Fish Swim Against the Taliban Tide

February 17, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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A generous grant from the USAID has helped revive trout farming in northern Pakistan. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Feb 14 (IPS) – The rivers in northern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province were once thick with trout. Spanning hundreds of kilometres, these water bodies played host to the exotic fish, first introduced by the British in the early 1900s, which eventually became a staple in the diets and livelihoods of the province’s 20 million residents.Over the years, hundreds of state-run hatcheries and private fish farms popped up to rear and harvest brown trout and rainbow trout.

Khan Daraz, a fish farm owner from the Swat valley, located in the north of KP, once earned close to 3,000 dollars a month selling trout in the local market. His family could count on fresh fish on the dinner table every night, and Daraz himself had no fears of ever going hungry.

But over a decade of militancy in the region — which reared its head after U.S. troops toppled the Taliban-led government in Kabul in 2001, sending scores of extremists fleeing across the border into Pakistan’s mountains – gradually destroyed the sector.

Constant violent activity between 2007 and 2009 kept tourists at bay, cutting fish farmers off from one of their primary consumer markets.

Meanwhile, local populations in Swat were uprooted by military operations and forced to flee to the neighbouring regions of Peshawar and Mardan, abandoning their farms and hatcheries.

Heavy floods that swept through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2010, destroyed an estimated 56,000 homes, killed 344 people, injured over 1,200 more and carried off what was left of the fish farms.

It is only now, thanks to a 5.25 million-dollar grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) designed to revive the local industry, that people like Daraz have begun to get back on their feet.

“I never thought that I would be able to restore my business,” Daraz told IPS. “Now I am finally back on the path to success."

Historical livelihood destroyed

Although Europeans introduced trout to the streams and rivers in the 1960s, it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that the government demonstrated a vested interested in developing robust fisheries in the northern province, Pervez Khan of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Fisheries Department told IPS.

Rainbow trout, considered the more resilient of the two species, quickly became more popular but because of their propensity to displace indigenous fish – such as the popular snow trout – and disrupt local ecosystems, they were reared to become sterile in adulthood.

The fish provided a nutritious addition to the local diet, and also enabled communities to supplement their income by “selling excess harvest to local fish stands”, he added.

Because of subsistence fisheries’ vital role in providing food security and a living wage to people in mountain areas like Swat, the government quickly integrated the practice into its broader rural development initiatives.

Two types of fish farms proliferated throughout the region: full farming systems, in which trout are raised from a young stage to adulthood, included hatcheries for breeding and fry production; while partial farming systems were dedicated to growing young fish to market size.

According to a report by the provincial Fisheries Department, 38 private farms cultivating rainbow trout in KP produced 162 tonnes per year.

Prior to 2007, revenue from the sale of market-sized fish in Swat was an estimated 2.1 million dollars annually.

A business census of the private trout farms in Swat in early 2010 found that, by 2006, just before the escalation of extremist militancy, annual farmed production of rainbow trout had dropped from 162 tonnes to an estimated 40 tonnes. By the end of 2007 production had come to a near complete standstill.

In early 2010, trout farmers reported roughly one million dollars’ worth of damages to their farms and hatcheries as a direct result of military activity in the region.

Shah Rasool, who works on a local fish farm, told IPS the collapse of the industry stripped over 20,000 people of their livelihoods.

Muhammad Jawad, a schoolteacher in Swat, told IPS his family used to buy trout twice a week, since it was cheaper than any other meat in the region.

“As the militancy destroyed everything here, we could no longer afford any meat – the imported stuff was too costly.”

Slow and steady revival

The revival effort first began in 2010, as part of USAID’s Pakistan FIRMS Project, an initiative designed to strengthen industries and the private sector, particularly in the country’s politically unstable regions.

The grant aims to “provide technical support for (reconstruction) of businesses adversely affected by the militancy and the 2010 floods”, according to Khan.

“This will be conducted in line with government efforts and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s National Policy on Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006, through a broad, bottom-up consultation with stakeholders,” he added.

Already, things are returning to normal and the bustling marketplaces are replete with fish stalls and customers rushing to purchase trout at affordable prices.

Khursheed Alam, president of the Swat Fish Farms Association, told IPS that funds, training and technical support in the form of equipment and supplies have all contributed to the revival of the sector.

As of June 2012, construction material, fish feed, fish eggs, and equipment worth nearly 960,000 dollars had been distributed to fish farmers throughout the region.

Aqeel Zaman, a fish farmer who has spent over 10 years delivering fish door-to-door to his customers in the Swat valley, is jubilant about the changes taking place.

“For two years our activities were halted by the militancy,” he told IPS “Now we have taken up our jobs again and the earnings are better than they were in the past”, since farmers and vendors have been trained on how to preserve their produce.

“We earn more than 3,000 a month which is enough. But the business is gaining momentum and we hope that our earnings can reach 5,000 a month by the end of 2013,” he said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Development, Report Tagged With: , ,

Pakistan Tribes Turn Against Army

February 3, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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A protest in Peshawar against the killing of civilians by the army. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS.

Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 02 (IPS) – –“We demand an immediate end to the military operation in Khyber Agency because it has not brought any results during the past three years,” says Iqbal Afridi from the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf party. “The military operations are killing the local population while the militants remained unharmed.”Afridi from the Khyber Agency unit of the party led by former cricketer Imran Khan spoke with IPS near the Governor’s House in Peshawar, the northern Pakistani city adjacent to the Khyber Agency region in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Party members had brought bodies of 18 local people reported killed by security forces in nearby Alamgudar village.

Thousands of local tribal people, including students, civil society members and leaders of political parties joined the bereaved families in the protest against the army.

“The military operations have brought lives of the eight million population in FATA to a standstill,” Afridi said. “The seven tribal agencies have remained under curfew and the population has become completely idle.”

Juma Khan Afridi from the family of some of those killed told IPS what happened. “We were asleep when security forces scaled the walls of our home. They asked the women to get aside,” Khan Afridi, a student of the same family told IPS. He said he survived because he put on a veil and stood with women.

This is not the first time the army has killed innocent people in Khyber Agency, he said. “It is because of the growing anger that bereaved families brought the coffins of their dead relatives to protest.”

Wazir Muhammad, political analyst at the University of Peshawar, said people of FATA had been bearing the brunt of the U.S.-led war on terror for the past four years, but had remained silent due to fear of reprisals by army.

The protest by Hazara communities in Quetta in Balochistan over their dead had given strength to local tribal people in FATA, he said. More than 100 people, including 83 Shias were killed in two bomb explosions in Quetta Jan. 11. The relatives there had refuse to bury their dead immediately in protest.

Only after braving three nights in Quetta’s freezing temperatures next to their slain loved ones did the families of the bombing victims end their protest and bury the bodies amid strict security measures in a Hazara graveyard. They did so after the government imposed governor’s rule in Balochistan.

“Anger is growing over the acts of terrorism everywhere in the country. The people are rightly protesting over the army’s killing of the innocent,” Muhammad said.

The Khyber Agency incident has opened a new chapter of protests against the army. “It is for the first time that people have chanted slogans against law enforcement agencies for their failure to provide protection. It will continue in the future if the army doesn’t mend its ways,” Umar Farooq, whose younger brother was among the dead, told IPS.

“It was not just the brutal killing – the army took away the slain bodies from the site of the protests and buried them on their own. Being Muslims, we wanted to give bath and have funerals before lowering them to the graves.”

The killings come after a dubious army record. In 2009 the Pakistan army, he said, was shown in a video to be shooting from close range at seven boys in Swat. The army had argued that they were Taliban but they looked innocent and juvenile, he said.

“The incident caused international outrage and the U.S. – the main sponsor of the Swat Operation – briefly withheld aid,” Farooq said.

In October 2010 the U.S. sanctioned six units of the Pakistani military operating in the Swat valley under the Leahy Law – which requires the U.S. State Department to certify that no military unit receiving U.S. aid is involved in gross human rights abuses. The law requires that when such abuses are found, they must be thoroughly investigated.

Despite pledges, Pakistan did not take any action to hold the perpetrators accountable as required under the law.

In several instances in Swat, Balochistan and the tribal areas, U.S. aid to Pakistan has continued in apparent contravention of the Leahy Law.

Human Right Watch said in its 2012 report that conditions had deteriorated markedly in the mineral-rich Balochistan, with disappearances of civilians, and an upsurge in killings of suspected Baloch militants and opposition activists by the military, intelligence agencies and the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

“The government appeared powerless to rein in the military’s abuses,” it said. Human Rights Watch recorded the killing of at least 200 Baloch nationalist activists in 2012.

In April 2010, the Pakistan army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, apologised for the deaths of dozens of civilians during air raids near the Afghan border. The civilians were members of a pro-government tribe which had resisted Taliban influence.

On Jan. 17, shortly after the last killings, the army was severely criticised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly. Lawmaker Saqibullah Khan said such incidents were bound to create anger against the army among the people, and should immediately be stopped.

“The federal government should immediately stop military operations against militants as these have failed to establish peace. They have become the main source of creating problems for the civilians.”

Member of the National Assembly from the Awami National Party Bushra Gohar told IPS that the military campaigns have displaced 1.2 million people in FATA and had adversely affected the lives of tribal people. “Since 2005, we have started military operations in most of the seven tribal agencies of FATA, but militants are gaining strength while the poor people are suffering.

“We demand an end to the military operation in FATA,” she said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Lead, Politics, Unrest Tagged With: , ,

PAKISTAN INDUCTS CHINA INTO BALOCHISTAN TO COUNTER INDIA

February 3, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy

B.RAMAN

Despite its continuing concerns over the freedom struggle of the Balochs which shows no signs of letting up, China, which originally constructed the languishing commercial port of Gwadar on the Mekran Coast of Balochistan, is reported to have agreed in principle to take over the responsibility for the operation of the port.

2.The 40-year-old contract awarded by the Pakistan Government in 2007 to Singapore’s PSA international for the operation of the port has been a non-starter due to disputes between the Pakistan Navy and the PSA International over the free transfer of land to the PSA international for the construction of warehouses for containers and other infrastructure facilities and over the failure of the Pakistani authorities to improve the road and rail connectivity of the port as promised in the contract.

3.The Pakistan Government agreed to the request of the PSA International to withdraw from the contract. Islamabad has now approved in principle the signing of a contract with the Chinese Overseas Port Holdings giving it the responsibility for operating the port.

4.The problems created by the Pakistan Navy in the transfer of land for the PSA International indicated a lack of enthusiasm in the Pakistan Navy for the operation of the port by a Singapore company and its preference for handing it over to the Chinese company.

5.In the eyes of the Pakistan Navy, the Chinese taking over the responsibility for the operation of the port will have two advantages. Firstly, the Chinese, with their reputation for the timely construction of projects, will be able to get the languishing operations revived quickly. Secondly, it could prove to be the first step towards China agreeing to a Pakistani request for upgrading the port into a naval base, available for joint use by the Pakistani and Chinese navies.

6. Taking over the responsibility for the operation of the port, will have strategic advantages for China. It can bring oil and gas from Saudi Arabia and Iran to Gwadar and have them transported to Xinjiang through pipelines. Secondly, it will provide a port of call for ships of China’s Indian Ocean fleet for refitting and other purposes. At present. Beijing has not shown any open interest in helping Pakistan by upgrading the existing Chinese-aided commercial port into a Naval base for joint use by the two navies.

7. The Chinese took nearly two years to make up their mind as to whether they should get involved in the operation of the port due to the deteriorating security situation in Balochistan because of the on-going freedom struggle of the Balochs. The Balochs are opposed to a Chinese presence in Gwadar because they look upon the area as their traditional homeland over which the Pakistan Government has no right to negotiate with any foreign power. Moreover, the Balochs fear that the Chinese taking over the responsibility for the operation of the port would result in an induction of a large number of Punjabis into the Gwadar area to work.

8.The Pakistani authorities are hoping that the Chinese agreement to take over the operation of the port could act as a deterrent to India whom they suspect of helping the Baloch freedom-fighters.

9. Beijing’s agreement in principle to take over the operations of the port speaks of its confidence that they could meet any security threats from the Baloch freedom-fighters. Whether their confidence will be sustained or belied has to be seen. The Pakistan Army will not be able to assure the security of the Chinese working in Gwadar. Unless the PLA decides to post its own security contingents in Gwadar as it has done for the security of its nationals working on the upgradation of the Karakoram Highway in Gilgit-Baltistan, security for the Chinese in Gwadar will be uncertain.

10.What the Pakistan Government announced on January 30, is an agreement in principle for the Chinese company to take over the responsibility from the Singapore company. The details of the final agreement are still to be worked out.

11.There is a case regarding the security situation in Balochistan presently pending before the Pakistan Supreme Court. The Gwadar project is also linked up in the case. The Supreme Court has to agree to the Gwadar agreemen with China being treated as a stand alone issue before the final agreement with China is signed. This should not pose any difficulty

( 1-2-13)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75)

Copyright © 2013 B. Raman – South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG).

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the permission of the original author or copyright holder.

Copyright © 2013 B. Raman – South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG).

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the permission of the original author or copyright holder.


Filed Under: Asia, Commentary, Geopolitics Tagged With: , , ,

Execution Met With Silence in Pakistan

November 26, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Nov 26 (IPS) – Wednesday, Nov. 21, dawned like any other in the sleepy town of Faridkot, located some 150 kilometres from the Punjab capital of Lahore in Pakistan. But as the town’s 3000 residents went about their daily routines the air grew thick with apprehension, for a reason none wanted to mention.At seventy-thirty that morning, one of the town’s former residents, a man named Ajmal Kasab, was executed in Pune’s Yerawada Central Jail, in western India’s Maharashtra state.

Kasab was the sole survivor of a group of ten men who carried out the three-day terror rampage in November 2008 that left 166 people dead in Mumbai.

Kasab was charged with 86 offences, including murder and waging war against the Indian state. After a long trial and the denial of his clemency appeal on Nov. 5, he was hanged just a few days before the fourth anniversary of the senseless but well-orchestrated attack that brought the nuclear neighbours to the brink of war.

Shafique Butt, a correspondent for the English daily newspaper ‘Dawn’, who visited the village on the morning of the execution, told IPS over the phone from Punjab, “While everyone knew he had been hanged, people were just not willing to talk about it; let alone express their feelings – either in favour or against (the execution).”

Kasab’s immediate family had long since left the village. “No one is sure if they have been relocated by the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or Pakistan’s intelligence agencies,” said Butt. The LeT is also blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.

“I was told there are five or six Lashkar men in the village,” Butt added, including, possibly, Kasab’s younger brother who was just a teenager in 2008.

On the streets, ordinary Pakistanis have shown little or no interest in Kasab’s hanging. They are far too concerned about their own safety: bomb blasts have become a daily occurrence in all the big cities, despite high security since the holy month of Muharram began a week ago.

“The government of Pakistan will not take a critical position on this issue; it will stay quiet,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political analyst.

Islamic parties and hard-line anti-India groups have expressed some resentment or spoken about the denial of justice, Askari told IPS, but sustained protest was not expected.

Only a handful of people, like Saba Khan, a housemaid in Faridkot, lamented the act. “Couldn’t they have given him life imprisonment? They didn’t even grant him his last wish of meeting his mother,” she told IPS.

Re-examining ‘terrorism’ in Pakistan

On the other side of the border, the hanging has been hailed as “a victory for India” and a “tribute to all the innocent people and police officers who lost their lives” in the tragedy of November 2008.

Megha Prasad, deputy bureau chief for the Indian news channel ‘Times Now’, who reported live from outside the Oberoi and Trident hotels where 33 people were killed, expressed surprise at the clandestine execution of “foot soldier Kasab”, but told IPS that the execution may bring “temporary closure to the victims of 26/11”.

Still, she echoed the sentiments of many when she added that justice will only be delivered when the “perpetrators and those who masterminded 26/11 are brought to book.”

Other experts have been even less taken aback by the incident, which came just one day after India, along with 39 other U.N. member states, voted against a General Assembly draft resolution calling for a non-binding moratorium on executions.

“Kasab’s hanging was a foregone conclusion and surprised no one,” Pervez Hoodbhoy, a peace activist and academic, told IPS. “It had to be done, else mass murder would have gone unpunished.”

“That the Mumbai attacks were carried out by a Pakistan-based militant group can surprise no one because, literally for decades, groups such as LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad, have publically declared that they exist only to attack India, anywhere and at any time,” he added.

Indeed, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of the banned LeT, is a prominent public figure in Pakistan, often seen at political rallies delivering vitriolic sermons, directed primarily at the United States government.

Hoodbhoy’s analysis, shared by many others, highlights the sticky situation the government is now in.

For years, according to Askari, the most popular narrative within official political circles has been that Pakistan is a victim of terrorism. “(Most) officials attribute terrorist activities and violence in Pakistan to Pakistan’s foreign adversaries. That means that they do not give much credence to domestic sources of Pakistan’s problems.”

Zohra Yusuf, chairperson of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IPS that this makes a strong case “for Pakistan to adopt a credible, meaningful policy. Pakistan has to go after terrorists – and not back off only because India is asking it to act. Almost all terrorist attacks anywhere in the world seem to have some Pakistani ‘connection’, from the U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya” to the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. twin towers, she said.

“The world understands how difficult it is to tackle militants,” added Ashaar Rehman, resident editor for ‘Dawn’ in Lahore, “but is in no mood to play the understanding elder when its own existence is on line.”

But for now, he said, Pakistan seems either unable or unwilling to tackle rising militancy.

Hoodbhoy pointed out that most militant groups had, at some point in their existence, received the support of Pakistani intelligence agencies. “While some still do (accept the support), others have pointed their guns against their former benefactors,” he said.

Many experts believe Pakistan should make public some of the answers they must already have gathered through their investigations such as: who masterminded the the 2008 attacks and why, where and how the gunmen were trained, and most importantly, how these activities went ‘unnoticed’ in Pakistan.

But the government has proven it will be slow to act. It took a long time for Pakistan to even admit that the Mumbai attacks were planned on its soil, and it continues to deny any official involvement.

While seven of the alleged masterminds were charged in 2009, more evidence is needed to convict them, the government insists.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Featured, Justice, Security, Terrorism Tagged With: , , , , ,

Kashmir’s Roads Turn Militant

August 30, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Athar Parvaiz

SRINAGAR, India, Aug 30 (IPS) – The violence that killed thousands in Kashmir during the turbulent 1990s has eased; now killer roads are taking their toll.“Daily police reports about road accidents present a horrible scenario; and almost every week we see newspaper headlines screaming about casualties being inflicted by road accidents across the Kashmir valley,” says Hameeda Nayeem, a civil rights activist who heads the Kashmir Centre for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS).

“Despite the recurrence of accidents, mostly because of bad roads and lack of proper traffic regulation measures, the government thinks nothing beyond the announcement of token relief for mishap victims,” she says.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) survey sponsored by India’s home ministry says Kashmir topped the list of “high death prone accidental areas” in 2011.

The study also reveals that any accident in Jammu and Kashmir state has 64 percent chances of being “death prone”, the worst among Indian states on the basis of percentage of fatalities.

Early this year, Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a written reply to a legislator that as many as 3,288 persons had been killed and 27,165 injured in 18,786 accidents in the state during the last three years.

He claimed his government has taken several measures such as introducing more stringent penalties in February this year under the Motor Vehicles Act. “A proposal to further amend the Motor Vehicles Act in the backdrop of the recommendation of the Sunder Committee is under consideration.”

The Sunder Committee headed by India’s former transport secretary S. Sunder has proposed higher penalties for offences like crossing the speed limit, driving without a licence, use of a mobile phone while driving, and not wearing seat belts.

The Committee has recommended fines ranging from 1,000 rupees (20 dollars) to 5000 rupees (100 dollars) plus imprisonment. At present traffic regulators either let such offenders go or impose a nominal fine of 100 rupees (two dollars).

This is despite the fact that traffic authorities blame rash and negligent driving for most deaths on Kashmir’s roads. “Overspeeding is the main cause of traffic accidents in the valley. Most drivers don’t care about the rules,” Kashmir’s superintendent of traffic police, Haseeb-ur-Rehman, tells IPS.

In 2010, Kashmir’s Traffic Department had planned to introduce traffic interceptor vans to be equipped with cameras and radar. “But the proposal didn’t receive a positive response.”

“The fatality of roads has been ignored, willfully or unintentionally for quite some time now,” says Bashir Manzar, editor of the English daily Kashmir Images. “Only a huge incident involving the death of dozens attracts attention.

“The response remains limited to statements and condolence messages, and then everything settles in and the vehicles go on killing people as usual.”

Manzar says the media are also to blame for highlighting only accidents which result in a heavy death toll, and remaining silent about the causes of the frequent incidents.

Mohammad Ashraf, a retired government official, blames “killer roads” and the vehicles used for public transport.

“The first culprits are the roads. There is hardly any road which can be termed perfectly fit and safe for driving. Because of our terrain, most of our roads are located in remote mountain areas. One would not mind the rough driving surface with potholes, but the there can be no compromise on safety at steep turns over deep ravines.”

According to Ashraf, the next culprits are the vehicles used for public transportation. “Most of these have outlived their utility and there is absolutely no physical check on the fitness of these vehicles.”

In a number of cases, he says, accidents have occurred due to failure of brakes or the steering mechanism. “Not only are these vehicles a direct danger to human life, they are also the greatest source of pollution.”

Kashmir’s junior minister for roads and buildings, Javaid Ahmad Dar, denies that the government is entirely responsible for the increasing frequency of road accidents. “We are trying our best to improve road safety and we are hopeful we will be able to bring down the number of road accidents and casualties,” Dar told IPS.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Conflict, Featured, Politics, Unrest Tagged With: , , ,

Organ Trafficking Resurfaces in Pakistan

August 27, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Aug 27 (IPS) – About two months back, 28-year old Asif Ahmed* put up an announcement on the internet to sell one of his kidneys.“I lost a lot of money in business some four years back and pumped in more money by taking a loan, but I’ve lost all. I know there is a law that prohibits selling of any organ, but I can’t think of any other way to pay back this loan,” he told IPS over the phone.

However, not one person has contacted him even to inquire or show any interest. But then Ahmed is based in the southern port city of Karachi, in Sindh province, where the illegal organ trade is well under control, unlike reports of a rise in Punjab province.

Pakistan enacted a transplant law in 2010 to shake off its reputation as a leading destination for transplant tourism and bring a stop to illegal organ trafficking.

After the passage of the transplant law, organ trafficking stalled to some extent, due to the “attention it garnered,” said Dr Farhat Moazam. But, she added, there is new evidence that “since last year, cases are beginning to surface again.”

Moazam is chair of the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), institutions that relentlessly campaigned for the organ law for over two decades before the law was promulgated in 2010.

She said while there is “suspicion” that both foreigners and Pakistanis are buying kidneys, the former draw more attention in the media.

“We also get information from our international colleagues (often from the Middle East) about their citizens who have landed in their hospitals with problems following a kidney transplant in Lahore and Rawalpindi (in Punjab province)”.

After the SIUT, the Transplant Society of Pakistan (TSP) and members of civil society filed a case against the government for its failure to implement the Transplantation of Human Organ and Tissue Act 2010 (THOTA), in turn failing to stem the flourishing trade, the Supreme Court issued directives in July to the provincial governments to take action.

“The law remained static and I would call it the failure on the part of the law enforcement agencies and the transplant authority,” Adib ul Hasna Rizvi, head of the TSP, told IPS. “Reports of illegal trade were brought to the notice of the ministry of health and the national Human Organs Transplantation Authority (HOTA), but no action was taken on any of the complaints sent to them.”

According to a news report in the English language daily Express Tribune, data compiled by the National Human Organs Transplantation Authority in 2010 found that 14 out of a total of 42 illegal kidney transplant facilities were in Punjab province.

“Our advantage is that we have the support of the press, the judiciary, and the medical community; what is missing is the will of the government to enforce it and to do so transparently and with an even hand,” Moazam said.

According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 10,000 illegally purchased organ transplants take place each year. It says illicit organ trafficking rings have been uncovered in China, India and Pakistan.

Kidneys make up 75 percent of the global illicit trade in organs, according to WHO estimates. Of the 106,879 solid organs known to have been transplanted in 95 member states in 2010 (legally and illegally), about 73,179 (68.5 percent) were kidneys.

“It is of great concern to see that laws are not enforced,” said Dr. Luc Noel, with the WHO, in an email exchange with IPS.

Citing the data from the Global Observatory, Noel concluded: “TT (transplant tourism) had probably decreased around 2006-2007 and may be increasing again, but we are still estimating that roughly 10 percent of organ transplants are OT (organ trafficking).

“Implementation of the law requires enforcement authorities and the development of legitimate ways to meet patients’ needs, including access to safe and ethical transplantation, an objective that can be reached through unprecedented measures,” he told IPS.

“In Pakistan, this could translate into a strong HOTA associated with the police and efforts to develop donation from deceased persons, for instance along what has been initiated by SIUT,” said Noel.

In July this year, Abdullah Halame Nur and his wife Naado, ethnically Somali, arrived in the eastern city of Lahore, in Punjab, from the Netherlands to buy a kidney for Nur.

Just as the buyer was being prepped for the operation, the police busted the illegal transplant network and arrested all present, including the foreign nationals. The well-connected surgeons and the anaesthetists, identified by the sellers as the ringleaders of the trade, are on ‘interim’ bail for the last few months in violation of THOTA and the Pakistan Penal Code.

“We have yet to see a physician convicted and punished for transgressing the law,” said Moazam.

Noel points out that the organ trade cannot be completely eradicated as long as there is “an unmet need of wealthy patients in search of transplantation, access to vulnerable individuals willing to sell an organ, and weak or absent enforcement of the law leading to the development of organ trafficking and possibilities for corruption driven by huge illegal profit.”

Moazam explained that “The first number is expanding much faster than the second because of the physicians’ willingness and ability to transplant those (such as older patients) who were not considered for transplantation 20 years ago, and the explosive increase in renal disease and failure in affluent societies related to diet causing obesity and diabetes, hypertension, etc.”

With the change in dietary pattern like the spread of fast food, renal failure of “epidemic proportions” is being predicted in developing countries, said Moazam. But with a weak, or worse still, non-functional health system, and lack of screening, early diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases, kidney trade will only increase, she predicted.

However, there is a dearth of voluntary donors, and many people are not willing to bequeath their bodies when they die.

In a yet-to-be published study conducted in Karachi by Moazam and her team in 2010, detailed interviews with 100 people – 61 percent of whom were educated up to class 10 or above – about their opinions on live and deceased donations showed that while there was an acceptance of live donations, many opposed taking organs from the deceased due to a mixture of cultural norms and interpretation of religious teachings revolving around respecting the dead body.

“Some believed that the nephrectomy would cause the deceased pain,” said Moazam.

What she found striking was that almost one-third of those interviewed were unaware or unsure that it was possible to take organs from the deceased for transplantation.

In addition, the study found that 70 percent of the interviewees said they would buy a kidney if they could afford to, rather than ask a relative. What was even more unfortunate: fewer than ten percent of those interviewed knew of the existence of a law that criminalises the organ trade.

* Name changed to protect identity.

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Crime, Health, Human Rights, Report Tagged With: ,

Whose Timber is it Anyway?

August 25, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 25 (IPS) – With Pakistan’s last major stands of deodar (cedar) threatened by a ‘timber mafia’, the people of Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are resorting to direct action to stop the denudation of their picturesque alpine homeland.

Since April, the community in Ayun town has been running a determined campaign to intercept trucks carrying cedar logs out of the famed Kalash valleys.

“We have unloaded about 3,500 cubic feet of timber and nobody will touch it until a case we filed in court against the illegal felling is decided,” Fazalur Rehman, a local leader tells IPS over telephone.

Rehman’s village of Maldun is among several situated at the foot of the deodar forests, on the banks of the Chitral river that forms the gateway to the famous Kalash valleys and beyond to Afghanistan.

“There is a timber mafia working within the government’s forest department which is behind the ruthless felling and sale of timber, resulting in extensive deforestation,” Imran Schah, 39, a resident of Ayun who works as a tour operator, tells IPS.

In December 2011, the government cracked down hard on the protestors by imposing curfews on Ayun and arresting about 300 people protesting peacefully against illegal logging.

“We were implicated in terrorism cases for raising our voice against illegal felling. Every time these flimsy cases were dismissed in court, fresh charges invoking anti-terrorism laws would be filed against us,” Rehman told IPS.

“We have already spent anywhere between three and five million Pakistani rupees (31,862 to 53,103 dollars) in the courts,” says Rehman, but adds: “We will not give up. We want justice.”

“The people of Ayun are very poor and there is a clear attempt to break their resolve by harassing them and filing trumped up cases against them,” Siraj ul Mulk, 67, a well-respected hotelier in Chitral, who is familiar with the timber trade, told IPS.

Mulk averred that unscrupulous government officials were involved in the deforestation, leaving the residents of Ayun with no choice but to protect the forests around them by intercepting timber consignments.

Schah added: “The local people are under pressure from their legislators to give up the fight. I have seen people in the forest department getting rich overnight.”

Government representatives refute such allegations. Wajid Ali, environment minister in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, calls the agitation a “ploy” by the residents of Ayun to control forests that belong to the people of the Kalash valleys.

“The forestry department has a check post between the Kalash valley forests and Ayun and the villagers want this removed so that they can access the forests freely,” Ali told IPS. “The government opposes this.”

“We have no objection to the Kalashas (people of the Kalash valleys) using the timber for their own needs, but they are poor and vulnerable to exploitation by the timber mafia,” Rehman explained.

The profit margins are high. Timber traders typically pay a royalty of 74 cents per cubic foot of deodar wood in Chitral, but sell it in Karachi city at 44.68 dollars per cubic foot.

“We are naturally concerned that the Kalashas are selling off their trees at very cheap rates and rapidly because this results in soil erosion, mud slides and floods in the lower reaches,” Rehman said.

The Kalashas – who claim to be descendants of Greek soldiers who followed Alexander the Great on his India campaign – have lived in the northern Himalayan region of the Hindu Kush mountain range for over 2,000 years.

Now reduced in number to about 3,500, the Kalashas stand out in Chitral for their light hair, skin and eyes and the polytheistic religion they practice.

“In the 2010 floods our orchards and rice fields as well as water supply were completely destroyed due to massive mudslides,” said Rehman. “It’s been two years now but the water pipeline still remains in a state of disrepair.”

Deodar, a native of the Himalayas, is counted among Pakistan’s ecological treasures and its fragrant wood is popular for making doors, windows and furniture.

Although deodar trees are part of ‘shaamilat’, or community forests owned by the state, the local people have rights to use it for livelihood purposes – pastures, hunting, fruit and also use the timber for housing. But these rights are often converted into profits by the timber mafia.

The Hindu Kush Conservation Association (HKCA) and the Kalash Environmental Protection Society (KEPS) have, for several years now, been pressing the government to save the Kalash valleys by getting them declared as a ‘World Heritage Site’ under the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation.

“If a serious effort is not made by the government soon we shall lose the Kalash valleys to cement constructions and barren hills,” Kristina Petrochenkova, assistant director with HKCA and KEPS told IPS.

However, there is another way to reverse the trend of deforestation – adopting the United Nations REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) mechanism.

“While there is a consensus that UN REDD offers a solution to curb deforestation, there are many standards and obligations to fulfil before it actually translates into action,” Syed Nasir Mahmud, inspector general of forestry, told IPS.

“There needs to be agreement on the roles of the federal ministry and the provinces, legal and institutional reforms, transparent monitoring reporting and verification which is a foolproof system of checking whether forest cover has actually increased or not,” Mahmud said.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, between 1990 and 2010, Pakistan lost an average of 42,000 hectares of forest a year.

In 2010, only 2.2 percent or about 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of Pakistan’s land mass remained forested, according to a World Bank report released in 2011 and cited by FAO.

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Development, Environment, Featured Tagged With: , ,

Why Are Hindus from Pakistan Crossing Over to India?

August 25, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Zofeen Ebrahim

, Aug 24 (IPS) – Narain Das, a cloth merchant from Jacobabad in northern Pakistan, blesses his lucky stars that he has three sons, aged 18, 16 and 12. “If they were daughters, I, too, would seriously be thinking of migrating from here,” he reflects on the lack of protection his community faces.“Abduction, rape and coerced conversion of our daughters, extortion, blackmailing and kidnapping of businessmen for ransom” are some of the reasons given by former legislator and chairman of the Pakistan Hindu Council, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, for the recent exodus of the Hindu community to India, reported in the media.

Hindus form 1.7 percent of Pakistan’s population of 180 million.

Muslim Odhano, a Muslim rights activist from Jacobabad, has been observing a huge migration trend of Hindus from Sindh province – where the city is located – over the last four to five years.

“It’s not just the Hindus, even Muslims are continuously harassed by people from the Jakhrani tribe which is carrying out looting, extortion and dacoity (banditry) here. But Hindus are facing a double whammy, because their daughters are not safe here and are being kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam,” he told IPS over the phone from Jacobabad.

Odhano said the Jakhranis enjoyed complete impunity because of their political affiliation to the ruling Pakistan People Party. The posting of the police is done with the consent of the legislator, who is also from the tribe. “There is a complete breakdown of the law and order situation here,” he said.

Minority communities in Pakistan are facing increased discrimination and harassment, to the extent that many are fleeing their country.

Early last week, the English language daily Express Tribune reported that 60 Hindu families comprising 200-250 people, from Balochistan and Sindh provinces, were leaving the country on the pretext of pilgrimage and seeking asylum in India, on the grounds of religious persecution in Pakistan.

Dismissing the news, Interior Minister Rehman Malik called the migration a “conspiracy to defame Pakistan.” He said the Indian High Commission would be called upon to give reasons for issuing visas in such huge numbers. In addition, he said minorities could not leave the country without the permission of his ministry.

While there has been little recognition of the problem by authorities, there is even less indignation from the nation as a whole.

“There is no outrage because Pakistan has passed into the hands of intolerant bigots,” I.A. Rehman, secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IPS. He talked about “the death of the nation and its replacement with a herd of bloodthirsty morons.”

Mukesh Rupeta, a Hindu journalist based in Jacobabad, said he had bid farewell to as many as “a hundred Hindu families migrating to India in the last year.” He added, however, that the problems faced by the Hindus had been brewing for over a decade. His three brothers and two sisters have already migrated to Indore, in India.

“Most Pakistani Hindus are tight-lipped about leaving, so they go on the pretext of pilgrimage. Once there, they either seek asylum or get their visas extended. In the next fifteen years, they can eventually get citizenship,” he said.

It is not easy to migrate, he said, but the Hindus are left with little choice. “It can take a good five years to settle, but people say they at least have found peace of mind that their family is safe.”

Former legislator Vankwani said many of those migrating belonged to the more affluent business class, who were easy prey for kidnappers and extortionists because of weak security and because they had little political and administrative clout.

“Despite being highly educated and well-qualified Hindu doctors, engineers and business graduates, they find it difficult to land top jobs,” said Sanjeev Kumar, who heads the Karachi-based Pakistan Hindu Seva, a non-governmental organisation that promotes education among less privileged Hindu families.

Rupeta pointed out that while there are Hindu judges and even a few doctors in the armed forces, there are fewer Hindus in top-ranking jobs. “They do not get the positions they deserve on merit.”

The community was also shaken by the recent kidnapping of 11 Hindu traders from Balochistan and Sindh, seven of whom have now been recovered.

Vankwani recalled the years between 1989 and 1991, when Hindus were persecuted. “Thousands left for India, but returned when the situation was under control. Something similar is happening now.” He said he was, however, not sure that they would return this time.

The news of the exodus of Hindus early this month was followed closely by the abduction, conversion and marriage of 14-year old Manisha Kumari to a Muslim boy last week.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had earlier noted the worrisome increase in kidnappings of Hindu girls who are then coerced into embracing Islam. Motumal Amarnath, a senior lawyer with the Commission, told IPS that at least 20 to 25 Hindu girls are abducted each month and converted to Islam.

But he said he was not sure that the reports of mass migration were accurate.

“I have made enquiries, and while there may have been a few cases, I have been unable to confirm the names or addresses of the people who have left,” he told IPS. He added that “We are Pakistanis first, and this is our motherland. We would never leave. Times are bad for all of us – including Ahmadis and Shias (Muslims).”

“The Jacobabad story may have been exaggerated,” Rehman, the secretary general of the Commission, told IPS. Nevertheless, he added: “There have been persistent reports that Hindus in Sindh and Balochistan are fleeing from Pakistan or are being frightened into migrating, and the trend is unmistakable.”

In a press statement, the Commission said the migration was a reflection of the state’s failure to save its citizens from violence, discrimination and excesses such as forced conversion of young women.

It urged civil society organisations and the media to keep the “spotlight firmly trained on the raw deal these communities” were getting.

“Ahead of the forthcoming elections, the political parties also have an opportunity, through their manifestos, and more than that through their actions now, to articulate their vision for religious minorities in Pakistan,” the Commission stated.

Without naming anyone in particular, Amarnath, the lawyer with the Commission, said there were some “religio-political groups, in cahoots with intelligence agencies,” who were creating a sense of insecurity among the Hindu community.

He also pointed to vested interests that might profit from the migration of affluent Hindus by laying claim to their property, “just like some did with the evacuee property in 1947 (when India and Pakistan became separate states).”

While it is not yet clear if the families who have gone on the pretext of pilgrimage will return to Pakistan once their visas expire, the situation has nevertheless brought into sharp focus the underlying sense of insecurity that has beset the Hindu community.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Featured, Human Rights, Unrest Tagged With: ,

Donors Turn Their Backs on Taliban

August 20, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai

In Peshawar City, in Northern Pakistan, donors and former supporters have turned their backs on the Taliban this Ramadan. Credit: AShfaq Yusufzai/IPS

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 20 2012 (IPS) – For the past five years Sharifullah Shah, a local doctor from the conflict-ridden North Waziristan province in Pakistan, has handed over 500 dollars to the Taliban during the month of Ramadan. But this year, he is putting his money straight into the Edhi Welfare Centre, where he knows it will reach those in need.

“I know the (Centre) uses this money to educate and care for orphaned local children, while the Taliban insurgents just pump my money into their violent actions,” Shah told IPS, adding that his donations to the Taliban were tantamount to “aiding terrorism”.

Across Taliban-controlled areas in Pakistan, former supporters are turning their backs on the group, angered by the unrelenting violence.

“We have been giving 2.5 percent of our earnings in Zakat to the Taliban for the past 10 years because we wanted our money to be spent in the service of Allah but this year we stopped because the Taliban killed people in terrorist attacks using our money,” Umar Gul, a cloth-merchant in old Peshawar city, told IPS.

A regular and generous donor to the Taliban, Gul now wishes he had never made those contributions.

At the end of 2001, when U.S.-led coalition forces toppled the government in neighbouring Afghanistan, people swarmed the donation camps, established by religious parties on behalf of the Taliban, because they held the latter in high esteem, believing them to be defenders of Islam.

“Now, they (Taliban) have become kidnappers, extortionists and killers of humanity,” Gul stressed.

A local prayer leader told IPS that the Taliban had once been a primary recipient of the huge charitable donations made during Ramadan.

Now, with the group refusing to cease hostilities even out of respect for the holy month, people are more and more reluctant to loosen their purse strings in the service of violence.

“We, the Muslims, are of the firm belief that the month of Ramadan brings a plethora of blessings for human beings and those who resort to killing and injuring during this time have no relation to Islam,” he said.

“My followers used to hand more than 1000 dollars to a jihadist group working under the umbrella of Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) every Ramadan but they have plainly refused to pay them donations anymore,” he added.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, spokesman of the Awami National Party government in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, whose only son was killed by militants in July 2010, echoed these sentiments.

“Islam preaches brotherhood and peace while the Taliban are doing exactly the opposite. We (requested) the Taliban to desist from militancy during Ramadan but all such pleas fell on deaf ears,” he lamented.

With donations slowing to a trickle, Taliban militants have resorted to bank robberies and kidnapping for ransom, he added.

On Jul. 21, the Dawn newspaper quoted a Punjab province police officer, Raja Tahir, as saying that a gang of dacoit involved in bank robberies funded the Taliban.

“We have traced 34 robbers belonging to Kohat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is involved in funding the Taliban,” he said.

Shopkeepers in Peshawar city told IPS they have noticed a sharp increase in donations to local charity organisations.

“Nowadays we have to empty the donation box for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Trust every day. Before Ramadan it used to take three day to fill up,” Imran Ali, a manager at the Imperial Stores in Peshawar Cantonment, told IPS.

He said many commercial establishments no longer allow donation boxes for the Taliban to be placed in their stores because “the Taliban have become synonymous with terrorism”.

Maulana Muhammad Sattar, a religious scholar and former Taliban sympathiser, believes the most deplorable part of the Taliban’s savagery is the pride they take in every act of terrorism.

He recalled the attack on a school bus in Peshawar last October that killed three school children and wounded 10 others, for which the Taliban quickly claimed responsibility.

“Acts such as killing little children are simply inhuman and no sane person on the earth will approve of them,” he said. By crossing this line, the Taliban has significantly watered down its own support base.

On Sunday, even prayer leaders condemned the Taliban and told people that donating to the group was not a service to Islam or humanity.

“We should think before making donations because the Taliban have now adopted the path of terrorism and giving charity money to them is not appropriate,” Maulvi Tabriz Khan announced at an Eid sermon in Board Colony, Peshawar, on Sunday.

He informed his congregation that Pakistan had a huge number of philanthropists but the money was wasted in the hands of the Taliban.

He added that the Taliban had now become the worst enemies of humanity and donations would only make them stronger.

“The people donating to them will not receive Allah’s blessing but rather face the Divine’s wrath,” he said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Economy, Report Tagged With: ,

The Political Drones Get Louder

May 17, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, May 17, 2012 (IPS) – Growing numbers of activists are beginning to counter U.S. Drone attacks into Pakistani territory. The activists are confronting the U.S., but increasingly now the Pakistani government for allowing such attacks to continue.

The Tehreek Insaf party led by former Pakistani cricket captain Imran Khan first stepped up the political heat against the Drones. Civil society groups, including Pakistani lawyers, and now also groups from the U.S. and Britain have joined the campaign.

"We believe Drone strikes are illegal according to international law because they kill innocent people," Imran Khan told IPS from Islamabad. "The U.S. or any other country has no right to violate frontiers of an independent state."

The cricketer-turned-politician blames the Pakistani government for its "indifference" to the killing of innocent tribesmen in the Drone attacks. "They have sold out our sovereignty to our enemies."

"A Drone attack killed the first ever head of outlawed Tehreek Taliban, Neik Mohammad Wazir in 2004," Prof Ziaullah at the Government College in Charsadda, one of 25 districts of the border state Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told IPS. "But lately attacks have assumed political dimensions largely due to Khan’s protests."

Those began on Apr. 23 last year when Tehreek Insaf activists blocked the road to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) vehicles in Hayatabad town for two days. U.S.-led NATO attacks on two checkpoints in Salala Mohmand Agency earlier this year which killed 28 soldiers sparked off mass protests, forcing the government to halt NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Pakistan.

On Mar. 13, the National Assembly passed a resolution against Drone strikes in the border areas. Civil society activists are now pressuring the Pakistani government to do more to block such attacks.

The Foundation for Fundamental Rights (FFR), a Pakistan based legal charity, filed two constitutional petitions last week before the Peshawar High Court against the Federation of Pakistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence among others for failure to stop the attacks on Pakistan.

One petition is on behalf of victims of a Drone strike on members of a Jirga (council) on Mar. 17 last year. The second petition was filed by Noor Khan, whose father Malik Daud Khan, head of the North Waziristan Loya Jirga, was assassinated along with 50 other tribal elders and others last year by CIA operated Drones.

Shahzad Akbar acting on behalf of the victims told media representatives at the launch of the petition that Malik Daud Khan was a respected member of the local community and head of the North Waziristan Loya Jirga, a peaceful council of local elders. He is arguing that such attacks are illegal.

British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith also addressed the press conference. "The first role of any government must be to protect its own citizens from harm, when they are innocent of any crime," Smith said. "If my child were killed by a Predator Drone in the English countryside, I would expect there to be very serious and immediate consequences. A Pakistani child should enjoy the same protection."

Smith, whose organisation Reprieve is reported to have helped secure the release of 65 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, said: "We can kill people without any risk to ourselves and that’s why the politicians like it."

FFR works with Reprieve in campaigning on behalf of Drone victims. Reprieve has filed a similar petition in London seeking an end to the involvement of British secret services in Drone strikes in Pakistan. Reprieve and FFR have also filed a complaint before the UN Human Rights Council.

As of May 6, in all 2,193 people have been killed in 230 Drone strikes in Pakistan’s border regions of North and South Waziristan. Most of those killed have been Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders who had taken refuge after dismissal of their government in Kabul.

According to official information from the U.S., 831 were killed in 90 attacks in 2010, up from 536 in 46 attacks in 2009. In 2011, 548 were killed in 59 attacks. This year 110 have been killed in 15 attacks, all in North Waziristan.

U.S. officials say the region is now the international headquarters of Al-Qaeda. John Brennan, the top counter-terrorism adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama told a meeting in Washington early this month that rigorous standards were applied to such attacks, and they were being carried out with laser-like precision.

He said nothing in international law prohibits the U.S. from using lethal force against enemies outside of an active battlefield.

Activists are challenging such claims. Nancy Maneiar, a peace activist with the U.S.-based anti-war Code Pink Group told a meeting in Washington Saturday last week, "We apologise to the people of Pakistan for the strikes that have killed so many civilians. The CIA needs to be held accountable for their strikes."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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