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 Nomination papers can be withdrawn by Jan 31 and the final list of candidates will be issued on Feb 1.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.”

APPLE EXECUTIVE DISMISSES CHEAPER PHONE AS A MARKET SHARE GRAB: REPORT

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple Inc., introduces the iPhone 5 during Apple Inc.’s iPhone media event in San Francisco, California September 12, 2012. Reuters Photo

SAN FRANCISCO, Thu Jan 10, 2013 - Apple Inc will not resort to a cheaper iPhone to expand its market share, marketing chief Phil Schiller told a Chinese newspaper in an interview when asked about speculation the company is developing a less expensive version of its popular smartphone.

Schiller pointed out that though Apple commanded just 20 percent of the smartphone market, it had 75 percent of the profit, according to an interview he gave the Shanghai Evening News.

The Shanghai Evening News, paraphrasing Schiller’s comments, cited the Apple executive as saying the company will not develop a cheap smartphone for the sake of expanding its market share.

Apple confirmed the interview had taken place, but had no further comment for now.

“Originally, many in the Chinese market used feature phones (regular wireless phones). But now a few companies are starting to use cheap smartphones to take the place of feature phones,” Schiller was cited as saying in his first interview with a Chinese newspaper.

“But this is not a direction that we want to be heading in with our products,” he was quoted as saying in the Chinese-language report.

Apple rarely addresses rumors about upcoming products, which often invite intense speculation. This week, the Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources as saying Apple could release a cheaper iPhone as early as this year.

China is Apple’s second-largest market and an area of intense focus for the iPad maker as it tries to sustain a rip-roaring pace of growth.

Chief Executive Tim Cook flew to China this week for at least the second time in 12 months, meeting partners and government officials. On Thursday, he called on the chairman of the country’s largest wireless carrier, China Mobile, raising hopes that a long-awaited deal between the two can proceed.

In an interview with the official Xinhua News Agency, Cook said he was confident China will someday become the company’s single largest market.