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Tuesday,
July 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Deadline
for Pervez to quit as Army Chief extended Pakistan
Islamists soften stance Talks
should focus on entire Kashmir, says Hurriyat chief
Fugitive
Indian arrested |
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US
troops missed Saddam by 24 hours? Kelly
affair ‘may force’ Blair to quit Maoists
threaten to end ceasefire Nixon
ordered Watergate break-in, says ex-aide
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Deadline for Pervez to quit as Army Chief extended
Islamabad, July 28 “We are ready to give the October, 2004, deadline for separating the two offices, the Army Chief and the President, being held by General Musharraf,” MMA deputy chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed told reporters after the much-awaited parliamentary party meeting, which was boycotted by the opposition Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD). Mr Qazi Hussein said the government had accepted that the LFO was a “controversial” issue, adding that “at the four-hour meeting, the government has not insisted that the LFO is part of the Constitution”. Confirming the decision of the six-party alliance, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the meeting discussed the “controversial points” of the LFO. Mr Ahmed said even if the government accepted this deadline, President Musharraf’s presidency tenure would start after that timeframe. While the MMA agreed to continue the dialogue with the government on the LFO issue, it said a clarification on the issue by Mr Jamali government, as demanded by the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), would facilitate participation of the entire opposition in the talks. The move has drawn flak from opposition parties but the MMA expressed its firm resolve to oppose the LFO and claimed that it would not join the government even if an agreement was reached on the issue. Mr Qazi Hussein said, “We do not accept the National Security Council (NSC) as part of the Constitution, items incorporated in Schedule 6, extension in judges’ retirement age and president in uniform.” Cracks
appeared within the alliance when Jamiat-e-Ahle-Hadith legislator Sajd Mir refused to participate in the dialogue with the government and stood by the ARD in its boycott of the meeting. The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy decided to continue struggle against the LFO in and outside Parliament. The decision was taken at an informal meeting of the alliance, after their boycott of the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali. The ARD also decided to stick to its condition of holding talks with the government after clarification on the LFO, saying that there was contradiction between the statements of Mr Jamali and PML (QA) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who had declared the LFO as a settled issue. The PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani, said no talks would be held with the rulers until the LFO was accepted as a controversial issue.
— PTI |
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Pakistan Islamists soften stance
Washington, July 28 Maulana Fazlur-Rahman’s visit was quite extraordinary because his Jamait Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) party continues to be tied to Afghanistan’s Taliban movement. The JUI also has links with various Islamist militant groups that are blamed for the killings of Shiites in Pakistan and for waging war against India in Kashmir, Strategic Forecasting (STRATFOR) said in a recent report. The olive branch being extended to India was a sign that in the wake of the global US crackdown on militant Islam, Pakistan’s mainstream Islamists appeared to be trying to distance themselves from the jihadi groups to which they were linked in order to consolidate their recent political gains and position themselves to grab further power, the report said. This move eventually could lead to an intra-Islamist conflict in Pakistan in the near future and even a shift away from Islamism in the longer run, it added.
— UNI |
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Talks should focus on entire Kashmir,
London, July 28 “When India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement, they did not talk about the entire Kashmir. What is now happening is that India wants to talk about Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan wants the opposite,” he said, replying to questions on “Aap Ki Baat, BBC ke Saath” programme broadcast last night. Therefore, he said “let both the countries talk about the entire Kashmir.” Making it clear that the Hurriyat was against any US pressure on India and Pakistan to talk, Mr Ansari said “I am saying that India and Pakistan are sovereign and independent countries, they should know their well being. They should sit and sort out their differences”. Rejecting third party mediation, he said “following the road map of any other nation, would not help in solving this issue. They (India and Pakistan) should both sit and talk, and the solution would only come when both these nations involve Kashmiris from both sides of the border.” “If any solution were to be found by any third party, it will not work. For a moment, or say superficially, it may seem a solution, but it will not work, as it could be lacking in trust and mutual belief,” he said. He said if India and Pakistan wanted a bridge, “let it be Kashmiris, as when the bombs fell from both sides, they fell on Kashmiris, let them be the bridge between the two countries.” Asked why he supported mediation by Iran or South African leader Nelson Mandela and not America, Mr Ansari said “I have proposed Iran because it is a friend of both countries.” Mr Ansari, the first Shia leader to become the Hurriyat Chairman, also advocated for holding inter-Kashmiri dialogue so that an effective programme could be chalked out as to what people from both sides of Kashmir wanted. Referring to his rejection of ceasefire by the militants, Mr Ansari said “see, when you are talking about my appeal being rejected, look at their (militants) statement carefully. They were saying that they wanted a ceasefire, but they are also saying....that Indian forces must also bring their gun down.” He said the process of talks to resolve the Kashmir issue could not start till guns fell silent in the state.
— PTI |
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Fugitive
Indian arrested Singapore, July 28 Allagan, who escaped from a hospital on Friday despite being handcuffed, had been working in Singapore since 1999 and was charged with the kidnapping of an 18-year-old boy on July 50. He had been sent to the hospital for medical examination after complaining of chest pain and breathing difficulties. A search involving 300 officers and police dogs was launched on Friday night after he opened a window and escaped from Changi General Hospital. The police said it laid an ambush at an apartment block after receiving information that he would turn up there to look for relatives. When Allagan came there, he was taken in custody without a struggle. When he appeared, Allagan had shaved off his moustache and was wearing different clothes. His handcuffs were also missing. The police later recovered the handcuffs in bushes near a shopping centre. Allagan’s kidnapping case is scheduled to come up again in court on July 30.
— UNI |
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US troops missed Saddam by 24 hours?
London, July 28 American troops carried out a raid on three farms in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, after receiving a tip-off from an Iraqi informant that the former President’s new head of security was staying in one of them, Lieut-Col Steve Russell of the 4th Infantry Division, told Sky News. The officials did not give the name of the man who was the target of the raids, but said they believed he was in charge of security for Saddam since the June 17 arrest of Saddam’s Presidential Secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud. However, the commander of the US forces in Iraq, Lieut-Gen Ricardo Sanchez, dismissed as speculation reports that US troops missed capturing Saddam. “The 24-hour story, that’s speculation. I’ll tell you that we are focused on Saddam Hussein. We’ve got to make the assumption that he is alive for us to prove to the Iraqi people that he is going to be taken care of,” Sanchez told CNN. “He remains a critical target for us. It is important that we find him, one way or another. And our mission is to kill or capture him...,” he said.
— AFP |
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Kelly affair ‘may force’ Blair to quit
London, July 28 Stating that the death of Kelly was due to “an abuse of power” by the government, she warned that the tragedy has become a symbol of Mr Blair’s “obsession with spin”. In an interview published in the daily “The Independent”, today, Ms Clare Short, who quit the cabinet on the Iraq war issue, said: “The affair has made it more likely that Blair will step down before the next general election.” She described Mr Blair as an “emperor” and a neo-Conservative”, saying his speech this month to both houses of the US Congress showed he shared the analysis of Washington hardliners. “He is a complete convert to the neo-Conservative view of the world,” she said. She said normal government procedures were breached in the way Dr Kelly was unmasked, triggering the events leading to his apparent suicide. She believed that resignations should follow Lord Hutton’s inquiry. She said “the truth needs to be found and those responsible need to be held to account. Alastair Campbell, Prime Minister’s Director of Communications and Tony Blair work very, very closely together. They are all implicated.” Ms Short said “we all ended up mesmerised by Alastair Campbell attacking the BBC. In the course of that, Kelly felt so pressured he felt the need to take his life. It has got enormous significance.” But she hoped “some good might yet come out of the tragedy, if the government abandoned spin and changed the way decisions are made.”
— PTI |
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Maoists
threaten to end ceasefire Kathmandu, July 28 Chief Maoist negotiator Baburam Bhattarai today handed over a letter carrying the rebels’ response to a government invitation for the third round of talks. The Maoists have laid down five pre-conditions for the resumption of the stalled talks demanding the implementation of all agreements reached in the last two rounds, army’s commitment to accept any future agreement and clarification from the royal palace whether they would accept any understanding reached in the next round of talks.
— PTI |
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Nixon ordered Watergate break-in, says ex-aide
Washington, July 28 Jeb Stuard Magruder, the Deputy Director of Nixon’s 1972 campaign, revealed in a PBS documentary to air on Wednesday that Nixon personally ordered the bungled break-in at the luxury Watergate Hotel complex. The incident began a series of events that led to impeachment hearings. He became the only US President to resign in 1974. In the PBS interview, Magruder said he overheard Nixon tell John Mitchell to go forward with the break-in on June 17, 1972. “John... you need to do that,” Magruder said he overheard Nixon say in a telephone exchange with Mitchell on March 30, 1972. Mitchell resigned as Nixon’s Attorney General on March 1, 1972, to head Nixon’s re-election campaign. John Dean, the White House counsel under Nixon, said during a CNN interview on Sunday that he had no evidence to prove or disprove the exchange, and called Magruder’s report as “a bit of historical minutia.” If true, the allegations could significantly sharpen history’s answer to one of the major question in modern US politics: what did Nixon know and when did he know it? Watergate experts have widely accepted that Nixon knew of the attempt to break into the office of then Democratic party Chairman Larry O’Brien at Washington’s Watergate complex and conspired to cover up White House involvement. However, G. Gordon Liddy, the former FBI agent who spent nearly five years in prison for refusing to testify, has been painted as the mastermind who ordered it. “I must say I did suspect it,” Dean said about Nixon’s personal link to the order, pointing to reported Nixon links to other break-in orders. “It’s not something that strikes me as something Nixon would never do.” Magruder was charged with perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice for his role in the Watergate cover-up. He spent seven months in prison. Dean said there was “a little shred of evidence out there” that Nixon ordered the break-in, pointing to a March 1973 audio taps in which then-White House Chief of Staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman said an unnamed layer on Nixon’s re-election committee said Magruder had confirmed Nixon’s approval of the Watergate break-in. Dean said he had no reason to doubt Magruder’s story. “I can’t imagine why Jeb would have any motive to lie at this point. I understand why he delayed,” he said, pointing out that congressional Watergate investigators never asked Magruder about the incident. “I wish (Magruder) had done it 30 years ago when it wasn’t just a bit of historical minutia,” Dean said. After his time in prison, Magruder began a career as a Presbyterian minister.
— Reuters |
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Islamabad,
July 28
Legendary entertainer
Bob Hope dead
