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 become the basis of the two-day talks between the commerce secretaries of the two countries beginning here on Wednesday.

According to sources, the oil imports would be conditional to India facilitating export of Pakistani cement and chemicals without any barriers.

The official said the ministry had proposed the MFN status for India about two years ago and it reiterated its position this week as part of preparations for the talks.

According to the petroleum ministry, the country’s consumption of petroleum products currently stood at about 21 million tons, of which about 85 per cent was met through imports. Indigenous crude production meets only 15 per cent of the consumption, while 30 per cent crude and 55 per cent refined products are imported. The country’s total refining capacity is about 13 million tons.

The transportation of about two million tons of POL products takes place through the railway, 4.5 million tons through pipelines and about 14.5 million tons by road.

The ministry believes that Pakistan’s total diesel consumption of about 4.4 million tons can be met through imports from India where its prices are lower than in Pakistan. The price of diesel in Pakistan is Rs92.90 per litre against Rs75.56 in India (40 Indian rupees). The price of petrol in India is equivalent to Rs61.50 per litre and Rs83.55 in Pakistan.

According to the ministry, Bhatinda and Panipat have a refining capacity of about 15 million tons and two refineries of the Reliance Industries have a capacity of 40 million tons.

It has proposed that import be allowed through Wagah border by rail and road to meet diesel requirements in northern parts of the country and through sea for Karachi and adjoining areas.

The official said that since furnace oil and high speed diesel were deregulated items in Pakistan, oil marketing companies should be allowed to import the two products through open bidding.

Both diesel and furnace oil are on the positive list of importable items from India but imports do not take place because of political reasons.

The petroleum ministry has also proposed to put petrol and jet fuel, which are deficit products in Pakistan, on the positive list.

To achieve this objective, Indian companies may be allowed to participate in tenders floated by oil marketing companies.

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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 action to guard against the sort of unrest gripping the Middle East.

“The reason why we are emphasizing food inflation more than the recovery aspect is that unlike the last two years, Asia’s economic recovery is on more firm ground,” he said on Tuesday evening in his office at ADB headquarters.

“And rising food prices can cause some social instability too.” He said the ADB expected global food prices, which have risen 30 per cent, to steady at these higher levels in the second half of the year.

Food accounts for a higher proportion of consumer spending in Asia, according to the ADB – 40 per cent or more in the consumer price indexes of Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Philippines, and Sri Lanka – and the continent’s 3.3 billion people include two-thirds of the world’s poor.

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.

And a failure to act, the multilateral lender said, could have far-reaching consequences. “Efforts to stabilise food prices must take centre stage,” the report said. “Otherwise, the riots that are occurring in the Middle East and North Africa may spread to other parts of the world.”

The ADB said the food price rise compounded by a projected 30 per cent increase in oil prices could reduce growth by as much as 1.5 percentage points.

But oil price rises had already exceeded that in annual terms, Rhee said, and if sustained the impact on growth could therefore be higher.

Rhee said many of Asia’s poorer countries imported large amounts of food, making them among the most vulnerable to rising prices. And they had no large foreign exchange reserves or the fiscal ability to fund large assistance measures.

But he said policymakers would find a solution, even if it was not perfect. “That is why each government is really focused on short-term measures such as providing subsidy and food programmes, trying to stabilise domestic food prices and building up social safety nets,” he said.

“Given that many policymakers understand this problem, I don’t see any short-term risk of having this kind of instability in the region.”

That said, food security would be a recurring issue that needed long-term solutions such as investment, infrastructure, better productivity and crop yields.

The problem, Rhee said, was that once prices stabilised or moderated, political and media interest faded quickly. “It is very hard to agree on the international coordination once the problem becomes severe,” he said.

The challenge for policymakers is how to tackle food inflation when it is caused by factors out of their control. Bad weather can push up food prices and raising interest rates in response will not lead to lower food prices.

But for rapidly growing Asia, Rhee said monetary policy had to be tightened first. Runaway inflation was a bigger risk for the region than slower growth, especially for the poor.

“I think there is more room in Asia to mobilise monetary policy because many Asian economies, like other developed economies, relied heavily on expansionary monetary policy.”

Another potential mitigating factor, he said, could be exchange rate strength. Letting currencies rise, previously anathema to export-driven Asian economies, could help cope with inflation.

Beyond inflation and growth rates, the raw truth was surging food prices could undermine the gains made in cutting poverty and improving the lives of Asia’s poor.

A 30 per cent rise in food prices in Asia – one of three scenarios portrayed in the report – could increase poverty by 193 million people – almost six per cent of Asia’s people, or nearly the population of Brazil – the ADB’s modeling showed.

“Many who were poor before the price increases may now be on the verge of hunger and malnutrition, and those who were barely above the poverty line may have slipped back,” the ADB said.

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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 betting during different cricket matches, Qureshi added.

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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 entering its final phase, the sources said.

The visitor, who had been assured of full support against the Chaudhrys of Gujrat in the next elections whether he contested from the party`s platform or as an independent, was told on Sunday that a final decision would be taken after internal consultations, especially with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

The PPP leader was informed on Monday that the serious steps sought by him would soon be taken.

The government was told not to be panicky about the budget as the opposition party would extend its help through parliamentary procedure in case the MQM refused to support the finance bill. It would also not hit hard at the government within and outside parliament, the sources said.

The sources quoted the PML-N leaders as saying that the party would not offer its shoulders for removal of the PPP government.

According to a PML-N leader, not only a couple of anti-Q League PPP leaders but also some members of the trading community are playing the role of a go-between to bring closer, or at least make less hostile against each other, the PPP and the PML-N leaderships.

By lending its support to the PPP, the PML-N would be able to check the PPP-PML-Q electoral alliance, curb the chances of return of the turncoats in Punjab to the Q League and thus save its provincial government a well as “foil attempts of the intelligence agencies to establish a national government of technocrats”.

None of the senior PML-N spokesman was available for comments on the reported development.

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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 insurgents in tribal areas and Admiral Mullen’s statement accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of having links with the Haqqani network.

The meeting, presided over by JCSC Chairman General Khalid Shameem Wynne, was attended by Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, Defence Secretary Lt-Gen (retd) Ather Ali, Defence Production Secretary Lt-Gen (retd) Israr Ghumman, ISI Director General Lt-Gen Shuja Pasha, Strategic Plans Division Director General Lt-Gen (retd) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of joint staff and senior military officers from the three services.

Admiral Mullen’s public allegations followed by reports in western media that US officials at Guantanamo Bay considered the ISI as a terrorist or a terrorist supporting entity incensed Pakistani commanders and intelligence personnel, though they did not publicly express those sentiments.

The presence of Lt-Gen Shuja Pasha, not a regular member of the committee, was a clear indication of what dominated the discussions. He is reported to have briefed the participants on his talks with CIA Director Leon Panetta during his visit to Washington for sorting out differences between the two spy agencies.

A pithy statement issued after the meeting quoted the JCSC chairman as having “expressed complete satisfaction on the operational preparedness and comprehensive strategy being followed by the armed forces to combat the terrorist threat”.

It was evident from the statement that Gen Wynne was responding to the latest White House assessment of the war effort against militants, which said Pakistan lacked a clear strategy for combating insurgency. The report also accused the Pakistani military of not being able to ‘hold and build’ areas that had been cleared of militants.

A participant of the meeting described the session as a stocktaking plenary.

Gen Kayani updated the participants about his talks with Centcom Commander Gen James Mattis, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen, US Chief of Army Staff Gen Dempsey and ISAF Commander Gen Petraeus on difficulties in the relationship. The meeting also discussed operations against militants in tribal areas.

At a passing-out parade of the Pakistan Military Academy last week, Gen Kayani said the backbone of militants along the border had been broken.

“The forum during the session discussed the prevailing national and regional environment and the challenges being faced by the country,” the official statement said.

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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 was launched seven years ago for restoring normal relations between the two countries.

An official in the commerce ministry told Dawn on Tuesday that although Pakistan had no specific agenda for the meeting it would raise the issue of Indian obstruction to approval of the European Union trade package at the Geneva-based WTO.

Indian Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar arrived here on Tuesday at the head of a six-member delegation which will be assisted by the Indian high commissioner, deputy head of mission and commercial consul. It is learnt that Pakistan will press for an end to the Indian opposition to the EU package which will be taken up for consideration early next month at the WTO.

The Indian government has blocked the passage of a waiver from WTO members for implementation of the package to help flood-affected people in Pakistan.

Sources said that Pakistan could offer to consider more items of Indian interest in the positive trade list.

The Indian delegation was expected to hand over a list of items to the Pakistani side, the source added.

Pakistan unilaterally expanded the positive list in February, setting the stage for full resumption of trade talks. The items on the positive list, 1,946 goods, can be traded between the two countries.

According to official figures, Pakistan added 42 items to the list during 1979 to 1986, 249 items in 1988-89, 328 in 1989-2000, 14 in 1998-99, six in 2000-01, 10 in 2001-02, 78 in 2002-03, 80 in 2004-05, sugar cement and oats in 2005-06 and 438 products in 2008.

The list of tradable products with India had 591 items in 1997 and the number increased to 1,938 in 2008.

This means that the country has diverted its potential global trade of over $5 billion towards India by including new importable items in the positive list.

However, the opportunity was not used effectively because of tension between the two countries in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

The Indian government has already offered to export electricity and petroleum products to Pakistan. “This offer will be discussed at length at the meeting,” an official said.

The Indian delegation may raise the issue of most-favoured nation (MFN) status with Pakistan’s top tax officials. India accorded the MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.

This is unlikely to be a crucial issue because the balance of trade is heavily tilted in favour of India. Pakistan’s exports to India are worth $270 million and imports $1.2 billion.

But informal trade flows between the two countries through third countries like the UAE run into billions of dollars.

Another official said Pakistan had not benefited from the composite dialogue negotiations as its exports were still facing numerous barriers in the Indian market.

Some businessmen recently voiced their concern over Indian buyers’ reluctance to buy products from Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks. “Some people are issuing statements equating buying any products from Pakistan to sponsoring terrorism in India,” an Islamabad-based businessman said. How could a Pakistani exporter get contracts from Indian buyers in the environment created by such baseless allegations, he asked.

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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 issues. The Saudi interior ministry website lists a man named Saleh Nayef Eid al-Makhlafi, with the nicknames Abu Hafs, Abu Hafs al-Najdi and Abdul Ghani, as one of its 85 most-wanted. ISAF said he "operated primarily from Kunar, which borders Pakistan and is the scene of some of the country's heaviest fighting, and travelled frequently between Afghanistan and Pakistan". It added that the man had "directed Al-Qaeda operations in the province, including recruiting, training and employing fighters, obtaining weapons and equipment, organizing al-Qaeda finances, and planning attacks against Afghan and coalition forces". He is accused of directing a suicide attack which killed a pro-Kabul tribal elder in Kunar plus nine other people on the morning of his death, plus other unspecified attacks on international and Afghan security forces and officials. A Wall Street Journal report earlier this month said that Al-Qaeda militants were returning to eastern Afghanistan and setting up bases for the first time in years as troops pulled back from some remote outposts. But the Nato-led force in Afghanistan has denied this, although it said in Tuesday's statement that coalition forces in the country had killed more than 25 Al-Qaeda leaders and fighters in the last month.

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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 from unreliable fellow detainees or statements from men who had been abused or tortured, the New York Times quoted the documents as saying. One impoverished Afghan farmer with no ties to militants was held for two years without trial in a case of mistaken identity, the documents showed, while an 89-year-old man suffering from dementia was held for 10 months without charges. But US authorities in 2004 decided to release Abdullah Mehsud, a Taliban extremist who duped his interrogators into believing he had been conscripted by the insurgents as a driver. "Detainee does not pose a future threat to the US or US interests," said a 2003 document, quoted by the Times. Mehsud, who gave a false name to his American interrogators, was sent back to Afghanistan where he organized a Taliban unit to assault US troops, planned an attack on Pakistan's interior ministry that claimed 31 lives and set off a suicide bomb in 2007 in Pakistan -- winning praise from Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. President Barack Obama has tried to close the controversial Guantanamo prison and his administration denounced the "unfortunate" release of the classified documents, part of a massive cache of secret memos passed to WikiLeaks last year. The Obama and Bush administrations had "made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo," the government said in a statement. Human rights groups, who have portrayed Guantanamo prison as a legal black hole, said the documents showed the need for courts to review the evidence against each detainee. "These documents are remarkable because they show just how questionable the government's basis has been for detaining hundreds of people, in some cases indefinitely, at Guantanamo," said Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The documents are the fruit of the original sin by which the rule of law was scrapped when Guantanamo detainees were first rounded up," Shamsi said in a statement. The New York Times was among a group of US and European media outlets that obtained the more than 700 secret documents, including The Washington Post, National Public Radio, The Daily Telegraph, El Pais, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and La Repubblica. The files also contained revelations about possible Al-Qaeda plots. A top detainee, senior Al-Qaeda commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, told interrogators a nuclear bomb had been hidden somewhere in Europe to be detonated if bin Laden is ever caught or killed. Mohammed also alleged he had set up two cells to attack London's Heathrow airport in 2002, planning to crash a hijacked airliner into one of the terminals. Out of the 779 people who have passed through the Guantanamo prison, at least 150 detainees were innocent Afghans or Pakistanis, including drivers, farmers and chefs, according to The Daily Telegraph. They were rounded up as part of frantic intelligence-gathering in war zones and then detained at Guantanamo due to incorrect information or simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, the British daily said. Overall, US military officers considered only 220 of all the suspects detained at Guantanamo to be dangerous extremists. Another 380 were deemed to be low-ranking foot soldiers who traveled to Afghanistan or were part of the Taliban, the Telegraph wrote. Of the 172 prisoners who remain at Guantanamo, 130 have been rated as posing a "high-risk" threat. The New York Times also said the files revealed little about the harsh interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo that sparked condemnation around the world.

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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 of crude or refined oil products that could help attacks against the population." Rome is set to host a meeting of the international contact group on Libya early next month, which will also discuss ways of helping oil sales from rebel-held eastern Libya to aid the uprising against Kadhafi. The European Union earlier this month added to its Libya sanctions list 26 energy firms accused of financing Kadhafi's regime, a move that Germany said amounted to a de facto oil and gas embargo

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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 of the military.

“The ISI is not and has never been involved in politics,” Malik said, before adding that the intelligence agency had served Pakistan “so tremendously”.

“The ISI is a patriotic organisation which has a huge role in combatting terrorism. Those who are trying to bring the ISI into disrepute would never succeed in their design,” he said.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States against the Taliban but deep mistrust between the two countries’ intelligence agencies was laid bare this week with the leaked documents released by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

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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 weapons.

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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 in Damascus, who only arrived after a six-year absence in January, as Assad’s forces deployed tanks and snipers, killing at least 25 people in a key town.

“The brutal violence used by the government of Syria against its people is completely deplorable and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Monday.

The United States is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions, to respond to the crackdown and make clear that this behavior is unacceptable.

The Syrian people’s call for freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the ability to freely choose their leaders must be heard.”Washington has issued repeated statements by senior officials including President Barack Obama calling for an end to violence and political reform in Syria, but has faced criticism for not taking more concrete steps.

But Monday’s crackdown appeared to mark a point at which the administration – which has sought to engage Syria as a key regional power player – had little choice but to be seen to act more robustly.

As well as the crackdown in the town of Daraa, a focal point of protests, Syrian troops also on Monday launched assaults on the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Al-Maadamiyeh, witnesses said.

Some 390 people have been killed in security crackdowns since protests erupted in Syria in mid-March, according to rights activists and witnesses.

New US sanctions would have a strong symbolic element but the Wall Street Journal reported that they would not have much impact on Assad’s inner circle as few regime kingpins have substantial holdings in the United States.

But should similar measures be adopted by Europe, they could have more bite, given more substantial holdings in the continent by the Assad family, it said.

Syria is already subject to American sanctions, aid restrictions and export bans, due to its presence on Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

So far, Washington has not threatened to recall its ambassador, a post filled in January after a six-year absence, as Obama sought to court Damascus as part of a broader Middle East diplomatic push.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the presence of the ambassador had allowed Washington “to make our views known directly and not be a long distance (away).”

Carney was also pressed on why Obama had not personally called for Assad to heed calls of protesters and leave – raising an apparent contradiction with US policy in Libya, which has seen the president call for Moamer Kadhafi’s ouster.

“Libya was, again, a unique situation,” Carney said, citing the international consensus to intervene.

“We had large portions of the country that were out of the control of Moamer Kadhafi, we had a Kadhafi regime that was moving against its own people in a coordinated military fashion and was about to assault a very large city.”Late Monday, the State Department urged US citizens to depart while commercial transportation is readily available and limit travel within the country, citing “the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation.”The crackdown in Syria poses a dilemma for the Obama administration, which has found its regional policy repeatedly challenged by unrest.

Washington could stand to profit from a fall of Assad’s minority Alawite regime, which is allied to Shiite Iran, a longtime US foe, and which wields power detrimental to US goals in Lebanon.

On Friday, Obama accused Syria of blaming outsiders for its troubles, and specifically said it was seeking Iranian help to suppress its citizens.

But though it may welcome a weakening of Syrian ties to Iran, Washington also fears a more radical government could replace the Assad regime.

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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 dead were navy officials including a lady doctor, a sub lieutenant, a sailor and a civilian employee,” navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali told AFP.

“Fifty-seven people were injured in the two attacks and of them, 50 were navy officials,” he added.

Provincial government official Sharfuddin Memon told AFP that the first bomb was planted on a motorbike parked in the upmarket Defence Housing Scheme and the second hidden in rubbish in the impoverished Baldia town neighbourhood.

Intelligence officials said that the bombs were triggered by remote control near buses carrying naval personnel.

“We suspect the signature of terrorist organisations like Jundallah or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi,” Memon told AFP.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack, saying it “cannot deter the resolve of the nation and our armed forces to curb the menace of militancy and extremism”.

Television footage of the scene showed navy passenger buses with smashed-out windows and the remains of a destroyed motorcycle, as security officials collected the debris and marshalled the rescue effort.

“It appears to be part of the same militant campaign but I don’t see any logic in targeting the navy because unlike army and air force they are not    involved in any operations against the militants,” said Tasneem Noorani, a security analyst and former interior secretary.

“They may have targeted navy out of desperation because the other forces (air force and army) may have become very careful and are difficult to attack.”

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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 said that four persons were killed and 37 injured in two attacks of buses of Pakistan Navy on Tuesday.

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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 pleaded guilty in March 2010 and is cooperating with US investigators about taking several trips to India —and later to Denmark —to scout targets for the coordinated and lethal assault.

Rana has been held since his arrest in 2009 as a conspirator with Headley, and his US trial is scheduled to begin May 16. His attorney was not immediately available for comment.

All of the four newly-indicted figures are linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group is blamed for the November 2008 attacks on Mumbai, which killed 166 people in India’s commercial capital.

Those newly indicted were Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal, and a fourth defendant known only by the alias “Major Iqbal.”

None are in US custody. All four are believed to be in Pakistan.They were charged with six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens and other charges related to the Mumbai attack and providing support to Lashkar, identified as a terrorist organisation by the United States.

Mir was also charged in the plot against Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper aiming to revenge the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammad that enraged many Muslims and prompted protests.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago had requested the superseding indictment handed up by a grand jury on April 21 charging the four to be sealed to give the government time to alert US agencies and consult with foreign authorities.

The Mumbai attack strained already difficult India-Pakistan relations.

India has said it is not satisfied with the pace of Pakistan’s investigation, and has demanded more people be put on trial for the attack, including the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.

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No rave reviews for Raven drone spy planes

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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 AeroVironment Inc, the cost of each system is estimated to be between $200,000 and $275,000. The funds for their procurement are expected to come from the US government’s foreign military sales’ provisions for security assistance and aid.

ISPR spokesperson Major-General Athar Abbas however says the deal has not been formalised yet.

“We are yet to receive a formal proposal from the US regarding the Raven drone. So until we receive that I won’t be able to give a comment,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army, which had been pushing for an armed drone from the US, is reportedly irked that not only have their pleas for a Predator-like armed drone been shot down, negotiations for 12 long-range reconnaissance Shadow drones that were offered last year have also hit a wall.

Sources within the military say that although negotiations for the Shadow reconnaissance drone are still going on, they are unhappy at the astronomical price tag (estimated at more than $20 million) and a delivery timeline of 2014.

“Who knows at what stage the war on terror will be in 2014,” an official privy to the negotiations said.

Reviews for Raven

Raja Sabri Khan chief executive of Integrated Dynamics, a private company based in Karachi, called the Raven ‘a toy’ that was developed 15 years ago.

He said one has to log on to YouTube to see the same product was being used by the US Marines as a toy when hanging out at the beach.

“It’s a bit of a joke really,” he said.

Khan, an MIT graduate whose drones are being exported the world over, including to the US, said his company already has a product called Rover that far exceeds the capability of Raven at just one-third of the price.

A system of six Rover UAVs, including the controlling station, would cost about $65,000, he said.

“There are at least two to three companies in Pakistan who, if asked to develop something like the Raven at one-third of the cost, could have delivered the entire order within just three months,” he said.

East West Infiniti Private Ltd (EWI) managing director Dr Haroon Qureshi from Islamabad also dismissed the Raven drone offer from the US as ‘a public relations exercise’ designed to give a false impression to the military and public in Pakistan that the Americans are offering sophisticated technology.

He said Ravens are useful for short term missions but have little tactical value.

Given their fragility and high damage rate, the military will be spending huge sums of money on acquiring parts if it opts for the Raven, he added.

Local manufacturers

Ahmed Rehan, the Lahore-based CEO of a private company Technocrafts, has been in the business of manufacturing reconnaissance and target drones since 1994. He has been exporting his products to the Middle Eastern market, including Saudi Arabia.

“I have been trying to sell my company’s Condor mini drone to the military, which is more powerful than the American Raven, for the last three years, but every time I’ve hit a dead end,” Rehan said, adding his product is available at just one-fifth of the cost of Raven.

Despite the fact that he had met all requirements of the military for the mini drone, including versions with handheld or vehicle-mounted launch and parachute landing, he said he still hasn’t been given the go ahead. “I’m hoping for a miracle now,” he said.

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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, who is the founder of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), would make a final statement to this effect. By this, he wanted to stress that it was his personal opinion and not the party’s stand.

Shahbaz’s comment came amid comments that their party’s arch rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), was demanding the creation of a separate province in southern Punjab in return for a possible political alliance with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

There has been much talk in  the air to bifurcate Punjab – the bastion of the PML-N – for administrative purposes. PML-N’s rivals have been pushing this demand in an effort to weaken its vote-bank.

Speaking to journalists after laying the foundation stone of Daanish schools in DG Khan, Sharif said that if Punjab was to be bifurcated for ‘better administration’, then Sindh should also be divided and Karachi, the largest metropolitan city of the country with over six million population, should be made a separate province.

Sources told The Express Tribune that Sharif on Saturday convened an informal meeting of his party where the country’s changing political landscape and demands for new provinces were discussed. Attendees at the meeting included leader of opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Senator Ishaq Dar.

Sources said that the PML-N looks at the growing demands from the PPP and MQM for Punjab’s bifurcation as a ploy to divide its vote-bank. And that is why it has decided to counter this ploy by putting up a counter demand for the division of Sindh.

Sources said that Shahbaz’s statement about division of Sindh was just a feeler. The Sindh people would never allow division of their province along urban and rural lines nor would they allow creation of Hyderabad and Karachi as separate provinces because they would render the rest of Sindh as landlocked.

Punjab government’s spokesman Senator Pervaiz Rashid defended Shahbaz’ statement, saying that during the regime of Pervez Musharraf the MQM had divided the historical district of Hyderabad and united all districts of Karachi in one district for political reasons.

Shahbaz’s statement, however, invited the ire of all political parties.

Raja Riaz Ahmed, the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, rejected the ‘demand’ for a new province in Sindh and instead advised Shahbaz to heed the calls from southern Punjab for the creation of a Seraiki province. He told the media at his residence in Faisalabad that it was for the people of Sindh to decide whether or not there was a need for dividing the province.

Ahmed said that the PPP has decided to include the calls for the creation of a Seraiki province in its manifesto.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has also rejected the idea of dividing Sindh. In a press release issued here on Sunday, MQM Coordination Committee member Qasim Ali Raza was quoted as saying that his party believes in the ‘oneness of Sindh’ and it will not accept division of Sindh under any condition.

Raza said that nobody has demanded the creation of Karachi as a separate province. On the other hand, there are demands for the creation of Hazara province in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Seraiki province in Punjab.

The Awami National Party (ANP), Sindh chapter, said that Shahbaz Sharif’s statement has hurt the feelings of Sindh’s people. In a statement issued from the Bacha Khan Markaz, ANP spokesperson Qadir Khan said that his party was opposed to the idea of dividing provinces on ethnic and linguistic basis.

Reacting to Shahbaz’ statement, Sindhi nationalist parties said that they would resist any move to divide Sindh province.

Dr Qadir Magsi, President of the Sindh Tarraqi Passand Party, told The Express Tribune that the people in southern Punjab have a distinct culture and traditions and they have every right to demand the creation of a Seraiki province. “But the situation in Sindh is different. Here all the people are Sindhis having same culture,” he added.

Mumtaz Bhutto, Chairman of the Sindh National Front (SNF), said that the Seraiki belt was “forcibly annexed” to Punjab. “It is the right of the Seraiki people to have a separate province. On the other hand there is no movement for a separate province in Sindh,” Bhutto told The Express Tribune.

With additional reporting by Shamsul Islam in Faisalabad and Hafeez Tunio, Irfan Aligi and Sohail Khattak in Karachi

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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 details of all the tenants in the complex. Names of tenants, status, periods of lease agreements, space occupied and rent charged are to be provided to the minister. The administration has also been directed to provide details regarding the use of the conference centre, the banquet hall, the committee rooms and allied facilities during the past one year along with rental rates and the actual amounts charged.
The minister has further asked for certified bank statements of all the bank accounts.
Rabbani has assigned Nisar Chaudhry, deputy secretary of the Inter Provincial Coordination Ministry, to visit the AI and obatain a complete inventory of the paintings and other art assets. Rabbani has asked that the report be provide to him by May 4.
Rabbani issued these directions on April 20 after a briefing by IAP director Dr Muhammad Suheyl Umar and AI administrator Nadeem Iqbal Abbasi.
Sources inside the ministry told The Express Tribune that Rabbani was told that IAP, AI and even Quaid-i-Azam Academy, which comes under the supervision of his ministry, were plagued with ‘fortune seekers’.
Sources said that Umar told the minister that the IAP was facing a dire shortage of funds as the AI, its profit raising organisation, had not been providing them any financial assistance for the past eight months even though several written requests had been sent in this regard. The AI, he said, according to the Terms of Reference, was bound to provide the IAP with financial assistance.
Sources said the IAP director presented the minister with copies of the official letters sent asking for financial assistance from the AI. However, when Rabbani asked Abbasi about the matter, he said the academy had never asked for funds in writing, the sources added.
Rabbani asked the secretary of the ministry to handle the case and to arrange for the fulfillment of financial assistance from the AI to the IAP.
The minister assured that the Iqbal Academy Pakistan Act would be pushed through within three months so that it could replace the Iqbal Academy Ordinance 1962 and give legal cover to the AI, which currently has no legal status. According to revenue records, presently the AI building site is owned by the federal government. Source in the AI said the department is neither an autonomous body nor an attached department.
Sources in the IAP said that the Culture Ministry made Abbasi director in July 2010.
An official of the academy, on condition of anonymity, said that the administration of the AI also sent them threatening letters asking them to shift the academy from the Aiwan to some other place. He said that they also forcefully removed pictures of Allama Iqbal, flex signs of the academy and quotes of the national poet from the building.
He said presently there were 62 staffers of the academy and it was impossible to pay their salaries because of the lack of financial assistance from the AI. He said presently the academy was relying on grants given to it by the provincial and federal governments.
Abbasi could not be reached for his comments.

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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 of Pakistan has been handed over to the Sindh ministry of culture and tourism with immediate effect.

Other departments handed over to the provincial government included the Quaid-e-Azam’s birthplace Wazir Mansion, Quaid-i-Azam House Museum, Central Archaeological Library and museums at Mohenjodaro (Larkana), Umer Kot and Bhambore (near Thatta).

The Punjab government was handed over places and institutions, including the birthplace of Allam Iqbal and his personal library in Sialkot, museums in the Javed Manzil in Lahore, Harappa and Taxilla.

The Swat Museum was shifted to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government.

An expert on law and the Constitution and a former president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, Abrar Hasan, said that the concurrent list was abolished under the 18th constitutional amendment and all departments included in this list had been shifted to provincial governments but departments enjoying protection under the federal legislative list cannot be shifted to provinces. He said that the shifting of all such institutions, including the National Museum, was a violation of the Constitution.

He said that under the entry No.37 of the concurrent list, ancient and historical places and archaeological sites are to be shifted to provinces while all libraries and museums run and managed by the federal government under entry No.15 will be run by the federal government. The organisations involved in research, professional and technical training and imparting especial education and run by the federal government according to entry No.16 will also remain under the federal government.

However, the federal government has shifted the Pakistan Institute of Archaeological Research and Training in Lahore to the Punjab government.

The exploration and excavation branch of the archaeology department was also protected under the entry No.35 of federal legislative list.

Interestingly, this branch is also on the list of departments being shifted to the Sindh government.

According to some high-ranking archaeology department officials, the move would deprive Pakistan of funds provided by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) for the protection of world heritage sites.

All countries have national museums set up in their capitals.

Pakistan had set up the National Museum in 1950 in Karachi, which was Pakistan’s capital at that time.

Initially, the museum was set up in the Frere Hall.

In 1958, the foundation of a new building was laid in the Burns’ Garden under an agreement with the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC). The Frere Hall was handed back to KMC.

A few years ago, the federal government had decided to shift the museum to Islamabad and a piece of land had also been allotted in this regard. But the construction was suspended because of a lack of funds.

The National Museum houses antiquities from all provinces.

After this move, Pakistan became a unique country with no national-level museum.

Meanwhile, a senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the chief of the implementation commission of the 18th amendment Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said that the shifting of all institutions was in accordance with the Constitution.

However, he said, he did not know if there was any national museum left in the country.

He said that no provincial level institution can be bestowed a national status by just calling it as such.

According to him, the institutions shifted to provinces “do not fall under the federal legislative list”.

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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 after her 12-year-old brother was wrongly accused of having illicit relations with a woman from a rival clan.

The court last week dismissed Mai’s appeal against the acquittal of five men she accused of attacking her.

A local anti-terrorism court (ATC) had sentenced six accused men to death, but Lahore High Court acquitted five of them in March 2005, and commuted the sentence for the main accused, Abdul Khaliq, to life imprisonment.

The Supreme Court heard separate appeals and ordered the release of five of those arrested, upholding only the life sentence given to Khaliq.

Mai’s case garnered much attention in the West as an example of oppression suffered by Pakistan’s women.

Human Rights Watch on Friday called on Pakistan’s government to petition the court to review the case and asked authorities to protect Mai.

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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 power sector looks to be in an utter chaos… nobody seems sure how to improve it. The only certain thing is that this summer is going to be the worst,” said one official familiar with the matter.

The meeting is taking place at the time when the gap between the electricity generation and demand has surged to 6,000 MWs, a level which had never been reached during the past three years that the crisis has been most acute.

The long painful hours of power cuts are frustrating household consumers and damaging an already suffering economy. The government fears the situation may trigger political unrest if no corrective measures are taken now.

“This is the backdrop for the meeting. It is do or die, now or never for the government… if it lets things happen the way they are (happening), it is going to cost it very highly,” said another official who is close to President Zardari.

Senior officials from the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), independent power producers, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and power distribution companies are likely to attend the meeting.

Also present would be Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and senior officials from the petroleum ministry.

The shortfall is largely attributed to the government’s inability to pay what is known as circular debt in the power sector that has reportedly jumped to Rs400 billion, though there is no certain mechanism for its accounting.

“That is the biggest evil. It is a very simple mathematics. We have close to 19,000 MWs installed generation capacity and producing less than 10,000. It is because IPPs don’t get money to buy fuel. We will have to resolve the circular debt,” the official added.

It was because of the spiralling circular debt that the state-run PSO stopped supplying fuel to generation companies recently.

There were, however, little hopes that any significant decision could be taken at the meeting because the government was already facing a financial crunch and the international fuel prices were climbing up like never in the past due to political unrest in oil-producing nations in the Gulf, according to officials.

“We must not expect much from the meeting… the limitations are so severe. Only thing we all should get ready for is a tough summer,” another official remarked.

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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 the statement of Punjab chief minister regarding creation of a province in Sindh by the name of Karachi, she strongly criticised the Punjab chief minister and said that he should look after the politics of his own province and take measures for betterment of people there. She said that when the country is passing through a very hard time of history, our political leadership has to work to strengthen the country.

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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 within one month”.

“We will also stage sit-in in Islamabad if the government fails to stop these strikes,” he told a crowd of some 5,000 people at the end of the two-day sit-in.

Supporters waved party flags and chanted slogans such as “stop the drone attacks, stop killing innocent people and down with the government,” during the speech, a reporter at the scene said. “We want a sovereign Pakistan,” Khan said, adding that “the American people will hold even bigger demonstrations if they come to know that innocent civilians are being killed in the drone attacks.”

The party called the demonstration in protest at US missile attacks in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, which many feel infringe Pakistani sovereignty and which locals say sometimes kill civilians.

The covert strikes targeting terrorists in Pakistan’s border regions, which are believed to be operated with the tacit consent of Islamabad, stoke rampant anti-American sentiment throughout the South Asian nation. staff report/afp

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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. agencies

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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 shot up to 15,500MW, leaving PEPCO with a shortfall of 6,000MW.

Thus, the duration of load shedding in all major cities has been increased to 12 hours, while in district and tehsil headquarters, it has been increased to 18 hours, and to 20 hours in the rural areas.

Load shedding has not only paralysed routine life of the people, but it has also badly affected industrial and commercial activities, forcing some people to close down their businesses, which has added to their woes.

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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 understanding and it may be an attempt to thwart the creation of new provinces in Punjab. staff report

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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 issue, the US - mainly because of its own public and partly because of its expansionist engagements in the Gulf- too is finding it hard to soften its stance on drones and instead of stopping the drones and resuming the info-exchange mechanism, remains glued to its agenda of demanding even more from Pakistan Army and as a balm has lured them to get the unarmed toy-drones which only have the capacity of spying at best.

Such technology is already available in limited quantities though not much used, revealed some ex-military officials who have served in the early days of war on terror in FATA regions.

Caught up in the middle of no-where, Pakistan military high ups are finding it difficult to reassure the Americans that its links with Haqqani network is not the reason of its reluctance to venture into North Waziristan rather it’s the capacity and the economics which is holding them back from moving on.

A fact, which even General Mullen had admitted in his recent conversation, where he talked to accompanying journalists during his recent Pak-Afghan visits and expressed hope that reshuffling of troops and resources is proving an issue for Pak Army.

After being pushed into the war on terror for almost ten years now, it’s the first time that Pak Army is directly engaged in operations for more than three years at a stretch, whereas any of its past military adventures- other than the exercises-never lasted more a week or at best two weeks.

Yet, for some obvious reasons, they have started a calculated advance in Mohmand Agency (FATA) to stave off some of the do-more mantra.

Simultaneously, they have shown a much greater wish to normalise its relationship with the Indians by allowing Premier Gilani to accept cricket diplomacy track and using some old trusted friends in civilian set up to at least show the back-channel track moving on, thus giving the western world and specifically the EU and US a reason to dispel the impression that Pakistan Army continues to remain India-centric.

Though recent developments in Gulf states and the rapid exchange of Saudi and Bahraini military and non-military officials with Pakistan, China and even India has also popped up some of the options for Pakistan which ultimately has led to some high level visits from Washington to weigh the pros and cons of cornering Pakistan in this region.

Given the realisation that being a nuclear capable nation, Pakistan will always remain an alternate centre of attraction for paranoid Gulf Kingdoms—read Sunni Royalty—therefore one can only hope that US might not want Pakistan to develop a nexus where even Turkey eventually falls in to this mix to form a formidable alliance against its interest in the broader region of Gulf and Asia, where many observers believe that Afghanistan and to some extent Iran is fast becoming an Achilles heel for Americans and its allied interests.

Therefore, recent hectic tours of various US diplomats ranging from Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to Secretary Defense Robert Gates and then a string of Pentagon officials in and out of Saudi and other Gulf countries is being seen with lots of curiosity by the diplomatic junta.

It was soon after these visits where Washington tried to give the impression that it will not leave Saudis fears (with regard to Iran and a somewhat stop-start Arab spring) unattended and even moved more of its strategic frigates in the nearby waters, but why then Saudis and eventually Bahrainis started looking for alternates options shows that there is much more than verbatim accounts of Americans which need to be looked into.

How can we forget the historic fact that when Saudis were feeling unprotected they surprised Americans by brokering a deal with Beijing for medium range missiles during the 1980s crisis.

Isn’t it a coincident that the man who made it happen at that time was none other than prince Bandar, whose recent trips to Pakistan, China and India were so swift that talks of sending additional Pakistani troops to safeguard the Royal interests, fetching the technological advantages from China and holding back any threat from India are making rounds in diplomatic circles.

In this backdrop, if we look at the US engagements in Afghanistan and now in Libya and rest of the Gulf many of the diplomatic dignitaries believe that despite having technological advantages, Americans might lose strategic friends on ground which eventually might lead to more troubles.

If royal families of Gulf want to see Libya free of Colonel Gaddafi, then Pakistan don’t want to disrupt the economic life-line with Washington but on both fronts American strategists and think tanks believe that they are facing a trust deficit as well as a double game. If they decide to go it alone for their national interests that means further tensions but if they listen to their own commanders on ground that means that neither they can trust or play in the hands of their regional strategic friends nor they want to transfer their lethal technology to any of them, therefore they, too, are resorting to same rules of the game which they consider they have been subjected not only during the Afghan Jihad in 1980s but also during the Arab world uprisings in the post second world war days.

As for Pakistan is concerned, if new options are pouring in from Gulf and Chinese block than its economic and military dependence on America has brought it to such a cross-road that it’s military leadership-considered by many as de-fectocontroller of power-not only want to utilise all options but without raising the alarm bells in Washington. Political outcry in Pakistan, which only got momentum after the blatant remarks of General Kiyani over the drone strikes and Taliban, is something which seems to be nullifying the impact of huge funding of USAID and state department in the realm of social media, education and culture.

Even those, who were shying from openly criticising America, have decided to at least support its own army in this venture while those looking for appropriate moment to get some political capital have seen it as a golden opportunity to rally some support around their banners.

The on-going sit in by Imran Khan and company has already resulted in the blockade of NATO supplies via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and after seeing some masses under his tutelage, Mr Khan has even announced to march towards Islamabad thus fueling anti-American sentiments and forcing other political parties to either watch him grow silently or at least support him verbally.

But will it prove to be a point of concern for Pakistani ruling elite and will it bring people out on the roads considering the fact that situation is already ripe for a mass movement in a country where inflation continues to surpass all estimates, joblessness is already touching 30 per cent mark and youth component of society is considered to be 50 percent of the entire population. Now will it bring some policy change in Pakistani modus operandi or will it be cause of concern for Americans remains to be seen but eventually no matter how much control both Americans and Pakistan military junta believe they have on such situations.

An unbridled Pakistan might not be good for anyone and might lead the top brass to take the options valley available to them through royalties while as Americans believe that it might just be another process unleashed in Tunisia which ultimately will help them bring their like-minded uniformed technocrats in power so that their ships and drones can sail smoothly. Nevertheless it’s a Catch 22 situation for both sides and treading through it requires maturity and flexibility on both sides.

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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 the country.
Under the SRCS, officials said, schools would be divided into different categories according to their performance. Currently there is no classification of the schools.
“Once the SRCS is implemented, it will help the department to determine factors, which causes good or bad results,” officials said. In the existing system no one knows why students of some schools are brilliant or weak in studies.
The SRCS suggests designing of a framework to evaluate the performance of students, teachers and headmasters. In the implementation process, officials said, first schools would be divided in three categories on the bases of results of examinations.
Those schools showing best results in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and intermediate examinations would be placed in category ‘A’ following by category ‘B’ and ‘C’.
The administrations of category ‘A’ schools will be given special incentives to encourage them and maintain the status.
The incentives could be enhancement in the annual budget of the Parent Teacher Council (PTC), which oversees utilisation of funds in the respective schools.
Similarly efforts will also be made to improve the academic level of category ‘B’ and ‘C’ schools and these would be under focus to push them to higher categories.
The regulatory authority will be also tasked to find out reasons as to why some schools are not showing good results. It will also work on how to improve the education standard in the province. There will also be a mechanism of reward and punishment for the teachers, whose students stand good or bad in the examinations.
Presently there is no evaluation criterion for low standard of schools owing to leniency of teachers, headmasters and principals. “People have lost trust in government-run schools as most of them don’t show good results.
Those, who can afford, admit their children to private schools. Even teachers of government schools are reluctant to admit their children to the schools where they themselves teach,” sources said.
Under the plan, in the first phase, SRCS would be implemented in the primary schools followed by middle, high and higher secondary schools consecutively, officials said.
The selection of schools would be made according to infrastructure, number of classrooms, students and teachers.
This correspondent made several attempts to contact E&SE secretary Mohammad Arifeen but his phone was switched off.

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