Peace committee meeting postponed
PPC chairman excuses himself from heading the body citing legal issues
Analysts predict the current government's days may be numbered.
GILGIT:
A crucial meeting of the Parliamentary peace committee (PPC) could not take place on Tuesday as the committee’s chairman did not attend the meeting for a third straight day.
The PPC, which had been meeting in Gilgit for the past three days, was due to finalise its recommendations about whether or not to lift the ban on holding religious events in educational institutions and release some Shia activists who had been arrested after they had held a religious event in a local school.
“This was unfortunate I must say,” said Rizwan Ali, who is also a member of PPC, while referring to the postponement of the meeting.
“I was in favour of going [ahead] without the chairman but others (members of the committee) did not agree,” Ali, who is also a member of the G-B assembly, told The Express Tribune.
In an interesting twist of events, Fida Nashad, the chairman of the committee, had reportedly excused himself from chairing the PPC after citing legal problems.
“I am the speaker (of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly) and my job is to run the assembly,” a regional newspaper quoted Nashad as saying. “The chief minister should chair the meeting.”
The week-long protest had been staged by members of the Shia community over the arrest of around two dozen activists for staging a religious event at a school in Danyor.
Following their arrests, some religio-political activists along with members of Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) staged protests outside the degree colleges in Gilgit and Danyor, briefly blocking the KKH. While police initially dispersed these protesters, they returned later after some more members of both the Shia and Sunni sects were arrested. For the past week, activists have been staging a sit-in on the KKH near the degree college in Danyor to demand the release of their fellow activists, though traffic has been flowing through an alternative route.
Following the protests, the situation in Gilgit has remained tense.
In another development, leading Sunni cleric Qazi Nisar led a public rally in the Baseen area condemning protests by religio-political activists on the Karakoram Highway near Danyor, terming it against the multibillion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“Those who have obstructed CPEC aren’t doing that in the interest of the region and the country,” Nisar said while addressing the rally. “The government must deal with such elements,” he said, indirectly referring to the protestors who have staged a sit in at Danyor since last Monday.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2016.
A crucial meeting of the Parliamentary peace committee (PPC) could not take place on Tuesday as the committee’s chairman did not attend the meeting for a third straight day.
The PPC, which had been meeting in Gilgit for the past three days, was due to finalise its recommendations about whether or not to lift the ban on holding religious events in educational institutions and release some Shia activists who had been arrested after they had held a religious event in a local school.
“This was unfortunate I must say,” said Rizwan Ali, who is also a member of PPC, while referring to the postponement of the meeting.
“I was in favour of going [ahead] without the chairman but others (members of the committee) did not agree,” Ali, who is also a member of the G-B assembly, told The Express Tribune.
In an interesting twist of events, Fida Nashad, the chairman of the committee, had reportedly excused himself from chairing the PPC after citing legal problems.
“I am the speaker (of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly) and my job is to run the assembly,” a regional newspaper quoted Nashad as saying. “The chief minister should chair the meeting.”
The week-long protest had been staged by members of the Shia community over the arrest of around two dozen activists for staging a religious event at a school in Danyor.
Following their arrests, some religio-political activists along with members of Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) staged protests outside the degree colleges in Gilgit and Danyor, briefly blocking the KKH. While police initially dispersed these protesters, they returned later after some more members of both the Shia and Sunni sects were arrested. For the past week, activists have been staging a sit-in on the KKH near the degree college in Danyor to demand the release of their fellow activists, though traffic has been flowing through an alternative route.
Following the protests, the situation in Gilgit has remained tense.
In another development, leading Sunni cleric Qazi Nisar led a public rally in the Baseen area condemning protests by religio-political activists on the Karakoram Highway near Danyor, terming it against the multibillion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“Those who have obstructed CPEC aren’t doing that in the interest of the region and the country,” Nisar said while addressing the rally. “The government must deal with such elements,” he said, indirectly referring to the protestors who have staged a sit in at Danyor since last Monday.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2016.