Counsel General Qamar Tarik was conscious enough not to make a big claim but he made it clear that Paraguay will promote cricket. He was speaking to the media after the inauguration of the consulate of his country in Islamabad.

“Cricket is gaining popularity in Paraguay and we want to develop it on professional basis, “he said. While touching upon the energy crisis in Pakistan, he disclosed that his country was ready to help out Islamabad on this issue and would soon pass on its recommendation to it as how to overcome this crisis. Though blessed with limited hydel resources, Paraguay enjoys a long experience of electricity production which has enabled it to export it to neighbouring countries Brazil and Argentina, he said. Several Paraguayan businessmen are also interested in investing in electricity sector in Pakistan and they would be visiting this side of the world soon, he said.

Paraguayan Ambassador Ausberto V invited the Pakistani government and investors from the private sector to visit Paraguay, and assured them of opportunities for fruitful investment. The ambassador said his visit to Pakistan had been very encouraging, and hoped for stronger relations with the passage of time.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2012.

While the administration is busy evolving a policy on human resources, foreign missions are being engaged in the process, whereas the ministry of foreign affairs has been asked to submit its response regarding the issue, an official told The Express Tribune.

Unemployment isn’t just claiming innocent lives, but it is also forcing people to resort to desperate measures (often petty crime) to feed their families.

While the government remains concerned about the growing rate of unemployment in the country, overseas employment agents complain that Pakistani embassies abroad are very “non-cooperative” in the matter.

The human resource development (HRD) ministry will approach countries such as Australia and Canada, the official said, adding that delegations from the ministry have already visited Turkey, Kuwait and China to broaden the employment base.

The HRD ministry has been directed to devise a policy taking all stakeholders into confidence. “The stakeholders include overseas employment agents, airlines, Foreign Office and the ministry itself,” the official said, adding that extensive deliberations would also be carried out after holding conferences on the subject.

The ministry of foreign affairs and Pakistani ambassadors always try their best to explore job opportunities and facilitate overseas employment promoters, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said, adding however, that there are times when educated individuals are offered very low paying jobs, but Pakistani embassies are busy exploring new avenues for the youth.

Federal minister for HRD Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain is taking a keen interest in the promotion of exporting manpower and in emerging international markets, HRD Joint Secretary Amna Imran Khan said while talking to The Express Tribune.

A series of meetings have been planned with various stakeholders to explore new ways and means to enhance job opportunities abroad for potential emigrants, Khan said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2011.

RAWALPINDI: The motorway police intercepted a vehicle containing weapons in the Chakri area near Rawalpindi on Thursday. 

The passengers were identified as Saifullah and Ilyas, who have been moved to a nearby police station where they are being investigated.

Both of them reportedly belonged to Kohat. The vehicle was en route to Peshawar from Lahore when it was stopped by the police.

According to the police, thousands of rounds of bullets and weapons were recovered from the vehicle.

Earlier, police in Dera Ismail Khan recovered a suicide vest during a search operation, while officials in Peshawar claimed to have foiled a bid to smuggle arms into Punjab.

At least 15 kgs of explosives were packed into the vest, which was later defused. Meanwhile, the Peshawar police claimed to have foiled a bid to smuggle of arms into Punjab. Two people have been arrested in this connection.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has convened a high-level meeting on November 17 where he is expected to approve the Third Generation (3G) telecommunications policy and give a nod to the information technology (IT) ministry to take appropriate measures to introduce the technology in the country.

An official said that once the policy is approved, the IT ministry would direct Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to invite interested parties to invest and bring 3G technology into the country.

“Deliberations have been held at the President’s House in meetings chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari,” the official said.

The government has decided in principle to move from 2G to 3G telecom technology to upgrade its status in the IT sector.

The official said that the federal cabinet’s sub-committee, headed by Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh, has forwarded recommendations to the prime minister, who heads the IT ministry, to introduce 3G technology in Pakistan.

Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain, Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar and Privatisation Minister Ghaus Bux Mehar are members of the committee.

He said recommendations say that 3G would have an effective economic impact as foreign investors would be interested in investing their money in development of IT. “Pakistan has huge opportunity in IT for foreign investors,” the official quoted the committee as saying.

It also said that 3G would provide employment opportunities for the youth qualified in the field of IT. The committee said that this move will help speed up e-governance projects which will strengthen government networking.

According to the official, “PTA has made all preparations in this connection and will invite interested parties through formal procedures as soon as possible.”

A source said that cellular companies and other stakeholders of the telecom sector have been waiting for this decision for long. The source said that cellular companies have made budgets for investing in 3G technology.

Developed countries adopted 3G technology years ago and now they have moved to 4G technology.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th,  2011.

Before his new assignment, Aftab Sultan – who is replacing Javed Noor – was serving as additional inspector-general of the Punjab police. He has also worked in the Special Branch for eight years, and was in charge of the team that had investigated the multi-billion-rupee Punjab Bank scam.

Sultan’s name was picked from a list of three senior police officials – the two others being Javed Iqbal, IG Punjab police, and Rao Amin Hashim, IG Balochistan police.

Before the creation of the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, the premier military spy agency, IB was Pakistan’s main agency, which was responsible for strategic and foreign intelligence, as well as counter-espionage and domestic affairs. Its mandate was later restricted to domestic affairs.

The appointment of the IB chief has always been closely monitored, especially by political circles, because the agency has allegedly been used in the past for the making and breaking of political alliances.

Political circles and IB officials have welcomed Sultan’s appointment.

A source at the prime minister’s office said that Sultan was also a strong contender for the office of IG Punjab police following the retirement of Tariq Saleem Dogar. But his name was later dropped.

The IB source said that, during the regime of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, IB was weakened by clipping its powers. However, following the restoration of democracy, heads of the agency were appointed on the basis of their political leanings, he added.

Sources said that some politicians from the ruling PPP and other political parties had complained about the poor performance of IB. And that is why the prime minister reviewed his decision of appointing Wajid Ali Durrani. Durrani has been posted as IG National Highways and Motorways police.

The premier also approved the appointment of Prof Dr Mudassir Asrar as chairperson of the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST). Dr Asrar hails from Balochistan and is currently working as Dean of Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Balochistan, Quetta. (With additional reporting by Irfan Ghauri)

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2011. 

RAWALPINDI: Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the self-confessed murderer of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, has been sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court today (Saturday).

Qadri, one of Taseer’s elite force guards, shot and killed the governor for his views on the blasphemy law outside a restaurant in Islamabad.

During the incamera hearing of the murder case, the anti-terrorism court (ATC) said that it was a heinous crime and there is no justification to it; however, no date has been given for the execution of the sentence. The court also fined Qadri of Rs200,000 along with the death sentence.

Justice Syed Pervez Ali Shah, an ATC judge, while taking up the case at the Adiala Jail, noted down the statement of Qadri. In this statement, Qadri admitted before the judge that nobody intimidated him to murder the former governor.

Raja Shujahur Rehman, Qadri’s lawyer, told the media outside Adiala Jail that his client had also submitted a written statement of 40 pages, referring to 11 Quranic verses, 28 quotes from Sunnah and several other eminent Muslim jurists with reference to Islamic jurisprudence.

The defence lawyer stated that the prosecution raised no objection over the statement of Qadri, therefore the court validly admitted this statement and made it a part of the court record.

Experts say that Qadri has to appeal within seven days against the verdict.

Tears of anger

Qadri’s supporters took to the streets to denounce the sentence soon after it was handed down.

“By punishing one Mumtaz Qadri, you will produce a thousand Mumtaz Qadris!” one man shouted through a megaphone outside the jail.

Several hundred supporters of Qadri blocked a road outside the jail and chanted slogans. Some recited verses from the Quran while members of the Sunni Tehreek group waved their party’s green and yellow flags.

A Qadri supporter, wiping tears from his face, said: “We don’t accept this. We don’t accept this.”

Police were deployed at the jail gate to prevent any break-in. After Qadri was sentenced, the judge left through the back door.

In Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh area, where former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007, about 1,000 angry Qadri supporters blocked a main road with burning tyres.

Shouting slogans against the government and the judge who sentenced Qadri, they forced shops to shut down.

Stick-wielding protesters attacked passing vehicles.

“This decision was made to please the Jewish lobby,” said Sahibzada Ata-ur-Rehman, a leader of the Sunni Tehreek.

Qadri, a constable in the Punjab Police and a member of its Elite Force, tried to justify his murder of the governor by stating that he had killed him for supporting Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman whom Taseer had believed had been wrongly convicted of committing blasphemy.

According to Qadri’s statement, he had approached the governor on the evening of January 4 and tried to talk to him about Taseer’s very public support for Aasia Bibi and his advocacy of reform – not repeal – of the blasphemy laws.

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ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to put Sindh’s seminaries under the microscope. The decision comes a day after terrorists blew up the Karachi residence of an key investigator who had thwarted their plans to use madrassa students in Wana.

“Sindh’s seminaries are vulnerable and the situation is turning from bad to worse with every passing day,” said  an official with the ministry of interior who did not want to be named. According to him, intelligence units and other law enforcement agencies have submitted their reports on the gravity of the matter.

The ministry has been sharing the reports with the Sindh home department from time to time, the source said, adding that the Sindh government had been trying, although unsuccessfully, to intercept their movements.

But now the federal and provincial governments are going to work together to rope in the people who run the seminaries. “Seminary managers would have to express willingness [to help].”

To begin with, the focus will be on international students.

Recently apprehended terrorists, who attacked the military in Wana, turned out to be students from madrassas in Sindh.

They were made to believe they were fighting foreign aggressors.

“We kept fighting the military the entire night but in the morning we saw that it was our countrymen [soldiers] who were in front of us, therefore we surrendered,” the official quoted the students as saying.

According to the source, interior minister Rehman Malik had said in one meeting that Pakistan has more than 18,000 seminaries and the government is making an effort to register them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd,  2011.

A source said 25 police officials from the capital police had been nominated for pilgrimage following a draw. However, top officials of the police force have blocked them from going to Saudi Arabia without giving any reason.

The source also said the religious affairs ministry had already issued letters authorising their travel and they subsequently joined the Hajj Complex for training. However, police bosses intervened and added names of their own liking to the list of nominees.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th,  2011.

ISLAMABAD: Poor supervision and monitoring is affecting the performance of capital police as police officials manning check posts have allegedly started extorting money from citizens.

“Earlier, the police used to offer various excuses for this sorry state of affairs, including low salary,” an official source told The Express Tribune.

He said several complaints have been received at the offices of senior police officers against policemen for poor attitude and malpractices such as bribery.

Different police pickets generally known ‘nakas’ are proving hot cakes for corrupt police officials, adding that muharars are also part of this dirty practice, he said.

He said that police officials blackmail citizens’, declaring them suspects at first sight, adding that people living in rural areas are badly exploited.

The source said that a recent report disclosed that a former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) had penalised more than 900 personnel of the capital police for poor performance, involvement in illegal activities and corrupt practices.

Another reason behind the practice that allows police personnel to exploit the citizens as senior officers are avoiding suspension of corrupt officials, citing staff shortage.

The source said that police officials are not only extorting money from the citizens but also exploiting them morally. He said that in recent past a police official manning a police picket teased a woman who turned out to be a police officer’s wife.

Senior Superintend of Police (SSP) Operations Malik Yousaf said that he had taken action and decided to rotate the policemen manning police pickets to avoid such incidents.

He said that this would deter muharars from deploying their favourites at certain pinots for extortion.

Yousaf said stern action would be taken against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th,  2011.

ISLAMABAD: The Parliament House is vulnerable to a security lapse as law enforcement agencies and its own security personnel are not on the same page, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Sources within the Parliament House said that three law enforcement agencies, including Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police, special branch of the police, and parliament’s own security apparatus, are responsible for securing the building.

“The agencies are operating independently and follow their own Standard Operating Procedures. They don’t take each other into confidence whenever sessions of Senate and National Assembly are in progress,” the source said. “There is no single command.”

In the absence of one command centre, security personnel from different contingents will wait for their respective commanders’ orders, causing a delay in responding to an attack.

The source said that while parliament is in session, Rangers are also deployed but they operate independently as well and take their positions on specified points.

Sources hinted at a disagreement between security personnel on the matter pertaining to manning the main entrance of the building. “No agency is ready to take the responsibly to check pedestrians entering the building,” he said. “Parliament’s security officials say that they are not trained enough to react in case of an untoward incident.”

The ICT police is also not ready to shoulder the responsibility, claiming that they are short on personnel.

According to sources, as many as 40 closed circuit cameras have been installed at the parliament building but they operate only till 4pm on account of insufficient technical staff to run the cameras. “Security officials operate the cameras for only eight hours in daylight,” he said. “But various standing committees continue to meet until evening.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th,  2011.