The Supreme Court today dismissed the last of the six petitions challenging General Musharraf’s October 6 election, but stopped short of issuing a final order removing the embargo on the notification of the election result.

Musharraf’s chief counsel Sharifuddin Pirzada said there was no impediment left now for the Election Commission to notify Musharraf as duly elected president. Earlier on Monday, the court had thrown out five petitions after the petitioners requested it to defer hearing till full restoration of the constitution that had been suspended under the Emergency.

Attorney-General Qayyum Malik said he was disappointed that the court withheld a logical specific directive to the Election Commission removing the embargo on notification, but hoped it would be issued on Friday.

Malik said three stages were required prior to fulfilment of Musharraf’s pledge to the court that he would quit Army Chief’s post before taking an oath as newly-elected president - a final court order to the Election Commission; formal notification by the commission and notification by the government of Pakistan.

He said Musharraf was firmly committed to doff his uniform once the final notification was issued.

A commission source said it would have to wait for a communication from the court vacating the stay earlier granted by a defunct 11-member Bench directing the Election Commission to withhold result pending final decision on the petitions.

Musharraf, however, imposed Emergency on November 3 and purged the Supreme Court of a dozen judges amid widely-held belief that the Bench was close to declaring Musharraf’s election void because of ineligibility to contest.

He later stacked the court with handpicked judges loyal to him. In the Emergency proclamation, Musharraf accused judges of sustaining uncertainty and fostering a confrontation with the executive.

Jurists noted that the new judges have avoided any direct ruling on the merit of the petitions and knocked them down on technical grounds for non-prosecution. Interestingly, four judges had earlier upheld the objection that he cannot contest for any elective office as Army Chief. Five others in the 9-member bench overruled it by saying that the petitions were not maintainable.

Kampala, November 22
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here tonight to attend the summit of Commonwealth countries which has democracy on top of the agenda as their leaders face mounting pressure to suspend emergency-ruled Pakistan from the group.

Contentious issues like climate change, human rights and terrorism will also be on the radar of the leaders of the 53-country grouping at their three-day summit in the Ugandan capital.

CHOGM 2007, which will open tomorrow in the Ugandan capital, "has a rich agenda before it. This includes review of global developments including climate change, the millennium development goals, human rights and terrorism", Singh said in a pre-departure statement in Delhi.

Singh said he was looking forward to meet a large number of world leaders and "have constructive dialogue with them on both bilateral and international issues".

The grouping will take a decision on its ultimatum to Pakistan to repeal emergency imposed on November 3, restore the constitution and step down as army chief or face suspension with a 10-day deadline ending today. Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) met here today, for the first time since setting the 10-day ultimatum for Pakistan to lift the emergency, during which African members pushed hard for suspension of Pakistan, highly-placed sources said, adding that Britain and Canada toughened their stand after soft-pedalling on the issue initially. During an hour-long meeting, which saw heated debate on the issue, African countries in the nine-member CMAG pitched for action against Pakistan, saying the Commonwealth cannot have one set of standards for some and another for others. — PTI

Vienna, November 22
As India continued negotiations with the IAEA on the country-specific safeguards agreement, the US has expressed confidence that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal would be implemented.

Hours after IAEA director-general Mohamed El-Baradei and Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar began the talks, US ambassador to the UN atomic watchdog Gregory Schultz said once El-Baradei agrees to endorse the safeguards pact, several countries will come forward to back the nuclear deal.

“Once the India-specific safeguards are approved by the IAEA board then it goes to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for getting exemptions for India for civilian nuclear programme,” Schultz said yesterday.

He said the Indian negotiators, who will remain here after the return of Kakodkar to India, would carry out further consultations with the nuclear watchdog and then a special board meeting can be convened by the chairman of IAEA board for the approval of the safeguards agreement by consensus.

The 45-country NSG wants the safeguards agreement to be approved by the board to carry out the further process, he said.

The NSG had a consultative meeting here last week where increasing number of countries were preparing to give exemption for India.

The EU and Russia are already supporting India in this regard and South Africa, which is currently heading the NSG, is also backing New Delhi.

The NSG will also hold a special meeting if required before March once the IAEA board approves India-specific safeguards agreement. — PTI

London, November 22
In recognition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's achievements as an economist, his Cambridge alma mater St John's today said it would launch a scholarship in his name in New Delhi next week to spot and develop potential Indian leaders in the fields of economics, science and technology and social sciences.

A spokesman of the university said the privately-funded Manmohan Singh Scholarship will send three serving scholars from India every year to St John's College, Cambridge, where the Prime Minister had studied economics and won the Wright's Prize for distinguished performance in the mid-1950s.

"There has always been an important tradition at Cambridge University of identifying, developing and nurturing leaders," Stephen Teal, development director of St John's, said today.

"There have been leaders such as India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and of course, Manmohan Singh.”

“We want to continue that tradition in the areas of science and technology, economics and social sciences."

The scholarships, sponsored by Tatas, British Petroleum and Rolls Royce, will initially fund three PhD places beginning January 2008, but seek to take the number up to at least four by 2009. The closing date for the first year's applications is the end of January 2008.

The Prime Minister as well as St John's Master, Prof Christopher Dobson, will attend the launch in New Delhi on November 27, Teal said. Prof Dobson held a high-level meeting in the university today. — PTI

London, November 22
As the issue involving a Sikh girl’s suspension from a Welsh school for wearing a kada, a symbol of Sikhism, appeared headed for the courts, hundreds of people from around the world backed the girl through a website set up to support her.

Sarika Watkins Singh, 14, of mixed Welsh-Punjabi parentage, has been suspended three times from Aberdare Girls School for wearing the kada.

The school says that wearing it goes against its code, which only allows watches and stud-earrings.

Human rights organisation Liberty, which is directed by Shami Chakrabarti, has taken up Sarika’s case. It is arguing that by excluding Sarika, the school’s governing body has violated the Race Relations Act, 1976, the Equality Act, 2006, and the Human Rights Act, 1998.

Angry, passionate messages against the school authorities have been left by visitors on the website www.supportsarika.co.uk. The website features Press and video coverage of the case that has hit the headlines across Britain and elsewhere.

Anna Fairclough, Liberty’s legal officer representing the Singhs, said: “The school governing body has ignored established race and equality protections and shamefully turned a young woman into a pariah by isolating her.” — IANS

London, November 22
Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised and announced an investigation yesterday amid angry questions about how private records containing about half of Britain’s bank details vanished in the post.Some 25 million persons’ personal data -- virtually every family with children aged under 16, likely including Brown’s own -- went missing in the biggest ever loss of personal information by any government.

Two password-protected compact discs containing the names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details of millions disappeared after a junior official, who failed to post them recorded delivery, sent them to auditors.

The incident is a serious embarrassment for Brown who, as finance minister under Tony Blair, prided himself on restoring his Labour Party’s reputation for economic competence and oversaw the creation of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the body responsible for the loss.

During a question and answer session with lawmakers at the House of Commons, Brown said: “I profoundly regret and apologise for the inconvenience and worries that have been caused to millions of families.”

“When mistakes happen in enforcing procedures, we have a duty to do everything we can to protect the public.” He added that Britain’s top civil servant, cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, and security experts would now make sure all departments and agencies check their data security regimes. — AFP