Army May Intervene over Pakistan’s Decline: Pervez Musharraf

Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf has warned the army may have to intervene again in politics, if the country continues to decline.

He added Pakistan may be forced to take matters into their own hands – which could include working with the Taliban – if it continues to feel alienated by the rest of the world. Musharraf was speaking exclusively to an English TV from his new home in the United Arab Emirates, where he is in self-imposed exile. There is no bar against me going back to Pakistan. But the conditions have to be right, he said.The former general is building his own political party with the intention of returning to Pakistan to take on the current government in a bid for power. It would be an astonishing turnaround for a man who resigned more than two years ago before almost certainly being impeached.

Musharraf sounds to be most concerned over the threat he sees coming from the developing relationship between America, India and Afghanistan.
They are creating an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan and America has to realize that, he said. What should Pakistan do? What should ISI (the Pakistan intelligence agency) do? What does the Army chief do? They’ll make a strategy of protecting themselves. When asked by the interviewer whether that would mean working with the Taliban. The former COAS replied: No comment, no comment.We must understand, the protection of Pakistan is everything as far as Im concerned. If someone is disturbing that I will go to any extent to protect Pakistan, because that’s what I’m meant for. So you can see the answer yourself.

He issued this warning to the West: Pakistan has to be protected. If you don’t help, if no-one helps and instead is helping the other side, the side which is trying to disturb and destabilize us, well, then Pakistan has to take its own measures. Pakistan, he said, is in a terrible state – with its economy in crisis, high unemployment, mass discontent – and this as well as having terrorists on its soil. Musharraf said his return and his attempt to become an elected politician would this time give me the legitimacy which maybe last time I didn’t have because, in the eyes of the world, I was a dictator.The man who first took power in a bloodless coup also said the army may still have to play a role in determining the future leadership. You have to remember, in Pakistan the armed forces play a very big and important role, he said. It is strong and well-administered and wherever there is turmoil, the people run to the army. I have always been of the opinion the army should have a role in the Constitution, so it can voice its opinion and influence what happens in the country. The whole world thinks that is politicising the army. It isn’t. He went onto say the army chief always had the quandary of upholding national security, ensuring the survival of the state as well as balancing that against upholding democracy. Is democracy more important than the state? he asked. This is the question that arises. And the army is in between. The Army is the saviour. The Army can save the state. It cannot save democracy.

Stocks rise; rupee eases further to new low

KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange”s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index, ended 0.73 percent, or 71.30 points, higher at 9,860.99. Turnover was 77.94 million shares, up from 50.55 million shares traded on Wednesday.

The index edged higher amid renewed interest from local investors on hopes that margin buying would soon be reintroduced in the market.

KSE authorities and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) met last month to discuss margin buying and other leveraged products, and decided to form a committee required to submit its recommendations within 15 working days.

A meeting of the stakeholders to discuss the issue took place on Thursday, dealers said, though further details were not immediately available.

“The ongoing meeting regarding leverage products enticed Investors enough to remain active through out the day,” said Samar Iqbal, a dealer at Topline Securities.

“Continued institutional support enhanced volumes, while modest profit taking from retailers was also witnessed towards the end of the session.”

The rupee edged further lower on Thursday to close at yet another record closing low against the dollar – its third in as many days – but dealers said sharp falls were unlikely in coming days.

The rupee ended at a record 85.65/70 to the dollar, down from 85.61/66 on Wednesday.

“The demand for the dollar from importers is persisting, therefore, we saw the rupee slide further today,” said a dealer at a local bank.

“However, we also saw some exporters selling dollars in the market to take advantage of the higher values, which improved dollar supplies,” he said.

Dealers said they expected the rupee to hover around current levels in days ahead, and said while it can ease slightly further, any major fall was unlikely as dollar supplies improved and demand also expected to subside.

In the money market, overnight rates rose to end at 12 percent from 11.0-11.5 percent a day earlier, and dealers expected them to remain around current levels near-term.

Forex reserves jump to record $16.77bn

KARACHI: Pakistan”s foreign exchange reserves rose to a record $16.77 billion in the week ending July 2, thanks to foreign inflows worth $750 million received during the week, the central bank said on Thursday.

The reserves stood at $15.83 billion the previous week.

“We received $470 million from the Asian Development Bank, $95 million from the World Bank and $185 million from USAID, which has pushed the reserves to a record level,” said Syed Wasimuddin, the State Bank of Pakistan”s (SBP) chief spokesman.

The previous record high was $16.45 billion, hit in October 2007, he said.

Reserves held by the SBP rose to $12.95 billion from $12.06 billion a week earlier, while those held by commercial banks edged up to $3.82 million from $3.77 billion, said Wasimuddin.

UN urges more investment in developing world

UNITED NATIONS: As major economies cope with the global financial crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged businesses to think differently about how and where they devote resources, stressing the importance of investing in developing nations to promote global growth.

“We can’t afford not to invest in the developing world. We all know that’s where the greatest need is. But that is also where some of the greatest dynamism is,” the UN chief told more than 1,200 corporate chief executives, government ministers, heads of civil society and other participants at the Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York City.

“Global economic growth requires investment in the developing world,” he stated, adding that with official development assistance (ODA) under pressure, foreign direct investment is that much more important.

Since its launch in July 2000, the Global Compact a UN initiative that seeks to foster socially responsible business practices has become the world’s largest and most ambitious project of its kind with at least 8,000 participants.

“The business community is coming to understand that principles and profits are two sides of the same coin,” noted Ban, who called on businesses to strengthen their commitment to corporate social responsibility.

He also urged business to do more to uphold human rights and labour rights, protect the environment and fight corruption, noting that business can and should be part of the solution. In addition, he appealed to business leaders to strengthen efforts to help the world achieve the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their 2015 deadline.

“In our efforts to eradicate poverty, create jobs and control disease, 10 years of experience has shown us what works and what doesn’t work,” he said. “Our challenge now is to again scale up our commitment.”

Ban encouraged leaders to take advantage of the 15 partnership opportunities identified for the summit to advance the Goals, covering areas such as hunger, green energy, protecting girls from violence and improving maternal and child health.

“As the world continues to reel from the financial crisis, and as climate change, poverty, resource constraints and other threats test our capabilities, we need business as our partner more than ever before,” he later told reporters at a news conference with some of the leaders attending the summit.

The Secretary-General also announced that the goal for the Global Compact is to have 20,000 participants by 2020. “And our commitment is to do all this while maintaining the integrity of the initiative.”

In the past two years, more than 1,300 companies have been de-listed for failing to communicate progress in implementing the Compact principles.

“The Compact may be a voluntary initiative, but that doesn’t mean it lacks teeth,” he said. Ban said that as a boy growing up in a war-torn country, the Republic of Korea, he saw what business can do to help rebuild a country and transform an entire region.

“Now as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I am delighted to have this opportunity to push the Global Compact forward to the next higher stage and equip it for its second decade,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has teamed up with the Global Compact and Save the Children in calling on the business community to work with them to develop principles to be known as the Children’s Principles for Business that will help business avoid the negative impacts that their activities may have on children.

“Protecting children’s rights is a global responsibility that requires global commitment from us all, in every sector,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

“This new partnership will help to establish clear principles for businesses to participate in the global effort to help all children, and especially those most in need.”

Oil prices ease but hold above $74 in Asia

KUALA LUMPUR: Oil prices fell Friday in Asia after recent gains but held above $74 a barrel as signs of rising demand in the U.

Original post: 
Oil prices ease but hold above $74 in Asia

G20 ministers meet in S Korea

BUSAN, South Korea: The Group of 20 leading economies should seek to support growth in the developing world to help ensure a sustainable long-term global recovery and fend off a relapse into crisis, World Bank officials said Friday.

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G20 ministers meet in S Korea

billy graham

Obama and evangelist Billy Graham share a prayer
MONTREAT, N.C. — President Barack Obama made a pilgrimage Sunday to Billy Graham’s mountainside home, concluding his North Carolina vacation with his first meeting with the ailing evangelist who has counseled commanders in chief since Dwight Eisenhower.

The 48-year-old president made the short drive to Montreat from Asheville, where he spent the weekend, to see the 91-year-old Graham and son Franklin, also an evangelist.

During the visit, which lasted about 30 minutes and included aides and advisers to both men, Obama had a private prayer and conversation with Billy Graham. The evangelist gave Obama two Bibles, one for him and one for the first lady, Graham spokesman Larry Ross said.

Obama was “extraordinarily gratified that he took the time to meet with him,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said.

Franklin Graham said his father and Obama did most of the talking. They reminisced about their roots in Chicago – Graham went to Wheaton College and began some of his ministry in the region; Obama moved to Chicago after college and began his political career there. And they talked about golf.

“The conversation was very cordial, very nice,” the younger Graham said. “When the president got ready to leave, the president prayed for my father, my father prayed for him.”

Graham said his father prayed for the nation and that God would give Obama wisdom in his decisions. The president prayed to thank God for Billy Graham’s life, Franklin Graham said.

Obama confided, like other presidents before him, how lonely, demanding and humbling the presidency can be, Ross said.

“That is a discussion that Mr. Graham has had with previous presidents who realize not only the demands but the loneliness of the job. And they’re humbled by that,” Ross said. “The only way one can do (the job) properly is to draw on spiritual resources.”
source:seattlep

world bank

World Bank gives emerging countries greater clout
The World Bank decided at a high-level meeting Sunday to give greater clout to emerging country members while also raising more money for them to work with.

The bank’s 186 members approved a capital increase of 5.1 billion dollars, the first hike in more than 20 years, to help fund record lending in the wake of the global economic crisis.

They also approved a symbolic transfer of voting rights on bank policy to developing countries, giving them a stronger voice in one of the world’s top financial institutions.

“Today was a very good day for multilateralism,” bank president Robert Zoellick told reporters after a bi-annual meeting of the bank’s development committee in Washington.

“This extra capital can be deployed to create jobs and protect the most vulnerable through investments in infrastructure, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and safety nets,” he added.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Washington would contribute 1.1 billion dollars to the increase and underscored that the change in voting weights illustrated the growing shift in power away from established nations.

“The new formula will better reflect the weight of the developing and transition countries in the global economy, while protecting the voice of the smallest and poorest countries,” he said in a statement.

Japan agreed to the biggest decline in voting rights, its first since becoming a bank member in 1952, deputy finance minister Rintaro Tamaki said.

Tokyo accepted the reduction “to contribute to realizing a shift of the voting share to the developing and transition countries,” he said in a statement.

Japan nonetheless remained the second most important bank member, well behind the United States but ahead of China.

Emerging countries now control 47.19 percent of voting rights in the bank’s decisions, Zoellick noted, before expressing hope they would achieve parity in the future.
source:thejakartaglobe

Mian Iftikhar fetes police sacrifices

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the operation of security forces has to a large extent sapped terrorists of their power in the tribal areas, Geo News reported Tuesday.

Talking to media at Police Lines here, he said the government is intent on uprooting the extremists, who are on the run as a result of security forces’ operation in tribal areas.

Extremists are beasts with no religion, as they are targeting the entire society, Iftikhar said adding the government is in the right and the terrorists will at all costs be routed.

Mian Iftikhar underscored the need for tough fight against the terrorism, urging the people to stay calm and courageous.

The blood of the police martyrs will not go waste, he said paying glowing homage to the police on their sacrifices.

Bolivia hosts ”people”s conference” on climate change

COCHABAMBA: Environmental activists, indigenous leaders and Hollywood celebrities were gathering in Bolivia Tuesday ahead of the first self-styled “people”s conference” on climate change here.

Attendees say the summit will focus on the plight of the world”s poorest, which they argue went largely ignored at official United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen last December.

The Copenhagen meeting was widely drubbed for failing to produce a new treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions and critics said the deal it produced will not avert a climate catastrophe.

The “People”s World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights,” which runs through Thursday, will draft new proposals to be offered for consideration at the next UN climate talks in Mexico at the end of the year.

Bolivia”s UN ambassador Pablo Solon said the conference, which was expected to draw some 18,000 people, was “the only way to get the climate change talks back on track.”

Developing nations have resisted a legally binding climate treaty, arguing that wealthy nations must bear the primary responsibility for climate change.

Nearly 130 countries, including many of the world”s poorest, will be represented at the Cochabamba conference.

Anti-globalization activists Naomi Klein of Canada and Jose Bove of France are set to attend, and organizers have also invited James Cameron, director of the blockbuster film “Avatar,” and James Hansen, a US researcher who was among the first to warn about climate change.

Indigenous leaders, including Nilo Cayuqueo, an indigenous Mapuche from Argentina, were also in town, concerned about the impact of climate change on their homelands.

“We have great extremes of heat and cold, and as a result we”re seeing illnesses and outbreaks that once had disappeared,” said Cayuqueo.

This week”s gathering will also give a giant megaphone to a left-leaning bloc of Latin American leaders, including presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales, the indigenous president of host nation Bolivia.

The conference will seek to refine proposals presented by Morales in Copenhagen that included the creation of a world tribunal for climate issues and a global referendum on environmental choices.

The conference begins the day after representatives from the world”s leading economies gathered in Washington for a preparatory meeting ahead of the December UN summit in Cancun.

The US-led Major Economies Forum comprises 17 countries responsible for the bulk of global emissions and excludes smaller nations such as Sudan whose firebrand negotiators held up sessions at December”s Copenhagen summit.

Washington hopes the closed-door talks will allow key nations to quietly assess what they can achieve heading into the next major climate summit in December in Cancun.

“Clearly, there is still a gap between the views of the developing and developed world,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. “We”re going to see if we can, through the course of this discussion, narrow that down.”

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