Posts Tagged ‘Islamabad’
Written by admin on 10 May 2012
Islamabad, May 10 (IANS) The BlackBerry handsets of former Pakistani envoy to US, Husain Haqqani and Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, the main characters involved in the memo scandal, will undergo forensic tests in London.
Forensic experts have reached the Pakistan High Commission in London to examine the handsets, Geo News reported.
Haqqani was forced to resign last year after Ijaz claimed he had asked him to pass on a memo from President Asif Ali Zardari to then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, seeking help from the US government in case of a military coup in Pakistan following the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Haqqani was recalled from Washington and faced a Supreme Court enquiry.
Ijaz was scheduled to appear before the forensic experts but Haqqani has expressed his lack of confidence in the experts and refused to appear before them, the report said.
The judicial commission probing the scandal had issued notices to both parties to either appear in person or instruct their representatives to appear before the forensic experts at the High Commission.
In February, Ijaz handed over to the commission four pages of his Blackberry bill detailing his communications with Haqqani.
Haqqani’s counsel Zahid Bukhari, however, said the pages did not carry names and numbers and were illegible.
Ijaz also said he had written the controversial memo after receiving points from Haqqani and then delivered it to US National Security Advisor James Jones.
He said Haqqani had “directives” from Zardari on delivering the memo to Washington.
“It was my understanding that Haqqani had directives from the Pakistani president,” Ijaz said while recording his testimony at the High Commision.
“Haqqani said (in the memo) that the civilian government needs to be strengthened against the ‘bad boys’”, Ijaz said.
The term “bad boys” referred to army chief (General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani) or ISI chief (Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha), he said.
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Written by admin on 10 May 2012
Islamabad, May 10 (IANS) Pakistan Thursday successfully tested its short-range ballistic missile Hatf III or Ghaznavi, the military said.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the missile can carry nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 290 km.
The launch was conducted at the conclusion of an annual field training exercise of the Army Strategic Force Command, Geo News reported.
The exercise was aimed at testing the operational readiness of the Strategic Missile Group.
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Written by admin on 10 May 2012
Islamabad, May 10 (IANS) US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter has denied meeting Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.
The US embassy Wednesday categorically rejected an article in a national daily that claimed a meeting between Munter and Hafiz Saeed, who heads Jamaat ud Dawa, reported Associated Press of Pakistan.
An embassy statement said: “Ambassador Munter has never met with Hafiz Saeed.”
“No US official has made any promises to, or agreements with Hafiz Saeed,” the embassy added.
Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, is accused of masterminding the Mumbai terror attack, in which six US citizens were killed.
The US last month announced an award of up to $10 million for information leading to arrest and conviction of Saeed and $2 million for Hafiz Adbul Rahman Makki, under the Rewards for Justice programme, for information on the two terrorists.
Ten terrorists from Pakistan sneaked into Mumbai in November 2008 and let loose a reign of terror over three days that saw 166 people, including foreigners, being killed. One of the attackers, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was arrested.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during her three-day trip to India, accused Pakistan of not taking “steps which India and US have been repeatedly” requesting in this regard.
“You have to go after those who are trying to kill you. We have announced a $10 million bounty on the Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed. We want all those involved in the attack be brought to justice,” said Clinton Monday in New Delhi.
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Written by admin on 10 May 2012
Islamabad, May 10 (IANS) The under-construction mausoleum of poet and politician Ajmal Khan Khattak in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was blown up and an hour later a second explosion wounded a dozen people who had gathered there, a media report said.
The incident took place in Akora Khattak area Wednesday night.
Ajmal Khan Khattak, a former president of the Awami National Party, died in February 2010.
About 5 kg of explosives were used in the blasts that badly damaged parts of the mausoleum, reported Dawn Thursday.
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Written by admin on 10 May 2012
Islamabad, May 10 (IANS) A Pakistani daily, shocked at the death of nine students in a roof collapse, has demanded the revival of the “moribund system of school inspections to ensure such incidents are not repeated”.
The students died in Narowal, Punjab, when the roof of their privately owned school collapsed, prompting the Daily Times to say in an editorial Thursday: “In a country where all institutions seem to be freefalling into disorder and ineptitude is the name of the game, the day is not far when there may be a complete breakdown.”
“When did schools become places where children die?” it asked.
The daily said the state and some privately owned educational institutions have become “examples of bad governance, bad policies, and above all bad attitude”.
“Government-run schools are in a bad condition – that is an unfortunate but accepted reality of Pakistan…(and) the establishment of private educational institutions has become a lucrative business.
“While schools in affluent areas torture people in a different way (exorbitant fees and tremendous stress of studies), the ones for the less fortunate are run in more shoddy ways than one can imagine. Old, rundown, small houses are rented or bought and turned into structures called private schools,” it added.
It noted the “lack of staff, overcrowded classrooms, lack of extracurricular activities, absence of playgrounds, strict punishments, scant attention to quality of education being provided”.
“…to top it all, children are not even physically safe in some of these places.”
The daily said schools without proper safety guidelines are aplenty.
“Since there is no apparent government policy in place, the school owners and administration are oblivious to the wear and tear of buildings, thus endangering the lives of students and staff. Without fear of governmental inspection, and consequently, of no penalty for not ensuring the safety of places where children gather to learn, such schools blithely continue to function and people suffer,” it said.
“It is time the government reinstituted the moribund system of school inspections to ensure such incidents are not repeated,” the daily added.
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Written by admin on 10 May 2012
Islamabad, May 10 (IANS) At least 12 people have been injured in a blast in Noshera district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, reported Xinhua.
According to local media reports, the blast took place at about 10. 50 p.m. Wednesday when reporters were covering a blast which occurred two hours ago at an under construction tomb site for a famous Pashtun poet of Nowshera.
In the first blast, unidentified people blew up the tomb by a remote control device. Just as reporters gathered at the gate of the bomb-hit site, a second blast went off, injuring a dozen people on the site, said reports.
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