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Pakistan Cabinet okays Pervez-Benazir contact
Obama to go after Al-Qaida in Pakistan
Plea filed in Pak SC for Sharif’s return
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Lawyers oppose Qayyum as Attorney-General
Bush gives Brown a brown leather bomber jacket
US baron to open floating casino in Goa Pranab asks Asean forum to help end terror UN to play enhanced role
in Iraq 100 dead in train mishap
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Pakistan Cabinet okays Pervez-Benazir contact The Federal Cabinet yesterday endorsed General Pervez Musharraf’s recent contact with PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto after some heated debate during which many ministers sought details of the “deal” they feared would harm interests of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and other coalition partners. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who chaired the meeting, regretted he could not divulge the details but urged the Cabinet to trust the President on a delicate issue. He said the President would himself take the Cabinet into confidence at an appropriate time. The Cabinet reaffirmed its decision to back President Musharraf in the forthcoming presidential election. A group led by Ishaq Khakwani, who also went public on a TV channel with some scathing outburst, said the President’s contact could make sense if these were undertaken with all political parties in a larger context to promote national reconciliation to confront challenges faced by the country. The ministers said the PML’s electoral prospects would be seriously undermined because the PPP was its main rival in the next elections. “We will oppose any understanding with the PPP, which is based on self-serving considerations on part of both Bhutto and the President,” Khakwani said on Geo TV. He believed that conflicting reports about the Abu Dhabi meeting had generated a sense of despondency and uncertainty among ruling party members. It had encouraged many defections in the PML amid reports that Bhutto may be installed as the next Prime Minister. The President must not seek any personal advantage at the cost of interests of his supporters, he said. He said the meeting with Bhutto had also eroded the President’s image because he had been dubbing her as corrupt and a security risk for past eight years. Khakwani believed the President did not need the PPP support nor would he receive it when the time comes. PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has also stepped up contacts with party leaders and convened their meeting here on Friday to devise a strategy for offsetting the adverse impact of the Musharraf-Benazir contact in Abu Dhabi.
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Obama to go after Al-Qaida in Pakistan if elected
Democratic Senator Barack Obama on Wednesday said he would be prepared to order military strikes against Al-Qaida in Pakistan, regardless of objections from Islamabad, if he were elected President.
In a major foreign policy speech in Washington, Obama said he understood that Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf "had his own challenges," but he added, "let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans ... if we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." In Islamabad, foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said, "These are serious matters and should not be used for point-scoring ... Political candidates and commentators should show responsibility." The White House reaffirmed its support for Gen Musharraf. "The Pakistanis are once again engaged in very serious efforts to go after Al- Qaida and Taliban in their midst ... We're going to do what we can to support them," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. "Our policies toward Pakistan and toward Osama bin Laden and Al- Qaida have been pretty consistent ... obviously Osama bin Laden remains somebody who is a priority for us." Late last month, Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns told a Senate committee that the Bush Administration retained the option of targeting Al-Qaida in the region but was also keen to respect Pakistani sovereignty. Obama noted that the National Intelligence Estimate found Al-Qaida had a sanctuary in Pakistan. He said if he became President, the first step he would take would be to get "off the wrong battlefield in Iraq," and take "the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan." Calling this border region "the wild frontier of our globalised world," Obama said this was no excuse not to go after terrorists. "There must be no safe haven for terrorists who threaten America. We cannot fail to act because action is hard." In his speech, Obama also said he would make the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional. He would demand that Pakistan "make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters, and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan."
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Plea filed in Pak SC for Sharif’s return
PML-N MP Khawaja Asif today filed a constitutional petition in the the Supreme Court seeking a ruling for allowing former premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Shehbaz Sharif, to return to Pakistan and take part in the elections.
Asif and several other prominent PML-N leaders, including chairman Raja Zafrul Haq, submitted the petition to the registrar of the court who will examine whether it can be entertained or not before forwarding it to the Chief Justice.Eminent jurist and former judge Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim has been engaged by the party to pursue the petition. The petition has been filed taking advantage of the changed political climate in the country in the wake of massive popular movement led by lawyers for independence of judiciary and the subsequent landmark judgment delivered by the Supreme Court reinstating the Chief Justice and quashing the presidential reference against him. The petitioner said Sharif and his brother were citizens of Pakistan and the Constitution did not allow any citizen to be expelled or sent in exile from the country.It referred to various statements by President Musharraf vowing not to allow the two to return to the country. The petitioner recalled that Nawaz Sharif was toppled as Prime Minister in a military coup in 1999 and later sent in exile along with the entire family.The government claimed that it was done under a package deal but the Sharifs had always denied the existence of any such deal. The government also blocked the entry of Shehbaz Sharif into the country and forcibly sent him back to Jeddah. The court has been requested to order the removal of all hurdles in the return of Sharif, his brother and their family members. Railway minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, in the meantime, has claimed that he has personally seen the signature of Nawaz Sharif on a document promising to stay abroad for 10 years.
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Lawyers oppose Qayyum as Attorney-General
Pakistan’s new Attorney-General, Qayyum Malik, today pledged there would be no more references against any judge during his tenure. He reiterated his opinion that the Prime Minister would have to resign if the detail judgement of the Supreme Court on the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s petition contained any adverse remarks against him.
Malik took over as Attorney-General today in place of Makhdoom Ali Khan who had resigned soon after the Supreme Court verdict reinstating Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and quashing the presidential reference against him. Makhdoom described the judgement a huge reversal for the government and regretted a tendency within the government to shift responsibility on others. Qayyum’s appointment evoked a strong reaction within legal fraternity. The Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association rejected Malik’s nomination saying he betrayed the lawyers fraternity by siding with the government in the struggle for the independence of judiciary. They further pointed out that Qayyum had to resign as judge of the high court after the Supreme Court found him guilty of being biased in a case against former premier Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Zardari.
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Bush gives Brown a brown leather bomber jacket Perhaps it wasn’t the most appropriate present Gordon Brown has ever received. When he left Camp David on Monday, George Bush handed him a brown leather jacket. It bore the US Presidential seal, with its symbol of an eagle, olive branch and arrows, and the label “Rt Hon Gordon Brown.” It came in a huge cardboard box wrapped in gold paper also bearing the Presidential seal. The jacket was the same as the one worn by President Bush at Camp David at his first meeting with Tony Blair in 2001. At the time, the item of clothing that attracted most attention were Mr Blair’s trousers, later described as “ball-crushingly tight” by Sir Christopher Meyer, then Britain’s ambassador in Washington. Downing Street refused to comment on Brown’s rather unexpected present, saying it never commented on gifts. His aides said they were “not pleased” that the news had leaked out. The choice of gift will raise eyebrows because the bomber jacket might have been more appropriate for Blair, given his “shoulder-to-shoulder” support for President Bush in Iraq. Before Brown’s trip to the United States, the American media were awash with speculation that the Prime Minister would not have such a close personal bond with the President as his predecessor. At their joint press conference, Brown acknowledged the problems in Iraq and made clear the withdrawal of British troops from the Basra area would not be delayed to avoid looking at odds with the “surge” of US forces in the Baghdad region. Although Brown voted for the Iraq invasion and publicly supported Blair’s decision, he has hinted that he might not have gone to war so quickly by backing a multilateral foreign policy. It is understood that Brown gave President Bush a more conventional present - a book about Winston Churchill, the first British Prime Minister to visit Camp David. During his visit, Brown repeatedly referred to Churchill as he spoke about the historic links between the US and Britain. Blair loaned a bust of Churchill to Bush for the duration of his term of office. It is on display in the White House. Gifts to ministers which are worth more than (pounds sterling) 140 are now published by the Cabinet Office. Its records show that in January 2003, Blair received a holdall from the US Government. In July that year, President Bush gave him some silver beakers. They were retained by Downing Street and not purchased by Blair for his personal use, which ministers are allowed to do if they want to keep presents worth more than (pounds sterling) 140. In July 2001, Blair gave President Bush a coat. In March 2003, the month the Iraq war began, he gave him a book, the title of which was not disclosed. He handed over another book in November 2004.
His final pressie for the President, in July last year, was some “golf items.” As Chancellor, Brown was handed a Palm pilot by
Belgium, an historic coin by the Netherlands, a pocket mobile/personal computer by Germany, a silver box by the King of Jordan, a rug by Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan and a pen by the state government of Baden-Wurttemberg. He purchased a “toy” worth (pounds sterling) 190 which he received from the Italian government.
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Russia plants flag in North Pole seabed
Moscow, August 2 "The Mir-1 submarine successfully reached the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at a depth of 4,261 metres," veteran Arctic explorer and expedition leader Artur Chilingarov told Vesti television channel. A metre-high flag, made of titanium so as not to rust, was deposited on the seabed, the ITAR-TASS news agency cited an expedition official as saying. Chilingarov was joined by fellow parliamentarian Vladimir Gruzdev and four others, three of whom followed in a second mini-submarine, which touched the seabed 4,302 metres below the surface, Vesti reported. Billed as the first to reach the ocean floor under the North Pole, the expedition aims to establish that a section of seabed passing through the pole, known as the Lomonosov Ridge, is in fact an extension of Russia's landmass. "We must determine the border. The most northerly border of the Russian shelf," Chilingarov said in comments broadcast before the dive from the Akademik Fyodorov research ship leading the expedition. The research vessel Akademik Fedorov with the mini-submarines on board reached the Pole yesterday night trailing the nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya. Russia's claim is being challenged by other countries with
territory inside the Arctic circle. The US geological survey data suggest the Arctic seabed contains up to 25 per cent of the world's oil and natural gas reserves, and other mineral riches, made accessible by the receding of polar ice due to global warming.
— AFP, UNI
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US baron to open floating casino in Goa Kathmandu, August 2 R.D. Tuttle, the chairman of Nepal Recreation Centre that manages eight casinos - seven in Kathmandu and one in Pokhara, said a big ship for the casino has been ordered and will arrive from the US on August 16. Though, foreign nationals are not allowed to directly invest in the casino business in India, he will have a kind of management contract of the casino. 65-year-old Tuttle said that he will make arrangements with the Goa Continental Resorts Ltd, which will be the legal owner of the business. He will take the management of the casino on contract basis, he said. This will be the biggest casino in Goa with three stories spreading over 30,000 sq ft, he said. There will be 50 tables that offer roulette, jackpot and card games like flush, paplu, baccarrat etc. The casino will have few hundred locally recruited staff and it will run for two shifts. It will open within three months, he said with confidence. The Goa Continental Resorts has already paid Rs 5 crore to the Goa government for the licence to operate the casino. The total investment is estimated to be around Rs 50 crore. — PTI
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Pranab asks Asean forum to help end terror Manila, August 2 "Terrorism, irrespective of its origins, motivations or objectives, constitutes a threat to all peoples and countries and the common interest of the international community in ensuring peace and stability, security and economic prosperity," the ARF members said. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said all states must take practical measures to ensure that their territories are not used for terrorist installations or training camps or for the preparation or organisation of terrorist acts against other States or their citizens. Mukherjee offered India's help to the ARF member states in building capacity to ensure the safety and security of sea lanes passing through the region. The minister also announced that New Delhi would be co-hosting along with Indonesia the ARF Intersessional Meeting on Counter Terrorism next year. Adopting the final Chairman's statement at the end of the 14th ARF meet this evening, Foreign Ministers and delegates called for continued international efforts to promote and enhance dialogue and broaden the understanding among faiths, cultures and civilisations. The delegates pledged to eliminate international terrorism and said the menace should not be associated with any religion or ethnic group. — PTI
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UN to play enhanced role
in Iraq United Nations, August 2 Two days after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had his first summit meeting with American President George W Bush, UN diplomats said London circulated a draft resolution seeking to give a larger role to the world body in the non-military field. With both Bush and Brown coming under increasing pressure to withdraw the troops and the political process stalled in Iraq, diplomats say London and Washington feel that involvement of the international community could help to bring about reconciliation between warring Shias and Sunnis. The UN has a small mission but it has balked at expanding its activities to avoid coming in the crossfire of the sectarian violence. But in recent days, the Bush Administration appears to be veering round the view to give a greater role to the UN. Recently, American UN Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had advocated greater engagement of the UN in Iraq in an oped piece in New York Times. — PTI
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