Karachi: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday emphasised on the need for a code of conduct for a peaceful solution to the Karachi situation, and urged the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) to make collective efforts to restore peace in the city.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani urges MQM, ANP to restore peace in Karachi

He was talking to the representative delegations of various political parties which called on him at Chief Minister House.

The challenges confronting the country, the Prime Minister said, demand unity among all the segments of the society including political parties for creating an enabling environment for socio-economic change in the lives of the people.

The political leadership, he added, needs to demonstrate political maturity and sagacity.

He impressed upon the workers of political parties not to react to any situation and cooperate with law enforcement agencies to bring down the tension.

The prime minister ruled out the possibility of calling the army to control the targeted killings and conducting an operation in the city, saying that all the issues would be resolved through dialogue.

Gilani decided to continue the process of dialogue and would meet the representatives of various political parties and officials of law enforcement agencies as well as provincial government on Saturday to draw out a strategy to ensure peace and harmony in Karachi.

Earlier, Interior Minister Rehman Malik briefed the meetings on the latest law and order situation and the dialogue he had held with the representatives of various political parties in Karachi.

MQM delegation was represented by Babar Khan Ghauri, Raza Haroon, Adil Siddiqui, Waseem Aftab and Syed Mustafa Kamal, while ANP delegation included Afrasiyab Khattak, Shahi Syed, Amin Khattak, Amir Jaan, Obaid Yousufzai and Riaz Gul.

- Staff Reporter

Karachi: An activist of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was shot dead in Gulistan-e-Johar, whereas five other persons were reported dead from other parts of the city during the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the President summoned Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik in this regard today.

furious people set ablaze many buses, shops and furniture market in different areas of city

According to reports, eight vehicles, dozens of shops and a furniture market were also set on fire in different areas of the city.

Spells of firing continue in Gulistan-e-Johar.

Karachi is still in the grip of tension following yesterday’s attack on an MQM unit, in which one person was killed and six others wounded.

Later, unknown persons shot and killed an unidentified person in Hussainabad.

In another incident, some unidentified miscreants set ablaze a passenger bus in Nazimabad No-2 early today morning.

In Baldia Town, Seven passengers were injured after unknown gunmen opened fire on a bus they were traveling in. A woman passenger and a laborer are said to be in critical condition.

Some unidentified persons shot dead a youth in Azizabad near Usman Memorial Hospital on saturday.

The injured were rushed to Liaquat National Hospital and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. All the injured were in a critical condition.

- Staff Reporter

Peshawar: The NWFP government on Wednesday formulated a judicial commission to probe into the killing incidents in Abbottabad after mass protests erupted against renaming of the province as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

According to a notification issued by provincial government, a judge of Peshawar High Court Abdul Aziz Kundi will be the head of the commission. The commission will present its report within 15 days.

Some eight people had been killed and more than hundred as police opened fires on angry protestors demonstrating against changing name of the province.

The protests are still ongoing in various areas of Hazara Division on fourteenth consecutive day, paralyzing daily life in the region.

- Staff Reporter

Timer Girah: A bomb attack killed 30 people at a celebration organised by a political party in northwest Pakistan on Monday, with fears the death toll could rise further, police said.

16 killed in suicide attack at ANP rally

The meeting had been organised to celebrate plans to change the name of North West Frontier Province, which dates back to British colonial rule, to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in a nod to its Pashtun-majority population.

The gathering was held in Timargarah, the main town in the northwestern district of Lower Dir.

Zahid Khan, a spokesman for the Awami National Party, said his party was celebrating the recent decision to change the name of North West Frontier Province.

Shortly afterwards, a powerful explosion rocked the northwest’s main city of Peshawar.

The injured were shifted to the nearby hospitals. The local people initially started relief work on self-help basis. The security personnel soon arrived on the spot and cordoned off the affected area.

The rally was passing near a police check post and a passport office in the main bazaar, when the blast occurred. According to DIG Qazi Jameel, the blast occurred near a guesthouse.

Emergency has been declared in all hospitals in the area.

- Staff Reporter

Islamabad: Parliament’s Constitutional Reforms Committee (CRC) on Wednesday approved Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa with consensus as the new name for NWFP.

CRC agrees to rename of NWFP as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa

PCCR met with Senator Raza Rabbani in chair to end the deadlock between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Awami National Party (ANP) on the renaming of NWFP.

Rabbani and PML-N’s Senator Ishaq Dar also held a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of CRC meeting.

According to reports, the reforms committee has accepted the PML-N demands about renaming of NWFP and reconstitution of judicial commission.

The committee will again meet 8:00 p.m. today to attain a consensus on last contentious issue among the members – the composition of the Judicial Commission responsible for appointing judges in higher courts.

- Staff Reporter

Islamabad: Amid almost stalled talks between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Awami National Party (ANP) to rename NWFP, PML-Quaid factions have also become a party to the controversy – a development that is likely to complicate further the constitutional reforms committee’s task of coming up with consensus recommendations.

A delegation of Awami National Party (ANP) met with PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain and discussed matters relating to the renaming of NWFP here on Monday.

Later talking to media, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain while terming the constitutional reforms package essential for the country, said that the issue of renaming NWFP would be resolved amicably and collectively.

ANP leader Afrasiyab Khattak said his party was holding consultation with different political parties and nomenclature of NWFP would be changed with consensus among all political parties.

PML-Q sources told that ANP has assured to show flexibility on the renaming of the NWFP while PML-Q has also expressed its willingness that if the province is named Pakhtoonkhwa Khyber or Pakhtoonkhwa Abaseen than the party is willing to support it.

But people of Hazara, Chitral and Kohistan should also be taken into confidence and the name of Pakhtoonkhwa should not be insisted on.

In this regard when PML NWFP President Amir Mukam told that we have assured ANP that if they show flexibility on the name than PML-Q would also do. We do not want that three provinces are created over the renaming of the province issue. All stakeholders would have to find a middle way out and stubbornness should not be shown over a single name.

He said that ANP has assured us that they would also show flexibility. Amir Mukam said that we are also in consultations with our party leaders and workers in NWFP.

Talking to media after the meeting PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Saeed said that the renaming of the province is not an issue of one party or individual but is a matter of the entire country and it would be settled through consultations.

He said soon Asfandyar Wali and Ch Shujaat Hussain would meet and we are consulting party leaders of NWFP on this matter.

- Staff Reporter

Islamabad: The Constitutional Reforms Committee’s meeting concluded in the federal capital on Friday and well placed sources revealed that the PML-N’s stance on the judges’ appointment issue was rejected.

Rabbani told journalists that the final draft of the 18th amendment will be presented after an overall consensus is reached among all the stakeholders

According to the report, PCCR met again on Friday with the Senator Mian Raza Rabbani in the chair to resolve the differences over judges’ appointment and renaming of NWFP province.

PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar was reported to have been under fire from other members of the committee during the meeting after PML-N chief took a U-turn on constitutional reform package.

According to sources, committee members said that settled issues will not be discussed again while Parliament is a superior institution and consultation with any other institution and person will not be done.

“The committee in its meeting today discussed few very controversial and complex issues related to constitutional reforms in detail,” Rabbani said, expressing the hope that the consensus will be achieved among the committee members on all the disputed issues through negotiations.

The signing ceremony of the final report of the PCCR was postponed on Thursday due to reservations of the PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif over the matter of judicial commission and renaming of NWFP province.

The committee’s meeting was later adjourned till Wednesday.

- Staff Reporter

Islamabad: The joint session of the Parliament which was summoned on March 26 has been postponed.

It is learnt that constitutional reforms committee has been failed to reach a consensus on renaming NWFP. It was largely suggested to rename the NWFP to Pakhtunkhwa.

Federal Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan yesterday said that the joint parliamentary session has been convened for Friday in which recommendations prepared by the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) will be tabled.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that summary for convening joint session has not yet received.

- Staff Reporter

Islamabad: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said the process of consultation during the meetings of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms was by itself an achievement demonstrating democratic spirit among all the political parties.

ANP Senators called on Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani at PM House

He expressed confidence that the proposed amendments would be finalized through consensus as per the track record of the present parliament.

The Prime Minister was talking to a group of Senators who called on him at the Prime Minister House here on Monday afternoon.

The Senators included Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel, Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, Muhamamd Zahid Khan, Abdul Nabeel Bangish, Ms. Farha Aqeel, Hafiz Rasheed Ahmed, Shahid Hassan Bugti and Mir Muhammad Ali Rind.

Lauding the role of the people of NWFP and FATA in the war against militancy, the Prime Minister stressed that the Parliamentarians belonging to these areas needed to develop close links with the people to solve their problems. He said the people should feel the change in their lives.

The Prime Minister paid rich tribute to the martyrs and expressed sympathies for all those who suffered losses in terrorist activities. He said they were fighting the war of Pakistan and had sacrificed their present for the better future of their countrymen.

He said the reconstruction in the areas affected by militancy was the top priority and the elected representatives should come forward to assist the government in implementing this agenda.

He added the development of these areas would modify the living standard of the people and thus bring a positive change in their way of thinking and comprehension.

Talking about the government’s initiatives on Balochistan, the Prime Minister said that in the coming years the people there would feel a positive change as the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan is the first step towards addressing their long standing demands.

The Senators lauded the Prime Minister for his policy of reconciliation and consensus and extended their all out support. They thanked him for his steps for the development of NWFP, FATA and Balochistan, especially the militancy affected areas.

- APP

Karachi: Interior Minister Abdul Rehman Malik Monday reiterated the resolve that no one would be allowed to indulge in target killings in Karachi. “Stern action would follow should anyone commit crime anywhere”, he said while talking to media at Ranger’s headquarter here. He said it has come to his notice that certain criminal elements were using the names of various parties like PPP, ANP, MQM etc.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik talking to D.G. Rangers Maj. Gen. Liaquat Ali during his visit to Sindh Rangers Headquarters

“I have given explicit directive that anyone indulging in a crime anywhere be arrested without any discrimination and take action”, he said adding that it would be warning to all criminals to forget the past because he mean business, good security for Karachi and good law and order for Karachi and it will not be allowed to be disturbed.

He said he is fulfilling his promise and again visiting Karachi and will keep visiting the city until the law and order becomes satisfactory and people feel safe.

He told the media that according to information he received, the situation has considerably improved and if elements think they can make anyone target and then speed off, they should forget it as they are being watched closely.

Malik said that satellite watching system is also being maintained. “I am not scaring them but I mean business”, he declared.

Referring to illegal immigrantts, he said that last time he had clearly stated that they should get themselves regularised, no one of them would be allowed to disturb law and order at any cost.

“It is our government commitment to Karachi which we all love. It is our backbone and we will not allow it to be destabilised and disturbed at any cost”.

- Staff Reporter

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