LAHORE: Police constable Khalil, who was abducted by the rangers, was brought before media here on Friday. SSP Model Town Rana Hayat told media that Rangers Officials gave the custody of Khalil to police in the Cantonment area. On this occasion, SSP Model Town said that the police was yet to receive his (Khalil) official uniform. To a question, he said the press release issued by the Punjab Government was the stance of provincial government. The SSP said that statements of Constable Khalil and other concerned people would be made public soon.
Written on March 26, 2010 | Posted in
Politics,
police
NEW DELHI: Indian star batsman Sachin Tendulkar is busy breaking records in cricket field and off the field his achievements are being hailed in the country. In recognition of his feats, The Maharashtra government has announced building of a museum in his honour. The museum will be based on the life and career of the master cricketer Tendulkar will be second cricketer after the legendary Sir Donald Bradman that a museum will be built on his cricket achievements. Tendulkar recently accomplished the milestone of becoming the first ever player to crack a one-day international double ton. The Little Master holds the records of making the most runs in Test and One-day International cricket besides scoring the highest number of centuries in these forms of cricket.
Written on March 26, 2010 | Posted in
Cricket,
International,
Sports
KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed submission of a detail report on April 16 about irregularities in Public Service Commission (PSC) Examinations held after 2003. A petitioner Muhammad Salim Shaikh, declared fails in the exams by PSC has been challenged his failure in the court. The lawyer of the petitioner stated that present chairman had admitted in the court that results of several candidates passed in the examinations had been changed into fails and vice versa.
Written on March 26, 2010 | Posted in
News,
Politics
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’’s hopes for civil nuclear cooperation have been a non-starter in Washington, but experts say the United States can use it as a dangling carrot as it seeks influence in Islamabad. The two nations Thursday wrapped up a first-of-a-kind “strategic dialogue,” which the United States hopes will show Pakistan’’s widely anti-American public that it cares about the country beyond seeking help against Islamic extremists. US officials stayed carefully on message, pledging respect for Pakistan and never explicitly saying no to its requests — a refusal that would have been sure to steal the headlines. Pakistan is seeking a civilian nuclear deal along the lines of a landmark agreement that the United States struck with India in 2008. The South Asian rivals stunned the world in 1998 by carrying out nuclear tests. Asked about the Pakistani request, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would listen to “whatever issues the delegation raises” and highlighted a 125-million-dollar US package to boost Pakistan’’s energy sector. A nuclear deal could help ease the developing country’’s chronic energy shortages. But it would also amount to US recognition of Pakistan as the Islamic world’’s only nuclear power, a point of pride for many Pakistanis. “At the moment this looks like a non-starter, but it shouldn”t be,” said Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and former State Department official. “There is no reason why we couldn”t use this as a bargaining tool to get more cooperation, to say, ”This may not be something we can deliver now, but we would like to work something out with you,”” he said. “It could have a very positive impact both with the Pakistani elite and public.” But the United States has longstanding concerns about proliferation from Pakistan — and policymakers are said to have quietly drafted a crisis plan in case the nuclear arsenal risk falling out of government control. The father of Pakistan’’s bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, although he later retracted his remarks. The level of separation between Pakistan’’s military and civilian nuclear programs also remains a matter of dispute. Pakistan returned to civilian rule in 2008 and President Asif Ali Zardari a year later handed over control of the nuclear program to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. “I think it’’s extremely premature to be talking about any civil nuclear cooperation between the US and Pakistan at this stage,” said Lisa Curtis, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation think-tank. “It would be more appropriate and important to be talking about conventional military cooperation, economic support and breaking down trade barriers,” said Curtis, who served in the State Department in former president George W. Bush’’s administration. Bush championed the nuclear deal with India, the signature part of his drive to build an alliance between the world’’s two largest democracies. The agreement faced criticism from some members of President Barack Obama’’s Democratic Party, who argued that it sent the wrong message as India, like Pakistan and Israel, refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. “One of the reasons the US was able to move forward in Congress was because of India’’s solid record against proliferation and Pakistan doesn”t have that,” Curtis said. Some critics who believe the Bush agreement was too easy on India said that Pakistan’’s requests confirmed their fears. “I think the fact that we gave India such a sweetheart deal set a very dangerous precedent and it’’s no surprise that Pakistan wants a similar deal,” said Leonor Tomero of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. She also said that Pakistan’’s request was “odd” coming so close to Obama’’s April 12-13 nuclear security summit in Washington and the Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference a month later.
Written on March 26, 2010 | Posted in
News
WASHINGTON: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervaz Kayani Thursday said progress in Pakistan will no longer be subject to foreign aids as soon as the prevailing energy crisis gets addressed, Geo news reported. Addressing the Pakistani community, gathered here at Pakistani embassy in Washington, General Kayani said both Pakistani army and public are gallantly bent upon in wiping out terrorism from country. Joint efforts from army and public have helped government send in international community a better image of Pakistan, he added.
Written on March 26, 2010 | Posted in
International,
News,
Politics
WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday pledged to work to improve market access for Pakistani goods including through special economic zones, as the two nations sought to turn the page on years of distrust. Pakistan and the United States said they would seek a “wide-ranging, long-term and substantive strategic partnership,” after two days of talks led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. In the joint statement, the United States said it was “committed to work towards enhanced market access for Pakistani products as well as towards the early finalization of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones legislation.” The proposal would give duty-free access to products from designated parts of the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, in a bid to create new industries in the longtime Taliban stronghold as they rebuild from fighting. Two Democratic lawmakers, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington and Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, proposed the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones last year but the bill has languished in Congress. The United States has launched a five-year, 7.5 billion-dollar aid package for Pakistan as part of a major initiative by Washington to chip away at anti-Americanism and support for Islamic extremists in the nuclear power. But some Pakistanis say that the United States has done too little to create a demand for its products, with key exports such as textiles facing prohibitive tariffs. The joint statement said that the two nations will also discuss drafting an investment treaty to encourage US funds in Pakistan. A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, voiced hope that Congress could act on the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones now that it has completed President Barack Obama’’s landmark health-care reform. “We agreed that with health care behind us, this was something we would make another push on,” the official said. But the official cautioned that it was not realistic for Pakistan to expect a full-fledged free-trade agreement, which would require a long political process. Congress has yet to ratify three free-trade agreements — reached with Colombia, Panama and South Korea — due to concerns over human and labor rights in the Latin American nations and market access in South Korea. The United States has also been non-committal on Pakistan’’s ambitions for an agreement on civilian nuclear energy akin to a landmark deal which the United States sealed in 2008 with its rival India. The joint statement said that the United States “recognized the importance of assisting Pakistan to overcome its energy deficit,” and said it would intensify cooperation. Driving the point home, Rajiv Shah, the head of the US Agency for International Development, was to sign letters with Pakistan to go ahead with a 51 million-dollar project to refurbish and upgrade three power stations. The United States also authorized 40 million dollars in previously approved funding to rebuild a strategic, 43-kilometer (27-mile) road in war-torn Swat and expand the ring road around the northwestern city of Peshawar. The talks come as the United States cautiously welcomes what it sees as a shift in Pakistan to a more robust campaign against Islamic extremism. President Asif Ali Zardari last year ordered a major offensive against homegrown Taliban and Pakistan has since arrested leading militants. US officials have long worried that elements of Pakistan’’s military and the intelligence apparatus were supporting extremists despite their public pronouncements.
Written on March 26, 2010 | Posted in
Health,
International,
News
MANCHESTER: England quick James Anderson is still baffled as to the cause of his longstanding knee injury but expects to be in action again next week. The Lancashire paceman sat out England’’s recently concluded tour of Bangladesh after being advised rest and rehabilitation was the best way to cure a right knee problem that had troubled him throughout the preceding tour of South Africa. Anderson, who intends playing for Lancashire against Durham University next week ahead of the start of the English season proper, said that while the cause of his injury had still to be diagnosed, he now felt in good shape. “The knee is good; the rehab has been going well,” Anderson told Thursday’’s Manchester Evening News. “I had three weeks off when I got back from South Africa and have been gradually building up from there. I started bowling a couple of weeks ago and am bowling at about three-quarters pace at the moment.” Anderson added: “I don”t know exactly what the problem was. I went to see a surgeon in London, and he didn”t know what it was. “All the doctors I have seen didn”t have a clue, so we just spread a bit of cortisone around where I pointed at, where the pain was, and we left it for three weeks. “We injected it at the start of the tour of South Africa, and had three more injections on that trip,” he said. “It can be quite difficult to decipher what is a niggle and what can cause you problems – because as a bowler you are never really 100% fit. You always have a niggle or two. “This one started as a niggle and just got worse and worse. “The aim is to play against Durham Uni and then play it by ear. Lancashire have a few more warm-up games, but we will take it day by day and see how the knee pulls up.”
Written on March 25, 2010 | Posted in
News,
Sports
KABUL: The top UN envoy for Afghanistan met Thursday with delegates from the country’’s second-biggest militant group, who are in Kabul for talks on a possible peace deal, the UN mission said. Staffan de Mistura, the special UN representative in Afghanistan, met with delegates from Hezb-e-Islami, headed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is black-listed as a terrorist by the United Nations and United States. “The special representative listened to their points and indicated that their visit in Kabul and the ongoing discussions with Afghan authorities further underscored the importance of Afghan-led dialogue in order to bring stability to this country,” a UN statement said. Hezb-e-Islami delegates had already met President Hamid Karzai during their visit and handed him a peace proposal, Karzai’’s office said on Monday. The UN statement said de Mistura’’s talks with the delegation took place “in consultation with President Hamid Karzai.” It gave no further detail. A Hezb-e-Islami spokesman said Monday that the 15-point plan submitted to Karzai included setting “a clear timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces and another the formation of an interim administration.” Karzai’’s spokesman has said that the president is studying the plan. Karzai has been trying to bring militants in from the cold in a reconciliation programme aimed at quelling the eight-year-war. The plan gained international backing at a conference in London in January. The Taliban, who were ousted from government in a US-led push in 2001, are the biggest militant group battling Karzai’’s government and trying to force the more than 120,000 US and NATO troops out of Afghanistan. The Taliban leadership have publicly refused any talks with the Western-backed Karzai and demand all international troops leave the country. The United States accuses Hekmatyar of carrying out attacks alongside the Taliban and of being allied to Al-Qaeda. Hezb-e-Islami, known in the 1980s as a major anti-Soviet resistance force, had also said it would only hold peace talks when all foreign forces quit Afghan soil, but has shown more willingness to re-enter the political process. The group was passive during the 1996-2001 Taliban rule, but regrouped to launch a separate armed resistance, sharing many of the Taliban’’s goals, after the latter were overthrown in the US-led 2001 invasion. A peace agreement with the group would not be of huge significance, experts have said, as Hekmatyar, a former prime minister, has been making overtures to the Afghan political establishment for some time. But it could remove an irritant as Karzai pursues the bigger players behind the insurgency — the Haqqani network and the top Taliban leadership. Although the Taliban say they will not negotiate, de Mistura’’s predecessor Kai Eide, who left his post this month, said in a recent interview with the BBC that he had been holding secret talks with Taliban leaders for about a year. The Taliban denied the talks with Eide, but Karzai’’s office has also confirmed that it has been in contact with the Taliban with the intention of discussing an end to the insurgency. As Karzai touts his reconciliation platform, the United States is also implementing a surge designed to weaken the militants, with foreign troop numbers to swell to about 150,000 within months. While US officials support reintegration of low-level Taliban fighters, many believe the Taliban should be dealt a greater blow militarily in order to give the Afghan government a stronger hand in any eventual peace talks.
Written on March 25, 2010 | Posted in
International
In the recent days media has been flashing gruesome videos and images of police torture on the people. Whether they are protests or torturing the accused, our police is pretty much sadistic in nature and to an extent they can go, is unimaginable. The cruelty and hardships suffered by the accused and public is frightening
Written on March 25, 2010 | Posted in
Current Affairs,
Pakistan,
Politics,
Videos,
police
For the past few days there has been a lot of talk on the strategic talks between United States of America and Islamic Republic of Pakistan. What is this strategic talk after all? Well according to my knowledge and understanding these strategic talk are make or break deals between Pakistan and America. Over the years
