<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>TNS - The News on Sunday</title> <atom:link href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk</link> <description></description> <lastBuildDate>Sun, 22 Jul 2018 17:56:34 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=371</generator> <item> <title>Darengarh massacre</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/darengarh-massacre/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/darengarh-massacre/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:30:15 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Encore]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Slider]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Balochistan]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Balochistan Awami Party]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Darengarh Mastung]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Quetta to Iran]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85948</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/357434-01-02.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>Abdul Ghafoor Pikrani, a resident of Darengarh Mastung, a district ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/darengarh-massacre/">Darengarh massacre</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/357434-01-02.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">A</span>bdul Ghafoor Pikrani, a resident of Darengarh Mastung, a district located in the north west of Balochistan, did not have children in the first 13 years of marriage. After trying local medical solutions and praying at different shrines, he was finally blessed with twin sons. Both his sons, still minors, worked as daily wagers to support their old parents.</p> <p>On the fateful day of July 13, a suicide blast wreaked havoc in Darengarh, killing hundreds of people including both the sons of Pikrani.</p> <p>Darengarh is a small village situated 45 kilometres southwest of Quetta on RCD highway which connects Quetta to Iran. It’s just 40 kilometres away from the Afghan border but there is no border crossing point near Darengarh. The political gathering of Siraj Raisani, candidate of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) from PB-35, was held in a tent inside a mud-wall compound, only a kilometre down the RCD highway in Darengarh.</p> <p>Darengarh is populated by Pirkani tribe who became the primary victims in this attack. The Pirakni leaders from BAP had asked their tribesmen to attended the political gathering and make it a success, as a result of which around 800-1,000 people attended the gathering that day. Majority of them came not only from Darengarh but also from other parts of Mastung and Quetta districts.</p> <p>It is now evident from the available videos of the incident that the bomb went off at around 4pm when it was Raisani’s turn to speak. According to the bomb disposal squad, the suicide bomber had used 8 to 10 kilograms of KG explosives and was apparently seated quite close to the podium.</p> <p>It took at least 50 minutes for the ambulances to reach from Quetta to Darengarh, since ambulances available in Mastung district were not enough. The movement of ambulances between Quetta and Darengarh continued throughout the evening. The shocking nature of the damage was revealed only after all the dead and injured were shifted to hospitals. According to figures released by the deputy commissioner (DC) Mastung, 140 people died and 186 were injured as a result of the blast.</p> <p>Qasim Pirkani, Chairman Union Council Shahdenzai in Quetta and one of representatives of Pirkani tribe, contends the death toll figure; he believes the actual death toll was more than 2oo. “Right after the blast, most relatives carried away their dead themselves and directly buried them, hence giving rise to the confusion about the number of deaths. They are simple people and do not know that dead bodies have to be carried out to government hospitals for legal formalities,” he told <i>TNS</i>.</p> <div class="box shadow red_lines alignright"><div> <strong>The movement of ambulances between Quetta and Darengarh continued throughout the evening.</strong> </div></div> <p>The Government of Balochistan has announced financial assistance package for the dead and wounded but the people who buried their dead without taking them to hospitals first will not get the assistance.</p> <p>Majority of the injured were taken to Sandeman Provincial Hospital (SPH) in Quetta. However, the conditions in which the injured were treated were horrible, claims Qasim Pirkani. “60 injured people were stuffed in a ward with capacity to accommodate 30 patients, a situation fit to suffocate even a healthy person let alone the traumatised victims of suicide blast.”</p> <p>Given the plight of SPH, office of chief minister Balochistan placed a banner at the reception providing people with telephone numbers to file a complaint in case they did not get proper treatment at the hospital.</p> <p>People from Pirkani tribe who formed an overwhelming portion of the victims have historically been nomads. They have always been on the move. “Those who made some money settled in Quetta while others are still living as nomads,” Qasim said. He claimed that Pirkani is one of the poorest tribes in Balochistan; 90 per cent of them live below the poverty line.</p> <p>When people of Pirkani tribe took their dead to bury them at Mian Ghundi graveyard, another shock awaited them. Locals refused to allow them to be buried in that graveyard since they were nomads, and the graveyards are reserved for local land-owning residents. Later, the dead bodies were buried in different graveyards of Quetta and Mastung where the Pirkani tribe had some land.</p> <p>Read also: <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/new-wave-terror/">A new wave of terror</a></p> <p>The Darengarh attack became a national tragedy and VIPs rushed to Quetta to condole the deaths, including the caretaker Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk, COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa, PTI chief Imran Khan, PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. However, their visits were short and business-like. “Not a single leader bothered to visit and condole with the relatives of over two hundred Pirkani tribesmen who had lost their lives,” lamented Qasim.</p> <p>The wounds of attack on lawyers in Quetta on August 8, 2016 were still fresh when this tragedy struck the province. The responsibility for the most devastating terrorist attack in the history of Balochistan is claimed by Islamic State, hinting that peace will return only slowly to the province.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/darengarh-massacre/">Darengarh massacre</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/darengarh-massacre/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/357434-01-02.jpg" length="119579" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/357434-01-02-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/357434-01-02-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/357434-01-02.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/357434-01-02.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>384</height></image> </item> <item> <title>A new wave of terror</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/new-wave-terror/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/new-wave-terror/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:29:24 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Encore]]></category> <category><![CDATA[anp]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Balochistan Assembly]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Bashir Ahmad Bilour]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haroon Bilour]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mastung]]></category> <category><![CDATA[mastung blast survivors]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Siraj Raisani]]></category> <category><![CDATA[terrorist attack]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85936</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/362901-01-02dd.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>There were no big acts of terrorism during the election ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/new-wave-terror/">A new wave of terror</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/362901-01-02dd.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">T</span>here were no big acts of terrorism during the election campaign before the terrorists struck on July 10 in Peshawar targeting an Awami National Party (ANP) corner meeting where Haroon Bashir Bilour was the main speaker.</p> <p>And mercifully there have been no big terrorist attacks after the July 13 suicide bombing that targeted the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) election rally in Balochistan’s Mastung district where the party candidate Nawabzada Siraj Raisani was the star speaker.</p> <p>However, the three major acts of terrorism from July 10-13, including the one in Bannu that targeted Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) candidate Akram Khan Durrani, shocked the nation and highlighted the security concerns in the run-up to the polling day on July 25.</p> <p>Akram Durrani, who served as chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) from 2002-2008 when the MMA was in power, survived the attack on July 13, but Haroon Bilour and Siraj Raisani weren’t so lucky. They were hailed as martyrs and heroes by not only the government, but also by politicians and the public across the political divide.</p> <p>The death of Haroon Bilour was particularly painful as his father, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, too was martyred in a terrorist attack in his hometown Peshawar in December 2012 when he was a senior minister in the ANP-PPP coalition government in KP. Both lost their lives in suicide bombings in which more than 30 civilians, mostly ANP workers and supporters, were martyred. The Bilours, a prominent family of Peshawar, have been a major target of the terrorists as they have never hesitated to challenge the militants. Besides, the militants are in no mood to forgive the ANP even after claiming responsibility for scores of attacks all these years against the party.</p> <p>The suicide bombing at Darengarh in Mastung district on July 13 was horrendous as it took 149 lives, including nine minors, and caused injuries to another 186. It was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Pakistan and those killed were almost all civilians, simple Baloch villagers who had come to meet and hear the BAP candidate for the Balochistan Assembly constituency, PB-35, Siraj Raisani. It was almost equal in scale and number of casualties to the 2007 attack in Karsaz, Karachi when Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming convoy was attacked, martyring 160 persons. Other major terrorist strikes include the one on the Army Public School, Peshawar in December 2014 which 147 persons, including 132 schoolchildren, were martyred, and the Meena Bazar, Peshawar and Shah Hassankhel, Lakki Marwat bombings earlier that claimed the lives of over 120 persons each.</p> <p>As Siraj Raisani had challenged his elder brother Nawab Aslam Raisani, the former chief minister contesting as an independent candidate, in the PB-35 constituency, the election had become charged and the atmosphere tense. Siraj Raisani had emerged as a leading pro-Pakistan Baloch politician and some of his video messages declaring his love for Pakistan’s armed forces and challenging India had gone viral. It wasn’t surprising then that Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa described him as a “soldier of Pakistan” and said Siraj Raisani was a brave patriot with utmost commitment to the country.</p> <div class="box shadow red_lines alignright"><div> <strong>The focus of the terrorist attacks until now has been KP and Balochistan, both bordering Afghanistan where TTP militants and Baloch separatists have found refuge.</strong> </div></div> <p>The BAP with which Siraj Raisani was associated was cobbled together before the election by pro-federation politicians and tribal elders, many among them turncoats, to compete with older and established political parties. It was seen as a pro-establishment party set up to try and form a coalition government after the polls by keeping the nationalist parties out of power.</p> <p>The warning signs of a new wave of terror during the 2018 election campaign were evident, but weren’t widely noticed or given importance because nobody was killed. There had been two acts of terrorism directed at election candidates, one in KP and the other in the erstwhile Fata known as tribal districts after the merger with KP. An election meeting of Malik Aurangzeb Khan, contesting for the lone National Assembly seat from the North Waziristan tribal district on the PTI ticket, was attacked with hand-grenades in Razmak. Several participants were injured but Malik Aurangzeb remained unhurt. It prompted the authorities and the candidates and electorate in North Waziristan, recovering after years of militancy and the June 2014 military operation Zarb-e-Azb, to become cautious and upgrade the security.</p> <p>Another terrorist attack took place around the same time in Bannu when the convoy of MMA candidate for a provincial assembly seat, Malik Shireen, was targeted with a roadside bomb causing injuries to several people. Malik Shireen survived the attack and promptly blamed his rival PTI candidate Mohammad Shah of involvement in the bombing. This attack took place before Akram Durrani’s convoy in Bannu was targeted by exploding a motorcycle stuffed with explosives and parked on the roadside. As Bannu is located adjacent to North Waziristan, it seemed that militants operating in the tribal district and based across the border in Afghanistan were behind the attacks.</p> <p>The focus of the terrorist attacks until now has been KP and Balochistan, both bordering Afghanistan where the fleeing Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)-linked militants and Baloch separatists have found refuge. The two under-developed provinces have been in the frontline in Pakistan’s war against terrorism. The militants won’t hesitate to strike in Punjab, Sindh and even Islamabad, but organising attacks there is relatively difficult than in KP and Balochistan due to the logistics and long distance from their bases in Afghanistan.</p> <p>It was clear the militants had timed the attacks with the election campaign when the politicians contesting the polls are exposed and vulnerable, and the public meetings become an easy target. The TTP had just lost its head, Maulana Fazlullah, in a US drone strike in Afghanistan and his loyalists were seeking revenge. The new TTP leader Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud had to establish his leadership and show his strength and launching attacks in Pakistan would have served the purpose. As the militants suspected that Islamabad may have provided intelligence to the US about the location of Fazlullah and his top military commander, Omar Rahman aka Fateh, who was killed in a subsequent drone strike in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, they had reasons to take revenge through terrorists strikes in Pakistan.</p> <p>Read also: <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/darengarh-massacre/">Darengarh massacre</a></p> <p>The claim of responsibility for the three major attacks in July was made by three different groups. The Peshawar suicide bombing that took the life of Haroon Bilour and 21 other persons was claimed by the TTP, while the Islamic State, or Daesh, asserted responsibility for the Mastung bombing. The little known Ittehadul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the failed attempt on the life of Akram Durrani in Bannu, which nevertheless martyred five persons.</p> <p>It isn’t always easy to figure out as to which group was in reality involved in the attacks as claims of responsibility are sometimes made to cause confusion and sidetrack the attention of investigators and intelligence agencies. What is important is the fact that all these militant groups despite their differences have a common objective to harm and weaken Pakistan.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/new-wave-terror/">A new wave of terror</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/new-wave-terror/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/362901-01-02dd.jpg" length="165544" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/362901-01-02dd-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/362901-01-02dd-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/362901-01-02dd.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/362901-01-02dd.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>411</height><title>PAKISTAN-UNREST-BLAST</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description>A Pakistani journalist walks near wreckages, a day after a suicide blast during an election rally, in Mastung on July 14, 2018. Pakistan was in shock on July 14 after a suicide blast killed 128 people, shaking confidence in security just as the dramatic arrest of ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif ratcheted political tensions higher ahead of nationwide polls. / AFP PHOTO / BANARAS KHAN</description></image> </item> <item> <title>free, fair, et cetera</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/free-fair-et-cetera/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/free-fair-et-cetera/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:28:56 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Slider]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Special Report]]></category> <category><![CDATA[discrimination]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ECP]]></category> <category><![CDATA[elections]]></category> <category><![CDATA[military]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85888</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>Most of the election experts believe that no general election ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/free-fair-et-cetera/">free, fair, et cetera</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">M</span>ost of the election experts believe that no general election in Pakistan, including up to a point the 1970 poll, has been free, fair and democratic. It may also be argued that greater efforts have been made by all the parties that had their fingers in the pie to manipulate elections for predetermined results than for allowing the people to freely elect their representatives.</p> <p>The obstacles to free, fair and democratic elections have repeatedly been identified over the last many years. These include: entrenched socio-economic inequalities, denial of women’s rights to freely vote and contest elections, discrimination against minorities, pegging of election expenses at levels beyond the reach of most of the citizens, absence of mature and sensible politicians who would neither buy votes nor adopt other foul means, and the determination of strong elements in the establishment to define the state’s course and the essential features of the polity.</p> <p>While little was done during a greater part of our history to remove the barriers to fair election mentioned above, much attention was given to ensuring free casting of ballots and their fair counting. Possession of identity card was made essential for receiving a ballot paper, Unfair practices were identified and punishments prescribed for impersonation, bribery, use of unlawful pressure on voters, disruption of the poll process, stuffing and seizure of ballot boxes, and capturing of polling booths, etc, etc.</p> <p>These steps have greatly reduced polling day wrongs though, unfortunately, by non-state actors only.</p> <p>The outgoing government deserves credit for addressing some of the factors that impinge on the fairness of elections before, during and after the polls, and thereby increased the capacity of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to raise the fairness level of elections. The new law gives the ECP full autonomy in delimitation of constituencies and preparation of electoral rolls, though the judiciary has had difficulty in appreciating this autonomy, and the ECP itself has been unable to persuade the government to fully enforce the joint electorate system.</p> <p>The other healthy initiatives are: the ECP is required to make special efforts to improve enrollment of women and minorities as voters; provision has been made for an improved result announcement and communication system; and election can be cancelled at a polling station or in a whole constituency if the votes cast by women is less than 10 per cent of their registered strength. Further, ECP has been given extraordinary powers to regulate the working of political parties under the enlistment provisions that have resurrected the registration system which had been struck down by the apex court 30 years ago.</p> <div class="box shadow red_lines alignright"><div> <strong>The military has pleaded innocence. That cannot please any responsible citizen because he does not want the military to offer infra-dig explanations. The armed forces are the state’s asset. Their services cannot be minimised.</strong> </div></div> <p>Thus, it can be asserted that the ECP is better equipped than before to guarantee fair polls; in the limited sense this ideal is understood to a greater extent than in the past. The Commission relies a great deal on the effectiveness of the codes of conduct, and its ability to enforce them, that it has devised for candidates, the ECP staff, the media, the election observers, and even for the military, that is being deployed for election duty on an unprecedented scale. For these labours the ECP deserves much credit.</p> <p>However, the ECP has no answer to the many forms of pre-poll rigging we have witnessed and there are some other matters that could have been handled better.</p> <p>The way one of the major political parties has been decimated through means overt and covert amounts to pre-poll rigging. True, change of party label by candidates at election time is a common phenomenon. We saw some professional candidates switching over to PPP in 1988 under the impression that the military had no objection to its bid for power. We also saw long queues outside PML-Q’s doors in 2002 because the party was backed by the military ruler. (When the same party lost in 2008 its leaders openly alleged that the military had let them down.) What General Hamid Gul did to prop up IJI and hand over Punjab to Nawaz Sharif in 1988 is no secret.</p> <p>In view of this record, the extraordinary scale of party hopping is contrary to the law of probability.</p> <p>The military has pleaded innocence. That cannot please any responsible citizen because he does not want the military to offer infra-dig explanations. The armed forces are the state’s asset. Their services cannot be minimised. Indeed, one shudders to think of what might have happened if the armed forces were not there to strike the fear of God in the hearts of terrorists, extremists and wild politicians. But they must remain true to their oath, as the Quaid-i-Azam had advised them way back in 1948.Those who urge them to consider themselves above any organ of the state, or all of them put together, are not their friends. Above all, they must be, like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion.</p> <p>The ECP justifies the unprecedented military deployment on the grounds of unusual security threats. Its concerns are valid but they can be met by deploying the military at a short distance from polling stations. There are smaller security challenges that police can handle better, as an SHO told Gen. Asad Durrani with reference to the Lal Masjid operation. Giving military officers magisterial powers does not appear to be in the interest of free polling, democratic process, and the interest of the military itself.</p> <p>The appearance among candidates of a large number of agitators known for exploiting people’s belief for their own benefit, and displaying financial resources and confidence far in excess of their means, is causing much anxiety. Some persons belonging to banned outfits have taken refuge under already registered/enlisted parties.</p> <p>Is the ECP really barred from dealing with such blatant circumvention of rules? But then ECP might point to a well-known candidate’s burst of joy at receiving support from a controversial celebrity.</p> <p>The ECP admits that book that is an election symbol is being presented as The Book and those who do not vote for it are threatened with hell-fire. The ECP knows this but is it really unable to break from a bad precedent?</p> <p>One wonders how the authorities will condone the huge expenditures on TV campaigns and posters that have made this election the most expensive one in our history.</p> <p>The curbs on freedom of expression and the antics of the apparently coopted media persons on the TV are easily visible and the authorities’ inaction does raise doubts.</p> <p>Much can be said about the rough deal offered to the caretaker ministers but that is another story.</p> <p>Finally, the electoral rhetoric does not inform, educate and edify the electorate. Political rivals are no longer competitors for glory; they are enemies of the people who must be buried under mountains of vulgar expletives. That makes the present election dirtier than ever.</p> <p>All of this leaves a sour taste in one’s mouth. The goal of having a free and fair election remains a dream. Will it ever be realised? Secondly, those spoiling to come into power had a chance of succeeding in a fair contest. By attracting the stigma of illegitimacy, they will create problems for themselves and the country both.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/free-fair-et-cetera/">free, fair, et cetera</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/free-fair-et-cetera/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480.jpg" length="70765" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480-640x330.jpg" width="640" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>463</height><title>336287-electionvoteONLINE-1329215256-203-640x480</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>Youth vote: a desire for change</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/18-35/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/18-35/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:28:12 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Dialogue]]></category> <category><![CDATA[election]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jibran Nasir]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Karachi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category> <category><![CDATA[voters]]></category> <category><![CDATA[youth]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85859</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Natasha-2.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>Of this election, it has been said repeatedly that youth ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/18-35/">Youth vote: a desire for change</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Natasha-2.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">O</span>f this election, it has been said repeatedly that youth between the ages of 18 and 35 who make up roughly 44 per cent of all registered voters, will determine the outcome. It’s only natural that this is the case. Pakistan currently has the largest generation of young people since its inception, with approximately two-thirds of its staggering 207.8 million-strong population below the age of 30.</p> <p>But ‘youth’ couldn’t be a vaguer phrase to describe the demographic in question — in Karachi alone, where I was raised and where I live now, the realities of neighbourhoods that border each other are as viciously different as if they were on separate continents. You would think that this produces disparate tendencies when it comes to political behaviour, and to a large extent it does. At the same time, however, my hunch was that young people have more in common than their differences — specifically, a growing sense of urgency to take matters in their own hands, and a surprising sense of hope that their actions will have an impact.</p> <p>Twenty-six myself, I set out to speak to other young people, from areas as diverse as North Nazimabad, Lyari, Saddar, and Korangi, not necessarily to ask who they were voting for, but to understand what they wanted from the candidates in their constituency, and what stake they felt they had in electoral politics.</p> <p>Here in Karachi, we have become somewhat immune to violence.</p> <p>This year has seen some incredible movements take flight, in ways that were previously unimaginable: the Aurat March, which brought together thousands of women from across the city to march in solidarity on the streets; and the peaceful Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) rally in Sohrab Goth. For the crowd, who waited late into the night to see Manzoor Pashteen, the event seemed like a watershed moment, a pre-election example that heroes do exist among us, and that power need not be corrupt and cruel.</p> <p>Jibran Nasir, the lawyer-activist who has been defending one marginalised group after another, is contesting elections as an independent candidate and has a firm following in Karachi. “He’s showing people what democracy can look like,” says 22-year-old Omar, based in Clifton and educated abroad. “I’m voting for him because I believe in him. All that matters to me is that a voice like his should be given as many opportunities as possible to be heard.”</p> <p>Twenty-five year old Fatima, who is from Lyari and is a graduate (the first in her family) of Benazir Bhutto University, can’t vote for Nasir because he is not in her constituency. “He is my political idol,” she says. “I’m impressed by how fiercely he stands his ground when it comes to the issues he cares about.”</p> <div class="box shadow red_lines alignright"><div> <strong>This year has seen some incredible movements take flight, in ways that were previously unimaginable: the Aurat March, which brought together thousands of women from across the city to march in solidarity on the streets; and the peaceful Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) rally in Sohrab Goth.</strong> </div></div> <p>Her friend, Sidra, agrees that Nasir would have a lot of support if he was campaigning in their district.</p> <p>Lyari, long a PPP stronghold, is shifting: while wandering through its narrow streets, I saw a wall emblazoned with “No More PPP” and when PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari campaigned in the area, his motorcade was pelted with stones.</p> <p>Both girls have seen Lyari at its worst, and like so many other young people across the city, they are tired of the old order. “If you had come here three years ago, things were a mess,” says Sidra. “<i>Bori band lash</i>. Literally, if your household members left the house in the morning for work, you wouldn’t know if they’d return alive in the evening. It was a very real possibility that you’d get a phone call from the morgue instead. I used to see bullets fly before my eyes.”</p> <p>She and Fatima are part of the “smartphone generation” that came of age with the internet. Fatima goes online to learn about local movements and like-minded people. She followed the Aurat March and the PTM rally closely, and when she saw that the local feminist collective Girls at Dhabas were hosting a cycle rally, she attended. “I’m the oldest of seven sisters, and we always depend on male members of our extended family to help us get around,” she says. “If we could use cycles without judgement, our lives would become much easier.”</p> <p>Activism, even on the tiniest scale, is critical. In our largely apathetic political climate, young people need to feel like they can be a part of something good and bigger than themselves — and for women especially, they need ways to see that they have the power to steer the trajectory of their own destinies.</p> <p>Twenty-eight year old Muzammil, a self-identified socialist, has been mobilising youth in Kati Pahari and Korangi to vote in the upcoming elections, and runs a youth community centre in North Nazimabad. “Young people are looking for new faces. Even if people like Jibran Nasir don’t win, they allow people to feel like they’re being heard,” he says. But he also shares that there are a huge number of people who have lost faith in electoral politics.</p> <p>In Korangi, people are torn between asking for education for their children and clean water to drink. There are heaps of trash in front of their doors, sewage mixed into bathwater. The system has failed them time and again, and they simply don’t believe anymore that it can do anything for them.</p> <p>There are youth in North Nazimabad, in an area bordering Pashtunland, who support Tehreek-e-Labbaik or Mumtaz Qadri. Girls, he feels, will not have a huge voter turnout because they rarely leave the house on their own (the gender gap between male and female voters this election is roughly 12.5 million).</p> <p>He hopes that his centre, where computers are available to use, along with a library, dance and debate classes, and regular talks, will create a space where youth can engage, learn, and question, leading to better informed ideas and decisions. “I am a critic of the establishment’s role,” he says. “People I know have been picked up and have gone missing. Youth look at us and are afraid to be like us — afraid to raise their voice.”</p> <p>As a graduate student himself at a big, public university in Karachi, he laments the lack of activism on campus and student unions, and feels that both are a critical step in getting youth to raise their voices against injustices that they see around them, and to feel like they have the agency to change the circumstances in which their lives play out.</p> <p>But there are different ways to be agents of change. Twenty-year-old Arslan who lives in Saddar, is trying to figure out which party in his constituency has the strongest chance of being in the majority and forming a government. He attends meetings where candidates appear to speak, and after reading their parties’ manifestos beforehand, grills them about what they will do for the district if they get elected. He wants them to promise only what they will be able to fulfill. “The best way to figure out who to vote for is to fast forward time, leap ahead a couple of years, and see who is actually doing the work,” he says. “Anyone can say anything online. I’m interested in what people do on the ground, in what I can see for myself.”</p> <p>He cares about education: is deeply dissatisfied with his formal schooling, and is frustrated with the university admissions process. After taking tests, he is asked to pay a fee and his family does not have the kind of money he needs to pursue higher education in this country. “I’m not a rich man’s son,” he says. “It’s as simple as that.”</p> <p>He is tremendously cynical about the system, but is still willing to do the best that he can within it.</p> <p>Regardless of what will happen on July 25, to me this election represents a fascinating moment in our history. Yes, our former prime minister has been sentenced to 10 years in jail on charges of corruption; and yes, we are still cleaning the blood that has been spilled in the past weeks; and yes, entire communities are without clean water. But we are still a nation with millions of people who are coming of age with a desire to do things differently; a desire to build a better future. It’s imperative to hear what they have to say, and to give them the resources to mobilise. They seem to know exactly where they’re going.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/18-35/">Youth vote: a desire for change</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/18-35/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Natasha-2.jpg" length="157194" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Natasha-2-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Natasha-2-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Natasha-2.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Natasha-2.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>407</height><title>Natasha 2</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>A flawed idea or what</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/flawed-idea/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/flawed-idea/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:26:40 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Slider]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Special Report]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ECP]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Imran Khan]]></category> <category><![CDATA[NAB]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Nawaz Sharif]]></category> <category><![CDATA[PML-N]]></category> <category><![CDATA[PPP]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85893</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Farah-Zia.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>According to the constitutional scheme in place, there are two ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/flawed-idea/">A flawed idea or what</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Farah-Zia.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">A</span>ccording to the constitutional scheme in place, there are two institutions that are together responsible to hold elections in the country — the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the caretaker government. The qualifier “free and fair” for elections is a given. Of the two institutions, the caretaker government is to assist the ECP in creating a conducive environment for the holding of free and fair elections which essentially is the job of the latter.</p> <p>Apart from that, it is supposed to be involved in the day-to-day running of the government machinery and is expected to stay neutral.</p> <p>This time, for most part of its 60-day tenure, the role of caretaker government has remained a subject of huge debate which, in many instances, was found to be seriously lacking and controversial. Some observers of electoral politics have even concluded the caretaker government setup has utterly failed in bringing any neutrality and fairness to the system, and should therefore be abolished.</p> <p>This is a serious matter that needs to be looked into, not just from systemic and historical points of view but also by taking into account the ground realities whereby certain forces put pressure on the system to seek favourable outcomes in the elections. However, being the face of the government, the caretakers must bear all the brunt.</p> <p>To reiterate it, Pakistan is one of the very few parliamentary democracies in the world that rely on the concept of a neutral caretaker government, constituting of people who do not belong to the political class (our familiar term is “government of technocrats”). Normally, as countries go into election mode, the sitting government assumes an interim role in those few months — of holding the elections and minimal responsibilities otherwise — while the election commission has extraordinary powers. This is roughly what happens in India and United Kingdom.</p> <p>For Pakistan, it was only logical that the idea was first brought up in the assembly that was constituted through the party-less polls of 1985. That was the first election to be held after 1977, etched in the collective memory for allegations of rigging that led to the worst military dictatorship. The shadows of dictatorship still loomed large over that assembly. The dictator-turned-president saw to it that he reserved the power to dissolve the assembly and install a caretaker government which, understandably, was without a prime minister. This happened in 1988 when the government of then Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo was dismissed, the assemblies dissolved by then President Ziaul Haq and the first caretaker government was put in place.</p> <div class="box shadow red_lines alignright"><div> <strong>The idea of a caretaker government is essentially flawed. It is wrong to get ordinary people to run the government for a couple of months and then expect them to do it perfectly well.</strong> </div></div> <p>The idea, however, stuck. The subsequent ten or eleven years are a sorry tale of elected governments’ tenures cut short by presidents on the pressure of unelected forces, culminating in a full blown martial law in 1999. The caretaker governments in those years were all made controversial in one way or the other, failing to provide a level playing field to all contestants.</p> <p>After 2008, a serious effort was made to bring more stability to the system. New rules were devised and legislation made to strengthen the ECP and provide for a more neutral caretaker setup by allowing a say to both the government and opposition. If the leaders of the house and opposition failed on a consensus candidate as prime minister and chief minister, the matter was to be sent to bipartisan parliamentary committees. If they couldn’t decide, the matter was to be sent to the ECP along with shortlisted names sent in from both sides.</p> <p>This time around, the ECP’s decision that has been called into question is regarding the chief minister of the largest province. A Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf nominee, Hasan Askari Rizvi’s appointment was not approved by the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, and therefore allegations of pre-poll rigging began to be heard right ahead of the elections.</p> <p>But that is not the only reason why the caretakers’ role is under scrutiny. Many tend to think the interim government is responsible for the hundreds of postings and transfers of civil servants and other government officials. But again, under the constitutional scheme, the caretakers cannot possibly do this without the approval of the ECP. For example, at the outset, when the caretaker prime minister decided to change his principal secretary, he could only do it with the permission of the ECP.</p> <p>However, what the government <i>is</i> squarely responsible for is maintenance of law and order. As such, all the arrests of PML-N workers and leaders, and management of rallies on July 13, the day former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was supposed to return to the country, was the responsibility of the government. And it came under fire for ‘mishandling’ it.</p> <p>It is also being held responsible for not pre-empting the terrorist attacks on political rallies and workers. The truth is that whatever little duties it is supposed to perform, these terrorist attacks do fall under its purview. Again, the way the caretaker government has handled especially the aftermath of these terrorist attacks is neither mature nor professional.</p> <p>Read also: <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/days-poll/">All in a day’s poll </a><a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/free-fair-et-cetera/"><br /> </a></p> <p>It would be safe to conclude that the idea of a caretaker government is essentially flawed. It is wrong to get ordinary people to run the government for a couple of months and then expect them to do it perfectly well. This is not possible under any circumstances. It becomes doubly flawed when it gets mixed up with an accountability process already at work that is not deemed credible by the political players and carries the burden of political victimisation.</p> <p>The caretaker governments in 2018 operate in an environment where the accountability apparatus, NAB, is thought to be used by certain elements to effect particular outcomes. Unfortunately, the perception is that the ECP and caretaker governments are only aiding these elements in this period. Not the best way to hold elections by any standards.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/flawed-idea/">A flawed idea or what</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/flawed-idea/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Farah-Zia.jpg" length="141815" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Farah-Zia-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Farah-Zia-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Farah-Zia.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Farah-Zia.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>363</height><title>Farah Zia</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>A section that boycotts polls</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/section-boycotts-polls/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/section-boycotts-polls/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:26:27 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Dialogue]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ahmadi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ahmadis]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ahmadiyya community]]></category> <category><![CDATA[IHC]]></category> <category><![CDATA[jews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Khatm-e-Nabuwat]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Qadianis]]></category> <category><![CDATA[saleem ud din]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85860</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ahmadi_communityJuly18.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>With the onset of the upcoming national elections in Pakistan, ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/section-boycotts-polls/">A section that boycotts polls</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ahmadi_communityJuly18.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">W</span>ith the onset of the upcoming national elections in Pakistan, there is the usual fervour and speculation of who will become the next prime minister and leading political party of the country. While party workers plaster campaign posters and banners across the country, different groups in Pakistan are thinking of who to vote for as every household spews discussion regarding politics on the dinner table.</p> <p>This is true for almost all social groups in Pakistan with the exception of the Ahmadi community; a sect whose followers were declared non-Muslim under the Constitution (second amendment) in 1974 during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government. This was followed by Ordinance XX, which was issued during Ziaul Haq’s government in 1984 which stated that any Ahmadi declaring oneself a Muslim or preaching their faith publically, would be criminalised.</p> <p>Another measure the government was forced to take came in 2002. Under pressure from fundamentalist leaders, they made it necessary for Ahmadis to first sign a statement declaring the finality of Prophet Muhammad to be considered a Muslim voter. For Ahmadis, a supplementary list of voters was created, where they were placed as non-Muslim voters.<b> </b>This was a measure designed specifically to target Ahmadis and, as a result, all Ahmadis refused to vote in the 2002 elections and boycotted them because in order to vote, they were expected to identify themselves as non-Muslims, something that they could and would not do.</p> <p>Since then, the Ahmadiyya community has been collectively boycotting all elections and hasn’t voted in any of the subsequent elections. Ahmadis have always been a disenfranchised group in society, subjected to a number of inequalities. The fact that in order to be allowed to vote, they must first renounce their religion, is unacceptable to them.</p> <p>Even for this year’s elections, according to The Spokesperson of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan, Saleem Ud Din, “The forms issued for registration of the votes include the religion box and the Oath Declaration.”</p> <p>“My family has never voted, it’s just like a given,” is what Alina*, 19, who lives in Lahore said when inquired about what voting is like in the Ahmadi community.</p> <p>Ahmadis are specifically cornered and separated from the pool of other minority communities so there are separate lists for Ahmadis and everyone else. Though the elections are being held under a joint electoral system, there is a separate voter list just for Ahmadis, showing that these measures have been designed to exclude them from the rest of the population.</p> <p>Raza*, 28, a lawyer, said that “this can be equated to the way Jews were made to wear a star in public to show their identity in Germany.”</p> <p>This is a breach of Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistani which states: “All citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law.” The mere fact that Ahmadis are treated as second class citizens and denied the right to vote, is strange because voting and having a say in who heads the government is a simple human right that should not be decided on the basis of one’s faith. It is also sad to see that Ahmadis do not have any representation in the parliament or simply a voice in this country that can highlight their problems. On the contrary, there is open hate speech against them as was clearly seen in the speech of member National Assembly Captain ® Safdar in late 2017 and even in recent proclamation of standing with Section 295-C of the penal code.</p> <p>The Ahmadis that I spoke to have no hope of any reform, especially since most major political parties are trying to appease the right wing elements of our country. “Even PTI, the so-called harbinger of change, is prejudicial to the community,” said Saima*, 51, another Ahmadi woman.</p> <p>This time in particular, there is a lot more anti-Ahmadi sentiment than before. The Elections Act 2017 states that anyone can file a complaint against a person who they deem to be posing as a Muslim, after which the authorities will call that person upon notice and get signed a declaration that will prove that they are or are not a Muslim.</p> <p>In addition to this, the recent IHC judgment for the ‘Khatm-e-Nabuwat’ clause on July 5, 2018, by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, makes it clear that any person concealing their religion and identity would be openly defying the constitution. This judgment also states; “Qadianis should not be allowed to conceal their identity by having similar names to those of Muslims<b> </b>and<b> </b>every citizen of the country has the right to know which religious community the persons holding the key posts belong to.”</p> <p>What is alarming is the lack of will among political parties and leaders showing that protecting Ahmadis’ rights is on nobody’s agenda. When there is so much state-sponsored discrimination against a particular group that is already hated in society, it makes it easier for Ahmadis to be victims of mob violence and persecution.</p> <p><i>*The names been changed to protect identity. </i></p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/section-boycotts-polls/">A section that boycotts polls</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/section-boycotts-polls/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ahmadi_communityJuly18.jpg" length="36094" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ahmadi_communityJuly18-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ahmadi_communityJuly18-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ahmadi_communityJuly18.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ahmadi_communityJuly18.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>414</height><title>Ahmadi_communityJuly18</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>All in a day’s poll</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/days-poll/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/days-poll/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:24:57 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Special Report]]></category> <category><![CDATA[anp]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ballot paper]]></category> <category><![CDATA[CNIC]]></category> <category><![CDATA[elections]]></category> <category><![CDATA[HRCP]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85900</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-story.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>The election day is always a big challenge and those ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/days-poll/">All in a day’s poll</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-story.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">T</span>he election day is always a big challenge and those supervising the polling activity are supposed to ensure transparency in the process and maintain peace at the polling stations. It is also their duty to ensure voters cast their vote of their own free will. The procedures have to be simplified so that even an illiterate can be facilitated without wasting time.</p> <p>Historically, objections have been raised about poll-day rigging by the losing candidates regardless of whether they have been able to prove that. In the last general elections and by-polls, there were complaints about facilitating voters of a political party, casting of fake votes, manipulation of results, intimidation of political agents and so on.</p> <p>Against this backdrop, the ECP has redefined certain procedures with the aim to make the above-mentioned violations difficult. Besides, it has taken certain measures that have decreased dependency of voters on political parties’ workers at the polling station.</p> <p>Though the effectiveness of these decisions depends on the seriousness with which these are implemented and the violators punished, one can discuss them in the context of procedures followed on the election day.</p> <p>It all starts with the polling staff and polling agents nominated by candidates reaching the polling station ahead of time. The polling staff is supposed to reach the place on the night before because this ends the risk of their reaching the polling station late.</p> <p>An objection in this respect is that the polling staff will not be provided official accommodation and some of them will stay at the residences of candidates. In the last elections, there were complaints about polling staff receiving gifts from candidates at whose place they had stayed. Though availability of official accommodation has not yet been ensured, the government has announced an allowance for the polling staff and advised them not to stay with the candidates.</p> <p>Prior to the start of the polling activity, the presiding officer shows empty ballot boxes to the staff and polling agents and places a seal on it. This has happened in the past as well but this time the polling agents also have the option to place their seals as well. In fact, this provision has been added to give a more effective monitoring role to the polling agents representing candidates.</p> <p>Similarly, the polling agents will be able to challenge votes by submitting Rs100 per case with the presiding officer if it is difficult to establish that a person is not genuine voter at that time. Furthermore, they will also be allowed to take snaps of Form 45 and Form 46 showing votes tally and count used, unused, destroyed ballot papers, etc.</p> <p>An issue voters face on the polling day is how to locate their votes and the polling stations. On occasions, they have to move from one station to the other and ultimately they leave without casting their vote. “To address this problem, the ECP has developed a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based Polling Station System which helps voters physically locate their polling station on Google Map,” says Babar Raza, Incharge, PTI’s Election Management Cell in Attock. The ECP has geo tagged tens of thousands of polling stations so far.</p> <p>He says earlier more resourceful candidates would be in a better position to facilitate their voters in this regard but now technology has made it easy for all. He points out that there was a complaint during by-poll in NA 125 that voters of certain parties were facilitated by security personnel and polling staff whereas others were made to wait endlessly or were turned back. To handle this, he says, “the ECP has disallowed voter slips with the name, picture or symbol of the candidates. The slips with vote numbers issued to voters will not have any identification so that the staff cannot guess which party they will vote for and support.”</p> <p>An ECP official says that in order to detect fake voters, coloured photographs of voters have also been printed on the voting lists available at the polling stations. Photographs were printed in the last year’s by-polls as well but these were black &amp; white, and in many cases unidentifiable. He says in the absence of photographs, the burden of identifying voters would be on the polling agents but now the polling staff could easily do that by matching these with the photographs on CNIC as well as with the voters’.</p> <p>“To end the chances of tampering, presence of unconcerned people has been barred within a radius of 100 metres from the polling station,” he adds.</p> <p>Now we come to the tabulation of results and their transmission, a highly contentious issue during past elections. The contestants would cast doubt on the process and claim the results were changed at later stages. To attend to this issue, an android-based Result Transmission System (RTS) app has been developed that helps election officers to send the results to the ECP in real time.</p> <p>The presiding officers will send snaps of Form 45 (containing tabulated results of the polling station) and Form 46 about Ballot Paper Account (showing the number of ballot papers received, un-issued, taken out of the ballot boxes, tendered, challenged and spoilt via their phone to the ECP). “The app also automatically uses GPS to record the location from where the results have been sent and the time of the upload,” the official adds.</p> <p>Read also: <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/distant-observers/">Distant observers</a></p> <p>It does not end here as the ballot papers have to be transported from the printing press to the districts and ballot boxes to the ECP’s strong room after the polling. This process will be completed by the polling staff under the protection of the army which is seen differently by different quarters.</p> <p>Abdul Quayyum Kundi, an independent candidate in NA- 249 Karachi, endorses this decision and says protecting ballot papers is important as these may have to be reproduced for recounting, etc, after the elections. On the other hand, organisations and parties like HRCP, ANP and others fear deployment of army personnel inside the polling stations and giving them a role in transporting ballot papers may compromise the transparency of the whole process. The unprecedented deployment of around 371,388 troops at polling stations is being seen by them with suspicion.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/days-poll/">All in a day’s poll</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/days-poll/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-story.jpg" length="76384" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-story-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-story-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-story.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-story.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>370</height><title>Irfan story</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>One is to 130</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/one-130/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/one-130/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:24:47 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Political Economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Slider]]></category> <category><![CDATA[dollar]]></category> <category><![CDATA[economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[IMF]]></category> <category><![CDATA[kaiser bengali]]></category> <category><![CDATA[rupee]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85902</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>The value of Pak rupee against US dollar is constantly ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/one-130/">One is to 130</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">T</span>he value of Pak rupee against US dollar is constantly depreciating and has reached an alarming level of around Rs130 for a dollar. This downward slide has created panic in the market that may lead to further pressure on the currency. Apart from increasing the burden of outward payments on the government, it is feared this devaluation in rupee will lead to a sharp rise in inflation rate.</p> <p>This is not surprising because the country overwhelmingly depends on imports including fuel used to run vehicles and produce electricity, machinery, raw material and finished goods. So, it is natural the increase in the cost of these products will result in major price hike.</p> <p>What perturbs people more is they have no idea how long this downward slide will continue and at what value the dollar will settle down against rupee. The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has devalued the rupee for the fourth time since December 2017 to check the depletion of its foreign-exchange reserves. In the past, it has been floating dollars from these reserves in the market to artificially control the exchange rate at a particular level. But now as the reserves have reached a critically low level, it cannot afford to do that further.</p> <p>The situation at the moment is that the rupee has fallen down by almost 21 per cent against dollar from December 8, 2017 to date. As the exchange rate between the two currencies is determined by their relative demand in the forex bank market, this trend shows the country’s outflows far exceed the inflows in terms of dollars. This pressure has always been there but people did not feel the brunt because the value of rupee was kept artificially high through, what experts call, cosmetic and ad hoc measures during the tenure of Ishaq Dar as finance minister. He built reserves through all means including foreign loans, sale of Eurobonds and sukuk bonds, ‘gift’ worth billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, funds transfers from China and so on. At one time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also mentioned that Pakistani rupees was about 20 per cent over-valued.</p> <p>Economist Dr Kaiser Bengali is quite sceptical about the situation and does not see a reprieve for rupee in the short run. He thinks it will fall to around Rs150 against dollar by the year end and the reason he cites is simple. “I see no change in fundamentals and ad hoc systems don’t work long-term.” He says if against export of every Rs100 the country keeps on importing goods worth Rs215, the situation cannot improve. “The debt servicing in dollars also puts pressures on foreign reserves whereas inflows depend mainly on exports and remittances sent from abroad.”</p> <p>This increases the country’s current account deficit which is the difference between all outflows and inflows. A report by Tresmark, a research platform for treasury &amp; markets, states the current account deficit in Pakistan is averaging around US$1.4 billion per month as against US$0.95 billion last year. This $1.4 billion deficit, it says, is neither sustainable nor is it easy to finance by borrowing. According to this report, though exports and remittances have shown improvements, the import bill is pulling the economy apart. The country’s exports during July 2017-June 2018 were recorded at $23.228 billion against the imports worth $60.898 billion during the same period resulting in trade deficit of $37.67 billion.</p> <p><strong>Economist Dr Kaiser Bengali is quite sceptical about the situation and does not see a reprieve for the rupee in the short run. He thinks it will fall to around Rs150 against dollar by the year end and the reason he cites is simple. “I see no change in fundamentals and ad hoc systems don’t work long-term.”</strong></p> <p>Bengali believes things cannot improve till structural changes are made as ad hoc measures will land the country into deeper crisis. He says instead of seeking foreign loans, Pakistan needs to strengthen its industry which is fast closing down due to influx of cheaper finished goods. He points out that “many factories in SITE area have been shut down and their land used for real estate purposes which helps mafias make easy money.”</p> <p>Others measures that Bengali suggests include revival of industrial sector, diversification of exports, value addition of exportable products, tax collection from different sectors instead of further burdening the industry, reducing unnecessary expenditure on imports, closing down departments that have become redundant after the 18^th amendment and cut in defence expenditure.</p> <p>“I can’t understand why we are importing cigar from Cuba, fruit from Thailand and cosmetics worth $400 million from different countries,” he comments. By collecting higher taxes and reducing expenditures, the country can reduce its dependence on foreign loans.</p> <p>No doubt Pakistan has taken measures to curb imports that include imposition of regulatory duties on import of a large number of items, this did not have the desired impact.</p> <p>The immediate solution in sight at the moment is an IMF bailout that the previous government did not opt for in order to avoid public backlash. The caretaker government is also not in a position to go for it; so it is quite likely that the government formed after the upcoming elections will approach the fund for this purpose.</p> <p>Arshad Bajwa, a financial analyst based in Lahore, believes the unpopular decision to devalue the rupee is taken by the caretaker government as the political government avoided taking unpopular steps. “Though there were devaluations before the completion of last government’s term, these were comparatively minor and after the removal of Ishaq Dar as finance minister.” He hopes the rupee will settle after a bailout from IMF “but it would come with strings attached and the new government might have to promise measures like increasing tax base, removing subsidies and so on.”</p> <p>While devaluation of currency leads to inflation in an overwhelmingly import-based economy, it does benefit the export sector. The reason is that the products of a country with over-valued currency are not competitive with those of competitors that have not supported their currencies artificially. However, Anis ul Haq, Secretary, APTMA, Punjab thinks this drastic devaluation has not benefited them because they import both raw material including raw cotton and synthetics and machinery. “This would in fact add to our input costs.”</p> <p>He says that the cotton crop is suffering badly year after year and the industry has imported 4 million bales but the government is not doing much to reverse the situation. “The government must provide incentives to the industry if it wants to boost exports and not expect rupee devaluation to do wonders.”</p> <p>The country’s widening trade deficit and ways to reduce it were also a topic of discussion in the Senate recently. Senator Nauman Wazir talked about friendship between Pakistan and China and said the country was not benefiting from it. His concern was that the trade gap between the two countries was massive as Pakistan exported goods worth $1.5 billion to China while its annual imports from there were above $15.5 billion. “A higher share in China’s global imports can help Pakistan reduce its trade deficit,” said Wazir.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/one-130/">One is to 130</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/one-130/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan.jpg" length="168951" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>372</height><title>Irfan</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>Liberal Islam and Islamdom</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/liberal-islam-islamdom/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/liberal-islam-islamdom/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:22:59 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Political Economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category> <category><![CDATA[liberal Islam]]></category> <category><![CDATA[liberalism]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85919</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aziz-dad.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>“Consult thy reason and let perdition take others all: Of ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/liberal-islam-islamdom/">Liberal Islam and Islamdom</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aziz-dad.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><i>“Consult thy reason and let perdition take others all:</i></p> <p><i>Of all the conference Reason best will counsel and guide.</i></p> <p><i>A little doubt is better than total credulity.” — </i>Abū al-Alā al-Maarr,</p> <p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">T</span>he emergence of Islam after the end of the cold at the centre stage of history poses several challenges for the social scientists because it defies all the existing frameworks of explanation. Since its emergence in Arabian Peninsula, Islam carved out its own historical trajectory, but in the subsequent centuries its destiny intermingled with destiny of other diverse civilizations, religions and ideas. What we are witnessing today as Islam is not an entity frozen in time and space; rather it is a product of factors, actors, ideas and experiences that are both indigenous and exogenous to its society and history.</p> <p>One of the difficulties in explicating presence of Islam in the post-religion era stems from the fact that the dominant analytical framework is a product of disenchanted epistemology, but it is entrusted with the task of studying an enchanted worldview. This epistemological incongruity contributes to the failure of scholarship about Islam by what is labelled as liberal Islam. The engagement of Islam with history and profane affairs has also made it more terrestrial and less transcendental.</p> <p>Unfortunately, the scholarship of what is termed liberals and Islamists fail to see involvement of transcendent in mundane, and influence of mundane on the representation of transcendent reality. This essay tries to take stock of contemporary debate between proponents of liberal Islam and Islamists to show how both camps are trapped within the dogmatic enclosure and unable to analyse factors emanating from not so much ideological and theological context than changing dynamics and objective realities in the Muslim societies.</p> <p>Despite the heterogeneity of historical and social forces operating on Islam, the analysis, diagnosis and prognosis of modern scholarship on Islam suffers from essentialist, ahistorical and anachronistic view. It is owing to the fact that their scholarly view is still trapped in the classical frameworks that were evolved in the formative and consolidative phases of modernity. As a result the chasm between ways of seeing and reality is increasing. The liberal debate regarding place of religion in the public sphere also suffers from ossified mind that has taken liberal principles as the articles of faith. In other words both religion and liberalism cultivated a culture of total rejection by wiping out even the iota of doubt to establish enclosure for the truth of their respective worldviews.</p> <p>Liberalism is a social and political thought that attaches importance to individual rights, and individual freedom of choice. It is this emphasis on freedom in various domains of personal and social life that enabled the West to create a new society and economy. Liberalism came to the Muslim lands in tandem with colonialism. Since colonial rule was based on the binary logic of the West versus the Rest, the liberal ideals including freedom of choice and decision were not extended to the colonialised. That is the reason a vanguard of liberalism, John Stuart Mill, refused to extend the liberal concept of liberty to Indians for he deemed “barbarians have no rights as a nation.”</p> <div class="box shadow red_lines alignright"><div> <strong>Corruption of words precedes the eruption of violence. The proponents of liberal Islam and Islamism are strange bedfellows for they subscribe to the vocabulary employed for the war of ideas.</strong> </div></div> <p>Also, the advent of liberal thought in Muslim societies coincided with the gradual decline of Muslim power in different parts of the world on the one hand, and ascendency of the Western colonial powers on Muslim lands on the other. So the first exposure of Muslims with liberalism was its material and military facets not intellectual. The Muslim intelligentsia started soul searching after witnessing disappearance of old order of things and withering away of their power. Impressed by military might, scientific achievements and impressive production of knowledge, the Muslim intelligentsia tried to make Islam compatible with liberal ideals.</p> <p>At the core of liberal project of Muslim intellectuals in colonial period was deep sense of inferiority in terms of intellectual capital and economic prosperity. It was in that historical context, the structure of liberal thought in Islam took shape. With the passage of time the thought has taken an essentialist form in post-colonial period for the binary schema of thinking has become even more palpable and instrumental to universalise liberal agenda after the end of cold war.</p> <p>The radical Islam of today is not a result of people’s love of some archaic Islam of the past, rather it is a product of modernity. But the reductionist view of liberals regarding Islam sees 1400 years of Muslim history through the experiences of the last 17 years after 9/11. Such a view reduces diversity of historical experiences and processes to single cause. As a corollary of teleological reasoning of liberalism, liberal scholarship tries to forge a false cause by explaining the effect. The dominance of teleology and diminishing of space for diversity in liberal discourse has given birth to a dogmatic enclosure of thought. This process denotes closing to liberal mind to pressing questions of the day that demands imaginative solution to intractable challenges of today’s world, including place of religion at what Francis Fukuyama calls, “The End of History”.</p> <p>What is peddled today as moderate Islam by scholars, popular writers, public speakers and liberal intellectuals is a product necessitated by the needs of will to power not will to knowledge. Now the proponents of liberal and Islamist narratives are trapped in the straight jacket of binary logic. Both see the world in black and white, and thereby close the possibilities for emergence of critical reason and creative imagination.</p> <p>Both liberal Islam and Islamism feed on each other to perpetuate their hegemony on truth about Islam. In their recently published book <i>Islam After Liberalism</i>, Faisal Devji and Zaheer Kazmi have brilliantly exposed the intellectual hegemony of liberal Islam. According to Devji and Kazmi, “The intellectual hegemony of liberal Islam has also placed limits on any alternative, even nonviolent vision of Islamic thought and practice that challenges the liberal state.” They are of the view that “This has also bolstered institutional orthodoxies that have little room for the free expression of ‘heretical’ religious tropes and impulses. In this way, rather than expanding the sphere of Muslim liberty, Muslim liberalism can act as a disciplining force, buttressing religious orthodoxy together with the authority of the state.”</p> <p>The ideological war that is being fought on binary trenches of liberals and Islamists create a zone where every thought that ventures to leave its position is killed. Algerian scholar and thinker, Muhammed Arkoun, declares such unthinkable zone in Islam as ‘Official Closed Corpus”. Like religion, liberalism has also created its own official closed corpus where all the possibilities of burgeoning of the flowers of creative, aesthetic, hermeneutical and critical thought are nipped in the bud for the liberal theology follows the rule of either with us or them.</p> <p>Due to its strong soteriological and theological character in late modernity, liberalism can be included among what German philosopher Karl Jaspers calls post-axial age religions. The situation is worsened because of neoliberalism’s thrust to impose its monolithic political and economic agenda across the globe through ideological apparatus and war machine. Hence, we see great leveling of diversity across the globe through liberal wars for salvation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and other parts of the world.</p> <p>In the post 9/11 period, liberal Islam found a new life with emergence of an array of institutions and actors that want to infuse a moderate version of Islam. The liberal tendency to see supporters of the ideology of radical Islam as the followers of ancient-cum-tribal Islam of Arabia is a mistaken view. The new cadre of actors and writers espousing liberal Islam have not emerged on the intellectual scene due to an intellectual urge for empathetic understanding, but because of the fact that moderate Islam sells well in the market of ideas of today.</p> <p>Faisal Devji and Zaheer Kazmi think that intellectual hegemony of liberal Islam is consequence of commodification of Islam. “This has been in no small measure a consequence,” claim Devji and Kazmi “of the state’s role in the construction of ‘moderate’ Islam and the immense governmental resources ploughed into the counter-extremism agenda, which has helped commodify it.”</p> <p>A common strand between the thought of different actors and institutions projecting moderate Islam is the binary nature of their discourse and belief in linear view of history. They interpolate the philosophy of linear history of liberalism to define the historical trajectory of other societies including Muslim societies across the globe. Under the guidance of linear view, the liberal Islam tries to divert multiplicity of historical trajectories into the single path dictated by essentialist liberalism.</p> <p>Today the reductionist view of history has permeated into intellectual discourse among Muslim intelligentsia of liberal persuasion. An oft-repeated mantra of liberal scholarship is the dire need for reformation in Islam. The movement of reformation took place in the Western historical context where social, economic and political contradictions and dynamics necessitated a movement that called for reforms. It succeeded because there was an intellectual homework behind that provided alternate ways of dealing with self, society and the universe. Subsequently, the intelligentsia in the West created an intellectual space where issues related to private, pubic, state and religion were scrutinised through philosophical lens. It was the expansion of horizons of mind that subsequently paved the way for expansion of pubic sphere for other spheres of life and entities, institution, ideas and actors of society.</p> <p>Unfortunately, the very foundation of liberalism in Islam during early modernity is marked by imitation and instrumental approach to create space for Muslims within new web of power relations created by colonial structure. Thus, the tendency among the liberals to mimic the outward manifestation, and proposing reforms in Islam on the same line as Christianity. Such an approach was nonstarter for the reason that reforms or revolution is demanded when old order either disintegrates or cannot cure the ailments begotten by it. Montgomery Watt in his books <i>Muhammad at Mecca</i> and <i>Muhammad in Madina</i> attributes startling success of Islam in Arabia within the short period of 19 years to the disintegration of tribal system, and iconoclastic message of the prophet Muhammad.</p> <p>Since the inception of Islam, Muslim societies witnessed collapse of the systems of thought and power structures myriad times. Subjugation of Muslim societies to colonial power was also a result of disintegration of old system of power and worldview. The question arises here is: Why Muslim societies failed to reform or form themselves anew by equipping with new paradigm of seeing and managing the world? They failed to develop a new paradigm in modern age because of intellectual deficit. When the objective conditions were ripe for change and the old order was disintegrating, the Muslims did not have an alternative worldview because Muslim intelligentsia had not done their intellectual homework. Take the example of Mughal Empire. When the empire collapsed, it left only the rubble of old edifice and poetry not a philosophical legacy to make sense of the new age.</p> <p>Today the situation is similar, as the Muslim scholarship has failed to craft a vocabulary that resonates with their existential condition. Even than the conceptual categories of modern knowledge are not invested with thought that connects concepts with the lived experiences of Muslims. Hence, the intelligentsia resorts to alien words that carry their own historical bag, baggage and bigotry. This tendency to rely too much on alien terminology without investing thinking in it is due to intellectual lethargy. Appropriation of terminology is a normal practice but it is employed to ground claims in the historically contingent contexts. It is important to merge experience of contingent in the universal vocabularies so that the conceptual categories loose their timelessness quality to capture lived experience of the life world.</p> <p>Orientalist scholarship is criticised not only for its reductionist and essentialist approach, but also for its impacts on perception and representation of people about themselves. Once the spurious scholarship is accepted without the knowledge of actors and factors contributed to discursive formation of object of the knowledge, then it is internalised and the understanding is communicated through same categories that at the same time defame and distort. The movement for reform and revival of learning of Eastern knowledge in colonial India was initiated not because of relevance or their intrinsic worth. It is started because the Eastern knowledge was instrumental to colonial policy of subjugating the mind.</p> <p>According to Nasir Abass Nayyar the Eastern knowledge was beneficial for the reason that through this knowledge the colonial power can subjugate the mind. Nayyar in his Urdu book “M<i>abad Nau Abadiat: Urdu Kay Tanazur Mein </i>(Postcolonialism: the Context of Urdu)” claims that it was not a novel idea. Actually, it was derived from Royal Asiatic Society whose purpose of overall research about Eastern knowledge was to establish hegemony over the Eastern mind.</p> <p>The conceptual blunder of liberal scholarship about Islam is that it has propensity to conflate political Islam with theological Islam. Therefore, every political or militant facet of Islam is attributed to Islamic theology. This conceptual mistake leads to analytical error of reading religious phenomenon in essentialised way at the expense of rootedness of religious practices in the complexity of socio-political and economic processes.  It is very important to take into consideration the nuances that contribute to analytical edifice of scholarship on Islam. But sifting of each category in the modern discourse about Islam is a daunting task. So the easy way out is to employ ready-made terms without the operation discursive analyses. It results in the failure of imagination and forces mind to take refugee within the comfort of ideological cocoon.</p> <p>Marshall Hodgson was one of the exceptional scholars who invested deep thinking into analytical categories employed for the study of Islam. Whenever a word fails to define a phenomenon or process <i>suigeneri</i> to Islam, he coined words to avoid conceptual pitfalls. In his magisterial book <i>The Venture of Islam,</i> Hodgson identified the problems with the use of analytical categories without taking into consideration the locale, context and relationship of sacred to contingent. His repertoire of conceptual categories is rich because of intellectual rigour and clarity. Unlike liberal scholarship that treats Islam as theology and society confusingly, Hodgson restricts “the term ‘Islam’ to the <i>religion </i>of Muslims, not using that term for the far more general phenomena, the society of Islamdom and its Islamicate cultural traditions.” Islamicate refers to the Islamdom of the society, which “has been naturally shared in by both Muslims and non-Muslims who participate fully in the society of Islamdom.”</p> <p>Corruption of words precedes the eruption of violence in society. The proponents of liberal Islam and Islamism are strange bedfellows for they unconsciously subscribe to the vocabulary employed for the war of ideas. Conflation of categories proves beneficial to the Islamicists because they interpreted every political issue related to Islamdom to Islam as religion and vice versa. The repertoire of vocabulary in the ideological arsenal of liberals and Islamists has turned into sanguinary concepts because they have assumed timeless characters to serve the will of power. There is no denying the fact that Islam contains elements of violence in its theology, but at the same time it has creative, aesthetic, literary, artistic and other dimensions as well.</p> <p>Most of the “analysts” especially those associated with think tanks tend to see strong causal link between Islamic religious injunction and practices of Muslims. In reality, like other ideologies and beliefs, there is a huge chasm between theory and practice among Muslims. This is evident from social behaviour and civic norms of Muslims in Muslim societies, and the Muslims living in non-Muslim societies like the West.</p> <p align="right">(<i>To be concluded</i>)</p> <p><i> </i></p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/liberal-islam-islamdom/">Liberal Islam and Islamdom</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/liberal-islam-islamdom/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aziz-dad.jpg" length="219413" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aziz-dad-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aziz-dad-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aziz-dad.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aziz-dad.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>411</height><title>Aziz dad</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>Distant observers</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/distant-observers/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/distant-observers/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:22:37 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Special Report]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ECP]]></category> <category><![CDATA[elections]]></category> <category><![CDATA[foreign office]]></category> <category><![CDATA[NGO]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85887</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-box1.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>Defining the limits and role of the observers, the ECP ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/distant-observers/">Distant observers</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-box1.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">D</span>efining the limits and role of the observers, the ECP has issued some guidelines and criteria that the observers must fulfill. For example, the observers should remain unbiased, establish their credentials as trustworthy, respect local laws, traditions and customs, abide by the advice of the local law-enforcing authorities, limit their stay in the country for a pre-defined period and so on.</p> <p>Though these guidelines appear fine on paper, there are apprehensions the situation on ground is not conducive for the observers and these conditions have created problems for them. There are others as well who believe compliance with these requirements is in their own benefit and ensures their safety.</p> <p>To start with, one can have a look at the complaint made by the EU Election Observation Mission (EOM). In a letter written to the ECP, the mission has complained that its members were awarded accreditation too close to the election day (July 13), which has restricted their ability to monitor the campaign process, the overall environment in which elections are being held and the working of election administration at the local level.</p> <p>The EOM asserted their methodology focuses on long-term observation and their observers are usually deployed four to five weeks before the election day wherever they operate.</p> <p>Though the mission has not alleged the delay was intentional, some local observers believe the process to grant approvals has been made complex. A local political analyst says the ECP rules facilitate international observers but the inclusion of the Foreign Office (FO) and security agencies in the clearance process is resulting in extraordinary delays. He adds that on one hand the permission is given late and, on the other, they are being asked to leave within 4 to 6 weeks of their arrival.</p> <p>Read also: <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/poll-deployment/">Poll deployment</a></p> <p>Similarly, there are reports that local observers are finding it difficult to report openly or blame powerful circles for trying influence election unduly. A local observer says on condition of anonymity, that many organisations, including the one that he works for, are awaiting renewals of their registrations which are subject to security clearance. In this situation, he says, they cannot take the risk of estranging certain quarters.</p> <p>The head of a leading local NGO has faced criticism for claiming that 90 per cent of the respondents they have approached believe there is level playing for all parties contesting elections. The same person has observed raising hue and cry about rigging is tantamount to rigging as it creates an environment in which voters of a particular party get demoralised. His critics, who also want to remain unnamed, claim the organisation he represents is having problems with a national institution for quite some time and he has to be cautious while commenting.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/distant-observers/">Distant observers</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/distant-observers/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-box1.jpg" length="69308" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-box1-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-box1-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-box1.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Irfan-box1.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>399</height><title>Irfan box</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>Urdu poetry through history</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/urdu-poetry-history/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/urdu-poetry-history/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:20:59 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Literati]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Shah Waliullah]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Syed Muhammed Abul Khair Khasfi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Urdu]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Urdu poets]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Urdu Shairi Ka Siyasi Aur Tareekhi Pasmanzar]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85866</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/scan0004.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>The relationship between objective reality and artistic output has been ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/urdu-poetry-history/">Urdu poetry through history</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/scan0004.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">T</span>he relationship between objective reality and artistic output has been a tricky one. Many believe that one-to-one relationship is an ideal— where the current societal affairs are reflected in a more direct manner in the art being created. This is also justified by those who object to the arts being too aloof from the humdrum of daily existence and realities.</p> <p>The relationship as is evident in this book is far more complicated, complex and totally defies the one-to-one equation. It can be said that the rise of Urdu poetry is literature characterised by an age in turmoil. While the Muslim rule in the subcontinent, in pomp and circumstance, had few rivals, the medium of expression was Persian (with the dialects too being written in but seen as a minor tradition). As the canopy of the Empire was torn and became shredded, Persian dominance declined and the dialects became more active to be recognised as a legitimate vehicle for expression and gradually given a proper place both as literary genres and language.</p> <p>The destruction of Delhi gave proportionate importance to the erstwhile provinces that became the centres of power and patronage. The Urdu poets, travelled to and fro seeking patronage, some got it, others pined for it being not worthy of their stature.</p> <p>But it is questionable whether the poets saw the world, constructed about four hundred years ago, falling apart with a commensurate realisation as to what was happening. Probably not, because the poets or the people with insight were not in love with what was being lost as they were also not in lure of the anarchy that was being let loose around them.</p> <p>In other words, there was no coherent approach to the crises that were erupting all over. There was no proper sense of national sentiment, neither was there a conviction about the justification of the monarchy or the rule of absolute authority. Hence, the author is not very convincing, for he has premised two assumptions which did not exist in any concrete shape. One, that the question of loyalty should have been derived from one’s association with religion; and two, that it was the love of the land that should have been the prime reason for the poets and the people to rally around.</p> <p>The colonists had captured Bengal in the middle of the eighteenth century; Delhi too had become a titular monarchy by the beginning of the nineteenth century. The other seemingly independent states like Awadh and Hyderabad Deccan, too, were quite beholden to the rising power and authority of the various colonial powers interplay in the subcontinent. Punjab had been lost to the Sikhs by the middle of the eighteenth century and what was left was a spectacle in disintegration.  All of this found an amazing spread in the entire body of Urdu literature, because it prospered in that era. The lack or absence of a rudder was the basic question raised by the poets. There was no rudder and if the author thinks that there was one in the puritanic interpretations extended by Shah Waliullah, he is simply overstretching its importance.</p> <p>The vast array or the mosaic was too complicated for any definitive design and new political realities, like the Hindu dominance in sheer numbers, was glaringly becoming a crucial factor. The author also seeks valiantly to prop up the unity that the Muslim rule afforded, and in that, betrays the contradiction within the Empire, especially Aurangzeb’s use of force to arrive at one. In the process he overstretched himself and his rule to ensure a permanent tailspin of decline.</p> <p>Nevertheless, the book throws valuable light on the works of both the major poets and those that were not that well-known, as one got to know through their poetry their reaction to what was happening. It appears that most were reacting to the situation that was foundering around them and seeking temporary refuges in the states, hoping those to be of a more permanent nature. It also points towards the various fissures that became huge and were not to be bridged, no matter what. The poets were at the mercy of the circumstances unleashed on them.</p> <p>The best thing about the book under review is its price, which is minimal given the price of books which are being marketed these days. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the genuine reader to purchase a book because of the prohibitive costs involved. Minus the reader, the book is only a commercial venture between the publishers and bulk purchasers, who could be anyone from the libraries to institutions where books are stored rather than read.</p> <p>The price tag is low because the book has been published by an organisation which is publicly funded. But many such organisations— propped up from time to time getting grants from the government for publication of literature, considered to be of a serious nature— either do not get a publisher or if published, result in an expensive product. Some of these organisations have not been able to publish consistently as the inflow of funding has been rather inconsistent. When the times are good, however, the spurt of activity increases and books are published at a faster rate.</p> <p>Usually with such institutions, the problem is that of distribution and of making the copy accessible to the reader. Marketing of books has been their weakest point, as it is known to happen that stacks of published books rot in storages for years and then are sold as garbage or waste or junk. It appears that in the last few years, the National Book Foundation has been actively publishing good quality books and also consistently holding book fairs which have drawn plenty of book lovers.</p> <p><strong>Urdu Shairi Ka Siyasi Aur Tareekhi Pasmanzar (1707-1857)<br /> Author: Syed Muhammed Abul Khair Khasfi<br /> Published by: National Book Foundation<br /> Pages: 429<br /> Price: Rs290</strong></p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/urdu-poetry-history/">Urdu poetry through history</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/urdu-poetry-history/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/scan0004.jpg" length="1237749" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/scan0004-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/scan0004-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/scan0004-669x1024.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/scan0004-669x1024.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>945</height><title>scan0004</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>“Speak thou no word of politics”</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/speak-thou-word-politics/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/speak-thou-word-politics/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:20:54 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Political Economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bahai]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bahai community]]></category> <category><![CDATA[religion]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85921</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Arshad.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>As Pakistan gears up for the July 25 general elections, ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/speak-thou-word-politics/">“Speak thou no word of politics”</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Arshad.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">A</span>s Pakistan gears up for the July 25 general elections, the smallest religious minority of the country remains unmoved, because one of the social principles of the Bahai faith is non-involvement in partisan politics. The community will still vote, however, because they vow to be obedient to the government.</p> <p>There are an estimated 7.5 million registered voters in Karachi right now, but 180 of them are forbidden by their faith, for the rest of their lives, to disclose to anyone who they voted for. If any of these Bahais were to reveal this information, they would be penalised.</p> <p>The possible penalties include the withdrawal of their right to vote in the election of their spiritual assemblies, which govern the affairs of their faith.</p> <p>“Bahais are strictly prohibited from taking part in partisan politics,” Riaz Ahmed Shirazi, a senior member of the Bahai community, told <i>The News on Sunday</i>.</p> <p>“For violation of our religious codes, the administrative body or the spiritual assemblies at local and national levels have the right to reject the opinions of such persons.”</p> <p>He said Bahais believe in the privacy of their votes as a mark of respect. “Political parties accuse and expose their opponents, and never miss an opportunity to blame them for every ugly incident.”</p> <p>The principle of keeping one’s vote private also applies to the election of their spiritual assemblies. Shirazi said Bahais have local spiritual assemblies in almost every major city of Pakistan.</p> <p>Community members aged 21 and above gather each April to elect their nine-member assemblies, he added. “When we elect a local spiritual assembly, only God knows who voted for whom.”</p> <p>Bahais have a simple voting process for their spiritual assemblies. They offer a blank piece of paper to every voter, who writes down names of nine people whom they wish to make a member of the assembly.</p> <p>The nine most repeated names are then tasked with carrying out the Bahai community’s spiritual responsibilities for a year or until the next assembly is to be elected.</p> <p>Bahais do not hold a contest between members or campaign for any of them during the election of their spiritual assemblies. To be eligible, however, all of the nine members should be Bahais, committed participants in religious activities and mentally active.</p> <p>Shirazi said Bahais believe in bringing people together and ending all differences between them. “We can’t permit Bahais to become tools of unprincipled politicians, because love and mutual respect can’t be achieved through dirty politics.”</p> <p>Azizullah Lor, another senior Bahai community member, said their faith is based on the simple philosophy of spreading love and respecting all human beings, but partisan politics causes rivalries.</p> <p>Lor said the Bahai population of Pakistan is between 3,000 and 4,000. Since they cannot bring a major change in the political landscape of the country, it is a waste of time, money and energy to augment antagonism among the people, he added.</p> <p>This world was not created for hate, he said. “Bahais can’t support a person who takes part in politics. Religious matters deal with spiritual or non-material values. They shouldn’t be mixed with politics, which focuses on material ideals.”</p> <p>Lor said politics, particularly partisan politics, divide the people instead of bringing them together, as most political parties pit people against one another by creating misunderstandings between different groups. “Party politics reinforces the idea of ‘us versus them’”, he added.</p> <p>However, he said, the Bahai faith discourages all forms of dictates. “Our children have the right to believe or not believe in our religion. When our children become adults, they can choose to follow or quit our faith.”</p> <p>One of the sections under the topic of ‘Detachment’ in ‘Illumine My Spirit: Bahai Prayers and Meditations for Women’ reads: “O handmaid of the Lord! Speak thou no word of politics; thy task concerneth the life of the soul&#8230;”</p> <p>On May 25, 1992, the Universal House of Justice, the supreme ruling body of the Bahai faith, directed that active support of an individual who has announced his candidacy for political office is not permissible to Bahais.</p> <p>Abdul Baha, son of Bahai faith founder Bahaullah, had provided clear instructions regarding the community’s abstention from political matters: “If any person wishes to speak of government affairs, or to interfere with the order of government, the others must not combine with him because the Cause of God is withdrawn entirely from political affairs.”</p> <p>He said the political realm pertains only to “the rulers of those matters; it has nothing to do with the souls who are exerting their utmost energy to harmonising affairs, helping character and inciting [the people] to strive for perfection. Therefore, no soul is allowed to interfere with [political] matters, but only in that which is commanded.”</p> <p>The provisional results of the 2017 national census put Karachi’s population at 14,910,352 against 9,339,023 registered in the 1998 count, showing a growth of 59.66 per cent.</p> <p>The Bahai community in the metropolis, however, is a drop in the ocean. There are only 45 families, with an estimated 380 members, who reside in different parts of the city. They have sectors of five to six families in their respective localities that function under Karachi’s spiritual assembly.</p> <p>To ascertain the exact number of Bahais, <i>The News on Sunday</i> contacted the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, but its deputy census commissioner, Muhammad Riaz, said community-wise data was not collected during last year’s population and housing census.</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/speak-thou-word-politics/">“Speak thou no word of politics”</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/speak-thou-word-politics/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>4</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Arshad.jpg" length="61467" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Arshad-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Arshad-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Arshad.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Arshad.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>347</height><title>Arshad</title><alttext></alttext><caption>Bahai Hall Karachi.</caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>Poll deployment</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/poll-deployment/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/poll-deployment/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:20:54 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Special Report]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ECP]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor]]></category> <category><![CDATA[military officials]]></category> <category><![CDATA[PML-N]]></category> <category><![CDATA[polling stations]]></category> <category><![CDATA[PPP]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85891</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Umer-army-box.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>ECP has declared 20,831 polling stations sensitive and in each ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/poll-deployment/">Poll deployment</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Umer-army-box.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">E</span>CP has declared 20,831 polling stations sensitive and in each polling station two personnel of Pakistan army will remain present on the polling day on July 25. “Two security officials will be present inside and two outside the sensitive polling stations, while deployment will be lower at non-sensitive polling stations,” says a military official.</p> <p>In total, there will be 85,307 polling stations, set up inside 48,500 buildings as more than one station may exist in the same building. A total of 371,388 security forces officials will be deployed for election duty.</p> <p>This will include regular on service army troops as well as retired personnel who would be called back for duty on the polling-day. Army deployment will start three days before the polling day.</p> <p>It is not clear what role the army personnel deployed inside the sensitive polling stations will be playing. Both military officials and ECP authorities have clarified that army troops would not be involved in any kind of activity related to the process of vote counting or processing of results. Army troops will be providing security to the polling stations, polling staff and election material, including ballot papers and ballot boxes.</p> <p>The Awami National Party (ANP) has formally opposed the idea of deploying army troops inside the polling station, saying it would reinforce the allegations of rigging. Leaders of most political parties have expressed reservations, off-the-record, on army’s deployment on election day inside and outside the polling stations.</p> <p>“The armed forces will only support the electoral process and have no direct role in the conduct of elections,” says Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, military spokesman.</p> <p>Read also:<a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/limits-expenditure/"> Limits of expenditure </a></p> <p>Two major political parties, PML-N and PPP, have accused serving military personnel to be involved in pre-poll rigging and have also alleged that senior intelligence officers are harassing their voters and candidates. Other political parties have expressed concerns that the military establishment has favourites in the election process and that it might go out of the way to help its favourite. That may lead to loss of credibility and legitimacy of the election process.</p> <p align="right"><i> </i></p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/poll-deployment/">Poll deployment</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/poll-deployment/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Umer-army-box.jpg" length="81417" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Umer-army-box-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Umer-army-box-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Umer-army-box.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Umer-army-box.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>374</height><title>Umer army box</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description>Karachi : Pakistani army soldiers, stand guard next to election material at the city court, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, May 10, 2013. Pakistan is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on May 11, the first transition between democratically elected governments in a country that has experienced three military coups and constant political instability since its creation in 1947. The parliament's ability to complete its five-year term has been hailed as a significant achievement. AP/PTI(AP5_10_2013_000067A)</description></image> </item> <item> <title>Meanwhile in Karachi</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/meanwhile-karachi/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/meanwhile-karachi/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:20:21 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Footloose]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Slider]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Brazilian]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Fifa]]></category> <category><![CDATA[football]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Karachi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Lyari]]></category> <category><![CDATA[world cup]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85836</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/4.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>I must begin with a confession: I am a ‘footix’. ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/meanwhile-karachi/">Meanwhile in Karachi</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/4.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">I </span>must begin with a confession: I am a ‘<i>footix</i>’. Originally, Footix was the name of the mascot of the 1998 World Cup — an anthropomorphic rooster referring to the mythologised Gallic roots of France — which hosted the event.</p> <p>Following the victory of <i>les</i> <i>Bleus</i>, the word acquired a new meaning in French popular parlance, though: it came to designate these versatile sports fans who only support the national team when it wins during large scale competitions, and whose understanding of the said sports’ history and subtleties tends to be minimal.</p> <p>That is me, sadly. Not that I relish sudden eruptions of sporting nationalism, <b>as </b>they rely on the bizarre conviction that ‘we’ won while in fact all we did, as a nation, was to watch from our sofa 11 young men sweat it out to victory.</p> <p>And yet, every four years, I wait for the World Cup with anticipation, looking forward to these moments of collective tension and camaraderie, when our imagined nation briefly seems to acquire some texture and emotional density. I know that it’s just a game and that the feeling won’t last. For a few days and nights, it feels damn good to share this illusion of belonging and to momentarily suspend our differences, pretending that everyday xenophobia and racist state policies can be erased by the magic of 11 men of various shades running after a ball.</p> <div id="attachment_85852" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/3.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-85852" alt="Football always wins: After the defeat of Brazil by Belgium." src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/3-300x200.jpg" width="300" height="200" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Football always wins: After the defeat of Brazil by Belgium.</p></div> <p>Three years after the worst terrorist attacks in French history (one of which targeted a football match, incidentally), the stakes were even higher. Since the <i>annus horribilis </i>of 2015, French flags had become synonymous with collective mourning — the morbid fetish of a nation that only seemed to reconcile itself in death. Like many other French citizens, I was longing for this opportunity to reclaim public spaces for more joyful collective ceremonies.</p> <p>In these times of national emergency, what was I doing in Pakistan? A nation infatuated with cricket, where only the proverbial few would be following the global event unfolding in Russia.</p> <p>A new book project had brought me back to Karachi and, for me at least, national re-union would have to wait. But as the French team shifted gears, especially after its match with Argentina (4-3), I started longing for a vibrant environment where I could unleash the beast of a supporter lurking inside me.</p> <p>This longing logically drew me to Lyari, Karachi’s oldest and most combative working class area, known as Pakistan’s ‘Mini Brazil’ for the devotion of its residents towards football. There is no better time to take stock of these feelings than the World Cup. On this occasion, the walls of Lyari’s <i>gullies</i> are adorned with the flags of competing teams — to which local residents often add that of Pakistan, eagerly waiting for their country to join the show. In every neighbourhood, public squares become open-air projection halls, while in some localities the residents block traffic and sit in the middle of the street to watch the game on a makeshift screen.</p> <div class="box shadow red_lines alignright"><div> <strong>There was something mesmerising in the fervour of this crowd watching every move of the players&#8230; a brilliant dribbling action by Paul Pogba thus invited the following comment by one of my neighbours: “Bakri bana dya!” (He’s really played it like a goat!).</strong> </div></div> <p>I attended several of these events with local friends and, as an intermittent sports fan, always felt humbled by the mix of expertise and sheer passion that infuses the relationship of Lyariites with football. Even more striking is their ability to see beyond their preferences to acknowledge a team’s or a particular player’s skills.</p> <p>Undoubtedly, the Brazilian team remains the most popular of them all in the neighbourhood. This elective affinity has to do with the identification of many Lyariites with Black Africa, courtesy of the trade networks (including the slave trade) that gave birth to Pakistan’s ethnic African community, known as the Sheedis or Makranis.</p> <p>But when I watched the defeat of Brazil at the hands of Belgium on July 6, I was surprised to see local youths and elders cheer whenever the ‘rival’ team scored. And at the end, the audience celebrated just the same — Brazil could stand defeated but football would always win.</p> <p>While in Karachi, watching the World Cup Final in Lyari went without saying. On the much-awaited night of July 15, I gathered a group of like-minded friends and we headed towards Karachi’s densely populated inner city, which on that night was even more buoyant than usual. Our initial plan was to watch the match in Mombasa Street — yet another trace of Lyari’s African roots, which during the World Cup becomes a shrine of the popular religion, prone to the most intense outbursts of emotions during and after the matches.</p> <div id="attachment_85850" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/11.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-85850" alt="The boys from ‘Little Brazil’: Waiting for the kick-off of the Brazil-Mexico match, Chakiwara on July 2." src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/11-300x199.jpg" width="300" height="199" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The boys from ‘Little Brazil’: Waiting for the kick-off of the Brazil-Mexico match,<br />Chakiwara on July 2.</p></div> <p>A couple of days after the Mastung attack, security concerns were running high, however, and the paramilitary Rangers banned these local gatherings to regroup football fans in larger and supposedly safer venues. This is how we ended up in Gabol Park, where hundreds of local residents of all ages (but almost exclusively male, save for a few young girls) sat on the ground to attend the final.</p> <p>There was something mesmerising in the fervour of this crowd watching every move of the players with rapt attention and dissecting every action with the expertise of real connoisseurs — a brilliant dribbling action by Paul Pogba thus invited the following comment by one of my neighbours: “<i>Bakri bana dya</i>!” (He’s really played it like a goat!). For all its expertise, however, the audience — which mostly consisted of manual workers, petty traders and municipal employees providing the bulk of Lyari’s labour force — sometimes seemed unfamiliar with the French team. Local elders, in particular, seemed a bit disoriented and I overheard one of them ask his friends: “<i>France wale kale wale ya lal wale</i>?” (Are the French Blacks or those in Red?).</p> <p>Local youths, for their part, had seen the French coming. Among the younger generation, Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann were already household names before the World Cup. So when the latter scored a penalty at the 38^th minute, the kids went on the rampage, jumping, screaming and throwing fistfuls of sand in the air. It took a severe <i>danda</i>-wielding volunteer to restore order — until the next goal.</p> <p>I somewhat expected a more intense conclusion to this joyful celebration. True, the crowd threw its hands in the air and cheered for the new world champions. But there were no smoke canisters, no frenetic dances, no processions in the streets. I guess there’s only so much you can ask of Lyariites.</p> <p>For all the unprejudiced love that they showed for football during this edition, a World Cup final without Brazil does not have the same flavour. Or maybe Lyariites have understood better than anyone else that in football as in any other collective endeavour, final victories have a bitter taste, as they herald the return to the ordinary. The only ones rejoicing were probably the local politicians who eagerly waited for this moment to resume their campaign, which was put on hold throughout the competition. As one of the friends accompanying me put it, “<i>Football khatm, abhi politics shuru</i>!” (Football is over, now politics can begin).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/meanwhile-karachi/">Meanwhile in Karachi</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/meanwhile-karachi/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/4.jpg" length="293823" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/4-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/4-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/4-1024x628.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/4-1024x628.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>379</height><title>4</title><alttext></alttext><caption>The calm before the storm: Watching the world cup final at Gabol Park, Lyari, Karachi. — Photos by the author</caption><description></description></image> </item> <item> <title>Helsinki and after</title> <link>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/helsinki/</link> <comments>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/helsinki/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2018 22:20:05 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>TNS Editor</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Dialogue]]></category> <category><![CDATA[TNS_Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[helsinki summit]]></category> <category><![CDATA[president trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[putin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[russia]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[US]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://tns.thenews.com.pk/?p=85861</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/March-against-Trumps-visit-to-the-UK.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div>Dear All, President Trump finally came to Britain. He had ...</div></p><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/helsinki/">Helsinki and after</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/March-against-Trumps-visit-to-the-UK.jpg" width="90%" /></div><div><p><strong>Dear All,</strong></p> <p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #ff0000;">P</span>resident Trump finally came to Britain. He had dinner with the PM and tea with the Queen, and he tried very hard to ignore the hundreds of thousands of people who congregated in London in a ‘carnival of resistance’ to protest him and his visit.</p> <p>The anti-Trump March was an astonishing display. People of all ages, from toddlers to pensioners, participated with a wide array of messages and witty banners rejecting the President’s anti-immigrant and misogynist views and statements. The lovely summer weather helped to give the protest a lovely festive air. Protestors turned the event into a carnival of unity and tolerance, and they were buoyed by the support of the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who had allowed the use of the Trump baby balloon in London during the protest.</p> <p>Meanwhile, President Trump gave an interview to <i>The Sun</i> in which he said that Boris Johnson would do a better job than Theresa May who was “making a mess of Brexit negotiations”. He then promptly denied he’d said this and declared it was “fake news”, upon which <i>The Sun</i> published the audio of the whole interview, which completely demolished his fake news allegation. According to the British PM he also advised her “to sue the EU”. Trump strolled distractedly through his visit to the Queen and then flew off to his golf course in Scotland.</p> <p>The surreal nature of Trump’s presidency and his travels continued with the Helsinki summit where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and made remarks in which he appeared to side with the Kremlin rather than with his own government agencies.</p> <p>The US intelligence community maintains that the Russian leader was active in measures that harmed the Clinton campaign and hence helped Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election. But in the presser Trump appeared to side with Putin despite what his own Intel agencies held, he became defensive and said the fact that he beat Clinton had nothing to do with the Russians — “We won that race. And it’s a shame that there can be even a little bit of a cloud over it&#8230; We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president.”</p> <p>His remarks stunned the US intelligence community with former CIA Director John Brennan declaring that what the president had said was “nothing short of treasonous”. The US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has also found evidence of Russia’s interference during the US presidential campaign. Twelve Russian military officers have been indicted for allegedly hacking and leaking<b> </b>emails, yet despite this the President’s remarks seemed to suggest that he did not believe the Intel regarding Russia’s involvement in the 2016 campaign.</p> <p>Typically, the very next day following criticism from many Americans, including senior Republicans, Trump seemed to backtrack on his remarks saying he had said, “would when he actually meant wouldn’t”. Yet, there is no going back from the show of unity by the two leaders at Helsinki, no denying a bromance that seemed to be based on the premise that their critics were simply lying conspirators.</p> <p>The US president’s stance has astonished observers some of whom cite the Helsinki summit as being the start of a post-Cold War phase of history where, “the post 1945 order of international values and ethics may be ending”, as a <i>Guardian </i>editorial put it.</p> <p>Over the next few days, no doubt Trump will make many more remarks and accusations and create many more mini dramas, but the fact remains that Helsinki marks a turning point in how the US treats Russia: the US now doesn’t even mention, let alone condemn, Russia’s role in Ukraine and despite Britain’s request to do so, President Trump didn’t raise the issue of the Novichok poisoning in the UK of the Skripals with his Russian counterpart.</p> <p>The fact is that now Putin is basking in the glow of the football World Cup that his country hosted. And he seems as pleased as Trump with the fissures in the EU and the undermining of Nato. One image from the final ceremony of the tournament perfectly sums up Putin’s position: that in which he alone of the world leaders and officials on the podium is protected from the pouring rain by a large umbrella. Despite the evidence linking Russia to the results of the Brexit referendum and the US presidential election, he is now being protected from the condemnation pouring down. And in this storm the umbrella is being held up by his new best friend — President Trump.</p> <p>Best wishes</p> </div><p>The post <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/helsinki/">Helsinki and after</a> appeared first on <a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk">TNS - The News on Sunday</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/helsinki/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <enclosure url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/March-against-Trumps-visit-to-the-UK.jpg" length="184037" type="image/jpg" /> <media:content xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/March-against-Trumps-visit-to-the-UK-55x55.jpg" width="55" height="55" medium="image" type="image/jpeg"> <media:copyright>TNS - The News on Sunday</media:copyright> </media:content> <media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/March-against-Trumps-visit-to-the-UK-660x330.jpg" width="660" height="330" /> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/March-against-Trumps-visit-to-the-UK.jpg">]]></content:encoded><image><url>http://tns.thenews.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/March-against-Trumps-visit-to-the-UK.jpg</url><width>618</width><height>347</height><title>March against Trump's visit to the UK</title><alttext></alttext><caption></caption><description></description></image> </item> </channel> </rss>