The writer works with Punjab Lok Sujag, a research and advocacy group. THE first Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly completed its tenure on Dec 10 last year. The prime minister appointed a caretaker chief minister the same day. The presidential order of 2009 that had instituted a new governance system in this long ignored area did not provide for such appointment, so the order was amended. Since it was an order, the prime minister did not have to…
Posts published in February 2015
GILGIT: Two high-profile prisoners accused of assassinating Diamer SSP Muhammad Hilal and Col Ghulam Mustafa and Capt Ashfaq Aziz of the army escaped from the district jail here on Friday, while an inmate allegedly involved in the Nanga Parbat massacre of foreign tourists and their guide was killed and another injured. According to a police official, Hazrat Bilal and Dilbar Khan of Diamer were suspectsin the killing of10 foreign tourists and their guide near the…
ISLAMABAD: The Pak-Kuwait additional loan agreement of $32 million for Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project was signed here on Thursday. Secretary Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Saleem Sethi and Dy DG Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFED), Hamad Al-Omar signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Kuwait Ambassador Nawaf Abdul Aziz Alenezi witnessed the ceremony. It may be added that Kuwait has already been co-financing this project with an amount…
By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2015. GILGIT: A local court in Gilgit on Thursday granted pre-arrest bail to 19 nationalist leaders booked under treason charges a day earlier. Taruf Abbas and Mumtaz Nagri, among others, were granted bail by an additional sessions court in Gilgit after they submitted an appeal through their lawyers Ehsan Ali and Amjad. The nationalist leaders had earlier allegedly spoken against the state for keeping Gilgit-Baltistan deprived…
GILGIT: Although the schedule of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly polls has yet to be announced, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as the PML-N president has formed a 16 members committee for his party`s election campaign. The committee consists of federal ministers and PML-N central leaders. According to political adviser to the PML-N GB Shams Mir, the committee is headed by Maryam Nawaz, daughter of the prime minister, while MNA Hamza Shahbaz, National Assembly deputy speaker Murtaza…
LAHORE: PPP central Punjab General Secretary Tanvir Ashar Kaira has demanded the newly-appointed governor of Gilgit/Baltistan should be replaced by a person who is the son of soil and acceptable to all political parties. In a statement issued on Sunday, Kaira maintained that the appointment of the new governor was unconstitutional because after the 18th amendment in the constitution the governor had to be from the region. Pir Karim Shah, the outgoing governor, is right…
GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court on Monday gave a two-week deadline to the federal government and the GB caretaker government to submit their responses in two petitions seeking explanation about delaying the elections to the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA). A two-member bench comprising Justice Sahib Khan and Justice Wazir Shakeel heard the two separate petitions filed by Pakistan People`s Party leader Amjad Hussain and MWM`s Ehsan Ali. The respondents in the case are GB Council…
GILGIT: A High Altitude Police (HAP) Unit has been established for the first time by the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) police, stated a press release issued on Sunday. The body has been set up on the directives of the newly-appointed police chief of G-B, Captain (retd) Zafar Iqbal Awan. “Its prime duty will be to provide foolproof security to foreign mountaineers,” said the press release. “In its initial phases, the unit will comprise 50 police officials while…
LAHORE: Senior analyst Najam Sethi has said the appointment of a federal minister as the Gilgit-Baltistan governor soon before elections there casts doubts on intentions of the federal government. Speaking in Geo News programme Apas Ki Baat on Sunday, Sethi said it becomes specially a matter of concern if some close relatives of the caretaker cabinet members are contesting the elections. In reply to questions by host Muneeb Farooq, the analyst said if the government…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan claimed on Sunday not only would he stand victorious in the upcoming Azad Kashmir election, but also succeed in next general election in spite of whatever tricks Nawaz Sharif employs. Speaking to media on Sunday flanked by PTI Azad Kashmir President Barrister Sultan Mehmood, Khan lamented that a dictator conducted local bodies’ election in the country but political parties opposed the polls, concentrating all the powers in their…
MIRPUR (AJK) : By-election to LA-III Mirpur city seat of Azad Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly will be held in all circumstances as per the schedule on March 15, 2015, declared AJK Chief Election Commissioner Justice Munir Ahmed Chaudhry categorically while dismissing an application, seeking postponement of the election for some time. The petition was filed by a candidate Raja Khalil Yousaf belonging to the ruling PPP AJK. According to details, a total of 28 candidates…