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Wednesday,
May 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Jatoi to
head 6-party alliance
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Australia
to let in more immigrants 17 die
as boulder hits bus New
symptoms of AIDS
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Jatoi to head 6-party alliance
Islamabad, May 7 The move is seen as a bid by Pervez Musharraf to gain an upper hand over the mainstream political and religious parties, who had bitterly opposed the referendum, in the general election. The Election Commission of Pakistan also reverted the minimum age eligibility for voting from 18 to 21 years saying the voter list have been prepared with 21 years as bench mark. The commission had lowered the age limit for President Musharraf’s “free for all” referendum. Former Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was yesterday elected President of the pro-Musharraf “National Alliance”, which was projected as an opposition of sorts to the mainstream political parties agitating for an end to the military rule. Mr Jatoi held the post of Prime Minister under the military regime headed by Zia ul Haq. The new alliance, however, suffered a set back at its inception itself when cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who also supported President Musharraf’s referendum declined to join it. Imran, President of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party, refused to join the new alliance and told the media here that he preferred to contest the polls independently. Interestingly, Imran also demanded an inquiry into the alleged irregularities into the referendum in which Pervez Musharraf was declared elected with 98 per cent of “yes” vote. In another move, Musharraf has increased the salary of Prime Minister for Rs 23,000 to Rs 57,000. The National Alliance headed by Jatoi would consist of Millat Party, headed by former President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), the National Awami Party of Pakistan (NAPP), the Sind National Front (SNF), the Sind Democratic Alliance (SDA) and the National People’s Party (NPP). Mr Leghari had his best moment when he dismissed Benazir Bhutto’s government from power which prompted the last elections in 1977 in which deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to power. Mr Leghari defended the alliance support for General Musharraf, saying they participated in the referendum so that democracy could be restored. He said the alliance would release its manifesto, shortly and hoped other mainstream parties would also join. Talking to newspersons, Mr Jatoi expressed the hope that several other parties would join the alliance. He announced the name of Agha Ghulam Murtaza Pooya of the PAT as the Provincial Convener of Punjab and Arabab Ghulam Rahim for Sind province. Mr Jatoi also announced that ex-Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Afzal Hayat, Ajmal Khattak, ex-Minister Baluchistan Mir Taj Jamali, ex-Chief Minister of Sind Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, ex-federal minister and senator Malik Faridullah Khan will act as central vice-chairmen of the alliance from Punjab, Frontier Province, Baluchistan, Sind and FATA respectively. Mr Leghari will act as Convener of the central coordination committee comprising heads of the component parties — Mr Jatoi, Prof Tahirul Qadri, Mr Bhutto, Mr Khattak and Mr Rahim.
PTI, UNI |
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New deal on church standoff
Bethlehem, May 7 The Israeli military had no immediate comment. About 200 persons had fled into the church ahead of invading Israeli forces on April 2. Among them were about 30 gunmen wanted by Israel. The Israelis had encircled the church with tanks and armoured vehicles, setting off a tense crisis that eventually drew the USA, European Union and the Vatican into efforts to resolve it. Under terms of the deal to solve the 35-day standoff at the church, the official said, the 13 would be sent first to Egypt and then to Italy, and another 26 militants would be transported to the Gaza Strip. The outline of the deal was put together in intensive negotiations over the past few days, when Israel dropped its demand for the surrender or exile of all gunmen in the church, and the Palestinians agreed to exile some of them. Ribhi Arafat and Farouk Amin were the two Palestinian officials connected to the district coordination office, a liaison office with the Israeli military, who went into the church before daybreak today to talk to the 13, the official said. ROME: Italy was “kept in the dark” about the agreement to end the siege at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and would not accept any Palestinians in exile until it gets sufficient details, government officials said on Tuesday. One senior official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Italy had gone as far as blocking air space to a British military aircraft that he said was waiting in Cyprus to transport the Palestinians. “We were treated in an arrogant and intolerable way,” the official said. “We were kept in the dark. This is shameful indecency. They did not tell us anything until last night,” he said.
Reuters, AP |
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Dutch leader shot; killer held
Hilversum/The Hague, May 7 The shaven-headed former professor, who sent shock waves through the cosy consensual world of the Dutch politics, was gunned down outside a radio station after giving an interview there. “Pim Fortuyn is no more. This is deeply tragic. I am astounded,” Dutch Prime Minister Win Kok, his voice cracking with emotion, told reporters hours after an unidentified man gunned down the controversial 54-year-old. The police said a Dutch national suspected of the murder had been arrested but his identity and motive were still unknown. “What happened here is indescribable...I’m devastated,’’ said Kok, whose PvdA (Labour) party is the main member of a three-way ruling coalition that had watched aghast as Fortuyn’s fledgling party sapped its voter support. Fortuyn, who said Dutch borders should be shut and proclaimed Islam a backward civilisation, shocked the liberal political establishment by winning the balance of power in the Netherlands’ second city, Rotterdam, earlier this year.
Reuters |
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Australia to let in more immigrants
Sydney, May 7 However, because of a fall in the number boat people arriving in Australia the government said it would allocate more places for refugees processed offshore in the year to June 30, 2003. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said Australia would take 100,000 to 110,000 migrants, up from 93,000 this financial year, but only 12,000 refugees, the same as this year. “Australia’s ability to provide protection to refugees in greatest need has been threatened over the past few years by unauthorised boat arrivals, but the decline in boats provides an encouraging sign for our capacity to share the burden with countries of first asylum,’’ Mr Ruddock told a news conference. The number of refugees allowed in will stay the same at 12,000 with 10,000 places for offshore refugees and 2,000 for those processed in Australia next year compared with 6,300 places for onshore claims and about 5,700 processed offshore in 2001-02.
Reuters |
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17 die as boulder hits bus Shanghai, May 7 Another 14 passengers were injured in Sunday’s accident in Zhushan county in Hubei province, 1,050 km west of Shanghai, said a Zhushan traffic officer. She gave only her family name, Wang. The bus had come from the nearby city of Shiyan. The boulder, weighing more than 10 tonnes, rolled downhill and smashed into the back of the bus, killing 14 passengers instantly, Wang said. Three others died en route to a hospital. The driver and 10 passengers at the front of the bus were unhurt, Wang said. The boulder came lose after weeks of rainy weather, she said.
AP |
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New symptoms of AIDS Durban, May 7 Runjan Chetty, professor of pathology at the Nelson R. Mandela Medical School of the University of Natal here said he found the new symptoms during research among more than 40 persons. One new form was the bulging or distension of the large arteries to the head, neck and limbs, often causing stroke-like symptoms and loss of feeling in the lower limbs. Two-thirds of the patients who were presented with these symptoms were male, aged between 18 and 38 years. Chetty had just returned from a meeting in Canada, where he had presented a paper on the new medical phenomenon.
PTI |
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