Megalomaniac

Students held rallies across 50 Pakistani cities seeking greater say in the running of universities On November 29, thousands of students marched in 50 cities of Pakistan for their rights. Their main demands included calls to the authorities to lift the ban on student unions, increase the education budget, provide better facilities at educational institutions and take action against people involved in sexual harassment. Student unions have been banned in Pakistan for 35 years. Taimur Rahman, an academic, musician and political activist, said student unions are nurseries for the future political leadership in a democratic society. “[They] are the practical training grounds to groom students to understand consensus building, alliance building, canvassing for votes, running for office, and holding oneself and others to accountability.” When asked why there was criticism against the march and why many universities were actively discouraging students from taking part in the march, M...

Asks Parliament to specify terms of service Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a conditional extension of the Army chief’s term for six months, during which Parliament will have to legislate on the terms of service of the top general. On Tuesday, the court temporarily suspended a government notification granting a three-year extension to Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. A Bench, comprising Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justices Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, heard the case and gave a short order on Thursday. “…we, while exercising judicial restraint, find it appropriate to leave the matter to Parliament and the federal government to clearly specify the terms and conditions of service of the COAS [Chief of the Armed Staff] through an Act of Parliament and to clarify the scope of Article 243 of the Constitution in this regard,” the court said. Therefore, the current appointment of the Army chief “shall be subject to the said legislation and shall c...

Court slams government for procedural lapses in notification Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of the case regarding the extension of the tenure of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa until Thursday. If the court decides in favour of his extension or reappointment, Gen. Bajwa will be able to continue his tenure as Army Chief. His current term ends on Thursday at midnight. Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said the government has made the Army Chief a shuttlecock due to the procedural hiccups regarding the extension notification. Justice Khosa said that even an assistant commissioner is not notified the way the government handled the Army Chief’s extension notification. He asked the government to find a solution till Thursday to the questions raised by the court; otherwise the court will act as per its constitutional obligations. Prime Minister Imran Khan called an emergency session of the government’s legal team as well as senior Cabinet Ministers. Gen. ...

A notification for the extension of the tenure of Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javer Bajwa has been suspended till Wednesday by the Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court Asif Saeed Khosa on Tuesday. A petition by the Jurists Foundation through Riaz Hanif Rahi had been filed challenging the extension. The petitioner on Tuesday filed a withdrawal application, but the three-member Bench, comprising Chief Justice Khosa, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, rejected the withdrawal request and converted it into a suo motu under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution of Pakistan. The court suspended the notification based on technicalities. The Chief Justice maintained that the summary and approval of the Army Chief’s extension “is not correct”. On August 19, the Prime Minister’s office issued a notification saying that the Army Chief’s tenure had been extended for another term of three years from the date of completion of current tenure. Presid...

Three teenage girls have moved Lahore High Court demanding action to tackle air pollution Earlier this month, three teenagers from Lahore — Leila Alam, Laiba Siddiqi and Mishael Hayat — filed a petition in the High Court against the Punjab government for under-reporting air pollution and requesting a new policy to tackle the issue. Ms. Alam, a 13-year-old student in Grade 9, said she decided to file the petition because the government was not truthful on the severity of air pollution. “If the government refuses to acknowledge how unhealthy the air is, I don’t think the everyday citizen will really know how hazardous the air that they are breathing is or how much damage it can cause to their lungs, to their circulatory system,” she said. In the World Air Quality report 2018, Pakistan was ranked second worst for air quality in the world, after Bangladesh (India is ranked third). Lahore, Pakistan’s second city with 11 million people, is badly hit. Earlier this month, the provincial ...

Software engineer aimed to go to Turkey to meet girlfriend Two Indian nationals, one from Telangana and the other from Madhya Pradesh, were arrested by the Pakistani police for illegally entering the country, authorities have confirmed. Prashant Maidam, a software engineer from Hyderabad, and Durmi Lal, a farmer from Madhya Pradesh, were arrested in the Cholistan desert area in Bahawalpur, Punjab, last week, the police said. The Bahawalpur police registered an FIR against them under the Pakistan (Control of Entry) Act on November 14. They had crossed the border without any identification papers and proper documents, such as a valid visa and passport, said the police. Sources said Mr. Maidam told them that he was in love with a woman in Turkey and was going there through Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mr. Lal wanted to see the border and crossed over by mistake. Bahawalpur Judicial Magistrate Yazman asked the local police to travel to Multan and hand over the two Indians to the F...

A year ago when the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor took place in Pakistan, the plan to turn it into a corridor for Sikh pilgrims to visit the gurdwara here seemed quite ambitious. But on November 9, the plan had turned into reality. Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Kartarpur Corridor on Saturday. He congratulated the Sikh community on the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak. “I didn’t know the importance of Kartarpur for the Sikh community. I only found out a year ago. Imagine if Muslims could only see Madina from a distance of 4-5 km. This is the Madina of the Sikh community,” he said. Prophet Mohammad is buried in Madina. Mr. Khan praised the message of humanity propagated by Baba Guru Nanak. Thousands of Sikh pilgrims from Pakistan, India and across the world were present at the opening. Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal, MLA from Batala, Punjab, told The Hindu that it was the biggest wish of the Sikh community that had finally been fulfilled. “We are ...

Differences emerge in talks over PM’s resignation & fresh poll A government delegation led by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak met Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) representatives and other Opposition leaders, who were leading a sit-in in Islamabad demanding Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation, on Tuesday, but failed to resolve the deadlock. “So far we are holding on to our demands. Our stance is the same as before,” JUI-F leader Akram Durrani said. “We have our own stance; they [Opposition] have their own stance,” said the Defence Minister. “We are trying to find a middle ground so that both the government and the Opposition can find a way-out. On many things, we have agreed to their demands. Talks were held in very good atmosphere. We will talk to our leadership,” Mr. Khattak added. He did not say which are the demands the government has agreed to. Reports indicate that the two points on which the government did not agree were the Prime Minister’s resignation and fr...

Maulana Fazlur Rehman says the protests will continue and that Imran Khan’s government should go. As the two-day ultimatum he issued to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan expired on Sunday night, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said the protesters will continue the sit-in until their goals are met. “We have decided that we will not go to any tribunal or Election Commission or any court. The PTI’s (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) foreign funding case is still lying around with the Election Commission after five years. This ‘illegitimate’ ruler’s foreign funding case has not been decided, how will this Election Commission settle rigging cases?,” he said while addressing ‘Azadi March’ in the capital on Sunday. “This is a movement. After this march, we will not stop our journey… Today, we have shut down Islamabad. Tomorrow we will shut down the entire country. Today, we have a huge rally here; tomorrow we will make the entire Pakistan a rally-ground,” he said....

Islamist party leader Maulana Rehman leads thousands to capital, gives PM two-day ultimatum Tens of thousands of protesters, led by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, took out a march in Islamabad on Friday, demanding the resignation of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. “You have two days, we cannot show more patience,” Mr. Rehman warned the Premier. If Mr. Khan doesn’t resign in two days, “he will not be able to stop people from entering the Prime Minister’s House”, he said. “Nawaz Sharif had heard this, so had Asif Zardari. Now, they [establishment] should also hear what we are saying,” said Mr. Rehman in a pointed message to the establishment. ‘Stay here’ “Only the people of Pakistan have the right to rule over Pakistan; no institution has the right to impose itself over us,” said Mr. Rehman. “Stay here my friends, do not move... they have to resign in two days, you the people will decide what your decision is. It was your vote that was snatched from yo...

The former Pakistan PM remains 'critical and unstable', according to his personal doctor The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday granted bail on medical grounds to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for eight weeks in the Al-Azizia case. Sharif's personal doctor said that he remains 'critical and unstable'. Sharif’s brother Shehbaz Sharif had filed a plea seeking the suspension of his brother’s sentence in the case. The court had granted interim bail to the former prime minister on Saturday in the same case. Speaking to The Hindu , Sharif’s personal physician Dr. Adnan Khan said that it is the prerogative of Sharif to decide what he wants in terms of his treatment and how to go about it. “The former prime minister remains critical and unstable. There is a strong suspicion of malignancy due to enlarged lymph nodes. It is very early to say what has to be done. Many tests and scans are still pending and diagnosis of his condition has still not been determined...

The second Asma Jahangir Conference calls on to fight for justice, freedoms and human rights Earlier this month, the Asma Jahangir Foundation organised the second Asma Jahangir Conference in Lahore to commemorate the human rights lawyer who died on February 11, 2018. Jahangir, who co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, played a prominent role in the 2007 “lawyers’ movement” that challenged the rule of military dictator Pervez Musharraf. The organisers of the conference say their main goal was to provide a democratic space for debates, build bridges between legal communities, particularly in South Asia, and promote rule of law. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Roadmap for Human Rights’. AGHS Legal Aid Cell, the law firm founded by Jahangir in 1980 and which at the time was the only all-female law firm in Pakistan, and the Pakistan Bar Council also joined hands with the foundation to organise the event. “Her family conceived the idea of having a conference to...

From the political message of the visit to the royal couple’s dress, everything was in media focus Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton were on a five-day trip to Pakistan last week. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Islamabad, Chitral and Lahore before leaving for the U.K. on Friday. During the trip, President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan hosted them separately, and they visited the Army Canine Centre in Islamabad, where Britain offers support to train dogs to identify explosives. The only change in the itinerary was the cancellation of a trip to the Khyber Pass bordering Afghanistan due to bad weather. They stayed overnight in Lahore on Thursday and returned from Islamabad the next day. Before leaving Pakistan, Prince William hailed ties between the U.K. and Pakistan. “We’re involved with the Pakistanis for a very good reason. It will actually keep people safe back in the U.K.,” he told reporters. While the Duke and Duchess were touring Pakist...

A religious party leader is launching a march to Islamabad ‘to bring down’ Imran Khan’s govt. Mualana Fazlur Rehman, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), has announced that he will lead an ‘Azadi March’, which will converge in Islamabad on October 31. The march is like a war and the entire country will be “our war zone”, he said last week, adding that “this war will end only when the government falls”. Mr. Rehman’s JUI-F, a Sunni Deobandi political party, is part of the joint Opposition alliance. The alliance has been talking about launching street protests for months, but it never took off as some of the parties are not in favour of a lockdown or dharna (sit-in) in the capital. Mr. Rehman unilaterally announced the march and said the protesters would enter Islamabad on October 27, which was later changed to October 31. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had asked him to extend the date. Later, they have conditionally offere...

Last month, the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted Wajih-ul-Hassan of blasphemy charges. Mr. Hassan was accused of writing “blasphemous” letters to a lawyer and was sentenced to death in 2002 by a Lahore court. And he had been in jail since. The Supreme Court said that there was no concrete evidence against him. The case has revived calls for amendments to Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. “There is no legal or ethical justification for the blasphemy law not to be amended and ultimately repealed,” Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, told The Hindu . “Recent cases have once again spotlighted that often the accusation is a punishment in itself. Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly expressed the intention to make an inclusive and equitable Pakistan. It will not be possible as long as the blasphemy laws remain on the books.” According to the laws, anyone convicted of insulting Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] can be sentenced to death, and anyone guilty of insulting “an...

The proposal has come in for criticism from Opposition, journalists and rights groups On Tuesday, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information, Firdous Ashiq Awan, announced the Pakistan government’s plan to establish special media tribunals or ‘media courts’, which would deal with all media-related cases. These courts would be bound to deal with the cases within 90 days. Ms. Awan said the government would get a law passed in Parliament to establish the tribunals. At present, media-related cases (mostly against journalists and media-houses) are being dealt with by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and the Press Council of Pakistan. But once the media courts are established, PEMRA would refer such cases to them, said Ms. Awan. The announcement has kicked up a storm with Opposition politicians, journalists and rights groups slamming the government for attempts to curb media freedom. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it is...

Can the U.S. play a role in bringing India and Pakistan to the negotiating table? U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month once again brought up the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) issue, offering ‘help’ to India and Pakistan. “I get along with both countries very well. I am willing to help them if they want, they know that is out there,” he told reporters. This marked a departure from Mr. Trump’s earlier offer to ‘mediate’ between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, made in July when he met Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House. India had not taken kindly to the statement. Moeed Yusuf, associate vice-president of the Asia centre at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and author of Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments: U.S. Crisis Management in South Asia said he considered Mr. Trump’s statement “a mellowing down of that [earlier] position”, which he said was “not the U.S. policy position to begin with”. Mr. Yusuf also said that at the end of the day, Mr. Trump does genuinely...

No more concessions to India, says Pakistan Aviation Minister. Federal Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said on Saturday that Pakistan denied President Ram Nath Kovind the use of Pakistani airspace for his flight to Iceland this month because of India’s continued aggression against and oppression of the Kashmiri people. “We got India’s request for their President’s flight. It was discussed with all relevant quarters and decided that enough is enough, no more concessions for India,” he told The Hindu . Mr. Khan said that while Pakistan allowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use the Pakistani airspace for his visit to France in August as a goodwill gesture, India continued to flout international laws and the Modi government was least bothered about its “reprehensible” conduct in Kashmir. “Different options are under consideration at the moment regarding Pakistani airspace’s use for Indian flights. Apart from VVIP flights, we are considering not to allow Indian Airlines to use ...

Nigeria marked three years since its last case of polio last month — an important step towards being declared free of the crippling disease. The two other polio-endemic nations — Pakistan and Afghanistan — have, however, not shown much progress. Polio cases in Pakistan have rather increased in recent years. Recently, Prime Minister Imran Khan held a high-level emergency meeting regarding the alarming situation in the country and directed government officials to start awareness and immunisation campaigns. Mr. Khan is also scheduled to lead the polio programme from November. Babar Bin Atta, the Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio, told The Hindu that polio eradication was, in fact, very simple. “If we vaccinate enough children in a given area, then poliovirus has nowhere to hide and disappears from that area. In Pakistan, we have not yet managed to reach this target, but we are determined to do whatever it takes to make this happen.” This year has proven challenging for Pakist...

General Bajwa’s original term was to end in November 2019 after serving as army chief for three years. He will remain as army chief till November 2022 Pakistan Prime Minister Office on Monday announced that Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa will get a three year extension “from the date of completion of current tenure”. The announcement said the decision “has been taken in view of the regional security environment”. Gen. Bajwa’s original term was to end in November after serving as Army chief for three years. He will remain as Army chief till November 2022. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry told The Hindu that the extension shows the seriousness of the situation on the borders. “Gen. Bajwa is considered a man of peace but at the same time, he is a no-nonsense person; his tenure and background knowledge brings a lot of substance on the table.” Mr. Chaudhry believes the history of the subcontinent “can be reshaped in these three years”. Dr. Aas...

The August floods are just one of the many problems Karachi is facing. In a video that went viral recently, a young man is seen sitting on his bike outside the Karachi Mayor’s office. The road is flooded with dirty water. “You know MF? They are all MF,” he says, referring to political leaders. He was hailed “a Karachi hero” on Twitter for expressing his anger towards the city’s rulers as Karachi was battling many odds. In the latest, heavy monsoon rains have left large parts of the city, the largest in Pakistan and the capital of Sindh, under water, killing at least a dozen people. The Sindh province is ruled by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), while the city’s local council is controlled by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. The MQM’s Wasim Akhtar is the city Mayor. In the 2018 elections, 13 out of 21 National Assembly seats of Karachi were won by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan’s party. Murtaza Wahab, a spokesperson and adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali...

India’s decision to revoke Article 370 and bifurcate the state of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union territories has not gone down well with Pakistan. A meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) on Wednesday took some important decisions in response to India’s move, including downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending trade. Pakistan has also expelled the Indian envoy and decided not to send its High Commissioner-designate to India. The sharpest reaction perhaps came from Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, who broke down during his speech on Kashmir at a joint session of Parliament and suggested that Pakistan cut off diplomatic ties with India. Ever since Prime Minister Imran Khan took oath, the government has tried its best to normalise ties with India, but “the conduct of the Indian leadership has been abhorrent”, Mr. Chaudhry told The Hindu . “We must take a strong stand... we have to fight it out if needed. This will not be a traditional war....

Pakistan on August 7 expelled the Indian High Commissioner and suspended bilateral trade in response to New Delhi’s decision to end special status to Jammu and Kashmir. “The Government of India has been told to withdraw its High Commissioner to Pakistan. The Indian government has also been informed that Pakistan will not be sending its High Commissioner-designate to India,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. Ajay Bisaria is India’s High Commissioner in Islamabad. The decisions were taken at a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan at his office in Islamabad. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi read out the NSC decisions while addressing a joint session of Parliament. The Committee has also decided to review bilateral arrangements and take the Kashmir issue to the UN, including the Security Council, he said. Pakistan will observe August 14, its Independence Day, “in solidarity with brave Kashmiris” and August 15 as a “Black Day”. ...

Sadiq Sanjrani, an independent from Balochistan, survives no-confidence motion by three votes Pakistan’s Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani surprisingly survived the Opposition’s no-confidence vote on August 1 by three votes. The Opposition has 64 members in the Senate and it needed 53 votes for the motion to pass in the 104-member House, but when the votes were counted, the Opposition managed to get only 50 votes. How did this happen? Analysts see the government’s invisible hands in defeating the Opposition motion. ‘Democracy weakened’ The government has embarrassed itself and weakened democracy by illegitimately interfering with the Senate elections, said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Musadik Malik. “Such high-handed interventions weaken the spirit of democracy, and the essence of our Constitution,” he told The Hindu . The PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had submitted a joint resolution in the Senate in July against Chairman Sanjrani, an independent S...

It’s been a year since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) formed its government in Islamabad. Opposition parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had alleged that the 2018 general elections had been rigged in favour of Imran Khan’s PTI. But nothing stopped Mr. Khan becoming the Prime Minister. A year later, many issues still remain the same, if not worse, according to political analysts. “What do they have to show? All they have done is to repeat the mantra of ‘ chor, daaku, luteray ’ [thieves, dacoits and looters] for the Opposition, while not doing much for the people of Pakistan, said Iftikhar Ahmad, a senior journalist. “The PTI is on a mission to eliminate the Opposition. That’s all this government is interested in.” The PTI used to accuse other parties of nepotism. “Look at all the key positions in the government organisations today — all have been given to PTI cronies. Where is the tabdeeli [change]. It’s all talk bu...

While journalists in Pakistan are no strangers to threats or censorship, online bullying is yet another tool being used to muzzle the media. In April, one witnessed abusive Twitter trends against several journalists including Marvi Sirmed, Umar Cheema, Mubashir Zaidi, Saleem Safi, Arshad Waheed Chaudhry, Fakhar Durrani and Azaz Syed. Journalists are trolled for several reasons, but mainly because their views differ from those of the trolls. Journalist Azaz Syed says that for the most part, such social media trends are against those journalists who either criticise the establishment or the ruling party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). “On occasion, journalists speaking for the weaker segments of society, or challenging some social taboos, also come under fire,” says Syed. When asked whether social media-bashing has any impact on the individuals concerned, Syed says it depends on the lives and the personalities of the respective journalists. “Journalists who are being targeted on s...