The Senate race looks to be more competitive than previously thought, as one major party which had considered a boycott has now stated that it will contest the elections. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), whose leaders had before considered resigning from their posts in the national and provincial assemblies, has decided against resignation and also announced to take part in the Senate polls. Instead, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has stated, after the CEC meeting, the…
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A Hindu temple in Karak district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province was vandalised by a mob on Wednesday, though this is not the first time that a minority place of worship has been attacked in the country. However, those given to vandalising places of worship of other religions are on the lunatic fringe of society. The federal and provincial governments have taken serious notice of the act of vandalism. The government machinery swiftly moved into action and…
The writer is a former ambassador to the US, India and China and head of UN missions in Iraq and Sudan.Let us briefly look at Pakistan’s main external relationships. Pakistan is fortunate to have a strong relationship with China. It is the world’s greatest success story. It is the only great power willing to invest in developing a strategic partnership with Pakistan. CPEC, in the context of the BRI, offers Pakistan huge opportunities to economically…
• Rubbishes opposition’s allegation of being ‘puppet’• Calls army his subordinate institution like bureaucracy• Says allies pursuing PTI’s manifesto ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said people will pay no heed to the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) call for ‘long march’ and rejected the opposition’s allegation of a ‘puppet’ premier, arguing that if it was true why he did not hold talks with them even after the military leadership had asked him to do so…
THE decision to extend the construction amnesty scheme was widely anticipated. Prime Minister Imran Khan described the extension of the fiscal, monetary and policy incentives announced in April last year to encourage investments in real estate as a ‘New Year gift’ for the construction industry. According to the FBR, the government has extended tax amnesty, the most controversial part of the package, for investors — builders and developers — for another six months to June…
If Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid thought his threat of cancelling Nawaz Sharif’s passport when it expires would lead to a cataclysmic collapse of the opposition movement and the former three-time premier would suddenly cave in and rush back to the country, he was clearly wrong. Beyond that, to be realistic, it is difficult to see what the government expected to achieve with this move. For even if it had done its most basic homework, and…
by Fahd Husain in Dawn, January 2nd, 2021The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Islamabad.ON the first day of 2021, the Pakistan Democratic Alliance has announced it will participate in the upcoming by-elections. In a press briefing on Friday night after the opposition alliance’s meeting in Lahore, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, accompanied by PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, told journalists they would announce their further strategy after the Jan 31 deadline for Prime Minister Imran…
The writer is an independent researcher and journalist whose work focuses on social justice and human rights.We continued to feel intense suffocation in Pakistan throughout 2020. The state of human rights, which has consistently remained morbid for the past few years, definitely did not improve this past year either. State repression, crackdown on dissent, enforced disappearances, false police cases against journalists, arbitrary detentions of rights defenders, attacks on religious minorities, violation of labor laws and…
by Mohammad Ali Babakhel in Dawn, January 1st, 2021The writer is author of Pakistan: In Between Extremism and Peace.POLICE accountability is much discussed but less implemented. It constitutes holding the police responsible for what they do, organisationally or individually, and monitoring their policies and practices, addressing issues such as failing to register cases, poor investigations, custodial torture, corruption and abuse of power. The police have powers to arrest, detain and use force, and therefore must…
The writer is the special assistant to the PM on information, a political and security strategist, and the founder of the Regional Peace Institute.……..For the PDM, which accuses the military of having facilitated the incumbent government into the saddle and whose agitation is directed towards establishing the supremacy of civilian rule, it is a grave travesty to be asking for the removal of a democratically-elected government by non-democratic methods. If at all, two things need…
PTI’s sinking ship: by Hina Butt in Daily Times, Jan 3, 2021
You don’t even have to look very far anymore to see how this government is crumbling. There’s a reason that the top job of its henchmen these days is putting the microscope on everything the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) does to try and exploit anything that doesn’t make sense to them about the opposition’s negotiations or their tactics. The reason is that the ruling party of the selected prime minister is coming under increasing pressure…