Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Kurdish fighters use WWII-era weapons
Kurdish fighters around Irbil are desperately short of modern weapons, and say they need heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles and armored vehicles to combat ISIS.
Taking oath: New SHC CJ determined to weed out corrupt judicial officers
KARACHI: Taking oath as the 23rd chief justice of Sindh High Court on Tuesday, Faisal Arab vowed to take action against all judicial officers involved in corruption.
He was talking to the reporters after Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan administered oath at a ceremony at the high court premises. The ceremony was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, the judges of the Supreme Court, the SHC and the district courts, and other government officials.
CJ Arab was of the view that the availability of the judges is the prerequisite to dispense justice. Ten posts of judges in the high court and 220 vacancies of judicial officers in the subordinate judiciary are lying vacant, he said, adding that the process of judges’ appointment is a lengthy exercise.
Practices, such as transferring judicial officers who are involved in corruption instead of taking action against them will no longer continue in the institution. “Now, action will be taken against such officers,” he resolved. He added, however, that corrupt officers are fewer in number but they defame the entire institution.
Arab said judges were not supposed to control the law and order situation. “It is not the duty of the judges to patrol the roads,” he said. “Their duty is to hear and decide the cases, which are brought before them by the law enforcers in courts.”
He emphasised that the law enforcers must submit their proper investigation reports to the courts along with the cases against the suspects. The law enforcers have to play the preliminary role in controlling crimes and the courts’ role starts at a later stage.
Since he had just assumed the office, Arab said he will look into the issue of heading the review committee formed by the Supreme Court to monitor the performance of law enforcement agencies.
Arab also promised to devise a new mechanism to deal with the issue of backlog cases in both the high court and the lower judiciary. Currently, each judge has to deal with nearly 100 cases every day while unnecessary adjournments by the lawyers further add to the sufferings of the litigants, he said.
On the issue of frequent strikes and suspension of judicial work, he said the judiciary is not a place of protests. He was of the view that the litigants should not be made to suffer because of a tragedy. He wondered why judicial work was suspended in the high court and the lower judiciary on the recent demise of a former chief justice of Pakistan even though the Supreme Court continued its routine functions. “I’m against this,” he said. “Court work should not suffer.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2015.
Two wanted smugglers held
MUZAFFARABAD:
Police have arrested two suspected drug peddlers and recovered a huge consignment of hashish from them.
AJK police raided a house in Shaukat Lines on Monday and arrested two ‘most wanted’ drug smugglers, identified as Irshad Younas and Anees Jameel. An FIR was registered against the suspects.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2015.
The 23-year-old savior of mothers and babies
Like many 23-year-olds, Alain Nteff has big dreams. What sets him apart is what he's trying to achieve: tackling maternal mortality.
Sacchi: ‘It’s not a matter of color’
Italy's former soccer coach Arrigo Sacchi has told CNN he's been misunderstood over comments attributed to him that there were "too many black players" in the country's youth ranks.
What the invincible sportswoman did next
Esther Vergeer was the world's invincible sporting superstar, unbeaten on the tennis court for 10 years and still at the top of her game.
Winter storm ices South, dumps snow on East Coast
There's no doubt that Boston owns the bragging rights for the winter of 2015.
Obama’s executive action drew wide opposition
A federal judge in Texas has issued an injunction temporarily blocking President Obama's executive action on immigration that has drawn opposition from 26 states across the nation.
Carnival tragedy: 12 killed as float hits power line
At least 12 people were killed during Haiti's national Carnival parade early Tuesday in an accident involving an electrical shock on a float, the nation's communications minister said.
Why does ISIS keep making enemies?
The Nazis and the Khmer Rouge went to great lengths to hide their crimes against humanity. But ISIS posts its crimes on social media with seemingly no thoughts for the consequences.
French PM promises justice in Jewish cemetery attack
Hundreds of Jewish graves were defaced in a cemetery in Sarre-Union, France, in what the country's interior minister is calling "a despicable act."
Is this a trial or a remake of ‘Groundhog Day’?
The trial of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was supposed to have started three weeks ago. But now it's anybody's guess when this highly anticipated trial will begin.