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Sunday,
June 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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India, South Africa, Brazil form bloc 4 German troops
die in Kabul blast
US soldier
killed in Iraq |
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WINDOW ON
PAKISTAN
Pak increases
defence budget Advani on way
to USA Right, Left clash at Hindi meet
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India, South Africa, Brazil form bloc Brasilia, June 7 The new
gouging follows soon after the G-8 meeting of major industrial nations failed to act on a proposal for subsidy cuts to help Africa and a Brazilian plan to create a global fund to fight hunger. “When countries like India, South Africa and Brazil speak with one voice, that voice will be heard,” said Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha yesterday, flanked by his Brazilian and South African counterparts after their first trilateral meeting. Defence, agriculture, IT, biotechnology and civil aviation have been identified as thrust areas for trilateral cooperation among India, Brazil and South Africa. The first political goal of the three is to push the United Nations to reform its security council and create permanent seats for developing nations. The three would back each other to get seats. “The first hurdle is to get that reform accepted,” said South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Brazil’s new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this week said the three nations, plus China and Russia, had to band together to get the attention of G-8 nations preoccupied by the US-led war on terrorism and global economic weakness. “We have every interest that this G-3 could become a G-5,” said Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. Reuters,
TNS |
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4 German troops
die in Kabul blast Kabul, June 7 The US military at the Bagram air base also said in its statement that 28 persons were injured, but it did not identify them, or say where they had been located during the explosion. The International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, bus was travelling from the airport toward eastern Kabul, and was near the city’s customs house when the explosion occurred, Kabul Police chief Basir Salangi said.
AP |
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US soldier
killed in Iraq Camp Doha (Kuwait) June 7 US Central Command said in a separate statement that one soldier had been killed and two injured on Friday in a vehicle accident north of Baghdad. A US naval engineer also died on Friday and three others were injured south of Baghdad when unexploded ordnance they were handling blew up.
Reuters |
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Plane crashes into
building in USA Washington, June 7 |
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WINDOW ON
PAKISTAN Ever since its birth, Pakistan has had rare glimpses of moderate politics. Now when General Musharraf and his chosen government has been vowing to re-establish a modicum of moderate politics and economic development, his desire to keep his uniform and presidency is making a mockery of his beliefs. The unresolved controversy over the Legal Framework Order (LFO) that gives sweeping powers to President Pervez Musharraf has pushed the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) into the extremist Taliban brand of politics. The MMA, a conglomeration of Islamic parties, the main opposition in the National Assembly, also controls the North-Western Frontier Province. The Frontier Province, where many of Pakistan’s poorest live, is an easy target of religious extremisms. It is a backward hill region with scores of tribal warlords calling the shots and it borders a politically fragile Afghanistan. It is here that the state Assembly unanimously adopted the Shariat Bill. The Nifaz-i-Shariat Council, comprising Ulema of all schools of thought, has penned the religious law, now in force. The Bill, endorsed by all lawmakers, promises imposition of Allah’s rule on the earth through His pious men. It has rudely shaken moderate politics and pushed Musharraf to a corner. He and his Prime Minister Jamali reacted in nerve-jerk manner by transferring the Chief Secretary and the police chief. The MMA has complained of arm-twisting and vowed to resist it, with alliance leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman threatening nationwide protests. “A question mark remains over who will win the emerging battle, although such centre-province conflicts in the past have often ended with the disappearance of a provincial cabinet but it has also left the federal victors bleeding for a long time,” Dawn commented wryly. The conflict shows that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali’s ruling PML-Q and the combined opposition, which also includes the PPP and PML-N, still remain far apart over the LFO despite last month’s negotiations at a joint parliamentary committee meeting. The establishment’s efforts to revive old alliances with MMA parties have still not borne the desired fruit. In the end, since no nation is an island, the MMA Shariah, as evolved by the clerically dominated CII, will not last in Pakistan, as General Zia’s ‘Nizam-e-Salat’ (enforcement of namaz) and Friday-as-holiday did not last. But great damage will have been done in the interim. In particular, Musharraf’s efforts at returning the country to normal and stable self-sustaining governance will have suffered a reversal like those of his predecessors. From media comments and reports, it is clear that the political class is finding it hard to oppose the new Islamic law. No one wishes to annoy a large Islamic constituency and the Mullahs. Newspapers like Dawn, Nation and the News International have expressed apprehensions, but not many Urdu language newspapers. The charge is that it is the politics of opportunism and convenience that is pushing Pakistan backward. Two comparisons are being made, of Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. If Pakistan is to be a forward-looking prosperous democracy, it has to go the Malaysian way; the other path is towards doom. It earlier nourished the Taliban at the behest of the Americans and is rueing the day, it could ill afford another adventure. |
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Pak increases
defence budget Islamabad, June 7 Protesting against President Pervez Musharraf’s dual role as President and commander of the armed forces, the Opposition attempted to disrupt Finance Minister Shoukat Aziz’s budget speech with continuous slogans and thumping of benches. The budget proposed Rs 160 billion for defence, a marginal rise of Rs 14 billion in comparison to last year’s budget.
PTI |
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Advani on way
to USA Paris, June 7 Mr Advani, who is accompanied by a high-level delegation, was received at the airport by Indian Ambassador to France Savitri Kunadi and other officials of the Embassy. Mr Advani, who was flying by a Air-India flight, remained here for sometime as the plane stopped for a transit-cum-technical halt. During his 10-day tour, Mr Advani will also visit London before returning to India on June 18. MUMBAI:
Mr Advani on Saturday left for a 10-day visit to the USA and Britain during which India’s fresh peace initiative with Pakistan and the global fight against terrorism are likely to top the agenda of talks with the leaders of the two countries. The fight against terrorism would have to be worldwide and he would talk to the leaders of the two countries on the issue as well as about the nations which aided terrorism, he told reporters here before boarding a scheduled Air-India flight for New York.
UNI, PTI |
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Right, Left clash at Hindi meet Paramaribo (Surinam), June 7 Controversy arose on the first day of the conference last
evening when a write-up of Editor of the pro-RSS weekly Panchjanya, Tarun Vijay was circulated at the conference. It charged Leftist journalists with creating an atmosphere of hatred within India and ignoring fundamentals of Indian civilisation and culture. The article charged that after India’s independence, so-called progressive and Leftist journalists beholden to foreign countries, became powerful converting ideological difference into enmity and used the pen as a weapon to curb freedom of thought. Ramsharan Joshi of Makhanlal Chaturvedi Journalism University said an ideological dispute within India should not have been raised at the conference. Those opposed to the article also said it had attacked English language journalism and accused it of ignoring Indian sensibilities. As uproar refused to die down, member of the organising committee, Mr Kamal Kishor Goenka came on the dais and announced that the article would not form part of the conference documents.
PTI |
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