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Zardari to face six graft cases when he quits office next month
Pak military ratcheting up tension with India: US expert
India, Pakistan shouldn't waste resources on wars: Sharif |
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Anna Hazare, Vidya Balan lead biggest India Day parade in US
Qaida targeting European rail network
Bugti
murder case
Militants kill 25 policemen in Egypt ambush
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Zardari to face six graft cases when he quits office next month
Islamabad, August 19 The end of immunity after Zardari leaves office on September 8 will trigger the reopening of six corruption cases in the second week of September, said the government official, who did not want to be named. "Now, these cases will be reopened and heard at accountability court No 1 in Islamabad," the official, privy to developments about these cases, said. The accountability courts hear cases registered by the National Accountability Bureau, the country’s anti-corruption agency. The cases against Zardari, including the ARY Gold, Cotecna, SGS, Polo Ground, Ursus Tractor and Assets cases. The charges date back to his slain wife Benazir Bhutto’s two stints as Prime Minister. They were being heard in three anti-corruption courts in Rawalpindi but were put off indefinitely when Zardari was elected President in 2008. However, the official admitted that the conviction of Zardari will be difficult as the main accused — Benazir Bhutto and her mother Begum Nusrat Bhutto — are dead and their names have been removed from the list of accused. The official said another 15 persons accused along with Zardari have already been acquitted during the past five years. Zardari will have to face trial in order to prove his innocence and get a clean chit from the courts, he said. The cases may cause political unrest as opposition parties, including Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party, are likely to use them to claim they are being victimised by the PML-N government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who instituted these cases during his earlier tenure in the late 1990s. The previous PPP-led government was last year forced by the Supreme Court to write to Swiss authorities to reopen a charge of alleged money laundering against Zardari. However, the Swiss government officially informed Pakistan earlier this year that it could not revive the case as the matter was time-barred. — PTI
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Pak military ratcheting up tension with India: US expert
Washington, August 19 "It is possible the Pakistani military establishment is deliberately ratcheting up the tension to demonstrate to the Sharif government that it still calls the shots regarding India-Pakistan relations," Lisa Curtis of The Heritage Foundation said. The Pakistan army may be trying to warn Sharif off from pursuing any meaningful peace initiatives like he did when he previously served as Prime Minister in the late 1990s, she added. "Back-channel negotiations with India over the status of Kashmir had made significant progress under Sharif’s previous tenure in 1999 until the Pakistani military took over Indian military positions in the heights of
Kargil, precipitating a brief Indo-Pakistani border war," she said. Curtis said the US should take the recent border flare-ups seriously and do what it can to reduce the military tensions that risk developing into broader conflict. "Washington should resist any calls for mediation, however," she said and praised the State Department dismissal of the idea of Washington appointing a special envoy to deal with Indo-Pakistani tensions. "The spectre of a visible, high-profile US role in the dispute over Kashmir would only risk exacerbating tensions by fuelling unrealistic expectations in Pakistan and its support for Kashmiri militants," she said. — PTI |
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India, Pakistan shouldn't waste resources on wars: Sharif
Islamabad, August 19 Kashmir is a “national issue and the jugular vein of Pakistan” and its resolution is as dear to him as other Pakistanis, Sharif said in his first address to the nation since assuming office in June. Sharif cautioned that Pakistan cannot achieve any target without strengthening its economy. “Alongside the Kashmir issue‚ we will have to pay attention to strengthening our economy‚ resolve our internal and external problems and tackle the power crisis and terrorism,” he said. Referring to his desire to forge good relations with India, Sharif said both countries should realise that “instead of wasting their energies and resources on wars‚ they should wage war against poverty‚ ignorance and disease”. Pakistan and India will have to join their heads together to address common issues like poverty and ignorance, he said. “History bears testimony to the fact that progress and development of a nation is deeply linked to cordial relations with neighbours. It is because of this that we want good relations with all neighbours, including India,” he said. — PTI |
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Anna Hazare, Vidya Balan lead biggest India Day parade in US
New York, August 19 Colourful floats, marching bands and convertibles made their way down Madison Avenue in Manhattan with revellers cheering Hazare and Balan. “Anna Hazare zindabad” “corruption down down” rent the air of Manhattan as the veteran Gandhian rode past over two lakh people, most of them Indian-Americans, in the annual India Day Parade organised by Federation of Indian Associations (FIA). The 76-year-old Hazare was cheered loudly at every intersection by large number of people with the fragile khadi-clad Gandhian waving from his vehicle that had to be stopped at several intersections, with people rushing to shake hands with him. The Indian-Americans waved the Tricolour at Hazare and shouted that they stood by him in his crusade against corruption. Hundreds of parade goers wore orange, green and white dress with a Gandhi cap “I am for Anna”to demonstrate their support to Hazare, whose anti-corruption crusade has inspired thousands at home and abroad. Anna was an instant hit among Americans too who had come in large numbers to see the man who took the government head on single handedly following the teachings of ahimsa propounded by his mentor Mahatma Gandhi. — PTI |
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Qaida targeting European rail network
Berlin, August 19 Germany said its threat level had not changed and Austria said no additional security measures had been taken, a Czech rail official said authorities there had implemented new, unspecified security measures. Bild said the information came from the National Security Agency, which had listened in to a conference call involving top Al-Qaida operatives. The attacks on Europe's rail network were a "central topic" of this call, Bild said. German authorities had responded to the threat with discreet measures such as deploying plain-clothed police officers at key stations. — AFP |
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Bugti
murder case Afzal Khan in Islamabad The Anti-Terrorism Court, Quetta, on Monday issued fresh arrest warrants of former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor Balochistan Owais Ghani, and former DCO Dera Bugti Abdul Samad Lasi in the Akbar Bugti murder case. ATC judge Ismail Baloch also ordered the authorities to produce former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, the main accused in the case, before the court in the next hearing on September 10.During the hearing, the judge expressed displeasure at the team investigating Bugti’s murder case over their failure to produce Musharraf for the hearing. The court also directed the authorities to produce the accused men in the next hearing and adjourned the hearing till September 10.
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Militants kill 25 policemen in Egypt ambush
Cairo, August 19 The brazen attack came hours after the army-back interim government said 36 Muslim Brotherhood members died during a botched prison breakout near Cairo, but the Islamist party offered a different version, saying its was a "cold-blooded" murder by the security forces. The two incidents brought new challenges for the government as it struggles to deal with a tense standoff with the Brotherhood that has left over 850 persons dead since the security forces stormed two camps of supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi on August 14. Supporters of the Brotherhood have been staging demonstrations across the nation demanding reinstatement of Morsi. In response to the attack, Egypt closed the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. The policemen were in two buses which came under attack from men armed with rocket-propelled grenades in the Sinai Peninsula. At least three other policemen were injured in the attack, a report said. — PTI
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Pistorius indicted on murder charge
Pretoria, August 19 A Pretoria court set March 3 as the trial date for Pistorius, who has said he shot Reeva Steenkamp by mistake, believing she was an intruder in his home. Prosecutors, who allege he killed her after an argument, submitted a list of more than 100 witnesses for a trial that will be followed around the world. Pistorius (26) appeared in the court for the indictment, and was seen crying and holding hands with his siblings before proceedings started. The indictment papers served on Pistorius by the state mean the case will be sent to the High Court for hearing. — PTI
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Sharif invites extremists for talks 108 killed in rain, floods in Pakistan China floods death toll reaches 105 Britain detains partner of NSA-leak reporter Prince George ‘a rascal’, says William
Man jailed for robbing Indian-origin woman
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Islamabad, August 19
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