China responsible for ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang province: UN human rights report

OHCHR
High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet during her visit to China, in Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

31 August 2022
Human Rights

A long-awaited report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has concluded that “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.

The report published on Wednesday in the wake of the visit by UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet in May, said that “allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.”

In a strongly-worded assessment at the end of the report, OHCHR said that the extent of arbitrary detentions against Uyghur and others, in context of “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights, enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

‘Rigorous review’

The UN rights office said that Wednesday’s report was “based on a rigorous review of documentary material currently available to the Office, with its credibility assessed in accordance with standard human rights methodology.

“Particular attention was given to the Government’s own laws, policies, data and statements. The Office also requested information and engaged in dialogue and technical exchanges with China throughout the process.”

Published on Ms. Bachelet’s final day of her four-year term in office, the report says that the violations have taken place in the context of the Chinese Government’s assertion that it is targeting terrorists among the Uyghur minority with a counter-extremism strategy that involves the use of so-called Vocational Educational and Training Centres (VETCs), or re-education camps.

'Interlocking patterns'

OHCHR said that the Government policy in recent years in Xinjiang has “led to interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights.”

Even if the VETC system has as China says, “been reduced in scope or wound up”, said OHCHR, “the laws and policies that underpin it remain in place”, leading to an increased use of imprisonment.

The systems of arbitrary detention and related patterns of abuse since 2017, said OHCHR, “come against the backdrop of broader discrimination” against Uyghur and other minorities.

Violations of international law

“This has included far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international laws and standards”, including restrictions on religious freedom and the rights to privacy and movement.

Furthermore, the report said that Chinese Government policies in the region have “transcended borders”, separating families, “severing” contacts, producing “patterns of intimidations and threats” against the wider Uyghur diaspora who have spoken out about conditions at home.

OHCHR said that the Chinese Government “holds the primary duty to ensure that all laws and policies are brought into compliance with international human rights law and to promptly investigate any allegations of human rights violations, to ensure accountability for perpetrators, and to provide redress to victims.”
Report recommendations

Among the recommendations that the UN rights office makes in the report, is for the Government to take “prompt steps” to release all individuals arbitrarily imprisoned in XUAR, whether in camps or any other detention centre.

China should let families know the whereabouts of any individuals who have been detained, providing exact locations, and help to establish “safe channels of communication” and allow families to reunite, said the report.

The report calls on China to undertake a full legal review of its national security and counter-terrorism policies in XUAR, “to ensure their full compliance with binding international human rights law” and repeal any laws that fall short of international standards.

It also calls for a prompt Government investigation into allegations of human rights violations in camps and other detention facilities, “including allegations of torture, sexual violence, ill-treatment, forced medical treatment, as well as forced labour and reports of deaths in custody.”

Chinese rebuttal

In a long and detailed response published along with the hard-hitting report, the Chinese Government said in conclusion, that authorities in the Xinjiang region operate on the principle that everyone is equal before the law, “and the accusation that its policy is ‘based on discrimination’ is groundless.”

China said that its counter-terrorism and “de-radicalization efforts” in the region, had been conducted according to “the rule of law” and by no means add up to “suppression of ethnic minorities.”

On the issue of the camps, Beijing responded that the VETCs are “learning facilities established in accordance with law intended for de-radicalization” and not “concentration camps”.

No ‘massive violation of rights’

“The lawful rights and interests of workers of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected and there is no such thing as ‘forced labour’”, China’s statement said, adding that there had been no “massive violation of rights”.

The statement calls on the international community to be “clear-eyed about the truth” of its counter-terrorism campaign in the region, and “see through the clumsy performances and malicious motives of anti-China forces in the US and the West, who attempt to use Xinjiang to contain China.”

It calls instead, for the UN and other international organizations, to investigate “the human rights disasters caused, and numerous crimes committed, by the US and some other Western countries, both at home and abroad.”

Bachelet's May mission

The human rights chief undertook her mission in May, at the invitation of the Chinese Government and visited XUAR to review the situation there.

During her mission, Ms. Bachelet spoke with a range of government officials, several civil society organisations, academics, and community and religious leaders. In addition, she met several organizations online ahead of the visit, on issues relating to Xinjiang province, Tibet, Hong Kong, and other parts of China.

At the end of her visit, while expressing concern over issues relating to Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, human rights defenders and labour rights, she praised China’s “tremendous achievements” in alleviating poverty, and eradicating extreme poverty, 10 years ahead of its target date.

A number of other developments in the country were welcomed by Ms. Bachelet, including legislation that improves protection for women’s rights, and work being done by NGOs to advance the rights of LGBTI people, people with disabilities, and older people.

The UN rights chief underscored the important role that China has to play, at a regional and multilateral level, and noted that everyone she met on her visit, from Government officials, civil society, academics, diplomats and others, demonstrated a sincere willingness to make progress on the promotion and protection of human rights for all.
Guterres underscores independence of human rights office

In response to questions from correspondents at the regular Noon briefing in New York on Thursday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, said Secretary-General António Guterres had read the OHCHR assessment, which “clearly identifies serious human rights violations in the Xinjiang region of China.”

Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General “very much hopes that the Government of China will take on board the recommendations put forward in the assessment”, while also noting that the report “also underscores the importance of the independence” of OHCHR.

In response to a question over what this spelt for future relations, Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General “values the system-wide cooperation between China and the United Nations on a whole host of issues. China is a very valuable partner, and we very much hope that that cooperation will continue,” and urged it was “important for everyone to see the Chinese response” to the detailed report.

GOP sees 'financial hole' after Sheldon Adelson's widow stops shoveling big money to their candidates: report

Raw Story - Yesterday 
By Brad Reed


Mitch McConnell (Photo via AFP)© provided by RawStory

Republicans for decades have relied on the late billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to fund congressional and presidential races -- but now the money spigot he once provided appears to have dried up.

Bloomberg News reports that Adelson's widow, Miriam Adelson, has been hesitant to fork over the massive sums her husband provided prior to his death in early 2021, leaving what the publication describes as a "financial hole" for the GOP.

In fact, the only money Adelson has given this year has been a $5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to electing Republican candidates.

To put this into perspective, Bloomberg notes that the Adelsons gave more than a half a billion dollars to pro-GOP super PACs in the last decade alone.

In fact, the loss of Adelson money for the GOP is so great that the publication writes that "some Republicans worry they could face a cash crunch heading into the midterms" even as "its chances of controlling the Senate have deteriorated due to the fundraising struggles of candidates in battleground states."

Top GOP donor Dan Eberhart openly admitted that having no Adelson cash would be problematic for the party this fall.

"If Adelson is effectively sitting out the cycle, it leaves an awful big hole," he told Bloomberg.

Australian Signals Directorate 50-cent coin code cracked by Tasmanian 14yo in 'just over an hour'

By Dan Smith

I CHECKED THE SITE; ALREADY SOLD OUT!!!

The coin was available for purchase from the Royal Australian Mint.(Supplied: Royal Australian Mint)

A 14-year-old boy has cracked four levels of code imprinted on a commemorative 50-cent coin released by the nation's foreign intelligence cybersecurity agency.

Key points:ASD director-general Rachel Noble said the 14-year-old cracked the encryption in just over an hour

She said the agency hoped to meet him "and recruit him"

She also said there was a secret fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet

The limited-edition commemorative coin was released on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), with only 50,000 minted for the occasion.

The ASD said the coin's four different layers of encryption were each progressively harder to solve, and clues could be found on both sides — but ASD director-general Rachel Noble said in a speech at the Lowy Institute on Friday that the 14-year-old managed it in just over an hour.

"There's a challenge out there to see who can correctly break all the layers, and, would you believe it, yesterday the coin was launched at 8:45am; we put up our web form and said, 'Hey, if you think you've got the answers, fill in the form'," she said.

"And believe it or not, a boy, 14 years old in Tasmania, was the first person in just over an hour to get all four layers right.

"Just unbelievable. Can you imagine being his mum?

"So we're hoping to meet him soon ... to recruit him."

Ms Noble and Royal Australian Mint chief executive Leigh Gordon launched the coin on Thursday.(ABC News: Mark Moore)

A fifth level of encryption

Ms Noble yesterday said the coin celebrated the work of the agency's members and the evolution of code-breaking, and that those who crack the codes could be "pretty well placed" to get a job at the ASD.

"We thought this was a really fun way to engage people in code-breaking with the hope that, if they make it through all four levels of coding on the coin, maybe they'll apply for a job at the Australian Signals Directorate."

Both sides of the coin contain parts of ASD's encrypted puzzle.

(Supplied: Royal Australian Mint)

Ms Noble said that while there were no classified messages on the coin, those who crack the codes could discover "some wonderful, uplifting messages".

"Like the early code breakers in ASD, you can get through some of the layers with but a pencil and paper but, right towards the end, you may need a computer to solve the last level."

She also revealed on Friday that there was a fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet.

NASA's lunch box-sized instrument MOXIE successfully makes oxygen on Mars using the Red Planet's resources

Wednesday 31 Aug 2022 

In an extraterrestrial first, NASA's instrument converts Martian materials into oxygen.(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory )

An experiment from NASA has taken a small step towards making Mars habitable for humans.

NASA's instrument, the Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been successful in generating breathable oxygen on Mars using resources found on the Red Planet — a first for the experiment.

The lunch box-sized instrument has produced oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere seven times since landing on Mars in February 2021.
So what's new about this demonstration?

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MOXIE’s oxygen production on Mars represents the first demonstration of “in-situ resource utilisation".

This is the practice of harvesting and using a planet’s materials to make resources that would otherwise have to be transported from Earth.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor of aeronautics and astronautics and principal investigator for MOXIE, Jeffery Hoffman, said this is the first time MOXIE has used resources from the planet itself.

“This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body, and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission,” he said in a statement.

“It’s historic in that sense.”

Engineers lowering MOXIE into the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover.

(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

In each of its seven runs, MOXIE reached its goal of producing 6g of oxygen per hour — similar to the rate of a small tree on Earth, according to findings published in a new paper in the journal Science Advances.

MIT began developing Moxie in 2014.

The experiment rode to Mars along with NASA's Perseverance rover in 2020, landing on Jezero Crater in February 2021.

Researchers suggest a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be sent to Mars to continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees, ahead of humans going to the planet.
How does it work? What would a scaled-up version look like?

Think of MOXIE as a similar process to producing oxygen and hydrogen from water in a fuel cell.

The instrument works by sucking in Martian air, filtering it, then using electrolysis to split carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon monoxide.

After this, it purifies and combines the singular oxygen atoms to produce O2 — breathable oxygen.

Moxie then releases the oxygen and carbon monoxide back into the Martian atmosphere.

Researchers suggest a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be used to produce oxygen on Mars at the rate of several hundred trees.(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

So far, MOXIE has shown that it can make oxygen at almost any time of the Martian day and year.

Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory, said: “The only thing we have not demonstrated is running at dawn or dusk, when the temperature is changing substantially.

“We do have an ace up our sleeve that will let us do that, and once we test that in the lab, we can reach that last milestone to show we can really run any time," he said.

Researchers say a scaled-up version of MOXIE on a future Mars mission would pump that oxygen into some sort of storage tank for future use.

This means providing breathable O2 for astronauts, or liquid oxygen for the manufacture of rocket fuels.

Take a peek inside the inner workings of the gold-plated MOXIE.

(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory )

As MOXIE continues to churn out oxygen on Mars, engineers plan to push its capacity by increasing its production, particularly in the Martian spring, when atmospheric density and carbon dioxide levels are high.

“To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of stuff from Earth, like computers, spacesuits, and habitats," Mr Hoffman said.


"But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it — you’re way ahead of the game."

Posted 31 Aug 2022

Akhtar Baloch

IN MEMORIAM: RECORDER OF THE FORGOTTEN PAST

Dr Naazir Mahmood

Published August 28, 2022

Akhtar Baloch, also known as ‘Karaanchi Wala’, had his own mode of resistance.

He resisted cultural decay by frequently detailing the erosion of our heritage in his blogs for Dawn, which attracted readership both nationally and internationally. He also resisted human rights violations in Pakistan — especially in Sindh — through his work for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

He fought for the rights of marginalised citizens, ranging from small ethnic and religious groups to the transgender communities and people of diverse sexual orientations. An activist with an academic touch, he had a keen eye for old books, buildings and manuscripts. He frequented old book stalls as a compulsory ritual and rummaged through literature, collecting nuggets of humanism from poetry and prose. His death on July 31 — at the age of 55 — has left us poorer in an already depleted intellectual legacy for he was a fine journalist and a caring friend.

This is not an obituary, rather an attempt to give my readers a glimpse of what Akhtar Baloch stood for. Born in Mirpurkhas in 1967, he spent the first 30 years of his life there. During his college years, he participated in various literary and political activities. This was under the dark time of the Gen Zia regime.

Akhtar Baloch was an eyewitness to the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD). Even as a teenager he could feel the pain and oppression of the brutal crackdown that General Zia and his cronies meted out to all who dared to dissent. Akhtar Baloch’s literary pursuits started when he read extensively in Sindhi and then translated some selected Sindhi writings into Urdu. His love for languages honed his skills as a renowned translator and by the age of 30, he was already making waves as a journalist and a translator of repute.

Activist, journalist and researcher, Akhtar Baloch, who passed away on July 31, will be remembered for the vast and well-documented archive he leaves behind on Karachi’s forgotten streets, history and overlooked communities

Next, he headed to Hyderabad where he emerged as a fearless defender of human rights. The HRCP benefitted from his efforts as he became its provincial coordinator. His name did not go unnoticed by the oppressors as the country was now reeling under another military dictatorship led by Gen Pervez Musharraf. On Pakistan Day 2003, Akhtar Baloch was abducted by “unknown persons” who threatened him and tortured him for days before releasing him.

The last 20 years of his life were spent in Karachi where he established a large following among his friends, fellow journalists, readers and students. His ever-smiling face endeared him to many as he became a source of knowledge for them on commonly ignored issues. He also became a reputable researcher after extensively working with the transgender community in Sindh. In 2010, City Press in Karachi published his book tilted Teesri Jins (The Third Sex). Ilm-o-Adab published its third edition in 2020.

The Third Sex

Teesri Jins, a marvelous work of both primary and secondary research, outlines the travails of transgender persons in Sindh, and deciphers their esoteric language called ‘Farsi Chand’. The transgender community has their own language that other people struggle to understand. Akhtar Baloch spent considerable time with transgenders to document the intricacies of their language — an assorted mix of diverse expressions from different tongues. Some prominent transgender persons’ such as Bindya Rana, Guru Keta, Shahana alias ‘Shaani’ and Yasmeen Faqeer’ trusted Akhtar Baloch and shared with him what they had not disclosed to anyone else.

Akhtar Baloch’s book Teesri Jins

He visited many cities in Sindh where the transgender community had a dera (settlement). Within Hyderabad’s city centre, transgender people have their base in Khadra Gali which Akhtar Baloch frequented. The best feature of Teesri Jins was its focus on the community’s historical background. Through detailed interviews with activists and leaders of the transgender community, Akhtar Baloch gathered invaluable information that hitherto was not available anywhere. Based on nearly two dozen in-depth interviews, the book unfolds a terrifying saga of exploitation and marginalisation the community.

The book became an instant hit; it is still a unique source of academic information. Full of authentic accounts and references that give credence to his narrative, Akhtar Baloch gave voice to a community which is a target of coercion and repression.

Humanism in Urdu Literature

Urdu Adab Mein Insaan Dosti (Humanism in Urdu Literature) became another bestseller by Akhtar Baloch. In this purely academic work, he analyses the humanistic tradition in Urdu literature from the 17th to the 19th century. It is a treasure trove of nuggets from Urdu literature that enlightens readers about its humanistic credentials. In it, Akhtar Baloch defines the concept of humanism and how it is related to literature. The very essence of creative writing appears to be an endeavour of a humanist approach to life, which states that when hatred and love vie for space, love triumphs.

He began his research by going through the writings from the early period of Urdu literature that emerged in the Deccan, the southern part of the Subcontinent, and tracing the elements of humanism in the Deccan milieu where Urdu was taking shape. Then he moves on to the 18th century in which the subject matter of literature and poetry developed a tinge of political disintegration as reflected in the poetry of that period.

Akhtar Baloch discusses the reservations held by Mir Jafar Zatalli and his contemporary poets towards a rapidly transforming society. Chaos and mayhem across India influenced the literature of that time, and authors and poets could not remain aloof to the social and political realities. From poets such as Mir and Sauda to an emerging Urdu prose towards the end of the 18th century, Akhtar offers us vignettes of Urdu literary gems in this book.

His interest was not confined to any one genre of literature; he branched into multiple modes of expressions circulating from the 17th to 19th centruries. He proves that all genres in Urdu literature shared a recurring theme of humanism. By studying the merits and demerits of prominent writers, Akhtar Baloch unveiled the literary trends emerging out of the first century of colonial rule. For instance, Mirza Ghalib, his favourite poet, illustrates his humanism and continues to dominate Urdu poetry to date.

Urdu Adab Mein Insaan Dosti concludes with a discussion on the society that was emerging in the aftermath of the 1857 War of Independence. Akhtar Baloch charts the changing patterns of norms and values in Urdu literature during the second half of the 19th century, especially in light of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Aligarh Movement.

THE KARAANCHI WALA

In 2013, Akhtar Baloch started writing the ‘Karaanchi Wala’ blogs about old buildings, personalities and the streets of Karachi. His writings appeared on the internet simultaneously in English, Sindhi and Urdu, causing many newspapers such as Intikhab and Azaadi in Balochistan, and Mashriq from Lahore and Peshawar to carry his pieces. His quest for historical accuracy was unmatched as he searched for references from the most unlikely people and places. His unique style made him a credible source even within the highbrow academic community.

Akhtar Baloch’s Karaanchi Wala is a compilation of his blogs

He wrote about karo-kari (honour killings), the Jirga system and issues that the scheduled castes and other marginalised people faced in Sindh. He also taught as a part-time teacher at the Federal Urdu University. Through his popular blogs, his identity as ‘Karaanchi Wala’ received wider acceptance.

These blogs touched upon subjects of history that many people considered taboo or not worth discussing. For example, in 2016, when his first collection of blogs appeared in book form, the episode about the marriage proposal between Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Ruttie sparked the interest of readers. To corroborate this anecdote, our researcher frantically looked for a book by Sharif uddin Pirzada and referenced it properly. His telling of this episode is to the point and lacking sensation.

Scrutiny of facts was his forte and, at times, he spent weeks — even months — searching for material to verify the sources that he used for his blogs. As he was passionate in his quests and dispassionate in his analysis, his writings were impartial and unbiased. At the end of his blogs, he invited his readers to enlighten him with additional information, which portrayed him as being an intellectually flexible person. He often accredited Dr Mubarak Ali, Hussain Naqi, I.A. Rehman, Saba Dashtyari and Tuaseef Ahmed Khan, all of whom he considered his guides and mentors.

In following their footsteps, Akhtar Baloch deviated from the usual track of history that many textbooks in Pakistan promote. His detours facilitated a unconventional approach to history and led him to discover some lost pages from our recent past. His primary interest was highlighting those buildings and people that deserve our appreciation and attention. His blogs focused on researching the cities and towns of Sindh and its people, bridging the gap of representation between them and the mainstream.

Akhtar Baloch’s corpus resists, upends and challenges the official narratives of history that mutilate our past by clarifying misconceptions and debunking misrepresentations of history. He developed a body of work that remains unparalleled. He was a true proponent of people’s history in Sindh and paved an alternate path for fellow researchers and students which was nonconformist.

Over the years, his first collection of 40 blogs, ‘Karaanchi Wala 1’, was developed into three editions, prompting him to compile a second collection in 2020 comprising 30 blogs that were deeply informative. His blog discussing the Lahore Resolution of March 1940 became popular as it challenged the date of its passage and instead proved the correct date to be March 24th rather than 23rd. In another blog, he highlights August 15 as Pakistan’s actual Independence Day.

His blog on Jam Saqi and Nazir Abbasi talks about the difficulties of carrying out left-wing and progressive political activities under both civilian and military governments in the recent history of Pakistan. Being a secular activist, Akhtar Baloch underscored the positive interventions by various religious communities in Sindh. One such personality that piqued his interest was Bhagat Kunwar Ram, a promoter of harmony and love among diverse communities. Bhagat was a Hindu musician, singer and altruist. Akhtar Baloch details that a fanatic follower of Pir Bharchaundi Sharif assassinated Bhagat in 1939.

Akhtar Baloch was an investigative genie par excellence who often became a victim of plagiarism by other so-called journalists and anchorpersons. One notable instance is when an anchorperson plagiarised Baloch’s complete research on the Jewish synagogue in Karachi without acknowledging the source. Even the photos that Akhtar Baloch had taken and used for his blog were downloaded and used without any credit or consent. However, this was not a one-off incident as the same anchor later copied Baloch’s blog on the funeral of Fatima Jinnah — reproduced by many newspapers as some acknowledged Baloch’s efforts while others did not. One person even published a 36-page booklet on Fatima Jinnah’s funeral using Baloch’s blog with no mention of the writer. While Baloch was happy his work was being widely circulated, it was unfortunate that he could not claim credit for his efforts. Adarsh Ayaz Leghari and Arif Anjum translated his Urdu blogs for Dawn in English, while some other Sindhi magazines also translated and published them.

Meanwhile, he always acknowledged even if somebody made a minor contribution to his blog and for this he gave credit to our late friend Musaddiq Sanwal from whom Akhtar Baloch learnt a lot.

His third book of the ‘Karaanchi Wala’ series, which he asked me to review, appeared in 2020. Sadly, I kept postponing it for one reason or another without realising that he might not be here when I finally sat down to write about him. Wusatullah Khan called him Sir John Marshal of Karachi — Marshal had discovered the ruins of Mohenjo Daro. Akhtar Baloch laid bare the bones of old Karachi and encouraged us to appreciate its rich past.

The writer is a columnist and an educator. He can be reached on
Twitter @NaazirMahmood.

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 28th, 2022

PAKISTAN

Compounded losses of cash crop cotton

Mohammad Hussain Khan 

Published August 29, 2022

Peasants struggling to pick the remainder of cotton crop in Matiari district.

—Photo by Umair Ali

Successive spells of torrential rains in Sindh have spelt disaster for the agriculture sector. The economic cost of the disaster would run into billions if the value chain is anything to go by. Among summer crops, cotton is the worst hit, bananas and mango orchards have been damaged and vegetables, particularly onion, have been washed away.

These rains are considered a repeat of 2011 when rains triggered similar flooding in lower Sindh after the 2010 super floods that destroyed seven to eight districts in upper Sindh owing to a breach in the Indus river’s dyke.

One or two pickings of cotton were carried out in the early sowing areas of Sindh. The downpour destroyed almost the entire crop in Sanghar, Naushahro Feroz, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas, Matiari and Tando Mohammad Khan. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) says 2.082 million acres of the cropped area have been damaged across Sindh.

“I believe 80 per cent of the cotton crop has been simply washed away and in terms of money, losses to the cotton crop will be no less than Rs70bn,” said Nadeem Shah, Sindh’s member of the Cotton Crop Assessment Committee and Pakistan Central Cotton Committee of the federal food security ministry. He is from the lower Sindh rain-hit Matiari district which has no drainage system to dispose of rainwater.

Earnings of cotton pickers, domestic edible oil production, and livestock feed are all casualties of the deluges, along with the textile industry

“Cotton plants are submerged under massive amounts of water and they are not likely to survive. Once the sun makes its presence felt, it will blacken the plant. In some areas cotton plants are already blackened,” he said.

A visit to the rain-hit lower Sindh districts reveals that rains that continued until August’s third week left the farming community and residents of urban centres high and dry. It forced the Sindh government to declare 23 districts to be calamity hit.

There seems to be no probability of water receding from fields quickly and easily as rainwater stagnates. Irrigation officials and growers are struggling to ensure drainage of rainwater by diverting it from one end to the other as part of ad-hoc arrangements for disposing of it through irrigation channels.

After a period of continuous decline in the cotton crop, it witnessed growth recently in Sindh, leading to the production of 3.5m bales in the 2021-22 season when compared to 1.8m bales in 2020-21. It was grown over 539,000ha against the sowing target of 640,000ha. Losses to the cash cotton crop mean economic losses to farm labour as well as cotton pickers. The pickers, mostly women, will lose an important source of seasonal earnings.

Some picking this season was done before the rains. Sindh agriculture department assesses close to 100pc losses to the remaining cotton crop. Delay in dewatering from farmlands will have serious implications for the sensitive cotton crop. Standing water blackens the crop. Those still having clean picking will be among the luckier ones. They would be getting Rs10,000 plus rate for 40kg.

Widespread damage to the cotton crop will certainly undermine the entire value chain. Seed in phutti will be lost besides the crop. The seed is a source of domestic edible production. Its waste (oilcake) is a source of livestock feed.

Cotton seed or benola is a vital source of edible production domestically. According to the former chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Dr Yusuf Zafar, cotton crop seeds provide 70pc of total domestic edible oil production.

“Only 30pc of Pakistan’s edible oil is achieved domestically and the rest is imported. Of domestic production, 70pc is achieved using cotton seeds. This is alarming as the food and edible oil import bill continues to rise,” contends Mr Zafar.

He said estimates showed that the recent damages, inclusive of losses to Balochistan’s organic cotton crop, indicate around 6-7m bales will have to be imported, costing $6-$7 billion.

Devastating rains have undermined the rural community’s economic well-being as well as inflicted mental agony and psychological trauma. Farmers will still be preparing to meet the challenges of the upcoming Rabi sowing season, provided the water recedes from fields. About 89,622 livestock has perished as per the PMDA situation report of Aug 24 in view of rains. Roughly 84,783 of 89,622 livestock has perished in the upper Sindh Kashmore district.

Herds of livestock are mostly managed by the peasantry, who have a 50-50 share in farmlands with the growers. The downpour has rendered this peasantry displaced. They have shifted to roadside improvised tents along with animals including cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep of their own.

Their villages, located on farmlands, have been inundated and their houses made of thatched straw have collapsed. Their livestock is now exposed to diseases. Carcasses of cattle were seen on the Miprukrhas-Jhuddo route which was badly hit by the overflowing canal.

About 310,039 acres in Sanghar — Sindh’s home of cotton production — followed by 247,659 acres in Shaheed Benazirabad and 247,607 acres in Naushahro Feroz districts were damaged. Khairpur district reported damages to agriculture of 214,626 acres, resulting in the loss of its date palm crop in July’s spell of monsoon rainfall.

Among veggies, the onion crop is lost. It was at bulb formation but has fallen prey to rains. Sindh makes up half of the total onion production in the country. The same goes for chilli. Its required acreage was not achieved due to water shortage, said a chilli grower Karamullah Saand from Mirpurkhas.

Irrigation authorities are struggling to cope with the situation triggered by recent rains. All off-taking calls, 14 in all, of Sindh’s three barrages remained closed due to the flood situation in the Indus river. Indus remained at high flood at Guddu and Sukkur barrages since Aug 23 till this piece was written on Friday. Up and downstream flows at the two barrages remained the same.

Farmlands were under water till Aug 27 in lower Sindh. If timely dewatering of farmland is not done it could undermine wheat sowing. The wheat crop is already facing issues. Sindh was not able to meet the procurement target of 1.4m tonnes this year. Sindh food officials were said to have taken away the 2021-22 crop from small- and medium-scale growers to meet the procurement target, leaving them without seeds to be used for cultivation this year. This would put them in quandary.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 29th, 2022

The fault lies not in our stars
Arifa Noor

Published August 30, 2022

IT takes a humanitarian crisis to overshadow the political crises that engulf us most of the time. And if the advent of Covid-19 was one such moment where for a moment attention was diverted from our usual bak bak, the floods we are grappling with are another.

Over a decade after the 2010 super floods, Pakistan has been hit by another calamity but this time around nature has been even more wrathful. The rains and destruction have surpassed those of 2010. And if the dire predictions are to be believed, this is simply the beginning.

As government officials and others have pointed out time and again that climate change is at work. The heat came early and was unrelenting for months on end. And even as we were sweltering, there was talk of not just early monsoons but also a heavier than usual one. And heavier it was.

The rains were in some ways just as unpredictable as the early onset of heat; in fact, climate expert Aisha Khan says there were fears of a drought in parts of Balochistan which are now inundated.

But the problem is that climate change is also turning into an excuse. The phrase has become as popular as, say, ‘lockdown’ was two years ago. If anyone needs proof, simply hear talk-show discussions, where the word pops up regularly. It seems to be the excuse we needed to absolve ourselves of responsibility. Climate change, after all, is caused by global decisions and Pakistan, as a poorer and less developed country, is at the receiving end. But this is simply not the entire picture. The rains and their intensity are beyond our control, the havoc they wreak is not.

The rains and their intensity are beyond our control, the havoc they wreak is not.

Let us consider Karachi. The urban flooding in the city has now become a yearly event, which leads to much noise and discussion for a few days before the entire matter is forgotten. The poor planning and regulations, the particularly problematic encroachments are not addressed, except perhaps where the less privileged reside. So the poor will be thrown out in the name of clearing encroachments while upscale housing societies (also encroaching upon drains) remain untouched.

And there are the obligatory photos of the drains being cleared of rubbish, with little focus on why the plastic bags will not end up there again if there is no comprehensive waste disposal plan. Once the attention diverts, life goes back to the old, bad ways and the next year brings the same chaos. Karachi is just one example of our inability to find solutions; we bring the same approach to climate change and floods.

Back in 2010, when the rains hit, we were made aware of how our growing need for housing (and more) had led to habitats being built close to the riverbeds, which was a major reason for the immense destruction. This was highlighted again and again, as we carried out improper construction in urban centres such as Karachi and even Islamabad. But a decade later, it appears no steps were taken to address the issue.

And now, once again, we speak of hotels built too close to River Swat or the habitation in the kacha. But rest assured, there will be little more than talk once the waters — as well as the images on television screens — recede. For this is an issue linked directly to our population numbers, which has been ignored for decades.

Beyond this, the 2010 floods highlighted the need for advanced planning for coping with climatic disasters. This planning begins with ensuring advance warning — from the technology to predict the weather to the ability to communicate the information to district administrations and vulnerable communities. Back in 2010, in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, districts were not informed in time because a fax machine was out of order.

Even more important is the need for data collection, mapping and advance planning for rescue and relief operations. Mapping of the more vulnerable areas and communities in times of floods and identification of locations the evacuees can be guided or taken towards should be carried out.

But even this would not be enough, if we don’t have an integrated flood management and disaster management system — an exercise which may require far more than an NCOC to be in place during the time of a crisis.

The need for this was highlighted in 2010 also when excessive damage was caused partly due to the absence of an integrated management system.

However, all of this also requires a rehaul of the irrigation departments, which were discussed in detail in the inquiries carried out in Punjab and by the Supreme Court.

According to news reports, the Punjab judicial commission report on the 2010 floods had put the blame heavily on the Punjab irrigation department. In order to understand the logic of this, here is an excerpt from a report titled Malevolent Floods of Pakistan by Naseer Memon: “…after the police, the Irrigation Department is the second highly politicised department. The posting of grade 17 and grade 18 in the department is directly governed by the irrigation minister and the chief minister respectively. This lucrative position is traded Rs1.5 to 2 million.”

In fact, the inquiries had been ordered because of reports of how floodwaters had been diverted to save the lands of the powerful.

The reports had also singled out officials of the irrigation department who were to be held accountable, and a simple Google search reveals how courts continued to be approached about the implementation of these orders for years after the reports came out. Governments are not interested in any reform of the irrigation department.

PS: It may be of interest that the report described as counterproductive the visits of politicians and governments officials to the affected areas. Not just the politicians but also the media should take note before pushing for these visits. We need officials in offices making and implementing policies rather than handing over rations or meeting the survivors. That should be the work of local governments. If we only had effective ones.

The writer is a journalist.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2022

Apocalypse now

Zarrar Khuhro 

Published August 29, 2022

MAKE no mistake, we are currently in the midst of the greatest ‘natural’ disaster we have ever experienced. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), over 900 people are dead, close to 300,000 homes have been partially destroyed and about 200,000 homes have been completely destroyed. If we estimate that around six people live in a household (and this is a conservative estimate) then 30 million people — nearly 15 per cent of Pakistan’s entire population — are currently homeless or living without adequate shelter. This same estimate has also been quoted by ministers Sherry Rehman and Ahsan Iqbal.

Estimates are all we have at the moment, as the extent of the flooding is such that the magnitude of the destruction and loss will only become clear once the waters recede. It is a disaster that will reveal itself in stages and will have repercussions far beyond the affected areas.

But it is already clear that the scale of this disaster is many times greater than that of the 2010 floods which, devastating as they were, were riverine floods. This time, the water is everywhere. And it is relentless.

Editorial: Provincial govts must be more effective at coordinating flood relief efforts this time

The length and breadth of Sindh is inundated from Karachi to Kashmore, and the devastation is such that every previous flood experienced in living memory pales in comparison, with some areas having received more rain in a short period of time than the entire province usually receives during the duration of the monsoons. As a result, while in 2010 we saw the left bank areas of the Indus badly hit, this time the impact is felt all over the province.

The scale of this disaster is far greater than that of the 2010 floods.

Rescue and relief simply cannot cope, and as waters stagnate and people are forced to shelter under the open skies or else in hurriedly established relief camps, the dangers of water and mosquito-borne diseases is ever-present.

Infrastructure has also been badly damaged countrywide, and this is especially tragic when it comes to Balochistan which was the most underdeveloped province of Pakistan even before the floods hit. With large parts of the province cut off from all access, the true magnitude of the destruction will not be clear for many months but if NDMA figures are anything to go by, over 710 kilometres of metalled roads have been completely swept away. In absolute terms, however, it is the road system of Sindh that has been worst hit, with over 2,200km of roads destroyed.

And the worst is yet to come: consider the damage to agriculture and what that portends. In Sindh alone, as per Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, the entire cotton crop has been lost as has most of the sugarcane crop, and orchards have sustained heavy damage as well. This doesn’t only spell doom for farmers, but also the textile industry, a major source of exports, which relies on this crucial raw material. Rice mills and rice exporters will face the same crisis and the overall agricultural losses also mean that the entire agribusiness chain has been practically wiped out, from middlemen to pesticide and fertiliser manufacturers, sales agents and other staff.

To make matters worse, it is uncertain if the wheat plantation will be able to go ahead given not only the floods but also the losses suffered by farmers, most of whom live from crop to crop and season to season. Here I’m not talking about large agriculturists who may have the ability to sustain a season of losses, but the smaller farmers who simply do not have the resources to survive a lost year. Hundreds of thousands of heads of livestock have also been lost which amounts to an irreplaceable loss for communities and will make rebuilding that much harder. In economic terms the cumulative losses mean a huge blow to Pakistan’s GDP and the very real possibility of massive food shortages. Couple that with the expected mass migration to urban centres and you can easily see what the near future will hold for us.

In Waseb — and this is likely true for other areas as well — the disaster has been compounded by a tragically flawed development model where the natural waterways and channels leading from the mountains to the Indus have been disrupted by constructions of various types, and the traditional earthworks that channelled such floods were allowed to fall into disrepair. Granted, the magnitude of the rainfall is such that perhaps no such channels would have sufficed, but there is little doubt that some of the damage could have been mitigated had we, as a nation, not been so addicted to ‘development’ which ignores the lay of the land. To see the results of this, you need look no further than Swat, which has seen houses, restaurants and hotels that were built right on the riverbank in blatant violation of regulations, swept away by the torrents. Can we rebuild? Can we pick up the pieces and carry on? And most crucially, will we ever learn?

The writer is a journalist.

Twitter: @zarrarkhuhro

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2022

A little empathy, please

Abbas Nasir Published August 28, 2022

PAKISTAN has witnessed many periods of polarisation within society, especially during long spells of military rule and its aftermath, but the current divide seems so pronounced and bitter that even a natural calamity can’t bring the leaders onto the same page.

All politicians and political parties have the right to aspire to office; coming into government is the only route for them to be able to implement their manifesto or agenda for the good of the people and the country, at least in theory, and win the confidence of the electorate.

But surely there are circumstances when political rivalries and jostling for power should take a backseat as the immediate well-being of a huge mass of our people is threatened; when no government or political party or organisation can meet the challenges all on its own.

The devastation caused by the ongoing unprecedented rain and the resultant flooding in large swathes of the country is a prime example of an emergency that no single entity can deal with. What is required is for the whole nation to come together. Therefore, it is sad to see our ‘leaders’ pulling in different directions.

It does not take much to display empathy towards a broken people whose homes have collapsed and who have lost everything.

The prime minister was filmed dropping food parcels from a helicopter to people in a flood-affected area in Sindh; another video showed Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari accompanying Shehbaz Sharif to a relief camp in Sukkur.

To be honest, these leaders were late to the task as the unprecedented rainfall has been going on for some three to four weeks. They will have to explain why the army was called out to assist this last Friday and not earlier.

Read: Politics of vendetta is scaling new peaks at a time when Pakistan faces two unprecedented crises

Also, while the whole country knows how wealthy some of our political leaders are, they have been appealing for donations without pledging a rupee from their own pockets. Even if they are quietly donating funds, that is not enough.

After all, if they feel meeting flood-hit people and dropping food parcels to those left stranded by the water makes for good optics, they should also make public the donations from their own pockets as examples other affluent people in society can emulate.

While we are on the subject of donations, there was an object lesson in how not to give to the needy. Mir Munawar Talpur, a Sindh politician married to former president Asif Ali Zardari’s sister, was shown with a thick wad of rupee notes that he was handing out to the displaced persons.

He may have felt big and generous in handing out money like this, but one wishes he’d also kept in mind the dignity of the shirtless grabbing the handout. The money may have taken care of some of the immediate needs of a handful of people but the video was a distasteful and unsavoury spectacle on social media. Not just that, he soon ran out of what looked like Rs50 notes.

Like large parts of Sindh, many districts in southern Punjab remain inundated, with people there complaining of no relief effort. Having received a drubbing in the recent Punjab Assembly by-elections, one would have expected the PML-N leaders to have been proactive there. But I have seen no evidence of any senior PML-N leader amidst the flood-affected people offering succour. Yes, I know, they are not in government but it does not take much to display empathy towards a broken people whose homes have collapsed and who have lost everything.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan tell a similar story of large-scale devastation with the governments there still appearing sluggish in addressing the grave crisis. This again underlines the importance of everyone joining hands to supplement the government effort.

I won’t go into the numbers in detail but Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said on record that some 30 million people have been displaced. This is a staggering figure by any stretch. It means that each one of us will have to do our part to get some relief to those hammered by nature.

The half a billion dollars so far pledged by international organisations will not be enough. This is only the rescue phase. Once the waters recede, the exact magnitude of the damage to infrastructure, crops and livestock will become clear. It is incumbent on each one of us to step forward not just out of our humanity but for self-preservation too.

I say this because if the means of livelihood in the rural areas have been snatched away from the people by the floods, they will have no option but to head to urban centres in search of work to be able to feed their families. This level of migration against the backdrop of a government hamstrung by large deficits can very easily lead to social unrest, even upheaval.

The reluctance of Pakistan’s most effective and successful fund-raiser, former prime minister Imran Khan, to start a campaign because “raising funds is a huge responsibility” as one needs to ensure each penny raised can be accounted for and “I can’t be sure this will happen” was strange. Even though he later announced an ‘international telethon’ to collect funds for the victims, one could be forgiven for detecting a bit of politics in his initial stance. Was it part of PTI’s game plan, when one of Mr Khan’s top aides Fawad Chaudhry told a TV channel that his party’s governments in Punjab and KP would write to the IMF saying they were unable to meet some of the conditions attached to the IMF package?

Hopefully, that was mere rhetoric. The last straw after the ravages of floods would be an IMF package thrown into limbo again. Partisan politics can and should be put on hold for a few months, in the larger interest of our people.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2022

Man-made catastrophes

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh 

Published August 25, 2022

PAKISTAN is in the midst of a man-made disaster. Our flawed development model has made our lives insecure in both the urban and rural areas. This pattern of development has robbed us of the monsoons — our season of romance, raindrops, walking in the rain, and singing songs. The monsoons have always been part of our folklore and poetry. They are the soul of our culture, heritage and history, and are connected with our lives, lifestyles and livelihoods. Historically, we have not dreaded the monsoons, but now we have begun to fear them.

Editorial: Climate catastrophe

From the earliest agrarian settlements in Mehrgarh to the Indus Valley civilisation and centuries later the Mughal period, we have coexisted with seasonal floods and prolonged droughts. But the development path chosen since then has resulted in a competitive, even zero-sum relationship with our natural environment — forests, waterways, waterbodies and ecosystems.

Gravity propels the water flow, but our development model is insisting on defying gravity. Our settlements, infrastructure, economy, livelihoods and livestock, all have become unnecessarily vulnerable and fragile primarily because we have been obstructing water’s flow. Can this season of biblical rains and deadly floods provide us an opportunity to reflect and re-envision our development model?


The scale, scope and spread of the 2022 floods have surpassed the super floods of 2010. The monsoon rains have created unprecedented havoc in all regions of the country stretching from Gilgit-Baltistan and KP to Sindh, southern Punjab and Balochistan. No doubt the downpour itself was unprecedented in many areas, but the monsoon waters are furious primarily because we have choked their passages and encroached on banks and shoulders. The floodwaters are only reclaiming their right of way. Infrastructure and community assets, including the ones developed since the super floods eg the 11 small dams in Balochistan, are being washed away, damaged or destroyed.

Clearly, no lessons have been drawn or applied to disaster-proof subsequent infrastructural development. Neighbourhoods in villages, small towns, and larger cities have no rainwater or floodwater channels. This absence overwhelms sewerage lines and pollutes drinking water supplies where they exist. Electricity poles are exposed and there are no plans to flood-proof them. Roads and railway tracks are often without culverts; they continue to obstruct the water flow. Land-use changes happen at will, resulting in urban sprawls as well as grand housing societies and villagers’ unplanned hamlets, often clashing with the annual flood cycles.


Flooding has emerged as the worst type of climate-induced disaster for Pakistan, perhaps the deadliest.

To top it all, the country has become a prisoner of the four deadly sins of development: i) top-down development planning and resource allocation, in the belief that it can reduce local vulnerabilities, ii) disparate development schemes, often randomly selected, thinking that it will add up to a sustainable growth rate, iii) archaic and poor standards for infrastructure development, presuming that it will withstand increasing resilience needs, and iv) the statist development model, a political system that has substantial centralised control over social and economic affairs, thinking of it as a substitute for local governance institutions or national resilience standards.

Editorial: Rain disaster

Climate-induced flooding is caused primarily by two key processes that also lead to changes in the monsoon patterns: first, warmer air will produce more rain. As global air temperatures increase, the clouds can hold more water vapour resulting in more water-intense or torrential downpours. It is because of this basic science that many climate models project that the South Asian monsoons will see heavier, frequent, and untimely rains.

Second, the seawater rise has increased coastal flooding but the higher levels of temperatures at sea give higher temperature points to the clouds and indeed greater ability to enter farther over land. The increasing frequency of flooding in Balochistan is sometimes attributed to these westerly weather influences, rather than the traditional eastern monsoon originating from the Bay of Bengal. This change in the weather cycle seems to have added to the frequency and severity of floods in the typically non-monsoon areas of Balochistan.

Climate change is fuelling flooding in Pakistan. Flooding has indeed emerged as the worst type of climate-induced disaster for the country, perhaps the deadliest. It is making flooding less natural and more disastrous. The frequency of heavy flooding is also increasing.

After recent flooding in Elbe and other rivers in eastern Germany, studies estimated that flooding was nine times more likely to be triggered by global climate change. Floods are complicated but not only because of the changes in weather patterns; it is also due to the position or location of infrastructure, its designs and the material used to enhance resilience levels. The infrastructure destroyed by floods — houses, roads, dams, embankments, power lines, bridges — are costly to rebuild.

Not ready to accept it as a grand failure of public sector development planning, the federal and provincial governments were quick to blame climate change, instead of poor early warning systems, poorly functioning government departments, poor building designs, construction guidelines, material standards and of course, the unplanned growth of human settlements.

Instead of accepting that our development model is non-inclusive and because of that it is neither disaster-resilient nor climate-smart, policymakers, media and public policy analysts are all creating misleading and fatalist myths as if no steps can be taken to reduce vulnerabilities.

Read: Rain disaster: The tragedy is that leaders focus on settling political scores even as a human catastrophe unfolds

The governments’ response to the loss of lives, livestock, houses, and standing crops was prompt and predictable: extend emergency supplies through disaster-management authorities, followed by cash grants through the Benazir Income Support Programme. Little attention has been given to calculating economic losses or the cost of climate-resilient reconstruction.

Pakistan’s previous effort to ‘build back better’, after the 2005 earthquake hasn’t succeeded. How best can the national and provincial policymakers respond to increasing floods and get a grip on climate resilience?

As architect Arif Hasan said in these pages recently ‘It’ll flood again’. The floods will become costlier, unless Pakistan’s response integrates adaptation and mitigation to reap the co-benefits of resilience. Instead of stopping at cash grant disbursements, it’s time to create a special-purpose vehicle for risk transfer and insurance in five key areas: the lives of bread earners, shelter, livestock, standing crops and small and micro enterprises.

The writer is an expert on climate change and development.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2022

https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1951/murder.htm

Murder of the Dead by Amadeo Bordiga 1951 

In Italy, we have long experience of “catastrophes that strike the country” and we also have a certain specialisation in “staging” them. Earthquakes, volcanic ...