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Friday,
January 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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USA gets tough on illegal immigrants Pro-army PML-Q gets
majority
Tigers gain upper hand Chandrika’s threat to sack PM dismissed Vajpayee to visit
Russia in May Indian workers’
sponsor
disappears China ‘unaware’ of
North Korea’s N-plan |
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UN team searches private homes Kalpana flies
into space
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Pro-army PML-Q gets majority Islamabad, January 16 Pro-military PML-Q of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali won four seats and an Independent supported by it also emerged victorious amid last-minute boycott by the PPP which alleged serious irregularities and harassment of its candidates. The MMA consisting of six religious parties, continued to encash on the prevailing anti-US sentiments. Its main electoral plank was the US decision to make it mandatory for Pakistanis living in the USA to get themselves registered. It won two seats in North West Frontier Province where it is in power. The MMA also registered a surprise victory over the PML-Q in Rawalpindi, defeating the nephew of Information Minister Sheikh Rashid. The MQM which joined the PML-Q won a seat in its stronghold of Karachi. Meanwhile three PPP workers were killed and several injured in clashes during the polling in Sindh province. Senior PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim condemned the “mass rigging” by the administration. He alleged that several party workers in Sindh had been kidnapped. Results are yet to be announced in a seat in southern Khairpur district, where the PPP activists were killed. Jamali’s coalition government can now claim almost 200 seats, boosting its majority from the razor-thin position it held when the Prime Minister was elected by parliament in November with 172 votes. Pakistan’s ruling PML-Q won four National Assembly seats securing a comfortable majority for the coalition government while hardline Islamic alliance MMA, riding on an anti-US plank, bagged three seats in the byelections in which three PPP activists were killed in poll-related violence, results showed today. Pro-military PML-Q of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali won four seats and an Independent supported by it also emerged victorious amid last-minute boycott by the PPP which alleged serious irregularities and harassment of its candidates. The MMA consisting of six religious parties, continued to encash on the prevailing anti-US sentiments. Its main electoral plank was the US decision to make it mandatory for Pakistanis living in the USA to get themselves registered. It won two seats in North West Frontier Province where it is in power. The MMA also registered a surprise victory over the PML-Q in Rawalpindi, defeating the nephew of Information Minister Sheikh Rashid. The MQM which joined the PML-Q won a seat in its stronghold of Karachi. Meanwhile three PPP workers were killed and several injured in clashes during the polling in Sindh province. Senior PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim condemned the “mass rigging” by the administration. He alleged that several party workers in Sindh had been kidnapped. Results are yet to be announced in a seat in southern Khairpur district, where the PPP activists were killed. Jamali’s coalition government can now claim almost 200 seats, boosting its majority from the razor-thin position it held when the Prime Minister was elected by parliament in November with 172 votes.
PTI |
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Tigers gain upper hand Colombo, January 16 Although Colombo had expected this latest round of talks to deal with political and constitutional reform, the LTTE focused on the government’s high security zones (HSZs) in its powerbase in the northern Jaffna peninsula. The LTTE wants the HSZs removed as a matter of priority, to enable displaced families to return to their homes, and announced that it would not take part in further meetings of the Peace Talks Sub-Committee on De-escalation and Normalisation until the HSZ issue is settled at a stroke, mauling what was considered one key achievement of earlier rounds of talks. The Litter's position, that rejects the disarming of local LTTE cadres as a pre-condition of the government abandoning the HSZs, flies in the face of opinion among the international team of ceasefire monitors who say the HSZs could not be removed without reciprocal action by the LTTE. The one satisfaction for the government is, however, that no guns have been fired by either side in the past year and there have been no acts of violence by the LTTE and this after two decades of war which claimed at least 70,000 lives. The tough stance of the LTTE, however, compelled the Colombo government to postpone any discussion of the HSZs and revealed, once again — in the eyes of some - how unprepared Colombo was for the LTTE’s tactics and how ready it is to make more and more concessions to keep the guns silent. The LTTE used the latest round of talks to press further its demands for the early rehabilitation and re-settlement in the war-ravaged north and east of Sri Lanka. It succeeded in extracting assurances from the government that the search for foreign funding for rehabilitation would be speeded up and also that the LTTE would join the government in seeking foreign aid. It had already told donor nations that funds given for rehabilitation should not come under Colombo’s control, but would be kept and disbursed by a third party probably the World Bank, with the LTTE having a important say in how these funds are used.
The Guardian |
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Chandrika’s threat to sack PM dismissed Colombo, January 16 Government spokesman and Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris said the government was not interested in responding to Ms Kumaratunga’s remarks on Tuesday threatening to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. “The President has said many things and our intention is not to get into a public debate,” Mr Peiris said. “We have a democracy in this country and anyone can say anything.” “But what is important is that we have a Prime Minister who enjoys the majority of parliament and is leading the party which has the highest number of seats.” Ms Kumaratunga had accused the Prime Minister of giving too many concessions to the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during peace negotiations.
PTI |
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Vajpayee to visit Russia in May Moscow, January 16 During his December visit to India, Mr Putin had invited Mr Vajpayee to attend St Petersburg’s 300th anniversary celebrations in May and the Indian Prime Minister had accepted, Kremlin sources said. US President George W. Bush and new Chinese President Hu Jintao, besides several other world leaders, were also expected to join the celebrations at Mr Putin’s hometown, they said. The sources said the summit meeting between Mr Vajpayee and Mr Putin could precede the St Petersburg celebrations and the dates were being finalised. Since October 2000, when Mr Putin first visited India, the Indo-Russian summits have become an annual feature in the bilateral relations and are generally held towards the end of the year.
PTI |
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Indian workers’
sponsor disappears Dubai, January 16 The misery of these workers does not appear to be ending as the option of returning to their countries has been ruled out as their passports are still in the possession of their Saudi Arabian sponsor who has gone underground. Water and electric services have been cut off at the workers’ accommodation and their landlord is threatening to evict them. They have no money and little food provisions to live on. Although the labour court ruled in favour of the 80 workers, most of them Indians, two months ago, the judgement could not be implemented because of the sponsor’s absence. When the Indian Embassy could not contact the sponsor, on January 6 it brought the workers’ plight to the attention of the Foreign Ministry and Riyadh Governor Prince Salman.
UNI |
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China ‘unaware’ of North Korea’s N-plan Beijing, January 16 “China is not aware of the nuclear programme of North Korea,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told reporters when asked specifically whether China had any independent assessment of North Korea’s reported nuclear weapons programme. “Our position is that we are not in favour of a Korean peninsula which is proliferated by nuclear weapons. We hope that these nuclear issues can be properly settled through dialogue,” Zhang said at a regular biweekly news briefing. Replying to a volley of questions on North Korea, she said China’s position on the North Korean nuclear issue was consistent and clear. “We have always held that the stability of the Korean peninsula should be maintained and we are for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. We maintain that the Korean nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogues,” she said. “There are a number of diplomatic initiatives in recent days. We have also noted that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Lushukov will visit North Korea to negotiate on the nuclear issue,” she said. She confirmed that Lushukov would make a stop over in Beijing later today during which he will exchange views with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Wenchang on the North Korean nuclear issue. He will go to Pyongyang on Friday. “We hope his visit to North Korea can be very successful and hope that through the efforts of various parties, the nuclear problems can be solved through dialogue at an early date,” she said. On China’s role in settling the North Korean issue, the spokeswoman said China had made its own effort for the peaceful settlement of the issue. “We are ready to maintain contacts and consultation with relevant parties. China is ready to work with other parties for an early settlement of the issue,” she said. Elaborating on her comment on Tuesday offering a venue for direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang, Zhang said: “There should not be any difficulty for China to arrange a forum for the USA and North Korea to resume dialogue.
PTI |
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UN team searches private homes
Baghdad/Cairo, January16 Sources said the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) paid a surprise visit to the home of Saleh Hussein, director general of the Razi facility, which belongs to Iraq’s military industrialisation authority. It was not immediately clear whether the scientist was at his villa in the Baghdad suburb of Ghazaliya or why the IAEA nuclear experts were interested in the villa. The sources claimed that the owner of the other house visited was actually at home and had initially tried to prevent the UN officials from entering. He reportedly allowed them in later, but insisted on speaking to them only through an interpreter.
DPA |
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Kalpana flies into space Washington, January 16 |
USA ALL PRAISE FOR
PAKISTAN SATELLITE
TO BE OPERATIONAL SOON 300
INDIAN FISHERMEN HELD |
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