LAS VEGAS, NV – JANUARY 07: Moshi Digits touchscreen gloves are displayed during the 2013 International CES Digital Experience media preview at the MGM Grand Conference Center on January 7, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world’s largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 8-11 and is expected to feature 3,100 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 150,000 attendees. – AFP Photo

LAS VEGAS, Jan 11, 2013 - The folks who brought you laptop trackpads, voice-activated smartphones and touch-screen tablets are dreaming up new ways for users to interact with technology through wearable, fashionable gadgets.

The high-tech industry used the International Consumer Electronics Show to display things like high-tech fingernails, handbags, clothing and accessories for the iPhone generation.

The “nanonail,” for example, from a startup called Tech Tips, looks like a fingernail extension but is designed to work on smartphones and help avoid “fat finger” mistakes.

“The nail had to look nice, I didn’t want women to have to compromise,”said dermatologist Sri Vellanki, founder of the Montana-based company and inventor of the concept, who said she hopes to sell the product in a few months.

SunnyBag, a firm based in Austria, was showing its handbag equipped with flexible solar panels. The leather bag uses solar energy to charge a battery inside which can be used with a USB cord to recharge a smartphone.

“Our aim was to combine fashion with function,” said product manager Kerstin Kurre. “Every woman and a lot of men carry a bag, and everyone has battery problems.”The surge in the use of smartphones which can be used as music players has stimulated the creation of headphones which double as fashion accessories. Some on display at CES are integrated into caps or scarves.

Some headphones were being marketed as fashion items including one from iHip promoted by permatanned reality show star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi with splashes of glittery faux-diamond plastic and leopard print.

Italian-based hi-Fun appeared to want to take a page from James Bond with high-tech gloves which can be used to speak on a smartphone.

The user can answer a call by activation a button inside the gloves and placing the thumb in the ear and index finger in front of the mouth to speak.

The “hi-Call” devices look like ordinary knit gloves, but are equipped with wireless connectivity. “Bluetooth is an easy technology, and works with most devices,” said Rick Sadofsky, a US distributor for the product.

CES also saw a spate of new wristwatch products, some powered by Android, which can access apps from a smartphone, some with emergency calling capacity.

The crowdfunded Pebble Technology watch can tell users when their bus is arriving, monitor one’s sleep and send data back through their smartphones to the Internet.

Italian-based i’m SpA, which last year debuted what it called the world’s first smart watch, unveiled a new version along with i’m Here, a GPS tracker that help mark out missing children, adventurers or adults with dementia.

Another wearable device came from US-based Vuzix, which offered a rival to Google Glasses with a device fitting around the forehead with a screen which connects to a smartphone.

But Vuzix’s David Lock said another device in the works is a real pair of glasses which also allows users to visualize what is on a smartphone or other mobile device.

“We see that as the holy grail,” Lock said.

CES also featured its own high-tech fashion show, with LED and illuminated dresses and corsets and accessories.

“We’re about to see an entire new industry take off based on high tech fashion,” said Robin Raskin, organizer of the show featured in the CES Living in Digital Times program.

“Fashion is soon to become personalized, elegant and useful and will remain a constant couture.”

Syria talks end in Geneva without solution

The UN Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, briefs the media after a meeting with Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov and US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, unseen, to find a political solution for the crisis in Syria, at the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Jan 11, 2013. – AP Photo

GENEVA: International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday that Russia seems as determined as the United States to end Syria’s civil war, but that he doesn’t expect a political solution to emerge anytime soon.    

Brahimi, who is the joint UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, spent the day at the United Nations’ European headquarters meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.

“We are all very, very deeply aware of the immense suffering of the Syrian people, which has gone for far too long. We all stressed the need for a speedy end to the bloodshed, to the destruction and all forms of violence in Syria. We stressed again that in our view, there was no military solution to this conflict,” Brahimi told reporters.

But he acknowledged that “if you are asking me whether a solution is around the corner, I am not sure that is the case. What I am certain of is that there is an absolute necessity for people to continue to work for such a peaceful solution, and that it is the wider international community, especially members of the Security Council that can really create the opening that is necessary to start effectively solving the problem.”

Brahimi’s five hours of talks with Bogdanov and Burns on Friday ended without any apparent deal. It was Brahimi’s second meeting in as many months with Bogdanov and Burns, who each left without making any public comments.

In December, Brahimi also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to discuss Syria.

At the Security Council, the most powerful arm of the UN, Russia has joined China in blocking several resolutions aimed at pressuring Syrian President Bashar Assad, but Moscow says it is not propping up his regime.

Recently, top Russian officials have signaled they are resigned to Assad eventually losing power.    Brahimi defended Moscow’s role.

“I am absolutely certain that the Russians are as preoccupied as I am, as preoccupied as the Americans are, by the bad situation that exists in Syria and its continuing deterioration, and I am absolutely certain that they would like to contribute to its solution,” he said.

Brahimi, who didn’t comment on China’s response to Syria’s civil war, said the foundation for a political solution continues to be the agreement reached among major powers in Geneva in June, which called for creation of a new governing body for Syria that would “exercise full executive powers” during an unspecified transition period.

“And we agreed that full executive powers means all the powers of state,” Brahimi said of Friday’s discussions. “I will continue to engage all Syrian parties as well as other stakeholders in the region and internationally.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an interview with the Associated Press that he was pleased that Brahimi convened the meeting and “also encouraged that they are trying to bridge the gap on their differences, particularly how this transitional executive body will operate.”

“I know that there was some common understanding that this transitional executive power means all the powers of state,” he said. “I certainly hope that they will continue to discuss this matter.”

“It was not the breakthrough – but it is progress,” Ban said.    He said he spoke to Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby after the meeting and said Brahimi will come to New York later this month for talks with UN officials and the Security Council.

In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters that “it’s hard to imagine how you would have a transitional government with Assad still part of it.”

The conflict began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against Assad’s family dynasty, which has ruled the country for four decades, but the intense crackdown on the uprising and armed rebel opposition soon became a civil war.

“According to our progress today, we said that this transitional government that will be in charge during the transitional period only. It is not a government that will stay for a long time. It will direct the transitional period that will end with the holding of the elections that will be agreed upon. During this transitional period, the transitional government has to enjoy complete powers and these complete powers are those of the whole state,” Brahimi said.

The UN says at least 60,000 people have been killed in the war and millions have fled their homes. So far, all international efforts to end the fighting have failed. Syria has complained that Brahimi exhibited “flagrant bias” after he called for real, not cosmetic, change in Syria and said Assad was resisting the aspirations of his people.

Brahimi took the criticism in stride. “I saw the statement by the Syrian government. They expressed their point of view, but at the same time they said that they are ready to continue cooperating with me,” he said.

He clarified his stance further.

“I said the Syrians are saying 40 years is enough — the Syrians,” he said. “I said the Syrian people are saying that 40 years is enough. And I never said that there will be no place for members of the government. I never said that.”

The UN refugee agency said Friday that it is concerned about the severe winter conditions faced by about 612,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, and there has been no letup in the flow of thousands of people a day across the borders.

“Many of those arriving have been barefoot, with their clothing soaked, and covered in mud and snow,” agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva, referring to new refugee arrivals in Jordan.

PM orders delegation of policing powers to FC in Quetta

A woman sits with her children holding lighted candles during a protest against bomb blasts a day earlier in Quetta, organised by various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Islamabad, Jan 11, 2013. — Photo by Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday issued directives to delegate policing powers to the Frontier Corps (FC) in Quetta, DawnNews reported.

The premier issued the directives after a meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

The FC has been directed to assist the Balochistan government in maintaining peace and controlling the law and order situation in the province in the wake of the multiple bombings that have claimed the lives of over 100 people.

Furthermore, the prime minister directed Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira to immediately leave for Quetta in order to monitor the situation in the provincial capital.

Prime Minister Ashraf has moreover announced compensation of rupees one million for the heirs of each victim killed in the bombings and rupees 100,000 for each person injured in the explosions.

He moreover ordered that C-130s be sent to Quetta in order to shift the wounded to Karachi for medical treatment.

The premier has moreover directed Chief Minister Balochistan Aslam Raisani, who is currently abroad, to return to the country without further delay.

Sit-in continues in Quetta; HDP says provincial govt has failed

People chant slogans next to the bodies of their relatives awaiting burial, who were killed in Thursday’s deadly bombings in Quetta. — Photo by AP

QUETTA: The sit-in at Quetta’s Alamdar Road staged by hundreds of people from theHazara Shia community was ongoing on Saturday after the passing of nearly 20 hourssince it started, DawnNews reported.

The participants of the sit-in have refused to bury the dead until the army takes control of the provincial capital.

Police in Quetta had earlier said that the protest had ended, but Shia leader Ibrahim Hazara said Saturday that it would continue until the city was handed over to the army and the provincial government dismissed.

Some 50 coffins remain on the provincial capital’s Alamdar Road, the Associated Press reported.

Moreover, the Qaumi Yakjehti Council has announced that it would expand the perimeter of its protest to the cantonment check post.

Also on Saturday, the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) took out a protest rally in Quetta against terrorist attacks in the city.

Participants of the rally held banners and placards condemning the recent unrest in Balochistan, including incidents of targeted killings, bomb blasts and other unrest.

The rally took various roads and routes and concluded near the office of Inspector General Balochistan Police.

The protesters said the provincial government had failed in establishing peace and law and order in the city and demanded that Quetta be handed over to the army.

The sit-in and protest comes in the wake of multiple bomb blasts in Quetta which claimed at least 104 lives. Eighty-six of those killed in the attacks were from the Hazara Shia community.

Policing powers delegated to FC

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday issued directives to delegate policing powers to the Frontier Corps in Quetta.

The premier issued the directives after a meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

The FC has been directed to assist the Balochistan government in maintaining peace and controlling the law and order situation in the province in the wake of the multiple bombings that have claimed the lives of over 100 people.

PM phones Governor Magsi

Prime Minister Ashraf telephoned Governor Balochistan Zulfikar Magsi and the two discussed the situation in Quetta in the wake of the multiple blasts.

The premier, in his call, directed the provincial governor to take all steps necessary to ensure the protection of the citizens’ lives and properties.

He added that the federal government was ready to assist the provincial government to ensure the citizen’s security.

Prime Minister Ashraf moreover said that those wounded in the wake of the attacks should be treated with maximum care.

PM directs CM Balochistan to return to Quetta

Prime Minister Ashraf on Saturday directed Chief Minister Balochistan Aslam Raisani, who is reportedly abroad, to return to Pakistan immediately.

The prime minister also directed Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira to travel to Quetta without delay.

Altaf calls for protesters’ demands to be met

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Saturday stated that the federal and Balochistan governments should immediately accept the demands put forth by the grieving relatives of those killed in the explosions in the provincial capital.

He added that not only should the governments pay heed to the demands of the protesters, they should also accept them and take steps to resolve their issues.

Hussain said it was “highly unfortunate” that “all political leaders and political parties were silent” when the relatives of those killed had been holding a sit-in with the bodies of their loves ones for the past 20 hours.

Islamabad court disposes of TMQ petition against harassment, arrests

In this Jan 9, 2013, photo, Tahirul Qadri speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Lahore. — Photo by AP

ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad session judge on Saturday disposed of a petition filed by the Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran(TMQ) over the alleged harassment and arrest by the police of the TMQ workers, DawnNews reported.

The district administration and the police had told the court that TMQ workers were neither being arrested nor harassed.

The Islamabad Chief Commissioner Tariq Mehmood Pirzada and Inspector General Islamabad Police Bani Amin Khan through their representatives assured the court that neither the district administration nor the police had either arrested or harassed the TMQ workers.

Assistant Commissioner Noman Yousuf, Assistant Commissioner Imran Ali Sultan and Advocate Rizwan Abbasi represented the district administration in the court, whereas, sub-inspector Abdul Sattar was present on behalf of Amin.

Earlier, petitioner Guftar Hussain advocate, who is president of the Pakistan Awami Tahrik, the political wing of the TMQ, had adopted before the court that the police and district administration were trying to harass the party’s workers.

He alleged that the district administration had on Thursday tried to dismantle the reception camp set up by the TMQ.

The petition had requested the court to restrain the respondents from harassing TMQ activists and creating obstacles in the long march.

Blast near ANP leader Shakeel Omarzai’s convoy; 12 injured

A policeman inspects a blast site in Charsadda. — File Photo

CHARSADDA: A bomb blast occurred near a convoy of Awami National Party (ANP) leader and member of provincial assembly (MPA) Shakeel Bashir Omarzai in the Charsadda district’s Omarzai tehsil on Saturday.

The incident took place near Hari Chand Road in Khan Ghari village of the tehsil.

Twelve people, including Shakeel Omarzai, his father and former MPA Bashir Omarzai and three police personnel who were part of Shakeel’s security detail were injured in the blast.

District Coordination Officer Zafar Ali Shah confirmed that 12 people were wounded in the attack, adding that none had sustained life-threatening injuries.

Some of the injured were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, Charsadda, whereas the remaining injured were transported to the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar.

The blast was caused by a remote-controlled device, police sources said, adding that it was followed by heavy gunfire in the area.

The blast occurred when the convoy was returning from a local court where Bashir Omarzai had appeared for a hearing.

UN urged to refer Syria to war crimes court

A Free Syrian Army fighter holds his weapon as he prepares himself for advance, close to a military base, near Azaz. — AP Photo/File

BERLIN: More than 50 countries have backed a call for the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, a move that would open the way for war crimes prosecutions.    

A draft of the letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press said the situation in Syria should be referred to the Hague-based war crimes tribunal ”without exceptions and irrespective of the alleged perpetrators”.

”At the very least, the council should send out an unequivocal message (…) announcing that it intends to refer the situation to the ICC unless a credible, fair and independent accountability process is being established in a timely manner” by Syria, it continued.

The letter cited the findings of a UN expert panel documenting summary executions, torture and sexual violence that has occurred since the start of the uprising in March 2011. It also noted repeated appeals by the UN’s top human rights official and resolutions by the global body’s Human Rights Council calling for ICC referral.

The draft letter was signed by Switzerland’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York on behalf of dozens of countries including Britain and France, two of the Security Council’s five permanent members.

The other three permanent members — the United States, China and Russia — had not signed the draft.

A spokesman for Switzerland’s UN mission in New York said the letter would be submitted to the Security Council on Monday.

Adrian Sollberger said Switzerland first proposed such a move in June 2012, and that it now had the backing of more than 50 countries from all regions of the world, giving the call sufficient political weight.    ’

‘The manifold allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria must be investigated and those responsible among all the parties of the conflict must be brought before a court,” he said.

The Security Council is the only body that can refer Syria to the ICC because the country itself hasn’t ratified the international convention that established the tribunal.

The UN’s human rights office issued a report last week estimating that at least 60,000 people have died in Syria since the start of the conflict.

At least 30 dead in Nepal bus accident: police

Nepalese police rescuers count the bodies of victims after an accident. — File photo/AP

KATHMANDU: A bus veered off a mountain road in west Nepal leaving at least 30 people dead and several more injured, a police official said.

Police official Ramesh Bahadur Dhanuk said the bus drove off the gravel road Saturday in a remote mountainous area near Chatiwan village.

It was dark and the area was covered in thick fog.

The bus rolled about 300 metres from the road.

Rescuers and local villagers helped the pull the dead and injured from the wreckage.

Among the dead were 22 men, seven women and a child.

By-poll on six PA seats on Feb 18

File photo

KARACHI, Jan 11: With the term of the Sindh Assembly set to end on March 16, the provincial election commission on Friday announced that by-elections on six vacant seats would be held on Feb 18.

The announcement was, however, at variance with a statement of the Chief Election Commissioner, retired Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, made last month in which he declared that the EC would not hold by-polls any more since less than 120 days were left in the completion of the term of the current assemblies.

The six provincial assembly seats, four in Karachi and two in the interior of Sindh, fell vacant after as many lawmakers, four belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and two from the Pakistan People’s Party, resigned instead of submitting affidavits to the election commission about dual nationality.

According to the schedule issued by the election commission, by-elections on six provincial assembly constituencies — PS-73 (Jamshoro), PS-84 (Thatta), PS-101, 103, 113 and 115 of Karachi — will be held on Feb 18.

Nomination papers for the vacant seats can be filed on Jan 20-21. Scrutiny will be held on Jan 26, appeals against acceptance/rejection of nomination papers can be filed on Jan 28. Nomination papers can be withdrawn by Jan 31 and the final list of candidates will be issued on Feb 1.

Interestingly, on the eve of Dec 4 by-polls in Naushahro Feroze, CEC Ebrahim had said that no by-election would be held on vacant national and provincial assembly seats because the assemblies must have at least 120 days of term in order to hold by-elections. “The current Sindh Assembly will complete its term on March 16,” said provincial Election Commissioner Mehboob Anwar on Friday. “So the assembly has at least 60 legitimate days to complete its term. The statistics allow us to hold by-elections in Sindh.”

TMQ decides not to seek permission for long march

In this Jan 9, 2013, photo, Tahirul Qadri speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Lahore. — Photo by AP

ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: While the Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) has decided against seeking a no objection certificate (NOC) for its Monday’s long march to Islamabad, the government seems to be determined to thwart the plan by banning the entry of marchers into the city.

Extraordinary security measures are being taken in the federal capital for what the government calls ‘protection of people’. As many as 5,000 personnel of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and 2,000 of Punjab police reached here on Friday, raising the number of law-enforcers being deployed for the event to about 20,000.

Because of the deadlock, a clash between supporters of TMQ chief Dr Tahirul Qadri and security forces cannot be ruled out during the march.

A meeting held at the interior ministry on Friday decided that participants of the rally would be stopped from entering Islamabad because no permission had been given by the administration.

“Since it is obvious that the government will not issue the NOC, we have decided to stage the march without obtaining it,” TMQ’s Islamabad chapter president Ibrar Raza told Dawn.

He said a TMQ team was invited for talks to the deputy commissioner’s office on Friday, but they rejected the invitation due to the government’s “negative” response to the long march plan.

The TMQ leader said three petitions had been filed against the proposed march in superior courts, but all of them had been rejected. “This is a clear massage from the courts that staging long march is a basic right of TMQ. Now we do not need any NOC,” he said.

Mr Raza said a rally of his party workers and supporters would enter Islamabad on Jan 14 at any cost and warned that the government would be responsible for consequences if any attempt was made to stop the rally.

On the other hand, a senior official of the administration said none of the superior courts had ordered them to lift section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code under which no public meeting could be held or procession taken out in the city without special permission.

He said the TMQ had another day on Saturday to get an NOC and if it failed to do so, its rally would be stopped at Islamabad’s entry points.

The official said a decision to thwart the march by the use of force had been taken at the meeting in the interior ministry, which was presided over by an additional secretary.

He said 5,000 personnel of FC, 2,000 of Punjab police and 2,000 Rangers had reached Islamabad to help more than 10,000 police personnel to maintain peace. “More policemen from Punjab will come to Islamabad in 24 hours.”

The Supreme Court on Friday did not take any decision on a petition against the proposed march filed on Tuesday. The petitioner Asad Mahmood argued before the court that the march could create chaos in the country and sought an order to bar
the TMQ from staging it.

If Dr Qadri had any reservation over the existing democratic system, he should adopt a constitutional way to record his protest,
he said.

MQM DECISION PRAISED: Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has welcomed the MQM decision of not joining the march. He said in a statement that MQM Chief Altaf Hussain had made the decision in the larger interest of the country.

Mr Malik urged Dr Qadri to call off the march, saying human lives were more precious. “I believe that Dr Qadri will positively respond to the request in the larger interest of the country.”

Desperate Hazaras want army rule in Quetta

Bodies of the victims of the blast on Quetta’s Alamdar road at an imambargah, Jan 11. — Photo by Online

QUETTA, Jan 11: Hundreds of people belonging to the Hazara Shia community staged a sit-in on Alamdar Road on Friday and refused to bury the dead till the army takes control of Quetta. The death toll from Thursday’s three blasts rose to 104 after nine more people died of their.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the barbaric acts of terror and urged the government to take immediate measures to control the situation.

“Of the 92 people killed in the car bomb and suicide attacks on Alamdar Road in Quetta, 86 belonged to the Hazara Shia community,” Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Durrani told Dawn.

The burials were to take place after Friday prayers, but the bodies remained unburied till late in the night. The Hazara community called for removal of the provincial government and handing over the city’s control to the army for an operation to arrest the attackers.

“We will not bury the bodies of our loved ones until the provincial capital is handed over to the army,” Qayyum Changezi, a leader of the Qaumi Yakjehti Council, said. He said the provincial government should resign because it had failed to protect the life and property of citizens.

The Hazara people staged the sit-in on Alamdar Road, along with the bodies. Despite a severe cold and continuous rain, they did not leave the place.

Government officials held negotiations with leaders of the Hazara community and requested them to end the protest and bury the bodies, but they refused to do so.

The home secretary told Dawn that further negotiations were under way. He confirmed that the leadership of the community was seeking resignation of the provincial government and handing over of Quetta’s control to the army. Sources said Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani was abroad on a private tour. He is expected to return in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, the bodies of seven police personnel, including two senior officers, who had lost their lives in the Alamdar Road blasts, were buried on Friday. Thousands of people attended the funeral. The body of one officer was sent to Karachi.

The Namaz-i-Janaza of three media personnel who were killed while covering the first blast was offered on Friday. They were laid to rest in graveyards of their native areas.

The cameraman of Samaa TV, Imran Sheikh, was buried in Muslim Town graveyard.

The body of Saifur Rehman Baloch, a reporter of the same TV channel, was sent to Karachi for burial as members of his family were there because of winter vacation.

The body of Iqbal Hussain, a computer operator in NNI news agency, could not be buried as it was taken to Alamdar road where people continued their sit-in.

Former PTV news producer Murtaza Baig, who was working as a spokesperson for the Frontier Corps in Balochistan, was also killed when he came out of his house in Alamdar road area to ascertain the situation after the first blast in a snooker club.

Mr Baig was also seriously injured in May last year in a suicide attack on the residence of the deputy inspector general of Frontier Corps.

COMPENSATION: The Balochistan government has announced Rs2 million as compensation for each of the heirs of police personnel and Rs1 million for the families of other people killed in the blasts.

The families of journalists killed in the blast would be given Rs1 million each. The government said it would also bear the expenses of injured people who are under treatment in the Combined Military Hospital. It said seriously injured people would be sent to Karachi.

Our Staff Reporter adds from Lahore: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the bomb and suicide attacks in Quetta and Mingora and killings in Karachi. It called upon the government to take immediate steps to clamp down on terrorists.

In a statement on Friday, the commission said: “In the first few days of 2013, the HRCP finds itself lamenting, for the second time, the large-scale sectarian bloodshed in the country.
The callous targeting of members of the Hazara community in Quetta in two of those bombings on Thursday has caused the highest death toll for any sectarian attack in a day in Pakistan so far.

“Lack of any apparent distress at these brutal attacks and absence of urgency to nab the killers has understandably prompted human rights organisations in the country and abroad to accuse the state of looking the other way, if not of downright complicity, as more and more citizens of the Shia faith are mowed down in appalling attacks.

“If the government has any remorse over its failure to stem the horrific spike in sectarian killings or the utter absence of its own writ, it has certainly done a good job hiding that. It defies belief how in a city like Quetta the attackers can manage to get through security checks and strike at will.

“A bombing in Mingora and the brazen bloodshed in Karachi on Thursday only demonstrate hastened descent into chaos as the general election approaches. The people expect much more from police and security forces than mere information on the nature of the explosions that claimed citizens’ lives.

“An ostensibly banned organisation has claimed responsibility for the Quetta bombings. The network and sanctuaries of that and other banned outfits must be taken apart across Pakistan, including Punjab, and the killers apprehended and tried.

“Until that happens, the charges of the state being soft on the terrorists would not go away. That is also the only way to restore the faith of the citizenry in the state’s ability to safeguard their lives and well being.”

MEDIA WORKERS: The HRCP further said: “Reflections are also in order on what could have been done to avoid fatalities among media workers in Quetta who were at the scene to cover the first bombing when the second explosion occurred.

“With escalating sectarian violence and the election-related violence that is almost certain to be the worst in Pakistan’s electoral history, because of weaponisation, brutalisation of society and the high stakes for all concerned, we might see journalists being caught up more frequently.

“The HRCP hopes that the government, media organisations and journalists’ bodies will invest in safety of journalists by developing SOPs, safety gear and training on conflict reporting.”

Reuters adds: In a rare challenge, a Shia leader publicly criticised Army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani on Friday over the bloodshed.

“I ask the army chief: what have you done with these extra three years you got (in office)? What did you give us except more death?” Maulana Amin Shaheedi, who heads a national council of Shia organisations, said at a news conference.

The bodies would not be buried until the army comes to Quetta, he added.

Court seeks FIA report on Qadir’s complaint

The Supreme court of Pakistan.—Reuters (File Photo)

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court directed the Federal Investigation Agency on Friday to submit a report on a complaint moved by Abdul Qadir Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Qadir Gilani, who is facing allegations of being involved in the 2010 Haj scandal, had sought a restraining order for FIA officer Hussain Asghar investigating the validity of his graduation degree.

Mr Asghar who is investigating the Haj scandal had claimed in a progress report submitted to the court that the bachelor’s degree of Qadir was doubtful and obtained fraudulently.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry directed the FIA officer to confine himself to the Haj scam case and the complaints, if any, against the petitioner should be looked into by other departments of the agency.

Qadir Gilani, who was elected member of the National Assembly on July 19 last year from NA-151 Multan, had accused Mr Asghar of exceeding his jurisdiction and acting without lawful authority by taking up the issue of educational degree, especially when he was neither nominated in the FIR registered in the Haj corruption case. Besides, he said, his name was never mentioned in the charge-sheet issued by the relevant court against former director general of Haj operations Rao Shakeel Ahmed.

Qadir Gilani won the election from the constituency which had fallen vacant after his father, the former prime minister, was disqualified by the Supreme Court in a contempt of court case on June 19 last year. Mr Asghar informed the court on Friday that documents provided by the customs department had confirmed the allegations levelled by PML-N MNA Imran Ahmed Shah that his close friend Zain Sukhaira had brought a 2008 model Land Cruiser worth Rs20 million on his way back to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia.

The bullet-proof luxury vehicle was allegedly given to Qadir Gilani as a gift by Rao Shakeel Ahmed, the main accused in the Haj scandal, through Sukhaira.

Senior counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, representing Qadir Gilani, denied the allegations and accused Mr Asghar of spoiling the case. The bullet-proof car, he said, had been legally imported from Dubai in 2009 after paying all taxes and duties. He said Zain Sukhaira had no role in the import of the car and that the court had initiated the Haj scandal case in 2010.

In his petition, Qadir Gilani alleged that bias and partiality of the FIA officer against him was apparent from the fact that he had embarked upon the course of discrediting and maligning a member of the National Assembly by venturing into investigating the validity of his graduation degree.

He contended that an impartial investigation could not be expected from the FIA officer and recalled that Mr Asghar had been suspended and transferred out of Islamabad by the former prime minister.

The case will be taken up on January 16.

Japan govt unveils $226.5 billion stimulus package

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe points to a chart as he speaks during a press conference at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo on January 11, 2013. —AFP Photo

TOKYO: Japan’s new government unveiled a massive $226.5 billion stimulus plan Friday in the latest bid to boost the world’s number three economy, with plans to rebuild disaster-hit areas and beef up the military.

Japanese investors welcomed the news, with the Nikkei index surging to a 22-month high and the yen tumbling, but analysts questioned its long-term effect and warned it could lead to more misery further down the line.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who came to power in a landslide election victory last month, followed through with one of his key pledges by outlining details of a big-spending plan designed create jobs and end deflation.

“With the measures, we will achieve real GDP growth of two per cent and 600,000 jobs will be created,” he told a briefing.

Japan’s economy shrank by 0.6 per cent in 2011, while last year’s gross domestic product figures are yet to be released.

“It is crucially important to break out of prolonged deflation and the high yen,” he added.

A hawkish Abe also repeated his call for Tokyo and the Bank of Japan to “join hands” on driving growth, comments that have stoked tension between him and BoJ chief Masaaki Shirakawa over perceived threats to its independence and policy decisions.

The new premier had pledged before the election that he would press the BoJ to carry out more aggressive monetary easing and warned that if it did not agree to a two per cent inflation target he would change the law regarding its remit.

While the total size of Friday’s package came in at 20.2 trillion yen ($226.5 billion), Tokyo’s direct spending on economic stimulus and pension financing amounts to about 13 trillion yen, with local governments and the private sector kicking in the rest, Abe said.

Rebuilding disaster-struck areas, making more schools and hospitals earthquake resistant, and upgrading ageing infrastructure were among the planned measures.

It will also see 180.5 billion yen spent on missiles, fighter jets and helicopters to beef up the military as Tokyo is embroiled in an increasingly bitter territorial row with China over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Friday’s stimulus is the latest unveiled by successive governments who have tried to lift the economy from years of anaemic growth.

Investors gave a big thumbs-up, with the Nikkei surging 1.5 per cent in the afternoon to levels not seen since before the March 2011 quake tsunami.

The yen also tumbled to 89.35 against the dollar, its lowest since June 2010 and a far cry from the record high 75 it hit in late 2011, which hammered exporters.

But the big spending plans have stoked fears over Japan’s already tattered fiscal health, the worst among industrial countries with public debt standing at more than twice the size of the economy.

“Huge spending of this size will, of course, have a one-time effect on boosting the economy. But if it fails to ignite a sustained recovery, Japan could fall into a vicious cycle of needing more stimulus spending,” said Taro Saito, senior economist at NLI Research Institute.

Saito also raised fears that some of the money would fall into a black hole of “wasteful spending”.

“If that is the case, it would only have a negative impact on Japan’s fiscal health and a limited effect on boosting the economy,” he said.

Abe, however, insisted the package was not just a return to form for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has a history during its decades-long domination of what critics say is pork-barreling, especially in the vote-rich countryside.

“There is a suspicion that it is a kind of wasteful spending on white elephant projects that the LDP did in the past. That’s wrong,” Abe said Friday.

“Fiscal discipline is quite important. However, without a strong economy…we cannot improve our fiscal health.”