Karachi News


DAWN/The News International, KARACHI	11 October 2007, Thursday, 28 Ramzan 1428

www.karachipage.com (click on underlined key-words/dates to get more details)
MQM denies foreign advice about Benazir’s return
Army leases land with scant regard for city’s master plan
Ditch outside SHCBA president’s house
Former student leader Ali Mukhtar Rizvi passes away
Retired AVM shot dead
4 killed in Lyari (more)
Bandit killed in shoot-out
PML-Q leader gunned down in Quetta (more)
Caretakers to hold polls in Jan: PM
15 more killed in N Waziristan air attacks (more)
Bridge blown up (more)
Driver hurt in attack on NGO women (more)
4 policemen injured, 11 CD shops damaged in Kohat (more)
Protests against attacks on CD shops (more)
Battle against terrorism in Fata is lost, US Congress told (more)

MQM denies foreign advice about Benazir’s return
LONDON, Oct 10: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has denied a report published in a UK newspaper and a section of the press in Pakistan that it had been advised by British and American diplomats to show restraint when PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto returns to Karachi.

Dr Imran Farooq, Convener of MQM’s Central Coordination Committee, said in a statement that American and British diplomats had made no contact with the MQM in this regard and the report was totally baseless.

He said that the MQM welcomed the return of Benazir Bhutto immediately after she had announced her decision to return to Pakistan.

Dr Farooq said that being in the government the MQM had never hindered in political activities of any political party over the past five years.

All political parties had complete freedom to carry out their peaceful activities in Sindh and in Karachi.—Correspondent

Army leases land with scant regard for city’s master plan

KARACHI, Oct 10: Without taking into consideration issues of the city’s future requirements and the city government’s plans in this regard, the ministry of defence has leased out land located along a main traffic artery which will drastically increase the area’s population density in addition to putting further pressure on the already overstretched civic infrastructure.

Reliable sources report that the approximately 17-acre (80,000 sq yards) chunk of army-owned land is sandwiched between M.A. Jinnah Road, Capri Cinema, Rizvi Shaheed Road, Parsi Colony and Islamia Club. It currently comprises bungalows on large plots but the Military Estate Office has allowed the construction of high-rise commercial and residential complex.

Pressure on civic infrastructure

However, many of these plots come under the city government’s scheme for future road-widening and the change in land-use allowed by the Military Estate Office is likely to cause complications in this regard. Sources pointed out that any high-rise buildings constructed on this land would have to be demolished – after an expensive and time-consuming legal battle – once the city government puts the road-widening plan into action.

This land is located along roads that already suffer regular traffics jams. An increase in the area’s population density would put further pressure on the roads since thousands of vehicles would be added. The situation would worsen significantly during the processions and demonstrations that are organised regularly on M.A.Jinnah Road, Numaish Chowrangi or the nearby Nishtar Park.

Furthermore, the high-rise buildings will increase the area’s population density by between 50 and a hundred times, which will put additional pressure on the overburdened civic infrastructure such as roads, water supply, drainage and the provision of electricity. Hardly about a thousand people occupy the bungalows currently standing on this land but high-rise buildings would dramatically increase the number of housing units. Subsequently, the area’s electricity and water needs would increase exponentially, as would sewage and garbage generation.

Ditch outside SHCBA president’s house

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), Gulshan Town administration and its Union Council-11 Nazim on a petition filed by the President, Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA), against the digging of a ditch in front of his house by the respondents.

In the meantime, the court directed the Nazir to inspect the site and submit a report at the earliest and also asked the petitioner to fill the ditch on his own expense in order to make his house accessible.

Petitioner Abrar Hasan submitted that the town administration dug up road in front of his house situated in Block-4 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, which ruptured the water, sewerage and telephone connections of his house.

He said that due to the digging of a three-foot wide and four-five foot deep trench no vehicle could go inside his house.

He has alleged that the ditch was deliberately dug up only to victimise him and his family by creating hurdles in their egress ad ingress. He said that the ditch was mischievously dug up in front of his house without any prior intimation and the earth that came out of the ditch has been taken away, which shows that there was no intention of the respondents to fill the ditch in near future.

He said that such an unreasonable attitude of the respondents has harassed the petitioner and his family who have left the home and are dislocated.

The petitioner submitted that sewerage and fresh water lines were deliberately broken, which resulted in the mixing of sewage water with fresh water and also affected the water tanks of other area residents.

Former student leader Ali Mukhtar Rizvi passes away

KARACHI: Former student leader Syed Ali Mukhtar Rizvi passed away on Wednesday after protected illness. He was 70. Rizvi played a vital role in the 1965 elections when he campaigned for Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah who had challenged military dictator Gen Ayub Khan in the national elections held under the notorious Basic Democracy system. An outstanding orator, Rizvi made fiery speeches against Gen Ayub and in favour of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah. Though the latter lost the elections, the polls played a vital role in weakening the dictatorship. Rizvi was imprisoned many a times by the Ayub government and was amongst the 12 student leaders who were externed from Karachi for their vocal views.

Retired AVM shot dead

Unidentified motorcyclists shot dead a retired Air-Vice-Marshal (AVM) on Wednesday. SP Clifton Town, Azad Khan, said that he was killed over property dispute.

Latif Tambra, 75, was shot dead in the Boat Basin police jurisdiction. According to his daughter, Sumina Rana, as per daily routine, her father went to his office, Construction & Construction, situated in Clifton, Block-2, Boat Basin Police Jurisdiction. As he alighted from his car some outlaws sprayed bullets into him and he died on the spot.

The deceased was the resident of Phase-V, DHA, and director of Construction & Construction and a shareholder in Jason Builders. A case was registered at the police station on complaint of the deceased’s daughter Sumina Rana.

SP Clifton Town said that the deceased was a retired AVM of the Pakistan Air Force having retired some 20 years back. After retiring, he joined Jason Builders. After few years, he established his own office named Construction & Construction which was affiliated with Jason Builders. He said that inquiries are pending in NAB against Jason Builders, one of which is the Mehran City project and there were several property disputes involving the association. In the past, the concerned office often called Madadgar-15 and informed them of attacks by miscreants. The deceased’s daughter also suspects that the murder resulted from a property dispute. Investigation is on.

4 killed in Lyari

Four persons were killed over a dispute in Baghdadi police limits on Wednesday. Rafiq was shot dead over a dispute of aerial firing. The deceased belonged to Jabbar alias Jeango group, and, in order to take revenge, the deceased’s aide Jeango killed Shahzad alias Gubber. On Wednesday, while the residents were offering funeral prayers of deceased Rafiq some men belonging to Shahzad alias Gubber group came and opened fire due to which Rafiq’s neighbour Abdul Raziq and brother Jehangir were killed, while three others identified as Imran, Yaqoob and Shahnawaz suffered injuries. A case was registered at the police station.

Bandit killed in shoot-out

An alleged bandit was killed in a brief encounter within Kalri police precincts on Wednesday.

As per details, three armed men riding a motorcycle barged into the Photo Link Communication shop owned by Fazal Hussain in Lyari.

The armed men at gunpoint ordered him to hand over all the cash and mobile phone. While the robbers were busy looting, policemen on patrol reached the spot and challenged them.

The dacoits opened fire upon the policemen and tried to escape under the cover of firing. The police retaliated and as a result, an unidentified 30-year-old armed man was killed, while his two accomplices managed to fled from the scene.

The police shifted the body to Civil Hospital for legal formalities.

Man gunned down: A young man was shot dead in Liaquatabad police limits on Wednesday.

Kashif, 30, was killed when unidentified outlaws riding a motorcycle opened fire on him near Sindh Government Hospital. The police shifted the deceased’s body to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.

The police were of the opinion that the murder was a result of personal enmity.

14-year-old found dead: The decomposed body of a teenager was found in the Sohrab Goth police area on Wednesday.

As per the details, body of a 14-year-old boy was found from a trunk near Al-Asif Square. Passers-by informed the police which shifted the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. The deceased was blindfolded and both his hands and legs were tied with a piece of rope.

The MLO Abbasi Shaheed Hospital said that the body was at least three days old and he was strangled to death.

The police were of the view that assassins first kidnapped the deceased and after killing him they threw his body in their police jurisdiction.

PML-Q leader gunned down in Quetta

QUETTA: A provincial leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and a former Kohlu Tehsil Nazim, Sher Jan Marri, was gunned down by unknown armed men here on Wednesday. Police said the unknown armed men, riding a motorcycle, opened indiscriminate fire on

the vehicle of Marri, the younger brother of former provincial minister Bulkh Sher Powadi Marri.

Sher Jan Marri sustained multiple bullets injuries and died before any medical aid could reach, while the assailants fled, the police said. APP adds: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yusuf has condemned the murder of Sher Jan Marri.

He termed the assassination an act of terrorism and assured that the government would mobilise all available resources to arrest the culprits. Provincial minister Mir Amanullah Notezai, Mir Abudl Qudoos Bazinjo, Mir Asim Kurd Galu and Mir Abdul Ghafoor Lehri also condemned Marri’s killing.

Musharraf asks Benazir to delay return

ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: President Gen Pervez Musharraf advised People’s Party chief Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday to put off her return to Pakistan until after the Supreme Court’s ruling on his eligibility for the presidential election.

“It is not a good time,” he said about the Oct 18 date set by Ms Bhutto for her return – a day after the Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing a raft of petitions challenging his candidature for the presidency.

President Musharraf made the suggestion during an interview broadcast by the ARY television network.

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the PPP, said that he could only say Ms Bhutto would arrive in the country according to schedule. President Musharraf denied in the interview that the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) had been promulgated to please Ms Bhutto. “The NRO is a normal and ordinary ordinance aimed at ending confrontation and politics of vengeance.”

He said the NRO was for “everyone and for every party”.

Gen Musharraf said he was unhappy over the PPP’s decision to boycott the presidential election. He, however, appreciated the party’s decision against resigning from the assemblies, terming it a “positive move”

In reply to questions about the recent appointments in the army high command, he said in the army such decisions were made on merit. “We have a policy of right people at the right place.”

He reiterated his resolve to retire as army chief by Nov 15. Caretakers to hold polls in Jan: PM

ISLAMABAD: The next general elections will be held in the first half of January and the assemblies will complete their constitutional term, which expires on November 16, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Wednesday.

"The general elections will be held under an independent interim set-up at the federal and provincial levels that will take over the government after the expiry of the assemblies' term, its only purpose being to hold free, fair and transparent elections in the country," the premier said while addressing the Iftar-dinner that he had hosted for journalists of Islamabad-Rawalpindi.

He said the elections would be held according to the Constitution within 60 days after the assemblies are dissolved. About the NWFP caretaker set-up, he said the government had appointed Shamsul Mulk as the caretaker chief minister of the province and he would be sworn in by Thursday.

The prime minister was upbeat about the prospects of the ruling PML and its allied parties winning the next elections, and forming the new government. "We are confident that the PML and its allied parties will be voted into power again on the basis of their performance," he added.

He said that as election activities begin, it was the duty of every political party to present its manifesto and programmes before the public to help the people make an informed choice. Referring to the presidential elections, Shaukat Aziz said that though official results had not been declared, unofficial results show President General Pervez Musharraf had bagged more than 57 per cent votes of the electoral college.

He said some parties did not participate in the exercise while others abstained but the voting pattern suggested that the president would still have been the clear winner had the opposition parties participated in the polls and voted against him.

The premier was confident that the victory of President Musharraf would help promote stability and ensure the continuity of policies. About the media, he said it enjoyed unprecedented freedom in Pakistan. He said it was because of the liberal policy of the government that the media had grown at a fast pace and "today we have over 50 television channels".

He said that improvement in the economic conditions of the country had also contributed to improvement of financial conditions of the media organisations and journalists. He assured journalists that the government would continue to take steps for the development of the media and, in this regard, referred to the proposed media university in Islamabad to be set up with foreign collaboration to offer short and long-term courses for training and studies in journalism.

About the Wage Board Award, he said it was a complicated issue but assured journalists that the government would try its best to resolve it in cooperation with owners of publication houses.

15 more killed in N Waziristan air attacks

PESHAWAR/MIRANSHAH: Pakistan Air Force (PAF) warplanes continued attacking localities of Mir Ali subdivision of the restive North Waziristan Agency on Wednesday, killing another 15 tribesmen, witnesses told The News on telephone.

Nevertheless, the top military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad, when contacted on phone, claimed that no air strike was launched against the militants since Tuesday afternoon. The Inter-Services Public Relations director general went on to say that some 200 people had been killed in the recent operation in the militancy-haunted tribal region, adding that all those killed in the assault were “terrorists”.

Maj-Gen Waheed confirmed that 48 soldiers had been killed while 20 sustained injuries during the recent operations. He also denied any kind of ceasefire between the militants and security forces.

Meanwhile, seven persons who were seriously injured in Tuesday bombings and artillery fire succumbed to their injuries on Wednesday. The attacks were launched from military camps in Miranshah and Mir Ali. Military sources said 100 rockets were fired from army base in Miranshah on Tuesday night on villages in Mir Ali.

Officials of the political administration and tribal sources told The News that the PAF fighters targeted Haiderkhel, Ipi, Hasukhel, Musaki, Mullagan, Hurmaz, Zeeraki, Khushali and other villages of the area, mostly peopled by non-combatants.

They said eight persons were killed in Haiderkhel, four in Hurmaz and three in Hasukhel villages. Besides, dozens of others were injured in these and other villages including Ipi, Musaki, Mullagan, Zeeraki and Khushali.

Eyewitnesses said dozens of bodies were buried under debris of the damaged buildings, while there was no one to recover them, as every family was affected by the bombing and very few people were left to take care of the killed and injured.

They said that 90 percent of the people of the area shifted to safer places on Wednesday. Tribal sources said that majority of those killed and injured in the ongoing gunbattle and air strikes were non-combatants, many of them women and children.

Doctors at the District Headquarters Hospital Bannu, when reached on phone, said 48 injured had been brought there during the past 24 hours. Hospital sources informed The News that a pick-up, carrying an injured woman and child, overturned when the driver lost control of the vehicle after an aircraft attacked it. The woman and kid died in the accident.

The locals said that majority of the people, who were killed and wounded on Tuesday afternoon, were non-combatants and busy in shopping for Iftar when they came under air attack in Musaki Bazaar. Witnesses said most of the bodies were burnt or badly mutilated. They said dozens of houses and markets in these villages were destroyed in the bombing.

Common people have suffered the most from the ongoing violence in Mir Ali and one can hear tragic stories of suffering and despair everywhere. “Everywhere there are cries of the wretched women and children. There are a few people to help each other in shifting the injured ones to hospitals,” remarked a tribesman, Abdus Salam, from Mir Ali on phone.

Salam, who is a schoolteacher, said artillery shells and rockets were fired from military camp in Miranshah, North Waziristan’s regional headquarters, on Musaki and Hurmaz villages in the evening on Tuesday which triggered panic among the residents of both the villages.

He said announcements were made from mosque loudspeakers asking people to come out of their homes so that there could be lesser human loss. “I cannot explain the suffering of the people. I don’t understand the sin for which we are being given such a harsh punishment,” the teacher said in a choked voice.

Some of the tribesmen somehow managed to shift the injured people in string cots on their shoulders to the Frontier Region of Bakkakhel through unfrequented routes as all the connecting roads of North Waziristan had been closed for the past five days. From there, the injured were transported to hospitals in Bannu.

Some of the injured who were first taken to the District Headquarters Hospital Bannu were later shifted to Peshawar for advanced treatment. They were identified as Sabir Rahman, Zaheer, daughter of Muhammad Din, Payao Khan, Ziaur Rahman, Sharif Nawaz, Ihsanullah, Noor Khan, Arsala Khan, Shamshad Bibi and Nauharis Bibi.

Also on Monday midnight, the hujra (male guesthouse) of tribesman Asadullah in Esori village was struck by a missile. Villagers said the missile was fired from CIA-operated pilotless spy plane but there was no evidence to back the claim. There was, however, no casualty as no one was staying at the Hujra at the time of the attack.

The clashes caused acute hardships to common people as all the roads to North Waziristan remained closed for the third consecutive day Wednesday while power remained off. Agencies add: Residents of villages pounded by artillery and warplanes in fighting that has killed up to 250 people secured an army pledge to hold fire while they buried their dead Wednesday, a resident said.

While residents reported a burst of shelling before dawn Wednesday, there was no repeat of the fierce clashes that began Saturday and had sent thousands fleeing for safety. Ten residents went to the army base in Miranshah to ask for some relief, said Hafiz Muhammad Wali, a schoolteacher who led the group.

Military officials “assured us that just for today there would be no action so that the funerals of the locals could be held and the injured treated,” Wali told The Associated Press. He said he was told to announce the pause in hostilities in the nearby town of Mir Ali, where the fighting had been concentrated.

Army spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad confirmed the talks, but provided few details. “There is no ceasefire, but currently there is also nothing untoward happening either,” Arshad said.

Some 1,500 people gathered in the village of Ipi hoping to bury some 50 people, including women and children, killed in Tuesday’s airstrikes. Maulvi Gul Daraz, a cleric who led the funeral prayers, said they buried only 27 bodies in Ipi and moved the others to another village for burial there for fear of more airstrikes after helicopters appeared in the sky.

Daraz described Ipi as a ghost town whose residents had run for their lives when the bombing began. He said some of the victims were found lying in the street or in the rubble of destroyed houses and shops.

Faridullah, a resident of Mir Ali, said some 10,000 people from the area had abandoned their homes and, with the army blocking the roads, walked through the mountains to safer towns. He said 60 of his relatives were among them, but that he was staying behind along with his aging mother.

Bridge blown up

MINGORA: Some unknown miscreants blew up a bridge with a hand-grenade in Bara Banda, in the Swat district on Wednesday. There was no loss of life, however, it was feared that the water flowing from the Naek Pi Khel stream might inundate houses and shops on the bank.

Driver hurt in attack on NGO women

MANSEHRA Oct 10: A driver suffered serious injuries when armed men fired on a vehicle carrying women staff of an NGO in the Pulrah area where the self-proclaimed Amir of Lashkar Ababil, Maulana Mujid Muideen, had recently issued a decree calling for attacks on women workers and vehicles of non-governmental organisations.

Source told Dawn that the women working for the Tarraqi Foundation were going back to Mansehra from Lasain Nawab, when three masked men intercepted their vehicle and opened fire.

4 policemen injured, 11 CD shops damaged in Kohat

KOHAT, Oct 10: Four policemen were injured in an explosion in the Bilitang area and 11 CD shops were damaged in a bomb blast in a market in the Gumbat town here on Tuesday night.

An explosive device planted on a roadside near the Government High School in Bilitang was set off by remote-control when a police mobile was passing through the area.

The injured, Havaldar Bahadar Nawaz and constables Resham Gul, Rafique and Juma Khan, were taken to the district headquarters hospital. The condition of Bahadar Nawaz was serious, according to hospital sources.

The Saddar police registered a case.

The blast in the Saleem Khan CD market on the main Rawalpindi road completely destroyed three shops and partially damaged eight others. The blast took place at around 2am. The market is owned by a retired superintendent of police.

Police visited the site and collected material to ascertain which kind of bomb was used in the attack.

The Gumbat police registered a case.

Protests against attacks on CD shops

PESHAWAR, Oct 10: A demonstration was held here on Wednesday in protest against bomb attacks on CD shops.

A bomb blast had killed a man and damaged 30 shops at the Hussain market in Nishtarabad last Tuesday. Around 24 people suffered injuries.

CD shopowners, artists, filmmakers and workers urged the government to provide them with better security.

The protesters were led by CD Shops Association president Sher Dil Khan and Artists Association president Zoom Tariq Jamal. They held placards and banners inscribed with slogans against the government.

“We are not scared of the Taliban or the militants. The destruction of CDs shops is a drama staged by the provincial government and secret agencies,” Mr Khan alleged. He said the attacks were depriving thousands of people of their livelihood. The so-called Taliban, he said, were being used by secret agencies to carry out terrorism.

He complained that despite repeated requests to the provincial government and police, adequate security had not been provided to them.

“We have imposed Rs5,000 fine on the sale of ‘vulgar CDs’ in Nishtarabad and made demands to arrest the culprits involved in Tuesday’s blast.” He said the incident had inflicted million of rupees of losses on them.

He said the stocks owned by 150 shopkeepers of the market for Eid had been burnt in the powerful explosion. He demanded compensation and immediate arrest of people involved in the blast.

“We had been getting threats for the past few months, asking us to quit the alleged ‘un-Islamic’ business or face the music. Police were informed about the threats but even then no security was provided,” he said.

Battle against terrorism in Fata is lost, US Congress told

WASHINGTON, Oct 10: The US pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to do more in the war against terror has been counter-productive and the battle against extremists in the tribal areas has been lost, a key congressional panel was told on Wednesday.

Witnesses appearing before the House Armed Services Committee also noted that the United States has been publicly involved in arranging a power-sharing deal in Pakistan, which may hurt its image if the arrangement fails.

“I’m concerned that our policy toward Pakistan has not been as comprehensive as it should be,” said the committee’s chairman, Congressman Ike Skelton. “We may be unprepared to handle the repercussions if events in Pakistan continue to move as rapidly as they have in recent years.”

The powerful committee, which oversees US military policies, invited a host of witnesses to speak on “security challenges involving Pakistan and policy implications for the US Department of Defence.”

“We’ve put additional pressure on President Musharraf,” Dr Marvin Weinbaum of Washington’s Middle East institute told the committee. “Let me suggest, however, that increasingly this pressure has been counter-productive.”

He said that the actions President Musharraf took under pressure had not only fallen short “but have had the double-barrelled effect of intensifying opposition within the frontier region and also eroding his political support in the country.”

Mr Weinbaum, a veteran South Asian scholar who has authored several books on Pakistan, warned: “Most of us who look at Pakistan believe at this point in time (believe) that Pakistan has in the northwest frontier area lost the battle against extremism and terrorism.

“And the consequences … are quite considerable for the United States, for our success in dealing with the insurgency in Afghanistan, stabilizing that country, and of course uprooting the Al Qaeda network and the spread of Islamic extremism in Pakistan,” he said.

“And … the consequences … for Pakistan, its stability, its integrity are really tied up with what happens in that tribal region.”

Congressman Duncan Hunter, the ranking Republican member of the committee, however, noted that Pakistan is committed to the war against terror, has deployed nearly 100,000 troops in the tribal belt, some of them coming off the Indian border, and hundreds of Pakistani troops also have died while fighting the terrorists.

But “there’s been information that I’ve seen to the effect that most of that corps resides in garrison and is not undertaking what one might call aggressive operations,” he added.