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.

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

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

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

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

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