سپریم کورٹ کا فیصلہ: حکومت ِ پنجاب بحال

بی بی سی  اردو سروس ۔   ‏منگل‏، 31‏ مارچ‏، 2009 : سپریم کورٹ نے منگل کو سابق وزیرِ اعلیٰ پنجاب شہباز شریف کی نا اہلی پر حکمِ امتناعی جاری کرتے ہوئے انہیں چوبیس فروری کی پوزیشن پر بحال کر دیا ہے۔ شہباز شریف کی نا اہلی کا فیصلہ معطل کرتے ہوئے سپریم کورٹ نے اپنے حکمِ امتناعی میں کہا کہ جب تک نا اہلی کی درخواستوں پر نظرِ ثانی کی پیٹیشنوں پر فیصلہ نہیں ہوتا، تب تک شہباز شریف اپنے عہدے پر بحال رہیں گے۔  فیصلے کا اعلان ہوتے ہی سپریم کورٹ کے باہر مسلم لیگ نواز گروپ کے کارکنوں نےشریف برادران کے حق میں زبردست نعرے بازی شروع کر دی۔ لاہور سے ہمارے نامہ نگاروں نے بتایا ہے کہ شریف برداران کی رہائش گاہ کے باہر بھی لوگ جمع ہیں اور وہاں جشن کا سماں ہے۔ چوبیس فروری کو سپریم کورٹ کے فیصلے کی روشنی میں وزیرِ اعلیٰ شہباز شریف اپنی نشست سے محروم ہوگئے تھے اور پنجاب میں گورنر راج نافذ کر دیا گیا تھا۔ بعد میں وفاقی حکومت نے سپریم کورٹ ہی کے سامنے اپیل دائر کی تھی جس میں شریف برادارن فریق بنے تھے۔گزشتہ روز گورنر راج کے خاتمے کے ساتھ ہی سپریم کورٹ میں شہباز شریف کی طرف سے حکمِ امتناعی کی درخواست کی گئی تھی جس کے تحت منگل کو عدالتِ عظمٰی نے انہیں عہدے پر بحال کر دیا ہے۔

Sharif’s brother back in office

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has issued an order restoring Nawaz Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz, as chief minister of the country’s largest province, Punjab.

BBC – The move was part of a review of a ruling last month that banned the brothers from holding elected office because of old convictions. ¶   The suspension of the ban means Shahbaz Sharif can resume his duties immediately.  ¶ It is the latest in a series of political victories for the Sharifs. ¶ On Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari lifted federal rule in Punjab, the heartland of support for the Sharifs’ PML-N party.  Earlier this month, Mr Zardari also reinstated the sacked chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, to stave off a nationwide protest led by Nawaz Sharif. ¶ The Sharifs said the ban on their holding office was unconstitutional, as it was not under the direction of Mr Chaudhry, who had been sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf.

The courts are now acting under Mr Chaudhry’s directions.

Zardari ends Governor’s Rule in Punjab, PML-N set to returnزرداری نے پنجاب سے گورنر راج ختم کرنے کا اعلان کردیا، فیصلہ سیاسی لحاظ سےاہم صوبے، پنجاب میں پاکستان مسلم لیگ ن کو حکومت میں واپس لانے کے لئے کیا گیا ہے۔۔۔

Times of India - 30 Mar 2009, 2014 hrs IST, PTI

ISLAMABAD: In a move towards national reconciliation, Pakistan government on Monday ended Governor’s Rule in Punjab, paving the way for the opposition PML-N to return to power in the politically crucial province. ¶ After President Asif Ali Zardari signed a document on ending Governor’s Rule in Punjab, the cabinet division issued a formal notification to revoke federal rule in the province.  ¶ The move came after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani held a meeting with Zardari yesterday to discuss the lifting of Governor’s Rule, which was imposed on February 25 after the Supreme Court barred PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his brother, former Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, from electoral politics. ¶  The notification issued by the cabinet division said Governor’s Rule was being lifted as the President was “satisfied that the grounds on which he (imposed the measure) on the 25th February 2009 have ceased to exist”. ¶  Following the ending of Governor’s Rule, Governor Salman Taseer said he had summoned a session of the Punjab assembly at 4 pm on April 1 to elect a new Chief Minister. Zardari has already promised that PPP will support any PML-N candidate for chief ministership. ¶  Zardari’s decision to impose Governor’s Rule had sparked a major confrontation between the PPP and PML-N, which joined lawyers in a countrywide protest to press the government to reinstate judges sacked during the 2007 emergency. ¶ The government gave into pressure from the PML-N and reinstated the deposed judges on March 16. The government also filed petitions in the apex court asking it to review its judgement barring the Sharif brothers from contesting polls and holding elected office. ¶ 
During an address to a joint sitting of parliament on Saturday, Zardari had announced that he will recommend withdrawal of Governor’s Rule in the province and the ruling PPP would support the PML-N candidate for the post of Chief Minister, paving way for it to return to power.  ¶  The withdrawal of Governor’s Rule came on a day when provincial capital Lahore witnessed a bloody eight-hour siege with terrorists storming a police training school.

27 Killed as Gunmen Storm Police School in Pakistan لاہور پولیس کے تربیتی سکول پر درجنوں دہشت گردوں کا دھاوا، 27 پولیس اہلکار ہلاک۔۔۔۔۔

The New York Times – March 30, 2009 – By WAQAR GILLANI, SABRINA TAVERNISE and SALMAN MASOOD

Waqar Gillani, Sabrina Tavernise, and Salman Masood reported from Manawan, Pakistan. Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah contributed reporting from Islamabad.

MANAWAN, Pakistan — Elite police forces overwhelmed more than a dozen gunmen eight hours after they stormed a police training school Monday, ending a siege in which at least 27 policemen were killed and more than 90 people were wounded near Lahore.  ¶  After a day of confused explosions and gunfire as security forces battled to retake control of the building, rescue workers began evacuating the wounded in ambulances. ¶  Fahim Jahan Zeb, an official with the Punjab rescue service, said at least four attackers were arrested and four others had blown themselves up. ¶  Television footage showed Pakistani security forces on the roof of the building. Black-clad commandos shouted in jubilation and fired into the air from the roof of the three-story structure. ¶  Announcing the end of the operation to retake the school, the senior official at the Pakistani Ministry of Interior, Rehman Malik, said the attack was designed to destabilize Pakistan and illustrated how far “our enemies” had penetrated the country. ¶  It was the second brazen terrorist attack this year in the tense Pakistani province of Punjab. In early March, a dozen gunmen in Lahore opened fire on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team and its police escort, killing six police officers and a driver. That assault in the center of the busy provincial capital, a city of nine million people, led to the suspension of international cricket tours to Pakistan, a severe psychological blow. ¶  The police academy appeared to have been chosen carefully as well — the gunmen struck a security institution while hundreds of young recruits were on the parade ground. ¶  The style of the attack also appeared to signal a significant escalation in the efforts by Al Qaeda and the Taliban to destabilize Pakistan at its very heart, rather than at the fringes in the tribal areas. The assault began at around 8 a.m. when the gunmen entered the building from a rear entrance, firing indiscriminately and throwing grenades at the parade ground where hundreds of new recruits were starting their morning drill. ¶  Soon afterward, television footage showed bodies of dead policemen littering the ground. Scores of recruits clambered over walls to escape, then crawled along the ground to seek shelter in nearby buildings. ¶  “You can’t even imagine such a situation,” said Saqib Butt, deputy superintendent of Manawan police, as shots rang out behind him. “We were very surprised.” ¶  One police commando said he had personally helped carry into ambulances the bodies of 32 dead police recruits who had been on the parade ground at the time of the assault. ¶  The assault appeared to have been well-planned, an intelligence expert said. “This took many weeks to plan, someone should have smelled this was going to happen,” said Masood Sharif, the former chief of intelligence in Lahore. ¶  Scores of police vehicles and ambulances crowded around the high walls of the academy as police rushed to the compound. The attackers fired from the roof of the school as a police helicopter hovered overhead. Police sharpshooters positioned at nearby buildings fired into the compound. ¶  A helicopter ferrying troops to the scene was hit by fire from the attackers, but managed to land safely, according to Dawn television.  ¶  A police officer who had been inside the compound, Mohammed Imtiaz Khaliq, said one of the attackers had a short beard and was dressed in traditional Pakistani dress and had said repeatedly in Urdu: “I’m a Muslim.” ¶   The officer said he saw at least 30 people critically wounded after he entered the building through a kitchen area where dozens of police recruits and an instructor were cowering on a floor, some with blood on their clothing. ¶  After the security forces completed their assault, police who entered the building said there were a number of dead bodies inside the compound. It was not immediately clear how high the death toll would climb, or at what stage of the operation people inside the building were killed. ¶  A recruit who identified himself only as Rafique, 20, said he heard an intense blast at the beginning of the regular morning parade. “We ran out immediately. I didn’t come back till the end of the operation,” he said, as he stood at the main entrance. ¶  The secretary of information for Punjab, Taimur Azmat Usman, said three men, including one carrying hand grenades, had been arrested on the perimeter of the compound on suspicion of helping the attackers inside the building. ¶  There was immediate speculation that the assault may have been carried out by Lashkar-e-Jangvi, a sectarian group that recruits in southern Punjab but in recent years has moved to South and North Waziristan to train alongside Al Qaeda. Soon after storming the parade ground, some of the gunmen reached the second and third floors of the main building at the center, a police inspector told Geo television in a telephone interview from the center. The attackers were speaking to each other in Urdu and Punjabi, the languages used in Punjab Province, of which Lahore is the capital, he said. ¶  A cadet who was on the parade ground at the time of the attack said the gunmen entered the school at about 8 a.m. from the rear. The attackers immediately threw grenades and opened fire, said Amir Farook, 22. “Most of the recruits were present on the parade ground,” Mr. Farook said as he waited for treatment at a Lahore hospital. Contradicting some reports, he said the gunmen were not wearing police uniforms. ¶  Another recruit, Mushammad Raza, 22, said he heard blasts and then saw the attackers throw hand grenades. With a dozen other recruits, he clambered over a wall and crawled across a road before taking shelter in a house for half an hour. Rescue workers then took him to a hospital. ¶  Rizwan Naseer, a doctor in charge of emergency operations, said at least 48 people were being treated at hospitals. Local media cited 90 wounded and said there could be many more casualties. ¶  Former police officials told television reporters that security around the school was light, allowing the gunmen to breach the walls easily.  ¶  Wounded cadets were carried out of the center on stretchers and some who had escaped by jumping over walls were shown weeping in television footage. The school was believed to have 850 cadets under training.

Obama sets al-Qaeda defeat as top goal in Afghanistan, Pakistanپاکستان اورافغانستان میں القائدہ کی شکست اوباما کا اہم ترین ہدف، پاکستان کے لئے ڈیڑھ ارب ڈالر سالانہ امداد کا اعلان۔۔۔۔۔۔

The News International – Saturday, March 28, 2009

Says US to launch aggressive regional diplomatic effort; to do more to shore up Pakistan government; ‘no blank checks for Islamabad, Kabul’   -    WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama unveiled a new war strategy for Afghanistan on Friday with one key goal — to crush al-Qaeda militants there and in Pakistan, who, he said, were plotting new attacks on the United States. ¶  Obama, flanked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary Defence Robert Gates, said the US military in Afghanistan would also shift the emphasis of its mission to training and expanding the Afghan army so that it could take the lead in counter-insurgency operations and allow the US troops to leave. ¶  “The situation is increasingly perilous,” Obama said in a sombre speech in which he sought to explain to Americans why he was boosting the US involvement in the seven-year-old war and expanding its focus to include Pakistan. ¶  Obama plans to send 4,000 more US troops to train the army, along with hundreds of civilian personnel, to improve the Afghan government’s delivery of basic services. The force will be in addition to the 17,000 combat troops Obama has already ordered to send to Afghanistan. ¶  The United States will also reach out to Afghanistan’s neighbours, step up military and financial aid to stabilise Pakistan, and ask Nato allies to send more troops for elections due in August and to help train the Afghan security forces. ¶  European Union countries said on Friday they were ready to step up their presence in Afghanistan to complement the new US plan. “The world cannot afford the price that will come due if Afghanistan slides back into chaos or al-Qaeda operates unchecked,” Obama said. ¶  The Afghan government said it welcomed all the major conclusions of the review, especially the recognition that the war against the Taliban was a regional problem. Obama said the United States, together with the United Nations, planned to form a “contact group” bringing together countries with a stake in the security of the region, including long-time US foe Iran, Russia, India and China.

He said his new strategy had a “clear and focused goal” —to disrupt, dismantle and eventually defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates had warned that al-Qaeda was actively planning attacks on the United States from safe havens in the mountainous border regions of Pakistan, he said.

“For the American people, this border region has become the most dangerous place in the world. But this is not simply an American problem. The safety of the world is at stake.” By stating that the main mission is to target al-Qaeda militants, Obama played down more ambitious goals embraced by Bush and other Nato leaders, who said a year ago the aim was to build a stable, prosperous and democratic Afghan state.

Obama set no timetable for the strategy but he said the United States would not “blindly stay the course” and would set benchmarks for the Afghan government to crack down on corruption and ensure it used foreign aid to help its people. He said key to defeating al-Qaeda was strengthening the weak civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari in Pakistan, where, he said al-Qaeda and its allies were a “cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within.”

Read More >>>

Pakistan mosque blast ‘kills 45′ خیبر ایجنسی میں مسجد میں خودکش حملہ، 45 افراد ہلاک ۔۔۔۔۔بی بی سی (پاکستانی میڈیا کے مطابق ہلاکتوں کی تعداد 70 کے قریب بتائی جاتی ہے)

A bomb has exploded at a mosque in the town of Jamrud in the Khyber agency in north-west Pakistan, killing at least 45 people, officials say.

BBC – The top administrator in the Khyber region, Tariq Hayat, said he feared the death toll could rise to 70. Officials say the attack was a suicide bombing and the mosque has collapsed. North-west Pakistan has witnessed a number of suicide attacks linked to the Taleban insurgency and also to the Shia-Sunni sectarian divide. The attack in Jamrud occurred during Friday prayers. More than 70 people have been hurt. Rescuers are at the scene digging through the rubble for survivors, Bakhtiar Khan, a local government official, told Associated Press news agency. On Thursday, at least 10 people were killed in a suicide bombing in Jandola in South Waziristan. That attack, at a restaurant, was blamed on rivalry between militant factions.