Interior Ministry: Security plans for the February 18 elections approved; Anti-militancy operations continue across country
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    • A Spokesperson of the Interior Ministry in Islamabad announced on January 29 that the federal government had approved four security plans so as to peacefully conduct the upcoming general elections on February 181. The US on its part, through Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, urged Pakistani authorities to do away with “serious distortions” to ensure a fair election process2. A report in the Chicago Tribune noted that the PPP would be the decisive factor in determining the ‘future of Pakistan’ owing to the sympathy wave in which the PPP candidates were expected to head for victory in the polls3.

    Security operations continued in various parts of the country with 24 militants who were holding security personnel hostage getting killed in Peshawar in the Kohat tunnel on January 274. At least 12 more ‘foreign militants’ were killed in North Waziristan later on January 29 in an operation by the Army. These militants had allegedly held 300 children hostage in a school5.

    Amidst widespread protests of the lawyers’ across the country, the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Aitzaz Ahsan called for a complete boycott of the judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO)6. Later however on February 2, Ahsan was put under detention by the Punjab government for this act of contempt.

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