2010 September

Aafia siddiqui – my thoughts

Posted on September 30, 2010 //

We Pakistanis love to react, and do so rather emotionally. The Aafia siddiqui case in a prime example of this. I was among the bloggers who reacted in the most knee jerk way possible here when news of this person broke out. Nobody can deny that the way she was treated in Bagram was despicable but whether the Pakistan government can actually secure the release of an individual who has been tried and convicted by a U.S court is the stuff of hilarity. Specially if the person concerned, is a U.S national.

So before we set ourselves on fire over the gross travesty of justice this “qaum ki beti” has received at the hands of a Firangi/zionist backed/antimuslim country let us consider the following facts about this saga

- It is till yet unclear whether Aafia is a us national, if she is then she is subject to us law meaning that she might not have been kidnapped but extradited to face terrorism charges like others in gitmo, which does not make it any saner but does make it right by law in the U.S which they can even change to suit the investigation.

- Her first husband was not present as a witness, as this case was on her attempt to murder a us army officer and her husbands testimony carried no weight. He could only be a character witness at best. What he says about her is not exactly uplifting anyways.

- Aafia was pointed out by none other than Khalid sheikh muhammad, as an operative of Al-Qaeda, there has to be a reason for this. Known terrorist masterminds do not point out random ppl when under interrogation and that too when they crack after being water boarded over 180 times.

- Aafia’s second marriage was to the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad Al-Qaeda member Ammar al-Baluchi and even before this in the last days of her first marriage her and her first husband Khan were questioned by the FBI In May 2002 regarding their purchase over the internet of $10,000 worth of night vision equipment, body armor, and military manuals including The Anarchist’s Arsenal, Fugitive, Advanced Fugitive, and How to Make C-4. Khan claimed that these were for hunting and camping expeditions. Soon after this In August 2002, Khan said Siddiqui was abusive and manipulative throughout their seven years of marriage; her violent personality and extremist views led him to suspect her of involvement in jihadi activities.

- On March 25, 2003, the FBI issued a global “wanted for questioning” alert for Siddiqui and her ex-husband, Amjad Khan. Siddiqui was accused of being a “courier of blood diamonds and a financial fixer for al-Qaida”. Khan was questioned by the FBI, and released. At this point Aafia was back in Karachi, and married to Ammar Al baluchi.

- According to her ex-husband, after the global alert for her was issued Siddiqui went into hiding, and worked for al-Qaeda. During her disappearance Khan said he saw her at Islamabad airport in April 2003, as she disembarked from a flight with their son, and said he helped Inter-Services Intelligence identify her. He said he again saw her two years later, in a Karachi traffic jam

- Aafias testimony during this trial included her saying she was attempting to make peace between the Taliban and the armed forces..no outsider can do this. Can anyone of us even think of such a possibility without having access to the organization?

- Why did her family wait for so long to raise hue and cry, which happened after Yvonne ridley’s disclosure of “the grey lady of bagram” with Imran Khan in a press conference. Yes the urdu press had reported a woman being picked up but that was it. If the government was not ready to listen to them there are several human rights groups who would have so why were they silent?

- Siddiqui has not explained clearly what happened to her two missing children. She alternated between saying that the two youngest children were dead, and that they were with her sister Fowzia, according to a psychiatric exam. She told one FBI agent that sometimes one has to take up a cause that is more important than one’s children. Khan said he believed that the missing children were in Karachi, either with or in contact with Siddiqui’s family, and not in U.S. detention.He said that they were seen in her sister’s house in Karachi and in Islamabad on several occasions since their alleged disappearance in 2003.

- We have a right to criticize the U.S government for their inability to explain why a woman detained on terrorism charges cannot be tried on them. Their are also several holes in their case & conviction including the fact that the rifle she is convicted of having snatched from the us army officer does not have her fingerprints, but what sort of hypocrisy permits us to rally for this case when so many women are daily suffering in our own prisons in Pakistan?

Why are their no rallies of thousands of people outside any of our jails??? Why do we not march on the havelis of those landlords that consider Karo Kari as tradition and a justifiable means of upholding family honor. Why do we all stop our powers of reasoning and respond with anger and violence when anyone questions popular thought or sentiment?

Therefore in light of the above points and murkiness surrounding this lady I believe the way she was held, the way she was tried and the way she was treated is abhorrent. However the fact that she is totally innocent and somehow representative of Pakistan and its women and how we have been all put to shame because of the injustice done to her is totally false as well.

I do not think Aafia Siddiqui is innocent and never will.

Filed Under: Current Affairs // Tagged: aafia, aafia siddiqui, extradition, islam, lady taliban, the grey lady of bagram, trial of aafia

Desperate times

Posted on September 24, 2010 //

Everyone knows the story by now, how could they not? Its been blasted to us from every corner of our input receivers on all forms of media and has spiraled into something resembling a circus pretty quick. A well spoken man receives a large sum of money in a hotel room in England, allegedly to spot fix no balls in the next days innings in the last test match between Pakistan & England and lo and behold the balls are delivered as promised by our bowlers Muhammad Asif & Aamir and when the story is revealed by “News of the World” All hell breaks loose.

Such is the regular chagrin of a Pakistan cricket fan for over 25 years, that we expect the worst, but when it comes we cannot seem to handle it or accept the face being shown in the mirror. However after a couple of days having passed under the “lynch em all” bridge there seems to be a very conspicuous smell coming from the direction of this case and no I do not think this was engineered by our oft blamed neighbors, even if it is somehow in their advantage according to some theorists.

It has been now established and quoted on reputable news sources like BBC Sport that a sum of money ( 4000 pounds )found in Pakistan’s cricket players rooms matches the serial nos of the bank notes given to the alleged fixer. That should clear away any doubts held by any loyalist or knee jerk defender of the Pakistan teams honor for sure. It looks like the face in the mirror is ours but whether we are now being made scape goats by the International media for a bigger problem is the question that lingers in my mind.

First of all reporting about the case in all forms of media abroad have had a small lineage of arsenic underlying the tones from day one. What followed later can only be called selective reporting as the whole team was virtually trussed up and sent to the gallows even before the crime could have been established or verified. Suspension of the three players named does seem like the right step by the ICC but has the ICC done so in the past with other players of other teams when proved guilty? I distinctly remember a Shane warne being let off with a “fine” when he “admitted” to taking money from a bookmaker to report on weather conditions was it?

Reports now tell us that these same players were under the microscope of the Anti corruption team of the ICC for quite some time. If this was the case was anyone made aware other than the players themselves of what was going on? When Mr Butt was named captain of Pakistan what part did the alleged 5 warnings he had received from ICC’s anti corruption unit come into play for the people deciding on a leader for our team?

Please note when we speak of bias and the ICC denies it and many reputed sportswriters in England pooh pooh it, the past shows us that people have been rather quick on the trigger when it comes to our country and team. Remember oval gate? We were all called cheats back then but the long run saw the umpire’s forced retirement not of the players involved. That everyone just seems to turn a blind eye to the root of these issues and concentrates on hanging whoever is caught with the packet at the end cannot be all coincidence or well intentioned.

Its not about the background let me assure you, from a village or a town every Pakistan boy who gets this far knows what is right and what is wrong. We ain’t exactly the tom sawyers people are projecting us as out there. However calling for suspension from test status of our team when it has not even been considered for other test playing nations when their own super stars were caught with their hand in the cookie jar is a bit laughable.

What is not laughable however is the point that sometimes these players are motivated by a lot more than greed when it comes to “fixing” This has been proven in Waseem Akrams case in the past as well when his family was threatened. Could this have been at play when the said transaction took place?

In either case, what needs to be done now is for the ICC to scrutinize each and every individual who is coming forth with the sudden urge to tell the world how they also were approached by bookies. This cancer is still rooted deep and in my opinion a shadowy parallel world for those in the spotlight in cricket. It is very much in action for all teams playing. We will need to make sure it is bombarded and cut off for ever or else cricket will die a very sad and painful death.

That and we should stop vilifying our entire team because certain individuals in it were playing for more than the honor of representing Pakistan out there. Team Pakistan will play on and recover from this, like we have from so many setbacks in our past. Aamir or no Aamir we do not have a lack of talent in the domestic setup and should not let this violation of the fans or the public trust go unchecked.

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As published in “The Friday times” on 24/9/2010

Filed Under: Cricket, Day To Day, Sports // Tagged: controversy, Cricket, image proble, life in pakistan, living in a warzone, Pakistan, spot fixing

Building a future

Posted on September 19, 2010 //

The pain is apparent

Much has been lost in the shape of lives, property and material well-being due to the worst floods in history. It is however, pure folly to consider each one of the IDPs as people who were always downtrodden and impoverished. Some of them were just as full of stomach and pocket as you and me before the floods inundated their towns and villages. They had normal lives; their children studied in schools; they celebrated Eid and other occasions and, they were all earning a steady income each month.

Anywhere you go in Sindh be it Thatta, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Sehwan or Jacobabad, you will find schools turned into shelters for the IDPs. Obviously these schools and other institutes are not being used to teach children, but are providing shelter to the hundreds and thousands of homeless. What about the children who have been affected? What of their education? My own two kids get restless even if they are off for a few days for Eid. What are those thousands of children feeling, now that their studies have been completely disrupted?

For over a month now, every aid organisation and NGO has focused on three things: shelter, food and medicine. Obviously those were the three most urgent needs of the hour but I think now, it is time that everyone shifts their focus from short-term to long-term rehabilitation. As it is, we have hit donor fatigue in this crises but once the media coverage decreases significantly, there will also be volunteer fatigue. With Ramazan being over and many people in the cities getting back into their routine, it will soon become very hard to find volunteers to go week after week to help the IDPs. Thus, a long term strategy has to be devised to empower the IDPs to be able to help themselves. But first and foremost of this rehabilitation process should be the rebuilding of schools for the displaced children.

As schools all over Pakistan continue to serve the role of shelters for at least three more months, there will be an urgent need to build new schools. Anyone who has been out in the field can tell you that the only way to appease the misery of the IDPS to an extent, is to provide their kids with a sustainable future.

For this purpose, we have to think beyond just giving cash. Schools must be established but at the same time, in order to ensure that the kids attend classes on a regular basis, some kind of token fees should be allotted to the parents (only if their child is in school), as an incentive. Since these parents (and other IDPs) will also need more cash to re-extablish their business or get back to farming, micro-financing should be introduced. Even providing them with soft loans might be a solution.

The media is always reinforcing the argument that the citizens, the government and the armed forces are three separate entities, each running for its own interest in this rat race. This is pure fallacy as all three entities make up Pakistan. All three have been working tirelessly to help the IDPs in some capacity of the other. To borrow from Obama, “We should not differentiate between them and us, it’s just us.”

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Picture credit : Taimur Mirza

As published in the Dawn Blog on 20/9/2010

Filed Under: Published Articles // Tagged: educating the idps, education as focus, floods in Pakistan, plrelief

Help Jolie save the Pak flood victims

Posted on September 16, 2010 //

On several of my excursions with the Pk relief team in Sukkur, Shikarpur, Thatta and Jacobabad we have witnessed UN presence on the ground as well as UNHCR and UNDP doing credible work. Please assist them in the cause of the flood victims of Pakistan by spreading this message far and wide and take some time out to donate to your affected countrymen.

So what can you do to help? Jolie is asking readers to take a second today and donate $10 by texting the word SWAT to 50555.

Filed Under: Making a difference // Tagged: Angelina Jolie, help jolie save flood victems donate to pakistan, unhcr

Pk relief update # 2

Posted on September 14, 2010 //

Ever since the start of our first flood relief mission to Sukkur on 14th August 2010 the sheer number of lives that we may have impacted is truly unimaginable

PkRelief has to its credit the following statistics

Provided 36,800 persons with food/ration hampers, enough to last them a week
Provided 25,000 people with immediate ready to eat one-time meals
Provided 280 tents in various locations, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Thatta which will provide shelter to 280 families or 2800 people
Provided 500 families with clothes
Provided 6 trucks of water bottles approximately 1000 cases of 1.5 ltr bottles

It gives me immense satisfaction that ever since the Floods 2010 hit Pakistan there has been an immense out pouring of love by Pakistanis and the citizens of the world to help rehabilitate the poeple of Pakistan affected by the floods in Pakistan. On 8th August we initiated launch from our blogs and partnered with SARelief.com for tapping the online donors this was augmented by a strong local offline effort amongst our family & friends who helped usMashallah raise over US$ 142,000 [last tally on 13th Sept 2010].
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Making a difference // Tagged: community initiative, flood relief, helping flood victims, offroaders, Pakistan, pkrelief

Pk relief mission 5 report

Posted on September 6, 2010 //

Even though we had not gone back to shikarpur in two weeks the off roaders had kept in mind the SSGC degree college camp witnessed by us while we were on ground there. We contacted Mr Mukesh the pointman of this camp and found that the food situation there was getting desperate. This camp houses about 3000 people in the shape of about 300 registered and a 100 unregistered families at an average of 7-8 people each. Thus we prepared 500 food hampers (5 kg ata, 5 kg flour, 1 litre oil, 2 kg dal, 2 soaps)as well as 500 clothing hampers ( separate suits for male females and children plus shoes) for this school and along with this relief took 1500 additional food hampers and a truck of water +15 medicine cartons when we set off on mission no 5 on the 3rd of September.

Along the way we experienced two tire shreds, and there is a reason why I am calling these shreds and not punctures. However each time we came to a halt, we were approached by the Highway police within minutes for assistance which was very polite and considerate. They also offered us Iftari but we made do with rotis and piaz/onionsand reached shikarpur around 9:30 pm.

We liaised with the school management and set up our staging area with our relief supplies ready while one team headed to the school to prepare lots of people in datsun vehicles and to bring them along with their SSGC ration cards to our distribution site. Upon arrival at site they were instructed to sit in single file and then we started releasing groups of 5 to the back gate where an offroader would check the registration card send them inside the staging area and another offroader would then recheck the no of people in the family (listed on card) and hand out hampers accordingly. These IDPS then proceeded to exit from the front gate and the process kept on going very smoothly till 330am until all 400 families had received aid.

Having exhausted ourselves fully we slept for the night and woke up at about 9am. We then set out to the civil hospital shikarpur, otherwise also known as district headquarters hospital. The conditions in the wards were overwhelmingly pathetic specially in the pediatric ward where there were about 5 kids to one bed. Most of them were suffering from gastro and chest infections and we started by handing over all the medicine we had brought to the hospital staff. We then decided to and handed over one food hamper per family of patientz as well, as most of them are the same IDP’s we had set out to serve. After we had completed each ward and covered all the families of all the patients we had a meeting with the E.D.O who gave us a list of medicines urgently required. We also distributed packets of flour and rice outside on hospital grounds as well as donated half a truck of aquafina water to this hospital.

At this point we were left with 1000 food hampers which we liaised with the U.N to guide to Sewan where we were told there was desperate need for supplies. The water we had left with us we took to the Hands camp in shikarpur and distributed there. Hands is an NGO we have found and personally visited camps off, which is doing brilliant work in a non obtrusive manner wherever we go.

Having finished with all our supplies we left shikarpur at around 820pm to arrive back in Karachi at 5am the next (sun morning) at sehri time. I think its important for aid convoys to know that there is no danger on the highway at night if you have 4-5 cars/jeeps in your convoy.

Our next target is to better the conditions (hygiene & medcare) of the pediatric ward in the civil hospital Karachi and get them better beds as well as medicine to keep the kids healthy. This will be our first step into the rehabilitation part of our relief work which we feel is apt given the waters are receding and people are starting to go back to their villages. Now they will need help in rebuilding their lives and we plan to stand with them.

Pictures for this relief mission are available here

To donate to our cause please visit here or click the paypal widget on the right on this blog.

At this juncture we the Off roaders club has provided rations for more than one week to 32000 ppl in Sukkur Shikarpur & Sewan, ready to eat meals to 25000 people in Thatta & Hyderabad, 280 family tents (one tent holds 8 people) and water (1.5 litre) to the tune of 4 truck loads (one truck carrying 1000 cases of 1.5 x 6) bottles. We have also provided more than 20 cartons of medicines and are liaising with other people on ground for example Hands, Reflections & KRT to get help out to wherever it is needed as quickly as possible. We are assisted in this mission by not only our friends but BEHBUD association Karachi which is maintaining a seperate account for us where donations can be sent to as per link above.

Please note we do not want glory or fame, we are just private citizens of Pakistan who want to help and do it with our own hands.

Filed Under: F.K's Life, Uncategorized // Tagged: civil hospital shikarpur, floods in Pakistan, sehwan sharif, shiakrpur, ssgc school