Firdous Awan hopes court will do justice

TrendPK.com
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Monday said she hoped that the Supreme Court (SC) will do justice to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who has been accused of contempt of court for not implementing the court orders over a span of two years.

Awami National Party (ANP) Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan said his party will remain in coalition government regardless of the verdict.

Meantime, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, talking to the battery of reporters outside the apex court building, said he had offered a good counsel to the PM Gilani in this regard. TrendPK

Please click ‘Video’ button to watch leaders speak.

ANP finalizes candidates for Senate polls

TrendPK.com

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has finalized list six candidates for upcoming polls of the Senate in next month, TrendPK reported on Wednesday.

The ANP has nominated Azam Khan Hoti, Shahi Syed and Baz Muhammad Advocate for general seats’ polls of the Senate.

Ilyas Bilour has been nominated for technocrats’ seat, Zahida Khan for women seat and Amar Jeet Malhotra for minorities’ seat.

A meeting of the ANP Parliamentary Board, lead by Afrasiab Khatak, finalized the list of candidates for the Senate polls in Peshawar.

The ANP did not give ticket to Begum Nasim Wali, mother of the party chief Asfandyar Wali, for the Senate seat. TrendPK

Pakistan’s poor dying in Karachi violence

KARACHI: Life stopped for Pakistani cab driver Ghulam Mohammed when his seven-year-old daughter was shot dead on her way home from school, a victim of senseless political and ethnic violence sweeping Karachi.

Shumaila was Mohammed’s only child, born after he and his wife struggled for 12 years to have a baby. It took two stray bullets to bury all the hopes and dreams they had for the future.

“She was the one who gave meaning to our life. Now we have no reason to live,” said the tearful 36-year-old, a resident of Qasba Colony, one of a series of troubled neighbourhoods in western Karachi turned into a battlefield.

Shumaila was one of 300 people whom the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) says died in political and ethnically linked shootings in Karachi last month and one of the 800 killed since the start of this year.

She was carrying her books when the bullets pierced her abdomen and splintered a rib. Seriously wounded, she was eventually picked up by an ambulance after medics struggled to access the street under gunfire.

“Someone told me my daughter had been shot and I rushed to hospital despite all the risks, only to find her dead in the morgue,” Mohammed said.

Many link the killings to rising tensions between the Mohajirs, the Urdu-speaking majority represented by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Pashtun migrants affiliated to the Awami National Party (ANP).

Karachi is Pakistan’s financial capital and, with a population of around 18 million, its largest city. Helped by its Arabian Sea port, industry in Karachi is thought to account for around a fifth of the country’s GDP.

But authorities appear powerless to stop the bloodshed, human rights activists say, pointing out that most of the victims are innocent civilians.

“People have been killed because of their political affiliations, but it seems most are killed because of their ethnic background,” Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the HRCP, told AFP.

“The majority of them are poor and destitute.”

Shumaila was Pashtun. Her father arrived in Karachi from the northwest 20 years ago looking for work and then settled down and got married.

Today the northwest is on the frontline of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked bomb attacks and the migrant flow to Karachi is even greater.

Shumaila’s bereaved parents live on a congested street in a neighbourhood of Urdu and Pashtun speakers, where trigger-happy gunmen from both sides can quickly reduce the area into a battlefield.

HRCP says Karachi suffers political, ethnic and sectarian “polarisation”.

But the government blames vague mafias involved in land grabbing and drug pushing for the killings, and for creating “misunderstandings” among political parties and ethnic hatred.

“It should not be called ethnic violence,” said Sharfuddin Memon, an official in the home ministry of the southern province Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital.

“The mafias are killing people in such a manner that rival communities and parties are left with the impression of an ethnic war which is not there. The mafias do this to get stronger and weaken the writ of the state.”

The Urdu-speaking family of Anwer Ali, 22, say he was walking to work when unknown gunmen shot him dead.

“He was the only bread earner for his mother and two sisters,” said his cousin Mohsin Ali.

The family rent a one-room house in a squatter settlement near the area of Katti Pahari, a flashpoint for the most recent violence, and are deeply frightened about the future.

It is not just shootings. People have seen everything they own go up in smoke, with their houses, buildings and vehicles set alight by arsonists.

Despite the deployment of extra police and paramilitary forces, residents complain that the security personnel do nothing to help.

Leaders in the MQM and ANP have blamed each other.

“Mafias are involved in the killings, but armed wings of political parties have played a big role in creating the mess,” said Tauseef Ahmed Khan, who teaches mass communications at Urdu University.

The armed wings work to maintain party influence, prevent rival groups from infiltrating their territories and force people to remain loyal, he said.

“There are killings on ethnic grounds while most of the victims are poor people who don’t know the reason why they are being killed,” Khan said. AGENCIES

Mirza bitterly criticizes MQM

KARACHI: Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulifqar Mirza accepting the responsibility of the prevailing condition of Karachi said that other coalition partners of the provincial government, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP), should also accept the responsibility.

While addressing the business community at Karachi Chambers of Commerce on Monday, Mirza bitterly criticized the MQM.

Mirza said that he had the list of 60 target killers, adding that 26 belonged to the biggest political party of the city. “I haven’t said that foreign elements are behind such activities. We are responsible for crime and target killings in the city”

Sindh home minister also pointed out that the banned organizations are given money by the business community of the city in the name of charity.

COAS Considered Plan to Force out President: WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks has disclosed that President Zardari told US Vice President Joe Biden that Kayani will take me out; where as COAS Gen. Kayani suggested the US ambassador to force out Zardari.

The latest portion of memos, obtained by whistleblower site WikiLeaks also showed the United States was more concerned than it let on publicly about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. COAS General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, told the US ambassador during a March 2009 meeting that he might pressure Zardari to resign. Gen. Kayani was quoted as saying that he might support Asfandyar Wali Khan, leader of the Awami National League Party, as the new President, Nawaz Sharif. In another cable US Vice President Joe Biden recounted to Britain’s then Prime Minister Gordon Brown a conversation with Zardari last year.Zardari told him that Kayani and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency will take me out, according to the cable. The cables also showed that Zardari has made extensive preparations in case he is killed. Tensions between Zardari and the army are no secret, and Pakistan often witnesses coup rumors. Kayani also told Patterson that his top generals, known as the Corps Commanders, had expressed disquiet about Zardari because he was thought to be corrupt and had neglected Pakistan’s economic and security challenges, he said.

Ruling, opposition Senators’ strong protest, discontent on RGST

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Senators of the ruling allies and opposition parties have strongly protested while expressing a stern discontent on Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) in the Senate on Friday.

The session of the Senate, chaired by the Chairman Farooq H Naek, began today morning. During the session exchange of hot words took place between the Chairman of the Senate and Mutahida Qaumi Movement’s Senator Babar Ghauri.

Babar Ghauri argued that they will not allow the presentation of RGST report, of the Standing Committee on Finance, in the house. The Chairman Senate argued that the house can not be run under shout and unrest.

The Senators of Awami National Party staged a walked out, headed by Senator Zahid Khan, to protest against the arrests of the Pakhtoons in Karachi but Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik and the leader of the ruling party

All major parties send opposition notes on RGST

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee of Senate for Finance has sent recommendations regarding Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) and flood relief to the Senate. Opposition notes include those of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and Jammat-e-Islami (JI).

The four day long session of the Standing Committee of Senate for Finance has ended in Parliament House today. The committee has unanimously recommended imposing no RGST on food items, medicines and stationary used for academic purposes. It is also recommended to increase the limit of flood relief surcharge as Rs. 0.5 million instead of Rs. 0.3 million annually.

All political parties have recommended implementing tax on the income of agriculture in their opposition notes.

PML-M has submitted Mian

ANP decides to protest against govt.’s decisions

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Awami National Party (ANP) has decided to protest against the decisions of ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Trend Pk reported Saturday.

The spokesperson of ANP Zahid Khan alleged that PPP ignored coalition partners while making appointments to important positions.

Talking to Trend Pk Zahid said that PPP government did not take ANP into confidence on the appointment of Chairman of Islamic Ideology Council (IIC) and Judges’ Parliamentary Committee.

Zahid Khan stated that ANP apprised the government of its reservations and party will protest against the appointment of chairman of IIC and the constitution of parliamentary committee in National Assembly and the Senate. Trend Pk

Karachi: Sindh govt to launch grand operation

Sindh Home Minister Zufiqar Mirza has said that a list of sensitive areas has been finalized and soon a grand operation would be launched to cleanse Karachi of all the criminal elements.
Mirza said that all the political parties would be taken on board regarding the operation.
Mirza informed that a meeting has been called at the Governor House and both, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) will be attending it.
Meanwhile, a police official was shot dead in Hijrat Colony earlier in the day, while another person was killed in Joharabad Colony. In the meantime, police and paramilitary units intensified patrols in West Zone police station areas including Moach Goth, Sayedabad, Balcoh Mohalla, Jahan Abad Old Goli Mar and Zamindar Hotel. The provincial government has also marked the abovesaid places as the most sensitive areas of the metropolis city.
Members of the Rangers paramilitary and police were patrolling Layari, a low-income southern neighbourhood and other sensitive areas where the violence has been concentrated, police said.

Bilour demands grand operation in Karachi

Leader of Awami National Party (ANP) Bashir Ahmed Bilor has said that a grand-operation is needed in Karachi to stop target-killing. He also said that MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement) should set its direction right or otherwise if the Pakhtoons would lose their cool, it would bring disastrous consequences.
On the other hand Interior Minister Sindh Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza called on ANPs President of Sindh Chapter Shahi Syed. Zulfiqar Mirza said that he was trying hard to create an atmosphere of reconciliation amongst all political factions whereas Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has vowed to establish the writ of government in Karachi.
Leader of MQM Wasey Jalil, while talking to Dunya News, condemned Bashir Bilors statement and said that MQM aspires for peace in the city. He also advised Bashir Bilor to take notice of killings in KhyberPakhtunkhwa; and not to intervene in the matters of Karachi.

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