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Deposed judges would not be reinstated: Musharraf
Amendments during emergency illegal:
Mehsud blamed for Rawalpindi suicide attack
Book narrates horrors of Partition
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Indian ‘fishing’ boats fire grenades at Lankan navy
Lift emergency for civic poll: Bangladesh EC
Malaysia sorry for demolition of temple
Kenya poll crisis death toll 1,000
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Deposed judges would not be reinstated: Musharraf
President Pervez Musharaf has said that deposed judges would not be restored in any circumstances and a situation will not crop up prompting Parliament to restore them since any change in the present status will require two-thirds support in House for such a move.
The President said this to a reporter of The News at a local five star hotel where he had come for dinner with his wife Sehba Musharraf, some family members, and a close relative. The President was wearing a black sweatshirt with jacket. He was in an upbeat and relaxed mood. He shook hands with the staff of the restaurant and came to the hotel apparently without any security. Asked about the statement of the US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher in a hearing at Capitol Hill wherein he stated that President Musharraf would dissolve Parliament if it tried to restore the deposed judges., Musharraf said this stage would never come. He said the presumption of dissolving the next National Assembly in case it tried to restore the deposed judges of the superior courts was out of place. "No parliament would like to remove sitting judges of the court", he said. He disclosed that the Supreme Court would be attaining its full strength soon with two more judges being inducted shortly. "A two-thirds majority will be needed to amend the Constitution. The incumbent judges are holding their offices in accordance with the constitution", the president said. To a another query President Pervez Musharraf said that the turnout in the upcoming polls was expected to be lower but the government would provide full security to the voters and other people. "In-fact the candidates bring the voters to the polling stations. I am sure they will succeed in their efforts as the elections are hotly contested", he added. the President was of the view that despite this, it would not be a discouraging turnout. Restrictions on
A.Q. Khan eased
President Pervez Musharraf has partially lifted restrictions on nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan to meet close friends and some old colleagues, Khan’s former lawyer S.M. Zafar has claimed. Zafar, also a PML-Q senator, said he took up this issue with President Musharraf in the recent past who subsequently issued directives in this regard. But he said the requests of intending visitors are routed through Lt-Gen Khalid Qidwai (retd), presently heading the Strategic Planning Division and his department decides who should be granted permission. Zafar made the disclosure a day after PML-Q secretary-general Mushahid Hussain said that the next government would set Dr Khan free. Zafar welcomed Mushahid’s statement but said he had no background information whether the promise would be met or not. Dr Khan has been under detention for the about four years. Bhutto willed Zardari to lead PPP
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Tuesday released the will of its slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto nominating her spouse Asif Zardari to lead the party. The will is dated October 16, just two days before her homecoming. The party made public the will amid doubts being expressed whether it is genuine or not. The will clearly mentions the nomination of Asif Ali Zardari as the next chairman of the PPP. Bhutto wrote that Asif Ali Zardari would lead the party after her. About Asif, the document further says that Asif is a brave person and did not surrender to the injustice and passed over 11 years in jail. She said in the document that she was proud of the PPP leadership and that she stands for a federal and democratic Pakistan. She paid glowing tribute to PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on his steadfastness against the dictatorship.
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Amendments during emergency illegal: Pak Oppn
The combined Opposition in the Senate has said that the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) with which Musharraf purged the judiciary would have to be brought before Parliament after the February 18 general elections.
Debating the state of emergency that was imposed on November 3, Mian Raza Rabbani, Leader of the Opposition, said the Constitution could not be amended through an executive order, issued by a Chief of Army Staff (COAS). He rejected claims of attorney general (AG) Malik Qayum that amendments made in the Constitution through the PCO did not require Parliamentary approval. Rabbani said, "According to Article 273 (AAA), all amendments will have to be brought before the next Parliament. I assure this House on behalf of the combined Opposition that we will not validate it." Rabbani, a PPP leader, vowed to restore the judiciary to its pre-November 3 position. Rabbani said the justifications offered by Musharraf for imposing emergency proved that the government of Shaukat Aziz had miserably failed to deliver and it should have been dismissed instead of the judges. He claimed the emergency had aimed at a "surgical operation" of the superior judiciary. He said cases of missing persons must be tried in court so that the people uninvolved in crimes could come out of illegal detention. Rabbani said a "dictator" had limited the role of the judiciary for the first time in the country's history. He said the COAS had a limited role under the Constitution and the army Act. "Neither the Constitution nor the army Act empowers a COAS to pronounce emergency they way Musharraf did," he said. Prof Khurshid Ahmed of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) said Musharraf had imposed the emergency to prolong his rule. He said majority of the people demand that Musharraf step down. He said all constitutional amendments made during the period of emergency were illegal and unconstitutional. Caretaker law minister Syed Afzaal Haider said Parliaments used to indemnify unconstitutional steps of military rulers in Pakistan. He said political parties always failed to launch any effective movement to save the Constitution. He said the Opposition members were making speeches against the emergency when it had been lifted but they had not requisitioned a session of Parliament on this matter. He said it was fortunate that the emergency had been lifted "only within 43 days". The minister invited the Opposition to sit with the government to find a solution to the problems facing the country. "Let's forget the past. Let's stop accusing each other and sit together to resolve the issues faced by the country," he added.
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Mehsud blamed for Rawalpindi suicide attack
Islamabad, Feb 5 “The suicide attack in Rawalpindi (yesterday) can be an act of Baitullah Mehsud (the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), as only he has the capability to carry out such attacks,” caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan told reporters at Parliament House late last night. The suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a bus carrying army medical personnel and detonated his explosives. A lieutenant colonel and a major were among the dead. Several children, who were in a school bus, also injured in the attack near the Army headquarters. Khan also said the attack reflected Mehsud’s “frustration” and could have been an act of retaliation for the arrest of 18 of his close associates. Officials said an investigation was being carried out by civil and military officials as the attack had occurred in the vicinity of the Pakistan Army’s general Headquarters. Experts in Rawalpindi were reconstructing the severed head of the suicide bomber found at the site of the attack, the officials said. Shortly after the blast, President Pervez Musharraf chaired a meeting to review security arrangements ahead of the February 18 general election. He said 60,000 army and paramilitary personnel would be deployed to ensure that the polls are peaceful.
— PTI
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Book narrates horrors of Partition
Lahore, February 5 Titled "Partition: Surgery without
Anaesthesia", the book, a compilation of 31 individual accounts including from noted writer and columnist Khushwant Singh and artist Satish Gujral, is being released by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child
(SPARC). "The book is a compilation of individual experiences of Partition. It has been compiled in such a way that the reader would be able to understand the pain and suffering that millions of people went through at the time," SPARC official Irfan Raza said. According to the book, over seven million Muslims were forced to migrate from India to Pakistan and an almost equal number crossed the border from the Pakistani side. Lahore's population before independence was 1.2 million, including approximately 500,000 Hindus and 100,000 Sikhs. However, after the dust had finally settled following the Partition, Lahore was left with just 1,000 Hindus and Sikhs. Erstwhile West Pakistan had 18.4 per cent of the population Hindus and Sikhs, but by the 1951 census, this percentage had dipped to 1.6 per cent.
— PTI
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UK plans etiquette guidelines for immigrants London, February 5 Communities secretary Hazel Blears said immigrants should be given information packs explaining British customs and containing advice on social rules such as “not littering, not spitting and
queuing in shops”, media reports said. Immigrants would also be advised not to touch people without permission or play loud music. The government’s plans, which are being published for consultation, is an effort to avoid community tensions and help newcomers integrate. Blears said Britain had a proud tradition of welcoming new arrivals to the UK, and “it is only right that we expect migrants to play by our rules. In return we have a role in explaining just what those rules are.” “Information packs are a way of getting that info across - providing a rough guide to the country, the county and the city and helping to ensure that new arrivals avoid doing or saying things that might upset local settled communities or getting into trouble with the law,” she said. While making the ‘welcome packs’, the local authorities are being told to include details such as how to access local provision like English language classes, waste and recycling services.
— PTI
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Indian ‘fishing’ boats fire grenades at Lankan navy
Colombo,
February 5 Navy
spokesperson commodore D.K.P. Dassanayake said on Tuesday that the
incident occurred at 6.30 pm on Monday when two of the 400-odd Indian
trawlers off Talaimannar in northwest Sri Lanka signalled for help. “But
when our patrol boats went near them, one of the Indian boats opened
fire. The noise was so huge that we think they were RPGs. One of our
boats was damaged,” he said. “Since it was dark and there were 400
Indian boats in the vicinity, we could neither fire back nor
investigate,” Dassanayake told IANS. “And soon enough, we found
that the Indian boats poaching in our waters were getting back to the
Indian side of the maritime boundary line.” The Indian high commission
in Colombo was informed about the incident. “The saddest part is that
from now on, we cannot even answer calls for assistance from the Indian
boats, because we could be fired upon. Till now, we have been boarding
vessels which poach in our waters, taking them into custody, and
subsequently releasing them,” Dassanayake said. “Something must be
done immediately by India to stop its fishermen from poaching in Sri
Lankan waters,” he urged. Recently, the Sri Lankan navy had planted
mines in the Palk Strait, the narrow sea dividing India and Sri Lanka,
to keep the Indian fishing boats away. But apparently these are not
acting as deterrents. According to an independent military source, the
LTTE has been using Indian fishermen as a cover to smuggle in petrol,
diesel and other dual-purpose material to Sri Lanka from southern
India. “The LTTE is believed to be paying (Sri Lankan) Rs 900 to
1,000 (about $ 10) for a litre of petrol, which is good money for poor
Indian fishermen,” the source said. The political circles here
suspect that the LTTE, desperately wanting to whip up support for itself
in Tamil Nadu, may be trying to get Indian Tamil fishermen killed by
engineering a conflict with the Sri Lankan navy in the Palk Strait. The
idea behind shooting at the Sri Lankan navy on Monday might have been to
get the Sri Lankans to fire back and kill some Indian fishermen, which
could then be used to whip up pro-LTTE and anti-Colombo feelings in
Tamil Nadu. In recent times, the Sri Lankan navy has been careful not
to physically harm, intruding Indian fishermen. The Indian government
had advised Colombo not to shoot but arrest and then let off the
offenders.
— IANS
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Lift emergency for civic poll: Bangladesh EC
Dhaka, February 5 “Now it depends on the government whether it will lift or relax the state of emergency to create the environment required for holding the poll,” election commissioner Sakhawat Hossain said after the three-member poll panel met the head of the caretaker government Fakhruddin Ahmed. The Commission’s request came as the USA said it would be better for Bangladesh to withdraw the state of emergency as soon as possible and hold election by year end. “The sooner the state of emergency is lifted, the better, the sooner the election can be held, the better,” visiting US deputy assistant secretary of the state for South Asia Donald Camp told reporters after a meeting with foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury yesterday. “Full democracy is vital to the country....US will stand beside the Bangladeshi people to see the power handed over to an elected government by the end of this year,” said Camp who earlier also met the chief adviser, the chief election commissioner and the army chief. The election commission plans to hold the long-due elections to four city corporations and eight municipalities in April this year. “How will the elections be held if emergency is not lifted? The candidates will have to be given the opportunity to campaign,” chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda had told reporters yesterday ahead of the meeting with Ahmed. The emergency was imposed in Bangladesh and parliamentary poll put off in January last year following months of the political turmoil. — PTI
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Malaysia sorry for demolition of temple
Singapore February 5 This was wrong on their part. “We are sorry for that”, Najib’s comments were splashed across Malaysia’s three Tamil-language dailies. The deputy premier, the second most powerful politician in Malaysia, pledged to ensure the orderly relocation of temples built on private property. The Malaysian media reports said Najib had given assurance that more Indians would be taken into the civil services, more university scholarships would be available to the ethnic Indian community and financial help would be given to the Indian businessmen in the country. Leaders of the Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional, a multi-party coalition, has acknowledged that the country’s Indian community might withdraw support at the general elections next month. Barisan Nasional, dominated by predominantly Muslim United Malays National Organisation and supported by the MIC as well as the Chinese-community supported Malaysian Chinese Association, could lose some critical parliamentary seats if the estimated two million Indians in the country withdraw its support, political analysts said. The Indians have highlighted their plight of being left out of the Malaysian prosperity by staging protests last November. — UNI
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Kenya poll crisis death toll 1,000
Nairobi, February 5 Most of the deaths, in one of Kenya’s darkest moment since independence from Britain 44 years ago, have come from cycles of ethnic killings and the police clashes with protesters. The internal humanitarian crisis is a shock to Kenyans, more used to receive refugees from neighbouring hot-spots like Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia.
— Reuters
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