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Pakistan rules out further talks
Pak army gets work on
Mangla Dam restarted
Pak invites Hurriyat leaders to visit PoK
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Pakistan rules out further talks on Baglihar
Islamabad, May 23 “Now we have passed that stage where we could discuss the issue bilaterally,” Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told reporters at his weekly briefing. However, his remarks came as a sharp contrast to his earlier statement, expressing Pakistan’s willingness to engage India bilaterally, provided it stopped construction of the dam. “Now the best thing will be to cooperate with the neutral expert and let him come up with the findings,” Mr Jilani said. The World Bank has already appointed a neutral expert to arbitrate between Pakistan and India on the dam being constructed by the latter on the Chenab river in Kashmir. A report yesterday said India was willing to consider “some technical changes” in the design of the Baglihar project, provided it could be done without compromising power generation and the safety of the dam. Pakistan claimed the construction of the dam was in violation of the Indus Water Treaty it had signed with India in 1960, brokered by the World Bank. Following a request by Pakistan, the World Bank early this month appointed a Swiss civil engineer as a neutral expert to examine the issue and give his findings, which would be binding on both the countries.
— UNI |
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Pak army gets work on
Mangla Dam restarted
Lahore, May 23 After the meeting, they instructed the contractor to start excavating material from all available sources without bothering about the cost which would be decided later. The instructions were passed on to the contractor on Thursday, and he has restarted work. The contractor has started excavating sand, stone and gravel from the river-bed, a job it had not been allowed up to now. It has also been asked to start getting material from sites falling in Azad Kashmir regardless of leases granted to any party. According to a spokesman for the contractor, work has resumed at full pace. He was confident that time loss could be minimized if there was no further hiccup. Talking about the possibility of a recurrence of price war, he hoped that this might not be the case as intervention this time had come from the highest level. “Sensitivity about the time loss grew at the highest level after a visit by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the site,” they said. The Prime Minister was briefed about the dispute and consequent delay in the project three weeks ago. Local military authorities intervened in the matter but could not settle the dispute as the contractor was not ready to pay the price demanded by the lessees of the land around the dam from where the material had to be excavated, they claimed. They said the military authorities were also aware of sensitivity at the highest level about the project and decided to move in without further delay. The contractor and lessees around the dam site had been in a dispute over the cost of material for the last many months. |
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Pak invites Hurriyat leaders to visit PoK
Islamabad, May 23 “The Government of Pakistan and people in (Pakistan-occupied) Kashmir anxiously await the APHC leadership’s visit by the bus on June 2,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said at a press briefing in Islamabad here this afternoon. “We hope there will be no problem for them to travel to Pakistan,” he added. If allowed by the Indian government, this will be the first-ever visit by the APHC leaders to Pakistan. The Indian government had refused to issue travel documents to these leaders for a visit to Pakistan, when invited by the Pakistan government back in 2001. Mr Jilani said the government had also invited Syed Ali Geelani, chief of his own faction of the APHC, describing him as a “well-regarded” Kashmiri leader. Mr Geelani parted ways with the APHC and formed his own group after developing serious differences with Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and other leaders. The Mirwaiz has often said the APHC leadership would first like to visit Pakistan before engaging in any talks with the Indian government. However, the moderate faction will hold a meeting of its Executive Council in Srinagar soon to decide on the dates and the mode of travel to visit Pakistan and the PoK.
— UNI |
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BBC staff begin strike over job cuts
London, May 23 The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and two other unions, representing technical workers, were striking to protest against plans by BBC Director -General Mark Thompson to cut about 20 per cent of its workforce, or about 4,000 jobs. BBC News 24 and BBC World Service were running large blocks of pre-recorded programming today morning. Its flagship “Today” radio news programme was cancelled. The BBC One’s Breakfast television programme was running with the basic service and one presenter, and some regional radio programmes were presented by managers. Staff for the foreign language service of the World Service also joined the picket line, the NUJ said. The BBC said it regretted the strike action and would do everything it could to produce the best possible service. “Industrial action will not remove the need for further consultation or the need for the BBC to implement changes which will enable us to put more money into improved programmes and services,” it said in a statement. The NUJ general secretary, Mr Jeremy Dear, called on the BBC to “understand and respond to the anger and concern at job cuts which will undermine quality, threaten the working conditions of staff and devalue the BBC for viewers and listeners”. The NUJ, along with the Bectu and AMICUS unions, voted on May 12 to authorise four strike days: 24 hours on May 23, 48 hours over May 31 and June 1, and a fourth day without a set date. They chose to avoid big events like the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The unions had said they would call off the strike if the BBC granted a 90-day moratorium to the planned staff cuts, guaranteed that any redundancies be voluntary and protected conditions of jobs set to be outsourced.
— Reuters |
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Kiran Bedi gets honorary doctorate
New York, May 23 "Dr Bedi is best known as a leader who applies management methods that counter adversarial relationship between the police and the community and between prison guards and inmates," the citation said. Addressing law experts, faculty members and students, Bedi said she had doctorate from the IIT, New Delhi, on the basis of dissertation she wrote on drug abuse and domestic violence. A university official said she was nominated for the honorary degree unanimously by the students and faculty members who were very impressed by her work.
— PTI |
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Cannes won’t go to my head: Nandita Das
Cannes, May 23 “Being on the Cannes jury is a great honour and privilege for me. It is a great opportunity just to be here and a huge learning experience since you meet great people from all over the world who are certainly among the best in the world of cinema today,” Nandita said in an interview even as the festival ended here on Sunday. “It is a great experience, but in the larger scheme of things, it is another one of those very enriching experiences,” she added. The actress brushed aside suggestions that Cannes will propel her into international limelight or that she will be flooded with offers from all over the world, especially from Hollywood. “Even if I get offers from Hollywood, it does not mean that I will accept them. I have always stood by what I believe in. I want to act in films with great scripts, great directors and great roles. I don’t want to take on a role just because it is being proposed to me,” she said. Participating in an international film festival in France is not new to the actress-activist. She was presented with the best actress award for her role in Deepa Mehta’s “Earth” in the Asian Film Festival of Deauville over five years ago. But Cannes is at a totally different level and Nandita acknowledges the fact and the impact. For her the surprise selection of being on the jury could not have come at a better time. Though the jury was composed of film personalities from across the world, she said they all worked very well together. Of all female celebrities present at Cannes, she must have been amongst those carrying the least amount of wardrobe baggage. “When I landed at the airport, they had sent two cars, one for us and the other for our luggage. The driver must have been disappointed when he saw me with only two big suitcases,” Nandita recounted. The actress said she was strongly opposed to violence and that she would like to do films that fight the increasing trend of violence and sex in the world.
— IANS |
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