Editoral-OTHER VOICES - Sri Lankan Press Food choices

CHOICE … is a hallmark [of] a healthy democracy. One may therefore say in a … democracy people are expected to have a fairly varied choice of food. However it is not always [as] simple as that. Take Sri Lanka for instance. When J.R. Jayewardene opened the floodgates of the open economy to give relief to people who were under the extreme protectionist measures adopted by the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government, rice-eating Sri Lankans were given an array of choices. The move went on to make bread one of the three main [staples] of many Sri Lankans....

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Editoral-Civilian control of military

By Shada Islam Saturday, 26 Jun, 2010US PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s decision to fire Gen Stanley McChrystal for engaging in conduct which “undermines the civilian control of the military” has strong lessons for Pakistan, Turkey and Thailand, three modern-day democracies that I know well and where tensions between the civilian government and a restless military continue to darken the landscape.Real democracy demands an end to army domination, the elimination of all military control over the national agenda and, as President Obama pointed out, it puts...

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Editoral-Islands for sale

By Elena Moya Saturday, 26 Jun, 2010THERE’S little that shouts ‘seriously rich’ as much as a little island in the sun to call your own. For Sir Richard Branson it is Neckar in the Caribbean, the billionaire Barclay brothers prefer Brecqhou in the Channel Islands, while Aristotle Onassis married Jackie Kennedy on Skorpios, his Greek hideway.Now Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfil their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sun-kissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous...

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Editoral-Anti-narcotics policy

On the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, there is no better way for the government to renew its commitment to a narcotics-free society than by having the cabinet approve the new national anti-narcotics policy. It was in 2000-01 that we eradicated poppy cultivation and achieved poppy-free status, thanks to the first anti-narcotics policy, 1993. However, with no new policy, success in reducing the production of narcotics in the 1990s was not matched by similar progress on the drug-trafficking and drug-addiction fronts....

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Editoral-Rampant deforestation

A slaughter is in progress across the country. We are destroying the environment with little regard for the ecological and socio-economic consequences of this plunder that benefits an elect few and damages the health and livelihoods of the poor. Species are dying out and our rivers and harbours have been turned into toxic cesspools. Officialdom’s apathy in all this is appalling and yet understandable because in many cases it is a party to the devastation. Take deforestation, which is just one of many environmental issues of grave concern. The latest...

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Editoral-Fake degrees

The ‘fake degrees’ issue continues to rumble on, injecting a fresh element of uncertainty in the assemblies. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to initiate proceedings against the fake-degree holders which could lead to their eventual disqualification from the various assemblies. The matter is not so straightforward, however: a legal thicket means that it’s not clear if the ECP can proceed of its own accord — thus far it has maintained that it would require references from the speakers of the various assemblies...

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Editoral-The two Punjabs

By A.G. Noorani Saturday, 26 Jun, 2010A ‘WATER CRISIS’ has emerged of late from the shadows to claim the spotlight in relations between Pakistan and India. It has begun to jostle with other items on an already crowded agenda in their dialogue in an unseemly and desperate bid to elbow them down and lay a false claim to primacy for itself at the top of the agenda.The so-called ‘water crisis’ does not deserve that place. The thoughtfully crafted Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 has stood the test of time and provides for a precise and effective mechanism...

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Editoral-A culture of mistrust

By Aslam Pervaiz Abro Saturday, 26 Jun, 2010A RECENT survey conducted by Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) is a grim reminder of the fact that corruption continues to be viewed as one the gravest problems facing the country.The report, the National Corruption Perception Survey 2010 (NCPS), was comprised of a 24-page questionnaire filled out by 5,200 respondents from all four provinces.It states that corruption has escalated to the extent that the amount involved in overall misappropriation has reached Rs223bn in 2010 as compared to Rs195bn...

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Editoral-Russia’s slow modernisation

By Simon Tisdall Saturday, 26 Jun, 2010PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev this week stepped up his campaign to convince the West that Russia can be counted on as a reliable political and business partner. But even as he toured California and talked of creating a Russian equivalent of Silicon Valley, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was up to his old tricks.While continuing to deny Russia uses its energy exports as a geopolitical weapon, Putin, the former president, warned neighbouring Belarus it could face a total shutdown in gas supplies unless it knuckled...

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US for stable govt in Pakistan

June 25: President Barack Obama has said that the United States wants stable and strong governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan that could defeat terrorists. In a joint news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, President Obama said his decision to send a new commander to Afghanistan was “a change in personnel but not a change in policy”. The US mission in the Pak-Afghan region was, first and foremost, to dismantle and destroy Al Qaeda and its affiliates so that they could not attack the United States again, he said. “In order to achieve...

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Petraeus to change rules of engagement

June 25: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that the new US commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus will have more ‘flexibility’ than his predecessor in drawing up his strategy for defeating the militants. Gen Petraeus will “have the flexibility to look at the campaign plan and the approach and all manner of things when he gets to Afghanistan”, Mr Gates told a Pentagon briefing on Thursday. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told the same briefing that Gen Petraeus would be able to make tactical changes. And...

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Govt nets Rs315 billion from oil taxes

The government is estimated to have earned about Rs315 billion in taxes on oil business during the current fiscal year, making it the single largest revenue-contributing sector. But this contributed to the overall inflationary trends. Sources in the petroleum ministry told Dawn on Friday the government earned about Rs115 billion as general sales tax on domestic sale of petroleum products during 2009-10 and Rs90 billion was recovered on POL imports. The total sales collection on petroleum products stood at Rs205 billion. Likewise, the government...

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Companies seek huge increases in gas tariff

Two gas utilities have sought Rs20.36 and Rs63.10 per unit increase in their prescribed prices with effect from July 1, to meet their revenue loss arising out of the government’s decision to increase excise duty on gas production by Rs5 per unit. Informed sources told Dawn that the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) had submitted their review petitions before the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority. The ogra had not only rejected their petitions for tariff increase, but also reduced their prescribed...

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Pakistan-India talks make wary start

Quite in contrast to the cordiality that marked the Pakistan-India foreign secretaries’ talks one day ago, the interior ministers of the two countries found it difficult to move towards a breakthrough on counter-terrorism cooperation as they opened their talks on Friday. The two ministers are likely to meet again on Saturday.Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, who is the first minister from Delhi to visit Pakistan since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, met his Pakistani counterpart, Rehman Malik, for talks on terrorism, a subject which stopped...

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