If looks mattered, Zareen Gul would have not be the best

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: From his looks, one might underrate him. He wears the traditional white cap that slides onto his forehead nearly touching the eyebrows. His unstarched waistcoat fits loose in his skinny body.

One of the residents of the far-off ‘black mountain,’ he has hardly learned strutting around, unlike his other colleagues. Simple and humble are the words to describe him in a nutshell. But when it comes to effort or competence and political know-how, he does not lag behind. In fact, he is a champion.

Zareen Gul is the best lawmaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the previous parliamentary year records suggest. He brought the most non-legislative business to the provincial assembly and gave tough time to the government. With being vocal, he comes prepared; a combination that at times embarrasses the government.   

Inside a poky room of MPA hostel, he explains what made him a distinguished lawmaker in the assembly. “I work hard on preparing questions for the assembly,” Zareen Gul said, who brought 38 non-legislative activities, 35 filed queries about departments’ performance and three resolutions. The MPA said he visited different departments to learn what was happening wrong. He usually obtained some help from them to understand the issue before bringing it before the House in shape of a question.

A day before every sitting, he checks whether his question has come on the agenda. “If a question is on the agenda, I burn the mid-night oil to carefully read it to ensure that the answer furnished is not wrong or manipulated,” he said, seesawing between squatting and fidgeting on one end of a bolster. “Most of the treasury benches members are not happy with me for detecting wrong answers or misleading details,” he said, adding that some officers in the bureaucracy were also upset at his grilling of the departments.

Zareen Gul was elected on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F ticket from Torghar, an underdeveloped district in Hazara Division. “It’s ‘Kala Dhaka’ in Urdu and ‘Black Mountain’ in English,” he said, hurrying up to add that it was called ‘Tor’ ‘Kala’ or ‘black’ because of its forested mountains.

What he calls a ‘cell’ is a team membered by his young son and nephew that provides technical support to the MPA. “My nephew Muhammad Ali Jan is a historian and my son Shakir Zareen is my political heir,” he said, when asked whether he gets technical assistance from someone. “After they have done their work, which includes pinpointing wrongdoings in departments, I prepare the questions in a professional manner,” said Zareen Gul, who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy and who is a seasoned lawmaker elected five times to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in his patchy political career.

He was first elected to the provincial assembly in1985 as an independent candidate and still remembers a curt message from the then governor Gen (R) Fazle Haq that the military, not anybody else, would continue to run the government.

Before 1990 election, he joined Awami National Party and won consecutively three times in 1990, 1993 and 1997. He contested the 2013 election on JUI-F ticket and again made it to the assembly. However, his two attempts for National Assembly made in 1988 and 2002, both as an independent candidate, failed.

It’s frustrating for him that he has always remained in the opposition and could not do much for the development of Torghar.

He works hard to bring business to the assembly but does it pay off? To a certain level, Zareen Gul says. “The government machinery gets alerted and local administration swings into action to resolve a particular problem,” he said, but linked resolution of such problems to presence of the administrative secretaries in the assembly. “Real power is with the secretaries. These ministers and advisors are nothing, useless,” he said in desperation.

Zareen Gul is terribly disappointed with the ministers. “They come unprepared to the assembly,” he said, referring to their inability to answer questions in the House, often embarrassing themselves. “I am not satisfied with their level of intellect,” he put it bluntly and said they must be trained in the use of parliamentary language.

Nevertheless, Zareen Gul admires Chief Minister Pervez Khattak as good, uncorrupted and senior politician and the one who is unaccustomed to official protocol. But he sees no reason to conclude that his government even exists in the province. “It’s the worst example of bad governance when you fail to utilise the budget. It means the people did not benefit,” he argued.

Born in December 1952, Zareen Gul still has black hairs in his trimmed beard that border his sunken cheeks. He is super fit. Believe it or not, he says he has never caught any serious illness in his life. Not even a headache. What’s the secret of his health? His conclusion says less eating. “I hardly eat a roti in a whole day meals,” the MPA, literally scrawny, said, taking small morsels from a plate.

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PTI's Nato blockade protest fading out as lone camp wears deserted look

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protest that has blocked Nato supplies has almost come to an unannounced end as it entered the new year on Wednesday.

The party has wound up four out of five protest camps set up in Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat and at Peshawar Motorway Toll Plaza. The only sit-in on the Ring Road near Hayatabad Toll Plaza was deserted on the 40th day of the protest.

Has there been any understanding between the PTI and federal government or the US to lift the blockade silently? The Imran Khan’s party officially denies it and insists it is as committed as it was in disallowing Nato supplies through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

However, ground reality at the site of the lone sit-in tells a different story. Container-mounted trucks were hardly stopped to ascertain their destination. Two white chairs were placed at the roadside across the road from the camp. One was occupied by a 10-year-old child holding a Jamaat-e-Islami flag that was taller than him in size. Another was taken by a young boy with PTI flag in his hands.

The child stood and waved the JI flag to stop a truck that was approaching. It stopped for a few seconds and the child allowed it to go. Shipment documents did not go through scrutiny and the driver did not face quizzing. There were no chants against the US, no clinging onto the vehicle and no insistence to break the container seals. It did not seem to be site of the protest that has apparently blocked the Nato supplies to Afghanistan.

For several weeks after PTI and JI started the sit-in, the show was never so unimpressive. A crowd of charged workers would stop every container-laden truck and force the drivers to show shipment documents. Some workers would cling onto the front of the vehicles, others would force their way to the front seat, several would stand outside the driver’s window to quiz him and a number of them would rush to the back of the container to check the seal. Several drivers were roughed up for resisting producing the documents.

They returned vehicles on the slightest suspicion of being bound for Western troops in Afghanistan. And that too in triumphant manner as dozens of workers in front of the vehicles would chant anti-US slogans and others would triumphantly climb onto the vehicle to show it the way back. Everything like that was missing on Wednesday.

Most of the containers passed uninterrupted as if PTI did not want to block them. The containers coming from Afghanistan were not checked at all. The US is withdrawing its troops and military equipment and weapons from Afghanistan this year. It has used this route for taking back the military equipment and weapons for several months until PTI blocked it. Though the US has announced it has halted shipment of cargo from Afghanistan through Torkham, there is hardly any on-ground confirmation that it has stopped the reverse supplies.

Casting a glance at the camp from across the road gave a deserted look. All the banners that once buried the camp had gone. Only a few PTI and JI flags fluttered. And most importantly, only six workers from both parties manned the camp at 12:45. Only 10 chairs dotted the site. All the eight DSNG vans had disappeared.

If PTI and JI were not willingly allowing the trucks to pass, it showed the level of their seriousness in continuing blockade of the Nato cargo. It also puts to question the much-trumpeted PTI resolve to continue the blockade for an indefinite period. But even with the deserted camp, the PTI workers’ rhetoric remains unchanged. “Our resolve to continue the Nato supplies blockade stays firm,” said Fayyaz Khalil, an office-bearer of the Town-III chapter who was at the camp.

Provincial Information Secretary of PTI Ishtiaq Urmar shrugged off the question of any understanding to silently allow Nato supplies. “There is no question of that. The protest will continue until drone strikes are stopped,” he told The News. He wondered why the camp was deserted on Wednesday as they had around 40 workers on Tuesday and returned four or five meat-filled trucks. “We don’t take blockade of Nato supplies as a joke,” he said.

The PTI workers at the camp claimed they still stopped trucks and checked shipment documents. They argued the Nato trucks no more arrived due to the PTI protest. “The blockade remains enforced,” Khalil said. “There is no understanding to allow Nato supplies silently.”

The PTI activists said workers could not come to the camp due to some miscommunication. They said it was the turn of workers from Nowshera but they did not come. What about JI workers? They too did not come. “Ten to 15 JI workers daily come to the camp by turn,” said Farooq Khan, JI’s PK-6 president. “Today our workers have come but PTI workers are missing,” he claimed. One looked around, but could not find more than six people. Where are they? And loud laughter came in reply.

Younas Zaheer, PTI Peshawar chapter general secretary, said the Nowshera chapter of PTI could not get the message. “There was some misunderstanding,” he argued.

Practically, PTI workers put halt to Nato supplies through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continued its sit-in on Monday for the second day at different points in the province and brought Nato supplies to an almost complete halt, as trucks with supplies for foreign forces hardly managed to arrive in Peshawar.

The PTI workers were not deterred by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief’s directives to his force to act against them if they forced trucks to stop and checked documents.

Police officials continued to act as spectators as PTI workers stopped every container-laden truck and checked shipment documents to make sure no Nato truck passed.

Trucks taking supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan have stranded in different cities across the country due to PTI sit-ins that made its campaign to stop the shipments successful. PTI claimed its workers stopped ‘dozens of Nato trucks’ at Khairabad in Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat and Peshawar. Nato trucks did not arrive in Peshawar on Monday, the day the protest intensified as PTI was joined by workers of its coalition partner, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

In a raucous manner, they forced a container-loaded truck to return on suspicion of being supplied for Nato. As the truck arrived at the toll plaza on the Ring Road, where PTI workers have camped, shouts erupted: “This is Nato container.” The workers converged on the truck and forced the driver to show documents. They let the vehicle go after reaching the conclusion that it was not meant for Nato forces.

“He cheated us by showing forged documents. This is a Nato truck,” several workers shouted as the vehicle moved a few metres ahead. The crowd of workers again stopped the truck, forced the driver to get off and demanded documents. They checked the seal on the container and asked the driver to break it so that they could see what was inside. When the trucker refused, an activist occupied the driver’s seat. As the driver could not convince the angry workers, the container was returned.

“This is a transit truck,” a police officer murmured, helplessly. “If these people return it, they (Afghans) will send back ours,” he worried. He just looked on helplessly and refused to talk about the order by inspector general of police to act against PTI workers if they forced vehicles to stop or checked documents.

The unpleasant handling of the driver also caused division among the protesters as the leaders were opposed to the use of force. After the truck was returned, Younas Zaheer, a PTI office-bearer who is leading the sit-in, addressed the workers and asked them not to rough up the drivers. “Don’t break the seals,” another activist chipped in. However, Zaheer insisted the returned truck was taking supplies to the Nato forces.

PTI’s decision to force blockade of Nato supplies has pitted it against the local administration that is facing legal questions, the federal government that is not happy with the protest and the US that is financing several projects in the province.

The local administration is under pressure to act against the ‘illegal actions’ of the PTI workers. PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Federal Minister for Information Senator Pervez Rashid have already exchanged hostile statements. With regard to the US, provincial ministers protested outside the US Consulate General in Peshawar and chanted slogans. They presented a memorandum to an official of the Consulate General to protest the drone attack in Hangu, a settled district that falls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

On Monday, JI joined the PTI sit-ins in Peshawar and vowed to paralyse movement of Nato supplies. JI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Secretary General Shabbir Ahmad Khan threatened to launch sit-ins at airports if air cargo for Nato forces in Afghanistan was started. Talking to media at Motorway Interchange camp, he asked people to support the protest for the sake of national honour. He asked the provincial government to quash FIR against the workers of PTI and its allied parties.

Daud Ishtiaq, a JI worker at the toll plaza camp on Ring Road, said the party leaders instructed them to join the sit-in and 30 workers came to participate. “We will sit with them as long as they are here,” he said.

Jam Muhammad, a PTI worker who wore a cap made of party flag, said he came from Gulbahar as it was their turn on Monday. He said they stopped vehicles and checked documents to ascertain the identity of trucks. Another worker, Qaiser Khan who hailed from the same locality in PK-2, said he spent from his own pocket as the party did not provide food.“I think this sit-in may not force the US to stop drone strikes,” he said. “But this is what we can do,” he added. He said PPP government had stopped supplies for months but it did not produce the desired results. He criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for failing to honour his election promise that he would stop drone strikes after coming into power.

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In Pakistan, violence against journalists comes with impunity

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Every year, the count of journalists murdered in Pakistan in line with their duty increases, but the impunity the perpetrators enjoy remains unbroken.

Media practitioners, politicians and members of the civil society say this impunity has created the environment of fear for journalists. Of 90 murders of journalists in Pakistan in the last one decade, representatives of journalists’ bodies said, only one case was investigated and the perpetrator tried and punished. That journalist, too, was not a Pakistani. He was American journalist, Daniel Pearl.

So far, this year, seven journalists have been killed in Pakistan. None of the perpetrators is arrested in any of the cases, let alone punishing them.

Saturday, November 23, was marked as the International Day to End Impunity Against Journalists. Journalists, lawmakers and members of the civil society showed their dismay over the continued impunity against journalists in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

A seminar jointly organised by the Khyber Union of Journalists, Peshawar Press Club and Freedom Network (FN), a media watchdog organisation, demanded of the government to establish an office of a special prosecutor at federal, provincial and regional levels.

Iqbal Khattak, executive director FN, said special prosecutors for crimes against journalists had reduced violence against media persons in Mexico and Columbia, countries where drug cartels targetted reporters. “The establishment of the office of special prosecutors can send a strong message that there will be no impunity if violence against journalists is carried out,” he said.

Continued impunity against journalists, he added, had created an environment of fear for journalists and they could not freely exercise journalism. “In this environment, investigative journalism is not possible. Journalists cannot ask hard questions,” he said. “What we see is a rise in self-censorship,” he remarked.

Photos of slain journalists whose cases have gone unprosecuted looked out at the participants from a banner as they discussed violence against media people. The case of Muhammad Zeb Mansoor, a journalist in Dargai, who was detained by a security agency in mid-October, is a reminder of the unquestioned impunity against journalists. He has not been produced before any court of law.

Nisar Mehmood, president KhUJ, said perpetrators of journalists’ murders had gone unpunished though in several cases they were known and even nominated by the victims’ families. He said the investigation was faulty and also some state institutions were involved in many killings and kidnappings. “Political parties can play role by moving resolutions in provincial assemblies and the National Assembly for establishing the office of special prosecutor,” he said.

Sultan Muhammad Khan, an MPA of the Qaumi Watan Party, said media was eyes and ears of the society but the eyes and ears were now being shut. “What I know is that state and non-state actors are responsible for attacks against journalists,” he added.

He said it was alarming that murders of journalists were increasing. “Seven killings of journalists this year is alarming. We are regressing backwards,” he said. The young lawmaker described it as undemocratic and anti-freedom behaviour to kidnap, threaten and intimidate media persons. He said national interest needed to be defined clearly and journalists briefed on it so that they could protect it. He suggested that special law dealing with journalists’ killings might be enacted and the office of special prosecutor be made part of it.

Sardar Babak, parliamentary leader of Awami National Party in the provincial assembly, said violence against journalists was worrisome. “By killing and intimidating journalists, our voice and thoughts are being stifled,” he said.

Jalil Jan of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam assured journalists of support. He complained television channels were showing dummies of their leaders dancing, which was their insult.

QWP’s Nisar Khan said they could move the Peshawar High Court to claim the right to protection for journalists.

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PTI workers block Nato supplies at five points in KP

Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers camped at five points in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday to obstruct Nato trucks as part of the party’s campaign to block the movement of Nato shipments to Afghanistan.
The ‘sit-ins’ are part of the protest against US drone strikes in Pakistan and will continue for an indefinite period. According to Ishtiaq Urmar, PTI’s Provincial Secretary Information, the party workers are holding ‘sit-ins’ at Khairabad Bridge, the Ring Road near Motorway, Hayatabad Toll Plaza on the Ring Road, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan to hunt and stop Nato supplies.
Several PTI leaders said they did not allow even a single Nato truck to or from Afghanistan. Workers, who have set up camp at the Hayatabad Toll Plaza on the Ring Road, the highway used for Nato supplies, said they stopped nine containers. “Six containers were carrying supplies to Afghanistan for Nato forces and three were coming from there,” said Younas Zaheer, General Secretary of the PTI Peshawar chapter.
However, Ishtiaq Urmar said the containers were later allowed to proceed as they contained vegetables. He said trucks carrying supplies for Nato forces did not arrive on Sunday, though PTI workers stayed vigilant to halt the movement of these vehicles.
A number of workers including women sat in the camp on the Ring Road. “The Nato supplies are unacceptable for an indefinite time,” read a banner hung at the camp. It had another slogan that is getting popular with PTI workers: “Our land, our way.”
Young workers stood along the road and stopped every container in order to ascertain its destination. They checked shipment documents of every container-laden truck to look for Nato supplies. The checking of documents caused an altercation with a driver early in the day, PTI workers said. Ishtiaq Urmar and ISF President Suhail Afridi asked workers not to use violence while stopping the Nato containers.
“The documents that state the supplies are meant for Nato forces, we stop them,” Zaheersaid. “The Nato containers have stopped arriving after we obstructed nine trucks. They know we are not allowing such vehicles,” he added. He claimed that they did not allow even a single Nato container. He said the blockade of Nato supplies was being forced in line with the PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s statement. “This will continue for an indefinite period,” he said.
The PTI’s decision to not allow Nato trucks to pass through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa runs the risk of straining relations with the US, which is bankrolling millions of dollars of projects in the province that is ruled by Imran Khan’s party.
“We have burnt our boats,” said Member Provincial Assembly Fazl Elahi, suggesting that they did not care about relations with the US or consequences of putting a halt to Nato supplies.Imran Khan told Saturday’s anti-drone rally in Peshawar: “Nations are not made by begging before others, but by taking a stand on issues.”
Fazl Elahi said the confrontation was precipitated by the federal government’s reluctance to honour the bi-partisan resolution of the provincial assembly that asked for a halt to drone strikes in Pakistan.
Critics say Imran Khan is playing to the gallery by holding rallies in a province ruled by his party. They question why the provincial government doesn’t stop supplies through an executive order.
Fazl Elahi claimed, “We can do it if the federal government honours our resolution.” He also said the FIR in the drone attack in Hangu was lodged by the federal government, a statement that clashes with assertions of other PTI leaders.
He said the closure of Nato supplies could force the US to stop drone strikes. “It cannot afford supplies via Russia. That’s expensive,” he believed.
The PTI workers said they would stay in the camp round-the-clock to ensure that no truck passed. “We will sleep on the road,” Zaheer said, though late evening they were reported to have vacated the camp for the night. The PTI town level chapters, totalling four in Peshawar, will take turns to provide activists for the ‘sit-in’, the organisers said. The PTI, Youth and ISF wings of the party are currently taking part in the protest.
At Khairabad Bridge, PTI’s Nowshera district chapter president Niaz Muhammad and other workers set up the camp. They vowed not to allow Nato containers to enter Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Punjab. In Kohat, district President Humayun Chacha led the workers on the Indus Highway and set up a camp at Jarma Chowk to block trucks carrying supplies to Nato in Afghanistan.

Imran gathers thousands to block Nato supplies in Peshawar

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Thousands of workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies gathered on Ring Road and blocked it for Nato supplies to press the US to stop drone strikes in Pakistan on Saturday, where Imran Khan asked the federal government to use air force for hitting drones following US disregard for Pakistan and its leadership.

Not a single truck was allowed to transport supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan, or pull out military equipment from that war-torn country where the US and Nato forces are gearing up for withdrawal. The protesters sat on the dual carriageway that forks from the Grand Trunk Road to bypass the city and run through Khyber Agency to Afghanistan. Several containers were stacked one on another across the road to make a lofty stage that blocked the road.

No container-laden trucks, Nato or others, were seen stalled at the site of the sit-in. A police official said containers were stopped in Nowshera and other cities and some were diverted towards Chaman, another route used for Nato supplies.

Imran Khan in his address said they would block Nato supplies not only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his party is in power, but across the country. He asked the provincial government to initiate action for officially stopping Nato supplies through the province.

Before the start of the sit-in in Peshawar, he said it would continue until a US assurance that it was stopping the unmanned aircrafts’ strikes. However, the protest was called off Saturday evening soon after he and other leaders addressed.

The Nato trucks may be able now to use the route for supplies. However, according to PTI’s provincial spokesman, Ishtiaq Urmar, party workers will stop Nato supplies at different points in the province. He said workers will launch sit-ins at Khairabad Bridge, Swabi Moterway Interchange, Charsadda Motorway Interchange and toll plaza on Ring Road near Hayatabad. 

Imran Khan said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised with the nation that he would stop drone strikes. “Mian Sahib,” he addressed the prime minister, “will you now issue mere condemnations over drone strikes or order air force to knock drones down.”

He said Nawaz Sharif did not take up the issue of drone attacks in meeting with US President Barack Obama, which shattered his hopes. The PTI leader said he accepted election results despite rigging and trusted Nawaz Sharif in an effort to collectively rid the country of US aggression. “We still stand with you,” he said, addressing Nawaz Sharif.   

He was angry that the US disrespected Pakistan’s parliament and political leadership by carrying out drone strikes at a time they were opposed. “The parliament passed a resolution asking an immediate halt to drone strikes and the US conducted an attack that night. For the first time, an elected government initiated talks after mandate by all political parties and the US attacked [the slain TTP chief] Hakimullah Mehsud to sabotage it. They have no respected for us,” he said. “And Sartaj Aziz’s trust was shattered a day after he was assured of a halt to drone attacks during talks,” he added.

Imran Khan said it was a defining movement for Pakistan to choose between disgrace and self-respect and independence. He said Pakistan should be treated as a friend, not a slave. “There is difference between slavery and friendship,” he said, standing in front of giant banner that read, “our land, our way.”

He asked prime minister whether he would also tell lies to the nation like previous rulers or take a stand. “Nations are not made by begging before others, but by taking stand,” he remarked.

He said the federal government should tell the US it was with it in establishing peace, not in waging wars. He said conflict and violence had wreaked havoc in KP and destroyed lives of six million people of Fata. When Pakistan was joining the US war, he added, it owed Rs5,000 billion debt but now it had soared to Rs14,000 billion. “Increase in debt in one decade of war is more than the debt Pakistan got in several decades. The debt increased because Pakistan spent huge money in the US war,” he claimed.

Imran Khan said that not a single attacker of the 9/11 belonged to Pakistan but it was made to suffer in life and material. He said 50,000 people including thousands of soldiers had died in this war, yet the US was not satisfied. “It is still trumpeting on ‘do more.’ It’s telling us that we are not fighting honestly and competently despite that their soldiers are losing war in Afghanistan,” he taunted. He disgusted the US policy that made Pakistanis suffer immensely and at the same time disgraced and maligned them.

 In response to a statement by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazlur Rahman, he said PTI did not want to become Shaheed but would emerge as Ghazi. He indicated dissolution of assembly if his party’s government was destabilised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We, the allies, have decided not to become Shaheed if our government is detsabilised, rather we will seek fresh mandate,” he said.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s central Secretary General Liaqat Baloch said his party had decided to stop Nato trucks in Karachi today (Sunday). PTI’s Shah Mehmood said if Nawaz Sharif was not pursuing dual policy as he claimed he should convene another APC to make a new strategy. Javed Hashmi said the American nation was becoming extremely intolerant to Washington’s policy of wars and was rising up against the government.    

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