Thursday, November 10, 2011
TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: SC says will not tolerate corruption in PR
TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: SC says will not tolerate corruption in PR: The Supreme Court building in Islamabad. ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it will not tolerate corruption in Pakistan Ra...
SC says will not tolerate corruption in PR
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it will not tolerate corruption in Pakistan Railways (PR) and directed the Lahore High Court to complete the railways scrap scandal case as early as possible, DawnNews reported.
During the hearing, former Railway Minister Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed told the court that cheap locomotives were available in Spain, China and several other courtiers but the government was adamant to buy locomotives from a particular Chinese company.
He also blamed the government for destroying the system of the organisation.
Rasheed said that corrupt offices working in the Railways purchase department should be sacked immediately.
Chief Jusitce Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry warned the General Manager of the Railways that he would be held responsible if violation of rules continued.
Gilani for more effective SAARC body
ADDU, Maldives: Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani Thursday assured Pakistan’s full support to make South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) a more effective organisation.
Addressing the 17th SAARC summit here at Addu Atoll, Gilani said there was a need to rationalise and consolidate the SAARC activities for the benefit of the people of the region.
He said the gap between the promise of the organisation and reality of its accomplishment needs to be bridged.
The premier also emphasised the need for effective implementation of decisions taken in the previous summits.
Referring to the theme of the summit “Building Bridges”, he said: “We should build on convergence, minimise divergences and most of all seek to augment complementarities for the greater good of the people of this region.”
He said the theme reflects common desire for promoting mutual understanding and reaching out to each other to create win-win scenarios.
He said it resonates with SAARC’s avowed goal to enhance intra-regional connectivity by 2020.
He said South Asia has the potential to become an important engine for global economic growth and that it has all the necessary ingredients in terms of human and natural resources to work the economic miracle of this century.
Gilani said time has come for the organisation to lead the way in a historic transformation of region.
He said South Asia is unique in many ways, adding “we must place our people at the centre of the SAARC processes.”
He said, “We must enable SAARC to capture the imagination of our peoples and contribute to creating strong mutually beneficial bonds as this alone will assure a glorious future of peace and prosperity.”
He said interfaith and inter-culture harmony must find special emphasis in SAARC’s programmes and interactive process in this domain will contribute to reveal the beauty and strength of a true South Asian identity.
Gilani said, “Pakistan completed its democratic transformation and is now well on its way to realising democracy’s dividends by pursuing development at the grass roots level.”
The premier said, “We must strengthen regional cooperation through sharing of experiences, best practices and establishing institutional linkages.”
The government of Pakistan, he said, has prioritised poverty reduction and has taken major initiatives including social safety nets.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Pakistan, India say ties improving ahead of summit
ADDU, Maldives: The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan said Wednesday that trust between their countries had improved, providing the foundation for a renewed push at their troubled peace process.
India’s S.M. Krishna and his counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar arrived at a South Asian regional summit in the Maldives speaking optimistically of the improvements in ties achieved during talks over the last few months.
Referring to a “very positive atmosphere” between the countries, Krishna said that the “trust deficit” with Pakistan was shrinking and that they should now look at a “joint strategy” to fight terror.
“I think our relationship with Pakistan is becoming a little more stable than what it was before,” Krishna said as he flew to the Maldives, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Khar, appearing briefly before reporters, also said that the environment was improved ahead of bilateral talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan Prime Minister.
“I can certainly say from our side that we look at this environment to have improved considerably. The trust deficit that typically existed between the two countries for many, many years has been reduced to a large order,” she said.
Both leaders also acknowleged the difficult work to do, not least tackling the vexed subject of Kashmir, a Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan that has sparked two wars between them.
“We have many, many more miles to move ahead,” Khar said.
She said the threat of terrorism was a challenge to both India and Pakistan and will be addressed by leaders at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Zardari discusses relations and trade with US, Chinese delegations
KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday held separate meetings with delegations from United States and China and discussed bilateral matters, DawnNews reported.
A delegation of US Congressmen comprising Republicans and Democrats met with the president at the Bilawal House and discussed the Pak-US relations, regional situation among other issues.
The president later held talks with the eight member Chinese trade delegation.
The delegation having representatives from mining, railways, trade, banking and power sector exchanged views with the president on development projects being carried out in Pakistan.
Zardari invited the delegation to invest in the country and expressed the desire that Islamabad wanted to initiate development projects through public-private partnership.
India, Pakistan officials meet before SAARC summit
GAN, Maldives: Senior officials from India and Pakistan met in the Maldives Tuesday as they prepared for a summit of South Asian nations in the remote atoll of Addu, an official said.
Maldivian Foreign Secretary Ahmed Naseer said India’s foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistan counterpart Salman Bashir met during the meeting of senior officials, but declined to give details.
“They met, but I cannot comment on their bilateral matters and what they discussed,” Naseer told reporters after officials met to hammer out a declaration to be approved by their foreign ministers and at the summit.
Naseer said foreign secretaries also discussed greater trade cooperation among members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and said Pakistan’s decision announced last week to grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India had also figured in their talks.
However, Naseer said they had also decided that any trade concessions agreed within the regional grouping should be better than the existing bilateral trade arrangements.
However, he declined comment on Pakistan’s MFN offer to India, the biggest member of the grouping which accounts for a fifth of humanity in one of the poorest regions in the world.
Many smaller members of SAARC, which groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, have expressed concern that Indo-Pakistan tensions were hampering regional trade.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani are due to hold talks on the sidelines of the summit on Thursday.
The two prime ministers last met in March when Gilani accepted Singh’s invitation to watch the India-Pakistan cricket World Cup semi-final.
They last held formal talks at the 2010 SAARC summit in Bhutan.
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