Day: January 30, 2009

By Marium Kiani
ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Speakers at a seminar here on Thursday condemned in the strongest possible terms the torching and bombing of girl schools in Swat that was depriving thousands of education facilities.

They urged for a nonviolent solution of the conflict that has created chaos in the valley.

They were speaking at a seminar on “Back to Stone Age: No education for girls in Swat!”, organized by South Asian Women in Media (Swam).

The speakers said that the matter was of serious and immediate concern since not only it was depriving children of their right to education but was also affecting the image of the country.

During the violent activities in the valley, the suspected militants used destruction of girl schools as an effective tool to bring the government to its knees, while reversing the process the progress of the district.

According to estimates, the relentless terrorist acts rendered about 131 girl schools out of 571 non-functional, putting an end to the education of 17,200 girls. The schools destroyed include four government girls’ higher secondary schools, 22 high schools, 51 middle schools and 489 primary schools.On the other hand, out of a total 1,144 boy schools of the region 22 have been destroyed putting an end to education of about 6,298 boys.

The speakers called upon the government to resolve the issue in a nonviolent manner by involving the locals in the process. Winning the sentiments of affected people at this very time was suggested as the only possible solution of the problem.

They regretted that the current government was also helpless spectator of the too frequent violence against the locals who were being deprived of their fundamental right to education, health etc.

Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, while commenting on the situation said, “the government was losing sympathies of the local communities due to collateral damage by the security forces”.

She further said that, bridging the gap between government and local communities was necessary if bringing back peace in the district was to be achieved.

Prominent among the participants were Syed Mumtaz Alam Gilani, Federal Minister for Human Rights, and Muhammad Safdar, Member National Assembly.

APP ADS: The speakers called for sending a senators’ delegation to Swat for finding a practical resolution to the issue.

Describing Swat as Switzerland and fruit basket of the country, the speakers emphasized that the delegation comprising senators should visit Swat and other adjoining affected areas for holding talks with the people of the area to resolve the issue in a better way.

They alleged that NWFP was being discriminated as compared to other provinces as the issues of the province were not dealt with an iron hand and often left pending.

They stressed equal rights for NWFP so that it could be uniform in all respects.

Human Rights Minister Syed Mumtaz Alam Gilani said on the occasion that both PPP and PML-N should be united towards a comprehensive solution of Swat issue.

Capt Muhammad Safdar said that the government should focus on resolving burning issues like Swat, Fata etc., rather wasting energy and time on petty issues like renaming of the province. The people of NWFP should be given full participation in country affairs, he said.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/30/2009

KARACHI, Jan 28: An 18-year-old woman, who had married five months ago, committed suicide in her home in Kausar Niazi Colony on Wednesday.

The Hayderi police said that Naheed, wife of Nasir, was found hanging with her dupatta (scarf) from the ceiling fan.

The police said the victim’s husband had gone abroad two months ago for work. They said the woman went to her parents’ home in Surjani Town on Tuesday morning and returned home in the evening.

Quoting the victim’s mother-in-law, the police said the woman slept as per routine and she had breakfast with her in the morning. They said the victim went to her room after breakfast and later she was found hanging from the ceiling fan.

The police said it could not be confirmed what led the woman to take her life.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/29/2009

SUKKUR – The police have re-covered dead body of Farida D I 0 Noor Mohammad Chachar from a house situated in Qureshi Goth on Thursday.
The deceased had been abducted on January 20. According to the DPO Sharj eel
Kharal, Noor Mohammad Chachar, resident of Qureshi Goth had in- formed area police
that his daughter Farida 8 was abducted when she was playing outside her house. On this
complaint, the DPO ordered SPO Site police station to investigate the matter and recover
the girl as soon as possible. The SPO Site raided the house of one Rafiq Ahmed Shaikh
and arrested Rafiq Ahmed Shaikh, Ismail Shaikh, Shoukat Shaikh and lmtiaz Shaikh,
who during interrogation exposed that the girl was put to death and buried in the house of
Rafiq Ahmed.

On this, the body of ill-fated girl was recovered from his house and shifted to civil hospital, Sukkur for post-mortem. Police have registered a case against four accused and investigating is underway.
Source: The Nation
Date:1/30/2009

ISLAMABAD (January 30 2009): Senate Committee for Human Rights Thursday presented its report regarding Dr Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national detained in the US, and called upon the government to gear up the efforts for her early repatriation. Dr Afia, who is detained in US has appealed in her message to Pakistanis that Pakistani citizens should never be handed over to US, says the report.

The committee presented the report when some people gathered in front of Parliament House to demonstrate in support of missing persons. Rehman Malik, Interior Advisor said that some of the missing persons were being trained in camps against Pakistan. We have seen videos, in which they were being imparted military training to carry out attacks against Pakistan.

The committee presented the report after meeting Dr Afia during its visit to US last year in October. The report points out that Dr Siddiqui was put through unusual torture in US. Dr Siddiqui left US in March 2003. The following year, she was accused by US of being associated with al Qaeda. In August 2008, she was charged in US district court for the southern district of New York with assaulting and attempting to kill US personnel while in detention in Afghanistan.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Human Rights SM Zafar said he held a two-hour meeting with Dr Siddiqui in Texas. Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that no charge has so far been proved against Dr Siddiqui. He said that issue of Dr Siddiqui is a glaring instance of human right violations and stressed the need to highlight the issue.

“We must try to trace the children of Dr Siddiqui and seek their repatriation to Pakistan, besides helping Dr Siddiqui in fighting her case in US”, he added. Leader of Opposition in Senate, Raza Rabbani said all the expenses of providing legal assistance to Dr Siddiqui would be borne by the government.

She told the delegation that she was picked up by law-enforcement agencies from Karachi and detained at Bagram Jail for three years. The delegation included Mushahid Hussain sayed, S.M Zafar, Talha Mehmood, Sadia Abbasi, Secretary of the committee Iftikharullah Babar and Pakistan counsellor of Pakistan embassy in Washington, Faqir Syed Asif Hussain.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:1/30/2009

By SYED JAFAR ASKARI

KARACHI – Students residing in the girls’ hostel at Karachi University (KU) have strongly criticised the hostel’s provost Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah for her ‘poor performance’ and ‘criminal negligence’ to her duty as administrator.

The students say that Dr Shah has been trying to hide her ‘poor performance’ and ‘criminal negligence’ to the her duty by providing the media false information pertaining to the hostel management.

Talking to The Nation on Thursday, a group of angry students, on the condition of anonymity, said that students, who had staged protest on 27 January against the dilapidated condition of the hostel, were being terrified for dire consequences by the hostel provost Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah and Warden Hameeda Manzoor.

They said the claims of Dr Shah, who is also the Director for the Centre of Excellence for Women Studies, that students are being charged monthly only Rs 200 under the category of Room Rent is totally baseless and false.

Providing the actual hostel’s receipts of food and room rent, they said that the administration was receiving as much as Rs 2,000 from single student of MS and BS level as ‘room charges’ on semester bases (six months). “While Rs 1,050 are additionally charged if some one uses a computer and a refrigerator in the room. However, PhD students, residing in the Inn, have to pay around Rs 5,000 for the same facility”, they maintained.

The hostel administration is charging Rs 1,800 per month on account of food, contrary to what Dr Shah had claimed, while talking to media recently, that her management was charging only Rs 9,00 per month for this account.

They complaining students said that as many as 180 students had been housed in 104 rooms of the hostel with no proper cleanliness system.

“Students are facing health problems, as the building has become a breeding place of mosquitoes to improper defunct drainage system. The hostel is scene of over-flowing gutters. This is the peak of apathy by the administration that the sweepers do not empty dustbins out even after passing three days. Sometimes students have to suffer stomach problems due to supply of inappropriate food available at the cafeteria of hostel,” they claimed.

They told the scribe that following the protest, the Dr Shah and Hameeda Manzoor had tried to meet the girls but they did not meet them and rejected their ‘suggestion’ to stay calm.

We have already demanded the KU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui to replace the present administration with a better one. The students also claimed that Dr Shah had also used ‘inappropriate’ language with the students while ‘threatening’ them.

“Now when our protest is all over the media, she has got confused over the protest of students against her mismanagement and she was lying not only to the media but also with KU administration. Nowadays, she is trying to clean the mess up at the hostel, following the constitution of 3-member inquiry committee by the KU VC, which is likely to visiting the hostel any day”, the added.

Despite the repeated efforts to contact the hostel provost Dr Shah on her cell phone, she was not available for the comments on the students’ complaints.
Source: The Nation
Date:1/30/2009