ISLAMABAD, 14 February 2020, TON: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is Pakistan on two-day official visit. He arrived Thursday at Nur Khan airbase, Chaklala. A smartly turned-out contingent of the Pakistani Armed Forces presented guard of honour to honourable guest. At the occasion national anthems of the two countries were also played. Later, Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Recep Rayyip discussed isssues of mutual interests including issues of strategic contemporary international politics. 

Besides, holding a separate meeting with President Dr. Arif Alvi, President Erdogan will also address a Joint Session of the Parliament today. He will hold consultations with all the parliamentary leaders of all the political parties on this matter.

The commitment of the Turkish President include co-chair the 6th Session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) at Islamabad. A number of important agreements / MoUs (Memorandums of Understanding) have been on the table and a Joint Declaration will also be signed.

President Erdogan, who is visiting Pakistan on the invitation of Prime Minister Imran Khan, was accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising cabinet members and senior government officials, as well as heads and CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) of leading Turkish corporations. 

Together with Prime Minister Imran Khan, President Erdogan will address the Pakistan-Turkey Business and Investment Forum, which brings together leading investors and business-people from both sides. 

An official statement issued by Islamabad said, the visit of President Erdogan will serve to underscore the traditional solidarity and affinity between the two countries, and prove to be another significant milestone in the further deepening and broadening of the flourishing Pakistan-Turkey strategic partnership.

NEW DELHI, 13 February 2020, TON: The Indian Supreme Court this week framed seven questions pertaining to the scope of religious freedom permitted in different religions, arguments on which will begin from 17 February 2020, before a nine-Judge Constitution Bench.

These questions pertain to a clash of faith and fundamental rights vis-a-vis entry of women of all ages into Mosques and Dargahs, female genital mutilation practised among the Dawoodi Bohra community, entry of women married to non-Parsis into the fire temple and entry of women in the Sabarimala temple.

The bench is headed by the Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and to be heard by the nine-judge bench that also comprises Justices R. Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan, L. Nageswara Rao, M.M. Shantanagoudar, S.A. Nazeer, R. Subhash Reddy, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant. The nine-judge bench will hear the issues referred by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi (since retired) on 14 November 2019.

The questions include: What is the scope and ambit of the right to freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution? What is the interplay between the rights of persons under Article 25 of the Constitution of India and rights of religious denominations under Article 26 of the Constitution?

The bench will also examine the scope and extent of judicial review with regard to a religious practice, as referred to in Article 25, and the meaning of the expression "Sections of Hindus" in Article 25 (2) (b) of India's Constitution.

The bench will also deal with whether a person not belonging to a religious denomination or group can question a practice of that group by filing a public interest litigation (PIL).

GUWAHATI, 13 February 2020, TON: State Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma disclosed before the media his government’s intention to close hundreds of Madrassas (Madaris) in the State as teaching of religious scriptures is harming the State exchequer.

Making this disclosure before the media here on 12 February 2020, the State Education Minister said, “We feel it is not just to teach religious scriptures with government funds. If we are to continue with such teachings, we will have to teach the scriptures of other religions as well. Hence, the State government has decided to close such religion-based educational institutions and upgrade them as general high schools.”

The Minister, however, clarified that the State government will interfere if such religion-based institutes are run with private funding.  The State has 640 government-funded Madrassas in Assam. Meanwhile the Muslims have decided to lodge official protest to compel the State government to take back its decision.

JAMMU, 13 February 2020, TON: A group of foreign national including some envoys visited Jammu on 12 - 13 February 2020. Corps Commander 15 Corps Lieutenant General KJS Dhillon briefied the delegation regarding the security situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. General KJS Dhillon blamed Pakistan for the terrorist activities across the Line of Control and supported his claim from statistics. He allowed the foreign delegation to interact with the local population in Jammu including the Sikhs and Hindu Pandits. Selected politician also attended the briefing.  

Earlier, they interacted with selected Kashmiri politicians. The group comprises of representatives from Afghanistan, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, the European Union, France, Germany, Republic of Guinea, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Rwanda, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Uganda and Uzbekistan.

If we recall, last month, delegation from 15 countries including US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster and diplomats from Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil, Niger, Nigeria, Morocco, Guyana, Argentina, Philippines, Norway, Maldives, Fiji, Togo, Bangladesh, and Peru visited Jammu and Kashmir on 9 – 10 January 2020.

WASHINGTON, 11 February 2020, TON: US President Donald Trump along with first lady Melania are scheduled to pay a state visit to India on 24 – 25 February 2020. White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that the decision to visit came after Trump and Modi had a telephonic talk over the weekend over tense situation arising after Iranian purist to its ballistic missile programme.

US State Department said it has approved the sale of an Integrated Air Defence Weapons System to India (IADWS) for an estimated cost of USD 1.9 billion. The approval comes after Trump Administration notified to the US Congress its determination to sell to India the IADWS. The IADWS will modernize Indian armed forces and the system could also be deployed against American adversaries in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.  

KOLKATA, 11 February 2020, TON: Indian West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government to shun politics of vendetta” and work with the 0pposition parties to revive the economy.

Banerjee saidm “The Prime Minister should take everybody into confidence and if necessary hold meetings with opposition parties to find out ways to revive the economy. The Centre should focus more on the economy and stop resorting to vendetta politics.” She appealed to Modi to take the recent comments by the RBI about the state of the Indian economy “seriously”.

KABUL, 11 February 2020, TON: Suicide bomber attacked Marshal Fahim Military Academy on 11 February 2020 killing six persons including four military personnel and wounding eleven others including seven military personnel. Taliban have denied their involvement and blamed anti-Taliban forces to degrade Taliban.

Such attacks are usually engineered to disrupt peace process or prevent foreign forces from leaving Afghanistan. Two days back gunmen attack US forces and killed two American personnel and wounding six others in Nangarhar province. These terrorist incidents are taking place when Washington is holding peace talks with Taliban and US peace envoy Zalmay Khalizad is hopeful of breakthrough.

NEW DELHI, 11 February 2020, TON: BJP faced defeat in February 2020 polls to elect a new legislative assembly in the federal capital New Delhi for the next five years. As per the details Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal won clear majority by winning 62 seats while BJP got just 8 seats.

The win bt APP has promoted the party of Arvind Kejriwal to a prominent position amongst Indian opposition parties. APP workers and voters claimed that their party was able to comfortably win due to their achievement including setting up of government schools, health clinics and providing free water and electricity to the poor in the state.

The Muslims and the Scheduled Caste as well as other minorities voted for APP as protest of BJP’s internal policies as well as effort to divide Indian society. Analysts believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi still has time to give up controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), policy regarding Jammu and Kashmir as well as other troubled states.

DHAKA, 11 February 2020, TON: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh National Party (BNP) is prison since 8 February 2018. She was jailed for 17 years in two corruption cases; Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust. Other case against her included; Besides the two graft cases, Khaleda is accused in 31 more cases on charges related to violent protests, defamation and sedition.

She was convicted ahead of the December 2018 elections when the courts acted on longstanding cases against her.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is hopful that 73 years old Ms Khaleda Zia would be free very soon.

Chairman BNP Tarique Rahman who is son of Ms Khaleda Zia is hopeful that international human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International will take stock of it and would request Bangladeshi government to get the old political lady free. In is interesting to note that in many cases, the charges appear baseless. In what have been described as “Ghost Cases,” some of the accused were either dead, abroad, or hospitalized at the time of their alleged offense. 

NIGERIA, 10 February 2020, TON: All of a sudden the international media, especially the renowned news and social media channels has started picking up fictitious video clips of brutality and torture and attributing them to Nigeria’s security forces. With attractive headings such as “disturbing scenes including images of torture” and “uncovered shocking video evidence that torture” these videos are being labeled if being committed by Nigerian police and armed forces.

Torture during interrogation and punishment to detainees, including children is being made public to pressurize Nigerian leadership to bow before international pressure. Interestingly, irrespective of it genuineness, the video clips of 2014 were kept confidential to make them public at appropriate time after six year, stressing on accountability. 

Ever since early this month, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that 90 per cent of Boko Haram targets are Muslims and not Christian. Things have moved against Nigerian government. Pro-west opposition party wanted the President to keep the truth secret as statement of President Buhari may divide Nigerians in their stance against terrorism and violence in Nigeria. 

The main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reacted strongly by saying Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) attach no value to the lives of Nigerians, dubbed his comments as “totally horrendous, un-presidential, scandalous, discriminatory, divisive and a huge spat on the grave of the victims”  and advised President to apologize. 

There is no doubt that the statement of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is indicative that Boko Haram is a proxy against the Muslims and not the Christians as generally being perceived. 

Interestingly, if we recall, at EU parliament recently tabled a motion for a Resolution on cases of breaches of human rights including ongoing violence against Christians perpetrated by Boko Haram and ISWAP in Nigeria.  The motion called Nigeria to bring an end to violence against Christians and defend their right to worship.   

Washington has also ban on entry of nationals from Nigeria in USA and this proclamation will take effect on 22 February 2010. The statement from the officials of US Department of Homeland Security said, “US administration is not satisfied about pluralist reforms and sharing of data regarding terrorism including details of their visit, bank accounts and passport entries.”