PESHAWAR: Former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao on Saturday sounded “serious” threats to the country’s sovereignty and integrity, saying that the United States could attack Pakistan any time soon.

“There is an imminent danger of [a] US attack on Pakistan,” Sherpao told reporters at his residence.

His comments came two days after NATO attacked a Pakistani outpost on the Afghan border in South Waziristan. “The government should immediately call a joint session of parliament to discuss the situation and evolve a national consensus,” the former minister said. “The country’s security is apolitical issue and we must all be concerned about it,” he added.

He however said it was difficult to say the US would land boots in the Tribal Areas or continue with airstrikes to target what Washington terms militants. “We don’t know this ... they may be Iraq-like mercenaries.”



LAHORE: Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Kayani has told US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen that border violations by US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan would no longer be acceptable to Pakistan, a private television channel reported on Saturday.

According to Dawn News, the two officials discussed the prevailing security situation in north-western Pakistan during their meeting at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Kayani also maintained that such military “adventures” were counterproductive and might impact Pak-US bilateral co-operation in the ongoing war against terrorism, the channel said.

Mullen was on a surprise, one-day trip to Pakistan. US embassy officials confirmed the visit but said they had no details on Mullen’s itinerary.

According to the channel, Gen Kayani told the visiting US official that Pak-Afghan border security was the responsibility of all stakeholders. He said Pakistan’s security forces were capable of fighting militant outfits in the restive tribal belt near the Afghan border. Mullen praised Pakistan’s performance in the war on terror.

Mullen had recently remarked that militants were flowing into neighbouring Afghanistan more freely this year compared to last year because Pakistan’s government and military were not putting enough pressure on insurgents.

During his stop in Pakistan, Mullen also met President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and National Security Adviser Mehmood Ali Durrani, said Mullen’s spokesman Capt John Kirby.



KABUL: “Pakistan-based Taliban” attacked a remote Afghan district on Saturday, the Afghanistan government said. “Pakistani Taliban began attacks on Bargi Matal district from 11am. The fighting continues,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement released on Saturday evening. The attack was launched from Pakistan’s adjoining Chitral area, it said. “The youths of the area are joining the security forces to defend their district against the Pakistani militants. One of those brave youths died in fighting,” it said. Security forces had sent reinforcements, it said, without giving details.



PESHAWAR: Local Taliban will be held accountable if any harm is done to 29 kidnapped government officials, NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Saturday. A Taliban spokesman on Friday warned that militants would kill 29 kidnapped government officials, most of them security personnel, if security forces continued their operation in Hangu district. The minister said in a statement the government would have no other option except to pay in the same coin, if someone challenges its writ.



* Three civilians, one militant among dead in Hangu ambush

HANGU: At least 17 people – including 13 Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel – were killed on Saturday afternoon in a clash between Taliban and security forces in Hangu district.

The fighting erupted after Taliban militants ambushed an FC convoy in the Drori Banda area of Hangu.

The dead also included three civilians and a local militant, residents and Taliban sources told Daily Times.

Member of the National Assembly Pir Haidar Shah and the Hangu district nazim said the dead included FC district officer Muhammad Karim Khan. Shah said the FC convoy was heading towards the volatile town of Hangu from its fort in Drori Banda when it came under attack from Taliban at around 5.30pm.

According to Geo News, the FC troops fired mortar shells at the hilly hideouts of the Taliban and called for helicopter gunship to provide air cover.

The channel reported that the bodies of FC personnel were still lying in the Drori area and security forces were unable to move the corpses, as the area is under Taliban control.

An FC official, asking not to be named, told Daily Times that the FC troops killed in the clash numbered to 17. He said the militants had also taken an FC vehicle after the clash.

The district administration declared emergency in nearby hospitals soon after the incident.

Separately, three people – including two girls – were injured in an attack on an FC patrol in the Zargari area of Hangu.



NEW DELHI: India on Saturday claimed it had “a fair amount of intelligence on Pakistan’s involvement” in Monday’s suicide attack on its embassy in Kabul.

In an interview with a private TV channel, Indian National Security Adviser M K Narayanan vowed retaliation to such acts of terror. “I think we need to pay back in the same coin,” he said, adding that the Indian government did not only suspect, but believed in Pakistan’s role.

He said there were no insinuations about Pakistan’s involvement, but facts backed by credible intelligence. “The people of this country deserve to know the facts rather than being carried away by people who claim these are insinuations. There are no insinuations,” he said.

Four Indians, including an IFS officer and an Indian army brigadier, were killed in the blast when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden Toyota Corolla into the Indian embassy in Kabul. Narayanan said the dialogue process aimed at improving relations between India and Pakistan had not worked so far, adding, “Dialogue is better than fighting, but so far it hasn’t worked. In some way, we haven’t taken the decision to fight, so lets talk for the moment.”

On the US-India nuclear deal, Narayanan said India had not circulated documents to the IAEA, adding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with US President George W Bush had nothing to do with the documents’ circulation. He said the documents were made public soon after the Left allies withdrew support from Singh’s government. He said certain scientists were “polluting” the minds of Left leaders to oppose the deal.



ISLAMABAD: The government is likely to increase the price of petrol by Rs 5 per litre and of diesel by Rs 6-8 per litre from July 15, sources told Daily Times on Saturday. They said the move was in accordance with the skyrocketing fuel prices in the international market. Sources said that the government was providing a subsidy of Rs 34 per litre on diesel and the raise would reduce the burden of subsidy on the exchequer. They said the current difference of petrol prices in Pakistan and the international market was Rs 5 per litre and the government would pass on the impact to the consumers. They said with the international oil prices going up to $147 per barrel, the government was forced to pay around Rs 30 billion per month in differential claims to oil marketing companies to facilitate the consumers.



* Agreement to last until end of current fiscal year
* Saudi Arabia sells about 110,000 barrels of crude oil daily to Pakistan

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia agreed in principle on Saturday to defer payments for crude oil sales to Pakistan expected to be worth about $5.9 billion during the 2008-09 financial year.

“There is an agreement ... to defer oil payments. The modalities are being worked out,” Finance Minister Naveed Qamar said in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday night.

While Qamar would not discuss the time-span for which payments on Saudi oil shipments would be deferred, a Petroleum Ministry official separately said that the agreement involved deferring payments until at least June 2009 when the financial year ended.

It was not clear if the deferred payments would have to be paid back. The Saudis in 1998 began supplying crude oil under a deferred payment plan after Pakistan carried out its maiden nuclear tests and came under international sanctions. In that previous case, after three years of deferred payments, the Saudis practically wrote off the payments. Insiders expect that there may be a similar write-off in the future of the deferred payments now under discussion.

Sources in Jeddah indicated to Daily Times that the Saudi economic package may contain a political element too, related to President Pervez Musharraf’s future. This bailout puts the Saudis in the driving seat, along with the Americans, as far as Pakistani internal and external politics is concerned, with both the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Apparently, the immediate impact will be on PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s politics of confrontation with Musharraf, which will have to be diluted significantly in line with ground realities. The Saudis, like the Americans, want a stable transition to civilian rule and no confrontation between the politicians and the military, including Musharraf.

Crude oil: Saudi Arabia sells about 110,000 barrels of crude oil daily to Pakistan or about 40 million barrels a year, which at $147 a barrel comes to about $5.88 billion. Pakistan imports a total of 202,000 barrels per day or approximately 73.7 million barrels a year – half of that from Saudi Arabia. Pakistan consumes a total of 370,000 barrels a day or about 135 million barrels a year. The gap between oil imports and consumption is filled with locally produced oil.



* Qureshi says Pakistan will not shy from using force
* Conveys Pakistan’s interest in moving beyond security-based ties
* NSA Stephen Hadley assures Qureshi of US’ ‘full support’

WASHINGTON: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a meeting here on Friday that the fight against terrorism is not America’s fight alone but that of Pakistan’s as well.

Addressing a largely attended meeting at the Brookings Institution, Qureshi made it clear that terrorism cannot be fought through military force alone, which should be combined with political engagement and social reforms that alone can lead to the winning of hearts and minds.

Pakistan, he said, will not fight shy from using force where and when required. The challenge of terrorism, he stressed, is not a single-country challenge, but a global one, which needs a global response. He repeated that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used by any other country, including, presumably, the US.

Interested: Qureshi said Pakistan desires a more balanced, broader and longer-term relationship with the United States. “For too long our bilateral relationship has hinged heavily on co-operation in security areas, but luckily there is a clear realisation from both sides that we need to ... expand our co-operation across a broad spectrum from agriculture to trade, energy and education,” he added. He said the relationship should move away from the “cyclical” pattern of the past. “We want a more stable approach. We have been too focused on military-to-military co-operation,” he stated. He also called on Washington to sign a free trade agreement with Pakistan, something the US has been reluctant to do for domestic reasons.

In an interview with a US daily newspaper, Qureshi said the government in Pakistan is seeking a “partnership” with the US and wants tangible signs that the Bush administration will increase aid and embrace Pakistani democracy.

“We want to be positive, we want to co-operate, we want a long-term relationship, we want a partnership. So how serious are you in broadening that relationship – that is what we want to know,” Qureshi said in a wide-ranging interview with Washington Post editors and reporters. Qureshi, who met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday in advance of a visit to Washington later this month by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, said that US officials have answered in the affirmative to his question but that “it has to be demonstrated in form”.

Hadley: Qureshi also discussed Pakistan-US relations with US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on Friday afternoon as the senior White House official conveyed Bush administration’s “full support for the new democratic government”. He told Hadley that the new government had come into power in Pakistan with strong sense of legitimacy and high expectations of the Pakistani people.


ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is likely to address the nation on July 19, sources told Daily Times on Saturday.

They said Gilani would likely announce the lifting of ban on recruitments in government departments and corporations, adding that the decision was taken in a meeting of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) held at Prime Minister’s (PM) House on Saturday.

“Besides lifting the ban on recruitments, the PM will also announce reduction in gas prices for export oriented industrial units and relief on food items for the low income groups. He would also announce the issuance of ‘Benazir Card’ to provide financial support for the impoverished,” they said.

Sources said the PM would brief the nation on the current political and law and order situation and would also announce measures to restore the confidence of the people in his government. Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Salman Farooqi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Shahnaz Wazir Ali and State Bank Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar attended the EAC meeting.



KARACHI: The federal cabinet will be expanded soon, Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman told reporters on Saturday after the inauguration of the Quaid-i-Azam Museum at Quaid-i-Azam House here. Sherry said ministers and parliamentary secretaries would be appointed in the first phase, adding that she was not certain if the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) would join the cabinet in the coming phase. She vowed that nobody would be allowed to hijack the ideology of the country’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and founder of the PPP Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Sherry said that followers of Jinnah and Bhutto were not scared of fanatics and extremists, adding that the PPP government and its supporters were following the ideology of the two great men.



ISLAMABAD: Awami National Party (ANP) leader Afrasyab Khattak on Saturday confirmed that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had contacted the ANP leadership regarding the reshuffling in the federal cabinet.

He told a private TV channel that ANP had been informed that two ministers of state might be included in the cabinet from the party. He said that the ANP wanted the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to remain a partner, keeping the democratic forces united to strengthen democracy in the country.

"Law and order is our top priority. And if we say that no other step would be taken until this issue is resolved, the coalition would not move forward, flexibility should be demonstrated by every party of the coalition," he said.

He said that the new government had inherited many crises due to the previous government’s policies, and they would try their best to solve all them, he added. The political government would not disappoint the people and the masses would see some new initiatives within the next few weeks, he said.



http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...011:13:07%20AM

__________________
Regards,
P.R.