Islamabad, May 29
Amid speculations that President Pervez Musharraf may step down, a top Pakistan Army commander seen as his protégé, has been replaced.

Brig Asim Bajwa, a top officer of the Army’s 111 Brigade, which has played a key role in military coups in the past, has been transferred. However, a military spokesman said this was part of routine postings.

The 111 Brigade is responsible for the security of the President as well as the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Brigadier Faheem Rao has now taken over its command.

Brig Bajwa, who earlier served as Musharraf's military secretary, was appointed commander of the Brigade by Musharraf before he gave up office of Army chief in November last year.

But military spokesman Maj Gen Abbas said Bajwa’s posting was “part of a bulk posting order that included 478 officers” of the rank of Brigadier and Colonel. He said the order was issued a month earlier and Bajwa was proceeding for a professional course after completing his command tenure.

The replacement came as political circles in the Pakistani capital were abuzz with reports that President Musharraf, who held a long meeting with Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani last night, might quit under intense pressure from the ruling coalition. However, presidential spokesman Maj Gen (retired) Rashid Qureshi said reports about Musharraf's plans to step down were ‘just rumours’. — PTI

London, May 29
Prominent rights watchdog Amnesty International has singled out former military dictator and President of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, in its criticism of the world states for their human rights record.

Slamming Musharraf for his ‘repressive policies’, Amnesty also asked the Pakistani President to order an independent probe into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. “President Musharraf must take immediate steps for restoration of the deposed judges and order an independent investigation into the assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto,” Amnesty International Report 2008 said.

Amnesty's criticism of the Pakistani leader was linked to the ‘hollowness of the US administration’s call for democracy and freedom abroad’ displayed in “its continued support of President Musharraf, as he arrested thousands of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and political activists for demanding democracy, the rule of law, and an independent judiciary in Pakistan.”

A number of other countries have come under Amnesty’s critical microscope, but Musharraf is the only international leader to be named and shamed by the organisation.

Underlining Musharraf’s ‘repressive policies’, the report said ‘enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention have fed grievances, helped to spur anti-western sentiment and laid the seeds for greater instability in the region. — PTI

The White House, led by President George W. Bush, sold the Iraq war to the American people with a slick "political propaganda campaign" aimed at "manipulating sources" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war."

Those are the words not of a hardened Bush critic, of which there are many, but of the President's former spokesman Scott McClellan who has penned an explosive memoir, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception" due in bookstores on Monday.

McClellan writes on the war in Iraq that Bush "and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candour and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during the time of war." "In this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security," McClellan wrote.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Wednesday described the comments as "a sad situation." Perino said Bush was "puzzled" by McClellan's assertions and "he doesn't recognise this as the Scott McClellan that he hired and confided in and worked with for so many years; and disappointed that if he had these concerns and these thoughts, he never came to him or anyone else on the staff that we know of."

On the Iraq war, McClellan says Bush "managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option." "A more self-confident executive would be willing to acknowledge failure, to trust people's ability to forgive those who seek redemption for mistakes and show a readiness to change," the former press secretary writes, according to a Washington Post report.

"The President had promised himself that he would accomplish what his father had failed to do by winning a second term in office," he writes. "And that meant operating continually in campaign mode: never explaining, never apologising, never retreating. Unfortunately, that strategy also had less justifiable repercussions: never reflecting, never reconsidering,never compromising. Especially not where Iraq was concerned."

McClellan resigned from the White House on April 19, 2006, after nearly three years as Bush's press secretary. At that time, Bush said, "It's going to be hard to replace Scott."

King Gyanendra’s aides on Thursday hoisted national flags inside the courtyard of the Narayanhity Palace by replacing the royal flags “insignia of Shah Dynasty”.

Staffs, inside his chief secretariat, hoisted three national flags inside the palace that has been converted into a national museum. At 8:30 am today, palace officials removed the royal flags and the royal insignia carved outside the main gate of the palace as per the directives issued by the first meeting of the Assembly.

Meanwhile, a palace official said Gyanendra and his family probably shifted to his house “Nirmal Niwas” located in Maharajgunj-- 3 km northeast from the palace. On Wednesday night, the majority in the Assembly passed the proposal tabled by the government to declare the country a republic and directed the government to oust the King Gyanendra from the palace within 15 days.

After the assassination of late King Birendra and his family members in June 1, 2001, the palace and its all properties were shifted in the name of Gyanendra.

Earlier, demonstrators, who gathered outside the palace to welcome the republic and observe the flag hoisting ceremony, sustained injuries as the police baton-charged on them when they tried to hoist it themselves.

However, the government said the national flag would not be hoisted until the king left the palace. “Hoisting the national flag before the king’s evacuation means legitimising the king,” minister for peace and reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel said.

Meanwhile, a law practitioner claimed that hoisting flags by ordinary citizen or unauthorised person was the violation of constitutional norms. As per the constitutional provision, only senior authorised official could hoist the national flag.

Islamabad, May 28
An Indian teenager wowed Pakistanis with her piano recital at the first-ever classical music concert by children held in the federal capital.

Thirteen-year-old Aditee Bhalla, daughter of the Indian naval attache in Pakistan, sang Joseph Hadyn's "Piercing Eyes" and played "Two German Dances" for a select audience at the Austrian High Commissioner's residence this week end. Bhalla, a student of the International School of Islamabad, who is tutored by a trained opera singer started playing piano just over a year ago. "My teacher is a trained opera singer who married a Pakistani and is now settled here," Bhalla said after the concert. Bhalla is now learning to play saxophone at school, she said.

Apart from Bhalla, children from other countries also sang compositions of Austrian composers. Seven-year-old Noor Eva Khan, the youngest among the participants, who played two short pieces — one by Haydn and another by Mozart was cheered all along. Eight-year-old Jakob Roithinger surprised everyone by playing from memory Haydn's "Scherzo" and a piece by Mozart. Mozart's duet "A Little Night Music" was performed by Rei Shibuta and Yu Min Kim while his "Trios Marches Militaires in D Major" was performed by Ronshi Fukazawa and Yu Min Kim. — PTI

BRIEFLY

London may close down offices in Delhi, Mumbai
London: Boris Johnson, the newly elected Mayor of London, is likely to close down the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, which were opened by his predecessor Ken Livingstone, as part of a cost-cutting drive. The offices called, ‘London India Offices’, were launched in November, 2007, during Livingstone’s visit to India, and were set up to promote trade relations between London and India. — PTI

Suicide bomb kills 3 Afghan civilians
KABUL: A suicide car bomb killed three civilians and wounded seven in the Afghan capital on Thursday, officials said. The Taliban have vowed to step up their campaign of suicide bombings this year, after carrying out 140 such attacks in 2007 which killed 200 civilians. A UN reporter said this month that 95 per cent of those killed by the Taliban were civilians. — Reuters

US to withdraw 4,000 troops from Iraq
Baghdad: The US military today announced the withdrawal of another 4,000 troops from Iraq next month as violence across the country hit a four-year low. The military said it was pulling out troops deployed as part of a controversial "surge" of forces in February, 2007. The pullout was in line with US President George W Bush's plan, announced in September, to complete the withdrawal of the 30,000 extra troops he poured in last year to curb an increase in sectarian violence in Iraq. 
— AFP