BRAZIL SPECIAL
Ambassador of Brazil talks to Centreline and DNA
Ambassador of Brazil Mr. Alfredo Leoni has completed his tenure in Pakistan and is leaving for his new assignment in Poland. Ambassador Leoni spent quite an eventful tenure in Pakistan during which he gave new meaning to Pakistan, Brazil relations. This is his last interview to any Pakistan media house. Here are excerpts from his interview.
Ansar Mahmood Bhatti
By Shane Croucher
There were four candidates standing in the Uzbekistan presidential elections on 29 March 2015 but they all agree on one thing: that the ruling dictator Islam Karimov should win.
Karimov, 77, has been Uzbekistan’s president since 1990. Amid reports of torture, forced labour in the country’s lucrative cotton industry, violent crackdowns on dissenting activists and journalists, among other abuses, Human Rights Watch describes Uzbekistan’s record under Karimov as “atrocious”.
It is heartening that over 500 stranded Pakistanis in Yemen have been timely evacuated, owing to the personal guidance of the Prime Minister and the excellent coordination of all concerned departments, including PIA. The focus of our endeavours has now shifted to evacuate the remaining Pakistanis, stuck mainly in Aden and Mokallah.The renewed fighting around Aden has prevented the envisaged movement of Pakistanis stranded in Aden to Mokallah, which is at about nine hours’ driving distance. As such, even as a PIA aircraft is on stand-by to fly to Mokallah to air-lift the stranded Pakistanis in Aden and Mokallah, we now have to use the sea evacuation option.
The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan HeydarAliyev announced on 26 March, 1998 that every year on 31 March Azerbaijan remembers the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis stating ”Taking advantage of the situation following the end of the First World War and the February and October 1917 revolutions in Russia, the Armenians began to pursue the implementation of their plans under the banner of Bolshevism. Under the watchword of combating counter-revolutionary elements, in March 1918 the Baku commune began to implement a criminal plan aimed at eliminating Azerbaijanis from the whole of Baku province”. People of Azerbaijan pay their respects to the victims of massacre and ethnic cleansing conducted as a result of imperial policies in the region and waves of Armenian aggression on 31st March.
ISLAMABAD, 30 MAR (DNA) – The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan on Monday claimed responsibility for the killing of an army officer in Peshawar.Lt. Col Tahir Azeem was shot dead in Hayatbad on Sunday when he was returning home from a mosque. The gunmen riding a motorcycle had fled after the incident.
KARACHI, March 30 (DNA): Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Monday filed a petition in Sindh High Court (SHC) to declare the seats of resigned Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members as vacant.According to details, the petition submitted by MQM leader Shahid Sheikh stated that it is unconstitutional not to accept the resignations of four members of PTI as they do not came to the assembly afterwards.
Domestic and international dynamics suggest Karimov will again run for president, and win.
By Elmurad Kasym
Following the Uzbek Central Elections Committee’s announcement that the next presidential elections would be held on March 29, 2015, a news agency broke the news under the headline “Incumbent President Islam Karimov’s reelection scheduled.” That is not far-fetched given Karimov’s quarter-century rule in Uzbekistan, the most populous nation in Central Asia, despite the constitutional provision that prohibits any one person from holding the post for “more than two consecutive terms” (Article 90)
