Islamabad, May 16
As exiled former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif stepped up efforts to oust him, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has accused them of being “corrupt” and said they would not come to power again as there was no future for the “rejected” leaders.

There is no future for “rejected” and “corrupt” politicians, he said yesterday in an obvious reference to Bhutto and Sharif, a day after the two former prime ministers met in London and signed a ‘Charter of Democracy’ to fight the military rule in Pakistan besides pledging to return to the country for the elections next year.

Those involved in corruption in the past would not come to power again, President Musharraf told a gathering of ruling politicians.

The corrupt politicians transferred national wealth to foreign banks and brought the country on the verge of economic crisis, he was quoted as saying the Online news agency.

General Musharraf, who has promised to hold the general elections after November 2007, said he was confident that people would not vote in favour of corrupt elements in the polls.

He, however, acknowledged that price hike and unemployment were the major problems the present government was facing.

“But the government is taking every possible step to control inflation and bring down unemployment ratio. The federal government in collaboration with provincial governments will take necessary steps for overcoming the problems created by inflation,” the President said.

General Musharraf said the next general elections would be held in a transparent, fair and free manner and as per schedule.

Some of General Musharraf’s close advisers said the General himself planned to resign as President while retaining the post of army chief and get re-elected as President by the present national and provincial assemblies before their terms ended in November next year.

In the past General Musharraf consistently said he would not permit the return of Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif from abroad to take part in politics.

Ms Bhutto lives in self-exile fearing arrest in connection with corruption cases against her, while Mr Sharif was exiled to Jeddah in 2001 and recently moved to London where he began rebuilding his Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party.

Mr Sharif’s brother, Mr Shahbaz Sharif, who heads the party, has termed the ‘Charter of Democracy’ signed by the two former Prime Ministers as a milestone for restoration of democracy in the country.

The charter would rule out army’s role in national politics forever as the military rule had defaced the country’s image before the world community, he told ‘The Nation’ daily in an interview.

He said the Generals had no right to overthrow any democratic government and restoration of democracy was the only way to resolve the country’s political, social, educational and economic crisis.

Mr Shahbaz maintained that PML-N and Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had shown their commitment to the people and signed an agreement which would restore democracy in the country solving the problems of the people.

He, however, said the two parties may contest separately but would not accept any offer from the military rulers to join the government. — PTI

Kathmandu, May 16
With hundreds of protesters taking to streets against delay in introducing a proclamation that would curtail the King’s powers, Nepal’s government today said it would submit the draft declaration to Parliament on Thursday after getting formal approval from the Cabinet.

The government would formally submit the proposal empowering people and curtailing powers of the monarch to the Cabinet meeting before presenting it in Parliament on Thursday for endorsement, Home Minister Krishna Sitoula told reporters here.

His remarks came as hundreds of youth and activists of student wings of the seven-party alliance held demonstrations in the capital against the delay in introducing the proclamation. The protesters torched at least four government vehicles, blocked traffic for several hours and burnt tyres in various parts of Kathmandu.

The delay in submitting the proposal to Parliament, which was earlier expected to be presented yesterday, was caused due to the seven-party alliance’s agreement to get the plan first endorsed by the Cabinet, Sitoula said.

The Home Minister said the government was working as per its commitment to the 12-point understanding with the Maoists and the roadmap set up by the seven-party alliance.

There was unity among all the members of the seven-party alliance and there were no differences among them, he said.

The seven-member Cabinet would be expanded to give it a full form in a day or two, sources close to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said.

The ruling seven-party alliance, which forced King Gyanendra to hand over power after a 19-day agitation last month, is introducing the proclamation with an aim to limit powers of the monarch, bring the Royal Nepal Army under Parliament and empower the people.

Some of the provisions include stripping the King of his title of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Army, reducing the Palace budget, deciding heir to throne by Parliament and changing “His Majesty’s Government” to Nepal government. 

Islamabad, May 16
Maintaining that the SAFTA agreement could not bind it to grant the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India, Pakistan has said it would continue to trade with the neighbour with a positive list until there was progress on Kashmir and other issues.

Pakistan Commerce Secretary Syed Asif Shah made the remarks in response to recommendations made by a World Bank report which suggested that Islamabad should grant MFN status to New Delhi followed by a Free Trade Agreement to tap the “enormous potential” of business and trade that existed between the two countries.

Mr Shah, however, said the expansion of the positive list was under consideration of the government. Reports here said Pakistan planned to add 100 more items to the positive list for trade to make the products permissible for imports from India to 882.

Unveiling the report at a seminar in Karachi yesterday, World Bank’s official in Pakistan Zareen F. Naqvi said Pakistan should grant MFN status to India and follow it up with a FTA with New Delhi.

“If it is politically not palatable, then Pakistan should replace its current positive list with a negative list and restrict a minimum number of goods banned for importing from India,” she was quoted in the media here as saying. — PTI

Wellington, May 16
A powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit deep under the South Pacific today near an uninhabited chain of islands north of New Zealand, the US Geological Survey said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin saying the quake had not generated a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami but warned it could spawn a small tsunami within 100 km of its epicenter.

The USGS said the quake hit at 10:39 p.m. (1609 IST) 148 km below the seabed about 290 km south-southwest of Raoul Island in the Kermadec island chain, which is 1,140 km northeast of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland.

The powerful quake, which New Zealand seismologists said registered at magnitude 7.5, rocked a wide area of the country but was unlikely to have caused damage, seismologist Ken Gledhill told the Associated Press. — AP