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Thursday,
June 14, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Musharraf to consult politicians, Ulema Karachi tense as 3 die in violence
$ 350 m loan for Pak |
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UK asks Pak to stay away from Taliban Hostage killing ‘a bluff’ Annan
holds talks with Mubarak Wahid authorises
interrogation of political foes Saudi sentenced to life for US Embassy bombing
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Musharraf to consult politicians, Ulema Islamabad, June 13 The consultations will be comprehensive but limited to the leading political and media figures and Ulema and Mushaikh, the official said. A heated debate has been going on in the official quarters since Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s offer to General Musharraf for talks, on the mode of consultations. Finally it was decided that General Musharraf will personally meet the noted figures in a bid to blunt any attack from influential sections of society on his India visit. A predominant majority of the invitees will meet General Musharraf but some politicians might decline the invitation. It is premature at this moment, Alliance for Restoration Democracy (ARD) chief Nawabzada Nasrullah said on Tuesday when asked whether he would meet the chief executive if invited for consultation. The government has picked up the names of politicians, media representatives and Ulema and Mushaikh, who will be invited to give their views to the Chief Executive. Pakistan Muslim League (PML-LM) chief Mian Azhar met General Musharraf in Lahore the other day, and discussed, among other issues, the Chief Executive’s visit to India. Senior officials are keen to know the exact dates of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s planned visit to India. One of them said that if her trip coincides with General Musharraf’s, the chief executive might reconsider his acceptance of the Indian invitation, as this coincidence would be meant to create an embarrassing situation for Pakistan. The official said that it would be a different matter, if Benazir Bhutto visited India before or after General Musharraf’s trip and in that case the Chief Executive would go to New Delhi as per the programme. Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Riaz Muhammad Khan, has told reporters at a news briefing that the dates of General Pervez Musharraf’s visit, expected next month, were being discussed “through diplomatic channels.” The visit will be shortly after (Vajpayee’s) post-surgery recovery, he added. “Kashmir will be the main subject the Chief Executive will be discussing with the Prime Minister,” Khan said. Pakistan would approach the talks with “an open mind” to seek what he called a “just solution” to the problem, according to him.
ANI |
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Karachi tense as 3 die in violence Karachi, June 13 The bomb explosion occurred in the city’s Mithadar district, police and hospital officials said. It followed a night of violence during which groups of youths burned motor vehicles and other property and fired shots in various parts of the city. The officials said the rampaging youths attacked passenger buses in which two persons died and five were wounded by bullets. Twenty vehicles were set ablaze overnight, the police said. The ethnic Mouttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party and the Nationalist Jiye Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) party representing the native Sindhi population in troubled Sindh province called the anti-government strike for today. The bomb that went off today was planted in a car. Its explosion damaged three cars and injured five persons, the police said. They described it as “a small homemade device”. All markets, business centres and schools were closed today. Offices and banks were lightly staffed and travel on the city’s streets was negligible. A heavy contingent of the police and rangers patrolled the city since yesterday evening but failed to prevent the violence. The two opposition parties called the strike to protest against the killing of two activists on Sunday. The parties contended the activists were shot dead by the police to prevent an anti-government sit-in on Sunday in Sukkar city.
DPA |
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$ 350 m loan for Pak Washington, June 13 The loan came as the international lender also approved a smaller loan, of $ 21.35 million, which will be used to increase agricultural production in the North West Frontier Province by improving irrigation systems. The larger loan is a balance of payment credit aimed at supporting reforms already underway by making further inroads on stamping out corruption, boosting economic growth, and improving the quality of social services. The 35-year concessional loan will be paid in one instalment and has no repayments due for 10 years. The bank said in a statement it hopes the funds will help reduce poverty and contribute to macroeconomic stability. In order to root out corruption in Pakistan, the loan will be used to improve the tax system; improve public financial management; reform the civil service; liberalise trade; and deregulate power, oil, and gas pricing. Pakistan is hoping to improve its economy with World Bank lending and $ 596 million loan from the International Monetary Fund, which was approved late last year in return for promises of a raft of economic reforms.
Reuters |
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UK asks Pak to stay away from Taliban London, June 13 During the meeting, Mr Straw “tried to impress on Pakistan the predicament that their close relations with Taliban place them in with the international community,” official sources said. Britain has become increasingly alarmed by global instability caused by Taliban. Apart from the humanitarian crisis, Afghanistan is now a major source of drugs and is regarded as one of the main sponsors of terrorism. After his meeting with Mr Straw, Mr Sattar admitted yesterday that Pakistan’s relations with India and Taliban figured in the talks. “We discussed the dates and schedule for the return of democracy in Pakistan, economic activity, terrorism and extremism, Pakistan’s relations with India and Taliban,” Mr Sattar told mediapersons. Mr Sattar, whose schedule includes meeting commonwealth Secretary-General Don Mckinnon, said Islamabad was happy with the Indian offer of talks to military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf and did not want to speculate as to who pressurised India for a sudden “change of heart.” Asked about the possible US role behind the Indian “change of heart”, the Foreign Minister said speculation about the US role would be “utterly futile” and would not help the prospects of a meaningful dialogue. “We should be more concerned about the end result rather than digging the background manoeuvres”, he said. Mr Sattar, who had been a Pakistani Foreign Secretary and a High Commissioner to New Delhi, admitted that a number of “foreign friends and even the UN Security Council called for the same in 1998.” “We should not speculate that a foreign country has been arm-twisting Pakistan or India (for these talks),” he said. Mr Sattar said it was time for both countries to move towards normalisation by coming out of the “time warp” they had been cocooned in for over five decades. “Issues need to be resolved for peaceful co-existence.” He admitted that Islamabad had suffered because of its enmity with India but said: “Enmity now and in future would be much more costly than it was in the past.” On the time-frame of return to democracy, Mr Sattar said, “There is a problem of synchronisation between Commonwealth’s expectations and our own time-frame.” He said he tried to explain to Mr Straw why the military government needed three years and not two, as desired by the Commonwealth. “The economy has deteriorated to such an extent that we need at least three years to revive it because everything else depends on it”, he said.
PTI |
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Hostage killing ‘a bluff’ Isabela (Philippines), June 13 The two sides fought a brief gunbattle today near Tipo-Tipo town, a day after two bodies were found in the area, but officials identified the bodies as those of local men and not of Guillermo Sobero, one of the three Americans kidnapped in May. “There is no truth in what Sabaya claimed,” military spokesman Col Danilo Servando said, referring to the Abu Sayyaf rebel spokesman Abu Sabaya Sabaya told a radio station yesterday that Sobero, a 40-year-old Californian, had been beheaded. “We consider it as a bluff of Sabaya. As of today, the military has not recovered the body of Sobero,” Colonel Servando said. Officials on the island of Basilan, 900 km south of Manila, told reporters that one of the dead men was a local Muslim leader, Mahaymin Latip, who had gone to the rebel camp at the weekend to plead for the release of some of the hostages. The rebels, enraged by a talk that villagers were providing the military with information of their whereabouts, beheaded Latip, they added. The second body was that of a Filipino, they said. The rebels kidnapped Sobero, an American missionary couple and 17 Filipinos from a beach resort near Palawan Island on May 27. After escapes, rescues and fresh kidnappings they now hold more than two dozen hostages, all but three of them Filipinos. MANILA: Four soldiers were killed and another was wounded when Communist rebels attacked them in a remote village in the northern Philippines, the military said on Wednesday. The troops were on patrol in Suguib village in Besao town in Mountain province, 285 km north of Manila, when the guerrillas opened fire on them on Tuesday. The military said the Communist rebels also seized high-powered weapons from the troops, including two M-14 rifles, an M-16 rifle and an M203 grenade launcher. The attack took place amid the second round of formal peace talks in Oslo, Norway, between the Philippine Government and the Netherlands-based Communist rebel leaders. Communist rebels have been fighting for a Marxist state in the Philippines since the late 1960s, making the movement one of Asia’s longest-running Leftist insurgencies.
Reuters, DPA |
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Annan holds talks with Mubarak Cairo, June 13 Sources close to Mr Mubarak said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and an Annan adviser were also participating in the talks at the presidential palace in northern Cairo. Mr Annan told reporters upon his arrival here on Monday that there was “encouraging” news that both parties had accepted, albeit with reservations, the Mitchell proposals and a ceasefire, which he termed a “very important first step.” Israeli and Palestinian officials were to meet today to discuss implementing CIA Director George Tenet’s ceasefire plan, which is based on the Mitchell proposals, after the two sides gave their consent to it. “For the ceasefire to hold in the longer term we need to embed it in the peace process,” Mr Annan said. “And I hope during my visit here I will be able to encourage the parties to move in that direction.” The USA, Europeans, Russians and Arabs “have all agreed we should push for the full implementation of the Mitchell plan,” which calls for an immediate ceasefire, the UN chief said. JERUSALEM: Both Israel and the Palestinians have accepted a plan to call a truce, the US Embassy said on Wednesday, raising the prospect of an end to nearly nine months of fighting that has claimed almost 600 lives. After a late-night meeting between Mr Tenet and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Palestinian officials said they accepted the plan in principle, but still had reservations about two of its elements. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had announced his acceptance of the plan a few hours earlier. The US Embassy released a statement saying that the plan had been accepted by both sides. “Its purpose is to resume security cooperation, end the violence and restore the situation on the ground that existed before hostilities erupted last September”, the statement said. The Palestinian officials, requesting anonymity, said they objected to one element, creating a buffer zone between Israel and the West Bank. Also, they wanted to add a timetable to the provisions calling for Israel to lift restrictions and pull its forces back to positions they held before the fighting. The Israeli Government said the plan’s success depended on Mr Arafat. “Mr Arafat will be tested in his actions, if he stops terrorism and prevents incitement then the programme can make progress. If not, we will stay in the same situation we have been in for months,” Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar told Israel radio.
AFP, AP |
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Wahid authorises
interrogation of political foes Jakarta, June 13 Deputy Attorney-General for Special Crimes Bachtiar Fachry Nasution said that Wahid had authorised questioning of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and the Parliamentary leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), Arifin Panigoro. “We received the letters of permission to investigate those legislators last night,” he said. The PDI-P is headed by Wahid’s increasingly estranged Vice-President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, who would replace the Muslim cleric if the top legislature decides to throw him out of office after impeachment hearings scheduled to start on August 1.
Reuters |
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Saudi sentenced to life for US Embassy bombing New York, June 13 The 12 members of the Manhattan federal jury said they disagreed over whether Mohammad Rashed Daoud al-’Owhali, 24, should be executed for having a direct role in the Nairobi attack that killed 213 persons, leaving US District Judge Leonard Sand with the only other option of sentencing him to life imprisonment without parole. The judge scheduled the formal sentencing hearing for September 12. Al-’Owhali had been convicted with three others on May 29 of conspiring with exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden to kill Americans. Fugitive Bin Laden was also indicted in the broad plot that included the 1998 twin bombings of the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Reuters |
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