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Executive vs Judiciary again?
India vows support to rebuild Haiti
Lawyer held for ‘killing’ maid
Rajapaksa suffers setback
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Indians account for max overseas student deaths
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Executive vs Judiciary again?
President Asif Ali Zardari has turned down a recommendation by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to elevate Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, senior judge of the Lahore High Court, to the Supreme Court to fill the seat, which has fallen vacant after the retirement of Justice Khalilur Rahman Ramday.
“Keeping in view the legal-constitutional position, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has advised President Asif Ali Zardari to request Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to reconsider his recommendation of December 19, 2009, for making recommendation afresh for elevation of the senior-most judge of the Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court,” an official announcement issued here by the law ministry said. It said Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif was the most senior judge and, therefore, it was his right to be elevated to the Supreme Court. Some analysts saw the announcement as a foretaste of a new wave of confrontation between the executive pitted against the judiciary. The President earlier ignored Iftikhar’s recommendation to reappoint Justice Khalil Ramday as ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court after his retirement last week. The move to stall Justice Saqib’s elevation to the SC by retaining present Chief Justice Lahore High Court Justice Khawaja Sharif is part of an intense under-current tussle for appointment of new judges in the court. Khawaja Sharif has already named 18 new judges but Punjab governor Salman Taseer is sitting over his recommendation. If Sharif is elevated to the Supreme Court all these recommendations would become infructuous and Justice Saqib would have the authority to suggest new names. After considering the Chief Justice’s recommendation, the announcement said, the Prime Minister had advised the President that in view of the legal position and guidelines laid down in the Al Jihad Trust case (PLD 1996 SC 324), primacy should always be given to seniority in elevation of a high court judge to the Supreme Court unless found to be unsuitable by the CJP for such elevation. “Thus the President, while accepting the advice of the Prime Minister, has also requested the Chief Justice to reconsider his earlier recommendation so that senior-most judge in the LHC (Justice Khawaja Sharif) is appointed as judge of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice has been informed accordingly,” it said. The Supreme Court Bar Association in a meeting in Lahore Sunday denounced the confrontationist stance of the President and decided to observe January 28 as protest day if he fails to accept the recommendations of the Chief Justice. But some jurists have stressed the need for laying down an unambiguous principle in the wake of three judgments regarding elevation of judges to the Supreme Court. According to Justice Tariq Mehmood, a prominent constitutional expert, if the name of Justice Saqib Nisar is sent by the chief justice for the second time in his fresh recommendation despite the reasons given by the President, the matter will then come before a bench of the Supreme Court for an authoritative decision. He, however, was of the view that if rules of principle were to be followed in letter and spirit, seniority principle should be given primacy.
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India vows support to rebuild Haiti
United Nations, January 24 "We will do whatever is in our power to partner the people of Haiti in their journey to rebuild their lives and their nations," said Manjeev Singh Puri, India's deputy envoy to the UN. Notably, India had already announced $ 5 million assistance for the disaster hit nation. “The government and people of India are shocked and deeply grieved by the loss of human life and damage that has resulted from the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti,” said Puri. "India is familiar with the consequences of natural disasters and therefore, fully understands the trauma and the suffering that the Haitians are living through," he said. The resolution called for action on immediate relief operations as well as medium and long term developmental goals. The senior Indian official also expressed sorrow at the loss of lives suffered by the Haitians and the UN staff. Thanking the co-sponsors of the resolution, Haitian envoy to the UN Leo Merores expressed his government's appreciation for the "wave of solidarity and extreme compassion" on part of the international community. Noting that the UN had suffered its single biggest loss in history, UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon said 70 UN staffers working in Haiti have been killed and 146 were still missing.The Secretary-General said the UN had received a good response to the call for additional troops that were to be sent to Haiti in the coming days and that $ 334 million out of the $ 575 million international flash appeal, launched on Friday, had been pledged by member-states. —
PTI
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Lawyer held for ‘killing’ maid
The police today arrested a senior advocate and his five family members in Lahore for allegedly torturing his 12-year-old maid to death.
The victim, Shazia, was allegedly left in hospital by advocate Naeem Chaudhry in a precarious condition on Friday, where she died yesterday.
The police failed to register a case and arrange a compulsory autopsy that provoked public outrage. Scores of people protested outside the Punjab Assembly, demanding action against the alleged killers of Shazia, who was said to have been tortured by her employer Naeem Chaudhry, a former president of the Lahore Bar Association. Activists of civil society organisations, Tehrik-i-Insaaf women’s wing, MQM and representatives of NGOs working against child abuse joined the protest. President Asif Zardari also denounced the murder and sent a cheque of half a million rupees to the victim’s parents. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who returned from abroad yesterday, suspended the police station in charge and ordered an immediate arrest of the accused. Human rights’ activist Asma Jahangir and Judicial Activism Panel chairman Mohammad Azhar condemned the incident and called for a fair investigation by the police. Chaudhry Naeem, his son Yasir, wife, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law were arrested today. A case was also registered against Shazia’s relative Amanat Masih on charge of providing child servants to employers.
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Rajapaksa suffers setback
Colombo, January 24 Hours after the campaigning ended for the crucial January 26 polls in the post-LTTE era, Rajapaksa suffered a defection today when
the matriarch of his coalition and ex-President Chandrika Kumaratunga supported former army chief General Fonseka during a meeting at Horagolla, media reports said. “The prevailing violence and the breakdown in law and order poses a serious challenge to democracy, democratic institutions and values, as well as all the basic freedoms we cherish and have protected with great sacrifice over the centuries,” 64-year-old Kumaratunga said in a statement. “I know of no better system of government than that founded and formed on democracy and freedom,” she said. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies today deployed over 68,000 policemen and warned against public gatherings near polling centres. There are over 14 million voters in Sri Lanka. —
PTI
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Indians account for max overseas student deaths Indian students are not only facing the brunt of assaults, attacks, arson and even a murder in Australia.Official statistics reveal that Indians also account for the highest number of international students to have died in Australia between July 2004 and June 2009. Of the 149 international students who have died in these five years, 34 were Indians, accounting for 21.4 per cent or one-fifth of the overseas students killed for reasons ranging from drowning, house fires, road accidents and suicides. Although neither city nor state-wise details were made available, it is believed that most of these deaths have occurred in Victoria, which has the largest number of Indian students in Australia. However, the growth of the Indian student population has been exponential - from just 2,700 in July 2002 to a staggering 91,400 by June 2009. The total number of Indian students currently in Australia is estimated to be over 1.1 lakh, with over 50,000 studying in various universities and vocational colleges in and around Melbourne alone. Indians form the second highest number of international students after China in this country. The education industry, pegged at A$15-17 billion, is the third largest source of exports for this country after coal and iron. From recording nil deaths in 2003, Indians accounted for the single largest number of deaths of international students every year since 2004. Chinese students ranked a distant second. The 22 Chinese students killed in this five-year period accounted for 14.6 per cent of overseas student deaths. Meanwhile, a recently conducted nation-wide poll, has found that more than half of Australians consider the nation to be racist. The Galaxy poll, conducted for News Ltd, was held during Prince William’s visit to the country last week. No further details were available of the poll that was posted by The Age newspaper this morning.
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Hubby makes women chubby Last US Marines leave Iraq 15 whales die on NZ beach 
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Iranian
firefighters work on a plane after it crash-landed at Mashhad
airport in northeastern Iran on Sunday. The Tupolev plane
carrying 157 passengers and 13 crew members crash-landed
injuring at least 46 persons. — AP/PTI 
