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Chronology of Pakistan
February 2004 (Continued II)
Gas pipeline damaged in rocket attack
Feb 8: The gas pipeline connecting two gas wells in the Sui area of the Dera Bugti district was damaged after unknown people fired two rockets.
Libya was given crude bomb blueprint
Feb 9: American and European investigators have determined that the nuclear weapon blueprints found in Libya were of a relatively crude type of bomb from Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan - not the more advanced models that the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission developed and successfully tested - the New York Times said.
PTCL, Chinese firm sign $500m deal
Feb 9: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) launched a wireless local loop project to provide new telephone connections in remote areas of the country.
The PTCL has entered into a $500 million contract with a Chinese firm, Huawei Technologies, to implement the plan.
US lobbyist hired for Musharraf: PML-N
Feb 9: The acting parliamentary leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, claimed that a US citizen, Frank Howard Junior, who was in-charge of the election campaign of US President George Bush, has been appointed Gen Pervez Musharraf's lobbyist. Chaudhry Nisar told Dawn that Mr Howard had been staying in a five-star hotel in Islamabad for the past many days and meeting various people.
PPP lost popularity: SNF chief
Feb 9: Sindh National Front chief Mumtaz Ali Bhutto took exception to the recent utterances of the PPP leaders regarding former leaders who had left the party. In a statement issued, the SNF chief said that the leaders who had left the Pakistan Peoples Party went much ahead in their personal capacities than those who were still in the party.
Pakistani cousin claim’s property of Suraiyya
Feb 9: A Pakistani who claims to be the cousin of a top Bollywood actress of the 1940s has popped up in Bombay to stake a claim to the late actress’s $11 million property, an Indian media report said. Suraiyya, who was single and died last month at the age of 75, left no will to determine the ownership of her two houses and a bungalow in Bombay and a fruit plantation in the nearby hill station Lonavala.
No ransom paid for release, says Shahani
Feb 9: Narrating his kidnapping ordeal in the NWFP, Punjab Sports Minister Naeemullah Khan Shahani categorically denied that neither any ransom was paid for his release nor was he involved in any shady car business as claimed by his political adversaries.
Six N-scientists in custody, LHC told
Feb 9: The Deputy AGP Tariq Chaudhry admitted before the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court that six key persons of the KRL had been taken into custody under Security of Pakistan Act and as such they are being probed into nuclear proliferation charges but he failed to satisfy the court with his insufficient reply.
Other countries committed more violations, says Leghari
Feb 9: Former president Farooq Ahmed Leghari said some other countries of the world have committed more violations in connection with nuclear proliferation. First of all, it happened in America when Rosenberg transferred nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, Leghari told BBC Radio. Nuclear secrets were leaked from America to Israel, he said, adding such secrets have been leaked from Russia, Britain and France. He said international mafia has received a lot of information from Western nuclear countries.
Musharraf has pledged to dismantle secret network: Powell
Feb 9: US Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted that Pakistan dismantle "by its roots" a secret network of nuclear technology sales run by the nation’s leading atomic scientist. Dismissing reports he planned a trip soon to Islamabad, Powell said that President General Pervez Musharraf had told him in a telephone conversation over the weekend that the pardon he granted Abdul Qadeer Khan, once the scientist revealed his operation, was a conditional one.
US history replete with ‘mother of all pardons’
Feb 9: "The mother of all pardons" that President General Pervez Musharraf granted to the architect of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, is not unique, and America’s own history has quite a number of examples, a The News report said. The US media is calling names to Dr Khan and attacking Musharraf and the Pakistan government, ignoring what the successive American administrations had been doing, in America’s supreme national interest, to leading personalities, who were found guilty of highly serious criminal charges. The report named the cases of J Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," nuclear scientist Dr Wen Ho Lee, former Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger and President Richard Nixon who were all pardoned.
Musharraf has stopped proliferation, says US
Feb 10: In the matter of non-proliferation and Dr A Q Khan’s role, the United States has said President Pervez Musharraf "has indeed stopped the activity that was going on". "The Pakistani government, both through the president and the Foreign Ministry statements, has made clear that they’re going to find out everything they can and share that information with the International Atomic Energy Agency," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said this in response to a question at his daily press briefing. The president of Pakistan, he said, "has made clear that the pardon is conditional, that there will be no activity from this particular individual, and that they are continuing to investigate the others who might have been involved in this activity so that they do get to the bottom of it."
N Korea denies nuclear deal with Pakistan
Feb 10: North Korea denied it had received nuclear technology from Pakistan and accused US of mounting a smear campaign to get the upper hand ahead of six-party talks. North Korea’s foreign ministry said that the charge was a "sheer lie" despite a confession by Pakistan’s leading nuclear scientist. The ministry said the admission by Abdul Qadeer Khan was part of the US scheme to take the high ground ahead of talks on February 25 to resolve the 16-month-old crisis over its nuclear program.
Massive anti-KBD rally in Karachi
Feb 10: A massive rally against the government’s plan to construct the controversial projects of Kalabagh Dam (KBD) and Greater Thal Canal (GTC) was brought out in Karachi. It was organised by ‘Anti-Kalabagh Dam and Greater Thal Canal Committee’ formed by the PPP, PML-N, ANP, Balochistan National Party (BNP), Awami Tehreek (AT), Sindh National Front (SNF), Jeay Sindh Tehreek (JST), Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party (STPP), JUI-F and other nationalist groups. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Jama’at-e-Islami (JI) and Khaksar Tehreek also joined the protest and condemned the rulers for their policies, incompetence and injustice with the people.
Europe wants to discuss Pak N-imbroglio at UNSC
Feb 10: Despite a wide international acknowledgement of the official Pakistani position that ‘only a few individuals, not the government of Pakistan’ was involved in nuclear peddling, European members of the IAEA apex board want to raise in the UN Security Council what they describe as the core question: "whether a country incapable of guarding nuclear secrets can be trusted with nuclear weapons", a credible diplomatic source in Brussels told The News.
President says he suspected Dr Khan was spreading tech
Feb 10: President Pervez Musharraf suspected for at least three years that his country’s top nuclear scientist was transferring atomic technology to other nations and removed him as a head of a weapons lab in March 2001 because of those suspicions, The New York Times reported. "We nipped the proliferation in the bud, we stopped the proliferation," Musharraf told the newspaper.
Nuke probe results to be shared with Japan
Feb 11: President Pervez Musharraf said that investigations into illicit nuclear transfers to North Korea had not yet concluded and Pakistan would share with Japan the results of investigations once they were finished. Talking to Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Ichiro Fujisaki, who called on him at the Aiwan-i-Sadr, the president said Pakistan was fully aware of, and respected Japanese concerns about the dangers of nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Infiltration dropped: Fernandes
Feb 11: India said that infiltration has come down by a 'considerable extent'. Defence Minister George Fernandes in an interview with Press Trust of India (PTI), spoke on the situation along the LoC following the November ceasefire and expressed optimism about further improvement of relations with Pakistan.
Pakistan, US discuss missile defense
Feb 11: In a sign of growing understanding between Pakistan and the United States, top officials of the two countries held bilateral consultations on missile defense in Islamabad. The visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker, who held talks with Pakistan’s Additional Secretary (United Nations) Tariq Osman Hyder, said he shared Washington’s vision that "in certain circumstances missile defense could contribute to regional stability."
Pakistan trying to stop attacks inside Afghanistan: Musharraf
Feb 12: Pakistan acknowledged that suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban militants might be using its territory to launch attacks inside Afghanistan. Speaking to military officers at the National Defense College, President Musharraf: "On the western border, certainly everything is not happening from Pakistan but certainly something is happening from Pakistan," he said. "Let us not bluff ourselves...whatever is happening from Pakistan must be stopped. That is what we are trying to do," he added. It was Pakistan's most explicit admission yet that Muslim militants were crossing from its territory to Afghanistan to wage a jihad on foreign forces there.
Top US official pays secret visit?
Feb 12: A top US official paid a secret visit to Islamabad, Dawn reported. The report said that the official with a 24-member delegation arrived at the Chaklala airbase at around 7pm on Wednesday and left the country on Thursday afternoon.
Grenade hurled at Jam's home
Feb 12: A hand-grenade was hurled at the private house of Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf at Sariab road in Quetta. The grenade exploded at the roof of the house, smashing windowpanes. However, no one was hurt as the house was empty at the time of the incident.
Bomb blasts in Quetta
Feb 12: Panic gripped the city when two explosions hit the provincial metropolis. No casualty was reported. A locally-made bomb, fitted with a timer, went off near a rest house at Zarghoon road butno damage to life or property was reported. In the other incident a hand grenade was hurled at the house of a public official, Mir Ahmed Nausherwani, in the satellite town.
Son of SSP, 2 others get death for kidnapping
Feb 12: Three accused, one of them a son of a senior superintendent of police and another of a district nazim, were condemned to death by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi for kidnapping a man for Rs seven million ransom. Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 also ordered confiscation of properties of Asif Hussain Junejo, son of SSP Mumtaz Junejo, his cousin Salahuddin alias Alauddin son of Sanghar's Nazim Roshan Din Junejo, and Rustam Haider, an Iranian Baloch. The case pertained to the kidnapping of a 20-year-old man, who remained captive for 52 days and was released after the payment of Rs seven million as ransom.
Bush speech threatening: Qazi
Feb 12: The MMA acting president, Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Husain Ahmad, has said the United States is likely to attack Pakistan and Gen Pervez Musharraf will not be able to counter the threat alone. "Gen Musharraf's policies have endangered us, and it is not difficult to guess from Bush's threatening speech that he is looking for an excuse to strike Pakistan," the Qazi told hundreds of participants in a week-long training session of his party in Lahore.
LHC dismisses petition: Dr Khan's detention case
Feb 12: The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, upheld the decision of its office which had refused to entertain the habeas corpus petition challenging "illegal detention" of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. Justice Mansoor Ahmad, after hearing advocate Chaudhry Ikram, upheld the decision of the LHC office which had returned the petition filed by Hasamul Haq, brother of principal secretary to Dr A.Q. Khan, alleging that the architect of Pakistan's nuclear programme was also in "illegal detention" and the court should order his production in the court.
Tunisian held for attack on president
Feb 13: Security officials in Peshawar arrested two militants, one of them Tunisian, on suspicion of their involvement in the two recent assassination attempts on President Gen Pervez Musharraf, a senior official said. The 35-year-old Tunisian, Khalifa ben Hussain, and Adnan, a Kukikhel Afridi tribesman, said to be in his early twenties, surrendered to the authorities after initially refusing to do so, the official said. The surrender was negotiated by a Jirga of tribal elders in Nai Abadi Jamrud teshil of the Khyber tribal region.
Laleka dies of heart attack
Feb 13: Federal Minister for Labour and Overseas Pakistanis Mian Abdus Sattar Laleka died in Lahore of cardiac arrest. He was 51. Mr Laleka entered politics after winning 1985 non-party polls from his native town and since then he won all general elections. He was appointed Minister for Manpower in 1985 by the Junejo government. In 1988, he returned to the National Assembly and remained an active member of the Opposition.
US accused of carrying out propaganda against Qadeer
Feb 13: Pakistan Muslim League-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooque has accused the United States of carrying out a propaganda campaign against Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to "deceive" its own people. In a press statement issued in Islamabad, the PML-N leader said the similar propaganda campaigns were launched by the US before attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. Commenting on the recent speech of US President George Bush, Mr Farooque said actually he had tried to cool down the criticism he was facing within the country for "attacking Iraq on the basis of false intelligence reports."
ARD launches anti-govt drive
Feb 13: The ARD started anti-government movement. The main components of the ARD, the PPP and the PML-N, took out protest processions in a number of towns. The protesters raised slogans against the president and the government policies.
Journalists boycott Senate session
Feb 13: Journalists boycotted the Senate session to protest against the alleged police misbehavior and threatened more protests if amends were not made. The problem arose when police posted at the outer gate of the parliament house stopped those journalists who had yet to collect their cards from the press information department office there. The protesters said the police used foul language and even hurled threats of physical violence against them.
Proposal to create more provinces rejected
Feb 13: PPP Sindh's president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro rejected Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali's proposal to grant divisions the status of provinces , saying the move was constitutionally not permissible, adding that the proposal was economically unviable as there was no infrastructure to support such a move.
21 die as two quakes jolt NWFP, NAs
Feb 14: At least 15 people were killed 40 injured after two earthquakes measuring 5.7 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale struck parts of the NWFP, Azad Kashmir and Islamabad. Snow-clad Kaghan Valley, Knosh and Bhogarmang valleys of the Mansehra district and Allai tehsil of Batgram were the worst hit by the two tremors.
Pakistanis third-largest group at Guantanamo
Feb 14: Pakistanis are the third largest nationality with 82 detainees being held at the US military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Pentagon documents seen by Dawn show. Saudi Arabia tops the list with at least 160 of the 650 detainees, almost a quarter of the total. Afghans are the fourth largest nationality with 80 detainees. The other top nationalities being held are Yemen with 85 and Jordan and Egypt, each with 30.
10m carry hepatitis viruses in country
Feb 14: There are an estimated 4.9 million carriers of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) in the country. Unsafe blood transfusion is one of the sources of onward transmission of this virus, Prof Sarwar J. Zuberi told a seminar in Karachi.
9 million people suffer from diabetes in Pakistan
Feb 14: Nearly 9 million people in Pakistan are diabetic with causes not fully known. The disease is so common today that the professionals refer it to as an epidemic. This was stated by Dr M. Tayyab Badsha while delivering a lecture on "Diabetes" at the Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad.
EU offers to help Pakistan prevent illegal N-export
Feb 14: Several European countries have expressed their willingness to provide technical assistance to Pakistan in the domain of strengthening its control on sensitive nuclear material, equipment and technology and measures to prevent illegal nuclear exports, a credible diplomatic source in Brussels told The News.
Continued Page III
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