Story Highlights
Yemen War
Since after the Yemen attack Pakistan has been contemplating whether to become Saudi allies against Houthis forces or stay neutral. After days of debate, Pakistan’s parliament, on Friday unanimously voted against military involvement in Yemen conflict. Lawmakers voted in favor of resolution to maintain neutrality in Yemen. The resolution also says that Pakistan would be on Saudi’s side in case of a violation or a threat to its territorial integrity. Members of both houses of parliament had been debating the issue since Monday, when the government convened the joint session to formulate a joint position on the issue.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia had asked Pakistan to provide ships, aircraft and troops to a military campaign it has launched in Yemen against the Houthi forces while Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif travelled to Pakistan to urge the country to reject the Saudi request to join their military campaign. Mr Zarif urged Pakistan to play its role as a mediator. Pakistani leaders has also met with senior Saudi officials in Riyadh in the last two weeks, while the country’s military leadership has been in talks with Iran and Egypt.
PTI in Karachi
Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf are warming up for an upcoming by-election of NA- 246 constituency in Karachi. Last week a scuffle broke out between the workers of two parties when PTI’s candidate Imran Ismael visited the constituency. On Thursday, during his visit to Karachi, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said that his contention with MQM chief Altaf Hussain was over the ‘politics of gun’.
Earlier on Monday, government and opposition members blasted Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf as it returned to the parliament. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the PTI had no ethics or self-respect. Commenting on PTI’s return to parliament, Khawaja Asif said that the people who called this government, and the assemblies as fake for eight months are sitting today in the same assemblies. Meanwhile MQM chanted slogans and staged a walkout in protest against PTI’s return to the House. In response to what happened inside the parliament, Imran Khan, while talking to the reporters outside the parliament said that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif used ‘non-parliamentary’ language in the presence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said we were invited to the assembly by PML-N and PPP.
War Against Terror
Pakistani military has been engaged in a full-scale operation against Taliban in North Waziristan and tribal areas since last year. On Sunday at least four terrorists were killed in bombardment by security forces in Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency.
According to ISPR the security forces seized bodies of ten terrorists and recovered arms and ammunition from them. Meanwhile at least two security personnel, who got severely injured in an exchange of firing between security forces and militants in Orakzai Agency, succumbed to injuries taking the death toll to three. Earlier, on Saturday, at least six militants were killed when Pakistan Air Force jets pounded their hideouts in Khyber tribal region.
Meanwhile Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan claimed to have arrested at least 11 terrorists, including four suicide bombers, of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan during a raid in suburbs of Quetta. Earlier on Monday, eight Iranian border guards were killed by militants in a cross-border raid on the frontier with Pakistan according to Iranian media.
The officials claimed that armed terrorists entered Iranian soil from Pakistani soil, clashed with the guards and fled back to Pakistan. Spokeswoman for the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tasnim Aslam, condemned the attack and noted that a militant group called Jaish al Adl had claimed responsibility. The same group had claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 14 border guards in 2013.
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