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SC questions legal basis of Musharraf undertaking
Musharraf’s largesse to northern areas
Karachi Blasts |
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Bush greets Bobby Jindal
Improving Indo-Pak ties US priority: Burns
US shuttle blasts
off Wildfires persist
in California
Bhutto plans ‘virtual’ campaign
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SC questions legal basis of Musharraf undertaking
Judges on the 11-member Supreme Court Bench hearing petitions on the eligibility of President General Musharraf today sought answer to the question regarding the legal basis of the undertaking given by him that he would quit army post after being elected. Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, lead counsel for presidential candidate Wajihuddin, responded emphatically that the undertaking had no legal status and did not entitle him to be a candidate for presidential election. He said the undertaking was of no consequence because Musharraf can’t contest the election as army chief under the Constitution and the Army Act. Judge Khalil Ramday noted that the qualification of a candidate had to be determined at the time of submission of nomination papers. Aitzaz said Musharraf was still wearing uniform when he filed nomination papers and continued to do so till date. He said the undertaking was conditional and relates to the future. Several judges also raised the question whether martial law could be imposed if Musharraf was disqualified by the court and asked Aitzaz Ahsan to suggest a way out for the court in a situation where General Musharraf may go for that option. Justice Ramday asked Aitzaz if the court could rule out the imposition of martial law. "It will be difficult for me to say that martial law is buried because a full court had ruled in 1988 that martial law had been buried forever but this was not the case," he said "This is an extraordinary situation. Be realistic. What is the way out?" said Justice Ramday. When Aitzaz responded that the court must pronounce its verdict according to the Constitution and aspirations of the people, Justice Javed Iqbal, head of the 11-member Bench, asked him if he wanted a decision based on the aspirations of the people or a decision based on constitutional provisions. "What's the guarantee that whatever decision the court will take will be implemented?" The court adjourned hearing till Wednesday. Meanwhile, another Bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry directed authorities to present all records regarding cases registered against journalists and lawyers following a demonstration outside the Election Commission on September 29 when the commission scrutinised the nomination papers of President Musharraf and other candidates. Senior advocate Khalid Anwar appearing as amicus curiae to assist the court noted that more than hundred commandos in plain clothes also took part in the violence against lawyers and journalists. He said no official in plain clothes has authority under the law to act against any citizen. The CJ on this occasion observed that even top police official betray ignorance of the law.
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Musharraf’s largesse to northern areas
In a significant move, President Gen Pervez Musharraf today announced a package of reforms upgrading the status of Northern Areas by creating a legislative assembly.
Musharraf further declared that chief executive of the region would be directly elected by the people. He raised the annual budget of the areas from Rs 6.5 billion to 7.5 billion. Northern Areas are supposed to be part of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir though the state’s Dogra ruler exercised a loose authority during the British rule. Pakistan stopped short of merging the region when its population rose against Dogra rule in 1947 and accorded it special status distinct from Azad Kashmir. It has a strategic importance providing the only land link with China. Musharraf flew to Gilgit, capital of the Northern Areas, and addressed a select gathering to announce the package. He said the advisory council would be upgraded as legislative assembly with powers to make its own annual budget and development plan. He further said most of the powers presently being exercised by the Ministry of Kashmir and Northern Areas from Islamabad would be transferred to the new chief executive and the legislative assembly under the package. Also the post of the current deputy chief executive of Northern Areas has been upgraded to chief executive, while the current chief executive will now be the chairman of Northern Areas.
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Karachi Blasts
Islamabad, October 23 The report prepared by seven intelligence agencies suggests that Bhutto survived the attack because of the bulletproof truck she was traveling in. It says that the suicide attacker first detonated a grenade and then blew himself up, adding that some arrests have also been made in this regard. The report links the Karachi bombings with the attacks in Charsadda and the Tarbela army mess It also rejected Bhutto’s accusations that chief of the civilian Intelligence Bureau, Brig Ejaz Shah, and Punjab and Sindh Chief Ministers were in anyway involved in the plot to kill her.
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Bush greets Bobby Jindal
Washington, October 23 “The President spoke to Bobby Jindal yesterday, congratulated him. I think the race was a little bit tougher than the numbers showed. I think something that we were all encouraged about was the strength of Republicans down on the ticket who also performed very well,” White House deputy spokesman Tony Fratto
said. Jindal, a conservative Republican, broke racial barriers when he soundly and decisively defeated 11 candidates to become the youngest Governor of the once racially segregated state.
— PTI
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Improving Indo-Pak ties US priority: Burns
The United States places a “very high priority” on improving relations between India and Pakistan, and it is in the United States’ “strong interest” to see a resolution of the Kashmir conflict, according to the senior State Department official. Writing in the recent issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, undersecretary of state R. Nicholas Burns said both President George W. Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice “have made it a high priority to encourage both countries to overcome the historic and deep enmity between them.” “We will continue to support the promising ‘composite dialogue’ between the two governments as well as efforts to stimulate greater contacts between the people on opposite sides of the LoC,” Burns said, noting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have “achieved more in quiet talks toward resolving their bilateral difficulties than anyone thought possible a few years ago.” Over the past six decades, successive U.S. administrations have juggled a hyphenated relationship with India and Pakistan. Bush wanted to change that, according to the State Department official, and that intention was made clear to Singh by Rice during her visit to India in March 2005. Describing Rice’s discussions, Burns wrote, “She emphasised to Prime Minister Singh that the United States would alter its long-held framework that tied and balanced its relations with ‘India-Pakistan.’ We would effectively ‘de-hyphenate’ our south Asia policy by seeking highly individual relations with both India and Pakistan. That meant an entirely new and comprehensive engagement between the United States and India.” Burns noted that this “composite dialogue continues as a channel of discussion marks remarkable progress from the 1999 Kargil conflict and from 2002, when the United States feared that India and Pakistan would go to war.” “In this light, the gradually increasing civil-society contacts between the two countries offer the prospect of a slow but sure development of constituencies for peace on both sides. A considerable peace dividend awaits both India and Pakistan if they can sustain this newfound momentum,” he added.
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US shuttle blasts off
Cape Canaveral, October 23 The launch went ahead at 2108 IST (11.38 am) despite safety concerns voiced by a team of independent NASA engineers and the discovery of a chunk of ice outside
the craft. The shuttle took off on schedule carrying seven astronauts, led by Commander Pam Melroy, 46, who is only the second woman to head a shuttle team since the start of the programme in 1981. Within about a minute after liftoff, with partially clouded skies over the Atlantic, the craft had accelerated to five times the speed of sound. It reached earth’s orbit within eight and a half minutes some 225.3 km above the planet and set course for the space station where it is due to dock on Thursday for a 10-day mission.
— AFP
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Wildfires persist in California San Diego, October 23 San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders told people to “stay at home, stay off the freeways” so fire crews and evacuees could keep moving as the winds changed course. He said about 1,000 homes in San Diego County had been destroyed. “We are in for another very dangerous day today. We may be forced to do very quick and immediate evacuations,” said Ron Lane, head of San Diego County office of emergency services. “We no doubt are going to be issuing additional evacuation notices today,” he added. Officials said people were cooperating and evacuating quickly, resulting in minimal loss of life, as they remembered the last major fire in 2003 when 15 persons died and 5,000 buildings were destroyed. “We’ve been through this before,” said Sonya Johnson, 43, who evacuated with her husband and young son and set up camp in the Qualcomm sports stadium. At least 17 fires, whipped by hot, dry Santa Ana winds gusting to 70 miles per hour (113 kph) have swept the drought-stricken region unchecked over the past two days from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border 230 miles (370 km) to the south. Just one person has died, in a San Diego fire on Sunday, and some three dozens have been injured. Two new fires erupted overnight in both Los Angeles and San Diego counties and burned quickly. President George W. Bush early today declared an emergency in the state and authorised the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief in the seven counties stricken by wildfires.
— Reuters
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Bhutto plans ‘virtual’ campaign
Islamabad, October 23 “Intimidation by murdering cowards will not be allowed to derail Pakistan’s transition to democracy,” Bhutto wrote in an opinion piece in the prestigious Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “We are now focusing on hybrid techniques that combine individual and mass voter contact with sharp security constraints,” said the 54-year-old two-time former premier whose motorcade was rocked within hours after her return from self-exile by two blasts that killed nearly 140 people. “Where people have telephones, we can experiment with taped voice messages from me describing my issue positions and urging them to vote. In rural areas we are contemplating taped messages from me played regularly on boom boxes set up in village centres. “Instead of the traditional mass caravans of Pakistani politics, we are discussing the feasibility of ‘virtual caravans’ and ‘virtual mass rallies’ where I would deliver important campaign addresses to large audiences all over the four provinces of Pakistan,” said Bhutto, who had yesterday opposed the Pakistan government’s plan to ban rallies ahead of the general election due by mid-January. Bhutto, who has made two brief appearances in public since the blasts, also said that she would have to “modify” her poll campaign while keeping alive elements of the “mass, grassroots, people-to-people politics” of her party. — PTI
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In a significant move, President Gen Pervez Musharraf today announced a package of reforms upgrading the status of Northern Areas by creating a legislative assembly.
