DNA
ATTOCK: Provincial Minister for Prisons Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan Monday
said, Punishment is not for the revenge, but to lesson the crime and
reform the criminal.

The motto of PTI’s government is to make prisoners useful members of
the society and for the purpose reforms are being made in prisons
across the Punjab.

Addressing a press conference in Attock , Chohan said that regular
meetings of high officials of prisons are held to ensure better
facilities to the prisoners and to reform their lives.

29000 prisoners are imprisoned in 43 prisons across the province
completing their sentence for different crimes, said Chohan adding
welfare of the jail staff is also among the priorities of this govt.

He said that financial assistance to needy staff of the prisons is
being given while Prisons Foundation Fund has also been restored.

He said that during his tenure as minister prisons , he made 13 visits
of different jails to know the actual condition of the prisons and the
prisoners as well .

On the special directives of the Chief Minister Punjab , provincial
ministers are visiting different districts to ensure facilities to the
people and to solve their problems on priority, he said.

Earlier Provincial Minister Prisons presided a meeting in DC Office
Attock where DC Ali Anan Qamar briefed him about the development
projects being completed in Attock district at the cost of Rs 6839.851
million .

DC said that eight ramzan bazars will be set up to ensure availability
of edibles at controlled rates . DC said that all possible steps are
being taken to control over charging and hoarding. Later the minister
also visited District Jail Attock and Sahulat bazars .

DNA

ISLAMABAD, MAR 29 – Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of the 9th Ministerial Conference of the Heart of the Asia – Istanbul Process in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, today.

During the meeting, the two Foreign Ministers discussed myriad dimensions of bilateral relations — including political and diplomatic engagement, economic cooperation, defence ties, and collaboration in education and cultural fields. Views were also exchanged on the regional situation.

Recalling Turkish Foreign Minister’s visit to Pakistan in January 2021, Foreign Minister Qureshi highlighted excellent bilateral relations between the two countries, based on shared history and commonality of views. He underlined that the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) had transformed bilateral relations into strategic partnership.

Foreign Minister Qureshi reiterated appreciation for Turkey’s principled and steadfast support on the issue of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, which has been a source of strength for the Kashmiri people.

During the meeting, the two Foreign Ministers evaluated the latest developments in the Afghan peace process. Foreign Minister Qureshi briefed his counterpart on Pakistan’s consistent support for and positive contributions to the Afghan peace process. Underlining that there was no military solution to the Afghan conflict, the Foreign Minister stressed that an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement was the only way forward.

The Foreign Minister added that the progress achieved since the beginning of the U.S.-Taliban Peace Agreement and the commencement of the Intra-Afghan Negotiations in Doha should be preserved and further built upon to lead the process to its logical conclusion. The Foreign Minister also cautioned against the role of “spoilers”, both within and outside Afghanistan, who did not wish to see return of peace and stability in the region.

Expressing concern on the high level of violence, Foreign Minister Qureshi stressed the imperative for the Afghan parties to work for reduction in violence, leading to ceasefire.

The two Foreign Ministers also exchanged views on the proposed meeting on Afghanistan in Turkey.

Highlighting that Turkey was instrumental in establishing Heart of Asia–Istanbul Process (HoA–IP), Foreign Minister Qureshi stated that Pakistan valued this process to advance the shared goals of peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and the region.

The two Foreign Ministers agreed to remain in close contact and maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges between the two countries.

The presidents of the European Council and the European Commission will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey on April 6 in Turkey, an EU spokesman said on Monday, in the latest sign of improving bilateral ties.

The EU did not give further details of the trip by Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen. But the visit is part of a relaunch of relations approved by EU leaders last week after Turkey moved to calm a dispute over hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey, an EU candidate country, has not held a formal summit with EU leaders since May 2018, when Erdoğan met the previous Council and Commission chiefs, Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker.

After last week’s EU Council meeting which discussed the bloc’s relations with Turkey, Michel said they are in contact with Turkish authorities for a possible visit to Turkey in April.

“We are ready, with the European Council, with member states, to put more concrete proposals on the table in order to have a more stable, more predictable relationship with Turkey,” Michel said in a joint news conference with von der Leyen following a virtual EU leaders’ summit.

During their visit, top EU officials are expected to discuss new steps to revive EU-Turkey ties, by relaunching high-level political dialogue, starting negotiations on the modernization of the 25-year-old Customs Union, and by renewing the 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal.

MUZAFFARABAD, MAR 29 (DNA) – The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President, Sardar Masood Khan has called upon the new US administration to play its role in ending plights of the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK). 

“The least the US can do is to ask India to cease and reverse illicit transfer of the Indian Hindu population to the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) and stop killing unarmed Kashmiris in the occupied territory,” the President said in an interview to a national periodical.

He asserted that Washington has to revise its brief on Kashmir. It thinks that 900,000 Indian military and para-military troops are fighting “terrorists” in Kashmir. But that is a false premise constructed by India to delude the world.

 The US, he said, should call for an end to repression and restoration of civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in IOJK. Being promoter of the right to self-determination throughout the last century, the US should not stand in the way of Kashmiris’s freedom of choice for their political identity as envisaged and mandated by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

About the possible role of the United Nations, the state President said “the UN’s role on Kashmir is disappointing and the UN Secretary-General knows this fact. But his hands are tied. He can’t do much about the issue because the UN Security Council is not moving at all.

When asked about the prospects of capturing the world attention and the global media on the Kashmir conflict, Sardar Masood Khan said that before the world pays attention to Jammu and Kashmir, the political parties of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir themselves would have to focus on Kashmir because the world wants to see how much attention we ourselves pay to what we demand from them.

“Before the world refocuses its attention on Kashmir, the people and political parties of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir will have to do so. The world needs to first witness how intense we Kashmiris and Pakistan are. Their attention will be directly proportionate to our passion and endeavours,” he said.

On the lukewarm response to the Kashmir issue from the international community, President Masood said that we shouldn’t dismiss some successes out of hand.

These successes include uproar in the international media about India’s aggression in the IOJK and heightened discussion on the situation in IOJK in parliaments and civil society organizations. 

AJK President said that the besieged and unarmed people of IOJK are giving blood for liberty every day. Under an unrelenting reign of terror by Indian occupation forces, they have not capitulated. As free citizens, we should do better than that.

Describing Kashmir liberation struggle as native, the state president said people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir have been continuing the struggle on their own negating the Indian propaganda that the freedom movement is foreign-sponsored. = DNA

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