Muslim India headlines
  1. Hope to get justice now: Pathribal victim’s son
  2. 'Murder': SC cites AFSPA, lets Army choose what kind of trial
  3. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: THE MAN WHO KNEW THE FUTURE
  4. Face covering prohibited in Manglore College
  5. Mosque demolished in Rajasthan, Waqf Board blames Imam
  6. Indian Muslims Still Paying the Price of Partition
  7. ‘Centre ignoring Muslim freedom fighters’ : JUHind
  8. Hyderabad: Hindu Vahine activists triggered riots, Four arrested
  9. Syed Ghulam Akber Engineer is no more
  10. Fact finding Report on Communal Violence in Hyderabad
More Muslim India headlines
World headlines
  1. Iran, big powers agree to keep talking
  2. West to target Iran's nuclear fuel work
  3. Developing Economies Ready to Check Bluff of Developed World
  4. Iran cuts oil to Greek firms over payment problems: Report
  5. US bents: No Iran oil-import sanctions for Japan, 10 EU nations
  6. Israel attack killed over two dozen civilians in Gaza
  7. Netanyahu Says U.S. and Israeli ‘Clocks’ Differ on Iran’s Threat
  8. Obama warns Israel against ‘Loose Talk of War on Iran"
  9. Lady Tonge resigns Lib Dem party whip over Israel remarks
  10. India Asserts Against US Israel Effort to Name Iran in Delhi Terror Attack
More World headlines
Nation headlines
  1. 'Cops fanning Islamophobia'
  2. Fissures within NDA over presidential candidates
  3. Sachar, Mishra, Harsh Mander, yet the Silent Budget of 2012 ...... and our inaction
  4. Seeking legal opinion to free blast accused: UP CM
  5. Saffron extremists hurl meat on temple to trigger riots, four on run, one arrested
  6. Kashmir report rules out ‘simple return to pre-1953 situation'
  7. CCS may be briefed on Kashmir interlocutors report on Thursday
  8. Narendra Modi tops negative votes in global poll
  9. FRANKLY SPEAKING : Arms lobby planted the story
  10. SC spreads its media gaze from court to crime to contempt
More Nation headlines
you are here: Home /
 

Serious Political Crisis Brewing in Pakistan; Army Challenges Civil Authority

By News Desk
Updated Wednesday, 11 January 2012 20:01:19 - IST (UTC +5:30)


New Delhi: Reports from Islamabad suggest that democratic regime is again under severe threat from inept and belligerent military establishment and proactive judiciary. In the process, army and judiciary are all out to coax civil government at will and usurp democratic rights of the people. Pakistan’s army is acting as power in self, independent of civil control and trying to dictate term to Zardari-Gilani regime. Memogate is serving as a tool for army and judiciary to hound Zardari and Gilani. The fight has now come out in the open with removal Defence Secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Khaleed Naeem Lodhi from his post by Civil Government and handed over additional charge to Nargis Sethi, a senior bureucrate and Principal Secretary to P.M. Gilani.
With P.M. Yousuf Raza Gilani's latest action of sacking Lodhi, the Pakistani government is headed for a direct confrontation with the military as the crisis over the memo scandal intensifies.
The government had earlier charged the defence secretary of exceeding his brief in the Supreme Court over the memo scandal. Earlier in the day the army had warned Gilani's critical comments would have serious ramifications and have grievous consequences for the country.
During a visit to Beijing, Gilani had told China's People's Daily that army chief and head of ISI had acted unlawfully by making unilateral submissions in the Supreme Court over memo scandal.
Gilani had pointed out responses of army chief and director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the Supreme Court as "unconstitutional and illegal".
Minutes after Gilani dismissed the defence secretary, Pakistani Army changed its commander of the Triple One Brigade. The brigade has been instrumental in many military coups in the country in the past. The change of command of the brigade was being taken seriously by political commentators.
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has so far denied any plan to stage a coup in the wake of heightened tension between the government and army over memo.
According to reports, the core commanders are to meet in Rawalpindi in the next 24 hours. All top Pakistani generals have been called for this emergency meet, raising once again fears of military coup.
The showdown comes hours after Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari summoned parliament to garner support following a top court declaration yesterday that the prime minister had violated his oath of office by refusing to pursue corruption charges against the president.
“There can be no allegation more serious than what the honorable prime minister has leveled,” a statement on the military’s website said today. “This has very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country.”
The political upheaval in the nuclear-armed nation threatens to complicate U.S. plans to bolster security in the region as it withdraws troops from neighboring Afghanistan. It may also hamper efforts to revive Pakistan’s economy that grew 2.4 percent in the year ended June 30, one of its slowest expansions in a decade.
Shortly after the military issued its statement, Gilani’s spokesman said the premier had fired the country’s defense secretary, retired Lieutenant General Naeem Khalid Lodhi, for misconduct.
Zardari and Gilani convened leaders of their Pakistan People’s Party and its allies yesterday after the Supreme Court decision on the graft cases. A separate judicial commission is investigating whether Zardari and his ambassador to the U.S. authorized a memo in May that sought American pressure against a feared military coup following the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Tags: News Desk Pakistan, Gilani, Zardari, Army, ISI, memogate,

  • 'Cops fanning Islamophobia'

    MUMBAI: The last time Muslims and Dalits created a joint political platform in Maharashtra was in the 1980s. Led by former smuggler and don Haji Mastan, the Dalit Muslim Suraksha Mahasangh (DMSM)...

    2012-05-07 17:11:22 |
    0 comments
  • RDX not used in 13/7 blasts, but found in...

    MUMBAI: Chemical analysis of a powder-like substance collected from a Byculla apartment where two suspected Pakistani 13/7 bombers stayed has proved that it is the deadly explosive RDX. The...

    2012-05-03 17:34:23 |
    0 comments
  • Hope to get justice now: Pathribal victim’s son

    Srinagar : For Abdul Rashid Khan, it has been a long wait for justice. Twelve years after his father Juma Khan was allegedly picked from his house, killed in a fake encounter and dubbed a foreign...

    2012-05-03 17:30:23 |
    0 comments
  • 'Murder': SC cites AFSPA, lets Army choose what...

    New Delhi : The Supreme Court gave the Army full “discretion” to choose between a court martial and a criminal trial for seven officers accused of killing five persons in an encounter in...

    2012-05-03 17:27:07 |
    0 comments
  • Syed Ghulam Akber Engineer is no more

    New Delhi. Syed Ghulam Akber, member Markazi Majlis-e-Shoora (Central Advisory Council) and former Secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind breathed his last at Care Hospital in Hyderabad at about 1 p.m....

    2012-04-30 20:38:08 |
    0 comments
  • Fact finding Report on Communal Violence in...

    Government responsible for Communal Violence in Hyderabad city RSS outfits Communalizing the situation and polarizing population by developing Communal Sentiments. Introduce and pass Communal...

    2012-04-25 11:01:25 |
    0 comments
  • Iran, big powers agree to keep talking

    ISTANBUL: After a year of sanctions and sabre-rattling over Iran's nuclear programme, negotiators from Tehran and six world powers finally resumed talks and found at least enough common ground to...

    2012-04-15 19:57:21 |
    0 comments
  • West to target Iran's nuclear fuel work

    JERUSALEM/DUBAI - The United States and its allies are pressing for an end to Iran's high-level uranium enrichment and the closure of a facility built deep under a mountain as talks on Tehran's...

    2012-04-09 10:17:57 |
    0 comments
  • Developing Economies Ready to Check Bluff of...

    BRICS Stands Firmly With Iran and Syria against External Interventions New Delhi: Five emerging economies of the world, under the banner of BRICS, raised their voice against monopolist policies of...

    2012-04-07 19:14:52 |
    0 comments
  • Iran cuts oil to Greek firms over payment...

    DUBAI: Iran has blocked oil sales to two Greek companies, Hellenic Petroleum and Motor Oil Hellas after they failed to make payment, Iranian state television reported on Thursday. The...

    2012-04-05 18:32:22 |
    0 comments