ISLAMABAD: Six leading political contenders in Pakistan’s July 25 poll are being targeted by terrorists, according to the country’s National Counter Terrorism Authority (NATCA).
NACTA official Obaid Farooq told a Senate standing committee on Monday that the six political figures were Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Awami National Party’s (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali (Khan) and its leader Ameer Haider (Khan) Hoti; Qaumi Watan party chief Aftab (Ahmed Khan) Sherpao; Akram Khan Durrani of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F); and little-known Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek’s candidate (Hafiz) Talha Saeed, son of Hafiz Saeed, the alleged Mumbai attacks mastermind.
Farooq claimed the “senior leadership” of two of the country’s largest political factions, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), were also under threat.
Fareed Rehman, PTI’s senior vice president for Islamabad, criticized the security arrangements extended to Imran Khan.
“(Imran) Khan has the highest number of threats conveyed to us in advance by NACTA,” he said, confirming the terror watchdog’s notifications on the threat level.
Rehman told Arab News that “when we ask authorities to provide security and allied facilities, no jammers, walk-through gates, bomb disposal units, ambulances or an evacuation plan are provided.”
ANP leader Afrasiab Khattak said he was unaware of any warning to the party.
Party candidates were busy campaigning, but no information on the terror threat had been disclosed during internal meetings, he said.
The terror watchdog received reports from intelligence agencies last week of 12 threats of which six were aimed at the politicians.
NACTA told the standing committee that responsibility to ensure safety and security during elections is being looked after by the Individual Security Threat Assessment Committee.
The National Accountability Bureau building is under threat from a vehicle bombing, Deputy Inspector General of Islamabad police Waqar Ahmed Chohan told the briefing.
The NAB has been in the spotlight since it took up the corruption cases of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and prosecuted the disqualified PML-N leader along with his daughter and son-in-law in the Avenfield house case.
Sen. Rehman Malik, chairman of the standing committee, ordered the Law Ministry to provide security to the politicians and NAB.
Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, Babar Yaqoob, he said had alerted the committee of possible violence as the political campaigns gain momentum.
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Pakistan political leaders ‘face terror threat ahead of polls’
Pakistan political leaders ‘face terror threat ahead of polls’
- NACTA told the standing committee that responsibility to ensure safety and security during elections
- The NAB has been in the spotlight since it took up the corruption cases of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
Danish ‘ghetto’ tenants hope for EU discrimination win
COPENHAGEN: The European Court of Justice is to rule Thursday whether a Danish law requiring authorities to redevelop poor urban “ghettos” with high concentrations of “non-Western immigrants and their descendants” is discriminatory.
The law means that all social housing estates where more than half of residents are “non-Western” — previously defined as “ghettos” by the government — must rebuild, renovate and change the social mix by renting at least 60 percent of the homes at market rates by 2030.
Danish authorities, which have for decades advocated a hard line on immigration, say the law is aimed at eradicating segregation and “parallel societies” in poor neighborhoods that often struggle with crime.
In the Mjolnerparken housing estate in central Copenhagen, long associated with petty crime and delinquency, residents are confident they’ll win the case they’ve brought before the European court.
They argue that using their ethnicity to decide where they can live is discriminatory and illegal.
“100 percent we will win,” insisted Julia, a resident who did not want to tell AFP her last name.
She said the law was solely about “discrimination and racism.”
Muhammad Aslam, head of the social housing complex’s tenants’ association, was more measured, saying he was “full of hope.”
- Long legal battle -
Mjolnerparken residents filed their lawsuit in 2020.
A preliminary opinion by the European Court of Justice’s advocate general in February called the policy “direct discrimination.”
If the court’s final ruling were to be along those lines, “we will be ... completely satisfied,” Aslam said.
The 58-year-old owner of a transport company who hails originally from Pakistan, he has lived in the estate since it was created in 1987.
He and his wife raised four children in their four-room apartment, children who are now a lawyer, an engineer, a psychologist and a social worker, he said proudly.
“I who am self-employed as well as my children are all included in the negative statistics used to label our neighborhood a ‘ghetto’, a parallel society,” he fumed, referring to official data on the number of non-Western residents.
In Mjolnerparken, the landlord took advantage of a renovation of the four apartment blocks, decided by residents in 2015, to speed up the transformation of the complex and comply with the new legislation.
All of the residents — a total of 1,493 in 2020 — had to be temporarily relocated so the apartments could be refurbished, a representative of the tenants’ association, Majken Felle, told AFP.
At the time, eight out of 10 people in Mjolnerparken were deemed “non-Western,” with people from non-EU countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe also falling into that category.
- ‘Disadvantaged ethnic group’ -
In order to avoid moving from one temporary apartment to another during the lengthy renovations, many residents agreed to just move to another neighborhood.
And those who are determined to return — like Felle, the Aslams and Julia — are at the landlord’s mercy.
“We were supposed to be temporarily relocated for four months, and now it’s been more than three years. Each year, they give us four or five different dates” for when the work will be completed, Aslam sighed.
In total, 295 of Mjolnerparken’s 560 homes have been replaced, with two apartment blocks sold and replaced by market-rate rentals out of reach for social housing tenants.
Experts say some 11,000 people across Denmark will have to leave their apartments and find new housing elsewhere by 2030.
“The effort to diversify neighborhoods might indeed be well intended. Nevertheless, such diversification cannot be achieved by placing an already disadvantaged ethnic group in a less favorable position,” the advocate general said in February.
“However, in the present situation, the Danish legislation does precisely that.”
Even if the court does not rule in residents’ favor on Thursday, the legal case could still continue in Denmark, Felle said.
But it would be a serious setback.
“That would mean that Denmark had carte blanche to adopt as many discriminatory laws as it wants,” said Lamies Nassri of the Center for Muslims’ Rights in Denmark.
“It affects the whole country when there are discriminatory laws, especially Muslim citizens who have been particularly marginalized and stereotyped.”
The law means that all social housing estates where more than half of residents are “non-Western” — previously defined as “ghettos” by the government — must rebuild, renovate and change the social mix by renting at least 60 percent of the homes at market rates by 2030.
Danish authorities, which have for decades advocated a hard line on immigration, say the law is aimed at eradicating segregation and “parallel societies” in poor neighborhoods that often struggle with crime.
In the Mjolnerparken housing estate in central Copenhagen, long associated with petty crime and delinquency, residents are confident they’ll win the case they’ve brought before the European court.
They argue that using their ethnicity to decide where they can live is discriminatory and illegal.
“100 percent we will win,” insisted Julia, a resident who did not want to tell AFP her last name.
She said the law was solely about “discrimination and racism.”
Muhammad Aslam, head of the social housing complex’s tenants’ association, was more measured, saying he was “full of hope.”
- Long legal battle -
Mjolnerparken residents filed their lawsuit in 2020.
A preliminary opinion by the European Court of Justice’s advocate general in February called the policy “direct discrimination.”
If the court’s final ruling were to be along those lines, “we will be ... completely satisfied,” Aslam said.
The 58-year-old owner of a transport company who hails originally from Pakistan, he has lived in the estate since it was created in 1987.
He and his wife raised four children in their four-room apartment, children who are now a lawyer, an engineer, a psychologist and a social worker, he said proudly.
“I who am self-employed as well as my children are all included in the negative statistics used to label our neighborhood a ‘ghetto’, a parallel society,” he fumed, referring to official data on the number of non-Western residents.
In Mjolnerparken, the landlord took advantage of a renovation of the four apartment blocks, decided by residents in 2015, to speed up the transformation of the complex and comply with the new legislation.
All of the residents — a total of 1,493 in 2020 — had to be temporarily relocated so the apartments could be refurbished, a representative of the tenants’ association, Majken Felle, told AFP.
At the time, eight out of 10 people in Mjolnerparken were deemed “non-Western,” with people from non-EU countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe also falling into that category.
- ‘Disadvantaged ethnic group’ -
In order to avoid moving from one temporary apartment to another during the lengthy renovations, many residents agreed to just move to another neighborhood.
And those who are determined to return — like Felle, the Aslams and Julia — are at the landlord’s mercy.
“We were supposed to be temporarily relocated for four months, and now it’s been more than three years. Each year, they give us four or five different dates” for when the work will be completed, Aslam sighed.
In total, 295 of Mjolnerparken’s 560 homes have been replaced, with two apartment blocks sold and replaced by market-rate rentals out of reach for social housing tenants.
Experts say some 11,000 people across Denmark will have to leave their apartments and find new housing elsewhere by 2030.
“The effort to diversify neighborhoods might indeed be well intended. Nevertheless, such diversification cannot be achieved by placing an already disadvantaged ethnic group in a less favorable position,” the advocate general said in February.
“However, in the present situation, the Danish legislation does precisely that.”
Even if the court does not rule in residents’ favor on Thursday, the legal case could still continue in Denmark, Felle said.
But it would be a serious setback.
“That would mean that Denmark had carte blanche to adopt as many discriminatory laws as it wants,” said Lamies Nassri of the Center for Muslims’ Rights in Denmark.
“It affects the whole country when there are discriminatory laws, especially Muslim citizens who have been particularly marginalized and stereotyped.”
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