by Mazhar Abbas in The News, March 27th, 2015 The longest serving Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad must have read the “writing on the wall.” Will he step down on his own or await Islamabad’s orders? The key question is that how such a powerful governor suddenly lost the confidence of the state. Was the decision not to hold a meeting at the Governor’s House or the Chief Minister’s House taken by the prime minister?…
Posts published in March 2015
The writer is a doctoral researcher at the School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham. Sindh is a land of Sufis where people belonging to all religions have lived in harmony for centuries. Jhoolay Laal or Laal Shahbaz Qalander of Sehwan is respected by Hindus and Muslims alike. Both throng the shrine of Qalander annualy for his urs. The recent attack on an Imambargah in Shikarpur may have shocked many due to the pluralistic and…
KARACHI: There is a fundamental difference in the understanding of the concept of a university by the West and in our part of the world wherebyin the West it is not meant for ideological indoctrination, said Dr Syed Nomanul Haq in his talk at the University of Karachi on Thursday. He was giving a lecture on the `Study oftheEarlyIslamicHistory:Methodology of Research and Teaching in Western Academia` organised by the faculty of social sciences as part…
ISLAMABAD – Three months after civil and military leadership joined hands to purge the country of religious seminaries involved in spreading sectarian hatred or having links with terrorists, the National Assembly was informed Thursday that about zero progress made so far regarding registration of unregistered seminaries across the country. MNA Dr Fauzia Hameed got no answer from Minister of State for Religious Affairs Pir Aminul Hasnat Shah when she asked him about the progress made…
PESHAWAR: An unknown assailant shot dead a traffic police official while he was on duty near Marchako Mandi area in Peshawar city on Thursday. An official of Faqirabad police station said that ASI Mohammad Fayaz was on a routine duty when an unidentified armed man opened fire on him with a pistol. He breathed his last on way to the Lady Reading Hospital. The official said that the ASI had no enmity and seemed to…
QUETTA: At least five police personnel, including two officers, were gunned down by suspected militants in Makhtar area of Loralai district, some 350km northeast of here, on Thursday night. Sources said Rara-Sharam’s Station House Officer Tahir Shah was going to Punjab in a passenger coach when armed men killed him after ordering him out of the vehicle. Personnel of Frontier Corps, along with a heavy contingent of police, launched an operation to arrest the assailants.…
By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2015. GILGIT: A four-year old ban on the trade of gemstones in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) was lifted on Thursday, restoring the income of nearly 10,000 families associated with the sector. The directives came from Chief Secretary Sikandar Sultan, overturning the ban which was imposed by the previous government on the recommendations of the bureaucracy “in order to streamline the trade” by forming mining laws. The mining laws,…
By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2015. GILGIT: Two policemen were shot dead Thursday evening in Skwar, in the suburbs of Gilgit city. According to the police, Hussain Iqbal and Manzoom Hussain were killed around 6pm when armed men attacked them and fled. The policemen were not in the uniform when they were shot and killed, said an officer. Preliminary investigations reveal the two officers might have been killed over personal enmity.…
MUNAWER AZEEM in Dawn, March 26th, 2015 ISLAMABAD: Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz may not have submitted a written apology to Islamabad police, as suggested by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, but he has submitted a ‘surety letter’ that he was bound to submit nearly 12 years ago, when his name was first included in a watch list under the fourth schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Sources in the police department and the…
BARA: Forty-six militants were killed in operations by security forces in the Khyber and Kurram tribal agencies on Wednesday. Thirty militants were killed and several others sustained injuries when Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter aircraft and helicopters pounded their hideouts in Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the fighter aircraft and helicopters targeted the bunkers of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) in Kukikhel, Sepah, Kamarkhel and…
KHYBER AGENCY/Peshawar – At least 55 militants including the spokesperson of Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) were killed and dozens other injured in military operations in different agencies of Fata on Wednesday. At least 31 militants including the spokesman of outlawed Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) were killed and several others wounded in fighter jets’ strikes and artillery shelling carried out by Pakistan Army here in different parts of Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, security officials said. Security officials said…