Hashmi urges Gilani to resign and hold elections

KARACHI: Senior politician and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Mkhdoom Javed Hashmi on Tuesday urged Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani to resign and hold elections, FTNews reported.

On his return from attending a successful party rally in Karachi, Hashmi was addressing the PTI’s supporters who came to welcome him in his home town, Multan.

He said that the prime minister should call all parties conference and hold elections by resigning from his post if the majority agrees.

Hashmi said the country was faced by so many crises and the government has disappointed the nation.

He suggested that Gilani should not stick with the post and hold elections.

He said that Nawaz Sharif knows the reasons behind his departure from the PML-N fold and he should share this with the nation.

Hashmi said that based on his experience in the politics he can predict that PTI will get most numbers of votes in the next elections.

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Babar assails PTI at Liaquat Bagh rally

RAWALPINDI: Senator Dr Babar Awan on Tuesday, criticising Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), said people who talk about completing Jinnah’s mission did not bother to visit his shrine on December 25, FTNews reported.

Addressing a seminar organised by Peoples Lawyers Forum Rawalpindi division at Liaquat Bagh (BB’s assassination site), he said Benazir Bhutto laid down her life to protect the peoples rights and democratic rule in the country.

He said the party that held a rally on December 25 near the shrine of nation’s father claimed to complete his agenda but did not bother to visit his shrine on the day of his birth anniversary.

Awan in his conventional style, referring to singer Abrarul Haq, said “people who go to billo’s home on a cycle can not bring about the revolution.”

The PPP leader claimed that PTI had become a party of turncoats. “And a turncoat regardless of its belonging from Rawalpindi, Taxela or Multan, remains a turncoat which can never bring about a change,” he added.

He warned PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to follow PPP’s suggestions before its ‘too late.’

Awan claimed that during PPP regimes there had never been confrontations between institutions and rumor-mongering should end now.

Awan said that with the passage of 18th constitutional amendment all back door channels to enter into the power corridors have been closed.

He said whenever the PPP government comes into power it serves the masses but some vested interests fear that if the present government completes its five-year term, the democracy will gain strength that is not acceptable to conspirators.

He was confident that the PPP government would complete its constitutional term and the Senate and general elections would be held on time.

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Twelve suspected militants killed in Kurram

PESHAWAR: Twelve suspected militants were killed as security forces pounded militant hideouts in central Kurram Agency on Tuesday, FTNews reported.

In the ongoing operation in the region, armed forces attacked three suspected militant hideouts, killing 12 while wounding nine others.

During the past 24 hours, security forces have bombed multiple locations in the Orakzai and Kurram region. The death toll is reported to have reached 48, while more than 12 suspected safehouses were destroyed in the operation.

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Zardari vows defiance at Garhi Khuda Bux

GARHI KHUDA BUX: An embattled but defiant President Asif Ali Zardari used the fourth anniversary of the death of his wife Benazir Bhutto to say he would not resign in the face of numerous crises building around him.

“We want to make history, not headlines. I tell you, politics — which we have left to our prime minister and the cabinet — is the art of the possible,” he told a rally of tens of thousands of supporters. “But making a nation is the art of the impossible and I believe I’m doing the art of the impossible.”

The president in his fiery speech said that democracy was still in its infancy in the country, and it will take time to grow stronger. We will only fight for democracy, he said.

I am a constitutional president, added President Zardari, and (Gilani) is a constitutional prime minister.

In a jab at the Supreme Court, which is currently pursuing several corruption cases against Zardari, who currently enjoys immunity as head of state, he asked about the as yet unsolved case of his wife’s assassination.

“People ask what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case,” he said. “I ask (Chief Justice) Iftikhar Chaudhry: what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case?”

Police estimated the crowd at more than 50,000. Colourful banners sprouted from the throng, which spread out beneath the graceful, white marble mausoleum that contains the bodies of Pakistan’s most famous political family.

Speaking from behind bulletproof glass, Zardari appeared relaxed and healthy, which would likely calm rumours of his ill health.

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No possibility of clash among institutions: Gilani

GARHI KHUDA BUX: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said there no possibility of a clash existed among the state institutions, provided they all worked within the ambit of the Constitution.

In a brief interaction with media persons after offering his respects at the mausoleum of slain Benazir Bhutto, Gilani said the Parliament was supreme and would take decision on all issues of national importance. He said the supremacy of the Parliament would be ensured.

The prime minister said the investigation into the case of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination was almost complete and its details would be revealed in due course of time.

In response to queries, he said the matter was ‘subjudice’ and he could not further comment on it.

“I don’t want the inquiry to be affected in any manner,” he said, adding that her martyrdom was an international tragedy.

Gilani said the decision to share details of any aspect of the interrogation could only be made by Central Executive Committee of the party. Any aspect of the ongoing investigation could also be shared by the Interior Minister, he added.

To a question on whether a conspiracy was being hatched against the government, he said certain elements from time to time had been trying to create differences between the judiciary and the government, and also between the president and the prime minister, but in vain.

He said that the true party workers were determined and the ones who left the party were selfish.

“I can only say that such ‘king’s parties’ remain in the news only till the king is there”, Gilani said.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by Chairman Senate Farooq H. Naek, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah.

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Party workers are determined, those who left were selfish: Gilani

KARACHI: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that it was in party’s best interest that the weak workers had left the party before the elections otherwise they could have hurt the party at the time of the elections, FTNews reported on Tuesday.

While talking to the media representatives after paying respect at the mausoleum of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Gilani said the PPP was the name of an ‘ideology’.

He said that the true party workers were determined and the ones who left the party were selfish.

“I can only say that such ‘king’s parties’ remain in the news only till the king is there”, Gilani said.

The prime minister said the government never wanted to fight with the state institutions and a conspiracy had been hatched to produce friction between the president and prime minister with the army and judiciary.

Gilani said the investigations of the ‘Benazir murder case’ had been finalised and if important, the interior minister would provide the information to the PPP’s central executive committee.

The prime minister refused to give further information and said the case was already in the court.

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Supreme Court urges inquiry into memo case

ISLAMABAD: A nine-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing of the Memogate scandal case on Tuesday, FTNews reported.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Babar Awan submitted the answer on behalf of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to the Supreme Court through a press conference.

The Chief Justice said that Babar Awan’s press conference was very significant in this case.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq said that the former ambassador of Pakistan to the US, Hussain Haqqani had presented his resignation on November 16 in national interest.

The Chief Justice questioned that if the memo was merely a piece of a paper then, what was the task of the ‘parliamentary investigation committee’?

He said the courts cannot just stop working because of the committee and the nation stood united against any compromise on the national security.

The Attorney General said the government was not interested in solving the memo scandal.

However, Justice Shakir Ali said the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani wanted the fair trial of the memo scandal.

Asma Jahangir, counsel of Hussain Haqqani said that holding Haqqani guilty on the basis of his resignation, is hurting his privilege, as he is innocent until his culpability is proved.

‘Media is proving my client as guilty,’ she added.

Jahangir questioned as to who delegated power to the chief of a secret agency to institute an inquiry against its government.

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Pakistan and India resume conventional CBM talks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan proposed on Monday to India deployment of artillery and mortars 30 kilometres away from the Line of Control as the two sides revived talks on conventional and nuclear confidence-building measures (CBMs) after a gap of four years, official sources told FTNews.

The two-day talks signified the first formal engagement between the two countries since Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the Saarc summit in the Maldives last month, during which the two leaders agreed to push trust-building measures to add momentum to the revived dialogue process.

Pakistan also proposed measures for repatriation of individuals inadvertently crossing into the other country, besides suggesting an agreement to prevent incidents at sea, a source said without giving any detail.

Y.K. Sinha, joint secretary in charge of Pakistan desk in India’s external affairs ministry, led the Indian side while Additional Foreign Secretary Munawar Saeed Bhatti headed the Pakistan delegation at the expert level talks on conventional CBMs.

The sources said notes were exchanged over the progress made on the earlier agreements, including the ceasefire agreement, working of hotline between directors general military operations of the two sides, hotline between Indian Coast Guards and Pakistan’s Maritime Agency and the 1989 agreement on prevention of airspace violations.

The meeting also focused on implementing the cross-Kashmir trade and travel CBMs that were unveiled during the talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries in July.

The two sides will hold a sixth round of expert-level discussions on nuclear CBMs on Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to explore the possibilities of expanding the scope of nuclear CBMs to include a pre-notification of cruise missile test launches.

The Indian side may again push for a no-first-use commitment from Islamabad.

The sources said some formal agreements were expected to be signed in the next round of expert level talks which are likely to take place next year.

Pakistan and India resumed in February the dialogue process that was stalled after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

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