------------------------------------------------------------------- DAWN WIRE SERVICE ------------------------------------------------------------------- Week Ending : 22 March 2003 Issue : 09/12 -------------------------------------------------------------------
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CONTENTS =================================================================== NATIONAL NEWS + Kaleem Saadat appointed air chief + Justice Munir to be CJ for LHC Bar + President cannot overrule two-third majority: LHC ruling + President's election by parliament 'necessary' + 'Musharraf cannot dissolve assembly' + Constitutional crisis to be over only after Musharraf exit: Asif + NWFP announces enforcement of Shariat + Punjab govt under fire in PA: Poor law and order + Opposition slams NA session's adjournment + LFO undermines parliament: PPP + Polls not held under LFO, says SCBA + Opposition reaffirms stand on LFO issue + Govt, opposition still poles apart + First formal NA session yet to take place + Amended constitution 'acceptable' to MQM + PML-N for debate on Hamood report in NA + Wasim named PML-Q Senate leader + Two systems pulling in different directions: New govt set-up + Sanaullah staged a 'drama' + Police refuse to file MPA's case + Major Adil Qudoos shifted to Rawalpindi + Qudoos' bail plea rejected + ATC transfers Qudoos' case + Another Al Qaeda man held in Lahore + ATC formally starts Khwajas trial + Nusrat Bhutto's condition serious + Minister unaware of govt deal with Bugti + Noor shifted to undisclosed location + Councillor files suit against marriage + Seven-year RI to be awarded for Vani + Hearing of Dr Qadeer's plea put off: IBS case + Pakistan deplores military action + US embassy, consulates closed --------------------------------- BUSINESS & ECONOMY + IMF asks govt to stop meddling: Power tariff + Aid to help win 'war on terror', says Powell + KSE-100 index crosses 2,600-point barrier + Index falls 20 points as follow-up support turns shy + Rebound adds Rs18bn to market capitalization --------------------------------------- EDITORIALS & FEATURES + Tyranny Ardeshir Cowasjee + When words run out Ayaz Amir + 'No LFO, No!' Irfan Husain + Iraq: It's about power, not democracy Eric S. Margolis + Blair's hypocrisy Eric S. Margolis ----------- SPORTS + Angry Waqar blasts selection committee + Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, Saeed shown the door + Pakistan to push ICC on Indian boycott + Ganguly inspires India crush Kenya in semifinal + Ganguly's century propels India to imposing total + India shatter New Zealand's World Cup dreams + Sri Lanka overwhelm Zimbabwe to seal semifinal spot
DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS =================================================================== NATIONAL NEWS 20030320 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaleem Saadat appointed air chief ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, March 19: Air Marshal Kaleem Saadat has been appointed chief of Air Staff with immediate effect, says an ISPR statement. He has also been promoted to the rank of air chief marshal. The chief of Air Staff called on President Gen Pervez Musharraf at the Aiwan-i-Sadar after his appointment. The president congratulated Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat on his appointment as Chief of Air Staff and wished him success in his new responsibilities. The chief of Air Staff thanked the president and said he would strive to live up to the trust reposed in him. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030320 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Justice Munir to be CJ for LHC Bar ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 19: The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) announced that it would now be considering Supreme Court's Justice Munir A. Sheikh the chief justice of Pakistan rather than Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, whose tenure in the office "ended on March 8". LHCBA president Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari and other office-bearers told a press conference at the close of a 10-day anti-LFO camp that Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad was "no more the chief justice of Pakistan" after reaching the age of retirement on March 8. They regretted that Justice Riaz did not quit his office and accepted the three-year extension of his service under the LFO. He said that since Justice Munir was the senior-most SC judge after Justice Riaz, the LHCBA would recognise him as the new chief justice in the light of SC's judgment on March 20, 1996. The LHCBA set March 22 as the deadline for all the judges of SC and high courts reaching the age of 65 and 62 respectively to vacate their offices. Hafiz Ansari termed the three-year extension of the service of judges as a "conspiracy" and urged the superior court judges to counter it and refuse to accept it. Mr Ansari criticised the statement of Senate chairman on the LFO which, he said, would not become part of the 1973 Constitution without being approved by a two-third majority of the Parliament. He appreciated the efforts of lawyers for holding a successful anti-LFO camp and hoped that they would continue their struggle till the abrogation of LFO. He further announced that a seminar would be held on the LFO on March 26 and former chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan, and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi invited to it. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030319 ------------------------------------------------------------------- President cannot overrule two-third majority: LHC ruling ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 18: The Lahore High Court (LHC) ruled that under the 1973 Constitution, the president was bound to sign every bill passed by a two-third majority of the Parliament. Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani, senior member of the division bench, while hearing Pakistan Lawyers Forum's intra-court appeal against the LFO, refuted the petitioner's argument that President Pervez Musharraf had the authority to reject a bill of the Parliament that disapproved of his presidency and the LFO. The court observed that the president could only send a bill back to the Parliament for review. The bill would become a law even if he refused to sign it for the second time. The court further observed that former president Ziaul Haq had signed the eighth amendment bill following its approval by a two- third majority of the Parliament, and this precedent could not be ignored while considering the hypothetical situation cited by the petitioner. Justice Jilani observed that the SC judgment in Zafar Shah case was the only time in the history of the country when the court set parameters for a military ruler by giving him a three-year timeframe, the authority to amend the Constitution and a roadmap for restoration of democracy. The court further observed that the only valid question in the appeal was whether the parameters set by the SC in Zafar Ali Shah case had been violated by the former military regime. With regard to legality of the referendum order, the court ruled that it had become part of the 1973 Constitution since the matter was examined by the Supreme Court and no objection raised. "All we have to see is the impact of the referendum order as part of the Constitution," observed Justice Jilani. According to the court, the constitutional precedent for the referendum order was the Parliament approving Ziaul Haq as the president through Eighth Amendment to the 1973 Constitution after he had assumed the office through a referendum in 1985. Gen Pervez Musharraf claims to be the president for the next five years since the referendum order has been made part of the Constitution, the court observed. It also cited the observation of SC on the referendum order that "this matter would be decided by an appropriate forum at an appropriate time" and sought explanation of the term "appropriate forum" from petitioner's counsel A.K Dogar. The counsel submitted that by an appropriate forum, the SC meant any court having the jurisdiction to enforce the Constitution. The court pointed out that Article 41(6) of the Constitution clearly laid down that "election of the president could not be called into question", and the petitioner could not challenge the validity of the referendum order. The petitioner, however, disagreed with this observation saying that this provision was applicable to an elected president and not to the one assuming the office through a referendum. He elaborated his point by arguing that the term "election" stood for two or more candidates vying for an office while in the present case, one person had become president without any competition. He submitted that the SC had not validated the military takeover of October 1999 but only the actions that would be taken in line with the 1973 Constitution within a three-year timeframe. The SC never gave him the authority to install himself as the president of the country or amend the Constitution after Oct 12, 2002, through the LFO, claimed the counsel. He alleged that President Musharraf was "withholding" power and not transferring it under the SC directions after the three-year timeframe. Mr Dogar, while arguing the appeal on behalf of the PLF, submitted that the Parliament could not approve a non-elected person as the president and contravene Article 2-A of the 1973 Constitution. It could not permit an individual to amend the constitution either, claimed the counsel. The court pointed out that there was a contradiction in his arguments since he had argued the other day that those provisions of the LFO that were passed for the good of the general public should be considered as valid. The petitioner stood by his argument. He further submitted that a parliament did not have any constitutional identity without an elected president and would remain incomplete. He submitted that the High Treason Punishment Act 1973 had prescribed death penalty or life imprisonment for anyone subverting the Constitution after March 23, 1956. The constitution of a country is the will of its people and cannot be amended by an individual, the petitioner concluded. Deputy Attorney General Sher Zaman Khan informed the court that Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan would like to argue the case on behalf of the State, whereupon the hearing was adjourned until March 26. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030318 ------------------------------------------------------------------- President's election by parliament 'necessary' ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 17: Election of the president was necessary within 30 days after Senate polls, Advocate A.K. Dogar argued before a division bench of the Lahore High Court. He appeared for the Pakistan Lawyers Forum before Justices Tassadaq Husain Jilani and Raja Muhammad Sabir in an intra-court appeal, challenging dismissal of a petition against the Legal Framework Order. He submitted that election of president by parliament was a constitutional requirement. The 1973 Constitution recognized only that person as the president of the country who had been elected by parliament. The sitting president did not fulfil this criteria. He criticized the stance of a political party that it would accept Gen Musharraf as country's president if he relinquishes one of the two offices currently held by him. He contended that the Supreme Court had given three-year to Gen Musharraf to transfer power to an elected government. Advocate Dogar said Article 41 (7) of the LFO empowers Gen Pervez Musharraf to remain the chief executive as long as he desires. It also empowers him to be the president of the country for five year at his own will. He argued that this provision had exposed the mala fide intentions of President Musharraf who had still not yet transferred the power to a "representative government". The LFO was a mean to provide continuity to former military regime, he alleged. Through the LFO, the military regime tried to amend the 1973 Constitution without any legal authority and public mandate. Justice Jilani observed that if this argument was to be assumed correct, the provision increasing the total number of National Assembly's seats could not be termed as a valid one. The provision had been practically exercised during the October last general elections without being approved by a parliament. The counsel submitted that the criteria for judging the validity of LFO provisions would be "the benefit of general public and adherence to the 1973 Constitution". The provision referred by the court had proved to be beneficial to the general public, it would be considered valid one and all those aimed at fortifying the rule of 'an usurper' were to be treated as illegitimate and invalid. About the role of the judiciary in exercising powers under the Doctrine of Necessity, the counsel submitted that to end up the chaos in the aftermath of October 1999, the then judges could have either vacated their offices in order to uphold and preserve the sanctity of the Constitution or could have broken their oath to provide a legal cover to the military intervention. He alleged that the former military regime had misused the powers granted by the SC under the Doctrine of Necessity. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Musharraf cannot dissolve assembly' ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Correspondent SANGHAR, March 15: Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad has said Gen Pervez Musharraf has no power to dissolve the assembly and his party will not accept a uniformed president. He said this while talking to newsmen after inaugurating the Jamiat-ul-Mohsinat Trust Academy in Sinjhoro on Saturday. MNAs Abdul Sattar Afghani, Mohammad Hussain Mahnati, Dr Mairajul Huda, Sindh JI Amir Asadullah Bhutto and many other Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leaders were present on the occasion. Mr Ahmad stressed the need for female education as he said educating a girl was educating the whole family. About a possible attack on Iraq, Mr Bhutto said the US had no right to attack any country and topple its government. He said the US was attacking Iraq to take control of its oil resources. He feared the US might attack Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan after Iraq. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Constitutional crisis to be over only after Musharraf exit: Asif ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter RAWALPINDI, March 15: Former senator Asif Ali Zardari said fresh elections after the exit of General Musharraf would rid the country of the constitutional crisis created due to inclusion of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) into the 1973 Constitution. Talking to reporters at the Accountability Court, the former senator predicted that the present assembly would be sent packing in a very short period. However, he was happy that after the National Assembly, the issue of Legal Framework Order was also raised in the Senate and the members had agitated against inclusion of the controversial amendments in the 1973 Constitution. The party's Secretary General Raja Pervez Ashraf, Qazi Sultan Mahmood, Sardar Khalid and Ismail Dehri accompanied Mr Zardari. Talking about the performance of the government, he said it was not running efficiently due to wrong suggestions of the advisers. Printing money and the claims of $10 billion foreign reserves won't stabilise the economy, he added. He said the incident of September 11 had changed the shape of the world equally affecting Pakistan. "Had the events of September 11 not taken place, President Pervez Musharraf would not have been controlling the reigns of power," he observed. About the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), he said the institution had lost its credibility and respect in the public eye, as it was also pursuing a political charter. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030322 ------------------------------------------------------------------- NWFP announces enforcement of Shariat ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Mohammed Riaz PESHAWAR, March 21: The NWFP government has decided to enforce Islamic Shariat in the province by introducing Enforcement of Shariat Act and Provincial Accountability Act in the provincial assembly. Speaking at a news conference, the NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani unveiled the salient features of the Islamic Shariat program. He said that Islamic Shariat would be the supreme law in the province, and Quran and Sunnah would be the sources of guidance for future legislation in the NWFP. All the provincial laws would be brought in conformity with the Islamic Shariat, he said. "All laws falling within the ambit of the provincial assembly will be made compatible with the Shariat. And all courts will be free to interpret the Shariat laws," he added. After the approval of the Shariat Act, he said, the government would formulate various sets of laws to run the affairs of the economy, judiciary, education and media in the light of Islamic laws. Education, up to middle, has been made compulsory, he declared. Health budget would be enhanced and more teaching hospitals would be built. Life-saving drugs would be provided to patients free of cost. The wedding under duress, tradition of Swaray, honour-killing and selling of women would invite punishment. The honour-killing would be treated as wilful murder, he added. Punitive action would be taken if women were deprived of hereditary property. The minorities would be free to preach, promote and perform their religious rituals like Muslims. All minorities would enjoy the same civic, political, economic and other rights guaranteed to the Muslim majority, he said, adding that their places of worship will be protected at all costs. He hoped that high-ranking officials would make themselves punctual in offering prayers during the working hours at their offices. He asked the traders associations to close their businesses during the prayer time. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030322 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Punjab govt under fire in PA: Poor law and order ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 21: The Punjab government came under severe criticism in the provincial legislature for its failure to maintain law and order. Suspending the rules to set aside the Question-Hour to devote the whole day to the law and order situation, members from the opposition and treasury benches expressed their views on the subject, with most of the speakers were of the view that the situation in the Punjab was of 'no law but more order.' The session was requisitioned by the opposition when PML(N) leader from Faisalabad Rana Sanaullah Khan, who is also deputy opposition leader in the provincial legislature, was picked up allegedly by some intelligence operatives who shaved off his head, eyebrows and bristle moustache and also caused some two dozen blade injuries on various parts of the body. Rana, a lawyer by profession, came to the house and was warmly received by his opposition colleagues outside the assembly chambers. He was garlanded and also offered a turban. Immediately after recitation of the Holy Quran, PPP leader Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan proposed suspension of the rules to discuss the law and order situation in the province, specially the traumatic experience of Rana Sanaullah Khan. Law Minister Rana Basharat did not oppose and thus started the debate. Opposition leader Qasim Zia opened the debate by recalling how his PML(N) colleague was picked up and tortured. The law and order, he said, was something non-existent in the Punjab and thus the whole debate would be an exercise in futility. He said the culture adopted by the leadership at the centre trickled down to provinces and in a country where there was little regard for the Constitution, law and order would be an extinct species. He said the crime in the Punjab was highest compared to any other federating unit. The gravity of the situation could be gauged by the fact that neither people belonging to the treasury benches nor to the opposition were safe. He recalled how a minister was deprived of his car and the other's residence was fired upon. Rana Sanaullah Khan likened himself to the people of Iraq who have been subjected to US aggression. There was a time, he said, when rulers used to throw their opponents before beasts. But now those in power got their adversaries beastly treated by 'human beings'. He handed over to speaker Afzal Sahi his medico-legal report and the cotton pads with which he was blindfolded after being picked up. Rana made it clear that such maltreatment would not stop him from telling the truth. He said he stood by what he had said of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report or appointments of military officials in the TEVTA. "We respect the army as an institution, as a defender of the country. But, we condemn army's role in politics. I can't respect those who have inflicted injuries on my body". Criticizing the maltreatment he had to face, he said the perpetrators would have done better if they had dared former Indian General Arora. Rana Sanullah warned the rulers that such tactics would never help them. He recalled that the late Shah of Iran had used SAVAK to suppress his opponents. But then came a time when the same institution could not help him get place for his grave in the country. He said Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had phoned him after the incident and gave an impression that his government was not involved in the incident. He said the government should inquire as to who had been getting tapes of the assembly proceedings and seeking legal advice on whether some case could be instituted against him (Rana) on that basis. "If the home secretary is part of the Punjab government, then the government can't dissociate itself. But if he is a separate entity, then it can", he said, implying that the home secretary was responsible for whatever had happened with him. He criticized adviser on human rights for his assertion that the PML(N) leader had not been tortured. He said though the adviser was also Rana by caste, he deserved little respect. He said it was for the government to expose the accused responsible for the incident. PPP leader Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan said utterances in the assembly hall could not be made basis for action against any member. He was critical of the deteriorating law and order situation in the province. He said still more deplorable was the fact that neither the home secretary not the police inspector-general was present in the house to listen the debate. He said it was not clear as to who was running the province, the governor, the national security council, the home secretary or somebody else. PML(Q) leader Sardar Hasan Akhtar Mokal said the situation Rana Sanaullah Khan had to face could have been averted if the evil had been nipped in the bud. He recalled how Dalai Camp was set up in the late Bhutto period and how leaders like Malik Muhammad Qasim and Yasin Khan Wattoo were tortured. "If no remedial step had been taken then, it's time to take the initiative now", he said, underlining the need for measures to protect the political opponents. He called for an inquiry into the incident of Rana sanaullah Khan. PPP's Raja Riaz said democratic traditions demanded that the chief minister and the home minister should step down forthwith after the tragedy the deputy opposition leader had been through. He said he believed that Rana Sanullah Khan would not get justice from the government and thus he would like to entrust the matter to Allah's court. Saying this, he started reciting "Azan" (call for prayer) in the house. One member proposed that Raja Riaz should be deseated for he did not remember "Azan". Or else, he said, he should be asked to sit with minority legislators. MMA's Ehanullah Waqas, Arshad Baggoo, Malik Ahad, Ms Ferzana Raja, Khizer Hayat Virk, Abdur Razzaq, Malik Asghar, Brig (retd) Javed Asghar, Saba Sadiq, Ms Naseem Lodhi, Dr Ferzana, Sheikh Amjad Aziz, Sibghatullah, Rana Mashshood, Faiz Ahmed Moakal, Uzma Bukhari, Saeed Akbar Niwani, Asghar Ali Gujjar, Javed Aslam, Sheikh Ijaz Ahmed, Dr Javed, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, Nazar Husain Gondal, Dr Waseem Akhtar and Raja Shafqat Abbasi were among the speakers. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Opposition slams NA session's adjournment ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, March 20: Opposition leaders accused the government of shirking its fraternal obligation of supporting Iraq by proroguing the National Assembly. Speaking at a press conference, parliamentary leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Naveed Qamar of People's Party Parliamentarians and other leaders said the government was supporting the United Stated but it did not have the courage to announce it. They said National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain had violated the Constitution by proroguing the session on Wednesday instead of adjourning it till the next day. Javed Hashmi said the opposition wanted to get a resolution passed on the Iraq issue in Wednesday's session but the proceedings were abruptly stopped by the speaker. He said leaders of the ruling coalition, including Abdus Sattar Lalika, had assured the apposition that a unanimous resolution would be passed. However, on directive from somewhere, the session was prorogued, he said. "If the quorum was incomplete, the speaker could have adjourned the session, but the proroguing was pre-planned," he alleged. Naveed Qamar said the opposition had filed a requisition for convening the special National Assembly session to discuss the Iraq issue. However, the treasury benches and the speaker were not serious in passing a unanimous resolution to support the brotherly country, he said. He said the government seemed to be scared of opposing the assault of the US-led forces on Iraq. He said the speaker had violated Article 55 of the Constitution by proroguing the session. Former minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said: "The government had assured the opposition that the session would continue till Friday, but it was suddenly prorogued without any solid reason." He said Saudi Arabia had been providing 100,000 barrels of crude oil to the country free of cost every day for the last year, therefore the increase in prices of petrol was unjustified. Former finance minister Ishaq Dar said the price of petrol would shoot up if the war prolonged. He said the Alliance or Restoration of Democracy had demanded that surcharge on petrol should not be raised if its price went up. He said the opposition had submitted a requisition for session of the Senate by March 28. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- LFO undermines parliament: PPP ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Correspondent HYDERABAD, March 20: Sindh People's Party Parliamentarians chief Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that the Legal Framework Order has undermined supremacy of the parliament. Mr Khuhro accused the government of deceiving the parliamentarians by clandestinely incorporating the LFO in the Constitution. He said that if the package of the constitutional amendments was to be made a part of the Constitution, it should have been brought before the parliament for a discussion. He said that Illahi Bux Soomro, Pervez Ellahi and Jalal Shah had deceived the members of the assemblies when they announced as the speakers of the national and the provincial assemblies that oath was being taken in accordance with the Constitution that stood before Oct 12, 1999. He said: "When the assemblies were formed on the basis of a fraud how can they restore real democracy in the country." Referring to the deadlock between treasury and combined opposition benches over the LFO in the National Assembly, he said that parliamentarians always found solution of deadlock provided the rulers did not make it point of their prestige. He said that if sanctity of parliament was upheld then democracy would automatically flourish in the country. He agreed with a questioner that present level of friendship with the USA and the arrests of Al Qaeda activists from the country could prove to be counter productive. About violation of party discipline by some MPAs in Senate elections in Sindh, he said that the names mentioned in the press in this regard were speculations but the party was investigating the issue. He said that the PPP had formed committees which would visit districts of Sindh to investigate into shortcomings of the party at district level. He said that the committee, comprising Maula Bux Chandio, Dr Ayub Sheikh and Shah Mohammad Shah, would begin its visits with going to Thatta district. He said that Hyderabad district president of the party, Abdul Sattar Bachani, had been replaced with Syed Muhsin Shah Bukhari. He said that the action was taken in view of violation of party discipline with regard to distribution of tickets to party candidates. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030320 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Polls not held under LFO, says SCBA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, March 19: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Hamid Khan said that parliament had been formed by virtue of Supreme Court judgment and elections were held under the Conduct of General Elections Order and not the Legal Framework Order. He said at a press conference that a wrong impression was being created that if the LFO was not accepted, the return to civilian rule would be reversed. The LFO was a package of constitutional amendments which a military ruler introduced to strengthen his position against parliament and the prime minister and the elections were not held under it, he said. The LFO, he said, was promulgated on Nov 15, 2002, when the elections had been held. Hamid Khan said revival of the Constitution and holding of election was mandatory under the Supreme Court judgment. He said the lawyers were struggling for the restoration of the Constitution as it was before Oct 12, 1999, and they believed that the Supreme Court had no authority to vest legislative powers in the military ruler. He said the so-called legislative power was given to the military ruler by the Supreme Court when it had "ceased to be an independent institution." He said independent judges had left the institution as they refused to swear allegiance to the military ruler's decrees. The SCBA president said if the judges returned the "dubious gift" of three years extension in their retirement age, the bar would reconsider its decision of not raising any matter of constitutional importance before the courts. He said if the extension was not accepted, the bar would consider it a step towards the revival of independence of the judiciary. The Supreme Court's short order on the LFO petition was different from the detailed Judgment released after a month, he said. In the short order, the SCBA president said, the court did not give its view about the consequences of the referendum, but when the detailed judgment was released, it observed that holding of the referendum was a recognized democratic exercise. The detailed order negated the short order passed by the same bench, he claimed. He said the bar would soon release a white paper about the judiciary. He expressed his hope that time would come when those who abrogated the Constitution and those who connived with them would be tried for treason. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030319 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Opposition reaffirms stand on LFO issue ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, March 18: Opposition members raised the LFO issue again in the National Assembly, making it clear that it had not compromised its stand on the package of controversial constitutional amendments. One by one the opposition leaders invited the attention of Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to the Legal Framework Order on points of order but they did so by showing restraint instead of resorting to protest or creating pandemonium. However, the house witnessed a brief uproar when Wasi Zafar of the PML-Q, raising the issue of killing of six Pakistanis in Macedonia, accused the opposition members of staging a tamasha in the house. This agitated the opposition but the speaker intervened to control the situation. Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad was the first to say in unequivocal terms that the opposition's stand on the LFO was unchanged. He said the way the last session was prorogued demanded patience from the treasury benches. Liaquat Baloch, an MMA member, said the opposition's stand on the LFO was based on Articles 238 and 239 according to which parliament alone can accept or reject any constitutional amendment and that too with a two-thirds majority. He reiterated the joint opposition's stand that the LFO was unconstitutional and that opposition to it was still there. Mr Baloch hoped that negotiations on the LFO between the government and the opposition would continue so that an agreement could be reached. If the LFO was imposed without such an agreement then opposition reserved the right to resume its agitation, he warned. Naveed Qamar of the PPP alleged that the government was, in fact, buying time. He said unless the LFO was discussed threadbare by the house everything else would be meaningless. Nothing was more important than the sovereignty of the house, he emphasized. Mr Qamar pointed out that the last session was adjourned with an assurance that the government would arrange a dialogue with the opposition to find a solution to the deadlock and added that even a steering committee had been formed for the purpose to which the opposition members had given their proposals. He said the debate on Iraq crisis reflected large-heartedness on the part of the opposition which had allowed the discussion. However, he pointed out, this should not be considered as a weakness of the opposition which had reservations on the fundamentals of the LFO. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the parliamentary leader of the PML-N, said the opposition wanted to see smooth proceedings in the house under a policy of 'forgive and forget'. Otherwise, he said, the way the politicians were denounced and a vilification campaign had been launched during the last three years was shameful. "We are cooperating only to give democracy a chance and to let it flourish." He said whatever had been done during the last three years under the Provisional Constitutional Order should not be repeated under the LFO. He said the purpose of parliament and the civilian cabinet was to restore democracy in its true spirit but deplored that right from cricket to hockey to Wapda and the presidency, army generals were running the affairs. He offered that the opposition would go 10 steps ahead if the government took one step forward to restore real democracy and to serve people. Mahmood Khan Achakzai alleged that army generals had become fond of enjoying the power. However, he said, politicians would not let this happen and added that the 1973 Constitution suggested how amendments were brought to it. The speaker thanked the members for letting the proceedings to go on smoothly and said both opposition and treasury benches should take the dialogue on the LFO seriously. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030318 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Govt, opposition still poles apart ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Raja Asghar ISLAMABAD, March 17: The government and opposition parties seemed still poles apart over the controversial presidential powers ahead of a special National Assembly session convened for Tuesday mainly to focus on the issue. Political sources said they could not rule out another noisy scenes in the session called at the opposition's request as no formal talks between the two sides had yet been held to narrow down differences over Legal Framework Order (LFO). But a silver lining appeared on the horizon as one major opposition party said it had discussed with the PML-Q the possibility of moving a joint resolution in the house over the Iraqi crisis. The opposition had requisitioned the special assembly session to discuss the LFO and foreign policy after the president prorogued the house indefinitely last week following three successive noisy sittings. A source in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal reported a contact between the PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and the MMA parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed. But other opposition sources said no formal talks on LFO had yet been held between the ruling coalition and the combined opposition. "There has been no progress," PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf, said about PML-Q's promises to resume dialogue with the opposition. He told Dawn that there had been some formal government contact with the opposition over the issue since then. Asked if the opposition parties would hold a similar protest as last week when the house meets at 5:00pm on Tuesday, he said: "On LFO, our stand remains the same." While adjourning the assembly on March 10, speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain had said the move was aimed to give more time to the ruling and opposition parties to iron out their differences. Chaudhry Shujaat went to Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed's residence on Sunday and had a meeting with him over the LFO and Iraqi situation, a JI spokesman, Shahid Shamsi, said. He said the two men discussed the possibility of formulating a joint government-opposition resolution on Iraq. He said a final MMA stance over the matter would be evolved at an alliance parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning. The PPP and PML-N have also called meetings of their parliamentary parties on Tuesday before the start of the assembly session. Mr Shamsi said the JI chief had urged the PML-Q leader to impress upon President Musharraf to accept the opposition demand to seek parliament's approval for the LFO, which among other things empowers him to remain president as well as army chief for five more years, dissolve parliament and sack prime ministers. "If they (ruling coalition) want to extricate the country from the present crisis and secure its future, they are bound to support the opposition demand for the restoration of the (un- amended) 1973 Constitution," a PML-N spokesman, Mohammad Siddique-ul-Farooq, said. The speaker responded quickly to the opposition requisition in summoning Tuesday's session in a move that appeared to save Mr Jamali from an embarrassment of anti-LFO protests at home while he will be visiting China and the United States next week. The opposition parties had sent the requisition on Wednesday for a fresh session, only two days after March 10 prorogation, and the speaker could delay the session until March 26, when Mr Jamali - after the proposed three-day visit to China - is due to leave for the United States where he is scheduled to meet President George W. Bush on March 28. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030318 ------------------------------------------------------------------- First formal NA session yet to take place ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Rafaqat Ali ISLAMABAD, March 17: The first formal session of the National Assembly has not "commenced" yet and will commence only with the address of president to the joint session of parliament as required under Article 56(3) of the Constitution. Official sources told Dawn that the sessions held for oath taking, elections of speaker and leader of the house as well as those "requisitioned" by the opposition were "technical". The parliamentary year would commence with the address of President General Pervez Musharraf to the joint session of parliament, the source said. Opposition members have termed the delay in the presidential address a "violation of the constitution". They said President Musharraf had shown scant respect for parliament which he himself had "crafted." Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, a PPP MNA, said the president had showed total disregard and disrespect for parliament. "This is a very serious lapse, and I hope that parliamentarians are prepared to take a serious view of this matter, because it amounts to contempt of parliament." The official source, requesting anonymity, said the joint session would only be possible in April when the prime minister returned from the United States. Article 56(3) reads: "At the commencement of the first session after each general election to the National Assembly and the commencement of the first session of each year the President shall address both House assembled together and inform the Majlise Shora (Parliament), of the causes of its summon." Government legal experts are of the view that even if the president does not address the session, no consequences will flow as Article 56 provides no consequence in case the requirement under the provision is not fulfilled. They contend that Article 56(3) is not "mandatory" but "directory" in nature. The address to the joint session by President Musharraf is expected to be a noisy affair, as opposition parties are not ready to accept him as president on the basis of what they call a controversial referendum. Opposition parties are insisting that Gen Musharraf should lay down the uniform and become president through the constitutional mechanism. Mr Ahsan said any view that a requisitioned session or the earlier sittings of the National Assembly were not formal sessions would amount to a denial of these working days, in the calender of either house which mandates a minimum number of sittings in a parliamentary year, namely, 130 days for NA and 90 days for the Senate. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030318 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Amended constitution 'acceptable' to MQM ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Ashraf Mumtaz LAHORE, March 17: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad says the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has put "in abeyance" its demand for a new Constitution replacing the 1973's after the amendments made by President Musharraf to reform it. The 1973 Constitution, as amended by President Pervez Musharraf, must be adhered to. However, a dialogue should be held to evolve national consensus on controversial issues, he said while talking to a group of reporters. Dr Ibad, said the Muttahida's viewpoint on the 1940 Resolution had been misinterpreted by various political circles. According to him, the MQM had sought provincial autonomy according to the "spirit" of the said resolution, not the very enforcement of the resolution passed before the emergence of the Islamic republic on the global map. Rejecting suggestions to the contrary, the governor said the form of government provided in the Constitution, even after being amended through the LFO, was parliamentary. He said the president had introduced various changes as he deemed it fit and the system must be allowed to continue. In response to a question, he said all federating units should hold talks with the federal government on the need for more reservoirs to meet water requirements of all provinces. He said the situation should be analysed properly and decisions taken according to the available resources. He was asked about the justification for Sindh Assembly's resolution against the Greater Thal Canal project the Punjab government wants to set up to meet its requirements, and its consistent aversion to the Kalabagh dam the Punjab thinks will benefit all federating units. Dr Ishratul Ibad said all provinces faced water shortages and thus more resources should be explored. Replying to a question, the governor said the situation in Sindh was very complex but he and the chief minister were handling it through mutual cooperation. The law and order situation, he said, had improved remarkably as a result of the steps taken by the new government. He said provinces had reservations about the system of district governments and Sindh had given its proposals to improve their working. In response to a question, he said Mr Altaf Husain would himself decide on when he should return to the country. However, he said in his opinion he should come back. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- PML-N for debate on Hamood report in NA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Correspondent FAISALABAD, March 15: PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has demanded that complete Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report should be presented before the National Assembly so that the elements responsible for dismemberment of Pakistan could be exposed. Speaking at a press conference here at the DHQ Hospital after visiting deputy opposition leader of the Punjab Assembly Rana Sanaullah Khan, Mr Hashmi said national and foreign newspapers had already published the classified portions of the report. The rulers targeted Mr Khan for mentioning some of its portion which was undoubtedly an act of state terrorism, he added. The Makhdoom criticized the role of ISI in the formation of governments and policies and termed it a harmful act for the country. He claimed that the PML-N would close political wing of the ISI after coming into power and end their intervention in policy making. Criticizing the foreign policy, especially stand on Iraq issue, he said Pakistan should cast its vote in the UN Security Council against the US. About the Legal Framework Order, he said a committee comprising opposition leaders in the National Assembly had been formed for holding dialogues with the government. But, it was unfortunate that the rulers were using delaying tactics which could create problems for them, he added. The PML-N acting chief vowed to continue struggle for the restoration of 1973 Constitution and revival of true democracy in the country. ISHAQ DAR: Former federal minister Ishaq Dar has said a document is being prepared on violation of human rights by the Gen Pervez Musharraf regime which will be sent to the Commonwealth and European Union countries, the United Nations and human rights organizations. Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, the PML-N central leader said the country was being run by agencies. The present handpicked civilian set up was a stooge of the establishment, he added. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Wasim named PML-Q Senate leader ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, March 15: The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) nominated veteran parliamentarian Wasim Sajjad leader of the house in the Senate. An official announcement of Mr Sajjad's appointment came after a meeting between Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, PML-Q President and parliamentary party leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mr Sajjad at the PM's House on Saturday. The meeting also discussed the political situation, the recent Senate elections, the Iraqi crisis and other party matters. An official source told Dawn that the meeting discussed a strategy for the upcoming session of the National Assembly called for Tuesday on the requisition of the opposition. The appointment of parliamentary secretaries in the National Assembly was also considered, when the prime minister asked for a meeting of the central working committee on March 20 when the appointments will be finalized. Mr Wasim Sajjad was law minister during the Junejo government and was first elected as Chairman of the Senate when Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan became president after the death of Gen Ziaul Haq. Mr Sajjad remained chairman for more than a decade till the Senate as well as the National Assembly were dismissed by Gen Pervez Musharraf on Oct 12, 1999. The tradition of appointing a leader of the house in the Senate was introduced by Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he had appointed Rao Abdus Sattar to this position in 1973. At that time the leader of the opposition in the Senate was Mohammad Hashim Gilzai. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Two systems pulling in different directions: New govt set-up ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Habib Khan Ghori KARACHI, March 15: The new system of local government is under attack from legislators and ministers who see no role for themselves in development projects to be executed in their respective constituencies. Since the revival of democracy, polarization is brewing up between the district government and legislators. Although the Sindh local government minister has denied any rift between the Sindh and the local governments, he said such a situation had been created by the vested interest. However, the Sindh cabinet, taking a clue from the on-going controversy between the provincial authorities and the district government, has set up a task force to receive proposals from different departments, ministers and legislators for sending them to the National Reconstruction Bureau for making necessary amendments to the SLGO. Under the devolution plan, the role of the provincial government was of a facilitator to the district government in discharging its responsibilities. In Sindh, out of 23 departments, 12 have been devolved to the district government, leaving only 11 departments with the province. In addition to this, the corresponding umbrella departments would also be at the provincial level to ensure a chain of command, coordination and policy direction. However, with the announcement that each member of the provincial assembly will be given Rs 5 million for local development, the district governments are considering it a curtailment of their power, as in the SLGO the role of legislators was only to indulge in policy issues. Likewise, transfer/posting in the police and the local government, without taking the City Nazim into confidence, has created an atmosphere of mistrust between the two systems. Taking notice of a row between the provincial and district governments over sharing of power, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali defended the devolution scheme, saying there should be no dispute between the elected representatives and Nazims as both were elected to resolve the problems of the people and were supposed to work within their parameters. They should sit together and work for the betterment of the system, and the federal government was there to provide them necessary guidelines. In view of the obstacles in the implementation of devolution, particularly want of fiscal powers, non-transfer of Kutchi Abadis Authority, Karachi Water and Sewerage Authority, Karachi Building Control Authority which as per SLGO ought to be merged with the city government, and the new row over sharing of power between the provincial and the local governments, the situation calls for an immediate attention of the NRB to sort out the differences before the nascent system comes to a stand-still. In addition, there is a need to find it out why measures were being taken half-heartedly even in the setting up of a public safety commission, and why district ombudsman office, police complaints authority, and citizens community boards were being ignored to monitor police performance and deal with corruption and serious complaints against federal law-enforcement agencies. These institutions are yet to be notified while the advisory committees and local government commissions, formed recently, are yet to start functioning. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030317 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sanaullah staged a 'drama' ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 16: Punjab Chief Minister's Adviser on Human Rights Rana Ejaz Ahmad Khan termed the torture of PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah a 'drama' which, he said, was staged just to defame the government. This was not a case of basic human rights violation, the adviser said while replying to a question at a Press conference here at the Civil Secretariat. He said: "There is no need to torture Rana Sanaullah because neither he is an important politician nor a threat to the government." "He was not beaten up by agencies as those who are given such treatment do not make it public and stay home quietly," he said. Rana Ejaz said prima facie Rana Sanaullah was not tortured. He himself shaved off his eye brows and moustache to malign the government, the adviser alleged. He said the Musharraf government had not tortured anyone showing dissent during its three-year tenure. Unlike the past democratic governments, there was no political murder and the press was allowed to freely criticize government policies. Gen Musharraf's military regime is more democratic than any of the past democratic governments, he said. Rana Ejaz said in case Rana Sanaullah had been tortured by an agency, it was a federal subject and the province could not initiate any action in this regard. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Police refuse to file MPA's case ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Correspondent FAISALABAD, March 15: The local police have reportedly refused to register a criminal case against a major of the ISI and his unidentified subordinates on charge of kidnapping and torturing the deputy opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, Rana Sanaullah Khan. Official source told this correspondent that the Kotwali police, on the instructions of the district police officer, termed the Sanaullah incident as non-cognizable. In a complaint lodged with the district police officer, Rana Sanaullah said that a major of the ISI and his around a dozen armed subordinates intercepted his car (No FDU 59) on Circular Road at 8:30pm on March 8. The armed men forcibly took him to the office of the ISI, adjacent to PIA's Faisalabad building. His driver Abdul Majeed, secretary Tariq Janbaz and a number of passers-by witnessed the kidnapping. The MPA alleged that his 'kidnappers' severely tortured him and brutally cut his hair after snatching Rs4,000 and a cellular phone from him. Later, the kidnappers threw him on the service lane of Sargodha Road. Rana Sanaullah claimed that he was kidnapped and tortured to destabilize the campaign of the PML-N, launched against the misdeeds of the rulers. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030320 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Qudoos' bail plea rejected ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter RAWALPINDI, March 19: A judicial magistrate rejected the bail application of Aqeel Ahmad Abdul Qudoos, who allegedly harboured Al Qaeda activist Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. The assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Westridge police station, Farhat, argued on behalf of the prosecution and contended that police officials, including DSPs Sadar, Maqsood Khan and Rana Shahid Pervez and Inspector Raja Saqlain, conducted a pre-dawn raid after receiving information that a sectarian terrorist, Rashid, was hiding inside Ahmad's house. During the raid the accused, Ahmad, came out of his house and started scuffling with ASI, Mohammad Hanif, tore his uniform and pulled out a 30-bore pistol in order to open fire at the raiding party. However, the police overpowered him, he said. He pleaded before the court not to grant bail to the accused who had attacked the police party, possessed illegal weapons and explosives and harboured one of the top operatives of the terrorists network - Al Qaeda - and his Somali aide. He said that according to the report of the explosives expert, all the three recovered grenades were in workable conditions. However, the defence counsel, Sardar Ishaq Khan, Fawad Hamdani and Qausain Faisal, blasted the prosecution charges against their client and termed the accused innocent. They described the case as "baseless" and "fabricated." Referring to the reports of the print and electronic media, the defence counsel observed that there were contradictions in the public and police records. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Major Adil Qudoos shifted to Rawalpindi ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Abdul Sami Paracha KOHAT, March 20: Major Adil Qudoos, brother of Ahmad Qudoos, from whose house Al Qaeda leader Sheikh Ahmad was arrested, has been shifted from Kohat to Rawalpindi, highly-placed sources told Dawn. Major Adil was arrested in a surprise raid on March 1 from his cantonment residence here for his alleged connections with Al Qaeda. He belongs to the 45-Signals regiment which has its headquarters at the Kohat Cantonment. He was first asked to give details about Sheikh Ahmed whether the latter visited Kohat in recent days or last year and about whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, it has been learnt. Earlier, it was claimed that the major had not been arrested by the FBI and would not be interrogated by US agents. A senior official of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) talking to Dawn said that nobody from the FBI was involved in the Kohat operation. However, an FBI team was interrogating suspects in Islamabad. He said that during a high-level coordination meeting of intelligence agencies held on Tuesday it had been decided to put army patrolling on the western border at the highest alert in the light of disclosures made by Sheikh Khalid Mohammad and Ahmed Qudoos. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030318 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ATC transfers Qudoos' case ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter RAWALPINDI, March 17: An anti-terrorism court rejected the application of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to the case of Aqeel Ahmad Abdul Qudoos, the alleged harbourer of Al Qaeda activist Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, and transferred the case to a lower court for trail. The judge of anti-terrorism court No.2, Safdar Hussain Malik, rejected the application of Section 7 of the ATA, 2002, on the accused after the defence counsel, Sardar Ishaq, satisfied the court during arguments before presenting his bail application. The court observed that other charges against the accused would remain. The court returned the bail plea to the defence counsel and observed that the case did not fall in its jurisdiction and it should be tried in the proper court. The defence counsel had challenged the jurisdiction of the court and contended that the accused had never struck any terror or created a sense of fear and insecurity among the people or any section of the society. Nor was there any evidence against the accused, which could link him with any sectarian or terrorist activities, he said. He contended that the accused had not used bombs, dynamites, explosives, inflammable substances or lethal weapons which could have caused deaths, injuries, damage or destruction to any person or place. He maintained that although the police had claimed seizing weapons and grenades from the house of the accused during their raid, there was no evidence to show that he was involved in terrorism. The history of the accused was clean of any such crimes, he said. The defence counsel submitted the bail application in the court of the civil judge and judicial magistrate, Iqbal Guraya, where it would be heard on Wednesday. On March 1, the police and other agencies had arrested the accused allegedly with Khalid Shaikh and his two Somali aides from his Westridge residence. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Another Al Qaeda man held in Lahore ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 15: Officials from the FBI and Pakistan intelligence agencies reportedly arrested a suspected Al Qaeda member. Sources said a raid was carried out on a house on Shahbaz Road, Bhagatpura, which resulted in the arrest of Yasser-al-Jazeeri, a Moroccan national. He was shifted to an unknown place for interrogation. The sources said that Al-Jazeeri's few accomplices were also arrested from the house. However, it could not be ascertained whether the other arrested were Pakistani or foreigners. The sources said that Al-Jazeeri might have been arrested on a tip off given by Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of Sept 11 attack on the US, who was arrested some weeks ago from Rawalpindi. The PTV, however, claimed that Al-Jazeeri was an important Al Qaeda leader and was arrested by Pakistani law enforcement agencies. When contacted, SSP (Operations) Aftab Cheema said that the Lahore police were not aware of his arrest. He said no law enforcement agency in the country had asked them to provide help for any such operation. INTERIOR SECRETARY: Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani said Al- Jazeeri was less important than Khalid Shaikh Mohammad but he was quite an important person, adds Reuters. "This is the biggest catch since Khalid Shaikh Mohammad," an intelligence source said, adding a second man, an Afghan named Gulzeb, alias Jaffar, had also been captured. The intelligence source told Reuters the arrest had been made by Pakistani security personnel. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ATC formally starts Khwajas trial ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 15: An anti-terrorism court formally commenced trial of Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and his brother at Kot Lakhpat jail after the prosecution furnished the case copies with the accused. The court fixed March 25 for the indictment of Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and Ahmad Naveed Khwaja, and summoned all the prosecution witnesses for the next hearing. The court announced that it would examine the prosecution evidence the same day after framing charges against the accused. Earlier, prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar provided the case copies to the accused under section 265-C CrPc. The documents include photocopies of four foreign nationals' passports, chargesheet prepared under 173 CrPc, a copy of complaint initially received by SHO Farooq Asghar, a copy of FIR, inspection notes prepared by the investigating officer, the report of forensic expert on the empties allegedly recovered from outside the accused's residence and written statements of eight prosecution witnesses. All the eight prosecution witnesses cited in the case copies are police officials - Khalid Javed, Muhammad Ayub, Muhammad Ashraf, Ashfaq Ahmad, Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Alam, Muhammad Latif and Wilayat Ali. The copies of four foreigners' passports have been placed on the judicial record following an observation made by the court on the last hearing that incriminating evidence against the two accused regarding their alleged links with Al Qaeda activists had not been brought on record. In the chargesheet provided to them, both the Khwajas have been accused under section 324 CrPc (opening indiscriminate fire on police party), section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, (indulging in terrorist activities), and section 11 (V) of ATA, (harbouring Al Qaeda activists). Briefly, the charge-sheet narrated that SHO Farooq Asghar received a wireless message that the two accused had opened an indiscriminate fire on police outside their residence in Manawan area on December 19, 2002. Later, both the accused were arrested and a pistol and a kalashnikov were recovered from them. Passports of some foreign nationals and Afghani and the US currency were also allegedly found in their residence. The court also directed defence counsel Pervez Inayat Malik to provide it a copy of the Lahore High Court's judgment pronounced on a petition of the accused, challenging their trial in jail. The court sought a copy of this judgment to confirm whether the LHC had given any observation in its verdict to the effect that the trial court had the prerogative of holding an in-camera proceedings, and did not need any direction from the LHC in this regard. An application of the defence counsel pleading the court to allow the general public and journalists to the cover the trial proceedings is pending with the trial court. The court observed that this application would be decided after going through the LHC's judgment. The LHC had dismissed Khwajas' petition, saying the trial court and the provincial home department were authorized to hold their trial in jail for security. It also refused to direct the court to hold an open trial on jail premises. The four members of the accused family were present during the proceedings. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030317 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Nusrat Bhutto's condition serious ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, March 16: Begum Nusrat Bhutto, former first lady and mother of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, suffered a stroke in Dubai on Sunday and was in a serious condition in a hospital there. A PPP statement said Begum Bhutto was immediately rushed to a hospital after the stroke and was admitted to an intensive care unit. It quoted doctors attending her as saying that her condition was "serious". Doctors were "struggling to save her life" as Ms Bhutto was by the side of Begum Sahiba at the hospital, the PPP statement said. "Later tonight (Sunday night) a board of medical doctors will decide whether the former first lady should undergo surgery," it said. Ms Bhutto has called her family members, including sister Ms Sanam Bhutto, to Dubai to be present on the occasion. BENAZIR'S PLEA: In a special urgent message, Ms Bhutto has urged party workers, sympathisers and well-wishers within Pakistan and abroad to pray for the health of her mother. She has requested that special prayers be held "tonight for Begum Sahiba's recovery." Asif applies for parole: Asif Zardari, detained PPP leader on Sunday asked the government to allow him to leave the country for one month to attend his ailing mother-in-law, Begum Nusrat Bhutto in Dubai. Mr Zardari, who is behind the bars since Nov 5, 1996, has been granted bail in 12 out of 13 pending cases, but has not been released. The government in recent past, has been releasing him on parole. Advocate Farooq H. Naek, counsel for Mr Zardari told Dawn late on Sunday night that he had faxed the application for his client's release for one month to attend his ailing mother-in-law, who is in critical condition. No official was ready to comment on the request. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat is not the country and reports say he is in Middle East. Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi, Press Secretary to President Pervez Musharraf, when contacted expressed his ignorance about any such application. He said the query should be made to the government, as president was not concerned with the case. Secretary of Federal Interior Ministry, Tasneem Noorani was not willing to come on line. Press Secretary to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, was also not aware of any such move. Similarly, NAB spokesman Maj Ali, expressed ignorance about such move. Mr Ismail Dheri, secretary to Asif Zardari told Dawn that all the arrangement for his departure have been made and we are waiting for the government decision on his application. Mr Zardari has offered to furnish "solvent sureties" that he would come back. Ms Bhutto had left the country in 1999, has not come back then. The National Accountability Bureau, which succeeded Ehtesab Bureau of Mian Nawaz Sharif government, is claiming that Mr Zardari had stashed billions of dollars in foreign banks which he minted during the first and second tenure of his wife as prime minister. Mr Zardari is in jail for over six years but is carrying no conviction. His only conviction along with Ms Benazir Bhutto in SGS case, was set aside by Supreme Court and the case was sent back for retrial. The judge who convicted him in 1999, Justice Malik Qayyum, had to leave the judicial institution after the Supreme Court declared him biased. He has been granted bail by courts in 12 cases so far. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Minister unaware of govt deal with Bugti ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Correspondent SAHIWAL, March 15: Federal Petroleum Minister Naurez Shakoor is unaware of reported deal between Bugti tribe chief Nawab Akbar Bugti and the Ministry of Petroleum. Talking to newsmen, he said the Nawab had signed a 'peace deal' with the Balochistan chief secretary. "The ministry or petroleum companies were not involved in the process according to my knowledge," he said. Replying to a question, he said the year of parliament would start after the address of the president. "This fact has been clarified in the Legal Framework Order." DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030317 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Noor shifted to undisclosed location ------------------------------------------------------------------- By M. H. Khan KHAIRPUR, March 16: Ms Noor Khatoon Shar was shifted from Khairpur to an unknown location on Sunday, most probably Karachi, in view of the persistent threat to her life. It has been learnt that the young woman was accompanied by district Nazim Nafisa Shah. The possibility that Ms Noor was shifted to Islamabad could not be ruled out in view of the gravity of the situation. Both the DPO, Tahir Naveed, and the district Nazim, Nafisa Shah, believe that there was a serious threat to the life of Ms Noor, adding that the silence, on part of her in-laws, reinforced those fears. They said that given the nature of the tribal culture in this area, retaliation on part of her in-laws could not be ruled out. Her absence would make it impossible for the authorities to produce her before the judicial magistrate for recording her statement under section 164 of the CrPC, the DPO said, adding that even he did not know about her departure from the city till Sunday evening. Those, who were handling Ms Noor's case, declined to disclose details regarding the suit, filed by Ms Noor, for the annulment of marriage, fearing action by the woman's in-laws. According to investigations carried out by this correspondent, the present situation arose because of the couple being mentally incompatible. The trouble began after Ms Noor and her husband, Sharaf Din, failed to get along ever since she had come to know that she was to be married to the man. Reports suggested that there was no proper documentation regarding Ms Noor's Nikah and her Nikahnama also did not bear signatures of the required number of witnesses, although her father insisted that her maternal uncle was one of the witnesses. The situation became public knowledge after publication of a letter, which was faxed to a number of Sindhi newspapers followed by an identical missive sent to the district Nazim, DCO and the DPO. The unsigned faxed letter prompted the DPO to take action. Although Ms Noor denied having written and dispatched the anonymous letter to the media and officials simultaneously, she more or less confirmed the veracity of the contents of the letter, saying that she had somehow maintained her rapport with some of her friends, who, according to her, had helped her in this regard. Ms Noor said that she had told them to approach the media if they found the situation taking a violent turn. Local journalists believe that a clarification, issued by Ms Noor, denying her having written the letter, was prompted by the pressure exerted by her own parents. Ms Noor's father said that his daughter's marriage with Sharaf Din, had been solemnized on June 23, 2002, following a family arrangement, adding that Noor Khatoon had expressed "100 per cent" willingness in this regard. He accused the district Nazim of holding his daughter in illegal detention, he said that there was no court order in this regard. While talking to Dawn at the district Nazim's residence, Ms Noor said: "I would prefer to die than return to my husband's house." Ms Noor claimed that her father was also very upset as her in-laws could forcibly occupy her family's farm land besides hurting them in many other ways. Reports indicated that her parents had asked her to wait for some years before seeking a separation from her husband, which, according to her, seemed next to impossible. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Councillor files suit against marriage ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Mansoor Mirani KHAIRPUR, March 15: A family court here on Saturday took action on a suit filed by Noor Khatoon Shar for dissolution of her marriage, summoning husband Sharafdin Shar on April 12. A poet and member of the district council of Khairpur, Noor Khatoon has contended that Mr Sharafdin had subjected her to torture, rendering her conjugal life miserable. She said she cannot live with him. On Saturday morning, Noor Khatoon was shifted to the residence of the District Nazim, Nafisa Shah. Noor Khatoon was living at the residence of her father, Ahmed Din Shar, advocate, at Thari Mirwah, but due to security reasons she was shifted to the Nazim's house. The Nazim told this correspondent that Noor Khatoon would be provided with medical treatment as she was "under depression and psychological pressure". Meanwhile, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan secretary-general Ms Hina Jilani has condemned the torture of Noor Khatoon and demanded strict action against the culprits. The HRCP secretary-general, in a statement faxed to Dawn , expressed her shock over the violations of Ms Noor's basic rights and condemned threats to her life under Karo-kari. Noor Khatoon, she said, was subjected to torture by her husband, who, according to the statement, had been married to her against her wishes, adding that she was punished for raising issues of violence against women. Many days ago, Ms Jilani said Ms Noor had begun receiving threats to her life for being a Kari. Her complaints made to local authorities went unheeded, she added. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also condemned attempts being made to interfere with the course of justice. "The HRCP condemns the torture on Noor Khatoon, demands appropriate action against the culprits, and again reminds the custodians of state power of the urgent need for a vigorous movement to end all customs that are based on a total denial of woman's rights and dignities. "Action on some of the published atrocities on women and dispensation of charity to a few of the victims will not do", it stated. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030317 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Seven-year RI to be awarded for Vani ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter LAHORE, March 16: The Punjab government is introducing a seven-year rigorous imprisonment for committing Vani -- offering and accepting women to settle a dispute. This was stated by Punjab Chief Minister's Adviser on Human Rights Rana Ejaz Ahmad Khan. He said a summary had been sent to the government to make Vani a cognizable offence and award rigorous imprisonment up to seven years to those found committing it. The law would be passed by the provincial assembly in near future, he said. During the Press conference, he announced steps being adopted to protect human rights in police stations and jails, legal and financial assistance to the poor, women and juvenile prisoners, and implementation of the law banning food on marriages. He said these steps would be implemented with the help of committees comprising district Nazims, DCOs, lawyers, philanthropists and journalists. Rana Ejaz said he would raid police stations to detect violation of human rights. Police stations had become torture cells and police were torturing and humiliating people without any let or hindrance. He said instead of changing its culture with the introduction of a new police law, the police had become more ruthless. There were cases of custodial killing and kidnapping for ransom by the police, he said. Rana Ejaz said detaining people without any reason and demanding money for their release was kidnapping for ransom which carried a capital punishment. "We will register cases against those found guilty of this crime or file private writ petitions for the purpose," he said. He said under directions from the Lahore High Court chief justice, sessions judges were visiting jails once a month to provide relief to those who could not fight their cases due to any reason. But as this system had not given the desired results, the provincial government would request the high court to double the number of visits. Rana Ejaz said there were 54,000 prisoners in Punjab jails against the capacity of 17,000 prisoners. Many of them were women, children and those who could not afford to secure their release after paying small amounts of fine outstanding against them. He said to help such prisoners he had asked district Nazims and DCOs to visit jails. Chambers of commerce and industry had also been approached in every district to pay fines of those who could not arrange them. Lawyers had also been requested to plead the cases of those who could not pay their fees. The government would bear the petty expenditure of such litigation, he said. Rana Ejaz said steps would also be adopted for the implementation of the ban on extravagance on marriages. The violation of the law by a Kasur family had been confirmed and the government was going to impose the prescribed fine on them, he said. He said he would inspect Sunday Bazaars to ensure the provision of low-cost but quality items of daily use to the people. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030320 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hearing of Dr Qadeer's plea put off: IBS case ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter KARACHI, March 19: An appellate bench of the Sindh High Court adjourned the hearing of an intra-court appeal filed by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan against an order of a single judge. The single bench had ordered constitution of a committee to help Dr Qadeer and respondent Dr S. Haroon Ahmed jointly run the Institute of Behavioural Sciences. The impugned interim order was passed by Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi on Feb 18. Subsequently, he asked the Sindh High Court Bar Association president, who is a member of the committee, to convene its meeting as early as possible. The committee will submit its report on IBS affairs to the court within a month of its first meeting. The judge also asked the Pakistan Association for Mental Health, headed by Dr Ahmed, to depute doctors to treat patients at the IBS without involving themselves in any other activity. The suits and counter-suits and several applications moved by the two parties will be taken up by Justice Alavi after the receipt of the committee's report. The appeal against the interim order came up before a division bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on Wednesday but its hearing was adjourned due to non- availability of the appellant's counsel, Barrister Dr Farogh Naseem. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Pakistan deplores military action ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, March 20: Pakistan deplored the US-led military action against Iraq and called for giving priority to avert humanitarian disaster for the Iraqi people. "Pakistan deplores the initiation of military action against Iraq," Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri told a news conference which was also addressed by Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. Mr Kasuri said military action should not prolong. He said Pakistan was not among those 35 countries supporting attack on Iraq. "Whether they are 55 or 35 countries, we are certainly not among them and will never endorse any military action." Asked why the government was just deploring and was not condemning the military action, Mr Kasuri said Pakistan had made its position very clear. "But if you insist then I would advise you to consult Oxford dictionary and see the meaning of deploring". He stressed that the Security Council must resume its primary responsibility under the UN charter for maintenance of international peace and security. Reading out a statement, Mr Kasuri said civilian causalities and damage to civic services and holy places must be strictly avoided. Territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq must be preserved as well as its rights over its natural resources. The fundamental rights of the people of Iraq, including their right to governance, should be respected, he said. Nevertheless, he pointed out, this course of events should not be considered as setting any precedent in the conduct of inter- state relations. Pakistan, he said, firmly believed in preserving the centrality of the United Nations, observance of Charter of Principles by all states, and implementation of the Security Council resolutions without any discrimination. In reply to a question, Mr Kasuri said India could not launch any preemptive strike against Pakistan as had been done by the US against Iraq and added that three wars between India and Pakistan as well as the last year's deployment of Indian forces on Pakistani borders could not deter Islamabad to change its principled stand on various issues. "Let me very clearly tell you that Pakistan cannot be browbeaten by any country as the unity of our people and preparedness for war is our best weapon against any aggressor," he said. Mr Kasuri said the Security Council must uphold international legality equitably. The council, he pointed out, must implement all its resolutions, including those on Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine whose peoples had been struggling and dying for over 50 years. Pakistan, he said, had consistently called on Iraq to fulfil its UN Security Council disarmament obligations fully and quickly which did not happen. "In the Security Council and outside we had urged the permanent members to evolve a consensus, as this was their traditional responsibility, to ensure the unity of the council, which would have been the best solution for resolving the Iraqi crisis." However, he said, it was unfortunate that a P-5 consensus could not be reached, and that the efforts of the non-permanent members, including Pakistan, could not succeed in bridging this divide. Pakistan, he said, would continue to work within the Security Council and elsewhere towards the restoration of peace and security in Iraq and the region. He said Pakistan was ready to send humanitarian assistance to Iraq. Asked what Pakistan could do to prevent the destruction of the Iraqi people, he said: "If the countries like Russia, France and Germany cannot do anything what can Pakistan do?" Mr Kasuri did not believe that the United Nations had been rendered useless. The role of the world body was very important to deal with international affairs, he emphasized. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said law and order situation was under control and there was no need to be worried about as the government was alert and vigilant. He said the government had made all arrangements, including for sufficient stocks of oil and other essential commodities, to meet the situation. In reply to a question about Pakistanis in Kuwait and Qatar, the foreign minister said: "We are carefully watching the situation and if there will be any need we will run special PIA flights to evacuate our people from there." Asked why no unanimous resolution on the Iraq crisis was adopted in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the information minister alleged it was due to a lack of interest by opposition members. "They (opposition) had convened the session but many of them were not present in the house which led to a quorum problem and hence the session was postponed by the speaker," Mr Ahmad said. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- US embassy, consulates closed ------------------------------------------------------------------- ISLAMABAD, March 20: The United States embassy and consulates closed temporarily following the US-led attack on Iraq. US embassy spokeswoman Linda Cheatham, citing "security reasons", told APP the embassy and the consulates at Peshawar and Lahore had been closed "temporarily". The closure means suspended services, including issuance of immigrant and non-immigrant visa services "until further notice." The consulate in Karachi closed its public operations indefinitely on Aug 5, last year "due to security concerns." The state department advised private American citizens in the country to "consider departing." The consular personnel remained available to provide emergency information and services to American citizens, it said.-APP
BUSINESS & ECONOMY 20030322 ------------------------------------------------------------------- IMF asks govt to stop meddling: Power tariff ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, March 21: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the government not to interfere in the electricity tariffs of Wapda and KESC for political gains and let the pricing system to develop with transparency. The finance ministry has also agreed to provide the formula and recovery schedule of public sector dues to the IMF and the Wapda by March 30, which now stand at more than Rs33 billion so that realistic targets could be set for next year, senior official in the finance ministry told Dawn. The Wapda chairman had complained to the IMF team during recent meetings the government had used even the automatic fuel based tariff mechanism for political purposes and did not implement decisions of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority on quarterly tariff revisions. Quoting certain specific incidents of delayed recovery of public sector dues and non-transparent implementation of automatic fuel adjustment formula, the Wapda blamed the federal government for disruption of its financial improvement plan (FIP) agreed to with the IMF last year. The IMF told the government that implementation of the automatic fuel adjustment formula should be based on rules otherwise the fiscal gap of the utility would continue to grow in the months to come. The IMF also advised the Wapda to reduce energy losses of Hyderabad and Peshawar Electric Supply companies (Hesco & Pesco) as Wapda insisted that only these two distribution companies were in the negative and overall losses of other companies have now been reduced to a comfortable level and were well on target. The Wapda had told the IMF that the government delayed the implementation of 19-30 paisa per unit increase announced by Nepra in August/September was delayed for over a month and then a reduction in rates in second quarter review was implemented on December 16. The Wapda said that again the raise in fuel based tariff was due on March 16 but was still to be determined by the Nepra. The finance ministry has already asked the provincial governments and the public sector institutions to clear their dues by March 31 or should be ready for at source deductions at once. Wapda's public sector arrears have touched Rs33 billion mark this year against Rs20 billion of last year, up by Rs5 billion in a year. Wapda's revenue shortfall was estimated at Rs28 billion by the year 2003 which was to be met through various measures under the financial improvement plan that could not be adhered to and the revenue shortfall rose to Rs35 billion. The Wapda and finance ministry are currently revising Wapda's FIP that has to be shared with the IMF and the Bank by next month to meet conditionalities of the $350 million structural adjustment credit. The non-compliance with the FIP has been attributed to continued increase in fuel prices, failure to collect electricity arrears to the agreed limit and reduction in line losses to 15 per cent and inadequate increase in tariff since start of the fiscal year. The finance ministry sources, however, suggest that there was no provision for budgetary support to the utility in the budget 2002- 03 on the understanding the Wapda would be self- reliant through measures under the FIP. They admit that some of the factors in the non-compliance with FIP were out of Wapda's control, any recourse to budgetary support would result in increased fiscal deficit. Wapda is already accusing the ministry of collecting massive revenue due to increase in fuel prices and withholding sales tax refund to the utility to show higher revenue collection to the donors. These sources said that the IMF and the Bank were opposed to the budgetary support and wanted the Wapda to increase tariff, curtail line losses and administrative cost and recover Rs33 billion receivables from the public sector. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030317 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Aid to help win 'war on terror', says Powell ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Anwar Iqbal WASHINGTON, March 16: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has informed Congress that $395 million of financial assistance for Pakistan in 2004 will come from the Bush administration's anti- terrorist budget. He said the administration was seeking a total of $4.7 billion to help the countries that have joined the US-led war on terrorism. The assistance for these countries, he said, would come from a much larger, $18.8 billion package the administration wanted to set aside for international assistance during the fiscal 2004. "Our number one priority is to fight and win the 'global war on terrorism.' The budget furthers this goal by providing economic military and democracy assistance to key foreign partners and allies," he said. The proposed anti-terrorism budget seeks $657 million for Afghanistan, $460 million for Jordan, $395 million for Pakistan, $255 million for Turkey, $136 million for Indonesia, and $87 million for the Philippines. Powell said Afghanistan would be one of America's top priorities because Washington believed that to win the war on terror it was also necessary to help rebuild the countries destroyed by terrorists. The United States is providing financial and logistic support to Afghanistan to help establish a national military and a national police force. Both institutions were destroyed during the 20-year civil war and the country is now run by dozens of warlords with their own militias, who often do not follow the orders of the Kabul's central government. The US assistance, Powell said, would be used to "help establish security through a national military and national police force" and to "establish a broad-based and accountable governance through democratic institutions and an active civil society." The United States is also funding projects to rebuild Afghanistan's road network, destroyed during the war. "These funds will ensure a peace dividend for the Afghan people through economic reconstruction, and provide humanitarian assistance to sustain returning refugees and displaced persons," said Powell. "People often talk about how things are going in Afghanistan - Is it going well, is it not going well, or what? But when you look at what we've accomplished in less than a year and a half, it's quite remarkable," he said. "We've put in place a new government that is representative of its people. We've put in place a system where people are selecting their own leaders." The women of Afghanistan, he said, who were forced out of the national life by the former Taliban rulers were returning to the business place, the workplace, the educational system. The economy, he said, was slowly getting restarted and this tremendous success was achieved with the assistance of the nations around the world. Powell said one of the key indicators of "whether or not the glass is half full or the glass is half empty," is the return of two million Afghan refugees from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran during the last year and a half. "And no critic can take away from the simple fact that 2 million people have voted with their feet to return to this country that they had fled from over the last 15 or 20 years," he added. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030322 ------------------------------------------------------------------- KSE-100 index crosses 2,600-point barrier ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter KARACHI, March 21: The index breached through the barrier of 2,600 at 2,652. The 100-share index recovered another 61.32 points at 2,651.71, breaching through the barrier of 2,600 points with a sustainable margin. The total market capitalization at Rs579bn. Leading energy shares, notably PSO, Hub-Power, PTCL again led the market advance on renewed support aided by lure of capital gains. Prominent among them being Pakistan Refinery, Attock Refinery, and PSO, which rose by Rs2 to Rs7.25 followed by Javed Omer, EFU General, Blessed Textiles, Faisal Spinning, Gadoon Textiles, General Tyre, Dawood Hercules, Fauji Fertilizer, Glaxo-Wellcome, BOC Pakistan, Pakistan Services and Ghani Glass, which posted gains ranging from Rs2 to Rs3.50. Losers were led by Century Insurance, Shell Pakistan, Indus Motors, Noon Sugar and Pakistan Resource Co, off one rupee to Rs7. Trading volume soared to 286m shares from the previous 181m shares as gainers maintained a strong lead over the losers at 165 to 42, with 26 shares holding on to the last levels. Hub-Power topped the list of actives, up by 70 paisa at Rs37 on 80m shares, PTCL, higher by Rs1.10 at Rs24.15 on 68m shares, Sui Northern Gas, up by Rs1.05 at Rs24.65 on 31m shares, PSO, firm by Rs7.25 at Rs207.75 on 26m shares and FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, steady by 15 paisa at Rs11.15 on 20m shares. Other actives were led by Dewan Salman, up by 30 paisa on 7m shares, Pak PTA, firm by 15 paisa also on 7m shares, Fauji Fertilizer, higher by Rs2.35 on 5m shares, National Bank, up by 40 paisa also 5m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, firm by five paisa on 4m shares. FORWARD COUNTER: Fresh sharp gains in all the pivotals featured the trading on this counter where PSO posted a fresh sharp gain of Rs7.65 at Rs208 on 9m shares followed by PTCL and Engro Chemical, higher by Rs1.15 and 1.75 at Rs24.10 and Rs82.45 on 10m and 2m shares. Hub-Power led the list of actives, higher by 75 paisa at Rs37.10 on 11m shares followed by Sui Northern Gas, up by one rupee at Rs24.60 on 3m shares, ICI Pakistan and Fauji Fertilizer also finished with gains ranging from Rs2 to 2.45 at Rs48.20 and Rs81 respectively. DEFAULTER COMPANIES: The activity on this counter was relatively slow as investors remained busy in the ready and the forward section. Suzuki Motorcycles again led the list of actives, up by 25 paisa at Rs8.25 on 12,000 shares followed by S.S. Oil and Allied Motors, higher five and 75 paisa at Rs3.10 and Rs10 on 2,000 and 1,000 shares respectively. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030320 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Index falls 20 points as follow-up support turns shy ------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter KARACHI, March 19: The KSE 100-share index fell by 20 points but stood above the benchmark of 2,500 points. The KSE 100-share index, which recovered about 40 points on Tuesday, again shed 19.56 points at 2,506.22 as compared to 2,525.78 a day earlier as leading base shares again finished reacted. Prominent gainers were led by Noon Sugar, Shafiq Textiles, Bhanero Textiles, Pak Reinsurance Co and Nestle MilkPak, up Rs3.35 to Rs14.60. They were followed by Century Insurance, Faisal Spinning, Sapphire Textiles, Sapphire Fibre, Al-Ghazi Tractors, Ghani Glass and HinoPak Motors, up Rs2 to Rs3.30. Losers were led by Shell Pakistan, Wyeth Pakistan, Shell Gas, Pakistan Oilfields and Pakistan Refinery, off Rs5 to Rs6.80. Attock Refinery, PSO, HinoPak Motors, Indus Motors, Pak-Suzuki Motors owing to post-dividend selling followed and Dawood Hercules, off Rs2.30 to Rs4.95. Their absence was also reflected in a substantial decline in the traded volume at 95m shares from the previous 130m shares. Losers maintained a fair lead over the gainers at 163 to 91, with 41 shares holding on to the last levels. Hub-Power topped the list of most actives, lower 45 paisa at Rs35.40 24m shares followed by Sui Northern Gas, up 40 paisa at Rs22.80 on 16m shares, PTCL, lower 30 paisa at Rs21.45 on 10m shares, PSO, off Rs4.45 at Rs193.60 on 8m shares, Engro Chemical, up 70 paisa at Rs92 also on 8m shares and Pakistan Oilfield, off Rs5 at Rs168 on 3m shares. Other actives were led by FFC-Jordan Fertiliser, easy 15 paisa on 6m shares, Dewan Motors, lower 30 paisa on 4m shares, Dewan Salman, up 15 paisa on 2m shares and Pak PTA, easy 10 paisa also on 2m shares. FORWARD COUNTER: PSO came in for active selling at the overnight inflated level and finished reacted by Rs3.35 at Rs194 on 5m shares. Sui Northern Gas, on the other hand rose by 25 paisa at Rs22.70 on 3m shares and so did Engro Chemical at Rs80.30 on 2m shares. PTCL fell 20 paisa at Rs21.55 on 2m shares. Hub-Power also came in for selling, off 35 paisa at Rs35.40 on 8m shares, but its April contract suffered a sharp setback of Rs3.35 at Rs32.40. DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Shares of a dozen companies came in for modest activity under the lead of Suzuki Motorcycles, which suffered a fresh fall of 40 paisa at Rs7.95 on 30,000 shares followed by Medi Glass, easy five paisa at Rs0.60 on 8,000 shares and Shahpur Textiles, up 20 paisa at Rs2 on 6,000 shares. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030317 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebound adds Rs18bn to market capitalization ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Muhammad Aslam The KSE 100-share index finally ended with an extended gain of 91.59 points at 2,540.25, adding Rs18 billion to the market capitalization at Rs577 billion. The KSE 100-share index staged a snap rally later on active short- covering in some of the leading base shares under the lead of the PSO followed by some positive developments on its sell-off. Leading gainers were led by the Shell Pakistan, the New Jubilee Insurance, Sana Industries, the Unilever Pakistan, the PSO, the Pakistan Oilfields, followed by the Tata Textiles, Dreamworld, Pakistan Telephone, Habib Insurance, the ICP SEMF and the Pakistan Refinery and several others. Losers included the 4th ICP Mutual Fund, Javed Omer Vohra, Dawood Hercules, Lakson Tobacco, Javed Omer, the BOC Pakistan, Engro Chemical, Orix Leasing and Pakistan Reinsurance Company, Wyeth Pakistan, Bhanero Textiles, Nestle MilkPak and many others. Owing to holiday shortened week, trading volume fell to 366m shares bulk of which went to the credit of Hub-Power, the PTCL followed by the PSO, the Sui Northern Gas, the FFC-Jordan fertiliser, the MCB, Bosicor, Pakistan National Bank and the ICP SEMF. Other actives were led by the Engro Chemical, the ICI Pakistan, the Pak PTA, Dewan Salman, Pakistan Oilfileds, Fauji Fertiliser and several others. FORWARD COUNTER: The Hub-Power and the PSO encountered alternate bouts of buying and selling but finally managed to finish higher on active short-covering at the lower levels. The PTCL led the list of other actives, followed by the Engro Chemical Sui Northern Gas, the FFC-Jordan Fertiliser, the Fauji Fertiliser and the MCB.Back to the top
EDITORIALS & FEATURES 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Tyranny ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Ardeshir Cowasjee Whilst the entire world is preoccupied with the Iraq issue and the prospect of a war being waged against Saddam Hussein, our press carries news item after news item of how our politicians persist in wittering on and on about the oaths they are constitutionally required to swear before they can seat themselves as members of our honourable National Assembly and Senate. Now, every citizen of this country who has read or heard the wording of the oaths is aware that not one political person has in the past upheld the sworn oath and that not one of this new lot is likely to uphold it. The other obsessive question being raised by the political fraternity is the taking off of the uniform of President General Pervez Musharraf, a futile obsession as any perceptive Pakistani is aware that the general will take off his uniform only when and if a force far greater than that he commands orders him to so do. Of far more significance are the reports in our press and in the international media on the ever-present subject of tyranny in Pakistan and the suppression of the freedom of its press. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has, on March 13, addressed a letter to the president of Pakistan, copying the internationally influential press people and press organizations, human rights organizations and other bodies involved in the protection of freedom. The subject of the letter addressed to the general is the threat allegedly made by Punjab Home Secretary Ejaz Shah to Ilyas Meraj, the publisher of the weekly Independent (a Lahore-based English language publication said to have a print order of a mere thousand copies). Shah reportedly rang Meraj on March 10 to tell him : "Enough is enough. The Punjab government has finally decided to proceed against your newspaper for working against the national interest." This comment was carried by the Independent in its March 13 issue. The CPJ contacted Shah, who denied having made any such comment and said that he had not spoken to anyone at the Independent during the past week. The CPJ, however, is not satisfied. As it writes in its letter to Musharraf: "However, CPJ believes that because of the serious nature of the allegations, an official inquiry is warranted. The weekly Independent's editor told CPJ that Shah - who is a retired army brigadier, former head of the Punjab division of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, and a close associate of Your Excellency - advised Meraj to 'roll back' the weekly's operations if he wants to stay in business and stay safe. Shah allegedly criticized the newspaper for writing against the army and warned Meraj to consider the example of Rana Sanaullah Khan, an opposition politician who has been twice arrested and tortured in official custody in apparent reprisal for his criticism of your military government." Who is to be believed? But this, of course, unfortunately brings into focus once again the disgraceful treatment meted out to advocate Rana Sanaullah Khan, the PML (N) parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly, who for the second time has suffered at the hands of a security agency believed to be ISI. Soon after the October 1999 Musharraf counter-coup men of one of our 'agencies' picked up Sanaullah, held him in custody, and subjected him to the usual form of torture they employ against their offenders. Sanaullah's crime at that time was to have made 'derogatory' comments against the military government at a PML meeting held at the house of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. This time round, on March 8, whilst leaving his law chambers at the Faisalabad district courts, he was grabbed by, again, 'agency' men, believed to be of the ISI, taken away, humiliated and tortured, and then dumped at a deserted point on the Faisalabad-Pindi Bhattian road. A man with a healthy growth of hair, thick eyebrows and a bushy moustache, when found, after he had got himself to the nearest petrol station, he had lacerations and bruises on his body, a shaven head, no eyebrows and no moustache. Sanaullah claims that he gleaned from the conversations of his captors and torturers that they were indeed men of the ISI and were doing their duty on 'orders from above'. His present crime, he can only presume, was to have stood up in the Punjab Assembly, spoken out vociferously against the role of the military in Pakistan's politics, and illustrated his criticism with quotes from the Hamoodur Rahman report which was released to the public, after a quarter of a century under wraps, by the government of General Pervez Musharraf. The violence, the tyranny, to which Sanaullah was subjected must not be allowed to be shelved and forgotten. An inquiry should be ordered and his abductors and torturers suitably dealt with according to the laws of the country. We cannot afford to continue to be classified by the rest of a world as being a nation devoid of law and order. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- When words run out ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Ayaz Amir When words run out it is time for resignation - for being reconciled to the inevitable - or for worse. With Iraq it's the worst now happening - a tyrant at home being assailed by tyranny from abroad. Only this time there is nothing the Tyrant of Baghdad could have done to avert war. The inspections were a sham, or at least a sham from America's point of view. Hans Blix's team could have discovered an El Dorado of forbidden weaponry and America would still have gone to war. The US, or rather the war caucus now at the steering wheel of US policy, has its own agenda, something that goes beyond Iraq and predates September 11. The war caucus wanted a war in the Middle East for a host of reasons all inter-connected. Oil, Israel, the entrenchment of US power (as if any more entrenchment were needed) and Christian evangelism have all been at work in priming the US for this war. Islamic fundamentalism is not the problem here. A form of Christian fundamentalism is. If he lived and ruled in our part of the world Bush's view of religion would brand him a bigot. An ayatollah in the White House - supported by a corps of ayatollahs around him. If Shias take offence at this metaphor, then a mullah in the White House. Reading about the war caucus and their inter-connecting threads - the ones that bind Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rove, Abrams, and their fellow-cohorts - will give anyone the creeps. And to imagine that they have a sophisticated country, the most powerful on earth to boot, in their grip. Bush rules the US. These people, Bush's minders, their moment having come, rule Bush. In a fundamental respect this is worse than Hitler. No one pushed Hitler into any war. He was war's leading advocate and indeed in 'Mein Kampf' sketched a grand theoretical basis for conflict, Germany's need for living space, a good 15 years before the Second World War. Bush was an isolationist before September 11. Many in the war caucus had laid out their blueprints for redrawing the Mideast map and ensuring Israel's unchallenged dominance much before. Not Bush. He was not even interested in foreign policy. Now he is war leader, the triumph of the war caucus complete. Nothing could have deflected Hitler from going to war. No appeasement, no Munich. He wanted war at any cost. Nothing could have prevented the onslaught on Iraq. The Bushites (another name for the war caucus) wanted war at any cost. Saddam just happened to be the perfect excuse, with just the right credentials as a domestic tyrant to invoke justifying clauses about morality and human rights. If Saddam hadn't been around, he would have had to be invented. The Bushites wanted war and they've got it. >From their point of view the perfect war. A weak country, or at least a country no match for the US. An Iraqi army in no position to put up a fight. Between Kuwait where the US armoured columns were massed and Baghdad, the ultimate prize, the only serious obstacle is the vast desert. China, even though without air power, taught the US a lesson in Korea. But that was on a different scale, the Chinese analogy not fitting Iraq. Vietnam taught the US a lesson. Even tiny Cuba, dauntless Cuba, taught the US a lesson during the Bay of Pigs invasion. Alas, Iraq is neither the one, nor the other. Nor is its foolish leader a patch on Ho Chi Minh or Castro. Iraq thus is the perfect victim and Saddam with his megalomania, for which his people have paid such a heavy price, the perfect excuse. Will the annihilation of Iraq satisfy the war caucus? Or will its appetite be whetted for more? What are the limits of American arrogance? Or, in other words, after Iraq, who? No one can say for sure. But Pakistan has to be wary. What was the mantra behind this war? Weapons of mass destruction. Does a nuclear bomb qualify for this label? If it does, we better watch out for our so-called 'strategic assets'. Back in the old days our worst nightmare used to be an Indian- Afghan nutcracker. That's why our military wizards went overboard when Afghanistan, far from serving Indian interests, came into our orbit. They thought Pakistan had acquired 'strategic depth', not the least of the quaint notions haunting our military wizards. The old equation no longer holds. If there is a nightmare now weighing upon the Pakistani mind it is of an Indo-American squeeze, India and the US working in tandem to put Pakistan in its place. These may be exaggerated fears. But they are not altogether groundless. We saw this squeeze working when twice last year General Musharraf had to assure the world community that Pakistan was backing away from militancy in Kashmir. There's little wisdom in reacting to events all the time. Better sometimes to forestall evil and for this purpose fashion a pre- emptive doctrine of our own. In the new post-Iraq climate no one, least of all the US, is going to have much patience with any form of militancy in Kashmir. We must start doing our sums now before we are caught on the hop again. What Gen Musharraf takes pride in the most - his obduracy towards India - has been his biggest failure. Despite the scarecrow of Kargil he carried round his neck, he had a chance at Agra to mend relations with India, to secure them on a fresh basis. But he and his negotiating team blew it, not for want of goodwill but for a failure of vision. They saw the trees and were passionate about them. They just couldn't see the forest. The Indians blew the chance likewise. After all we are from the same region, sharing the same history and culture. Lack of vision is not a Pakistani monopoly. The only thing is, more was at stake for us. Both sides quarrelled over a form of words at Agra not realizing that more was at stake than the right phraseology. The failure at Agra paved the way for Pakistan's being beaten with the stick of "cross-border terrorism". Mere words have taken us nowhere. We have the words of the UN resolutions on Kashmir in our possession, locked away in our safest closets. What good have they done us? How closer have they brought the liberation of Kashmir? Mere words have been of no solace to Iraq either. If words and moral indignation could save, Iraq would not have been attacked. Our problem is not the US or our unholy dependence on it. Our biggest weakness as a nation lies in everything being made hostage to Kashmir and our India policy. Defence spending and foreign policy, both derive sustenance from the way we look at India. Shouldn't we be growing up and casting aside this phobia? No one is saying we abandon Kashmir. Why should we? Self-respecting nations do not sacrifice positions of principle lightly. But at the same time, unless they be allied to folly, they don't pursue them in a manner putting everything else at risk. Pakistan's Kashmir wars haven't liberated Kashmir but they have placed a heavy burden on the nation. The source of our readiness to embrace military rule lies not in civilian failure but in our India policy. Our defence spending may not have bought military prowess but it has led to the military becoming the leading national institution. Is it any wonder then if we can't get the military off our backs? A strange amnesia afflicts the Pakistani mind. The Kashmir problem existed before the 1965 war but it did not prevent the two countries from enjoying a good working relationship in many spheres. Goods were exchanged and travel was easy. The '65 war ruined everything. Without abandoning anything, why can't we return to those sensible days? Pakistan's security lies not in basking in American favour but in putting its house in order and seeking peace and friendship in the region, with Iran, India and the new Afghanistan. Whatever else Iraq may bring in its wake, whatever turmoil it generates, Pakistan should be looking ahead to the time when militarism gives way to democracy - the genuine article and not the bogus variety we have at present - and foreign policy adventurism to a polite discourse with its neighbours. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030322 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 'No LFO, No!' ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Irfan Husain Traditionally, ambitious generals in Pakistan and other banana republics use the alleged misrule and corruption of civilian governments to justify their dissolution of elected parliaments. They then proceed to try their half-baked experiments in the name of 'clearing up the mess' they claim they inherited. Now, however, we are in the peculiar situation of having an elected opposition that might trigger yet another military intervention. Even by Pakistan's unenviable reputation of decades of direct and indirect army rule, this is a very bizarre state of affairs: here we have a government cobbled together by the ruling junta after a carefully scripted run-up to the elections, and the generals still aren't happy. The mistake they made, of course, was not to strike a deal with one or the other of the two most popular parties in the country, the PPP and Nawaz Sharif's faction of the Muslim League. Instead, they opted to try and keep both of them out of power. The predictable result is that Musharraf and his fellow generals face the embarrassing possibility of dissolving an assembly that has just started functioning. Many arm-chair democrats - the ones who hold forth on the antics of the elected representatives they never bothered to vote for or against - profess their disillusionment over the performance of the current parliament and its deadlock over the Legal Framework Order. The daily disruption of proceedings by a vocal opposition shouting 'No LFO, No!' and 'Go Musharraf, Go!' is seen by them as a sorry waste of public funds and parliamentary time that might be better spent in legislating matters of grave importance. They see in these public manifestations of dissent further evidence of their contention that Pakistan is not ready for democracy. While the raucous proceedings in the National Assembly might well upset those who prefer well-mannered debates in the Westminster tradition, the fact is that what is happening today in the Pakistani parliament goes to the heart of democracy. What is at issue is not a group of shabby politicians agitating for more power, but about the sanctity of the Constitution and who shall exercise the right to amend it. Zia, soon after he took power, once said that the 1973 Constitution was a slim volume he could rip to shreds whenever he chose to. But that document has outlived him and might yet survive his successors. The same democrats who sneer at our elected representatives assert that if Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif could amend the Constitution to serve their purpose, why shouldn't Musharraf? The short answer is that no matter what the motives of past parliamentary leaders, the fact is that they had a two-thirds majority with them. Even though I disapproved then, as I do now, of many of these changes, I accept their legality. The LFO has no such sanctity and that is why it cannot and must not be incorporated into the Constitution without a proper debate and vote. To accept it through military fiat would open the floodgates for all future adventurers to chop and change the much-abused Constitution to suit themselves. The other dimension of the current political crisis is the difficulty being experienced by the local bodies elected on a non- party basis under Musharraf's famous devolution plan. Now that elected provincial assemblies and governments in place, they are trying to reclaim the powers their predecessors earlier enjoyed, and view the councillors as upstarts. However, given the political investment made by the military rulers in creating this grass-roots system, Musharraf has a vested interest in keeping them going. All the contradictions many of us had pointed out when this exercise in political restructuring was being planned have surfaced. Basically, Musharraf's woes started when he insisted on holding a referendum to gain legitimacy, but succeeded in exposing himself as a politically isolated but power-hungry general. He was advised to pursue this chimera by a group of generals who had never voted in their lives, and understood nothing about the political dynamics at work. Having been let down by the King's party in this fraudulent exercise, he persisted in placing all his eggs in the Gujrat Chaudhries' frail basket after the October elections. But having seen that the emperor wore no clothes, the opposition he had helped create has ganged up against him. Indeed, the coalition government his intelligence agencies have stitched together for him is such a fragile creature that without constant life support, it will go rapidly into terminal decline. The opposition, on the other hand, is probably the most powerful grouping our parliament has yet seen. Time and again, power has been usurped by uniformed men whose belief in their own abilities to right the country's many wrongs is matched only by their incompetence. Each time they have tried to impose their ill-conceived solutions on a reluctant nation, they have ended up by damaging the system even further. In all these years of failed plans that have ended up in the rubbish-heap of history, it has never occurred to these amateur political masons that they are out of their depth, and really have very little idea of what makes civil society tick. Many columnists and editorial writers have expressed the view that the legislators now protesting against the incorporation of the LFO into the Constitution were aware of its existence when they stood for elections, and should therefore have no objections to the 28 or so amendments Musharraf wants to insert into the Constitution. They miss the point that once these elected members meet in parliament, the institutional dynamics change, for the sum here is greater than its parts. But this is what happens when you try and fine-tune the elections and their aftermath to suit yourself. Had Musharraf cut a deal with Nawaz Sharif or Benazir Bhutto, he might have achieved a more stable and reliable government. As it is, Jamali's shaky coalition is very susceptible to blackmail, as is Mehar's provincial government in Sindh. This is the price Musharraf is having to pay to cling to power. When he decided to allow only graduates to contest, he and his advisers thought they were being very clever by eliminating so many of the old guard from the elections. However, the graduates now shouting 'Go Musharraf, Go!' are as prickly about their powers under the Constitution as their predecessors were. When Musharraf and his comrades-in-arms were indulging in their favourite pastime of political engineering, their constant refrain was that they were aiming at better governance. Is this truly what they think they have given us? DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Iraq: It's about power, not democracy ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Eric S. Margolis PRESIDENT George Bush claimed last month his impending war against Iraq would bring peace and democracy to the Middle East and liberate Iraqis from repression. At the same time, in a move clearly aimed at intimidating the media, the White House denounced a CBS News interview with President Saddam Hussein in which the Iraqi leader asserted his nation had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda, as 'propaganda'. Now, I have no love for Saddam's sinister, brutal regime. The last time I was in Baghdad, late 1990, the Iraqi secret police threatened to hang me as a spy after I discovered a group of British technicians and scientists who had been secretly sent by the British government to produce anthrax and other germ weapons for Iraq to use against Iran. But what I dislike even more than Saddam's nasty regime are government lies and propaganda. Since 9/11, North Americans have been subjected to the most intense propaganda campaign from their government since World War I. Much of the mainstream US media has been intimidated by the administration into unquestioningly amplifying its party line, or, in the worst tradition of yellow, jingoist journalism, it acts as cheerleaders for war. I am reminded of the sycophantic Soviet media during the days of Chairman Leonid Brezhnev. The American public, often wobbly about geography, history and international affairs, has been alternately terrified and enraged by bare-faced lies that Iraq was about to attack America with nuclear weapons or germs, and was a secret ally of Al Qaida. A shocking two-thirds of Americans mistakenly believe Iraq staged the 9/11 attacks. A surging wave of anti-Islamic hate promoted by Bush's allies on the Christian loony far right, and administration repression of Muslims, frighteningly recall Europe's growing anti-Semitism of the early 1930s. These are the reasons why a majority of Americans still support a war of pure aggression against Iraq, though more and more question the president's motives. It is frightening to see Bush claim with a straight face his war against Iraq will bring democracy and peace to the Mideast, and save Iraqis from repression. Why didn't he begin by saving Palestinians from the repression by his alter-ego and, increasingly, his mentor, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon. If Bush really cared about Mideast democracy, he has had two years to do something about US-sponsored dictatorships like Egypt, or medieval autocracies such as Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and American's Gulf protectorates. When Bush says he will bring democracy to benighted Iraqis, what he really means is US rule. In Bush-speak, 'democracy' has been perverted to mean US imperial hegemony: nations run by puppet rulers who makes all the right noises, like Afghanistan's US- installed figurehead, Hamid Karzai, while following Washington's orders to the letter. Bush's war is not about democracy, weapons of mass destruction, human rights or terrorism. It has two main motivations. First, the Manifest Destiny crowd in Washington, led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The terrible events of 9/11 seemed to produce a psychotic reaction in these good, patriotic Americans, transforming them into 19th century imperialists. Their intention is perfectly clear: prevent any nation ever challenging US global hegemony; dominate oil. The aggression against Iraq is not about oil per se; it is about control of oil. Before the Iraq crisis, the US imported about $18 billion of oil annually from the Mideast, but spent $31 billion keeping military forces there. Why? Control of Mideast oil gives the US domination over Europe and Japan, which draw most of their oil from the region. Domination of Mideast and Caspian oil will assure the US a permanent stranglehold over China and India, as well as Europe and Japan. The second, but almost invisible driving force is Israel's far right Likud government, which has come to dominate Bush administration policy and US media commentary on the Mideast. The Clinton administration was close to Israel's moderate Labour Party; Bush's camp is totally aligned with Israel's aggressive far right and mirrors its views and policies to a remarkable, unprecedented degree. Likud, and its powerful American supporters, want the US to crush Iraq into pieces. The principal beneficiary of the war against Iraq will be Israel. Many Americans simply do not understand their leadership is about to plunge the nation into an open-ended, dangerous colonial war.- Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2003 DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030320 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Blair's hypocrisy ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Eric S. Margolis Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed a 'compromise' recently to the deadlocked UN Security Council: President Saddam Hussein of Iraq should go on TV and admit he had weapons of mass destruction and had committed five other transgressions. Blair's offer, reeking of mock sincerity, was clearly crafted to dampen down a storm of Labour Party criticism over his sycophantic and highly unpopular support of President George Bush's impending crusade against the Saracens of Iraq. But it was an offer Iraq was certain to reject. Small wonder French call Britain 'perfidious Albion.' Blair's demarche was high hypocrisy, even by Downing Street's usual standard. Why doesn't the relentlessly sanctimonious Blair go on TV and explain why Britain still retains nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in sizable quantities. Are they to stop a cross- channel invasion by France or Vikings? Perhaps Blair could discuss Churchill's plan to use poison gas against any German landing during World War II. More to the point, Blair should explain to his own people why Britain and the US supplied Iraq with all its germ and many of its chemical arms during the 1980s (confirmed in US Senate hearings). Why British government technicians discovered by this writer in Baghdad in 1990 were producing anthrax and Q-fever germ weapons for Iraq? Instead of harping on Iraq's brutality, Blair might discuss Britain's savaging of Ireland, colonial conquest of almost half the known world, forced addiction of millions of Chinese to British- grown opium, and crimes in India, Africa, and Burma. And admit that some of today's worst political problems - Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, India v. Pakistan - are the poisoned fruits of British imperialism. Blair may well owe a political debt to the financiers and press barons who launched and funded his meteoric political career and badly want this war. But plunging Britons into an unjust, unnecessary war to please these born-again imperialists is intolerable. The only other explanation, that Blair is doing all this out of conviction, is even more frightening. Bad enough born-again George Bush apparently believes he is commanded by God to go to war. That his chief advisers on the Mideast want to recreate Biblical Israel for Prime Minister Sharon. And that Bush's core Christian fundamentalist supporters believe this war will hasten the conversion of Jews to Christianity and bring the world's end through Armageddon. Blair is too intelligent to swallow such medievalism. Every 'Iraqi weapons of mass destruction site' claimed by British and US intelligence turned out, when inspected by the UN, to be clean. If Blair still actually believes these clearly debunked claims, he needs help. CIA and MI6 still claim they know Iraq is still hiding stores of germs and nerve gas. So then why not give the locations to UN inspectors? Iraq's feeble, 150km ranged al-Samoud missiles might have exceeded their permitted range by a inconsequential 10-15 kilometers. Big deal. They are being destroyed. Worry instead about North Korea's new Taepodong-II, which CIA says can deliver a nuclear warhead to the United States. Unbelievably, Iraq-obsessed Bush dismisses menacing North Korea as only a 'regional problem.' Saddam's notorious 'Winnebagos of death' - germ-making trucks - turned out, on inspection, to be mobile food testing labs. The latest US-British-promoted canard: Iraq's 'drones of death:' three rickety model aeroplanes unworthy of World War I, rather than Fu Manchu dispensers of germs, as the Pentagon ludicrously claimed. Only one had managed to fly - two miles. Iraq's only true potential weapons of mass destruction, VX nerve gas and perhaps some germs, remain an open question. But Iraq lacks any offensive capability to deliver either, aside from a few hidden Scuds. The sole use of germs or gas is as defensive battlefield weapons, CIA Director George Tenet noted. Iraq's most important defector, Gen Hussein Kamel, who headed its biowarfare projects, stated he personally supervised destruction of all of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons in 1991, a fact suppressed by the White House. Other experts say any germs or gas still held by Iraq have by now deteriorated through age into inertness. As for Bush's charge Saddam might give such weapons to anti-American groups, why didn't he do so from 1990 to 2003, when the US was daily bombing Iraq and trying to overthrow his regime? Because he's not suicidal. Unable to locate Iraq's US-British supplied weapons, unable to link Iraq to Osama bin Laden, Bush and Blair shifted gears. They now claim Iraq's suffering people must be 'liberated.' But why weren't they liberated when Saddam committed his worst rights violations during the 1980s, when Iraq was a US-British ally? And what about the startling revelation by the former CIA Iraq desk chief that the gassing to death of 5,000 Kurds at Halabja - an event endlessly reiterated by Bush - was accidentally caused by Iran, not Iraq. As fast as one fabrication is exposed, more pop up. The US-British propaganda machine is relentless. For Bush, the war against Iraq will conveniently be both his re-election campaign and culmination of Biblical prophesy. For the more worldly British leader, all we can say is Blair, your pants are on fire. What next in this laughable, pre-war propaganda circus that has made the Bush administration and Blair look silly and deceitful? Will Iraqis be accused of smoking indoors or hiding lethal nail clippers?- Copyright Eric S. Margolis, 2003.
SPORTS 20030322 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Angry Waqar blasts selection committee ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sports Correspondent LAHORE,March21: Humiliated former Pakistan captain, Waqar Younis, blasted the selection committee for axing him from the Sharjah- bound squad. Talking to Dawn, Waqar who led Pakistan in the disastrous World Cup-2003, agreed that he may have not led the side according to expectations, but as a player his performance was certainly better than most of the squad members. "I am not responsible alone for the debacle, the other seniors are equally responsible but surprisingly they are 'rested' and I am dropped," Waqar said. The chief selector, Aamir Sohail, while announcing the team for Sharjah Cup categorically mentioned that Waqar was dropped while Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Anwar were rested. Aamir also indicated that the senior players could be considered in the near future and that too would depend on the performance of the young guns included in the 16-man squad. Waqar said that the national selection committee had no need to wait for his retirement from cricket. "I played cricket for 15 years without taking any advice fromany quarter and will decide on my own when to call it a day," he said. He demanded an explanation from the selectors for the discriminatory treatment meted out to him. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, Saeed shown the door ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Mohammad Yaqoob LAHORE, March 20: Authorities left out as many as seven World Cup stalwarts for Sharjah Cup, including the pace trio of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar and premier batsmen Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saeed Anwar. Unveiling a new-look 16-man squad at a press briefing at Gaddafi Stadium, Aamir Sohail, the new chairman of selectors, clarified that apart from deposed captain Waqar, who was dropped, the remaining senior players were being 'rested'. Off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq was also a notable omission in a squad that now contains only seven players who played in the World Cup in southern Africa. Also not considered for selection was all-rounder Azhar Mahmood while Shahid Afridi is serving a ban for sledging in the World Cup Group 'A' fixture against India. Skipper Rashid Latif and his newly appointed deputy Yousuf Youhana retain their place along with Younis Khan, Saleem Elahi, Taufiq Umar, Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Sami. First time inductees, opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez and pace bowler Umar Gul, are among nine changes in the Sharjah-bound squad. As expected Misbah-ul-Haq returns after a prolific Quaid-i-Azam Trophy season in which he topped the batting averages and amassed 963 runs (averaging 107.00). Also back in favour are batsmen Faisal Iqbal and Naved Latif, off- spinning all-rounder Shoaib Malik, leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and fast bowler Mohammad Zahid. Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan, a right-arm medium-pacer who is also a useful batsman, is picked for his second tour with the senior team. He was a non-playing member of the Pakistan side that played host to Australia in the offshore Test series in Colombo and Sharjah last October. The inclusion of 22-year-old Hafeez is a major surprise. He made only 251 runs in seven matches for Sargodha in the recent Quaid-i- Azam Trophy. In contrast, claims of several young players were ignored by the five-man selection committee. Among them were batsmen Saeed bin Nasir, Yasir Hameed, Bazid Khan, Asim Kamal and Farhan Adil, all-rounder Yasir Arafat and speedster Jaffar Nazir. All these youngsters performed exceptionally well in the Quaid Trophy. Aamir, while addressing the media, however, contradicted himself saying he was not sure whether the senior players would get the chance to make a comeback in the future. "We are passing through a rebuilding process. To test how much backup is available, the new players will be given sufficient time. If they click we will then see whether the team needs the stars or not," Aamir said. Aamir further remarked that the new team was formed with full consent of skipper Rashid Latif. "The new selection committee had a detailed meeting with Rashid and finally the skipper's point of view was given full weight." Regarding the selection of injury-plagued paceman Mohammad Zahid, Aamir said that the bowler was included in the team after the PCB panel of doctors passed him fit. He said that the selectors wanted to include pacers Najaf Shah and Jaffar Nazir but Rashid demanded an all-rounder be picked and thus Shoaib Malik was included. The chief selector said that Rashid had been told clearly not to use Razzaq or Shoaib at No 3 position unless a pinch-hitter was required. Aamir claimed that Razzaq had lot of qualities and he could not performed to his true potential in the World Cup only because of repeated reshuffling of the batting order When asked why Hafeez was given the nods over others, Aamir replied: "Hafeez had been performing well at the domestic level and deserved a place in the team." Aamir made a plea to the nation and the national press to support this new team. "This team will be given a proper time to deliver. And I appeal to media and nation to show patience." To a question, Aamir dispelled the impression that the PCB has imposed Rashid with the captaincy because the announcement was made before selecting the team. "I was consulted by PCB for Rashid and I gave my full consent because he is the best man for this post under current circumstances. He is a fighter and having the abilities to deliver under difficult situation," Aamir said. Squad: Rashid Latif (captain), Yousuf Youhana (vice-captain), Saleem Elahi, Taufiq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Naved Latif, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naveed-ul- Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria and Mohammad Zahid. Officials: Javed Miandad (coach), Haroon Rasheed (manager), Dr Tauseef Razzaq (trainer/physiotherapist) and Dr Riaz Ahmed (team doctor). DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030317 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Pakistan to push ICC on Indian boycott ------------------------------------------------------------------- JOHANNESBURG, March 16: Pakistan will push for sanctions against India for refusing to play Test matches against it when the Executive Board of the ICC meets here later this week, a top official said. "We want the matter to be taken up seriously because India's refusal to play us is hurting the game in the region," Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director Chishty Mujahid said. The Executive Board will meet here on Saturday, a day before the World Cup final at the Wanderers. The Indian government has banned bilateral cricket with Pakistan since June 2000 in protest at Islamabad's alleged support to Islamic militants in the disputed Kashmir region. But both teams face each other in multi-nation events like the current World Cup where India and Pakistan played in the preliminary league at Centurion on March 1. The match passed off without an incident as India recorded a comprehensive six-wicket win. India is scheduled to tour Pakistan for a three-Test series next month, but the visit is unlikely to take place. India are committed to playing a tri-series in Bangladesh in mid- April featuring South Africa and the hosts. "The writing is on the wall, the Indians will not be coming to Pakistan, although we have not had any official word from them," Chishty said. Under the 10-year Test program of the ICC, India and Pakistan are scheduled to play four series till 2010. Indian cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya had earlier this month urged the federal government to allow the April tour of Pakistan to go ahead to prevent India from being isolated on the world stage. "If India do not play against Pakistan, the equilibrium of world cricket will be severely affected because the World Test Championship cannot be decided," Dalmiya wrote to sports Minister Vikram Verma. India last played a Test match in Pakistan in January 1990, while Pakistan toured India in 1999 despite threats from Hindu fundamentalists to disrupt the tour. "Pakistan's hopes of organizing a tri-series with England and Zimbabwe next month to fill the void left by India did not bear fruit," Chishty said.-AFP DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030322 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ganguly inspires India crush Kenya in semifinal ------------------------------------------------------------------- JOHANNESBURG, March 21: India exposed Kenya's pretensions to Test status with a World Cup semifinal victory even more comprehensive than their 91-run victory margin would suggest (partly reported in Friday's edition). The 1983 champions now play defending champions and hot favorites Australia in the final at The Wanderers on Sunday. Set an unlikely victory target of 271 at the Kingsmead ground in Durban, Kenya slumped to 104 for seven before captain Steve Tikolo struck a half-century against India's part-time bowlers. Tikolo's 56 from 83 balls helped Kenya to 179, including 39 extras, but most of the cricket in the latter stages of the day-night match was not worthy of a World Cup semifinal. With the result never in doubt after India compiled 270 for four, a large section of the 18,000 crowd had drifted to the exits before the match ended. Captain Saurav Ganguly used spinners Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh in an effort to reach the 25 overs needed for a result if rain stopped the match early. But once that mark was reached, he persisted with Yuvraj and also used Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, who bowled indifferently at best. "We wanted to give everybody a bowl," Ganguly said. "They obviously went for a few runs, but once the fast bowlers came back we finished it off quickly." Rahul Dravid, suffering from a sore finger, was sloppy behind the stumps and India relaxed their grip on the match in a manner foreign to Australia. India's batting against some accurate if hardly threatening bowling at least matched the occasion. Tendulkar (83) struck his sixth half-century of the tournament and Ganguly scored his third century with an unbeaten 111 in a total of 270. Batting under the lights, Kenya could make no headway against the India pace attack of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, with Zaheer proving the most successful with three for 14 from 9.2 overs. Ravindu Shah (1) was plumb in front to Zaheer, Ongondo (0) looked totally out of his depth at number three before offering a catch to mid on off Nehra and Srinath continued his good tournament with a fine delivery Kennedy Obuya (15) could only edge to the wicket- keeper. Nehra grabbed his second shortly afterwards when Sehwag did well to hold on to a steepling catch at fine leg to dismiss Thomas Odoyo for seven. Kenya were similarly outclassed in their group match against twice champions West Indies, who failed to advance past the first round, although they will go home with victories over three Test nations in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and fellow-Africans Zimbabwe. Opening batsman Ravindu Shah, who looked the classiest of the Kenyan batsmen throughout the tournament, said Kenya needed more cricket. "We would like support from the ICC and to play more regularly at this level," he said. "We need the funding to play more cricket abroad." DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030321 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ganguly's century propels India to imposing total ------------------------------------------------------------------- DURBAN, March 20: Saurav Ganguly's fourth World Cup century spurred India to an imposing 270 for four from 50 overs in their semifinal against Kenya. The India captain's century, his 22nd in one-day internationals, took him alongside Australia's Mark Waugh and team mate Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the list of World Cup centurions. It was also his third hundred in the tournament and his second against the Kenyans, an achievement matched only by Waugh in 1996. Ganguly moved to three figures with a six smashed over mid on from a Martin Suji full toss in the 49th over as the India innings finished with a flourish, 18 runs coming off the penultimate over. He was undefeated at the close, his 111 runs coming off 114 balls with five fours and five sixes. Thomas Odoyo's tidy opening spell of six overs cost just 19 runs and he was well supported by Martin Suji and Peter Ongondo. All the Kenya bowlers disciplined themselves with a tight off stump line as India reached a relatively modest 56 without loss from 15 overs. Their control was finally rewarded when Sehwag played loosely at Ongondo and skied a catch to Maurice Odumbe at cover to depart for 33. Tendulkar batted well within himself, passing his 50 off 64 balls and looking well set to notch his 35th one-day hundred when he pulled Steve Tikolo straight to deep midwicket. His 83 runs came off 101 balls with five fours and took his tournament record tally to 669 from 10 innings. Ganguly played himself in before looking to accelerate, targeting young leg-spinner Collins Obuya as he did in Cape Town in the Super Six match between the two sides. Twice in the same over, Ganguly slog swept Obuya for towering sixes over midwicket and he continued to improvise throughout his innings, several times charging down the wicket to the Kenyan medium pacers. The Kenyan bowling effort was rewarded with two further wickets. Mohammad Kaif was run out after a fine piece of work by Collins Obuya for 15 and Odoyo got his own reward when Yuvraj Singh was caught in the deep for 16 in the final over.-Reuters DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- India shatter New Zealand's World Cup dreams ------------------------------------------------------------------- CENTURION, March 15: Middle-order batsmen Mohammad Kaif and Rahul Dravid shared an unbeaten century partnership to guide India to a comfortable seven wicket win over New Zealand. After India had survived some early scares, Kaif scored 68 and Dravid 53, taking their side to victory with 9.2 overs to spare. New Zealand were eliminated on Saturday after Sri Lanka defeated Zimbabwe in their last Super Six match. Left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan took four wickets in yet another inspired showing by India's pace bowlers as the New Zealanders stumbled to 146 all out from 45.1 overs. Then fast bowler Shane Bond briefly raised New Zealand's hopes by reducing India to 21 for three. But Kaif and Dravid shared in an unbeaten 129-run fourth wicket partnership to steer their side home after both were dropped before reaching double figures. "We have done very well so far," said captain Saurav Ganguly. "We lost a couple of early wickets but we have quite a few match winners and it's obviously good that all of them are hitting the ball well." Bond removed opener Virender Sehwag (1) and Ganguly (3) in his first two overs, the latter yorked by a 153 kms an hour delivery. Daryl Tuffey, at the other end, sent back Sachin Tendulkar for 15 after he had hit three consecutive fours as India. Wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum spilled a big opportunity one run later when he dropped Rahul Dravid after Bond had induced an edge through sheer pace. Bond almost dismissed Mohammad Kaif for six but a leaping Chris Harris at point could only get his fingertips to the ball before it fled to the fence. Zaheer put India on top in the morning after Ganguly had asked New Zealand to bat on a good pitch at SuperSport Park. The 24-year-old paceman struck twice with consecutive balls in the first over before New Zealand had scored a run. He finished with four for 42, including his 100th One-day International wicket. New Zealand never recovered from the horrible start as Zaheer, fellow left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra and Javagal Srinath reduced New Zealand to 38 for three and 88 for six by the halfway mark. The Kiwis recalled Craig McMillan to open the innings but Zaheer removed him for a second ball duck when he flicked a half-volley to Harbhajan Singh at square-leg. He then trapped Nathan Astle leg before first ball to an uncertain forward defence shot. Nehra, who bowled impeccably, then beat Scott Styris (15) with late seam movement to make it 38 for three in the ninth over. Styris, who hit Zaheer's hat trick delivery for a couple down the ground and drove him through midwicket for his only four, was beaten by the bounce and movement to edge a catch to wicket-keeper Dravid. Zaheer, whose opening three-over spell went for 28 runs, switched ends to bowl Brendon McCullum (4) between bat and pad, his 100th one-day wicket. New Zealand were teetering at 47 for four in the 14th over as Nehra conceded just nine runs in his first six-over spell after starting with two consecutive maidens. Only captain Stephen Fleming looked in control, top-scoring with 30, but he grew frustrated by the miserly bowling and sharp fielding to mis-hit Srinath to Tendulkar at mid-off to make it 60 for five. "There was nothing in the pitch," Fleming said. "This is the disappointing factor. If anything it should have favoured us." DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20030316 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sri Lanka overwhelm Zimbabwe to seal semifinal spot ------------------------------------------------------------------- EAST LONDON, March 15: Sri Lanka secured the final World Cup semifinal place with a decisive 74-run win over Zimbabwe at Buffalo Park. After winning the toss and posting 256 for five from their 50 overs, Sri Lanka dismissed Zimbabwe for 182 to claim a date with champions Australia in Port Elizabeth. The Super Six victory put paid to any lingering New Zealand hopes of a place in the last four. The New Zealanders required a Zimbabwe win to head the Sri Lankans. Zimbabwe's hopes all but disappeared when Andy Flower was lbw in his final international match for the top score of 38. Sri Lanka's total was built on the back of opener Marvan Atapattu's unbeaten 103, his 10th one-day hundred and only the ninth time a batsman has batted through a completed innings at the World Cup. Atapattu started cautiously and was dropped on 23 when wicket- keeper Tatenda Taibu dived full length to his right but narrowly failed to hold on to an extremely difficult chance off the bowling of Travis Friend. It took Atapattu until the final over of the innings to reach his century when he pushed the ball into the covers and scampered a single off Doug Hondo. He faced 127 balls and hit seven fours. With Heath Streak slipping into a good rhythm from the start, the Sri Lankans failed to produce one of their trademark quick fire starts, captain Sanath Jayasuriya taking until the 11th over of the innings to find the boundary. He perished shortly afterwards for 22, edging a Streak delivery angled across him through to Taibu. Avishka Gunawardene played unusually within himself on his return to the side as he and Atapattu added 83 for the second wicket. Gunawardene was dismissed for 41 when he chipped a return catch to Doug Marillier. While Atapattu continued to graft at one end, Kumar Sangakkara provided the acceleration the Sri Lankans required towards the end of the innings with 35 runs from just 25 balls at the other. Streak was the best of the bowlers with two for 40 from his 10 overs. Craig Wishart (43), Doug Marillier (19) and Travis Friend (21) got the Zimbabwe run chase off to a positive start, but the tournament co-hosts failed to build substantial partnerships at the top of the order and were undermined by the loss of wickets at regular intervals. Their cause was terminally damaged when Flower was given out lbw for 38 to Aravinda de Silva's slow off spin although television replays suggested the ball cannoned into Flower's pads off an inside edge. The player himself was visibly aggrieved but left the field to a standing ovation. Muttiah Muralitharan then returned to the attack and turned one through the gate to bowl Taibu (2) with the first delivery of his new spell and when Andy Blignaut smashed a Dihara Fernando full toss straight to cover in the next over Zimbabwe were 151 for six and in dire trouble. Jayasuriya (three for 30) then picked up two wickets in three balls to hasten the end of the contest and spark celebrations with his team mates as Sri Lanka confirmed their place in the last four. ------------------------------------------------------------------- You can subscribe to DWS by sending an email to <subscribe.dws@dawn.com>, with the following text in the BODY of your message: subscribe dws To unsubscribe, send an email to <unsubscribe.dws@dawn.com>, with the following in the BODY of you message: unsubscribe dws ------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to the top.
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