Monday, December 24, 2007
KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Mian Nawaz Sharif Sunday called on former president of the Supreme Court Bar Munir A. Malik at his residence here and paid tribute to him for his role in the lawyers’ movement.
Presidents of Sindh High Court Bar and Karachi Bar Association Justice (Rtd) Rasheed Rizvi and Mehmood-ul-Hassan Advocate were also present during the meeting.
Nawaz Sharif lauded the role of lawyers’ movement adding that his party and the lawyers are struggling for the same cause.
MINGORA: A suicide bomber here killed nine people and wounded almost 30 on Sunday when he rammed his car into a military convoy in the restive northwest valley of Swat.
The attack took place near the town of Mingora in the troubled valley, a former tourist haven that has become a flashpoint for violence where the military has been battling followers of a hardline pro-Taliban cleric.
The military in statement confirmed that four security forces personnel and three civilians were killed. It said 15 soldiers and 14 civilians were wounded.
More than 750 people have been killed in militant attacks this year -- and more than half of those since July, when the army raided a radical, pro-Taliban mosque in the capital Islamabad, killing 100 people.
The military launched a major offensive in the Swat valley in November, looking to drive out followers of Maulana Fazlullah, a radical cleric who has been looking to establish Islamic sharia law in the region.
He has since gone underground. There have been more than 40 suicide attacks in Pakistan this year, many of them targeting the military and security forces.
The last attack came on Friday, when a bomber wearing a vest packed with ball-bearings blew himself up in a crowded mosque, killing 56 people but missing the intended target, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao.
Sherpao, a close ally of President Pervez Musharraf and a candidate in next month's parliamentary election, oversaw a government crackdown on militants this year when he was in the cabinet.
He survived another suicide attack in April that killed at least 24 people. The latest bombing came just two weeks ahead of the January 8 vote, which militants have vowed to disrupt.
KARACHI: Renowned TV and film actor Izhar Qazi passes away at the age of 52. He acted in over 100 films and numerous TV plays.
Izhar made his debut in the early 80s through Fatima Surayya Bajia's Ana and his last appearance on the mini screen came in the 90s, when he played a vigilante in Syed Noor's Zakham.
But films remained his forte till his early retirement in the new millennium. He acted in Punjabi and Urdu films his most famous ones being Love In Nepal, Aalmi Jasoos, Khazana and Sar Kata Insaan.
While acting in various television plays and making more than 10 films, Izhar Qazi was also fond of singing and did work as a playback singer in some films. He went on to release an album.
He died of cardiac arrest while attending a marriage ceremony last night.
His funeral prayers will be offered at Masjid Darul Khair Gulistan-i-Jauhar after Asar prayers whereas burial would be take place in Model Colony graveyard.
Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has accused government security forces of pressuring candidates to drop out of next month's elections.
Ms. Bhutto told reporters during a campaign stop Thursday that the government is sending intelligence officials to ask candidates to withdraw.
Next month's elections are for assemblies in Pakistan's four provinces and a national assembly from which a prime minister and a government will be chosen.
The vote is seen as a three-way race among the opposition parties of former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf.
However, opposition political figures accuse Mr. Musharraf of already rigging the balloting to favor his supporters.
In other news, Pakistani authorities have temporarily released lawyer and opposition figure Aitzaz Ahsan for three days to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Ahsan, a senior figure in Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, was detained last month under emergency powers that President Musharraf invoked on November 3.
He served as lead counsel for Supreme Court Chief Justice Itikhar Chaudhry, whose suspension earlier this year triggered nationwide protests.
The protests led to Mr. Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule and his dismissal of Chaudhry and other judges seen as hostile to the president's reelection while he remained army chief.
This snap was taken today, - a cloudy morning.
This is a typical trailers you can see on the roads of Karachi, Pakistan. In this case, an APL container is being driven on this trailer and the way it has been placed on the deck, it can easily scare you if you happen to be on the left side of the vehicle.
In July 2006, we had two major accidents in Karachi where such trailers couldn’t keep their balance and their loads came to ground.
