Singh rejects Annas three-week deadline

Amid this, the Indian government has taken first awkward little steps for a dialogue with the civil society leaders.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh broke the pattern of official denials of any scope for any modification in the government Lokpal Bill by offering dialogue and discussions on the draft law.

He said while there was scope for “give and take”, it might not be possible to meet Anna s three-week deadline for passing the bill.

Team Anna s Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan appeared to be responding to this when they said at a press conference that Anna s deadline was not a threat but only “an expression of his fundamental right to express his opinion”.

The two also added they were open to dialogue but no one from the government had approached them so far.

While it s difficult to say whether these overtures would lead to meaningful talks, there was growing appreciation in the government of the fact that the anti-corruption movement was steadily gaining popularity and there was need for an urgent political response to it, especially as Anna s fast had already crossed 110 hours (five days).

With the Hazare group insistent that the government s Lokpal bill be replaced by its “stronger” version, the PM indicated the official bill was not the last word.

Lahore: Allotment of land for police stations cancelled

LDA had allotted the land on the request of the police department for nine police stations. Out of these police stations, land of only Samanabad Police Station is under the possession of PHA while 8 police stations have already been established on the remaining land.

However, LDA has cancelled the allotment of these police stations’ land and has suggested the government to construct libraries and hospitals on these locations.

According to DIG Operations Ghalam Mahmood Dogar, an application has been forwarded again for the allotment of land to three police stations while another application would also be forwarded for the allotment of land to the remaining police stations.

He said that several police stations in the city are in dilapidated condition.

Govt. plans petroleum levy on CNG

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Petroleum has decided to impose a petroleum levy on compressed natural gas (CNG) of Rs. 5 per kilogram, TrendPK reported on Tuesday.

This latest decision comes a week after the government increased the price of CNG by Rs. 6 per kilogram.

The ministry says that the government will earn additional revenue of Rs. 12 billion through this levy.

Officials say the decision has been made to reduce the profit of CNG owners. They say that the CNG sector could not be promoted any further due to the country’s depleting gas reservoirs.

On the other hand, the CNG Association has rejected the proposed petroleum levy on CNG and called a meeting on August 11 to chalk out its next strategy. TrendPK

UK Deputy PM Clegg defends response to London riots

He also rejected claims government failed to provide leadership as the capital was hit by rioting over the weekend because senior ministers were away from London.

As it emerged that Theresa May, the Home Secretary is flying back to the UK for talks with police chiefs about the disturbances; Clegg defended the government s response to the trouble and condemned what he described as “needless opportunistic theft and violence – nothing more, nothing less”.

On his first day back in Westminster after his summer holiday Clegg said the violence was “completely unacceptable”. The government stood “side by side with those people in those communities who utterly condemn the violence and the theft”, he said.

There have been complaints that the government did not have a senior minister in London at the weekend when the rioting broke out. But Clegg insisted that senior members of the cabinet had been in regular contact by phone.

“I reject completely this notion that somehow this government hasn t been functioning very effectively,” said Clegg, who said he had spoken to David Cameron, who is on holiday in Italy, by phone on Monday morning.

“We have arranged things to make sure that this government works effectively on all the issues of the day. We are in constant contact with each other and we are working as effectively this week as we do in every other week of the year.”

Govt failed to control prices: Nawaz

Talking to mediamen after having a meeting with PML-N coordination committees, he said the yellow cab scheme was announced in the budget.

According to plan, 20,000 cabs would be launched at once and distributed candidly on easy installments. It would not only eradicate unemployment but also promote the industrial sector.

He suggested that the federal government should launch such schemes on national level.

He said that the government had failed to control over price hike. If the expenses of government are curtailed, “we need no foreign aid”, he added.

CM Shahbaz Sharif himself drove the cad while Nawaz Sharif sit on the front seat and Zafar Iqbal Jhagra and Pir Sabir Shah in the rear.

10 fishermen released from Indian jails

They said that they were misbehaved in Indian jails. A large number of fishermen are still in the captivity of India. Most of them have become psyche cases, they added.

They have appealed the government and human rights organisations to get the languishing prisoners released from cruel clutches of Indian brutal forces.

It is worth mentioning that these fishermen erroneously crossed the Indian jurisdiction in the sea and were arrested by Indian forces in 2008.

Pakistani stocks up; rupee firms; o/n rates unchanged

KARACHI: Pakistani stocks ended higher on Friday, as investors accumulated energy sector shares following a rise in international oil prices, dealers said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark 100-share index . KSE ended 0.39 percent, or 47.63 points, higher at 12,377.77.

Turnover fell to 102.6 million shares from 111.86 million traded on Thursday.

“The increase in international oil prices helped the KSE-100 index to close 50 points up,” said Samar Iqbal, a dealer at brokers Topline Securities.

Dealers expect a steady market in the coming days, despite the hit to sentiment from the government’s decision to maintain a capital gains tax on individual investments in the budget for the fiscal year 2011/12 (July-June), announced last week.

In the currency market, the rupee PKR= ended at 85.68/71 to the dollar, firmer than the previous day’s close of 85.73/77 because of a lack of import payments.

The rupee hit a record low of 86.50 last month, and dealers said the local unit may face some pressure in the days ahead due to increased demand for dollars for import payments.

In the money market, overnight rates remained at the top level of 13.90 percent, unchanged from previous day’s close amid tight liquidity in the interbank market.

India govt faces yoga protest crackdown outcry

NEW DEHLI: India’s government faced new protests on Monday after it ordered police to crush a peaceful anti-corruption demonstration at the weekend led by a famous yoga guru.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), emboldened by an opportunity to revive its flagging fortunes, started a demonstration attended by its leading figures amid an outcry over the raid on Sunday morning.

Local television channels broadcast new footage of police using batons on supporters of television yoga star Swami Baba Ramdev, who was on hunger strike with thousands of followers in New Delhi to protest against corruption.

“Our agitation against the crackdown on Baba Ramdev’s supporters will continue until the government admits their mistake. They will have to pay for this,” BJP president Nitin Gadkari told reporters in the capital on Monday.

Other hardline Hindu nationalist groups also rounded on the government, saying the crackdown on Ramdev, a devout Hindu and spiritual leader, was an insult to the religion.

“By insulting Baba Ramdev they have insulted all the Hindu gurus and saints,” the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) said in statement on Sunday.

Anger about corruption is high in India after a series of scandals involving the government and the ruling Congress party, notably a $39-billion telecom scam that saw a minister arrested.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had initially attempted to negotiate with the eccentric saffron-robed Ramdev, with a succession of ministers sent to talk with him about his proposals to end corruption.

Some commentators said the sudden adoption of hardline tactics could give the guru’s movement oxygen amid signs the political opposition and other civil society activists were coalescing behind him.

“The operation was successful, but it extracted a political price,” The Economic Times said in a report on Monday.

Political analyst Ashis Nandy was quoted by The Times of India as saying that the government “panicked unnecessarily.”

“The protest would have fizzled out,” he said.

Ramdev, who flew back to his ashram in the northern town of Haridwar, resumed his hunger strike on Monday and vowed to build his campaign into a national movement to challenge the government.

“People from all walks of life are disgusted, they are hating the federal government,” he said in an address to his followers. AGENCIES

“All the political parties, representatives from the civil society are supporting us, they are giving us strength at every level,” he said, adding “the government is trying to terrorise us but their tactics will not work.”

At least 71 people were injured in the police raid on Ramdev’s camp on Sunday, with one man suffering a fractured skull while a woman sustained serious spinal injuries that are likely to leave her paralysed, a medical source told AFP.

India’s Supreme Court also weighed in on Monday, asking the police and home ministry to explain their decisions over the weekend.

Ramdev’s main request is that Singh’s administration forcibly repatriate so-called “black money”, cash in foreign bank accounts suspected of being used for bribes or other illegal transactions.

The bearded yoga teacher and healer also wants the death penalty for corrupt officials and has called for large-denomination notes to be withdrawn because they are used in illicit transactions.

Police said he did not have permission to hold such a large protest in New Delhi numbering at least 50,000 people, while the government accused him of reneging on a deal to call off his demonstration.

Using the platform of his daily appearances on the country’s top religious channel Aastha TV, Ramdev has increasingly entered politics, challenging the government on corruption, gay sex and modern medicine.

His current campaign is against corruption, but also rails against Indians sending their children overseas for education, foreign technology, Western medicine, industrially produced food and the use of English in India.

Pakistani land will not be allowed to use for terrorism: PM

Talking to the media in Quetta, he said that war on terror was not an ordinary war, but a guerilla war with international repercussions. He said that the government wanted that the country’s land should not be used for terrorism.

He said that Pakistan wanted peaceful relations with Afghanistan and India, adding that the government would devise the foreign policy keeping in view the national interests. He said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government believed in the independence of media and civil rights, and that the protection of the journalists was the government’s top priority.

The prime minister categorically stated that there was no political prisoner in the country. He also denied that any journalist was in the custody of the government.

He said that the package of Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan was given for the development of Balochistan. He said that he visited the province this time only to review law and order, but would come again with one point agenda and that would be the development of Balochistan.

He said that the United States had confirmed that Ilyas Kashmiri was dead.

The prime minister said that Pakistan and China enjoyed good relations, adding that no agreement had been made to hand over Gwadar Port to China.

He said that Pakistan should have drone technology, adding that intelligence sharing persisted between US and the ISI. He said that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was told that there was a tremendous pressure on the government with regard to drone attacks.

He also said that the government policy was to give people employment and not to render them jobless.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani were also present during the media talks.

Earlier, Gilani said that the world should recognise Pakistan’s efforts in war on terror.

Addressing a ceremony at Command and Staff College in Quetta, the prime minister said that the world had become a global village and no country could survive in isolation.

The prime minister said that the indigenous issues of every country had been internationalised and no country could solve its problems alone.

11 days remain to save Pak. hostages from Somali pirates

KARACHI: Only 11 days have remained behind for saving four Pakistani hostages lives from the clutches of Somali pirates while desperate families’ cries and worries continue to mount after seeing no concrete effort from the government for their rescue, TrendPK reported on Sunday.

Somali pirates’ last deadline for ransom against release of four Pakistani ship crew members will end after 11 days. As the days of deadline are closing to an end, the hopes of the victims’ families are fading as the government has given them nothing but desperations.

The families of all four hostages including Captain Wasih have lost faith in the government of the country as it is doing no concrete effort or show consent to pay the cash required for the ransom.

Seeing no other way, the families of Pakistani hostages appealed to the people of Pakistan, through media, for cash donations to accumulate required amount for the ransom.

The people of Pakistan have showed great concern over the appeal of the desperate families and started to deposit donations, according to their affordability, in their given account no. 1066-0081-009278-01-9, Bank Al-Habib, Buffer Zone Branch, Karachi.

One generous Pakistani from Canada, Farooq Ahmad, has vowed to donate 50,000 Canadian dollars personally and get further aid from his fellows, immediately after seeing news report on TrendPK today.

Apart from Farooq Ahmad, all generous Pakistanis living in the country or abroad are trying to help, within their capacity, the families of the hostages captured by the Somali pirates, many months ago, but yet the government has done nothing except mere statements. TrendPK

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