In a surprise move, the government on Wednesday introduced an amendment in the Judges Act through the Finance Bill enhancing the number of Supreme Court judges from present 17 to 29 in a bid to find a middle path for resolution of the judges’ crisis.

The amendment, which immediately provoked a strong reaction from legal fraternity, ensures the retention of present judges while reinstating judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf through Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) after imposing emergency on November 3. In a related move, the government has paid to sacked judges the arrears of salaries of last seven months since they were removed on November 3. PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari had asked the law minister to clear the dues while responding to media reports that most of the judges were facing financial hardship for being out of job since their dismissal.

The inclusion of the amendment in the Finance Bill circumvents the normal legislative procedure to amend a law that requires passage by simple majority in both houses of parliament. The Finance Bill contains budgetary provisions and is voted only in the National Assembly.

Eminent legal experts, including Abid Hussain Manto, Wajihuddin Ahmed and retired Chief Justice Saeeduz Zaman, said injection of any legal measure unrelated to the budget violates the spirit of legislation and is essentially unconstitutional. They described it as a sinister move to validate Musharraf’s PCO and create a court dominated by pliant pro-Musharraf judges who would outnumber the deposed judges even if they are restored.

The government initiative came on the eve of the ‘long march’ spearheaded by lawyers currently underway in the country and is due to reach Islamabad on Friday.

Washington, June 11
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice considers India’s rise to global power and prosperity as “vital” as Washington seeks to get right its relationships with the existing and emerging global players. “The US has a vital stake in India’s rise to global power and prosperity, and relations between the two countries have never been stronger or broader,” said Rice.

“It will take continued work, but this is a dramatic breakthrough for both our strategic interests and our values,” she said in an article in the July/August issue of foreign affairs magazine published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank.

The “strategic shock” of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks swept the US into a fundamentally different world making Washington “to lead with a new urgency and with a new perspective on what constituted threats and what might emerge as opportunities. What has changed is, most broadly, how we view the relationship between the dynamics within states and the distribution of power among them,” she said

But “what has not changed is that our relations with traditional and emerging great powers still matter to the successful conduct of policy. Thus, my admonition in 2000 that we should seek to get right the relationships with the big powers - Russia, China, and emerging powers such as India and Brazil - has consistently guided us,” said Rice, a key member of a group of experts engaged by Bush in the run up to the 2000 presidential elections to brush up his world view.

“As before, our alliances in the Americas, Europe and Asia remain the pillars of the international order, and we are now transforming them to meet the challenges of a new era,” she said.

But “the importance of strong relations with global players extends to those that are emerging. With those, particularly India and Brazil, the US has built deeper and broader ties,” she added. — IANS

London, June 11
The Indo-US nuclear deal that remained stalled due to domestic politics in India is almost certainly dead, a senior American official indicated, adding its collapse would be a “historic blunder” for India.

Asked whether it was now impossible to push the deal through in the dying days of Bush’s term, Ashley Tellis told a British newspaper: “That is probably correct. Tellis is one of the original architects of the historic deal and is now an adviser to John McCains presidential campaign.

“Even if the Indian government were suddenly to turn around and get the IAEA stage completed, there would be no time for the remaining two stages” Tellis told the Financial Times.

The deal has been touted by US President George W. Bush as one of his signature foreign policy achievements.

Tellis’s remarks came even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he still continued to hope that “we will make progress in the months that lie ahead” after admitting that “our domestic politics has prevented us from going ahead.”

After New Delhi secures the approval of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAFA), the deal would have to be cleared by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group before returning to the US Congress for final approval. — PTI 

Colombo, June 11
In a pre-dawn attack on a Sri Lankan naval outpost in the restive Mannar region,the LTTE’s Sea Tigers today killed three sailors and lost five of their cadres and captured arms and other equipment.

“While three Sri Lankan Navy sailors were killed, two others sustained injuries,” a defence spokesman said, adding the Sea Tigers lost five of their men, including their leader Sirimaran.

An LTTE website, however, claimed the Sea Tigers had killed 10 sailors and lost four of their men in the incident.

The Tigers also claimed that they brought the outpost at the Erukkalampiddi area in the Mannar Island under their control for a few hours after the attack and captured arms and military gadgets, including radar equipment.

The defence ministry said a group of LTTE rebels had come there in six boats. The post was defended by the sailors forcing the rebels to withdraw, the ministry said. Sri Lankan air force’s helicopters pounded withdrawing Sea Tiger boats in the Gulf of Mannar, officials said.

According to sources, the air assault was launched targeting the boats fleeing towards the Veddithalthievu area in northern Sri Lanka. —PTI

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was temporarily released from detention on Wednesday to travel overseas for medical treatment for eight weeks in an apparent deal to woo her party, the Awami League (AL), to the upcoming elections.

Hasina was detained, alongside two-time former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, on several corruption charges as part of the anti-corruption drive of the current army-backed government. Hasina will travel to the United States on Thursday to have her ear treated, but will sit for talks with the government before her departure. Khaleda refused to travel abroad for treatment.

"We have arranged a temporary release for her because we have always been considerate of both former Prime Ministers humanitarian concerns," said interim commerce minister Hossain Zillur Rahman on Wednesday. The AL had refused to sit with the government without the release of their leader. Hasina, premier between 1996 and 2001, was detained in July last year. Her trial will continue in her absence.

"We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," Abdul Qader al-Husan, head of Jordan's Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, said. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Device that can see through walls developed
JERUSALEM: Military and rescue operations around the globe will now get a tad easier with the invention of a radar that can see through walls. An Israeli firm, Camero, has developed this technology and already sold it to several army and police forces. The company feels that the device can be beneficial for special unit soldiers or for human operations like locating people trapped in burning buildings, the daily Haaretz reported. — PTI

Indian worker's ordeal ends
DUBAI: An Indian expatriate from Dhahran who was refused permission to board a flight after being diagnosed with tuberculosis was allowed to fly home, ending a month-long ordeal that began when he collapsed at the airport in Bahrain on May 12. He was allowed to return home on Tuesday after he went on a hunger strike, Arab News said. “The airline has flown Rajesh Kumar back to India,” said a spokesman for Qatar Airways. In recent years, drug resistant strains of tuberculosis have raised concerns that airline passengers could contract the infection from other passengers, Arab News said. — PTI

Deepika to lead India Day Parade
New York: Deepika Padukone, who stormed Bollywood with her debut film "Om Shanti Om" last year, is to lead the 28th India Day Parade here as Grand Marshal on August 17 to celebrate India's 61st Independence Day. The parade, organised every year by the Federation of Indian Associations, moves down Madison Avenue in Manhattan, culminating at a venue where cultural and entertainment programmes are held. The parade attracts around 50,000 people. — IANS

UK lawmaker blames Indians for littering
LONDON: A Conservative Party lawmaker, Lucy Ivimy, has sparked a racism row in Britain after she accused immigrants, particularly Indians, of showing a "total disregard for cleanliness of a public area". She suggested immigrants should be taught that littering is unacceptable and an "educational exercise" should be conducted to change their behaviour. She said Indians, in particular, saw throwing rubbish out of windows as “normal”. However, residents and other councillors said Ivimy had no proof that Indian families were to blame. She has been accused of racism. — PTI