PML-N blocked PPP move to let Musharraf go: minister

 

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Saturday said that the Pakistan People’s Party wanted to give indemnity to former president Pervez Musharraf but the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) blocked the move.
Talking to the media here, the minister said the PML N leadership never conceded to the PPP’s demand of indemnity to a former dictator and it had never been a part of any deal. “We have not greeted Musharraf in his medicine of violence like handcuffs and exile as he forced Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif to exile twice,” the minister said.

Pervaiz Rashid said lawlessness had been the rule in the dictatorial regimes while the law takes its due course in a democracy, adding the courts would decide the fate of Pervez Musharraf.

The information minister said that this year’s Independence Day will be marked by a central ceremony at the D Chowk to tell the world that the nation is united under one flag.

Only the national flag will flutter high on August 14 and all other flags would be at half mast as the entire political leadership will be invited to the national ceremony to mark solidarity unity and oneness, he said.

He said the whole nation would sing the national anthem together on August 14, adding that all would be free afterwards to follow their heart’s desire.

Regarding Imran Khan’s call for the August 14 D-Chowk rally, Pervaiz Rashid said Imran Khan should not send a message on Independence Day that the political leadership was divided at a time when the armed forces were busy in an operation in North Waziristan for the security of the country, and a message of unity must be sent to all.

Imran Khan should not weaken Pakistan’s bunkers within Pakistan as the politics of the street may lead to instability and be beneficial to the terrorists, Pervaiz Rashid stressed.

To a query, he said Arsalan Iftikhar was at daggers drawn with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan after the PTI chairman’s provocative speech against his father (former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry) at Bahawalpur, adding that there is always an Arsalan Iftikhar for every Imran Khan in the world.

To a question, the information minister said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was awarded one percent more funds under the NFC Award to the provinces for the war against terror, adding that it would get Rs22 billion extra under the NFC and this amount should be used by the KP government for food and shelter of the IDPs. He said the KP government should also account for Rs80 billion paid by the federal government under the NFC for the same purpose during the past four years.

About the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the federal minister Pemra has written to all cable operators regarding the issue of placement of channels and it has to wait for 15 days for the implementation of its instructions as per the law.

To a query regarding consultation with politicians, the minister said the passage of Tahaffuz-e-Pakistan Bill was made possible through consultation with the all political parties and the government has no inhibition to contact any political party in the larger interest of the country, adding that the doors are always open for all political forces. To a question, he said the Pakistan Army had been playing its due rule for peace, adding that the armed forces and democratic institutions have been helping the affected people of North Waziristan.

He said the mischief makers against the armed forces will lick the dust, adding that the powers to the forces are in line with the Constitution of the country and all-out resources and legal umbrella will be provided to them.

Regarding the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri, the minister said Dr Qadri was known for his political somersaults, adding that the PAT chief made a similar attempt against democracy last year as well. He said Tahirul Qadri had deserted his followers in the lap of pneumonia last year and flown to foreign lands on a cosy business class seat.

To a question, the minister said the duration of loadshedding will be cut to the minimum every year, adding that the power transmission lines could not bear the extra power load and the government has decided to set up a separate company to strengthen power transmission lines in the country. — Agencies

Our correspondent adds: Meanwhile, speaking at a discussion, held at the South Asian Free Media Association (Safma), PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira has disclosed that the issue of getting rid of Pervez Musharraf was raised by Mian Nawaz Sharif when Asif Ali Zardari had gone to his place to offer condolences over the death of his father.

Kaira said Zardari told Nawaz Sharif that getting rid of Musharraf was not possible as he enjoyed powers under 58-2b as well as the support of the military and various global powers. Zardari proposed amendments to 58-2b before proceeding with any such plan, said Kaira.

He said the PPP government had contacted all parties, the PML-N and Awami National Party (ANP), to discuss the issue. Every party was on the same page and they all gave their consent for letting Pervez Musharraf go so that the country could move forward on the democratic path. He said a political crisis and a tussle among the state institutions started when the PML-N government backtracked on its understanding over the issue.

About the Pakistan Protection Ordinance, Kaira expressed his reservations and said the law had all the ingredients that could be exploited for political victimisation. Such actions would drag the country back three decades and the progress made regarding the politics of negotiation and consensus would be lost.

He said the Pakistan Awami Tehreek leader Tahirul Qadri talks about bringing a revolution in the country and it is his right like any other Pakistani. However, he asked how he is going to bring about a revolution given he represents only one faction of the nation. He said it is difficult to assume that a majority of the people in the country identify themselves with his ideological premise.

PML-N, JI agree to take country out of crisis

 

ISLAMABAD: On the directives of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Federal Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Railways Minister Saad Rafique and Special Assistant to PM Irfan Siddiqui met Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Siraj-ul-Haq.
During the meeting – also attended by JI leaders Liaquat Baloch and Mian Muhammad Aslam – the two parties agreed to make joint efforts to take Pakistan out of the crisis and continue interaction in future as well.

The two sides discussed matters pertaining to the political and security situation, developments taking place in Karachi and the local government polls.Earlier, the government formed a special committee to contact political and religious parties for consultation on the current political situation of the country.

The committee comprises Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Saad Rafique and Irfan Siddiqui.The committee has contacted the Awami National Party (ANP). ANP leader Zahid Khan told a private TV channel that Khawaja Saad had contacted his party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan on the telephone and sought time for a meeting. However, the time and venue for the proposed meeting had not been decided as yet. Zahid said the committee wanted a discussion on the overall affairs of the country.Meanwhile, sources say the committee also contacted Haji Adeel of the ANP and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah, who belongs to the PPP.

PML-N retains PK-45 in by-poll

ABBOTTABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday retained the provincial assembly constituency PK-45 seat.The PML-N won the seat for the seventh time consecutively by defeating the central vice-president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Ali Asghar Khan, in the by-election held here on Thursday.

Sardar Fareed, the first cousin of Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan, managed to retain the seat.PTI chief Imran Khan had addressed four election rallies in the constituency and announced different packages, including colleges while Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had announced Rs01 billion package for the Galiyat in a press conference held at Nathiagali just a few days before the by-election.

According to unofficial and unconfirmed results, the PML-N candidate Sardar Fareed was leading with a margin of 5,453 votes on 109 polling stations. Sardar Fareed has got 27,680 votes while Ali Asghar Khan has secured 21,227 votes.

The polling started at 8am and continued till 5pm, except on a few sensitive polling stations where polling was interrupted for sometime.Polling was stopped at polling station Bugla in union council Patan Kalan and Nummal for some time after a scuffle between the PML-N and PTI workers.

Additional police personnel were deployed at these stations. Abbottabad District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Ali Khan Gandapur told The News that elections were held in a peaceful manner except for a few minor incidents. As many as 68 polling stations were declared sensitive in the constituency.

The constituency had 286 polling booths with 168 for men and 118 for women. The constituency PK-45 has 118,765 registered voters with 51,866 women and 66,899 men.The seat fell vacant after the appointment of Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan as governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.It is considered as the stronghold of Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan as his family has been winning the seat since 1988.

PML-N MPA Rana Jameel Hasan kidnapped

RAWALPINDI: A PML-N member of the Punjab provincial assembly, Rana Jameel, was kidnapped for ransom from the Pindi Bhattian Interchange on Saturday.

Police sources, quoting a statement of the wife of the kidnapped MPA, said that the MPA along with his family was travelling in his car towards Rawalpindi/Islamabad to spend the weekend with their family friends when four to five gunmen in a car intercepted their vehicle near the Pindi Bhattian Interchange and two of them hijacked the car of the MPA and took control of the steering after holding the MPA and his family at gunpoint, adding that they drove down the Motorway and took the exit from Taxila. The captors however dropped his wife and children at Taxila and drove away with the MPA leaving a message to pay Rs50 million ransom otherwise the MPA will be killed, police sources said.

The kidnapped MPA’s wife told the police that the captors were equipped with lethal weapons and warned to pay Rs50 million within the next 36 hours otherwise the MPA would be gunned down.

Earlier, upon receiving information, the top cops of the Rawalpindi police along with a heavy contingent of the Punjab police and paramilitary forces rushed to Taxila and Wah and launched an extensive search operation to recover the MPA and to hunt down the captors but in vain as the captors had left the area.

The police bosses claimed that they had received some clues that the captors and the kidnapped MPA were still in the vicinity of Taxila but they had made no headway.

The secret agencies were of the view that the captors had left the area for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa soon after dropping the MPA’s family at Taxila.

When contacted, the police neither denied nor endorsed the incident of the MPA’s kidnapping.

Rana Jameel was elected from Nankana Sahib as a MPA on a PML-N ticket.

APP adds: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif taking immediate notice of a news item of kidnapping of Rana Jamil Hassan, MPA, of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) near Pindi Bhattian sought a report from the IG Police. The chief minister directed that effective steps should be taken for the early recovery of MPA Rana Jamil Hassan and to apprehend the culprits involved behind the abduction.

PML-N, PPP, ANP assail Imran’s rigging charges

 

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) have lashed out at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan for his call to protest against the alleged rigging in last year’s general election.
Talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said Imran Khan’s move to resort to protest the alleged rigging was incomprehensible after one year of the election.

The PPP leader said that it was the party’s formal stance that it will not become part of any protest rallies. “Though the PPP also has grievances about the May 11 results but despite its reservation on the results we accepted the May 11 elections,” he added.

According to sources, the PPP has decided to keep itself aloof from the PTI’s May 11 protest call saying that it will not become part of ‘protest politics’ that are aimed at derailing the democratic system.

According to sources, the PPP leaders held in-depth discussions on the protest politics of the PTI and ongoing rallies in the country aimed at destabilising the elected government. “Though we have serious reservations on the results of the election and rigging and even compiled a white paper in this regard that does not mean that we become a tool to destabilise the democratic set-up,” a senior PPP leader said.

Sources said the PPP has decided to continue to play its role as an active opposition in both houses of parliament rather than becoming a tool of others. “Parliament is a forum where the opposition can check any government move and make it accountable rather than adopting protest politics that may put the democratic system in danger,” the PPP leader said.

Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah in a press talk a few days back had already indicated that those who were used to bring out sponsored rallies in the past are now active and it is not a good omen for the country. These rallies are being sponsored and not being taken out on their own as those who are behind these rallies have their own agenda. However, he said the PPP will not become part of it.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Awami National Party (ANP) leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that PTI chief Imran Khan should not indulge in the politics of opportunism.

He said according to Imran Khan, the sacked ministers belonging to the Sherpao group were corrupt while the ones from the PTI showed performance that wasn’t up to the mark.

INP adds from Lahore: PML-N leader and Punjab Minister for Law Rana Sanaullah on Saturday said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri have planned to launch an agitation movement on ‘someone’s’ directives.

Talking to newsmen here, he claimed that the people of the country fully support democracy and the PML-N-led federal government and the Imran-Qadri May 11 show will flop. He said Imran Khan was raising a hue and cry of rigging in the general elections and if he has any proof to support these allegations, he should bring it to light. He said that the democracy has no threats from anyone and the incumbent government will definitely complete its constitutional term.

He said protest is a democratic right of everyone and assured that the government will not resort to the arrest of leaders and activists to sabotage the May 11 agitation. He said Imran Khan was criticising the government only instead of improving the performance of the KP provincial government. He said the people are aware of the reality about Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri, and hoped that their joint venture will turn out to be a flop show like the previous ones.

The provincial law minister alleged that both are acting at the behest of ‘someone’ as they wanted to cause a dent to democracy.

PML-N govt outshines PPP rule by 59pc: survey

 

ISLAMABAD: Even before completing a year in power, the PML-N government has outshone the previous Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) regime with a majority of Pakistanis satisfied with its performance and policies, reveals a recent Gallup Pakistan report.
Despite inheriting a fragile economy, deteriorating law and order, strained ties with neighbouring countries, rampant corruption and uncontrollable inflation, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government managed to put things in order through independent and prudent policies since coming to power in June last year.

Gallup’s Annual Public Pulse Report 2014 reveals that the PML-N government’s overall performance ratings showed a huge improvement over that of the PPP government by 59pc points. It got a Green Card (favourable views exceed unfavourable views) in the overall running of the government. As many as 55% give it a favourable rating.

The Gallup’s study is based on findings from a nationally representative poll in the rural and urban areas of all the four provinces. The sample size was 2,596 adult men and women, face to face interviews, selected through the probability sampling method; the error margin was kept at 3-5% at 95% confidence level. Fieldwork was carried out from January 6 to 13, 2014.

For the six key indicators including the economy, Pak-India relations, overall foreign policy, terrorism control, corruption control and inflation control, the present government received positive comparative net performance ratings.

“The economy recorded a positive 48pc comparative net performance, Pak-India relations 22pc, foreign policy 33pc, terrorism control 31pc, corruption control 36pc and inflation control 20pc net change,” says the report.

The Net Performance Ratings for political leaders rated Nawaz Sharif on top with 18pc favourable. Imran Khan was rated as minus 5pc unfavourable, Asif Ali Zardari at minus 28pc unfavourable, Altaf Hussain minus 39pc unfavourable, Maulana Fazlur Rehman at minus 21pc unfavourable and Asfandyar Wali Khan at minus 34pc unfavourable. The rating of former JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan remained unchanged.

On the issues of controlling inflation, terrorism and corruption, the present government showed an improvement over the previous government by 20pc, 31pc and 36pc, respectively. The Gallup Pakistan survey shows that the government performance still needed improvement but it was far better than that of the PPP government. However, despite some issues needing attention, the PML-N government got a Green Card (favourable views exceed unfavourable views) in overall running of the government, with 55pc favourable and 40pc unfavourable with a positive balance of 15pc points.

A year ago only 27pc had given favourable and 71pc negative ratings to the then PPP government, with a negative balance of 44pc points. Another aspect covered by the Gallup Pakistan survey is the performance of provincial chief ministers (CMs). The performance of the Punjab chief minister was rated as very good by 21pc people and good by 28pc. The Sindh CM obtained 6pc very good ratings while the KP CM and Balochistan CM each got a mere 4pc rating as very good.

The Punjab CM topped the list by obtaining 26pc overall net performance rating. But other chief ministers remained on the negative list with Sindh CM obtaining minus 9pc, the KP CM minus 11pc and Balochistan CM minus 14pc.

Compared to the previous government, the Punjab CM improved his performance by 6pc as compared to 2013 and the Sindh CM improved by 18pc. The new CMs in KP and Balochistan improved the performance ratings significantly from their predecessors as the Balochistan CM got 20pc performance rating and KP CM was rated 16pc better as compared to previous CMs for the same period.

Regarding state institutions, the survey reveals that net performance ratings of the armed forces improved up to 49pc, Supreme Court 27pc and parliament 8pc. However, the performance of other institutions including police, lower courts and political parties got negative ratings. Comparative net performance ratings for state institutions as compared to 2013, however, improved. Armed forces recorded a net change of 4pc, police 8pc, lower courts 2pc, Parliament 30pc and political parties 20pc.

Comparative net performance ratings from January 2014 compared with January 2013, for civil society institutions were also recorded. NGOs recorded a positive 15pc change, media 3pc, educational institutions (schools and colleges) 3pc and religious leaders recorded 7pc.

PML-N splits in two over Pervez Musharraf’s exit

ISLAMABAD: The decision on whether or not to allow Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf to travel abroad seemed to have divided the opinion of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), as it failed to evolve a consensus on the issue Tuesday.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high level meeting to ponder over the issue, which emerged after the Special Court threw the ball in the government’s court. According to the court ruling, the accused could travel abroad if the government allowed him to.

Sources said the PML-N leaders split into to groups with one insisting on the immediate removal of Musharraf’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL) while the other opposed this idea.

The sources said that the meeting remained inconclusive but the prime minister had once again summoned the PML-N top guns to hold more consultations over the issue. They, however, agreed that Nawaz Sharif will make the final decision at the end of the deliberations.

Musharraf, who had filed two petitions in the Special Court to get the permission to travel abroad to visit her ailing mother and get his own medical treatment, submitted an application with the Interior Secretary on the heels of a court ruling which said only the government could decide if he be allowed to travel abroad or not.

Later, Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Director General Lt. Gen Zaheerul Islam flew into the Prime Minister House after a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz discussed much debated issue of Musharraf’s exit from the country.

The powerful military leaders arrived in a helicopter after the Prime Minister postponed a meeting on national security where both the army chief and the spymaster were invited.

Talking to Geo News, Information Minister Pervez Rashid said that that the PM had convened a consultative meeting to discuss the challenges facing the country.

Former president and Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari also contacted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through telephone to discuss the issue of Pervez Musharraf.