Sunday, May 10, 2015

NADRA NA-122 Report; RAW in Pakistan; Future of PPP; Indian Media in Nepal

Were NA-122 and NA-125 elections rigged? Does NADRA report raise serious doubts about the credibility of PML's win in Pakistan's 2013 general electionsIs it PTI’s victory? Should the Nawaz Sharif government be worried?



What proof does the Pakistan Army have on RAW’s involvement in terrorist activities taking place in Pakistan? 

What has turned Zulfiqar Mirza against Asif Ali Zaradari? Is Pakistan People's Party going to split? 

What are the GCC countries doing at Camp David? Has the Saudi Arabia led coalition failed to get desired results in Yemen? 

Alif Ailaan report on education in Pakistan, and what does the report tell us? 

After the recent earthquake, is the Indian media truly despised in Nepal?

ViewPoint from Overseas host Faraz Darvesh discusses these and other questions with panelists Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com), Misbah Azam(www.politicsinpakistan.com), and Ali H Cemendtaur (www.Cemendtaur.net) in Silicon Valley, California, USA. 

https://vimeo.com/127407131


VPOS 050915-ipad from WBT TV on Vimeo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NYVa8Tx-m4

 Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Has Modi Stepped Up India's Covert War in Pakistan?

Pakistan's 2013 General Elections

Pakistan's People's Party's Feudal Leadership

Indian Media's Nepal Coverage

Saudi Arabia's Yemen Campaign

Viewpoint From Overseas Youtube Channel

Viewpoint From Overseas Vimeo Channel

6 comments:

Riaz Haq said...

Excerpt from "Mission R&AW" by RK Yadav:

Page 21

" Wali Khan (son of Abul Ghaffar Khan) wanted moral, political and other support from Mrs. Indira Gandhi. R.N. Kao sent hs deputy Sankaran Nair to negotiate as the Indian representative. Since Pakistan embassy was keeping watch on the movements of Wali Khan, the rendezvous was shifted to Copenhagen in Sweden where Nair and another R&AW man of Indian mission I.S. Hassanwalia met Wali Khan. Subsequently all sorts of Indian Government till 1977 when Indira Gandhi lost election".

http://www.scribd.com/doc/232097939/Mission-R-AW-Scanned-Book#scribd

Riaz Haq said...

Another Excerpt from "Mission R&AW" by RK Yadav:

Page 242:

Kader Bahini: An Outfit of Tiger Siddiqui (R&AW Operative)

"..He (Kader Siddiqui) was the main operative of R&AW in the most vital areas of strategic operation around Dacca. He was serving Pakistani Army when his brother brought him back to East Pakistan to complete his interrupted education just prior to the crackdown of the Pakistan Army. Kader...."

http://www.scribd.com/doc/232097939/Mission-R-AW-Scanned-Book#scribd

Riaz Haq said...

#India embroiled in #Saudi diplomat dispute over rape accusations - http://FT.com #Nepal http://on.ft.com/1J31U5K via @FT


India has found itself at the centre of an awkward diplomatic spat, after a Saudi Arabian diplomat was accused of raping two Nepali maids who he is said to have kept as virtual prisoners at an apartment in the Indian capital, New Delhi.
The plight of the two women — who were removed in a police raid on the residence after a request from Nepal’s government — has left New Delhi caught between Saudi Arabia, its largest oil supplier, and Nepal, a small neighbour where it has long vied with China for influence.

India’s foreign ministry summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to India on Thursday and asked for the diplomat’s immunity to be waived so he could co-operate in the police investigation. But Riyadh, which has called the charges baseless and formally protested against the police raid, has yet to formally reply to the request, Indian authorities said. “It’s an exquisitely delicate diplomatic situation to be able to sort this out,” said Arundhati Ghose, India’s former ambassador to the United Nations.
Indian police say the women were repeatedly raped by the diplomat and his guests over a period of a month, and have carried out extensive medical examinations of the women. Riyadh has complained about the media coverage of the case, which has dominated headlines.
The case is a foreign policy test for prime minister Narendra Modi, who has been eager to strengthen ties with smaller, poorer neighbours such as Nepal, with which it shares long and deep cultural ties, and the wealthy oil-exporting countries of the gulf.
Since taking office just over a year ago, Mr Modi has twice visited Nepal, with whom relations had been grown strained and distant, allowing China to increase its influence. But Riyadh is also an important diplomatic partner, which also played a key role in helping India rescue 6,000 of its citizens from strife-torn Yemen earlier this year.
Kathmandu is sensitive about the mistreatment of its citizens, some 3.5m of whom work abroad, providing remittances that account for nearly 30 per cent of the Himalayan country’s GDP. But many workers, including women, return with tales of terrible abuses at the hand of their employers, including sexual assault.
“We have seen similar crimes occurring in Saudi Arabia and the Saudis have not shown any great enthusiasm for prosecuting them,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, the campaign group.
Diplomats say India can do little if Riyadh refuses to co-operate in the investigation, and chooses to withdraw the diplomat — the most likely option for defusing the tensions. But Ms Ghose said Delhi should insist that Riyadh prosecute the diplomat at home.
“There must be something which would ensure that the Saudi government would deal with him in accordance with whatever evidence we give them,” she said. “Withdrawal can’t be an end to the matter. There must be some conditions where we say we hope they would be able to proceed against a diplomat who has been party to human trafficking.”
Ms Ganguly also said Riyadh must be ensure prosecution of the accused. “This is a big test for the Saudi authorities that they are not going to tolerate crimes like this by their nationals — diplomats or otherwise,” she said.

Riaz Haq said...

#India blockade has shattered my dreams, says #Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli. #NepalChokedByIndia http://toi.in/vngW7a via @timesofindia

Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday said his dream to develop the Himalayan nation as "vibrant" had been shattered by the "embargo imposed by India". Receiving a memorandum submitted by academicians on Sunday, Oli said his plan to make Nepal a developed nation was under a cloud. Nepal's economic growth witnessed a sharp fall following the April 25 earthquake which claimed over 9,000 lives and devastated vast areas of the nation.

After being elected prime minister, Oli said, he had made many commitments to the nation, including ending the long daily load-shedding, plying electric vehicles in Kathmandu, and building a self-reliant economy. "I had dreamt several dreams on becoming prime minister," he said.
"I became prime minister in a very difficult situation. As we were trying to overcome the pain caused by the quake, the embargo along the border came as a serious jolt," he added, "I have been trying my best to overcome the pain and suffering."

Oli admitted that he had not been able to fulfil his commitments because of the unrest in Nepal's southern plain for the last four months. Due to protests and demonstrations at the border, thousands of Nepal-bound freight vehicles are stuck on the Indian side of the border

This has brought the economy of the landlocked Himalayan nation to a grinding halt. Officials say that if the standoff continues, Nepal will soon face a humanitarian crisis.

Riaz Haq said...

#Nepal cancels President visit as #India-#Nepal ties sour. #Nepal recalls its Ambassador in #Delhi https://shar.es/1eKnY2 via @sharethis


In a move without parallel, the Nepal government had cancelled the trip of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari to India barely 72 hours before her departure for Delhi, without giving any reason. This was coupled by another act of vengeance, the recall of its ambassador, Deep Kumar Upadhyay in Delhi.
Both these acts came barely 24 hours after Prime Minister K P Oli defeated a move to unseat him from the post, under an initiative taken by the main opposition party, the Nepali Congress. The move was to have seen Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists and the second largest constituent in the cabinet, lead the new government.

The move collapsed at the last minute after Dahal entered into a fresh deal extracting promises from Oli that he will withdraw all politically motivated cases pending against Maoist leaders and cadres during the decade-long insurgency dating back to 1996.
Oli reportedly believes that India was behind the move to topple him. The decision to scrap president’s visit to Delhi, along with the recall of Ambassador Upadhyay, clearly indicate that Oli is upset with India.
A seasoned Nepali diplomat, someone not enamoured of India and its role in Nepal, went to the extent of calling it an ‘unfriendly act’. Bhandari who became President a week after Oli, Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), took over as the prime minister in October, belonged to the same faction of party, and apparently do not differ much in her views on India.
Bhandari’s proposed visit was being viewed as a move to explore traditional cordiality in bilateral relations that suffered a series of setbacks especially after India supported the Madhesi groups anti-constitution protests and the subsequent blockade for months beginning in September, csusing Nepal an acute shortage of essential goods and fuel.

Riaz Haq said...

The Pakistan Education Statistics 2015-16 fact sheets compiled by Alif Ailaan shows that Pakistan failed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets for universal primary school access, improving retention in schools and increasing adult literacy.

The MGDs report available on its official page also revealed that not only did Pakistan come up short in upholding its international commitment to ensure all its citizens access to primary education as prescribed under the MDG, but it has also failed to meet its constitutional obligations at national and provincial level. The report of the MDGs has also recommended a high standard of education. The education departments of a country need to consider the urgency of improving educational quality in the country, which is not necessarily linked to infrastructure alone.

According to Alif Alian, Provincial and National Education Scores For the fourth year consecutively, Islamabad has ranked highest amongst all provinces of the Pakistan. The Education Score of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) remained at the same ranks they were last year, with KP at number five. However, the provinces suffered a decline in their Education Score of almost two percentage points each. KP demonstrated improvements in both enrolment and gender parity scores. However the reduction in the overall Education Score of the province is mainly due to the decline in retention rates.

The report of the independent organization also indicates that 50 percent of KP schools still do not have any of the four basic facilities available (electricity, drinking water, toilets and boundary walls). Unlike Punjab, KP’s districts are more evenly distributed whereby one specific region does not dominate the rest, as was the case in previous years.

The Pakistan District Education Rankings 2016 have suggested that for the fourth annual iteration for tracking progress, three districts of the province - Malakand, Mardan and Haripur - ranked in the top 25 of the country.

The data accumulation process of the organization found that two districts of the province - Tank and Kohistan - are ranked in the bottom 25. Kohistan was the worst performing district. However, as result of the Fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 KP the provincial allocation is PKR 43.6 billion while the district component is PKR 99.8 billion which will have a positive impact for the improvement of district level education status. Fifty percent of the provincial budget has been allocated for the districts but no detail or formula has been mentioned concerning how the funds are to be allocated. The minister made clear the formula or break-up of development and current allocations of funds to districts. It is pertinent to mention here that the factsheet praised the meritorious policy of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the previous FY 2015-16 merit base recruitment of over 12,000 school teachers through the National Testing Service (NTS) in FY 2015-16.

Despite a five-year trend of increasing enrollment rates, many children are still out of school and gender disparity remains a challenge. 52 percent girls in the province remain out of school compared to 21 boys. Media Manager of the Alif Ailaan Mariam Jamal said, while speaking to Daily Time that the data presented in the factsheet was collected painstakingly at a district level and compiled at the provincial and regional levels from the Annual School Census (ASC), which is regularly conducted every year by provincial and regional Education Management Information Systems (EMIS).

http://dailytimes.com.pk/khyber-pakhtunkhwa/16-Jun-16/pakistan-fails-to-meet-mdg-goals-for-primary-school-access-again