Islamic states push UN to condemn Koran burning

GENEVA: Islamic states sought on Wednesday to have the United Nations human rights council condemn a U.S. pastor's suspended plan to burn Korans, saying it was part of a pattern of global anti-Muslim violence.

A resolution submitted by Pakistan for the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) asks the council to speak out against what it dubbed “the recent call by an extremist group to organise a 'Burn a Koran Day'.”

The resolution, which diplomats said was likely to be passed as the OIC and its allies have a majority on the 47-nation body, made no reference to condemnation of the plan by President Barack Obama and other US and foreign leaders.

But it said the project, championed by little-known Florida preacher Terry Jones, was among “instances of intolerance, discrimination, profiling and acts of violence against Muslims occurring in many parts of the world.”

The move came amid increasing efforts by the OIC, which has Russia, China and Asian and African states as allies in the council, to have the UN recognise “Islamophobia” as racism and open to challenge under international law.

It also follows widespread demonstrations around the Muslim world in which a number of anti-US protesters have been killed even after Jones withdrew his proposal to stage the burning on September 11, the ninth anniversary of the hijacking attacks in New York and Washington.

In speeches in Geneva over the past few days, OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of Turkey has also argued that Jones' plan underscored his grouping's long-standing demands for a UN- backed ban on “defamation of religion”.

Western countries and some allies in Latin America oppose both the OIC efforts, arguing that they undermine freedom of expression and freedom to discuss openly religion-based practices that infringe universal human rights.

Last week, a Pakistani-born Canadian Muslim academic, Raheel Raza, told the council, whose members include Libya and Saudi Arabia, that OIC countries systematically abuse the rights of everyone living on their territory, especially women.

European diplomats said they were unlikely to vote against the OIC resolution, as their governments had already condemned the Koran burning idea, but feared it would be used to increase pressure for actions on defamation and “Islamophobia.”

The resolution, together with others yet to be submitted at the council, is likely to be voted on when the body wraps up its current autumn session at the end of next week. -Reuters

England win toss and bat against Pakistan

SOUTHAMPTON, England: England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat againstPakistan in the deciding fifth and final one-day international at the Rose Bowl here on Wednesday.

Strauss’s move meant Pakistan, who had reverse-swing expert Umar Gul in the side, would not be bowling under the floodlights as they’d done in the fourth one-dayer at Lord’s on Monday, where they won by 38 runs to level the series at 2-2 having been 2-0 down.

England made one change with all-rounder Luke Wright replacing left-arm spinner Michael Yardy.

This series, and indeed Pakistan’s tour of Britain, has been overshadowed by ‘fixing’ allegations and the latest flashpoint saw an altercation between England’s Jonathan Trott and Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz before the toss at Lord’s.

Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, fuelled the row by accusing England of losing last week’s third one-day international at The Oval deliberately, sparking threats of legal action by English officials.

Pakistan’s Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif have all been questioned by British police over an alleged plot to bowl deliberate no-balls during last month’s Test at Lord’s.

Riaz was also interviewed by the British authorities.

All four players have denied any wrongdoing.

This was the final match of the 2010 English cricket season, with England national selector Geoff Miller due to announce the squad for the Ashes tour of Australia on Thursday.

Teams

England: Andrew Strauss (capt), Steven Davies (wkt), Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson

Pakistan: Kamran Akmal (wkt), Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Yousuf, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (capt), Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (WIS) and Ian Gould (ENG)

TV umpire: Nigel Llong (ENG)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)

Pakistan floods hit more than 10,000 schools: UN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's flood crisis has damaged more than 10,000 schools, affecting several million pupils and requiring massive investment in a nation struggling with literacy, the UN warned Wednesday.

Torrential rain began falling in northern Pakistan in July and the floods have since moved slowly south, wiping out villages and farmland, and affecting an area roughly the size of England.

“Five to six per cent of all schools have been damaged by the floods. This means that between 1.5 to 2.5 million students have been affected,” Umar Amal, an official with UNESCO, told a news conference.

“That number can rise and it will rise,” he said, unable to estimate how much it would cost to repair the damaged infrastructure.

The United Nations has issued a record two-billion-dollar appeal to cope the disaster, which UN agencies say affected 21 million people and and left 12 million in need of emergency food aid.

Amal said more than 9,780 government schools were damaged - 2,700 fully and 7,000 partially.

The number of private schools affected - a statistic he said was not yet available - would push the figure beyond 10,000, he said.

The UN Children's Fund has said over 10 million children have been affected by the flooding, including 2.8 million under five-year-olds.

Education standards are poor in much of Pakistan, particularly in the most impoverished, rural areas worst hit by the floods.

Primary school enrollment is around 57 per cent and government expenditure on education accounts for just 2.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.

The overall adult literacy rate is 57 per cent and Pakistan has three years to meet a Millennium Development Goal target of 88 per cent.

But many of the flood-affected areas have far worse rates - for example in rural parts of southwestern province Baluchistan female literacy can be as low as seven percent, Amal said.

“Already before the floods, they were lagging behind... If 9,000 schools are partially damaged and 2,000 schools fully damaged you need a huge investment in education to re-activate it,” he warned.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a further 5,563 schools are still being used to shelter about 567,000 people displaced in the crisis. – AFP

Pakistan People’s Party has no future, says Pir Pagara

KARACHI: Head of the Pakistan Muslim League - Functional Pir Pagara on Wednesday said that the GHQ was responsible for the splitting up of the Pakistan Muslim League.

Speaking to media representatives after meeting a delegation of the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid, Pagara said the next prime minister will be from his party.

Replying to a question, he said that he welcomes former president Pervez Musharraf into politics, adding that Musharraf will have to decide whether he will face the courts or not.

Pagara said the Pakistan People’s Party had no future and that it had been “swept away in the floods”.

Pagara predicted that like his maternal grandfather, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will one day become the General-Secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League.

US seeks scrutiny of China, Pakistan deal

VIENNA: A senior US official suggested on Wednesday the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) should address Chinese plans to build two new reactors in Pakistan, one of the few countries outside a global anti-nuclear weapons pact.

The comments by Thomas D'Agostino, US Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, came a day after China indicated it may see no need to seek approval from the NSG, some of whose members have voiced qualms about the plan to build two new reactors at Pakistan's Chasma nuclear energy complex.

China joined the 35-year-old NSG, which seeks to ensure nuclear exports are not diverted for military purposes, in 2004.

On Tuesday, Beijing gave its firmest government confirmation yet of plans to build the two new reactors for nuclear-armed Pakistan, saying it was based on a contract in 2003, shortly before it joined the NSG.

The expansion of China's nuclear ties with Pakistan has ruffled Washington, Delhi and other capitals worried about Pakistan's history of spreading nuclear weapons technology covertly, its domestic instability, and the potential exceptions created in international non-proliferation regulations.

To receive nuclear exports, all nations except the five officially recognised atomic weapons states must usually place all nuclear sites under safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, NSG rules say.

NUCLEAR SAFEGUARDS

When the United States sealed its nuclear supply accord with India in 2008, it won a waiver from such NSG rules after contentious talks in which China and some other group members raised misgivings, since New Delhi is outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has a nuclear arsenal.

Pakistan has also shunned the NPT.

Washington and other governments have said China should at least seek a similar waiver for the Pakistan deal.

Asked about the Pakistani reactor plans, D'Agostino told reporters during an IAEA meeting in Vienna he did not want to comment on specifics, but added: “We look to engage with China on these particular issues... my focus is to use the framework of the mechanisms that we have in the Nuclear Suppliers Group...

“We are going to use the Nuclear Suppliers Group to the best of our abilities and use all of the tools that we have in that forum to address specific nuclear arrangements that are made, whether it is with China, Pakistan or a variety of other countries...,” D'Agostino said.

Israel and North Korea are the only other countries outside the 40-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Asked whether the planned reactors should be under the supervision of the IAEA, D'Agostino said: “I believe in the end that all reactors involved in civil uses should be under IAEA safeguards...”

China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday Beijing had invited the IAEA to “exercise safeguards and oversight of this project.”

But a diplomat familiar with IAEA procedures suggested it was up to Pakistan, not China, to ask it to get involved. – Reuters

Commonwealth Games chief rushing to New Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Commonwealth Games chief rushed to New Delhi seeking emergency talks with the prime minister over India’s chaotic preparations, as two world champion competitors withdrew and Englandwarned that problems with the Athletes’ village have left the sporting event on a “knife-edge.”

No national teams have yet pulled out, but Scotland announced Wednesday it would delay its travel to the Indian capital, where the athletes’ village — said to be incomplete and soiled with human excrement — was supposed to open Thursday.

Indian officials insisted that facilities would be ready and immaculate for the Oct. 3 games opening despite wide-ranging concerns about unfinished buildings construction collapses and an outbreak of dengue fever.

The Games, which bring together more than 7,000 athletes from the 71 countries and territories from the former British Empire every four years, was supposed to showcase Indiaas an emerging power in the international community. Instead, it has become a major embarrassment.

The city has had seven years to prepare, though very little work was done until 2008. New Delhi has been a frenzy of activity in recent weeks, as it struggles to meet the deadline — only adding to concern that haste could lead to shortcuts in construction of key facilities.

On Tuesday, a 90-meter (yard) pedestrian bridge collapsed at the main stadium, injuring 27 construction workers, five critically. On Wednesday, part of a drop ceiling at the weightlifting venue collapsed, officials said.

Compounding concerns over the readiness of the games facilities are security fears after the Sunday shooting of two tourists outside one of the city’s top attractions. An Islamic militant group took responsibility for the shooting.

Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fennell is due to arrive in New Delhi on Thursday, and has requested a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, federation chief executive Mike Hooper told The Associated Press.

Hooper said the problems with the games preparations had prompted Fennell to rush toNew Delhi far earlier than planned. His emergency trip “emphasizes that this is an important issue and we obviously need to engage at the highest level to get it fixed,” Hooper said.

International sports officials have called the games village unfinished, dirty, hobbled by numerous infrastructure problems and even “unsafe and unfit for human habitation.”

“It’s just filthy. ... It hasn’t been cleaned,” said Hooper.

In addition to shoddy conditions inside and outside the buildings, there also are problems with plumbing, wiring, furnishings, Internet access and cell phone coverage. Hooper also confirmed reports of excrement found in the village.

“I’ve never come across this before,” Hooper said of the last-minute preparations. “It’s very frustrating to see the delays and the fact that we’ve had to come right down to the wire.”

“We’ve been complaining about the delivery of the venues for nearly two years, and the constant delays,” he said.

Andrew Foster, the chairman of Commonwealth Games England, said Wednesday “the next 24 to 48 hours is the critical time” to determine whether the standards of the athletes’ village can be raised.

Foster told the BBC that “the safety of the athletes has to be our primary concern, but equally, we cannot just respond to that alone, we have to evaluate the whole thing together and that is what we are doing.”

He said “it’s a situation that hangs on a knife-edge.”

The Indian media blasted its officials for the turmoil — “C’wealth Games India’s Shame,” The Times of India newspaper said Tuesday in a page-one headline.

But officials continued to downplay the problems, a position that international sports officials say defies reality.

“We are absolutely prepared,” Cabinet Secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar, told CNN-IBN television Wednesday.

Speaking of the state of the athletes’ village, Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy told CNN-IBN: “Athletes and guests should not bother about such small matters,” and insisted it would be immaculate when the events begin.

Referring to the collapsed pedestrian bridge, New Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters: “The accident is not as big as being made out to be.” Dikshit is the equivalent of the city’s mayor.

The cost of hosting the games — which the government initially pegged at less than $100 million in 2003 — has skyrocketed, with estimates ranging from $3 billion to more than $10 billion.

Scotland’s team, the first batch of which was set to leave Thursday, delayed its departure for the games, saying it wants to give organizers time to prepare accommodation and solve the growing number of problems. Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Michael Cavanagh said that would be put off for “a few days.”

Australian discus world champion Dani Samuels and England’s world champion triple jumper Phillips Idowu both withdrew from the games Tuesday.

Idowu said in a Twitter message that: “I can’t afford to risk my safety in the slightest. Sorry people, but I have children to think about. My safety is more important to them than a medal.”

Australia’s 1990 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, Jane Flemming, said Samuels’ withdrawal could spark a flood of other athletes to make the same choice.

“It would not surprise me if we now see a whole flux of withdrawals,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.–AP

Another protester dies in unrest in Srinagar

SRINAGAR: One more young man wounded during protests against Indian rule died Wednesday as thousands of troops enforced a rigid curfew for the 10th straight day in the troubled Indian-administered Kashmir, police said.

There were no fresh street protests, a rare breather in almost daily protests.

However, the 20-year-old protester wounded in a street battle with government forces on Sept. 13 died in hospital in the main city of Srinagar, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Kashmir has been rocked by deadly civil unrest since early June, with at least 107 people killed in protests and clashes with government forces - mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s.

Human rights group Amnesty International has urged Indian authorities to investigate the killings and stop using lethal force against the demonstrators.

Last Friday, the government deployed the army for crowd control as protests by Kashmiris escalated in the region.

Thousands of armed troops enforced the round-the-clock curfew in Srinagar and other major towns in Kashmir on Wednesday. They put up razor wire and iron barricades and asked people to stay in their homes in announcements over loudspeakers fitted to their armored vehicles.

People were allowed to stock up on food and other items during a brief relaxation in the curfew on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, nearly 40 lawmakers from major Indian national parties concluded a three-day visit to the region on Wednesday.

Led by Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, the delegation came from New Delhi to find ways to address long-standing demands of Kashmiri Muslims for self-rule or a merger with a predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

Kashmiri separatist leaders met some of the lawmakers on Monday, but they dismissed the visit as grandstanding by the Indian government. – AP

Nine killed as bomb tears through Iran military parade

TEHRAN: A bomb tore through a military parade in Iran Wednesday killing nine people, mostly women and children, as the country marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the bloody Iran-Iraq war, reports said.

Dozens of people were wounded in the blast, which occurred during an annual military parade in the northwestern Kurdish town of Mahabad, Arabic-language television channel Al-Alam said.

“The explosion happened in the morning as people were watching the military parade and it left nine dead and dozens wounded, mostly women and children. The explosives were in a bag,” Al-Alam said.

Provincial governor Vahid Jalalzadeh confirmed the casualties to the official IRNA news agency.

“Counter-revolutionaries committed this savage act with the aim of taking revenge on the people of Mahabad” in West Azarbaijan province, he said.

The attack took place as Iran marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, during which army parades are traditionally staged across the country.

Western Iran, which has a sizeable Kurdish population, has seen deadly clashes in recent years between the Iranian security forces and Kurdish militant groups, mainly the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) operating from bases in neighbouring Iraq.

In Tehran earlier in the day, Iran's top military commander insisted that the Islamic republic's military power was for defensive purposes only.

“The increased military capability of Iran is only a deterrent against aggressors and for defending our country against enemy threats,” chief of staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said in a speech.

“We can confidently tell people that our military might is superior in the region but our military superiority is not limited to the number of planes and material calculations,” he boasted.

Firouzabadi, flanked by Iran's top military commanders, made the speech at a military parade where Iran's long-range Sejil, Shahab-3 and Ghadr-1 missiles were also showcased.

With a range of 1,800 to 2,000 kilometres, the missiles are theoretically capable of hitting Iran's archfoe Israel.

Iraq's Saddam Hussein attacked Iran on September 22, 1980, shortly after the Islamic revolution, starting an eight-year war during which an estimated one million people were killed on both sides.

During the Tehran parade, Iran also showed off five of its “bomber” drones Karar (“Assailant”), first unveiled in August and said to have a range of 1,000 kilometres. Iran touted the aerial drone as its home-grown capacity to resist attack.

Iran also paraded for the first time Wednesday a “Blue Beret” unit of 180 men as well as several armoured personnel-carriers emblazoned with UN insignia.

Iran's army chief Ataollah Salehi said that Iran “has been ready for several years to provide a group of peacekeeping soldiers to the United Nations”.

Iranian peacekeepers have already been “involved in several places such as Somalia and Eritrea,” he told reporters, without elaborating.

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and have never ruled out a military strike to thwart its atomic programme, which Tehran insists is solely aimed at peaceful purposes.

Iranian officials have vowed a crushing response in the event of an attack, targeting US bases in the region and Israel, and threatening to block the oil passage in the Gulf.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a New York meeting with US media on Tuesday warned that an attack on his country's nuclear facilities could spark a war with “no limits”.

As Iran presses on with its nuclear programme and stages regular war games showing off missiles and domestically-developed weaponry, it has also sought to allay concerns of its Arab neighbours across the Gulf that it poses no threat to them.

Saudi Arabia, however, is planning a 60-billion-dollar arms deal of advanced warplanes and helicopters with the United States, according to US defence officials this week.

Analysts say the purchase — which would represent the largest ever US arms deal — is to help counter the perceived threat from Iran.

The United States voiced concern, saying Iran's arms build-up would backfire as its neighbours gang up against it.

IMF sees Pakistan inflation accelerating to 13.5 pct

KARACHI: Inflation in Pakistan is expected to accelerate to 13.5 per cent this year as massive summer floods push up prices for food and other staples, the International Monetary Fund said in its country report.

Prior to the disaster, the IMF had projected average inflation for the current 2010/11 fiscal year at 11.5 per cent, slightly below the 11.7 per cent seen last year.

“The economic outlook has deteriorated sharply as a result of the floods,” the IMF said, adding that gross domestic product (GDP) growth was unlikely to exceed 2.75 per cent this fiscal year.

The government earlier had targeted GDP growth of 4.5 per cent this year, whereas the IMF expected it at 4.25 per cent.

“The agriculture sector — which accounts for 21 per cent of GDP and 45 per cent of employment — has been hit particularly hard,” the IMF said.

“An estimated eight per cent of total cropped area has been flooded, with very significant damage to industrial crops.”

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has estimated the damage to crops and infrastructure could hit $43 billion, almost one quarter of last year's GDP.

Inflation was already stubbornly high

The IMF said growth had been picking up before the floods in late July and August, while inflation was stubbornly high.

The central bank raised its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 13 per cent in July prior to the floods. The next monetary policy for the subsequent two months is due to be announced on September 29.

“The SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) is facing a difficult balancing act,” the IMF said.

The government's domestic net financing needs will increase after the floods and about two trillion rupees in treasury bills have to be rolled over this fiscal year, while domestic private demand will soften and undermine the already weak recovery in private sector growth.

“These considerations will have to be weighted carefully in deciding the monetary policy stance,” the IMF said.

Pakistan's inflation accelerated to a four-month high in August as the floods forced food prices higher. The consumer price index rose a higher-than expected 13.23 per cent from a year earlier and was up 2.5 per cent from July.

Earlier, analysts had expected the central bank to wait for the release of a damage assessment report in mid-October before deciding on any policy action, but with inflation stronger than expected, there are fears that the central bank may hike the policy rate soon.

Pakistan received $451 million from the IMF this week to help the country rebuild after the floods.

The IMF has said the money will go toward Pakistan's budget to help with additional spending brought about by the floods and immediate foreign exchange needs.

It is separate from an ongoing $11 billion IMF programme.

The status of the release of the sixth tranche of the bailout loan is unclear, though it has been delayed until at least November.

Four wounded in Gujranwala factory explosion

LAHORE: At least four people were wounded when an electricity generator exploded in a factory on Gujranwala's Bajwa Road on Wednesday, DawnNews reported.

Settler guard kills Palestinian in east Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: A Jewish settlement guard shot dead a Palestinian in the volatile annexed Arab east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan on Wednesday as rocks were being hurled at his car, police said.

Another two Palestinians were wounded as “a guard responsible for protecting Jewish residents of the neighbourhood opened fire with his pistol after his car was attacked with stones,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The guard opened fire as his car was stopped at a barricade Palestinians had set up. He was detained for questioning, Rosenfeld added.

The man killed was identified as Samir Serhan. Rosenfeld said he had been detained in the past for “participation in unrest.”

Clashes erupted between residents and police after the shooting, leaving several Palestinians wounded.

Police fired rubber-coated bullets and teargas at rock-throwing Palestinian protesters.

Silwan, a crowded Arab neighbourhood of 12,000, where a few dozen Jewish families also live, is one of the most volatile areas of east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.

Plans to demolish Palestinian homes to make way for an archaeological park have triggered violent protests in the past.

The Jerusalem city council gave the green light in June for the controversial project which would be under the control of Elad, a group dedicated to expanding Jewish ownership in east Jerusalem.

Under the plan, 22 homes would be razed, while another 66 would be legalised.

The park is planned on what is believed to be the site of ancient Jerusalem during the reigns of the biblical kings David and Solomon.

Wednesday’s shooting highlighted the challenges Israeli and Palestinian negotiators face in peace talks which resumed on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus.

The issue of settlements has been one of the thorniest in peace efforts.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, to be illegal.

The Palestinians want a freeze on all settlement construction but are also pushing for a renewal of a partial moratorium on settlement building that will end within days, even though the curbs do not cover east Jerusalem.

Jerusalem does not consider Jewish residents of east Jerusalem to be settlers as it views the whole of the Holy City as its “eternal and indivisible capital.” — AFP

NAB’s Qazi appoints new advisors despite SC order

ISLAMABAD: Despite the Supreme Court’s verdict, Deputy Chairman National Accountability Bureau Javed Qazi has appointed new legal advisors at Karachi and Islamabad.

On September 1, the apex court had ordered that Javed Qazi could no longer operate as the NAB’s acting chairman.

Sources said Javed Qazi had issued the new directives on September 16. The directives included the transfer order for Additional Director Abdul Hafeez from Islamabad to Rawalpindi.

Javed Qazi also promoted several NAB employees and also increased the salaries of legal advisors. Sources told DawnNews that the new appointments in Islamabad include that of legal advisor Naheed Seemi and the Karachi postings include five lawyers.

Earlier, the court had ordered that Qazi could not operate as acting chairman and also said that according to law, there was no position for any deputy chairman in NAB. Therefore, the decisions made by the deputy chairman do not hold any legal value.

Pakistan floods hit militant fight: Holbrooke

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s fight against militants has been constrained by the need to deploy troops to help victims of recent devastating floods, the senior US official for Pakistan and Afghanistan said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said there was no evidence yet that Islamabad was acting on Washington's demands that it move against the Haqqani group, a Taliban ally which US officials suspect has ties to Pakistani intelligence, and suggested this was because of the country's devastating floods.

“They have tens of thousands of troops on flood duty. The army has really been the major factor in the rescue effort, and you can't do both things at once,” said Holbrooke, who spoke in New York as part of a Reuters Washington Summit.

He dismissed suggestions, however, that the Pakistani government's halting response to the flood disaster was creating instability in the country.

But Holbrooke, who recently returned from a trip to Pakistan, warned again that the country must find ways to raise some of the tens of billions of dollars it will need to rebuild.

Triggered by heavy monsoon rains in late July, the floods killed more than 1,750 people, forced at least 10 million people from their homes. and caused up to $43 billion in damage.

“The international community is not going to be able to pick up the bill for $20-$30 billion or more. We will pick up some of it, ... but the Pakistanis must raise their own revenue base,” Holbrooke said.

Pakistan has one of the world's lowest ratios of taxes to gross domestic product, at about 10 per cent, and Holbrooke said it was important for Islamabad to address the disparity in order to head off potential complaints from donor nations.

“Their tax rates on the wealthy are much lower than those in the West,” Holbrooke said. “They have to come to terms with this.”

Full of rumours

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said his government had set up a 15-member National Oversight Disaster Management Council to “ensure complete transparency and accountability of aid dispensation.”

The United States and Europe should consider it a “strategic imperative” to offer Pakistani products enhanced access to their markets, he told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

Pakistan is deeply embroiled in its own battle against insurgents while serving as an ally in the US-led war against militants in neighboring Afghanistan.

While Pakistan remains focused on its flood efforts, Holbrooke played down any risks of instability.

“The country is full of rumors. ... You're all aware of them. But as far as we're concerned, our focus is solely on how we can help the people,” said Holbrooke, one of the most colorful US diplomats, who is handling perhaps the toughest diplomatic challenge faced by the Obama administration.

Pakistan's economy was already fragile and the cost of rehabilitation will likely push the 2010-2011 fiscal deficit to between six and seven per cent of gross domestic product against an original target of four per cent.

Holbrooke said the United States has taken the lead in providing emergency aid, committing $340 million to $350 million on its own and making a total contribution of close to $1 billion if the US-funded activities of international groups such as Unicef and the World Food Program are included.

Holbrooke conceded the floods meant more government troops were being diverted to relief work from battling the local Taliban and other militant groups such as the Haqqani network, which is believed to be closely linked to al-Qaeda and the architect of several high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.

The United States in particular has asked for pressure to be put on the Haqqani group, but has run into resistance in part because some in Pakistan feel the Haqqanis may be a valuable asset in Afghanistan if US troops leave, as Islamabad anticipates, before the country is stabilised.

But Holbrooke said the United States which has staged repeated aerial drone strikes against suspected militant targets in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan would “go after them with every means available”.

“This is a ferocious thing that is going on, and by ferocious I mean the military campaign,” Holbrooke said, referring to the US fight against militants in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.

“The Pakistani army has diverted a very large number of troops to the relief efforts. But the American activities in Afghanistan and our other activities against those people who threaten us have not diminished.” — Reuters

Biggest ever India-US defence deal set to be signed: report

NEW DELHI: India and the United States are likely to sign a 3.5-billion-dollar defence deal, the biggest ever between the two countries, a report said Wednesday.

The agreement will see the Indian Air Force buy 10 C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft that are expected to replace the ageing fleet of Russian Ilyushin IL-76, the The Economic Times newspaper said, without citing sources.

The deal, which is in its final stages, is likely to be signed in November when US President Barack Obama visits India.

In February, New Delhi announced a 32-billion-dollar defence budget, a four per cent increase on 2009, when spending was hiked by a quarter as the country seeks to modernise its armed forces.

A top air force official earlier stated that India's air force is just a third the size of rival China's and far short of the aircraft required to meet the security challenges facing the country.

Nato soldier killed in Afghan bombing

KABUL: A Nato soldier was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the force said.

The latest death took to 531 the number of Nato-led troops killed in Taliban-linked violence so far this year, according to an AFP count based on the independent icasualties.org website.

This year's foreign military toll is the highest since the war began in 2001, when US-led troops toppled the Taliban from power for sheltering al-Qaeda leaders wanted for the September 11 attacks.

Last year, 521 foreign soldiers lost their lives in the war.

About 150,000 Nato and US troops are operating in Afghanistan, tasked with implementing a counter-insurgency strategy designed to reverse Taliban momentum and allow American forces to start drawing down in 2011.

Pakistan pleads for US intervention on Kashmir

NEW YORK: Pakistan on Tuesday urged the United States to pressure India over Kashmir, saying recent unrest showed that New Delhi and not Islamabad was to blame for trouble in the Himalayan territory.

On a visit to New York for a UN session on Pakistan’s devastating floods, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi insisted his government wanted peace with India but tore into its rule of Kashmir which he called “oppression.” “The occupation cannot continue. The rights of the Kashmiri people cannot continue to be denied,” Qureshi said at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank.

“We call upon the United States particularly, which is pressing so responsibly for peace in the Middle East, to also invest its political capital in trying to help seek an accommodation on Kashmir,” he said.

“Such an accommodation would not only be just for the people of Kashmir but would be critical for peace in the region,” he said, warning that “terrorism...has fueled and thrived on blatant examples of social and political injustice.”

President Barack Obama's administration is seeking a broader relationship with India but also friendlier ties with Pakistan, a key battleground in the fight against Islamic extremism.

India considers Kashmir a domestic issue and rejects any foreign involvement. The Obama administration has steered clear of Kashmir after early statements triggered a backlash in India.

Kashmir, a Himalayan territory with a Muslim majority but a sizeable Hindu minority, has been disputed between India and Pakistan since independence and triggered two full-fledged wars between them.

An insurgency erupted on the Indian side in 1989 but had subsided in recent years. Indian authorities, along with some outside experts, say that Pakistan actively supported Islamic guerrillas who sneaked across the frontier.

But in recent weeks, waves of protesters have turned to the streets to rally against Indian rule in Kashmir. Security forces have shot dead more than 100 demonstrators.

“At times it's easy for the Indians to look toward Pakistan and blame Pakistan for everything that's going wrong in Indian-occupied Kashmir,” Qureshi said.

But he said “no one any longer can seriously believe this.” “Can Pakistan orchestrate thousands of people? Can Pakistan plan, sitting in Islamabad, a shutdown all over Kashmir?” he said. – AFP

New Zealand confirm Pakistan cricket tour

WELLINGTON: New Zealand Cricket on Wednesday confirmed Pakistan would tour later this year but admitted concerns at how the public would react to the visitors following their scandal-tainted trip to England.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan dismissed a British newspaper report that sports chiefs were considering scrapping the Pakistan tour and seeking the West Indies or Sri Lanka as replacements.

Vaughan said the Pakistan trip was locked in under the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) Future Tours Programme and would go ahead as planned.

“You can't just do that (change opponents) the way the Future Tours Programme is structured,” he told the New Zealand Herald.

“It’s not a process where you can say ‘we’d rather have someone else’. It doesn’t work that way.”Pakistan are due in New Zealand late December for an 11-match tour that runs until early February.

Vaughan admitted he was concerned about how New Zealand fans would view the Pakistan team and the level of interest in watching a contest where one side was under a cloud following corruption allegations.

However, he said research showed the main motivation for New Zealand fans was seeing their home team in action, regardless of the opposition.

“These recent reports (from Britain) haven’t done us any favours,” he said.

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori this month called for corrupt players to be banned for life, saying otherwise crowds would question every result, even if it was legitimate.

Pakistan’s England tour has been plagued by corruption allegations since the News of the World reported that spot-fixing took place in last month's fourth Test at Lord's.

The ICC has suspended three Pakistan players, Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif while the allegations are investigated. – AFP

Govt allows introduction of private high treason bill in NA

ISLAMABAD: Despite its reservations that were not pressed at the time, the government on Tuesday allowed the introduction in the National Assembly of an opposition member’s private bill designed to create a right for every citizen — rather than only the federal government — to initiate a trial for high treason.

Presently this right rests with any person delegated by the federal government under the High Treason (Punishment) Act of 1973, which the bill of PML-N member Khurram Dastgir Khan seeks to be amended to provide that a provincial “high court shall take cognizance of an offence under this act upon a complaint in writing made by any citizen” of Pakistan.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan did not oppose the introduction of the bill — as he did about five other private bills brought on the first private members’ day on the second day of the new session — though he told the house that at least three Pakistan Penal Code sections allowed such complaints and that the draft of PML-N member, who said former military president Pervez Musharraf was his immediate target, would exclude a lower trial court as had happened in the trials of independence struggle hero Bhagat Singh and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The minister rejected the bill author’s assertion that the PPP-led federal government lacked the resolve to move against retired general Musharraf, now living abroad after stepping down from nine years of power in 2008, for alleged high treason, which punishable with up to a death sentence, and said about the PML-N: “Let them file a complaint against the former dictator, we have no objection.”

He pointed out that the PPP had gone to court to challenge the toppling of its three governments — first of Mr Bhutto in a military coup in 1977 and later of military-backed removals of assassinated party leader Benazir Bhutto in the 1990s.

He said the PML-N should also have challenged the ouster of its leader Nawaz Sharif by then army chief General Musharraf, without referring to a legal challenge then by a PML-N member, Zafar Ali Shah, upon which a Supreme Court bench, of which present Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was a member, upheld the Oct 12, 1999, coup. Mr Dastgir’s bill is likely to face an uncertain future in the house standing committee on law and justice because of the government’s reservations and possible opposition from at least one opposition party, the PML-Q of former Musharraf loyalists, whose Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial chapter president, Amir Muqam, used a point of order to ridicule the PML-N member’s move as a futile exercise at a time when the country faced pressing issues like its worst flood disaster.

“NO CONSPIRACY”: Mr Muqam used the occasion also to reject propaganda in some sections of the media about an alleged conspiracy against the present government as well as a newspaper report about his recent meetings with Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

“This is no service to the nation and the country to spread such sensationalism,” Mr Muqam remarked, though he said he was not satisfied with the government’s performance.

He was the only man in the house to talk about the apparently inspired talk of some unexplained behind-the-scene moves against the government during two days of the session, as many members from both sides of the house used time after private legislative business on the second to talk on points of order about problems of flood-affected people in their provinces or constituencies such as those related to provision of relief.

The PML-Q member said he had been meeting with military authorities in connection the fight against militancy and the flood disaster whenever they visited Swat and had no other meetings with them.

Some PPP and PML-Q members from Punjab accused the provincial government led by the PML-N of discriminating against their constituencies in surveys of flood-hit areas by the revenue department for the purposes of relief and rehabilitation and some from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also complained that Peshawar, Swat and Dera Ismail Khan districts were not yet cited among the flood-affected areas in such reports.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, whose ministry is involved in the matter as in-charge of the National Database and Registration Authority that issues relief-related Watan Cards, assured the house that all complaints would be taken up with the provincial governments and rectified and that the government would ensure transparency in relief distribution.

Prime minister’s adviser Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul also asked members to “give us your complaints if there are irregularities and we will try to redress them”. PML-Q member Kishen Chand Parwani made a passionate complaint about alleged looting of “crores of rupees” by unspecified people from flood-affected members of his Hindu minority community in Kashmore town of Sindh for three days as well as abduction of a five-year-old child and demanded protection and compensation for them.

PPP member Nawab Yusuf Talpur too reiterated his oft-stated complaints about alleged “day-to-day excesses” against minorities in Sindh as he told the house that unlike other provinces relief through “(Benazir) Income Support Programme had not been started in Sindh” and called for writing off agricultural loans in the flood-hit areas.

PML-N’s Rashid Akbar Nirwani said that 95 per cent of flood sufferers of his Bhakkar district in Punjab had not been given while about the same proportion of unaffected people had been given Watan Cards.

PPP information secretary Fauzia Wahab accused the Punjab government of facilitating the operation of Jamaatud Dawa despite a UN ban on the organisation as an alleged front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group and condemned publication of what she called advertisements about their relief work in two national dailies.

Only four of the five other private bills were introduced after one by another PML-N member, Naseer Bhutta, was blocked by a negative voice vote by his own party.

Govt trying to meet poverty reduction goals: Qureshi

UNITED NATIONS: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the world community on Tuesday that despite adverse effects on Pakistan’s economy stemming from twin challenges of the war on terror and the devastating floods, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) remained centrepiece of government’s development efforts.

“We are committed to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals and keen to work with the international community to turn the challenges into opportunities,” Mr Qureshi said in a speech to a UN General Assembly meeting on MDGs.

More than 140 heads of state and government are attending the meeting convened to take stock of the progress so far towards the MDGs which include slashing poverty, combating disease, fighting hunger, protecting the environment and boosting education and to determine what else needs to be done to reach the goals by their target date of 2015.

“Until a few years ago, we were on track to achieve a number of Millennium Development Goals and targets,” he told the 192-member UN General Assembly.