Attorney general of Pakistan Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum said on Friday that Nawaz Sharif cannot be arrested on return here unless the Prime Minister recommends to the President to withdraw the remission in life sentence granted on condition of ten-year exile in 2000.

He told reporters here that a senior US diplomat had invited him for a briefing on legal status of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who has announced he would return on September 10.

President Musharraf Friday was closeted with top aides and ruling party leadership to discuss the implications of Sharif's decision and options available to the government.

Malik said deportation of the Sharif brothers to a foreign country after their landing in Pakistan would be contempt of the Supreme Court ruling of August 23 on their petitions.

“Any violation of the judicial decision will be contempt of court,” the federal government’s chief law officer said. The government, he said, has already declared that it respects the apex court’s verdict in the Sharif brothers’ petitions.

“Till today, there is no government decision to deport the Sharif brothers when they fly into Pakistan,” the attorney general said, adding that what he has been talking about was that violation of the agreement would lead to the revival of the sentences, imposed on the exiled leaders, which were waived as part of the accord.

An apparently inspired campaign against Sharif's decision quoted unnamed sources in the President’s office as saying Sharif will not return despite his categorical London announcement. It further said President Musharraf is in touch with Saudi and other guarantors of exile deal with Nawaz to block his return.

President Pervez Musharraf has stressed the need for political stability in the country, saying that martial law or emergency were not the solution.

"But Pakistan comes first", Musharraf added, apparently hinting he was not foreclosing any option.

"In the run-up to the election, the political environment should remain stable. Martial law or emergency is not the solution," Musharraf told the participants on Thursday night in the weekly PTV programme "Aiwan-e-Sadr Sey".

When asked whether the uncertain political situation was impacting the economic growth, the President hoped that political stability would continue and the economic gains would be transferred at the grassroots level. "We should go for the election, my election and that of national and provincial assemblies and these must be held on time; free and transparent and on merit."

Musharraf termed political instability, law and order, and extremism and terrorism major factors that could seriously impact the country's economic growth. "I have full confidence that we will maintain political stability in the country," the President said and added a long-term strategy was being pursued in this regard.

To a question, he agreed that the entire nation was facing uncertainty. "There are rumours, distortions and the unfortunate part is that these are by design, to create uncertainties."

Musharraf said he wanted to control these but since there was no dictatorship in the country, he wanted to do it in a democratic manner. "I am not a dictator ... I have freed and opened up the media ... democracy is our need," he said.

He hoped that the political uncertainty would end in the next three or four months. "My election should be held between September 15 and October 15, as it is a legal and constitutional requirement and the national and provincial election should be held this year."

The President said that it was the right of the people to vote, but stressed that the system of checks and balances must be there to ensure continuity of the system. "The objective of setting up the National Security Council is to have a system of checks and balances on the power brokers of Pakistan," he said.

Musharraf said the country's economy was strong enough to absorb any shocks and there should be no cause of concern. Responding to another question, he said the country's external loans till 1988 were $20 billion, till 1999 these had swelled to around $40 billion and today these stand at $40.1 billion. 

London, August 31
Hundreds of mourners gathered in Paris and London today to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, an object of enduring fascination around the world.

Flowers, photographs and messages were attached to the gates of Kensington Palace, her London residence, although in far fewer numbers than a decade ago, when a vast outpouring of grief stunned the nation almost as much as her death.

In Paris, where she died in a high-speed car crash alongside her lover, Dodi al-Fayed, a number of mourners gathered and left flowers at the tunnel where the fatal incident occurred.

A memorial service, attended by Queen Elizabeth, Diana's ex-husband Prince Charles, her two sons, Princes William and Harry, and celebrities including pop star Elton John, began at midday (1630 IST) in a chapel near Buckingham Palace.

Prince Charles' second wife, Camilla, with whom he had an affair, while still married to Diana and whom Diana referred to as “The Rotweiler”, did not attend the service to avoid controversy, although she was invited.

Dubbed the “People's Princess” following her death, aged 36, in the early hours of August 31, 1997, Diana was adored by millions.

In a sign that perhaps, with hindsight, Britons feel that they may have overdone the grieving over Diana's death, a survey conducted by Sky News today showed that 55 per cent of people thought the mourning had been excessive.

“SIMPLE AND NICE”: Today's service, broadcast live on TV around the world, featured readings by William and Harry, just 15 and 12 when their mother died, and Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale.

“It should be a good occasion and lots of loud hymns. It should be a very sort of simple and nice service,” Prince Harry said in a recent interview.

Among the absentees was Dodi's father Egyptian-born Mohammed al-Fayed. Al-Fayed, owner of the luxury London store Harrods, accuses Britain's royal family of ordering the couple's murder to prevent them from marrying.

He held two minutes silence in Harrods today to mark the anniversary of the death of his son and Diana. — Reuters 

London, August 31
Asians living in Birmingham would emerge as a majority community while white people in the United Kingdom’s second biggest city might find themselves in a minority in 20 years’ time, according to researchers.

A team of demographers from Manchester University has claimed that the number of white people living in Birmingham would be overtaken by the number of those with other ethnic origins by 2027, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported here today.

Out of nearly 2.5 million Indians in the United Kingdom, more than two lakhs reside in the city of Birmingham which has a population of one million. Overseas Pakistanis also constitute a large portion of the Asian population.

“The Pakistani population in Birmingham is likely to double by 2026, but with two-thirds of this increase due to the relatively younger age profile of Pakistanis, rather than increased immigration,” the daily quoted Ludi Simpson, a social statistician at Manchester University, as saying.

“The overall picture is one of rapid natural growth plus some immigration, mainly of young spouses. Birmingham is likely to become a minority white city in 2027, but a diverse one in which the white population remains more than twice the size of the Pakistani population which is predicted to become one fifth of the district’s population by then,” Simpson said.

It may be mentioned that recently it had emerged that 35 towns and cities in Britain have at least one ward which is “minority white”.

The increasing proportion of non-whites in these wards was more linked with “natural population dynamics” like moving areas to be nearer to the family and friends than with immigration. — PTI

London, August 31
A teenage boy of Indian origin has received thousands of pounds in compensation from the British police after it emerged that one of its officers dumped him into a rubbish bin here.

After a probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) proved that the officer had carried out the act, the Scotland Yard have paid out about £ 4,000 to 15-year-old Anop Singh, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported today.

“We had received a complaint and an out-of-court settlement was reached,” a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police was quoted as saying.

The teenager was hoisted by a Metropolitan Police officer who put him feet-first in the bin. The incident, triggered by an exchange of words between the boy and cops, was captured on a cellphone video by one of Singh’s friends.

The incident occurred in a park at Stoke Newington in north London in October 2005 when some officers involved were investigating reports of youths throwing conkers at members of the public and Singh and his friend were filming the incident.

“The actions of the police officers, including the one who had dumped Singh in the bin, were clearly foolish but not malicious,” IPCC Commissioner for London Deborah Glass, who headed the investigation, was quoted as saying.

However, the officer who had dumped the teenager into the litter bin escaped criminal charges and kept his job. The commission gave a written warning to him and one of his colleagues who was also present on the spot.

Singh, a resident of Stamford Hill, told the daily that the money would never make up for the “humiliation and distress” he had suffered in these two years. He said he was advised by his solicitor to accept the money.

“But, it’s not about the money. If I had done what that police officer did I’m sure I would have ended up in prison. I would rather he had been punished properly for what he did to me. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me,” he said.

“I can’t stand the fact that he got away with it and that he could do it to someone else,” Singh said.

His father, a car mechanic, Gurdev Singh, said: “We’re not satisfied and I will always be angry about the way my son was tossed around like a piece of rubbish. The officer should have been sacked.” — PTI

Beijing, August 31
China has found microscopic worms in wooden packaging from the United States and uncovered substandard US vitamin pills and fish oil for children, Chinese media said today in the latest volley of cross-border accusations.

China has highlighted several quality concerns with US products in apparent response to recent complaints in Washington about the safety of Chinese exports ranging from toys to toothpaste.

The pine wood worms, or nematodes, were found in 13 sets of packaging in the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, the China Daily said.

Harmful organisms were found in another 10 of 70 batches of wooden packaging sampled between mid-July and mid-August.

This meant the rate of sub-standard packaging from the United States was higher than that for the European Union, Japan, Korea or Canada, the newspaper said.

The labels on some of the wooden packaging were unclear, the report said, adding that that this suggested some exporters might have used fake documents.

Officials have destroyed the goods and urged tighter supervision of wooden US packaging, the paper said.

The vitamin and mineral pills and children's fish oil were discovered in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, the China News Service said.

“The two failed to reach the nutritious levels promised on their labels,” it said, citing the Zhejiang Industrial and Commercial Department.

Zhejiang had held the goods for further investigation and launched a “thorough check” of other food imports and exports, the news service said.

China recently destroyed a cargo of sub-standard frozen potato slices also shipped from the United States, and the quarantine bureau earlier this month highlighted a cargo of contaminated soybeans that arrived in February. China has sent a notice to the World Health Organisation defending its own food safety standards and said it was willing to cooperate globally to tackle the problem. — Reuters