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Thursday,
September 26, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Arms sales: USA, Pak resume talks Elections fail to enthuse Pakistan voters Pak parties to thwart rigging USA stands
by Blackwill’s remarks SU-30 MKIs to be inducted tomorrow
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Women Taliban’s new
weapon
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Arms sales: USA, Pak resume talks
Islamabad, September 25 The four-day meeting is the joint Defence Consultative Group’s first since Washington imposed sanctions on Islamabad for conducting nuclear tests in 1998. Formal talks are going to be held tomorrow when US Under-Secretary of Defence Douglas J Feith arrives in Islamabad. The revival of the group is a significant development, says Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, DG ISPR and spokesman for President Musharraf. The talks come a day after US Secretary of State Colin Powell met Pakistani Foreign Minister, Inamul Haq, in Washington. Pakistan has been a prominent backer of the US-led war on terror over the last year, and hopes to be allowed to purchase modern US weapons and equipment for its military in return. President’s spokesman Gen Rashid Qureshi said the resumption of defence discussions was a very significant development. “Such meetings will definitely help enhance defence cooperation between Pakistan and the USA, he added. Pentagon officials said Pakistan wanted to beef up its border defences with India and Afghanistan. Islamabad hoped the USA would release weapons already earmarked for Pakistan but the sale of which was put on hold after the 1998 tests. Restarting joint military exercises was also on the agenda, the officials said. The US delegation head would meet President Musharraf and senior military officials during his stay. The US cut military aid to Pakistan in 1990 for its nuclear programme. Further sanctions were imposed after the 1998 tests. UNI
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Elections fail to enthuse Pakistan voters
Islamabad, September 25 The long-awaited poll on October 10 for national and provincial parliaments are the first since a military coup three years ago. But any excitement at the prospect of a return to civilian rule has been doused by the elimination of big-name candidates and tight curbs on street campaigning. Scepticism that power will really be returned to civilian hands by the military regime has also extinguished the traditional election fever. The apathy of 24-year-old petrol station worker Zubair Ahmed is typical of many in Islamabad. “I have a vote but I will not use it ... By the way, when are these elections going to be held?” he asked. Political commentator Amir Mateen points to the ousting of the two political families who have dominated Pakistan’s political arena as the main reason for such apathy. “The absence of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and official restrictions are going to make these elections the most boring exercise in the history of the country,” he said. “There is no real element of choice and that is why there is lack of excitement among the electorate,” analyst Mohammad Afzal Niazi said. Musharraf says he is determined to avoid a return to what he calls the corrupt eras of Bhutto and Sharif, who ruled successively in the 11 years that preceded his takeover. In their absence, low-profile and uncharismatic politicians have emerged as aspirants for premiership. “There is no national campaigner to stir up interest among the masses,” Niazi said. The largest rally so far attracted just 3,000 persons. In an apparent bid to spur Pakistanis to polling booths, the government has cut the voting age from 21 to 18. Mateen has warned that a low turnout on the voting day will “put the whole exercise in doubt” and cast questions over the legitimacy of the new parliament. AFP
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Pak parties to thwart rigging
Islamabad, September 25 The initiative to form a joint front against organised rigging came from the three major political parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) headed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) backed by former premier Nawaz Sharif and Tehrik-e-Insaf led by cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, a media report said today. PPP’s vice-chairman Makhdoon Fahim, PML (N)’s chairman, Zafar-ul Haq and Imran Khan planned to meet later this week to chalkout a strategy to work out a combined opposition to government’s alleged efforts to prop up its favoured politicians to get them elected to the national Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. These leaders would be meeting here in the next couple of days to reach a consensus on giving a substantive ultimatum to the government to stop meddling in the electoral process or to go for an all-out agitation, it said. These leaders were also in contact with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, an alliance of six religious parties to form a joint front against rigging in favour of the government backed political parties. According to PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar, all major parties in the run are perturbed over the reports of planned rigging. PTI
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Pak denies hand in temple attack Islamabad, September 25 “Indeed we feel that those behind this terrorist attack and those trying to drag Pakistan into it are working to
height on tensions in the region,” the statement said without naming Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, who had charged Islamabad for the attack.
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USA stands by Blackwill’s remarks
Islamabad, September 25 US officials told Haq, who is visiting Washington, that American Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill’s remarks that infiltration across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir had increased were backed by evidence. According to the Washington datelined reports in the Pakistani media, the recent critical remarks on cross-border infiltration from Pakistan made by Mr Blackwill were also “duly cleared” by the Bush administration. The reports said the Bush administration had sent a strong message to President Pervez Musharraf through Haq that the USA expected “full restoration of democracy” in Pakistan. The twin messages of end to infiltration as well as to complete restoration of democracy in Pakistan were conveyed to Haq during his meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powel, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for the past two days in Washington, Pakistan newspaper Daily Times reported today. During her meeting with Haq, Ms Rice told him that infiltration into the Jammu and Kashmir must stop, as there were continuing and disturbing reports that after a hiatus, it had been resumed, though not necessarily on the old scale. PTI
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SU-30 MKIs to be inducted tomorrow
Moscow, September 25 “With its induction India would have the most efficient air arm for safeguarding its strategic national interests in the Indian Ocean,” Dr Alex Vaskin, Director coordinator of the Indo-Russian Security Forum (ISRF) think-tank, said. SU-30MKI — a “four plus” generation fighter, surpasses its closest rival the US F-18 SUper Hornet by 30-40 per cent in manoeuvrability and on-board weaponry and already possesses some of the features of JSF fifth generation fighter project. With in-flight refuelling, the operational zone of SU-30MKI covers the full area of the Indian Ocean from Malacca Strait in the east to the Red Sea in the west, virtually leading to the geopolitical dominance of India and keeping the Chinese presence within the framework acceptable for the national defence, Dr Vaskin believes. According to him, the SU-30MKI specially tailored to meet the Air Force’s requirements in the next two decades is far superior to its MKK variant supplied to China with less sophisticated avionics and armaments. “Super manoeuvrability of SU-30MKI, which is expected to be inducted by the Russian Air Force as SU-37, perfectly fits into India’s military doctrine poised to avert Iraq or Yugoslavia-like situations, when these two countries lacked the capability to hit back at adversary’s massive naval grouping,” Dr Konstantin Makiyenko of Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) independent defence think-tank says. India had signed the initial SUkhoi deal worth $ 1.8 billion with Russia’s Rosoboronexport (formerly Rosvooruzhenie) State Arms Trading Corporation in 1996 for the purchase of 40 SU-30K planes and made advance payment for the development of MKI to bring down the total cost of development and production. PTI
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Women Taliban’s new weapon
Kabul, September 25 Like “mules” used in other countries as drug couriers, women have effectively become the new secret weapon of the Taliban extremists in their clandestine operations. Living “mostly” in total poverty, these Afghan women seem to have been “bought” for these missions. It is an apparently new phenomenon in this country where strict Islamic values prevail and under which any questioning of a woman is considered a serious misdeed. “It proves that psychologically the Taliban, weakened by the anti-terrorist campaign, have decided to adopt more extreme solutions,” said a Kabul-based western military expert. A US military spokeswoman, Lieut-Col Carla Sylvester, said at Bagram Air Base north of here, on Monday that US troops during raids on Sunday in central and eastern Afghanistan discovered weapons hidden under women’s burqas, suspected to have been concealed on behalf of the Al-Qaida. “We have seen several incidents of this kind where women are used to hide weapons and other items under their burqas,” she said. The burqa is an all-encompassing robe with a cloth grill over the eyes, which women were systematically forced to wear under the Taliban’s harsh regime from 1996 to 2001. AFP
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11 Palestinians arrested Jerusalem, September 25 The 11 arrested were on a list drawn up by the Israeli intelligence services, the army said. Six were rounded up in Tulkarm. The house blown up in Dura, in the southern West Bank, was the home of Anais and Akram al-Namura, who were jailed after a series of attacks, including a bomb blast which killed an Israeli officer. Some 15 persons lived in the three-storeyed dwelling, which belonged to their father. Since the beginning of August, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 40 houses of suicide bombers and others linked to attacks in a measure of retaliation and a bid to dissuade others.
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3 Indian
drug dealers get death penalty Dubai, September 25 The three, Hamid Soofi Mohiyuddin (40), Sulaiman Rahman Ibrahim (30) and Sebastian Kurian (33), were nabbed in a sting operation by Dubai police in May, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. An informer had alerted the anti-drug department that Hamid was in possession of drugs.
PTI |
FOREIGN
ULTRAS ‘ONLY IN POCKETS’ PERVEZ:
MINIMUM DETERRENCE TO GO ON US
DEFENCE TEAM TO VISIT LOC PPPP
CHIEF SURE OF POLL VICTORY |
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