Pak Army Begun to Flex its Muscle

NEW DELHI: The army in Pakistan has begun to flex its muscle. Pakistan’s army chief general Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, who has so far kept a low profile, has asked President Asif Ali Zardari to ‘clean up the mess’ soon.

Well-placed military sources in Islamabad said Kiyani has been asked by the United States to bring some order in the region. After his recent visit to Washington, Kiyani held a meeting with top Pakistani army commanders on March 6 to share the concern of the US over the state of affairs in the country, especially after the dissolution of the Punjab government and the subsequent anti-government agitation that has plunged the country into another political crisis.

Zardari’s bid to settle scores with the opposition led by Sharif has now gone down well with Washington.

The Supreme Court last month effectively barred former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, who are opposition leaders, from contesting elections.

The Sharifs and the PML-N, Pakistan’s second-largest party, have accused Zardari of being behind the court decision. Their supporters have taken to the streets and more strife is expected.

Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Sharifs’ party were bitter rivals in the 1990s, a turbulent decade in which Bhutto and Sharif both served as prime minister twice without completing a term. A military coup in late 1999 ousted Sharif and brought Musharraf to power.

Analysts fear a return of the politics of confrontation between the country’s two biggest parties.

Musharraf’s successor as army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, has vowed to keep the army out of politics. But the danger is that if the crisis becomes acute the military, which has ruled for more than half Pakistan’s 61 years of history, will feel forced to act.

The army has little reason to back Sharif, even if Zardari is widely unpopular and disliked by hawkish elements who distrust his pro-West stance and dovishness towards India.

Sharif had bad relations with at least three army chiefs during the 1990s. Morever, the West is wary of Sharif, believing he panders to the religious/nationalist constituency that opposes the war on terrorism.

The United States wants Pakistan to focus on fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida, and doesn’t want the army diverted by politics or, analysts say, drawn into helping Sharif.

SOURCE: www.nhatky.in

Sanjay Dixit Wins RCA Election

Jaipur: Riding on the wave of support from the Rajasthan government and prevailing anti-Modi sentiments, IAS officer Sanjay Dixit defeated IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for the top job in the RCA election by five votes on Sunday.

The AGM of RCA began at 10.00 am with 32 district units voting at the future cricket academy from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm. While Dixit polled 18 votes, Modi got just 13.

Dixit acknowledged that it was a tough challenge and expressed gratitude to the ‘whole public of Rajasthan’ for supporting his candidature.

“It was a tough challenge. We accepted it and were successful.”

“This is first step to undo all the corrupt practices prevalent during Modi’s tenure.”

“I thank not only the association members but also the public of Rajasthan for their love and affection.”

The RCA elections saw a complete rout of Modi and his entire faction with all his loyalists facing crashing defeats in election for other posts as well.

Ameen Pathan lost the election for the post of secretary 12-19 to Ashok Kumar Ohri, who is president of Churu District Cricket Association.

Modi’s embarrassing exit from the RCA will have no bearing on his position in the BCCI as well as the chairman and commissioner of the IPL.

Modi is also a vice president of the Punjab Cricket Association.

Modi held state government responsible for his defeat.

“I paid the price of being close to Vasundhara Raje (former Chief Minister of Rajasthan). The state government did whatever it could to defeat me.”

“But there will be no affect on IPL matches. They will be held in Jaipur only,” Modi said after the results.

The run up to the RCA election was marked by a series of allegation and counter allegations between the two rival groups which fought a fierce battle to gain control of the Association.

The date of the election was fixed by the Supreme Court after Modi challenged a decision to hold election on February 22.

Modi had run into a rough weather of late.

Last month, an FIR was lodged against Modi, alleging irregularities in disbursement of funds in tune of Rs 6 crores meant for the Jaipur blast victims during the IPL last year.

Source: www.nhatky.in

100 Cr is Being Losed by Dalal Street every 5 Minutes

MUMBAI: After a whopping loss of over Rs 40,00,000 crore in 2008, the stock market is continuing its free-fall and investors have lost an average of Rs 100 crore in every five minutes of trade in first two months of 2009.

Cumulatively, the total investors’ wealth has got eroded by about Rs 2,82,000 crore so far this year.

However, the meltdown has been less severe so far this year, as compared to 2008 when an average of Rs 100 crore was wiped off in just two minutes of trade, as per an analysis of stock market losses during 2008 and first two months of 2009.

During 2008, the total investors’ wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market capitalisation of all the listed companies, plummetted from close to Rs 72,00,000 crore to about Rs 31,00,000 crore.

So far in 2009, the investors’ wealth on Indian bourses has gone further down to about Rs 28,60,000 crore, as per the current market value of the listed companies.

There were a total of 246 trading sessions in 2008, while so far in 2009 trades have been conducted on 39 days.

Taking into account a trading session of five hours and 35 minutes every day (markets open at 0955 hours and close at 1530 hours), an average of Rs 20 crore has been lost in every minute of trade so far this year.

This average was, however, more than double at Rs 50 crore in every minute of trade in 2008.

In terms of Sensex movement, the benchmark index has lost more than 750 points in first two months of 2009. During the entire 2008, the Sensex plummetted by more than 10,000 points.

However, if we take into account the price-earnings ratio, the Indian market seems to have become a bit more expensive in the first two months of 2009. It had become cheaper by more than half during 2008 by this measure.

The price-earnings ratio of the Sensex currently stands at 12.82, which is higher than 12.16 at the beginning of the year. However, it had fallen sharply during 2008 from 26.94 at the end of the previous year.

Source: www.nhatky.in

LeT had Plans to set an Operation in Colaba

Mumbai: The Pakistan-based terror group, Lashkar-e-Toiba, had plans to set up an operational base in a rented accommodation in posh Colaba in south Mumbai in early 2008 to coordinate the 26/11 terror plan, according to investigators.

The plan could not materialize because of some reasons, and finally, the ‘operational base’ was set up in Room No.14, Batatawala Chawl, Nagpada, also in south Mumbai.

Incidentally, Badhwar Park in Colaba where the LeT planned to set up the operational base, is an exclusive multi-storeyed residential complex, housing some of the top officers of Indian Railways (IR), including high-ranking functionaries of Central Railway, Western Railway and Konkan Railway.

The choice of Badhwar Park was considered crucial to the entire scheme of the conspiracy for its proximity to the targeted locations.

This was corroborated by the fact that the terrorists selected the Machhimar (fishermen’s) Colony, opposite Badhwar Park, as the landing point and then dispersed to their respective destinations in five groups.

Details in the 11,000-plus page Mumbai Police charge sheet point to the Mumbai terror mission of the LeT as a well-planned strategy of its chief Hafiz Sayyed and chief of operations Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, according to Assistant Commissioner of Police A.T. Duraphe.

Indications are that the conspiracy could have been hatched in mid-2007 and finally implemented a year later, on Nov 26, 2008.

One of the arrested conspirators, Fahim Ansari, originally a resident of Motilal Nagar, Goregaon suburb in north-west Mumbai, was arrested in February 2008 by the Uttar Pradesh police and was handed over to Mumbai Police Dec 18, 2008. Between December 2007 and January 2008, under an assumed name of Sahil Pawaskar, he made unsuccessful attempts to rent a flat in the Badhwar Park.

Later, from the Nagpada room, Ansari conducted detailed reccee of iconic and important locations in Mumbai. He even procured a Reliance mobile number for his communications.

To camouflage his intentions, Ansari, known by over half a dozen aliases, enrolled himself for a course with SoftPro Computer Educational Council, located at Engineering Building, right opposite the Bombay Stock Exchange building - which was targeted in the March 12, 1993, terror attacks.

After completing the detailed groundwork, Ansari handed over the maps and other papers to Sabahuddin Ahmed, an important LeT functionary in India.

On his part, Sabahuddin got in touch with the LeT’s Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Abu Kaahfa and passed on the information to them.

“It was these maps and directions which enabled the arrested terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir, alias Kasab, and his nine associates to arrive with absolute precision at the targeted locations and to comprehend the topography and layout of the targets,” Duraphe noted.

When they finally struck Nov 26, 2008, they succeeded in killing over 170 people and injuring 300 more in the terror attack which lasted nearly 60 hours.

Source: www.nhatky.in

Chemical leak in Singapore Plant 3 Indian killed

Singapore: Three Indian workers were killed and two others badly injured in a toxic spill at a chemical plant in Singapore, officials said on Sunday. The workers suffered severe burns on Friday when nitric acid leaked from a heat exchange unit of the Chemic Industries plant located in Tuas, an industrial zone in the southwest of Singapore.

Officials said two workers were killed instantaneously when the leak occurred, while another died in the Singapore General Hospital late Saturday.

The injured workers were still in hospital. One of them was stated to be in critical condition with over 70 percent burns.

All work at the chemical plant has been stopped while authorities investigate the cause of the leak.

An employee of Chemic Industries refused to divulge any details about the incident or how the leak occurred. However, the three men who died were described by other employees of Chemic Industries as young married men whose families were in India.

Singapore has around 200,000 Indian industrial workers, most of whom are employed as skilled or unskilled labour in the marine engineering and construction industry.

Source: www.nhatky.in

More Than US Presidential Election, LS Polling To Cost

New Delhi: At a staggering Rs 10,000 crore, the Lok Sabha polls this summer would cost more than what Barack Obama and others spent in the US Presidential race.

According to information available with the US Federal Election Commission, Obama and other candidates collectively spent close to USD 1.8 billion (nearly Rs 8,000 crore) in the 2007-08 Presidential Elections.

A survey conducted by Centre for Media Studies (CMS) back home pegs the estimated amount to be spent on the Lok Sabha Elections, which would determine the next government in the country, at about Rs 10,000 crore (USD 2 billion).

This does not include the cost of holding Assembly Polls in states like Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

While the cost of US elections was spread over a year, India would see the massive spending in a matter of months.

The estimated Rs 10,000 crore cost for the Lok Sabha elections includes about one-fourth or Rs 2,500 crore being spent through “unofficial money” or the cash to be paid to voters by the candidates, the CMS survey says.

The latest Presidential Elections in the US has been billed as the most expensive ever, with cost doubling from the previous elections held in 2004.

Similarly, the cost of general elections in India, according to CMS, is also set to more than double this year from about Rs 4,500 crore in last Lok Sabha polls and would be the highest in the history of the country.

According to the CMS study, the government spending would be about 20 percent of the total expenses, including about Rs 1,300 crore by Election Commission and about Rs 700 crore to be spent by various Central and state government agencies for purposes like photo identity cards, EVMs and polling booth.

Various political parties are expected to spend about Rs 1,650 crore from their party funds, which would include about Rs 1,000 crore from the two main parties — Congress and BJP alone.

In addition to spending by parties, candidates of the national parties are estimated to put in Rs 4,350 crore, while those from the regional parties are expected to spend another Rs 1,000 crore.

As per the information available with the US Federal Election Commission, Obama topped the list of all Presidential candidates by spending over USD 760 million — more than double the amount of about USD 358 million spent by his Republican rival John McCain.

Another Democrat Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton spent about USD 244 million.

According to another set of estimates for the US elections compiled by Washington-based think-tank Centre for Responsive Politics, the overall cost of the 2007-08 US federal elections was USD 5.3 billion, including about USD 2.4 billion on the presidential race.

Source: www.nhatky.in

Prez Rejected CEC Recommendation for Removal of Chawla

New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil on Sunday rejected Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami’s recommendation for removal of Naveen Chawla as EC.

In the first month of this year, Gopalaswami had forwarded a suo moto request to Patil demanding the removal of Chawla from the post, accusing him of partisanship.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said President Pratibha Patil has accepted the government recommendation for rejection of the CEC’s report against Chawla and arrived at a “considered opinion”.

“The government has recommended that the CEC’s report and the recommendation to remove Navin Chawla from the post of Election Commissioner may be rejected.”

“The President, after careful consideration of the report of the CEC, the government’s recommendation, constitutional provisions and the Supreme Court judgement, arrived at a considered opinion and has accepted the recommendation of the government,” Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesperson Archana Dutta said.

The confusion over Chawla’s stay as EC had to be cleared prior to the announcement of upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Reports claim that election dates could be announced in a couple of days, after Chawla resumes work following a leave taken due to some health problem.

Earlier, the BJP had also accused Chawla of being biased and close to Congress, and had asked the then President APJ Abdul Kalam to remove him from the Election Commission under Article 324(5), which the later forwarded to the Prime Minister. The BJP also sent a copy to the CEC as well.

Gopalaswami, in his affidavit to the apex court, had claimed that the CEC had suo motu power to recommend the removal of an Election Commissioner. Following this, the BJP withdrew its petition in the apex court and again took up the issue with the CEC.

The government had maintained in the Supreme Court that the CEC had no suo motu power to remove an Election Commissioner.

Chawla had last year raised serious objections to the holding of the Karnataka Assembly Elections in May but was over ruled.

Similarly, he is believed to have also had reservations over the conduct of Assembly Elections of Uttar Pradesh in the summer of 2007.

Gopalaswami’s term as CEC expires on April 20, and Chawla is most likely to take over from him.

Source: www.nhatky.in