Tag: Tells

LAHORE - President Asif Ali Zardari met Law Minister Babar Awan on Thursday and decided that the reference to reopen the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case would be filed on April 2 (tomorrow), a private TV channel reported. Awan had announced last week that the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) would file a reference in the Supreme Court (SC) to reopen the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case and the federal cabinet had approved the decision.Awan had said that the PPP was expecting a response similar to the

ISLAMABAD - Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday informed Senate that new media policy was being formulated and efforts were under way to give it a legal cover before June this year. Replying to supplementary questions during the question hour, she said that it has been decided that members of both the parliamentary committees on information and broadcasting, representative of media, civil society and all stakeholders would be taken on board for

ISLAMABAD - In a major diplomatic initiative, India invited President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday to watch the Cricket World Cup semi-final match between Pakistan and India in Mohali on March 30, with Islamabad confirming the invitation.
A source saying that one of the two leaders, most probably the prime minister, would take the opportunity to meet his Indian counterpart and informally exchange views on the recently resumed full-spectrum

ISLAMABAD - The monitoring and implementation committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to revisit terms and rent of its land leased out to nurseries. The committee, chaired by Yasmeen Rehman, was told each nursery owner had been allotted one acre on yearly rent of Rs 11,000 only. The committee expressed reservations over the value of the rent. Yasmeen said the rent was less than even Rs 1,000 per month for an acre of

KARACHI - Eminent stalwart of the Left and democratic movements in Pakistan, B. M. Kutty, now gets to tell a tale of his own: Kutty's autobiography titled "Sixty Years in Self Exile: No Regrets" was launched on Tuesday at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) auditorium, with his comrades eulogizing his services to political movements in the country.
The book launch was jointly organised by the University of Karachi's Pakistan Study Centre and Pakistan Labour

ISLAMABAD - The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) informed the Supreme Court on Monday that an amount of Rs1.68 billion has been recovered and challan against the accused forwarded to the court of competent jurisdiction. A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany was hearing a suo motu case against violation of public procurement Rules, 2004 by National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL) in the

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told Information Technology Secretary Saeed Ahmed Khan in a high-level meeting at PM House on Thursday to immediately develop a project to educate students throughout the country in information technology, with particular focus on the flood-affected and underdeveloped areas.
Gilani said the project would bring in employment opportunities for the youth and help alleviate poverty in the country. He told the secretary to work out

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the government to take immediate steps for the removal of all civil servants, including FIA Director General Waseem Ahmed, who retired after attaining the age of superannuation but were re-employed on permanent posts in violation of Section 14 of the Civil Servant Act 1973, asking the government to submit a progress report.
A four-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice

CAIRO - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has told Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi he should name a president with popular support as a way to end his country's crisis, an Arab television network reported on Monday. Erdogan told Al Arabiya television in an interview he expected Gaddafi to take "positive steps in this direction". "We want a halt to the fighting by both of the sides, both in the east and west of Libya," Erdogan said. Gaddafi has been Libya's leader for four decades

ASADABAD - An emotional Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday urged international troops to "stop their operations in our land", his strongest criticism yet of mistaken killings of civilians. Karzai's comments came after a week in which a relative of his was killed in a raid by foreign forces and he rejected an apology by the US commander of troops General David Petraeus for the deaths of nine children in a NATO strike.
"I would like to ask NATO and the US with honour and

ISLAMABAD - After consulting the government, Establishment Secretary Abdul Rauf Chaudhry on Friday informed the Supreme Court that FIA Director General Waseem Ahmed could not be immediately removed from office as he was dealing with matters pertaining to national security.
A five-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, was hearing a suo motu case against

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Friday assured President Asif Ali Zardari of not letting the PPP coalition government fall and joining the coalition in case the MQM pulled out of the ruling alliance.
Shujaat had led a delegation of PML-Q leaders to meet Zardari at the Presidency late on Friday. However, the PPP-PML-Q power sharing talks remained inconclusive with Zardari insisting the PML-Q enter into a formal alliance at the Centre

ISLAMABAD - Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh asked the tax mandarins in a stern warning on Wednesday to rise to the occasion by delivering the tax collection target of Rs 1.604 trillion for the current fiscal year, or leave their offices for others to deliver. The minister was addressing a specially convened conference of chief commissioners and Inland Revenue commissioners to review their performance and set revenue collection targets for the remaining four months of the

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that the state of law and order in Balochistan was critical and ordered the Balochistan government to take into confidence the intelligence agencies - Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) - to resolve the issue. A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani said that all intelligence agencies were

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday underscored the importance that Islamabad and the US must "candidly" share views on significant issues to deepen the mutual understanding, saying that "isolated incidents must not be allowed to impact the bilateral relations".
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani conveyed this message to US Special Representative on Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman in their separate meetings.
Grossman spent a busy day in the

COLOMBO - Pakistan great Wasim Akram, the last captain to beat Australia in a World Cup match, says teams need a plan and "fire in the belly" to end the side's long run of success at the World Cup.
Australia, who play Group A rivals Sri Lanka on Saturday, have not lost a match at the showpiece tournament since going down to Pakistan at Leeds in 1999, and have stretched their unbeaten run to 31 matches. The have won their past 25 World Cup matches since the tied semi-final against

LAHORE - Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Asma Jahangir has said lawyers should not indulge in politics at the cost of their own well being and welfare and solidarity of the lawyers' community. Addressing the members of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on the occasion of a reception she hosted in honour of the newly elected office bearers of the LHCBA here on Thursday, Asma reiterated that the legal fraternity must take a united stand for the welfare and