HRCP voices concern at death of miners, migrant workers in Balochistan

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed grave concern at the recent deaths of 29 workers in Balochistan. On 4 May, six migrant workers involved in installing a mobile phone tower in Kharan were killed by assailants who attacked their camp as they slept. During 5–6 May, 23 colliers were killed in two separate mining accidents—a methane explosion in a mine in Marwar and a mudslide in another mine in Sooranj, which left several miners fatally trapped.In a statement issued today, HRCP has said: ‘It is unacceptable that workers are not provided adequate security in regions known to be politically sensitive and thus vulnerable to such attacks. The responsibility for protecting workers in such a situation lies squarely with their employers, who must take all possible steps to ensure that their operations in any given area do not put workers at unnecessary risk. Where this risk exists, employers are bound to provide their workers with regular and adequate security.‘Moreover, mining accidents such as methane explosions and cave-ins may be preventable if the correct occupational health and safety procedures and mechanisms are implemented early on. In what is a physically grueling occupation in even the best of conditions, miners’ lives cannot be treated as dispensable. This implies that creating and sustaining conditions of decent work—for which both the state and employers are legally responsible—is as important as creating work in the first instance.’HRCP has also urged the state and the employers concerned to ensure that the workers’ beneficiaries are, in both cases, compensated fairly.

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PPP, PTI face off in Karachi for May 12 rally

Opposition parties PPP and PTI are at odds over their plan to hold a public meeting in Karachi on the same date and at the same venue. Both the parties announced that they would hold a rally at Hakim Said Ground on May 12. PTI has already set up a camp at the ground to make arrangements for the rally. On the other hand, a PPP delegation led by Senator Saeed Ghani visited the venue on Monday.“Our rally will be held at Hakim Saeed Ground on May 12 at any cost,” Khurram Sher Zaman, a PTI lawmaker, told media. PPP’s Saeed Ghani said that his party had submitted a formal request at Deputy Commissioner office on May 3. According to Deputy Commissioner East, PTI is yet to apply for its rally. After the huge power show at Tanki Ground, Liaquatabad – a traditionally Muttahida Qaumi Movement stronghold – on April 29, the PPP is now preparing for its second such meeting to be addressed by party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on May 12. The president of PPP’s District East chapter has already sent a letter to the deputy commissioner east to obtain permission to hold the gathering.The letter dated May 4 names the Hakim Mohammad Said playground, located between Federal Urdu University and Masjid Baitul Mukarram on main University Road, as the proposed venue for the public meeting.According to the letter, PPP chief Bilawal, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and other senior leaders of the party will address the gathering. 

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Project Manager

Project Manager (Hashoo Foundation) - Regional Office Gilgit

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Baseline Study for “Policy and practice nexus for financing girls’ education” Project

Baseline Study for “Policy and practice nexus for financing girls’ education” Project (Oxfam GB) - Islamabad

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Rear Admiral Asif Khaliq takes over as Commander Karachi

Karachi: Rear Admiral Asif Khaliq has assumed the responsibilities as Commander Karachi. Rear Admiral Ather Mukhtar handed over the command to newly appointed commander Karachi in an impressive ceremony held at PNS BAHADUR today.Upon assumption of command, Rear Admiral Asif Khaliq is now commander of all training units of Pakistan Navy at Karachi. Rear Admiral Asif Khaliq joined Pakistan Navy in 1983 and was commissioned in Operations Branch in 1985. He has a distinguished career with wide ranging command and staff experience. His major Command appointments include Commanding Officer PNS BABUR, PNS KHAIBAR and Commander 18th Destroyer Squadron. He has also commanded Combined Task Force -150. His distinguished staff appointments include Deputy Director Naval Warfare and Operational Plans at NHQ, Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Plans), Principle Secretary to Chief of the Naval Staff at NHQ, Commandant PNS BAHADUR and Director General Naval Intelligence. Before assuming command as Commander Karachi, the Admiral was serving at Naval Headquarters as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Admin).Rear Admiral Khaliq has also served as Army & Naval Attaché of Pakistan in Paris. He is a graduate of Pakistan Navy War College and National Defence University, Islamabad.The Admiral has been awarded Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) by Government of Pakistan and National Order of Merit by Government of France.During the change of command ceremony, the Admiral was presented Guard of Honour and was introduced to the commanding officers of units under COMKAR Command.The ceremony was attended by a large number of Pakistan Navy officers, CPOs/sailors and Navy civilians.

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Asghar Khan case: SC dismisses review petitions of Aslam Beg, Asad Durrani

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court has dismissed review petition of former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg and former DG ISI Asad Durrani in Asghar Khan case. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar heard the review petitions. The chief justice called Attorney General to the court and asked him why Asghar Khan case verdict, delivered in October 2012, had not been implemented. The attorney general requested the apex court to grant him a couple of days to have updates about the progress made in the case. The court, however, rejected his request and asked him to submit details by 10pm. Later, the top court rejected review petitions of Mirza Aslam Beg and Asad Durrani and issued a notice of DG FIA and adjourning the hearing for a day. The case has once again come into the limelight at a time when the plaintiff Asghar Khan, former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, former premier Benazir Bhutto, former interior minister Major General (retd) Naseerullah Babar and a key witness Abdul Hafeez Pirzada are no more in this world.When the hearing resumed, the CJP asked the former COAS to begin his arguments if he has not engaged any lawyer. On this, Beg requested time to prepare for the case saying he was informed about the case a couple of days ago.The chief justice refused to grant more time and told the former chief that the hearing would not be adjourned at any cost.In 1996, Asghar Khan wrote a letter to the-then chief justice of Pakistan Nasim Hassan Shah alleging that Ghulam Ishaq Khan, General Aslam Beg, DG ISI Lt. Gen Asad Durrani and ex-Habib Bank Sindh chief and Mehran Bank owner Younis Habib had doled out Rs140 million among several politicians ahead of the 1990 polls to ensure Benazir Bhutto’s defeat in the polls.On October 19, 2012, the apex court issued a 141-page verdict under the-then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry declaring that the 1990 elections were rigged. The court had ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate the fraudulent elections and initiate legal proceedings against the two Generals.General Beg and Gen Asad Durrani filed appeals against the apex court’s decision. The apex court on Friday approved the petitions for hearing and sent notices to the affected parties. Khan, who passed away in January this year, was represented in the Supreme Court by renowned lawyer Salman Akram Raja.PTI leaders @fawadchaudhry and @AbrarUlHaqPK visited Services Hospital and wished speedy recovery for @betterpakistan. They presented flowers to his son from PTI. JIT to probe attackA five-member joint investigation team was formed to launch a probe into the assassination attempt. On representative each from IB and ISI will be part of the JIT. Police also detained the organizer of the corner meeting for his failure to inform the law enforcement agencies. Police and special branch were unaware of the corner meeting. 

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Training on Social Behaviour Change

Training on Social Behaviour Change (Civil Society Human & Institutional Development Programme (CHIP)) - Islamabad

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Attack on Ahsan Iqbal: Probe reveals startling details

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was wounded on Sunday in an apparent assassination attempt by a gunman linked to a new ultra-religious Muslim party - an incident likely to raise tensions before an election expected in late July.Suspect Abid Hussain, 21, was arrested soon after he fired at the minister when he was attending a corner meeting in his constituency. Police recovered a pistol from his possession which had nine bullets when security personnel arrested him.During interrogation, he confessed to have targeted the interior minister over the issue of amendment in Khattam-e-Nubawwat (Finality of Prophethood) law late last year.The suspect told police that he bought the pistol from a man belonging to his native village for Rs15000. ‘I arranged the money by selling forms of an organization,’ he confessed.According to police, Hussain was armed when he arrived at the crime scene at around 03:00 pm, putting question mark on the security arrangements that how can an armed man was able to reach so close to the Federal Interior Minister. -Affilitaion- An initial report on the shooting by a local administrator, the deputy commissioner of Narowal district, seen by Reuters, said the gunman had been arrested and "showed his affiliation" to Tehreek-e-Labaik.The party calls for the aggressive enforcement of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which can carry the death penalty.However, neither the report nor other officials commented on the attacker’s possible motives.Iqbal was shot soon after addressing voters in Kanjroor village in Narowal but the exact circumstances were not immediately clear. "I can’t tell you the motive at this stage due to security reasons," Narowal police chief Imran Kishwar told Reuters.

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Summer vacations in Sindh to start from 14th May

KARACHI: Due to extreme weather in Sindh, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has approved the summary of Education Ministry notifying the summer vacations for all the schools from 14th May to 16th July.

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Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal recovering after gun attack

In this handout photograph released by the Press Information Department (PID) Punjab on May 6, 2018, injured Pakistan's Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal (C) is evacuated from a helicopter on their arrival in Lahore. Lahore: Pakistan’s interior minister was recovering in hospital Monday after being shot in a suspected assassination attempt possibly linked to blasphemy, with the attack seen as a "bad omen" for nationwide elections.Ahsan Iqbal, 59, was shot in the right arm as he prepared to leave a public meeting in his constituency in Punjab province late Sunday.A man identified by police only as "Abid" and said to be in his early 20s was wrestled to the ground by police and bystanders as he was preparing to fire a second shot. He has been taken in to custody.The local deputy commissioner Ali Anan Qamar told AFP that the shooter said he carried out the attack over a small amendment to the oath that election candidates must swear which was hastily reversed last year after it was linked to blasphemy.The controversy ignited a three-week sit-in last November by a previously little-known extremist group which paralysed the capital and ended when the government capitulated to the protesters’ demands -- including the ousting of the federal law minister -- in a deal brokered by the military.At the time many Pakistanis and analysts warned that a dangerous precedent had been set in which fringe groups could bend the state to their will by citing blasphemy, a highly inflammatory charge in the conservative Muslim country.Iqbal, known as a champion of Pakistan’s much-persecuted religious minorities, was heavily involved in the negotiations at the time. After the shooting he was rushed first to a local hospital and then airlifted to Lahore, where video footage released by his ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) showed him being lowered from a helicopter on a stretcher, his eyes open as he responded to questions.Doctors later said he was in stable condition.The attack was swiftly condemned by the international community, including the US ambassador and the French embassy, as Pakistanis voiced fears it represented an attempt to "weaken democracy" ahead of the federal elections, widely expected to be held late this summer.- ‘Bad omen’ -Ziauddin Yousafzai, the father of Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, tweeted that he "strongly condemned" the attack, calling it "(a) bad omen for upcoming general elections that is supposed to be free, fair and transparent."The vote will only be Pakistan’s second ever democratic transition, and with the PML-N in disarray since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court over graft allegations last summer, there has been growing speculation it could be delayed.The court banned Sharif from politics for life, while foreign minister Khawaja Asif was also ousted by the Islamabad High Court late last month for violating election laws.Sharif and his supporters have repeatedly denied the allegations, suggesting they are victims of a conspiracy driven by Pakistan’s powerful military to reduce the sway of their party.Despite the setbacks, the party has won a string of recent by-elections, proving it will likely remain a force in the vote.Blasphemy can be punishable by death under controversial Pakistani legislation, with even unproven allegations sparking mob lynchings and murders.Had the assassination attempt on Iqbal succeeded, it would not have been the first political killing linked to blasphemy: in 2011 then-Punjab governor Salman Taseer, a liberal who had called for reformation of the laws, was gunned down by his own bodyguard in broad daylight in Islamabad.Iqbal, touted as a potential prime minister when Sharif was ousted last July, is a US-educated lawmaker from a political family long associated with the PML-N.Considered the brains behind the party’s development agenda, he previously headed up the planning ministry.

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Police arrest accomplice of Ahsan Iqbal attacker

Abid Hussain in police custody.NAROWAL: Punjab police on Monday arrested an accomplice of Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal attacker from a nearby village who had fled from the scene soon after the incident.Azeem, a resident of Azeem Pura area, had arrived at the crime scene along with Abid Hussain on the motorcycle. It was not clear whether, he too had weapon at that time or not.Earlier, the man who shot the interior minister at a corner meeting in Narowal district on Sunday confessed to his involvement in the murder attempt.The suspect told police that it was his personal act and that nobody else was involved in the assassination attempt.In his statement, he said that he had attacked the interior minister on the issue of Khattam-e-Nubawwat.According to the police, Abid Hussain, 21, was a native and had arrived in Kanjrur to attend the corner meeting addressed by the interior minister.

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Suspect confesses to involvement in attack on Ahsan Iqbal

NAROWAL: The man who allegedly shot Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal at a corner meeting in Narowal district on Sunday confessed to his involvement in the murder attempt. The suspect told police that it was his personal act and that nobody else was involved in the assassination attempt. In his statement, he said that he had attacked the interior minister on the issue of Khattam-e-Nubawwat. According to the police, Abid Hussain, 21, was a native and had arrived in Kanjrur to attend the corner meeting addressed by the interior minister. State minister Talal Chaudhry said that Ahsan Iqbal was targeted by elements who were promoting politics of hatred. “It has come to our knowledge that the suspect is a member of Tehreek-e-Labbaik. Our religion doesn’t allow extremist ideology,” Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said. 

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PM telephones Ahsan Iqbal to Inquire after him

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Sunday telephoned Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal to inquire after him as he got injured in an attack in Narowal on the day.The prime minister prayed for early recovery of the minister, said a PM Office statement.He also strongly condemned the incident and sought immediate report from the Inspector General of Punjab Police on the matter.Separately, President Mamnoon Hussain strongly condemned attack on Ahsan Iqbal which left him injured.In a statement issued by President House, he prayed for early recovery of the federal minister and also sympathized with the family.He said that the difference opinion should not be expressed through violent means.He viewed that intolerance was cancerous for the society and biggest hurdle for the stability.The president said that any attempt to create chaos and violence in the country would be trampled. 

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Profile: Ahsan Iqbal

Ahsan Iqbal, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt in his hometown Narowal, serves as Federal Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control in the cabinet of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. He also holds the portfolio of Planning, Development and Reforms since September 2017.In addition, Ahsan Iqbal is Deputy Secretary General of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N). Apart from political career, the 59-year-old politician from Narowal heads Better Pakistan Foundation, a not for profit organization engaged in development and social sectors. He was Professor of Management at M. A. Jinnah University, Islamabad, Pakistan. His previous appointments include Chief Coordinator/ Minister of State, Pakistan 2010 Programme (1997-99), Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission (1998-99); Chairman, Good Governance Group, Government of Pakistan (1997-99), Chairman, Pakistan Engineering Board, and Chairman, National Steering Committees on Information Technology and TQM & Productivity (1998-99). Ahsan Iqbal was elected to the Parliament as Member of National Assembly of Pakistan in 1993, 1997 and 2013 on PML-N Platform from District Narowal. He earlier served as Policy and Public Affairs Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan (1993). He also served as Senior Advisor, Al-Madinah Al Monawarah Digital Economy Project, Saudi Arabia (2004-2006). He has held senior level corporate positions in major public sector corporations of Pakistan.Mr. Iqbal represents the new generation of leaders in the country, which possesses a combination of political, professional and academic backgrounds. He led the formulation of Pakistan Vision 2025, a set of shared aspirational goals with a corresponding development framework that seeks to turn Pakistan into a tiger economy. The consensus Vision, compiled after extensive stakeholder consultations, was launched by the Prime Minister of Pakistan on 11 Aug, 2014. On his initiative, Pakistan’s first National IT Policy was formulated. His leadership was instrumental in starting several knowledge, good governance, and reform programs in the country. His areas of interest include Development and Business Economics, Governance, Change Management, Strategic Management & Leadership, Knowledge Economy & International Affairs. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA (1984-86), B.Sc (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan (1976-81), where he was elected President of Students Union (1980-81). He has also attended School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, USA (1989), Oxford University, UK (1992) Harvard University, USA (2004), executive programmes. 

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