CTBT revision likely : Pressler
New regime on N-issues hinted
TNS and agencies

NEW DELHI, Nov 25 (UNI) — Republican Senator Larry Pressler today said the proposed visit by the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, to India offered prospects for a "breakthrough" on the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) as the USA was expected to come up with important amendments relating to the contentious issue.

"The treaty (CTBT) may be revised", the Senator known for his famous Pressler Amendment, told mediapersons after addressing members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry here.

Asked whether the Pressler Amendment should be retained as sought by India, he said his stand and views on Pakistan had been vindicated. "I can take pride in the fact and say that I told you so", he said maintaining that he had always viewed Pakistan as a military regime whether or not the country was ruled by a civilian or dictator.

If the Pressler Amendment is retained, Pakistan would be denied the crucial spare-parts for its weaponry from the USA, experts say, adding such a course would enhance India's relations with Washington even in defence matters.

Regretting that India had not really accepted the friendship offer by the USA, Senator Pressler said New Delhi "should take full advantage of President Clinton's visit, especially when he is not going to Pakistan or China". He said the coup in Pakistan, in a way, would help India clear the US perception about Islamabad.

The Senator said there was a need for a new treaty altogether as, for one thing, India had always perceived it as unfair and also because the nuclear threat in the world was becoming real. He feared that in the next 25 years, someone could drop a nuclear device somewhere in the world.

It could be used by Pakistan and India could respond or one of the US cities could become a target of nuclear device by terrorists. One of the former Soviet states or China could also be one of the threats for nuclear set-offs after which the USA and other countries would come up with a tough nuclear control regime. Seeing the threat for real, the Senator said: "Unfortunately I may see it in my lifetime".

Predicting that Pakistan was not going to change, he said India had the misfortune of having it as its neighbour. He said the military was well-entrenched in Pakistan and according to a CIA report, Pakistan had misled President George Bush who later brought in the Pressler Amendment. "President Clinton also believed Ms Benazir Bhutto when she told him that she did not know whether Pakistan had nuclear weapons".

Favouring a new international regime for the promotion of global nuclear disarmament, Mr Pressler said the danger of a nuclear conflict had increased with the military takeover in Pakistan as "nobody exactly knows how they are going to handle the nuclear button".

Answering questions during his lecture on "High-tech business opportunities between the USA and India" at the Indian Institute of Technology, he said the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, may propose a new international regime or a formula to reduce nuclear proliferation" during his forthcoming visit to India.

"The President will come to India but not go to Pakistan or China", Mr Pressler said adding that "India should look to the USA as an important ally and the USA should consider India a great democracy".

Developing on his idea of a new international regime on nuclear issues, Mr Pressler said: "I personally believe there has to be a system of rewards and penalties under this regime, may be under the UN supervision, which could reward those countries which opt for nuclear disarmament and discourage nuclear testing and at the same time penalises those which go ahead with nuclear testing".

Stressing that there was a real danger of a nuclear accident now then ever before, Mr Pressler said with easy availability of manpower and resources, the possibility of the manufacture on nuclear bombs had increased.

While during the cold war there were two major nuclear powers, now their number had increased but many countries, including India, Pakistan, China and constituents of the former Soviet Union, possessed nuclear weapons, the Republican Senator pointed out.

Dwelling on Indo-Pakistan relations, Mr Pressler said: "I would love to see the two countries resolving their differences but the General does not seem to be interested in it". Even the Berlin wall had fallen, he pointed out.

Efforts should be made to ensure that there is "no fly in the ointment" in the relations between India and Pakistan.

To a question as how soon democracy would be restored in Pakistan, the visiting Senator said Pakistan always had a superficial democracy as real power was with the armed forces.

Describing the latest development in Pakistan as "unfortunate", Mr Pressler said it was the long-term goal of the USA to see that India, Pakistan and the USA lived as prosperous democracies.

The Senator, who is well-known for his love for India, expressed hope that the Indo-US ties would become better in the next century. He said relations between the two democracies were passing through "unique historical times". There had been a military takeover in Pakistan while in India democracy had flourished.

On the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Mr Pressler said it would soon become a "global commercial government". He said the coming WTO summit at Seattle was very important and hoped the WTO would find ways for world trade with lesser barriers.

Pak spells out N-strategy

ISLAMABAD, Nov 25 (PTI) — Pakistan’s military regime today spelt out its nuclear strategy asserting it would keep minimum nuclear deterrence as its guiding principle but refused to quantify it saying it would entirely depend on the Indian nuclear build up.

"Minimum nuclear deterrence will remain the guiding principle of our nuclear strategy....The Indian build up will necessitate the review and re-assessment in order to ensure the survivability and credibility of the deterrent. Pakistan will have to maintain, preserve and upgrade its capability," Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told a seminar here.

He, however, said "but we shall not engage in any nuclear competition or arms race. Pakistan entertains no ambition to great power status or regional domination."

Mr Sattar said despite Pakistan’s vote in favour of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in the UN General Assembly, the country reserves the right to conduct another nuclear test if India does the same.

He referred to India’s self-imposed moratorium after the nuclear test in May 1998 and also New Delhi’s announcement that it would not block the treaty’s entry into force in September 1998 in this regard.

Mr Sattar, however, expressed his optimism about the just concluded Indo-US talks saying the communiqué issued after the Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbot talks in London "sounded upbeat".

Mr Sattar, a veteran diplomat and twice High Commissioner to India, handpicked by the Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf to head the crucial Foreign Affairs Ministry, was delivering his inaugural address at the seminar on "Pakistan’s response to the Indian nuclear doctrine" at the Institute of Strategic Studies here.

Mr Sattar also justified the nuclear test carried out by the previous Nawaz Sharif government saying "it became necessary to demonstrate that Pakistan, too, possessed nuclear capability."

The Foreign Ministry while referring to Pakistan’ vote in favour of the CTBT in the UN General Assembly in September, 1996 clarified that, ‘’the vote in favour of the CTBT did not in any way affect our inherent right to conduct tests.’’

"Pakistan’s options remains categorical: if India conducts another nuclear explosion before the CTBT enters into force, nothing in or outside the treaty can foreclose Pakistan’s right to do the same, whether it has signed the treaty or not’’, the Foreign Minister said.

Mr Sattar’s categorical statement once again linked Pakistan’s stance on the CTBT to that of India’s thus reverting back to their old position after a brief interregnum when the Sharif government had declared that it had delinked Pakistan’s stand with that of India’s.

Later informally speaking to newsmen, Mr Sattar said Pakistan should not be discriminated if the USA accords any special facility to India in view of the progress in the nuclear non-proliferation talks between them.

Incidentally both India and Pakistan had started non-proliferation dialogue with the US separately after their respective nuclear blasts in May 1998, but the Pakistan-US dialogue is stalled for more than six months now.

Shahbaz held for treason

KARACHI, Nov 25 (AFP, PTI, ANI) — The brother of deposed Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared before an anti-terrorist court today in a treason and conspiracy to murder case.

Shahbaz Sharif, once the powerful Chief Minister of Punjab province, was arrested and flown to Karachi early today. He protested his innocence.

Two other Sharif allies, Saeed Mehdi, Sharif’s Principal Secretary and Saif-ur-Rehman, former Chief of Accountability Bureau, were also arrested and brought before the court.

The judge ordered the police to produce them again tomorrow. If they are convicted in the coming trial they could face the death penalty.

"We have arrested them in a very important case in which the lives of the Army chief and other passengers were put in danger through a conspiracy," said Waqar Malhan, Chief Investigating Officer in the case.

"The arrests were made after we got evidence about their involvement through witnesses."

However, Shahbaz Sharif insisted that they were innocent and said the case was a persecution of his family.

"It is a political witchhunt," he told reporters.

"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the plane to land at Karachi airport and I will tell this to the court," he said.

The arrests were made after the police team recorded statements of several crucial officials at the Prime Minister’s secretariat here including that of Director Protocol Zahid Mehmud, leading English daily ‘Dawn’ said quoting official sources in Islamabad.

The police team, which arrived here on Tuesday, recorded the statements of Mehmud along with Asif, section officer of the PM’s secretariat and protocol officer of former PIA Chairman and co-accused in the case Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

With these arrests, the total number of accused in the case has gone up to seven including Nawaz Sharif.

The investigators are reportedly working against time to file the charge sheet against all accused tomorrow as per the direction of the anti-terrorism court judge Rehmat Hussain Jaffri.

The arrest of Shahbaz Sharif and Rehman has expanded the purview of the investigations into the case pertaining to charges of high treason, attempted murder and hijacking against the deposed Prime Minister and his colleagues.

Ameenullah Chaudhry, former Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority, has been granted "pardon" by Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf after he turned approver and made a confessional statement saying Nawaz Sharif had ordered him on Oct 12 not to allow the PK-805 to land anywhere in Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday.

After the confessional statement his name has been removed from the list of the accused and he would now be a prime witness in the conspiracy case.

Ameenullah Chaudhry, with Nawaz Sharif and three others, was charged under Sections 402-B, 365, 120-B, 34 of the PPC, read with Section 324 Qisas and Diyat, besides Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, with hijacking flight PK-805 PIA plane returning to Karachi from Colombo on Oct 12, 1999, with 198 passengers, including Chief of the Army Staff Gen Pervez Musharraf, and crew on board.

Commenting on the confessional statement of Ameenullah Chaudhry, former Law Minister and head of the PML's legal committee Khalid Anwar claimed that the confessional statement had been given under pressure.

He referred to Ameenullah's earlier reported statement according to which he had reportedly made an application before the trial court saying that he was under tremendous pressure owing to which he would either make a confessional statement or commit suicide.He claimed that when Ameenullah would be cross examined, the truth would come out and his contention would be vindicated.

Islamabad: Deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Mariam, has appealed to the military government to spare her father’s life even if he is found guilty as charged UNI report said.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi, she said her father was innocent and had done nothing to deserve the death sentence, the BBC reported.

She urged Human Rights Organisations to monitor the proceedings in the case which would be heard in an anti-terrorism court.

Mr Sharif is faced with charges of hijacking and attempt to murder which carry the death sentence.

Meanwhile, the human rights watch has urged that the legislation creating the courts be amended and the trial be conducted in full accordance with international fair trial standards.

"In its current form, the anti-terrorism law infringes on civil liberties and due process of law,’’ it said. These courts, created by Mr Sharif, have been used selectively against political opponents and sacrifice ‘due process in the interest of speedy trial’.

Ms Mariam said her father’s health was fast deteriorating but he continued to be in high spirits.

Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, Mr Sharif’s wife, Kulsoom, said her husband had lost 20-30 pounds in detention.

Ms Kulsoom said she had complete faith in the judiciary and was confident that her husband would come out of the trial unscathed.

"Life and death is in the hands of Allah and no General can take it away,’’ she said.

Ms Kulsoom is reported to have planned a comprehensive tour of all four provincial headquarters in the near future to muster maximum support of PML workers for launching an agitation to get her husband released.

She is expected to start her campaign from the NWFP for which the party leadership and workers have been issued necessary directives.

According to a Jang report, the detained former Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, was allowed to briefly speak to his family on Tuesday.

After the six-minute telephonic contact, his son Hamza told the Jang that his father appeared to be alright but like Mr Sharif, seemed to be in solitary confinement as he was unaware of the developments outside.

"The former cm was very surprised to hear that Mr Sharif is being tried on hijacking charges,’’ Mr Hamza told the newspaper.

He is not being provided with newspapers and obviously has no access to a television or radio, he said.

Mr Shahbaz Sharif reportedly told his family that the military rulers would not find any corruption case against his government. "We have committed no crime.’’