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Wednesday,
August 14, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Ensure poll fairness, ARD chief to EU observers HC admits appeals of
Omar, 3 others
Rallies banned in Rawalpindi Pak’s EC rejects Zia’s son papers
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Floods force capital’s evacuation
North blamed for
freak weather
Afghan drug lords set up heroin labs TV show for jobless
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Ensure poll fairness, ARD chief to EU observers Islamabad, August 13 Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, head of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) said he was concerned about the formation of a political alliance that will presumably support President Pervez Musharraf’s bid to hold on to power. The Grand National Alliance was formed yesterday in Islamabad. “We have told the EU observers that the authorities in Pakistan are patronising particular pro-Musharraf groups to ensure their success in the elections,” Khan told a news conference in Lahore. “We hope that the presence of these observers will help keep the government away from massive rigging in the next elections,” he said. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan adopted a resolution today expressing support for the EU observers. “Past elections in the country have all been observed by international and domestic monitors, and these missions have enjoyed all facilities necessary to do their task. Any deviation from this practice will undermine public faith in the fairness of the coming exercise,” the resolution said. The group’s resolution also expressed concern about reports “that only observers from the USA are to be granted full logistical support.” “It will not serve the interest of either the USA or Pakistan if other countries are sidelined, particularly at a time when there are grave misgivings in the country about the US role in the region and its backing of the present regime,” the resolution added. LONDON: A row appears to be developing between Pakistan and head of the European poll monitoring team with Islamabad alleging that EU mission chief has threatened sanctions if the October polls were flawed. According to a report in The Times, the row flared up after John Cushnahan, chief EU observer, allegedly said sanctions would follow if the elections in October were flawed, a charge he later denied. Piqued by the alleged remarks, Pakistan Information Minister Nisar Memon accused the observers of indulging in activities that were in contravention of international norms and an interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs. Mr Cushnahan, the Irish member of the European Parliament, denied the allegation, saying the sole purpose of his mission was to observe Pakistan’s elections on the basis of established international criteria. “At no stage since the establishment of the mission did I ever suggest that our mission would recommend the use of sanctions, even if it were to conclude that the election process was flawed,” he said. Justice Irshad Hasan Khan, Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan, has asked the mission to confine its activities to observing the poll and not attempt to oversee the election process. It was the responsibility of the commission to ensure free and fair elections. The Pakistani military authorities are uneasy, however, at the mission’s meetings with political leaders and parties. President Musharraf and other senior officials have declined to meet the mission, the report said.Mr Cushnahan said he had not requested such a meeting. “We will be prepared to meet President Musharraf if he desired so,” he said.
AP, PTI |
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HC admits appeals of
Omar, 3 others Islamabad, August 13 The Sindh High Court in Karachi today also admitted a concurrent appeal by state prosecutors to enhance the life sentences of three of the convicts to death sentences. Sheikh Omar, leader of the banned militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad was sentenced to death by hanging for masterminding the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Pearl in January. His three accomplices were each given life sentence. A two-member appellate Bench of the court admitted three appeals for regular hearing. Sheikh Omar has challenged his death penalty while the three accused moved court against their life imprisonment. They are being held in a high-security prison in Hyderabad. None of the four convicts were present at the 15-minute admission hearing. Commenting on the appeal petitions, Chief Prosecutor Raja Qureshi said he was confident about the success of his appeal for the enhancement of their conviction. Sheikh Omar’s brother Awais Sheikh has been quoted as saying that his brother was innocent and had been brutalised during interrogation and forced to make false statements. He said his brother had been the victim of false accusations and an unfair trial. He said the three accomplices were forced into making accusations against his brother. “One of the co-accused complained via his lawyer that the police had been beating him quite brutally for hours, trying to make him sign a confession that pinpointed Sheikh Omar as the mastermind behind the kidnapping and he refused,” Awais Sheikh claimed. “The police then threatened to bring his mother and sister to the police station and gangrape them, at which point he signed the confession,” he said. Awais Sheikh said his brother had complained in court of being forced to sign blank statements and being beaten during interrogations. He claimed that US pressure on the Pakistani authorities to find whoever killed the US journalist led to his brother being made as a “scapegoat”.
PTI |
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Rallies banned in Rawalpindi Islamabad, August 13 General Musharraf would unfurl the national flag before a small selected gathering of ministers and diplomats at the closely guarded Convention Centre opposite the Parliament building instead of the Jinnah Avenue, the traditional venue for the ceremony, officials said. After the flag hoisting, General Musharraf would address the nation in which he is expected to announce the complete schedule of the October general elections. He is also expected to announce the final version of his controversial constitutional amendments on sweeping powers to the President and steps to contain Islamic militancy that poses a serious threat to his government. Islamic militants have stepped up their attacks in the country, particularly on foreign institutions following which some countries like France, the USA and Italy have closed their consulates in Karachi. Announcing the ban on rallies in Rawalpindi, District Mayor Raja Tariq Kiani told the local daily ‘Dawn’ that “All these gatherings had been planned within a radius of a couple of km and we decided to ban them as there were fears that some anti-social elements may use the occasion for subversive activities.” The ban came as Rawalpindi district reeled under last week’s militant attacks, one on the missionary school followed by another on a missionary hospital in Taxila. Various political parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), lead by self exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said they would go ahead with the rallies. Several parties see this as an attempt by the military regime to stop them from using the rallies to highlight their political programmes ahead of the poll as the three year ban on conducting outdoor political activity still continued. Meanwhile, in an effort to allay Opposition fears over the transparency of the October general elections, General Musharraf today asserted that his government was committed to holding a free and fair poll. “Today, I would like to appeal to the people of Pakistan to exercise their right to vote with responsibility so that we elect efficient and dedicated person of integrity who would lead Pakistan into 21st century realising Pakistan’s full potential”, he added.
PTI |
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Pak’s EC rejects Zia’s son papers Islamabad, August 13 The EC rejected the papers of Pakistan Muslim League-Zia (PML-Z), which was formed by Ijazul Haq after he lost internal elections in the PML-QA few days ago, state television reported. Pending the recognition of the parties by the EC, many pro and anti-Musharraf government alliances have emerged so far. A pro-government alliance comprising National Alliances headed by Mustafa Jatoi, a former Prime Minister under Zia and the PML-QA has been formed. “The alliance has been formed to promote stability in the democratic process,” General Secretary PML(Q) Zafarullah Jamali said. Political parties have termed the alliance a “Kings party” formed by the government to win elections through the “back door”.
PTI |
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Floods force capital’s evacuation Prague, August 13 The Prague authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 50,000 persons, faced by an approaching tide of water after days of rainfall swelled rivers in the south of the central European country and killed seven persons. Shop owners worked overnight to save their goods. Soldiers along with hundreds of volunteers were filling bags with sand and building walls to protect the picturesque medieval quarter of Mala Strana. Torrential rains have also hit neighbouring Germany and Austria and floods in Russia killed many people, bringing the death toll from European storms to more than 70 in a week. Prague Mayor Igor Nemec told a news conference early today that parts of Mala Strana would be flooded by the afternoon because heavy rain in the south forced dams on the river Vltava, which flows through Prague, to open their gates. “We will sound sirens between six and seven o’clock (local time) to start the next phase of evacuation,” he said. “People who are affected should prepare for about a four-day trip,” he said. Mr Nemec said the 14th-century Charles Bridge, one of Prague’s main tourist attractions decorated with statues of saints, would be closed to the public to allow cranes to remove tree trunks and other debris carried along by the rapidly flowing river. Water was already overflowing the Vltava’s banks in some communities on the outskirts of Prague, especially in the south, and the rain continued to fall.
Reuters |
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North blamed for freak weather Berlin, August 13 He told Germany’s Deutschland radio station that there could no longer be any doubt that humans were partly to blame for the torrential rains that have wreaked havoc from Europe to Asia. “We have to do all we can to fight (this phenomenon) and that is above all the duty of industrialised countries,” the former German environment minister said. Mr Toepfer, who is head of the United Nations Environment Programme, said what was needed most of all were cutbacks in energy use and the continuing development of renewable energy sources. BRUSSELS: A European study has found that the world’s tropical rainforests are disappearing more slowly than previously thought, though the rate of destruction is still alarming, a magazine has reported. The study by a team at the European Union’s Joint Research Centre found that the area of rainforest destroyed between 1990 and 1997 to be 23 per cent lesser than the generally accepted figure. “I think we have to be cautious about saying it’s good news,’’ said Hugh Eva, co-author of the team’s report published in this week’s issue of the Science magazine. Even the new figures mean an area of rainforest twice the size of Belgium is cut down each year, Eva said on Monday. AFP, Reuters |
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Afghan drug lords set up heroin labs Hundreds of kilos of heroin are being manufactured each week by factories set up recently in eastern Afghanistan, prompting fears of a new influx of high-quality, easily transportable drugs into Europe. The renewed production of heroin, which had ceased following edicts by the Taliban regime and last autumn’s US-led military action, is a blow to the British-led, multimillion-pound effort to stop drugs production in the country. Tony Blair has given the campaign his personal backing, committing more than 30 million US dollars of British taxpayers’ money to the project. That backing convinced a reluctant Afghan government to announce a ban on the growth of opium six months ago. But the return of the refining laboratories, each capable of producing $ 600,000 worth of heroin a week, has revealed the failure of the programme to make a significant impact. The production of the high-value drug could further destabilise Afghanistan. In recent weeks there have been several bomb attacks and assassination attempts. Some have been blamed on elements close to Al-Qaida or former Taliban fighters, but others, such as the murder of Abdul Qadir, a Vice-President and Minister, in Kabul in July, have been blamed on drug-related feuds. The bomb that exploded in a warehouse in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Friday, killing at least 26 persons, has also been linked to narcotics, although officials yesterday said it was probably an accident caused by badly stored construction explosives. The Observer has learnt of three heroin laboratories in the lawless hills south-east of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan. There are believed to be several more. Two factories have been established in the Acheen district and one in the Adal Khel district of Nangarhar province. One local resident, Naeem
Shinwari, said the factories were working in broad daylight, producing between 70 and 100 kilos (154lb-220lb) of refined heroin a day, with the capacity to increase production if the supply of raw poppy remains constant. Afghanistan has supplied more than two-thirds of the world’s opium for nearly a decade. So far the British-led eradication programme has led to the destruction of 16,500 hectares (41 acres) of poppy field, out of an estimated total of 80,000. Farmers were offered $ 1,750 for each hectare that was destroyed. However the programme has been marred by allegations of corruption. In the early 1990s Afghanistan produced more than 90 per cent of heroin reaching the UK. The Taliban eradicated opium production in a bid to gain recognition from the international community in 2000. Heroin is far easier to smuggle than bulky opium. Abdul
Wakeel, of Ghani Khel district, told The Observer that heroin and heroin-refining chemicals were being openly traded in local markets. He said the prices of heroin varied from $ 750 for a kilo of poor quality `brown’ heroin for smoking to more than $ 2,000 for pure, highly refined heroin which could be injected. Heroin for intravenous use would fetch $ 75,000 per kilo in Britain. Haji Daulat Mohammad, a shopkeeper, said that prices were low because opium stocks remained high and heroin production was expected to rise sharply in the coming months. “Even if there is no cultivation of poppy next year, the existing stock is sufficient for 12 months at least,” he said. The Guardian, London |
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TV show for jobless Buenos Aires “If I die, I want to die working,” the suited 52-year-old said, fighting back tears as he pitched on live television, in front of four million viewers, for a job as a waiter after remaining unemployed for four years. Human Resources, broadcast live at 5 pm every weekday, is rapidly becoming the favourite game show of a nation where jobs are disappearing by the day. Under the bright TV studio lights, tow candidates tell their tear-jerking life stories in a bid to win a six-month contract. Viewers vote by phone for the contestant who moves them the most. “I try to keep up hope but it’s hard to see the way out, ‘Benitez told the show’s beaming host, Nestor Ibarra. “I’ve tried everything. This is my best hope,’ said Hugo Andres, his 48 year-old opponent. Benitez snapped up quiz questions like ‘On which side of the guests should you stand to remove the plates?’ and ‘should you change the glasses when the guests change wine?’ Viewers watched clips of both families in their humble homes, struggling to survive without a bread-winner, before telephone voting, 55 per cent for Benitez, saving his family’s shattered fortunes. As many as 600 have applied for some jobs, the show’s organisers say. Candidates are filtered by a job agency and 10 are short-listed. The company providing the job selects the final two who go head-to-head in the TV contest.
Guardian |
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Minorities want minister to quit Islamabad, August 13 All-Pakistan Minorities’ Alliance
(APMA) Chairman Shahbaz Bhatti accused Mr Haider of failing to control attacks against Christian institutions and said the country’s police had failed to protect lives. “How can we trust such a police system which has traditionally suffered from lethargy?” he told reporters yesterday.
PTI |
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14 Maoists surrender Kathmandu, August 13 A total of 16,130 Maoists had been arrested since they rose in revolt and of them 9,615 were still in custody, the ministry said. As many as 15,826 Maoists had so far surrendered in various districts of the country, it added.
UNI |
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