KP to set up intelligence agency: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan has said that the Khyer Pakhtunkhwa government has been cleaning the debris left there by two previous regimes on account of their participation in what he dubbed the US war.
He said, “We have decided to set up an intelligence agency in the province so that the police can get tips about attacks in advance instead of bearing the cost of terrorism.”He said, “There is no intelligence in the province. We have been revamping the police structure and have been bringing reforms.”
“The police of the province have given the most sacrifices,” Khan said after casting his vote in the presidential election.He appealed to the masses: “Give us one or two months and you will see the difference yourself.”
Getting harsh on the hiccups during the presidential election, PTI chief said the presidential election has become controversial because of the Supreme Court’s decision which was given without hearing other parties.
He said the presidential election has turned controversial because several political parties also boycotted it. He said PTI contested this election after party consultations because it did not want to give an open field to the PML-N.
He said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz fell in love with the MQM during this election.Khan said in the All Parties Conference in 2007‚ the PML-N agreed not to join hands with the MQM unless it disbands its militant wing. He said PML-N deviated from its commitment. 
Khan demanded of the Supreme Court to investigate rigging in the general elections at least in four constituencies through thumb impression.He said the apex court has still not responded to the petition in which the PTI had demanded investigations into rigging in the general election 2013. He claimed that 11th May election was massively rigged as all political forces except the PML-N claimed.
Khan said they were not given enough time for lobbying for their candidate. He asserted that the May 11 elections were the most controversial in the country’s history. “Tahir ul Qadri was absolutely right. Pakistan witnessed the worst rigging in the country’s parliamentary history,” Khan said. 
He said the PTI government in KP would conduct local body elections with the biometric system and no party would complain of rigging in the province.The cricketer-turned-politician said the degree of Ayla Malik was not fake but there were some technical faults in it. He said Sarwar Khan’s disqualification was also unlawful as his case was still in the high court.Outside parliament, PTI leader Shafqat Mehmood told reporters, “The coalition of the PML-N and MQM is the worst case of self interest.” 

Jurm Bolta Hai - 31st July 2013

Jurm Bolta Hai - 31st July 2013 Alternate Video

CNN DESCRIBES AMIR LIAQAT AS A “SEX SYMBOL WHO WANT TO WIN A BABY

Mamnoon Hussain elected as Pakistan's 12th president

ISLAMABAD: According to the initial vote count, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s candidate Mamnoon Hussain has been elected as Pakistan’s 12th president, comfortably securing the majority vote in the presidential election, Express Newsreported on Tuesday. Hussain will take oath on September 9. The incumbent President Asif Ali Zardari, along with a number of politicians congratulated Hussain on his victory. The table below shows the number of electoral votes received by the PML-N and PTI candidates. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Mamnoon Hussain Justice (retd) Wajiuddin Ahmed National Assembly + Senate 277 34 Punjab Assembly                            60 4 Sindh Assembly 25 2 Balochistan Assembly 55 1 Khyber Paktunkhwa 21 36 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Mamnoon Hussain Former Sindh governor and an alumnus of the Institute of Business Administration, from where he graduated in 1965, Hussain is an old loyalist of Nawaz Sharif and remained with the PML-N during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. He served as the governor of Sindh from June to October 1999 and lost the post after the then army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf toppled the PML-N government in a military coup in Oct 1999. Hussain belongs to Sindh and lives in Karachi, where he owns a textile business. He  was born in Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1940. In 1993, he inched closer to the party leadership when Nawaz contested his own removal from the premier’s office by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. According to analysts, picking Hussain as its presidential candidate would help the party counter the PPP’s claims that the PML-N was accommodating only Punjab-based politicians at offices in the centre. He contested the 2002 elections from NA-250 (Karachi) on PML-N ticket but had no luck. He is also a former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).

Shooting down a drone isn’t so hard to do

Soon after Pakistan’s May election, Imran Khan called on the new government to “stop or shoot down” American drones.

His position has softened in more recent weeks, but the PTI continues to emphasise coercive responses — as evidenced by aresolution submitted to the National Assembly last month that urges the government to use military force “if needed.”

Yet, if the PTI truly wants to down a drone, it may want to call on its fellow countrymen, and not the government, to execute such an audacious operation.

Why do I say this? Enter an American named Phillip Steel. He has proposed anordinance for his town of Deer Trail, Colorado. It gives private citizens the right to shoot down surveillance drones — and entitles them to compensation if they succeed.

But first, some broader context.

Hypothetically speaking, could the Pakistani state shoot down a drone? Certainly. There’s little doubt Pakistan’s military boasts the capacity. According to one expert, slow speeds, easy detectability, and lack of maneuverability make drones “child’s play for a Pakistani Air Force pilot.” American drones have been shot down before; Serbians did so in 1999, and Iraqis in 2002 (Iran says it downed one in 2011, a claim disputed by Washington).

Still, in all reality, will the Pakistani state shoot down a drone? No. Doing so would severely damage — if not sever altogether — Islamabad’s ties with Washington, a relationship, new prime minister Nawaz Sharif seems eager to strengthen. It could also trigger retaliation from the United States. And this all assumes the Pakistani military would do the deed — which it likely would not. We now know the military has consented to drone strikes (a logical position, given the high-level Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda figures killed by drones). This undercuts the oft-stated argument that the government can legally shoot down drones under the principle of self-defense.

Yet there’s another possibility. What if aggrieved Pakistanis, convinced the state won’t act, decide to take matters into their own hands?

Admittedly, this scenario may seem more far-fetched than a state-led effort. After all, few private citizens wield weaponry capable of downing a stealthy aircraft cruising at up to 10,000 feet. Pakistani militants may have the capacity, and they’ve claimed to have downed drones before. But there’s no proof their boasts are truthful.

Still, in a country as heavily weaponised as Pakistan, where powerful arms flow freely, there’s reason to believe someone could acquire the means to down a drone.

This brings me back to Phillip Steel. His proposal would allow residents to purchase $25 licenses that authorise them to fire at drones. If you ground part of a craft, you’re entitled to $25. Bring down the whole thing, and you net $100.

If the ordinance passes (officials consider it August 6), few people — including Steel — believe anyone will actually bag a drone (though the US Federal Aviation Administration has threatened to prosecute anyone who tries). No one’s ever seen a drone over Deer Trail, and because of licensing restrictions, modest shotguns are the only permissible weapons.

Yet this is all immaterial. Steel and his supporters regard the initiative as a purely symbolic measure meant to highlights the US government’s rising levels of surveillance (the FAA is ramping up America’s domestic drones program).

I’m inclined to agree with an observer who describes the effort as “the sort of small-town lunacy that makes the local Chamber of Commerce president want to bang his head against his desk.” Still, it amplifies Americans’ legitimate concerns about a growing surveillance regime.

It also raises some salient considerations about Pakistan.

Assuming drone strikes continue to proliferate and little is done by Islamabad, I can envision something akin to Steel’s initiative emerging in Pakistan — where drones do so much more than simply spy from the sky.

Numerous Pakistanis have good reason to act boldly against drone strikes. Think of tribal belt civilians who have lost family members (or homes, limbs, or livelihoods), or who have been traumatised by the telltale humming of drones.

Some of these people have sought legal assistance. Several months ago, a Pakistani court sided with them and ordered the government to end drone strikes. Yet they haven’t ended.

Their next step could be proposing a rough equivalent of Steel’s ordinance, which I’m sure some PTI official in KP province would happily support. For reasons already mentioned, those proposing the measure could conceivably find the appropriate weaponry (Steel’s shotguns-only rule would presumably not be in effect).

There’d be nothing symbolic about this measure in Pakistan. Blessed with sufficient interest, capacity, and support, it could well bring down a low-flying drone (witnesses report that drones may hover at low altitudes for hours).

Unsettling? Absolutely. Yet this all underscores the understandable lengths to which citizens — American and Pakistani alike — may be willing to go when grievances arecontinuouslyignored.

Imran says fall from forklift saved him from dying in a BLAST

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has confirmed speculations doing the rounds in the country in the run-up to the May 11 elections that there was a plot to assassinate him and that the fall off a forklift at a Lahore rally on May 7 that nearly killed him “had quite possibly saved my life”.

In an article carried by Britain’s MailOnline on Sunday, Mr Khan wrote he had been told he was number one on the terrorist hit-list. There are perhaps 25 militant groups which call themselves ‘Taliban’ and any one of them could have been hired by his political opponents.

Mr Khan said there had already been damaging allegations, including the claim that he was part of a Zionist conspiracy to take over Pakistan. “It was a dangerous allegation, and one that sounds crazy given my vehement opposition to drone strikes and the so-called war on terror. But the threat to my life was all too real.

“It is an irony, then, that a serious assassination attempt was prevented only by an accident and the fact that I spent the closing days of the Pakistan election campaign in a hospital bed.

“The fall that nearly killed me quite possibly saved my life.”

He wrote the meeting where he fell was the first of nine rallies scheduled for that night. “The following day I was supposed to be speaking at a further 13 [rallies], spaced along the old Grand Trunk Road from Lahore to Islamabad.”

“We were drawing massive crowds…and we didn’t have the means to handle the spontaneous exuberance of the crowds.

“We were losing control. The authorities had already warned me that my life was at risk, and I had been given the highest level of police security.

“One safety measure was having me speak from a platform about 24 feet above ground. This provided some protection from a potential bomb blast.

“There were no steps, so instead a forklift truck was used to raise me up to the small platform to speak…The forklift rose in a series of jerks and the security men surrounding me formed a barrier. This meant I could not see there wasn’t a guard rail around the platform.

“Losing my balance, I leant over to where I thought the safety barrier would be – and grasped at thin air. I somersaulted downwards, landing on my back from a height of about 18ft…I was lucky to be alive.”

The PTI leader said his great fear as he lay in his hospital bed was that he was going to be paralysed.

“I’ve never known a life where I wasn’t in control of my body. I found myself prey to morbid thoughts, something completely out of character. I thought in particular about the victims of drone attacks and terrorist bombs. We always hear about the dead, not so much [about] those who end up maimed. That was my great fear: not death, but being disabled.

“…CT scans showed I had indeed come very close to being paralysed. The bullet-proof vest I’d started wearing only a few days earlier had acted as a cushion, and absorbed some of the shock of the fall.”

Mr Khan said there was something else, too: “If I hadn’t been in hospital I could have been dead. [The interior] minister came to visit and told me of an assassination attempt scheduled for the day after my fall.”

“At the same time,” Mr Khan points out, “it was frustrating. We were coming to the end of the biggest election campaign in Pakistani history, and we had touched the hearts of the masses.

“…There is much to be optimistic about. Yet the discovery that I had avoided an assassination plot serves to illustrate that Pakistan’s multiple crises are as serious and threatening as ever.

“To begin with, there is no doubt that this was the most rigged election in Pakistan’s history, an election in which every party that participated has alleged massive fraud was committed. We know this to be true.

“…it was the first election to be conducted by an independent judiciary. We had thumbprint IDs on ballot slips. But sadly the judicial officers became part of the problem.”

Mr Khan said that Pakistan’s biggest impediment to moving forward and achieving its potential was terrorism. Yet the country was unable to tackle the underlying causes: the war in Afghanistan and the drone strikes.

“Each drone attack, each operation against militants in tribal areas leads to more Pakistani dead, and the level of violence, along with a surge in extremism, will lead to a radicalisation of our society. It will only diminish when Pakistan starts to control its own territory and its destiny again, and disengages from this American-led war.

“Yet I still have hope. Once again, I face each new day with excitement. I was hugely cheered when Nato General Nick Carter said recently that we should have been talking to the Taliban 10 years ago. That’s what I’ve been saying for many years – the only way out of this crisis, and to rebuild our country, is to reach a political settlement.”

To the Point (Imran Khan Exclusive Interview) - 29th July 2013

Chairman PTI Imran Khan joins Shahzeb Khanzada in program to the point on express news.

PTI wanted to boycott presidential election: IMRAN

LAHORE: Chief of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan said on Sunday that his party would have boycotted the upcoming presidential election, had the party candidate, Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad, not requested for the PTI's participation in the presidential race, DawnNews reported.

Khan said he agreed with the stance of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) but his party was participating in the presidential elections under protest.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore after attending a party meeting, the PTI chief reiterated his stance that a closed-door session between himself, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Army chief should precede a public forum such as the APC to curb militancy and address the overall law and order and security situation in the country.

Khan said that he would not particpate in an APC if the closed-door session was not held prior to it.

Moreover the PTI chief also claimed that arrangements for rigging of the local body elections were taking place on the same scale as the rigging that took place during May 11 general elections this year.

He also indicated full-fledged protests would be staged on the roads and streets in order to save democracy.

Later, talking to DawnNews Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervez Rasheed said that the government was willing to hold a closed-door session with Imran Khan and the Chief of Army Staff and expressed hopes that that PTI chief would participate in the APC convened by the government.

Mobile court inaugurated: 'State bound to provide justice'

PESHAWAR: Inaugurating the first mobile court in the country here on Saturday, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan said that the Constitution had made it mandatory for the state to provide speedy and inexpensive justice to citizens, but the state institutions never paid serious attention to this constitutional obligation.

The chief justice inaugurated a specially-designed Mobile Court coach parked on the premises of the high court in a ceremony attended by judicial officers, lawyers and representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP has been extending financial and technical support to this project, started on the high court’s initiative.

The spacious coach comprises several portions, including a small courtroom, judge’s chamber, driver’s cabin, litigants’ waiting section etc. The air-conditioned coach has three modes of provision of electric power – from generator, a solar energy panel and from normal electricity connection when it is parked near such a facility. The special green coach was stated to be prepared at a cost of Rs15 million.

A civil judge cum judicial magistrate, Fazal Wadud, started the proceedings of the court by hearing six cases, five of criminal nature and one civil dispute.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy’s director general Hayat Ali Shah said that so far they had imparted training to eight judicial officers and 16 lawyers to run the mobile courts. He stated that initially the critics of this project believed that it could not be accomplished, but now that dream had transformed into reality.

The PHC chief justice had floated the idea of mobile courts after he assumed the charge in Nov 2011. Under this project, the judicial officers and other court officials would visit far away areas in different districts and decide cases there so as to provide justice to people at their doorsteps. The high court is planning to set up 11 mobile courts in the province; four in the central districts, two each in Hazara and southern districts and three in Malakand division.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the chief justice said that now they would be providing justice at the doorsteps of people.

He stated that the idea of mobile courts was sacred as the justice system would be itself in search of the oppressed class.

“The inability of masses to bring their disputes to the courts due to a number of reasons, including the cost of litigation, lack of resources and cumbersome legal procedure, has prompted us to establish mobile courts and provide quick and inexpensive justice to poor people,” he said.

The chief justice stated that to introduce ADR (alternate dispute resolution) as supplementary to the formal justice system, a course was designed for the judges and lawyers of mobile courts.

He stated that the concept of mobile courts read that decision of a case and resolving a dispute were two different things. The former, he said, meant a compulsory ruling and the latter referred to uprooting differences.

“A society can only prosper when differences are uprooted as formal rulings may result into an endless chain of legal battles causing mental anxiety, physical discomfort and financial worries.”

Justice Dost Mohammad stated that timely intervention of mobile courts would enable the parties concerned to settle amicably all kinds of civil and criminal disputes in their very start. He added that on the one hand it would put at rest the disputes and conflicts bringing peace and tranquility in the society, on the other financial resources being wasted could be saved by the parties.

He stated that early resolution of disputes, if timely attended by the mobile courts, would plug the heavy inflow of lawsuits in regular courts. This would reduce considerable burden on the regular courts and the backlog crisis would be brought down to a great extent.

The chief justice lamented that they had drafted and referred two proposed laws to the department concerned for its presentation in the provincial assembly, but unfortunately the previous government paid no heed and the draft was still yet to be presented to the provincial legislature.

UNDP country director Marc Andre stated that the mobile court project was the vision of the Peshawar High Court, while the UNDP had been playing a support role in it. He said that these courts would bring a positive change in the judicial system as the project was aimed at providing speedy and cheap justice to people at their doorsteps.

Presidential Election Pakistan

It is hard to understand why this could not have been taken advantage of, and a date set after August 6, avoiding all the controversy and chaos. DESIGN: EMA ANIS/FILE

The presidential election in the country, which should have been a calm, constitutional and dignified event, has been reduced to something of a farce as a result of a string of unnecessary blunders, which have followed each other in quick succession. The date originally set by the Supreme Court (SC), August 6, and followed by the Election Commission of Pakistan in announcing the election schedule, was always problematic given that it fell during the last week of Ramazan, when many legislators are likely to be sitting in itikaf or are away on Umrah. Estimates have said that around 100 would not vote.

But even given this, the PML-N plea for an extension was unnecessary, given the way the numbers panned out. Its numerical strength in legislatures is such that it would have won the contest anyway. The SC then moved the date to July 30, followed by perhaps, the worst blunder of all: the PPP’s poorly thought out decision to boycott the process, with its candidate, Raza Rabbani, announcing a pullout from the contest, mainly over the apex Court’s failure to hear it before setting a date. Yes, all sides should be heard — but in the light of the broader political good, the decision not to take part is harmful, all the more so, since the final result is a predetermined reality anyway. The only issue of political interest is the MQM support for the PML-N candidate, Mamnoon Hussain, and the possible future repercussions of this.

Indeed, all the haste we are seeing, rather like the fast forward button pressed on a movie watching device, seems so pointless. With President Asif Ali Zardari’s term expiring in September, the Constitution allows ample time, stretching into October, for the poll to be held. It is hard to understand why this could not have been taken advantage of, and a date set after August 6, avoiding all the controversy and chaos we have been plunged into as a result of the unwise steps taken over a matter that could so easily have been resolved without fuss.

Death revisits Parachinar

People gather around one of the blast sites in Parachinar on Friday. PHOTO: EXPRESS

The conflict in Parachinar, Kurram Agency, resurfaced once again, when two suicide bombers targeted a busy market killing, at least, 51 and injuring almost 190 tribesmen from the predominantly Shia, Turi and Bangash tribes. Just last month, security forces, which had concluded a successful military operation in the neighbouring Sadda area of the agency, claimed to have restored peace by flushing out the militants who were advancing towards Parachinar. But the unabated violence continues. After the attack, the workings of the security apparatus were further put into doubt when the political agent of Kurram Agency claimed to have had intelligence reports of a possible attack during Friday prayers but did not manage to avert the danger.

While fear looms across the tribal areas, death tolls have become a mere statistic. The conflict in Kurram is not new. The sectarian strife, considered to be a by-product of the Afghan war in 1982, has trickled down since then. The recent attacks were claimed by the Ansarul Mujahideen, an offshoot of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The same group has also claimed attacks on the Pakistani security forces in North Waziristan; only this time, its motive was to apparently target Shias. Residents believe that the inefficiency of the government and security forces has been the cause of death of hundreds of people. The road to Parachinar, which remained closed for over four years, was reopened in 2011 only after a large number of residents, who had to travel to another area in their own country via Afghanistan, were killed across the border. However, despite this, there have been several incidents of violence.

Many have found no solution but to migrate permanently to a settled area, but even then, their lives have not been safe. A number of high-profile sectarian targeted killings across Pakistan are mostly targeting those from Kurram Agency. Last year, a boat that capsized off the coast of Indonesia, had almost 200 asylum seekers — a majority of them were young men from Parachinar. That these people have had to live in such uncertainty for so long is deplorable. It is high time that the government made a more concerted and decisive effort to catch those responsible for the violence and bring them to book.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2013.

Article 63 not applicable to presidential polls: Justice Wajihuddin

Presidential candidate Justice (retd) Wajihuddin speaks at a press conference on Friday, July 26, 2013. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf presidential candidate Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed claimed on Saturday that Article 63 did not apply to the presidential election, Radio Pakistan reported.

Speaking at a press conference, he said that parliamentarians will vote for their candidates through a secret ballot. “If the Election Commission of Pakistan can ensure secrecy of ballot, especially since now there is one-on-one competition, where every one knows who is who and what is their past, anything can happen.”

Justice Wajihuddin added that he had no issue with the Pakistan Peoples Party boycotting the presidential elections. “We do not have any objection over that [boycott], it was their right. But the question is why did they do it?”

He claimed that he could even win the elections.

His statements come a day after the Election Commission of Pakistan assured the Lahore High Court (LHC) that Article 63 would be implemented in full for the presidential elections 2013.

On that occasion, the LHC was hearing a petition moved by Advocate Azhar Siddique, who sought to stay the presidential elections on the basis that certain terms of disqualification from the Parliament which were included in the Article 63, had been amended by the ECP through a notification on 10 Sep 2007, thus making certain disqualification clauses for the seat of the President ineffective. The petitioner said that the amendment had made it possible for the then Chief of Staff General Pervez Musharraf to qualify as President while holding the office of Chief of Staff as well.

However, the LHC disposed of the petition after ECP’s counsel Naeem Ghumman assured the court that Article 63 would be implemented in full.

MQM sends legal notice to najam sethi for defaming MQM ( Also watch sethi's reply )