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Civil war threat looms over Pak: ex-ISI chief
Pak to fence border along Afghanistan
Blast kills 26 in Pakistan
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Meeting on Kashmir begins
Quebec Sikhs in turban row
$1.5 million lawsuit against Indian doctor
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Civil war threat looms over Pak: ex-ISI chief
Islamabad, March 10 In an interview with Afghanistan's Tolo TV, Lt. General Gul said Pakistan's decision to help the United States in its global war on terror by targeting remnants of the Al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban in these tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border appeared to be coming unstuck, and suggested that there could be several factors responsible for this. Among them, he said, were the possibility of differences of opinion within the Pakistani defence establishment --
i.e. between senior and junior officers with the latter having an Islamist world view and former tilting towards being more Though none of these factors could pose the threat of dissolution of Pakistan, Lt-Gen Gul said he is supportive of the view that the simultaneous occuring of these multiple crises posed a real danger to the country in the short as well as the long term. General Gul further went on to state that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is fully aware that the issue of a war against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the tribal areas could precipitate a civil war. He also did not rule out the possibility of the federal administration preponing general elections to 2006 , instead of 2007 as already announced. "There is the possibilities of new elections in 2006 in Pakistan.
Musharraf knows that there is the likelihood of civil war in Pakistan over the issue of war against al Qaeda and Taliban in tribal areas," Lt. General Gul said. Gul also described the recent visit of U.S.President George W Bush as a failure from Pakistan's point of view. He said that it would not have been farfetched for Islamabad to think that Washington would dole out some goodies in its direction similar to what it had done for India, given the positive level of cooperation between the two countries, especially on the global war on terror. He said that with Bush having formalised Washington's July 18, 2005 civilian nuclear deal with New Delhi, and the latter agreeing to place 65 percent of its reactors under international (IAEA) safeguards in return for unrestricted energy supplies, it would not have been amiss on Islamabad's part to think about having a similar arrangement with Washington. He said that it was now well known what had emerged from Bush's two-day visit to Pakistan. Not only had the American President ruled out a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan, saying indirectly that the latter's proliferation record was still suspect, but he (Bush) also refused to directly meddle in the resolution of the Kashmir issue, saying that it was upto the leaders of Pakistan and India to come forward and lead and America would be happy to continue playing the role of a facilitator for such bilateral talks. The American President also used his visit to Islamabad to pointedly tell Musharraf that he had come to see whether Pakistan's commitment to ending terrorism was still intact. Pakistan's reluctance to provide the U.S. administration with more information about the nefarious proliferation activities of its incarcerated top nuclear scientist Dr.
A.Q. Khan, and its decision to shy away from endorsing Washington's move to refer Iran's uranium enrichment activities to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) also put paid to a positive outcome from the Bush visit, Gul felt. "Bush and
Musharraf don’t have any a particular agenda to talk about. The Bush’s visit to Pakistan was just like farewell visit because the Pakistan Government is not ready to give any concessions over the Dr. A.Q. Khan and the Iran’s nuclear issues to the U.S. So, I can say that it was a failed visit," said the former ISI chief. He said that he has written articles on this so called conspiracy theory. As far as Afghanistan was concerned, General Gul said that the Hamid Karzai regime was noting but a puppet government installed by the United States.
— ANI |
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Pak to fence border along Afghanistan
Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao
Islamabad, March 10 The minister said the government had taken the decision as a last resort to stop cross-border movement of terrorists from the neighbouring country. “We are suffering from large-scale poppy cultivation and gun-running in Afghanistan and the Afghan government had no writ in some of its provinces to overcome the situation,” he said. The Afghan president recently alleged that Pakistan had failed to control infiltration of terrorists into Afghanistan from its border areas. He said Pakistan had been playing a key role in the war on terror and the US had acknowledged it. “But despite this, the neighbouring country is blaming that Pakistan is doing nothing against terrorists,” he said. |
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Blast kills 26 in Pakistan
Islamabad, March 10 The incident took place near Rakhni area of
Dera Bugti, 300 km from the provincial capital, Quetta, government
spokesperson Raziq Bugti said adding the victims were members of a
marriage party. A total of 35 persons were travelling in the tractor
trolley, he said. The injured are being shifted to the nearby town of
Barkhan and paramilitary troops have sealed off the site of the
explosion, he added. — PTI |
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Meeting on Kashmir begins
Islamabad, March 10 At least 50 delegates from India and Pakistan, including National Conference leader Umar Abdullah, took part in the two-day meet being organised by an international NGO,
Pugwash, to deliberate on the idea of “self-governance” floated by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. The intra-Kashmir dialogue is entitled ‘Prospects of self-governance in Jammu and Kashmir and present status of cooperation and communications across the LoC.’ Moderate Hurriyat faction leader Mirwaiz Farooq, associate Abdul Ghani Bhat and leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Yasin Mallik also attended the meeting. PDP leader Mehmooba Mufti declined the invitation to attend the meeting aimed at discussing ideas to resolve the Kashmir issue, while hardline Hurriyat leader Sayed Ali Geelani was declined visa by the Indian Government to take part in the conference.
— PTI |
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Pervez moots roundtable talks in Srinagar
Islamabad, March 10 He stated this when delegates at an international conference on Kashmir, which began here this morning, called on the Pakistani leader. Leading intellectuals and experts from India and Pakistan as well as politicians from both sides of Kashmir, are participating in the dialogue with the aim of giving a boost to the India-Pakistan peace process for the resolution of all issues, including Kashmir. The discussions sponsored by an international non-governmental organisation,
Pugwash, were, however, held behind closed doors with organisers saying a consensus document was expected at the end of the conference on Sunday. About 50 delegates, including National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik, and representatives of the two rival factions of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), among others, from India attended the conference to discuss ways to strengthen the peace process, proposals for self-governance, demilitarisation and economic interaction in Kashmir.
— PTI |
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Former UK minister dead
London, March 10 He died shortly after midnight (GMT) in the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in west London where he had been treated for two days, a hospital spokesman said. Profumo was war minister in the cabinet of Conservative Prime Minister Harold MacMillan when he left in disgrace after lying to the House of Commons over his affair with call girl Christine Keeler. Macmillan’s Cabinet was plunged into crisis, with the Cold War at its height, after Keeler revealed that she had also been sleeping with Eugene Ivanov, a Russian intelligence officer and the Soviet assistant naval attach in London.
— AFP |
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Quebec Sikhs in turban row
Toronto, March 10 Local Sikhs are angry over a new law requiring all truck drivers coming to the port to wear hard hats that they say goes against their faith which forbids them to remove their turbans, a media report said. “Indian Sikhs have served the Royal British Army in World War I and II and they didn’t wear helmets at that time, they didn’t need extra protection from the bullet,” Prithvi Saluja, a Quebec Sikh said.
— PTI |
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$1.5 million lawsuit against Indian doctor
Silicon Valley, March 10 The child’s mother Ana McClellan launched legal action against Patel, dubbed ‘Doctor Death’ and linked to the deaths of 13 patients in northern Queensland state, last month after she learned that he was being investigated in Australia. She alleges that her son who was then three, suffered from cerebral palsy, died from toxic shock in 1999 after Patel accidentally punctured his bowel during the operation, according to Portland television KATU. Last month, Queensland’s police asked that Patel face at least 28 criminal charges of manslaughter, assault and fraud but the state’s director of public prosecutions is yet to lay charges against him.
— PTI |
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Saturn moon ‘‘spewing’’ water vapour
Washington, March 10 ''We realise that this is a radical conclusion -- that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold,'' said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado yesterday. ''However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms.'' Scientists have long known that many of Saturn's moons have water. They took an especially close look at Enceladus because it seemed to have a smooth surface -- suggesting recent geological activity that, in turn, could mean liquid water. Liquid water is a key requirement for life. Several moons have been found to have evidence of liquid water and the chemical elements needed to make life, including Europa. But scientists are far more intrigued by the plume itself, a gigantic geyser of water vapor and tiny ice particles.
— Reuters |
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