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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 26 October, 1995 Issue :01/42
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The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from
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CONTENTS
Karachi
..........City violence claims 24 lives
MQM
..........MQM terms Shahs allegations baseless
..........Ban on travel of MQM team condemned
..........Dehlavi criticises Babar
..........MQM leaders to test govt claim tomorrow
..........Ishtiaq wants activists whereabouts revealed
..........Arrest of Ishtiaqs nephew criticised
..........Govt urged to allow visit to detained MPA
..........Three MQM men arrested
..........Fatimas recovery : MQM gives 48-hour ultimatum
PML
..........Nawaz, Altaf review political situation
..........PML observes black day in Sindh
..........PML leaders lash out at government
..........Nawaz opposes any change out of constitution
..........Karachi still in grip of violence: Nawaz
..........Ghous opposes use of force
..........Nawaz, Benazir had agreed on holding polls in 1994: MNA
PPP
..........PPP celebrates second year in power
..........PPP leaders resolve to banish terrorism
..........Shah asks Press to help combat terrorism
..........Govt not to give in to terrorists, says Azfar
..........Shoaib, Qazi have no proper travelling documents: Babar
..........Khan against fixing timeframe for success of talks with
MQM
..........Terrorism controlled in Karachi: Shah
..........Khan wants MQM to hold talks
PPP (SB)
..........Soomros father flays Murtaza
..........Govt trying to disqualify PPP (SB)
Brown Amendment
..........One more vote to make Brown Amendment successful
..........US House committee okays Brown Amendment
..........Pakistan victory in Congress fatal blow to Pressler
Reporting on armymens case banned
Extra-judicial killings termed violation of human rights
HRCP rejects ambush in Faheems killing
Minister condemns custodial killings
PWC urges govt to hold talks with MQM
The New City project: some unanswered questions
Sindh Bank to be govt-owned
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Coup attempt news depresses market
Incentive packages for other sectors soon to boost exports
Rupee loses 9 paisa more against $
Stocks sustain technically-inspired rally
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The megalomaniacs Ardeshir Cowasjee
Terror against terror Mazdak
Isnt staying on enough? Lahore Diary
Black law vs the Brown law Mushtaq Ahmed
OF MICE AND MEN : Fathers and sons Hafizur Rahman
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Jansher wins US Open for the 4th time
Pakistan underdogs for World Cup: Asif Iqbal
Majid quits World Cup Technical Committee
A nail-biting cricket final in Sharjah
The painful cricket debacle in Sharjah
Strife-torn Sri Lanka rejoices over win
Pakistan play 1-1 draw against Germany
Pakistan, Germany draw 2-2
Australian doubts over Malik case
951020
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City violence claims 24 lives
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 26: Violence in the city claimed 24 lives this week. Some
incidents are cited below.
Oct 19: Iqbal Ahmad, 24, an activist of the MQM, was sitting in a
video shop in Nazimabad when some unidentified persons kidnapped him
to Paposhnagar.
Later, his body with bullet holes was found dumped into a sewerage
line in the same vicinity, the police said.
SUCCUMBED: An army captain, company commander of Sachal Rangers posted
in Khwaja Ajmer Nagri, who was critically wounded in a rocket blast on
Monday at a check-post, died in the PNS Shifa Hospital.
Capt. Iftekhar Ahmad, 23, and his other four colleagues were wounded
in the blast when some unidentified men had fired a rocket at the
Rangers check-post in Khwaja Ajmer Nagri, injuring Iftekhar and his
four other colleagues. Later, the captain was admitted to PNS Shifa
where he breathed his last.
A teen-aged boy was killed in a shootout between two groups in
Sharifabad Police Station jurisdiction.
Police said Aatif, 14, had come to the house of his grandmother in Al-
Azam Square when he was hit by a bullet during the shootout. He was
standing in the gallery of the apartment when a bullet pierced through
his head. He fell down and died on the spot.
The police claimed that there was a heavy shooting between two rival
groups in the locality and the armed men had picketed on the rooftops
of buildings.
KARACHI, Oct 21: A young man died in police custody and five people
were killed in city violence on Saturday.
Law enforcers besieged Korangi and the Qasba Colony areas in the
morning and conducted house-to-house searches to flush out suspects.
According to reports, the police, rangers and Frontier Constabulary
picked up several people during their joint siege-and-search
operation.
Mohammad Tahir, who had by the Preedy police on Friday, died in
mysterious circumstances in custody on Saturday.
He had been taken away by the special investigation cell (SIC), South,
on the same night for interrogation and dropped back at the Preedy
police station at 5 am on Saturday, the police said.
When a duty officer went to see Tahir, he was found breathless. Later,
he was taken to the Civil Hospital where his death was confirmed, the
police said. His body was sent to the mortuary to ascertain the cause
of death.
A judicial probe into his death has been ordered.
Oct 25: Three MQM activists, two rangers and a police officer were
among the nine people who were killed in city violence on Wednesday.
Tension gripped Orangi Town after three MQM workers died in encounters
with police and rangers at two different places.
Police and rangers, however, gave conflicting versions about their
respective encounters and confusion persisted in the manner the six
were killed.
951020
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MQM terms Shahs allegations baseless
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 19:The MQM coordination committee on Thursday rejected as
baseless the Sindh chief ministerss allegations that the MQM was
working for India and termed it provocative.
In a written reply, the committee alleged that the PPP government was
itself working against the integrity of Pakistan and for Akhand
Bharat because no government uses State power to kill its own
citizens and indulge in their genocide by letting lose a reign of
terror.
The coordination committee said that the chief ministers remark was
an insult to the millions of Urdu-speaking people who had rendered
great sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan.
The coordination committee observed that during Mr Altaf Hussains
address, those present there, were extremely annoyed at brutal
killings allegedly at the hands of the government.
They were weeping while hearing of the atrocities and genocide of the
descendants of those who fought for Pakistan, the committee claimed,
adding that the emotionally-charged people had raised slogans of Oh
God, save my Pakistan.
The committee said the Chief Minister did not take note of such
slogans but mentioned only those slogans which were raised by a few
people present in the gathering who were against the policy of MQM.
The committee contended that when members of the New York unit tried
to stop these people from raising slogans which were contrary to the
MQMs policy, they were told that since the slogan-mongers were not
members of the MQM, they were not bound by its discipline. They
contended that they were fed up with State terrorism and thus
justified in raising such slogans.
The incident also resulted in some altercation between organisers and
slogan-mongers, the MQM coordination committee said.
Regarding the chief ministers remarks that why Mr Hussain did not
stop them from raising such slogans, the coordination committee
observed that during the address Mr Hussain had on many occasions
asked the audience whether or not he was audible. He was replied in
the affirmative by the organisers, so he proceeded with the address,
which was punctuated by slogans.
In London these slogans were not being registered properly and had Mr
Hussain heard the slogans , which were against Pakistan and
detrimental to the MQM policy, he would have stopped them from doing
so, the committee contended.
Castigating the alleged oppressive policies, the coordination
committee accused the government of letting lose a reign of terror
against innocent people, and not even sparing children, women and
older generation.
It complained that when the President does not listen to and the
courtss orders are not implemented, one cannot understand the agony
of the oppressed and the neglected.
In a counter-question, it asked that when the former premier and
founder of the PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged, didnt the PPP
leaders and workers raise Pakistan Murdabad slogan? Didnt they burn
Pakistan flag; didnt they abuse the Pakistan army, hijacked Pakistani
plane and damaged the railway track during the 1983 MRD movement?
It also accused the PPP of indulging in attacks on trains, bomb
explosions, rocket attack on oil refinery and asked was Pakistan flag
not burnt at Benazir Bhuttos public meeting at Larkana in 1988? It
contended that if Benazir Bhutto had not allegedly provided list of
Sikhs to Rajiv Gandhi, then Kashmir would have been independent by
now.
It said that Mr Hussain had time and again warned the authorities that
if Mohajirs were denied their rights, such extremist thinking would
take root which had so far been controlled by the MQM.
But the question arise if tomorrow the whole Mohajir nation starts
raising this slogan, can the MQM control, and who will be responsible
for that situation? the committee asked.
Rejecting the remarks of the chief minister, the committee once again
appealed to the President and the Chief of the Army Staff to stop
genocide of the Mohajirs so the raison detre for negative thinking
did not exist.
951022
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Ban on travel of MQM team condemned
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Staff Correspondent
LONDON, Oct 21: Stopping by the authorities of two members of the MQM
negotiating team from travelling to the United Kingdom has been
condemned by Altaf Hussain who said that despite assurances extended
by the interior and law ministers the action taken by the government
clearly indicated that their promises were no more than a fraud and
the negotiations it was conducting were nothing else but a sham.
He said human rights organisations should now be able to realise that
the PPP wants to resolve political problems by using the power of the
State.
The MQM leader also condoled the death of another party worker,
Mohammad Iqbal. He said that the killing was part of the official
policy to eliminate MQM activists, for which the government has once
again reactivated the Haqiqi group.
951022
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Dehlavi criticises Babar
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 21: The chief MQM negotiator, Ajmal Dehlavi, on Saturday
slammed the government for preventing two of his colleagues from
proceeding to London for consultation with the MQM chief, Altaf
Hussain.
Mr Dehlavi said interior minister Naseerullah Babars remarks that the
MQM claim in this regard was a drama was highly derogatory,
provocative and uncalled for.
The deputy opposition leader in the provincial assembly and a member
of the MQM negotiating team, Shoaib Bokhari and Qazi Khalid, were
allegedly prevented at the airport from proceeding to London where MQM
chief is in self-exile.
Mr Dehlavi said the incident had aptly proved that the interior
ministers claim that there is no ban on foreign travel by our
negotiating team members is a farce.
951023
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MQM leaders to test govt claim tomorrow
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 22: Two members of the MQM negotiating would again
attempt to leave for London on Tuesday to test the governments claim
that there is no ban on their foreign travel, said chief MQM
negotiator Ajmal Dehlavi on Sunday.
We will also take journalists and photographers as witness to the
proceedings, he added.
Mr Dehlavi had slammed the government on Saturday for preventing two
of his colleagues from proceeding to London for consultation with Mr
Hussain.
Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar had rejected the MQM claim as a
concoction and fabrication.
Mr Dehlavi said Mr Babars remarks that the MQM claim in this regard
was a drama was highly derogatory, provocative and uncalled-for.
951023
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Ishtiaq wants activists whereabouts revealed
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 22: The MQM coordination committee convenor, Senator
Ishtiaq Azhar, on Sunday demanded of the government to disclose the
whereabouts of Nadim and Mansoor, who were arrested from a video shop
in Ratan Talao on Friday.
In a statement, he said Nadeem and Mansoor had been arrested near the
Burns Road two days back, with Mohammad Tahir, 26, who died in police
custody on Saturday.
He expressed his apprehensions if the two were not released, the
police would kill them as they killed Mohammad Tahir.
The MQMs facts-finding committee on Friday released a facts sheet on
the death of Mohammad Tahir. According to the fact-sheet, Tahir,
Mansoor and Nadim were arrested at a video shop and taken to the
Preedy police station where they (Nadim and Mansoor) were blind-folded
and shifted to some unknown place.
The committee alleged that the police had tortured him while he was
in their custody. His body was full of bruises, cigarette burns, and
neck and arms were broken.
In another statement, the MQM parliamentary group leader in Sindh
Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar, alleged that the four dacoits killed in an
encounter with the police in Dehli Mercantile Society on Saturday were
employees of Sindh Reserve Police.
He said law enforcers were the real culprits who broke the law.
951024
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Arrest of Ishtiaqs nephew criticised
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 23: The MQM Coordination Committee has strongly
criticised the arrest of Mr. Arif, nephew of the Committee Convenor,
Senator Ishtiaq Azhar, and termed the action open and blatant
terrorism by the government.
MQM Press release on Monday alleged that the government, which from
the very beginning was arresting the party leaders and workers and
filing false cases against them, had now initiated large-scale state
terrorism against the family members of the MQM leaders and workers by
arresting them and implicating them in false cases.
It was of the view that the government was employing these tactics to
pressurise the party leaders to leave the path of righteousness. The
recent arrests of Mohammad Aslam, brother-in-law of MQM chief Altaf
Hussain, and then the arrest of Mr Arif were parts of such efforts, it
added.
The committee also said the party supporters and workers would not
succumb to any pressure.
951025
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Govt urged to allow visit to detained MPA
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Staff Correspondent
LONDON, Oct 24: An urgent demand to the government to allow relatives
of the detained MQM member of the Sindh Assembly, Mr Qamar Mansur, to
visit him has been made by Mr Altaf Hussain who has expressed concern
about his condition.
The MQM leader said that Mr Mansur should be transferred to Karachi
for treatment and members of his family should be allowed to see him.
He said that if any harm came to Mr Mansur, the MQM will launch a
severe protest against this kind of behaviour.
Mr Hussain said that Mr Qamar Mansur was arrested along with Mr Rais
Fatima on June 4. Although Ms Rais Fatima is still missing, the
government admitted that Mr Mansur was being held in Islamabad under
FIA custody. He has not since been allowed visitors, and Mr Hussain
alleged that Mr Mansur has been subjected to torture.
He said the torture has resulted in Mr Mansur losing one leg while the
other too is at risk. He has now been moved to the Pakistan Institute
of Medical Science.
951025
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Three MQM men arrested
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 24: The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) claimed on
Tuesday that it had arrested three MQM suspects who had allegedly
fired six rockets at the Sindh Secretariat earlier this month.
A CIA handout identified the suspects as Syed Saeed, Ahtesham Alam and
Kashif alias David who, it claimed, were arrested during a house raid
in the Pakistan Chowk area.
The police claimed that they had been told by the suspects during
initial interrogation that at least eight other MQM activists had
participated in the attack.
951026
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Fatimas recovery : MQM gives 48-hour ultimatum
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 25: The MQM Coordination Committee has given a 48-hour
ultimatum to the government to disclose the whereabouts of Raees
Fatima, otherwise it will announce its new strategy.
It said the statement of arrested MPA Qamar Mansoor, who was admitted
to the Islamabad Institute of Medical Sciences, had revealed that the
interior minister, the provincial minister and other senior government
officials were lying to the Press and judiciary.
If anything happens to the life and the honour of Raees Fatima, the
Mohajir nation will never forgive Benazir Bhutto, Naseerullah Babar,
IB chief Masood Sharif and all others found involved in this, the
committee warned.
The MQM coordination committee criticised the President also and said:
The President has failed to perform his ethical, legal and
constitutional responsibilities and has no right to remain in power.
The committee said MPA Qamar Mansoor had claimed that Raees Fatima was
arrested with him which proved that the responsibility for her safety
and whereabouts lay with the government.
Chief MQM negotiator Ajmal Dehlavi said before the meeting that the
matter was serious and discussions would continue even on Thursday
during which a future course of action would be decided.
Asked if there were chances of another protest strike, Mr Dehlavi
said: I have a feeling that the possibility cannot be ruled out, but
a final decision would be known at the end of the meeting.
Talking about Raees Fatima, he said new facts had come to light
following the statement of JWPs Bashir Tareen.
951020
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Nawaz, Altaf review political situation
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Staff Correspondent
LONDON, Oct 19: The opposition leader Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif had a
meeting, with the leader of the MQM Mr Altaf Hussain, in which they
reviewed the latest political situation in the country.
Mr Hussain, sources said, has expressed concern over the lack of
support from the opposition parties for the MQM against what he
described as the governments policy to eliminate his party workers .
The MQM has established a working alliance with the opposition, led by
Mian Nawaz Sharif and the two, in their previous meeting, had agreed
to increase coordination.
951020
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PML observes black day in Sindh
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Dawn Report
HYDERABAD, Oct 19: Scores of the PML activists were taken into custody
in various cities to stop them from taking part in the black day
rallies and meetings held by the opposition on Thursday to condemn the
alleged misdeeds of the PPP government during its two-year rule.
In Nawabshah alone, 60 people were arrested.
PML workers took out processions, burnt effigies of rulers, hoisted
black flags on their houses, wore black armbands and made speeches at
public meetings in Hyderabad, Larkana, Attock, Nawabshah, Dera Ismail
Khan, Sukkur, Badin, Khairpur, Jaccobabad, Mirpurkhas and Khuzdar.
The general secretary of the PML (labour wing), Al-Haaj Fawad Ahmed
Khan, condemned the killing of people in Karachi and held the
government responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation
in Sindh.
He claimed that the entire nation had united against Benazir Bhutto
and Asif Ali Zardari, and the Tehrik-i-Nijaat would continue till the
ouster of the government.
He said the prices of the consumer goods had sky-rocketed during the
past two years.
They criticised the government allegedly for working against the
interests of the country and destroying its the economy. They were
also critical of the foreign policy.
The leaders of the PML lawyer forum demanded an end to human rights
violations, withdrawal of false cases against opposition leaders and
respect for law and the Constitution.
951020
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PML leaders lash out at government
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Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Oct 19: Painting a bleak picture of the state of affairs
during the two years of the PPP rule, speakers after speakers at a
black day public meeting here on Thursday lashed out at the
governments policies and observed that today the third year of the
Benazir government is beginning when life and property of any citizen
is not secure in the country.
Some 20 speakers, who addressed the protest meeting held under the
auspices of Karachi PML and ANP at the Lea Market Chowk near Azam
Hotel, said: There is a general feeling that the country is in the
grip of a serious crisis of governance and if this government is
allowed to continue further, the country will suffer irreparably.
He said that the government had failed on all fronts whether it was
foreign policy or interior, law and order or price spiral, judiciary
or industry. The governments claims about investment were unfounded
as no investment was coming in the country from any side and the
country was heading towards bankruptcy, Mr Shah claimed.
Dost Mohammad Faizi said that everywhere in the world people had been
asking about the solution of the Karachi imbroglio and according to
the PPP government it had failed, despite its efforts to resolve it.
Therefore, the government ought to hand over this responsibility to
the opposition and We will resolve it with the support and help of
our friends.
Amin Khattak of the ANP said the government was a threat to the
solidarity of the country. The KESC had taken loans of billions of
dollars, which were in addition to the huge loans taken from Pakistani
banks, he said and added it would result in electricity being charged
at the rate of Rs 9 per unit.
Pointing to the powers of police, the ANP leader said that in Karachi
the police had assumed powers of judges and decisions of the courts
were being decided on roads.
He said: We condemn terrorism but awarding punishment to a terrorist
is the work of the judiciary not of the law enforcement personnel.
Alhaj Rafi of JUP (Niazi) termed the government talks with the MQM as
a farce and said the merciless killings by the interior minister in
Karachi have no precedent.
951022
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Nawaz opposes any change out of constitution
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 21: Demanding change of government to solve the countrys
problems, leader of the opposition Mian Nawaz Sharif ruled out any
extra-constitutional measures in this regard.
I have never spoken about an extra-constitutional change; in fact I
am opposed to any extra-constitutional change by any force.
Declining to make any substantive comment on the arrest of senior army
officers for the alleged attempt to stage a coup detat, the
opposition leader said: It is a very sensitive matter and I will not
comment without ascertaining the facts.
Accusing the government of endangering the countrys integrity by
corrupt and wrong policies, he said a change of government was
imperative for taking the country out of the current crisis.
Blaming the government for the current blood-letting and law and order
problem in Karachi, he expressed grave concern over the killings of
civilians as well as members of law enforcement agencies. He condemned
custodial killing of alleged terrorists and held the government
responsible for it.
How can a government ensure safety of the general public when it
cannot even protect those in police custody? Mr Sharif asked and
added that those responsible for such criminal acts must be
punished.
Asked about his meeting with the MQM chief Altaf Hussain, Mr Sharif
declined to give any details.
Accusing the government of not being sincere in solving Karachi and
other problems, Mr Sharif said the negotiations with the MQM are just
a farce.
He said that contrary to the governments claims that it had
apprehended most of the terrorists, more people were being killed
every day. We have become the most uncivilised country in the world
because of human rights violations, he remarked.
When persisted to spell out how a change in government could be
brought about when he was not prepared to move a no-confidence motion
or launch a full fledged movement, Mian Nawaz Sharif said mid-term
polls could be the answer.
He said that because of the law and order problem investment had gone
down, inflation had crossed the limit of 40%, currency had depreciated
against dollar, and the port activity had reduced to a trickle as very
few ships were calling at Karachi.
He said the future government would take account of every act of this
government.
951025
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Karachi still in grip of violence: Nawaz
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Bureau Report
LAHORE, Oct 24: Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif says that if the prime
minister wants to repeal the eighth constitutional amendment she
should hold talks with the opposition on the basis of the nine-point
package he had announced last year.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, he said the prime minister had
lost her credibility and now talks with her could be held only on the
basis of his package.
Mr Sharif said the prime minister had failed to restore peace to
Karachi and she could not be expected to normalise the situation
during her tenure. In his opinion, the provocative statements made by
the prime minister and the interior minister and the fake police
encounters had worsened the situation .
The opposition leader said only a new prime minister would be able to
deal with the situation in Karachi.
He attacked the government for its two- year performance and said if
the achievements, being claimed through advertisements being published
everyday in newspapers were genuine, why the people were protesting on
roads.
He said the opposition had played its role well and forewarned people
about the adverse consequences of wrong policies of the government.
951023
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Ghous opposes use of force
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 22: Sindh PML President Syed Ghous Ali Shah has advised
the government to desist from use of state terrorism which will
block the democratic process and result in anarchy.
Mr Shah regretted that on the eve of the black day, which the PML
had observed on Thursday to expose the PPP misrule, many PML
activists had been arrested, particularly in interior Sindh where
people were stopped forcibly from joining the rallies.
Condemning the custodial killings, the PML chief said the ruling PPP
had been pushing the country towards a catastrophe through execution
without trial.
He said the government had lost its credibility in the eyes of public
and the only alternative left with the government was to hold mid-term
polls under a neutral set-up to save the democracy.
He accused the government of trying to trigger ethnic riots to divert
the attention of the people from pressing issues.
Replying to other questions, the PML leader said some of the party
workers, who were detained on the eve of the black day, had been
released. He asked the relatives of the remaining arrested workers to
contact the PML leadership so that legal remedy could be found.
951026
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Nawaz, Benazir had agreed on holding polls in 1994: MNA
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Bureau Report
LAHORE, Oct 25: Mian Nawaz Sharif as prime minister and Ms Benazir
Bhutto as opposition leader had struck a deal to hold general
elections in 1994 under the supervision of a national government in
which the PPP was also to have representation. However, some
invisible forces influenced the PPP and advised it to go for a
short-cut instead of waiting till 1994 and thus the agreement reached
between the two political adversaries stood sabotaged, a PML MNA
disclosed here on Wednesday.
Khwaja Muhammad Asif, MNA from Sialkot, said at the Meet the Press
programme of the Lahore Press Club that Ms Bhutto had accepted the
chairmanship of the National Assemblys Foreign Affairs Committee as a
part of that deal and she had rejected Mr Farooq Legharis opposition
to the agreement.
According to him, under the agreement a national government was to be
formed in 1993 and the elections were to be held in 1994. The next
president was to be elected by the PML and the PPP through consensus.
He said Mr Iftikhar Gilani and Mehmud Achakzai had played an important
role in working out the deal.
But, Khwaja Asif alleged, that a third party sabotaged the
agreement by convincing Ms Bhutto that 1994 was far away and instead
of waiting for that long, she should adopt a short- cut. Thus, he
alleged, the then opposition leader backed out of the agreement and
started mounting pressure on the then government through long marches.
The PML legislator did not name the third party which had sabotaged
the agreement.
This is for the first time that an opposition leader has disclosed the
existence of an agreement between Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto during the
Sharif rule.
951020
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PPP celebrates second year in power
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Staff Correspondent
HYDERABAD, Oct 19: Pakistan Peoples Party on Thursday held a meeting
at the Aqeel Ibrahim auditorium of Hyderabad Press Club under the
aegis of the Peoples Labour Bureau to mark the beginning of the week
long celebrations on the completion of the PPPs two years in office.
Later, speaking at a rally, the minister said the democracy in the
country would flourish further under the leadership of Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto.
He claimed that before the induction of PPPs government the countrys
financial scene was depressing and the development process had come to
standstill. Now, he said, the deficit gap was being bridged and the
process of upliftment had started in the right direction with the aim
of serving poor and down-trodden who had given sacrifices for the
restoration of democracy.
BADIN: A big rally was held by PPP Badin district workers led by MNA
Dr Mirza Zulfiqar Ali, to mark the completion of two years in office.
MIRPURKHAS: MNA Pir Aftab Shah Jilani has said today here that present
government is making all out efforts to provide modern facilities to
the people in rural and urban areas.
DADU :Peoples government is pursuing successful policies in all
spheres of national life said Sindh Agriculture Minister Syed Murad
Ali Shah here on Thursday.
Addressing a rally marking the beginning of week-long celebrations,
Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the present government initiated a
record number of development projects in Sindh including education,
health, agriculture, communication, culture, irrigation and power and
social welfare and more and more development schemes will be launched
for the social uplift of masses.
951020
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PPP leaders resolve to banish terrorism
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 19: Addressing a rally at the Quaids mausoleum on
Thursday, the PPP leaders resolved to banish terrorism, poverty, and
unemployment and to make Pakistan a strong force.
It was organised in connection with the completion of two years of the
PPP government. The rally marked the beginning of the week- long
celebrations planned by the PPP government.
Qaim Ali Shah said the PPP government wanted that terrorism be rooted
out and peace and brotherhood should prevail in the city. The people,
he said, were against frequent strikes which had hampered progress.
He regretted that despondency was being spread among youths under a
conspiracy, and also regretted that there were some elements who were
talking against Pakistan while sitting abroad.
951021
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Shah asks Press to help combat terrorism
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 20: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Abdullah Shah has said that
constant confrontational politics and credibility gaps not only
between public and government but between Pakistanis themselves are
some of the maladies affecting the very fabric of our society and
pushing it towards the quagmire of regionalism, ethnicity and
sectarianism.
Recalling the situation in Sindh, particularly in Karachi, the chief
minister said that the causes for the tensions and confrontation were
inherited by the government. A military operation in Sindh had been
continuing since June 1992. Conflict between the terrorists and the
law enforcing agencies did exist.
Pointing out that while dealing with this sensitive issue, he said the
government had not ignored the development activities. Various
departments of the government had released the facts and figures, he
added.
951022
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Govt not to give in to terrorists, says Azfar
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
LAHORE, Oct 21: Sindh Governor Kamaluddin Azfar has said the
government will not give in to separatists and terrorists who h
ave
destroyed the public peace in Karachi.
He said the government had only one-point agenda in Karachi: to
restore peace in the city within the framework of Pakistan. He said
the demands of division and separation could not be considered even
for a moment.
He said it would take at least one more year to bring peace to the
city.
He said the civil administration was making efforts for the
restoration of law and order since the withdrawal of the army in
November 1994.
He claimed that violence had subsided in most parts of Karachi and was
now restricted only to the Central District.
Mr Azfar claimed that foreign investors were very eager to invest in
Karachi despite incidents of violence. He said ICI had been investing
$400 million and other foreign investors had committed $1 billion to
set up the power generation projects.
He said only a section of the MQM was involved in terrorism and the
rest of the people wanted peace to return to the city.
He said it was not out of affection or love for the MQM that the
residents responded to its calls for protest. Actually, they were
afraid of the MQMs militant wing who had terrorised the citizens.
951022
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Shoaib, Qazi have no proper travelling documents: Babar
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: Interior Minister Naseerullah Khan Babar has
strongly reacted to what he called the Altaf Group drama staged by
members of the negotiating team, Shoaib Bokhari and Qazi Khalid, at
Karachi airport, alleging that they were not allowed by the
immigration authorities to travel abroad.
The minister said the two members, Shoaib Bokhari and Qazi Khalid, did
appear before the immigration authorities in Karachi on Friday for
proceeding to London, but without the required documents.
Mr Babar said the members of negotiating team have now come out with
allegations that they were stopped from going abroad.
He said he had announced time and again that there was no bar on
travel abroad on the members of Altaf Groups negotiating team. I
stand by my commitment, he categorically stated.
951023
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Khan against fixing timeframe for success of talks with MQM
-------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON, Oct 22: The Minister for Law and leader of the government team
in the talks with the Altaf group, N.D. Khan, said here on Saturday
that the government was serious to see the negotiations on Karachi
succeed as soon as possible.
It is the Altaf group which is resorting to delaying tactics ... I do
not understand for what they are gaining time.
Although the government, he said, wanted an early completion of talks
he was against fixing a timeframe for them. He, however, made it clear
that the government could not allow the process prolonged beyond any
reasonable time.
It is responsible for the maintenance of law and order, protecting
life and property of the people, ensuring peaceful conditions, and
bolstering confidence in the economy. A days strike costs Rs 2
billion in lost income. The country has already suffered a loss of Rs
54 billion due to strikes.
Mr Khan said in the event of the negotiations being prolonged beyond
reasonable time the government might use other options.
Mr Khan said the path of talks was beset with problems. Without
restoring law and order and eliminating violence and terrorism the
government was not in a position to offer anything.
The government, he said, wanted one-item agenda of the restoration of
law and order in the city to be tackled first and the rest to be taken
up afterwards. The Altaf group wants it the other way round.
Mr Khan said he expected that the talks would be resumed soon after
his return to Islamabad.
951025
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Terrorism controlled in Karachi: Shah
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Report
PESHAWAR, Oct 24: Sindh chief minister, Syed Abdullah Shah said, that
the MQM had been exposed to the people of Karachi as a party that
played in the hands of foreign masters. Its designs were different
from what they were publicly pretending, he added.
The PPP government had achieved great success in handling the worst
terrorism imposed by the Indian trained agents and arm infiltration,
without involving army which was the basic desire of India.
He claimed that some 400 to 500 trained terrorists had so far been
nabbed, 100 killed in encounters while three to four thousand more
were still at large to create scare and damage countrys economy
through destroying Karachi, the only sea port of the country.
He said, and there were ample proofs that the MQM was actively engaged
in accepting foreign aid to supplement Indian designs. It was,
however, good omen, he asserted that the Karachis populace when
predominantly consisted of MQM supporting areas has turned against the
MQM leadership after realising the true face of MQM leaders.
Replying to a question, as why the government was persisting with its
dual track of crushing the MQM on one side and keeping the option of
dialogue with it on the other, despite declaring it to be a terrorist
organisation, Abdullah Shah said, that, we believe that since the MQM
has its representation in Senate and Sindh Assembly, it deserved to be
negotiated upon politically to provide it with an opportunity of
keeping its identity as a political outfit switching over from the
terrorism.
To another suggestion, as why the government does not ban the MQM,
when it was satisfied that it was a terrorist organisation, Mr Shah
said, it would not solve the problem. Instead, he maintained the
organisation would go underground which would be more harmful.
951025
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Khan wants MQM to hold talks
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Correspondent
DUBAI, Oct 24: Federal minister for law and parliamentary affairs,
N.D. Khan has asked the MQM not to internationalise the Karachi
issue, because that could hamper the efforts to restore peace.
He said the MQM had despatched letters to the UN Secretary-General
Ghali, Amnesty International and human rights organisations alleging
grievances against the government. Such an act would distort
Pakistans image internationally, and could cause further problems
for the country, he said.
Mr Khan urged the MQM to resume the stalled peace talks to bring peace
in Karachi. The government has always welcomed to talk on genuine
grievances but any attempt to capitalise on ethnic or linguistic base
would not be accepted, he said.
951021
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Soomros father flays Murtaza
-------------------------------------------------------------------
KARACHI, Oct 20: Ghulam Rasul Soomro, the father of late Ahmed Ali
Soomro, has appealed to the president, prime minister, Sindh governor
and chief minister, chief of army staff, Senate chairman, corps
commander, Sindh, and leaders of all political parties that justice be
done and exemplary punishment given to those who shot dead his son
outside his home at Karachi on Oct 14.
I request that the murder of my son should not be treated as a
political issue as is being claimed by MPA Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Ghulam
Rasul Soomro said here on Thursday.
Murtaza Bhutto should refrain from giving the murder of my son a
political colours and let the law take its own course, he added.
Ghulam Rasul Soomro said his son was not in active politics since 1993
and was not a member of any political party. In fact, my son helped
Murtaza Bhutto in winning the Sindh provincial assembly seat from a
constituency of Larkana district in the 1993 general elections.
Ahmed Ali Soomro also helped Murtaza Bhutto financially and morally in
the 1993 polls.
951022
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Govt trying to disqualify PPP (SB)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 21: Mir Murtaza Bhutto, chief of PPP (SB), on Saturday
accused the government trying to disqualify his party candidate from
contesting the NA by-election from Sanghar.
He alleged that the arrest of his brother-in-law, Nasir Hussain, in
the murder of Ali Ahmed Soomro was also a part of that conspiracy.
He said that fake documents were being prepared by the government to
disqualify Makhdoom Khaliquzzaman. He accused some intelligence
agencies of hatching a conspiracy. Mr Bhutto said his party would
seek cooperation and support of other political parties, but would not
enter into any electoral alliance.
He dispelled the perception that his Wednesdays meeting with the
chief MQM negotiator, Ajmal Dehlavi, was not primarily aimed at
seeking support for the Khaliquzzaman in the Sanghar by- election,
though he agreed that most of the discussion centred on the subject.
We will welcome support of any party, he said.
951021
-------------------------------------------------------------------
One more vote to make Brown Amendment successful
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, Oct 20: Senator Hank Brown said on Thursday only one more
vote was needed to get his amendment through the crucial conference
stage in which representatives of both the houses will meet to
reconcile their versions.
The conference is now scheduled to be held on Tuesday when nominees of
the Senate and the House of Representatives will thrash out the
differences between the two Houses to agree on one draft Foreign
Operations Bill which could be sent to the President for signatures.
Brown Amendment is just a relatively minor issue for the conference
because the Foreign Operations Bill includes major restrictions
imposed by the Republican dominated Senate, including cutting off
funds for Korea and China.
Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi in her speech paid tributes to Senator Brown
and said the Senate vote in September was a vindication of the
principle of fairness.
951025
-------------------------------------------------------------------
US House committee okays Brown Amendment
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, Oct 24: Pakistan crossed the last major hurdle to
receiving military supplies from the United States on Tuesday when a
joint Senate-House committee approved the Brown Amendment without any
changes.
This is a triumph of justice and establishes the commitment of the US
Congress to fairness and equity, an elated ambassador Maleeha Lodhi
reacted after the vote.
The approval of the Brown Amendment by the joint Committee means that
only one very unlikely hurdle is now left for Pakistan to get its
blocked military equipment worth 370 million dollars back * a veto of
the whole Foreign Operations Bill by President Clinton.
Under the agreed draft, Pakistan would also receive economic
assistance from the United States for anti-narcotics, anti- terrorism,
international peacekeeping and military-to-military exchanges.
Pakistani leaders have been arguing with US Congressmen that if the
issue of the blocked sales was not resolved, Pakistan-US relations
would remain a hostage to this one obstacle and the question of US
unfair attitude to Pakistan would continue to haunt them.
951026
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pakistan victory in Congress fatal blow to Pressler
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Oct 25: Pakistans clean sweep in the US Congress on
Tuesday, which delivered an almost fatal blow to the Pressler
Amendment, came after the Defence Department virtually shot all other
options except adoption of the Brown Amendment as a means to resolve
the deadlock.
The US has tried to level the field between India and Pakistan by
deciding to undo the wrong done by the Pressler Amendment, Pakistani
diplomats said on Wednesday.
Reacting to the decisive victory in the Congress on Tuesday, they said
the vote had more of a symbolic significance than any strategic
tilting of the balance in the region.
INDIAN REACTION: The anger and confusion in the Indian camp was
reflected in a statement issued by the Indian embassy which, after
expressing serious concern and much regret, threatened the US of the
adverse effects of the Congress vote on US business interests in
India.
We are conscious that the transfer of weapons is very likely to
trigger of the first arms race in South Asia since the end of the cold
war ... We do not wish to divert our scarce resources away from
development to purchase of military hardware but this cannot be
avoided now, the Indian statement warned.
951024
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporting on armymens case banned
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
LAHORE, Oct. 23: Justice Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmad Khan of the Lahore
High Court (LHC) has prohibited the publication of any report
pertaining to the proceedings on the habeas corpus petition for the
production and release of detained army officers and their civilian
comrades-in-arms.
The petition came up for preliminary hearing before the judge on
Monday and advocate Khan Yunus Khan, one of the three petitioners,
submitted that he was not responsible for the publication of the
report of the filing of the petition. The ban will remain effective
till further orders. The proceedings are being held in open court but
the restriction has been imposed in view of the sensitive nature of
the case.
951022
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Extra-judicial killings termed violation of human rights
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Correspondent
HYDERABAD, Oct 21: The chief of Anjuman Naujawanan-i-Islam, Tariq
Mehboob Siddiqi, has called upon the government and the Mohajir Qaumi
Movement to announce a ceasefire if they cared for the integrity,
solidarity and unity of Pakistan.
He said the extra-judicial executions of prisoners in custody was a
flagrant violation of human rights, and the bloodshed in Karachi had
harmed the cause of Kashmiri freedom fighters.
He said terrorists must be awarded deterrent punishment, but after due
process of law and not in fake police encounters.
He said continued terrorism, frequent strikes, state repression, and
indiscriminate arrests had created difficulties for the people of
Karachi and the city had been converted into a police state. He held
the bureaucracy responsible for the present situation.
He lashed out at the interior minister for pouring fuel to fire by
giving highly provocative statements.
951020
-------------------------------------------------------------------
HRCP rejects ambush in Faheems killing
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 19: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said on
Thursday that the October 10 killing of Faheem Commando, Zeeshan
Haider Abidi, Yousuf Rehman and Mufeez Farooqi, all MQM activists, was
not the result of an ambush or a shootout but was part of what
appears to be the law enforcement agencies on-going practice of
eliminating those they consider are hardened criminals or terrorists.
The HRCPs Secretary-General, Zohra Yusuf, and Vice-Chairperson Saleem
Asmi vice-chairperson said the investigations carried out by the HRCP
revealed that Faheem Commando, Zeeshan Haider Abidi, and Yousuf Rehman
were arrested by the CIA, Jamshed Quarters, on Aug 6 and were sent to
jail after interrogation and they were brought out of the jail and
taken to the airport police station around 3pm on Oct 9.
The report further stated that the three men and Mufeez were taken in
a van by an Airport police party headed by SHO Anwar Ahmed Rao to a
house in Nazimabad in the small hours of Oct 10 where, the authorities
claimed, the police party came under heavy gunfire from the said
house, resulting in the instant death of the four detainee.
Faheems brother, Mufeez, who went unidentified on the day of the
killing, was later identified first as Altaf Qureshi and then as
Khurshid Anwar, was arrested earlier this month in Rawalpindi, where
he had been living with his mother.
The report further said the initially unidentified body was recognised
by relatives as that of Mufeez four days later. Faheem and Mufeezs
mother claimed that the body was recognised only when relatives were
attracted by photographs of the slain men in newspapers.
The mother and a relative, who brought the bodies to the Edhi centre,
could not recognise Mufeez because, as she and relatives maintained,
his face had been disfigured through torture and gunshots, and also,
because they could not imagine that he would have been brought down
from Rawalpindi.
The HRCPs findings based on interviews of a number of people in the
area revealed that the four detenus were handcuffed and fettered and
chained together.
The other findings are:
* That the house the police claim the van was fired upon had been
unoccupied for the past three years and the family which lives there
is now in the US;
* That eyewitnesses claim the street had been blocked by scores of
heavily armed men in shalwar-kameez and wearing cross ammunition
belts, and not even the municipal sanitarymen were allowed in;
* That all the victims had multiple bullet wounds, including some in
the head and eyes; * That no member of the escorting police party was
hit, not even slightly;
* That Faheem, Zeeshan and Yousuf were all in judicial lock-up and no
official version offered a credible explanation how they were taken
out of jail or on whose authority; and
* That how could the unknown assailants, as the authorities claim,
open such heavy fire in the small hours of the morning, from a house
that had remained locked and deserted for three years, and when the
street had already been blocked at both entrances by heavily armed
police (or rangers) men?
951020
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Minister condemns custodial killings
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 19: The federal commerce minister, Chaudhri Ahmed
Mukhtar, has condemned incidents of custodial killings and said
measures should be taken to ensure that such things do not happen
again.
He described the Karachi situation as very bad, which was affecting
productivity and revenue-generation efforts of the government. Mr
Mukhtar said the interior minister was better informed about the
Karachi situation than he. If such excesses have taken place, then
the interior minister should be answerable, he said.
In this context he mentioned an incident in which under- custody
people were killed in a police station in Gujrat.
951022
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PWC urges govt to hold talks with MQM
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Correspondent
RAWALPINDI, Oct 21: The national governing body of Pakistan Workers
Confederation has urged the government to hold political dialogue with
all political parties, including the MQM, to restore peace to Karachi.
The confederation, decided to observe protest day all over the country
to press demands of the working class for curbing high inflation and
rising price hike of essential commodities of daily use, introduction
of labour policy in conformity with ILO conventions ratified by the
government.
The meeting through a resolution demanded for opening of closed mills
and measures to raise employment opportunities for the youth, radical
economic and social reforms to end the mass corruption prevailing
in the present system and making accountable the public functionaries
from misuse of their power and official funds through appointment of
commission headed by a Supreme Court judge in order to restore
confidence of the common man.
The meeting also urged the government to raise wages of the workers
commensurate with price hike and grant at least Rs 1000/-per month as
interim relief to all government, semi-government and private sector
employees to mitigate their economic and social sufferings.
951026
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The New City project: some unanswered questions
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mohammad Malick
ISLAMABAD: The over one billion dollar dream housing project of New
Islamabad City must wait a decade before developing into a liveable
reality, but its sponsors have already landed a dream contract
guaranteeing them 80 per cent of the profits even if they were to
ditch the scheme, leaving the Capital Development Authority in a
lurch.
Technically, the project comprises two independent housing schemes,
the 20,000-kanal NHA Housing Scheme and the 60,000-kanal MG Hertz-CDA
joint venture.
This plum of a provision (Clause 12) has been thrown into the joint
venture contract.
In what must be an exceptional business agreement, MG Hertz has not
only been assured its share of the profits regardless of its actions,
but has also been spared any penalties for violating any contractual
obligation.
That is not the end of it, however. In the event of the CDA breaching
the contract, the group gets to keep the full 100 per cent of the
profits.
But the sponsors are still far from happy. Denying using any political
clout to extract the deal, MG Groups chairman Tahir Niazi lamented
that his interests were far from secure because we can be thrown out
by any government for any reason and could lose the shirt on our backs
because we have been guaranteed only a share of the profits. And you
know how easily profits can be shown as losses in our country. I
wanted a clause granting me liquidated damages and the return of land
given as security, but was turned down by the government partners of
the venture.
CDA authorities were not available for comment or to explain the logic
behind extending this unprecedented concession.
There is ample evidence to believe that in the least the sponsors
appear ill-equipped for executing a project of this size. A detailed
study of the corporate structure of the MG Group reveals that most
of the companies exist only on paper.
Starting with the identity of the parent company, the MG Group itself,
the term has yet to attain a legal status of any sorts.
Earlier, it was believed that MG stood for Medi-Glass Group, a firm
set up by Mr Niazi a few years back. Denying this assertion, he said
he had been forced into selling his shares due to the relentless
harassment of the Nawaz Sharif government and now had nothing to do
with that company. According to the present managing director of that
firm, Babar Sohail, however, Tahir does not have a seat on the board
but he is still a major share holder in the company. Why the only
tangible company in this ever expanding web of new companies is being
kept away from this whole affair, is proving an intriguing question by
itself.
Mr Niazi insisted that there was nothing alarming about the whole
affair as the corporate law authority had objected to our calling it
a holding company or a group and now were trying to register it as MG
Investment.
After lengthy deliberations he claimed that MG Group may not be a
legal entity per se for the moment but there was nothing irregular
about it as it was controlling the two main companies through
trustees agreements.
The trustees agreement is a financial tool by which a company pledges
its shares and powers to an undisclosed partner, represented by a
lawyer in most cases. Nobody wanted to explain the need for this
project being managed through trustees agreements and not simply
through above-the-board functioning companies.
951024
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sindh Bank to be govt-owned
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct. 23: Sindh Bank will now be set up as a wholly
government-owned institution as against originally planned private-
public sector enterprise in which 55 per cent shareholding was to be
subscribed by private sector and 45 per cent by the government.
We now plan to put in Rs 250 million in the proposed Sindh Bank as
paid up capital and then go for unloading of shares for public
subscription in the stock exchange, the sources said.
The decision to change the complexion of Sindh Banks shareholding
structure now necessitates amendment in the Bill passed by Sindh
Assembly on September 25 as it envisages a board of five directors of
which three were to be from private sector and two from the
government.
They said that the Sindh government will enter into consultation with
the Karachi Stock Exchange and Corporate Law Authority to complete the
formalities for unloading of shares to the general public.
The sources were confident that State Bank of Pakistan and Corporate
Law Authority will have no objection on the setting up of the Bank as
it is a statutory body to be governed by rules for its operations. The
rules will be framed by the provincial government.
951021
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Coup attempt news depresses market
-------------------------------------------------------------------
STOCK fell across a board front last week as news of arrest of some
top army officials and accelerated violence in the city spurred fresh
panic selling. At one stage it appeared that the market would collapse
under the weight of mounting selling but was saved by strong financial
support.
Floor brokers said the market is virtually encircled by bad news from
all the directions and the irony of the situation is that there are
not many options left before to come out of the red.
Analysts said the general investor is out of the rings and might not
dare to re-enter the market despite an attractive bait of falling
prices until there is peace in the city.
The market seems to have recovered from the early shock of news of
some top army officials custody but some lurking fears are still
there, which will continue to haunt them in the sessions to come,
they added.
The acceleration in city violence and no hopes of an early peace was
another depressant, they said adding until there are some positive
signs for peace they might not be back in the near future.
951020
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Incentive packages for other sectors soon to boost exports
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 19: Federal Minister for Commerce Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar
said on Thursday that in order to arrest falling exports the
government has decided to also give incentive packages to sectors
including surgical, leather and carpet industry and this would be
announced in a weeks time.
While admitting the governments mistake resulting in fall in exports,
he said that the main thrust of the government remained on revenue
collection and generation but this proved to be a negative move as
business community fearing losses began to restrict activity.
To improve revenue collection position during fiscal year 1994-95, he
said the economic planners even slashed rebates which adversely
affected the countrys exports.
Responding to a question, the federal minister said: Personally I am
in favour of improving trade with India but our business community
fears that Indian products, which are cheaper in cost, will dominate
the Pakistani market.
He said: On the contrary we should try to take advantage of this
situation because it will help our development at lesser cost.
The minister further said that even if we manage to keep Indian
products away for a while but in the years to come we will have to
open trade with the neighbouring countries particularly when the
entire world community is fast shrinking into a village.
Referring to soaring prices of essential goods, he said that consumers
societies should be formed as they play very active role in containing
prices because they are formed by the general public all over the
world.
951023
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rupee loses 9 paisa more against $
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct. 22: The rupee lost another nine paisa against the US
currency on Sunday as the State Bank refixed its spot parity rates for
buying and selling at Rs 31.85 and Rs 32.00 to a dollar.
Although the central bank did not give any specific reason for the
weekly downward revision of the parity. Financial analysts termed it
technical correction to keep the value of the rupee competitive on the
export front.
The rupee has thus lost 83 paisa since July 1, 1995, the first quarter
of the current financial year, signalling a big devaluation of the
rupee.
In kerb trading, the rupee has already breached the Rs 33 barrier to
the US currency as it was quoted at Rs 33.5 and Rs 33.08 to dollar on
Sunday.
They said a good amount of speculative buying on predictions that the
rupee could hit the high mark of Rs 34 to a dollar was another bearish
factor which resulted in panic buying of the dollar.
A section of stock brokers is also buying dollar after selling shares
as any investment in dollar is considered most safe under the
prevailing conditions, both on the law and order and political
fronts, some bankers said.
951025
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Stocks sustain technically-inspired rally
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Commerce Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 24: Stocks sustained the technically-inspired rally as
investors came out of their shells followed by some positive
developments both on the city law and order and corporate fronts and
made extensive buying at the current lower levels.
The peace in the city might still be a distant possibility but the
relative calm on the violence front triggered buystops on selected
counters, said a leading broker but warned the situation is still
unclear, analysts said.
The KSE 100-share did gain modestly but not on the scale associated
with a bull market and its pretty risky to put all the eggs in a
basket before it attains psychologically viable level of over 1,600,
they added.
The chief villain of the game appears to be rupees journey to find
its real value and a substantial erosion in its value, notably in kerb
where at one stage quoted around Rs 34 to a dollar, dealers said.
He said the advent of foreign buying has sound basis behind it as it
will add to its capital gains if the value of the rupee depreciates
further.
It is always good to buy at the bottom rates and Pakistani stocks fit
in line with the corporate strategy of foreign buyers, he added.
It is therefore, widely speculated that the worst is over and now is
the time for the market to respond to its highly oversold position.
Foreign investors are expected to stay in the rings until the rupee
fall to Rs 34 or slightly above and after that there could be a good
of profit-taking, most dealers believe.
The market witnessed a major shift in the investors preference as they
sold in the overvalued sectors to pick up undervalued shares.
The sudden burst into activity of the textile sector seemed to have
provided the much-needed boost to the stock market.
Both Telecard and PTC vouchers in the transport sector were traded
actively and ended sharply higher under the lead of the former.
MNCs in the chemical sector moved erratically amid alternate bouts of
buying and selling and rolling of positions to some low-prices sectors
on other counters.
Dawood Hercules, ICI Pakistan, Ciba-Geigy, Bawany Air and some others
showed firm trend but Abbott Lab, BOC Pakistan, Boots and Glaxo Lab
fell. The most active list was topped by Hub-Power, PTC vouchers,
Dewan Salman, Faysal Bank, Dhan Fibre, ICI Pakistan(r), Punjab
Modaraba, Maple Leaf Cement and Honda Atlas, which were actively
traded at the lower levels.
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951020
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The megalomaniacs
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Ardeshir Cowasjee
ARROGANCE bred by ignorance, megalomania nurtured by sycophants,
sycophancy fanned by nepotism, excessive corruption followed by
unbearable inflation, engendering protests, strikes, shut-downs, all
resulting in revolt, necessitating repression. The great leader falls
and flees for his life. But he cannot eat gold. He may even fail to
find a six by two plot of earth in his fatherland in which to rest his
bones.
He is followed by yet another ignorant great leader, unable to learn
from his predecessors mistakes. The helpless people suffer on,
endlessly. Such is the fate of overpopulated countries overflowing
with hapless illiterates.
The same can be the fate of rich but illiterate countries ruled over
by uneducated corrupt megalomaniacs. Take, for instance, our brothers,
our neighbours under Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, King, Aryameher,
Shahinshah, Supreme commander of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces,
the Shadow of God on Earth.
Repressed Iran in the 1970s: Prime Minister Hoveyda, on the corrupt:
I do nothing else but bring them to court! But whats the use? The
campaign has to begin at the top, with the Shahs family and
entourage. Otherwise its pointless. And anyway, it isnt fair to hit
the minnows when the big fish are getting away.
I quote from his brother Ambassador Fereydoons book, The Fall of the
Shah: Corruption ran wild at the heart of the royal family. the
Shahs brothers and sisters earned exorbitant commissions on contracts
by acting as go-betweens,... it suffices to say that the example of
the royal family was a source of contamination which infected every
level of society. Colossal fortunes were made in the time it takes to
sign a contract.
A Senate enquiry in the United States revealed that the Shahs
brother-in-law, the Air Force chief, and Princess Ashrafs eldest son,
had collected sizeable bribes... Admiral Ramzi Attai, commander-in-
chief of the Navy, had pocketed more than three million on military
contracts... The fight against corruption was not an easy one... a
near impossible task, bearing in mind that the emperor himself was not
above all reproach in this sphere.
Fereydoon, on repression: SAVAK was only nominally attached to the
government... it acted independently and took its orders from the Shah
himself... In an interview televised in the United States on October
24, 1976, Mike Wallace asked, If torture proves necessary do you use
it? The sovereign answered, Not torture in the old sense, in the
sense of twisting arms and doing this and that, but nowadays there are
intelligent means of questioning people. ... Executions were usually
announced only after the event.
Expediency compelled President Jimmy Carter to stop over in Tehran on
December 31, 1977, on his way to India, and despite the Shahs
deplorable human rights record, at midnight Carter proposed a toast:
Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of
stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world. This is a
great tribute to you, Your Majesty, and to your leadership, and to the
respect and admiration and the love which your people give to you...
there is no leader with whom I have a deeper sense of personal
friendship and gratitude.
Believing Carter, the power-drunk Shah proudly proclaimed on June 28,
1978: Nobody can overthrow me. I have the support of 700,000 troops,
all the workers, and most of the people.
Corruption increased, repression intensified. In a bid to wipe the
Shahs slate clean, in November 1978 son-in-law Zahedi drew up a list
of fifteen well-known figures upon whom all blame was to be placed and
who were to be rapidly tried and punished, the former PM Hoveyda, the
main scapegoat-to-be amongst them. Extraordinary legislation was
drafted for the purpose. On November 8 Hoveyda was imprisoned.
In January 1979, a year after Carter had raised his glass, the
abandoned Shah fled Iran.
In April 1979, the succeeding revolutionary regime subjected Hoveyda
to the mockery of a trial, and minutes after the high- speed
deliberations of his so-called judges ceased, in a parody of justice
he was murdered.
We come home, to a very very corrupt country indeed. The poor,
oppressed by rising prices and heavy taxes, are growing poorer, the
leaders are fast growing richer and, divorced from reality, they
believe their own advertised lies.
Our gung-ho finance adviser, Vassim Jafarey, appointed for
appearances sake to appease the World Bank and the IMF leads a
delegation of inconsequentials to Washington. They are received with
contempt, for in WB/IMF eyes their countrys performance is more
disgraceful than even that of Haiti and Bolivia. America tells them
what every housewife knows, that we must squander less than we earn.
Jafarey knows that the people cannot be further taxed. But he also
knows that there is no way in which he can prevent the leaders from
robbing and from squandering what little is left.
Does it behove Vassim to say, I am, however, troubled over the trend
towards the growing proliferation of policy conditions emanating from
multilateral financial institutions and donors to include democratic
pluralism, demilitarisation and good government. These are extremely
difficult and sensitive areas of public policy... and these
institutions should not be drawn into making value judgments on
delicate and complex issues that do not fall within their mandates.
Nor should such matters become the basis for additional
conditionality. Has he completely lost his marbles? Does his pose of
injured innocence suit him or the situation?
But, impossible as it may seem, what is more distressing than the
economic and financial collapse with which we are faced is the
collapse of law and order and the justice system. Deaths in custody,
murder by the forces of law and order, are becoming normal
occurrences. Nobody in the country or abroad believes the official
version of the recent encounter in which four under- trial prisoners
were said to have been killed during an encounter. Law Minister N.D.
Khan and Attorney-General Qazi Jameel are rendered speechless by this
blatant government violation of the law.
Fahim Faruqui (aka Commando), Yusuf Rahman (aka Rizwan), and Zeeshan
Hyder, all alleged to be MQM militants, were arrested and held at the
Karachi Central Prison, cuffed and fettered as high security
prisoners. Fahim Faruquis brother, militant Mufeez, was arrested and
held in Rawalpindi for questioning. The day before the encounter he
was flown to Karachi. On October 10, these four men were removed by
the authorities from the custody of their jailors * it is not known
whether this was done through due process of law. Cuffed and fettered,
barely able to walk, they were driven to their deaths.
Undoubtedly, an FIR will be filed by someone, accusing commander-in-
chief, Karachi Ops, General Naseerullah Babar (who now calls him
brave?), and the immovable favourite at the airport police station,
SHO Anwar Ahmed Khan, of murder (Anwar ahmed Khan was a colleague and
close associate of the late SHO Bahadur Ali). The FIR can be kept
until the right time arrives for the case to be put up, with perhaps
Anwar giving evidence against Babar.
The criminals and militants of all sides are competent to deal with
each other and for the time being we leave them to their fate.
I revert to Vassim Jafarey. Vassim joined the civil service in 1948
and throughout his career was a clean and conscientious man. Even his
detractors held him to be an exemplary officer. When he returned home
after the fall of the first Benazir government, many of us berated him
for having been part of a spendthrift, wasteful government that had
messed up our economy. His answer was that he was helpless, that no
one would listen to what he had to say.
When he signed up for a second round, his friends were surprised and
upset, and wondered how he justified his decision to himself. He would
do well to remember the words spoken by Hartley Shawcross at the
Nuremburg trials in 1946: There comes a point where a man must refuse
to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his conscience.
Rather than make misleading statements, Jafarey should resign, telling
the government how corrupt it is, and then telling the people how
badly off they really are. It just might jolt Benazir.
951021
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Terror against terror
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Mazdak
THE spate of recent killings of prisoners in police custody in Karachi
shows yet again how little human life counts for in Pakistan.
Nobody in authority has expressed grief or even concern for these
murders irrespective of the blatant manner in which these prisoners
were killed. Despite widespread media coverage of the way Faheem
Commando and his associates were shot dead at point-blank range and
their bodies dumped, there has been no official reaction beyond a
blanket denial by everybody from the President downwards. It would
appear that rather than going through endless court proceedings, there
is now an unofficial policy to eliminate known terrorists without due
process. If so, the motives are understandable if not defensible: so
far this year, nearly 180 policemen as well as many members of their
families have been killed, presumably by the MQM. Clearly, vengeance
is a factor behind these custodial deaths as enraged cops do not want
to risk their prisoners being released on bail or for insufficient
evidence.
The practice of killing prisoners in fake encounters has a long and
dishonourable history in this part of the world. Once arrested,
prisoners are driven to remote spots, told to run, and gunned down.
Arms are then placed in their hands to lend some veracity to the claim
that the police fired in self-defence. Often in such cases, the police
fears that a court-room confession would be embarrassing as it could
reveal links that should stay buried with the dead man. In other
instances, cops are conscious of the corruption and delays in our
legal system and do not wish to have to release the prisoner at the
end of an interminable trial. And far too often, prisoners are
literally tortured to death and their demise ascribed to natural
causes.
In all these cases, superior officers, judges, ministers and
journalists are well aware of the circumstances under which prisoners
have been killed, but a conspiracy of silence surrounds these
custodial deaths. It is only in very rare cases, usually as a result
of a public outcry, that an enquiry is ordered, and more often than
not, the matter is buried. Once in a blue moon, a police officer is
punished by being transferred. Apart from the inconvenience of
conducting an actual investigation into these common killings,
officialdom remains unmoved because there is seldom much public
pressure on them to take action. Families mourn their dead in private,
newspaper editors quickly move on to other concerns and the public,
faced with endless problems of their own, forget all too soon.
Contrast this attitude with the recent decision of the European Human
Rights Commission which found a squad of commandos of the elite
Special Air Services guilty of murder. These men had killed a group of
suspected IRA terrorists in Gibraltar nearly a decade ago. While it
was established by a court of enquiry that the IRA hit-team was
planning to set off a bomb on the island, they were unarmed when shot
dead in a car. The SAS commandos fired on the assumption that the
suspected bombers had guns, and understandably did not want to take
any chances. Although initially found innocent of the charge of
murder, the earlier decision has been overturned by the European Human
Rights Commission which has held that the SAS is a disciplined arm of
state, and cannot therefore be allowed to act as vigilantes.
And this is precisely the point to remember when comparing actions of
the MQM with those of the police, the Rangers and army. If the former
breaks the law, the latter agencies cannot and must not respond in
kind. As it is, even without the added motive of revenge, our law
enforcement agencies have a grisly track record of taking the law into
their own hands whenever it suits them. In effect, they are all too
often the judge, the jury and the hangman. If they are now told they
are free to settle the score against suspected terrorists, there is no
telling how many innocents will be gunned down without a shred of
evidence. It was Faheem Commando yesterday; it could be you or me
tomorrow.
During the bloody civil war fought in East Pakistan in 1971, people
here justified army atrocities on the grounds that they were in
retaliation against the brutalities committed by the Mukti Bahini
against non-Bengali civilians and soldiers. I argued then, as I do
now, that the actions of armed gangs cannot and must not be equated
with those of the organs of state. If we do so, then there is very
little to distinguish between the two. I know that human feelings run
high when a policeman or a Ranger sees the bullet-ridden body of a
friend or a colleague, and the desire for vengeance is strong. It is
the same emotion one of the relatives of their victims feels when he
buries his dead. But this is where the element of discipline comes in:
the state does not, and should not, deal in vengeance; it metes out
justice. These two are totally different notions, and it is on this
difference that state rests. If it reverts to the law of Jungle, then
the distinction between state and terrorist gangs becomes blurred.
These are not simply abstract moral concerns, but go to the heart of
the social contract between the rulers and the ruled. Justice and the
rule of law provide the foundation of the state. And while there are
occasional aberrations, they must be viewed as such, rather than being
justified on the grounds of expedience. If we rationalise the
custodial murders of suspected terrorists today, what is to stop our
law enforcement agencies from killing off prisoners from other
political parties tomorrow. Thinking people * and I do not necessarily
include the government here * must realise that our cops are not very
educated or civilised people at the best of times. If they are given a
blank cheque to deal with prisoners as they see fit, they soon start
ignoring the Police Manual completely and stop doing whatever little
investigative work they do. By tacitly encouraging them to kill and
torture prisoners because it suits the government to do so in Karachi
in the name of the restoration of peace, we may well be bringing
Frankensteins monster to life.
The death squads of Argentina and other South American countries are
chilling reminders that state terror can very quickly get out of hand.
P.S. In my column on architecture last week, I had failed to mention
the names of the architects who had designed the PIA Squash Complex; I
have since been informed that the building was work of Hassanud Din
Khan and Navaid Husain. My apologies to them for the omission.
951021
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Isnt staying on enough?
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Lahore Diary
THE opposition was supposed to make waves on its black day, and the
PPP was billed to break out into song and dance to mark the completion
of two years of its government. In the event, practically nothing
happened.
There wasnt much of a protest from the opposition, its top Punjab
leadership away on foreign trips anyway; and there werent many signs
of rejoicing in the PPP or the PDF camp. Where the public is
concerned, there was total indifference, which should ultimately
bother the prime minister more than criticism of her governments
performance. When people stop caring, this way or that, then it means
that they are in a sullen mood and are sinking into cynicism. No
government should be happy over such a development.
Instead of the official advertisements giving a mega view of the
governments achievements, ordinary citizens would have been happier
to learn what the PDF has done to improve their daily lives. But that
of course would have been asking, because actually in real terms, as
opposed to what statistics might say, the lot of the common man has
worsened. Will some wizard in the finance ministry please tell us what
percentage of his salary does the average American spend on utilities
and the percentage paid by a Pakistani? Ms Benazir Bhutto might like
to inquire into this matter during her stay in the US.
Also, she might consider asking her hosts what margin of profit is
permitted there to retailers and manufacturers and how such margins
are fixed and controlled. If our government could reduce the element
of profiteering in items of daily use, it could significantly reduce
the cost of living.
Ms Bhutto might also ask around as to whether civil servants and
politicians in the US hold wedding receptions in a style usually
reserved for the glitterati and in fact whether politicians and
bureaucrats can at all afford to invite a thousand people to dinner.
She cannot be unaware of the jibes and comments that the wedding
reception given by her principal secretary in Lahore last week has
produced. Even if the regime had practised a little austerity and its
leaders and minions hadnt organised or patronised gluttonous displays
of extravagant expenditure, its claims to be working for the good of
the people might have sounded a little more credible.
Perhaps one of cartoonist Maxims characters summed it all up on
Thursday: What do you mean what have they done? They have survived
for full two years * isnt that enough to celebrate?
But whats this one hears, that in Lahore some government offices had
thin attendance on October 19? It seems that many government officials
just took it for granted that there would be problems with transport
or processions because of the planned opposition protest and just
decided to stay at home and make it a three-day weekend. It might be
useful to make a list of all absentee government servants on that day
and take disciplinary action against them. They can be accused of
secretly supporting the oppositions black day because, after all,
they cannot be accused of being so overcome with joy and happiness on
the PDFs two years in power that they could not go their offices
because they were engaged in thanksgiving prayers all day.
IT IS a pity that no-one bothered to write about what has happened in
and to Lahore during these past two years. The city is visibly
deteriorating, and it is daily becoming dirtier and more chaotic. The
provincial government had announced a development package of Rs330
million for northern Lahore, but implementation is tardy, and
meanwhile road upgrading work in other parts of the city has been so
shoddy that you can smell corruption from a mile off.
You see more rubbish mounds than ever before, and the civic
authorities have now hit upon the easier way of getting rid of
garbage: they simply set fire to the piles of rubbish on the roadside
or in the skips. The material smoulders for days, emitting noxious
fumes and polluting the environment and quite possibly promoting lung
and chest diseases.
Traffic has become messier, and some of the problems created by the
haphazard siting of commercial centres without taking the traffic
angle into consideration have been well underlined by the recent
opening of a new store on the Gulberg main boulevard. This has been
written about before also, but whenever angry people complain to the
newspapers about the traffic congestion precipitated by the new store,
the management probably feels happy that it is getting publicity
because the rush shows how popular it is. But the greater pity is that
the traffic authorities are taking an equally dim-witted view of the
affair; what they have done is to block off a traffic roundabout near
the store to provide parking space. This is not solving a problem;
only conniving in its perpetuation.
And the public transport system is in an absolute mess. If any PPP
worker could go down the lines of people waiting at wagon stops during
the morning and afternoon rush hours and asked them what they thought
of the governments two years in power, he would get a string of
choice Lahori expletives.
No-one bothers. If day-to-day life could become slightly better, less
aggravating, there would be fewer curses flying around and people
would be in a less sullen mood.
TILL this writing, it was not clear whether the PPP and the opposition
PML would finally get an opportunity to test their popularity in
Lahore in a contest for National Assembly seat NA- 95 following the
disqualification of PML MNA Ishaq Dar. The by-election was due to be
held next month but has been stayed by the Supreme Court.
The seat was originally won by Mian Nawaz Sharif in the 1993
elections, but he subsequently surrendered it and retained his
Abbottabad seat. Candidates from both parties submitted their
nomination papers last week. Former Punjab governor Mian Azhar is the
opposition candidate while Mian Yusuf Salahuddin is the PPP man.
The nominating process was carried out roughshod by both the parties.
The PML(N) had set October 15 as the last date for receipt of
applications, but Main Azhars candidature was announced on October
14, a full day before the expiration of the last date. All
applications received till October 15 were supposed to be vatted by a
committee headed by Senator Chaudhury Shujaat Hussain and the
recommendations sent to Mr Sharif for final selection. But who cares?
The PPP did not go through any formality at all. Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto casually asked Mian Salahuddin at a wedding ceremony on
October 12 if he would be willing to stand as a candidate for NA-95.
He said yes, and the matter was decided then and there.
Shahid Nabi Malik, the PPP candidate who had lost from this seat and
is fighting a legal battle to have himself declared elected, has also
filed his nomination papers.
The PPP doesnt have much of a hope anyway even if elections go
through on November 26. Lahore remains a PML(N)/Nawaz Sharif city *-
politically.
WITH the season changing, the art-lovers of Lahore are looking forward
to the traditional annual feast of music conferences, exhibitions and
plays. Maestro Mehdi Hasans announcement that he has decided to sing
in public again after an absence of 10 years has created a great deal
of interest.
He sounded bitter while making this announcement, blaming radio and TV
for lack of appreciation and patronage. But everyone knows that the
basic reason for his disenchantment and which made him go abroad was
the growing influx of adventurers and charlatans into the film
industry. Mehdi Hasan was not alone in this: actor Mohammad Ali,
composer Nisar Bazmi, singer Masood Rana, who died recently, and
several other senior artists quietly withdrew from the scene. One
performance by Mehdi Hasan hardly means that conditions have improved:
they wont till the government pays some attention to regularising and
upgrading the industry.
951022
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Black law vs the Brown law
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Mushtaq Ahmed
WHETHER it is a difference in mere shade or actual substance that the
Brown Law seeks to cover by replacing the Black Law is yet too early
to predict. For the American Senate is a very unpredictable
institution whose decisions do not take long to be modified or
reversed to suit the expediencies of domestic politics or the demands
of international strategy.
Though no longer as powerful as it was in the past, it still wields an
enviable measure of authority in the American political system,
deriving the sanction for its authority from the Constitution as well
as the tradition of experience and training. Its treaty-making power
had formerly given it an unrivalled position in the legislative
mechanism of the United States, but from the time the implementation
of treaties involved a financial commitment, the House of
Representatives whose approval is also a constitutional obligation,
there has been an inevitable decline in its influence. Nevertheless, a
seat in the Senate is a coveted prize for aspiring politicians. The
millionaires club has now become a billionaires haunt.
A Senator is more advantageously placed to win recognition in national
politics than a Congress-man in the House. He can even aspire for the
post of the chief executive of the United States. The ones possessed
of outstanding calibre always fix their gaze on the White House. Quite
a few of them have stepped into the White House by their performance
in the chamber. Senator Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon are
recent examples.
The Senate had an unrivalled reputation of being a House of the
legislative greats. The decisions are rarely made on the floor of the
House. The committees where the issues involved are discussed at
length are the seats and centres of authority in whose deliberations
compromises occupy the centre of the stage and principles have to take
the back seat. Even the open hearings are themselves not free from
bargaining and bias in favour of internal and external forces which
are constantly lobbying for the advancement of their interests.
In strategic location and its backward stage of development combined
with its newness and inexperience in international relations no
country was more precariously placed in its search for security than
Pakistan. It was forlorn and friendless. Not even the Muslim
countries, most of them contiguous and a number of them located far
and near, were beholden to it, much less capable and willing to
provide or promise military support in upholding its sovereignty.
India was a major threat to its independence with its vast material
and manpower resources and superior military might.
All that Pakistan had in its moral armoury was the indomitable spirit
of patriotism for its will to survive, which could not be sustained
for long unless its fighting power was backed by new weapons of
warfare that could match its enemys strength.
What added to its economic difficulties, was the failure of the
harvest in 1953. Our rulers rushed to Washington for assistance which
it was too willing to offer. The price the Americans asked for was not
just the price of wheat to be paid at our convenience. It was
mortgaging our freedom of action in foreign policy. No government
since them had the courage to extricate the country from that
entanglement.
Pakistan sank deeper and deeper into its mire with the passage of
time. American aid was the line of least resistance. Shorn of public
support, politicians who changed places in quick succession were not
worried about the reorganisation and revitalisation of the economy by
internal reforms with the result that the country continued to stumble
on foreign crutches which became ever more costlier to repair and
replace.
Both the weapons and their spares have to come from that source. Even
enormous payments for F-16 aircraft are withheld and supplies refused
in total contravention of the ethics of international and national
transactions. American municipal (domestic law) does not admit of
discriminatory application, and that is true of all law-abiding
countries. The law has to be obeyed by all and sundry and its defiance
punishable whether it pertains to smoking or murder.
There were times when the Senators were more stay-at-home politicians,
some of them invited to accompany the President on his foreign tours
which were very rare, and even in these days of high-level diplomacy
these are not as common as in many of the smaller countries including
our own. The situation has now been completely reversed. The Senators
have developed their own constituencies abroad which they nurse by
their frequent visits to the capitals of the countries with which they
believe Washington must develop special ties. Though not the only
ones, New Delhi and Tel Aviv loom large on their mental horizon.
Israel has perhaps the most powerful lobby which has widespread
ramifications in Dirksen Hall where the Senators have their offices.
Ask a Senator why a self-respecting country like Pakistan should
accept the domination of India in the region and he will tell you that
it resembles the relationship between the rich and the poor. Perhaps
in making that observation he has at the back of his mind the poor
Latin American states which live under the shadow of the Monroe
Doctrine and the US dominated Organisation of American States, whose
head offices are located in its very capital.
Ask another, if the smaller countries have a right to defend
themselves, you will get a prompt answer in the affirmative, but he
will hasten to add if you happen to be a Pakistani that you have
nothing to worry on that score since the United States has already
underwritten your security against any possible external aggression.
Reservations made in the CENTO and SEATO which are now dead treaties,
it is true, offered no guarantee but the Mutual Defence Assistance
Agreement of 1959 provides it with a sheet anchor.
The Senators memory may be short but Pakistan knows much to
disappointment and dismay how badly it was let down in the 1965 and
1971 wars. Far from invoking the provisions of the Agreement,
Pakistans military aid was suspended on both occasions without
scrapping the paper on which the treaty was written. Even now it will
be argued that Pakistan has no reliance on the United States,
otherwise it would not have embarked on a nuclearisation programme.
That America would provide a nuclear umbrella against an Indian
nuclear attack is a fantasy after all the setbacks we have suffered at
its hands. It is farcical to argue that the Brown Amendment would
assist Pakistan in giving it a deterrent. Is it conceivable that
Pakistan, if it develops its own deterrent, would take the initiative
in unleashing a nuclear war against India without inviting its own
annihilation? The Symington Amendment and the Pressler follow-up which
singled out Pakistan are a pointer to the shape of things American
spokesmen have made bold to state that arms given to Pakistan will
constitute no threat to any country. The crucial question that
agitates the Pakistani mind is whether Americas defence agreement
with India constitutes a threat to Pakistan. To it the Brown Agreement
would furnish no answer.
951025
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OF MICE AND MEN : Fathers and sons
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Hafizur Rahman
IF ones father is an unprincipled crook, willing to do anyones dirty
work for the sake of political power, and unscrupulous and avaricious
in his money dealings, plus being a sadist towards his political
enemies and ready to torture them: should one be realistic enough to
see him in his true colours, or, in keeping with so-called hallowed
tradition, try to make him out to be a saint?
It is not very long ago that two public figures, both well-known
politicians (and incidentally both from Sindh), died somewhat
prematurely of fatal diseases. They were Jam Sadiq Ali and Mr Mohammad
Khan Junejo.
The latter was universally acknowledged as a true gentleman, while the
former was universally recognised as an unmitigated tyrant. But their
sons, Asad Junejo and Jam Mashooq Ali, will present them in an
identical light as if there was no difference between them.
Mr Junejo had so many qualities that Asad may never be able to do them
justice. On the other hand, Jam Sadiq Alis evil genius was of
unprecedented proportions, but Mashooq will not have any difficulty in
getting people to testify that he was not such a bad man after all; he
was only misunderstood.
The usual praise in such cases, where there is nothing good to be said
about someone, is yaaron ka yaar tha * a great and dependable
friend. This is a testimony to our unlimited hypocrisy and our ability
to close our eyes to the vileness in public personalities.
If you ask the son of General Tiger Niazi, who is condemned by the
whole nation for his attitude at the surrender in Dhaka in December,
1971, he will count such attributes of his father as would make you
think he was a hero, second only to Salahuddin Ayubi.
It is a praiseworthy quality to be filially loyal to ones parents,
whatever kind of persons they may be otherwise, and refuse to hear
them being reviled. But it is also expected of a rational, reasonably
educated son to at least recognise the truth in his own heart.
If my father had possessed even a hundredth part of Jam Sadiq Alis
habits and temperament, I would have kept mum about him in public,
what to say of lauding him to the skies.
Asad Junejo seems to keep a low profile, and even as chief organiser
of the PML faction bearing Mr Junejos name, does not hanker after
publicity. And since everyone respects the memory of Mr Junejo, he
doesnt have to go about blowing his fathers trumpet all over the
place.
On the other hand, young Mashooq is at pains to tell the world what a
fine man his father was and how mistaken everyone is in judging him. I
wish some perceptive journalists from Sindh, who had seen the late Jam
in action from close quarters, would interview his son about the deeds
and misdeeds of his father.
One is sorry to note that the stance of the son towards public affairs
is not much different from that of the father. He is already a
fugitive from justice, because he is wanted in Karachi by the FIA and
is calmly cooling his heels in Dubai for the last two years,
ostensibly being under medical treatment.
He vehemently denies the accusation of the interior minister that he
was in any way involved in the Mehran Bank scandal, and has displayed
an indignant reaction which has now become a fashion with politicians:
If the charge is proved I shall resign, and if it is false then you
resign. One of those meaningless threats on which no one acts.
As if a denial of the accusation was not enough, the young Jam warned
all concerned that he will make such revelations of the banks
dealings with the corridors of power that these corridors will be
shaken to their foundations. I wonder what he is waiting for.
Such threats, too, are now becoming normal fare with our politicians.
Without exception, everyone of them, whether in the ruling party or
the opposition, has some secrets up his sleeve which he constantly
warns he will make public, but is somehow never able to.
For example, take Mr Altaf Hussain of the MQM. The federal government
has (so far) refused to strike a deal with him and is openly at war
with his ideology and his past actions. Relations between the two
cannot be worse than they are today.
What better opportunity than now to expose the government? And yet Mr
Altaf Hussain goes on issuing threats from London that if he were to
lay bare all the secrets he has been nursing so far, the heavens will
fall * and fall on the government. Let them fall, for Gods sake; what
is he waiting for?
What young people like Jam Mashooq Ali should try to do is to make up
for the omissions of their fathers by living an exemplary life of
decency and nobility so that the painful memory of the deeds committed
by their elders may be gradually replaced by their own fine and
virtuous conduct.
But that is not the tradition in Pakistan. Here sons will do all they
can to justify the life-style of their fathers and endeavour to match
it, because nobody in this country owes any allegiance to any values.
On top of that the pious name of Islam will somehow be brought in to
explain away a disgraceful way of life.
I have no idea how history will ultimately treat Mr Mohammad Khan
Junejo and Jam Sadiq Ali. But from what I can gauge from the
prevailing national atmosphere, the two will be judged and assessed on
the basis of their politics, shorn of its moral content.
Mr Junejo should come out quite well in such an examination. But the
tragedy is that he will suffer by comparison, because the analysis of
the Jam will not be measured by ethical and moral standards. In the
final picture, the latter may even prove to be a bigger leader than
Mr Junejo. Therein lies the bane of our national life.
951025
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Jansher wins US Open for the 4th time
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LONDON, Oct 24: Jansher Khan has added another feather to his cap by
winning US Open Squash championship outplaying Britains Samon park in
straight sets of 15-11, 17-16 and 15-7 in the final played at Boston
on October 22.
He said the US championship was his 6th victory in major championships
during this year. He won Portuguese open, British Open, Tournament of
Champions at New York, Hong Kong Open, Japan Open and now the US Open.
He said he would go through a packed schedule for the remainder of the
year. World Open Championship is being held in Cyprus from November 7-
12. He said he has won this event six times in the past and by winning
it this year he would create a new milestone in the history of the
game. Jehangir had won it six times.
Pakistan Open Championship would be held in Karachi from November 19-
24 which he has been winning for the past 5 years.
Next on the circuit he said was Qatar open championship to be played
in Doha from November 27 to December 2. He said Bombay open was being
held from December 8-12 but his participation was doubtful. He missed
this event last year due to political situation and this time also he
would make decision after 2 weeks.
Replying to a question he said he has won British open four times
while Jehangir Khan held record with 10 victories. He would try to
equal, if not better, Jehangirs record in the next five or six years.
But it mattered little, if he failed to do so, because the honour
belonged to Pakistan, he added.
951021
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Pakistan underdogs for World Cup: Asif Iqbal
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Representative
SHARJAH, Oct 20: Asif Iqbal, the former Pakistan captain, has termed
Pakistan as the underdogs for next years World Cup to be played in
Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka between Feb 14 and March 17.
In an exclusive interview to DAWN, Iqbal, who played two World Cups
including the 1979 one as captain, said: Its good not to be
favourites because then you are under less pressure.
Another cricket legend, Sir Richard Hadlee, has already picked Sri
Lanka as favourites to win the sixth World Cup.
Asked if his opinion was based on the fact that Pakistan lost two
successive series, he replied in the negative, saying: Pakistan are
in a process of rebuilding the team. The squad comprises a few young
and very talented players. They need to be groomed. They require
sufficient time to establish themselves.
Iqbal stressed that he had no doubt whatsoever that Pakistan possessed
enormous talent but having talent and expecting them to produce
results on the same day is not only difficult but ridiculous. Its
very harsh.
Iqbal, who retired in 1979 on the tour of India, stated that he did
not expect this team to transform into a winning combination on the
tour of Australia, New Zealand and followed up by the World Cup.
Dont expect them to win in one or two months time. You have to give
them time. If you stay with this lot for the next four years or five
years, they will convert into a force to reckon with because they are
young and immensely talented.
Asked if Imran Khans absence was making a difference in the team, the
Man of Crisis, said: Was Imran there for the rest of his life? Or for
that matter if anyone is there for the rest of life? No. Imran had a
role to play. He played it, he is gone now. Its the turn of others to
take over and continue the good job done by Imran.
Iqbal said there is no way one can say that because Imran is gone the
team is in tatters now. The former allrounder argued that if Sunil
Gavaskar or Vivian Richards have gone from the Indian or West Indies
teams respectively its the end of their batting. No one is
indispensable. Players come and go. The players who go are replaced by
others. Has Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara not replaced the two
legends?
Iqbal did not agree with the idea that a captain should be appointed
for at least three to four years like Imran Khan who led the Pakistan
team for at least a decade.
I dont agree with this. First of all, I think that man should be
appointed the captain who deserves the position and not because the
Selection Committee thinks that he is the right person or the best
available man.
The captain should be the one who first of all should be an excellent
strategist. If he is not that then he should be a good enough player
whose place is secure in the team.
Asked if Ramiz Raja is an ideal choice as captain considering that
Wasim Akram is also in the team, Asif Iqbal said there was some
dissent in the team when Wasim Akram was the captain.
Personally, I am of the view that if Wasim Akram was appointed
captain, he should have been given the job for a long time. And those
who disagreed should have been told to pack their bags and go home.
Wasim should have been given the vote of confidence by the selectors
and cricket administrators and told him that look we have selected you
because you are the best choice. They should have continued with him
and should have given the team which he wanted.
But unfortunately, this didnt happen. So, lets wait and see if he
is given another chance, Iqbal said.
Iqbal added that whosoever is appointed captain should have the
blessings of the cricket board and sufficient confidence from the
management.
Asked if it was a good strategy of appointing Wasim Akram as captain
by replacing a successful Javed Miandad, the former Kent and PIA
player said: Yes, why not. After all, Miandad was also directly
appointed the captain after me. They did that and again made the
mistake by surrendering to the rebellion. But fortunately Imran Khan
was there and did an excellent job.
Asif Iqbal, asked what the then BCCP should have done in 1981 when
star players refused to play under Miandad, said: They should have
done the same thing and told the players to pack their bags and go
home.
Asif Iqbal agreed that even Wasim Akram will be unable to turn the
Pakistan team into a force overnight. They (PCB) have to give time
and confidence and only then they can expect good results.
Commenting on Pakistans performance in Sharjah, Asif Iqbal said that
though they won a couple of opening games and then crashed out from
the tournament because they were completely outplayed by the other two
teams.
951024
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Majid quits World Cup Technical Committee
-------------------------------------------------------------------
LAHORE, Oct 23 :Former Pakistan cricket captain Majid Khan on Monday
resigned from the Technical Committee of the World Cup after accusing
Chief Executive, Pakistan Cricket Board, of creating hurdles in the
smooth functioning of the team during the home series against Sri
Lanka.
In a statement Majid, who was removed from the post of administrative
manager alongwith Mushtaq Muhammad in the wake of defeat in Sharjah,
said he made a grave error of judgement in associating myself with
this board and have decided not to expose himself to their whims any
longer.
The statement said: Much has appeared about me in the Press in the
last couple of months and I would like the opportunity to clarify my
position.
I only accepted the position of manager of the Pakistan team after
repeated requests and much persuasion by the Chairman of the PCB,
Zulfiqar Ali Bokhari. I knew it was a difficult time to accept this
assignment because the team had been through a traumatic tour of South
Africa and Zimbabwe. The mandate given to me was to help build a new
team and bring it up to a certain standard by the time of the World
Cup.
I managed the Pakistan team in 1994 and have twice managed young
Pakistan teams. All three tours were smooth and problem- free. I have
never had to put up with sort of hurdles, deliberately created this
time, to hinder the smooth functioning of the team.
Although I was appointed Manager in July, I was not associated with
the training camp set up in Karachi in August. Repeated inquiries were
ignored by CE and I finally joined the team one day before the first
match against Sri Lanka. This meant that I was unaware of the form,
fitness and technical problems of the players.
Fromthen on the series was thoroughly mismanaged by the PCB. At two
venues the pitches were newly laid thus negating the home team
advantage. We warned the PCB that the Gujranwala ground was unfit for
play but no action was taken.
The proceedings of the only selection committee meeting in which the
managers and captain participated were most unethically distorted and
leaked to the Press.
The team for the Sharjah tournament was announced on the evening
before its scheduled departure and we arrived in Sharjah without the
Pakistan blazers and ties. We also arrived without a vice-captain and
Physiotherapist.
Despite all these hurdles, the team, playing at full strength, won
the first two matches and only due to injuries to three key players
was unable to win the last two. Throughout these series there was no
scandal or problem of indiscipline. The relationships between the
management, the captain and team were excellent.
However, a section of the Press was unleashed by its controller in
the PCB. Defying all logic and connection with reality, an attempt was
made to place the blame for the loss of the series on the captain and
management. Stories were invented, lies and innuendoes printed. Teams
have lost before and teams will lose again it is the nature of the
game. To deliberately whip up hysteria through a section of the Press
is doing no service to the game.
He said he had been accused of interfering with the team but as a
former cricketer he was within his right to advise the players and
show them their shortcomings.
Majid said the decision to play Arshad Khan in the final one-dayer
against Sri Lanka at Rawalpindi was taken by the Selection Committee
which had assembled for the first time during the entire series at the
Rawalpindi Stadium.
He said he was offered the post of CE which was then manoeuvred by
Arif Abbasi. He also stated that he had advised Wasim Akram to skip
the Sharjah tournament so that he could recover from the frozen
shoulder for the more important tour of Australia.
951020
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A nail-biting cricket final in Sharjah
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Samiul Hasan
SHARJAH, Oct 19: Sri Lanka stands a good chance of winning their first
major tournament away from home when they take on the West Indies in
the Champions Trophy final at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium here on
Friday.
Sri Lanka, who have just a solitary major one-day title under their
cap (Asia Cup at Colombo in 1986), have every right to be the
favourites for the final. They have played and produced just fabulous
cricket in the past eight days.
Their magnificent victory over the West Indies by six runs while
defending 234 and then a more improved and thrilling performance in
the reverse game in which they bravely fought to score 329 while
chasing 334 for victory, are cases in point.
The performances of the cricketers from the Pearl Island appear to be
more convincing and impressive. Probably, they have started to believe
in themselves or probably they have tasted the sweetness of victory.
Whatever be the reason, successive victories in New Zealand and
Pakistan, have given them tremendous confidence. And now they are in
full throttle prepared to upset the applecart of the West Indies, the
winners of 12 one-day tournaments, including two World Cups and five
in this desert city of Sharjah.
The Sri Lankans are also determined to perform wonders after they were
adjudged the pre-tournament favourites for the first time since 1981
in the presence of cricket heavyweights like the West Indies and
Pakistan.
The Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, nevertheless, prefers to
remain an underdog. We play a lot better when we are the underdogs.
Theres no pressure at all. But when you are termed as favourites, you
are expected to win at any cost. And in this game of uncertainties, it
is very difficult to live up to the expectations and ratings.
However, the biggest concern for the Sri Lankans will be, of course,
Brian Lara. He is a worry for every team and particularly when he gets
going.
The record-breaking machine did not have good three matches by his
standards in which he scored 18, 21 and 52 before he picked up his
momentum and made his presence felt with a breath-taking 169 in the
final game of the double-league.
It was an ideal time for Lara to take off and if the Sri Lankans dont
think seriously, they may be heading for a big trouble.
The Lankans claim that they have prepared a game plan and chalked out
a strategy which will help them in restraining the ruthless Lara.
Just wait for 24 more hours and you will automatically knows if we
have succeeded in our scheme, Ranatunga said, adding: But you must
not forget that he one of the greatest batsman. He is capable of
breaking all the calculations and upsetting game plans. That is why he
is considered a genius.
In the past couple of years, Sri Lanka have established themselves as
the best fielding team after Australia. But they dropped Lara twice on
Monday and the left-hander went on to score 169. If this time they
give him a couple of lives, it would not be a surprise if the batsman
scores the first double century of one-day cricket.
I know we dropped him twice. These things do happen in big matches
but not always. Lara got two lives on Monday but hopefully if he gives
us a chance on Friday, he will regret it, Ranatunga said.
Sri Lanka, on Friday, will be mainly depending on their strong batting
lineup. Sanath Jayasuriyas calibre is no secret though he is
struggling for runs while Roshan Mahanama is in dazzling form having
scored 101, 76 and 47 not out in his three appearances.
Asanka Gurusinha is out of form but no one can question his talent and
his meritorious services to the Sri Lankan team. Aravinda de Silva is
a hard-hitter and Arjuna Ranatunga is an innings grafter. In Hashan
Tillekeratne, Sri Lanka have found a batsman who can use the long
handle. He is as dependable as is Chandika Hathurusinghe who will bat
low in the order and will hopefully open the bowling with Pramodiya
Wickremasinghe.
The Sri Lankan bowling will revolve around Kumar Dharmasena and
Muttiah Muralitharan to be backed up by Wickremasinghe, de Silva,
Jayasuriya, Ranatunga and Hathurusinghe.
With the match staring at 8:45 am (local time), toss is going to be
very vital as the ball will now swing for an addition 45 minutes i.e.
now for 95 minutes. While Sri Lanka have hinted that they will like to
chase the target that will also allow them to stay away from the
tricky first 15 overs of the first session, West Indies manager Andy
Roberts said he would certainly like to bat first.
I think it will be important to win the toss tomorrow because last
time we won the toss we scored 333. So if we win the toss tomorrow, we
may scored 400, Roberts stated.
Asked if that score of 400 will be a good one, Roberts smiled and
said: Whatever runs we post on the scoreboard tomorrow will be a
winning score.
Roberts stated that so far the West Indies lost the two matches while
chasing the target. We have problems in batting second in the first
two games. We were cruising very well should have won both the matches
against Sri Lanka and Pakistan comfortably but we screwed up from the
mid-way and onwards. Besides, there is also some pressure when we beat
second.
Replying to another question, Roberts stated that the Sri Lankans
without any doubt had a very strong batting lineup. I dont deny the
fact that once you score 333 and the opposition replies with 328, you
come under pressure.
They are playing very well and honestly have played the best cricket.
At this moment they are not only capable of causing an upset but
capable of doing anything.
Asked how far the West Indies depended upon Brian Lara, Roberts
replied: Our team doesnt depend on Lara only. It is the same in the
mid 70s and late 80s when Viv Richards used to dominate the opposition
bowling, used to score all the runs and we used to win the matches. If
you have a world class player whether it be a batsman or bowler, you
depend on him to score runs or take wickets. If you dont, you would
be a fool.
Commenting on Phil Simmons form, Roberts said: He may surprise you on
Friday with a century.
Except for Ian Bishop, all the players are in fine fettle. The pacer
who had a terrible tournament, is struggling with a groin injury and
may not play on Friday. He will, however, undergo a physical test
early morning before the final decision is taken.
Unlike Monday when 57 spectators watched the first ball bowled by
Wickremasinghe and only 112 tickets were sold, a full house is
expected tomorrow.
A couple of Pakistanis bought 1,000 tickets each and when this
correspondent told them that Pakistan is not playing on Friday, one of
them said: We will not be coming to see Pakistan. We will come to
cheer Sri Lanka. They are the better team.
The two teams to be selected from:
SRI LANKA: Sanath Jayasuriya, Roshan Mahanama, Asanka Gurusinha,
Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga (captain), Hashan Tillekeratne,
Chandika Hathurusinghe, Romesh Kaluwitharna, Kumar Dharmasena, Muttiah
Muralitharan, Pramodiya Wickremasinghe, Rawan Kalpage, Eric Upashanta
and Wendell Labrooy.
WEST INDIES: Stuart Williams, Sherwin Campbell, Brian Lara, Richie
Richardson (captain), Phil Simmons, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Courtney
Browne, Roger Harper, Ottis Gibson, Andy Cummins, Hamesh Anthony,
Nehemiah Williams, Ian Bishop, Roland Holder.
UMPIRES: Darrell Hair and Stephen Dunn.
951021
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The painful cricket debacle in Sharjah
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Lateef Jafri
The Pakistan team was not only thrown out of the Champions Trophy of
cricket in Sharjah and sent packing home but their players had become
chapfallen in the return league match against Sri Lanka, showing
failure as much of morale and character as of technique and skill.
Again it was poor, senseless batting that saw a procession to the
pavilion resulting in a scanty score of 143. Only five genuine batsmen
were in the side, including the captain, and they became hesitant,
strokeless to what was ordinary spin and length in medium-paced
bowling. Certainly there has been considerable lowering of Pakistans
cricket standards, resulting in deprivation of the fighting spirit and
resilience.
Already the establishment and the tour officials have come out with
the excuse of injury and illness to a number of players. Mushtaq
Mohammad, the technical manager, gave a list of infirmities, stating
that injuries and sickness badly affected the performance of the
squad. The team eclipsed the record in injuries of the New Zealanders
( who now perhaps have got over the problem) but where has gone the
toughness of mind, the plucky character to face changing situations
and new challenges thrown by the adversary? The batsmen, as was seen
live on TV, overstepped reasonable margin of errors; even Ramiz Raja,
the skipper, gave no semblance of responsibility in the crucial second
round-robin while facing a long hop. The same was true of Basit Ali
and Moin Khan, if Salim Elahi, after his many fine performances, has
also to be bracketed with them.
The determination, dash and gallantry exhibited by the Sri Lankans a
day earlier against the West Indies were admirable and belonged to an
earlier era when cricket had not been polluted by the present-day
commercialisation and it was played more for pleasure than purse. It
was Bradman who showed the Lankans the way to take up cricket. During
his sea voyages to England before and after the Second World War for
the Ashes series the Australian teams ship would stop over in Colombo
to play exhibition matches. The Lankans have certainly come of age.
The way they took up the West Indian challenge and a target of 333
(334 to win) proved, if at all a proof was necessary, their high
stature and place in global cricket. Every ball was hit, some
vehemently, and their running between-the-wickets was a lesson and
education to the Pakistani batsmen who take their own time to settle
down and take the runs rather leisurely much to the discomfiture of
their supporters. When the resolution and will-power will come back to
the Pakistan squad known not long ago for their antagonistic fight and
chivalry.
Rumours are rife about the disharmony and infighting in the team. Much
has been made of the shoulder injury to Aamir Sohail, who reportedly
had a tiff with Majid Khan, the tour manager, and the captain, Ramiz
Raja. There are groups in the squad, who do not see eye to eye with
the captain, unable to shoulder the burden of batsmanship in a
responsible way in a critical situation as in the return match against
West Indies or Sri Lanka (the exception being his century against the
Caribbeans in the first encounter.
It appears that not only there are differences among managers and
selectors there are divergences in the opinions of the Chairman and
the Chief Executive. In a such a situation the team for the Australian
tour is to be selected. There are many weaknesses in the batting
lineup, if a try has been made to shore up the gap in the bowling
side.
Then why not recall Salim Malik and Ejaz Sr, aggressive batsmen, ready
to pounce on the spin and drive the fast attack far and wide.
The inquiry is proceeding but the Australians are not prepared for the
necessary cross-examination by the defence. In such circumstances the
prosecution case becomes weak and the case against Salim Malik stands
on a weak ground. Graham Halbish, the Australian cricket chief, has
given a NOC to the PCB for selection of any player, including Salim
Malik, for tour Down Under. It is time that he is seriously considered
for choice in the team. No malice or personal ill-will should come in
the way.
One notes that Imran Khan, former captain, has very strongly pleaded
for winding up the case of Salim Malik and recalling him to the team
to beef up the middle order, getting brittle day by day.
It is high time that the confusion regarding Salim Malik is cleared
and the house put in order Imran stressed in an interview in Quetta,
adding, we are fast approaching two important assignments * the tour
Down Under and the World Cup, which we have to defend at home.
951022
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Strife-torn Sri Lanka rejoices over win
-------------------------------------------------------------------
COLOMBO, Oct 21: Cricket-crazy Sri Lankans cast aside worries over
urban terrorism on Saturday to celebrate the return of their team from
an historic overseas win.
Fans lit firecrackers on Friday night after watching their cricketers
on television beat the powerful West Indies in the final to win the
Champions Trophy.
Normally, we would have celebrated our arrival a little different to
this, said Sri Lankan cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga at a news
conference.
Their team beat Pakistan and the West Indies in grand style to win the
three-nation championship event, Sri Lankas first win overseas in a
tournament involving more than two teams since they gained test status
in 1982.
951020
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Pakistan play 1-1 draw against Germany
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Farhana Ayaz
RAWALPINDI, Oct 19: Pakistani forward-line failed to shake the tight
German defence as the world champions in the 1-1 draw here in the
last fixture of the second leg of the three-nation triangular series
at Army Hockey Stadium on Thursday.
Although, Pakistan remained at the bottom of the points table at the
end of the second leg, there was an improved performance in the sense
that the two fixtures here were not lost but drawn and we might as
well hope for a win at Lahore if the strikers shun the habit
of hanging onto the ball where a pass is imperative to produce result.
Korea, so far the unbeatable side in the series, has seven points
with three wins and one tie, followed by Germany three points having
won and drew one game each with Pakistan, while the hosts earned two
points, both through draw against Korea and Germany.
Here, in the last fixture, skipper Shahbaz Ahmed tried to utilise
the early moment openings but twice Aleem failed to collect the ball
to pose any threat to the fresh German defence. In the 10th minute
Pakistan earned its first penalty corner on a left wing run in from
Anis, but a ripping Danish Kaleem shot went out from the left
goalpost.
Germans launched their first dangerous manoeuvre through skipper Kluas
Michler who coupled with Oliver Domke cut in from the right and a
rough tackle by full-back Atiq secured the first penalty corner for
the Olympic champions but swift clearance from Wahid Shahid
neutralised the threat of a rebound conversion in the 15th minute.
Two minutes later, right out Ejaz produced Pakistans first on target
attempt on top of the circle shot from his pet position. However,
keeper Christopher was not budged cleanly deflecting the try with his
pads. Pushing in Pakistan earned its second penalty corner but a
diving Christropher brought out a fabulous save deflecting the direct
shot from Kaleems stick over the high bar.
For Pakistan, Shahbaz struggled to co-ordinate with the newer lot of
strikers but a solid German defence curtailed his ambitions by keeping
the Pakistani skipper under continuous check.
At half time the match was tied 0-0.
After resumption, Shahbaz Jr. stepped up efforts and made a few
inroads into the opponent field but centre-forward Aleem failed to
free himself from the potent German shield.
On a counter attack, Germans earned their second penalty corner,
however keeper Mansoor and Wahid Shahid in a two touch motion
nullified the danger.
A few moments later, Germany earned their third penalty corner when
Wahid defaulted standing inside Pakistan shooting circle after having
stopped an out-going hit from German right wing. Pakistan got lucky
when Bechmann sent high an open rebound from Mansoor who blocked an
indirect attempt in the 53rd minute.
For Pakistan its vice captain brought out a spectacular save when
German ace striker Oliver Domke who was adjudged best player in the
Berlin Champions Trophy, struck in a full bloodied left flick while
swiftly gaining in on a small room on the right of the shooting range.
Oliver Domke was the key man in producing the lead for his team when
his solo run in from the right flank baffled the Pakistani defense as
he sent home a classically centre lay off to an unmarked Ulrich
Moissel who made no mistakes in beating Mansoor in the 61st minute.
However, Germans jubilations were not long lived as Pakistani
strikers led by the two Shahbazs in a counter attack secured a
penalty corner in the 62nd minute as German skipper was sent out of
the field by umpire after he received his second green card on a rough
tackle against Pakistani skipper. But, Pakistans vibrant right half
Usman failed to neatly stop an off target hit in however, Atiq
acquired an out of the circle free hit and quick pass to outside right
Ejaz yielded a powerful equaliser into the top right as an unorganised
German defense looked on to the joyful and friendly Rawalpindi crowd
which had gathered in good number to see their stalwarts in action.
Both teams defences were given a few more intense moments but there
was no addition to the scores.
In the last leg of the series at Lahore, Friday the Olympic champions
take on the Asian champions.
The German coach believed that the Koreans would slow down to an
extent in their final games, adding that they have played powerfully
in the two legs and normally, they should lose some of that punch at
Lahore. In his post match comments, Paul Lissek, stated that after
having seen the videos of the Korea-Germany tie, he was still affirmed
that the umpires were unfair in their decisions against Germany.
The German coach approved the series as a good chance to test out the
alternatives in the final national squads before the big event at
Atlanta. We have missed out our seven senior players who either busy
in their studies of jobs and we understand their commitments since
they are not professional field hockey players, he said. Teams:
Germany: Christropher, Ingo Kruger, Micheal Green, Dirk Bruse, Patrick
Bellengaum, Frank Gemmrig, Jan Peter Tewes, Ulrich Moissl, Henning
Helweg, Florain Kunz, Christopher Bechmann, Christin Stengler, Kluas
Michler, Oliver Domke, Christain Mayhoffer. Pakistan: Mansoor Ahmed,
Atique Rehman, Irfan Mehmood, M. Sarwar, Atif Bashir, M. Usman, Ejaz,
M.Fayyaz, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shahmim Paul, M. Anis, M. Khalid, Shahbaz
Jr., Danish Kaleem, Aleem, Wahid Shahid.
951023
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Pakistan, Germany draw 2-2
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Ilyas Beg
LAHORE, Oct 22: Germany displayed remarkable retrieving power and
fighting ability to equalise 2-2 and draw their match against Pakistan
after being two goals down in the first session of the final leg of
the Triangular Hockey Series at the National Hockey Stadium (NHS) on
Sunday.
Had the Pakistani goalkeepers (Mansoor slightly injured and
substituted by young Khalid in the early stages of the game) not
brought off some excellent saves, Germany might have won match which
was mostly dominated by the visitors.
The German scored only one goal on the 9th out of the 13 penalty-
corners earned during this match. The Pakistanis got only three
penalty-corners and missed them all along.
With this draw, Germany raised the tally of points to five to finish
second behind the champions South Korea, who mustered nine points in
the league. Pakistan playing as a disjointed lot had to be content
with four points and third position, unbecoming for the World Cup
champions.
Mohammad Usman of Pakistan received the Best Player of the League
prize while the German team was awarded the Fairplay Trophy.
The first-half of the match was dominated by the Pakistan team, which,
inexplicably, fell on the defensive after going ahead with two
beautiful field goals. Mohammad Shahbaz Junior drew the first blood in
the 12th minute. Running down the right flank, outside-right Ijaz
Ahmad sent in an excellent cross and Mohammad Shahbaz deflected the
ball into the goal leaving the German goalkeeper bewildered.
Ijaz Ahmad and inside-right Sarwar made a good move on the right
flank, exchanging the ball with one another. Finally, Sarwar passed on
the ball to Aleem in the D, who scored a good goal by hitting the
ball towards the right of the goalkeeper. Rather than keeping the
pressure on, the Pakistani team started defending its citadel.
Benefiting from the mistake, the Germans started to dominate the
proceedings and attack the Pakistani goal. However, they could not
succeed in reducing the margin till interval.
The Pakistani team seemed content with defending rather than going in
for attack at the resumption of play. The German attacks were coming
in waves. During the second session for about five minutes, the
Pakistanis went into the attack and also earned their third penalty-
corner but wasted it.
A German forward tried to score a goal in the 52nd minute of the match
but the Pakistani goalkeeper Khalid efficiently blocked the attempt.
However, he was himself displaced in the following action and Oliver
Domke passed on the ball to unmarked Henning Helweg on the left side,
who reduced the margin with a well-judged hit, leaving the Pakistani
defence stranded.
Three minutes later, the Germans earned their ninth penalty-corner.
The Pakistani goalkeeper saved on the strike but on the resultant
rebound Christoph Bechmann scooped the ball into the net to restore
parity (2-2). No more goal could be scored by the two teams although
they continued their efforts till the final whistle. The Pakistani
youngsters either hung on to the ball or failed to make moves by
returning the ball to experienced captain Shahbaz Ahmad who kept on
running up and down in search of a match-winner. The erratic shooting
the Germans also deprived them of a match-winner. The two teams were:
Pakistan: Mansoor Ahmad (Khalid), Khawaja Mohammad Junaid, Sarwar,
Akmal Sikandar, Mohammad Usman, Ijaz Ahmad, Fayyaz, Mohammad Shahbaz
Junior, Shamim Paul, Nadeem Ahmad (ND), Captain Shahbaz Ahmad Senior,
Danish Kaleem, Wahid Shahid, Aleem.
Germany: Ingo Kruger, Michel Green, Patrick Bellengaum, Frank Gemmrig,
Jan Peter Tewes, Henning Helweg, Florian Kunz, Christoph Bechmann,
Cristinn Stengler, Captain Klaus Michler, Oliver Domke, Christian
Mayerhoffer.
Umpires: P. Schellekens and Han Jin.
951024
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Australian doubts over Malik case
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Ihithisham Kamardee
PERTH, Oct.23: The Pakistan Cricket Board today lashed out at bribery
allegations which tore apart the reputation of former skipper Salim
Malik, saying Australians Shane Warne and Tim May should have been
prepared to back up their claims.
PCB co-ordinator Iqbal Sikander also criticised the Australian
spinners and the Australian Cricket Board for failing to become fully
involved in the inquiry.
If you blame someone then you have to be prepared to give proper
evidence, Sikander, former Pakistan leg spinner, said from Karachi in
an interview. Its very clear that the judge did not have clear
evidence, he said.
Sikander said the PCB had done everything in its power to get to the
bottom of the allegations. On our part, we have been trying to play
fair and have given them assurances of all the security they needed
(if the ACB sent the players to Pakistan).
Sikander said as far as the PCB was concerned the case against Malik
was now closed.
However he said the publicity surrounding the claims had shattered the
former captain who is a late inclusion in the side to tour Australia,
while fast bowler Wasim Akram was named captain.
The ACB refused to speak further on the row and Warne and May were
unavailable for comment.
However, Australian captain Mark Taylor, who said he supported his
players, was not surprised over Maliks selection and was more
interested in the coming series.
The Dawn Page