Front Line with Kamran Shahid – 8th August 2011 – Karachi Politics

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Part 2

Part 3

Police Gang Rapes a woman – Front Line – 30th July 2011

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Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Sexual Harassment in Universities – Front Line with Kamran Shahid

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Part 2

Part 3

Doctors’ strike: 22 patients die across Punjab

Doctors across Punjab continued their strike Sunday, while unattended patients continued to suffer at hospitals across the province. A total of 22 patients have died across Punjab due to the strike. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Three more patients died in the Nishtar Hospital bringing the death toll in Multan alone to 17, while a patient died in Faisalabad in the morning after being denied medical care.

More than 700 protesting doctors have resigned so far, as the Punjab government has refused to give in to their demands. The provincial government has also announced it will recruit new doctors at public hospitals to fill the vacancies. However, only 350 doctors have applied for the post, who will be interviewed today (Sunday).

Sources say that senior doctors have also gone on strike to support the young doctors. Only two doctors are on duty at the Allied Hospital Faisalabad.
The General Body of the Young Doctors Association has refused to call off their strike until their demands are met.
Blood is on Shahbaz Sharif’s hands says Riaz Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz said on Saturday that he would seek to lodge murder cases against Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif because he was responsible for the deaths that occurred during the ongoing doctors’ strike.
Riaz told The Express Tribune that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers would collect data from each hospital about deaths during the strike. They would also reach out to families who had lost loved ones and put them in touch with party legislators to help them seek legal remedy. He said that he would visit police stations personally and seek to get cases registered against the chief minister. If the police refused, he would move the Lahore High Court, he said.
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah brushed off the threat, saying that he hoped that the opposition leader would not object if cases were registered against the federal government over deaths in federal government hospitals in the Punjab.

Blame it on Sharif
Riaz said that the escalation of the standoff between the provincial government and the Young Doctors Association was all down to Sharif. At 4pm on March 31, he said, the YDA Punjab and Senior Advisor Sardar Zulifqar Khosa had reached a deal to end the strike.
The two sides signed a agreement, Riaz said, adding that he had seen a copy of it provided to him by the YDA. He said it was agreed that the chief minister would announce the deal at 9pm that same day. Meanwhile, he said, the YDA announced that the strike was over.
But before 9pm, Riaz claimed, the chief minister was “deliberately misled” by Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad about the contents of the agreement. “Sharif always relies on the briefings of the bureaucracy. He thinks they are the only ones who can solve the problems of the province,” he said.
He said that a YDA Punjab delegation went to the chief minister’s officer at 90, The Mall, to meet Sharif. But when they got there, they were told the meeting had been cancelled. The YDA Punjab called Khosa, but he did not answer his mobile phone, Riaz said. Later that night, the YDA Punjab announced the resumption of their strike.
“The chief minister is very arrogant; he thinks he’s a Mughal emperor. He snubbed the YDA Punjab and because of his stubbornness, dozens of patients have died,” Riaz said. “It’s in his psyche to solve every problem through brutal police torture.”
He added that he would ask the Punjab Assembly speaker to summon the chief minister to attend a special session of the assembly on the issue.
Law Minister Sanaullah said that Riaz’s statement had “exposed those behind the doctors’ strikes” and that his party would suffer for bringing doctors into politics. He said that Riaz should not talk about the doctors, but answer questions instead about the “petrol bomb” the federal government had set off.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 03rd, 2011.

Dr Roy’s Thoughts about Pakistan

I am not a fan of Pakistan. The central Pakistan government doesn’t even pretend to control its outlying provinces, but I am not sure if this is a good idea. It would probably just cause more instability along the Indian border. Though putting the whole country under trusteeship would probaby be a good idea, it’s not going to happen. The real probablem is who controls the nukes and the treachery of the isis.

This artificial nation has already lost Bangladesh. Now floods give good reason to dismember the rest Pakistan “is confronted with an existential threat from fanatics, zealots and extremists on the one hand and from the material devastation caused by the history’s worst floods on the other,” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari stated earlier this week. “The existence of Pakistan” is now at stake, echoed Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

The end of Pakistan — its dismemberment into its constituent parts — could be all for the good. Pakistan — a creation of colonial Britain that’s barely a half-century old — is less a country than an acronym whose passing would soon be forgotten. There is no Pakistani nation.

The P in Pakistan stands for Punjab, its most industrialized region whose Indus River people have an ancient civilization. The A stands for Afghania, a backward rural region (since renamed) that could not be more different than the Punjab. The K stands for Kashmir, an agriculturally rich, conflict-riven area cleaved and claimed by India and China as well as Pakistan. S stands for Sindh, another Indus River nation whose history is also as old as civilization itself, and which rivals the Punjab in literacy and economic development. Pakistan’s last three letters — TAN — represent Balochistan, its largest but least populous and poorest province, despite its mineral riches.

Who is responsible?

By Sana Saleem

Lahore is often known as the heart of Pakistan; the hub of culture and arts, the centre of education, the city of gardens, with the prominent aspect of the city being its ancient history and its deep-rooted connection to Sufism. Living in a city steeped in heritage and culture, Lahoris are known for their fun-loving spirit. This very spirit was attacked on July 1, when two suicide bombers attacked Data Darbar, shrine of the patron saint of Lahore.

The attack killed 45 people and left more than 175 injured.

This is not the first time a shrine has been attacked, previously the shrines of Rahman Baba and Mian Umer Baba in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have also been attacked.

Attacking Data Darbar on a Thursday night was an obvious target – that is the night when the shrine is teeming with worshippers as well as those seeking shelter and food from all walks of life. There is no question that the attack was well-planned – CCTV footage showed scenes of carnage and the bombers just moments before they blew themselves up. The footage showed a security guard chasing after one of the bombers shortly before the bomb went off – body parts and blood splattered everywhere as the survivors fled in all directions.

The most common reactions after the attack are that of denial, with many pointing fingers at foreign involvement. Statements such as “these terrorists can neither be Muslims nor Pakistanis” echoed from the common man to those in authority. Despite a history of intolerance towards Sufism, the notorious TTP has also declined any involvement in the attack claiming they do not attack ‘public places’ Usman, 16, who was identified as the alleged suicide bomber by the authorities, was later reported to be a victim of the attack.

I was asked a similar question : What does the attack on the Ahmedis and on Data Darbar mean? Is this sectarian violence or do terrorists not have a religion? According to The Pakistan Security Report there have been over 249 terrorist attacks across the country, killing around 1182 and leaving over 995 injured. Not a single so-called ‘foreign’ terrorist has been arrested so far, clearly ruling out the possibility of foreign and/or non-muslin suicide bombers at work. As for the possibility of a conspiracy that foreign agencies could be involved, we must understand that the nature of such involvement is opportunistic.

At the end of the day we need to look within ourselves. The attack on the shrine was not just another terror attack; it was an attack on the Sufi saints who have taught us peace, tolerance, spirituality, co-existence and universal brotherhood. It is important we acknowledge that a certain faction of our society continues to harbour hate that can, and has, incite violence. These are not a group of underground terrorists but ordinary citizens who openly declare their disapproval to anything that doesn’t fit within the confines of their strict ideology. One such example can be seen on this forum where a user started a thread suggesting a call for “demolishing ‘centres’ of shirk like Data Darbar and the likes”

The seven-page discussion thread ends with CCTV videos of the attack on the shrine, with one user rightly pointing out, “I have an issue with the title of this thread. ‘Demolish.’ I wonder if it is this type of language that creates confusion and hatred, which leads to suicide attacks, like the one in Lahore on Thursday. Even if those attacks are done by external forces, they leverage internal hatred. Thoughts? [sic]”

Indeed, something that we need to seriously think about. While talking to reporters on the Data Darbar attack Nawaz Sharif repeatedly emphasised that he will not indulge the blame game and refused to point fingers.

I think it is time to point fingers but in the right direction.

Child Labor in Pakistan

We recalled so many definitions of child labour…..
We collected data and records ,prepared by UNICEF and other authentic agencies about child labour…… .But when We came across these pictures , We felt my every effort is useless….. ..We thought we don,t need to give any detail about it…..because these pictures speak themselves.. …….

Let,s see what they say….

Each year we arrange different seminars, different events and made tall claims of giving some revolution to the existing setup of this society, but all in vain, still they are helpless and the rope of their destiny is in the hand of those immoral people who don’t have any ethical values.

kahin footpathon pe…kahin bazaron main…kahin railway stations pe…..kahin eenton k bhattay pe…..kahin qaleen bun rhay hai kahin khwab jal rhay hain…..

hope k ye “nannhay Frishtay” kbhi to zindgi pe apna haq wasool kr sken gy…..kuch aur nhin kr sktay to aaye in masoom phoolon k liye dua hi kr den.

Thinking positive is the first step towards doing something positive..