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Posts published in November 2014

 Chinese man acquitted in kidnap case : Report in Dawn, November 28th, 2014

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court acquitted on Thursday a Chinese national in a kidnapping for ransom case due to lack of evidence.   Hai Feng was charged with kidnapping his fellow national Yugang Bai for ransom in Clifton in January 2013.   Judge Imdad Ali Khoso of ATC-VIII, who conducted the trial, exonerated the accused after recording the evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.   In his final arguments, defence lawyer Mohammad Farooq…

Gilgit court hands 26 years’ jail to Geo TV owner: by Jamil Nagri in Dawn, November 26th, 2014

GILGIT: An anti-terrorism court has sentenced the owner of the Jang-Geo group Mir Shakeelur Rehman, host of Geo TV’s morning show Shaista Lodhi, actress Veena Malik and her husband Malik Asad to 26-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs1.3 million each for hurting religious sentiments of people in the show.   Announcing the verdict on Tuesday, ATC judge Raja Shahbaz ordered inspectors general of police of Islamabad, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to arrest…

G-B govt decides to hold polls under biometric system

By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2014. GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan government has decided to hold the upcoming elections under the biometric system.   The decision comes at a time when allegations of widespread rigging in the 2013 general elections are still making the rounds. And though the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has ended its sit-in in Islamabad, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is still adamant to somehow uncover poll fraud, which the party claims…

Melting glaciers: Editorial   in Dawn, November 25th , 2014

A NEW study has drawn attention to the accelerating rate of glacial melt in Pakistan’s mountainous north. The problem is grave and has far-reaching ramifications for the country, yet it is as remote from the public mind as the glaciers are from the cities.By itself, the phenomenon is too obscure for most people to grasp. But seen in the context of overall climate change and global warming, it is a reminder that Pakistan is amongst…

Summary to appoint GB election commissioner lying with PM: Barjees

Report in The Nation, November 25, 2014 SANGLA HILL: The Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly is going to complete its five-year term on December 12 and may get its first Chief Election Commissioner soon as a summary has been sent to the Prime Minister by ministry of Kashmir Affairs, disclosed Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Chaudhry Barjees Tahir here the other day. The minister said that the G-B Governor had sent a summary to the…

UAJK employees protest shifting of funds to other varsities

  By Tariq Naqash  in Dawn, November 25th , 2014 MUZAFFARABAD: Employees of the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (UAJK) took to the streets, here on Monday, to condemn what they alleged shifting of their institution’s funds to other seats of higher learning in the region. They demanded immediate restitution of the funds shifted to the Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST), University of Poonch Rawalakot (UPR) and Women University Bagh, beyond their…

Study of melting glaciers worries meteorologists: by  Jamal Shahid   in Dawn, November 24th , 2014

  ISLAMABAD: Meteorologists worried at the depletion of glaciers in Pakistan studied six glaciers in the Karakorum Range recently, and the results have made them worry even more.   “All of them were found melting at a faster rate. The changing climate is taking a heavy toll on our glaciers,” Chief Meteorologist of Pakistan Met Department (PMD) Dr Ghulam Rasul told Dawn.   And the disaster awaiting the nation can be imagined as depletion of…

G-B CM slams federal govt’s apathy over civil rights: By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, Nov 24th, 2014.

GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Chief Minister Mehdi Shah has leveled strong criticism against the federal government’s apathy on granting constitutional rights to the region, blaming it for the area’s stunted development.   According to a press release issued on Sunday, Shah lauded the sacrifices made for the county by the people of G-B over the last six decades. “I can rightly say that our sacrifices have not been acknowledged,” he said.   In 1947, G-B was…

China Said to Turn Reef Into Airstrip in Disputed Water; The NY Times, Nov 24, 2014

By JANE PERLEZ BEIJING — A major reclamation project by the Chinese government on a tiny reef 500 miles from the mainland would enable China to land military aircraft there, expanding its reach into the contested South China Sea, analysts have said.   The analysts’ report came as a group affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army hosted an international conference in Beijing on Friday and Saturday intended to showcase President Xi Jinping’s call for a…

Prosecution of Uighur Students Underscores Perils of Chinese Clampdown

By ANDREW JACOBS in The NY Times, Nov 24, 2014 BEIJING — Ambitious and fluent in Mandarin, the young Uighur strivers from the Xinjiang region of northwest China had earned coveted slots at the nation’s top university for ethnic minorities. Most were the first in their families to attend college.   But since last January, at least five men and women who attended Minzu University in Beijing have been incommunicado after they were swept up…

Voice of dissent: ‘Where is the empowerment we were promised?’

By Shabbir Mir  in The Express Tribune, November 22nd, 2014. GILGIT:  Lawyers in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) on Friday urged the Pakistan Army to fill the vacuum left by civilian governments and guarantee constitutional rights to the people of the region.   “It is about time the army steps in to provide fundamental human and constitutional rights to the people of G-B,” Advocate Shehbaz Khan, vice president of G-B Bar Council, told journalists at the Gilgit Press…