PESHAWAR: In the narrow lanes of a market in Pakistan's northwest capital Peshawar, dealers squat on carpets and spread out a rainbow of precious gems on the floor for potential buyers.
Chunks of bright blue lapis lazuli, and rough rocks studded with flashes of light and colour clutter window displays, but no one is buying in a city hit by a wave of deadly bombings blamed on Taliban militia.
A treasure trove of precious stones is locked in the rocks of Pakistan's rugged northwest. Violence, legal tussles and state mismanagement have deterred investors but allowed the Taliban to cash in on the bounty, dealers say.
‘God has given us enormous wealth in terms of emeralds from Swat, rubies, pink topaz, beautiful tourmaline,’ said Ilyas Ali Shah, a gemologist with the government-run Pakistan Gems and Jewellery Development Company.
Shah said that if Pakistan properly mines these deposits the impoverished country could reverse its hefty foreign debt: ‘But we need peace.’
In February this year, militants waging a bloody insurgency to expand control opened three shuttered emerald mines in the northwest Swat valley around the main town Mingora and invited villagers to blast away.
The military says it has reclaimed all Swat mines from the Taliban during a fierce offensive, but for at least three months proceeds from emerald sales lined the militants' coffers and helped bankroll their insurgency.
‘They would collect the emeralds and there would be an open tender every Sunday,’ said Azhar ul Islam, a 44-year-old gem trader from Swat. ‘The profits were divided up — two-thirds for the miner and one-third for the Taliban.’
Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are believed to hold up to 30-40 per cent of the world's emerald deposits, Shah says, with the precious stone fetching up to 2,000 dollars per carat depending on quality.
Azhar told AFP the Taliban earned about four million rupees a week from Mingora's main mine — shuttered since 1995 because of a legal battle — money he said was spent on ‘buying explosives, making weapons.’
‘I was frightened what would happen if the government re-established control, so I didn't buy those emeralds from the mines, but most of my friends bought these emeralds from the Taliban,’ he said.
At the Namak Mandi market in Peshawar, another dealer from Swat who did not want to be named estimated that the militants made between five and six million rupees a week from the stones.
No one in the market would admit buying Swat emeralds from the Taliban, but one dealer said he procures green garnet from a Taliban-owned mine over the border in Afghanistan, where the militants are also waging an insurgency.
‘We don't like the Taliban, we don't buy it because we want to help them, but we want the stones,’ 30-year-old Ali Akbar told AFP.
He says his business has been crushed by spiralling insecurity in Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States thrust the country into the heart of the ‘war on terror’.
‘For five months I had no customers,’ he said.
Shah says Pakistan's gem-industry profits have plunged up to 50 per cent in one year because of the instability, with foreign investors staying away.
Most of the country's gems, including emeralds, garnet, pink topaz, spinel and tourmaline are located underground in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the heartland of the Taliban insurgency.
Experts say the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) — a mountainous area largely outside government control along the Afghan border and stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud — hides deposits of rare quartz and precious stones.
‘I think we have explored three per cent of the whole of NWFP. We have large areas of Fata that are not under control, so we have a lot of precious material untapped which needs to be explored and exploited,’ Shah said.
Pervez Elahi Malik, former chairman of the main gem exporters' association, blames the local NWFP government for not sorting out legal tussles and getting potentially lucrative mines up and running under state control years ago.
At the moment, local villagers and tribesmen blast away at the rocks and transport their haul to Namak Mandi — a damaging mining process that experts say can destroy 80 per cent of the stones.
‘We are lacking in technical knowledge, we are lacking stability in the country,’ said Shah. ‘Our mining is not technically sound and safe — we are destroying our wealth.’ — AFP
‘When I entered the tent, I saw Amna Bibi lying in a pool of blood, the newborn by her side and her three toddlers completely bewildered. The newborn baby girl had not even been wiped clean or covered up. The place was swarming with flies and a crowd of women had gathered, waiting for the young mother’s imminent death,’ narrated Bagh-i-Gul, a lady health visitor (LHV) working in the Yar Hussain camp, for the internally displaced people (IDPs), in Swabi.
According to Dr Jehanzeb Orakzai, focal person for health cluster in the Special Support Group (SSG), formed by the government for the IDPs, there are some 35,000 pregnant women among the 3.5 million IDPs who will deliver in the next seven months. So far he has had no report of even one mother or neonate dying during childbirth.
‘As I began to examine Amna, the women told me to leave her alone and not put her through more pain…they said her time was up,’ recalled Gul. ‘The placenta was still inside the mother and she was in a state of shock, needed to be hospitalised urgently.’ After getting permission from the husband, she quickly put her in the ambulance and brought her to the mother and child (M&C) centre set up in camp, by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Amna had been assisted by a woman from the nearby tent who was not experienced or skilled and therefore unable to recognise or even refer her to a trained person when the case became complicated. The woman just left her, for fate to take its course.
‘She was very weak and had not eaten for the past three days. Even after delivery, because she was in such a bad shape, they were not giving her anything.’
The incident took place on June 19, but since then, word has spread, said Gul, and women have been thronging to the centre for antenatal checkups.
The M&C centre at Yar Hussain, which began functioning early this month, has a fully equipped air-conditioned labour room to carry out safe deliveries. There are five more delivery points set up by UNFPA in Jalozai, Sadbarkaly, Jalala, Palosa and in Nowshera’s Pabbi Satellite Hospital.
The health cluster is making sure that fewer deliveries take place in tents. ‘Safe delivery is not possible in tents,’ observed Dr Aurang Zeb, Executive Director of Health Society, an NGO working in IDP camps in Mardan.
He knows that for many women this is the first time they are visiting a health facility.
‘But it is a good opportunity to teach this important lesson,’ said Dr Orakzai.
‘However, due to cultural taboos, language barriers, fewer female staff and lack of health education awareness many mothers reach the facility at the eleventh hour. Fortunately, there are enough ambulances and the distance from the camps to the facilities is negligible, so we are encouraging the IDPs to avail the facilities, which are completely free.’
For thirty-something Sayab Bibi, fleeing Swat on foot and taking refuge in Jalozai camp in Nowshera, may have been a perilous journey, especially since she was nine-months pregnant. Hers was nothing short of a miracle, insists Dr Tayyaba Rashid, a gynaecologist working in the Pabbi Satellite Hospital, in Nowshera. Sayab not only survived the travail of the exodus, but gave birth to a healthy baby girl on May 26. All her earlier four pregnancies had ended in miscarriages.
Had circumstances not forced her to deliver in a hospital, Sayab’s story may not have had a happy ending. Hers was a risky pregnancy as the baby was breach and she had to be operated upon.
According to Dr Tayyaba, a majority of the pregnant women IDPs suffer from depression. They complain of loss of appetite and body aches and most are anaemic.
No wonder Tahera Bano, an LHV in the same camp as Gul’s, says that lactating mothers insist she give them baby formula milk. ‘They keep telling me they cannot nurse as their milk has dried up.’
Dr Tayyaba has also noticed that quite a few women have come to her complaining of irregular menstrual cycle. ‘Many have developed urinary tract infection, itching and complain of discharge,’ said Dr Tayyaba.
Church World Services-Pakistan, a non-governmental organisation, reported of the difficulties faced by women in IDP camps. ‘Women desperately report the need for sanitary napkins,’ said the report published recently.
Without any money and their purdah compromised living closer to strangers, CWS said women immediately require a solution. ‘Some women are using and washing the same cloth repeatedly and as a result, increase their risk of infections.’
While working in camps it was realised that while the camp population was still looked after, it was the majority of the displaced who were living with host families who also needed the same services.
‘It was decided then to strengthen the existing health facilities including the district and the taluka hospitals as well as the rural health centres,’ said Dr Orakzai.
The Mardan Medical Complex, sprawled over 57 acres, was nothing more than a ‘ghost’ facility when Dr Amatullah Zain, head of the Gynae Ward at Jinnah hospital, and associate professor at Allama Iqbal Medical College, first went there to volunteer her services.
When the Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, visited the IDP camps on May 15, he noticed the dysfunctional facility and pledged to give it a new lease of life. The following week a team of 140 healthcare providers including doctors, surgeons and paramedics, including some 30-40 females, landed in the medical complex with essential drugs, machines and ambulances. Dr Zain was among that first batch.
‘On May 22, our doctors carried out their first delivery, which was a caesarean section and the father, Ali Ahmed Khan, decided to name his son Shahbaz Sharif Khan, after the chief minister,’ said Dr Raja Shafiq, who had been deputed at Mardan that week.
‘The most expert hands perform safe deliveries,’ said Dr Islam Zafar, director health, Punjab, who heads the team in Mardan. The gynaecological facility, confirmed Dr Amataullah, is nothing less than state-of-the art.
‘That is what we are aiming at, to strengthen existing hospitals through our partners so that even those living out of camps can avail the facilities, and when the IDP crises is over, the locals have fully functional, fully equipped healthcare facilities,’ summed up Dr Orakzai. Currently, there are 617 public health facilities (75 hospitals, 54 rural health centres and 488 basic health units) in districts hosting IDPs.
Today Pakistan stands on the brink of constitutional anarchy. Some forces want a new constitution; others champion the restoration of the constitutional order existing before Oct 12, 1999 or a confederal constitution. Our constitutional chaos is the result of the unscrupulous constitutional manipulations of Gen Ziaul Haq.
From August 1947 to 1970, no general elections at the federal level were held in Pakistan. When Yahya Khan grabbed power from Ayub Khan, he promulgated the first Legal Framework Order (LFO), abolished One Unit in West Pakistan, restored the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP and gave Balochistan provincial status for the first time.
The defeat of the army in East Pakistan culminated in the dismemberment of Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became the first civilian chief martial law administrator and as the leader of the majority party in West Pakistan he made a reference to the Supreme Court on two points: a) could the truncated National Assembly of Pakistan function as a legislative body? b) Could the National Assembly enact a constitution for what remained of Pakistan?
Justice Hamood-ur-Rahman was chief justice of the Supreme Court whose advice was in the affirmative. The interim constitution was promulgated on April 21, 1972. Since it was presidential in nature and Pakistan was a federation, the leaders of the parliamentary parties persuaded and pressured Bhutto to promulgate a parliamentary constitution in 1973 which was adopted by consensus on Aug 14, 1973.
The 1973 constitution was signed by all leaders of parliamentary parties. It provided for joint electorates, separation of powers and a bicameral legislature, that is the National Assembly and Senate which was a permanent representative body.
The 1973 constitution represented a compromise consensus on three key issues: the role of Islam; the sharing of powers between the federal government and the provinces; and the division of responsibility between the president and prime minister, with a greatly strengthened position for the latter.
Gen Zia, who was the hero of Black September in Jordan, was recalled and made chief of army staff by Bhutto, superseding many senior generals.
In the second half of the 1970s, political instability and upheaval resulted in Zia’s martial law with catastrophic consequences for the constitution. A major blow was the enactment of the Eighth Amendment in 1985 which was illegal and unconstitutional. It was passed by a single house because Zia had dissolved not only the National Assembly but also the Senate which was a perpetual representative body. It changed Pakistan’s form of government from a parliamentary system to a semi-presidential system by giving the president vast powers.
The key clause of the Eighth Amendment gave the president the right to dissolve the National Assembly but not the recreated Senate. The prime minister continued to have the power to advise the president to dissolve the National Assembly which would thereby stand dissolved after 48 hours.
The 13th and 14th Amendments were both passed in 1997 when Nawaz Sharif was prime minister. They removed the institutional checks and balances on the prime minister’s power by giving him immunity from being dismissed by the president.Finally, the president’s power was partially restored by the 17th Amendment passed under Gen Musharraf’s rule. The power to dissolve the National Assembly and dismiss the prime minister is now subject to the Supreme Court’s approval within one month. The Supreme Court later validated Gen Musharraf’s coup since the 13th Amendment had removed the constitutional means of dismissing an unpopular prime minister.
The current constitutional paradox lies in the fact that the ruling and opposition parties maintain that only an elected parliament has the right to amend the constitution, but these parties have themselves been elected under Gen Musharraf’s LFO which they consider unconstitutional.
The question can be legitimately asked whether, after July 5, 1977, one individual as chief martial law administrator could have amended a constitution adopted unanimously. Secondly, as Gen Zia had illegally dissolved the Senate, could a single house and an assembly elected on a non-party basis rubber-stamp the steps taken by the martial law administrator?
Since July 5, 1977 until today the grave constitutional anomalies which have not been understood, clarified or removed are as under:
— All extra constitutional steps taken under martial law were validated by the superior courts and supported by political elites which have been collaborative partners of martial law regimes in one form or the other. Article 6 of the 1973 constitution was meant to check and prevent extra constitutional steps by civil or military authority. However, when martial law was imposed, the constitution was held in abeyance and so was Article 6, from July 5, 1977 to Dec 31, 1985. After the Eighth Amendment, it became operative again. But since all martial law regulations and orders were validated when the constitution and Article 6 were held in abeyance, the perpetrators and collaborators of the past cannot be punished. Is Article 6, then, a relevant part of the constitution?
— Constitutional amendments can only be passed by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly and Senate. Gen Zia not only dissolved the National Assembly but also the Senate. The Eighth Amendment was passed by a single house, the National Assembly. Could a single house amend the constitution?
— The Hudood Ordinances, Hudood courts, blasphemy laws, amendments in the PPC and CrPC as well as family laws were significant provisions of the Eighth Amendment and are still part of the constitution. The existence of institutions with parallel and competing jurisdictions led to serious constitutional anomalies as the Eighth Amendment was later invoked three times in the 1990s by various presidents to justify the removal of corrupt governments which, they asserted, had lost the confidence of the people.
In the case of Benazir Bhutto V/S Federation of Pakistan, the Supreme Court was pleased to declare ‘Elections of the provincial and national assemblies have to be held on party basis’. Was an assembly elected on a non-party basis, in any manner, lawfully competent to amend the constitution?
The Eighth Amendment has defaced virtually every provision of the 1973 constitution and annihilated its original spirit.
The solution to the crisis lies in the restoration of the constitution to its original form. All 17 amendments to the constitution should be scrapped. Then parliament can bring in changes according to the requirements of the time. Affirmative legislation should be passed in favour of women and minorities
MULTAN: Abdush-Shakoor of Hasilpur and Basit of Sukkar—two of three children who fled from Edhi Home Multan and escaped from abductors—have been handed to their respective parents; while, the father of third child, Muhammed Amjad alias Farhan of Karachi, is shortly arriving in Multan to receive his sibling.Nearly one month ago, all three children ended up in Edhi Home Lahore having forgot the way to their home; later on, they were moved to Edhi Home Multan.All three children ran away from Edhi Home Multan owing to maltreatment of Edhi staff and boarded a truck; however, they jumped out of the truck for fear of being abducted. Later, they arrived at office of Anjuman Tajiran Multan.After Geo News aired their news story, the relatives of Abdush Shakoor of Hasilpur and Basit of Sukkar arrived here to receive their siblings.Basit’s grandfather Shehzad Sheikh said his family is greatly thankful to Almighty Allah for getting Basit back, adding being overjoyed, he could not sleep all night.
GHALANAI: Nine members of a tribal volunteer force (lashkar) and three militants were killed during a clash in Mohmand Agency on Saturday. According to officials, a group of armed militants attacked members of the Qaumi Lashkar in Pamp Pokha area of Ambar tehsil late on Friday night when they were returning to their base.
Lashkar sources said that militants had captured three tribesmen and taken them away. They said militants might have fled to Bajaur. Five militants were injured in the fighting.
‘We have asked the Mohmand administration to take up the matter with the Bajaur administration to block the infiltration of miscreants into the region,’ they said.
‘Militants from Bajaur often cross into Mohmand for attacks.’
Lashkar volunteers demolished dozens of houses of militants and captured several suspects in Shati Maina, Adam Kor and Omarkhel areas of Ambar tehsil on Saturday.
They also claimed to have controlled a number of strategic villages and destroyed several militant hideouts.
Sources said that the Qaumi Lashkar, led by Chandi Khan and Sadat Khan, had over 1,500 volunteers and their number was rising.
Soon after the Taliban attack, a jirga of 200 elders and volunteers held a meeting with Mohmand political agent Amjad Ali Khan.
They urged the government to set up security checkposts in Shati Kandao, Danish Kool Khward and Sar Lara Sar areas.
The political agent announced a compensation of Rs100,000 for families of each of the lashkar fighters killed in the clash with militants.
He claimed that security forces had arrested Taliban commander Fazal Hadi outside the Nadra office in Ghalanai and 36 suspects in Khwaizai and Bazai areas. He said that Alingar area had been cleared of militants.
Mr Amjad said that about 2,000 militants were still in Mohmand. About 600 of them have surrendered to the political administration and 300 have been killed during operations in different areas of the region.
A large number of militants had fled the area because of the action by security forces, he added. He said that most of the militant hideouts had been destroyed.
Syed Zahid Jan in Upper Dir adds: Clashes between a tribal lashkar and militants erupted again on Saturday in Doog Darra area of Upper Dir after a two-day break.
According sources, about 40 to 50 militants attacked the lashkar’s positions in Tutam Khwar area in the village of Badarkanai.
Lashkar fighters repulsed the attack and killed one foreign militant and injured another
KARACHI: Body of a three-year old female child, who was abducted two days ago, has been recovered from a gutter near Gora Qabrustan, Geo News reported Sunday.According to preliminary reports, the child Sana was abducted by two traffic police personnel, who came to the area of Zaman Town a week ago.Two days after the child went missing, the traffic police personnel were spotted quitting the area; however, on identification by some children that the killed child was last seen around the two men two days ago, the local residents grabbed them and asked them about the child.The people recovered the body of the child as told by the arrested police personnel. The local residents believed that the two are involved in killing the child. However, the accused told the media that on return from duty, they found the body in the water tank. Frightened, they could not think any other solution but dispose of the the body of child by throwing it into a gutter.The body has been sent to Jinnah Hospital for post mortem to ascertain the cause of death.
