Bharat Rakshak

The British Council has done excellent work recently when it tested the English language skills of schools in 18 districts of Punjab and found that 62 per cent of the private school teachers and 56 per cent of the government teachers registered the lowest possible scores, i.e., they lack even basic knowledge of English.

Support for the Kashmiris also came from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan. “We salute the Kashmiri people who have made sacrifices generation after generation in their rejection of Indian occupation, and in their struggle for their right of self-determination,” Dr. Shireen Mazari, PTI Central Information Secretary, said.

Another person to join the pride-wagon is former doctor of the Pakistani cricket team, Dr Tauseef Razzaq. In his debut project, Razzaq is all set to bring his own version of a patriotic film to the big screen. The idea, he says, is to “recreate a spirit of national pride.” In an interview with The Express Tribune, he says, “When a generation loses the ‘spirit of this nation’, the country’s soul passes away.” Like many, Razzaq feels Indian content on TV is a threat to Pakistani culture. For this reason, he feels that advertisements, films and songs should remind the current generations of Pakistan’s history and values. “My film will have a trickle-down effect. Kids today, who are watching Indian advertisements, do not have the same spirit as our generation,” says Razzaq.

As far as funding is concerned, Razzaq says the ISPR had, at the time, allocated its production budget to Samjhota Express but they still managed to help him by granting access to certain areas in terms of shooting locations

While Pakistan is demanding that the U.S. pave the way for its long pending natural gas pipeline from Iran by easing sanctions, a new report claims that the gas purchase agreement and pricing should be renegotiated or else the project could be a death sentence for the country’s economy.

The report by Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SDPI), titled “Rethinking Pakistan’s Energy Equation: Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline”, indicated that since the price of the gas purchased under the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project is linked to crude oil prices, it is unfortunate that the country blatantly ignored the energy dynamics and its pricing while going for this deal.

The authors’ calculations reveal that the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project is not the panacea for Pakistan’s energy problem, but more of a bailout plan. The country will have to look at creative options that are not limited to unconventional and alternate energy sources. Almost 50 per cent energy needs are met through natural gas. Trashing claims that the pipeline is the only solution for Pakistan’s energy crisis, the report said it becomes crucial to re-negotiate the import price of natural gas at earliest.

Pakistan has a combined power generation capacity of 24000 MW which it is unable to meet due to scarcity of natural gas supply.

Iran has already offered $500 million but Pakistan says it would need a total of $2 billion to complete its share . The issue of sanctions was raised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when he met President Obama recently but officials did not confirm if the U.S. had softened its stand.

According to the 2013 agreement with Iran, Pakistan will import an amount of one billion cubic feet a day (BCFD). This would last for 20 years with an option to extend it for another five years. The report said Iran has already constructed more than 900 km (out of 1100 km) of the pipeline on its territory at a cost of $700 million. The report regretted that the country had not taken any substantial step to initiate the process of tapping the country’s shale gas potential except developing a framework. Pakistan ought to follow the Indian example here to maintain high economic growth, it said.

The agreement with Iran stipulates construction of Pakistan’s side of the pipeline by December 2014. If Pakistan fails to meet this deadline it will be liable to pay heavy daily penalties, which can run into a million dollars per day.

The report said if the Pakistani government is serious about this project, it must renegotiate the price and also the cut-off date penalties, for which provisions are present in the original agreement.

Jammu and Kashmir - Black Day October 22 or October 27?

New Delhi, Oct. 27 (ANI): For decades Pakistan has sponsored the observance of October 27 as a 'Black Day' to protest the entry of Indian forces into J and K in 1947.

Functions, demonstrations in Pakistan and POK and protests in front of Indian missions have been par for the course. So much so, that in India, this Pak narrative has gone uncontested.

It was, therefore, with a great deal of satisfaction that I read about the functions in Srinagar and Jammu observing October 22 as a 'Black Day'. This was the day when tribal hordes with the connivance of the Pak state, devastated large parts of J and K and changed the course of sub-continental history.

Since we in India have a hazy sense of the past, it is necessary to explain the significance of the tribal invasion of October 22 which was a water-shed event with serious consequences that are continuing today.

The tribal invasion violated the Standstill Agreement between Pakistan and the Maharaja of J and K, resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people Hindus and Muslims alike, laid the seeds for disrupting the secular harmony of the state and led to the division of J and K that continues till today. It caused the first Indo-Pak war and subsequent wars that resulted in both governments spending billions of dollars on weapons, including nuclear ones, that could otherwise have been spent on development.

There is sufficient scholarship to establish that Pak rulers, stung by the Radcliffe award, encouraged a rebellion to advance their agenda of the two-nation theory in Kashmir.

Maj. Gen. Akbar Khan who was in charge of the operation produced a plan that the Kashmir rebellion should look like a revolt of the people of J and K against its non-Muslim rulers so that the civil unrest would provide the cover for military operations. As he himself wrote "as open interference and aggression by Pakistan was obviously undesirable, it was proposed that our efforts should be concentrated upon strengthening the Kashmiris themselves internally." In fact, Akbar Khan claimed that he met Sardar Ibrahim Khan, the future President of POK and others in August 1947 and encouraged them to take up arms against the Maharaja.

As a precursor, Pakistan violated the Standstill Agreement of August 15, 1947 and stopped supply of essential goods like petrol, oil, food, salt, sugar etc. to J and K, effectively blockading the state.

The plan of the tribal invaders was to capture Srinagar. However, for the tribesmen the primary purpose was plunder and not Jihad. Hence, they tarried in Baramulla and the rest is history.

Pakistan has perpetuated the myth that the tribal raiders were liberators and came to Kashmir to fulfil their religious obligation of jihad because Muslims were being killed in Jammu in communal riots.

It is an established fact that communal riots started in Jammu in late August 1947 when Hindus and Sikhs uprooted from Pakistani Punjab came to Jammu from Sialkot and Gujarat areas. Stories of atrocities committed by Muslims on them instigated the riots to target the Muslims in Jammu.

But nothing can be further from the truth that the tribal raiders came to protect their Muslim brethren. The raiders actually trampled J and K's sovereignty, dishonoured Kashmiri women and looted Hindus and Muslims alike. Eyewitness accounts like that of Khawaja Abdul Samad reveals "their attack had totally devastated Muzaffarabad, the homes of Hindus and Muslims were looted, shops were plundered, places of worships were not spared ; they tore down Mandirs and desecrated Masjids".

Baramulla fared no better. In Akbar Khan's own words Baramulla which used to be a bright and cheerful place now looked as if an earthquake had shaken it.

If the intention was to help the Muslims of Jammu, the million dollar question is why was the attack not carried out from Sialkot which is less than 30 miles from Jammu or from the side of Gujarat (Punjab) which provides easy access to Jammu province? Why were the tribes sent towards Muzaffarabad, Uri, Baramulla and Srinagar where Muslims were in a great majority and there were no communal disturbances? And why after two months?

Moreover, the government of Pakistan remained silent from late August till October on the issue of communal violence in Jammu. Neither Jinnah nor other Muslim Leaguers condemned the communal violence in Jammu or criticised the Maharaja for failing to control the violence.

Why?

The reason was that the Pak government expected the Maharaja to accede to Pakistan and they did not want to do anything to annoy him. In fact, Jinnah was so sure of the accession that he claimed that 'Kashmir is in my pocket' and refused to negotiate with Sheikh Abdullah. Later, when it was realised that the Maharaja was not going to accede to Pakistan, it was decided to unleash the tribesmen. The prize was Srinagar and cleansing the area of Hindus and Sikhs. Protecting the Muslims of Jammu was not on the agenda.

How valid is Pakistan's observance of a Black Day on October 27 to coincide with the arrival of the Indian army in J and K? The fact of the matter is that after the lapse of British paramountcy J and K emerged as an independent state in August 1947. It signed a Standstill Agreement with Pakistan and was to negotiate certain issues of it with India. Its sovereignty was violated and the Standstill Agreement shattered by Pakistan organising the tribal invasion on October 22. J and K's sovereignty was not violated on October 27 when Indian troops landed in Srinagar because by then the Maharaja had signed the 'Instrument of Accession' and J and K had become a part of India.

For India, it is important to realise the continuity in Pak policy since 1947. As in 1947, even today, policy makers in Islamabad continue to believe that they can get Kashmir by force. October 22, 1947 in fact, marks the beginning of Pakistan's asymmetric war with India that continues till date.

The planners and the perpetuators of the tribal invasion are the foremost enemies of the Kashmiri nation. Unfortunately, all the crimes committed by them have been camouflaged under the name of Jihad and Independence by successive Pakistan governments and their cronies in J and K.

Tragically, we in India and especially those in J and K who bore the brunt of the tribal invasion have chosen to forget the events of October 22, 1947.

Hats off, therefore, to the organisers of the Srinagar and Jammu events for observing October 22 as the real Black Day by recalling the nightmare of the tribal invasion that forever changed the status of J and K and the history of the sub-continent.

The views expressed in the above article are that of Mr. Salim Haq By Salim Haq (ANI)

SSridhar wrote:If the day the IA entered J&K is a 'black day', then what does one call the day when the Pathans were *first* let loose by Jinnah & Liaquat Ali Khan to loot, pillage, rape and murder the Kashmiris ?

Anujan wrote:http://tribune.com.pk/story/623233/with ... nal-pride/

Another person to join the pride-wagon is former doctor of the Pakistani cricket team, Dr Tauseef Razzaq. In his debut project, Razzaq is all set to bring his own version of a patriotic film to the big screen. The idea, he says, is to “recreate a spirit of national pride.” In an interview with The Express Tribune, he says, “When a generation loses the ‘spirit of this nation’, the country’s soul passes away.” Like many, Razzaq feels Indian content on TV is a threat to Pakistani culture. For this reason, he feels that advertisements, films and songs should remind the current generations of Pakistan’s history and values. “My film will have a trickle-down effect. Kids today, who are watching Indian advertisements, do not have the same spirit as our generation,” says Razzaq.

ISI, TFTAs and Dawood is getting into Pakistani entertainment industry in a big way. There is also rumors that a channel called Bol TV is owned by Dawood and ISI. Apparently it would carry "their point of view".

As far as funding is concerned, Razzaq says the ISPR had, at the time, allocated its production budget to Samjhota Express but they still managed to help him by granting access to certain areas in terms of shooting locations

They are making a movie about it now?

MurthyB wrote:Some great khabbars about Pakistaniat spreading far and wide:

ISLAMABAD : Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces the first formal test of his economic policies this week during a visit by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It won’t be easy.

Last month the IMF saved Pakistan from a possible default by agreeing to loan $6.7 billion over three years, but its condition of quarterly reviews means the cash is not guaranteed.

A team led by the IMF’s regional adviser, Jeffrey Franks, is visiting this week to see if Pakistan is trying to meet conditions intended to promote reforms

“Their willingness to do the painful but necessary things up front suggests they’re more willing to tackle this problem than their predecessors,” said the diplomat, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.

“Governments have tried to “game” the IMF, and achieved partial success each time,” two former Fund officials concluded in a recent paper.

Just 0.57 percent of citizens paid income tax last year, contributing to one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world, which leaves public services woefully underfunded.

Foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of four week’s worth of imports, and several large repayments fall due in the next six months.

Many economists argued that the IMF loan package had aimed to save the country from the consequences of its financial recklessness because the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million was considered too important to fail.

Nawaz has started to tackle the problem by paying off government debts to energy companies and slashing populist subsidies for power. But the debts are already piling back up.

MULTAN

The DPO said that a criminal gang had recently surfaced in Cheechawatni. He said the gang members stabbed women “for leaving their houses after sunset”. He said most of the women were attacked in shopping areas.

He said the injured women had told police that the assailants had told them that they were not allowed to leave their homes and that “it was against the Sharia law for women to go shopping”.

Amid persistent problems in building foreign currency reserves, Pakistan has demanded some concessions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) such as increasing loan amount and lowering reserves targets.An IMF team, led by its Washington-based mission chief Jeffery Franks, on Monday began discussions with State Bank of Pakistan officials in Karachi. The two sides would review the possibility of relaxing targets on the external front in addition to evaluating progress on the first quarter’s targets, sources told The Express Tribune.As Pakistan passed through the first quarter of the current fiscal year, there was a growing realisation on both sides that the quantitative targets of net foreign exchange reserves and ceiling on net foreign currency swaps assigned to the SBP were stringent, sources said.The IMF realised that the balance of payments projections were over-ambitious, if not unrealistic. The current account deficit during the first quarter of the current fiscal year remained at $1.23 billion – slightly less than what the IMF had projected for the whole financial year.The SBP managed to meet most of the targets for the first quarter but it unnerved the markets when it started purchasing dollars from the sport market, which put the rupee under pressure, resulting in over 7% devaluation in just three months.
However, the SBP failed to meet the projection of having $5.6 billion reserves by end September. Despite being in the IMF programme, the gross foreign exchange reserves depleted to $4.8 billion by end September, which further melted down to $4.086 billion by October 14 – less than even one month import bill cover.The situation has brought both sides to a point where they will have to make adjustments in the macroeconomic framework just after less than two months of the approval of a $6.7 billion programme, sources said. The other option would be massive rupee depreciation, if the county tries to achieve the unachievable targets.Pakistan has sought an increase in disbursements, as it would receive only $2.2 billion from the IMF this year as against repayments of the previous loan to the tune of over $3 billion, showing a gap of about a billion dollar, sources said. However, the Fund was not immediately ready to give this relaxation and asked Islamabad to first successfully complete first two reviews of the programme.
The area where the IMF has indicated showing leniency is reviewing the requirements of purchasing dollars from the market.The flaw in the original framework was that the IMF had hoped that the rupee depreciation would make the country’s exports more competitive – an assessment that underestimated global economic conditions. The SBP’s ill-preparedness for the July negotiations was also the reason behind setting the overambitious targets.
The relaxation in the condition of building reserves may give a comfort to the SBP but would not soothe the market, which is closely monitoring the fast depleting reserves, according to an independent economist who wished nonymity.However, according to finance ministry officials, there are problems in the short term but the situation is expected to turn around in March next year. From March, the economic managers hope to receive big payments from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank, floating a $650 million Euro bond and receiving some bilateral assistance, said the officials.

We Pakistanis certainly have a lot to learn from how people reacted to Nirbhaya’s case in India ( Lahole Vila Qubbat). In India, people did not say that there are many Nirbhayas so why care about this one. They did not say that the west has a poor record on gender equality so why should we be judged. They certainly did not say that Nirbhaya was never assaulted, and the incident was a western plot to demonise their country. Instead, they accepted that this tragedy happened due to shortcomings within their own society and vowed to improve on them.Nirbhaya became a symbol of women and the people of India decided that the current state of their country was unacceptable to them. They envisioned a better and safer India, and took to the streets to fight for it, regardless of how other countries or societies fare on the matter compared to it. Instead of questioning it, they welcomed international support and violence against women became a key development priority in India. Within a year, the perpetrators were brought to trial and sentenced. Furthermore, the Indian parliament passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, improving Indian laws related to sexual offences.It would be wonderful if we in Pakistan showed Malala the support that Nirbhaya received from her country. We, at the very least though, can refrain from reacting negatively towards her. Reservations towards young Malala, who is nothing short of a hero, are baseless and unnecessary and I would like to touch on a few of them here.
First, there is no need to feel offended or judged by the international attention Malala has received. It does not paint Pakistan as a place where girls cannot get an education. It also does not portray Islam as a religion that suppresses women. International aid organisations, governments and media have been very good at not pointing fingers at Pakistan or Islam but rather at the Taliban, who are militant extremists. To feel judged by international attention would be equating Pakistan and Islam to the Taliban. This is a prime opportunity for us to distance ourselves as far from the Taliban as possible. The best way to do so is to show our support for Malala and rally behind her cause for girls’ education.Second, pointing out western shortcomings on foreign policy misses the point. Malala Yousafzai is a child who demands no more than her right to education. We should support that right regardless of politics. I have had the pleasure of seeing Malala speak in person. Her articulate, well informed and passionate support for children’s education is beyond her age. Moreover, her wonderful smile, sense of humour, and stories of sibling rivalry are a joy to experience. Third, helping Malala takes nothing away from all other children in need in Pakistan but helps them instead. Malala is shouting out for Pakistan and the world is listening. She spoke of the need for education to combat extremism in her speech to the UN. In her meeting with the World Bank President Jim Kim, she secured $ 200,000 for the Malala Fund, which is already planning its first school for girls in Swat. In her meeting with US President Barack Obama, Malala opposed drone strikes. Is this not helping Pakistan? Is this not what we wanted all along? After all those years of foreign governments speaking to the military and politicians, here is the US president listening to an ordinary young girl who is extraordinary in so many ways.Pakistan is lucky in that its ambassador for girls’ education survived. Not only is she not deterred, rather she is ready to fight even harder. We can take lessons from our friends across the border in India and not deny the existence of violent impediments to girls’ education in Pakistan out of shame and denial but rather rally together to remove them. Like in India, we must not be opposed to international attention and resources but rather welcome them to help fight extremism in our country. In addition to these lessons we must also understand that objections against young Malala are baseless and unnecessary, and that Malala is not only a positive force for girls’ education but a Pakistani ambassador to the world.

Peregrine wrote:IMF team visits Pakistan to kick the tyres butts on economic reforms

“Governments have tried to “game” the IMF, and achieved partial success each time,” two former Fund officials concluded in a recent paper.

DERA BUGTI : Unknown assailants attacked the house of a local tribal leader that killed seven persons, including women and children while five others sustained injuries on Tuesday, Geo News reported.

KARACHI : Four people were shot dead in different parts of the city on Tuesday.

The audience included 22 Indian delegates and officials of the Indian high commission, including envoy T C A Raghavan.

Peregrine wrote:

abhijitm wrote:^ The figures in that report are in thousand US dollar. Means US$ 234.906 millions. By that the report suggests total export of about 24 billions US$ which itself is again highly suspicious.

abhijitm Ji:

1. Sorry, missed "typing" the three zeros.

2. India's Exports in 2012-2013 were over US$ 300 Billion and as such Pakistan's Exports of US$ 24 Billion i.e. Eight Per Cent as compared to India's Exports should not be too far fetched.
Cheers

HYDERABAD: A series of low intensity explosions struck different cities of Sindh in the evening, killing at least one and three others.As many as 33 coordinated cracker attacks took place in Hyderabad, Kotri, Larkana, Dadu, Naushero Feroz and Khairpur.According to reports, the blasts and intermittent firing took place in Liberty Chowk, Qasimabad, and Hyder Chowk areas of Hyderabad, killing a policeman and injuring 2 others.Three vehicles were also torched by unknown people in the city. Seven cracker attacks were carried out in Dadu on Station Road, Jail Road, and other places. However, no casualty was reported from the areas.A cracker was hurled at Mehrabpur Police station in Naushero Feroz. Though no group claimed responsibility for the attacks, police said that the attacks were carried out when the province braces for a strike called by a banned group on Wednesday.

...
In fact, Musharraf wanted to take action against the brothers much earlier but was stopped from doing so by the MI which was already worried because of large-scale desertions {emphasis mine} in the army following the 2004 fatwa
...

After students from the mosque abducted seven Chinese women from a massage parlor two weeks ago, the Chinese government, a close economic ally of Pakistan, pressed Pakistan to do more to protect its citizens.

The federal interior minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, during his visit to Beijing, got an earful from the Chinese minister of public security, Zhou Yongkang Zhou, who asked Pakistan for the umpteenth time to protect Chinese nationals working in Pakistan. The reference was to the assault and kidnapping of Chinese citizens in Islamabad by the Lal Masjid vigilantes. The Chinese minister called the Lal Masjid mob “terrorists” who targeted the Chinese, and asked Pakistan to punish the “criminals”. Mr Sherpao, who must have regretted being in Beijing, lamely rejoined that “Pakistan would take more rigorous action to safeguard the security of Chinese people and organisations in Pakistan”.

...the role of China in exercising pressure on the then President Pervez Musharraf to order commando action inside the Lal Masjid of Islamabad from July10 to 13,2007. The commando action led to the death of Abdul Rashid, a cleric popular with the Pashtun tribals, and of a large number of tribal girls from the Pashtun tribal belt studying in a girls' madrasa attached to the Masjid. The madrasa was destroyed during the commando action.

students studying in the girls' madrasa attached to the Lal Masjid---some of them Uighurs--- kidnapped six Chinese women working in a massage parlour of Islamabad and accused them of working as prostitutes

The commando action led to a wave of suicide terrorism by tribals from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in tribal as well as non-tribal areas, including in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Two of the retaliatory attacks after the commando action were directed against Chinese nationals working in Pakistan.

There are different estimates of the total number of Chinese living and working in Pakistan----varying between 3,500 and 5,000. They consist of three categories.

The third category consists largely of single Chinese women in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi working in massage and beauty parlours...

...the Uighur students studying in the madrasas attached to the Lal Masjid were accusing them of being agents of the Chinese intelligence agencies sent to Pakistan to monitor the activities of the Uighurs in Pakistan before the Beijing Olympics.

The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat. Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@...

In a separate press conference on Tuesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party threatened to close off NATO supply routes to Afghanistan if the Pakistani government failed to announce a schedule of talks with the Pakistani Taliban by November 7 (ET). The party, which has long advocated for peace talks with the militant group, described the move as a way to pressure the international alliance to compel the United States to halt its drone program - one of the Taliban's main preconditions for reconciliation talks with the government. According to PTI Deputy Secretary General Imran Ismail, Imran Khan, the party's leader, will deliver his ultimatum at a party meeting on Saturday, November 2. And fall off the stage and bang his empty head again?

With nearly three quarters of a million children under the age of five not being immunised against polio in Pakistan, the virus is now enjoying an unchecked run in the frontier areas of the country apart from Karachi. High-ranking sources from the World Health Organisation(WHO) in Islamabad said indications are that the polio outbreak reported from Syria can be traced to Pakistan.

However, Oliver Rosenbauer, Spokesperson, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, WHO, Geneva, told The Hindu in an email that without final genetic sequencing, it is difficult to say. Based on viruses currently circulating in the region, it is quite possible that it originated in Pakistan, he said. The final genetic sequencing is still ongoing to determine the origin of the viruses in Syria.

“We probably won’t have final results on that until early next week,” he added. Before this, the polio virus from Pakistan was already found in Egypt, Palestine and Israel, according to WHO. While children were infected by the virus, since there was some system of immunisation there, they were not paralysed unlike in Syria which did enjoy 14 years of polio free status. Pakistan was responsible for the international spread in 2011 and the virus from Pakistan caused an outbreak in western China, according to the WHO.

Pakistan had over 20,000 cases of polio before WHO started its immunisation programme in 1994 but after that the cases were brought down to 2000, said Dr. Elias Durry, Emergency Coordinator for Polio Eradication , Pakistan, in an interview to The Hindu on Wednesday. From 199 cases in 2000, it went down to 28 in 2008 and in 2012 it was 58. But in 2013, till now 53 cases have been detected, 37 of them in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a hotspot. Since the ban on the polio immunisation programme by Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North and South Waziristan in June 2012, it is a taboo for polio vaccination teams. The only remaining reservoir of wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) in Asia is in Khyber Agency and FATA.

Nearly 261,000 children have no immunisation in the country in addition to 9900 in Khyber Agency. Also ,375,000 children have been missed by vaccinators due to various reasons and over 65, 000 refusals were recorded last month due to religious and medical reasons. Dr. Durry said that since 2008, the main areas for virus transmission are Balochistan (Killa Abdullah, Pishin and Quetta districts), Sindh (Karachi, in particular Gadap Town, and northern Sindh) and parts of FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).

“There were basic problems of oversight and accountability and if you don’t use proper vaccinators or have child vaccinators, then total immunisation was difficult,” he said. In North and South Waziristan, it has to be a negotiated access and the problem cannot be solved only with security cover, he felt.

Though the campaign was launched in 1994, it was not until 2011 that it was taken seriously when Pakistan formulated a National Emergency Action Plan making district deputy commissioners directly accountable for the polio immunisation programme. From 98 cases in 2011, the intensity of the virus has been curbed and environmental surveillance of sewage samples which used to show a high incidence of the virus was now recording new lows. The last low season was December, 2012, Dr. Durry pointed out and said that it would have been a good time to intensify efforts. Pakistan could have been polio free back in December but that was not to be, he said. Nine vaccinators were killed in two days in Peshawar, Karachi and Charsadda disrupting the campaign.

Since July 2012, 24 people, 15 polio volunteers and nine policemen have been killed. The last round of the vaccination programme in September was held under tight security with gun-toting policemen watching out for terrorists while children were given doses in some parts of the country.

There is no access to polio teams in some parts of FATA despite heroic activities that were undertaken to provide security that helped sustain immunisation in most parts of the country, he said. The area in Karachi city called Machchar colony is off limits to polio teams and that’s where some of the team members were killed.

The biggest hurdle that is not resolved is access to FATA where the security situation is not favourable. Ninety per cent of the cases are from areas where access is barred and there are barriers between vaccinators and children, Dr. Durry said. “If we can do good quality work and give children two drops of the vaccine, that’s enough.”

Except for FATA, all other provinces which had a high rate of polio have virtually eliminated the virus by 50 to 100 per cent, {50% is not good enough. Everyone knows that the gutters of Karachi are teeming with poliovirus, for example} while in FATA, the cases have doubled compared to last year. Dr. Durry is not unduly worried about the refusals to accept the vaccine and most of it are demand-related. This means that if a family or village agrees to have children vaccinated, there is a quid pro quo like a road or something else in return.

There has to be an aggressive response in terms of immunisation and also maintain quality of activities and have access to children, he said. The mobile population of Pakistan is also targeted at permanent transit point vaccination centres at key places in the country involving 200, 000 government lady health workers. The WHO maintains that polio in Pakistan poses a significant risk to neighbouring countries, including border areas of Afghanistan which are polio free.

Polio has broken out among young children in northeast Syria after probably originating in Pakistan and poses a threat to millions of children across the Middle East, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The crippling disease, which is caused by a virus transmitted via contaminated food and water, could spread especially fast in Syria, where civil war has led to falling vaccination rates.

Twenty-two children in Deir al-Zor province bordering Iraq became paralyzed on October 17 and the polio virus has been confirmed in samples taken from 10 victims. Results on the other 12 are expected within days.

"This virus has come over land which means the virus is not just in that corner of Syria but in a broad area," Bruce Aylward, WHO assistant director-general for polio, emergencies and country collaboration, told Reuters in an interview.

"We know a polio virus from Pakistan was found in the sewage of Cairo in December. The same virus was found in Israel in April, also in the West Bank and Gaza.

"It... is putting the whole Middle East at risk quite frankly," he said by telephone from Oman.

Polio, which invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, can spread rapidly among children under five, especially in the unsanitary conditions endured by the displaced in Syria or crowded refugee camps in neighboring countries.

It is endemic in just three countries - Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan - raising the possibility that foreign fighters imported the virus into Syria, where Islamist militants are among the groups battling to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Genetic sequencing of the virus found in Syria is expected within the next days, which will identify the geographic origin of the first polio outbreak in the war-torn country since 1999.

"Everything suggests this virus will be linked to the virus that originated in Pakistan," Aylward said.

"We are looking basically at re-infection of the Middle East. Syria is the canary in the coal mine," he said.

Panic, commotion and complete chaos was witnessed as ambulance after ambulance with unconscious and semi-conscious women workers of a garment factory in Landhi started pulling up in front of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s emergency section on Monday morning.

Hearing the screams and wails of the semi-conscious women, the ones just regaining consciousness also became hysterical and fainted once again. Those who continued to scream were given thorough checkups and administered injections to help calm them down by the doctors.

“I saw a big black ghost in the washroom. It resembled a shadow but was far bigger than any shadow I have ever seen,” said Shagufta Naz, a young helper in the factory’s checking department.

“For days, we could hear the mysterious sound of a man sobbing in the washroom. We couldn’t explain it. But today we saw him too and he wasn’t an earthly being,” she says as a female patient lying on a stretcher in front of her screamed and Ms Naz echoed her before breaking down in sobs herself.

Daisy Nasreen, head nurse at the JPMC’s emergency, said that they were really finding it hard to calm all the women down. “One screams and the others suddenly follow suit,” she said.

Another girl couldn’t even remember her own name. “I am Suhee,” she said before her mother reminded her that her name was Shahina. “Oh yes, I am Shahina,” she said finally.

kish wrote:Kufr believe in Jinn or else..

‘Big black ghost’ lands many factory workers in hospital

Panic, commotion and complete chaos was witnessed as ambulance after ambulance with unconscious and semi-conscious women workers of a garment factory in Landhi started pulling up in front of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s emergency section on Monday morning.

Hearing the screams and wails of the semi-conscious women, the ones just regaining consciousness also became hysterical and fainted once again. Those who continued to scream were given thorough checkups and administered injections to help calm them down by the doctors.

“I saw a big black ghost in the washroom. It resembled a shadow but was far bigger than any shadow I have ever seen,” said Shagufta Naz, a young helper in the factory’s checking department.

“For days, we could hear the mysterious sound of a man sobbing in the washroom. We couldn’t explain it. But today we saw him too and he wasn’t an earthly being,” she says as a female patient lying on a stretcher in front of her screamed and Ms Naz echoed her before breaking down in sobs herself.

Daisy Nasreen, head nurse at the JPMC’s emergency, said that they were really finding it hard to calm all the women down. “One screams and the others suddenly follow suit,” she said.

Another girl couldn’t even remember her own name. “I am Suhee,” she said before her mother reminded her that her name was Shahina. “Oh yes, I am Shahina,” she said finally.