ISLAMABAD: Days before Pakistan’s powerful army chief was due to visit Washington for talks on regional stability and fighting militancy, General Raheel Sharif engaged in thinly veiled criticism of the nuclear-armed country’s civilian government. A terse statement from the army’s PR wing underlined the tension between Pakistan’s military and its civilian government, just as the United States prepares to receive Sharif weeks after the prime minister held talks there. After top generals met to review a major crackdown on extremists, the Pakistani military said it would be “undermined” if the government did not take “matching governance initiatives”. That was taken to mean police reform, action on militant financing and better governance of restive tribal areas. “He (Sharif) is foreign minister, prime minister, president and army chief all rolled into one,” said a Pakistani newspaper editor, while also questioning the military’s motives. “His greatest achievement is that he ha
Oct 27, 2015- Officials say rescuers are struggling to reach quake-stricken regions in Pakistan and Afghanistan as the combined death toll from the previous day's earthquake rose to 311. According to Afghan and Pakistani officials, 237 people died in Pakistan and 74 in Afghanistan in the magnitude-7.5 quake, which was centered deep beneath the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan's sparsely populated Badakhshan province bordering Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. Wais Ahmad Barmak, the Afghan minister for disaster management says 266 people were also injured in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, authorities say they are struggling to reach remote mountainous quake-affected areas. The army used helicopters Tuesday to transport supplies to the victims and military engineers were trying to restore communication lines disrupted by landslides triggered by the quake. Thousands of homes have also been damaged.
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