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Monday,
July 7, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Quetta
killings: 19 suspects detained
Lahore bus
service to resume on July 11 WINDOW ON PAKISTAN More
ruckus in Pak House likely UK
scribe shot in Iraq Bush
don’t dictate, says Mugabe |
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Eight
foetuses operated upon Kuwaitis
elect parliament
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Quetta killings: 19 suspects detained Quetta, (Pakistan), July 6 Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said investigators had found evidence of involvement of “foreign elements” in the suicide attack, an apparent reference either to the Taliban and Al-Qaida in neighbouring Afghanistan or to the Indian intelligence. Mr Jamali told the state-run television, “We cannot disregard the involvement of foreign elements. In two to four days, we will have reports and then we will be in a better position to say who is involved.” Humayun Jogezai, the deputy police chief in Baluchistan province of which Quetta is the capital, said the police had rounded up members of the outlawed radical Sunni Muslim groups in overnight raids. A night-time curfew remains in place in the southwestern city near the Afghan border, as tension between Shi’ites and majority Sunni Muslims remain high. Mr Jogezai said investigators were analysing material found on the bodies of the three attackers and were trying to ascertain their nationalities. The three men had wheeled a trolley up to the gate of the mosque during Friday prayers before pulling guns from under a cover and opening fire on worshippers, the police said. Angry Shi’ites took to the streets on Friday, torching vehicles, shops and a wing of a hospital, and later hacked a Sunni seminary teacher to death. Political commentators suggested the mosque bombing might be linked to neighbouring Afghanistan, because Quetta is so close to the border. “The possibility of any across-the-border involvement cannot be ruled out,” Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told reporters yesterday.
— Reuters |
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Lahore bus service to resume on July 11 Islamabad, July 6 "I can confirm that the bus service will be resumed from July 11 and all modalities and arrangements for this were completed", Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told PTI here today. Though July 11 was tentatively suggested by India to resume the service, Pakistan has confirmed its acceptance of the date reportedly yesterday through its High Commission in New Delhi. The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) announced the relaunching of the Delhi-Lahore bus service from July 11 yesterday. It said that it received a formal communication from the Central Government for resuming the twice-weekly service after a gap of 18 months. Earlier this week Pakistan’s Foreign Office
spokesman had declined to confirm whether Islamabad had agreed to resume the service on July 11 as suggested by India. He said today that the date was finally confirmed. He said moves were afoot to resume the air and rail links, which were snapped by India along with the bus service after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001. Mr Khan said India had invited a delegation of civil aviation officials to resumption of air links. The Indian invitation has been forwarded to the relevant authorities, he said. India has already offered to resume both but Pakistan wanted the issues to be discussed by civil aviation officials of both sides. According to reports here, Pakistan would be looking for guarantees from India to not resort to banning of over-flights in the future as it resulted in heavy losses for both the countries and cause disruption to normal traffic. On the bus front, the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), the official agency, designated by Pakistan to run the service said all arrangements have been completed to run the bus service simultaneously from New Delhi and Lahore from July 11. The Deputy Managing Director of PTDC, Mr Azfar Shafqat, said the service would be formally re-launched at a ceremony at Lahore from where it would set off around 6 am hrs PST and reach New Delhi by evening. The bus from New Delhi too was scheduled to start around the same time. While the Indian side would ply the bus on Tuesdays and Fridays, the PTDC will ply a bus each on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Booking opens today Bookings for the bus service would begin tomorrow afternoon. Those desiring to travel by the two 34-seater buses would be required to furnish all necessary documents, including passport and visas, DTC spokesman Suneet Mudgal said in New Delhi. The cost of each ticket on the Indian side is Rs 800.
— PTI |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN WHEN Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf returned from his grand tour of America and Europe what did he carry back in his pockets? Some would say a neat $3 billion in development and security assistance from President Bush for the next five years. Another $ 120 million development assistance . And, in addition Germany lifted the ban on the sale of arms and France offered strong economic ties. And, as bonus “this courageous leader and a friend of the United States” as Bush called him at Camp David, some of the much needed legitimacy. Perhaps the last advantage is much more important given the fast-slipping ground under the feet of the army chief-cum-President of the hapless state of Pakistan. But what
actual business did the President conduct ? None one could think of. What was promised at Camp David was already there , besides the bonehomie which was on display for the benefit of the Pakistanis. And if Pakistan’s General who has given birth to his own kind of guided and controlled democracy thinks that he is shifting his foreign policy focus to Europe , he is befooling none. The kind of relationship Germany and France have with the USA, particularly after the attack on Iraq and the promise of sending two divisions to Iraq which Musharraf made to Bush, they would make out the General’s lies. In Paris there was a quick lunch at Elysee. An equally quick farewell summed up the new bond. Ayaz Amir, Pakistan’s courageous best known columnist wrote in Dawn, “Extended foreign trips, conducted at a leisurely pace and for the most part for no pressing reason, or none easily discernible, are a luxury that even US presidents, reputedly the most powerful figures on earth, can ill afford. Indeed an American president would be laughed out of court were he to permit himself the kind of Grand Tour Pakistan’s supreme leader has just undertaken. It’s a flattering reflection on our culture that we are more relaxed about such things.” And adding with sarcasm, Amir said, “The very amplitude of the Grand Tour, ambling leisurely from capital to capital, demonstrates one thing above all: that the President is in charge.” But is he really is the sole boss? Back home there is a mess that awaits Musharraf. Prime Minister Jamali and parliament are being rendered irrelevant with each passing day. Jamali, keeping a brave face with growing lawlessness and desperations has been trying hard to make the political class agree that there is nothing wrong with the Legal Framework Order (LFO), General Musharraf’s hatchet job on the constitution. Benazir’s People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League and the clerical leaders of the MMA, [the six parties Islamic combination] are far away from any agreement. In addition, growing unemployment and agrarian crisis besides the Shia-Sunni clashes stare in the face. The Frankenstein of Talibanisation represented by the mullahs whom no one dares to oppose may be the President’s talking point abroad. As everyone knows, the Americans are getting impatient and the General who helped to create the monster has no clear answer. Musharraf might think it easy to send troops to Iraq to bail out the Americans. In Pakistan, this is fraught with dangers. Not only the political parties including his own PML [Q], but even the military is not delighted by the idea. Political opinion across the board, if the reports in the newspapers are any indication, is dead set against it. In fact, it could be the undoing for Musharraf. But there was certainly one gain for Musharraf and his begum. They spent three happy days with their son in Boston. |
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More ruckus in Pak House likely Islamabad, July 6 General Musharraf, who returned yesterday after an 18-day foreign tour to the USA and three European countries, has summoned the assembly tomorrow to discuss the motion against Deputy Speaker Sardar Muhammad Yacub. The opposition parties, which have been blocking the functioning of parliament with a series of no-trust motions against the presiding officers held an all-party meeting in Lahore today to chalk out their strategy. General Musharraf has rejected the opposition demand to quit as chief of army as a compromise. Instead he and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali have taken a strong stand that LFO is part of the constitution. The opposition, comprising the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Muthahida Majlis Amal, have declined to accept the stand of the government and vowed to carry their agitation to block parliament proceedings.
— PTI |
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UK scribe shot in Iraq Baghdad, July 6 “I understand he was a freelance cameraman formerly with ITN,” deputy head of the British mission in Iraq, Jon Wilks, told AFP. “We understand it happened around noon... near the College of Arts in Aazamiyah,” in the northwest of the capital, he said. The identity of the victim who died yesterday was not immediately released. The mission said it was waiting for the man’s family to be contacted and declined to give any further information.
— AFP |
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Bush don’t dictate, says Mugabe Harare, July 6 “Any dictating to us will never be heeded by any of us in this region,” Mugabe told thousands of ruling party supporters at a rally in southern Zimbabwe. “If he (Bush) is coming to dictate to us to how we should run our countries, then we will say ‘Go back. Go home Yankee,” Mugabe was shown on state television as saying. Bush is due in South Africa on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a tour of several African countries, including Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria and Senegal. On Friday Bush, speaking in an interview in Washington, called on South African President Thabo Mbeki to put pressure on Zimbabwe and the 79-year old Mugabe to hold fresh elections.
— AFP |
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Eight foetuses operated upon Hamburg, July 6 The report in Der Spiegel news magazine, due to hit newsstands Monday, says surgeons at the University of Bonn have performed eight operations on foetuses inside their mothers’ wombs to repair congenital birth defects. The team headed by Dr Thomas Kohl, 40, insert an endoscopic camera and tongs through a small incision in the womb, draining uterine fluid and replacing it with carbon-dioxide gas. The gas inflates the uterus, giving surgeons room to carry out their surgical procedures. All of the infants which underwent surgery were delivered prematurely. One died after 18 days in an incubator. Three others died later. Despite that fatalities, doctors say they are impressed with the results, saying none of the foetuses was considered viable prior to surgery. The procedure has been used to repair spina bifida and other congenital defects. A total 30 operations are to be carried out in coming months during a trial phase at the Bonn medical
school. — DPA |
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Kuwaitis
elect parliament Kuwait City, July 6 Kuwait’s exclusively male electorate voted all day yesterday to elect the new 50-seat assembly. Liberal and Opposition incumbents took the harshest beating early in the tabulations. Official results are expected later today. Early unofficial results broadcast on state-run television and on an election website showed some districts experiencing 50 to 100 per cent change in representation. Political analysts predicted a larger than 50 per cent change for the entire new parliament. “Tremendous changes are coming in favour of the government, but at the expense of the liberals, the Opposition, and some Islamists,” said Shamlan al-Essa, chairman of the Kuwait University Political Science Department and head of the Strategic Studies Institute. Political writer and analyst Hussein Abdul Rahman agreed, saying, “the government is the winner so far in this election”.
— DPA |
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