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Bush visit: Pak leaders disappointed
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51 killed in clashes in Pak
UK, US troops to be out of Iraq within year: report
Nambiar is Annan’s special adviser
Man in China dies of bird flu
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Bush visit: Pak leaders disappointed
Islamabad, March 5 People’s Party Parliamentarians President and ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim termed Mr Bush’s visit to Islamabad an informal one and said the US President was originally scheduled to visit India to sign historic agreements. “Pakistan came on his itinerary by chance”. He said that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns had already stated that the US Government would not offer civilian nuclear technology to Pakistan and that had been confirmed by Mr Bush in his joint press conference with General Musharraf. The basic purpose of President Bush’s visit, he claimed, was to hunt down Al-Qaida operatives and to urge Pakistan to expedite the arrest of Osama bin-Laden. The Opposition leader asserted that the US President was still dissatisfied with whatever services Pakistan had rendered in its war on terrorism. The PPP leader expressed strong reservations about President Musharraf’s statement in which he had boasted of introducing “essence of democracy” in Pakistan. The fact remained that it was General Musharraf who had derailed democracy by removing a democratically-elected government in 1999. Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the duplicity of the US President had become evident when he offered nuclear cooperation to India. In a statement issued from Lahore he said, on the one hand the US was opposing Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme while on the other it was offering concessions to India despite its not being a signatory to NPT and in violation of its own laws. He said Gen Musharraf’s request to President Bush to help resolve the Kashmir issue was a big mistake as the US President would never play a neutral role and instead he would try to put Kashmir in India’s lap by changing the status of the Line of Control and turn it into a permanent border. Iqbal Zafar Jhagra of the PML (Nawaz group) and ARD’s Secretary-General said genuine democracy could not be restored as long as the US continued to support a military dictator. He also berated the American President for having double standard and said it was applying one standard of democracy for Pakistan in presence of a President in uniform, adding that it was a situation which was impossible in his own country. Deputy Secretary-General of the MMA Liaquat Baloch said that the Opposition’s stance had been vindicated by President Bush’s visit and called upon General Musharraf to step down after what he termed total failure as far as the country’s foreign and defence policies were concerned. Aitzaz Ahsan, a veteran PPP leader, said that President Bush’s visit had illustrated the urgent need for reshaping Pakistan’s foreign policy by removing the extraordinary dependence on American aid and concessions and a rejection to succumb to its dictation. |
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51 killed in clashes in Pak
Islamabad, March 5 Army spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told reporters today that 46 militants, including many foreigners, five soldiers were killed and 10 more injured in fighting in North Waziristan region since yesterday. He did not rule out civilian casualties but did not give any details. Earlier, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said over 100 militants were killed in the counter-attacks by the army. Sultan said the local administration had now again taken control of the government buildings from the militants in
Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan. He said 25 militants were killed in Miranshah and 21 others were killed in Mir Ali, another major town in the region. “These figures are not fixed it could be more. I am not in too much hurry to say about the figures. I am not sure how many foreigners were killed but they are mixed,” he said. The fighting erupted yesterday after militants launched a massive rocket attack on government installations in Mir Ali, a small town in of the North Waziristan tribal region. Sultan confirmed the migration of the local people from the tense region to safe places.
— PTI |
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UK, US troops to be out of Iraq within year: report
London, March 5 Britain is the driving force behind the pullout scheme, a senior defence source directly involved in planning the withdrawal
was quoted by ‘The Sunday Telegraph’ as saying. The early spring of next year has been identified as the optimum time for start of the pullout, it said. Troop numbers were expected to decrease slightly over the next 12 months but the bulk of British and American forces, who make up 138,000 of the coalition’s 153,000 troops, would be withdrawn simultaneously, the report said quoting the unnamed source. The report comes amidst private admission by defence chiefs that British troop commitment in Afghanistan may last for up to 10 years and there may be an additional deployment of 3,500 troops. However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said there was no fixed
date for the withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq. The planned pull-out from Iraq follows the acceptance by London and Washington that the presence of the coalition, mainly composed of British and US troops, is now seen as the main obstacle to peace. The British and American military had hoped to begin removing their forces from Iraq this year but those plans were shelved because of worsening security and the failure of both Sunni and Shia leaders to form a government of national unity. In recent months, both the US and British governments have come under sustained pressure to announce a date when the coalition will begin the withdrawal of forces. According to the report, coalition forces comprising troops from 24 countries, will begin to reduce their presence on the ground markedly over the next few months. They will withdraw to their bases, where they will in effect become a garrison force to be deployed only during emergency. British armed forces are also expected to hand over control of the notoriously dangerous Maysan province, where two soldiers were killed in a bomb attack last week, and the more peaceful al-Muthanna province, in the next few months. Eventual responsibility for day-to-day security in Iraq will be taken over by the Iraqi Defence Force, which now numbers more than 232,000 police officers and
soldiers.— PTI |
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Nambiar is Annan’s special adviser
United Nations, March 5 Mr Nambiar, India’s Deputy National Security Adviser, will advise the Secretary-General on a range of matters and will both follow the issues and represent Mr Annan in the United Nations and elsewhere at a high-level, the world body said. At the United Nations, Mr Nambiar will be liaising with Permanent Representatives. He will also be a member of the policy committee. A former Indian Foreign Service Officer, Mr Nambiar is not a stranger to the UN having been India’s permanent representative to the world body. He is a well known and highly respected person in the diplomatic corps. The Secretary-General has also announced that his Chef de Cabinet, Mr Mark Malloch Brown, will be Deputy Secretary General from April 1 when incumbent Louise Frechette steps down. Mr Annan decided on the appointment “to ensure that his executive office and the United Nations Secretariat is able to carry out the full agenda remaining in his term,” which ends on December 31, the Secretary- General’s spokesman said. The present Deputy Chef de Cabinet, Alicia Barcena of Mexico, will be the acting Chef de Cabinet, it was announced.
— PTI |
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Man in China dies of bird flu
Hong Kong, March 5 The man, who lived in Guangzhou city — less than a two-hour train ride from Hong Kong — developed fever and pneumonia on February 22 and died on Thursday. The man’s girlfriend is sick but shows no bird flu symptoms, neither do a dozen other people who had come into close contact with the man, Hong Kong’s Commercial Radio quoted Zhong as saying. The deceased had repeatedly visited a local market to carry out a survey and spent a long time near where chickens were slaughtered, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday, citing preliminary investigations.
— AP |
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