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Sunday,
January 19, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Pakistanis
may face more US checks Gorshkov deal by March: George WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Violence
can’t alter LoC, says Blackwill USA firm
on Jan 27 deadline
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Saddam
exile rumours dismissed Russian
envoy in N.Korea for N-crisis talks 
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Pakistanis may face more US checks Washington, January 18 Giving reasons for including a US ally like Pakistan in the Immigration and Naturalisation Registration programme, counsel to the Attorney-General in the Department of Justice Kris Kobach told reporters yesterday that it was just an unfortunate recognition of the fact that Al-Qaida has chosen to operate in those countries, including Pakistan. The “unfortunate reality” was that “some of our greatest allies and many countries whose civil rights records are extremely good, countries who have a democratic system of government, countries that are very close to the USA in the war against terrorism, their citizens are included in this,” Kobach said. “We have to try to figure out when the Al-Qaida comes in, and try to improve our information in that respect,” he added. On why finger-printing was so important, he said “a fingerprint on paper can last more than 30 years. And so the training camps (of Al-Qaida) were a source, a mine of fingerprints, as it were.”
PTI |
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Gorshkov deal by March: George Moscow, January 18 Talking to the Indian media here yesterday at the end of the Moscow leg of his six-day visit to Russia, Mr Fernandes said in the ‘landmark’ Indo-Russian defence protocol signed earlier in the day by him with Russian Industries, Science and Technology Minister Ilya Klebanov provides for the completion of negotiations by March-end on the whole package. “Gorshkov is part of the package agreed in the inter-governmental agreement, and all three deals would be signed together,” he said. “For obvious reasons the inter-governmental agreement was kept under wraps. We have a mischievous neighbour and there are some countries which do not want to see us strong, but we need these weapons for our security,” Mr Fernandes said, explaining why the main media focus was on Gorshkov and nuclear capable Tu-22M3 bombers and Akula-class nuclear propelled submarines were sidelined for a long time. “There is a sense of urgency on both sides. The negotiations are on for almost a decade now. We need Gorshkov, it is not a secret. All technical aspects have been agreed, only the issue of price remains to be settled,” he said. Mr Fernandes denied media reports about Russia pressing India on the inclusion of MiG-AT advanced trainer jet in the package. “MiG-AT AJT was not found acceptable by the Air Force,” he said.
PTI |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN THE new political establishment under Prime Minister Zaffarullah Jamali is facing its first major test. It is not only the pro Islamic dispensation under MMA, the main Opposition at the national level and the ruling party in the two sensitive provinces bordering Afghanistan, but even the media are asking for a total review of Pakistan-US relationship. The question being posed is why Pakistan is becoming just a stooge of the United States and fast losing its sovereignty. Both English and Urdu newspapers that represent the cross-section of the media are questioning on daily basis both Prime Minister Jamali and President cum army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf for removing even the fig leaf. Pakistan is a client state and is ready all the time to prove that it is more loyal than the king. So runs the argument. The main issues troubling the political leaders and the media are Americans forces operating from the soil of Pakistan without any check. The FBI is getting a freer hand in detaining Pakistani citizens. And at top the Pakistani citizens are under watch in America. New stringent American laws make visiting nationals to the USA suspect. The genesis of this American bashing lies, in Musharraf usurping power and the USA lending support to him. In turn Musharraf is lending total unconditional support to the Americans after September 11 to enter Pakistan and hunt for any suspected Al-Qaida cadres. First these allegations came from the pro-Islamic outfits and now from others and the mainline newspapers. Why are the Americans dictating? They ask. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, a columnist in the Nation narrates a joke to hammer the bankruptcy of the Pakistan’s foreign policy. It runs like this. There is an imaginary encounter between Afghanistan’s Minister for Railways and Pakistan’s Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs. The Pakistani chap is bright and never spares an opportunity to have a dig at the Afghani brother. “How come you’re Minister for Railways when Afghanistan doesn’t have train service?” Pert came the response, “How come you’re Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs when Pakistan does not have a constitution nor a parliament?” Currently the attack on the new Jamul Government starts with this kind of a dig. Many newspapers like the Urdu Jang, Nawa-e-Waqt, Blochistan Post and many others justify this digression. Hassan adds, “Pakistan today has an imposing Foreign Office, a handsome Foreign Minister perpetually in three-piece with spit-and-shine boots, but no foreign policy. It, is therefore, heartening to note that at least Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal has realised that it was time the National Assembly was invoked to debate Pakistan’s phantom foreign policy and security issues that have rendered the country’s independence and sovereignty into a myth.” The political class is asking whether the USA has any legal right of hot pursuit or not. MMA leaders say, “The contempt by the American forces to Pakistani borders including the historic Durand Line and Pakistan Foreign Office’s ignorance about its existence are matters that don’t augur well for country’s future especially when Afghanistan and Pakistan both are threatened with Balkanisation.” The MMA and the newspapers are keenly debating the issue, which will be soon go before the National Assembly. It is happening when Pakistan’s Foreign Minister is about make his first all-important visit to the USA. Khalid Ahmed while reviewing the Urdu Press in the Daily Times brings out similar assessments. But he cautions by saying, “America does all the mischief because it has global outreach and global leverage. When we accuse it of wicked things, we must pause and see if we have all the facts.” But Massoda Bano in the News International differs she said, “There is desperation to keep believing that the USA is our friend. For the current military regime, which has won its legitimacy internationally not because of the domestic support but because of the willingness it has shown to obey each and every US order, this desperation seems at all time high. After all winning US friendship was touted to be the reward for abandoning Taliban, reversing Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir, extraditing hundreds of Pakistanis and foreign nationals to US in response to US demands, and providing US forces use of Pakistan air space and land space in its war on terrorism. Winning US friendship is the most critical issue for Pakistan’s development, and by following all US orders we have won this friendship”. Others like Khalid Ahmed share some of these concerns. He wrote, “The sole superpower status of the United States has increased Washington’s leverage in the world. Now, the right-wing Islamic Opposition to it has embraced the old Left view of the United States. Cold war history is reconstructed to justify the theory that America was always against the Islamic world. It is now difficult to sift the truth from fiction of anti-American propaganda. No one denies the “interventionism” of Cold War policies, nor is the present leverage of a ‘wounded’ United States denied, but the allegations can and should be put to the test of proof.” |
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Violence
can’t alter LoC, says Blackwill Washington, January 18 In his speech to the alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology in California, he said in the absence of a “jointly agreed Indo-Pakistan alternative, everyone should act to ensure the continued sanctity of the LoC”. He favoured the resumption of diplomatic dialogue between India and Pakistan, which could facilitate people-to-people contact and lay the groundwork for greater bilateral cooperation on a range of common interests. “Indians and Pakistanis from all walks of life should be able to easily travel to other country for family visits, tourism, sports and business. It should not take more time to fly from New Delhi to Islamabad than it does to fly from Delhi to London,” he said.
UNI |
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USA firm on Jan 27 deadline Washington, January 18 The Iraqi regime had the intent to develop weapons of mass destruction and the capacity to do so and the burden was on Iraq to prove that it did not have such weapons, Mr Powell, who was speaking to correspondents from countries who had joined the UN Security Council yesterday, said. He said there were many people who did not want to see the evidence, know anything about it or want to have to deal with this problem. The US military buildup and buildups by other nations that were taking place were part of supporting the diplomatic pressure to make Iraq perform and comply with the council’s resolution, he said. Mr Powell said President George W. Bush had not taken a decision for war and he had said he would like to see this resolved peacefully. But he believed the international community had an obligation to disarm Iraq forcefully. LONDON:
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon will announce on Monday the deployment of at least 14,000 soldiers to the Gulf in preparation for a possible war against Iraq, The Sun reported on Saturday, quoting ministerial sources. At least 7,000 troops from the 1st Armoured Division, based in Germany, would be sent along with a minimum of 150 Challenger II tanks, said the paper.
AFP, PTI |
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Saddam exile rumours dismissed Doha, January 18 “These are stupidities ... and one of the methods of pyschological warfare against Iraq,” Majid, who is a member of Iraq’s decision-making Revolution Command Council, told Al-Jazeera television from Damascus. Arab diplomats were quoted earlier this week as saying that Turkey was working on an exile plan with several Arab states. AFP |
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Russian
envoy in N.Korea for
N-crisis talks Beijing, January 18 Murmurs of war continued to underline the seriousness of a crisis distracting Washington from Iraq as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov flew from Beijing after talks with Chinese officials on how to proceed. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il praised the air force’s defence of the country in face of what he called moved towards war by the enemy, state media said despite a fresh. US assurance that Washington sought a diplomatic solution.
Reuters |
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Indian killed in
Nepal gang fight Kathmandu, January 18 |
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In video:
People in
Karachi continue to protest against the newly introduced immigrant
registration laws and possible strike against Iraq. (
