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Sunday,
May 11, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Bush,
Mishra hold “substantive” talks WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Pervez’s
presidency: govt, oppn talks fail Kasuri
leaves for Security Council meeting
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Lankan
ministers for snap poll
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Bush, Mishra hold “substantive” talks Washington, May 10 The meeting took place when Mr Mishra went to the White House for a scheduled meeting with his counterpart Condoleezza Rice. Official sources told PTI that it was not a “drop by” but a “substantive” 15-minute meeting on Thursday, the day US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was visiting Pakistan before coming to India. Addressing a press conference, Mr Mishra, who also held talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell, told reporters that he renewed India’s invitation to Mr Bush to visit the country. Mr Bush said he was keen to visit India but could not say when it would take place. Mr Bush, said Mr Mishra noted the
deepening of the friendship between India and the USA. Mr Mishra said he discussed bilateral relations as well as the Prime Minister’s initiative, the steadily deepening US-India relations and the situation in Afghanistan with Mr Bush and other Administration leaders. To questions about the US role vis-a-vis India and Pakistan, Mr Mishra said the role Washington played and wanted to play was prevention of conflict between India and Pakistan, not in the solution of the Kashmir problem. He pointed out that when there was a tense situation between India and Pakistan, they wanted the two countries to exercise restraint and avoid conflict. India says the same thing. They do say to Islamabad “Stop cross border terrorism”. They tell both: “It is in our interest to prevent conflict. “That is a legitimate position”, the National Security Adviser, said. Regarding his meeting with Mr Powell, which lasted 45 minutes, Mr Mishra said: “Again, we talked about bilateral issues as also the regional situation. We touched upon the situation in Afghanistan.” Later, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher described the meeting between Mr Mishra and Mr Powell as “very good” and said the USA, if necessary, would help in the process of improving Indo-Pak ties. About his meeting with Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, Mr Mishra said he believed the defence policy group of the two countries would meet in the last week or so. This was part of the ongoing interaction between the two countries, which had held joint Army exercises and conducted joint naval patrols.
PTI |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN INDO-PAK relations, turbulent as these are, always draw major attention in Pakistani newspapers. But after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s now famous Srinagar speech signalling some thaw, there is no English or Urdu newspaper which has not exhausted reams of newsprint explaining or commenting on what the leaders are saying in the two countries and what steps are being announced. Each newspaper, from Dawn to Nation and Daily Times or Jang to Nawa-e-Waqt, has offered its own kind of advice. In fact, the nature of the advice has been a changing phenomenon. Ayaz Amir writing in Dawn called a spade a spade when he wrote, “ The past three and a half years - that is, since the Musharraf takeover - have been amongst the most barren and fruitless in our history. Firstly because of Kargil and the mistrust it engendered. Then because of the hash both sides made of the Agra summit, an opportunity sacrificed not so much because the ground leading to the summit hadn’t been well prepared but because when the crunch came, neither side could rise above its ingrained prejudices.” “The problem between our two countries has never been the lack of adequate homework, a line usually taken to explain why nothing came of the Lahore Declaration and later the Agra summit. In fact, left to experts, it is the very thoroughness of their homework, leading inevitably to the restating of old and tired positions, which has always stymied the quest to untangle the past and move ahead. Lack of vision and not lack of homework has been our problem.” Amir thought. It was indeed a rare comment by any senior journalist. Recalling a bit of history, the columnist blamed the leadership in the subcontinent. “After a lifetime spent watching the oafishness and stupidity characterising Pakistan-India relations, it will take more than routine clichés to convince doubting Thomases that our two countries are capable of conducting their relationship on an intelligent basis. Wisdom is hoping for too much because the evidence of the past 55 years is enough to show that anything like wisdom is not a subcontinental quality. We wax lyrical about our long history, about the subcontinent being one of the cradles of civilization. But for all the good sense we have inherited we could be two juvenile countries struggling to cope with the demands of adulthood,” Amir wrote. Jang, an Urdu daily, was less sceptic and its editorials devoted more attention to nuclearisation of the subcontinent. It wrote, “The direction of Mr Jamali’s moves in creating normality in Indo-Pak relations was to move a step further by discussing nuclear and strategic stability in the region. Pakistan was not merely seeking a return to the former run-of-the-mill relations but a comprehensive dialogue on more critical issues that had not been touched upon so far. Nuclear capability of the two states was a major source of concern for the international community when the region underwent a prolonged period of high tension with forces massed on the borders and the war rhetoric marked by nuclear threats.” Daily Times carried an article by I.M Moshin, a former Interior Secretary. His argument was,” The Simla agreement was a unique achievement for both parties. Despite all that has happened since, it is clear that India and Pakistan need to stick to the framework created at Simla. The problems between India and Pakistan can only be resolved through dialogue.” Reading scores of articles convinces that some like Amir can take pro-peace position without mincing words but others were prisoners of their country’s rhetoric. |
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Pervez’s presidency: govt, oppn talks fail Islamabad, May 10 A 11-member special committee concluded its talks here yesterday without reaching any agreement on the issue whether General Musharraf should continue to be President and army chief. The Opposition which declined to accept General Musharraf’s election through a referendum last year, wants him to quit as army chief as a compromise, but he declined to do so far. After week-long talks, both sides said that major differences have arisen over the timeframe in which Musharraf would quit as the army chief. The opposition wants him to quit the post by middle of next year, but he wants the timeframe to be left to him. An official press release issued here last night said “members of the committee unanimously decided that more deliberations were necessary on the proposals so far advanced by the two sides and for this the ruling alliance and the combined opposition would seek advice from their party leaders. For this purpose the proceedings of the committee be postponed till 4.30 pm on Monday, May 12.” Commenting on the committee’s proceedings, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, deputy parliamentary leader of the Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA), who took part in the talks, said the committee would prepare its recommendations incorporating opposition demands. While members belonging to the government side would turn to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali for advice on the opposition’s demands, the opposition members would brief their party leaders about the progress made in the talks over various issues and seek their advice.
PTI |
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Kasuri leaves for Security Council meeting Islamabad, May 10 The meeting has been convened by Pakistan after it took over the presidency of the UNSC for the month of May. Issues relating to Kashmir, Iraq and Palestine are expected to figure in the agenda of the meeting, sources said. After the meeting, Mr Kasuri would travel to Washington to discuss initiatives taken by the country towards normalising relations with India and the follow-up action in the wake of the visit of US Deputy Secretary, Richard Armitage to the region. During his stay in Washington, Mr Kasuri would meet US National Security Adviser, Condoleeza Rice. He is also scheduled to meet former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and address a meeting of the Heritage Foundation, they said.
PTI |
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Lankan ministers for snap poll Colombo, May 10 The fresh power tussle between President Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came to the fore last night after the President decided to take over the functioning of the Development Lottery Board from the Economic Reforms Ministry, political sources said. Before Kumaratunga could give legal effect to the move by publishing it in the official gazette, the government shut down the state-run printing presses and called in the police to prevent rioting outside the press. The move led the ministers to demand snap elections at an emergency meeting of the cabinet headed by the Prime Minister earlier in the day. “The cabinet discussed the matter at length and the feeling was that they should ask the President to call a snap election if she is not agreeable to work in the cohabitation arrangement”, a political source said here. This is the first major showdown between the President and the Prime Minister since Wickremesinghe assumed office after his victory in the parliamentary elections held in 2001. There was no immediate word from the President, who had travelled to the central region of the island to consult with her close aides.
PTI |
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Phone call that cost him life Sydney, May 10 Anthony Ambrose, 41, was said to have been speaking to his family back home when the van crashed into the phone booth in suburban Doonside early in the morning. Chief Inspector John Thommeny at the Blacktown police station in Sydney west said Ambrose, a resident of Mumbai, was visiting Australia on a tourist visa and was staying at
Woodcroft. His visa had expired a month ago, he said adding that the police was trying to trace the family in India. One of the sisters of the deceased, residing in Canada, contacted the police here and was told about the accident.
PTI |
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Five killed in Philippines bomb blast Manila, May 10 The dead included the suspected bomber, who left a package which exploded in a motor-cycle cab, said Mayor of Koronadal City on the southern island of Mindanao Fernando Miguel. He was speaking on the local radio. The Philippines early this week scrapped peace talks planned with Muslim guerrilla group Moro Islamic Liberation Front which has been blamed for an assault last weekend on a southern town that left 34 persons dead and more than 20 wounded.
Reuters |
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Saudi envoy to
USA deported Los Angeles, May 10 Fahad al Thumairy, (32) was detained at Los Angeles International Airport earlier in the week after arriving from Frankfurt and was deported on Thursday. He may not return to the USA for five years.
AP |
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