Pakistan votes after bitter campaign marred by violence

Agencies
July 25, 2018

Islamabad, Jul 25: Polls opened Wednesday in a tense, unpredictable Pakistani election that could be former World Cup cricketer Imran Khan's best shot at power, after a campaign marred by allegations of military interference and a series of deadly attacks.

The first voter to enter a polling station in the eastern city of Lahore was a woman, an AFP reporter there saw. More than nine million new female voters have registered for the vote in the deeply patriarchal country.

The vote is meant to be a rare democratic transition of power in the nuclear-armed country which has been ruled by the powerful military for roughly half its history.

But it has been dubbed Pakistan's "dirtiest election" due to widespread accusations of pre-poll rigging by the armed forces, with Khan believed to be the beneficiary.

Up to 800,000 police and military forces have been stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country ahead of the poll.

In Bani Gala, a suburb of the capital Islamabad, media massed outside the polling station where Khan is due to cast his vote; while in Lahore heavy contingents of police and military could be seen ahead of polls opening.

Security fears did not appear to deter citizens in Lahore a day before the election, however.

"These so-called security threats are an excuse to scare the voters," shopkeeper Kashif Ahmed told AFP.

The election has largely boiled down to a contest between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Khan is campaigning on populist promises to build a "New Pakistan", vowing to eradicate corruption, clean up the environment and construct an "Islamic welfare" state.

But his campaign has been dogged by widespread accusations he is benefitting from the support of the country's powerful security establishment, with the media, activists and think tanks decrying a "silent coup" by the generals.

The military has rejected the accusations, saying it has no "direct role" in the electoral process.

Election authorities have granted military officers broad powers inside polling centres that have further stirred fears of possible manipulation.

The erstwhile playboy Khan has also raised eyebrows in recent weeks as he has increasingly catered to hardline religious groups, sparking fears a win for PTI could embolden Islamist extremists.

The PML-N, on the other hand, says it is the target of the alleged military machinations, with candidates under pressure and Nawaz Sharif ousted from power last year and jailed over a corruption conviction days before the vote, removing Khan's most dangerous foe from the race.

His brother Shahbaz is leading the party's campaign.

"Our predictions are very murky right now," Bilal Gilani, executive director of pollster Gallup Pakistan, told AFP on Tuesday.

More than 19 million new voters, including millions of women and youth, may prove decisive in the close race.

Gilani said many remain undecided: "It's still up for grabs."

The campaign season has also been marred by the expansion of far-right religious parties and a string of bloody militant attacks that have killed more than 180 people, including three candidates.

The attacks have fuelled concerns that Pakistan may be losing ground on hard-fought security gains in recent years.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 29,2020

New Delhi, Jul 29: The new National Education Policy (NEP) approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday is set to usher in a slew of changes with the vision of creating an education system that contributes directly to transforming the country, providing high-quality education to all, and making India a global knowledge superpower.

The draft of the NEP by a panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Kasturirangan and submitted to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal when he took charge last year. The new NEP replaces the one formulated in 1986.

Some of the key highlights of the New Education Policy are:-

The policy aims to enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, scientific temper, creativity, spirit of service, and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, among others.

It identified the major problems facing the higher education system in the country and suggested changes such as moving towards multidisciplinary universities and colleges, with more institutions across India that offer medium of instruction in local/Indian languages, a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education, among others. 

The governance of such institutions by independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy has also been suggested.

Under the suggestions for institutional restructuring and consolidation, it has suggested that by 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students, and by 2030 each or near every district in the country there will be at least one HEI.

The aim will be to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in HEIs including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035.

Single-stream HEIs will be phased out over time, and all will move towards becoming vibrant multidisciplinary institutions or parts of vibrant multidisciplinary HEI clusters.

It also pushes for more holistic and multidisciplinary education to be provided to the students.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 25,2020

Ottawa, Jun 25: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his son out for ice cream on Wednesday in his first family outing since Canada started easing out of its pandemic lockdown.

It was also Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec province.

Wearing masks, the Canadian leader and his six-year-old son Hadrien were cheered at Chocolats Favoris in Gatineau, Quebec.

According to a pool report, Trudeau said the shop tapped into a federal emergency wage subsidy and business loan in order to weather the pandemic, and "avoid being frozen out of the frozen treat market."

Hadrien is said to have bounced with excitement, settling on a vanilla cone with a cookie topping while dad bought a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate for himself.

Father and son then headed out to the patio, where they doffed their masks to eat their cones.

Canada's provinces and territories declared states of emergency mid-March, closing schools and non-essential businesses in response to the pandemic.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
May 17,2020

Washington, May 17: The overall number of global coronavirus cases has increased to over 4.6 million, while the death toll has surpassed 311,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Sunday morning, the total number of cases stood at 4,634,068, while the death toll increased to 311,781, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US currently accounts for the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 1,467,796 and 88,754, respectively.

In terms of cases, Russia has the second highest number of infections at 272,043, followed by the UK (241,461), Brazil (233,142), Spain (230,698), Italy (224,760), France (179,630), Germany (175,752), Turkey (148,067) and Iran (118,392), the CSSE figures showed.

Meanwhile, the UK accounted for the second highest COVID-19 deaths worldwide at 34,546.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are Italy (31,763), Spain (27,563), France (27,532), and Brazil (15,662).

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.