Press Release
Women's Seminar to call for Islamic leadership to break cycle of neglect of Pakistan's women and children by successive incompetent governments

London, 30th September 2010 - Hundreds of women from across the UK will gather at a seminar on Saturday October 2^nd 2010 to express their anger at the failure of the Zardari and successive Pakistani governments to secure the needs of the country's women and children. They will call for an alternative leadership shaped purely upon Islamic principles and laws to break this cycle of neglect and incompetence.

In the aftermath of Pakistan's worst floods in living memory, millions of Pakistani's remain without shelter, clean water, food, and effective sanitation or medical treatment, living in treacherous conditions that are breeding grounds for deadly diseases. The UN estimates that 3.5 million children are at risk of malaria, cholera, and other water-borne diseases and that 100,000 could die from malnutrition in the next 6 months. The UNFPA has reported that 500,000 of the millions displaced are pregnant women, with almost 2000 going into labour each day, devoid of adequate medical care and at greater risk of death due to poor health, malnutrition, and anaemia resulting from desperate poverty during normal times. Some women in the absence of any shelter are giving birth at roadsides.

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz, Women's Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain commented, "Political and economic incompetence by consecutive Pakistani leaderships have turned a natural disaster into a human catastrophe. It is an utter disgrace that in a country that has a history of floods and where agriculture is the lifeline of the livelihood of so many of its citizens and a major source of revenue for the nation that consecutive governments have failed to have adequate flood prevention and management plans to minimise deaths, limit damage to people's lands, and avoid the development of a humanitarian crisis."

"The indifference of the country's leaders to the suffering of the people is contemptible. As the Muslims of Pakistan pulled their dead from the flood waters, Zardari was enjoying a joyride across Europe banqueting with Western leaders. As children were feeding on crumbs and filthy water, he was feasting on the finest of foods. As the mothers of Pakistan were giving birth at roadsides under sweltering heat, he was living the life of luxury in 5-star hotels at Pakistan's tax-payers' expense. While the Muslims of Pakistan were fighting a war of survival in these floods, the Zardari government continued to deploy the Pakistani army to fight a war against their own people at the behest of the US. Instead of involvement in rescue and reconstruction, the sons of Pakistan were used for death and destruction."

"For too long, an heirloom of corruption, inadequacy and incompetence has been handed down from one Pakistani leadership to the next. For too long, the Muslims of Pakistan have been held ransom to the oppressive feudal political system designed to serve the wealthy and political elites rather than the majority of citizens. This regressive system, based upon self-preservation and securing self-interests of the political class has allowed politicians to feed off the wealth of the land in true parasitic fashion rather than use it to feed their people. Furthermore, Pakistan's leaders have been bereft of any economic vision other than placing the nation's finances in the palms of the IMF and Western powers whose strangulating capitalist policies have placed an economic noose around the necks of the people and sucked the country dry. Their addiction to foreign aid and bail outs has mortgaged the country away."

"Military dictatorships, secular democracies, socialism, and capitalism have all failed the women and children of Pakistan. The country is in need of a radically new alternative to break the cycle of misery, hardship, and suffering that has been the norm for so many generations of Pakistani's. The Muslims of Pakistan deserve better than self-serving politicians and decrepit political systems. They deserve a system whose priorities lie in sincerely taking care of the needs of the people, protecting the lives of its citizens, and defending the sovereignty of its lands. This is the Khilafah "Caliphate" state that will create a leadership that will fight the cause of the weak and oppressed, feed the mouths of the hungry, and nurse the pain of the nation and Muslims beyond. It is a system with a vision of greatness that will sever the line of dependency on foreign aid and utilise the rich resources of the land to promote self-sufficiency, eradicate poverty, and invest heavily in public services, technology, and research to effectively manage future natural  disasters. The Muslim Ummah deserves no less than this."

Hizb ut Tahrir Britain