Day: May 21, 2009

ISLAMABAD – Dr Fateh Muhammad Malik, Rector, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) here on Wednesday stressed that youth and particularly the female youth have to come a step forward and participate in nation building activities.

He was addressing at a seminar on “Youth for change” organized by the IIUI, says a press release issued here.

He further said that they are full of capabilities and potentials. Dr Saif Abbasi from Department of Sociology thanked the Rector IIU for sparing time for the seminar and encouraging the organizers and participants of this seminar.

He stated that the youth is the key for the development of the society and nation. He focused the illiteracy as the key to all social evils in the society.

He emphasized the role of teachers in imparting modern, demand driven education reflecting true ideological foundation of Islam and Pakistan. He also stressed that social scientists and policy maker should design policies to harvest the potential of young population, as Pakistan is among those few counties who are not facing the problem of aging. Perveen Qadir Agha, Vice president/Director Women Campus, IIUI Co-Chaired the seminar. Dean Faculty of Social Sciences formally welcomed the worthy Rector IIUI.

Speakers from Department of Sociology, Education and a guest speaker from Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi addressed the topics: Citizenship in the age of globalization, Freedom of Information, youth for rule of law and good governance, and Effective Communication. Sadia Panni, Dept of Education, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi discussed in detail the citizenship in globalization.

She briefed that citizenship not only bestow the rights but also the duties. There is a great need for global networking to sensitize the people in general and youth in particular regarding their role and issues. Internet can best be utilized in this regards.

Zahidah Perveen, Department of sociology highlighted the role of youth in good governance. She said that young should be given the opportunities to play their role effectively as they bear the zeal, zest, enthusiasm and passion.

Their participation ensures the sustainability of the institutions. Maria Saeed enlighten the audience with the modern communication skills, the strategy, the medium and the benefit.

Perveen Qadir Agha Vice President IIUI laid the stress on the civic sense and realisation of responsibilities by students.
Source: The Nation
Date:5/21/2009

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Information, Shazia Marri, has said that it is disheartening to witness the attitude of male entrepreneurs with their women counterparts as women worked twice as hard as men, for they had to manage their business, domestic work and families.

Speaking at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, Marri said that sadly women were discriminated and discouraged both at the workplace and in businesses and were considered incompetent. She said that women should be considered equal and should be given equivalent opportunities in all walks of life.

Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Anjum Nisar appealed to the government to create more opportunities for women entrepreneurs as the KCCI alone had about a thousand members. He added that women should be encouraged to diversify into non-traditional business ventures.

Nisar also asked the government to deal with the energy crisis soon, otherwise businesses were under the threat of survival.
Source: The News
Date:5/21/2009

MARDAN: A teenage girl was killed and six other people were injured when displaced families returning to Buner were shelled by a helicopter on Wednesday.

Relatives of the victim, Zainab, said families were going to Pir Baba from the Garhi Kapoora camp.

The injured were brought to the Mardan district headquarters hospital.

Displaced people and villagers of Garhi Kapoora held a demonstration in Mardan in protest against “indiscriminate” firing and shelling.

The protesters, led by Hafiz Behram and Shahid Bacha, alleged innocent people were being killed ruthlessly.

They lamented that although officials were claiming some areas had been cleared of militants and people displaced from there could go back, they were attacked when they tried to return home.

On Tuesday night, six other displaced people injured in a similar incident had been admitted to the DHQ hospital.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/21/2009

By Ishaq Tanoli

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court dismissed on Wednesday an application filed against a female kidnap suspect who had turned approver in two cases.

The application was moved by one of the complainants in the two kidnap cases.

He prayed to the court not to treat the female suspect, Laiba, as an approver since the prosecution and the complainants opposed her plea.

Four suspects — Salman Qureshi, Imran Ahsan alias Sunny, Laiba and Zubair — are facing trial in two separate cases of kidnapping.

According to the prosecution, they kidnapped 14-year-old Talha Siddiqui and Khurram Javed for ransom in the limits of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Sharea Faisal police stations in 2008.

However, suspect Laiba turned approver after the court allowed her application filed under Section 338 (power to grant or tender of pardon) of the criminal procedure code. The prosecution had opposed the plea.

The counsel for one of the complainants, Nasir Mahmood, filed an application in court praying not to treat suspect Laiba as an approver since the prosecution and the complainant parties opposed it.

He maintained that an approver could only be made when the prosecution lacked evidence. However, there was sufficient evidence against the suspects in this case, he added. He concluded that though the suspect was made an approver in two cases, she recorded only one statement under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code, which was unlawful. However, the approver’s counsel, Mohammad Farooq, argued that the counsel for the complainant was not entitled to move such an application.

Dismissing the application, Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon of ATC-II adjourned further hearing in the two cases till May 26.

According to the prosecution, the suspects kidnapped Talha Siddiqui on Nov 2, 2008 in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and demanded a ransom of Rs25 million for his release. However, the police conducted a raid in the remit of the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station and arrested the suspects on Nov 4, 2008 and recovered the victim. A case was lodged under section 365-A of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father.

In the second case, the suspects kidnapped Khurram Javed on Oct 10, 2008 in the territorial jurisdiction of the Sharea Faisal police station. They released the victim after collecting a ransom of Rs1 million.

A case under Section 365-A of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered on the complaint of Noor Javed at the Sharea Faisal police station.

Defence witness testifies

Judge Syed Hasan Shah Bukhari of ATC-I recorded the statement of a defence witness in a kidnap case.

Adnan Ahmed Khan and Naila have been charged with kidnapping an eight-year-old boy, Arsalan, for ransom on August 13, 2008 in the remit of the Sachal police station.

The defence witness, Zafar-ul-Islam, testified that accused Adnan was his brother and he was innocent as the police arrested him on Aug 15, 2008 at their house.

The hearing was adjourned till May 26 when the counsel for the accused would examine more witnesses in the defence of his clients.

The prosecution said that the accused demanded a ransom of Rs1million for the safe release of the victim. Later, the matter was reported to the police and a team of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell traced the kidnappers’ whereabouts and raided a house on Sept 15, 2008 in the Gulzar-i-Hijri area and arrested the couple. The police also recovered the abducted child from their custody, it added.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/21/2009

By Tahir Siddiqui

KARACHI: A 21-year-old woman and her relative were axed to death on Wednesday at her house in a Landhi locality allegedly by her 22-year-old husband and his elder brother.

The Shah Latif Town police said that the suspect, Rashid Khan Tanoli, son of Dilbar Khan Tanoli, hailing from Mansehra, came to the police station at around 3pm and said that he had killed his wife, Shazia, and her 24-year-old relative, Jan Mohammed, after he saw them together in his Qazafi Town house. They said that the police reached the crime-scene and found the victims in a pool of blood.

The police said an initial investigation into the double murder also indicated that the suspect, a factory worker, along with his brother, Asif Khan Tanoli, murdered the victims.

The area senior police officer (SPO), DSP Jabbar Qaimkhani, told Dawn that Shazia’s elder sister had been married to Jan Mohammed and the victim sent a proposal for Shazia after the death of his wife some one and a half years ago.

He said his proposal was rejected by the woman’s family as Shazia was already engaged to the suspect. The SPO quoted the suspect as saying that he had suspected an illicit relationship between his wife and her former brother-in-law since their marriage a year ago.

He said Jam Mohammed’s brother, Taj Mohammed, told the police that the suspect owed Rs10,000 to his brother and Rashid had called his brother on Tuesday night over the phone and asked him to collect the money on Wednesday.

According to the victim’s brother, the SPO said, Jan Mohammed had gone to the suspect’s house to collect the money.

He said that during the preliminary interrogation the suspect broke down and admitted that he had called the victim to his house.

The suspect told the police that his elder brother hit Jan Mohammed on the head with an axe and then he took the axe from his brother and hit the neck and chest of the victim with it.

Suspect Tanoli stated that his wife took shelter in the kitchen as he and his brother killed Jan Mohammed and then he brought the woman to the room and axed her to death. The SPO said the suspect’s elder brother fled and the police were making efforts to track him down.

He said a case against the two brothers would be registered on the complaint of Jan Mohammed’s brother, Taj Mohammed. The bodies were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for autopsies.

Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that the young woman’s throat was slit and she also received wounds on her chest. They said the man received a fatal wound to his head. He also received wounds in his chest, the sources added.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/21/2009