Karachi/Islamabad, August 29
The whereabouts of Baloch leader Akbar Khan Bugti’s body continue to remain a mystery, with neither the Pakistan Government nor the Bugti tribe coming out clearly with a statement on the issue.

Bugti’s burial at Dera Bugti The burial of late Baluch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti will be held here in which only his relations will participate, the Bugti Conciliation Committee said. Jalal Khan Kalpar Bugti presided over the 21-member committee which considered the matters relating to the burial of Bugti, The News reported. No person outside the community would be allowed to attend the burial, the committee said. — ANI

Rumours are abounding that Akbar Bugti may have escaped the Pakistan army’s pounding of the cave hideout in the Kohlu Hills on August 26.

On Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is facing a no-confidence motion against his government in the National Assembly, told reporters on the sidelines in Islamabad, that heavy excavatory equipment had been sent to the Kohlu Hills to remove the debris around Bugti’s reported hideout in an attempt to retrieve his body.

The government and Bugti’s Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) continue to trade charges about the location of Bugti’s body.

Amanullah Kanrani, the information secretary of the JWP, was quoted as saying from Quetta that he had reason to believe that Nawab Bugti’s body was laying at the Combined Military Hospital in Quetta’s Cantonment area.

Family members said they had refused to allow the government to bury Nawab Bugti’s body in his ancestral graveyard in Dera Bugti, saying it should be handed over to them.

Veteran politician Sherbaz Khan Mazari claimed that Bugti’s body had been taken to Islamabad, a charge that invited immediate denial from Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao. He said that Bugti’s body was not in government custody.

On the other hand, some in the government were saying that Bugti’s body had been taken out from under the rubble of the cave that had collapsed during the August 26 military offensive. — ANI

Dubai, August 29
An Indian driver from Kerala who was allegedly beaten up by his sponsor in Qatar, has taken shelter in the Indian mission in Doha.

P.K. Usman (39) who hails from Waiyanad district of Kerala, was brought to the Indian Embassy by a relative on Thursday afternoon after undergoing emergency medical treatment at the Hamad Medical Corporation.

According to Usman, his sponsor hit him with a tea flask in a fit of rage and later locked him in a room on Thursday morning.

The victim met reporters at the mission in the presence of Indian Ambassador George Joseph.

“Protecting his rights and getting him justice is our major concern,” Joseph was quoted as saying to the “Peninsula” newspaper.

Joseph said that he had lined up meetings with Qatar’s Foreign Ministry officials to pursue Usman’s case and ensure that he gets justice. — PTI

London, August 29
To cope up with the increasing number of inter-parental conflicts involving children of NRIs and multiple problems arising leading to removal of such children to India, the Union Government should enact a universal child custody law by adhering to the principles laid down in the Hague Convention, a leading Supreme Court lawyer said today.

Presenting a paper at the XVII World Congress of the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates at Belfast in Northern Ireland, Mr Anil Malhotra said: "With the increasing number of Non-Resident Indians abroad and multiple problems arising leading to family conflicts, inter-parental child removal to India now needs to be resolved on an international platform."

Earlier inaugurating the five-day World Congress attended by 500 delegates from 50 countries, Lord Falconer, British Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor, said the Congress aimed to get across some simple and powerful messages about the rights of children in all circumstances. "This is particularly important if we are to address domestic abuse and neglect, which have too frequently gone unheard and unseen in the past.

Thankfully, these and other problems are becoming more widely acknowledged as governments are working with agencies to prevent crimes against children and bring more perpetrators to justice."

Observing that it was no longer a local problem, Malhotra, who has represented a large number of overseas clients in Indian courts, said "the phenomenon is global. Steps have to be taken by joining hands globally to resolve these conflicts through the medium of courts interacting with each other."

Anil's brother Ranjit Malhotra, who also contributed to the paper on Inter-country adoptions from India, attended the World Congress.

Malhotra, who had studied comparative family law at the London School of Economics, said: "Till India does not become a signatory to the Hague Convention, this may not be possible.

A time has now come where it is not possible for the Indian Courts to stretch their limits to adapt to different foreign Court Orders arising in different jurisdictions. It is equally important that to create a uniform policy of law some clear, authentic and universal child custody law is enacted within India by adhering to the principles laid down in the Hague Convention.

He said 25 million non-resident Indians lived all over the world. "Their multiplying numbers have elevated this problem to a very high degree in inter parental conflicts which originate in foreign lands but descend on Indian soil. There is no legislation available in the Indian statute books, which is geared to handle inter-country conflicts in matters of child removal.

"The issue is writ large all over and with increasing passage of time, crops up very regularly in Indian courts. Times have changed but Indian laws have not kept pace to cope up with these inter parental conflicts involving children of foreign parentage who are brought to India in violation of a foreign court Custody Order." — PTI

Jerusalem, August 29
Ignoring calls for an independent state commission of inquiry, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to establish two committees to investigate the handling of the Lebanon war by the government and the military.

“A state inquiry commission headed by a judge would paralyse the entire system. Everyone would then get a lawyer and concentrate on how to pin the blame on someone else. This would not fix what needs to be fixed", Olmert argued rejecting the popular demand.

“We do not have the luxury to sink into investigations of the past, but we need to focus on the future and the Iranian threat,” he emphasised. — PTI