WASHINGTON: Malala Yousufzai has urged US President Barack Obama to reconsider his drone policy, telling him that drones are killing innocent people and fuelling terrorism. Dawn.
KOHAT: The internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Khyber Agency staged a protest demonstration here , demanding the promised food and cash package on return to their native areas. Hundreds of male members of the IDP families blocked the Indus Highway near Jarma here when they were told that they would not be given the food and cash package following their repatriation. DSP Ehsanullah immediately reached the spot along with political tehsildar of Frontier Region, Kohat, and held talks with the protesters. They assured the IDPs that food and transport would be provided to each family willing to return their native areas. On their assurance, the protesters opened the road and dispersed. Earlier, the Fata Disaster Management Authority official had said that 1,400 repatriated families were given hygiene kit, food, transport and medicines by the World Food Programme. The fresh returning families would be given Rs25,000 each after they stayed in their villages for two months because earlier the repatriated families had returned to the IDP camps. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: Back-to-back emergence of cases, especially in North Waziristan Agency due to Taliban ban on vaccination, is hampering the government`s efforts to get a polio-free status for Palcistan ahead of Nigeria and Afghanistan, the other two polio endemic countries left in the world. `Pakistan`s efforts to eradicate polio will remain a dream that will never come true unless we administer oral polio vaccine to all children under five years of age. The presence of unvaccinated children also poses a challenge to achieving the task of getting the country free of polio,` relevant officials said. Pakistan with 43 cases is in race with Afghanistan (six cases) and Nigeria (49) to be declared polio-free, but indications are that the situation in Fata, especially in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency with 14 and 13 cases respectively, would make the government`s task difficult to achieve. Dawn.
LANDI KOTAL: Qaumi Watan Party, Fata Chairman Asad Afridi on Saturday demanded local government elections in tribal areas on party basis and said it would help integrate Fata into the national mainstream politics. Mr Afridi told a news conference here that the party-based local government election would also help bring about new leadership in Fata to fill the vacuum created by the killing of hundreds of tribal elders by militants in recent years. He said Fata faced a serious shortage of honest and sincere leadership to steer it out of the prevailing security and socioeconomic crises. Dawn.
KHAR: At least 47 ex-militants were freed after completing vocational training from Navi Sahar, an internment centre established by the Pakistan Army in Bajaur Agency. A ceremony in this regard was arranged at the premises of the institute where Bajaur Political Agent (PA) Syed Abdul Jabar Shah, Pakistan Army North Sector Commander Brigadier Haider, Bajaur Scouts Commandant Colonel Ayub and other senior officials addressed the gathering to boost the morale of the rehabilitated former militants. This was the fourth batch of graduates to receive vocational training for carpentry and tailoring among other skills for 12 weeks. The Express Tribune.
