Petrol import from India proposed

A Pakistani policeman stands guard in front of a petrol station in Lahore on April 26, 2011. India plans to export petrol and diesel to Pakistan to help its neighbour meet its energy needs and to open up a new market for Indian refiners such as giant Reliance Industries, a report said. ISLAMABAD: The petroleum ministry has proposed that the ‘most favoured nation’ (MFN) status be granted to India to facilitate import of petroleum products and export of cement and chemicals which would be a cost-effective proposition for both countries. A commerce ministry official said a summary prepared by the petroleum ministry on the matter would...

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Food inflation must be tackled in Asia: ADB chief economist

The ADB report said food price inflation in Asia of around 10 per cent in early 2011, could pull more than 64 million people below the poverty line of $1.25 a day if sustained.MANILA: Asia must tackle food price inflation aggressively to preserve economic gains and protect some of the world’s poorest people now that the region’s recovery has gathered strength, the Asian Development Bank’s chief economist said. In an interview coinciding with the issuing of an ADB report, Changyong Rhee acknowledged that food price rises, if left unchecked could generate instability. But he said Asian leaders were well aware of the danger and could take...

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Police arrests gang that threatened Zulqarnain

Cricketer Zulqarnain Haider. SIALKOT: Police on Wednesday arrested a gang of eight bookmakers, which was allegedly involved in threatening Pakistan cricket team’s wicket keeper Zulqarnain Haider, DawnNews reported.The city police also recovered a huge cache of ammunition, telephone sets and other suspicious objects from the suspects.SP Sialkot, Nasir Qureshi told DawnNews that the suspects were operating from a building located in the Sambrial area of the city where they had built secret rooms hidden behind wooden cupboards.Police also recovered around 250 telephone sets, satellite transmission equipment, mobile phones and records of...

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PML-N in bid to protect PPP from `blackmail`?

The PML-N will not offer its shoulders for removal of the PPP government, said sources. LAHORE: As a power-sharing deal between the People`s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q is maturing, the PML-N has indicated that it may save the PPP-led government from “blackmail of its present and would-be allies” during the approval of the forthcoming budget. Sources told Dawn that a message to this effect had been conveyed through a go-between from Gujrat.A PPP leader from Gujrat had called on senior PML-N leaders here on Sunday, seeking some `serious steps` from the latter, anticipating the situation `worsening` with the PPP-Q League deal...

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Military ‘indirectly’ rejects US assault on army, ISI

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee meeting held at Joint Staff Headquarters on Tuesday.ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be a mild rebuke, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee indirectly rejected on Tuesday Washington’s critical attacks against the army’s counter-terrorism efforts and said it fully trusted the strategy for fighting militancy.The JCSC, the country’s highest military coordination body, which meets quarterly and sets strategic direction of the armed forces, focused largely on the strained military and intelligence ties with the US, more specifically in the context of White House’s report criticising its campaign against Taliban...

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Indian delegation arrives, trade talks begin today

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.ISLAMABAD: Commerce secretaries of Pakistan and India meet here on Wednesday in what has been described here as a new effort to expand bilateral trade. The talks have remained stalled since the Mumbai terrorist attacks about two years ago.During the two-day talks, a number of issues are expected to be taken up for furthering commercial ties, an area where the Indian side has been eager to take the dialogue ahead to any extent, despite there being no progress in other areas of concern like Siachen and Kashmir.Trade talks were part of the composite dialogue that...

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Nato kills 'number two most-wanted' in Afghanistan

 KABUL: Nato troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday they had killed a Saudi described as an "Al-Qaeda senior leader" who was their number two most-wanted insurgent in the country.The US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, was killed in an air strike in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, on April 13.ISAF said he was responsible for coordinating "numerous high-profile attacks".But spokesman Major Michael Johnson said he could not give details on the attacks for "safety and security reasons" and could not say who was number one on the most wanted list because of legal...

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WikiLeaks exposes US blunders at Guantanamo

 WASHINGTON: The United States has botched the handling of inmates at Guantanamo, holding men for years without reliable evidence while releasing others who posed a grave threat, according to leaked secret files.The trove of more than 700 classified documents released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks showed US officials struggling with often flawed evidence and confused about the guilt or innocence of detainees held at the prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Hundreds of inmates who turned out to have no serious terror links were held without trial, based on vague or inaccurate information, including accounts...

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Italy, France call for Libya oil boycott

 ROME: Italy and France on Tuesday called on the international community to stop shipping oil products to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's regime and urged market operators not to buy the regime's crude oil. "Italy and France will not accept hydrocarbons sold by Kadhafi and his regime," read a joint statement issued after a summit between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. "We urge all countries and oil market operators to reject any type of trade or transport of hydrocarbons that could benefit Kadhafi's regime," it said. The statement also called for countries "to stop deliveries...

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ISI is being wrongfully defamed internationally: Malik

Interior Minister Rehman Malik  KARACHI: Pakistan on Tuesday angrily rejected leaked documents showing that US investigators considered its top spy agency a terror group, which could further strain relations between the wary allies.A secret 2007 US list of “terrorist and terrorist support entities” listed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) alongside some 70 other groups including Iranian intelligence and the Taliban.“The ISI is being wrongfully defamed internationally,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters. While his ministry is responsible for the police and some paramilitary units, ISI is under exclusive control...

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MQM presents deweaponization bill in National Assembly

A National Assembly session ISLAMABAD: The MQM on Tuesday presented a bill in the National Assembly which seeks to cleanse the country of illegal weapons, DawnNews reported. The bill was not opposed by the government and has been sent to the standing committee of the National Assembly.The bill calls for a countrywide ban on the manufacturing, possession and illicit use of weapo...

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US evacuates some staff, ups pressure on Syria

Obama accused Syria of blaming outsiders for its troubles, and specifically said it was seeking Iranian help to suppress its citizens. WASHINGTON: The United States has ordered embassy families and some staff out of Syria as it has hardened its tone on Damascus’s crackdown on protests without calling for President Bashar al-Assad to go.The State Department late Monday ordered embassy family members and some non-emergency personnel to leave Syria, after an earlier travel warning telling US citizens to leave the country because of escalating attacks on protesters.At the same time, Washington has defended the presence of a US ambassador...

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Four killed, 56 injured in twin Karachi blasts

Security officials examine a bus carrying Pakistani Navy officials after it was damaged by a bomb in Karachi April 26, 2011. KARACHI: Bomb attacks hit two buses carrying Pakistani navy officials in Karachi Tuesday, killing four people in the latest sign of rampant insecurity in a nation key to US hopes of beating the Taliban.Nearly 60 people were wounded when remote-controlled bombs exploded beside the buses at rush hour in different parts of Pakistan’s politically tense economic capital.Officials said four people were killed in the attacks and the navy, which is based largely in Karachi, identified them all as its employees.“The four...

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Meeting convened to look into security measures: CM Sindh

“It is not possible to check all vehicles and there remains threat of terrorism all the time,” Syed Qaim Ali Shah said. KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Tuesday said that an emergent meeting of intelligence, police and government officials has been called to look into security measures. Talking to media at PNS Shifa Hospital after visiting the injured personnel of Pakistan Navy in twin blasts, he said that government was taking serious measures to pre-empt acts of terrorism.“It is not possible to check all vehicles and there remains threat of terrorism all the time,” he said while responding to various queries.He...

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US charges four Pakistanis in Mumbai attack plot

FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 file courtroom sketch, Chicago terrorism suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana, appears before federal Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan, in Chicago. CHICAGO: Four Pakistanis have been charged as co-conspirators in the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans, US prosecutors said on Monday.The four were previously mentioned, but not named, in indictments charging American David Headley and Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana with helping to identify targets in Mumbai.Headley and Rana have also been charged in a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that was never carried out.Headley...

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No rave reviews for Raven drone spy planes

= The technology for the 85 mini ‘Raven’ drones being offered by the US has not only been available in Pakistan for years, local drone manufacturers say they can build an equally potent, if not a more powerful version, at just  a fifth of the price quoted by US manufacturers. Sources within the military and local drone manufacturing industry say that at least 11 corps of the Pakistan Army are set to receive a system each, comprising six Raven aircraft and one ground station. While officials are tight-lipped about the exact cost and model of the short-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufactured by the US-based...

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Shahbaz sparks new controversy: If you divide Punjab, then divide Sindh

Chief Minister Punjab says new provinces not only needed in Punjab, but also needed in Sindh. LAHORE / DERA GHAZI KHAN:  The PML-N seems to have been patiently biding its time to play its ace in the face of growing calls for a Punjab carve-up. On Sunday Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif thought the time was right to launch a counter-attack. He said he was not opposed to the idea of creating more provinces in the country for better administration … but at same time he said that Karachi should also be made a separate province. Shahbaz Sharif, however, hastened to add that his elder brother,...

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Aiwan-i-Iqbal’s finances under scrutiny

Raza Rabbani has been informed of embezzlement allegations. LAHORE:  Federal Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination Mian Raza Rabbani, suspecting embezzlement in the funds of the Aiwan-i-Iqbal (AI), has ordered a detailed scrutiny of its affairs, rent and tenancy.The minister, who is also ex-officio president of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan (IAP), has sought all receipts showing amounts along with dates of investment and maturity. He has also asked the administration to point out the provisions of rules and laws under which the investments were made.Rabbani has ordered the AI administration to present...

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Devolution under 18th amendment: Provincial govts handed over 12 museums, libraries

After this move, Pakistan became a unique country with no national-level museum. KARACHI:  As many as 12 museums and libraries across the country, including the National Museum and the birthplaces of the Quaid-i-Azam and Allam Iqbal, protected under the 1973 Constitution, have been handed over to provinces under the 18th Amendment. Legal experts have termed the move to hand over federal government-run museums and libraries falling under the federal legislative list unconstitutional. According to a letter issued by the deputy secretary of the federal ministry of culture, the National Museum...

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Mai will appeal against SC decision

Mukhtaran Mai says he will challenge the Supreme Court decision to dismiss her appeal. MEERWALA:  Rape victim Mukhtaran Mai said on Sunday that she would challenge the Supreme Court decision to dismiss her appeal against the early release of five men convicted of abusing her. “I have decided, after consulting my friends and family, to file a review petition in the Supreme Court,” 40-year-old Mai told AFP at her home in Meerwala, 120 kilometres south-west of Multan. Mukhtaran Mai, now 40, was gang raped in June 2002 on the orders of a village Panchayat as a punishment...

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President calls meeting of energy stakeholders

Meeting taking place at the time when power shortfall has crossed 6,000 megawatts. ISLAMABAD:  As power shortfall in the country crossed 6,000 megawatts with the energy-intensive summer still around the corner, President Asif Zardari has summoned all energy sector stakeholders for an emergency brainstorming session on Monday to decide how to manage the situation. Officials at the president’s office and in the power distribution companies confirmed on Sunday that the meeting would take place though they were unsure about the possible decisions likely to be taken. “At the moment, the whole...

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Govt aware of people’s sufferings due to power outages, says Shazia Marri

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Electric Power and Adviser on Oil and Gas Shazia Marri has said that the Sindh government is fully aware of the agony and sentiments of the people of Sindh, especially the residents Karachi, with regard to prolonged load shedding. She said Sindh chief minister is pressing hard on concerned authorities of Federal Government for taking concrete measures to improve the working of KESC. This she said while replying to questions of media during the children’s swimming competition arranged by the Karachi Gymkhana here said a statement issued on Sunday. Marri said that the Sindh chief minister has made all-out efforts to supply adequate gas and furnace oil to KESC so that load shedding is reduced to minimum possible level. Replying to a query for comment upon...

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NATO supplies resume as protesters lift blockade

PESHAWAR: NATO can resume supplying its troops in Afghanistan through a key Pakistani route on Monday (today) after protesters against US drone strikes lifted a blockade, an official said.Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Insaaf, on Sunday ended a two-day sit-in at a Peshawar road, which was called to compel the US to end a covert missile campaign against terrorists in Pakistan’s tribal belt.“Peshawar Ring Road has been cleared and re-opened for vehicular traffic,” a senior local administration official, Muhammad Siraj Khan, said.Trucks will only be able to use the route from Monday morning because of security reasons, he added.Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan – earlier said his supporters would “block supplies for NATO in different parts of the country if drone attacks are not stopped...

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PPP, MQM, ANP reject Punjab CM’s proposal

KARACHI: The PPP, MQM and ANP have criticised Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif for demanding division of Sindh, saying they would not accept dismemberment of Sindh. Talking to media in Dera Ghazi Khan, Shahbaz said that PML-N would not oppose the creation of a Saraiki province in Punjab if more provinces were created in Pakistan, including Karachi as a separate province. A provincial minister of Sindh, belonging to PPP, Agha Siraj Durrani, said that his party would never allow break-up of the province, while an MQM spokesman said that the party would not let Sindh be divided under any circumstances. ANP Sindh chief said that Shahbaz’s statement had greatly disappointed people of the province. agenc...

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Load shedding cripples life across country

LAHORE: The power crisis in the country has broken all past records, as the dispute between the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) relating to the supply of furnace oil remains unresolved and the power shortfall has reached 6,000MW, a private news channel reported on Sunday.Grid stations remained closed for several hours not only in the day, but also at night, making life difficult for the citizens.PSO has stopped 30,000 tonnes per day of supply of furnace oil to PEPCO due to the non-payment of its dues on account of oil supply, rendering several power houses idle for the last four days. PEPCO arrears against the PSO supplies have piled up beyond Rs 200 billion.The total power generation has currently been recorded at 9,500MW, while the demand has...

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MQM will not accept division of Sindh’

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) believes in Sindh’s unity and will not accept its division under any condition. This was stated by the member Co-ordination Committee Qasim Ali Raza reacting over a statement given by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif that Karachi should be made a province. Explaining the position of MQM in the backdrop of Punjab chief minister’s statement, Raza said the people of Karachi and Sindh had put no such demand forward. “However, demands of Hazara province and Seraiki province have been proposed in Punjab”, he added. He said that the MQM had stated on various occasions that demands for new provinces should be decided according to the wishes and aspirations of people by holding public referendums. He said the statement of Punjab CM is beyond...

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DIPLOMATIC BUBBLES: Pakistan, US in a Catch-22 situation

ISLAMABAD: Amidst raining drone strikes which now seem to have started targeting civilians under the broader term of collateral damage which eventually is making it hard for General Kiyani to keep mum and has thus given a tacit go ahead to political leadership of the country to openly demand an end to such hits, Pakistan is still seeking to make these strikes coordinated under some sort of mutual agreement besides looking for the new options which have sprung up in recent days due to the Arab uprisings.After developing the habit of cutting off info-sharing lines in the wake of WikiLeaks revelations and subsequently the Raymond Davis...

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Teachers evaluation system yet to be implemented

PESHAWAR, April 23: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is yet to implement the evaluation system of teachers and students in public sector schools. The elementary and secondary education (E&SE) department had planned to introduce ‘School Report Card System’ in the government-run schools more than a year ago but it hasn’t implemented the same so far. The evaluation system was planned to bring drastic improvement in the standard of the public schools, officials said. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was also briefed about the evaluation system in schools during his visit to Peshawar. The prime minister had lauded the education department for planning such an effective system, officials said. They said that Mr Gilani had also suggested that such system should be implemen ted across...

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