Arresting Awan, Malik could lead to Bhutto’s assassins: PPP

September 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has reportedly decided to take action against federal population minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan for her alleged use of 'un-parliamentary remark' against the information secretary of a PML-Q faction during a talk show. According to The Dawn, Gilani assured Tariq over phone that disciplinary action would be taken against the minister.

July 30th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - The protocol officer of late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has filed a court petition seeking registration of a criminal case against former President Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi for planning a "conspiracy that culminated in the assassination of Bhutto". Advocate Chaudhry Mehmood Aslam, who claimed he had been Benazir's protocol officer from 1986 to 2007, also named former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Ejaz Hussain Shah, Babar Awan and others in his petition, the Daily Times reports.

July 26th, 2009 Pakistani police hold 2 in Polish man's beheadingISLAMABAD — Pakistani police have detained a former lawmaker and a suspected Taliban militant in connection with the beheading of a Polish geologist kidnapped near the Afghan border last year, a police official said Sunday. Investigator Malik Tariq Awan, who is part of a team of officials from police and intelligence agencies, told The Associated Press that the two were taken into custody a month ago.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan has asked Washington not to attach conditions with the US aid to Pakistan, as the country requires string-less assistance to fight the global war on terror. "This is not the time for attaching conditions to assistance.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan has urged Washington to provide weapons and other equipments to help Pakistan set up a 400,000-strong anti-militant force. Awan said Pakistan needed helicopters, drones and night-vision goggles for combating the militants.

July 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister's advisor on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik has said that the major Taliban leadership has been wiped out from Swat. Talking to media persons here, Malik claimed that the military offensive being carried out in the North West Frontier Province's (NWFP) Swat and Malakand Divisions have been successful with top commanders of the Taliban killed.

July 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The commanding officer of the Swat offensive, Major General Ijaz Awan has been removed from the post. He has been replaced by Major General Ashfaq Nadeem, as the Army is preparing for a final assault in the region.

June 28th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Government has claimed that the family members of senior Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah have been arrested. Talking to media persons here, the Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik said that the security officials have arrested the family members of Fazlullah.

June 22nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has asked the Taliban to leave the country, as Pakistan's military's offensive would not stop until every insurgent is eliminated from the nation's soil. The Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying, that Pakistan had long said 'no' to the Taliban, and now they must leave Pakistan, adding that the Taliban were neither Muslims nor Pakistanis.

June 10th, 2009 LAHORE - One of the commanders of the Swat Operation, Major General Ijaz Awan, has said the Taliban started to arm themselves against the Pakistan Army after parliament decided to enforce the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Malakand Division. In an interview with a private TV channel, he said the Taliban had made Mingora their base, and then advanced towards Buner and other adjoining areas.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army would need to stay in the Swat Valley for at least a year after its operation against the Taliban in the region is accomplished, in order to prevent the extremists from resurfacing again, a senior Army official has said. Major General Ijaz Awan, who is commanding the military's Swat offensive, said the army would have to stay in the valley for at least another year so that peace and security could be re-established.

May 14th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - An army colonel along with a lawyer have been arrested on espionage charges, Pakistan's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan told the National Assembly. Responding to parliament question, Awan informed the house that Colonel Shahid Bashir and his close friend Nadeem Shah, who is a Rawalpindi based lawyer, were currently being investigated by army officials on charges of spying.

May 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan has said that former dictators, General Zia-ul- Haq and General Pervez Musharraf could be tried under the High Treason (Punishment) Act of 1973 for subverting the Constitution. Appearing in the Supreme Court to clarify whether a former president can be brought to court on a public complaint or not, Awan, who is also the country's acting law minister, said: "General Zia can be charged posthumously with sabotaging the 1973 Constitution in 1977 and General Musharraf twice in 1999 and 2007." Explaining the details of the Article 6 of the Constitution which deals with high treason for undermining the Constitution, Awan said: "The act that was notified in the gazette of Pakistan in 1973, had become a 'dead letter' since no civilian or military ruler had ever been tried under the law during the past 36 years in view of political exigencies." "Section 2-a of the act says that a person found guilty of having committed an act of abrogating or subverting the Constitution enforced in Pakistan at any time would be tried under the law to hand down death sentence or life imprisonment," The Dawn quoted Awan, as saying.

February 11th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Mumbai attackers had used three boats during the planning and execution of the 26/11 carnage and the investigative authorities had obtained details of all three vessels, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Thursday. 'We traced the owner of shop where the rubber boat (the terrorists used to land in Mumbai) was purchased,' Malik said at a press conference detailing the results of Pakistan's probe into the Nov 26-29, 2008 carnage that claimed the lives of more than 170 lives, including those of 26 non-Indians, and injured over 300.

January 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is to amend its anti-corruption law to remove politicians from its purview. 'There will be no victimisation of politicians and no politician will be arrested or disqualified under the law, the draft of which was finalised (Thursday) by the inter-ministerial committee of the cabinet,' Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said in the National Assembly Thursday.