W O R L D

NRO Fallout
Defence minister barred from going abroad
Pakistan defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar became the first victim of Supreme Court ruling declaring the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as illegal, when he along with his wife and secretary were barred from boarding a flight for Beijing last night at the head of an official delegation.

Koirala asks Prachanda to call off protest programme
Amidst looming uncertainty in the country due to ongoing protest programmes unleashed by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M), Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala on Friday invited the Maoists to come forward for dialogue and find an amicable solution by withdrawing its all scheduled protest programmes immediately.

NRO Fallout
Defence minister barred from going abroad
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Confusion prevailed at Islamabad airport when defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar was stopped while leaving for Beijing along with Naval chief Admiral Nauman Bashir to participate in a ceremony of taking over Frigate-22 from Chinese authorities. The Chinese ambassador was there to see them off. Mukhtar was put in an embarrassing situation when the immigration staff ignored his complaint. He made frantic calls to the interior minister, the PM and the President, but to no avail.

Interior Secy suspended

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today suspended the Interior Secretary and three other officials after authorities barred Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar from travelling to China on the grounds that he was a beneficiary of a graft amnesty scrapped by the Supreme Court. Gilani suspended Interior Secretary Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry and directed authorities to conduct an inquiry into his role in the episode, an official statement said.

Pak court orders arrest of Malik

Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-corruption court today issued arrest warrants for Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who is among 8,000 beneficiaries of a controversial graft amnesty struck down by the Supreme Court.

Judge Mir Muhammad Shaikh of the accountability or anti-corruption court in Karachi issued the arrest warrants against Malik in connection with two graft cases that were closed under the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

The cases relate to alleged misuse of authority and receipt of two cars for ordering a contract to a firm.

The apex court declared the NRO void on Wednesday and directed authorities to reopen corruption and criminal cases against over 8,000 people that were quashed under the law.

Authorities have already placed Malik’s name on the interior ministry’s Exit Control List, a move that bars him from travelling abroad.

The National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan’s main anti-corruption agency, has filed a petition in an anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi for reviving cases against 19 persons, including the Interior Minister, that were withdrawn under the NRO.

Another anti-corruption court in Lahore today issued notices to three NRO beneficiaries, including ruling Pakistan People’s Party secretary general Jahangir Badr, who is a close aide of party chief and President Asif Ali Zardari. The notices directed the three persons to appear in the court on December 23. — PTI

SC orders probe into Zardari’s ‘Surrey Mahal’

London: Troubles for Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari are getting bigger by the day, as the Supreme Court has now asked the concerned authorities to investigate as to how he purchased the 365-acre home counties estate in the UK worth £4 million. It is worth mentioning here that Zardari had purchased the mock Tudor Rockwood Park in the

1990s, which was soon termed as “Surrey Mahal” by the then opposition leaders.

Zardari is alleged to have spent more than £300,000 on renovations of the 20-room mansion, including building his own private polo field and an exact copy of the local village pub, The Telegraph reports.

The apex court has ordered officials to ask the Swiss government to reopen an investigation into whether the property was bought with laundered money.

Zardari, who was often referred as ‘Mr Ten percent’ during his wife Benazir Bhutto’s regime, has also been accused of receiving £37 million in kickbacks from government contracts.

Zardari, however, is unfazed by the court cases and has said that he is ready to face come what may. The President, who has already spent 11 years in jail but was released as none of the charges were proved, has blasted the current crisis terming it as ‘politically motivated’. — ANI

Koirala asks Prachanda to call off protest programme
Bishnu Budhathoki writes from Kathmandu

Amidst looming uncertainty in the country due to ongoing protest programmes unleashed by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M), Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala on Friday invited the Maoists to come forward for dialogue and find an amicable solution by withdrawing its all scheduled protest programmes immediately.

Koirala asked the Maoists chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, who reached the former’s residence on Friday evening to discuss possible way out of the protracted political deadlock in the country in this regard saying that the situation was going against their favour.

“You must call off your party’s all protest programmes and sit for negotiating table to resolve the problem through consensus because situation is not in favour of us,” Krishna Prasad Situala, Congress leader and close aide to Koirala quoted Koirala as saying to Prachanda.

But Prachanda did not make any response on whether his party would revoke its decision to declare autonomous provinces based on castes and ethnicity and call off three-day nationwide general strike from Sunday.

Prachanda, however, said he found Koirala serious about finding early solution of the existing crisis of the country.

Meanwhile, Ambassadors from the European Union as well as the US government have expressed their serious concerns over the Maoists decision to declare autonomous provinces from the street saying that it would affect the peace and constitution drafting process. They have also urged both the ruling parties and Maoists to resolve the crisis through dialogue and continue the culture of consensus politics and collaboration to take the peace and constitution drafting process to a logical end.