|
|
CTBT review
conference BERLIN, Oct 7: Delegates at the CTBT review conference have urged the international community to accelerate political momentum required to facilitate the treaty coming into effect at the earliest. ....more
Pak CEC dismisses ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has dismissed a petition seeking to disenfranchise journalist Nazam sethi for questioning the ideology behind the country’s creation during a controversial speech in New Delhi. ....more India criticises rising UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7: India has strongly criticised the rising interventionist impulse under pretext ....more Kamlesh Sharma dubs UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7: India’s permanent representative...more |
 |
US names China, Iran, WASHINGTON, Oct 7: The United States, has......more US holding close WASHINGTON, Oct 7: The United States is holding....more Pak economy on brink ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Pakistan’s economy is on.....more
US could withdraw WASHINGTON, Oct 7: The United Sates, debating....more |
 |
CTBT
review conference urges nations BERLIN, Oct 7: Delegates at the CTBT review conference have urged the international community to accelerate political momentum required to facilitate the treaty coming into effect at the earliest. Participating in a debate, conference on facilitating the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which began in Vienna yesterday, they called on countries whose ratifications were required for the treaty to become legally binding to do so as expeditiously as possible. Without identifying those responsible for the delay in implementing the treaty negotiated three years back, they asked nuclear-weapon states to ratify the CTBT quickly and non-signatories to become a party to it. While the US, China and Russia are three of the five original nuclear powers to have signed but not ratify the CTBT, India, Pakistan and North Korea are yet to sign in the list of 44 nuclear capable states whose signing and ratification are mandatory for it to come into effect. Ministers and high-level representatives from nearly 90 countries including ratifying states, signatory states and non-signatory states are attending the three-day conference at the Hofburg Palace in the Austrian capital. India has stayed away from the conference. Among those spoke at the conference were Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanpala on behalf of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Executive Secretary of the CTBT Organisation (CTBTO) Wolfgang Hoffmann. (PTI) |
|
Pak CEC
dismisses petition seeking to ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has dismissed a petition seeking to disenfranchise journalist Nazam sethi for questioning the ideology behind the country’s creation during a controversial speech in New Delhi. CEC Justice (retd) Qadeer Choudhury dismissed the petition filed by a senior leader of Premier Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML), Zafar Ali Shah, yesterday, questioning Sethi’s status as a citizen on the basis of his New Delhi address. Shah filed the petition against Sethi, editor of the popular ‘Friday Times’ weekly, in July after his arrest by authorities following a report by Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi Ashraf Jehangir Qazi on the former’s address in April in which he severely Premier Sharif’s policies. Earlier, during the hearing, Shah’s lawyer contended that Sethi’s speech violated the constitution and as per the constitutional provisions should be met with disqualification. He also urged the court to direct Qazi to appear as a witness. Under the constitution a person can be disqualified from being Member of Parliament if he is, opposed to the ideology of Pakistan and if he is, propagating any opinion, or acting in any manner, prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan. Sethi, who was handed over to the ISI for investigations, was charged with endangering the security of Pakistan by speaking against the country in an enemy country but was released after three weeks in detention because nothing could be proved against him. (PTI) |
|
India criticises rising interventionist impulse UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7: India has strongly criticised the rising interventionist impulse under pretext of defending human rights and warned that it runs the danger of exacerbating conflicts between and within nations. The call for intervention is being heard when regressive elements are espousing ideologies supporting enforced homogenisation or separation of ethnic groups as against support for ideals of multi-cultural and pluralistic societies which respect human variety, India’s representative to the UN said here yesterday. Intervening in the debate on the report of Secretary General Kofi Annan in the UN General Assembly, Kamlesh Sharma forcefully pointed out pitfalls of such an approach. What some might regard as humanitarian action others would consider as war crimes, he said. He was reacting to that part of the report in which Annan refers to early warning, preventive diplomacy and disarmament and post conflict peace building by nations or groups of nations without un authorisation and says what is missing is the political willingness to use force. It is clear, Sharma said, that emergence of a principle of armed intervention to redress humanitarian issues would set the world on a perilous slope as in principle, at least, there would be no limits to it. Sharma said the fallacy of Annan’s proposal is that its underlying premise would be based on a dubious presumption that external forces can resolve all problems in every part of the world and that UN and the international community have neither the resources nor capability to undertake it. Urging the UN to ensure that the new century does not dawn upon the threat of a new North-South divide, Sharma said deep concerns at humanitarian crisis should not obscure the reality that such action is prone to being viewed through a political prism. Another danger, he told the 188-member Assembly, is that theories of intervention seeking to justify interference and use of force to fight alleged repression might end up strengthening the hands of covert interventionists. Annan in his opening remarks to the UN General Assembly had made a forceful plea for intervention by nations or groups of nations in humanitarian conflicts without UN sanction and cited the human catastrophes in Kosovo and Rwanda to press home his case. (PTI) |
|
Kamlesh Sharma dubs
international media UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7: India’s permanent representative to the UN Kamlesh Sharma had some very harsh words on the manner in which international media reports on various crises and described it as handmaidens of power and myopic. Speaking during a debate in the United Nations General Assembly here yesterday on Secretary General Kofi Annan’s annual report he said the media is frequently the servant of national mood and prejudice, selective and myopic. It fixes events, it chooses spotlight and relegates other to the shadows. It picks and chooses and creates ‘facts’ and sweeps others under the carpet. It conjures up politically convenient realities. We have seen this in one theatre of conflict after another — the independent media as the handmaiden of power, he said. Sharma’s criticism came during his remarks on the intervention theory being propounded by the Western Bloc-led UN that would allow nations or groups of nations to unilaterally intervene in humanitarian conflicts. (PTI) |
|
US names China, Iran, Burma
as lacking in WASHINGTON, Oct 7: The United States, has designated China, Burma, Iran, Iraq and Sudan as countries of particular concern with regard to religious freedom, paving way for eventual sanctions on them. The five countries have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom, US State Department Spokesman Robert Rubin told newsmen here yesterday. Rubin, and the US Ambassador-at-large for religious freedom Robert Seiple, said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will notify the Congress of the record of these countries towards religious freedom in a few days. The reason for this designation, said Rubin, is there is a law and this is a law that we supported, that we signed, that we want to implement. While the others are under various types of sanctions, analysts here are highly doubtful that the administration would dare impose curbs on China on religious grounds. Congress requires the State Department to notify the legislators of countries or groups that are major violators of religious freedom round the world. The Secretary, said Rubin, also intends to name the Taliban in Afghanistan, which is not recognised by the US as Afghanistan’s legitimate Government, and Serbia as particularly severe violators of religious freedom. (PTI) |
|
US holding close consultations with India on terrorism WASHINGTON, Oct 7: The United States is holding close consultations with India on ways to jointly tackle the menace of terrorism, Assistant Secretary of State Karl F Inderfurth said here today. We believe there has to be close consultation. Ambassador (Michael) Sheehan was recently in New Delhi and he talked to Indian officials about what forms of cooperation, including forms of information-sharing, we can have, he said. Addressing delegates at the new South Asia Institute of John Hopkins University, he said, terrorism emanating from Afghanistan was a menace to all countries in the region and joint efforts are needed to check it. Afghanistan, he said, has become the breeding ground of terrorism, both for training and supplies. Terrorist activity and training that takes place there has found its way into Kashmir and other parts of the region. It has threatened to destabilize many countries. It is something that we believe must be stopped. We have taken certain actions ourselves by executive order. We are now working in the UN to see Security Council measures taken on this, he said. The problem also threatens other countries of the region, including Pakistan, he said citing the recent assassination attempt against Prime Minister Sharif. So, he said, it behooves all countries in the region to...See this kind of support for terrorism ends and that is something that the US will be pursuing with a very strong effort in the months ahead. (PTI) |
|
Pak economy on brink as IMF loan delayed ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Pakistan’s economy is on the brink with foreign exchange reserves dwindling to a precarious 1.4 billion US dollars and the IMF further delaying the release of a crucial 280 million dollar loan to the country. Although Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who returned yesterday from Washington after talks with the IMF, expressed optimism that the loan would come through within a week, fund sources said talks were still on and nothing concrete had been finalised as yet. Dar told official APP news agency immediately after his arrival here that some kind of agreement with the IMF would be wrapped up within a week but reports from Washington indicated that the loan would not come through before mid-November. A report from Washington quoting an IMF official, hinted that Pakistan’s differences with World Bank-funded Independent Power Producers (IPPS) had held up progress in the talks. We discussed all outstanding issues, including IPPS, with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar last week and all I can say is that discussions are still on, The News daily quoted an IMF spokesman as saying. Dar also confirmed that the Government’s talks with IPPS had run into a dead end, further causing a setback to the Government’s efforts to get early clearance for the loan. The IMF had said it would give a letter of intent for the loan only after Islamabad settles its dispute with the IPPS. This is not likely to be sorted out before October. Even when it is, the IMF will take another three-four weeks to formally notify the loan and get the board’s nod for it. (PTI) |
|
US could withdraw from CTBT to ensure arsenal reliability WASHINGTON, Oct 7: The United Sates, debating a consensus among lawmakers over an early vote on CTBT, could resume nuclear testing, even if it ratifies the treaty, to ensure the safety and reliability of its nuclear deterrent, Defence Secretary William Cohen and a top defence official have said. If at any point of time US was unsure about the safety and reliability of its nuclear deterrent in the absence of tests, the President could withdraw the US from the treaty and resume testing, Cohen and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Henry Shelton told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. However, they said the US capability to conduct tests without explosions was superior to any other country and in ten years this capability would improve further. Backing Clinton’s plea to ratify the CTBT, Cohen and Shelton said, without its ratification it would be difficult for the US to prevent the development of newer weapons by Russia and China and plan about "India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, North Korea or anybody else." Yesterday, while Clinton made a fresh appeal to Senate to ratify the treaty, US Senators had offered to postpone a vote on the CTBT to 2001 until a new President takes over. Cohen and Shelton admitted that any system of verification under the treaty may not detect all low-yield weapons but argued that it would be adequate to prevent the development of reliable newer weapons by the above countries. (PTI) |
|
