Omar Ayub Khan: The Contender for Pakistan’s Premiership Amid Political Turmoil

Despite facing challenges such as the suppression of his party, disrupted mobile phone networks on Election Day, and election-related violence, former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies secured a decisive victory in Pakistan’s recent polls, despite Khan’s current imprisonment and criminal convictions which he maintains are politically motivated. Khan has expressed his preference for Omar Ayub Khan as the next Prime Minister of Pakistan. This endorsement was made public by a senior member of Khan’s party who visited him in jail.

In response to the nomination, Omar Ayub Khan, the 56-year-old former finance minister, expressed his gratitude, stating that he is “truly humbled” by the decision. He emphasized the party’s commitment to strengthening democratic institutions and initiating reforms to benefit the people of Pakistan while safeguarding their electoral mandate. Despite many candidates backed by Khan running as independents due to constraints imposed by the Electoral Commission, they secured the most seats in the election. However, coalition negotiations are ongoing as no single party has a majority to form a government independently.

As the nominated candidate for Prime Minister, Ayub will compete against former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who leads a rival coalition. Sharif is believed to be favored by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment. Ayub’s potential ascent to the premiership raises questions about his background and political career.

Omar Ayub Khan is currently facing multiple criminal charges, with 21 cases filed against him, some linked to protests following Khan’s arrest. These charges are viewed as part of a broader strategy to weaken Khan’s PTI party and bolster the military’s influence. Ayub has been in hiding since the arrests of PTI members and associates, including his personal secretary and business contacts, following the violent protests last May. Despite these challenges, Ayub remains eligible to run for the premiership.

In a recent statement, Ayub emphasized his priorities if he were to become Prime Minister, including securing the release of political prisoners, including Imran Khan and other PTI leaders.

Omar Ayub Khan comes from a notable political family; his grandfather, Muhammad Ayub Khan, served as Pakistan’s first military dictator from 1958 to 1969. His father, Gohar Ayub Khan, was also a prominent figure in Pakistani politics, holding various ministerial positions.

Ayub Khan’s political career spans over two decades, starting in 2002 when he was elected to the National Assembly as a member of the conservative Pakistan Muslim League (Q). He has held several ministerial positions, including Minister of State for Finance and energy and petroleum minister in Imran Khan’s cabinet. Despite setbacks such as losing his seat in the National Assembly and facing allegations of election rigging, Ayub has remained active in politics.

Educated in the United States, Ayub holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from George Washington University. He is recognized for his oratory skills and economic expertise. While Imran Khan has been critical of the U.S. in the past, Ayub’s stance on U.S. relations appears more diplomatic, particularly regarding bilateral ties and investment in Pakistan’s energy sector during his tenure as energy minister.

Imran Khan and Wife Sentenced to Seven Years in Jail, Marriage Voided

A Pakistani court has sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife to seven years in jail, declaring their marriage invalid due to religious reasons.

Khan, already incarcerated for corruption, faced another blow when the court deemed his 2018 marriage to Bushra Bibi, a spiritual healer, as un-Islamic and illegal.

The ruling comes amid a series of legal woes for the 71-year-old politician, who claims the charges against him are politically motivated. Khan, a former cricket star turned politician, was ousted from his position as prime minister in 2022.

The court, located within the Adiala Jail where Khan is serving previous sentences, acted on a complaint filed by Bibi’s ex-husband, alleging fraud in her marriage to Khan.

According to Muslim family law, women are barred from remarrying for a specified period after divorce or the death of their spouse. The court found Bibi had remarried before the mandated waiting period following her divorce, hence deeming her marriage to Khan invalid.

In addition to the seven-year prison term, the court levied a fine of 500,000 rupees on Khan and Bibi.

Their union in 2018, months before Khan’s election as prime minister, marked his third marriage. Bibi, believed to be in her 40s and known for her veiled public appearances, followed Khan’s previous marriages to Jemima Goldsmith in 1995 and Reham Khan in 2015.

Khan, known for his playboy image during his cricketing years, transitioned to a more conventional married life before facing a string of legal and political challenges.

Since his arrest in August, Khan has faced multiple convictions, with the latest sentencing being his third within a week. Earlier, he received a 10-year jail term for leaking classified documents.

The recent case revolved around allegations of Khan and his wife profiting from state gifts received during his tenure, including jewelry from the Saudi Crown Prince. Both were handed 14-year prison sentences, with Bibi allowed to serve hers under house arrest.

Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), denounced the legal proceedings as unjust, labeling them as “kangaroo courts.”

Critics have raised concerns about the fairness of the upcoming elections, as Khan and his party face marginalization, with many leaders either imprisoned or defecting. The authorities deny any crackdown, but the detention of thousands of PTI supporters following protests during Khan’s arrest has raised eyebrows.

Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif, a three-time former prime minister who was jailed for corruption ahead of the 2018 election, is tipped to win, with analysts suggesting he enjoys favor from Pakistan’s powerful military establishment.

Seattle Is First US City To Ban Caste Discrimination

(AP) — The Seattle City Council on Tuesday added caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination and the first in the world to pass such a law outside South Asia.

Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities in the United States. But the movement has been getting pushback from some Hindu Americans who argue that such legislation maligns a specific community.

Tensions within the community were visible at Seattle City Hall on Tuesday as a noisy hearing culminated with a 6-1 vote with a majority of the council agreeing that caste discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries and that without such laws, those facing caste discrimination in the U.S. will have no protections.

The packed room, which overflowed with activists from both sides bearing banners, chanting slogans, challenging speakers and city officials as they made their comments, laid bare stark divisions over this issue within the South Asian diaspora. A majority of those present in council chambers were supporters of the ordinance and those opposed were a vocal minority.

Picture : NBC

As council members voted in favor of the ordinance, the chamber erupted into cheers of “Jai Bhim,” which means “victory for Bhim” a rallying cry adopted by followers of B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian Dalit rights icon whose given name was Bhimrao. Dalit groups and their supporters say caste discrimination is prevalent in U.S. diaspora communities, manifesting itself in the form of social alienation and discrimination in housing, education and the tech sector where South Asians hold key roles.

Yogesh Mane, a Seattle resident who grew up as an untouchable in India, broke into tears as he heard the council’s decision.

“I’m emotional because this is the first time such an ordinance has been passed anywhere in the world outside of South Asia,” he said. “It’s a historic moment.”

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Oakland, California-based Equality Labs, whose advocacy work along with community partners continues to push caste discrimination laws forward, called the council vote “a culture war that has been won.”

Seattle first US City to ban caste discrimination

Seattle City Council on Tuesday added caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to specifically ban caste discrimination (Feb. 22) (AP video/Manuel Valdes)

“We got the support of over 200 organizations from Seattle and around the country,” she said. “It’s a powerful message that Dalit people are not alone. The South Asian community has united to say we want to heal from the trauma of caste.”

Council Member Kshama Sawant, a socialist and the only Indian American on the City Council, said the ordinance, which she proposed, does not single out one community, but it accounts for how caste discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries. Sawant said the council received over 4,000 emails in support of the ordinance.

“We’ve heard hundreds of gut-wrenching stories over the last few weeks showing us that caste discrimination is very real in Seattle,” she said.

Council Member Sara Nelson who cast the lone dissenting vote agreed with opponents calling the ordinance “a reckless, harmful solution to a problem for which we have no data or research.”

“This could generate more anti-Hindu discrimination and could dissuade employers from hiring South Asians,” she said. “The community that is being impacted is deeply divided on this issue.”

Nelson also said the ordinance would also get the city entangled in legal battles to which Sawant responded: “Bring it on.” Sawant said being fearful of lawsuits is not the way to effect progress or change.

Council Member Lisa Herbold questioned opponents’ logic that the law singles out Hindus and people of Indian descent. “That’s like saying gender discrimination laws single out all men,” she said. “And just because we have a small population that is experiencing (caste discrimination) that doesn’t make it any less important.”

Shobha Swamy, a representative of the Coalition of Hindus of North America said she was disappointed by the council deliberations and line of questioning. The group said they received a show of support from over 100 organizations. “Due diligence wasn’t done,” said Swami, who flew in from Atlanta.

C.H. Srikrishna, a San Francisco Bay Area-based tech worker, said he is worried about the ramifications this ordinance might have for the South Asian community.

“I too want discrimination to end,” he said. “But we need to first determine that widespread discrimination exists.”

Srikrishna, who is Hindu, believes the ordinance does target his religion. “When you say it originated 2,000 years ago, that is implicitly blaming Hinduism,” he said. “That bothers me. I feel betrayed.”

Sanjay Patel, a tech company owner from the Seattle area, said he never felt discriminated against in the U.S. as a member of a lower caste and that the ordinance pained him because it reminded him of a caste identity, which he thought had become obsolete.

“I fear with this law, businesses will be afraid to hire South Asians,” he said. Earlier Tuesday morning, several activists braved cold temperatures and wind gusts to line up outside City Hall so they would get a chance to speak to the council before the vote. But the council restricted public comment at the meeting where more than 300 people had requested to speak virtually and in person. They heard about half of the comments before moving on to deliberations and the vote.

The origins of the caste system in India can be traced back 3,000 years as a social hierarchy based on one’s occupation and birth. It is a system that has evolved over the centuries under Muslim and British rule. The suffering of those who are at the bottom of the caste pyramid — known as Dalits — has continued. Caste discrimination has been prohibited in India since 1948, a year after the nation’s independence from British rule.

The U.S. is the second most popular destination for Indians living abroad, according to the Migration Policy Institute, which estimates the U.S. diaspora grew from about 206,000 in 1980 to about 2.7 million in 2021. The group South Asian Americans Leading Together reports that nearly 5.4 million South Asians live in the U.S. — up from the 3.5 million counted in the 2010 census. Most trace their roots to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Over the past three years, several colleges and university systems have moved to prohibit caste discrimination. In December 2019, Brandeis University near Boston became the first U.S. college to include caste in its nondiscrimination policy. The California State University System, Colby College, Brown University and the University of California, Davis have all adopted similar measures. Harvard University instituted caste protections for student workers in 2021 as part of its contract with its graduate student union.

World Watch List 2023 Reports, 360 Million Christians Suffer Persecution

(ZENIT News – ACN/Madrid)- Today, more than 360 million Christians experience high levels of persecution and discrimination, according to the Report presented by the Evangelical Christian organization Open Doors “World Watch List of Persecution 2023.” Moreover, throughout the world one out of every seven Christians is persecuted or discriminated because of his faith. According to Ted Blake, Director of Open Doors in Spain, “this figure is one out of five in Africa, two out of five in Asia and one out of 15 in Latin America.”

Picture : TheUNN

Another important conclusion of the study is that Sub-Saharan Africa is facing an enormous humanitarian disaster given the wave of religious violence, whose epicentre is in Nigeria, which has extended to the whole region and which is directed against Christian populations.

“For 30 years we have been presenting annually this World List of Persecution, and never before have we had such high levels of persecution as now,” said Ted Blake.

North Korea occupies the first place in the persecution of Christians, with the highest levels of persecution in its history. The increase is due to the new wave of arrests in virtue of its recent “Law Against Reactionary Thought.” The other countries occupying the first places in the Report are: Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Sudan.

The Christian presence continues to decrease in the Middle East, according to Open Doors. It hasn’t been able to recover after the boom of the Islamic State, despite the slight decrease in the number of murdered Christians (with the exception of Syria, which has suffered a wave of violent incidents). “This is the cradle of Christianity and a great part of the Church is losing hope: the discrimination and poverty regime is too heavy to endure, especially for young people who don’t see a future here as believers,” according to Rami Abed Al-Masih, Regional Director of Open Doors’ Legal Defense for the Middle East and North Africa.

Nicaragua is yet another Latin American country to enter the list. Organized crime is being entrenched especially in rural areas where Christians denounce the activities of the cartels. Meanwhile, the Government’s direct oppression of Christians, considered to be the voice of opposition, is widespread in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, country where Evangelical Christian leaders were imprisoned without a trial for their participation in last year’s protests.

Improvement Data

Picture : TheUNN

The total number of murdered Christians due to their faith decreased slightly from 5,898 in the 2022 edition of the Report to 5,621 cases registered at present, with the clear exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, as pointed out earlier. The total number of attacked churches under different levels of violence decreased from 5,110 (LMP, 2022) to 2,110 registered cases (LMP, 2023). As the world returns to a degree ”to normality after the pandemic, there seems to be a certain stabilization of violence, although the exact reason for it is the object of discussion and it’s not considered very probable that it forms part of a continued tendency.

Greater tolerance has been promoted in certain countries of the Gulf. Persecution decreased in Bahrein, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. In Qatar persecution also has decreased this year, although this might be due to the massive closing of churches during 2022, which continue closed this year.

Pakistan Markets Hindu, Christian Women as ‘Concubines’: U.S. Official Says

US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel D. Brownback claimed that Pakistan is marketing Hindu and Christian women as “concubines” and “forced brides” to China.

Talking to reports last week, the top US diplomat for religious freedom said that one of the sources of “forced brides” for the Chinese men is “religious minorities, Christian and Hindu women, being marketed as concubines and as forced as brides into China”.

That was happening “because there’s not effective support and there’s discrimination against religious minorities that make them more vulnerable,” he said.

He mentioned this as one of the reasons for designating Pakistan as a country of particular concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act.

Because of the one-child policy imposed by China for decades, there is an acute shortage of women given the cultural preference for boys leading to Chinese men importing women from other countries as brides, mistresses and laborers.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom had recommended placing India also on the CPC list, citing among other issues the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected the suggestion when he announced the designations Dec. 7.

Brownback, however, said that Washington was watching the Indian situation closely and “these issues have been raised in private discussions at the government, high government level, and they will continue to get raised.”

The CAA expedites citizenship for Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs fleeing religious persecution in neighboring Islamic or Muslim majority countries but does not prevent Muslims from getting citizenship after following the usual procedures.

The U.S. has a legal provision similar to the CAA which is known as the Specter Amendment that is tucked into the budget bill giving asylum to some non-Muslim minorities from Iran, while pointedly excluding Muslim.

Asked by a Pakistani reporter if there was a double standard in Pompeo giving Pakistan the CPC designation and not India, Brownback said that while in Pakistan, a lot of the actions against minorities are taken by the government, that was not the case in India.

“Pakistan has half of the world’s people that are locked up for apostasy or blasphemy,” he said.

He said that in India, some of the actions like the CAA are taken by the government but there are others like “much of its communal violence” and then when they take place, “we try to determine whether or not there has been an effective police enforcement, judicial action after communal violence takes place.”

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have problems with the statute (CAA),” he said. “The violence is a problem. We will continue to raise those issues. Those are some of the basis as to why Pakistan continues to be on the CPC list and India is not,” he said.

“These are issues that people spend a great deal of time reviewing and we review extensively the situation in Pakistan, in both countries,” added Brownback, whose formal title is Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

Answering an American reporter’s question as to why Pompeo did not follow the USCIRF recommendation to designate India as a CPC, Brownback said, “I can’t go into the decision-making process that the Secretary went through.”

But, he said, Pompeo is “well aware of a lot of the communal violence that is happening in India as well as aware of the statutes that have been enacted and some of the issues associated with the (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government and, as I said, he has raised at the highest level, but just decided at this point in time not to place them on a CPC or a special watch list.”

Brownback said that there were also “several recommendations made by the commission that the secretary did not follow, and this was one of them.”

Pompeo did not follow the recommendations to designate Russia and Vietnam as CPCs. In addition to Pakistan, Pompeo put China, Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the CPC list.

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