Rescue 15 service decentralised

ISLAMABAD: The Rescue 15 police unit will be decentralised and its work force will be put at the disposal of operations police.

Personnel and vehicles of Rescue 15 will be reallocated under the direct command of respective Superintendents of Police (SP) in the city’s four zones.

They will continue to respond to emergencies and will have more authority to take action. The decision was taken in a meeting between SPs and Senior Superintendent of Police Tahir Alam Khan on Saturday.

“The helpline and other facilities previously associated with Rescue 15 will continue to function the same way,” said Altaf Aziz Khattak, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Security).

“The falcons, vehicles and personnel will be allocated to police stations according to their needs,” he added.

“The idea was to make up for the lack of force and resources. Now the dedicated vehicles of Rescue 15 police will also be available for regular operations like special checking, enhanced patrolling and checking crimes,” said a police official.

At present, Rescue 15 is a separate unit of police responding only to emergency calls. It has a separate officer in-charge holding the rank of SP.

However, they could not register cases or proceed against any suspect found responsible for creating an emergency. They had to rely on duty officers from the respective police stations for further action after providing emergency assistance.

“The process was time consuming and more force and vehicles of police were utilised in the previous procedure,” said Khattak.

“Now the same officer will have authority to take action and act as the officer on duty,” he added.

Police said the decentralization of Rescue 15 police will not only reduce the existing disconnect between the officers of the four zones of Islamabad Capital Territory but will also reduce the response time.

The emergency calls for help will be received in the same way as before but they will be directed to the police station of the area concerned, where the respective supervisor will inform and move the Rescue 15 falcons to reach at the trouble spot.

All fourteen police stations of the city would forward their requirements and needs to the Deputy Superintendent of Police Security’s office after which the Rescue 15 force will be deputed at the police stations as needed.

Hillary Clinton arrives in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Islamabad for a two-day visit that will focus on economic aid and Pakistan”s role in the war in Afghanistan, Geo News reported Sunday.

Clinton arrived here today to attend at least one public event in Islamabad. Her talks on Monday will include several senior Pakistani officials, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the foreign minister.

The US top diplomat will meet President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani today.

Clinton is slated to attend strategic dialogues tomorrow.

Four industrialists nabbed for PSM fraud

KARACHI: At least four industrialists have been nabbed for embezzlements in iron purchase in Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Geo News reported Sunday.

But, the PSM’s Re-rolling Mill Associations said they are being victimized to show recovery.

According to sources, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested at least four people involved in the PSM scam.

The chief of Re-rolling Mill Association Ismat Pervaiz said, ‘We are being made the scapegoat to show recovery to the Supreme Court (SC). Re-rolling Mill Association cannot earn unwarranted profits as it is a consumer dealer.’

‘The members of Re-rolling Mill Association never took any illegal benefit; however, to save some people, we are being pressurized,’ he stressed.

Warning to take recourse to the courts if the action against them is not halted, he further said, ‘The PSM never provided us with material as per our requirements.’

Ismat Pervaiz said the PSM chief acknowledged that the RMA workers did nothing wrong, adding he would lay bare the facts in tomorrow’s press briefing.

80 killed as Maoists derail train in India

SARDIHA: Maoist rebels derailed a high-speed train packed with sleeping passengers into the path of a freight train in eastern India Friday, killing at least 80 people, police said.

It was the deadliest Maoist attack in recent memory and is likely to ramp up pressure on the government to consider calls for deploying the military in its fight against the rebels.

Police warned the death toll could rise further with more bodies feared trapped in the mangled wreckage after 13 carriages of the Mumbai-bound express from Kolkata careened off the tracks in a remote area of West Bengal.

Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said the train had been derailed by a “severe bomb blast”, but officials said they were looking at evidence that metal plates used to secure adjoining sections of track had been removed.

“It is a clear case of sabotage. The Maoists have done it,” West Bengal police chief Bhupinder Singh told reporters at the site. He said Maoist leaflets had been found scattered by the tracks.

The Press Trust of India said it had received a call claiming responsibility by the Maoist-backed People”s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), although a PCPA spokesman later contacted the news agency to deny the group”s involvement.

“The death toll has risen to 80 and we are still recovering more bodies,” West Bengal police inspector general Surajit Kar Purakayastha told a foreign news agency.

More than 200 people were reported injured, some of them critically.

US President Barack Obama, who is due to visit India later this year, expressed sympathy to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the attack.

Four of the carriages that slammed into an oncoming goods train were badly crushed and flipped on their sides leaving body parts clearly visible amid the twisted metal.

Rescue workers with bolt cutters struggled to free anyone still alive inside.

One survivor, Vinayak Sadna, said he had been sleeping when his carriage lurched violently to one side and then flipped over, flinging passengers around the compartment.

“I ended up stuck between two seats with an iron bar crushing my hand,” Sadna said. “I was trapped for three hours before I was pulled out. My wife is still missing.”

Paramedics treated the injured beside the track, while the most serious cases were evacuated by air force helicopters.

The incident occurred at around 1:30 am (2000 GMT Thursday) in West Midnapore, a Maoist stronghold around 135 kilometres (85 miles) west of Kolkata.

More than 80 passengers were taken to Kharagpur Railway Hospital where medical staff were overwhelmed by the number of wounded, some of them with serious head and spinal injuries.

“We just aren”t set up for something like this,” said hospital director Vivekanondo Mishra.

The Maoist rebellion, which Prime Minister Singh has labelled the biggest threat to the country”s internal security, began in West Bengal in 1967 and has since spread to 20 of India”s 29 states.

UN expert urges US to rethink use of deadly drones

GENEVA: The use of drones by U.S. intelligence agencies to target suspected militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere lacks the accountability required under international law, a U.N. human rights expert said Friday.

Philip Alston, a New York University law professor, will call next week for new international rules to govern the use of drones to ensure they are deployed in line with the laws of war.

The CIA”s program of drone strikes against suspected al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents has never been publicly acknowledged by U.S. administration officials, even though it has been written about extensively in the media.

A CIA spokesman said last month that the intelligence agency”s counter terror operations are conducted in strict accord with the law.

“In my view there is no legal prohibition on CIA agents, or you and me, deciding to take a ”direct part in hostilities,” which is not to say that it is desirable,” Alston told The Associated Press in an e-mail Friday.

“The problem for me is that when this happens, especially as a matter of state policy, there is no willingness to comply with any of the requirements as to transparency and accountability which are central to international humanitarian law.”

The independent U.N. investigator is due to present a report to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Thursday about the use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, to carry out targeted killings.

In an interview Tuesday on a radio of Australia, Alston said only the United States, Israel and Russia currently use drones to carry out targeted killings, but other countries were likely to begin using them for similar purposes in future.

“We”ve got to look at rules for the future, which will govern all countries,” he told the radio.

Alston, an Australian, suggested the rules should specify that suspects who aren”t wearing uniforms could only be targeted if they are directly observed taking part in hostilities.

More importantly, he said, countries needed to ensure that those charged with carrying out the drone strikes could be held accountable.

“We have to know who they are targeting. Not lists of names or anything like that, but the criteria that are being used, and then there”s got to be some follow-up,” Alston said in the radio interview.

“The CIA, by definition, is not accountable” except directly to President Barack Obama, he said.

Alston suggested that, unless the intelligence agency”s work could be made transparent, the role of conducting drone strikes should be transferred to the military, who were better versed in — and capable of abiding by — international law.

Officials at the U.S. mission to the U.N. in Geneva didn”t immediately respond to a request for comment.

hezbollah

Hezbollah says its missiles not Israel’s business
A Hezbollah government minister refused Friday to confirm or deny Israeli allegations that the militant Lebanese group has acquired Scud missiles.

In the first Hezbollah comment on the Israeli charges, Minister Hussein Haj Hassan said the group was always arming and preparing itself but, “what we have is not their business.”

Israeli defense officials have said they believe Hezbollah has obtained Scud missiles capable of hitting targets anywhere in Israel. Israel’s President Shimon Peres earlier this week directly accused Damascus of providing the weapons.

Israel has not offered proof to back up the claim, and Syria’s Foreign Ministry strongly denied the charge, saying it “believes that Israel aims through these claims to further strain the atmosphere in the region.”

It added that Israel could be setting the stage for a possible “aggression in order to run away from the requirements of a just and comprehensive peace.”

Haj Hassan also told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV Friday that Israel possessed all kinds of weapons, including nuclear warheads.

“It’s only natural for Lebanon to have the means to defend itself against an Israeli attack,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.

Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has said his militants have more than 30,000 rockets and are capable of hitting anywhere in Israel. Those claims match Israeli intelligence assessments.

Some Scud missiles have a range of hundreds of miles (kilometers), meaning that guerrillas could launch them from deeper inside Lebanon and farther from Israel’s reach. Scuds can carry a warhead of up to 1 ton, making them far larger than the biggest rockets previously in Hezbollah’s arsenal, and are also more accurate.

Also Friday, around 20 villagers from the southern Lebanese town of Abbasiyeh removed a barbed wire that was set up three days earlier by Israeli troops just south of the Blue Line, which separates Israeli and Lebanese forces.

18th Amendment Bill tabled in Senate

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) Senator Raza Rabbani has presented the 18th Amendment Bill 2010 in the upper house, Geo reported Monday.

While Opposition Leader in the Senate Wasim Sajjad has opposed the tabling of bill in the wake of prevailing situation in Hazara Division against the renaming of NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa.

The landmark 18th Amendment Bill has already been unanimously adopted by the National Assembly.

Speaking to media on Sunday, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had said his party would vote against the bill due to the resistance being shown by Hazara community against renaming of NWFP.

President Zardari inks PIDE Bill 2010

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday gave assent to a bill giving degree-awarding status to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

President Zardari, who inked the bill here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, hoped the institution would produce Ph.Ds, M.Phils and Masters in Economics and help the country in meeting the requirements of highly trained economists in public and private sectors.

He said a number of economists of international repute have been associated with PIDE and there is a need to recognize its merit and make it a degree awarding institution.

In his brief remarks, the President said the new law was a recognition of the strengths and capabilities of the institution and it had given it greater responsibilities.

The President was also appreciative of the Speaker National Assembly and Chairman Senate for the passage of important legislation.

Under the new law that has already been passed by the National Assembly and the Senate on January 18 and March 24, the main purpose of the institute is to provide for education and scholarships in such branches of knowledge as it may deem fit, and to make provision for research, service to society and for the application, advancement and dissemination of knowledge in such manner as it may determine.

Under the new bill the Institute shall have academic, financial and administrative autonomy, including the power to employ officers, teachers and other employees on such terms as may be prescribed, subject to the provision of this Act and the Higher Education Commission Ordinance, 2002.

President Zardari said PIDE was a world class center of teaching and research on economic development and wished the institution success in its new role as a degree awarding institution.

The President underlined the need for out of box solutions to achieve high rates of growth for Pakistan.

The needs of the country have increased with the rise in population from 45 million in 1970s to 170 million today, he said adding, “we should tap all our resources to meet aspirations of people.”

The President said the world is changing fast and the process of learning should continue from cradle to grave to meet new challenges.

The signing ceremony was attended among others by Deputy Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi, Federal Education Minister Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali, parliamentarians and leading economists and academicians.

4 million to perform Umrah this year

JEDDAH: More than four million faithful will offer Umra this year and 1.1 million Umrah visas have so far been issued this year, with over 400,000 of their recipients having already arrived in the Kingdom, the Saudi government said.

Saudi authorities have appealed to hoteliers in Mecca to comply with the requirements of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities to obtain licenses.

Saudi official advised pilgrims to verify that they are dealing with the authorized travel agents.

US to ship unarmed drones to Pakistan: Pentagon

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon hopes “within a year” to deliver around a dozen unarmed drone aircraft to Pakistan to aid its fight against Islamic extremism, a US senior military official said Monday.

“I would like to think that we would get them there within a year, but quantity and so forth, I think, will depend on what are the right ones, and how many make sense for the fight that they”re in,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official told reporters that while the United States is looking at sending about a dozen aircraft to Islamabad, the actual number of drone aircraft “could be more or less, depending on the need.”

“What we are trying to do is get with them to be able to articulate the requirements of what they need,” the official said.

Efforts are underway by US officials to “match the right equipment to the requirements. That”s what we are trying to work them through.”

Pakistan previously has also urged Washington to outfit its military with armed aerial vehicles like the Predator and Reaper.

US drone missile strikes against Al-Qaeda and Taliban figures in Pakistan have fueled anti-American sentiment because of civilian casualties, and drawn public condemnation from the government in Islamabad.

The United States has carried out nearly 100 attacks with unmanned drones in Pakistan since August 2008, killing more than 830 people. Figures range widely on how many civilians have been killed.

The unnamed official said Washington could supply around a dozen smaller, unarmed Shadow drones to Islamabad, to help with their surveillance and reconnaissance activities.

“We looked at Shadows, we looked at ScanEagles,” among other drones, the official said. “Shadow drones may in fact be the right platform at the end of the day.”

Shadow drones — smaller than the armed Predator and Reaper aircraft — are about 11 feet (three meters) long and have a wing-span of 14-feet (4.3 meters) with sensors and cameras feeding video images back to operators on the ground.

Pakistan”s military already has some drones of its own production which it uses for surveillance, but which are less sophisticated than those manufactured by the United States.

Last week, Pakistan”s foreign minister said the United States would improve its public standing if it let Islamabad spearhead armed drone attacks.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in Washington for high-level talks, acknowledged in a CNN interview that drone attacks by US forces against Islamic extremists on Pakistani soil have “taken out some valuable targets.”

But he said: “The issue of sovereignty is there. People of Pakistan feel strongly about it.

“We want the ownership. We make the decision when to operate,” he said. “It will help improve the feelings in Pakistan,” he said.

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