ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly has for the first time passed a law designed to tackle human trafficking to European and other countries.
Moving the bill to a vote in the National Assembly, Secretary for Interior Dr. Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla said the law would help “prevent and combat the smuggling of migrants,” with the help of national and international authorities.
He said that since human trafficking involves multiple international jurisdictions, it is important for agencies within Pakistan and in other countries to cooperate in fighting the crime.
“The Federal Investigation Agency [FIA] has been empowered through this law to cooperate with relevant authorities in other countries of origin, transit and destination of smuggled migrants,” said Dhandla. “The FIA will make reciprocal arrangements after due administrative process to share, request and receive information relating to the smuggling of migrants.”
Under the law, passed on April 12, the traffickers and those who help them will face a jail term of up to 14 years and a fine of up to two million rupees ($17,000).
Dhandla said human trafficking is a major issue for Pakistan, and the new law would help authorities tackle it effectively.
The smuggling and trafficking of humans is said to be the third-most lucrative source of organized-crime revenue after weapons and drugs, amounting to more than $32 billion a year.
“Pakistani nationals are among the 10 most-detected nationalities that attempt irregular migration to the European Union and Australia,” according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
In December last year, an FIA report to Pakistan’s Supreme Court revealed that 6,767 Pakistanis entered European countries illegally through Iran in 2017 alone. In the same time, 27,749 were deported: 18,810 from Iran, 4,401 from Turkey and 4,538 from EU countries.
The report said that the most common overland route for illegal migration was from Pakistan to Iran, then on to Turkey and Greece.
“The illegal migrants leave Pakistan via unmanned or unofficial border crossings located along unfrequented routes into Iran,” it explained.
Supreme Court Barrister Mohammed Iqbal Duggal said the law makes the human smuggling a court-recognized, non-bailable and non-compoundable offense, as deterrent to criminals.
“Human smuggling is not only a human-rights violation but also gives Pakistan a bad name,” he said.
He also suggested the government should arrange specialist training for FIA officials and magistrates tasked with dealing with the offense, to ensure effective implementation of the law.
Senior advocate Sharafat Ali, who deals with human-rights and human-trafficking issues, said the law would help strengthen the work of the Ministry of Interior and related departments, such as the FIA, but that “the real issue remains its implementation in letter and spirit.”
He said the government must sign bilateral and multilateral treaties with other countries, especially in the European Union, where the majority of Pakistani illegal migrants end up, to develop a mechanism to discourage the practice.
“Pakistan alone cannot fight it … it must seek international cooperation and this law empowers the government to do so,” said Ali.
Earlier in the day Reuters, quoting anonymous sources in the Trump administration, reported that the United States could cut civilian aid worth tens of millions of dollars this year to Pakistan if the country failed to do enough to combat human trafficking.
Pakistan has been on the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report’s “tier-2 watch-list” for four years and unless it is upgraded, it will drop to the third tier, the lowest level, alongside Iran, North Korea and Syria, among others.
“The government may not be able to eliminate it completely but it can reduce this inhuman business significantly by ensuring full implementation of the law,” said Duggal.
Pakistan passes law in battle against human trafficking
Pakistan passes law in battle against human trafficking
- Those convicted of smuggling or trafficking people will face up to 14 years in jail and a fine of up to two million rupees
- Pakistani is one of the top 10 nationalities caught illegally migrating to Europe and Australia, according to the UN
Under threat from Trump, Columbia University agrees to policy changes
- Trump has put other universities on notice that they will face cuts if they do not embrace his agenda
NEW YORK: Columbia University agreed Friday to put its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhaul its rules for protests and student discipline, acquiescing to an extraordinary ultimatum by the Trump administration to implement those and other changes or risk losing billions of dollars in federal funding.
As part of the sweeping reforms, the university will also adopt a new definition of antisemitism and expand “intellectual diversity” by staffing up its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, according to a letter published Friday by the interim president, Katrina Armstrong.
The announcement drew immediate condemnation from some faculty and free speech groups, who accused the university of caving to President Donald Trump’s largely unprecedented intrusion upon the school’s academic freedom.
“Columbia’s capitulation endangers academic freedom and campus expression nationwide,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled $400 million in research grants and other funding over the university’s handling of protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. As a precondition to restoring those funds — along with billions more in future grants — federal officials last week demanded the university immediately enact nine separate reforms to its academic and security policies.
In her response Friday, Armstrong indicated Columbia would implement nearly all of them. She agreed to reform the college’s long-standing disciplinary process and bar protests inside academic buildings. Students will not be permitted to wear face masks on campus “for the purposes of concealing one’s identity.” An exception would be made for people wearing them for health reasons.
The university will also appoint a new senior provost to review the leadership and curriculum of several international studies departments to “ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced.”
The appointment appeared to be a concession to the Trump administration’s most contentious demand: that the university places its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years.”
“It’s an escalation of a kind that is unheard of,” Joan Scott, a historian and member of the academic freedom committee of the American Association of University Professors, said of the call for receivership last week. “Even during the McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Columbia University of letting antisemitism go unchecked at protests against Israel that began at the university last spring and quickly spread to other campuses.
In her letter, Armstrong wrote that “the way Columbia and Columbians have been portrayed is hard to reckon with. We have challenges, yes, but they do not define us.”
While Trump has made Columbia the most visible target of his crackdown on higher education, he has put other universities on notice that they will face cuts if they do not embrace his agenda.
Last week, his administration announced investigations into 52 universities for their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Russian attacks kill five in Ukraine, officials say
Russian attacks killed two people late on Friday in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and three more in the country’s north and east, officials said.
Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the city had been struck more than 10 times, killing two people and injuring nine.
The injured included a nine-month-old infant and a woman in serious condition.
Pictures posted online showed rescue teams sifting through rubble and apartment blocks and homes with windows and facades badly damaged. Fires burned amid piles of rubble.
In Sumy region, on Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, prosecutors said Russian forces dropped at least six guided bombs on the village of Krasnopillia, killing two people and injuring at least two.
In eastern Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia’s steady westward advance, prosecutors said Russian forces had dropped three bombs on the town of Kostiantynivka, close to the front lines, killing one person.
In Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don, acting regional governor Yuri Slyusar said a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building on the 17th floor, injuring two people. Air defenses destroyed a number of drones, he wrote on Telegram.
In the southern Russian region of Voronezh, regional governor Alexander Gusev said more than 10 Ukrainian drones were destroyed. No damage or casualties were reported.
Reuters could not independently verify reports from either side.
The Kremlin said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in a call with his US counterpart Donald Trump to observe a 30-day ceasefire on energy targets.
That accord fell short of a wider agreement that the US had sought, and which was accepted by Ukraine, for a blanket 30-day ceasefire. Talks on pursuing a ceasefire are scheduled for next week in Saudi Arabia and, separately, with Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Armenia urges Azerbaijan to sign peace deal after talks conclude
- The two countries fought two wars for control of Karabakh region until Azerbaijan seized the entire area in September 2023
YEREVAN: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has called on Azerbaijan to begin consultations on signing a peace treaty, a text of which the arch-foe Caucasus neighbors agreed upon last week.
Baku and Yerevan fought two wars for control of Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Karabakh, at the end of the Soviet Union and again in 2020, before Azerbaijan seized the entire area in a 24-hour offensive in September 2023.
Both countries have repeatedly said a comprehensive peace deal to end their long-standing conflict is within reach, but previous talks had failed to reach consensus on a draft agreement.
On Friday, the two countries said they had wrapped up talks on resolving the conflict, with both sides agreeing on the text of a possible treaty.
“The draft of Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement has been agreed upon and awaits signing,” Pashinyan said Thursday in an English post on Telegram.
“I propose Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to begin joint consultations on the signing of the agreed draft peace agreement.”
The deal to normalize ties would be a major breakthrough in a region where Russia, the European Union, the United States and Turkiye all jostle for influence.
Baku has made clear its expectations that Armenia remove from its constitution a reference to its 1991 declaration of independence, which asserts territorial claims over Karabakh.
Any constitutional amendment would require a national referendum that could further delay the treaty’s finalization.
Pashinyan has recognized Baku’s sovereignty over Karabakh after three decades of Armenian separatist rule, a move seen as a crucial first step toward a normalization of relations.
Armenia also last year returned to Azerbaijan four border villages it had seized decades earlier.
Nearly all ethnic Armenians — more than 100,000 people — fled Karabakh after its takeover by Baku.
Washington, Brussels and European leaders such as France’s President Emmanuel Macron have welcomed the breakthrough. They have all tried to play a mediating role at various times in the conflict.
Pro-Palestinian group sues UCLA over its handling of demonstrations
- Last week, the Trump administration joined a separate lawsuit filed in June against the university by Jewish students and a Jewish professor accusing it of failing to protect them from pro-Palestinian activists
LOS ANGELES: A group of 35 pro-Palestinian students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and activists filed a lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles, over its handling of last year’s demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles comes days after the Trump administration joined a separate lawsuit filed in June against the university by Jewish students and a Jewish professor accusing it of failing to protect them from pro-Palestinian activists.
The demonstrations at UCLA became part of a movement last spring at campuses nationwide against the Israel-Hamas war. Last month, the Trump administration opened new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University.
UCLA was repeatedly roiled by protests and the way administrators were handling the situation. The tensions culminated the night of April 20 when a group of counterprotesters began violently dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment.
The lawsuit says UCLA failed to protect the demonstrators when dozens of people, some in white masks and some draped in Israeli flags and armed with fireworks, hammers, baseball bats and other weapons, attacked the encampment while the loud sound of crying babies played on the jumbotron.
Several protesters were injured during the attack, which happened after private security had left and police had not yet arrived, the lawsuit says.
“Encampment members witnessed the mob’s extreme violence, threats of violence, and UCLA’s failure to intervene,” it says. “They saw people get their heads split open, suffer from open wounds and concussions, scream in pain and fear, with fireworks and mayhem all around them.”
The university did not immediately respond Friday to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Los Angeles Police and California Highway Patrol officers arrested dozens of protesters on May 1 and 2 as the camp was cleared.
The episode led to the reassignment of the campus police chief and creation of a new campus safety office. A subsequent attempt to set up a new camp was also blocked.
The lawsuit also names the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and 20 people it describes as members of a “mob.” It seeks monetary damages for physical and psychological injuries suffered by the protesters.
Last June, three Jewish students and a Jewish professor sued the university saying it allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to block them from accessing classes and other parts of campus. The students alleged they experienced discrimination on campus during the protests because of their faith and that UCLA failed to ensure access to campus for all Jewish students.
A federal judge ruled in a preliminary injunction last year that the university cannot allow pro-Palestinian protesters to block Jewish students from accessing classes and other parts of campus.
On Monday, the Trump administration filed a brief supporting the Jewish students and professor in their case against UCLA.
“DOJ has thrown down the gauntlet: if university administrators aid and abet mistreatment of Jews, they will pay the price,” said Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and an attorney for the students and professor. “This is a wake-up call for every university that allows antisemitic hatred to fester unchecked. No Jewish student or professor should ever again face this kind of terror on their own campus.”
Legal experts say Trump official broke law by saying ‘Buy Tesla’ stock but don’t expect a crackdown
- “It will never be this cheap,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday. “Buy Tesla.”
NEW YORK: When a White House adviser in the first Trump administration told TV viewers to “Go buy Ivanka stuff,” top government lawyers sprang into action, telling her she had violated ethics rules and warning her not to do it again.
Government ethics experts have varying opinions on whether the 2017 criticism of Kellyanne Conway went far enough, but many agree such violations now might not even draw an official rebuke.
A week after President Donald Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla infomercial for Elon Musk’s cars, a second sales pitch by a US official occurred, this time for Tesla stock.
“It will never be this cheap,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday. “Buy Tesla.”
Government ethics experts say Lutnick broke a 1989 law prohibiting federal employees from using “public office for private gain,” later detailed to include a ban on ”endorsements.” Although presidents are generally exempt from government ethics rules, most federal employees are not and are often punished for violations, including rebukes like the one Conway got.
As of Friday, no public action had been taken against Lutnick and it was unclear whether he would suffer a similar fate.
“They’re not even thinking of ethics,” said Trump critic and former Republican White House ethics czar Richard Painter of administration officials.
Painter has equally low expectations of that other possible brake to future violations — public opinion: ”I don’t know if people care.”
In his first term, Trump opened his hotel near the Oval Office to foreign ambassadors and lobbyists in what many legal scholars argued was a violation of a constitutional ban against presidents receiving payments or gifts that could distort public policy for private gain. His company launched a new hotel chain called “America Idea” in hopes of cashing in on his celebrity. Trump even once proposed holding a G-7 meeting of world leaders at his then-struggling Doral golf resort.
The ‘Buy Ivanka’ rebuke
But the reaction to Conway’s “Ivanka stuff” comment suggested certain lines couldn’t be crossed.
Within days of Conway’s TV comments, the head of the federal ethics agency, the Office of Government Ethics, wrote a letter to the White House saying Trump’s adviser may have broken the law and urging a probe. A White House lawyer then met with Conway to remind her of the law and reported to the ethics office that she had assured him she would abide by it in future.
But this time, there is no head of the Office of Government Ethics. He was fired by Trump. Ditto for the inspector generals of various agencies who would head any investigation.
“What is likely to happen now? I really don’t know,” said Kedric Payne, chief lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, a non-profit watchdog that sent a letter to the government ethics office on Friday calling for an investigation. “We no longer have the head of the Office of Government Ethics to push the Commerce Department to make sure the secretary acknowledges the law.”
Payne said Lutnick’s comment on TV may seem like a small transgression but it could snowball into a bigger problem if not punished.
“It starts with one TV appearance, but can develop into multiple officials asking people to support companies and products,” Payne said. “If there are no consequences, you get into a danger zone of a corruption.”
Trump critics point to other signs that Trump is careless with the law and ethical norms, citing his pardons for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, a decision to allow his Trump Organization to strike business deals abroad and his attack on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act banning US company bribes abroad to win business.
Jelly beans and airlines
When it comes endorsing products, presidents used to be far more circumspect.
Their comments were mostly quick asides expressing opinions of taste, such as when Harry Truman called Pillsbury flour the “finest” or John F. Kennedy said United Airlines was “reliable.”
Ronald Reagan famously enthused about his jelly beans habit, remarking that they were the “perfect snack.”
Trump had five Teslas lined up in the White House driveway last week as he praised Musk’s company. Then he slipped into a red Model S he had targeted for personal purchase, exclaiming, “Wow. That’s beautiful.”
“Presidents are allowed to have personal opinions on products they like and dislike,” said ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark, referring to the Truman through Reagan examples. ”But what Trump did was transform the White House into a set for advertising the products of a private company.”
“It’s the difference between holding an extravaganza and holding an opinion.”
Calls for Musk investigation
In the aftermath of the Tesla White House event, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and three other senators wrote a letter to the Office of Government Ethics saying that, while presidents are exempt from ethics law banning endorsements, Elon Musk isn’t and calling for an investigation.
A spokeswoman from Warren’s office said the government ethics office had not yet responded about what it planned to do about the White House Tesla endorsement. The Office of Government Ethics itself said it would not comment on either the Warren letter or Lutnick’s TV appearance.
The Commerce Department did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.
Asked whether Lutnick would be reprimanded or an investigation opened, White House spokesman Kush Desai defended Lutnick, lauding “his immensely successful private sector career” and his “critical role on President Trump’s trade and economic team.”
Former White House ethics chief Painter says Democrats have also played loose with the ethics law.
He is harshly critical of the Clinton charity, the Clinton Foundation, which was taking donations from foreign governments when Hillary Clinton was the country’s chief diplomat as secretary of state. Painter also blasts former President Joe Biden for not removing his name from a University of Pennsylvania research institute when he was in office even though it appeared to be helping draw donations overseas.
But Painter says the slide from caring about ethics laws and norms to defiance has hit a new low.
“There’s been a deterioration in ethics,” he said. “What Biden did wasn’t good, but this is worse.”
