Islamabad may lose control of part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir unless it provides meaningful autonomy and basic political rights to the region, according to a Brussels-based think tank.

The International Crisis Group (ICR) also warns that as locals’ grievances mount, sectarian radicalism will increase in this disputed region neighbouring India.

However, the situation in the Northern Areas - Gilgit and Baltistan - will not change as long as Pakistan itself is under military rule, says Robert Templer, the ICG’s Asia programme director. “Islamabad sees the region as a card to play in negotiations with India about Kashmir, and unless the government empowers locally elected representatives instead of governing through a viceroy from Islamabad, it will continue to lose its legitimacy at a fast pace,” Templer said.

The Pakistani-administered portion of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region consists of two administrative entities: the so-called Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas. However, unlike Azad Kashmir, which has its own constitution, the federally administered Northern Areas are still ruled through the federal ministry for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, whose minister is its unelected chief executive.

The ICG report, “Discord in Pakistan’s Northern Areas,” examines the growing tensions in the Federally Administered Northern Areas and attributes these, in part, to President Pervez Musharraf, who took control of Pakistan in a 1999 coup.

“General Pervez Musharraf’s military rule has denied political space and basic rights to the Northern Areas and has consequently increased the frustration in the region, particularly among young people,” said Samina Ahmed, ICG’s South Asia project director. “The Northern Areas have become a training-ground for Sunni militants, a development that has ignited hostility with the region’s Shia majority.” The Northern Areas are the only Shia-majority region under Pakistani control. The lack of political representation has led to the empowerment of extremist factions, and weakened moderate groups, the ICG said.

It is also fuelling a potentially powerful nationalist movement, seeking independence from Pakistan.

The group blames the Pakistani military’s patronage of Sunni jihadis for promoting sectarian strife in the region. Under Musharraf the military has retained its alliance with Sunni Islamists for multiple goals, domestic and external, further weakening moderate forces in a region where religious extremism was once unknown, it said.

In Washington, a resurgent Taliban has spurred frustration with Pakistan’s support of the U.S.-led war on terror. At a recent congressional hearing on U.S. policy toward Pakistan, Congressman Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat, noted Pakistan has long presented the United States with “one of our most difficult foreign policy challenges.”

Ackerman questioned whether the multi-billion dollar US aid to Pakistan had produced the result Washington had hoped for. “I don’t believe that it has,” the Congressman said, adding, he believed that the government of Pakistan will “use the threat of terrorists to extract as much from us as they possibly can and we have proven willing time and again to oblige.”

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) today adjourned the hearing of presidential reference against non-functional Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry till April 18 and has decided to hold hearing twice a week.

The SJC, who met under the acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas heard argument on its composition challenged by Chaudhry.

The lead defence counsel Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan objected to the presence of three out of the five judges on plea of bias, conflict of interest and allegations of misconduct.

He wanted exclusion of Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar and Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar from the panel.

Government lawyers sought more time for responding to Ahsan’s arguments.

Thousands of lawyers, political leaders and workers, human rights activists chanted anti-Musharraf slogans outside the court.

They put up a massive show of support and solidarity with Iftikhar Chaudhry. They demanded Iftikhar’s restoration and ensuring the independence of judiciary.

While lawyers kept a distance from other processions, top opposition leaders Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Imran Khan, M.Raja Zafrul Haq and others addressed the protesters vowing to continue the agitation till Mushharraf withdraws the reference.

It was a huge demonstration, far bigger than the previous rallies, reflecting intensified build up of popular anger against Chief Justice Iftikhar’s removal.

Lawyers boycotted courts and staged rallies across country.

The council chose to hold proceedings on preliminary objections in camera while deferring ruling on Iftikhar’s plea for open trial.

In Karachi some lawyers roughed up journalists and snatched their cameras.

The Karachi Bar Association officials accused security agents of causing unprovoked disruption in the guise of lawyers.

Dhaka, April 13
Former law minister of Bangladesh Maudud Ahmed was arrested today from his residence as the military-backed caretaker government continued its crusade against corrupt politicians and businessmen.

Minister’s family sources said a convoy of military raided Ahmed’s residence last night and picked him up this morning.

Earlier, the interim government, led by chief advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed assumed power on January 12 under the state of emergency, rounded up scores of former ministers and members of parliament on charges of corruption and abuse of power.

Fakhruddin addressed the nation last evening and said the current administration would show zero tolerance to corrupts.

He also said the country would have parliamentary elections before the end of next year. — UNI

London, April 13
Controversial India-born author Salman Rushdie is among the 15 writers short-listed for the second Man Booker International Prize.

The biennial award of 60,000 pound, an offshoot of the main Man Booker Prize presented to the UK and Commonwealth writers only, was first won by Albanian novelist Ismael Kadre in 2005.

Rushdie has won both the Man Booker and the Booker of Bookers for his novel “Midnight’s Children.” Less well-known figures contending for the prize include Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo of the US, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, one of the trailblazers of the Latin American “boom” of the 1960s, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Alice Munro of Canada, Harry Mulisch of Holland and France’s Michel Tournier.

The award is presented to a living author, who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is available in English translation.

The award will be announced in June. The chairman of judges, Professor Elaine Showaiter in Toronto, announced the Judges’ List. — PTI