Pew Survey 2014: Pakistanis Report Progress, Pessimism

The number of Pakistanis reporting they are better off now has increased from 25% in 2002 to 51% in 2014, according to Pew Research Center report from its 43-nation survey on life satisfaction around the world.

Read more » http://www.riazhaq.com/2014/11/pew-survey-2014-pakistanis-report.html

JSQM averse to Chinese investment in Zulfikarabad

By: Ramzan Chandio

SINDH : KARACHI – To protest against the Chinese government’s promised help in the controversial Zulfikarabad project, the workers of the nationalist party Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz staged a protest rally, but police stopped them by putting containers on the roads leading towards Chinese Consulate in the city on Thursday. The JSQM workers scheduled to take a rally from Gulshan-e-Hadeed in Malir area to the Chinese Consulate in Clifton, but when the workers reached Steel Town, where police already created hindrances and blocked the road by placing containers. Scuffles also witnessed among the workers of JSQM, who were taken out a rally led by their acting chairman Niaz Kalani. When police stopped, the workers staged sit-in on the Indus Highway. However, JSQM Acting Chairman Dr Niaz Kalani while addressing the protesting workers said that our protest rally, scheduled sit-in in front of the Chinese consulate was completely peaceful but the police have tried for bloodshed by restraining it. Dr Kalani also announced to stage protest processions, rallies and sit-in from July 18 against the Chinese government’s support for the controversial project of Zulfikarabad. … the Chinese government is supporting the controversial project, which is against the interest of Sindh. …. The JSQM chief … the Chinese company to keep away of making investment in the controversial Zulfikarabad project, …. .. Earlier, a protest rally was carried out by the JSQM led by its Acting Chairman Dr Niaz Kalani including central leaders Asif Baladi, Sagar Hanif Burrdi, Sarfraz Memon, Maqsood Qureshi and others. The rally was started from Gulshan-e-Hadeed – the residence of JSQM’s deceased chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi towards Chinese consulate through National Highway. A huge number of law enforcement agencies’ personnel including police and rangers were already deployed on the way of rally. The police blocked the roads by placing trucks and buses at around 10 am on national highway at Steel Town Roundabout, which prompted the JSQM workers to end their rally and disperse at the scene. The sit-in was continued for about three hours on National Highway. Later they dispersed peacefully. Meanwhile, heavy contingent of police was deployed and containers were put on the roads leading towards the Chinese Consulate in Clifton which caused difficulties for the citizens. It may be noted that nationalist parties are continuously staging protests and rallies against the Zulfiqarabad project, terming it as anti-Sindh, which will turn the indigenous people of Sindh into minority.

Why Imran Khan has decided not to go to Quetta with his so-called Tsunami

Graphic details: Killing of Brahumdagh Bugti’s sister and niece in Karachi on 31st January

Brahamdagh Bugti’s sister, and Mehran Baluch’s sister-in-law Zamur Bugti (34), and 13-year old daughter, Jaana Domki were visiting the house of Zamur’s maternal uncle after attending a wedding ceremony of a cousin at Carlton Hotel in D.H.A, Karachi. They were accompanied by their driver (Barkat Baloch) and a helper’s 12 year old daughter. They were travelling in a black Toyota sedan (Registration: ANR-353). The car also had an MPA Balochistan plate on it.

Between 1 and 1:30 AM on the 31st of January, shortly after leaving the uncle’s house, a black coloured car intercepted Bugti’s car near Gizri Bridge, Clifton. A man dressed in black shalwar kameez and wearing a black face mask jumped out of the car and shot the driver, Barkat Baloch, as they tried to get away. The driver was killed on the spot as a result of multiple bullet wounds to the head. Then the assailant opened the rear door at which point two bikes arrived at the scene and parked on the left and right side of the car. Upon opening the door, Zamur Bugti offered her jewellery, phone and valuables to the man, thinking that he was a robber. In response the killer told Zamur that he didn’t need her valuables and that he was there to kill her and her daughter, in urdu. Zamur Bugti told him to spare her daughter and that he could kill her. At this point the killer went to the daughter who was sitting on the front passenger seat and fired multiple shots at her, hitting her in the chest and neck.

Zamur Bugti was made to witness the brutal killing of her daughter. Zamur Bugti was then shot over a dozen times in the head, face and neck at point blank range and was left in a pool of blood. During this incident, the police were spectating from a distance.

We have gathered all this information from a first-hand witness who was a helper’s daughter. She was deliberately spared by the killer. The girl ran back to the house which they had just left and informed the family there of what had happened. The family members immediately rushed to the scene where they found the previously spectating policemen close to the victims’ bodies, trying to steal jewellery the victims were wearing. A family member who just arrived at the scene from the uncle’s house witnessed this and yelled at them and told them to get away, so they stepped back. No personal belongings were taken.

Like army, like nation – by Nadeem F. Paracha

Excerpt:

The basic socio-political mindset of the Pakistani society is the outcome of various faith-based experiments conducted by the state and the armed forces.

The party

In 1995, sometime in May, an uncle of mine (an ex-army man), was invited to a party of sorts.

The invitation came from a former top-ranking military officer who had also worked for the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI. He was in the army with my uncle (who now resides abroad) during the 1960s.

My uncle, who was visiting Pakistan, asked if I was interested in going with him. I agreed.

The event was at a military officer’s posh bungalow in Karachi’s Clifton area. Most of the guests (if not all) were former military men. All were articulate, spoke fluent English and wore modern, western clothes.

I was not surprised by this but what did surprise me was a rather schizophrenic aura about the surroundings. Though modern-looking and modern-sounding, the gathering turned out to be a segregated affair.

The men’s wives were placed in a separate room, while the men gathered in a wider sitting area.

By now it become clear to me that I wouldn’t be getting served anything stronger than Pepsi on the rocks!

I scratched my head, thinking that even though I was at a ‘party’ in a posh, stylish bungalow in the posh, stylish Clifton area with all these posh stylish military men and their wives and yet, somehow I felt there very little that was ‘modern’ about the situation.

By modern, I also mean the thinking that was reflected by the male guests on politics, society and religion. Most of the men were also clean-shaven and reeking of expensive cologne, but even while talking about cars, horses and their vacations in Europe, they kept using Arabic expressions such as mashallah, alhamdullila, inshallah, etc.

I tried to strike up some political conversations with a few gentlemen but they expected me to agree with them about how civilian politicians were corrupt, how democracy can be a threat to Pakistan, how civilian leaders do not understand India’s nefarious designs, et al. …

The experiment

The Pakistan Army was once a staunchly secular beast. All across the 1950s and 1960s it was steeped in secular (albeit conservative) traditions and so were its sociological aspects.

In fact, until the late 1960s, Pakistani military men were asked to keep religion a private matter and religious exhibitionism was scorned at as well as reprimanded – mostly during Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s dictatorship (1959-69).