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Thursday,
July 11, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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A VIEW FROM PAKISTAN Bid to
kill Pervez: three suspects remanded
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Pearl
murder trial concludes Colin
Powell to visit India, Pak UNP
planning Chandrika’s impeachment Bin Laden still
alive: Al-Qaida
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A VIEW FROM PAKISTAN As October general elections are drawing nearer, President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s plans to perpetuate his rule and to sideline his opponents are becoming obvious. In last two weeks, the government has announced a series of legal measures that are meant to bring in a pliant Parliament and a rubberstamp political government. In line with his repeated announcements that Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif would not be given a third chance to assume office of the Prime Minister, General Musharraf has blocked the way of the two leaders through a presidential order, which debars two times elected Prime Ministers or Chief Ministers from holding these offices for a third term. Naturally, all opposition parties have rejected the presidential order saying that it negates the federal and parliamentary character of the Constitution and that it is illogical and based on malice. The recent presidential order is specific to Ms Benazir and Mr Nawaz Sharif as it also debars those not allowed to complete their tenures. After failing miserably to establish any case of corruption against the two leaders, Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif, despite efforts spread over 33 months, the military government has finally imposed this law to prevent them from holding the post of Prime Minister. While the move constitute an amendment to the Constitution, it was not made part of the package of proposed changes in the basic law announced last week. The idea being conveyed is that while other amendments may be negotiable, this one is not. Two other significant developments have followed the promulgation of this edict. An accountability court has convicted Ms Bhutto in a corruption case for not attending the proceeding. Thus, even if Ms Bhutto does return to the country, she will not be able to contest the elections for being a convict. She also can’t lead the election campaign for her party, as she will be put in prison. At best, her party may hope to win some sympathy votes for being an underdog. In another development, the government’s spokesman has explained that no member of the Sharif family can return to the country on the eve of October elections because according to their agreement with the Pakistan Government, underwritten by Saudi Arabia, the entire family had given the commitment not to return to Pakistan. This has put paid to the rumours that Mr Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, Mr Shahbaz Sharif, might come back to lead the Muslim League in the general elections. Mr Shahbaz Sharif is considered to have his sympathisers within the establishment and the recently imposed legal restrictions do not apply to him. These measures come as no surprise to political observers because General Musharraf never kept it secret that he would not allow Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif to assume power. What is to be seen is how does he manage to make his way through the elected Parliament after October elections. The proposed constitutional amendments will have to be authenticated by the Parliament to remain on the statute book. Fearing that the federal legislature may strike it down, General Musharraf can make transfer of power to the national Assembly dependent on its ratifying the measure. This would be following in General Zia’s footsteps. But General Zia could get away with the stratagem an account of the opposition having boycotted the 1985 elections and the vast majority of those in the national Assembly consisted of the dictator’s loyalists. If the district government elections held last year are any indicator, there is no chance of General Musharraf’s supporters getting anywhere near two-thirds majority in fair elections. One objective of promulgating the recent presidential order is to demoralise the supporters of Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif. The outcome of the general elections held in the 1990s showed that Pakistani voter votes for state patronage and those who have an image of winning the elections win it. Thus, the message has been conveyed to the masses that Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif have no chance of coming into power after the October poll. This is going to influence the electoral process. This is going to dampen the spirits of the two main parties and make sponsors of political activities turn to other players and groups. Thus, not only Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif be kept away from Pakistan’s national politics, the dice has been heavily loaded against their parties. Only way they may strike back could be to launch some resistance movement, but given the poor organisation of these parties, chances of any agitation against the Musharraf regime seem non-existent. People may vote for these leaders, but are not ready to come on streets for them. At the moment, General Musharraf is sitting pretty. He is doing whatever he wants to do. He has little regard to what chattering classes say about this political plans. What is relevant is the support from the USA and his colleague Generals, who are solidly behind him. As the US move against Saddam Hussein gains momentum, his importance as a chief US ally in the region will further increase. |
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Bid to kill Pervez: three suspects remanded
Karachi, July 10 Waseem Akhtar was arrested yesterday in connection with the failed attempt to detonate a car bomb while General Musharraf’s motorcade passed by on April 26 in the port city of Karachi. Two other men, Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Hanif, will also remain in custody until July 20. Both are charged with being involved in the bombing outside the US Consulate in Karachi on June 8 that killed 12 persons as well as in the assassination attempt. Mohammad Imran is the chief of the previously unknown group Harkatul Mujahedin al Aalmi and Mohammad Hanif is his deputy. Both have confessed that they were involved in the US Consulate bombing, the police said. Five other suspects in the assassination plot were still at large, the police said. The suspects are charged with attempting to blow up General Musharraf’s motorcade with 500 kg of explosives attached to a Suzuki car. The bomb failed to detonate because of a malfunctioning remote trigger. The same car was later used in the US Consulate bombing. The police has launched a massive hunt for the remaining members of the group. It was not clear whether the group is linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida terrorist network, according to the Director-General of the Pakistan Rangers, Maj-Gen Salahuddin.
DPA |
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Pearl murder trial concludes
Hyderabad, July 10 Judge Ali Ashraf Shah rescheduled the proceedings for Monday to hand down a verdict. It is not uncommon in Pakistani courts for the verdict to be delayed beyond the scheduled delivery time. Lawyers for British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three co-defendants argued for a dismissal of the charges, saying the evidence was inconsistent, legal procedures had been ignored and some of the evidence seemed to have been fabricated. The defence lawyers spent more than four days giving their final arguments. The chief prosecutor, Raja Quereshi, took a few hours to sum up his case. He said the four were guilty of kidnapping Pearl from outside a restaurant in Karachi on January 23. A three-minute video of Pearl’s death was shown at the trial. The defence lawyers questioned its authenticity and admissibility in court, arguing that Pakistani law required either a witness to the production of a video or the producer of the video to appear in court to authenticate it. They accused the prosecution of fabricating the case to ease the US administration’s outrage over the journalist’s death. The trial, which began on April 22 in southern Karachi, had been transferred to the heavily fortified jail in Hyderabad, about 100 km to the northeast, after prosecutors said they feared for their life. AP
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Colin Powell to visit India, Pak
Washington, July 10 Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, the Secretary of State said he expected to visit the two countries before the end of July to “keep this process going along”. “We are anxious to end this crisis and see a dialogue begin between the two sides so that they can start to move forward to find a solution to the problem in Kashmir ultimately,” he added. Pointing out that he had spent a considerable amount of time with leaders of the two countries on the phone, the Secretary of State said his efforts were to ensure that both sides “understand that the USA is interested in them beyond this crisis”. Mr Powell’s planned visit is the third since last October. He last visited the two countries in January.
UNI |
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UNP planning
Chandrika’s
impeachment Colombo, July 10 “There are no grounds whatsoever,” Harim Peiris told a press meet here on reports that the United National Party
(UNP) was planning to impeach Kumaratunga for alleged irregularities, including in purchase of 48 bullet-proof and explosion-proof limousines and security motor cycles.
Peiris said there were no irregularities in their purchase and no abuse in their usage. The vehicles had been allocated to the President’s security retinue, senior leaders, including the Prime Minister and some ministers, the Opposition Leader and former ministers who continued to face threat from the
LTTE. Peiris lashed out at some ministers for demanding a detailed explanation on the vehicles, including the engine and chassis numbers of vehicles, posing a security threat to their users. “These custom-built vehicles contain unusual security specifications and the disclosure of identification details will encourage potential killers to attempt to infiltrate manufacturing companies to know these specifications, he said. Impeachment was not a political process, but a judicial one, peirera said.
PTI |
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Bin Laden still alive: Al-Qaida
Dubai, July 10 The man, identified by the alias Abu Laith Al-Libi, told the Middle East Broadcasting Centre by telephone that Bin Laden, Washington’s main suspect in the September 11 attacks on the USA and his top lieutenants were in good health. “Bin Laden, may God keep him safe, Dr Ayman Zawahri and Sheikh Sulaiman bu Ghaith, all of them are in good health,’’ said the man, whose alias indicates he is of a Libyan origin. “And we, the fighters of the holy war, in general are hoping to enter the next phase, which we in the military call the gang war phase,’’ he said. “We are attempting to expand the frontlines...it will be a war of killings, a war (against) businesses, which will hit the enemy where he does not expect,’’ he said. Libi, whose claim to be an Al-Qaida spokesman could not be independently confirmed, said Mullah Omar, who as leader of Afghanistan’s now ousted Taliban rulers provided shelter to Bin Laden and Al-Qaida, was “reorganising his soldiers’’.
Reuters |
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