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Saturday,
June 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Abdus Sattar quits Musharraf Cabinet Pakistanis in USA critical of visa
rules ARD demands general amnesty Bush, Putin discuss Indo-Pak
stand-off Justice eludes rape victim in Pakistan |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Criticism notwithstanding, most Pakistani newspapers wanted General Pervez Musharraf to respond positively to the suggestion for joint patrolling of the LoC to check any infiltration. This apparently brought some thaw between the two countries, which had been close to a full-scale war, a nuclear one not ruled out. While some commentators in the Dawn, the Nation and Naw-e-waqt (Urdu) have sometimes dubbed the Indian charge of cross-border terrorism as fake, they found the suggestion from the Indian Prime Minister worthy of serious thought. The Dawn, in an editorial, suggested that it would be better if the United Nations’ observers, already there, did the monitoring. It saw a lot of danger in letting India, the main accuser be the co-monitor. But broadly all agreed to the basic approach of India on monitoring the border to check cross-border terrorists. Arguments in the process were indeed queer. The Dawn’s editorial on Thursday said, “In recent days, Musharraf has issued instructions to ensure that no infiltration by militants takes place, but the Indians have again dismissed the move as ‘cosmetic’.” At another level, News International said, “Without unnecessarily indulging in hair-splitting to prove whether joint patrols or international monitors were better, the point needs to be realised that given the present level of suspicion between the two states, the outcome of joint patrols will be more disputes along every meter of the LoC. Even at the best of times the ceasefire line remained a source of unending squabbles whenever a situation demanded an exact location of the line. The LoC will be no easier to monitor after years of frequent clashes across it and allegations of cross-border terrorism, which indicated it as being poorly defined. As against this, international monitors will be better placed to correctly interpret a breach of the LoC.” It also said that this could be best agitated after the visit of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and an earlier stopover by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. It is clear that Pakistan’s policymakers would wait for the Americans putting their stamp. India’s proposal would open the door for peace. But is General Musharraf capable of holding the jehadis and his ISI back? He is under tremendous pressure, and may try to hold these extremist elements, but can he really do it? Writing in the News International, Farhan Bokhari, columnist, argued that in case of “eventual settlement of the Kashmir dispute, if there has to be one, may neither come up to Pakistan’s best expectations nor to India’s, though it may be based on a formula that both sides are prepared to live with. For General Musharraf, a policy shift fundamentally would be about persuading mainstream Pakistan to accept new options without necessarily having to swallow its sense of pride. While the consequence of the choices made in tackling the future of Kashmir may be about any Pakistani leader’s worst nightmare, its clear that in approaching the subject, the country and its leaders need to appreciate at least four important elements driving their decision.” These were that Pakistan must build a national consensus on the issue of Kashmir and go in for settlement with India and since elections are shortly to take place in Pakistan, this could help. A democratically elected government must look after the social and economic welfare of the people. It must strive for a tolerant society, at peace with itself and with the neighbours. And finally, the role and the size of the army must be defined clearly. In one sentence, no more martial laws in Pakistan. The lack of popular support to the Musharraf regime is one measure to find out that people and politicians are yearning for peace, not a devastating war. |
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Abdus Sattar quits Musharraf Cabinet Islamabad, June 7 “I have offered my resignation on medical grounds. My health does not permit me to fulfil the responsibilities,” Mr Sattar said. Asked if the President had accepted the resignation, Mr Sattar said, “it is up to him to accept or reject. However as soon as the President accepts the resignation I will quit my job.” Considered a hardliner in the Pakistani establishment, he had been facing a difficult time after he underwent surgery in the last week of May for chronic nasal complication. Though doctors removed successfully nasal polyps. It is said to have left the Foreign Minister too weak after the three-hour long anaesthesia and the strong medication he is being administered for recovery and recuperation. According to a report put out on the website of Pakistani newspaper The Nation today, General Musharraf is reported to have accepted the resignation. The report quoting official sources said Foreign Secretary, Inamul
Haq, former Foreign Secretary Najmuddin Sheikh, Shehryar Khan and Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States of America, Maleeha Lodhi, are frontrunners for the post. Mr Haq is due to retire in the next few weeks. Mr Sheikh currently is on a foreign visit as a special envoy of the President. The sources, however, said Mr Sattar would take some time to leave his post as it was not possible for him to quit the job at this critical juncture.
UNI |
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Pakistanis in USA critical of visa rules New York, June 7 “General Musharraf is Bush’s top ally in fighting terrorism and has even allowed hundreds of American agents inside Pakistan to nab Al-Qaeda men. Is this how America is rewarding Pakistanis living in the USA?” ask angry Pakistanis living, studying, working and visiting America. “My mother has a 5-year multiple visitor visa and is with me these days,” said Ali, a student at NJ Institute of Technology, in Newark. “I am in a fix right now because according to this proposed law if my mother overstays by 30 days the INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) and FBI can come knocking at our door and take her away for deportation.” He does not know whether to hastily dispatch his mother back to Pakistan or apply for her extension. Another elderly Pakistani living with his only son, a green card holder, has had no problem getting two extensions to his visitor visa ever since he came here three years ago. “I have gone back once, but now my visa expires next month and I will be out of status if I don’t get another extension.” Asking not to be named, he said: “I am simply terrified by this news. It’s a nightmare and I don’t know where to go.” He knows well that he is endangering his son and daughter-in-law’s status for sheltering an ‘illegal immigrant’. Many Pakistanis who came to the USA on H-1B visas after being sponsored by their employers have since been laid off due to job cuts caused by a depressed economy, particularly after September 11. Arif is one of them who is working as a delivery boy for a pizza outlet owned by a Pakistani: “My parents back in Pakistan think I am employed by a computer company. How can I tell them that their son is now surviving delivering pizzas?” People like Arif are called ‘benchers’. According to an immigration attorney, the law allows such people to stay on in the USA while looking for another sponsor not beyond 30 days. “If the last pay stub is older than 30 days, INS usually does not approve H-1B transfer petitions and they are required to return to Pakistan,” says the attorney. With Ashcroft’s proposed law expected to come into force this fall, all visa violators will be “targeted for arrests, fines, deportation, and barred forever from re-entry into the US,” warns the attorney.
ANI |
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ARD demands general amnesty Lahore, June 7 The sources said the Alliance was also asking the military regime to withdraw all cases against the politicians, particularly PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, the two major components of the ARD. The two parties and other leaders of the Alliance, including its President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, unanimously boycotted Gen Musharraf’s consultation before his visit to Almaty on the grounds that the regime only intimated them of its decisions and seldom took their view into account. The sources said the ARD was adamant on the inclusion of All-Parties Conference Lahore Declaration in the agenda for its meeting with the regime, which “demands resignation of President Musharraf to pave the way for a national government to hold elections within 90 days”. The Lahore Declaration also demands the appointment of a full- time Chief of Army Staff (COAS) to meet the challenges confronting the country due to the presence of Indian forces on the border, as a COAS, holding the offices of the President and the chief executive, could not perform his duties up to the mark. Although the ARD has not ruled out dialogue with the regime, it has fixed a pre-condition that the agenda of such a contact should be mutually decided. The sources said the ARD had been in contact with the regime besides holding secret meetings with the general as well. However, the sources added, these contacts failed to fetch desired results for the Alliance.
ANI |
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Musharraf ‘struck deal’
at Almaty Dubai, June 7 “Musharraf may have made a ‘secret deal’ at the Almaty summit last week to stop militants from crossing over to Kashmir,” she told the Gulf News. Leaders from the USA to Europe and the Far East have acknowledged publicly that incursions into Kashmir were taking place from Pakistan, which needed to be stopped, she pointed out.
UNI |
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Bush, Putin discuss Indo-Pak stand-off Washington, June 7 McCormack said in the half-hour long parley Bush and Putin also discussed Moscow’s efforts to mediate on the issue. In the recently concluded Almaty summit Putin tried unsuccessfully to bring about a meeting between Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf but had separate meetings with both of them. He said the possibility of monitoring the fulfilment of a promise by Musharraf to stop infiltration to the Indian side was featured in yesterday’s conversation. The leaders, McCormack said, also discussed the landmark decision by the US Commerce Department yesterday to name Russia a market economy.
PTI |
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Justice eludes rape victim in Pakistan
Islamabad, June 7 Mr Naeem Irza of the Shehla Zia Foundation, a prominent women’s rights group in Pakistan, said Zafran Bibi, 26, “seemed relieved” after her acquittal yesterday. But he said she had not been fairly dealt with because no trial had been held on her allegations of rape, the reason she went to police in the first place. “I don’t see justice has been done because Zafran Bibi’s sentence has been quashed but the accused, the rapist, there is no mention about that,” Mr Irza told said. “Nothing will happen to the accused.” Bibi spent more than a year in prison, including time in solitary confinement between her arrest for adultery and her release yesterday. She was taken into custody after complaining to the police that she had been raped by her brother-in-law. The case attracted international attention when she was sentenced to death by stoning in a north-western civil court under Islamic Hadood law in April. Mr Irza speculated that the negative publicity had forced the Federal Shariat Court to fudge a verdict. “It seems to be a compromise kind of verdict where they haven’t decided the case on the facts,” he said. “It was a complex case. It turned into a political controversy because it highlighted discrimination so perhaps the court was under pressure to just hush it up and get out of it.”
AFP |
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Queen visits Hindu temple London, June 7 “We were not offended. We blessed him with a long life and health and peace,” the priests said, according to today’s edition of The Daily Telegraph.
DPA |
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