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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 24 July 1999 Issue : 05/30
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Contents | National News | Business & Economy | Editorials & Features | Sports
The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from
Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the daily DAWN. DWS
offers news, analysis and features of particular interest to the
Pakistani Community on the Internet.
Extracts, not exceeding 50 lines, can be used provided that this
entire header is included at the beginning of each extract.
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(c) Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan - 1999
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CONTENTS
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NATIONAL NEWS
+ EU presses for Indo-Pakistan dialogue
+ Vajpayee demands 'trust' for talks
+ Talks with Saudi leaders satisfactory, says Nawaz
+ Kashmir crisis: Pakistan graples with economic fallout
+ NA approves law against dumping
+ US no more to pursue balanced policy
+ Govt not willing to implement old law in Sindh
+ Income tax payable by salaried persons
+ Army chief misquoted, say foreign office, ISPR
+ NA told: Judicial body in MQM man's killing formed
+ Pakistani exports to US west coast up
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BUSINESS & ECONOMY
+ One out of 32 banks holding back approval
+ IMF talks cover vital financial aspects
+ Credit plan 1999-2000 after IMF talks
+ Petroleum prices to be raised by 15%
+ Greenback slips in inter-bank market
+ Disparity in Wapda, KESC rates to end
+ Business awaits parity in KESC, WAPDA rates
+ Ghous asked to improve law & order: minister
+ $1bn rice export target to be achieved: Laleka
+ Stocks maintain firm outlook
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EDITORIALS & FEATURES
+ End-game? Ardeshir Cowasjee
+ For this submission what gain? Ayaz Amir
+ Survival of the fittest Irfan Husain
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SPORTS
+ New manager and coach to be announced shortly: Mujeeb
+ PCB offices remain shut
+ Farhan to play in Asian snooker tour play-off
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NATIONAL NEWS
990724
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EU presses for Indo-Pakistan dialogue
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HELSINKI, July 23: The European Union said on Friday it would put
pressure on both India and Pakistan to find a solution to their 52-
year-old Kashmir dispute.
"The EU is happy that the (recent) violence in Kashmir has stopped
and we encourage both sides to sit down and settle their disputes,"
Finnish Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen told a press conference
after talks with Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz.
Finland currently holds the union's rotating six-month presidency.
Aziz is in Europe to seek diplomatic support to force India to push
ahead with serious talks on Kashmir.
When asked if the EU agreed with Pakistan that international
pressure was needed to bring India to the negotiating table,
Halonen said: "We will put pressure on both sides."
Aziz said he felt he had received a sympathetic hearing from
Halonen. He is next scheduled to fly to London to meet with Foreign
Secretary Robin Cook.
"We are ready to follow a bilateral dialogue... but we would like
the international community to follow it and to put pressure on
India to not have dialogue for dialogue's sake," he said.
SARTAJ MEETS PRESIDENT: Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz called for
international efforts to help resolve Kashmir dispute.
He said this during his hour long meeting with President of Finland
Mr Marti Ahtisari on Friday in Nantali near Helsinki.
The foreign minister and Finnish president discussed the Kashmir
problem in detail with special reference to recent developments in
Kargil.
Mr Sartaj Aziz expressed the hope that now Kargil situation has
been de-escalated, the world community would put pressure on India
to start a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan to find a lasting and
durable solution to Kashmir problem. He told the Finnish President
that after the nuclearisation of South Asia the dispute over
Kashmir will no longer be a regional issue and will impinge on
international peace and security.
President Ahtisari appreciated measures taken by Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif to defuse the crisis and expressed the hope that both
Pakistan and India will restart the Lahore peace process.
Finnish President also raised the Afghanistan issue and Foreign
Minister briefed him on the current situation with special
reference to recent meeting of Six plus Two group on Afghanistan in
Tashkent.
He stressed that it was for the first time that the Taliban had
attended such a meeting. The foreign minister hoped that world
community will continue to provide economic and humanitarian
assistance to the people of Afghanistan. -Reuters/APP
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990724
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Vajpayee demands 'trust' for talks
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NEW DELHI, July 23: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on
Friday said talks with Pakistan could only resume after Islamabad
"created an atmosphere of trust," the Press Trust of India
reported.
"The talks can be resumed only after they (Pakistan) create an
atmosphere of trust," he told reporters here.
Vajpayee did not go into specifics but said Pakistan had to take
"several steps" to gain New Delhi's confidence following the 10-
week long battle between Indian troops and Mujahideen who had
occupied positions in the divided state of Kashmir.
The prime minister also dismissed opposition criticism that his
government had failed to check the Pakistani intrusion in time due
to an intelligence failure.
"There was no intelligence failure and if necessary, inquiry will
be held taking into account others' perceptions," he said.-AFP
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990720
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Talks with Saudi leaders satisfactory, says Nawaz
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JEDDAH, July 19: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday expressed
his satisfaction over his talks with Saudi leadership and called
for further intensification of consultations between the two
friendly countries.
Nawaz Sharif on Monday held talks with Saudi Defence Minister
Shahzada Sultan bin Abdul Aziz on bilateral issues and
international issues.
"And of course the time-tested friendship that we have between the
two countries demand that we intensify these consultations," the
Prime Minister told a Saudi TV channel. Pak-Saudi Arabian
friendship, he said, has always stood the test of time.
Nawaz Sharif said: "so we always sought the advice of our brothers
and that's what we are here for this time also. So Saudi Arabia's
role to resolve the present crisis has been a very meaningful
role." He said two sides," have remained in touch with each other
and we are in perfect agreement on the steps that have been taken
to resolve the crisis."
"It is a great privilege to consult our brothers and friends here
in Saudi Arabia. We consider this as a personal privilege also and
this has been the tradition for the last so many decades", he said.
Saudi defence minister said he had held discussion with Nawaz
Sharif on important issues, adding, Saudi Arabia fully backs
Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir.
UMRA PERFORMED: The prime minister along with the members of his
entourage performed Umra late on Sunday evening.
Among others, Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharaff, federal
ministers Sartaj Aziz, Raja Zafarul Haque, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan,
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Majeed Malik as well as advisers to the
prime minister Syed Ghous Ali Shah and Pir Sabir Shah, Balochistan
PML president Fazal Agha, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, chief of Jammu
and Kashmir Muslim Conference, defence secretary Iftikhar Ali Khan
performed the Umra.
Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the first lady, and Hussain Nawaz, son of the
prime minister, were also among those performing Umra.
The prime minister and the delegation is staying in 'Qasr-i-
Ziafa.'
He is scheduled to leave here for Jeddah on Tuesday forenoon on his
way to Madina-i-Munawwara and return to Pakistan in the evening of
Wednesday.-APP
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990721
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Kashmir crisis: Pakistan graples with economic fallout
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KARACHI, July 20: Pakistan's fragile economy has suffered
considerable damage from the two-month conflict with India over
Kashmir which broke out just when it had started showing signs of a
recovery, business sources said on Tuesday.
Businessmen said the crisis which triggered fears of an all-out war
between the arch foes hit the stock market, discouraged investors
and put the brakes on trade.
The crisis was defused by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's decision to
call back Islamic fighters from the Indian side of the disputed
Himalayan region.
Business sources said a major factor behind Sharif's move was the
economy.
Heavily dependent on foreign loans, the economy could hardly have
sustained any further escalation in the conflict.
Pakistan's economy posted a low 3.1 per cent growth rate in the
fiscal year to June 30 against a target of 5.0 per cent due to
international sanctions slapped over nuclear detonations by the
country in May 1998.
The Kashmir crisis erupted early May as Pakistan had just started
recovering from the telling impact of the sanctions after
international lending agencies and donor countries resumed
assistance to Islamabad.
The government took the right decision to de-escalate the crisis,
otherwise the country was headed toward an economic collpase,
industrialist Majid Aziz said.
Prominent stock broker Arif Habib said the fear of war had
triggered flight of capital and panic selling in the capital
market.
He said demand for the dollar weakened the local rupee 5.76 per
cent in the open market and caused share prices on the main Karachi
Stock Exchange (KSE) to drop 26.55 per cent in one month after the
fighting in Kashmir started.
The KSE Index plummeted 376.21 points falling from 1,416.62 on May
24 to 1,040.41 on June 15.
Now the rupee has gained and KSE-100 Index also recovered by more
than 116.26 points or 11.17 per cent after Pakistan and India
agreed to disengagement in Kashmir on July 10, Habib said.
A dealer said the investors lost more than $1.6 billion in market
capitalization during the duration of the crisis.
Majyd Aziz, a prominent industrialist, said business transactions
had been held up as war fears gripped the country. He said his own
garment manufcating industry had been severely hit.
Had the tensions continued, the economic situation will have
further worsened, Aziz said.
He said neither Pakistan nor India could afford a war as both
needed to cut down their heavy defence expenditure to divert
resources to develop their economies and provide basic amenities to
their people.
Javed Muslim, president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (KCCI), said Pakistan badly needed political and ecoomic
stability.
When borders are secured, business is secured, he said, adding that
millions of dollars fled from the Pakistani stock market during the
two-month crisis period.
Let us give diplomacy another chance as proposed by Sharif to the
Indian leadership and forget about war to settle mutual disputes,
Habib said.
I think Sharif has choosen the right path that goes towards
stability, development and prosperity of the region, he said.-AFP
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990723
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NA approves law against dumping
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Correspondent
ISLAMABAD, July 22: The National Assembly on Thursday passed the
Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties Bill, 1998 to discourage
dumping of goods in Pakistan and bring the legislation in
conformity with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement.
The bill was moved by Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Sardar
Kamil Umar for consideration.
The bill was put to voice vote and also to the division twice on
the insistence of the opposition. The division results showed 61 to
nil votes the first time and 51 to nil votes the second time. The
bill was discussed clause-by-clause and was finally passed by the
house.
Before its adoption during the third reading, three opposition and
independent MNAs, namely Kunwar Khalid Yunus, Qaisar Sheikh and Dr
Fehmida Mirza, made critical speeches.
In his address, independent MNA Qaisar Sheikh said that it was for
the first time that such a bill had been moved in our Parliament.
He said that the bill was sourly needed. He regretted that the
commission had no wide powers while the powers of the bureaucracy
had been enhanced.
He said that the bill had not formulated a mechanism whereby we
could know how the goods from outside the country were being dumped
into Pakistan.
Kunwar Khalid Yunus said that the anti-dumping laws were made the
world over keeping in view the interests of respective countries'
industrial concerns and also to promote the climate for investment.
He called for the need for making our own laws liberal with a view
to attracting foreign investment.
Dr Fehmida Mirza, in her criticism of the Anti-Dumping Bill, said
that the main need of the hour was to set up independent
institutions. She lauded the framing of the bill but she regretted
that under the bill, the commission had been limited under the
finance minister and his powers had been increased. She stressed
the need for making the commission more independent.
The Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties Bill, 1998, contains 42
clauses. The bill provides that anti-dumping arises when imports
are made at prices lower than the producer's cost, or the sale
price in the home country or price at which like or similar product
is sold by that producer in a third country.
Imports at "dumping" prices compete unfairly with domestic industry
which produces similar goods and can cause reduced sales, hence
losses and even permanent damage, i.e. closure.
Under the bill, subsidy is a financial contribution or any other
form of support provided by the government of the country of origin
or export or a public body to the enterprises engaged in export
business. Both dumping and subsidisation are unfair trade practices
as they hamper fair competition and cause injury to local industry.
Countries naturally legislate measures to protect domestic industry
from dumping.
The salient features of the bill are: To check (and place effective
measures against), dumping and subsidisation of foreign goods being
imported into Pakistan so that no material injury is caused to
domestic industry.2. To specify investigation procedures to
determine and propose the amount of anti-dumping or countervailing
duties as per guidelines contained in relevant WTO agreements.3. To
authorise the federal government to implement the anti-dumping and
countervailing measures recommended by the National Tariff
Commission; 4. Procedures for public hearing, review, appeal, and
refund have also been provided.5. Definitions and expressions used
in the text of the draft produced will comprehensively cover terms
such as commission, country of export, country of origin,
comparison, dumping, dumping margin, export price, injury, like
goods, normal value, domestic industry, subsidy, tribunal, etc; and
6. A right of appeal to aggrieved parties has been provided in the
spirit of WTO dispute settlement mechanism.
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990723
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US no more to pursue balanced policy
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Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 22: A senior US official has clearly stated that
the days of "even-handedness and balance" in US policy towards
India and Pakistan are now over, signalling a major shift in how
Washington would deal with the two countries in future.
"In the past there have been attempts to impose intellectual
constructs such as balance or even-handedness on American foreign
policy towards India and Pakistan... Those days are over, if indeed
they ever existed," State Department's Senior Adviser for South
Asia Mathew Daley, told the Indian-American Friendship Council here
last on Tuesday.
No Pakistani correspondents were invited for the Daley speech which
was reported in detail by Indian newspapers. His well studied
comments were the loudest and the clearest indication of the
direction the US policy would take in the coming months and years,
especially after Kargil internationalised the Kashmir situation to
Pakistan's detriment.
Daley said America's relations with India and Pakistan were going
to have their own separate vectors, trajectories and velocities.
"At any given moment, on any given topic, we might appear to be
even-handed, but that will be an incidental outcome of a policy,
not the objective of a policy," he said.
The Indo-US relationship is at the crossroads and much will depend
on what will happen in the coming months, Daley said, arguing that
the administration's objective was not only to return to the status
quo ante of May 1998 but also one that established a qualitatively
different kind of relationship.
Daley, who will accompany Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to
Singapore for meeting Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said
the dialogue that had been conducted by Mr. Singh and the Deputy
Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, "stands out in the history
of bilateral relations as the most comprehensive and the most
intensive exchange of its type."
"I doubt if there has been a period of time when there was greater
appreciation and even sympathy for each other's views," he said
elaborating on the prospects of future Indo-US relations.
"China remains an important factor in the Indian strategic
calculus. It is not easy for India to sort out all of this, and
this is a process that is going to be high on the agenda of the new
government. Coming to a new strategic consensus in India is going
to be a significant challenge," Mr Daley remarked.
There are many converging interests between India and the US, Daley
said, singling out the maintenance free sea lanes. "I would put
forth as a matter of faith that India is going to adopt a deepening
and broadening of economic policy reform. Once it does so, its
stake in international commerce is going to grow and grow
dramatically. And as that happens, India's stake in seeing that the
sea lanes are kept free and open is going to rise rather
significantly."
On Kargil and in the shaping of American policy, he said that as
India and Pakistan had become overtly nuclear weapons states, they
had accepted the unwritten obligation to follow different rules of
conduct.
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990723
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Govt not willing to implement old law in Sindh
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Sarfaraz Ahmed
KARACHI, July 22: The government is reluctant to issue an
administrative order on the setting up of a metropolitan police
despite the fact that a bill adopted by the Sindh Legislative
Assembly in 1948 awaits the formal issuance of a notification
specifying the date on which the 1948 Act will come into force.
According to highly-reliable sources, the government has been
postponing a decision on the notification due to resistance by some
key bureaucrats in federal and provincial setups.
The sources said once the City Police Act, 1948, became effective,
it would be far easier to amend it through an ordinance, to meet
the contemporary requirements as deemed fit.
These amendments could include a new chapter on the role and
functions of the proposed Karachi Metropolitan Public Safety
Commission and a new chapter on community participation through
institutional means, the sources concluded.
The bureaucrats had been opposing the introduction of a police
system in which district magistrate was denied any role, the
sources said, adding that the City Police Act, 1948, for Karachi
had not made district magistrate redundant or subservient to a
police commissioner.
According to official documents, minister-in-charge M. A. Khuhro,
while introducing the bill for the establishment of city police on
February 7, 1948, had told the Sindh Legislative Assembly that
police commissioner would have no control over the magistrates.
"There is slight departure [from the Bombay Act]. They will remain
under the district magistrate because we are not doing away with
the district magistrate. Also he [police commissioner] will not
have the powers of a magistrate," Mr Khuhro said in reply to a
question by a member of the assembly, Holaram H. Keswani. Mr
Keswani had wanted to know whether there was any departure in the
City Police Act from the Bombay Act.
The Sindh Legislative Assembly on February 7, 1948, adopted a bill
on the city police force for Karachi. The City of Karachi Police
Act had been published in the Sind Government Gazette of January
30, 1948, under rule 144 of the Sindh Legislative Assembly Rules.
Inquiries based on official documents show that the Approved Bill
No XXV of 1948 was returned by the Quaid-i-Azam's office apparently
for carrying out of some "minor" corrections that the legal adviser
to the Governor-General had pointed out, on the authenticated copy
of the bill duly forwarded by the Sindh governor on March 15, 1948.
A letter from the office of the private secretary to the Quaid-i-
Azam, S. M. Yusuf, to the personal secretary to the Sindh governor,
J. Cordiero, dated March 12, 1948, said:
"Bill No. XXV of 1948 is returned herewith, as desired.
Unfortunately the Legal Adviser to the Governor-General has made
certain corrections in the authenticated copy of the Bill signed by
the Speaker and bearing the forwarding note of His Excellency the
Governor of Sind. A fresh copy will, therefore, have to be
submitted for the Governor General's orders."
It is not clear what transpired after that as the notification in
the Official Gazette, under Section 1 (4) of the Act, which was
essential to bring it into force was presumably left pending.
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990722
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Income tax payable by salaried persons
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Correspondent
ISLAMABAD, July 21: Central Board of Revenue has explained the
income tax payment method for the salaried persons for the
assessment year 1998-1999, assessment year 1999-2000.
A circular No 7/99, dated July 17, 1999, says that the deduction of
tax in respect of income for 1999-2000, the assessment year would
be 2000-2001. The circular explains the computation methods as
follows:
Through the Finance Act, 1999, two additional tax-rate slabs of 25
per cent and 30 per cent in respect of salaried persons earning
income exceeding Rs500,000 and Rs700,000, respectively, have been
provided in addition to the existing four rate slabs of 5 per cent,
10 per cent, 15 per cent and 20 per cent.
The 10 per cent surcharge on salary has also been withdrawn and it
would not be chargeable for the assessment year 1999-2000. First
Schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance has also been amended to
rationalize taxation of perquisites. From Assessment Year 2000-
20001, perquisites would not be taxable as a separate block of
income and would be taxable at the rates given in paragraph A of
Part-1 of the First Schedule.
However, for the purposes of deduction of tax under section 50 (1),
these tax rates shall be effective from July 1, 1999. As the
assessments for Assessment Year 1999-2000 are concerned, the
perquisites would be taxable as a separate block at the rates given
in clause (h) of proviso to paragraph A of the First Schedule.
The existing system of taxation of perquisites in cases where the
salary (inclusive of allowances and perquisites) does not exceed
Rs300,000, shall continue.
The following example illustrates the computation of tax deductible
under section 50 (1) where salary (inclusive of allowances and
perquisites) exceeds Rs300,000, for the income year 1999-2000 (July
1, 1999 to June 30, 2000):
If the pay of the person is Rs500,000, value of perquisites
Rs350,000, total income is Rs850,000, the computation of tax would
be as follows: tax at first Rs700,000 (Rs120,000); tax on next
Rs150,000 (Rs45,000); total tax (Rs165,000); minus less basic
credit (Rs2500); tax payable under section 50 (1) deductible from
salary during income year 1-7-99 to 30-6-2000 would be (Rs162,000).
Note: Dividend income, profit or interest on bank deposits, bonds,
certificates and debentures etc are taxable as a separate block of
income. Basic tax credit in the case of working women is Rs3000 and
the computation of tax would change accordingly.
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990718
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Army chief misquoted, say foreign office, ISPR
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 17: The activity of the Pakistani army has been on
the LoC in defensive positions against Indian attacks during the
Kargil crisis, foreign office spokesman Tariq Altaf told a news
briefing here on Saturday while clarifying what he called
misleading interpretation of Chief of Army Staff General Pervez
Musharaaf's remarks which he had made in an interview to the BBC on
Friday.
The spokesman distributed among the journalists the text of the
interview and also the text of the BBC broadcast and highlighted
the relevant portions from these texts to establish that at no
point did the COAS admit that Pakistani troops had been operating
in the areas under the control of Mujahideen on the Indian side of
the LoC.
According to the text of the interview the COAS while answering a
question had said: " Other than occasional patrolling that has
taken place because of offensive action by the Indians, very
offensive shelling, aircraft activity, aircraft bombing across the
LoC and also attacks and actions on the LoC, that is what got us
involved on the LoC and there was definitely within this issue of
activity on the LoC, aggressive patrolling done by our troops and
that took them across to make sure that we had our eyes and ears
open before any action takes place on the LoC."
DG ISPR Brigadier Rashed Qureshi while giving his explanation said
that the Indian army using the cover of the fighting going on
between them and the Mujahideen in Mashkoh, Kaksar and Kargil had
started shelling and attacking the LoC in order to capture some
advantageous locations.
It was to repulse these activities of the Indian army that the
Pakistani army had conducted aggressive patrolling on the LoC which
according to him was not delineated on the ground all the way, he
said.
The LoC is based on posts and the area between each post spread
over 2-4 kilometres is unmarked and neither the Indians nor the
Pakistanis would know if they had crossed the LoC while conducting
aggressive patrolling in these areas, he further said.
The COAS in his BBC interview while explaining the ambiguity of the
LoC on the ground had said:" Yes, I don't think there should be a
confusion on the way the LoC has been demarcated. Although, the
demarcation of the LoC in the Simla Agreement is based on points.
There is a bearing and distance from that point and you go another
20 to 30 Kms where you reach another point and another bearing and
distance and you reach another point. So these points are quite
clear because of the coordinates. However, the area between these
points being 20 to 30 KMs is the obviously the area ...which can
create a little bit of doubt. However, I think we can negotiate and
...see where the LoC is."
According to Brigadier Qureshi the Indian army had wanted to
capture some of the strategic locations on the LoC like the height
at 18400 in order to be able to see into the Northern Area
territory and prevent Pakistan from observation of the Drass-
Kaksar-Kargil road.
"That was the aim which seemed to be wedded into their designs from
day one," said the brigadier.
He said all such attempts at intrusion across the LoC by the Indian
army were repulsed and the Indian troops shot at by Pakistani
troops conducting aggressive patrolling on the LoC.
He once again clarified that no withdrawal of Pakistani troops or
the Mujahideen was taking place. "Actually the Indian troops were
engaged in the task of disengaging from the Mujahideen. They have
stopped artillery fire and the Mujahideen are dispersing," he
added.
He said he did not know where the Mujahideen were dispersing to and
said he was on the LoC on Friday and looked across with his
binoculars and saw no one coming towards the Pakistani LoC and
heard no shelling by the Indian artillery.
Earlier Tariq Altaf while clarifying the remarks of the COAS about
the so called debate over whether the Prime Minister had been kept
informed said General Musharaaf had actually meant that the PM had
been kept informed about Pakistan army's defensive actions on the
LoC.
When asked the COAS had told the BBC interviewer that: "Everyone
has been on board. This is the kind of disinformation going on all
around and disinformation, which is trying to create dissension between
military and the government. Everyone has been on board."
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990722
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NA told: Judicial body in MQM man's killing formed
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Correspondent
ISLAMABAD, July 21: The parliamentary secretary, interior, Safdar
Rehman, told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the Sindh
government had formed a judicial committee headed by a magistrate
to inquire into the circumstances that led to the death of an ice-
seller, Shahid.
He categorically said that the man was not deliberately killed.
To a call attention notice moved by five opposition MNAs about the
extrajudicial murder of an MQM office-bearer, Mohammad Shahid, by
the Karachi police, Mr Rehman said that Shahid had been killed in
the crossfire between the culprits and the police.
The MNAs who moved the notice were: Kunwar Khalid Yunus, Syed
Khurshid Ahmed, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Shabbir Ahmed Khan Chandio and
Shakeel Ahmed Chandio.
Giving details, the parliamentary secretary said that after
obtaining information that the culprits had gathered at a place,
the police reached there. The armed culprits opened fire at the
police and when the police returned fire, the culprits escaped into
the lanes. At 2-30am, he continued, the body of one culprit was
found in a lane which was identified as that of ice-seller Shahid.
Mr Rehman said that the deceased was a proclaimed offender and was
already nominated in six FIRs. He further said that a judicial
inquiry had already been formed to investigate the incident.
Several MNAs, including those from the ANP and PPP, asked questions
on the matter.
Mr Rehman assured the house that if any policeman was found
involved in the killing of Shahid in an extrajudicial manner, he
would be duly proceeded against under the law.
Asked by an opposition MNA if the government was prepared to form a
parliamentary committee to look into the case, Mr Rehman said that
after the receipt of the report of the judicial committee, the
question could be considered.
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990721
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pakistani exports to US west coast up
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter
KARACHI, July 20: Pakistan's exports to the US west coast, passing
through Los Angeles, have registered an appreciable increase over
the last four years, touching $350 million mark.
The items of export have been largely traditional like ready made
garments, leather goods, sports goods, surgical instruments, cotton
yarn and fabrics, textiles, handmade carpets etc.
But looking at the huge share of other countries in the vast US
consumers' market the private sector of Pakistan has been advised
to closely review its production facilities and capabilities in
relation to the possibilities available in the US markets alone.
It is a well-known fact that the people of the United States of
America constitute the largest single consumer market in the world.
American markets have been the target of both the developed and the
developing countries.
This has been observed by Tariq Azizuddin, consul general of
Pakistani mission in Los Angeles in a communication sent to various
ministries and trade bodies.
He said, "I believe our chambers of commerce across the country
must take hard look at the existing and emerging possibilities
worldwide and accordingly restructure themselves to take a slice of
the available markets."
Azizuddin said that it was about time that our exporters should
break away from the shackles of traditional items of export and
concentrate on numerous other products which could be produced in
Pakistan provided there was a will to do so.
In his communication the consul general has strongly suggested that
chambers and other trade bodies should organize visits of trade
delegations consisting of industrialists from across the country
who may have interest in producing non- traditional consumer items
and who can travel across the US, visiting several chain stores so
that they may find out the countless possibilities themselves.
Tariq Azizuddin has pointed out that none of the products in those
chain stores is made in the USA testifying to the fact that in this
highly consumer-oriented society of 280 million anything can be
sold provided it meets certain quality standards and can be
produced on mass scale.
The diplomat has cited an example of a Pakistani industrialist who
visited California and Texas early last year with the hope of
selling medium-sized pedestal fans made in his factory near
Gujranwala. The manufacturer, he said, was also carrying a few
samples with him which were of fairly good quality.
When two major corporations like J.C. Penny and Macy's were
approached, both expressed interest in placing large orders with
him. But when they revealed the required quantity of one million
pieces each within a period of three months, the Pakistani
industrialist nearly fainted.
Sheepishly, he informed them that he could produce only 10,000
pieces after one year. This example, the consul general said,
showed that a huge export opportunity was lost due to our inability
to produce items in large quantities.
===================================================================
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
990721
-------------------------------------------------------------------
One out of 32 banks holding back approval
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Haris Anwar
KARACHI, July 20: One out of 32 commercial lenders is holding back
its approval to the commercial debt-restructuring deal with the
government of Pakistan.
"We have done extensive discussions with two other reluctant banks
which now have been agreed with the terms and conditions of the
agreement except one European bank," said a source involved in the
discussion.
According to Western banks' syndicate documentation, the approval
of all syndicate members is required to finalize the debt
restructuring deal.
But this condition does not apply in case of Middle Eastern banks-
led syndication where only majority approval is enough.
The reluctant bank, which is a part of Citibank-led syndicate, is
being persuaded to grant its approval to its syndicate to go ahead
with the deal.
They are total eight syndicates of foreign banks which have been
involved in the negotiations.
"All banks with the exception of the one European Bank have again
confirmed their approval to the Central Bank with the terms of the
agreement," a source said.
The government has also agreed to pay an accumulated interest from
September, 1998 to June 1999 at the regional contracted rates,
sources added.
Pakistan had stopped servicing its debt to these lenders from
September last year due to foreign exchange crisis in the aftermath
of its nuclear tests.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on July 6 announced that government and
foreign banks had agreed on a three-year debt rescheduling for
$877.3 million commercial loans.
According to an agreement, no payment of interest will be made till
December 2000.
After that quarterly payments will begin with interest rates
ranging from one to one-and-half per cent over LIBOR.
But Pakistan has yet to sign a master trade maintenance facility
with these lenders which will formalize the debt rescheduling
accord.
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990724
-------------------------------------------------------------------
IMF talks cover vital financial aspects
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, July 23: Talks with IMF have started off well and are
likely to end successfully early next week, Finance Minister Ishaq
Dar claimed on Thursday, though IMF sources said a couple of major
issues had to be resolved.
The minister told Pakistani journalists at a Pakistan Embassy
dinner that the whole range of issues was discussed by his team
with IMF Director Paul Chabrier and his officials in the first
round.
Mr Dar is likely to meet Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer
and officials are expected to continue intense discussions on
Friday and Saturday as well.
A competent Pakistani source at IMF said it would let Mr Dar do all
the talking about his visit and the point should be noted that so
far IMF had not contradicted any of the claims made by the finance
minister in his remarks to the media.
Asked to comment on Mr Dar's claim that his meeting was "pre-
scheduled" and was not something worked out in a rush after the IMF
mission came back without a report, the IMF source said: "It
happens both ways. Sometimes the mission goes and issues are
unresolved and the team goes back to resolve them. But if these are
issues which deserve senior-level discussions, then either someone
senior from IMF goes or someone from the other side comes over.
Considering the fact that two senior people of IMF are on leave in
August, it was logical that Mr Dar decided to come here."
Q: Then would it be correct to say that there are some issues which
needed high-level attention and could not be tackled at the
bureaucratic level.
A: Absolutely. There are one or two unresolved issues and that is
why he is here but that does not follow that the programme is in
jeopardy. If you look at the political atmosphere there is a
concern that Kargil may have had an adverse impact on what IMF
members are thinking about Pakistan. This perspective is important
to come in.
Asked about the schedule of the talks and what would happen after
this review is completed, the IMF source said once talks were done
there would be a staff report prepared by IMF to be circulated to
the Board.
He said the Executive Board was going on a recess on August 9 for
two weeks so there would not be enough time to finish all the work
as the process of circulating the report was long. "We are coming
back to old schedule. Under normal circumstances the Board meeting
would have taken place by the end of August or early September."
The minister emphatically denied reports in Pakistani newspapers
that he was to announce a 15 per cent increase in petrol prices
under IMF pressure. "As usual, this report will also prove to be
wrong," he told journalists, claiming that reporting on IMF had
been way off the mark for the last many months.
Mr Dar got irritated when a journalist mentioned that he belonged
to the Ittefaq Group and, as such, was a friend of the man of
steel. "I have never been an employee of Ittefaq. I forced PPP
senator Raza Rabbani to take back his words to that effect and I
ask you to do the same," he told the journalist.
Earlier, in a speech to prominent Pakistanis who had gathered at
the embassy, the minister claimed that he had brought the economy
back to life and had negotiated remarkable deals with IMF, World
Bank, the Paris Club and the London Club donors.
"I now hope that the economy of Pakistan must perform because you
must not see it in isolation. Many international issues compounded
the situation," he said.
Giving a long list of his accomplishments, Mr Dar said he had
undone almost all the restrictions and actions that had to be taken
after the nuclear tests in May last year.
"Now the overseas Pakistanis can get their dollars back by paying
just a nominal difference of two rupees," he said, referring to the
seizure of FCAs and subsequent moves to allow account holders to
get their money back.
He told a questioner that the government had released to the
Supreme Court all the names of the people who had transferred
millions of dollars in the period between the Indian and the
Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998.
"It is now for the courts to make these names public," Mr Dar said,
claiming that laws did not permit him to disclose these names
earlier until a court asked for the list.
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990724
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Credit plan 1999-2000 after IMF talks
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mohiuddin Aazim
KARACHI, July 23: The credit plan for fiscal 1999-2000 may be
finalized after the completion of ongoing talks between Pakistan
and the IMF in Washington.
Sources close to ministry of finance say the economic managers are
waiting for the outcome of the talks before finalizing their
projections about the government borrowing and other constituents
of the plan.
They say some earlier indications about allocating Rs 100-110
billion for private sector credit in 1999-2000 do not mean that the
credit plan has been finalized.
They say the exact amount to be allocated to the private sector
would be ascertained only at the time of finalizing the entire
credit plan after the talks with IMF are over.
"Setting the targets for government borrowing depends on how the
talks are concluded," said a senior source close to ministry of
finance. He said the economic managers would not know about the
exact fiscal space available in 1999-2000 before conclusion of the
talks with the IMF on the release of a third tranche of $1.6
billion restored loan.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had said in his budget speech on 12 June
that according to the revised estimates of budget 1998-99 the
government had retired Rs 62.8 billion worth of debts instead of
making fresh borrowing. But as of now there is no official word on
the exact government bank borrowing-or debt retirement whatever was
the case-at the end of fiscal 1998-99 on June 30.
Sources close to State Bank confirm debt retirement of Rs 59
billion by June 26, 1999.
Credit flow to the private sector and public sector commercial
enterprises was recorded at Rs 82.5 billion by the same time that
matched the revised target.
The budget envisages debt retirement of Rs 13.6 billion in the
current fiscal year but this figure has so far not been included in
the 1999-2000 credit plan.
Sources close to the ministry of finance say since the target of Rs
13.6 billion debt retirement has been based on a number of
budgetary assumptions it was unlikely on the part of the IMF to
accept it without weighing those assumptions. "Most prominent of
all assumptions is a projected revenue receipt of Rs 422 billion
which seems unrealistic," one of the sources said. He said this and
similar other budgetary assumptions were to be evaluated once again
before finalizing the credit plan for the current year.
The sources said projections for the new credit plan would be given
final touches after the return of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and
State Bank Governor Dr Muhammad Yaqub from Washington.
They could not say whether the National Credit Consultative
Committee-an apex forum representing economic managers of nominees
of trade and industry-would be involved in drawing up the 1999-2000
credit plan or the ministry of finance and State Bank would do it
on their own.
Business leaders say NCCC has remained practically dissolved since
the imposition of financial emergency in the wake of nuclear
explosions on May 28, 1998 and is yet to be reactivated.
Sources close to the ministry of finance say though the 1999-2000
credit plan is yet to be finalized the banks have been directed to
allow liberal flow of credit to private sector as the new plan
would likely have a larger allocation for the private sector than
in 1998-99.
Senior bankers say credit disbursement of Rs 82.5 billion to the
private sector plus public sector commercial enterprises (PSCEs) up
to June 25, 1999 reflected credit flow to the private sector alone
because PSCEs had rather retired Rs 391 million of debt. But they
said a little less than 50 per cent of the entire credit
disbursement to the private sector was in the shape of agricultural
lending.
Bankers admit that agricultural lending in a large number of cases
reflected nothing but paper transactions or loan booking to help
the farmers repay their earlier loans.
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990718
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Petroleum prices to be raised by 15%
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rafaqat Ali
ISLAMABAD, July 17: The government has decided to increase the
prices of petroleum products by 15 per cent to offset the adverse
impact of the recent steep increase in the world crude prices on
its revenue income, Dawn learnt from official sources.
The increase is likely to push up the price of one litre petrol
(premier) in retail by as much as Rs3, from Rs26.25 to Rs29.25.
This will be the third upward revision of the petroleum prices
since May 1998. Immediately after detonating nuclear devices, the
government had announced 25 per cent increase in the POL prices
except for diesel.
Then just before the presentation of this year's budget, a 10.5 per
cent across-the-board increase in oil prices was announced. And
these increases reportedly yielded for the government a hefty Rs20
billion in the form of fuel surcharges.
For the last two days, officials of the ministry of finance and
petroleum were engaged in developing various price structures and
finally on Saturday it was decided to increase the prices by around
15 per cent.
The imminent increase in POL prices will be in the form of fixed
development surcharge. The government has so far made no decision
with regard to deregulation of the prices.
It is learnt that the ministry of petroleum is resisting the
increase, saying it will further burden hapless consumers and also
increase the cost of industrial and agricultural output.
The ministry of petroleum has helped the ministry of finance in
working out the impact of the increase but refused to move any
summary.
The government has so far not decided about the definite timing of
the increase but it is believed that the decision cannot be
postponed beyond two weeks. A high official of the ministry of
finance is expected to leave for Washington in a day or so to brief
the officials of the IMF about the government decision and its
impact.
Sources said that government came under immense pressure to take
unpopular decision as the POL prices in international market have
gone up.
For the last many years fuel surcharge is one of the major sources
of revenue collection. In the last financial year Rs74 billion were
collected in the form of petroleum surcharge and it had provided
needed cushion when the tax revenues refused to respond positively
to the budgetary measures in the post nuclear period.
One of the reasons that reportedly delayed the arrival of the
review IMF mission in Islamabad in early July was the Fund's
insistence that the government immediately pass on the increase in
the world oil prices to the consumers.
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990723
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Greenback slips in inter-bank market
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter
KARACHI, July 22: The US dollar shed 30 paisa on Thursday to close
act Rs 51.15/51.25 for spot buying and selling in inter- bank
market from Rs 51.45/51.55 on Wednesday.
Senior bankers told Dawn that the dollar fell on low demands. They
said the decline in the demand had forced the greenback to shed 55
paisa during the last two days. The dollar had closed at Rs
51.70/51.75 for spot buying and selling in inter-bank market on
Tuesday.
"There has been a marked decline in the demand for dollars for the
past few days," said treasury chief of a local private bank.
Other bankers reached by Dawn said the demand for greenbacks from
the importers had fallen because of surplus imports during June on
rumours of devaluation.
Some bankers said the State Bank had lately adopted a go-slow
tactic in allowing foreign exchange outflows to contain the demand
for the dollar. SBP officials were not available to say anything on
the subject.
"The State Bank has gone slow on releasing M forms to contain the
demand seemingly in the face of ongoing negotiations between
Pakistan and IMF," said treasury chief of a leading foreign bank.
Bankers say the inter-bank market is currently well supplied with
greenbacks in the form of export proceeds. They say with a set of
curbs on free inter-bank foreign exchange dealings still in place
increased supply has made the dollar cheaper in inter-bank market.
The dollar had shot up to Rs 51.90 about a week ago on about $51
million debt payment by Hubco but afterwards it showed no increase.
The State Bank recently stopped banks from buying or selling
greenbacks in the inter-bank market without any commercial
transaction back-up. Senior bankers close to SBP said this had
facilitated real inflows of dollars in the market leaving no room
for the banks to hold on to the stocks of dollars and speculate.
Hence a 55 paisa fall in the price of the dollar during last two
days.
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990723
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Disparity in Wapda, KESC rates to end
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ISLAMABAD, July 22: The government has moved the National Electric
Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to equalise the KESC and the
Wapda power rates for domestic, agriculture and commercial
consumers.
This was stated by Minister for Water and Power Gohar Ayub Khan in
the National Assembly on Thursday. He was speaking on a calling
attention notice moved by Shakeel Ahmed Baloch and Jam Muhammad
Yusaf on the extra rate charged by the KESC in Lasbela district
which differed from the fixed rate imposed by Wapda in other parts
of Balochistan on agricultural tubewells.
He admitted that there was an anomaly in the power rates in Lasbela
district which was under the KESC and in other parts of Balochistan
which were being supplied by Wapda.
He said the government on the directive of the prime minister had
moved an application to the NEPRA on July 7 to equalise the power
rates of the KESC and the Wapda throughout the country.
Balochistan power rates: The minister said Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif wanted Balochistan's power consumers to be supplied
electricity at lower rates and an application had been filed with
NEPRA in this connection.
He was replying to a calling attention notice moved by Jam Yousaf
who said that tube-wells were being supplied power in Balochistan
at a fixed rate of Rs 12,000 which was an unbearable burden for the
agricultural consumers.
He demanded of the government to charge less from farmers.-NNI
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990722
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Business awaits parity in KESC, WAPDA rates
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter
KARACHI, July 21: Businessmen and industrialists have deplored the
government's dilly-dallying over the announcement of uniform rates
of electricity throughout the country.
The KESC rates in Karachi are higher than than those charged by
WAPDA and inspite of the assurances by WAPDA chief to various trade
related bodies to enforce uniform rates, no decison has yet been
announced. The business community is waiting for the final
decision.
Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), in a letter to
WAPDA Chairman, has expressed concern over the delay in
notification over the uniform rates.
"The uniformity must not only confine to tariff, but also to
installation charges, meter rent etc. In fact, what would be the
modus operandi, has to be clarified," remarked President KCCI,
Javed Muslim.
SITE Association of Industry, in a letter to NEPRA, has also called
for an equalization of rates in all respects in the case of WAPDA
as well as KESC.
An official in All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) said
that the Association has also urged the NEPRA and WAPDA for quick
implementation of uniform rates.
A textile mill owner said the tariff rates for an industry, falling
in various category of KESC grid, pay 21-32 per cent higher utility
bills as against the textile mill under WAPDA grid.
He told Dawn that according to an estimate, a textile mill of
12,500-16,000 spindles provides additional Rs 375,000 on a monthly
bill as compared to a mill under WAPDA.
Besides, the KCCI chief feared cost push inflation if upward
revision in POL prices, rate of electricity and extension of GST to
utility consumers takes places.
In a letter to the government, he said there were reports that the
petrol prices would be raised by another 15 per cent which would be
third raise since May 1998. He said only just before the
presentation of this year budget, 10.5 increase in oil price was
announced.
In addition, he said the sales tax is being levied on electricity
and gas supplying companies from September. He urged the government
to assure that the burden of GST should not be passed on to the
consumers of these utilities.
The KCCI chief said that one of the major irritants arresting the
growth of our industries and consequent of export of value added,
is the ever increasing cost of production, making exports
incompetitive.
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990720
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ghous asked to improve law & order: minister
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 19: The political process is being restored in
Sindh to effectively improve the law and order situation there,
Interior Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain told Dawn here on
Monday.
"Without the restoration of the political process it would be
difficult to improve the law and order situation in Sindh,
particularly in Karachi," he added.
He said the prime minister's advisor on Sindh affairs, Syed Ghous
Ali Shah, had been asked to improve the law and order situation by
making it the first priority of the provincial setup. "But I
believe that there is a need to make the political process
successful by taking all the players into confidence," the minister
added.
He said the situation had improved to some extent, and added: "you
have to be very very vigilant and create certain environment for
making the political process successful."
Responding to a question, he said the prime minister's adviser on
Sindh affairs, was establishing contacts with different politi-cal
parties and groups in the province.
To another question, Chaudhry Shujaat said the provincial assembly
was not likely to be restored in the near future.
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990720
-------------------------------------------------------------------
$1bn rice export target to be achieved: Laleka
-------------------------------------------------------------------
LAHORE, July 19: Federal Food and Agriculture Minister, Mian Abdul
Sattar Laleka said that Pakistan would achieve US $ 1 billion rice
exports target during the year 1999-2000.
"The problem of mixing of inferior rice in the superior rice
consignments to other countries has been overcome," he said after
witnessing the demonstration of the locally fabricated first-ever
paddy transplators at Rice Research Institute (RRI), Kala Shah Kaku
, some 18 kilometres off here.
Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Food and Agriculture, Chaudhary
Afzal Hussain Tarar, Chairman Pakistan Agricultural Research
Council (PARC), Dr. Kausar Abdullah Malik, Managing Director Heavy
Mechanical Complex (HMC), M.A. Janjua and Director RRI, Rao
Muhammad Ghayyur were also present on the occasion.
He said that the rice exports for the year 1998-99 were likely to
close at the mark of US $ 800 million.
He said that Pakistan's super fine basmati had outbeaten the Indian
Tilda brand rice in many countries.
To a question on Basmati issue, he said that all was prepared to
file a suit in an American court against the registration of
Basmati rice by a firm with the United States' patent body as its
own product.
"We will safeguard the national interests in every field of life,"
Laleka vowed.
Regarding the successful fabrication of the paddy transplanter by
Heavy Mechanical Complex, Taxila for Farm Research Institute (FMI)
of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), the minister said
that the introduction of this machine would help increase the per
acre yield of rice in the country.
The paddy has been sown in Pakistan this year over an area of 2.3
million hectares to reap a production of 5 million metric tonnes.
Laleka said that the per acre paddy plant population would increase
by 90,000 plants due to this transplantator from the present level
of 40,000 plants.
He said that the government would extend 100 percent Agricultural
Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) loaning to the farmers for the
purchase of the transplantor.
Laleka said that the government would announce subsidy for the
sunflower growers at the time of sowing.-APP
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990724
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Stocks maintain firm outlook
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter
KARACHI, July 23: Stocks on Friday maintained firm outlook as
investors continued to build-up long positions on selected counters
aided by some positive developments on the corporate sector,
notably the passing of the anti-dumping law by the parliament.
The KSE 100-share index after an early smart rise,finished with a
clipped gain of 4.95 points at 1,191.03 points as compared to
1,186.08 points a day earlier,pushing the market capitalization to
Rs.318bn.
"The index is only 9 points away from its coveted target of 1,200
points but whether or not it breaches it early next week is
anybody's guess", said a member of KSE.
But most leading brokers say it is sure to breach the psychological
barrier of 1,200 points possibly by the next week and will
fluctuate within the lower and higher limits of 1,200 and 1,400
points.
"Barring weak economic fundamentals,most of its immediate irritants
have been removed and now the market is free to respond its
technical demand as it likes", they added.
Led by Fauji Fertiliser, urea shares remained in strong demand and
ended further higher barring Engro Chemical, which ran into profit-
selling at the fag-end of the session because of weekend
considerations.
The urea producers have been complaining about the dumping of the
commodity by some leading multinational companies at much lower
prices, having a negative impact on their sales and earnings.
"The market welcomed the approval with open arm as it was for the
first time in Pakistan's history that such a law has been approved,
which will safeguard the interests of the local industry where it
was hit by dumping of cheaper goods", analysts said.
Although the percentage of the anti-dumping is not specified in the
law,urea and polyester yarn producers welcomed the official action
to protect the interests of the local industry.
"Heavy buying in the urea shares for the last two sessions reflects
that the current run-up initiated by the Kargil withdrawal could be
sustained in the coming sessions too", said a leading floor broker.
The market also continued to derive strength from the news of an
expected increase of 15 per cent in the petroleum prices to meet
the IMF demand in the coming sessions, he added.
Weekend profit-selling toward the closing bell did push prices of
some leading shares modestly lower but the on-balance trend
remained on the upside.
Nestle Milkpak again led the list of gainers, finishing with an
extended gain of Rs.5.00 followed by Lever Brothers, CPC Rafhan,
Pak Leather, General Tyre, Sapphire Fibre and Umer Fibre, which
posted gains ranging from Rs 1.40 to 5.00.
Leading losers were led by Ghani Glass, Packages, Sitara Chemicals,
Reckitt and Colman, Dadabhoy Insurance and 4th ICP, falling by one
rupee to Rs.2.50.
Trading volume was maintained at the previous level of 126m shares
as losers managed to force a modest lead over the gainers at 64 to
55, with 37 shares holding on to the last levels.
The most active list was again topped by PTCL, up 20 paisa at
Rs.22.45 on 62m shares, a half of the total volume, followed by
Hub-Power, easy 10 paisa at Rs.16.95 on 19m shares, Fauji
Fertiliser, up 95 paisa at Rs.47.25 on 12m shares, PSO, off 90
paisa at Rs.129.00 on 11m, shares and Engro Chemical, lower 75
paisa at Rs.74.50 on 4m shares.
Other actively traded shares were led by FFC-Jordan Fertiliser, up
40 paisa on 5m shares, ICI Pakistan, steady 10 paisa on 3.514m
shares, Sui Northern, lower 10 paisa on 1.513m shares, Tri-Pack
Films, up 45 paisa on 1.210m shares, Telecard, firm 20 paisa on
1.195m shares, Dewan Salman, easy 10 paisa on 0.946m shares and
KESC, lower by also 10 paisa on 0.904m shares.
DEFAULTING COMPANIES: Trading on this counter remained dull in the
absence of demand and as result only Gammon Pakistan came in for
modest support and was quoted higher by 25 paisa on 3,000 shares.
Back to the top
===================================================================
EDITORIALS & FEATURES
990718
-------------------------------------------------------------------
End-game?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ardeshir Cowasjee
WHY blame our stars? Why blame others and not ourselves? We are
responsible for our own actions. We should blame our apathy,
unconcern, indifference, impassivity, callousness, heedlessness,
ignorance, and, above all, our selfishness combined with greed.
Senselessly, in 1993 the country brought in Benazir Bhutto and Asif
Zardari to rule for the second time. Ridding ourselves of them with
great difficulty in 1996, after they had caused irreparable harm,
there remained at the top, heading a caretaker government,
President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, landlord to the manor
born, man of wealth, who had served with honesty as a civil servant
and was thus well versed in the rules of governance. Overtaken by
power and greed, he closed his ears to reason and to the advice of
the few who advocated that he undertake the process of
accountability before holding elections. In this, he had the
support of the army, the judiciary, our external supporters and
providers, and even of the influential international media. Knowing
well that once a political party sat in the saddle it would not
look into its own misdoings, Leghari insisted on elections, and in
1997, with his backing, Nawaz Sharif and his incompetent corrupt
men were brought in by their 'heavy mandate' for their second
round.
Leghari and his caretakers surely knew the intelligence level of
these men, their appetite for power and pelf, their capacity to
ride roughshod over all to stem the voices of dissent, their
shamelessness, their ability to amend laws and avoid repaying to
the nation what they had robbed in their first round and even
earlier. What they may not have known was that these men were
capable of going to the extent of storming the Supreme Court of the
land to save themselves from being adjudged.
In rapid succession Nawaz Sharif pushed through his 13th and 14th
constitutional amendments by which he converted himself into a
supreme autocrat. The president was made a puppet, the power to
appoint the service chiefs was his alone, the judiciary was
rendered helpless, and now, with all institutions of the state at
his mercy, Sharif wields sole power and is answerable to no man,
woman or child of this country.
Having done sufficient wrong, his sense of self-preservation should
perhaps have made him aware that he was riding a tiger from which
he might fall and be eaten up. But no, his instincts and reactions
are those of mediaeval despots. Why are you surprised, 'they' ask,
that when one talks of the hunger and thirst of the people he
replies that he has given them yellow cabs and motorways? Did not
Marie Antoinette, when told that the French had no bread to eat,
ask why they did not eat cake? Why are you surprised, 'they' ask,
that he flies in a 400-seater aircraft to go begging for money,
that he takes his family with him for a photo-opportunity and to go
little-mall shopping when he flies to Washington to beseech help to
avoid war? Did Nero not fiddle whilst Rome was burning? Apocryphal
may be the sayings about Marie Antoinette and Nero, but you are
witnessing reality.
India suspects that when Sharif received Vajpayee in February and
made overtures to settle all differences through dialogue, the
Kargil operation was already underway. The preparation for the
climb would so suggest. The army was assured that once its men
entrenched themselves on the heights of Drass-Kargil the
government's diplomats and media machine would step in and
successfully mobilize support for their version of the Kashmir
issue, leaving the army holding advance positions.
That the incursionists, Mujahideen, freedom fighters, patriots,
defenders, zealots, or regular army (call them what you will)
climbed the heights and entrenched themselves is a proven tactical
feat. But what convinced them that the Indian forces would not
strike back, that they would not react as they did having been
caught napping? When Sharif realized that his miscalculation was
likely to develop into an all-out war he retreated and sued for
peace. That is the one right thing he did do - he did not compound
his mistake. Possessing the qualities listed in the opening
paragraph, we allowed him to become an autocrat. What right have we
now to grumble about whatever he may do?
On Monday evening, post-PM-speechtime, Mushahid Hussain rang to
tell me the answer was 'Yes.' To what, I asked. To the question
asked in your last column, 'Has a lesson been learnt?' Surely that
is not the purpose of your call, I said. What is it you want to
know? Had I heard Mian Sahib's speech, and if so what did I think
of it? Old hat, was my response. It is high time that you,
Mushahid, vary the string of cliches with which you load your
master's and your fellow ministers' speeches. We have heard enough
about the Kargil assault being "popular, spontaneous and
indigenous", and the government merely giving "diplomatic, moral
and political support " to the Mujahideen.
But, following form, the next day the PML parliamentary party
voiced to the press Mushahid's description of Mian Sahib's decision
: "courageous, wise, sagacious, and far-sighted".
The attorney-general, the first law officer of the land, has also
spoken up, but sensibly. On July 16, justifying the Washington
communique, he stated that Pakistan is completely isolated and
economically could not have sustained a full-fledged war. The
country is already 50 years behind the developed world and would
have been thrown another 50 years back had there been a war. (Dawn,
July 17)
As for our war-mongers and zealots, the uneducated and ignorant
majority, they should be informed by the government in power that
India makes a formidable foe. Its armed forces are twice the size
of ours, making it impossible for us to sustain a military
conflict. Economically, if reserves are anything to go by, India is
forty times our size. It is of no use us propagating the myth that
one Pakistani soldier is equal in strength and courage to five
Indian soldiers. Our retired generals, colonels, air marshals,
wing-commanders, admirals and commodores do us a disservice when
they air their views on the national media and relate how, whenever
Muslims have gone to war, it has been against a foe far superior in
number but their spirit of sacrifice and their valour have always
made them victors. Wars now cannot be won without global sympathy
and support. Propaganda must have credibility behind it.
The Indian propaganda during the Kargil conflict has been sympathy-
weaning, clever and insidious. Take this excerpt from 'The Times of
India' editorial of July 12:
"... Islamabad's recidivism has led some people in India to believe
that unless Pakistan is punished severely for its aggression - and
unless that punishment sinks into the consciousness of the
Pakistani population - another aggression might be initiated a few
years down .... there must be reasoned policy on how to deal with
the post-Kargil situation. India has no quarrel with the Pakistani
people. Our problem is with the rulers.
"There are ways of conveying to the people of Pakistan the pain and
humiliation the rulers of that country have subjected them to for
no rhyme or reason.... An army which does not acknowledge its own
dead is not likely to keep up its morale as a fighting force. India
should compile a detailed list of the identities of the Pakistani
soldiers killed in action in Indian territory and publish it in our
print and electronic media and on the Internet ... the families of
the dead Pakistani soldiers may come to know about the fate of
their loved ones felled in battle and whom their rulers have - to
their eternal shame - disowned .... A nation which repudiates its
war dead will have little credibility among its own people ...
Already, sections of the Pakistani media are denouncing the rash
adventurism of their rulers. With TV, Internet, satellite
telephones and fax machines available to the Pakistani population,
they cannot be deceived for long."For the present, war clouds have
receded, with our side admitting to the loss of 250 lives (do we
double, treble or quadruple that figure to get to reality?), and
with India admitting to the loss of around 2000 (which must also be
multiplied), losses which we feel with equal grief. The monetary
cost to us has been over $100 million and the fact that India
admits to having lost double that amount can be no consolation.
Mian Sahib is satisfied with what he has achieved and is now taking
off for Saudi Arabia on a thanksgiving pilgrimage to perform Umra.
Ghous Ali Shah and other PML acolytes have been asked to board a
special flight at Islamabad, fly to Lahore to pick up their Leader
plus family and friends, and then speed on to Jeddah. They are
scheduled to return to the homeland, cleansed and blessed, on
Wednesday.
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990723
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For this submission what gain?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ayaz Amir
CAPITULATION and submission are not unknown circumstances in the
world and so if we took the road from Kargil to Washington - which
seems to have been the only road open since we have it on the
authority of the nation's supreme leader that there is no road from
Kargil to Srinagar - it is not all that surprising.
Whatever our pretensions, and we can be an awfully pretentious
people, what the Kargil affair and its aftermath have confirmed is
our essentially tinpot status. When the heat was on and the tension
became unbearable the political and military leadership cracked and
as a consequence sought the fig-leaf of Clintonite intervention to
cover its pusillanimity.
Our soldiers, it is important to remember, did not crack. Small in
number, they withstood the might of the Indian army and performed
truly heroic deeds. That they were badly let down, their sacrifices
gone to waste, is not strange. Since the 1965 war there has been
one constant thread running through the history of the Pakistan
army: bravery, often great bravery, at the lower levels; a failure
of nerve, vision and leadership at the top.
Even so, the point to note is that if at the crucial hour the
Pakistani leadership thought a headlong retreat to be the better
part of valour, it was not doing something unusual in history.
There is nothing novel about weak leaderships submitting to a will
greater than their own. All the same, there is a vital distinction
which should be kept in mind. Capitulation can either be
unquestioning and absolute as that of France before Germany in
1940. Or it can be tied to a larger purpose as we have been seeing
in the Middle East since the Arab-Israeli war of 1973.
Sadat of Egypt and Assad of Syria started that war because they
wanted to break the strategic stalemate which had taken hold in the
Middle East since the comprehensive defeat of the Arabs in the 1967
war. In this aim they succeeded. While Israel was not defeated, the
Egyptian and Syrian armies proved their mettle.
Furthermore, the oil-producing Arab states (for the first and
probably last time in their history) slapped an oil embargo on the
western powers. As the price of oil quadrupled overnight the West
suddenly faced the spectre of an oil shortage. The Americans were
finally convinced that if peace and stability were to return to the
hub of the Middle East they must take an active interest in peace-
making. Thus was laid the groundwork for Kissinger's shuttle
diplomacy and the first security agreements between Israel on the
one hand and Egypt and Syria on the other.
But as time went by Sadat got restless. Impatient for the dividends
of peace, he broke ranks with Assad, flew to Jerusalem and under
the auspices of President Carter signed the Camp David accords with
Menachem Begin. For the West this was not pragmatism but
statesmanship. At the popular level in much of the Arab world,
however, Sadat was reviled as a traitor who had betrayed the
collective Arab cause. When he died at the hands of an assassin in
1981 the West was shocked but many people in the Arab and Muslim
world thought he had received his just deserts.
Still, for the policy choices he made Sadat had something to show.
The US treated him as a strategic partner, second in importance
only to Israel. It underwrote the Egyptian economy and replaced the
Soviet Union as Egypt's chief supplier of arms. Egypt also got the
Sinai back from Israeli occupation. Sadat is dead but with Egypt
firmly committed to the path charted by him, his legacy survives.
Hussein of Jordan trod the same path and Yasser Arafat is doing the
same.
Thus Sadat gained something and lost something by his war and peace
policies. Issue can be taken with the direction he chose but for
better or worse he had a vision before him. What strategic vision
blazed before the helmsman of the heavy mandate as he dashed off to
make his hurried attendance at President Clinton's court, or rather
its annexe since Blair House is across the road from the White
House? Clueless in Kargil, wide-eyed in Washington: this about sums
up the performance of Pakistan's leadership in this critical hour.
Much is being made of the contents of the Washington declaration.
The truth is that if the Americans were to have drafted a more
empty document they would have faced no difficulty in getting
Pakistani signatures to it. Defeated armies can still be rallied;
when the will of a nation or a leadership collapses there is no
last line of defence.
But more amazing than the Kargil fiasco itself is its business-as-
usual aftermath. If anything like this had occurred in any self-
respecting country, questions would have been asked, accountability
would have been insisted upon and heads would have rolled. The
leaders responsible would have had nowhere to hide themselves. In
pre-World War Two Japan (admittedly a far-fetched example) the
samurais in charge would have committed hara-kiri.
It might have been supposed then that for this shambles there would
be some remorse in high places. But this is not Japan. This is the
land of Tiger Niazi, the hero of East Pakistan, and here shame and
contrition fall to the portion of ordinary mortals, not to the
nation's fearsome leaders. It is scarcely surprising then that
although the Pakistan army has lost some of its finest officers and
men on the mountains of Kashmir, so tangled a web of confusion and
lies has been woven around this affair that we are neither able to
acknowledge their deaths properly nor pay them the honour their
undoubted heroism deserves.
Only in driblets is news coming in of our fallen men. A funeral
takes place in a far-off village and word of it is carried in
newspapers. But no consolidated list of fallen officers and men has
been issued by GHQ. Nor has the nation been told of its living
heroes. The pick of our fighting men deserves better than this. The
higher direction of war may have been an unmitigated disaster but
our fighting soldiers, living and dead, have nothing to be ashamed
of. Against fearful odds they upheld the honour of their arms.
What international censure our conduct invited we have already
faced. There is no further point in keeping a hugger-mugger shroud
over the valour of our soldiers. The nation knows of the jokers who
have compromised its honour and fair name. Why cannot it be told of
the exploits of its fighting men? This knowledge would assuage to
some extent the pain caused by the failure of leadership.
But to expect any sense from the country's good and great is a
near-hopeless undertaking. With the nation still pain-stricken, one
of its chief thanedars is more concerned about his unpaid loans.
Naeemuddin, a UBL director and brother to the Mueenuddin who was
imported as CBR chairman till he fled this country's confusion, was
hauled up for a day last week because he was not being sufficiently
helpful about this mighty gentleman's outstanding loans amounting
to, hold your breaths, almost a billion rupees. Later the hapless
banker was let off, presumably after being suitably warned.
Incredible but apparently true. Consider the nation's concerns and
the priorities of its leading sharks. And to expect that this crew
will feel remorse for the nation's sorrows.
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990724
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Survival of the fittest
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Irfan Husain
DO international interventions in local conflicts help or hinder in
the long run? Is it better to let wars continue to their logical
(if bloody) conclusion, or should the comity of nations put a stop
to them as soon as possible?
These are some of the questions raised by Edward Luttwark in a
recent article in 'Foreign Affairs', the authoritative American
publication. A maverick scholar and consultant, Luttwark is the
author of the classic "Coup D'Etat: A Practical Handbook" in which
he postulated that in view of the concentration of power in
developing states, a relatively small force could stage a
successful coup.
All the leader had to do was to seize control of the state TV and
radio, the telephone exchange in the capital, the airport and the
chief executive's residence and office. He could then broadcast a
statement to the nation, justifying what he had done, and the
people and state institutions would soon fall in line.
Luttwark's current thesis is no less provocative. He argues
persuasively that by intervening in armed conflicts, the UN and
other international organizations merely defer the day of
reckoning; in the meantime, the states concerned devote all their
energies and resources preparing for the next showdown. Weaker
countries are shielded from the consequences of their recklessness,
and more powerful states are denied the rights their strength would
normally entitle them to.
Obviously, this argument flies in the face of the internationalist
movement that has sought to govern international relations during
this century. First came the League of Nations that was created in
the aftermath of the First World War to ensure that such a conflict
did not recur, but its inherent weakness and irrelevance were
exposed when it failed to halt Italy's shameless and brutal
invasion of Ethiopia.
The end of the Second World War saw the emergence of a more
determined effort to halt armed conflict. This time, the United
States threw its full weight behind the United Nations, and the
organization has completed over a half century of peacekeeping. The
results have been mixed at best. Small states complain that through
the Security Council, the great powers have used the UN to their
own ends, while the latter allege that countries with a population
of a few thousand carry the same weight as they do in the General
Assembly. While there is considerable truth in both arguments, the
fact is that it is in the Security Council where the real decisions
are taken, and all too often, these decisions are in line with the
interests of the permanent members of the Council.
But despite its inherent weaknesses, it is true that the UN has
prevented many conflicts by giving the protagonists a forum to vent
their grievances. However, it is equally true that by intervening,
the organization has simply postponed the solution of problems
rather than solving them.
A case in point is Kashmir: while halting hostilities in 1948, it
failed to have its own resolutions implemented, and this failure
has resulted in half a century of bloodshed, tension and bitterness
between India and Pakistan, as well as untold suffering for the
Kashmiris. Had there been no intervention in 1948, the problem
would have been solved one way or another, and we would have got on
with life. This way, we are in a situation of no-war and no-peace
that has debilitated both nations.
The Middle East is another powder keg that has exploded from time
to time as a direct result of the UN's actions and inaction. By
first sanctioning the initial injustice of the creation of the
Zionist state of Israel in the midst of a Palestinian population,
and then failing to implement the Security Council resolutions to
prevent Israeli expansionist tendencies, the UN has fuelled the
flames of war. Here, the western powers who control the Council
have ensured that Israel is protected from international censure
and sanctions.
The conflict thus keeps smouldering, and even if the Oslo accords
are implemented, the Palestinian refugees and their descendants who
languish in refugee camps in the neighbouring states will still not
have the right to return to Gaza or the West Bank, and their hatred
and sense of alienation will continue to be a source of tension for
years to come.
In Bosnia and Kosovo, it was NATO, pressed by the United States,
that provided the framework for intervention. Here, too, Luttwark
argues against intervention, contending that in the real world, the
Serbs would have asserted their power. It is precisely because
small powers are aware that they will be protected by the world
community that they defy more powerful states.
But intervention does not resolve the cause of conflict which in
this case is the pathological hatred Serbs have for Muslims. In
Luttwark's worldview, the Bosnians and Kosovars would have been
crushed and marginalized. These rabid Serb tendencies were first
kept in check by the Hapsburg Empire, then the Yugoslav Socialist
Republic, and now by NATO. But Luttwark argues that nobody will
play policeman for ever, and as soon as political will flags,
Serbia's historical sense of being wronged will surface, and it
will pounce on its Muslim neighbours.
Clearly, Luttwark's provocative article is aimed at making us
rethink our automatic response to halt conflict everywhere through
collective action. The images of war and bloodshed that invade our
living rooms through television have increased our abhorrence
towards organized bloodshed, and it has become difficult to argue
that the powerful should be allowed to ride roughshod over the
weak. But in terms of history, this is precisely what has been
happening.
The Darwinian principle of the survival of the fittest holds as
true for nations as it does for animal species. There has never
been any place for morality in international relations, and
Luttwark argues that the current trend towards collective action to
prevent warfare is simply a fig-leaf to cover the underlying
realpolitik that governs relations between states. He suggests that
it is time we removed this flimsy covering, and allow a natural
balance to emerge based on relative force.
Although a seductive argument, it is a dangerous one in its blind
reliance on the linear logic or cause and effect. The fact that
human beings have evolved to at least aspire to a civilized world
makes it incumbent on the comity of nations to turn its back on the
long and gory history of mankind. But small countries need to
understand the realities of power and talk softly if they do not
carry a big stick.
===================================================================
SPORTS
990723
-------------------------------------------------------------------
New manager and coach to be announced shortly: Mujeeb
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter
LAHORE, July 22: New manager and coach of the Pakistan cricket team
will be announced soon and national selection committee will be re-
constituted. A meeting has been fixed with the members of the team
present in the country on July 26 (Monday) to discuss future
scheme.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad hoc committee chairman Mujib-ur-
Rahman, while making the above-mentioned announcement, said at a
crowded Press conference here at the Gaddafi Stadiumlate on
Thursday evening that he had been assigned the task ofclearing the
mess and run the cricket affairs on professional lines.
However, the gathering at the cricket headquarter comprised mostly
the persons who do not belong to media!
"Yes! I met President of Pakistan Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, who is also
patron of the PCB, on Thursday morning. He assured me full support
in clearing up the allegations levelled on the team and the PCB and
also establish an efficient set-up", said a determined-looking
Mujib-ur-Rahman.
The ad hoc committee chairman said that he played cricket, hockey
and football in his school and college days and established a
cricket team in Doha, which has been winning top honours for the
last seven years.
"More importantly, I have been running 20 companies with a strength
of 2,000 employees. I have enough entrepreneurial ability to put
the game on modern, professional lines. I have not been given any
time-frame. Still, I hope to appoint professionals in key positions
within a few weeks, who will have to deliver the goods within three
months after their appointment or quit. I have advised the staff to
stop over-spending. I am addressing a Press conference for the
first time in my life. I am a man of action, basically", declared
Mujib-ur-Rahman.
The ad hoc committee chairman said that international commitments
would be honoured. I contacted the International Cricket Council
(ICC) and cricket authorities of Holland and Denmark on Wednesday
at 8 pm and sorted out matters of sending Pakistan "A" team for a
tour to the two countries on July 24. "Since, all the defunct PCB
Council members nominated two members, each, in the team, so my
committee should not be held responsible for its performance", said
ad hoc committee chairman.
A Cricket Academy is being established and about 100 players
between the ages of 19 and 25 will get training round the year. For
the first three months, each player will be educatedand taught in
mannerism. The Academywillbe established at a place where the piece
of land will be made available. "The Academy will throw up
disciplined and talented players, who will replace the national
stalwarts in the team", hoped Mujib-ur-Rahman.
He said that another priority was to revitalise cricket in schools,
colleges and universities. Not only the dedicated, former Test
cricketers but also the present stars would beasked to go to the
educational institutions to train the players.
Mujib-ur-Rahman admitted that he himself was also investigating
into the "match-fixing and betting allegations". He assuredthat the
recommendations of theone-maninquiry commission of Justice Malik
Muhammad Qayyum would also be implemented in letter and spirit.
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990718
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PCB offices remain shut
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter
LAHORE, July 17: The headquarters of thedefunctPakistan Cricket
Board (PCB) at the Gaddafi Stadium give a haunted look after the
appointment of an ad hoc committee.
No one had been allowed to enter the PCB offices by the two
security guards manning the gate that since Friday. Even on Sunday,
no one would be allowed in, they said.
The PCB ad hoc committee member Javed Zaman Khan visited the
headquarters for about ten minutes. The things are expected to
start moving after the arrival of the ad hoc committee chairman
Mujibur Rahman from Qatar within a few days.
The Gaddafi Stadium has been locked from inside and every visitor
finds a notice, signed by the defunct PCB secretary Waqar Ahmad,
pasted on a pillar of the main gate, which reads as follows:
"The President of Pakistan, who is also the patron of Pakistan
Cricket Board has suspended the Management of Pakistan Cricket
Board and appointed an ad hoc committee headed by Mujibur Rahman
with Mr Javed zaman to perform the Board's functions until further
orders. Entry in Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore and PCB offices is not
allowed till further orders".
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990721
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Farhan to play in Asian snooker tour play-off
-------------------------------------------------------------------
KARACHI, July 20: Pakistan's Farhan Mirza will be among the
continent's top six cueists to appear in the Pound Sterling 10,000
Asian Snooker Tour play-off which breaks-off in Bangkok (Thailand)
from Wednesday.
Former National Champion Farhan Mirza who finished third in the
recently concluded 16th Asian Snooker Championship, qualified for
the Asian Tour after finishing among the top four in the
competition.
According to draws of the Asian Tour made available here on Tuesday
by Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) officials,
Farhan Mirza has been drawn in one group with Asian championship
runner-up Sam Chong of Malaysia and Glen Wilkinson of Australia.
Asian champion Noppadon Noppachorn of Thailand is drawn in the
other group with Benjamin Guevara of Philippines and Chris Macbreen
of New Zealand.
He said after the round-robin league contest top two cueist will
advance into the semi finals while the other four will play
crisscross and the winner will join the other two in the semi
finals.
He said the winner of Asian Tour play-off will get a handsome purse
of Pound sterling 10,000 (approximately Rs 850,000) and also
qualify to play among the top 96 players on the World Professional
and Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). WPBSA will sponsor
the Asian tour winner's visit to England.
The remaining five cueists are eligible to play on the WPBSA
professional qualifying circuit but at their own expenses.-APP
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