Reformed GST to be imposed from Oct 1: Shaikh

ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh announced on Thursday that the reformed General Sales Tax (GST) will be enforced in the country effective from October 1.

Speaking to newsmen, Dr Shaikh said that the government intends to introduce GST in its original format and eliminate all exemptions.

The original form of GST has been distorted by exemptions, and the lobby which has benefited from exemptions is opposing restoration of GST to its original form, he said.

Pakistan, Dr Shaikh said, has the lowest tax-to-GDP ratio in the world with only nine per cent.

He said that the ministry of finance was currently working on formulating new taxes with the objective not to burden common man, rather burden the affluent class.

“Country’s financial situation was not good before the floods but became worse after the devastation of floods,” he said.

Film release postponed due to court ruling

MUMBAI: The release of two Bollywood films has been postponed amid fears of Muslim-Hindu violence in India following a court ruling on a high-profile religious dispute, the makers have said.

Sajid Nadiadwala said the romantic comedy “Anjaana Anjaani” (Strangers), which was due to hit screens Friday, would be put back to avoid any fall-out from the long-awaited verdict in the Babri Masjid case on the same day.

The thriller “Aakrosh” (Anger) has also been postponed from its scheduled October 1 release date, said producer Kumar Mangat.

Hindu nationalists razed a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, in 1992, claiming it had been built on the ruins of a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu warrior god, Ram.

The destruction led to the bloodiest communal violence since the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947, leaving some 2,000 people dead and a legacy of mistrust between the two religious groups.

A court in northern India is set to rule on Friday which religious group should have ownership of the site.

Nadiadwala told a news conference on Monday evening: “The Ayodhya issue is a very big issue and therefore we decided to postpone the film by one week.

“Our film is a happy film and we felt it will not be appropriate to release the film on a day when such an important judgment is scheduled to come.” “Anjaana Anjaani” is based in the United States starring Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra while “Aakrosh”, with Ajay Devgan and Bipasha Basu, is billed as the first Hindi-language film to tackle the subject of honour killings.

“Aakrosh” will now be released on October 8, Mangat told AFP.

“By postponing the film by one week we will be in a better position to market our film as we will have more time on our hands,” he added.

Budget priorities being revised: Hafeez Sheikh

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said on Wednesday the government would introduce reformed general sales tax and reprioritise the entire budget.

He informed the Senate during the question hour that self-reliance was not possible without enhancing resources. He said the government had imposed capital gains tax on powerful groups and would now introduce the reformed GST and make changes in budget priorities.

Dr Hafeez said that at a time when the devastating flood had affected 20 million people across the country, a proposal to impose ‘flood tax’ was being opposed. He said the elite class was the main obstacle to introducing the flood tax. He said that inflation, which was 12 per cent in 2007-08, rose to 20.8 per cent in 2008-9. It came down to 11.7 per cent in 2009-10. The security situation and re-payment of loans have been the main factors contributing to the rise in inflation.

The minister said it was for the first time that the government had decided to freeze the development budget to the level of the previous year. However, he said that despite all resource constraints there would be no compromise on promotion of education. He said the budget of the Higher Education Commission had been increased by eight per cent.—Iftikhar A. Khan

Dr Aafia Siddiqui sentenced to 86 years in jail

NEW YORK: A US-trained Pakistani scientist convicted of trying to kill US agents and military officers in Afghanistan was sentenced Thursday to 86 years in prison after she called on Muslims to resist using violence and said she loves American soldiers.

Aafia Siddiqui, 38, was sentenced in US District Court in Manhattan by Judge Richard M. Berman, who said ''significant incarceration is appropriate.''

''Don't get angry,'' Siddiqui said in court to her supporters after the sentence was announced. ''Forgive Judge Berman.''

Berman responded, saying: ''I wish more defendants would feel the way that you do.''

The sentencing capped a strange legal odyssey that began two summers ago, when Siddiqui turned up in Afghanistan carrying evidence that —depending on the argument —proved she was either a terrorist or a lunatic.

In February, she was convicted of grabbing a rifle and trying to shoot US authorities in Afghanistan while yelling, ''Death to Americans!'' The conviction touched off protests in Pakistan that resumed Thursday as hundreds chanted ''Free Aafia!'' at a rally in Karachi. Others demonstrated outside the Manhattan courthouse.

During a rambling statement to the court Thursday, Siddiqui carried only a message of peace.

''I do not want any bloodshed. I do not want any misunderstanding. I really want to make peace and end the wars,'' she said.

Siddiqui said she was particularly upset by overseas reports that she was being tortured in a US prison. She said she was actually being treated well.

''I am not sad. I am not distressed. ... They are not torturing me,'' she said. ''This is a myth and lie and it's being spread among the Muslims.''

Prosecutors said Siddiqui is a cold-blooded radical who deserves life in prison.

In court papers, they cited threatening notes Siddiqui was carrying at the time of her detention.

They directly quoted one as referencing ''a 'mass casualty attack' ... NY CITY monuments: Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge,'' and another musing how a dirty bomb would spread more fear than death. They claimed the notes, along with the fact that she was carrying sodium cyanide, showed she wasn't an accidental menace.

''Her conduct was not senseless or thoughtless,'' prosecutors wrote. ''It was deliberate and premeditated. Siddiqui should be punished accordingly.''

The defense had asked the judge for a sentence closer to 12 years behind bars. Her lawyers argued in court papers that their client's outburst inside a cramped Afghan outpost was a spontaneous ''freak out,'' born of mental illness not militancy.

Floods survivors await help to rebuild

KANDARO CAMP: Survivors of Pakistan's worst-ever floods, which forced at least 10 million people from their homes, are desperate for money to rebuild their houses.

Failure to rehabilitate flood victims nearly two months after the disaster has the potential of triggering instability in a country which is fighting a full-blown insurgency and is crucial for the United States in its efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.

“Please give us some money so that we can go home,” Jan Pari told senior UN officials who visited Kandaro Camp in Nowshera on Thursday.

Standing in the middle of scores of tents donated by the United Nations, the mother of three married sons said she and her entire extended family were homeless.

“We are getting food, but this is not our home,” said Pari, wrapped in a shawl as five of her grandchildren stared at the visitors. “We want to go back.”

Authorities have promised to pay 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,165) in compensation to each displaced family, but the need for the cash-strapped government to raise much of the billions of dollars for reconstruction will put the nation under strain for years.

Compensation to displaced families alone would be about $2 billion. The floods killed more than 1,750 people and caused up to $43 billion in damage.

The government says it will start disbursing the first instalment of 20,000 rupees in compensation by the end of the month to encourage families to return home. But it has already missed one deadline for cash disbursement this month.

UN officials said people should be able to return to normal lives.

“One of the issues that needs to be addressed is the condition of the returning of people to their villages,”

Louis-Georges Arsenault, director of UNICEF's Office of Emergency Programmes, told Reuters.

Zuckerberg to make 100 million dollar school gift

NEW YORK: Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will donate 100 million dollars to the troubled public school system in Newark, New Jersey, the New York Times reported late Wednesday.

The donation was to be announced on the Oprah Winfrey television show, the report said.

The Times said the gift would be the first installment in an education endowment to be started by Zuckerberg.

It would be by far the largest publicly known gift by Zuckerberg, whose fortune was estimated last year by Forbes magazine at two billion dollars.

The gift is many times larger than any the system has received before, and amounts to one-eighth of the 800-million-dollar annual operating budget.

It was not yet clear how the money would be used, or over what period of time.

The Times said the gift would be made with the condition of giving back some control of the school system to the mayor of the city, Cory Booker. The state currently runs the system in the troubled city.

The report said Zuckerberg has no connection to Newark, but in July he and Booker met at a conference and began a conversation about the mayor's plans for the city.

Facebook declined to comment on the report, responding to an AFP inquiry with a one-sentence email message saying “We don't have anything to announce.”

Zuckerberg's act of public generosity would come a week ahead of the October 1st release of “The Social Network” film, a Hollywood take on the birth of Facebook that casts a harsh light on its founder.

Promises of elitism, geekdom, betrayal and greed are fueling anticipation for the film and early reviews have mentioned the potential for it to be a contender in the Academy Awards.

Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg have not sanctioned the film, which is based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” and is directed by David Fincher, who won an Oscar nomination for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

The film takes viewers back to Harvard, where Zuckerberg was a student with dazzling computer skills who didn't fit in at the status conscious elite university.

The screenplay, written by Aaron Sorkin, creator of hit television series The West Wing, opens with Zuckerberg as a 19-year-old Harvard student who has trouble even making eye contact, according to a draft circulating on the Internet.

In the film, a clearly brilliant but socially off-key Zuckerberg is dumped by his girlfriend and takes refuge in his computer, setting in motion the disputed events leading to the creation of Facebook in 2004.

“The movie might be a sign that Facebook has become meaningful to people - even if the movie is fiction,” the Palo Alto, California-based company said in response to an AFP query.

“What the movie may or may not contain is not what we're focused on. What matters more is building a useful, innovative service that people enjoy using to connect and share.” – AFP

ECB demands apology from Butt, threatens legal action

SOUTHAMPTON: The England and Wales Cricket Board demanded on Thursday a “full and unreserved apology” from Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt for his allegations that England players had engaged in match-fixing.

“Mr Butt has been advised that if a satisfactory response is not received, legal proceedings will be commenced against him without further notice,” an ECB statement said.

The threat follows an interview given by Butt to a Pakistan television channel after England lost the third one-day international against Pakistan at the Oval last Friday.

Butt said there had been “loud and clear talk in bookies’ circles that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose (Friday’s) match”.

In a BBC radio interview before Monday’s fourth match at Lord’s, Butt said he had been merely repeating information he had received from bookmakers.

His comments came after the International Cricket Council said it was launching an inquiry into Pakistan’s scoring pattern at the Oval after receiving information from a British newspaper.

Thursday’s ECB statement said a letter from the board and the Professional Cricketers’ Association had been sent to Butt.

“The letter seeks a full and unreserved apology,” the statement said.

Pakistan’s acrimonious tour of England and Wales concluded on Wednesday when England clinched the five-match 50 overs series at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.

Pakistan test captain Salman Butt and his team mates Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif had been suspended after an investigation into a newspaper report that they had arranged for no-balls to be deliberately delivered in the fourth test at Lord’s.

Law ministry prepares summary on Swiss cases

ISLAMABAD: The law ministry on Thursday sent the summary regarding the reopening of the Swiss cases against President Asif Ali Zardari to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, sources told.

Letter to reopen cases against the president cannot be sent to another country, the summary reportedly stated.

Television reports quoted the law ministry as categorically stating that the cases could not be reopened. Doing so would endanger the country’s sovereignty, the ministry was quoted as saying.

The ministry, in a five-point summary, expressed reservations regarding the cases’ reopening. The summary was prepared on the apex court’s directives.

The summary added that according to the law, no incumbent president can be prosecuted in any other country.