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Sunday,
September 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Powell lobbies for support on Iraq WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Ahmediyas to boycott poll
Two Indians held for dispute aboard plane |
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India, Nepal
to promote Terai landscape
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Powell lobbies for support on Iraq New York, September 14 “I am pleased with the response I received from the President’s speech,’’ Mr Powell said after a series of meetings yesterday in which he pressed Mr Bush’s demand for Iraqi disarmament. “I think all members of the council now recognise the challenge that Iraq does present to international law and to the mandate of the Security Council,’’ he told a news conference. But the Secretary gave no indication that he received endorsement for using force against Baghdad, as suggested by Mr Bush. Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said in a speech at the General Assembly that his government sought a political settlement, thereby hinting that it would not endorse force. Mr Powell said while Arab nations that make up the Gulf Coordination Council offered “understanding and support,’’ they reminded him that the Arab League was opposed to a conflict in the region. Mr Powell’s diplomacy is only the beginning of what could be an extended process of drafting a resolution that would demand again that Iraq open its weapons sites for inspection and destroy any weapons found. That work will continue next week under the guidance of Mr Powell, Mr John Negroponte, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, and possibly, Vice-President Dick Cheney, who plans to hold talks with world leaders in New York. By then, Mr Powell said, the ministers would have had a chance over the weekend to consult with their capitals. Mr Powell told reporters that Arab ministers probably would be in touch with Saddam. Earlier, Foreign Ministers of the UN Security Council’s five permanent member nations said Iraq’s refusal to obey past UN resolutions “is a serious matter and that Iraq must comply.’’ The statement, read by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, said the ministers had begun consultations on how the Security Council can “ensure implementation of its resolutions.’’ Mr Bush had said earlier yesterday he doubted Saddam would give up on developing weapons of mass destruction, even as the administration began lobbying for a UN resolution containing fresh demands and Russia signalled that it might lend its support. Mr Bush also wants congressional backing for possible military action against Iraq and he spoke mockingly of Democrats who have been holding back. WASHINGTON:
The USA has evidence Iraq has mobile laboratories to make chemical or biological weapons, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said. Gen Richard Myers also said the Pentagon probably would move a regional military headquarters to the Gulf from its current base in Florida. Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have said that Iraq could have mobile weapons production labs, citing UN inspectors’ reports that Iraq was trying to build them Mr Myers’ comments at the National Press Club were the first suggesting that the USA had evidence. “There is evidence to support mobile production capability for chemical and biological weapons,” Mr Myers said. “It does not take a lot of space for some of this work to go on. It can be done in a very, very small location. And the fact that you can put it on wheels makes it a lot easier to hide from people that might be looking for it.”
AP
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN With less than a month left for the crucial elections, Pakistan has nothing to show on the ground. There is a depressing lack of the traditional political activity and streets and walls are still bereft of banners, flags, posters and usual electoral bric-a-brac. Even the ‘mammoth’ crowds the parties speak about are missing and the few meetings that are being held provide no encouragement. The dark shadow of the khaki dictatorship backed by the USA has overshadowed everything. The manifestos are tardy in coming, and in any case these have the same tired promises of the past and as one newspaper commented: “Democracy and streams of milk and honey are there with a few new ones like accountability and meaningful reforms, whatever that means.” Given such an arid landscape, the exhortations of the government or the contestants to the people to join the exercise ring hollow, nay hypocritical. The military government carefully planned every step of the polls, the code and regulations covering the elections. But evidently the electorate’s reaction and mood were not taken into consideration. Most mainline newspapers hold the General guilty. The leading English daily Dawn said: “ President Musharraf has done to his opposition what his predecessors, both the military dictators as well as the democratically-elected ones, had done to theirs in their respective tenures. In Pakistan’s political culture the opposition has always been identified as something of a nuisance and not as the all-important ‘check and balance’ clog in the proper functioning of parliamentary democracy. Branded as a bunch of ‘traitors’ or ‘corrupt’ or both the opposition has always been hounded out of the arena by the ruler of the day.” Ayub, Zia and all others did this. And now Musharraf has done the same. Benazir, Nawaz or Altaf Hussain not only cannot contest the next election, but also they probably cannot even return home as long as he remains in power. He has, therefore, set for himself three objectives: One, to keep these top leaders out of the contest; second, to smash both the PPP and the PML (N) to smithereens making it impossible for their followers to know whether these parties are coming or going; and third, to get a parliament elected which would give the army a permanent role in the governance of the country. Dawn observed: “As of today Musharraf seems to have succeeded in achieving his first objective; he has, seemingly, almost reached the winning post on the second objective as well; and, seemingly, he has succeeded in ‘paving’ the way for achieving the third.” In rural Punjab where the elections have been so engineered as to cause a complete rout of the PML (N) and the PPP. Since the MQM in urban Sindh, the MMA in Baluchistan and the alliance of the PPP (Sherpao) and the PML (Q) in the NWFP appear reasonably strong enough to stop the PML (N) and the PPP from winning any significant number of seats in these areas, the establishment, it appears, does not feel it necessary to apply the hatchet. On the other hand it has decided to let the two parties have a free hand in urban Punjab because of the fear of adverse reaction to any pre-poll rigging from a public which does not dread the ‘thana’ and ‘kutchery’ as much as its rural counterpart. Rural Sindh has been handed over to SDA of Imtiaz Shiekh to snatch away as many seats as possible from the PPP. This simple pre-poll engineering is estimated to yield as many as 106 seats to PML (Q) out of a total of 272 general National Assembly seats, making it the single largest party. But some observers disagree and assert that this dream may turn into a nightmare. What if despite everything Musharraf still gets a hostile parliament? Some do not give the PML (Q) no more than 36 seats in Parliament, no matter what the extent of pre-poll engineering. So some selective rigging on the polling day! But what if something went wrong with so many international observers roaming the country and one is caught with his hand in the till as happened during the referendum? Then you would be confronted not only with a hostile nation but also a hostile world. Rigging is one answer and secondly the party profile, which Dawn and other newspapers like Nation predicted, a la khichri, would only help the military dictator. Look at the past four elections, count the extra 17 million more votes and 65 extra seats in parliament, the total polled votes could be around 30 million. Taking into consideration campaign and seat adjustment between the major parties, one cannot rule out the possibility of the three parties winning as many as 195 seats among themselves. The remaining being shared by the smaller parties contesting in Baluchistan and other parts of the country. A parliament with such a profile can hardly be expected to endorse the President’s proposal to give the armed forces a permanent role in the governance. The President could use the renewed Article 58(2b). “But would not that be too costly a way, in political and financial terms, to come back from where you started from within a couple of months. So, why undertake the journey at all? And Bush too would not mind it as long as you are ‘tight’ with him on international terrorism. Pakistan is thus back to square one despite referendum and coming elections”. Dawn asked. It was left to Ayaz Amir, the well-known columnist to sum up the situation: “What is Pakistan’s foremost problem at the moment? The feeling of indispensability sweeping the Musharraf regime. After me, the deluge. What is Pakistan’s foremost need? To convince Caesar that he is mortal. Who can perform this function? Only a parliament that doesn’t dance to the ISI’s tune, whose members do not take instructions from ISI brigadiers and major-generals. This election then is not about reviving the fallen fortunes of Ms Bhutto or the Sharifs. It is about restoring a balance in Pakistan’s polity, a balance that currently has ceased to exist. Gen Musharraf’s constitutional prescriptions have already wrecked the very notion of check and balance.” |
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Ahmediyas to boycott poll Islamabad, September 14 Under the joint electorate system, which President Pervez Musharraf restored to prove his credentials in the fight against global terrorism, Muslims and non-Muslims — Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Parsis — vote jointly. The Ahmediyas have been excluded and have decided to boycott the elections this time. Ahmediyas, who are no more than three million in Pakistan, were declared a non-Muslim minority in 1974 through a constitutional amendment by Parliament. Since the 1973 constitution envisaged a joint electorate system, they continued to be part of the system. In 1985, the then military ruler Gen Zia-ul-Haq abolished this system and introduced a separate electorate system under which non-Muslim minorities elected their own representatives. This put minorities out of the national mainstream in practice. Ahmediyas were allotted only one seat for which they refused to fight in the beginning.
UNI |
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Two Indians held for dispute aboard plane Washington, September 14 According to reports in the US media, Gurdeep Singh Wender and Harinder Pal Singh got into a dispute with flight attendants over use of a washroom on September 12. The dispute prompted the pilot of the Memphis-to-Las Vegas flight to cut the flight short and land at Fort Smith, Arkansas, where they were arrested amid heightened tension of the September 11 terror attacks anniversary. The criminal complaint charges them with interference with flight crew members and attendants on Northwest Airlines Flight 979. If found guilty, they may be sentenced to up to 20 years in jail. They were produced before a local magistrate yesterday. The dispute arose when Wender locked himself in the washroom for suspiciously long time and repeatedly refused to leave. After Wender finally came out, Singh insisted on using the same washroom, raising the suspicion of the flight attendants, who alarmed the pilots. The flight attendant who raised an alarm said she feared they might be planting explosive devices. She also accused the duo of intimidation. The complaint, however, does not suggest that the men intended to cause harm to passengers.
PTI |
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India, Nepal
to promote Terai landscape Kathmandu, September 14 Senior conservation officials of both the countries are expected to chalk out a plan for establishing a working relation between the concerned bodies to institutionalise the Terai Arc landscape in both the countries for the perpetual conservation of bio-diversity and sustainable community development. The Terai Arc landscape covers more than 49,500 sq km network of 11 protected areas including seven from India and four from Nepal and forest corridors on the foothills of the Himalayas, officials said. It stretches along the Indo-Nepal border from Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National Park to India’s Rajaji Corbett Park. The meeting will discuss improving respective national legislations and strategic plans of convention on international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna implementation and initiation for tri-national peace park at Kanchanjungha complex, including China, officials said.
UNI |
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New York, September 14
