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NEW YORK: Head of the United Nations anti-drugs agency has called for strengthening border controls around Afghanistan, boosting security in that country and lowering demand in so-called “consumer countries.”

Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UN Office on Drugs & Crime UNODC, said in an introduction to a new study, The Global Afghan Opium Trade – A Threat Assessment, that curtailing Afghan illegal drug trade would “benefit Afghan people, the wider region and the international community as a whole.”

(Read: “The Global Afghan Opium Trade – A Threat Assessment”)

Trafficking in Afghanistan is very lucrative, generating some $61 billion in illicit funds in 2009 out of $68 billion for the global illicit opiate trade,” the report stated.

“Most of this money went into the pockets of traffickers all along transnational heroin distribution routes, and some went to insurgents.” Afghan farmers earn relatively little from the trade, the report noted.

Spanning a decade, the report stated that some 16.5 million people annually abuse opiates worldwide. Heroin takes bulk of the market, with 12 million to 13 million people consuming 375 tons of heroin per year; of that, 150 tons are consumed in Europe.

“Strengthening border controls at the most vulnerable points, such as along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, could help stem the largest flows of heroin, opium and precursor chemicals,” Fedotov said.

“Increasing the capacity to monitor and search shipping containers in airports, seaports, dry ports at key transit points and in destination countries could improve interdiction rates,” he added.

He also suggested a need for building capacity and fostering intelligence sharing between ports and law enforcement authorities in key countries and regions.

“But addressing supply side and trafficking is not enough,” he said.

“We need a balanced approach that gives equal weight to counteracting demand for opiates. This is also part of international community’s shared responsibility for global drug problem, heroin-consuming countries need to do more to provide treatment, care and support for drug users to help them kick the habit, and to prevent drug use,” Fedotov said.

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said no compromise will made on the independence of the judiciary, Express 24/7 reported on Saturday.

(Read: Govt, judiciary back away from confrontation)

The chief justice made the statement while chairing a meeting of the judicial policy making committee at the Supreme Court in Islamabad. The meeting was also attended by chief justices of the high courts and the chief justice of Federal Shariat Court.

The chief justice said courts should not be influenced by anyone and verdicts should be based on merit.

He said there were complaints regarding corruption in district courts and directed the chief justices to visit these court and sort out the complaints.

The chief justice also said that judicial policy has had a positive impact as cases were being dealt with on time.

PML-N supports judiciary

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) has announced its support for the judiciary during the ongoing row with the government.

(Read: PML-N vows to support judiciary, bureaucracy)

Party chief Nawaz Sharif made the announcement at a high-level meeting in Murree. The meeting was also attended by Pervaiz Rasheed and Raja Zafarul Haq.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Sharif termed the judiciary’s move a “positive step” to protect the bureaucracy of the country.

He acknowledged parliament as the supreme institution of the country, but said that his party would not allow parliament to be used as a platform for corruption.

The PML-N chief also said that his party would struggle for the judiciary’s rights and would not allow anyone to hamper its functionality.

KARACHI: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that “enemies” are trying to destabilise Pakistan by spreading unrest in Karachi and that the men who opened fire on the bus in Quetta were ‘hired’ gunmen, Express News reported Saturday.

Speaking to the media at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Malik condemned the Quetta incident and said some elements were trying to weaken the country.

The interior minister further said that earlier the ‘hired’ gunmen were involved in acts of violence in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Malik said that after the implementation of the 18^th amendment, it is the responsibility of the provinces to maintain peaceful conditions.

However, the Frontier Corps (FC) have been given additional authority to ensure peace and stability in the sensitive areas of K-P.

He said that the operations carried out in different parts of Karachi will cause unrest in the city, which is why the number of intelligence networks has been increased.

He concluded by saying that the miscreants detained in Islamabad belonged to the Ilyas Kashmiri group and were planning to target prominent people in the province.

An official notification identified them as the Ministry for National Harmony, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Professional and Technical Training. These ministries will have their separate divisions, it said.

Apparently, the decision was taken to accommodate the ministers who were left without any portfolios after the devolution of their respective ministries. The PML-Q is likely to be the main beneficiary of this decision.

The names of Riaz Pirzada, Akram Masih Gill and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain are being mentioned among the contenders of these newly constituted ministries.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th,  2011.

Gilani, who met Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar at the Prime Minister Secretariat, said the continuation of dialogue process would help both countries facilitate discussions on all issues of concern.

The foreign minister briefed the prime minister on her visit to India and outcome of the talks. Gilani said that it was an encouraging sign that talks between the two countries were helping develop better understanding of each other’s point of view on all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

He was also pleased to learn that the Indian Prime Minister would be visiting Pakistan at his earliest convenience.

Earlier, Khar had briefed the Prime Minister about the outcome of official talks with the Indian delegation.

She also briefed him about her meetings with the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, leader of the opposition and the Kashmiri leaders.

The foreign minister also called on President Asif Ali Zardari here at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

The minister briefed the President about her visit to India and her discussions with the Indian leadership.

Expressing satisfaction over the progress made during her visit, Zardari said, “Pakistan welcomes commitment of the two sides to work together in seeking early and amicable solutions to all issues between the two countries.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

“I want to assure the civil administration that the people of this country would stand behind them if they continue to perform their role in accordance with the Constitution and law of the land, just as they did when the judiciary was toppled,” PML-N’s Additional Secretary-General Ahsan Iqbal said at a press conference.

Calling upon civil society to prepare for a “decisive movement” to purge the country of dishonesty and greed, Iqbal accused the government of opting to tread on a collision path “just to protect its corruption”.

He said that the government wanted to use bureaucrats as scapegoats to hide its corruption.

Recalling corruption cases such as the Hajj scam, NICL scandal and the Pakistan Steel Mills case, he said that the prime minister and his government were deliberately going into a confrontation mode with the judiciary to hide corruption.

“All accountability institutions have been made dysfunctional one after the other,” he said.

He said that the proposed accountability bill was being deliberately delayed, despite the PPP’s clear commitment with PML-N in Charter of Democracy (CoD) for a broad-based accountability system.

According to him, PML-N president Nawaz Sharif would chair the party’s parliamentary committee meeting on Monday. The meeting, he said, would discuss the current situation and devise a future plan of action.

Referring to the government’s reluctance in implementing Supreme Court’s orders, Ahsan Iqbal said that the government had made FIA dysfunctional to obstruct the investigation into Hajj and NICL scams.

“An effort is being made to block the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) after the appointment of a handpicked auditor-general,” he added.

While referring to recent statements of the prime minister, he said that the government had not come into power because of its mandate but because of the notorious National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

He denied a suggestion that the PML-N was accelerating its anti-government campaign because of the upcoming Senate elections. He said that it did not make any difference for the party.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

Police said one suspect managed to escape. The area was cordoned off and police were in search of the suspect.

The four suspects were shifted to undisclosed locations for further interrogation and bomb disposal squad officials were called to dispose of the explosive vests and hand grenades, police said.

Police officials of police say it is too early to comment on the affiliations of the suspects.  The rented house used by the terrorists was located in a slum located close to posh residential areas of G-11 and G-12. Police nabbed the father of the owner of the house.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

The report recognises progress, but calls on governments to take urgent action to end the injustices that keep women poorer and less powerful then men in every country in the world.

The report has raised serious questions concerning the lacunas in the prevalent legal systems which allow for perpetuation of gender-based crimes, said the chief guest at the launch, Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza.

In the last three years of its 5-year tenure, the National Assembly of Pakistan has passed 77 bills, with more than a dozen related to women and children, said Mirza.

The passage of the 18th Amendment has provided an exceptional opportunity for provincial legislatures to expand their scope and make a decisive move to address the core issue of social justice at the grass-roots level, she added.

“No matter how many laws we change, if we fail to change the minds behind the delivery mechanisms of these laws, we will continue to face hurdles” said Mirza.

She announced that Pakistan will hold the 7th meeting of women speakers of parliaments around the world in November this year, where the focus will be on making parliaments more gender sensitive.

“No system can claim to be democratic and participatory if it fails to include and address the issues concerning its women,” she added.

Report’s findings

The 164-page report titled “Progress of the world’s women: In pursuit of justice,” highlights gender sensitive issues such as women who continue to experience injustice, violence and inequality in their home and working lives.

According to the report, by 2011, marital rape is a criminal offence in at least 52 countries but more than 2.6 billion women live in countries where it has not been explicitly criminalised.

A total of 117 countries have equal pay laws, yet in practice women are still paid up to 30 per cent less than men in some countries. Globally, 600 million women are in vulnerable jobs, the report says.

Donors spend US$4.2billion annually on aid for justice reform but only 5 per cent of this spending targets women and girls, the report adds.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

US special representative for the region Marc Grossman is arriving in the capital on Monday to attend the trilateral meeting on August 2, a Foreign Office official told The Express Tribune.

The three-way talks will be attended by Grossman, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and the Afghan deputy foreign minister.

This is the third meeting of what is known as the ‘Core Group’ of the three countries to develop a strategy for reconciliation with insurgents in Afghanistan in a bid to seek a peaceful end to the decade-old war.

The talks are expected to be tense in view of the ongoing row between Pakistan and the US post Osama bin Laden raid.

The unilateral American raid angered and embarrassed the Pakistani security establishment, which retaliated to the US move by expelling its military personnel and launching a crackdown against the ‘private CIA network’ in the country.

On its part, the Obama Administration punished Pakistan by withholding some $800 million in military assistance.

Grossman is the first senior US official to visit Pakistan following the withholding of some $800 million in military assistance by the US.

However, it is not yet clear if the envoy will have any bilateral engagements with the Pakistani leadership.

“[Grossman] will be here primarily to attend the meeting of the Core Group,” said a Foreign Office official.

The three-way talks will review the progress made so far towards bringing the Afghan Taliban onto the negotiating table.

The group meets for the first time since the removal of the Afghan Taliban from its terror list, by the UN Security Council, on Kabul’s request.

The Obama Administration seeks to reach out to reconcilable elements of Afghan insurgent groups before pulling out troops from the war-torn country by 2014.

However, Pakistan insists that it is being deliberately kept out of the process by the US in an attempt to undermine its role in the future political dispensation of Afghanistan.

The talks in Islamabad are also expected to discuss the recent border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

Malik told the participants of a seminar in London on Thursday that all terrorists that Pakistani security agencies arrested had links with the Tableeghi Jamaat centre in Raiwind and they all belonged to religious seminaries.

The parliamentary committee told him to explain his words next week.

The panel, which met on Friday under Senator Raza Rabbani, expressed anger and shock over the statement, and said it associated a “peaceful group with terrorism”.

Separately, top political leaders also criticised Malik for his statement, vowing to defend a respected centre focused on “serving and spreading Islam” against any conspiracy.

The Tableeghi Jamaat has refused to respond to the statement.

A statement by an organisation which represents over 12,000 Deobandi seminaries also condemned Malik for his “irresponsible, unwise and baseless” assertion, saying
the minister should not blame a peaceful organisation to cover up his and agencies’ failures.

The Wafaqul Madaris al Arabia (WMA) said the Tableeghi headquarters, popularly known as the Raiwind Centre, was the “most respectable and undisputed” place in Pakistan, and warned Malik against generating an “unnecessary controversy”.

Top Deobandi leaders, including Maulana Salimullah Khan and Qari Hanif Jallundhri, urged the president and the prime minister to take notice of the statement.

In Islamabad, chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman also condemned the statement, saying it demonstrated the government’s intention to shut down religious seminaries and organisations.

But, Fazl said that he and his party would foil all such controversies. Pakistan Muslim League-Q Chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also criticised Malik for an ‘irresponsible’ statement, saying if the government takes any action against the Tableeghi Jamaat, every Muslim would rise up in its defence.

In a statement, Shujaat said by calling religious preachers terrorists, Malik had demonstrated his ignorance about people who had devoted their lives serving Islam.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

While the court ordered the government to reinstate Sohail Ahmed as establishment secretary – one of the three highest positions in the federal civil service – it acknowledged that the government had the right to assign him a new post, but not to punish him for following the court’s orders. It said that the government was free to transfer him to a different position over the next seven days.

“Sohail Ahmed will remain establishment secretary until the new appointment,” the court order said, adding “if Sohail Ahmed is not given a new appointment within seven days, his notification [as officer on special duty] would be considered as null and void.”

The government, for its part, seemed to accept the court’s decision. Speaking to journalists outside the Supreme Court building after the hearing, Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq termed the decision “a good one”.

“Under the prevailing conditions, it was a beautiful decision,” said the attorney general.

Former law minister Babar Awan also welcomed the decision, saying: “Today, the court has set criteria for posting and transferring bureaucrats.”

Many people would be disappointed when they hear that there was no confrontation between the judiciary and the executive, he added.

On Friday, a six-member bench of the Supreme Court was conducting hearings into the Hajj embezzlement scandal, in which former religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi has already been implicated.

The controversy over the court’s orders regarding civil service appointments began when the government decided to transfer Hussain Asghar, then an additional director general at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), from his position as the lead investigating officer on the Hajj scandal, allegedly when his findings began taking a direction the government was uncomfortable with.

(Read: Confrontation unending)

Asghar was posted to Gilgit-Baltistan as the Inspector General of Police of the province. The court had ordered the establishment secretary, a position then held by Sohail Ahmed, to reinstate Asghar, an order with which Ahmed complied.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, however, was incensed that Ahmed violated his orders and made him an officer on special duty (OSD), citing as his reason the fact that the establishment secretary is not empowered to transfer officers above grade 21 (the second highest in the civil service).

On Tuesday, the court had ordered the FIA chief to reinstate Asghar as the lead investigator on the Hajj case. On Friday, however, the attorney general reported to the Supreme Court that government of Gilgit-Baltistan is unwilling to let go of Asghar’s services as the provincial police chief until the government offers a replacement appointment.

On Thursday, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah and members of the G-B legislature expressed concerns over the Supreme Court order, saying they were happy with Asghar’s services and did not want to give him up.

The judges, however, were agitated at the attorney general’s response, with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry saying that “a simple matter is being made complicated.”

Justice Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui asked Anwarul Haq if he felt the Gilgit-Baltistan government’s position was justified, to which the attorney general replied that he did not think so.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said the government did not seem willing to implement the court’s orders, adding that “Hussain Asghar would have arrived from Gilgit-Baltistan in 45 minutes if the government had willingness to get him back.”

The attorney general said that the government had implemented the court’s decision, though the chief justice retorted that the implementation was on paper only.

Hearings on the case were adjourned until an as yet unspecified date. (With additional input from APP)

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2011.

According to sources, all judges in these three registries have been directed to ensure their presence in Islamabad. Sources said that the decision has been taken in view of the ongoing row between the judiciary and the executive. However, other sources added that it could be in preparation for the formation of a larger bench of the apex court which could be expected next week.

In the second scenario, benches at the Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar registries of the Supreme Court would not be able to take up the scheduled cases. Therefore, they would hear the cases at the principal seat in Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2011.

The meeting, a presidential spokesperson said, had been called to take key provincial functionaries into confidence regarding the current domestic situation.

The meeting is said to have discussed the trichotomy of powers between the state pillars- the parliament, executive and judiciary and resolved to uphold the supremacy of parliament over all institution.

“Parliament reflected the will of the people, it is mother of all state institutions and, therefore, it is the supreme institution,” Farhatullah Babar said after the meeting.

(Read: Showdown?: Govt, SC on collision course, again)

The meeting was chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and was attended by Punjab Governor Sardar Muhammad Latif Khosa, Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Barrister Syed Masood Kausar, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Chief Minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Hoti, Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani, Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah, President-elect Azad Kashmir Sardar Yaqoub, Prime Minister Azad Kashmir Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Senator Babar Awan, MNAs Rukhsana Bangash, Fouzia Habib, Raja Riaz Ahmed, MPAs and leader of the opposition in  Punjab Assembly, and presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar.

“The president told us that the government will implement every ‘constitutional’ decision of the Supreme Court. The prime minister, parliament and all other institutions must work within their domains. They should use their authority while remaining within the ambit of the Constitution,” leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz told The Express Tribune after the meeting.

Dispelling the impression of an imminent showdown, Riaz said that everyone agreed that no one wanted a clash or confrontation with any party or institution. “The PPP does not want a clash with any political party or a state organ,” he said. “I think the situation has changed today,” he added.

Sources said the government might not reappoint Sohail as secretary establishment, but would appoint him on some other post within the next week.

A source close to the presidency said that the PPP would continue the carrot-and-stick approach. “It will expose the judges and then back down,” he said.

“We will expose the nexus by using parliament’s floor and the media from time to time. We know who is calling the shots and we are well aware of their designs,” a PPP leader considered to be among party’s policy-makers commented during an informal interaction.

The official press statement issued by the Presidency said: “The chief executives reiterated their resolve to ensure respect for all state institutions and that they worked in a spirit of harmony and within the parameters of trichotomy of power as enshrined in the Constitution. The meeting dispelled the notion propagated by some of clash of institutions and expressed satisfaction that there was no danger of any clash among institutions.”

The meeting also reposed confidence in the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gilani on Friday sought support from a ‘like-minded’ opposition party in case of ‘ultimate clash of institutions’.

The government wanted to avoid any confrontation with any state organ, Prime Minister Gilani is reported to have said during a meeting here with leader of the Opposition in Senate Maulana Ghafoor Haideri of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

But party insiders said the meeting was a part of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) policy to keep all its options open and enlist the support of key political players if the apex court continued to ‘undermine’ the executive’s authority.

Gilani’s interaction with Haideri at an unscheduled meeting on Friday morning came on the heels of a gathering of PPP allies in the presidency on Thursday night in which they decided to use parliament to ‘determine and defend’ executive’s powers.

“It is the reasonability of every parliamentarian to defend the parliament’s sanctity and authority,” Gilani was quoted as telling Haideri.

Premier’s media office did not issue any handout after the meeting and a spokesperson for the prime minister attempted to downplay the event, saying he wasn’t aware of what transpired between the two leaders.

Sources in the premier’s secretariat told The Express Tribune that Gilani immediately drove to the presidency after the meeting.

JUI-F has always been critical of the judiciary. Its leaders had hinted that the party will support if the government took any measure to rein in ‘unbridled’ institutions overstepping their authority.

There were also reports about Gilani contacting JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, which could not be substantiated.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2011.

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday put the Pakistan Taliban on its international anti-terrorism sanctions list in a move highlighting the growing threat from the group, diplomats said.

The adding of the Tehrik-E-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group to the sanctions list also comes as the UNSC eases pressure on the Afghan Taliban in a bid to encourage it to join peace moves in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan Taliban has been blamed for attacks that have left hundreds dead in Pakistan but also been linked to an attempted bombing in Times Square, New York last year.

Britain’s UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant welcomed the addition of the Pakistan Taliban to counter-terrorism list, a moved which has been backed by the Pakistan government.

“It sends a powerful signal of the international community’s solidarity and resolve in the fight against the TTP and international terrorism,” Lyall Grant said in a statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

Eight personnel of the anti-terrorist force (ATF) and four policemen were amongst the injured.

Nawabzada Siraj Raisani, chief guest of the event, was the prime target of the attack according to security officials.

“The explosion happened after the prize distribution ceremony of All-Pakistan Football Tournament in Mastung,” said Noorul Haq Baloch, deputy commissioner of Mastung.

Siraj’s 14-year-old son, and chief minister’s nephew, Akmal Raisani sustained serious injuries in the attack and was rushed to Combined Military Hospital, Quetta for treatment where he succumbed to his injuries. The other person killed in the attack could not be identified.

“Akmal Raisani and his father were boarding the vehicle when the hand grenade exploded in close proximity to them,” said an official.

“Akmal sustained serious injuries while Siraj Raisani was unhurt,” the official added. The vehicle was gutted in the blast.

Since a bomb disposal squad was not available in the area to assess the damage following the blast, the intensity and power of the explosion could not be known immediately.

A state of emergency was imposed at all government-run hospitals in Quetta following the blast. “We received 15 injured persons who were later taken to Combined Military Hospital,” sources at district headquarters hospital said.

Five injured were shifted to Bolan Medical College Hospital, Quetta while another three were referred to provincial Sandeman Hospital.

Protesters blocked the RCD Highway at several places near Mastung, Kalat and Khuzdar in reaction to the blast.

Train track sabotaged

The rail service between Quetta and rest of the country came to a halt again after an explosion destroyed a 30-foot-long section of the railway tracks.

The explosion also derailed a Quetta-bound passenger train, Bolan Mail, on Friday near Dera Allahyar. No one was reported hurt in the incident.

Outlawed Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the attack.

A spokesperson for BRA who identified himself as Sarbaz Baloch said: “The BRA will target economic installations and security forces in the future as well.”

An official of the Pakistan Railways said that repair work had begun.

“The rail service is likely to be restored by late Friday,” he said. The passengers were transported to Dera Murad Jamali after the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2011.

PESHAWAR: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan on Friday said they were holding a Swiss couple kidnapped a month ago while on holiday in Balochistan.

Wali-ur Rehman, deputy head of the TTP, did not provide proof that the group had the pair but said they were in good health and demanded they be exchanged for Dr Aafia Siddiqui jailed in the US.

Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were abducted on July 1 while driving in Balochistan.

“The Swiss couple are with the TTP. They are at a very safe place,” Wali-ur Rehman, deputy chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told AFP by telephone.

“They are completely in good health, they are getting reasonable food and they have not fallen ill since they landed in our custody.”

Rehman said the Taliban would release the couple if the US freed Aafia Siddiqui, a female neuro-scientist sentenced in 2010 for the attempted murder of US government agents in Afghanistan.

“We call upon the Western world to put pressure on America for the release of Aafia Siddiqui,” he said. “If America does not agree to her release then our shura (council) will take a decision about the Swiss hostages.”

Other Taliban sources confirmed TTP’s claim and added that the hostages were now being held in South Waziristan.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry told AFP it had “taken note” of the media reports but said it would not comment on the information.

It reiterated that authorities are “continuing with their efforts to bring the two Swiss citizens back safely to Switzerland”.

Previous kidnappings in Pakistan have also been followed by a demand for Siddiqui’s release, without effect. Rehman said the group had not issued a ransom demand.

Siddiqui, dubbed “Lady Qaeda” by US tabloids, was jailed for 86 years in 2010 after being found guilty of grabbing a rifle at an Afghan police station where she was being interrogated and opening fire on servicemen and FBI agents.

She missed and in a struggle was herself shot by one of the US soldiers.

The jailing of Siddiqui, a highly-trained scientist who was missing for five years before the shooting, sparked mass protests in Pakistan and the government vowed to fight to free her.

The Swiss couple’s blue Volkswagen van was found abandoned after they were snatched in Loralai district, around 170 kilometres east of Quetta.

According to visas stamped in their passports, they arrived in Pakistan from India on June 28.

The pair entered Balochistan from Punjab and may have been heading for Quetta, possibly en route to Iran, officials in Islamabad have said.

Switzerland has advised against non-essential travel to Pakistan since 2008, citing risks including the threat of kidnapping.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th,  2011.

QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus stand in southwestern Pakistan in Quetta on Friday, killing seven Shia pilgrims and injuring 12, waiting to travel to neighbouring Iran at the office of a transportation company, police said.

A group of pilgrims were waiting to travel to the border town of Taftan when the assailants arrived at the office on Saryab Road and opened fire, Express 24/7 correspondent Muhammad Kazim reported.

The dead include two Uzbeks and one Iranian national, senior police official Hamid Shakeel told Reuters.

The transport company runs buses from Quetta to Taftan, a city that borders Iran, he said.

The injured have been injured to Bolan Medical Complex. Two of the injured are reported to be in serious condition.

Officials said the attack could be an incident of sectarian violence.

“The attackers came on motorcycle and opened fire on the pilgrims. All seven Shia pilgrims were killed on the spot,” Farid Breach, a senior police officer, told AFP.

“It was a sectarian attack. The Shia pilgrims were the target.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident, which was confirmed by local intelligence officials.

A heavy contingent of police has been deployed in the area to control the law and order situation.

The attack was the latest violence in the province of Baluchistan, which is beset by deadly sectarian conflict, a separatist insurgency and Taliban militant activity.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has declared the government notification on Secretary Establishment Sohail Ahmed being made On Special Duty (OSD) null and void and ordered his reinstatement within seven days, Express 24/7 reported on Friday.

The Attorney General of Pakistan, Maulvi Anwarul Haq had informed the court that he had not been able to meet Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday as he was busy with official engagements, which is why he was not able to submit his reply on the Secretary Establishment being made OSD.

(Read: Establishment Secretary undermined my authority: PM Gilani)

The chief justice asked the attorney general why the court’s orders were not being honoured.

The court, during the hearing of the Hajj scam case, also directed the government to reinstate Hussain Asghar as investigation officer in the case.

Haq also informed the court that Asghar is in the Kachura area of Gilgit-Baltistan and has been stopped by the chief minister from leaving his charge.

The Supreme Court had given the government one more day to obey its directives, including the reinstatement of a top bureaucrat, a written response by the prime minister and bringing back the chief investigator of the Hajj corruption scam.

Asma Jahangir lashes out at the government for not complying with SC orders

Meanwhile, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Asma Jahangir said the country is heading towards lawlessness by not implementing decisions of the Supreme Court (SC), on Friday.

Addressing lawyers at the Peshawar High Court Bar – Asma Jahangir said whether the SC’s verdict is right or wrong – the government should implement it adding that if the government feels the court’s decision is wrong – then it should file a review plea against it.

The SCBA president criticised victimisation of government secretaries who implement court orders. She said making the secretaries, Officer on Special Duty, will not work anymore.

Asma said that lawyers believe in independence of judiciary and superiority of law.

Speaking on the laws made by the government for FATA and PATA, she said she condemned it.

Earlier, on July 27, the five-member bench hearing the Hajj scam had given the government till Thursday to bring back the recently removed establishment secretary Sohail Ahmed and furnish the prime minister’s response to why he was removed to begin with. The court had charged the government with removing Ahmed for obeying the court’s directives.

NEW DELHI: The lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 dead has approached the Indian Supreme Court asking for his death sentence to be overturned, a court source told AFP Friday.

The source said the request by Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab had been filed via jail authorities in Mumbai, where he has been held since the attacks, and lodged with the secretary general of the court.

“He filed the appeal through the Arthur Road jail authorities,” the source said, asking not to be named.

Pakistani national Kasab, one of 10 gunmen who laid siege to the city for nearly three days, was first convicted and sentenced by a trial court in the Indian commercial and entertainment capital in May 2010.

The death sentence was confirmed by the state high court in February in the first failed appeal by the 23-year-old from a poor farming area in Pakistan’s Punjab.

India has the death sentence for the “rarest of the rare” criminal offences and executions are uncommon.

Kasab was found guilty of a string of offences including waging war against India, murder, attempted murder and terrorist acts after a trial at a maximum security prison court in Mumbai.

During the trial, the prosecution produced fingerprint, DNA, eye-witness, CCTV and other evidence showing him opening fire and throwing grenades in the bloodiest episode of the November 26 attacks at Mumbai’s main railway station.

A number of senior police officers, including the head of the Maharashtra state anti-terrorism squad, were killed as the gunmen fled the scene of carnage.

Three luxury hotels, a popular tourist restaurant and a Jewish centre were also targeted by the other gunmen.

If the Supreme Court upholds the verdict and sentence, Kasab can appeal for clemency to India’s president as a last resort.

The last execution in India was in 2004, but in May India’s president unexpectedly rejected a mercy petition from a murderer in the northeastern state of Assam.

The state faces a difficult search for a hangman, however, because the small number of known candidates have either died or retired.

India has accused the banned, Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba of being behind the attacks, which led to the suspension of fragile peace talks between the two neighbours and rivals.

Recent months have seen an increase in the cases of alleged disappearances and unlawful killings of the Baloch.

The involvement of security agencies in these abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan is brought to light in the explosive new report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York based advocacy group.

It details cases of human rights abuses, violations of international and domestic laws and state-sponsored brutality that has claimed victims as young as 12 years old.

The 132-page report titled ‘We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years’ was released on Thursday. It documents 49 cases of enforced disappearances, 36 of which originated in 2009-2010.

The report implicates the Military Intelligence (MI) and Frontier Corps (FC) as well as the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) for being involved in enforced disappearances.

According to the report, 16 cases of abduction were carried out by, in the presence of, or with the assistance of FC personnel. The majority of disappearances documented by the HRW were in Quetta as well as Tump, Mustung and Thali.

A majority of the victims were targeted because of tribal affiliations or their involvement with Baloch nationalist movements and political parties.

One example is of 25-year-old Rahim [not his real name], who was arrested with Dr Naseem Baloch and Ilyas Karim on May 25, 2010 by the FC. “I explained that I was a farmer in Awaran and they also asked about my family, and about Dr Naseem and Ilyas. When I told them that they were my friends, they would scream, ‘You are lying to us! Tell us what Naseem is doing. Why is he involved in separatism?’”

The HRW report details the abductors’ methods in gruesome detail. Men are picked up from vehicles and from university campuses, homes or places of work in broad daylight which the HRW said highlights “the impunity with which Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies operate in Balochistan”.

The HRW documented 10 cases in which “security forces beat the victims during the arrest and forcibly dragged them into their vehicles, often handcuffed and blindfolded”. The victims are taken to secret detention centres such as the Kuli camp at a military base in Quetta.Torture practices are widespread, including “prolonged beatings, often with sticks or leather belts, hanging the detainees upside down, and food and sleep deprivation”. Baloch Republican Party leader Bashir Azeem, who was abducted three times, said he was beaten by a leather strap. “They hung me upside down and kept asking who was financing us, and where the militants were. They pushed pins under my nails, put a chair on my back and sat on it, and put me in a room for 48 hours where I could just stand.”

There are limited options for victims’ families, as the police often refuse to register complaints. According to the HRW, the police told the families that they had no powers to investigate the disappearances allegedly committed by intelligence agencies or FC personnel.

There are also fears that those abducted have been extra-judicially killed, as evidenced by the number of bodies found with torture marks. More than 70 bodies have been discovered since July 2010. According to Azeem, his captors used to say, “Even if the president or chief justice tell us to release you, we won’t. We can torture you, or kill you, or keep you for years at our will. It is only the army chief and the ISI chief that we obey.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th,  2011.