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Saturday,
January 26, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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UN draws up list for Afghan Loya Jirga
WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Musharraf to meet Bush on Feb 13 EU apprised of stand on J&K Pak jet crashes into Indian Ocean |
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Suicide bomber strikes in capital
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UN draws up list for Afghan Loya Jirga Kabul, January 25 Mr Karzai read out a list of 21 names at a joint news conference with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and took pains to stress that the list was a result of impartial decisions by the UN. Mr Karzai said he recognised a few of the names but not the majority. “This shows this is a real impartial commission,” he said. The commission’s task will be to form a Loya Jirga that will decide the government that will rule Afghanistan for 18 months when the term of the six-month interim administration expires. “It wasn’t easy to put the list together,” Mr Annan said, adding that the U.N. began with a list of 300 names. Meanwhile, just 10 weeks after the Taliban fled the city, Afghans are already starting to say they felt safer under the now-defeated hardline militia than under the power-sharing interim administration that has replaced it. “There are hundreds of thousands of people with weapon,” said Vendrell, Deputy to the UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi. He said the situation in the south of the country was still “unclear” and it could take up to 30,000 international troops to secure the main towns and cities. WASHINGTON: US special forces raided two compounds in Afghanistan believed to hold Taliban and Al-Qaida leaders, killing more than a dozen people and capturing 27 others, US defence officials said yesterday. A US commando was lightly wounded in the ankle. Air Force General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the raid was launched on January 23 in the mountains north of Kandahar, triggering an intense firefight. The raids — in an area about 100 km north of Kandahar — comprised one of the largest known US ground operations of the US military campaign in Afghanistan.
Reuters, AFP |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN The campaign launched against terrorist organisations has scared the Mohajir community in Sindh, particularly in Karachi. Though the
organisation—the Muttahida Qaumi Movement or the MQM—fighting for safeguarding their interests is known for its political ambitions, at times it has been charged with indulging in violence bordering on terrorism. But the MQM argues exactly the opposite. Governments in the past have used security forces, including the army, to terrorise its rank and file. The latest worry of the organisation is that
Karachiites—which means the Mohajirin—are being discriminated against as far as police recruitment is concerned. They are being punished for their support to the MQM, not trusted by the military government because of its controversial past. Newspaper reports have it that the MQM has joined issue with the government against certain conditions fixed for recruitment to the police. The most contentious condition is the height of an aspirant for a police job. The government has fixed the standard height as five feet and seven inches, whereas the Mohajir young men are generally not taller than five feet, five inches. In an exhaustive write-up on the subject in The Friday Times of January 18 Hasan Mansoor quotes MQM Coordination Committee Deputy Convener Aftab Shaikh to enphasise the point: "The rules and conditions they (police officials) have set for recruitment are so rigid and difficult that most Karachi candidates will fail to meet those criteria." The article provides interesting details of the controversy. It says, "This is not the first time the MQM has objected to the condition of height. It took the issue to the National Assembly during the previous Nawaz Sharif government , forcing it to set up an in-house committee to review the existing height standards and review them in accordance with the average height of the population in the four federating units. The matter was still being considered by the committee when the military coup ousted Nawaz Sharif." The seeds of the trouble were sown three decades ago by a Sindh police head with a Punjabi origin. His idea was that there should be fewer non-local (which means Mohajir) police personnel to contain the community, considered overambitious to the extent of being a threat to the stability in the province. The discriminatory policy did great harm to the socio-political interests of the migrant population. It could do little in the absence of its effective say in the ruling establishment. Gradually, however, the MQM under Mr Altaf Hussain grew into a formidable political force in Karachi, Hyderabad and certain other cities in Sindh. In 1990 it became a part of the ruling coalition in the province and brought about a change in the police recruitment policy. The standard height requirement was suitably altered, resulting in a large number of Mohajir young men getting entry into the police force. Since there is a clear division in society on ethnic lines, Mohajir policemen sympathised with the MQM. In the event of any Islamabad-directed move against the organisation they ensured that the federal designs were defeated. This led to much hue and cry raised by various quarters. The result was that the old height requirement was restored, sending depressing signals to the community. According to The Friday Times, "While senior officials deny that there is any policy to discourage Mohajir youths from joining police service, insiders say there is much resistance to the infusion of Mohajir youths, at least among the provincial cadres of the service, most of whom are
non-Mohajir." These migrants from India's Hindi-speaking states cannot forget their plight during the two tenures of Ms Benazir Bhutto when a special drive was launched against the MQM cadres. The officers who terrorised them are being brought back to Karachi and other Mohajir-dominated areas. This is an obvious danger signal for the community. It is also feeling scared because of the reports that Ms Bhutto is in the process of finalisng a deal with General Pervez Musharraf. The deal is aimed at bringing the PPP leader back as the Prime Minister of Pakistan after the coming elections. But will she behave in the old style now when she needs the support of the MQM in view of her reduced following in Sindh? |
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Musharraf to meet Bush on Feb 13 Washington, January 25 The current military standoff with India, the Kashmir dispute and national elections in Pakistan are expected to figure prominently in General Musharraf’s talks with Mr Bush and other US officials. General Musharraf will meet Mr Bush for the second time in less than three months after the two met in New York in November during the UN General Council session.
UNI |
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EU apprised of stand on J&K Brussels, January 25 The six-member delegation to Belgium led by former Speaker of the Lok Sabha P.A. Sangma said Europeans “must delink cross-border terrorism from the Kashmir issue.
PTI |
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Pak jet crashes into Indian Ocean Islamabad The French-made Mirage fighter aircraft which went missing after taking off
from Karachi air base crashed into Indian Ocean.
PTI |
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Delhi cheapest after Tehran London, January 25 Only Tehran is cheaper than New Delhi among the 134 cities surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a unit of The Economist magazine. At the top end, Tokyo and Osaka are tied as the most expensive cities. A taxi ride from the airport to the city centre in Tokyo can cost $229 (Rs 10,000). Hong Kong is the third in the list from the top, which means that the three most expensive cities in the world are all in Asia. New Delhi comes in at 133rd position. It is not a great deal cheaper than Mumbai, which comes at the 126th slot. From the neighbourhood Dhaka is placed 114, Colombo 116 and Karachi 132. The world cost of living survey shows some unexpected positions where cities in the developed world are often cheaper than cities in the developing world to live in. The difference in the cost of living is dramatic. Taking New York at a mean of 100, Tokyo is 137 and New Delhi 39. Indicatively, a two-course meal for two at a fairly upmarket restaurant costs $38 (Rs 1,850) in Johannesburg, $131 (Rs 6,300) in London, $208 (Rs 10,000) in New York, $159(Rs 7,600) in Seoul and $185 (Rs 8,900) in Tokyo. London is at its most expensive in the past 10 years. It is now the most expensive city in the European Union. Only Oslo in Norway is more expensive in all of Europe. The cost of living is fairly low where the euro is the currency. Munich at 44th place is on a par with Tianjin in China. Athens at 84th place is cheaper than Cairo. The survey says: “There are two major reasons why a city’s cost of living index will change over time: exchange rate movement and price movement. If, for example, a currency strengthens or inflation pushes the price of goods up, so the relative cost of living in that country will also rise.” The survey, conducted every two years, compares prices and products in 134 cities. Its purpose is to provide companies with an unbiased and independent guide from which allowances can be calculated for executives and their families being sent overseas.
IANS |
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Suicide bomber strikes in capital Tel Aviv, January 25 The bomber, possibly riding a scooter which exploded at the blast site, near an abandoned old bus station, was carrying an explosive device strapped to his body which he detonated killing himself and injuring others, police reports said. Eyewitnesses said the scooter drove straight into a crowded shop and exploded injuring many. No group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack. While most of the injured received light wounds, the condition of the three was stated to be serious, the police said. The area filled with ethnic restaurants, small groceries and sidewalk pubs has been cordoned off while the injured have been taken to hospital. Israeli television showed images of blood confusion and panic at the blast site as people ran for safety following the blast. Reports said the police had arrested a resident of the West Bank city of Nablus and a Hebron resident. The blast came two days after the militant group Hamas vowed to avenge the killing of a senior commander in an Israeli missile attack in the Gaza Strip late yesterday. Israeli Apache helicopter fired two missiles at the car of Adli Hamdan, head of Hamas’ Izzadin Kassam military wing, killing him in Khan Yunis last night. Two other Hamas members in the car were seriously wounded. GAZA: In a further sign of Washington’s acquiescence to recent Israeli operations, the USA said it understood Israel’s decision to confine Yasser Arafat to his West Bank headquarters, a move Palestinians say is aimed at toppling him.
PTI, Reuters |
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