Why I wrote book Daesh-ISIS; rising monster worldwide by Senator A. Rehman Malik

I decided to write a book on Daesh to inform the world as to how it has emerged as being more dangerous and more lethal than Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Daesh’s presence in Afghanistan and rest of the region is an alarming threat for the whole world as the deadly terrorist group is replacing al-Qaeda and Taliban through a well-planned strategy. I was the one who first ever named Taliban as Zaliman for their brutalities against humanity. Daesh is worse than Taliban which is now trying to bring a new ideology as Daesh-ism which is anti–Islam.

I, as then interior minister had closely watched and followed the real motives of these terrorists and discovered the exact modus operandi of their moves and operations. I was keenly observing the behaviour of al-Qaeda and the emergence of Daesh starting from the ouster of Hosni Mubarak to developments of Arab Spring and violence in Libya to Syria and, also many other events which were happening across the world and in the meanwhile the rise of Daesh and its terroristic activities worldwide.

I kept chasing and reported activities of Daesh and discovered the first ever presence of Daesh in Daska - area of Sialkot and its further expansion to the Southern Punjab and finally its presence was reported in Kalar Syedan, near the capital. Omar Khalid Khorasani claimed to be the local representative of Daesh.

This was alarming situation of presence of Daesh in Pakistan and its expanding activities compelled me to write the book titled “Daesh-ISIS; A rising monster worldwide” which was launched on 17th July, 2019. I would like to share that the motivation behind the book was to put my experience in war against terrorism and to expose the deadly terrorist outfit – Daesh/ISIS for the information of the people and to give a wakeup call to the world leadership and international community to play its role in smashing this monster. I knew it was a dry and making entry into the affairs of this deadly organisation yet I decided to write with full facts for the information of a common man.

In the mid of 2014, in a press conference in Islamabad, I had stated that I have all the documentary evidence about the presence of Daesh in Pakistan and had warned the then government that instead of remaining in a state of denial, the government (then) should take serious actions and measures before Daesh spreads like Taliban and may push the country into another phase of terrorism. Despite of my repeated warnings, the government of the time was not prepared to accept it but I continued my chase and the country witnessed the terrorist actions in Pakistan claimed by Daesh. However, our security agencies have been playing great role in identifying the operator and smashing the handlers and blocking their entry on the borders.

Despite government’s continuous denial about the presence of Daesh/ISIS in the country, two major terrorist attacks happened in Quetta in 2016. First occurred in August killing 70 people and more than 100 were wounded, in second attack the terrorists carried out mass shooting at police cadets at training centre in Quetta killing 61 cadets while 160 were wounded. In 2017, 100 were killed in Sehwan Sharif suicide attack. An attack on a bus in Karachi in May 2015 that killed 46 people were the first major incident officially claimed by IS in Pakistan. In May 2017, Daesh targeted the ex- deputy chairman of Senate Abdul Ghafoor Haideri in a bomb attack in Mastung District. In August 2017, a suicide blast carried out by ISIS in Quetta killed 15 people including 8 Pak soldiers. In July 2018, Daesh carried out the deadliest attack in the history of Pakistan after APS attack in Mastung in which Siraj Raisani was about to address an election rally when a suicide bomber, carrying around 16–20 kg of explosive material in his vest, blew himself up among a crowd of more than 1000 people. Along with Raisani, the explosion killed 128 people. Two days after the attack, on 15 July 2018, the number of dead increased to 149, while 186 other people were injured. These all deadliest terrorist acts were claimed by Daesh/ISIS.

In July 2018, ISIS carried out a bomb blast outside a polling station during elections in Quetta's Eastern Bypass area which resulted in killing of 31 people and over 35 were injured.

Apart from above attacks in Pakistan, the Daesh/ISIS so far has claimed 139 terrorist attacks across the world. Among those terrorist attacks since 2013, 19 in Iraq, 4 in Belgium, 4 in Australia, 5 in Canada, 7 in USA, 13 in France, 3 in Saudi Arabia, 2 in Libya, 1 in Denmark, 4 in Tunisia, 2 in Yemen, 10 in Turkey, 1 in Kuwait, 10 in Egypt, 2 in Russia, 1 in Lebanon and the recent Sri Lankan attacks, were carried out and claimed by Daesh/ISIS. Daesh/ISIS poses a whole new dynamic and a new paradigm of threats to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the whole world as so far it has proven its presence across the world in different shapes by carrying terrorist activities as explained earlier.

The West has already expressed the apprehensions that Daesh/ISIS does pose a severe threat to the West in the form of the hundreds of European and American fighters who have fought with the Daesh/ISIS in Iraq and Syria and could return to their home countries to attack. In many videos the terrorists of Daesh were found speaking English with a British and Western accent.

Here are some statements quoted by Daesh leadership reflected in my book:

“Our battle today is one of attrition and stretching the enemy. They should know that jihad is ongoing until the Day of Judgment,” al-Baghdadi said.

“We believe it is really an attempt to divert attention from the core group’s heavy losses and to ensure that the franchise groups and grassroots supporters remain loyal to the Islamic State (Daesh) pole of the jihadist universe,”

“In the post 9/11 era, weaponised jihadist propaganda has helped transition us into a situation where we are primarily concerned with lone wolf, homegrown violent extremists as opposed to people trained abroad. ‘We call it open-source jihad, which allows people to train at home rather than going abroad to carry out jihad.”

“We branded jihad like Madison Avenue and understood what the world was going into, in regard to the emotional and less rational approach to life, particularly among the youth.”

I have highlighted as to how Daesh/ISIS is more lethal than al-Qaeda and Taliban in South Asia, Middle East and Europe even it will continue to be great threat to the China and this monster can push the whole world into another bloodiest phase of terrorism, if not smashed on time. I have interacted with many Iraqis and Libyans including Libyan former interior minister about the activities of Daesh and each of them confirmed the presence of Daesh in Libya and other parts of world. My research and personal interaction with different heads of states and other interior ministers enabled me to get the insight of the emergence and growth of Daesh and their worries. I have also indicated tactical operations of Daesh, its destruction and brutalities and its future designs in the book.

Daesh is being controlled by all those students who are being trained in Khost area of Afghanistan which includes the name of Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi and Mosab Al Zarqavi, ex-members of al-Qaeda and even Osama Bin Laden had named Zarqavi as Youth leader of al-Qaeda.

It was shocking to see that the Sri Lankan attacks and the link between the terrorist lead to Daesh and these Daesh operators were further trained in India. The terrorist’s identified the use of Indian soil against Sri Lanka. India was not only identified as supporter of Daesh but was in fact caught red handed for its involvement in terrorism in Sri Lanka when on 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital Colombo were targeted in a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings in which 259 people were killed including at least 45 foreign nationals. The president and prime minister of Sri Lanka publicly declared as per their investigation that these attacks were carried out by Daesh operators having trained and subsequently launched from India which confirms the link between Daesh and RSS. I was right in introducing the terms of RSS-ISM and DAESH-ISM as new ideologies and exposing their nexus.

My book “Daesh-ISIS; Rising Monster Worldwide” contains all about what people want to know about Daesh and its dreadful terror creating modalities. It is very unfortunate that the killers/operators of Daesh, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban recite Kalma/Allah-o-Akbar and the one who is killed also chants the same slogan of Allah. So what is the ideology of Daesh and obviously this ideology of Daesh is anti-Islam and will continue to be anti-Islam. I have narrated all the facts in my book as to who created and funded for Daesh in the beginning. Daesh is fully present in Afghanistan and doing its actions in Pakistan via Afghanistan. I have mapped out the locations of Daesh training centers as well.

In view of my assessments about the fast growing Monster of Daesh, I have proposed following immediate counter measure suggested in my book:

1) There should be consolidated and collective effort to block the growth of Daesh with an international common counter-terrorism strategy duly discussed and formulated in the United Nations. 2) An immediate conference should be called by UNO to formulate a common counter-terrorism strategy, especially to control the rising of Daesh. 3) I appeal to the UNO to constitute a Fact-Finding Commission to investigate the growth and ongoing brutalities in the world and the Commission should submit its report within 3 months. 4) Daesh should be declared as deadly terrorist organisation by UN and stern actions against its sympathisers, financer and abettor should be taken mercilessly across the world. 5) The OIC should declare Daesh as anti-Islam organisation as it is bringing bad name to the religion by claiming to be an Islamic Organisation. 6) There should be an Inter-Faith Harmony Commission under the United Nations to enhance harmony among all faiths and religions.

I have done my best to get the facts based on personal experience and interaction various international authorities and my participation in various security forums. It is based on my own actions in Pakistan and by closely watching the mysterious growth of Daesh starting from its initial days in Fulaja, Iraq to various countries of Middle East and subsequently its expansion towards west. There is a big question in the world as to who is funding Daesh and providing them with heavy weapons including tanks and fleets of modern jeeps with missiles.

I appeal to the world to avert the growth of this monster which is going to be worse than al-Qaeda as it will bite every one of us on this planet and world powers should not forget that they sponsored Jihadis against Soviet Union in Afghanistan to the level of Taliban/Zaliman then their unhindered raising to al-Qaeda and now Daesh. The inside account shows that Daesh is emerging as an ideology of Daesh-ism and its available missionaries in the world which could be used by any aspirant of dealing matters through terrorism.

I have also given the details as to how India when closer to Daesh and how the India national security adviser created working relation with Daesh to use them in Indian Held Kashmir. I have proved the link between RSS & Daesh. Now there is deep relation between Daesh-ism & RSS-ism and unfortunate evil success of the Indian National Security adviser who is the real designer of brutalities in Kashmir with newly induction of Daesh. The readers can find all about Daesh in my book and the book also indicates as to how Chinese nationals are being trained by Daesh in Afghanistan.

The Article was published in The News on July 21, 2019 and the link to the article is Why I wrote book Daesh-ISIS; rising monster worldwide by Senator A. Rehman Malik

DEADLY DEBT TRAP — CONSPIRACY VIA INTERNATIONAL DEFAULT by SENATOR A. REHMAN MALIK

Nation must be aware of the fact that Pakistan is being pushed on fast track towards the international default and FATF is one of the tool being used against us to cripple our investments from abroad & international business dealings.

The debt itself is like a growing cancer to the economy of any country as it destroys the financial system of the country. It increases liability and it is one of the deadly anti-economic parasite which cripples all the positive economic parameters to the extent that national economic growth begins to get deteriorated.

The external debt depletes the foreign exchange reserves of a country impacting the value of its currency. The devaluation of Pak rupee has already affected the economy of Pakistan which is highly detrimental, bringing the country economy to almost irreversible cycle.

This is one of the factor which is depleting the economy but at the same time it also becomes an attributing factor in the increase of inflation rate which has risen from 7 percent to 11.2 percent in the last 11 months. Similarly, the price of Pak rupees against dollar depleted from 115 to 160 during the last 11 months.

The debt servicing directly hits the country’s foreign exchange and the devaluation of rupee directly adversely impacting the imports in terms of price hike. The internal management of economy and day to day running of the government becomes more difficult with depleting reserves. Shortfall of dollars and decrease in growth rate compels the government to go for the internal borrowing.

During the last 11 months, the present government has taken $9.7 billion loan in addition to printing of currency notes, ignoring the risk that printing of currency notes will be an attributing factor for further inflation as the inflation is a major attributing factor in the increase of price hike.

The total loan taken by PPP government in its 5 years tenure was $16 billion and by PML-N government $20 billion in 5 years while the total loan taken by PTI government in alone 11 months tenure is $9.7 billion and the dollar rate in PPP government was 100 and during PML-N government it was Rs115 and now in PTI government it has raised to Rs160 against one US dollar.

This deadly debt trap does not restrict only to the increase in price of commodities adversely affecting the life of a common man but also it has a direct effect on the other institutions wherein the factor of import and export is involved.

This depleting economy and expensive imports by the government is going to affect our imports of defence equipment, training of personals and similarly the import of raw material by the private sector and its use in industrial sector will have adverse effects on the price. This becomes another attributing factor to increase the price of the products which are based on import of raw materials. For a comparison, the total import in PPP government were $33.15 billion, in PML-N government were $45.2 billion and now in PTI government ranging from $50.474 billion to $55.72 billion.

The present position of the foreign debts taken by the PIT government is as under:-

Loan taken from IMF $6 billion and Loan taken from World Bank and Asian Development Bank is $2-3 billion, Internal Loan taken from State Bank of Pakistan surges to historic high of RS5.4 trillion, Local Borrowing from Commercial and International incline the government domestic debt to Rs18.17 trillion, loan generated from other institutions like Islamic Development Bank is $578 million.

To sustain and take the country out of this economic crunch, which is raising its head and becoming uncontrolled monster that may drive the country towards local to international default resulting partial bankruptcy. It is unfortunate to note, even IMF after committing $6 billion has released only one billion dollar whereas we owe to IMF in addition to the principle interest of 4.2 billion to be paid back to IMF.

The propaganda of the government and other sources gave the impressions that the package of IMF will be able to bail out Pakistan from the present economic crisis. It looks that we are not getting out of the crisis but we are deeply being pushed towards international bankruptcy by this deadly trap of international debts and local borrowing.

On the other side, the FATF is going to be yet another setback which will be adversely affecting the economy due to external and international pressure. This continuously increase liability of debt is ultimately going to affect the most particularly lower middle class and a common man. I don’t know, if the government has done any exercise to determine the adverse effects of this economic crunch on various level of society.

It is worrying to note that the common man is feeling highly under pressure to maintain their daily routine expenditures and to maintain simple loaf of bread for their children. This economic crunch has also affected education of the children as the parents are finding it almost impossible to afford the fees of their children due to the price hike. And, many parents have already shifted their children from standard schools to ordinary private schools or government schools.

It is also worth mentioning here that all previous governments had ensured that the budgetary provision should not hit the oppressed class and marginalised segments of the society. The present scenario in the country clearly indicates that this economic crunch and deadly debt trap is obviously badly affecting the whole society. The government needs to know all that have stated above and find out a solution to ease out the life of a common man. In other case, if government fails to ease out the life of a common man then a common man can make the life of a ruler miserable.

I would also like to say that the present deadly debt trap both external and internal needs to be tackled on save SOS basis without any delay. Instantly, I do not see any workable and plausible solution with the government to overcome such future disaster.

It is written on the walls that the prices are going up unhindered and again the wrath of this increase is going to be placed on a common man and lower middle class of the country. It looks that the every passing day is bringing unending stress for the public. It looks if it continues this way, the middle class and lower middle class will be finished and converted into a poor class.

The people will not bother as to what is happening on the political front but the main concern of a common man is that what relief is being given to a common man to ease out his life. I have analysed the above position as a student of the economy but I think the economic team must come up with some proposal to handle the situation and safeguard the interest of the common man and the same should be discussed in the Parliament House with some consensus to have a better governed economy rather than running on ad hoc basis and avoiding the use of Parliament as exchange of abusing club. It should be used for the betterment of people and they should not be disappointed with this.

In my humble suggestion I feel that the international institutions will be hesitant to help Pakistan in dragging out of this deadly debt trap. Some world powers want to see Pakistan drifting towards international default.

In this scenario I would like to give an important suggestion to the government:-

Our government should negotiate with China to buy our debts and we should deal with import and export with China in Chinese Currency Yuan on barter trading system. This idea was given by PPP government wherein the proposal was made to his effect. I would like to take it forward and suggest the government to request China to buy our loan of 105 billion dollars and repayments be made after 5 years. We can partly adjust our share of profit proceed from the CPEC projects.

I see this option as the ray of light to stabilise our economy in the shortest possible time. My proposal to the government is to concentrate on the revival of economy and save the country from becoming an international defaulter.

The friendly Muslim countries had not given any cash but they are providing oil on deferred payments and this payment will also be due in course of time. It is pertinent to mention that technically speaking all oil producing countries supply oil to their clients either through deferred payments or via standby LCs for six months to one year as routine. It is therefore advised not to rely on this money as an achievement of the government for borrowing more foreign exchange to Pakistan. In fact it was sale of their oil to Pakistan on easy financial terms.

Let us hope and see how our government will save our mother land out of this unhindered financial debt trap.

The Article was published by July 14, 2019 and the link to original article is https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/498049-deadly-debt-trap-conspiracy-via-international-default

Uncontrollable AIDS/HIV in Pakistan - Its alarming growth - Misuse of Global AIDs funding by Senator A. Rehman Malik

While looking at the salient features of budget 2019–2020, I noted that there are hardly any substantive funds allocated to health and education sectors. The most detrimental disease, AIDs spreading in Pakistan by leaps and bounds but unfortunately, like the other fatal diseases it is also not being taken seriously in Pakistan hence no required funding in the budget.

Federation instead of working ways and means to control it has now started a blame game on provinces making the figures of the AIDS Patients as a dispute instead of finding counter measures.

It is not a dispute that highest number of AIDS patient are in Punjab or 2nd highest number of patients in Sindh. Blame game is not the solution whereas the solution is the level of combined counter measures to stop this growing monster. This disease is increasing at an alarming pace and we need to worry about it at all levels.

AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection and it kills its victims. An HIV-infected person takes 10-15 years to develop AIDS. After developing AIDS it is usually observed that the victim dies in six months. There is no effective vaccine or treatment for AIDS; however, antiretroviral drugs (ART) can slow down the progress so which makes infected people enjoy few more years of lives.

I have discussed AIDS in this article and other two diseases will be discussed in my subsequent articles:

According to estimates, Pakistan is registering approximately 20,000 new HIV infections annually. It is the highest rate of increase among all countries in the region. There are 0.165 million estimated number of HIV patients in Pakistan (The actual undeclared number is much more). This statistical data does not include the real figures as the patients of AIDS avoid reporting it due to social problems/compulsions.

According to my available information the province wise distribution of patients reported till 2018 is as under: 1. Punjab – 75,000, 2. Sindh - 60,000, 3. Balochistan – 5000, 4. KPK – 15000.

It is unfortunate to state that Punjab has the highest number of patients which is equally alarming both in Punjab and Sindh and other parts of the country. The number of patients is rising even more increasingly as a shocking development in the country. The most alarming thing is that the list of new cases includes children as young as 16 months which is due AIDS infected mothers.

The reasons for the rising number of HIV/AIDS in our country include unlicensed medical quackery, and large-scale medical malpractice via the re-use of syringes and unsterilised medical tools, unsafe blood transfusions and use of contaminated multiple use of blades by the community.

Health and health-related issues are given low priority by the government and the seriousness can be seen as no serious funds have been allocated for AIDS control and treatment.

In 1987, a National AIDS Prevention and Control Programme (NACP) was initiated by Federal Health Ministry. Initially, the programme was only focused on blood screening and some health promotion and HIV education activities for the general public. Since then, the programme is suffering from a weak strategy as it does not address treatment services properly due to lack of funding and dull response to health sector.

In other parts of the world, the number of HIV patients is declining by the use of advanced technology followed by their prime focus towards health but Pakistan till remains the one with no focus upon health sector.

Recently, Dr Bashir Ahmed Achakzai, MD NACP National Programme Manager made an honest confession regarding the organisation that they do not have enough funds or resources at federal and provincial levels to curb this fatal disease.

Although 27 HIV/AIDS treatment centres and 22 community home-based testing centres had been established in all four provinces yet no resources have ever been allocated for other activities of HIV prevention as the only drug ARV that prevents AIDS is not available in Pakistan. The country is totally relying on HIV test kits which cost over rupees one lac and the hospitals do not have any sufficient budget to buy or import these kits.

In 2017, the government had announced free HIV testing system that was only available in three cities of Pakistan Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore whereas in order to fill this gap, the NACP took this step to avail the Aga Khan University Hospital’s (AKUH) 200 plus nationwide network of collection units to collect blood samples from areas that are far. NACP had decided to pay Rs1500 to Aga Khan Hospital per patient from the funds allocated to it by Global Funds against AIDS, malaria and TB while the private laboratories charge Rs15000-17000 for the same test.

As per my personal enquiry, the above mentioned plan remains only on papers as no such facility is now being provided to common people. According to a reliable senior official source, the real position reported to the state is that the total estimated HIV positives in Pakistan in 2018 were over 170,000 among which 24,331 cases have been registered in 35 centres only. Moreover, out of all these registered patients, only 17,149 are actually getting a treatment.

The diagnosis of this ever spreading disease requires community based testing and the govt should encourage the testing of this disease free of cost.

According to the Health Ministry, there is immediate requirement of funds as the estimated amount in national strategic plan for 5 Years is $266 million.

The Global Aid Funds is providing fund whereas the govt has provided resources through domestic resources. There is a gap of $201 million which are urgently required only to treat the reported patients.

In Pakistan, the HIV is in a concentrated epidemic which means that it is confined to 4 key populations where national prevalence is more than 5%. National prevalence in injecting drug users has risen to 38.4% of their population (150000).

Number of female sex workers has gone up to 2.2% (180000 estimated figures). The prostitution has increased in Pakistan due to increased economic issues and use of drug which forces young girls to adopt this profession for easy money.

According to a report, some organised criminals are running their business from big cities and the young sex workers are taken to Middle East on visit visas. They contract aid form these countries and so are responsible for spreading the disease increasingly.

The country is going through another social issue as the transgender community is jobless and they are also being used as sex workers. Transgender are also contributing 7.6% of AIDS infected patients. According to an estimate, there are (60,000-70,000) people from transgender community who are infected with this deadly disease.

It is unfortunate to note that the homosexuals contribute to 5.2% of the total population of Pakistan and are being another cause of spreading AIDS across the country which means there are about 85,000 added patients of AIDS from homosexual community as well. While making this matter as case study I decide not only to write but also probe into misappropriation of funds released at federal level for this very programme.

While continuing this probe I am presenting following suggestions to be paid attention to:

1. A legislation should be made in order to discipline the use of medical instruments to ensure hygiene among the patients.
2. There must be a complete ban over the reuse of syringes.
3. Use of auto disable syringes must be introduced.
4. All hospitals need to reserve at least 50 beds for AIDS patients along with the provision of extra budget.
5. An effective media campaign both at public and private media should be started with immediate effect.
6. The govt should strengthen NACP not only through funding but it should also be made responsible enough to ensure the provision of increased number of beds in the treatment centres and should also become the regulator of all matters related to AIDS treatment and control programme.
7. All drug addicts must be passed through AIDS tests and all the addicts diagnosed with AIDS must be sent to AIDS treatment centres.
8. There should be a compulsory drug addiction test of students studying at high school, colleges and universities as it will not only help in curbing addictions but also help in detection of AIDS too among the frog addicts.
9. All the provincial govts and federal govt should launch an SOS programme to curb all the factors contributing to this widespread disease.

Although I am very glad to have penned down such a vital national issue to increase awareness among the people but I’m equally disappointed to see how only the Sindh govt was blamed for the increase in number of patients whereas the above figures clearly show that Punjab has the highest number of AIDS patients in the province. It is not the matter of blame game but the irresponsibility of federal govt needs to be questioned as to why this dangerous disease is being ignored which is multiplying its patients by many folds. The Global Aid Funds have been misused badly which needs to be probed. The Govt is needed to act on SOS basis.

The Article was published in The News on June 30, 2019 and the link to the article is Uncontrollable AIDS/HIV in Pakistan - Its alarming growth - Misuse of Global AIDs funding

Need of ‘Charter of Common Man’ not ‘Charter of Power’ by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Charter of Democracy (CoD) exists in its form but has neither been practiced nor has the any other party including PTI yet adopted it. The CoD was created and signed for the sake of maintaining sustainability in democracy, improvement of the rule and for the independence of judiciary.

It was unfortunate to note that the parties raise the slogans of charters, and the most recently announced charter is the Charter of Economy (CoE) which I will call as marriage of connivance between the government and the opposition. If it is signed then obviously it will again be implemented at the cost of a common man who will continue to suffer through the price hike. Common man does not understand CoE but is interested as to how it would affect his day to day financial needs. Would this COE provide the relief to the common man? The answer is no, but it will provide an opportunity to the government to get away with this price hike at the cost of a common man.

The COE has emerged not for love of a common man but to get the smooth sailing of the government using this slogan. I wish the opposition and government would have proposed a charter of common man (Misaq- e- Aam Adami) based on the principles of Islam and social justice. I hardly see the use of word of a common man in our economic system.

The Charter of Allah as ordained in the Holy Quran, in fact, fully protects a common man. HE does not stop a human being to be rich but has asked you to be kind to the poor and look after them. We human beings are connected to one another which breed love & care. What draws us closer to each other are the moments of cooperation, support and help during Happiness and Sufferings.

Unfortunately the commandments of Allah on Zakat and Usher are neither being much talked about our Islamic Republic as a starting point to alleviate the poverty nor it finds its place in our economic policies, which is not only deviation from the divine commandments but also amounts to dishonesty and selfishness. There is a long list of taxes becoming a burden on a common man on daily basis and the common, in fact, is being pushed to wall.

The two very taxes that Islam has emphasized upon are Zakat and Usher have also not been implemented whereas according to Islam, it is compulsory for a true Muslim that he has to pay Zakat which is basically a mean to help poor and needy person. The. Zakat purifies the rest of the money left with us. “Zakat” literally means to purify, and by paying the zakat, Allah actually blesses and purifies the money that is left with us. Zakat is an obligation and duty for every believer who believes in Allah and the Last Day. Its importance in Islam can be noted from the fact that Zakat is divinely considered as one of the five pillars of Islam.

Here are the rulings of Zakat in Islam: Zakat becomes mandatory if you accumulate your savings. You saved 100,000, you have to pay 2.5% of your savings to the poor and the needy who are living below poverty line (as per Sharia it should be given to Muslims). If you have gold jewelry the zakat applies to the gold jewelry after one year. If you possess a house where you stay, zakat do not apply to it. But if you possess two houses and you are getting rent as income for the second house then it is obligatory to pay zakat on the second house.

Similarly, Zakat on agricultural products is called Ushr. If a farmer has obtained quality crops from the land and reaches nisab, he is liable to pay 1/10th or its equivalent in silver or gold as Ushr. It is obligatory for him to pay 10% of the produce if the land is naturally irrigated by rain. But the farmer has to pay only 5% if the land is irrigated by other means of irrigation like wells, rivers, tributaries.

Zakat is a perfect way to redistribute the wealth, thus defining a charity-based economy with a particular interest in the poor and the dispossessed Muslims. Allah has made Zakat obligatory for all who are able to do so, and it is considered to be a personal responsibility for Muslims to ease economic hardship for other Muslims to eliminate inequality among followers of Islam.

I firmly believe that the honest supervision of collection of Zakat and Usher can resolve our major Economic crunch.

Those less fortunate people are often deprived of, health care, good education, inexpensive justice, fair criminal justice system, job guarantee, equal chances and opportunities according to merit, right to vote without fear, standard living as well as the right of freedom of speech. We are lacking in providing equal opportunities to all because we are failing to provide social justice to our people; wealth is concentrated in few hands; poor are looked down upon and people enjoy suppressing the weak.

We as nation have failed to make any qualitative changes in the life of a common man as the political system of our country is failing miserably, rulers make fake promises while asking for votes and fake slogans of change are raised. Due to lack of education and knowledge, common people are unaware of their rights as well as poor are left to die of hunger or disease as there is no proper health system.

Can we protect these rights through a charter with a common man? Perhaps not for long time as the feudal system provide opportunity to the rich to use poor people to their advantage.

The sole intention of whosoever rises to power in our country is to gather as much of wealth as they can during their tenure instead of bringing reforms for the betterment of their people. As James Freeman Clarke has said:

 “A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation”.Let us see our ruler follow this principle in the charter with a common man. An English Journalist, Walter Bagehot said: “A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities”.

This shows that real statesman should act and think like a common man as he is elected by the common people for the common people. Again it can be resolved as charter with a common man.

The division with social fibre increases unrest within the society whereas even today at one hand the charter of economy is talking about the welfare of the common man, but in reality it is aimed at to resolve the government‘s political difference on major budget points. So there is nothing for the common man but more for the government and less for the opposition.

I want to ask as to where exactly is the welfare of common man which is supposed to be protected by the CoE? I am raising my voice against our unjustified socio - Economic political system which has so far failed to give relief to a common man of my country.

Did we ever involve the common man in budget making? No

Did we ever conduct a pre-budget survey from an independent and transparent manners to asses the voice of common man — NO

We politicians fight for power and name at the cost of a common man who unfortunately continues to remain on receiving end & still waves us with the hope that leaders one day will give them better life for their children.

It is very sad to note that the suicide epidemic is on the rise in Pakistan for the last many years due to worsening economy and it is likely to rise even more. The depression is rising and people are getting into drug addiction. The crude suicide rate per 100,000 per year in Pakistan reaches as high as 4.4.

There should be a symbolic charter between political parties and Government with a “common man” witnessed by the whole parliament. This charter should be part of the condition to allow the party for registration and contesting in elections.

It should be displayed on the walls of the Parliament & provincial assembly halls as a reminder as a duty towards our common masses.

It is my point of view that we have failed to give right of charter to common man to allow the poor masses to have their part of the welfare.

I propose “charter of Common man” within the large based charter of economy. A charter without including the direct benefit of common man will be nothing but merely a “marriage of convenience” to rule over the common man and not create the right rule of economy.

I am up for a charter of a “common man”.

The Article was published in The Nation on June 28th, 2019. Link to the original article is Need of ‘Charter of Common Man’ not ‘Charter of Power’ by Senator A. Rehman Malik

AIDs/HIV- Serious national death trap by Senator A. Rehman Malik

It is a known fact how damaging three lethal diseases, namely, AIDs, Hepatitis and drug addiction are for the lives of people and for the new generations.

All of these act as a slow poison in the human body eating up the immune system and finally engulfs the life of the victim/patient. The most detrimental of all is AIDs but unfortunately, like the other two diseases, it is also not being taken seriously in Pakistan. Our federation, instead of working ways and means to control it, is in a frenzy to seek explanations for the genesis of the disease. Moreover, blame games between provinces are underway as to which province has got the highest number of AIDs victims. No matter if Punjab secures highest ranking or Sindh, the problem needs to be countered immediately. The federation, as well as the provinces together, are required to scramble to coordinate an effective response to the epidemic.

This disease is increasing at an alarming pace and we need to stop this growing monster as soon as possible.

AIDs is the most advanced stage of HIV infection and it kills its victims. An HIV-infected person takes 10-15 years to develop AIDS. After developing AIDS it is usually observed that the victim dies in six months. There is no effective vaccine or treatment for AIDS; however, antiretroviral drugs (ART) can slow down the progress.According to estimates, Pakistan is registering approximately 20,000 new HIV infections annually. It is the highest rate of increase among all countries in the region. There are 0.165 million estimated number of HIV patients in Pakistan (the actual undeclared number is much more). This statistical data does not include the real figures as the Patients of AIDs avoid reporting it due to social problems/ compulsions.

According to my information, the province wise distribution of patients reported till 2018 is that there are 75000 patients of AIDs in Punjab, 60,000 in Sindh, 5000 were reported in Balochistan and 15000 so far in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is unfortunate to state that Punjab has the highest number of patients which is equally alarming both in Punjab and Sindh and other parts of the country.

The most alarming thing is that the list of new cases includes children as young as 16 months which is due to their AIDs infected mothers. The reasons for the rising number of HIV/AIDS in our country include unlicensed medical quackery, and large-scale medical malpractice via the re-use of syringes and unsterilized medical tools, unsafe blood transfusions and use of contaminated blades by the community. Above every other thing, it is sad to note that neither health nor health-related issues are given priority by our government. The seriousness of the present government towards the prevention of this fatal disease can be seen in that no serious funds have been allocated for AIDs control and treatment in Budget 2019-20.

In 1987, a National AIDS Prevention and Control Program (NACP) was initiated by the Federal Health Ministry. Initially, the program was only focused on blood screening and some health promotion and HIV education activities for the general public. Since then, the programme is suffering from a weak strategy as it does not address treatment services properly due to lack of funding and dull response to the health sector.

In other parts of the world, the number of HIV patients is declining by the use of advanced technology followed by their prime focus towards health but Pakistan till now remains the one with no focus upon health sector. Recently, Dr Bashir Ahmed Achakzai MD NACP National Programme Manager made an honest confession regarding the organisation that they do not have enough funds or resources at federal and provincial level to curb the disease.

Although 27 HIV/AIDS treatment centres and 22 community home-based testing centres had been established in all four provinces, no resources have ever been allocated for other activities of HIV prevention as the only drug ARV that prevents AIDs is not available in Pakistan. The country is totally relying on HIV test kits which cost over Rupees one lac and the hospitals do not have any suffice budget to buy or import these kits.

In 2017, the government had announced free HIV testing system that was only available in three cities of Pakistan. In order to fill this gap, the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) took this step to avail the Aga Khan University Hospital’s (AKUH) 200 plus a nationwide network of collection units to collect blood samples from areas that are far. NACP had decided to pay Rs. 1500 to Agha Khan Hospital per patient from the funds allocated to it by Global Funds against Aids, Malaria and TB while the private laboratories charge Rs. 15000-17000 for the same test.

As per my personal inquiry, the above-mentioned plan remains only on paper as no such facility is now being provided to common people. According to a reliable Senior Official source, the real position reported to the State is that the total estimated HIV positives in Pakistan in 2018 were over 170,000 among which 24,331 cases have been registered in 35 centres only. Moreover, out of all these registered patients, only 17,149 are actually getting treatment.

The diagnosis of this ever-spreading disease requires community-based testing and the government should encourage the testing of this disease free of cost. According to the Health Ministry, there is an immediate requirement of funds as the estimated amount in the national strategic plan for 5 Years is $266 million. The global aid fund is providing $35 whereas the government has provided $35 through domestic resources. There is a gap of $201million which are urgently required only to treat the reported patients.

According to a report, some organised criminals are running their business from big cities and the young sex workers are taken to the Middle East on visit visas. They contract aid form these countries and so are responsible for spreading the disease. The country is going through another social issue as the Transgender community is jobless and they are also being used as sex workers.

While making this matter as a case study, I decide not only to write but also probe into misappropriation of funds release at the federal level for this very programme. While continuing this probe, I am presenting the following suggestions to be paid attention to:

1.   Legislation should be done in order to discipline the use of medical instruments to ensure hygiene among the patients.2.   There must be a complete ban over the reuse of syringes.3.   Use of auto-disable syringes must be introduced.4.   All hospitals need to reserve at least 50 beds and an isolation ward for AIDs patients along with the provision of extra budget.5.   An effective media campaign both at public and private media should be started with immediate effect.6.   The government should strengthen NACP not only through enough funding but it should also be made responsible enough to ensure the provision of an increased number of beds in the treatment centres and should also become the regulator of all matters related to AIDs treatment and control programme.7.   All drug addicts must be passed through AID tests and all the addicts diagnosed with AIDs must be sent to AIDs treatment centres.8.   There should be a compulsory drug addiction test for students studying at High School, Colleges and Universities as it will not only help in curbing addictions but also help in detection of AIDs too among the frog addicts.9.   All the provincial governments and the Federal government should launch an SOS programme to curb all the factors contributing to this widespread disease.

Although I am very glad to have penned down such a vital national issue to increase awareness among the people but I’m equally disappointed to see how only the Sindh Government was blamed for the increase in the number of patients whereas the above figures clearly show that Punjab has the highest number of AID patients in the province. One should avoid playing politics on HIV issue as it is a purely human issue and we have to curb it with collective efforts and wisdom. It is not a matter of blame game but facts remain that the federation is consistently failing to assist the provincial governments in controlling the fatal disease.

The Article was published by the Nation on June 24, 2019, the link to the original article is AIDs/HIV- Serious national death trap by Senator A. Rehman malik