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Tuesday,
July 23, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Benazir to stay
as PPP chief
Islamic groups’ warning to
Pervez on statute changes |
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Pakistanis abroad can’t vote India, Pak may resume talks Al-Qaida may target Indian mission in Pak Karzai replaces Afghan guards Ban on Nepal-UP border movement
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Benazir to stay as PPP chief
Islamabad, July 22 Acting secretary-general of the PPP Raza Rabbani said Ms Bhutto was still the unanimous chairperson of the party and she would not be replaced in any situation, The Nation today reported. He accused the military government of trying to conspire against the party through a disinformation campaign and other tactics. Mr Rabbani told the paper yesterday that there was no split in the party over Ms Bhutto’s leadership and the issue would not be discussed in the party’s Central Executive Committee meeting to be held in Karachi tomorrow. The daily “Times” had reported on Saturday quoting PPP sources that Ms Bhutto would be replaced soon in a bid to fulfil all “discriminatory and victimising” conditions set for the October elections. Asked what the strategy of the PPP would be if the party was disallowed to contest the elections for having a disqualified chairperson, Mr Rabbani maintained that party would not adopt any strategy minus Benazir. “In our view, there is no existing law in Pakistan that bars Benazir Bhutto from being the chairperson of the party and Prime Minister of the country,” he said. Asked if the party would boycott the poll in such a situation, he said all political options were open and the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), a group of political parties opposed to the military rule, would be consulted before taking any decision. “For now, the party is preparing for general elections with full enthusiasm”, he said. He said a final decision on meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf would be taken after discussions with the ARD. Meanwhile, Ms Benazir Bhutto has said Pakistan cannot afford a fourth war with India which can turn nuclear causing destruction in South Asia. “We can ill afford a fourth war that could turn nuclear and annihilate large portion of the South Asian population,” she said in an interview to Pakistani daily The News, published today. Ms Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, also pointed out that the previous “three wars between India and Pakistan took place under military dictators.” Ms Bhutto said the Musharraf regime needed her and her party to add credibility to the October elections as without their participation the whole exercise would be a sham. Describing General Musharraf’s attempts to block her candidature as a mockery of his pledge to hold fair, free and impartial elections, Ms Bhutto in an interview to The News said she was planning to contest the elections and her advisers were looking into ways to get this allowed. While terming the ban on a third term for a Prime Minister as “Bhutto specific” she said “I cannot be banned from politics nor disqualified from taking part in elections.” “Disqualifying me would also make for more instability in Pakistan, which plays, into the hands of extremists, militants and terrorists,” she said. Confident of sweeping the poll if free and fair elections were held, the PPP chief said: “We would win hands down as by now the people have a fair experience of comparing the PPP government with non-PPP governments that followed when our government was dismissed six years ago.” UNI, PTI
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Islamic
groups’ warning to Pervez on Islamabad, July 22 Leaders of six major Islamic groups told Musharraf changes he has proposed that would empower him to dissolve Parliament, sack the Prime Minister or fire the Cabinet could create confrontation between him and political parties after the October 10 elections. “Therefore, in our view, it is better to avoid these changes,” the leaders of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, or the United Action Committee of Islamic parties, said in a joint memorandum they handed to Musharraf during a meeting here. Musharraf, facing strong opposition from political parties over the planned changes, appears increasingly isolated at home after losing the support of the hardline Islamic groups, which have traditionally been close allies of military dictators in Pakistan. Their view of Musharraf dimmed after he abandoned their Taliban allies in neighbouring Afghanistan in favour of the US-led war on terror. The Islamic groups have never fared well in elections, but have long been nurtured by the military as a counterweight to mainstream political parties. The parties and lawyers’ bodies have threatened a nationwide campaign to force Musharraf to abandon both the constitutional proposals and changes to electoral rules that have effectively barred former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from coming into power again. Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 then extended his rule for five more years by a controversial referendum in April, has promised he will listen to critics before finalising the constitutional changes. As these stand, the changes would allow him to nominate a Prime Minister from any political party — not necessarily the largest in Parliament — and he would also appoint the chiefs of the three armed forces and election commission head. The United Action Committee objected particularly to Musharraf’s plans to set up a powerful civilian-military National Security Council to oversee the work of the elected government. “This (council) is meant to give constitutional protection to the direct intervention of the military in the affairs of the state...which is negation of democracy,” it said. In reply, Musharraf pledged there would be no change in the “Islamic” character of the constitution, the official APP news agency reported. “Pakistan was born an Islamic state and nobody has the authority to change its Islamic character,” it quoted him as saying.
Reuters |
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Pakistanis
abroad can’t vote
Islamabad, July 22 The plan has been shelved in view of the reaction from the Gulf countries which are averse to any kind of political activity on their soil. The plan of extending voting facility to expatriates was first drawn up by the PML Government but it was found
unpracticable. The Election Commission, however, extended the facility to expatriates in the recently-held presidential referendum. According to a report prepared by the Foreign Office, if the facility of voting was extended to the expatriates, it would create diplomatic problems. Under the existing rules only Pakistani nationals serving in diplomatic missions can vote through postal ballot. The Election Commission, headed by Justice Fakhr Alam, had carried out an extensive exercise to grant right of vote to the overseas Pakistanis. After examining various systems, the EC had expressed optimism that granting of voting right to overseas Pakistanis was possible. The Foreign Office has informed the EC that there are about 15,41,932 Pakistanis over 21 years of age living in 76 countries of the world.
ANI |
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India, Pak may resume talks Lahore, July 22 The Daily Times quoted an unnamed leader of the Pakistan chapter of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) as saying that both countries had agreed to set aside more controversial issues and start talks through “Track II diplomacy”. “Both Pakistan and India have agreed to start dialogue, following extensive efforts by the USA and the UK to resolve the issue of Kashmir,” the APHC leader said. He said the dialogue would use as a benchmark the Lahore Accord, signed in 1999 when Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited this city by bus to meet the then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The APHC leader said since the international community had confirmed that infiltration across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir had come down, Pakistan had been pressing for the resolution of the Kashmir issue through peaceful means. A Foreign Office spokesman, however, said there was no agreement between Pakistan and India on the resumption of dialogue. But, he added that Pakistan was ready to resume unconditional talks to resolve outstanding issues and bring peace in the region.” There had been reports in other Pakistani dailies as well about the “backdoor diplomacy” between the two countries. Last week, a report in Nawa-e-Waqt daily said some “quarters in Pakistan and India were trying their best to bring normalcy in the region and for the resumption of talks”.
IANS |
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Al-Qaida
may target Indian mission in Pak Islamabad, July 22 Quoting an unidentified source, the daily said there were fears that the terrorists might choose August 15, India’s Independence Day, to attack its High Commission. The source also said the terrorists were also planning to target the Indian Consulate building in Karachi some time in August, besides attacking some European embassies in Islamabad. The US Embassy, besides the UK and Canadian High Commissions here have also received threats from the terrorists in the past few weeks, the daily said. The German Embassy is on the hit list, the source said adding that the Austrian Embassy had also received a threat and asked Pakistani authorities to ensure its security.
PTI |
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3 more held in Pearl case Islamabad, July 22 None of the three had been mentioned in the three-month trial by an anti-terrorism court that ended last week. The three men in custody, Mazharul Islam, alias Mohammad Omar Choto, alias Dhobi, Fazal Karim, and Attaur Rehman, alias Naeem Bokhari, are all activists of the outlawed Sunni Muslim extremist organisation, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.
AFP |
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Karzai replaces Afghan guards
New York, July 22 “There are currently very credible threats against the President,” news magazine Time quoted a western diplomatic source as saying. The shift risks being seen as a slap in the face of extremely powerful interests in Kabul, the magazine said adding that in the first few days after the fall of the Taliban, Karzai kept a small band of Pashtun soldiers from his Kandahari home close to him. But tensions with the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance forces, who fought the Taliban for close to six years and have now assumed control of much of the government, meant he had to send his soldiers away, it said. Since then his personal security has been in the hands of the most formidable Northern Alliance commander and Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim, it said. PTI
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Ban on Nepal-UP border movement Kathmandu, July 22 The move comes as a former chief of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) yesterday called for strict border regulations along the India-Nepal international border. People travelling on the traditional route between Rajapur in Bardiya and Tinkuniya in Uttar Pradesh will not be able to do so now. Indian security officials were quoted as saying that since Nepalese forces were no longer posted at Rajapur, the ban had been imposed on citizens of both the countries to check “terrorist activities”.
IANS |
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Israeli
deal over anti-deportation Jerusalem, July 22 The 16 were among 22 male relatives of suspected Palestinian militants arrested on Friday by Israel in a military swoop near the West Bank city of Nablus after two Palestinian attacks killed 11 persons. The security sources said yesterday Israel had told the petitioners that they would be given 12 hours notice of their deportation to the fenced-in Gaza Strip, enough time to appeal.
Reuters |
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