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Re-election in Uniform
Bhutto’s PPP to resist
Haneef Case |
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Extradition process for
Qaida video threatens India, US missions
No pact yet on hostages: Taliban
Six cops killed in Taliban attacks
Floods in Bangladesh leave 120 dead
Hasina wants to attend to ailing husband
2 Singapore planes hit each other
11 Iraqis killed in mortar attack
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Re-election in Uniform
The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) has formally endorsed the re-election of President Gen Pervez Musharraf in uniform from the current assemblies. However, four leading office-bearers strongly opposed the election, labelling it as against democratic norms and unethical, if not unconstitutional.
The committee failed to adopt a resolution on the issue due to vocal opposition but Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who also attended the meeting, summed up the House to declare that the majority wanted Gen Musharraf for another five-year-term even if he sought election through present assemblies in uniform. He said the prevailing geostrategic and domestic situation had necessitated this. PML secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed told mediapersons that the PML central committee backed the re-election of the President within the parameters of the Constitution. It may be mentioned that the President has stated that the Constitution allows him to hold both the offices. The opponents included Senator S.M. Zafar, Syed Kabit Ali Wasti, Gen Majeed Malik (retd), federal minister Ishaq Khakwani and former minister and president of women’s wing of the party, Nilofar Bakhtiar. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain presided over the meeting. Senator Zafar, an eminent jurist who also brokered the government-MMA deal that allowed Musharraf to retain the uniform till December 2004, explained the constitutional, legal, moral and political hurdles in electing Musharraf in uniform from the current assemblies. Zafar opined that the President would certainly face judicial challenges if he contested in uniform. He told the CEC members to evaluate the SC’s mood before finalising their plan. PML vice-president Syed Kabir Wast said it would be “wrong and unethical” for the President to contest in uniform. Nisar Memon said confrontation with all those opposing Musharraf’s re-election might result in countrywide protests. He suggested some constitutional and legal measures to resolve the issue. Some CEC members, including Majeed Malik, objected to President Musharraf’s contacts with PPP chief Benazir Bhutto. They said the government had no moral justification for striking a deal with the party as it had been accusing its leadership of massive corruption. Mushahid said a resolution was passed condemning the recent “hostile and irresponsible statements” from Washington. The resolution also criticised the recent law passed by the US Congress pertaining to Pakistan.
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Bhutto’s PPP to resist
Islamabad, August 5 “We may put up a rival candidate,” Bhutto told mediapersons in New York on Saturday, according to information available. “We can also resign from the assemblies or boycott the elections,” she added, but said an appropriate decision would be made when the situation arises. She acknowledged that her party was negotiating with the government at the “highest level” but evaded a question whether she had met Musharraf in Abu Dhabi or talked to him through an intermediary. Bhutto said the Charter of Democracy she signed with Nawaz Sharif did not prevent her from negotiating with the army to facilitate their withdrawal from politics. It only stated that no party would seek army’s support to come into power. She reiterated that the PPP would not accept a uniformed president but declined to answer whether Musharraf without uniform would be okay.
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Haneef Case
Melbourne, August 5 Andrews’ decision to cancel the visa of Haneef, who returned home a week ago after terror charges against him were dropped, subsequently came under fire. The minister said he had faced a lot of tough times in his years in politics and the Haneef case was no different. “I don’t have any personal regrets,” he told a local TV network. Andrews said the hardest thing was being privy to information which he felt justified his decision and which could not be publicly released because it was part of an ongoing police investigation. He said he felt he made the right decision under immigration legislation, adding that he still felt Haneef’s behaviour throughout the ordeal “has been suspicious”. An appeal against the immigration minister’s decision to revoke Haneef’s visa is scheduled to be heard in a few days. Andrews said that nothing has changed his assessment that Haneef’s visa should be withdrawn on character grounds. “Haneef has been protesting his innocence; there’s an appeal on foot, normally people stay around to see the outcome of their appeal,” he told ABC TV. “Secondly, with the whole of the Australian media interested in this, you’d think he would have at least stood around here and said, ‘Well I’ll open myself up to questions about this if I’m innocent’. I think his behaviour all throughout this has been suspicious,” he said.
— PTI
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Extradition process for ‘Dr Death’ on track
Melbourne, August 5 A spokesperson for the Queensland Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) yesterday denied the case had been delayed, despite it being with the department for more than 18 months. “The warrants issued late last year in relation to a number of charges against Jayant Patel ... remain in force and the extradition application is being finalised on that basis,” a statement said. “There is no delay in proceedings. At this point, there is no anticipated change to charges or their wording,” the spokesperson said. It was reported today that “top-level briefings” indicating the matter against the doctor had been held up partly because the case by Australian prosecutors failed to meet US standards of manslaughter. In the USA, recklessness cannot be relied upon for intent in manslaughter charges, as it can in Queensland. The report, in Courier-Mail, also said Queensland prosecutors were still finalising paperwork in relation to the case and had not yet sent a warrant to the US. The Indian-trained doctor fled Australia in 2005, after concerns were raised about his competence as director of surgery at the Bundaberg Base Hospital in south-east Queensland. A later inquiry found the surgeon, dubbed “Death”, had contributed to the deaths of 17 patients at the hospital. Last November, warrants were issued for the arrest of Dr Patel on a number of charges, including three for manslaughter and five for causing grievous bodily harm. A spokesperson for the Australian federal Attorney-General’s office, which as the national body always controls extradition cases, also denied any delays. Premier Peter Beattie, whose government came under severe criticism for its management of the health system as a result of the case, has in the past urged Dr Patel to voluntarily return to Australia to face the charges.
— PTI
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Qaida video threatens India, US missions
Dubai, August 5 It also singled out US missions in oil-rich Gulf Arab states as potential targets. The video was posted on LauraMansfield.com, an American website which monitors terrorist groups. "These spy dens and military command and control centres from which you plotted your aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq, and which still provide vital moral, military, material, and logistical support to the Crusade, shall continue to be legitimate targets for brave Muslims unless you heed our demands," Gadahn, an American convert to Islam who has been indicted for treason in the United States, said. The one-hour 17-minute video was shown about two months after Gadahn warned in another Internet video that US President George W. Bush should withdraw all his troops from Muslim land or face attacks worse than September 11. The only way to deal with the "dens of saboteurs and spies, when they refuse to leave of their own accord is to expel them by force," said Gadahn, who was wearing a chequered red and white Arab headdress. The video included clips from old speeches by Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri. But much of it focused on the suicide bomber who killed one US diplomat and four other people outside the US consulate in Karachi in March 2006.
— AFP
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No pact yet on hostages: Taliban
Ghazni (Afghanistan), August 5 A South Korean delegation was in Ghazni, where the church volunteers were snatched on July 20, seeking face-to-face talks with the kidnappers. The Taliban want negotiations either in areas they control or with the UN guarantee for their safety, if held elsewhere. “Talks and contacts are still going on to decide on a venue for talks, but there has been no agreement,” Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone. “The Taliban haven't heard from the Korean side on where they want the face-to-face meeting to be held,” he said. South Korea requested the talks as a way of trying to break the deadlock over the hostages. The Taliban have already killed two of their captives and are threatening to kill the rest if the Afghan government fails to release rebel prisoners. Kabul has refused to free them, saying that would only encourage more kidnappings. Seoul has told the insurgents that there is a limit to what it can do since it has no power to free rebel prisoners in Afghan jails. ''The Korean team has told the Taliban that it will
persuade Kabul to release Taliban prisoners,'' Yousuf said. — Reuters
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Six cops killed in Taliban attacks
Kabul, August 5 The Taliban have stepped up attacks against the Kabul government and its western backers mostly in the south and south-eastern provinces of Afghanistan in the last 18 months. Separately, four policemen were killed and three wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their vehicle in the southern province of Logar late yesterday, said the provincial governor Abdullah Wardak. Ousted from power in 2001, the Taliban are waging a campaign of bombing, ambushes and kidnapping to overthrow the government and its foreign allies.
— Reuters
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Floods in Bangladesh leave 120 dead
Dhaka, August 5 Thirty eight of the country's 64 districts in the north, centre and east were at least partly submerged by one of the worst floods in years, said government spokesman Shachindranath Halder. At least 39 more deaths were reported overnight, mostly children who drowned in swirling flood waters, taking the death toll up to 120, he said. More than a week of floods have wrecked nearly 100,000 mud-built or tin-roofed houses with the residents now at government shelters, he said. Late night, the country's cabinet announced major flood relief and rehabilitation programmes and asked private organisations to come forward to help those affected. The levels of two major rivers that run through Bangladesh, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna, have significantly dropped by today in the worst affected northern districts, the country's Flood Centre said in its latest report. But the Padma River, called the Ganges in India, was still rising at almost all points and was flowing above danger levels in the centre of the country, the monitoring agency said. Last month, landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 126 people in the southeastern city of Chittagong on the Bay of Bengal.
— AFP
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Hasina wants to attend to ailing husband
Dhaka, August 5 "Sheikh Hasina formally submitted an application seeking permission to be with her ailing husband," said DIG (Prisons) Maj Shamsul Haider Siddiqui. "We'll forward this letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs to take a decision about it," said Major Siddiqui. Hasina's husband Wajed Miah is undergoing treatment for various complications, Unb news agency said. The Awami League leader has been detained in a makeshift jail to face an extortion charge. Earlier, the Bangladesh Supreme Court stayed a HC order granting the detained former premier bail in an extortion case.
— PTI
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2 Singapore planes hit each other
Singapore, August 5 “It is reported that the wing tips of two aircraft came into contact while both aircraft were taxying at low speed," company spokesman Stephen Forshaw said. Both Boeing 777 aircraft suffered minor damages in the accident. The passengers were transferred to other aircraft for their flights to Rome and Copenhagen. The airline gave no details on the number of passengers who were on board when the incident occurred.
— AFP
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11 Iraqis killed in mortar attack
Baghdad, August 5 It said two of the mortar shells landed near a gas station where people were lining up for fuel. Many of the victims were burned by the fuel that burst into flames from the attack, the officer said. Television footage showed at least two cars with their windshields and windows shattered. The tail fin of a mortar shell was lodged in the ground nearby.
— AP
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