Story Highlights
Panama Leaks
Opposition parties, mainly Pakistam Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek have begun a series of rallies and marches across the country against the prime minister following Panama papers revelations. However disqualification reference against prime minister, submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has been rejected by National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. PTI chief Imran Khan and opposition parties have strongly criticized the decision. PTI considers the decision as one sided and against the sanctity of the chair.
In response, National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that the chair was not an investigative agency to investigate into the matter. He also said that he took the decision after thorough study and now it is the duty of the Election Commission of Pakistan and courts to make judgment.
Earlier, the entire opposition excluding the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) walked out of the House for not allowing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentarians to speak on a point of order. Opposition also demanded NA speakers to send the reference against Premier Nawaz to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Meanwhile Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has announced a march on Raiwind, family home of prime minister, on September 24. He has also invited the entire nation to participate in the march. Khan also claimed that Nawaz Sharif had destroyed state institutions and would never allow institutional reforms.
Pak-India on Kashmir
As Indian atrocities continue in Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan has raised the issue at international level. This week Indian troops killed a protester with pellet guns during clashes that raise the death toll to 91 in the recent uprising after the killing of freedom fighter Burhan Wani in July. More than 150 people were also injured after Indian paramilitary personnel fired bullets and pellets at protesters. The death from pellet gun comes a day after the Indian government said it would replace the weapons. More than 11,000 people have been injured at the hands of Indian forces during the past two months. Meanwhile Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that police should use chilli-based shells instead of ones filled with birdshot after hundreds of civilians sustained serious eye injuries in the clashes. Moreover key Kashmiri leaders refused to meet a group of Indian lawmakers headed by Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh who came from New Delhi as part of government efforts to restore normalcy in IHK.
Meanwhile Pakistan claims the involvement of India in subversive activities in the country. The Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakariya has said that they have “open evidence” that India is financing terrorism in Pakistan. Nafees Zakariya also added that the issue of Indian involvement will be highlighted at international level.
Meanwhile Pakistani troops and the Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) exchanged fire across the Line of Control (LoC) on Pakistan’s Defence Day. Despite a 2003 border ceasefire agreement signed by both countries, cross-border firing along the working boundary is intermittent with both parties frequently accusing the other of breaching it.
War Against Terror
In different acts of violence this week, four personnel of the law enforcement agencies were killed in tribal region of Pakistan. Two personnel of the bomb disposal squad were killed when two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) hit their team in tribal region of Mohmand. The splinter group of TTP Jumat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility of the attacks.
Separately, a security personnel was martyred and another injured in a mine blast in Mohmand Agency. In another incident, a policeman was killed while two other persons were wounded in a bomb attack on a police patrol.
Militants are also trying to disrupt construction of economic corridor linking China with Pakistan’s coast. According to media report, 44 workers have been killed since 2014. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a $46 billion network of roads, railways and energy pipelines linking western China to a deepwater port on Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast, which passes through Balochistan.
Meanwhile Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has stressed the need for lasting reforms in the system to break the nexus of terrorism. Addressing a ceremony on Defence Day at the General Headquarters (GHQ), General Raheel called for countrywide implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP).
He said that a few years ago, the country faced terror attacks almost on a daily basis but now the process of indiscriminate elimination of terrorists from the country – that was started two years ago in the form of Zarb-e-Azb – attained its laid-down military objectives
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