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Geopolitics

Newly Nominated Pakistan Prime Minister Wanted For Arrest

Worldcrunch

THE NATION, THE DAILY TIMES (Pakistan), BBC NEWS (United Kingdom)

ISLAMABAD - Newly nominated Pakistani Prime Minister Makhdoom Shahbuddin came under judicial scrutiny on Thursday, only a few days after the country's Supreme Court disqualified his predecessor, Yousaf Raza Gilani, for contempt of court.

Shahbuddin was nominated Prime Minister of Pakistan by President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday, but a judicial ruling ordering Shahbuddin's arrest is already threatening to derail the process and worsen the on-going conflict between Pakistan's judiciary and governmental forces.

The Daily Times reports that the nomination came after a meeting of the ruling PPP party chaired by president Zardari. Shahbuddin will be filing his nomination papers today. His predecessor, Yousaf Razaf Gilani, was disqualified on Tuesday by the Supreme Court after he refused to pursue corruption charges against President Zardari.

The Pakistani Parliament will vote on the new Prime Minister on Friday.

The BBC reports that if Shahbuddin's nomination is confirmed he will be sure to face similar demands from the Court. But he is already facing additional judicial scrutiny after an anti-narcotics judge from the northern town of Rawalpindi issued an arrest warrant against him.

The warrant is linked to the illegal importing of a drug called ephedrine while Shahbuddin was Health Minister. According to The Nation, Shahbuddin rejects these allegations.

The corruption charges against President Zardari date back to the 1990s. He is accused, along with his late wife Benazir Bhutto, of laundering bribe money through Swiss banks. Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister at the time.

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Migrant Lives

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum​

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.

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