— File Photo

— File Photo

LAHORE: Chief of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz  (PML-N), Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, formally announced on Thursday the nomination of his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, as chief minister of Punjab, DawnNews reported.

A parliamentary committee would finalise the nomination before the commencement of the Punjab Assembly session which has been summoned for May 29.

If elected, it would be Shahbaz’s third term as chief minister of the province.

The Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) is leading in the provincial assembly with a two-third majority.

Indian policemen chase Kashmiri protesters in Srinagar, May 21, 2013. — Photo by AP

SRINAGAR: A top police officer in Indian-administered Kashmir said a local militant commander had been killed in a fierce gunbattle with government forces.    

Inspector General of Police Abdul Gani Mir said the fighting started early Thursday after police and paramilitary troops acted on a tip and surrounded a neighborhood in the disputed Himalayan region’s main city of Srinagar.

Mir said three policemen were wounded in the fighting that killed Hilal Moulvi of the Lashkar-i-Taiba.

There was no immediate confirmation from the group.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. Since 1989, an armed uprising and a subsequent crackdown by Indian forces have killed an estimated 68,000 people in Indian-administered Kashmir. Although the armed rebellion is largely suppressed, resentment against Indian rule runs deep.

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PESHAWAR: Two security personnel, including an army captain, were killed and 18 were injured in a clash with militants in northwest Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region.

Following the clash in central Kurram, jet fighters bombed militant positions, killing 15 insurgents, security sources told Dawn.com.

A number of insurgent hideouts were also destroyed in the action.

Separately in the Bajaur tribal region, militants attacked a security check post wounding two Levies men.

Moreover, an 11,000 kilowatt transmission line was also destroyed in an explosion in the area, suspending electricity supply to the region.

Subsequently, security forces started a search operation in the area to apprehend the militants.

Bajaur and Kurram are two out of the seven regions in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) governed by tribal laws. An extremist insurgency led by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) plagues the region, while the area is known to be infested with militants, including those from Al Qaeda and other armed extremist organisations.

Rocket attack wounds three in Peshawar

Meanwhile in Peshawar’s Matani area, three people were wounded in a rocket attack targeting the residence of a local.

The attack targeted the residence of Haji Mohammad Khan Afridi in Matani’s Sheikh Naala area.

Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, left, speaks with President Asif Ali Zardari, right, at a ceremony in Islamabad, May 22, 2013. — Photo by AP

ISLAMABAD: Chinese Prime Miniser Li Keqiang was meeting with army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and naval chief Admiral Mohammad Asif Sandila in Islamabad, DawnNews reported.

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Khalid Shameem Wyne was also present at the meeting.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Chinese premier pledged to deepen strategic ties between China and Pakistan irrespective of the international situation.

Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keqiang was decorated with Pakistan’s highest civil award, Nishan-i-Pakistan, by President Asif Ali Zardari who said at a reception held in his honour that the “visit will mark yet another important step forward in reinforcing the strategic partnership between the two countries”.

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NEW YORK, May 22: Ahead of President Obama’s long-awaited address on drones at Washington’s National Defence University on Thursday, the New York Times said that drone strikes in Pakistan have fallen sharply since their peak in 2010, perhaps in response to increasing scrutiny of the programme by Congress and the American public.

President Obama embraced drone strikes in his first term, and the targeted killing of suspected terrorists has come to define his presidency.

However, writing about the declining drone strikes, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and Brookings Institution scholar, said in Foreign Policy magazine there were many reasons for the declining number of strikes in Pakistan.

“But a growing awareness of the cost of drone strikes in US-Pakistan relations is probably at the top of the list,” Mr. Riedel said.
“They are deadly to any hope of reversing the downward slide in ties with the fastest growing nuclear weapons state in the world.”

But the Times pointed out lost in the contentious debate over the legality, morality and effectiveness of a novel weapon is the fact that the number of strikes has actually been in decline.

An administration official told NYT Mr Obama would also “review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay; and he will frame the future of our efforts against Al Qaeda, its affiliates and adherents.” Some supporters of Obama have urged him to use the occasion to announce that part of a 6,000-page Senate study of the CIA’s former interrogation programme will be declassified and made public.

Mr Obama, who insisted early in his presidency on a personal role in many strike decisions, may also shed light on the declining use of drone strikes. Current and former officials say the reasons include a shrinking list of important Al Qaeda targets, a result of the success of past strikes and transient factors ranging from bad weather to diplomatic strains. But more broadly, the decline may reflect a changing calculation of the long-term costs and benefits of targeted killings.

Obama administration officials have sometimes contrasted the drone programme’s relative precision, economy and safety for Americans with the huge costs in lives and money of the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Over time, however, the costs of the drone strikes themselves have become more evident.

Reports of innocent civilians killed by drones — whether real or, as American officials often assert, exaggerated — have shaken the claims of precise targeting. The strikes have become a staple of Al Qaeda propaganda, cited to support the notion that the United States is at war with Islam.

They have been described by convicted terrorists as a motivation for their crimes, including the failed attack on a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009 and the attempted car bombing of Times Square in 2010.

Supreme Court of Pakistan. — File Photo

ISLAMABAD, May 22: The Supreme Court dealt on Wednesday a telling blow to the interim government for its bulk transfers/postings and shuffling of top government officials by suspending all appointments perceived to be done outside its mandate.

At the same time a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had a word of caution for the incoming PML-N government and asked it to ensure highest standards of transparency in appointments if it wanted to avoid court’s interference.

Not only the petitioner, the order noted, but Law Minister Ahmer Bilal Soofi had also objected to the recent transfers and postings. But it explained that except the transfers necessitated for holding free and fair elections and running the day-to-day affairs all appointments stood suspended.

Any aggrieved officer will have the right to approach the proper forum for redressal of his grievance, the order said. It also ordered the caretakers not to repeat the practice till the pendency of the case.

The bench had taken up a petition moved by PML-N leader Khawaja Mohammad Asif challenging en-bloc transfers/postings and shuffling of top government officials by the interim government. In addition to the present petition similar challenges against related appoints are also pending before the apex court.

“You have taken a double-edged sword by challenging the appointments made by the caretaker government,” the chief justice observed while pointing towards MNA-elect Khawaja Asif also asking the government-in-waiting to follow and maintaining highest standards of transparency and merit for appointments to avoid the interference by the court.

The practice of appointment of cronies, favourites and relatives should be discouraged as such this had been the cause of dispute during the past five years, the chief justice observed, adding it seemed that the interim government had not followed due process while making these transfer/postings.

The court held that it would decide the mater after hearing the respondent federal government through the cabinet secretary and Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso.

The next date of hearing is June 4.

Attorney General Irfan Qadir said he would be needing instructions from the government about the factual position on the appointments and what process had been followed, but argued that the interim government was not barred from making appointments and postings to run day-to-day affairs of the state and to meet any eventuality till the new government took over.

The petitioner, Khawaja Asif, had cited a number of recent transfers, postings or reshuffling – the Chairman of the National Highway Authority, Hamid Ali Khan, was replaced on May 16 by Sajjad Hussain Baloch; the Nepra chairman was replaced by
retired Justice Ahmad Khan Lashari; SNGPL Managing Director Arif Hameed was replaced by Amin Tufail; SSGCL’s managing director was replaced by Rahat Kamal Siddiqui; Managing Director of the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation Khalid Khokhar was replaced by Saifullah Khan.

Similarly, National Fertiliser’s Chairman Rizwan Mumtaz Ali was removed on May 9; Oil and Gas Development Corporation’s Managing Director Masood Siddiqui was removed on May 6; the State Life Corporation’s chairman was removed on May 16; the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation’s chairman reported to have been removed; the Pakistan Software Export Board’s chairman was removed and Saleem Ahmed Ranjha, who was directly inducted by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, was appointed.

The FIA’s director general, who was appointed one month ago, is also reported to be in the process of being replaced, the petition said. Certain employees/officers of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority are reported to have been removed without following the procedure set in the relevant statute.

Several other mid-level staff of corporations/ bodies have been shuffled/transferred/ removed, the petition alleged.

When asked by the court why he was filing the petition when the incoming government could annul these appointments through
an executive order, Khawaja Asif replied that the appointed persons if removed may claim their rights and a cycle of litigation would follow.

In his petition, Khawaja Asif argued that the acts of the caretaker government amounted to abuse of power and against norms.

—File Photo.

KARACHI: The Mithadar Police of Karachi have arrested an alleged target killer Shera alias Tension and his two accomplices identified as Fazalullah and Amanullah along with a stolen car.

According to a press release issued here on Wednesday, they were arrested during snap checking in the area.

They were allegedly involved in different heinous crimes including target killings, extortion from owners of marble factories and kidnapping for ransom.

The police also recovered another stolen car and a motorbike following information provided by the accused during interrogation.

Further investigation is under way.

A police forensics officer investigates a crime scene where one man was killed in Woolwich, southeast London. -Reuters Photo

LONDON: British police shot and wounded two men after a man thought to be a serving soldier was killed outside a London barracks, in an attack Prime Minister David Cameron called “truly shocking”.

In a dramatic move, the government’s emergency response committee was being summoned following the killing which some eyewitness reports suggested was an attempted beheading using machete-like knives.

Some early reports suggested the attack might be Islamist-related, although there was no official confirmation.

The incident took place in broad daylight in a street around 200 metres (yards) from the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a district of southeast London.

Police were called at 2:20 pm (1320 GMT) to reports of one man being assaulted by two others.

“A number of weapons were reportedly being used in the attack, and this included reports of a firearm,” said police commander Simon Letchford.

Local police officers, then firearms officers arrived on the scene where they found a man who was later pronounced dead.

“Two men, who we believe from early reports to have been carrying weapons, were shot by police. They were taken to separate London hospitals, they are receiving treatment for their injuries,” Letchford said.

He said there would be a heightened police presence in the area and urged locals to remain calm.

Cameron said on Twitter: “The killing in Woolwich is truly shocking”.

He added that he had asked Home Secretary Theresa May, Britain’s interior minister, to chair a meeting of COBRA, the government’s emergency civil contingencies committee.

A white and blue police evidence tent was visible in the street and police tape sealed off the scene.

Eyewitness pictures showed an air ambulance landing in the road and three bodies lying on the ground with dozens of onlookers observing the scene after the police arrived.

Nick Raynsford, the member of parliament for Woolwich and Greenwich, said his understanding was that the man found dead was a serving soldier.

He said he had spoken to local borough police commander Richard Wood, and a lieutenant colonel at the Woolwich army barracks.

“One individual is dead, two others are seriously injured and in hospital,” he said.

“We think a serving soldier was the victim. We don’t know the circumstances surrounding the incident.

“We do know a number of weapons have been seized. They include a gun, various knives, and a machete, apparently.

“The police clearly had to take action in order to try and arrest these individuals.”The Ministry of Defence said it was urgently investigating reports that the dead man was a soldier.

Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said on Twitter: “Shocked by appalling events in Woolwich. Whole country will be horrified by what has happened.”

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic shooting events were staged at a temporary venue at the Royal Artillery.

The barracks houses a number of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, which drew former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s coffin to her funeral last month — and independent companies of the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is called in whenever firearms officers discharge their weapons, said it was investigating.

“IPCC investigators have been deployed to the scene and to the post-incident process,” a spokesman said.

Supreme Court of Pakistan. — File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned hearing of a constitutional petition against Altaf Hussain, the chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), while pointing out errors in the petition and directed the petitioner to resubmit it before the court.

The petition was filed by the leaders of Watan Party against Hussain praying the court to put a ban on the functioning of MQM in Pakistan and its chief’s broadcasts and telecasts also be banned by the apex court.

A three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Afzal and Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard the petition.

During the short hearing, the bench pointed out several technical errors and omissions in the petition and directed the petitioners to re-submit it.

The court also directed the petitioner to verify the status of MQM with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to ascertain who the actual head of the party was and adjourned further hearing of the case for a week.