By Asif Ezdi The Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order, 2009, approved by the cabinet on Aug 29 seeks to grant self-rule to the people of the area on the pattern of the autonomy enjoyed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir. As the government itself admits, the promulgation of this Order, which has now been signed by Zardari, implies a rejection of the demand that Gilgit-Baltistan be made a province of Pakistan and that its people be…
Posts published in “Pakistan”
WASHINGTON, Sept 1: Discredited Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan “remains a serious proliferation risk,” a US official said on Tuesday after the scientist gained freedom of movement. In Islamabad, Mr Khan said the Pakistani authorities had lifted restrictions on his movements. “We believe he remains a serious proliferation risk,” a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity when asked to comment on the news. “We have made clear to the Pakistani government…
RAWALPINDI: Political wings existed in the past and still exist in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said Major (retd) Amir, claiming that they worked for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the Operation Midnight Jackal. He was talking to Dr Shahid Masood in ‘Meray Mutabiq’ programme of Geo TV in which former PPP minister Mukhtar Awan and former Army chief General (retd) Aslam Beg also spoke. When asked about the authenticity of the tape with regard…
ISLAMABAD: Kashmiri politicians on Monday opposed increased autonomy for Pakistan’s strategic Northern Areas, arguing it will undermine their case for independence from India. Amanullah Khan, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, rejected the package, saying it appeared to be aimed at merging the Northern Areas into Pakistan. “We strongly condemn this package. It will harm the interests of Pakistan as well as Kashmiris,” he told Reuters. “It looks like they are integrating these…
The News, Aug 31 ISLAMABAD: Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Yasin Malik has strongly opposed the government decision of empowering the Northern Areas of Pakistan and announced that opinion of the people of Kashmir is inevitable in this connection. He expressed these views while addressing a press conference in Kashmir House on Sunday. AJK Prime Minister Sardar Yaqoob Khan was also present on this occasion. He said that after 1947 Pakistan has always claimed…
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on Saturday rejected the new package for Northern Areas approved by the federal government. PML-Q’s member in the National Assembly Marvi Memon, who is in charge of the party’s Gilgit-Baltistan affairs, in a statement said the Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self Governance) Order 2009, as approved by the cabinet, failed to give provisional provincial status to the region. It was also short of AJK-style self-governance, the longstanding demand of the…
GILGIT/SKARDU, Aug 29: Public representatives, nationalist and progressive political groups and activists on Saturday rejected the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-governance Order, saying it is gimmick of words to perpetuate the bureaucratic rule over the region. Labour Party Pakistan Gilgit chapter chief Advocate Ehsan Ali rejected the package and said that it would increase the sense of deprivation among the people. “The real powers rest with the governor, who is President’s appointee and not answerable to…
By Ahmad Hassan ISLAMABAD, Aug 29:The Zardari government approved on Saturday a self-governance reforms package for the Northern Areas aimed at giving it full internal autonomy, but without the status of a province, and changed its name to Gilgit-Baltistan. The People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-N and PML-Q have supported the decision, but most nationalist parties rejected the package as a ‘gimmickry of words’. They contend that the region was an integral part of Jammu and…
By Tariq Naqash in The Dawn, Aug 30 MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 29: The joint parliamentary party of Muslim Conference forward bloc (MC-F) and People’s Muslim League (PML) will meet Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif on Monday “to discuss the ongoing political situation in Azad Kashmir”. Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, MC-F chief Raja Farooq Haider said meeting would be held at the Raiwind residence of Mr Sahrif. “We will discuss political situation…
New Book on Jinnah Jinnah was without doubt an exceptional man. His doggedness, his legal brilliance, his financial propriety, his sartorial elegance, his self-confidence (he once quipped “What is the Muslim league except me and my stenographer”), was all the stuff of legends. But Mr Singh’s attraction to the personality of Jinnah merely on the grounds that he was a ‘self-made man’ is somewhat strange, if not specious. This is akin to someone admiring Dawood…
GILGIT, July 30: Hundreds of personnel of Karakuram Security Force, which were recruited to safeguard the Chinese workers engaged with widening of the Karakuram Highway, are without salaries for last two months. They have threatened to go on strike if their salaries were not paid immediately. Police officials said that the Northern Areas police and the National Highway Authority had inked an agreement about the security of Chinese workers.Under the agreement, some 214 police personnel…