Tag: Pakistan

Pakistan: 50 doctors resign due to lack of PPE kits amid coronavirus pandemic
17Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Pakistan: 50 doctors resign due to lack of PPE kits amid coronavirus pandemic

As coronavirus continues to spread through Pakistan, 50 doctors put in their resignations due to lack of personal protective equipment (PPEs), an essential for them combating deadly virus.According to media reports, the resignations of almost 50 doctors across Punjab have been accepted by the provincial government, a notification said, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.According to a notice by the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education (SHCME) Department, dated June 27, the 48 doctors who stepped down had tendered in their resignations at various times this year.Of the 48 to have resigned, 11 had handed in their resignation letters before Pakistan reported its first coronavirus case on February 26, 2020.Doctors in Pakistan have protested over the lack of personal protective equip...
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‘UN should intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Balochistan’
17Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

‘UN should intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Balochistan’

Pakistan-born Canadian author Tarek Fatah has called on the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and said that indigenous communities in Balochistan will lose their identities if their slaughter and ethnic cleansing is not stopped.“The indigenous communities will lose their identities if these inhuman acts are not stopped immediately. All these acts are carried out by the Pakistani military, which is an industrial mafia that controls everything,” Fatah said.However, he said, this would require the over a dozen Baloch political parties and guerilla groups to join hands to issue a “Balochistan Declaration about their future where the enemy is no longer the Pakistan Army, but China.”Describing the condition in Balochistan and the Chinese influence on the region, Fatah said: "Almost a decade
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Pakistani media mogul’s bizarre arrest shows how media freedom is being squeezed
17Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments

Pakistani media mogul’s bizarre arrest shows how media freedom is being squeezed

The country’s most prominent media mogul Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman is detained and incarcerated. The image-conscious Prime Minister Imran Khan ignores a letter from United Nations officials about the detention. The media tycoon is held for over 100 days without charge; five bail hearings are postponed, and the bench assigned to hear his case is changed three times in as many months.Even for a nascent democracy such as Pakistan, under military rule for much of its existence, the bizarre arrest and ongoing detention of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman is novel and tragic.The owner-editor of Jang, Pakistan’s most powerful media conglomerate, was arrested on March 12. The move was so unexpected that he didn’t obtain pre-arrest bail when responding to a summons by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) office
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In Pakistan’s Islamabad, a centuries-old temple where Hindus are not allowed to pray
17Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

In Pakistan’s Islamabad, a centuries-old temple where Hindus are not allowed to pray

For centuries, Hindus traveled a long way just to worship at a tiny sixteenth century temple built against the foothills of the Himalayas in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad where Hindus believe ancient god Ram lived with his family during 14 long years of exile.  To continue their journey, Hindus used to stay peacefully in an adjoining dharamshala, or rest house for pilgrims, in what is today called Saidpur Village.According to official records dating as far back as 1893, a fair was held each year at a pond near the site to commemorate that Ram and his family had once sipped water from it.But since 1947, Hindus have not been allowed by authorities to worship at the temple and the compound in which it is housed.Visitors can tour the temple, but all idols have been removed and the shrine
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Pakistan must protect religious freedom for Hindus: Human Rights group
17Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Pakistan must protect religious freedom for Hindus: Human Rights group

A human rights panel has called on the Pakistani authorities to protect the right to freedom of religion and belief for the country’s beleaguered Hindu community, including the construction of temples to exercise that right.“The respect for the right to freedom of religion was promised to Pakistan’s Hindus by the country’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Those who deny a long-marginalized community the right to practise their faith freely not only betray his legacy, but also violate the human rights of religious minorities protected under Pakistan’s constitution and its international human rights obligations,” said Omar Waraich, Head of South Asia at Amnesty International.The human rights organization’s call came as authorities in Islamabad capitulated to pressure from a discriminatory campa
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China pillages Balochistan
17Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments

China pillages Balochistan

In 2011, the celebrated Irish journalist Declan Walsh wrote about a 70-year-old conflict about Balochistan, which has been under Pakistani occupation since March 1948. It was a topic that only a few in the West had heard off.Headlined as ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War,’ Walsh, in his piece, lifted the lid on atrocities being committed by the Pakistan Army and its jihadi death squads inside Balochistan.He wrote: “In Balochistan, mutilated corpses bearing the signs of torture keep turning up, among them lawyers, students and farm workers … The bodies surface quietly, like corks bobbing up in the dark. They come in twos and threes, a few times a week, dumped on desolate mountains or empty city roads, bearing the scars of great cruelty. Arms and legs are snapped; faces are bruised and swollen. F
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Women risk the blasts or sexual assault in Pakistani-held Kashmir
17Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Women risk the blasts or sexual assault in Pakistani-held Kashmir

Ever since the abrogation of Article 370 by the Indian government, cross-border shelling between Pakistan and India has intensified along the Line of Control in Kashmir, sending more families rushing to community bunkers when the alarm sirens ring, particularly on the Pakistani side.But some girls and young women are being left behind by their families — choosing to risk the falling shells rather than face the sexual assault in the cramped bunkers.One of those staying home is Mehnaz, a 25-year-old, who says she will not be going back to a bunker unless things change.When mortars started slamming into her village in the Neelum Valley on the Pakistani-held side in August, Mehnaz and her family fled to a musty bunker owned by her neighbor, she said. Dozens of people were crammed in for hours
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Malaysia suspends Pakistan pilots after license fraud revelation
14Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Malaysia suspends Pakistan pilots after license fraud revelation

After Europe and Vietnam, Malaysia’s aviation regulator has temporarily suspended pilots employed by domestic airlines who hold Pakistani licenses.The decision came after the Pakistani government revealed that many of its pilots had dubious qualifications.In a statement on July 2, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) said that the decision came after an evaluation of all foreign pilots in Malaysia. The regulator said that there are less than 20 Pakistani pilots in the country.National carrier Malaysia Airlines said it does not have any Pakistani pilot. Malindo Air, the Malaysian arm of Indonesia’s Lion Air, said it does not have any foreign pilots, and AirAsia said it does not have any Pakistani pilot.CAAM said the pilots were employed with “local operators”, such as flying scho
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Pakistan’s global image continues to worsen, PIA suspension in EU latest fallout
14Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Pakistan’s global image continues to worsen, PIA suspension in EU latest fallout

The case of dubious licenses of Pakistani pilots have further worsened the image of Pakistan on the international front.Despite easing of covid-lockdown measures, Pakistanis are not allowed to enter various European countries.And now the suspension of flight services by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in European countries is the latest fallout in line."Unbelievable! First, Pakistanis not allowed to enter various countries. Then Gulf Airlines refusing to come to Pakistan. Now PIA not allowed into EU! Thank you Selectors and Captain of Team Pakistan!" said Najam Sethi, noted Pakistani journalist in a tweet.Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, Pakistan has also not been included in the draft list of 54 countries that will benefit from the reopening of the European Union's external borde...
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Karachi attack warning to Pakistan, China to quit Balochistan: Baloch leader
13Jul By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Karachi attack warning to Pakistan, China to quit Balochistan: Baloch leader

Paying tribute to the fighters of Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) who were killed in the Pakistan Stock Exchange building in Karachi on June 29, prominent pro-independence Baloch leader Allah Nazar Baloch has said that the incident was a warning to Pakistan and China to quit Balochistan.Nazar said that Pakistan has cheaply mortgaged Baloch lands to China and that China has made a long-term plan to use Gwadar as a launching pad by making Balochistan an undeclared colony to dominate the world.“China's presence here has become a threat not only to the Baloch national survival but poses a danger to the entire world,” he said.“We believe that the world is still unaware of China's intentions and that the Baloch are the only ones fighting the modern imperialist monster. The attack on the base
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