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Panama Papers Problem


The Panama tax haven leaks reveal a lot about the lawlessness of the rich, as well as the ideological bias of the western press. “Vladimir Putin’s name appears nowhere, but the corporate media used his image repeatedly to drum up interest in what is an otherwise newsworthy story.” Americans are conspicuous by their absence from the story. That’s because rich people in the U.S. can avoid taxes “legally in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada.”
The worst criminals on earth are not the poor who sit behind bars in jails and 
prisons. The biggest thieves are found among the rich. The 1% can buy legislation, politicians and the media to carry out and hide their dirty work. If they can’t change the laws to benefit themselves in their homelands they simply send their money elsewhere through shell holding companies. This transfer of wealth, much of it diverted from what ought to be tax payments, is an open secret. Panama, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland are known for securing the money and secrets of the rich and the well connected.

The leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panama based Mossack Fonseca law firm brings into the light of day what was long known but passively accepted. Now the facts are in the open but the way in which the revelations are reported is questionable and taints an important story.

The documents now known as the Panama Papers were leaked to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) who then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ICIJ is a non-profit but with its own problematic origins. It is funded in part by the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and the Rockefeller Family Fund. ICIJ then worked with journalists around the world including from the Guardian and the McClatchy newspaper chain. They in turn will decide what will be kept secret and what will be shared with the public. The goal of revealing secrets instead turns into a plan to keep more secrets and to tarnish certain reputations based on bias and mysterious criteria.

The Panama Papers show that the heads of state of Ukraine, Iceland, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all held shell holding company accounts in different tax haven locations. Vladimir Putin’s name appears nowhere but the corporate media used his image repeatedly to drum up interest in what is an otherwise newsworthy story. There are Russians who have used Mossack Fonseca services and three of them have close ties to Putin. Guilt by association and innuendo follow instead of disinterested reporting of pertinent facts.

While the corporate media happily do the work of imperialism, Russia is making good on its promise to kick ISIS out of Syria. The liberation of the ancient Syrian city Palmyra should have garnered Putin as much press attention as the Panama story. But the United States and NATO have still not abandoned their goal of regime change in Syria. They were ready to let ISIS fight Assad and do the job for them. While they pretend to drive ISIS out of Syria the Russians are actually getting the job done. If the corporate media want to cover Putin, that development provides an excellent opportunity for them to do so.

While news outlets ranging from the Guardian to the New York Times do their best to connect Putin to the Mossack Fonseca scandal without evidence, the prime minister of the United Kingdom and the president of Ukraine are directly involved. David Cameron’s late father is among those mentioned in the Mossack Fonseca trove. Simply put, he established an offshore account to hide the family fortune. The goal of the scheme was as simple as it is devious: keep Cameron family money and the prime minister’s inheritance from being taxed.

The president of Ukraine is yet another thief. When Petro Poroshenko came to office after the 2014 anti-Russian coup he promised to cease playing any role in the operations of his confection company. That business made him a wealthy man with an estimated $800 million personal fortune. Instead he opened an offshore account in the British Virgin Islands to avoid paying taxes.

The media already knew that Poroshenko is richer than many of the Russian oligarchs they obsessively cover and they know that Ukraine is a failed state. They know that Ukraine owes Russia $3 billion and they know that the IMF violated its own rules in not making them pay up.

It is a good thing that the corruption of the world’s elites has been revealed. But as Wikileaks points out, all the documents must be released so that there is transparency available to all and an adherence to journalistic standards.

Hopefully, the proof of worldwide corruption will spur protest and opposition to a system which gives the masses nothing except more inequality. The people of Iceland didn’t wait to be told what to do. Thousands took to the streets and forced their prime minister to resign within three days of the story being published.

It is interesting but not at all mysterious that there are no Americans named in the Mossack Fonseca documents. The reason is simple. U.S. law so clearly favors the rich that they have no need to go offshore to form shell corporations. They can do so legally in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada. Rich people everywhere know it too. No need to go to Panama or Switzerland. The U.S. is now the best tax haven on the planet. Hopefully the corporate media will decide to cover that story too.

By MARGARET KIMBERLEY
Margaret Kimberley writes the Freedom Rider column for Black Agenda Report, where this essay originally appeared. 
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/06/the-panama-papers-problem/
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Questions from Nawaz Sharif Family - Panama Leaks - شریف خاندان سے چند سوال

شریف خاندان سے چند سوال
اگرائے گئے بم پر آنے والا ردِ عمل متوقع ہے۔ شریف خاندان اور حکومتی ترجمان کے مطابق پاناما لیکس دستاویزات میں کسی غیر قانونی اقدام کی نشاندہی نہیں کی گئی ہے، اور شریف خاندان نے کچھ غلط نہیں کیا۔
مالیات اور محصولات کے معاملوں میں فوری فیصلے، خاص طور پر کسی کو بری الذمہ قرار دینا، جاری کرنا بہت مشکل کام ہے۔ آیا مفصل اور خفیہ 'آف شور' کمپنیاں اور بینکنگ طریقہ کار اپنانے کے دوران پاکستانی اور غیر ملکی قوانین کی خلاف ورزی کی گئی ہے یا نہیں، یہ بات چند دن میں معلوم ہوجائے گی — کم از کم بین الاقوامی طور پر تو ضرور۔

 پاکستان کے اندر، اور جبکہ ٹیکس اور زیادہ تر تفتیشی ادارے مکمل طور پر حکومت کے ماتحت ہیں، یہ بات بالکل بعید از قیاس ہے کہ وزیرِ اعظم کے خاندان اور ان کے مالی معاملات کے بارے میں کوئی مشکل پیدا کرنے والی بات سامنے آئے گی۔

 شریف خاندان کے علاوہ بھی پاناما پیپرز میں جن افراد کے نام ہیں، وہ فائدے میں رہیں گے — شاید نیب کو چھوڑ کر چند ہی ایسے سرکاری تفتیش کار ہوں گے جو مسئلے کو عوام میں رہنے دینا چاہیں گے۔

 بھلے ہی کوئی جرم نہ کیا گیا ہو، پھر بھی پاناما پیپرز پاکستان کی حکمران اشرافیہ کے جرم کی داستان ہے۔ عوام صحیح فیصلے کرنے کا اختیار منتخب نمائندوں کو دیتے ہیں تاکہ وسیع تر ملکی مفاد کو یقینی بنایا جا سکے۔ مگر پاکستان کا حکمران طبقہ صرف اپنے مفادات کا تحفظ کرنے، اور دوسروں کے اس مقام تک پہنچنے میں رکاوٹیں ڈالنے میں مصروف ہے۔

 یہ سوال ضرور پوچھا جانا چاہیے کہ پاکستان کے امراء میں زیادہ تر سیاستدان کیوں ہیں؟ انہوں نے جو وسیع کاروبار قائم کیے ہیں، وہ ان کے زبردست دور اندیش ہونے کی ضمانت ہیں، مگر صرف تب تک جب تک اپنی ذاتی دولت کی بات ہو۔ ملکی معاملات کی بات آئے تو یہ دور اندیشی کہیں نظر نہیں آتی۔

 اربوں کھربوں کے مالک پاکستانی سیاستدان عوامی پیسے کو درست جگہ استعمال کرنے اور سرکاری اداروں کو درست سمت میں رکھنے کے لیے وہ جادو نہیں چلا پاتے جس طرح وہ اپنے کاروبار چلاتے ہیں۔

 نجی شعبے کے بڑے کھلاڑی نسبتاً بہتر ہیں جو ہمیشہ ریاستی امداد اور مسابقت ختم کرنے والی حکومتی مداخلت کے منتظر رہتے ہیں۔ ایسا لگتا ہے کہ پاکستان کے امراء نے تقسیم کرنے کا عمل الٹا سیکھا ہے — ضرورت مندوں سے لو، اور ہوس پرستوں کو دو۔

 ایک خود غرض اشرافیہ کا سب سے بڑا اور حقیقی مسئلہ یہ ہے کہ نہ صرف انہوں نے پاکستان کو اپنی اقتصادی صلاحیت کو بھرپور انداز میں استعمال کرنے سے روکا ہوا ہے، بلکہ یہ ہر دوسرے شخص سے بھاری قیمتیں بھی وصول کرتے ہیں۔

 پاناما پیپرز نے ٹیکس سے بچنے اور کرپشن کا پیسہ چھپانے کے مفصل اور باریک منصوبوں کی قلعی کھول دی ہے۔ اس سب سے معاشرے پر ایک غیر منصفانہ بوجھ پڑتا ہے۔ پاکستان کے اشرافیہ براہِ راست ٹیکس سے بچ نکلتے ہیں اور ہمارا ٹیکس نظام زیادہ تر بالواسطہ ٹیکسوں پر منحصر ہے۔ اور بالواسطہ ٹیکس، جیسے کہ خوراک، ایندھن اور بنیادی ضرورت کے اشیاء پر، ان عوام پر بوجھ ڈالتے ہیں جن عوام کی یہ اشرافیہ منتخب نمائندہ ہونے کی دعویدار ہے۔

 تو جب شریف خاندان اس بات کا انکار کرتا ہے کہ انہوں نے کچھ بھی غیر قانونی کیا ہے، تو ان سے یہ پوچھا جانا چاہیے کہ بچائے جانے والے ٹیکس کے ہر روپے کا بوجھ کس پر پڑ رہا ہے؟

 وزیرِ اعظم کے خاندان کو تو اس کے الٹ مثال قائم کرتے ہوئے ٹیکس ادائیگی میں سب سے آگے ہونا چاہیے تاکہ ان کی دیکھا دیکھی ملک کے باقی افراد بھی ٹیکس ادا کریں۔

 یہ بھی پوچھا جانا چاہیے کہ جب رائیونڈ ایک محل جیسی رہائش گاہ ہے، تو کیا اس کے ہوتے ہوئے بھی لندن میں محل جیسے فلیٹ خریدنے ضروری ہیں؟

 انگلش میں پڑھیں۔
یہ اداریہ ڈان اخبار میں 5 اپریل 2016 کو شائع ہوا۔

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Panama Papers Leaks - Offshore Companies and Corruption allegations Nawaz Sharif Family, Pakistani Stalwarts

IT’S A PARALLEL UNIVERSE FOR THE ULTRA-RICH AND ULTRA-POWERFUL. BUT A MASSIVE NEW LEAK HAS EXPOSED THEIR UNDERWORLD. FUSION GOES INSIDE THE LAW FIRM THAT SELLS SECRECY TO DRUG DEALERS, DICTATORS AND ALLEGED SEX TRAFFICKERS.BY THE NAKED TRUTH STAFF


Updates >>>>

The Panama Papers have been dubbed the biggest leak in history, with over 11m confidential documents and 2.6 terabytes of data, pertaining to the offshore accounts of leading politicians, businessmen and celebrities. The documents were anonymously leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) are still sorting through documents that could uncover tax evasion and other criminal activities. Technically, there is no proof that having offshore accounts automatically means you are committing tax fraud. However, Reddit user DanGliesack has given an excellent analogy on why the leak of the Panama Papers is so important:
When you get a quarter you put it in the piggy bank. The piggy bank is on a shelf in your closet. Your mom knows this and she checks on it every once in a while, so she knows when you put more money in or spend it. Now one day, you might decide 'I don't want mom to look at my money.' So you go over to Johnny's house with an extra piggy bank that you're going to keep in his room. You write your name on it and put it in his closet. Johnny's mom is always very busy, so she never has time to check on his piggy bank. So you can keep yours there and it will stay a secret.
Now all the kids in the neighbourhood think this is a good idea, and everyone goes to Johnny's house with extra piggy banks. Now Johnny's closet is full of piggy banks from everyone in the neighbourhood.
One day, Johnny's mom comes home and sees all the piggy banks. She gets very mad and calls everyone's parents to let them know.
Now not everyone did this for a bad reason. Eric's older brother always steals from his piggy bank, so he just wanted a better hiding spot. Timmy wanted to save up to buy his mom a birthday present without her knowing. Sammy just did it because he thought it was fun. But many kids did do it for a bad reason. Jacob was stealing people's lunch money and didn't want his parents to figure it out. Michael was stealing money from his mom's purse. Fat Bobby's parents put him on a diet, and didn't want them to figure out when he was buying candy.
Now in real life, many very important people were just caught hiding their piggy banks at Johnny's house in Panama. Today their moms all found out. Pretty soon, we'll know more about which of these important people were doing it for bad reasons and which were doing it for good reasons. But almost everyone is in trouble regardless, because it's against the rules to keep secrets no matter what.
So if someone tells you that it should hardly come as a surprise that rich people are "bending the rules" or that the Panama Papers are "no big deal", tell them that they are. They are a massive deal. http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/this-piggy-bank-analogy-perfectly-explains-why-the-panama-papers-are-so-important--WkmL0PWk5gb

Offshore companies are used for a variety of commercial and private purposes, some legitimate and economically beneficial, whilst others may be harmful or even criminal. Allegations are frequently made in the press about offshore companies being used for money laundering, tax evasion, fraud, and other forms of white collar crime. Offshore companies are also used in a wide variety of commercial transactions from generic holding companies, to joint ventures and listing vehicles. Offshore companies are also used widely in connection with private wealth for tax mitigation and privacy. The use of offshore companies, particularly in tax planning, has become controversial in recent years, and a number of high-profile companies have ceased using offshore entities in their group structure as a result of public campaigns for such companies to pay their "fair share" of Government taxes.  
The Panama Papers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents created by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca that provide detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors. The documents name the leaders of five countries — Argentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates — as well as government officials, close relatives and close associates of various heads of government of more than 40 other countries, including Brazil, China, France, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Malta, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Syria and the United Kingdom >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers

http://interactive.fusion.net/dirty-little-secrets/
The world is in shock after exploring a tiny fraction of Panama Papers, 2.6 terabyte confidential leak in total, published by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The matter is worth investigation as well, as thousands of offshore companies were established in cooperation with Mossack Fonseca (MF) with the purpose of evading taxes and facilitating money laundering.
When it comes to the Pakistani owners of these questionable firms, people from every segment of life appear to be involved. The published documents suggest that over 200 Pakistanis were directly involved in these shady businesses, and more names might soon pour in with thousands of documents yet to be made public.
Interestingly, although the papers feature businesses from 1977 to 2015, the Pakistani names start appearing in years after 1990.

Which Pakistani owns most offshore companies?

Media reports mainly focused on the companies owned by Sharif family, but surprisingly they are not the ones to own most offshore companies from Panama Papers. It is the Saifullah family of Lakki Marwat city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The family owns at least 34 offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong, Singapore and Ireland.
These companies are named after Senator Osman Saifullah, Salim Saifullah, Anwar Saifullah, Humayun Saifullah, Javed Saifullah, Dr Iqbal Saifullah and Jehangir Saifullah.

Politicians and their relatives:

In Pakistan, the debate related to offshore companies from Panama Papers is largely confined to political figures only, which is the main profession of the country’s most powerful families.
According to Panama Papers, some offshore companies owned by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son Hussain Nawaz and daughter Mariam Safdar alias Maryam Nawaz Sharif; and assassinated Chairperson of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto, her close aide Senator Rehman Malik and her nephew Hassan Bhutto. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s relatives Ilyas Mehraj and Samina Durrani also feature in the list. However, interestingly, no company was found to be registered in names of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif themselves.
Other political names include Pakistan Muslim League(Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s close relative Waseem Gulzar and Zain Sukhera – a close friend of former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s son. Sukhera was also co-accused in Hajj Corruption Scandal along with Gilani’s son.

Businessmen:

Most of Pakistani names featured in Panama Papers are businessmen and include almost every renowned businessman of the country, including:
  • Sadruddin Hashwani and son Murtaza Hashwani of Hashoo Group
  • Malik Riaz Hussain’s son Ahmed Ali Riaz of Behria Town
  • Hussain Dawood of Engro Corporation Limited
  • Abdullah family (Yousuf Abdullah, Shahid Abdullah, Nadeem Abdullah, Amer Abdullah) of Sapphire Textiles
  • Gul Muhammad Tabba of Lucky Textiles
  • Shahid Nazir of Masood Textiles
  • Shehbaz Yasin Malik and family of Hilton Pharma
  • Sultan Ali Allana of Habib Bank Limited
  • Shahid Nazir and family of Masood Textile Mills
  • Bashir Ahmed and Javed Shakoor of Buxly Paints
  • Dr. Mehmood Ahmed of Berger Paints
  • Azam Sultan of ABM Group of Companies
  • Aqueel Hassan and his brother Tanwir Hassan of Pizza Hut (Pakistan)
  • Zulfiqar Paracha of Universal Corporation (Pvt) Ltd
  • Abdul Rashid Soorty and family of Soorty Enterprise

Media owners:

Several owners of Pakistan based media groups were also found owning offshore companies. Among them Zulfiqar Lakhani, who owns Lakson Group and Express media group, was on top. Gohar Ejaz, who maintains an image of property tycoon and is financier of Channel 24 as well, was also in the list. Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman of Jang and Geo Group also established an offshore company in early 2000s.

Judges:

Many lawyers and top judges also own offshore firms, according to Panama Papers. The name of Justice Farrukh Irfan, currently serving in Lahore High Court (LHC), was also on the list while Justice(retd) Malik Qayyum is also among owners of offshore companies.
Source: http://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/exposed-by-panama-papers-list-of-pakistani-politicians-businessmen-and-judges-who-own-offshore-companies/

Panama Papers: a massive document leak reveals a global web of 

corruption and tax avoidance

Since its founding in 1977, it's expanded its interests outside of Panama to 
include over 40 offices worldwide, helping a global client base to work with 
shell companies not just inPanama but also the Bahamas, the British Virgin
 Islands, and other ...

Here Are The International Figures Tied to The Panama Papers Leak

Mikhail Svetlov—Getty Images Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the 2015 Russian Federation Presidential Prize for writing and art for children and young people ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 25, 2016.

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The politics of religious parties

Street activism demonstrated by a number of religious groups and parties identifying with the Barelvi traditions in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore in the last week of March, 2016, has underlined the need of reviewing the role of religious political parties in Pakistan. Political groups in the Barelvi traditions are generally critical of Taliban-type militancy and support army action against such groups in the tribal areas. However, the March 2016 developments showed that these groups also resorted to violence to pursue their religio-political agenda.

Religious political parties are an important feature of Pakistan’s political landscape. Their number has proliferated since the early years of independence. With the exception of the Jamaat-e-Islami, religious political parties and groups invariably identify with a particular religious denominational or sectarian group; there can be more than one party with the same religious sectarian identity.

In addition to their mutual competition, these parties are squeezed from both sides. On the one hand, the nationwide and regional/ethnic political parties cultivate support that cuts across religious-sectarian, ethnic and regional identities. A large number of people prefer these political parties rather than religious parties. On the other hand, religious political parties are under pressure from hardline groups that espouse violence, if needed, to pursue their religious and political agendas. Those with strong religious orientations tend to lean towards these. Some activists shuttle between religious political parties and militant and jihadi groups.

All religious political parties advocate an Islamic socio-political and economic order for Pakistan and express varying degrees of reservations on the notion of the ‘Islamic Republic’ as set out in the Constitution of Pakistan. They talk of an Islamic order in broad terms to reflect their aspirations, or discuss its features at a level of abstraction. However, they diverge when it comes to translating the abstract principles or their assertions and pronouncements into a codified constitutional and legal system, institutional arrangements and processes of an Islamic system needed for running a state in the 21st Century. They have not been able to produce a shared constitutional and legal document as an alternative to the existing constitutional and legal system.

Religious political parties have weak electoral standing. No religious party has ever been able to secure more than a few seats in the provincial and national elections. Their performance is better when they build a nationwide or regional partnership or when they enjoy the blessings of a military government. If they create a coalition of their own, their electoral performance improves.

Several reasons explain their dismal electoral performance. Religious political parties cannot make a credible claim that they are the only saviours of Islam. The major political parties do not disown Islam. The PML and its various factions, along with the PPP, the PTI, the MQM and others, do not reject the identification of the Pakistani state with Islam. Their vision of an Islam-oriented political order diverges from that of religious political parties. The notion of a secular system in the Marxian sense has never been popular in Pakistan. Most nationwide and regional political parties talk of religious and cultural tolerance and socio-economic justice and the notion of equality.

All political parties recognise the 1973 Constitution as the basic law of Pakistan which provides theoretical as well as institutional arrangements for deep connections between the Pakistani state system and Islam. There is a definite guarantee for the Islamic character of the Pakistani political system that takes steam out of the slogan of some religious parties and militant groups that Pakistan is being turned into a secular system.

Most religious parties have a religious-sectarian identity that restricts the party to the people with a strong religious-sectarian orientation. Others, who do not share the religious orientations of the party, stay away from it. Religious political parties compete with one another on the basis of religious outlook, sectarian identity and personality of the leader. Even within each sect, there are more than one party, making competition more narrowly focused.

Religious parties have an image problem. Not many people, particularly the educated, trust religious leaders as having enough political acumen and an understanding of the dynamics of domestic and global politics. They tend to join the nationwide or regional political parties in a very large number. The religious parties have to compete with one another to build support from highly conservative religious circles. With some exceptions, many religious parties either sympathise with militant groups or maintain an ambiguous disposition towards these groups. This alienates a good number of people from these parties. The strength of religious parties lies in having street power of loyal activists and madrassa students. The parties that have links with madrassas and mosques tend to develop more political clout. Some parties have made inroads into government universities and colleges to recruit young people to their fold.

The strength of religious parties increased during the military rule of General Ziaul Haq, when he joined with the US and Middle Eastern states to build Afghan-Islamic resistance to Soviet troops in Afghanistan. It was during this period that the Jamaat-e-Islami and some other religious parties that were involved in the first Afghan ‘jihad’ or enjoyed the blessings of the military regime, strengthened their position as money and weapons flowed to selected religious parties and militant groups.

Some of these parties continued to maintain relations with militant groups even after the end of the first Afghan ‘jihad’ and extended support to al Qaeda and Taliban activists when they entered Pakistan from Afghanistan, after the US launched its air attack on Afghanistan in October 2001.

The recent use of violence by some religious parties with Barelvi traditions has created a spectre of increased protest and violence. However, the success of their protest depends on their capacity to muster support from other political parties. Their active role in the anti-Ayub and anti-Bhutto movements made a political impact because they were working alongside nationwide political parties. Similarly, some religious parties have exercised power at the federal or provincial levels, in collaboration with nationwide and regional political parties, or by either joining hands with military regimes or enjoying their blessings. Religious parties can make life difficult for any government because of their cadres but none can, on their own, come to power through elections.

By Hasan Askari Rizvi; an independent political and defence analyst. He is also the author of several books, monographs and articles on Pakistan and South Asian affairs

Published in The Express Tribune
.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1078158/the-politics-of-religious-parties/

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Bad projections


Terrorists killing children. This article should end right here. But the killings go on.

When an ogre detonated his suicide vest in Lahore`s Moon Market some years ago, dozens of children lost their lives. Four years later, over 140 students were ruthlessly slaughtered at a school in Peshawar. And last Sunday many children werekilled in a blast at a children`s park in Lahore. Dozens were mere babies.

But life goes on. There is always a tomorrow in which to live, as if a brutal yesterday did not happen. Repress, repress and repress that terrible memory. So many ways to do it. Become a deflector: `The extremists are foreign agents.` Even if they are, exactly how does it make the meaningless, heartless attacks on crowds of women and children any less painful? I really don`t care what country or faith the ogres belong to. They were all born human who mutated into becoming monsters. Agents, maybe, but many of them were born here. Right here. And theybelieve and claim to be better Muslims than you and I. And certainly better people than the country`s so-called `minorities`.

So repress, repress and repress this terrible dilemma. So many ways to do it. Become an apologist: `Poverty and injustice are driving them to do it`. Driving them to do what? Kill children? Slaughter women? Massacre men? And if`poverty and injusticeare the real culprits, then the `agents` are in the right? Make up your minds, already. Either the ogres are enemy agents or victims of poverty and injustice. You can`t. Because you are quite clearly confused. Or worse, you simply replace agent with victim (and then vice versa), according to whatever suits your knee-jerk argument.

But thank you for trying to soften the unimaginable distress and pain suffered by mothers who lost their children and the children who lost their mothers in terror attacks. Thank you for making them feel a lot better by telling them that the killers were agents. I am sure they have overcometheir grief.

So, repress, repress and repress the terrible realisation that the ogres might just be from among us. So many ways to repress this awkward feeling. Become a radical `expert`. After all, Israeli military killing Palestinian children makes it alright for our poverty-stricken brothers here to kill Pakistani children. Or are they agents? Stupid question.

It`s all connected: 9/11, 7/7, Paris, Brussels, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Baghdad, Istanbul ... all done by a powerful, all-encompassing, sinister lobby out to discredit our faith. Ah, so the ogres are employed by this lobby? Stupid question.

They are poverty-stricken and have faced great injustice from the state of Pakistan.

Ah, so they are not serving the sinister lobby? They are, but they do not know this.

Or they do know this, but poverty and injustice have made them vulnerable to exploitation by sinister lobbies. So they are brotheragents then? What about those who were living pretty decent lives and came from relatively wellto-do backgrounds but decided to become terrorists? It`s simple. They feel the pain of their brothers stricken by poverty and injustice.

So they are not agents but brothers and sisters with deep feelings who too have become agents because they have deep feelings for their faith and the fate of their brothers (and some sisters).

There you go. That`s it. Perfectly okay then for agent-brothers to slaughter women and children. And anyone ever calling you confused, or just plain dumb, is, of course, an enemy agent serving the lobby out to destroy our faith. So, shouldn`t this make them brother-agents as well? Stupid question. Move on.

This article has deteriorated into becoming a cyclic farce. Quite like the arguments and rationales of apologists. How else are they to be understood? They have become unintentional self-parodies.

One can snicker at their foolhardy mutterings, but know this: the ogres can also be described as alter egos of the apologists. It can be a TV anchor, a confused middle-class lad, a politician in the assembly, or even a rich aunt who has recently rediscovered piety.

Truth is, the ogres may as well be anarchic projections of what lies inside the apologists; but is repressed. The enemy is quite literally within.

And notice this: colleagues across the nation`s offices will readily discuss a cricket match or a funny viral video. But most simply keep quiet about a terror attack. So what is it? Shame or just plain apathy?
By Nadeem F Piracha
http://epaper.dawn.com/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=03_04_2016_424_002

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Humanity, Religion, Culture, Science, Peace
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