Pervez Musharraf to return on March 24

Source : Pakistan Today

Former president and All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) Chief General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf has unveiled his decision to return to Pakistan on March 24.

According to party sources, prominent leaders of APML, workers and world media representatives will accompany former president Pervez Musharraf on his return to Karachi from Dubai on March 24.

The APML leaders and workers have been advised to reach Dubai on March 23. Sources said that an advertising campaign will also be launched before Musharraf’s return.

Millions of Pakistanis Slam Anti-Shia Killings

Source : Ahlul Bayt News Agency

Shia Muslims in Pakistan say the recent terrorist killings are being instigated by foreign forces to foment sectarian strife among Muslims.

Pakistani Shia Muslims have staged a rally in the capital, Islamabad, to express their outrage at the growing violence against Shias in the country.

Crowds of protesters took to the streets to commemorate Martyrs’ Day to honor those who lost their lives in a recent bomb explosion in a Shia neighborhood of Pakistan’s port city of Karachi.

On March 3, over 48 people were killed and 150 others wounded in a car bomb attack carried out in Karachi. Women and children were among those killed and injured.

The demonstrators called on the government to take decisive action against the forces involved in the targeted killings. They also accused the government of failing to provide security for the country’s Shia Muslims and to maintain law and order in the country.

The demonstrators further said that the terror attacks on Shia Muslims in Pakistan are being instigated by foreign forces to foment sectarian strife among Muslims.

Human Rights Watch says more than 400 Shias were killed in Pakistan in 2012, which was the deadliest year on record for the Pakistani Shia Muslim community.

On February 16, a bomb attack targeting Shia Muslims in the main bazaar of the southwestern city of Quetta killed at least 90 people, including women and children, and injured more than 200 others.

Also on January 10, a twin bomb attack at a crowded billiard hall in Quetta, which is the capital of Balochistan Province, killed more than 90 people, mostly Shia Muslims.

Pak anti-terrorism court rejects plea calling for unfreezing Musharraf's assets

Source : Pakistan News

Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has rejected Sehba Musharraf's plea calling for unfreezing assets of her husband Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf was proclaimed an offender of the Benazir Bhutto murder case by the Anti Terrorism Court in 2011.

The former Pakistan president's bank accounts were frozen and his property taken over by the courts.

Sehba, who has filed an application against the order, said that since her husband gifted their farm house in Islamabad to her, the court illegally ordered its confiscation.

According to the Express Tribune, she also mentioned in her application, that the money in their bank accounts were reserved for the welfare of the general population, hence they cannot be frozen.

Musharraf, who has been in a self-imposed exile, faces arrest warrants for his connection to the Lal Masjid operation and the killings of Baloch leader Nawab Akber Bugti in 2006 and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

Musharraf is now the chairman of his own political party All Pakistan Muslim League (APML).

In the past, he has said that he would contest elections from Chitral. (ANI)

Musharraf announces return to Pakistan

Source : thenews.com.pk

DUBAI: Former President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf announced he will return to Pakistan within a week of the interim government being established, adding that he will land in either Karachi or Islamabad.

While addressing a press conference in Dubai, the former president said the All Pakistan Muslim League will participate in the upcoming general elections. Addressing the issue of threats to his life and the cases against him in Pakistan, Musharraf said his life was in God’s hands, adding that if he was being tried for promoting development and prosperity in Pakistan, he was ready to face the courts.

Musharraf termed his return to Pakistan as very important for Pakistani politics and said that a viable and honest third force was critically required, adding that he was not returning to settle any scores.

Speaking about the Hazara’s of Quetta, Musharraf said they were patriotic, patient and educated Pakistani’s. Musharraf further added that by remaining divided and fighting amongst each other religious extremism was destroying Pakistan from within.

The former president said he was hopeful that the people of Pakistan had realized who is right and who is wrong as the country will be facing more pressures after the 2014 NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Pakistani reporter gunned down in tribal area

Source : Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, February 27, 2013--Pakistani authorities should immediately launch an investigation into the targeted murder of a veteran journalist who was shot dead today in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Malik Mumtaz had worked for several mainstream news outlets and had recently been elected president of the regional press club, news reports said.

Early news accounts reported that unidentified men in a car with tinted windows opened fire on Mumtaz, as he drove to his home in Miran Shah, in the main city of North Waziristan. No further details on the murder were reported.

Mumtaz, a journalist for more than 20 years, had worked for Geo News television and the daily News International in both English and Urdu, news reports said. His most recent print stories included coverage of the general violence in North Waziristan and a report on the controversial issue of a local polio vaccination program. Health workers administering polio vaccines were killed in December by militants who called the program a cover for intelligence gathering activities, news reports said.

Mumtaz's colleagues said he had received threats for his reporting in the past. Journalists working in the FATA say they are often threatened by several sources-- militant groups, criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking and arms dealing, and the Pakistani military and intelligence organizations.

A spokesman for Pakistani Taliban militants in the region denied responsibility for the murder and condemned the killing, news reports said. No group has taken responsibility for the attack.

There have been no convictions of killers of journalists in Pakistan in the last 10 years. CPJ research shows that, with 19 unsolved cases, Pakistan's record of impunity has worsened considerably. The country ranks as the 10th worst on CPJ's global Impunity Index.

"The death of a veteran journalist such as Malik Mumtaz must not go uninvestigated and unexplained," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "CPJ joins with Pakistani journalists in calling for a full investigation into this murder as a first step in reversing the perfect impunity with which the deaths of journalists are treated in the country."

Anti-terrorism bill introduced in Pakistan National Assembly

Source : Pakistan News

The Pakistani government introduced a stronger anti-terrorism bill in the National Assembly on Monday with bars on reviving banned groups under new names and on court bails for offences punishable with death or more than 10 years in prison. On a day the ruling Pakistan People's Party saw one of its veteran lawmakers, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, confronting it after defecting to the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N, the house also passed a toned down version of a once-controversial bill governing a defence housing authority in Islamabad, and another to set up a centre to study the impact of global...

Pakistani Calls For Prosecuting Head of Group behind Deadly Attacks

Source : http://www.almanar.com.lb

Pakistani Shiites on Saturday demanded that Malik Ishaq, Leader of extremist militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), be put on trial, a day after he was arrested following deadly attacks in the city of Quetta.

Ishaq was held on Friday after two recent bombings in the southwestern city that left 180 people killed and hundreds injured, sparking nationwide protests.

The outlawed militant group, linked to both Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

"We have always been demanding arrest of all those involved in any act of sectarian violence, irrespective of their party affiliation," AFP quoted Abdul Khaliq Hazara, Leader of the Hazara Democratic Party.

"Ishaq must be brought to justice and punished for involvement in violence," he added.

Ishaq, who has been arrested before, was released by a court on bail in July 2011, even though he has been implicated in dozens of murders.

Pak activist Asma Jahangir has 'no desire' to become caretaker PM

Source : Pakistan News

Pakistani rights activist and former president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Asma Jahangir has said she had no desire to become the caretaker prime minister.

Jahangir said certain people come into power in the name of the people and then refuse to party with it.

According to the Dawn, the activist also expressed apprehensions that certain forces were trying to create chaos in the country, but added that elections would happen on time.

Jahangir also said the country's current situation was a result of the actions taken by regimes of the past.

According to the paper, she further said it would be better if retired judges did not join the caretaker set-up.

Earlier in January, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan had said his party would oppose the nomination of Jahangir for caretaker prime minister. (ANI)

Demo Held against Drone Attacks outside Pakistan's Embassy in US

Source : Fars News Agency

TEHRAN (FNA)- A demonstration against drone attacks was held outside Pakistan's embassy in Washington.

According to media reports, Activists from CODEPINK, a Peace and Justice organization, and students of George Mason University staged a demonstration against drone attacks in front of Pakistan embassy in Washington, Pakistan Today reported.

Dozens of Pakistanis and US citizens participated in the protest.

The demonstrators also held meeting with Pakistan's Ambassador to US Sherry Rehman and demanded that the government of Pakistan should raise the drone attacks issue with US.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Sherry Rehman said that drone attacks are actually growing militancy in the region.