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Pervez: No probe into Karachi killings
Pak Oppn threatens civil disobedience
Agencies warned US before
Iraq war: Report
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Bush signs Iraq war bill
Lebanon gives last chance
for talks
India to buy 350 tanks from Russia
Paul Newman quits acting
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Pervez: No probe into Karachi killings
Hours after President Musharraf ruled out a probe into the May 12 Karachi killings, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court today took a suo motu notice and constituted a larger Bench of seven judges to look into the circumstances that led to the bloodbath.
The court, responding to a petition by a lawyer,
summoned top officials of the province dealing with security to appear on May 28. They include chief
secretary, secretary, home affairs, IGP (Sindh), director-general of the Rangers and chief of the Karachi police. The Bench will be presided over by justice Sarmad Jalal Esani and it includes Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Azizullah Memon, Justice Khilji Arif
Hussian, Maqbool Bakir and Sain Dino Metlo. Musharraf, who wound up a three-day trip to Karachi, told a select gathering of prominent citizens that it was difficult to identify the elements that first opened fire on May 12 in Karachi, as more than 2,50,000 people were on the roads that day. Earlier in an interview with the BBC, Musharraf said he would like to know the truth about the violence and has asked Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz to look into it. Aziz told reporters on Friday that there would be no judicial inquiry but the Sindh government is trying to fix the responsibility. In another top level meeting of senior officials in Karachi, Musharraf said no casualties would have occurred had the Chief Justice not come to Karachi. Interestingly, the opposition has failed to make any firm statement on the subject, MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed proposed a parliamentary commission for the inquiry. The national consultative meeting held Friday
night and attended by top political leaders, groups, civic society representatives in Islamabad did not demand a probe in its joint
statement. However, addressing a news conference here today, Imran Khan said like in case of Kargil, Musharraf was opposed to an inquiry because it would expose his sinister design carried out with the help of the MQM to disrupt suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar's rally.
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Pak Oppn threatens civil disobedience
Opposition parties at a 'national consultative meeting' here vowed to launch a civil disobedience movement if General Musharraf adopted extra constitutional ways to perpetuate his rule and constituted a high-profile panel of top political leaders to coordinate appropriate actions for ending one- man rule dominated by the military. The conference held under the aegis of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), was attended by virtually all political parties, groups and civil society representatives except the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of Ms. Benazir Bhutto which continues to strike a discordant note in every campaign or meeting by declining to sit with religious grouping, the MMA. Though MMA secretary general Maulana Fazlur Rehman regretted that Ms. Bhutto was trying to please the West by distancing herself from religious elements, he joined other leaders in reaffirming resolve to persuade the PPP to support a united struggle against Musharraf. PPP vice chairman Amin Faheem said the MMA had strengthened Musharraf by voting for the 17th Amendment and continued to be his ally in the Baluchistan government.He aid the PPP would consider cooperating with the MMA if it pulled out of Baluchistan government. A joint statement adopted at the meeting which resolved to resist Musharraf's bid to get himself elected through the present assemblies and if he imposed emergency or martial law in the country. The meeting, which continued till midnight here on Friday, also formed a committee to take a decision for any pro-democracy campaign. The committee, which consists of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Raja Zafarul Haq, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Asfandyar Wali and Imran Khan, will announce schedule for protest rallies to be organised in all four provincial capitals. Others who attended the meeting included PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, acting parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Imran Khan, Mahmood Khan Achakzai of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party (ANP), former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg (retd), Hamid Gul, Roeedad Khan, , Maulana Abdul Rasheed Turabi and president Supreme Court Bar Association Munir Malik. "We feel that Musharraf has already violated the Constitution by declaring his intentions of resorting to extra-constitutional steps to prolong his tenure," MMA president Qazi Hussain said while announcing decisions. He said the meeting demanded immediate resignation of General Musharraf, handing over power to chairman Senate, formation of a neutral caretaker government and an independent chief election commissioner to supervise fair, free and transparent elections. The meeting in its joint declaration vowed to struggle for the restoration of the Constitution and elimination of army's role in politics. It called for the return of exiled premier Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and warned the government against putting any hurdles. The consultative meeting also unanimously decided to hold joint public meetings at all provincial capitals. A proposal in this regard was floated by Mahmood Khan Achakzai.
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Agencies warned US before
Iraq war: Report
Washington, May 26 The intelligence agencies had anticipated the fallout of the war in two papers distributed to key members of the Bush administration prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the 230-page Senate report states. The agencies had warned that the war would provoke violent sectarian divides, provide Al-Qaida with additional opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, a chance for Iran to expand its influence and for terror outfits to raise more money in the Muslim world, the report says. Intelligence agents had also mentioned that democracy in Iraq would be "a long, difficult and probably turbulent challenge", its states. "The most chilling and prescient warning from the intelligence community prior to the war was that the American invasion would bring about instability in Iraq that would be exploited by Iran and Al-Qaida terrorists" Senate Intelligence Panel chief Democratic Senator John Rockefeller and three other Democrats have said in a statement. However, Republican vice-chair of the Panel Senator Christopher Bond, disagreed and said the warnings emphasised "lacked detail or specificity that would have guided military planners".
— PTI
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Washington, May 26 “Congress voted yesterday to provide our troops with the funding and flexibility they need to protect our country, and I was pleased to sign the bill today,” Bush said yesterday in a statement. “Rather than mandate arbitrary timetables for troop withdrawals or micromanage our military commanders, this legislation enables our servicemen and women to follow the judgement of commanders on the ground,” he added. He reiterated that the measure sets the stage for pressing the fragile government in Baghdad to make progress on national reconciliation. “Iraqis need to demonstrate measurable progress on a series of benchmarks for improved security, political reconciliation, and governance,” the statement said. Opposition Democrats have warned that Bush’s war strategy will unravel and vowed fresh efforts to end the conflict. The President’s Democratic foes in Congress regrouped yesterday after ceding to his demands to strip timelines for troop withdrawals out of the war funding bill. — AFP
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Lebanon gives last chance
for talks
Lebanon, May 26 Washington confirmed it was rushing military supplies to the Lebanese army but the Lebanese opposition warned the government against getting involved in a US-backed war against the Al-Qaida-inspired fighters of fringe Palestinian militant group Fatah Al-Islam. Relief agencies expressed growing concern for the 20,000 or so civilians believed to remain inside the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp outside Lebanon’s second city of Tripoli that the army has charged the militants are using as “human shields”. As a fragile truce unilaterally declared by the
militants on Tuesday largely held, defence minister Elias Murr said talks were under way to try to reach a negotiated end to the siege. But he added that the army remained ready to use force if the talks failed. “We are now giving
a chance for political negotiations,” the defence minister told reporters on Friday. — AFP
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India to buy 350 tanks from Russia
Moscow, May 26 “The contract for their delivery will be signed in autumn this year, although it was initially to be signed this month,” chief of the Russian defence ministry’s mechanised armoured department, Colonel-General Vladislav Polonsky, was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS. According to Gen Polonsky, like in the case of previously executed contract for the sale of 300 T-90S the new deal would also be completed within 3-4 years. — PTI
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Los Angeles, May 26 “I’m not able to work anymore as an actor at the level that I would want to,” Newman told ABC news yesterday in an interview released on its website. “You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention. So I think that’s pretty much a closed book for me,” he said, referring to his screen acting career. “I’m grateful for the other things that have come into my life,” he added. Newman won the first of his six Oscar nominations for his performance alongside Elizabeth Taylor in the 1959 screen version of the drama ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’. His piercing blue eyes saw him through appearances in a string of other classics over a 55-year career, including as a pool-playing shark in ‘The Hustler’, a prisoner in ‘Cool Hand Luke’, and an outlaw in the Western adventure ‘Butch Cassidy’ movie in which he starred alongside Robert Redford. — AFP
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