Opinion UN report
A register of reports and views from the Pakistan press....
The much-delayed UN report of Benazir Bhuttos assassination was finally made public on April 15. The findings blamed the then regime as responsible for the tragedy,as reported by the Pakistani papers.
Dawn reported on April 16: A three-member UN commission investigating the events and circumstances surrounding Benazir Bhuttos assassination has blamed the government of former president Pervez Musharraf for the murder,saying it failed to provide adequate security cover to the former PM. Although no functionary of the former government has been accused of complicity in the murder… It said the present government was free to carry out further investigations and bring those responsible for the crime as well as negligence to justice… The newsreport also stated: the probe was hampered by Pakistani intelligence; police failure to probe the assassination was deliberate ; theres a need for criminal investigation to look into the role of al Qaeda,Taliban,and what is known in Pakistan as the establishment. The News had reported on April 15: Punjab police had already told the UN Commission that the murderers had been traced,arrested and are being tried… According to CID,four of the 12 militants tasked to kill Benazir belonged to Madrassa Haqqania near Peshawar…
Whats in a name?
The controversy over the renaming of NWFP as Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa spilled over to the streets of the Hazara valley in the province. The News reported on April 13: Seven people were killed and over 100 sustained injuries when police used force to break up a protest against the renaming… The peaceful headquarters of Hazara division turned into a battlefield when the police used batons and fired teargas shells to disperse protesters who fought back with sticks and stones in the streets. Daily Times added: Hundreds of people chanted slogans against the government,demanding a separate province… A state of emergency was declared in all hospitals in Abbottabad… Following the clashes and subsequent deaths,the protests spread to Mansehra,Haripur and Havelian.
An editorial in Daily Times gave a different reason for the uproar: The Hazara protests… are part of a wider pattern of growing public impatience on sundry other issues,load-shedding being the foremost. What could be discussed amiably has been allowed to spiral out of control,with the residents of Hazara going so far as to demand a separate province. They fear their identity being subsumed into the Pakhtun identity…
The Hazara Valley being PMLNs pocket-borough,party chief Nawaz Sharif echoed the demands of the protestors,as reported in Daily Times on April 15: No one can alter the opinion of the masses. If the people of Hazara are in favour of a separate province,we have no objection to it.
Nuclear handshake
At the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC,Pakistan reiterated its longstanding demand for a civil nuclear deal with the US. Dawn quoted from PM Yousaf Raza Gilanis statement on April 13: We urge all relevant forums to give Pakistan access to nuclear technology for peaceful uses,in a non-discriminatory manner,to meet its growing demand for energy. Employing caution,he stressed: there are elements within the country,who could use the power crisis for undermining the current political system.
Dawn also reported on April 14: Two brief encounters and apparently warm handshakes between the Indian and Pakistani PMs seemed to have had a greater impact on the media than the talks between 47 world leaders… The first gesture came on Monday at President Obamas dinner when PM Gilani strode up to Dr Singh and the two greeted each other warmly.
Baisakhi revelers
In their 481st year,Baisakhi celebrations in Gurdwara Panja Saheb are in full swing. Daily Times reported on April 14: Around 7,000 Sikh yatrees from across the world gathered at Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hassan Abdal to celebrate Baisakhi… Strict security arrangements have been made by the government to prevent any untoward incident from happening during the festival.
Jaswant and Jinnah
Launching his book Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence in Karachi,Jaswant Singh fired a salvo at the US. Dawn reported on April 14: He said he had a serious problem with the Af-Pak neologism. Who came up with it? he asked… Addressing the US,he said you live 8,500 km away. We live eight-and-a-half minutes away from each other. Afghanistan,Pakistan and India need to solve their own problems. In Islamabad,he suggested pulling down the Berlin Wall which had been in place on the Pakistan-India border since the 1965 war, as reported by Daily Times on April 15.
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