Opinion Printline Pakistan

Full blast

Last week saw triple bomb blasts in a Shia congregation in Lahore. Then,on September 7,newspapers reported a string of bomb blasts on a single day. A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police station in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,killing 19 people. Then,two low-intensity bombs exploded on a Lahore roadside at midnight: the first near the DSP’s residence,and the second near the office of the Bomb Disposal Squad. Meanwhile,the Taliban bombed a girls’ high school in Peshawar. On September 8,papers reported another blast in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat,which claimed at least 20 lives and injured over 90 inside a police colony. Another girls’ school was blown up near Mingora. A Pakistani Taliban spokesman threatened more such action against security forces in response to American drone attacks. On September 9,Balochistan Finance Minister Mir Asim Kurd had a narrow escape when a suicide bomber detonated himself inside his residence in Quetta,killing five people and injuring four others.

Marching orders

Dawn reported on September 8: “Interior minister Rehman Malik has said the government is planning a Swat and Malakand-like crackdown in Balochistan to crush elements involved in target killings and bomb blasts… ‘Enough is enough…they (terrorists) do not understand the language of love.’ ” A day later,a spokesman of the PPP-led Balochistan government which comprises a large number of political parties — with arch-rivals,even,in the same cabinet — disowned Malik’s statement,according to Daily Times. “ ‘The views expressed… were Rehman Malik’s personal (views) and the Balochistan government has nothing to do with those…’ ”

Reservations on nominations

Daily Times reported on September 7: “The Supreme Court termed the election of women and minorities on reserved seats under the proportional representation system flawed,and observed that it could not be declared as true representation of the people. The 17-member full court headed by chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing identical petitions against certain clauses of the 18th Amendment with reference to the formation of a judicial commission for the appointment of judges to the superior court. During the hearing,the judges pointed out that under the proportional representation system,the reserved seats were distributed at specific homes and the poor and working women were kept away. Dawn added: “A Supreme Court full-bench hearing 21 petitions challenging the 18th Amendment described the process of nominating persons to seats reserved for women in legislatures as ‘selection,and not election’,made on personal likes and dislikes of heads of parties.” The advocate argued that the procedure violated the constitution’s Article 226,which calls for election through secret ballot. The petitioner,Ijaz-ul-Haq is the son of Gen Zia-ul Haq,who had nominated a Majlis-i-Shura of his choice as a political foundation to his military dictatorship.