 |
|
|
Pak General, 7 others killed in suicide blast
Sharif joins PPP demand for early power transfer
Mush dismisses exit talk
|
|
|
PML-N wants lifting of ban on Sharif as PM
Pak intelligence chief given extension
Indians largest expat community
in UAE
Amit’s aide in Nepal released
Indo-Canadians seek official status for Punjabi
Sikh boy denied admission over turban in Aussie school
Britons back Indian who killed assailant
All plants, animals to be catalogued
Inflation forces employees to leave Gulf
Bal to become Revenue Dept head in US
Indian commits suicide
|
||||||||
|
Pak General, 7 others killed in suicide blast
Pakistan army’s head of medical corps, Lt Gen Mushtaq Beg, and seven other persons were killed in a suicide bomb blast in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on Monday. At least thirty persons were injured and seven vehicles were damaged in the explosion.
Eye witnesses said the attacker, posing as a beggar, blew himself up in front of Lieutenant General Beg's car which was waiting for the signal at a crossing. His driver and guard were also killed in the attack. Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema also confirmed that a pedestrian carrying explosive material in his jacket was involved. According to Cheema, investigators had found some remains of the bomber and it was believed that he was about 15 to 18 years old. All business centres, shops and offices were immediately closed as security troops cordoned off the entire area and began investigations into the blast. Beg is the highest ranking army officer killed in any suicide blast since Pakistan became a target of militants reacting to the army operation in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan in 2003. It was also the sixth blast in the highly guarded Rawalpindi town where offices and residences of top brass of the army are located. All these blasts have targeted security personnel. Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said he could not say if General Beg was specifically targeted or the attacker exploded the bomb seeing a senior officer sitting in the car. He said officers and staff of medical corps usually move with little security protection. He said in the future, it would be strengthened. President Musharraf and top political leaders including PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari and former premier Nawaz Sharif have condemned the blast.
|
|
Sharif joins PPP demand for early power transfer
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif joined the PPP’s call for convening the newly elected National Assembly for early transfer of power, on Monday .
Sharif also asked President Musharraf to step down voluntarily, instead of waiting for his ouster by a restored judiciary or through impeachment. Sharif said the PML-N, the PPP and the ANP had decided to form coalition governments in the Centre and in provinces of Punjab and NWFP. The PPP will head the government in Islamabad, PML-N in Punjab and ANP in NWFP. The newly elected members of the National Assembly belonging to the three parties and independent members supporting them would meet in the capital on Wednesday to demonstrate their overwhelming majority in the new house. Sharif said this should dispel Musharraf's “misperceptions”, if he has any, regarding the people’s verdict against him in the elections. Nawaz Sharif spoke to the media after a meeting with Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed. Both said they had identical views on the illegality of Musharraf's presidency, restoration of the constitution minus amendments made by Musharraf, reinstatement of judges deposed on November 3 and revocation of all measures taken under the emergency. Qazi said his party and the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) would support the coalition government and would not create problems for it. He hoped that this government would fulfil promises on restoration of independent judiciary and supremacy of the Constitution. In a related development, US ambassador Ann Patterson called on Nawaz Sharif and discussed with him the evolving political situation in the country including formation of a government. PML-N sources said Patterson urged Nawaz to soften his confrontational stance towards Musharraf and desist from calling for his resignation. Sharif impressed upon the US envoy to respect the verdict of the people, saying they had rejected Musharraf. He said his party could not compromise on the issue of reinstatement of sacked judges. Sharif said his party would support the war on terrorism if it is appropriately defined. Meanwhile, the PPP’s co-chairperson Asif Zardari today said his party would announce the name of its prime ministerial candidate when invited to form the government. Zardari presided over a meeting of PPP losers in the elections and heard their view point on the causes of defeat.
|
|
Don’t shift loyalties, EC to winners
The election commission on Monday warned that elected members shifting party loyalties would be unseated.
Commission sources also indicated that the newly elected National Assembly might be convened in the second week of March after the completion of various post-election formalities. Responding to media reports of several PML-Q members announcing their decision to join the PPP or the PML-N, commission secretary Kunwar Dilshad said Article 63 of the constitution against defection is in force and anybody violating it would be disqualified. The commission asked all elected lawmakers to file their election expense account by Thursday to enable it to issue notification of election results. It will also announce the names of women and minorities’ candidates elected on 60 and 10 reserved seats, respectively. The political parties would be allocated these seats proportionate to their strength in the assembly. Dilshad said independent candidates who have been elected would be allowed to join any political party within three days after notification of the results.
|
|
‘Peaceful transition top priority’
President Pervez Musharraf has said a peaceful transition of power is his first priority and he did not want any confrontation. In a meeting with Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and PML-Q Punjab president Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi at the presidential camp office in Rawalpindi, he stressed the need for national reconciliation.
Chaudhry Shujaat apprised the president of PML-Q's future political strategy and told him that the party had decided to sit on the opposition benches in the Parliament. Shujaat said his party respected the mandate people had given and the parties who had won a majority should form a government. “The PML-Q will play dynamic role in the Parliament,” he said. Talking to reporters Pervez Elahi said President Musharraf had no intention of stepping down because he had been elected President for five years and the demand for his resignation had no justification. He said the PML-Q will not split and speculations about formation of a ‘forward bloc’ of rebels in the party were unfounded.
|
|
Mush dismisses exit talk
Islamabad, February 25 Musharraf was elected to a new five-year presidential term last year by Pakistani lawmakers, “not by any senator from the United States,” his spokesman Rashid Qureshi told Dawn News television. “So I don’t think he needs to respond to anything that is said by these people.” Several senators met Musharraf after last week’s parliamentary vote in which his political allies were routed. Some Pakistani leaders and many media commentators have called for him to resign. The Bush administration appears to want Musharraf, a key US ally in the war on terror whose own country faces rising Islamic militancy, to continue in office. However, Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that he would advise Musharraf to seek a dignified way to leave office. “I firmly believe if they (political parties) do not focus on old grudges — and there’s plenty in Pakistan — and give him a graceful way to move,” then it could happen, Biden, a Democrat, said on ABC television. Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Chuck Hagel also endorsed a negotiated retreat. They stopped short of saying he should be pushed from power. The parties of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and another former premier, Nawaz Sharif, won a majority of the seats in the new parliament and are expected to form a coalition government. However, they fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to impeach Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted last year after he declared a state of emergency and clamped down on the opposition, the judiciary and the media. Sharif, whose second government fell when Musharraf seized power in a 1999 military coup, on Monday urged the former army chief to convene the new Parliament. “The transfer of power should happen immediately,” Sharif told reporters in Islamabad. “The sooner Mr. Musharraf understands the situation, accepts people’s verdict and resigns, the better it is for him.” However, Bhutto’s party, which will be the strongest in the new legislature, has been more guarded on Musharraf’s future, saying it will be up to lawmakers. Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower and political successor, said in remarks published Monday that his priority was for the transition to remain smooth. “We want to unify the country, which is facing some very serious challenges,” Zardari was quoted as saying in The Wall Street Journal. “We have to establish democracy and for that we need unity and not confrontation.” Qureshi insisted Sharif’s voice will find little echo among the legislators. “The president will function with them (lawmakers). There is no issue with that. The president is an easy man to get along with and I don’t think we should feel that there’ll be any friction there,” Qureshi said. Western officials are concerned that an attempt to force Musharraf from power would spark a constitutional crisis and hobble Pakistan’s effort to fight growing Islamic extremism. Taliban-style militants battling government forces near the Afghan border said Sunday say they want dialogue with the winners of the elections and urged the new leadership to abandon the war on terror.
— AP
|
|
PML-N wants lifting of ban on Sharif as PM
Islamabad, February 25 The law was passed by President Pervez Musharraf in 2002 to bar Sharif and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, both two-time Prime Ministers, from occupying the top slot again. Before co-operating with the PPP, the PML-N will seek a guarantee that after coming to power, the PPP-led government will withdraw the amendment to the constitution that bars a third prime ministerial term, sources told the Daily Times newspaper. The sources said the PML-N would try to woo the Awami National Party, which emerged the largest group in the North West Frontier Province, and other parties to ensure that the bar on a third prime ministerial term was withdrawn at the earliest. However, a leader of Musharraf-backed PML-Q said his party would oppose any amendment to allow Sharif to contest for premiership again. Sharif can become Prime Minister again only with the prior consent of the President through a bill passed by Parliament with a simple majority. “It does not require two-thirds majority to allow him to become a Prime Minister for the third time,” the unnamed PML-Q leader said.
— PTI
|
|
Pak intelligence chief given extension
Islamabad, February 25 Shah, in the meanwhile, has rejected the accusations by opposition candidates that he masterminded rigging during the poll. He also refuted reports that he had declined the extension and tendered his resignation. On charges of rigging,he said he was not part of any such rigging plan. His brother, Tariq Shah, a PML-Q candidate from NA-136, Sheikhupura, was defeated.
|
|
Indians largest expat community
in UAE
Dubai, February 25 Around 75 per cent of the labour force in the UAE is from Asian countries, of whom the majority is from India, the Agency for Developing Human Resources and Recruiting UAE Nationals (Tanmia) said in its report. While Indian workers constitute 42.5 per cent of the total expat population in the UAE, the Arabic-speaking people from Middle Eastern countries make up 13.8 per cent, it said. The study, overseen by Ahmed Shabib Al Dhahiri, Vice-Chairman of the Federal National Council (FNC), focused on means of dealing with expatriate workers. It also noted that the number of nations exporting manpower to the UAE was higher than the United Nations membership with the expatriates belonging to more than 200 countries. The cooperation between labour-exporting and importing nations was also identified as a “necessity” by the study “in order to find solutions to the problems that the workers face, including malpractices by labour agencies in the country of origin.”
— PTI
|
|
Amit’s aide in Nepal released
Kathmandu, February 25 The police had arrested Jha from Saptari district in eastern Nepal last week for his alleged involvement in the racket. He was released yesterday as no evidence was found against him, the police said. Upendra Kant Aryal, senior superintendent of police of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), said that Jha has been released as the police neither found any evidence of his involvement nor did they receive any complaint against the Nepali national. However, the police told mediapersons that Jha, 32, could be arrested again if evidence was found against him. — PTI
|
|
‘No Country for Old Men' wins 4 Oscars
Europeans swept the acting categories last night. British actor Daniel Day-Lewis and France's Marion Cotillard were best lead actor and actress.The supporting actor and actress prizes went to Spain's Javier Bardem and British actress Tilda Swinton. Bardem won for supporting actor in "No Country," which earned Joel and Ethan Coen best director, best adapted screenplay and the best-picture honour as producers. Accepting the directing honour alongside his brother, Joel Coen recalled how they were making films since childhood, including one at the Minneapolis airport called "Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go." "What we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then," Joel Coen said. "We're very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox." Day-Lewis won his second best-actor Academy Award for the oil-boom epic "There Will Be Blood," while "La Vie En Rose" star Cotillard was a surprise winner for best actress, riding the spirit of Edith Piaf to Oscar triumph over British screen legend Julie Christie, who had been expected to win for "Away From Her.” Swinton won for her portrayal as a malevolent attorney in "Michael
Clayton." — AP
|
|
|
Indo-Canadians seek official status for Punjabi
Vancouver, February 25 A formal resolution to this effect was passed on Sunday at the sixth Mother Language Day organised by the Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) at Haveli in Surrey here. Indo-Canadians constitute about eight per cent of the population of British Columbia where Punjabi is the fourth most spoken language after English, French and Chinese. In fact, in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey-also known as the Southall of Canada - it is the second most spoken language after English. PLEA president Balwant Sanghera, who was one of the movers of the resolution at the annual gathering, told IANS: “The whole Indo-Canadian community has extended its support to us to approach the federal government to recognise Punjabi as one of the Canadian languages.” He said representatives of various political parties also assured them that they would take up the issue with the federal government in Ottawa. “We have now to work with law makers and legal experts on the issue. It may take some time, but we are now committed to getting the deserving status for Punjabi,” Sanghera said. Sadhu Binning, who is vice president of PLEA and teaches Punjabi at the University of British Columbia, said Punjabi has been used in Canada for 110 years but it was still not recognised as one of the Canadian languages. It was high time it was given an official status like English and French, he said. For the first time, leading Indo-Canadian business people joined Mother Language Day, promising to raise funds for promotion of Punjabi. Speaking fluently in Punjabi, Ann Murphy of the University of British Columbia said the language would flourish in Canada. During her visits to Punjab, she said she found life there much like that in her native Ireland. Punjabi is currently the sixth most spoken language in Canada. And it is set to take the fourth position, beating Italian and German in the next three years.
— IANS
|
|
|
Sikh boy denied admission over turban in Aussie school
Melbourne, February 25 The family, who cannot be named because of a suppression order, filed a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Commission in Queensland state in February last year saying the Brisbane private school Ormiston College had refused to admit their 12-year-old son, the APP reported today. Headmaster Brett Webster said the school had a strict uniform policy. On alleged demands that the Sikh student cut his hair and remove his "patka", he said "the offer (for admission) was made with the usual school rules in mind and so there was not a request from the school that the family do anything in particular." The family's solicitor,Scott McDougall, told AAP the boy's parents had lodged a complaint with the commission but no date had yet been set for a hearing. The boy was now attending another private school where he was allowed to wear his turban, he said.McDougall said he did not know of any similar case of a school student being refused enrolment because of the dress requirements of his or her religion."I'm aware there was a Sikh student who attended the (Ormiston) school in previous years before the current headmaster. "He was allowed to wear a turban to school but that was under the previous headmaster," the lawyer said.Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Susan Booth said the case may be the first of its kind in Australia although there had been some other similar cases
overseas. — PTI
|
|
|
Britons back Indian who killed assailant
London, February 25 Several people have called Tony Singh a "local hero" and expressed support for him.They believe he should be given a bravery award for grappling with his assailant who had a history of criminal acts. Singh(34), who owns a shop in Skelmersdale in Lancashire was leaving for home after closing his shop last Sunday when he was attacked by a hooded man who tried to rob him. During the struggle to defend himself, Singh took possession of the robber's knife, and in the scuffle, the assailant, identified as Liam Kilroe, died after suffering a stab wound in the chest. A posting on a Lancashire discussion board said: "The man should have a medal pinned to his chest - not having the thought of imprisonment looming over him. It appears he was simply protecting himself in a life and death struggle.I have not one ounce of pity for the criminal."
— PTI
|
|
|
All plants, animals to be catalogued
London, February 25 With the help of a software pioneered by internet sites such as Wikipedia, the 300-year-old problem of how to document such a vast array of the planet’s natural diversity has been resolved. The team of international researchers has found the solution with a, so-called, mash-up software, which gathers huge amounts of information from diverse sources. According to its designers, it is intended partly as a resource for those with an interest in the natural world but also as a tool for scientists and policymakers. By comparing information about different species, scientists hope they will be able to find new methods to slow the spread of unwelcome species and explain why some creatures live longer than others. In 1735, Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus published his masterwork Systema Naturae which was the first attempt at recording the systems in nature. He promised a classification of every known living thing but by the time he reached his 13th and final edition in 1770 his efforts had swelled from 11 pages to 3,000 and the work was still incomplete.
— UNI
|
|
|
Inflation forces employees to leave Gulf
Dubai, February 25 The online study, conducted by job site Bayt.com and market research specialist YouGovSiraj, showed that 37 per cent of the respondents are considering leaving the UAE to work elsewhere and improve their finances. “The disparity was most pronounced in Qatar, with a perceived average cost of living spike of 38 per cent, 22 per cent higher than salary increases. In Dubai, living expenses were alleged to have risen by 37 per cent, representing a gap of 20 per cent,” the study claimed.
— PTI
|
|
|
Bal to become Revenue Dept head in US
New York, February 25
|
|
|
Indian commits suicide
Dubai, February 25 He had been working in a private company for more than six years and did not suffer from any mental or psychiatric problem, Khaleej Times added.
— PTI
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
(
Los Angeles, February 25