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Amnesty International 24 April 2013 The Pakistani authorities must investigate the wave of attacks and threats on political candidates and election workers, Amnesty International said in an open letter released before the country goes to the polls for general elections on 11 May. The organization also called on all political parties, and candidates to commit [...]

United States Department of State 19 April 2013 Summary Pakistan is a federal republic. With the election of the national assembly and the president and head of state Asif Ali Zardari in 2008, democratic rule was restored after years of military government. After the Supreme Court ruled in June that then prime minister Syed Yousuf [...]

IRIN Asia 1st April 2013 Around 40,000 residents of Pakistan’s Tirah Valley, close to the border with Afghanistan, have fled their homes after renewed fighting in the last few weeks, according to the Disaster Management Authority in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FDMA).  Most of the refugees from the Khyber Agency are heading towards Kohat, [...]

Radio Free Europe Published 19th February 2013 Pakistan is holding 700 suspects without charges under a controversial security law. On January 24, Attorney-General Irfan Qadir told the Supreme Court that the suspected militants were arrested in the western tribal regions where the army has been battling Islamist insurgents for years. He added that the suspects [...]

Human Rights Watch World Report 2013 – Pakistan Published 31st January 2013 Introduction Pakistan had a turbulent year in 2012, with the judicial ouster of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, attacks on civilians by militant groups, growing electricity shortages, rising food and fuel prices, and continuing political dominance of the military, which operates with almost [...]

IRIN, 12 October 2012 The shooting on 9 October of Malala Yusufzai, a 14-year-old girls’ education campaigner from Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, is a reminder that militancy is still a significant threat in the north. A large-scale operation by the Pakistan army against militants in 2009, later hailed as largely successful, has not driven away the hardliners. [...]

International Crisis Group 9 October 2012 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS With three years of devastating floods putting the lives and livelihoods of at least four million citizens at risk, and military operations against militants displacing thousands more in the conflict zones of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan’s humanitarian [...]

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre 4 October 2012 Over 402,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed, with approximately 4.8 million people estimated to have been affected by severe monsoon flooding in Pakistan this month. Provincial authorities have declared a flood emergence in key affected districts which include parts of south Punjab, north Sindh and north-east Balochistan provinces. In [...]

Free Movement  27 September 2012 The Court of Justice of the European Union handed down judgment in the case of Germany v Y and Z[2012] EUECJ C-71/11 on 5 September 2012. This is one of the first Court of Justice cases to consider the definition of a refugee and the terms of Directive 2004/83/EC, commonly referred to [...]

IRIN, 24 September 2012 Mukhtar Ahmed Azmi, 75, along with his son and grandson, was about half way home on 6 September when unknown assailants on motorcycles opened fire on them in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. Only Azmi’s grandson survived. This is just one of many unsolved murder cases in the city. Karachi has had [...]