Sharif accused of money laundering
ISLAMABAD, June 8 — Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and members of his family have been accused of laundering money through fake accounts in a controversial BBC film, the shooting of which prompted the government to launch a crackdown on local mediapersons last month.

Judge overrules media gag
KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — The judge in the sodomy trial of ousted deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim threw out a controversial gag order today, saying such an order would have been perceived as curtailing freedom of the Press.

Anan seeks aid for Angola
UNITED NATIONS, June 8 — The UN Chief, Mr Kofi Annan, has made an urgent appeal for funds to finance a humanitarian airlift for hundreds of thousands of Angolans facing hunger as that Nation’s civil war rages.

Will ANC form government?

JOHANNESBURG, June 8 (PTI) — The ruling National Congress (ANC) in South Africa has won an overwhelming majority in the country’s second democratic elections held on Wednesday last, according to the final results announced last night.

The results were released by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Chairperson, Dr Brigalia Bam, at the Election Centre in Pretoria.

The ANC won control of the national Parliament with an overwhelming majority, securing 66.23 per cent of the votes cast or 266 seats.

The white-dominated Democratic Party (DP) won 38 seats, the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party 34, the other white-dominated New National Party (NNP) 28 and a string of minor parties won one or two seats.

The ANC also bagged seats in seven of the nine provinces, including the economic heartland of Gauteng, by significant margins. It also won the Western Cape Province by a margin of one seat from NNP.

However, the ANC would not be able to form a government here as the NNP, the DP and the African Christian Democratic Party have announced plans to join hands to keep the ANC at bay.

Significantly, for the first time ever, the Minority Front, a part claiming to speak on behalf of the Indians, won one seat in the National Assembly in Cape Town and two in the Kwazulu-Natal legislature.

However, as per the results, the Indian vote had been split between all major outfits — The Democratic Party, the ANC and the Minority Front.

Durban political analyst, Kiru Naidoo, said although the DP had gained a large portion of the Indian vote, the ANC had made significant gains.

Defence toying to ‘tar image of judiciary’

LONDON, June 8 (PTI) — Former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice M.L.Pendse, an expert witness appearing on behalf of the Indian Government in the extradition case against music Director Nadeem Akhtar Saifi, told a London court yesterday the defence was “going too far” to tar the image of the judiciary and the police in Maharashtra.

Although there could be some aberrations, the police as well as the judiciary in India acted according to the law and complaints of torture, unlawful detention or obtaining confessions under duress were “few and far between”, he told the Bow Street Magistrate.

“You would be having similar aberrations in the London police,” Justice Pendse, who was also a judge in the Mumbai High Court, said during cross-examination by Nadeem’s lawyer Mr Clive Nicholls.

Justice Pendse was called as an expert witness by the Crown Prosecution Service to rebut charges by Nadeem’s lawyers who filed an affidavit through senior Supreme Court advocate Indira Jaisingh alleging that police torture, intimidation and obtaining confessions under duress was endemic in India.

India is seeking the extradition of Nadeem as the main accused an conspirator in the assassination of music baron Gulshan Kumar in Mumbai in August, 1997. The music director was arrested in London in September that year and remains on conditional bail.

Nadeem’s lawyers are making the allegations with the plea to get the evidence of chief prosecution witness Mohammad Ali Shaikh thrown out.

The defence is challening the admissibility of the evidence of Shaikh claiming it had been obtained under police torture and threat to his family.

Mr Nicholls is seeking to convince the Bow Street Magistrate that Shaikh, who made the confessional statement implicating Nadeem, had later retracted it.

Justice Pendse also challenged the contention of the defence citing Amnesty International, US State Department and National Human Rights Commission of India reports to allege that Nadeem would not get a fair trial in India.

Defence lawyers’ summing up of a prejudiced police and judiciary in India from these reports was “too sweeping”, he said.

Most of the cases cited in the reports of the human rights bodies were from problem states such as Jammu and Kashmir, where an undeclared war-like situation prevailed, and was not representative of India as a whole, he emphasised.

Justice Pendse said as a long-serving judge in the Mumbai High Court, he knew of no cases of political or religious bias.

He said Maharashtra had a strong independent judiciary and a vigilant free Press, which provided ample safeguards against judicial or police malpractices.

The retired judge said he knew advocate Indira Jaisingh but did not agree that the opinion expressed by her affidavit submitted before the Bow Street Magistrate was entitled to “the highest respect”.

G8 agree on Kosovo resolution

COLOGNE (GERMANY), June 8 (DPA) — Group of eight foreign ministers reached agreement today on a draft Security Council resolution to pave the way for an end to the Kosovo conflict, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer announced.

The resolution is designed to open the way for a military-technical agreement, a withdrawal of Yugoslav forces, an international security presence in Kosovo and the return of the Kosovar Albanian refugees.

"We finally achieved a real breakthrough to get a draft UN Security Council resolution", Mr Fischer said at a press conference in Cologne. "One of the most important elements will be a ceasefire on the basis of a guarantee of return for all refugees".

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said: "We came here because we wanted to end this conflict and establish a new foundation for a lasting peace. We got what we came for.’’

Asked whether any Serbian troops will be allowed to stay in Kosovo, Ms Albright said there would only be token presence in the border areas but added: "The Serbs will in no way be able to control who goes back into Kosovo".

She said many refugees had their identification papers taken from them but the UN High Commissioner for Refugees would be providing them with new documents.

"There may be a few Serbs on the border in the shape of observers,’’ Ms Albright said, "But they will in no way be able to control access to Kosovo".

On the question of NATO command of a peacekeeping force, Ms Albright said that would be covered by the agreement hammered out by Mr Martti Ahtisaari, the European Union Balkans envoy, and Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Russian envoy.

The agreement, already approved by the Yugoslav leadership and Serbian Parliament, will serve as an annex to the Security Council resolution but will have the same force as the resolution itself, Ms Albright said.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the resolution would stop the war in the Balkans.

The Foreign Ministers had "unanimously agreed to a text that we shall certainly support at the Security Council as well", he said.

He parried a question about what elements of the text Russia had not backed, saying: "There is no point in saying what we are more or less satisfied with: it is important now that it be adopted in the interest of peace in the Balkans".

The draft was being relayed to the UN Security Council, which was expected to discuss it later in the day, UN sources said in New York.

In Brussels today the NATO said withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo will begin on Thursday at the latest.

BRUSSELS: NATO welcomed Russia’s backing for a proposed UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo and said it would show "flexibility and imagination" in negotiating with Russian military commanders to enable Russia to join a peacekeeping force.

At a news conference in Brussels, alliance spokesman Jamie Shea said: "NATO thanks Russian President (Boris) Yeltsin and Russia for their constructive cooperation".

He said Russia’s participation in the current peacekeeping force in Bosnia provided a model for Russian involvement in the new Kosovo force (K-for) and it would be up to military commanders "to sit down with the Russians... to discuss the practical modalities".

He rejected suggestions that the structure of the force was still open, saying there was "no doubt that there will be a strong NATO component" and that it would be a "force with robust rules of engagement".

Denying NATO’s part had been downgraded, he said: "As far as I’m concerned, NATO’s role in the force is as solid today as it was yesterday".

Differences on new Iraq policy

UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (AP) — France circulated an Iraq resolution yesterday that combines elements of two competing drafts in an apparent effort to bridge the Security Council divide in establishing a new Iraq policy.

But the French suggestions appear to go even beyond the suspension of sanctions proposed by Russia as a way to persuade Iraq to allow UN oversight of its weapons programmes to resume, indicating that compromise isn’t near.

France suggests the UN oil embargo be suspended once a system of monitoring Iraq’s weapons programmes is in place, and for the Security Council to authorise foreign investment in Iraq’s oil sector.

The USA and Britain have already rejected calls for a suspension of sanctions, saying Iraq still must rid itself of its weapons of mass destruction before it is allowed to sell its oil on the open market.

Iraq has been barred from doing so since it was slapped with a UN oil embargo in 1990 after it invaded Kuwait. UN weapons inspectors, who withdrew from Iraq in December ahead of US and British air strikes, must certify Iraq has destroyed its banned weapons before the embargo can be lifted.

The three duelling resolutions — the new French draft, the Russian resolution, which France and China co-sponsored, and one drafted by Britain and the Netherlands — all call for a new system of monitoring to be established in Iraq to ensure it isn’t rebuilding its banned weapons.

They differ, however, on the question of sanctions.

The French draft goes beyond the Russian proposal by suggesting foreign oil companies also be able to invest in Iraq’s dilapidated oil industry and enter into production-sharing agreements with the government.

French oil companies are eager to help Iraq develop its untapped oil fields, which industry experts say could be among the world’s most lucrative.

Britain and the Netherlands have proposed foreign investment in Iraq’s oil industry, but only as a way to boost revenues for the UN oil-for-food programme.

Sharif accused of money laundering

ISLAMABAD, June 8 (PTI) — Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and members of his family have been accused of laundering money through fake accounts in a controversial BBC film, the shooting of which prompted the government to launch a crackdown on local mediapersons last month.

The focus of the 40-minute documentary in the BBC’s “correspondent” programme (“from Pakistan to Park Lane via Alford”) is on the Sharif family with a number of persons, including a former Chief Justice, a former minister, a former senior official and journalist Najam Sethi levelling charges against it.

Mr Rehman Malik, a former chief of the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) who is living in exile in London, alleged serious financial irregularities, including money laundering, by the family.

He told the programme that the Sharif family used Pakistani bank accounts under fictitious names to transfer thousands of dollars to their foreign country accounts and claimed he had detected corruption by the Premier’s family as the head of the FIA.

Mr Malik was immediately removed from his post as soon as Mr Sharif came to power in February, 1997, and put in jail on corruption charges, but later he secured bail from the Supreme Court and fled to England.

Friday Times editor Najam Sethi told the BBC that he had close family ties with Mr Sharif but differences cropped up when he took up financial matters with the Sharif family during the interim government before the February, 1997, election when he was a minister in charge of accountability.

Incidentally, barely a few days after giving the interview to the BBC, Mr Sethi was arrested on charges of alleged anti-Pakistan activities.

He was handed over to Inter-Services Intelligence for investigation but released last week after his wife Jugnoo Mohsin moved a habeas corpus petition before the Supreme Court for his bail.

Former Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah alleged in the film that when he was hearing corruption cases against Mr Sharif, “I was pressurised to ignore these cases but I drove it home that everybody had to obey the law and nobody was above the law.”

Justice Shah alleged when he refused to budge, the Supreme Court building was stormed in November, 1997, in which many ruling party parliamentarians and members participated and “my effigy was burnt, insulting slogans were chanted against me, a shameful campaign was launched against me which drove me to leave the Supreme Court”.

A number of other senior journalists, who were also interviewed by the BBC team, were allegedly harassed by the authorities here in various ways with some of them receiving threatening calls while a new car of a Lahore-based scribe was pushed out of his house in the night and burnt.

The BBC programme also carried the interview of Information Minister Mushahid Hussain, who termed the corruption allegations against Mr Sharif as a “pack of lies”.

Only those who were dismissed from their jobs due to inefficiency were levelling these charges against the Prime Minister, he said.

Mr Hussain also challenged these people to move court against the Prime Minister, his brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and father Muhammad Sharif saying: “The judiciary in Pakistan is independent and the Prime Minister respects the courts.”

The BBC programme also showed four luxury flats in the highly prestigious Park Lane in London allegedly owned by the Sharif family.

Pak intruders seek funds

LONDON, June 8 (PTI) — Pakistan-backed infiltrators fighting Indian troops in the Dras and Kargil sectors have put out advertisements in overseas Pakistani papers asking for funds to “carry on the jehad”.

One advertisement in Urdu in the overseas edition of The Jung features a message from Rawalpindi of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) Jamaat-i-Islami chief Abdur Rashid Turabi, who is also a member of the PoK Assembly, exhorting the mercenaries to “hit hard the enemy”.

It claimed the morale of the mercenaries was high and asked Muslims here for funds to support them.

The address for sending the funds has been given at Rawalpindi, on the outskirts of Islamabad, exposing that a majority of the mercenary groups acting as private armies of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan are based in Pakistan.

Another ethnic Pakistani paper, The News International, carries an interview with Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, self-styled Amir of the Makaz-ud-Dawaa Walirshad, whose two major groups — the Harkat-ul-Ansar and Lashkar-e-Toiba — are spearheading the Kargil-Dras intrusion along with regular Pakistani Army formations.

Judge overrules media gag

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 (AP) — The judge in the sodomy trial of ousted deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim threw out a controversial gag order today, saying such an order would have been perceived as curtailing freedom of the Press.

“You’re free to report what transpired in court,’’ high court Judge Ariffin Jaka told a courtroom filled with foreign and local journalists.

He added: “If your report is contemptuous and goes beyond the parameters of law, you should be prepared to face the consequences and take full responsibility.’’

The ruling overrides one from a previous judge who had barred the media from publishing comments made by lawyers or anyone else about Anwar’s trial.

“I think it’s a victory for the freedom of speech in this country. The order is draconian and has no basis. No judge has the right to impose those conditions,’’ defence attorney Karpal Singh told reporters outside the courthouse.

Anan seeks aid for Angola

UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (AFP) — The UN Chief, Mr Kofi Annan, has made an urgent appeal for funds to finance a humanitarian airlift for hundreds of thousands of Angolans facing hunger as that Nation’s civil war rages.

“The Secretary-General appeals... to the international Donor Community to urgently support humanitarian activities in Angola to avoid a massive human tragedy,” said Mr Annan’s spokesman, Mr Manoel Almeida E Silva, yesterday.

Mr Annan “expressed deep concern” at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Angola, where the extremely precarious security situation demands the distribution of most humanitarian aid by air”. More than three million Angolans are relying totally or partially on food aid.

Girl meets Pope
TORUN (Poland): An Iranian teenager, who wrote to Pope John Paul II for help in getting care for her damaged eyes, received a papal hug and blessing on Monday. Mehmoush Tafreshi, 16, had her brief meeting with the Pope after he arrived in Torun as part of his 13-day pilgrimage to his Polish homeland. “It was very wonderful for me,’’ Tafreshi said in a telephone interview on Monday. “I didn’t speak to him. He’s a very big force for me in my life.’’ — AP

Robbers burnt alive
LAGOS: Young vigilantes in a slum area of Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos burned 10 suspected robbers to death on Monday, witnesses said. “There were 10 burned to death on Monday and there were more burned on Sunday. Everyone knows who these robbers are in Isalako and the punishment they deserve,” Hakeem Adams, a local youth, said. — Reuters

No reply to Copernicus
TORUN (Poland): Pope John Paul declined an invitation to reply to a letter sent by astronomer Nicolas Copernicus in the 16th century, asking for papal approval of his revolutionary discovery that the Earth circles the Sun. Copernicus, born in the Central Polish town of Torun, now a seat of learning, sent a letter to Pope Paul III in 1543 asking for his blessing, but received no reply. — Reuters

Fergie’s dad
LONDON: The father of Britain’s Duchess of York has accused Buckingham Palace of blocking any chance of her getting back together with former husband Prince Andrew. “They actually both love each other very much but don’t say to me, ‘why can’t they get together again?’ — there is nothing I’d love more,” Ron Ferguson told London’s talk radio station. — Reuters

Nudity law broken
ORLANDO (Florida): The owner of an adult nightclub and three dancers who challenged an anti-nudity ordinance by performing “Macbeth’’ in the buff were charged with violating the law. Club Juana owner Michael Pinter and dancers Margaret Morgan, Sara Jo Uffelman and Christy McKee were charged on Monday with misdemeanour and ordered to appear in court next month. The maximum sentence is 60 days in jail. — AP

Three hanged
MEXICO CITY: Three prisoners were hanged on the Caribbean island of Trinidad on Monday, bringing to nine the number of inmates killed in the past four days. The prisoners were found guilty for the 1994 killing of a four-member family. The other six were hanged on Friday and Saturday. — DPA

Butler to write book
UNITED NATIONS: Richard Butler, Chief UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq, will join the Council on Foreign Relations next month as a diplomat in residence, the New York-based think-tank announced on Monday. Mr Butler, whose UN contract expires on June 30, will write a book about his tumultuous two-year tenure as the Executive Chairman of the UN Special Commission. — AP

Piglet worship
BANGKOK: An average of 30 persons a day are flocking to the home of a Phuket couple to worship a dead, deformed piglet in the belief that it will help them win a lottery, the Phuket Gazette reported on Tuesday. The reason why people consider the piglet auspicious is that its deformities — a curved back, large ears and a long snout — make it resemble an elephant, which is Thailand’s national symbol. — AP