Pakistani Hindus.

The current protest in the capital Islamabad is arranged by Pakistan Hindu Council led by Patron-In-Chief Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani. Pakistan Hindu Council is a social welfare organisation of upper-caste Hindus/  The lower-caste Hindus have been complaining that the Council does not allow membership of scheduled caste Hindus due to the former’s monopoly.

In an earlier TV interview, Mr. Vankwani had severely criticized the Hindu families who are migrating to India (inducing the Bheel family). However, due to unknown reasons, Mr Vankwani has arranged these events at the capital.

A clip by Mr. Vankwani Here

Interestingly, over 100 buses full of scheduled caste Hindus arrived in Islamabad the other day as most of the participants were brought to capital for an “All Pakistan Tour” between September 22 and 27. There was no mention of participation in this rally in the invitation.

Although it is an encouraging sign that the ruling party Pakistan Tahrik Insaaf (PTI) has raised an issue of low-cast Hindu Dalits in Pakistan, otherwise, the representatives of the Pakistan Hindu Council are raising issues of only the upper caste.

A representative of lower caste Hindus complained that participants are not treated well in Islamabad as there was no proper arrangement for their stay or food in the Capital.

The main demands of the Pakistan Hindu Council are to give counselor access to Pakistan High Commission to the remaining members of the family and the Jodhpur police should share the FIR and Police report with Pakistani authorities.

August 11 QA speech: Missing direction

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”

These were the famous golden words of the founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah while delivering his speech at the first Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, three days ahead of actual independence on August 14-15.

In his speech Mr. Jinnah, in fact, laid the foundations of the principles for a new country by describing it as being a state with no business with any religion.

Before concluding his historic speech, Quaid-e-Azam stated: “Now, I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”

But Quaid-e-Azam’s vision for a secular Pakistan was just ignored by his predecessors especially his Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, who even presented the famous Objective Resolution on 12th March 1947 few months after Quaid’s death, which made many clauses which clearly mention the state would be a Muslim one.

This Objective Resolution has remained part of all the Constitutions including the present one of 1973. The official name of the new country was described as the “Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”

“Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed” is one of the points of Objective Resolution states. The later amendments in the 1973 Constitution have further restricted the fundamental rights of non-Muslims. For example, a non-Muslim cannot become the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan according to the Constitution.

“A person shall not be qualified for election as President unless he is a Muslim of not less than forty-five years of age and is qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly,” Article 41(2) of the Constitution states. 

Article 91(3) of the Constitution clearly describes: “After the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, the National Assembly shall, to the exclusion of any other business, proceed to elect without debate one of its Muslim members to be the Prime Minister.”

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had a different vision for a new state like Pakistan and he clearly described in his 11th August 1947 speech.

“We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities — the Hindu community and the Muslim community — because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vaishnavas, Khatris, also Bengalese, Madrasis and so on — will vanish. 

Unfortunately, there is no hope for me that such angularities of the majority or minorities communities would vanish in Pakistan soon as we have actually missed the directions set by the Father of the Nation at the time of independence due to frequent military interventions and derailment of the democracy in Pakistan.

Even the Federation concept, described in the Objective Resolution was abandoned when the notorious system of “One Unit” was introduced on 22nd November 1952 in Pakistan thus all the federating units (provinces) and autonomous princely states were dissolved. “There will be no Bengalis, no Punjabis, no Sindhis, no Pathans, no Balochis, no Bahawalpuris, no Khairpuris. The disappearance of these groups will strengthen the integrity of Pakistan” the proponents of the One Unit scheme described it.

In fact Sindh, Punjab, then NWFP and Balochistan provinces were merged into a unit called West Pakistan. East Bengal province, which was in majority population wise was named as East Pakistan and both the units were given parity in the national resources. This decision was resisted by people in East Bengal, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan.

Although after the 1971 War and the separation of East Bengal the four provinces were restored, the princely states were restituted.

The angularities pointed out by the Father of the Nation have further reshaped as the religious zealots have gripped their power in the state authorities and there is a visible discrimination with the religious minorities in the Constitution and the laws of the state.

Labnon govt. resigns after deadly explosion in Beirut

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The entire Lebanon government resigned on August 10 after protests over a deadly explosion in the port area of the capital Beirut on August 4. Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his and the entire cabinet’s resignation at a broadcast published by the National News Agency in Lebanon, the state-run media outlet.

The Diab government had come under severe criticism after twin explosions near Beirut port in which over 160 citizens lost their lives whereas more than 6,000 were injured and over a dozen others were still missing after a nuclear-like blast in a storage house of a massive stockpile of the extinguishing chemical ammonium nitrate, which is the main component used for making fertilizers.

A day earlier of the entire government’s resignation, the Lebanon information minister Ms. Manal Abdel Samad announced her step down while apologizing to people for the government’s failure to protect their lives.

Intense protests had erupted in all over the country, with many calling for ministers’ “resign or hang,” according to NPR’s Ruth Sherlock.

The Lebanon government has set an unprecedented moral virtue and a sense of responsibility by presenting itself for accountability after the explosion despite the fact the Prime Minister stated while announcing his resignation that he was an “external victim of a corrupt and selfish political leadership”.

Such a demonstration of courage and steadfastness is seldom witnessed in most of the democracies especially in South Asian countries like Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.

Pakistani people have endured many catastrophes due to human error and terrorism, but no government official has ever taken responsibility and resigned. Even after deadly railway accidents in the last two years the Railway Minister Shaikh Rasheed has always refused to resign or even take the responsibility.

Similarly, the shameless Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan put the entire blame of the crash of PIA passenger aircraft in Karachi on May 22 on the pilot. About 97 including passengers and members of crew had lost their lives due to crash in Model Colony near Karachi Airport.

The Minister event went to the extent to say at the floor of the National Assembly that many Pakistani pilots possess fake degrees and training certificates. This resulted in removal of Pakistan origin pilots from many international airlines. Later, he amended his statement, however the pilots had already suffered a lot and country’s name was dotted worldwide.

Nai Gaaj drowns or replenishes?

After years of droughts, the arid Katcho area in Johi taluka of Dadu district is facing flash floods caused by flowing of rainy riverine “Nai Gaaj” streaming down after torrential Monsoon rains on Khirthir hilly range in the West bordering Balochistan province on August 7th and 8th.

Thousands of people and hundreds of villages were inundated due to the sudden flowing of the hilly torrent, causing floods. Heavy losses of properties and livestock have also been reported.

Video clips were circulated on social media, showing some people climbing on trees to save their lives. These video clips also included appeals from men and women to the authorities to save them from the gushing water of Nai Gaaj. The hill torrent passes through the Katcho area enters Manchhar lake, and ultimately to River Indus via inundation canals.

Breaches reportedly occurred in the protective embankment (dyke) FB Bund, which protects major cities. These breaches posed a threat of inundation of Johi town, the major settlement in the area, but due to the quick intervention of the authorities to plug the breaches this threat was averted.

However, hundreds of villages were submerged due to the breach and they are still inundated people have taken refuge on the Bund (dyke) and waiting for relief assistance from the government. A video showing the local police stealing the relief goods which was provided by the provincial government.

The Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah visited the area on Sunday and inspected the relief and rescue operations.

Nai Gaaj is a major hilly torrent in Dadu’s Katcho area, which is often welcomed by people of the area as it replenishes the groundwater, which also irrigates the agricultural lands for bumper crops.

The biggest lake in Pakistan Manchhar is one of the main beneficiaries of the hilly torrents as it is facing a lot of pollution coming from the Main Nara Valley (MNV) Drain and defunct Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD), which carry industrial waste and sewerage water from northern areas of Punjab and Balochistan provinces.

According to senior journalist Aajiz Jamali, Nai Gaaj had caused flash floods in 1976, 1995 and 2010, which caused heavy destruction and loss of livestock and human lives.

The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) had carried out two major projects in this area: Nai Gaaj Dam and RBOD, both are incomplete. Experts believe heavy corruption and inefficiency have caused the non-completion of these major projects. The RBOD is aimed at carrying the polluted water till the Arabian Sea and saving Manchhar lake, which is currently receiving that highly polluted water.

Local people consider the flood in Nai Gas as a blessing. According to them, due to faulty development policy of the government, the flood becomes a misery for the people.

Dream of a Digital Pakistan shattered

By Shujauddin Qureshi

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A tweet by Prime Minister Imran’s Special Assistant for Digital Pakistan Ms. Tania Aidrus on July 29, 2020, sharing her resignation, apparently being heartbroken by severe criticism of her citizenship status has shattered the dream of Digital Pakistan forever.

Pakistan government shared the list of Advisors and Special Assistants to the Prime Minister (SAPMs) who had huge properties and dual nationalities. Ms Aidrus was revealed as a citizen of Canada with a residentship of Singapore.

This resignation news has nothing to do with the so-called ban on the digital game PUBG by the federal government or a proposed ban on YouTube by the courts. Ms. Aidrus had opposed the ban on YouTube. She wrote in a thread of tweets: “Banning a platform like YouTube is not a solution. The 3 years when YouTube was banned in Pakistan it held back our content creator ecosystem which has just started to flourish now, creating employment opportunities for thousands. Our focus should be on ensuring better curation of content through policy and dialogue. Brute force measures like banning will not serve any purpose and will hold us back from achieving the vision of #DigitalPakistan.” Please click on this link

Pakistan has been striving hard to be included in the digital map of the world. Still, many powerful forces inside Pakistan have always hindered any such attempt at a higher level.

With joining of Ms. Aidrus as SAPM had raised hope for quick implementation of the state policies and infrastructures for a Digital Pakistan, but she faced a series of controversies from the start of her joining the DP programme.

First, the former Information Technology (IT) Minister Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui (belonging to the coalition party Muttahida Quomi Movement) resigned apparently for the rights of Karachi, but he was reportedly unhappy with the inclusion of Ms. Aidrus in her ministry.

Moreover, she also faced another controversy when a news item was published in the daily Dawn on June 26, 2020, revealing a controversy on social media, questioning the involvement of Tania Andrus, who is also a member of the board of directors of a company owned by Imran Khan’s aide and now the main accused in sugar scandal.

Only last year on December 5, 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the Digital Pakistan programme and nominated Ms Aidrus, a Google executive at that time who quit her position, to lead the initiative.

The inclusion of Ms Aidrus on the board of directors of a not-for-profit company the Digital Pakistan Foundation (PDF) had raised concerns, particularly one leading to a conflict of interest because of the lack of transparency around the foundation’s funding and operations.

Although someone else will replace Ms. Aidrus in the DP programme, there is no hope for Pakistan being digitalized in near future.

I am sorry for Sir Zeeshan Usmani, an IT expert and a visionary Pakistani living abroad as he had submitted very fruitful recommendations to Ms. Aidrus in a personal meeting with her at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad, which he had explained in his following YouTube video.

facebook.com/zusmani78/(opens in a new tab)

I am happy that we will soon see a revolution in the IT sector in Pakistan. But all this is devastating.

Had those recommendations been implemented Pakistan would be become digitalized very quickly. But the powerful mafia in the government was not ready to accept such changes and want to keep the country in the dark ages.

Heavy rains expose Sindh, City governments' inefficiency

Karachi city has been experiencing the worst-ever breakdown of civic utilities as the city received heavy Monsoon downpours in different areas on two consecutive days (Sunday and Monday). At least five people lost their lives due to electrocution in Karachi on Sunday.

Many areas in Malir, district East received heavy rains on Sunday as the met office recorded maximum rainfall of 86.2 millimetres (mm), or 3.3 inches, in the Gulshan-i-Hadeed area. Other areas, which received heavy included University Road,/Gulistan-i-Jauhar (80.8 mm), North Karachi (61.9 mm), Keamari (50.8 mm), Jinnah Terminal (58 mm), Saddar (51 mm), Pahalwan Goth (49.6 mm), PAF Base Faisal (49.2 mm), Nazimabad (28 mm), PAF Base Masroor and Landhi (23 mm).

With the first drop of the rain, power in many areas was shut down, which was restored after many hours.

On Monday the worst affected areas by the rain were in districts Central and West. Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal in district East also received heavy downpours on Monday.

This video was shared on social media (WhatsApp) by a journalist

Many areas in Orangi Town area were badly affected as water entered into homes due to rain as well as overflowing of the rain drains.

Residents have shared videos of North Karachi where gushing rainwater was even pushing vehicles and many cars and motorcycles can be seen floating on the water.

In Orangi area volunteers rescued dozens of students from a Madressah, where water from a Nallah (rain drain) had overflowed and entered into the premises of the religious school.

Reports of submerging of low-lying areas in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulistan-e-Jauhar caused agony for the residents.

No government authorities were seen on roads to rescue people. For example in Orangi, volunteers of a religious charity organisation rescued children from the Madressah. The city government of Karachi had failed to maintain a drainage system in the city. The floodwater drains were not cleaned on the time and the provincial Sindh government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation or City government were seen at the loggers’ heads to blame each other for their failure to maintain the sewerage system. The City Mayor, whose tenure is about to end on August 2, 2020, remained off the scene during the two days’ devastating rains.

Another stoning of a Sindhi woman

The social media was filled with posts of the stoning of a married woman in Jamshoro district last week and a postmortem of the lady has revealed a high degree of torture and molestation of the victim. Police have already arrested a husband and some relatives of the woman.

This was the second case of stoning in recent history as a few months back a case of the stoning of a girl was reported in Johi, Dadu district, which was hushed by the Police under a high degree of pressure from influential Rind tribe chieftains who were also supported by a media magnate belonging to the same tribe. An HRCP (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan) fact-finding mission also tried to cover up the stoning incident.

Initially, the Johi police had arrested the father, mother and a prayer leader in the case of stoning to 10-year old Gul Sama, but they were later freed under the pressure from local influential people.

A reporter from a media house based in Karachi had also faced outrage from the Rind tribe people as their chieftain managed to hold several protest demonstrations against the said reporter in different cities including in Dadu and Karachi. The reporter and his family members received threats from the local landlords and his supporters.

The new incident of stoning is feared to face the same fate as the tribal influential people and some sections in the establishment do not want a spread of the news about the centuries-old tribal custom of stoning in the media.

A recent statement by Women Action Forum has demanded the provincial Sindh government to send the case to the Anti-Terrorism court.

The women's rights group WAF has expressed serious concern over a post-mortem report of the woman, Wazeeran Chhachhar. The WAF said that this case had exposed the incompetence of all institutions supposed to enforce the law and society`s indifferent attitude towards women. It said that the victim`s body had clear marks of violence all over and according to the woman who gave a funerary bath to the victim, there were torture marks on her body also.

It said that according to a post-mortem report, Waseeran had also offered resistance and her nails were also filled with dust.

The cold-blooded murder of a lady was first reported on social media, and then local and foreign press took it. On this, the Chairperson of the Sindh Commission on Status of Women Ms. Nuzhat Shireen also visited the place near Sann.

Although police have registered a case against the woman’s husband, his brother and another relative. Father the victim woman is the complainant in the case. Police have also arrested the husband and his brother who confessed to torturing her.

According to a report published in Arab News it was a case of a family dispute of “Watta Satta”, which literally means “to give and take (relationship)”.

But it is not simply a family feud as the woman was brutally tortured and the post-mortem report has confirmed it. The WAF has feared that the case might be spoiled due to a lack of interest from the police.

Herd Immunity

“Someone was saying that everyone will have the Coronavirus at least once due to the pandemic,” said my wife, Shazia. “Is it correct?” she asked me.

“I don’t think so, because those who take precautions will be spared, ” was my reply.

But they say those who wear masks etc. will even have to undergo the disease, she again asked. No, it is not correct, I replied emphatically adding that it is propaganda like some people were saying that there is no such disease or others were declaring it a conspiracy. Even many were saying the government is receiving Dollars for each patient.

“Why are you listening to them seriously?” I asked. These people are creating fear unintentionally and your subconscious mind is quite sensitive so if you think along these lines you may receive it. Therefore, just ignore such comments, I said to her. But I senses she was not convinced by my arguments.

My wife is not alone who was facing such a situation these days when the entire media is full of news about the spread of the pandemic COVID-19 in the country and every day the numbers are increasing. Daily thousands of people are reported to test positive and around 100 people lose their lives each day.

The government policies towards controlling the pandemic seem they are silently going towards herd immunity, which means the government is not able to do anything, so whoever is contracted the disease should fight himself/herself and if he/she survives that is good as he/she may have developed immunity, otherwise, whoever is dying should die.

The ineffective testing services, inadequate quarantine and medical facilities in government hospitals have made Pakistanis vulnerable to contract the pandemic diseases easily. The private hospitals in urban centres are minting money by providing costly testing and isolation facilities.

The state’s health facilities are inadequate and insufficient and cannot cater to the needs of every citizen. People also have no confidence in the government’s health facilities. The majority of infected or suspected patients prefer to stay at their homes in quarantine instead of going to government facilities for isolation.

A lot of my friends and colleagues who have been infected with the virus have opted to stay at their homes in isolation instead of going to hospitals for receiving medical treatment. A journalist friend of mine who opted for going to the hospital said that he was kept in a hospital room along with other three patients (which means they were a total of four in the room). Because he was a journalist, therefore, he received good attention and better treatment facilities in a government hospital, but he said that other journalists who were also admitted to the same government hospital had left the hospital saying there were poor healthcare facilities and they preferred to go to private hospitals.

Oxygen cylinders, some drugs which are said to be helpful in the treatment of Coronavirus have vanished from the medical stores in the markets. People are buying masks, sanitisers and hand gloves at exorbitant rates. Even Chinese-made cheaper digital oximeters are being sold at much higher rates because they are in high demand.

I received a message (SMS) from a prominent drugs selling company that it was selling oximeters (which is used on a finger) at the rate of Rs. 4000 per piece. You might have seen advertisements on social media where people are selling these gadgets at higher prices.

Even though the government has not officially declared its policy on herd immunity, there is strong evidence that it may opt. This is also evident from the government’s callous attitude towards the pandemic. The Supreme Court of Pakistan also played a key role when it allowed Eid shopping during the last week of Ramazan. People thronged to the shopping centres without taking preventive measures or following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set by the government for shopping centres. The number of COVID-19-positive patients has increased rapidly since the Eidul Fitre and the total number has even crossed 220,000 patients now and over 4000 deaths.

The Sindh provincial government, which took appreciable measures at the start of the pandemic early in March, has also stopped its vigorous efforts and is following the federal government’s policy of indifference.

In recent days, government figures indicate that number of tests has reduced, which ultimately has reported fewer patients per day. But the situation on the ground is miserable as many deaths due to the pandemic are not reported.

Mafias run Pakistani economy: Dr. Kaiser Bengali

According to Dr. Kaiser Bengali, an eminent economist Pakistani economy is mostly run by mafias, who often join politics and the government to get “legal benefits.”

These mafias enjoy monopoly profits, which they use to further strengthen their political designs.

Dr. Bengali, who remained Advisor to the past governments in Sindh, Balochistan and Centre, while speaking at an online post-budget 2020-21 webinar on Sunday said sugar, wheat flour, fertilizer and paper industries are minting money by availing various subsidies and incentives in the form of tax exemptions. Most of the owners of these industries are either in the government or they are relatives of the ministers.

“You have heard about the sugar scandal and a good thing has happened that an inquiry report has been made public, which exposed how the sugar mafia is looting the national wealth by adopting all “legal procedures.”

Describing further, Dr. Bengali said the sugar mafia provides wrong figures and manipulates the situation for their benefit. First, they export sugar and claim subsidies on exports then create a shortage in the country to raise its prices. These sugar mill owners are mostly politicians, who often make policies for their benefit. Sugar mills are not paying properly costs to sugarcane growers and swindle taxes like FED and GST through manipulation.

Flour mills receive wheat from the government’s procured stocks at subsidised rates. The main aim of this incentive is that they would supply flour at lower rates. In fact, these mills purchase wheat from the open market and then sell flour at higher by mixing the rates. “They put the subsidy on wheat in their pockets and sell flour at higher rates,” he said.

In Pakistan, three paper mills have created a cartel, which has made many publishing houses bankrupt as they sell paper at higher rates. “Now the situation is such that most of the curricular books, even in Urdu are published and imported directly from China and Indonesia as there is no import duty on published books. The paper mafia is so powerful that every year the government announces to change the duty structure, but it always fails to do so.

He said most of the fertilizer manufacturing units are owned by the Military subsidiaries in Pakistan, which receive Sui (natural) gas at very cheaper rates, almost free, and also receive subsidies on the selling of fertilizer to growers.

It is a matter of fact that more than 60 per cent of fertilizer is being used by Punjab, whereas Sindh consumes only 20 per cent. The Sui gas-producing province Balochistan consumes only 4 per cent of the fertilizer, thus most of the subsidy goes to Punjab at the cost of smaller provinces like Balochistan and Sindh that produce the natural gas.

“We have not seen the reverse transfer of the benefit from Punjab to Balochistan,” he said adding that Punjab does not provide any subsidy to Balochistan while supplying wheat the people of Balochistan have to purchase wheat at the market rates.

Watch the entire speech: Click here

Sacrilege of Hindu COVID-19 deceased in Dadu

Sindh’s customary secular and Sufi traditions were shattered when some religious zealots in Dadu city thrashed the body of a deceased Hindu Kewal Ram who died because of Coronavirus when his relatives were performing cremation at Shamshanghat, a dedicated place to perform the last rituals of Hindus.

These Muslim zealots, living in the neighbourhood forcibly entered the walled Shamshanghat and tried to intervene during the last rituals by putting out the fire while throwing buckets of water and desecrating the body.

Dadu was once famous for religious harmony where hundreds of Hindu families still live in a peaceful environment. In recent years, religious fanaticism has increased in Dadu city as well where religious mind Muslims have become intolerant.

According to reports, a group of religious zealots intervened in the cremation of Seth Kewal Ram Rathor, a notable Hindu and trader of Dadu city by asking the relatives not to perform cremation near their homes as the deceased had died of COVID-19. They were fearing the spread of the virus in the neighbourhood.

Click Here to watch the video

The relatives and Hindu notables of the area assured that cremation rituals were being done according to the government Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and there was no chance of the spread of the virus. However, the intruders were insisting to stop the rituals.

Local police were called, which forced the intruders to go out of the Shamshanghat and the final rituals were completed under the supervision of the Police.

According to the FIR, registered on behalf of the state, dozens of people had entered Shamshanghat and threatened the relatives of the deceased to stop the rituals because they were fearing the spread of the virus. Some of them were carrying buckets of water, which they threw on the fire in an attempt to put it out.

A press release, issued by Police department on Thursday stated that Dadu Police have arrested three nominated accused namely Izhar Solangi, Ghulam Hussain Solangi and Mohammad Yousuf Solangi. The FIR registered under Sections of 295A, 186, 296 and 297 Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) has nominated six persons whereas 20-25 others were included in the case.

Economic Survey paints dismal picture of economy

The provisional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of Pakistan for FY 2020 is estimated at negative 0.38 per cent on the basis of 2.67, -2.64 and -0.59 per cent growth in agricultural, industrial and services sectors respectively, states the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2019-20 released on Thursday, a day ahead of the presentation of Annual Budget 2020-21 in the National Assembly on Friday.

Presented by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Hafeez Sheikh the Economic Survey document has presented a dismal picture of Pakistan’s economy as most of the economic indicators have gone nose dive.

For example, the negative performance of both Industry and Services has overshadowed the growth in the agriculture sector, which grew by 2.67 per cent. This sector is badly hit by the locust swarms in Sindh and Punjab, the major agriculture provinces.

The economic team of the government has put all the burden of the downward slide of Pakistan’s economic indicators on the overall slowdown due to the lockdown after Coronavirus (COVID-19) in March 2020, although the economy was not performing well even before the start of COVID-19.

The provisional growth in the industrial sector has been estimated at -2.64 per cent mainly due to a negative growth of 8.82 per cent in the mining and quarrying sector and a decline of 7.78 per cent in the large-scale manufacturing sector. Due to the lockdown situation in the country, the growth estimates of the Small-Scale Industry for FY2020 are 1.52 per cent.

Similar to the industrial sector, the services sector of the economy has also witnessed a significant impact of the lockdown situation in the country due to COVID-19, particularly in the Wholesale and Retail Trade and Transport Sectors. The services sector has declined provisionally at 0.59 per cent mainly due to a 3.42 per cent decline in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector and a 7.13 per cent decline in Transport, Storage and Communication sectors.

The finance and insurance sector, however, witnessed a slight increase of 0.79 per cent. The Housing Services, General Government Services and Other private services have contributed positively at 4.02, 3.92 and 5.39 per cent respectively.

The fiscal deficit has substantially reduced to 4.0 per cent of GDP during July-March, FY2020 against 5.1 per cent of GDP in the comparable period last year. Similarly, a remarkable turnaround is visible in the primary balance, which posted a surplus of Rs 194 billion during July-March, FY2020 against a deficit of Rs 463 billion. Overall, the improvement in the fiscal account is largely attributed to a higher provincial surplus and a sharp rise in non-tax revenues.

The government has retired Rs 736.47 billion to SBP against the borrowing of Rs 3,204.72 billion in last year. On contrary, the Government borrowed Rs 1,760.38 billion from scheduled banks against the retirement of Rs 2,213.85 billion last year.

Exports during July-April, 2019-20 remained at $ 19.7 billion compared to $ 20.1 billion during July-March, 2018-19, posting a decline of 2.4 per cent.

The total imports during July-April FY2020 declined to $ 36.1 billion as compared to $ 40.3 billion same period last year, thus registering a decline of 16.9 per cent.

During Jul-April FY2020, remittances increased to $ 18.8 billion as compared to $ 17.8 billion during the same period last year, with a growth of 5.5 per cent.

During July-March FY2020, the current account deficit (CAD) reduced by 73.1 per cent to US$ 2.8 billion (1.1 per cent of GDP) against US$ 10.3 billion last year (3.7 per cent of GDP). The significant reduction in CAD reflected mainly the impact of macroeconomic stabilization measures taken by the government.

The executive summary of the Economic Survey 2019-20 can be accessed online from the website of the Ministry of Finance. Please Click Here

Unabated use of religion against opponents in Sindh

Sindh has witnessed two recent incidents in which the religious tool of blasphemy law was (mis)used against the opponents.

In the first case, the state on Tuesday filed a blasphemy case against a professor of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur Sajid Soomro with charges of contempt of Islam as he reportedly took part in the funeral of a Sindhi writer Atta Mohammad Bhanbhro. Prof. Soomro was later arrested by Khairpur police from his home early on Wednesday.

Prof. Sajid Soomro is also a famous writer and a member of Sindhi Abadi Sangat.

Another incident took place in Hyderabad where Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Fazlur Rehman group started a social media campaign against a leader of Women Action Forum (WAF) Dr. Arfana Mallah alleging that she has done blasphemy by condemning the Blasphemy law. Interestingly this law has been condemned by many, but why JUI-F found it objectionable in the case of Dr. Mallah.

The JUI-F’s local leadership asked the party workers through a Facebook post to gather at a mosque in Bhitai Nagar and from there they will proceed to a police station to lodge an FIR against the women rights activists Prof. Dr. Mallah who is teaching at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

Dr. Mallah had played a key role in organising the Aurat March at Sukkur in March this year despite severe opposition by fanatics and religious leaders including provincial leadership of JUI-F. Before the March, the JUI Sindh had threatened to stop the march.

Later, Women Action Forum issued a press release condemning threats to Dr. Arfana Mallah. “We demand that police thwart such nefarious attempts and that this situation is handled in a timely and lawful manner before any damage is caused,” the WAF statement added.

Interestingly both the victims are professors of universities. According to the FIR against Prof. Soomro, the police have included Section 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code, which pertains to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.

Misuse of the Blasphemy law is quite common in Pakistan as this law, was made stringent by the Military dictator General Ziaul Haq and was misused against the opposition and minority activists. The law has hit vulnerable sections, especially women and minorities. In Sindh last year a couple of serious incidents happened in which people from the Hindu community were made targets.

I don’t know what is the main cause of concern for JUI-F leadership in Sindh this time against Dr. Mallah, but it is a matter of the fact that the religious zealots have always used this law as a tool to gain their nefarious designs.

According to a post by Azam Jahangiri of JUI F on Facebook, Dr. Arfana Mallah uttered derogatory words against the Blasphemy law in her Facebook post while condemning the registration of a case against Prof. Soomro. Therefore, his party under the leadership of Taj Mohammad Nahiyon is determined to lodge a blasphemy case against Dr. Mallah.

RIP Steel Mills

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet on Wednesday announced laying off all the 9,350 remaining employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) with a golden handshake incentive worth around Rs 20 billion.

Presided over by the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh the ECC, however, decided to retain about 250 employees for a period of 3 months for the execution of the human resource rationalisation plan and completion of formalities.

This news sent a shock-wave among the workers and trade unions, which have been demanding the release of salaries of workers. They have announced to launch of a movement against the PTI government’s move. The social media is filled with speeches by Prime Minister Imran Khan and Asad Umer who had addressed PSM workers before coming into power. They had pledged to revive the Mills and not to retrench any workers. The social media posts indicate they have done the opposite.

At least two retrenched workers of PSM Ejaz Samoo and Muhammad Yunus Baloch reportedly suffered heart attacks and died due to the shocking news.

At least five trade union leaders of Pakistan Steel including Yaseen Jamro, who is the Chairman of the current Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) of the PSM (Steel Mills Insaf Union) were arrested while protesting outside the mills on Thursday and were later released by police.

According to the government, each employee would be paid an estimated amount of Rs 2.3 million.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on March 13, 2020, asked the federal government to lay off all the redundant employees and appoint new people if it wanted to keep PSM running.

Established by former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto with financial and technological support from the former Soviet Union in 1973 the Pakistan Steel Mills was once the largest industrial mega-corporation complex producing steel for industrial purposes. The project was formally launched by former Military dictator General Ziaul Haq on 15 January 1985.

Having a production capacity of 1.1 million tonnes of steel  Pakistan Steel Mills is spread out over an area of 7,550 hectares (18,660 acres) including 4,205 ha (10,390 acres) for the main plant, 3,266 ha (8,070 acres) for the township and 81 ha (200 acres) for the 110 MG water reservoir. In addition, it has leasehold rights over an area of 3,043 ha (7,520 acres) for the quarries of limestone and dolomite in the Makli and Jhimpir areas of the Thatta district. (For further details pl. visit: Pakistan Steel’s History.)

The PSM, which has been facing many crises since the 1990s stopped its commercial operations in June 2015 without formulating any human resource plan for its 14,753 employees which has since come down to 9,350 in 2019.

Despite its non-functional status, the fate of such a large number of employees remained undeclared as they have been demanding their dues since 2015.

During General Pervaiz Musharraf’s era, the federal government tried to privatise it, but the Supreme Court of Pakistan stopped its sale.

I can recall that I wrote a feature in monthly Newsline in its May 2006 issue with the title The Grand Steel Steal, in which I highlighted the military government’s design to sell an important national asset.

Although it was an inevitable decision on part of the government as it is unable to pay huge amounts of salaries to the employees, who are virtually kept redundant due to the non-functioning of the corporation since 2015. The successive governments had failed to revive the Steel Mills, which needed huge capital investment. Once the Sindh Government had shown interest to buy the Mills, but it backed out due to unknown reasons.