Security arrangements for Ijaz finalised: Attorney General

ISLAMABAD: Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq on Saturday finalized security arrangements for Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz in consultation with the Defence Secretary.

The commission probing into the Memogate scandal had asked me to make appropriate arrangements for Ijaz in its January 9 order, Haq told FTNews.

Ijaz’s counsel, Akram Sheikh had earlier said that by excluding the army from the security, the government wanted to deprive his client of providing valuable evidence linking President Asif Ali Zardari to the memo.

“I have met with the Defence Secretary, Interior Secretary and the representatives of the federal security agencies to finalise the arrangements,” he said. Haq said that army personnel could be involved if required under the commission’s order.

The attorney general said Ijaz had been given foolproof security under Article 245 of the Constitution. He added the article stated that the army could be asked to help the administration “in aid of civil power”.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

New parties don’t have manifesto, says Gilani

LAHORE: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday said new political parties do not have any concrete programme and manifesto, FTNews reported.

Addressing a public gathering in Sargodha after inaugurating and laying foundation stones of a number of development projects, the prime minister said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) being an ideological party has the roots in the masses and derives its strength from them.

He said despite all the efforts of past dictators to finish PPP, the party was still intact and strong with the support and strength of the workers and masses.

Regarding formation of new political parties, and talks of revolutions, the prime minister said revolution was only possible with the support of masses adding that these new entrants in politics did not have public support.

He said some parties came to power through crutches but they washed away because these parties did not have roots in the masses.

He said all the major political parties like PML-Q, ANP, MQM and other leading political players were cooperating with PPP. “It is our power that we are going along with all the parties through reconciliation,” he added.

Gilani said other political parties were misguiding the masses.

He said he did not go there for votes as there was no election in the area but he was there to fulfill his promises made with the people to provide them basic facilities.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

Rulers used PCO judges for personal gains: CJ

KARACHI: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Saturday said that PCO judges had been manipulated by rulers to perpetuate their personal interests, FTNews reported.

Speaking to a gathering of lawyers on their enrollment with the apex court at its Karachi registry, he said judges, who took oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order, had been declared illegal.

Oaths taken by PCO judges had harmed the judiciary in the past as well, said Justice Chaudhry.

The chief justice said that the apex court had always worked under its constitutional boundaries.

In the past, rulers have made attempts to confiscate the Supreme Court’s constitutional position, the chief justice said, adding that the apex court had fulfilled its constitutional obligations by declaring the actions of Nov 3, 2007 illegal.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

Ijaz should explain role in toppling Benazir govt: Malik

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday said that Mansoor Ijaz would be provided fool-proof security upon his arrival to Pakistan, FTNews reported.

The minister said he had had a discussion with Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq regarding the US businessman’s security. 

He said the government would follow the attorney general’s directives with regard to the issue.

Malik said the government would provide Ijaz with all the facilities that an American citizen was generally provided with.

He moreover said that the government also wanted Ijaz to explain his role in the toppling of Benazir Bhutto’s government.

Separately, the US embassy clarified that Ijaz was an ordinary American citizen and that he would arrive in Pakistan in that capacity.

A spokesman for the embassy said that the US was not involved in the issue of Ijaz’s arrival to Pakistan and that the embassy had no contact with the US businessman on the issue.

Moreover, the spokesman refused to discuss the memo issue which he said was a legal matter.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

Not afraid of anyone, coming to unveil the truth: Ijaz

KARACHI: The central character of the memogate scandal Mansoor Ijaz in an interview referred to ‘threats’ that he said he was getting from certain quarters over his expected appearance and testimony before a judicial commission probing the issue.

“They are random. The email addresses and so forth. Several of them were very specific. One or two of them were more blunt and broad based,” Ijaz said in an interview with Indian television channel NDTV.

“For me it just doesn’t matter who’s behind them. They are not going to stop me from coming. They can do what they want. And I say very clearly to the government, to those in the government, to the Interior Minister, who has made a lot of different statements and, sort of, veiled threats, and things of that nature against me, against members of my family…all this stuff is just hullabaloo,” Ijaz said.

“I am coming. I am going to tell the truth. I am going to make sure that the people of Pakistan, finally, are able to hold their government accountable for the actions that they take in their name,” he added.

Ijaz is likely to visit Pakistan next week for his testimony before the commission appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the matter.

He was summoned by the commission on Jan 16 but did not appear before it due to reservations over his security.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

US committed to ‘mutually respectful’ Pakistan ties

WASHINGTON: The United States “remains committed to a strong, mutually respectful” relationship with Pakistan and Washington’s civilian assistance for the South Asian country has not been affected in the aftermath of the November 26 strikes on Pakistani border posts, the State Department said on Friday.

“We consider bilateral US civilian assistance to be an important component of that relationship and believe it can help Pakistan become a more prosperous, stable, and democratic state, which serves the national interests of both the United States and Pakistan,” the Office of Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in response to a question taken at the daily briefing.

“Civilian assistance to Pakistan continues and has not been interrupted since the tragic November 26 incident,” the spokesperson noted.

The November 26 attacks on Pakistani check posts claimed lives of two dozen Pakistani soldiers, angering the Pakistani nation and the government.

After the incident, Islamabad closed Nato supply routes and initiated a full review of ties with the United States, which is nearing its completion.

The State Department also noted that since the passage of the Kerry-Lugar- Berman legislation in October 2009, the US government has disbursed $2.2 billion in civilian assistance, including approximately $550 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.

“In FY 2011 specifically, we disbursed approximately $855 million (not including any emergency humanitarian assistance).

Our non-humanitarian civilian assistance funds are spent in five priority sectors: energy, economic growth, stabilization of the border regions, education, and health.

Notably, in 2011 the people of the United States supported the construction of 210 kilometres of road in Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, funded the world’s largest Fulbright exchange program, and sponsored initiatives promoting private sector growth and civil society development in Pakistan.”

Earlier, spokesperson Nuland shared the view that Pakistan and the United States should pursue broad-based bilateral relations.

It is “completely in sync with our view of the US-Pakistani relationship, that it should be broad and deep, that we have work to do together across the range of issues, whether we’re talking about increasingly open society, economic things, development things, and the full range of security issues.

So we would certainly share the view that we have a lot to do together across the range of concerns,” she remarked at the daily briefing.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

‘Pakistan to allow US trainers, not drones’

WASHINGTON: US military trainers will be invited back into Pakistan “as early as April or May”, but the nation has ruled out allowing CIA drones back into the country, American Fox News reported late on Friday night.

Relations between the two nations have been at an all-time low since 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in air strikes by Nato in November.

A committee of the Pakistani parliament is reviewing the nature of the country’s relationship with the US, and politicians are expected on Jan 30 to deliver a list of conditions for cooperation to resume.

The stipulations will include no covert CIA or military operations on the ground in Pakistan, and no unauthorised incursions into its airspace. Drones, which are the CIA’s biggest weapon against militants hiding in the tribal belt dividing Afghanistan and Pakistan, “can never return”, a senior Pakistani official told Fox News.

“They will never be allowed back, at Shamsi or anywhere else,” the official added, referring to the base from which many of the unmanned aerial vehicles were deployed before the Nato attack in November.

In return, Pakistan would allow back US military trainers, including special forces teams, and a resumption of close cooperation with the CIA in targeting militants who use the Pakistani side of the border as a safe haven and breeding ground for extremism.

It would also reopen the Torkham and Chaman border crossings into Afghanistan, which have been closed to Nato supply convoys since the attack.

“After this is presented to the Americans, a lot could happen very quickly,” the senior official told the TV channel.

Islamabad also would reopen its doors to high-level US diplomats after an embarrassing snub this week to President Obama’s special envoy to the region, Marc Grossman, who was denied his request to visit Pakistan in the middle of his tour of South Asia.

Pakistan says it wants working conditions with Washington that provide “respect for the nation, its sovereignty — both its soil and airspace — and equal terms of cooperation”. Government members have said publicly that there has never been equality in the relationship.

“We understand the government of Pakistan is still working on its review of US-Pakistan relations, and we have not yet received a formal report from the government,” Pentagon spokesman Capt John Kirby said in an emailed statement.

“Decisions about the level of Pakistani commitment to our military relationship are obviously theirs to make, and we respect that.”

“We continue to desire a close military relationship with Pakistan. We both have a fundamental interest in cooperation, in eliminating Al Qaeda’s ability to operate from Pakistan, and in ensuring a stable Afghanistan and stable region.”

Pakistan, especially its military, has been reeling since US forces killed Osama Bin Laden in a raid in May.

The raid, which sparked nationwide protests and stoked further anti-Americanism, and civilian casualties caused by drone attacks are considered by Pakistan to be flagrant violations of its sovereignty by an ‘arrogant’ American government.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said this week that ties “are on hold until we start re-engaging”, but Pakistan is now motivated by the US elections to move forward swiftly in rebuilding trust between the countries. Islamabad fears that if foundation stones are not laid before presidential campaigning begins in earnest in the summer, it will not be able to renegotiate with Washington until the middle of next year.

But the senior official suggested there might be a benefit to waiting.

“We would prefer it if there was a Republican government again,” he said. —FTNews monitoring desk.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

Khar off to Russia with love

ISLAMABAD: In a development that signifies a paradigm shift in the country’s decades-old foreign policy, Pakistan is set to formally invite the Russian president to undertake a visit at a time when its relationship with the United States is faltering.

If Dmitry Medvedev accepts the invitation, he will be the first Russian head of state to visit Islamabad.

A foreign office official told FTNews that Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is expected to visit Moscow in the first half of February to formally extend her country’s invitation to the Russian president for a maiden trip.

The move is part of Pakistan’s efforts to reach out to countries such as Russia in the wake of its strained ties with the US. Relations between Islamabad and Washington have continued to deteriorate since the November 26 Nato airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

That incident not only prompted authorities to shut down key supply route for the western forces stationed in Afghanistan but also initiated a review of the entire relationship with the US. An all-party and bicameral parliamentary panel has already furnished its recommendations to rewrite the terms of engagements with Washington.

The foreign policy review includes recommendations that Pakistan must re-evaluate its relationship with Russia. The two-day envoys conference attended by ambassadors from select capitals has proposed measures to upgrade ties with Moscow in an attempt to reduce reliance on the US.

“There was a consensus that we should take our relationship with Russia to the next level,” said a foreign office official.

It is believed that China is also quietly pushing Pakistan and Russia to move beyond their bitter past and write a new chapter in their ties in view of the evolving regional and international situation.

Islamabad and Moscow remained bitter enemies in the 1980s when Pakistan, along with western countries, backed the so-called holy warriors, or ‘mujahideen’, fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan. But in recent years the two countries have attempted to move beyond that phase of their relationship.

In an unprecedented statement following the Nato attacks on Pakistani check posts last year, Russia publicly denounced the incident, emphasising that a nation’s sovereignty should always be upheld, even when hunting ‘terrorists’.

In May last year, President Asif Zardari undertook a historic visit to Moscow, the first official trip by any head of state from Pakistan in 37 years. Recently, a top Russian military commander also paid a rare visit to Pakistan. The visit by Colonel General Alexander Postnikov, Commander -in-Chief Russian Ground Forces, was the first by any senior military official from the former Soviet Union in recent years. The significance of the visit can be judged from the fact that the Russian general was given a guard of honour and full protocol on his arrival at the GHQ.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

Government forms committee for Mansoor Ijaz's security

ISLAMABAD: A committee has been formed by the federal government to provide high level security to Mansoor Ijaz when he arrives in Pakistan next week, FTNews reported on Saturday.

Ijaz, the central character in the Memogate case, has been summoned by the judicial commission investigating the memo scandal on Jan 24, and before the Parliamentary Commission on National Security (PCNS) on Jan 26.

Sources confirmed that Mansoor’s whereabouts will be kept secret upon his arrival in Pakistan and the government has decided to formalise a proper plan to protect him.

It hasn’t been divulged which city Mansoor will arrive in but sources have confirmed that the provincial government of which ever city Mansoor stays in will provide him with the utmost protection.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

GHQ, ISI camp attacks: Fourth detainee found dead

ISLAMABAD: A civilian facing a court martial under the Army Act on charges of attacking the GHQ and ISI Hamza camp died mysteriously on Friday, a brother of the deceased, told FTNews on Friday.

Abdul Saboor, 29, is the fourth civilian detained in the case to have died in mysterious circumstances over the past six months — Mohammad Aamir died on Aug 15, last year, Tahseen Ullah on Dec 17, and Said Arab on Dec 18.

Their bodies were recovered from the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

Abdul Saboor’s brother, Mufti Shakoor, said that an unknown caller asked him to collect the body of his brother from the Haji camp in Peshawar.

Saboor had been picked up by intelligence agencies on Nov 25, 2007, along with his younger brothers Abdul Basit and Abdul Majid from Lahore.

According to Mufti Shakoor, who lives in Lahore, the caller initially asked him to go to the Peshawar hospital, but later told him that he would find the body in an ambulance parked near the Haji camp.

Finally, he said, he found the body on the GT Road near the camp. By that time the cellphone of the caller had switched off.

Tariq Asad, a lawyer who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of Ms Rohaifa — the mother of three detainees, Abdul Saboor (deceased), Abdul Basit and Abdul Majid — for their recovery, said he had already expressed fears about their unnatural death.

In the petition filed on Jan 6, the ailing mother made an emotional appeal to the Supreme Court to order intelligence agencies to immediately kill her sons and hand over their bodies to her if superior courts could not provide relief to common citizens of the country.

According to Advocate Asad, Saboor died when a petition about his recovery was pending with the Supreme Court, but the court was dealing with matters “more important than the life of a citizen”.

In the petition, Advocate Asad pointed out that the bodies of three detainees who had died earlier during investigation, showed clear signs of acute renal failure (ARF) apparently caused by slow poisoning.

He said military authorities had kept them in illegal confinement and contended that under the Army Act, civilians could be tried only in circumstances gravely affecting the maintenance of discipline in the army.

He requested the court to seek a report on causes of the death of three detainees and record of proceedings against survivors.

It may be mentioned here that the accused — Abdul Basit, Abdul Majid, Dr Niaz Ahmad, Mohammad Aamir, Mazharul Haq, Shafigur Rehman, Mohammad Shafiq, Said Arab, Tahseen Ullah and Gul Roze — were acquitted by the Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi on April 8, 2008, because the prosecution could not make out a case against them.

But before their release, the Rawalpindi DCO issued a detention order under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

On May 6, 2010, it was extended for 90 days by the Punjab home secretary, but it was set aside by the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench on May 28, 2010.

The Superintendent of Adiyala jail, Saeedulllah Gondal, is reported to have handed over the detainees to ISI and MI.

But in May, 2011, the advocate general informed the apex court that the detainees had been formally arrested in the first week of April and a case under Section 2 (1) (d) of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, was registered against them.

Raja Mohammad Irshad, the counsel of ISI and MI, told the court that the 11 men were among the 20 suspects taken into custody from operational areas.

He said the men were in the custody of law-enforcement agencies and they had been interrogated for their “close/deep links with terrorists operating in different areas of the country”.

He told the apex court that they were allegedly involved in attacks on ISI’s Hamza Camp, GHQ, defence installations, explosions at various places, killing of a three-star general and several other army personnel and civilians.

In August 2011, when the court was hearing a petition for the recovery of the three brothers, the Military Intelligence told the court that the detainees were in their custody and they had been kept “in accordance with the law”.

The military authorities also arranged meetings of the detainees with their family.

According to Mufti Abdul Baais and Mufti Abdul Shakoor their detained brothers had been brutally tortured and they could not stand because their legs were swollen.

Advocate Colonel (reted) Inamur Rahim, another counsel of the detainees, said he had also filed a human rights application in the Supreme Court for their recovery.

“I will try to take other like-minded lawyers on board on this particular issue because it is possible that the remaining seven detainees might experience the same fate,” he said.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL

Consumers to bail out power firms

ISLAMABAD: On top of the continuously increasing tariff, electricity consumers will also have to pay the cost of interest on power sector loans.

A decision to that effect was taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Friday.

It asked the ministry of water and power to issue binding policy guidelines to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to increase power tariff so that the interest could be recovered from consumers.

It may be mentioned that Nepra has so far been refusing to endorse the move.

The ECC ordered procurement of 100,000 tons of sugar in addition to the already committed 378,000 tons to ‘help’ mills solve their cash flow problems and clear their bank loans.

The committee approved a Rs60 billion loan package for the two gas utilities to help them reduce one of the world’s largest system losses of over 11 per cent and reduced sales tax on tractors apparently to oblige an influential agricultural lobby.

The committee decided that a part of the receipts from increased power tariff should be placed in a special account to enable distribution companies to pay interest to banks against the revenue collateral.

It did not work out how much the electricity tariff would be increased when Nepra would implement the decision.

Under the decision, the government will take over Rs160 billion power sector loans and sell them to a consortium of commercial banks in the form of five-year term finance certificates (TFCs) to be issued by the Pakistan Power Holding Company, a government subsidiary, against sovereign guarantees of the federal government.

The banks will charge about 12.6 per cent interest on the loans.

The decision will partially dissolve a Rs404 billion circular debt Wapda’s power companies owe to the IPPs and fuel suppliers.

The required Rs160 billion loan will immediately be arranged to make capacity payments to the IPP and fuel suppliers. Of the Rs404 billion payables, Rs239 billion is electricity price, Rs115 billion capacity charge of IPPs and Rs49 billion interest cost.

The payments to the IPPs and fuel suppliers will be made thorough book adjustments to reduce receivables from their accounts.

The banks will be instructed to use the book adjustments as ‘debt swap’ and not to reduce credit lines of the IPPs and fuel suppliers against the TFCs because loan repayments would be made by the government through the distribution companies.

GAS COMPANIES: The loan package approved for gas utilities includes a foreign exchange component of Rs14 billion.

The government has contracted a $200 million (Rs19 billion) loan with the World Bank for loss reduction in the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) at an interest rate of 3.8 per cent to be repaid in 25 years, including five years of grace period.

The SSGC has agreed to acquire the loan from the government at a re-lending interest rate of 11.8 per cent — interest rate of five per cent plus foreign exchange risk cover of 6.8 per cent — and repay the entire amount in five years, with the condition that there would be no pre-payment penalty.

The meeting was informed that another $200 million loan would be acquired from the World Bank on similar terms for the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines.

TRACTORS: The committee endorsed a decision of the prime minister to reduce general sales tax on tractors from 16 to five per cent.

The ECC had earlier rejected the demand from tractor manufacturers who claimed their sales had dropped becauseof the tax imposed in April last year.

The chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue told journalists recently that the industry had conceded that the sales had dropped in anticipation of the tax reduction.

Subsequently, a committee led by Kashmir Affairs Minister Manzoor Wattoo gave a commitment to the manufactures that the tax would be reduced and the decision was approved by the prime minister.

The ECC constituted a committee comprising the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Agriculture and Water Resources Kamal Majidullah and the FBR chairman to finalise a procedure for gradually increasing the tax from five to 16 per cent in three years.

SUGAR: The decision to purchase an additional 100,000 tons of sugar was taken to facilitate mill owners to pay off bank loans and clear dues of farmers.

LOW QUALITY GAS: The meeting approved in principle a policy of incentives prepared by the petroleum ministry for fast-track development of low heating value gas for use in the power sector through additional bonuses and tax holidays.

However, it referred the case to the law division for legal opinion because some participants said it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the ECC after the 18th Amendment that had empowered the provinces to take such decisions through the Council of Common Interests.

TURKMEN GAS: The committee considered a gas sale and purchase agreement to be signed with Turkmenistan for import on the basis of a ‘one-page’ pricing understanding signed during a recent visit to Islamabad by the Turkmen president and constituted a committee to examine the formula.

It also asked the Zarai Taraqiati Bank to immediately resume the loaning facility for farmers.

Read more »

Posted in: NATIONAL