Daily Brief: Afghanistan blocks corruption probe – Report

A blind eye

The AP’s Adam Goldman and Heidi Vogt report today that Afghanistan has shut down a corruption investigation into former Kapisa Province governor Ghulam Qawis Abu Bakr, whom U.S. officials had hoped would be the first high-level Afgan official to be convicted on corruption charges (AP). The investigation into Abu Bakr’s bribe-taking began in 2009 after then-commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, alleged the governor was working with the Taliban.

The annual opium survey released today by the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that opium production in Afghanistan is expected to show an increase of nearly two-thirds in 2011 compared to the drought-affected levels of 2010 (AFP, AP). Citing rising opium prices and insecurity, the report points out that poppy cultivation is now present in 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, three of which had previously been declared "poppy free," a designation that entitled them to increased development aid.

Four Afghan aid workers were kidnapped in the northern province of Faryab on Monday afternoon as they returned from a conducting a hygiene train session at a mosque (AP). And in the eastern province of Wardak, three people were killed when they trod on an explosive device.

Close call

At least six people were wounded but none killed in a rocket attack today on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Masood Kausar, who had convened a meeting with tribal elders in the Pakistani tribal district of Orakzai (AFP, Reuters). A bomb struck a NATO supply truck in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday, and a separate explosion in South Waziristan on Tuesday injured three Pakistani soldiers (Reuters, Reuters).

The Islamabad High Court today agreed to hear the appeal of Mumtaz Qadri, the convicted killer of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, and a former Lahore High Court chief justice has confirmed that he will defend the accused in court, as hundreds rallied across Pakistan to support him (ET, Dawn, AP). Lahore police claimed today that there have been significant new developments in their investigation into the kidnapping of Taseer’s son, Shahbaz (Dawn). And the brother of Sarfaraz Shah, whose death at the hands of a group of Rangers in Karachi in June was caught on video, has requested that all of the paramilitary forces who participated in his brother’s killing be handed the death penalty (ET).

Pakistan’s paramilitary Rangers conducted raids on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) offices in Karachi on Monday and arrested over two dozen party activists, reportedly because of their involvement in forcing shops to close on Monday to make a political statement (ET, Dawn). Separately, more than a dozen men were arrested in police and Rangers raids in Karachi, including three suspected target killers, and a building that was supposed to have been a luxury hotel in the city, but was scrapped earlier this year because of increasing violence, will now be used for offices (ET, ET). The Sindh Home Ministry on Monday banned the People’s Amn Committee (PAC), which was broken up in March by President Asif Ali Zardari for its participation in violent clashes in Karachi (ET,Dawn). And as the MQM reportedly seeks control over more lucrative provincial ministries in Sindh in exchange for smaller ones it previously held, the province sees some of its ministries swapped between parties (ET, Dawn).

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani arrived in Quetta yesterday to meet with provincial political leaders, and today attended the Balochistan graduation parade of Pakistan Army recruits, telling the new cadets to "choose the path of peace" to achieve progress in Balochistan (ET, ET). The Pakistan National Assembly on Monday gave the Speaker permission to create a special committee on Pakistan’s ongoing power crisis, while families of missing persons conducted a sit-in outside of the Parliament House Building to demand the government return their loved ones (Dawn, ET). And in the match-fixing trial of former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt and fast-bowler Mohammad Asif Monday, the prosecution played a video of a sports agent telling an undercover reporter how he could arrange the results of a cricket match using six Pakistani players, and that a Test match costs about one million British pounds ($1.5 million) to fix (Guardian, BBC, AFP, Reuters). Finally, the death toll from dengue fever in Punjab Province rose to 207 today (ET).

Fashion forward

Karachi Fashion Week came to an end yesterday, finishing up on a patriotic note with final designer Yousuf Bashir Qureshi’s "Soft Military" collection (ET, Dawn). The models wore military colors and Jinnah caps, and the lead walker somberly waved a Pakistani flag.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.