Category: Asia

islamabad — Pakistan’s top advisory body on religious affairs on Friday declared that using virtual private networks to access blocked content on the internet is against Shariah, or Islamic law.

The statement came as authorities deploy a nationwide firewall and push users to register VPNs with the state’s media regulator, ostensibly to enhance cybersecurity and fight terrorism.

Critics say such measures, however, increase online surveillance, curb freedom of expression and hurt e-commerce.

Virtual private networks enable internet users to hide their identity and location, allowing them to maintain privacy and security and access online content that is blocked in their country.

The Council of Islamic Ideology said the technology was being used in Pakistan to access content prohibited according to Islamic principles or forbidden by law, including “immoral and porn websites or websites that spread anarchy through disinformation.”

“Using VPNs to access blocked or illegal content is against Islamic and social norms, therefore, their use is not acceptable under Islamic law. It falls under ‘abetting in sin,’ ” said the statement, quoting the council’s chairman, Raghib Naeemi.

The statement declared that any technology, including the internet, used to access “immoral or illegal activities is prohibited according to Islamic principles.”

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Interior sent a letter to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or PTA, the country’s independent media regulator, asking it to block all “illegal” VPNs, claiming terrorists were using the cyber tool.

“VPNs are increasingly being exploited by terrorists to facilitate violent activities and financial transactions in Pakistan,” the letter said.

The ministry also pointed to the use of VPNs for viewing pornography.

“Pakistan is also considered as one of the leading [countries] in terms of [people] visiting porn sites using VPNs. However, these trends warrant prohibition of unauthorized VPNs to address the critical threats,” the note added.

Along with using VPNs for online business and entertainment, many Pakistanis use the tool to access social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which remains mostly inaccessible since February’s controversial general elections.

According to court filings, the interior ministry ordered the PTA to suspend the platform “in the interest of upholding national security, maintaining public order and preserving the integrity of our nation.”

Opponents of the restrictions say the increased push to control online activities is aimed at curbing criticism of the Pakistani military. The powerful institution is facing intense backlash for its alleged meddling in politics since incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan was pushed out of office in April 2022.

Denying political interference, the military repeatedly has referred to online criticism and smear campaigns as “digital terrorism.”

Speaking Friday at a security forum in Islamabad, Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, reiterated the call for greater regulation of online speech.

“Freedom of expression without rules and regulations is becoming a source of degradation of values in all societies,” Munir told the audience at the Margalla Dialogue.

Earlier this week the PTA announced a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication, the Pakistan Software Export Board and the Pakistan Software Houses Association to discuss a VPN registration framework.

The authority also announced a “streamlined” VPN registration process that it said allows “legitimate users to register their VPNs through a new online platform.”

This came after Pakistanis reported widespread disruption in VPN connectivity over the weekend.

A cybersecurity source confirmed to VOA the outage was part of a government-run experiment to block VPNs using the firewall that is being deployed and was tested for months.

Officials reject the notion the government is attempting to throttle the internet. However, experts say the nationwide internet regulation tool acquired from China increases the Pakistani state’s capability to monitor communications.

To register a VPN, the user must submit, among other details, a subscriber ID issued by the person’s internet service provider, national identity card number and the IP address, which is a unique number that identifies a device connected to the internet. Experts say such information can enable authorities to track online activities, limit  privacy and increase a person’s vulnerability to data breaches.

In its letter Friday, the interior ministry asked the PTA to allow users to register VPNs until the end of the month.
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The Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation announced plans this week to return millions of internally displaced people (IDP) to their home villages and provinces in Afghanistan, a move analysts warn could worsen the country’s humanitarian crisis.

“In the first phase, 5,000 displaced families in Kabul would be moved to different places to their places of origin. Most of these families are from [the northeastern province of] Kunduz,” said the ministry’s statement, issued Wednesday.

The Taliban called on national and international organizations to support their relocation plan. “This is a priority for the ministry,” the statement said.

“It is a good decision to relocate displaced families to their communities of origin,” said Sayed Ahmad Selab, the founder of the Selab Charity Foundation and former Afghan parliamentarian, adding, “but it could bring about a humanitarian crisis under the current circumstances.”

Most of these families would not have shelter, Selab said, if they were returned to their provinces.

“They were displaced because of the yearslong conflict and drought. Most of them lost their houses and would have no prospects of jobs and places to live if they were returned,” he said.

The United Nations refugee agency, or UNHCR, says there are 3.2 million IDPs in Afghanistan.

More than 7.6 million Afghans are living as refugees in Pakistan and Iran, including 1.6 million Afghans who left after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.

About a year ago, both Iran and Pakistan started forcible repatriation of Afghan refugees from their countries. The Taliban government said in June that around 2,000 Afghans were arriving daily from these countries.

Hafiz Ahmad Miakhil, a former adviser to the Ministry of Refugee and Repatriation, told VOA that he does not think the Taliban “have any policy in place for the relocation plan.”

He told VOA that the Taliban’s ministry is not in a position to undertake the repatriation of millions of internally displaced people.

“For the repatriation of internally displaced people, there is the need to construct schools and provide shelters and health services. The Taliban don’t have the resources to do so,” Miakhil said.

He added that the Taliban would need the support of the international community and for that, the Taliban “have to get recognized nationally and internationally.”

The Taliban, who seized power in August 2021 after the former Afghan government collapsed, are not yet recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan by any country.

Under the Taliban, Afghanistan is facing multiple crises. Sanctions against the Taliban, no banking transfers, frozen assets, no access to global institutions and the dwindling of foreign aid have moved millions into poverty and hunger.

There are 11.6 million people who are food insecure in Afghanistan.  

In September, the U.N. said that it received only 30% of the $3 billion needed this year for the humanitarian response in the country.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have imposed repressive measures on women and imposed their strict interpretation of Islam in the country.

“The de facto authorities are exacerbating this crisis by policies that focus insufficiently on the real needs of its people and undermine its economic potential,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan.   

Abdul Hamid Jalili, the former Afghan attache in the Peshawar Consulate, told VOA that the Taliban’s decision to return IDPs to their villages “would bring yet another humanitarian crisis.”

This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service. 
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Muslims in India are largely welcoming a ruling this week from the country’s Supreme Court declaring authorities must not demolish any property simply because its owner has been accused of a crime.

Such demolitions — decried as “bulldozer justice” by critics — have targeted mostly Muslim-owned properties in states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party over the past few years.

On Wednesday, while issuing the verdict, India’s highest court called bulldozer justice “totally unconstitutional” and laid down strict guidelines concerning such demolitions.

“The chilling sight of a bulldozer demolishing a building, when authorities have failed to follow the basic principles of natural justice and have acted without adhering to the principle of due process, reminds one of a lawless state of affairs,” the court said.

Such “high-handed and arbitrary actions” have no place in a constitutional democracy and would be dealt with through the “heavy hand of the law,” the court added.

Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, a leading organization of Islamic scholars in India, said it welcomes the Supreme Court verdict.

“The court has declared demolishing someone’s house as a crime, and an unacceptable form of punishment. It has also emphasized that the government may not play judge, and only the judiciary has the authority to determine what is legal or illegal,” JUH President Maulana Syed Arshad Madani told VOA.

“This ruling is a victory for justice, and we hope it will serve as a lesson to all authorities,” he said.

After firebrand monk and Hindu nationalist BJP leader Yogi Adityanath became chief minister of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, he ordered his officials to take the strictest possible actions against all criminals.

Soon, the police and other civic officials in Uttar Pradesh started taking strict action against those accused of crimes, including demolishing their properties deemed illegal.

Properties of hard-core criminals were targeted initially. But it was not long until others began losing their properties to demolition for allegedly partaking in protest rallies, pelting stones at others during communal disturbances, slaughtering cows and other offenses.

Over the past few years, houses, shops and other “illegal” structures owned by accused criminals, communal violence rioters and others have been demolished in states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Assam and Maharashtra — where the BJP was in power. In most cases, the victims belonged to the minority Muslim community.

According to the Housing and Land Rights Network, a housing rights group, more than 153,000 homes were demolished by various state governments in India, displacing about 738,000 people in the last few years.

Since 2022, JUH filed multiple petitions to the Supreme Court seeking orders to prevent the governments from demolishing properties as a form of extrajudicial punishment.

On September 13, while hearing another petition, the court observed that running a bulldozer on the property of an accused is “akin to bulldozing the law of the land.”

In its verdict on Wednesday, the Supreme Court firmly stated that the executive must not overstep its bounds by acting as a judge and executing punitive measures such as demolitions.

“The executive cannot pronounce a person guilty. Only on the basis of accusation, if the executive demolishes the property of the person, it will strike at the rule of law. The executive cannot become a judge and demolish the properties of the persons accused,” the verdict said.

“No demolition can be carried out without prior show-cause notice and within 15 days from the date of the notice being served,” it said.

New Delhi-based lawyer Mohammad Huzaifa said that this week’s verdict marked a “historic stand against ‘bulldozer justice,’ affirming that punitive demolitions have no place in our democratic framework.”

“While justice may have come too late for many, this ruling offers renewed faith in our judiciary and stands as a beacon of hope for those wronged by arbitrary demolitions impacting scores of people living under the fear of bulldozer state terror,” Huzaifa, a member of the legal team of civil rights group Association for Protection of Civil Rights, told the VOA.

“The challenge now lies in vigilant implementation — true justice will be measured by how effectively these guidelines are enforced on the ground,” he said.

Muslim community leader Zafarul-Islam Khan said he welcomed the verdict although it has come too late.

“Demolition of people’s homes was a huge issue of human rights violation. Courts should have taken suo motu notice of the cases as soon as those demolitions began some years ago,” Khan, former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, told VOA.

“No doubt, the authorities will not feel so free as before in demolishing homes in the future, but they may still look for their devious ways to do so,” he said.

The verdict, in some ways still sounds not complete, Khan added.

“This welcome verdict will remain incomplete unless and until tens of thousands of the previous victims are also compensated and the powerful people who violated the law at will are punished,” he said.

Human rights activist Harsh Mander said that he was relieved that the Supreme Court had spoken out against a process that was “entirely unlawful and unconstitutional.”

“State injustice bulldozing the homes and shops of the working poor has continued for decades, and periodic orders to follow the compassionate due process from the Supreme Court similar to the recent order have not restrained the executive,” Mander told VOA.

“But my problem with the ruling is that it doesn’t act effectively to deter the current form of demolition, which is essentially targeting a particular community, Indian Muslims. I would have wanted the court to both reprimand and punish political leaders who order and justify such unlawful retributive targeting, and officers who implemented these acts.”
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took a large lead Friday in early results from the parliamentary elections, in an apparent solid mandate for his program for economic revival.

Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party won 15 of the 22 electoral districts whose results have been released so far by the Elections Commission.

Dissanayake was elected president on September 21 in a rejection of traditional political parties that have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948. But he received just 42% of the votes, fueling questions over his party’s outlook in Thursday’s parliamentary elections. But the party received large increases in support less than two months into his presidency.

In a major surprise and a big shift in the country’s electoral landscape, his party won the Jaffna district, the heartland of ethnic Tamils in the north, and many other minority strongholds.

The victory in Jaffna marks a great dent for traditional ethnic Tamil parties that have dominated the politics of the north since independence.

It is also a major shift in the attitude of Tamils, who have long been suspicious of majority ethnic Sinhalese leaders. Ethnic Tamil rebels fought an unsuccessful civil war in 1983-2009 to create a separate homeland, saying they were being marginalized by governments controlled by Sinhalese.

According to conservative U.N. estimates, more than 100,000 people were killed in the conflict.

Of the 225 seats in parliament, 196 were up for grabs under Sri Lanka’s proportional representative electoral system, which allocates seats in each district among the parties according to the proportion of the votes they get.

The remaining 29 seats — called the national list seats — are allocated to parties and independent groups according to the proportion of the total votes they receive countrywide.

The election comes at a decisive time for Sri Lankans, as the island nation is struggling to emerge from its worst economic crisis, having declared bankruptcy after defaulting on its external debt in 2022.

The country is now in the middle of a bailout program with the International Monetary Fund, with debt restructuring with international creditors nearly complete.

Dissanayake said during the presidential campaign that he planned to propose significant changes to the targets set in the IMF deal, which his predecessor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, signed, saying it placed too much burden on the people. However, he has since changed his stance and says Sri Lanka will go along with the agreement.

Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with 2019 militant attacks devastated its important tourism industry. The pandemic also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad.

The government also slashed taxes in 2019, depleting the treasury just as the virus hit. Foreign exchange reserves plummeted, leaving Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports or defend its currency, the rupee.

Sri Lanka’s economic upheaval led to a political crisis that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022. Parliament then elected Wickremesinghe to replace him.

The economy was stabilized, inflation dropped, the rupee strengthened and foreign reserves increased under Wickremesinghe. Nonetheless, he lost the election as public dissatisfaction grew over the government’s effort to increase revenue by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses as part of the government’s efforts to meet the IMF conditions.

Voters were also drawn by the NPP’s cry for change in the political culture and an end to corruption, because they perceived the parties that ruled Sri Lanka so far caused the economic collapse.

Dissanayake’s promise to punish members of previous governments accused of corruption and to recover allegedly stolen assets also raised much hope among the people. 
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washington — Nargiz Mukhtarova knew something was wrong when she didn’t hear from her husband.

Farid Mehralizada, a journalist and an economist, always texted her to let her know he had arrived at his office in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku. But on May 30, the text never came.

The panic over his whereabouts lasted several hours. Eventually, he arrived at their home, handcuffed and accompanied by about eight police officers, Mukhtarova told VOA.

“I tried to stay calm and not add to his worry. I kept thinking about how many days this would take from our lives and what would happen next,” she said.

At the time of her husband’s arrest, she was five months pregnant.

“Now, nearly six months have passed, and he is still not home. He missed the birth of our baby. Our child is now one month old, and her father still hasn’t seen her,” Mukhtarova said.

Mehralizada works at the Azerbaijani Service of VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. His case underscores the state of press freedom in Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan has long been one of the world’s worst violators of human rights in general and press freedom in particular,” Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, told VOA.

Over the past year alone, Azerbaijani authorities have jailed at least 14 journalists in direct retaliation for their work, according to the New York-based CPJ. Many of the journalists are facing charges of currency smuggling, which media watchdogs have rejected as bogus.

Azerbaijani authorities have “cynically embarked on an unprecedented jailing spree against its brightest and most probing reporters, silencing anyone who could hold the authorities to account,” Said told VOA.

On June 1, a Baku court placed Mehralizada under pretrial detention for “conspiring to smuggle foreign currency” in connection to a case brought against the independent news outlet Abzas Media. Mehralizada and Abzas Media both say he never worked for the outlet.

Although Mehralizada’s involvement with Abzas Media was limited to giving expert commentary, several journalists who work at the independent media outlet are among those who have been jailed en masse over the past year.

Abzas Media is considered one of the last remaining independent news organizations in Azerbaijan. It is known for its coverage of corruption, including allegations linked to the country’s ruling Aliyev family.

In August, a couple months after Mehralizada’s arrest, authorities brought new charges, accusing him of “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion and document forgery.” He faces up to 12 years behind bars if convicted of all the charges.

RFE/RL has called for Mehralizada’s release.

“We are deeply concerned by his continued imprisonment on false charges,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said in an October statement.

Mehralizada is one of four RFE/RL journalists currently jailed for their work. The others are Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk in Belarus, and Vladyslav Yesypenko in Russia-occupied Crimea. RFE/RL rejects the charges against all of them as false.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees outlets including RFE/RL and VOA, has also rejected the charges against Mehralizada as bogus.

“Journalism is not a crime, yet, as we see in Farid’s case, journalists around the world continue to be persecuted for reporting the truth,” USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett told VOA in a statement. “The cruelty is abhorrent. It’s time for Farid to return home, and for the unjust persecution against journalists to end.”

The Azerbaijani government has targeted RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service for years, including shuttering its bureau, blocking its website and using Pegasus spyware to target its reporters.

“Our people, like Farid, do their jobs at great personal risk,” Ilkin Mammadov, director of RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, told VOA.

Earlier this week, Vugar Gurbanov, a counselor at Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington, told VOA in an email that “Azerbaijan has a vibrant journalism tradition.”

“Understandably, journalism has nothing to do with permissiveness to engage in illegal activities,” Gurbanov added.

The embassy did not reply to specific questions about Mehralizada’s case.

Almost six months have passed since Mehralizada was arrested, and Mukhtarova says her husband is doing OK. He spends his days reading books, doing crossword puzzles, and finding whatever ways he can to pass the time without his family, she said.

The couple is permitted to have one weekly meeting.

“We look forward to it with excitement every Monday,” Mukhtarova said. “He’s my partner in every sense, sharing both the joys and challenges of life.”

Still, she says, it’s “heartbreaking for both of us” that Mehralizada hasn’t been able to meet their newborn daughter.

“He was so excited about becoming a father, and missing these early moments is incredibly painful for him,” she said.

Mehralizada is well-known for his coverage of economic, social and environmental issues in Azerbaijan, according to Mammadov. He is especially skilled at explaining the everyday impact of complicated economic policies to readers, he told VOA.

“What makes him a uniquely talented journalist is his mastery of the art of storytelling,” said Mammadov, who believes Mehralizada was targeted because of his work.

“This is a textbook case of retaliation against a journalist,” Mammadov said. “It is clear the government’s case against him is a direct attempt to silence his honest reporting.”

Mukhtarova agrees.

“Whenever he uncovered something overlooked, he would feel a surge of excitement,” she said. “Farid had a passion for revealing the truth to people.”

Mehralizada is expected to be held in pretrial detention until at least mid-December. Like many journalists jailed in Azerbaijan, his future remains uncertain.
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Pakistanis are choking on toxic air. With the arrival of cooler temperatures, perpetually poor air quality has reached hazardous levels causing disruptions in daily activities. As VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman reports, experts say the problem that keeps returning every winter will get worse over time.
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Islamabad — The World Health Organization has labeled a forced repatriation of Afghan nationals from Pakistan as a “major setback” for polio eradication efforts, contributing to the regional resurgence of the paralytic disease.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two polio-endemic nations, reporting 49 and 23 cases respectively, so far this year, up from only six cases each in 2023. 

The latest case in Pakistan was confirmed Thursday in the southwestern province of Balochistan, which sits on the Afghan border and accounts for half the cases reported in 2024.

“Until you get rid of polio completely, it will resurge and come back, and this is what we are seeing now in Pakistan [where] nearly half of the districts are infected, and in Afghanistan, a third of the provinces are infected,” Hamid Jafari, the WHO director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said Wednesday while discussing causes of polio resurgence in both countries. 

“I think the major setback was a forced repatriation of Afghan nationals that led to a massive and unpredictable movement of populations within Pakistan and across both borders and within Afghanistan, so the virus moved with these populations,” Jafari told the virtual discussion hosted by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, or GPEI. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that Pakistan’s crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals has resulted in more than 730,000 Afghan migrants returning to Afghanistan since August 2023.

Jafari also mentioned other factors contributing to the rise of polio in Pakistan, including authorities’ inability to consistently carry out vaccination campaigns in areas affected by militancy, where children cannot be effectively immunized against the crippling disease. He also highlighted the presence of “significant vaccine hesitancy and community boycotts” rooted in public frustration over the lack of essential services in impoverished districts.

Pakistani and WHO officials say vaccine boycotts in some regions also result from the false propaganda that anti-polio campaigns are a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children. Additionally, anti-government militants in violence-hit regions occasionally stage deadly attacks on polio teams, suspecting them of spying for authorities, routinely disrupting vaccination drives in districts near the Afghan border. 

Afghan polio ban

While sharing the latest polio situation in Afghanistan, the senior WHO official stated they are collaborating with various humanitarian actors and partners to promote vaccination against polio and all other diseases.

“We cannot implement house-to-house vaccination,” Jafari stated, referencing the ban imposed by Taliban authorities on polio teams over security concerns. 

“The program is working closely with [Taliban] authorities to re-update micro plans and work closely with the communities and local officials to make sure children are mobilized to vaccination sites,” he added. 

In September, the Taliban abruptly halted house-to-house vaccine deliveries in parts of southern Afghanistan, including Kandahar, without publicly stating any reason. 

An independent monitoring board of the GPEI recently said that the Taliban’s action had stemmed from their “administration’s concerns about covert surveillance activities.” The report quoted de facto Afghan authorities as explaining that their leadership is living in Kandahar and has concerns about their security.

Jafari stated that Pakistan and Afghanistan are taking measures to address the challenges in their bid “to rebuild community confidence” and work closely with security agencies in both countries to be able to access all children. 

He cautioned that the current resurgence of polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan does not guarantee a low point next year.

“We are confident that we will come very close to elimination, but the key is to make sure that in these final safe havens for poliovirus in insecure areas, among migrant and mobile populations, and vaccine-hesitant communities, we can finally overcome these residual challenges to make sure that finally polio is eradicated,” the regional WHO director said. 

Polio once paralyzed an estimated 20,000 children in Pakistan each year until the country initiated national vaccination campaigns in the 1990s to control the infections, according to the WHO. In 2019, there were 176 reported cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2021 and 2022, however, the countries reported only one and two infections, respectively.
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New Delhi — Millions of Sri Lankans voted Thursday to choose a new parliament in a key election that will decide if the country’s new leftist president gets the mandate to push ahead with his agenda of improving lives for millions of people struggling with an economic downturn and stamping out corruption. 

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake swept to power in September on his promise of systemic change in a country where public anger with mainstream political parties has been running high since the country’s crushing economic collapse two years ago. 

Hoping to build on the widespread support he secured in the presidential election, he dissolved parliament and ordered snap polls about a year ahead of schedule. Dissanayake’s party, a fringe group, held only three seats in the 225-member parliament.

His coalition, the National People’s Power (NPP) is likely to win a majority, according to political analysts.  

“Normally in this country the presidential winner gets enough parliamentary backing to enable him to govern,” Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, told VOA. “Getting to the half-way mark, that is 113 seats, is crucial because he needs a majority to implement his program.” 

About 17 million people were eligible to choose from about 8,800 candidates. 

Many of the candidates contesting from the NPP are newcomers to politics. Some analysts say that is an advantage because they are not tainted by corruption in a country that has rejected traditional parties, blaming established politicians for a corrupt culture. Others point out that because they are mostly unknown faces, much will depend on whether President Dissanayake, a charismatic leader, was able to convince voters to back them. 

“Parliament needs more NPP members to establish a strong government which will eliminate bribery and corruption,” the Sri Lankan leader said in his final public meeting before the polls. 

Although Dissanayake was a member of parliament for 25 years, his party, the JVP or People’s Liberation Front, was a fringe group on the margins of Sri Lanka’s politics. In the runup to the presidential polls, the 55-year-old leader put together a coalition that consists of members of his party, professionals, civil society organizations, women and youth groups.

 

Public expectations in the country ran high as people headed out to vote on Thursday. Melanie Gunathilaka, a Colombo resident, who voted soon after polls opened, said she is optimistic the elections will pave the way for the change that many Sri Lankans are yearning for. 

“There was a lot of resentment among people like us about the misuse of state funds and mismanagement by the established parties,” she told VOA. “We hope the new government will reflect a political culture that is rooted in transparency and accountability.”  

The main challenger to Dissanayake’s coalition NPP, is the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, led by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. The New Democratic Front (NDF), backed by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe, is also in the fray.  

But the opposition campaign in the runup to the parliamentary polls was low-key. “The opposition is in disarray, so the sense of a contest is not there. Only the NPP has held big rallies,” according to Saravanamuttu. 

Voters directly elect 196 members of parliament, while the remaining 29 seats are allocated according to the proportional vote obtained by each party. Tens of thousands of security personnel were deployed at the more than 13,000 polling stations set up across the island country, at schools, temples and other public places. 

The outcome of Thursday’s polls will be important in determining how smoothly Dissanayake is able to implement reforms he has promised, such as cutting taxes and supporting small businesses. His first task will be to appoint a full-fledged cabinet. At the moment he only has a prime minister and two ministers. 

He backs policies that will ease hardship for working class people and has said that he will renegotiate the terms of a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, while sticking with the program. While the IMF package helped stabilize the country’s economy, subsidies were slashed as part of austerity measures imposed by the IMF. Since the economic collapse, millions have fallen into poverty, food and fuel prices have skyrocketed and citizens say there are fewer job opportunities. 
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka began voting in a snap election on Thursday which will determine if the island nation wants to empower its new, leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to push his pro-poor policies as it recovers from a financial meltdown.

A little over 17 million Sri Lankans are eligible to elect lawmakers to the 225-member parliament for a five-year term. A record 690 political parties and independent groups are in the fray across 22 electoral districts.

Marxist-leaning Dissanayake, 55, was elected president in September but his National People’s Power (NPP) coalition had just three of 225 seats in parliament, prompting him to dissolve the legislature almost a year before its term ended and seek a fresh mandate.

Over 7,000 police personnel have been deployed to ensure free and fair elections at the more than 13,400 polling stations set up across the country, police officers told Reuters.

“The military is also on standby to assist the police but we do not expect any incidents,” said Police Spokesman Nihal Thalduwa, adding that voting was proceeding smoothly.

As polling opened in the early hours of the morning, people began trickling into temples, schools and other public buildings being used as polling stations.

Among them was Umeshi Perera, 32, who lined up to cast her ballot at a school in Biyagama, a suburb about 15 km from the South Asian nation’s largest city of Colombo.

“I think we are seeing the first signs of a positive political change in Sri Lanka after the president was elected and we should give him the chance to continue that change,” she said.

Analysts say Dissanayake’s coalition is expected to draw significant support, while a victory for a rival could lead to a policy logjam the country cannot afford.

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya party of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa – who favors a mix of interventionist and free-market economic policies – is NPP’s main challenger. The other key contender is the New Democratic Front, backed by previous President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

“All arrangements are in place and we appeal to the public to work with us to ensure a free and fair election,” Election Commission Chairman RML Rathnayake told reporters at a pre-election briefing on Tuesday.

Votes will be counted soon after polling closes on Thursday and results are expected to be announced on Friday.

A country of 22 million people just across the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka was crushed by a 2022 economic crisis triggered by a severe shortfall of foreign currency, causing the economy to shrink by 7.3% in 2022 and 2.3% last year.

Boosted by a $2.9 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund, the economy has begun a tentative recovery, but the high cost of living is still a critical issue for many voters, especially the poor.

Dissanayake wants to push anti-poverty policies including bigger welfare schemes and fight corruption as a political outsider in a country dominated by family parties for decades.

He also aims to tweak targets set under the IMF program to reduce high income taxes and free up funds to invest in welfare for millions hit hardest by the crisis.

The new government must deliver a budget to reach a crucial primary surplus target of 2.3% of GDP in 2025 set under the IMF program, deliver pro-poor policies, and put growth on a sustainable path.

But investors worry Dissanayake’s desire to revisit the terms of the IMF bailout could delay future disbursements, and make it harder for Sri Lanka to hit that primary surplus target.

“In past elections, people did not have confidence in us but in September people gave us victory and proved that we are a winning party and we can form a government,” Dissanayake said on Sunday as the campaign neared its conclusion.

“The next task is to unite people from the four corners of this country and build a powerful people’s movement,” he said.
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ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan publicly executed an alleged murderer Wednesday, citing the Islamic concept of retributive justice, or qisas.

The early morning punishment took place at a sports stadium in Gardez, the capital of the Paktia province, the Taliban supreme court announced through the social media platform X.

The provincial government invited the public, and senior civilian, judicial, and military officials, including Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, to witness the execution. Authorities had barred onlookers from bringing cameras or mobile devices.

The convict, identified as Mohammad Ayaz Asad, had reportedly shot dead a Taliban security force member.

The top Taliban court did not specify how the death penalty was implemented. Social media videos showed crowds heading to the sports stadium to witness the event.

“The case was meticulously examined and scrutinized by the three-stage military court of the Islamic Emirate in multiple iterations before the order of retaliation (Qisas) was issued and approved,” the statement said, using the official title of the Taliban government, which is officially not recognized by any country.

It was the sixth public execution of a murder convict in Afghanistan since the Taliban regained power in August 2021 and implemented in a criminal justice system based on their interpretation of Islamic law, Sharia. Previously, such executions were carried out by gunshot.

Despite the United Nations condemning the practice as “inconsistent with the fundamental right to life” and “a form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,” de facto Afghan leaders continue to carry out these executions.

The Taliban also have flogged hundreds of men and women in packed sports stadiums across Afghanistan for committing “immoral crimes,” such as adultery, homosexuality, theft, and robbery. In October alone, nearly 100 Afghans, including women, were lashed in front of onlookers and received jail terms ranging from six months to two years for such offenses, according to the Taliban Supreme Court data.

U.N. experts and human rights organizations have decried corporal punishment as a breach of human rights and international law, urging the Taliban to stop it immediately.

Women’s rights in Afghanistan have declined sharply under the Taliban rule, according to U.N. assessments. They cite a series of decrees and directives issued by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which are designed to “systematically” exclude women from public life in nearly every sector.

The edicts have banned Afghan girls and young women from pursuing secondary and university-level education. Women are banned from public and private workplaces except for health, immigration, and police departments.

A recent decree has deemed the sound of women’s voices in public a moral violation and requires them to cover their entire bodies and faces when outdoors. It also forbids women from looking at men to whom they are not related and vice versa.

The Taliban have defended their Islamic governance and rejected international calls to reverse restrictions on Afghan women’s freedom. No country has officially recognized Taliban leaders as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, mainly citing their harsh treatment of women.
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Islamabad — Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan are scheduled to publicly execute a convicted murderer on Wednesday, citing the Islamic concept of retributive justice, or qisas.

The early morning punishment will be carried out at a sports stadium in Gardez, the capital of the Paktia province, according to a local language official announcement Tuesday through the X social media platform. It invited the public, religious scholars, and civilian and military officials to attend the event, instructing them not to bring cameras or cell phones.

If the death penalty is implemented as scheduled, it will be the sixth public execution of a murder convict in Afghanistan since the Taliban regained power in August 2021 and implemented a criminal justice system based on their interpretation of Islamic law, Sharia. The announcement did not specify how the execution will be implemented.

Previously, such executions were carried out by gunshot. 

Despite the United Nations condemning the practice as “inconsistent with the fundamental right to life” and “a form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,” de facto Afghan leaders continue to carry out these executions.

The Taliban also have flogged hundreds of men and women in packed sports stadiums across Afghanistan for committing “immoral crimes,” such as adultery, homosexuality, theft, and robbery. In October alone, nearly 100 Afghans, including women, were lashed in front of onlookers and received jail terms ranging from six months to two years for such offenses, according to the Taliban Supreme Court data.

U.N. experts and human rights organizations have decried corporal punishment as a breach of human rights and international law, urging the Taliban to stop it immediately.

Women’s rights in Afghanistan have declined sharply under the Taliban rule, according to U.N. assessments. They cite a series of decrees and directives issued by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which are designed to “systematically” exclude women from public life in nearly every sector.

The edicts have banned Afghan girls and young women from pursuing secondary and university-level education. Women are banned from public and private workplaces with exceptions for health, immigration, and police departments.  

A recent decree has deemed the sound of women’s voices in public a moral violation and requires them to cover their entire bodies and faces when outdoors. It also forbids women from looking at men to whom they are not related and vice versa.

The Taliban have defended their Islamic governance and rejected international calls to reverse restrictions on Afghan women’s freedom. No country has officially recognized Taliban leaders as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.
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New Delhi — Sri Lanka will choose a new parliament Thursday in an election that is seen as crucial for the country’s new left-leaning president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who swept to power in September on an anti-corruption platform amid a wave of dissatisfaction with established political parties.

Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) coalition currently has only three seats in the 225-member parliament, constraining his ability to usher in the systemic changes he says are necessary to tackle corruption and improve economic conditions for the working class.

Aiming to boost the NPP’s representation, Dissanayake dissolved parliament soon after he was voted into power and called for snap polls a year ahead of schedule.

Analysts say the strong support that Dissanayake secured in the presidential election seven weeks ago will likely stay with his party in Thursday’s election.

“He got 42 percent of the vote, which is a dramatic leap for a representative of a fringe party which had only secured three to four per cent vote share in any election in the past,” Kusal Perera, political analyst in Colombo told VOA. “That vote will come back in the parliamentary elections, though it may be slightly lesser this time.”

Current cabinet: 3

The 55-year-old president, popularly known as AKD, is seeking a two-thirds parliamentary majority so he can push through his promised reforms. Currently, the Sri Lankan leader has the smallest cabinet in the country’s history — Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, and two ministers. In Sri Lanka, only lawmakers can be appointed as ministers.

His hopes of gaining a much bigger share of parliamentary seats for his coalition rest on voters rejecting parties that governed the country for decades but are blamed by many people for misgovernance and corruption.

The country is still grappling with a severe economic downturn two years ago. Although former president Ranil Wickremesinghe is credited with stabilizing the economy after securing a $2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the austerity measures he introduced – mainly an end to public subsidies – led to sharp price hikes in food and fuel that have caused hardship for millions of Sri Lankans.

Dissanayake has said he will renegotiate the terms of the IMF bailout package to ease the austerity measures that were imposed to secure the loan.

Ahead of Thursday’s elections, the new president has sounded an optimistic note. “In past elections, people did not have confidence in us but in September people gave us victory and proved that we are a winning party and we can form a government,” he said during a campaign rally on Sunday. “The next task is to unite people from the four corners of this country and build a powerful people’s movement.”

The NPP’s main challengers are the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, led by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and the New Democratic Front (NDF), which is backed by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe.

But the opposition has run a lackluster campaign. “There has been no focus on what they want or the program that they want to push,” said Perera.

The country’s powerful Rajapaksa political dynasty, which played a key role in Sri Lanka over the last two decades, has not fielded a candidate in the parliamentary polls.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was the president when the economy collapsed, was ousted by a massive popular protest movement in the country that demanded, among other things, that people guilty of corruption be punished.

Just like the presidential polls, the parliamentary election is seen as a referendum on people’s desire for change in the political landscape. However, there is less enthusiasm this time around, according to some residents.

“Nobody is very excited about the election partly because most people think that it is a given that Dissanayake’s NPP is going to win,” says Chameera Dedduwage, a professional based in Colombo who took part in the protest movement against Rajapaksa. “They feel that they deserve to be given a chance to prove themselves and bring about the system change they have promised.”
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LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Punjab province banned most outdoor activities and ordered shops, markets and malls in some areas to close early from Monday to curb illnesses caused by intense air pollution.  

The province has already closed educational institutions and public spaces like parks and zoos until Nov. 17 in places including Lahore, the world’s most polluted city in terms of air quality, according to Swiss group IQAir’s live ratings.  

The districts of Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala have seen an unprecedented rise in patients with respiratory diseases, eye and throat irritation, and pink eye disease, the Punjab government said in an order issued late on Sunday. 

The new restrictions would also remain in force until Nov. 17, it said. 

“The spread of conjunctivitis/ pink eye disease due to bacterial or viral infection, smoke, dust or chemical exposure is posing a serious and imminent threat to public health,” it said.  

While outdoor activities including outdoor sports events, exhibitions and festivals, and outdoor dining at restaurants have been prohibited, “unavoidable religious rites” are exempt from this direction, the order said.  

Some outlets like pharmacies, oil depots, dairy shops, and fruit and vegetable shops have similarly been exempted from the broad directions, and to close by 8 p.m. local time.  

Lahore’s air quality remained hazardous on Monday, with an index score of more than 600, according to IQAir, but this was significantly lower than the 1,900 that it touched in some places earlier this month.  

A score of 0-50 is considered ‘good.’ 

Several parts of South Asia are engulfed by a toxic haze each winter as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from farm fires.  

Punjab has blamed its particularly toxic air this year on pollution wafting in from India, where northern parts have also been battling hazardous air, and has said it will take the issue up with the neighboring country through its foreign ministry.  

India’s Supreme Court on Monday directed the Delhi government to decide by Nov. 25 on imposing a ‘perpetual ban’ on firecrackers, legal news portal Bar and Bench reported.  

Firecrackers set off by revelers on Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights that was celebrated on Oct. 31 this year despite a ban, has aggravated the region’s pollution problem.  

 
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Dhaka — Rival political groups of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday thwarted a plan by her Awami League party to hold a rally in Bangladesh’s capital, seen as a potential first effort to make a comeback on the streets since she fled the country in August amid a mass uprising. 

The rally in Dhaka by Hasina’s party was to commemorate the death of a party activist on Nov. 10, 1987, which had sparked a mass protest against former military dictator H.M. Ershad. He was eventually ousted from office, ending his nine-year rule in 1990. 

The day is commemorated as “democracy day.” In 1991, Bangladesh switched to a parliamentary democracy from a presidential form of government, and since then Hasina and her rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, became the most powerful political figures in the country. 

On Sunday, activists of the party headed by Zia, Hasina’s main rival, and also members of the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami party took to the streets of Dhaka, filling up much of the area where the rally was scheduled to take place. 

Others, including hundreds of student protesters, also announced that they wouldn’t allow Hasina’s supporters to stand on the streets and hold the rally. The protesters said that they think Hasina’s party was trying to make a comeback by holding a rally on the streets on Sunday. The protesters from the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, a group that led the mass uprising in July-August, aggressively hunted for supporters of Hasina. 

Groups of people surrounded the Awami League party’s headquarters near the Noor Hossain Square in Dhaka where Hasina’s supporters were supposed to gather to hold the rally. 

Security was tight in the area, but witnesses and local media said that the protesters attacked several supporters of Hasina when they attempted to reach there and chanted slogans in favor of the fallen leader. 

The Awami League party said that many of their activists were detained by police as they came under attacks. 

Tensions ran high throughout Sunday with the anti-Hasina protesters saying that they wouldn’t allow the party to hold any public rally under any circumstances. 

The Awami League party posted a number of videos on Facebook on Sunday showing its supporters being manhandled. Its party headquarters had earlier been vandalized following Hasina’s fall on Aug. 5, and on Sunday it was empty and there were signs of destruction. Outside, control was in the hands of Hasina’s opponents. 

The political chaos in the South Asian nation went on as Zia’s party was seeking quick reforms and a new election from an interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus. The party believes it will be able to form the new government in the absence of Hasina’s party, while its other allies are also struggling. 

The Yunus-led government said it would seek extradition of Hasina and her close associates as they face charges of crimes against humanity involving deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising.
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Islamabad — The Taliban in Afghanistan sent its representatives to Azerbaijan on Sunday to attend a major United Nations climate change conference, marking the first such participation since they seized power three years ago.

State-run Afghan media reported that Muti-ul-Haq Khalis, head of the National Environmental Protection Agency, is leading the Taliban’s “technical” delegation, which is expected to have observer status instead of full participation.

The U.N. Climate Change Conference, commonly called COP29, is scheduled to start Monday in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, and will run until November 22.

The Taliban have been excluded from recent international climate change talks because no country has recognized them as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, nor have they been permitted to take the country’s seat at the U.N. General Assembly.

Poverty-stricken Afghanistan is ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis. It has recently encountered severe weather-related disasters like flash floods and prolonged droughts.

Flash flooding earlier this year killed more than 350 Afghans, damaging close to 8,000 homes and displacing more than 5,000 families besides destroying crops and agricultural land. U.N. agencies report that the recent extreme weather in Afghanistan exhibits all the signs of the escalating climate crisis.

Taliban authorities have sought to participate in U.N. climate summits, arguing that their political isolation should not prevent them from joining international climate talks and discussing the challenges facing their country.

Host Azerbaijan invited the Afghan environment agency officials to COP29 as observers, enabling them to “potentially participate in periphery discussions and potentially hold bilateral meetings,” the Reuters news agency quoted a diplomatic source familiar with the matter as saying.   

The Taliban’s restrictions on the freedoms of Afghan women have primarily deterred the world from formally engaging with their government. They have prohibited girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade and suspended female students from universities since regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, when the United States and NATO troops left the country.

The Islamist leaders have enacted laws requiring Afghan women to cover their bodies and faces in public. Additionally, these laws prohibit women from undertaking long road or air trips unless accompanied by a male guardian.

The Taliban say their governance is in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia and reject international calls for reversing restrictions on women as an interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. 
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kabul, Afghanistan — An Afghan delegation will attend the upcoming United Nations climate change summit in Azerbaijan, the foreign ministry spokesperson told Agence France-Presse on Saturday, marking a first since the Taliban government came to power.  

“A delegation of the Afghan government will be in Baku” for the COP29 summit, which opens on Monday in the Azerbaijani capital, said the spokesperson, Abdul Qahar Balkhi.  

It was not immediately clear in what capacity the delegation would participate at COP29, but sources indicated it would have observer status.   

Afghanistan is ranked as the country sixth most vulnerable to climate change and Taliban authorities have pushed for the government’s participation in COP summits, saying their political isolation shouldn’t bar them from international climate talks.   

No state has recognized the Taliban authorities since they swept to power in 2021, ousting the Western-backed administration.   

Officials from the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency have repeatedly said climate change should not be politicized and called for environment-related projects put on hold due to the Taliban takeover to be reinstated.  

Azerbaijan, a fossil fuel-rich former Soviet republic wedged between Russia and Iran, will host the COP29 from November 11-22.  

Baku reopened its embassy in Kabul in February this year, though it has not officially recognized the Taliban government.  
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