Aitzaz to lead Long March from Multan to Lahore

Monday, June 09, 2008


LAHORE
President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Aitzaz Ahsan has announced to lead the Long March from Multan to Lahore in person while asking the participants to keep the march peaceful.

The SCBA president issued guidelines for the Long March while addressing a press conference at Lahore High Court here Sunday. He said the purpose of the Long March was to create awareness among all sections of society that people were most anxious to see the independent judges reinstated. He said the march must be entirely peaceful and nothing except slogans and flags would be raised. He said the lawyers and participants would not be provoked while stating that anyone resorting or exhorting to violence must be identified, isolated and asked to leave. He proclaimed that there would be no storming of any building or damage to any property while stating not a leaf or a piece of glass will be broken during the march.

Welcoming all the citizens including political workers to the march, Aitzaz cleared that all the decisions concerning the march including route, stoppage points and timings of the movements and speeches would be taken by the lawyers’ Long March Implementation Committee and must be complied by all.

He said the non-lawyer participants from distant cities such as cities of Sindh and Balochistan might travel at least sectors of 100 miles along the route. He also advised the participants to arrange for their own transport and bring along preserved food items, drinking water and other needful items along while stating that some transport would be arranged by the bar associations. The main slogan of the march will be ‘Hum Mulk Bachanay Niklay Hain, Ayo Hamaray Saath Chalo’ (We have come out to save the country, come along), Aitzaz announced.

Giving details of the march, he said on Monday, 9th June, convoys from various cities of Sindh and Baluchistan would leave for Sukkur while in Karachi the convoys would leave from Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum. On Tuesday 10 June, convoys would leave Sukkur for Multan while the deposed Chief Justice would receive the convoys in Multan the same day. He added that on Wednesday June 11, the deposed CJ would address and see off the Long March as it leaves Multan and would later address them in Lahore.

On Thursday, June 12, Long March convoys would leave the Lahore High Court premises for Islamabad and other processions would join the main convoy along the route. On the same day, Islamabad-bound convoys from Muzzaffarabad, Abbottabad and Peshawar would take off while the main march would proceed to the Parliament House in Islamabad via Rawalpindi High Court Bar, Rawalpindi District Bar, Murree Road and Aabpara.

Justice, education top on agenda: Shahbaz

Monday, June 09, 2008

LAHORE
Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif said Sunday that the judicial reforms and the promotion of education would be at the top of the agenda list of the provincial government.

He was speaking in the Punjab Assembly after being elected as the leader of the house.

Mian Shahbaz Sharif demanded of President Pervez Musharraf to resign saying he should go home and let the government get on with its work. He also urged the Chief of the Army Staff to punish those military officers who had tortured the political leaders and workers during the last eight years.

The newly elected CM announced formation of committees which would probe into the corruption done during the last eight years and come up with public reports. In a speech adorned by Habib Jalib’s famous poem ‘Mein Nahi Manta’, Shahbaz enlisted the challenges that confronted the coalition while lashing out at the eight years of President Musharraf’s rule. He said the legislators and eighty million people of Punjab had not elected a chief minister but a ‘chief servant’. He dubbed the last eight years as the blackest period in the history of the country while resolving to bring to justice those who had committed injustices.

“In doing so, we will not resort to illegal ways but fulfil all the requirements of justice”, he said. He called upon the Army Chief to punish those officers who had tortured political workers so that the trend of curbing political movements could be done away with once and for all by making an example of the culprits. The dictatorship of Musharraf is near its end, Shahbaz proclaimed, stimulating slogans of ‘Go Musharraf Go’ among the audience.

Talking about the PML-Q, Shahbaz said he was ready to forget the past and welcome the opposition members on board. He thanked former Chief Minister Dost Muhammad Khosa for steering the provincial government in an efficient manner, adding the assembly was a unique combination of the youth and the experienced which would prove helpful in the governance.

He lauded the struggle of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto for the revival of democracy, saying her name would be written and remembered in the golden annals of history. Outlining the sacrifices and steadfast commitment of PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz said Nawaz had not bowed against stiff opposition and stood for the right cause. He reminded the MPs that the whole nation was expecting that coalition government would deliver.

“The nation is looking at us, whether we provide justice, education, health facilities and employment or resort to corruption”, he said. He urged the legislators to sacrifice everything for the country and get on with the agenda of public service without wasting a single moment.

“This coalition government must put to an end to corrupt practices of the past and deliver on vital issues, and if it cannot do that it should quit government”, he said. He said if the coalition leaders and parties remained focused, all the vital issues including the restoration of the deposed judges would be amicably solved.

He said the government would bring facts of the previous government in front of the people and committees in that regard had been formed. He said the government would bring revolutionary changes in the field of education. “A state of emergency must be imposed in the field of education”, he declared while announcing to bring massive reforms in the lower judiciary. He said the salaries of the judges must be raised and there should be no political infringement upon the judicial system.

“Every man should be given a system where he could give decisions without any fear or economic concern”, he said. He announced the Punjab Government would bear all expenses of a professional student on merit if he was unable to bear them himself.

The split of education system in public and private sector had ruined the country, he said, adding computer education programmes would be launched in 4,000 high schools of the province by the end of the next year. He said the program was currently being run in 500 high schools.

Shahbaz prioritized agriculture as the focal point of economy in the upcoming budget. Outlining the problems faced farmers he said the government would completely ban and eliminate spurious drugs in three months, both agricultural and medicine.

He announced to uptake revolutionary steps in agriculture while saying the 350 M W electricity would be generated through the canal system.

Lamenting the plight of labourers, Shahbaz termed 6,000 monthly salary insufficient and announced remedies within next ten days in the budget. He said a complaint cell would be established in the Chief Minister House and the officials concerned would be made bound to respond to the complainants.

After being reminded by a PPP stalwart that he had forgot to mention the name of the PPP leader in his speech, Shahbaz praised PPP Co-Chair Asif Zardari’s commitment to the reconciliatory politics.



Monday, June 09, 2008

LAHORE
NEARLY 11,830 power defaulters have been facing power disconnection in Lahore and Faisalabad Electric Supply Companies since June 2 who even after being served the final warning, failed to clear their dues.

LESCO and FESCO sources told APP on Sunday that a vigorous campaign had been launched for the recovery of stuck up arrears, and all defaulters, irrespective of their status, had been told to clear their current bills and arrears to avoid disconnection of their power supply. SEs, Xens and SDOs working in distribution companies at Sheikupura, Kasur, Okara, Lahore, Nankana, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Jhang, Sargodha, Khushab, Bhakkar and Mianwali districts have been directed to disconnect the power supply to defaulters and initiate legal action against them.

Meanwhile, all SDOs have also been told to personally pursue and plead cases in the court. Several recovery teams have been constituted at sub-division level to ensure recovery of all arrears, especially those considered dead arrears, from the defaulters.

Chief executives of the two companies, Muhammad Akram Arain and Ahmad Saeed Akhtar, are personally monitoring the overall performance of subordinate field officers, and taking to task those showing poor performance. Officials will be responsible for achieving the recovery targets set by the authority, and they have been warned not to restore power supply of defaulting consumers unless all arrears are cleared, failing which they will be suspended from service.

Meanwhile, XEN Renala Khurd division Maqsood Ahmad incompliance with the chief executive’s directive, has disconnected more than 149 connections in one day.

Saudi Arabia to consider Pak request for oil

Monday, June 09, 2008

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia on Sunday said it would consider Pakistan’s request for a special oil facility and the two countries would further discuss the matter at the ministerial level to deliberate on the modalities.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani described his talks with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz as positive to the media team accompanying him and said the two sides explored new avenues of cooperation to increase bilateral trade and investment.

Gilani said Pakistan made the request for the oil facility and said the two countries already have deep cooperation in this regard extending back to many years. Pakistan imports around 250,000 barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia and has been affected by sharply increasing international oil prices, raising its oil bill by over 40 per cent in around ten months.

Gilani said Saudi Arabia being a close brotherly country and friend of Pakistan also warned Pakistan of the enemies that were out to harm it. The prime minister said that advising as an elder, King Abdullah expressed concern over the polarisation in the country and described it as a threat.

“King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz said the nation must stand together so that no enemy of the country could cast an evil eye on Pakistan and that we must tread very carefully,” Gilani said. The prime minister and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari also had an exclusive audience with the king that was followed by the delegation- level talks covering all aspects of their relations.

They discussed the regional and international situation, the rising prices of food and their impact on the economy and the common man. Gilani said Saudi Arabia holds Pakistan in high esteem and was deeply affected by any untoward situation in the country.

He said anything affecting Pakistan’s stability and peace affects Saudi Arabia and it desired an improvement in the political and economic situation of the country. During the talks lasting around an hour, the Pakistani leaders also discussed increasing export of manpower to Saudi Arabia, besides encouraging Saudi investment in energy, petroleum and agriculture to avail the investment opportunities in Pakistan.

The prime minister appreciated the contribution made by Saudi Arabia towards the economic development of Pakistan, especially through investment. Gilani said Pak-Saudi relations were unique and exemplary and manifested by the exchange of several high-level visits between the two countries.

Gilani said the presence of over one million strong Pakistani community in Saudi Arabia was contributing towards the progress and development of the kingdom and adds to the strength of their mutual friendship.

He said the multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries was firmly based on institutional ties and strong trade and commercial linkages. Gilani pointed to the significant investment made by the Saudi companies in Pakistan in diverse fields and said the Saudi Fund for Development had been playing an important role in financing various development projects in Pakistan.

The two countries have always come to the assistance of each other in difficult times, he added. Bilateral trade stands at around $4 billion, he said. He recalled the generous relief assistance the Saudi government had extended for the victims of the devastating 2005 earthquake and said it will remain etched in the memories of every Pakistani.

The prime minister said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have an abiding interest in each other’s security and stability and shared similar views on most regional and international issues. He said together the two countries will continue endeavours for promoting the collective interest of the Islamic Ummah.

Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defence, Commerce, Petroleum, Food and Agriculture, Water and Power and Housing and the Foreign Secretary were also present during the talks with the Saudi leadership.

Six charged in Islamabad terror plot

Monday, June 09, 2008

ISLAMABAD: Police say six men have been charged in a terror plot that was foiled when authorities seized three vehicles carrying more than 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of explosives near Islamabad. Thursday’s seizure and detention of the suspects came days after a blast near the Danish Embassy in Islamabad killed at least six.Rana Mohammad Shahid, head of the Crimes Investigation Agency in Rawalpindi, where the plot was intercepted, said on Sunday the suspects were charged with terrorism and conspiracy.He said they were taken to an anti-terrorism court after being formally arrested on Saturday. Officials said the suspects allegedly planned to attack “important installations”.
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Economic Survey Report 2007-08 Released

June 11, 2008

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Survey 2007-08, released, paints a dismal picture about the state of the national economy where Pakistan has missed all its envisaged macroeconomic targets during the outgoing fiscal year owing to domestic and external shocks.

Conceding that the country’s economy is in serious difficult situation, the survey states, the country’s GDP growth fell to 5.8 per cent against target of 7.2 per cent, fiscal deficit surged in the range 7 per cent owing to higher POL and food prices against target of 4 per cent, growing vulnerabilities in the wake of hike in current account deficit touching to 6.9 per cent of the GDP as well as ballooning inflationary pressures to 10.3 per cent against target of 6.5 per cent, posing serious challenges for the economic managers.

The public debt is rising on account of twin deficits — fiscal and current account — and likely to rise up to 56 per cent of the GDP for 2007-08 against 53 per cent for the previous year and witnessing reversal in the trend by moving from bad to worst.

“Fiscal year 2007-08 witnessed violation of various aspects of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2005,” the Economic Survey 2007-08 admits. The food inflation is estimated at 15 per cent for the outgoing fiscal year, clearly indicating that the higher prices of food fleecing the poor voiceless consumers.

The Economic Survey 2007-08 was launched by Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar here at P Block during a press conference on Tuesday. Flanked by Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Hina Rabbani Khar, author of the Economic Survey Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan and others, the finance minister announced that the PPP government would launch another poverty survey along with upcoming census to get more reliable data and analysis on this issue.

The external debt rose to $45.9 billion in first nine months of the current fiscal against $40 billion last year, registering an increase by $5.4 billion. The foreign exchange reserves dwindled to $12.3 billion by the end of April 2008, significantly lower than June 2007 level of $15.6 billion.

The rupee also depreciated against the US dollar by 6.4 per cent during the first 10 months of the fiscal 2007-08 compared to the previous financial year. Dwelling upon the reasons for higher fiscal deficit, the Economic Survey 2007-08 states the oil subsidy is projected to rise to Rs 175 billion — surpassing the target level by Rs 160 billion. Similarly, the subsidy on electricity tariff stands at Rs 113 billion against the budgetary allocation of Rs 52.9 billion.

On positive side of the economy, the per capita income rose to $1,085 and it was claimed that the poverty level has come down from 23.9 per cent in 2004-05 to 22.3 per cent by 2005-06. Through the Economic Survey, the PPP government has endorsed the Shaukat Aziz regimeís claim of reducing the poverty whereas the growth remained at an average rate of 7 per cent during the last five years.

But the Economic Survey also admitted that the inequality has been rising since 2001 where gap between the rich and the poor is widening. The country’s exports recorded a growth by 10.2 per cent and increased to $15.3 billion while imports went up to $32.1 billion in July-April period, registering a trade deficit to the tune of $17 billion.

Against the backdrop of extreme political instability and heightened security concern, Pakistan succeeded in attracting $3.5 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year - almost $700 million less than last year.

Total investment declined to 21.6 per cent of the GDP in the fiscal year 2007-08 against 22.9 per cent for 2006-07 thus the contribution of the investment to the current year’s GDP growth declined from 45 per cent to almost 12 per cent for the outgoing year. Fixed investment also declined to 20 per cent of GDP from 21.3 per cent. The public sector investment remained at last year level of 5.7 per cent, private sector investment declined to 14.2 per cent for 2007-08.

The Economic Survey 2007-08 states the current fiscal year has been a difficult year for Pakistan’s economy.

“Several political and economic events, both on domestic and external front, occurred unexpectedly. These events include: disturbed political conditions; an unstable law and order situation; supply shocks; soaring oil, food and other commodity prices; softening of external demand; and turmoil in the international financial market.”

The most important aspect, however, has been the non-responsive stance on account of political expediency in addressing domestic and external challenges during most part of the fiscal year, further accentuating macroeconomic difficulties” the Economic Survey 2007-08 added.

“We will also reconstitute the NFC body and its maiden session is expected to meet in July 2008,” the finance minister said and added that two provinces have so far nominated its members while the centre is waiting nomination from the remaining two federating units.

He said the GDP growth of 5.8 per cent was mainly led by services and consumption as the performance of agriculture and manufacturing sector was unable to achieve its envisaged targets.

The agriculture sector grew by 1.5 per cent in the outgoing fiscal against target of 4.8 per cent for 2007-08. Major crops witnessed negative growth of 3 per cent and livestock rescued the agriculture growth by achieving 3.8 per cent in 2007-08.

Real private consumption expenditure grew by 8.5 per cent in 2007-08 against 4.8 per cent last year. The contribution of net exports is negative 21 per cent. It is therefore safe to suggest that this year’s growth is service/consumption led growth.

National Savings at 13.9 per cent of the GDP has financed 65 percent fixed investment in 2007-08 against 77.7 per cent last year. National Savings as percentage of GDP stood at 13.9 percent in 2007-08 — far lower than last year’s level of 17.8 per cent. The decline in National Savings rate simply indicates that the reliance on foreign savings increase to finance domestic debt.

The overall fiscal deficit is estimated at Rs 737.8 billion or 7 per cent of the GDP for 2007-08 against the target of Rs 399 billion or 4 per cent of the GDP. Some shortfall in revenues and massive slippages in expenditure side on account of interest payments and subsidies are responsible for the rise in fiscal deficit. An adjustment of Rs 100 billion was made in development expenditures in the outgoing fiscal year

Budget 08-09 To Be Announced Today

June 11, 2008

ISLAMABAD: The budget 2008-09, to be announced on Wednesday, would increase the import duty from 25 to 30 per cent on almost all imported goods while a two per cent increase in the general sales tax (GST) is also proposed, CBR sources revealed to The News on Tuesday.

The GST will go up from 15 to 17 per cent while 95 per cent of imports would be affected by the duty hike. Relevant officials told before the announcement of the budget, authorities might decide on an increase in GST rate by one or two per cent.

“But I am sure they would be taking the latter steps,” one of them said. The increased import duty and GST will raise an additional Rs 200 billion in tax revenue the government desperately needs to jack up its development and relief efforts.

When contacted senior officials said the Rs 200 billion increase, from the current tax deposits of Rs 789 billion to roughly Rs 1 trillion in 2008-09, is not the only effort the government is making to ensure more cash inflows.

It also needs to check bank overdrafts next year, and for this purpose the non-tax revenues would also have to be increased, so that the money required for emergency projects is made available without awkward steps mid-year.

The GST rate increase from the present 15 per cent to 17 per cent is being envisaged by merging the one per cent federal excise duty into the sales tax deductible on more than 95 per cent items (barring the essential items like food and medicines).

Additionally, another one per cent is being added to the GST rate, which should stand at 16 per cent over and above which the federal excise duty would be deductible as sales tax. Five per cent duty on import of mobile phones is also being envisaged, as presently there is no duty on the item.

Some of the industrially-consumed items would also be dearer as the rate and collection mode is being changed, both at import and local sales stages.Apart from these steps, the government is also likely to announce a relief for the tax litigants, people who challenge the tax or its assessment by authorities.

The tax-adjudicating authorities are being stripped of certain rights to withhold cases and decisions beyond limits of time. Now tougher time limits are being envisaged in the budget to ensure that these authorities are unable to extort litigants by delaying their cases or by helping to delay postponing payments that are due to the government exchequer.

Top tax authorities have constantly been advising tax managers to tap full revenue potential existing in various sectors to recover the revenue losses occurred due to disturbances in the country last month and gas and electricity shortages which have slowed down the business, trade and industrial activities in the country.

Budget-makers have identified various grey areas from which the full revenue potential is yet to be tapped, while frivolous claims of tax or duty are made against taxpayers. “It is being ensured that while manufacturers, importers, dealers and wholesalers have to pay additional tax and duties, they are also helped against frivolous claims, of course keeping in view that revenue collection from adjudication areas is increased,” said one senior relevant official.

The budget is also programmed to ensure unusual increase in revenue collection on rental income from the properties. There is a need to formulate an action plan for tapping the tax potential by utilising computerised data available with different institutions and departments within the provinces.

To plug revenue leakages and improve tax collection, administrative steps are an important part of the budget, chiefly a mechanism to unearth non-payment by effective monitoring and matching the information being received form different quarters.

Under the new arrangement, lists of withholding agents would be changed to ensure that the middlemen that receive tax amounts for further depositing in banks are unable to steal public money.

A mechanism for recovery of tax and duty arrears is also being envisaged to extract an additional amount of Rs 10 billion next year. The frivolous claims of arrears are being dropped but the genuine ones would be vigorously pursued, as the budgetary resolve goes.

In 2007-08, about 4,000 tax appeals were disposed of by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (3,000 of direct taxes and over 1,000 of indirect taxes). Next year, the speedy settlement of cases that remain after deleting those deemed frivolous would be ensured through new mechanism.

The non-tax budget is being envisaged as follows: total outlay (Rs 1.9 trillion), development portion (Rs 500 billion plus), relief package additional to the existing (Rs 59 billion), salary increase addition (Rs 23 billion), law and order addition over the existing (Rs 34 billion), anti-terror special steps over and above the present that are funded by international institutions and locally (Rs 21 billion), the rest of reckonings pertain to social sector, including health, education and employment, etc.

Sudanese Plane Catches fire, more Than 100 Die

June 11, 2008

KHARTOUM :More than 100 people were killed when a Sudan Airways plane caught fire after veering off the runway at Khartoum airport in poor weather on Tuesday, Sudanese national television said.

“Preliminary reports indicate that about half the 203 passengers on board are dead,” a television presenter said. There were 14 crew members on board but their fate was not immediately known.

The plane had just arrived from Jordanian capital Amman when the accident occurred, the television said, adding that the capital had been hit first by a sandstorm and then by heavy showers late Tuesday.

Police officials interviewed by the channel said the plane veered off the runway as it landed and caught fire.

Emergency services had rushed to the aircraft in “numbers” and were fighting the blaze.

Families of passengers were waiting at the airport “in fear”, the television said.

Passengers who escaped the plane told Al-Jazeera television that the aircraft’s right engine caught fire shortly after landing and that flames quickly spread throughout the plane.


http://www.apakistannews.com/sudanes...-100-die-71657

People’s Lawyers Forum to join Long March

Lawyer leaders asked to march to President’s House

June 11, 2008

LAHORE

THE People’s Lawyers Forum of the Lahore High Court Bar Association has announced its support and participation in Long March, advising lawyer leaders to target President’s House instead of the Parliament.

PLF leaders addressing a press conference on Tuesday expressed reservations about the destination of the long march as they dispelled impression that they were against the march.

PLF convener Mian Jahangir, former judge of Lahore High Court Malik Saeed Hassan, Pakistan Bar Council member Kazim Khan, Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) members Amir Jalil Siddiqui, Zaman Mangat, ex-chairman Tariq Javed Warraich, former secretary LHCBA Shahid Mehmood Bhatti, former president Aazar Latif Khan and secretary Khawar Khatana of Lahore Bar Association were present at the press conference.

Kazim Khan said that there was no split among lawyers over participation in the long march. He said PLF members were the torchbearers of the march for the restoration of ‘deposed’ judges. “We want the restoration of judges within constitutional limits,” he added. He urged lawyer leaders to target President Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf instead of going to people’s elected house.

“No one needs to be afraid of anything, start moving towards camp office. PLF members will be in the front row,” he said.

Mian Jahangir said there was no fault on the part of the parliament and no hurdle should be put in the working of an elected house. “It is renaissance of Pakistan...an era of enlightened moderation has begun and every one should make an effort to save the country from the hands of extremists,” he said.

He sidestepped a question when asked if the judges were restored through constitutional amendment, it would be tantamount to indemnifying the unconstitutional acts taken by Musharraf on November 3. Mian Jahangir, however, claimed that PML-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif had endorsed the constitutional package proposed by the PPP.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=117889

PM asks Musharraf to address parliament

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday asked President Pervez Musharraf to address the joint session of parliament as it was a constitutional requirement. He said the president was a part of parliament and his address was mandatory under the constitution. The prime minister said their stand on the sovereignty of the parliament was vindicated when the president said he would respect any decision of the parliament. Earlier, PML-Q member Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada said that according to the Constitution, the president should address the National Assembly session at the commencement of each year.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=15280

Courts witness complete boycott

Wednesday, June 11, 2008


Karachi

All five courts in the city, including the Malir Bar Association (MBA), observed a complete boycott on Tuesday, and lawyers stayed away from court proceedings for the second consecutive day.

Karachci Bar Association (KBA) Secretary General Naeem Qureshi had already announced a five-day boycott of court proceedings (from June 9 to June 14).

The main gates of the city courts were locked by the legal fraternity as a mark of protest against the delay in the reinstatement of the deposed superior court judges. Even oath commissioners, stamp vendors and photostat shops were closed.

During the previous week, even though the courts were on summer break, but the cases of urgency were heard regularly. These too were affected by the lawyers’ strike call on Tuesday.

Judges who were supposed to attend the courts did not turn up either.

During summer vacations, one Judicial Magistrate (JM) and one Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) used to sit in their chambers to deal with urgent cases. Even they did not appear in court on Tuesday.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=117902

BIEK cancels 40 examination forms

Wednesday, June 11, 2008


Karachi

The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) cancelled 40 admission forms of private candidates for HSC Part 1 Examination, 2008. The forms were cancelled because the supporting documents were found to be fake, and the attestations were allegedly forged.

After thoroughly examining the credentials of all candidates, the board has revealed that the signatures of the principals of various colleges affixed on the examination forms of these candidates were fake, and the stamp of the principal was also not genuine, according to a BIEK press release issued Tuesday.

Similarly, the supplemented documents and credentials were also forged.

KU Exam forms: Examination forms and fees for B.Sc. (Home Economics) Part-I and II annual examination-2008 for the University of Karachi (KU) (fresh and failures) will be accepted between June 11 and June 14, with a late fee of Rs500 (in addition to the original fee of Rs1,850).

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=117906

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Time is the longest distance between two places.

Nepal's ousted king quits palace

Former king Gyanendra of Nepal gives a news conference on 11 June
Gyanendra said he had never meant to cause harm

The deposed king of Nepal, Gyanendra, has moved out of the palace in the capital Kathmandu where his family lived for more than a century.

He and his wife, the former queen Komal, swept out of the compound in the back of a black Mercedes as scores of riot police guarded the main gate.

Earlier, he said he had handed back his crown and royal sceptre and would work for the good of the new republic.

Last month, Nepal's Maoist-led assembly voted to abolish the monarchy.

The palace in the centre of Kathmandu is to become a museum.

Gyanendra and his wife are moving to a new, temporary residence outside the city.

'The people's verdict'

A police and army escort followed the ex-monarch's car as he left for Nagarjun, in the north-western suburbs of Kathmandu.

The couple will live in a large, comfortable but ordinary-looking house there.

A few loyalist onlookers called for Gyanendra to stay on as his car left but many in the crowd near the palace seemed happy to see him go, correspondents say.

"This marks the beginning of a new Nepal and the end of a dynasty that has done nothing but harm this country," Devendra Maharjan, a farmer who had come to Kathmandu to see the king leave the palace, told The Associated Press.

"If it had not been for the kings, Nepal would probably not have remained a poor nation."

Speaking to journalists at the palace earlier, the former monarch said he had given his priceless crown to the Nepalese government for its protection.

"I have assisted in and respected the verdict of the people," Gyanendra said, insisting he would not leave Nepal and go into exile.

Addressing Nepali people's widespread belief that he had engineered the royal massacre of 2001, he vigorously denied involvement.

He pointed out that his wife had had several bullets lodged in her body in the attack, in which Crown Prince Dipendra shot dead King Birendra and eight other members of the royal family before killing himself.

Gyanendra said he had taken over power in 2005 hoping it would bring harmony and peace, but he admitted things had not worked out as he had planned.

His stepmother and his grandfather's mistress will live on in their homes within the compound of the palace in central Kathmandu, in a fenced-off area.

Bitter ending

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says that the former monarch's departure is a major symbolic moment in the fall of the Shah dynasty, which unified Nepal in the 1760s.

A supporter of the monarchy tries to block Gyanendra's car
A supporter of the monarchy tried to stop Gyanendra's car leaving

The Maoists, who urged Gyanendra to bow out gracefully or be put on trial, welcomed the news that he was going quietly.

But the ending of the monarchy has generally been a bitter affair, our correspondent says.

It was engendered by the 2001 massacre and Gyanendra's attempts to be politically active in quelling the Maoist insurgency, he adds.

The deposed king is reported to be reluctant to allow a committee to audit his saleable assets.

He has made clear that he will leave behind most of the furniture in the palace, along with gifts he received in his capacity as the country's head of state.

Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula said details of which possessions he keeps and which ones he leaves behind would be publicised after his departure from the palace.

Mr Sitaula and the information minister inspected Gyanendra's new home earlier this week.

Photos of their visit drew some criticism from people upset over the number of animal trophies and other wildlife artefacts on display. They argue that such items should be confiscated.





FALL OF THE MONARCHY
Former king Gyanendra of Nepal leaves the palace in Kathmandu with his wife Komal
November 1991: King Birendra becomes constitutional monarch and reintroduces multiparty democracy
June 2001: Crown Prince Dipendra shoots nine members of the royal family before killing himself. Gyanendra succeeds to the throne
February 2005: Gyanendra sacks government and assumes full executive powers
April 2006: Mass protests force reinstatement of parliament and king is stripped of most powers
April 2008: Maoists win most seats in elections to constituent assembly
May 2008: Nepal declared a republic, ending 240 years of monarchy
June 2008: Gyanendra leaves his palace in Kathmandu, home of his family for more than a century

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Devil-may-care

SC judges’ strength to be raised to 29

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to increase the strength of the Supreme Court judges from 16 to 29 with a simple majority in the National Assembly, through the 2008-09 Finance Bill. Clause 18 of the Finance Bill suggests an amendment in Section 2 of the Supreme Court Act 1997 to increase the number of Supreme Court judges to 29, with effect from November 3, 2007. This amendment has apparently been proposed to make possible the continuation of the services of the Supreme Court judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. Zulfiqar Ghuman

Relief for some, hardship for most in budget

* Government employees garner biggest relief from new budget
* Benazir Income Support Programme to provide Rs 1,000 per month to qualifying households
* 20pc basic pay raise for civilian and military officials
* End of 15pc duty tax on CNG buses, energy savers
* Minimum wage raised from Rs 4,600 to Rs 6,000
* 10% job quota for women in govt departments
* Duty on 300 luxury items including big cars increased
* Increase in sales tax from 15 to 16 percent
* Duty on banking, insurance services raised to 10pc
* Withholding tax on cash withdrawal from banks now 0.3%

By Rana Qaisar/Sajid Chaudhry/Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD: The coalition government on Wednesday announced a Rs 2.1 trillion federal budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, providing relief to government employees and problems for the industrial sector.

However, the revenue target is Rs 1.11 trillion, referring to an estimated budget deficit of Rs 582 billion, or 4.7 percent of the GDP. Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar presented the budget before the National Assembly after the federal cabinet formally approved it. Setting a growth target of 5.5 percent, the government announced that the budget would contain inflation at 12 percent and the gross investment to GDP ratio would be maintained at 25 percent. It also announced that foreign exchange reserves would be increased to $12 billion.

Relief: Government (civil and military) employees received 20 percent increases in basic pay and pension in the 2008-09 budget, with the minimum pension increasing to Rs 2,000. The government also announced a 100 percent increase in conveyance allowance of grades BS-1 to BS-19 employees; an increase to Rs 500 in medical allowance for employees of grades BS-1 to BS-16; a Rs 6,000 minimum wage; removal of requirement of 10 years service for benefits; and regularisation of BS-1 to BS-15 contract employees. The government also announced that subsidy on fertilisers had been increased from Rs 25 billion to Rs 30 billion. It said the subsidy on DAP fertiliser would be doubled, while subsidies on other fertilisers would also continue.

With regards to the industrial sector, the new budget increased customs duty on import of CKD/SKD sewing machines, and proposed abolishing the 15 percent duty on import of CNG buses and exempting energy savers from sales tax. It also suggested extending for two years the exemption from capital gain tax on sale of shares of companies listed on the stock exchange.

Support programme: During his budget speech, the finance minister informed the National Assembly that the ‘Benazir Income Support Programme’, with an initial allocation of Rs 34 billion, would allow cash grants of Rs 1,000 per month to all qualifying households.

According to the minister, the beneficiaries would also be provided other facilities, including employment, medical insurance and food subsidies.

Qamar also announced the establishment of a Human Resources Development Commission to review the state of unemployed people and said the national internship programme would continue.

He said the government had also approved a 10 percent quota for women in all government departments and proposed banning the purchase of physical assets, such as cars and air conditioners, as part of the economy drive. Qamar also announced that the National Accountability Bureau’s budget would be cut by 30 percent, adding that the duty on around 300 luxury items should be increased to 35 percent to discourage imports, APP reported.

The budget also proposed that Rs 500 would be charged for the import of each cellular phone and suggested increasing the duty on cars up to 1,800cc or more from 90 to 100 percent. The government also suggested increasing sales tax to 16 percent and raising federal excise duty on banking, insurance and franchise services to 10 percent. The budget also proposed to increase withholding tax on cash withdrawal from banks from 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent.

Taxable income for salaried persons was also increased to Rs 180,000. For women, it would be Rs 240,000. This would provide relief to more than 74,000 taxpayers, NNI added. The government has also proposed that different income slabs should be charged property tax differently — from five to 15 percent..

Qamar also announced Rs 2 billion to support the premier’s special initiatives for housing of low-paid government employees and proposed allocating Rs 2.6 billion for clean drinking water.

2pc tax to legalise hidden assets

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday announced a special amnesty scheme for the legalisation of hidden assets after a payment of 2 percent tax. According to a Federal Board of Revenue budget document, the scheme is aimed at providing immunity to those people who have not declared their moveable and immovable assets. Taxpayers will file returns detailing income for the year and for at least subsequent three years. They will not be asked for returns of the past five years regarding declared assets. staff report

Attack legitimate, says Pentagon

WASHINGTON: The airstrike on a checkpost in the Mohmand Agency was “legitimate” and in “self-defence,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said on Wednesday. The US State Department, meanwhile, said it was “sad to see the loss of life” among allied Pakistani troops. The US-led coalition in Afghanistan had earlier said that the airstrike had targeted militants. AFP

Defence budget increased by 7.6pc

By Sajjad Malik

ISLAMABAD: The defence budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year has been raised by 7.6 percent – from Rs 275 billion in 2007-08 to Rs 296 billion, according to the federal budget announced on Tuesday.

The increase is virtually negligible, when seen in the context of a 10.4 percent inflation and a threefold increase in fuel prices compared with last year. A 20 percent increase in salaries will also reduce the impact of the 7.6 percent increase.

Of the total Rs 296 billion, Rs 294.9 billion have been allocated to military defence and Rs 1.17 billion to defence administration. Of the military defence allocation, Rs 99 billion will be spent on employees’ related expenses. The operating expenses will be Rs 82.84 billion and the cost of physical assets Rs 87.63 billion. The army will spend Rs 25.73 billion on civil works. The defence budget will be discussed in parliament for the first time this year.


http://dailytimes.com.pk

__________________
Regards

Aarwaa

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

JEDDAH(Saudi Arabia): Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah views current oil prices as "abnormally high" and is willing to do whatever he can to bring them down to "adequate levels," visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday.

Briefing reporters on his meeting with the Saudi monarch, Ban Ki-moon said they spent a great deal of time focusing on the link between soaring crude prices and the worsening food crisis as well as climate change.

"He acknowledged that the current oil prices are abnormally high due to speculative factors and some other national government policies," the UN secretary general said in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

"He is willing to what he can to (bring) the price of oil to adequate levels."

Ban said the Saudis, whose desert kingdom is the largest oil producer in OPEC, "seem to be considering very seriously how they can address this issue by increasing production."

"I expect that they will take some concrete measures," said Ban, who is due to wrap up his 24-hour visit to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is organising a summit in Jeddah on June 22 for consumer and producers to discuss oil prices, which struck a record high of nearly USD 140 a barrel earlier this month, stoking fears of surging global inflation and weaker economic growth.

Ban, on his second visit to Saudi Arabia since March 2007, expressed hope that the Jeddah meeting would yield a productive outcome.

He also said he conveyed to the king the concern expressed by several world leaders, notably at the Rome food summit early this month, about the impact of the soaring prices on global food security.





The young woman, who was covered in a traditional black Islamic robe, was dropped off by a car shortly before the attack on Saturday as dozens of cheering young men poured out onto the streets after watching Iraq beat China 2-1 on television in the cafe in the town of Qara Tappah.

The woman told suspicious police that she was waiting for her husband but blew herself up after an officer spotted the detonator and began screaming at the crowd to disperse, according to the town's top administrator, Serwan Shukir.

Seven police and 27 civilians were among the wounded, Shukir said, but the officer's warning had averted a higher casualty toll by preventing the woman from reaching the bulk of the fans.

Police Capt. Najib Khourshid said she was about 20 yards (meter) away from the crowd when the blast occurred.

``About 100 people were in the cafe and we went out to celebrate the victory after the match. Minutes later, a big explosion took place near us,'' said Salman Hameed, who was wounded in his chest and right hand. ``The female bomber has spoiled our joy and celebration.''

Hameed, a Sunni Arab, said five of his Kurdish and Turkomen friends also were wounded in the attack.

Qara Tappah is a mainly Kurdish and Shiite Turkomen city, about 75 miles (120 kilometres) northeast of Baghdad in the volatile Diyala province. The attack followed warnings by U.S. officials that al-Qaida in Iraq is increasing efforts to recruit women as suicide attackers in a bid to subvert stepped up security measures, particularly in Diyala.

In Baghdad, a bomb hidden on a bus exploded in a Shiite neighborhood, killing two people and wounding eight, police said. Three other civilians were injured on Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the capital's Karradah district, police said.


KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has issued a forceful warning to militants in Pakistan, saying he will send Afghan troops across the border to combat Taliban insurgents.

Karzai said Afghanistan has the right to self defence, and that when militants cross over from Pakistan and kill Afghans, that gives Afghan forces "the right to do the same."

Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Karzai warned Pakistan-based Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud that Afghan forces "will go after him now and hit him in his house."

He gave the same warning to Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Karzai has long pleaded for Pakistan and international forces to confront militants in Pakistan, but has never before said he would send Afghan troops across the border.



DHAKA: Emergency-ruled Bangladesh's interim government has said a process was underway to workout ways to release detained former premier Khaleda Zia, days after her arch rival Sheikh Hasina was freed for treatment abroad.

"It (Zia's release) cannot be done overnight. But we are in the final phase of the process for her release," Education Adviser of the caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters on Saturday.

Rahman said the government had released Hasina on a humanitarian ground following all the legal processes while it was considering the same process for setting free Zia.

The two former prime ministers were detained on corruption charges as part of a massive anti-graft campaign spearheaded by the interim government since its installation with crucial military supports in 2007.

Parties of both the leaders earlier declined to join a crucial political dialogue with the government to discuss ways for the transition to democracy unless their top leaders were released as the general election was planned for December this year.

Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), however, was unwilling to appeal to the government for her release for treatment abroad expecting the government to act on its own to free her without attaching any strings.

"No petition should be needed for her (Zia's) release. We will however follow anything she suggests," BNP secretary general Khondokar Delwar Hossain told a party meeting on Saturday.

"Everyone believes that this government has been detaining her in cases filed for political reasons. Now it is their responsibility to decide which process to follow for her release."

Zia's two daughters-in-law, however, separately appealed to the government for release of their ailing husbands Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko, also detained on graft and criminal charges, for better treatment abroad on humanitarian ground.

The government earlier said Hasina was released on a petition by her party and recommendation of a medical board to allow her for treatment for critical hearing impairment.

Party sources said Awami League yesterday finalised a nine-member delegation led by its Acting President Zillur Rahman for the ongoing dialogues between the government and political parties while four advisers of the interim cabinet already held a meeting with Hasina ahead of her departure for the United States on Thursday.



PRISTINA: Kosovo's first constitution as an independent state came into force on Sunday, giving ethnic Albanians the right to executive powers held by the United Nations mission that has run the territory since 1999.

But despite the document, the United Nations has not formally handed over its authority. Kosovo is likely to remain under a patchwork of international oversight for several years.

UN’s rule is challenged by the Serb minority backed by Belgrade.

"This shows that Kosovo is a democratic country and has accepted and will respect the highest international values and standards," Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu told reporters after signing 41 new laws accompanying the constitution.

Kosovo's Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia on February 17 and has been recognised by some 40 countries.

Serbia rejects its secession and wants more negotiations on its status.

"Serbia regards Kosovo as its own southern province, and is defending its integrity by peaceful means, through diplomacy, not force," Serbian President Boris Tadic said.

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in June 1999 when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces to halt killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.

The two communities - some two million Albanians and 120,000 Serbs - have since lived separately, deeply suspicious and occasionally hostile to each other.

Kosovo Serbs living in areas that back onto Serbia protested against the independence declaration for weeks, but the tension has now given way to an uneasy peace.

Belgrade is moving ahead with its plan to govern and finance Kosovo Serbs, a concept it calls "functional division" but Albanians fear could lead to territorial partition.

"When the Kosovo anthem is played, its notes will not be heard in north Mitrovica or any areas where Serbs live," the influential daily Koha Ditore wrote in an editorial. Security was increased in Serb areas on Sunday to prevent any violence. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon suggested this week a "reconfiguration" of the UN mission in Kosovo that would allow the deployment of a European Union justice and police mission.

But Serbian ally Russia has blocked the handover, insisting the 27-member bloc has no mandate. The 2,200-strong EU mission, meant to operate alongside NATO's 16,500 peacekeeping troops, will now likely face months of delays. Until the West hammers out a compromise with Russia, or decides to go ahead without its approval, the UN mission will remain in place.

Diplomats say Italian Lamberto Zannier is tipped to replace Joachim Ruecker as the UN mission head after the German leaves Kosovo later this month.



http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

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Regards,
P.R.

Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai today inflamed tensions with neighbouring Pakistan by threatening to send troops across the border to hunt the Taliban leadership.

Karzai said his country had the right to defend itself against insurgents crossing from rear bases in Pakistan's tribal belt. His comments came as the manhunt for 900 escaped prisoners continued across southern Afghanistan.

"When they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same," he told journalists in Kabul.

"Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house," he said, referring to the militant leader accused of orchestrating the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

"And the other fellow, Mullah Omar of Pakistan, should know the same," he continued, referring to the Taliban's one-eyed leader Mullah Omar.

His language and message was aggressive even by the testy standards of Afghan-Pakistani relations. Pakistan's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani responded firmly, saying he would "[not] allow anyone to interfere in our national limits and our affairs", and insisting that a stable Afghanistan was in Pakistan's interests.

Karzai's outburst came on the heels of Friday night's spectacular jail break by the Taliban in Kandahar, when dozens of militants mounted a multi-pronged assault on the city jail that freed 890 prisoners including 390 Taliban fighters.

The US military said today that it killed 15 suspected insurgents during a firefight at a farmhouse outside Kandahar as troops combed the area the fugitives. A statement said that fighters opened fire on coalition troops as they approached the building, prompting an American air strike. That version of events could not be independently confirmed.

In Kandahar city authorities urged citizens to remain inside to facilitate the manhunt. But a senior foreign official working there, speaking on condition of anonymity by phone, said traffic was flowing and people were venturing into the streets. "I don't see anything abnormal," he said.

The jail break was another humiliation for Karzai, who survived an assassination attempt six weeks ago. Addressing journalists in the Kabul presidential palace today, he said it demonstrated the need to strengthen security and "to be a lot more alert and steadfast in our resolve in confronting terrorism".

But he reserved his harshest words for neighbouring Pakistan. In the past Karzai called for western Pakistani soldiers to flush the Taliban from their tribal hide-outs, but never threatened to do the job himself.

Afghans would no longer flinch from going on what he termed a "two-way road journey". He said: "We will complete the journey and we will get them and we will defeat them. We will avenge all that they have done to Afghanistan for the past so many years."

The beleaguered president had just returned from a major donors' conference in Paris where allies pledged $20bn to rebuild Afghanistan over the next five years -- $30bn less than the amount sought by the Afghan government.

Realistically Karzai cannot despatch Afghan soldiers into Pakistan without consent from the US military and Nato, which together have around 62,000 troops in Afghanistan. But there, too, tensions are rising.

Last week Pakistan protested furiously after US warplanes apparently bombed a Pakistani border post, killing 11 soldiers, as they pursued suspected insurgents fleeing across the border. Both sides have agreed to a joint investigation.

In May American and allied deaths in Afghanistan passed the monthly toll in Iraq for the first time – a grim gauge of two conflicts going in opposite directions.

Five British soldiers have been killed in the past week. A senior officer, Lieutenant Colonel David Richmond, commanding officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was shot in the leg during a firefight near Musa Qala.

American military and diplomatic officials warn that unless Pakistan shuts down the Taliban sanctuary in tribal hotbeds like Waziristan, the Afghan insurgency could drag on for many years.

Pakistan's beleaguered government led by Yousaf Raza Gilani hopes to curb the problem through peace talks with militants like Mehsud. Based in the mountain of South Waziristan, Mehsud heads Tehrik I Taliban Pakistan, the largest militant grouping.

But negotiations are proceeding slowly and there is confusion about which branch of government is in charge. Meanwhile gunmen continue to torch girls schools and execute suspected informants, such as a woman found beheaded near the Afghan border last week.

Gilani's attention is also diverted by the continuing turmoil surrounding President Pervez Musharraf. Despite vocal urgings from all the major parties, Musharraf has refused to resign, clinging to his support from the army and President George Bush.

But public pressure is growing. On Friday night arch-rival and junior government partner Nawaz Sharif upped the ante by calling for Musharraf to be executed.

"Is hanging only for politicians?" he told tens of thousands of lawyers and opposition activists gathered near the presidency, in a reference to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged by the military in 1979. "Hang him, hang him" responded the crowd.

About this articleClose This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Sunday June 15 2008. It was last updated at 16:20 on June 15 2008.

Officials Fear Bomb Design Went to Others

By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: June 16, 2008

WASHINGTON — Four years after Abdul Qadeer Khan, the leader of the world’s largest black market in nuclear technology, was put under house arrest and his operation declared shattered, international inspectors and Western officials are confronting a new mystery, this time over who may have received blueprints for a sophisticated and compact nuclear weapon found on his network’s computers.

Working in secret for two years, investigators have tracked the digitized blueprints to Khan computers in Switzerland, Dubai, Malaysia and Thailand. The blueprints are rapidly reproducible for creating a weapon that is relatively small and easy to hide, making it potentially attractive to terrorists.

The revelation this weekend that the Khan operation even had such a bomb blueprint underscores the questions that remain about what Dr. Khan, a Pakistani metallurgist and the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, was selling and to whom. It also raises the possibility that he may still have sensitive material.

Yet even as inspectors and intelligence officials press their investigation of Dr. Khan, officials in Pakistan have declared the scandal over and have discussed the possibility of setting him free. In recent weeks, American officials have privately warned the new government in Pakistan about the dangers of doing so.

“We’ve been very direct with them that releasing Khan could cause a world of trouble,” a senior administration official who has been involved in the effort said last week. “The problem with Pakistan these days is that you never know who is making the decision — the army, the intelligence agencies, the president or the new government.”

The illicit nuclear network run by Dr. Khan was broken up in early 2004. President Bush, eager for an intelligence victory after the failure to find unconventional weapons in Iraq, declared that ending Dr. Khan’s operation was a major coup for the United States. Since then, evidence has emerged that the network sold uranium enrichment technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Investigators are still pursuing leads that he may have done business with other countries.

Dr. Khan is an expert in centrifuges used to produce enriched uranium for bomb fuel, and much of the technology he sold involved enrichment. But it was only in recent months that officials have begun to confirm that they had found the electronic design for a bomb itself among material seized from some of Dr. Khan’s top lieutenants, a Swiss family, the Tinners.

The same design documents were found in computers in three other locations connected to Khan operatives, according to a senior foreign diplomat involved in the investigation.

American officials and inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency say they have been unable to determine if the weapon blueprints were sold to Iran or other customers of the smuggling ring.

The blueprints bear a strong resemblance to weapons tested by Pakistan a decade ago, said two senior diplomats involved in the investigation. Pakistani officials have balked at providing much information about the newly revealed warhead design, just as they have refused to allow the C.I.A. or international atomic inspectors to directly interrogate Dr. Khan, who is still considered a national hero in Pakistan for helping it become a nuclear weapons state.

Pakistani officials insist that Dr. Khan, as the leader of a uranium enrichment program, had no weapons access. But this is the second weapons design found in his smuggling network. The first was for an unwieldy but effective Chinese design from the mid-1960s that Libya acknowledged obtaining from the Khan network before it surrendered its bomb-making equipment in 2003.

Both the new and the old designs exploit the principle of implosion, in which a blast wave from a sphere of conventional explosives squeezes inward with tremendous force to compress a ball of bomb fuel, starting the chain reaction and the atomic explosion. A nuclear official in Europe familiar with the Khan investigation said the new design was powerful but miniaturized — using about half the uranium fuel of the older design to produce a greater explosive force.

“Pakistan cannot put the big China design on any of its rockets,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information is classified. “It’s too big.” A smaller warhead created from the new design, he added, is “more efficient and easier to hide,” meaning that one day it might become a “terrorist issue.”

China first exploded the old design in 1966, nuclear experts say, and Pakistan fired the miniaturized version in 1998.

Nuclear experts said a warhead built from the new design was small enough to fit atop a family of medium-range missiles that derive from North Korea’s Nodong class of missiles. Those missiles include Pakistan’s Ghauri and Iran’s Shahab. All are about four feet wide, and any warhead atop them must, by definition, be smaller.

In interviews in Vienna, Islamabad and Washington, officials have said that the weapons design was far more sophisticated than the blueprints discovered in Libya in 2003, when Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi gave up his country’s nuclear weapons program. The design is electronic, they said, making it easy to copy — and they have no idea how many copies, if any, are circulating.

On Sunday, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said that the administration remained concerned about the possibility that additional plans had been disseminated, but he did not address any of the latest revelations, which were reported Sunday by The Washington Post and The New York Times. “We’re very concerned about the A. Q. Khan network,” he told reporters traveling with Mr. Bush from Paris to London.

The existence of the compact bomb design began to become public in recent weeks after Switzerland announced that it had destroyed a huge stockpile of documents, including weapons designs, that were found in computers belonging to Friedrich Tinner and his two sons, Marco and Urs, all arrested as part of the Khan investigation.

Switzerland’s president, Pascal Couchepin, said in late May that the government had destroyed the documents to keep atomic materials from “getting into the hands of a terrorist organization or an unauthorized state.”

Two former Bush administration officials said they believed that the Tinners had provided information to the C.I.A. while the father and two sons were still working for Dr. Khan and that some of their information helped American and British officials intercept shipments of centrifuges en route to Libya in 2003.

When news of that interception became public and Libya turned its $100 million program over to American and atomic energy agency officials, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan forced Dr. Khan to issue a vague confession and then placed him under house arrest. Dr. Khan has since renounced that confession in Pakistani and Western news media, saying he made it only to save Pakistan greater embarrassment.

It was not until 2005 that officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is based in Vienna, finally cracked the hard drives on the Khan computers recovered around the world. And as they sifted through files and images on the hard drives, investigators found tons of material — orders for equipment, names and places where the Khan network operated, even old love letters.

“There was stuff about dealing with Iranians in 2003, about how to avoid intelligence agents,” said one official who had reviewed it. But the most important document was a digitized design for a nuclear bomb, one that investigators quickly recognized as Pakistani.

“It was plain where this came from,” a senior official of the atomic energy agency said. “But the Pakistanis want to argue that the Khan case is closed, and so they have said very little.”

In public statements, Pakistani officials have insisted that the Khan “incident,” as they call it, is now history, and they publicly declared nearly two years ago that their investigations were over.

A senior Pakistani official said that in April that the information provided by the atomic energy agency was “vague and incomplete,” and he insisted that because Dr. Khan’s laboratories specialized in manufacturing equipment needed to enrich uranium, “he was not involved in weapons designs.”

But atomic energy agency investigators and American intelligence officials say they have little doubt that he was the source of the digitized bomb design. “Clearly, someone had tried to modernize it, to improve the electronics,” one said. “There were handwritten references to the electronics, and the question is, who was working on this?”

The officials said that parts of the design were coded so that they could be transferred quickly to an automated manufacturing system.


David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and William J. Broad from New York. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from London.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/wo...yt&oref=slogin

Smuggling ring may have shared nuke design with Iran, others

WASHINGTON (AP) — An international smuggling ring may have secretly shared blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon with Iran, North Korea and other rogue countries, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The now-defunct ring led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan is previously known to have sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea. A draft report by former top U.N. arms inspector David Albright says the smugglers also acquired designs for building a more sophisticated compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and other developing countries, according to the Post.

The drawings were discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen; they were recently destroyed by the Swiss government under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to keep them out of terrorists' hands. But U.N. officials said they couldn't rule out that the material already had been shared.

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright wrote in the draft report, which was expected to be published later this week, the Post reported.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, Nadeem Kiani, did not rebut the report's findings. "The government of Pakistan has adequately investigated allegations of nuclear proliferation by A.Q. Khan and shared the information with" the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, Kiani told the Post. "It considers the A.Q. Khan affair to be over."

Traveling with President Bush in Europe, national security adviser Stephen Hadley said he had not read accounts of the Albright report, "But obviously we're very concerned about the A.Q. Khan network, both in terms of what they were doing by purveying enrichment technology and also the possibility that there would be weapons-related technology associated with it."

In Vienna, a senior diplomat said the IAEA had knowledge of the existence of a sophisticated nuclear weapons design being peddled electronically by the black-market ring as far back as 2005. The diplomat, who is familiar with the investigations into the A.Q. Khan network, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the issue.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had made it public knowledge back then and had expressed concern about who potentially had come in possession of the information.

The diplomat referred a reporter to a transcript of a panel discussion on Nov. 7, 2005, where ElBaradei spoke of at least one weapons design being copied by the Khan network onto a CD-ROM "that went somewhere that we haven't seen" and added, "That gives you an indication of ... how much the technology had (been) disseminated."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...-nuclear_N.htm

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DAMMAM: Saudi Arabia is planning to invest $80 billion in increasing its oil output to 12.5 million barrels per day and expanding its refining capacity by 43 percent to six million bpd within the next few years, according to an economic report unveiled yesterday.

The report, which was issued by the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry, expects that the gross GCC domestic product will grow by 27.9 percent this year to reach $1 trillion with the increase in oil prices.

The federation believes that the Gulf Cooperation Council of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman will achieve a 31.2 percent surplus in their current accounts in 2008, compared to 28 percent last year.

The report said growing oil prices would boost GCC economies and their investments in infrastructure, tourism and real estate development projects. “We also expect tremendous growth in the industrial and service sectors,” it added.

The federation estimated non-Saudi GCC investments in oil in the coming years at about $170 billion. The report said the GCC countries would achieve a growth rate of 7.5 percent, adding that this would increase investment in non-oil sectors. The report predicted a world economic growth rate of 3.7 percent this year compared to 4.9 percent last year and it does not expect any change in 2009. The prediction was made on the basis of price levels at the end of 2007. The report said the GCC would continue to face inflationary pressure as long as currencies of the member states are linked to a weak US dollar, given the tendency of the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates further.

“At the same time, any move by GCC countries to change their dollar-peg policy would have a negative effect on their plan to establish a monetary union by 2010,” the report said without elaborating. It urged the GCC governments to introduce the monetary union without delay. The federation said that calls for reducing government spending would affect investments in housing and other service projects. It also stressed the need for earmarking some wealth from oil sales for the welfare of future generations.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6&sect...=17&m=6&y=2008



LONDON: In the American administration’s first significant, if possibly highly selective, approval for the cross-border pursuit of “extremists in safe havens” in South Asia, George Bush has said he understands Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s frustrations.

Commenting on Karzai’s first-ever threat to send Afghan troops to fight notorious Taliban leaders inside Pakistan, Bush told the world media that America’s strategy “is to deny safe haven to people who do harm to people, those who murder to achieve political objectives and seek safe haven”.

He said “if people are coming from one country to kill innocent people (in another), they (the victims’ country) will be concerned”.

He added, in what many believe to be the strongest-ever justification of South Asian countries’ right to what Karzai called ‘self-defence’, that the world “can’t allow cross-border havens, can’t allow extremists to have safe havens”. But commentators said the apparent American understanding of Afghanistan’s concerns may not extend to other countries, such as India, which have, in the past been warned not to pursue militants operating out of Pakistan across the border.

Bush’s refusal to slap down Karzai for delivering his controversial angry warning to Afghanistan’s eastern neighbour for an escalating series of bloody cross-border attacks is certain to infuriate Islamabad, which has already complained about last week’s aerial attacks by US forces along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

On Sunday, Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani warned Karzai that his country was a sovereign state and “neither do we interfere in anyone else’s matters, nor will we allow anyone to interfere in our territorial limits and our affairs”.



WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush is ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and Iran as one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey released on Monday showed.

The survey, carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org in 20 countries around the world, found that no national leaders inspired wide confidence outside their own countries. But Bush, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranked at the bottom, the polling showed.

Only 23 per cent of people outside the United States had "a lot or some" confidence in Bush, compared to 22 per cent for Ahmadinejad and 18 percent for Musharraf.

The leaders of other countries fared little better. Only 26 per cent had confidence in French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 28 per cent in Chinese President Hu Jintao, 30 per cent in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and 32 per cent in Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has since become prime minister.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had the highest confidence levels, at 35 per cent.

"While the worldwide mistrust of George Bush has created a global leadership vacuum, no alternative leader has stepped into the breach," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. "Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin are popular among some nations, but more mistrust them than trust them."

WorldPublicOpinion.org is a project involving research centres around the world and is managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

The group polled 19,751 people in nations that represent 60 per cent of the world's population. The survey was conducted between January 10 and May 6, with margins of error of plus or minus 2 to 4 per cent.



LAHORE: With rival-turned ally Nawaz Sharif stealing the limelight with his full-throttle demand for Pervez Musharraf's ouster, PPP chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said his party will soon "appoint" the next president, hinting that the former general's days in office could be numbered.

"The day is not far off when someone like Salman Taseer will be in the presidency. The PPP will soon appoint the next president," Zardari said addressing a gathering of PPP workers at the governor's house here on Monday night.

He was referring to Tasser, a Pakistan People's Party stalwart who was recently made governor of Punjab province.

Zardari said the presidency will soon resound with slogans like "Jeay Bhutto" (Long live Bhutto).

Though Zardari had last month described Musharraf as a "relic of the past standing between the people and democracy, the PPP has been lukewarm to PML (N) leader Sharif's demand to remove him from presidency.

The PPP has accepted the challenge of ridding the country of dictators, Zaradari, husband of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, said. "We are determined to make Pakistan a real democratic country and will make a decision as to when to take the initiative in this regard."

In a veiled reference to last week's "long march" by the lawyers' movement, where Sharif made a vociferous demand for Musharraf's sacking and trial, Zardari said it was a "mere carnival".

The PPP knew better how to organise a successful long march and when it arranges such a protest, the whole world would see huge public participation in it, he said.

Zardari said the PPP will take revenge against the "anti-democratic forces" that assassinated party chairperson and former premier Benazir Bhutto by bringing real democracy into the country.

"The PPP has the credit of struggling against (military rulers) Ayub Khan and Zia-ul-Haq and will continue its struggle to ensure real democracy."

As the PPP workers shouted slogans like "Jeay Bhutto" and 'Zinda hai zinda hai Benazir", he said, "The day is not far off when president's house will also echo with such slogans."

The PPP's leadership and workers have the power to save Pakistan from dictatorship, he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/



* Police says timed device used in explosion

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A bomb blast inside a Shia mosque killed at least four people and wounded two others on Monday, police said.

Local police officer Asghar told Daily Times over the telephone that the bomb went off inside Imambargah Hazrat Ali in Mohallah Roshan Chirgah as worshippers were coming out of the mosque after offering evening prayers.

Timed device: District police chief Abdul Ghaffar Qaiserani told AFP that it was a time-controlled device as police found a number of battery cells from the rubble, which indicated the bomb, planted near the main entrance, was on a timer.

Qaiserani declined to say if it was a sectarian attack, but similar bombings and gun attacks have taken place between the supporters of Shia and Sunni extremist groups active in Dera Ismail Khan, which borders the Tribal Areas.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast shattered the mosque’s front wall and damaged its dome. A crater was also caused near the front wall, AFP reported.

Twisted fans hung from the ceiling inside the mosque and prayer mats were scattered across the bloodstained floor.

The police cordoned off the area as people sifted debris looking for survivors.

Witnesses said that nearby markets were shut down immediately after the incident to curb possible protests.

Last month, gunmen opened fire on a car, killing four Shias in Dera Ismail Khan. Hours later, a Sunni Muslim was shot dead elsewhere in the city. agencies



KARACHI: The police have freed a key suspect in a suicide bombing that killed around 150 people at last year’s homecoming rally for former premier Benazir Bhutto, an official said on Monday.

Prisons Inspector General (IG) Yameen Khan told AFP Qari Saifullah Akhtar was released on June 8.

Benazir accused Qari Saifullah Akhtar in her book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, of plotting against her.

“We released him on Friday after the expiry of his detention period,” the IG said.

Akhtar’s lawyer Hashmat Habib said he was freed because of a lack of evidence. “He is a free person. There is no case against him anywhere in Pakistan,” Habib said, adding that the authorities had “facilitated” his return to Lahore.

Akhtar was arrested in February 2008 in Lahore soon after the book was published.

A court in Karachi released him on bail after police said they had no evidence against him, but he was re-arrested in late March under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

He met Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden several times in Afghanistan, security officials said.

The attorney admitted that Akhtar used to command a guerrilla group that fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but said his client had renounced militancy, denying that Akhtar had anything to do with the Karachi attack, AP reported.

Akhtar was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in August 2004 and later extradited to Pakistan, where he was released under unclear circumstances.

Benazir was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack in Rawalpindi two months after the attack on her Karachi rally. agencies



ISLAMABAD: The government will not withdraw subsidies on electricity up to 200 units to provide relief to the poor people, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said on Monday.

Talking to journalists here, the minister said only the privileged class using over 200 electricity units will share the burden while the deprived segment will be given subsidy.

He said the country is facing severe power crisis and the government is taking short, medium and long-term measures to combat load shedding.

He said load shedding hours would be reduced within a few days as additional power of 1,500 MW has been added in the system due to efforts made by the government.

The minister added that an additional power generation has been achieved through system optimisation.

Ashraf said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had approved an amount to bear the expenditure of oil supply to thermal power plants.

He said a major chunk of the export-oriented industry has been exempted from load shedding while power supply is also being increased in other sectors.

In order to boost the agriculture sector, 10 hours of continuous power supply was being provided at night to achieve maximum production while the textile industry was also being provided 100 percent supply of power, he said.

Power-looms are also being provided continues spells of power to increase productivity as this export-oriented industry is a major contributor to the country’s foreign exchange reservoirs, he said. app

http://dailytimes.com.pk/

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ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has announced to grant aid $256.85 million to Pakistan for meeting the electricity outrage here on Wednesday. The concerned authorities of The World Bank have made the approval of the grant, sources said while the aid would be utilized to over come the bad-patches in the distribution and power transmission network.

The Director for Pakistan World Bank Yusupha Crookes estimates that Pakistan's electricity system lacks about 2,000 megawatts to cover peak demand. The country's transmission and distribution power networks are over-loaded and lack proper investment, with high technical and commercial losses. Pakistan has observed 40 percent increase in electric power demand in the last five years.

"While Pakistan has added about 1 million new, mainly household, electricity connections each year, about a quarter of its population still has no access to electricity, and the quality of service has been deteriorating sharply, " said Yusupha Crookes, World Bank country director for Pakistan. "This has an adverse impact on both the normal conduct of social and economic activity and the delivery of social services."

The so-called Electricity Distribution and Transmission Improvement project aims to improve distribution and transmission networks to meet increasing demand for electricity and to strengthen capacity of electricity companies.

http://www.geo.tv/6-18-2008/19442.htm



WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it would discourage Afghanistan from undertaking any missions in Pakistani territory and urged resolution of the issues through a tripartite mechanism. A Pentagon spokesman said the United States opposed military operation on Pakistani territory. “Pakistan is a sovereign country, so the US would discourage them and frankly, there are significant internal threats to President [Hamid] Karzai’s administration,” Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told a briefing. White House spokesman Tony Fratto underlined the need for Pakistan and Afghanistan to work together to scale down tensions. The Jirga process had been a successful effort in the past and the US would like to see more of that, he added. app



* Spokesman says militant attacks from Pakistan should be stopped

KABUL: A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday downplayed the threat to attack militants in Pakistan, saying that there was no intention to start a war.

Karzai said this weekend that his war-ravaged country would be justified in striking at Taliban insurgents in Pakistan in what he called self-defence.

“The president is not announcing that we are going to war with Pakistan. We do not intend to go to war with Pakistan. We believe in good relations,” Karzai’s spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told reporters in Kabul.

“The president used stern language to convey a message. Pakistan is a sovereign state and should behave responsibly,” he added.

Pakistani territory: Hamidzada said Kabul expected the US ally in the war on terror to stop Taliban militants using its territory as a safe haven for plotting attacks on Afghans and crossing the border into Afghanistan.

“As a sovereign nation you would not allow any other elements to use your territory against another sovereign state and Pakistan is a sovereign state,” Hamidzada said.

He added that, “Pakistan needs to make sure that their territory is not used by terrorist elements against Afghanistan.”

Pakistan had summoned the Afghan ambassador to the Foreign Office on Monday to lodge a strong protest over Karzai’s comments. It had also pledged to defend its sovereignty. afp



LAHORE: President Pervez Musharraf’s portrait was removed from Governor House on Tuesday, a private television channel reported. According to Aaj TV, lawyers from the People’s Lawyers Forum, during a meeting with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in the Darbar Hall of Governor House, saw Musharraf’s picture hanging alongside the portrait of Quaid-e-Azam and demanded its removal, the channel said. The portrait, which had been hanging on the wall for eight years, was thus removed, it said. daily times monitor



ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: All state institutions should work within the ambit of the constitution and that any confrontation amongst them would be harmful to the country, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday.

“The army, the judiciary and the government should perform their respective roles,” he said, addressing the closing session of the “The Rule of Law and Democracy: Road to Future” conference organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT).

Prime Minister Gilani said the present government believes in the supremacy of parliament and was committed to the restoration of the 1973 Constitution. He underscored the struggle of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for the independence of the judiciary and the revocation of emergency rule, and said that former PPP chairwoman Benazir Bhutto had laid down her life for democracy and the rights of the people.

Separately, Gilani said the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are committed to their coalition and there are no differences between them.

“There should be no doubts about our alliance, which is very much intact,” he said, adding that the coalition government was in the national interest. Talking to reporters after meeting Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, he said the sacked judges’ reinstatement would be decided in parliament according to the constitution. “PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif are meeting to discuss the proposed constitutional package tomorrow (Wednesday),” APP quoted him as saying.

The premier said that the federal and provincial governments had presented budgets that ensured maximum relief to the masses in the given circumstances. staff report/agencies



ISLAMABAD: Six would-be suicide bombers were arrested during the lawyers’ long march last week and law-enforcement agencies recovered 45 kilogrammes of explosives from them, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik said on Tuesday.

He told the National Assembly that the media would be informed of the incidents soon. Rehman also complained of misreporting by the media of a US drone attack in South Waziristan on June 14, demanding that the matter be investigated by the house committee concerned. The adviser said that the government had started satellite monitoring of Pakistan’s western borders from June 16 to allow authorities to monitor the situation from Islamabad. Rehman also noted that overall street crime in the country had decreased since the new government came into power. staff report/agencies



* Spokesman says relations suspended following delay in release of Taliban prisoners

By Saleem Athar and Daud Khattak

PESHAWAR: Swat-based Taliban have suspended contact with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government to protest against the slow progress on a peace agreement they inked less than a month ago, a Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Daily Times by telephone that “some elements were interfering in the peace process,” as a result of which Taliban had decided to temporarily freeze contact with the provincial government.

Contact with the NWFP government has been suspended for “a period of one week to see if the government takes steps to accelerate the progress on issues discussed in the May 21 peace agreement,” said the spokesman for rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah. He said the provincial government had already been told about the decision.

Delay in release: The spokesman said a delay in the release of Taliban prisoners had forced the decision. “Under the agreement, the prisoners should have been freed 15 days after the deal,” said Khan. Eighteen Taliban prisoners were set free by the government following the peace deal while another 55 are still in prison. NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain has however said they were not told about any such decision.

Hussain told Daily Times that there had been no severing of contact, though admitted that the Taliban had complained of the slow progress.



* PPP co-chairman says Benazir sacrificed her life for democracy, not to make Chaudhry the CJP
* Coalition parties will be consulted regarding nomination of future president
* NRO has no importance

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday that he would decide when the judges sacked on November 3, 2007 would be reinstated, Dawn News reported.

Talking to senior journalists and columnists at Punjab Governor’s House, he said the judicial crisis was one of the major problems Pakistan was facing and that no one could assess the situation better than he could.

“[Benazir Bhutto] did not sacrifice her life to make Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry the chief justice, but for democracy,” he said, adding that the freedom of judiciary involved the entire system and not just one man. “We know better the importance of strengthening the institutions.”

He said his party had some differences with its coalition partners at the centre and in the provinces, but added that the PPP wanted to “take the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) along”.

Political differences were “routine matter”, he said, adding: “We have yet to sort out some difference with the MQM for which a dialogue process is under way.”

According to the state-run APP news agency, Zardari said President Pervez Musharraf was an “unconstitutional president” and the PPP did not accept his November 3, 2007 measure as legal. But he said the ruling coalition parties lacked the required parliamentary strength to impeach Musharraf and added that the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had reservations in this regard.

Future president: “All ruling coalition parties will be consulted regarding the nomination of future president,” he added. Dawn News said he denied that he wanted to be the president. He said no other party was as experienced as the PPP in the politics of agitation, but added that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had won Pakistan’s independence through dialogue.

“I was arrested from this Governor’s House in 1996 and I addressed a large public meeting yesterday (Monday) at this very place, and I believe in this way of political revenge,” he said.

The PPP co-chairman said Benazir used to say ‘democracy is the best revenge’. “We will follow her and take revenge from anti-democratic forces through democracy.”

NRO: Zardari said the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) had not benefited only the PPP, but “thousands of other people”, and that it had no importance. Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was also present on the occasion. daily times monitor/app

http://dailytimes.com.pk/



GUANGZHOU: Soldiers scrambled to shore up soggy levies with sandbags on Tuesday in southern China as forecasters warned that more heavy rain could trigger flooding on the country’s second-longest river. The death toll rose to 171, Xinhua reported.

The high waters swamped crop land in the south, forcing farmers to wade into their fields and harvest unripe cucumbers, bitter melons and other vegetables before they spoiled in the water. The natural disaster was driving up food prices that were already soaring before the heavy rains began last month.

The death toll from this year’s flooding in 20 provinces and the western Xinjiang region has already reached 171, Xinhua News Agency reported. At least 1.27 million people have been relocated and crop damage was reported on 2.12 million acres, Xinhua said.

BAGHDAD: A car bomb ripped through a busy commercial street in a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing at least 51 people and wounding scores more in the deadliest blast in the capital in more than three months.

Many victims were trapped in their apartments by a raging fire that engulfed at least one building, according to police and Interior Ministry officials, who also said about 75 people were wounded Tuesday. Stunned survivors stumbled through the rubble-strewn street, which was filled with the smoke from burning vehicles, witnesses said.

The attack shattered the relative calm in the capital since a May 11 cease-fire ended seven weeks of fighting between US and Iraqi forces and Shiite militants in the Sadr City district. Ironically, it came the same day the Iraqi parliament announced plans to move outside the US-protected Green Zone.

Angry survivors blamed the army and police for failing to protect them.

``The blast occurred because there wasn't any security presence by the Iraqi army or police at the scene, not even any checkpoint,'' said Khalid Hassan, 40, who suffered shrapnel wounds and burns. ``People were confused, upset and running in all directions. We are all victims of terrorism and carelessness.''

The bomber struck about 5:45 p.m. near a market and bus stop in the Hurriyah district of west Baghdad, scene of some of the most horrific sectarian massacres during the wave of Sunni-Shiite slaughter in 2006.

Kamil Jassim, a witness, said the blast set fire to a generator used by residents and shopkeepers to supplement city power. The fire quickly spread to a two-story building containing both shops and apartments where many of the victims were found.

Haider Fadhil, a 25-year-old metal worker, said he was shopping with two friends when the blast hurled him to the ground.

``When I regained consciousness, I found that my left hand and leg were broken,'' Fadhil said from his bed in a nearby hospital, where anguished families wept as they jammed the waiting rooms. ``Thanks be to God for saving me and thanks to those who carried me in their pickup truck to the hospital.''

The blast was the deadliest attack in Baghdad since March 6, when a pair of bombs detonated in the mostly Shiite district of Karradah, killing 68 people and wounding about 120.

No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast, and both Sunni and Shiite militants have used car bombs in their attacks.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/



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P.R.

Zardari And Nawaz Agree To Keep Alliance Intact

June 19, 2008

LAHORE :Negotiations between the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the issues of judges and a motion to impeach President Pervez Musharraf have stalled though both parties have signalled to keep the alliance between the two intact.

A meeting between PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif took place on Wednesday in the latter’s Raiwind farm house where both agreed that it would be dangerous if both parties broke up their alliance. They agreed that the dialogue should continue and again meet on June 20 after they consult with their respective party ranks, sources claimed.

On Wednesday’s meeting discussed the restoration of deposed judges and the impeachment through a constitutional amendment package, the upcoming by-elections, expansion of the Punjab Cabinet and some other matters. Shahbaz Sharif, Raja Zafar ul Haq, Khawaja Asif, Sardar Zulifqar Ali Khosa, Javed Hashmi, Ahsan Iqbal, Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir and Khawaja Saad Rafique helped Sharif.

PPP leaders Rehman Malik, Raja Riaz, Jehangir Badr, Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, Fouzia Wahab, Azizur Rehman Channa and Rukhsana Bangash did with Zardari. Sources claimed both were firm in restoring the deposed judges in accordance with the Murree Declaration and the swift impeachment. Zardari told Nawaz to join the federal cabinet so that performance of different ministries could be further improved for the benefit of the public at large.

Zardari tried to convince his coalition partners that the they should avoid tabling an impeachment motion against Musharraf without securing a two-thirds majority in the Senate and the National Assembly. Asif also agreed that the judges’ reinstatement be linked with the constitutional amendment package. It was also proposed to form a joint committee to settle the impeachment issue with both also making five-seat adjustments in the upcoming by-polls.

After the meeting, PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal told reporters that both wanted the judges reinstated, Musharraf impeached and their alliance cemented but they had differences on modalities to achieve these objectives. Ahsan said both considered Musharraf as an unconstitutional president and claimed that the presidency was still conspiring but the coalition partners would foil them. He also said that Musharraf was trying to protect his rule.


http://www.apakistannews.com/zardari...e-intact-72100

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