DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Sectarian Violence From Kohistan To Karachi

DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Sectarian Violence From Kohistan In Karachi

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 29, 2012:  Pakistani Shiite Muslims chant slogans during a protest against the killing of their community members in Karachi on February 28, 2012. Sectarian gunmen disguised in military fatigues hauled 18 Shiite Muslim men off buses on February 28 and shot them dead in cold blood in a usually quiet region of northern Pakistan. 

Authorities blamed the assault on Islamist militant groups, without naming a specific organisation. The attack took place in the northern district of Kohistan, which neighbours the Swat valley, a former Taliban stronghold.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/02/dtn-news-pakistan-news-sectarian.html

DTN News - PAKISTAN TODAY: Analysis ~ On Trial - Yousuf Raza Gilani

DTN News - PAKISTAN TODAY: Analysis ~ On Trial - Yousuf Raza Gilani

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 17, 2012: Yousuf Raza Gilani is creating history of sorts: With just one month to go before he completes his fourth year in office, he is already the longest serving prime minister of Pakistan. With a mix of luck, guile, compromise, concessions and even confrontation, he would expect to pull off another historical feat — of surviving his full constitutional term in office.

His chances of success appear to be slim. When the opposition took the memo issue to the Supreme Court late last year and the army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha supported a judicial probe into the affair, everyone thought time was up for Gilani and his government as well as President Asif Ali Zardari. When Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry appointed a high-powered judicial commission to probe the memo case, and followed it up with a string of contempt of court notices to senior government functionaries, including Gilani, the end was deemed nigh.

Many thought that the prime minister and other members of his ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were making a bad situation worse by indulging in a war of words with the military. From his December 2011 speech in the National Assembly, warning that he will not allow a state within a state to exist, to his statement to the Chinese media that Kayani and Pasha acted illegally and unconstitutionally by contradicting the government version of the memo in front of the Supreme Court, Gilani was either bluffing or calling the other side’s bluff. In any case, he was certainly living dangerously.

It all now appears to have receded behind closed doors. Gilani has retracted his belligerent statements against the military and intelligence chiefs, of course, after claiming the not-so-prized scalp of the defence secretary as a face-saving measure. The memo probe appears destined for the long haul and contempt and corruption cases are subject to procedural adjournments and legal hair-splitting among the lawyers and the judges. From being on the brink only days ago, Gilani looks like he is back in charge — for the time being at least.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/02/dtn-news-pakistan-today-analysis-on.html

DTN News - PAKISTAN IN TURMOIL: Is Pakistan facing a military coup?

DTN News - PAKISTAN IN TURMOIL: Is Pakistan facing a military coup?

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 13, 2012: Pakistan is facing an unprecedented crisis.

Following the government's sacking of the defence chief, we ask if the country is on the brink of a military takeover.

Throughout the country's 64-year history, there have always been tensions between civilian governments and the military.

But this time, there is a bitter feud between the government of Asif Ali Zardari, and the generals.

And it is being fought very publicly in the media.

All this in a country with an economy in tailspin; a country at the centre of the West's fight against the Taliban; and of course a country equipped with a nuclear arsenal.

"The army has never been interested in taking over ... they know the environment for the next martial law is simply not there. The army wants the facts and reality of the Memogate scandal to come to light in one way or the other." - Hamid Nawaz, retired general/military analyst

"The Pakistani military is not the political player it used to be. It knows it's not in a position to capture political power in Islamabad ... not with the supreme court being the biggest impediment." - Moeed Pirzada, political analyst

In the latest twist - making things even more acrimonious - Yousuf Reza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, has fired retired General Naeem Khalid Lodhi, the country's defence secretary over claims of a coup plot.

How will this battle end? And is the government already so weak and discredited that it may soon fall?

Inside Story, James Bay, discusses with guests: Hamid Nawaz, a retired Pakistani general and military analyst; Moeed Pirzada, a political analyst; and Zafar Jaspal, a security analyst and associate professor of International Relations at Quaid-i-Azam University.

"For the first time in the history of Pakistan, political forces from both sides are united in not welcoming the army. Secondly, there is a proactive judiciary. In the present situation the internal dynamics of the country are such that they will create complexities and uncertainties but the system will continue."

- Zafar Jaspal, security analyst 

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/01/dtn-news-pakistan-in-turmoil-is.html