PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has stated at a press conference that Bilawal was undergoing training in London, and would enter politics gradually because of security risks. Well, if Altaf Hussain can rule from London, Bilawal can surely be trained away from home. But where and what is home for people like Bilawal who have lived a protected life abroad. For the PPP, the boy is just the last chance for Bhuttoism to survive, else…
Posts published in April 2015
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore. IMRAN Khan has completed an embarrassing trek back to the National Assembly. He stands yet again exposed for his twists and turns — his habitual U-turns, as the PML-N members call it. All his vows about meeting his one-point agenda, that of dislodging Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, have come to naught. There are questions which Mr Khan would be hard-pressed to answer satisfactorily and which invariably lead…
The formation of a judicial commission to investigate the allegations of systematic and organised rigging of the 2013 elections is both overdue and welcome. The commission will investigate the claims by Imran Khan of the PTI that the results were falsified in favour of the PML-N. The PML-N has of course stoutly denied this, and the commission is going to have to move very fast indeed if it is to complete its task within 45…
Karachi may have been a bit tense as Imran Khan visited the city and held a rally in Karimabad, the heart of the NA-246 constituency where the PTI takes on the MQM on April 23. But as the day came to a close the fear of violence breaking out during the rally was dissipated. Even though a brief scuffle took place near Jinnah Ground, it was quickly sorted out after the intervention of MQM chief…
The judicial commission we have been hearing about for months to probe the 2013 general elections and allegations from the PTI of massive manipulation in them is finally in place. Following the completion of formalities ordered by the federal government Chief Justice of the Supreme Court JusticeNasirul Mulk has set up a three-member commission which he himself will head. As expected, the commission, which also includes Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan,…
TANK: Four Levies personnel were injured in a blast on South Waziristan road near Customs Petrol Pump here on Thursday. The Levies personnel escorting the officials of governor’s development programme were returning in their vehicle to Tank from Mulla Khan Srai, South Waziristan, when a remote-controlled bomb planted by unknown miscreants beneath a suspension bridge went off near the Custom Petrol Pump. As a result, four Levies personnel were injured. They were identified as driver…
LANDI KOTAL: Twenty-three suspected militants were killed and at least 12 injured when helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts in Tirah valley on Thursday. Official sources said Taliban sanctuaries were targeted in Kandaw and Kandu Ghaibi areas of Kukikhel, adding that 16 suspected Taliban were killed and 10 others injured. In similar air strikes in Mehraban Kalley, Thor Darra and Wochay Wany, seven suspected militants died and two of their associates were injured. The air strikes…
By Hassan Naqv in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2015 LAHORE: The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) on Thursday claimed to have arrested a member of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and commander of Harkatul Mujahideen, who had allegedly kidnapped Colonel Imam, a retired officer of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and squadron leader (retd) Khalid Khawaja. The suspect was identified as Hafiz Sanaullah alias Qari Zarar by the CIA. Terming the arrest a major breakthrough, a…
By Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2015. GILGIT: The Chief Court of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) has acquitted Baba Jan and 11 others, setting aside an earlier anti-terrorism court verdict that sentenced them to life imprisonment. The acquittal was announced by G-B Chief Court’s Justice Muhammad Alam and Justice Yar Muhammad on Thursday. The chief court in the region has powers equivalent to high courts in the rest of the country. Baba Jan, Iftikhar…
The writer is visiting faculty on mobile technologies at the IBA, Karachi. THE government’s ‘mandatory’ SIM re-verification drive is no real solution to controlling terrorism. First introduced by Germany and Switzerland in 2003, the concept of mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards is now either fully implemented or under serious consideration in over 80 countries. However, as the Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association recently pointed out, mandatory SIM registration where used “primarily as a tool to…
The politics of change: Editorial in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2015
The visit of Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan-Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), on April 9 to Karachi was brief and chaotic, but in hindsight may be seen as something of a watershed in the politics of the city. His visit was in support of the PTI candidate, Imran Ismail, who is contesting from the NA-246 (Karachi-VIII) by-election being held on April 23. There is a sense that the political sands in Karachi may be shifting, and the…