PTI to quit assemblies after Eid if demands not met

 

ISLAMABAD: The core committee of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) here on Wednesday formally decided to quit the National Assembly (NA) and the provincial assemblies after Eidul Fitr, if scientific voter verification was not held for the four NA constituencies in a month.
Under Chairman Imran Khan, the forum met here and discussed the future political course in the backdrop of Dr Tahirul Qadri’s proposed drive against the government. The core committee was sharply divided on siding with the “guest” from Canada and coming out of the National and KP assemblies, it was learnt.

Quite surprisingly, the release issued by the PTI Media Cell missed out to mention any political aspect of the meeting. However, sources told The News that difference of opinion was clearly witnessed during the deliberations.

It has been learnt that Dr Qadri was unhappy with the PTI leadership for its cold-shouldered response to his homecoming. And this was reflected in his statement before the media on Monday night that he was grateful to some leaders of the PTI for their support to him. He skipped the name of anyone, even Imran Khan.

“The PTI is reluctant to publicly announce support to Dr Qadri, as it may entail a massive fallout in case he decided to go back to Canada, as he had done earlier,” a senior PTI leader maintained. Another reason was the public perception that Dr Qadri enjoyed the backing of some invisible forces in his anti-government campaign.

He pointed out it was for these reasons that the core committee and even Imran had declared in categorical terms that his party was not joining any grand alliance – a reference to Dr Qadri and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.

“The democratic credentials of PTI can suffer immensely in case it went public in support of Pakistan Awami Tehreek of Dr Qadri,” he noted. Sources revealed that Imran met Dr Qadri and PML leaders in London recently. They claimed during the meeting Imran indicated his willingness to support Dr Qadri. However, strong resistance within the PTI about openly supporting him forced Imran to hold back his supporters from joining the PAT workers on the streets welcoming their leader’s return from Canada.

A founding member and a former central vice president of PTI, Akbar S Babar, told this correspondent that the test of the PTI’s present ambivalent policy towards PAT will come when Dr Qadri announces his final showdown at the D-Chowk in Islamabad. He felt that the PTI has found itself in political no-man’s land. Instead of focusing on delivering in the KP and making an impact in the NA, the PTI, he alleged, had wasted precious time to consolidate the electoral gains made in 2013 elections.

Babar, who remained the lead PTI opinion maker according to Imran until developing differences on alleged internal corruption and lack of accountability in late 2011, said that if Imran thought that by joining hands with Dr Qadri and remnants of the PML-Q he would be the next natural choice to run the country, he might have another rude awakening.

Babar predicted that Imran’s next biggest political rival would be Dr Qadri whose claim to the lion’s share in the next political set-up based on sacrifices to remove the present government would be challenged by the PTI.

Meanwhile, PTI’s information secretary has pointed out that Imran has demanded the prime minister to announce Rs6 billion aid for the IDPs as soon as possible. This is essential if a human catastrophe is to be avoided, says a PTI release.

The PTI core committee expressed grave concern over the human misery of the IDPs from the NWA. She said Imran had informed the core committee that he had asked the PTI Razakars to mobilise and help the Imran Khan Foundation in their massive relief effort already underway.

Xabi Alonso decides to quit internationals

MADRID: Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso has announced his retirement from international football.

Alonso played a vital role in Spain’s historic success in recent years, controlling games with his intelligent passing and excellent defensive work. The 32-year-old featured in six major tournaments in all, earning a winners medal at Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup, and Euro 2012.

The former Liverpool midfielder – one who played an instrumental role in the Reds Champions League final comeback in 2005 – made his international debut in April 2003 in a 4-0 win over Ecuador, and went on to win 113 caps and score 16 goals for his country.

The most recent goal came in Spain’s opening fixture against the Netherlands in the 2014 World Cup. That has been the highlight of Spain’s tournament so far, as the Netherlands produced a stunning performance to win 5-1, and they were humbled by Chile in a 2-0 defeat in their second game.

Alonso, along with the majority of his compatriots, has looked a shadow of his former self in this tournament. He was at fault for Chile’s first goal, and has been overrun by faster, more dynamic opponents.

Widespread reports have announced his international career will come to an end following the conclusion of the current competition, though that will not overshadow his incredible achievements for La Rojas.

Egypt govt to quit, Sisi to make cabinet changes: media

CAIRO: Egypt´s military-installed government was due to resign Monday, with new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expected to make changes to the cabinet on his first day in office, media reported.

The ex-army chief was sworn in on Sunday, nearly a year after ousting elected president Mohamed Morsi after millions protested against the Islamist´s divisive one year rule.

"The cabinet ended its last meeting on Monday morning ... during which it prepared its letter of resignation to be presented to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi," state news agency MENA reported.

Egyptian newspapers reported that Sisi is expected to ask interim prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab to continue in his post, but could make minor changes to the cabinet.

The government installed by Sisi, who has been the de facto leader since he ousted Morsi, has carried out a brutal crackdown on the former president´s Muslim Brotherhood in which more than 1,400 people have been killed and thousands more jailed.

Hours after his inauguration, Sisi, in a warning to the now blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood, said there will be "no leniency and truce with those who resort to violence".

"I am looking to a new era built on reconciliation and tolerance.. except with those who committed crimes or used violence as a tool," he said on Sunday in his first national address as president.

"I am saying clearly that those who shed the blood of the innocent and killed ... the sons of Egypt, they don´t have a place in (our) march."

At his inauguration, Western countries alarmed by the brutal police crackdown on dissent were represented mostly by low-level representatives.

Sisi becomes Egypt´s second elected president since a popular uprising overthrew longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011, unleashing more than three years of political turmoil.

Bring proof of rigging or quit assemblies,

Says if Imran is right, KP govt is also product of rigging; path of agitation to cost PTI

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid has said that the country cannot afford the politics of confrontation, and told PTI chief Imran Khan that if he had any proof of rigging in the elections, he should bring them on the floor of the Assembly.

In an interview, the information minister said that Imran Khan would suffer a lot if he proceeded on the path of the politics of agitation with the backing of Tahirul Qadri and Sheikh Rashid Ahmad.

Pervaiz Rashid said if according to Imran Khan, the elections were rigged, then his own party’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also a product of rigging. In this situation, he said, Imran Khan and his party have no right to sit in the assemblies or run the KP government. He asked Imran Khan to resign from the KP government and assemblies and then fulfil his love for protests on the roads.

The minister was confident that Imran Khan would lose his case in the court of the people as he lost in the apex court. He said Imran Khan lost the rigging case in the court and his party’s candidate lost the seat to the PML-N candidate. In this way rigging was done against the PML-N and not the PTI, he argued.

He said Imran Khan has been pursuing the politics of negative tactics and that is why people rejected him in the general elections. He asked the PTI chief to wait for the appropriate time.

Pervaiz Rashid said the PML-N government has been formed with the backing of the people and not with the support of the PTI.

The minister said there is parliament in the country, an independent judiciary and all the institutions are gaining strength. “Instead of agitating on the roads, Imran should bring his case to parliament.” He said the bright future of the country is linked to democracy only.

BISP chief may quit after rift with secretary

ISLAMABAD: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairman Anwar Baig is likely to tender his resignation within a couple of days after severe administration crisis in multi-billion project, ‘The News’ has learnt reliably.

According to sources privy to Mr Baig, the powerful secretary of BISP has taken over the affairs of the multi-billion programme asking the junior staff not to engage with the chairman.Sources said the rift between the two top officials has jeopardized the future of 5.5 million families benefiting from Rs70 billion poverty alleviation programme.

This situation has put the entire BISP staff in a dilemma whether to follow the orders of the influential secretary or the chairman who was appointed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.Sources said no policy decision had been taken regarding the crucial affairs related to BISP for the last few weeks owing to complete breakdown of communication between the chairman and the secretary.

Sources said the foreign donors were also concerned over the internal crisis in the mega project.BISP is a flagship poverty alleviation programme which is partially funded by the international donors. An amount of Rs70 billion had been allocated for the programme for the financial year 2012-13 to provide cash assistance to 5.5 million families, which constitutes almost 18 percent of the entire population. The programme is aimed at covering almost 40 percent of the population below the poverty line.

The rift started when BISP Secretary Rab Nawaz made a payment of Rs2.6 million to an NGO owned by a US-national without approval of the scrutiny committee just a few days after assuming his post. The company chairman, however, said it was a Pakistani company registered with SECP and it had nothing to do with US. He said the company accomplished its task of conducting spot checking and holding surveys in 66 districts of the country and its work was approved by BISP but the payment of over Rs 220 million was pending since last June 2013 because of ongoing infighting in BISP.

The powerful secretary had also immediately removed an honest internal auditor who had unearthed the corruption of Rs150 million in award of a consultancy contract worth Rs2.63 billion.

The BISP chairman took strict notice of the irregularities and sought explanation from Rab Nawaz. However instead of giving any explanation, Rab Nawaz ordered the entire BISP staff not to engage with the chairman.

When contacted, BISP Chairman Enver Baig confirmed the rift and said he would request the prime minister to intervene for the future of 5.5 million families who are living below the poverty line.

The matter even came to the attention of Parliament where three ruling party MNAs and one legislator of Muttahida Quomi Movement (MQM) moved separate calling attention notices. However even the parliamentary notice could not improve the situation in BISP as sources said the secretary is backed by a group of very influential bureaucrats and a powerful cabinet member who are supporting the secretary despite his tainted past.

Sources said the issue had become a test case for the prime minister who would have to decide soon whether to allow Grade-20 bureaucrats to run the affairs of the government or let the politicians control their respective departments and be answerable for their performance.

Sources said the incumbent BISP secretary was removed twice by the PML-N’s Punjab government for dismal performance and negligence.

First he was removed from the post of the Punjab Irrigation and Power Secretary after he was found guilty of negligence during devastating floods of 2010 by a judicial commission constituted by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

The commission had not only recommended immediate removal of Rab Nawaz from the post but also asked for inquiry against him after he was found responsible for loss of hundreds of lives and of property worth tens of billions of rupees.

The report of the commission concluded that the officer had failed to meet the monumental challenge of two floods in the River Indus during the 2010 monsoon, causing widespread devastation. But the officer of the powerful District Management Group again managed to get the prize posting in the province as secretary energy. However, he could not satisfy the fast-paced chief minister with his performance in the energy sector and was subsequently removed for failing to initiate any new power project in the province.

Despite repeated calls and messages on his mobile phone for last five days, Rab Nawaz did not respond to The News for his version.However talking to this correspondent earlier this month, the BISP secretary denied committing any irregularity. He said the payment of Rs2.7 million was released on merit. He said the service provider had submitted his bill six months ago but the scrutiny committee never met nor examined his case.

“So I asked the service provider to hold a presentation in the presence of the committee members and when no one objected to the performance of the said service provider, I directed them to release the payment,” he said.

Referring to the transfer of the internal auditor, Rab Nawaz said the officer had completed his five-year tenure so he was transferred. He also claimed that there were certain audit paras against him.

The secretary added that he was asked to work in BISP on the basis of his past experience with poverty reduction programmes in Pakistan and abroad and with foreign funding agencies.When asked about the reports that he was removed twice in Punjab over poor performance, Rab Nawaz denied these reports and said that it was a matter of official record if someone would bother to check. And as far his integrity and repute was concerned, that could easily be verified from anyone in the offices he previously served.

He was asked about the reports that the Flood Enquiry Tribunal had held him responsible for poor management of the flood, he replied that Punjab government had not agreed to the commission’s findings and therefore, no action was initiated against him.

About the institutional issues in BISP, the secretary said that no proper rules had been framed in BISP to define the roles and guide the work of various offices. Once the rules were framed, there would be no issue in proper working of BISP, he said.

Censorship forces veteran journalist to quit

ISLAMABAD: While the establishment’s activities are at a peak to instigate journalists and analysts against the Geo/Jang Group and Pakistan’s top journalist Hamid Mir, who’s lying in a hospital bed after receiving six bullets, at least one journalist, Imtiaz Alam, showed the guts and refused to bow down to any pressure and resigned from his media group for wrongly pressuring him and curbing his freedom of expression.

According to credible sources, the establishment officials are meeting different journalists and analysts and are either convincing them or pressing them to malign and defame the Geo/Jang Group in a way that the real issue — the attack on Hamid Mir — is put on the backburner.

Only a few of these journalists and analysts have accepted this duty and showed their performance in the Sunday and Monday talk shows by levelling baseless allegations in a specific emotional tone against the Geo/Jang Group and even indirectly attacked great journalist Hamid Mir who is paying the price for trying to save Balochistan and fighting for the rights of the poor Baloch people.

Hamid Mir is bed-ridden but these emotional sick minds continued their attack as was directed to them in an emotional and foolish tone and misled people by distorting facts to undermine one of the worst ever attacks on the Pakistani journalism after knowing, rather fearing, the Judicial Commission constituted by the prime minister could uncover the real facts.

Some of these journalists are known to be close friends of Hamid Mir and some are his known opponents and some are those who had been expelled from the Jang Group. None or them is hesitating to defame him and Geo News through baseless allegations. Some journalists on Monday crossed all limits of decency and attacked the Geo/Jang Group and Hamid Mir for speaking the truth and standing for principles.

These sick minds were even unable to think that pointing out any deficiency in any institution always helps it to improve and trying to be more loyal than the king himself is always harmful for the king as well as for such sick minds.

The print and broadcast journalist Imtiaz Alam has resigned from hosting his television show on Express News against what he called “the channel imposing censorship and adopting a policy hostile to the freedom of expression and media solidarity”.

In his resignation letter to the chief executive office he said:

“This is after detailed exchange of messages and telephonic conversation between us today, Monday 21 April 2014, and your refusal to allow my programme on the attack on Hamid Mir, a leading journalist and colleague, threats to freedom of media/expression and the need for media solidarity, etc, that were to go live at 07.03 pm from Lahore station, that I am constrained to issue you this 30-day notice to resign from the Express News as a host/analyst of the programme in protest against imposing censorship and adopting a policy hostile to the freedom of expression and media solidarity-in-self-defense.

“The media group’s top management got disturbed, as I was told, by the principled position taken by me in solidarity with a colleague who was attacked in Karachi. The points for today’s programme sent by me to you were appreciated by you: Following were the issues for discussion:

“Hamid Mir: issues are: right to life and social contract, freedom of speech, security of journalists and a culture of impunity, fate of enquiry commissions, professional ethics, media debates (attack on media or on sensitive institutions), ISPR’s reaction—editorial note: Need for caution and restraint; letting due process take place without prejudging or maligning any person or institution”.

“Since you were keen to run a vilification campaign against another rival media group, you insisted on pre-recording the programme so that you could censor it, knowing well that I abhorred censorship. I had told you that it was a wrong policy which would damage the whole media; it was this group yesterday when Raza Rumi was attacked and I got death threats, on which equally despicably some media groups kept quiet, it is Geo today and tomorrow it could again be this group or any other group.

“You know that I am against vilification of any person or institution and could never pre-judge any accused without investigation, nor could I ever use this group’s platform to serve anybody’s interest. Since you had other plans on the behest of somebody else to launch a campaign against your rival media group and I could never become an instrument in such a shoddy business, you preferred to plan an obnoxious programme against all media ethics telecast in place of the one I was supposed to host.

“You are aware that I have been struggling for my whole life for fundamental rights, freedom of expression, free press, professional ethics, tolerance, peace and cooperation in the region. How could I become an instrument in such a sordid business and you knew it. You could have waited for two days when I was supposed to go on leave on 23 April, but it seemed you were under great pressure from somewhere else. I don’t want to cast aspersions, but I think this group has been pressurized or followed its instincts of rivalry, as had happened in the case of this group’s newpaper when the Editor had to send a letter to his contributors not to write against extremists. It was the Taliban threat in the case of the newspaper, it is somebody else who made you take a decision even you appreciably didn’t like. I may warn you in a most friendly spirit against the consequences of this policy which is against not only the whole media but also against this media group. I may assure you that whenever this media group came under pressure from any quarter you would find me on your side. This has not happened for the first time. A few weeks ago my talk-show was also stopped on PTV, which I had started during the caretaker period.

“Let’s part ways in an honorable manner and according to our legal obligations. My dear Baig Sahib, kindly accept this 30-day notice of resignation from hosting the programme with a request for not bringing a bad name to a show that was quite credible. I will be available to do this programme if you so like during this period of resignation but without restrictions.

“My best regards with a wish that you don’t play into the hands of those who are bent upon undermining freedoms and democratic values

Dhoni offers to quit as Chennai Super Kings skipper, India Cements vice-president

 

 

Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has offered to quit as skipper of Chennai Super Kings following the controversy over conflict of interest. Dhoni, who has been leading the Chennai team since it came into existence, also offered to give up the vice-presidentship of India Cements Limited, a company headed by N. Srinivasan.     

The news comes a day after the Supreme Court on Friday appointed Sunil Gavaskar the interim president of the Indian cricket board in place of the tainted incumbent N. Srinivasan. Srinivasan gets sacked, Gavaskar to take charge as BCCI chief

An apex court bench headed by Justice A.K. Patnaik said Gavaskar would only be concerned with matters related to the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League.

The rest of the functions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would be discharged by its senior-most vice-president Shivlal Yadav.

It is believed that Dhoni was upset over his name being dragged in the IPL spot-fixing. Gavaskar's appointment builds optimism in cricket fraternity

Harish Salve, the counsel for Bihar cricket association chief Aditya Verma, on Thursday had accused Dhoni of giving false statements to the Mudgal committee about the role of Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of N. Srinivasan, in Chennai Super Kings.

Salve, who appeared in Supreme Court for the petitioner Aditya Verma, secretary of Cricket Association of Bihar, said it was indeed a lie aimed at cover-up.

"He (Dhoni) said this on record. In one voice with Srinivasan he said that Meiyappan was only an enthusiast. I have no personal knowledge of it, it is the report that said. According to the report, Meiyappan used to sit in the players dug out and was also there in the players auction for the team (CSK). And Dhoni knew it. What was the need for the captain to say that. The definition of corruption includes cover-up," Salve said.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/dhoni-resign-as-chennai-super-kings-skipper-india-cements-vice-president/1/351816.html