Bahrain police fire tear gas at protesters

Protests break out on World Labour Day as opposition calls for release of prisoners awaiting new trials.

Riot police firing tear gas and stun grenades routed protesters in Bahrain's capital as the government came under mounting international pressure to release jailed leaders of last year's uprising. An appeals court decision on Monday to grant a retrial to 21 opposition figures was not enough to defuse resurgent unrest among the Gulf Arab state's majority Shia Muslims, and street rallies resumed on Tuesday. A heavy riot police presence cut short a demonstration in the market area of Manama as tear gas and stun grenades were unleashed at several dozen who chanted anti-government slogans to mark World Labour Day.

Several thousand protesters and suspected supporters were sacked or suspended from work last year during a crackdown on the uprising and some say they have not got their jobs back. The cassation court, the highest judicial body in the Gulf Arab state, on Monday shifted the case of 21 men who were convicted in a military court to a civilian court and freed one, lesser-known prisoner. Seven of the 21 are abroad or in hiding. But the court ruled the men would remain in jail, including Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on a hunger strike for three months. Khawaja's wife Khadija al-Musawi said that Monday's court decision does not change her husband's demand for an immediate release - which has become a centerpiece of anti-government protests in recent weeks. 'His condition to stop the hunger strike is to be free,'' said al-Musawi. 'If not, then the option is to die, and his death will be his freedom.' Government promises In response, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, adviser to the government's Information Affairs Authority, said: "We have full faith in the independent judiciary system in Bahrain and will wait to see these appeals take place. We are confident the outcome will be just." He said the defendants faced serious criminal charges that went beyond the exercise of basic human rights. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights agency, told a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that it had urged Bahraini authorities to bring about the release of Khawaja. "There is no reason for him to be held incommunicado and he should be given immediate access to his family, to the Danish ambassador...and to a doctor and a lawyer of his own choosing." Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based as a bulwark against Iran across the Gulf, remains in turmoil over a year after Shia-led protests first erupted, inspired by uprisings against autocratic regimes in Egypt and Tunisia. Opposition parties stage big rallies every week and clashes between riot police and youth protesters break out nightly in Shia neighbourhoods around the island country, whose government is dominated by the Sunni al-Khalifa family. The unrest has cracked the stability of Bahrain and spurred Saudi calls for a union of oil-exporting Gulf Arab monarchies to help counter Iranian influence and neutralise protest movements. Opposition leaders said the protest campaign would continue until all prisoners were released and political and human rights reforms enacted.

Obama signs agreement for US-Afghan partnership

President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai (HAH'-mihd KAHR'-zeye) have signed an agreement aimed at cementing a lasting U.S. commitment to Afghanistan after the long and unpopular war comes to an end. Obama says the costs of the Afghan war have been great. He says the deal with Afghanistan allows the U.S. to wind down the war, but still stand by Afghanistan and its people. The president says the deal will also pave the way for "a future of peace." Karzai says postwar agreement will seal an "equal partnership" between Afghanistan and the United States. Obama and Karzai signed the agreement at the presidential palace in Kabul shortly after the U.S. president arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday, slipping into the country under the cover of darkness.

Occupy Wall Street's May Day protests begin in New York with focus on banking giants

Dozens of Occupy Wall Street activists spread out to protest at banks and other New York City businesses today to mark International Workers Day, or May Day. Protesters gathered at Bryant Park in Manhattan and prepared to march to financial institutions including Chase, Citibank and Bank of America. Police in riot gear lined the front of Bank of America on West 42nd Street, facing several dozen Occupy activists marching behind police barricades. "Bank of America, bad for America!" they chanted. Julian Kliner, 22, said their main issue with the banking giant is "how many people the Bank of America foreclosed as a result of predatory lending." He said the bank also financed projects that were environmentally questionable. Another group picketed outside New York University to protest the university's expansion plans in Greenwich Village. Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, where the Occupy movement began last fall, was empty Tuesday morning except for a few police officers. Nearby Wall Street was heavily barricaded as office workers stream by on their way to work. Occupy activists had said they planned to bring business to a standstill on May Day, but the crowds protesting in the rain Tuesday morning were modest. The Occupy movement in New York has relied on demonstrations and marches around the city since Nov. 15, when police ousted hundreds of protesters from their base in Zuccotti Park, where they had camped since Sept. 17. Paul Browne, the police department's chief spokesman, said recently that the department was "experienced at accommodating lawful protests and responding appropriately to anyone who engages in unlawful activity, and we're prepared to do both."

Obama, Under Veil of Secrecy, Visits Kabul to Seal Agreement

President Obama landed here Tuesday, on a surprise visit, to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan meant to mark the beginning of the end of a war that has lasted for more than a decade. Mr. Obama, arriving after nightfall under a veil of secrecy at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, flew by helicopter to the presidential palace, where he was to meet President Hamid Karzai before both leaders signed the pact. It is intended to be a road map for two nations lashed together by more than a decade of war and groping for a new relationship after the departure of American troops, scheduled for the end of 2014. Mr. Obama was scheduled to address the American people from Afghanistan on Tuesday evening, which would be the middle of the night in Afghanistan. The address – on the first anniversary of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan – will give Mr. Obama a new opportunity to make an election-year case that he has wound down two expensive and now unpopular wars, here and in Iraq. The agreement with Kabul, completed after months of fraught negotiations, pledges American aid for Afghanistan for 10 years after the withdrawal of the last American soldiers. More symbolic than substantive, it nevertheless marks a transition for the United States, from the largest foreign military force in Afghanistan to a staunch, if faraway and complicated, ally. The agreement and Mr. Obama’s decision to travel to Kabul to sign it are also meant to reassure Afghans that the United States will not abandon them once the soldiers leave, White House aides said. The Karzai government faces a continuing insurgency from the Taliban and the meddling of neighbors like Pakistan and Iran, as well as problems of the government’s own making, like corruption. The relationship between Afghanistan and the United States has been particularly turbulent in recent months. A United States Army staff sergeant is accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians in March, and a group of American troops mistakenly burned Korans in February. In April, Taliban suicide bombers conducted synchronized attacks around the country, raising new questions about what Afghanistan will look like after American troops leave. After he and Mr. Karzai sign the agreement and make brief statements, the president is to fly back to Bagram, where he will greet troops before delivering a 10-minute address to the nation on Afghanistan, his first in more than a year. As on two previous visits, he will spend only a few hours on the ground. Still, the visit is laden with political significance, coming as it does in the thick of an election season at home, just four days before two big campaign rallies that will serve as the symbolic kickoff of Mr. Obama’s re-election bid. Mr. Obama’s campaign has recently emphasized his decision to order the raid that killed Bin Laden, who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks from an Afghan sanctuary and drew the United States into war. With Bin Laden dead, along with much of his Qaeda high command, Mr. Obama has moved with increasing dispatch to wind down American military involvement here. With polls showing a large majority of Americans weary with the war, the president’s aides have debated whether to accelerate current plans, which call for withdrawing 22,000 troops – the balance of the “troop surge” – by September. It remains unclear whether the United States plans to make changes. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has criticized the president for publicly announcing a date for withdrawal, saying that would allow the Taliban to simply wait out the United States. Mr. Romney has said he would make a decision on when to pull out troops based on the judgment of his generals, though at other times, he has endorsed bringing them home as soon as possible. With heavy coverage of the Bin Laden anniversary, Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama have also sparred over how to interpret the raid. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has questioned whether Mr. Romney would have made the same decision, while Mr. Romney replied that “even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.” For Mr. Obama, the visit is a chance to meet again with Mr. Karzai, who has had a star-crossed relationship with the United States. On a stop here in March 2010, the president delivered pointed criticism of Mr. Karzai for the rampant graft in the Afghan government. Ten months later, Mr. Obama made a return trip, only to be grounded at Bagram by swirling winds and dust clouds. He was forced to speak to Mr. Karzai by phone, even though the two men were only 35 miles apart. Though Mr. Karzai has signed off on the partnership agreement, he has frequently expressed frustration with the American presence here, bitterly criticizing the United States on issues like night raids conducted by Special Operations troops, for example. Hammering out a protocol on the conduct of night raids was one of the issues that opened the door to completing the broader agreement. The pact addresses a broad range of issues, from security to social and economic development. But it does not contain specific dollar commitments by the United States, which had led some critics to dismiss it as less a blueprint than a symbolic gesture. Signing the partnership agreement sets the stage for a NATO meeting in Chicago next month, at which the United States will try to persuade other NATO members to contribute money to Afghanistan’s future. That could prove tricky, since several of the countries are wrestling with their own fiscal woes. At a White House meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan on Monday, Mr. Obama praised Japan for being the largest financial donor to Afghanistan, after the United States. Japan, he noted, will hold a donors’ conference on Afghanistan after the NATO meeting, focusing on economic development. Even with the withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014, the United States is likely to spend more than $2 billion a year to help Afghanistan with its security. Any civilian aid would come on top of that. Mr. Obama’s trip occurred on the same day that the Pentagon released a report on Afghanistan showing a decline in attacks initiated by the enemy but still “long-term and acute challenges” because of insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan and what it called “widespread corruption” in the government in Kabul. The report, a twice-annual review required by Congress, cited improvements in the capabilities of the Afghan army and police, which now number nearly 345,000. But despite the relative good news – the report said that enemy-initiated attacks were down 16 percent from a year ago – the review said the insurgency still had the ability to plant large numbers of homemade bombs, stage high-profile attacks, regenerate itself and adapt under pressure. “The insurgency continues to exert its influence in Afghanistan through alternate methods, including kidnappings, intimidation tactics and robust assassination efforts, as well as messaging at mosques and leveraging the network of familial, tribal and ideological sympathizers to exert their influence in areas controlled" by the Afghan security forces, the report said. Over the long term, the report warned, “the Taliban retains its goal of overthrowing the elected Afghan following the withdrawal of international forces." For the White House, keeping a wrap on Mr. Obama’s travels posed customary hurdles, especially because the trip came on a weekday, when a president typically has a full schedule. He kept a normal schedule on Monday, speaking to a construction workers’ union in the morning and playing host to Mr. Noda at lunch. In the afternoon, he and Mr. Noda took part in a news conference in the East Room, where the president got a question on whether he was politicizing the Bin Laden raid. Later in the evening, Mr. Obama slipped out of the White House and traveled to Joint Base Andrews, where he and a small circle of aides boarded Air Force One, which took off in secret after 11 p.m. A small group of reporters, including one from The New York Times, were allowed to accompany the president, after they agreed not to report on his whereabouts until his helicopter landed in Kabul.

MAY 1ST 2012

Occupy May Day protests begin around the globe; protest turns violent in San Francisco

Hundreds of protesters gathered in New York and other cities around the world Tuesday for a day of marches, strikes and teach-ins for what the Occupy movement has called a “general strike” for economic justice. May Day protests have been launched for some 125 cities in U.S., Europe and Australia, on a day labor unions have typically celebrates as International Workers Day. This year, the Occupy Wall Street movement has called for May 1 to be “A Day Without the 99 Percent” and urged students to skip school and employees not to go to work to show their support for the movement. Already an estimated 4,000 workers have marched through downtown Athens to protest the austerity measures in that country. In the U.S., New York labor unions, immigrant groups are expected to participate in a large-scale march from Union Square to Wall Street later in the day, and Occupy D.C. protesters are set to march from Meridian Hill Park to the White House Tuesday evening. In San Francisco, the protests took a violent turn, when some Occupy protesters broke windows and spray-painted police cars in the Mission District Sunday night, according to news reports. Organizers said a plan to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge has been scrapped. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that law enforcement is ready to manage what is expected to be a day of wide-ranging demonstrations throughout the city, including possible bridge and tunnel blockades, dozens of smaller pickets and a “pop-up” occupation of Bryant Park across the street from the headquarters of Bank of America. Occupiers say Tuesday will start of their spring resurgence, after the cold weather lull following the eviction of dozens of Occupy camps across the country in the late fall and winter. It is the first of what they hope will be several high-profile protests throughout the month of May, including events organized for the G8 Summit May 18-19 at Camp David and the NATO summit in Chicago May 20-21. “A lot of people thought we weren’t doing much because we’ve been working on this for months, since January,” said Jackie DiSalvo, an English professor who is an organizer for Occupy Wall Street. “This is our coming out. We’re calling it our spring awakening.” Locally, members of Occupy D.C. plan a festival and rally at Meridian Hill Park beginning at 3:30 p.m., followed by a 6:30 march from the park to the White House. Marchers are set to head down 14th Street to New York Avenue to the White House. A D.C. police spokesman said they have no plans to shut down lanes of traffic to accommodate them.

May 1st: Labor Day and Pakistan

http://www.newspakistan.pk

One more Labor Day is being observed today across the world to give credit and to pay tribute to laborers. Through casting a glance at history, it becomes clear that in the 19th century, particularly during its last decade, various social movements emerged like a storm against the oppressors for getting due rights. However, there is not much change I look in the present scenario. I know many people who work as a manual laborer just for a small amount and they aren’t any weekly off days. If anyone gets sick or is unable to come to work for some reasons, he cannot imagine getting paid this day. Indeed, he would end up spending money on a visit to doctor just so he can get back to his life of servitude. One can only describe those working hours as restless, endless and stressful. Sometimes, it would be so hard when one is forced to compare himself to an animal and struggle to find a single difference. Ironically, this is not a story from the ancient times; rather, it is an account of my personal experiences. If we look at the larger perspective, this picture is the same, on the streets, in the marketplaces, and in the fields of this country. The structure does its best to squash poor laborers and workers. For last 64 years, millions of people in Pakistan including women and children have been victimized by a few influential hands, particularly the landlords, for their daily bread. A vast majority of laborers and daily-wage workers remain outside the domain of labour laws, which means that workers have no paid holidays, no job security, no medical coverage, no pension or provident fund, no limit on the work hours and are paid no overtime. One might as well just refer to them as bonded labour. According to the constitution of Pakistan, bonded labour is a severe crime, but no one cares about implementing laws that could protect workers and laborers. Every year on May 1, people across the globe, including Pakistan celebrate Labor Day as a public holiday. A few arrange get-togethers to enjoy the much needed holiday while others spend it either watching TV, playing games or sleeping in their beds all day. The idea is to gain as much from this day as one can – for oneself. But, what no one does is think about what this day truly stands for. I ask now: have any of us done anything to understand the problems of laborers on Labor Day?

Putin joins mass Soviet-style May Day march

Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin on Tuesday joined over 150,000 people in a Soviet-style march through Moscow to celebrate labour day and show off public support ahead of his inauguration.

Accompanied by kitsch brass music and surrounded by multi-coloured balloons, Putin and outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev led the most extensive May Day march in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Police said around 150,000 people took part in the "Holiday of Labour and Spring" march in Moscow, by coincidence similar to the numbers said by the opposition to have shown up at anti-Putin demonstrations over the last months. The authorities appear keen to revive worker celebrations and make May Day a centrepiece of the year as Putin seeks to hold onto popular support as he heads back to the Kremlin in defiance of the anti-government protests. Marchers unfurled huge banners proclaiming the names of their factories and unions as bands played rousing music that could have been taken from the score of a Soviet film. "The Union of Machine Builders! Hurray!" declaimed the announcer as another workers group filed past the town hall on Moscow's Tverskaya Avenue. In an event that struck a chord with those nostalgic for the mass parades projecting Russian power in Soviet years, the crowds packed the avenue from the Kremlin to its end as far as the eye could see. Wearing a suit without a tie under the bright spring skies, Putin led the march next to a white overcoat-clad Medvedev and surrounded by supportive banners like "Workers for Medvedev and Putin!". It was the first time for years that Russia's rulers had joined the May Day rally, a key day in the calendar in the Communist Soviet Union. The last such appearance is believed to have been by Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. In a highly unusual joint public appearance on the streets of Moscow, Putin and Medvedev mingled with some of the marchers. "How are you doing?" asked Medvedev. "Great!" chorused the workers. "Let's do this every year, let's make it a tradition!" one participant suggested to Russia's top two, while others asked about burning issues like how they stayed in such good form and if they read horoscopes. In another move to gladden Soviet nostalgia fans, the pair then popped in with their entourage to the Zhiguli bar in central Moscow, a venue renowned back in Soviet times as a place for cheap beer and less-than-sober chatter. Sat on benches around a table laden with Russian delicacies like dried salted fish, they clanked mugs of beer and tucked into a meal, television pictures showed. A march organised by the Communist Party -- still the largest official opposition to ruling party United Russia -- paled in comparison and attracted 3,500 people, police said. Putin is due to be inaugurated as president in a May 7 ceremony after his March 4 election victory which the opposition claims was de-legitimised by fraud. He is returning to the Kremlin job he held from 2000-2008 after a four year stint as prime minister while the post of head of state was occupied by Medvedev, who was widely ridiculed as a seat-warmer. Putin appears to be counting on the working-class as the bedrock of his support as he heads into his six year term with Russia's burgeoning white collar middle class increasingly critical of his rule. The anti-Putin opposition decided against holding a rally in Moscow on May 1 and instead are saving their forces for a so-called "march of millions" on May 6 which they hope will attract over 100,000 people to challenge the strongman.

Workers demand pay hikes at Asia's May Day marches

May Day moved beyond its roots as an international workers' holiday to a day of international protest Tuesday, with rallies throughout Asia demanding wage increases and marches planned across Europe over government-imposed austerity measures. Europeans will take to the streets to protest against the measures that are being blamed for a big increase in the number of unemployed, particularly in Spain where one in four people is out of work. In the United States, demonstrations, strikes and acts of civil disobedience are planned, including what could be the country's most visible Occupy rallies since the anti-Wall Street encampments came down in the fall.In Asia, thousands of May Day protesters in the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan demanded hikes in pay that they say has not kept up with rising consumer prices, while also calling for lower school fees and expressing a variety of other gripes. In Moscow, around 100,000 people - including President Dmitry Medvedev and president-elect Vladimir Putin - took part in the main march through the city center. Television images showed the two leaders happily chatting with participants on the clear-and-cool spring day. Many banners and placards criticized the opposition movement that has become more prominent in Moscow over the past half-year. One read "spring has come, the swamp has dried up," referring to Bolotnaya (Swampy) Square, the site of some of the largest opposition demonstrations of recent months. In Asia, the push for wage increases was a common theme. "It is always the case that low-income groups across Asia feel a disproportionately larger impact of rising prices," said Wai Ho Leong, a Singapore-based economist with Barclays Capital. "Coupled with rising inflation expectations, the case is building to do more for lower income (workers). Minimum wages are one way." In the Philippine capital, Manila, about 8,000 members of a huge labor alliance, many clad in red shirts and waving red streamers, marched under a brutal sun for 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) to the heavily barricaded Mendiola bridge near the Malacanang presidential palace, which teemed with thousands of riot police, Manila police chief Alex Gutierrez said. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III rejected their calls for a $3 daily pay hike, which he warned could worsen inflation, spark layoffs and turn away foreign investors. Aside from pay hikes, protest leader Josua Mata from the Alliance of Progressive Labor urged Aquino to back proposed legislation against the widespread practices by businesses of contracting out certain operations to other companies to save on costs and preventing workers from organizing trade unions. In Taiwan, several thousand anti-government protesters marched through downtown Taipei, demanding higher wages, lower school tuition and better conditions for foreign workers. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, some 500 people rallied, calling for a higher minimum wage than the one announced Monday by Prime Minister Najib Razak. Najib's plan for the country's first-ever minimum wage calls for minimum monthly pay of 900 ringgit ($297) for private-sector workers in peninsula Malaysia and 800 ringgit ($264) in two poor eastern states. The move is expected to benefit 3.2 million low-income workers, who account for about a third of the country's workforce. The protesters marched from a market to the headquarters of Maybank, the nation's largest bank, calling for a minimum monthly wage of 1,500 ringgit ($496) a month. In Hong Kong, more than 1,000 joined a protest march to demand that the city's minimum wage, which was introduced exactly a year ago, be raised to 33 Hong Kong dollars ($4.25) per hour from HK$28 ($3.60), according to local broadcaster RTHK. They also want the government of the southern Chinese financial hub to implement a 44-hour work week. In nearby Macau, about 500 people marched for workers' rights and full democracy in the legislature, the broadcaster said.

Europe Workers Denounce Austerity on May Day

Banging drums and waving flags, tens of thousands of workers marked May Day in European cities Tuesday with a mix of anger and gloom over austerity measures imposed by leaders trying to contain the eurozone’s intractable debt crisis.

Taking the baton from Asia, where unions demanded wage increases as they transformed the day from one celebrating workers rights to one of international protest, workers turned out in droves in Greece, France and Spain, the latest focus of a debt nightmare that has already forced three eurozone countries to seek financial bailouts. Under a gray, threatening Madrid sky that reflected the national mood, 25-year Adriana Jaime confided she turned out because she speaks three foreign languages and has a masters degree as a translator, but works for what she derided as peanuts and sees her future as grim at best. “I am here because there is no future for the young people of this country,” she said as marchers walked up the city’s main north-south boulevard, protesting health care and education spending cuts and other austerity measures taken by the new conservative government. Many carried black and white placards, with the word NO and a pair of red scissors pictured inside the O. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is trying desperately to cut a bloated deficit, restore investor confidence in Spain’s public finances, lower the 24.4 jobless rate, and fend off fears it will join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout. Ana Lopez, a 44-year-old civil servant, said May Day is sacred for her but this year in particular, arguing the government is doing nothing to help workers and that the economic crisis is benefiting banks. “Money does not just disappear. It does not fly away. It just changes hands, and now it is with the banks,” Lopez said. “And the politicians are puppets of the banks.” In France, tens of thousands of workers, leftists and union leaders were marking May Day with marches and rallies, in an optimistic mood ahead of presidential elections Sunday that a Socialist is expected to win for the first time since 1988. Anger has emerged during the campaign at austerity measures pushed by European Union leaders and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. Many voters fear Sarkozy will erode France’s welfare and worker protections, and see him as too friendly with the rich. Challenger and poll favorite Francois Hollande has promised high taxes on the rich. In debt-crippled Greece, more than 2,000 people marched through central Athens in subdued May Day protests centered on the country’s harsh austerity. Minor scuffles broke out in Athens when young men targeted political party stands, destroying two and partially burning another. There were no injuries. In the United States, demonstrations, strikes and acts of civil disobedience were planned, including what could be the country’s most high-profile Occupy rallies since the anti-Wall Street encampments came down in the fall. Around 100,000 people in Moscow — including President Dmitry Medvedev and President-elect Vladimir Putin — took part in the main May Day march through the city center — though not to protest the government. Television images showed the two leaders happily chatting with participants on the clear-and-cool spring day. Many banners and placards criticized the Russian opposition movement that has become more prominent in Moscow over the past half-year. One read “spring has come, the swamp has dried up,” referring to Bolotnaya (Swampy) Square, the site of some of the largest opposition demonstrations in recent months. Earlier, thousands of workers protested in the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and other Asian nations, with demands for wage hikes amid soaring oil prices a common theme. They said their take-home pay could not keep up with rising consumer prices, while also calling for lower school fees and expressing a variety of other complaints. In the Philippine capital, Manila, more than 8,000 members of a huge labor alliance, many clad in red shirts and waving red streamers, marched under a brutal sun for 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) to a heavily barricaded bridge near the Malacanang presidential palace, which teemed with thousands of riot police, Manila police chief Alex Gutierrez said. Another group of left-wing workers later burned a huge effigy of President Benigno Aquino III, depicting him as a lackey of the United States and big business. A few hundred workers marched to the U.S. Embassy, but were stopped by riot police about a block away. The protesters burned a mock U.S. flag and went away. Aquino rejected their calls for a $3 daily pay hike, which he warned could worsen inflation, spark layoffs and turn away foreign investors. Aside from pay hikes, protest leader Josua Mata from the Alliance of Progressive Labor urged Aquino to back proposed legislation against the widespread practices by businesses of contracting out some operations to other companies to save on costs and prevent workers from organizing trade unions. In Indonesia, thousands of protesters demanding higher wages paraded through traffic-clogged streets in the capital, Jakarta, where 16,000 police and soldiers were deployed at locations including the presidential palace and airports. There were also protests in Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Read more: http://business.time.com/2012/05/01/europe-workers-denounce-austerity-on-may-day/#ixzz1td7w1jYC

Bahraini demonstrators demand reinstatement of fired workers

Thousands of Bahraini protesters have held demonstrations across the country to demand the reinstatement of the workers fired by the Manama regime.

The demonstrations were held in the capital, Manama, and several other towns and villages including the northern village of Muqsha, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) west of the capital, on Tuesday, May 1. May 1 is known as Labor Day in Bahrain and is considered a public holiday. The day is also marked as a national holiday in more than 80 other countries. The Manama regime has dismissed thousands of workers for taking part in anti-government demonstrations since the beginning of the popular uprising in Bahrain in February 2011. Over the past months, fired Bahraini workers have several times held demonstrations outside the ministry of labor in Manama to demand their jobs back. Meanwhile, the protesters on Tuesday also condemned the regime’s ongoing violent crackdown on peaceful protests. Bahraini activists say nine people have been killed by regime forces across the country since March 17, 2012. Anti-regime demonstrators hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the death of the protesters during the popular uprising in the country.

Another Olympics Sans Saudi Women?

http://ipsnews.net

While athletes around the world enter their final stages of training for the 30th Olympic Games in London this July, Saudi Arabia stands alone as the only country that has banned females from participating. Qatar and Brunei, who previously banned women from the international event for cultural and religious reasons, will send female athletes for the first time. But Saudi Arabia has never nominated a woman to participate in the Olympic Games, a ban that stems from strict government policy denying women and girls’ right to practice sports, with conservative religious clerics fearing that it could lead them on a "path of immorality". A Human Rights Watch report released in February, called on Saudi Arabia to protect women's equal right to sports and urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to live up to its charter, which prohibits discrimination, or face a ban similar to that imposed on Afghanistan in 1999 partly for its exclusion of female athletes. Christoph Wilcke, author of ‘Steps Of The Devil’ and senior Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said it was time for the IOC to act on its membership rules. "Saudi Arabia is violating the rules but the question is whether a ban will help or make things worse," Wilcke, who is based in Munich, told IPS. "The jury is out on that. I think two months before the start of the games would be the ideal time for the IOC to enforce their rules. Saudi Arabia clearly wants to participate by sending a male-only team. But their violations of the rules are coming at no price at all." Prince Nawwaf bin Faisal, Saudi Olympic Committee president, announced last November that only a men's team would participate at Games. He did not rule out the possibility of women competing but said it would only be by invitation from outside bodies. He added that woman would have to be in the appropriate dress according to Islamic precepts, be in the presence of a male guardian and perform sport so that no part of her was visible, thereby not violating Islamic sharia law. Religious and cultural rights Women have the opportunity to play sports in all Muslim and Arab countries with support from their governments and national sporting authorities – except in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi National Olympic Committee and the country's 29 national sports federations offer no women's sections or competitions for aspiring female athletes. Wilcke said the women who propagate the right to practice sport had the better argument in terms of religion. "There's no religious ban on women playing sport at all; what the opponents argue is a traditional, male dominated, patriarchal view, that women should remain at home and not go out." The Saudi government only offers physical education classes at state schools for boys, and men's gyms receive licences confining women's facilities to health clubs that are usually attached to hospitals. Of the 153 government-regulated sports clubs, none has a women's team. Anthony Billingsley, international studies and Middle East lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, told IPS that even if Saudi Arabia lifted their ban to allow women to compete, it would take years to produce an international-level female athlete. "If you want to be a runner in Saudi Arabia, you have to do it indoors in a place that's associated with a hospital or something," according to Billingsley, who has spent many years living and working in the Middle East. "There's no real opportunity for women to get out and really exercise and compete against others, just running or riding by yourself isn't going to help. Time isn't the problem, the problem is that they don't have the opportunity to prepare, to learn or refine their skills." An ABC Radio journalist and lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne said Saudi Arabia's ban on female participation in sport reflected the strict interpretation of Islam practiced with a theological perspective that men and women should not mix. "I guess that's the perspective of the quite conservative and very traditional form of Islam that Saudi operates on," Nasya Bahfen told IPS. "To them, having women on the field, running around, being looked at by men is tantamount to being blasphemous and completely un-Islamic. Whereas in other countries like Iran,they let women play but don’t allow them to watch (football games) or (appear) on a football field. Iran on the sporting field is not that bad compared with Saudi in terms of segregation." Are sports a priority? Discrimination against women and girls in sport is one of many violations against women's rights in Saudi Arabia. Women are banned from driving and under the state system of male guardianship, Saudi women of all ages need a male guardian's consent to receive certain health care, to work, to study or to marry. "Saudi Arabia is on its slow crawl towards modernity where they will look at women's rights (first in terms of) driving and other basic (priorities) and then move on to professional sport," Bahfen said. "Education is one field where Saudi women have some measure of equality. But (even) then they get pushed into quite traditional jobs. There's obviously a pressing need for female doctors, female nurses and female teachers, but there's very little encouragement for women to pursue non-traditional employment." Billingsley added that changing women’s status would require a huge generational and educational step. Wilcke said it would come down to a change in government policy for women to have basic rights and a degree of political power. "We know that you can't dismantle a system of discrimination within three months," Wilcke said, referring to the slim possibility of change before the Olympic Games in July. "But we want to see good faith and immediate efforts on this issue and we have suggested announcing a date for when physical education is introduced for girls in state schools and then laying out a timeline to open up a women’s section in government-regulated sports clubs (and) national sporting federations." "These are fairly simple steps that (lay) the infrastructural groundwork for women to start practicing sports before we get Olympic-quality athletes," he concluded.

Afghan leaders should raise their game

Just after news broke that U.S. special forces had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the top EU diplomat in neighbouring Afghanistan received a flood of emails from jubilant Afghans.

The death of the al Qaeda leader a year ago raised hopes in Kabul, Brussels, Washington and elsewhere that a devastating blow had been dealt to Islamist militancy in one of the most unstable regions in the world. On the eve of the first anniversary of Bin Laden's killing, Vygaudas Usackas, the European Union's ambassador to Kabul, reflected on how that optimism had faded. The Afghan Taliban, whom Washington accused of sheltering bin Laden before U.S. troops helped Afghan forces remove the group from power, have suspended reconciliation talks with the United States. And discussions with the Afghan government are limited. "Immediately I got dozens, if not hundreds, of emails from different ordinary Afghans in a very celebratory mood, expressing their satisfaction that it may provide a game-changer in terms of the future reconciliation," Usackas told Reuters in an interview.

"Unfortunately, as we all know, the peace process is not as easy as one may have expected a year ago after bin Laden's death. That will require long-term commitment from both sides." Two years into his posting, lack of commitment in Afghanistan seems to be the most troubling issue for Usackas. Western nations have poured billions of dollars into aid and reconstruction yet, he says, President Hamid Karzai's administration has not kept up its end of the bargain -- to improve governance and transparency. While the European Union has no intention of abandoning Afghanistan after most foreign troops withdraw in 2014, some countries will have to justify further heavy spending. Taxpayers squeezed by hard economic times may ask tougher questions if there are no tangible signs of improvement, said Usackas, a former Lithuanian diplomat. SHARING THE BLAME "President Karzai personally, and the political establishment of Afghanistan, are fully aware that the future development aid for the country will certainly be influenced by greater and genuine steps to improve governance, dealing with corruption and moving towards elections which will be credible for Afghan people," he said. The international community must shoulder a large part of the blame for failing to ensure proper accountability and oversight of aid spending, Usackas acknowledged. The end result is economic and political stability are elusive despite the presence of 130,000 NATO-led foreign troops and over $57 billion (35 billion pounds) already spent in aid. Karzai's unpopular government remains fragile, struggling to deliver basic services to most of the 30 million population outside major cities -- support that is vital to preventing Afghans from joining militant groups. And with Karzai considering bringing 2014 presidential elections forward by a year to avoid overloading the country with security challenges as most foreign combat troops exit, the world should not expect a perfect election process, Usackas said. "There will still be shortfalls," he said. "But it's important that they are being organised in a way that people would perceive them in Afghanistan as credible." Karzai is barred by Afghanistan's constitution from seeking a third five-year term, although Kabul is rife with rumour that he could seek to extend his term through political manoeuvring, or look to install an ally and rule by proxy. Usackas said that while it was up to Afghans to decide on the timing of the vote, any hint of political manipulation could demolish already shaky voter confidence in the government. "I think it's very important that 2014 produces a peaceful transfer of power in a way which is organised in more inclusive, transparent and credible free and fair elections," said Usackas in the garden of his Kabul residence. With NATO leaders gathering in Chicago in late May for a meeting on future backing for the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces, expected to cost around $4.1 billion a year to sustain, Usackas said the gravest error the world could make would be to turn its back on Kabul after 2014. "I'm afraid this country may turn not only to internal war, but also a source of regional conflict," he said. Afghanistan's stability may ultimately hinge on policy decisions in Pakistan, which critics accuse of backing insurgent groups fighting NATO and Afghan forces. Islamabad denies the allegations. Usackas said Pakistan seemed genuinely interested in helping bring peace to Afghanistan, and he said there were signs other regional powers would work for stability. But the same militant groups that bin Laden inspired are still dug in along Pakistan's porous border with Afghanistan, and pose a major security threat to both countries. Afghanistan's government doesn't seem to grasp the magnitude of major challenges just two years ahead of the pullout, said Usackas, admitting it keeps him awake at night sometimes. "The Afghans have to be in the driving seat...," he said. "Probably we made them complacent."

Amateur astronomers take stargazing to Kabul

A campaign is being launched to take astronomy to schools, orphanages and refugee camps throughout Afghanistan. Amateur astronomers, government officials and science communicators are behind the project, which will dole out star-gazing kits first around Kabul. The Reach for the Stars project will establish the country's first astronomy curriculum for young children. Drawing on the rich heritage of astronomy under Islam, the campaign hopes to expand to other countries too. "During the so called 'dark ages' in Europe, Islamic civilisation championed both astronomy and physics, shaping our modern science," said Christopher Phillips, who is leading the project. "In more recent times this has been suppressed; it was taught that the skies were the realm of Allah, and astronomical study and investigation were un-Islamic and forbidden. "Now we want to help Afghan children regain ownership of their astronomical heritage and take advantage of its educational opportunities." Kit form The joint initiative of the international organisation Astronomers Without Borders and the Afghanistan Astronomy Association, with support from Afghanistan's Ministry of Education, will send astronomy kits to schools, orphanages and refugee camps around Kabul.The kits will include The Little Book of Stars, a specially written introductory text for young Afghan children. It will cover astronomical topics from A-Z accompanied by cartoon illustrations, in English and Pashto, the language spoken by Afghanistan's largest ethnic group. As many schools lack even the most basic classroom materials, the kits will also include pencils, pens and paper. Solar viewing glasses, star charts and simple astronomy learning exercises will teach children the movements of the Sun and planets. "The kits are designed to familiarise children with the Universe on a basic level," said Mr Phillips. "They're a guide to our own stellar backyard." The book and the kits will be designed to avoid cultural controversies - for example, avoiding picturing boys and girls playing together. Once established around Kabul, the programme will expand to cover the rest of Afghanistan. The eventual aim is to reach other parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Rs30m drilling machinery rusts in Peshawar

Dawn.Com

Heavy drilling machinery worth millions of rupees has got rusted as it has been lying useless at the Peshawar Circle office of public health engineering department for more than a decade, according to sources. They said that the machinery costing Rs30 million was donated by foreign donors to the tubewell division, a former wing of public health engineering established in 1977, to sink tubewells in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “It includes 10 drilling machines installed on trucks, six air compressors and other tools being used in drilling,” sources said, adding there were more than 100 employees in the division including engineers, support staff and drivers. Official said that the division was established when government was drilling tubewells in rocky areas as private contractors at that time had no capacity to drill the hard soil in such areas. “In 1977, it was state of the art technology,” they added. The division was enabled to drill 1,000 feet deep well in rocky and hard areas with the help of this machinery where private contractors could sink only 100 to 200 feet deep well. “The tubewell division also set up tubewells in the camps established for Afghan refugees,” they said. With the passing of time, private contractors also got such drilling machinery and government lost interest in tube-well division as priority was given to contractors. Finally, officials said, tubewell division was abolished in 2001. They said that the machinery was shifted to Peshawar Circle office of public health engineering about 11 years ago. “No one has been deputed for looking after of the costly machinery and it has been lying in the open air,” they added. During a visit to the office, it was noticed that the machinery got rusted while tyres of the trucks were punctured and the vehicles were parked in knee-deep grass. When asked as to why the machinery was not sold after abolishment of tubewell division, the officials said that some of the high-ups of the department believed that the machinery couldn’t be sold as it was not owned by the provincial government and they had no right to sell donated items. “Our duty is to inform the high-ups about the machinery and its cost,” they said, adding it was the duty of high-ups to take decision regarding selling of the machinery. Prior to the abolishment of the tube-well division, the machines were in perfect condition, however, after lying useless for 11 years these got rusted and can be hardly used. The officials said that government should form a committee for immediate auction of the rusted machinery. Had the machinery been auctioned in 2001, it could have earn much more money for the government exchequer than the existing Rs30 millions, they said. Sikandar Khan Afridi, the superintendent engineer of public health engineering, when contacted, said that Peshawar Circle of the department had sent a proposal for the auction of the machinery about 11 years ago. However, the proposal was turned down by the high-ups of the department on the ground that the machinery was gifted by UNHCR and it couldn’t be auctioned. Mr Afridi said that one of the officials was preparing a list of the machinery and its worth to be sent to the provincial government to decide about it. “Now it is up to the government to auction or hand over it to other department like irrigation or agriculture departments,” he added.

Nawaz Sharif exposed: Malik dusts off 14-year old FIA inquiry report

the news

The latest corruption charges leveled by Interior Minister Rehman Malik against the Sharif brothers were actually part of a comprehensive investigation report compiled by Malik as the additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which he had submitted to then President Rafiq Tarar in September 1998, seeking a high level inquiry against then Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif. Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad the other day, with a pile of files lying in front of him, Malik claimed that he had in his possession all documentary evidence and that he would file a reference with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Sharif brothers next week. Asking the Supreme Court to take note of fraudulent extraction of money by the Sharifs, the interior minister said he would be pleased to appear before the apex court with all relevant documents to prove his allegations. In fact, the charges leveled by Malik are by and large rehashed account of old allegations, contained in a 100-plus page report which he had compiled before being suspended by the second Sharif government following the dismissal of the second Bhutto government in 1996. Malik, who had emerged as one of the most powerful bureaucrat during Ms Bhutto’s second tenure, was dismissed from the FIA by the Sharif government in October 1998, shortly after he sent the inquiry report in question to President Rafiq Tarar, seeking action against then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Malik wrote in a covering letter addressed to President Tarar and attached with the inquiry report: “I am submitting this report directly to you because I do not expect any action by the official hierarchy who at the moment are mostly political appointees. I have already been pressured to hand over all this record to Prime Minister’s Secretariat, where I fully well know the fate it is going to meet. I have also been warned to keep my lips tight, otherwise, my services shall be terminated and I again would be jailed in false cases. In brief, the extent of corruption and money laundering are staggering. I leave it to your absolute wisdom and judgment to determine the moral and constitutional justification of a person like Nawaz Sharif to hold the sacred office of prime ministership of an Islamic republic”. A brief summary of the investigation report compiled by Rehman Malik and submitted to President Tarar on September on 24, 1998 (copies of which were also sent to the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Ajmal Mian and the then Chief Ehtesab Commissioner Justice (retd) Ghulam Mujaddad Mirza) is being reproduced below. Although no action was taken by any of them: “Mian Nawaz Sharif during his tenure in power as Finance minister (1984-85), Chief Minister (1985-90) or as Prime Minister of Pakistan (1991-93 and 1996-1999) managed to acquire unparalleled industrial power. This unprecedented power and wealth was in fact amassed through evasion of taxes, import duties and other devious means such as kickbacks fromillegal grants, privatization of public property and money laundering. Mian Nawaz Sharif today owns huge sums of money in the form of foreign exchange and property primarily in Switzerland and the UK. He is in certain cases the sole owner or the major shareholder in the name of his son and his wife in the 30 odd industrial units of his family. His accumulation of wealth has especially been in view of the fact that at the time of Independence in 1947, the Sharif family only owned a modest mill under the name of Ittefaq Foundries. During the period 1980-90 when Nawaz Sharif was Finance Minister and later Chief Minister of Punjab, the number of industrial units owned by his family rose from one to nine. However, during his first stint (1990-93) as prime minister, the number of his industrial units rose up to 30. “According to the testimony of two Peshawar-based Hawala dealers, the Sharif family illegally sent funds abroad regularly, to be converted into foreign exchange. Between 1988 and 1991, an amount of Rs56,896 million was sent out of the country. Khalid Siraj, first cousin and business partner of Mian Nawaz Sharif has disclosed in a statement the Sharif family’s misdeeds and the transfer of funds abroad and the purchase of assets overseas. “During 1988, $7,580,000 was remitted from the Bank of Oman, Sharjah to the Bank of Oman, Lahore. Against this money, Foreign Exchange Bearer Certificates (FEBC) worth Rs145.06 million were distributed among close members of Nawaz Sharif’s family. During this period of money laundering of Rs145.06 million by his family, Sharif paid only Rs897 in income tax. The purpose of the Hawala operation was to whiten Nawaz Sharif’s black money because the source of illegal money with which one buys FEBCs cannot be investigated. The money used in converting into FEBC is termed “white”. The other purposes of the Hawala operation were to evade income and wealth taxes, as FEBCs are not treated as taxable and to earn high rates of interest on Foreign Exchange Bearer Certificates. “Mr Khaista Khan and Jamshed Khan, two well-known Hawala dealers of Peshawar, were used to siphon off large amounts of Sharif family funds through the bank accounts of the dealers maintained in Peshawar. The money was sent from Pakistan to the Bank of Oman in the UAE and elsewhere. The money was exchanged into foreign currency and repatriated in the name of the 43 Sharif family members, including Nawaz Sharif, his brother, sister, mother, etc. Having established a solid monetary foreign exchange base abroad, Nawaz Sharif then took steps to convert his bulk money into white under the facility of Economic Reforms Act 1992. To do so, he utilized the services of Javed Kayani, a nephew of Sheikh Saeed from Washington and a Director of Rai Textile Mills, Arooj Textile Mills and Chanar Sugar Mills. Sheikh Saeed is one Nawaz Sharif’s closest friends. “Research has revealed of that in August 1992, Javed Kayani, a trusted friend and front man for Mian Nawaz Sharif, opened three fake foreign currency accounts in the name of Sulman Zia, Mohammad Ramzan and Asghar Ali at Habib Bank AG Zurich, Davis Road, Lahore. Large amounts of foreign exchange from Switzerland and other sources were transferred to these three fake accounts. The bank record further reveals that then there were transfers of payments from these accounts to Sheikh Saeed. Javed Kayani opened another set of three accounts at Bank of America, Lahore in the names of Kashif Masood Qazi, Sikandra Masood Qazi and Nuzhat Gohar Qazi. The records show the transfer of large sums of money in the form of Dollar Bearer Certificates from the fake account of Sulman Zia to the account of Kashif Masood Qazi. This was used as collateral by the Sharif family for the sanction of a loan in Pak Rupees for their Hudabiya Engineering Limited. The directors of this mill are Mian Hussain Nawaz, Mrs Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif, Mian Muhammad Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif. The link between the fake account of Sulman Zia (a person who does not exist) with the Sharif family through Hudabiya Engineering is proved beyond any doubt by bank official records. “Part of the laundered money - nearly 350, 000 dollars from the fake account of Sulman Zia was then transferred by Nawaz Sharif’s family in January/February 1993 to Shamrock Consulting Corporation [registered c/o Ansbacher (BVI) Limited PO Box 659 Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands] through its account at Lloyds Bank, Stock Exchange, London. The 350,000 dollars was then transferred from Lloyds Bank to one Hans Rudolf Wegmuller, a Director of Banque Paribas en Suisse Zurich who is also a Director of Ansbacher Switzerland, a fiduciary company which acts on behalf of the Sharif family. The British Virgin Islands are a notorious haven for money laundering used by corrupt rulers of Third World countries and the Drug Barons of South America and Europe. “It has also come to light that in order to acquire property in the UK, the Sharif family utilized the services of one Mr Urs Specker, General Manager Ansbacher Switzerland. According to the records of the HM Land Registry in UK and other official documents, it was established that this individual purchased for the Sharif family four luxury flats - 16, 16a, 17 and 17a Avenfield House, London - situated in a very costly and up market area, for a total sum of $5 million, equivalent to Rs30 crore. The transaction was arranged through a firm of solicitors, namely Dibb Lupton Broomhead in 1993, 1995 and 1996. Wegmuller administers the four luxury flats, which are owned through other two offshore companies called Nielson Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, both registered in the British Virgin Islands. These two companies are controlled by Urs Specker of Ansbacher Switzerland. This circumlocutory course, per force was adopted for the sake of secrecy. “The above property was purchased with money laundered in Switzerland and the UK and ill gotten wealth earned through corrupt practices in Pakistan. All this wealth and assets were never declared by Sharif family before the Income and Customs Authorities in Pakistan. Detailed scrutiny of the documentary record has revealed that most of the money amount was siphoned off from the Pakistani Banks. Against this background, it is now easy to understand why the Sharif family has defaulted on its outstanding loans of Rs10 billion to Pakistani banks. The total loan of the Sharif family as it stood in 1983 was Rs35.30 crore while in 1985 it turned into Rs84.30 crore. In February 1989 this amount more than doubled up to Rs225.10 crore. In April 1993, the loan was piled up to a staggering amount of a Rs570.50 crore. By December 31, 1993 this sum had soared to Rs614.84 crores and touched the figure of Rs1,000 crore in 1998,” added Rehman Malik’s inquiry report. On the other hand, however, PML-N spokesman Senator Pervaiz Rashid has already rejected Rehman Malik’s allegations against the Sharif family as a ‘rotten pack of white lies’, adding that he was at liberty to take them up with a competent court to prove their authenticity. Pervaiz Rashid said that four years’ tenure of the PPP was reflective of loot and plunder committed by the ruling party. Therefore, he said, instead of leveling false allegations against the Sharif family, Rehman Malik should give account of billions of rupees looted by his party leadership. On his part, Rehman Malik is determined to file a reference with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Sharif brothers on charges of money laundering. As things stand, three corruption cases against the Sharif brothers, which were initiated by the Musharraf regime, are already pending with the accountability courts of Rawalpindi. Besides, eight investigations and two inquiries are pending with the NAB, pertaining to the alleged corruption and misuse of authority by the Sharif brothers. A senior PML-N leader rejected Rehman Malik’s claims as a pack of lies. He maintained that had there been any truth in Malik’s report it would have caught attention of Gen Pervez Musharraf who had usurped power from an elected prime minister. The leader said that the PPP has been in power for four years, and questioned why Malik did not go to press earlier as he claims that it was he who had investigated the matter and had presented the report to the then president Rafiq Tarar.

Sharifs mill got 49.5m Mehran bank loan

Geo News has received the documents of funds given to the industries of the Sharif brothers. According to the documents, Mehran Bank provided Rs49.5 million to Chaudhry Sugar Mills without any collateral. The money was deposited into account 001-10200 on April 4, 1993. The directors of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills include Shahbaz Sharif, Hussain Nawaz and Hamza Shahbaz. The documents further state that the COO of Mehran Bank, Younus Habib had directed an immediate release of these funds. It is also stated that the directives for the immediate disbursement of the funds came from the PM House. Two cheques amounting to Rs46 million were issued from Chaudhry Sugar Mills to Ittefaq Foundry on the same day. Meanwhile, PML-N senator Parvez Rasheed while speaking to Geo News said that this was a business loan and had nothing to do with politics. Rasheed added that the loan was paid back with interest that was more than two times the capital amount.

Sharifs may land in thick soup

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided in principle to revive all the corruption references pending against Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other members of their family which had been adjourned indefinitely in December 2000 after the Sharifs signed an exile deal with the Musharraf regime and left Pakistan for Saudi Arabia. According to well-informed NAB officials, of the three corruption references currently pending against Nawaz Sharif and his family members, NAB would first take up the case titled 'State Vs Hudabiya Paper Mills (Pvt) Ltd' in which nine members of the Sharif family are accused of committing money laundering to the tune of Rs642.743 million. According to the NAB findings, the Sharif family members allegedly deposited ill-gotten money in fake accounts which were opened in other persons' names and used the money from these accounts to pay off loans of the defaulting Sharif companies. Mian Muhammad Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Mian Abbas Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Mrs Shamim Akhtar (mother of Nawaz Sharif), Mrs Sabiha Abbas, Mrs Maryam Safdar (daughter of Nawaz Sharif) and the former finance minister of the Sharif cabinet, Ishaq Dar, are the main accused in the Hudabiya Paper Mills reference. As per law, the NAB will have to file an application before the accountability court for reopening of the corruption references, which is set to open a Pandora's box for the Sharif brothers, in view of a 43-page hand-written statement recorded by Senator Ishaq Dar and accusing the Sharifs of involvement in money laundering. As per the statement which Ishaq Dar had recorded before a Lahore district magistrate on April 25, 2000, the Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as cover for money laundering during the late 1990s. Dar's statement was recorded as part of the Musharraf regime's plans to file a money laundering reference against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. However, the reference was shelved after the Sharif family opted for self exile in 2000, once they came to know that their trusted Ishaq Dar has turned approver against them. Ishaq Dar's confessional statement against the Sharif brothers was reportedly recorded before a district magistrate in Lahore, after he was brought to the court from a jail by Basharat Shahzad, then serving as assistant director in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). NAB circles say Ishaq Dar's deposition is an irrevocable statement because it had been recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Ishaq Dar now happens to be high-profile PML-N leader who has always been considered close to the Sharif brothers. Senator Ishaq Dar's son, Ali Dar, is married to Nawaz Sharif's daughter, Asma Nawaz. Dar had confessed in his 43-page statement: "I opened two foreign currency accounts in the name of Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi with the foreign currency funds provided by the Sharif family in the Bank of America by signing as Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi. All instructions to the bank in the name of these two persons were signed by me under the orders of original depositors, namely Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. The foreign currency accounts of Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi were opened in Bank of America by Naeem Mehmood under my instructions (based on the directives of the Sharifs) by signing the same as Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi". According to Dar's confessional statement, besides these foreign currency accounts, a previously opened foreign currency account of Saeed Ahmed, a former director of First Hajvari Modaraba Company and close friend of Dar, and of Mussa Ghani, the nephew of Dar's wife, were also used to deposit huge foreign currency funds provided by the Sharif family to offer them as collateral to obtain different direct and indirect credit lines. Dar had further conceded that the Bank of America, Citibank, Atlas Investment Bank, Al Barka Bank and Al Towfeek Investment Bank were used under the directives of the Sharif family. Interestingly enough, Dar also implicated himself by confessing before the district magistrate that he - along with his friends Kamal Qureshi and Naeem Mehmood - had opened fake foreign currency accounts in different international banks. The News made frantic efforts to approach Ishaq Dar and after making several phone calls the brief response received from Mr Dar stated: "This is all rubbish. The Hudabiya Paper Mills case is nothing but trash. The matter is sub judice in the High Court and facts would be known to public in due course. All transactions were duly reported to the State Bank of Pakistan as per law of the land". However, a senior PML-N leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the credibility of a confessional statement recorded under pressure and coercion, and that too by the officials of a military regime, will always be doubtful and remain questionable. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has already taken up the same money laundering case at a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday. Giving details about the scam, he said the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited, owned by the Sharif family, entered into a leasing contract with M/s Al Towfeek Company for investment funds under the laws of the Cayman Islands on February 15, 1995 for lease of paper manufacturing machinery. The leasing price was $12.046 million. Rehman Malik said Shahbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif and another, provided guarantee in writing to pay jointly and severally to the leasing company, all sums due against the Hudabiya Paper Mills under any agreement up to a maximum of $10 million with all profits and charges. On February 15, 1995, Shahbaz Sharif provided a further guarantee to pay on demand to the leasing company any such due against the Hudabiya Paper Mills up to a maximum of $12.046 million together with all profits and charges. As the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited failed to pay back the amount, M/s Al Towfeek Company served a demand on the Sharif family members on July 31, 1998 to repay the sum. However, all the three guarantors failed to honour their guarantees and to make payment on behalf of their company. Subsequently, on March 18, 1999, the High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division (London) ordered the Sharifs to jointly pay a sum of $32.5 million (around Rs1.7 billion) to Al-Towfeek Company for Funds Ltd, the investment company from which they had taken a loan for Hudabiya Paper Mills Ltd. The London High Court passed the ex-parte order as the defendants - Hudabiya Paper Mills Ltd, Mian Mohammad Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, and Abbas Sharif - had not defended themselves in the court.

Khalil Dale – His life was one of love, not hatred.

Khalil ‘Ken’ Dale was a British aid worker kidnapped in Pakistan earlier this year and then subsequently killed by his captors. They attached a note to his body, discovered by police in Quetta on Sunday, saying he had been killed because no ransom had been paid. Lots has been written about 60-year-old convert to Islam and many tributes have been made. Last night, via the Red Cross, for which he worked, his family and fiance issued this statement, which deserves to be read in full: “We are shocked and saddened beyond comprehension for the senseless and brutal way in which our beloved Khalil was murdered. At this painful time we feel many mixed emotions, including hurt, grief, confusion and anger. We particularly need time and space to grieve our loss, and do respectfully ask that the media respect this. “During Khalil’s abduction and following his death, there has been an overwhelming flood of support, kindness and love from all corners of the globe, and we are very humbled and grateful for this empathy and solidarity. In particular, we wish to thank the Red Cross and Red Crescent family across the world for their support and for their focus throughout on Khalil’s safe release. We have been with them throughout this ordeal, and we know they share our grief. “We do not wish to see the inhumanity and brutality of his death debase the memories we have of Khalil. Without question, Khalil was amongst the most gentle, most kind and most loving person we have ever known. For all who knew him, his deeply caring and considerate nature was what left a lasting impression. His tireless work with the most impoverished and vulnerable people of the world was a reflection of his beliefs in love, in solidarity and in compassion. He was a true humanitarian. “We will not let the events of the past week sully Khalil’s memory. Khalil was a better man than that. We pity those who took his life. He achieved much in this world. His life was one of love, not hatred. His life was one of kindness, not cruelty. His life was one of beauty and joy. We will always remember our Khalil, our Ken, as a man who brought joy to us and countless others.”

Khalil Dale: MURDER OF ICRC MANAGER

The ICRC Programme Manager was found murdered in Quetta. The Tehrik Taliban Pakistan claimed the responsibility of taking the IRCR Manager hostage from Quetta. He was taken to Waziristan where he was kept hostage for several months. It is strange that the kidnappers had managed to take the hostage from Quetta to Waziristan and there was no check on the way to intercept them by the security forces, including Levies. Earlier, BRSP people were also kidnapped and taken to Waziristan where one of the hostages was killed because his poor family could not pay ransom money. Four other BRSP men are still hostage in Waziristan. The Swiss Couple had also been kidnapped from Loralai when they crossed to Balochistan from Dera Ghazi Khan. They too were taken to Waziristan. However, the Swiss couple was released following a deal with the kidnappers. According to former Vice Chancellor of the Peshawar University who is still in custody of kidnappers, the Government had paid the ransom money and also released hundred or more Taliban from custody. However, the brutal murder of ICRC Manager is a most serious crime as the British national served the ailing humanity in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world. The British Foreign Secretary condemned the murder of British national in custody. Naturally, the British Government will raise eye brows over the kidnapping of British national and the Government made no effort to save the life of the kidnapped ICRC Manager. The kidnapping and murder in custody had sent a serious signal to the international organizations to close their operations in protest and leave the people of Balochistan at the mercy of terrorists and armed gangs involved in kidnapping for ransom. The BRSP men were also taken hostage as they too served the flood affected people with dedication and helped the international organizations to provide relief to the flood affected people of Balochistan. Presumably for this role of BRSP, it was made the target and its staffers were taken hostage in Barshore area of Pishin District. It seems that the establishment had given a licence to the armed gangs to kidnap people at whims and decided not to chase them or bring them to justice. The international community must be offended over the hostage taking and murder in custody of ICRC man in Balochistan and they are likely to put more pressure on Pakistan to intensify its war against the terrorists and eliminate all the trouble makers from the Pakistani soil before they inflict serious damage to national security and integrity.

Imran won’t join hands with Nawaz league

daily times

Sticking to its prior stance, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership has decided not to be a part of any ‘grand alliance’ or ‘campaign’ announced by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), saying the party will continue its movement against the rulers from its own platform. Sources in the PTI told Daily Times on Monday that after the announcement of PML-N President Nawaz Sharif to get their party’s support for his campaign against the sitting government of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the top brass of the party had decided to take a firm stance against it declaring such move another plan to trap them. The sources said the PTI leadership believed that the PML-N leaders “have no political ethics” and had deceived the party and its leadership twice – first during the long march for restoration of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and second when the nation was struggling against the military rule of Pervez Musharraf. They said their leaders could not rely on a party like the PML-N that had dual standards in politics. They further said that though it was premature to talk about any grand alliance, but the PTI leaders had unanimously reached the conclusion that it was impossible to support the PML-N, which had given the incumbent coalition government four years to remain in power. PTI Punjab President Ahsanur Rasheed said his party had no plans to join PML-N and would continue its struggle for change in the country from its own platform.

Karachi Violence...

EDITORIAL:THE FRONTIER POST

Lyari, one of the most densely populated and explosive areas of Karachi, continues to shed human blood midst the rattling of gunfire, explosion of bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, and is virtually bracing a war like situation since the police operation against heavily armed gangsters that started on April 27. The fresh spate of violence has killed a minimum of 20 people inside three days till Sunday. However, some reports claim the number of casualties is no less than 40. Hundreds of people from all sides of the fray have been wounded. Simultaneously, people in many parts of the port city, the largest metropolis of Pakistan, staged rallies seeking peace. As the death toll continued to climb early on Monday, gangsters were seen ahead of police in bringing more areas under violence. On Sunday, police had to pull back from the Nawa Lane and Afshani Gali areas after day-long fierce battles with gangsters. As violence continues to mount, panicked residents started leaving the locality for relatively safer neighbourhoods on Sunday, a process which continues with no sign of normalcy returning to once the city of lights. As markets remained closed, people in the troubled district have also started feeling scarcity of food. Considered to be one of the most desperate slum areas in South Asia, Lyari is also the oldest locality of Pakistans sprawling, unpredictable and edgy metropolis, Karachi. In the last decade or so, Lyari has constantly been appearing in the news whenever Karachi erupts into ethnic or gang-related violence. This is not to suggest that this area was a bastion of peace before the 2000s; but it is true that the political and criminal violence emerging within and from Lyari in the last 10 years has had a bigger impact on Karachi than ever before. Criminal gangs dealing in drugs, guns, kidnapping and land scams with some of them even enjoying patronage from assorted political outfits and groups are a common sight in the narrow, crooked and overpopulated streets of Lyari. But all this was not a sudden phenomenon emerging in the last decade or so. Nor is this all what Lyari is about. Lyari also has a rich political and cultural history; a history that needs to be understood in the background of the majority population coming as descendents of negro slaves most of whom have been associated with fishing who migrated from Africa and parts of Gulf states. Primarily they settled in the entire coastal areas of Sindh coastal. As a class they are from the poorest of the poor who have a sharp social sense and, as a result, they are ahead of their fellow Karachiites and even some other regions of the country; that qualifies them to raise critical questions on socio-economic inequality that abounds in the country. Politically an overwhelming population of Lyari has been subscribing to the message of the Pakistan Peoples Party for its claim of establishing an egalitarian society. Most of the dissidents, in this background, are the young people who got frustrated with the PPP having not fulfilled the promise made in its first election manifesto of 1969 enunciating Roti, Kapra Aur Makan as its main commitment. The later developments saw Lyari being deeply polarized particularly after party dissident Dr Zulfiqar Mirza creating political ripples in 2010. As interior minister Mirza set up peace committees across Karachi and the Amn (Peace) Committee of Lyari is said to have a personal seal of the person of Zulfiqar Mirza. As Mirza fell from disgrace, his Amn Committee also saw a turbulent period and the cause of violence in Lyari may substantially be found in this backdrop. It is more than two decades now that the countrys largest city has scarcely seen peace as the metropolis tranquility has been the hostage of various mafias, some of them thriving with political patronage. The issue of Lyari, and the whole of Karachi, is not all criminal but has its roots in political uncertainties that engulf the country as a whole. It is, therefore, imperative that a multi-pronged strategy is adopted taking political parties and all other stakeholders on board.

Pakistan: Revolution on the cards

BY:Bina Shah

IN Pakistan these days it’s become the norm to bash both the government, no matter who is in power, and international development institutions for corruption and inefficiency. But the success of the Benazir (Bhutto) Income Support Programme, designed by the World Bank and implemented by the current PPP-led government, proves critics wrong — at least in this case. The scheme began in 2008, modelled on two programmes in other countries: the Bolas Familia programme in Brazil and the Opportunidades programme in Mexico. A monthly cash transfer of Rs1,000 per month is made through either the post office or an electronic debit card to a woman from some of the poorest households in Pakistan — families to whom the amount can make the vital difference between food security and starvation. These six million households receiving the income support translates to 36 million people in the poorest fifth of the entire population. Using a ‘poverty scorecard’ developed by the World Bank, the BISP surveyed 27 million households to determine who most needed the help. They measured household conditions — where was the house located, did it have running water, what was its monthly income? — and entered the data into a nationalised database. The scorecard was then cross-checked against an initial list of beneficiaries as identified by local MNAs and MPAs, and 1.5 million women who didn’t meet the requirements were withdrawn from the scheme. The poverty scorecard itself is an innovation in the area of cash assistance in Pakistan. It’s the main tool that will help target the delivery of social protection — cash transfers and other assistance — and health and other financial services using the debit card. Acclaimed Pakistani novelist Maniza Naqvi, who helped to develop and establish the programme, says: “The BISP Poverty Scorecard is being used by all of the provincial governments [for example in Punjab] for not only BISP but for their own programmes as well. And NGOs are also using the poverty scorecard.” At first the government distributed the money through the Pakistan Post Office, the only system viable and available at the time the programme was implemented. Surprisingly, there was remarkably little abuse of the system thanks to the targeting and safeguards implemented into the scheme with the use of the poverty scorecard. Plans are now under way to shift from using the post system to making transfers by electronic debit card or smart card into a bank account held by the women (transfers by cellphone had also been considered); the electronic debit card is biometric, tied to the owner’s thumbprint so that nobody but the legal holder of the card can use it. So far 800,000 hold this biometric debit card and by the end of 2012, this number will go up to four million women. The card itself is a simple piece of plastic, but the biometrics behind it, along with frequent monitoring and spot checks by private auditing and consulting firms supervised by the World Bank have gone a long way in eliminating the problems a cash transfer scheme usually faces in a country like Pakistan: misappropriation of funds, favouritism in doling out the cash, politicians taking advantage of the money in order to gain votes in elections. But the real revolution that’s taken place lies in the other condition to receiving the money: each woman must have her own Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) before she can receive the cash through the post office or the electronic debit card. According to Naqvi approximately 100,000 women were receiving a CNIC every week during the preparation phase of the programme in 2009. But what’s so revolutionary about holding a CNIC? It’s a piece of plastic that sits in our wallets, stating our identity and our address, to be taken out when we need to ‘prove our identity’ as it so whimsically states on the gates to military installations and other sensitive areas. But there’s more to it than that. “As you know,” says Naqvi, “an ID card allows women to legally own land, have a bank account, take a loan, get a passport, become a part of the formal national economy and so much more. It allows a woman to vote.” The BISP still has a long way to go in the eyes of its critics, though. Researcher Syed Mohammed Ali notes that the poverty scorecard is not a foolproof tool: people in the survey can lie about their conditions to procure benefits, and elected representatives and other political figures may still attempt to politicise the process of selecting beneficiaries in order to manipulate voting in the next election. Other critics believe that the very idea of providing income assistance to the poor without requiring those families to fulfil conditions such as sending their children to school or participating in health and nutrition seminars is less effective than cash assistance programmes — in Latin America for example — which include conditionality in their structure. Yet in a country where women have been so badly marginalised by the patriarchal mindset that pervades the power structure, the financial system and our society and culture, the BISP represents a sea change, where women are not only being included, but given the responsibility and the role of decision-maker as to how this money will be spent in their households. And it’s not the women from the upper classes, who have traditionally enjoyed more social, cultural and financial freedom, but the poorest of the poor, who are being given the tools of emancipation in the form of those two very small pieces of plastic. Somehow, I think Benazir Bhutto herself would be proud to see the women’s revolution that’s taking place in Pakistan today under her name.

Gilani announces Rs1,000 increase in minimum wage

The Express Tribune

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced an increase in minimum wages of labourers from Rs7,000 to Rs8000 and a 20 per cent increase in pensions. Gilani also handed over regular appointment letters to employees of Capital Development Authority (CDA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTCL) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Speaking to a charged crowd during the May Day function at the Convention Centre Islamabad, he also announced an increase in death grants for labourers from Rs150,000 to Rs500,000 and an increase in their children’s wedding allowance from Rs70,000 to Rs100,000. The prime minister also directed the ministry concerned to announce Labour Policy 2012 and Implementation Commission of Industrial Relations Act (IRA-2012). He said that imperialistic forces exploited labourers and workers but despite all their revengeful policies the labour community could not be oppressed.

Punjab govt summoned on poor oral polio vaccine standards

The Lahore High Court on Monday issued notices to the Punjab government and others for May 24 on a petition contending oral polio vaccine (OPV) was not properly provided to children according to international standards. Justice Umar Ata Bandial issued notices on a petition filed by petitioner-counsel Rana Ijaz Ahmad impleading the Punjab government, Lahore DCO, Health EDO and DG, EPI director and others. Earlier, the petitioner-counsel submitted before the court that cases of polio were growing in Pakistan as compared to other developing countries despite the administration of same OPV received through UNICEF. He contended that international standards were not being maintained for administration of OPV in Pakistan due to lack of a cold chain system, proper storage facilities and trained staff. He pleaded the court that a judicial inquiry be ordered against responsible authorities by declaring that OPV was not properly provided to children as per international standards. The counsel also sought directions for respondents to make rules and take serious action against individuals who were not willing to administer OPV to their children. The court after hearing the arguments issued notices for May 24 to the Punjab government and others.

Quetta blast,5 killed

Five people were killed and ten others were injured when a powerful blast ripped through Quetta’s Sariab Road on Tuesday, a private TV channel reported. Rescue officials confirmed that at least five people had been killed in the incident. The dead also included Frontier Corps (FC) personnel, according to reports. The loud explosion took place at around 2:15pm inside a car parked near the Sariab grid station. The area, located near Quetta’s Irrigation Colony, is known to be a busy locality. According to initial reports security officials, the explosion was suspected to be a remote-controlled bomb blast, while an FC convoy was suspected to be the intended target of the attack. Four FC vehicles damaged as a result of the blast, while one was completely destroyed. Four rickshaws also caught fire because of the explosion. A heavy contingent of local police and FC personnel reached the scene of the blast and cordoned off the area. The injured were meanwhile shifted to a local hospital by rescue workers.

PPP demands Shahbaz’s resignation from CM ship

Punjab PPP has demanded that Shahbaz Sharif should resign from his office of Chief Minister. The party also appealed to the court that the case that has been lingering against the CM since four years should also be decided.The session of PPP Punjab’s Provincial Executive Body was held in Lahore where Imtiaz Safdar Waraich as in the chair. The meeting passed various resolutions which say that Shahbaz Sharif, a nonmember assembly, has seized power. Meeting also demanded that unless and until the Lahore High Court announces verdict regarding writ petition against seizure of two seats by Shahbaz, he should align from his office. The session also has appealed to the Supreme Court that hearing of Asghar Khan Case should be completed on priority base.