• Habibie plans to resign?

Lahore trip ‘delayed’ PGPC formation
ISLAMABAD, Sep 9 — Pakistan’s former spy-master Lt Gen (retd) Javed Nasir claims that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee chose his Lahore trip on February 20 to prevent announcement of the formation of Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

• Pak crossed LoC: army chief

Palestinian prisoners released
ASHKELON, (Israel), Sept 9 — Israel began freeing Palestinian prisoners putting into motion Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s first peace moves following a 10-month freeze.

Robbers kill 20

UN delays pullout from E Timor

JAKARTA, Sept 9 (AFP) — The United Nations today delayed its pullout from East Timor for 24 hours amid fears refugees sheltering in its compound could be massacred by pro-Indonesian militias.

The move came amid serious political uncertainty in the Indonesian political capital in the wake of a denial by armed forces chief General Wiranto that the military was planning to seize power.

The decision to delay the UN pullout came after Gen Wiranto appealed for more time to prove that his forces could restore order in the territory.

The move only fuelled speculation that President B J Habibie is losing his grip on power.

Mr Habibie was due to meet five senior UN diplomats for talks expected to focus on international demands that Indonesia allow an international peace force into East Timor to restore order.

The UN earlier confirmed its intention to pull out of the territory, nine days after holding a vote on self-determination that led to savage violence.

“It was a gamble and things have fallen apart,” said Mr Fred Eckhard, spokesman for Secretary General Kofi Annan.

He said Dili was “in an advanced stage of desolation and destruction”.

“The major buildings, the banks, the telecommunications facilities, the government buildings, have all been burned. The militants continue to threaten our people in the presence of the Indonesian military.”

An emergency meeting of the Security Council insisted that the “obligation to restore security and stability” in East Timor still lay with Indonesia, which has imposed martial law on the territory.

International Federation of Journalists official Heather Patterson said from the East Timorese Capital Dili that staff inside the embattled UNAMET compound were outraged by Mr Annan’s order to pull out.

“The UN staff here are mortified by the news,” she told ABC radio in Australia. “They are horrified by what’s going on and horrified at what could happen ... the word is there will be a massacre.”

Thousands of East Timorese have been taking shelter in the UNAMET compound and a next door school.

In the latest atrocity, Father Jose Carbonel of the Silesian order said here today that six nuns and a priest had been slaughtered by militiamen in two towns outside Dili.

SYDNEY: The chairman of the Catholic aid group Caritas in violence-torn East Timor, Father Francisco Barreto, has been killed, the group’s Australian Head Bishop Hilton Deakin today said.

“The information we have received suggests that other local Caritas East Timor staff members may have also been killed,’’ Bishop Deakin said in a statement released in Sydney.

“These murderous attacks on the church are part of a much wider unjust genocide ... We realise there is no respect for any life in East Timor.’’

A Caritas spokeswoman said in a television report that more priests were believed to have been killed while trying to help people displaced by the chaos that has gripped the mostly Christian half-island, invaded in 1975 by predominantly Muslim Indonesia.

Meanwhile, back in Jakarta Indonesia’s military said today it was bringing East Timor under control and that the burning had stopped.

As a U.N. Deadline for Indonesia to restore order expired, military spokesman Brigadier General Sudrajat told Reuters only a few gunshots had been reported in the territory’s capital overnight and the burning of buildings in Dili had been halted.

Habibie plans to resign?

JAKARTA, Sept 9 (AP) — Despite denials by Indonesia’s Defence Minister, rumours of President B J Habibie’s imminent resignation sent the country’s currency and stock market into a nose-dive today.

The talk was fuelled by the East Timor crisis and a series of frantic government meetings the day before.

The Jakarta Post, in today’s editions, said Mr Habibie “did raise the issue” of resignation during a meeting with high-ranking officials yesterday.

In Auckland, New Zealand, host of this weekend’s closely watched Pacific rim summit, officials of the host government said the military had effectively stripped Mr Habibie of much of his power.

Despite the startling comments from New Zealand officials, Gen Wiranto, who is also the forces commander, denied yesterday that Mr Habibie had decided to quit.

Lahore trip ‘delayed’ PGPC formation

ISLAMABAD, Sep 9 (UNI) Pakistan’s former spy-master Lt Gen (retd) Javed Nasir claims that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee chose his Lahore trip on February 20 to prevent announcement of the formation of Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PGPC) scheduled for that day.

In a long article, serialised by Urdu daily Nawal-i-Waqt, Lt Gen Nasir writes that Mr Vajpayee had learnt through ‘’some informer’’ that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had chosen February 20 for the announcement of the formation of the PGPC. The Pakistan Government tried in vain to persuade Mr Vajpayee to change the date for his Lahore journey.

Gen Nasir writes that Mr Sharif chose February 20 for the formation of the PGPC because, according to him, the control of Gurdwara Dera Nanak Saheb was taken over by Bhai Laxman Singh 78 years ago on that date after much bloodshed. Because of Mr Vajpayee’s visit, the announcement was postponed.

Mr Sharif subsequently announced the formation of the PGPC and appointed Gen Nasir as its head in April, despite protests from he Sikh community in India. Gen Nasir, a fundamentalist Muslim, was involved in transborder terrorism as the chief of Inter-Services Intelligence. In 1993, when Mr Sharif was the Prime Minister, Gen Nasir masterminded bomb blasts in Bombay. He was removed from his post under pressure.

Gen Nasir writes that of the PGPC has replaced he Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) which, he alleges, was corrupt, and embezzled crores of rupees that, came as offertory in Pakistani Gurdwaras.

Gen Nasir’s article makes it very transparent that Pakistan set up the PGPC under his leadership for two reasons: to control the gurdwara money and to try to create a rift between the Sikhs and others in India. ‘’Otherwise a special concern for the Sikh gurdwaras is incomprehensible in Pakistan where non-Muslims and even Shias are treated as non-entities and where destruction of temples and churches does not move the establishment.

Pak crossed LoC: army chief

ISLAMABAD, Sept 9 (UNI) — Pakistan’s army chief Gen Parvez Musharraf now admits, after persistent denials, that his troops had captured Indian territory across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kargil sector in May.

General Musharraf blurted out his confession before tribals of the Bajaur agency in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) claiming that his troops had captured 500 sq km of Indian territory across the LoC. “But in the largest interest of the country, the armed forces were withdrawn from Kargil,” he said.

Knowing very well what the warrior-like tribals would like to hear, he boasted of Pakistani “victory against the 10 times more organised and equipped forces of India”, in Kargil, forgetting that all along Pakistan has denied its forces crossed the LoC in the Kargil sector.

But observers of the Pakistani scene, at a time when the Opposition has united to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, see more in General Musharraf’s confession than a simple boast before the tribals. The sum total of the army chief’s address was that Pakistani troops had achieved victory in Kargil but they had to withdraw.

Window on Pakistan
Implications of economic mess

Writing in Dawn, one of the Directors of the World Bank, Mr Ishrat Husain, has mentioned certain questions which show the extent of the illness of the Pakistani economy. “Why is no new investment taking place in the country? (No new company was listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange during the last one year and foreign investment has declined by 50 per cent). Why is there no buoyancy in the economy? (The per capita growth rate in 1999 is estimated at less than 0.5 per cent). If other Asian countries which were hit worse than Pakistan are on the road to recovery, why is Pakistan lagging behind? (Both Thailand and South Korea will register respectable growth rates this year.)”

Beginning his argument with these probing questions, the writer says: “The .... analysis suggests that the reasons for the current economic slowdown and lack of new investment lie in an unstable exchange rate, high real interest rates, a decline in development expenditures and the dollarisation of the economy..... The quality of new assets of the banking institutions, under professional management, has improved and thus helped bring down the real interest rates. The consistent reduction in fiscal deficit achieved during the last two years, if pursued relentlessly this year too, will remove one of the main sources of instability.”

He suggests certain measures to discourage what he describes as “dollarisation” and “to increase development expenditures”. Surprisingly, he does not find the problem of bad loans issued by banks as something alarming. Such loans have gone up to Rs 225 billion from Rs 140 billion when Mr Nawaz Sharif came to power, as reported by The Frontier Post.

When the economy is unable to attract fresh investments, the government cannot arrest the sagging trend immediately. This is bound to aggravate the unemployment problem. Providing employment to the fast growing number of job-seekers is already a major challenge. A letter carried recently in Nawa-e-Waqt sheds ample light on the job front:

“Today the number of the unemployed in the country is 84 lakhs, which is increasing day by day. If the problem is not effectively handled soon, it will not only be difficult but impossible to control the flood of the unemployed. Young men and women in large numbers are desperate for jobs but no one listens to their tale of woe....”

Another letter writer asks: “Politicians, please have pity on the poor people, who are in a large majority in Pakistan... They are groaning under the increasing burden of sales tax, costly gas and power supply and a very high price of petrol. All the necessities of life are becoming more and more expensive. This is back-breaking for the poverty-stricken millions of Pakistan.”

In such a deadly setting, the imposition of 15 per cent general sales tax by the Nawaz Sharif government at the bidding of the IMF was bound to cause revulsion throughout the country. That is why the September 4 nationwide strike mainly in protest against this impost, under the banner of the Pakistan Awami Ittehad, was easily successful. Mr Sharif’s position may remain unaffected by his different blunders, but the economic mess that he has created may prove to be too damaging for him politically.

Today Mr Nawaz Sharif is faced with a very tricky situation. If he defies the IMF — which is not possible though — he risks the $280 million loan he needs for his cash-starved country. If he goes according to its wishes, he invites the wrath of the people. The choice for him is virtually between the devil and the deep sea. For this, however, he has himself to blame to a large extent.

— Syed Nooruzzaman

Death penalty on MQM men set aside

KARACHI, Sept 9 (ANI) — The appeals of three of the four condemned MQM activists were allowed and the death penalty awarded to them in the Rangers’ Constable Dilawar Hussain murder case was set aside by the Anti-Terrorism Appellate Bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday.

The Bench, comprising Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Wahid Bux Brohi, however, dismissed the appeal of convict Javaid, alias K-2, and turned his death sentence into life imprisonment.

The judgement was announced through a short order reasons for which shall be recorded later. Earlier, Assistant Advocate-General, Sindh, Syed Jalil Hashmi, concluded his arguments on behalf of the state.

Advocates Sarfraz Tanoli and Mehmood Akhtar Bhatti, counsel for the appellants, however, contended that the names of their clients did not appear in the FIR nor did any witness name them as culprits.

There was no sign of bullets around the spot where the alleged incident took place, they said. The appellants were convicted on the basis of very weak evidence and they were entitled to be acquitted by the SHC, they said. The accused were first convicted by the then Military Trial Court (MTC) but the Supreme Court annulled the MTC judgement and they were re-tried and convicted by Judge Hussain Bux Khoso of ATC-IV.

Meanwhile, many parts of Pakistan’s commercial hub of Karachi were deserted this morning amid an anti-government strike but no incidences of violence were reported, witnesses and police said.

The strike was called by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the most powerful party in Karachi, for all of Sindh province to protest what it called harassment and extra-judicial killing of its supporters.

It is the fourth major protest by either Opposition parties or Islamic groups against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government.

Palestinian prisoners released

ASHKELON, (Israel), Sept 9 (Reuters) — Israel began freeing Palestinian prisoners putting into motion Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s first peace moves following a 10-month freeze.

Four busloads of prisoners pulled out of Shikma prison near Ashkelon, southern Israel, after dawn with many of the prisoners smiling and trying to flash a “V” for victory sign through the windows even though their wrists were bound by plastic cuffs.

Israeli officials said 200 Palestinians were being freed, in accordance with a peace deal signed on Sunday, although one refused to go. They were being taken to military crossing points in the West Bank and Gaza to be reunited with their families.

Their release followed a 54-23 vote of approval in Israel’s parliament yesterday for the amended Wye River Accord signed in Egypt by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Mr Barak, who took office in July vowing to accelerate peacemaking.

Israel Radio said that of those prisoners released today, 150 had killed Palestinians and 17 had lightly wounded Israelis while the remainder carried out other offences.

Palestinian officials had said Israel would be freeing prisoners who killed Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. All of those freed signed declarations that they would shun “terrorist activities’’, the radio said.

The prisoners issue proved the most contentious sticking point the parties had to overcome to seal their breakthrough deal, with the help of intense diplomatic efforts by Egypt and the USA.

Under the revised deal, Israel agreed to free a total of 350 prisoners jailed for PLO acts of violence before the signing in 1993 of the initial Oslo peace accords. Another 150 are due to be freed on October 8.

In sharp contrast to the new spirit of peacemaking, the Israeli Army announced yesterday it would be barring Palestinians from entering Israel as today, a day before the start of the Jewish new year.

Israel TV reported yesterday that the measure, 36 hours before the beginning of the Jewish New Year holiday, was taken in response to terror threats from groups opposed to the revival of the West Asia peace process.

Robbers kill 20

LAGOS, Sept 9 (Reuters) — At least 20 persons, including a police officer, were killed when armed bandits attacked a bus in northern Nigeria, local newspapers said today.

They said the bus, travelling between Lagos and the northern city of Kaduna, was attacked by robbers, believed to be from neighbouring Niger, in the early hours of yesterday, about 100 km from its destination.

Topless high
SEATTLE: Commuters in Seattle started their day with a sizzling spectacle of a topless woman dancing and firebreathing on a power mast next to the freeway during morning rush hour. The Bizarre show began on Wednesday with the 37-year-old woman climbing up the power mast shortly after sunrise, police spokeswoman Pam McCammon said. Clad only in shorts after taking off her top, the woman then began gyrating while holding a bottle of vodka. — DPA

Hurricane Greg
MEXICO CITY: Hurricane Greg finished its path across Mexico, leaving at least 10 people dead and causing widespread damage even as it was downgraded to a tropical storm. After spending several hours on Tuesday night parked off the popular tourist resort town of Cabo Can Lucas, Greg moved into the Pacific at nine kilometres per hour with winds at 65 km per hour. — AFP

Islamic Dalai Lama
SAILLON, SWITZERLAND: Vandals have destroyed the farinet vineyard owned by the Dalai Lama and left anti-Islam leaflets, the ATS news agency reported. The tiny vineyard, containing three vines, was ravaged overnight the agency reported. Bronze plaques commemorating a recent visit by the Dalai Lama and former owner Abbe Pierre — who gave Tibet’s spiritual leader the land — were stolen. The Dalai Lama, a 64-year-old Buddhist monk has no ties with Islam. — Reuters

Three executed
BEIJING: Three persons convicted of attacking local Communist Party officials in southern China’s Jiangki province were executed on Wednesday, the state run newspaper Guangming Daily reported. Chen Jiayou, Yu Jun and Wu Xianzhong were found guilty of attacking the party secretary of Anyi city and the vice party secretary. — AP