KARACHI: Two prayer leaders among five men belonging to the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) were gunned down on Friday in what appears to be a tit-for-tat sectarian violence in the city. In a fresh wave of violence, five members of the religious organisation were murdered in three separate incidents within an hour. Earlier, the Shia community was targeted in the holy month of Muharram, as nearly seven people of the community were killed and…
Posts published in “Day: November 5, 2016”
SHABQADAR: Security forces, in a combing operation on Friday, arrested 13 suspected militants and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the Sro Kali Michni area of Charsadda. The police recovered 45 SMGs, 17 magazines, 13 pistols, 17 shotguns and other ammunition from the area. Police official added that search operations are also taking place in lower Mohmand and on the border of Charsadda. The locals, however, complain that the ongoing operations have…
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Local authorities on Friday dynamited a market in Rustam Bazaar of South Waziristan’s headquarters Wana under local laws as a punishment for an explosion which killed an army officer and injured many others earlier this week, officials and local residents confirmed. Political Agent in South Waziristan Agency Zafarul Islam Khattak told Dawn that the action was taken under the collective and territorial responsibility clauses of the Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR). Officials identified…
The writer is a researcher and consultant in the social sector. AWAY from television screens and crystal balls of analysts, there is a slow-moving change under way in Pakistan that may impact civil-military relations more than the person to be appointed as the next COAS. In focusing on the civ-mil balancing scales, we are overlooking how the fulcrum itself is changing. The lever between the two is the logic of the state itself, and it…
Two important matters related to the army are currently on the PM’s table. One, the investigation into the source of a story published in a local English daily about a civ-mil spat during a high level security meeting last month. Second, the selection of the next chief of army staff (COAS) after Raheel Sharif’s three year term ends on the 28th of this month. As far as the investigation is concerned, the army is not…
Afghanistan’s National Unity Government (NUG) is teetering on the brink. Internal political turmoil has worsened as differences over the power-sharing formula have intensified between the two presidents. Ethnic conflagration has also increased. Ethno-sectarian violence and the brinkmanship of the ruling class may further worsen the situation. The exponentially growing power of the Daesh in northern and eastern Afghanistan, and Taliban’s influence in the south means that the government and its allies have failed to bring…
SAMARKHEL, Afghanistan — There is one country in the world that is now taking in more Afghan migrants than all the countries in Europe and South Asia put together this year. That would be Afghanistan itself. By the end of the year, aid officials here expect some 1.5 million migrants to return to Afghanistan — many of them forcibly, and including some officially registered as refugees. Some will come from Europe, which has recently signed…
NEW YORK: Eight years since the pledge to end the war in Afghanistan gave Pakistan a somewhat unwanted prominence in then-candidate Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the election campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have barely featured mention of Pakistan. In an interview with the Hindustan Times in October, Mr Trump claimed that he would “love to be the mediator or arbitrator” between India and Pakistan, but in typical contradictory fashion, he told a Republican…
ISLAMABAD: The much-touted Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project has now entered into terminal phase with 100 percent perfect design, new CEO of NJHP Brig (R) Engineer Muhammad Zareen said. “At the very outset, the project was conceived in haste with poor design to garner the water priority rights of Neelum River as at that time India had started working on Kishenganga project on the same river. In 2006-07, the design was revamped after catastrophic earthquake that hit…
KARACHI: The National Tariff Commission (NTC) started an antidumping probe into the imports of steel coils from China, almost a year after it slapped duties on Chinese cold rolled coils on the same ground. The commission, in a notice issued recently, said the International Steels Limited (ISL) – the sole producer of galvanised coils in Pakistan – complained that Chinese companies were dumping galvanised and colour coated steel coils into Pakistan at below market prices,…
ISLAMABAD: A consortium of Chinese companies is planning to bring a $3 billion investment fund to Pakistan, representatives of these companies told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during their meeting here on Friday. Highlighting the huge potential for Chinese investment, the prime minister said that Chinese firms could invest in Pakistan’s infrastructure development, energy and communication sectors. Appreciating the prime minister’s vision of economic revival, members of the Chinese delegation said they were planning to invest…