Polio Crisis Deepens in Pakistan, With New Cases and Killings

Pakistan’s polio crisis has reached new depths this year, health officials say, intensified by a deadly mix of ruthless militant violence, large-scale refugee displacement and political chaos that has cemented the country’s role as the central global incubator of a disease that other conflict-torn countries have managed to hold in check.

The number of new Pakistani polio cases this year hit 260 this week, four times as many as at the same point last year, making a mockery of promises by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other politicians from across the spectrum to halt the galloping progress of the disease.

Even as domestic vaccination drives and extensive international aid have put huge numbers of anti-polio workers in the field, Pakistan’s militants have seen it as an opportunity to strike at symbols of authority, portraying the workers as agents in a sinister Western plot. On Wednesday, four more health workers were gunned down, bringing the death toll among anti-polio workers to 65 since the first targeted attack in December 2012.

The attackers, who struck in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, opened fire on the workers’ vehicle after demanding to know if they were involved in the anti-polio campaign. Television footage showed emergency workers carrying three other wounded workers from a van that contained abandoned slippers and blood-smeared iceboxes with polio vaccines.

The wounded, and three of the dead, were women, whose greater access to private households in conservative rural areas of Pakistan have put them in high demand as health workers.

The attackers escaped, and there was no claim of responsibility, although a Taliban splinter group said it had carried out a gun attack near Peshawar on Monday that wounded a polio worker and a student. Polio vaccinations are “dangerous to health and against Islam,” a spokesman for that group, Jamaat-e-Ahrar, said after the attack, echoing longstanding claims that Western countries are using immunization to sterilize Muslim children.

But the power of such conspiracy theories has been diminished by hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from Gulf countries and Islamic organizations toward the immunization campaign. Many here believe the militants simply see the attacks as another way to challenge authority. “It’s not just polio — they want to disrupt all government activities,” said Aziz Memon, who leads Rotary International’s immunization efforts in Pakistan.

War and politics accelerated the surge in polio infections this year.

A sweeping military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups in the North Waziristan tribal district caused at least a million civilians to flee into neighboring areas and across the border into Afghanistan.

But few of the children in that outpouring of refugees had been immunized for polio, because vaccinators had been unable to reach the area, which for years has been the main target of American drone strikes. “It wasn’t even an underimmunized area; it was nonimmunized,” said Dr. Elias Durry, the World Health Organization’s polio coordinator in Pakistan.

As fleeing families reached refugee camps and then often moved beyond, polio infection rates soared, and the virus spread to new areas, including the country’s largest city, Karachi. The number of districts infected by polio increased to 22 this year, from 10 before, and almost three quarters of the new cases came from the tribal districts of North Waziristan, South Waziristan and Khyber.

As the disease has spread, Pakistan’s political leadership has been consumed by security crises and power games.

Much of the political chaos has centered on a high-stakes confrontation between Mr. Sharif and his political nemesis, Imran Khan, who since August has helped lead a protest rally in Islamabad that has demanded the prime minister’s resignation and brought the government to a standstill.

Imran Khan and another protest leader, the cleric Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, have accused Mr. Sharif of corruption and ineptitude, even as they, in turn, have been accused of exploiting chaos for political gain. Mr. Khan intends to hold another rally in Islamabad on Sunday, offering the prospect of fresh political drama.

Meanwhile, political and sectarian violence has heightened in Karachi, in the Pakistani heartland of Punjab, and in war-torn Baluchistan Province.

The interlocking crises surrounding Pakistan’s polio emergency have had another effect: acute embarrassment among many Pakistanis who, after years of seeking to shake off Western perceptions of their country as an incubator of global terrorism, now also find it painted as a global disease hub. Regulations introduced this year require air travelers from Pakistan of all ages to produce a certificate proving that they have been vaccinated for polio. One newspaper called the epidemic Pakistan’s “badge of shame.”

In contrast, the other two countries where polio is endemic have recorded more modest infection rates. So far this year, Afghanistan has registered 21 new cases, many of which are a result of refugees fleeing Pakistan. And Nigeria, which is battling the Boko Haram insurgency and, more recently, a small outbreak of Ebola, has had just six cases.

Meanwhile, officials say Pakistan has exported the polio virus to China, Egypt and Syria — in some cases, experts believe, via militant families traveling to the battlefields of the Middle East.

In a bid to address the problem, Mr. Sharif last month constituted an emergency response committee and administered polio drops to children at a ceremony in Islamabad on Oct. 24. Immunization was an issue of “utmost importance” and the right of every Pakistani child, he said.

Mr. Sharif said he hoped that the health authorities and international donors could use the coming six months, considered to be the low season for polio transmission, to reverse the tide of infections. Experts say that, even if militant violence continues, immunization is still possible provided there are adequate security precautions. Since the first death of a polio worker two years ago, health workers have delivered 450 million doses of vaccine, said Dr. Durry of the W.H.O.

In an interview, Mazhar Nisar Sheikh, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said the virus was mostly being contained. “Ninety percent of cases are limited to parts of the country where security has been compromised,” he said.

Still, Baluchistan Province offers a stark illustration of polio’s resurgence. Baluchistan had been polio-free for two years until July, when it recorded a case in Kila Abdullah, a remote district on a route to South Waziristan.

Since then health officials have recorded another nine polio cases in the province — more than in Somalia, which has also suffered an outbreak this year. That caused health experts to start a targeted vaccination drive in 11 districts of Baluchistan this week, including the effort in Quetta, where the health workers were killed Wednesday.

Despite the dispiriting numbers and the violence, those at the forefront of immunization efforts in Pakistan say this is one battle the country cannot afford to lose.

“We are committed,” said Mr. Memon, of Rotary International. “The children of this country should walk, not crawl. We promised to end this, and we will.”

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/world/asia/gunmen-in-pakistan-kill-4-members-of-anti-polio-campaign.html?_r=0

Timing of govt victory in Swiss court puts PM in tight spot

Although the ability to recover national assets stashed away in foreign banks should come as good news to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the timing of a recent judgment in favour of the government of Pakistan may put Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a very awkward position.

A Swiss federal tribunal has ruled that a valuable jewellery set that was seized by authorities in connection with investigations into allegations of graft belonged to former president Asif Ali Zardari or the legal heirs of the late Benazir Bhutto. The set, which includes a necklace, a bracelet, a pair of earrings and a ring, is said to be valued at over $180,000.

In the judgment issued on Oct 29, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the tribunal rejected ownership claims filed by Bomer Finance for the jewellery. The company was allegedly formed by Mr Jens Schlegelmilch and linked to Mr Zardari and was at the centre of the SGS-Cotecna investigation.

According to Francois Roger Micheli, a counsel from the firm Python and Peter, which represented the government of Pakistan before the Swiss tribunal, the judgment handed down states that Mr Schlegelmilch “appeared to have acted as the attorney for the BB-AAZ (Benazir Bhutto-Asif Ali Zardari) couple”.

This vindicates the government’s stance and is also in line with an earlier decision by the Geneva court of appeal. Sources said that lawyers from Python and Peter have informed the government of Pakistan that this judgment meant that Bomer Finance had not been able to establish that it was the legal owner of the jewellery set. In addition, they say that Mr Schlegelmilch could not prove that he acted as a board member of the Bomer while acquiring the jewellery set.

Sources close to the attorney general of Pakistan said the government would formally take a decision on the matter once it receives the original judgment through proper channels. But a copy of the tribunal’s judgment has already been sent to Islamabad.

Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt refused to comment on the matter, while the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson Dr Musaddik Malik could not be reached, despite several attempts.

But another official privy to the proceedings of the case said that the attorney general’s office had indeed received an unofficial copy of the judgment, while the PM was abroad. The official said that the PM would be briefed upon his return and only then would a decision be taken on the matter.

The government is now faced with an uncomfortable political choice. Publicly, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has committed to repatriating assets that were stashed away in foreign banks and this case is their opportunity to do just that.

On the other hand, given the ruling party’s recent troubles with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek, many feel that this may not be the ideal time to antagonise the Pakistan People’s Party, which has proven to be an indispensible ally for the government in recent months.

The official Dawn spoke to, however, maintained that, “Legally, it is a strong case for the government to ensure recovery.”

The case was originally filed by the attorney general for Pakistan in October of 1997 against Benazir Bhutto, her mother Nusrat Bhutto and husband Asif Ali Zardari.

The jewels were among items reportedly seized the same year, but the original cases were closed in 2008 following the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance. However, the cases were reopened on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Mr Zardari has, in the past, publicly disowned these ornaments and denied allegations of corruption in the SGS-Cotecna scandal.

source: http://www.dawn.com/news/1146484/timing-of-govt-victory-in-swiss-court-puts-pm-in-tight-spot

Pakistan police take harsh justice to the streets: ‘Mostly we get the right people’

Stories about cornered criminals coming to sticky ends in shootouts with police are so routine in Pakistan that newspapers rarely bother with more than the few sentences that recorded the death of Mutabar Khan.

The 25-year-old preacher was killed in May after he and an accomplice apparently opened fire on police who had interrupted them as they were robbing a shipping container, according to a cursory report in the Daily Janbaz, a neighbourhood paper in Karachi.

The news, illustrated with a grisly photo of the dead man’s bloodied face, was a shock to his family. But it was not a complete surprise.

They had been dreading that he might be killed in what in Pakistan is known as an “encounter” with police ever since plainclothes officers launched an early-morning raid on their home in a slum area not far from the city’s port.

“They raided the house, shone torches in our face and took him away,” said Mansoor, one of Mutabar’s brothers. “We started visiting every police station but they all said: ‘We don’t have this guy.’

“We were told maybe the agencies have him,” he added, referring to Pakistan’s various, shadowy civilian and military intelligence outfits.

Death by police encounter is a nationwide phenomenon, but has become more common in Karachi, where police are under pressure to crack down on criminal gangs, street toughs controlled by political parties and Taliban-affiliated terrorists who have made Pakistan’s economic capital one of the most turbulent cities in Asia.

One of the measures of success used by police is how many terrorists they claim to have killed, which was more than 200 in September.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 267 people died in police encounters between September 2013 and this June.

“Everyone knows most of these encounters are fake,” said Akhtar Baloch, a Karachi-based member of the HRCP. “It is always the same – the victims are picked up by ununiformed men, tortured for information and then killed in an encounter.”

When Khan’s body was finally returned to his family he not only had more than a dozen bullet wounds, but also a damaged eye and broken arm.

Rao Khalid, station house officer of the nearby Keamari police station, said Khan was associated with an armed wing of a political party, had been involved in extortion rackets, and had been charged under anti-terrorism laws. He denied the police covered up extrajudicial killings with tales of gunfights.

“Every citizen in Pakistan has the right to self-defence and every time we raid a terrorist hideout they definitely retaliate,” he said.

The occasional death of suspects already taken into custody could be explained, he said, by the fact that sometimes such people were taken along to the raids and were subsequently injured.

“Sometimes the informant also gets shot and people think it is a fake encounter,” he claimed.

But speaking privately, senior police officers say bogus “encounters” are the only way to take dangerous criminals and militants off the streets. They say a weak court system, overseen by easily intimidated judges, almost never convicts such men.

“Sometimes to fight monsters you have to become a monster yourself,” said one of Karachi’s most senior policemen.

Police say they are at war with Karachi’s militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which was responsible for the vast majority of the 130 policemen killed in the past eight months.

Among the senior figures targeted was Chaudhry Aslam Khan, the popular police chief who revelled in his reputation as Karachi’s Dirty Harry, and who was killed in a suicide car-bomb attack in January.

The Pakistani Taliban said at the time that the killing was intended to avenge Aslam’s involvement in “killing Taliban prisoners in CID cells in Karachi”.

“He was an encounter specialist, there were many complaints against him,” said Baloch of the HRCP. “Maybe for some people he was a hero but he was a killer and kidnapper.”

Encounter killings have risen since a military-backed operation launched last year by a newly elected government to impose order on Karachi. “Most of the time we get the right people, although there is always room for misjudgment,” said the senior police officer.

But given the near-total impunity enjoyed by the police it is not clear whether all the people killed in encounters are genuine threats.

Mutabar Khan’s family claim he had no connection with criminal or militant groups. His focus in life was his small shop and the months-long trips he would make around the country to proselytise alongside members of Tablighi-Jamaat, a preaching group dedicated to spreading an austere form of Islam.

The family suspect he was targeted after falling out with a gang who had been harassing a restaurant owner. Despite a mediation effort by local elders, the family believes Khan’s enemies fed false information to police.

Crime reporters say most of those killed were members of banned sectarian or militant groups.

One group that is far less likely to see its members killed in encounters is the militant wing of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the political party representing the descendants of Urdu-speaking Muslims who moved from India to Pakistan at partition.

Few police officers wish to cross a party that has maintained a firm grip on the city through violence and through a political machine that controls nearly all of Karachi’s parliamentary seats.

In the early 1990s the government sent the army into Karachi to brutally crack down on the group.

“On the list of encounter killings there will be very, very few MQM,” said the senior police officer. “There is a good reason behind it – all the police officers who were involved in the operation against the MQM in 1992 were all later killed.”

Khan’s poor family of factory and dock workers said they lacked any such influence, and that it had not even occurred to them to stage a protest. “We are not associated with any political party,” said Mansoor Khan. “We don’t know about these things. We just picked the body up for the funeral and brought him home.”

source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/17/encounters-pakistan-police-justice-streets-gangs-terrorists-karachi

Why Is This Man Banned For Life From Pakistani TV?

On October 17 of this year, investigative journalist Mubasher Lucman was banned for life from television in Pakistan. The case was taken up suo motu by the judiciary and found that Mr. Lucman maligned the judiciary egregiously enough to merit a lifetime ban from appearing in any capacity on television. As he says, “I cannot even host a game show.”

Mr. Lucman has covered many topics since entering televised journalism in 2006. He has become well known for investigating government corruption despite reprisals including three untimely visits to his home by the police, threats against his 14 year-old son and 12 year-old daughter, as well as having a gun fired in his general direction.

Mr. Lucman, age 52, is a graduate of Aitchison College Lahore and Government College, both esteemed institutions in Pakistan. He has had many careers before entering the field of journalism. He has served in a government ministry position, been part of the first fiberoptic network installation in Pakistan and worked in advertising. Along his largely business career, he occasionally wrote columns for newspapers in both Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

In 2006, his boss suggested he move to a different part of the conglomerated business to try life as a journalist on television because, “he thought I would be good at it.” Since then, Mr. Lucman estimates he has done more than 2,500 shows, the majority of which involved investigative reporting. He has changed stations many times and up until his recent ban was at ARY News where his investigative show was called Khara Sach.

Initially, all programming from ARY was also banned from the airwaves for the first 15 days of Mr. Lucman’s ban but the decision to suspend ARY from the airwaves for half a month was subsequently reversed. ARY has continued to be supportive of Mr. Lucman in social media and as otherwise possible. Salman Iqbal, President & CEO of ARY Digital Network, states:
Since our inception ARY has always stood for the freedom of press, speech and to always bring out the facts and the truth. Mubasher stands for these same principles. We may have been quieted temporarily but the truth can never be buried for good.We know we will face a backlash for these ideals, but ARY, Mubasher and its supporters will continue to bring to the public the truth and face this political turmoil.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) is ostensibly in charge of regulating all media in Pakistan. Mr. Lucman relates that the suo motu judgment was taken without his own presence in court and that PEMRA has subsequently been informed by the judiciary that they must enforce this ruling. Attempts to contact PEMRA for this story were not responded to prior to publication.

The principal judge involved in this case is Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi of the Lahore High Court. Justice Naqvi has additionally put Mr. Lucman on Pakistan’s Exit Control List (ECL) which essentially bans Mr. Lucman from traveling outside the country. The ECL is typically reserved for persons committing corruption, misusing power, trafficking drugs, in significant violation of tax law, known terrorists or people who are dangerous criminals.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international non-profit, has questioned the treatment of Mr. Lucman and ARY. Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator says:

Basically, we see Lucman’s case as part of a broader anti-media attitude on the part of the judiciary. They have often taken on the media for criticizing courts and judges as if they were somehow above reproof. It’s a problem that has saddled most of Pakistan’s governments over the years. Though they have often been on the same side in political issues, the press and the judiciary are not natural allies. The overkill of the lifetime broadcast ban meted out to Lucman is typical of the courts’ sense of being beyond the give and take in modern society, that they still have an imperial sense of their role in a democratic government.

Benjamin Ismaïl, Head of the Asia-Pacific Desk for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) agrees with Mr. Dietz’s sentiment:

It is not exceptional for the PEMRA to take repressive measures such as ordering a ban on a media, especially in such a period of political tensions. However, a lifetime ban, which is the equivalent of a permanent shutdown of a media, on an individual, I haven’t ever heard of such case in Pakistan… [T]his ban seems to be a ban on appearing in television in any capacity, which is absolutely disproportionate and illegal in regard to the laws of Pakistan. RSF strongly condemns this decision, as well as the raid on the home of the journalist by the police, in an attempt to arrest him. All these judiciary and police actions constitute blatant and shocking violations of press freedom and are counter-productive in the sense that they will not help cool down the political debate… We ask for an immediate annulation of this decision.

I spoke with Mr. Lucman to find out what he did to earn a complete censorship from television, a suspension of income from his livelihood and a ban from leaving the country so that he might earn a livelihood elsewhere.

Jon Springer: What is the basis for the case against you?

Mubasher Lucman: I never criticized the judiciary in this case. I was investigating a businessman [Asim Malik] who ran off from Pakistan with 11 billion rupees [approximately U.S. $183 million at the time] fourteen years ago. We tracked him down and went abroad to interview him. He agreed to provide his point of view if I would meet his request that I do not edit his interview to ensure his side of the story would get out. He relayed information that part of conducting his business was more than half a dozen ministers taking bribes from him. He accused members of the judiciary of taking bribes as well. We showed a video that this businessman provided that he says shows the son-in-law of one said judge accepting a bribe of 40,000 British pounds as a ‘scholarship’ from him in exchange for a ruling in his favor.

Springer: Is it against the law in Pakistan to interview people who say such things? or to interview criminals wanted by the government?

Lucman: It isn’t against the law to interview anyone, even someone evading the law. People interviewed Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri.

Springer: Do you think it is political?

Lucman: I did vote for the [opposition] PTI and Imran Khan in the last election. I was open and said so prior to the election. There is tons of evidence of wrong doing in that election. Yes, I think the mandate of the people was stolen in the last election. However, as far as I know, my case emanates solely from the judiciary that took it up suo motu.

The problem with Pakistan when you go beyond a certain level is that everyone is connected. You never know who is backing who. It is difficult to say a particular party is behind the scenes of this or that.
Springer: There have been other reports that have been negative on you. For example, there was a recent article that accused you of saying some journalists were receiving money from government officials.

Lucman: I know some of those journalists and I can vouch for them that this report was not true. I never made this accusation. I have defended those journalists against these wrongful accusations.

People love me or hate me. I am opinionated and people are opinionated about me. People have made up fake accounts with my name on Twitter and Facebook. Refuting things falsely attributed to me is part of my job.

Springer: What is PEMRA’s role in this case?

Lucman: PEMRA is being ordered by the judge to ban me. This ban is beyond their regulatory mandate.

Springer: Have you appealed the ruling?

Lucman: I have appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. I do not know if I can make my appeal. I think I am the only journalist to have this type of persecution except one in Swaziland [who, along with his lawyer, have been sentenced to two years in jail this year].

Springer: What is the exact charge against you?

Lucman: I have been charged with contempt of court. They could charge me for defamation perhaps, but how is this contempt?
Springer: How does this ban reflect on Pakistan’s democracy?

Lucman: Many times I have filed police reports of incidents however they have not materialised in formal FIR reports by police and I can only attribute that to the interference of the government. For instance when the police illegally raided my home a few weeks back and harassed my children taking their snaps, they had come in full uniform and police vehicles. When I reported the matter, the Deputy Inspector General of operations said ‘These are not our people….’ I urged him to lodge a formal complaint if that was the case. My written complaint is at the police station and to-date no formal report has been lodged by the police. This is a usual practice here for those who are perceived to be not supportive of the government.

I have been fired upon. My home has been invaded. My children have been threatened. No one makes these types of sacrifices unless they believe that things can be better than they are.

source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonspringer/2014/10/30/why-is-this-man-banned-for-life-from-pakistani-tv/

The melodrama is over

Although he promised a mammoth ‘revolution’, Dr Tahirul Qadri turned out to be no more than a glitch in the ongoing democratic process. The ‘million’ man march and rally he vowed would hold the capital hostage came to a rather unceremonious end after five days of essentially waiting on the government to kowtow to his demands and whims. The result was not one he had hoped for as all the political stakeholders did what they normally never do: unite for a common cause. All the political parties set aside their differences and vowed to ensure that the democratic process would not be allowed to be manipulated by any random entrant bent upon inciting a ‘revolution’ but delivering only a distraction. While government representatives did get a little hot under the collar on Tuesday due to the Supreme Court’s (SC) surprise ruling against Prime Minister Ashraf, they were not too deterred by the screams and shouts of the doctor who made some very ludicrous demands. Dr Tahirul Qadri’s mass demonstration against the present dispensation has seen a rather unceremonious end as he has been given no more than a chance at saving face after the thundering promises he made the nation.

Government representatives from all political parties have met with the Dr and have agreed to reforms that do not as much concede to his wishes as they do allow for a smooth run up to the elections. They include the dissolution of the National Assembly before March 16, 2013 so that elections can be held within 90 days, taking a detailed look at the composition of the Election Commission of Pakistan, focusing on the enforcement of electoral reforms, finding an honest and impartial caretaker prime minister and withdrawing all cases registered against each other — not quite the booming blow to this government Mr Qadri may have wanted to flaunt. Dr Qadri has accepted these reforms without hesitation because all his calls for political backing by the MQM and the PTI were rejected, the government was not conceding and the number of people supporting him was pitiable compared to the millions he professed. He, essentially, had been backed into a corner and knew his mischief making days were numbered. Sitting in his heated and comfortable container while the people sat on the cold tarmac outside in winter’s freezing cold, the ‘revolutionary’ liked to think he was representing the people and addressing their grievances. Most Pakistanis were not taken in by his rhetoric and bellowing ambition as could be seen by the fact that, in the end, Dr Qadri was standing alone. The government was all too kind to allow him such a clean and fair getaway. The silver lining here is that our political forces have realised the stakes involved in the run up to the general elections and how fragile Pakistan’s first ever democratic transition really is. They have also realised that there are plenty of detractors of democracy here and surprise ‘revolutions’ are not a thing of fiction. Dr Qadri’s role in this entire drama must be questioned. Now that the storm has abated, everything about Mr Qadri’s exploits must be investigated. It is being reported that the Canadian authorities have summoned Mr Qadri to question him about why he has been in Pakistan when he applied for Canadian citizenship on the pretext of seeking asylum from that country. If this is true, the news serves as another blow to the doctor’s credibility. Now that Tahirul Qadri’s little crusade is over, it is extremely important that the government and all political entities do one thing: wake up. No matter who the quack may be, the people will follow him. They are disenchanted, hungry, power- and energy-deprived, jobless and angry. It is time the government faces these real problems. Anomalies like Mr Qadri should be relegated to the dustbin where they belong by the united democratic forces.

Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20131\19\story_19-1-2013_pg3_1