Pakistan elects first female Dalit senator
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan elected its first female senator from the lowest Dalit caste in weekend polls which also saw the ruling party strengthen its hand ahead of a general election in the Muslim-majority country. The surprise victory of opposition candidate Krishna Kumari Kohli in the Senate election stirred a wave of optimism on social media, as Pakistanis celebrated the rare success for a woman from a marginalized community at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy.
“I feel proud, I am thankful to Pakistan People’s Party that they nominated me,” Kohli told AFP yesterday. “Kudos to PPP for electing #KrishnaKohli .... Our parliament should have representatives of all religions, classes & genders in pursuit of true democracy,” tweeted rights activist Jibran Nasir. Pakistan’s Hindus, who make up around two percent of the country’s 200 million people, have long faced economic and social discrimination.
Members of parliament and of provincial assemblies voted Saturday to fill half the seats in the Senate, or upper house, before elections due this summer for the lower house of parliament. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 15 of the 52 seats up for election to secure a total of 33 spots in the 104-seat upper house.
DAMASCUS: Syria’s regime seized control of over a quarter of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on the edge of Damascus after two weeks of devastating bombardment, sending hundreds of civilians into flight, a monitor said yesterday. As the United States, Britain and France stepped up pressure on Damascus and Moscow to end the bloodshed, the United Nations said it plans to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to Eastern Ghouta’s besieged residents.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces had advanced to within three kilometres of Douma, the enclave’s main town, after retaking “more than 25 percent” of Eastern Ghouta, in operations mostly through farmlands. The advance into the last major opposition enclave near the capital, on the back of 15 days of air strikes, artillery fire and rocket attacks that are reported to have killed more than 640 civilians, sent hundreds into flight to western parts of the enclave.
Regime backer Russia last week announced daily five-hour “humanitarian pauses” in the enclave. But while the air campaign has eased, fighting has intensified on the ground. With the support of Russian warplanes, the Syrian military has advanced on several fronts, retaking control of farms and villages, a military source told state media. The source said government forces seized a number of districts including Al-Nashabiyeh and Otaya, and had “eradicated terrorist groups” on the eastern outskirts of Damascus.
They have reached the center of the enclave, to the edge of Beit Sawa, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor. After advances in recent days that saw the regime seize control of 10 percent of Eastern Ghouta, rebel fighters clashed with regime forces yesterday in the eastern part of the enclave, the Observatory said. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory, said at least 12 regime fighters had been killed in two areas, AlRihan and Shifoniya, in overnight clashes with the Jaish alIslam rebel group.
Jaish al-Islam shares control of rebel-held parts of Eastern Ghouta with Faylaq al-Rahman and Ahrar alSham. Hamza Bayraqdar, a spokesman for Jaish al-Islam, said on Twitter that the group’s forces had launched “surprise attacks” against regime positions. The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said rebels had retaken some parts of Shifoniya.
Hundreds flee
An AFP correspondent inside Eastern Ghouta saw hundreds of civilians yesterday fleeing from the town of Beit Sawa in the southeast of the enclave. The Observatory said some 2,000 civilians had fled regime shelling and clashes in eastern areas to western parts of the enclave. “Everyone is on the road. There’s destruction everywhere,” said 35-year-old Abu Khalil, carrying a little girl in his arms wounded on the cheek. On Saturday, 18 civilians, including three children, were killed in regime bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, according to the Observatory. At least 76 pro-regime fighters and 43 rebels from Jaish al-Islam have also been killed in clashes since Feb 25, it says.
Encircled by regime-controlled territory and unable or unwilling to flee, Eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 residents have in recent weeks suffered one of the most ferocious assaults of Syria’s civil war. Under siege since 2013, they had already been facing severe shortages of food and medicine. The region’s over-burdened medical workers have been struggling to cope with the rising number of wounded.
While falling short of a 30-day ceasefire demanded by the United Nations, Russia’s announcement of daily humanitarian pauses in fighting had raised hopes of some aid deliveries and evacuations. A convoy of “46 truckloads of health and nutrition supplies, along with food for 27,500 people in need” would finally enter the battered enclave today, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. The OCHA said further deliveries would follow and that it had “approval” to help 70,000 needy residents.
Moscow has offered safe passage to non-combatants wishing to leave Eastern Ghouta during the pause, but no Syrian civilians have left the enclave since the first break in fighting took effect on Tuesday, the Observatory says. Damascus and Moscow have accused rebels of preventing civilians from leaving.
On the international front, US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia and Syria were responsible for the “heartbreaking human suffering” in Eastern Ghouta. The two leaders, during a phone call, “agreed it was a humanitarian catastrophe, and that the overwhelming responsibility for the heart-breaking human suffering lay with the Syrian regime and Russia, as the regime’s main backer”, the premier’s office said. — AFP