Dhaka, September 21
Editors in Dhaka have urged the Muslim clergy to accept the apology issued by a newspaper following the publication of an objectionable cartoon in the magazine “Aalpin”.

They also urged all concerned to be “tolerant” and exercise “restraint” in the action taken against the freelance scribe and cartoonist Arifur Rahman, who was arrested earlier this week.

Prathom Alo newspaper’s magazine Aalpin had carried a cartoon entitled “Naam” (name), which reportedly ridiculed the Prophet by adding his name (Mohammed) before an animal.

A Dhaka magistrate has suspended the publication of “Aalpin” since then.

The newspaper management had soon after issued a statement expressing regret and had given an undertaking that it would not carry any cartoon or writing by Rahman.

Editors met Information Adviser Mainul Hosein on Thursday and issued a statement where they said that the “publication of the cartoon feature was an unfortunate event. Naturally it hurt the pious Muslim community”.

Their statement said that Prothom Alo authorities had already apologised for the inadvertent publication of the cartoon and had withdrawn it immediately, the Daily Star reported on Friday.

“We believe Prothom Alo is respectful towards Islam and religious sentiments,” it added.

“We believe following Prothom Alo’s admission of the mistake and seeking apology the government and ... all sections concerned, including the religious minded Muslims, will be pacified,” the statement said. “We urge all concerned to be patient and tolerant.” — IANS

Islamabad, September 21
In a setback to the opposition's attempts to prevent Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf from seeking re-election in uniform, the Supreme Court has rejected cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's plea to revoke an amendment in election rules that allows the General to contest without giving up the post of army chief.

"We have declined and not allowed the CMA (civil miscellaneous application) of Imran Khan," Dawn newspaper quoted Justice Rana Bhagwandas, who headed the bench hearing identical petitions challenging the President's dual offices, as saying yesterday.

Khan, heading the Tehreek-i-Insaf (Social Justice) party, in his application filed on Wednesday had requested the court to implead the Chief Election Commissioner as a respondent in the main petitions, claiming that the amendment had been made in a ‘clandestine manner’.

The court ‘rejected an application of Imran Khan seeking revocation of the September 10 amendment to the Presidential Election Rules, 1988, made by the Chief Election Commissioner,’ the newspaper reported.

The CEC, who yesterday released the poll schedule, fixing the date for Presidential election on October 6, had amended a constitutional provision barring a government servant from contesting elections. The CEC also barred the returning officer from rejecting any nomination paper.

The opposition cried foul and questioned the right of the CEC to amend the election rules. Some judges of the Supreme Court bench also questioned it during the hearing two days ago. — PTI

The Supreme Court is likely to give its verdict on petitions challenging President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s eligibility to contest, his chief counsel Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada told reporters on Friday.

In a tension-packed session during which judges exchanged harsh words with senior advocate A.K. Dogar, whose Lawyers’ Forum is among the petitioners, the nine-Bench court abruptly adjourned hearing till Tuesday without letting Dogar conclude his argument.

The court will hear arguments from three amicus curiae, S.M. Zafar, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Hafeez Pirzada, who have been appointed to assist it after which Sharifuddin Pirzada and attorney-general Qayyum Malik will respond.

Dogar took umbrage at political remarks made by the judges against lawyers and about the parliament. He said the court had abdicated its authority to interpret laws by ruling out his earlier similar petition in 2005 by observing that the courts could not be expected to be wiser than the parliament, which had allowed Musharraf to keep two offices.

He said the court was obligated to protect the Constitution and strike out laws that did not conform to its letter and spirit. When the judges kept interrupting him and asked him to conclude his argument, Dogar said the petition before the court would have profound bearing on the future course of democracy in Pakistan. He asked the judges to apply their mind fully and deliver judgement in accordance with the provision of the Constitution instead of shunning their responsibility.

Dogar maintained that an army chief could not contest election and no law could exempt him from the ban as it would against the spirit of the basic law. He said Gen Musharraf was not qualified to contest because he broke the oath he took as army chief and later President not to take part in politics.

He also argued that President Musharraf would be disqualified even under Article 62, which lays down qualifications for a President, as he was neither “righteous, nor honest, nor amen”.

Dogar said he lied to the nation that he would take off his uniform on December 31, 2004, after making an arrangement with the MMA on this. “If he was righteous and honest, he would have kept his promise”.

The negative remarks by the judges also exacerbated tensions among political leaders, including Qazi Hussain Ahmed who later told a big rally outside the court building urging the judges not to be intimidated by Gen Musharraf. He said the court must decide the case independently in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution and aspirations of the people.

The government side had been quite upbeat and information minister Durrani expressed the confidence that it would dismisse the petitions and let the election process be handled by the Election Commission. He said the opposition was already saying it would not accept any ruling which did not favour 
its case.

London, September 21
NRI artist Tyeb Mehta’s painting ‘Mahisasura’ fetched a whopping $1.1 mn at an auction of the modern and contemporary South Asian art by the leading global auctioneer Christie’s in New York.

The sale - which saw 12 new world auction records yesterday - totalled $10,115,050 , led by Mehta’s ‘Mahisasura’, Christie’s said.

With many of the top-selling works still belonging to the Progressive Movement Artists, the sale was equally driven by extremely strong prices obtained for the contemporary artists.

Atul Dodiya’s place in the artistic pantheon has been firmly taking shape and the result achieved for ‘Three Painters’, which at $541,000 more than tripled its pre-sale estimate, only confirms his position as one of the South Asia’s leading artists, the statement said.

In the cutting-edge contemporary field, many prices wildly exceeded pre-sale estimates, including for Rameshwar Broota’s Untitled ($265,000); T V Santhosh’s haunting Across and Unresolved Story ($217,000); Shibu Natesan’s Montage ($157,000), Ravinder Reddy’s Untitled ($187,000) and Rashid Rana’s extraordinary photo collage,A Day in the Life of a Landscape ($133,000). — PTI

Washington, September 21
The USA has dismissed the call by Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden for holy war against the Musharraf’s government and pledged to work closely with Pakistan to confront extremism.

“He can threaten whoever he wants,” the state department spokesperson Tom Casey said.

“We are going to continue to work with Pakistan, as well as with our other friends and allies throughout the world, to confront him and make sure that we keep ourselves and our friends safe from the attack from him and those like him.” In an audio recording released yesterday, Bin Laden said Al-Qaida intended to retaliate for the blood spilled by “champions of Islam”. “It is obligatory on the Muslims in Pakistan to carry out Jehad (holy war) and fight to remove Pervez, his government, his army and those who help him,” said the voice in the tape, produced by the terror network’s media arm Al-Sahab and monitored by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has dismissed a reported declaration of war by Osama Bin Laden against President Pervez Musharraf, vowing that the country’s fight against Al- Qaida will continue.

Pakistan’s military spokesperson Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad said the armed forces are committed to media reports.

“We are already committed to fighting against extremists and terrorists-- there is no change in our policy,” Gen Arshad said.

“If someone is hurling threats at us, that is their view. The whole nation is behind us and the Pakistan army is a national institution.” he added.

Osama Bin Laden, in a new tape, vowed to retaliate against General Musharraf for the killing of the Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and the raid on the mosque in July.

More than 100 of rebels were killed in an assault on the radical Lal Masjid in Islamabad. — AFP & UNI

The debate in India over the pros and cons of a civilian nuclear agreement with the USA is best conducted without the involvement of the latter, a senior Bush administration official said.

Assistant secretary of state for South Asia Richard Boucher said the “debate within Indian Parliament, between Indian political parties is one that proceeds best without the involvement or comment from the assistant secretary of state”.

He was speaking at the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.

“India is a democracy and they have debates just as we’ve had in our Congress,” he said.

The Indian government “is going to have to work through the politics of this,” he added.

He noted that the “fundamental contract is in the interest of both India and the USA, fundamentally it’s a good deal”.

Boucher was hopeful that the political parties in India “will go through this (debate) and continue towards its implementation”.

“The whole goal here is that Indian kids can turn on the lights to do their homework. The sooner we get there, the sooner they are going to be able to turn on their lights,” he added.

Members of the Left parties, allies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, had opposed the nuclear agreement.

Boucher said the Bush administration had met “all standards of US law for nuclear agreements”.

“The deal is a deal. We have been very public and transparent about how this was done and the understandings that have been reached. They are going to have this work in the politics of India. We will see how this plays out,” he said.

He said there are “three or four major steps left” before the agreement becomes operational. One of these will be negotiations between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the safeguards agreement.

“But it is important to remember that India already has safeguard agreements with the IAEA on a number of its civilian nuclear facilities. There are examples and models. So we don’t think that it is an enormously difficult negotiation for them,” Boucher contended.

He was confident the nuclear deal would be wrapped up “sooner or later but sooner the better”.

The state department official downplayed concerns over India’s ties with Iran, but admitted that these will come under intense scrutiny by members of the United States Congress.

London, September 21
A Muslim preacher who chanted “Allah-o-Akbar” (God is great) while showing children film of planes flying into the World Trade Centre has been suspended as a chaplain at a hospital here.

Usman Ali (30) a former member of the now-banned Al-Muhajiroun radical movement was removed from his post after the police expressed serious concerns, the media reported.

Ali was ousted from his job at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, southeast of London, after BBC’s investigation into the incident.

Before losing his job, Ali had upset the people at Friday prayers by inviting a guest preacher who praised pro-Taliban rebels in Pakistan as martyrs, The Times reported.

The preacher, a British-born father of four, had previously been banned for life from a local mosque, the Greenwich Islamic Centre. The institution spent at least 30,000 pounds taking legal action to the county court so that Ali could be forbidden from attending the mosque. — PTI