Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday night met Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, hence fuelling speculations that the Pakistan People’s Party chief might be planning a fresh offensive to seize power in Punjab province.

Governor (Punjab) Salman Taseer and former Chief Minister Pervez Elahi were also said to be present in the late night meeting.

This was his first interaction with a politician since Monday morning’s announcement of acceptance of lawyers’ demand for restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

It was ostensibly designed to reassess the strategy to form a PPP-PML-Q coalition in Punjab against the backdrop of the latest dramatic events that witnessed President Zardari make an embarrassing retreat on the issue and a corresponding massive surge in the popularity of Nawaz Sharif, the chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), who rode the “people’s power”.

Despite President Zardari’s rear guard efforts, there is consensus among analysts that his Punjab adventure has backfired.

It had only an outside chance of success but Sharif’s triumphant march has dashed whatever hopes he had to regain Punjab ever since it was lost to the PPP in 1977 after Z.A. Bhutto’s overthrow in a military coup.

The move to exclude Sharifs from parliamentary politics through a court verdict followed by imposition of governor’s rule in Punjab failed to win over rebel elements in the PML-Q, who had gone over to Shahbaz Sharif by forming a ‘forward bloc’.

Quietly in public and loudly in private, there is clear recognition that the PPP initiative has backfired. “It is all over for us”, one PPP old guard sighed in utter frustration, cursing the day when President Zardari was led by his courtiers in June last year to break away from PML-N and renege on all written promises made with Nawaz Sharif on restoration of Justice Iftikhar.

The PML-N is now in an unassailable position. The fence sitters in the PML-Q are bound to swell the ranks of the forward bloc.

That in turn would remove the lurking apprehension of disqualification under the defection clause on which Chaudhry cousins had built their hopes to scare them back to their group.

Ironically, if that phenomenon occurs and the rebels constitute majority, as is very likely, the Chaudhry group itself may come under mischief of the defection law. The mathematics of power politics in Punjab were already in favour of PML-N.

It had a total of 174 members in the 379-member in Punjab assembly or 12 short of absolute majority. It had formed coalition with the PPP, which has 107 members and also won support of 32 members of the forward bloc.

The PML-Q has 84 members and the rebels need 11 more to become a majority group in order to avoid application of defection clause if they vote against party discipline for Shahbaz Sharif.

The return of Punjab government to Sharifs now appears to be certain and the establishment that has played a key role in the final outcome of the lawyers’ movement that would ensure that all things fall in line according to the agreed script that has the sanction of Pakistan’s foreign donors and the military establishment.

Washington, March 18
AIG boss Edward Liddy was set today to take the hot-seat in front of furious US lawmakers as a political firestorm rages over lavish employee bonuses awarded by the bailed-out insurer.

Members of the House of Representatives subcommittee on capital markets were expected to give Liddy a mauling over his decision to pay out the $165 million in bonuses despite the government’s strong objections.

Following widespread outrage, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said yesterday AIG would be required to reimburse the government for the bonuses in order to get additional bailout funds.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Geithner said it was impossible to
prevent the contractual bonuses from being paid and said it may be difficult to
recoup the payments.

However, Geithner said the government would “impose on AIG a contractual
commitment” to repay the $165 million to taxpayers. And furthermore he said
the same sum would be deducted from the $30 billion pending from AIG’s bailout
of more than $170 billion.

Capital markets subcommittee’s Democratic chairman, Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski, warned that Liddy’s job could be on the line as President Barack Obama grapples with an outpouring of public rage at Wall Street greed. — AFP

Islamabad, March 18
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s ordeals appear far from over despite easing of the political crisis after the restoration of the deposed judges as he may now face the music from his own family.

International interviewer Daphne Barak, who was close to slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, has done an exclusive report on the “chaos in Pakistan” with Benazir’s sister Sanam Bhutto talking about “how much support the Bhuttos are giving, these days, to Benazir’s widower Zardari?,” says a post on her website.

Though details of the interview have not been posted on the Barak’s website, a media report suggested that Zardari may face another crisis of credibility- this time from his own family members.

“Even chairman of the PPP, Bilawal Zardari, at this young age may have to come in public and support his beloved aunt Sanam Bhutto against his father’s claims of material and political inheritance of his (late) mother Benazir,” The News daily reported while quoting sources close to Barak.

Sanam spoke about her brother-in-law during the past weekend. Though the contents of the interview have not been revealed, a source close to Barak said: “Zardari, who was elected using his late wife’s legacy and the Bhutto family, would be embarrassed by Sanam’s cold and determined disclosures.” — PTI

St Poelten (Austria), March 18
In a stunning turn of events, an Austrian on trial for imprisoning his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years and fathering seven children pleaded guilty today to charges against him, including homicide for the death of one of the captive youngsters.

Saying he had a change of heart, Josef Fritzl calmly acknowledged his guilt on the
third day of a trial that has drawn media attention from around the world for its
shocking allegations.

“I declare myself guilty to the charges in the indictment,” Fritzl, 73, told a panel of judges, referring at one point to what he called “my sick behaviour”.

Fritzl faces up to life imprisonment on the homicide count, which he initially had contested along with an enslavement charge.

Prosecutors also had charged him with rape, forced imprisonment and coercion. Officials had earlier said verdicts in the trial could come as early tomorrow.

It was not immediately clear whether Fritzl’s guilty pleas to all of the counts would speed up that process.

Wearing a mismatched suit and a blue shirt, Fritzl did not hide his face behind a
binder as he had done for the last two days when led into the courtroom in St
Poelten, west of Vienna.

Yesterday, jurors, Fritzl and the rest of the court had viewed videotaped testimony from his daughter Elisabeth, the key witness against Fritzl.

Now 42, she was 18 when he allegedly imprisoned her in the cramped, windowless cell he built beneath the family’s home in the town of Amstetten.

Fritzl had been charged with homicide in the death of an infant, a male twin born to Elisabeth in April 1996 who prosecutors say might have survived with proper medical care had he and his mother not been locked in the basement.

The police say DNA tests prove Fritzl is the biological father of all six of Elisabeth’s
surviving children, three of whom never saw daylight until the crime came to light
11 months ago.

Three of the children grew up underground in Amstetten and the other three were brought upstairs to be raised by Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, who apparently believed they had been abandoned.

Elisabeth and her six surviving children, who range in age between 6 and 20, have
spent months recovering from their ordeal in a psychiatric clinic and at a secret
location. — AP

London, March 18
A British court today quashed the conviction of a man who has languished 27 years in jail for murdering a woman in 1979 after tests proved that DNA from the crime scene was not his.

Sean Hodgson was jailed for killing Teresa De Simone, 22, who was found strangled in her car in Southampton in December 1979. Hodgson, now 57, is one of the longest-serving victims of a miscarriage of justice in the UK, the BBC reported.

Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, and two other senior judges ruled that his 1982 conviction was "unsafe".

In his ruling, Lord Judge said: “The conviction will be quashed for the simple reason that advances in the science of DNA, long after the end of the trial, have proved a fact which... (would) have resulted in quite a different investigation and a completely different trial.” — PTI

Colombo, March 18
An Indian military medical team has begun treating Tamil civilians injured in offensives between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE in the island’s north at a temporary hospital set up by it in Pulamoddai.

“The Indian hospital established at Pulamoddai has admitted the first batch of patients who were brought in from Mullaitivu on Monday,” Director-General of Health Services Dr Ajith Mendis said.

He said currently there were 15 beds in the hospital and that doctors had started emergency operations. The temporary hospital had eight Indian physicians and surgeons to look after the patients.

Mendis said the people who escaped from the clutches of the LTTE and reached government-controlled areas were being sent to a hospital in the nearby Eastern port city of Trincomalee.

“We have taken support of the north central provincial council and have established a surgery unit there (at Trincomalee Hospital),” Mendis told mediapersons yesterday.

The team arrived in Sri Lanka on March 9 to treat the internally displaced people, first since the IPKF mission in late 1980s.

The 52-member Indian medical team left for Pulmoddai near the Eastern Trincomalee district on March 11 to treat the Tamil internally displaced persons coming from the war zones in Wanni.

Meanwhile, De Silva expressed the government’s inability in preventing the food supplies and medicines meant for the Tamil patients in the rebel-held areas from being taken away by the LTTE.

He said the government would continue to send the supplies for the Tamil civilians and the injured in the rebel-held areas in Northern Sri Lanka despite these incidents.

“We are not stopping the inflow of food items as well as medicines to those areas in Wanni,” the minister added. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Discovery docks with space station
WASHINGTON: Space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday for a construction mission that will allow the station to double its crew. Three spacewalks are planned to install the solar panels and conduct other construction projects. Two spacewalkers will put the panels in place on Thursday with help from the station’s robotic arm. “Welcome to the Space Station, Discovery. We’re glad you’re here,” the ISS crew said as the two craft made contact at 9.20 pm above Australia.

‘Heelarious’ boots for kids!
LONDON: Now, a ‘heelarious’ footwear for toddlers - thanks to designers who have launched a new range of high-heeled knee-high leather boots for them. The six-inch high boots, made from patent leather with silk lining on the inside and some even come with silver spurs on the back, come in two colours of black or pink; these have soft heels but are otherwise designed to look exactly like the adult version. They have been designed and manufactured by American firm Heelarious and are available to buy over the Internet for £30, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported.

Vivek Kundra back to work
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama’s Indian-American info czar Vivek Kundra, who had taken leave after an FBI raid on his former office, has returned to work after being informed that he was not a “target of investigation”. “Mr. Kundra has been informed that he is neither a subject nor a target of the investigation, and has been reinstated,” Assistant White House Press Secretary Nick Shapiro told CNN in an e-mail on Tuesday.

Aussies woo Indian students
MELBOURNE: Australia has launched a multi-million-dollar campaign to ensure Indian students continue to come here for higher studies, as they have been doing in large numbers in recent years. An estimated 95,000 Indian students joined Australian institutions of higher education in the first 11 months of 2008. Indians form second highest population of overseas students in Australia, after the Chinese. — Agencies