Benazir Bhutto determined to return to Pakistan

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said that she is determined to return to Islamabad between September and December, in spite of the probability of her being arrested by the Musharraf regime."I must return home, even if they arrest me. I am ready for detention," she said in an interview with the BBC.

Expressing disappointment over President Musharraf's recent statement in which he had ruled out any possibility of her return and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, she said, "I am very much disappointed by his statement because I believe that the extremists are in a bid to establish a parallel government in Pakistan stretching from Tank to Islamabad.

Musharraf should welcome me and Nawaz Sharif in the country in the present situation." Though determined to face the risk of arrest, Benazir said that the military regime could levy any charge against her.She accepted that she is in contact with Musharraf, but refuted reports of any deal being worked out between her party Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the government. "There have been contacts, but deal is something else. There hasn't been any agreement under which we could accept him, "she said.She said that her party wants to see the army returning back to barracks.

Thirteen killed in raid near troubled Pakistan town

Suspected Islamist militants attacked the house of a senior government official in a village in north-western Pakistan and killed 13 people, police said on Thursday.
The attackers firing rocket-propelled grenades and rifles forced their way into the fortress-like home of Pir Aurangzeb in a village near the troubled town of Tank late on Wednesday.
"We could hear the rattle of guns and explosions in our office," said village police chief Sanaullah Khan Marwat. "It was a big attack and a large number of militants were involved."
Aurangzeb, a senior official with the government-run power utility, was killed in the attack along with five of his relatives and seven guests.
One of Aurangzeb's brothers is an Islamic cleric while another is a political agent, the top government official in a tribal region near the Afghan border.
Police were investigating whether they were the target of the attack. Neither brother was in the house at the time.
Violence has increased in parts of north-western Pakistan over the past year. Some analysts see this as evidence of "Talibanisation", the spread of militant influence from remote tribal regions on the Afghan border to more developed, populous areas.
Militants angered by Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism have killed many government officials in recent years in the tribal regions.
Tank, where Islamist militants are active, is the gateway to the South Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border, a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Militants killed two paramilitary soldiers in a suicide bombing and another in an ambush near Tank on Monday.
Courtesy: scotsman

JSQM threatens protests on 30th

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Chairman Bashir Qureshi on Friday announced that province-wide protest rallies and demonstrations would be organised on May 30 to press the authorities to release “missing” nationalist activists, including Dr Safdar Sarki. Addressing a news conference here, the JSQM chief regretted that despite the “long march” from Sukkur to Karachi, the government paid no heed to the issue. He said if the government did not take notice of even the May 30 protests, then the JSQM would block the National Highway at Hatri for 24 hours, halting traffic to and from the Punjab.

GM Syed’s death anniversary observed in Sann, Dadu

The 12th death anniversary of Jeay Sindh Tahreek's founder late Ghulam Murtaza Shah (GM Syed) was observed here on Wednesday in his native town Sann with solemnity. The family members of GM Syed led by Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Zain Shah, and JSQM leader Bashir Qureshi visited the Mazar, while the entire town of Sann was decorated with flags, buntings and portraits of GM Syed. Since early morning caravans of Jeay Sindh Tahreek's activists started to arrive in Sann. As many as 300 caravans of Jeay Sindh workers also reached Sann after a long march from every nook and corner of Sindh.They showered the Mazar with flowers and laid many wreaths. Two separate public meetings were held in Sann by Bashir Khan Qureshi of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and Abdul Wahid Aresar.

Pakistan govt accepts demands by radical mosque

The government of Pakistan has agreed to accept all demands put forward by the management of the radical Islamabad mosque, Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), including the enforcement of Sharia or Islamic law in the country, according to the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
His comments came after talks on Tuesday night when Chaudhry Shujaat paid a surprise visit to Lal Masjid and met its clerics Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi. He said details would be given in the parliament on Wednesday.The PML chief assured the mosque administration and the female students of its affiliated madrassa or Muslim seminar, Jamia Hasfa, that the government was ready to accept all their demands, including the enforcement of Sharia. Talking to journalists after the meeting, Chaudhry Shujaat said all contentious issues between the government and Lal Masjid clerics had been settled.Responding to a question about the situation inside the mosque, the Pakistan Muslim League president denied the presence of activists of banned organisations and illegal arms in the mosque.
Pakistani president Gen Musharraf had said many times in the recent past that the mosque administration had provided shelter to suicide bombers.Two security officials, who were taken hostage by the students of Jamia Hasfa last month, had also told the media that they had seen a bulk of arms and ammunitions in the mosque.About the enforcement of Sharia law, the PML chief said: “No Muslim rejects the enforcement of the Islamic system in the country.”The ruling party chief also met two sisters who had taken refuge in Lal Masjid after being sexually abused by Azhar Iqbal, an influential man in Jehlum. He assured the victims that they would be provided justice and that the accused would be punished.
He said the district police office of Jhelum would visit Lal Masjid on Wednesday and would register a case against the accused, Azhar Iqbal.Later, Chaudhry Shujaat took a tour of the Jamia Hafsa and said that female students were studying in a good atmosphere.The first round of talks between the government of the clerics of the Lal Masjid was suspended after a military helicopter had continued hovering over the mosque for 20 minutes last week.The mosque administration condemned what it called the aerial surveillance of the mosque and said that some gases had also been sprayed on the mosque. The clerics of the Lal Masjid have increasingly been challenging the government in recent months.
They had announced that a Taliban-style Islamic or Sharia court would be set up to curb "vulgar" activities and gave the government a month to close video shops and brothels.The madrassa students had also occupied a children's library in Islamabad in protest against the demolition of several unauthorised mosques. They kidnapped three women and a child for allegedly running a brothel and recently threatened the owners of shop selling videos and CDs carrying material which they say is obscene and vulgar. This Taliban-style activity has caused outrage among human rights groups in Pakistan. Thousands of activists have staged protests calling for action to be taken against the madrassas, which they say are harassing ordinary people in the name of Islam.
Courtesy: ADNKI

Pakistan police tackle rival Musharraf rallies

Pakistan police separated supporters and opponents of President General Pervez Musharraf as the two sides held rival rallies in the capital yesterday during a hearing on a top judge's contentious suspension.
Lawyers and opposition activists have organized several protests since Musharraf removed Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on March 9, triggering a political crisis that is testing the president's hold on power.
The government insists it suspended Chaudhry only after receiving credible complaints that he had abused his office -- for example, by using his position to seek a plum police job for his son.
However, critics accuse the government of trying to oust an independent-minded judge ahead of possible legal challenges to Musharraf's continued rule.
Chaudhry has denied the charges and vowed to fight for his job.
Hundreds of supporters of the ruling PML-Q party joined the fray for the first time yesterday, marching from their party headquarters toward a court in the center of the government district in the capital, Islamabad.
Courtesy: TT

GM Syed death anniversary in Sann dist. Dadu

The 12th death anniversary of G M Syed, the founder of Jeay Sindh Movement, is to be observed Wednesday amid concerns of factional clashes.
Independent observers of Sindh’s politics have noted that the clashes are feared because of differences between Abdul Wahid Aresar and Bashir Qureshi, the chiefs of two factions of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM). Both these factions have announced separate programmes to mark the anniversary. However, some of the other factions have decided not to attend either one of these programmes.

“Supporters will reach the grave of GM Syed at noon, followed by a public meeting at the graveyard’s back,” said Aresar, who enjoys the support of organising committee members Sirai Qurban Khuhawar, Shafi Karnani and Riaz Chandio.

Aresar has also invited Zain Shah, a grandson of G M Syed, to the public meeting in addition to those who have left the party such as Dr Mir Alam Marri, Hussain Bakhsh Thebo. Furthermore, renowned writers Agha Salim, Amar Jalil, Taj Joyo, Khaki Joyo, Wali Ram Walabh, Ghulam Nabi Mughal, Zaib Nizamani, Najma Shaikh, Gulshan Leghari have also been invited. On the contrary, Qureshi has said that his faction will hold a public meeting on the front end of the graveyard.

He said that Jalal Shah, another grandson of G M Syed and former deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, had been invited to his gathering. JSQM chairman, Abdul Khaliq Junejo, said that his faction had not chalked out any programme for the anniversary. In addition, Sindh Taraqi Passand Party’s vice chairman, Ali Hassan Chandio, mentioned that his party does not believe in attending such programmes. G. M. Syed was an active member of the Pakistan Movement. The factions today claim they still believe in the Syed’s ideology. How far this is true, remains to be seen.

Courtesy: DT

PPP-government deal embarrassment to deniers: Sindh CM

Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim on Tuesday claimed that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairwoman and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had accepted Gen Pervez Musharraf as president in uniform, which was a serious blow to those who had been denying the party would do a deal with the government, Geo television reported.
Talking to reporters, Mr Rahim said the Pakistan Muslim League was growing stronger day by day as other political parties were joining it. He said Ms Bhutto should come to Pakistan and vote for Gen Musharraf before talking about inking a deal.

Those accepting Gen Musharraf as their leader were welcome to the ruling camp, he said. To a question about corruption cases against Ms Bhutto, he said this matter was for the courts to decide.

Courtesy: DT

Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice challenges proceedings

Chief Justice of Pakistan, suspended by President Pervez Musharraf last month on charges of misuse of authority, on Wednesday challenged proceedings against him by a panel of judges.
President Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9 and sent a reference against him to the five-member panel of judges.
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, defence lawyer for the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said the Chief Justice has challenged in the Supreme Court the composition, proceedings and jurisdiction of the pane, known as the Supreme Judicial Council.
Ahsan said Mr Chuadhry, in his petition, asked the Supreme Court to stop proceedings by the SJC as this body has no power to hear the case against the Chief Justice.
President of Pakistan has been made as respondent in the petition.
Munir A Malik, one of the defence lawyers told reporters that the petitioner has called for hearing of the case by a full court of the Supreme Court instead of Supreme Judicial Council.
He said the defence lawyers have also requested that the case be heard by April 20th.
Meanwhile the panel of judges on Wednesday refused a plea from the defence lawyers of the suspended Chief Justice to announce judgment about their objections at three members of the panel hearing presidential reference against Justice Iftikhar Muhamamd Chauhry.
The defence lawyers say that three judges are bias towards Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and that they be removed from the five-member panel The panel, headed by Acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas, ruled that at present the plea cannot be accepted and that all issues should be brought before the panel.
Courtesy: IRNA

Former Sindh CM & PPP leader Abdullah Shah dead

Former Sindh chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah died here on Saturday at a local private hospital at the age of 76, after suffering from cancer. Shah had recently returned to Pakistan after 10 years in exile and had secured bail in several NAB references. His son, MPA Murad Ali Shah, said that his father loved his motherland and thus wanted to buried here. Shah’s funeral prayers will be offered at his ancestral village of Bajara Sehwan, Dadu at 6:00 a.m. Sunday. He leaves behind a wife, two sons and five daughters.Syed Abdullah Shah served as the chief minister of Sindh, speaker and deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, provincial food and agriculture minister and as a senator. He born in 1931 in Bajara Sehwan in Dadu where he received his early education. After reading law at SM Law College he started practicing. He joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in 1970 and become a minister in the cabinet of Mumtaz Bhutto and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi in the party’s first government. He also played an active role in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) against the dictatorship of Gen Ziaul Haq. He was put behind bars.Shah was an arch political rival of the late GM Syed and Koral Shah in Sehwan from where he contested the elections from the PPP platform. He was a close relative of the Gaddi Nasheen of Lal Shahbaz Qalander. When PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto became prime minister in 1988, Shah became the speaker of the Sindh Assembly and later, in 1993, he held the post of CM. It was during his tenure as CM that his own brother, Syed Ehsan Ali Shah, was murdered in Karachi, and Benazir’s brother Murtaza Bhutto was also killed in his tenure. After this incident, Shah tendered his resignation but Bhutto did not accept it. While he was CM, Shah openly demanded that the areas of Jesalmir and Junagardh (now in India), which were originally a part of Sindh, should be returned to the province. After the killing of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and the dissolution of the PPP government, Shah went into exile in Canada and the United States.
Courtesy: DT

Foreigners leaving Pakistan's North Waziristan region

Foreign fighters have started to leave North Waziristan over fears that tribesmen may launch a new operation to evict them, a purported militant spokesman said Sunday.
Some 75 families of foreigners have headed to their respective countries in a month, the spokesman who introduced himself as Gohar Ayub said from North Waziristan over phone.
Ayub said he is speaking on behalf of local Taliban central spokesmen Abdullah Farhad and Tariq Jamil.
President Pervez Musharraf told army generals from 22 countries on Friday that tribesmen had killed some 300 foreigners in South Waziristan and that he wants similar action in North Waziristan.
They decided to leave North Waziristan after the tribal Lashkar launched operation against Uzbeks in South Waziristan.
The foreigners were saying they do not want problems for their women and children, the Taliban spokesman said.
He said that around 50 families, including Chechens, Turkistani, Tajiks and five Arab families, have left for their countries after the action in South Waziristan.
Ayub, speaking in Pashto, said that most of the families have headed for their countries through Afghanistan.
He said the Arabs were scheduled to proceed to Iraq.
It was difficult to verify the claim independently.
He said it may be possible that they come to Afghanistan for Jihad from their respective countries.
However, he said it depends on them either they come to Afghanistan or live in their countries.
When asked if the foreigners were leaving the area on the advice of tribal elders or voluntarily, he said they have themselves taken the decision because the tribal people had started to fight against foreigners in South Waziristan.
He said the foreigners told their local supporters that they would chalk out future strategy after leaving their women and children in their respective countries.
When asked whether the local Taliban would honor the September 5, 2006 peace agreement with the government, the Taliban spokesman said they are strictly following the agreement and if the government doesn't violate it, the local Taliban would never violate it.
He said no one enters Afghanistan from North Waziristan and fighters may be coming to fighting areas from other parts of Afghanistan.
Courtesy: IRNA

JSQM names put on most-wanted list for first time

For the first time, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) has included the names of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) workers in its Red Book of most-wanted criminals in Pakistan.The latest edition of the Red Book, a confidential document, was printed on Friday. This time, the total number of names in the book is 42, including two JSQM members Shafi Mohammad alias Commando alias Ghulam Hussain Chandio and Khalil Ahmed Khaskheli. Their names were included after several bomb blasts in the interior of Sindh, targeting railway tracks and sensitive government installations.They join on the list the Al Qaeda’s Mohammad Zafar alias Qari Zafar alias Abu Kahafa, Umar Uzbik and Saud Memon. The list has names of men who are suspects in the attacks on the president, prime minister, corps commander and those who are accused of sectarian killings. Twenty-nine men of Sunni sects are on the list, in addition to eleven Shias linked to Sipah-e-Mohammad. The Sunni sectarian groups include Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (14 names), Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalmi (2), Harkatul Mujahideen (1), Amjad Farooqui group (2), Jindullah (6). Twenty-one names on the list have head money totaling Rs 160 million.This is the third edition of the Red Book. The first edition (2003) had a total of 90 most-wanted terrorists/criminals out of which 52 were from Sunni sects and 38 from Shia groups. The second edition in 2004 had a total of 107 names out of which 61 were from Sunni groups and 46 from Shia groups. From 2001 onwards, the CID Sindh police have focused on sectarian killings and crimes and bomb blasts. According to their data, from 2002 to 2006, there have been 176 deaths and more than 300 people have been injured in sectarian-related violence. In 2002, twenty-nine people died (16 Shia, 13 Sunni), the next year 37 Shias and 20 Sunnis. In 2004, a total of 50 people were killed out of which 47 were Shias. In 2005, nine people were killed out of which seven were Sunnis. Last year, 51 people were killed (49 Sunnis and 2 Shias). The Nishtar Park bomb blast is counted as a sectarian incident by the CID.The CID claims that from 2001 to 2007 they have arrested 203 high-profile criminals, including 80 of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, 10 of the Sipah-e-Sahaba, 18 of the Sipah-e-Mohammad, 35 of the Harkatul Mujahideen al Aalmi and four from the Harkatul Mujahideen. From 2002 to 2006 there have been 120 bomb blasts in Sindh alone. The CID solved 52 cases and 68 are still a mystery.
Courtesy: DT

‘Paigham-e-Sindh’ JSQM rally reaches city in 26 days

The participants of Paigham-e-Sindh march - organized by Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Sindh National Party and some other local nationalist parties - reached at Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday and held a demonstration that was addressed by JSQM leader Bashir Khan Qureshi and others.The Paigham-e-Sindh march that started from Sukkur on March 18 reached Karachi in 26 days after staying in many cities where the participants held demos and the leaders addressed public gatherings to highlight issues confronting Sindh and urging the people to follow the ideology of late nationalist leader G M Syed.
JSQM and other nationalist parties’ workers were carrying the flags of their respective parties as well as portraits of G M Syed and Bashir Khan Qureshi while raising party slogans.Addressing the march participants at KPC, JSQM leader Bashir Khan Qureshi said that the several hundred kilometers-long march was aimed at highlighting Sindh’s issues and creating awareness among masses as well as apprising the establishment of the consequences of ignoring the plight of Sindhi people.

He said late G M Syed had propounded a theory of religious tolerance, world peace and economic prosperity for all the oppressed nations. “Our caravan was started with a pledge to secure rights of Sindh province that had been usurped over the years by Punjab, which claims to be the big brother of smaller provinces,” he added.Qureshi felt that other nationalist parties’ leaders should also have participated in the caravan. He, however, said that Sindh’s nationalism revolves around the philosophy of late G M Syed because the aim of nationalist politics revolves around Sindh’s liberation.He maintained that the caravan was also a manifestation of the fact that the people were struggling against the disappearance of political activists in Balochistan and Sindh and they did not believe in what the government had been telling them about the detained or missing people.On the occasion, he bitterly criticized the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), saying that Karachi was an integral part of Sindh and the people speaking languages other than Sindhi could not deprive the old citizens of the metropolis from their rights.“CDGK should immediately stop conspiracies to expel Sindhis from Karachi by demolishing their villages and Katchi Abadis,” he warned and urged Sindhis to forge unity for attaining their democratic and basic human rights.Bashir Khaskheli, Illahi Bux Bulq and others also addressed the demo participants.
Courtesy: TN

Defiant Pakistan cleric says mosque has guns

A fundamentalist mosque behind a morality campaign in the Pakistani capital has guns on the premises and will defend itself if the government attempts a crackdown, a top cleric said yesterday.The Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad has caused the government headaches with its Taliban-style vice patrols and by issuing a “fatwa” against a female minister for being pictured hugging a paragliding instructor.
“If it comes to a do-and-die situation we will use our right to self defence,” Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque’s deputy leader, said by telephone.“Whatever arms we have are with licences obtained in the past through normal official procedures,” he said when asked to comment on what appeared to be assault rifles carried by young devotees standing guard on the mosque’s walls.The bearded mullah refused to respond to comments by intelligence sources that the students of two Islamic schools which are attached to the mosque had stored petrol to make crude firebombs.
On Friday, Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric at the mosque in downtown Islamabad, and Ghazi’s brother threatened to launch “thousands” of suicide attacks if government security forces launched an operation against the compound.He also announced the formation of an Islamic “Shariah” court, which two days later issued the fatwa against Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar.The government of military ruler President Pervez Musharraf is continuing negotiations with the mosque’s leaders despite public pressure to tackle what has been described as “Talibanisation” in the heart of the capital. Musharraf told a public rally in the eastern city of Sialkot that the mosque’s male and female students were not the real enemy in the battle against extremism, and that the government did not want to fight them.“Newspapers say the government is weak and I am showing signs of weakness or some fear.
It is not a question of any fear,” Musharraf said. “But they are not enemies that we should attack and eliminate.”Casualties in any raid on the mosque would be bad for Musharraf, a proponent of moderate Islam and key US ally in the war on terror, at a time when he faces a political crisis over his removal of Pakistan’s chief justice.
Male and female students from the mosque’s schools have launched morality patrols targeting local music and video shops, as well as briefly kidnapping two policemen and three women including an alleged brothel owner.They have also refused to vacate a government library for children they occupied in January in protest at the demolition of several mosques that authorities said were built on illegally occupied land.
Courtesy: GT

Pakistan cops join Woolmer case

Two Pakistani policemen have joined the investigation into Bob Woolmer's murder as Jamaican police were not able to make any breakthrough even three weeks after the coach's mysterious death.
Pakistani sleuths -- Mir Zubair Mahmood and Kaleem Imam -- joined four Scotland Yard investigators and two forensics experts from Interpol, the France-based international police agency, who have been aiding in the probe into the death of Woolmer.
The Pakistani police have arrived in Kingston in a bid to accelerate the investigation, said Gilbert Scott, Permanent Secretary in Jamaica's Ministry of National Security.
"They will be here for as long as it takes," Scott was quoted as saying in the media in Kingston.
Mark Shields, Jamaica's deputy police commissioner, said the Pakistani investigators would help with DNA analysis and would examine theories that Woolmer, Pakistan's coach since 2004, may have been poisoned before he was strangled while authorities are still awaiting toxicology reports.
The 58-year-old Woolmer died on March 18, a day after his side had been shocked by Ireland and knocked out of the cricket World Cup.
Courtesy: HT

Pakistan army role revealed in clashes

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that tribesmen killed about 300 foreign al-Qaeda militants near the Afghan border and admitted the army was helping the tribal fighters.
Musharraf's comments came after months of pressure from key ally the United States and other nations with troops in Afghanistan to crack down on Islamic insurgents on Pakistan's lawless, tribally ruled frontier.
"The people of South Waziristan now have risen against the foreigners," Musharraf told a conference in Islamabad of defense officials from 22 countries. "They have killed about 300 of them. They have support from the Pakistan army. They asked for it."
Previously, officials have only said that the army had secured parts of South Waziristan, after the tribesmen drove out the mainly Uzbek and Chechen insurgents themselves, and that the military provided medical aid.
They have also given lower casualty figures than Musharraf, telling reporters on a rare trip to the region Wednesday that about 200 foreign militants and 40 tribesmen had died.
Musharraf said the tribesmen, who once gave shelter to the foreigners after the fall of Afghanistan's Taleban regime in 2001, were likely to fight rebels in other parts of the region.
"We want a similar activity in North Waziristan and there are indications that this can happen there as well," he said.
NATO and US officials claim cross- border attacks on their forces have risen since the deals in South Waziristan in 2005 and North Waziristan in 2006, but Pakistan said such assaults have in fact dropped.
Fighting broke out in South Waziristan March 19, sparked by a Taleban commander-turned-government supporter's demand that Uzbek militants in the area leave or disarm. The tribesmen hoisted white flags, pounded war drums and proclaimed victory earlier this week, saying that the foreigners had been driven out of their bunkers - a claim backed by the army.
But the regional army commander said Wednesday Uzbek commander Tahir Yuldashev, who has alleged links to Osama bin Laden, was not caught.
When he spoke at the conference earlier, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz urged the United States not to belittle Islamabad's anti-terror efforts or link aid to its success against militants.
US Vice President Dick Cheney told Musharraf during a surprise visit to Islamabad February 26 he was concerned that Taleban and al-Qaeda militants were regrouping in the tribal areas.
He denied threatening Pakistan with a cut in aid, but Democrats in March introduced legislation that would make aid conditional on Islamabad's counter- insurgency performance.
Courtesy: TS

Govt. making efforts to resolve Hyderabad problems: Sindh CM

Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that Sindh Government is taking all possible steps for solving the problems of Hyderabad city and would continue to cooperate with the District Government in providing basic facilities to residents of this historic city.
In a meeting with Sindh Local Government Minister, Muhammed Hussain and District Nazim Hyderabad Kanwar Navid, the Chief Minister called for supply of clean drinking water to people in Hyderabad, proper drainage system and sewerage disposal facilities.
He said an effective scheme be implemented for draining out rainwater. The Chief Minister pointed out that besides having a 5-starhotel, there is imperative need for protection of Hyderabad's Pucca Qila. He expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of Hyderabad Development Authority and WASA.
Courtesy: Geo

Hindus not safe in Sindh, says PPP MNA

A Hindu leader and PPP MNA Ramesh Lal has said that the Sindh government had failed to provide adequate security to the Hindu community in the province, and that kidnapping of the Hindus had become a routine matter here.
Talking to journalists at the residence of district president of PPP's minority wing Dileep Kumar, he accused the Sindh government of supporting feudal lords. He said that it had not taken any action so far against criminals.
Hindus in Sindh were being victimised under a "planned conspiracy", and the community was receiving threats of dire consequences from criminals, feudal lords and waderas but the government was silent on the issue, the Dawn quoted Lal as saying in Dadu district in Sindh province.
Courtesy: DI

Radical Islam spreads in a riven Pakistan

The intruders covered their faces and broke down the front door. They ransacked the home, then kidnapped the three women and the baby who lived there.
No one was arrested, despite a standoff with police. And neighbors welcomed the dozens of kidnappers, mostly female Islamic students who took the hostages back to their school, because the women, dressed in black from head to toe, and a few male supporters were doing what the police never could: shutting down Aunty Shamim's brothel.
"We were trying to curb anything immoral," said student Hamna Abdullah, 20, from the Jamia Hafsa, the school run by the neighboring Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque. "We did not misbehave. We treated them very gently."
The women from the brothel were released two days later, on March 29, after the owner repented. Later she denied it was a brothel. Yet the kidnapping has raised fears that a new Islamic morality campaign has spread to Islamabad from the remote tribal areas where pro-Taliban militants hold sway. And it is only one example of the vice war being waged by the Red Mosque, which has turned into a serious problem for the Pakistani government, unsure of how to push back against Islamists, especially women wielding sticks or even guns.
The mosque underscores how Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, weakened by his controversial removal of the nation's Supreme Court chief last month, is caught between fundamentalists and the West, trying to control religious extremists as he pushes pro-American policies that have alienated much of Pakistan.
Courtesy: CT

Pakistan's Bhutto presses President Musharraf to leave army post

Exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto acknowledged having talks with Pakistan's government, but said President Gen. Pervez Musharraf must resign his army post before her party enters any political pact.
Pakistan is buzzing with speculation that Musharraf could cut a deal with Bhutto that would allow her to return to Pakistan before parliamentary elections due around the end of 2007 — and perhaps win a third spell as prime minister.
In return, Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party could help re-elect Musharraf as president and implement his U.S.-backed program to counter Islamic radicals, including Taliban and al-Qaida militants near the Afghan border.
In an interview with Geo television broadcast late Monday, Bhutto said talks were under way with government emissaries "for the restoration of democracy."
However, she said reports of progress toward a deal were exaggerated.
Courtesy: IHT

PPP to work with MMA to restore democracy

The opposition leader in the senate, Senator Raza Rabbani said on Monday that despite having ideological differences with the religious parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was ready to launch a movement against the government along with the MMA for the restoration of democracy.
“The PPP has differences of ideology with the component parties of the MMA since long but has no difference on restoration of real democracy, the constitution, and the Parliament’s supremacy,” he said, while speaking at a press conference at the opposition leaders’ chambers in the Sindh Assembly. Rabbani said that the time was right to launch a movement against the rulers. While admitting the ‘contacts’ with the rulers, he reiterated his party’s stand that it would never strike a deal with the rulers. According to him, there was no serious dialogue going on with the rulers and refused to comment on why the talks were restricted to his party only. Raza Rabbani alleged that appointment of the new chairman of the PIA was aimed at expediting the process of privatisation of the national airline, and alleged that the extra 800 acres that were allotted for the new airport in Islamabad violated the Land Acquisition Act.
Nisar Khuhro said that the non-functional Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was removed to prevent him from taking suo moto notices and to allow rigging in the next general elections. staff report.
Courtey: DT

WB to provide $ 100 million for promotion of education annually: Arbab

Chief Minister Sindh Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that the education programme in Sindh would be made more consolidated aimed at to improve the quality of education.
He said this during a meeting with the delegation of World Bank and provincial education department.
Dr Arbab said that WB would provide $ 100 million annually to Sindh government that would be incurred on promotion of education in the province.
Chief Minister said that teaching staffs would be recruited on the basis of merit to enhance the standard of government-run schools.
“Every year, 18 percent increase is being made in educational budget in Sindh with the aim to enhance the quality of education in the province”, he noted.
He underlined that the monitoring committees established for overseeing the quality education in the province had to take important initiatives for uplifting the standard of education in Sindh.
Provincial Education Minister, Dr Hameeda Khuhro, briefed the chief minister and WB delegation about the steps being taken for promotion of education in Sindh.
The meeting was attended by Dr Hand Mukhtiar, Miss Tahseen Syed, and Miss Rema Nayyar of WB, Chief Secretary Sindh Shakeel Durani and secretaries of education and finance.

Sindh women to clash WAPDA for gold in table tennis event of National Games

Displaying superb game Sindh women stormed into the final of the team by beating Railways 3-0, but their men’s team made their exit after going down 0-3 against holder WAPDA in the pre-final of table tennis event of National Games at Majeed Memorial Gymnasium at Islamia Club on Tuesday.
Sindh women will clash WAPDA for the team gold.
WAPDA will also up against Punjab for men team event gold.
Sadia gave Sindh fine start when she dropped penultimate game to beat Rizwana Saleem 3-1. But Ghalia Khursheed demolished Kanwal Iqbal 3-0 and Ayesha Khan completed the route with 3-0 win against Bushra Ahzaz.
WAPDA enjoying the services of the best men’s talent who included the trio of Bilal Yaseen, Adnan Mushtaq and Saleem Abbas crushed Higher Education Commission Sindh 3-0.
In the other men’s semifinal Punjab’s Yasir Bhatti, Asim Qureshi and Rafique beat HEC 3-0.
Courtesy: APP

New cases of bird flu in Sindh & NWFP

The government on Monday reported new bird flu cases in poultry farms in Sindh and the North West Frontier Province. “Two to three days back we found traces of H5N1 virus in small poultry farms in Sindh and the NWFP,” said Mohammad Afzal, Commissioner for Livestock at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.“We have culled all the birds at these farms and disinfected the area.”He said some 300 to 350 birds had been culled at one farm but did not say how many H5N1 cases of bird flu had been discovered.Since late last year, outbreaks of avian flu have swept from Asia to Britain, as well as touching Egypt and Nigeria.Mr Afzal said quarantine and vaccination measures were also being used in and around the affected farms.Pakistan first detected the H5N1 strain of the virus in Feb 2006 in the NWFP and ordered about 40,000 birds culled.Since 2003, the H5N1 virus has killed at least 170 people around the globe and experts fear it could mutate into a form that could jump easily between people and cause a pandemic.
Courtesy: Dawn

Pakistan’s Minister of Tourism accused of “great sin;” fatwas forthcoming

Nilofar Bakhtiar is Pakistan’s Minister of Tourism. She recently learned to skydive for a celebrity jump in France. Skydiving is not the sin she’s been accused of. What she did is sooo much worse than that. It happened after the skydive.
Her sin is so horrifying, so awful, so distasteful, so…shocking…that I ought not even type it. It’s that bad.
You won’t believe it. You really ought to stop reading this post right now.
I see you didn’t take my advice. Fair enough. You’ve been warned.
Nilofar Bakhtiar may have…hugged…a man. I’m not making this up. I’m also not making up the entirely reasonable reaction that her “great sin” has sparked at the infamous Red Mosque in Pakistan.
The Red Mosque isn’t just any old mosque. It’s next to Pakistan’s ISI HQ, and many agents attend there. It helped train up the Taliban. Lately it has been challenging Musharraf’s rule by mounting an anti-vice campaign (or it has been playing the radical foil to Musharraf’s secular rule, depending on how you view the situation). If Musharraf were Palpatine, the Red Mosque would be the Jedi Temple. They don’t seem to get along, both are major authorities, and everyone there knows it and may have to choose sides at some point.
Courtesy: HR

Iran condemns sectarian attacks against Pakistan Shiites

Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned the deadly sectarian attacks by hardliners against Shiite Muslims in northwest Pakistan.
In a statement, spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that such acts committed by sectarian elements served ambitions of "forces outside the region".
"Such incidents and continuation of clashes are a cause of concern," he said in reference to clashes in Pakistan tribal town of Parachinar.
Officials said 40 people have been killed and more than 70 wounded in the fightings erupted after gunmen fired on a procession in Parachinar, about 250 km south-west of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
Authorities on Friday imposed a curfew and troops started patrolling to restore order. Authorities have ordered shoot-at-sight if anyone violate curfew.
Hosseini expressed the hope that with the measures taken by the government of Pakistan and their enhancement, calm will be restored in the area and clashes will be curbed.
Courtey: IRNA

Cross-border trains to continue - Sindh/India

Undaunted by the February bomb attack on Samjhauta Express, India and Pakistan today extended till 2010 a bilateral agreement to run passenger train and freight services between the two countries.
A six-member Indian railway delegation headed by Advisor Traffic, Suhbas Ranjan Thakur, signed an agreement with his Pakistani counterpart extending the bilateral pact on running the Samjhauta Express between Lahore and New Delhi and Thar Express between Khokhrapar and Munabao for the next three years.
The pact also includes continuing the freight services till 2010, Thakur said here.
The Indian delegation also called on Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid, who criticised the Indian Railway's handling of the bomb explosions on Samjhauta Express in which 67 passengers, mostly Pakistanis, were killed.
Rashid told the media later that the two countries decided to go ahead with the train services despite the setback and that he discussed some of the concerns of the Pakistani side in this regard.
Thakur said that one of the main decisions taken in the aftermath of Samjhauta bomb attack was that no one would be permitted to travel without reservation in both trains carrying about 150 passengers each.
Also, a full list of passengers with proper details would be maintained, considering that there was confusion over the identity of some passengers who were killed in the Samjhauta tragedy. The security aspects would be separately discussed between Pakistani and the Indian High Commission officials here, Thakur said.
The new element added to the previous agreement which ended on January 28 was that the Thar Express would have two additional bogies to meet the rush of passengers. The train commutes between Karachi to Khokhrapar in Sindh and Munabao in Rajasthan.
Previously, the train had the provision for seven coaches with two extra to meet the rush. Now, it would have nine bogies with provision for two extra compartments.
The Samjhauta Express, however, will continue to have 12 bogies as in the past. Keeping in mind the security concerns, the two sides have agreed to limit the luggage for each passenger to 50 kilogram for the first class travellers and 35 kilogram for the rest. For any extra luggage, the passengers would be charged 10 times the base rate.
This is mainly aimed at deterring the passengers to limit their luggage which would be put in separate break vans, Thakur said.
He said India suggested to the Pakistani side to allow the freight traffic on the Kokhrapar-Munabao route, specially in view of the request made by Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his recent visit to New Delhi to attend the SAARC summit to permit cement exports from Pakistan to India.
Since most of the cement factories in Pakistan were located in Balochistan and southern Punjab, it would be cheaper for Pakistan to export cement to India through the Kokhrapar-Munabao route, Thakur said.
Courtesy: CC

PPP-government contact for providing honorable way back to military

Opposition leader in Senate and Deputy Secretary General Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Mian Raza Rabbani, has said that PPP-government contacts were aimed at to provide honorable way back the military to barracks, but the government wanted to divide opposition by spreading deal ‘rumors’.
Addressing a press conference here at the chamber of opposition leader in Sindh Assembly, he said that PPP-government contacts were nothing new and these contact were aimed at to provide a safe passage for army to barracks from politics.
“But, the government, by propagating about the so-called deal wanted to create rift among opposition ranks,” he alleged.
He said that Benazir needed neither to strike deal nor any one’s permission for returning to the country.
“There may be ideological differences between PPP and MMA, but at present all the opposition parties were moving towards a common goal of independence of judiciary, getting rid of incumbent military dictatorship, supremacy of parliament and for holding a free and fair election under a caretaker setup”, he asserted.
Rabbani asked the president either own up the responsibility of Steel Mill’s privatization and other ‘scandals’ including current judicial crisis or accept that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had bypassed him in all these matters.
He termed the incumbent setup as a government of ‘looters’ and ‘plunderers’.
“If there would have been any minister of ‘good’ character then he must resign over the PSM issue”, he remarked.
He claimed that the reference against the CJP was an attempt to avenge from him for his decision in PSM privatization.
He asked Prime Minister to tell the nation as who is responsible for the ‘corruption’ and ‘irregularities’ committed in PMS and KESC privatisation, procurement of railway carriages, stock market crash and other ‘scandals’.
He alleged that by appointing Zafar A. Kahn as managing director PIA the regime has started preparations to privatise the national airline.
Raza Rabbani announced that PPP would restore trade unions and abolish all anti-labourers’ laws including the IRO after coming into power.
He said that the incumbent rulers are feudal and capitalists and representing the international imperialists.
“The rulers have rendered more than seven lakh workers jobless just to appease the imperialist forces”, he charged.
Opposition leader in Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, PPP leaders, Taj Haider, Rafique Engineer, Rashid Rabbani, and others were also present on the occasion.
Courtesy: OLN

Pakistan military back in tribal zone

Pakistani troops have re-occupied part of the tribal area along the Afghan border they left two years ago as part of a peace deal with local leaders.
Pakistani troops were deployed on Friday into the mountainous Shin Warsak area, just west of Wana, the main town of the semi-autonomous South Waziristan tribal agency, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wahid Arshad told reporters in Islamabad.
The deployment follows a month of clashes between local tribal militias and more than 1000 Uzbek Jihadis who settled in the region after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
It was the first time troops had left their barracks in Wana since a peace deal was signed with local tribal leaders in 2005.
Taliban guerrillas fighting U.S., NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan are known to use Pakistan's tribal border areas for safe haven.
Courtesy: UPI

Former Pakistan Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq Says He is Hurt By The Match Fixing Allegations Made Against His Team

Pakistan's World Cup captain Inzamam-ul-Haq spoke on Monday of his hurt and the pressure on players when match-fixing allegations were made against them in the wake of their early exit from the tournament.
Inzamam and senior officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appeared on Monday before a standing committee on sports of the National Assembly in Islamabad in which reasons for the World Cup debacle and the board affairs were dissected.
"I told them of the hurt I have felt since these match-fixing allegations have been made. I told them don't expect the younger players to perform under such pressure," Inzamam told Reuters.
He said that Pakistan had played badly and lost and this was part of the sport.
"But coming up with such allegations which basically questions our patriotism is not on and not good for our cricket," he said.
Pakistan were bundled out of the World Cup after losing to West Indies and later Ireland. Coach Bob Woolmer died in Kingston, Jamaica less than 24 hours after the Irish defeat with police investigators treating his death as murder.
Former Test paceman Sarfraz Nawaz and others have cast doubts on the performance of the team against West Indies
Wasim Bari, former chief selector, defended the selection of the team for the World Cup and said the selectors could not be held responsible if the players did not perform to expectations.
Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, was also grilled on the appointment of leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed as assistant coach of the team for the World Cup.
Mushtaq's appointment has been questioned as he was fined and named in the match-fixing inquiry carried out in Pakistan between 1998 and 2000.
Ashraf told the committee he had appointed Mushtaq on the recommendations of Woolmer and Inzamam.
Inzamam said he was not aware of the Justice Qayyum inquiry report saying that Mushtaq should not be appointed to any senior position or he would not have recommended him as assistant coach.
Ashraf told the committee that the board would be setting up a special commission of former test players to prepare a blueprint for bringing about improvement and consistency in Pakistan cricket.
He said the captain and coach would also be announced soon and the team's balance would be re-examined.
The board's ad-hoc committee meets in Lahore on Tuesday to discuss the future appointments of the Pakistan team.
Courtesy: CWCL

Pakistan's Musharraf: Exiled Bhutto Not Returning

Pakistan's president said Sunday that there was no deal in the works with his main political opposition, denying speculation that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto could return from exile.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's statement followed media reports and recent comments by a Cabinet minister suggesting that relations may be thawing between Musharraf and Bhutto.
"A spokesman for the president has strongly refuted all speculations regarding change in the government and a deal with an opposition party," an official statement from Musharraf's office said.
The government recently shifted a veteran anti-corruption investigator from cases against Bhutto, who lives in exile but still leads the Pakistan People's Party, the country's largest anti-Musharraf political group.
The transfer of the corruption investigator fanned speculation that Musharraf may sanction Bhutto's return to Pakistan. Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a staunch Musharraf supporter, said Thursday that the move was part of negotiations between the government and Bhutto's party aimed at an unspecified possible deal.
Musharraf has been weakened by a bitter fight with opposition groups, including those led by Bhutto and another former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, over his removal of a senior judge.
Musharraf, who toppled Sharif's elected government and seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has said in the past that both Sharif and Bhutto, who was elected prime minister in the 1980s and 1990s, have no further role to play in Pakistani politics.
Courtesy: NM

No Deal with Pakistan Govt; Benazir assures Nawaz

Two ex-Prime Ministers of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto have had a surprise meeting in Dubai on Saturday to mull over the political situation in Pakistan.A media report said on Saturday that Ms Bhutto assured Mr Sharif that no deal between her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the government was in the offing. She told Nawaz Sharif that only routine talks were being conducted with government emissaries. Tariq Aziz, secretary of the Pakistan's National Security Council met with Ms Bhutto prior to her meeting with Sharif. Their talks were inconclusive, but they appear to have prompted Ms Bhutto to call on Nawaz Sharif, adds the report. Both Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif have been in Dubai for quite some days now, and rumours had been flying around that Mr Sharif was extremely perturbed by reports of an “imminent deal” between the government and the PPP.Ms Bhutto personally took the initiative to visit Mr Sharif on Saturday to dispel these concerns. She assured him that details of any talks or deal with the government would be shared with him, since the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was a partner of the PPP in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy. On his part, Mr Sharif made it clear that ARD parties were worried and suspicious of the situation, and the PPP should make its stand clear since one of the conditions in the ‘Charter of Democracy’ signed by the two former premiers was that neither party would do a deal with the present government in Pakistan. Nawaz may Quit ARD Yet, another report, carried by the newspaper said Sunday that the Chief of PML (N), Mian Nawaz Sharif has threatened to quit ARD in case of any deal between PPPP and government. Mian Nawaz Sharif made his intentions clear to Ms Benazir Bhutto during his talks with PPPP leader at the Dubai residence of Ishaq Dar, and has warned her of PML (N) parting ways with PPPP since “principles” laid down by “Charter of Democracy”, would be severely compromised in case some deal was made. Responsible sources of PML (N) informed news agency Online that Mian Sahib had informed Ms Benazir Bhutto about the doubts and reservations of other political component parties of ARD, who take the issue as a conspiracy to weaken the ARD. Sources have informed that Benazir Bhutto has outrightly denied any instance of deal with the government, but her candid confession about “mere talks and routine connections” have confirmed various leaks, which were being vehemently denied by PPPP, and were the main cause of Mian Sahib’s consternation. Mian Sahib has reportedly protested about the secrecy of these “mere talks”, and has warned that these endeavours could seriously jeopardize the ARD alliance, since it would only strengthen the notion about Benazir’s agreement with the regime.An earlier story said that former premiers Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto met in Dubai on Saturday and mulled over important socio-political affairs of the country.Both the leaders were in Dubai for quite some days but there had been no meeting between them, causing all kinds of rumours to surface, out of which Mian Nawaz Sharif’s purported unhappiness over the “possibility of an imminent deal” of Benazir Bhutto with current government.Ms Benazir Bhutto personally took the imitative to visit Mian Nawaz Sharif on Saturday and made it clear to him that any talk or deal with the government would be shared with him, since PPPP is a partner of ARD. She also assured Mian Nawaz Sharif that no deal was in the offing, just routine contacts were being made. On his part, Mian Nawaz Sharif made it clear that ARD parties were quite worried and suspicious of the situation, and PPPP should make its stand clear since the condition of absolutely no deal with a tyrant has clearly been implied by “Charter of Democracy”. Prior to the meeting Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar also met Ms Benazir Bhutto and had suggested to her to meet Mian Nawaz Sharif to allay his doubts. Pakistan Observer contacted media coordinators of both PPP and PML-N to confirm the reports about the meeting and get more information in this regard. Media coordinator of PML-N, Ahsan Iqbal confirmed the meeting saying it was a private meeting without any political agenda.Ahsan Iqbal said Benazir Bhutto rang up Mian Nawaz Sharif and expressed her desire to come to his house to congratulate him on the birth of his grandson.“Mian Sahib cordially reciprocated her good sentiments and wishes and welcomed her at his residence”, Ahsan Iqbal remarked adding that the meeting was just private in nature as no political issue was discussed in it.He said that though the political circles were terming the meeting of vital significance but it had nothing of political nature.On the other hand PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar at first denied reports of the meeting saying he was unaware about the latest happenings in Dubai. Responding to query about the political significant of the meeting, Babar said that if the meeting had taken place then it might be of private nature. “Perhaps she had gone to congratulate Mian Nawaz Sharif on the birth of his grandson”, he remarked. According to another report, Ms Benazir Bhutto held inconclusive talks with the government’s emissary Tariq Aziz in Dubai on Saturday. However, the PPP leaders, including Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who are presently in Dubai along with Ghulam Mustafa Khar, had out-rightly rejected any planned talks between the two sides. On Saturday, the government emissary, Tariq Aziz called on the former Prime Minister and deliberations were held between the two sides for quite some time.However, informed sources said that the talks remained inconclusive as both sides could not evolve consensus on major points of any expected deal. Of PPP, MQM Alliance Meanwhile, a report from Lahore says that the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and government coalition partner the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) could be allies in the next general elections, as they were in 1988, PPP General Secretary Jahangir Badr said here Saturday. “Political parties should always keep all options open. The MQM was a PPP ally in 1988 so there is no harm in making an alliance with it again,” said Badr while talking to Peoples Labour Bureau Head Abdul Qadir Shaheen and PPP Punjab deputy secretary information Iqbal Sialvi. He said if personalities like Abida Hussain and Fakhar Imam, former Muslim League stalwarts, could join the PPP, there was no reason why the PPP could not make alliance with the MQM. MQM sources said that the party’s top leadership was seriously considering an alliance with the PPP. Another reason the MQM is moving towards the PPP is the difficulty the party is facing establishing a foothold in Punjab, largely due to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, “who whenever he gets an opportunity creates hurdles in the working of MQM in Punjab,” the sources said. “The MQM is going to break its alliance with the govt soon over the Women’s Protection Bill or whatever issue it can exploit against the ruling PML,” said a senior MQM official.
Courtesy: PT

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Long March From Sukkur

Chief of Jeay Sindh Qomi Mahaz (JSQM) Bashir Qureshi and other reach Hyderabad on their on foot march from Sukkur. Hyderabad Sindh (Reporter Jamal Panhwar) Pagham e Sindh (Message of Sindh March which started 16 days ago in Sukkur reached here in Hyderabad on 3rd April. The team of the leaders and workers of Jeay Sindh, a party supporting the cause of denial of rights of Sindh and Sindhis in Pakistan, started their unique adventure of traveling from Sukkur to Karachi on 17th March and covered a distance of over 350 Kilometers on foot. They stopped at different villages and towns and delivered their message to the people to come out for their rights. In Hyderabad the 2nd largest city of Sindh there were thousands of people who came to welcome the team. It was a welcome with drums bugals flowers and tears. The team did a tour of Hyderabad’s Sindi dominated areas on their feet and expressed their commitment to strive for the rights of Sindh till the last moment of their lives. Bashir Qureshi asked the Sindis Urdu speaking community living and Sindh and all the elders and young men to come forward for the rights of Sindh which denied by the Governmont of Pakistan. “We are not here to bitch about any one we have no fued with any one we are here for the rights of the whole sindh” Bashi Qureshi Said to the reporters of a Sindhi TV channel. Urdu channels of Pakistan have completely ignored this feet of these men of Sindh. There were tears in the eyeys of the people When wife and 2 sons and daughter of Bashi Qureshi came to meet their father during the walk Similarly When Dr. Noor Naz Jhtial and Dr. Nasreen Jhtial came to touch the feet of Bashir Qureshi, tears came out of the eyes of Bashir Qureshi. The team walked in Hyderabad till late evening and 100s of people kept joining them. A procession was held at Hayder Chowk at 8PM during Which Bashir Qureshi stook and gave a speech to the people present. He said “ We started our journey from the city of Hemoon Kalani Sukkur and have eventually reached the historical city of Hyderabad. The aim of our Struggle is to get rights for Sindh. Sindh has become a colony and we bring here the message of Sindh to you all. We have received love of millions of Sindhis on our way. This shows that people of Sindh will never accept the slavery. He said that “Punjab which is called the big brother has overtaken of fresh water Jobs trade and even politics so much that at the moment there is literally there is nothing in Sindh on which there is any right of Sindhis. We too have right to live. I have given my words to the daughters who came to welcome us every where that We will go to Jails we may be crucified or killed we will face bullets but we will not disappoint you. We are sons and daughters of 100s thousands of Sindhis who gave their blood for Sindh. He said there is a mokery of democracy here. We have suffered Jails since 58 years it is indeed the darkest chapeter of our history. He said I wish to tell America president Bush UK prime minister Tony Blair that Sindhis are peaceful nation to rid of the fundamentalism Message of Sindhis may be implemented. He said we have considered Urdu-speaking Sindhis our brothers and they shall remain the rightful sons of Sindh they should also present themselves clearly. I appeal the Urdu Speaking Sindhis that you too come in our struggle and if you do not come with us than you may have to leave this land. Leader of Sindh Democratic Party Advocate Yousuf Leghari said “We are soldiers of your team and we pay Salm to you. People of Sindh are with you. We have considered you our leader and we shall walk behind you. Voice chairman of JSQM said that People of Sindh have been voting since 58 years but there has been no change in Sindh. Sindis fate will only change whn you start asking your politicians the rights of Sindh instead of Schools & road. You should tell your politicians we want our homeland. He said we don’t want to blame any one but people who faught for 73’s constitution are now against it. Sindh is full of natural resources but Sindhis get nothing out of It. Chairman of of Sindh national party Ameer Bhanbhro said that I am hopeful that Mr. Rasool Bux Palejo, Qadir Magsi and Mumtaz Bhuto will come to attend the final of this procession in Karachi. On this occasion Faqir Imdad Mangi, Akash Malah, Sagar Haneef Burdi Soorhia Sindhi and others also expressed their views. Today the team in the leadership of Bashir Qureshi will walk to Tando Mohammad Khan while the last leg of this long march will be Karachi on 12th April.
Courtesy: Egroup

Interior Sindh up in protest against the suspension of chief justice

Like other parts of the country the legal fraternity also staged protest demonstrations in interior Sindh against the suspension of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the Supreme Judicial Council (SCJ) resumed hearing of the presidential reference against the non-functional chief justice on Tuesday.The lawyers took out protest rallies and boycotted court proceedings in Hyderabad to express solidarity with the non-functional chief justice.They boycotted proceedings of the high court and civil courts in the district and took out a rally to the Hyderabad press club. They were carrying black flags and placards inscribed with slogans in favour of Justice Chaudhry. They demanded withdrawal of the presidential reference against the non-functional chief justice. Qazi Abdul Sattar, Allah Bachayo Soomro, Fazal Qadir Memon, Chaudry Bashir and others led the rally.Meanwhile, the Jamaat-e-Islami also took out a protest rally on Tuesday evening. Led by JI’s senior leader Prof Ghafoor Ahmed the rally participants marched from Hyder Chowk to the Hyderabad press club. They were protesting against the suspension of the chief justice and detention of political leaders.MMA’s Hyderabad chapter president Abdul Waheed Qureshi, Aftab Khanzada of the PPP, Afzal Gujar of the PML-N, Samad Sheikh of the PTI, Taj Muhammad Nahion of the JUI-F and others addressed the protesters.Our Jamshoro correspondent adds: A large number of lawyers from Jamshoro, Kotri and Sehwan participated in a protest rally called by the District Bar Association Jamshoro.The rally, which was taken out from the bar office, culminated at the main Kotri Chowk. The protesting lawyers set ablaze their black coats to register their protest against the presidential reference.A sizeable number of the bar members hailing from Jamshoro, Kotri and Sehwan gathered at the bar office Kotri in the morning. Later, they reached the main Kotri Chowk in the form of a rally.The lawyers expressed complete solidarity with non-functional chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chuadhry. They critisised the Sindh chief minister for disguising “Tapedars, Beldars and Chowkidars” of the provincial departments” as lawyers during his address to a so-called lawyers’ convocation in Hyderabad.They said it was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that the lawyer coat was dishounered by the chief executive of a province. The lawyers also boycotted court proceedings.Our Sukkur correspondent adds: Like other districts of the province the lawyers’ community of Sukkur also registered their protest on Tuesday against the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan.They boycotted court proceedings, took out a rally, staged a protest demonstration and formed a human chain in front of the local press club.The protesting lawyers, led by Qurban Malano and President MMA Sindh Asadullah Bhutto, took out a rally from the district and sessions court. They chanted slogans against the government and marched on the main thoroughfares of the city. They finally gathered in front of the local press club and staged a demonstration.Addressing the lawyers, Asadullah Bhutto, Imdad Awan, Qurban Malano and others asked the government to withdraw the reference against chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and reinstate him honourably.They also called upon the legal fraternity and the opposition parties to launch a decisive anti-government movement to rid the people of the present rulers.Later, the lawyers set ablaze their coats and formed a human chain, while some of them also observed a token hunger strike on the premises of Sindh High Court, Sukkur bench.Meanwhile, scores of PPP workers led by MNA Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, MPA Dr Nasrullah Baloch and other politicians also staged a protest demonstration followed by a sit-in outside the press club against the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan.Some activists of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf also staged a similar protest demonstration.Our Thatta correspondent adds: On the call of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA), the lawyers' community on Tuesday protested against the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan.The lawyers staged a demonstration in front of the district court building and expressed solidarity with the non-functional chief justice and demanded his immediate reinstatement. President Thatta District Bar Association Izhar Ahmed Hashmani led the demonstration. They also boycotted court proceedings across the district.Our Khairpur correspondent adds: Members of the Khairpur District Bar Association on Tuesday took out a rally to protest the presidential reference against the chief justice of Pakistan. The lawyers also staged a token hunger strike and boycotted court proceedings.
Courtesy: TN

Strong quake jolts Pakistan, Afghanistan

A strong quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked eastern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, including capital Islamabad, Tuesday morning.
The tremors were felt at around 8.40 a.m. (local time) in Islamabad, rattling beds and windows and leading to panic.
Meteorological officials said the epicentre of the quake was about 300 km north of Peshawar in the Hindukash Mountains.
"The epicentre is within Afghanistan," said Mushtaq Ali Shah of Pakistan’s meteorological department.
The official said the earthquake was also felt in Peshawar, Lahore, Multan and other areas in Pakistan.
There was no immediate report of casualties or property losses in Pakistan.
The quake brought alive the memories of the Oct 8, 2005 quake, which left thousands dead and millions homeless in north Pakistan and India’s Jammu and Kashmir.
Courtesy: ON

Thousands protest in Pakistan over firing of top judge

About 4,000 people rallied in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Tuesday to protest against a decision by President General Pervez Musharraf to fire the country's chief justice.
The crowd, which included lawyers and political activists, gathered outside the Supreme Court building during a hearing of the case against chief justice Ifitkhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
Police and government troops kept a close eye on the crowd.
Musharraf removed the judge on March 9 after the government said it received several complaints about his alleged misconduct.
But critics of Musharraf said the firing was an attempt to intimidate the court and make certain it does not cause any trouble for the president in the event he seeks another term.
"Everyone should support the chief justice, it is our moral duty," Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice-president of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, said at the rally.
Courtesy: CBC

World Bank dams provoke hunger strikes in Pakistan

In February affected communities, and local NGOs undertook a hunger strike in protest against the implementation of the Bank funded water project of the Taunsa Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernisation. The protest focused in particular on the Bank's lack of response to environmental and socio-economic degradation caused by the remodelling project and the refusal to launch an inquiry. The impact of the project has ranged from displacement, loss of livelihoods, intensification of water-logging and salinity, closure of canals and river-erosion. There are concerns that it is also in violation of the Bank's own policies and that the underlying data and design are flawed. Despite 18 months of registered protest from affected communities and repeated requests for an independent inquiry to look into the social and environmental problems of the project, neither the Bank nor the Punjab irrigation department have accepted responsibility for the projects failings, nor show signs to instigate an independent enquiry commission. Pakistani civil society organisations are reluctant to take the case to the Bank's Inspection Panel due to the cumbersome and lengthy processed experienced in the case of the Left Bank Outfall Drainage Project. This lead to many recommendations being largely ignored by the Bank.
In addition, a letter from the Sindh Democratic Forum to President Wolfowitz and representatives of the Asian and Islamic Development Banks expresses great concern regarding proposed IFI funding for mega water projects to the government of Pakistan. In particular the letter focuses on cuts to the Indus River system which has seriously affected Sindh province's water supply and subsequently rural economy, agriculture, drinking water and poverty levels. Sindh province is entirely dependent on the Indus for its water. The letter points out that financial support for large water projects runs contrary to the development and poverty reduction mandate of the IFIs.
Courtesy: BWP

Pakistani lawyers decide to keep intact campaign momentum

Lawyers from all over Punjab have resolved not to ease momentum of their movement against Gen. Pervez Musharraf or allow black sheep in their ranks to divert its path.
At a convention here, the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) announced a full-day strike every Thursday as part of their protest against the ‘unconstitutional suspension’ of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, besides staging protest rallies, holding meetings and setting up hunger strike camps throughout the province.
The participants also enhanced the duration of the daily strike by lawyers from one to three hours during which time they would stage protests at their respective bars. The convention announced a strike and boycott of courts on April 3 when lawyers from all over the province will gather in Islamabad on the occasion of the hearing in the reference against the chief justice.
Bar Associations across the province were authorised to formulate their own protest schedules and programmes. It also said the lawyers' movement will remain unflinching till such time their goal has been achieved and lawyers will gather in Karachi if the venue for their assembly is shifted there.
The convention was attended by all the 113 bar associations, including representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association and High Court Bar Association who demanded immediate ouster of Gen. Pervez Musharraf and reconstitution of the Supreme Judicial Council and demanded an open court trial of Justice Chaudhry.
The convention has demanded prosecution of Gen. Pervez Musharraf under Article 6, (high treason) for unconstitutionally holding office of president while in uniform of an army general and that a national government should be formed and elections held under an independent election commissioner.
The lawyers called for the removal of chief ministers of Punjab and Sindh for torturing lawyers and keeping Justice Chaudhry in detention allegedly for six hours to force him to resign.Paying glowing tribute to the boldness and courage of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the convention saluted judges and law officers who resigned to protest the reference. The convention also adopted a resolution demanding resignation of Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani for ‘lying to the nation’. The resolution flayed Law Minister Wasi Zafar, Dr Khalid Ranjha, Arif Chaudhry and Raja Abdul Rahman for supporting what they said, illegal and unconstitutional acts of President Musharraf.
Courtesy: KT

Pakistan's ex-PMs Benazir Bhutto & Nawaz Sharif seek US help for fair polls

Former Pakistan prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto have stepped up their overtures to the Bush administration, apparently in the belief that that the US alone can nudge President Pervez Musharraf towards holding free and fair elections.
The political rivals, engaged in forging opposition unity from their exile in Dubai and London, have also toured the US in the last month.
After a recent meeting in London, they had chided the West in general and accused it of 'hypocrisy' for being keen on democracy in neighbouring Afghanistan, but not in Pakistan.
Sharif, whom Musharraf deposed in 1998, told a US House of Representatives team in London last week: '2007 is a defining year for Pakistan. If elections are rigged, the country will plunge into deeper political crisis. The opposition parties are committed to restoring supremacy of constitution, rule of law, and ensuring fair and free elections in the country.'
Sharif lamented the continued US support to Musharraf at the meeting with the delegation of US House of Representatives subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, led by its Chairman John Tierney, at his residence in central London, The Nation reported.
He complained that Musharaf had played the extremists' threat only to perpetuate his rule whereas the people of Pakistan had always supported moderate parties and ideas.
The US delegation, on its way to Pakistan on a three-day visit, expressed strong support for restoration of democracy and holding of fair and free elections in Pakistan.
They said: 'Congress is considering proposals to link Pakistan's economic assistance with progress on fighting terrorism and restoration of democracy. In this connection the delegation will meet with the representatives of the government, political parties, and civil society to formulate its recommendations.'
The American legislators assured Sharif that they would stress upon the Bush administration the need to hold free and fair elections and the participation of the entire political leadership in the process.
The US has also indicated its readiness to let Musharraf seek a second term in the presidency after which he might be confident enough to hold general elections.
Outgoing US envoy to Pakistan Robert C. Crocker told reporters here last week that it was 'for the people of Pakistan' to choose the type of democracy they desire. The US was not prescribing anything.
But the opposition says Musharraf's attempt would be patently illegal and even unconstitutional since the present parliament and provincial legislatures that form the electoral college have already elected him once in 2002.

Top Pakistan Islamist under house arrest

Pakistani authorities placed a top Islamist MP under house arrest on Monday ahead of planned protests against President Pervez Musharraf's removal of the country's top judge, officials said.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the chief of Pakistan's main coalition of fundamentalist parties, said he had been detained for two days at his residence in Islamabad.
"The government decision to detain me is undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegal. It appears they are in a complete panic," Ahmed said.
"It's difficult to say at the moment whether I will try to violate the detention order or not, but the protest will be held as per our decision."
"The government has confined our leader but our workers will take part in Tuesday's protest with full vigour. If the government stops us, the law and order situation will be its responsibility," said coalition spokesman Shahid Shamsi. Our protest is against the president's action against the chief justice and the military dictatorship in the country," he said. Interior minister Aftab Sherpao said he had "no knowledge" about Ahmed's arrest. But a senior security official confirmed on condition of anonymity that the leading Islamist was under detention.
Military ruler Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9 over allegations of misconduct and abuse of power, sparking a political crisis and a series of nationwide protests against his rule.
The Islamic coalition, known as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or United Action Front, called Tuesday's rally to coincide with the next sitting of a panel of top judges who are hearing the charges against Chaudhry. Chaudhry denies the allegations.
Ahmed -- regarded as a rabble-rouser by the government -- was also arrested on March 16 in Islamabad when he tried to break through a security cordon at protests in the capital, which later turned violent.
Lawyers and opposition parties loyal to exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have also called for separate but simultaneous demonstrations against Musharraf on Tuesday.
Courtesy: DNA-I

Refugee riots break out in Pakistan

An eruption of riots after an Afghan refugee was killed in Pakistan prompted United Nations officials to stop the refugee repatriation program indefinitely.
Police fired tear gas shells and used batons to disperse the rock-throwing demonstrators who had blocked the Peshawar-Torkham road Saturday, the Dawn news agency reported. A U.N. refugees commissioner said the refugee verification center was closed as a precaution.
Courtesy: PC

A rape victims in Pakistan may get some relief

Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has unanimously decided that a rape victim should not be required to produce four witnesses to file a complaint.
In a series of landmark decisions pertaining to women, the constitutional body of the country's top experts in Islamic law has also ruled that rape (zina-bil-zabr) and adultery - consensual sex other than with spouse (zina-bil-raza) - are two separate crimes.
The decisions, in effect, endorse the Women Protection Law passed after much debate last year that has angered the conservatives and the clergy. They also upturn the 1979 Hudood laws passed during the regime of president Ziaul Haq.
The government may have to further legislate to enforce these provisions that provide considerable relief to women. But this is not going to be easy for President Pervez Musharraf, who is pressing for them, in a year when he has promised general elections.
The CII agreed that, in rape cases, the affected woman would be a complainant, not a defendant.
"In this case, the woman will be a complainant and the state will be bound to investigate, arrest the rapist and punish him if the crime is proved," a CII press release said.
The council observed that a person accused of adultery should be acquitted if the complainant fails to produce four witnesses to prove their point in court.
Once acquitted, the accused could not be punished under any other law unless he/she refused to give a statement under oath or confessed to the crime, the council said.
"In cases of 'lian' where the accused denies by swearing (an oath), confesses, or the charges are proved, the court will decide such cases under the prevailing circumstances," it said.
Musharraf has promised more laws that deal with divorce and some of the long-practised tribal traditions that weigh against women. This has been roundly criticised by the conservatives. The rightwing alliance Muttahida Majlise-e-Amal (MMA) has accused Musharraf of working on these reforms under American pressure.
Courtesy: IM

Private schools take up taxes, deadlines with government

A 15-member delegation of the All-Private Schools Management Association Sindh (APSMAS) met the Sindh governor’s principal secretary, Muhammad Salim Khan, on Saturday to discuss a four-point agenda related to the management of private schools.The delegation was scheduled to meet Sindh Governor Dr. Ishratul Ibad Khan, but was told that the principal secretary would deal with them instead. The governor was “not available due to unavoidable circumstances,” APSMAS chairman, Syed Khalid Shah, told Daily Times.One of the points raised was the plan to shift the private schools registration authority to the Sindh Education Department. Registration is currently managed by the respective district governments. The delegation demanded that the decision be cancelled immediately, due to the complications that will arise. “If the registration authority becomes centralized, people from interior Sindh will have to come to Karachi at least five times a year for each registration,” said APSMAS Sukkur president, Mustaq Ahmed Sheikh. This, he said, would be tedious, and costly for the management of these schools.The other point raised during the meeting was the rescheduling of the admission session to August. Admissions currently take place in April. “If the admission session starts from August, examinations will be held in June, which is an extremely hot month, and affects students negatively,” APSMAS representatives said. “On the other hand, with the current schedule, the session starts in April, and the annual examinations are held in March, when the weather is relatively more pleasant.”The delegation also discussed the new taxation policies which are currently under consideration at the city council. They also spoke about the board of intermediate and secondary education in Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas. These boards, they said, charge higher registration fees than anywhere else in the province. “The Hyderabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education charges Rs 6,000 for the registration of a new school and Rs 4,000 for renewing an old registration. The rates for Karachi, however, are Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 respectively,” APSMAS Hyderabad president, Nasir Khanzada, told Daily Times.The Sindh secretariat principal secretary promised to look into all of these concerns, and to solve them according to their significance. Moreover, the APSMAS was asked to constitute a formal committee with the collaboration of CDGK education department. “This committee will compile a list of private schools for the ease of registration,” Shah said.
Courtesy: DT

Sindh govt announce holiday for Eid Milad

The City Nazim Karachi Syed Mustafa Kamal has announced local holiday in the metropolis on April 2 (Monday) on the occasion of Eid Milad-un-Nabi. The government-run schools, colleges, and two major public sector universities in the city will also remain closed tomorrow. However, there is no official word on the status of special holiday on Monday for a large number of privately run educational institutions in the city. The Sindh Government has also announced an additional holiday on Monday in connection with Eid Milad-un-Nabi. According to the notification issued by District Officer Coordination Officer, City-District Government Karachi (CDGK) all offices of the CDGK, town municipal administrations, union administrations, and the educational institutions within the city-district Karachi will remain closed on Monday. According to the notification issued by the University of Karachi on Saturday, the KU and its affiliated colleges will remain closed on April 2 on account of Eid Milad-un-Nabi. The schedule of examinations of the university if any, scheduled on Monday, will remain unchanged. According to the notification issued by registrar of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science, & Technology (FUUAST), the Karachi and Islamabad campuses of the Urdu University will remain closed on April 2 in connection with Eid Milad-un-Nabi. A senior official of the Dow University of Health Science (DUHS) had informed The News on Saturday evening that they had not announced any additional holiday for the Dow University on Monday.
Courtesy: TN

Missing in Pakistan, found in jehadi ranks: Musharraf

Hitting out at jehadi groups for bringing bad name to Islam, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today said a number of missing persons, believed to have been abducted by intelligence agencies, actually joined militant outfits like the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad to create trouble in different parts of the world.
In his address to a religious conference here on the occasion of Eid Milad-un Nabi, Musharraf said he has conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations by relatives of missing persons and found that a number of them had joined jehadi groups.
He mainly referred to the campaign conducted by Amana, wife of one Janjua who has gone missing. Musharraf said Amana's husband, who was the son of an officer of Pakistan's special commando forces, went missing in Peshawar after attending the conference of an Islamic propagandaorganisation. Investigations revealed that Janjua had joined the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Musharraf said his investigations have revealed that of the 45 persons missing, 35 have been traced.
Three of them, captured in Afghanistan, were found at Guantanamo. The remaining 10, including Janjua, have not been traced so far.
Referring to the girls of a madarsa here capturing two police and abducting three women, allegedly brothel runners, Musharraf appealed to the people present to prevail on such students not to indulge in militant acts.
He said young men and women joined jehadi groups and brought bad name to Islam by trying to impose their philosophy on others.
Musharraf said under Islam no one has the right to declare jehad except the government, which was the central authority. Jehad is just not about fighting and dying but it should be launched against illiteracy and poverty.
Courtesy: IE

Pakistan harbouring Taliban Mullah Omar: Hamid Karzai

Afghanistan`s President Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistan`s intelligence agencies of sheltering fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. Karzai said Omar, who has been on the run since being toppled by a US-led coalition some five years ago, is being harboured in the Pakistani city of Quetta. "We have solid, clear information indicating that," he told The New York Times. "And I`m sorry I cannot be silent about this, as much as our friends in Pakistan may not like my saying that," he said. Omar headed the 1996-2001 Taliban regime that sheltered al-Qaeda. His government was overthrown in a US-led invasion weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks when it failed to hand over al-Qaeda leaders wanted for the strikes. Karzai also blamed Islamabad for a resurgence of violence along their common border. "We have almost daily reports of suicide bombers coming from there," he told the newspaper. "If we have better cooperation from Pakistan, a great many of these cross-border crossings would stop." Pakistan and Afghanistan each have accused the other of allowing Taliban remnants to flourish within its borders since the group was overthrown. The Afghanistan leader also chided the west for having chosen to battle the Taliban in Afghan villages, instead of preventing Pakistan from financing and sheltering the fundamentalist group.
Courtesy: ZN

Pakistan captain tells of void left by Bob Woolmer

Bob Woolmer has left his undeniable print on Pakistan cricket and will never be forgotten by the players, Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said at a memorial service today.
"No one can ever really understand the void in the team he has left. He was a top-class coach and an even better human being," Inzamam told the congregation.
Candle lights burnt and floral wreaths were placed by a large portrait of Woolmer, smiling and wearing the Pakistan team T-shirt.
Some 200 people, including Governor of Punjab Khalid Maqbool, attended the service at the Sacred Heart Cathedral which was led by Archbishop of Lahore Lawrence Saldanha.
One of the wreaths was laid by the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board on behalf of the country's president Pervez Musharraf.
Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his hotel room two weeks ago, a day after Pakistan were eliminated from the World Cup after a shock defeat by Ireland.
Woolmer, Pakistan's coach since 2004, died later in hospital and police in Jamaica are treating his death as murder.
Archbishop Saldanha said his sudden and tragic death had plunged the entire nation into sadness and sorrow. "Our heartfelt condolences and the sympathies of every Pakistani went out to Woolmer's mourning wife and his relatives," he added.
The PCB has announced that the main hall of the national cricket academy in Lahore has been named after Woolmer who preferred to live and work from one room in the academy throughout his tenure in Pakistan although he was entitled to five-star accommodation.
A memorial service will also be held on Thursday in Cape Town where Woolmer lived for over 20 years.
Courtesy: Reuters

Pakistan Celebrates Eid Milad-un-Nabi Tomorrow

Like rest of the areas in Pakistan, arrangements are also being made in Sindh to celebrate Eid Milad-un-Nabi (PBUH) with religious fervour and zeal tomorrow, Sunday.
The public and private buildings and the mosques of the city have been illuminated in an aesthetic manner. City government, towns and union councils administration are paying special attention to the cleanliness. Also, a committee of ulema has been constituted to spread tolerance among the masses.
The committee will meet the organizers of mosques situated in sensitive areas and processions being taken out in Malir Town. Law enforcement agencies have made foolproof security arrangements to cope with any untoward incident on the occasion
Courtesy: PT

Tribal-militant clashes intensify in Pakistan

Fighting between local and foreign militants Friday killed 52 people, bringing to more than 200 the number of dead in recent days in a conflict between Pakistanis and suspected al-Qaida-linked extremists, a senior official said.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said 45 Uzbek militants and seven tribesmen died in battles in South Waziristan, a lawless region used as a rear base by Taliban militants fighting in Afghanistan. The U.S. fears that al-Qaida is regrouping there.
Since fighting began last week, 213 people have been killed, including 177 Uzbeks and their local allies, Sherpao said.
The conflict intensified Friday after foreigners failed to comply with an ultimatum from tribal elders to leave their territory, Sherpao said.
Under pressure from the U.S. to do more against the Taliban and al-Qaida, the government has claimed that the violence in South Waziristan vindicates its policy of using traditional leaders, not the army, to combat militancy along the border.
Some analysts, however, say that militants with links to the Taliban and al-Qaida are involved on both sides of the current conflict, and that blood feuds could deepen insecurity in a region viewed as a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri.
Courtesy: Indystar

Pakistan shuts the Islamist radio station

Pakistani authorities have shut down an illegal FM radio station set up by pro-Taleban clerics in Islamabad during growing concern about the spread of Islamist influence.
President Pervez Musharraf, an important ally in the US-led war on terrorism, has long warned against the spread of what he calls extremism although critics say his government has done little to tackle religious hardliners.
Concern about the spread of militancy, or Talebanisation, intensified this week as militants battled police in a previously peaceful northwestern town and hardline students of an Islamabad madrassa launched a Taleban-style drive against vice.
Burqa-clad female students of the madrassa abducted three women on Tuesday after accusing them of running a brothel. The women were later released but one said they had been tortured into confessing.
Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and its religious school, or madrassa, are well known for their pro-Taleban and anti-US and anti-government stand.
Earlier in the week, the students roamed through several Islamabad markets, urging music shop owners to stop selling discs. The Taleban banned music in Afghanistan before they were driven from power by US-led forces in 2001.
The Taleban sprang from Pakistani madrassas, near the Afghan border, in 1990s and their influence quickly spread. The militant movement took control of much of Afghanistan in 1996 and they imposed severe restrictions on women, banned all music, television, movies and virtually eradicated the drugs trade.
As part of their campaign against vice, the students in Islamabad and their hardline clerics set up an FM radio station on Wednesday to propagate their strict version of Islam. Authorities reacted quickly to shut it down.
“We took action as soon as the issue was brought to our notice. We have stopped the transmissions,” a spokesman for the government’s electronic media regulator said.
He declined to say how the transmissions had been stopped but said further action would be taken if warranted.
The madrassa students have been at odds with city authorities for months over government efforts to demolish mosques illegally built on state land.
Women students occupied a library next to their mosque in January as part of their campaign against the authorities, which soon abandoned their efforts against encroachment.
The students are still occupying the library, demanding several demolished mosques be rebuilt.
Their mosque compound has taken on the air of a rebel camp with young men with sticks posted at gates and at look-out points along its banner-strewn walls.
Courtesy: TPQ

Bob Woolmer's murder linked to Dawood, Al-Qaeda

Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer's mysterious death took a new twist with a media report in London linking his murder to Dawood Ibrahim and Al-Qaeda.A report in The Sun claimed a Pakistan-based bookie was thrown out of Woolmer's room after an altercation with the coach.The daily quoted sources claiming that the bookie, who had vanished after Woolmer's death on March 18, is an associate of Dawood Ibrahim, who is wanted over funding Al-Qaeda and also for the 1993 Mumbai blasts.The report quoted intelligence officials, who tour with the Indian cricket team, as saying that the bookie was seen at the World Cup in Jamaica with Dawood's brother Anees Ibrahim.Jamaican officials, however, said they were not told by the Pakistani cricketers about any such row between the coach and the bookie. The report, however, claimed that two Pakistani players, in their statement to the police, did mention about the furious bust-up."Bob Woolmer said he had thrown a bookie out of his room. He didn''t give a reason," an official said. Deputy Commissioner of Jamaican Police Mark Shields said, "This issue has come up before but we have so far been unable to substantiate it.""But we are prepared to consider it further now that we have names and more details. We will be investigating." Woolmer was found strangled in his 12th floor room of the Pegasus Hotel room on March 18, hours after Pakistan's shock World Cup defeat against minnows Ireland.
Courtesy: Indiadaily