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March 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Cracks in regime over Nawaz exile deal Pak poll: parties seek C’wealth help Top Pak Oppn
leaders arrested |
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UN backs
India on Kyoto protocol
USA not to force peace on W. Asia Guyana’s head of
state set to win Canada to normalise ties Fiji for poll on Aug 27
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Cracks in regime over Nawaz exile deal Karachi, March 21 Because of the extremely close relations between the two countries, no publicity is attached to the messages which are being sent to the Saudi leadership by the military regime mainly through the Saudi Charge d’Affaires to Pakistan, Ahmad al-Bakhlan, and Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, the country’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Both Al-Bakhlan and Gen Durrani had played important roles in the finalisation of the Saudi-Pak deal on Nawaz Sharif. Senior officials in the Musharraf administration were taken aback on Monday when it emerged that the Saudi authorities allowed Nawaz Sharif to grant interviews on purely political matters on two successive days to the Voice of America and a Pakistani newspaper. On Monday, the former Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, separately also granted his first post-exile political interview to a Pakistani news service. Pakistani officials believed that Sharif’s recent interviews were not possible without the tacit approval of the Saudi authorities who monitor the Sharif family through a battery of Saudi policemen deputed to keep a round-the-clock watch on the activities of the former first family of Pakistan. Officials said during his recent meetings with King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf, had received renewed guarantees that the Saudi government would ensure that every element of the agreement that had led to Sharif’s exit from Pakistan is adhered to and the former Prime Minister doesn’t get involved in Pakistani politics from his present base in Saudi Arabia. “We have guarantees that (Sharifs) will not indulge in politics and not speak against Pakistan and its regime. What I have told you is the complete truth,” declared Gen Musharraf in his address to the nation 10 days after Nawaz Sharif’s exile in December last year. To further reinforce the military regime’s position on this subject Major-Gen Rashid Qureshi, Press Secretary to the Chief Executive, had told national dailies: “The Sharifs had given the undertaking that they would neither issue political statements while living in exile nor would they participate in politics”. But it seemed that following Gen Musharraf’s recent Haj visit to Saudi Arabia, Nawaz Sharif has advanced the level of his continued interest in Pakistani politics by upgrading his communication with the media and party loyalists in Pakistan. Before the full-fledged media interviews in the last few days Sharif had been making indirect press statements through telephone
conversations with the party people, often reported in newspapers. “The common citizens respect the constitution and law of the country and try to abide by it but the Generals do not have respect for the constitution under which they take oath to their offices. The Generals violate the oath of allegiance to the constitution,” said Nawaz Sharif in his wide ranging interview with the VOA on Monday. In his media interviews on Monday and Tuesday, timed with the army backed efforts to install a government-friendly Muslim League, Sharif not only made a shocking rejection of any deal that would block his return to Pakistan, he also warned his former PML colleagues against making a pro-government group in the PML. On numerous occasions since Sharif family’s departure from Pakistan, military authorities in Pakistan had claimed that the “Saudi-Pak agreement” to free Nawaz Sharif was a consequence of the “pardon appeal” filed by his father, Mian Mohammad Sharif that was duly signed by Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif. Later the Sharif family denied making any clemency appeal, but the government never made its promise to publicise Sharif’s written appeal for pardon. The documents relating to Pak-Saudi agreement on Nawaz Sharif have been kept so secret that they were not even forwarded for a crucial legal vetting by the legal wizards of the military regime such as Sharifuddin Pirzada or Aziz Munshi.
ANI |
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Pak poll: parties seek C’wealth help London, March 21 Representing the ARD at its meetings with the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) on Monday, Ms Benazir Bhutto demanded that the Commonwealth should insist on a time-frame for free elections open to all political parties and personalities under an interim government based on national consensus. But she emphasised that the elections must be held “sooner than the 2002 cut-off date” announced by the country’s Supreme Court. The CMAG had invited Pakistan’s major parties and civil organisations to discuss the country’s current political situation. The political parties were the ARD, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the Pakistan People’s Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Other groups included the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Pakistan Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Supreme Court Bar Association, the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch. At Monday’s meetings, the CMAG was headed by its present Chairman, Botswanan Foreign Minister Lt-Gen M.S. Merafhe (retd). The viewpoints of three major and two minor political parties differed widely. Meanwhile, Mr Sharif has written a personal letter to Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, soliciting his assistance for the return of political activities in Pakistan and freedom for all political workers incarcerated since the military takeover in 1999.
ANI |
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Top Pak
Oppn leaders arrested Lahore, March 21 Several politicians from the 18-party Restoration of Democracy (ARD) alliance were picked up by police as they came out of the meeting while others stayed inside the house, the witnesses added. Alliance chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Pakistan People’s Party Secretary-General Jehangir Badar, Awami National Party President Asfandar Wali and Punjab ARD chief Qasim Zia were among those driven away in a police bus to an unknown destination, the witnesses said. The police had earlier surrounded the house. Islamabad: The Pakistan police has detained nearly 2,000 politicians and supporters of opposition parties ahead of the March 23 rally to demand the restoration of democracy in the country. “Around 2,000 persons have been arrested all over Punjab,” Qasim Zia, provincial chief of the 18-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), spearheading the movement, said here today. Zia, head of the Punjab chapter of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said the police had arrested former MPs, ex-ministers and almost all PPP zonal chiefs. “The massive crackdown indicates that the government has become nervous and lost its sense. We will go to Mochi Gate in Lahore removing all hurdles and no one will be able to stop us from holding the meeting”, he told reporters.
Reuters, PTI |
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UN backs India on Kyoto protocol Berlin, march 21 “The emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel combustion, the main source of
greenhouse gases, in developing countries is some two tonnes per head,” said Mr Michael Cutajar, chief of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. “The per capita average of the developed countries is about 12 tonnes of these emissions, with the USA alone emitting more than 20 tonnes per head,” he said. “Fairness suggests that the developed countries act first to limit emissions,” he said. Mr Cutajar’s remarks were his first public comments on the debate surrounding the decision by US President George W. Bush not to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant to be regulated under the US Clean Air Act accompanied by criticism of the Kyoto protocol and its scientific foundations. The Kyoto protocol, which is not yet in force, assigns targets to the USA and other developed countries for limiting their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Mr Cutajar, who heads the Bonn-based
UNFCCC Secretariat, said the developing countries, which are not covered by the first round of emission limitation targets under the protocol, account for some 40 per cent of current global carbon dioxide emissions while the
USA alone produces a quarter of these green- house gases. Mr Cutajar hoped the current review of the climate change policy by the
US administration would lead to a renewal of Washington’s constructive engagement in global warming negotiations that are due to resume in July. The negotiations broke down at the Hague last year over steps to implement the Kyoto protocol. “The USA, being the world’s biggest economy and by far the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, bears the greatest responsibility for dealing with their consequences,” he added.
PTI |
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USA not to force peace on W. Asia Washington, March 21 “I told him (Mr Sharon) that our nation will not try to force peace, that we will facilitate peace and that we will work with those responsible for peace,” Mr Bush said in a joint appearance after the two leaders met briefly. “While the administration intends to work with friendly nations in West Asia to give peace a chance, it is up to Israel and the Arabs to make their own decisions,” Mr Bush said. Mr Sharon later told reporters, “I think what I understand (to be) the policy of the democracy is that one should not surrender to terror and pressure and violence.” “The first and most important thing is to bring security to the citizens of Israel. This is the first thing we have to accomplish before we start with our negotiations,” Mr Sharon said adding that “Israel and the USA are partners in the struggle against terrorism.” He said he had urged Mr Bush not to invite Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to the USA for talks because such a meeting would prove that “terrorism pays.” Mr Bush has invited Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah.
PTI |
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Guyana’s head of
state set to win Georgetown, (Guyana), March 21 “The results look extremely good for our election, but we want to wait for the official results of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM),” Jagdeo, a 37-year-old Moscow-trained economist who counts on support from Guyana’s majority, who trace their roots to India, told newsmen. Electoral authorities said official preliminary results, that had been delayed due to some infrastructure problems, would be available by 8 p.m. (local time). Final results were expected later in the week in the former British colony. A government official told newsmen that based on their own extensive exit polls Mr Jagdeo of the ruling People’s Progressive Party, received 57 per cent of the vote. His main rival Desmond Hoyte, of the opposition People’s National Congress (PNC), got 32 per cent.
Reuters |
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Canada to normalise ties Toronto, March 21 In a speech delivered yesterday in London to the Royal Institute for International Affairs, Manley said Canada believed that full ties were needed for an “effective dialogue” with India. “Constructive dialogue, which does not preclude our disagreement or even criticism where warranted, is the most effective way of building mutual understanding and extending universal norms and values,” Manley said. “We have done this in China and will now be doing it with India as well.” Manley called India a “vigorous democracy,” but said Canada would continue to pressure it to “renounce its nuclear weapons programme.” With this announcement, Canada joined the USA, the UK and Germany in resuming some normal ties with India.
AP |
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Fiji for
poll on Aug 27 Suva, March 21 The formal announcement of the date was expected after President Ratu Josefa Iloilo had reviewed the recommendation. The election would be held 15 months after ethnic Fijian nationalist gunmen stormed Fiji Parliament, taking the Prime Minister, his Cabinet and many legislators hostage.
AP |
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Mir’s critical descent Moscow, March 21 |
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