Thirteen killed in raid near troubled Pakistan town

Suspected Islamist militants attacked the house of a senior government official in a village in north-western Pakistan and killed 13 people, police said on Thursday.
The attackers firing rocket-propelled grenades and rifles forced their way into the fortress-like home of Pir Aurangzeb in a village near the troubled town of Tank late on Wednesday.
"We could hear the rattle of guns and explosions in our office," said village police chief Sanaullah Khan Marwat. "It was a big attack and a large number of militants were involved."
Aurangzeb, a senior official with the government-run power utility, was killed in the attack along with five of his relatives and seven guests.
One of Aurangzeb's brothers is an Islamic cleric while another is a political agent, the top government official in a tribal region near the Afghan border.
Police were investigating whether they were the target of the attack. Neither brother was in the house at the time.
Violence has increased in parts of north-western Pakistan over the past year. Some analysts see this as evidence of "Talibanisation", the spread of militant influence from remote tribal regions on the Afghan border to more developed, populous areas.
Militants angered by Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism have killed many government officials in recent years in the tribal regions.
Tank, where Islamist militants are active, is the gateway to the South Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border, a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Militants killed two paramilitary soldiers in a suicide bombing and another in an ambush near Tank on Monday.
Courtesy: scotsman

Pakistan govt accepts demands by radical mosque

The government of Pakistan has agreed to accept all demands put forward by the management of the radical Islamabad mosque, Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), including the enforcement of Sharia or Islamic law in the country, according to the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
His comments came after talks on Tuesday night when Chaudhry Shujaat paid a surprise visit to Lal Masjid and met its clerics Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi. He said details would be given in the parliament on Wednesday.The PML chief assured the mosque administration and the female students of its affiliated madrassa or Muslim seminar, Jamia Hasfa, that the government was ready to accept all their demands, including the enforcement of Sharia. Talking to journalists after the meeting, Chaudhry Shujaat said all contentious issues between the government and Lal Masjid clerics had been settled.Responding to a question about the situation inside the mosque, the Pakistan Muslim League president denied the presence of activists of banned organisations and illegal arms in the mosque.
Pakistani president Gen Musharraf had said many times in the recent past that the mosque administration had provided shelter to suicide bombers.Two security officials, who were taken hostage by the students of Jamia Hasfa last month, had also told the media that they had seen a bulk of arms and ammunitions in the mosque.About the enforcement of Sharia law, the PML chief said: “No Muslim rejects the enforcement of the Islamic system in the country.”The ruling party chief also met two sisters who had taken refuge in Lal Masjid after being sexually abused by Azhar Iqbal, an influential man in Jehlum. He assured the victims that they would be provided justice and that the accused would be punished.
He said the district police office of Jhelum would visit Lal Masjid on Wednesday and would register a case against the accused, Azhar Iqbal.Later, Chaudhry Shujaat took a tour of the Jamia Hafsa and said that female students were studying in a good atmosphere.The first round of talks between the government of the clerics of the Lal Masjid was suspended after a military helicopter had continued hovering over the mosque for 20 minutes last week.The mosque administration condemned what it called the aerial surveillance of the mosque and said that some gases had also been sprayed on the mosque. The clerics of the Lal Masjid have increasingly been challenging the government in recent months.
They had announced that a Taliban-style Islamic or Sharia court would be set up to curb "vulgar" activities and gave the government a month to close video shops and brothels.The madrassa students had also occupied a children's library in Islamabad in protest against the demolition of several unauthorised mosques. They kidnapped three women and a child for allegedly running a brothel and recently threatened the owners of shop selling videos and CDs carrying material which they say is obscene and vulgar. This Taliban-style activity has caused outrage among human rights groups in Pakistan. Thousands of activists have staged protests calling for action to be taken against the madrassas, which they say are harassing ordinary people in the name of Islam.
Courtesy: ADNKI

Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice challenges proceedings

Chief Justice of Pakistan, suspended by President Pervez Musharraf last month on charges of misuse of authority, on Wednesday challenged proceedings against him by a panel of judges.
President Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9 and sent a reference against him to the five-member panel of judges.
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, defence lawyer for the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said the Chief Justice has challenged in the Supreme Court the composition, proceedings and jurisdiction of the pane, known as the Supreme Judicial Council.
Ahsan said Mr Chuadhry, in his petition, asked the Supreme Court to stop proceedings by the SJC as this body has no power to hear the case against the Chief Justice.
President of Pakistan has been made as respondent in the petition.
Munir A Malik, one of the defence lawyers told reporters that the petitioner has called for hearing of the case by a full court of the Supreme Court instead of Supreme Judicial Council.
He said the defence lawyers have also requested that the case be heard by April 20th.
Meanwhile the panel of judges on Wednesday refused a plea from the defence lawyers of the suspended Chief Justice to announce judgment about their objections at three members of the panel hearing presidential reference against Justice Iftikhar Muhamamd Chauhry.
The defence lawyers say that three judges are bias towards Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and that they be removed from the five-member panel The panel, headed by Acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas, ruled that at present the plea cannot be accepted and that all issues should be brought before the panel.
Courtesy: IRNA

Defiant Pakistan cleric says mosque has guns

A fundamentalist mosque behind a morality campaign in the Pakistani capital has guns on the premises and will defend itself if the government attempts a crackdown, a top cleric said yesterday.The Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad has caused the government headaches with its Taliban-style vice patrols and by issuing a “fatwa” against a female minister for being pictured hugging a paragliding instructor.
“If it comes to a do-and-die situation we will use our right to self defence,” Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque’s deputy leader, said by telephone.“Whatever arms we have are with licences obtained in the past through normal official procedures,” he said when asked to comment on what appeared to be assault rifles carried by young devotees standing guard on the mosque’s walls.The bearded mullah refused to respond to comments by intelligence sources that the students of two Islamic schools which are attached to the mosque had stored petrol to make crude firebombs.
On Friday, Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric at the mosque in downtown Islamabad, and Ghazi’s brother threatened to launch “thousands” of suicide attacks if government security forces launched an operation against the compound.He also announced the formation of an Islamic “Shariah” court, which two days later issued the fatwa against Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar.The government of military ruler President Pervez Musharraf is continuing negotiations with the mosque’s leaders despite public pressure to tackle what has been described as “Talibanisation” in the heart of the capital. Musharraf told a public rally in the eastern city of Sialkot that the mosque’s male and female students were not the real enemy in the battle against extremism, and that the government did not want to fight them.“Newspapers say the government is weak and I am showing signs of weakness or some fear.
It is not a question of any fear,” Musharraf said. “But they are not enemies that we should attack and eliminate.”Casualties in any raid on the mosque would be bad for Musharraf, a proponent of moderate Islam and key US ally in the war on terror, at a time when he faces a political crisis over his removal of Pakistan’s chief justice.
Male and female students from the mosque’s schools have launched morality patrols targeting local music and video shops, as well as briefly kidnapping two policemen and three women including an alleged brothel owner.They have also refused to vacate a government library for children they occupied in January in protest at the demolition of several mosques that authorities said were built on illegally occupied land.
Courtesy: GT

Pakistan army role revealed in clashes

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that tribesmen killed about 300 foreign al-Qaeda militants near the Afghan border and admitted the army was helping the tribal fighters.
Musharraf's comments came after months of pressure from key ally the United States and other nations with troops in Afghanistan to crack down on Islamic insurgents on Pakistan's lawless, tribally ruled frontier.
"The people of South Waziristan now have risen against the foreigners," Musharraf told a conference in Islamabad of defense officials from 22 countries. "They have killed about 300 of them. They have support from the Pakistan army. They asked for it."
Previously, officials have only said that the army had secured parts of South Waziristan, after the tribesmen drove out the mainly Uzbek and Chechen insurgents themselves, and that the military provided medical aid.
They have also given lower casualty figures than Musharraf, telling reporters on a rare trip to the region Wednesday that about 200 foreign militants and 40 tribesmen had died.
Musharraf said the tribesmen, who once gave shelter to the foreigners after the fall of Afghanistan's Taleban regime in 2001, were likely to fight rebels in other parts of the region.
"We want a similar activity in North Waziristan and there are indications that this can happen there as well," he said.
NATO and US officials claim cross- border attacks on their forces have risen since the deals in South Waziristan in 2005 and North Waziristan in 2006, but Pakistan said such assaults have in fact dropped.
Fighting broke out in South Waziristan March 19, sparked by a Taleban commander-turned-government supporter's demand that Uzbek militants in the area leave or disarm. The tribesmen hoisted white flags, pounded war drums and proclaimed victory earlier this week, saying that the foreigners had been driven out of their bunkers - a claim backed by the army.
But the regional army commander said Wednesday Uzbek commander Tahir Yuldashev, who has alleged links to Osama bin Laden, was not caught.
When he spoke at the conference earlier, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz urged the United States not to belittle Islamabad's anti-terror efforts or link aid to its success against militants.
US Vice President Dick Cheney told Musharraf during a surprise visit to Islamabad February 26 he was concerned that Taleban and al-Qaeda militants were regrouping in the tribal areas.
He denied threatening Pakistan with a cut in aid, but Democrats in March introduced legislation that would make aid conditional on Islamabad's counter- insurgency performance.
Courtesy: TS

Radical Islam spreads in a riven Pakistan

The intruders covered their faces and broke down the front door. They ransacked the home, then kidnapped the three women and the baby who lived there.
No one was arrested, despite a standoff with police. And neighbors welcomed the dozens of kidnappers, mostly female Islamic students who took the hostages back to their school, because the women, dressed in black from head to toe, and a few male supporters were doing what the police never could: shutting down Aunty Shamim's brothel.
"We were trying to curb anything immoral," said student Hamna Abdullah, 20, from the Jamia Hafsa, the school run by the neighboring Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque. "We did not misbehave. We treated them very gently."
The women from the brothel were released two days later, on March 29, after the owner repented. Later she denied it was a brothel. Yet the kidnapping has raised fears that a new Islamic morality campaign has spread to Islamabad from the remote tribal areas where pro-Taliban militants hold sway. And it is only one example of the vice war being waged by the Red Mosque, which has turned into a serious problem for the Pakistani government, unsure of how to push back against Islamists, especially women wielding sticks or even guns.
The mosque underscores how Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, weakened by his controversial removal of the nation's Supreme Court chief last month, is caught between fundamentalists and the West, trying to control religious extremists as he pushes pro-American policies that have alienated much of Pakistan.
Courtesy: CT

Pakistan's Bhutto presses President Musharraf to leave army post

Exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto acknowledged having talks with Pakistan's government, but said President Gen. Pervez Musharraf must resign his army post before her party enters any political pact.
Pakistan is buzzing with speculation that Musharraf could cut a deal with Bhutto that would allow her to return to Pakistan before parliamentary elections due around the end of 2007 — and perhaps win a third spell as prime minister.
In return, Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party could help re-elect Musharraf as president and implement his U.S.-backed program to counter Islamic radicals, including Taliban and al-Qaida militants near the Afghan border.
In an interview with Geo television broadcast late Monday, Bhutto said talks were under way with government emissaries "for the restoration of democracy."
However, she said reports of progress toward a deal were exaggerated.
Courtesy: IHT

Pakistan’s Minister of Tourism accused of “great sin;” fatwas forthcoming

Nilofar Bakhtiar is Pakistan’s Minister of Tourism. She recently learned to skydive for a celebrity jump in France. Skydiving is not the sin she’s been accused of. What she did is sooo much worse than that. It happened after the skydive.
Her sin is so horrifying, so awful, so distasteful, so…shocking…that I ought not even type it. It’s that bad.
You won’t believe it. You really ought to stop reading this post right now.
I see you didn’t take my advice. Fair enough. You’ve been warned.
Nilofar Bakhtiar may have…hugged…a man. I’m not making this up. I’m also not making up the entirely reasonable reaction that her “great sin” has sparked at the infamous Red Mosque in Pakistan.
The Red Mosque isn’t just any old mosque. It’s next to Pakistan’s ISI HQ, and many agents attend there. It helped train up the Taliban. Lately it has been challenging Musharraf’s rule by mounting an anti-vice campaign (or it has been playing the radical foil to Musharraf’s secular rule, depending on how you view the situation). If Musharraf were Palpatine, the Red Mosque would be the Jedi Temple. They don’t seem to get along, both are major authorities, and everyone there knows it and may have to choose sides at some point.
Courtesy: HR

Iran condemns sectarian attacks against Pakistan Shiites

Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned the deadly sectarian attacks by hardliners against Shiite Muslims in northwest Pakistan.
In a statement, spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that such acts committed by sectarian elements served ambitions of "forces outside the region".
"Such incidents and continuation of clashes are a cause of concern," he said in reference to clashes in Pakistan tribal town of Parachinar.
Officials said 40 people have been killed and more than 70 wounded in the fightings erupted after gunmen fired on a procession in Parachinar, about 250 km south-west of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
Authorities on Friday imposed a curfew and troops started patrolling to restore order. Authorities have ordered shoot-at-sight if anyone violate curfew.
Hosseini expressed the hope that with the measures taken by the government of Pakistan and their enhancement, calm will be restored in the area and clashes will be curbed.
Courtey: IRNA

Pakistan military back in tribal zone

Pakistani troops have re-occupied part of the tribal area along the Afghan border they left two years ago as part of a peace deal with local leaders.
Pakistani troops were deployed on Friday into the mountainous Shin Warsak area, just west of Wana, the main town of the semi-autonomous South Waziristan tribal agency, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wahid Arshad told reporters in Islamabad.
The deployment follows a month of clashes between local tribal militias and more than 1000 Uzbek Jihadis who settled in the region after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
It was the first time troops had left their barracks in Wana since a peace deal was signed with local tribal leaders in 2005.
Taliban guerrillas fighting U.S., NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan are known to use Pakistan's tribal border areas for safe haven.
Courtesy: UPI

Pakistan's Musharraf: Exiled Bhutto Not Returning

Pakistan's president said Sunday that there was no deal in the works with his main political opposition, denying speculation that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto could return from exile.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's statement followed media reports and recent comments by a Cabinet minister suggesting that relations may be thawing between Musharraf and Bhutto.
"A spokesman for the president has strongly refuted all speculations regarding change in the government and a deal with an opposition party," an official statement from Musharraf's office said.
The government recently shifted a veteran anti-corruption investigator from cases against Bhutto, who lives in exile but still leads the Pakistan People's Party, the country's largest anti-Musharraf political group.
The transfer of the corruption investigator fanned speculation that Musharraf may sanction Bhutto's return to Pakistan. Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a staunch Musharraf supporter, said Thursday that the move was part of negotiations between the government and Bhutto's party aimed at an unspecified possible deal.
Musharraf has been weakened by a bitter fight with opposition groups, including those led by Bhutto and another former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, over his removal of a senior judge.
Musharraf, who toppled Sharif's elected government and seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has said in the past that both Sharif and Bhutto, who was elected prime minister in the 1980s and 1990s, have no further role to play in Pakistani politics.
Courtesy: NM

No Deal with Pakistan Govt; Benazir assures Nawaz

Two ex-Prime Ministers of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto have had a surprise meeting in Dubai on Saturday to mull over the political situation in Pakistan.A media report said on Saturday that Ms Bhutto assured Mr Sharif that no deal between her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the government was in the offing. She told Nawaz Sharif that only routine talks were being conducted with government emissaries. Tariq Aziz, secretary of the Pakistan's National Security Council met with Ms Bhutto prior to her meeting with Sharif. Their talks were inconclusive, but they appear to have prompted Ms Bhutto to call on Nawaz Sharif, adds the report. Both Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif have been in Dubai for quite some days now, and rumours had been flying around that Mr Sharif was extremely perturbed by reports of an “imminent deal” between the government and the PPP.Ms Bhutto personally took the initiative to visit Mr Sharif on Saturday to dispel these concerns. She assured him that details of any talks or deal with the government would be shared with him, since the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was a partner of the PPP in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy. On his part, Mr Sharif made it clear that ARD parties were worried and suspicious of the situation, and the PPP should make its stand clear since one of the conditions in the ‘Charter of Democracy’ signed by the two former premiers was that neither party would do a deal with the present government in Pakistan. Nawaz may Quit ARD Yet, another report, carried by the newspaper said Sunday that the Chief of PML (N), Mian Nawaz Sharif has threatened to quit ARD in case of any deal between PPPP and government. Mian Nawaz Sharif made his intentions clear to Ms Benazir Bhutto during his talks with PPPP leader at the Dubai residence of Ishaq Dar, and has warned her of PML (N) parting ways with PPPP since “principles” laid down by “Charter of Democracy”, would be severely compromised in case some deal was made. Responsible sources of PML (N) informed news agency Online that Mian Sahib had informed Ms Benazir Bhutto about the doubts and reservations of other political component parties of ARD, who take the issue as a conspiracy to weaken the ARD. Sources have informed that Benazir Bhutto has outrightly denied any instance of deal with the government, but her candid confession about “mere talks and routine connections” have confirmed various leaks, which were being vehemently denied by PPPP, and were the main cause of Mian Sahib’s consternation. Mian Sahib has reportedly protested about the secrecy of these “mere talks”, and has warned that these endeavours could seriously jeopardize the ARD alliance, since it would only strengthen the notion about Benazir’s agreement with the regime.An earlier story said that former premiers Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto met in Dubai on Saturday and mulled over important socio-political affairs of the country.Both the leaders were in Dubai for quite some days but there had been no meeting between them, causing all kinds of rumours to surface, out of which Mian Nawaz Sharif’s purported unhappiness over the “possibility of an imminent deal” of Benazir Bhutto with current government.Ms Benazir Bhutto personally took the imitative to visit Mian Nawaz Sharif on Saturday and made it clear to him that any talk or deal with the government would be shared with him, since PPPP is a partner of ARD. She also assured Mian Nawaz Sharif that no deal was in the offing, just routine contacts were being made. On his part, Mian Nawaz Sharif made it clear that ARD parties were quite worried and suspicious of the situation, and PPPP should make its stand clear since the condition of absolutely no deal with a tyrant has clearly been implied by “Charter of Democracy”. Prior to the meeting Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar also met Ms Benazir Bhutto and had suggested to her to meet Mian Nawaz Sharif to allay his doubts. Pakistan Observer contacted media coordinators of both PPP and PML-N to confirm the reports about the meeting and get more information in this regard. Media coordinator of PML-N, Ahsan Iqbal confirmed the meeting saying it was a private meeting without any political agenda.Ahsan Iqbal said Benazir Bhutto rang up Mian Nawaz Sharif and expressed her desire to come to his house to congratulate him on the birth of his grandson.“Mian Sahib cordially reciprocated her good sentiments and wishes and welcomed her at his residence”, Ahsan Iqbal remarked adding that the meeting was just private in nature as no political issue was discussed in it.He said that though the political circles were terming the meeting of vital significance but it had nothing of political nature.On the other hand PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar at first denied reports of the meeting saying he was unaware about the latest happenings in Dubai. Responding to query about the political significant of the meeting, Babar said that if the meeting had taken place then it might be of private nature. “Perhaps she had gone to congratulate Mian Nawaz Sharif on the birth of his grandson”, he remarked. According to another report, Ms Benazir Bhutto held inconclusive talks with the government’s emissary Tariq Aziz in Dubai on Saturday. However, the PPP leaders, including Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who are presently in Dubai along with Ghulam Mustafa Khar, had out-rightly rejected any planned talks between the two sides. On Saturday, the government emissary, Tariq Aziz called on the former Prime Minister and deliberations were held between the two sides for quite some time.However, informed sources said that the talks remained inconclusive as both sides could not evolve consensus on major points of any expected deal. Of PPP, MQM Alliance Meanwhile, a report from Lahore says that the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and government coalition partner the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) could be allies in the next general elections, as they were in 1988, PPP General Secretary Jahangir Badr said here Saturday. “Political parties should always keep all options open. The MQM was a PPP ally in 1988 so there is no harm in making an alliance with it again,” said Badr while talking to Peoples Labour Bureau Head Abdul Qadir Shaheen and PPP Punjab deputy secretary information Iqbal Sialvi. He said if personalities like Abida Hussain and Fakhar Imam, former Muslim League stalwarts, could join the PPP, there was no reason why the PPP could not make alliance with the MQM. MQM sources said that the party’s top leadership was seriously considering an alliance with the PPP. Another reason the MQM is moving towards the PPP is the difficulty the party is facing establishing a foothold in Punjab, largely due to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, “who whenever he gets an opportunity creates hurdles in the working of MQM in Punjab,” the sources said. “The MQM is going to break its alliance with the govt soon over the Women’s Protection Bill or whatever issue it can exploit against the ruling PML,” said a senior MQM official.
Courtesy: PT

Strong quake jolts Pakistan, Afghanistan

A strong quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked eastern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, including capital Islamabad, Tuesday morning.
The tremors were felt at around 8.40 a.m. (local time) in Islamabad, rattling beds and windows and leading to panic.
Meteorological officials said the epicentre of the quake was about 300 km north of Peshawar in the Hindukash Mountains.
"The epicentre is within Afghanistan," said Mushtaq Ali Shah of Pakistan’s meteorological department.
The official said the earthquake was also felt in Peshawar, Lahore, Multan and other areas in Pakistan.
There was no immediate report of casualties or property losses in Pakistan.
The quake brought alive the memories of the Oct 8, 2005 quake, which left thousands dead and millions homeless in north Pakistan and India’s Jammu and Kashmir.
Courtesy: ON

Thousands protest in Pakistan over firing of top judge

About 4,000 people rallied in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Tuesday to protest against a decision by President General Pervez Musharraf to fire the country's chief justice.
The crowd, which included lawyers and political activists, gathered outside the Supreme Court building during a hearing of the case against chief justice Ifitkhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
Police and government troops kept a close eye on the crowd.
Musharraf removed the judge on March 9 after the government said it received several complaints about his alleged misconduct.
But critics of Musharraf said the firing was an attempt to intimidate the court and make certain it does not cause any trouble for the president in the event he seeks another term.
"Everyone should support the chief justice, it is our moral duty," Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice-president of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, said at the rally.
Courtesy: CBC

A rape victims in Pakistan may get some relief

Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has unanimously decided that a rape victim should not be required to produce four witnesses to file a complaint.
In a series of landmark decisions pertaining to women, the constitutional body of the country's top experts in Islamic law has also ruled that rape (zina-bil-zabr) and adultery - consensual sex other than with spouse (zina-bil-raza) - are two separate crimes.
The decisions, in effect, endorse the Women Protection Law passed after much debate last year that has angered the conservatives and the clergy. They also upturn the 1979 Hudood laws passed during the regime of president Ziaul Haq.
The government may have to further legislate to enforce these provisions that provide considerable relief to women. But this is not going to be easy for President Pervez Musharraf, who is pressing for them, in a year when he has promised general elections.
The CII agreed that, in rape cases, the affected woman would be a complainant, not a defendant.
"In this case, the woman will be a complainant and the state will be bound to investigate, arrest the rapist and punish him if the crime is proved," a CII press release said.
The council observed that a person accused of adultery should be acquitted if the complainant fails to produce four witnesses to prove their point in court.
Once acquitted, the accused could not be punished under any other law unless he/she refused to give a statement under oath or confessed to the crime, the council said.
"In cases of 'lian' where the accused denies by swearing (an oath), confesses, or the charges are proved, the court will decide such cases under the prevailing circumstances," it said.
Musharraf has promised more laws that deal with divorce and some of the long-practised tribal traditions that weigh against women. This has been roundly criticised by the conservatives. The rightwing alliance Muttahida Majlise-e-Amal (MMA) has accused Musharraf of working on these reforms under American pressure.
Courtesy: IM

Missing in Pakistan, found in jehadi ranks: Musharraf

Hitting out at jehadi groups for bringing bad name to Islam, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today said a number of missing persons, believed to have been abducted by intelligence agencies, actually joined militant outfits like the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad to create trouble in different parts of the world.
In his address to a religious conference here on the occasion of Eid Milad-un Nabi, Musharraf said he has conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations by relatives of missing persons and found that a number of them had joined jehadi groups.
He mainly referred to the campaign conducted by Amana, wife of one Janjua who has gone missing. Musharraf said Amana's husband, who was the son of an officer of Pakistan's special commando forces, went missing in Peshawar after attending the conference of an Islamic propagandaorganisation. Investigations revealed that Janjua had joined the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Musharraf said his investigations have revealed that of the 45 persons missing, 35 have been traced.
Three of them, captured in Afghanistan, were found at Guantanamo. The remaining 10, including Janjua, have not been traced so far.
Referring to the girls of a madarsa here capturing two police and abducting three women, allegedly brothel runners, Musharraf appealed to the people present to prevail on such students not to indulge in militant acts.
He said young men and women joined jehadi groups and brought bad name to Islam by trying to impose their philosophy on others.
Musharraf said under Islam no one has the right to declare jehad except the government, which was the central authority. Jehad is just not about fighting and dying but it should be launched against illiteracy and poverty.
Courtesy: IE

Pakistan shuts the Islamist radio station

Pakistani authorities have shut down an illegal FM radio station set up by pro-Taleban clerics in Islamabad during growing concern about the spread of Islamist influence.
President Pervez Musharraf, an important ally in the US-led war on terrorism, has long warned against the spread of what he calls extremism although critics say his government has done little to tackle religious hardliners.
Concern about the spread of militancy, or Talebanisation, intensified this week as militants battled police in a previously peaceful northwestern town and hardline students of an Islamabad madrassa launched a Taleban-style drive against vice.
Burqa-clad female students of the madrassa abducted three women on Tuesday after accusing them of running a brothel. The women were later released but one said they had been tortured into confessing.
Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and its religious school, or madrassa, are well known for their pro-Taleban and anti-US and anti-government stand.
Earlier in the week, the students roamed through several Islamabad markets, urging music shop owners to stop selling discs. The Taleban banned music in Afghanistan before they were driven from power by US-led forces in 2001.
The Taleban sprang from Pakistani madrassas, near the Afghan border, in 1990s and their influence quickly spread. The militant movement took control of much of Afghanistan in 1996 and they imposed severe restrictions on women, banned all music, television, movies and virtually eradicated the drugs trade.
As part of their campaign against vice, the students in Islamabad and their hardline clerics set up an FM radio station on Wednesday to propagate their strict version of Islam. Authorities reacted quickly to shut it down.
“We took action as soon as the issue was brought to our notice. We have stopped the transmissions,” a spokesman for the government’s electronic media regulator said.
He declined to say how the transmissions had been stopped but said further action would be taken if warranted.
The madrassa students have been at odds with city authorities for months over government efforts to demolish mosques illegally built on state land.
Women students occupied a library next to their mosque in January as part of their campaign against the authorities, which soon abandoned their efforts against encroachment.
The students are still occupying the library, demanding several demolished mosques be rebuilt.
Their mosque compound has taken on the air of a rebel camp with young men with sticks posted at gates and at look-out points along its banner-strewn walls.
Courtesy: TPQ