New legal armour provides unprecedented power for Pakistan’s military

Sweeping legal reforms and regional conflict have consolidated the Pakistani military’s grip on power in the past year, diluting the role of the civilian government while offering an unprecedented legal shield to the army chief, experts say.Widely seen as Pakistan’s most powerful institution, the military has governed the country for nearly half its existence via a series of coups since independence in 1947.One of those military rulers, General Pervez Musharraf, was found guilty of treason while living in exile after an almost decade-long rule, which began in a 1999 coup. But experts say a repeat of that scenario is increasingly unlikely.Constitutional changes rushed through parliament in November gave sweeping new powers to top officials including the current army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, already considered the most powerful man in the country.Munir’s Field Marshal rank, granted after the deadly conflict in May with arch-rival India, now also includes lifelong immunity from legal prosecution. “Lifelong immunity means that tomorrow, if Asim Munir imposes a martial law, he will never be tried for committing an act of treason,” said defence analyst Ayesha Siddiqa. “So theoretically, a coup is possible,” she told AFP.Islamabad-based legal expert Osama Malik believes the constitutional amendment means “this time is different”.”The constitution itself is being disfigured during a civilian government, and not when a martial law is imposed,” he told AFP.After the May conflict with India — which Munir claims to have won — and amid escalating clashes with neigbouring Afghanistan, some of the resentment expressed by Pakistanis after last year’s heated election brought a surge of anti-military rhetoric has also eased. Despite some opposition parties denouncing Munir’s new role and legal immunity, few people dared to protest openly and there was only a short flash of social media outrage. The military has not officially commented on the constitutional amendments, and neither it nor the government responded to requests for comment.- ‘Hybrid’ model – No prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term in Pakistan’s history, and civilian governments have acknowledged the military’s role in state affairs.Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has called the situation a “hybrid” model and signalled key decisions are influenced by both civilian and military leaders.”It is by consensus, whatever is taking place,” he told digital media outlet Zeteo in September, though he denied that the army chief held more authority than elected ministers.Even during periods of civilian rule, most Pakistanis consider the army chief the country’s real kingmaker — meaning Munir’s new powers are freighted with huge political significance as the country navigates a sensitive geopolitical period following armed conflict with both its neighbours. Munir previously led Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.Yet he was ousted from that post in 2019 after just eight months under previous prime minister Imran Khan, for reasons that have never been made public.Khan himself was later pushed out by a no-confidence vote in the country’s legislature in 2022, which analysts say was the result of falling out with the army. His successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif elevated Munir to army chief.The military has long denied the involvement in elections or political affairs. Khan is now languishing in jail on corruption charges he denies, with his many supporters accusing the army of fostering his rival coalition government while pushing through two constitutional amendments in a year to tighten its oversight of courts and judges. Resentment among Khan supporters boiled over into mass nationwide protests in 2023 ahead of elections he ultimately lost, and a march on the capital last year that turned into a violent standoff with authorities. “Everything that is being done in Pakistan, let it be constitutional amendments or new parallel forces, is out of fear of Imran Khan and his popularity,” said Zulfikar Bukhari, spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.- ‘Favourite field marshal’ – The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said the constitutional change “further weakens essential checks and balances at a time when public trust in state institutions is fragile”.The changes elevate Munir to ‘Chief of Defence Forces’, expanding his oversight to include the air force and the navy.Initially set to retire in 2027, Munir can now also remain in office until 2030, giving him “an opportunity to oversee the next elections”, Siddiqa said.Munir has also bolstered his international standing, recently making two official visits to the United States, where President Donald Trump called him “his favourite field marshal”.In photos released by the White House, Munir stands by Sharif and Trump in a suit and tie, raising eyebrows at home given army chiefs have in the past worn uniform during official visits.

Corée du Sud: un homme blanchi d’un “vol” à 60 centimes après presque deux ans de procédure

Victoire pour le Jean Valjean sud-coréen: un travailleur accusé du vol de deux friandises dans un réfrigérateur d’entreprise a finalement été acquitté au terme de près de deux années de procédure, a appris l’AFP vendredi.En 2024, l’homme travaillait comme sous-traitant pour une entreprise logistique lorsqu’un jour, pris d’une petite faim, il avait jeté son dévolu …

Corée du Sud: un homme blanchi d’un “vol” à 60 centimes après presque deux ans de procédure Read More »

En Turquie, le pape célèbre la foi commune avec les orthodoxes

Le pape Léon XIV a encouragé vendredi la petite communauté catholique de Turquie à Istanbul avant de participer à une prière avec les orthodoxes pour les 1.700 ans du Concile de Nicée, un évènement fondateur pour le christianisme.Au deuxième jour de sa visite dans le pays à large majorité musulmane, le pape a été accueilli avec ferveur par les chants et les applaudissements des quelques centaines de fidèles réunis à la cathédrale du Saint-Esprit d’Istanbul, dont beaucoup s’étaient levés à l’aube pour l’apercevoir.Cette visite est “une bénédiction pour nous”, a confié à l’AFP Ali Günüru, Stambouliote de 35 ans, qui compte parmi les quelque 100.000 chrétiens du pays, soit 0,1% des 86 millions d’habitants.”Le monde a besoin de paix, partout. Nous avons de graves problèmes, surtout dans notre région, dans notre pays : les étrangers, les réfugiés… (…) Je crois que le pape aura le pouvoir de les aider et qu’il fera tout son possible. C’est mon plus grand souhait”, a-t-il ajouté.Visiblement ému par l’accueil, le pape de 70 ans a encouragé les prêtres, religieux et fidèles en assurant que la “logique de la petitesse est la véritable force de l’Église”, dans un pays où les chrétiens luttent toujours contre un sentiment d’exclusion.”La présence très importante de migrants et de réfugiés dans ce pays pose à l’Église le défi de l’accueil et du service de ceux qui sont parmi les plus vulnérables”, a-t-il ajouté, alors que la Turquie accueille sur son sol plus de 2,5 millions de réfugiés, en majorité syriens.- “Marcher ensemble” -Vendredi après-midi, Léon XIV est attendu à Iznik, l’antique Nicée, au sud d’Istanbul, pour célébrer avec les autorités orthodoxes les 1.700 ans du premier concile oecuménique qui avait réuni, en l’an 325, plus de 300 évêques de l’Empire romain.Invité par le patriarche de Constantinople Bartholomée Ier, figure majeure et interlocuteur privilégié du Vatican chez des orthodoxes divisés, il prendra part sur les rives du lac d’Iznik, au-dessus des ruines d’une antique basilique immergée, à une prière oecuménique à laquelle devait initialement participer son prédécesseur François, décédé en avril.Divisés depuis le grand schisme de 1054 entre les Eglises d’Orient et d’Occident, catholiques et orthodoxes maintiennent un dialogue et des célébrations communes (oecuméniques), malgré des divergences doctrinales.Ils ont notamment engagé des efforts pour trouver une date commune pour Pâques, fête la plus importante du calendrier chrétien qu’ils célèbrent selon le calendrier julien ou grégorien.- “Stabilisateur” -Dans une époque où “le monde est troublé et divisé par les conflits et les antagonismes”, la venue de Léon XIV “est particulièrement importante et significative”, a déclaré à l’AFP le patriarche de Constantinople, qui exerce une primauté honorifique et historique sur les autres patriarches du monde orthodoxe.”Cela rappelle à nos fidèles que nous sommes plus forts et plus crédibles lorsque nous sommes unis dans notre témoignage et notre réponse aux défis du monde”, a souligné Bartholomée Ier.Les catholiques reconnaissent l’autorité universelle du pape comme chef de l’Eglise, tandis que les orthodoxes, plus fragmentés que jamais, sont organisés en Eglises autocéphales.En 2018, le puissant patriarcat de Moscou, dirigé par Kirill, soutien du président russe Vladimir Poutine, avait rompu avec le patriarcat de Constantinople après que celui-ci avait reconnu une Eglise indépendante en Ukraine.Alors que Kirill n’a pas été convié à Iznik, Léon XIV aura pour tâche d’éviter d’irriter Moscou, qui redoute que le Vatican renforce le rôle de Constantinople comme interlocuteur privilégié et fragilise son influence.Jeudi soir, selon les médias locaux, l’auteur de l’attentat contre le pape Jean Paul II en 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca – un citoyen turc – a été escorté par la police hors d’Iznik où il espérait rencontrer le souverain pontife “deux ou trois minutes”.Arrivé jeudi en Turquie pour son premier voyage à l’étranger, le pape a été reçu par le président islamo-conservateur Recep Tayyip Erdogan à Ankara, où il a appelé la Turquie à jouer un rôle de “stabilisateur” dans un contexte mondial “fortement conflictuel”.Après Paul VI (1967), Jean-Paul II (1979), Benoît XVI (2006) et François (2014), Léon est le cinquième pape à se rendre en Turquie.De dimanche à mardi, il poursuivra son voyage avec une visite très attendue au Liban.

Most equity markets build on week’s rally

Most markets squeezed out gains Friday at the end of a strong week for equities fuelled by growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again next month.Traders took silence from New York’s Thanksgiving break as a reason to have a breather and take stock of a healthy rebound from November’s swoon that was sparked by AI bubble fears.But while there is much debate on whether valuations in the tech sector are overstretched, focus this week has been firmly on the prospect of more rate cuts.A string of top Fed officials have lined up to back a third straight reduction, mostly saying that worries over a weakening labour market trumped still elevated inflation.Attention now turns to a range of data releases over the next week or so that could play a role in the bank’s final decision, with private hiring, services activity and personal consumption expenditure — the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation.With the government shutdown postponing or cancelling the release of some key data, closely watched non-farm payrolls figures are now due in mid-December, after the Fed’s policy decision.”This delay places much greater scrutiny on the latest November ADP (private) payrolls report,” wrote Market Insights’ Michael Hewson. He said there would likely be a Thanksgiving-linked spike in hiring “that is not entirely representative of recent slower trends in the US labour market”.”While a big jump in payrolls in November could be construed as a positive signal for the US labour market it might not be enough to stop the Fed from cutting rates again with another close decision expected on 10th December,” he added.Markets see around an 85 percent chance of a cut next month and three more in 2026.With no catalyst from New York, Asian investor excitement was limited but most markets managed to rise.Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei, Manila, Mumbai and Bangkok all advanced, though Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul and Jakarta reversed.London, Paris and Frankfurt rose at the open.The yen swung against the dollar after data showed inflation in Tokyo, seen as a bellwether for Japan, came in a little higher than expected, reigniting talk on whether the central bank will hike interest rates in the coming months.The Japanese unit remains under pressure against the greenback amid concerns about Japan’s fiscal outlook and pledges for more borrowing, but it has pulled back from the levels near 158 per dollar seen earlier this week.- Key figures at around 0815 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.2 percent at 50,253.91 (close) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 25,858.89 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3888.60 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,715.84 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1583 from $1.1602 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3215 from $1.3252Dollar/yen: UP at 156.35 yen from 156.30 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.64 pence from 87.56 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $59.08 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $63.52 per barrelNew York – Dow: Closed for a public holiday

Présidentielle au Honduras: “survivre” à la pauvreté et la violence

Bertha est angoissée à l’idée que son petit-fils soit expulsé des Etats-Unis car elle survit grâce à l’argent qu’il lui envoie. Eliseo a laissé derrière lui son passé de tueur à gages et aide désormais à réhabiliter des membres de gangs dans une église.Leurs vies reflètent les deux fléaux qui frappent le Honduras: la violence et la pauvreté, des sujets à peine abordés durant la campagne pour les élections présidentielles à un tour de dimanche où aucun favori clair ne se détache.Une campagne qui a pris une nouvelle tournure depuis le soutien inattendu du président américain Donald Trump au candidat et homme d’affaires de droite, Nasry Asfura. Son soutien s’est accompagné de violentes attaques contre les autres candidats: celle de gauche Rixi Moncada et le présentateur télé Salvador Nasralla.Pour Yuderlis Moreno, 31 ans, vendeur de rue à Tegucigalpa, la capitale, le soutien de M. Trump à M. Asfura est “une bonne chose”. Il espère qu’ainsi, “les gens qui émigrent pourront entrer rapidement (aux États-Unis) et trouver du travail” pour aider leurs familles.Mais pour l’instant, Trump maintient la frontière fermée et poursuit sa chasse aux migrants illégaux qui a conduit cette année à l’expulsion de près de 30.000 Honduriens et révoqué un statut de protection migratoire pour 51.000 autres.- Envois de fonds -Bertha Sierra, 57 ans, craint que son petit-fils Joseph, 21 ans, soit expulsé, bien que détenteur d’un permis de travail.”Que Dieu fasse qu’ils ne me le renvoient pas”, dit Mme Sierra en préparant du riz dans sa modeste maison du quartier Cantarero, sur une colline à Tegucigalpa, où beaucoup survivent grâce aux envois de leurs proches aux États-Unis qui représentent presque un tiers du PIB du pays.En cas de retour forcé, elle estime qu’il sera “difficile” pour son petit-fils de trouver du travail au Honduras, où 60% des 11 millions d’habitants vivent dans la pauvreté.Erick Baca, étudiant de 20 ans, se réjouit d’avoir “Trump de notre côté”. Un soutien à Nasry Asfura qui selon lui “serait bénéfique pour que les Honduriens obtiennent des visas” américains.Liduvina Maldonado, retraitée de 61 ans, peste au contraire que Donald Trump “s’en mêle”. “Nous on ne se mêle de rien (aux États-Unis), et je vais voter pour Rixi”, assure-t-elle.Dans le quartier voisin aux ruelles escarpées du 14 de Enero, traversé par un égout en plein air et où errent chiens et poules, Presentacion Núñez, 70 ans, construit une maison au bord d’une petite falaise.Son fils David travaille depuis 20 ans sans papiers en Californie et lui envoie 100 dollars par mois. “Ici, on ne fait que survivre”, déplore ce maçon atteint de diabète.- Bibles contre balles -Le Honduras, l’un des pays les plus violents d’Amérique latine, est sous la coupe des gangs du Barrio 18 et de la Mara Salvatrucha, que l’administration Trump a déclarés organisations “terroristes”.Membre d’une église évangélique, Eliseo Pineda, 29 ans, ancien du Barrio 18, tatoué sur la poitrine, les bras et le dos, se consacre à réhabiliter les “âmes” des membres repentis. “Mon rôle était celui de tueur à gages, c’était ma vie”, raconte-t-il, bible en main, dans le temple du ministère Passion pour les âmes, en périphérie de la capitale.Dans le temple, il y a d’autres anciens “assassins” qui se sont repentis, ajoute le pasteur Carlos Cerrato, 58 ans, lui aussi revenu du Barrio 18 et fondateur de l’église en 2007 où les membres de la Mara Salvatrucha, ennemis jurés du Barrio 18, sont “les bienvenus”, affirme-t-il.Ce chemin vers la réhabilitation est celui qu’a suivi Erixon Lira, 36 ans, qui a rejoint un gang à l’adolescence et a été emprisonné deux fois.Avant que le service religieux ne commence, il déplore que le Honduras n’ait pas de programmes de réinsertion pour que les délinquants “puissent redevenir utiles à la société”.Son aspiration ne figure à l’ordre du jour d’aucun des programmes du prochain président.

Trump says to suspend ‘third world’ migration after troop killed

Donald Trump said Thursday he would suspend migration from what the US leader called “third world countries”, a day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington, killing one. His social media post, which also threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted under his predecessor Joe Biden, marked a new escalation in the anti-migration stance of a second term that has been dominated by Trump’s mass deportation campaign.Trump had earlier announced that Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in Washington as part of his crackdown on crime, had died from her wounds.The FBI has launched an international terror investigation as new details emerged about the alleged gunman, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with a CIA counterterrorism unit in Afghanistan, according to multiple US media reports.The shooting on Wednesday, which officials described as an “ambush-style” attack, has brought together three politically explosive issues: Trump’s controversial use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan.”I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” Trump wrote on social media.He also threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted under Biden, and to “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”In a Thanksgiving video call with US troops the Republican leader said: “I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation at the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation’s capital.”Trump linked the shooting and his decision to send hundreds of National Guard troops to the city. “If they weren’t effective, you probably wouldn’t have had this done,” he said, adding: “Maybe this man was upset because he couldn’t practice crime.”Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said Thursday that he had ordered a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”His agency later pointed to a list of 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar — facing US travel restrictions under a previous order from Trump in June.The Trump administration had earlier ordered an immediate halt to the processing of immigration applications from Afghanistan.- Gunned down in ‘brazen’ attack -The other soldier wounded in Wednesday’s attack, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was “fighting for his life” Thursday, Trump said. The suspected shooter was also in a serious condition. The US attorney for Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro, said the suspected assailant — identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal — had been living in the western state of Washington and had driven across the country to the nation’s capital.In what she called a “brazen and targeted” attack, Pirro said the gunman opened fire with a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver on a group of guardsmen on patrol just a few blocks from the White House.The suspect was charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill — charges that Pirro said would immediately be upgraded to first-degree murder if any of the guardsmen died.Officials said they still had no clear understanding of the motive behind the shooting.- Afghan legacy -CIA director John Ratcliffe said the suspect had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and had been brought to the United States as part of a program to evacuate Afghans who had worked with the agency.The heads of the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security and other senior Trump appointees all insisted that Lakanwal had been granted unvetted access to the United States because of lax asylum policies in the wake of the chaotic final US withdrawal from Afghanistan under former president Biden.But AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the United States after the military withdrawal, said they undergo “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants.The group noted Lakanwal had been granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, and would be eligible to request permanent residency a year later.”This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” said its president, Shawn VanDiver.In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, bringing the total to 2,500. Trump has deployed troops to several cities, all run by Democrats, including Washington, Los Angeles and Memphis. The move has prompted multiple lawsuits and allegations of authoritarian overreach by the White House.