Chronology of Pakistan
September 2003 (Continued IV)
Musharraf wants world to address causes of terror
Sept 22: Addressing an international conference on terrorism in New York, President Gen Pervez Musharraf invited world leaders to see the link between terrorism and unresolved political issues that afflicted the Muslim world, and urged them to help resolve these as well. Heads of states and governments from 15 countries are attending the conference, organized jointly by Norway and the International Peace Academy. President Musharraf warned the world leaders against equating Islam with terrorism and urged recognition of legitimate armed resistance movements in the Palestinian territories and Kashmir.
Pakistan seeks active UN role on Kashmir
Sept 22: Pakistan expressed its regrets that the United Nations and the international community were not doing enough to persuade India to resume dialogue with Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir and other issues which stood in the way of a peaceful and meaningful progress in South Asia. Answering questions at his weekly news briefing in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said it was important for the international community to urge Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during his stay in New York to attend the UN General Assembly session to resume talks with Pakistan.
President says he will not give up uniform
Sept 22: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said in New York that the elected government had a majority in parliament and reiterated that it would complete its term. He told a large gathering of Pakistanis: "I am not going to give up my uniform." He said elections were held under the Legal Framework Order, which came into effect in the wake of a Supreme Court verdict. He said 29 amendments had been brought about based on the clear-cut verdict of the superior court.
Hambali’s brother handed over to US
Sept 22: Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, the younger brother of chief of Indonesian Jamia Islamiya, Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Ismuddin, was taken into custody from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station by the army a month back, revealed an official of Jamia Abi Bakar in Karachi.
MMA rejects govt package
Sept 23: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal rejected the draft constitutional proposals handed over to the alliance leadership by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain last week , and decided to send a written draft of counter proposals to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
The MMA supreme council, which met in Islamabad with its President Allama Shah Ahmed Noorani in the chair, also decided to launch a mass contact campaign from next month for which other opposition parties would also be invited.
Opposition stages token hunger strike
ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The combined Opposition staged a token hunger strike outside the parliament building to protest against President Pervez Musharraf's visit to the UN to represent Pakistan at the world organization. MMA and ARD leaders declared that General Musharraf was a "disputed person" as he was not an elected president and hence not competent to represent the country at any international forum.
Balochistan PA opposes setting up of cantonments
Sept 23: The Balochistan Assembly adopted a resolution against the establishment of cantonments in various areas of the province. The resolution also called for abolition of the Frontier Corps checkposts and withdrawal of troops from the areas adjacent to the border with Afghanistan.
Islamabad opposes UNSC expansion
Sept 23: Pakistan is opposed to expansion of the 15-member United Nations Security Council in the permanent category and believes India does not qualify to be a member in this category. Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told Dawn: "We do not support expansion of the permanent membership of the Security Council," adding: "No new centre of privilege should be created in the UNSC." He was responding to a statement by Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha last week urging reform of the UNSC and advocating India's case for permanent status.
Legislators asked to file asset statements
Sept 23: Chief Election Commissioner Justice Irshad Hasan Khan (retired) asked the legislators to file their yearly statements of assets and liabilities by Sept 30 or face legal action. The CEC reminded the members that failure to submit statements would entail restriction to function as legislators till the time they submitted the statements of their assets.
Jakarta seeks details on arrests
Sept 23: Indonesia's foreign ministry summoned Pakistan's ambassador to seek clarification on the recent arrest of two Indonesians for suspected terrorist offences, an official said. Ambassador Syed Mustafa Anwer Husain told reporters that the arrests were not made as a result of pressure from the United States or other countries and said Indonesia would be granted to its two nationals who had been detained.
Four more Indonesians held from Karachi seminary
Sept 23: The law-enforcement agencies again raided the Jamia Abi Bakar in Karachi and took into custody four more Indonesians, who had come for religious education a few months ago, a senior official of the seminary and security officials said.
Pak expats plead guilty of ‘possible revolt’ against US
Sept 23: A 30-year-old Pakistani, who claims to have been trained by the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), has now pleaded guilty that he "might have" taken up arms against the United States. Muhammad Atique is one of 11 men charged of conspiring to fight for Islamic causes, which could "ultimately" lead to taking up arms against the US. Of the 11, arrested earlier, nine are US citizens.
25 held for attacking sessions court
Sept 23: In Joharabad, hundreds of protesters attacked the local sessions court premises and ransacked the courtroom of the district and sessions judge over a water dispute.
Demo against HR violations
Sept 23: The Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights held a demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club to condemn the violation of rights of a married couple. Qadir Bux Mahar married Shaista Almani some three months ago in Ghotki district. However, the chiefs of their respective tribes were not happy with the marriage and they ordered to punish the couple for violating the tribes’ customs and values.
No unilateral freeze of N-plan: Musharraf
Sept 24: President General Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistan would not freeze its nuclear programme unilaterally under any circumstances. "We have a threat on our eastern border from a country which is about seven times our size. We maintain a strategy of deterrence - conventional and unconventional - to guard ourselves, to ensure that there is a no-win situation for our big neighbour," President Musharraf told CNN in an interview.
No pressure for Iraq troops: Musharraf
Sept 24: President Pervez Musharraf said in Washington that US President George W. Bush understands Pakistan's compulsions on his request for contributing troops for Iraq. Addressing a news conference after his meeting with President Bush, Gen Musharraf said: "There is no pressure on us for sending troops to Iraq."
Senate refuses leave to Opposition MPs
Sept 24: In an unprecedented move, the Treasury benches in the Senate refused leave of absence to Opposition members to punish them for their daily anti-LFO protests. The action followed yet another Opposition walkout from Senate to protest against President Pervez Musharraf's sweeping powers he has assumed through the Legal Framework Order (LFO) as well as to challenge his right to speak for Pakistan in the UN General Assembly.
Two cops among 11 shot dead in Lahore
Sept 24: Eleven people, including a former film actress and her five family members and a son of an ex-PML-N lawmaker, were shot dead in two incidents in Lahore. Police said former film actress Nagina Khanum, 60, her five family members and two servants were recovered dead from a room of her house in the Zeenat Block of Allama Iqbal Town. In the second incident, a traffic police inspector Khwaja Rizwan Mahmood, 35, the son of a former PML-N MPA Khwaja Riaz Mahmood, his friend Dr Shahid, 40, and his security guard constable Mohammad Yousuf, 35, were shot dead near the Rang Mehal parking plaza.
57 Punjab Nazimeen tender resignation
Sept 24: Fifty-seven Nazimeen, including Tehsil Nazmeen and Naid Nazmeen of Hafizabad City, Pindi Bhattian and Jalalpur Bhattian, chairmen and vice-chairmen of market committees and chairman District Public Safety Commission Chaudhry Manzoorul Hassan Chattha have tendered their resignations from their respective posts. The resignations were given apparently Chaudhrys domination in local politics. Although Awam Dost Group of Chaudhry Mehdi Bhatti had won all the five MPA and MNA seats in the district and strengthened PML-QA, but the Chaudhrys awarded ticket to a lady for the women’s reserve seat of their opponents in Hafizabad.
NAB freezes assets of ex-petroleum secretary
Sept 24: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has frozen movable and immovable assets, including bank accounts, of ex-secretary Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources captain (retd) Syed Naseer Ahmed. Ahmed was arrested by the NAB on Aug 28, 2003. His frozen assets include several houses and plots, besides many bank accounts.
PML factional leaders divided over merger
Sept 25: Differences on ways to unify five factions of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) persisted among factional leaders as an advisory committee on the implementation of unification decision met in Islamabad. The committee has proposed recourse to the Election Commission in the first instance to register the unified party without an affix to specify a faction, a spokesman said.
Extradition pact inked with US
Sept 25: Pakistan and the United States have entered into an agreement for the surrender and transfer of each other's nationals and military personnel for any purpose without recourse to any court of law. The agreement which is being kept a secret was signed on July 21, 2003 in Washington by Pakistan's ambassador to the US Ashraf Jehangir Qazi and US Assistant Secretary of State Christina B. Rocca, a senior government official told Dawn. The federal cabinet today formally approved the agreement for ratification during Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's visit to the US early next week through formal exchange of notes. No official announcement was made about the signing of the agreement or its approval by the cabinet. The agreement also enables the two governments to get out of the purview of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and binds each other not to surrender or otherwise transfer each other's nationals to the ICC, or any other tribunal not established by the UN Security Council.
The US authorities have been facing problems in transferring Pakistani nationals to the United States for investigation and prosecution as the Pakistan government could not surrender even a single person owing to the intervention of the local courts. Under the agreement, persons who could be extradited without any recourse to the local courts of law, include current or former government officials, employees and contractors, or military personnel or other nationals.
Stone Age cave, mound found on Margallas
Sept 25: A Palaeolithic cave (23,000BC) and a Buddhist cultural mound, probably of the same period, found near Jori Rajgaon Village on Margalla Hills , 22km north-west of the federal Capital, are in danger owing to commercial interests and the apathy of the department concerned. The discovery, made only recently, entails the archaeological survey conducted by the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations of the Quaid-i-Azam University which is headed by noted anthropologist and archaeologist Prof Emeritus Ahmad Hasan Dani.
Pak population will swell to 349m by 2050
Sept 25: Pakistan’s population will swell to 349 million by year 2050, making it the fourth most populated country in the world, cautions a Washington-based population monitoring group. According to the latest report of the Population Reference Bureau, which has been providing timely and objective information on the US and international population trends and their implications for the last 70 years to policymakers globally, Pakistan and "much of the world is challenged by skewed population growth rates". The Bureau projects India will become the world’s most populated country with 1,628 million people by 2050, tailed closely by China with 1,394 million. The US will increase its population from the existing 292 million to 422 in the next 43 years, while Indonesia, with the current population of 220 million, will grow by 94 million during the same period.
Senate rejects motion on Army officers’ arrest
Sept 25: The Senate refused to admit an adjournment motion to discuss the arrest of Army officers with alleged links to banned terrorist organizations. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad had asked, "It has been reported in the press that four to 20 Army officer have been arrested and are being investigated for alleged links with al-Qaeda or any other organization on the terrorist list of US."
MMA has become two-party alliance: Sami
Sept 25: "MMA has practically become a two-party alliance and activists of our party are not happy with the alliance government in the NWFP," said chief of Jamiat Ulema Islam (Sami group) and member Senate Maulana Samiul Haq. Speaking at the Dastar Bandi (graduation ceremony) of Darul Uloom Haqqania and later talking to journalists, he said the JUI-S has lodged a strong protest to the MMA supreme council against what happened in Mardan the other day.
Opposition blasts govt for filing treason case
Sept 26: The parliamentary opposition criticized President Pervez Musharraf for describing parliamentarians as "immature" and also took a swipe at the government for registering a treason case against Senator Sanaullah Baloch and other members of the Balochistan National Party (BNP). Speaking at separate press conferences at the parliament house, the opposition leaders also demanded registration of treason cases against those responsible for the abrogation of the constitution and disrupting the democratic process in the country. Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal President Allama Shah Ahmed Noorani said that President Musharraf had no right to pass such remarks against parliamentarians and that too in a foreign country. The combined opposition also sought details of extradition treaty signed by the government with the United States without taking the parliament and the nation into confidence.
Nawabzada Nasrullah passes away
Sept 26: Veteran politician and chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan died in Islamabad early this morning. He was 85. The Nawabzada passed away at 1.05am, according to the Shifa International Hospital where he was admitted after a heart attack on Sept 23rd. The Nawabzada had arrived in Islamabad from Lahore to attend a meeting of the heads of component parties of the ARD scheduled for Sept 24th. A few hours later, he suffered a severe heart attack and was rushed to a private hospital where the doctors, after treating him in emergency, admitted him to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU). Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan played a very important role in the political history of Pakistan and was famous for making alliances against various governments.
1,027 army officers working on civilian posts
Sept 26: As many as 1,027 serving and retired armed forces officers were appointed in different ministries, divisions and departments after the military takeover of October 1999 on induction , secondment or re-employment basis, the Senate was told.
ANP observes protest day against Kalabagh dam
Sept 26: A protest day was observed in the NWFP and tribal areas against the construction of Kalabagh dam. The call for the protest day was extended by the Awami National Party. A party spokesman said that protest meetings were held throughout the province including Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Mingora, Kohat, Tank, Hangu, Laki Marwat and Jamrud (Khyber Agency) to protest against the construction of reservoir on river Kabul.