Anger in Pakistan as authorities employ cull tactics against Karachi's stray dogs

A dog walks on Clifton Beach, Karachi, Pakistan on August, 14 2003. (AFP / File photo)
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Updated 22 July 2020
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Anger in Pakistan as authorities employ cull tactics against Karachi's stray dogs

  • Officials estimate thousands of stray dogs culled so far in citywide operation
  • Up to 5,000 people die each year of rabies in Pakistan, hospital representatives say 

KARACHI: Last Tuesday, Dr. Naseem Salahuddin, the head of the Rabies Free Pakistan (RFP) project, woke up to discover that months of work put in by her team to vaccinate and neuter stray dogs in Karachi had been summarily wasted. 
Overnight, municipal authorities in an upscale neighborhood in southern Karachi had killed at least 50 strays Salahuddin’s team had treated. And this was not the first time this had happened. 
Authorities estimate the citywide operation has so far culled thousands of dogs but do not have a full count for all six districts that make up Karachi city. 
“You work from dawn to dusk, put in your best effort, spend time and resources and they kill the dogs without any reason — it’s like being stabbed in the back,” said Salahuddin, who heads RFP, a project of Karachi’s Indus Hospital.
The periodic culling of dogs by shooting or using poison tablets hidden in food is common in Pakistan and has unnerved both animal rights activists and citizens, but officials in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, say it is necessary because packs of wild strays pose a threat to residents. 
In Pakistan, up to 5,000 people die each year of rabies, according to infectious disease experts. Anti-rabies vaccines, mostly imported from neighboring India, seem to be in perennial short supply at Karachi hospitals. 




A stray dog walks past auto-rickshaws parked alongside a street during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 7, 2020. (AFP /File photo)

Rabies is a neglected disease in Pakistan, with scant data available, although the cases of dog bites are rising, doctors and officials said. 
Around 150 patients come to Karachi hospitals daily with dog bites, doctors said. Last June, the Sindh health department said there were almost 70,000 dog bite cases reported between the months of January and May. Indus Hospital treated over 7,000 cases of dog bites last year and said it had already treated 4,000 cases this year. Dr. Seemin Jamali, executive director of Jinnah Hospital, the largest health facility in Sindh, said the hospital had treated 6,000 patients for dog bites between January and July.
Street animals, particularly dogs, are often a part of the urban landscape in developing countries like Pakistan. In Karachi, a megacity of over 15 million, it is common to see strays lurking in public parks, guarding street corners and howling in neighborhoods at night. Joggers say they have to carry stick to pry dogs away, and cyclists keep stones in their pockets to throw at chasers. 
Malik Fayyaz, the chairman of the district municipal council in southern Karachi, confirmed that authorities were killing, as well as sterilizing, dogs due to a rising number of complaints from residents. 
He said a vaccination and spaying project the council had started in collaboration with Indus Hospital had stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and culling strays was thus currently the only option. 
Another program launched last year in Karachi’s district central, the largest municipal cooperation in the city, had also stalled. 
Rehan Hashmi, the central district council chairman, said dogs had to be taken off the streets even if that meant euthanizing them. Authorities would stop killing dogs, he added, if there was a program that could vaccinate and spay “100 percent stray dogs.” 
“Saving a human life is more important than saving the life of a dog,” Hashmi said.
In August 2016, the district council of south Karachi killed 800 stray dogs, pushing lawyer Muhammad Asad Iftikhar to file a petition in the Sindh High Court. Last December, the court finally directed authorities to stop culling animals and instead to neuter and vaccinate them. But cull tactics continue. 




A stray dog rests on a street as people line up maintaining social distancing to buy groceries from a governmental subsidised shop during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 8, 2020. ( AFP/ File Photo )

Last month, the Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF), which has recused and neutered over 6,000 stray animals in Karachi in the last seven years, filed a petition in the Sindh High Court after hundreds of dogs the organization had vaccinated and spayed were found dead. Many of the dogs were given poisoned food, the Foundation said, and were found with their legs tied to other dogs so they could not run away or seek help as the venom took effect. 
The ACF petition, which is yet to be heard in court, seeks a uniform policy by the government to curb the spread of rabies and contain rising stray populations in Sindh instead of sentencing dogs to death. 
In Pakistan, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1890 was amended in January 2018 to include fines and punishments for animal abuse. The law does not provide a ‘holistic approach’ toward animal welfare, rights activists say, and needs to be replaced with new legislation recognizing animals as sentient beings that need protection and care.
Indeed, animal welfare advocates say Pakistan has never made a priority of pushing responsible animal control policies, including spaying and neutering, which would have helped avoid the current problems.
“Killing dogs is not only inhumane but ineffective also,” said Aftab Gauhar, a project manager at RFP, which operates across Karachi and has vaccinated nearly 24,000 dogs, and neutered and spayed over 3,500 since 2018. He said rising dog populations and rabies infections could be tackled with sterilization, mass vaccination drives and community engagement to teach people how to behave around strays. 
There are currently a number of charities in Karachi who cruise the city treating sick dogs and taking healthy ones to shelters for vaccinations and sterilizations before depositing them back exactly where they were found: on the streets. 
Ayesha Chundrigar, who founded ACF, said strelization could lead to a 50 percent fall in the number of strays within a year. 
“Stray dogs should be neutered and left to live in their natural habitats, which are the streets,” she said. 
In an emotional video message posted online last month after hundreds of ACF rescues were found dead, Chundrigar said: 
“We [ACF] are about to complete seven years next month. It has really been a hard seven years. We feel grieved. We have no success to show. Because all of our success stories are dead.”
She added: “We can’t take it anymore. They [municipal authorities] win. We’ve fallen apart, trying like absolute fools in this lawless city of millions. Can’t do it anymore. We’re tired and hopeless.”
But speaking to Arab News, the animal welfare advocate said she was hopeful concerned citizens and civil society groups would help lead to change.
“People are now realizing that we have been very cruelly treating animals in this country,” she added. “I believe that change will occur.”


Pakistan’s northwestern province urges public to expose proxy ownership, help curb tax evasion

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistan’s northwestern province urges public to expose proxy ownership, help curb tax evasion

  • KP chief minister promises 40 percent share to people for identifying ‘benami’ properties in the province
  • CM Gandapur says while addressing a seminar his administration wants to introduce a whistleblower law

PESHAWAR: In an effort to document the economy and broaden the tax net, the chief minister of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province announced Wednesday that attractive rewards would be offered to whistleblowers who assist the government in identifying instances of proxy ownership, locally known as benami properties, in the province.
Benami properties are assets registered under another person’s name to disguise the actual owner’s identity, often used to conceal movable or immovable assets for tax evasion or other purposes.
Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur outlined his plan to introduce a whistleblower law at a seminar on combating drugs in Peshawar aimed at rooting out corruption from the province.
“Anyone providing information in helping the government identify a benami property will get 40 percent share,” he said.
Gandapur maintained people should help out the government, adding they should benefit from the opportunity that his administration was providing.
Pakistan’s tax collection body, the Federal Board of Revenue, announced in 2019 it would confiscate vehicles and properties with proxy ownership, as well as fictitious bank accounts.
The chief minister said public cooperation was crucial to the government, which could not advance without their support.
He also spoke out against the widespread availability and use of drugs in the province.
“The KP government has a zero-tolerance policy on drugs, and we have issued clear directives to relevant departments and institutions to crack down on the drug trade,” he added.
He stressed the government should deal sternly with those involved in drug trafficking. Gandapur described the drug trade as a heinous crime and vowed to impose exemplary punishment on those engaged in it.
“During our tenure, we have rehabilitated 2,400 drug users, including individuals from other provinces and even Afghan nationals,” he said, adding that the rehabilitation program would continue until drug users take control of their lives and become responsible citizens.


Bomb and mortar attacks in northwest Pakistan kill four security officers, two schoolchildren

Updated 07 November 2024
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Bomb and mortar attacks in northwest Pakistan kill four security officers, two schoolchildren

  • Pakistan has launched dozens of operations against militants, but they continue to carry out attacks
  • The bomb attack took place in South Waziristan while the children were killed by a mortar in Tirah valley

PESHAWAR: A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in northwestern Pakistan, killing four officers and wounding five others, officials said Thursday, while two schoolchildren also lost their lives when a mortar exploded nearby elsewhere in the region.

The roadside bombing happened Wednesday in South Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, local police officer Dilawar Khan said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has stepped up its assaults in the region since its ally the Afghan Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

Later the same day, a mortar fired by insurgents landed near a road in the Tirah valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, killing two schoolchildren who was going to school on foot, police said.

The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in South Waziristan and other former tribal regions nearby, but the militants continue to carry out frequent attacks.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Chinese ambassador Jiang Zaidong in Islamabad to brief him about an investigation into an attack Tuesday in which a guard shot and wounded two Chinese nationals at a textile mill in the port city of Karachi, allegedly over a private dispute.

China has frequently demanded better security for its nationals who are in Pakistan to work for Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.


Pakistan condemns Israeli efforts against operations of UN agency for Palestinian refugees

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistan condemns Israeli efforts against operations of UN agency for Palestinian refugees

  • Israel’s parliament voted last month to ban UNRWA from operating within Israel and occupied East Jerusalem
  • Almost all of Gaza’s population of more than two million people are dependent on aid and services from UNRWA

ISLAMABAD: Acting Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, has “strongly condemned” Israel’s attempts to dismantle the operations of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), calling it a part of Israel’s “genocidal campaign” against the people of Palestine.

Israel’s parliament voted last month to ban the UNRWA from operating within Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, crippling its ability to work in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Almost all of Gaza’s population of more than two million people are dependent on aid and services from the agency.

The move has faced widespread condemnation, with UNRWA warning the new law could see aid supply chains “fall apart” in the coming weeks. Israel has defended the move, repeating its allegation that a number of the agency’s staff were involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks last year, which killed 1,200 people.

“The adoption of the law by the Israeli parliament [is] a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, provisional measures set by the International Court of Justice, and the ICJ’s advisory opinion issued on July 19,” Jadoon said while speaking at a UN General Assembly meeting, calling on the international community, in particular the UN Security Council, to hold Israel accountable for its actions and ensure unimpeded operations of UNRWA.

Jadoon demanded a stop to the “demonization and delegitimization” of UNRWA.

“By targeting the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Israel not only obstructs vital humanitarian assistance but also threatens the collective effort to uphold the Palestinian people’s identity, rights and aspirations for justice and peace,” Jadoon added.

Founded in 1949, UNRWA works in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, initially caring for the 700,000 Palestinians who were forced from or fled their homes after the creation of the state of Israel. Over the decades, the agency has grown to become the biggest UN agency operating in Gaza.

Since the war in Gaza began in October last year, the agency says it has distributed food parcels to almost 1.9 million people and also offered nearly six million medical consultations across the enclave over the course of the conflict.

More than 200 UNRWA staff have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023 in the course of those duties, according to the agency.
 


Pakistan, China to form joint security strategy following attack on Chinese workers in Karachi

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistan, China to form joint security strategy following attack on Chinese workers in Karachi

  • Mohsin Naqvi says ensuring the safety of Chinese citizens and projects is Pakistan’s top priority
  • Chinese envoy maintains Beijing is ready to enhance bilateral security cooperation with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China agreed on Thursday to develop a joint security strategy, following an incident where two Chinese nationals suffered gunshot wounds in an attack by a security guard at a factory in Karachi, an official statement said.
An unknown number of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan, primarily as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multibillion-dollar energy, infrastructure development, and regional connectivity initiative.
Chinese workers have increasingly come under attack in Pakistan in recent years, with notable incidents including a suicide bombing in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that killed five Chinese engineers in March 2024 and an October blast near Karachi’s airport that left two other Chinese nationals dead.
The latest shooting occurred earlier this week, when a Pakistani security guard opened fire at a factory in Karachi, wounding two Chinese employees.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong to discuss the situation and Pakistan’s response to the rising security risks faced by Chinese nationals.
“We fully agree with China’s vision of integrating development and security,” he was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office after the meeting. “Ensuring the safety of Chinese citizens and projects is our top priority. Those involved in the incident will be brought to justice.”
The interior ministry informed the two officials “agreed to develop a joint strategy to prevent such incidents in the future.”
Ambassador Jiang also underscored the need for a stable environment for ongoing bilateral cooperation and expressed his country’s readiness to strengthen bilateral security ties.
“China is ready to enhance bilateral security cooperation and build the capacities of Pakistani institutions,” he said.
Attacks on Chinese nationals have put the bilateral relations between both states under increasing stress, with the Chinese envoy previously calling such incidents “unacceptable” publicly.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif personally visited the Chinese embassy in Islamabad on Wednesday to offer sympathies to the families of the Chinese who got injured in the recent shooting incident.
Pakistan and China have been discussing to upgrade CPEC in recent months, hoping to launch yet another phase marked by enhanced business-to-business relationships and further Chinese investment in the country.


Pakistani wife of jailed Kashmiri leader urges Indian politician to debate husband’s imprisonment

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistani wife of jailed Kashmiri leader urges Indian politician to debate husband’s imprisonment

  • Mushaal Mullick tells Rahul Gandhi her husband gave up arms to pursue a non-violent freedom struggle
  • Indian authorities are seeking death sentence for Yasin Malik on the basis of a ‘three-decades-old’ case

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani wife of a prominent Kashmiri leader in Indian-administered side of the Himalayan territory wrote Wednesday to opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, urging him to initiate a parliamentary debate on her husband’s incarceration following his hunger strike at the beginning of this month.
Mushaal Hussein Mullick, former assistant on human rights and women’s empowerment in Pakistan’s last caretaker administration, is married to Yasin Malik, leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who, along with other activists, was incarcerated after India revoked Kashmir’s special constitutional status in August 2019.
She said the Indian authorities had filed a case against him on the basis of a “three-decades-old sedition case” in which they were demanding death sentence for him.
The letter noted this was despite the fact that her husband had long given up arms to fight for freedom struggle, following the path of non-violence which was highlighted by several high-profile Indian officials and journalists themselves.
“I request you to bring to use your high moral and political influence in the Parliament and to initiate a debate in the case of Yasin Malik, who could become an instrument for bringing organic and not cosmetic peace back to the Jammu & Kashmir — paradise on earth,” she wrote.
Mullick said her husband “stood by his end of the bargain,” though the same thing “cannot be said for the Indian state” that did not pay attention to his pleas and “victimized” him under the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Her letter to the Indian opposition leader follows the recent elections in Indian-administered Kashmir in which Gandhi’s allies displayed a good performance while the BJP could not make any impressive electoral gains.
The government in New Delhi has, however, used the polls to suggest that the situation in Kashmir is gradually improving, though the large number of the people of the area have long opposed the Indian rule.