ISB 05-04-2012_Layout 1 4/5/2012 1:26 AM Page 1
Media projecting baseless corruption stories: Gilani PAGE | 04
Indian govt, army deny ‘coup fears’ report PAGE | 06
Saeed’s links with Osama led to US bounty PAGE | 22
Rs15.00 Vol ii no 278 22 pages islamabad — peshawar edition
pML-N ends pCNS boycott on pM’s request
thursday, 5 april, 2012 Jamadi-ul-awal 12, 1433
Pakistan, US look to salvage ties g
pakistan again turns down US demand to restore NaTO supplies g pakistan says no concrete evidence available to link Hafiz Saeed with Mumbai attacks ISLAMABAD
P
AKISTAN on Wednesday turned down fresh US demands for early resumption of the stalled NATO supplies, saying that the contentious issue would be decided in the joint session of parliament, which has been convened to revisit the bilateral ties and devise future terms of engagement with the United States. Islamabad also made it clear to Washington that it would not move against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) chief, who has been put by the US on its ‘most wanted terrorists’ list’ along with another senior JuD leader Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki. The US has also announced a bounty of $10 million on Hafiz Saeed whereas reward for Abdur Rehman Makki is $2 million. US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Thomas Nides, who reached here Wednesday morning on a mission to improve the strained Pakistan-US ties, held meetings with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar soon after his arrival.
ISLAMABAD STAFF RepoRT
Boycott of the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) members from the proceedings of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) entered into the third consecutive day on Wednesday compelling the committee to delay its scheduled submission of final recommendations with the joint sitting of the parliament for a few days. The situation forced Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to seek help from PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who assured him that the PML-N members would end their boycott of the PCNS. Gilani told Sharif that the PCNS meeting was being held under the leadership of Senator Raza Rabbani to finalise Pakistan’s new terms of engagements with the US and NATO. He said that it was in the national interest to reach consensus recommendations in the larger national interest and this occasion should not be used for political mileage. A source in the PML-N said that Gilani assured Sharif that the government would review the petroleum prices but the PCNS was important and it should not be ignored. The committee, which met here at Parliament House continued threadbare discussion to review the proposals floated by the main opposition parties, the PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-e-IslamFazl without making any headway. The committee was scheduled to submit its reviewed report with the joint sitting of the parliament on Wednesday but it failed to do so as no progress was made due to the absence of the PML-N members from the committee, who have boycotted the proceedings in protest against the increase in petroleum prices. The PML-N and JUI-F had opposed the committee’s recommendations and threatened to oppose the proposals in the joint sitting. Resultantly, in a bid to address the reservations of the opposition members, a high-level meeting of the government and opposition parties decided that the PCNS would review its recommendations to achieve consensus to send a strong message to the world by the parliament. It is pertinent to mention here that both the PML-N members of the PCNS – Senator Ishaq Dar and Mehtab Khan Abbasi – had signed the final draft of the recommendations but its leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan took a summersault, claiming there were some controversial clauses in the draft. Later, Mian Raza Rabbani, the chairman of the committee, could not hide his anger at the boycott of the PML-N members and said that the N leaguers should have attended the meeting. He also admitted the fact that the continued boycott by the N leaguers had hurt the schedule and said that due to delay in finalising the recommendations, the committee would not be in a position to submit its report in the upcoming meeting of the joint sitting of the parliament scheduled to meet on Thursday. Rabbani said the committee was not bound to adhere to the reservations being expressed by the US administration and the PCNS was taking up the matter as per parliamentary norms.
SHAIQ HUSSAIN
ISLAMABAD: US Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides shakes hands with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar before a meeting on Wednesday. afp
Hafiz Saeed defiant, says ‘ready to face any US court’ RAWALPINDI AFp
The founder of the militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks goaded the United States on Wednesday in a defiant public appearance mocking his $10 million US bounty. Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the extremist organisation accused of masterminding the carnage that killed 166 people in Mumbai four years ago, said he was ready to face “any American court” to answer charges. The 62-year-old former engineering and Arabic professor appeared on stage at a specially-convened press conference in the Flashman Hotel, close to the headquarters of the Pakistan army in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. “If the United States wants to contact me, I am present, they can contact me. I am also ready to face any American court, or wherever there is proof against me,” he told reporters in the hotel named after a fictional colonial hero. Saeed makes regular public appearances in Pakistan and he mocked the idea of offering a bounty for someone who lives so openly. “Americans seriously lack information. Don’t they know where I go and where I live and what I do?” he said. “These rewards are usually announced for people who are hiding in mountains or caves. I wish the Americans would give this reward money to me.”
Saeed is a leading figure in the Defence Council of Pakistan, a coalition of right-wing, religious and extremist groups opposed to the government reopening NATO supply lines to Afghanistan, which have been closed since November. The coalition has staged noisy demonstrations in recent months and Saeed said the campaign had worried Washington. “The US decision is aimed at silencing the Defence Council of Pakistan and to ensure resumption of supplies through backdoor channels and increase interference in Pakistan,” he said. US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman announced the cash reward in India on Monday, and Saeed accused the United States of kowtowing to pressure from Pakistan’s arch-enemy. Maulana Sami-ul Haq, chief of the Defence Council of Pakistan and dubbed father of the Taliban, called for “countrywide protests” over the bounty on Friday after the main weekly Muslim prayers. The money offered for information leading to Saeed’s arrest and conviction is eclipsed only by AlQaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who commands a bounty of $25 million and who some analysts also suspect is hiding in Pakistan. Asked if the reward had given him any concerns for his own safety, Saeed said: “Both America and India are unnerved now. They should know that my death is in the hands of Allah, not America. Let this be known to everybody.”
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