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NRO Fallout
Pakistan govt in austerity mode
Nepal strike cripples life
‘Climate treaty full of loopholes’
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Iran’s Ayatollah Montazeri dies
Europe, US snowed in
Britain to cull Indian birds
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NRO Fallout
Islamabad, December 20 The beleaguered President made the pledge "to fight back" while chairing a meeting of PPP's central executive committee yesterday to review the fallout of the apex court's decision to scrap National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), a controversial law promulgated by ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007 which gave amnesty to Zardari and over 8,000 other people in graft cases. The PPP "reposed full confidence" in Zardari's leadership and "vowed to rally around him at a time when he is the target of criticism and political attacks from all around and to put up a fierce fight in his defence", Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said. The party also decided that federal ministers facing graft charges following the scrapping of the NRO by the apex court on Wednesday would defend themselves in court instead of resigning. Zardari said the PPP "will not be blackmailed into asking its ministers to resign merely on the basis of accusations against them". None of the accusations had been proved and there is no reason for anyone to resign "until proved guilty of wrong- doing", he said. The PPP decided on its strategy to tackle the political crisis confronting the government during the marathon meeting of its top leadership, which began in the afternoon yesterday and continued till late in the night. Briefing the media on the meeting, senior party leader Jahangir Badr, a close aide of Zardari, said: "The PPP is united on co-chairman Zardari's leadership and reposes complete confidence in him. "We respect the (apex) court's verdict but the cases (that are being reopened) were filed as part of political revenge during Musharraf's regime because the PPP did not accept him. We faced these cases in the past and will face them again," Badr said. Responding to questions on demands from the opposition for Zardari to resign and the possible removal of the PPP-led federal government, Badr said: "The geo-political situation in Pakistan makes it very clear that anything other than democracy will lead to anarchy and chaos." Zardari said the PPP would "use democracy and constitutionalism as its weapons to fight it adversaries and foil all conspiracies" against the party. Despite the hurdles put in its way, the PPP will continue "to strengthen democracy... and will not be deterred by conspiracies against it", he said. He said he "foresaw many more conspiracies and onslaughts against the PPP" and added that "none of the conspiracies will be allowed to succeed". Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar and senior party leaders like Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani and Safdar Abbasi attended the meeting. Ahsan, one of Pakistan's leading lawyers, briefed the PPP leaders on the fallout of the apex court's verdict. Zardari and the PPP government are facing their worst political crisis since coming to power last year due to the Supreme Court's annulment of NRO. The President and several of his close allies, including Defence Minister Mukhtar and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, benefited from the NRO. The apex court's ruling came at a time when Zardari's popularity ratings have hit rock bottom. An anti-corruption court in Karachi has also summoned Malik to appear before it next month while the Defence Minister was barred from on an official visit to China due to the reopening of a corruption probe against him. Zardari's aides say the Constitution grants him immunity from prosecution by virtue of holding the post of President. On Friday, Gilani mounted a spirited defence of Zardari in the wake of the apex court's decision to strike down NRO, saying the President had already spent 12 years in jail on corruption charges that were never proved. "These are not new cases. He (Zardari) remained in jail for 12 years and Rs 4 billion to Rs 5 billion were spent in pursuing cases against him (though the charges were never proved)," Gilani had said, pointing out that even if Zardari had committed an offence, he had already completed the requisite jail term for such a crime. Gilani has also suspended Interior Secretary Qamar-uz- Zaman Chaudhry and three other officials of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) after taking a "very serious notice" of authorities barring the Defence Minister from travelling to China on Thursday. — PTI
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Pakistan govt in austerity mode
The federal cabinet would be trimmed to almost half and foreign trips of top leadership would be cut by 40 per cent, the Pakistan government announced here.
Launching an austerity drive to reduce expenditure, the government said utility expenses of the Presidency and the Prime Minister’s House would be curtailed by 25 per cent capping them for three years. The ministers will not be allowed to hoist flags on cars and residences. The Cabinet has approved the measures. It, however, deferred the decision on introducing two weekly off. The number of ministries will be reduced to 30 from 42 and that of divisions to 37 from 52. The Cabinet approved phased privatisation of public sector organisations including Wapda, Pepco, Railways, PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills after their restructuring. The government is providing Rs 252 billion as subsidy per year to these organisations. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, who heads the Austerity Committee and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would soon set up a committee to formulate short, medium and long-term strategies to ensure effective implementation of austerity measures. The Pay and Pension Commission, he said, had been asked to come up with proposals to improve the salary structure and perks and privileges of government employees. Expenditures on foreign tours by ministers have been cut by 30 per cent and entertainment by 30 per cent. Only one dish will be served at government lunches and dinners. The number of planes in use of VVIPs will be reduced and eventually handed over to a private company, which may operate them on a semi-commercial basis. The practice of performing Haj at government expense will also be stopped. The Pay and Pension Committee will look into details of a proposal for a ceiling on official telephone connections. There will be no VIP lounges and wards in government hospitals. The entourage of the President and Prime Minister will be restricted to seven vehicles and that of governors and chief ministers to six. Federal ministers will use cars of up to 1800cc and provincial ministers of up to 1600cc. Locally-manufactured cars and armoured vehicles will be used for official purposes. Video-conferencing will be promoted as substitute for visits. Pakistani diplomatic missions abroad will represent the country at meetings, seminars and conferences. Solar and wind power and coal will be introduced as alternative energy sources. Ministries, divisions and institutions will have to seek quarterly approval of their supplementary grants, instead of putting them at the end of a financial year in order to enhance parliamentary oversight on expenditures.
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Nepal strike cripples life
At least 36 persons, including 12 police personnel, have sustained injuries, some of them seriously, and vehicles were destroyed, as the agitating main Opposition party Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) enforced a three-day bandh from Sunday for “establishing civilian supremacy”. DSP Dilip Chaudhary was attacked by the Maoists cadres with sharp weapons and bricks just outside the constituent assembly. He was rushed to a hospital with multiple injuries on his head and face all together 45 stitches were given to him. Later, he has been admitted in Neuro Hospital for further treatment, the police said. “Maoists have gone against their decision to keep their bandh peaceful”, and government will not tolerate it, Home Minister Bhim Rawal said. Prime Minister Madhav Nepal who returned home after a week-long trip to Copenhagen to participate in the International conference on climate change was escorted to Baluatar amidst tight security as Maoists had gathered in a large number to hold protest demonstration along his route. “We are forced to observe this bandh as the government has refused to concede our demand to correct President’s unconstitutional Act in reinstating Gen Rookmangud Katawal as chief of the army after he was sacked by Prime Minister Prachanda in early May”, said Janardan Sharma ‘Prabhakar’.
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‘Climate treaty full of loopholes’
Copenhagen, December 20 Terming the Copenhagen Climate Summit "a huge missed opportunity" Greenpeace today in a statement claimed "the world's most powerful countries have betrayed future and current generations." The environmental organisation accused the world leaders of "fleeing to the airport." "Whilst en route to the airport they claimed the deal was done, it was not. All they left was chaos and confusion in their wake," it said in the statement. The organisation said the delegates were engaged in negotiations through the night but they struggled to understand the status of the so called 'Copenhagen Accord' as the climate summit came to an inglorious, incoherent and fiercely disputed close. "Rather than coming together to secure a future for hundreds of millions of people by agreeing an historic deal to avert climate chaos, leaders of the world's most powerful countries have betrayed future and current generations," Greenpeace International Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo said. The Copenhagen Accord is being hailed by some as a step forward. It is not. In fact it has not even been formally adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP). It does not contain strong measures for emission reductions in developed countries, the statement said. It is a major concession to climate polluting industries, especially in the fossil fuel sector which lobbied hard to undermine a deal and now has a license to continue to pollute, it said. There are a few plus points, however, it provides for the establishment of a new Climate Funding Mechanism and agrees on the need of large scale finance, up to $100 billion a year, to allow developing countries to protect their forests. — PTI
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Iran’s Ayatollah Montazeri dies
Tehran, December 20
Montazeri accused Ahmadinejad’s government of dictatorship after his disputed re-election in June.
In 2001, the ayatollah suffered a severe heart attack just after he was released from a five-year period of house arrest and was hospitalised for a long time.
Despite political isolation and house arrest for more than 10 years, Montazeri remained a respected religious figure and one of Iran’s most acknowledged marjae taqlids, to whom Muslims refer for religious guidance.
While reformist circles supported Montazeri, the hardliners branded him as secular and condemned his critical approach toward Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Khomeini as the country’s supreme leader in June 1989. Montazeri criticised the Iranian election system several times and said under these conditions and without genuine and fair competition, elected officials could not respond to the people’s needs. He said the errors committed by the Islamic Republic and the provocations of the Ahmadinejad government brought about an international cohesion that led to the sanctions against Iran with worrying consequences for the population. Despite his religious status in Iran, Montazeri was regarded by the system as a dissident and as a result, Iranian state television has not paid any special attention to his death. According to the Fars news agency, so far only Grand Ayatollah Yussef Sanei, himself an Ahmadinejad critic and close to the reformist opposition, has been one of the few high-ranking clerics to have expressed his condolences. — IANS
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Europe, US snowed in
London, December 20 Almost all international train travel was halted to and from the Netherlands, where the meteorological service issued a storm warning. Trains were delayed in Poland because of frozen points and damaged rails. Europe's airports and airlines also were fighting a losing battle to get passengers away for the Christmas holidays as the snow continued to fall. In Germany, a week of freezing temperatures and this winter's biggest snowfall led to hundreds of road accidents, with the country's third busiest airport - Duesseldorf International - forced to close on Sunday. Cold snap has claimed dozens of lives, damaged power lines and halted sports fixtures. In Poland, a news channel quoted police as saying 47 Poles, mainly homeless people, had been found frozen to death since the start of December as temperatures dropped as low as minus 18°C. More than 220 villages and towns in Bulgaria were left without electricity, and toppled trees cut power in several mountainous suburbs in the capital Sofia. An overflowing dam in the town of Zlatograd, southeast of Sofia, flooded the basements of several apartment buildings, the town's mayor told news agency Focus. In France, the heavy snowfall was not expected to end until Monday evening at the earliest, according to weather bureau Meteo France. Minimum temperatures hovered close to record lows in some areas overnight, with the minimum reading in the Jura department of eastern France reaching minus 23°C. Meanwhile, a major snow storm that buried US capital Washington and surrounding area under a thick white blanket was expected to dump up to 12 inches in the New York area as it started moving north. The authorities were forced to suspend public transportation in the capital and declare a state of emergency. Record snowfall totals were reported Saturday at Washington Dulles international and Reagan National airports. Accumulation at Dulles reached 13 inches, breaking the old record of 10.6 inches set December 12, 1964. A total of 13.3 inches was reported at Reagan, where the old record was 11.5 inches set December 17, 1932. — Reuters, IANS
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Britain to cull Indian birds
London, December 20 Now, thought to number 30,000, living mostly in southeast England, they are blamed for wrecking fruit crops and threatening nuthatches, kestrels, starlings and tawny and little owls by taking over nesting sites. From next year, the bright green birds will join the wild boar and other ‘alien species’ that are allowed to be culled, the Sunday Times reported. British Wildlife Minister Huw
Irranca-Davies said: “It's essential our native species are given the required protection to flourish. Stopping the spread of invasive non-native species makes a real difference to the survival of our own plants, birds and animals.” But, the move to designate parakeets pests has been attacked by some experts, with the London Wildlife Trust saying that there is “little evidence” the birds cause a problem.
— IANS
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London, December 20
