A special security team, drawn from security agencies and the police, has arrested five persons involved in attack on President Musharraf’s plane from a deserted house in Rawalpindi, while he was flying to Balochistan, to visit flood-ravaged areas on July 8.

According to sources, those arrested include some members belonging to an outlawed sectarian organisation. The authorities said they were able to track down the suspects by monitoring their mobile phones. The identity of those arrested has been kept in wraps, ostensibly to guard further probe into the network of conspirators involved.

The news of rocket attack on Musharraf's plane was interestingly broken by foreign wire services citing a conversation with Lal Masjid rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghaza. The slain cleric disclosed that he has received a call from somebody that their group had fired the rockets. President's spokesman Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad initially refuted the reports but later confirmed after a raid in a deserted house and said the President's plane was not hit.

Police and security agents traced the site of rocket launching in Islamabad's twin city-Rawalpindi within hours and recovered an anti-aircraft gun and other weapons from the deserted house.

President Musharraf, who has earlier been a target of botched assassination attempts, did not refer to the incident but during a speech warned the Lal Masjid militants that they must "surrender or would be killed". It was reminiscent of a similar episode last year when his helicopter was targeted in Balochistan's Kohlu area by insurgents, led by nationalist leader and former governor Nawab Akbar Bugti. Musharraf warned them that they would face retribution" never knowing what hit them."

Bugti was killed hiding in a cave but several Army officers lost their lives in a mysterious blast in the cave while trying to arrest Bugti alive.

PTI adds: The Pakistani police has detained 39 persons in connection with the recent unsuccessful attempt on President Pervez Musharraf’s life and transferred them to an undisclosed location, according to sources.

The detention came after investigators, probing the attack on Musharraf’s aircraft as it took off from a military airbase in Rawalpindi on July 6, traced the suspected attackers’ telephone calls to these 39 persons, the ‘Daily Times’ reported today, quoting the sources as saying. Most of the detainees belonged to the North West Frontier Province, they said.

Supreme Court judges on Tuesday observed that the government counsel have been unable to satisfy them about the judicial misconduct accusations leveled against Iftikhar and asked under what authority President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, suspended or stopped Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry from functioning as CJ on March 9.

The court further wanted to know the urgency in convening the meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the same day in the darkness of night, who summoned the meeting and how could the council render the CJ dysfunctional, under what authority and without serving a notice.

Attorney general Makhdoom Ali Khan who concluded his arguments on Tuesday said he could not cite any provision regarding presidential power to suspend the CJ but added he was relying on circumstantial material in support of such an authority. He said there must be some record as to who convened the SJC meeting but was unable to produce it before the court.

Asked what he would say about the veracity of CJ's' allegations of bias against some judged on the SJC, the AG said, "My answer to that would be as explosive as your verdict in support of this claim."

Justice Ramday said the reference accuses the CJ of using Punjab chief minister's plane to condole the death of a judge. Many other SC judges also traveled in that plane. Would the government bring references against them as well or exclude them to single out only the CJ?

The AG submitted that the Chief Justice cannot be exempted from impeachment as the word 'judge' also includes the Chief Justice of Pakistan under the constitutional scheme. The CJ can also be impeached in the SJC. But Justice Ejaz pointed out that the CJ is an integral part of the SJC under the Constitution which does not envisage his impeachment by the council.

Los Angeles, July 17
Teenage-wizard Harry Potter left his rivals spellbound at the North American box-office over the weekend.

The fifth movie based on the book by JK Rowling-“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”-netted USD77.1 million, knocking “Transformers” into second place.

While the numbers are a long way off the record opening weekend for a summer blockbuster, “Phoenix” has raked in an impressive USD139.7 million since it opened in theatres last week.

Entertainment industry press reported yesterday that “Phoenix” had also earned a further USD190 million at the international box-office, for an overall figure around USD330 million in five days.

Analysts say the latest Potter film has benefited from the massive publicity generated by the upcoming publication of the seventh and final book in Rowling’s phenomenally successful series.

“Ratatouille,” the animated tale about a foodie French rat, landed in third place with USD18 million. In fourth was Bruce Willis’s return as action-hero cop John McClane in “Live Free or Die Hard,” earning USD11.3 million.

As Potter fever rages, author J K Rowling has sought the help of the young wizard's admirers to look for Madeleine McCann, a three-year- old girl who went missing in Portugal two months ago. — AFP, PTI