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Friday,
August 23, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Oppn,
Islamic groups say no to Pervez amendments Bhutto can refile poll plea
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Lake threatens millions in China
US checks on civil liberties flayed China, Russia sign anti-terror pact |
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Protest on visa denial to Dalai Lama Jealousy: measure your lover’s ears
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Oppn,
Islamic groups say no to Pervez amendments Islamabad, August 22 Analysts say the controversial amendments could lead to a power struggle between Musharraf and the Parliament formed after the October 10 poll, if the Opposition can make a strong enough showing in the vote. Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, unveiled the amendments on Wednesday, empowering him to dismiss an elected parliament, name heads of military services and chair a civilian-military National Security Council to oversee the government formed after the October 10 election. “The question is not whether Parliament can undo these amendments in the short term,” said Najam Sethi, editor of independent Daily Times newspaper. If that happened, he said, “there will be enough tension between the parliament and the president to make the system extremely unstable.” Hamid Khan, president of Supreme Court Bar Association, the country’s main lawyers’ body, said the sweeping changes could unleash a new constitutional crisis. “These changes make president and armed forces more powerful than the elected representatives of the people,” he said. Hardline Islamic groups, traditional allies of military dictators who have ruled Pakistan for more than half its 55-year history, called the move “unconstitutional and undemocratic”. “He has darkened the future of democracy in Pakistan,” said Liaquat Baluch, deputy head of Jamaat-e-Islami, the major hardline Islamic group. The religious parties, whose strength in the past has been more in noisy street protests than in popular votes, have recently been discussing the possibility of cooperating with the opposition for the election. Samina Ahmed, a Pakistan expert from the International Crisis Group, said the fate of Musharraf’s amendments lay in the hands of the parties returned to Parliament in October. The major Opposition parties are giving indications they plan to forge a loose coalition for the poll. Baluch, whose Jamaat-e-Islami party is part of alliance of six religious groups, said there was a possibility of cooperation with both the PPP and the PML. Musharraf extended his presidency for five more years through a controversial referendum in April, which the opposition said was massively rigged. On Wednesday, he said the elected Parliament would have the right to undo his amendments with a two-thirds majority but warned that that would bring it into conflict with him. “Then I will decide whether I should quit or they should go,” he said. Zafar Ali Shah, Vice-President of Sharif’s Muslim League, said on Wednesday he did not think the new assembly would validate the changes. “There cannot be a bigger injustice to the constitution and the mandate of the people than this,” he said. Bhutto fiercely criticised the constitutional amendments. “It’s a bit shocking that the General has given himself dictatorial powers,” she said. “He’s calling dictatorship a democracy.” Washington: The USA has stressed the need for restoring democratic rule in Pakistan under the constitution, but declined to comment on President Musharraf’s constitution amendments that extend his rule. The State Department could not comment on the amendments because it has not yet seen a full transcript of Musharraf’s announcement of measures that give him the power to dismiss an elected Parliament and extend his term by another five years. The New York Times says human rights advocates and opposition groups dismiss that ruling as coerced. They point out that it was made after Musharraf seized power and a group of high court judges, refusing an order to take a loyalty oath to his provisional constitution, resigned instead. It also quotes Western diplomats as saying that the changes announced by Musharraf, who announced a series of amendments in July, were not a surprise and were in fact less hardline than some of the July proposals. But they said the general, a former Pakistan army commando, was showing a familiar tendency to alienate potential allies by dictating changes instead of building consensus. Political and rights groups said if the US did not try to curb Musharraf, it would be following a long-established pattern. Washington has repeatedly turned a blind eye to military governments in Pakistan when they suited their short-term interests. The Times says some of Musharraf’s recent actions have cost him support among the middle class. For instance, a referendum he held in April that granted him a five-year term as president was widely viewed as fixed.
Reuters, IANS |
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Bhutto can refile poll plea Karachi, August 22 President Pervez Musharraf announced changes to the Constitution yesterday that increased the President’s powers. Among the amendments was a provision that barred people who have been convicted in absentia from running for office, an issue not addressed by Ms Bhutto’s original petition. Last month, a Pakistani court sentenced Ms Bhutto to three years in prison in a corruption case tried in absentia. Her party, the Pakistan People’s Party, maintains the sentence was part of a campaign to discredit her. Officials have said that if Ms Bhutto returns to Pakistan she will face prosecution on 12 more charges of corruption. The Attorney-General today said Ms Bhutto could not appeal the new- elect on laws because she had not yet filed nomination papers
and, therefore, had not yet been rejected. A two-judge tribunal of the Sind High Court agreed to allow Ms Bhutto’s attorneys to amend their case against the government to address the latest constitutional changes. It would hear arguments on the revised petition on August. 27.
AP |
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Benazir files
nomination in absentia
Islamabad, August 22 The nomination papers of Ms Bhutto, who lives in self-exile shuttling between Dubai and London, were filed on her behalf by the local leaders of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the president of the District Bar Association, Larkana, Mr Ayaz Somroo. They were accompanied by party activists who went in a procession to the election office in Larkhana, the home town of the Bhuttos.
PTI |
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Lake threatens millions in China Beijing, August 22 State media and local officials said 8,50,000 people were fighting to stop Dongting Lake, in the southern province of Hunan, from overflowing and threatening millions after the provincial government declared a flood emergency for the first time since 1998. Water levels could match those in 1998, when the worst floods in decades killed more than 4,000 people after the Yangtze and Dongting burst their banks, the China Daily said. Water levels on the lake hit 34.45 metres, almost 2.5 metres above the flood-warning level, a local flood control official said. Authorities were evacuating people living near embankments along the lake and one of four rivers feeding into it, the Xiangjiang, which was at a record high, local officials said. More than 7,000 soldiers had been mobilised to reinforce embankments around Dongting, shielding more than 10 million people and 6,67,000 hectares of farmland. If Dongting burst its banks, floods could spread to the neighbouring province of Hubei and its capital Wuhan, which had a population of more than seven million people, the China Daily said. Hunan’s capital, Changsha, and its six million people would also be affected. China’s summer floods, which began early this year, had killed more than 900 people, prompting warnings from government officials that these could be more deadly than in 1998. Torrential rains battering paddy fields in Hunan, China’s top rice-growing province, had forced analysts to lower their forecasts for the country’s rice crop this year. Water levels upstream on the Yangtze had reached their highest levels in 14 years, state radio said.
Reuters |
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US checks on civil liberties flayed A forthcoming report by the US-based Century Foundation has challenged the Bush administration’s claims that its actions affecting civil liberties of its citizens should be exempt from judicial oversight and public scrutiny because the nation is at war against terrorism. The report, written by New York University law professor Stephen J. Schulhofer, notes that in previous national emergencies, judges were not willing to grant unlimited deference to judgements of the President and the Attorney-General. It adds: “From the Civil War through World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars, the courts intervened many times to strike down administration initiatives that had been defended as critical for assuring national security and military success.” The report, “The Enemy Within”, to be published on September 5, says in the wake of last year’s terrorist attacks, Americans unwittingly have allowed the federal government to expand its surveillance powers in routine matters unrelated to terrorism and have given up more freedom than is necessary to have desired security. “At the same time, inexplicably, we have failed to assess the causes of the intelligence failures leading up to September 11 and thus have failed to assure that the steps being taken will address security problems that really matter.” Professor Schulhofer details how, to a degree not yet widely appreciated, the executive branch can now detain citizens without charge, restrict public hearings and access to counsel, conduct secret searches, spy electronically and obtain access to previously confidential financial, business and educational files. The report points out that too often, the justifications offered for the steps taken by the government are “disturbingly thin and, in some cases, transparently inadequate.” The new powers acquired by the administration can be exercised unilaterally, without the supervisory control and judicial oversight that were taken for granted until September 11. In many instances, says the report, traditional checks and balances have been obliterated. The Century Foundation, founded in 1919, is a research organisation that undertakes timely, criticial and analytical studies of major economic, political and social issues. |
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China,
Russia sign anti-terror pact Beijing,
August 22 Chinese
Premier Zhu Rongji and his Russian counterpart Mikhail Kasyanov, who
met in Shanghai today for the seventh regular meeting of the two
countries’ Prime Ministers, hailed the treaty signed by Chinese
President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16,
2001. Both sides agreed to jointly implement all articles of the
treaty so as to make new progress in enhancing all-round concrete
cooperation and strategic coordination, the official Xinhua news
agency reported. PTI |
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Protest on visa denial to Dalai Lama Moscow, August 22 With men dressed in deep-red robes worn by Buddhist monks and women in traditional blue, green and gold dresses, the demonstrators chanted “visa for the Dalai Lama” and knelt down in prayer while police watched nervously on. Police broke up the demonstration after about two hours, saying that it was not officially sanctioned. “Comrade Ivanov refused a visa to the Dalai Lama,” remarked a man in his 50s, using a Communist-era address in reference to Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
AFP |
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Jealousy: measure your lover’s ears London, August 22 Researchers have found that asymmetrical persons are more likely to be jealous in love than those who are symmetrical. Scientists have long shown that people whose faces and bodies are the same on both sides are considered more attractive and have an easier time attracting mates. William Brown of Dalhousie University in the Canadian city of Halifax wanted to test how that effects jealous behaviour, one of the strategies people use to keep their lovers from roaming, New Scientist magazine reported . “If
jealousy is a strategy to retain your mate, then the individual more
likely to be philandered on is more likely to be jealous,” Brown
said. He looked at 50 men and women in heterosexual relationships of
varying degrees of intensity, and compared paired features such as
feet, ears and fingers to see who was symmetrical.
Reuters |
ISLAMIC PARTIES TO FIELD WOMEN EC PERMITS PARTIES TO CANVASS 100 PAKISTANIS DEPORTED FROM USA |
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