Chronology of Pakistan
November 2003 (Continued II)
Benazir opposed production order for Rashid: Gillani
Nov 6: Benazir Bhutto opposed the production order for the then opposition member Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (now federal minister for information) and sacked law minister Iqbal Haider because he refused to oppose the production order issued by the National Assembly speaker in 1995. This was disclosed by former NA speaker Yousaf Raza Gillani in the presence of Rashid Ahmed in Geo TV programme ‘Capital Talk’. Gillani said that present speaker Chaudhry Ameer Hussain must issue production orders for Javed Hashmi, but he was confronted by Sheikh Rashid who reminded Gillani that you issued my production orders that were never implemented. The former speaker accepted that his orders were opposed by then prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Nukes, missiles needed to check Indian threat: Musharraf
Nov 7: President Pervez Musharraf told a news conference in Seoul that Pakistan was fully justified in developing missiles and nuclear weapons to counter the threats posed by India, and said it would never compromise on national security. President Musharraf said India was conducting a massive armaments build-up which had triggered an imbalance in conventional forces that posed a new danger.
Speaker refuses to issue production order: Noisy protest over Hashmi's detention continues
Nov 7: Opposition parties kept up a noisy protest in the National Assembly but Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain refused to bow to their demand to order the production of arrested ARD president Javed Hashmi in the lower house.
Over 80 MQM-H men held in Landhi
Nov 7: Karachi Police raided several houses in Landhi, including that of Mohajir Qaumi Movement general secretary, and picked up over 80 MQM-H activists and sympathizers, the party spokesman claimed.
Two tribal chiefs held for visiting Afghanistan
Nov 7: Authorities arrested two tribal chieftains from the Orakzai Agency, who, along with a number of other tribal leaders, went to Afghanistan during the army's operation against suspected Al Qaeda elements in the South Waziristan Agency.
EU defers cooperation accord with Pakistan
Nov 7: Hours after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri jetted out of Brussels, the European Union declared to keep the broad based EU-Pakistan cooperation agreement blocked. EU Rapporteur John Walls Cushnahan on Friday announced: "Serious incidents such as Javed Hashmi’s arrest make it extremely difficult to make progress on the approval of the 3rd Generation Trade and Co-operation Agreement (with Pakistan)."
No interference in Madaris affairs: Zobaida
WASHINGTON: The US national security establishment has been informed that "we are not touching the religious education", said Federal Minister for Education Zobaida Jalal. She was talking to Washington-based Pakistani media after two days of talks with top administration officials. "They think all madrassas are breeding ground for terrorists," she said, referring to her talks with National Security Adviser Dr Condoleezza Rice.
US troops deployed near Pak border
Nov. 7: American troops have been deployed in Asmar in the eastern Kunar province amid reports that they were planning to close the Binshahi border crossing linking Afghanistan with Pakistan. The deployment of American soldiers in Asmar was apparently an attempt to stop infiltration of Taliban and other anti-US fighters from Pakistan.
93 released Pakistani fishermen arrive
Nov 7: The 93 Pakistani fishermen along with seven boats released by India reached in Karachi - the first release of its kind in over two years.
Prosecution service under law department ordered
Nov 8: The federal government has asked the provincial governments of Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP to set up Independent Prosecution Service (IPS) under the provincial law departments expeditiously or else , it warned, the matter would be placed before the federal cabinet or the National Judicial Policymaking Committee (NJPC). The provinces have been informed that in the event of the matter being placed before the federal cabinet or the NJPC, the implementing agency creating hindrances to setting up the IPS would be liable to action. Provincial law departments and home departments of the three provinces have locked horns for the control of the IPS, blocking reforms for the country's judicial system. However, the "Report and Recommendation of the President" to the board of directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for clearance of the loan for setting up the IPS clearly states that "an independent prosecution service will be institutionalized under the provincial law departments."
3 sentenced in US for supporting Lashkar
Nov 8: In Washington, two men - a Pakistani and a South Korean - have been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for allegedly running a support network for Lashkar-i-Taiba. US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, who announced the sentences, also sent a third accused to prison for less than four years. Two of them are naturalized US citizens and the third is a born American. All are Muslims. The three convicts, and eight others who are awaiting trial in the same case, were accused of practising military tactics while playing paintball in a field outside Washington.
$500m Chinese loan to Pakistan
Nov 8: China will provide a 500 million dollar credit line to Pakistan for a variety of development projects, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said.
PPP counters NAB over Swiss court judgment
Nov 8: The Pakistan People’s Party aggressively continued countering the interpretation of the National Accountability Bureau and the government regarding the recent decision of Swiss court for quashment of the sentence to Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. Chief Whip of the Pakistan people’s Party in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah came out with a statement challenging the NAB interpretation on the Swiss court decision saying that the false propaganda unleashed by the regime after the Swiss Police Tribunal quashed the finding against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Senator Zardari is a sign of desperation by the regime and is deplored.
Unauthorised visits to Afghanistan
Nov 8: The government has decided to take action against tribal elders from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) who paid unauthorized visits to Afghanistan recently and received favors from the Afghan government, The News said. Two elders from the Orakzai tribal agency have already been arrested. More arrests could take place in the coming days in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Banks await return of money withdrawn to avoid Zakat
Nov 8: Billions of rupees withdrawn a week before Ramazan from banks throughout the country to avoid deduction of Zakat are yet to return to banks, say senior bank officials. Bank officials explained to The News that unusual withdrawals made from bank branches before Zakat deduction normally get transacted back to the banks in the first or second week of Ramazan.
Registered Madressahs to get Rs3 billion
Nov 9: The government has decided to allocate Rs3 billion annually to provide monetary assistance to all the registered seminaries in the country, a source in the interior ministry told Dawn. The source said the financial assistance would be offered to religious Madressahs after the promulgation of a new law to monitor and regulate all the registered religious schools.
Letter made public on ARD decision: MNA
Nov 9: MNA Maimoona Hashmi said that the letter on the basis of which her father was detained had been received by many opposition parliamentarians and it was read out in an ARD meeting before being released to the press in accordance with the decision of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy.
Old ID cards expire on Dec 31
Nov 9: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has asked all the countrymen to get their computerized national identity cards before Jan 1, because the validity of manual cards will expire on Dec 31, 2003.
NA completes year amid protests
Nov 10: The National Assembly today completed a mandatory calendar of a largely wasted but a historic shouting parliamentary year amid continuing opposition protests against presidential powers and the arrest of ARD president Javed Hashmi. To celebrate the assembly's achievement of completing the constitutional requirement of remaining in session for at least 130 days in a parliamentary year, speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain feted members of the treasury benches at an Iftar dinner, which was boycotted by opposition parties accusing him of partiality. The opposition parties have never been happy with the speaker since his election in November last year at the start of a newly elected 342-seat house's parliamentary year and they brought an unsuccessful no-confidence move last June to oust him.
Establishment does not want to empower parliament: Qureshi
Nov 10: The powers-that-be staged a show for telling the world that there is democracy and created a facade of parliament which is neither empowered nor the establishment wants to empower it, Shah Mahmood Qureshi of PPPP said in Islamabad. The MNA was speaking at a seminar on ‘One Year of Parliament’ organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. He said all decisions are taken outside parliament and it is a designed strategy of the government to show the world that democracy is not suitable for this country. He said it is still not decided if the sovereignty belongs to people or some particular institutions.
FIR against Hashmi presented in court
Nov 10: The government 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.
Nine hurt in three Quetta explosions
Nov 10: At least seven policemen an two newsmen were wounded, four of them seriously, as three bombs exploded in the Satellite Town area of Quetta. The bombs went off one after another injuring a deputy superintendent of police, two sub-inspectors, an assistant sub-inspector and others.
Demo held against Hesco officials
Nov 10: A large number of people took out a procession in Noshehro Feroz against Hesco officials for allegedly taking bribe and implicating consumers in false cases.
The protesters, including journalists, students and activists of the People's Party Parliamentarians, Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, carried placard and chanted slogans against the SDO, line superintendent and other officials of the company.
200,000 workers to be sent to Malaysia
Nov 10: Pakistan will send to Malaysia about 200,000 skilled and semi-skilled manpower, A.A. Asad, General Manager of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation said.
MQM Minister asked to continue
Nov 11: The newly-appointed parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Farooq Sattar, said the issue of the resignation of Federal Minister for Communications Ahmed Ali has been closed and he has been asked to continue work in the cabinet. He denied any rift within the party or with the government on any issue. He said the MQM was working to bring a change in the present system so that the common man could get the fruits of democracy.
Parliament passes two laws in a year
Nov 11: The legislative performance of the present parliament in the first year of its tenure compares dismally with that of the last five parliaments elected since 1985 , statistics collected from the legislation branch of the Parliament House revealed. Parliament has passed only two bills, including the finance bill, in the year, which started on Nov 16, 2002. Though the last session of the National Assembly continued for a record 84 days, it could not do any legislative work.
Rashid delivers peace message to Vajpayee
Nov 11: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed delivered messages of peace and goodwill of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. He delivered the messages at the inaugural session of the Saarc information ministers conference held at the Parliament House annex in New Delhi.
Pakistan floats $500m Eurobond in world market
Nov 11: JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank have won the mandate as the lead managers and ABN Amro Bank as co-lead manager to float Pakistan’s sovereign bond amounting to $500 million in the international market, the Ministry of Finance announced in Islamabad. This mandate marks the return of Pakistan to the international capital market after the lapse of six years, the official statement said. It added that this transaction is specifically meant to establish international benchmarking.
MNAs call for end to Karo-Kari
Nov 11: The Treasury benches in the National Assembly called for an end to Karo-Kari (honor killing), terming it inhuman and against Islamic norms. Calling for a legislation against the menace, MP Bhandara raised the issue in the House on the last day of the parliamentary year. Bhandara said innocent people are killed in the name of honor killing by followers of old family traditions. "No religion allows such a practice," He said, adding that in 2003 some 910 cases of Karo-Kari took place in Sindh and the victims included 25 couples. Similarly, he said, in the NWFP 239 cases of Karo-Kari were reported in which 50 couples were murdered.
13 Malaysian students deported
Nov 11: Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi defended the detention without trial of 13 Malaysian students, deported from Pakistan, under a tough security law, saying the government has to investigate their links to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group. The 13 were arrested by police under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial, when they arrived from Pakistan in a special aircraft. The students, who were studying at two institutions in Karachi, were detained by Pakistan authorities in September on suspicion of terrorist activities or links to terrorists.
NWFP minister accuses Ruet chairman of following govt dictates
Nov 11: NWFP’s Minister for Religious Affairs Hafiz Akhtar Ali has alleged that Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman ignored evidences and unilaterally announced the sighting of Ramazan moon in haste on the dictates of Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed. However, Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman denied the allegations and said that the decision was endorsed by all members of the Ruet Committee. He also called upon the government to ban all parallel moon-sighting committees, get the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee decision enforced across the country and take action against the violators. The two religious figures of the country were face to face at the Jang Forum in Karachi, held to deliberate upon "How to Settle the Dispute of Moon Sighting?"
Military operation in Waziristan to whip up strong resentment: Imran
Nov 11: Leader of the combined opposition and chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan said there would be strong resentment against Pakistan Army if the military operation continued in Waziristan Agency. Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Imran said the people of the tribal areas were not happy with the Army operation and the resentment could prove detrimental to the country if the operation was not called off forthwith.
Hashmi sent to jail, speaks of torture
Nov 12: ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi was sent to central jail Adiyala on a 14-day judicial remand, sources in the district court Islamabad told Dawn. The sources said that civil judge Islamabad Aslam Gondal, while issuing the 14-day judicial remand, directed the investigation officer to produce Mr Hashmi again before the court on Nov 24 for hearing.
WB, ADB ask govt to reduce tax rates
Nov 12: The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have urged the government to remove structural weaknesses in Pakistan's taxation system, especially by reducing high tax rates and removing their multiplicity. Informed sources told Dawn that international donors did not believe that the much-needed local and foreign investment could be attracted without bringing more improvements in the overall tax structure of the country. Weak tax administration, corruption, tax evasion, narrow and punctured tax base and complex and tedious tax system were some of the key issues which donors believed were causing problems to the government.
US wants to attack Iran from Balochistan coast: MMA leader
Nov 12: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's deputy parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, expressed the apprehension that the United States would use the Chagai and Makran coasts for an attack on Iran in 2004.