November 28, 2015
Dear Friends,
I am sending four separate articles , all from Dawn, Pakistan's leading English daily. All of them indicate, if any more proof is needed, the folly of partition and dire consequences of it , let alone to Hindus but to Muslims as well. Pakistan was created not for any betterment of Muslims as such though this excuse was used to mobilize support for the insane demand for partition based on equally insane two nation theory.
If India remained undivided, the fate of these people wading to shores of Europe as destitute probably would have been different.
Instead, being part of India , a knowledge based society , they would have acquired skills in technology, as such they will be sought , moving expenses paid , invited by reputed information technology companies world wide.
Pakistan accused India of promoting terrorism, so with much fanfare it has given dossiers on the subject to United states, only to admit later , after all it does not have any material evidence but only 'pattern' -what ever that means.
Please see the news report from Dawn . A Pakistan chipboard factory was destroyed because it was accused of blasphemy. Possibly the factory was owned by an Ahmediya. In the past also several such attacks took place on Pakistan's textile factories because a faithful or a believer finds on designs of cloth
made some Koranic verses, hence it becomes blasphemy , so declares local Mullah who got peeved possibly of not having received his due from the manager or owner of the factory. So the entire facility goes up in flames with employees along with employer thrown on streets with nothing to do.
So why does Pakistan need any enemy ? India is certainly not its enemy.
Pakistanis themselves reportedly declared, they will not allow any one to destabilize Pakistan, they will do it themselves , brick by brick.
G V Chelvapilla
ATHENS: The European Union’s migration commissioner has welcomed the departure of first refugees from Greece under an EU relocation scheme aimed at easing the burden on countries bearing the brunt of Europe’s migrant crisis, but warned that the bloc is going to get tough on migrants who are simply seeking a better life rather than fleeing conflict.
Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Wednesday that he was set to visit Pakistan soon to discuss plans to send back Pakistani migrants who had made their way to Europe.
Mr Avramopoulos was at the airport here to see off the 30 Syrians and Iraqis heading to Luxembourg to start new lives.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn were also there to greet the six families who were to fly out from the airport under the plan meant to share out nearly 160,000 migrants across the bloc.
The families appeared very happy to be leaving, smiling widely as they stood on the tarmac at the airport.
Mr Tsipras said the families, who were chosen because they were considered vulnerable, were making “a trip to hope”, but warned that they were merely “a drop in the ocean” compared to the hundreds of thousands who had arrived on European shores this year.
“Today they have the opportunity to make a trip to hope, to a better life,” he said. “It’s a drop in the ocean, but we hope the drop will become a stream and then a river of humanity.”
At least 80 migrants, including many children, have died in the last week while trying to sail from Turkey to Lesbos and other Greek islands in rough weather.
On Tuesday, four more migrants, including two children, drowned after their boat got into difficulty off Lesbos.
“The human sacrifice that shames European civilisation must stop,” Mr Tsipras said.
He added that the registration and relocation process should begin in Turkey, from where some 200,000 migrants set sail for Greece in October alone, according to the UN refugee agency.
“Greece is not the gateway; Turkey is the gateway,” the Greek prime minister said.
A Greek asylum service official said the group leaving Athens on Wednesday comprised two Iraqi and four Syrian families, with a total of 16 children. One of the women is pregnant and two of the children are disabled.
Upon arrival in Luxembourg, the families will spend two days in a registration centre and then two or three months in homes.
The welfare service will then help them to find permanent accommodation, schools and jobs.
A total of 87 Eritreans and Syrians left Italy under the relocation scheme last month, bound for Sweden and Finland.
Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2015
EMAIL
PRINTISLAMABAD / GUJRAT: Around 50 Pakistani asylum seekers have been deported from Norway.
Many more will soon be sent back to their home country or to Russia, as the Norwegian government has now introduced stricter rules for asylum seekers, Norwegian Ambassador Tore Nedrebø said in a statement here on Thursday.
More than 400 Pakistani citizens have applied for asylum in Norway during the current year. Most of them have crossed the Norwegian-Russian border in the High North during the last month.
Like in other European countries, the number of asylum seekers arriving in Norway has recently increased sharply. It is estimated that between 30,000 and 40,000 asylum seekers will come to Norway in 2015. The new rush is particularly challenging at the Norwegian-Russian border crossing station at Storskog, where winter has now set in.
Norwegian authorities consider that most of those currently crossing the border are not fleeing from civil war or persecution. Earlier this autumn, the majority was from Syria. Now well over half are from other countries, such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. A large proportion of them are single young men. “Few are entitled to protection and they are putting an unnecessary burden on the Norwegian system,” the ambassador said.
Legislative amendments adopted by Oslo last week enable a speedy return of asylum seekers without real need of protection to their home country, or to their country of habitual residence, which may be Russia. The new legislation also contains provisions making it possible to arrest and remand in custody foreign nationals whose asylum applications will most likely not be processed, or to impose on them a duty to report to the authorities and to stay in a specific place.
Benefits for asylum seekers have been reduced and rules for family immigration are tightened.
The new rules also increase the discretion of Norwegian immigration authorities not to process an asylum request if the applicant has already resided in a safe third country. “Norway considers Russia to be a safe country,” Mr Nedrebø said.
He points out that to be eligible for asylum under the international Refugee Convention, a person must be in real need of protection. People whose applications are denied must return to their home country or the country of habitual residence. Those who do not leave voluntarily will be returned by force. Asylum applications that appear likely to be denied will be given priority and fast-tracked.
“Applications from Pakistani nationals generally fall into this category,” the ambassador said.
Some central region districts of Punjab such as Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Jhelum, Sialkot and Gujranwala have been the potential areas of those who seek asylum in European countries, including Norway. Some 40,000 expatriates of Pakistani origin are currently residing in Norway and around 30,000 of them belong only to Gujrat district. It is generally believed that those who have recently been refused asylum by the Norwegian government are from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts.
Talking to Dawn, Attaché (Migration) of Norwegian Embassy Torben Sveaass Kalland said that “between 20 and 30 Pakistanis have been deported during the past few weeks. It shows that the number of people, who are trying to go to Norway illegally, has suddenly increased”.
He said majority of people who crossed the Norwegian-Russian border had valid Russian visa which showed that they travelled to Russia legally and then they crossed the border illegally.
“We have informed the Russian embassy in Islamabad about the situation at Storskog and the new policy.”
Replying to a question, he said that generally people, who cross borders illegally, destroy their passports.
All the people crossing the Norwegian border with Russia had documents. “The part of Russia bordering Norway is a militarised area, so Pakistanis cannot afford to travel without documents in those areas. So they carry their passports and identity documents,” he added.
“We obviously cannot stop people travelling from Pakistan to Russia. But we will certainly consider all possibilities to reduce the number of people crossing the border without a visa.”
Director of the Federal Investigation Agency (Immigration) Inam Ghani told Dawn said that he was aware that the people had been trying to go to Norway from Russia but claimed that they were going to Russia on legal documents.
“Currently two types of people have been going to Russia. Some are going after getting a visit visa and others on a student visa. We cannot stop those who travel on legal documents,” he said.
“We, however, have started profiling of travellers. During profiling, we ask them the purpose of their visit abroad and why they want to go especially to Russia. If a person who intends to go to Russia has just $150 and it is confirmed that he never travelled even to Murree in the past we stop him from proceeding,” he said.
“I believe that Norway should take up the issue with Russia and persuade its embassy to change its visa policy,” Mr Ghani said.
Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2015
JHELUM: Sunday mornings in Jhelum are usually slow, but today an uneasy quiet pervades. For the Pakistan Chipboard Factory, located by the Grand Trunk (GT) Road, doomsday already occurred on Friday (Nov 20).
The decades-old facility has been turned into a vast heap of ashes and charred structures by an arson attack launched by a crazed mob. The crowd gathered in the wake of announcements made from mosques’ loudspeakers, calling on people to burn the facility down after one of its employees was arrested over allegations of blasphemy. What they didn’t burn down, they looted.
The main gate has been pulled down and the guard-post is burnt. The path leading into the premises is partially blocked by the melted and overturned hulks of two cars. At the reception, the computer monitors have been hacked into pieces, fragments of them strewn all over the floor.
Chipboard sheets manufactured just before the attack have been reduced to a smouldering mound in the main production area, still emitting smoke, which rescue staff are trying to douse with sprays of water. In the main factory building, too, machines are broken and half burnt.
The compound also contained the residences of the factory owner, senior staff and servants’ quarters. These have all been ransacked and destroyed, their walls broken down, the cars parked in the porches now ash.
In a veranda, flower pots are shattered and shards of glass cover every surface. A sofa-swing is still hanging, badly blackened. In the drawing rooms, carpets and furniture have been destroyed and in kitchens, meals — half-cooked and half-eaten — are laid out. Fine china crockery sets have been smashed to pieces and the refrigerators are burnt-out wrecks. Floors, walls and ceilings — all are damaged and the pungent smell of incinerated materials hangs over everything.
The boiler, which used to keep the factory running through burning material such as scrap and old books, has itself been burnt. The material being used as fuel at the time of the attack is still there: paper, newspapers, magazines, books in Arabic, which rescue workers are collecting.
Some yards away, in front of the factory’s hall, a building had been furnished with soft carpets to serve as a place of worship for the Ahmadi owners and the factory employees. The windows of this building have been broken also, and the carpets are now covered with glass shards. Three books are still lying on a reading table, though, and a bookshelf still hangs on the wall.
As the rescue workers go about their work to quell the embers, a convoy of police vehicles arrives. From a glittering black car disembarks the Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer (RPO), Muhammad Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja — clearly upset and even frightened. Moments later, Inspector General of the Police, Punjab, Mushtaq Sukhera, arrives in another convoy. The RPO and rescue officials give him a tour of the factory premises and the damaged houses.
As he leaves, a patrol contingent of the army takes over at the main gate. There, a few men and women are huddled in the corner, confused and worried, the women with tears in their eyes.
“We work and live here in this factory,” says Muhammad Kaswar, adding that his wife worked in the house of the factory owner. “We have come here to take our belongings; we left everything and ran for our lives when the attack took place. We were trapped inside the factory when the mob gathered and were rescued by the police.” Shamun Masih and his wife Samina Shamun, who also worked in the owner’s house, nod in agreement.
A few kilometres east of the torched factory, in the congested Kala Gujran area of Jhelum city, dozens of armed soldiers and policemen stand guard in front of an Ahmadi place of worship. But the place has now been inscribed with the title of ‘Masjid Allah Wali’ and displays the slogan ‘Khatm-e-Nabuwat Zindabad’.
“These were written by the protesters who briefly took over this place yesterday and offered their prayers here,” says Malik Basharat Jameel, a native of the area. “They took three motorcycles, two generators, some furniture and files out from this building and set it all on fire.”
The authorities promise to act against the culprits.
“Those responsible for this arson will face the music,” says Zulfiqar Ahmad Ghumman, the Jhelum District Coordination Officer.
But Nasir Butt, a local journalist, believes the police were responsible for the chaos.
“The police failed to apply a strategy to counter religious unrest,” he says. “Surprisingly, the second attack occurred after the RPO himself had arrived here to control the situation. The police simply vanished when the crowd arrived.”
Sami Zuberi, a senior journalist in Islamabad, believes that the government machinery has been proved incapable of being able to handle such sensitive issues.
“We have been facing blasphemy cases and retaliatory protests and ransacking for decades now, but the authorities have been unable to tackle them. They need to be sensitised about it,” he says.
Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2015
This is the last forwarded piece from Dawn, sending only a short segment of a lengthy article on a cricket match played between India and Pakistan in 1970s. It shows abusive attitude of a Pakistani player . The audience in Pakistan were even worse in their attitude towards Indian team . This was not an exception nor limited to cricket .
Now once again talk of resuming cricket matches with Pakistan is heard after a gap of 8 years during which time India suffered a 26/11 attack and umpteen attacks in Kashmir. So far the decision by Govt of India to permit is up in air. While eagerness of those who want these games is understandable for love of lucre always triumphs over every thing else for some.
Now once again talk of resuming cricket matches with Pakistan is heard after a gap of 8 years during which time India suffered a 26/11 attack and umpteen attacks in Kashmir. So far the decision by Govt of India to permit is up in air. While eagerness of those who want these games is understandable for love of lucre always triumphs over every thing else for some.
Despite having all the wanted terrorists with in Pakistan, still let alone apology but even acknowledgement is not forthcoming from Pakistan regarding promoting terrorism in India.
So Government of India will be well advised not to permit resuming playing cricket with Pakistan, instead should look for more ways to keep contacts to minimum.
Best wishes,
G V Chelvapilla
From Dawn, Pakistan . During Cricket match in Pakistan in 1978.
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"But, the stubborn Gavaskar was still there, playing out time. He found a resolute partner in Gharvri and both began to frustrate the Pakistani bowlers.
Sarfaraz and Miandad began their sledging routine. Sarfaraz let out a volley of abuse at Gavaskar.
At one point, Gavaskar walked up to Mushtaq and asked him to stop his fast bowler from passing remarks against India.
He said he didn’t have a problem with Sarfaraz hurling abuses at him, but he will not take any abusive language directed at his country.
But Sarfaraz carried on, directing choice Punjabi words at the plucky little batsman."