Pakistan Daily Beast

Hung parliament, shaky govt in 2018? ISLAMABAD: New political phenomenon and realities that transpired, though at a micro level, in the result of NA-120 Lahore by-election are clear pointers and undercurrents of future electoral dynamics that may lead to a split mandate. However a must prerequisite to achieve the desired hung parliament is that the new factors put in place by this by-poll persist in the upcoming general elections and produce similar performance nationwide or at least in several key federal and provincial constituencies. The new elements, billed as spoilers, were brought in with a conscious effort to “manage” the grand national electoral exercise so that no major political party is able to get even a simple majority to land in a position to form federal government single-handed. An apparent wish may be that a hodgepodge of parliamentary parties emerge with none having a dominant say, giving birth to an unstable, shaky setup that will be effortlessly put un...

People supported my stance: Nawaz LONDON: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said his stance on disqualification by the Supreme Court was endorsed and supported by the people of Pakistan during his public rallies from Islamabad to Lahore through GT Road. Speaking to media here, Nawaz said his stance has once again been vindicated in NA-120 by-polls from where the PML-N won the seat with a majority vote of about 14,000. Terming his disqualification as vendetta and political victimisation, he said he was disqualified purely on political grounds and the mandate of the voters has been disrespected. In reply to a question, he said he had requested Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to investigate the kidnapping of key PML-N activists from NA-120 constituency, hours before start of the voting process. Nawaz said he had requested Khaqan Abbasi to “personally investigate as to why they were kidnapped and  who was responsible for it.”  Answering a question about el...

Army lieutenant martyred as Afghan-based militants attack Rajgal PESHAWAR: A young officer Lieutenant Arsalan Alam was martyred in an attack by the Afghanistan-based militants in Rajgal area in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Saturday. The ISPR said the security forces retaliated and killed three militants and injured two others. It added that the militants took away the bodies of the slain men and also their injured associates and escaped to Afghanistan. According to the statement, soon after the incident the security forces cordoned off the area and carried out a search operation in Rajgal valley. The Pakistan Army recently cleared the remote Rajgal valley of militants, who were said to have escaped to Afghanistan. The military action in Rajgal was part of the Khyber IV operation. Pakistani militants based across the Pak-Afghan border sneaked into Rajgal to carry out the attack on a newly built border post...

Police Act, judicial system enforced in Fata PESHAWAR: The federal government has enforced Police Act 1861 and judicial system to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in an attempt to give policing powers to the Levies force in the region, sources said on Saturday. The Levies offices have been replaced by police  and no officer less than the rank of Naib Tehsildar would be appointed as police officer. The policing powers and judicial structure, along the lines of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have been enforced in Fata, after approval by President Mamnoon Hussain, the sources said, reported Geo News. The changes empower the political agent with judicial powers. The changes dictate judicial role for the political agent, subordinate offices as well as nomenclature changes in the office of the Levies forces that substitute the Police Act to be implemented in the villages but with changes in the context of Fata. The term ‘Commandant of the Federal Levies For...

Abbasi leaves for home after US, UK visit LONDON: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Sunday left for Islamabad after a week-long visit to the New York and London.  Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is also accompanying me back to the country, the prime minister said while speaking to media before his departure here. The prime minister was was seen off by Pakistan's High Commissioner in London, Syed Ibne Abbas, at the Heathrow Airport. Earlier, an accountability court had issued arrest warrants for Ishaq Dar in a corruption case against him after he failed to appear before the court on Sept 20.

India is rape capital of the world, Pakistan tells UNHRC GENEVA: A Pakistani diplomat told the United Rights Commission (UNHRC) that India has become the ‘rape capital of the world’ as 327,000 crimes against women were registered in a single year in India, most of these involving rape or rape attempts. Availing right of reply at the current 36th Session of the Human Rights Council, diplomat Murk Aijaz told quoting India’s National Crime Records Bureau statistics that more than 35,000 incidents of rape had occurred just in three years in India and almost 93 rapes were committed in the country each day. “India has surely become the rape capital of the world where no woman is safe due to their own disgraceful policies against women,” she said. She quoted reports by Asian Watch and Physicians for Humans stating that rape is used as a means of targeting women by the Indian security forces in an attempt to punish and humiliate the entire community. She told the...

CM attends majlis of Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that he had invited the spiritual leader of Dawoodi Jamaat Syedna Aliqadar Mufaddal Saifuddin to spend Muharramul Harram in the city and address majalis and he kindly consented to his request. This he said while talking to media after listening to the majlis of Syedna Aliqadar Mufaddal Saifuddin at Tahri Masjid Saddar on Sunday. He said that Syedna was addressing the majalis of his jamaat in the city in which his followers have come from others countries also. “We have made necessary security arrangements for his majalis,” he said and added “our Bohri brothers are peaceful, cooperative and gentlemen.” Murad said that peace has been restored in the city with constant efforts and political will of the government. “This credit goes to the people of Karachi who supported the targeted operation and also extended their full support to the government, Rangers, poli...