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‘Musharraf running out of options’
Pakistani tourism minister quits cabinet
Benazir ignores Musharraf’s warning, says she will return
War on terror
‘Suicide attack was Taliban’s revenge’
UK MPs seek exemption from freedom of information rules
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Blast suicide bomber kills 10 in Afghanistan
Delayed Aishwarya project to get off the ground soon
US visas now more on skills than family ties
Sethusamudram
dredging to hit marine life:
Experts
Army Chief in Beijing to discuss military exercise
Hamdi Istanbullu
Properties of Nepali leader captured
Indian-origin postman jailed for stealing gifts
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‘Musharraf running out of options’
Washington, May 20 "Musharraf's opportunities to pull a political rabbit out of his hat are shrinking. A deal with Bhutto's PPP seems less likely than ever and the religious parties are keeping their distance," said Teresita Schaffer, Director of the South Asia Programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. "Most of Musharraf's options are not attractive. He can hope that things will calm down, and that the Supreme Court will delay a decision until passions have cooled. He can crack down on political parties and the press. He could, if disorder continues, declare a state of emergency or martial law, options he has publicly rejected in recent days," Schaffer said in her latest analysis of the political developments in Pakistan. "None of these is a sure bet, and each of these brings its own potential complications, including fresh domestic upheavals and international pressure," Schaffer said. "The army too must be concerned; as an institution, it is jealous of its reputation," Schaffer said in her assessment after a recent visit to Pakistan. "Musharraf is still in power, but it is not the same Musharraf with whom the international community has been working for six years, nor the same Pakistan. His willingness and ability to put his full strength behind the anti-terrorism effort are reduced. He is vulnerable to domestic challenges," the scholar said. "Paradoxically, a strong push for democracy could be his best bet, though it is a long shot," the South Asia expert said. "Musharraf could try to cast himself as the man who brings Pakistan its cleanest elections yet. He could announce that he was leaving the army before the elections, and make a major, visible effort to stage truly transparent elections in which he ran as a civilian and allowed the newly-elected assemblies to conduct the presidential election," said Schaffer. Schaffer, however, said "he would have a hard job making this credible, given the way he has prepared for the upcoming elections and the fallout from the judicial crisis." In the given scenario, the South Asia scholar said, "The US needs to make policy with an eye on Pakistan's long-term stability, not just on today's working relationships." Washington, Schaffer said, "needs to be ready to work with alternative scenarios in Pakistan should they come about." — PTI
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Pakistani tourism minister quits cabinet
Tourism minister Nilofar Bakhtiar who became target of a fierce campaign by obscurantist lobbies for making a glider jump in Paris and hugging her 70-year-old instructor, has resigned her cabinet post in disgust over the treatment meted out to her by her own party and the President. Her resignation follows an earlier decision to step down as president of the women wing of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League. Her exit and fall from grace runs parallel to steady empowerment and ascendancy of Federal Minister Sumaira Malik, a very close friend of President Gen. Musharraf. Late last year, Nilofar Bakhtiar was eased out of the ministry for culture and women affairs to make way for Malik. “It is the tale of back-to-back rise and fall of two women in the corridors of power and favour" noted one observer. "While one escalated the ladder with amazing rapidity, the other was sliding downhill in equal haste." Sumaira was the only minister present in the crucial Musharraf-Manmohan Singh meeting in Havana last year which put a halt to escalating tensions between the two countries in the aftermath of Mumbai rail blasts. Foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri was kept waiting outside the venue of the meeting. Speculations about Ms. Bakhtiar's resignation were rife in the capital for several days. She was missing from her office and not invited in recent years to various state functions where she once used to be a distinguished participant. She had cut herself off from the world and the media by switching off her home telephone and mobile. Even her staff had no clue about the whereabouts of their minister. The official of the ministry said that Bakhtiar handed over her resignation to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz before he departed for Jordan.
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Benazir ignores Musharraf’s warning, says
London, May 20 “No matter what, I’m going back this year,” Bhutto, now in exile in Dubai, was quoted as saying just hours after Musharraf insisted that she and another former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would not be allowed to come back for the year-end elections. Claiming that the only option for Musharraf was to seek a political solution in the wake of the spiralling judicial crises, the Pakistan People’s Party leader said she was now thinking of going back earlier. “The only option is for Musharraf and his regime to seek a political solution through a negotiated transfer of power,” the 53-year-old leader told The Sunday Telegraph. “I think the (Musharraf) regime still has initiative in its hands, but it needs to take certain political steps and be ready to make political compromises,” she said in another interview to Voice of America . Bhutto claimed that Musharraf, 63, who came to power in 1999 after ousting Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup, had lost the confidence of his fellow army officers, whose backing is considered essential for any Pakistani leader. “It is best for the regime to call a round-table conference of all political leaders, including the exiled prime ministers, to evolve a consensus for transparent elections,” she said. — PTI
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US officials: Tie aid to Pak to
performance
New York, May 20 But, Washington has no such proposal under consideration and is continuing to make large payments of roughly $ one billion a year to Pakistan for what it calls reimbursements to the country's military for conducting counter-terror efforts along the border with Afghanistan, the New York Times said. This is despite that fact that President Pervez Musharraf decided eight months ago to slash patrols through the area where al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are most active, it said. The monthly payments, called coalition support funds, are not widely advertised, the paper said. Buried in public budget numbers, the payments are intended to reimburse Pakistan's military for the cost of the operations. So far, Pakistan has received more than $ 5.6 billion under the programme over five years, more than half of the total aid the US has sent to the country since the 9/11 attacks, not counting covert funds, the report said. Referring to some military officials' recommendation that the funds be tied to performance, the Times quoted the Bush administration officials as saying no such plan is being considered, despite new evidence that the Pakistani military is often looking the other way when Taliban fighters retreat across the border into Pakistan, ignoring calls from American spotters to intercept them. There is also at least one American report that Pakistani security forces have fired in support of Taliban fighters attacking Afghan posts, the paper said. The administration, the paper quoted some current and former officials as saying, is fearful of cutting off the cash or linking it to performance for fear of further destabilising Musharraf, who is facing the biggest challenge to his rule since he took power in 1999. — PTI
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‘Suicide attack was Taliban’s revenge’
Islamabad, May 20 "The (May 15) attack on the (Afghan) hotel (Marhaba) was planned from inside Afghanistan targeting the owner and his son," 'Daily Times' quoted officials as saying. Around 25 persons, including the hotel owner and his son and relatives, were killed when the suicide bomber blew himself up at the crowded hotel during lunch time. Taliban commander Mullah Saeedullah and Qari Rehmat Din, Afghan prayer leader in Mardan district, were "picked up" from areas close to the hotel and handed over to the USA in April. "Both men are with the US at the Bagram airbase (in Afghanistan). It all happened in the first week of last month and the arrest of Mullah Saeedullah was a big setback for the Taliban," the officials said. The Taliban believed that Ainuddin, the son of hotel owner Sadruddin who was an ethnic Uzbek, had "tipped off the Pakistani intelligence about Mullah Saeedullah," they said. The suicide bomber had taped a message on his legs warning "US spies will meet the same fate." The hotel owner had "close contacts" with Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord, and Uzbek Afghan soldiers were involved with US forces in the killing of Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah in Sangeen Valley of Helmand province on May 12. — PTI
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UK MPs seek exemption from freedom of information rules
London, May 20 The move, backed by 78 MPs of the ruling Labour and 18 Conservative lawmakers on Friday, would potentially allow them to refuse to disclose full details of their expenses. Several ministers including home office minister Tony McNulty and local government minister Phil Woolas voted for exemption, while there were also suspicions of “tacit” Tory support.The backing by ministers was ironic as just a day before Gordon Brown, the prime minister-in-waiting, had declared that he would re-build trust in the government and make it more open and accountable. He has rejected calls to block the move and let MPs move closer to make the exemption a law. His aides justified the step saying that “Gordon has also spoken about the sovereignty of parliament. If MPs have voted this measure then it is a matter for them.”But Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell asked Brown to show his commitment to Freedom of Information. The Sunday Times today claimed that Maclean, author of the move to exempt MPs from FoI legislation, bought a 3,300 pounds quad bike on parliamentary expenses. Maclean has multiple sclerosis and argues that it is the most efficient way of getting round to the parts of his rural constituency. But the disclosure that he was able to claim the 250cc bike on parliamentary expenses will fuel the row over his new legislation. Critics have attacked Maclean’s bill as a deliberate attempt to stop the public from obtaining embarrassing details of MPs’ expenses and fear that the measures will further undermine public trust in politicians. Maclean has defended the purchase, insisting he has nothing to hide. The 54-year-old walks with the aid of a shepherd’s crook and says the alternative would be a mobility scooter, which would not be as practical for attending events in his Penrith and Borders constituency. Official figures show that last year Maclean claimed a total of 129,700 pounds in Commons allowances - around the average figure for MPs, on top of his 59,000 pound basic salary. The sum includes 6,969 pounds for motoring and 8,561 pounds for train travel. The Private Member’s bill still has to be approved by the House of Lords. — PTI
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Blast suicide bomber kills 10 in Afghanistan
Khost, Afghanistan, May 20 Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack. As details emerged about the suicide blast, the governor of Ghazni province said Afghan and NATO forces killed about 30 Taliban fighters and arrested 12 others in Qara Bagh district yesterday night. “Unfortunately three police are missing and one is wounded,” the governor, Merajuddin
Patan, told Reuters. The suicide bomber’s apparent target was a convoy of US-led coalition soldiers passing through the market in the city of Gardez in Paktia province, about 100 km south of the capital Kabul. “Unfortunately we have a report today that at 9:40 a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Gardez roundabout,” the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement. “Ten civilians were martyred and about 30 others were wounded.’’ A spokesman for the US-led coalition said some of its soldiers were wounded in the attack but had no more details.
— Reuters
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Delayed Aishwarya project to get off the
Cannes, May 20 Oscar-winning director, Roland Joffe, best known in India as the man who helmed ‘City of Joy’, will direct the $35 million historical drama. Large portions of the movie are scheduled to be shot at Indian locations. The revival of the delayed project, being produced and co-financed by Belgium’s Corsan and India’s Neelmudra Entertainment, is good news for Aishwarya’s fans. Joffe, whose credits include modern classic like ‘The Killing Fields’ and ‘The Mission’, has roped in legendary Oscar winning Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro to shoot ‘Singularity’. According to Corsan World Sales,x representing ‘Singularity’ in Cannes, the film will be ready for release before the end of 2008. It is expected to feature Hollywood star Brendan Fraser opposite Aishwarya though no final word is available at the moment on the rest of the cast. Aishwarya has returned to India after a brief sojourn in Cannes. Her face stares down at passers-by from hoardings and advertising slides along the boulevard and her pictures adorn many a L'Oreal campaign. — PTI
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US visas now more on skills than family ties
Washington, May 20 While the plan offers a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants, it crumbles the bedrock underlying four decades of US immigration policy that is especially important to Asian Americans: family reunification. The Congress is to consider this week reforms such as ending issuance of US permanent resident cards for siblings and adult children of US citizens and holders of what is known as the "green card." The new system calls for most green cards to be based on a merit system that would favor applicants who speak English, those with higher education and some with specific job skills. Trading off family reunification for employment-based visas is seen as inconsistent with US values and with Asia's extended family system, Asian experts say. "In an era of promoting family values, proposals to eliminate family immigration categories seem entirely out of step," said Bill Ong Hing, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of California, Davis. "What's the message? Brothers and sisters are not important? Once children reach a certain age, they need not bond with their parents? Eliminating such categories institutionalise an anti-family message," he told a recent Congressional hearing. Immigration has become a divisive issue in the USA and shifting the basis of immigration policy from family to skills is seen as a last-ditch bid to woo some conservatives opposed to President George W. Bush's legalisation plans for 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country. — AFP
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Sethusamudram
dredging to hit marine
A report submitted by a group of Sri Lankan experts to the Cabinet earlier this week on the Sethusamudram canal project have cautioned that the dredging of the seas close to the island nation would have a serious impact on its environment, particularly the marine life.
The experts committee consisting of 34 Sri Lankan professional in various fields was appointed by a ministerial committee appointed to study the impact of the project on Sri Lanka. The ministerial committee will now study the report and decide what kind of concerns it should raise with India on a subject, a member of the committee said. The exerts committee has proposed the sharing of information on existing studies and collaboration on further studies and assessments and the setting up of a common database with India on the subject. There is growing concern in Sri Lanka that their concerns have not been taken into consideration when India decided to under take the project and conducted various environment impact assessment studies. The area is believed cover some of the best coral reefs in India and Sri
Lanka.
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Army Chief in Beijing to discuss military exercise
Beijing, May 20 “I am going to propose the holding of such manoeuvres,” Singh, also Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Indian Armed Forces, said on the eve of his departure for Beijing on a week-long visit as the head of a tri-service delegation. “In principle, the Chinese have agreed to holding of such an exercise,” he told PTI. Singh, heading a tri-service delegation on an official visit from May 21 to 25, said that during talks with the Chinese side, he hopes to work out the details of the joint military exercise and whether such a first-ever exercise would be held on Chinese or Indian soil. — PTI
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Turks join mass protest against government
Samsun, Turkey, May 20 ''No to Sharia (Islamic law)'', ''Turkey is secular and will remain secular'', the crowd chanted in the main square. The rally, the latest in a series of protests, was billed by organisers as a way of uniting the divided opposition against the government which they accuse of trying to undermine the secular state in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey. The latest protest follows a pact on Thursday between the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the smaller left-wing DSP to contest the July 22 election together. The leaders of the two parties arrived at the demonstration together. Two right-wing parties have also merged. There was a heavy police presence but a carnival atmosphere. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which denies any Islamist agenda, has called a general election ahead of schedule to resolve a conflict with the secularist elite over a presidential election. The secular establishment, including the military, judges and opposition parties, derailed the government's plan to elect Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as president, fearing he might weaken the official separation of religion and state. Since it came to power in the wake of a financial crisis, the government has presided over five years of economic growth and political stability and the launch of membership talks with the European Union. Erdogan's centre-right party is expected to attract the most votes, but may be forced to form a coalition government. The series of rallies has given momentum to efforts by opposition parties to put up a united front against the government in the election. This week's poll alliance between the nationalist-minded CHP and the small leftist DSP grouping, which has no deputies, came in the wake of a merger on the right of the political spectrum. Centre-right parties True Path and Motherland have merged to form the New Democrat Party. Today's protest came a day after official national celebrations to mark the anniversary of the launch of Turkey's war of independence by the country's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Samsun in 1919. — Reuters
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Properties of Nepali leader captured
Kathmandu, May 20 Over a dozen activists of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha - Jwala Singh, a splinter Maoist group, put up a seizure notice at Ram Baran Yadav’s house at Barmapuri in Janakpur in south Nepal, party sources said. Yaday is the deputy general secretary of Nepali Congress. The JTMM activists detonated a bomb inside the house and opened fire in air before capturing it, the Nepali Congress said. The group has accused Yadav of not supporting their violent activities. The Nepali Congress condemned the incident and asked the government to take strong action against the culprits.
— PTI
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Indian-origin postman jailed for stealing gifts
London, May 20 Dipak Patel, 33, pleaded guilty to three charges of theft and was sentenced Saturday by a Bolton Crown court. Judge Roger Warnock described his offences as “sheer lunacy”. Patel used to open envelopes and packages and steal cheques, CDs, mobile phone SIM cards, vouchers, bank cards and pin numbers, which he used to sell to fund his drug habit. “The public is entitled to believe they can rely on the postal service. Your thefts have left a lot of people distressed and upset and I hope you feel suitably ashamed,” the judge said. The postman was caught earlier this year after the Royal Mail and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) set up a trap to catch him, reported This is Lancashire newspaper. After the trap was laid, Patel’s bosses kept him under surveillance and saw him steal a few envelopes and parcels from a colleague’s round and put them into his own bag. “He accepted that he had been targeting packages of a financial nature and told police that he was stealing to fund a drug habit,” prosecutor Michael Maher told the court. When Patel was caught, investigators found all the parcels in his bag along with a letter containing details of a pin number, 13 unopened envelopes, a bank card, Marks and Spencer vouchers worth 20 pounds and 14 pounds in cash. Patel’s house was also raided where 34 opened envelopes, 14 mobile phone SIM cards, a cheque book, five bank cards and a driving licence were recovered. Prosecutors said that investigations revealed Patel had stolen a total of 106 cheques worth 14,462 pounds. — IANS
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