In a gathering that included senior Pakistani and Indian military officials, the US military chief urged all senior officers in attendance to avoid the kind of public disputes that have hurt regional relations in the past.

“I think it’s really important that we work as hard as we can with each other, and that any kind of public accusation or public finger pointing does not serve any of us well,” said Admiral Mike Mullen in Washington. “That doesn’t mean we won’t have disagreements. But I hope that we can do that privately, and not publicly.”

Although the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff did not mention any particular dispute or country, it seemed an obvious reference to an altercation between India and Pakistan earlier this month over a statement by Indian Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor in which he had warned that ‘a limited war under a nuclear overhang is still very much a reality at least in the Indian sub-continent’ and said that India was capable of defeating both Pakistan and China.

Pakistan termed the Indian Army chief’s remarks as reflection of an offensive nuclear doctrine while US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson said the statement was ‘silly’.

Addressing the 3rd annual US Central Command chiefs of defence conference in Washington, Admiral Mullen also urged the armed forces of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to work together more closely because the terrorist groups were already cooperating with each other in their efforts to hurt those countries.

“I would almost call it the harmonisation of the terrorists, the collaboration of the terrorists,” he said. “These groups that didn’t work with each other at all now are more and more collaborative. And that requires us to be much more harmonious.”

Admiral Mullen also called for more exchanges among the militaries represented at the meeting. He said the United States and Pakistan were working together more closely to fight terrorist groups whose operations span the Pak-Afghan border.

Admiral Mullen said the US and Pakistani militaries were also working to avoid misunderstanding about troop movements and activities in the border zone, and to ensure that their operations complement each other, rather than just push the terrorists back and forth across the Afghan border.

“We are now reviewing campaign plans together, so we can see what those plans are and how we can best make them work together,” he said. 

The Lawyers' National Coordination Committee on Wednesday withdrew its call for a country-wide strike scheduled for January 28, reversing what had turned out to be a divisive move widely criticised in the country.

SC Bar Association President Qazi Anwar on January 24, in a committee meeting, which was held at the Lahore High Court Bar, had announced a countrywide strike, to protest against government’s reluctance to implement the verdict of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) annulling the legislation as ab initio unconstitutional.

Several senior leaders of the lawyers’ movement, including Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Justice Tariq Mahmood and Rashid Rizvi termed the strike call as premature. The lawyers’ wing of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the People’s Lawyers Forum termed it a political action designed to destabilise the present democratic government.

Anwar said he decided to defer the strike after consulting the top lawyers, but at the same time he made it clear, that the strike has only been deferred, not cancelled.

He said he has also responded to a request by senior government leaders, who have assured that the court verdict would be implemented in letter and spirit. The government simply has to issue a notification that all cases pardoned under the NRO stood revived as they existed on October 5, 2007, when the NRO was promulgated, he said.

“The future course of action will be decided in the lawyers’ National Coordination Committee meeting, scheduled for February 14 in Rawalpindi,” Anwar added.

Paris, January 27
A French parliament report called for a ban on the full Islamic veil yesterday, saying Muslim women who wear the burqa were challenging French values in an unacceptable manner. After six months of hearings, a panel of 32 lawmakers recommended a ban on the face-covering veil in all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices, the broadest move yet to restrict Muslim dress in France.

"The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable," the report said. "We must condemn this excess." The commission called on parliament to adopt a resolution stating that the all-encompassing veil was "contrary to the values of the republic" and proclaiming that "all of France is saying 'no' to the full veil." The National Assembly resolution would pave the way to a legislation making it illegal for anyone to appear with their face covered at state-run institutions and in public transport, for reasons of security.

Women who turn up at government offices wearing the full veil would be denied services such as a work visa, residency papers or French citizenship, the report said. — AFP

BRIEFLY

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