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Bush asks Congress to approve F-16 sale to Pakistan
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Pak not to give MFN status to India
Islamabad, June 30 With the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement set to become operational from tomorrow, Pakistan has apparently decided not to accord the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India as well as tariff concessions due under the SAFTA.
Pak relaxes visas for Indians
Bin Laden
tape applauds Zarqawi
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Bush asks Congress to approve F-16 sale to Pakistan
A day before a Senate committee overwhelmingly approved a Bill that would permit civilian nuclear cooperation between India and the USA, the Bush administration asked Congress to approve the sale of 18 new F-16 jets to Pakistan. The administration on Wednesday submitted to the Congress a package that includes an option which allows Pakistan to purchase 18 additional jets and an offer to upgrade its existing F-16 fleet. The Congress has 30 days to consider the deal. A State Department official was reported by the Associated Press as saying the $ 5 billion F-16 deal was not related to the civilian nuclear agreement with India. “We believe in treating each country individually,” spokeswoman Julie Reside said. Meanwhile, the State Department applauded the strong bipartisan support for the Indian nuclear deal in both House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees. The House International Relations Committee passed the Bill 37-5 on Tuesday and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-2 in its favour on Thursday. Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said the Bush administration welcomed “the strong bilateral support for our civil nuclear cooperation initiative.” “We appreciate the hard work done by both committees and their prompt consideration of the legislation,” Mr Casey said, adding that the administration looked forward to continuing to work with the Congress in the coming weeks to address “a few remaining issues in the Bills, as the progress on this major the US-India initiative continues.” Both Bills restored congressional oversight of the civilian nuclear deal and chairmen of the committees had, during the course of the markups, expressed dissatisfaction with the Bush administration's attempts to cut the Congress out from the process. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, the administration's point person on the nuclear deal, said, “As we reflected on this whole process, we came to believe that the Congress has a right to see and judge the agreement for itself. On that basis, the White House agreed to another vote.” The two Bills now have to be reconciled by a House-Senate conference and then subjected to a final vote. Administration officials, buoyed by the overwhelming support for the Bills in the committees, hope to get this process over with before the November elections. “We look forward to continuing to work with India to fulfill the promise of the July 18, 2005, and March 2, 2006, statements made by President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” Mr Casey said. Some members of the Indian American community lobbied undecided members of the Congress and were quick to claim credit yesterday. Swadesh Chatterjee, a founder of the US-India Friendship Council, a coalition of the Indian American individuals and associations, said, “This shows the strength of our community. The advertisements that we, as a community, placed in major papers, combined with our intense and systematic national lobbying effort, helped to convince lawmakers that this deal is good and essential for America. Today, the Indian American community stands proud.” The coalition put together by the US-India Friendship Council included, among others, the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), the organisation of Indian Institute of Technology Alumni here in the USA (PANIIT). The council also worked hand-in-hand with other well-known interest groups, especially the US-India Business Council, to maximize its impact. Dr Raghavendra Vijayanagar, chairman of the Indian American Republican Council, criticised Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's lack of support for the nuclear deal. “While Senator Hillary Clinton is happy to raise money from Indian Americans, she has made little effort to support the agreement despite being India Caucus co-chair. She didn't support us when we needed it, and she can be assured that the Indian American community will not forget her intransigence,” he said.
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Pak not to give MFN status to India
Islamabad, June 30 There was no official announcement here but the local media reported that Pakistan would continue to trade with India with a positive list of items even after the SAFTA comes into effect from tomorrow. Islamabad would accord tariff concessions on imports from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives under the SAFTA agreement but would continue to trade with India with a positive list until the two countries resolve political disputes, officials were quoted as saying by the Daily Times newspaper. Pakistan has been stating in the recent months that it will not open up its trade front to India without the resolution of the Kashmir issue. Pakistan currently traded with India with a positive list of 773 items and Indian officials here believe that Islamabad may provide tariff concessions under the SAFTA to only those 773 products. Under the SAFTA, all SAARC countries have to revert to a small negative list of products and reduce the tariff on the rest of the items to promote regional trade. Pakistan for its part may try to derive maximum benefits from India under the SAFTA as New Delhi has already accorded MFN status to it. SAARC countries have already announced their “negative lists” which are also called 'sensitive lists' which contained the products that were not open for tariff concessions. As per the negative lists announced earlier, Bangladesh will have 1,254 items, Bhutan 157, India 884, the Maldives 671, Nepal 1,310, Pakistan 1,183 and Sri Lanka 1,065. Ahead of the coming into force of the SAFTA tomorrow, Indian officials here were not hopeful as Pakistan Commerce Ministry has been maintaining in a number of fora that Islamabad will provide tariff concessions under the SAFTA to all SAARC member states except India. Indian High Commissioner Shivshankar Menon has already said the SAFTA will become meaningless if Pakistan continues to trade with India with a positive list. “The biggest obstacle to normal direct trade between our two countries is Pakistan's positive list approach to imports from India, when India gives Pakistan MFN access to the Indian market,” Mr Menon said in a series of meetings in Pakistan in recent weeks. He said implementation of the SAFTA would help realise full potential between the two countries and recalled comments made by Pakistani ministers stating that the SAFTA would entail MFN-plus for India. “If SAFTA is implemented as its was intended to be, then it will allow us to begin realising the potential of direct trade between the two countries.”
— PTI
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Pak relaxes visas for Indians
Islamabad, June 30 Announcing an overall liberalisation of Pakistan’s visa policy, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Shepao said the country had now expanded the list of nations that were entitled to easy visa facility from 48 to 175 and visas for Indians had been liberalised on many fronts on reciprocal basis. “While liberalising our overall visa policy worldwide, special care has been taken to promote travel and tourism with India to improve confidence building measures between the two countries,” he said.
— PTI
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Bin Laden tape applauds Zarqawi Paris, June 30 In an audiotape aired on an Islamist website, the speaker said to be
Bin Laden paid a glowing tribute to Zarqawi, the most wanted man in
Iraq, who was killed in a US air strike on his hideout three weeks ago.
He described the Jordanian-born Zarqawi as "a lion of Islam and
jihad who did honor not just to his family and tribe but to the whole of
mankind."
"We will keep up our fight to bleed your money dry, kill your
men and so that your forces go home defeated, as we defeated you in
Somalia," bin Laden told US President George W. Bush. —AFP
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