Sunday, July 26, 2015
#Turkey - Fear of ISIL attack sparks panic, locals flee Karkamış
When news of a group of militants linked with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gathering in a village on the Syrian side of the border with the intent of launching an attack on the Turkish border town of Karkamış reached town residents, it sparked panic and prompted the immediate flight of a significant number of residents on Saturday night, a local witness said.
Many headed to provincial capital of Gaziantep, while others were bound for rural cites and faraway villages, to be hosted by their relatives.
A district governor and local military commander was soon dispatched to the border to inspect the authenticity of the rumors and, if they proved true, to take necessary measures against the militant group, including seeking approval from Ankara for a preemptive strike.
A brief late-night tour revealed that the rumors that sent ripples of anxiety through locals in Karkamış were baseless and unfounded.
Governor and military commander visited Karkamış streets packed with jolted citizens to soothe them, called on locals to return home.
Governor and military commander visited Karkamış streets packed with jolted citizens to soothe them, called on locals to return home.
“Turkish military and police does and will never let such thing happen, to attack you. We are here to protect you. Now, go home officials told people.
It was too late for those who had already left the town to be assured by officials, but for those who remained, the sense of bewilderment faded away.
Ali Yılmaz, a resident of Karkamış, told Today’s Zaman that they left the town at night upon a warning from their relatives in Syria. He was back at home in the morning after things settled in the town.
“We have confidence in our military but these militants know no bounds when they attack. Given that the distance is so close, like 100 meters, between them and us, we always feel on edge,” he said.
This recent event is a textbook case of ISIL’s psychological overreach, as mere rumors have the potential to displace a large number of people from the border town of Turkey, a country which has the second-largest army in NATO and unmatched military resources to combat ISIL. Regardless of the reputation the militant group has earned for its resilience on battlefield in Syria and Iraq, it has few chances against such military might.
But this is ISIL, which has built its reputation, and entire structure, on speed, surprise, ferocious fighting and brutality. However, what has most disturbed locals in border areas of Turkey is not what has made ISIL what it is in Syria and elsewhere.
Locals concerned about sleeper ISIL cells
Locals concerned about sleeper ISIL cells
As Turkish Air Forces struck ISIL positions in northern Syria for two consecutive days, beginning early on Friday, what locals in border towns and cities most feared was another Suruç-like attack by an ISIL sleeper cell in Turkey.
Anxiety over possible ISIL sleeper cells dogged the streets in the southern city of Kilis, only kilometers away from Syrian border, with locals feeling psychological spillover effects of the Suruç attack in their daily lives: They try to avoid public gatherings, staying away from crowds in bazaars and urban centers.
M.Y.K, a shop-owner in Kilis, says he heads straight home after closing down his shop. “I tell my kids to stay away from crowded areas as a precaution.”
Turkey’s first outright clash with ISIL came only after the militant group was believed to have carried out the bomb attack in Suruç, killing 32 people, and had also fatally shot a soldier at a border post after its members were prevented from crossing into Turkey.
The violence proved to be a turning point or a wakeup call for Turkey, which, for a long time, ignored calls to take a more robust stance against the militant group that controls the Syrian side of the border in the area of Kilis.
On Friday, Turkey arrested nearly 300 suspects thought to be linked with ISIL and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during raids in 22 provinces. The sudden shift in policy, however, may fall short of producing the desired effect of cracking down on networks of the radical group in Turkey.
Turkish authorities claim the police raids blunted the operational capability of the militant group in the country. But security experts, political observers and citizens on the street believe it is too early to distinguish the net positive effects of the bold new policy directed against ISIL.
“We need to see the strong face of the state these days. Fighting among political actors, among parties, the nation-wide purge within the security bureaucracy, and especially within the police department, has paralyzed the state,” a public servant in Gaziantep told Today’s Zaman.
He declined to be named, but added that he fears the occurrence of an ISIL attack in Gaziantep, a city that once had a burgeoning economy with flourishing trade. The economy, however, has been dismally affected by the prolonged war in Syria, especially by the destruction of Aleppo, a city thought to be the twin of Gaziantep before the war.
The public servant is skeptical about the effectiveness of government action against ISIL, citing considerable support for the militant group in Southeast Turkey. He most fears, he explained with tense voice, a civil war in the country between nationalist and Islamist Kurds.
Bombs Made In U.S., Europe Turn Up On Yemen's Battlefields
By Charlotte Alfred
All eyes are on Tehran's role in the conflict, but there are other players involved too.
The international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief has once again directed attention to Tehran's involvement in Yemen's bloody war, as opponents of the historic agreement point to the deadly conflict as an example of the dangers of Iran’s regional ambitions.
Yet while some observers scrutinize Iran's support of Yemen's Houthi rebels, they often overlook the use of U.S.- and European-made weapons by their Yemeni and Arab rivals.
Over 3,600 Yemenis, about half of them civilians, have been killed in airstrikes and ground clashes that are part of a bloody and complex civil war. What began as a conflict between the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and Houthi fighters -- members of a Shiite group in Yemen's north -- now involves a plethora of fighting factions grouped in two loose alliances. Houthi rebels and loyalists of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh are on one side, pitted against troops loyal to the exiled Hadi and a diverse group of local and tribal militias who are aided by airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition. Amid the chaos, al Qaeda has carved out a territorial stronghold, prompting continued U.S. drone strikes, while the Islamic State has upped its campaign of terror.
Now investigations have shown that American and European weapons have turned up on Yemen’s bloody battlefields.Human Rights Watch discovered munitions in Yemen, which an investigation by Malachy Browne for reported.ly traced to European shipments to the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is participating Saudi Arabia's airstrikes in Yemen. Browne found that components for MK82 and MK84 bombs, the same type that investigators found in Yemen, were manufactured by RWM Italia S.p.a, an Italy-based subsidiary of German company Rheinmetall, and shipped in May to a manufacturer that supplies the UAE military.
More disturbingly, human rights groups have documented U.S.-made cluster bombs, banned under international law because of the indiscriminate way they kill, in Yemen. Human Rights Watch recently found unexploded CBU-105 cluster munitions, manufactured by a Massachusetts-based company called Textron Systems, near a Yemeni village.
As Stephen Snyder reports for PRI, Textron says their weapons are not indiscriminate, but the U.S. itself classifies them as cluster munitions and oversaw their sale to Saudi Arabia in 2011 on the basis that they would not be used in civilian areas -- civilian areas like the Yemeni village Human Rights Watch visited, where residents said they saw parachutes falling from the sky one April day, followed by dozens of explosions. The U.S. State Department told PRI: "We take claims of misuse of US munitions seriously."It is not surprising that Saudi Arabia -- the largest arms purchaser in the world -- is using a Western supply chain to bomb Yemen. The Saudi military already has billions of dollars of state-of-the-art military equipment from the U.S. and other Western nations. The U.S. has expedited weapons sales to Saudi Arabia since the airstrikes began, and the U.K. says it has sent “precision-guided weapons” to the Saudi army.
Some politicians and campaigners in Europe are questioning whether continuing to send weapons to Saudi Arabia breaches domestic laws on arms exports, pointing to UN concerns that the coalition airstrikes may have broken international humanitarian law. A U.K. government official told VICE News they were closely monitoring the conflict in Yemen. "Export licenses will not be granted where there is a clear risk that the exports might be used for internal repression or in serious violation of international humanitarian law," the spokesperson for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills told the news site.
Houthi rebels have also been accused of causing mass civilian casualties. Saudi Arabia argues that the Houthis, a predominantly Shiite group that found broad support as an anti-corruption movement, are a proxy of Riyadh’s bitter rival, Iran. Tehran denies providing financial or military support to the group, while U.S. officials say the reality is somewhere in between -- Tehran has provided some arms and military training to the Houthis, but only has limited influence over the group’s strategy and ambitions.
Saudi Arabia’s Western allies say the only end game is a political solution in Yemen. But at the same time, the U.S. and U.K. have acknowledged providing intelligence and technical support to the Saudi-led bombing campaign against the Houthis. Both countries have military personnel on the ground at the coalition’s coordination center, and officials told The Wall Street Journal that U.S. military planners are helping Saudi Arabia select targets.
Meanwhile, the “political solution” touted by Western nations looks no closer to materializing.
Several rounds of U.N.-brokered peace talks have quickly collapsed. Ceasefires have been announced and immediately ignored. The conflict was stuck in a stalemate before Saudi-backed troops recaptured the port of Aden this week. There are reports that ex-president Saleh, a notorious political survivor, might negotiate his way out of the conflict and abandon the Houthis, further swinging the balance of power in Riyadh’s favor. But most Yemenis do not have time to wait out the war. Night after night, day after day, the explosions have been ringing out in Yemen. Ancient heritage crumples into rubble. Worshippers are blown to shreds as they pray. Families are buried under their bombed homes. The country is running out of water, and deadly diseases like malaria are on the rise. The U.N. says that 1.6 million Yemeni children are suffering from acute malnutrition and urgently need help. Aid groups warn that many thousands may die if the groups are not allowed to bring more fuel, food and medicine into the impoverished nation.
"Imagine the pain of watching your country burn with no hope for peace,” editor of the Yemen Post newspaper Hakim Almasmari wrote on Twitter this week. “This is how 26 million [people] feel in Yemen."
Yemen conflict slipping into Saudi Arabia: Academic
Press TV has conducted an interview with Seif Da'na, a professor at the University of Wisconsin from Chicago, to ask for his insight on the continuation of Saudi aggression against Yemen and the retaliatory attacks by the Yemeni people.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: How do you feel this war on Yemen is going, especially because of course the retaliation only increases as well?
Da’na: Well, we are in the fourth month, it’s been four months actually since the beginning of the aggression and Saudi Arabia and the coalition, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates particularly, achieved basically nothing except killing about five thousand people most of them are civilians, and creating a sever humanitarian crisis in Yemen. At this point, I mean, they started aggression with military airstrikes on Yemen and now we see part of the conflict actually is slipping into Saudi Arabia itself. That shows a total failure of the campaign, but at this point, what seems to be happening really is with these recent attacks on the Anad military air force base. They seem to be attempted to control the south, because this is one of the most important military bases actually in Yemen. Anybody looks just at the map, they will see that it’s the key the most southern district in Yemen. So, it seems to be like the battle for Aden now, but despite this, it’s a total failure. Reports from the ground actually say that part of the attack on the ground by Hadi’s militias, they have been joined by some members of al-Qaeda. Another interesting fact actually that we were informed about because until now they claim they control the Aden Airport and it seems they have controlled part of it, but it’s not functional, because the Ansarullah groups and the Yemeni military are about hundreds of meters away really. So, it cannot be functional. So, instead the Saudis and the Emiratis have been using the Boraiga Airport, which is another airport in the southern district in the southern part of Yemen, but again if people look at the map they will see that this airport is under the control of the al-Qaeda also. So, we have al-Qaeda participating actively at this point on the ground to support the ... and the Saudi aerial attacks actually are providing the aerial cover for the al-Qaeda forces on the ground. This is very clear at this point.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/07/24/421628/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-Ansarullah-alQaeda-Dana
Asia Bibi Suffering From Internal Bleeding, Vomiting Blood
Blasphemy accused 50-year-old, Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi in need of urgent medical treatment.
Asia Bibi’s health is deteriorating while she continues her imprisonment. There have been multiple credible reports claiming that she needs urgent medical attention because of critical health problems.
According to, Bruce Allen of Forgotten Missionaries International: “She’s suffering from internal bleeding. She requires urgent medical treatment. She vomits blood. She suffers terrible pain, and she can hardly eat. Here’s this woman, languishing in a prison under this death sentence for a crime that she vehemently denies.”
“But time is running out for the Christian woman since her health has been steadily declining,” Allen said.
Furthermore, the Global Dispatch reported that,”Asia Bibi is suffering from intestinal bleeding.” It was reported that when her family visited her at the end of May, they dismally found that she was “so weak she can hardly walk”.
Another source revealed that, “When vomiting there is also shown traces of blood, Asia has difficulty feeding properly, while constant pain in the chest. Therefore, it is necessary that Asia Bibi be submitted as soon as possible a full medical check-up, including blood work.”
It has been revealed that, the lawyers of Asia Bibi have appealed that the blasphemy respondent should be transferred to a prison in Lahore; so that she may be able to receive some medical treatment, in addition to facilitating her family to visit her more frequently.
- See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/asia-bibi-suffering-from-internal-bleeding-vomiting-blood/#sthash.Ly7dShEv.dpufUS embassy employee killed in Pakistan
A Pakistani employee of the US embassy here was on Sunday shot and killed by unknown gunmen, police said.
The victim was identified as Iqbal Baig who worked for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Police said Baig was shot at his home this morning. He belonged to the minority Shia Ismaili community.
Security agencies have launched investigations though the motive of the killing is not known as yet.
At least 43 Ismailis on a bus were shot dead by militants in Karachi in May.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/US-embassy-employee-killed-in-Pakistan/articleshow/48225528.cms
The victim was identified as Iqbal Baig who worked for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Police said Baig was shot at his home this morning. He belonged to the minority Shia Ismaili community.
Security agencies have launched investigations though the motive of the killing is not known as yet.
At least 43 Ismailis on a bus were shot dead by militants in Karachi in May.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/US-embassy-employee-killed-in-Pakistan/articleshow/48225528.cms
Sherry Rehman slams govt’s high handed behavior towards Pakistan Steel Mills
Vice President of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian, Senator Sherry Rehman has expressed deep concern over the SSGC’s announcement of unilaterally stopping all gas inputs to Pakistan Steel mills, without any stakeholder consultation.
In a statement, the PPPP Vice President said, “This one-sided and high-handed behavior of SSGC towards Pakistan Steel Mills clearly reflects the federal government’s myopia and disregard for democratic norms and consultations. Cutting off gas supply to the Steel Mill without any plan, or public conversation about how to rationalize resources only demonstrates an attitude that ignores the problems faced by labor, as the mill employs more than16,000 people.”
“There are also millions whose livelihood is indirectly connected to the Pakistan Steel Mills,” said Rehman, adding “it should have been discussed transparently and constructively with at least the stakeholders.Now it will have to go to the Council of Common Interests.
The Senator said that if due transparency with diligence is not adopted, then it will be said that the federal government has decided to bring Pakistan Steel Mills to a standstill so that its key allies may avail a chance to buy this strategic national asset at throwaway prices.
“I believe that the IMF has already been given assurances for this privatisation by December, which suggests that the SSGC’s move is a planned directive from the federal government. Already ailing from a stagnated production process due to low gas pressures, the mills’ production capacity will now be completely destroyed, setting it back three to four years,” she said.
In a statement, the PPPP Vice President said, “This one-sided and high-handed behavior of SSGC towards Pakistan Steel Mills clearly reflects the federal government’s myopia and disregard for democratic norms and consultations. Cutting off gas supply to the Steel Mill without any plan, or public conversation about how to rationalize resources only demonstrates an attitude that ignores the problems faced by labor, as the mill employs more than16,000 people.”
“There are also millions whose livelihood is indirectly connected to the Pakistan Steel Mills,” said Rehman, adding “it should have been discussed transparently and constructively with at least the stakeholders.Now it will have to go to the Council of Common Interests.
The Senator said that if due transparency with diligence is not adopted, then it will be said that the federal government has decided to bring Pakistan Steel Mills to a standstill so that its key allies may avail a chance to buy this strategic national asset at throwaway prices.
“I believe that the IMF has already been given assurances for this privatisation by December, which suggests that the SSGC’s move is a planned directive from the federal government. Already ailing from a stagnated production process due to low gas pressures, the mills’ production capacity will now be completely destroyed, setting it back three to four years,” she said.
“The Pakistan Steel Mills were envisioned by Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who also laid their foundation,” said Rehman. “Any attempt aimed at its unilateral and overnight dismantling will have to be taken to all constitutional forums, because this is not just a mammoth construction or real estate complex, it is the bread and butter for more than 17,000 families and a source of inspiration and unity for thousands of Pakistanis who came to Karachi to earn their livelihood from each all around the country.”
https://ppppunjab.wordpress.com/2015/07/26/sherry-rehman-slams-govts-high-handed-behavior-towards-pakistan-steel-mills/
Pakistan - PCO Judiciary and Imran Khan’s political immaturity legitimize PML N’s 2013 election rigging
Inspite of overwhelming circumstance to the contrary, Imran Khan and his PTI continued to place their trust in a compromised judiciary. This week’s Judicial Commission report absolving PML N and its media, judicial and Taliban allies of rigging once again highlighted an important lesson that PTI still has not managed to grasp!
The lesson is that the judiciary is an important part of the same Establishment that ensured the provincial incumbent PML N’s majority victory in the controversial 2013 general elections in Pakistan. By appealing to the same Establishment that brought in the Pro Taliban Saudi stooge Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan has highlighted his political immaturity once again.
Contrary to the ramblings of certain sections of Pakistan’s pseudo liberal elites, both the Judiciary and the Saudi-backed PML N are a central part of Pakistan’s Establishment as it stands today. The PPP has already come to terms with this after being hounded by the same establishment for decades.
The fact of the matter is that 2013 elections were rigged from the beginning. They were rigged when the Taliban publicly threatened to disrupt the elections with suicide attacks. The 2013 general elections were rigged when the Taliban publicly declared that they would only tolerate PML N and PTI winning the elections and would strike their opponents – the PPP, ANP and MQM with violence. The Taliban carried out this threat and attacked numerous ANP, PPP and MQM publicly rallies before the elections.
The PPP correctly termed the 2013 election as the “ROs (Returning Officers) elections” .
Former Pakistan prime minister and the heart and soul of PPP, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had exposed the corrupt, biased and compromised PCO judiciary of former Chief Justice Chaudhary Iftikhar quite some time ago in this articulate press conference in Dubai October 2007.
This press conference can also be accessed here https://iaoj.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/benazir-bhutto-criticised-pakistani-judiciary-for-being-ethnically-biased/
Therefore, it is no wonder that the same corrupt, compromised, pro Taliban, PCO judge Iftikhar Chaudhary is rushing to support the same judicial report that absolves his despicable role in fixing the 2013 elections in favour of his PML N benefactors.
Actually, the judicial commission report is a weak and useless report that does not take into consideration the key factors such as the pre poll rigging. This pre poll rigging consisted of not just the threats by the Taliban to support their candidates in PML N and PTI. It also consisted of the dirty role played by former Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhary who instructed the Returning Officers (ROs) to selectively vet the candidates in favour of the PML N-ASWJ-LeJ electoral alliance of 2013.
Clearly, Imran Khan has not learnt from his previous mistakes of supporting this PCO judiciary. As long as he continues to support this judiciary, his political future is doomed.
Between the shoddy Judicial Commission Report and Imran Khan’s political naivety, Saudi stooge Nawaz Sharif and his family owned PML N have gotten away with rigging another election.
From 1988 to 2013, PML N aka IJI and its various allies like General Hamid Gul, Osama Bin Laden, Najam Sethi and Chaudhary Iftikhar have participated in some of the worst manipulation of Pakistan’s electoral system.
Refer to LUBP’s comprehensive database of articles, interviews and studies on the 2013 election rigging https://lubpak.com/archives/tag/pakistan-elections-2013
Pakistan - The floods and government - Ill-equipped and inefficient
The floods this time have been caused by the vagaries of climate change. Extreme weather conditions that include intensified monsoons, abrupt rainfalls and cloudburst events have caused the devastation. Torrential rains continue to play havoc even in areas considered outside monsoon range like Gilgil-Batistan, which is quite unusual. In Chitral the heavy rainfall caused flash floods. At places rains have caused surge in water courses and streams which wreaked havoc in villages and towns. In mountainous areas of Chitral in KP, and Rajanur and DG Khan in Punjab, the devastation has been caused by mountain steams flowing down the plains in high speed carrying away all that came in the way.
Till now the destruction of infrastructure and property and human and livestock casualties remains confined to the upper riparians that include KP, AJK, Gilgit Baltistan and South Punjab. Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has, however, issued a high alert in the wake of expected widespread heavy rain and flood, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan, over the next five days. According to the alert the heavy monsoon was concentrating in Sindh where up to 500,000 cusecs of water was already flowing down the Indus at Guddu and Sukkur and the upcoming downpour could aggravate the situation. Meanwhile a happy-go-lucky Nisar Khuhru has assured that there will be no flood this year.
The country lacks efficient and well-equipped institutions to deal with the disastrous effects of climate change. Successive governments have given little priority to their strengthening and upgrading. Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) is supposed to play the leading role in weather forecast. Its aging radars spread across the country have yet to be replaced with new and more efficient equipment. The NDMA and the provincial PDMAs have still to develop the capacity to satisfactorily perform the functions assigned to them. In Japan regular public drills are held to cope with earthquakes. Nothing of the sort is done to prepare the riverine communities or those in mountainous regions to cope with flash floods.
Pakistan - Judicial Commission - The Inquiry Report & Beyond
By Afrasiab Khattak
The findings of the Inquiry Commission of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (erroneously and continuously called the Judicial Commission by all and sundry) about the alleged rigging in the general elections of May 2013, made public on July 23, are bound to have a profound impact on the political developments in the country. A fragile democratic system in Pakistan has significantly evolved over the last few years with the previous National Assembly completing its constitutional term of five years for the first time. Also significant was the fact that during the general elections held in May 2013, power was smoothly transferred from one elected civilian government to another without military intervention. Imran Khan led the PTI that could win elections only in one province, initially raised a few minor objections but by and large accepted the election results and assured the ruling party of its full cooperation in running the democratic system. But after the passage of more than a year, PTI developed second thoughts and decided to launch an aggressive agitation to force the government to conduct a judicial inquiry into the allegations of rigging. But the tone and tenor of IK’s battle cry would at times suggest that an overthrow of the government was the real aim of his campaign, which many believed had a “ script” behind it. Using the terminology of cricket, Imran Khan repeatedly and ominously claimed that Mr. Nawaz Sharif will have to go to the pavilion as the umpire raises his finger to declare him out. It is at this point that almost all major political parties decided to stand behind the constitutional system and parliament to foil the conspiracy for the unconstitutional overthrow of the elected government.
On August 12, 2014 the PML –N led federal government offered to set up a judicial body for inquiring into the allegations of rigging in elections but the PTI rejected that offer and launched a “long march” from Lahore to Islamabad. The marchers laid siege to Islamabad that continued for 126 days. The sit in came to an end only after the terrorist attack on Army Public School Peshawar on December 16, 2014. After intensive negotiations between the government and PTI representatives TORs were agreed upon for a Supreme Court Inquiry Commission. The findings of the Inquiry Commission have mainly rejected the allegations of industrial scale rigging and stealing of the mandate although it has held that procedural irregularities did take place in various constituencies, something that almost every one accepted from day one.
Findings of the Inquiry Commission are confined to the electoral process in the general elections of 2013 as per the TORs of the Commission. But there are serious questions in the minds of the people about the purpose and intent of Imran Khan’s reckless adventure. They believe that the real purpose of his anarchist agitation was to pave ground for a military coup. His unsavory designs were publicly exposed by the then sitting Central President of PTI Mr. Javed Hashmi who not only made public the details of the plan but also named names. During the recent few weeks some of the sitting federal ministers have pointed accusing fingers at specific influential elements of the security establishment (who have retired recently) for having a hand in IK’s coup plans. The concerned institutions have so far not denied their allegations. What else can explain IK’s call for launching civil disobedience, asking the people not to pay their utility bills and the expatriate to send remittances not through registered banks but through “hawala” illegal informal channels supposed to be used by terrorists for transfer of finances. Most interestingly the federal government could not take any action against these blatant unconstitutional and illegal activities and instead opted for “strategic patience”.
With the coming of the inquiry report the PML-N government may congratulate itself for three things. One, that the constitutional system has survived and the IK’s effort to launch a coup has been foiled. Two, that the inquiry report will put to rest the controversies about 2013 elections enabling the government to complete its constitutional term of five years. Three that in the Inquiry Commission of the Supreme Court the legitimate umpire of the system has asserted himself not leaving space for the unconstitutional umpire that IK was waiting for. That may be very well justified and true. The PML-N government may remain in power and may complete some more metro bus projects. But will it effectively be in the driving seat of the state system in terms of fundamental policy making, is the real issue. Serious and keen political observers of the situation are already talking about a soft coup that has meaningfully changed the balance of power within the state system. Apex committees in some provinces have already expanded their jurisdiction beyond war on terror by encroaching on the functions of civilian executive in running day today affairs. To be fair it would be incorrect to attribute the entire mess to the Khaki push only. The paralyzing incompetence of political administration in some places also creates a vacuum that works as a pull factor.
Be that as it may, the political turmoil arising out of IK’s agitation may be over. But for all the political parties in general and for the ruling party in particular it will be very foolish and myopic to assume that the constitutional system is out of crises. It goes without saying that the parliament has to formulate reforms in electoral system on war footings. But the question of civil military relationship can’t be pushed under carpet any more. As Samuel P. Huntington puts it in his book ‘ Soldier And The State, “ Any system of civil-military relations thus involves a complex equilibrium between the authority, influence, and the ideology of the military, on the one hand, and the authority, influence, and the ideology of non military groups on the other”. Far from being a zero sum game it is all about the evolution of modern democratic state system. We have many best international practices to look at and creatively adopt them to our objective conditions. Political parties need to brainstorm about a series of reforms within political parties themselves along with reforms in the state system. We can delay it only with peril to ourselves.
Pakistan - PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto takes notice of incident of acid attack on victim Raheela
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com
Raheela came under brutal attack by her ex-fiancé Zeeshan Umar, alias Ali, who completed his training as a police officer on a day before Eid in metrovil 2 area of Mubina town police station jurisdiction, Karachi. Her six-month-old nephew is also affected and Raheela is now breathing on ventilator in hospital.
Bilawal Bhutto Zaradri said that Pakistan Peoples Party respects the women rights and dignity.
“We are standing with victim’s family”, Bilawal Bhutto directed the Sindh government for Raheela’s better treatment in hospital and to legal support in her case.
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