India’s Ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao said on Saturday that a “miasma of terrorism” which engulfs Pakistan, also targets and poses a threat to Indian citizens, Press Trust of India reproted.

Speaking about the challenges faced by the region at the Pondicherry University, she said “our region faces many challenges. The difficult situation concerning Afghanistan is one of them as well as the miasma of terrorism that is engulfing Pakistan and has targeted and endangered and continues to target and endanger our own citizens.”

“Our primary focus has to be on our region and how we marginalise and overcome those forces that do not want our region to grow and prosper, do not want education of our girl children or women’s empowerment and those forces that seek prolonging rather than the solution of issues that divide us,” she said.

“Emotional complexes cannot be a driving force in foreign policy”, she contended.

Referring to the oft quoted India centric policy of Pakistan, she said, “prescriptive approaches cannot be applied to India. There must be understanding of the challenges we face and our determination to overcome them.”

Indian Foreign Minister to visit Pakistan in July

The Indian foreign Minister S M Krishna confirmed on Saturday, that he would be journeying across the border to meet his counterparts in Islamabad in late July, Geo television reported.

Krishna will meet Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and review all outstanding issues between the two countries.

He will also call on President Asif Ali Zardari and the Prime Minister.

LAHORE: The current government came into power with the help of the nation, and till the nation supports us, we will stay in power, stated Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday.

Addressing the third convocation of Virtual University in Lahore, the prime minister said that the government did not come “through a back door” as it was democratically elected.

During the convocation, the premier congratulated the graduating students and announced the establishment of 30 more campuses of Virtual University throughout the country including FATA, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. He also announced an IT award worth Rs20 million for deserving students in the remotest areas of the country.

Gilani further announced that PAK-SAT will provide one-hour free transmission facility to the university.

The prime minister also directed the Minister for Information Technology to expedite the matter of 3G technology. He said that this technology would not only bring about a revolution, create employment opportunities but would also promote development.

The prime minister said that the broadband centres in all the Union Councils of the country will provide 30,000 jobs to the students this year.  He added that the federal government had already spent Rs22 billion on the development of IT infrastructure and broadband connectivity.

He also announced an allocation of Rs17 billion for strengthening broadband connectivity in other unserved areas of the country.

He added that he had already directed the finance minister to create 100,000 jobs in the coming budget 2012-13, and said that ‘they’ didn’t want him to do so in the budget, without mentioning anyone.

The prime minister was in Lahore to meet Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. The meeting, according to sources privy to the talks, settled all outstanding issues – the most pressing of which dealt with the release of funds for PML-Q parliamentarians.

KARACHI: While addressing the media on a visit to Nazir Hussain University, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan said that earlier, he had been joking about contesting in the next elections, Express News reported on Saturday.

Addressing questions on solutions for Pakistan’s deteriorating state, Dr AQ Khan said that national interest should be given precedence in the Thar coal and Reko Diq projects.

Shedding light on other concerns and queries,  he told the media that atomic assets of the country were in safe hands.

During the address, Dr Khan said that the law and order situation of the country was awful even in 1971, therefore, he said, the nation should not lose hope.

Accompanying him was Minister for Trade and Industry Rauf Siddiqui, for whom Dr AQ Khan said that the law and order situation of the city would become stable if he (Rauf Siddiqui) was appointed Interior Minister Sindh.

Earlier, while addressing a gathering at the Punjab University (PU) in Lahore, Dr AQ Khan had said that he may consider contesting next elections from the city.

ISLAMABAD: The fuel tank of a Shaheen Airline plane set to depart for Karachi was found leaking, leaving passengers stranded at Benazir International Airport for over two and a half hours, Express News reported on Saturday.

The leakage was found when passengers were getting ready to board the plane. Sources said that the plane, which was due to fly at 10am, had undergone a full maintenance check, but the leak had not been discovered then.

Passengers had not been informed that there was a fuel tank leak, but were informed after a long waiting period that the plane will be flying back to Karachi.

Officials at the airport confirmed that it was a fuel tank leak and said that the remaining passengers would either be sent to Karachi on another airplane or would be directed to go home.

Last month, shortly after the Bhoja Air crash, the fuel tank of another Shaheen Air plane began leaking as it was about to take off from Lahore airport.

More recently, a consumer court awarded four petitioners Rs50,000 each on a suit seeking total damages of Rs40 million from Shaheen Air International over a lengthy delay in a Dubai-Lahore flight.

GUJRANWALA: His gray hair and frail figure had tricked the Gujranwala police several times, but on Friday 70-year-old car thief Ghulam Qadir was finally arrested.

The police received a tip-off of a car theft on Prince Road. On arriving, they gave chase to an escaping white-coloured Toyota Corolla. During the chase, the aged driver tried to escape by hitting the police van but the police managed to arrest him.

According to the police, Qadir had often been stopped by authorities while driving a stolen car, but he had fooled them each time with an elaborate back story.

The old man would drive the cars with a rose garland around his neck. He would lie to the police and claim he was on his way to Umra. The police personnel were fooled by the story and after being offered sweets, they would ask Qadir to offer prayers for them and let him drive off.

Qadir also demonstrated the ease with which he could unlock cars at the police station after he was arrested.

Human Rights organisation, Amnesty International took notice of life threats to Member of Sindh Assembly, Saleem Khursheed Khokhar for his vocal stance on the Rinkle Kumari case, and his call for Hindu women and girls to be protected from abduction and forced conversion to Islam.

In a press release on Friday, Amnesty called for urgent action from the public, urging them to write to relevant authorities including Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Sindh Inspector General Police Mushtaq Shah, asking for providing Khokhar and his family with adequate security, with guards who have been properly vetted. Investigation into the threats received by the MPA.

The NGO also urged people to demand that anyone who is responsible for threats to the MPA, other abuse against minorities including forced conversion and marriage, be brought to justice in trials that meet international standards.

Khokhar had told Amnesty International that had written to senior government officials that the police had failed to investigate the threat beyond registering the FIR. He said that the handful of security guards assigned to him by authorities are too few and may not have been adequately vetted to ensure they bear no animosity towards him, as they are Muslim and he is Christian.

Late last month, provincial legislature, Khokhar had presented a privilege motion in the Sindh Assembly against the SHO Clifton for not registering a First Information Report against people who have reportedly been sending him threats via text message.

In his privilege motion, the MPA had stated that he and his colleague, MPA Pitanber Sewani, had received text messages from an unknown number.

The message read: “Only Muslims will be allowed to live peacefully in this country. No one else will be allowed to live here with dignity”.  Khokhar said that he received the message following his vocal stance in the Rinkle Kumari case.

Khokhar told The Express Tribune that he started receiving threats after the attended proceedings of the Rinkle Kumari case on April 18, 2012, and issued statements in the media condemning the ‘forced conversion’.

“I then started receiving text messages which read: ‘You should learn from the remarks of Chief Justice, and High Court, only Muslims are allowed to liver here. You should leave the country or you would be responsible for what happens,” Khokhar narrated.

He added that despite initial reluctance, a privilege motion in the Sindh Assembly got the police to investigate the matter. However, he alleged that PPP MNA from Ghotki, Mian Mithu had started lobbying against him, declaring him to be a Mossad (Israeli spy agency) and CIA agent.

Khokhar added that he was still receiving threats and there was real fear for his life.

The MPA had successfully contested on a ticket of the All Pakistan Minority Alliance (APMA), of which he was provincial president. Shahbaz Bhatti, the federal minorities minister who was killed last year, was the central president of the APMA.

Meanwhile, Sewani reiterated that they had received threats on their cell phones in the aftermath of the Rinkle Kumari case, warning him, and Khokhar from raising their voice against forcible conversion on the floor of the Assembly.

Sewani told The Express Tribune that after they introduced a privilege motion against threats, police had managed to trace the number to Ghotki. The MPA alleged that an influential person in Ghotki by the alias Mian Mithu was patronising people who were sending them threats and were behind forced conversion and marriage.

Sewani demanded action against those who were threatening him.

Some Pakistani men consider white women as “fair game,” said Conservative party co-chairman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

According to a report by The Guardian, Warsi urged Muslim leaders to take steps against men who regard white women as “third-class citizens.”

Earlier last week, nine Muslim men, mainly of Pakistani origin, were found guilty of abusing young girls for sexual gains.

The men were convicted at Liverpool Crown Court for a range of offences including trafficking within the UK, rape, sexual assault and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. They were part of a gang who had groomed vulnerable young girls in and around Rochdale, Greater Manchester. They were given prison sentences ranging from 4 to 19 years.

Police played down any racial connection, however, Warsi believes otherwise.

The report quoted her saying: “There is a small minority of Pakistani men who believe that white girls are fair game. And we have to be prepared to say that. You can only start solving a problem if you acknowledge it first.”

“This small minority who see women as second-class citizens, and white women probably as third-class citizens, are to be spoken out against,” she added.

Calling for action against such mindset on community level, Warsi said that “in mosque after mosque, this should be raised as an issue so that anybody remotely involved should start to feel that the community is turning on them.”

“Communities have a responsibility to stand up and say: ‘This is wrong, this will not be tolerated’.”

LAHORE: Unidentified gunmen torched two buses in the Samnabad and Township areas of Lahore on Friday. Express News reported that police sources had claimed the gunmen were members of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Eyewitnesses said that the gunmen had stopped buses by opening fire in front of them. They got on the bus and warned all passengers to get off or they would set it on fire with them inside. The gunmen were carrying 1.5 litre bottles of fuel, which they used to torch one of the buses from the inside.

Both incidents took place within half an hour.

An eyewitness said that rescue sources had arrived to extinguish the fire, but had to leave after they ran out of water and then they came back half an hour later. The police, however, had arrived at the spot immediately, he added.

The police are suspecting that IJT members are behind this incident as they have been protesting against the murder of their fellow during a clash between two student wings earlier this week. On Friday, IJT members clashed with the police in front of the Punjab University Old Campus on Mall Road. Police dispersed the protesters by using tear gas and pelting stones.

The police claimed arresting around a dozen students during the clash.

Jamiat members had claimed that Abrar Wattoo had killed Awais Aqeel on Sunday night, and alleged that Watto was being protected by the authorities.

The protesting students had also lashed out against the administration of Punjab University after they claimed that Aqeel was not a “regular” student at the university.

KARACHI: Educational institutes in Sindh will have summer vacations from July 1 till August 31 this year, a notification issued by Sindh government stated on Friday.

The education department and the Cambridge-system schools have been at odds with each other on the matter, with the former demanding that schools remain off during July-August and the latter urging that the previous schedule be retained.

In 2011, the steering committee of the education department had received suggestions from segments of the civil society, government and private schools, which suggested that the summer holidays should be rescheduled to July and August to facilitate the people during Ramazan. However, the managements of almost all the Cambridge-system schools had criticised the decision. The reason was that their academic sessions began from August 1 and ended in May. June and July were the feasible months for them for vacations. Hence, the Sindh government had turned down the steering committee’s decision and kept the vacations from June 1 to July 31.

But a notification issued on Friday reversed the early announcement and came out in favour of the education department.

There are a total of 4,000 private Matric system schools registered with the board in Karachi. The city also has about 150 schools offering the Cambridge system but which are not necessarily registered with the board.

ISLAMABAD: Memo Commission proceedings came to an end on Friday, with forensic reports of Mansoor Ijaz’s Blackberry being made a part of documents to be sent to the Supreme Court after compilation, Express News reported on Friday.

Commission proceedings taking place at the Islamabad High Court were presided over by Justice Qazi Faiz Isa.

During the proceedings, Memo Commission Secretary Raja Jawad Hasan Abbas confirmed that he was present for the eight-hour long forensic test, adding that no one had interfered during that time.

After completing the proceedings, the commission said that a briefing will be taken in camera by the foreign ministry regarding the “secret funds”.

Boycotting the meeting, former ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani’s lawyer Zahid Bukhari said that he would present his objections on the proceedings and the detailed report in the Supreme Court.

Earlier, lawyers for Husain Haqqani stated that they would not appear before the Memo Commission when it met on Friday.

Instead, they said Haqqani would wait for the commission’s report before raising objections over the commissions’ proceedings before the Supreme Court.