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India-Pakistan

Jailed TNSM chief admitted to Peshawar hospital

2007-11-17

Jailed chief of the defunct Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi (TNSM), Maulana Sufi Muhammad, was admitted to hospital on Friday after he reported problems with high blood pressure and high sugar levels, a prison official said. “He has been admitted to Hayatabad Medical Complex from Dera Ismail Khan prison where doctors are examining him,” the official told Daily Times, requesting not to be named. “He is very weak and we want to provide him a detailed check-up.” NWFP caretaker Home Minister Shehzada Gustasip said the maulana was brought to Peshawar for a medical check-up as a “goodwill gesture” from the government. "Gustasip" sounds like it should be something spelled backwards. But so does "Pisatsug," only not quite so much. However, he denied that the TNSM chief’s presence in Peshawar meant that he could be set free to play a role in countering rebel Swat cleric Maulana Fazlullah. “There is no such game plan,” Gustasip told Daily Times. Which leaves things at 50-50 that there is. Maulana Fazlullah is the son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad, who led an uprising against the government in the early 1990s to demand the enforcement of Islamic laws in Swat and Malakand. The banned TNSM chief is regarded as “ultra-conservative” and “inflexible” towards compromising his stand on the enforcement of Shariah, and some security officials had suggested that he be released to counter Maulana Fazlullah, a plan that has not received broad approval. It's in the same category as injecting yourself with cancer to cure pneumonia. “Ultra-conservative” and “inflexible” seem to be synonyms for "lunatic" in Pashto. The TNSM chief has been serving a prison term since 2001 after he was found guilty, on several counts, for providing Islamic volunteers to the Taliban to fight against the US-backed Northern Alliance. ... with stupendously bad results, we might add.

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India-Pakistan

Chinese engineers stop work after forces abandon Swat posts

2007-11-09

Chinese engineers stopped construction work on three hydel projects on Thursday after police abandoned their station and 50 soldiers their survey camp, when militants from Swat began making their presence felt in Shangla district, officials and eyewitnesses said. “Chinese engineers from Dong Fing, National Water Resource Company and 600 support staff have left Shangla, and work on Khan Khwar, Allai Khwar and Dubear Khwar projects has been suspended indefinitely,” Project Director (PD) Atta-ur-Rehman confirmed. The project director said Chinese engineers stopped work on security grounds as police abandoned Shangla police station late Wednesday night after threats from militants. Official sources said 50 army jawans helping the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority also abandoned their camp and shifted to Abbotabad. NWFP Home Minister Shehzada Gustasip Khan said he had received reports to this effect but official channels had not yet confirmed the same.

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India-Pakistan

JUI-S threatens to quit NWFP govt

2003-09-24

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S), a component of the right-wing Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), on Tuesday threatened the six-party alliance’s future by announcing its decision to leave the alliance in protest against what it called “the JUI-Fazl-dominated government’s unacceptable behaviour”. Keep driving that wedge, Perv... Briefing journalists after a provincial cabinet meeting, JUI-S provincial chief Qazi Abdul Latif said the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the JUI-Fazl were bent on “destroying” the MMA. The organization's just not big enough to contain the inflated egos running it... “What JUI-Fazl workers did on Monday in Mardan strengthened our belief that the MMA can no longer function,” said Mr Latif, who is also the MMA provincial president. “We waited for 10 months, hoping for the situation to improve, but it hasn’t. Now we have decided to reorganise our party to make it a popular one,” he said, adding the JUI would not participate in MMA and provincial government activity. Mr Latif presided over the JUI-S meeting in which the dramatic decision to leave the alliance was reached after Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan’s approval of Shehzada Gustasip Khan, an independent parliamentarian, as leader of the opposition despite Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam’s strong objection. Oh, horrors! Oh, hold me, Ethel! “The provincial leaders have asked the provincial and central JUI-S councils to approve the decision,” he added. However, JUI-S NWFP General Secretary Maulana Yousaf Shah told Daily Times that his party would stay in the MMA but would withdraw support for Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani. Boy, that'll show 'em... “The party’s provincial council would take a final decision within 10 days,” he added. The JUI-S has two members in the NWFP Assembly and the National Assembly alike. Ikramullah Shahid, the deputy speaker in the provincial assembly, has announced that he would resign if his party asked him to do so. These characters are so into drama, they make teenagers look level-headed...

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