Here’s what’s happening across the border: CPEC’s western & eastern routes to complete by next year; six years ago Malala was shot but her fight for girls’ education lives on.
Court explores possibility of Musharraf recording statements over Skype
A special court in Pakistan, which is hearing the treason case against former President Pervez Musharraf, Tuesday deliberated whether he could record his statement via Skype, Dawn reported.
The former military dictator was charged with treason for suspending the country’s Constitution on 3 November 2007, an offence for which he was put on trial in March 2014. He left the country in March 2016 and hasn’t returned since, for recording his statements in the case.
One of the judges, Justice Yawar Ali, asked during the hearing if Musharraf’s statement under ‘342 statement’ could be recorded via Skype, to which the former president’s lawyer Salman Safdar argued: “The court had taken Mubarak Saigol’s witness testimony in the Benazir Bhutto murder case on Skype”.
Safdar said that he would have to confirm if the same can be done for this case and added that he would also ask his client on this matter.
CPEC’s western, eastern routes to complete by 2019
The western and eastern routes of the multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are expected to be completed by 2019, Hassan Daud Butt, project director of CPEC said in an interview, The Nation reported.
He mentioned that in the first phase, energy and infrastructure projects will be completed and in the second phase, work on Special Economic Zones would kick off.
Butt said around nine SEZs from across the country were brought within the fold of CPEC in which both the provincial governments and private sector entrepreneurs had shown keen interest. The setting up of SEZs will give rise to more industrial units across Pakistan and in turn expedite trade activities across the country, he added.
It was in April 2015 when China made public its plans to work on $46 billion worth projects under CPEC, which would ensure infrastructural developments, including eliminating power shortages. The objective is to connect China’a land-locked northwest area with the deep-water strategic Gwadar port in Pakistan.
Ziauddin Yousafzai praises daughter Malala’s work
Six years back, global peace icon Malala Yousafzai was attacked by Taliban gunmen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district. She survived the assassination attempt and went on to become the youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2014.
Malala’s father Ziauddin Yousafzai has tweeted, saying that he felt grateful his daughter was working towards the right to education for “130 million out-of-school girls”.
On 9 Oct 2012 @Malala was targeted by Taliban for raising her voice for Girl's education. Today I’m so grateful that she is getting her own edu.& fighting for edu.of 130million out of school girls.Hope to see a world where every girl can complete her education &choose her future pic.twitter.com/IQyOf6o5JS
— Ziauddin Yousafzai (@ZiauddinY) October 9, 2018
Malala, hardly 15 at the time of the incident, was shot by Taliban militants in her forehead when she along with other girls was returning home in their school bus. The Swat valley was largely under the control of Tehreek-i-Taliban from 2007 to 2009 and was supposedly ousted by the country’s army only in 2009. But the 2012 attack raised alarming concerns of the level of security and stability in the valley.
The group had justified the attack saying that: “It’s a clear command of sharia that any female, that by any means plays a role in war against the mujahedeen, should be killed”.
Malala has been an advocate of the right to education for girls for the past 10 years.
The activist is currently in her second year studying the popular course, philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.
First Lady Bushra Maneka is best for Imran, but not for the nation
A blog by Faiza Iqbal in Dawn calls Bushra Maneka an ideal wife for PM Imran Khan, but it also raises the question whether she can be the First Lady of a country which is now tackling corruption, water shortage and economic failure.
Iqbal describes Maneka as a woman, who “wafts into a room with silky white robes, covers her entire face, and never engages on social media to the lengths that Khan and Goldsmith do”. She has an enigmatic personality as she manages to carry herself confidently even in that veil.
However, the blogger pointed out that in her recent interview with Roze TV, Maneka kept her arguments centred on the concept of ‘Naya Pakistan’ and was in a constant praise for her husband Imran Khan.
The blog further criticises Bushra Maneka’s style of clothing. It says unlike Khan’s ex-wives Jemima Goldsmith and Reham Khan, Bushra comes across as a housewife who is a woman of religion.
Iqbal also said that Bushra Maneka’s “niqab is an awkward imposition for a leader who has global aspirations. She has also stated in her interview that she doesn’t enjoy meeting people and spends most of her time praying or sleeping”.
“This is hardly the kind of the First Lady a ‘Naya Pakistan’ should be aspiring towards since it worsens the stereotypical image Pakistani wives have of being housebound and not interested in a career, or even a life”, it further read.
Amid the IMF bailout, PTI government receives flak for an earlier tweet
A 2015 tweet from PTI Lahore wing’s account, criticising the then Nawaz Sharif government’s move to seek IMF bailout, has suddenly caught the attention of netizens. “Our Prime Minister begs money from IMF like beggars” the tweet said, according to Pakistan Today.
The tweet was deleted by the ruling PTI, just two days after Khan’s government confirmed it was asking IMF for a bailout package.
The tweet came out at a time when Pakistan’s previous government, led by former premier Nawaz Sharif, had decided to seek IMF help. PTI’s tweet brought out the hypocrisy of Imran Khan’s government, which had criticised the then Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) government for approaching IMF for a bailout.
Meanwhile, according to a report, Imran Khan Tuesday highlighted the importance of “effectively” defending the government’s decision to seek an IMF bailout in the media, at a top-level meeting with his government’s lawmakers. He said he wanted to save his country from an impending economic crisis.