Story Highlights
National Accountability Bureau
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has warned National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against harassing honest government employees. He says NAB officials barge into houses and offices of innocent people to harass them without looking into authenticity of cases. Prime Minister also warned NAB chairman to take action otherwise the government will initiate necessary legal action.
Meanwhile Irfan Siddiqui, special assistant to the prime minister, said that the government is planning to enact a law to keep an eye on National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) activities. Siddiqui also clarified that NAB has not been threatened by the premier. Claiming that NAB’s performance is zero, he said since NAB is a government institution, therefore it is the responsibility of the government to improve its performance. Meanwhile NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said that the bureau is committed to eradicating corruption from the country.
Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that NAB and FIA, go beyond their domains in Sindh and venture to paralyse some departments of the provincial government. He said that NAB, FIA and some other federal agencies had been targeting a single province, its government and officials in violation of rules since few months.
War Against Terror
In two different terror attacks this week in Pakistan, at least nine personnel of Khasadar Force were killed in the tribal area. The terrorists stormed a checkpost in Krapa, killing seven personnel of Khasadar Force. In another attack, terrorists targeted a solar tube well in Dargazai, killing two Khasadar Force men who were guarding the installation. Several suspects have been arrested during a search operation launched after the attacks. Meanwhile over in Lahore, two police constables were killed when four motorcyclists opened fire at a police picket and managed to flee the crime scene.
In an operation by security officials in Lahore, seven militants who were on their way to launch an attack in Punjab were killed after an exchange of gunfire with police. According to a statement from the provincial Counter Terrorism Department, which said the men belonged to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) groups. The Pakistani Taliban have been waging an insurgency against the state since 2007, while LeJ is believed to have been behind some of the most high-profile terror incidents in recent years including the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Pak India
Pakistan and India, both neighboring countries and arch rivals are trying to resume foreign secretary-level talks that were suspended after an attack on Pathankot airbase in India. India had blamed that attackers were member of militant organization, Jaish-e- Mohammad, in Pakistan. However in a recent statement Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan, Gautam Bambawaly, has said that secretary- level talks are not conditional to the Pathankot airbase attack probe. The Indian envoy told media that both the countries were in constant contact to hold talks in the near future however he did not give any particular date for that. Following the Indian policy statement of not linking the talks with the progress in investigation on the Pathankot incident, Pakistan said that date for the meeting should now be finalised as early as possible.
After a series of high-level contacts starting with an ice-breaking meeting in Paris between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, Pakistan and India had agreed in December to resume the bilateral dialogue. The resumed dialogue was named Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue and it was agreed that the foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet on Jan 15 this year to decide about the timetable and modalities of the process.
Other News
All other news are considered under this category.
