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Minorities’ Protection Bill to be tabled in National Assembly

August 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Aug 18(ANI): Pakistan’s Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti has said that a bill aimed at addressing the concerns of the minorities would soon be tabled in the National Assembly.

Bhatti said that a draft of the bill would be finalised after consultation with all political parties, representatives of minorities, Islamic scholars and other stakeholders.

“The discriminatory laws against minorities, which were incorporated into the Constitution during Gen Zia’s regime would be amended through the bill,” The Dawn quoted Bhatti, as saying.

He further said that Gen Zia had framed laws, which were violating democratic norms and basic human rights and negated the vision of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Bhatti highlighted that the current law makes the minority communities feel deprived, neglected and insecure and not getting equal rights and opportunities in accordance with the vision of Jinnah.

He said the proposed bill would promote inter-faith harmony and strengthen national unity. (ANI)

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Professor Rehman appointed Institute of Kashmir Affairs regional director

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 1 (ANI): After a detailed meeting with Dr Shabir Choudhry in London, Professor Khawaja Abdul Rehman has been appointed Regional Director of Institute of Kashmir Affairs, Azad Kashmir Chapter.

Rehman is a professor of English in Muzaffarabad and is conducting research on languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He has done extensive research on local languages and culture in Azad Kashmir. He has great experience of history, culture and local languages of Neelam Valley; and is also studying for a doctorate at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Rehman will establish IKA set up in Azad Kashmir and encourage research in various fields to enhance Kashmiri people’s sense of belonging to a nation. Apart from that he will supervise all publications and distribution of IKA books and other literature.

Last week, the IKA Executive Council met and approved Saeed Asad’s book on NSF Unity March – Wahadt March – to Gilgit should be translated in English and published. In this regard, Dr Shabir Choudhry met Asad and made arrangements for the translation of the book.

The IKA Executive Council also agreed to publish the Urdu version of Dr Shabir Choudhry’s new book – Struggle of independence, Jihad or a Proxy war.

Professor Rafiq Bhatti has already translated the book from English to Urdu and arrangements are being made to get the Urdu translation out before July 13, 2009. (ANI)

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Killing Mehsud would deal a body-blow to Pak Taliban’s effectiveness: Experts

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 23 (ANI): The Pakistan Army has claimed that its Swat offensive has been successful with scores top Taliban leaders being killed, but the fate of Swat Taliban chief Mullah Fazalullah and the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud is still under wraps.

Now, the Pakistan security forces have shifted their focus on South Waziristan, the stronghold of Mehsud, and the region where the warlord is believed to be hiding, as experts consider that if Mehsud is nabbed, a large quota of the menace of terrorism would die down in times to come.

Mehsud, who has been blamed for carrying out several devastating terror attacks in Pakistan, including the brazen assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, holds a legendry status among the militants, and if the military is successful in sanitizing him, it would mean a severe blow to the extremists, a report in The Christian Science Monitor said.

Experts believe that Mehsud is the prime force that has been able to bind the different sections among the Taliban together, and if he falls the extremists could also fall apart reducing the formidable threat they currently pose, the report said.

“He (Mehsud) is the center of gravity in the war on terror. If you could take out the leadership, it would be a great force multiplier for Pakistan,” said Mahmood Shah, a security analyst and former security chief of Pakistan’s tribal areas.

It would take another four to five years for any other Talibani commander to reach the heights of Mehsud and carry on working on his (Mehsud’s) aims of crippling whole of Pakistan, it went on to add.

“For another individual to step in and gain that stature would take four to five years,” said a senior journalist, Mahmood Shah.

However, analysts also believe that simply capturing or killing Mehsud would not serve the purpose, as Taliban would have to be rooted out completely to quell extremism completely in the region, the report added.

“It (Pakistan government) would have to kill or capture the entire Pakistani Taliban leadership,” said Rifaat Hussain, a security analyst at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. (ANI)

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Radical insiders, not Taliban real threat to Pak nukes: Experts

May 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, May 16 (ANI): There has been a persistent tension in the international community regarding the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, and fears about it falling into the hands of the Taliban and other extremists has kept the world on tenterhooks.

If concerns of experts are anything to go by, the real danger to Pakistan’s nuclear establishments does not comes from extremists but from radical insiders within the government.

Head of the Physics Department at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy believes that the radicals among the educated,potential insiders, are in a more realistic position to abscond with nuclear material .

They are far more threatening than the extremists as they also know how to use the weapons, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

“The threat comes not from the ‘mountain barbarians’, but from Al Qaeda, together with their Islamist allies within the Pakistani state and society. These are urban people, engineers, technicians, people in fairly high offices,” Prof. Hoodbhoy said.

The United States has spent over 100 million dollars to help Pakistan beef up its nuclear security, but question still looms large over how safe these establishments are.

Former head of nuclear intelligence at the US Department of Energy, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen said there was not much transparency over how and where such a huge sum was spent.

“There’s not a lot of transparency into it, and going into it I think the US felt like that was acceptable,” Larssen said.

Larssen also believes that the real threat was from the insiders rather than outsiders snatching a usable warhead.

“My big concern is the insider threat combined with outsiders,” he said. (ANI)

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Altaf demands public hanging of culprits behind flogging of Swat girl

April 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Karachi, Apr 6 (ANI): Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has asked President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Interior Adviser Rehman Malik to publicly hang those who had flogged a young girl in Swat.

He made this demand while delivering a telephonic address on Sunday at a MQM women wing’s rally at the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

The MQM observed a peaceful black day all over the country, including Karachi vehemently condemning the flogging of the young girl in Swat.

Protests were also held in other parts of the country, including Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Umerkot in Sindh and parts of the Punjab. Protests were also registered by the MQM in parts of England and some states of the USA.

Lashing out at Ulema who had issued statements in support of flogging, Altaf said as per the Quranic verses, the girl could only be punished if four pious eyewitnesses, who prayed five times a day, were produced.

He added if these people failed to produce such witnesses, then the people who had flogged the girl should be whipped publicly 80 times, The News reported.

Altaf also lashed out at the Taliban and said they were defaming Islam. The MQM chief made it clear that he was not against the Pakhtuns, but opposing the Talibanisation of the society, adding he did not accept the Shariah of the Taliban.

He said according to investigative reports, the marriage of the girl and the boy was forcibly solemnised and now the boy was under immense mental pressure. One of the brothers of the girl works in Saudi Arabia and the victim had done intermediate from a college in Mingora, he said.

Altaf disclosed the Taliban had been chasing both the boy and the girl. He demanded of the authorities concerned to save them from these elements. In an emotional tone, Altaf said this act of the Taliban had brought shame to the entire nation. He demanded that those responsible for this act be publicly flogged to death.

He further said he had been repeatedly cautioned about the danger posed by the Talibanisation in Pakistan, including Karachi, but the authorities had turned deaf ears to his warnings and they themselves saw how the girl was flogged. (ANI)

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Minorities’ Protection Bill to be tabled in National Assembly

Professor Rehman appointed Institute of Kashmir Affairs regional director

Killing Mehsud would deal a body-blow to Pak Taliban’s effectiveness: Experts

Radical insiders, not Taliban real threat to Pak nukes: Experts

Altaf demands public hanging of culprits behind flogging of Swat girl

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