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Saturday,
July 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Sharif to
quit as party chief Benazir
faces bar as ‘non-graduate’
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Sindh
treated as ‘slave colony’ PAKISTANI rulers have reduced Sindh province to the status of a slave, and it’s time the Sindhis united for a struggle to protect their resources and “national” identity, says a new US-based quarterly. Sindh Watch, published from Washington, accused the Pakistan Government, dominated by Punjabis, of “daylight robbery” of the resource-rich province.
Pak
plans to set up 2 more N-units Most
Sept 11 suspects freed by USA Surge in
US diplomacy N.
Ireland parades sans violence
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Sharif to
quit as party chief Islamabad, July 12 PML (N) Information Secretary Muhammad Siddiqueul Farooque said Sharif had agreed to step down from the post. Saying that the party has accepted the challenge of the proposed amendments in the Political Parties Ordinance (PPO), Farooque said we would hold elections at every required level to fulfil the requirements for contesting the polls. The legislation introduced by President Pervez Musharraf bars anyone from holding the post of Prime Minister more than two times and also those facing corruption charges. Elections within parties have also been declared mandatory for taking part in parliamentary elections. “Since we want to frustrate the designs of the government, which wishes to keep
PML (N) out of politics. We are doing it in protest because we don’t consider PPO as an objective order in accordance with the letter and spirit of the constitution,” Farooque told the daily ‘Nation’. He said the meetings of General Council and Central Working Committee (CWC) had been convened in the last week of the month to elect the new office-bearers under the PPO, 2002. All these measures are being taken on the directions of Sharif, Farooque said adding Sharif would remain PML leader. Meanwhile, Stung by the Supreme Court verdict on graduation order for candidates, political parties in Pakistan have assailed the court’s decision, saying it will establish the monopoly of elite and capitalist classes in politics, “In no other democratic country, such ‘unrealistic’ conditions are imposed, which circumscribe the right of the people to contest and limit the choice of the people as who to elect their representative in the legislative bodies,” a spokesman of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said in a statement.
PTI |
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Benazir faces bar as ‘non-graduate’ Islamabad, July 12 They are among 101 members of Parliament ousted in the military coup by Gen Pervez Musharraf in October 1999, who could be barred from contesting the poll on this ground. The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the Musharraf government’s move to make the graduation degree an eligibility criterion for contesting elections, following which 79 members of the former National Assembly (MNAs) and 22 former senators are likely to be disqualified. There are conflicting claims about whether Ms Bhutto, the twice elected Prime Minister and life-chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has a qualification equivalent to the Bachelor’s degree. “Let the regime find it out and make itself a laughing stock in the process,’’ deputy secretary general of PPP Mian Raza Rabbani said. A list prepared by the government about the educational qualification of the former MNAs describes Ms Bhutto as “Educated at Radcliffe Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Completed Oxford’s diploma course in International Law and Diplomacy, 1977.’’ Prominent among the former PML (N) legislators who could be disqualified from contesting the poll are former speaker Gohar Ayub Khan, deputy chairman senate Mir Humanyun Khan Mari, Lieut-Gen Majeed Malik, Chaudhry Sher Ali, secretary general of PML (N) Saranjam Khan and Ghulam Dastagir Khan.
UNI |
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Ultras admit rocket attack on airport Karachi, July 12 Mohammed Hanif and Mohammed Imran were accused of firing one 107 mm rocket and trying unsuccessfully to set off four others. The two did not enter a plea when they appeared before a magistrate today in Karachi, but had admitted being involved in the rocket attack to the police. Hanif and Imran were arrested in paramilitary commando raids on Monday on houses in Karachi and were charged in connection to the June 14 consulate bombing that killed at least 12 Pakistanis and injured 50 other persons. The charges were the first stemming from a joint Pakistani and FBI investigation into the blast. Hanif, Imran and a third man were also charged with attempted murder in a failed plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf with a bomb in April. The plot failed when explosives loaded in to a car parked on Musharraf’s route failed to detonate. Hanif confessed to the previously unannounced plot at a news conference on Monday. Hanif and Imran today were charged with firing a rocket on February 16 at a terminal at Karachi’s airport that at the time was being used by international forces to supply troops in Afghanistan. The rocket missed its target and hit a house two kilometres from the airport, injuring two persons. On February 18, authorities said they found four more rockets about one kilometre from the airport that were rigged with a homemade timer.
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Sindh treated as ‘slave colony’ PAKISTANI rulers have reduced Sindh province to the status of a slave, and it’s time the Sindhis united for a struggle to protect their resources and “national” identity, says a new US-based quarterly. Sindh Watch, published from Washington, accused the Pakistan Government, dominated by Punjabis, of “daylight robbery” of the resource-rich province. The inaugural issue of the journal published by the World Sindhi Institute (WSI) says in its editorial that Sindh, which generates a large percentage of Pakistan’s total revenue, suffered from “criminal neglect”. In an article on “Sindh’s woes”, Hamal Sindhi notes that despite “the humiliating defeat of its strategic depths doctrine in Afghanistan”, the Pakistan army’s internal policy continues to be characterised by suppression of all opposition in Sindh and Baluchistan, the two “colonised” provinces of Pakistan. “The Punjabi racism against peaceful Sindhis knows no bounds. Their culture, (liberal) Sufi faith and even ancestry are ridiculed while their history is being obliterated by creating overnight ‘jehadi’ heroes. “That this is happening in this day and age is a further slur upon the civilised world. Sindhis are made to suffer in silence as all media is controlled by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence),” he adds. And he asks: “How can the Pakistani state justify espousing the cause of Kashmiris when its hands are stained with the blood of Sindhis and Baluchs?” He says the decision-making in Sindh province is totally in the hands of non-Sindhis and closely monitored and conducted by the ISI. Alleging discrimination against Sindhi bureaucrats, he says: “By excluding all Sindhi officers from top hierarchy, the ISI wanted virtual control of Sindh affairs — so much so that the hapless Governor (a Sindhi) was not even given a secretary of his choice.” Political control of the province was carried out by harassment of Sindhi political organisations, infiltration in their rank and file and controlling the mainstream politicians through threats and incentives in the political set-up. “Each ISI and MI (military intelligence) Major posted in each and every district is a government in itself. This invisible government actually runs the affairs of Sindh to the detriment of the interests of the common man.” He says in order to completely “decimate the rising Sindhi middle class” the army set-up ensures breakdown of law and order. “They patronise feudals and dacoits and terrorise the Sindhi Hindus, in the process extracting large sums of money as bribe from rich Hindu traders. “Nevertheless, these Hindu traders are often kidnapped and killed in a sensational way in order to instil fear among that minority community,” he adds. According to him, the Sindh Government’s prime lands and estate properties in Karachi were being clandestinely given to army officers and their families who already control 50 per cent of Karachi’s prime estate land. The present government has surreptitiously manipulated national finances in favour of the Punjab province while giving “peanuts” to Sindh, though it accounts for 70 per cent of the total revenue of Pakistan, he adds.
IANS |
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Pak plans to set up 2 more N-units Islamabad, July 12 Commission Chairman Pervez Butt disclosed this yesterday during a speech at the seventh convocation of the KANUPP Institute of Nuclear Power Engineering, the daily Dawn reported. He said that in order to keep up with the global trend of using nuclear power and to increase the country’s power-generating capacity, PAEC was working on a plan to establish a second unit at CHASNUPP and another at the KANUPP site, which would be called K2.
UNI |
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Most Sept 11 suspects freed by USA Washington, July 12 The suspects themselves and the secrecy surrounding the identities of the detainees had given rise to allegations of racial profiling and other charges by rights groups. Officials said only 74 of more than 1,100 persons remained in custody. Most of those released have been deported. The government deported 131 Pakistanis on June 26. Most of the Pakistanis were picked up in a crackdown on immigrants who had ignored deportation orders. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has announced that it will sue the government and two New Jersey counties over what it called the unprecedented secrecy surrounding the identities and treatment of detainees.
UNI |
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Surge in US diplomacy Washington, July 12 As a first step, the president used the telephone today to press his peace plan with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan. The Arabs and European governments were not completely aligned with Mr Bush. He had been demanding the ouster of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and widespread reform in the Palestinian hierarchy as preconditions for helping to set up a Palestinian state and pushing Israel to withdraw. Jerusalem:
Palestinian sources said today that Israeli troops had killed two Palestinians during an incursion and a journalist had died of wounds as Israel reported that it had thwarted up to 18 bombings in its three-week reoccupation of West Bank.
AP, AFP |
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N. Ireland parades sans violence Belfast, July 12 By mid-afternoon, there had been no serious violence at the hundreds of marches organised for the “Twelfth of July” celebrations by the Protestant Orange Order, although Catholics did jeer and toss small objects at one Belfast flashpoint. With smoke still hanging in the sky from overnight bonfire parties, the Orangemen, distinctive in their orange sashes and bowler hats, took to the streets throughout the day for their traditional parades and rallies all over the province. Moderate politicians were praying the day would pass off peacefully and not further undermine the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
Reuters |
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