DINA for the issue of April 18, 2013

	Thursday 18th April 2013 | Jumadi-us-Sani 7, 1434
The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.
Army’s help to be sought for poll security By Khawar Ghumman ISLAMABAD, April 17: Deteriorating law and order conditions in the country before general elections was the top agenda item for the caretaker federal cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The meeting decided to bring in all available resources, including the deployment of army, to improve security.	For suggestions and comments: Email: webmaster@dawn.com Website: http://dawn.com Fax: +92(21) 35693995 Karachi Stocks Up 32.25 Points: KARACHI, Apr 17: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 18394.12, up 32.25 points. Forex Update : KARACHI, Apr 17: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at 99.3 to the US Dollar in the open market.
State institutions to be sued for future attacks: Defiant Bilour stands firm against terror Bureau Report PESHAWAR, April 17: Awami National Party leader Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour urged religious parties on Wednesday to issue an edict declaring that killers of Muslims were non-believers. He also said that his party would henceforth lodge cases against the President, the Supreme Court Chief Justice, the Army Chief and the Chief Election Commissioner if any act of terror was carried out against ANP leaders and its workers.
ANP leader survives bomb attack in Charsadda By Our Correspondent CHARSADDA: A leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) escaped unhurt in a roadside remote-controlled bomb explosion in Sardheri on Wednesday. Farooq Khan, vice president of the ANP in the area comprising the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly constituency PK 17, was going to Peshawar along with his family when the bomb planted by unidentified men in Shiekho locality of Sardheri region went off.
Quake-struck Balochistan town waiting for relief By Syed Ali Shah MASHKEL (Balochistan), April 17: It’s like a scene from hell. Scores of people are dead, hundreds injured, thousands of houses and shops destroyed or badly damaged, and almost all the residents of this remote place are living out in the open with little sign of any real help or assistance. People of the remote-border town of Mashkel may have been living in abject poverty for ages, but they never expected that further misery would hit them in the form of a massive earthquake. As the earth shook for a few seconds on Tuesday as a result of 7.8 quake, everything for the people of the area was lost. And as they make efforts to retrieve their belongings from the destroyed houses and shops, and move the sheep and goats to safe places, some of them believe the life will never be the same again.
Rs627bn for defence in new budget proposals By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, April 17: The government finalised on Wednesday a Rs450 billion public sector development programme (PSDP) for federal projects and Rs627bn defence budget for next financial year, showing an increase of 25 per cent and 15 per cent respectively over the current year. The budget allocations for the next year were firmed up by the priorities committee of the Ministry of Finance and Planning Commission in their meetings over the past 10 days with relevant ministries, divisions and autonomous public sector organisations. It also set the size of the next year’s budget for service delivery by various ministries and divisions at Rs278bn.
Transporting voters also an offence: Three-year jail for seeking vote in name of religion By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has said it has no plan to keep any politico-religious party out of the electoral arena. “We have just explained the substantive legal provisions that require candidates not to seek vote in the name of religion and this explanation must not be misconstrued,” an ECP official told reporters on Wednesday.
SC suspends Malik’s protocol & perks By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Supreme Court suspended on Wednesday the March 14 notification of the interior ministry allowing unprecedented perks and privileges to former home minister Rehman Malik and his predecessors. A five-member special bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, hearing a suo motu case on unprecedented security protocol and perks and privileges for former prime ministers Raja Parvez Ashraf and Yousuf Raza Gilani, asked Attorney General Irfan Qadir to submit comments by Thursday.
Women vote: a male contest By Razeshta Sethna ON March 31, in an unprecedented move two women — Badam Zari from Bajaur and Nusrat Begum from Lower Dir — filed nomination papers for the election. A former district vice president with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Nusrat Begum is the first woman candidate from Lower Dir, a district where women voters were often barred in the past. Although these two candidates illustrate a positive change in pre-election Pakistan, electioneering remains a male contest. Indeed, women’s lack of voting rights remains a serious problem which begins with the low number of women who are registered as voters. With 37.4 million female voters and 48 million male voters on the electoral register, ten million unregistered women, according to FAFEN is a glaring instance of gender disparity. They propose that the ECP along with NADRA, political parties and civil society organisations ensure that unregistered women are found and given identity cards. Political pundits believe it is too late for this election.
Kashmiri’s hanging ‘abuse of judicial process’: Zardari MUZAFFARABAD, April 17: President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday paid tribute to Mohammed Afzal Guru executed in Delhi for allegedly plotting to attack the Indian parliament in 2001 and called his hanging “abuse of judicial process”. Guru, a Kashmiri vendor, was hanged on Feb 9, sparking more than a week of protests in India-held Kashmir.
Foreigners among nine killed in drone attack By Sailab Mahsud LADHA, April 17: Nine militants, five of them foreigners, were killed in a US drone attack in Bobar Samal area of South Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday. According to sources, drones fired two missiles on a militant compound in Sara Rogha, destroying it and killing all the people inside.
Musharraf’s trial: govt unsure about mandate, SC told By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, April 17: The caretaker cabinet is engaged in a debate whether it should focus exclusively on holding of elections or devote its attention to other matters as well, e.g. the trial of retired General Pervez Musharraf, the attorney general told the Supreme Court on Wednesday during the hearing of a set of petitions calling for the initiation of a treason case against the former military ruler. The petitions are being heard by a two-judge bench comprising Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.
Imran’s home attacked in Islamabad, relative beaten ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) said on Wednesday that “a horde of 100 miscreants” attacked the home of its chief Imran Khan and beat his brother-in-law. It accused the government of having failed to provide security. Islamabad police denied there had been any break-in at the hill-top villa of the PTI chief, a major contender in general elections next month, and blamed any disturbance on members of his own party.
Strike in parts of Balochistan QUETTA, April 17: Complete strike was observed on Wednesday in Quetta and other towns of Balochistan in response to a call of the PML-N in protest against Tuesday’s bomb attack on the convoy of party’s provincial president Sanaullah Zehri in which four people were killed. The strike was supported by the nationalist and religio-political groups. In Quetta, trading centres at Jinnah road, Sharah-i-Iqbal, Liaquat Bazaar, Prince road, Zarghoon road, Joint road, Brewery road and Sariab road remained closed.
Clashes leave 20 injured By Our Correspondent MIRAMSHAH, April 17: Twenty women and children were injured when security forces and militants exchanged fire at Miramshah in North Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday. Local people said several residential compounds came under attack in Serai Derpakhel locality of Miramshah. A mortar shell also hit the house of Dawn correspondent Pazir Gul, leaving his two daughters injured.
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