PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said on Friday the polling body and security officials had chalked out a comprehensive plan to ensure that upcoming elections in the erstwhile tribal areas were held in a secure and peaceful environment but said it would consider relocating hundreds of polling stations at a security risk if candidates and tribal elders officially requested it.
Last May, Pakistan’s parliament voted to merge seven lawless tribal regions previously known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas into the country’s political and legal mainstream, granting the area’s five million majority ethnic Pashtuns the same constitutional rights as other Pakistanis.
The first-ever provincial elections in the newly merged areas are now scheduled for July 20. Over the years, the lawlessness of the tribal regions have provided a haven for militants, gun runners and drug smugglers, with residents complaining they have been caught between the brutality of the militant groups that sheltered there and a state that has tried to combat them through armed operations. Security remains precarious.
This week, tribal leaders and candidates of some opposition parties demanded that the Election Commission shift polling stations located in sensitive areas to more secure locations in the newly-merged districts and deploy women security personnel in women-only polling stations.
According to the Election Commission, there will be polling at 1,897 stations throughout the erstwhile tribal areas on July 20, with 958 of them declared normal, 584 sensitive and 455 marked as most sensitive.
Khushal Zada, a deputy director at the ECP, told Arab News that those demanding that sensitive polling stations be shifted to secure zones should officially approach the Election Commission.
“We can consider this if they officially come up with an application regarding relocation of those polling stations declared highly sensitive,” Zada said. “There are no official complaints about inaccessibility or imminent insecurity even in remote polling stations.”
“District police officers chalked out an inclusive security plan at a meeting attended by Returning Officers, District Returning Officers and top security officials to secure all polling stations, specifically those declared most sensitive,” Zada added.
He said election staff would be reinforced by security forces and police on patrol duty.
Sohail Ahmad, provincial ECP spokesman, said the military would ensure security during the upcoming election in the erstwhile FATA areas.
As per the ECP’s plan, soldiers will be deployed inside and outside polling stations for all 16 seats in the provincial elections from July 18 to July 21 to assist the ECP in conducting free, fair and transparent elections. The military has been requisitioned by the ECP under Articles 220 and 245 of the Constitution.
Security forces will be deployed at the Printing Corporation of Pakistan in Islamabad from July 5 to July 20 to help transport and store ballot papers. Soldiers will escort ballot papers from the printing corporation to the offices of the District Returning Officers and the Returning Officers and then from the offices of ROs to the polling stations. After polling ends, security forces will escort ballot papers back to the district treasuries and ECP strong rooms as per the plan issued by the commission. Troops will remain at the offices of returning officers until the consolidation of elections results.
Security forces will also be deployed at all venues where presiding officers, senior assistant presiding officers and polling officers will be trained from June 24 to July 7.
“Security personnel will be deployed inside and outside highly sensitive polling stations but they will only be deployed outside those polling stations declared sensitive and normal,” the ECP spokesman added.
Mir Kalam Wazir, an independent candidate, said he expected people to come out and vote even in highly sensitive areas but “there was no harm in relocating some polling stations if people were demanding it.”
Election commission says will consider relocating ‘sensitive’ polling stations for tribal belt elections
Election commission says will consider relocating ‘sensitive’ polling stations for tribal belt elections
- We can consider this option if tribal elders and candidates put in an official application, senior ECP official says
- On July 20, there will be polling at 1,897 stations of which 584 have been marked ‘sensitive’ and 455 ‘most sensitive’
Gunmen kill a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in northwest Pakistan
- At least 10 police have died this year while on security duty for vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence, with militants claiming campaigns sterilize children
PESHAWAR: Gunmen fatally shot a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in Pakistan’s northwest, an official said Tuesday.
At least 10 police have died this year while on security duty for vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The gunmen fired at a team working in Bajaur district, killing the officer on the spot, police officer Dilawar Khan said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
A five-day anti-polio campaign started Monday in 13 high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. More than 21,000 teams are tasked with administering vaccines to 4,423,000 children under age 5. More than 32,000 police are protecting the teams.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped.
The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under age 5 and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Occupiers using ‘fake news’ against freedom struggles in Kashmir, Palestine — Pakistan’s UN envoy
- Conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have become key battlegrounds in an information war
- Online propaganda fighting to make people around the world take sides, harden positions
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram, has said occupying powers were increasingly using fake news and disinformation campaigns to subdue freedom struggles in Kashmir and Palestine, state-run APP said on Tuesday.
The conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have become key battlegrounds in an information war that goes far wider than their tightly drawn physical borders. Carefully crafted social media posts and other online propaganda are fighting to make people around the world take sides, harden their positions and even move broader public opinion.
While plenty of real imagery and accounts of the ensuing carnage have emerged, they have been intermingled with users pushing false claims and misrepresenting videos from other events.
“We are witnessing this today in the Gaza war and have witnessed this consistently in the case of occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Akram told the UN Committee on Information on Monday, referring to online disinformation campaigns.
Akram voiced regret that the use of digital media was “turbocharging” the spread of disinformation “to promote Islamophobia to justify foreign occupation and aggression to turn victims of aggression into the culprits.”
This had led Pakistan to initiate a resolution on disinformation which was unanimously adopted last year, the Pakistani envoy said, adding that consultations would soon take place to advance its objectives.
“Pakistan would welcome the development of an inter-governmentally formulated code of conduct for information integrity on digital platforms,” Akram said, adding that the increasing use of AI tools to spread false information and conduct digital surveillance needed to be addressed.
“At the core of information manipulation, Internet blackouts, censorship and the use of special media laws by the occupation authorities is a sinister design to de-legitimize freedom struggles and perpetuate a climate of fear, intimidation and violence,” Akram added.
In some instances with regards to the Gaza war, online propaganda simply involves the framing of real events, violent images and videos, and hate speech to emphasize the guilt of one side and vindicate the other.
But much of the material relies on the creation of what’s commonly referred to as fake news, in the form of fabricated stories published on social media that repurpose or mislabel real photos or videos.
For example, one post on X (formerly Twitter) that was viewed 300,000 times used a photo of an accidental fire at a McDonald’s restaurant in New Zealand to falsely claim the company had been attacked by pro-Palestinian protesters for its perceived support of Israel. Despite being debunked, the story was still the focus of heated discussions on social media channels.
There are also reports of excerpts from video games and old TikToks being shared with claims they are from real current events in Gaza, and fake government agency social media accounts posting disinformation.
Pakistan unveils advanced anti-rape cell in Karachi to boost conviction rate in sexual violence cases
- The model cell is an improved version of a pilot project launched in the southern Pakistani city last year
- A medical legal department at the center of the new cell will work with the police, empower prosecution
KARACHI: Less than eight months after the inauguration of the pioneering Anti-Rape Crisis Cell in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, authorities on Tuesday unveiled a model cell to address legal cases involving sexual- and gender-based violence.
According to War Against Rape, a non-profit organization, Pakistan witnessed 5,279 reported rape cases in 2021, with less than three percent resulting in convictions, highlighting the urgent need for such initiatives.
Dr. Summaiya Syed, Police Surgeon Karachi, said recent measures in the province, including the Sindh Sexual Violence Response Framework of 2021 and the launch of the pilot Anti-Rape Crisis Cell last year, had shown promising progress, taking the conviction rate in cases of sexual violence from five to 15 percent.
“It offers separate spaces which weren’t really available in the pilot project,” she said after the launch of the model cell at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Hospital in a ceremony attended by the provincial health minister, Dr. Azra Pehechu, as the chief guest.
“Now we have better a space, better organization, better referral pathways, better connections between those referral pathways and better availability of resources,” she added.
Dr. Syed said they had learned several things from the pilot project which were utilized while setting up the new establishment.
“We hope that here since now we have dedicated referral pathways, dedicated SOPs [standard operating procedures] will be followed,” she added. “I have better staff provisions over here. We hope to take that [conviction ratio] higher.”
Maliha Zia, Associate Director Legal Aid Society, said facilities like anti-rape cells generate proper and effective evidence in cases of rape which can be used during the prosecution stage.
She said the government of Sindh, along with the police and the judiciary, had been working extensively for the last three years on improving the state’s response to rape cases.
The initiatives taken by the provincial authorities, she added, included training of medical staff to understand the role that they need to play during the trial and the necessary changes they need to make while reporting these cases.
“All this work has culminated in the establishment of an anti-rape crisis cell which not only puts together the medical legal department at the center, a capacitated medical legal department, but connects it directly with the police and prosecution to make an effective case,” Zia continued, adding strong medical evidence and solitary statement of the survivor would result in conviction rates.
Pakistan’s top court resumes hearing on alleged intelligence interference in judiciary
- The Supreme Court took up the case after six high court judges accused powerful spy agencies of intimidating them
- Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa says that judgments and court orders ‘shout’ on their own if there has been any meddling
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top court on Tuesday resumed the hearing of a case involving accusations by six high court judges of interference and intimidation by the country’s powerful intelligence agencies in judicial matters.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan took up the case after six out of the eight Islamabad High Court judges accused the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of intimidating and coercing them over legal cases, particularly those with significant political consequences.
The judges provided various examples of alleged interference, including a case concerning Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister, Imran Khan. They also mentioned incidents where they said their relatives were abducted and tortured, and their homes were secretly surveilled, aiming to coerce them into delivering favorable judgments in specific cases.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, who has repeatedly noted that judicial meddling would not be tolerated, mentioned that such interference could occur in multiple ways.
“Interference can be from within and without, from intelligence agencies, from one’s colleagues and family members or from social media,” he said.
He maintained that judgments and court orders “shout” on their own if there has been interference.
The CJP initially constituted a seven-member bench that last heard the matter on April 3. However, the bench had to be reconstituted after Justice Yahya Afridi recused himself.
Prior to that, the top Supreme Court judge also discussed the matter with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during which it was decided to form an inquiry commission.
However, a former Pakistan chief justice, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, who was asked to head the commission, recused himself, asking the Supreme Court to deal with the issue on an institutional level.
Pakistani actress Mahira Khan bags ‘Artist in Fashion’ award at EMIGALA ceremony in Dubai
- EMIGALA awards in Dubai acknowledge creative and innovative impacts in the beauty and fashion industries
- With a string of successful projects in film and TV, Mahira Khan is considered Pakistan’s most successful actress
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani actress Mahira Khan bagged the “Artist in Fashion” award at the recently held prestigious EMIGALA awards in Dubai, where some of the world’s biggest names in fashion and beauty worldwide were honored.
Khan was in attendance at the award ceremony held at Festival Bay in Dubai on Apr. 27 and 28. The event featured an array of A-list attendees such as Brazilian-American beauty personality Camila Coelho, Lebanese-British fashion entrepreneur Karen Wazen, Dubai Bling star Loujain Adada, social media sensation Narins Beauty, Indian singer Arjit Singh and Khan, among others.
The EMIGALA awards acknowledge the creative and innovative impacts of global celebrities in the realms of beauty and fashion.
“The Artist in Fashion, Mahira Khan,” Emi Gala Awards wrote on Instagram with a picture of Khan posing with her trophy on Monday.
Khan is counted among Pakistan’s most prolific actresses, gaining widespread recognition for her work in her country’s entertainment industry. The Pakistani actress became a household name after a string of successful drama serials following which she forayed into movies and made her mark across the border in India.
She had her Bollywood debut opposite iconic actor Shah Rukh Khan in a crime action film, “Raees,” which was released in 2017. The Pakistani celebrity was also working on other Indian movie projects, though they could not take off when relations between the two countries deteriorated in 2016 after an Indian army brigade headquarters came under attack in Uri. The administration in New Delhi suspected Pakistan’s involvement which was denied by officials in Islamabad.
In 2021 Khan achieved another milestone when she debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, representing L’Oreal Paris Hair in her country. She has also represented various renowned local brands such as Elan, Zohra Rahman, and Menahel and Mehreen.
