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No chance of governor’s rule in Sindh: Ishrat
Meat sellers warned of cancellation of shop licences
Over 4,000 candidates for KU admissions
FIR against Hashmi presented in court
The News staffer among 8 hurt in Quetta blasts
Afghan forces lose control of seven districts in Zabul
No chance of governor’s rule in Sindh: Ishrat
KHAIRPUR: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad on Monday said
there was no chances of governor’s rule in Sindh although the progress of
the Sindh Assembly was unsatisfactory.
"Frequent rumpus and uproar in the House though
affect the assembly’s working but there is no political instability in
Sindh," the governor told newsmen after the inauguration of the two-day
celebrations of the 182nd annual Urs of Hazrat Sachal Sarmast at Daraza
Sharif.
He said the government has formed monitoring committees
and the DCOs are taking care that there was no hike in the prices of the
edibles during Ramazan. The governor claimed that law and order situation in
the province had improved.
Earlier, Ishrat-ul-Ebad inaugurated the Urs celebrations
and laid Chadar at the poet’s grave. Addressing at the ceremony, he said
Sachal imparted the lesson of love, tolerance and brotherhood among people
irrespective of their colour, caste and creed.
Speaking for the first time in Sindhi language he paid
glowing tributes to the great Sufi poet and said the Sindh government was
committed to serve the people of Sindh without any discrimination. He
announced a grant of Rs1 million for urgent repair work at the Dargah.
The governor also gave away Sachal Awards to Dr Sakhi
Qabool Muhammad, Sajjadah Nasheen Dargah Sachal Sarmast for doing his PhD in
Sufism, to Dr Malik Nadeem on his PhD on Sachal’s poetry, to Taj Joyo for
his research article on Sachal, Ahmad Khan Madhosh as best poet, Laldino Shar
as best Sughar, Deeba Sahar as best singer and a posthumous Life Achievement
Award for late Jamshed Faqir to his son Wujood Ali Shar.
Earlier, DCO Khairpur Rizwan Memon welcomed the
participants and highlighted the activities of Sachal Yadgar Committee.
Sajjadah Nasheen Dargah Sachal Sarmast presented a gift of local "Khes"
to the governor and spoke about the mysticism of Sachal and his contemporary
poets.
Minister for Zakat and Ushr Irfan Gul Magsi said Sachal’s
poetry gives an eternal message of love, peace and tolerance to the human
beings. He said Sindh government had allocated huge amounts for preserving
poetry of the Shah Latif, Sachal Sarmast and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and has
established research and publication cell. He said 5,000 copies of Sachal’s
Deewan-e-Aashkar had also been published for distribution to the relevant
quarters.
The minister said Rs25 million have been allocated for the
renovation of Mazar of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Rs 100 million for the Mazar
of Qalander Lal Shahbaz, Rs 10 million for the Mazar of Ghazi Abdullah Shah
and Rs1 million for the Mazar of Sachal Sarmast.
Zila Nazim Khairpur Nafeesa Shah, while welcoming the
governor, urged him to pay heed to the urgent requirements of Dargah Sachal
Sarmast and also other two of Ibrahim Adham Sultan and Ubhan Shah in the
mountainous range in Khairpur district. She also informed that a scheme of
Sachal Cultural Complex had been approved and hopefully the work would start
very shortly.
The governor, who was accompanied by Advisor for
Information Salahuddin Haider and Secretary Culture Gul Muhammad Imrani, also
attended Mehfil-e-Sama where Suhrab Faqir, Motan Shah, Sher Shah and their
parties performed Sufiana Kalam of Sachal Sarmast.
The governor announced Rs 100,000 for folk singers of
Sachal and Rs20,000 for lady singer Deeba Sahar.
Meat sellers warned of cancellation of shop licences
KARACHI: City Nazim Naimatullah has said that the city
government has decided to eliminate the role of middleman from the meat
(merchandise) so that citizens could be saved from the wrath of synthetic
shortage of meat and
overcharging.
Besides, he said, the city government would cancel
licences of meat shops in its markets if the respective retailers do not open
their shops and start selling meat at prescribed rates at the earliest.
Addressing a press conference at Civic Centre on Monday,
Naimat said that the Arhat (commission) system in meat business in Lahore had
already been banned and the CDGK would also bring the role of the middleman
from the cited business to an end. He said that the Karachi and Lahore-based
exporters had started supplying mutton in city at the rate of Rs135 and the
price would further be revised downward after Ramazan.
"The city government has accepted the challenge as we
tried our best to convince meat merchants to sell meat in Karachi at the
prescribed rates but they did not agree and went on strike," he added.
Ruling out the impression being given by the meat
merchants that the meat export had caused shortage of cattle, he said that
the rate of export was negligible as only 125,000 cattle were exported in a
year while over 300,000 cattle were slaughtered daily in Pakistan.
Naimat said that city government was going to ask the Town
Police Officers concerned to provide security to the shopkeepers so that they
could open their shops without any fear of their so-called leaders.
Speaking on behalf of the City Nazim, the Executive
District Officer Enterprise and Investment Promotion Department, City
Government, Raees Paracha said that the meat sellers of Baldia, Shershah,
Agra Taj and Saeedabad had complained that they were being harassed by the
meat merchants’ association leaders.
They also said that they were fed up of their the
association leaders and want city government to provide security to them so
that they could open their shops, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, the owner of a export company,
Arif Ghyas said that there was enough reserves of livestock in Pakistan and
they would cater to the entire requirement of meat in Karachi.
On behalf of meat exporters he assured the city government
of full support and said that they would meet the entire requirement of meat
in Karachi.
The retailers of meat were innocent but their leaders, who
were giving wrong impression about the cattle reserves, are exploiting them,
he said adding that the present population of goats and sheep; and cows and
buffaloes in Pakistan were 77 million and 46 million respectively with a
growth rate of 3.5 per cent per annum.
He informed that the exporters, through the elected
representatives of towns and UCs, had supplied 2,400 goats in Karachi since
Sunday. All cattle farmers would soon start supplying cattle to the exporters
if the butchers continued their strike, after which the exporters would
easily meet the entire requirement of meat in city, he added. Other meat
exporters including Tariq Mahmood Butt of PK Livestock & Meat Co Private
Ltd and Ghous Mohammad Khan of G M Trading Establishment were also present on
the occasion.
Over 4,000 candidates for KU admissions
KARACHI, Nov 10: As many as 4,062 students have applied for admissions to academic programmes in MA, MSc, MLIS, MCom in the University of Karachi, said official sources.
Admissions are being allowed on the basis of marks, which the applicant students obtained in the qualifying examinations. The director of the KU admission committee, Dr Mudassiruddin, said that provisional, merit list for Masters courses would be released on Nov 17. "Due to extension in the dates of submission of admission forms, work has increased considerably, but, we are making all efforts to follow the schedule given by the university," he said.
The University of Karachi has offered a total of 2,411 seats for Masters classes. The number of applications has increased by 23 per cent in comparison to the previous year, said a source, adding that two new departments - Petroleum Technology and Chemical Technology/ Engineering - have also been added this year.
The University holds separate process for admissions to MPA, MSc Applied Physics, Master in Computer Science, MSc in Environmental Studies and MBA courses.
In all, 1,354 seats have been allocated in the Faculty of Arts while 807 seats in the Faculty of Science, 100 seats in the Faculty of Business Administration and Commerce, 150 in the Faculty of Islamic Studies.
The maximum of 150 seats have been offered in the Department of Economics, followed by 100 seats in General History, Islamic History, Chemistry, Zoology, Commerce, International Relations and Political Science departments, The Department of Urdu has offered 95 seats, followed by the Department of Genetics where 72 seats have been offered, while 65 seats have been offered in the Department of Special Education.
The closing percentage for admissions for the year 2003 at some of the departments remained as follows: Chemistry 61.06, Education (BEd) 61.62, Physiology 60, Pakistan Studies 58.97, Mass Communication 58.67 and Microbiology 58.06.
FIR against Hashmi presented in court
ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: The government on Monday produced for the first time a copy of the FIR and the remand orders in the case of Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy President Javed Hashmi before the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court.
The court did not provide the copy of the FIR to Syed Zafar Ali Shah, the counsel of the petitioner, MNA Maimoona Hashmi, but allowed him to examine it and jot down the contents of the report. It took almost two hours for Mr Shah to copy the FIR and the two remand orders by hand.
The court is expected to hear arguments in the habeas corpus case on Thursday. It will be the fourth hearing of the petition filed under Section 491 of the Criminal Procedure Code, seeking production of Mr Hashmi.
On Monday, when the matter was taken up by Justice Mansoor Ahmad, the counsel for the Islamabad police produced the copy of the FIR and the remand orders. He said that after the submission of the FIR and the relevant record, the habeas corpus petition had become infructuous. Advocate Munir Bhatti asked the court to allow the law to take its due course and dismiss the petition.
Punjab Advocate-General Shabbar Raza Rizvi, appearing on court notice, stated that the production of the detainee was not "essential for the decision in the habeas corpus petition."
Mr Shah said he had not yet got a copy of the FIR. He asked the court to order the production of the detenu. He said he would like to argue the petition after examining the contents of the FIR.
The court fixed Nov 13 as next date of hearing. The petitioner's counsel told Dawn that the first remand order produced before the court did not carry the name of the judicial officer or the signature of any official concerned, and it was "a carbon copy."
He said he would demonstrate that the order was bogus and Mr Hashmi was kept in illegal custody. The FIR, No.326, registered at the secretariat police station, stated that the complainant, Khurshid Ahmad, was a resident of House No.97, Street 96, Sector I-8/4, Islamabad. This was the first time that the whereabouts of the man who reported the matter to the Islamabad police on Oct 29, about nine days after the letter in question was distributed by Mr Hashmi, came to be known to the defence lawyers and the general public.
The complainant stated that he went to witness the proceedings of the National Assembly on Oct 20 and he heard Mr Hashmi speaking at a press conference in the NA cafeteria. In the press conference, Mr Hashmi distributed an unsigned letter titled: "To the national leadership."
The letter contained material against President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the government and the armed forces and an attempt was made in it to malign them, he alleged.
The complainant said Mr Hashmi tried to create misgivings and hatred against the armed forces and incited them to mutiny. He said Mr Hashmi read out the letter in which he made misstatements about the Kargil incident. He accused Mr Hashmi of lying by saying that causalities in the Kargil incident were more than those suffered in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
The complainant stated that Mr Hashmi had made a misstatement by saying that Gen Javed Hasan worked under the United States Central Intelligence Agency for four years when he was a major-general in the army. The complainant stated that the letter, prima facie, appeared to be bogus. The letter pad of the general headquarters also seemed to be bogus as it carried no signature of any official, the complainant said.
The complainant stated that Mr Hashmi had said in his press statement that the fact that he himself distributed the copies of the letter was enough to show that it was authentic. He alleged that Mr Hashmi and others had forged the letter on the GHQ pad to divide the army and incite its officials.
The News staffer among 8 hurt in Quetta blasts
KARACHI: Two journalists and six policemen were injured in
three bomb blasts in Quetta on Monday. Reports said Muhammad Ejaz Khan,
correspondent of The News in Quetta, and Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Crime Reporter
of Jang, Quetta, were inspecting the site of the bomb blasts in a garbage bin
in Satellite Town, where the police were already present. In the meantime a
second blast occurred in which the journalists and the policemen there
received injuries. The injured policemen were identified as DSP CID Khalid
Gurmakani, SHO CID Syed Ikram Zaidi, Inspector Muhibullah, Police Driver
Faras Mehmood, Constable Tabarak Shah and Abdul Majid. The injured have been
shifted to the Civil Hospital. Dr Abid told Geo TV that most of the injured
were hit by shrapnels on various parts of their bodies. He said they were out
of danger. Ejaz Khan received injuries in his head, face and hand, while his
eye was also hurt in he explosion. Ajmal Khan sustained minor wounds. Late
night Ejaz Khan was shifted to CMH, Quetta.
Afghan forces lose control of seven districts in Zabul
KABUL: Afghan authorities have lost control of at least
seven districts in troubled south-east Zabul province, the deputy governor
said on Monday.
But tribal chiefs and elders, rather than resurgent
Taliban forces, were in control of the areas, Mawlawy Muhammad Omar said.
"There is no government control over Atghar, Naw Bahar, Shinkay and
Shamazai in the south of the province," Deputy Zabul Governor Omar told
AFP by satellite phone from the provincial capital Qalat.
"There are some other districts such as Shahjoy, Dai
Chopan and Khak-e-Afghan where the government has no control but the Taliban
do not control these areas either." He said Taliban fighters were moving
around the districts on motorbikes. "But they aren’t powerful enough
to threaten the administration," Omar said.
Government militiamen were unable to go to the seven
districts due to a lack of men and equipment, he said. He said government
forces withdrew last month when US-led coalition forces disarmed them due to
"wrong information" from the governor of south-east Ghazni
province. "Government troops in Naw Bahar district left the area when
Americans detained the district chief and disarmed his men," Omar said.
He said government forces could return to the districts if
the coalition returned their weapons. Omar had earlier told the private
Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that "Taliban or their
supporters" were in the districts, and that they were preparing to try
and take Qalat.
While another Zabul official denied reports by Afghan
Islamic Press that the Taliban had taken control of four districts of the
province. "Sometimes the Taliban are creating problems in some
areas," said the governor’s spokesman, Noor Ahmad. "But we
control all districts of Zabul."
Meanwhile, an official said Afghanistan’s central
government must do more to help its supporters outside Kabul who are facing
mounting attacks by Taliban insurgents. "The Taliban are attacking, but
nobody is paying any attention," said Zafar Khan, head of the Khak-e-Afghan
district in the southern province of Zabul.
Speaking by satellite telephone, Khan told The Associated
Press that loyalists want the government of President Hamid Karzai to send
more troops to protect the remote mountainous region. Khan said four of his
relatives also had been kidnapped by the Taliban.
"Afghanistan has become another battleground. Afghans
have been dying now for two decades and are fed up with this," Khan
said. "The central government should send a delegation to see what’s
going on here." The government also should press the "neighbour
country" to do more to stop insurgents crossing the frontier, he said,
in an apparent reference to Pakistan. He refused to elaborate.
Meanwhile, US forces on Monday announced a fresh operation
against militants in northeast Afghanistan’s Nuristan and Kunar provinces,
two years after the fall of the Taliban. Operation "Mountain
Resolve" began with an air assault in Nuristan and neighbouring Kunar on
November 7, spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram Air Base,
50 kilometres north of Kabul.
"The purpose of Operation Mountain Resolve is to
destroy and disrupt anti-coalition forces and deny sanctuary to them,"
he said. Troops from the US 10th Mountain Division, Special Operations Forces
and air forces along with Afghan militiamen were taking part in the operation
in the remote and "tough terrain " bordering northwest Pakistan’s
Chitral district.
Davis said the operation was launched "to meet
objectives in the war against terror," which were to "kill, capture
or deny sanctuary" to anti-coalition forces. "The coalition
undertakes such operations in support of the Islamic Transitional Government
of Afghanistan," the colonel said. But he refused to elaborate on why
Mountain Resolve was launched. Nuristan intelligence official Syed Omar told
AFP that US troops had been deployed at Want and Watapo in central Nuristan’s
Waigal valley, 170 kilometres northeast of Kabul. Afghan officials say eight
people were killed in a US-led coalition air raid in Waigal valley on October
30, but the US military has denied any knowledge of the incident.