Re: Young girls and women buried alive. PPP Minister involved and Senator defends the
sick *******s rig the faith and the country's repute with their smearing carnage.
Criminal cover-up
The emerging evidence that a cover-up is being carried out with the active connivance of the PPP in the case of the live burial of women in Balochistan, is obviously disturbing. In the immoral political environment we have created, issues of humanity obviously occupy a place at the very bottom of the priority list. Protecting the powerful, even when they commit the most terrible of crimes, apparently stands on the highest rung of the same ladder. The last proceeding of the Senate Committee on Human Rights, hearing the matter, was told up to seven women might have been buried. Significantly, the committee meeting was not attended by three PPP ministers who are its members. Even the leader of the Senate, another prominent PPP leader, focused much attention on calls not to 'politicize' the issue, rather than on the events themselves. Such attitudes of course go a long way towards explaining why atrocities of the kind seen recently in Jaffarabad continue in our society. The absence of a staunch political will to stamp them out means that in the future, others may opt for similar outrages confident they will be protected from the process of justice. It is now obvious that the provincial minister in Balochistan, whose brother is widely believed to be involved in the incident, is ready to go to any lengths to prevent the truth from being uncovered. His actions include threats to a number of those who, in various capacities, have made attempts to seek punishment for those involved.
Equally shocking have been the newspaper reports of the opinions of ordinary people, Many of Baloch origin have been reluctant to comment at all, unwilling to publicly defend what happened outside the village of Babakot, where the women were led out, shot and then buried alive, but also unready to speak out against what they call 'tribal' actions. Others elsewhere have defended 'honour' killings, and attempted to side with men carrying them out – though some amongst these persons have suggested, in words oozing with their sense of humanity, that the women ought to have been killed before burial. It is quite obvious that we in fact live in an uncivilized society. As events in the Senate showed, the views expressed in a survey by the less educated are shared by those who have benefited from all the privileges of wealth. Attitudes regarding 'honour' killings in effect remain broadly the same across the ranks.
It is appalling that a party so long led by a woman, and which still speaks in her name, should be so unwilling to defend the rights of those who have suffered an awful death. The strategy obviously is to let the matter linger, until it is forgotten. The influential tribesmen behind it will get away scot-free. A few ordinary villagers may be arrested in a façade of the rule of law in practice. We, as citizens, must ensure this does not happen and that the sands of Balochistan are shifted back so the truth can emerge. If we fail in this, those committing crimes in the name of tradition will only be emboldened, pushing still higher the number of such atrocities that we record each year.
My Comment: Has this brother of the PPP minister who was behind these atrocities been arrested yet?
Why was this person made a minister in the first place?
Pakistan News Service - PakTribune
**PPP under pressure to remove Zehri as minister**
**ISLAMABAD: The PPP is under immense pressure to sack Israrullah Zehri as minister for defending burial of five alive women in Balochistan, our sources learnt here on Tuesday. **
“Minister Zehri has been asked by a key PPP minister to explain his position on the women issue, as the major party in the ruling coalition is facing constant pressure from different sides, including the civil society, for giving the MP representation at the Centre,” sources in the PPP revealed to this correspondent.
However, these sources added that the minister was not sure whether or not to talk to the media again on this particular issue, which could again make headlines. “Some of his aides have asked him to keep mum,” they noted.
This correspondent tried several times to get his comments on the new development but his cell phone was switched off. Zehri was inducted into the cabinet early this month. PML-Q legislator Bibi Yasmeen Shah had raised the issue in the upper house of parliament. The Senate had also passed a condemnation resolution on this count.
In the recently prorogued session, she sought support of other senators from Balochistan on this issue in connection with the investigation as all of them had spoken against a contractor assigned to construct roads and highways in their province.
The BNP-Awami was also part of the ruling coalition, headed by the PML-Q. The party has two lawmakers in the Senate. Sources close to Israrullah Zehri claimed that the BNP-Awami chief might resign from the cabinet, but would not change his views on the issue if pressed hard by the ruling party. “Our traditions are more valuable than a ministerial slot,” they quoted him as saying.
Re: Young girls and women buried alive. PPP Minister involved and Senator defends the
I am astounded that the PPP government has appointed a maon like Israrullah Zehri as a federal minister after how he defended the burying of women in Balochistan. The PPP is supposed to a be a liberal foward thinking party, principles which made me respect them. Why the need to appoint this monster as a minister?
Re: Young girls and women buried alive. PPP Minister involved and Senator defends the
He was elected by the 'people'. And he was selected as a cabinet member.
What else do we expect? Sad but true.
He needs to be thrown out of cabinet and his position as an elected member.
Its the job of opposition, media/jornalists and general people.
Even religious teachings tells us: Jaise awam waise hukmaran.
Where are human rights people including so called 'international' watchdogs ?
An interesting article from the Guardian, about Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, a National Assembly member and Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri, promoted by the ‘boys network’.
Boys’ own politics | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
What’s the best way to deal with politicians accused of condoning or being complicit in violent crimes against women?
If your name is Asif Ali Zardari and you’re the president of Pakistan, the answer is to have your puppet prime minister promote them to his cabinet.
Such was the fate of Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, a National Assembly member from Balochistan, and Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri, of the Baloch National Party (BNP), earlier this month. The latter was at the centre of an international controversy just two months ago after referring to the live burial of five women from his home province as just “our tribal custom”, while the former was accused (and never formally cleared) of ordering the forced marriage of five infant girls to atone for the alleged crimes of their father last year. He is now our minister for education.
Their appointments – motivated by political expediency and the need to accommodate the ruling Pakistan People’s Party’s coalition partners – bring the number of cabinet members in the newly (re)stamped “democracy” to 55 (where, one wonders, are most of them they actually finding any work?). Human rights activists condemned the move as a sign of tacit support for honour killings and an insult to all Pakistani women.
At stake, too, is the credibility of the PPP, the party formerly led by the late Benazir Bhutto and for years the only political force with any pretensions towards protecting human rights in Pakistan. It hardly bears stating that the party’s manifesto commitments to “honour the International Human Rights Declaration in both letter and spirit”, “protect the rights in particular of the weak and oppressed, the discriminated and the downtrodden”, or “take institutional initiatives to prevent crimes against women in the name of tribalism, such as honour-killings and forced marriages” have been grossly violated.
A worrying trend is beginning to develop in the post-Benazir era for the left-of-centre party. First, there was the promotion of Yusuf Raza Gilani (nicknamed the “grand groper” and seen here with Sherry Rehman at a rally last year - she is now minister of information) to the post of prime minister.
Then there was President Zardari’s apparent attempts at flirting with former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin at the UN – less than nine months after the death of his (apparently) beloved wife, that incited the ire of Pakistan’s feminists (not to mention Islamists).
Adding fuel to the latest fire is the liberal press’s attempts to downplay (or in some cases, ignore) the government’s decision to promote the Balochistan duo as well as the protests staged by members of civil society in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Perhaps it was out of misguided loyalty to the historically anti-establishment party, perhaps something else – though, in doing so, they have allowed the rightwing press (whose ideas of human rights leave much to be desired) to assume control of the debate.
As part of its move to the centre during the 1990s, the PPP jettisoned its commitments to genuine land reform, ending feudal aristocracies, and the creation of socialist state. In the process, it alienated many of the die-hard supporters from the era of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Though dogged by allegations of corruption and ineptitude, Benazir’s second government could at least boast being the first to promote women to the higher judiciary, the first to appoint a female governor, the first to advocate a one-third quota for women in parliament (the quotas were later implemented by Musharraf) and freeing of thousands of bonded labourers in the province of Sindh.
Unfortunately, it now appears the PPP’s liberal, pro-women agenda was buried alongside Benazir. Stripped of its last remaining raison d’etre, the gates have been reopened for the Islamic right.
Re: Young girls and women buried alive. PPP Minister involved and Senator defends the
I don't even think the Islamic right is supporting these crimes. Quite honestly, honor killings stem from a barbaric pre-Islamic past in present-day Pakistan, which we have, in our blindness and ignorance, failed to stamp out.
Yes, the two pro-honor killing bros need to be stamped out of their seats, but furthermore, there needs to be serious repercussions. Shouldn't it be a crime to support such killings? If we allow people to state these comments publicly without some sort of punishment, then this jahaaliyat will only continue. Hang one of these anti-female human rights men by the *alls, then you watch how seedhay saadhay Pakistani men become. All this "its our culture" will be flushed down the drain. Sadly, the governmnet doesn't see the need to seriously punish these guys for their behavior.
And as for Zardari, what do you expect from a third-class aadmi who used to run a cinema theatre in Karachi before he married BennyZir.
Re: Young girls and women buried alive. PPP Minister involved and Senator defends the
^ Im no fan of Zardari, but whats wrong with running a cinema theater? He is still more qualified than a cab driver or a military walla, innit?