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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