PCNS to finalize new draft of recommendations for U.S.-Pakistan relations; Search operation for avalanche victims continues; Frontier Corps forces trained to counter IEDs to be deployed along Pak-Afghan border; Section 144 imposed liberally; Saudi Arabia offers to help Pakistan with energy crisis; Pakistan likely to attend NATO summit in Chicago; Hussain Haqqani asks BlackBerry company for conversations with Mansoor Ijaz; President Zardari appoints new Minister for Law and Justice; “Shutter-down strike” in Sindh province; Rangers conduct targeted operation in Karachi; Prime Minister Gilani’s son leaves Pakistan; Tsunami watch in Pakistan; Pakistani blogger-activists launch successful campaign against Internet censorship.
Domestic Politics
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After Tuesday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS), the panel’s chairman Senator Raza Rabbani said the panel is close to finalizing a new draft of recommendations for U.S.-Pakistan relations. The panel will meet again on Thursday, where it will focus on the clause that links the reopening of NATO supply routes to the end of U.S. drone strikes. The largest opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said that it would review the new draft, but voiced “serious reservations” about it, while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl continued its boycott of the proceedings and refused to have anything to do with the draft.[1]
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Express News reported on Wednesday that Pakistan’s former Ambassador to the U.S. Hussain Haqqani has written a letter to Research in Motion to obtain his BlackBerry conversations with Mansoor Ijaz in compliance with the Pakistani Supreme Court’s orders in the “memogate” case.[2]
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President Asif Ali Zardari appointed former Chairman of the Senate Farooq H. Naek as the new Minister for Law and Justice. Naek took his oath on Wednesday, and he replaced Maula Bux Chandio, who resigned from the position earlier this year.[3]
Avalanche
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No one has been recovered dead or alive from Saturday’s avalanche at the Siachen Glacier in northern Kashmir, which buried a military complex along with 138 soldiers and civilians. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded an inquiry into the conditions endured by Pakistani and Indian soldiers on the glacier, where more soldiers have died due to avalanches, crevasses and harsh weather conditions than due to enemy fire. According to environmental experts, the heavy military presence on Siachen is speeding up the melting of the glacier, while waste from the military camps is polluting the water system.[4]
Militancy
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According to the Express Tribune, Pakistan will soon deploy Frontier Corps forces that are specially trained in Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) techniques to 820 posts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The forces have been trained to monitor the movement of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate and Ammonium Nitrate, which are key ingredients used in making IEDs.[5]
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On Tuesday night, the Rangers arrested five suspects and recovered weapons in a targeted operation in the Baloch Para area of Karachi.[6]
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Seven bodies were recovered from the Bara sub-division of Khyber agency on Wednesday. According to Dawn, the deceased were former members of militant group Lashkar-e-Islam.[7]
International Relations
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In a meeting between the Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister and Pakistani leaders on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia reportedly offered Pakistan a loan and an oil facility to help with its energy crisis and to persuade Pakistan to abandon the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.[8]
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Pakistan is likely to attend a NATO summit in Chicago from May 20-21, where heads of state from around the world will gather to discuss the future of Afghanistan.[9]
Smuggling
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Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son left Pakistan before the Supreme Court could place his name on an Exit Control List for his alleged role in a case involving the illegal import and sale of Rs. 7 billion ($77 million) worth of ephedrine, a controlled medical substance. According to Ali Musa Gilani’s personal secretary, he left for a scheduled visit to South Africa and the UK and is expected to return on May 2.[10]
Protest
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On Wednesday, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) and other nationalist parties observed a “shutter-down strike” in the interior Sindh region of Pakistan. They protested against the government’s delay in the examination of the body of JSQM leader Bashir Qureshi, who was allegedly poisoned to death on April 7. Protesters blocked roads and burned vehicles, and three people were killed in separate firing incidents in the Maripur, Khadda Market and Lyari areas of Karachi.[11]
Public Order
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The Washington Post reported that Pakistan has been liberally imposing Section 144, a law that allows the government to “act immediately to halt any activity that poses a threat to health, safety or public order.” Last week, the government imposed Section 144 when sectarian violence broke out between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. The law has also been cited when the Supreme Court banned kite flying after several reported injuries and deaths, and the law is also being imposed in Karachi to crack down on the public smoking of hookah pipes.[12]
Internet
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Foreign Policy reported that several young Pakistani blogger-activists have successfully launched a campaign that has stopped the government’s plans for a national Internet censorship system. The activists are seeking a court injunction against the Pakistani Telecommunication Authority “for censoring the Internet in a manner that violates Pakistan's own laws and constitution.”[13]
Tsunami
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An 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami watch in Pakistan and other countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.[14]