Pakistan Supreme Court strikes down contempt of court law

Turf wars

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday struck down a recently passed law granting immunity from contempt of court charges to the country’s senior elected officials (Dawn, ET, The News). Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry called the law unconstitutional and illegal, and accused the government of trying to cur the power of the judiciary. Bonus read: Fatima Mustafa, "Supreme Court or supreme power?" (FP).

The Pakistani government this week fired Deputy Attorney General Khurshid Khan, who made headlines in March when he polished shoes at a Sikh temple in India to promote inter-faith harmony and atone for attacks carried out by Pakistani militants on Indian targets (Dawn, BBC). No reason was given for his removal, but Khan said he believes it was a politically motivated move.

In Washington, Pakistan’s spy chief Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam held "productive" talks with his U.S. counterpart CIA director David Petraeus on Thursday concerning the ways to improve counterterrorism cooperation between their two countries (AFP, The News, CNN).

Two of the 21 people injured in twin blasts at a fruit market in Lahore on Wednesday night died of their injuries at a hospital on Thursday (Dawn). And doctors in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan Province protested the latest doctor’s abduction by boycotting the out-patient departments in both state-run and private hospitals on Thursday (ET, The News). The kidnapping of doctors by militants in the provincial capital of Balochistan has surged in recent weeks.

Next in line

The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed James Cunningham to be the next Ambassador to Afghanistan, replacing outgoing Amb. Ryan Crocker (AP, AFP). Cunningham was previously the deputy ambassador in Kabul. Meanwhile, two NATO service members were killed Thursday in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan (AP).

That’s not my wife

Police in Punjab Province have arrested four matchmakers for arriving at a marriage ceremony with a different woman from the one originally agreed upon (and paid for) by their client Abdul Rasheed (ET). The matchmakers have been charged with "cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property."

— Jennifer Rowland