Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Video - Stephen Colbert - Did Rex Tillerson Call Trump A 'Moron' Or A 'F***ing Moron'?

Video Report - Catalonia's independence plan explained

#History - Puigdemont: What goes for Scotland, goes for #Catalonia

Published on Apr 1, 2017

Video - Full speech: Catalan leader claims mandate for independence, but seeks talks with Madrid

Video Report - Catalonia Crisis: Puigdemont says referendum result must be respected

Video - Former President of Pakistan & President PPPP Asif Ali Zardari addressing in Peshawar

DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT FOR RELEASE OF MISSING PAKISTANI SHIAS

Pakistani community members staged a demonstration in front of Australian parliament in Melbourne to protest against the enforced disappearances of innocent Shias in all over Pakistan. Carrying placards, the community members also chanted slogans against the violation of human rights of Pakistani Shia Muslims in Pakistan.


Speaking to the protesters, the community leaders urged the Australian parliament to use its influence and ask the friendly Pakistan government to observe human rights and release these innocent citizens forthwith.
They said that had these missing Shias been wanted in any criminal case, they would have been produced in the courts of law for trial but they were not produced that showed that they were not named in any case.

http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/pakistan/item/30953-demonstration-outside-australian-parliament-for-release-of-missing-pakistani-shias

Five Killed in Sectarian Attack in Pakistan


Gunmen killed five men, including three Shia Muslims from the ethnic Hazara minority, in southwest Pakistan on Monday, a police official said, giving details of the second shooting targeting Hazaras in a month.
The attack took place in Quetta, where nearly half a million Hazaras have settled since fleeing Afghanistan to escape the violence in their homeland during the past four decades.
The attackers opened fire from a motorcycle killing the five men who were traveling in the back of a pick-up truck, on their way to sell vegetables at a market, the official said.
"It was a sectarian target killing," senior police officer Malik Nisar told Reuters, adding that the attackers escaped after opening fire.
"It was unclear initially, but now we know that it was three Hazaras among the five people killed," he said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hazaras are frequently targeted by Taliban and Islamic State militants, and other Sunni Muslim militant groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
More than 20 Hazaras have been killed in similar shootings in Baluchistan in the past two years, police say.
In 2013, three separate bombings killed over 200 people in Hazara neighborhoods, raising international awareness of the plight of the community.
The ongoing violence in Pakistan's Baluchistan province has fueled concern about security for projects in the $57-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a transport and energy link planned to run from western China to Pakistan’s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.
A suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine in the Baluch town of Jhal Magsi on Thursday killed 22 people and wounded more than 30 others.
The bombing was claimed by Islamic State and is the latest sectarian attack in the restive province.
Taliban and other Sunni Islamist militants are active in the province, while ethnic Baluch separatists have run a low level insurgency for decades, mounting attacks on security forces and other targets linked to the central government.
Elsewhere in Pakistan on Monday, an official said gunmen killed three soldiers and wounded eight in an attack on their vehicle in the semi-autonomous tribal region of North Waziristan.
North Waziristan was a Taliban stronghold until 2014, when Pakistan's military launched a major offensive against the group and pushed many of its fighters across the border into Afghanistan.
Following Monday's attack, security forces closed off roads in Razmak district, and surrounding villages.

In Pakistan, Growing Concern Over Tensions Between Military And Civilian Leaders


By Diaa Hadid


When the Pakistani interior minister went to attend a controversial court hearing on Oct. 2, the paramilitary force securing the area blocked him from entering. When he demanded to speak to a higher-up, he was told to wait.
The minister, Ahsan Iqbal, is the nominal boss of that paramilitary force.
In another country, it might just have been an embarrassing incident, a mistake by a soldier who did not recognize a top official. In Pakistan, many — including Iqbal himself — saw it as an act of rebellion.
"I cannot be a puppet interior minister," Iqbal raged after the incident, according to the Pakistani daily Dawn. "Two states cannot function within one state."
Two days later, the same paramilitary force withdrew its personnel from protecting the sprawling parliamentary complex in Islamabad. "This was a message to the government: These are your limits," said Daud Khattak, a senior editor at Radio Mashaal, a U.S.-funded Pakistani radio station. "It's totally a question of insubordination."
The incidents come amid months of tensions between the army and the country's ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N). They also come just as Washington contemplates how it might pressure Pakistan to stop supporting militant groups. Many in the ruling party believe they are being undermined by Pakistani military and intelligence officials, backed by what they see as a subservient judiciary. They believe the military and intelligence "establishment" controls defense and foreign policy, thwarting the civilian government.
Military dictators have ruled Pakistan for 33 of the country's 70 years, wresting power from civilian rulers who were deposed, killed or forced to step down. Since 2008, civilians have led Pakistan, but mistrust of the military runs deep — particularly among members of the ruling party, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif served as prime minister three times, his rule ending in tumult on each occasion. His second term ended when the military ousted him in a coup in 1999. Most recently, in July, the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from office following a corruption scandal that clouded his family. Sharif and his allies have since blamed the military's influence on the judiciary for his ouster.
Iqbal, the interior minister, was on his way to attend a hearing against Sharif about those corruption charges when he was halted by the Rangers, the federal paramilitary force.
Mutual animosity
Sharif and his allies "in their homes, family and in their mind, believe that the Pakistani military is as much of an enemy to them as the Indian military," said a civilian official who closely liaises with senior Pakistani military commanders and requested anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media. "No," the official said, correcting himself. "They believe the Pakistani military is more of an enemy."
The loathing is mutual.
"From day one, Nawaz Sharif acted as a dictator," complained retired Lt. Gen. Ghulam Mustafa. At the core of the military's displeasure is Sharif's open defiance of its advice, particularly regarding his repeated, sputtering attempts to reach out to India.
"The generals advised him not to offer peace overtures to India in a way that does not suit [Pakistan's] interests," Mustafa said. "He does not listen."
The military has insisted that the tensions are with Sharif, not democracy. But an election in September worried many liberals, because an independent candidate backed by a known militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was allowed to participate in by-elections for Sharif's old seat in Lahore. A front organization for the militant group had tried to register a political party with Pakistan's election commission.
The commission stalled on a decision about registering the party, after an outcry. So instead, Lashkar-e-Taiba went ahead and ran the independent candidate. (He came in fourth).
Some analysts and ruling party stalwarts saw this as an act that could only have been done with the military's consent. Supporters of Pakistan's military have said in recent months that they want militant groups to engage in politics as a way to keep them from violence, and at a recent press conference, the military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said, "Every Pakistani has the right to participate in the polling process."
U.S. steps
Back in August, Trump said Pakistan "often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror" during a speech that unveiled his new strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia. He was referring to the Haqqani Network, a powerful militant grouping that is partly based in Pakistan and fills the Taliban ranks. To squeeze Pakistan, some lawmakers and other U.S. officials are proposing options from denying visas to senior military officials and their families to revoking Pakistan's major non-NATO ally status.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week that the U.S. would try "one more time" with Pakistan, "and if our best efforts fail, the president is prepared to take whatever steps are necessary."
But during a visit to Washington in the same week by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, the rhetoric was largely conciliatory: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson emphasized the "opportunity for us to strengthen that relationship [with Pakistan]. We're going to be working very hard at all levels, from the State Department to the Defense Department to our intelligence communities, as well as economic, commerce opportunities as well." S
till, supporters of Pakistan's military say they believe Washington is trying to exacerbate tensions between the government and army, pointing to comments this week by the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford.
"It is clear to me," Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee, that the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, which is run by the military, "has connections with terrorist groups."
Amid the current tensions, some worry the Pakistani military may double down against the U.S. – and its own civilian government.
Enough, said an editorial in Dawn, which said the conflict had paralyzed the government, already seen as bumbling and inept. The paper warned of a "systemic threat."
"Who is in charge of Pakistan?" it asked. "How much of the governmental paralysis is self-inflicted? Is the military willing to not just accept its constitutional limits but also support the civilian apparatus unconditionally?"

Pakistan - Education is the only weapon to defeat evil spread by ignorance: Bilawal Bhutto

Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Saturday that he wanted every kid, whether boy or girl, enrolled for education in Sindh and rest of the country.

"Education is the only weapon to defeat the evil spread by ignorance and illiteracy," Bilawal Bhutto said while presiding over a meeting held to review efforts being made by Sindh government for improving education and literacy in the province. The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Education Minister Jam Mehtab Dehar, Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) Managing Director Naheed S Durrani and others. 

The team, led by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, briefed the PPP chairman about steps and action taken by the Sindh government in the education sector and improvement in enrolment of out-of-school children. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that education had always been a key priority in the party manifesto. He urged the Sindh government to play a more proactive role in achieving the goals. The PPP chairman said that though the Sindh government has reopened thousands of closed schools, but he wanted illiteracy to be completely eradicated. He pointed out that World Bank had appreciated the smart solutions adopted by the Sindh government to improve education. 

Earlier, the World Bank had highlighted the efforts of the Sindh School Monitoring System in promoting education.

Rigging will not be tolerable in Peshawar's by-election: Bilawal Bhutto

Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday headed a consultative meeting regarding Peshawar’s NA-4 by-election.
The meeting held in Bilawal House Karachi was attended by Humayun Khan, Faisal Kareem Kundi and PPP NA-4 by-election candidate Asad Gulzar Khan.
Asad Gulzar briefed Bilawal about the constituency’s situation. Talking to the meeting members, PPP chairman said that Pakhtun and PPP possess a faithful relation and will also be the same in future.
He asserted that rigging will not be tolerable in the by-election. Bilawal expressed hope that PPP will be triumph on October 26 in Peshawar.
He directed PPP activists to work hard for making Asad Gulzar Khan successful in the by-elections.
http://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/408899-Rigging-will-not-be-tolerable-in-Peshawar/%27s-by-election:-Bilawal-Bhutto

PTI activist Saima Omer calls on Asif Ali Zardari; joins PPP






Saima Omer of PTI joined PPP in the presence of President PPPP Asif Ali Zardari in Peshawar today.

Nawaz unable to handle affairs of state, says Asif Zardari


Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is unable to handle the affairs of state.
The former president claimed that Nawaz “has made enough, he should enjoy it”.
Addressing a PPP Workers Convention, the former President lashed out at the ruling party, saying that “these people would have sold the country if it were up to them”.
Referring to the July 28 verdict of the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case, Zardari said that the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif keeps questioning why he was disqualified.
“Why did he accept the decision if he isn’t aware of the basis of his disqualification,” Zardari said.
Taking a sweep at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan, Zardari referred to him as an “innocent cricketer” and added that Imran likes to watchhimself on TV.
The former president also said that it is important to merge the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Bilawal Bhutto condemns posting of convicted police officer in Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto assassination case

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that promotion and posting to Police officers convicted in Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto assassination case by trial court was an “ugly message” from Sharif brothers government to the people of Pakistan, especially the followers of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
It may be recalled that SP Khurram Shahzad has been posted as SSP Special Branch Rawalpindi this week and DIG Saud Aziz was promoted post retirement.
PPP Chairman said it is unfortunate and astonishing that Nawaz Sharif and his Party was trying to hide themselves behind the sacrifices of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. On the other hand, his Federal and Punjab government were extending promotion and posting to the convicted police officials, he added.
He further said that Punjab government was conspiring and trying to influence the post-conviction case by posting convicted police officials and giving their sensitive powers to intimidate and threaten people connected to the proceedings.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that PPP has already challenged the verdict in Shaheed Bibi’s assassination case in the courts despite the fact that Bhuttos never got justice from them but it was only the all powerful nature that came hard on the perpetrators and administered exemplary justice.
He said message through these promotion and posting from Nawaz Sharif and his party appears to be ugly and aimed at rubbing salt on wounds of our Party, Jiyalas, workers and the women of the country who revere Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto as their role-model.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/bilawal-bhutto-condemns-posting-of-convicted-police-officer-in-shaheed-mohtarma-benazir-bhutto-assassination-case/

Accused in Benazir murder case formally reinstated as SSP Special Branch

Khurram Shahzad, accused in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, was reinstated Monday night as the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Special Branch, Geo News reported.
Shahzad took over the office duties after his reinstatement last night, in accordance with the notification circulated earlier.
The Lahore High Court on August 31, 2017, had sentenced Shahzad as well as Saud Aziz — the former City Police Officer (CPO)-Rawalpindi — to 17 years in jail in addition to a payment of fines.
Following the ruling, Shahzad was detained in Adiala Jail and Aziz was arrested as well.
However, the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) subsequently suspended the sentence and issued a notification announcing the reinstatement of Shahzad as SSP Special Branch.
It is to be noted that Shahzad was stationed as SSP Special Branch at the same time as he was sentenced, while Aziz, at present, has retired from the police force.
http://www.thesindhtimes.com/pak/accused-benazir-murder-case-formally-reinstated-ssp-special-branch/