KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), celebrating 50 years since its formation, announced that it will be holding golden jubilee celebrations on November 30, while also demanding that the Supreme Court put the names of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family, including Captain (retd) Safdar, on the exit control list (ECL).

A party meeting, chaired by Bilawal Bhutto, was held to form a committee to manage PPP’s 50-year celebrations. Soon after which, various party leaders addressed a press conference, condemning Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), their workers and supporters for creating mayhem at the National Accountability Courts during the hearing of the graft case.

Imran throws down gauntlet at PML-N, PPP

Senator Farhatullah Babar, Senator Sherry Rehman, Senator Nayar Bukhari, PPP Central Executive Committee member Chaudhry Manzoor, former chief minister Qaim Ali Shah and Faisal Kareem Kundi were among those who addressed the press conference.

“This all is being done under a planned strategy,” said Bukhari, adding that PML-N leaders were adopting delay tactics in this case as well.

Commenting on the confession statement recently released by Lyari gang kingpin Uzair Baloch, the PPP leaders deemed it baseless and said, “Such allegations have already been levied on us by various people that are just out to malign PPP and its leadership.”

Manzoor speaking about the party’s golden jubilee celebrations said, “We will not celebrate a day, we will celebrate a year to commemorate the party. The celebrations will start from November 30 this year and go on until November 30, 2018.”

Chorus calling for PM’s resignation grows louder

He also said that a conference will be held on November 30 this year in Islamabad, to which people from Pakistan, as well as the international community, will be invited.

“We have lost four of our leaders in the past 50 years and witnessed four martial laws,” he said, speaking about PPP’s journey while lauding the jiyalas (party workers) for their unwavering support. He said that all divisions will also hold year-long celebrations all over the country.

Babar said that we shall also celebrate a year of reforms with the people of Fata since they have been suffering through atrocities and will finally be getting the relief they are rightfully entitled to and deserve.

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Source: Tribune News | PPP celebrates 50 years, demands PML-N leader be put on ECL

TORONTO: A US-Canadian couple freed in Pakistan this week, nearly five years after being abducted in Afghanistan, returned to Canada on Friday where the husband said one of his children had been murdered and his wife had been raped.

American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were kidnapped while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012 by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network. They arrived in Canada with three of their children. “Obviously, it will be of incredible importance to my family that we are able to build a secure sanctuary for our three surviving children to call a home,” Boyle told reporters after arriving at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, wearing a black sweatshirt and sporting a beard.

Kidnapped US-Canadian couple returns to Canada

Pakistani troops rescued the family in the northwest of the country, near the Afghan border, this week. The United States has long accused Pakistan of failing to fight the Taliban-allied Haqqani network.

“The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani network in the kidnapping of a pilgrim … was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter,” Boyle said, reading from a statement, in a calm voice. “And the stupidity and evil of the subsequent rape of my wife, not as a lone action, but by one guard, but assisted by the captain of the guard and supervised by the commandant.”

He did not elaborate on what he meant by ‘pilgrim’, or on the murder or rape. Coleman was not at the news conference. Boyle said the Taliban, who he referred to by their official name – the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – had carried out an investigation last year and conceded that the crimes against his family were perpetrated by the Haqqani network.

He called on the Taliban “to provide my family with the justice we are owed”. “God willing, this litany of stupidity will be the epitaph of the Haqqani network,” said an exhausted-looking Boyle. He did not take questions form reporters. The family traveled from Pakistan to London and then to Toronto.

Joshua Boyle walks through a door before arriving with his wife and three children at Toronto Pearson International Airport, nearly 5 years after him and his wife were abducted in Afghanistan in 2012 by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 13, 2017
PHOTO: REUTERS

Boyle provided a written statement to the Associated Press on one of their flights saying his family had “unparalleled resilience and determination.” AP reported that Coleman wore a tan-coloured headscarf and sat with the two older children in the business class cabin. Boyle sat with their youngest child on his lap. US State Department officials were on the plane with them, AP added.

‘Helping villagers’

One of the children was in poor health and had to be force-fed by their Pakistani rescuers, Boyle told AP. Reuters could not independently confirm the details. They are expected to travel to Boyle’s family home in Smiths Falls, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Ottawa, to be reunited with his parents. Canada has been actively engaged with Boyle’s case at all levels and would continue to support the family, the Canadian government said in a statement.

“At this time, we ask that the privacy of Mr Boyle’s family be respected,” it said. The journey home was complicated by Boyle’s refusal to board a US military aircraft in Pakistan, according to two US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Boyle instead asked to be flown to Canada. But Boyle said he never refused to board any mode of transportation that would bring him closer to home.

Will couple rescue mark a new beginning in ties with US?

Boyle had once been married to the sister of an inmate at the US military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. The marriage ended and the inmate was later released to Canada. The families of the captives have been asked repeatedly why Boyle and Coleman had been backpacking in such a dangerous region. Coleman was pregnant at the time.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Boyle told the news conference he had been in Afghanistan helping “villagers who live deep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where no NGO, no aid worker, and no government” had been able to reach. The Taliban and Haqqani network share the same goals of forcing out foreign troops and ousting the US-backed government in Kabul but they are distinct organizations with separate command structures.

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Source: Tribune News | Taliban killed infant, raped US wife: Canadian kidnapped in Afghanistan

QUETTA: Balochistan Health Minister Rehmat Saleh Baloch has said that the provincial government was committed to eliminating morbidity and mortality relating to vaccine preventable diseases.

“This is reflected by recent increase in the fund and mobilisation resources by the government to strengthen routine immunisation,” he said while speaking to a delegation of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) – a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health – commissioners and deputy commissioners, health officers and Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) officers at the Quarterly EPI review meeting of the third quarter on Friday.

He said all possible steps would be taken to create awareness among the people of far-off areas of the province about the success of the EPI programme.

The two-day review meeting discussed challenges and bottlenecks faced by the district immunisation coverage in the province.

Dr Shakir Baloch, provincial EPI manager and director-general, assured district administration officers of full support to improve and sustain the progress of the EPI programme.

216 doctors for remote Balochistan districts

The meeting expressed concern over low level of success, noting that the immunisation programme for children in Balochistan had a 16% success rate which was the lowest among all the provinces in Pakistan.

It was pointed out that major reasons behind the alarming situation were inadequate allocation – both financial and human resources – to the EPI programme, management issues at the provincial and district level, non-availability of data regarding population figures, vaccine availability, storage/handling and above all awareness and willingness of the masses to get their children vaccinated.

Immunisation coverage in Balochistan has been low, the meeting was briefed. The government of Balochistan has set an ambitious target to improve immunisation coverage and released significant resources over the last year to reach these goals.

To support the government in its targets, Gavi and UNICEF are undertaking work to identify and help the government address barriers that remain in turning the resources into an increase in immunisation coverage.

Currently pegged at 54%: K-P govt looks to boost routine immunisation

Later, Health Minister Rehmat Baloch distributed the cold chain management system, motorcycles, vehicles among district health officers at a ceremony held at the EPI headquarters.

GAVI had announced $20 million to assist with the cold chain management system for vaccines in Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Baloch said: “The cold chain management system would be set up in all six divisions of the province.”

“With the provision of the cold chain, now we will be able to preserve anti-polio and other vaccines for a year,” he added.

“Through the EPI we will be able to control all major diseases affecting the children in the province,” he said, adding, “We will protect our children.”

He urged parents and civil society to play their role in making the government move a successes.

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Source: Tribune News | Vaccination success low in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided that it would strongly respond to all ‘exaggerated’ human rights violation cases which have been reported at the international level to defame Pakistan and sabotage its developing economy.

Parliamentary Secretary for Human Rights MNA Dr Nisar Jatt, while speaking to The Express Tribune, said: “There are various enemies of the country who are making all-out efforts to tarnish the country’s image by misreporting the human rights violation cases at international level.”

Jatt said that the issue was also discussed in recent meeting held with the Federal Minister for Human Rights Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar and State Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Usman Ibrahim. He said during the meeting it was decided that it was high time for Pakistan to actively play its role in improving its image at the international level.

Human rights violations: Pakistan attempts to counter negative image

Parliamentary secretary said that currently some officials of the human rights ministry are abroad on an official visit and once they return a proper framework will be developed after consulting with stakeholders, related ministries and departments.

While answering to a question Jatt said, “Currently some of our neighboring counties such as India, who is against China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), cannot see Pakistan growing economically and is working to defame Pakistan.”

It is a fact that human rights violations also take place in some of our neighboring countries but their cases are normally suppressed at the international level, remarked the lawmaker.

“In the past we have seen how a minor case of human rights violation was misreported at the international level and the way Pakistan was defamed in providing no security to minorities in the country,” Jatt deplored.

He said that it is a fact that compared to previous years, the human rights situation is improving in Pakistan, “and this needs to be told to the world.”

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Source: Tribune News | ‘Exaggerated’ cases: Rights record’s negative portrayal to be challenged

PESHAWAR: Workers of Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Friday forced their way into Tehmas Khan Stadium after the district administration denied them permission to hold their Fata Youth Conference inside the venue.

Party workers were seen breaking the locks on the main gate in the evening. Party flags were later raised across the stadium walls and chairs were arranged for participants.

JUI-F has scheduled its Fata Youth Convention on Saturday (today) and sent a request to the district administration for permission to use the venue, but the party’s provincial spokesperson Abdul Jalil Jan told The Express Tribune that the district administration had not given them permission through a no objection certificate (NOC).

“First the conference was scheduled outside Governor House, but on the request of the district administration, it was shifted to Tehmash Stadium. Now we have been denied an NOC to hold the event,” Jan said, adding, that workers entered the venue to make arrangements.

The spokesperson said JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman will address the gathering at 2pm, and that party workers from the tribal regions will be participating.

Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Saqib Aslam Raza told the media that the stadium comes under the authority of the Directorate of Sports and the district administration has nothing to do with it.

Sports Director General Junaid Khan told The Express Tribune that renovation work was under way at the stadium and hosting an event could disturb the construction work.

Furthermore, he said there is a ban in place on holding political gathering inside sports complexes.

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Source: Tribune News | JUI-F workers break into stadium after NOC rejected