Islamabad, August 04: Frightened civilians fear the Taliban will pounce again on Pakistan’s Swat as residents try to rebuild shattered lives in the mountain valley once likened to Switzerland.
Pakistan claims the military has “eliminated” the extremists, two years after they rose up under an militant cleric to enforce repressive Islamic laws and more than two months after launching a new offensive under US pressure.
Islamabad, August 04: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday adjourned indefinitely the hearing of petitions challenging the release from detention of banned Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, accused by India of being the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks.
The apex court’s direction comes two days after India said there was “enough evidence” to continue investigation against the JuD chief in connection with the 26/11 attacks.
London, August 03: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf seems to have found some solace in playing the ‘tabla’ as troubles pile up for him.
During a cultural show here, the former military ruler tried his hand on the tabla, according to a British Peer who is a staunch critic of Musharraf.
“I heard him play tabla myself. It was during a recent music show in London,” Lord Nazir Ahmed told journalists.
Islamabad, August 03: Former president Pervez Musharraf could be tried for his unconstitutional act of imposing emergency in 2007 by a simple majority resolution of Parliament, Pakistan’s top law official said on Monday.
Attorney General Latif Khosa said Parliament should debate and decide Musharraf’s fate in the wake of the apex court’s verdict. Parliament is supreme in this matter, he said.
Islamabad, August 03: Pakistani authorities have lodged a criminal case against a cleric who helped negotiate a failed peace deal with the Swat Valley Taliban, suggesting the government is determined not to negotiate again with the militants.
Sufi Muhammad, father-in-law of Swat’s notorious Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, is accused of aiding terrorism, sedition and conspiring against the government, Swat police Chief Sajid Mohmand said Sunday. The charges carry a minimum penalty of life imprisonment and a maximum of death.
Islamabad, August 03: Pakistan is set to prosecute an influential pro-Taliban cleric and some of his supporters on charges of rebellion and terrorism, officials have said.
Local security officials in Swat valley said on Sunday that the charges against Sufi Muhammad were lodged in a police station in the troubled northwestern valley.
“A case of waging war and conspiracy against the country has also been registered,” Swat Police Chief Sajid Khan Mohmand said.
Islamabad, August 03: In a fresh blow to India’s efforts to bring perpetrators of 26/11 to justice, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing into the cases against Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed indefinitely.
Islamabad, August 03: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari today issued notification to terminate 76 judges appointed by the then President General Pervez Musharraf.
All the sacked judges had appointed during the emergency. The notification was issued after the Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered invalidating the appointment judges and closure of Islamabad High Court.
The Supreme Court declared the former President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency in November 2007 as unconstitutional.
—Agencies
Karachi, August 02: Authorities say rescue crews have pulled the bodies of two more women from the rubble of a collapsed five-story building in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, bringing the death toll to 23.
Almost all the victims are women and children. Chief Fire Officer Ehtisham Uddin says the rescue operation was called off Sunday because all residents of the building have been accounted for.
Islamabad, August 02: Pakistan is ready to discuss all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, with India as war is not the solution to any problem, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.
It is necessary to resolve all issues between India and Pakistan so that the countries could give attention to the problems of the people, he said in an interview to a TV news channel.
Replying to a question about Pakistan’s relations with India, he said Islamabad has always maintained that the ties “should be on the basis of equality.”
Lahore, August 02: Paramilitary troops patrolled the streets of an eastern Pakistani city on Sunday after eight Christians died in riots led by Muslims, according to police.
Hundreds of Muslims burned and looted Christian homes in the city of Gorja in a rampage sparked by allegations that a Quran had been defaced. Shooting broke out, and six people were killed, including a child and four women. Two men wounded by gunfire died in the hospital overnight.
Islamabad, August 02: Pakistan is ready to discuss all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, with India as war is not the solution to any problem, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.
It is necessary to resolve all issues between India and Pakistan so that the countries could give attention to the problems of the people, he said in an interview to a TV news channel.
Replying to a question about Pakistan’s relations with India, he said Islamabad has always maintained that the ties “should be on the basis of equality”.
–Agencies
Islamabad, August 02: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the final decision regarding the fate of former President General Pervez Musharraf would be taken by Parliament.
Commenting on the Supreme Court’s verdict that declared Musharraf’s November 3, 2007 declaration of Emergency as ‘extra-judicial and unconstitutional’, Gilani said Parliament is the appropriate forum to take decisions of national interest.
Karachi, August 02: At least 21 people, mostly women and children, were killed when a five-storey building collapsed here, authorities said.
Karachi: At least 21 people, mostly women and children, were killed when a five-storey building collapsed here, authorities said.
The building located at Lea Market area, which was weakened by heavy monsoon rains, caved in Friday night, a local official said, adding that the rescue operation was still on.
Islamabad, August 01: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ruled that the state of emergency former President Pervez Musharraf imposed in 2007 was unconstitutional and declared invalid the appointments of judges he made during that period.
Islamabad, August 01: Muslim fanatics attacked churches and burnt down scores of houses of the Christian community in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a news report said on Saturday.
A mob attacked two churches and gutted 75 houses of Christians over the alleged desecration of papers inscribed with Quran verses at a wedding ceremony in Punjab’s Azafi Abadi village at Chak 95-JB on Thursday, Atif Jamil Pagaan and Ashfaq Fateh, leaders of the minority community was quoted as saying by report on Saturday.
Islamabad, August 01: Six people, including three members of a family, were killed when a five-storey building collapsed in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, a media report said Saturday.
The building collapsed Friday night in the Mithadar area of the city, Geo TV reported.
Eyewitnesses said more than 30 people were in the building when it collapsed. They said several people remained trapped under the rubble.
The residents from a nearby building were evacuated after the structure was declared unsafe.
Officials said it will take several hours to remove the debris.
Mingora(Pakistan), August 01: Schools reopened in Pakistan’s restive northwest on Saturday after nearly three months of being closed due to fighting between the military and Taliban militants, officials said.
Pakistan has been returning families to the districts of Swat and Buner, where troops unleashed a massive summer offensive against the Taliban, with Islamabad claiming to have largely defeated the extremists.
“All schools in Malakand division are open from today,” North West Frontier Province education minister Qazi Asad told AFP.
United Nations, August 01: More than six lakhs Swat refugees, displaced due to the Pak military action against the Taliban in the region, have now returned home, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
That leaves some 1.6 million people who have not yet returned from displacement and who will continue to require humanitarian assistance, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
New Delhi, August 01: Pakistan has moved a large number of troops from the border with India to its troubled north-west for an offensive against the Taliban.
US Special Ambassador on Af-Pak Richard Holbrooke has termed the troops redeployment as a significant move.
The troop redeployment looks like the first significant thinning out of the Pakistan Army from its front with India.
Pakistan is reported to have pulled out at least 70,000 army troopers deployed against India for an offensive against the Taliban on its western side.
Islamabad, July 31: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday in a judgement stated unequivocally that the November 3 imposition of Emergency in the country under the rule of the then military dictator President General Pervez Musharraf was against constitutional norms.
The verdict came today even as the ex-President ignored summons of the apex court and failed to appear on Wednesday and Thursday before it. The legal team assisting him in the case went to the extent of saying that it had received no such notice by the court.
Islamabad, July 31: Holding that then president Pervez Musharraf had acted extra-judicially, illegally and unconstitutionally in imposing an emergency and sacking Supreme Court judges two years ago, Pakistan’s apex court Friday termed as null and void the steps he had taken Nov 3, 2007.
A 14-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, however, stopped short of censuring Musharraf as had been demanded in a petition the court was hearing against the declaration of the emergency.
Islamabad, July 31: The political leaders of India and Pakistan should build “bridges and not walls” as talks are the only way forward for the two neighbouring countries, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said today.
“Talks (between the two countries) are imperative and politicians should build bridges and not walls,” Gilani told reporters here on the sidelines of a function marking the inauguration of the new stock exchange.
Islamabad, July 31: Four boys from Swat in Pakistan’s restive northwest who were kidnapped by militants to be trained as suicide bombers have narrated harrowing tales of their ordeal in captivity, saying they were told to target their families if prevented from joining the jihad against security forces.
They said militants had taken them by force from their villages to training camps in different parts of the Matta sub-district where a large number of other boys were being trained as suicide bombers, Dawn reported Friday in a dispatch from Swat’s largest city of Mingora.
Islamabad, July 31: Pakistan’s Supreme Court will today pronounce judgement in the case challenging the decisions of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to impose emergency in 2007 and his actions in sacking dozens of judges.
The arguments in the case were completed earlier today but the 14-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhary fixed 3 p.m. (local time) to give its ruling after the court broke up for customary Friday prayers, said lawyers, who argued in the case.