GILGIT, March 5: The federal finance ministry has slapped a ban any new appointments in Gilgit-Baltistan. GB finance department officials told this correspondent the federal ministry had taken serious notice of creation of new posts by some departments and had asked it (the finance department) to furnish details of the posts. The official said a huge amount of Rs600 million had been allocated to meet the expenditure of the new posts. He said public works…
Posts published in March 2013
by Tariq Naqash in Dawn, March 6 MUZAFFARABAD, March 5: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has appointed a minister’s spouse as a member of the AJK Public Service Commission (PSC) in a decision that has drawn flaks from a main opposition party and civil society groups. Apart from Ms Arifa Rabbani, wife of Akhtar Rabbani Khan, minister for agriculture, Mohammad Saeed Mughal, a retired secretary to the government, has also been appointed as…
The writer is professor of International Relations, University of Karachi and has authored a study titled Bangladesh and Pakistan: From Conflict to Cooperation. BANGLADESH is again plunging itself into another phase of political turmoil and violence. The decision by the Dhaka-based International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) to award capital punishment to two key leaders of the Bangladeshi Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on charges of war crimes during the March-December 1971 civil war in the former East Pakistan has…
We were on the road from Gilgit to Sost, in the far north of Pakistan, a journey that follows the Silk Route taken for millennia by merchants on the road to China. We passed the site of the battle of Nilt, where three Victoria Crosses were awarded after a desperate fight in 1891 between British forces and local tribes. We reached a great gorge where, according to geologists, the subcontinent of India crashed into Asia,…
GILGIT, March 4: The State Bank of Pakistan will establish its office in Gilgit to resolve financial matters of the region. Sources in the administration said a three-member delegation comprising Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah, Senior Minister Mohammad Jaffar and Chief Secretary Sajad Salim Hottiana met the SBP governor in Karachi to discuss the possibility of opening the branch of the central bank in GB. They said matters pertaining to finance and other related issues…
By Peer Muhammad in The Express Tribune, Mar 4 ISLAMABAD: Amid fresh security threats, the Gilgit-Baltistan administration has put in place “extraordinary measures” to pre-empt any act of violence along the Karakoram Highway. A senior official of G-B administration said that the interior ministry advised authorities in G-B and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to take extraordinary measures while warning of possible terror threats at the strategically located highway which connects Pakistan with China. When contacted, Additional Chief Secretary…
GILGIT, March 2: The Diamer district administration has banned construction of any kind in the area to be used for constructing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam. Administration officials said the deputy commissioner Diamer has issued directives to avoid construction of any kind in the area specified for Diamer-Bhasha Dam. The officials said the directives came following a tussle over possession of land between native residents of Chilas town and the settlers. The officials a decades-old feud ran…
MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Army is investigating the alleged torture of a youth that led to his death last week in Azad Kashmir, an official said on Thursday. Mohammed Ali Murtaza’s family have accused the army of torture and claim the 26-year-old died while in its custody after going missing on February 17 near the de-facto border between Pakistan and India in the divided Kashmir region. The Pakistan Army has launched an inquiry to investigate the…
GILGIT: A report of the International Human Rights Observer’s (IHRO’s) Gilgit-Baltistan chapter has enlisted the poor law and order situation as the main reason for human rights violations in the region. “According to a rough estimate, around 3,000 people have been killed in sectarian violence since 1988,” says the report that was released recently. On the loss of lives and its impact, it states that about 900 women have been widowed and nearly 2,500 children…
By Shahbaz Rana in The Express Tribune, Mar 1 ISLAMABAD: A move by the Asian Development Bank to bring World Bank on board for co-financing Diamer Bhasha Dam backfired when the World Bank instead asked the ADB to first seek a no-objection certificate from India – a condition that has derailed the project. The ADB has so far faced criticism for asking for Indian NOC at the eleventh hour when Pakistan has already met agreed…