Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ can be imported in India after court told 1988 ban order is untraceable


08 November 2024

 By Shivam Patel and Arpan Chaturvedi

In August 2022 author Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage during a lecture in New York, which left him blind in one eye and affected the use of one of his hands. File photo.
Image: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters


India's three-decade ban on importing author Salman Rushdie's controversial The Satanic Verses book has effectively been lifted after a court said the government was unable to produce the original notification that imposed the ban.


The India-born British author's novel was banned by India in 1988 after some Muslims viewed it as blasphemous. The Delhi high court was hearing a 2019 case challenging the import ban in India.


According to a November 5 court order, India's government told the Delhi high court = the import ban order "was untraceable and therefore could not be produced".


As a result, the court said it had "no other option except to presume no such notification exists".

"The ban has been lifted as of November 5 because there is no notification," said Uddyam Mukherjee, lawyer for petitioner Sandipan Khan.

India's interior and finance ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Khan's plea said he approached the court after being told at book stores the novel could not be sold or imported in India and when he searched, he could not find the official import ban order on government websites.

Even in court the government has been unable to produce the order, he said.

"None of the respondents could produce the said notification. The purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy," the November 5 order noted, referring to the customs department official who drafted the order.

Rushdie's fourth fictional novel ran into a global controversy shortly after its publication in September 1988 as some Muslims considered passages about Prophet Muhammad to be blasphemous.

It sparked violent demonstrations and book burnings across the Muslim world, including in India, which has the world's third largest Muslim population.

In 1989, Iran's then supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie, sending the Booker Prize-winning author into hiding for six years.


In August 2022, about 33 years after the fatwa, Rushdie was stabbed on stage during a lecture in New York, which left him blind in one eye and affected the use of one of his hands.

Reuters

WE HAVE WINNERS!

‘We have won’: Russians envision new global system with Trump victory

Francesca Ebel and Catherine Belton | The Washington Post
Nov 8, 2024 

MOSCOW - Donald Trump’s stunning political comeback has created an opening for Russia to shatter Western unity on Ukraine and redraw the global power map, according to several influential members of the Russian elite.

In Moscow’s corridors of power, the win for Trump’s populist argument that America should focus on domestic woes over aiding countries like Ukraine was hailed as a potential victory for Russia’s efforts to carve out its own sphere of influence in the world.

In broader terms, it was seen as a victory for conservative, isolationist forces supported by Russia against a liberal, Western-dominated global order that the Kremlin and its allies have been seeking to undermine.

‘Irrevocably disappearing’

In his first remarks since the election, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the West’s post-Cold War monopoly on global power was “irrevocably disappearing” before praising Trump for behaving “courageously” during an attempt on his life this summer.

“His words about his desire to restore relations with the Russian Federation and to help resolve the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserve attention,” he said during his annual speech at the Valdai Forum in Sochi.

Members of Russia’s elite were more blunt in their response to Trump’s victory.

“We have won,” said Alexander Dugin, the Russian ideologue who has long pushed an imperialist agenda for Moscow and supported disinformation efforts against Kamala Harris’s campaign. “The world will be never ever like before. Globalists have lost their final combat,” he wrote on X.

The deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, Konstantin Kosachev, said on his Telegram channel: “The victory of the right in the so-called ‘free world’ will be a blow to the left-liberal forces that dominate it. It is not by chance that Europe was so openly ‘rooting’ for Harris, who would, in fact, preserve the rule of the Obama-Clinton ‘clan.’”

Konstantin Malofeyev, the Russian Orthodox billionaire who has funded a conservative agenda promoting traditional Christian values on the far right and far left across the West, said on Telegram that it would be possible to negotiate with Trump “both about the division of Europe and the division of the world. After our victory on the battlefield.”


In more immediate terms, Trump’s election victory was expected to have a dramatic impact on Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to Leonid Slutsky, head of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

‘Matter of months, if not days’

“Judging by the pre-election rhetoric … the Republican team is not going to send more and more American taxpayer money into the furnace of the proxy war against Russia,” he said. “Once the West stops propping up [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s neo-Nazi regime, its downfall will happen in a matter of months, if not days.”

But others were more circumspect, and some warned that Trump’s presidency could lead to a more unpredictable era. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would wait to see if Trump’s campaign rhetoric, criticizing support for Ukraine and calling for an end to the war, translated into “concrete actions.” Peskov declared that the United States remains “an unfriendly country that directly and indirectly is involved in a war against our state.”

Russian lawmaker Maria Butina, who served 15 months in a U.S. federal prison after being convicted of operating as an unregistered foreign agent, told The Washington Post that this was “a good chance for U.S.-Russian relations to improve.” She added, “Hopefully this time … Trump will keep his promise to truly be a peacemaker.”

In the weeks before the election, Russian officials had sought to downplay their interest in the vote, but that public stance was belied by what U.S. officials said were intensifying Kremlin-directed disinformation operations seeking to stoke chaos and target Harris. The operations built on earlier efforts to stoke isolationist sentiments, according to documents previously reported on by The Post.


In the end, Russian efforts to interfere in the 2024 election were “pretty marginal to the overall trend of voter sentiment,” said Eric Ciaramella, a former White House official now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, especially compared with 2016, when U.S. intelligence officials concluded that a Russian hack-and-leak operation had helped change the narrative in support of Trump.

Changed the mainstream political debate

But analysts also noted that more than a decade of Russian propaganda operations amplifying anti-establishment, isolationist voices through increasingly sophisticated social media operations, including on X, had changed the mainstream political debate in a way that would never have been possible via traditional media.

“On a digital platform, your ability to do these things works,” said Clint Watts, the head of Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center. After the vote, X owner Elon Musk hailed the result as cementing the power of his platform to provide alternative views over “legacy media.”

Russia’s business community also could not hide its sense of optimism that Trump’s victory would change things for the better, in the Russian view.

Shares on the Moscow stock exchange surged nearly 3% in early trading as the election results came in, amid widespread speculation that Trump could lift sanctions against Russia in return for an end to its military action.

“Trump is someone who is used to doing deals,” said one Moscow businessman, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “The expectation is that under Trump, decisions will be reached faster to end the conflict and ease sanctions.”

“For big business, Trump’s election is a hopeful factor,” he added. “Sanctions are strangling the economy, and costs are soaring.”

Risks remain high

But share prices later settled, and some analysts said risks remain high that relations could run aground and that the standoff could worsen under Trump. Alexei Venediktov, the well-connected longtime editor of the Echo of Moscow radio station, said the possible Republican capture of both houses of Congress would break the longstanding deadlock in the U.S. political system, letting the government reach decisions at far greater speed and creating new risks.

The Republican majority “is the threat from the Kremlin’s point of view, because there are no internal contradictions, no internal chaos,” Venediktov said. “It was important for the Kremlin that the winning candidate was Mr. or Mrs. Chaos.”

A clear sign of the lack of Kremlin trust in President-elect Trump, Venediktov said, was Putin’s decision not to immediately congratulate him as other leaders had. “This is actually an insult,” he said. “It’s a signal.”

Putin waited until the third hour of his annual speech Thursday to congratulate Trump, first discussing inequality, artificial intelligence and climate change.

But others said Putin’s move was, in fact, a sign of the Kremlin’s growing confidence. Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected political analyst, said the expectation is that Trump will eventually, though not immediately, call Zelensky and Putin and propose a cease-fire deal along the lines of one already floated by his running mate, JD Vance, which appears to hand Russia the Ukrainian territory it already controls.


Under this proposal, a cease-fire would be reached along the current front line, together with the creation of a large demilitarized buffer zone, with new borders to be ratified under later referendums. “If everything goes okay, then Trump will lift sanctions” to pull Moscow out of China’s orbit, Markov said.

Putin unlikely to agree

But Markov and other analysts said Putin is unlikely to agree to any deal that does not include the complete demilitarization of Ukraine, which even Trump might reject. “Putin wants what no one can give him,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

One possibility, though, would be an agreement in which Moscow and Kyiv halt strikes on energy and power infrastructure, Markov suggested, an arrangement that was under discussion this summer, until Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. “This would be a colossal victory for Trump,” Markov said.

Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute for International Relations, said other far-right and far-left political forces in Europe - many of which have been supported by Moscow - could be boosted by Trump’s win.

They could call for a U.S. rapprochement with Russia, potentially ushering in a new era in which politics would be dominated by autocrats and in which the winning coalition of Trump, Vance and Musk would introduce a new disruptive ideology. “In a sense, it could be a new realignment in Europe,” Gomart said.

“This is a very good moment against the globalist deep state,” said Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a far-right French politician and former member of the European Parliament who once facilitated a 9.4 million euro ($10.1 million) loan from a Russian bank to the presidential campaign of the French far right’s Marine Le Pen. “It’s a moment for Europe to make a bridge with conservative America” and align with Russia, he said.

“It can be a new era,” Schaffhauser said.

Boeing will eliminate 17,000 jobs

Boeing repays furloughed workers and presses on with job cuts

ByMudit Dube

Nov 08, 2024

What's the story

Boeing's CEO Kelly Ortberg has confirmed that the company will pay its furloughed workers for their lost wages during a recent seven-week strike.However, despite the decision, Boeing will go ahead with its previously announced plan of cutting down about 10% of its global workforce.The strike was launched by factory workers in September and resulted in a temporary production halt of Boeing's top-selling 737 MAX aircraft.

Job cuts

Boeing's workforce reduction plan and employee morale

Initially, Boeing had put thousands of salaried employees on unpaid leave during the strike, which was led by 33,000 union machinists.However, the company later rescinded the decision after announcing plans to eliminate 17,000 jobs.As Ortberg said in an email to staff members, "We will continue forward with our previously announced actions to reduce our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and a more focused and streamlined set of priorities."

Contract approval

Boeing's contract ratification and production plans

On Monday, Boeing won approval for a contract that guarantees its machinists a 38% salary hike over four years and a $12,000 bonus.The deal practically ended the strike with workers likely to return by November 12.However, despite this, the company hasn't yet revealed when it plans to resume the production of the 737 MAX aircraft.

You're 66% through

Financial hurdles

Boeing's financial challenges and future plans

Boeing has suffered nearly $8 billion in losses this year amid persistent quality issues, including a mid-air panel blowout incident in January.To strengthen its finances, the company raised $24 billion in new capital last month.As part of its restructuring efforts, Boeing may look to sell off some assets while downsizing its workforce to focus on its primary civil planemaking and core defense units.

Done!

'DIPSHITS"

Dem senator lashes out at Green Party constituents after colleague booted in tight race

Daniel Hampton
November 7, 2024

John Fetterman rallies for a packed crowd of supporters at Montgomery County Community College in 2022. (Shutterstock.com)

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman took to X on Thursday evening to lash out at thousands of his own constituents who voted for the Green Party candidate in the state's tight Senate race.

The race between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Republican challenger Dave McCormick was called Thursday in favor of McCormick, though Casey has said he will wait to concede until every vote is counted. McCormick was leading by about 34,000 votes.

The narrow margin was not lost on Fetterman, who took to X to publicly air out his grievance.

"Pennsylvania is going to count every last vote," he said. "That’s not controversial—that’s the law. Also, Green dips---s’ votes helping elect the GOP."

Attached to his post was a screenshot of Green Party candidate Leila Hazou taking just under 1 percent of the vote with about 64,000 ballots cast for her.

The post garnered responses from numerous right-wing blue-check accounts, including X owner Elon Musk, who took the opportunity to jab the senator.

"Calling Green voters 'dips---s' is not a great way to win them over," replied Musk.

First artwork by humanoid robot sells for $1.3m

THE COMMODITY  CREATES A COMMODITY FETISH


By AFP
November 7, 2024

Ultra-realistic AI robot Ai-Da is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig - Copyright AFP/File Ben Stansall

A portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching $1,320,000 on Thursday.

The 2.2 metre (7.5 feet) portrait “A.I. God” by “Ai-Da”, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, smashed pre-sale expectations of $180,000 when it went under the hammer at London auction house Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale.

“Today’s record-breaking sale price for the first artwork by a humanoid robot artist to go up for auction marks a moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing intersection between A.I. technology and the global art market,” said the auction house.

Ai-Da Robot, which uses AI to speak, said: “The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies.”

Ai-Da added that a “portrait of pioneer Alan Turing invites viewers to reflect on the god-like nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and societal implications of these advancements.”

The ultra-realistic robot, one of the most advanced in the world, is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig.

Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer and was devised by Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art.

“The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time, and both celebrated and questioned society’s shifts,” said Meller.

“Ai-Da Robot as technology, is the perfect artist today to discuss the current developments with technology and its unfolding legacy,” he added.

Ai-Da generates ideas through conversations with members of the studio, and suggested creating an image of Turing during a discussion about “A.I. for good”.

The robot was then asked what style, colour, content, tone and texture to use, before using cameras in its eyes to look at a picture of Turing and create the painting.

Meller led the team that created Ai-Da with artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham in England.

Meller said Turing, who made his name as a World War II codebreaker, mathematician and early computer scientist, had raised concerns about the use of AI in the 1950s.

The artwork’s “muted tones and broken facial planes” seemingly suggested “the struggles Turing warned we will face when it comes to managing AI”, he said.

Ai-Da’s works were “ethereal and haunting” and “continue to question where the power of AI will take us, and the global race to harness its power”, he added.

The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility

by Walter Benjamin

Publication date 1939

Topics Art and society., Photography in art., Art and technology., Art -- Reproduction.

Benjamin’s famous “Work of Art” essay sets out his boldest thoughts—on
media and on culture in general—in their most realized form, while
retaining an edge that gets under the skin of everyone who reads it. In
this essay the visual arts of the machine age morph into literature and
theory and then back again to images, gestures, and thought.

SOCIETY: HOW TO KILL THE STAGED ENCOUNTER

PAKISTAN BLASPHEMY LAW

Mahar Murrawat Hussain 

Published November 3, 2024

DAWN

illustration by Sarah Durrani

The accused was killed [or injured] in a shoot-out with his accomplices who, after the incident, fled the scene, with teams dispatched to apprehend them.’ Without fail, we come across this police statement after almost every alleged shoot-out.

While circumstances may change and the area may differ, the official story remains the same. It is consistent in the sense that neither the wording nor the structure of the sentence is altered.

This template was also used in the recent killing of Dr Shahnawaz Kambhar, a blasphemy accused, with the police saying he was “killed by his own accomplices” during a shoot-out in Mirpurkhas, Sindh. However, once the incident came under media scrutiny, the police story was torn apart within a matter of hours. As word of the ‘staged encounter’ spread and condemnations began to pour in, the Sindh government swung into action.


What followed is already in the public domain, but one fact worth mentioning is that the inquiry, ordered by the Sindh home minister, revealed it was a staged encounter.

WHAT IS A STAGED ENCOUNTER?

Before going into the reasons and the modus operandi employed by the police to carry out such extrajudicial killings, we need to develop an understanding of what makes a police encounter a staged encounter.


Police in Pakistan follow a set template when it comes to staging fake ‘encounters’, as shown in the recent case of blasphemy accused Dr Shahnawaz Kumbhar. A serving policeman tries to explain what drives this practice, why ‘encounter specialists’ get away with what they do and how to change this pernicious culture…

A staged encounter is one in which law enforcement agencies, particularly police, orchestrate a scenario that appears to be a legitimate encounter or shoot-out, but is, in fact, pre-planned and undertaken to kill individuals without due process. In this premeditated act, an illusion of self-defence is set up to get through the ensuing legal challenges, such as invoking the police’s right-to-self-defence, as enshrined in the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860.

The modus operandi employed by the police to carry out extrajudicial killings is usually the same everywhere. The victim is first arrested and kept in illegal detention for weeks. Then, in the middle of the night, he is transported to a deserted place — often deserted graveyards, agricultural fields or riverine areas — where a volley of bullets is discharged at him.

An official statement typically follows, containing the usual platitudes, claiming that ‘A’ was being taken for ‘recovery’ of weapons or other material when, en route, his accomplices attacked the police to secure his release; the police “retaliated”, but ‘A’ was “caught in the crossfire”, resulting in his death or injury, while the attackers fled under the “cover of darkness.”

Now, take any case of extrajudicial killing that ever took place in any province, region or district. You will find this same pattern — without even a single alteration of a word, full stop or comma. Troublingly, it seems to matter not one bit that the overuse of the current template has rendered it doubtful.

‘FULL FRY’ AND ‘HALF FRY’

The culture of staged encounters permeates the police forces across Pakistan. In fact, it is the shared belief and value amongst all ranks. There are a multitude of reasons for it being a ‘favourite sport’ of law-enforcers.

The phrase ‘favourite sport’ may sound insensitive to some, but this is how extrajudicial killings are viewed by members of the police force. Such is the height of insensitivity that the term “full fry” is used to refer to such killings internally, while “half fry” describes the act of shooting the victim in the kneecap, in one or both legs, so as to leave them crippled for the rest of their life.

Sometimes it can go wrong, too, as it did recently in Punjab. The police caught an alleged bandit and decided to ‘half fry’ him, but the task reportedly fell to a novice, who failed to hit the bullet at the intended part of the victim’s body. Instead, the bullet allegedly pierced through the lower belly, leaving the victim critically wounded, with blood flowing from the wound. Reportedly, he was not shifted to a hospital for quite some time and remained groaning and contorting until he breathed his last.

Such phoney encounters also allow the police to gloss over their own shortcomings. Poor investigations, coupled with equally poor prosecutions, result in a dismal conviction rate. But instead of focusing on their own investigative practices and procedures, the prevalent perception among police officers is that the judicial system is the reason for their failure to get a conviction.

This perception provides them with the justification to take on the role of judge, jury and executioner, and to instantly dispense ‘justice’ via ‘full fry’ or ‘half fry.’

THE DETERRENT THAT ISN’T
Adeela Suleman's art installation Killing Fields of Karachi, which was displayed at the Frere Hall in Karachi on October 27, 2019, commemorated the 444 victims of alleged extrajudicial killings by policeman Rao Anwar: despite the uproar, Anwar continues to get acquitted in cases and remains a free man | Nazish Brohi

There is a strong belief among the members of the police force that only violence can be an effective response to the violence. Staged encounters are one of the tools the police use to spread ‘official violence’ in an attempt to deter criminals and control the crime rate. Thus, we see the number of police shoot-outs remain consistently high.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a staggering 3,296 police encounters occurred in Sindh alone in 2023 and a total of 618 people were mowed down in the country in police encounters in one year.

There were 2,544 police shootouts in Sindh during 2022, while this number rose to 3,296 the following year, indicating an uptick of 30 percent. It underscores the police’s ever-increasing proclivity towards violence. Ironically, as the HRCP report notes, despite the increase in encounters, the crime rate in Sindh also witnessed a rise in 2023, with street crime going up by 11 percent.

This debunks the myth about the efficacy of such killings in arresting the crime rate.

‘ENCOUNTER SPECIALISTS’

Cutting down people in a hail of bullets is considered a badge of honour for the perpetrators. Police officers, among themselves and in off-the-record conversations, often proudly recount such encounters and boast about the number of people they have gunned down.

The phrase ‘encounter specialist’ is used to refer to the men who have expertise in killing people in staged encounters. These so-called ‘encounter specialists’ are given lucrative postings and are granted carte blanche to kill people. Rao Anwar, a former senior superintendent of police, according to police records, was involved in ‘encounters’ that claimed the lives of 444 people.

I once had the opportunity to sit down with one such ‘encounter specialist.’ The man, twirling his moustache and wearing a smile on his face, admitted in no uncertain terms that he had sent at least 20 people to the hereafter in fake encounters. Upon my question about how he managed to get away with it each time, he smugly replied: “Killing people in fake encounters is an art, but covering up those killings by tampering records takes even more skill.”

Despite this grim reality, one struggles to find a single precedent where perpetrators of such staged encounters have been put in the dock. More often than not, such encounters hardly create any headlines. In situations where the matter does come into the limelight, cases are promptly registered and the accused are removed from their postings, but only temporarily, to placate the media.

Once the news fades from public view, not only are the accused given a free pass, thanks to the lopsided investigations in such cases conducted by their ‘uniform brothers’, but they also often get posted to more lucrative positions.

In some cases, where judicial enquiries are ordered, the police still manage to influence the outcome, either through record-tampering or by effecting a settlement with the heirs of the victims, either through coercion or inducement.

One legal avenue against this barbarity is the filing of a private complaint in a magistrate’s court, as laid down under Section 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1898. However, this process is often lengthy, costly and ineffective. Furthermore, even if the family of the victim daringly takes this route, the courts ironically seek reports in the matter from the same police force that is being put in the dock by the complainant.

Even more comical is the fact that courts tend to mechanically dispose of such complaints in light of the reports furnished by the police. Consequently, convictions in the cases of staged encounters are exceedingly rare.

The case of Rao Anwar serves as an example to show the impunity enjoyed by these ‘encounter specialists.’ He was able to walk free from the case of the cold-blooded murder of an innocent young man, Naqeebullah Mehsud, despite much uproar in the media and civil society.

INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION COMMISSIONS

So can anything be done to reform the situation?

The perpetrators of extrajudicial killings often get away with their crime because investigations into such cases are carried out by their colleagues in the police. This mechanism is inherently flawed and against the principles of natural justice. There needs to be an independent investigation commission to investigate every such act of killing, whether or not it is reported by the victim’s heirs.

We can draw lessons from South Africa, which has such a mechanism in place. It established the Independent Police Investigation Directorate (IPID) in 2011, through an act of parliament. The public can file complaints against transgressions committed by the officers of the South African police. In case of custodial torture, death in custody and extrajudicial killings, the station commander, an officer equivalent to the rank of assistant/deputy superintendent of police in Pakistan, is required to promptly report it to the commission.

If the investigation substantiates the allegations against any member of the force, the commission recommends action to the police leadership, which is under obligation to take action in accordance with its recommendations.

Such a mechanism is desperately needed in Pakistan to hold police officials accountable for human rights violations in general, and particularly for extrajudicial killings. There needs to be a commission in each province, comprising elected members of the provincial assembly concerned as well as members of civil society. Then, in every region, the commission can set up sub-committees to take up the matter of extrajudicial killings.

The commission so established should be empowered not only to conduct inquiries in such killings, but also to recommend both criminal and disciplinary proceedings against those found culpable.

REFINING INVESTIGATIONS, CHANGING MINDSETS

It is imperative for the police to move away from the typical investigation approach, which revolves around practices from the 19th century, as poor investigation inevitably leads to acquittals. As pointed out earlier, this is then used by the police to justify the alternatives to ‘make society crime-free’, resulting in fake encounters as a ‘policy prescription’ to circumvent due process.

To address this, upskilling of investigation officers is essential. Investigation officers should not only be equipped with modern investigation methods prevalent worldwide, such as forensic science, digital forensics and behaviour analysis, but also made well-versed in the use of technology. What is crucial is the provision of access to such modern facilities at the level of the police station. It is equally important for officers to understand data analytics to optimise the resources at their disposal.

In addition to these skills, investigation officers must have a solid understanding of substantive, procedural and evidentiary law, which a wide majority within the police currently lack. As a result, they struggle to grasp what evidence is admissible under the law, what it means to maintain the sanctity of the evidence, how to produce it in court and how to testify during trial. To this end, regular workshops for investigative officers can be arranged, engaging serving and retired judicial officers, prosecutors and eminent lawyers.

To rein in this killing spree, the police need to also undergo a thorough purge. Officers with dubious human rights records, particularly the ones who boldly and shamelessly take pride in being ‘encounter specialists’, should be shunted out of the department, or at least be sidelined forthwith. Field postings must not be assigned to them until they undergo targeted training and commit to upholding the inherent sanctity of human rights.

There is also a need to uproot the perception that these so-called ‘encounter specialists’ are in any way ‘brave’ or ‘special’, not only within the ranks of the police, but also in society. This term, which unfortunately commands a sense of vigilante machismo, needs to be made synonymous with an expletive; this perceived ‘badge of honour’ must systematically be turned into a ‘badge of shame.’

A TIME TO ACT

This is an opportune moment for policymakers to act, as the cold-blooded murder of Dr Kumbhar has resulted in a rallying cry, reminiscent of the outrage that followed the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud in Karachi and the tragic slaying of a family in front of children in Sahiwal in 2019. The public’s support for such measures will be readily attainable.

This is the time to act; as a nation, we can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to these violations of basic human rights. We must confront the issues that have devastated countless families. The emotional pain and psychological trauma endured by these bereaved families cannot be adequately measured or articulated.

While we cannot bring back the loved ones lost to this ‘police mania’, we have the power to save many other sons, brothers and husbands. Let’s take action for the sake of humanity.

The writer is a sub-inspector in the police and is currently serving in a specialised unit. He has a law degree from the University of Punjab. He can be reached at maharmurrawat240@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, November 3rd, 2024

Russia launches over 50 satellites, including two from Iran

Agencies 

Published November 6, 2024

A Soyuz-2.1B rocket booster, its upper stage carrying satellites, ascends after blasting off from Russia’s far eastern Amur region, on Tuesday.—Reuters


VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME: Russia launched a Soyuz rocket early on Tuesday carrying two satellites designed to monitor the space weather around Earth and 53 small satellites, including two Iranian ones, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said.

The Soyuz-2.1 launch spacecraft, which lifted off from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome, carried two Ionosfera-M satellites, which will become part of the space system for monitoring the Earth’s ionosphere, the agency said.

The ionosphere, where Earth’s atmosphere meets space, stretches roughly 50 to 400 miles above Earth’s surface, according to information provided on Nasa’s website.

Each Ionosfera-M satellite weighs 430 kg and its working orbit is at an altitude of 820 km, according to Interfax news agency.

The system will include in total four of the Ionosfera-M satellites. The next two devices are planned to be launched in 2025, Roscosmos reported.

Among the 53 small satellites are two Iranian satellites, the Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, as well as the first Russian-Chinese student satellite Druzhba ATURK. Roscosmos said it was a “record number of Russian satellites simultaneously put into orbit.” Tehran said it was the first time Russia had launched privately built Iranian satellites.

Russia in February launched into space an Iranian research satellite that will scan Iran’s topography from orbit, Iran’s state media reported at the time. The two countries have deepened political, economic and military ties amid Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, raising concerns in the West.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024

 

China, US must join hands for a prosperous world

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2024-11-08 

The world has massive problems, and it's incumbent to call upon the United States and China to cooperate and to address pressing global needs, said Mario Cavolo, an American writer living in China and non-resident senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization in a recent interview with China Daily.

As an American who has lived in China for 25 years, Cavolo said he is deeply impressed by China’s achievements over the years.

Cavolo said he believes that a peaceful and friendly diplomatic approach can help China and the US move forward together, ensuring a more prosperous global future.

PROFANING THE HOLY

India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution

AFP 

Published November 7, 2024 
Sweeping aside thick toxic scum, thousands of Hindu devotees ignored court warnings Thursday against bathing in the sacred but sewage-filled Yamuna river, a grim display of environmental degradation in India’s capital.

Thousands celebrated the festival of Chhath Puja for the Hindu sun god Surya, entering the stinking waters to pray as the evening rays set in the sky.

A parliamentary report in February called the Yamuna “more of a toxic waterway than a river”, saying the foam clouds were formed from a potent chemical soup including laundry detergent and phosphates from fertilisers.

“Please understand you will fall sick”, a high court order said on Wednesday, Indian media reported, restricting ritual bathing on health grounds. “We can’t allow you to go into the water.”
But housewife Krishnawati Devi, 45, said she was not worried.

“I believe the waters of the river are pure and blessed by the sun god himself,” she said. “Nothing will happen to me — god will take care of everything.”

A Hindu devotee wears vermilion as she prays in an artificial pond near the banks of river Yamuna on the occasion of the Hindu festival of ‘Chhath Puja’ in New Delhi on November 7. — AFP

Hindu faithful ignored the order, with women wrapped in fine saris and heavy jewellery wading into the grey waters.

White foam swirled around their feet. In places, it was so thick it looked like the river had frozen.

“Chhath is a festival of unflinching faith”, said Avinash Kumar, 58, a government office worker.

“We can also offer prayers at home but it doesn’t feel the same as praying in the river.”

Others thumped drums and sang.
‘Toxi-city’

New Delhi’s authorities have poured in anti-foaming agents to disperse the froth, and used nets to sweep the scum away — but it has done nothing to clean the fetid water itself.

“It stinks, but it’s ok,” said 14-year-old schoolgirl Deepa Kumari. “What is important is that we get to celebrate in the river with our people.”

Rituals in the days-long festival culminate at dawn on Friday.

“I don’t bother about the pollution”, said Pooja Prasad, 20, a student.

“The mother goddess will take care of all our troubles”, she added.

The sprawling megacity of some 30 million people is also smothered in poisonous smog — fuelled by burning crop fields and vehicle exhaust fumes.

Levels of fine particulate matter — dangerous microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — have this week surged beyond 50 times the World Health Organization recommended daily maximum.

“Toxi-city”, broadcasters dubbed the capital.
‘Filth’

City authorities have declared repeated efforts to clean the river.

From an icy source of a Himalayan glacier, the Yamuna feeds into the mighty Ganges, flowing more than 3,100 kilometres to the sea in the Bay of Bengal.

But barely 400 kilometres into that journey, the water passing New Delhi is already effectively dead.

The parliamentary report warned of an “excessive presence of heavy metals” and cancer-causing pollutants ranging from arsenic to zinc, from everything from batteries to pesticides.

“Contamination… transform it into a carrier of untreated industrial waste, garbage, agricultural run-off and municipal waste,” the report read.

“This has a profound effect on the well-being of the people”.

Hindu devotees offer prayers in an artificial pond near the banks of river Yamuna on the occasion of the Hindu festival of ‘Chhath Puja’ in New Delhi on November 7. — AFP

Government statistics say 80 per cent of the pollution load is raw sewage, far exceeding permissible levels for bathing.

Some of the faithful have traditionally drunk the water.

Levels fluctuate, but in one spot in 2021 in south Delhi, faecal bacteria levels exceeded maximum health regulations by 8,800 times.

But many say they are frustrated at the situation.

“The river is sacred to us, but all the filth from the industrial belt nearby is being pumped into it,” added Kumar.

“Every year they say they are going to clean it, but nothing ever happens.”

COP29

Negotiating climate finance

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh

Published November 7, 2024 

DAWN



THE history of fossil fuel industry has come full circle. The climate summit begins on Nov 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which was one of the first major centres of commercial oil extraction during the Industrial Revolution. Nobel Prize founder Alfred Nobel and his brothers made their money by establishing Branobel, which became one of the largest oil producers in Baku. It introduced several technological innovations including the first oil pipeline in Russia, and railway and commercial shipping lines to facilitate oil transportation. Climate leaders from across the world will congregate in Baku at COP29 to agree on global financial targets and to tackle the ever-increasing ecological footprint of the Nobel brothers’ technological innovations.

A complex agenda awaits Pakistan’s delegation at the upcoming climate summit. It is structured around two main pillars, both central to Pakistan’s climate resilience and economic development: first, enhancing ambition with an emphasis on deep, rapid, and sustained emission reductions to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius; second, enabling action by mobilising the finances necessary for reducing climate emissions, adaptation, and addressing loss and damage.

Both pillars are mutually reinforcing, and progress in one supports advancements in the other. COP29 is an opportunity to showcase how Pakistan is setting high-ambition climate targets and where and how we can become a destination for international climate finance. Our climate challenges are spread over a diverse ecosystem that can potentially offer a wide range of opportunities to pilot innovative climate solutions.

The main components of how COP29 plans to tackle climate finance include: i) the establishment of a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate finance, ii) enhanced commitments from countries through updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and iii) the operationalisation of effective mechanisms for the Loss & Damage Fund (LDF). All three have particular significance for Pakistan.


A complex agenda awaits Pakistan’s delegation at the upcoming climate summit.

The NCQG will help create a new financial goal for evolving global financial needs. India and some other countries want an annual mobilisation target of $1 trillion, compared to a commitment of $100 billion per year, initially set for 2020. Some studies have projected even higher estimates at $5.8tr to $13.6tr by 2030. Developed countries are not inclined to commit to financial contributions that are obligatory, predictable, and accessible, let alone such large sums. Nor have they agreed to link NCQG with the LDF, as argued by Pakistan’s stalwart ambassador, Nabeel Munir as head of the all-important Subsidiary Body for Implementation.

The ask from the developing countries is desperate: at least 50 per cent of climate finance should shift from loans to grants to alleviate debt burdens. And for this, they seek balanced funding across the board for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage. In a nutshell, the biggest challenge for the Baku summit is to finalise the NCQG for the post-2025 period. Without this building block, the targets of NDCs can hardly be enhanced, nor can LDF be scaled up. The submission of the revised NDCs is due in February 2025.

The NCQG framework has expanded to include nontraditional donor countries, including some of Pakistan’s Arab friends. Several additional challenging financial instruments are also being discussed, including debt swaps, blended finance, green bonds, payment for environmental services, special drawing rights, policy-based guarantees, and carbon-pricing mechanisms. Each new source of financing will entail new complexities and conditionalities. Most importantly, this menu underlines the need for institutional readiness, legal reforms, and engagement with the private sector.

Pakistan actively engaged on the NCQG during COP28 and several UNFCCC meetings since then, advocating for a comprehensive approach that integrates social concerns, particularly emphasising the need for developed nations to take greater responsibility in providing financial support for adaptation efforts. Pakistan’s pivotal role in operationalising the LDF helped secure pledges amounting to $792 million. Following this success, it advocated for the integration of loss and damage considerations into broader climate finance frameworks, including the NCQG.

Pakistan’s significant role in shaping the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement’s implementation and in the Mitigation Work Programme has significantly influenced its approach to the NCQG. Through its integrative approach, Pakistan seeks funding mechanisms that are responsive to immediate resilience needs, emphasises grant-based resources, and integrates long-term considerations for loss and damage. The LDF’s operationalisation is seen by Pakistan as a crucial step towards achieving equitable climate finance that aligns with the objectives of the NCQG.

Pakistan’s role in operationalising the LDF has positioned it as an important actor, allowing it to collaborate within various groupings such as the G77 and China. This collaboration strengthens the collective bargaining power in negotiations related to both LDF funding and the NCQG, and collaboration with other developing countries from Bermuda to the Philippines.

Looking ahead, Pakistan will engage in ongoing discussions at COP29 and beyond, ensuring that any financial goals set are realistic and reflective of desperate needs.

Finally, the COP29 presidency will launch the Climate Finance Action Fund. Ironically, it will be capitalised by voluntary contributions from fossil fuel-producing countries and companies. The fund’s aim is enticing: catalyse investments across mitigation, adaptation, and research and development initiatives. The CFAF has announced allocating 50pc of its capital towards climate projects in developing nations, with an emphasis on supporting their next generation of NDCs. It’s still unclear who from Pakistan will engage on CFAF, particularly since it is expected to provide rapid response funding for climate-triggered disasters affecting vulnerable communities.

It is encouraging to see a growing interest in Pakistan for participation in COP29, shown by several provincial governments, private sector, financial institutions, and civil society. How would Pakistan’s contingent engage with the international community to help finalise the NCQG Framework, get specific figures agreed for increased financial commitments, strengthen mechanisms for fund distribution, and enhanced monitoring and accountability? The challenge for the delegates is to meaningfully and coherently engage with the future architecture of international climate finance.

The writer is an Islamabad-based climate change and sustainable development expert.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2024

Developing world faces multi-billion climate adaptation cash gap, UN report says

Reuters 

Published November 7, 2024 

The amount of finance provided to developing countries to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change is far short of the $359 billion a year needed even after the biggest annual increase yet, a UN report on Thursday showed.

Funding from the developed world hit $28 billion in 2022 after a $6 billion rise, the most in any one year since the UN Paris deal in 2015 to try and limit the impacts of global warming, the annual UN Environment Programme report said.

Countries are preparing to meet in Azerbaijan at COP29 from November 11 to 22 for the next round of climate talks in a year marked by extreme weather aggravated by climate change, including floods in Bangladesh and drought in Brazil.

How much money richer countries agree to send to developing countries to help them cope is expected to be central to the talks in Baku.

“Climate change is already devastating communities across the world, particularly the most poor and vulnerable. Raging storms are flattening homes, wildfires are wiping out forests, and land degradation and drought are degrading landscapes,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a statement.

“Without action, this is a preview of what our future holds and why there simply is no excuse for the world not to get serious about adaptation, now.”

Adaptation finance covers activities including building flood defences against rising sea levels, planting trees in urban areas to protect against extreme heat and ensuring infrastructure can withstand hurricanes.

In addition to the finance, countries need guidance on how to use it.

While 171 countries have a policy, strategy or plan in place, the quality varies, and a small number of fragile or conflict-affected states have none, the report said.

A separate UN report last month said the world was on track to exceed its goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average by 2050, and instead head for warming of 2.6-3.1C.