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Wednesday,
August 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Benazir sees pre-poll rigging
Pak plans to detain
Sharif, Bhutto Scrutiny of papers
begins in Pak USA trying for Musharraf-Vajpayee talks?
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India seeks method for conserving resources
Sikh votes crucial in Canada New Diana conspiracy unveiled ‘Sub-standard spares’ led to MiG crashes
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Benazir sees pre-poll rigging
London, August 27 “I have been to the Commonwealth Secretary-General and my party has been in touch with the Commonwealth through Islamabad also,” the two-time Prime Minister said. “Pre-election rigging is taking place. The government houses of Punjab and Sindh have been turned into campaign headquarters against the Pakistan People’s Party. One of my demands is to have a neutral administration in place so that there is a level playing field,” she said. Ms Benazir demanded that the ballot count should be done in the presence of representatives of candidates as in other Commonwealth countries, including India and the UK. “Unless the vote count is changed, I doubt this election will have anything to do with fairness or impartiality or neutrality,” she told PTI in an interview here last evening. “I hear that our candidates are being approached by the police and colonels of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). They are being asked not to file papers under the PPP or face National Accountability Bureau cases. They have been told clearly that ‘we are not going to allow the PPP to win’, that the elections are pre-judged and the electoral seats are pre-decided”. “All these activities are contrary to the public claims of General Musharraf that he is going to hold fair elections,” she alleged. “A greater concern to us is the ballot count. The sanctity of ballot is observed when the counting is done in the presence of representatives of candidates and in the presence of the returning officer. This has happened everywhere in India, Bangladesh and UK... But the military regime in Islamabad is trying to do the counting in the Election Commission,” Ms Benazir said. “There, they will be opening the ballot bags without the presence of candidates or their representatives. In such a situation they can spoil ballots or add ballots. This is what the regime does”. “So we are demanding that the vote count be changed — counting be done in the presence of representatives of the candidates in the presence of the returning officer rather than in the Election Commission office.”
PTI |
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Pak plans to detain Sharif, Bhutto
Islamabad, August 27 The plans to apprehend Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif and their family members if they return home on grounds of deteriorating health of their respective parents were chalked out at a meeting of the officials of the Interior Ministry last week. “If Mian Sharif’s (Nawaz Sharif’s father) health deteriorates to dangerous levels and the family wants to bring him to Pakistan, the Saudi Government will be requested to allow up to five family members to accompany him,” Daily Times quoted sources as saying. “The accompanying family members will be taken into ‘protective custody’ on their arrival and also transported by helicopter to the Sharif estate in Raiwind,” the paper said adding that Sharif’s family members would be immediately sent back to Saudi Arabia, where they were sent in December 2000 under a deal with the Pakistani Government. Arrangements will be made to ensure that the aircraft carrying them lands in Pakistan in non-rush hours of the evening, night or early morning, the daily said. It said the relevant authorities would be asked to handle the situation during their stay in Pakistan. The meeting also took a number of decisions related to the possible arrival of Mr Sharif’s brother Shahbaz Sharif, who has been appointed the new PML (N) chief, in connection with the forthcoming general elections in the country to lead his party. For Ms Bhutto the arrangement would be more or less the same. She would be arrested if she accompanied her aged mother Nusrat Bhutto and shifted to prison after “appropriately” handling her mother. Ms Bhutto would be shifted to a rest house in Rawalpindi and detained there in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau which has already issued her arrest warrants in different cases, the sources said.
PTI |
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Scrutiny of papers begins in Pak
Islamabad, August 27 An advocate filed nomination papers for the exiled two-time Prime Minister, his wife Kulsoom Nawaz and younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, who has been appointed as the new leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML - N), in their home city of Lahore yesterday. Returning Officer Mustafa Tanveer Safwat, however, raised strong objections while receiving their nomination papers, stating that their papers had not been attested by the Pakistan Embassy in Saudi Arabia. He was quoted by the media here today as saying that there was nothing on record to satisfy him that the papers had actually been signed by the candidates themselves or that they had authorised the representatives in writing. He observed that the attestation of a local notary was not sufficient and in case the nomination papers of both candidates duly attested by the Pakistani Embassy were not filed by September 1, he would reject them.
PTI |
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USA trying for Musharraf-Vajpayee talks? Islamabad, August 27 “The Bush Administration is trying to facilitate the meeting but it depends on the leaders of the two countries,” the official said. India had on Monday ruled out a bilateral meeting with Pakistan on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will be in New York next month to attend the General Assembly session. The official said both leaders are scheduled to meet U.S. President George Bush. “The (Bush) Administration is working out a plan for peace which may be acceptable to both countries. But it depends on both sides,” said the official. He said a US diplomat was in India and on Monday visited Jammu and Kashmir while another had briefed China about Washington’s efforts to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan. He was referring to Lisa Curtis, senior adviser to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca, who is reported to have met Kashmiri leaders on Monday. The analysts here see the visit as part of Washington’s effort to get a first-hand view of the situation in Kashmir ahead of the New York visits of Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf. Media reports also say that US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, after visiting Pakistan and India, briefed Chinese leaders in Beijing about US efforts to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan. But the two sides continue to differ on a variety of issues. Ahmed Hashmi, an international relations expert here, said statements by Indian leaders, particularly External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, indicate there is little chance of a Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting in New York. A Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said: “The President has said he’s ready to meet the Indian leader at any place and any time, so if any move is made we would for sure consider it.” Reacting to a statement by Mr Sinha on Monday, spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said joint patrolling of the India-Pakistan border was not possible. “We have already stated our position as it was not feasible in the present circumstances.” “There are no terrorist camps in Pakistan. About alleged infiltration we have repeatedly suggested international monitors on the Line of Control,” Khan said. “Kashmir is at the core of all our disputes with India,” he said adding, “We can only move towards normalcy with the solution of this issue.”
IANS |
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India seeks method for conserving resources
Johannesburg, August 27 The international community should address the basic issues regarding conservation and sustainable use of diverse biological resources, Union Minister for Environment and Forests T.R. Baalu, said addressing delegates at the World Summit on Sustainable Development here. The developed nations should ensure benefits to countries of origin of germplasm resources, he said during the plenary session on Biodiversity and Eco Systems. The minister said the benefits should include location of research and technological facilities in the countries of origin in addition to payment of royalty and monetary compensation. Mr Baalu said there is a need for developing an internationally-recognised regime for recognising the property rights, both intellectual and physical, of the local communities. He said patent applicants should disclose the source of origin of the genetic material being used, knowledge and practice about use of such resources by the local communities and make a general declaration that the laws, practices and guidelines for the use of such material in the country of origin have been followed. The minister said the international community should also address the issue of building up capacities of biological diversity to enable countries to do bio-prospecting and sustainable use of such resources and ensuring strict safeguards before the introduction of transgenics. Mr Baalu told the delegates that conservation and sustainable use of biological resources in India was based on the strategy of involvement of local communities.
PTI |
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Sikh votes crucial in Canada Vancouver (Canada), August 27 The question arose after Mr Herb Dhaliwal, a Punjabi Sikh and first Sikh Cabinet Minister, is considering contesting the Liberal leadership once Mr Jean Chretien (the current Prime Minister) and leader of the Liberals resigns. Mr Dhaliwal is going to introduce the “apna factor” (the Punjabi term for one of us) into the next Liberal elections, which at the federal level is a ‘first-time happening’. “He could well be a king-maker,” said Mr Gurbux Saini, a Liberal member from British Columbia in a Vancouver Sun report. Mr Dhaliwal has no chance of winning, but can trade his support in for a future post as Deputy Prime Minister or Finance Minister, said Mr Saini. Mr Paul Martin, a former Finance Minister and the most serious contender for prime ministership (recently sacked by Mr Chretien), is already wooing the Indo-Canadians among whom he has a strong presence. His rival and Chretien favourite, Allan Rock, the Industry Minister, is also working overtime to garner their (the Sikhs) support and has already won kudos due to grants made for gurdwaras and festivals. The recent designation of the Abbotsford gurdwara as a national heritage site and the $10,000 for the Miri Piri Parade has placed the Chretien group in a favourable light with the Sikhs.
UNI |
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New Diana conspiracy unveiled PARIS: The gilded Flame of Freedom overlooking the tunnel where Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash five years ago has been barricaded off, preventing Di-worshippers from covering the four-metre monument with poems, letters and photographs. With no plans by either the British Embassy or the Paris city council to commemorate the anniversary this weekend, the metal barriers give the impression that Diana’s memory may be fading. The Flame of Freedom, a replica of the Statue of Liberty torch, has nothing to do with the Princess of Wales, but it became a makeshift shrine to her after the fatal car accident on August 31, 1997, and has not yet been replaced by a commemorative plaque or other memorial on the site. The city council has put off for at least five years a proposal to name a street after her. The French press, encouraged by the rather unhelpful response from British officials to requests for information on the fifth anniversary, have begun to speculate on a policy to snuff out Diana’s memory. Last week two glossies, the royalist Point de Vue and the popular VSD, began what promises to be a succession of articles referring to British coolness. The magazines used a deluge of ‘exclusive’ interviews with Diana’s closest associates to argue that official indifference was no accident. In Point de Vue, Diana’s private secretary Patrick Jephson was quoted as saying: “I am convinced that spin doctors for Charles and the royal family would like us to completely forget the Diana episode. This is a necessary part of their campaign to win support for Camilla Parker Bowles”. VSD made the same point in an interview with Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, who complained of being squeezed out of plans to celebrate her daughter’s memory, which had resulted in nothing except “a very inadequate fountain in Hyde Park”. Thierry de Villiers, a journalist specialising in royal stories, said most of the French press believed Buckingham Palace had leant on the French authorities and the embassy to play down the fifth anniversary, a task made easier by the disbanding of local, privately run Diana commemorative associations which have shut up shop without leaving an address, even on the web. “The (Socialist) city council was only too pleased to shelve a Diana memorial, while private associations threw in the towel long ago because they have never received encouragement from British officialdom,” he said. “For Paris, the affair has always been an embarrassment after British press allegations of a bungled inquiry and poor medical care. It’s not likely that the Mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, would want to remember a traffic accident anyway — he hates anything to do with cars”. His Gaullist predecessor, Jean Tiberi, could only come up with the idea of naming a kindergarten vegetable garden after the princess. There may be a spontaneous revival of public sentiment after the flood of articles being prepared by the popular press, but for the moment torpor reigns. Anyone seeking the 13th pillar in the underpass, beside the Seine, which Diana’s Mercedes struck at 160 kph, can make the pilgrimage safely in the nearly traffic-free atmosphere of a Paris August. But even two years ago in high summer the crowd around the Flame of Freedom was thick enough to force the latecomers off the pavement. Some scribbled messages left by visitors from Canada, Australia and Ireland on surrounding walls are dated this month, proving there is still a cult around the underpass accident, which left many unanswered questions. Police had to abandon the hunt for a white Fiat which the Mercedes supposedly struck during the late-night run from the Ritz. Three years of inquiries failed to support claims of an assassination plot, and one of the judicial postscripts was cleared away in April when nine photographers accused of failing to help Diana were declared innocent. Claims by the parents of driver Henri Paul that he was framed — supposedly his liver was switched to show he was alcoholic — have revived a flicker of interest following support from Shand Kydd, who thinks Paul was a scapegoat, and Dodi’s father, Mohamed al-Fayed, who is still claiming there was a Secret Service conspiracy to save the royal family from the embarrassment of a remarriage with a Muslim. But if nobody else remembers to gather at the Flame of Freedom next weekend, Georges will be on duty as usual. Georges is a monosyllabic pensioner who has shown many a Di-fan how to approach the site without getting knocked over.
Guardian |
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‘Sub-standard spares’ led to MiG crashes Moscow, August 27 |
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Johannesburg, August 27
