Lahore, January 17
Describing India as a "mature democracy", President Asif Ali Zardari has said there is no threat to Pakistan from it, even as he sought resumption of the composite dialogue process stalled since the Mumbai terror attacks. President Asif Ali Zardari has said there is no threat to Pakistan from India as one democracy must not fear another.

"There is a mature democracy in India and a democracy does not attack another democracy," Zardari told a small group of journalists during an interaction over dinner at the Governor’s House in this eastern city late last night. He said there was no threat to Pakistan from India. Responding to a question on why India is reluctant to resume the composite dialogue that has been stalled since the Mumbai attacks, Zardari said he hoped that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government will show maturity in this regard as it is the only way to move forward. Replying to another question on the Kashmir issue, he said: "I met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh one-and-half-years ago and talked with him over the Kashmir issue as well. I am optimistic that the issue will be resolved through dialogue".

Zardari dismissed the impression that Pakistan is "pleading" for resumption of dialogue with India in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. "A case against the suspects in the Mumbai attacks is in the court and, therefore, I cannot comment. However, Pakistan believes in dialogue and I think all outstanding issues with India can be solved only through talks," he said. Zardari also spoke on other issues, including the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan's ties with the US. He said the US administration had taken him into confidence while framing its new Afghan policy.

"President (Barack) Obama had written me a letter and even talked to me on phone before finalising his government’s new Afghan policy," he said. "There is no difference between Pakistan and the US on any issue...Pakistan-US relations have a long history. The US supported the recent transition from dictatorship to a democratic rule in Islamabad," he said.

However, he indicated that the US did not appear to be keen to transfer drone technology to Pakistan. Islamabad has been asking Washington to give it the drone technology so that Pakistani troops can themselves target militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. "Both countries have different positions on the transfer of drone technology to Islamabad. For us, this is not a technology which cannot be given to us. But the US considers it a modern technology and is reluctant in its transfer to us," he said.

Zardari categorically denied the impression that he had taken oath on the Quran while having dialogue with former Premier and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. The PML-N broke away from the Pakistan People's Party-led coalition at the centre in 2008 after accusing Zardari of reneging on several promises. He said he still trusted Sharif and was firm on "going along" with him. "By uttering words against me, Mr Sharif must be getting some political benefit," he said. Zardari said the 17th constitutional amendment, which gives the President sweeping powers, had already been withdrawn in principle and it required only paper work to be scrapped. "We have a parliamentary system, not a presidential one, and, therefore, the powers should be vested with the Prime Minister," he said.

The President said the UN had been asked to probe the assassination of his late wife, former Premier Benazir Bhutto, to trace the "real players" behind her murder. "(Slain Pakistani Taliban chief) Baitullah Mehsud is just one player," he said. Zardari also said he had "full confidence" in the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Asked about the possible trial of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for violating the Constitution and imposing emergency, he replied: "The parliament can take action against him". — PTI

India and Nepal have agreed to “cooperate closely” to end the menace of terrorism and extremism, including human trafficking, smuggling of arms and fake Indian currency.

Winding up his three-day visit here, Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said both countries had expressed firm commitment in this regard for mutual interests. According to the 20-point joint statement issued by both countries, the Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty-1950 will be “re-visited”.

“The two ministers (Krishna and Nepal’s foreign minister Sujata Koirala) discussed security concerns of respective countries and agreed that terrorism and extremism were threat to both of them,” the statement read.

Both agreed to expedite the finalisation of the MoU for the construction of the Nepal Police Academy.

The statement added that Krishna assured Nepal that India was willing to provide all possible assistance to its security agencies.

Krishna also expressed his concern about the business environment in Nepal affecting Indian investment and joint venues, and requested Nepal to address the issue urgently and effectively. It may be recalled that Maoists-aligned trade union workers have been constantly creating troubles in multi-national companies, mainly from Indian investment in Nepal.

The Nepalese government has reassured India that it would not allow its territory to be used for any activity against India.

The statement mentioned that five MoUs regarding the construction of Terai roads with Indian assistance at an estimated cost of Rs 805 crore, a project worth Rs 9.2 crore for the Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd and Central Depository Services (India) Ltd, Rs 6.3-crore electrification project, and construction of a Science Learning Centre with India’s assistance of Rs 16.6 crore, were signed during his visit.

Toronto, January 17
Canada has refused to allow the mastermind of the 1984 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight to Lahore to practise law. Parminder Singh Saini, 46, who took refuge here 15 years ago and faces deportation to India, sought permission last year to practise law in Canada after completing his law degree here. But the Law Society of Upper Canada has now ruled that Saini cannot practice in Canada because of his bad character.

Rejecting his application, the Law Society said Saini was unfit to practice in Canada because of “the seriousness of the crime of hijacking, the deception after landing in Canada and the fact that he is still being described as a person of danger.”'

In 1995, Saini entered Canada illegally under the name of Balbir Singh with a fake Afghan passport. He has maintained that he lied about his identity for fear of being deported to India. Saini was the leader of five Sikh militants, who hijacked an Indian Airlines flight from Srinagar to Delhi on July 6, 1984, with 255 passengers on board and took it to Lahore.

The hijack drama ended after a 17-hour stand-off, with the hijackers surrendering to the Pakistani authorities.

After a trial in Pakistan, Saini was sentenced to death by a Lahore court. But the death sentence was commuted to life term. He was released after 10 years and asked to leave Pakistan.

The Pakistanis arranged the fake passport for him to enter Canada. After his arrival here, he earned a BA degree and a law degree even as he fought his deportation order. Saini, who still faces deportation and is listed as a national threat in Canada, requested the Law Society of Upper Canada to allow him to practise law here.

Appearing before the Law Society last year, he regretted his past and said he deserves a shot at life in this country.

Referring to the 1984 hijacking, he said: “I had no legitimate right to do that. It's not legal.”'

Based on his terrorist past and lying about his identify, the Law Society ruled that Saini has failed to prove that he is a man of good character and thus doesn’t deserves to practice in Canada. Saini is attached to his brother’s immigration consultancy firm Singh and Associates based in Mississauga on the outskirts of Toronto. — IANS

London, January 17
A controversial BBC film about the Indian Army storming Golden Temple in 1984, which depicts late Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale “in a similar way to Osama Bin Laden”, has provoked a furious response from many members of the community in Britain, a media report said.

A number of Sikhs have condemned the documentary, “1984: A Sikh Story”, which they see as nothing but a slur on Bhindranwale, who was killed during the ‘Operation Blue Star’ ordered by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.

Since his death, Bhindranwale, the controversial leader of Sikh religious group Damdami Taksal, has remained a controversial figure in Indian history. While some view him as a martyr who was fighting for the best interests of Sikhs, others see him as an extremist.

Dr Sadhu Singh, the chairman of the Council of Sikh Temples, said many viewers were angered that “the BBC showed him (Bhindranwale) looking like bin Laden”.

He said: “They used pictures of him wearing a turban and holding a gun. To someone who doesn't know what Sikhism is about, it would be very misleading. Sikhs were attacked after September 11, but Sikhs are nothing to do with bin Laden. Some people are very upset that the documentary also showed Sonia Deol dancing with Hindus as if there is no problem between Hindus and Sikhs. The feeling is still there that people who were responsible for 1984 have not been brought to justice.”

In fact, the BBC has received some 52 complaints about the documentary, which attracted 1.3 million viewers and was billed as Sikh presenter Sonia Deol's “emotional journey back to India in a bid to discover how such an attack could ever have taken place”.

However, community TV station ‘The Sikh Channel’ has said it received more than 8,000 calls to a phone-in about the controversial film which contain “many sweeping statements and didn’t attempt to uncover the truth of what happened”.

“Our viewers were not happy. The BBC is not responding to the Sikh community and we are thinking about organising a campaign to invoke the non-payment of licence fees by 700,000 Sikhs in Britain,” owner Davinder Singh Bal was quoted by the newspaper as saying. — PTI

London, January 17
A warning that most of the Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035 owing to climate change is likely to be retracted after the United Nations body that issued it admitted to a series of scientific blunders.

Two years ago, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) headed by India's Rajendra Pachauri, issued a benchmark report that claimed to have incorporated the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was that world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. In the last few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report, the Sunday Times reported today.

It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephonic interview with Syed Hasnain, an Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, the report said. Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was a "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research, the report added. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change.

Rajendra Pachauri has previously dismissed criticism of the Himalayas which claim as "voodoo science" and last week the IPCC refused to comment on the report. The blunder was spotted by climate scientists led by Graham Cogley, a geographer from Trent University in Ontario, Canada, who had long been unhappy with the IPCC's finding. He traced the IPCC claim back to the New Scientist and then contacted Fred Pearce, the journalist who carried out the original interview for the New Scientist. Pearce then re-interviewed Hasnain, who confirmed that his 1999 comments had been speculative and published the update in the New Scientist.

Pearce said he contacted Hasnain in India in 1999 after spotting his claims in an Indian magazine. "Hasnain told me then that he was bringing a report containing those numbers to Britain," Pearce said. "I have obtained a copy and it does not say what Hasnain said. In other words it does not mention 2035 as a date by which any Himalayan glaciers will melt," Pearce added. Meanwhile, Cogley pointed out "The reality, that the glaciers are wasting away, is bad enough. But they are not wasting away at the rate suggested by this speculative remark and the IPCC report".

"The problem is that nobody who studied this material bothered chasing the trail back to the original point when the claim first arose," he added. Professor Murari Lal, who oversaw the chapter on glaciers in the IPCC report, said he would recommend that the claim about glaciers be dropped. "If Hasnain says officially that he never asserted this, or that it is a wrong presumption, then I will recommend that the assertion about Himalayan glaciers be removed from future IPCC assessments," Lal said.

The New Scientist report was apparently forgotten until 2005 when the WWF cited it in a report called An Overview of Glaciers, Glacier Retreat, and subsequent Impacts in Nepal, India and China. The report credited Hasnain's 1999 interview with the New Scientist. This report then became a key source for the IPCC when Lal and his colleagues came to write the section on the Himalayas and suggested that the melting of the glaciers was "very likely".

The IPCC defines "very likely" as having a probability of greater than 90 per cent. Glaciologists find such figures inherently ludicrous, pointing out that most Himalayan glaciers are hundreds of feet thick and could not melt fast enough to vanish by 2035 unless there was a huge global temperature rise. — PTI 

Baghdad, January 17
An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced former senior Iraqi official Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali”, to death for his role in the 1988 massacre in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja.

Around five thousand persons were killed by poison gas in Halabja, while an estimated 100,000 Kurds were killed in the Anfal campaign against Iraq’s Kurds.

Iraq’s Supreme Criminal Court also sentenced Farhan Motalk al-Juburi, the former chief of intelligence in the northern zone, to 10 years in jail, the Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.

Former Minister of Defence Sultan Hashim Ahmed, and Saber Abdulaziz al-Dori, the former chief of military intelligence during the Halabja campaign, were given 15-year sentences.

Al-Majid, who was listed as the fifth most-wanted man in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003, was captured in August of that year. He earned the name “Chemical Ali” for his use of poison gas against the Kurdish villagers during the Anfal campaign.

The former intelligence chief and Defence Minister has been sentenced to death more than once before for crimes committed while in office. In March, he was sentenced to death for the 1999 crackdown on Shiite Iraqis. — DPA

The US is pushing Pakistan to allow Afghan agricultural products to pass through its territory to India, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said. “We hope to be able to conclude that agreement is in the very near future,” Vilsack told journalists in Washington during a teleconference.

He said the US effort to convince Pakistan to open the trade route was part of its plan to revive the once-prosperous and export-oriented farm industry of the land-locked country. Diplomatic observers here, however, described this as a major challenge for the US, given Pakistan’s reluctance to allowing India direct access to Afghanistan. At a tri-partite conference in Washington in April last year, President Asif Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai signed an agreement pledging to open new vistas of bilateral and transit trade which was supposed to allow Afghanistan two-way access to other countries in the region. The entire process was planned to complete by the end of 2009.

Later at a joint news conference along with the two presidents, US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton described the agreement as "historic" breaking barriers of last six decades. India's name was not mentioned but it was widely interpreted as relating to transit facilities for Afghan-India trade.

The agreement received fierce opposition in Pakistan and has since remained in hibernation. Pakistan apparently seeks from India concessions in other areas before allowing it access to Afghanistan and the Central Asian markets. The US Vilsack also acknowledged that opening of Indo-Afghan trade route would be a challenging task but said the US wanted to make sure it was doing all it could to promote exports for Afghanistan, particularly to India which was their main customer.