PPP won’t be part of campaign to derail democracy: Sharjeel Memon

KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister, Sharjeel Inam Memon Thursday said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will not be a part of the forces bent upon derailing democratic process in the country.

Addressing a program at Karachi Press Club (KPC) in connection with distribution of plot allotments to the journalists, he said Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chief and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan have one objective but their approach is different.

To a question, he termed Tahirul Qadri’s movement for ‘revolution’ as untimely and unjustified, adding the mandate of democratically elected government of Pakistan Muslim League-N must be respected.

“Tahirul Qadri should first bring about a revolution in the country of his nationality–Canada,” he said, adding the government should be allowed to serve its full tenure.

He also took a dig at Tahirul Qadri over his unwillingness to disembark Emirates plane at Lahore airport, saying such moves can bring a bad name to the country.

Commenting on the Model Town issue, he slammed the incumbent government, describing its conduct as dictatorial.

To another question in connection with allowing entry to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Sindh province, he said the Chief Minister has already announced a relief of Rs500 million. He said relief camps for collection of succour have been set up in various districts of Sindh from where truckloads of relief supplies will be transported to the IDPs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Replying to a query in connection with PTI’s warning to resign from assemblies, Sharjeel Memon said rigging is no justification to roll back the ongoing democratic process in the country.

He said PPP will never allow closure of any media group and that any move to muzzle the freedom of expression will be thwarted. “Those who believe they can gag the voice of truth and render the journalists unemployed live in fools’ paradise,” he added.

The Information Minister announced construction of auditorium and press conference hall for Karachi Press Club this year. He said the KPC should identify the place, the requisite funds will be arranged by the Sindh Governemnt.

He also announced establishment of Endowment Fund for the journalists in the current year.

Later, he distributed plot challans among the members of KPC.

Hindutva outfit launches campaign to ban Fajr Azan in India

MANGALORE: In a controversial demand that may spark widespread uproar, a less popular Hindutva outfit has called for a strict ban on dawn Azan (Fajr prayer call from Masjids)across India.

Recently, dozens of Hindutva activists including a controversial swamiji, who had earlier tried to commit suicide, staged a protest in front of the office of Deputy Commissioner in Mangalore to pressurize the authorities concerned to strictly impose ban on Azan during early morning.

The protest was held under the banner of Rashtriya Hindu Andolan and some of the protesters were displaying the banner of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, an extremist Hindutva outfit. The protest comes a day ahead of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Sanatan Sanstha activist Vijayalakshmi said that even though India has granted religious freedom for all the people, followers of one religion should not misuse this freedom to disturb the followers of other religions in the society.

Using a derogatory word for Azan, she said that when Muslims shout using loudspeakers every morning they should know that it would disturb sleep of a majority of people in the society.

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti activist Vivek Pai said that the right to sleep peacefully is also comes under the ambit of fundamental rights of every Indian citizen. “The use of loudspeakers should not be permitted from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The supreme court also had directed to impose ban on playing loud music or making any type of noise between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. However, this ban has not been applied to the early morning Azan,” he said adding that in some places Muslims deliberately cause noise pollution through loudspeakers in the early morning.

He said that those who use loudspeakers for Azan before 6 a.m. in the morning should be arrested and punished.

Rashtriya Hindu Andolan activist Ramesh Nayak said that many Masjids are located in the area of schools, colleges, hostels and hospitals. Loudspeakers used by such Masjids will always cause problems for students and patients, he added.

Egypt presidential election campaign opens after bombings

CAIRO: Campaigning opens Saturday in Egypt for a May election likely to be won by the ex-army chief who deposed the elected president, after deadly bombings underscored tensions ahead of the vote.

The May 26-27 presidential poll, meant to restore elected rule following the July overthrow of Islamist Mohamed Morsi, is widely seen as a done deal that will place former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in power.

His only rival, Hamdeen Sabbahi, came third in the 2012 election which Morsi won, and faces a groundswell of support for Sisi since the ouster of the divisive Islamist leader.

Sabbahi says he represents the ideals of the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

But more than three tumultuous year later, many voters yearn for a self proclaimed strong leader such as Sisi to restore stability.

Sisi, reviled by Morsi´s Islamist supporters, has vowed to stamp out a surge in militant attacks such as the two bombings on Friday that killed a policeman in the capital and a soldier in the Sinai Peninsula.

If he wins, he will restore a line of military men at the helm of the country that was briefly interrupted by the civilian Morsi´s year in power.

Morsi´s Muslim Brotherhood and the militants are expected to increase protests and attacks should Sisi win, despite the widest crackdown on Islamists in decades. At least 1,400 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in street clashes, including hundreds on August 14 alone, while thousands have been jailed and placed on trials.

Bombers kill soldier, policeman ahead of Egypt vote campaign

CAIRO: Bombers killed a policeman and a soldier in Egypt Friday, hours before campaigning starts in presidential polls which the former army chief who deposed the elected Islamist leader is expected to win.

Militants have unleashed a wave of attacks targeting security forces since presidential frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi in July.

The army led by the now retired field marshall also installed an interim government that has waged a deadly crackdown on Morsi´s supporters and his Muslim Brotherhood movement.

A bomb struck a traffic police kiosk near a courthouse in the north Cairo district of Heliopolis, killing one policeman and wounding four others, interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told.

The interior ministry later said the bomb had been concealed in a traffic light.

The attack came just hours after two suicide bombers attacked a checkpoint and a nearby bus outside the South Sinai provincial capital Al-Tur, security officials said.A soldier was killed and six policemen wounded by the first bomber, and five civilians wounded by the second, the officials said.

Security forces have deployed in strength to protect the resorts along the South Sinai coast that are a major plank of the country´s battered tourism sector.

Friday´s bombings came a day before the start of official campaigning in the May 26-27 presidential election which will see leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi as Sisi´s sole rival.

Sabbahi came third in the 2012 election which Morsi won, and is seen by supporters as the only leader representing the aspirations of those who revolted against longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.A statement from the prime minister´s officer said, meanwhile, that Friday´s violence would not undermine Egypt´s determination to hold "fair presidential and parliamentary polls".

Morsi´s Brotherhood, which swept all elections since Mubarak´s fall, is blacklisted as a "terrorist" organisation and said it will boycott the polls.

33 killed by bombers at Iraq campaign rally

BAGHDAD: Suicide bombers killed 33 people Friday at a sports stadium hosting a campaign rally for thousands of supporters of a militant Shia group before parliamentary elections, authorities said — an attack that could unleash more sectarian violence.

An al-Qaida breakaway group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, claimed responsibility for the attack at the Industrial Stadium in eastern Baghdad, which drew about 10,000 backers of the Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq group.

It said on a militant website that the bombings were to avenge what it called the killing of Sunnis and their forced removal from their homes by Shia militias.

The authenticity of the claim could not be independently verified. The attack was a stark reminder of the sectarian violence that has plagued Iraq more than two years after U.S. troops ended an eight-year presence that often served as a buffer between the nation´s Shia majority and its Sunni Arab minority.

Last year, the death toll in the country climbed to its highest levels since the worst of the sectarian bloodshed between 2006 and 2008. The U.N. says 8,868 people were killed in 2013, and more than 1,400 people were killed in the first two months of this year alone.

The rally was organized to introduce the group´s candidates for Wednesday´s vote. More than 9,000 candidates are taking part and will vie for 328 seats in parliament

CIA’s Pakistan drone campaign carried out by US air force: Report

LONDON: A report published in ‘The Guardian’ reveals that a US air force unit in the Nevada desert is flying the CIA’s drone strike programme in Pakistan.

The report published in ‘The Guardian’ is based on a documentary ‘Drone’ in which former drone operators claimed that personnel from the US air force were flying the CIA’s Predator missions in Pakistan.

The documentary identifies the 17th Reconnaissance Squadron operating from a secure compound in Creech air force base in the Mojave Desert as the unit conducting CIA drone strikes in Pakistan.

The National Security Council and CIA declined to comment when approached by ‘The Guardian’ while the Pentagon did not respond.

A former US Predator operator, Brandon Bryant told the film he had decided to speak out after senior officials in the Obama administration gave a briefing last year in which they wanted to “transfer” control of the CIA’s secret drones programme to the military.

Bryants claims were corroborated by six other former drone operators who worked alongside the unit but none of them were prepared to go on the record.

Mass polio vaccine campaign launched after Iraq case

BAGHDAD: Authorities launched a massive polio vaccination campaign on Sunday in Iraq, Syria and Egypt after health officials found a suspected case of the virus in a young boy near Baghdad.

The five-day campaign aims to vaccinate more than 20 million children, including 5.6 million in Iraq alone, UNICEF said, with confirmed cases in conflict-hit neighboring Syria having sparked a region-wide alert. "Polio eradication is a global priority," UNICEF's representative in Iraq Marzio Babille said in a statement.

"I appeal to the people of Iraq to join hands in ensuring every child under the age of five is vaccinated during the upcoming April polio campaign, regardless of how many doses they've received previously."

Last month, Iraq's health ministry said it found a case of polio in a young boy in Bab Al-Sham, near Baghdad, the country's first such case in 14 years.

Health ministry spokesman Ziad Tariq said at the time that officials believed the case originated in Syria, which shares a long border with Iraq's restive western province of Anbar.

In early January, anti-government fighters took control of all of the Anbar city of Falluja, and parts of the provincial capital Ramadi, some of which they still hold.

A total of 27 children have been paralysed by polio in Syria through the end of March, according to the UN, including 18 in Deir Ezzor, the Syrian province across the border from Anbar.

Lebanon and Turkey will join the regional polio vaccination campaign on April 10 and April 18 respectively, according to UNICEF.

Mass polio vaccine campaign launched after Iraq case

BAGHDAD: Authorities launched a massive polio vaccination campaign on Sunday in Iraq, Syria and Egypt after health officials found a suspected case of the virus in a young boy near Baghdad.

The five-day campaign aims to vaccinate more than 20 million children, including 5.6 million in Iraq alone, UNICEF said, with confirmed cases in conflict-hit neighboring Syria having sparked a region-wide alert. "Polio eradication is a global priority," UNICEF's representative in Iraq Marzio Babille said in a statement.

"I appeal to the people of Iraq to join hands in ensuring every child under the age of five is vaccinated during the upcoming April polio campaign, regardless of how many doses they've received previously."

Last month, Iraq's health ministry said it found a case of polio in a young boy in Bab Al-Sham, near Baghdad, the country's first such case in 14 years.

Health ministry spokesman Ziad Tariq said at the time that officials believed the case originated in Syria, which shares a long border with Iraq's restive western province of Anbar.

In early January, anti-government fighters took control of all of the Anbar city of Falluja, and parts of the provincial capital Ramadi, some of which they still hold.

A total of 27 children have been paralysed by polio in Syria through the end of March, according to the UN, including 18 in Deir Ezzor, the Syrian province across the border from Anbar.

Lebanon and Turkey will join the regional polio vaccination campaign on April 10 and April 18 respectively, according to UNICEF.