Islamabad:An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude shook parts of Pakistan on Tuesday, killing nine people and injuring over 160 others, local media reported.
The epicentre of the earthquake was Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region, while its depth was 180 kilometres, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.
Earthquake tremors were felt in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, and other areas of the country.
Strong tremors were also felt in Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Kot Momin, Madh Ranjha, Chakwal, Kohat and in Gilgit-Baltistan areas, local media reported.
Television footage showed panic-stricken citizens out on the streets.
The earthquake killed nine people, including two women, and injured over 160 others as well as causing many buildings to collapse, authorities said, according to a Geo News report.
At the time of the earthquake, a stampede was reported in the markets of Rawalpindi, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has asked disaster management officials to remain vigilant to handle any situation, according to state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.
An emergency was declared in the hospitals of the federal capital on the instructions of Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel, The Express Tribune reported.
According to the international seismological centre, apart from Pakistan, tremors were also felt in India, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China and Kyrgyzstan.
Earthquakes are common in Pakistan.
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Islamabad in January this year.
The deadliest quake hit the country in 2005, which killed more than 74,000 people.
Suspended Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh in Karnataka
Hyderabad: Controversial MLA T Raja Singh of Goshamahal who is suspended from BJP on Tuesday lodged a complaint with DGP Anjani Kumar alleging that he had received a death threat.
In a video released to media the MLA said he got a call from an unknown number starting with +92 believed to be from Pakistan.
“The callers told me the entire details of my family members, their daily routine, and other minute details. The callers also threatened to plant a bomb that could be triggered by a mobile phone,” he said.
It is very unfortunate that a sitting MLA receives a threat call from Pakistan but @hydcitypolice doesn’t act or book even a FIR
If I tweet Jai Sri Ram or raise my voice in support of our Hindu brother’s police act immediately & book cases@CPHydCity what is stopping you to act pic.twitter.com/gKMIRyEoht
The MLA also said his request for a weapon license for self-protection was also turned down by the police on the ground that there were criminal cases registered against him.
The BJP MLA had registered complaints about receiving threatening calls from the police in the past too.
The State government provided 2+2 security round the clock and a Bullet Resistant vehicle to him.
Pakistan did not attend a meeting of military medical professionals organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Tuesday because the Indian side objected to the use of maps that wrongly depicted the country’s borders, particularly in Kashmir.
According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the Indian side, including the foreign affairs ministry, highlighted the issue when Pakistani officials used identical maps at a previous SCO conference. India is holding a series of official and ministerial meetings in preparation for the SCO Summit in July.
The Pakistani side was reportedly using maps that depicted Kashmir as part of the neighbouring nation, an issue that has plagued SCO meetings in recent years.
Pakistan was to join the think tank conference with the topic “SCO Armed Forces Contribution in Military Medical, Healthcare, and Pandemics” on an official level. The report cited a source stating the Pakistani side did not participate when the Indian side objected.
The symposium was held at a hotel in New Delhi by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA).
The seminar’s goal was to share best practises in military medical, healthcare, and pandemic preparedness. The topic was chosen based on the efforts made by various armed services in combating Covid-19 over the last two and a half years by supplying isolation units, emergency healthcare equipment, and aiding in vaccination programmes in isolated places.
PSL 2023 Concluded with much fanfare on Saturday as Lahore Qalandars defeated Multan Sultans by one run to win their second title, in Lahore.
Meanwhile, there always remains a comparison between fans from both countries as to which is the better franchise-based T20 league. While IPL will be entering its 16th edition, starting March 31st, PSL completed its eighth season.
The defending champions Lahore Qalandars defeated the high-flying Multan Sultans in final by the barest of margins. Batting first, Lahore completed 200 runs, thanks to a 40-ball 65 from Abdullah Shafique and an out-of-the-world 15-ball 44* from the captain Shaheen Afridi, who smashed five sixes and two fours.
The chase was well-threaded by cameos from the top order, in which the man-in-form Rilee Rossouw top-scored with 52 from 32 balls. While the lower order also contributed with crucial runs, four wickets to seamer Afridi derailed their momentum going forward. In the end it all came down to the final over, where Zaman Khan successfully defended the target with just two runs remaining.
IPL has long been touted as the best T20 franchise league in the world, with some of the best cricketers plying their trade in India. But PCB chairman Najam Sethi had a different opinion and made a stunning statement that PSL has overtaken IPL in terms of digital rating.
Speaking in a press conference ahead of the final, Sethi said, “Let’s talk about digital. PSL was only at the half stage, so I asked about our digital rating. Najam Sethi show used to have a 0.5 rating on TV, whereas PSL is getting a rating of more than 11. So, it would be 18 or 20, when it completes.”
“Over 150 million people watched it digitally. It is not a small thing. At the same stage, IPL’s digital rating was 130 million and PSL’s is more than 150 million. So this is a great success for Pakistan”, he further added.
Sethi’s comments could surely create some controversy among Indian and Pakistan cricket fans. It would be interesting to see if a former Indian cricketer would respond to Sethi’s statement. With IPL 2023 set to start from March 31, defending champions Gujarat Titans will face Chennai Super Kings in the season opener, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Islamabad: Pakistan Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has hinted that legal proceedings could be initiated to declare Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) a banned outfit, state media reported.
Rana said that the legal team of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was examining the matter in light of several revelations that could lead to a reference being filed against the party, Express Tribune reported.
He however clarified that it is ultimately up to the courts to officially ban a political party.
According to him, Punjab Police along with other law enforcement agencies conducted an operation against a “no-go area” in Lahore where a purported political leader had allegedly created an “atmosphere of fear”.
Rana said that the action was taken after resistance was encountered during the execution of court orders, leading to concerns of a possible terror organisation’s presence, Express Tribune reported.
“The operation resulted in the clearance of the no-go area in Zaman Park. Despite having a search warrant, officials did not enter the residential area,” he added.
The Interior Minister said that 65 people have been arrested from the outer part of the building, most of them do not belong to Punjab and their role is suspicious.
He also added that guns, petrol bomb-making equipment, slingshots and other weapons were recovered from Zaman Park, Express Tribune reported.
Islamabad: A local court in Islamabad is set to resume on Saturday the hearing of Toshakhana case against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who avoided arrest despite a protracted effort by law enforcement personnel to apprehend him for skipping multiple previous hearings.
The PTI leader is scheduled to appear before the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zafar Iqbal to attend proceedings on the complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for allegedly concealing details of gifts in his assets declarations.
Accompanied by a convoy of his party workers, the PTI chief has departed from his residence in Zaman Park, Lahore, and is en route to Islamabad, according to the party, Dawn reported.
The government on Friday shifted the venue of the additional sessions court to a comparatively safer Judicial Complex for the hearing of the case after the PTI raised security concerns, Dawn reported.
The Chief Commissioner Office Islamabad issued a notification declaring Court No 1 Judicial Complex at G-11 as the venue for the hearing of the case filed by the district election commissioner against Imran, terming it a “one-time dispensation”.
In the last hearing on Thursday, the court rejected Imran’s plea seeking the suspension of non-bailable arrest warrants issued for him, Dawn reported.
Though accessible to people in England, the Government of India continues to restrict access to a set of documents, the Bucher Papers that have a lot of insights into the Kashmir war in 1947 and maybe the politics of that era as well
General Sir Roy Bucher and Lady Bucher at Government House, somewhere in 1947 or 1948
A controversy is raging over an estimated 49-document file that the Government of India is not making accessible to researchers. These are official communications between India’s second and the last non-native Chief of Army Staff, General Sir Francis Robert Roy Bucher and Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. These especially pertain to the ceasefire between India and Pakistan on July 27, 1949, after the rival armies of the sister nations fought their first war over Kashmir in October 1947. The agreement was signed in Karachi and signatories included Lt Gen SM Shrinagesh (India), Maj Gen WJ Cawthorn (Pakistan) and Hernando Samper and M Delvoie (UNCIP).
Normally, the Government of India declassifies archival documents after 25 years. However, when academics started seeking access to, what is now being called Bucher Papers, they were told that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has kept the documents classified in the national interest. These documents are with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, a Culture Ministry-run autonomous body.
This has triggered a new controversy. Nobody knows if the contents of these documents would paint independent India’s first Prime Minister in poor light or help justify his actions.
The revelations, if any, can have “significant political ramifications” and may emerge as an issue in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The ruling BJP has maintained that “blunders” by Nehru led to the creation of the Kashmir issue that dominated for more than 70 years till the rightwing party scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and integrated it with the country in August 2019.
Contents of Letters
Titbits’ of the classified documents accessed by certain reporters and academics indicate it includes a communication that Bucher wrote to Prime Minister on November 28, 1948, that explained why a ceasefire was required.
“Army personnel evince two weaknesses, lack of training in the junior leaders, tiredness and ennui in the other ranks … In brief, the army needs respite for leave, training, and vitalising,” the communication said.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Rakumari Amrit Kaur and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Deputy Prime Minister of India during the proceedings of the annual meeting of the National Conference at Srinagar on September 24, 1949.
“Nehru, in response, raised concerns over reports that Pakistan intended within weeks to bomb Indian positions from the sky. Meanwhile, Pakistan was building roads to maintain and advance its positions,” British newspaper, The Guardian reported. It mentions Nehru’s December 23, 1948, letter to Bucher saying, “It is clear to me that we cannot rely on Pakistan remaining on the defensive…In the event of Pakistan continuing their persistent shelling and offensive operation and our not being able to check this there, there is every likelihood of war taking place with Pakistan.”
“I am afraid we cannot take military action to stop every road-building operation by Pakistan,” Bucher wrote back to Nehru on December 28. “May I suggest a political approach to this problem?”
It was only after the series of communication amid the war that a ceasefire agreement was signed at Karachi. In its immediate follow-up, Article 370 was included in the constitution, a status undone on August 5, 2019.
Off late, BJP has been dubbing it Nehru’s “biggest mistake”, with Home Minister Amit Shah asking in 2019: “What was the need to announce a ceasefire when we were about to win the war?” A month after reading down Article 370, he said: “In 1948, India went to United Nations. That was a Himalayan blunder. It was more than a Himalayan blunder.”
Colonial Masters
At the time of the independence of India and Pakistan, two British army officers were the chiefs of the respective armies. Even though they were two separate countries born out of mutual animosities and distrust, two soldiers from their colonial past were holding their key asset, the army. They both operated under the Joint Supreme Commander, Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, also a British.
The Pakistan army was commanded by General Sir Douglas David Gracey. He was Pakistan’s second Chief of Army. Though in October 1947, he was not the army chief, he was in command in absence of his chief. He retired in April 1951 and died on June 5, 1964.
In India, Bucher took over in 1948, replacing General Sir Robert McGregor Macdonald Lockhart, after superseding two seniors. He retired on January 15, 1949, paving way for KM Cariappa to become India’s first Indian Army Chief. It was during his two India visits in the 1960s and 1970s that he handed over the documents to the Nehru Museum. He died on January 5, 1980.
New Details
The files, the reportage of the controversy suggest, hold the answer about whether Nehru acted on his own or he acted on the advice of his army chief. Many believe these documents contain insights into the Instrument of Accession, signed on October 26, 1947, by Maharaja Hari Singh.
A November 1947 photograph showing Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India making his first important speech in Lal Chawk. During the course of his speech, he said “India will never let down Kashmir and the Indian Army will fight on till the last raider is driven out”.
The first war over Kashmir is well documented. Still, a lot of academicians and scholars believe that Bucher’s papers contain a lot of information beyond that. “Roy Bucher suggested a political approach to solve the escalating situation given military fatigue faced by Indian troops due to 13 months of military deployment, including taking the matter before the United Nations,” The Guardian said in an earlier report. “That advice may have influenced Nehru’s decision to grant Kashmir special status.”
The details of the documents in the public domain suggest that Nehru did not wait for the United National Commission to suggest a ceasefire. Instead, he initiated it well before its arrival.
“I do not know what the United Nations are going to propose. They may propose a ceasefire and what the conditions are going to be, I do not know,” the papers suggest Nehru writing in one of his communications to Bucher in 1948. “If there isn’t going to be a ceasefire, then it seems to me that we may be faced with an advance into Pakistan and for that we must be prepared.”
Interestingly, Bucher, during one of his post-retirement visits to India, talked at length to biographer BR Nanda. The Bucher papers include a 20-page transcript of the interview and researchers can copy a fifth of this – not more than four pages. The interview is very important.
“He (Nehru) had become very perturbed about the shelling of Akhnur and the Beripattan Bridge by Pakistan heavy artillery from just within Pakistan; he enjoined me to do all I could to counteract this,” Bucher had told Nanda in an undated interview. “There was nothing which one could do except counter-shell.”
He told Nanda that the documents he had handed over to the Museum “portray his (Nehru’s) great grasp of the military situation in Kashmir and especially how this was influenced by the presence of the UN Commission for Jammu and Kashmir.”
On ceasefire, Bucher detailed the drama when he got a phone call from Sardar Baldev Singh suggested him to ‘go ahead’. “Well it is a jolly difficult job for me as a Commander-in-Chief to tackle and you have the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan in the country,” Bucher responded and later followed up by drafting out a “purposefully short” signal to General Gracey, his Pakistani counterpart, merely stating that “my Government was of the opinion that senseless moves and counter-moves with loss of life and everything else were achieving nothing in Kashmir.” It was sent across only after Nehru read it thrice, signed it and retained his own copy. India ceased fire at the midnight on December 31, 1948.
“The United Nations Commission was apprised of this, a day or two later; they were told that what they come out for had been achieved two days or so ago,” Bucher said. “I do not think the Commission knew anything about the cease-fire signal before that.”
Held In Secret
Why the Modi government is unwilling to declassify the documents is not known. The Guardian report said the incumbent government describes the cache of documents as sensitive. “It said the papers broadly examined the “state preparedness of Indian armed forces stationed in Kashmir, in the backdrop of the India-Pakistan war (1947-48)”, the report said, and “concerns expressed by Nehru regarding offensive military actions undertaken by Pakistan”.
Interestingly, the same set of papers is also maintained at the National Army Museum in Chelsea, London, where they are accessible to all. Nobody, however, is in a position to say if the documents at the two places are the same.
There have been attempts by various people to access these documents. Every time, however, the access was denied. Venkatesh Nayak has been engaged in a perpetual battle with officials since 2019, for the declassification of these documents. In October 2021, the Central Information Commission stopped short of ordering the disclosure of these crucial documents. Instead, it asked the Museum “to take up the matter with higher officials” and “secure the necessary permission” before sharing the information with RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak.
Hamla Awar Khabardaar: Womens Defence Corps in Kashmir, a 1947 photograph
Even the museum authorities have put their weight in support of declassifying these documents. On October 12, 2022, the museum and library top official, Nripendra Misra, is reported to have written to India’s foreign secretary, suggesting the papers may be made accessible to researchers. “We have read the contents of the Bucher papers,” he has written. “Our view is that the papers need not remain “classified” beyond the reach of academicians.”
Full access to the papers may help settle a controversy in Jammu and Kashmir as well. It is being said publicly in Srinagar that the ceasefire took place at the behest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who did not want the army to go beyond Uri. The reason, for the unsubstantiated presumption, is that since he had no huge following among non-Kashmiri-speaking people, he thought they will rebel against him. Whether or not is this correct, only access to these documents will settle this regional controversy. Or maybe it might emerge another angle of the same story.
Islamabad: Pakistan has introduced new rules barring the prime minister, ministers and officials from retaining any gift by a foreign government whose value exceeded USD 300 amid entrenched corruption related to state gifts, it emerged on Tuesday.
The issue made headlines after former premier Imran Khan sold a precious watch given to him by the Saudi crown prince and did not disclose its sale to the Election Commission of Pakistan for which he was disqualified last year and a criminal case was launched. Authorities are in Lahore to arrest Khan in the case.
The Cabinet formulated a new policy about the Toshakhana (state depository) after an official document showed that between 2002 and 2022 hundreds of expensive gifts had been retained by successive top state functionaries after paying just paltry payments.
They apparently got the benefit of a rule that allowed them to retain any gift after paying 20 per cent of its value.
The Toshakhana Procedure for the Acceptance and Disposal of Gifts, 2023′ approved on March 8, includes a fresh set of guidelines that all gifts of more than USD 300 value must be deposited in Toshakhana as state property.
“Gift(s) valuing up to USD 300 shall be allowed to be retained by the recipient after due payments as per its assessed market value,” the new ruler stated.
“The gift(s) exceeding this monetary limit shall straightaway become state/Toshakhana property to be deposited and disposed of according to Toshakhana Procedure.”
The exception to antiques and gifts of historical value that are to be displayed in government buildings.
The policy says all gifts, irrespective of their price, received by government functionaries must be “reported” and “deposited” in Toshkhana within “30 days of receipt of the gifts” or “30 days from the date of return to Pakistan in case of foreign visit”, otherwise action would be taken.
However, the new policy has shown leniency toward gifts of perishable items that can be retained “without reporting or depositing” them.
It has also prohibited any government functionary “except those in BPS 1 to BPS 4” from receiving cash awards as gifts.
Lower state functionaries like gardeners, watchmen, office boys and peons come under BPS 1 to BPS 4 category.
“Such gifts may be politely refused. In case, it becomes impossible to refuse without causing offence to the visiting dignitary, the amount shall be immediately deposited in the government treasury and a copy of the treasury challan shall be provided to the Toshakhana Incharge, Cabinet Division.”
The new policy has also prohibited government functionaries from receiving gifts for their spouses or members of their families. However, if the gift cannot be declined due to any reason, it must be deposited with the Toshakhana immediately.
“Such gifts received by the president/head of the government for their person or their family members shall be deposited in Toshakhana for determination of assessed market value, retention cost, and further disposal as per Toshakhana Procedure. These instructions do not apply to gifts and donations made to institutions.”
Animals received as gifts will be transferred to the nearest Remount Veterinary and Farms Corps for early sale or handed over to the Zoological Garden.
“Gold and Silver bullions shall be sent to the State Bank of Pakistan – Mint,” it said.
Antiques will be placed in the museums or displayed in official government buildings whereas “vehicles shall be given to the Central Pool of Cars of the Cabinet Division.”
The policy stated how the value of the gifts would be determined and who should be responsible to report the gifts received by functionaries. The gifts that cannot be retained, donated, or displayed shall be publicly auctioned once or twice a year.
The Toshakhana department was set up in 1974 to keep the gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.
Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court hearing a separate case about who benefited from the Toshakhana asked the government to provide the complete list of gifts received by every official since 1947.
So far, the government has shared a list from 2002 to 2022, showing that every single ruler and various officials since 2002 retained various gifts after paying 20 per cent of their value.
Srinagar: The Enforcement Directorate has carried out searches at 10 places across four districts in the Kashmir valley as part of its ongoing probe against conspirators involved in arranging admissions for money in various courses, including MBBS in Pakistan, to fund terror activities, an official said.
The ED’s Srinagar Zonal office carried out the search recently under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at 10 locations in Srinagar, Budgam, Kupwara and Anantnag districts, the official said.
He said the raids were conducted in respect of an investigation relating to the involvement of conspirators who were hand-in-glove with some educational consultancies and manipulating or arranging admission of J-K students in various professional courses, including MBBS in Pakistan-based colleges, institutions and universities.
In May last year, a special NIA court had framed charges against eight persons, including arrested Hurriyat leader Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias “Zaffar Bhat” for selling Pakistani MBBS seats in Jammu and Kashmir to fund terror activities.
The case was registered against the “unscrupulous persons” by the State Investigation Agency (SIA) on July 27, 2020.
The official said the ED initiated probe on the basis of the FIR registered under various sections of UA(P) Act and the Indian Penal Code, and chargesheet filed by counter-intelligence Kashmir, Srinagar, against various accused, including Bhat, Fatima Shah, Altaf Ahmad Bhat, Qazi Yasir, Mohd Abdullah Shah, Sabzar Ahmad Sheikh, Manzoor Ahmad Shah, Mohd Iqbal Mir and Syed Khalid Geelani alias Khalid Andrabi, for their involvement in accumulating funds for terror activities on the pretext of admission of J-K students in various professional courses in Pakistan-based institutions.
“PMLA investigation has also revealed that many times, these admissions are actually part of the Technical Assistance Programme (TAP) and are offered to foreign students either free or at nominal charges on an annual basis.
“However, hefty charges were being levied on the students and the extra money so earned, was ploughed into supporting terrorism in myriad ways on the instructions of Pakistan-based handlers as well as those sitting in Jammu and Kashmir,” the official said.
As of now, the official said proceeds of crime to the tune of about Rs 1 crore have been determined and six people have been identified who had been admitted to various institutions in Pakistan by such elements.
“During the course of search operations, documents related to immovable properties and highly incriminating material, including digital devices related to the scam, have been recovered and seized,” the official said, adding further investigation is in progress.
