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Bhutto reaches pact for Musharraf’s re-election?
Australia gives visa to Haneef’s cousin
Haneef case Media doubts charges
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Laden’s daughter-in-law
quizzed for fraud
Ealing Southall goes to
Virendra Sharma
Indians dominate literary prize list
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Bhutto reaches pact for Musharraf’s re-election?
A flurry of media reports and apparently a leak by a top presidential aide on friday said that President Musharraf and former premier Benazir Bhutto have clinched an understanding through which Bhutto agreed to support his re-election conditionally.
The Daily Dawn, The News, the Daily Times and others claimed that the two sides finally made headway in their negotiations on Musharraf's political future. These include his election in uniform, PPP's role in the election, the participation in the general election and post-election governmental structure. The News also quoted an unnamed “key minister” as saying that the elections will be delayed by about a year because of the prevailing turmoil in Pakistan. According to media reports Bhutto will not create any hurdle in the General’s bid to get elected from incumbent assemblies. Her party will not support other opposition parties by resigning from assemblies to divest his election of any legitimacy. They will either abstain from voting without a boycott or exercise either of the two options- vote for Musharraf, which seems unlikely, or put up a rival candidate to lend credence to the process. To calm down a baffled party workforce Bhutto will cite MMA’s example during the vote of confidence on January 1, 2004 when it abstained after supporting the 17th Amendment. “PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has already conveyed this (to the ruling party).” The Dawn quoted a high-placed source saying that Bhutto used back-channels to assure Musharraf that she was ready to support him conditionally. To meet one such condition the President conveyed to his confidants that he will shed his uniform after being elected as President for the next term in October. Well-placed sources said the agreement had been reached on this issue between the two parties in Dubai. The News cited a “key minister” as saying that Bhutto was pursuing an arrangement in which she would work under Musharraf with US backing on an agenda of enlightened moderation. About the future of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, he said that after the judicial crisis of March 9, there have been serious deliberations to make him a scapegoat in case of an adverse verdict. Aziz is also marked by his strong advocacy of Lal Masjid operation that resulted in a serious backlash. A PML leader said two options had been discussed in the brainstorming sessions at the senior government level, to delay the elections by one year as provided by the Constitution or to hold the election to the National Assembly before time and let the Provincial Assemblies remain in place. The new Lower House and old Provincial Legislatures will then re-elect the President.
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Australia gives visa to Haneef’s cousin
Melbourne, July 20 A statement from Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Haneef’s cousin Imran Siddiqqi has been granted a visa after character and security assessments. Haneef is charged with recklessly providing support to a terrorist organisation in the failed car bomb plot in the United Kingdom. He is being held in a Brisbane jail and has had his work visa cancelled. Meanwhile, the Greens party has joined calls for Andrews to reinstate Haneef’s visa, after the release of new information about his alleged link to the UK terrorism plot. The ABC has been told that Haneef’s mobile phone SIM card was not in the jeep that exploded at Glasgow Airport but was found 350 kilometres away at a house in Liverpool. Greens Senator Kerry Nettle said the Federal Government’s case against Haneef is falling apart. “Either it is a massive mistake on the part of the Federal Police and the Australian Government or it is them desperately looking to charge Haneef and skimming over the facts of the case in making the decision to charge Haneef,” she said. But Andrews has ruled out reviewing his decision to cancel Haneef’s visa on character grounds, despite the new information revealed today. She said the visa decision was based on a broader range of information than was provided to the magistrate in the bail hearing. A leading criminal barrister today said an apparent prosecution “mess-up” meant Haneef was unlikely to convicted of providing support to a terrorist organisation. — PTI
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Haneef case Media doubts charges
Melbourne, July 20 A Brisbane court was told this week that a SIM belonging to Haneef, was found in the Jeep that smashed into Glasgow Airport on June 30. However, sources in the UK and Australia have told ABC Radio that the SIM card was actually seized by the police eight hours later when Haneef’s cousin arrested in Liverpool.
— PTI
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Laden’s daughter-in-law quizzed for fraud
London, July 20 Jane Felix-Browne from Cheshire has had her income support suspended while officials in the United Kingdom probe whether her claim is affected by her marriage to Omar bin Laden in April, who she met in Egypt, the 'Daily Mail' reported here today. "My income support is 4.31 pounds a week. That's what the fuss is about," she said, insisting that she had informed the Department for Work and Pensions at the time of her marriage. Felix-Brown, a five-time divorcee and a grandmother of five, however, denied the allegations that she was a fraud. "I am returning to the UK to sort the situation out," the newspaper quoted Browne as saying. She currently lives at Moulton in Cheshire where she has various jobs, including restoring houses and aircraft. It may be mentioned that last week Felix-Browne said she was aware some people would be hostile to her marriage with Osama bin Laden's son. "I hope people don't judge me too harshly. I married the son, not the father," she had said, adding, "I just married the man I met and fell in love with. To me he is just Omar. I hope people will take a step back and think what it was like when they fell in love." — PTI
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Ealing Southall goes to Virendra Sharma
London, July 20 In Ealing Southall, Sharma defeated his nearest Liberal Democrats nominee Nigel Bakhai by a margin of 5,070 votes-down from 11,440 votes-while in Sedgefield in County Durham, vacated by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Labour’s nominee Phil Wilson won by 6,956 votes-down from 18,449 at the general election in 2005. In both constituencies, the Conservative party candidates finished third and in Sedgefield, the Liberal Democrats edged them out from the second position. The Ealing Southall by-election in west London was triggered by the death of the UK’s oldest MP, Piara Singh Khabra, an NRI. Supporters of Labour party said Lit had tried to inject “defection politics” into Ealing Southall and tried to divide the NRI communities, mostly Hindus and Sikhs on the lines of religion. The Tories won an early boost with the defection of five Labour councillors to the Conservatives. — PTI
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Indians dominate literary prize list
Hong Kong, July 20 The inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize, backed by the company that sponsors the prestigious Booker prize, said 11 candidates were from India. Authors from Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Japan, Malaysia, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are also up for the $ 10,000 award, for which only unpublished works are eligible. Peter Gordon, chairman of the prize, said response had been better than expected with submissions from almost every country in Asia. The five short-listed candidates will be announced in October before the prize is awarded on November 10.
— AFP
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