Author: Jimmie Mann

The American filmmaker Woody Allen said, ““Eighty percent of success is showing up.” If he is correct, America is not succeeding in Central Asia. But the rulers of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and China, Xi Jinping, leave nothing to chance: Xj has visited every one of the republics and has been to Kazakhstan four times and Uzbekistan three times; Putin has visited Kazakhstan twenty-seven times (the countries share a 7,644-kilometre border), and has been to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan at least a dozen times each. And showing up pays off. In a 2022 survey in Uzbekistan by Central Asia barometer, 70% of respondents had a Great Deal or Some…

A total of 6,070 Nepalese Army personnel and officials have been working as United Nations peacekeepers in 13 missions. According to the Directorate of Military Public Relations and Information of the Nepalese Army, Nepal with the aforementioned number ranks second among the member states that provide troops to the UN. Of the total contributors, 564 are women working as peacekeepers. The directorate office informed that Nepal tops in terms of women’s participation in the peacekeeping missions. Source : My Republica

Geneva, London (29/7 – 50) Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, condemned the arrest and imprisonment of journalists, bloggers and civil society activists in Tajikistan, and questioned the credibility of the evidence presented in court against them. Lawlor was on a two-week official visit to Tajikistan last December. The report prepared by her and members of the delegation on the results of this visit was published in May of this year, but only now became available to the public. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, condemned the…

The Nepali government has filed a forgery case against 310 individuals, including a former deputy prime minister, former ministers and incumbent and retired top bureaucrats for their alleged involvement in a government land grab scam. “The district attorney’s Office, Kathmandu filed the cases of forgery of government documents at the district court in Kathmandu,” Achyut Neupane, the head of the attorney’s office, told EFE on Monday. The list of 310 people include 21 deceased, apart from a former deputy PM, three ex-ministers and two current government officials: government secretary Krishna Bahadur Raut and joint secretary Sushil Vaidya. The prosecutors have…

The days of paying for cable television channels you don’t watch are over. Now you pay for only what you watch. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology on Thursday issued a notice to broadcasters to formally implement the “pick-and-pay” option for Nepali television viewers. Like selecting dishes from a menu in a restaurant, the à la carte system allows viewers to pick the channels they want to watch and pay for them. This contrasts with the current plan where viewers get a whole bunch of channels they never watch along with their favourites, and are charged for all. The…

A prominent Pakistani human rights lawyer who criticised the powerful military has been re-arrested hours after a court granted her bail. Imaan Mazari-Hazir was due for release on Monday night until she was detained on a second terrorism charge. She was placed in custody a week ago, prompting widespread criticism. Analysts say a crackdown has increased after military installations were attacked in May by crowds protesting at the arrest of former PM Imran Khan. “There has been a gross over-reaction to the events of 9 May. But the establishment doesn’t want to be seen as only focused against Mr Khan’s…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legal team on Friday expressed serious concerns over the safety and security of party chairman and ex-prime minister Imran Khan, saying he is facing serious life threats in Attock jail, demanding that immediate steps should be taken to provide him home-made food and other facilities. Speaking at a presser here, the counsels for PTI chief, Naeem Haider Panjutha and Ali Ijaz Buttar, briefed the media about the petition filed in Islamabad High Court (IHC), seeking meeting with lawyers, medics, and party leaders with Imran Khan as well as the facilities being provided to him in prison.…

A Cabinet committee has greenlighted the privatisation of PIA – Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad International) following the passing of an amendment bill to address the airline’s PKR71 billion rupee (USD247 million) annual losses and align it with international aviation safety and regulatory standards. The Ministry of Finance announced the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) on August 8 decided to include PIA in a list of ongoing privatisation programmes. On August 7, the Pakistan Senate unanimously passed “The Pakistan International Airline Corporation (Conversion) (Amendment) Bill, 2023”, amending an earlier Act of 2016, to address the airline’s financial situation, reported several Pakistani media, including…

Libya’s state-owned oil company, the National Oil Corporation (NOC), had established last month a new program office, but multiple foreign press reports claim that one of the staff running the office is embroiled in a major fraud case in Kazakhstan. Peter Sztyk, a Canadian lawyer and entrepreneur who also goes by the name “Petro”, has joined a group of foreign consultants who will manage the Office of Strategic Programs, which the NOC inaugurated in February 15 during a meeting with local oil industry executives in Benghazi. Who is Peter Sztyk? The Canadian lawyer graduated in 1993 from Concordia University with bachelor in…

The launch of the highly anticipated Hollywood movie Barbie has been delayed in Pakistan’s Punjab province over “objectionable content”. Officials said the film would be reviewed and needed clearance from the provincial boards that censor scenes violating the country’s social, cultural and religious values. “We will review the film before its release in the country,” Farrukh Mahmood, secretary of the Punjab film censor board, told the Guardian. He did not mention any particular scenes. The move comes after the release of one of the year’s most talked about films was also postponed by Middle Eastern countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE)…