Kashmir News : Time to resolve Kashmir as per UN resolutions: Gen Raheel

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Flood management shortcomings remain to be addressed : Latest News, Pakistan News Today

Flood management shortcomings remain to be addressed 

Meeting notes that most of 61 critical weaknesses of flood protection program have not been addressed
By Khaleeq Kiani 

 
ISLAMABAD: Shortcomings in flood management and infrastructure weaknesses which caused large-scale devastation during the floods of 2010 and 2014 are still to be addressed and most of the people responsible for the catastrophe have been cleared. As a result, there are fears that similar situations may emerge during the current flood season, causing more severe losses in life and property. This was the main issue taken up in an inter-provincial meeting on flood preparedness held here on Tuesday. It was presided over by Water and Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif and was attended by Chairperson of Benazir Income Support Programme Marvi Memon, federal secretary of water and power, provincial irrigation secretaries and heads of Meteorological Office, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Wapda, National Engineering Services of Pakistan and National Highway Authority. On the basis of reports submitted by provincial irrigation secretaries, the meeting noted that most of the 61 critical weaknesses of the flood protection programme had not been addressed and a severe flood could cause more losses to the life and property than the country suffered in 2010. It was reported that the Sindh government had failed to take remedial measures and flood protection steps to avert a recurrence of human losses. The situation in Balochistan is no different. 

It was noted that only the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had taken significant remedial and con reactive measures and was ahead of other provincial governments. The performance of the government of Punjab, the meeting noted, was the story of the glass being half full and half empty. The meeting was convened in accordance with a directive of the Supreme Court seized with a petition of Marvi Memon seeking inter venation to address 61 critical weaknesses of the flood protection programme. Ms Memon said at the meeting that she would submit a report to the apex court on the failure to take the flood protection measures and the matter would then be between the court and the authorities concerned. The meeting decided to write let-ters to the provincial governments, particularly to the Sindh chief secretary, pointing out their failure and urge them to act on an emergency basis. It was required that flood protection bonds damaged in 2010 because of private properties created along the river banks and temporary groundwork in katcha areas would be removed and influential people would be forced to leave the areas to ensure natural river flows. When asked what action had been taken against people having encroached upon river banks, Sindh Irrigation Secretary Zaheer Haider Shah said no action had so far been taken and nobody punished. He said the province had in fact ignored the Sindh River Act for removing private groundwork along river banks and taking action against guilty elements.

 It was also reported that in 2010 Sindh irrigation secretary Shuja Juneju had stated before the floods that embankments and flood protection dykes were strong enough to withstand high intensity floods and there was no threat to public property. However, after the devastation caused by the collapse of Tori Bund show-cause notices were issued to Mr Juneju and dozens of irrigation officials. Answering a question, Mr Zaheer Shah said the provincial government had set up an inquiry commission which cleared all the irrigation officials, including the then irrigation secretary, and held that natural calamities could not be termed man made disasters. On another question, it was reported that no action had been taken against officials responsible for the damage in Punjab. Planning Commission's water chief Nasir Gilani proposed that a link canal should be constructed so that surplus water in the Indus could be diverted to the dry zone of Sutlej and the adjoining desert to minimize the impact of heavy floods in Sindh. But Ms Memon said the meeting was not meant to consider any controversial project and the focus should remain on strengthening the existing infrastructure and flood protection bunds that had been ignored since 2010. 

Answering a question, chief of Meteorological Office Hazrat Mir said that reports of flood forecasting system and weather forecasting system had been accurate now and had mostly been accurate in the past. But this was contested by Additional Secretary of Water and Power Mehr Ali Shah who said that the Met office did not have a system to predict accurately beyond eight hours. Responding to a question, a representative of the Indus Water Commissioner said that India regularly provided data relating floods in Chenab. The NDMA chairman and Met Office, however, said they were unaware of any such data provided by India. 

Ref : DawnPK July 15, 2015

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US Republicans question deal : Latest News, International News Today

US Republicans question deal 

WASHINGTON: Top US Republicans expressed skepticism about the nuclear deal reached with Iran, saying it gave Tehran too much room to man oeuvre and does not safe-guard American security interests. Some in Congress have already said they are prepared to reject the deal because it does not comprehensively halt Tehran's enrichment process or permanently close the door on its development of a nuclear weapon. House Speaker John Boehner blasted the deal as "unacceptable", saying that if it is "as bad a deal as I think it is at this moment, we'll do everything we can to stop it. He warned it would only "embolden" Iran and even could trigger a global nuclear arms race. Now that President Barack Obama announced his support for the agreement between six world powers and Iran, finalized in Vienna after marathon talks, the attention in Washington now shifts to the Republican-controlled Congress. Under legislation passed in May, they will have 60 days -- much of it during the lawmakers' traditional August recess -- to conduct their review. Debate will take place during several hearings on the nuclear deal. Congress could then vote to approve the accord or reject it, or do nothing.
Obama has said he would veto a resolution of disapproval. Overriding that veto would require a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives — a heavy lift in Congress. Obama is barred from lifting any Iran sanctions during the review period. And should Congress later determine that Iran failed to abide by the agreement, it could reinstate sanctions waived by the president. DEEP SKEPTICISM: It did not take long for Republicans to make their concerns known. "I begin from a place of deep skepticism that the deal actually meets the goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker said in a statement. Congress, he added, "will need to scrutinies this deal and answer whether implementing the agreement is worth dismantling our painstak-ingly-constructed sanctions regime that took more than a decade to establish". Members from both parties stressed it will be a tough sell in Congress. "Pm concerned the red lines we drew have turned into green lights, that Iran will be required only to limit rather than eliminate its nuclear program, while the international community will be required to lift the sanctions," warned Senate Democrat Robert
Menendez, an architect of stiff sanctions against Iran. "The bottom line is: The deal doesn't end Iran's nuclear program it preserves it." Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who penned an explosive letter in March to Iran's leaders, described the deal as "a terrible dangerous mistake" that will pave the way for a nuclear Iran. "The American people are going to repudiate this deal, and I believe Congress will kill the deal," he told MSNBC. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin, said Congress must "vigorously and judiciously review" the accord. "There is no trust when it comes to Iran," Cardin said. Several lawmakers warned that the accord rewards Iran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief. Senator Lindsey Graham, a 2016 presidential candidate, said Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have been "dangerously naive" in their dealings with Tehran. "You have taken the largest state sponsor of terror on the planet and given them money to increase their terrorist activities" by funding groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Syrian President Basher al Assad, Graham said.—APP


Ref : DawnPK July 15, 2015

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Afghan returnees from Iran bring drug problems back home : Latest News, International News Today

Afghan returnees from Iran bring drug problems back home 

ISLAM QALA: At Zero Point, the main border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran, hundreds of Afghan laborers return to their homeland each day. Some are exhausted by grueling working conditions, but many others bear the hall-marks of heroin addiction they acquired while in Iran. Under the watchful eyes of customs officials from both countries, the laborers cross the windy and arid plains at Islam Qala, the entry point to Herat province and western Afghanistan, after months or years spent working in Iran. Every day, between 1,000 and 1,500 illegal Afghan migrants, mainly young men, return to their country, either voluntarily or — in around a third of cases — because they have been expelled. Iran, which shares a long border with Afghanistan, began taking in millions of Afghan refugees in the 1980s as they fled a war that began with the Soviet invasion and has continued to this day. The flow of people began to reverse following the fall of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001, with millions of Afghans choosing to return home. And the pace has picked up in the past few years due to an increasingly repressive environment for Afghan refugees in Iran, particularly the 1.7 million who are unregistered (a further 840,000 are legal). Tehran has remained silent over criticism regarding the expulsion of illegal Afghans, earning it criticism from rights groups over the past few years. Situated 120 kilometers from the border, Herat, the main city in Afghanistan's west, welcomes the majority of those who have come back. But authorities have witnessed a disturbing trend: many of the returnees are addicted to drugs they first tried out while in Iran. In an ironic twist, most of the drugs con-sumed are exported from Afghanistan, which produces 85 per cent of the world's opium, later refined into heroin. Production has increased seven per cent over the past year thanks in part to an ever-green Taliban insurgency and lack of government control in remote areas, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. A large portion of Afghanistan's drugs are transported to the rest of the world via Iran, where dealers and users find them easy to obtain. At a drug treatment center in Herat, Mohammad Choghok, SO, tells AFP that up until two years ago he lived in the Iranian town of Mashhad, where he worked as a shepherd. And his employer, instead of paying him, gave him opium. "I have been addicted for almost 34 years," he murmurs. According to Mohammed Reza Stanikzai, a senior narcotics official at the UNODC, initial research also backs the claim that "most [Afghan] drug users started their first drug use outside the country".
`Take drugs, work better'
"In many cases, their employers give them drugs and tell them: `If you take these you will work better and be better paid'," says doctor Safiullah Pardis, the head of a clinic for addicts in Herat. Akbar Anwari, 28, was born in Iran to Afghan parents. It was there that he became an addict, before his deportation. "My family lives in Iran, I don't have any contact with him;' he said, explaining he wants to rid himself of his drug habit before seeing them. As night falls, dozens of heroin users roam the parks in the centre of Herat. Without a place to stay and money, some become delinquents and end up in prison. Of the 3,100 inmates in the city's lock-up 430 are addicts. Fewer than half of these detained addicts are treated in a tiny clinic within the prison. Crowded into a dormitory with bunk-beds, the shaven-headed detainees doze in the afternoon heat. One of them, Mohammad Naeem, 23, recounts how he and friends "got hooked on drugs in Iran". "Work was too hard, and I took drugs to stay on top. I was relaxed and working harder," he said. According to official data, 500 tonnes of drugs are consumed each year in Iran. It is a plague that Iran's interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told the ISNA news agency was due to his country "being located on a transit route" for drugs coming from Afghanistan. Tehran says it has 1.3 million drug addicts out of a population of roughly 78 million, "a high number for us", according to the minis-ter, which is increasing by around 70 people per day. In neighboring Afghanistan, meanwhile, the number of addicts has nearly doubled in the past decade, reaching three million or roughly 10 per cent of the population. It is a trend that has caused alarm at the very highest levels of government. "This is a major threat to us because a drug addict can very easily become an insurgent," President Ashraf Ghani said recently.—AFP



Ref : DawnPK July 15, 2015

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Two Pakistani migrants suffer burns as they try to enter Channel Tunnel

Two Pakistani migrants suffer burns as they try to enter Channel Tunnel

LILLE: Three migrants trying to smuggle their way into the Channel Tunnel to reach Britain were burnt by an electric shock, one seriously, local French authorities said on Tuesday.
The men from Afghanistan and Pakistan were trying to get onto a train overnight on Monday at the entrance to the tunnel near the northern French port city of Calais when they were hit by an electric discharge, they said.
The Afghan man was seriously injured, while the two Pakistanis were slightly injured.
Intrusions into the undersea tunnel have risen in recent weeks as increasingly desperate migrants seek new tactics to enter Britain.
Last week, a migrant was found dead in the tunnel, in what police believe was a failed attempt to climb onto the fast-moving shuttle train that takes road vehicles to Britain.
And late last month, a migrant from Ethiopia died near the tunnel entrance as he also tried to board a train.
Thousands of migrants are camped out around the port in Calais, in the hope of climbing aboard lorries traveling to Britain on ferries or entering the nearby Channel Tunnel.
The migrants, whose presence has long caused friction between London and Paris, sometimes go to dramatic lengths to smuggle themselves into Britain, and have even been recorded trying to swim across the Channel.
 
Ref : Dawn ,July 15th, 2015

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Civilian govts, undemocratic forces conspiring to snatch Karachi from MQM: Altaf Hussain : Latest News , Pakistan News Today

Civilian Govt.s, undemocratic forces conspiring to snatch Karachi from MQM: Altaf Hussain

LONDON/LAHORE: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain accused "civilian governments and undemocratic forces" of "joining hands to employ legal and illegal tactics to snatch Karachi away from the MQM", according to a statement° posted on the party's website.

The remarks were made in a telephonic address to MQM Punjab President Senator Mian Ateeq and the MQM Organising Committee during which Hussain said, "Civilian and non-civilian governments have allied to jointly conduct operations to put an end to the MQM repeatedly."

The MQM supremo said Pakistan's civilian and non-civilian institutions had not learnt any lessons even after the MQM's "historic NA-246 victory" in the by-elections for the hotly-disputed constituency earlier this year.

He added that these institutions had left no stone unturned in order to defeat the MQM during the by-elections, and said, "No one can capture Karachi by means of conspiratorial tactics."

Earlier this week, the MQM supremo accused Director General Sindh Rangers Major General Bilal Akbar of violating the army's code of conduct, following which, multiple First Information Reports were lodged against him — for what the government regards as 'inflammatory speech' — in various parts of Sindh.

"We are not against the army; we are against the rotten eggs in the institution... Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif should save Pakistan and throw out the rotten eggs who have embezzled billions of rupees like civilians," he had said.

The Sindh government extended the special policing powers assigned to Rangers in Karachi for a month, rather than the usual four months. The DG Rangers tweeted that the force would continue the "Karachi Law Enforcement Operation ... till its logical conclusion is achieved."

Ref : Dawn July 15, 2015

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Track-II means back-channel engagement, says Aziz : Latest News , Pakistan News Today.

Track-II means back-channel engagement, says Aziz

ISLAMABAD: Surprisingly the governments of Pakistan and India are confusing the planned Track-II dialogue with back-channel contacts.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz, while talking to Dawn on Tuesday, confirmed that Track-II dialogue he mentioned in his media briefing a day earlier was actually a plan for back-channel engagement.
Mr Aziz had at a press conference said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had agreed to revive the Track-II dialogue on longstanding issues bedeviling the ties between the two countries, including the Kashmir dispute.
The adviser clarified that he used the phrase 'Track-II' instead of 'back-channel' because the two sides had in their meeting in Ufa (Russia) agreed on reviving Track-IL But, in essence it would be back-channel.
Back-channel diplomacy is about contending parties secretly negotiating their conflicts mostly in tandem with the front channel. In the back-channel negotiators have official approval. Whereas Track-II is a non-official and people-to-people effort for peace-making.
Defending the recourse to back-channel, Mr Aziz said it was difficult to achieve progress on sensitive issues in the front channel that takes place in the public glare.
The adviser said that the back-channel will be used simultaneously with the front channel official engagement.

Ref :  Dawn ,July 15th, 2015

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N-deal throws open new avenues for Pakistan : Latest News , Pakistan News Today.

N-deal throws open new avenues for Pakistan

 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan welcomed on Tuesday the historic deal between Iran and world powers on Tehran's controversial nuclear program and called for expeditious implementation of the pact.
"I think it is very good progress in that direction and from our point of view we have a large number of possibilities of energy, Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and a number of other projects which were affected by the sanctions," Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said.
Answering a question at a press briefing at the Foreign Office, he said that following the lifting of sanctions Pakistan would move quickly to begin implementing the energy agreements.
"So as soon as the sanctions are lifted we can very rapidly start the implementation of those agreements and at the same time trade possibilities will expand; right now there are lot of payment difficulties between Iran and Pakistan and more importantly Iran's integration in the region in terms of economy will also lead to political advantages," Mr Aziz said.
He expressed the hope that Iran's return to the mainstream would also "promote unity of the Muslim Ummah" by addressing the underlying sectarian issues.
"Pakistan welcomes the important comprehensive nuclear agreement reached between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the P5+1," the Foreign Office said in a statement on the deal signed in Vienna.
With the conclusion of the deal after more than a decade of complex negotiations the focus has moved to its implementation.
Under the agreement, Iran will allow the International Atomic Energy Agency access to verify compliance to the restrictions placed on its nuclear program and in return sanctions will be lifted.
"We look forward to the expeditious and smooth implementation of the provisions of the comprehensive nuclear agreement by all its signatories," the FO said.
It recalled Pakistan's consistent support for a negotiated settlement of the nuclear issue.
"As a neighboring country, we have also reiterated that reciprocal confidence-building measures relating to Iran's nuclear program auger well for peace and security in our region," the FO said.
The deal represents a major opening for Pakistan to benefit from the new business opportunities that would emerge once the Iranian economy is unshackled.
Economists believe Iran's re-entry into global economy would create business opportunities worth tens of billions of dollars for both local and foreign companies.
Pakistan will particularly be interested in finalizing its gas pipeline deal and other energy agreements that have long been held up because of the crippling sanctions. Pakistan's cement industry can also benefit from the new situation.

Ref: Dawn July 15th, 2015

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Kolkata's Writers' Building refit plagued by problems 

KOLKATA: It was home to the army of colonial bureaucrats who ran India, so it was perhaps inev-itable that the original 18th-century plans for Kolkata's Writers' Building would be found buried under reams of paperwork. "We even wrote to the British Library in the hope that some of the drawings might have been preserved there," says architect Madhumita Roy as she talks through some of the problems her team has faced trying to restore one of India's most iconic buildings to its original glory. "They were able to provide photographs of the building's facade from the early 1880s but they said that copies of the original plan were not avail-able," she told AFP. "And when we had almost given up hope, these three drawings surfaced in our public works department under volumes of drawing plans for various other buildings in the city." The discovery was a rare piece of good news in a project that is more than a year behind schedule and has drawn widespread criticism in the eastern metropolis of Kolkata. The red-brick complex dates back to 1776 when Warren Hastings, the first governor general of British-run India, commissioned Thomas Lyon to construct a building that would serve as the offices and living quarters for the East India Company's legions of clerks, known as writers. The East India Company was the defacto ruler of India until a revolt in the ranks of its private army in 1857. The writers stationed in what was then India's capital shaped the lives of tens of millions. Over the years, a host of extra wings and adornments were added, including the Greek-style stat-ues of goddesses on the roof which symbolize everything from justice to agriculture.
Capital shifts
Although the British shifted the capital from Calcutta (now called Kolkata) to New Delhi in 1911, the building known simply as Writers' con-tinued to serve as the administrative headquarters of the massive state of Bengal. It enjoyed a new lease of life after India gained independence in 1947 as home to the government of the state of West Bengal but slowly fell into dis-repair and was blighted by several fires. When current Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered a $30 million refit in 2013, work was only supposed to take around six months. The aim was to revamp the interior, prune the building of later additions and restore courtyards which had been used as car parks or dumping grounds to their former glory. Banerjee and her government relocated in October 2013 to a nondescript office block on the other side of river Hooghly in the twin city of Howrah, expecting to be back in Writers' within the year. But the process of clearing the building—home to around three dozen different departments —took many months more than anticipated. And while some work was able to start last year, Roy, who heads the architecture department in the city's Jadavpur University, said the quest to find the original master plan caused major delays. The documents were finally unearthed in May this year in the public works department, one of a handful of offices to have stayed put. But the project soon encountered more turbulence when civic groups recoiled at the plans to demolish the newer wings.
Bulldozers move in
"We have decided to keep the main building and all the five blocks intact since they are part of the heritage structure, but we will raze all the other eight blocks which have been built in the post-independence era," explained Roy during a tour of the renovation work. When notices were posted last month stating "this block/building will be demolished", there was an immediate backlash. Anger intensified when bulldozers began reduc-ing part of the structure to rubble, a move campaigners say lacked approval from the city's con-servation watchdog. "Writers' is listed with the civic body as a Grade I heritage structure," said Subrata Sil, director of the city's Heritage Conservation Committee. "The state public works department did not seek prior permission for carrying out renovation or alteration work," he said. Surya Kanta Mishra, leader of the state's main opposition Communist party, said the "renovation plan is flawed" and made no mention of what it intended to do with some of the building's key features. West Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim insisted the work would be handled sensitively. "Writers' is one of British India's earliest, grand-est and most important structures. Its restoration is a challenge to our government." Roy agreed that the sensitive nature of the work meant that it would be some years yet before bureaucrats could move back in. "Opposition from some quarters has slowed down the work but we are determined to restore the glory of this iconic heritage structure," Hakim said.—AFP

THE red-brick Kolkata's Writers' Building dates back to 1776 when Warren Hastings, the first governor general of British-run India, commissioned Thomas Lyon to construct a building that would serve as the offices and living quarters for the East India Company's legions of clerks, known as writers.

Ref : Dawn News Pk 14-07-2015

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PTI questions election of 'defaulter' Sharif brothers : Latest News , Pakistan News Today.

PTI questions election of 'defaulter' Sharif brothers 

By Dawn News Reporter 
 
LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman's political adviser Ejaz Chaudhry has asked how the Sharif brothers contested general elections 2013 when they were loan defaulters. He said that Shahbaz Sharif had claimed that the Sharif family settled Rs5.22 billion loans, mark-up, cost of fund and other charges by December 2014. In a statement issued here on Monday,Mr Chaudhry also asked from which source the Sharif brothers got those Rs5.22 billion when Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif owned Rs1.842bn and Rs142.2m assets, respectively, as per the Election Commission of Pakistan record. The nation wanted to know why the 10-year-old loans were settled by the Sharif brothers within six months after assuming power in the Centre, lie questioned.
He said the entire Pakistan knew that Sharifs had been corrupt for decades and they did not want NAB to challenge their corruption. "If NAB position stands validated, the prime minister and his brother should be sent behind bars for lying to the nation," he said. PTI leader Dr Yasroin Rashid said Shahbaz, who used to promise stern action against Asif Ali Zardari and his companions over corruption and wanted to rip open their bellies and drag them in the streets to make them return looted money, was him-self soaked in corruption. She said Shahbaz's son Hamza was preaching that corruption was bound to happen in Pakistan and NAB had no authority to question their corruption. She said the entire status quo had started ganging up against NAB be it Sharif brothers or Asif Zardari. National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq was worried and wanted to file a reference against NAB because NAB was challenging his masters, she added. She said Ayaz Sadiq held a very high office which demanded him to stay neutral and above the fray of party politics.
TAREEN: PTI central organizer Jahangir Tareen has demanded accountability across the board, including against the prime minister and Punjab chief minister. Speaking at an If tar dinner hosted by PTI chairman's political adviser Abdul Aleem Khan for party workers and supporters in Lahore on Monday, Tareen said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had set an example of catching the big fish found involved in corruption. He said the KP government had had arrested its two ministers on corruption charges. "A country cannot be put on the right path until and unless stringent accountability is done across the board:' he said. Tareen said the P11 would contest the upcoming elections in each and every street and reach to the masses at their doorstep. PTI Punjab Organizer Chaudhry Sarwar claimed the PML-N was di& tributing huge development funds to its MPAs as well as its ticket holders who had lost elections against the PTI and other opposition party candidates to rig the local body elections. He said the PTI would write a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to lodge a protest against the use of public resources for "pre-poll rigging" in the upcoming elections. He said the ECP must ensure holding transparent and fair elections. Sarwar said the PTI would also demand deployment of Rangers during polling in the elections. Aleem Khan said he had headed the party's Lahore district in its crucial times. During the last two years, he said the PTI had remained on the roads and fulfilled all the tasks given by the party chairman.

Ref: Dawn News 14-07-2015

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NAB staff perturbed over onslaught : Latest News Pakistan News Today

NAB staff perturbed over onslaught 

Ex-employee for probe into authority's affairs
By Zulqernain Tahir 

LAHORE: Some officials of the National Accountability Bureau believe the PML-N government may use the same tactics the PPP did to stop it from pursuing 'high profile' cases. However, a former employee says a judicial oversight committee should be constituted to investigate NAB's 'dubious affairs' since 2008. The NAB has come under a lot of criticism from the PML-N big guns for submitting a list of 150 mega scams involving Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, former president Asif All Zardari, ex-premiers, minis-ters and top bureaucrats. "As long as NAB is cooperating with the government in burying its corruption cases it will be allowed to do its job. But if the bureau goes after such mega corruption scandals under the court's order then certainly the government will make its life diffi-cult," the former employee said. Retired Brig Farooq Hamid, who served NAB till 2009 as director investigation, told Dawn on Monday that a judicial investigation into the NAB affairs from 2008 should be car-ried out to know as how many impor-tant inquiries against big fish were closed, how many dubious plea bar-gains were finalized, how many refer-ences were lost and on top of that how many acquittals were engineered. Mr Hamid said the NAB's perfor-mance during the last seven years or so needed to be scrutinized to see where it extended favours to save big guns and where it victimized people at the behest of those at the helm. "A judicial oversight committee comprising a judge from each high court in the province should look into the NAB affairs. A joint parlia-mentary committee should be authorized to make the selection of new independent NAB chairman," he suggested. Brig Hamid said at present the NABhad become 'National Acquittal Bureau' or National Dry Cleaning Bureau' because the powerful used it in shelving the cases against them. "Both the PML-N and PPP earlier had pledged to form an independent accountability bureau but both back-tracked after coming to power." The NAB's credibility has been in question since its inception in 1999. Pervaiz Rashid alleged that the NAB was used as a tool by former president retired Gen Pervez Musharaf to intimidate and harass
opponents in the past. Even today the NAB is being accused of covering up the corrup-tion of the ruling elite and victimiz-ing its opponents. Questions are also being raised on the NAB's prosecution. On the other hand, some NAB officials Dawn spoke to said the way the PML-N stalwarts like Speaker Ayyaz Sadiq and Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid targeted the bureau after the report of 150 mega scams submitted in the apex court it seemed that the govern-ment might come tough on it in days to come (if it reopened the cases against the ruling elite). The PPP after coming to power had reduced the NAB budget for the 2008-09 by 49 per cent as part of its plan to strangle it. "The PML-N government may take similar steps if the NAB goes against its wishes," an official apprehended.

Ref: Dawn News 14-07-2015

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Latest News - Pakistan India News Today

Pakistan, India set to revive Track II dialogue 

Kashmir and other outstanding issues will be taken up for discussion
By Baqir Sajjad Syed 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India are set to revive their Track-II dialogue for discussions on Kashmir and other outstanding issues. "The two sides have agreed to revive flack-II dialogue to explore ways of resolving issues that have been lingering on for a long time and need to be resolved in order to give peace a chance:" Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said at a press conference on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendar Modi on July 10 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Ufa, Russia. Details of the revived Track-II will be worked out by the two countries through diplomatic channels. This will be a second attempt under the Sharif government. Soon after his election, Prime Minister Sharif had initiated the Track-II by appointing Ambassador Shahryar Khan as his point man for the purpose. Not much could then be achieved till the change in government in Delhi after last year's elections. The two sides will now give a fresh start to the informal dialogue. The Track-II — an unofficial dialogue involving private individual, mostly retired officials, to resolve conflicts — has long been part of the peace process. between Pakistan and India and complemented the official dialogue. Although Mr Aziz insisted that Kashmir would always be part of the formal dialogue, it appeared from his press talk that substantive discussions on Kashmir would be held at the Track-II and this issue would be pushed down the list of priorities at the official track. "The July 10 meeting provided an opportunity to identify some areas where the two countries could pro-mote cooperation right away in order to reduce tensions and hostility," Mr Aziz said and went on to list maintenance of peace and tranquility along the Line. of Control and Working Boundary; and the discussions on each others concerns over terrorism as the few things that the two sides would seek to immediately deliver. The meetings agreed in Ufa include a dialogue between the two countries' national security advisers on terrorism and talks at the level of directors general of the Indian Border Security Force and Pakistan Rangers and the military operations on enforcement of ceasefire along the LOC and Working Boundary. The planned interactions clearly don't include a dialogue on Kashmir whose
mention was also found missing from the joint statement. Mr Aziz downplayed the absence of Kashmir in the joint statement and said: "Issues cannot be resolved by mentioning them in joint statements, but by holding dialogue on them. Our pol-icy on Kashmir is very clear." He said Pakistan would continue to extend political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris. He said one of the objectives achieved through the meeting in Ufa was to reduce tensions and create an environment for a meaningful dialogue. "The July 10 meeting was not the formal start of a dialogue process but it served an important purpose to achieve an understanding that both neighbors must reduce tensions and hostility in order to constructively engage in a structured dialogue on all issues of bilateral and regional interest, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir," he said. On the Mumbai trial case, he said the reference of "additional information" was recognition of the need that more information was needed to expedite the trial. Sharing his assessment of the Ufa talks, Mr Aziz said: "Neither should we be beating drums for having achieved a breakthrough nor look at them as very bad. It was, however, a good beginning and lot would depend on what happens next."

Ref : Dawn News Dated 14-07-2015

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