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US affirms move to sell F-16 to Pak
Family feud likely over Bugti’s legacy
Convicted Indian doctor withdraws from practice
‘Psycho’ scriptwriter Stefano dead
Plane entry denied for wearing Arabic script T-shirt
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US affirms move to sell F-16 to Pak
The recent assassination of a Baluchi leader will not affect the sale of F-16 fighter jets by the US to Pakistan, according to a State Department official.
Speaking to The Tribune on the condition of anonymity, the official said the jets were intended to ensure Pakistan’s security. “We have a clear understanding with the Pakistani government on the use of the F-16s,” the official said, declining to elaborate. The US has provided Pakistan with weaponry with the understanding that this would be used against al- Qaeda and Taliban militants. US-made Cobra helicopter gunships were used to kill Baluchi leader Nawab Akbar Bugti on August 26. Meanwhile, a South Asia scholar noted that by ordering Mr Bugti’s assassination, Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf had “outlived his usefulness” as an ally in the US-led war on terror. Writing in foreign policy magazine’s online edition, Frederic Grare, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said with Nawab Bugti’s killing “the Pakistani strongman may have finally tipped the scales too far.” “The elimination of a leader of Pakistan’s most strategically important border regions threatens the country’s territorial integrity, the war on terror and Gen Musharraf’s own political future. In one deftstroke, Gen Musharraf has made himself an ally no longer worth the effort,” Mr Grare said. The Bush Administration has notified the US Congress of its plans to sell Pakistan up to 36 F-16C/D Block 50/52 Falcon fighters built by Lockheed Martin Corp. “The killing of Nwab Bugti has exposed a Pakistani President unable to fulfil his commitments in the war on terror and only able to act decisively against his own people,” Mr Grare said. “ Gen Musharraf’s actions have reversed the slow progress toward national integration. Reporting restrictions will guarantee that we will not hear much from Baluchistan in the coming months. But the next thing we hear might well be an explosion that reverberates as far as Washington.”, he added. However, the State Department official pointed out that the Baluchis “are involved in a rebellion against the Pakistani government. They are conducting violent attacks against people.” No Baluchi movement is, however, recognised as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US. A State Department report noted that at the close of 2005, the Pakistani security forces “were engaged in operations to subdue the rebellious Buloch militants.” Nancy Beck, a press officer at the State Department, told The Tribune: “The US will like to see these issues resolved peacefully and within the framework of a strong and unified Pakistan.” She noted that Nawab Bugti “had joined those taking up arms to demand increased autonomy for Baluchistan, including local control of the province’s natural resources.” The State Department official, meanwhile, said it was “possible” that someone in the Bush administration had spoken to the Pakistani government about the strike against Nawab Bugti, but didn’t know the nature of this discussion.
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Family feud likely over Bugti’s legacy
Islamabad, August 31 Akbar Bugti left no clear successor, The News International said. Officials and locals say the biggest and most ticklish question following his controversial killing is as to who would succeed him. Three of Akbar’s sons are dead and one of them lives in Dubai, away from the rough and tumble of Baluchistan. The newspaper said he had returned home. But that could be only for the last rites of Akbar Bugti. Just two days before Akbar Bugti was killed, the tribe had announced that it was ending the “Sardari” system. But that may be of little consequence under the new circumstances. Whoever is the next “tumandaar,” or the chief of the beleaguered Bugti tribe of Baluchistan, he would have to make peace with the government or, as per tribal traditions, decide to continue the fight. It is a difficult decision since pacts tribal heads have signed in the past with the government have not been honoured and rebellions have been suppressed. Two previous chiefs have been jailed after they signed the pacts. The slain Bugti, who had three wives, has two contending grandsons. Brahamdagh (27), son of his third son, is now a fugitive. The nawab had tried to appoint him his successor, but was “candidly opposed” by Waderas, the clan elders, the daily said. The elders said this was against tribal traditions. The other contender is Adu (22), son of the eldest son, who falls within these traditions. Adu has been managing the family land and property. “We cannot give exact figures of the deceased Nawab’s property and assets but these are certainly beyond one’s imagination,” said a senior official of the Baluchistan government. One estimate reveals that the late chieftain got Rs 670 million (about $11 million) per annum from the so-called deal signed with certain oil and gas firms. It remains to be seen who will own Akbar Bugti’s property and assets if no one is appointed his successor given the possible family feud. According to Baluch traditions, the eldest son, with the consent of all sub-tribal Waderas, should be declared his successor. In this case, Adu is the conclusive name that comes to mind, the newspaper said. “Being the eldest son of Akbar Bugti’s eldest son Salim, Adu is now flexing his muscles. He is also in the mountain hideouts.” Adu is reported to have never stayed in Dera Bugti for any long period and is not well versed with Baluch traditions. Moreover, nobody in the family wants to see him succeeding Akbar Bugti. According to Baluch traditions, Akbar Bugti’s real strength comes from the writ of Waderas, who hold an assembly to declare a new Nawab — even if it is only a formality. Akbar Bugti had many enemies within the tribe, which often kept members of the Bugti family outside Dera Bugti. Rather they preferred to stay at Quetta. When Akbar Bugti asked the Waderas last year about their opinion on naming a successor during his lifetime, most of them had opposed Brahamdagh, saying it would be against the tribal traditions
.— IANS
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Convicted Indian doctor withdraws from practice
Melbourne, August 31 The withdrawal, effective from today, means that Suman Sood, 56, can no longer practice as a doctor in the country’s most populous state, a news channel reported today. Dr Sood, who could get a 10-year jail term, is due to face a hearing before the state Medical Tribunal next month. Last week, the New South Wales Supreme Court held Dr Sood guilty of illegally administering a drug
to a pregnant woman, intending to carry out a miscarriage. She was also charged with manslaughter of the woman’s infant which was born dead, but was acquitted by the jury. After the verdict, it was reported that the doctor had been
investigated five times by the state’s Medical Board and sued for damages
by six women, in cases settled out of court. Dr Sood released a statement today saying she had “voluntarily withdrawn her name from the Medical
Register of NSW ... and apologised for any inconvenience caused to her patients as a result of the
withdrawal”. — PTI
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‘Psycho’ scriptwriter Stefano dead
Thousand Oaks (US), August 31 Stefano died on August 25, funeral director Elaine Munoz said. The cause of death was not disclosed. Stefano went to New York in 1940 as an aspiring entertainer. He played piano, sang, danced and wrote music and lyrics. He toured with a modern dance troupe and worked temporary jobs as a typist. He met his future bride, Marilyn Epstein, in a New York bar in 1953. “I was trying to make a choice on the jukebox and this great-looking man in black jacket, jeans and boots said, ‘Play that one, I wrote it,’” she told The Philadelphia Inquirer. They soon married. Stefano’s big TV break came in the 1950s when he was hired as a writer for the “Ted Mack Family Hour.” He also wrote a number of scripts, including “The Black Orchid,” which was made into a 1958 movie starring Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn.
— AP
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Plane entry denied for wearing Arabic script T-shirt
New York, August 31 Raed Jarrar, who is half Iraqi and half Palestinian, said he was preparing to board a JetBlue flight to Oakland, California, on August 12, when four officials stopped him at the gate and told him he could not get on the plane wearing his shirt. Jarrar (28), who directs the Iraq project for Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organisation, said he asked what law he was breaking by wearing the shirt. The officials did not answer, he said, but suggested that he turn the shirt inside out. One of the officials told him, “Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says ‘I’m a robber’,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday. “I refused to take off my T-shirt and put it on inside out because it looks like a punishment for something I have not done,” he said. In the end, the officials gave Jarrar another shirt to put over the offending T-shirt and he put it on rather than miss his flight.
— AP |
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