New York, September 19
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's ongoing second regime has been found to be the most corrupt government the country has ever had. In a survey conducted in all four provinces of Pakistan, as many as 67 per cent of people said Musharraf's second regime beginning 2002 was more corrupt compared to those of former premiers— Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

The survey was conducted by the Pakistan chapter of the international anti-corruption organisation “Transparency International” in the urban and semi-urban areas of each of the four provinces of the country. A sample of 4,000 persons was selected in each of these areas.

While 34 per cent of the people interviewed said Nawaz Sharif's second stint (1996-99) was corrupt, as many as 48 per cent were of the opinion that Benazir's second stint (1993-96) was corrupt.

While only 8 per cent of those interviewed said Benazir's first term (1988-90) was corrupt, only 10 percent of those questioned said the first Nawaz Sharif government (1990-93) was corrupt, and in case of Musharraf's first regime (1999-2002) 33 per cent said it was corrupt.

The respondents said citizens had to pay higher bribes to customs, followed by the Land Department, judiciary, taxation, banking, power, education, health, police and railways.

The causes of corruption were identified as low salaries, discretionary powers, influential people, lack of transparency, lack of choice and monopolies, red tape and shortages in demand and supply.

Asked as to which were the most corrupt sectors in the country, 64 per cent named the police, followed by power, judiciary, land, taxation, custom, health, education, railway and banking.

Transparency International is a global network, including more than 90 locally established national chapters and chapters-in-formation. These bodies fight corruption in the national arena in a number of ways.

They bring together relevant players from government, civil society, business and the media to promote transparency in elections, in public administration, in procurement and in business. TI’s global network of chapters and contacts also use advocacy campaigns to lobby governments to implement anti-corruption reforms.— ANI

United Nations, September 19
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf today exuded confidence that his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana would help to carry forward the peace process in the region and resolve various issues facing the two nations, including Kashmir.

Addressing the 192-member UN General Assembly, he said, “Pakistan desires a peaceful environment in the region. We have been engaged in a peace process with India, aimed at confidence building and resolving issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.”

Improved relations and the conducive international environment has brought an acceptable solution to this long-standing dispute within reach, he said.

President Musharraf commended Pakistan’s proposal for the creation of a strategic restraint regime in South Asia, encompassing minimum nuclear deterrence and a balance of conventional forces.

“We do not want to enter an arms race. But we will do whatever is necessary to preserve the credibility of our minimum defensive deterrence level,” he said

Referring to terrorism, he advocated a strategy that would seek to eliminate it comprehensively. “We cannot do so unless we understand and address the root causes of terrorism today,” he said.

“Unless we end foreign occupation and suppression of Muslims, terrorism and extremism will continue to find recruits among alienated Muslims in various parts of the world,” President Musharraf said.

He impliedly criticised the US policies in the Muslim world which, he said, had caused anger among the Muslim world and spawn terrorism. — PTI

Quetta, September 19
Former Pakistan cricket captain and chief of the Tehrik-e-Insaf Party has called on other parties in the country to join him in a civil disobedience movement against the Musharraf regime.

Addressing a huge rally of opposition leaders and activists here, Imran, who is a national sporting icon, said the August 26 killing of senior Baluch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in a Pakistan army operation in the Bhambore Hills should serve as a platform to remove the nearly seven-year-old Musharraf regime and replace it with a duly elected civilian government.

“We will hold such rallies in every Pakistani city, and at the end, we will start a campaign of civil disobedience,” Imran told a crowd of over 5000 supporters.

Leaders of key opposition alliances like the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and some nationalist parties also condemned the killing of Bugti and demanded the setting up of an interim government to ensure the supremacy of Parliament, provincial autonomy and restoration of real democracy in the country.

The opposition demanded an immediate halt to the “military operation” in Baluchistan, an end to the army’s political role and provision of maximum provincial autonomy to all federating units.

The ARD, the PONM, the Baluch Alliance, the ANP and the Tehrik-e-Insaf organised the public meeting at the Sadiq Shaheed Ground. Apart from Imran Khan, PONM chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, Asfandyar Wali of ANP, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Dr Abdul Hayee Baluch and Sardar Akhtar Mengal addressed Monday’s rally.

The ground was packed with thousands of political activists, waving flags of their respective parties. Activists of political groups entering into the ground in processions were chanting full-throated slogans, ‘Salute to Shaheed-e-Watan Nawab Bugti’, ‘stop military operation in Baluchistan’, ‘Pashtoon-Baluch unity zindabad’ etc on the occasion.— ANI

Washington, September 19
An Indian-origin surgeon is among a group of 25 persons named by a prestigious US-based private grant-making foundation as its fellows for 2006.

Forty-year-old Atul Gawande, Assistant Professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, will receive US$ 500,000 in a “no strings attached” support over the next five years from Chicago-based John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation.

Among others to get the “genius grants”, which recognises people in various fields, are 37-year-old Pakistan-origin painter Shazia Sikander as also deep-sea explorer Edith Widder of Florida, jazz violinist Regina Carter from New York and Kevin Eggan, a biologist and principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

Gawande received an MA from the University of Oxford, an MD from Harvard Medical School and other degrees from Stanford University and the Harvard School of Public Health and has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and a surgeon in the Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Gawande is also a staff writer for The New Yorker and writes a column “Notes of a Surgeon” for the New England Journal of Medicine.

The foundation notes that as a surgeon, Gawande has a critical eye and a fresh perspective to modern surgical practice “articulating its realities, complexities and challenges in the interest of improving outcomes and saving lives”. — PTI

Toronto, September 19
An Air India jet with about 150 passengers and crew was forced to return to Toronto after a suspicious package was found on board the flight, authorities said.

Flight 188, which left Toronto’s Pearson Airport at 9.15 pm yesterday (7.45 IST today) was an hour into its flight to India, via Birmingham, England, when a passenger reported to a flight crew that he found a suspicious package in one of the bathrooms, Sgt Todd Moore of the Peel Regional Police told The Associated Press.

The pilot decided to return to Toronto, where the jet was taxied to a remote terminal. The flight was evacuated at about 11 pm (8.30 IST).

Bomb disposal and canine units examined the package, which was “rendered safe and removed from the plane,” said Moore.

He said an investigation was ongoing and declined to disclose details about the package or its contents.

The passengers, who were still in Toronto early this morning, were to undergo another identity check and go through baggage screening again. Moore said he did not know how many passengers were on the plane, but that there were about 150 persons on board, including the crew.

It was unclear if Air India had made other flight arrangements. —AP

Washington, September 19
The United States has placed India on its list of countries that are major drug transits or illicit narcotics producers, but said the move was not necessarily an adverse reflection of the country’s counter narcotics efforts.

Besides India, US President George W. Bush identified Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brazil, Myanmar, Mexico and Venezuela as ‘‘Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal 2007.’’

“A country’s presence on the Majors List is not necessarily an adverse reflection of its government’s counter-narcotics efforts or level of cooperation with the United States,” the determination noted.

He came down heavily on Myanmar and Venezuela as countries that have “failed demonstrably” during the past year to adhere to their obligations under international counter narcotics agreements. —PTI