W O R L D

Memo was conspiracy against army, national security: Kayani
With nine out of 10 respondents in the Memogate case in the Supreme Court, including army and ISI chiefs, having submitted their replies, Attorney General of Pakistan Anwar-ul-Haq on Friday ruled out the submission of President Asif Ali Zardari’s reply in the case. “I have no instructions on filing the President’s reply,” Haq told reporters while acknowledging that, like nine others, the petitioners, including main Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and party colleagues, have personally named the President in the case.

Japan declares tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuke plant stable
Tokyo, December 16
The tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has reached a stable state of "cold shutdown" and is no longer leaking substantial amounts of radiation, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced today.
An activist holds a placard against the cold shutdown at Fukushima plant. — Reuters

Frothy morning

Thick foam is seen at the French harbour of Saint-Guenole during a severe storm on Friday, which left nearly 4 lakh households without electricity and wreaked havoc on train traffic. — AFP

Special to the tribune
Britain gets its second Punjabi MP 
Britain has a second Punjabi-origin MP following Seema Malhotra’s victory on behalf of the Labour Party in the Feltham and Heston bypoll. Malhotra told The Tribune that she is a product of multi-cultural Britain, was born in the UK to an Indian-origin father and a mother who is a retired teacher.

Memo was conspiracy against army, national security: Kayani
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

With nine out of 10 respondents in the Memogate case in the Supreme Court, including army and ISI chiefs, having submitted their replies, Attorney General of Pakistan Anwar-ul-Haq on Friday ruled out the submission of President Asif Ali Zardari’s reply in the case.

“I have no instructions on filing the President’s reply,” Haq told reporters while acknowledging that, like nine others, the petitioners, including main Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and party colleagues, have personally named the President in the case. The President is currently in Dubai after being discharged from hospital but there are conflicting reports when he returns to Pakistan.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has for the first time acknowledged the existence of the memogate document describing it as conspiracy against his force as well as national security.

The scandal had affected Pakistan's national security and the memo was an attempt to affect the morale of soldiers who are making sacrifices for democratic freedom and national security, he was quoted as saying by a news channel. Kayani has demanded a thorough probe saying there is a need to find out the truth behind the memo that was sent to the US military.

ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha in a separate reply said he was satisfied with the evidence given by Memogate whistleblower Mansoor Ijaz. He has emphasised that the matter needs a comprehensive probe.

The Supreme Court has ordered the investigation but has yet been unable to constitute a panel for that after its nominee Tariq Khosa declined to lead it.

Hussain Haqqani and the Federation have contested the maintainability of the petition and questioned its intervention after the Prime Minister asked the bi-partisan Parliamentary Committee on security to undertake the investigation.

Nawaz has asked the Supreme Court to summon Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hasan, who reportedly had stated in an interview that Pakistan knew before hand about the US operation that killed Osama bin Laden. It also requested the court to implead group editor of The News, Shaheen Sehbai, and its resident editor Mohammad Malick in the case.

Pasha has demanded a detailed investigation; summon Ijaz and getting the computers, cellphones and BlackBerry devices of Haqqani and Ijaz for which he offered to ‘render necessary assistance to its appointed commission’.

In another development, Bushra Gohra, MP of the Awami National Party, has demanded Pasha’s resignation to facilitate a transparent probe into Mansoor’s claim that Pasha had met some Arab leaders to seek support for a coup in Pakistan.

Japan declares tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuke plant stable

Tokyo, December 16
The tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has reached a stable state of "cold shutdown" and is no longer leaking substantial amounts of radiation, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced today.

The announcement marks a milestone nine months after the March 11 tsunami sent three reactors at the plant into meltdowns in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

But experts noted the plant remains vulnerable to more problems and it will take decades to decommission "The reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have reached a state of cold shutdown," Noda told a Cabinet meeting.

The government's official endorsement of the claim by Tokyo Electric Power Co. that the reactors have reached cold shutdown status is a necessary step toward revising evacuation zones around the plant and focusing efforts from simply stabilising the facility to actually starting the arduous process of shutting it down.

But its assessment has some important caveats.

The government says the Fukushima Dai-ichi has reached cold shutdown "conditions", a cautious phrasing reflecting the fact that TEPCO cannot measure temperatures of melted fuel in the damaged reactors in the same way as with normally functioning ones.Even so, the announcement marks the end of the second phase of the government's lengthy roadmap to completely decommission the plant, which is expected to take 30 years or more.

Officials can now start discussing whether to allow some evacuated residents who lived in areas with lesser damage from the plant to return. — AP

Lankan Army didn’t target civilians, says probe panel

Colombo, December 16
A Sri Lankan war commission has cleared the nation’s army of deliberately targeting civilians in the final stages of the deadly war against the LTTE, though conceding that some isolated incidents could have occurred.

The much-anticipated report of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was tabled in Parliament today, ruled out allegations that the army intentionally targeted civilians towards the end of the conflict with the Tamil Tigers.

Though the commission cleared the military, it recommends that investigations be carried out if there was evidence of isolated cases of excesses. The commission called for a political settlement of the ethnic conflict with the Tamil minority and asked the government to take the initiative for "a serious and structured" dialogue with all political parties, particularly those representing the minorities.

It has asked the government to reach out to the minorities and said Tamils should, in turn, reposition themselves in their role vis-a-vis the state.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Appeal Court today rejected a former Army chief Sarath Fonseka's plea against his 30-month jail term. The court upheld the verdict of the court martial which sentenced him in September, 2010. The military court martial found Fonseka guilty of following wrong procedure in procurements when he headed the Army between 2005 and 2009.

Fonseka was also sentenced to a three-year prison term by the High Court last month for newspaper comments that the surrendering LTTE rebels had been killed on the orders of the defence secretary Gotabhya Rajapaksa. — PTI

Special to the tribune
Britain gets its second Punjabi MP 
Shyam Bhatia in London

Britain has a second Punjabi-origin MP following Seema Malhotra’s victory on behalf of the Labour Party in the Feltham and Heston bypoll. Malhotra told The Tribune that she is a product of multi-cultural Britain, was born in the UK to an Indian-origin father and a mother who is a retired teacher.

After they came to the UK, her parents started a community shop in Hounslow. She is now one of the five NRI-origin MPs sitting in the UK House of Commons.

Her ancestors were from Multan, but her parents’ families settled in Jalandhar and Delhi and she still has relatives in Jalandhar. “Please let me know when you write about me so I can tell my relatives in Jalandhar,” she said.

Malhotra (39) secured a majority of 6,203 votes over the ruling Conservatives, a swing of 8.6%. She said she is one of the two Hindu MPs in the Commons, adding, “I would say that the Labour represents the whole of Britain, is much more diverse and has a greater commitment to equality and diversity.”

“My parents came to England in the 1960s with very little money. They are typical of many Asians who came here for a better life for their children,” she said.

Malhotra grew up in the Feltham area, close to London’s Heathrow airport. She was active in local politics from a young age and was an adviser to Labour’s Harriet Harman, when she was the leader of the Opposition in 2010.

Conservative critics point out that the turn-out for the Feltham and Heston bypoll was unusually low at 28.8%, the lowest in a bypoll in 11 years.

The chair of the Conservatives, Pakistani-origin Baroness Warsi, commented, “I am concerned about the level of political engagement. It can’t be right that on 12,000 votes, a constituency can be won.” She added, “Byelections generally have low turn-outs at this time of year, when it’s cold and just before Christmas and people are thinking of other things.”

The Liberal democrats came third in the bypoll with deputy leader Simon Hughes commenting, “What happened here was what normally happens in a byelection. People protest against the government, so government parties take a hit [and] the opposition normally moves forward.”

Jalandhar Connection