Chronology of Pakistan
January 2004 (Continued V)
16 Indian fishermen arrested
Jan 25: The Maritime Security Agency (MSA) has detained 16 fishermen along with three boats for violating limits of Pakistani territorial waters. According to Docks police the fishermen were arrested 66 kilometres inside Pakistani sea south of Karachi Port.
Nine PPP members join PML-Q
Jan 25: Nine political activists from Larkana, including Kambar taluka People's Party Parliamentarians president, have joined the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid).
Underworld leaked nuclear secrets: Musharraf
Jan 25: An "underworld" of mostly European technology traffickers leaked secrets to states seeking nuclear weapons, President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview published in Washington. "We discovered there is an underworld of people who have been manufacturing (nuclear technology)," Musharraf told The Washington Post. Although he said some Pakistanis were involved, "most of them come from Europe". "Pakistan has not at all been charged. Some individuals in Pakistan and also some Europeans have been charged."
‘Proliferation networks a front for state involvement’
PARIS: Individuals accused by President Pervez Musharraf of involvement in nuclear weapons proliferation serve as a front for states involved in leaking secrets, a UN disarmament commissioner said in Paris. "In reality, these private networks allow states to hide," Therese Delpech, the French member of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), told Radio France International. "Naturally, it’s not the Pakistani state that is going to directly sell this information," she said, adding: "Private proliferation is often a front for public proliferation."
Beg reveals decision on non-proliferation
Jan 25: Former Chief of Army Staff General Aslam Beg has said that Pakistan had taken a crucial decision during the first government of Benazir Bhutto not to proliferate nuclear technology to any country. In an interview to a private television channel, he said that in a meeting of Nuclear Command and Control Authority, which was presided over by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and attended by prime minister Benazir Bhutto and himself, it was decided to practice nuclear restraint and adopt a balanced course. He said the then troika of political leadership had taken four important decisions. It was decided that Pakistan would not pursue a nuclear arms race with India; it would not build a stockpile of fissile material. The level of uranium enrichment was brought down from weapons grade (over) 95 per cent to 5 per cent and less, which was required for nuclear power plants. This was done as Pakistan had accomplished the nuclear objectives set by the late Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. "We had the capability and we had the delivery system," Gen Beg said. It was also decided that Pakistan would not proliferate nuclear technology to any country.
‘Musharraf-Peres meeting incidental’
Jan 25: President General Pervez Musharraf met the Israeli representatives during the World Economic Forum in Davos, confirmed the Foreign Office. Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan in an interview with BBC Radio, however, described President Musharraf’s meetings with former Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres and other officials as incidental.
Government decides to punish guilty scientists
Jan 26: A top-level meeting decided to take stern action against individuals found guilty of proliferation after the ongoing debriefing session of nuclear scientists and concerned officials. The meeting chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf expressed the resolve to keep honoring all the international commitments for non-proliferation, said Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed while briefing the newsmen on the meeting.
Focus of N-probes shifts from Pakistan to Europe
Jan 26: The focus of international investigation on nuclear technology transfer to Iran and Libya has shifted this week from Pakistan to several European countries, including the Netherlands that harbors designers and developers of uranium enrichment centrifuges used in the nuclear programs of Pakistan, Iran, Libya and North Korea, a source in Hague told The News. After Pakistani authorities indicated that debriefing of top Pakistani nuclear scientists is reaching its culmination, IAEA and European investigators undertook investigations into nuclear proliferation. The probe would identify the role played by European scientists and nuclear managers associated with some top companies in Europe in illegal transfer of nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, the source said.
Some scientists placed on ECL: Faisal
Jan 26: Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat has disclosed that the government has put the names of some nuclear scientists on the Exit Control List (ECL) following evidence that they had tried to bring Pakistan a bad name just for their personal gains. Evading to answer a question as to whether or not the government had put the name of the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, on the ECL, he said: "We have put the names of those we wanted to include in the ECL. Debriefings are going on and I do not want to say anything which will further give rise to speculations."
ICG questions Pak efforts to curb extremism
Jan 26: The latest report by an international think tank has questioned Pakistan’s efforts to curb extremism, saying they fall way short of what the country had actually promised particularly with regard to reforming the religious schools. According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), President Pervez Musharraf’s promise to drive extremism from Pakistan’s Madaras, or Islamic schools, remains unfulfilled. Today, two years after he promised his sweeping reforms, the Jihadi Madrasa remains the key breeding ground for radical Islamist ideology and the recruitment centre for terrorist Jihadi networks, says a media release by the organization.
Pakistan not to cap its N-program
Jan 27: Pakistan said that it would not cap its nuclear program and would continue to enhance its nuclear capability to maintain a competitive edge. Speaking at his weekly news briefing here, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan was a nuclear weapon state and would remain a nuclear weapons state.
SC moved to halt probe against scientists
Jan 27: The Supreme Court of Pakistan was moved with the request that inquiry against the nuclear scientists, including Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, should be halted as it was being done by the present regime to please "anti-Pakistan elements". Advocate Habib Wahabul Kheiri, in his constitutional petition filed under its direct jurisdiction, prayed the apex court to take control of the inquiry proceedings being conducted by the ISI, and save the scientists from further humiliation.
Dr Qadeer linked to N-black market
Jan 27: Pakistani investigators have made an independent confirmation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) allegation that nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had direct ties with international black market dealers who sold non-peaceful nuclear technology and hardware to Iran and Libya, and offered similar deals to Syria and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, The News quoted well informed officials in Karachi as saying.
Kuwait hangs two more Pakistanis
Jan 27: Kuwait executed two more Pakistanis on charges of drug trafficking and premeditated murder.
22 children die of influenza in Karachi
Jan 27: About 22 children have died of human influenza in various government hospitals of Karachi this month, so far, and several health practitioners of the city suspect the deaths may be linked to the bird flu, The News said.
Several countries ban Pak poultry imports
Jan 27: Several countries, including Japan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Jordan and UAE, banned import of poultry and poultry products from Pakistan due to outbreak of bird flu.
Khawar Mehdi in Quetta police custody
Jan 28: The state, for the first time, admitted before a Sindh High Court (SHC) bench that Pakistani journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi was in its custody in a case of anti-state activities.
US plans offensive against al-Qaeda inside Pakistan
Jan 28: The US military is making plans for an offensive that would reach inside Pakistan in coming months to try to destroy operations of al-Qaeda network, the Chicago Tribune reported. The newspaper, in a report from Washington citing military sources, said the plans involved thousands of US troops, some of them already in neighboring Afghanistan. The Pakistani government denied it would allow such an operation and the Pentagon declined to confirm that such a plan was being worked on.
Sharing black market contacts with Iran, Libya no crime: Beg
Jan 28: Pakistan’s program to develop a nuclear bomb relied on black market suppliers, and Pakistani scientists who might have shared their contacts with Iran and Libya committed "no crime," former chief of the Army staff Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg told The Associated Press. Beg, who remained army chief from 1988 to 1991, said the current investigation into top figures at the Khan Research Laboratories was treating them like criminals, and they should be respected for having provided the country’s nuclear deterrent against India. "These scientists who are being questioned today, the only crime you can say they committed was to tell the Iranian friends or the Libyan friends ‘Go to such and such a place and the item is on sale. Buy it from them,’" Beg said in an interview.
Dr Qadeer under microscopic scrutiny: official
Jan 28: The fate of the "father" of Pakistan nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, hung in the balance as he underwent further questioning over allegations that he sold nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, an official said. "The scientist is under microscopic scrutiny," an official close to the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Kidnapping of minister: Four tribesmen arrested, business centres sealed
Jan 28: Four tribesmen were arrested and more than a hundred shops and business centers, belonging to members of Sardikhel and Narmikhel sub-tribes in Waziristan, sealed off to pressure the tribes for release of the kidnapped Punjab Sports & Culture Minister, Naeemullah Shahani, and handing over of people involved in the crime.
US lauds probe against scientists
Jan 29: The US State Department has reaffirmed its satisfaction with the "very firm commitment" given by President Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan's nuclear assets would not fall into the wrong hands and welcomed the investigations launched by the government. At a press briefing in Washington, spokesman Richard Boucher said: "We think they've shown how high a priority it is for the Musharraf government to make sure that Pakistan is not cooperating in any way or that Pakistani sensitive nuclear assets don't fall into the wrong hands."
GHQ being shifted to Islamabad
Jan 29: The army is shifting its general headquarters (GHQ) from Rawalpindi to the federal capital as part of plan to enhance security for President Gen Pervez Musharraf, a source in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told Dawn. The source said it was for the first time that the GHQ was being shifted to Islamabad since its establishment. The GHQ is being set up in E-11 sector which has already been acquired by the army for various installations.
21 Pakistani prisoners freed
Jan 29: Afghan authorities freed 21 Pakistanis captured while fighting alongside the former Taliban regime and its Al Qaeda allies during the US-led war in Afghanistan in late 2001.
388 Pakistanis released by Oman
Jan 29: Another batch of 388 Pakistani prisoners released from Muscat jails arrived at Ghasbander Keamari, by a cargo boat, Al-Quadri.
$1.17bn debt paid ahead of schedule
Jan 29: Pakistan remitted $1.171 billion (Rs62.92 billion) to Asian Development Bank (ADB) through a wire transaction, retiring earlier-than-schedule its most expensive debt that carried an interest rate of 8-11 per cent.
Reporter killed in Mansehra
Jan 29: Sajid Tanoli, a reporter of a daily published from Abbottabad, was shot dead in Abbottabad allegedly by the nazim of a union council of Mansehra. In the FIR registered at the Model Police Station, Mansehra city, Ali Asghar, a brother of the deceased, alleged that Khalid Javid Khan, nazim of the union council No 3, of Mansehra, was engaged in illegal liquor business and that the deceased had exposed his business in reports which were published in the daily Shamal.
Baitul Mal blacklists 75pc NGOs
Jan 29: The Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM) has blacklisted 75 per cent of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) it has been financing for various public welfare projects throughout the country. Talking to Dawn, the PBM managing director, Brig Sarfraz (retired), said: "After an extensive scrutiny of NGOs, we have found that their activities were limited to paperwork only.”
Indian delegation arrives for Punjabi moot
Jan 29: A 140-member Indian delegation, led by East Punjab Education Minister Harnam Das Johar, arrived in Lahore to participate three-day World Punjabi Conference.
Scientists' assets not under probe: NAB
Jan 30: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is not investigating assets of senior officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), a NAB spokesman told reporters in Islamabad. The spokesman said the bureau could take a suo motu action against any KRL official to investigate her assets.
Journalist sent to jail on judicial remand
Jan 30: Quetta Judicial Magistrate Haroon Agha sent journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi and two others to jail on a judicial remand. The journalist was arrested on the charge of making a video-film on a fake Taliban training camp for French journalists.
Pakistani shepherd killed in US firing
Jan 30: A Pakistani shepherd was killed and two others were injured seriously when US forces opened fire on them after they mistakenly crossed into the Afghan area near Dobandi close to Pakistan-Afghan border in Baluchistan. The US and Afghan forces were busy in a search operation against Taliban in an Afghan area close to Dobandi, a small Pakistani border town in Qila Abdullah district, when the three Pakistani shepherds crossed into the Afghan border in search of their goats. The US forces opened fire on them considering them to be Taliban, killing Abdul Qadir on the spot. He received many bullets on different parts of his body. His two other colleagues were seriously injured in the firing.
Gen Beg denies approving N-sale
Jan 30: Former chief of army staff Gen Aslam Beg denied accusations that he had approved the alleged sale of nuclear weapons expertise and technology to Iran and Libya by Pakistan's top scientists. "That is all fabricated, a lie and allegation," Gen Beg, who was army chief of staff from 1988 to 1991, told the BBC in an interview.
Freed Pakistanis held for questioning
Jan 30: A batch of 21 Pakistani prisoners, released by the Afghanistan government as a "gesture of goodwill", reached the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Torkhum today. Pakistani border guards and officials of covert agencies, after completion of formalities, shifted these prisoners to Peshawar central jail for further investigations.
East Punjab Chief Minister says Punjab border should be removed
Jan 30: East Punjab Chief Minister Capt (retd) Amrinder Singh said there should be no "artificial boundaries between the two neighboring brothers", and the existing divide should be removed as early as possible. Talking to newsmen at Wagha after his arrival, he said that both the Punjabs were twin brothers as they had the same language, same culture, same heritage, eating habits, and even social problems. Amrinder Singh will attend the World Punjabi Conference that began today.
Pervaiz announces to set up Punjabi institute
Jan 30: Assuring his government’s complete support to promote Punjabi, the Chief Minister Punjab Ch. Pervaiz Elahi has announced to establish Institute of Punjabi Language and Culture and provide 10,000 jobs to the jobless MA Punjabi degree holders. Addressing the participants of the first session of World Punjabi Conference in Lahorel as the chief guest, the Punjab chief minister said that there were no two opinions that Punjabi language could play a very vital role in ending the feuds between Pakistan and India. He said that we had many things in common on both sides of Punjab.
‘Region following Bacha’s philosophy’
Jan 30: Observing the 16th death anniversary of renowned Pakhtun freedom fighter, Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan alias Bacha Khan, ANP Provincial President Nasim Wali Khan claimed the entire region is now following the non-violence philosophy of Bacha Khan. "The rulers of this region have finally admitted that there was no other way except negotiations to settle all the outstanding issues. In fact this was philosophy of non-violence of the late Bacha Khan for which he had devoted his entire life and suffered enormous hardships," Nasim Wali recalled while addressing a gathering of ANP workers at near Peshawar.
EC announces LB by-polls schedule
Jan 31: Chief Election Commissioner Chief Justice (retd) Irshad Hasan Khan announced March 28 as the date of by-elections to fill vacant seats of members, Union Nazims and Naib Nazims of the Punjab, Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan. In line with earlier decision of the government, the coming elections will be held on a separate electoral basis.
Rocket fired in Quetta Cantt
Jan 31: The Quetta cantonment area was rocked when a rocket exploded in Killi Nasirabad.
HR Watch seeks role of law improved in Pakistan
Jan 31: Human Rights Watch executive director Brad Adams has said the military has an "excessive role" in Pakistan, which ultimately "leads to human rights violations". Speaking at a press conference on the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan premises in Islamabad, Mr Adams expressed concern over the state of human rights in Pakistan, particularly about the deteriorating rule of law, government's increasing intolerance of press freedom, arbitrary arrests and disregard for the due process of law.
NSC formation detrimental to sovereignty: ANP
Jan 31: The Awami National Party has described the creation of National Security Council as detrimental to the sovereignty of parliament. Speaking at a public meeting held in connection with the anniversary of Pukhtun nationalist leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan in Peshawar, ANP leaders accused the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal of helping President Pervez Musharraf to materialize his moves to undermine the supremacy of the elected institutions.
Dr Qadeer removed from adviser post
Jan 31: Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan was removed from his position as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Strategic Program, an official announcement said. Dr Qadeer Khan ceased to hold the office of special adviser, he assumed in 2001, when he retired as the chairman of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL). The decision was taken following a meeting of the National Command Authority (NCA), which was chaired by President Pervez Musharraf. The decision was taken "in the background of the investigations into alleged acts of nuclear proliferation by a few individuals and to facilitate investigations in a free and objective manner," the notification said.
Govt's decision to remove Dr A.Q. Khan criticized
Jan 31: Leaders of various political parties criticized the government's decision to sack Dr A.Q. Khan from his position as adviser to the prime minister and said this would cause irreparable damage to the country's integrity. Chairman of the PML-N Raja Zafarul Haq, in a statement, said: "Wittingly or unwittingly, under pressure, the rulers of Pakistan today are hurtling the country to a very dark end." Talking to Dawn, People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar said the party was of the view that scientists were being made scapegoats and the decision to remove Dr Khan from his post of adviser strengthened this viewpoint. Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan on Saturday termed the sacking of Dr A.Q. Khan the beginning of the end of the nuclear program.
Pak-Afghan-US meeting agrees to enhance cooperation
Jan 31: Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to share more intelligence with the US military, the Afghan government said. The deal came at the end of talks on how to counter suspected terrorists along the Pak-Afghan border.
NSC’s scope being enlarged
Jan 31: The proposed law to set up a National Security Council (NSC), approved by the federal cabinet four days ago, enlarges the scope and mandate of the body than it was originally fixed in the Legal Framework Order (LFO). The new additions in the draft bill, a copy of which is available with The News, also cover the NSC deliberations over "democracy, governance, crisis management, inter-provincial harmony". The proposed establishment of the 13-member NSC is part of the "checks and balance system" that President General Pervez Musharraf wants, desiring that democracy is not derailed and martial law is not imposed again.