BRIEF NEWS UPDATE: 16.12.2011

US Senate passes defence bill, targets Pakistan aid

WASHINGTON: The US Senate passed a $662 billion defence bill Thursday that also freezes some Pakistan aid, imposes sanctions on Iran’s central bank, and approves the indefinite imprisonment of suspected terrorists.
The Democrat-led Senate voted 86-13 for the Defence Authorisation bill, which was passed Wednesday by the House. President Barack Obama was expected to sign it as early as this weekend after dropping a veto threat.
The measure, which also sets high hurdles for closing Guantanamo Bay, had drawn fire from civil liberties groups that strongly criticised its de facto embrace of holding alleged extremists without charge until the end of the “war on terrorism,” which was declared after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Obama, who had threatened to veto earlier versions of the yearly measure, will sign it despite lingering misgivings, his spokesman Jay Carney said before the House vote on Wednesday.
The legislation, a compromise blend of rival House and Senate versions, requires that al Qaeda fighters who plot or carry out attacks on US targets be held in military, not civilian, custody, subject to a presidential waiver.
The bill exempts US citizens from that fate, but leaves it to the US Supreme Court or future presidents to decide whether US nationals who sign on with al Qaeda or affiliated groups may be held indefinitely without trial.
The bill also freezes roughly $700 million in aid to Pakistan, pending assurances that Islamabad has taken steps to thwart militants who use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Earlier Thursday, Pakistan angrily criticized US moves to freeze the aid money —the latest rifts in a fraying alliance that has been in deep crisis since air strikes by US-led forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month.
“We believe that the move in the US Congress is not based on facts and takes a narrow vision of the overall situation; hence, wrong conclusions are unavoidable,” said foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit.
The legislation also brings tough new sanctions to Iran, with the aim to cut off Tehran’s central bank from the global financial system in a bid to force the Islamic republic to freeze its suspect nuclear program.
The goal is to force financial institutions to choose between doing business with the central bank —Iran’s conduit for selling its oil to earn much-needed foreign cash —or doing business with US banks.

Memo exists, say Kayani, Pasha

Both Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI Director General Lt Gen Shuja Pasha, in their first official and public statements on the memo scandal on Thursday, dropped a bombshell by acknowledging the document and expressing satisfaction with the evidence provided by American businessman Mansoor Ijaz.
In separate replies filed with the Supreme Court, which is hearing petitions related to the matter, they called for a thorough investigation about the memorandum, which they blamed on former ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, saying the issue had an impact on national security.
Their replies were submitted to the court’s registrar by Attorney General Anwarul Haq. “There may be a need to fully examine the facts and circumstances leading to conception and issuance of the memo,” Gen Kayani said and underscored that the episode “has an impact on national security and… attempts to lower the morale of Pakistan Army”.
Gen Pasha demanded a detailed investigation, saying “access to unadulterated truth and justice is a right of the people of Pakistan, the real sovereign masters of this country”.
The ISI chief also asked the court to summon Mr Ijaz, who had kick-started the controversy through an article in the Financial Times on Oct 10; and getting the computers, cell phones and Black Berry devices of Mr Haqqani and Mr Ijaz for which he offered to “render necessary assistance to its (SC) appointed commission”.
Even as Mr Ijaz has publicly offered to appear before the court in the case and has sent in his reply, Gen Pasha twice refers to his (Ijaz’s) willingness to personally present evidence before the apex court.
The other important common feature of both replies is that they confirm that Mr Haqqani had been summoned to the country on their insistence following which the premier asked him to resign.
“It was, therefore, important that complete details be established as early as possible. I strongly recommended to the prime minister that our ambassador in the United States, who was best suited and informed on the matter, be called to brief the country’s leadership,” Gen Kayani said and went on to narrate his subsequent meetings with President Asif Zardari and PM Gilani on the issue, including the last in the series in which Mr Haqqani was heard and asked to quit.
Gen Pasha, narrating his meeting with President Zardari on Nov 18, said he recommended to the president that “the issue pertained to national security and should not be taken lightly. I suggested to the president that it will be in the fitness of things to ask our ambassador in Washington to verify or contradict the matter.”
The army chief also gave a brief account of a briefing he received on the issue from Gen Pasha on Oct 24 after the spy chief had met Mr Ijaz in London.
“He (Gen Pasha) opined that the evidence shown to him by Mr Mansoor Ijaz was enough to establish that Mr Mansoor Ijaz remained in touch with Mr Hussain Haqqani from 9 May, 2011, onwards and exchanged numerous text messages and telephone calls. As per DG ISI’s assessment, the sequence and contents of text messages and telephone calls created a reasonable doubt regarding Mr Hussain Haqqani’s association with the memo.”
The ISI chief gives an insight into how he got in touch with Mr Ijaz through an unnamed ‘source’ and that the meeting was set up in London on Oct 22 following the publication of the businessman’s article in Financial Times.
In addition to the details about his meeting with Mr Ijaz, in which the latter explained the context of the issue and shared related information, Gen Pasha specially refers to his demand for seeing the devices used for communication to believe his (Ijaz’s) story.
“Having seen these means of communication used, I was satisfied that he had enough corroborative material to prove his version of the incident,” the ISI chief said.

Military-govt standoff in the making?: President snubs SC deadline; govt says no need for case

ISLAMABAD: 

All replies are in, except one – and perhaps the most important one.
Thursday saw the Supreme Court’s deadline pass with no reply from President Asif Ali Zardari in the Memogate scandal case.
Replies from the heads of the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), however, were safely tucked away after they were submitted to Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq. The military’s position appears to have been formed by ISI Director General Shuja Pasha, who seems convinced of foul-play following a shadowy meeting in London with US businessman Mansoor Ijaz.
The federal government did submit a reply: That the SC should dismiss the petition because sufficient investigations by the executive itself are already under way.
Also submitted through the Attorney General (AG), the government’s reply questioned the very necessity of the SC hearings, arguing that the parliamentary committee on national security is already probing Memogate. The government also restated its unwavering position that neither the president nor the prime minister nor any other government official have anything to do with the alleged memo.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s response was to hold an emergency meeting with the AG and other close advisors.  Sources said the AG shared the details of the replies by the army and ISI chiefs – and his analysis was that the content of the documents had been very carefully drafted and recommendations about “national interest” are very clear.
COAS puts trust in DG ISI’s judgment
Army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, it seems, is relying on ISI chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha’s word.
According to a source, Kayani’s reply read as follows: “On October 24, DG ISI briefed me on the issue and his meeting with Mansoor Ijaz in London. In his opinion, sufficient material was available on the memo’s existence and that it had been passed to Admiral Mike Mullen.”
“He also opined that the evidence Mansoor Ijaz gave him was enough to establish that Mr Hussain Haqqani remained in touch with him from May 2011 onwards and exchanged numerous text messages and telephone calls. As per DG ISI’s assessment, the sequence of the text messages and telephone calls [between Ijaz and Haqqani] created a reasonable doubt regarding Haqqani’s association with the memo,” the reply went on to say, the source told The Express Tribune.
“There is nothing denying the fact that the memo exists and it is also admitted to have been delivered and received by the US authorities. Therefore, there may be a need to fully examine the facts and circumstances leading to the conception and issuance of the memo.”
Ijaz has his (long) say
The man responsible for breaking the Memogate story to the world, Mansoor Ijaz, offered to appear before the SC to present “physical evidence”, after filing his reply on Wednesday. A man known to like having his say, Ijaz’s reply is no less than 81 pages long.
A study of the document indicates that Ijaz took extraordinary interest in getting the memo through to Admiral Mike Mullen, as is evident from the number of calls he made to Haqqani and former US national security advisor General James Jones.
While Ijaz, as he has done since his initial Financial Times op-ed, happily sells Haqqani down the river, he is doubtful of President Zardari’s involvement. His reply reads: “It was entirely possible in my mind, given the adverse reaction Haqqani had shown me on the two telephone calls I had with him prior to this meeting, that Haqqani did not properly inform the government of Pakistan of his activities.”
A shadowy meeting at London hotel
In his reply, Ijaz details his meeting with General Pasha in London on October 22. The meeting, at which the ISI chief is supposed to have been convinced of Ijaz’s version of events, at times sounds like a scene from a spy thriller novel.
“We met … at the Park Lane Intercontinental Hotel, Room 210. We both agreed to take batteries out of our telephones while we spoke … He made clear he was in London with the consent of the army chief, Gen Kayani.
“…He asked questions, at times looked a bit astonished at what he was seeing but at no time did he offer any assessment of the data other than to indicate that the records were clear and convincing evidence.
“Intermittently during the data brief, I would open my computer or my Blackberry device and point out how the data was stored, transmitted, displayed, etc. He then carefully analysed dates, times, properties of Microsoft documents to see when the documents were created and how they fit into the timeline I was stating, looked at the original telephone bill logs, checked the time at which each BBM message was sent or received and reviewed my handwritten notes.”
More pin numbers, email addresses and other off-shoots of modern communications were examined. For the head of the ISI, the evidence was satisfactory. Where that now leaves the president, the government and the Supreme Court is a mystery even the best spy novelists might have trouble plotting.
Ijaz relays the email trail
Ijaz claimed that in a call made on May 9, 2011, Haqqani asked him to deliver a ‘verbal message’ to the Americans, preferably to Admiral Mullen. Ijaz called Haqqani the same day and said he had talked to General Jones, who had refused to convey any message to Admiral Mullen.
Ijaz said he drafted the memo on the basis of the handwritten notes he had taken when Haqqani first dictated points to him. Ijaz left a voicemail for Haqqani at his London hotel, asking him to call back for his response to his email containing the first draft of the memorandum.
He also, he claims, rang up General Jones, informing him that Haqqani would need to seek permission from the “requisite authority to let [the memo] go out” in writing. Ijaz informed Haqqani through Blackberry messenger that the memorandum was finally delivered to General Jones and that “it was now up to Admiral Mullen to decide how hard to push on General Kayani”.
Ijaz’s reply goes on to state he will reveal the names of two “key US persons” he contacted to convey the memo to Admiral Mullen, if the SC demands it.

Business News

  Fri, 16 Dec 2011

-Crude down in Asia on Europe, China concerns
SINGAPORE: Crude dived in Asian trade Friday as traders remained sceptical of economic prospects in Asian powerhou 

-Rupee hits fresh record low at 90 to $
KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee (PKR) hit a record low on Thursday, which dealers said stemmed from the bleak outlook 

-Asian shares lower as Europe fears grow
HONG KONG: Asian markets fell for a third straight session and the euro sat at 11-month lows Thursday on growing d 

-Euro feels impact of Italian auction woes
TOKYO: Growing fears over the European debt crisis kept pressure on the single currency as it hovered around 11-mo 

-Oil mixed after OPEC crude output decision
SINGAPORE: Oil was mixed in Asian trade Thursday after OPEC ministers agreed to higher crude output without settin 

-Gepco tariff raise approved
GUJRANAWALA: Nepra Wednesday approved Gujranawala Electric Power Company (Gepco) s tariff raise by Rs1.00 to Rs4.0 

-Rupee hits record low at 89.67 to $
KARACHI: The rupee hit a fresh record low on Wednesday as import payments climbed and exporters clung tightly on t 

-Asian markets mostly lower as Europe woes drag
HONG KONG: Asian markets mostly fell Wednesday and the euro sat near one-year lows as traders unconvinced by Europ 

-Oil lower ahead of OPEC meeting
SINGAPORE: Oil was lower in Asian trade Wednesday, dampened by demand worries as the eurozone debt crisis showed n 

-KSE 100-share Index slides by 199 points
KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended 1.73 percent, or 199.10 points, lower 

-CNG closed in Lahore, Multan for 2nd day
LAHORE: All the CNG stations in Lahore and Multan regions were closed on Tuesday, the second day of three-day week 

-Asian markets down on eurozone debt pact worries
HONG KONG: Asian markets fell Tuesday, tracking losses on Wall Street as worries rose that a deal by European Unio 

-Euro weaker on warnings from ratings agencies
TOKYO: The euro remained weaker against other major currencies in Asia on Tuesday after credit ratings agencies wa 

-Crude mixed in Asia as EU worries weigh
SINGAPORE: Crude prices were mixed in Asia Tuesday with markets rattled by worries that a European Union deal on c 

-ECC okays import of 0.2mn ton urea
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet here on Monday decided to allow import of 200,

LATEST/BRIEF NEWS: ·        Military-govt standoff in the making?: President snubs SC deadline; govt says no need for case ·        President snubs SC deadline; govt says no need for case ·        President Zardari will be back soon: Babar ·        Memo scandal is anti-sovereignty act: Imran ·        Gohar links transparent memo probe to Pasha’s resignation ·        24-hour CNG shutdown in Sindh ·        Crude down in Asia ·        President, PM have no link to memo: Govt ·        Satisfied with Ijaz’s evidence: DG ISI ·        Memo is a reality: COAS Kayani Mohammed Saleem Mansoori