AMONGST the numerous factors hobbling the criminal justice system in Pakistan is the fact that due to inefficient witness protection programmes, eyewitnesses are afraid to testify, or end up retracting their testimony. As pointed out recently in this paper, three witnesses retracted their statements in the high-profile case of Naqeebullah Mehsud, an aspiring model who was gunned down in a staged encounter on the outskirts of Karachi allegedly by policemen. According to the counsel of…
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PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan has announced that his government intends to pursue electoral reforms in order to ensure that in future elections are not disputed and winners and losers both accept the result. In this respect, he has said he plans to introduce electronic voting for citizens including those residing overseas.In addition, he has voiced a strong preference to have Senate elections by show of hands instead of the secret ballot that is currently the…
Every few years, we see opposition parties forging an alliance meant to “bring democracy back in the country”. It started off with MRD, the Movement for Restoration of Democracy, in February 1981, during the Zia regime. Then came ARD, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, in December 2000 — a little more than a year after the country’s takeover by General Pervez Musharraf. Seven years on, in July 2007 to be exact, the anti-Musharraf political…
by Dr Moonis Ahmar in The Express Tribune, November 20th, 2020.The writer is former Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of KarachiSpeaking before the students of University of Turbat, Balochistan, on November 13, Prime Minister Imran Khan rightly pointed out that for a strong federation, equal development of all federating units of the country is necessary. Referring to the economic asymmetry between Balochistan and other provinces of Pakistan, he lamented that past prime ministers and…
by Senator Rehman Malik in The Nation, Nov 20,2020The writer is former Interior Minister of Pakistan, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Chairman of Think Tank “Global Eye”.We lost East Pakistan because of unreasonable Indian-sponsored agitation and we did not care about the hate in the eyes of the people of Bengal and failed to counter this hate and our enemies. The enemy is back in the town with the same tricks to replicate…
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.AMONG the other gifts it may bring to the Imran Khan camp, the victory in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) could help PTI overcome some of the anxiety so evident in the recent statements of its members right up to the prime minister. The PTI government needed this break in momentum.The prime minister and his spokespersons were manoeuvred into entering a frenzied pitch by opposition leaders. A couple of opposition leaders…
You hear PTI representatives on TV every other day saying that the prime minister himself has forbidden any official restriction on what is after all the opposition’s democratic and legal right to protest. In fact, the PM has gone so far on more than one occasion as to offer the ruling party’s old container if needed before going on and on about his usual mantra of not granting an NRO to anybody among the “looters…
The federal government’s decision to establish an Island Authority through a presidential ordinance has continued to spark protests by Sindh’s nationalist and mainstream parties for the past two months. The protest rally in Karachi over the weekend on Sunday, November 15 by the major alliance Sindh Action Committee, comprising Sindh-based parties outside parliamentary politics, saw a huge turnout of participants not seen since the 2018 elections. The island issue has galvanized the nationalist parties’ base.…
The writer is a freelance journalistAs expected, the PTI has emerged as the single largest party in the Gilgit-Baltistan assembly elections. According to unofficial results, the PTI has won 9 seats, but fell short of the simple majority of 13 seats to form government. This means that the PTI will have to rely on independent candidates to get the required majority. It is expected that the majority of independents will join the PTI to form…
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rolled out the red carpet for Prime Minister Imran Khan on his first visit to Kabul. The visit took place in response to the Afghan President’s invitation and is aimed at building on the sustained engagement between the two countries in recent months with the focus being on enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields, hastening Afghan peace process and regional economic development and connectivity. The visit ended with both Mr Khan…
PM in Kabul:edit in Dawn, November 21st, 2020
PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan’s daylong visit to Kabul on Thursday has come at a time when a question mark hangs over the Afghan peace process, and when the US is in the middle of a presidential transition. The latter development has to be considered because it remains to be seen how a Biden White House handles the Afghanistan file, specifically the key question of foreign troops’ exit from the country.The fact is that the Pak-Afghan…