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| Friday, March 17, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Pakistan
bans rallies, strikes Window on
Pakistan |
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| Musharraf’s claim contested WASHINGTON, March 16 — Two prominent Democratic Congressmen, accompanying President Clinton during his trip to India next week, have taken exception to Pakistan military ruler General Pervez Musharraf’s claim that the President’s decision to have a brief stop-over in Pakistan was “a recognition of the righteousness of our stand on Kashmir”. Sanctions handicap WB Troops
to remain in Chechnya permanently Taiwan
alerts forces |
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Execution of Pak child killer ordered LAHORE, March 16 (AP) — A Lahore court today sentenced Javed Iqbal to death for multiple murder in the country’s worst serial killing. Iqbal was found guilty of killing as many as 100 children and sentenced to be publicly executed in a Lahore park. He can appeal his conviction and sentence. “You will be strangled to death in front of the parents whose children you killed. And your body will then be cut into a 100 pieces and put in acid the same way you killed the children”, said Judge Allah Baksh Ranja when he handed down the sentence. The trial has generated strong emotions in Pakistan, where multiple murders are a rarity. Iqbal initially confessed to the killings in a letter last year to the police. He said he strangled the children, dismembered their bodies and placed them in a vat of acid. He later recanted his confession. The children were apparently sexually abused before being killed. In his letter, Iqbal led the police to his home where they found a blue vat in which the remains of two bodies were found. The police also found in the house pictures of 100 children, whom Iqbal in his letter confessed to having killed. They also found clothes belonging to the young victims. Parents of the missing children were contacted and one by one they passed the pictures and waded through the clothes to try to identify their missing child. Most of the children were identified, however, the police did not recover any more bodies. In January Iqbal walked into the Lahore office of a leading newspaper and turned himself in. He refused to go directly to the police saying he feared for his life. Many of the children, whose picture or clothes were identified by relatives, were among the city’s poorest. Some were beggars, others were among the army of children in Pakistan who work on the streets selling goods, and still others had left home and never returned. According to the letter sent to the police, Iqbal said he killed the children after being wrongly picked up by the police and badly beaten while in custody. In his letter he said he went on a killing rampage in retaliation to the police abuse. The police in Pakistan conducted one of their biggest manhunts in their search for Iqbal. A number of persons were picked up and questioned, including several of his relatives. Throughout the trial
parents of the missing children held a vigil outside the
courtroom. They screamed abuses at Iqbal and called for
the death sentence. |
Pakistan bans rallies, strikes ISLAMABAD, March 16 (Reuters) — Pakistan’s military government has banned open air political rallies and strikes, saying the step was taken to restore “order and harmony in the society”. A statement after a meeting of military ruler Gen Parvez Musharraf’s cabinet yesterday said indoor political meetings would be allowed, but the use of loudspeakers there would be prohibited. The ban was the first to be imposed on political activity since the Army Chief ousted Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in October. It comes 10 days before U.S. President Bill Clinton is to make a brief trip to Islamabad. “The federal government has decided to impose a ban, with immediate effect, on all political meetings in public places, strikes and processions as the country cannot afford the luxury of agitation and violence-prone politics which disrupts the normal public life,” the government statement said. “Indoor meetings are permitted. However, the use of loudspeakers for such political meetings is prohibited,” it added. Despite the absence of such a ban after the October 12 coup, few political rallies have been held. But Mr Sharif’s wife Kulsoom has addressed some rallies in recent weeks denouncing the coup and the arrest and trial of her husband on charges for which he could be sentenced to death. “The main object of the government is the restoration of order and harmony in society with a view to providing security and prosperity to citizens,” the government statement said. It said the government had received reports that “elements working against the interest of the state are preparing and planning hostile acts to create chaos and portray Pakistan as an irresponsible state”. The government said it
expected political and religious parties to show
responsibility, curb “unruly elements within their
ranks and keep a watch on the intrusion of hostile
foreign elements”. |
Window on Pakistan The image of the police in Pakistan is no better than that in India; rather it is worse. The police has miserably failed to win the confidence of the people in maintaining law and order, its primary responsibility. Ask any resident of Karachi and he will echo this. In fact, in the case of Karachi — where Iqbal Raad, one of the lawyers defending deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was gunned down the other day — even the army has failed in providing a feeling of security to the people. Those assigned the responsibility of giving suggestions on policy-making think that this is mainly because of the politicisation of the police. Hence the major recommendation of the Focal Group on Police Reforms to depoliticise the 3,50,000-strong force. Here, however, it must be pointed out that depoliticisation in the case of Pakistan may not have exactly the same connotation as it does in India. The reason is the mushrooming of jehadi groups. All the recommendations of the Focal Group will be implemented from July 1. As a result, public safety commissions and the police complaints authority will be established at the national, provincial, district and metropolitan levels. The government believes that this will help in transforming the police into an efficient, responsible and independent force providing security to the people in general and ensuring the growth of democratic institutions in particular, according to a report in The Nation. It will be a significant development in the subcontinental context if the police is really allowed to function independently. The task, however, is not so easy, as the Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control, Mr Moinuddin Haider, admitted while unveiling the plan on the police set-up in Pakistan. There are some major roadblocks in the way of police reforms. One, the feudal social structure may not allow the police to change its discriminatory attitude towards the unprivileged classes. Two, if there is no political interference, the army authorities may force the police to favour the relatives of the members of the armed forces in any dispute. Three, handling the members of the jehadi groups will perhaps be the most difficult hurdle. Most of these extremist formations have their own fighting arms, involved in acts of terrorism on this side of the Indo-Pak divide. They are like a two-edged sword. If they indulge in subversive activities in the name of jehad in Jammu and Kashmir in India, they may also not tolerate any kind of police action against their members at home. If this poses a serious challenge to law and order, it is not their concern. Gradually, they are turning to be a law unto themselves. Four, the police in Sindh, specially in Karachi and Hyderabad, will find it difficult to function impartially because the Mohajir and local (Pathan) factors have sharply divided the people on ethnic lines. The group that went into the question of how to bring about police reforms studied all reports submitted by police commissions between 1960 and 1997 and incorporated their salient features in its final report. Now the question arises: was the report written before the military take-over of the administration since it says the ex-officio chairman of the proposed national public safety commission will be a nominee of the Prime Minister? Likewise, the commission at the provincial level will be headed by a representative of the Chief Minister. If the answer is in the affirmative, the credit for initiating improvement in policing will go to the Nawaz Sharif government. Or if the hint is that the existing administrative arrangement headed by General Musharraf is, in any case, temporary in nature, then one should presume that the Chief Executive is thinking of restoring the democratic process anytime after July 1, when the implementation of the recommendations is to begin. Whatever steps are taken to refurbish the image of the police, success to a large extent depends on its ability to secure the cooperation of the public. Dr R.K. Bhardwaj, a highly respected social worker who rose to become a member of the Delhi Metropolitan Council, says in his book on the police administration: “The police gain a distinct advantage by maintaining friendly relations and cooperation with the people. A cooperative public can render great assistance to the police in many ways....Public cooperation is necessary in the enforcement of major laws and minor regulations which help the successful administration of the police department.” The public in Pakistan is so disgusted with the highhandedness of the police that it is unlikely to extend cooperation to the force unless the entire atmosphere undergoes a sea-change. It is definitely a tall order. — Syed
Nooruzzaman |
Musharraf’s claim contested WASHINGTON, March 16 (UNI) — Two prominent Democratic Congressmen, accompanying President Clinton during his trip to India next week, have taken exception to Pakistan military ruler General Pervez Musharraf’s claim that the President’s decision to have a brief stop-over in Pakistan was “a recognition of the righteousness of our stand on Kashmir”. Mr Frank Pallone and Mr Jim McDermott took to the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday to rebut General Musharraf’s claims and criticised him for his failure to come forward with a time-frame for the restoration of democracy. Mr McDermott, who publicly opposed Mr Clinton going to Pakistan, said many experts had suggested that the Pakistani General hoped to use Mr Clinton’s trip to persuade the USA of “the righteousness of Pakistan’s position on Kashmir”. He called upon President Clinton to refrain from involvement in the Kashmir dispute until both sides asked for US help. “Instead, Mr Clinton should put aside the gentle language of diplomacy and use this opportunity to demand that Pakistan move without pause towards full and fair elections. Pakistan is a sick state”, he added. Mr Pallone said some of
the statements of General Musharraf should not go
unchallenged. “It is apparent from the
General’s comments that Pakistan is trying to create
the appearance that the visit by the President of the USA
constitutes an endorsement of the military coup”. |
Sanctions handicap WB WASHINGTON, March 16 (PTI) — The World Bank has said it wants to resume a “higher level” of lendings to India but was “constrained” because of the post-Pokhran sanctions imposed by the USA bank officials said. “We have been constrained for the past two years by the imposition of economic sanctions which has limited our lending in certain sectors but we have been able to maintain (the loans and credits) at lower levels —between $1 billion and 1.5 billion a year,” WB officials said at a briefing for correspondents accompanying or following President Clinton’s trip to India. Although our current assistance still maintains a high level of lending, it is still not the promised level and “we are very eager to resume higher levels as soon as possible”, the officials added. The bank noted that the Indian Government had demanded an increase in the lending level by the bank and the IDA two years ago and the same was accepted “at that time”. “We agreed to
increase the level of lending by the bank — to
actually double the annual lending programme to about 3
billion. And, in 1998 (the year of the nuclear tests), we
did achieve the level, which was committed before the
tests, the officials said. |
Troops to remain in Chechnya permanently MOSCOW, March 16 (UNI) — Russian federal troops here claimed to have wiped out 500 Chechen militants and foreign mercenaries in the most fierce phase of the seven-month-old war in Chechnya’s Komsomolskoye village. A Defence Ministry spokesman said the task of freeing of Chechnya from the separatists was nearly over. Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the Kremlin would ensure complete elimination of fundamentalism in Chechnya that had provided a breeding ground for the religious extremism, terrorism and separatism in the region. While addressing
officials in the freed Chechnya he disclosed the
Kremlin’s plans for the war-shattered state.
“It must be converted into a law-governed state,
functioning smoothly under the Russian constitution and
for the purpose, Russian troops will be permanently
stationed there,” reported Moscow Radio quoting
excerpts of his key speech. |
Taiwan alerts forces TAIPEI, March 16 (AFP) — Taiwan’s armed forces have gone on heightened alert ahead of presidential polls after China’s latest threat to use force against the nationalist Island, but there has been no sign of major military moves from the mainland, Defence Minister Tang Fei said today. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji had yesterday warned Taiwanese voters not to choose the path of independence in Saturday’s presidential elections. Meanwhile, presidential
candidate for Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang party today
called for a hotline to be established between leaders of
the Taipei and Beijing Governments to avert the threat of
war. |
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