Arsalan refutes Abidi’s allegations
ISLAMABAD: Refuting the allegations hurled by Senator Faisal Raza Abidi,
Arsalan Iftikhar says he has never used the address of Chief Justice House for
commercial purpose.Arsalan, who has been accused of taking bribe in the name of his father from Malik Riaz Hussain, now faces serious allegations from PPP Senator Faisal Raza Abidi and this time too it’s the chief justice who is being targeted.
In a statement issued here on Monday, Arsalan said none of his agreements have address of CJ’s House and all the tax returns to the Federal Bureau of Revenue can be seen. There is no mention of CJP House in them.
“No agreement with client is done with this address. All agreements with clients can be seen for proof. FAE (Pvt) Ltd was established on February 4, 2010 registered at address 97 A/3 Gulberg III Lahore. No account of FAE (Pvt) Ltd opened at CJ’s House address ever. F&A Enterprises is an old company established in 2004. It was established in Quetta. We opened its account in Silk Bank (Saudi Pak) in November 2008 at the time of when my father was deposed.
At that time address was given only for bank statement and necessary correspondence. In Jan 2012 this was also shifted to Gulberg office address, Arsalan mentioned in his statement.
He also mentioned that he did not have Rs900 million. “In fact I do not have cash more than Rs3 crore. My office, accommodation and vehicle are on rental. I have no property in Pakistan or abroad. I do not have any foreign account anywhere in the world. All the payments received are cross cheques. Whose record is also with FBR.”
He said his companies generally deal with telecom sector and provide them different services from network management to build out of new network, laying of optic fibre and installation of telecom equipment on sites and that he does not have even a single contract with government of Pakistan.
“There is no abrupt surge in our growth, our business is very critical, we work non-stop 24/7, if we show even slightest of laxity, we get huge penalties, that is the reason, we provide best services in Pakistan and based on our services, our valuable clients treat us well and enhance our scope of work. No telecom company can take risk as slightest of negligence cost huge losses in dollars. Hence all our work is based on merit and performance,” the statement adds.
He said his legal team would send a legal notice worth Rs10 billion to an English daily for its irresponsible story dated 3rd August 2012, for his character assassination, by doing one sided story and not containing other side’s version. “We are also lodging an FIR against Faisal Abidi,” the statement concludes.
Parliament be wrapped up, Altaf says sarcastically
KARACHI: In what appeared to be a veiled reference to the scrapping of the new contempt of court law by the Supreme Court, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain said on Monday that if making laws was not the business of parliament then the parliamentary system should be wrapped up.Speaking on phone from London at an Iftar-dinner hosted by the MQM at the Jinnah Ground, Mr Hussain said that it was yet to be decided in Pakistan whether the judiciary was important or parliament.
He said he would like to know whether lawmaking was the job of parliament or the judiciary. “If making laws is not the job of parliament then perhaps the parliamentary system should be wound up altogether. If parliament has no right to legislate then a judicial system should be imposed in the country instead of wasting millions of rupees on parliament,” he said.
He said that a confrontation between the judiciary and parliament would harm the country. He urged both the institutions to end their differences and respect each other’s domain.
The MQM chief expressed grave concern over lawlessness in Karachi and increasing incidents of killing of innocent people, extorting money from traders and businessmen.
He criticised the intelligence agencies and paramilitary Rangers for their failure to maintain peace in the city.
He called upon the people of Karachi, particularly the business community, to take measures for protecting themselves and assured them that the MQM would fully support them.
He said that 100,000 MQM workers were ready to protect businessmen if they paid an allowance to them.
Mr Hussain said the apex court had sent home a prime minister but did not take any action to provide protection to businessmen in Karachi. The chief justice removed a prime minister but did not take any action against elements involved in dumping bodies in Balochistan, he added.
The MQM chief said he had discussed with the president and the prime minister and also with the chief of army staff and the director-general of ISI the issue of law and order in Karachi.
Referring to the recent Lyari operation, he said the operation against the extortion mafia was about to succeed but the Rangers had refused to act. “The operation was postponed for 48 hours but 48 days have passed and the operation has not been completed.”
Mr Hussain said he had repeatedly said that the MQM did not want a division of Sindh. “But have the slogans for the division of Sindh not been raised by nationalist forces in Sindh? The nationalist forces must stop spewing venom, otherwise I will not be
able to stop people.”
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro, diplomats, businessmen, industrialists and MQM leaders attended the Iftar-dinner.
LATEST/BRIEF NEWS:
· SC adjourns Ephedrine case till Aug 8
· FIA dismisses British report
· 'CM Punjab in office due to stay order'
· Quetta doctors' OPDs boycott continues
· 7 hurt in Karachi house (Dastagir Area)gas leak blast
· Bomb blast kills eight in Afghan capital
· 2 lacs
evacuated in Shanghai storm fear
· Spain
charges two Chechen Qaeda suspects
· 37th Twins
Days Festival held in US
· Hot, humid weather
likely across country
· NASA Mars rover
sending pictures
· Khyber check
post attacked, a security man hurt
· PPP expels
Abidi from CEC
· Faisal’s
tirade on courts: Pindi lawyers on strike
· Nishan-e-Haider
recipient Maj Tufail’s anniversary today
· Contempt
Law: Govt to file review plea today
· Govt. has no
option but polls, says PM Raja
Business News:
ECC asked to allow import of fertilizer
ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: The Ministry of Industries, led by Deputy Prime
Minister Pervaiz Elahi, asked the Economic Coordination Committee on Monday to
allow import of at least 600,000 tons of fertiliser from Aug 7 to ensure its
availability and stabilise prices, amid an ongoing gas crisis, which is
expected to worsen in the coming days.But this has not gone well with the fertiliser industry on fears of causing a double jeopardy for domestic plants.
Many fertiliser companies already face threat of closure due to financial meltdowns, especially the plants on the transmission system of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL), because of lack of gas availability as it has been diverted to the power sector.
The ECC led by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh downgraded fertiliser on the priority list to get gas after domestic consumers and the power sector.
Agritech Fertiliser has already served notices to its staff for lay offs, while a couple of other plants were also considering similar options according to informed sources.
The newest plant, Engro, is also in the process of re-profiling its $700 million loan it had arranged for its $1.1 billion Enven plant, as it would delay payments against the principal loan for at least two years and give only interest due to its financial limitations.
Fertiliser Manufacturers Advisory Council of Pakistan, the representative body of fertiliser sector, led by a former federal secretary Shahab Khawaja–questioned the need for urea imports beyond 80,000 tons before the Rabi season, who offered to sell 400,000 tons of current stocks to the government, instead of starting imports.
“We feel that current stocks situation of Urea may not warrant immediate imports of such large quantities”, said Mr Khawaja in an emergency letter to deputy prime minister and members of the ECC.
It called for a meeting of fertilizer review committee which would comprise of industry and government representatives — to discuss the supply and demand situation for 2012, subsequent import requirements and review the Rabi 2012-13 supply demand by end Sep once the actual off-takes of Kharif 2012 are concluded.
The industry believed that the government should adopt two rotations at SNGPL system where at least two fertilizer plants should be provided gas on rotation basis.
The fertiliser council argued that Pakistan would require 80,000 tons of additional urea imports till year end to keep a buffer stock of 100,000 tons at the close of year.
Moreover, this import was also required by November-December 2012 and no further import was needed till then as sufficient stock was available in the country for the preceding months.
The import of this additional 80,000 tons will need $39 million of foreign exchange at the average import price of Trading Corporation of Pakistan during the first half of 2012 and Rs2 Billion as subsidy on imports making this option the most economical for the country, the council argued.
Urea demand has been witnessing a 5 per cent decrease annually since 2009, which is expected to intensify this year due to the current urea prices coupled with low cotton prices and water shortages in the cotton belt.
Urea stocks in the country at the end of Jun 2012 stood at around 400,000 tons with a major portion lying with the urea manufacturers.
If the government has to import more than the proposed 80,000 tons to keep additional buffer stocks then the fertilizer industry would offer to sell urea to the government at the existing prices.
This would enable the government to keep buffer stocks to stabilise market prices and also avoid importing additional quantities.
Consequently, for purchase of each 100,000 tons from domestic industry, the government can save $48 million and Rs2 billion in subsidies.
The ECC is scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
EXCHANGE FOR CURRENCY NOTES:
U.S.A 95.39
S.Arabia 25.44
U.K 148.05
Japan 1.2199
Euro 116.16
U.A.E 25.97
BULLION RATES IN
RUPEES PER 10 GRAMS
KARACHI
Gold Tezabi (24-ct) Rs 49,028
Silver Tezabi Rs 805.71
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment