Govt set to get 20th Amendment Bill passed

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition government is poised to get the 20th Constitutional Amendment Bill through parliament with the required two-thirds majority separately in the National Assembly and the Senate. While the coalition government does have the two-thirds majority in both Houses, the internal rift in the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has pushed the PPP to muster support from smaller parties and independents for a smooth sailing vote, as the PML-Nawaz (PML-N) is most likely to abstain. The 20th Amendment seeks to give legal cover to the election of 28 members of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies while the Election Commission was incomplete after the passage of the 18th Amendment. The Supreme Court had set a deadline for the government to give legal cover to the by-elections by February 6. In the National Assembly, which has a strength of 334 members, the PPP needs 223 votes to get constitutional amendments passed. The seats it has, coupled with those of its allies, the PML-Q, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Awami National Party (ANP), the PML-Functional,
the Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) parliamentarians, reaches 226. If eight MNAs from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) support the government, its strength reaches 234 votes.
The current status of the parties’ strength in the National Assembly is as follows: PPP has 124, Independents have 18, ANP has 12, BNP-A has one, JUI-F has eight, MQM has 25, NPP has one, PML-Q has 50, PML-F has 4, PML-N has 90 and PPP-Sherpao has one, with a total of 334. In case four to six MNAs affiliated with the PML-Likeminded, the PML-Q’s forward bloc, support the PML-N, the required votes needed by the government to get the constitutional amendment passed by the Lower House are still going to be available.
If the PML-N opposes the bill, the PPP-Sherpao and as many as eight independent MNAs, particularly those elected from Punjab, are likely to support it. A source in the government told Pakistan Today that Fazlur Rehman’s party – the JUI-F – had assured the PPP of its support for the bill.
The government had moved the bill a few weeks ago in an attempt to legalise the actions of the chief election commissioner (CEC) during the time when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was incomplete. If passed, the amendment will bring an end to the uncertainty hanging over the fate of over two dozen public representatives elected during that period.
In the same manner, the PPP can comfortably get the bill passed in the Senate, where along with its allies – the PML-Q, the MQM, the ANP, the BNP-A, the JWP and FATA parliamentarians – it crosses the strength of 70, while 67 votes are needed for a two-thirds majority. The PPP government can, however, face a tough time in the Senate as around 8 dissident senators of the PML-Q are loyal to the PML-N, and will most likely toe Nawaz Sharif’s line of action. The parties’ strength in the Senate is as follows: PPP has 27 seats, PML-Q has 21, JUI-F has 10, PML-N has seven, ANP has six, MQM has six, BNP-Awami has three, JI has three, NP has two, JWP has one, PML-F has one, PPP-Sherpao has one, PkMAP has one and Independents hold 11 seats, with a total strength of 100.

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Pakistanis to visit India over Mumbai prosecution

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani investigators and lawyers will visit India next month to gather more evidence for the prosecution of seven suspects linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, they said on Monday.
Pakistan indicted seven alleged perpetrators over the attacks but says that its own commission needs to gather more evidence in India. Delhi has called for “decisive” action from Pakistan against the perpetrators of the attacks and accuses its efforts so far of being a “facade”, saying it has already handed over enough evidence to convict the accused men. “If all goes well, the visit will take place between February 4 to February 10,” senior public prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said.
Both sides, he said, agreed that the Pakistani commission could visit India between February 1 to February 10 to cross examine witnesses of the carnage in which 166 people were killed. But Ali said there is a “possibility that the visit may be delayed” by the death of the lawyer representing alleged mastermind, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
The deceased’s son, Khwaja Harris Ahmad, has applied to replace his father and the issue would be taken up by the court on February 4, Ali said.
The commission is made up of two senior prosecutors, a director from the Federal Investigation Agency and five lawyers representing the suspects.
“We can proceed to India before February 10 if our authorities address all the legal requirements,” Ahmad said. Pakistan had wanted Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, to testify. But Ahmad said Kasab, who has appealed a death sentence in India, was not included on the list of witnesses whom the panel wish to cross-examine. India blamed Pakistani militants in Lashkar-e-Taiba for training, equipping and financing the attack with support from “elements” in the Pakistan military.

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Haqqani leaves for US

ISLAMABAD - The main character of memogate scandal and the ousted Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has left for US through a connecting flight from Islamabad airport on early Tuesday.
Haqqani would land in Abu Dhabi first and from there will fly off to the US.
Husain Haqqani reached at Benazir International airport early in the morning amid tight security and moved into the lounge without speaking to media.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court lifted travel restrictions imposed on him.

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POL prices likely to shoot up by Rs 3 to 6

ISLAMABAD - The government is likely to fully pass on the impact of increase in POL prices as estimated by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), which has recommended an increase of Rs 3.11 to Rs 6.29 per litre on various products with effect from February 1. An official source told Pakistan Today OGRA had estimated an increasing trend in international POL prices, as oil prices had increased from $111 per barrel to $114 per barrel in January, while the rupee had devalued by 1.2 percent as compared to the US dollar during the current month.
OGRA had recommended increasing the price of petrol by Rs 5.37 per litre to Rs 94.91 per litre, High Octane Blended Component (HOBC) by Rs 6.29 to Rs 118.20 per litre, High Speed Diesel (HSD) by Rs 3.11 to Rs 101.93 per litre, Light Diesel Oil (LDO) by Rs 3.43 to Rs 90.21 per litre and Super Kerosene Oil (SKO) by Rs 2.78 to 92.02 per litre. Previously, OGRA had notified increase in petrol prices by Rs 1.65 per litre to Rs 89.94 per litre, HOBC increased by Rs 5.13 to Rs 111.91 per litre with effect from January 1, 2012. The prices of HSD, LDO and SKO were retained at last month’s level of Rs 98.82, Rs 86.78 and Rs 89.24 per litre respectively. The source said OGRA had calculated new prices of POL products based upon the existing petroleum levy (PL) of Rs 10 per litre for petrol, Rs 7.62 for HOBC, Rs 5.18 for HSD, Rs 2.72 for LDO and Rs 4.82 for SKO. To save the people from the negative impact of inflation because of increase in POL prices, OGRA had again recommended lowering PL on petrol and diesel. The Petroleum Ministry, said the source, was supporting OGRA’s recommendation by stressing that the reduction in PL on petrol and diesel could bring their prices at par with CNG, which would help reduce the demand for natural gas. Nearly 3.5 million vehicles run on CNG in the country, with an estimated consumption of 290 mmcfd.
However, the Finance Ministry had rejected the proposal last month. The government collects Rs 23 billion per month by taxing POL products. It collects Rs 16 billion per month in sales tax on POL products while another Rs 7 billion are collected as PL. Pakistan’s annual POL demand is about 20 million tonnes, 400,000 barrels each day, out of which only 15 percent is met through local resources while the rest of the 85 percent is imported as crude oil and deficit refined petroleum products such as motor spirit, HSD and furnace oil. The estimated import volumes of crude oil, HSD and furnace oil were 8.4 million tonnes, 4 million tonnes and 9 million tonnes respectively for the last fiscal year, for which the import bill was more than $12 billion.

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Balochistan MPA’s wife, daughter, driver gunned down

KARACHI - The wife, daughter, and driver of Balochistan MPA Sahibzada Bakhtiar were murdered near Gizri Bridge in Karachi late on Monday night, a private TV channel reported.
Earlier, reports were that some unknown gunmen opened fire on a car parked outside a house in a street, killing all the occupants. The bullet riddled dead bodies have been shifted to the hospital.
Police, according to the channel, were shy of divulging any details to the media.
Earlier, it was found out that car's registration number was "ANR 353" and a plaque fixed on top of license plate read “MPA Balochistan”. An investigation has been launched into the incident.

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THE MEMO THAT WAS!

Islamabad - The memo controversy seems to remain an inextricable riddle for the nation as the de-escalation phase begins. It was expected. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s retraction of his statement about Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha was understandably an initiative to avoid confrontation and bring the civil-military relations back to normal – no more sabre-rattling. The efforts of intermediaries worked.
Politics is the art of the possible. The prime minister handled the volatile situation, politically. And, nothing happened to the disappointment of the agents of instability who had thought the government would not last beyond the month of February and kept adding fuel to the fire. The states don’t work that way, albeit our political history is contrary to this as such a situation in the past had always taken its toll with one or two heads rolling or the system being packed up.
Though two heads, the defence secretary and the country’s former ambassador to Washington, did roll this time, the government stayed and the tension, if not completely defused, started showing signs of de-escalation – the Supreme Court order in the memo case on Monday is an indicator. The memo commission was granted two more months to complete its investigation and Husain Haqqani was allowed to conditionally leave the country. What appears to have been agreed to as a middle ground to end the impasse is: one, the prime minister should withdraw his statement; and two, the removal of the ambassador and the defence secretary should be a balancing factor with both sides having compromised on one head each and the top men in Islamabad and Rawalpindi continuing till their respective tenures in office end. After all, the prime minister had predicted that all top offices were secure subsequent to the extension in General Kayani’s service as army chief – he has so far not retracted this statement.
Mansoor Ijaz continues to make headlines. Following the nine-member Supreme Court bench’s decision on the memo commission’s request and Haqqani’s application, he made a startling disclosure that it was
he who, in a letter to the chief justice, had asked the top judge to allow the former ambassador to leave the country. Surprisingly, he had asked the chief justice to keep his letter secret but he himself reportedly leaked its contents to the media.
An un-attributed report claimed Ijaz wrote to the chief justice that if he guaranteed his protection and safe return immediately after his deposition before the memo commission, he would come to Pakistan. He feared that in case he came to Pakistan he would get stuck here for what he considered a year, and this would affect his business and family.
He also claimed that it was his proposal to let Haqqani leave the country as it was like keeping him free and the former ambassador under restriction.
On the face of it, his claims simply appear ridiculous.
Whether or not the chief justice guarantees him protection and safe return remains to be seen. But if it really happened on his writing a letter to the chief justice then it must have been with the consent of all concerned in the larger national interest under the doctrine of necessity – the national interest has to be supreme, we are always told, and a new development pushes us into an even more grievous situation.

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Girlz Emotionss... Really Amazing Must Wtach

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SC resumes hearing of memo case today