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  • Colleyville Hostages: Blowback for US Torture, War Crimes

    The official version of the 11-hours hostage-taking in Colleyville, Texas, on January 15, makes it seem pretty straightforward and limited. Early that Saturday morning, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker allowed a stranger into the synagogue to get warm, later identified as Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a British national of Pakistani descent who had come to the US about two weeks earlier. During the subsequent, live-streamed service, Akram, armed with a pistol, took the rabbi and three congregants hostage.

    The first 911 call went out around 10:41. More than 200 local police and FBI agents responded to the scene and established telephone contact with Akram, whose responses were inconsistently coherent. The four hostages assisted with translation. Akram repeatedly said he was going to die. He also repeatedly called for the release of a US prisoner held in a nearby facility, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, whom he referred to metaphorically as his sister.

    Around 5 p.m., Akram released one hostage. According to the other hostages later, the negotiations deteriorated and Akram grew more agitated. Relying on previous training in handling hostage situations, Rabbi Cytron-Walker maneuvered the group closer and closer to an exit. Around 9:30 he decided the moment had come, he threw a chair at Akram, and the three hostages ran safely out an exit door.

    WFAA video footage shows Akram coming partway out the door a few seconds behind them, then retreating back into the synagogue. Immediately more than a dozen armed agents move in, some entering a side door of the synagogue. There is no call to surrender. The first shot is fired just 16 seconds after Akram appeared at the door. Three more shots follow in the next six seconds and then a flash-bang explosion. Three more shots follow, then one more – all this in less than 30 seconds. Akram is killed with no chance to surrender, even though he is alone and helpless in the synagogue.

    Widespread official political and media celebration follows. President Biden acts like he deserves some of the credit for this police homicide of a man now widely disparaged as having mental issues.

    Who is the prisoner, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui?

    Turns out, after a limited search of the public record, that the underbelly of this hostage situation is way more squalid than the event itself. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, 50, is a Pakistani neuroscientist currently being held in solitary confinement at the government’s only mental health facility for women prisoners, the Federal Medical Center, Carswell Prison, Forth Worth – about 20 miles from Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville. In 2010, in a judicial farce of a trial, she was convicted of using an M-4 rifle to try to escape from US custody. An appeal failed. She is serving an 86 year sentence.

    The US consistently, since 2003, has characterized Aafia Siddiqui as a terrorist, even though she has never been charged with any terrorist act. In Pakistan she is referred to as “the daughter of the nation” and is considered to be a political prisoner. Pakistan continues to seek her release.

    Aafia Siddiqui was born in March 1972 to a privileged professional Sunni Muslim family in Karachi. Her father was a neurosurgeon, her mother a teacher and member of Parliament. Like her older brother and sister, Aafia Siddiqui went to college in the US. She earned a BS in biology summa cum laude from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1994. The next year her mother arranged for her to marry Amjad Khan, an anesthesiologist she had never met, in a ceremony conducted over the phone. They lived in Boston while she went to graduate school. In 1996 she had a son, Ahmed, and in 1998, a daughter, Maryam. In 2001 she earned her MA and PhD in neuroscience, with honors, from Brandeis University, writing her dissertation. Throughout this decade, Aafia Siddiqui was active in Islamist culture and politics, including the struggles in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Bosnia. Religiously she grew more conservative, wearing a niqab, a black veil that covered everything but her eyes. She founded two non-profits, the Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching and the Dawa Resource Center, that provided faith-based services to prison inmates. These activities put strain on her marriage, as did her husband’s violence that included one occasion when he threw a baby bottle at her, resulting in an emergency room visit to stitch up her lip (years later he semi-denied this).

    The September 11, 2001, attacks changed everything for Muslims in America. Aafia Siddiqui returned to Karachi, leaving her husband in the US while they negotiated their future. She and the children returned to the US in January 2002 and started home-schooling her children. In May, the FBI questioned her and her and her husband about their spending $10,000 on night vision equipment, body armour, and other items. On June 26, the family returned to Karachi. In August, Amjad Khan announced his intent to divorce his wife, claiming she was abusive and possibly involved in extremist activities. In September, Aafia Siddiqui gave birth to her third child, her daughter Suleman. On Christmas Day 2002, Aafia Siddiqui began a ten-day job-seeking visit to the US, during which she assisted in opening a post office box for Majid Khan (unrelated), who the FBI said was an al-Qaida operative. She said it was a favor for a family friend (Kahn was arrested in March 2003 and sent to Guantanamo). In February 2003, Aafia Siddiqui may or may not (it’s hotly disputed) have married Ammar al-Baluchi, the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, then being tortured in US custody in Guantanamo by the same agencies claiming the marriage took place. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reportedly gave up Aafia Siddiqui’s name under torture.

    In late March 2003, the FBI put out a worldwide alert for Aafia Siddiqui and her ex-husband (not the new husband the FBI said she had). On March 30, Aafia Siddiqui left her family’s home in Karachi with her three children, not to be seen again for more than five years (In 2004 the FBI listed her as one of seven Most Wanted Terrorists). The Aafia Foundation, a US non-profit dedicated to human rights, describes Aafia Siddiqui’s disappearance:

    In March 2003, Dr. Siddiqui and her three young children (ages 6, 4, and six months) got into a taxi in Karachi, Pakistan, bound for the airport to visit a maternal uncle in Islamabad. They never made it. The taxi was stopped, all four were forcibly removed, and then they disappeared for the next five years. The day after the kidnapping, Aafia’s family received an ominous visit from a mysterious biker who bore a threatening message. When Aafia’s mother answered the door he warned, If you ever want to see your daughter and grandchildren again, be quiet!

    Immediately the Pakistan interior ministry, local newspapers, NBC News, and the Boston Globe carried reports of an unnamed Pakistani woman taken into custody on terrorism charges. The Pakistani Urdu press reported that the family had been picked up by Pakistani authorities and taken into custody (in August 2008, the Daily Times of Pakistan reported on documents confirming that Pakistani Military Intelligence had taken the family into custody and turned them over to US authorities). Subsequent official denials notwithstanding, it’s most likely true that Aafia Siddiqui was separated from her children and held under US control in Bagram Airbase, where she was tortured. That is her testimony and other Bagram detainees report having seen her there. There is no more credible scenario.

    On July 7, 2008, the British non-profit human rights NGO Cageprisoners held a press conference in Pakistan demanding to know what had happened to Aafia Siddiqui and her children. This created mass coverage internationally and brought pressure on Pakistani officials.

    On July 17, 2008, Aafia and her son Ahmed inexplicably turned up in Ghazni, Afghanistan. They were haggard and unknown, carrying a bag, hanging out on the street near the governor’s palace. On July 17, Ghazni police took them into custody, fearful of a suicide attack. Ghazni police said the bag wasn’t a bomb but had some plans of the governor’s palace. Ghazni police met with a contingent of American officials who wanted custody of this woman, even though she wasn’t identified till several days later. In the meeting, according to the official story, Aafia Siddiqui was hidden behind a curtain in a second-floor meeting room where the officials met to discuss turning her over. She had no restraint or guard. An American soldier left his M-4 on the floor, safety on. She supposedly picked it up, fired two shots, hit no one, and got shot in the stomach. This was the story repeated at trial, with numerous discrepancies and contradictions. On July 19 the Associated Press reported on a conflict between US and Afghan forces over the jurisdiction of an unnamed female detainee who had been shot during the argument over jurisdiction.

    In US custody, Aafia Siddiqui was taken to Bagram hospital and treated, tied to her bed with soft restraints and accompanied 24/7 by FBI agents. On July 31, she was charged in a sealed indictment on seven counts associated with her alleged shooting at Americans at the Ghazni police station. On August 4 she was extrajudicially rendered to the US on an FBI jet. Her children remained behind, unaccounted for.

    Surprising no one, on February 3, 2010, a Manhattan jury found Aafia Siddiqui guilty on all seven counts stemming from the single Ghazni incident. The two-week trial had been a judicial farce from before the start, when Judge Richard Berman found the defendant competent to stand trial even though she showed clear signs of mental issues. As he usually did, he ruled in favor of the prosecution despite the contradictory findings of several psychiatrists and records showing that Aafia Siddiqui “had also spoken of visions of flying infants, a dog in her cell, and her children visiting her.” He did not address the obvious reality, that anyone who had endured what Aafia Siddiqui had endured during the previous decade could hardly be expected to participate effectively in her own defense. As it turned out, she did not. Her court-appointed attorney was experienced in matrimonial law and didn’t get along with the three high-priced attorneys hired by Pakistan. Their client worked well with none of them.

    Then there was the prosecution’s case, which lacked any forensic evidence that the M-4 had been fired by anyone and relied entirely on the contradictory testimony of eye witnesses. That was unlikely to matter to a jury in high freakout over terrorism, fed by media bias calling Aafia Siddiqui “Lady al-Qaida.” Even when a report of a threat led the judge to allow two jurors to be excused out of fear for their lives, he refused to cause a mistrial. Aafia Siddiqui’s behavior, leading to multiple expulsions from the courtroom, only added to the circus atmosphere most likely to produce the desired government result.

    At the sentencing hearing on September 23, 2010, after two postponements, Judge Berman sentenced the 38 year-old woman to 86 years in prison. The sentence included significant enhancement for terrorism, even though she wasn’t charged with terrorism. On appeal, everything the judge did was upheld. The US justice system had silenced a difficult suspect as required. She is now held all but incommunicado. Even when she is attacked and almost blinded by another prisoner, authorities don’t even notify her attorney. Whether this attack, on August 19, 2021, played any part in Malik Faisal Akram’s unhinged hostage taking in Colleyville hardly matters when the Muslim world at large continues to see the imprisonment of Aafia Siddiqui as a gross miscarriage of justice.

    In a very real sense, the Colleyville attack is just one more instance of blowback against the thuggish madness of the US response to 9/11. The killing and maiming of perceived US enemies, regardless of guilt or innocence, continues now in its fourth malign American presidency. Of course the SWAT team went ahead and executed Malik Faisal Akram even after he was no longer a threat to anyone. He needed to be silenced.

    President Biden, with his usual fatuous obtuseness, called this killing “the courageous work of state, local, and federal law enforcement.” The President glibly characterized the hostage taking as anti-semitic, even as he acknowledged he had no idea as to the motivation of the hostage taker. The President called the hostage taking “an act of terror,” demonstrating how little one has to do to be labelled a terrorist these days. But it was an act of terror it its way, as was the killing of the hostage taker, and a long line of acts of terror going back two decades.

    So what’s the President supposed to do if not prolong the murderous policies of his three predecessors? He might close Guantanamo. He might recognize legitimate grievances, and try to mitigate them. He might stop using terror to fight terror. He might actually make a positive difference by simply pardoning Aafia Siddiqui and letting her return to Pakistan to live out her shattered life with her two surviving children. That’s likely to do less harm than not doing it.

    The post Colleyville Hostages: Blowback for US Torture, War Crimes first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • OPGF “Overseas Convention” in Islamabad for the first time.

    Islamabad,

    Overseas Pakistani Global Foundation organizes overseas convention in Islamabad. Federal Information Minister Shibli Faraz, Shehriyar Khan Afridi, Furrukh Habib including a large number of Overseas Pakistani attends the event.It was the first convention of its kind with a detailed discussion on the overseas Pakistani’s registration and investment of companies, their property, passport and visa issues. On the occasion, the Federal Ministers said that there is no example in the past to facilitate overseas Pakistanis by our government.The convention was also attended by Federal Department officials, NADRA, Passports and SBP. The problems of overseas Pakistanis could be heard in detail and they could also be informed about the government initiatives and facilities.Chairman, Overseas Pakistani Global Foundation, Zaheer Mehr, and Pakistanis from abroad said that they have already played their role in the development of the country and will do more in future.

    PTI leaders said that this conference is the first step towards a new journey of improvement.  Policies for Overseas Pakistanis will be seen practically implemented in future.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Aafia Siddiqui, Political Prisoner

    The media coverage of the hostage-taking at a synagogue in Texas has been predictably hysterical, Islamophobic and inaccurate about Aafia Siddiqui, the apparent political cause of the hostage-taker Malik Faisad Akram.  According to his family in England he has “mental health issues.”  He was “said to have” weapons and explosives.  He was “said to have” threatened the four hostages but everyone seems to agree no one was harmed. He wanted Siddiqui free from the near-by maximum security Carswell Prison; he wanted to speak to her.   Under heavy criticism the FBI has said that his hostage-taking had nothing to do with their being Jews, “not his issue.”  But to the press, Siddiqui “has a history of anti-semitism,” hence the universal media criticism. To the police, FBI, government, killing Akram represented a successful outcome to the crisis.  Siddiqui’s lawyer and family distanced themselves from Akram’s actions, but to say they remain completely frustrated by their thwarted attempts to free a very ill, frail, and innocent Aafia Siddiqui, after repeated pleas to the US government and unfulfilled promises by the Pakistani government, would be to vastly understate the case.

    Pakistani-born Boston graduate student Aafia Siddiqui’s crime was to be caught in America’s post 9/11 anti-Muslim hysteria.  She had come to America in 1990 to study, earning a biology degree and then a Ph.D in neuroscience from MIT.  Her colleagues called her quiet and religious (but not a fundamentalist).  Her marriage to Mohammed Amjad Khan ended in divorce when he proved to be violent and more fundamentalist than Siddiqui.  She was mistakenly accused of anti-American Muslim activism initially (partially because of mistaken identity), but the accusations ballooned. In the early War On Terror days, “associations” became much more significant and damning.  Siddiqui ended up on Attorney General John Ashcroft’s “Watchlist.” As the Big Lies of government grew, soon the New York Post was calling her “Lady Al Queda.”

    Once the government labeled her a “terrorist,” she had no chance of escaping the Empire’s punishment. When her true story began to emerge, it was necessary to take action.  While visiting in Pakistan, helped by Pakistani American operatives, she was “disappeared.”  Her youngest child was killed when she was taken, and her other two children imprisoned separately for years. She was beaten, raped, tortured and kept in solitary in black site prisons of the American Empire, particularly in Afghanistan. Other prisoners have testified that they saw her at Bagram, a prison from which the Obama administration prevented prisoners’ court appearances because they might talk about the conditions of their imprisonment. Eventually Aafia Siddiqui would be set up for final punishment and disposal.

    From my book Women Politicals in America:

    At the trial—in January 2010—the soldiers said that Aafia Siddiqui, accused would-be assassin and presumed Al Qaeda terrorist, did, in fact, get hold of an unsecured M-4 automatic rifle and open fire on US soldiers and FBI agents in Ghazni, Afghanistan.  The day before, she had been picked up by local policemen as a “possible suicide bomber” because she had been “loitering” in a public square with a young boy [whose identity is not clear].  She carried instructions to create biological weapons, descriptions of US “military assets,” numerous jars containing “chemical substances,” and documents containing words like “Empire State Building” and “Brooklyn Bridge.”  The soldiers said that the day after her discovery and arrest, an American army captain, a warrant officer, two army interpreters and two FBI agents came to question Siddiqui at Ghazni police headquarters.  The soldiers said that none of those men were “aware that Siddiqui was being held, unsecured, behind [a] curtain.”  Oddly, no one looked behind it.  And also oddly, the American warrant officer placed his M-4 rifle next to the curtain.  What happened next, said the soldiers, was that Siddiqui pulled the rifle to her, unlatched the safety, pointed the gun  at the captain, and while one of the interpreters grabbed for the gun, Siddiqui fired the gun twice.  The soldiers agreed she had said, “Get the fuck out of here!”  She hit no one.

    The soldiers said the interpreter knocked her to the ground and the warrant officer fired “approximately two rounds” into Siddiqui’s stomach.  She collapsed, unconscious.  FBI special Agent Eric Negron testified at her trial that he saw the rifle raised (although he could not see her face behind the curtain).  Negron said that after she was shot he helped restrain the struggling Siddiqui.  “I had to strike her several times with a closed fist across the face.”  Finally she “either fainted or faked that she had fainted” and was handcuffed.  The soldiers had successfully restrained the suspected terrorist Siddiqui.  Although her prints were not on the rifle, the holes in the police station wall put there by the rifle Siddiqui allegedly fired were proved to have been there before the July 2008 incident, and since, if she had tried to kill the soldiers, she missed and was herself grievously shot in the abdomen, her sentence seemed disproportionate.  Aafia Siddiqui was given 86 years in prison.  She had been labeled a terrorist enemy of the Empire and its soldiers, and her case was disposed of accordingly.

    Siddiqui had been extradited for the offense of attempting to kill soldiers, but she was tried, completely illegally, as a notorious female terrorist. She was not allowed to speak of her torture or the killing of her baby.  The trial—then as now—of a “terrorist, as with Julian Assange, allows for only the government/prosecutorial side.  The defendant cannot win.  Siddiqui was also in very bad shape, physically and mentally during her trial, with a badly dressed stomach wound that the judge had to intervene to have treated.  She was forced to undergo strip searches every day and was forced to testify.  When she mentioned being in a secret prison, with her children tortured in front of her, the testimony was stricken from the record.  She also, and this is arguably something the hostage-taker Malik Faisad Akram was aware of, did not want “Zionists” chosen as jurors and said her guilty verdict came from Israel, not America.  Some said she was irrational which was entirely possible, but with the anti-Muslim elements of her trial, perhaps not so irrational.

    She has been in prison since 2010 and has, according to her family, suffered unjust punishments within the prison, and her medical problems are not treated.  For much of the last 11 years, she has also not been able to communicate with her family.  According to the Free Aafia website, maintained by her family and friends, she was attacked last July and suffered serious injuries.  After a number of years, she and her family are still waiting for Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to follow through on promises to help free her from the Empire’s prison.  For the press to continue to call her a hardened terrorist and to overlook the treatment, the torture she has endured at American hands, echoes the ignorant liberal sentiment that Afghanistan is so much worse off without the American government there to torture and kill.  I would like to end this with a 2012 statement from Moazzam Begg, prisoner at US Air Force Base,  Bagram, Afghanistan:

    Of all the abuses [prisoner Abu Yahya al-Libi] describes in his account, the presence of a woman and her humiliation and degradation were the most inflammatory to all the prisoners [at Bagram]—they would never forget it.  He describes how she was regularly stripped naked and manhandled by guards, and how she used to scream incessantly in isolation for two years.  He said prisoners protested her treatment, going on hunger strike, feeling ashamed they could do nothing to help.  He described her in detail:  a Pakistani mother—torn away from her children—in her mid-thirties, who had begun to lose her mind.  Her number, he said, was 650.

    The post Aafia Siddiqui, Political Prisoner first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Veteran Pakistani Actor Rasheed Naz dies at 73

    Web Desk:

    Legendary film and Television actor Rasheed Naz passes away at the age of 73 on Monday after a prolonged illness.

    Rasheed’s son Hassan Noman has confirmed the demise, saying his father died at a hospital in Islamabad where he had been receiving treatment. He revealed that the renowned actor had been suffering from various health issues for a long time.

    Madiha Rizvi, the daughter-in-law of Rasheed Naz, also took to Instagram and confirmed the actor’s death.

    Sharing a throwback photo of the father-in-law, Rizvi said, “Our dearest Baba Rashid Naz Has left this world peacefully this morning. Please recite Surah Fateha for the departed soul.”

    Renowned Pakistani actor Rasheed Naz was born in 1948 in Peshawar; Naz started his career in 1971 from Pashto dramas. His acting career spanned decades and across mediums and languages including serials and films in Pashto, Hindku, and Urdu languages.

    He shot to fame in 1973 through his stunning performance in the drama serial Aik Tha Gaoun. Besides playing prominent roles in Pashto, Hindko, and Urdu television dramas, he worked for Khuda Zameen Se Gaya Nahin, Inkaar, Ghulam Gardish, Doosra Asmaan, and many more.

    Photo Courtesy: Internet

    There has been an outpouring of grief online over the actor’s demise. Celebrity and his fans have expressed grief over the demise of Rasheed Naz.

    Hum TV’s official Instagram account expressed “deepest condolences” on the death of the legendary actor.

    Sindhi actress Aqsa Kinjhar Leela Jamali said his death was “a great loss to Pakistani drama industry”.

    Actors Marwa Hocaine, Hira Mani, and Omar Rana were effusive in their tribute to the senior late actor.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Murree reopened with time restriction.

    Murree,

    Murree hill station re-opened for the tourists on Sunday but conditionally. Snow lovers will now allowed to visit Murree again in this winter season.

    According to the News broadcasters, the Murree administration has restricted tourist vehicles’ to enter in the city between 5 pm and 5 am. Only 8,000 tourist vehicles will be allowed to enter Murree. All the business centers in Murree have been opened.

    Till Sunday morning around 900 tourist vehicles entered the hill city from toll plazas. Series of meetings among different Government Administrative departments, Rescue and Law-enforcement has also started in the Jinnah Hall Murree regarding the protection of tourists and for upcoming snowfall.+

    Read also

    Murree declared calamity as 21 tourists frozen to death

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • A Short History of the US-Pakistan Relationship

    On January 10, 2022, National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yusuf said, “It [Pakistan] is still not [free from US influence] and I doubt that there is any country which is free from it.” He added that the country does not have any financial independence, being dependent on loans from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other foreign organizations. “When we cannot [fulfill] the demands, we seek foreign loans. When you procure loans, your economic sovereignty is compromised.” These comments are not entirely stunning; they encapsulate the ambivalent essence of the US-Pakistan relationship. While the Pakistani elite greatly enjoys its self-imposed subservience to the American empire, it never just sits back and rest on its laurels. It continuously tries to exploit what little room for maneuver it has within the bond of servility to further more selfish, regional interests – ones which either demand too much from the patron or don’t neatly align with the US’ hegemonic ambitions.

    Anticommunism

    Unlike the many postcolonial nations of the time which exuded a great degree of interest in the development of an independent project, Pakistan was totally craven; its creators displayed a surprising lack of enthusiasm in the paraphernalia of sovereignty. They were only interested in somehow securing money, regardless of the consequences which the people would have to face later. Every option was on the table. In The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power, Tariq Ali notes that “the new rulers of Pakistan developed an early communal awareness that to survive they had to rent their country.” Washington was approached as a possible buyer but it rejected the offer to buy Pakistan “as it was busy securing Western Europe and Japan, as well as keeping an eye on China, where the Eighth Route Army was beginning to threaten a Communist victory.” However, this did not stop Pakistan from trying to sell itself.

    Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, continued to consistently market his country as an important ally against Soviet expansionism. Ali remarks that he hysterically “insisted that Soviet agents were present in Kalat and Gilgit in search of a base in Baluchistan.” These same sentiments were shared in a more sophisticated manner by then foreign minister Zafarullah Khan. “[H]e pleaded with the United States to shore up Pakistan, whose people were genetically anticommunist, since this was the best way to protect India against the Soviet Union, which would send its armies through the Khyber Pass.” Pakistan’s persistence in peddling threats about USSR paid off in May 1954 when it signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement, through which the US provided resources and training to the Pakistani army, with the general aim of turning the new nation into a pliant Third World state. In September 1954, Pakistan was officially anointed as a crusader against the godless Communists, joining the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization together with Thailand and the Philippines.

    Exactly one year later, in September 1955, Pakistan joined another pro-Western organization known as the Baghdad Pact, which included King Faisal’s Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Britain. As Pakistan chummed up with its anti-Soviet friends, the inflows of money into the ruling class’ pockets increased. From 1953 to 1961, Pakistan received around $2 billion in assistance from the US. These wads of cash, however, did not signify a thoroughgoing bilateral camaraderie, one in which the imperialist benefactor would come to the help of its junior partner at all cost. Apart from acting as another chess piece in the anticommunist game, Pakistan served no other significant function for USA. Therefore, the latter felt no need for fulfilling all the demands of the former. In fact, what happened during the initial years of 1960s was the opposite. In United States and Pakistan in the 21st Century: Geostrategy and Geopolitics in South Asia, Syed Tahseen Raza writes:

    The Sino-Indian Border struggle in 1962 paved the way for closer US-India ties because neutral India, desperate to have weapons in the immediate aftermath of Chinese aggression, made a frantic plea for US help. The US was pleased because this was an opportunity to wean India off the influence of the Soviet Union by offering help in a time of crisis. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s inching closer with China was not liked by the United States. When American finally decided to give arms aid to India in November 1962, Pakistan was not consulted before as was promised to them and this deeply offended the leaders of Pakistan. The [John F.] Kennedy administration, on the whole, tried to balance the American relationship with South Asia on equal footing and therefore did not view Pakistan as more important than India.

    Feeling threatened by USA’s growing closeness with India, Pakistan extracted from the former, on November 5, 1962, a pledge “that it will come to Pakistan’s assistance in the event of aggression from India.” This pledge, nonetheless, did not help Pakistan during the Second Kashmir War (1965) when it undertook dangerous military adventures (Operation Gibraltar and Operation Grand Slam) against India. When the war started, the US cut aid to both Pakistan and India. A similar situation developed six years later. When New Delhi decisively intervened in East Pakistan’s civil war in late 1971, Washington was unwilling to directly support the Pakistani army’s Operation Searchlight against Bengali insurgents (though it did send part of its Seventh Fleet in the Bay of Bengal). The country’s eastern wing seceded to form the state of Bangladesh, dismembering Pakistan in a humiliating way. Spurred by this defeat, Pakistan’s governing caste realized that the continued existence of the nation was dependent on nuclear parity with India.

    The development of nuclear weapons was smoothed by conjunctural reasons. In neighboring Afghanistan, the communists, who had backed the 1973 military coup by Prince Daoud after which a republic was proclaimed, withdrew their support from him. In April 1978, the Shah of Iran convinced Daoud to turn against the communist factions in his army and administration. In response to increasingly harsh state repression, left-wing officers in the military stormed the Presidential Palace in Kabul. The government was turned over to Noor Mohammed Taraki, a communist professor who became the President of the Revolutionary Council of Afghanistan. These developments – which were extensively supported by the USSR – came to be known as the Saur (April) Revolution. The US was terrified. It crafted a subversive plan that made General Zia’s dictatorship in Pakistan a principal node for sending jihadists to Afghanistan. Singularly focused on destabilizing Afghanistan’s communist regime, and, by extension, Soviet Union, USA cared less about Pakistan developing its nuclear programme in the 1980s.

    War on Terror

    America’s benign attitude toward Pakistan changed with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ultimate end of the Cold war. “[S]ans the American aim of defeating communism as their top priority,” comments Raza, “Pakistan was not given any extra consideration.” The “US Intelligence Report,” which had been indicting Pakistan for its nuclear quest, came to be invoked more frequently. When India conducted its Nuclear Test in March 1998, the Bill Clinton administration tried to prevent Pakistan from following suit, offering the resumption of the sale of F-16 aircraft (which had been frozen by George H.W. Bush when he did not certify Pakistan’s non-possession of nuclear devices) and economic and military aid. But Pakistan demanded more. Raza remarks: “Pakistan wanted tough punitive action against India. When the G-8 meeting on 17-18 May 1998 didn’t take very harsh measures against India in accordance with Pakistan’s expectations, bowing to public pressure, Pakistan decided to go for the Nuclear Test, which it ultimately carried out on 28 May, 1998.”

    In response to Pakistan’s nuclear test, the US imposed sanctions, which included restriction of the provision of credits, military sales, economic assistance, and loans. These were, nevertheless, limited in scope and were not sustained. US-Pakistan relations exited this period of downturn in an explosive manner after 2001, thanks to the murky dynamics cultivated by imperialism in Afghanistan. After the USSR left in 1988, Pakistan maintained a strong footprint in Afghanistan to gain “strategic depth” against India, continuing to nurture the Islamist extremism that was earlier used to mobilize jihadist fighters from all over the world against USSR. These actions had severe repercussions. When hardhats of jihadism attacked New York in 2001 to express their disgruntlement with America’s bases in Saudi Arabia, the destruction of Iraq and support for Israel, Pakistan was caught in a dilemma. Networks of battle-hardened fighters that it had built along with the USA were now on the attack radar of its imperialist sponsor.

    With limited options, Pakistan decided to join the US War on Terror, declaring support for the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul. “By providing the USA with help in the invasion of Afghanistan,” Justin Podur clarifies, “Pakistan was able to save its clients and its own personnel from destruction, as much of the Taliban and al-Qaeda crossed the border to Pakistan or went to ground and Afghanistan was taken over by US-friendly warlords.” This tactical move had its own disruptive consequences for Pakistan’s social osmosis. General Pervez Musharraf came to be accused of treason for supporting the USA against fellow Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This political effect complicated military operations. As the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) made the Pakistan army take action against insurgents operating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, casualties increased, eroding the state’s legitimacy in the region. When Pakistan cooperated with the insurgents on the sly, it faced US threats.

    Conflicts

    The convoluted workings of the War on Terror have had a destructive impact on Pakistan’s economy. It has lost $150 billion – 41% or two-fifths of the country’s total economy size, more than the $13 billion that it received from the US between 1999 and 2013. Since the US invasion of Afghanistan, more than 80,000 Pakistani civilians, security forces personnel and women and children have been killed in gun, bomb and suicide attacks. On average, every year Pakistan suffered losses of $7.7 billion – more than the country’s total expenditures on education, health and other social safety schemes. With the growing advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan, current Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in September 2021, saying: “Since 2001, I have repeatedly warned that the Afghan war was unwinnable. Given their history, Afghans would never accept a protracted foreign military presence, and no outsider, including Pakistan, could change this reality. Unfortunately, successive Pakistani governments after 9/11 sought to please the United States instead of pointing out the error of a military-dominated approach.”

    Scarred by the War on Terror, Pakistan has been frustrated to see USA establish an alliance with India as part of an anti-China containment strategy. The US and Indian elites have found a common interest in countering China; India is embroiled in disputes on its land borders with China and the US and its allies are contesting China’s claim to maritime territories across shipping routes in the Indo-Pacific region. It is against this background that Pakistan has returned to China’s “all-weather friendship,” initiated in the 1960s by General Ayub Khan who felt betrayed by Washington’s overtures to India in the aftermath of the Sino-Indian border conflict. China has become Pakistan’s closest strategic ally, supplying it with modern defense equipment. Pakistan supports China’s stance on Xinjiang, Tibet and Taiwan, and China backs Pakistan on its Kashmir issue with India. Over the past five years, this cooperation has been further cemented by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its local cognate China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), entailing over $60 billion worth of Chinese investments in infrastructure consisting mostly of loans.

    Despite the economic heft of China, Pakistan still needs Washington’s support, both to get disbursements of its $6 billion bailout package from the IMF and to be removed from the terror-financing and money-laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list,” a designation that encumbers Islamabad’s global financial operations. War on Terror cooperation had converted Pakistan into a major non-NATO ally of the US in 2004, granting it various military and financial privileges. The designation had also eased Pakistan’s access to IMF facilities. With the deterioration of Pakistan’s relationship with USA, accessing funds has become difficult. In October-November 2021, IMF withheld the release of a $1 billion tranche under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to Pakistan until the government agreed to close commercial bank accounts held by the armed forces and other state entities and remitted $17 billion worth of public funds into a single treasury account. It is believed that USA, the single largest financial contributor to the IMF, had a hand in the reform demands.

    In a June 2021 interview on HBO’s documentary news series Axios, Khan had said, “Pakistan will “absolutely not” allow the CIA to use bases on its soil for cross-border counterterrorism missions after American forces withdraw from Afghanistan.” To change this policy decision, USA started using IMF monetary policy as a bargaining chip to force cash-strapped Islamabad to agree to Joe Biden administration’s counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan. These events highlight the conflictual nature of the contemporary US-Pakistan relationship. And it seems that both the parties have failed to arrive at a proper resolution till now. Yusuf’s criticism is significant in this regard as he was the one chosen for mending ties with the US. He has spent a decade or more in the think tank and security policy circle in the US capital as associate vice president for Asia at the Institute of Peace, a US government-backed institution. The Pakistani government had recently elevated him from the position of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister to NSA to signal seriousness in creating a new rapport with the US. It seems that Pakistan will have to wait longer for such a reset in relationships.

    The post A Short History of the US-Pakistan Relationship first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Whither the Weasel?

    The real threat from ground based surface-to-air missiles means that there is still a need to keep the Vietnam ‘Wild Weasel’ capability current. The US Navy’s (USN) announcement that the Northrop Grumman AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER) had received Milestone C programme approval on 23 August 2021 focused attention on the […]

    The post Whither the Weasel? appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Murree declared calamity as 21 tourists frozen to death

    Web Desk:

    Murree was declared calamity hit on Saturday after at least 21 people froze to death in their vehicles stranded in snow amid a glut of tourist influx.

    Punjab government has imposed an emergency in the region, declaring it a calamity-hit area, amid fears the death toll may increase.

    Photo Courtesy: Twitter

    Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has ordered the government guest houses in the area to give refuge to the stranded tourists. Around 1,000 cars were stuck on the hill station while the Punjab chief minister issued instructions for expediting rescue work and providing aid to the stranded tourists. Moreover, entry of cars into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Gailyat was banned.

    Photo Courtesy: Twitter

    The federal government has deployed the personnel of the Pakistan Army and other civil-armed forces for rescue operations after tourists died in their vehicles in Murree due to heavy snowfall in the hill station. All the routes in Murree were blocked after thousands of vehicles entered the city, leaving the tourists helpless on the roads.

    Photo Courtesy: Twitter

    Emergency has been declared in all the important departments including police, administration, Rescue 1122, and hospitals, Radio Pakistan reported. According to a list issued by Rescue 1122, 21 people died, including nine children.

    Talking to Geo TV, SHO Murree Police Station Raja Rasheed said: “There have been over 4 to 4.5 feet of snowfall in Murree. There has never been this much snowfall in this area.” He said that most of the people who died in Murree did not die due to the cold, they died as they left their heaters on in the car and went to sleep. “The fumes from the heater killed them.”

    In a video message, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Saturday said Murree had “seen a huge number of tourists after 15-20 years”, and due to that, a crisis took place.

    The Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said at least all vehicles have been rescued in Guliyat, whereas the vehicles in the Guldana region are still stranded that would be rescued soon. All types of traffic entering Murree from Rawalpindi and Islamabad has been banned till the end of the rescue operations, he added.

    Photo Courtesy: Twitter

    The minister said heavy machinery has been called in to clear the roads and the help of the civil armed forces and the military has been sought to rescue the stranded tourists. The authorities have decided to use helicopters for rescue operations as well after the weather clears, he added.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Webinar on Kashmiris’ Right to Self-Determination Day

    New York,

    Pakistan Mission to United Nations (New York) organized a webinar on the occasion of 73 years of adopting resolution Right to Self-Determination to Kashmiris, granted by the UN Security Council resolutions on dated 5 January 1949.

    Permanent Representative of Pakistan to UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, moderated the webinar. Secretary General Kashmir Awareness Forum, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, a renowned historian Ms. Victoria Schofield, Director of the Justice Foundation, Mr. Muzzamil Ayuub Thakur, Kashmir Institute of International Affairs, Professor Halil Toker, Mr. Lars Rise, Norwegian Politician and Professor Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi among others panellists

    Ambassador Akram highlights that last seven decades, India has denied the UN Security Council resolutions, including UNCIP resolution of 05 January 1949. India has also obstructed all attempts at holding a UN supervised plebiscite in violation of UNSC resolutions 47 (April 1948), 80 (March 1950), 91 (March 1951), 98 (December 1952), 122 (January 1957), 123 (February 1957), 126 (December 1957).

    According to UN resolutions Kashmiris have right to self-determination. The final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be accordance with the will of the people expressed through a free and fair poll conducted under United Nations, Ambassador regretted.

    Ambassador Akram recalls the statement of PM. Imran Khan to UN General Assembly to the panellists that resumption of dialogue with India based on three conditions, a) reverse the unilateral and illegal instituted in IIOJK since 5 August 2019; b) stop oppression and human rights violations against the people of Jammu and Kashmir; and c) halt and reverse the demographic changes in the occupied territory.

    While, briefing the participants, Ambassador Akram also said that India commits atrocities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. During the last two years, India imprisoned the entire Kashmiri political leadership; illegally detained 13,000 Kashmiri youth; tortured many of them; extra-judicially killed hundreds of young Kashmiri boys; used rape as a weapon of war; put down peaceful protests violently, blinding with pellet guns; collective punishments by demolishing and burning entire neighborhoods and villages; and curtailed the freedom of religion and expression.

    Kashmiri and the Pakistani diaspora in the United States and Europe could play a major part in generating such a support. Pakistan’ strategy on Jammu and Kashmir was threefold a) raising the issue at all international forums; b) reviving the legitimacy of the Kashmir cause and c) to deter and prevent Indian aggression against Pakistan, Ambassador Akram added.

    Moreover Ambassador Akram added that India portray Kashmiri struggle as being externally sponsored and was designed to enable the Modi government to de-legitimize Kashmir cause.

    Therefore, one of the key objectives of Pakistan’s foreign policy was to secure support within the capitals of the major countries which were partnered with India both strategically and economically to denounce the massive violations of human rights were taking place in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

    Webinar panellist also spoke and said that illegal and unilateral Indian action of 5th August 2019, turned IIOJK into world’s biggest open-air prison. A huge security clampdown in the occupied territory, communications blackout, and an excruciating curfew and deployment of additional troops.

    Webinar panellist said that extremist “Hindutva’ inspired RSS-BJP Indian government for denying the people of IIOJK their basic human rights through its long and cruel occupation which had brought unimaginable suffering to the Kashmiri people.

    Mr. Raees warsi presented his poetry and Ms. Muzdalfah presented Kashmiri youth’s perspective in her remarks.

    While concluding the webinar, Ambassador Munir Akram called on the international community to act in support of the fundamental freedoms and basic human rights of Kashmiris. He reiterated that Pakistan would continue to extend all possible support to the Kashmiris till the realization of their unalienable right to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Multi Million $ mega crypto currency scam in Pakistan, FIA investigates.

    Karachi,

    Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency’s-FIA Cyber ​​Crime Wing investigating and issues Notice to mega scam linked to Crypto Currency Exchange. Notices were also issued to Binance General Manager in Pakistan on $100 million scam through online application for the first time. More than Rs 18 billion Fraud from Pakistani citizens under the guise of crypto currency was also revealed.

    FIA Cyber ​​Crime Sindh claims that fraudsters transferred money abroad through cryptocurrency. The FIA ​​Cyber ​​Crime received complaints of fraud of billions of rupees through 9 online applications. Billions of rupees were falsified from Pakistanis through online applications and these online applications were linked to the global exchange currency of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dodge Coins among others crypto-currencies were invested in Binance.

    Surprisingly, the news of the multi-million dollar fraud in the cryptocurrency exchange did not affect negative trend but reports of an extraordinary increase in trading. People involved in cryptocurrency trading have invested heavily and started selling different currencies and small investors are buying different digital currencies at their own risk.

    Consumers believe that Pakistani institutions have the right to investigate and if there is a flaw in the system, it should be rectified. Investments in cryptocurrency continued from Pakistan, but for withdrawal, the Pakistani currency also benefited in case of profit.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Kashmiris to observe Right to Self-Determination Day today

    Web Desk:

    It was on January 5, 1949, when the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan adopted a resolution that guaranteed the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination through an independent referendum.

    The day is observed every year by Kashmir to invite the attention of the international community and the United Nations towards the early grant of the right to self-determination to Kashmir through the implementation of the historic resolutions on Kashmir passed this day.

    Photo Courtesy: The News

    Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and the rest of the world observe the right to self-determination day on January 5, with the renewal of the pledge to continue their ongoing indigenous struggle with full vigor.

    Photo Courtesy: AFP

    Pakistan observes the Kashmir Solidarity Day express support for the Kashmiri brethren and remind the international community of its commitments made to the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

    Photo Courtesy: activehi.com

    The day will be marked by various activities including rallies, seminars, and conferences across the world to remind the UN that it must implement its relevant resolutions to settle the Kashmir dispute to save the Kashmiris from Indian brutalities.

    President Dr. Arif Alvi has said in his message that no Indian attempt will succeed in misleading the international community and glossing over India’s state-terrorism being perpetrated with shameless impunity in IIOJK.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan while reminding the world community that it cannot abandon its moral and legal responsibilities towards Kashmiris has stated that durable peace in South Asia is contingent upon peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with international legitimacy.

    He said: “While observing 5th of January as the Right to Self-Determination Day for the Kashmiris, we reiterate our commitment to uphold the fundamental human rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and pay homage to the Kashmiris’ just struggle spanning over more than seven decades. We are commemorating this day to remind the world community that it cannot abandon its moral and legal responsibilities towards the Kashmiri people.”

    He pointed out that the right to self-determination was granted to the Kashmiris by the United Nations and cannot be unilaterally denied by India.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Brides arrival video viral, creates buzz on Internet.

    Web desk, Karachi,

    Strange things appeared in every passing day and make a space in mainstream media. In modern times New Media is the home of mass video storage where millions of videos watched every passing second.

    Traditional media Content also touches individual’s minds and peoples follow those fantasies in their lives and sometimes celebrate their life time special events accordingly.

    A famous historic Turkish drama series Ertughal Ghazi 1100 AD is very popular in South Asian states. Ertughal Ghazi consists of multiple seasons in which story unfolded gradually and peoples watch the seasons very thoroughly. A unique attire of 11th century and struggle of Muslims inspire the viewer and developed a huge following.

    Socio Economic and cultural hub of Pakistan, Karachi having a unique traditional wedding ceremony dramatized where guests were amazed and surprised when a bride arrives to the venue in Ertughal Ghazi style. She jockeys a brown horse in traditional Red bridal dress with a sword and shielded Pawns guard her.

    Amazing arrival of bride’s video clip become viral overnight and social media gurus share widely with friends and family and enjoyed the clip.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Pakistan celebrates the 145th birthday of Quaid-e-Azam

    Web Desk:

    Pakistanis are celebrating the 145th birthday of founder Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, today (Saturday) across the country with traditional zeal and fervor. A change of guard ceremony was held at his mausoleum in Karachi on Saturday morning to mark the day.

    Photo Courtesy: 92news

    A smartly turned-out contingent of Pakistan Military Academy took over the guard duty. PMA commandant Major General Umar Ahmad Bukhari was the chief guest. He offered Fateha and laid a floral wreath at the grave of the Quaid.

    Photo Courtesy: irshadgul.com

    Special programs are planned across the country to shed light on Quaid’s struggle for the creation of Pakistan and to highlight his guiding principles of unity, faith, and discipline.

    The celebrations aimed at educating the youth about the Quaid’s vision and Pakistan’s ideology. Early in the morning, several people from all walks of life visited the tomb to pay tribute to Quaid-e-Azam for the services he rendered for the creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent.

    In his message, Prime Minister Imran Khan emphasized upon the youth to adopt the Quaid’s attributes of honesty, hard work, perseverance, and dedication.

    “We as a nation need to adopt these attributes to realize Quaid’s vision of a developed, progressive and tolerant Pakistan,” the PM said. “Muhammad Ali Jinnah realized the importance of a separate homeland for Muslims of the subcontinent where all citizens could enjoy the freedom of faith, occupation, and equal opportunities.”

     

    Furthermore, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations, Major General Babar Iftikhar, said the Quaid’s vision of a peaceful and progressive Pakistan and his principles of unity, faith, and discipline are imperative for our success as a nation.

    A lawyer and politician, Jinnah served as leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until Pakistan’s independence on 14 August 1947, then as Pakistan’s first Governor-General until his death on September 11, 1948.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Legendary actor Moin Akhtar’s 71st birthday is being observed today.

    Web Desk:

    The birth anniversary of comedy king and legendary TV, Film artist, Moin Akhtar is being observed today (Friday). Internet giant Google celebrated the 71st birthday of the comedy legend with a beautiful doodle featuring him on several TV screens.

    Photo Courtesy: Google Doodle

    The world-renowned actor and comedian was born in Karachi on December 24, 1950. Starting from the theater at the age of 16, Moin Akhtar stepped into the world of television in the sixties and became a household name, continuing on the path to cementing his name as one of Pakistan’s greatest ever artists.

    Photo Courtesy: dawn.com

    Moin Akhter began his acting career as a child actor at the age of 13. He made his television debut on 6th September 1966. Moin Akhter’s sense of humor was highly dynamic and versatile.

    Moin Akhtar’s famous TV dramas include ‘Rozi’, ‘Intezar Farmaiye’, ‘Bund Road’, ‘Aangan Terha’, ‘Studio Dhai’, ‘Studio Ponay Teen’, ‘Yes Sir, No Sir’ and ‘Eid Train’. Throughout his career, Moin acted in many languages including English, Sindhi, Punjabi, Memon, Pashto, Gujarati, and Bengali.

    Photo Courtesy: Internet

    He was also fond of singing. His work with comedian Anwar Maqsood and actress Bushra Ansari on memorable stage dramas and TV programs gained exceptional popularity among the masses.

    In recognition of his artistic services, Moin Akhtar was also awarded the Presidential Pride of Performance in 1996 and the Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2011. Moin Akhtar died of a heart attack on April 22, 2011, in Karachi.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Renowned Haematologist Dr. Tahir Shamsi Passes Away.

    Web Desk:

    According to 24 News, Pakistan’s renowned haematologist and bone marrow transplant pioneer Dr. Tahir Shamsi breathed his last at a private hospital in Karachi on Tuesday morning.

    Dr. Tahir Shamsi had been under treatment after undergoing surgery last week following suffering a brain hemorrhage. Dr. Shamsi was in the intensive care unit of the Aga Khan University Hospital and his condition was reported to be critical.

    Photo Courtesy: IG News

    Dr. Tahir Shamsi is credited with introducing bone-marrow transplant in Pakistan in 1995 and so far, he had performed some 650 bone-marrow transplants and written over 100 research articles in international journals.

    In 2016, the Dow Graduates Association of North America had honored the Pakistani doctor with a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his services.

    During the first wave of coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Tahir Shamsi came up with the idea of treating Covid-19 patients using the plasma of those who recovered from the virus.

    Photo Courtesy: EXPRESS

    In 2011, Dr. Shamsi had established the National Institute for Blood Disease for the treatment of blood-related diseases and he was head of the facility. He was also the director of the Stem Cell Program at NIBD as well. He was a Royal College of Pathologist fellow. Dr. Tahir Shami was also on the government’s medical board which carried out the medical treatment in Lahore of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Six Multan sisters tie a knot with six brothers.

    Web Desk:

    The tradition of mass weddings is not rare in Pakistan, but one such mass marriage ceremony has become the talk of the town for its uniqueness, where six sisters of a family have tied the knot with six brothers of another household in Punjab’s city of Multan.

    Photo Courtesy: Samaa

    According to one of the Pakistan Media House Samaa, both the ménages belong to the same extended family. All the bridegrooms and brides are cousins.

    Photo Courtesy: Samaa

    The six daughters of Mohammed Lateef tied the knot with their six cousins in a grand wedding event on Tuesday. One of the bridegrooms, Shafiq, claims it was a “love marriage.”

    One of the six brides, Anum, expressed her emotions on her big day saying, “We [six sisters] are happy about getting married on the same day”.

    All brides were dressed up in the traditional red and two of them wore the same outfits. The grooms made a Punjabi-style entry to the venue and performed bhangra before entering the hall. The family got emotional when the six sisters departed for their new homes.

    Zahoor Baksh, the father of the grooms, was happy and proud on the occasion. “We have always held grand multiple wedding events and accepted whatever came from the family elders,” he said.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • MBR Awards, International Sports Personality named to Pakistan’s P.M. Imran Khan.

    Qatar, Web Desk,

    Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has been named International Sport Personality Award by the Mohammad Bin Rashid Creative Sports Award on Tuesday..

    The ceremony will take place on Jan 9 at Expo 2020. P.M. I.K. has been discussed his contribution to sports in cricket and in general particular.

    Pakistani Nation and cricket team is waiting for their second World cup title to bring home after Imran captaincy. Being a former sports person Prime Minister could relate himself with the tough challenges. Since came in to the power, Imran is credited to have made far-reaching changes which has completely change the landscape of the country.

    Imran allocated a huge budget of $639 million to improve the sporting facilities across Pakistan and to promote the new comers. He also announced scholarships for new sport beginners and promised to build a cricket ground in all villages across Pakistan.

    Meanwhile, President of Qatar Olympic Committee, Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani, discussed the Arab Sports Personality being administrators that boost up Qatar athletics. Tokyo Olympics best performance with two gold and one bronze named to Qatar athletes.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Migrant caravan and Qatar’s tarnished World Cup: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

    A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Pakistan to Poland

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary celebrations begin

    Web Desk:

    Thousands of Sikh pilgrims from across the globe including India gathered in the Nankana Sahib District of Punjab, to celebrate the 552nd birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, the founder of their religion. The 10-day celebrations began on Wednesday in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Baba Guru Dev Ji.

    Pakistan is home to some of the most important pilgrimage sites for Sikhs. They include the birthplace of Baba Guru Nanak, who was born in 1469, Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara, and Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal.

    To participate in the celebrations, thousands of Sikh yatrees reached Pakistan from India through the Wagah border crossing. The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued 3,000 visas to the pilgrims, whereas New Delhi reopened the visa-free Kartarpur crossing.

    (Photo Courtesy: AFP)

    Spokesman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board Amir Hashim said after arrival in Pakistan, the Sikh pilgrims will be sent to Nankana Sahib, where the main birth anniversary celebration will be held on Friday. He said all arrangements have been finalized and pilgrims will be provided special facilities and foolproof security in Pakistan. He said leaders of minority communities will also participate in these celebrations.

    Photo Courtesy: AFP

    Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Dehli leader Sardar Balvinder Singh told the media on arrival in Pakistan that the Sikh yatrees were contented with the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, and thanked Pakistan for the protection of Gurdwaras in Pakistan.

    Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi extended a warm welcome to the Sikh pilgrims in a statement issued in Islamabad. “Pakistan looks forward to welcoming Sikh pilgrims visiting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib through the Kartarpur Corridor from November 17,” he said.

    Kartarpur crossing was opened in November 2019 but it was shut last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pakistan reopened the corridor for the Sikhs but New Delhi delayed its permission until this week.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • 77th School inauguration ceremony held for Girls modern Education in Sindh.

    Karachi,

    The Sindh Basic Education Program in collaboration with Sindh Education Department and USAID, are to be set up a total of 106 schools in 10 districts of Sindh province of Pakistan at a cost of $159 million. In this regard school building was inaugurated at Sindhi Jamat Muslim Cooperative Society located at Bin Qasim town, Malir district.On the occasion Education Minister Sindh Syed Sardar Ali Shah, United States Consul General Mark Stroh is the chief guest.Education Minister Sindh, Syed Sardar Ali Shah has said that inauguration is a testament to the fact that Sindh Education Department is lighting candles for the promotion of education in the province with full commitment.
    US Consul General Mark Stroh expressed his happiness over the establishment of schools and modern Education especially for girls under USAID with the Government of Sindh.

    The American people pledged to continue to support the people of Pakistan and Sindh for Girls Modern education and health sector in the future as well. Stroh added.

    Under Sindh Basic Education Program, 106 schools will provide modern quality education to more than 80,000 students of under privileged remote areas.

    To run these schools, 10 private educational management organizations will manage 171 public schools under a public-private partnership out of these 81 schools will receive USAID support.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • India likely to reopen Kartarpur corridor tomorrow.

    Web Desk:

    The Indian government on Tuesday said it was re-opening the Kartarpur corridor that connects Sikh shrines in India and Pakistan. Pakistan and India had closed the corridor in March 2020 to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday decided to meet the demands of thousands of Sikh pilgrims in the neighboring country and agreed to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor. A formal notification in this regard is also likely to be issued later, a central leader of the Shiromani Committee of India told the Express Tribune.

    Photo Courtesy: AFP

    Pakistan authorities had already announced their decision to reopen the corridor earlier this month. The country is likely to allow around 8,000 Sikh pilgrims from around the world to participate in the birthday celebration. However, the Sikh community in India was awaiting New Delhi’s decision. Two days ago, the head of the Shiromani Committee, Bibi Jagir Kaur, had also written a letter to PM Modi in this regard.

    Following Pakistan’s and the community’s demand to reopen the corridor, India will open registrations for the pilgrims tomorrow (Nov 17) and the first set of around 250 Sikh pilgrims are said to arrive through the passage on November 19. Meanwhile, around 3,000 Sikh pilgrims from India are set to arrive in Pakistan via the Wagah border on November 17.

    Photo Courtesy: India Today

    The authorities took the decision to reopen the peace corridor amid the 552nd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, Sikhism’s central figure that falls on November 19 this year. Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the Kartarpur Sahib corridor will be reopened on Wednesday as decided by the Narendra Modi government. The visa-free 4.7-km corridor connects the Indian border to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.

    Shah said the decision would benefit a large number of Sikh pilgrims and reflected the reverence of the Modi government towards Guru Nanak and the community.

    “In a major decision, that will benefit large numbers of Sikh pilgrims, PM @Narendramodi govt has decided to re-open the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from tomorrow, Nov 17,” Shah wrote. “This decision reflects the immense reverence of Modi govt towards Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and our Sikh community,” he added.

     

    Shah said the government’s decision to reopen the corridor will further boost the joy and happiness across the country. “The nation is all set to celebrate the Prakash Utsav of Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji on 19th of November and I am sure that PM @NarendraModi govt’s decision to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib corridor will further boost the joy and happiness across the country.”

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Sohail Asghar passed away in Lahore, funeral will take place on Sunday.

    Lahore,

    Renown actor of Pakistan Television-PTV, Sohail Asghar passed away in Lahore today at 11:30 AM . Asghar had been suffering health issues, having gastric surgery recently. The actor had been admitted to a Lahore hospital for a week now. According to his family, his funeral will take place on Sunday in the Bahria Town, Lahore.

    Sohail was born and grown-up in the same city, and started off his career in the showbiz industry as an RJ for Radio Pakistan. He worked for a decade from 1978 to 1988, following which he started acting in theatre productions. He was known for his roles in TV serials such asLaag, Piyas, Chand Girhan, Khuda ki Basti and Kajal Ghar. Asghar made his film debut in 2003 with Murad.

    Actor Mohib Mirza tweet to remember the late actor, writing,

    Faysal Quraishi also tweeted

    The actor wrote on social media and requested fans and followers in May, 2020 for prayers. He was also shared a picture of himself from the hospital, during stomach surgery.

    “Fans, friends and family, Allah Almighty is with me always. I strongly believe in miracles. I believe in the power of love and prayers”.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Kangroos Chase Shaheens by 5 wkts in ICC-T20I Semifinal.

    Web desk,

    Australia won the toss in ICC T20I second semi-final and decides to bowl first on Thursday at the Dubai Cricket Stadium. There are few records was set during this semi final.

    Half-centuries from Muhammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman helped Shaheens total of 176 for the lost of 4 wickets.

    While, skipper Babar Azam and opening partner Mohammad Rizwan together have scored more runs in their partnership this T20 World Cup than any other batting pair at any T20 World Cup.

    According to Wisden, “The duo have amassed 402 runs together.”

    Wicket keeper Rizwan became the only batsman who scored 1,000 T20I runs in 20 innings of a calendar year.

    Moreover, Babar broke yet another record of India’s Virat Kohli during the semi-final clash. He became fastest 2,500 T20I runs achieved in 62 innings. Previously, the record was held by Kohli, scored 2,500 T20I runs in 68 innings.

    It is to be noted that Pakistan have never defeat Australia in an ICC event’s knock out stage. Shaheens also go against history as 10 out of 11 matches won by the bowling first.

    Australia play final Match of ICC T20I on Sunday November 14  against New Zea-Land

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Amir K Muttaqi Afghan FM arrived Pakistan.

    Islamabad,

    Amir Khan Muttaqi Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan’s has arrived Pakistan on a three-day visit, News channel reported.

    According to the report, a high-level delegation of the Taliban-led Afghan government also accompanied Muttaqi.

    During visit, acting foreign minister will hold meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and other Pakistani government officials, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

    The Afghan delegation will also take part in the Troika Plus meet on Afghanistan which is set to start on Thursday, November 11. Special representatives from China, the Russian Federation, the United States and Pakistan will also participate to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

    Pakistan has still not recognized the caretaker setup in Afghanistan. Earlier, FM Qureshi, visit to Kabul, had told the media that he invited Mutaqqi to attend the Troika Plus meet.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Pakistan on top, Baber 264 runs new record.

    Web desk,

    Pakistan cricket team’s another victory and captain Babar Azam record making inning of 66 runs against Scotland in the ICC T20 World Cup match in Sharjah on Sunday.

    Baber, made another record of most runs by a captain in a single edition of the T20 World Cup. His 4th half-century in the tournament leads Mahela Jayawardene’s of Sri Lanka.

    Babar has now on 264 runs in this tournament. Jayawardene had scored 201 runs as captain of Sri Lanka in 2012 ICC T20 World cup.

    He also surpassed Salman Butt 223 Run ICC T20 world cup 2010 record and also the leading runs-scorer, so far, England’s Jos Buttler scored 240 runs.

    Mean while, no other Pakistani could score more than 3 even after participating in multiple T20 World Cups, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik scored three 50’s in the history of T20 world cup.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • The five-day festival of lights begins across the globe.

    Web desk,

    Hindus across the world and especially in Pakistan were celebrating the festival of lights called Diwali. The five-day festival of lights is typically celebrated by socializing, exchanging gifts and lighting oil lamps or candles to symbolize the victory of light over darkness. Many of celebrities and politicians took to social media to wish a happy Diwali to Hindu community for celebrating the joyous occasion.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan posted Diwali greetings on Twitter.

    While, Sindh Chief Minister house spokesperson Murtaza Solangi posted greetings on his twitter account.

    Actors Osman Khalid Butt and Armeena Khan also wished a very happy Diwali to Hindu community.

    Meanwhile, Actress Tooba Siddiqui and Zhalay Sarhadi took to Instagram Stories to wish their followers as well.

     

    Voice of South Asia (VOSA Tv) and its Team greets best wishes for Hindu community on the Festival of Lights- Diwali. Happy Diwali to Hindu Community.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Pakistan qualify for semi-finals included 5 ground breaking records in T20I history.

    Web Desk, Abu Dhabi,

    Pakistan qualify for semi-finals after beating Namibia by 45 runs in T20 World Cup fourth match at Abu Dhabi Sheikh Zayed Stadium .

    Earlier, skipper Babar Azam and fellow opener Mohammad Rizwan hit 50 to guide Pakistan to 189-2 in their T20 World Cup Super-12 match against Namibia.

    Babar scored 23rd T20 international fifty with a 49-ball on 70 runs while Rizwan finished with a 50-ball 79 not out after Pakistan won the toss and batted first on Sheikh Zayed Stadium pitch.

    The pair added 113 for the first wicket after Pakistan were slow out, scoring just 59 in the first ten overs but ended with a burst in the next ten, taking 130 runs.

    Veteran Mohammad Hafeez scored a sharp 16-ball for 32 not out including five boundaries.

    Pakistan’s total is the second-highest in tournament, behind Afghanistan’s 190-4 against Scotland in Sharjah.

    Pakistan top Group 1 with three wins in as many games and a victory here will see them become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals.

    Meanwhile Pakistan’s opening partners Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan got several T20I records during their T20 World Cup match against Namibia.

    The records include most century partnerships ever, most runs as batting partners in a calendar year, most T20I runs by in a calendar year, most scores of 50 or more in T20Is a captain and most runs after first 60 innings of a player’s career in T20Is.

    Babar and Rizwan scored 113 runs for the first wicket partnership against Namibia, their 5th century-stand as batting partners the most by any batting partners ever in the shortest format of the game.

    The Pakistani openers also became the first ever batting partners in the world to amass 1,000 partnership runs in a calendar year. They’ve scored 1,041 runs this year in 17 partnerships.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • First successful stroke intervention procedure performed in NICVD Karachi.

    Karachi

    The NICVD performed its first intervention to prevent stroke in a 48 year old female came with a right sided stroke, the clot was removed and the stroke was prevented. The procedure led by Professor Irfan Lutfi (Interventional Radiologist, NICVD) and his team.

    According to Professor Nadeem Qamar (Executive Director, NICVD) Appreciates and congratulates team NICVD, and said that a major breakthrough has been achieved in the medical history by NICVD Karachi with the introduction of catheter-based stroke treatment at NICVD Karachi. The NICVD has become one of the best tertiary cardiac care hospitals in the world.While, according to Dr. Irfan Lutfi “The procedures was performed successfully without any complications.  The patient Ms. Sofia aged 48 years was rushed to NICVD Emergency Department with history of RT side weakness, facial asymmetry and dysarthria for last half an hour. Conducted CT scan to rule ICH and then it followed by CT angiogram to confirm large vessel occlusion and there was cut off at left M1 segment MCA”.

    “After diagnosing, the patient was declared as intervention candidate and taken to Cath Lab. The procedure aspirate thrombus and followed run shows open of all MCA territory. The patient clinically improved after the procedure and mobilized with full power”.“The first six hours are of the utmost importance during that time period, blood clotting is removed from the brain, thus providing timely medical help. The patient is protected from many complications,” added Dr Lutfi.

    It was alarming that the second major cause of death in Pakistan is a stroke and lack of proper awareness. By the grace of Almighty Allah, now thousands of patients will be benefitted from this Free of Cost “Interventional Stroke Treatment” at NICVD Karachi, said Dr, Lutfi.“NICVD has become the first cardiac center of Sindh Province in public sector to have performed emergency brain stroke intervention and reverse patient’s paralysis. By the grace of Allah, we continue to perform this procedure with excellent outcomes totally free of cost for all patients”, said Professor Nadeem Qamar

  • Shaheen’s sweeps Afghan bowlers, won by 5 wkts.

    Web desk,

    Pakistan cricket team will move closer to a semi-final of ICC T20 World Cup 2021, it takes on Afghanistan in a Group 2 Super 12 game at Dubai International Stadium on Friday and match will start at 7:00 pm. Afghans won the toss and choose to bat first.

    Shaheens were in full form and has an impressive fast-bowling cast that can blow away the less experienced Afghanistan batters. Afghans give a target of 148 on the loss of 6 wickets.

    Afghanistan have their mystery spinners, against Pakistan’s batting line but line is in-form with opening pair of captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. Experienced Shoaib Malik came to the pitch to chase but did not contained the wicket, and finally Asif Ali, becomes a reliable finisher.

    At one point after the loss of 3rd wicket Pakistan cricket lovers becomes nervous but skipper Asif Ali played well and hits 3 sixers one after another in the 19th over and become a finisher.

    Pakistan has so far played 3 matches in super 12 T20 Worldcup 2021, winning all of them and on the top of Group with scoring 6 points.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Pakistan and Kashmir observe Kashmir Black Day

    Web Desk:

    Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control, and the world over are observing Black Day, today, the 27th of October, to convey to the world that they reject India’s illegal occupation of their homeland and will continue their struggle to achieve their inalienable right to self-determination. The observance of Black Day is also aimed at drawing the attention of the world towards the sufferings of the people of occupied Kashmir due to the continued military siege imposed by Narendra Modi-led fascist regime in the territory since 5 August 2019.

    The day is being marked by a complete shutdown in IIOJK. A march is conducted towards Lal Chowk in Srinagar, while protest rallies are held in world capitals to draw the attention of the international community towards Indian state terrorism in IIOJK.

    Hurriyat leaders and organizations in their statements said 27th October 1947 is the darkest day in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. They said that the Indian repression cannot break the will of the Kashmiri people who are determined to continue their struggle for the right to self-determination till complete success.

    Pakistan government employees have arranged a rally from Foreign Office to D Chowk in Islamabad in connection with Kashmir Black Day. President Arif Alvi accompanied by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Khan and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has participated in the rally to express solidarity with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The participants while holding placards chanted slogans against the Indian government.

    “We want to tell them (Kashmiris) that Pakistan is yours. Pakistan wants to call the attention of the international community towards the oppression and barbarism that is continuing in Kashmir,” President Alvi said.

    Talking about India’s forced demographic changes in the occupied valley, President Alvi said Pakistan will “not accept” them.

    “I want to warn the Indian government that the way [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi committed oppression in Gujrat, what he did to Muslims in other regions of India, the way oppression is done by changing the Citizenship Amendment Act, my Kashmiri brother will fight against that, he is fighting and is laying down his life in sacrifice. He will not rest.”

    Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi said that when India failed to convince Kashmiris to become a part of the country using force, it introduced “black laws” and targeted Kashmiris under the guise of terrorism.

    “India has always failed in its abhorrent objectives because the courage and strength of Kashmiris is like a wall of steel,” he said.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.