KARACHI: Former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was Thursday granted permission to strengthen his already tight personal security due to threats to his life.
A judge in Sindh High Court in Karachi approved Zardari's application for 100 extra licenses for his bodyguards to carry weapons, on top of the official security he is entitled to as former head of state.
"The judge has approved our request and ordered the federal and provincial governments to ensure security for the former president," Abu Bakar Zardari, an aide to the president who filed a petition to the court on his behalf, told AFP.
Zardari's wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in 2007 in an attack blamed on the Pakistani Taleban. He is known to be very concerned about his personal safety and rarely moves about on the roads. When he does venture out, he travels in an entourage of more than a dozen vehicles, escorted by police commandos and three vanloads of paramilitary Rangers.
His convoy also regularly includes a vehicle carrying signal jammers to stop anyone using a mobile phone to detonate a bomb near him.
In July a suicide bomber killed Zardari's top personal security officer in an attack in Karachi.
Zardari, who is hugely unpopular in Pakistan and is nicknamed "Mr 10 Percent" due to unproven corruption allegations against him, stepped down as president last month after five years in office.
Asif Zardari to boost personal security
Asif Zardari to boost personal security
Russian FM slams ‘brazen’ Western plan to deploy force to Ukraine
- “This is not so much about security as it is about yet another attempt, you know, a brazen one,” Lavrov said
- Moscow has repeatedly railed against the idea of Western troops being deployed to Ukraine
CAIRO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday slammed a European proposal to create a multinational force to police any potential peace deal in Ukraine as a “brazen” threat to Russia.
“This is not so much about security as it is about yet another attempt, you know, a brazen one... to carry out the military development of Ukrainian territory as a springboard for creating threats to the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said, during a visit to Egypt.
Leaders of Kyiv’s key European allies — including Britain, France, Germany and Italy — said this week they were ready to deploy a European-led “multinational force Ukraine” to “assist in the regeneration of Ukraine’s forces, in securing Ukraine’s skies, and in supporting safer seas, including through operating inside Ukraine.”
Moscow has repeatedly railed against the idea of Western troops being deployed to Ukraine, warning that it would consider them “legitimate targets” for Russia’s armed forces.
Ukraine is pushing for strong security guarantees if it signs up to a deal to end the four-year war, including Western military commitments that it sees as necessary to prevent Russia from invading once again.
