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Wednesday,
July 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Musharraf invites PPP for talks CEC asks Pervez to lift ban on political activities Israeli missile attack kills Hamas leader, 11 others
LONDON DIARY 12 die in Afghan factional clashes |
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USA to end grant to UNFPA
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Musharraf invites PPP for talks
Islamabad, July 23 The invitation has been extended to Ms Bhutto in her capacity as Chairperson of the PPP but the party is yet to take a decision on meeting President General Pervez Musharraf, The News reported from Lahore today. The PPP would decide whether to meet the military ruler after consultations with component parties of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), the newspaper quoted PPP acting secretary-general Raza Rabbani as saying. “The Musharraf regime needs me and the PPP to be in the electoral arena for the credibility of the election exercise” Ms Bhutto had said. Any further progress in talks between the PPP and the military government may pave the way for the release of Mr Asif Ali Zardari and, at the same time, give a boost to the PPP in the upcoming poll, the paper said, quoting political analysis. There have been at least two rounds of talks between the PPP senior vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim and some top officials of an intelligence agency. However, the talks could not move further as the military regime wanted that at least for the October elections, Ms Bhutto should not return and take part in the general election and that in her place, Mr Makhdoom Amin Fahim should be made the party Chairperson. This proposal was conveyed to Ms Bhutto and put before the party. It was finally rejected by a majority of votes. When the government again tried to contact PPP leaders in the country for talks on certain national and international matters, they refused to do so, asking the government to approach Ms Bhutto as she was the party Chairperson. Meanwhile, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), has said the wife of its chief, Ms Kulsoom Nawaz, will return to Pakistan before elections to campaign for the party. “There was no ban on the Sharif family to return to the country as former President Rafiq Tarar had condoned the sentence of Mr Sharif and there was no deal in this respect. Kulsoom Nawaz will definitely arrive in the country before electioneering,” party’s acting President, Mr Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, said in Lahore. He also ruled out the removal of Mr Sharif from the presidentship of the party. “Nawaz Sharif was the cause of the people’s support for the party. Hence, there is no question of his removal,” he said.
UNI |
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CEC asks Pervez to lift ban on political activities Islamabad, July 23 CEC Justice Irshad Hasan Khan also condemned the use of official machinery by some Governors for their election campaigns, as reported by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. The delay in finalising the procedure for the Senate election and for allotting special seats to women and technocrats was creating problems for the Election Commission and the political parties too, The Dawn today quoted the CEC telling reporters. “It is unfair that the political parties be kept in the dark when the election date is so near,’’ he opined. He also said the Election Commission was passing through a difficult time and needed the support of the press and political parties for holding free and fair elections in the country.
UNI |
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No airspace for Indian planes: Pak Islamabad, July 23 “We are not in a hurry and would take a decision after considering all the aspects,” Secretary Defence Lieut General (retd) Hamid Nawaz Khan told newspersons in Karachi yesterday. “Closure of Indian airspace for Pakistani aircraft was an irrational act. Now the Indians felt that it was a mistake and were trying to redress their blunder by removing restrictions on Pakistani aircraft and putting the ball in our court,” Lieut General Khan was quoted by The News as saying.
UNI |
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Israeli missile attack kills Hamas leader, 11 others Gaza City, July 23
The air strike came as Palestinians and Israelis were trading ideas to relieve tensions in the West Bank, and was likely to derail the efforts as Hamas threatened revenge. The attack killed Salah Shehadeh, commander of the military wing of Hamas, known as Izzadine el-Qassam, the group said. “Hamas mourns the hero, the leader, Salah Shehadeh,” a Hamas spokesman, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a statement. “Anyone who dreams of so-called peace is mistaken. There is nothing called ‘peace with Israel.” “We will avenge the blood of the martyrs,” Hamas declared. Shehadeh’s wife and three of their children were among those killed in the air raid, Haniyeh said. The hospital list of the dead included two babies, age 18 and two months, five children ages 3 and 5, an 11-year-old and three adults. Doctors said more than 100 persons were wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered the police to expel 50,000 illegal immigrants, public radio reported. The crackdown set to start today, was ordered yesterday night, it said.
Sharon gave the order after receiving a report that the growing number of illegal immigrants was helping fuel unemployment, which stands at the high rate of 10.6 per cent of the active working population. Israel puts its number of illegal immigrants at between 150,000 and 200,000, with most of the aliens from E. Europe, Africa or Asia. Many of them work at construction sites, on farms and in restaurants. Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defence Dalia Rabin-Philosof, whose father Prime Minister Yitzhak rabin was assassinated in 1995, has resigned from the government, public radio said here. Rabin-Philosof was quoted by the radio as saying that last evening she wanted to dedicate herself to a foundation created to preserve the political legacy of her father, one of the main architects of the 1993 Oslo peace accords. Brussels: The European Union said on Tuesday that Israel may have dashed a tentative deal to halt Palestinian suicide bombings with its precision air strike that killed a Hamas militant leader. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said there had been signs that an agreement to end to a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings within Israel had been within reach. Diplomats said Solana had been aware of a secret deal between two leading armed groups, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade and the Tanzim militia of President Arafat’s Fatah movement, to call a halt to suicide attacks inside Israel. An announcement had been due with a strong possibility that Hamas, would have joined the moratorium, the diplomats said.
AP, AFP, Reuters |
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LONDON DIARY A move by Sikh leaders to have themselves recognised as a separate ethnic community in Britain has not gone far despite a petition to the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. The Sikh leaders handed a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s office demanding recognition that Sikhs are a separate group. At present in government surveys on ethnic origins, Sikhs are expected to tick the box that says “Indian”. On the basis of such surveys the population of Indians in Britain is about 1.2 million. But this may be an inaccurate figure because many have said they are “Other Asian” or other categories. But the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has opposed the move by Sikh leaders. The CRE says Sikhs are happy to tick the “Indian” box and there is no need for a separate category for Sikhs. The Sikh leaders making the demand are not necessarily those who support the demand for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland of Khalistan. They are looking for special recognition for Sikhs given their unique cultural and religious needs. Many of these needs could get more funding from the government if Sikhs were listed as a separate category. The move has been opposed diplomatically by India, as expected. The British government has accepted the Indian position because it does not want to raise a diplomatic issue with India over a matter like this. But there has developed some friction between India House and the Conservative Party. Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin has pledged Tory support to the demand by Sikh leaders. “The Conservative Party is concerned to ensure that everybody in Britain is treated fairly and properly, and that is why we are supporting this campaign,” Letwin said. *** It is not surprising, and it is very heartening to see how many came to the defence of Gurbux Singh, Chairman of Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality over his fracas with the police after the NatWest final at Lord’s when India beat England so dramatically. And who could blame Gurbux. A match like that, a Punjabi watching, lots of beer all around. Put that all together, and you get a great deal of happiness. So happy was Gurbux that he would not let a policeman stand between him and his joy. The policeman thought otherwise. But the matter is not being taken any further, given the support Gurbux got from the Indian community. What is wrong with more than a few beers at a great match — as long as you are not driving? And in the end who in the world is more sympathetic to a little extra beer than the British? Gurbux got away with it because he got to a point where the British and the Punjabis are one. *** Bhangra is heard by Punjabis in Britain and Canada alike, as indeed among Punjabis everywhere. But now the British bhangra band Punjabi Hit Squad have teamed up with Canadian Nav Srao to find new success with the album “Fast and Furious”. “I was in the U.K. checking out the club scene when I bumped into the Punjabi Hit Squad boys,” Srao says. “I was really impressed by the energy these boys were generating. We hooked up and the result has been the album.” “Fast and Furious” is eminently danceable to. And it is being heard in clubs all over London now. The album is pure energy, and it takes pure energy to dance to it. With bhangra music it becomes hard to tell the difference between energy and music. But then who’s complaining? *** One thing Sikh youths have not lost in England, thank god, is their energy. And it doesn’t just come out on the dance floor. As many as 250 youths, mostly Sikh, took a 225-km bicycle ride from Birmingham to London on July 21 and 22. The youths included about 50 women. And we say youths, but some of the cyclists were about 60, and who can say they were not young. “We did have a few Muslim and Hindu youths as well,” said Ranjodh Singh from the Sikh Arts and Culture Association based in Southall. The bicycle ride raised about $25,000 in charity. Most of the money was sent to the Save a Child charity. The cyclists rode about 12 hours on the first day from Birmingham to Luton, and seven hours the second day from Luton to Southall. The arrival of the cyclists in Southall was welcomed by bhangra music and dancing on the streets. The cyclists were honoured at a colourful party at the end of it all, and so they deserved to be. |
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12 die in Afghan factional clashes Chaman (Pakistan), July 23 The fighting, between ethnic Tajik and Pashtun gunmen, began on Sunday night in the Shindand region of Herat province, a boundary between the Persian-speaking north of Afghanistan and the Pashto-speaking south. “The fight is still continuing,” local commander Haji Hazrat told Reuters by telephone this morning. “We have confirmed information that at least seven Tajik and five Pashtun fighters were killed, while dozens were wounded in the gun battle between the two factions.” Meanwhile, the first battalion of a new national Afghan army graduated from training with US special forces in the capital today, vowing to serve the country and not individual warlords or ethnic groups. Some 36 officers and 350 men have undergone three months of intensive training by US forces and will form the backbone of a national army that — President Hamid Karzai hopes — will end decades of internecine conflict between rival ethnic groups. Mr Karzai has made improving security a priority as he tries to rebuild a country shattered by over 23 years of occupation and conflict. The first step, he said today, was a multi-ethnic army that represented the people and the government rather than provincial warlords.
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USA to end grant to UNFPA Washington, July 23 Instead, the USA will shift the money to its bilateral population programmes administered by USAID. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, who made the announcement here yesterday, said the action was necessitated by a finding that some UNFPA funds went to agencies in China that carried out coercive family planning programmes. A 1985 US law, the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, forbids US funding to support programmes that carry out “coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation.” Mr Boucher said the $34 million would instead be spent on USAID’s Child Survival and Health Programme Fund. He said the planned total of bilateral US spending on population programmes this year was $446.5 million, and the $34 million would be added to that.
IANS |
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US AG for expanding ultras’ list Washington, July 23 The listing would prohibit any non-citizen members from entering the USA. “Designating these nine groups as terrorist organisations will help secure our borders against those who would come to the USA to commit terrorist acts or to raise funds to finance terrorist operations,” Mr Ashcroft said yesterday.
AP |
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Amnesty decries India on visa denial London, July 23 It claimed that the refusal of the Indian Government to grant its team access to the state would “reinforce the concerns that the government and the state police might have been accomplices in preparing the ground for violence and in allowing it to occur, and could be attempting now to cover up the involvement of their officials.”
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