India begins visas on arrival to Pakistan's elderly

India Tuesday began a process to issue visas on arrival to senior citizens from Pakistan, a customs official said, despite heightened tensions over recent deadly clashes in disputed Kashmir.
The landmark visa agreement was sealed last month, when the interior ministers from both countries met in New Delhi and decided to institute measures making cross-border travel easier.
The new agreement allows Pakistanis aged over 65 to arrive at the Attari/Wagah land border dividing the Punjab region and apply for a single-entry Indian visa for a duration of up to 45 days.
“The process to issue visas on arrival to Pakistani senior citizens has begun,” an Indian customs official on the border told AFP.
The official, who declined to give his name, refused to say if any Pakistanis had made use of the facility so far.
The measures to ease cross-border travel come in the wake of rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, after India last week accused Pakistani troops of killing two of its troops, one of whom was beheaded.
Two Pakistani soldiers were killed by Indian firing in the last nine days along the Line of Control (LoC).

Rental power case: SC orders arrest of PM Ashraf

The Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in the Rental Power Plants case on Monday,

The court also ordered all other respondents in the case to be arrested, and gave 24 hours deadline to the authorities to implement the orders.

The court maintained that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will be responsible if any of the respondents manage to escape.

The Supreme Court’s order came at a time when Minhajul Quran International (MQI) chief Tahirul Qadri was leading a long march in Islamabad to demand electoral reforms.

Participants of the march were seen celebrating while chanting “Long Live Supreme Court” when Qadri mentioned the court’s decision during his speech.

The Karachi Stock market also crashed immediately after the court’s order, as the 100-index fell by 450 points.

PM Ashraf was given the title of Raja Rental after he was accused of receiving kickbacks in the rental power projects. He was also accused of buying property in London from money earned through corruption in various scams.

He has been defending himself in the Supreme Court.

Shaheed and Shahdara – II

The 16th day of April 1853 is special in the Indian history. The day was a public holiday. At 3:30 pm, as the 21 guns roared together, the first train carrying Lady Falkland, wife of Governor of Bombay, along with 400 special invitees, steamed off from Bombay to Thane.
Ever since the engine rolled off the tracks, there have been new dimensions to the distances, relations and emotions. Abaseen Express, Khyber Mail and Calcutta Mail were not just the names of the trains but the experiences of hearts and souls. Now that we live in the days of burnt and non functional trains, I still have a few pleasant memories associated with train travels. These memoirs are the dialogues I had with myself while sitting by the windows or standing at the door as the train moved on. In the era of Cloud and Wi-fi communications, I hope you will like them.

When everything failed, Boota sold his ancestral land and holding Tanveer (now Sultana) by her hand, he crossed the border, illegally. Zenab meanwhile, had moved to her village, Noorpur near Burki, Lahore. When he reached Noorpur, Zenab was getting married to one of her cousins. He tried to contact Zenab but was beaten by her family and handed over to police, who charged him for illegally crossing the border. Boota was produced in the court of a sympathetic judge whom he informed that he was the lawful husband of Zenab. The court summoned Zenab, on the condition that if she recognised Boota and agreed to leave with him, the court would ensure their departure. Her family on the other hand, had threatened her that an unfavorable statement on her behalf would not only cause the death of Boota Singh but also that of Sultana.
When Zenab appeared in court, the room heaved under all the life sentences, pardons and allegations it had existed to date. Boota Singh stood in one corner with his pleading eyes, Sultana in another with her craving eyes for her mother and lastly, Zenab’s family, with their angry glares occupied another corner. On repeated questioning, Zenab recognised Boota Singh but refused to go with him – never had the judge seen a Jaat so helpless. With swollen eyes, he took out a bundle of money, handed it over to Zenab and told her to take good care of Sultana. Zenab looked up towards the same corner, where her brothers were shaking their venomous head in the negative. In that instant, she saw Sultana living her whole life as a second rate convert, marked with apathy. A mother crucified once again and Zenab denied the ability to take care of Sultana.

Balochistan already under army control, says Mengal

Former Balochistan chief minister Akhtar Mengal has said governor’s rule will not have a positive effect on the situation in the province because it has already been under the control of the army.

According to the BBC Urdu website, the Balochistan National Party – M chief said when veteran Baloch nationalist Nawab Akbar Bugti could be traced and killed in the mountains one would ask why the terrorists involved in sectarian killings could not be reached.

“No safe haven of terrorists is hidden from intelligence agencies. The army and intelligence agencies are responsible for all ills,” he said, adding that although the provincial government was incompetent, governor’s rule was no solution to Balochistan’s problems.

It was a superficial change and the situation would be the same as before, he said.

Mr Mengal said not a single member of terrorist organisations had been arrested over the past five years. The bullet-riddle bodies of Baloch activists were found dumped in different parts of the province, but terrorists were not arrested and produced before courts, he added.

Balochistan already under army control, says Mengal

Former Balochistan chief minister Akhtar Mengal has said governor’s rule will not have a positive effect on the situation in the province because it has already been under the control of the army.

According to the BBC Urdu website, the Balochistan National Party – M chief said when veteran Baloch nationalist Nawab Akbar Bugti could be traced and killed in the mountains one would ask why the terrorists involved in sectarian killings could not be reached.

“No safe haven of terrorists is hidden from intelligence agencies. The army and intelligence agencies are responsible for all ills,” he said, adding that although the provincial government was incompetent, governor’s rule was no solution to Balochistan’s problems.

It was a superficial change and the situation would be the same as before, he said.

Mr Mengal said not a single member of terrorist organisations had been arrested over the past five years. The bullet-riddle bodies of Baloch activists were found dumped in different parts of the province, but terrorists were not arrested and produced before courts, he added.

Cat rescued after 5 days in tree

A cat has finally been reunited with its owner after spending five days stuck in a tree in Devon, MSN News reports.
It took fire crews five days and repeat attempts to coax the timid animal from its tree, after it repeatedly refused to budge from the branches.
The RSPCA was also called out to help with the operation, in the Keyham area of Plymouth.
There was even the possibility of having to call on a tree surgeon to cut down some of the branches, giving fire crews better access to retrieve the stricken cat. But the stand-off finally ended on Saturday when one fire-fighter was just able to reach the cat and return it to its anxious owner.
Jo Barr, of the RSPCA in the South West of England, described the case as “very unusual”.
“Often cats will spend up to 48 hours in a tree without coming down, but five days is a very long time to be up there,” she said.
“You have to be careful when trying to rescue cats that you don’t frighten them and push them further from the ground. We often tell cat owners to leave some food at the bottom of the tree and let them

Runaway boy drives father’s car across Europe

A 13-year-old boy who lives in Italy with his adoptive parents took his father’s Mercedes and drove more than 800 kilometres through Europe in an apparent attempt to reach his birth family in Poland, Italian police said on Saturday.
He set off on Thursday afternoon from the small town of Pederobba in northern Italy with 200 euros in his pocket and drove the high-powered automatic car for almost 24 hours before being stopped by German police on a motorway near Leipzig.
“The boy’s sister and natural parents are in Poland and it seems he was going there to meet his sister,” said an Italian police spokeswoman.
Media reports said the boy had an argument on Thursday afternoon with his adoptive mother.
“The boy has told his parents he is sorry and has recognised he was in the wrong,” the police spokeswoman said, adding that he was on his way back to Italy.
According to newspaper reports the boy loved cars and was an expert go-kart driver.

KEMC restoration plan up for discussion

Advocates for the formation of a King Edward Medical College as a constituent of the university will discuss their plans at the upcoming annual general body meeting of the Kemcolians Forum.

The college was upgraded to the status of a university in 2006, meaning it started postgraduate courses on top of MBBS courses. “We believe the restoration of the college, as a constituent of the larger university, will allow the focus to return to the MBBS students,” said a Kemcolian, or KEMC alumnus, of the 1984 batch.

Restoring the institution’s prestige will be the main item on the agenda of the meeting to be chaired by former principal Dr Mahmood Ali Malik on Tuesday, he said.

“When the college was upgraded to a university in 2006, it was doing much better than it is now. We don’t want university to be downgraded to a college again, we just want the restoration of the college as a constituent of the university,” he added.

Dr Zahid Wazir, the president of the Young Kemcolians Forum, was hopeful that the new vice chancellor of the university, who is to be appointed soon, would back the formation of a

Women’s rights in Pakistan: NGOs compile report to show the ‘real’ picture

Nearly two dozen NGOs launched a “shadow” report on Tuesday to disclose the condition of women’s rights in the country.
Earlier, the government submitted a similar report to the United Nations ahead of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw). Now both the reports will be presented before the Cedaw committee when it meets in Geneva in February next year.
Rubina Brohi of the Aurat Foundation, said that the “NGO Alternative Report on Cedaw 2012” highlights the gaps that the government left in its official report. “The government only talked about positive things, and failed to discuss the real picture [of women’s issues] in the country.” The official report covers the period from 2007 to 2010, while the one compiled by the NGOs includes events during 2011 as well.
Cedaw was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. According to its website, the 30 articles in the convention “define what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination”.

Signatories to the convention are expected to incorporate the equality of men and women in their legal system, and abolish discriminatory laws and adopt those that prohibit discrimination against women.
Legal expert and researcher Maliha Zia Lari said that Pakistan still has not incorporated the statutes of the convention into its legal system. “There is no legal definition of ‘discrimination’ in the constitution or other laws”. She added that certain laws continue to directly discriminate against women, such as the Citizens Act of 1951 and the Qanoon-e-Shahdat. The Criminal Procedure Code and the Pakistan Penal Code, do it in an indirect manner, she said. The Citizens Act, in particular, prevents a Pakistani woman, who has married a foreign national, from getting her husband Pakistani citizenship.
On the other hand, parallel judicial systems, such as jirgas, continue to rule against women and allow discriminatory practices against them to continue. Lari also lamented that the inadequate resources allocated to the human rights ministry and women development department has left the National Commission on Status of Women the only federal institution that looks at women’s issues in a serious manner.
Referring to Cedaw’s Article 6, which deals with trafficking, Lari said that various modes of trafficking in the country, such as forced marriages, child marriages and bonded labour, are not recognised.
Pakistan Peoples Party leader Taj Haider admitted that the government needed to implement the conventions that it has ratified. He said that the government will propose to increase the percentage of reserved seats for women in local government bodies from 33 per cent to 50 per cent. Haider added that the government is

Long march: In the name of security, mobile services suspended

LAHORE / ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: Cellular services have been suspended in parts of Pakistan on Sunday owing to reports of attacks on Tahirul Qadri and the long march participants.
Services were suspended at 5pm and will remain off until further notice by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Lahore
Areas where services are made unavailable include Gulberg, Link Road, Model Town, Faisal Town, New Campus, Dharampura, Gari Shahu, Imamia Colony, Minar-e-Pakistan, Railway Road, Badami Bagh, Ravi Road, Shadra, Nau Lakha Chowk and Do Moria Pul as well as some areas of the district Sheikhupura. However, services were restored in some of the mentioned areas.
Twin cities
Apart from Lahore, mobile phone services will be suspended in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and its adjacent areas on Monday.
Officials associated with the Crisis Management Cell (CMC) told The Express Tribune that the services will remain suspended in twin cities from Monday afternoon onwards.
Karachi
Cellphone services were suspended in Karachi’s Clifton and Defence area today reportedly because of a protest held outside Bilawal House against Shia killing.
Long march security threats
Intelligence reports have confirmed that several terrorist outfits have planned attacks on the January 14 long march of Minhajul Quran International (MQI).
According to a Special Branch (SB) report – a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune – confirmed that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is planning an attack on the rally.
The group is also planning the assassination of influential scholar Mufti Muneebur Rehman and Dawat-e-Islami chief Maulana Ilyas Qadri.
A report by the interior ministry’s National Crisis Management Cell supported the Special Branch report regarding possible TTP attacks on Qadri’s rally.
Another SB report suggested that the Saifullah Baqi-led Ghazi Fidai Force is planning suicide attacks on the march.
The National Crisis Management Cell of Interior Ministry and Special Branch recommended foolproof security and vigilance for Qadri’s caravan.
Preventive measures
In the light of these intelligence reports, a circular was issued to the administration, police department, other Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), Corps Commander, Corps 4, Home Department, Joint Director Intelligence Bureau(IB), Sector Commander Military Intelligence (MI), Sector Commander Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Additional Inspector General of police Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).
The circular called for increased coordination between all the departments.
Ban on pillion riding
A ban on pillion riding has been imposed in Karachi effective immediately, Express News reported.
The interior ministry issued the ban, which will remain in effect until further notice.