SKARDU, Sept 23: Nomination papers for election to the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly will be accepted until Oct 1 and polling will be held on Nov 12. According to the election schedule announced here, the last date for submission of objections is Oct 9 and the final list for candidates will be displayed on Oct 15. Election symbols will be allotted on Oct 17. The results will be announced on Nov 14. According to a television…
Posts published in September 2009
( the author is a London based Kashmir leader. He is the General Secretary of JKCHR – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN) Way back in 1887, Walter Lawrence wrote – “The Kashmiri is made up of contradictions. He is timid yet persistent, degraded yet intellectual. ..He would not hesitate to throw his burden on his neighbour’s shoulders and if he failed he would depart to some other village under the aegis of…
By Tariq Naqash in The Dawn, Sept 19 MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 18: The president of the ruling faction of Muslim Conference (MC-F) Raja Farooq Haider on Friday demanded of the chairman Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council (Prime Minister of Pakistan) to dissolve and reconstitute the superior judiciary in AJK which he alleged was overstepping its authority and role. “The judiciary is supposed to check the other two organs of the state – executive and legislature –…
By Arun Joshi in The Hindustan Times, Sept 18 Srinagar, Sept 17: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, 36, chairman of the moderate faction of Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyat Conference, told HT on Thursday: “The time to be anti-India is over.” It was a startling shift in position of a man who has been one of the leading symbols of the Kashmir Valley movement for separation from India. “Hurriyat is keen on starting a dialogue with both India…
By Tariq Naqash in The Dawn, Sept 17 MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 16: People affected by Mangla Dam raising project have asked the federal government to fulfil its commitment by constructing a bridge in their area, threatening that if the pledge was not met, they would launch an agitation and hinder the storage of additional water in the reservoir. The warning came amid apprehensions that the Federal Planning Commission was disinclined to provide funds for the cable-stayed…
By Irfan Ghauri ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the federal government’s Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-governance Order 2009, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on Wednesday criticised Qamar Zaman Kaira’s appointment as governor, claiming it would lead to pre-poll rigging. Addressing a press conference at PML House, PML-Q Gilgit-Baltistan in-charge Marvi Memon said the package should have been implemented through an act of parliament after consultation with all political parties. Massive rigging: She said people of the area felt the…
By Tariq Naqash, The Dawn, Sept 15 MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 14: The AJK Environmental Protection Agency (AJK-EPA) has declined to grant the mandatory no-objection certificate to Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for a second hydropower project envisaging diversion of River Jhelum on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad for certain technical reasons. Sources told Dawn here on Monday that Wapda had submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of Kohala Hydropower Project (KHP) to the AJK-EPA in…
By M. Ismail Khan THE ‘autonomy package’ introduced by the government for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan is a mix of good and bad news. The good news is that the area will now have an autonomous status with a chief minister and a governor. The bad news is that it has been given only a province-like status and has no institutional link with the four provinces or the Pakistani constitution. It is not yet clear…
By Asif Ezdi The Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order, 2009, approved by the cabinet on Aug 29 seeks to grant self-rule to the people of the area on the pattern of the autonomy enjoyed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir. As the government itself admits, the promulgation of this Order, which has now been signed by Zardari, implies a rejection of the demand that Gilgit-Baltistan be made a province of Pakistan and that its people be…
WASHINGTON, Sept 1: Discredited Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan “remains a serious proliferation risk,” a US official said on Tuesday after the scientist gained freedom of movement. In Islamabad, Mr Khan said the Pakistani authorities had lifted restrictions on his movements. “We believe he remains a serious proliferation risk,” a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity when asked to comment on the news. “We have made clear to the Pakistani government…
MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 1: Three policemen were injured on Tuesday when shots were fired by three suspicious persons who later disappeared in the nearby forests bordering Bagh and Poonch districts, police and residents said. The accused, sporting beards and wielding automatic weapons, hidden under shawls, were spotted by the residents of Kothiyan village in dubious condition and they immediately informed the Chitra Topi police post about their presence. When a police party, comprising head constable Idrees…