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Pakistan asks US to resume balancing role in South Asia
Islamabad unhappy over New Delhi’s growing ties with Washington
Continuing its anti-India tirade Pakistan has been trying to curtail India’s growing influence. In the latest development Pakistan has asked the United States administration to resume its balancing role it played in South Asia before starting to build a strategic partnership with India.
According to Dawn correspondent Anwar Iqbal in Washington, Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhary, Pakistan’s Ambassador to US, while briefing US and Pakistani journalists on Friday said, “We are saying to the US administration that the United States always brought a balance in SA [South Asia], but this recent tilt has created an imbalance.”
He further said, “This tilt has also emboldened the Indian government to go for a heavy-handed approach, which is the most manifest in occupied Kashmir.”
Pakistan government and media call Jammu and Kashmir as occupied Kashmir while call Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as Aazad Kashmir. However, India call all Jammu and Kashmir, including under Pakistan occupied and China occupied Kashmir as its integral part.
Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry addressing Pakistani, American & International media representatives highlighting the latest developments in Indian Occupied Kashmir on the occasion of #Kashmir Solidarity Day held at the Embassy of Pakistan pic.twitter.com/WfR5diRNeu
— Pakistan Embassy, DC (@PakEmbassyDC) April 6, 2018
India did not participate in One Belt One Road Summit in China last year because the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of the giant project, passes through the occupied Jammu and Kashmir region.
Chaudhary further said, “The policy of Hindutva will not bode well for either India or the region but what happens in India is for them to worry about, not for us. Peace in South Asia is better served if the United States assumes the role of a balanced power-player.”
Pakistan’s Ambassador distributed a so-called “fact-sheet” among the media persons claiming that Indian forces had killed 20 innocent Kashmir in the last few days. It described the uprising in India-held Kashmir as a legitimate struggle for the realisation of their right of self-determination, not terrorism.
Pakistan has been constantly supporting separatists in Jammu and Kashmir. Dialogue between India and Pakistan has been suspended for last few years, especially after 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 killing 116 people and wounding 308 others. Pakistan was also involved in Pathankot terror attack on Indian Air Force base in January 2016 and heavily armed militants attack on security forces in September 2016 in Uri. This attack was reported as “the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades”.
Amb Aizaz received a representative delegation of Kashmiri Americans @PakEmbassyDC & reiterated Govt of Pak’s demand that India must immediately halt its campaign of torture against civilians & allow int’l human rights organizations access to IOK 2 determine extent of brutalities pic.twitter.com/ew7g1x7AIT
— Pakistan Embassy, DC (@PakEmbassyDC) April 7, 2018
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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Mahmood Qureshi held guilty in cipher case
The PTI leaders’ trial has been requested by the FIA, and it is expected that they would be sentenced in accordance with the law.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were found guilty on Saturday by Pakistan’s top investigating agency in the cypher case, a case involving the alleged exposure of state secrets.
The charge sheet against Khan, the Tehreek-e-Insaf party chairman, and Qureshi, who are both presently being held in custody on judicial remand, was submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to a special court set up under the Official Secrets Act, according to the Pakistan Observer website.
Imran Khan, 70, was detained last month following the filing of a complaint against him for allegedly breaking the Official Secrets Act by revealing a covert diplomatic cable (cypher) issued by the nation’s embassy in Washington last year in March.
The PTI leaders’ trial has been requested by the FIA, and it is expected that they would be sentenced in accordance with the law.
The vice chairman of PTI is 75-year-old Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Asad Umar, the former general secretary of the PTI, is not on the FIA’s list of suspects, but former principal secretary Azam Khan has been portrayed as a key witness in the FIA’s case against Imran Khan, according to GeoTV, a well-known news outlet. The challan also contains Azam Khan’s statement recorded under sections 161 and 164.
The speeches by Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Imran Khan from March 27 are also included in the FIA’s attachment.
The Pakistan Observer further noted that the FIA had provided the court with a list of 28 witnesses in addition to the charge sheet. According to the report, the list of witnesses includes names such as current foreign secretary Asad Majid, previous foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood, and additional foreign secretary Faisal Niaz Tirmizi.
Imran Khan had been imprisoned on remand three times earlier on September 26. Along with Qureshi, his judicial remand was initially extended until September 13 and then again until September 26.
The former PM was transferred from Attock prison to the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on the same day, one day after the Islamabad High Court instructed authorities to do so.
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Pakistan: 34 killed, 130 injured after blast near mosque in Balochistan
City Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammad Javed Lehri asserted that the explosion was a suicide blast
In a tragic incident, nearly 34 people were killed and more than 130 people were injured in a suicide blast near a mosque in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Friday, according to reports. The incident took place when people were gathering for a rally to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. Reports state that the explosion occurred near Madina Mosque in the Mastung district.
Mastung’s Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nawaz Gashkori, who was on duty for the rally, was among the deceased. The explosion took place when hundreds of people were gathering to mark Eid Miladun Nabi, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad.
Speaking about the matter, City Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammad Javed Lehri asserted that the explosion was a suicide blast and that the bomber exploded when he himself was standing next to DSP’s car. Mohammad Javed Lehri further affirmed that the wounded are being shifted to a medical facility for immediate treatment while an emergency has been imposed in the hospitals.
Local media reports quoted Dr Saeed Mirwani, who is the chief executive officer of Shaheed Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Raisani Memorial Hospital as saying that nearly 34 people were killed and more than 130 people were injured in the blast in Balochistan. Some of the injured are in critical condition, as per reports.
Balochistan interim Information Minister Jan Achakzai stated that rescue teams have been dispatched to Mastung. He further added that the critically injured persons are being transferred to Quetta and that an emergency has been implemented in all the hospitals.
Jan Achakzai underlined that the enemy wants to destroy religious tolerance and peace in Balochistan with foreign blessings. He added that the explosion was unbearable.
He also affirmed that caretaker Chief Minister Ali Mardan Domki has directed concerned authorities to arrest those responsible for the blast. In addition, interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti strongly condemned the blast.
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Hardeep Singh Nijjar killing: Canada is committed to building closer ties with India despite credible allegations, says Canadian PM Justin Trudeau
Canadian Prime Minister stated that the US has assured that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would be raising the allegations made publicly about India’s role in Nijjar’s murder during the meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday asserted that Canada is still committed to building closer ties with India, despite credible allegations that the Indian government was involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Addressing a press conference, the Prime Minister said that India is a growing economic power and important geopolitical player. He added that as they presented their Indo-Pacific strategy last year, they are very serious about building closer ties with India.
Justin Trudeau underlined that at the same time, as a rule of law country, they need to emphasises that India needs to work with Canada to ascertain that they get the full facts of this matter. He further mentioned that he thinks it is extremely important that Canada and its allies continue to engage constructively and seriously with India.
In addition, the Canadian Prime Minister also stated that the US has assured that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would be raising the allegations made publicly about India’s role in Nijjar’s murder during the meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
He noted that the Americans have been with them in speaking to the Indian government about how important it is that they be involved in following up on the credible allegations that agents of the Indian government killed a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.
Referring to Canada’s charges about the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Justin Trudeau stated that this is something that all democratic countries, all countries that respect the rule of law, need to take seriously. He added that his country is moving forward in a thoughtful, responsible way anchored in the rule of law along with all their partners, including the approach of the Government of India.
In the past few days, there has been an escalating diplomatic standoff between India and Canada after PN Justin Trudeau told the Canadian House of Commons that the Canadian security agencies had been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Indian government and killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
