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Musharraf for military balance with India
PPP awaits Benazir’s return
PM may visit Pakistan next
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7 blasts rock Spain
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Musharraf for military balance with India
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Sunday insisted his country’s goal was to attain a “balance” of military power with India.
In an interview with CNN, Gen. Musharraf said: “We [Pakistan] want a balance — a balance in our region to be maintained in the conventional weapons. Now, in that balance, there is some imbalance which is being created because of the purchases being done by the Indian forces.” Without elaborating on what was on Pakistan’s weapons “wish list” he said “certainly high-technology aircraft. We are looking for high-technology aircraft.” In his meeting with President George W. Bush at the White House on Saturday, the Pakistani leader discussed the sale of F-16s to Pakistan but Secretary of State Colin L. Powell later said: “No decisions were made.” New Delhi has strongly opposed the sale of the jets to Pakistan. Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected to discuss the sale of sophisticated missiles and other weapons to both India and Pakistan during a brief visit this week to South Asia. The U.S. has offered top-of-the-line military hardware to India, including the Patriot anti-missile system, C-130 stretched medium lift transport aircraft and P-3C Orion maritime surveillance planes. Gen. Musharraf left Washington on Sunday faulting the United States for not deploying enough troops in Afghanistan and calling the war in Iraq a mistake. In his interview with CNN, he said the trail for fugitive Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had grown cold partly because of the U.S. He said Pakistan had posted thousands of troops along the border with Afghanistan but “we don’t know where he [Osama bin Laden] is. He might be anywhere.” He added: “Is that the same on the other side? No, it is not. Where would he feel safe?” Asked whether he was suggesting that the U.S. and Afghan troops were not doing enough to find Bin Laden, Gen. Musharraf responded: “No, no. They are doing enough. They are doing a lot. There are certain force restrictions, also the terrain is very inhospitable, and it’s a large area. Now, are the troops enough to be in every area? No, they are not enough to be in every area, to cover all the mountains of the region on the border. They are not enough for that.” Gen. Musharraf has in the past suggested that Bin Laden suffered from kidney problems and needed dialysis. Asked if he still believed that, the Pakistani leader said he now knows only that Bin Laden is alive. “All the intelligence said that he had — he suffers from — kidney problems, that he got dialysis machines into the area. But since then, he is alive, that I am sure of. I don’t really know how much he is suffering,” he said. Following his meeting with the Pakistani leader on Saturday, Mr Powell said the Bush administration was “concerned” that Bin Laden was still unaccounted for. “We would like him not to be on the loose. He’s a terrorist. He is on the loose, but he’s also under enormous pressure. He is being searched for,” Mr Powell said. Gen. Musharraf has in recent weeks ordered a relocation of 7,000 Pakistani troops from South Waziristan along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. “They make some adjustments to their force requirements from time to time,” Mr Powell explained, adding, “but President Musharraf reassured us of his full engagement — and Osama bin Laden is on the loose, but under pressure and being chased, and eventually he will be brought to justice.” The Al-Qaida leader resurfaced in a videotaped message on the eve of the U.S. presidential elections warning Americans that their security depends not on whom they elect president, but on U.S. policy. “Your security is not in the hands of [Sen. John] Kerry or [President George W.] Bush or Al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked,” Bin Laden said, appearing thinner but relatively healthy. The message was the first from the Al-Qaida leader since December 2001. On Sunday, Gen. Musharraf called the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a folly that has made the world a more dangerous place. Asked whether he considered the invasion a mistake, the Pakistani leader said, “With hindsight, yes. We have landed ourselves in more trouble, yes.” “People at the lower level don’t like the visibility of foreign troops who are in their country,” he added. However, he said he did not believe U.S. and coalition troops should pull out immediately. “An early withdrawal would create more problems in the region. Now that we are there, we need to stabilise the situation.” |
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PPP awaits Benazir’s return
Larkana, December 6 Talking to newsmen in Naudero on Sunday night, he said the PPP would hold dialogue with all democratic forces in the country after January when he would complete his country-wide tour. Replying to a question about Pir Pagaro’s statement that elections would be held in 2008, he said he foresaw elections in 2005. Supporting his idea of dialogue with the establishment, he said he would not go to the establishment for talks, rather the establishment should come to him. When asked to comment on the ongoing talks between India and Pakistan, he said India knew it was not talking to democratic forces and added that negotiations with India would not be “successful”. He denied that prior to his release he had held a meeting with the director-general of the ISI. He ruled out any possibility of a split in the PPP into two factions and said he was working under the command of Benazir Bhutto. He said the country was passing through a crisis and people did not want a temporary relief which the rulers were offering to them. Replying to a question, he said he had always welcomed the courts when they announced good decisions. He proceeded to Larkana in a big motorcade. He made short stopovers in Nasirabad, Wagan, Pakho, Waleed, Mirokhan chowk and waved to workers who had set up welcome camps. Our Nawabshah correspondent adds: Mr Zardari said a national government in the present set-up would be of no use and the PPP would not become a part of it. Talking to journalists at the Zardari House on Sunday before leaving for Larkana, he said the PPP would form the government on its own terms and according to its own manifesto. He said the PPP had got a better leader in Benazir Bhutto and he was neither interested to lead the party nor would he be accepted. Mr Zardari said Makhdoom Amin Fahim was a representative of Ms Bhutto and the PPP and he would negotiate with other parties. Referring to the Kashmir issue, he said when China and Taiwan could engage in $25 million trade, the Kashmir dispute should not hamper trade relations between India and Pakistan. He said Ms Bhutto had presented a ‘dispute-management philosophy’ during her visit to India. The PPP leader said that at least 5,000 industrial units should be set up in Sindh, adding that his party would establish industrial zones in Nawabshah, Dadu, Larkana and Sukkur. |
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PM may visit Pakistan next
year
Islamabad, December 6 “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wishes to come to Pakistan early next year,” he said in Karachi adding that he had already received an invitation from the Pakistan Government. India was considering offering 100 scholarships to Pakistani students to study in India, and the Indian central bank was pondering whether to allow Indian banks to set up branches in Pakistan, he said after meeting business leaders along with Deputy High
Commissioner T.C.A. Raghavan. Menon, currently touring the Southern Sindh province, met Karachi city Nazim Naimatullah Khan yesterday and discussed plans to open an Indian Consulate to meet the demand for visas for the people of the province.
— PTI |
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New documents threaten Carbide’s defence
New Evidence has emerged that appears to undermine Union Carbide’s long-standing denial of responsibility for the world’s worst industrial accident, the devastation of the Indian city of Bhopal.
The American company has always claimed that its Indian subsidiary was solely responsible for the design and management of the plant, where a poisonous gas leak killed thousands of people 20 years ago. The documents, obtained by The Independent, show the closeness of the relationship between the American chemical giant and its financially troubled Indian business. The documents show cost-cutting in the year before the fatal leak. Staff and maintenance cuts have been cited as key factors in the accident. UCC and its chairman at the time of the leak, Warren Anderson, have never answered a summons to face charges of culpable homicide in India. UCC was bought by Dow Chemical, another US giant, in 2001. The first document, dated September 22, 1975, was a memorandum from a UCC engineer called Charles H Becker, and shows the intimate and extensive involvement of UCC in procuring equipment, designing and providing technical services to the plant in Bhopal. The document shows that UCC was involved in procuring “safety equipment” and “control instrumentation” — both of which failed on the night of December 2, 1984, when water entered a storage tank containing the volatile chemical methyl isocyanate, triggering a chemical reaction that sent clouds of deadly gas over nearby slums. The memo ended with the words: “Union Carbide’s know-how, technical support, and majority ownership of UCIL provide assurance of technical competence.” A second document is dated February 24, 1984. This letter is between two senior managers at Union Carbide Eastern Inc, the Hong Kong-based subsidiary which oversaw UCC’s operations in Asia. The “confidential” letter, between Vice-President R Natarajan and J B Law, Chairman of Union Carbide Eastern, discussed the severe financial problems that had hit Union Carbide India by early 1984. It then went on to ask “what UCC is going to do to resolve the problem”. — By arrangement with
The Independent |
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7 blasts rock Spain
Madrid, December 6 Officials said the people were wounded in a bomb in Santillana del Mar in northern Spain, and said another bomb exploded in Ciudad Real to the south of Madrid. El Pais newspaper said on its website that the explosions had also gone off in Leon in the north and Malaga in the south. El Mundo’s website said explosions were also reported in Avila, northwest of Madrid. Media also reported two more explosions. |
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