PM not afraid of jail, says Defence Minister

 

Talking to the media at Lahore Airport, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani respected the judiciary and was not afraid of jail as he had spent many years in prison.

 

The defence minister blamed the Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif for not taking any more interest in the memo case and left for London after raising the issue.
 

S Arabia: 1 killed, 3 injured in clash with forces

 

Activists and witnesses said the casualties came when security forces opened fire on a Shiite demonstration in the Qatif district of the kingdom s Eastern Province.

 

“A security force patrol came under heavy gunfire from masked men while it was carrying out its duties in Al-Shwaika neighbourhood in the Qatif district on Thursday,” SPA reported, quoting a police spokesman in the province.

 

Security forces “responded,” prompting “an exchange of fire that left four of the rioters wounded, one of whom died before reaching hospital,” it added.

 

Activists and witnesses said that security forces opened fire when a Shiite procession marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) — a celebration forbidden in ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia — turned into a demonstration for reform and the release of Shiite detainees.

 

“Munir al-Medani, 21, was wounded by a live bullet to his chest,” one activist said, requesting anonymity. “He was taken to hospital where he later died of his wounds.”
A number of other protesters were also wounded, the activists and witnesses said.

 

Witnesses said the shooting prompted groups of young protesters to burn tyres and police to set up checkpoints across the district.

 

Medani s death raises to six the number of protesters killed since demonstrations erupted in the Eastern Province last March against Saudi-led military intervention to help crush Shiite-led pro-democracy protests in neighbouring Bahrain.

 

Activists say that Saudi authorities have arrested nearly 500 people since the protests started. Many have been released but dozens remain in custody, among them human rights activist Fadel al-Munasif and writer Nazir al-Majid.

 

In January, Saudi authorities published a list of 23 men wanted on suspicion of involvement in the disturbances.

 

Later the same month, the interior ministry announced that security forces had arrested nine people suspected of involvement in the wounding of three policemen in the Eastern Province.

 

Most of Saudi Arabia s estimated two million Shiites live in the province, where the vast majority of the kingdom s huge oil reserves lie. They complain of marginalisation in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.
 

US group rejects accusations of interference in Egypt

 

Accused of interference in Egypt s affairs, US pro-democracy groups whose staff are to be tried in Cairo reject charges they are working secretly for the US government, which largely finances them.

 

Barrie Freeman, director of the North Africa region for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), one of the US groups whose offices were raided in December, denied the NDI has a hidden agenda.

 

“We trained thousands of candidates, hundreds of them were from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist party,” Freeman told AFP, referring to Islamist groups that won a decisive majority in recent parliamentary elections.

 

“We don t favor any party over another. We don t fund parties directly. We don t fund revolutions. We trained poll watchers, we sent international election observers,” she said.

 

“The program components included bringing people who had been through transition in their countries at high level.

 

“We brought in a former general from Indonesia, we brought politicians from Chile and Poland to share their experiences,” Freeman said.

 

Since December, ties between the United States and Egypt s interim military rulers have become strained, and Washington has raised the possibility it could withhold military aid worth $1.3 billion a year.

 

“It s really puzzling,” says Charles Dunne, the Middle East and North Africa director at Freedom House, another US-funded group raided in November.

 

“There is a campaign to try to shut down or control completely the civil society in Egypt,” Dunne told AFP.

 

“We re involved in civic education,” he said.

 

Egyptian authorities disagree, accusing the groups of undermining the military-run government during a fragile transition following last year s ouster of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, once a close US ally.

 

Egyptian Judge Sameh Abu Zeid said in Cairo that the NGOs are operating “without license,” and that their work “constitutes pure political activity and has nothing to do with civil society work.”

 

But the US State Department said Thursday that it has not yet seen any document outlining the charges against the groups.

 

If convicted, the members of these organizations could be sentenced to five years in prison, according to another judge, Ashraf Ashmawi.

 

Activists opposed to Egyptian military rule see the accusations as an attempt to silence them under the banner of fighting “plots” from abroad.

 

The US-funded groups reject the charge they are secretly working for the US government.

 

“It s unfair,” said Eric Trager, a specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 

“If it s a foreign funding issue, these groups shouldn t be targeted exclusively, it should be the Salafist party, the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt is a poor country. Everyone receives money from abroad,” Trager said.

 

The NDI said it is financed up to 81 percent by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development. Its board of directors is chaired by Madeleine Albright, who was president Bill Clinton s secretary of state.

 

The NDI, which was present in Ukraine during the 2004 “Orange Revolution” and works on five continents, is not “affiliated” with the US government, said Kathy Gest, who is in charge of public relations.

 

John McCain, an influential senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, is the chairman of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute, also targeted by Egyptian authorities.

 

On its website the IRI says it is financed through subsidies from US government agencies.

 

For its part, Freedom House has a budget of $25 million for 2012, with $21 millions coming from the US government, according to communications manager Mary McGuire.

 

But for Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the question of financing is secondary.

 

“The same activities have been carried out in Belarus for at least 12 years and haven t produced very much,” Carothers told AFP.

 

“This idea that there is some kind of sinister technology that very quietly, the US or certain European actors go into countries and prepare them for revolution, is colorful and sounds like a good spy movie.”

 

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood wants govt sacked

 

Egypt s Muslim Brotherhood has called on the ruling generals to sack the military-appointed government, saying it has failed to manage the deteriorating security and economic situation in the country.

 

The Islamic fundamentalist Brotherhood controls nearly 50 percent of the seats in the new parliament, by far the single largest bloc to emerge from Egypt s freest and fairest elections in decades. Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said on Thursday the military should appoint a Brotherhood representative as prime minister, who would then form a new government.

 

The calls for sacking the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, come after deadly soccer riot that sparked days of clashes between protesters and the police. At least 74 were killed in the riot on Feb. 1 and at least 15 more died in the clashes that followed.

 

“We call on the military council to sack this government that has failed to handle this big event and to form another government,” said Ghozlan. “If there is a government in place that is really backed by the choice of the people, it will act without regard for any pressure from anyone. It will seek to reassure the people and provide it with security,” he added.

 

There have been periodic bursts of protests and deadly clashes since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak a year ago. There has also been a wave of crime, notably a spate of bank heists, over the past few weeks.

 

Military troops deployed around the country starting Wednesday in an attempt to restore some security, and as state media said, “restore the state s prestige.” Mobile patrols roved main roads and squares, and other troops guarded government ministries, banks and other public buildings.

 

Many blame police for the failure to stop the deadly riots and criticize the police for excessive use of force to break up ensuing protests. The deadly week renewed accusations that the ruling military council had mismanaged what was supposed to be a transition to democracy and revived calls for the generals to step down.

 

The security surge comes just days before a general strike starting Feb. 11 the one year anniversary of Mubarak s ouster to demand the quick transfer to civilian rule. The call has gained traction, and was widely criticized by the military and the Brotherhood as an attempt to destabilize the country.Adding to the precarious security situation, tribesmen briefly kidnapped 18 Egyptian border guards along the frontier with Israel in the Sinai Peninsula before releasing them.

 

Security officials said the Bedouin tribesmen snatched the guards from positions along the border to protest the killing of one of their members, a smuggler, as he tried to sneak into Israel days ago.

 

After holding negotiations with tribal leaders, the kidnappers freed the guards, one of the security officials said.
The Brotherhood calls for forming a new government appear to be partially in response to growing dissent.

 

Essam el-Erian, a leading Brotherhood lawmaker, said negotiations to form such a government have not begun yet, and could only happen with the approval of the military council.

 

“We are a considerable bloc that can create an agreement over such a government,” he said. “The country needs an effective government.”

 

Military generals had previously said they would not be opposed to a government formed by the parliament majority. The legislature s primary task remains selecting the 100-member constituent assembly which will be entrusted with writing the country s new constitution.

 

Many among Egypt s liberal and secular revolutionary groups have grown critical of the Brotherhood, accusing it of attempting to monopolize the political scene and of working closely with the ruling generals. The youth-dominated groups fear the Brotherhood may strike a deal with the military council giving the military a future say in politics to ensure the Brotherhood s hold on authority and influence the writing of a new constitution.

 

The deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat el-Shater, told the Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera that a wide-based coalition government should reflect the sizes of the respective political groups in parliament, but also include technocrats and public figures.

 

He said he expected it to be led by a member of the Brotherhood s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party.
“We will not monopolize the government,” el-Shater told Al-Jazeera late Wednesday.

 

Emad Gad, a lawmaker from the liberal Egyptian Democratic Socialist Party, which has 25 seats in the parliament, said his party won t join a coalition government but will remain in the opposition bloc.

 

“Didn t they win the majority? Let them manage the country and put up with the responsibility,” Gad said.

 

The domestic tension comes amid a growing rift between Egyptian rulers and the country s longtime strategic ally, the U.S. Egyptian officials have cracked down on foreign nonprofit pro-democracy groups, including four American organizations, accusing them of using foreign funds to foment protests in the country.

 

Judges referred 16 Americans and 27 others, including Europeans and Egyptians, to trial on these charges, in an escalation that threatens to rock Cairo s once-solid relations with Washington.

 

Just days before a general strike called by protesters goes into effect, another U.S.-affiliated institution, the American University in Cairo, came under scrutiny and accusation by the military rulers as an instigator of unrest.

 

A Facebook page affiliated with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces hinted that the university, operating in Egypt since 1919, was the latest tool of the U.S. administration and its security agencies to weaken Egypt. The site is not the official page of the council, but often reflects its views.

 

AUC students had announced they will be taking part in the rolling general strike starting Saturday. The Facebook page said university students are campaigning for the strike, implementing a foreign plot with Egyptian hands. Most of the university students are upper class Egyptians.

 

“Is the American University in Cairo one of the tools of the U.S. administration and its different security agencies to work inside the country and take part in the plot to topple Egypt and occupy it by 2015,” the statement said.
 

Long history of PML-Ns revenge tactics against media

 

There is a long history of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-L) revenge tactics against print and electronic media.
Sanctins, arrests and registration of cases against mediamen is trademark of PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif.

 

State machinery, including Income Tax Department, FIA, Police and National Accountability Bureau, was used to suppress the voice of a newspaper when PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif was prime minister. But all these revenge tactics failed.

 

A renowned journalist was also abducted from his house during Nawaz Sharif tenure as PM but once again he failed in his bid against freedom of the press.

 

PML moved a resolution in the Punjab Assembly against journalists when Shahbaz Sharif was chief minister. The journalist community across the country condemned this resolution and staged countrywide protests forcing PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to take back this resolution.

 

The revenge tactics of Punjab government under PML-N continues and this time they have targeted News Trends but they will fail again in their nefarious designs.
 

Turkey may move as Syria presses assault in Homs

AMMAN: Syrian forces thrust into the rebellious city of Homs on Wednesday, killing dozens of civilians by the accounts of opposition activists, and Turkey appeared to be preparing a new push against President Bashar al-Assad.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who on Tuesday said he was making ready an initiative uniting those Western, Arab and other

states which have called for Ankara’s former ally Assad to step down, was due to speak to Russia’s president, whose government has angered many by blocking a move against Assad at the U.N.

Moscow’s foreign minister, however, having visited Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, made clear Russia was still opposed to any peace talks that were conditional on Assad first stepping aside.

A newspaper close to the Erdogan government said Turkey planned to organize a conference with Arab and Western governments in Istanbul, part of a broader initiative that may be outlined later on Wednesday. A NATO member and rising Muslim power in the region, Ankara is sheltering Syrian rebel army commanders and has spoken of creating safe havens for refugees.

As the diplomatic gears turned, the military offensive in Homs and elsewhere showed no sign of let up, while activists in the city also accused militiamen of slaughtering three families in their homes – the sort of incident that is fueling fears of a descent into more widespread, Iraq-style sectarian killing.

The day’s total death toll stood at 67, activists said.

The onslaught on Homs, one of the bloodiest of the 11-month-old revolt against Assad, has not relented despite a promise to end the bloodshed that the Syrian leader gave to Russia, which saved Damascus from U.N. Security Council action on Saturday.

In the latest assault on Homs, troops fired rockets and mortars while tanks entered the Inshaat neighborhood and moved closer to Bab Amro, the district hardest hit by bombardments that have killed at least 150 people in the last two days, activists in the city and opposition sources said.

“Electricity returned briefly and we were able to contact various neighborhoods because activists there managed to recharge their phones. We counted 47 killed since midnight,” activist Mohammad Hassan said by satellite phone.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said countries with influence over the Syrian opposition should press them to enter a dialogue with Assad, comments that made clear Moscow had no immediate intention of abandoning its long-time ally.

Lavrov was speaking in Moscow a day after he met Assad in Damascus, where he said both nations wanted to revive an Arab League monitoring effort that was suspended due to violence.

Erdogan would speak about Syria with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev later on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. Erdogan described the Russian and Chinese veto of the U.N. resolution as a “fiasco.”

Syrian opposition figures, who said Lavrov had brought no new initiative, spurn Assad’s promises of reform as meaningless while his troops are killing civilians and say he must go.

Walid al-Bunni, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), dismissed Lavrov’s dialogue proposal.

“The Arab initiative is clear. Assad must step down and Syrians will then be ready to sit together at a table with whoever succeeds him to discuss a democratic transition,” the head of the SNC’s foreign policy committee told Reuters.

Western and Arab states frustrated by the Russian and Chinese vetoes of their draft U.N. resolution are seeking to isolate Assad and bolster those opposed to his 11-year rule.

MILITIAMEN

Pro-Assad militiamen shot dead at least 20 civilians in Homs when they stormed their homes on the outskirts of opposition areas overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rami Abdelrahman, who heads the British-based Observatory, told Reuters the unarmed victims were a family of five, one of seven and one of eight.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities and the report could not be verified. The authorities have placed tight restrictions on access to the country.

Activist Hassan said bombardment intensified in the early morning, targeting the Sunni Muslim districts of Bab Amro, al-Bayada, al-Khalidiya and Wadi al-Arab, all hostile to Assad, whose minority Alawite sect has dominated Syria for five decades.

“Mortar and rocket fire has subsided, but heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns are still strong,” he said. “Tanks are in main thoroughfares in the city and appear poised to push deep into residential areas.”

The state news agency SANA said “armed terrorist groups” had attacked police roadblocks in Homs and fired mortar bombs at the city, with three falling on the Homs oil refinery, one of two in Syria. It gave no details of any damage.

SANA said funerals had been conducted on Tuesday for 30 members of the security forces.

Army deserters and insurgents, at least nominally commanded by officers based in Turkey, are fighting back against Assad’s violent response to what began as a mostly peaceful protest movement and now threatens to slide into sectarian civil war.

DIPLOMATIC PRESSURE

“Assad is seeing the civilized world turn against him and he thinks he will win if he uses more brutal force before the world could act,” said Catherine al-Talli, a senior SNC member.

The attack on Homs has intensified Western and regional diplomatic pressure on Assad. The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council recalled their ambassadors from Damascus on Tuesday and expelled Syrian envoys from their own capitals.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd called in Syria’s charge d’affaires Jawdat Ali on Wednesday and told him it was time for Assad to “find an exit strategy before the situation in Syria degenerates further and more lives are lost.”

Russia’s veto of the Security Council resolution on Syria went beyond protecting an ally and arms buyer, analysts said. It showed Moscow’s determination to crush what it sees as a Western crusade to use the United Nations to topple unfriendly governments.

The same holds true for China, which followed Russia’s lead and joined Moscow in striking down a European-Arab draft resolution that would have endorsed an Arab League plan for Assad to transfer power to his deputy to prepare free elections.

“There are all sorts of political interests involved but there is also a basic difference about whether the international community should be involved in internal conflicts against the will of the government,” said David Bosco of American University in Washington. AGENCIES

Pakistan hunts for survivors as factory toll hits 19

LAHORE: Pakistani rescuers on Tuesday pulled more survivors and bodies from the rubble of a factory that collapsed in the city of Lahore, as the death toll rose to 19 after the disaster.

The three-storey building used to manufacture veterinary medicines came crashing down after a probable boiler and a gas cylinder explosion at the premises in the congested Multan Road area on Monday, police said.

There was jubilation more than 30 hours after the accident when an elderly woman aged about 70 was pulled out alive from the rubble. Rescue workers said they were also clearing a route to recover two boys also spotted alive.

Emergency teams spent night and day digging through the debris with their bare hands, increasingly desperate as cries for help started to recede from mostly women and children trapped beneath concrete slabs.

Workers and volunteers used everything they could — hammers, axes, chisels and shovels — to shift the rubble and pull out the injured, coated in dust.

“We hope to clear most of the rubble by tonight,” local rescue chief Rizwan Naseer told reporters, saying that workers were digging tunnels under the rubble to pull out more injured people and dead bodies.

“It is a very slow and difficult operation,” Naseer added, saying it took almost five hours to pull out two women alive overnight.

Police official Shoaib Khurram told AFP that 19 people had been killed. Among the dead were at least 11 women, three young girls and three boys.

The toll is thought likely to rise further with dozens still believed to be trapped under the concrete mass.

Police said the factory was illegal. Local residents said it had been shut down twice since 2008, but that the owners reopened the premises each time.

“The owners violated the court orders and broke the seals,” said top local administration official Ahad Cheema.

Most of those trapped under the rubble were believed to be women and children hired to package the medicines at Orient Labs (Private) Limited.

The factory spotlighted poor safety procedures among Pakistani manufacturers and the use of child labour.

The state-run Jinnah Hospital said it had received 31 injured people, seven of them still in the surgical ward which was smelly and crowded.

Welder Mohammad Amin, who suffered minor facial injuries, said he had just arrived at the factory on Monday morning then the explosion happened.

“The whole building shook with a huge noise and everything tumbled down as if a massive earthquake has struck,” he told AFP.

“The roof fell in. There was an iron table nearby and I survived with its support,” the 40 year old said. “I remained there and kept shouting for help, and eventually the rescue workers pulled me out three hours later.”

Saba Shafiq, sister of 12-year-old Mohammad Anis whose right arm was in a plaster cast, said poverty forced the family to send him out to work.

“We are poor people. My father is old and and sick. Our economic condition is bad, we found this factory in our neighbourhood,” she said.

“They paid him around 7,000 rupees ($77) which is not bad for a poor family like ours. It offered great help to our family,” she said.

Eight million people live in Lahore, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) southeast of the capital Islamabad. It is considered Pakistan’s cultural capital and perhaps the most liberal city in the conservative Muslim country. AGENCIES

Kashmiris form human chain on Solidarity Day

 

Rallies were also held across Pakistan Sunday to denounce Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan state.

 

A Pakistani public holiday, Kashmir Solidarity Day supports the region s right to self-determination in line with UN resolutions that call for a plebiscite in Kashmir on whether it should be ruled by India or Pakistan.

 

“At least 1,000 people formed a human chain at the Kohala bridge near the regional capital, Muzaffarabad”, said an eyewitness.

 

They also later held a rally and chanted, “We will fight until Kashmir is free of Indian clutches. We want freedom.”

 

Banners calling for Kashmir s freedom from Indian rule were put up by main roads and intersections across Pakistan and thousands of people in the country held protest rallies.

 

In the morning, Pakistan observed a one-minute silence as a mark of respect to the more than 47,000 people killed since an insurgency broke out in mainly Muslim Indian Kashmir in 1989.

 

Rallies were held in the northwestern city Peshawar and eastern city Lahore where people expressed solidarity with Kashmiris and chanted, “Kashmir will become part of Pakistan and Kashmir is Pakistan s jugular vein.”

 

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, in a special message, reiterated the country s “fullest moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris in their just cause”.

 

“It is indeed imperative that the noble principles and values that underpin the just Kashmiri cause are upheld and supported by all justice and freedom loving peoples across the world,” Zardari said.

 

In his message, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said “a peaceful settlement of the dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people is a must to ensure peace and prosperity in the region”.–AFP

Nawaz urges for early ouster of PPP govt

Talking to PML-Likeminded leaders Humayun Akhtar and Haroon Akhtar at Raiwind, PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif said that it is necessary that all opposition parties should work collectively to oust corrupt PPP government.

 

Humayun Akhtar said that his party in convinced that all factions of Muslim League should join hands to initiate a forceful movement against central government so that the government could be ousted which confronted the country with political crises including electricity and gas deficiency.

 

The overall political situation and senate election were also discussed during the meeting.

 

PML-N hints to support 20th Amendment

Pakistan People’s Party delegation comprised of Raza Rabbani, Khurshid Shah and Naveed Qamar called on Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz leaders Ch Nisar, Ishaq Dar and Ayaz Sadiq. According to the sources, PML-N hinted for supporting 20th amendment for providing constitutional protection to by-elections.

 

According to sources, PML-N also demanded to include establishment of an interim set up before the general elections, with the consultation of the government and the opposition, in the 20th amendment.

 

However, the sources claimed that there is a deadlock between both parties on this issue. PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf and Manzoor Watto also have met with JUI-F chief Maulna Fazalur Rehman in Islamabad in order to get his support on the said amendment.
 

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