BY now Pakistanis are accustomed to ‘non-state actors’ — nebulous creatures that are blamed for the nation’s ills and help the government defer the burden of accountability. In a nod to these elements, we learnt this month that the violence and intolerance that permeate this country’s campuses are the work of ‘non-student elements’. This coinage comes from the Punjab University (PU), which re-opened recently as a 19-day faculty boycott came to an end. The faculty…
Posts published in “Day: April 25, 2010”
By Myra MacDonald in the Reuters Blog DAMADOLA: Despite initial military successes against the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan is unlikely to move any time soon to dismantle the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group. As I wrote in this analysis, Pakistani security officials say the country has enough on its plate fighting militants on its Afghan border without opening a new front in Punjab province, where the LeT is based. They argue this…
Former foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri’s startling disclosure that a solution to the Kashmir problem had been worked out under the Musharraf government and that all that was required was a signature on the relevant documents is rather unexpected and opens up all kinds of new possibilities. While there had been talks on the issue that contributes most to continued tensions between India and Pakistan, we had not known a solution was so tantalisingly close.…
By Zulfiqar Ali Khan in The Dawn, apr 25 HUNZA, April 24: The rise in temperature coupled with glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) from the Ghulkin-Hussaini glacier have increased the water inflow in the lake formed on Hunza River due to the devastating landslide of Jan 4 at Atabad Hunza. According to experts, the daily water inflow in the lake spreading over 13km has reached to 2,500 cusecs with a daily water level with an…
GILGIT, April 24: Six members of the Gilgit-Baltistan cabinet were sworn in on Saturday. Governor Dr Shama Khalid administered the oath to them at a ceremony. Those who took the oath were Dr Ali Madad Sher, Wazir Shakil, Mohammad Ali Akhtar, Haji Gulbar, Engineer Ismail and Mohammad Jaffar. Their portfolios would be allotted later on, official sources said. Senior civil and military officials as well as a large number of PPP workers and notables attended…
By Tariq Naqash in The Dawn, Apr 25MUZAFFARABAD, April 24: Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider said on Saturday that recommendations of the Supreme Judicial Council calling for removal of non-functional chief justice Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry were binding on the AJK Council chairman — the prime minister of Pakistan. “Some elements are conspiring to get the SJC recommendations held in abeyance to create unrest in AJK, but I hope that Prime Minister…