Posts Tagged ‘Wana’

Senate strife: Amidst discord, PML-N announces candidates

[[IMAGE: Parties poised to prevent unopposed elections.]]

According to an official announcement, the PML-N has awarded seven tickets. Senator Ishaq Dar was picked up for the technocrat seat, Begum Nuzhat Sadiq for reserved seats for women, Kamran Michael for the minorities’ seat, while Sardar Zaulfiqar Khosa, M Hamza, Rafiq Rajwana and Zafarullah Dhandhla have been selected to compete for general seats.

In addition, PML-N’s senior leader Ghulam Dastgeer Khan and former bureaucrat Saeed Mehdi have reportedly been asked to prepare as covering candidates.

Elections will take place for 54 seats – 50 vacated by retiring senators and four new seats for minorities. Provincial assemblies will be electing 12 senators each, Fata MNAs four, while the rest of the National Assembly will elect two for the federal capital quota.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had earlier released the election schedule, according to which candidates can file their nomination papers by February 14.

Provincial assemblies constitute the electoral college for the upper house of Parliament and polls under the current scenario are likely to give the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) a majority in the Senate for the first time in the country’s history. There are indications that the PPP may have more than 40 members in the upper house, giving them an unprecedented edge.

Meanwhile, sources say differences amongst political parties are poised to reach a boiling point with nearly everyone endorsing the view to prevent the unopposed election of senators. There is also a chance of participation by independent candidates.

Three political parties have struck a deal over the distribution of Senate seats, but members are on the lookout for options as well. The PML-N will get seven seats, PPP four, while PML-Q will get only one seat in Punjab.

Expressing his concern over the choice of candidates, a senior PML-N legislator told The Express Tribune that, “Except for Khosa and Michael, the rest are virtually unknown and their names are being heard for the first time.”

PML-N MPA Advocate Chaudhry Javed said that though his party had directed its members not to propose candidates for the Senate elections, it was their right to ask who was representing them. Javed asserted that candidates should be selected through a consensus and said he would express his apprehensions to all MPAs on Monday.

PML-Q’s parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly, Chaudhry Zahiruddin Khan, said that from his 30-year experience in politics, he had learnt that members often show dissatisfaction over nominations, but accede to the party’s stance at the end.

On the other hand, PML-Q’s MPA Sardar Mohsin Khan Leghari obtained nomination papers despite his party’s disapproval and is now being approached by disgruntled members of all political parties.

Sources say Pakistan Muslim League-Junejo (PML-J) leader Hamid Nasir Chathha has proposed his name while a dozen candidates have been given him assurance to support him.

Chathha, who is a senior politician and a former speaker of the National Assembly, said he would support whosoever contested the elections to upset the formula agreed upon by major political parties in Punjab.

(with additional reporting by Qamar Zaman in Islamabad)

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

Senate elections: PML-N announces candidates

The PML-N has announced the names of its candidates for the upcoming senate elections. Zulfiqar Khosa, Rafiq Rajwana, M. Hamza and Zafarullah Dhandla will be the candidates for the general seats. Ishaq Dar will contest the technocrat seat while Kamran Michael will be the candidate for the minority seat. Nasba Aamir Sadiq will be candidate for the women’s seat.

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MNA Saima Akhtar joins PML-N

shorkot
Independent member of the National Assembly from NA-90 Shorkot Saima Akhtar Bharwana has announced to join PML-N. She took the decision after meeting with CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore.  During the meeting MPA from Jhang, Mehr Sultan Sikandar Bharwana and former Adviser to the Chief Minister Mehr Muhammad Aslam Bharwana were also present.
Saima Akhtar Bharwana is daughter of …

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Pervaiz offers green pasture to all loyalists

LAHORE – Senior PML-Q leader Pervaiz Elahi during a meeting with party leaders from Jhang said that those  members who remained loyal to the party “through thick and thin” would be given their due place in the party.
He expressed these views while talking to party members belonging to Jhang, Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan, Sahibzada Nazir Sultan and Ghulam Bibi Bharwana at his …

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A vicious cycle

Rizwana Naqvi explains how deeply poverty affects the lives of the disadvantaged communities “We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the right to development [...]

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Via DAWN.com

Building highway to fight militancy

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WANA (Reuters) – Deep in country’s unruly tribal areas, army engineers protected by soldiers on mountaintops spend hours every morning combing the earth for Taliban bombs before embarking on a special mission.
After determining there is no danger, they use machinery to cut through rugged terrain to build a highway…

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US missile strike kills three in South Waziristan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistani intelligence officials say an American missile strike has killed at least three people in a militant stronghold near the Afghan border. The two officials say a pair of missiles struck a house near the town of Wana in South Waziristan on Tuesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were [...]

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Via DAWN.com

UAE’s YouTube sensation killed in car crash

#container{background:#666666;} DUBAI: Emirati footballer Theyab Awana, who became an internet sensation this summer after scoring a back-heeled penalty, has been killed in a car crash, the country’s football federation confirmed on Monday. Awana died after being involved in an accident when travelling back from training in Al Ain to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, where he [...]

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Via DAWN.com

Cadet college for Wana okayed

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ISLAMABAD – President Asif Ali Zardari Tuesday signed the regulation for establishment of Wana Cadet College in South Waziristan Agency, FATA. Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that the Prime Minister during his address at the Governor House Peshawar on August 27, 2008 had announced the establishment of six…

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US drone strike kills five in SWA

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PESHAWAR – A US drone strike targeting a vehicle in South Waziristan border killed at least five militants on Monday, local security officials said.
Two missiles fired by the drone hit the vehicle in Azam Warsak, 15 kilometres west of Wana, the main town of the South Waziristan region, where…

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Highway Patrol claims arrest of 2 killers of 4

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LAHORE – The Punjab Highway Patrol claimed to have arrested two killers of four persons here on Thursday.
PHP team Jewana Bangla received a message from PHP helpline 1124 that an accident took place near Adda Sabirabad. The PHP team rushed to the spot and found a car (755/LEE)…

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Pakistan Taliban make bonfire of ‘un-Islamic’ cloth

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A Taliban group in Pakistan on Tuesday burned a huge quantity of cloth taken from shopkeepers, saying it was too thin to be made into suitably modest garments, officials said. The Islamist extremists stormed shops in Wana, the main town of the lawless South Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, and made a [...]

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Via DAWN.com

US delayed information about IED factories to embarrass Pakistan: Gen Rizwan

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The General Officer Commanding (GOC) in South Waziristan, Major General Rizwan Akhter on Thursday blamed the US for attempting to embarrass Pakistan by delaying information about explosives factories located in the agency.
Talking to media persons here in Wana, Rizwan Akhter said that a third force was creating hurdles in…

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US drones strikes kill 21 in South Waziristan

WANA: Missile strikes from two US drones killed at least 21 suspected militants in Pakistan’s South Waziristan on Monday, Pakistani officials said, part of an intensified US assault in the tribal belt this month. In the first strike, a missile hit a moving vehicle in Ghalmandi Panga village on the Afghan border, killing eight militants. [...]

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Via DAWN.com

Tribesmen stand by Pakistan army: Kayani

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Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has hailed role of people of Pakistan’s tribal areas for the country in testing times, saying that the courageous tribesmen would standby the armed forces.
Addressing a groundbreaking ceremony of Wana-Angoor Ada road in South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, the army chief said…

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9 killed in SWaziristan drone attacks

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Three insurgents were killed when US drones fired missiles in South Waziristan Agency on Wednesday. A resident said two missiles were fired on a house. “There was a huge blast and we can see smoke rising from the compound,” a witness in Wana said. Two missiles targeted a vehicle used…

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From Lahore to Wana

Religious extremism did not grow in Wana. Rather its origins can be traced to Punjab. The dagger which drew the first blood in the name of faith was used in Lahore and not in Miranshah. The wind of fanaticism had already swept through the land of five rivers before it shook the mighty Hindukush. There [...]

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Via DAWN.com