Ruling PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said today that the National Reconciliation Ordinance would not be re-acted in any form if the courts shot it down.

Talking to reporters at the Prime Minister’s House, Shujaat said the ordinance was promulgated for a specific purpose, which had been achieved. “If the judiciary strikes it down, we are not committed to revive it,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, however, struck a slightly discordant note saying the government would honour the agreement reached with Bhutto and protect the ordinance.

He acknowledged that there were strong reservations about the ordinance in the coalition. He added that it was a difficult decision. He said its implementation was obligatory on all concerned.

Shujaat said the reconciliation law was meant to neutralise the PPP and prevent it from joining the opposition in en bloc resignations. The move paid off, he added.

Shujaat said the PPP remained the main rival of the ruling coalition in the coming elections. The PML would contest the elections in unity with all its coalition partners but there would be no electoral adjustment with the PPP.

He denied that JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman did not dissolve the NWFP assembly because of any understanding with him or any government emissary. Shujaat said Fazl wanted to dissolve it but the provincial PML frustrated the effort by moving a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Akram Durrani after which it was not possible for him to advise the Governor to dissolve the assembly.

Aziz said the ordinance was designed to create national harmony and understanding. The government negotiated with the PPP for political reconciliation and successfully culminated the process by promulgating the NRO.

Meanwhile, information technology minister Owais Leghari, who leads a powerful anti-Bhutto group in the PML, has said an overwhelming majority of the ruling PML members were opposed to the ordinance and did not support pardoning of Benazir Bhutto.

Talking to a private TV in a talk show, Leghari said those who looted national wealth must not be pardoned. Leghari is son of former President Farooq Leghari, who initiated corruption cases against Bhutto.

Kathmandu, October 7
Leaders of a major coalition partner in Nepal’s interim government are seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Girja Prasad Koirala for his inability to resolve the political stalemate that led to the postponement of the November Constituent Assembly polls.

During the central committee meeting of the Nepal Communist Party-Unified Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) today, senior leaders of the party, including Pradip Gyawali, ha demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister after the key election was postponed for the second time in six month due to his inability to end the deadlock with the Maoists, according to party sources.

Amrit Bohara, senior leader of the CPN-UML, said the election could not be held due to two reasons: the Maoists’ tendency to run away from elections and the Prime Minister’s indecisiveness.

The members of the seven-party alliance had committed a big political blunder that led to the postponement of the key assembly elections, he said.

Some central committee members sought an alternative to Koirala in order to “form a basis for a new political consensus”, sources said.

The former rebels walked out of the government after the Prime Minister failed to end the stalemate over the demands of the Maoists for the immediate declaration of republic and a fully proportional electoral system.

The Maoist leader and former minister Dev Gurung, however, rejected this argument.

He said the decision to postpone the election was made collectively during the meeting of the political parties, including the Maoists, and as such it would not be appropriate to blame any single party or individual.

“We are not to blame for not holding the election,” Gurung said, adding that it was the joint responsibility of the seven parties to hold the election on time. — PTI

Islamabad, October 7
Backed by helicopter gunships, Pakistani security forces today attacked militant hide-outs in the country’s restive tribal region near Afghan border, killing at least 20 ultras and losing two of their soldiers.

“The raid was launched after militants ambushed our forces on Saturday evening. We have reports that 20 militants were killed and 15 wounded,” military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said.

Forces participating in the operation in the Mirali area of north Waziristan tribal agency were backed by helicopter gunships and artillery.

Two soldiers were also killed and six more injured in the operation, which was continuing, Arshad said.

The militants yesterday targeted a military convoy with improvised explosive devices near Mirali town, he said while dismissing reports that the ultras had kidnapped at least 28 soldiers in the area, describing it as “false propaganda”.

Media reports had earlier said the pro-Taliban militants had abducted at least 28 soldiers in the latest kidnapping incident in the Spin Wam area of North Waziristan after attacking a military position with rockets and missiles.

Nearly 300 soldiers and paramilitary troops have so far been abducted by militants in Waziristan. The militants gunned down three of the kidnapped soldiers in south Waziristan on Thursday and threatened to kill more if the military did not withdraw from the area.

The militants had scrapped a peace deal with the government in July after troops were deployed in the area.

Reports from north Waziristan said the fresh clashes came a day after two soldiers were killed and several injured in a bomb attack on security forces in Datta Khel area.

Security forces have imposed an undeclared night curfew in Miranshah, the headquarters of north Waziristan, and other towns, the reports said.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 10 Pakistanis killed in Afghanistan while fighting against US-led forces were brought to north Waziristan yesterday.

Officials of the international committee of the Red Cross, who brought the bodies to the tribal region, were

briefly detained by Pakistani authorities, the reports said. — PTI

Yangon, October 7
Myanmar’s state press today trumpeted the release of monks and demonstrators ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss how to handle the junta following its crackdown on street protests.

Security Council members, under pressure to condemn the military regime after 13 persons were killed in its drive to end the escalating pro-democracy rallies, were to meet tomorrow to debate a draft statement on Myanmar.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said today that more than half of the 2,171 persons arrested after the biggest anti-government protests in nearly two decades had been released, repeating figures given late yesterday on state TV.

The government paper specified that nearly 400 of 533 Buddhist monks detained had been “sent back to their respective monasteries”. Monks led the protests, which at their peak last month attracted 1 lakh persons to the streets of Yangon and images of the red-robed clergy bloodied and bruised by security forces shocked many in this deeply Buddhist country.

Army trucks today remained stationed at Yangon landmarks, including the Sule and Shwedagon Pagodas, rallying points for last month’s demonstrations, but uniformed troops were keeping a low profile on the streets.

The newspaper did not mention the UN Security Council, but analysts have said that the regime is trying to make a few token gestures to ward off a harsh council statement, or possible sanctions. — AFP

Gorbio (France), October 7
Inhabitants of a picturesque French village overlooking the Mediterranean are bitterly divided over how to respond to a bequest from one of India’s most famous living artists.

Syed Haider Raza, 85, who has lived in France since 1949, has offered to leave his personal collection of paintings to the municipality of Gorbio, a medieval village near the Italian border that he has made his adopted home.

“It is a gift in order to thank the people of Gorbio for all the happiness they have given me,” Raza told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper today. However, the offer has been blocked because members of the village council object to the conditions that the artist has attached.

Before agreeing to the legacy, Raza is insisting that his works be put on display for four months every summer in the tower of Gorbio’s castle - and this for the next half century.

“But who’s to say that in 50 years the people of Gorbio won’t be utterly tired of his paintings?” said village councillor Michel Fevrier.

Born in Babaria in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in 1922, Raza was a founder member of the Mumbai-based Progressive Arts Group before leaving to study at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Fine Arts School) in Paris.

Originally focusing on expressionist landscapes of the French countryside, his style shifted over the years and he now paints colourful abstracts in oil and acrylic, often inspired by Indian mysticism.

Last year, a 1972 painting “Forest of meditation” sold at Sotheby’s for $ 1.47 million (1.03 million euros), and in September a retrospective of his work marking his 85th birthday received critical acclaim in New York. — AFP