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Chronology of Pakistan
October 2003
Bush, Jamali vow to fight terrorism: Kashmir, Afghanistan discussed
Oct 1: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had his first meeting with US President George W. Bush at the White House and pledged to fight terrorism jointly. "Pakistan has been reciprocal as far as the fight against terrorism is concerned," said Mr Jamali while responding to Mr Bush's welcoming remarks. In his brief remarks, President Bush spoke of "the mutual desire (of Pakistan and the United States) to fight terror" and "to bring stability and peace throughout the world."
Indonesian team grills suspects
Oct 1: A four-member team arrived in Karachi from Jakarta and interrogated Indonesian students who were picked up recently from two seminaries. Sources said the team, comprising two diplomats and two investigators, met officials of the local intelligence agencies and interior ministry and shared information on the detained students.
Pakistan cited for software piracy
Oct 1: Accusing the country of being one of the leading producers of pirated optical discs of copyright material, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has asked the United States to suspend benefits to Pakistan under the generalized system of preferences (GSPs). "If requisite improvements are not made by Pakistan to remedy the deficiencies noted in the IIPA's petition, which have adversely affected US copyright owners, Pakistan's GSP benefits should be suspended or withdrawn in whole or in part," said the IIPA's '2003 special 301 report'. The IIPA recommended to the US trade representative that Pakistan be placed on the 'priority watch list', because it had emerged as one of the world's leading producers of pirated CDs, DVDs, VCDs and CD-ROMs of music, audio-visual, business software, video games and reference software. It said the government had taken no steps to curtail the production of such material.
Pakistan rejects Armitage’s criticism
Oct 1: Pakistan rejected Seputy US Secretary of State Richard Armitage’s criticism of its military’s cooperation in blocking resurgent Taliban infiltrators into Afghanistan. Mr. Armitage he told US lawmakers in Washington yesterday that he believed Musharraf was genuinely trying to curb Taliban and al-Qaeda activities in Pakistan’s western tribal regions, but that he did not have full support. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry retorted that the military is 100 per cent behind General Musharraf.
Foreign service defenseless before non-career diplomats
Oct 1: Pakistan’s Foreign Service is defenseless before the onslaught of non-career diplomats capturing ambassadorial positions in Pakistani missions abroad beyond their fixed quota, The News said. The Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP) is also in bad shape from within because of poor career planning, politicized postings and inadequate capacity building. Interviews reveal the non-career diplomats serving on ambassadorial positions have crossed their 20 per cent quota fixed under the rules. Their share has risen to 24 per cent.
Devolution plan will be reformed: NRB chief
Oct 2: National Reconstruction Bureau chairman Daniyal Aziz said the devolution plan would be so reformed as to meet the requirement of the people. Speaking at a press briefingin Islamabad, he said the process of amending the plan in consultation with all the stake-holders including parliamentarians was in the final stages and it would finally be reviewed by a high-level committee to be headed by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
1,027 civilian posts occupied by servicemen
Oct 2: As many as 104 serving and retired Lieutenant Generals, Major Generals or equivalent ranks from other services are among the 1,027 military officers inducted on civilian posts in different ministries , divisions and Pakistani missions abroad after Oct 12, 1999 military takeover. The number of army Brigadiers or their equivalent ranks from the Navy and Air Force is even higher at 160, according to an annexure placed before the Senate library. There have been 14 ambassadors and a high commissioner from the military ranks during this period.
Extradition pact with US flayed
Oct 2: The Pakistan Bar Council criticized the government for signing an agreement with the United States for the surrender of citizens. In a resolution, the PBC's executive committee said the pact was a "gross violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens." The committee took serious notice of the signing of the pact in July, under which it has been agreed that Pakistani citizens could be handed over to the US without due process of law.
12 al-Qaeda men killed in Waziristan
Oct 2: At least 12 suspected terrorists were killed and 18 arrested during a major operation launched by the Pakistan Army in the remote South Waziristan Agency, close to the Afghan border. An Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) handout said that two Pakistani soldiers were also killed during the gunbattle, while two others were injured. The operation was launched after information by an intelligence agency about the presence of foreign militants in Baghar, a village comprising 50 to 60 houses located in the rugged mountains, a few kilometres from the Paktika province of Afghanistan.
Political consensus must for KBD funding: WB
Oct 2: The World Bank says that it would be willing to consider new mega projects in the water sector, provided a broad political consensus exists. "There is a tough criteria that looks at the economic viability, environmental issues and political will to carry out such infrastructure projects," a senior official of the bank said in Islamabad in response to a question on the Kalabagh Dam.
Political patronage undermines poor: WB
Oct 2: A latest World Bank report has shown evidence that political patronage undermines the equitable development benefits for the poor. The World Development Report 2004, released in Islamabad, says that the elected officials in Pakistan have demonstrated an extraordinary interest in targeting services to their supporters, but much less interest in services such as primary education that all voters can enjoy.
EC setting new precedence?
Oct 2: The Election Commission of Pakistan has never unseated any Member of Parliament because of their failure to file assets and liabilities statement by the given deadline, since the relevant law was promulgated, The News said. The election commission will be setting a new precedent if it translates into reality its declaration, made the other day that the non-filers would ceased to exist as lawmakers. Given the colossal number of non-filers, running into hundreds, (nearly 250 according to one estimate), unseating of these legislators would create nothing but chaos that the present fragile democratic dispensation doesn’t have the strength to endure.
Balochistan Assembly rejects education in mother tongues
Oct 2: The opposition benches in Balochistan Assembly staged a token walkout when a joint resolution of the legislators belonging to Balochistan National Movement (BNM) to impart schooling in the mother tongue was rejected. Moving the resolution, BNM PMA Rehmat Ali Baloch of demanded the restoration of previous decision that the education should be imparted to the students in their respective mother tongues, including the Balochi, Pashto and Brahvi. It is important for the development of a nation that education should be imparted in the mother tongues, instead of any other language, he remarked.
'Pakistan facing internal threat'
Oct 3: Pakistan faces no external threat but only a threat from within in the form of religious extremism and the government is resolved to fight the unenlightened exponent of "our great religion," President Pervez Musharraf said while speaking at the annual dinner of the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association in Islamabad. "No external threat can harm Pakistan, the enemy lies within," he stated, maintaining that the element of sectarian and religious extremism can damage Pakistan both internally and externally.
Country in state of civil disobedience -Ghinwa
Oct 3: Ghinwa Bhutto, chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (Shaheed Bhutto), says the country is in a state of "undeclared civil disobedience" and is increasingly becoming difficult to govern. Expressing these views in a Dawn Dialogue interview in Karachi, she emphasized the need to shun narrow nationalism and overcome centrifugal tendencies that had cropped up because of the growing mistrust between provinces and various groups. The country was becoming increasingly difficult to govern, and people were cooperating less and less with any government, civil or military, she said.
PR driver killed in rocket attack
Oct 3: A railway engine driver was killed and two other staff members injured seriously in a rocket attack on a pilot engine on the Quetta-Sibi section, some 130km east of Quetta. "It was a pilot engine sent to clear the section for safe passage of trains," the railways controller, Quetta, said.
PML, MMA's stand on mother tongues flayed
QUETTA, Oct 3: Opposition parties in the Balochistan assembly criticized the Pakistan Muslim League and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal for opposing a resolution about instruction in schools in the native languages and said it violated the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's charter.
Lawyers team returns from India
Oct 3: A 20-member delegation of lawyers returned from India after attending the International Legal Conference hosted by the Chandigarh High Court Bar Association. After his return, the delegation leader, Arif Chaudhry told newsmen the visit had been successful and enlightening with regard to legal issues.
Pakistani mother trapped in India-Pakistan tensions
Oct 3: It was a split-second decision that changed her life forever. When Shahnaz Kausar jumped into a Pakistani river eight years ago, she thought death would free her from the daily harassment and taunts of her then husband and his family. But the desperate suicide attempt was only the beginning of a long spiral of troubles that now sees the Pakistani woman trapped and alone in India with a young daughter. The Jhelum river swept the young woman into Indian-occupied Kashmir where she was picked up by the army and handed over to police. Shahnaz was convicted of entering India illegally and jailed for 15 months in Jammu and Kashmir state, where a prison guard raped her, resulting in the birth of her daughter, Mobin. When she tried to return to her village in Azad Kashmir in 1997, Pakistani immigration officials at the border said they would accept Shahnaz but not Mobin, whom they rejected as Indian. Shahnaz refused to leave without her daughter, then a year old. She was then sent back to prison where she languished for the next few years until she was released in August last year. (Dawn Report)
Six gunned down in Karachi
Oct 3: At least six people, including four employees of the Space and Upper Atmospheric Research Commission (Suparco) and one army soldier, were gunned down and eight others injured in an ambush while they were going to an Imambargah for offering Friday prayers in Mauripur, Karachi. A contract bus (JA-1629), carrying some employees of Suparco, was intercepted by unidentified motorcyclists near the Suparco check-post at Hub River Road, who sprayed a volley of bullets with automatic weapons from three sides. Officials held the newly formed jihadi-cum-sectarian outfit ‘313’ as responsible for killings. The Interior Ministry told The News that the outfit ‘313’ was an alliance of three banned militant organisations - Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al-Alami and Harkat Jihad-ul-Islami.
Pakistan test-fires N-capable Ghaznavi
Oct 3: Pakistan successfully test-fired indigenously-developed surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missile Ghaznavi (Hatf-III), which marked beginning of a series of missile tests in a bid to validate indigenously-developed defense system. The Ghaznavi missile is capable of carrying all types of conventional and non-conventional warheads up to a range of 290 kilomteres. It was second test-fire of Ghaznavi missile, named after the Muslim hero who launched historic 17 attacks on Somnath Temple in the then Hindustan several centuries ago.
MNAs demand khakis, judges’ accountability
Oct 3: Reacting to a statement of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) regarding declaration of assets by parliamentarians, the National Assembly called for accountability of army officers, judges and bureaucrats and the CEC himself. The members demanded that the senior army officers and judges should also declare their assets and those should be published in newspapers.
WB attaches strings to $1bn aid pledge
Oct 3: The World Bank has attached condition of good governance and reforms in civil service, education and power sectors to increase the annual aid level to one billion dollar. "The bank was prepared to increase the level of its assistance from the current $600 million a year to up to $1 billion a year, provided Pakistan sustains its economic programme and develops the sectoral reform programmes needed to strengthen governance, institutions and regulatory capacity," said an official statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and World Bank President James D Wolfensohn in Washington.
NWFP was not informed about Waziristan operation: CM
Oct 3: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani admitted the provincial government was not taken into confidence in the ongoing operation in the tribal belt, The News reported.
MPs must submit wealth statements each year: EC
Oct 4: The Election Commission said that Section 42A of the Representation of the People Act, 1976, and Section 25A of the Senate (election) Act, 1975, provided that members of parliament and the provincial assemblies should submit statements of assets and liabilities to it by Sept 30 each year.
Diamer terrorist camp dismantled
Oct 4: Paramilitary forces backed by the Pakistan Army scoured and dismantled a terrorist training facility in the Northern Areas. Troops from the paramilitary Frontier Corps and Pakistan Army launched the operation in Tangir sub-division of Diamir district early in the morning to search the training camp. "It was a search and dismantle operation," ISPR spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told Dawn. The action follows intelligence reports that there was a terrorist training camp in the area, he said.
Qazi slams govt for operation in Wana
Oct 4: Qazi Hussain Ahmed has slammed the government for what he called the so-called operation against Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives in Wana, South Waziristan Agency , saying the action has been taken at the behest of the US. Speaking at an open Kachehri here at Pabbi, the MMA parliamentary leader deplored that these Mujahideen had been brought from their respective countries on the persuasion of the US to fight against the Russians forces in Afghanistan and now they were being killed in the name of Al Qaeda one by one to appease Washington. It was astonishing that even the NWFP chief minister was kept unaware of the operation, he said and alleged that the Pakistan army was being used to safeguard the interests of the US and its allies.
Judges barred from attending functions
Oct 4: The Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan barred superior court judges from attending or presiding over literary, social, cultural, political or diplomatic functions.
Violence in Karachi; 21 vehicles damaged
Oct 4: Despite strict security measures, specially taken for the burial of the six people who were killed in Mauripur yesterday, three people received bullet wounds and at least 21 vehicles and properties were damaged when participants of a funeral procession turned violent, police said.
Pakistan no more on list of ‘high-risk’ economies
Oct 4: The IMF has removed Pakistan from the list of ‘high-risk’ economies but is expected to negotiate for another program for fiscal reforms. Sources told The News in Islamabad that the removal of Pakistan from the list would mean an end to the practice of quarterly scrutiny of the country’s fiscal performance, and now there would be only half-yearly appraisal.
ANP deplores president’s lobbying for KBD
Oct 5: The Awami National Party (ANP) has alleged that President Pervez Musharraf acted against the interests of the federation by taking the issue of Kalabagh dam with pro-government MPs of Sindh. In a statement, ANP Central Information Secretary Zahid Khan drew the attention of General Musharraf that as COAS and president of the republic, he should have shown impartiality on the issue. He said three provincial assemblies — Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan — had unanimously rejected the Kalabagh dam as harmful to their economic and social interests. "Lobbying on the part of Gen Musharraf through the pro-government MPs of Sindh was not only a partial but derogatory act," he said.
Jatoi to head presidential body for KBD campaign
Oct 5: A media committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Federal Industries and Production Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi to campaign for the proposed Kalabagh Dam in the Sindh province. President General Pervez Musharraf set up the committee during a comprehensive meeting on constructing new gigantic water reservoirs with Sindhi Senators and MNAs belonging to the PML-QA, National Alliance and Muttahida Qaumi Movement the other day.
Karzai lauds Pak Army operation against al-Qaeda
Oct 5: Afghan President Hamed Karzai has lauded Pakistan’s last week operation against the remnants of the al-Qaeda and the Taliban and asked Islamabad for more such steps to effectively check cross-border infiltration of terrorists into Afghanistan. Addressing a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Kabul after returning from the US and the UK, President Karzai said that during his stay in New York he met two-three times with General Pervez Musharaf and discussed with him situation at the border.
US urges PM to extend control over tribal areas
Oct 5: The United States urged Pakistan to extend its control over the tribal areas during Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali's three-day official visit to Washington, says a statement issued over the weekend. The statement, posted on the State Department's Web site, said Prime Minister Jamali and US Secretary of State Colin Powell "reviewed proposals for strengthening Islamabad's control over the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan" when they met in Washington earlier this week.
Islamabad condemns Israeli raid
Oct 5: The government condemned Israeli attack on Syrian territory and said it was in violation of International law. Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said that the attack would further complicate the dangerous situation in the region and make the implementation of the quartet's roadmap more difficult.
Need for repealing Hudood Ord stressed
Oct 5: National Commission for Status of Women chairperson Justice Majida Rizvi (retired) has said that the Hudood Ordinance should be repealed because it is "un-Islamic on the one hand and makes a mockery of Islamic justice on the other". Speaking at a seminar on Hudood Ordinance under the aegis of Joint Action Committee for Peoples Rights at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Lahore, the NCSW chairperson said that the Hudood Ordinance should be repealed because it was "not based on Quranic injunctions".
Thar coal reserves exceed 17.5bn tonnes: expert
Oct 5: The exploitation of nine billion tonnes of coal reserves in the Thar region of Sindh could change the future economic landscape of Pakistan, said Hasan Gauhar , a former director-general of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, at a discussion on "Prospects of Thar coal development," at the Scientists' Club in Islamabad. Mr Gauhar said the discovery made in 1992 was of nine billion tonnes, but the reserve might be as high as 17.5 billion tonnes.
NWFP govt to use seized vehicles: Decision violates rules
Oct 5: The NWFP government in gross violation of all federal and provincial laws has decided to use confiscated and seized smuggled vehicles by the provincial government departments, Dawn reports. The illegal orders contained in a summary approved by the NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani early this month said that all vehicles including the 23 non-custom-paid vehicles parked in the warehouse of NWFP Excise & Taxation Department be handed over to the NWFP Administration Department for use by the government departments.
Armitage says army fully backs Musharraf: War on terror
Oct 6: US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said that Washington was absolutely convinced that Islamabad's security and military apparatus was 200 per cent behind President Gen Pervez Musharraf. "In no way do I have any sign that those running the security forces as institutions are anything but 200 per cent behind the nation and behind the President (Gen Pervez Musharraf)," Mr Armitage said during a brief talk with journalists after a working lunch with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri at the Foreign Office in Islamabad. The US deputy secretary of state's comments came in response to a couple of questions on his last week's statement that he was not sure if the whole rank and file of the Pakistan security services were cooperating in the US-led anti-Al Qaeda campaign in the tribal areas.
Azam Tariq gunned down in Islamabad
Oct 6: Maulana Azam Tariq, chief of the Millat-i-Islamia and MNA, was assassinated by unidentified gunmen along with four others as his car drove into the capital this afternoon. The attack occurred at a toll plaza in Golra on the southwestern outskirts of the capital, the police said, and added that the Maulana was returning from his constituency Jhang to attend the National Assembly session. Islamabad's Inspector-General of Police, Major(retired) Mohammad Akram, said the assailants, who were three in number, intercepted the Maulana's car and sprayed bullets with AK-47 assault rifles. According to eyewitnesses, the assailants who were in a white Pajero escaped. All five people in the car, including Maulana Azam Tariq, died on the spot.
Population reaches 146.5m: NA told
Oct 6: Pakistan's population touched 146.5 million mark in January 2003, the National Assembly was told in a written statement. Out of the total figure of 146.5 million, the population of Islamabad is 941,938, while that of the Punjab is 81.4 million, Sindh, 33.7 million; NWFP, 19.7 million; Balochistan, 7.3 million; FATA, 3.463 million.
Pakistani missions abroad not efficient
Oct 6: The Pak-American Coordination Committee (PACC) has drawn the government's attention to the failure of Pakistan's missions abroad in ensuring protection to Pakistanis in their respective countries. There exist no other institutions that could look after their interests, it pointed out. Mr M. Arshad Khan, chairman of the PACC, addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club said that the committee had been formed to promote Pakistan's image among US congressmen and senators and to provide assistance to expatriates in distress in the US.
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