Chronology of Pakistan
February 2003 (Page II)
Aali appointed chairperson of Urdu university
Feb 18: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has appointed Urdu poet, critic and educationist Dr Jamiluddin Aali as the deputy chairperson of the Senate of Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences and Technology. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has notified that the president, who is also the chancellor of the university, has also nominated nine other people as members of the senate. The nominated members are Ahmed Nadim Qasmi and Bano Qudsia from Lahore; Prof Dr G. A. Allana, former vice-chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University; Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik, National Language Authority chairman; Prof Mohsin Ehsan, former professor at Peshawar University; Syed Shahid Hussain, World Bank vice- president; Prof Dr Farman Fatehpuri, Karachi; Prof Dr Syed Mohsin Raza, Quetta; and Dr Tariq Rehman of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
IRSA rejects Kalabagh Dam
Feb 18: The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) rejected outrightly Kalabagh Dam construction, and approved reduction of 59 and 45 per cent in actual water shares of Punjab and Sindh respectively for the period up to March 31, 2003. “The authority, as a whole, turned down Kalabagh Dam describing it as controversial, when Punjab’s representative raised the issue,” IRSA Chairman Nasr Ali Rajput told a Press conference in Lahore shortly after the body’s meeting.
Over 7,000 women, children languishing in jails: study
Feb 19: Over 7,000 women and children, including under-trial and convicted, are languishing in 75 jails of the country, says a study conducted by a non-governmental organization, Society for the Advancement of Community, Health, Education and Training (SACHET).
PAF chief killed in air crash
Feb 20: Pakistan Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, his wife and all the 16 others on board, including some senior PAF officers, perished when the plane carrying them crashed on a mountain in fog near Kohat. The officers killed with the air chief on the trip were Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) Abdul Razzaq, AVM Saleem A. Nawaz, Air Cdre Syed Javaid Sabir, Air Cdre Rizwanullah Khan, Group Captain Aftab Cheema, Wing Commander Syed Tabassam Abbas and Cpl Tech Amjad.
Iran-India pipeline to bypass Pakistan
Feb 20: India will bypass Pakistan as it pursues a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline project with Iran, Indian Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said. Mr Naik said the pipeline from Iran to India would bypass Pakistan by going through the sea.
Each MPA to get Rs5m for uplift schemes: Current fiscal
Feb 20: The provincial government will, during the remaining period of the current fiscal year, provide a sum of Rs1.855 billion to 371 members of the Punjab Assembly for carrying out development works in their respective constituencies.
FIR registration forms available at POs, TPO offices
Feb 20: Karachi police arranged free complaint forms regarding FIR registration at all town police officers (TPO) Offices (15 Madadgar) and post offices in Karachi. The Inspector General Police Sindh had taken this decision keeping in view the hardship faced by citizens during registration of FIRs in police stations.
Education in mother tongue stressed
Feb 21: Speakers at the World Punjabi Congress have urged the government that education should be imparted to the children in their mother tongues. The two-day conference of the congress, in connection with the World Mother Tongues Day, was held in Lahore. Chief guest Aitzaz Ahsan said no nation could make progress unless it acquired sufficient knowledge in its mother tongue and applied it. He cited the examples of China, Japan, Germany and many other countries and said they had made progress by imparting education to their students in their mother languages.
Nine shot dead in Karachi
Feb 22: Nine people were shot dead and seven others wounded by three attackers outside an Imambargah in Rafah- i-Aam Society in Karachi. Police and witnesses said that three men on a motorbike stopped in front of a tea shop adjacent to Imambargah Muntazirul Mehdi.
3,000 Pakistanis evicted in Dhaka
Feb 22: A shantytown in Dhka’s Mirpur area resided by the stranded Pakistanis for more than 30 years was razed to the ground by the government. Some 300 thatched houses at the ADC relief camp in Mirpur-11 were razed, rendering some 3,000 people homeless.
The victims, who had been living in the area since 1972, told reporters that the police had forcibly evicted them violating a High Court order asking the government not to disturb the slum dwellers in question.
Five independent MPAs part ways with MMA govt in NWFP
Feb 22: A group of five independent MPAs, led by former NWFP chief minister Sardar Inaytullah Khan Gandapur, has withdrawn its support to the government, accusing the MMA of mismanagement and bad governance.
Demolition operation at Haqiqi HQ
Feb 22: In a major demolition operation at MQM Haqiqi headquarters in Landhi, the Karachi Building Control Authority and the anti-encroachment cell of Karachi City District Government, razed a portion of the Baitul Hamza, retrieving a service road, a ladies park, and some open space.
Former MNA convicted
Feb 22: An accountability court in Lahore sentenced former MNA Chaudhry Farooq Hussain to seven-year rigorous imprisonment with Rs5 million fine on corruption charges in a NAB reference. In this reference, Chaudhry Farooq had been accused of having procured assets disproportionate to his known sources of income in Faisalabad. The assets include agricultural land measuring 244 kanals and eight marla; Layallpur filling station; Layallpur Flour and General Mills; 20 per cent shares in City Plaza; three shops, one residential and three commercial plots; one dairy farm; one house and residential land measuring 4 kanals and two marla.
Renaming of NWFP as Pukhtunkhwa demanded
Feb 22: Leaders of the People's Awareness Movement (PAM) have demanded the government should rename the NWFP as Pukhtunkhwa and reverse the decision of declaring Urdu as official language of the province. The demands were made during a seminar organized by the PAM on the occasion of the World Language Day.
Pushto be made medium of instruction, demands Achakzai
Feb 22: Chairman Pashtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) Baluchistan, MNA Mehmood Khan Achakzai has underlined the need that the Pashtoon children should be imparted education in Pashto language and it should be declared as official language in the Pashtoon areas. Addressing a public meeting on the occasion of international mother language day, the chief of PMAP regretted that the Pashtoons and Pashto were being kept backward under a conspiracy.
Pakistan's N-arms in safe hands, says US
Feb 23: Pakistan's nuclear weapons are in safe hands and the United States is satisfied with the measures Islamabad has taken to secure them, says a senior official of the US State Department in Washington.
Afghan minister dies in plane crash in Baluchistan
Feb 24: Afghanistan's Minister for Mines and Industries, Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, and seven other people were killed when a chartered Cessna bound for the Juzzak airfield near Saindak in Balochistan , crashed in the Arabian Sea, some 56km west of Karachi.
PML-QA emerges as largest party in Senate
Feb 24: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam (PML-QA) bagged 32 seats in the Senate elections held for 88 seats allocated to the four provinces. Eight members were already declared elected unopposed, and the elections were held for 80 seats, with PML-QA bagging 13 seats from the Punjab. The ruling party and its allies have now 43 seats in the Senate.
Justice Buttar refuses to take up Khwajas' plea
Feb 26: Justice M Javed Buttar of the Lahore High Court refused to take up a contempt petition filed by the Khwaja family against provincial home secretary, who did not appear in the court despite its orders. "The respondent is reluctant to appear in the court because he is related to me. Therefore, I am referring the matter to the chief justice to place it before any other judge" Justice Buttar said.
Swiss court indicts Benazir, Zardari: NAB
Feb 26: A Swiss court has charged former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari for using off-shore companies to receive kickbacks and commissions in the frame of entering into a governmental contract with the SGS and Cotecna and accepted the state of Pakistan as damaged party. Announcing this, Chairman National Accountability Bureau, Lt-Gen Munir Hafiez described the decision of the Swiss court as a landmark in NAB's efforts to repatriate the assets collected by disloyal public officials and concealed in Swiss bank accounts. By virtue of court's decision, the state of Pakistan has been handed over on Feb 17, 2003, in the first phase, case files containing over 3,000 documents.
Army officers' induction into civilian institutions questioned
Feb 26: The previous Musharraf government was criticised in the National Assembly for recruiting over 600 military officers in the civil institutions. Angry parliamentarians pointed out that due to massive recruitment of the military officers in civilian institutions, many deserving and educated people suffered. They wanted to know the policy of the Jamali government about these 600 military officers.
PML-Q, allies finish with thin majority: Parliament poll process finalized
Feb 27: With almost everything going their way, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and its allies gained a slim majority in the Senate as the National Assembly elected 12 remaining members of the 100-seat upper house. The last stage of a tardy electoral process marked the completion of the two-chamber parliament. The 243-seat National Assembly elected four senators from the Islamabad capital territory while 12 MNAs from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas elected eight senators from tribal agencies. On paper the ruling coalition, which had won 44 seats from the provinces, including 32 of the PML-Q, remains four seats short of the majority in the upper house because only three PML-Q ticket-holders won today. But in effect, the support of six Fata members raises the coalition strength to 53 - only a slender majority of three.
Achakzai, Mengal stay away from Senate polls
Feb 27: Two defiant parliamentarians from the nationalist parties, Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Abdur Rauf Khan Mengal, did not cast their votes in the Senate elections. Achakzai and Mengal had also stayed away from the election for the prime minister and at the time of vote of confidence. Abdur Rauf Mengal, MNA from the Balochistan National Party told The News that he had not cast his vote in the Senate election because those contesting in the polls were actually "agents of the Establishment".
Punjab bans sale of cigarettes to juveniles
Feb 27: The Punjab Assembly unanimously adopted a bill for prohibition of juvenile smoking. Law Minister Raja Basharat moved the Punjab Juvenile Smoking (amendment) Bill 2003, in which kids were prohibited to smoke at public places and their age limit was extended from 16 to 18 years. The Bill further says that whosoever sells or gives or attempts to sell or give tobacco to a juvenile, whether for his own use or not, shall be fined up to Rs 5,000 and in the case of second offence in addition to suspension of his licence, with fine up to Rs 10,000, and in case of third or subsequent offence, in addition to cancellation of his licence, with fine up to Rs 15,000.
Two cops die as US consulate picket attacked
Feb 28: Two policemen were shot dead and four other cops, a rangers official and a civilian were wounded in Karachi when a police camp outside the US consulate on Abdullah Haroon Road was attacked by a gunman. The attacker was arrested.
Two US Consulate police guards shot dead in Karachi
Feb 28: Two cops were killed and six people, including a passer-by, were injured when a man opened indiscriminate fire on a police kiosk outside the US Consulate General building in Karachi. Sindh police chief said that the assailant was arrested from the spot and added that it was not an attack on the consulate but policemen were the target.
Rao wins back PIA from Jamali
Feb 28: Within hours after the "Chief Patriot" threatened to resign from the federal cabinet, the prime minister took a somersault and put the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) back under the Defense Ministry. Rao Sikandar Iqbal, the defence minister, had threatened to quit while his companions in the PPPP-Patriot have warned to withdraw their support to the Jamali government to register their protest over shifting the PIAC from under the defense ministry to the Prime Minister's Secretariat.
MNA narrates tale of 'abduction' by officials
Feb 28: Maulana Abdul Malik, an MNA from the South Waziristan tribal agency, has alleged that he was held for about 16 hours against his wishes by unidentified government officials who wanted him to vote for certain candidates in the Senate elections. "I was driven from the Governor's House, Peshawar around 11 pm on Tuesday night by five to six people to another place in the city and lodged in the basement. There I was repeatedly asked to vote for three candidates in the Senate polls from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)," he recalled. Maulana Abdul Malik said he had gone to the Governor's House to meet the NWFP Governor along with five other tribal MNAs when the incident happened. The MNA threatened that if his respect was not restored, he would feel free to use the option of going back to lead protest processions and might decide even to turn against Pakistan.
MNAs seek apology from NAB for defaming politicians
Feb 28: The National Assembly members had a heated debated on military government's continued propaganda against the politicians for allegedly being involved in corruption while the NAB figures showed the politicians the smallest group found involved in the same. Mehmood Khan Achakzai pointed out that the politicians' corruption about which NAB made tall claims remained the lowest as per the statistics provided to the house while the propaganda has been at its peak against them. He sought an apology from the government for unduly abusing the politicians. Responding to a supplementary question, Minister Incharge PM Secretariat Raza Hayat Hiraj said, "There is no denying of the fact that less amount has been recovered from the politicians than any other lot despite severe allegations and defamation."