The Supreme Court ruling on the Emergency imposed by General Pervez Musharraf has shut the door on dictatorship, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani declared in the National Assembly last night.

Pak intelligence had terror links, admits Malik Islamabad: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has acknowledged that some elements in Pakistani intelligence agencies were sympathetic to terrorists and disclosed they had resigned or were arrested. Some of these persons were officers of the rank of Major and had wanted to target Army Generals, Malik said while talking to a Pakistani TV channel. There were some elements in intelligence agencies who had links with terrorists, including Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud and commanders Qari Ilyas and Qari Hussain, he said. — PTI

“It is a landmark judgment that has blocked the way for any unconstitutional usurpation of the people’s right to govern," Gilani said while making a policy statement on the court's ruling.

“The court has established the sovereignty of parliament," Gilani said and noted that judges during their observations acclaimed with appreciation the role of parliament for not validating the unconstitutional acts of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf."

The Prime Minister told the National Assembly that the so-called “PCO judges” still in office would face the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), which could call for their removal. The government moved swiftly to implement last week’s Supreme Court ruling that nullified former president Pervez Musharraf’s controversial November 3, 2007, Emergency.

The assembly session was preceded by an overnight government notification that said 76 judges of the Supreme Court, hit by Friday’s ruling, had ceased to hold their offices.

“The cases of such judges of the Supreme Court and high courts who were working on the 3rd of November, 2007, and had taken oath under the PCO (but) who have not retired, as directed by the Supreme Court, are being sent to the Supreme Judicial Council under Article 209 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Gilani said in a prepared speech.

No official count of such judges was immediately available although nearly 50 had taken oath under the PCO after the Emergency decree had sacked about 60, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who was restored with several other colleagues in March this year through a presidential order after an epoch-making lawyers’ movement.

The Article 209 provides that, on receiving information from any source, the president can direct the SJC, or the council can act on its own behalf, to inquire into whether a Supreme Court or high court judge had become incapable of performing “duties of his office” for reasons of physical or mental incapacity or for being guilty of misconduct.

All five judges of the Balochistan High Court (BHC), including the chief justice, have chosen to resign instead of facing the charge of misconduct in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), acting registrar of the court announced in Quetta on Tuesday.

Their resignations come four days after the Supreme Court's landmark decision of the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) promulgated by former military Gen. Pervez Musharraf in November 2007 as unconstitutional.

The court ruled that judges who took oath of allegiance to Musharraf under the PCO defied a verdict by a seven-member Bench of the Supreme Court staying the operation of the PCO the same day it was promulgated.

Nearly 36 judges, who succumbed to Musharraf's pressure and took oath have been affected by the ruling and all are likely to quit rather than face trial in the SJC. The resignation will protect the right to pension and other retirement benefits. 

London, August 4
A group of 66 Sikh women and children on an outing to the seaside miraculously escaped from a burning double-decker bus in southern England but became victims of racist jibes from passing motorists.

The passengers, worshippers at a gurdwara in Luton, travelling back after an outing in Weymouth, Hampshire on Friday were quickly evacuated after an alert off-duty police officer asked them to vacate the vehicle.

Minutes after they were evacuated, the double-decker coach exploded in a fireball, melting the tarmac.

A woman in the coach, Inderjeet Kaur told BBC TV that the evacuees were subjected to racist abuse by passing motorists as they stood on the highway, wrapped in foil blankets, waiting for a replacement coach.

After a smell of burning rubber was brought to driver’s attention they decided to drive to the next motorway services for a replacement but as the coach progressed passing cars flashed their lights, hinting something amiss.

“We pulled over and a driver who had also stopped and got everyone off very quickly, she added. — PTI

Melbourne, August 4
The Australian police today foiled an Islamic extremist plot by terrorist with ties to Al-Qaida linked Somali group to storm into a military base to carry out a suicide attack.

“The terrorists planned to storm into the military base in Sydney in New South Wales and open fire with automatic weapons at anyone in sight until they were shot dead,” Acting Commissioner of Federal Police said.

But a well-armed 400 strong Australian police posse foiled the plot as in a pre-dawn swoop they raided premises all around the city taking four people into custody.

Those taken into custody are alleged to have ties to al-Shabaab, an Islamist group that has been planning to overthrow Somalia’s trans-national government.

Well-briefed police officers involved in the raids codenamed ‘Operation Neath’ carried out a smooth campaign to surprise the plotters in their homes and swiftly arrest them in an operation first on such a scale in the country.

The unearthing of the plot prompted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to declare that the conspiracy was a “sober reminder” that Australia was still under threat of terrorism.

Four persons of Somali and Lebanese descent, all Australian citizens, between the age group of 22 to 26 were arrested, while several others were being questioned in connection with the plot, whereby the alleged terrorists planned to attack Sydney’s Holsworthy Army base, the police said.

The police crackdown followed a seven-month surveillance on the plotters during which a close watch was kept on their activities.

“The timely intervention by the police and other security agencies has foiled an alleged terrorist attack that could have taken many lives and caused devastation,” he said.

“The men were planning to carry out a suicide terrorist attack on a defence establishment within Australia involving an armed assault with automatic weapons,” a federal police spokesman said.

“Details of the planning indicate the alleged offenders were preparing a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed,” the official said. 
— PTI