SC judgment wiped out any imaginary deal with Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: A landmark Supreme Court ruling that declared General (R) Pervez Musharraf as violator of the Constitution had wiped out the unimplemented parts, if any, of the “deal” which the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) government had worked out for his safe exit prior to his resignation as president in 2008.

All the judges of the apex court, sitting in one panel, handed down a historic judgment on July 31, 2009, which found the state of emergency imposed by Musharraf on November 3, 2007 as violative of the Constitution. It prescribed the former dictator’s trial for high treason under article 6 for suspending the Constitution in his capacity as the Chief of the Army Staff.

Under the deal that former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has talked about, Musharraf was given graceful exit out of the presidential office with an unusual guard of honour amid vociferous taunts and boos by different opposition parties.

This happened in August 2008 a few months after Gilani had assumed office of the prime minister and Asif Zardari was yet to be elected as the president. By virtue of his office, Gilani was mainly involved in talks with the establishment on Musharraf’s fate.

However, senior PPP leader Jehangir Badr has quickly contradicted him saying that the PPP had not signed any deal with Musharraf.

“Zardari had given two choices to General Ashfaque Parvaz Kayani that either Musharraf should resign or be prepared for impeachment,” he said.

What weight and worth Gilani’s assertions may carry when they have been denied by a senior party stalwart, who enjoys the confidence of the top PPP leaders including Zardari and Bilawal.

However, at the time there was an unwritten understanding between the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that they would mutually decide about their joint presidential candidate after Musharraf’s ouster. But the PML-N was stunned when Zardari put himself up as the contestant without consulting it. This created bad blood at the very outset. Not only the previous government gave Musharraf safe exit as per the deal but it also kept dragging its feet on enforcing the Supreme Court decision to try him for high treason for nearly four years till March 2013 when its term exhausted. He traveled out of Pakistan without any hindrance by the government.

He comfortably lived in and out of Pakistan, but he decided to return to Pakistan last year to contest the general elections. After that, his woes intensified and he is in deep trouble since then.

Whatever the deal, it was swept away by the PPP’s massive electoral defeat and PML-N’s convincing triumph.

In the meantime, while holding hearing on the case of implementation of its July 2009 judgment, the Supreme Court finally asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to arraign Musharraf on high treason charges or face contempt proceedings in the last quarter of the previous year. As a result, he was left with no choice but to order the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the matter. Then, the case was filed with the special court, which will decide Musharraf’s fate.

“The responsibility of decision about the treason case is on the court; the judiciary is free,” Information Minister Senator Parvaiz Rashid says. “The complainant in Musharraf’s case is the State and not the government. It is up to the judiciary to decide if the steps taken on November 3 by Musharraf constitute a violation of article 6 or not.

If everyone is equal, then every citizen is answerable before the court of law.”

The Nawaz Sharif government denies that the PML-N was part of any deal that the PPP signed with the establishment on Musharraf in 2008.

If there is such an agreement, Musharraf should present it in court, Parvaiz Rashid stresses.

Gilani was right when he said that Musharraf stepped down after striking a deal that he would be given a safe exit. On his resignation, Musharraf was allowed such exit from Pakistan. However, Gilani slipped when he stated that after signing a deal with the establishment, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should not have violated it. Where is that accord?

“The establishment had also taken Nawaz Sharif into confidence at the time of striking the deal for Musharraf’s safe exit. At the time of the Bhurban Accord, when the issue of impeachment of Musharraf came up, the establishment contacted me as well as Nawaz Sharif and it was agreed that Musharraf would be provided a safe exit from Pakistan if he stepped down from the Presidency,” Gilani said.

US, Philippines reach deal on troops

 

Filipino activists burn a mock U.S. flag as they hold a short protest in Manila, Philippines on Sunday. The group is opposing the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama and a looming pact that will increase the American military presence in the Philippines. Photo: AP

The United States and the Philippines have reached a 10-year pact that would allow a larger U.S. military presence in this Southeast Asian nation as it grapples with increasingly tense territorial disputes with China, according to two Philippine officials and a confidential government primer seen by The Associated Press on Sunday.

The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which would give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships, is due to be signed on Monday at the Department of Defense in the Philippine capital, Manila, shortly before the arrival of President Barack Obama, the officials said. Mr. Obama’s visit is the last leg of a four-country Asian tour that also took him to Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss details of the pact ahead of its signing.

A Philippine government primer on the defence accord did not indicate how many additional U.S. troops would be deployed “on temporary and rotational basis,” but it said that the number would depend on the scale of joint military activities to be held in Philippine camps.

The Philippine Constitution bars permanent U.S. military bases. Under the agreement, a Filipino base commander would have access to entire areas to be shared with American forces, according to the primer.

Disagreements over Philippine access to designated U.S. areas within local camps had hampered the negotiations for the agreement last year.

The agreement would promote better coordination between U.S. and Filipino forces, boost the 120,000-strong Philippine military’s capability to monitor and secure the country’s territory and respond to natural disasters and other emergencies. “Pre-positioned materiel will allow for timely responses in the event of disasters natural or otherwise,” the primer said.

The presence of foreign troops is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, a former American colony.

The Philippine Senate voted in 1991 to close down major U.S. bases at Subic and Clark, northwest of Manila. However, in 1999, it ratified a pact with the United States allowing temporary visits by American forces. That paved the way for hundreds of U.S. forces to hold counterterrorism combat exercises with Filipino troops dealing with insurgents in the country’s south.

This time, the focus of the Philippines and its underfunded military has increasingly turned to external threats as territorial spats with China in the potentially oil-and gas-rich South China Sea heated up in recent years. The Philippines has turned to Washington, its longtime defense treaty ally, for help modernize its navy and air force, among Asia’s weakest.

Chinese paramilitary ships took effective control of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground off the northwestern Philippines, in 2012. Last year, Chinese coast guard ships were deployed to another contested offshore South China Sea territory, the Second Thomas Shoal, where they have been trying to block food supplies and rotation of Filipino marines aboard a grounded Philippine navy ship in the shallow waters of the remote coral outcrops.

The Philippines’ desire to bolster its territorial defense has dovetailed with Washington’s intention to pivot away from years of heavy military engagement in the Middle East to Asia, partly as a counterweight to China’s rising clout.

Such convergence would work to deter China’s increasingly assertive stance in disputed territories, Philippine analyst Ramon Casiple said. But it could also further antagonize Beijing, which sees such tactical alliance as a U.S. strategy to contain its rise, and encourage China to intensify its massive military buildup.

Musharraf was lured with secret deal to go on 5-year exile: Kasuri

ISLAMABAD: Ahmed Raza Kasuri, counsel of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, Wednesday claimed that an attempt had been made to lure his client with a secret deal to stay away from the country for a period of five years.

“President Pervez Musharraf was offered to sign a 5-year bond and not return (till the date of its expiration),” Ahmed Raza Kasuri maintained.

However, he went on to say that his client, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf had turned down the deal of secret agreement.

The Special Court bench hearing the treason case against the former military ruler, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, had convicted him on five counts on Monday (March 31, 2014).

The development marked the first time when any former or serving military general stood convicted in Pakistan.

Karzai accuses Pakistan of blocking Kabul’s peace deal with Taliban

KABUL: In a phone call with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan of being behind a recent series of attacks and of blocking his government from striking a peace deal with Taliban, the Afghan president’s office said on Sunday.

Karzai routinely makes such accusations against Islamabad, but his tone in recent days has been particularly pointed and direct. They come after three attacks in five days in the capital Kabul, the latest coming on Saturday when assailants fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the country’s electoral commission ahead of next week’s general election.

Karzai told Kerry on Saturday the attacks were complex in nature and stage-managed by “foreign intelligence agencies,” a reference to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. He also told Kerry that he did not accept US arguments that it had no influence “over countries that support terrorism,” and said the US’s refusal to go after the Pakistani intelligence agency could further hurt its relations with Afghanistan. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the recent violence in Kabul. Islamabad has a long and complicated relationship with the group, but few analysts accept Karzai’s allegations that Pakistani intelligence agencies and not the Taliban are staging attacks.

Pakistan denies that it is assisting the Taliban. “It is highly disturbing that attempts are being made to somehow implicate Pakistan in this terrorist incident,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement issued after the Afghan presidency blamed Pakistan a March 21 assault on the Serena Hotel that left nine dead. “We reject the insinuation. The tendency to immediately blame Pakistan is unhelpful and should be discarded.

“Karzai is not allowed to run for re-election in the April 5 ballot, as he is barred by the constitution from seeking a third term in office. He is seen as positioning himself for life after the presidency, depicting himself as a tough-speaking nationalist.

Karzai has also refused to sign a bilateral security agreement with the United States which would allow for the US and Nato to leave behind a residual force of about 12,000 soldiers after the final withdrawal of international combat troops takes place at the end of this year.

Despite widespread support for the agreement, Karzai says he first wants the US to move forward with a peace pact with the Taliban, presumably by putting pressure on neighbor Pakistan.

During the telephone conversation, according to the Afghan presidency, Karzai told Kerry that the Taliban were willing to talk to his High Peace Council, an 80-member body tasked by the president to spearhead reconciliation with his armed opposition, but Pakistan was preventing them. The presidency did not provide further details.

The Taliban has denied any talks with Karzai and say it does not want to speak with the Afghan president. However several Taliban leaders have met with members of Karzai’s High Peace Council in the United Arab Emirates, according to both Taliban and high peace council members, who have previously spoken to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so as not to disrupt the delicate diplomacy.

Also on Sunday, a roadside bomb killed a Romanian service member with the international military coalition in Afghanistan in a southeastern province, said Coalition spokesman Capt. Patrick Simmons. The bomb was set off by remote control as a convoy reached the outskirts of Qalat, capital of Zabul province, said district governor Abdul Khaliq Ayubi. He said another three troops were wounded.

The Romanian defense ministry said Claudiu Constantin Vulpoiu died in the early Sunday attack. Romania has 1,029 troops serving in the Nato mission in Afghanistan and 23 have been killed. Most of Afghanistan’s security is now in the hands of the Afghan National Security Forces ahead of the withdrawal of international combat troops at the end of December. Still, international service personnel occasionally patrol troubled areas and assist Afghan troops when requested.

In Tirin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan province, a remotely detonated explosive devise apparently planted in a car killed one person and injured 14 others, according to Provincial Deputy Police Chief Mohammed Aslam Kochi. No one took responsibility for either incidents but the Taliban are suspected in both explosions. A stubborn insurgency still rages in Afghanistan’s south and east.

What is Priyanka Chopra’s latest endorsement deal all about?

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The Exotic babe has bagged a new endorsement and here’s everything you wanna know about it

Bollywood’s desi girl Priyanka Chopra‘s talent and popularity has landed her a new endorsement. She has been named the brand ambassador of Rajnigandha Silver Pearls – saffron blended, silver coated cardamom seeds from the house of DS Group. Actor-singer Priyanka features in a new 60-second television commercial announcing the new launch.

It celebrates the little gestures of goodness that people make despite a hectic day-to-day life with the slogan ‘Achai ki ek alag hi chamak hoti hai’. The new catchphrase re-emphasizes the brand’s belief that real goodness always shines through in our words and deeds, read a statement. Priyanka agrees with the belief.

“There is an innate goodness in all of us and I think in today’s time its hugely important to spread as much love and positivity as possible. I am delighted to have been chosen as the brand ambassador of Rajnigandha Silver Pearls,” said the 31-year-old.

Talking about the product, she said: “It not only delicious and refreshing, but also a brand that promotes such positive messages, which is something the world really needs.”

The National award winning actor, who turned to singing with international singles like Exotic and In my city, was chosen to represent the product “as she is an epitome of a global achiever and at the same time a grounded and humble person who is always ready to give time and effort for a good cause”.

The ad film has been created by Dentsu Marcom and narrates the story of a successful filmstar, who has a massive following because of her inherent goodness. It shows interwoven scenes that narrate examples of little acts of goodness