ISTANBUL/JABALYA, Gaza Strip — The Organization of the Islamic Conference denounced yesterday the reprinting of a blasphemous Danish cartoon, warning it could lead to confrontations between Muslims and Christians. “By reprinting these cartoons we are heading toward a bigger conflict and that shows that both sides will be hostages of their radicals,” OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told AFP in Istanbul.

“It is not a way of improving your rights and exercising your freedoms when you use these rights for insulting the most sacred values and symbols of others and inciting hatred,” he said. “This is a very wrong, provocative way — unacceptable.”

Several Danish newspapers on Wednesday republished one of 12 drawings, which had already caused bloody riots in the Muslim world in 2006, after police uncovered an alleged plot in the Scandinavian country to kill the cartoonist.

“The people who are doing this put themselves with the radicals, the fanatics and extremists who are using their beliefs as justification to hurt others,” Ihsanoglu said. “This is not the way to improve relations between East and West, between Islam and Christianity.” The drawing has triggered fresh uproar in Muslim countries.

Thousands of supporters of the Islamist group Hamas protested in the Gaza Strip yesterday against the reprinting of the caricature. Hamas, which controls the coastal Palestinian territory, demanded that the Danish cartoonist be brought to trial and that an official apology be made to Muslims. It urged an end to organized campaigns to spread hatred of Islam.

“We are all a sacrifice to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), our blood, our property and our families are all a sacrifice to him,” a Hamas activist shouted through a loudspeaker after Friday prayers in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

At least 4,000 Hamas supporters took part in the rally yesterday, many waving green Hamas flags and others holding banners condemning the cartoons and urging Muslims to take action against Denmark. “Muslims must not be silent against these cartoons which are offensive to the great Prophet Muhammad,” one banner read.

“We urge Arab and Muslim countries to exert their efforts and to use all pressure tools under their control to stop these organized campaigns that spread hatred of Islam under so-called freedom of expression,” a Hamas statement said.

Hisham Abu Taha adds from Gaza:

Masked men blew up the library of the YMCA in Gaza early yesterday, destroying the building but causing no injuries. Security sources said they were investigating whether it was an attack on a specifically Christian symbol, and whether it was related to the reprinting of the Danish cartoon.

The YMCA is well-known center in Gaza City among the Muslims and Christians as it provides various activities for the youths, the center also contain a kindergarten. YMCA Director Issa Saba said that the attack occurred in the night from Thursday to yesterday. He added that the library contained some 10,000 non-religious books.

Hamas movement condemned the attack as a coward act. It called on the Interior Ministry in Gaza to chase the attackers and bring them to justice. The Palestinian Presidency also condemned the attack. A spokesman of the presidency said that “President Mahmoud Abbas condemned this coward attack against a national association, that is providing services for the people since decades.”



http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&sect...=16&m=2&y=2008

ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry confirmed that at least 37 people were killed in Parachinar suicide blast Saturday outside an election office of an independent candidate backed by PPP.

"The death toll is now 37," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said after the attack in the northwestern tribal town of Parachinar, bordering Afghanistan.

The ministry confirmed that the blast was suicide attack.

"Twenty-one people died and 93 were injured. It's a very severe emergency, a lot of the wounded are in a critical condition," a doctor at the main hospital in Parachinar was quoted as saying earlier.

A correspondent of an international news agency present at the hospital said he had counted at least 21 dead bodies.

Talking to media, a security official earlier said that a suicide bomber attacked a Pakistan People's Party meeting outside the party office in Parachinar.

"A man with long hair drove a car into the crowd and blew himself up," a witness added.

Another security official said the blast happened outside the office of local PPP candidate Riaz Hussain in Parachinar, the main town in the Kurram tribal region.

In a separate incident in the nearby Bajaur tribal area militants blew up a polling station with a timebomb, police said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=37664

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Marwatone.

Kosovo Declares Its Independence From Serbia

PRISTINA, Kosovo — The breakaway province of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday, sending tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians streaming through the streets to celebrate what they hoped was the end of a long and bloody struggle for national self-determination.

Kosovo’s intent to be recognized as Europe’s newest country — after a civil war that killed 10,000 people a decade ago and then years of limbo under United Nations rule — was the latest episode in the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia, 17 years after its dissolution began.

It brings to a climax a showdown between the West, which argues that Serbia’s brutal subjugation of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority cost it any right to rule the territory, and the Serbian government and its allies in the Kremlin, which counter that Kosovo’s independence is a reckless breach of international law that will spur other secessionist movements across the world.

As Albanians danced in the streets and fired guns in the air in the capital, Pristina, international reaction was sharply divided, suggesting that the clash between the principles of sovereignty and self-determination was far from resolved.

Britain, France and Germany were expected to be the first recognize the new nation, as early as Monday, while other nations, fearing separatist movements within their own borders, have said they would refuse. Russia demanded an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to proclaim the declaration “null and void,” but the meeting produced no resolution.

In declaring independence, Kosovo’s prime minister, Hashim Thaci, a former leader of the guerrilla force that just over 10 years ago began an armed rebellion against Serbian domination, struck a note of reconciliation. Addressing Parliament in both Albanian and Serbian, he pledged to protect the rights of the Serbian minority.

“I feel the heartbeat of our ancestors,” he said, before paying tribute to Kosovo’s war dead and to the European Union and the United States. “We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/wo...kosovo.html?hp

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Marwatone.

Liberal parties rout mullahs in NWFP : All the King’s men, gone!

* PPPP leading in National Assembly, Sindh
* PML-N leading in Punjab
* ANP leading in NWFP, PPPP close second
* Balochistan shows no clear winner
* Asfandyar Wali, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Amin Fahim big winners
* Syeda Abida Hussain, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Fazlur Rehman, Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain lose

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHI/ QUETTA/PESHAWAR: President Pervez Musharraf’s political allies, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), appear to have lost their grip over the country’s parliament, with the Pakistan People’s Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) and the PML-Nawaz (PML-N) overtaking the “bicycle” in the election race.

Lion roars again: The PML-N swept Punjab despite low voter turnout in all 35 districts of the province.

PML-Q’s Sheikh Rashid lost to PML-N’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi in NA-55. He also lost to PML-N’s Muhammad Hanif Abbasi in NA-56, according to unofficial results.

Shujaat lost to PPPP’s Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar in his hometown of Gujrat and was lagging behind PML-N’s Rana Abdus Sattar in Sialkot. PPPP’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi also won his seat.

PPPP’s Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan beat out PML-Q’s Chaudhry Amir Hussain. PML-Q Punjab President Pervaiz Elahi was losing on two NA seats but won a third in Attock. PML-Q’s Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain, former population welfare minister, lost his seat for NA-62.

Other PML-Q bigwigs that lost include Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Sher Afgan Niazi, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Nasir Khan, Hamid Nasir Chattha, Humayun Akhtar Khan, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, Ijazul Haq, Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Daniyal Aziz.

Meanwhile, showing that the PML-Q was not completely out, Faisal Saleh Hayat of the party beat PPPP’s Abida Hussain in NA-88.

PPPP comes home: The PPPP, based on early results, appears to have overtaken the PML-N and the MQM in Sindh, establishing the party as a force to be reckoned with in its home state. PPPP’s Amin Fahim was one of the big winners in the province.

ANP kicks in: The Awami National Party (ANP) took the maximum number of seats based on early poll results, leaving the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in the dust. PML-Q NWFP President Amir Muqam and Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, both ‘King’s men’, won the seats in their respective constituencies. According to unofficial results, Jamiat Ulema-e-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman won in NA-26, but lost NA-24 to Faisal Karim Kundi.

Business as usual: Balochistan witnessed a historic low turnout in the parliamentary elections and the early poll results did not show a clear winner in the province, although the PML-Q appeared to be leading.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...9-2-2008_pg1_1

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Regards

Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

By Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: Monday’s vote saw collapse of several heavyweights of former ruling PML-Q, including party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and a number of former ministers in their hometowns, according to unofficial results declared till late in the night.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was defeated in Gujrat by his traditional rival, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Both of them had been facing each other in previous elections — Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain winning the seat three times and Chaudhry Mukhtar, a former commerce minister, winning in 1993.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, former minister and former spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, could not continue his winning spree and lost both seats in Rawalpindi (NA-55 and NA-56) to PML-N’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and MMA turncoat Mohammad Hanif Abbasi.

According to unconfirmed results, Mr Hashmi won three out of the four seats — Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan. He lost in home constituency, NA-148, Multan, to Punjab PPP President Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, but retained his previous NA-123, Lahore, seat by defeating PPP Lahore President Azizur Rehman Chan.

Among other key figures of the previous government who lost were former minister of state for finance Omar Ayub Khan, who was defeated by PML-N’s Sardar Mushtaq Hussain in NA-19, Haripur, and former minister Zubaida Jalal who had contested as an independent candidate and was defeated in her home constituency of NA-272 (Kech-Gwadar) by Yaqoob Bizenjo of the Balochistan National Party-Awami.

National Reconstruction Bureau chairman and former minister Daniyal Aziz lost to an independent, Chaudhry Tariq Anees, in NA-116 (Narowal).

The chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman lost in his home district of D.I. Khan to PPP’s Faisal Karim Kundi.

National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain became a victim of the anti-Musharraf wave when he lost to PPP’s Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan in NA-111 of Sialkot district.

The PML-Q’s NWFP president and former minister Amir Muqam survived the storm, winning in Shangla (NA-31). Awami National Party (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali Khan won the NA-7, Charsadda-I, seat. The other Charsadda seat (NA-8) was retained by former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

MAJOR WINNERS: Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Asfandyar Wali Khan (NA-7), Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao (NA-8), Amir Muqam (NA-31), Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar (NA-105), Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan (NA-11), Makhdoom Javed Hashmi (NA-55, NA-123 and NA-149), Hanif Abbasi (NA-56), Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi (NA-148 Multan-I), Khwaja Asif (NA-110).

MAJOR LOSERS: Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (NA-105), Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (NA-55), Maulana Fazlur Rehman (NA-24), Chaudhry Amir Hussain (NA-111), Rao Sikandar Iqbal (NA-144), Omar Ayub Khan (NA-19), Zubaida Jalal (NA-272) and Daniyal Aziz (NA-116).

http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/19/top8.htm

__________________
Regards

Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

GUJRAT: Central leader of PML-Q, Choudhry Shujaat Hussain said here on Tuesday that election results would be accepted gracefully.

He asked PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif to fulfill his promise by restoring the Judiciary.

In a telephonic interview with Geo News, he congratulated the winning candidates and said PML-Q was ready to sit on the opposition benches.

Shujaat offered to extend cooperation at national level and said that allegations on President Musharraf as to rigging polls had proved baseless. PML-Q leader praised Musharraf and Election Commission for holding free and fair elections.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/print.asp?id=37932




Updated at: 1305 PST, Tuesday, February 19, 2008

ISLAMABAD: Eleven women candidates on the national assembly general seats have won the contests.

The break-up shows the winning women 5 from PPP, 2 from ML-Q, 2 from ML-N, while one each from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and independent candidates. PPP women winners included Firdaus Aashique Dayal, Dr. Fahmida Mirza, Dr. Azra Pechoho, Shamshad Sattar Bachani and Hina Rabbani Khar; PML-Q’s Ghulam Bibi Bharwana and Sumera Malik; PML-N’s Tahmina Daultana and Saira Afzal Tarar, MQM’s Khushbakht Shujaat and independent Saima Akhtar Bharwana.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=37922

__________________
Regards

Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Election results appear to be NRO engineered

Updated at: 1340 PST, Tuesday, February 19, 2008

LAHORE: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Amir, Maulana Fazlur Rahman has said that the results of the elections appear to be National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) subjected, however, despite all the reservations, “He accepts the decision of the people”.

In a statement issued from the JUI-F office here, he said that the defeat or victory happens in the election, but the results this time were such that the winners were more astonished than the losers and the apprehensions, which the JUI had expressed, have come to the fore loud and clear.

Fazlur Rahman said that irregularities were committed openly in some of the constituencies, however, despite all the reservations, “He felicitates the People’s Party and Muslim League-N.”

He said that his party believes in keeping the democratic process continuing and would keep playing its pertinent role in the parliament.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=37930

__________________
Regards

Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

MQM claims 17 seats in Karachi

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI, Feb 18: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement claimed on Monday night that its candidates were leading in 17 out of the 20 National Assembly seats in Karachi and 36 of the city’s 42 provincial assembly seats. It also said it was ahead on both Hyderabad seats of the National Assembly and the four provincial assembly seats.

It managed to win at least one of the seats where the Pakistan People’s Party was supposed to benefit from the sympathy wave following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Television celebrity of yesteryear Khushbakht Shujaat of the MQM obtained more than 50,000 votes to defeat Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig of the PPP.

Ms Shujaat is married to Shujaat Baig, minister for education in the caretaker Sindh government.

In 2002, this constituency had gone to former Karachi mayor Abdul Sattar Afghani. After his death, the MQM had won the seat in a by-election.

According to the MQM, Dr Nadeem Ehsan won the NA-247 seat by securing over 100,000 votes.

Israrul Ibad, brother of Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, had won this constituency by securing half as many votes in 2002.

A provincial assembly seat, which the MQM had lost to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in 2002, fell into its lap when Mohammad Hanif Shaikh won PS-91 by obtaining over 37,000 votes.

In 2002, this constituency had gone to Hafiz Mohammad Naeem of the MQM.

MQM-backed candidates Muqeem Alam and Askari Taqwi won PS-112 and PS-113, respectively.

The MQM also won the following provincial assembly seats: PS-98 Moin Khan (over 95,000 votes), PS-101 Abdul Moiz Pirzada (over 54,000 votes), PS-102 Imamuddin Shahzad (over 97,600 votes) and PS-125 Moin Aamir (over 40,000 votes).

http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/19/top5.htm

__________________
Regards

Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

I’ll work with vote winner: Musharraf

* President advocates reconciliation
* Says polls evidence of commitment to democracy

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf on Monday promised to work with whatever new government emerges from the parliamentary elections.

According to AP, he told PTV after casting his vote that, “I will say from my side, whichever political party will win, whoever will become prime minister and chief ministers, congratulation to them on my behalf. And I will give them full cooperation as president.”

“We must come out of this confrontationalist approach and get into a conciliatory mode. I myself will remain committed to politics of reconciliation with everyone,” Reuters quoted Musharraf as saying at a polling station in Rawalpindi for the PP-9 and NA-54 constituencies. Accompanied by his family, the president said, “Winners should show humility and the losers also should demonstrate grace. The trend of crying foul on results should end now.”

President Musharraf said it was vital that the next government stay in power for five years to ensure economic sustainability.

He also spoke highly of the role of the Election Commission of Pakistan for ensuring free, fair and transparent polls by taking necessary measures and providing the right equipment.

Polls evidence: Later, speaking with US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the president said his government was committed to completing the transition to democracy, adding that the polls were evidence of his sincerity.

Discussing the political process and elections with Lee, who is in Pakistan to observe the elections, Musharraf said there was no conflict between the offices of the president and the prime minister.

During the meeting, Lee said she appreciated the president’s policies, especially for the empowerment of women and the promotion of a free media. agencies

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...9-2-2008_pg1_3

__________________
Regards

Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Pakistan Remakes Its Political Landscape

Musharraf's Party Concedes Defeat

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, February 20, 2008; Page A01


LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb. 19 -- A new political era dawned in Pakistan on Tuesday as partial results from Monday's parliamentary elections showed the opposition scoring a landslide win, the party allied with President Pervez Musharraf conceded defeat, and secular candidates ousted religious parties in the volatile northwest.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who heads the pro-government Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said his party would "accept the results with an open heart" and "sit on the opposition benches" in the new Parliament. By Tuesday evening, with most of the vote counted, the two major opposition parties had won 154 of the 272 elected seats in the National Assembly, compared with 38 for the PML-Q. In all, the assembly has 342 seats.

The vote for the lower house was seen as a stinging rebuke of Musharraf. Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer and opposition party leader who has been under house arrest for three months, cast the result as a symbol of democracy.

"General Musharraf represents the rule of man over law, and the resounding verdict of the people is that they yearn to be ruled by laws, not men," Ahsan said.

The fallout from Monday's elections could have a major impact on relations between Pakistan and the United States, which has strongly backed Musharraf as a partner in counterterrorism efforts, despite growing frustration over his failure to stop Islamic extremists creating havens in Pakistan and fueling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Pakistan was quiet Tuesday except for bursts of drumming, dancing and celebratory gunfire outside rural opposition party offices and fireworks after dark in some urban neighborhoods.

People appeared mostly relieved that the elections had concluded with only limited violence and irregularities, while winning and losing candidates both spoke of the need for cooperation and peace. Despite widespread predictions that the government would try to rig the vote, monitors said the polling process went surprisingly smoothly, and the PML-Q's concession came quickly.

Nevertheless, the emerging political landscape was far from clear. Neither of the two main opposition groups -- the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N -- gained a majority, and neither has a dominant candidate for prime minister, thus opening the door to complicated coalitions and deals.

The Pakistan People's Party swept its bastion of Sindh province and won the highest number of seats in the National Assembly, benefiting from sympathy over the December assassination of its leader, Benazir Bhutto, as well as disenchantment with Musharraf's rule. Official but not final results showed the Pakistan People's Party with 88 seats, the Pakistan Muslim League-N with 66, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q with 38 and three smaller parties or groupings with 34.

Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and interim successor as party head, told reporters in Islamabad that the Pakistan People's Party would form a government "in the center and all the four provinces with the help of our allies." He said the party had yet to decide who would become the "leader of Parliament," presumably a reference to the prime minister's post.

Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N and a two-time prime minister, reached out Tuesday to the Pakistan People's Party, his organization's longtime arch rival, and to politicians from the PML-Q who had excoriated him during the parliamentary campaign.

Sharif also called for Musharraf to step down in light of the public judgment against his rule. A former army general, Musharraf agreed under pressure to remove his uniform in November, becoming a civilian president, but many Pakistanis want him to bow out of politics completely.

The people have given their verdict," Sharif told reporters here, saying that political parties should "work together to get rid of dictatorship." Sharif, who was overthrown by Musharraf in 1999, returned from exile in November. Although legally barred from running for office, he led his party to a sweeping victory in its Punjab province stronghold.

Musharraf has said he will work with any party that comes to power, but he has given no sign of being willing to leave office. The election results leave him with seriously diminished credibility, however, and if the opposition can build a large enough coalition to hold two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, he could be impeached. At this point, it is unclear how many lawmakers would favor impeachment.

Zardari stopped short of calling for Musharraf to resign, saying it should be up to the new Parliament.

One party that scored a significant surprise win Monday was the progressive, ethnic-based Awami National Party, which benefited from the poor performance of religious parties that had come to power in North-West Frontier Province five years ago. Its victory raised hopes of a new bulwark against growing Islamic militancy in the region bordering Afghanistan.

"Our founding fathers laid the principle of nonviolence decades ago. That is something we badly need as a nation at this very moment," the Awami National Party's leader, Asfandyar Wali Khan, told jubilant supporters Tuesday in his home village near the northwestern city of Peshawar. Khan, a veteran ethnic Pashtun leader who lost his National Assembly seat to a religious candidate in 2002, regained it easily Monday. The party appeared to win 10 seats in the assembly.

Several U.S. lawmakers were in Pakistan to observe the vote. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), speaking to reporters, called the election "an opportunity for us to move from a policy that's been focused on a personality to one that's based upon an entire people." Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) called the vote a tribute to the Pakistani people's "unbelievable thirst for change and democracy."

In Washington, the Bush administration said U.S.-Pakistani relations would remain strong regardless of the election results.

"We want to work with the new government. We expect we can work with the new government and have good cooperation with them," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. "We've maintained ties to all the major political parties both before and during this electoral period and certainly expect to do so afterwards as well."

Casey also called on the new Parliament to work closely with Musharraf.

Many Pakistanis have expressed deep displeasure at the continued U.S. support for Musharraf, even after he fired senior judges and imposed emergency rule in November.

Ahsan, the lawyer who has been under house arrest, said foreign governments must carefully assess their policies on Musharraf. He had been barred from speaking to the news media since November but was allowed to receive reporters in his law office Tuesday.

"The West must see how singularly unpopular he is. If they try to hold on to him or stitch together alliances to support him, they will be swimming against the tide," said Ahsan, a leader in the Pakistan People's Party. "We are with the West in the fight against terror, but the real, effective weapon in that fight is an empowered people with enforceable rights."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2008021801868

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