W O R L D

Nawaz Sharif threatens to boot out PPP in Punjab
Issues 72-hour ultimatum to act on their demands
Islamabad, January 4
Pakistan’s opposition leader Nawaz Sharif today gave the beleaguered government a 72-hour ultimatum to act on several demands, including rollback of a fuel price hike and probe into corruption scandals, failing which the PPP could be booted out from the Punjab government.

DNA clears Texas man who spent 30 years in prison
Dallas, January 4
Prosecutors declared a Texas man innocent of a rape and robbery that put him in prison for 30 years, more than any other DNA exoneree in Texas. DNA test results that came back barely a week after Cornelius Dupree Jr was paroled in July excluded him as the person who attacked a Dallas woman in 1979, prosecutors said yesterday.

A politician & a biz tycoon
Political career
He was a member of the PPP and had served as a minister in the caretaker cabinet of Prime Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro. He has also served as the Chairman and CEO of the First Capital and Worldcall Group. He was appointed as the Governor of Punjab on May 15, 2008

Nawaz Sharif threatens to boot out PPP in Punjab
Issues 72-hour ultimatum to act on their demands

PML-N wants... Arresting corruption and sacking corrupt government employees and ministers Immediate rollback of fuel price hike Proper regime for settling fuel, gas & power tariffs An end to gas and power outages

Islamabad, January 4
Pakistan’s opposition leader Nawaz Sharif today gave the beleaguered government a 72-hour ultimatum to act on several demands, including rollback of a fuel price hike and probe into corruption scandals, failing which the PPP could be booted out from the Punjab government.

Sharif, chief of the country’s main opposition party the PML-N, did not link the demands to support for the Pakistan People’s Party-led government at the centre, which was reduced to a minority after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement withdrew support to it recently.

However, sources said his stance was linked to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s efforts to seek support from the PML-N yesterday. “The PML-N has decided that the Prime Minister should be given three days. He should inform us in 72 hours if he will implement this agenda. We will wait for his reply in a yes or no,” Sharif told a news conference.

If the government agreed to the PML-N’s demands, it should take “formal action” to implement them within 45 days, Sharif said.

“The nation should see progress by February 20... If the Prime Minister says he cannot (accept the demands) we will part ways with the PPP in the Punjab government,” he added.

The three-day deadline came as the PPP-led government is facing its worst crisis at the centre, being reduced to a minority following the pulling out of the MQM and JUI from the ruling coalition.

Among the demands listed by PML-N were an immediate rollback of an unpopular fuel price hike announced on January 1, a proper regime for settling fuel, gas and power tariffs so people are not burdened, an end to gas and power outages, and stopping corruption and sacking government employees and ministers allegedly involved in graft.

The PML-N also demanded that the government should implement all decisions of the superior judiciary, including an order for action against those who benefited from a controversial graft amnesty.

President Asif Ali Zardari was among the over 8,000 people who benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance and the government has so far refused to act against him. — PTI

DNA clears Texas man who spent 30 years in prison

Dallas, January 4
Prosecutors declared a Texas man innocent of a rape and robbery that put him in prison for 30 years, more than any other DNA exoneree in Texas. DNA test results that came back barely a week after Cornelius Dupree Jr was paroled in July excluded him as the person who attacked a Dallas woman in 1979, prosecutors said yesterday. Dupree was just 20 when he was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980.

Now 51, he has spent more time wrongly imprisoned than any DNA exoneree in Texas, which has freed 41 wrongly convicted inmates through DNA since 2001, more than any other state.

“Our Conviction Integrity Unit thoroughly reinvestigated this case, tested the biological evidence and based on the results, concluded Cornelius Dupree did not commit this crime,” Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said.

Dupree is expected to have his aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon conviction overturned today at an exoneration hearing in a Dallas court.

There have been 21 DNA exonerations in Dallas since 2001, more than any other county in the nation. Only two states, Illinois and New York, have freed more of the wrongly convicted through DNA evidence than Dallas.

Dallas’ record of DNA exonerations is unmatched nationally because the county crime lab maintains biological evidence even decades after a conviction, leaving samples available to test. — AP

A politician & a biz tycoon

BRIEFLY

Clad in traditional costumes, delegates from Myanmar's national races attend the 63rd anniversary of Independence Day in Naypyitaw on Tuesday. — AP/PTI

Record numbers convert to Islam in UK
London: The number of Britons converting to Islam has nearly doubled in the past decade, despite the fact that the UK has witnessed a rise in Islamophobia over the same period, according to a comprehensive study by inter-faith think tank Faith matters. Previous estimates have placed the number of Muslim converts in the UK at between 14,000 and 25,000, but Faith Matters's study suggests that the real figure could be as high as 100,000, with as many as 5,000 new conversions each year. — PTI