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Sunday,
July 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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78 killed in Ukraine plane crash
Drop
amendments, say Pak parties EU’s
Solana in Islamabad WINDOW ON PAKISTAN |
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Colour
coding being used to classify ultras India,
Nepal agree to curb terrorism Exchange
rate theorist Rudi dead USA to
scuttle Israel condemnation Bangla
students’ protest continues
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78 killed in Ukraine plane crash
Moscow, July 27 The 30-tonner jet piloted by two experienced officers of the Ukrainian Air Force lost control after hitting the trees in the course of aerobatics and turned into a fireball rolling through the crowds of spectators, Russian ORT TV channel reported. Both pilots were reported to have safely ejected at the low altitude due to the newly installed catapult seats, it said. The plane was in the sky for about two minutes, but then it appeared to go silent, headed towards the ground and banked left — its wingtip clipping trees and touching another plane on the ground before it crashed into a crowd of onlookers watching the show at the Skniliv airdrome — among thousands who had come to watch the event. The fighter jet was conducting complicated aerial manoeuvres at the show, marking the 60th anniversary of a local air force unit. Ukranian President Leonid Kuchma cut short his vacation in Crimea and rushed to Lviv following the disaster. Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a condolence message to his Ukrainian counterpart, ITAR-TASS added. A Sukhoi SU-30 had crashed at the start of a Paris airshow in 1999. In 1988 too, 70 persons were killed and at least 400 injured when Italian jets performing a complicated manoeuvre collided and spiralled into the crowd at the US airbase in Germany. The Su-27 amazed audiences at its first appearances at Western air shows in the 1990s with aerobatic manoeuvres previously unknown for a twin-engined jet aircraft of its size.
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Drop amendments, say Pak parties
Islamabad, July 27 “The constitutional package and the Political Parties Order are an assault on the federation and the federal parliamentary system protected by the constitution,” top leaders of the political parties said at a seminar in Peshawar yesterday. Questioning President Pervez Musharraf’s claims of support of a “silent majority” for his amendments, the parties said he must withdraw them and ensure that the October general elections are free and fair. Musharraf had recently said he was ready to withdraw some of the controversial amendments, including the one on dismissal of an elected parliament and Prime Minister. Senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Aftab Ahmed Sheikh said only parliament had the right to amend the constitution, according to local media. “We will not accept a single amendment by an individual to the constitution. It is an exclusive right of the people’s representatives to do so,” he said at the seminar on the Constitutional package and Political Parties order organised by the Awami National Party. ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan said if the amendments were carried out, it would effectively shut out all constitutional, democratic and legal avenues. “The establishment can build a strong centre by the use of brute force, but it cannot make Pakistan strong. Only a federal parliamentary system can pave the way for a strong Pakistan,” he added. Barring defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications, the residual portfolios should be under the control of the provinces, Khan said. “We want a federation, not a unitary system, which had brought many miseries, including the dismemberment of the country,” he said. General secretary of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy Zafar Iqbal Jhagra said “We love the army that had defended the country in 1965, but we flay the army that is involved in tinkering with the constitution and depriving the people of basic rights”, he said. Echoing the view, chairman of Pakistan Human Rights Commission Afrasiab Khattak said: “In the rest of the world, armies are subservient to their countries, but in our case, the country is subservient to the army”.
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EU’s Solana in Islamabad Islamabad, July 27 Solana, who arrived here after talks in New Delhi, is due to meet with Pakistani Foreign Affairs Minister Inamul Haq and President Pervez Musharraf on the second leg of his South Asian tour. “The two sides will discuss political and security matters that include the present military stand-off,” a foreign ministry official said as Solana went into talks with Haq.
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province has strange traditions. One of the social practices prevalent in this tribal mountanous area, dominated by Pashtuns (also knows as Pakhtoons, who speak the Pashtu language), is having more wives than one, mostly two. It adds to a male’s prestige in society. In many cases, the first wife of a person herself supports her husband to go in for a second wife. This is because of different reasons like sharing the domestic work burden and continuance of the family tree. Newsline magazine’s June issue carried an exhaustive article on the subject by Samar Minallah. It provides an insight into the way of life of the Pashtuns, popularly called Pathans, who have reportedly allowed Al-Qaeda and Taliban activists to hide themselves in their area. The NWFP has special significance for the Afghans not only because it is adjacent to Afghanistan, divided by the Durand Line, but also owing to the fact that the Pashtu-speaking tribes, fiercely independent in character, are in an overwhelming majority on both sides of the political divide. Here are some interesting excerpts from Samar’s well-researched piece: “Second marriages are commonplace among the Pashtuns. Due to a lack of understanding of Islam — let alone of the rationale behind the conditionalities attached to remarriage — polygamy is generally perceived as an item of faith, particularly in the rural areas... “If a woman is physically ill or unhinged, her husband is expected to take another wife... “Even if physically handicapped, a first wife is usually not discarded by her husband, though he invariably takes a second wife. “Justifications offered for second marriages, however, vary. There is a famous Pashtu saying, ‘Dowaima khaza ya day naistee na kaee, ya day mastee na’ (A second wife is brought in either for reasons of lust or when there is no other choice). Sometimes, women themselves feel compelled by circumstances to find second wives for their husbands. “A second marriage, in many cases, tacitly infers wealth or high status. In Pashtun society, the number of wives an individual male has denotes his ability to maintain and support them. Thus, polygamy is often directly proportionate to affluence. In fact, it is seen as a sign of prestige. “However, it is not only the well-heeled who opt for second wives. Men from a lower stratum of society also practice polygamy, but for more practical considerations, such as increasing their labour force. By having more than one wife, a man gains an extra hand for chores and then, of course, there is the bonus of more children and an even bigger workforce. Second wives in these cases are chosen from a lower socio-economic class, destitute women or divorcees, because they are seen as potentially more compliant than women with family support systems. “Men entering second marriages in the presence of the first wife rarely take their senior spouses’ sentiments into account. A first wife is expected to show no resistance towards her husband’s decision to remarry. In a society where a husband is considered the ‘malak’ ( patron, master), or ‘khan’ by his wife, even a hint of defiance would be perceived as rebellion... “A woman may leave the house, but breaking the marriage tie is considered a taboo. Illiteracy reinforces ignorance regarding the rights awarded to women in Islam. While religion may permit her to seek divorce, ‘Pashtunwali’, the Pashtun code of honour, does not. In fact, a woman is considered honourable if she is capable of enduring suffering in silence....” The widely prevalent polygamy among the Pashtuns of the NWFP shows how social or tribal practices, though worth discarding, are maintained by misusing a religious provision. But, then, modern civilisational values are yet to reach that largely illiterate tribal society. |
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Colour coding being used to classify ultras
Lahore, July 27 Those classified as “white” are men who have not been found to be involved in crimes in Pakistan. The “greys” are those with established links to extremist and militant groups, but are assessed as willing to distance themselves from extremism in the future. “Militants graded as “white” and “grey” are being released from different prisons upon filing surety bonds that they will stay away from the militant groups,” a senior official at the Interior Ministry said on condition of anonymity. On Monday, 41 detainees with these classifications are to be released from a prison in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province. “We hope these 41 persons will not indulge in militancy in future,” said Mr Tahir Ashrafi, a religious affairs adviser to the Punjab Government. The detainees classified as “black” will remain in prison or in custody of intelligence agencies, he said. Those graded “black” would not be released without receiving clearance report from a joint interrogation team of all the security and spy agencies, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.
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India, Nepal agree to curb terrorism Kathmandu, July 27 Indian security officials would cooperate as per the suggestions received from their counterparts in controlling Maoist activities and would hand over the persons
arrested, the national news agency reported. The decision had been taken at a meeting between security officials of the two countries at Siddharthanagar. A decision had also been made to resolve in a coordinated manner for the exchange of criminals fleeing one country to another. The officials had also requested Indian security officials to be more vigilant in the border areas and had exchanged the lists of persons with criminal records on the border.
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Exchange
rate theorist Rudi dead Cambridge, Mass., July 27 Dornbusch, 60, died of cancer on Thursday at his home in Washington, D.C., MIT said in a statement yesterday. Known as Rudi to his friends, the German-born Dornbusch was widely acclaimed for his seminal research on the theory of exchange rate determination and international economic policy.
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USA to scuttle Israel condemnation
United Nations, July 27 The USA will oppose the draft if it comes to vote as it does not mention Israeli victims of Palestinian suicide bombings, its Ambassador John Negroponte told a closed-door meeting convened to discuss the proposed resolution yesterday. “One delegation made it clear that they would have considerable difficulties with the draft,” council President Jeremy Greenstock of the UK said in an apparent reference to the USA. The draft moved by Syria expressed sympathy for Palestinians and condemns Wednesday’s Israeli missile attack on a housing complex in Gaza Strip that killed a Hamas leader and 14 others, including nine children, diplomats said. The consultations were adjourned till Monday to allow Ambassadors to consult their governments, Greenstock added. Negroponte said any resolution on West Asia must explicitly condemn terrorist activities by militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and added that the two sides should seek a political solution to the conflict. The USA had on several occasions exercised its powerful veto on similar resolutions, but had never put forth conditions.
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Bangla students’ protest continues Dhaka, July 27 Mr Chowdhury was not immediately available for comment, but university official say the fracas reflected tensions between Bangladesh’s chronically warring political
parties. The police erected barbed wire barricades at all entrances to the 30,000-student university, where authorities cancelled scheduled examinations after students began an indefinite strike.
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