Posts Tagged ‘Hala’

High-profile kidnapping: IHC grants bail to two accused

Advocate Sher Afzal Khan, on behalf of both the accused, told the judge that his clients were in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence at the time of kidnapping which had incriminated them in the case relying on the confessional statement of another accused.

He contended that the motive behind implicating them in the case was their association with religious seminaries. He said his clients are religious scholars, having no past criminal history and their only crime was that they had friendly relations with Maulana Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid.

The counsel argued that his clients were neither charged in the FIR of kidnapping nor any identification parade was held. The judge, after hearing the arguments, granted bail to Qari Imam and Qari Arshad.

The case of kidnapping of Usman Elahi, nephew of Asma Jahangir, was registered with the Sihala police station of Islamabad on December 3, 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2012.

Saudi diplomat shot dead in Bangladesh

DHAKA  – A Saudi Arabian diplomat was shot in the chest and died in the Bangladesh capital in the early hours of Tuesday, the deputy commissioner of Dhaka police said.
Police found Khalaf Al Ali’s body at an intersection just two buildings away from his residence in the city’s upmarket Gulshan district and rushed him to a hospital where he died three hours later, Lutful Kabir …

..
..

.. .. .. .. ..

Saudi diplomat shot dead in Bangladesh

A diplomat from Saudi Arabia was shot in the chest and died in the Dhaka in the early hours of Tuesday, the deputy commissioner of Dhaka police told AFP. Police found Khalaf Al Ali’s body at an intersection just two buildings away from his residence in the city’s upmarket Gulshan district and rushed him to a hospital where he died three hours later, Lutful Kabir said. “He was hit by a bullet in …

..
..

.. .. .. .. ..

At Gitmo: From torture to rehabilitation?

When journalists were given a carefully-orchestrated tour of certain selected areas of the infamous Guantanamo Bay, things appeared to be much different from the reputation that precedes this detention facility, which is home to 171 detainees.

In a cell block at Camp VI – dubbed communal style living – three detainees at Guantanamo Bay seemed engrossed in their Pashto-English lessons.

In another section of the same camp, media personnel are escorted by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) to see the new ‘Super Recreational Field’ — a 28,000 square foot outdoor field, being built at a cost of $744,000, to provide detainees with a purpose-built outdoor facility where they will play soccer, the most popular sport amongst the detainees.

Work on the field is expected to be completed in the next few months, and it will have electronic doors so that detainees do not have to be escorted there by guards.

Briefing the media, a JTF official who did not wish to be named said that the new recreational field will be connected to the cell blocks and will also have a shaded area, latrines and a water fountain. Detainees will also have access to the existing two recreational areas, where authorities recently installed exercise machines on the request of the detainees.

The tour is pre-planned and a carefully-orchestrated one — in Camp VI, one can look through the one-way glass and catch a glimpse of the detainees as they go about their daily life, which includes, as the media is told, language and art lessons.

Nearly 85% of the detainees live at Camp VI and are allowed to spend time together in groups, it is revealed. They have access to 20 hours of recreational time outside in the open without a roof, but the areas is surrounded by barbed wire, covered by cloth on all four sides and is under surveillance by CCTV cameras and guards on watch towers.

A recent report in The New York Times said that some detainees in Camp VII – which houses the high-value detainees and is off-limits to the media – had complained about a lack of newspapers and said that their food was not halal-compliant. A commander at Camp VI replied that the food served at the base was halal-compliant and was cooked in Middle Eastern style. They also give detainees candy bars and ice-cream every Friday.

However, Guantanamo Public Affairs Director Commander Tamsen Reese told The Express Tribune that 12 detainees were currently on a hunger strike.

While there were no reports of detainees protesting or going on strike, authorities confirmed that in January, detainees at Camp VI held a protest to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the facility and refused to come inside from the recreational field, many holding posters.

The tour then ventures into Camp V, a 100-bed facility that was opened in May 2004, where there is a model cell – one that displays books and clothing that are provided to the detainees living there. This camp houses those detainees that have broken the rules and are serving detention time.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2012.

Successful fight: No polio case identified in Swat in two years

While talking at the Swat press club, NRDF along with religious scholars, said that it was wrongly propagated that polio inoculation is anti-Islamic, due to which many parents in rural areas refused to let polio drops administered to their children.

Dr Anwar Jamal appreciated the efforts of NRDF to eliminate polio virus from the area and said that no polio case had been identified in the previous two years.

He said that NRDF will initiate a three-day polio eradication campaign starting from March 13 in areas where polio campaigns could not be carried out due to harsh weather. Arrangements have already been made for 10 such Union Councils of Swat, where 134 teams will administer the vaccination to the 54,000 remaining children.

The religious scholars of the region were given credit for helping accomplish this milestone and for playing an active role in promoting the polio eradication campaign.

“The negative propaganda from some forces ruined the anti-polio campaign in Swat which formed a group of parents refusing polio inoculation to their children. Fortunately, Ulema in Pakistan unanimously agreed that polio drops are legal and issued a fatwa in favour of it that not only claims it is Halal but also very important,” a renowned religious scholar of Khwaza Khela, Maulana Samiul Haq, said.

He appealed to all the parents to have their children vaccinated for polio and asked people from all walks of life to take part in the awareness campaign and promote complete eradication of the polio virus.

During the mayhem from 2007 to 2009, Swat Valley was a high risk area for polio virus and the total cases had exceeded 20, according to Dr Badar Munir who is working with the United Nations Children’s Fund for eradication of polio.

Maulana Noor Badshah, a member of Itihadul Madaris said that in order to produce a healthy young generation of Pakistanis, children must be immunised against polio.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2012.

Renovations: Work on Civil District and Session Courts East to begin from next week

The official said that offices of the commissioner, senior superintendent of police (SSP) and the excise and taxation department which were previously set up in the building have been shifted to the new ICT complex in G-11.

He added that the timeline of the renovation work, which is expected to cost around Rs8.7 million, was decided in an earlier meeting with Chief Commissioner Islamabad Tariq Mahmood Pirzada. Another 51 uplift projects in the rural and urban areas of the city have also been approved.

Civil and Session Courts East will have 14 judges and ancillary staff including readers and record keepers at its disposal and will deal with cases pertaining to 12 union councils, which include Rawat, Sihala, Koral, Tarlai, Bhara Kahu, Kirpa, Chirah, Sohan, Kurri, Tumair and Phulgran.

Islamabad District Court President Syed Javed Akbar said the ICT administration’s decision to renovate the old ICT office and use it as a branch of the civil and sessions courts will ease space constrains that the judges, lawyers and even the litigants were facing. He also hailed the ICT administration’s decision to divide the Civil Districts and Sessions Courts into two divisions, the East and the West.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Amir Ali Ahmed confirmed the development and said that as per the timeline, the Civil District and Session Courts East will be functional after a month’s time.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2012.

Legal loopholes: Quackery at your doorstep

[[IMAGE: Flawed laws, corrupt inspectors and out of way locations helping illegal practices flourish. DESIGN: FAIZAN DAWOOD
]]

“Sometimes he disappears for months. He was arrested by the police at least twice this year alone, once for giving wrong medication and then for alleged sexual harassment of a woman colleague,” said, Muhammad Sharafat, a local resident.

Welcome to Ali Clinic in Pind Sangrial, about 25 kilometres northwest of the federal capital on the foothills of the Margalla Hills and meet ‘Doctor’ Nadeem, the resident quack.

He is one of 68 fake doctors listed in a recent survey conducted by a secret agency in Islamabad. A copy of the report was obtained by The Express Tribune.

Some quacks, mostly in the outskirts of the city, have been practicing unchecked for more than ten years, said the report.

It was only after ‘Dr’ Nadeem’s trouble with the local police that he witnessed a decline in patients. “Some of his patients lost trust in him. Before this incident, his clinic was always full,” said Sharafat, who has been closely observing the fake doctor’s activities.

Sharafat and his co-workers believed that the fake doctor carefully selected their village for his ‘business’ as the area lacked proper medical facilities and people had to travel to city for ordinary illnesses.

Nadeem and others like him started with meagre fees and gradually increased it as their clientele rose. “Now he charges from Rs250 to Rs500 for administering an injection,” said Sharafat.

These fake doctors cater to the medical needs of people from nearby villages including Shah Allah Ditta, a large settlement. They select areas in the outskirts as they are unlikely to be detected there.

Nadeem competes with ‘Dr’ Shaukat Ali Bajwa, another quack in the neighbourhood who has been practicing for over 22 years, according to the report.

They do occasionally land in hot water from time to time for giving wrong medicines to patients, who later approach the police, but the dangerous doctors always get off the hook and their business continue a usual unhindered. “It is not hard for somebody earning over Rs10,000 a day to pay a Rs2,000 bribe every time they are raided by health teams,” said a District Health Department official who did not want to be named.

He said that health teams rarely raid these doctors, partly because they are bribed and partly they take refuge behind the absence of proper legislation that empowers them to take serious action against such people.

“Drugs inspectors act in accordance with the Drugs Act, 1976 which does not give them much authority to act against many acts of quackery. There are many loopholes which allow the quacks leeway to operate freely,” said the official.

Officials from Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the regulatory body for doctors, also took refuge behind the lack of legislation when asked why they had not taken action against those selling dangerous medicines to innocent people.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Anti-Quackery Committee (PMDC) Chairman Dr Ali Farhan admitted that they had no way to take effective action against quacks due to a lack of proper legislation.

“We have been arresting many quacks but they always get away because of loopholes in legislation,” said Farhan. He said that PMDC has launched a countrywide campaign against them. “We are working hard to draft a bill which would be sent to the National Assembly,” he added.

However, the district health department had other excuses. “The Islamabad administration was busy with the polio eradication campaign, after which, we would look into this matter,” said Islamabad District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Azhar.

He said his department has prepared a list of quacks and would initiate action against them very ‘soon’.

The report of the intelligence agency listed 68 quacks in Islamabad and 145 in Rawalpindi, with most of them operating for years. In Islamabad, these quacks were practicing in Shah Allah Ditta, Golra, Bhara Kahu, Tarnol, Meherabadi in sector G-12, Mera Jaffer and Mera Aku villages, New Shakrial, New Iqbal Town, Sohan, Khanna Pul, Lehtrar Road, Sihala, Loi Bher, Humak, Chatta Bakhtawar, Pind Begowal and Tarlai.

Some of the quacks included Sana Family Clinic, run by Sanullah, who is an operation theatre technician at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) by day, but a doctor at his clinic in the evening. Nagina Clinic in Sohan, is run by Attaur Rehman.

Abdullah Clinic in Sohan Bazaar is run by Dr Iqbal, a health ministry employee. However, he is rarely present at the clinic, where an unqualified person treats patients, said the report.

Kamran Hospital in the Khanna Pul area has a signboard showing the qualifications of “Dr Colonel Habibullah PMDC/182-N” while a technician is practicing as doctor there, said the report.

Hamza Clinic in Chungi Pind Begwal where one Gulshan was running the clinic and locals said she was a fake doctor.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2012.

China weighs ‘right side of history’ in Gulf

M K BHADRAKUMAR
Rebuff the United States’ entreaties regarding sanctions against Iran, then nonchalantly cross the Sunni-Shi’ite divide in the Persian Gulf while sidestepping the Arab Spring altogether and vaguely greeting Islamism, and all this as solo acts – Chinese diplomacy is on a roll in the Middle East.
Premier Wen Jiabao’s current six-day visit to Saudi Arabia, the …

..
..

.. .. .. .. ..

Only one out of 83 destroyed schools rebuilt in Mohmand

GHALANAI, Dec 5: Despite tall claims of authorities about improvement in law and order situation in Mohmand Agency, only a single school out of the total 83 educational institutions, destroyed during the last three years

,,
,,

,, ,, ,, ,, ,,

Via DAWN.com

MQM wants positive change: Altaf

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Chief Altaf Hussain has said that he and his party want peace, justice and democracy in the country. He was speaking from London by telephone from London to a gathering of the volunteers of Khidmat-e-Khalaq Foundation (KKF), a welfare wing of his party, here on Wednesday. He said his mission [...]

,,
,,

,, ,, ,, ,, ,,

Via DAWN.com

FC personnel killed in Ghalanai laid to rest in Tank

..
..

The Frontier Corps (FC) personnel who was martyred by insurgents in Ghalanai area of Mohmand Agency was laid to rest in ancestral graveyard situated in Karihaider village adjacent to the city on Thursday.
Sources said that Abdul Manan s/o Abdullah was kidnapped by insurgents in Ghalanai some five days ago…

Visit: http://n

.. .. .. .. ..

Recipe for divorce: The wealth-driven marriage

He has no qualms about an arranged marriage. But, since he wants to be sure that she is the one that he wants to spend the rest of his life with (without a shred of doubt), he doesn’t accept the decision with the nonchalant attitude of “let’s see if it works out or not.” Being [...]

,,
,,

,, ,, ,, ,, ,,

Via DAWN.com

Two ministers booked for murder attempt

..
..

QUETTA – An FIR was registered against Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Mir Israrullah Zehri and Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zafarullah Zehri for alleged murder attempt on Chief of Jhalawan and provincial Minister for S&GAD Sardar Sanaullah Zehri.
Sardar Sanaullah Zehri who is also Pakistan Muslim League-N Balochistan’s convener…

Visit: http://n

.. .. .. .. ..

NICL scam: court reserves verdict till October 21

..
..

Lahore district and session Court Saturday reserved verdict on acquittal plea by Moonis Elahi the main accused of NICL case.
The court will announce its verdict on October 21, media reports said.
PLM-Q member of Punjab assembly Moonis Elahi was accused of receiving Rs320 million in the NICL scam through…

Visit: http://n

.. .. .. .. ..

Schools reopen today in Mohmand after 3 years

GHALANAI, Oct 5: All government schools in Khewazai and Biazai areas of Mohmand Agency will reopen on Thursday after three years, marked by violence and military operations. A notification, issued by Agency Education Officer Said Mohammd Khan on Wednesday, directed all teachers concerned to reach their respective schools in the areas and perform duty. All [...]

,,
,,

,, ,, ,, ,, ,,

Via DAWN.com

Dengue death toll rises to seven as boy, woman die

KARACHI, Oct 3: Health authorities on Monday confirmed two new deaths in dengue-afflicted people — a thalassaemic teenage boy and a young woman — in the Civil Hospital Karachi, taking this year’s dengue-related death toll to seven in Karachi. The city, which is reporting the maximum number of positive cases among the 15 dengue-affected districts [...]

,,
,,

,, ,, ,, ,, ,,

Via DAWN.com

BNP-M leader killed

KHUZDAR: Unidentified armed assailants gunned down the central leader of Balochistan National Party (Mengal) and President Jhalawan Lawyers Forum, Abudl Salam Baloch Advocate here on Wednesday evening. Local Levies sources said the deceased was on his way home from office along with his daughter when unidentified assailants sprayed his vehicle with a volley bullets. He [...]

,,
,,

,, ,, ,, ,, ,,

Via DAWN.com