Posts published in May 2014

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON — In the Obama administration’s most direct confrontation with China over its theft of corporate secrets, the Justice Department on Monday unsealed an indictment of five members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and charged them with hacking into the networks of Westinghouse Electric, the United States Steel Corporation and other companies. The indictment named members of Unit 61398, which was publicly identified last year as…

By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2014 GILGIT:  Lawyers have boycotted legal proceedings in Gilgit to protest the killing of a man at the premises of the city’s court. The strike was called by the Gilgit High Court Bar Association after one Tahir Ahmed was shot dead by gunmen near the entrance of the Chief Court on Wednesday. Ahmed was about to enter the court to attend a hearing the time. He…

MUZAFFARABAD:   In Sudhan Gali, a health resort, some 90 kilometres from the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), girls have been studying under the open sky since the earthquake devastated the valley nine years ago. The Government Girls High School is situated at 9,000 feet above sea level where more than 400 girls study in the shade of trees. The school was destroyed by the earthquake in 2005 and has so far not been…

By Maqbool Malik  in   The  Nation, May 16, 2014 ISLAMABAD – Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, Sun Weidong, has said his country would continue its assistance to Pakistan in acquisition of civil nuclear technology within the UN framework. The Chinese ambassador Thursday won hearts of the members of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, which invited him for briefing on Pak-China bilateral ties and cooperation in various fields. Chairman of the committee Sardar Awais Ahmed…

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan police have appointed personnel to the Karakoram Security Force for the protection of Chinese engineers and labourers working on the Karakoram Highway expansion project in the region. Among them are 199 foot constables, 15 drivers and 10 wireless operators on contractual basis, an official of the GB police told Dawn on Thursday. The official said a selection committee of the GB police had approved the appointment of 224 personnel to the KSF…

By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, May 14, 2014 GILGIT: An under-construction RCC bridge in Hunza Valley of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) collapsed in the Hunza River on Tuesday, substantiating allegations of corruption that have marred successive regional governments over the years. Work on Hussainabad Bridge started back in 2006 in order to connect Shinaki area of Hunza with Karakoram Highway (KKH) – the thoroughfare connecting Pakistan with China through G-B. The bridge was supposed to…

By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, May 12, 2014 GILGIT:  A human rights watchdog has drawn Chief Minister (CM) Mehdi Shah’s attention towards the scarce cardiac care facilities in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), saying the death rate among cardiac patients has reached a dangerous level in recent years. “Of every five people aged 50 or above in G-B, at least one is a heart patient, which is highly alarming,” chief coordinator of the International Human Rights…

By Shabbir Mir   in The Express Tribune, May 11th, 2014 GILGIT: The ongoing sit-in of community teachers outside the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly (G-B) is taking a toll on protestors. A number of women have fainted over the past few days. More than 50 teachers, comprising mostly women, began their protest on Tuesday expressing their frustration with the government’s failure to regularise their schools operating under the Social Action Programme (SAP).  They demand the same salaries as…

GILGIT: ‘We are here to stay’ is the message the protesting teachers put across on day three of their sit-in after they pitched tents outside the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Assembly gate. “We will not retreat till we get written orders from the government,” said a teacher, while addressing fellow protesters on Thursday. Joined by students, teachers from schools working under the Social Action Programme (SAP) pitched tents outside the assembly to camp overnight if necessary. On…

By Shabbir Mir  in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2014. GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Chief Minister (CM) Mehdi Shah on Tuesday announced the termination of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), terming the latter’s members “snakes in the grass”. After assuming power in G-B in 2010, the PPP forged an alliance with PML-Q, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) under then president Asif Ali Zardari’s policy of…