ANP to oppose Kalabagh dam construction to “their last breath”

During court proceeding on Thursday, Chief Justice LHC Umar Ata Bundial remarked that as it is a question of national interest, the court would definitely order in favour of the dam’s construction.

LAHORE: The Awami National Party (ANP) announced on Thursday that it would oppose the construction of the controversial Kalabagh Dam to “their very last breath”, DawnNews reported.

ANP spokesperson Zahid Khan told DawnNews on Thursday that the dam was a conspiracy for national destruction and the Lahore High Court (LHC) should remain careful while making any decisions on the matter.

Khan said that the ANP would offer the same sacrifices again as it did in its fight against terrorism.

The construction of the controversial hydroelectric dam, proposed to be built at Kalabagh in Punjab’s Mianwali district, is a thorny political issue likely to fuel further tension between Punjab and the provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhthunkhwa.

The Lahore High Court is currently hearing petitions for the construction of Kalabagh dam, which is believed to be able end the country’s power crisis.

During court proceeding on Thursday, Chief Justice LHC Umar Ata Bundial remarked that as it is a question of national interest, the court would definitely order in favour of the dam’s construction.

Veteran politician Rasool Bux Palijo has claimed that the Thar coal project was being delayed to pave the way for the Kalabagh dam

Veteran politician fears Kalabagh dam project being revived

HYDERABAD, Oct 23: Awami Tehreek (AT) chairman Rasool Bux Palijo has claimed that the Thar coal project was being delayed to pave the way for the Kalabagh dam.

Speaking to reporters at the Palijo House in Qasimabad on Tuesday, he said that a petition had recently been filed in the Lahore High Court to seek the go-ahead for the Kalabagh dam project but the PPP government, which had been opposing it for years, was taking no notice of the move.

“The Kalabagh dam plan is a matter of life and death for Sindh,” he reminded the PPP, and told the media that under a conspiracy water downstream Kotri barrage was to be stopped and this would render Sindh’s agricultural lands barren forcing the affected landowners to dispose of their lands at cheap rates.

“This [Kalabagh] is the plan is for the destruction of Sindh,” he remarked, and said that millions of Sindhi people would oppose it tooth and nail.

Quoting the Lahore High Court observation that the government was not serious about building the dam, Mr Palijo apprehended that the court was going to give its verdict in favour of the petitioner.

“The PPP is very likely to continue with its lip service to the issue,” the veteran politician predicted. He spoke about the strong resistance to the project put up by the PPP when it was led by Benazir Bhutto, and said that the PPP along with the Awami Tehreek had staged a historical sit-in at Kammo Shaheed in Aug 1998 and declared that it would never allow construction of any dam on the Indus.

Arsalan Iftikhar case: Asma voices concern over one-man commission

LAHORE: Former president of the Supreme Court Bar, Asma Jahangir on Monday said that the officer tasked by the SC to investigate the Arsalan Iftikhar case has close ties with the chief justice’s son and cannot be trusted to conduct a transparent investigation, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives at the Lahore High Court (LHC), Jahangir remarked that the UK’s Scotland Yard should be called in to probe the Arsalan Iftikhar case if Pakistani institutions are deemed unreliable.

Jahangir alleged that Shoaib Suddle, the investigating officer, is also known to regularly attend Arsalan Iftikhar’s events, she said, adding that he could not be expected to conduct a transparent investigation into the case.

Pakistan’s apex court is investigating allegations of a Rs342 million business deal between Dr Arsalan, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and business tycoon Malik Riaz.

On Aug 30, the Supreme Court had accepted a review petition against its own earlier order, appointing Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Mohammad Shoaib Suddle as the one man-commission to probe the controversial case. The commission is required to complete the task in a month.

Criticising the court’s decision, Jahangir said that if there were any questions over the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) investigating team, then the team could have been changed instead of changing the whole verdict.

Lahore High Court shows true colors of strategic depth of Pakistan

Review board orders Malik Ishaq’s release

By Asad Kharal

LAHORE: A review board of the Lahore High Court (LHC), on Friday, denied an extension for the detention of Malik Ishaq, former leader of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, for one more month and issued orders for his release. ….

Read more » The Express Tribune

via – Twitter

A Pakistani Christian student’s question to the High Court

Is a Pakistani Christian equal to a fellow Muslim?

“A young Pakistani student belonging to the Christian faith has posed an interesting question through a petition in the Lahore High Court. The question is: Am I, a Pakistani Christian equal to a fellow citizen who is a Muslim ? For those of the readers who missed the news item reported by an English daily, this young student belongs to a low income group, is a practicing Christian and extremely bright. She has been competing to get into the King Edwards Medical College but was beaten on the list by 20 marks by a Muslim student who got the extra 20 marks for being Hafiz–e-Quran. So, now this young Christian girl has filed a plea in the Lahore Court declaring that she and the Muslim student had equal marks but the latter got the advantage of religion. The young Christian student claims that “this is discrimination against religious minority students and a violation of fundamental rights granted by the Constitution of Pakistan.” The petition admitted by the Lahore High Court demands that either the LHC should rule to abolish the policy or should declare that a parallel policy should be made to award twenty additional marks to religious minority students on the basis of their religious knowledge. Fifty eight years after the creation of the country to ask such a question through the courts is both tragic and hopeful”.
Constitution of Pakistan, Part II, Chapter -1, Fundamental Rights, Article 22 says:-

(1) No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.

(2) In respect of any religious institution, there shall be no discrimination against any community in the granting of exemption or concession in relation to taxation.

(3) Subject to law: (a) no religious community or denomination shall be prevented from providing religious instruction for pupils of that community or denomination in any educational institution maintained wholly by that community or denomination; and

(b) no citizen shall be denied admission to any educational institution receiving aid from public revenues on the ground only of race, religion, caste or place of birth.

(4) Nothing in this Article shall prevent any public authority from making provision for the advancement of any socially or educationally backward class of citizens.

Read more » Pak Tribune

Going back to Mukhtar Mai

by Sana Saleem

I am at a loss of words today. No words can describe the dejection, pain and anguish that many of us felt on hearing the Supreme Court’s verdict on Mukhtar Mai’s case. After nine arduous years of waiting for justice, five out of six accused in Mai’s rape have been acquitted. It was the Supreme Court that took suo moto notice on the LHC’s decision and now its decision to uphold the initial verdict is extremely disappointing to say the least. …

Read more : DAWN

Blasphemy laws: what does the Quran say? —Dr Mohammad Taqi

It is a travesty of justice that a verse dealing with war, sedition and rebellion is invoked to punish what may not even qualify as theocratic or religious dissent. In fact, Article 295 is not just a travesty of justice, it is an iftira (slander) against the Almighty and Prophet (PBUH) as it attributes to them what they never mandated …

Read more : Daily Tiems

Shahbaz Sharif’s Conversation with the Judge of Lahore High Court (LHC) to buy Justice!

Shahbaz Sharif’s Conversation with the Judge of Lahore High Court (LHC) to buy Justice.

Shabaz Sharif (SS) is saying that Nawaz Sharif (NS) ( Mian Saheb) asking MEHARBANI for Chaudhry Serwar. Qauum Said…..Mian Saheb ( Nawaz Shareef ) Nay Kaha Hay To Gul Qatum Ho Gaee Aae.

Courtesy: ARY News (Sawal yeh Hai with Dr. Danish, November 19, 2010)

Via – Siasat -> YouTube Link

History is judging the Judges too

Please watch this talk show clip up to end. Discussion of language is urdu/Hindi.

Courtesy: ARY News (Kashif Abassi)

– Link

Pakistan’s ugly secret – Pervez Hoodbhoy

There is a complete blackout on the effects of uranium mining in Dera Ismail Khan in south Punjab. Researchers too were defeated by the powerful nuclear establishment that keeps even health information as a national secret.

Sadly, absolutely nothing is known about disposal of nuclear waste in Pakistan. Are the authorities dumping low-level wastes in the sea or river? Where and how do they plan to bury the high-level wastes that will be lethal for thousands of years to come? Also, there is a complete blackout on the effects of uranium mining in Dera Ismail Khan in south Punjab. About 10 years ago, mine workers and other affected villagers had banded together after large numbers fell sick from lung disease and cancer. To the dismay of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, they managed to produce a petition for the Lahore High Court. But,as invariably happens, the powers that be forced them to withdraw their case and some token compensation was given. Researchers too were defeated by the powerful nuclear establishment that keeps even health information as a national secret.

There are, however, other aspects of Pakistan’s nuclear programme that I have focused upon earlier and bring up yet again:

Pakistan got nothing from The Bomb

About twelve years ago a million Pakistanis danced in the streets after six nuclear weapons had been successfully tested. They had been told that making nuclear bombs was the biggest thing a country could do. Burma is said to be trying to make a bomb and may succeed too, but surely the North Korean nuclear test gave rock-solid proof that we Pakistanis have been fed a diet of lies.

North Korea is a country that no one admires. It is unknown for scientific achievement, has little electricity or fuel, food and medicine are scarce, corruption is ubiquitous, and its people live in terribly humiliating conditions under a vicious, dynastic dictatorship. In a famine some years ago, North Korea lost nearly 800,000 people. And it has an enormous prison population of 200,000 that is subjected to systematic torture and abuse.

Why does a miserable, starving country continue spending its last penny on the Bomb? On developing and testing a fleet of missiles whose range increases from time to time? The answer is clear: North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles are instruments of blackmail rather than means of defence. Brandished threateningly, and manipulated from time to time, these bombs are designed to keep the flow of international aid going.

Surely the people of North Korea gained nothing from their country’s nuclearisation. But they cannot challenge their oppressors. But, Pakistanis — who are far freer — must ask: what have we gained from the bomb? …

Read more >> ViewPoint

The Matchless Courage of Rana Maqbool

Extraordinary Rendition

By: Hakim Hazik

Justice Iftikhar of the Lahore High Court has struck a blow for democracy. He has granted a bail before arrest to the selfless civil servant and policeman par excellence, Rana Maqbool Ahmed, formerly of Sindh Police department and currently in charge of public prosecution in the Punjab.

This kind-hearted and mild mannered gentleman has always put duty before personal benefit and national service before self interest. However has never given any quarter to the enemies of the state and has always been unflinching and steadfast in upholding the rule of law.

Read more >>- JusticeDenied

Justice Sharif: Is he a judge or a politician?

PPP should quit provincial coalition on differences: LHC CJ

LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party should separate itself from the coalition in the Punjab government if it has any differences with it, a private TV channel quoted Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif as saying on Tuesday, adding that his personal relations with the Sharif brothers can never come in the way of justice.

The LHC CJ was addressing a ceremony in Hafizabad, where he inaugurated a new chamber of lawyers. He said he shares 40-year old relations with the Sharif brothers, but his relations with both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders have never come in the way of justice. He said some elements were creating baseless propaganda against him and his son, the channel reported. …

Read more >>- Daily Times

Pakistan back to 1984

PTA plans to push Pakistan to 1984 – by Jahanzaib Haque

A leaked confidential draft of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) allegedly delivered to the Lahore High Court (LHC) has suggested the implementation of a new draconian system which would greatly curtail internet freedom in the country, not unlike Big Brother from George Orwell’s ’1984′.

For more >>- Tribune

President Zardari issues pardon in Malik’s Sentence

Zardari issues pardon in Malik’s corruption conviction

– daily dawn

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has given a presidential pardon to Interior Minister Rehman Malik after the latter was convicted by the Lahore High Court in two NAB corruption reference cases.

Rehman Malik, Interior Minister of Pakistan Might Be Arrested Soon

Malik plea against sentences dismissed

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed the appeals filed by Federal Interior Minister Rehman A Malik against the punishments announced by accountability courts, Geo News reported Monday.

It should be mentioned that Accountability courts declared three-year sentences for not appearing in two different cases. At the outset of the case, the court suspended his sentences on his plea and granted him bail.

The legal experts said the sentences meted out to Malik stood as restored technically after his appeals for the repeal of the sentences were discharged by the court and he might be arrested.

Courtesy: http://www.geo.tv/5-17-2010/65062.htm