AFP: Afghanistan announced on March 7 it will host Pakistan for three Twenty20 cricket internationals in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates later this month, the first bilateral series between the neighbors. The Afghanistan Cricket Board said its home season will start with the series against Pakistan on March 25, 27, and 29. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Sports News
8am: According to reports from local sources, the Taliban have recently taken over a village in Sar-e-Pul province, where the inhabitants are mainly from the Hazara community. The Taliban reportedly forced these Hazara residents to leave their homes and evacuate the village. In addition to the forced evacuation, the Taliban have also imposed a fine of 36 million AFG on the residents of this village. This move has caused widespread concern and alarm, as it marks a continuation of the Taliban’s oppressive tactics toward minority groups in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Destroyed Buddha Statue
RFE/RL: March 11 marks the anniversary of the destruction of Bamiyan’s sixth-century Buddha statues by the Taliban in 2001. According to experts, encroaching construction, negligence, and looting are endangering the status and future of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Click here to view photos (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 7, 2023
ISLAMABAD — The International Labor Organization said Tuesday that female employment levels in Afghanistan had fallen steeply since the Taliban took over the war-ravaged country.
The ILO, in a new report, found that Taliban curbs on women’s activities and their ability to work had contributed to the decline. It assessed that the recent edict barring women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations had exacerbated the situation.
“In the fourth quarter of 2022, female employment is estimated to have been 25 percent lower than in the second quarter of 2021, before the crisis. Male employment levels are down seven percent in the same period,” the report said.
The Taliban reclaimed power in August 2021 as the United States and NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades of war.
The de facto leaders have since implemented a strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, barring most Afghan women from workplaces and banning female education beyond grade six in the impoverished country.
“Restrictions on girls and women have severe implications for their education and labor market prospects,” said Ramin Behzad, the senior ILO coordinator for Afghanistan.
The report noted that home-based self-employment had become the predominant form of women’s participation in the labor market, preventing the figure from falling further.
“Providing equal access for all young women and men to quality education and training as well as decent and productive employment opportunities remain a key challenge and priority for the future of the Afghan economy and society,” Behzad said.
The ILO report estimated that youth employment had decreased by 25% for Afghans between the ages of 15 and 24. It said that restrictions on young women have further contributed to the disproportionate and devastating impact of the crisis on youth.
Afghanistan continues to face a humanitarian crisis blamed on years of war, prolonged drought, harsh economic conditions and a challenging labor market.
The Taliban takeover worsened the crisis as foreign governments halted development funds for the largely aid-dependent country, froze more than $9 billion in Afghan central bank foreign assets and isolated the Afghan banking sector.
The international community has refused to recognize the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. It is calling for the hardline leadership to uphold human rights and cut ties with terrorist groups before it is willing to engage in diplomatic relations.
Related
Khaama: According to the central bank, this is the 60th aid package that has been dispatched to Afghanistan. Since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, the international community’s cash aid has reached nearly $2 billion. Compared to the Pakistani Rupee and Iranian Rial, Afghani has remained quite strong over the past year and a half. Many financial and economic experts relate the stable value of Afghani to the inflow of USD to Afghanistan under the umbrella of humanitarian cash aid. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
March 6, 2023
Amnesty International has urged the UN Human Rights Council to address “relentless abuses” by the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan.
In a statement announcing its new report, the rights watchdog demanded that the UN council “establish an independent investigative mechanism in Afghanistan at the earliest opportunity, with a focus on evidence preservation to pursue international justice.”
It cited a “wave of arrests” and “unlawful detentions” of women’s rights defenders, academics, and activists.
Amnesty International also cited fresh evidence of attacks on civilians in the Panjshir region where military resistance to the Taliban has been historically strong, “including abductions and enforced disappearances” that “are still being committed as the Taliban’s conflict with the National Resistance Front (NRF) continues.”
It cited its own investigation into mass killings of ethnic Hazaras by Taliban fighters in the Ghazni, Ghor, and Daykundi provinces where perpetrators have evaded justice.
It said the preservation of evidence “is key to pursue international justice.”
Persistent abuses and denial of the most basic rights for women and minorities have continued and even accelerated in the 18 months since the Taliban swept to power as the U.S.-led international troops withdrew and the UN-backed Afghan government collapsed and fled, leaving millions of Afghans already battered by decades of conflict to fend for themselves.
Just this week, international officials have been frustrated by the Taliban’s refusal to allow women and girls to attend school as universities reopened in Afghanistan.
“It is time for the international community to follow up their repeated public statements with concrete action,” Amnesty quoted its secretary-general, Agnes Callamard, as saying.
“The international community should act soon to establish a UN-mandated international fact-finding and evidence preservation mechanism to ensure independent investigations and prosecutions are possible,” she said. “The current accountability gap is allowing grave violations and abuses in Afghanistan to continue unabated, and it must be urgently closed.”
The UN Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, is the only global intergovernmental rights organization but has no legally binding powers over UN member states.
With reporting by AP
ESPNCricinfo: Despite dim prospects for an Afghanistan women’s team being formed so long as the Taliban remain in power, Afghanistan’s status as an ICC Full Member is unlikely to be affected. The matter is set for wider discussion at the next ICC board meetings in Dubai in March, when the ICC’s working group on Afghanistan will provide an update on progress in the country. ESPNcricinfo understands that the group, headed by the ICC’s deputy chair Imran Khwaja, will push for not penalising Afghanistan’s status and shed greater light on the difficulties the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) faces in pushing to develop the women’s game. Click here to read more (external link).
Imran Khan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 6, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has imposed a complete ban on the broadcasting of speeches and news conferences by populist former prime minister Imran Khan, and swiftly suspended a mainstream satellite television channel for defying the order.
The curbs, slapped on late Sunday, were swiftly condemned by critics as an assault on the country’s freedom of speech and independent media, demanding the government remove them.
The state-run Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority ordered all satellite television channels to stop showing Khan’s “live and recorded” speeches and media talks immediately, warning that violators will have their licenses canceled.
The ban came hours after Khan, 70, addressed supporters of his opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) part, outside his residence in the eastern city of Lahore and alleged corruption against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
In Sunday’s live televised speech, the cricket-star-turned politician again accused Pakistan’s powerful military and its recently retired chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, of protecting incumbent rulers in alleged corruption cases. He also accused an unnamed officer of the country’s spy agency of unleashing a crackdown on PTI leaders and social media activists.
The media regulator claimed in its directive that Khan was “leveling baseless allegations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions and officers.”
The authority hours later suspended the license of the ARY News channel for airing clips of Khan’s speech in a “willful defiance” of the prohibition order.
PEMRA had previously banned satellite television channels from broadcasting Khan’s live speeches, but a high court outlawed those restrictions as a violation of freedom of speech.
The country’s independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in a statement Sunday it “deplores” the latest decision to ban the PTI chief speeches.
“We have always opposed measures to curb voices…and continue to stand by our commitment to freedom of speech, irrespective of the person’s political opinion. The ban must be lifted immediately,” the watchdog stressed.
Arrest warrants
Khan’s speech Sunday came hours after police tried to serve arrest warrants on him to ensure his appearance in an anti-graft court on charges he had unlawfully sold state gifts received from foreign dignitaries while serving as prime minister. He is required to appear in court Tuesday.
A police statement later said they could not directly serve the arrest warrants on Khan because his aides told them he was not at home.
Pakistan’s election commission had recently found Khan guilty of selling the gifts, prompting the Federal Investigation Agency to file charges against him and issue arrest warrants for avoiding appearing in court.
The opposition politician, popular among Pakistani youth and urban voters, rejects the charges as politically motivated and part of the Sharif administration’s alleged drive to victimize the opposition.
Khan has been demanding the government announce early elections since a parliamentary no-confidence vote toppled his nearly four-year-old government last April. Sharif, the then-opposition leader, succeeded Khan and cobbled together a coalition government of about a dozen political parties.
Sharif has rejected calls for a snap vote, saying it will be held later this year when Parliament completes its mandatory five-year term.
The deposed prime minister has led massive countrywide protest rallies to push for his demands. Khan was shot at and wounded while leading a rally last November. He accused Sharif and his administration of plotting to kill him, charges the government rejected.
On Sunday, Khan defended his absence from court, saying authorities did not provide adequate security during his multiple court appearances in the capital, Islamabad, last week. He again denied any wrongdoing and dismissed as fake dozens of lawsuits the government has launched against him since his ouster.
Until now, most Pakistani satellite channels would mute parts of Khan’s speeches where he would criticize Bajwa and other military officers for their role in removing him from office and for their continued involvement in national politics.
Just days before he stepped down from office after an extended six-year term last November, Gen. Bajwa acknowledged the military had been meddling in national politics for decades but decided in 2021 to end the “unconstitutional” practice. It was a rare admission, but Bajwa’s claims of ending the interference have been met with deep suspicions and skepticism by Khan’s party as well as independent critics of the military.
Pakistan’s military has staged several coups against elected governments, ruling the country for nearly half of its 75 years of existence. The institution is deeply involved in commercial and business activities but those who question the activity often face pressures and are dubbed traitors by pro-military media outlets.