Pakistan Ulema chief admits hate literature leads to violence

LAHORE: Pakistan Ulema Counsel (PUC) Chairman Allama Tahir Ashrafi has said that easy availability of instigating literature in the market was the core reason behind the rising extremism in the country, a private TV channel reported on Wednesday.

Speaking in a programme aired by the channel, Ashrafi condemned Tuesday’s bomb blast in Lahore, which took more than 10 lives and left several others injured.

He said nobody in the country mulled over the post 9/11 rising wave of terrorism in the country.

Literature and CDs spreading hate against all schools of thoughts was available in the markets, he said, adding that no authority in the country took action against it.

He said the country was founded in the name of Islam, but there was no true Muslim in the country at present. Followers of every sect considered the others kafir (non-believer) or issue edicts alleging others of blasphemy. Such unauthorised people were in action because the authorised ulema were silent over such issues, he added.More

Situation of Human rights in Balochistan is worrisome

By Mohammad Zafar

QUETTA: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Balochistan chapter has expressed deep concern over lawlessness, increasing incidents of kidnappings, recovery of mutilated bodies and death and destruction in the province.

An HRCP press release issued after the annual meeting of Balochistan chapter on Wednesday said, “The situation is going from bad to worse and there is no sign of improvement. The commission, on several occasions, pointed out the issues and expressed its concerns but to no avail.”

It stated that human rights were being violated with impunity causing a sense of insecurity among the citizens of Balochistan. HRCP said it was a matter of great concern that people have lost confidence in the government as it has failed to protect their basic rights.

“The extra-judicial killings and kidnapping of Hindus is damaging the image of Pakistan across the world. The government had failed to crackdown on the criminals, it said.Source

Sindh faces acute hunger: UNICEF

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh province, hit hard by the last year’s floods, is suffering levels of malnutrition almost as critical as Chad and Niger, with hundreds of thousands of children at risk, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

A survey conducted by the Sindh government and the UNICEF revealed malnutrition rates of 23.1 percent in northern Sindh and 21.2 percent in the south.

Those rates are above the 15 percent emergency threshold set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and are on a par with some of the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Northern Sindh also had a 6.1 percent severe acute malnutrition rate and southern Sindh had 2.9 percent, both far above the WHO thresholds.

“We are looking at hundreds of thousands of children at risk,” UNICEF chief of communication, Kristen Elsby, told Reuters.

A full report would be released on Friday by the Sindh government, she said, along with the province’s response plan.

Elsby said it was unclear if the August’s floods had caused a spike in malnutrition, but that it had revealed the extent of the problem because babies and mothers were being screened for the first time.

“People were already vulnerable and this kind of kicked the chair out from under them,” she said.

Monsoon floods starting in late July last year devastated Pakistan. More than one-fifth of its territory was inundated and 20 million people affected. Ten million were left homeless and nearly 2,000 people died. Source

Ethnic cleansing in Karachi

Babar Ayaz

Karachi is a multi-ethnic city and, once upon a time, the optimists among us thought that it was the melting pot of the country where people of diverse ethnicity assimilate into an urban ‘Karachi culture’. But that was a dream that got shattered in the mid-1980s when the city was torn apart by ethnic violence. On one side were the Pashtun transporters and on the other side was an emerging Mohajir identity, which was the bulk of the commuters. There were excesses from both sides. Ever since then, the city has not normalised.

One of the major reasons that this city keeps bursting into flames is that its population has been growing at a much higher rate than the national average, the main reason being that people from all over the country come here seeking employment. This internal migration is changing the ethnic profile of the city. The newcomers, who are mostly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have started asserting for a larger share in the city’s politics. That is something, which makes the city’s largest ethnic community — the Mohajirs — nervous as they feel that eventually their control over the city will be diluted. The Sindhis, who were sidelined in this city long ago, are also returning to claim their say in Karachi.More

Blasphemy law becomes contentious issue in Pak now Pope on target

LAHORE – World Pasban Khatam-e-Nabuwwat on Sunday staged a demonstration outside Lahore Press Club to condemn and protest against Pope Benedict’s appeal and European Parliament resolution for amendments in blasphemy law, deteriorating law and order situation and price hike. Read more

Former ISI officer was killed by abductors

PESHAWAR – Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer Colonel Imam has been killed by the abductors in North Waziristan

Sultan Aamir Tarar, commonly known as Colonel Imam, along with two other colleagues including Khalid Khawaja, a former intelligence agency officer, and Asad Qureshi, a journalist, was kidnapped by a militant group almost 10 months back in March 2010 on the charges of spying, when they were travelling from Bannu to Waziristan. Read more

Imran warns of civil disobedience

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) has decided to protest levy of new taxes and plans a civil disobedience movement if the government goes ahead with the taxation plan.

“In the first phase, we’ll protest the government’s bid to introduce new taxes and convert this protest drive into a civil disobedience movement if the rulers do not defer their plans,” PTI Chairman Imran Khan told a press conference on Wednesday.

He demanded that before burdening the masses through new taxation, the government must make public the assets of the ruling classes and the amount of taxes they paid.

He said power consumers were also being made to pay more as even the public sector institutions were steeling power.

He said according to a Pepco report, against 2.8 million sold air-conditioners, owners of only 185,000 air-conditioners were paying bill.

He said Pepco unearthed 400,000 illegal connections, but no action was taken….more

Musharraf warns of new military coup in Pakistan

LONDON: Former president Pervez Musharraf warned Wednesday that Pakistan’s military could launch another coup, as he prepared to launch a new party and rejoin the country’s turbulent politics.
The retired general said army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani could be forced to intervene against the goverment of President Asif Ali Zardari which he said had failed to tackle rampant extremist militancy and a crumbling economy.

Musharraf — who himself came to power in a coup in 1999 and has lived in London since quitting in 2008 — cited as evidence a reported crisis meeting this week between Kayani, Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Asked whether he thought there was a likelihood of a new coup, he told the Intelligence Squared debating forum in London: “Well, you see the photographs of the meeting with the president and the prime minister and I can assure you they were not discussing the weather….more

Pakistan blocks Nato supply trucks: officials

PESHAWAR: Pakistani government officials say senior authorities have ordered them to block oil tankers and trucks carrying Nato supplies at a checkpoint bordering Afghanistan.

The two officials say they were not told the reason for the order at the Torkham border post. However, it comes after threats by Pakistani officials to stop providing protection to Nato convoys if the military alliance’s choppers hit Pakistani targets again.

Earlier Thursday, Pakistani officials alleged a Nato airstrike hit a border post, killing three Pakistani troops.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media…..more

pak dissmisses report on possible Europe attack

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army on Wednesday dismissed as “very speculative” media reports that this month’s upsurge in drone strikes on terrorists in the country’s northwest sought to disrupt attacks on European cities. Sky News on Tuesday reported that Pakistan-based terrorists were planning simultaneous strikes in London akin to the 2008 Mumbai attacks as well as attacks on cities in France and Germany. Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Major General Athar Abbas told Reuters, “We don’t have any information or intelligence that militants had gathered there (in North Waziristan) and were plotting attacks. There is absolutely no intelligence on that.” “Basically it’s very speculative,” he said of the Sky News report. “It’s a very speculative story. It does not quote any credible source.” While no senior-ranking terrorists had been reported killed, Pakistani intelligence officials say a number of others of different nationalities are believed to had died. ….more

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