Re: Election 2013
^ NS should rein in Nisar. He is being more loyal than the king.
some times it seems as if Nisar is running the show, he seems to have become more powerful than the Sharif's.
Re: Election 2013
**Agreement on Ghaus Bakhsh Barozai as Balochistan interim CM **](Geo News: Latest News Breaking, Live Videos, World, Entertainment, Royal)
Re: Election 2013
So caretaker has been finalized in Sindh, KP and Balochistan. Whats special/different in Punjab and Federal Government?
Re: Election 2013
Malik Siraj Akbar: Will Balochistan Vote in Pakistan’s Next Elections?
Will Balochistan Vote in Pakistan’s Next Elections? - The Huffington Post
Will Balochistan Vote in Pakistan’s Next Elections?
In a televised address to the nation on Sunday, Pakistan’s outgoing Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf congratulated his fellow citizens for the “historic” completion of five years of uninterrupted democracy. While the Pakistanis know that they will be voting in mid-May to elect a new government, they were still undecided who would head the caretaker administration for the next 90 days at the time of the prime minister’s speech.
According to Pakistan’s constitution, which was written in 1973 and amended 20 times since then, leaders from the government and the opposition should reach a consensus to form an acceptable neutral interim government ahead of the next elections. The failure of the government and the opposition to agree upon one caretaker prime minister reflects the broader problems of Pakistan’s fledgling democracy.
While the outgoing members of the parliament posed for a historic group photograph in Islamabad, authorities in the country’s largest province of Balochistan continued to debate among themselves whether or not they would even be able to hold peaceful elections. On March 12, 2013, armed activists of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a sub-nationalist separatist group, gunned down Muhammad Ziaullah Qasimi, the District Commissioner of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Quetta, Balochistan’s capital. The BLA was not apologetic and unambiguous about the assault.
“We will not let Pakistan hold elections in Balochistan,” warned the BLA’s spokesperson.
The Express Tribune reported on February 9, 2013 that two more armed Baloch groups, the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) had also threatened to disrupt the elections.
Sardar Akhtar Mengal, president of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), told BBC Urdu that discontent among the Baloch was caused by unabated illegal arrest, torture and murder of the political leaders for which Pakistan’s security forces are blamed. If these extra-judicial killings do not stop, he warned, elections would be too difficult to hold.
Pakistan currently faces extraordinary challenges of law and order. The chilling wave of violence employed by the Taliban, sectarian groups, ethnic nationalists, armed wings of political parties and death squads believed to be linked with the Pakistani secret services are coercing various political parties to limit their election campaigns to avoid deadly assaults.
The March 12 assassination of the prominent election officer, for instance, has compelled politicians to reconsider their campaign strategies. Political parties fear deadly attacks on their election rallies, candidates and voters. This year’s security threats are alarming across Pakistan, particularly in volatile Balochistan, which remains the focus of political observers’ interest.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s poorest of four provinces, has remained the center of an ethnic nationalist insurgency against the central government for nearly one decade. Balochistan’s ethnic majority, the Balochs, who constitute only 5 percent of the country’s total population, complain against discrimination by the federal government dominated by the ethnic Punjabis.
According to Asma Jhangir, a former president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, the Baloch people believe the 2008 elections meant nothing for them because the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, not the civilian government, control their province. The Balochs do not benefit from their own mineral wealth, such as gas, gold and copper, nor are they provided any representation in the country’s civil, armed and foreign services. Groups like the BLA, insist that Pakistan engineers what they describe as “shame elections” in order to divert attention from the actual Baloch demand for statehood.
In 2008, major political parties in Balochistan boycotted the general elections because they opposed General Pervez Musharraf, a military dictator, as Pakistan’s president. Hence, the boycotted elections brought into power one such underrepresented, unpopular and corrupt government in Balochistan that even the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the center was forced to dismiss it on January 14, 2013 although the PPP also headed the Balochistan government.
Sections of the Pakistani ruling establishment are believed to be covertly communicating with enraged but moderate Baloch nationalist parties in order to persuade them to end their isolation and participate in the next general elections. Moderate nationalists are those who seek maximum internal autonomy for Balochistan while remaining a part of Pakistan.
If the Baloch nationalist parties participate in the elections, they can at least assist Islamabad with a process of reconciliation with some sections of the Baloch nationalists. However, the likelihood of peaceful elections is in jeopardy considering the prevalence of widespread violence across Balochistan.
The central government in Islamabad has done too little to build the Baloch confidence. Secret services, which have been blamed for colluding with extremist Sunni groups to kill Shias Muslims and sponsoring underground death squads to eliminate Baloch political activists, have not abandoned their counterproductive tactics which have significantly undermined democracy in Pakistan.
Pakistan should recover all the disappeared political activists and punish civil and military officers responsible for widespread human rights abuses in Balochistan in order to encourage the nationalists to participate in the elections. In addition, the government has to establish peace to the extent that all political parties and their voters feel safe enough to participate in the elections. If the elections fail again to improve the relations between Pakistan and its largest province, Islamabad should prepare for more internal instability and chaos in the future.
Re: Election 2013
Re: Election 2013
http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/298323_553174994716763_1752732172_n.jpg
Re: Election 2013
Election schedule to be announced tonighthttp://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQD3wKqgBtg8IlLM&w=155&h=114&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdawncompk.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F01%2Felection_commission_pakistan_6701.jpg%3Fw%3D670%26h%3D350](http://dawn.com/2013/03/22/election-schedule-to-be-announced-tonight/)
My in-laws are Pakistani Americans but I think they have some sort of card that allows them to vote. Is there no such thing as an absentee ballot? I think my FIL is now scared to no back to Pakistan due to violence. First time in decades they haven’t fine back for their annual visit.
Re: Election 2013
Pakistan looks more insecure and unstable from abroad than inside.
Re: Election 2013
[TABLE]
Election Commission issues election schedule
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ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued general elections schedule after making several changes to the proposed schedule, Geo news reported. Chief Election Commissioner ...
Re: Election 2013
[TABLE]
Defaulters to be ineligible to contest polls: ECP
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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission on Friday categorically said that the candidates who are defaulters even on minor amount to any department including the parliamentary lodges would be ineligible ...
Re: Election 2013
NAB’s poll cells start functioningArmy men to guard sensitive polling stations](http://dawn.com/2013/03/23/nabs-poll-cells-start-functioning/)MQM to challenge delimitation in superior court: AltafZardari quits post of PPP co-chairman
President Asif Ali Zardari has finally quit the office of PPP’s co-chairman, ](http://dawn.com/2013/03/23/nabs-poll-cells-start-functioning/)
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http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/554877_541481932549801_661761936_n.jpg
Re: Election 2013
Thank you for this but please avoid to post big size pictures if not much necessary . Those makes some problem .
[TABLE]
Altaf expresses no-confidence on ECP
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LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain has expressed no-confidence on Election Commission of Pakistan, terming the delimitation of constituencies in Karachi as a conspiracy to ...
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ECP issues nomination papers, 400 monitoring teams constituted
Re: Election 2013
http://dawncompk.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pm-khoso-afp-116.jpg?w=116 Fair elections are topmost priority, says Khoso
The newly-named caretaker prime minister said that elections would be conducted according to the announced schedule and that fair and free elections were his first priority.
Nine KPK cabinet ministers take oath
KPK Governor Engineer Shaukatullah Khan administered oath to the new ministers whose portfolios were likely to be announced later.
No decision on caretaker CM Punjab](Geo News: Latest News Breaking, Live Videos, World, Entertainment, Royal)
[Political hiring: ECP orders removal of SBP Deputy Governor](http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=93576) [http://www.geo.tv/images/spacer.gif](http://videos.geo.tv/VideoGallery.aspx?ID=0)
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Sunday, March 24, 2013
ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of reports regarding political hiring in the State Bank of Pakistan the Election Commission has issued notice to the Finance Secretary, Geo News reported. Sources in the electoral body said that the …
خیبرپختونخوا: مختلف جماعتوں نے اپنے انتخابی امیدواروں کا فیصلہ کرلیا](Geo News, Geo TV - Latest News - Breaking News - Live News)
Geo Urdu - خیبرپختونخوا: مختلف جماعتوں نے اپنے انتخابی امیدواروں کا فیصلہ کرلیا
Re: Election 2013
Latest news, Breaking News | Daily Jang
PPPP finally gets arrow as its symbol…this after PPP and PPPP (Nahid Khan group and Zardari group) today beat each other up black and blue outside the election commission offices. Chants of go Zardari go came from the PPP camp after they were stripped of their original election symbol of arrow. Oh well. An already splintered group seems to be splintering further.
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Three factions of PPP should get roti, kapra and makaan as election symbols.. easy peasy.
Re: Election 2013
positive development, I hope it would prove to be good for the country in the near future.
Baloch leader Akhtar Mengal returns to Pakistan | Pakistan | DAWN.COM