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Posts published in April 2015

The final say: edit : edit in the News, April 19, 2015

By staying the execution of six persons, stated to be convicted terrorists, the Supreme Court has made it plain that the 21st Amendment, passed by the National Assembly early this year, is not a final part of our legal structure and is open to question. The executions of the six men had appeared imminent after the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, on April 2 this month ratified a military court decision that they…

Our Afghanistan policy: By Hussain Nadim in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2015.

The writer is Project Director of Peace and Development Unit at the Planning Commission. Pakistan may be the “worst neighbour in hell” as the sentiment goes in Afghanistan. However, the recent shift in Afghanistan’s policy on Pakistan depicts a new Afghan mindset — a new-found ‘respect’ for Pakistan, freeing it from the accusation of being a state that caused instability in Afghanistan. Just a few years ago, while attending seminars on Afghanistan in the US,…

New Signs of Danger for Americans in Pakistan

By MICHAEL KUGELMAN in the Wall st Journal, Apr 17, 2015 The writer is senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. On April 16, in the volatile Pakistani megacity of Karachi, gunmen shot a 55-year-old American woman named Debra Lobo. They attacked her as she drove home from her job as an administrator at a medical college. Luckily, Ms. Lobo survived. The attack was a troubling reminder of the…

Pak-Afghan polio meeting cancelled over security threats: by IKRAM JUNAIDI In Dawn,April 18, 2015

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of officials of Pakistani and Afghan health departments in Kabul, which was also to be attended by representatives of UN agencies, was cancelled because of security concerns. The meeting scheduled for Thursday and Friday was cancelled on the request of Afghan government. A proposal to hold the meeting in Islamabad is now being considered. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries which have been transferring polio virus to each other. The major…

Pak-Afghan military tie-up: Commanders vow ‘denial of space to terrorists’; report in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2015.

ISLAMABAD: Top military commanders of Pakistan and Afghanistan have pledged to continue coordinated offensives on their respective sides of the Durand Line in order to ensure terrorists find no place to hide. Army chief General Raheel Sharif and Afghan chief of general staff General Sher Mohammad Karimi, who met at the GHQ in Rawalpindi on Friday, also reaffirmed their commitment to “continue targeting terrorists on [their] respective sides [and] ensuring total denial of space [to…

Afghan army chief to be chief guest at Kakul passing out parade today

REPORT In Dawn,April 18, 2015 ISLAMABAD: Afghan Army Chief Gen Sher Mohammad Karimi will be the chief guest at the passing out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), Kakul, on Saturday, the military’s public affairs division said. Gen Karimi would have the distinction of being the first foreign dignitary to be the chief guest at the ceremony, which marks the commissioning of officers on completion of their two-year-long training course at the country’s premier…

Civilian or khaki justice? : by Saad Rasool in the Nation,Apr 19, 2015

The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore. He has a Masters in Constitutional Law from Harvard Law School. Earlier this month, the Army Chief “confirmed” the death sentence for six TTP militants, who had been tried in the military courts, recently established under the 21st Constitutional Amendment, and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2015. On Thursday, these death sentences were suspended by a seventeen member bench (Full Court) of the honorable Supreme Court of…

Dire Situation: edit in the Nation,Apr 19, 2015

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has released its annual report, State of Human Rights (for 2014), which confirms that the situation in Pakistan remains worrisome as ever. The reports covers human rights, labour and unemployment, the justice system, journalists’ safety, prisoners’ rights, forced disappearances and missing persons, universal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, and the state of education, health, housing as well as law and order in the country. Perhaps the most distressing…

Karachi attacks : edit in the News, April 19, 2015

Targeted attacks have returned to Karachi. On Thursday, the vice-principal of Jinnah Medical and Dental College Debra Lobo was shot in the face by militants who claimed to be linked to the Islamic State. The American citizen has survived the attack – but only just. On the same day, the SHO of the Preedy police station, Ejaz Khwaja, was shot dead by two gunmen. The SHO was travelling to the police station in civilian clothes…

Karachi operation : Edit in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

GIVEN the menu of items discussed at the last apex committee meeting in Karachi, it would appear that the Rangers’ operation in the city is approaching an important turning point. They appear to be moving beyond simply apprehending violent elements, to actively draining the swamp that breeds them, — with a particular focus on the sources of funding which come from “extortion, illegal hydrants, kidnapping for ransom” and other such activity. Additionally, a computerised record…

Afghanistan’s Growing War with ISIS: by MATT SCHIAVENZA in The Atlantic, APR 18 2015, 7:10 PM ET

The author is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. In the ten months since its stunning capture of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, the Islamic State has expanded its reach beyond its geographic base, establishing a foothold in countries such as Libya. A vicious suicide attack in Afghanistan now raises fear that the war-torn country may be next. On Saturday, an unidentified man detonated explosives inside a crowded bank in Jalalabad, a city located near the…