Washington, Mar.19 (ANI): Pakistan has reportedly decided to return four Russian-built Mi-17 helicopters, which were given to it for free by the United States less than a year ago.
According to a Pentagon spokesperson, Islamabad has decided against keeping the helicopters, which were used extensively against extremists in the tribal regions, after one of them crashed in February killing at least one person on board.
“Pakistan has recently informed us of its intent to return the helicopters in accordance with the lease agreement,” The AOL News quoted the spokesperson, as saying.
The transfer of helicopters to Pakistan was technically seen to be a lease agreement between Islamabad and Washington. However, Pakistan was not asked to pay for their use.
The chopper which crashed had a problem with the tail rotor. This accident prompted Pakistan to request that the leased helicopters, at least one of which was more than two decades old, be returned to the United States.
Pakistan’s request to return the ageing choppers has also been confirmed by a US State Department spokesperson. He, however, denied to comment further on the issue and referred further queries to the Pentagon.
Pakistani Armed forces have had several crashes involving Russian helicopters in the past few years, including that of a Mi-17 accident which killed more than two dozen soldiers. (ANI)
Islamabad, Mar.19 (ANI): Influential Pakistani scholar Dr Tahir ul-Qadri has issued a 600-page ‘fatwa’ against terrorism and suicide bombing.
Speaking to reporters after releasing the ‘fatwa’ here, Qadri said suicide bombers are ‘destined for hell’ and that Islam does not support violence in any form.
“Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence, and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it,” The News quoted Qadri, as saying.
Qadri said the Al-Qaeda has not been sufficiently challenged and that his global ruling against terrorism completely dismantles the banned terror organisation’s violent ideology.
In his 600-page ruling, Qadri said Islam forbids the massacre of innocent citizens and suicide bombings.
The fatwa also challenges the religious motivations of would-be suicide bombers who are inspired by promises of an afterlife.The famous Muslim scholar developed his document last year as a response to the sudden increase in suicide bombings across Pakistan.
The fatwa, which is being promoted in Britain by Qadri’s organisation, Minhaj ul-Quran International, covers global issues in an attempt to get its theological arguments taken up by Muslims in western nations.
Terming the fatwa as ‘hard hitting’, Minhaj ul-Quran International’s spokesperson Shahid Mursaleen said the ruling would inject doubt into the minds of potential suicide bombers.
“Extremist groups based in Britain recruit the youth by brainwashing them that they will with certainty be rewarded in the next life. Dr Qadri’s fatwa has removed this key intellectual factor from their minds,” Mursaleen said. (ANI)
Islamabad, Mar.19 (ANI): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has reportedly accepted former President General Pervez Musharraf’s application to register a new political party named-All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), thus clearing the road for Musharraf to return to the country for another political stint.
Sources privy to the development said Musharraf was trying hard to register the party through some of his loyalists in the country for quite some time, and has now finally succeeded.
Sources said the application filed by the ECP named some of the office-bearers of APML such as Barrister Saif as Chairman, Sher Alam Khattak as President, Chuadhry Abdul Ghafoor as Senior Vice President, and Rai Mulazam Hussain as Secretary General.
Commenting on the reports regarding Musharraf staging a comeback, Major General (retired) Rashid Qureshi, while confirming that Barrister Saif was serving as a legal advisor and spokesman of Musharraf, said the former premier has still not decided to join the newly floated party.
Qureshi said though Musharraf enjoys huge public support, he is unlikely to join the APML in the coming days.
“Musharraf has not yet decided to join the party and is waiting for right time to join Pakistani politics. There are 155,000 members of Pasdaran-e-Pakistan and 150,000 lovers on face book. Its shows how much popular he is in the masses,” The Nation quoted Qureshi, as saying.
Musharraf has himself made it clear on several occasions that he would return to Pakistan if the country needs him and if he garners sufficient support.
But with numerous pending cases against him in various courts across Pakistan and the opposition, particularly the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) pushing for his high treason trial, the former general’s return seems to be a distant dream.
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said Musharraf might have initiated his return by launching a new party, but is highly unlikely that any prominent personality will join his force.
“I don’t think any politician worth the name will join the new party. But some of those who are neither here nor there in the political field may choose to align themselves with it just to be in the limelight,” Hussain had said a few days ago.
Even Musharraf’s confidants say there is no point in taking the risk of facing detention on return by the former president when the overall situation in Pakistan is hostile and unfavourable for him and there have been demands for his arrest and trial.
During a recent television interview, Tariq Aziz, once Musharraf’s right hand man and the former secretary of the National Security Council, said the his ‘boss’ will not return to Pakistan.
Aziz did not mention the time and period as to when Musharraf would return, but his statement confirmed that he would not board a flight to Islamabad unless the situation in Pakistan changes ‘radically’.
“It would be Musharraf’s own judgment to come back to Pakistan or stay abroad,’ said another Musharraf loyalist Mohammad Ali Durrani. (ANI)
Islamabad, March 18 (IANS) India is facing an internal divide on the issue of talks with Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said here Thursday.
Talking to journalists ahead of the Pakistan-US strategic dialogue in Washington March 24, Qureshi asserted that there was no clarity in India over effective engagement with Pakistan.
“Pakistan is a responsible country and we have no need for any certificate,” he said.
Replying to a question, Qureshi accused India of what he called “Indian war enthusiasm”, and asserted that Pakistan did not want to start an arms race in the subcontinent.
Karachi, March 18 (IANS) Controversies in cricket and hockey have forced Pakistan President Asif Zardari to issue orders to the country’s sports authorities to take “concrete step” to arrest the decline.
According to a report in The News Thursday, Zardari has taken note of Pakistan’s falling standards in sports and has termed it a major problem facing the country like the menace of load-shedding.
Quoting sources, the report said that Zardari – who is also the chief patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) – is unhappy with the way things are going in major sports like cricket, hockey and squash and wants concrete steps to be taken to make things better.
“The president has termed our country’s sports decline as a major problem like load-shedding. He has lamented the national hockey team’s poor performance in the World Cup and has also expressed concerns over the ongoing cricket controversies,” a source said.
The president has asked the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports to give its suggestions and make recommendations to bring about improvement in the field of sports.
Sports in Pakistan has been hit hard in recent times with problems ranging from poor performance of the players to the incompetence of the people running games like cricket and hockey.
Meanwhile, the head of the National Assembly sports committee has asked Asif Bajwa – the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary – to resign over Pakistan’s World Cup debacle.
“We will ask Asif Bajwa to step down as PHF secretary as our team failed miserably under his supervision,” said Jamshed Dasti, chairman of the sports committee.
“If he will not quit, we will launch a campaign for his removal,” added Dasti. “PHF needs change as it has become inevitable for betterment of national hockey,” he stressed.
Dasti said that his committee might summon top PHF officials and players for a meeting later this month.
“We may summon PHF players and officials March 27 after the conclusion of National Assembly session,” he concluded. Pakistan crashed to a catastrophic last-place finish in the Hockey in New Delhi following defeats against old rivals India, England, Australia and minnows South Africa and Canada.
Islamabad, Mar.18 (ANI): Several federal ministers, the army chief, General Asfaq Pervez Kayani, the director-general of the ISI, Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha and many federal secretaries will leave for Washington on Saturday to attend the fourth round of the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue on March 24.
According to a report in the Dawn, Pakistan’s foreign policy gurus are terming the dialogue as a ‘renewed process’ and as one of the most intense diplomatic engagements that the two countries will have.
The paper claims that the U.S. representation at the dialogue, upgraded to ministerial level, will be equally strong.
The team will be headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Other members will be National Security Adviser James Jones, Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and a number of other top officials of the Obama administration.
The level of participation by both sides, analysts believe, is indicative of the desire of Islamabad and Washington to give a new meaning to their bilateral relations hitherto marred by trust deficit.
“This round is going to determine the future of Pakistan’s relations with the United States,” a top official told Dawn, after attending one of the preparatory sessions aimed at developing a unified perspective among the country’s state organs for this engagement with Washington.
Pakistan is often referred to by Washington as a ‘key regional player’ and a ‘major non-Nato ally’ with whom it eyed a ‘long-term engagement’, but it is probably the first time that Islamabad’s strategists are feeling that the time has come to tell Washington to move on from symbolism and concretely address Pakistan’s core security concerns and its immediate economic needs.
Among the issues on which Islamabad desires solid assurances are protection of its legitimate interests in Afghanistan; normalisation of relations with India, including resolution of the Kashmir issue; end to instability in Balochistan; accepting Pakistan as a declared nuclear weapons state and thereby quashing all rumours that the US was secretly working to defang the country.
On Pakistan’s wish-list is also a strong desire for civilian nuclear cooperation on the pattern of India-US deal. Although Pakistan primarily wants nuclear cooperation to meet its growing energy needs, the issue has a political connotation also because Islamabad doesn’t want to see itself discriminated against and at a disadvantage vis-à-vis India.
Strong emphasis will also be placed on Pakistan seeking market access for its products in the US and economic assistance at the dialogue, which now includes new strands like strategic stability, security, public diplomacy and health.
Pakistani policy makers are hoping to gain major concessions through the dialogue. (ANI)
Islamabad, Mar.18 (ANI): A few days ago Pakistan Punjab province’s Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s almost begged the Taliban to spare the province from violence. It was rather unusual for a political leader pleading to an outlawed extremist outfit to exempt the region which certainly highlights the fact that the roots of militancy have grown deeper into Punjab’s soil.
Existence of terrorist groups in Punjab is nothing new as there have been reports regarding several militant organisations thriving in the region such as the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Jaish-i-Mohammad, Sipah-i-Sahaba and Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, but the situation has never been so bad.
Recently, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) issued a ‘red book’ containing the list of most wanted militants across the country. In the list of 119 criminals there were 25 suspects belonging to Punjab, the highest number for any province. This underlines the seriousness of the issue.
Terrorism is spreading to other parts of the country as well but nowhere has it has acquired the enormous stature as it has in Punjab.
The need is for a comprehensive plan to check the terror menace from making further in roads in Punjab, but the task seems to be really difficult as the nothing much is being done to address the wider problem of infrastructure of hate and religious intolerance that is thriving in the province, often under official patronage, an editorial in The Dawn said.
No matter how many militants the state captures or kills, there will always be more if the pipeline of hate continues to churn out brainwashed foot soldiers, the editorial added.
The Punjab authorities must find a way, and the will, to shut down the pipeline of hate and intolerance before its tool late, it concluded. (ANI)
Islamabad, March 18 (DPA) A five-year-old British boy who was released by his kidnappers in Pakistan after the family paid a ransom in Europe was reunited with his father Thursday, the British High Commission here said.
The kidnappers left Sahil Saeed along a road Tuesday in the eastern province of Punjab near the town of Jhelum, where he was abducted in a March 3 robbery at his grandparent’s home.
His father, Raja Naqash Saeed, flew from Britain and was reunited with his son Thursday at the the Islamabad residence of British High Commissioner Adam Thomson.
“Everyone was in very good spirits and, of course, delighted about his return,” a statement from the mission said.
Members of Sahil’s family, including his grandmother, were also at the reunion. Sahil and his father were expected to fly back to their family home in Oldham in Great Manchester.
Spanish police announced Wednesday that a Pakistani man and a Romanian woman were arrested for collecting a ransom of 111,000 pounds ($168,000) for Sahil in Paris and the money was recovered.
French police also arrested two Pakistanis as being accomplices.
Washington, Mar.18 (ANI): While stressing that talks between India and Pakistan is the key to reducing heightened tension in the region, US Central Command Chief General David Petraeus has warned that any Mumbai type terror strike in India would certainly ‘re-ignite’ hostility between the two nuclear powered nations.
Testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, General Petraeus said any significant terror strike in India would severely dent efforts to reduce strategic tensions prevailing between India and Pakistan.
General Petraeus pointed out that any major escalation in tensions on Islamabad’s eastern border with India could adversely affect gains made in the country’s northwest and Tribal Areas along the Afghan border.
“A major escalation in these tensions would almost certainly result in the immediate redeployment to the east of Pakistani forces currently deployed to confront militants in the West, risking forfeiture of gains in FATA and the NWFP,” The Daily Times quoted General Petraeus, as saying.
“This suggests a need for India and Pakistan to continue discussions begun on February 25 in order to reduce the strategic tension and the risk of miscalculation between these nuclear states,” he added.
General Petraeus said the United States is working to see an improved Indo-Pak relation and it firmly believes that both countries should continue the peace talks despite there being certain provocations. (ANI)
Islamabad, Mar.18 (ANI): Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani may soon appoint former PML-Q leader, and one-time Musharraf loyalist Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat as the country’s finance minister.
According to talks doing the rounds in Pakistan, Hayat is expected to take oath within the next 48 hours, as he has already had separate talks both Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari.
But what is most noticeable is that Hayat is managing a massive hedge fund in Dubai of over one billion dollars which is apparently owned by India’s Ambanis.
The hedge fund is called New Silk Route Partners (NRS) and is 1.4 billion US dollars fund owned by the Ambanis with some local partners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Hayat had served as the Privatisation Minister in Musharraf’s regime, during which he was involved in the infamous privatisation deal of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).
The big question is how would Hayat look after Pakistan’s already sluggish finance when he could not even safeguard the national interest in one multi-billion dollar deal, The Daily Times said. (ANI)