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Why is the gender gap widening in Pakistan?
The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Pakistan at 143 out of 144 countries surveyed. The disparity represents a systemic and historical disadvantage for women in Pakistani society. According to the report released last week by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Pakistan is ranked even lower than it was 10 years ago. The reasoning behind this is based on Pakistani women being systematically denied access to important social facilities that determine the gender gap ranking. These include education, health, economic opportunities and political empowerment. In the past, Pakistan was put under pressure by the international community to address gender inequality. In 1979, Pakistan established the Ministry for Women's Development in response to recommendations from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. This ministry facilitated women's access to education, health, legal services and ensured their placement in provincial and national legislatures. It also set up services like credit facilities for women, study and computer centers, child care and hostels for working women. Nothing but good intentions These steps indeed helped women, but because of the patriarchal nature of the society and religious backlash, they never became a normal part of Pakistan's social structure and political system. Even when Pakistan had a female chief executive, Pakistan's women never felt that they had a representative in the prime minister's house. And after the dissolution of the Ministry for Women's Development in 2010, these initiatives were left at the mercy of provincial governments. According to former federal secretary Rukhsana Shah, the initiatives were lacking political will. "They did not appear to have the capacity to develop an alternative narrative to the rampant obscurantism proliferating throughout the country," she said. Taking the gender gap seriously Shahida Jameel was the first woman to be appointed as the Federal Minister of Law, Justice, and...
Kafka in Cuba: New AAN report on The Afghan Experience in Guantánamo
Afghans make up more than a quarter of the inmates ever held at Guantánamo Bay, the largest national grouping among United States ‘war on terror’ detainees taken to Cuba. Most were picked up in the early years of the US-led military intervention when US forces carried out mass, arbitrary detentions of Afghans. In a major new report, AAN’s Kate Clark looks at the Afghan experience in Guantánamo, honing in on the cases of eight of the longest-serving Afghan detainees. Five are still in Cuba, while three were transferred to the United Arab Emirates in August where they are believed still to be in some form of detention. She finds the Afghans’ documents to contain outlandish errors of fact, bad translations, testimony obtained under torture, fantastical allegations and cases based on hearsay and unverified intelligence reports. Reading through the files of the eight Afghans still in Cuba at the start of 2016 is to enter a Kafkaesque world. None of the eight were detained on the battlefield – six were handed over by Pakistan or Afghan forces and two were detained after tip-offs from unknown sources. Instead, intelligence forms the basis for all the detentions and that intelligence is threadbare. The US military gets dates wrong, provinces wrong, mixes up non-belligerent groups and jihadists and reaches back to make ahistorical allegations – assuming bin Laden had set up al Qaeda a decade before he did, or deciding association with Hezb-e Islami in the 1980s (when it was part of the mujahidin fighting the Soviet occupation and, incidentally, America’s favourite faction) is proof of malign intent in the 2000s. Three of the detainees had associations with the mass, quietest, missionary organisation Tablighi Jamaat; the US holds that as proof of terrorist intent, even though the organisation is anti-jihadist, believing that now is not the time for fighting (jihad),but for preaching (dawa) and persuading Muslims to live better lives. Thousands of Afghans (the exact figure...
At least We aren’t Turkey
Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan gleefully greeted Imran Khan’s decision to shelve his Nov 2 ‘lockdown’ plans of Islamabad with a “no winners or losers today” declaration. “Today Pakistan has won… Pakistan’s win is in peace, democracy, rule of law and reliance on our institutions.” For his part, Imran Khan declared a moral victory, fruition of two decades of struggle against the corrupt status quo, as he puts it. Nisar in theory was right. In practice, his statement was quite short, hitting on all four catchwords: peace, democracy, rule of law and reliance on institutions. But, ironically, the federal government’s response to Imran Khan’s threat went against the spirit of these very words. The “container” response to the PTI lockdown, the relentless shelling on the motorway to prevent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak from entering Islamabad, the mockery of the rule of law by erecting barriers on roads leading to the national capital, and the excessive brutal deployment of the Punjab police to contain PTI zealots. No judge, journalist, general or rival business is in jail, unlike in Turkey, where President Erdogan, an apparent inspiration for Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif, has persisted with mass purges of perceived rivals and sympathisers of Fethullah Gülen. On October 29 alone, his administration fired at least 1,267 academics from universities across Turkey, dismissed 4,719 military officers, 3,640, judges and prosecutors Why has it all happened? Dear friend Mosharraf Zaidi sums it up: “The obduracy of the prime minister in mishandling the Panama Papers issue from day one—and thereby smothering his government with the toxin of opacity. The questions that the leaks from the Mossack Fonseca’s files have raised are not trivial. They go to the heart of the most basic and fundamental principles of fiduciary responsibility in executive offices in a democracy. In short, no country can afford to have its top leaders and their families embroiled in financial...
Report: US has given Pakistan $33 billion in Economic and Security Assistance, including Coalition Support Funds as part of the Afghanistan Operational Budget, since 2002
Since 2002, the United States has provided Pakistan with additional economic and humanitarian assistance, totaling more than $11 billion that are neither specifically security-related, in or part of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget that is used for Pakistan. While it is arguable that some of that US economic and humanitarian aid is used for security purposes, or is used to deal with the refugees and food insecurity caused by fighting in the border region, I do not count this assistance as part of the war effort and report here only the CRS numbers for security assistance. It is also plausible that most of that money — beyond that used for disaster assistance — would not have gone to Pakistan absent a war since the US was giving little or no aid to Pakistan prior to the 9/11 attacks. All told, Pakistan has received about $33 billion in economic and security assistance, including Coalition Support Funds as part of the Afghanistan operational budget, since 2002. There are three ways the US operates in Pakistan: Since 2001, the US has used Pakistan as an overland route for supplies to Afghanistan. The United States reimburses and compensates Pakistan for the use of its ports and overland transportation of food, fuel and military equipment through Pakistan en route to Afghanistan with Coalition Support Funds, which are included in the budget for OCO in Afghanistan. Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, the US provided about $15 billion in Coalition Support Funds to Pakistan. The Department of Defense describes the role of Coalition Support Funds as reimbursement for "expenses Pakistan incurs to conduct operations against al Qaeda and Taliban forces include providing logistical support for its forces, manning observation posts along the Afghanistan border, and conducting maritime interdiction operations and combat air patrols."[i] Pakistan is a zone of US military operations, including drone strikes and cross‐border attacks, against Al Qaeda, the...
China Willing to Finance Pakistan’s Portion of IP Pipeline
With Iran coming out of decades-long global economic isolation, China has offered Pakistan that it was willing to finance the un-built portion of a multibillion-dollar gas pipeline project. Officials told The Express Tribune that the China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPPB) – currently engaged with the $1.4 billion Gwadar-Nawabshah LNG terminal and pipeline project – was keen to work on the remaining portion of the gas pipeline from Gwadar to the Iranian border to implement the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. China was providing 85% of the total financing for the LNG pipeline project and wanted to emulate the same model for building the remaining portion of the pipeline from Gwadar up to the Iranian border. The IP gas pipeline project had been stalled due to international curbs against Tehran. But soon after lifting of the sanctions, the United States had imposed certain sanctions against Tehran that were hindering the implementation of the IP gas pipeline project. Officials said China had also expressed its desire to work on the remaining portion of the 80km pipeline from Gwadar to connect it with the Iranian border. China was lobbying to award the contract of this portion as per the cost decided for the Gwadar LNG pipeline. A senior government official said Pakistan was working on LNG import projects but LNG supply was not a secured source because in case of war, this supply source could be halted. He said this was the reason why the IP project was considered to be an essential as well as strategic project for Pakistan. “In case of some interruption in the supply of LNG, Pakistan will be able to get gas supply through the IP pipeline,” the official added. The other reason was that prices of steel and other material for gas pipelines had dropped over the years. During the last PPP government, Iran had decided to lay the IP pipeline by nominating an Iranian company. Iran had also pledged $500 million financing for the project. The offer of the Iranian company...
Indian Poverty Levels Higher Than Pakistan ‘s, Says UN Report
India, the world's second fastest growing economy, has been ranked as poorer than its blighted enemy Pakistan in a United Nations report on global poverty. The report also finds more 'gender equality' in conservative Pakistan than in 'tolerant' India. Its findings amount to a wake-up call for a nation which has taken great pride in its rapid economic growth and the increasing clout of its billionaire business leaders but has failed to share the spoils with its poor. Britain's Department for Internmational Development has pointed to this chequered progress to justify its continuing aid to India. The Human Development Report reveals that while India ranks slightly above Pakistan in its level of 'human development' – based on life expectancy, schooling and per capita income – its wider poverty level is worse than Pakistan's. In absolute terms, 41.6 per cent of India's 1.1 billion people earned less than 78 pence per day compared with 22.6 per cent of Pakistan's 173 million. The report quotes its 'multi-dimensional poverty index' which includes measures of schooling, child mortality, nutrition, access to electricity, toilets, drinking water, and hygienic living conditions, and reveals India is poorer. It found 53.7 per cent of Indians suffering from this broader kind of poverty, compared with 49 per cent of Pakistanis. More surprisingly, India is ranked below Pakistan and Bangladesh on gender equality which reflects maternal death rates, teenage pregnancies, access to education, and the number of women parliamentarians and in the workplace. India's rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the report highlighted the prevalence of poverty in the midst of economic growth and the possibility that "actually economic development may lead to retrogression of social indices." Priya Subramanian of Save the Children said India's poor ranking reflected a lack of political will to tackle poverty. "It is things like healthcare and education which have India lagging behind...
Indian Poverty Levels Higher Than Pakistan 's, Says UN Report
India, the world's second fastest growing economy, has been ranked as poorer than its blighted enemy Pakistan in a United Nations report on global poverty. The report also finds more 'gender equality' in conservative Pakistan than in 'tolerant' India. Its findings amount to a wake-up call for a nation which has taken great pride in its rapid economic growth and the increasing clout of its billionaire business leaders but has failed to share the spoils with its poor. Britain's Department for Internmational Development has pointed to this chequered progress to justify its continuing aid to India. The Human Development Report reveals that while India ranks slightly above Pakistan in its level of 'human development' – based on life expectancy, schooling and per capita income – its wider poverty level is worse than Pakistan's. In absolute terms, 41.6 per cent of India's 1.1 billion people earned less than 78 pence per day compared with 22.6 per cent of Pakistan's 173 million. The report quotes its 'multi-dimensional poverty index' which includes measures of schooling, child mortality, nutrition, access to electricity, toilets, drinking water, and hygienic living conditions, and reveals India is poorer. It found 53.7 per cent of Indians suffering from this broader kind of poverty, compared with 49 per cent of Pakistanis. More surprisingly, India is ranked below Pakistan and Bangladesh on gender equality which reflects maternal death rates, teenage pregnancies, access to education, and the number of women parliamentarians and in the workplace. India's rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the report highlighted the prevalence of poverty in the midst of economic growth and the possibility that "actually economic development may lead to retrogression of social indices." Priya Subramanian of Save the Children said India's poor ranking reflected a lack of political will to tackle poverty. "It is things like healthcare and education which have India lagging behind...
China and CPEC Implementation
The Chinese government is concerned whether projects related to the CPEC will ever be completed in the wake of a growing security threat to Chinese workers and the international difficulties faced by Pakistan. In order to convert existing challenges into opportunities, the Chinese government has activated its state-run think tanks to understand the undercurrents impeding consensus between the provincial and federal governments in Pakistan. As part of this campaign, two Pak-China think tank seminars were held, one each in Islamabad and Beijing, in September. Policymakers from both countries deliberated on the opportunities and challenges of the CPEC. Convinced about the win-win dimension of the CPEC for both countries, the Chinese have become sensitive about any valid or invalid criticism of the CPEC in our smaller provinces. They are reluctant to assume that the criticism in KP and Baltistan aims more at expanding economic benefits for these regions than targeting the CPEC per se. They are taking the political rhetoric and dynamics in the provincial capitals too seriously. Routine bureaucratic delays and inefficiencies are being seen as a calculated move to block the CPEC’s ‘early harvest projects’. Their other biggest worry is the concern about security cover for Chinese workers. They quote how many Chinese workers have been killed, kidnapped or fired at in Balochistan and Sindh in the last three years. They worry that the security situation is likely to deteriorate further. Three factors in their view are not to be ignored in this context: a) the Afghan Taliban are surging in Afghanistan and, therefore, may feel embolden to carry out violent acts in Pakistan; b) India has been providing funds for destabilising Balochistan and no respite is in the offing; and c) American global agenda to prop up India against Pakistan and China will not falter any soon. The net outcome is likely to exacerbate insecurity, not ruling out barbaric violent incidence. While both sides...
The Beginning of Trade Via CPEC; A Historic Moment
Launching of the multi-billion dollar project China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2014 by the two ‘all-weather’ friends has been hailed as a “game-changer” for Pakistan and the entire region. The 3,218 kilometer trade route will connect Kashgar in western China with Gwadar port in Pakistan. After coming into operation, it will provide shorter route for Chinese exports and imports by slashing the current distance of 16,000 km to mere 5,000 km.[1] In addition to attracting the flow of Chinese imports and exports, CPEC is set to bring massive investments, develop energy and industrial infrastructure and creation of thousands of jobs in Pakistan. That historic moment arrived on Monday when hundreds of Chinese trucks loaded with goods entered Sost dry port in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and formally operationalized CPEC.[2] Forty-five of the Chinese containers left for Gwadar port after getting clearance from the custom authorities. The remaining containers will be moved once such clearance is given.[3] Chief Minister of GB Hafeezur Rehman and Force Command Northern Areas Maj Gen Saqib Mahmud Malik attended the inaugural ceremony. Chief Minister said that CPEC will change the fate of GB and that one thousand Chinese containers will pass every week through Karakoram highway. This analysis is written by Abdur Rehman Shah, Research Associate at the Center for Research and Security Studies. [1] Ebrahim, Zofeen T., (2016, May 12). China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: a boon for the economy, a bane for the locals. Retrieved on November 2, 2016, from http://www.dawn.com/news/1236159 [2] Mir, Shabbir, (2016, November 1). First Chinese Shipment rolls into Sost dry port. Retrieved on November 3, 2016, from http://tribune.com.pk/story/1216912/first-chinese-shipment-rolls-sost-dry-port-g-b/ [3] Nagri, Jamil, (2016, November 1). First trade activity kicks off under CPEC. Retrieved on November 3, 2016 from...
Taking On Militants: A Fight For The Soul Of Pakistan
Two high-level meetings in recent months involving senior military commanders and intelligence officials and/or top-level government representatives spotlight Pakistan’s difficulty in coming to grips with domestic and regional political violence resulting from decades of support of militant Islamist and jihadist groups for foreign policy and ideological reasons. Overcoming those difficulties could determine Pakistan’s future, the nature of its society and its place in the world. The first of those meeting was a gathering in August of Pakistani military commanders in the wake of a massive bombing in Quetta that killed some 70 people and wiped out a generation of lawyers in the province of Baluchistan. The commanders concluded that the attack constituted a sinister foreign-inspired plot that aimed to thwart their effort to root out political violence. Their analysis stroked with their selective military campaign aimed at confronting specific groups like the Pakistani Taliban and the Sunni-Muslim Lashkar-e-Jhangvi rather than any organization that engages in political violence and/or targets minorities. The commanders’ approach failed to acknowledge the real lesson of Quetta: decades of Pakistani military and intelligence support underwritten by funding from Saudi Arabia for sectarian and ultra-conservative groups and religious schools in Pakistan that has divided the country almost irreversibly. Generations of religious students have their critical faculties stymied by rote learning and curricula dominated by memorization of exclusionary beliefs and prejudice resulting in bigotry and misogyny woven into the fabric of Pakistani society. “The enemy within is not a fringe... Large sections of society sympathize with these groups. They fund them, directly and indirectly. They provide them recruits. They reject the Constitution and the system. They don’t just live in the ‘bad lands’ but could be our neighbours. The forces have not only to operate in areas in the...
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.