Editoral-OTHER VOICES - Sindhi Press If McChrystal was here…

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama sacked his top commander Gen Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan over insubordination, stressing that in a democracy institutions are stronger than individuals. Gen McChrystal enjoyed much support both among ordinary people and the rulers. Gen McChrystal criticised the American civilian leadership … holding President Obama and his team responsible for “blunders”.… After sacking the general, President Obama, in a brief address to the media … said that democratic traditions required “respect for civilian control over the (military)...

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Editoral-Woman of no importance By Zafar Masud

BY no stretch of imagination can Christine Boutin be described as someone addicted to provocation. A matronly figure of 66, she is a mother of three who at the moment has the entire French political scene in a state of turmoil. The maverick trait in her nature already came to public attention as far back as the late ’70s when she first decided to step into a political career; her dynamism even then was undeniable and within three years she moved from the seat of an elected municipal councillor in the Parisian suburb of Yvelines to become its mayor....

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Editoral-Fewer new drugs By Julia Kollewe

THERE is fresh evidence of a dwindling number of new drugs coming on to the market from the pharmaceuticals industry as a new research shows that just seven per cent of sales come from medicines launched in the past five years.The report by CMR International, owned by Thomson Reuters, shows the bulk of sales at the world’s leading pharmaceuticals is derived from an ageing portfolio of drugs, while the number of medicines failing during late-stage testing is sharply on the rise.The problem is the ‘patent cliff’ — after a few years products lose...

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Editoral-‘Tectonic rift’ Dawn Editorial

If there is a ‘tectonic rift’ in US-Israel relations, as claimed by the Israeli ambassador in Washington, one can be reasonably sure that Tel Aviv will not be much of a loser. What has irritated Israel is that under the Obama administration it is missing the traditional ease with which it has been used to getting things done in Washington. For instance, the Bush administration turned the other cheek when the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, having signed the Annapolis declaration along with President George Bush and other world leaders,...

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Editoral-Hyderabad blast

Many questions remain regarding Monday’s tragic tanker blast in Hyderabad’s Hala Naka. Several people were killed while many more were injured in the explosion which occurred at a truck depot. At the time of writing police and government officials were offering differing versions about what was inside the tanker. Some said the explosion was caused by a gas cylinder while others claimed that the truck was carrying thinner. Still others maintained that the tanker contained LPG, while the injured conductor of the vehicle told Dawn’s correspondent...

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Editoral-Oil price deregulation

The government proposes to take away the powers of the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority to determine the domestic prices of petroleum products and give them back to the refineries and oil marketing companies from next month. There is no evidence, however, that the petroleum ministry has resolved the issues that had prompted allegations of price manipulation by the OMCs’ ‘cartel’ and forced the government to assign the job to Ogra. The return to the old mechanism, goes one argument, would give the refineries and OMCs another opportunity to unfairly...

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Editoral-Nuclear energy the answer?By Pervez Hoodbhoy

It seems odd at first sight to understand why Pakistan, a country that can make nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and has an atomic energy commission that employs over 30,000 people, has electricity blackouts. Pakistani authorities blame western countries for denying it nuclear energy because it will not sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). The NPT expressly forbids transfer of any kind of nuclear technology, including that for power generation, to non-signatories. But the fact is that despite a 50-year long nuclear history, and...

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Editoral-Major policy rethink By Shahid Javed Burki

THE great virtue of democratic systems is that the policies governments adopt reflect the will of the people. While Pakistan is tending towards the adoption of democracy as the preferred system of governance it is quite clear that the country is not there as yet. If it had become a fully representative system some of the approaches being pursued in foreign affairs would not have been adopted. In this space last week I argued that economics rather than ideology or history’s many burdens should inform the making of public policy. That is not happening....

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Editoral-Fall of the general By Gwynne Dyer

GEN Stanley McChrystal deserved to be fired as the US commander in Afghanistan, because he and his staff were openly contemptuous of their civilian superiors. It’s a popular attitude among the dimmer sort of military officers, but for a theatre commander to tolerate and even encourage it among his own senior officers and advisers is reckless and stupid. Such a man is not fit for command.But why was McChrystal in a state of perpetual rage against President Obama, Vice-President Biden, US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, and practically...

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Afghan war may be lost in Pakistan’s battlefields

WASHINGTON: The Afghanistan war may be lost on the battlefields of Pakistan, where Pakistan authorities are fighting a vicious conflict against a home-grown insurgency spawned by the war across its western frontier, warns a report released on Monday by the Atlantic Council. “The situation in Pakistan remains on edge,” warns Shuja Nawaz, director of the Council’s South Asia Centre, who wrote the report, “Pakistan in the Danger Zone: a Tenuous US-Pakistan Relationship”. “Domestic politics remain in a constant state of flux, with some progress towards...

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NAB withdraws two corruption cases against Malik

RAWALPINDI: The National Accountability Bureau informed an accountability court on Monday that two corruption references filed by the bureau 13 years ago against Interior Minister Rehman Malik and other officials of the Federal Investigation Agency were ‘not genuine’ and it did not want to further prosecute the cases. Additional Prosecutor General Malik Jamil Awan defended the bureau’s decision to withdraw the references filed under section 31-B of NAB Ordinance, 1999. He apologised for the fake cases registered against the FIA officials. When...

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Political solution to Afghan conflict necessary, concedes Obama

WASHINGTON, June 28: US President Barack Obama has said that all efforts to arrange a peace deal between the Afghan government and Taliban militants should be viewed with both scepticism and openness. Speaking after the Group of 20 meeting in Toronto on Sunday evening, Mr Obama conceded that a political solution to the Afghan conflict was necessary and suggested that elements of the Taliban insurgency could be part of these negotiations. Asked if the talks that Pakistan was reportedly brokering between the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai...

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Quit if you can’t do it’: Adviser faces hard time in NA

ISLAMABAD, June 28: Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul faced a chilling advice from the chair in the National Assembly on Monday: “quit the job if you can’t do it”. The advice came from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi when the adviser failed to give satisfactory replies to a number of questions from members during the question hour. The adviser was responding to supplementary questions on behalf of the minister in-charge of the cabinet division, Babar Awan, who was not present in the house. Opposition members...

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Court orders verification of two legislators’ degrees

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ordered on Monday that academic degrees of two members of a provincial assembly be verified by the Higher Education Commission. A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk and Justice Tariq Pervaz had taken up seven petitions relating to election disputes. Two of the petitions sought unseating of Balochistan Assembly members Zahoor Hussain Khan Khosa and Maulvi Mohammad Sarwar on the ground that they allegedly held fake educational certificates. The bench observed that...

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Five customs officials held for helping smugglers

ISLAMABAD: The Customs Intelligence has arrested five officials for allegedly facilitating smuggling of liquor by a fake company, Luner Product, which claimed to have a contract for supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan. The arrested Customs officials were accused of issuing a ‘border clearance certificate’ at the Torkham border to containers of the fictitious company which were later found in Peshawar by the Customs Intelligence. According to Customs sources, trucks of National Logistic Cell (NLC) were used for transporting containers to Afghanistan....

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Afghanistan denies Karzai’s talks with Haqqani

KABUL, June 28: Afghanistan’s government angrily dismissed as baseless on Monday a media report that President Hamid Karzai had held a face-to-face meeting with an Al Qaeda-linked Taliban leader in Kabul. Mr Karzai’s spokesman said the report on Al Jazeera television on Sunday was part of a conspiracy to undermine a government-initiated peace plan aimed at ending almost nine years of war. Al Jazeera said Mr Karzai had met Sirajuddin Haqqani, who heads the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, at his palace in the Afghan capital as a prelude to peace...

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Global oil prices promise relief for consumers

ISLAMABAD, June 28: In a small piece of good news for the ordinary citizens of Pakistan, Dawn has learnt that petroleum prices, which contributed a hefty Rs315 billion to the national exchequer through taxes, are likely to witness a drop anywhere from one to four per cent on June 30. This reduction will be due to a decline in international oil prices. According to a senior official, international diesel prices have witnessed the biggest drop in June, which will result in about a relief of about Rs3.75 per litre or 4 per cent in the high speed diesel...

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UN condemns attack on children facility in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS, June 28: The United Nations has condemned Monday’s attack on a recreational facility used by children in occupied Gaza territory, the second such incident in a month. A group of about 25 armed and masked men attacked and set fire to the facility on the beach in Nuseirat that was being used to host the Summer Games, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). No one was hurt in the incident, which follows a similar attack on May 23 when a group of 30 armed and masked men attacked and set fire to an UNRWA...

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Benazir Bhutto inscribed into law by NA vote

ISLAMABAD: In a historic move, the National Assembly inscribed Benazir Bhutto’s name into law by its vote on Monday, unanimously passing a pro-poor bill after the main opposition party gave up a blocking amendment amid “long live” slogans for the assassinated leader. However, the Benazir Income Support Programme Bill, based on a presidential ordinance already in operation, will need approval by Senate to become a permanent law. An amendment in the name of the opposition PML-N’s 87 members had sought to rename the Benazir Income Support Programme...

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NAB decides to end Zardari Cotecna case

ISLAMABAD: In the latest twist in the continuing saga of the revival of cases against PPP leaders, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to withdraw the money laundering case against President Asif Ali Zardari from an accountability court in Pakistan, sources in NAB told Dawn on Monday. Known as the Cotecna pre-shipment inspection case, the case had already been withdrawn from a Swiss court, where it was also being tried, by General Pervez Musharraf’s regime. However, it was still pending in an accountability court in Rawalpindi....

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