A conference 'Significance of Independent Prosecution Service' in the province of the Punjab was held on Thursday, February 27, 2014, at Avari Hotel, Lahore, as part of GIZ-CRSS-PPD advocacy campaign for the Support to the Punjab Prosecution Service (SPPS) project. Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister on Prosecution Rana Maqbool, Secretary Prosecution Nadeem Irshad Kiyani, Senior Journalist Mujeebur Rehman Shami, Dean Pakistan Law College Humayun Ehsan, District and Sessions Judge, Lahore, Hamid Shah and CRSS Executive Director Imtiaz Gul spoke on the importance of an independently-working prosecution service in criminal justice system. The conference was attended by the GIZ representatives, prosecutors, lawyers, law students, civil society representatives and journalists. The Secretary Prosecution gave an overview of the Prosecution Department and its achievements since its creation in 2006. Humayun Ehsan gave a critical academic assessment of the prosecution service while pointing out weaknesses in the system and suggesting radical reforms for the benefit of the people. Mujeebur Rehman Shami spoke on the role of media and stressed the need for improving the system by building the capacity of the prosecutors. Hamid Shah shared his experience as a judge and spoke on the role of a prosecutor in the criminal justice system. Rana Maqbool informed the participants about the provincial government efforts to build an independent prosecution service.

An Australian delegation led by Major General Craig Orme visited the Center for Research & Security Studies (CRSS) and exchanged views with CRSS Executive Director Imtiaz Gul on issues related to terrorism and radicalization on Wednesday, February 26, 2014.

To engage various stakeholders including medical experts, academics, students, law experts and media in an advocacy campaign on the need of genuine reforms, Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) organized its second seminar in D I Khan on February 22– 2014. The seminar aimed at highlighting the impact of Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) on the political, socio-economic and security situation of residents of FATA and therefore, focusing on the challenges, need for reforms and way forward. Distinguished speakers of the seminar included Sangi Marjan (Ex. Political Agent), Sailab Mahsud (senior Journalist), Dr. Naseem Saba (Gynecologist), Khan Wali (Lawyer) and Mirza Jan (Professor). The speakers talked about FCR which was imposed in 1901 with the purpose to enslave tribesmen and the implications it had throughout the region. While introducing Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR), Mr. Mirza jan explained its implementation as procedural and preventive law which controls law and order situation in the region. He highlighted the ¿unwritten laws– as the similarity between the British and the tribal people of Pakistan. The unfortunate part is that British took interest of their people as a priority whereas in the Tribal areas of Pakistan, there is insensitivity towards the needs and desires of the common people. This ongoing situation has been misused brusquely by the bureaucracy. Furthermore, all participants agreed that FCR, termed as ¿black law– by Supreme Court of Pakistan, has been a major barrier in progress and development in the region. Therefore, the need for abolishing FCR was highly focused throughout the seminar. It was also acknowledged that the abolishment cannot be done overnight and the solution put forward in this regard was to achieve it through advocacy and campaign. The seminar came to an end with a resolution passed by a majority of participants expressing the abolishment of FCR and the emplacement of Constitution of 1973 throughout...

To engage various stakeholders including medical experts, academics, students, law experts and media in an advocacy campaign on the need of genuine reforms, Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) organized its second seminar in D I Khan on February 22– 2014. The seminar aimed at highlighting the impact of Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) on the political, socio-economic and security situation of residents of FATA and therefore, focusing on the challenges, need for reforms and way forward. Distinguished speakers of the seminar included Sangi Marjan (Ex. Political Agent), Sailab Mahsud (senior Journalist), Dr. Naseem Saba (Gynecologist), Khan Wali (Lawyer) and Mirza Jan (Professor). The speakers talked about FCR which was imposed in 1901 with the purpose to enslave tribesmen and the implications it had throughout the region. While introducing Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR), Mr. Mirza jan explained its implementation as procedural and preventive law which controls law and order situation in the region. He highlighted the ¿unwritten laws– as the similarity between the British and the tribal people of Pakistan. The unfortunate part is that British took interest of their people as a priority whereas in the Tribal areas of Pakistan, there is insensitivity towards the needs and desires of the common people. This ongoing situation has been misused brusquely by the bureaucracy. Furthermore, all participants agreed that FCR, termed as ¿black law– by Supreme Court of Pakistan, has been a major barrier in progress and development in the region. Therefore, the need for abolishing FCR was highly focused throughout the seminar. It was also acknowledged that the abolishment cannot be done overnight and the solution put forward in this regard was to achieve it through advocacy and campaign. The seminar came to an end with a resolution passed by a majority of participants expressing the abolishment of FCR and the emplacement of Constitution of 1973 throughout...

To engage various stakeholders including medical experts, academics, students, law experts and media in an advocacy campaign on the need of genuine reforms, Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) organized its second seminar in D I Khan on February 22– 2014. The seminar aimed at highlighting the impact of Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) on the political, socio-economic and security situation of residents of FATA and therefore, focusing on the challenges, need for reforms and way forward. Distinguished speakers of the seminar included Sangi Marjan (Ex. Political Agent), Sailab Mahsud (senior Journalist), Dr. Naseem Saba (Gynecologist), Khan Wali (Lawyer) and Mirza Jan (Professor). The speakers talked about FCR which was imposed in 1901 with the purpose to enslave tribesmen and the implications it had throughout the region. While introducing Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR), Mr. Mirza jan explained its implementation as procedural and preventive law which controls law and order situation in the region. He highlighted the ¿unwritten laws– as the similarity between the British and the tribal people of Pakistan. The unfortunate part is that British took interest of their people as a priority whereas in the Tribal areas of Pakistan, there is insensitivity towards the needs and desires of the common people. This ongoing situation has been misused brusquely by the bureaucracy. Furthermore, all participants agreed that FCR, termed as ¿black law– by Supreme Court of Pakistan, has been a major barrier in progress and development in the region. Therefore, the need for abolishing FCR was highly focused throughout the seminar. It was also acknowledged that the abolishment cannot be done overnight and the solution put forward in this regard was to achieve it through advocacy and campaign. The seminar came to an end with a resolution passed by a majority of participants expressing the abolishment of FCR and the emplacement of Constitution of 1973 throughout...

Tohand overIT equipment to Sindh police,a ceremony was held at Central Police Officein Karachi onFriday,February 14, 2014. The highlight of the event wasa significant donation to the Sindh police by the deputy consul general of Germany, Hans Juergen Paschke, in the form of technological equipment and electrical appliances worth $99,000.The donation was a part of the aid from the German government under the project¿Capacity development of Sindh Police– (CDSP) which is being managed by the Gesellschaft Fuer international Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The equipment, handed over to Sindh Police inspector General Shahid Nadeem Baloch, is expected to be used by the Police Training College in Saeedabad and to facilitate enhanced professional skills of trainee police officials. Next donation, as revealed by the German representative, will consist of furniture and fingerprint systems, worth $1,00,000. Germany is keen on assisting and facilitating efficient working of police inorder toimprove security situation in the Province. Forensic equipment tools and modern investigation kits, of worth $1,20,000, are also expected from Germany later this year.

Mr. Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director, CRSS, speaking at The Atlantic Council, Washington DC, Feb 10 on Pakistan's Peace Talks with the TTP and what those talks mean for thecountry. Context: If an offensive goes ahead, Pakistan military will be unable to take full control of North Waziristan, a ruggedly mountainous zone slightly larger than the US state of Rhode Island, said Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. And no offensive will significantly weaken the militant groups based in North Waziristan unless US and Afghan forces are able to block the mountainous border and prevent the escape of militant fighters into Afghanistan, Gul told a February 10 conference sponsored by the Atlantic Council South Asia Center, and moderated by its Director, Shuja Nawaz. The talks initiated by the Nawaz government with TTP, are likely meant to create political space for a military operation, said Arif Ansar, the Chief Analyst and CEO of PoliTact, a Washington-area strategic consulting firm. Summary: While Pakistan government and its Taliban movement formally have started peace talks, events there suggest that the coming months may as likely bring a Pakistani military offensive, long sought by the United States, against the country biggest territorial stronghold of the Taliban and other militant groups. In latter January, the Pakistani military and the Taliban traded their heaviest attacks on each other in recent months, many of them around that stronghold, the district of North Waziristan. Surgical strikes informed by good intelligence may be able to weaken the Taliban leadership, Gul said. On the night of January 20, Pakistan air force attacked villages in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, the second time in a month that Pakistan has launched such air strikes. Those strikes have come as the United States effectively has suspended (since December 25) its campaign of missile attacks from remotely piloted drones, a campaign...

The incidents of terrorism continued unabated in Pakistan in the year 2013. As there was no let up in militant, sectarian, terrorist and politically-motivated attacks across the country, nearly 6,000 people lost their lives making 2013 one of the deadliest years in Pakistan decade-long fight against terrorism and extremism. The ferocious wave of militancy during the year also gripped areas that were previously considered peaceful, challenging the law-enforcement agencies to counter the threat. It is estimated that more than 5,500 Pakistanis were wounded in suicide and other terrorist as well as criminal acts in the year 2013. The year also witnessed an unusual surge in incidents of sectarian attacks in which mostly the Shiite Muslims were killed. However, the violence took an alarming turn towards the end of the year when top leaders and scholars from both the Sunni and Shiite sects were targeted, fueling the sectarian tensions across Pakistan. However, in the face of the continuing wave of violence, the country witnessed for the first time in its troubled political history a successful transfer of power from one elected government to another, raising hopes that the newly-elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will bring the much-needed peace to the country. But the political transition did not discourage the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to stop its violent campaign. It is reported in local press that from early June 2013 to the end of January 2014 there were more than 850 incidents of terrorism perpetrated by the TTP and its associate outfits, claiming lives of more than 1,400 Pakistanis. The killing of 10 foreign tourists, including Chinese in Diamer dealt a devastating blow to the mountaineering industry and caused huge embarrassment for Pakistan worldwide. While terrorist outfits appeared more organized and lethal in their subversive acts, cluelessness and confusion in the political circles as well as security establishment about how to deal with...

'We are as eager to enforce Sharia as the prime minister is for peace talks,' Ehsanulla Ehsan, a former spokesperson for the TTP, told a Peshawar-based journalist hours after the outfit tossed up its nominees for talks with the government. It also resonated what his slain boss Hakimullah Mehsud and another TTP ideologue Omar Khalid Khorasani made clear on several occasions. In a video message released on several jihadi websites on March 20, 2012, Commander Omar Khalid had the Taliban seek to overthrow the Pakistan government, and replace the current system of governance with the Sharia as the supreme law of the land. 'We aim to counter the Pakistani government, its intelligence agencies, and its army, which are against Islam and have oppressed the Mujahedeen,' he said. Ehsan tone radiated a strong sense of triumphalism ´ at least the way the militants view the government move. By nominating a four-member committee to talk to the Taliban, the government essentially conceded its authority over territories where the TTP says it will provide security to the negotiators. Is the talks initiative doomed because of certain inherent contradictions? It is certainly fraught with risks, if not doomed to fail. Firstly, not only did TTP indulge in chest-thumping over the government move towards the talks, it virtually snubbed the toothless four-member committee by proposing names of persons who are part of, and believers in, the state of Pakistan ´ ex-senators Samiul Haq and Prof Ibrahim, Qari Kifayatullah, and Imran Khan. The non-state TTP expected these state-actors to represent its violent agenda and by implication support the demand for an Islamic emirate in Pakistan. Anybody agreeing to represent the TTP in talks with the government practically exposes his or her deep-seated ideological empathy, if not love for a terrorist outfit. Secondly, by nominating Imran Khan, the TTP ostensibly attempted to discredit Khan, whose quest for talks has largely been misunderstood as...