US keeping an eye on Pak political developments, says Pentagon
March 09, 2008
LAHORE: Admiral William Fallon, the commander of the American Central Command (CENTCOM), said on Saturday that the US was “anxiously watching” how the emerging political powers in Pakistan dealt with the law and order situation in the Tribal Areas, Geo TV reported. “There’s a political process that’s in progress [in Pakistan] now. We’re anxiously watching how they deal with this situation,” the channel quoted Fallon as telling the House Armed Services Committee. He said that Washington was ready to extend all types of assistance to the Pakistan Army to make it “more effective and more competent”. Fallon said that the tribal overlay covered both countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan) and “we just have to deal with the whole picture”. He said the US had been getting a lot of help from Pakistan.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...9-3-2008_pg1_4
Azeem withdraws resignation
March 09, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Information Secretary Tariq Azeem withdrew his resignation and resumed office on Saturday.
He had resigned as the PML-Q information secretary over the party’s “poor performance” in the February 18 polls.
Azeem told reporters that PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had refused to accept his resignation and asked “me to continue working with the party as information secretary”.
On Tuesday, he had told reporters that he had submitted his resignation to Chaudhry Shujaat and demanded that other party leaders do the same after its defeat in the elections. Azeem had said he would work for the party’s cause as an ordinary worker.
APP had said Shujaat denied that Azeem had resigned.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...9-3-2008_pg7_5
Murtaza Bhutto murder case: Case adjourned to April 12 as Zardari ‘busy’
March 09, 2008
KARACHI: The hearing of the murder case of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and seven others against PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari was adjourned Saturday to April 12 by District and Sessions Judge East as Zardari was “busy in meetings”.
Shahadat Awan, the counsel for the accused, submitted an application to condone his attendance. Zardari is in Islamabad and is busy in important parleys with other political parties to bring an era of true democracy; for the supremacy of the judiciary; to find ways to restore the deposed judges; to give a package to the Parliament to improve conditions for the Judiciary and make it independent from the Executive; to form the government, both at the center and in the provinces; and other critical national issues. He may be exempted from appearance, the counsel prayed the court. The court allowed the request and put off proceedings till April 12.
The case pertains to the alleged shootout between the Karachi city police and Mir Murtaza Bhutto, his comrades and PPP-SB security guards. The case has been pending trial since then, and so far only prosecution witnesses over allegations of a conspiracy have been examined.
The case has been constantly adjourned since Zardari had left Pakistan for medical treatment over four years ago. Some of the accused, including the then DIG Karachi Dr Shoaib Suddle, enjoy senior-most bureaucratic positions, while others have passed away.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-3-2008_pg7_13
90 percent people want me to be PM, says Fahim
March 09, 2008
LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Vice Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said on Saturday that 90 percent people of Pakistan would vote for him if a referendum was held to choose a candidate for prime minister.
Talking to Geo news in its programme Kaun Banay Ga Wazir-e-Azam? (Who will be the prime minister?) Fahim said he hoped his party would not overlook him as a candidate for prime minister, but if it did, he would decide what to do.
Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, another PPP frontrunner for prime minister, said the post belonged to Punjab, as it would prove that the PPP was a federal party.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-3-2008_pg7_19
Shock election result for Malaysia’s ruling party
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's long-ruling National Front government, in a surprise upset, suffered its biggest ever electoral setback in polls, placing the future of prime minister Abdullah Badawi in doubt.
The government lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority and five of the country's 13 states. It retained at least 139 seats in the expanded 222-member parliament, but the opposition gained 82 seats, far better than analysts had predicted.
A coalition of the three main opposition parties swept into power in the key states of Penang, Selangor, Perak and Kedah, and Kuala Lumpur, the capital, while the conservative Islam party (Pas) kept control of Kelantan.
"This is a defining moment, unprecedented in our nation's history. The people have voted decisively for a new era,'' said Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader.
The sea change in the political landscape could unsettle the equity market when it opens on Monday because it raises uncertainty about the future of the government's economic policy, including the creation of new special economic zones and a mooted cut in fuel subsidies to reduce the large budget deficit.
The shock results also could put pressure on Mr Badawi to resign as prime minister, although he denied any intention of doing so. The United Malays National Organisation, the dominant government party, is scheduled to hold party elections this year and he could face a revolt led by rivals.
The extent of the opposition's victory was unexpected in what had been a low-key campaign that had been dominated by issues such as rising inflation and crime rates, and increased ethnic tensions between the ethnic Malay majority and the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
The big swing to the opposition could raise concerns that Malaysia may see a repeat of the violence that occurred in 1969, the last time the government suffered a significant setback, when deadly race riots erupted between Malays and Chinese.
The multi-racial character of the opposition alliance this time is likely to prevent that from happening, however, police have increased security measures.
The ethnic Malay-dominated government appeared to have fallen victim for the first time since independence in 1957 to a simultaneous assault from the two main centres of opposition: the Chinese-based Democratic Action party and conservative Muslim Malays represented by Pas.
The two parties had agreed to join an alliance engineered by Mr Anwar, whose People's Justice party has strong support among the urban middle-class and emerged as the largest opposition party with 31 seats.
The government appeared to have suffered from voter apathy among its core Malay base and a decline in support for the two junior coalition parties that represent the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
"This looks like a revolution. The people have risen and are united. The message to government is, 'Enough is enough.'," said Husam Musa, the Pas vice-president.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=39710
Malta holds first general election since joining EU
March 09, 2008
VALLETTA: Malta's long-ruling Nationalists were locked in battle with the Labor Party in elections Saturday for anew parliament and prime minister. The election is the first since this tiny Mediterranean island joined the European Union in 2004 and the euro zone earlier this year.
Malta is highly polarized politically. A victory by a few percentage points is considered a landslide, and turnout among the 315,000 citizens eligible to cast ballots usually stands at about 95 percent.
In early afternoon, turnout stood at 45 percent, but voting was extended by one hour until 11 p.m. (2200 GMT) as citizens kept lining up at polling stations, the Maltese electoral commission said.
The election pits Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi of the Nationalist Party against Labor Party leader Alfred Sant.
No exit polls were planned and the counting of paper ballots was expected to begin Sunday, after boxes of ballots arrive at the counting center on the main island from the nation's two smaller islands. Opinion polls and political analysts have suggested a race down to the wire.
The hard-fought campaign has been rife with charges of corruption and libel suits. It has been dominated by domestic issues such as anti-corruption measures, health care and the environment.
Voters are electing 65 members of the one-chamber Parliament. Two smaller parties, the far-right National Action and the Green Party, are also running but they are given little chance of any significant gain.
In the 2003 vote, the Nationalists won 34 seats and Labor took 31.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=39690
US military overtaxed by wars: poll of officers
March 09, 2008
WASHINGTON: US military officers are concerned that the country's armed forces have been dangerously overtaxed by the Afghan and Iraq conflicts, according to a new survey by a news publication.
Some 60 percent of more than 3,400 active and retired high-level command officers polled said they believe the US military is weaker than five years ago, compared with only a quarter who said it was stronger and 15 percent who felt the military was unchanged.
Asked if the war in Iraq has broken the military, 42 percent said yes and 56 percent said no. But 88 percent said they agreed that the war has stretched the US military "dangerously thin."
And despite speculation that the US would be willing to engage militarily with Iran, 80 percent said they believed that it was somewhat unreasonable or very unreasonable to expect the US military to wage another war somewhere in the world successfully at this point.
After the two conflicts have killed over 4,000 servicemen and women and left more than 25,000 injured, those polled said that the biggest impact has been on the army.
Asked to rate the health of the four military services on a scale of one to 10 -- one being "no concern" and 10 for "extremely concerned" -- the army averaged a rating of 7.9, the marines 7.0, the navy 5.9 and the air force 5.7.
The poll by the Center for a New American Security and Foreign Policy magazine, and published in the journal's March-April issue, surveyed 3,437 serving or retired officers at or above the rank of lieutenant commander or major.
On the Iraq war, there was firm support for the "surge" troop hike strategy launched in January 2007 to quell growing violence, with 88 percent saying it would have a positive impact on the overall US effort. But many -- 37 percent -- said that US rival Iran has gained the greatest strategic advantage from the Iraq war, compared with 19 percent naming the United States as the biggest beneficiary and 22 percent naming China.
On strengthening the military by expanding its recruitment, 78 percent said they backed offering citizenship to non-US citizen residents for military service, while only 38 percent supported reinstating the draft.
On a current politically-charged topic in Washington, 33 percent said they strongly agreed that "torture is never acceptable" and 20 percent somewhat agreed, while 44 percent somewhat or strongly disagreed with the statement.
But only 46 percent agreed that waterboarding -- a simulated drowning interrogation technique prohibited to the US armed services but not specifically prohibited for US intelligence -- is torture, against 42 percent who disagreed.
On Saturday President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have outlawed waterboarding for use by the CIA and other intelligence agencies by forcing them to adhere to US military interrogation rules.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=39684
Bush vetoes ban on water boarding
March 09, 2008
WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush vetoed a legislation on Saturday that would have prevented CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial methods to interrogate prisoners.
In his weekly radio address, Mr Bush said he vetoed the measure because it would have banned interrogation techniques that prevent terrorist attacks. He described the current method for interrogating terror suspects as one of the “most valuable tools in the war on terror”.But many in the US Congress, human rights organisations and in other countries disagree. They see waterboarding, in which drowning is simulated, as a form of torture forbidden under Geneva conventions for protecting prisoner rights.
In December, the House of Representatives approved legislation that would have restricted intelligence agents from using such interrogation methods. The Senate endorsed it in February despite White House warnings it would be vetoed.
The legislation would have banned the use of methods such as waterboarding, sensory deprivation, temperature extremes and extended forced standing to break the prisoners who refuse to speak.
The US Army banned such methods in 2006 but the CIA had been using them on Al Qaeda prisoners after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.
The CIA still would have been allowed to use nine interrogation techniques listed in the US Army field manual.“The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror the CIA programme to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives,” said Mr Bush while announcing his veto.
“This programme has produced critical intelligence that has helped us prevent a number of attacks … including a planned attack on the US consulate in Karachi,” he said.
“Were it not for this programme, our intelligence community believes that Al Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland.”
Democrats had warned Mr Bush not to veto the legislation.
“President Bush’s veto will be one of the most shameful acts of his presidency. Unless Congress overrides the veto, it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Waterboarding is a torture technique that consists of immobilizing a person on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages.
The subject experiences drowning effect in a controlled environment and he believes the death is imminent.
http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/09/int2.htm
Serb PM resigns after rift on Kosovo
March 09, 2008
BELGRADE: Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica resigned on Saturday, announcing the end of a governing coalition too divided over Kosovo to carry on.
“This is the end of the government,” Kostunica told a news conference. “I have called a government session on March 10 to discuss dissolution of parliament.”
If adopted, Serbia would hold an early parliamentary election in May to decide a fundamental question can it continue seeking membership of the European Union now that the EU has recognised the independence of the southern province?
Dissolution was the best course for “a government that is not working”, Kostunica said. The election would most likely take place on May 11, the date set for local elections in Serbia.
Kostunica gave no clue to whether his small nationalist party would now seek an alliance with the hardline nationalist Radical Party – Serbia’s biggest and the Socialists of the late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.
Such a coalition would be likely to adopt an unyielding position on Kosovo, possibly shutting down Serbia’s bid for EU membership in favour of closer ties with Russia, which has backed Kostunica’s stance on Kosovo.
Kostunica has indirectly accused his pro-Western coalition partners of giving up defending Serbia’s claim to Kosovo in favour of better ties with the West, which backs Kosovo’s secession.
He said part of the coalition wanted Serbia to be a member of the European Union only if the independence of Kosovo, which two-thirds of EU members have recognised, is revoked, while a majority did not want EU membership linked to Kosovo.
His decision to end the government puts him in direct conflict with Serbia’s pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, and his party, who formed the backbone of the coalition which came to power 10 months ago.
Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) says it will support a Serbian Radical Party (SRS) resolution in parliament, calling on the European Union to “clearly and unambiguously” confirm Serbia’s territorial integrity, as a condition for further European integration.
http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/09/int4.htm
Medvedev is not soft, Putin warns West
March 09, 2008
NOVO-OGARYOVO (Russia): President Vladimir Putin on Saturday warned the West it could expect no easing of Russia’s combative foreign policy under his protege, president-elect Dmitry Medvedev.
At his first meeting with a foreign leader since his election, Medvedev stressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would seek continuity in foreign affairs.
Putin, speaking to reporters at a joint news briefing with Merkel before the Medvedev meeting, dismissed hopes that his protege would strike a softer tone in foreign policy after being sworn in as president in May.
“I have the feeling that some of our partners cannot wait for me to stop exercising my powers so that they can deal with another person,” Putin said. “I am long accustomed to the label by which it is difficult to work with a former KGB agent.”“Dmitry Medvedev will be free from having to prove his liberal views. But he is no less of a Russian nationalist than me, in the good sense of the word, and I do not think our partners will have it easier with him.”
When Merkel later met Medvedev, she referred to Putin’s comments, quipping: “I refrained from saying ‘I hope they won’t become more difficult either’”.
Medvedev said: “I am assuming we will have a continuation of that cooperation which you have had with President Putin... You have had big negotiations and that makes my task easier.”
Putin, who is expected to preserve significant influence as Medvedev’s prime minister, has been credited at home with restoring some of Russia’s international clout after the chaos of the 1990s.
But the former KGB spy has clashed with the West over Nato expansion, Kosovo’s independence, US plans to put a missile shield in central Europe and the war in Iraq.The relationship between Medvedev and Merkel, a physicist from the former East Germany who speaks Russian, is likely to play a key role in relations between the two countries and with the European Union.
Merkel, after meeting Putin, said she saw Medvedev as her “immediate partner in dialogue” ahead of the Group of Eight’s meeting in Japan later this year.
Merkel was expected to voice concern about the fairness of the vote Medvedev won after international observers and opposition groups have criticised the March election as unfair.
Putin says the election was held in strict accordance with the Russian constitution.
Germany is by far Russia’s biggest single trading partner, with a record $52.8 billion in bilateral trade in 2007. German firms put $3.4 billion into Russia last year and have key investments in Russia’s energy sector.
Merkel, who has in the past scolded Putin over human rights, has also sought to boost trade with Russia’s booming economy and to mediate between Moscow, Washington and Russia’s EU partners.
The German Chancellor has been more critical of Putin’s Russia than her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, but is keenly aware of Germany’s dependence on Russian energy and Moscow’s role in international disputes like Iran.
http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/09/int13.htm