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| September 21, 2007 | Friday | Ramazan 08, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
SC continues hearing of petitions against Musharraf ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (APP) A nine-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas Friday adjourned hearing of various constitutional petitions filed by Jamaat-i-Islami, Imran Khan and others for September 24 (Monday) after A.K. Dogar, counsel for Pakistan Lawyers Forum had completed his arguments. The counsel argued that 17th Amendment and Act- 2004 were passed contrary to the constitution and the apex court should declare them ultra vires. Counsels for other petitioners as well as petitioners in person will start their arguments on Monday and conclude the same day according to the observation of the bench. During the proceedings Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi observed that when a matter (17th Amendment) had been decided by the Supreme Court how it could be discussed again. We will have to see that 17th Amendment was passed by the Parliament with two thirds majority after an agreement reached between the two parties, Justice Abbasi observed. One party of that agreement is saying we were deceived, the counsel for Pakistan Lawyers Forum contended. Justice Javed Iqbal observed, “This blame is political.” Explaining the provisions of Article 62, Dogar said, “Provisions of Article 62 of the constitution do not allow a man in services to contest election who has already violated his own oath by breaching the constitution.” Citing various judgments the counsel said that the Supreme Court gave three years to General Pervez Musharraf with direction to transfer power to civilians within the stipulated period. President Musharraf did not doff his uniform as promised and is now going to contest presidential election for the next term, the counsel said. (Posted @ 17:45 PST)
13 more missing persons traced: SC told ISLAMABAD, Sep 21 (APP) A three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was informed Friday that 13 more missing persons have been traced from three provinces. Deputy Attorney General Naheed Mehboob Elahi said that so far 145 persons have been traced out of those on lists provided by human rights activist Asma Jehangir. Out of the latest thirteen, six persons were traced in Sindh, five in Balochistan, and two were released in Punjab, she said, adding that Balochistan has seventy two missing persons. She said Asma had also provided another fresh list of nineteen missing persons. Another human rights activist Amna Masood Janjua said that according to their lists the number of missing persons stood at 465. Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry remarked that the court would be satisfied when all the missing persons were traced and directed the concerned people to expedite efforts for their early recovery. The Deputy Attorney General was directed to apprise the bench of the progress in tracing the remaining missing persons at the next hearing on October 5. (Posted @ 17:30 PST)
Six Major Generals of Pakistan Army promoted RAWALPINDI, Sept 21 (APP) The Government on Friday promoted six Major Generals of Pakistan Army to the rank of Lt-Generals and has posted them as under, said an ISPR press release; Major General Javed Zia, promoted as Lt-Gen and posted at General Headquarters; (2) Major General Shujat Zamir Dar, promoted as Lt-Gen and posted as Director General Anti Narcotics Force; (3) Major General Mohsin Kamal, promoted as Lt-Gen and posted as Commander Rawalpindi Corps. ; (4) Major General Mohammad Asghar, promoted as Lt-Gen and posted as Rector, National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST); (5) Major General Jamil Haider, promoted as Lt-Gen and posted at General Headquarters; and (6) Major General Nadeem Taj, promoted as Lt-Gen and posted as Director General Inter Services Intelligence. (Posted @ 17:00 PST)
Militants release 25 Pakistani soldiers WANA, Pakistan, Sept 21 (Reuters) Militants released Friday 25 of nearly 250 soldiers they had abducted in South Waziristan late August after the army agreed to pull out of two posts in the northwest, an official and tribal elders said. A tribal elder involved in negotiations for the release of the captured soldiers said the militants handed over the 25 to a jirga. They had released six of the captives early this month. Efforts were underway to secure the release of the others, said the elder, Akhtar Gul. “It's a good beginning,” said a senior administration official in Wana, South Waziristan's main town. The official said security forces had abandoned two hill-top positions after militants demanded that the government abide by a peace agreement signed in 2005. Another tribal elder, Aisam-ud-din, said the militants would release the other soldiers if their demands were met. (Posted @ 18:10 PST)
Fazal to follow APDM decisions on presidential election ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (APP) Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Maulana Fazalur Rehman Friday said he will follow the decisions of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal and All Parties Democratic Movement relating to presidential election. In a telephonic interview with PTV the MMA General Secretary said that the final decision about opposition's strategy would be made from the platform of APDM and all the component parties would be bound to accept it. He however said that cases are under process in the courts with respect to President Musharraf being a presidential candidate and the outcome of these cases has also to be kept in mind. (Posted @ 17:46 PST)
Toxic liquor tragedy: death toll jumps to 30 Karachi, Sept 21 (PPI): Death toll in toxic liquor tragedy in Karachi jumped to 30, as another twelve persons- eleven at Jinnah Postraguade Medical Centre (JPMC) and one at Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) - died on Friday, hospital sources said. At least 54 people, who had consumed the locally made toxic liquor in different areas of City's south zone on Thursday were shifted to JPMC and CHK. Six new cases were referred to the JPMC on Friday. Another report said a patient died at a private hospital in Mehmoodabad area. That could be 31st victim of toxic liquor. (Posted @ 20:30 PST)
Security forces posts attacked, pipeline blown in Dera Bugti, Sui QUETTA, Sept 21 (PPI):- Security forces checkposts were attacked with rockets in Sui and Dera Bugti while a gas pipeline was blown up near Sui. According to reports, terrorists attacked a checkpost with rockets and automatic weapons in Pesh Bogi area near Dera Bugti Friday. However there was no loss of life. Terrorists also blew up 9 inch dia gas pipeline in RD-238 near Sui suspending supply of gas to main plant. Official sources said that the pipeline would be repaired by Saturday morning. In Quetta, law enforcers rounded up seven suspected on charges of terrorism and subversion in raids in various parts. (Posted @ 20:25 PST)
12 injured as militants strike N Wazirstan check posts BANNU, Pakistan, Sept 21 (PPI): Suspected militants fired rockets on check posts of security forces in North Wazirstan on Thursday- Friday night, injuring about 12 security personnel. The attacks were carried out at the check posts of Army and Frontier Constabulary at Khajori Qila and Jaiser FC Qila in Mir Ali Tehsil. Security forces retaliated but no causality among the militants was reported when last reports came in. The exchange of fire continued for several hours, reports said. (Posted @ 20:20 PST)
16 killed, four injured in road accident in Killa Saifullah QUETTA, Sept 21 (APP): At least sixteen people were killed and four others injured when a Killa Saifullah bound passenger van collided head on with a Balochistan Frontier Corps truck near Nasai town, some 35 km off Killa Saifullah, on Friday. DPO Killa Saifullah Aamir Farooqi told APP on telephone the van carrying 20 passengers was coming from Muslimbagh and collided with a Zhob bound FC truck. Ten persons died instantly while six succumbed to their injuries on their way to hospital. (Posted @ 20:10 PST)
Two killed, 19 injured on Hub road QUETTA, Sept 21 (APP): Two people were killed and nineteen others were injured as an over-speeding passenger bus overturned near Ghando Pir on Hub-Shah Noorani road on Friday. The bus was carrying devotees from Karachi to the Urs of saint Shah Ahmed Noorani. (Posted @ 19:50 PST)
Neelum-Jhelum hydel project launching soon ISLAMABAD, Sep 21 (APP): Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan speaking at an Iftar dinner hosted in honour of Shakil Durrani, Chairman WAPDA, at Muzaffarabad, announced that work on the 969MW Neelum-Jhelum hydel project would start soon and the affectees will be adequately compensated. The project has been awarded to a Chinese firm and will cost about Rs.10 billion. (Posted @ 19:45 PST)
Indian court sentences 4 journalists to jail for articles critical of top judge NEW DELHI, Sept 21 (AP) - A New Delhi court sentenced four journalists Friday to four months in prison for contempt of court after they criticized a former chief justice in print. The court said the four _ two editors, a cartoonist and a publisher of the New Delhi-based Mid-Day newspaper _ had tarnished the image of the court by alleging in their articles that former Chief Justice of India Y. K. Sabharwal had ruled on the demolition of unauthorized buildings to benefit his sons' business interests. “The publications, in the garb of scandalizing a retired chief justice of India, have, in fact, attacked the very institution, which according to us, is nothing short of contempt,” R. S. Sodhi and B. N. Chaturvedi of the New Delhi High Court said in the ruling. The articles alleged that Sabharwal's ordering of the demolition of scores of unauthorized commercial buildings in New Delhi helped his sons and their business partner _ builders of shopping malls in the city. The judgment was criticized by press groups as an attack on the freedom of the press in India. “The judgment is a threat to press freedom,” said K. Sachidananda Murthy, the secretary-general of the Editors' Guild of India. “There is no bar on media discussing the conduct of judiciary,” he told The Associated Press. The others sentenced were S. K. Akhtar, the then publisher of the daily, Vitsha Oberoi, its resident editor, and Irfan Khan, the cartoonist. The four were granted bail pending their appeal. (Posted @ 19:25 PST)
75 Taliban, 6 civilians killed in Afghanistan KABUL, Sept 21 (AP) - Heavy battles punctuated by a barrage of airstrikes killed 75 suspected Taliban and at least six civilians in southern Afghanistan, while a suicide car bomb in the capital killed two people, including a French soldier, officials said. The bomb attack in western Kabul was directed against a convoy of French troops travelling in armoured vehicles. It killed one soldier and an Afghan civilian and wounded many other Afghans, hospital and NATO officials said. Heavy fighting in the south, meanwhile, killed about 75 Taliban militants over the last 48 hours, the U.S.-led coalition said. Six civilians were also killed after Taliban fighters sought shelter in their homes, which were then targeted by airstrikes in the Garmsir district of Helmand province early Friday, killing about 40 fighters, the coalition said. Six civilians, including women and children, died in a separate battle in Helmand province's Gereshk region on Wednesday after Taliban fighters sought shelter in the civilians' homes, said Gereshk district chief Abdul Manaf Khan. In another newly reported battle, more than three dozen Taliban fighters were reported killed in a clash Wednesday in Uruzgan province, the coalition said.(Posted @ 19:15 PST)
Two US soldiers die in Iraq BAGHDAD, Sept 21 (AFP) -Two US soldiers have died in Iraq, including one whose patrol vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Diyala province, the US military announced on Friday. One soldier was also wounded in the blast, which occurred on Thursday, a military statement said. Also on Thursday, a soldier died in a non-combat related incident in northern Kirkuk province, a separate statement said. (Posted @ 18:45 PST)
Romanian soldier killed in Iraq BUCHAREST, Sept 21 (AFP) -A Romanian personnel carrier drove over a landmine in southeast Iraq on Friday killing one Romanian soldier and wounding five, Defence Minister Teodor Melescanu announced. (Posted @ 18:40 PST)
Pakistani opposition decries Musharraf election bid ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (Reuters) About 1,000 Pakistani opposition activists gathered outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Friday to denounce President Pervez Musharraf's bid to win another term in an Oct. 6 election. The activists from all main opposition parties chanted “Go Musharraf go” and carried a coffin symbolising what they hope will be the death of military rule. “Musharraf - in uniform or out of uniform - is unacceptable, it's unconstitutional. We'll wreck his election,” Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a leader of an alliance of religious political parties, told the crowd. There were small opposition protests in several other towns including Peshawar, Karachi, Multan, Hyderabad et cetera, where some people threw stones at police, but there was no major trouble. (FirstPosted @ 10:49 PST, Updated @ 18:20 PST)
Bomb wounds nine including three foreigners in Algeria ALGIERS, Sept 21 (Reuters) A bomb exploded near a police convoy accompanying foreign workers south of Algiers Friday, wounding nine people, the APS news agency reported. Five of the gendarmes, the driver and three of the foreign workers - two French and one Italian - were wounded, it said, quoting the Interior Ministry. (Posted @ 18:15 PST)
27 die after consuming poisonous alcohol KARACHI, Sept 21(AP): The death toll in which people died after drinking spurious liquor has risen. At least 27 people have died after consuming poisonous alcohol, police said on Friday. The deaths were reported late Thursday and early Friday after more than three dozen people were brought to various hospitals in Karachi. Their relatives told doctors that they had consumed “poisonous alcohol,” said the city's police chief. (Posted @ 09:56 PST)
Indian army's JCO killed, youth martyred ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (APP) A Junior Commissioned Officer of Indian army's 50-Rashtriya Rifle was killed in an attack at Lam area in Tral in occupied Kashmir on Friday. Following the attack, the troops launched a crackdown in the area, in which an innocent youth was martyred, KMS reported. Separately, unidentified gunmen abducted and killed one Abdur Rashid Magray at Kellar in Pulwama while a civilian was injured in firing by Indian troops at Pattan. Meanwhile in Geneva, members of the APHC-AJK chapter delegation addressing various seminars during UN Human Rights Council's 6th session called for immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from occupied Kashmir to improve the grave human rights situation in the territory. Among those who spoke included, Syed Faiz Naqashbandi and Altaf Hussain Wani. (Posted @ 17:15 PST)
Iraq radio journalist shot dead BAGHDAD, Sept 21 (AFP) Unidentified gunmen killed an Iraqi radio journalist in Mosul’s eastern Al-Muharibeen district late Thursday, police said Friday. Muhannad Ghanim Ahmed worked for the privately owned Radio Dar al-Salam. (Posted @ 16:55 PST)
62 hospitalised after chlorine leak in east China BEIJING, Sept 21(AFP): Sixty-two villagers were hospitalised after a chlorine leak at a chemical plant in east China, state media reported on Friday. Liquid chlorine leaked from a pipeline early Thursday at a plant in Tongling city, Anhui province, and the noxious fumes quickly spread to a neighbouring village, Xinhua news agency reported. The cracked pipeline was repaired within one hour but villagers who inhaled the fumes suffered headache and vomiting. (Posted @ 11:43 PST)
Hindu god row escalates in India CHENNAI, Sept 21(AFP): A state leader in India dismissed a deity worshipped by millions as a “big lie”, deepening on Thursday a highly sensitive row over plans to dredge a shipping lane through an area sacred to Hindus. He was repeating comments made earlier this week. The chief minister of India's southern Tamil Nadu state said the government was justified in making a half-billion dollar canal that would allow ships to save more than 30 hours by skirting around the southern tip of India. Protests over his comments have already sparked protests and two deaths in the south of the country, police said. (Posted @ 10:21 PST)
Government, corporations encroaching on newsrooms: TV journalist NEW YORK, Sept 21(AP): Former network news anchor Dan Rather says undue influence of the government and large corporations over newsrooms spurred his decision to file a $70 million lawsuit against the CBS TV network and its former parent company. “Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news,” he said on CNN's “Larry King Live.” (Posted @ 09:45 PST)
U.S. indicts 39 in global money laundering case WASHINGTON, Sept 21(Reuters): A federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted 39 people in an informal currency transfer system known as hawala, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday. The defendants and one business face charges including money laundering, conspiracy to bribe a public official and operating unlicensed money transmitting businesses, the U.S. attorney said in a statement. The defendants face maximum sentences of 20 years for money laundering and conspiracy to launder money. Spain arrests two: MADRID: Two Pakistani men were arrested in Spain accused of channelling one million euros to militants, Spanish police said. They used money from drug trafficking to fund radical groups in Spain and abroad, a police statement said. (Posted @ 09:28 PST)
Turkey does not belong in Europe: Sarkozy PARIS, Sept 20(AFP): French President Nicolas Sarkozy reaffirmed on Thursday he did not believe Turkey should be admitted to the European Union. “I do not believe that Turkey belongs in Europe, and for a simple reason, that it is in Asia minor,” Sarkozy said in a prime-time interview on television. “I wish to offer Turkey a true partnership not integration with Europe,” he said. France does not want war with Iran: Sarkozy also insisted in the interview that France did not want a war with Iran over its nuclear programme, while directly accusing Tehran of seeking to develop atomic weapons. He distanced himself from remarks by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.”I would not have used the word war,” Sarkozy said. (Posted @ 09:22 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 20.56, points: KARACHI, Sep 21:At the close of trading the KSE-100 index was at 13065.17, up 20.56, points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 12:00 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, Sep 21: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.7 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 12:00 PST)
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