Friday, November 19, 1999
spotlighttoday's calendar
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W O R L D | Friday, November 19, 1999 |
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Wife allowed to meet
Sharif OSCE summit: Yeltsin, Clinton hold
talks |
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Sharif,
Benazir may be disqualified for 21 yrs Will USA lose its vote?
UK mission staff in Calcutta to be
prosecuted Land transfer: US-Israeli talks
fail It’s not last coup in Pak:
KGB ex-chief Book: Pak further developing
N-arms Nazi master race project uncovered |
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Wife allowed to meet Sharif ISLAMABAD, Nov 18 (PTI) — Mrs Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has been allowed by the military authorities to meet her husband who is presently under the custody of the Karachi police. Mrs Kulsoom Nawaz, who had earlier filed an application in the Supreme Court for permission to meet Mr Nawaz Sharif, had already left for Karachi from her Lahore residence, a source of the Pakistan Muslim League said. The application of Mrs Nawaz had been referred by the Supreme Court to the Lahore High Court and the matter had been adjourned till the end of this month. Mr Sharif had been under the detention of the military authorities since his ouster on October 12 in an army coup. He had been shifted to Karachi yesterday and handed over to the police in connection with the case filed against him by the army there. Meanwhile, the beleaguered Nawaz Sharif family has rushed to the Lahore High Court with a number of applications seeking relief amid nationwide crackdown by the military authorities against loan defaulters and others involved in various types of corrupt practices. The Sharif family on Tuesday filed three different applications before the court seeking relief in an obvious attempt to pre-empt any move against them by the authorities, The Nation, an English daily said. The Sharif family has hurriedly arranged the payment of Rs 271 million on the last day of the deadline set by military authorities to avoid any action against them. Deposed Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif, has expressed concern about the trial by the army regime even as military ruler General Pervez Musharraf asserted that there would not be any "victimisation" or vendetta against anybody. British parliamentarian Choudhury Muhammad Sarwar, who met Mr Sharif at a secret location in Rawalpindi, quoted the former Premier as saying that "my nearly three years of tenure was very difficult during which I had to face one crisis after another. I don’t know what crime I have committed that I have been arrested." Choudhury Sarwar was
given special permission by the military authority to
meet the former Premier on Monday. |
OSCE summit: Yeltsin, Clinton hold talks ISTANBUL, Nov 18 (AP, AFP) — US President Bill Clinton and his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin opened bilateral talks here today on the sidelines of the summit of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The two made no statement to the Press before entering talks at the Ciragan Palace where the European security talks opened today, with Moscow’s bloody offensive in breakaway Chechnya set to dominate the two-day meeting. Their meeting followed shortly after Mr Clinton called on Russia to allow the OSCE to mediate in its dispute in Chechnya, while Mr Yeltsin rejected western criticism over Moscow’s crackdown in its southern republic. "You do not have the right to criticise Russia over Chechnya," Mr Yeltsin told the Istanbul summit. A combative Yeltsin warned them not to interfere in Russia’s fight against international terrorism, while Mr Clinton cautioned him against feeding an "endless cycle of violence" with his military offensive in the region. Asserting that Islamic extremists were preparing "thousands of mercenaries" to spread terrorism beyond Russia’s borders, Mr Yeltsin brushed aside western demands that he negotiate with Chechen leaders. "There will be no negotiations with bandits ... We need to completely eliminate the bandit formations," Mr Yeltsin said. In a conciliatory response, Mr Clinton, who spoke after Mr Yeltsin, said he understood Russia’s need to combat terrorism but warned Mr Yeltsin that the suffering of civilians risked driving Chechens into the arms of the radicals. "If attacks on
civilians continue, the extremism Russia is trying to
combat will only intensify," he told the summit. Mr
Yeltsin later walked out of the summit and prepared to
head home early because of a dispute linking a key
charter to the Chechnya conflict. |
Sharif, Benazir may be
disqualified ISLAMABAD, Nov 18 (PTI) — As the Pakistani military ruler sets into motion its accountability process through a special law, the political careers of two premiers, who ruled the country for an interregnum period of 11 years between two army regimes, are at stake. Both Mr Nawaz Sharif, whose 32-month old government was toppled in an army coup by Gen Pervez Musharraf last month, and Ms Benazir Bhutto, who is now abroad in self-exile, face disqualification for 21 years under the new law while Mr Sharif even faces a death sentence for his role during the dramatic events of October 12. General Musharraf, who had vowed to cleanse the country of corruption and bring "true democracy," gave clear hints of his intention through a new accountability law which was brought into force through an ordinance promulgated yesterday. The new law, which has a retrospective effect from 1985, not only provides for jail sentence for offences like corruption, corrupt practice and defaulting on bank loans but also disqualification from public offices for a period of 21 years. The authorities also announced that both Mr Sharif and Ms Benazir come within the purview of the new law as for the first time Ms Bhutto, who is out of country since April this year, was declared a "proclaimed offender", in an official statement issued by the secretariat of General Musharraf. The statement also termed Mr Sharif as, "defaulter" and "wanted" in accountability cases by saying, that "some of the persons who are defaulters or wanted in accountability cases were already under detention" and goes on to name the ousted Premier among others. Mr Sharif had been taken into custody by the military authorities and has now been handed over to the Karachi police in connection with a criminal case involving Mr Sharif’s alleged role in the attempted hijacking of a PIA plane in which General Musharraf was travelling along with 200 others. The two times former
Premier may even face death sentence if the charges were
proved against him but even if he gets away with it he
may face the accountability law and possible jail and
disqualification for 21 years. |
Window on Pakistan Deposed Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif would have never thought that the Anti-Terrorist Act enacted by his regime would be one day used against himself. Today this is the most potent weapon the military strongman, Gen Pervez Musharraf, has to settle his scores with Mr Sharif. The black law gives the police the "licence to kill", accoding to the Pakistan Supreme Court. The apex court is unhappy with the draconian legislation, but it can do little at this stage. The military rulers are obviously happy. Mr Sharif , according to The Frontier Post, has been charged with conspiring to kill the then Chief of Army Staff, General Musharraf, along with 197 other passengers on board PIA flight PK-805 on October 12 by indulging in the highjacking of his own government's plane. It will be a miracle if he escapes death after the court trial of the case. The full text of the FIR 201/99, registered with the Karachi airport police, was carried in Dawn on November 16. It clearly says that five persons, including Mr Sharif, hatched a plot to indulge in "heinous criminal offences, including high treason, in furtherance of a deep-rooted criminal conspiracy, and, among other offences, attempted to murder COAS Gen Pervez Musharraf and other innocent passengers and crew members of the plane ...and commit by deliberate criminal act and intent heinous acts of terrorism and highjacking." The FIR, registered on a complaint by a Lieut-Colonel, mentions four specific objectives: "Firstly, engineer, conspire and cause the crash of flight PK-805 carrying on board COAS Gen Pervez Musharraf, his family, PIA crew and other passengers totalling 198 souls/persons on board, including 60 children belonging to American schools of Karachi and Lahore, with the criminal intent to murder the COAS and others on board... "Secondly, by not permitting flight PK-805 to land at any airfield in Pakistan and instead ordering the pilot, Captain Sarwat Hussain, to take the flight anywhere else outside Pakistan at his own risk... "Thirdly, in the event flight PK 805 succeeded in landing at Karachi or Nawabshah, despite being prohibited as above, to arrest and wrongfully confine the COAS... "Fourthly, to strike terror and create a sense of fear and insecurity in the passengers and the crew on board flight PK-805, including 60 innocent children...who were returning from Colombo to Karachi after taking part in an international swimming gala...." Writing in Dawn, commentator Omar Kureishi takes the story to its intended conclusion in a hypothetical manner and paints a painful picture which would have ultimately emerged. In his own words: "I have not the slightest doubt that there would have been a massive cover-up. The tapes of conversation between the air traffic control and the PIA aircraft crew would have gone missing and destroyed. The black box and the voice recorder too would have disappeared..." Now that Mr Sharif's scheme has gone haywire, the guessing game going on in Pakistan,as elsewhere, is whether the former Prime Minister will meet the fate of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. According to one calculation, the mounting international pressure may force the self-appointed Chief Executive to leave him alive though thoroughly incapacitated to play any significant political role. There is another calculation that, going by the unpopularity of Mr Sharif, if the CE finally executes his plan, the world will forget the entire episode with the passage of time. Gen Zia-ul-Haq too was under tremendous pressure from world leaders to save the life of Bhutto. He contemptuously ignored the amnesty calls. Yet the world did business with him as long as he was alive---almost 11 years. This was despite the fact that Bhutto was responsible for re-introducing democracy in Pakistan. He was not unpopular among the masses after the overthrow of his regime as is the case with Mr Sharif. If there is anything that will make any difference, it is the way the judiciary views the whole case. But the question is: will it be allowed to play its role independently? — Syed Nooruzzaman |
Will USA lose its vote? WITH just a few weeks left for the curtain to come down on the 54th session of the UN General Assembly, the guessing game among diplomats here is: will the USA lose its voting right in the General Assembly on the advent of the new millennium because of its failure to pay up its arrears to the world body? The New York Times reported on Tuesday the possibility of the USA losing its vote is real because the UN charter says that any country falling two years behind will be stripped of its right to vote until it repays the debt. The paper noted that usually only nations mired in poverty fall sufficiently behind to lose their votes. But the paper went on to say that a senior Clinton Administration official has expressed confidence that the gap can be covered by pooling the first payment with funds being appropriated in a Bill for the Departments of State, Commerce and Justice. The USA will have to pay at least $ 350 million by the end of December to escape the humiliation of losing its voting right in the General Assembly. In an editorial on Wednesday, The New York Times said failure to pay the assessments had undermined the finances of the UN, weakened US influence there and put Washington’s voting rights in the General Assembly at risk. ‘‘The US cannot exercise global leadership unless it honours its financial obligations,’’ the paper said, ‘‘nor can it reasonably expect other countries to consider congressional demands for lower American dues assessments in the future until it pays off most of the dues it already owes.’’ The controversy over the US debt to the UN is nothing new and several Republican Congressmen have contributed to the deadlock that has thwarted payment of about $ 1 billion due to the UN from the USA. Media reports this week have talked about the clinching of a deal between the White House and Republicans in the House of Representatives in order to break the impasse over US arrears to the UN. At the centre of the deal is the White House acquiescence to a legal ban on US funds going to international organisations to promote abortion rights. As The Washington Post noted in an editorial, for the past two years, Republican Congressman Chris Smith has made full payment of dues conditional upon the passage of an anti-abortion amendment that would hobble the USA’s family planning aid. The reported deal has expectedly drawn flak from abortion rights advocates and more so from two Democratic contenders for the presidential nomination, Vice-President AI Gore and former Senator Ben Bradley. Mr Gore’s criticism is noteworthy since he will be taking a position divergent from that of President Clinton. The New York Times quoted a senior Gore adviser as saying the Vice-President had ‘‘strong reservations’’ about the deal. Mr Gore was reported to have said that ‘‘I do not favour bargaining away any critical policy aspect of a woman’s right to choose.’’ US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in defending the reported deal, has expessed the hope that the agreement will not interfere with family planning programmes around the world and that it will have minimal effect. But abortion rights advocate differ Ms Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of the USA, commented: ‘‘Women’s lives have once again been sacrificed for political expediency.’’ Meanwhile, India is playing an active role in organising under the auspices of the UN a high-level international conference in 2001 to address national and international issues relating to financing for development in a holistic manner in the context of globalisation and interdependence. India’s Ambassador to the UN, Mr Kamalesh Sharma, has been actively engaged as co-vice-chairman of a working group in setting up the scope and agenda for the 2001 international event. The other co-vice-chairman is Mr Ernst Sucharipa, permanent representative of Austria at the UN. In a report submitted recently to the UN General Assembly, the working group has spoken of the opportunity to begin the new millennium ‘‘with a historic and goal-oriented collective political gesture of global solidarity for development and practical commitment to achieving it.’’ The global conference is
expected to focus, among other issues, on mobilising
domestic resources for development, international
financial flows for development, external debt, financing
for trade and development, innovative sources of funding
and governance of international monetary and financial
trade systems. |
UK mission staff in
Calcutta LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) — Two women cashiers at the British diplomatic mission in Calcutta are to be prosecuted for allegedly pocketing thousands of pounds in visa fees, the British Government’s financial watchdog said. The locally engaged employees are accused of misappropriating £ 81,000 ($ 132,000) between January 1996 and October 1998, Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said here in a report to Parliament today. "The total loss could be higher as the staff involved had been employed at the High Commission for well over 10 years but local supporting records did not go back far enough to provide evidence of any earlier misappropriation," Mr Bourn said. The two officials are alleged to have exploited a fault in the mission’s cash register that allowed some visa receipts to go unrecorded on the till roll even though the application forms showed a receipt number. "The High
Commission is pursuing criminal and civil actions against
the two suspects in a bid to recover some of the loss,
although the failure to obtain signed statements after
the suspects were first interviewed has made the task
more difficult," Mr Bourn said. |
Land transfer: US-Israeli talks fail ISTANBUL, Nov 18 (AFP) — US President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak failed to resolve a deadlock over an overdue transfer of land to Palestinians at a meeting aimed at promoting peace in the West Asia. "The President raised the current disagreement between Israel and the Palestinians on the final element of this transfer and I think Barak expressed some hope that it will be resolved soon," US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told newspersons yesterday. When asked if the Palestinians had the right to veto the Israeli withdrawal map, Mr Berger said it was up to the sides to resolve the dispute "I don’t think that anything I say publicly would be helpful. The important thing is that this gets resolved. I think it is important for the parties to resolve this and I hope it will be resolved quickly," Mr Berger said. Under the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement signed between Mr Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israel was supposed to transfer 5 per cent of the West Bank to Palestinian control on Monday. But the Palestinians said they would not sign the withdrawal maps because they wanted more populated land transferred. US Ambassador Dennis Ross shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a bid to resolve the dispute, but he has so far failed. The land transfer, the second of the three withdrawals under the Sharm accord, has been frozen until at least next week because of the wrangling over the areas to be evacuated. Under the accord Israel is to transfer full control of 2 per cent of the West Bank to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and civilian control over another 3 per cent, while retaining security control. The Palestinians are demanding the land must be populated areas adjoining others they already govern to give them territorial continuity in the West Bank, which they want to form part of a future independent state. Mr Clinton and Mr Barak also discussed the framework agreement for final status talks with the Palestinians and the prospects for resumption of talks with Syria. "We discussed progress on all tracks of the peace process," Mr Barak said in a briefing to the Israeli press after the 40-minute meeting. Israeli officials
described the atmosphere as "very positive and
warm." |
It’s not last coup in Pak: KGB ex-chief MOSCOW, Nov 18 (UNI) — Former KGB chief General Leonid Sherbashin has advised India and Russia to keep in mind the very first statements of Pakistan’s coup leader Gen Pervez Musharraf concerning India. He did not wholly subscribe to the view that former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif’s reconciliatory position towards India had displeased his Generals. The reasons provided for the coup, he pointed out, "are to conceal the power struggle." In the seventies and eighties, Gen Sherbashin worked for the KGB in India, Pakistan and Iran. His stock in Soviet intelligence circles plummeted when his Delhi outfit advised Kremlin to write off Mrs Indira Gandhi following her electoral debacle in 1977. Emerging from isolation, the former spy, in an interview to Russian daily Novaya Gazeta reminded the world that the Pakistani armed forces "are the most organised and stabilising factor in Pakistan. Once the internal situation gets out of hand, the military steps in and restores order. I don’t think this is the last coup in Pakistan." The Central Intelligence Agency and the US Department of Defence, were linked directly, and through Pakistan, with the Afghan opposition, the General alleged. Asked about international terrorists being trained by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, he said he did not understand why so much importance was being given to the man. "Americans always need the embodiment of an universal evil Castro, Khomeini, Mao etc. There is something strange in American psychology,’’ General Sherbashin remarked. Regarding the Taliban,
he felt they would keep economic and social interests in
view once they gained complete control of Afghanistan. |
Book: Pak further developing N-arms WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (PTI) — Pakistan is further developing its nuclear capability and matching warheads to missiles posing a "challenge" to India and a threat to peace in South Asia, a leading US think- tank has warned. Pakistan is going to march forward. They have got two missile programmes... And, at some point, say (to India) here is our nuclear warhead on top of the missile and we are ready for you, Dr George Perkovich, Director of the Secure World Programme at the W. Alton Jones Foundation, said. At that point, it is very hard to figure out where you get the kind of restraints and limitations that are necessary, and so there is going to be basically an arms race in a very destabilising situation, Dr Perkovich said here on Tuesday while discussing his new book India’s Nuclear Bomb. Dr Perkovich, whose book is based on a considerable amount of declassified US government documents and documents obtained by the National Security Archive, said it is going to be very unsettling. A lot of it has to do with the internal position of Pakistan. The situation in Pakistan, he said, is extremely alarming and it is very difficult to see how internally Pakistan reverses course. If Pakistan cannot reverse course and contain the elements within its own society that are now very militant, India will face a tremendous challenge, he said at the function jointly hosted by the Timson Center and the Carnegie Endowment. Stating that "it is not China that is dangerous to India but Pakistan", Dr Perkovich said "everything that is going on in Pakistan, should be causing nightmares" to New Delhi. He said to dissuade
countries that felt threatened by China from going
nuclear, the USA had offered to give nuclear bombs to
India, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and others, with
special attention given to New Delhi. |
Meteor shower lights up desert sky SPRINGFIELD (Massachusetts) Nov 18 (AP) — Waves of fireballs brightened the skies like lightning over the sands of Arabia last night as the much-heralded Leonid meteor shower swelled into the heaviest storm of shooting stars in 33 years. Around the world, astronomers and amateur stargazers stared upward from dark fields, beaches, and mountaintops. The storm, which could be the most intense for decades to come, was probably the most studied in history. "It looks like the storm has come and gone," said NASA aerospace engineer, Jeff Anderson at the Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama. "It hit us real quick — and dropped real quick." The annual shower reached a height of intensity, as forecast, about 0200 GMT (0730 IST), raining down a storm of shooting stars at a rate of about 1,700 per hour. It trailed off to about 450 per hour within 90 minutes. Many astronomers consider 1,000 as the threshold for upgrading a shower into a true storm. About 50 astronomers
from around the world watched with wonder in the freezing
cold as the fireballs flashed over the desert, 40 km from
Jordan’s border with Saudi Arabia. |
Nazi master race project uncovered BERLIN, Nov 18 (AP) — Records on more than 1,000 children born under a Nazi project to breed a German master race have been discovered at the federal archives, a TV station report said. Most of the 7,000 babies born in Adolf Hitler’s quest for blond, blue-eyed and tall Germans were given up for adoption, and the files could allow some to indentify their parents, ARD public television said yesterday. An archives spokesman, Mr Wilhelm Lenz, confirmed that the agency has records on some of the children, but he said many files were incomplete and he could not confirm the figure of 1,000. ARD, which was to air the programme today, said its reporters discovered the previously little-known records at the archieves. Under the breeding programme known as Lebensborn, or Fount of Life, women deemed by the Nazis to fit the ideals of the German race were mated with selected men to "bear a child for the Fuehrer." The mating places were officially disguised as maternity homes. Babies born in the homes
that did not meet the racist criteria of the Nazis were
sent to orphanages, with their parents remaining
anonymous, the TV report said. |
Hole in ozone layer reported NEW YORK, Nov 18 (DPA)
— The atmosphere’s ozone layer, which protects
the earth from dangerous sun rays, has a hole that is
more than twice the size of mainland China. The UN
Environmental Programme has said. The agency on Wednesday
said the hole, which is over the Antarctic, covers 22
million sq km and has an expanse more than twice the size
of China. The ozone is destroyed by chemicals such as
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCS) used in refrigeration. |
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| Unsung singer opens fire CAIRO: Six persons were injured, some seriously, when a singer at a wedding party near here opened fire at the guests after they protested that his singing was not melodious. Police sources said the incident occurred on Monday night at the Cairo neighbourhood of Basatin when guests who did not find the singer’s singing melodious asked him to stop. When the singer refused to do so the guests dragged him off the stage which enraged the singer. The singer then took out a pistol, climbed the stage and opened fire on the crowd. — PTI Anwar’s wife to
contest Jilted husband
‘wins’ UN plane crash It’s never
too late! Jailed for
killing sister |
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