DarkTimes - 24Hr Global News Blog

WASHINGTON, Jan 1: The US Defence Department has awarded a $498.2 million contract to Lockheed Martin Corp to supply 18 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

The decision is in line with a senior US official’s assertion that the Congressional restrictions on providing $50 million in military aid to Pakistan would not affect the sales of F-16 aircraft.

“The F-16 programme is a Pakistani purchase, their money, they’re buying them,” said Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs. “And our foreign military finance, our military assistance goes for different purposes and is not involved at this point in the F-16 sales.”

On Monday, the Pentagon released a list of defence contract awards, which include an authorisation for Lockheed to sell 12 F-16C and six F-16D planes to Pakistan.

The F-16C is a single-seat aircraft while the F-16D is a two-seat flying machine. Pakistan already has a fleet of F-16AM, which is an upgraded single-seat version of F-16A.

During the Soviet-Afghan war, Pakistan Air Force’s F-16s shot down at least 10 Afghan and Soviet ground attack and transport aircraft between 1986 and 1988.Pakistan is to get 18 new F-16C/D fighters by 2010 besides upgrades for its current fleet of 34 F-16 combat aircraft as part of a $2.1 billion deal for new weapons, avionics, engines, and other equipment for F-16 fighters announced in September last year.

Lockheed, the Pentagon’s No. 1 contractor, won a $144 million contract in 2006 for materials needed to build the F-16s.

Pakistani F-16s will be equipped with AIM-120C-5 AMRAAM, AIM-9M-8/9, JDAM, Harpoon Block II, Joint-Helmet Mounted Cueing System, CFTs and possibly IRIS-T.

All 18 new aircraft will come from Block 50-52, first delivered to the US Air Force in late 1991.

KARACHI, Jan 1: The Central Executive Committee and Federal Council of the Pakistan People’s Party will meet at the Bhutto House in Naudero on Wednesday afternoon to discuss issues relating to the coming election.

Announcing this here on Tuesday, PPP’s central information secretary Sherry Rehman demanded that the elections must be held on schedule.

On Monday, the party’s co-chairman Asif Zardari had declared that his party would not accept a postponement of the polls ‘on any pretext’.

Sherry Rehman referred Mr Zardari’s statement that while the PPP was going for the elections despite being in a state of shock to save the federation, undemocratic forces had started hunting down PPP workers to create a chaotic situation in order to run away from the elections.

Wednesday’s meeting would be followed by consultations with other parties in case the elections were deferred for long, Ms Rehman said, adding that the PPP would not let the regime run away from the polls.

Meanwhile, Mr Zardari has blamed the government’s allies and instruments for the violence taking place in the country.

Mr Zardari pointed out that members and workers of the PPP, after their initial shock and mourning were preparing for the elections to fulfil the mission for which Benazir Bhutto had laid down her life.

He said the PML-N and PPP had both decided to participate in the elections, like other democratic parties.

“The regime should stop perpetrating violence and its scheme to wriggle out of the elections, Mr Zardari added.

Ms Rehman said that since Ms Bhutto’s assassination on Thursday, the regime had been slowly retracting from its pledge to hold the elections on January 8, “come what may”.

There was a general consensus that after the tragic events of Dec 27, PML-Q’s popularity had hit rock bottom and postponement of the elections was aimed at buying time to come up with means to rig polls to turn the results in its favour.

She said there were reports that the regime and the PML-Q were planning to resort to the “dirty” tactics of maligning the PPP leadership in the intervening period.

A delay in the polls, she added, would also give more space to extremist and terrorist elements to plunge the country into a ‘dangerous whirlpool of disaster’.

“Over 100,000 PPP workers had been picked up on false charges by the regime in order to harass the party into submission,” she said, adding that there was absolutely no excuse for locking up innocent polling agents and workers, and the regime was instigating violence to delay the polls.

“When the party that has lost its leader and is in mourning is itself demanding that the polls be held on time, then what business does the regime have to delay polls? The excuse of burnt electoral rolls is a flimsy one as all rolls are in electronic form as well and can be replaced in hours,” she said.

“Delaying polls is just an excuse for the caretaker regime to buy time to invent other means to send the PML-Q back to power. We will not accept that. This whole exercise is to protect the king’s party, whose graph is plummeting, and to prevent the PPP from sweeping the polls.

We will not settle for a delay and we demand that all our workers booked on false charges all over Sindh be released.”

KARACHI, Jan 1: Benazir Bhutto was poised to reveal proof the night she was assassinated that the Election Commission and a shadowy spy agency were seeking to rig the elections, a top aide said on Tuesday.

Senator Latif Khosa, who authored a 160-page dossier with Ms Bhutto documenting rigging tactics, said they ranged from intimidation to fake ballots, and were in some cases unwittingly funded by US aid.

Ms Bhutto had been due to give the report to two visiting US lawmakers over a dinner on Dec 27, the day she was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack.

“The state agencies are manipulating the whole process,” Mr Khosa, a top aide of Ms Bhutto and head of the PPP election monitoring unit, told Reuters.

“There is rigging by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), the Election Commission and the previous government, which is still continuing to hold influence. They were on the rampage.”

President Pervez Musharraf’s spokesman Rashid Qureshi dismissed the claim as “ridiculous”.

“It makes one laugh,” he said. “The president has said a free, fair, transparent and peaceful election is essential, which forms part of his overall strategy for transforming Pakistan into a fully democratic (nation).”

“Benazir’s coming back to Pakistan was part of a national reconciliation ordinance,” he added. “Take it from me, it’s going to be perhaps the best election that Pakistan has ever had.”

Mr Khosa said the report, entitled “Yet another stain on the face of democracy”, details how the spy agency was planning to issue 25,000 pre-stamped ballots for each of 108 candidates for NA seats in Punjab from the party that backs President Musharraf and formed his government. “They have used intimidatory tactics, they intimidated the returning officers into rejecting nomination papers ... they prevented candidates from submitting their nomination papers,” Mr Khosa said. “This happened in Balochistan and in the other central areas of Pakistan. It happened in Sindh.”—Reuters

WANA, Jan 1: Security forces killed five suspected militants in the Laddah area of the South Waziristan on Tuesday after four paramilitary soldiers had been kidnapped in the area, sources said.

The kidnapping of the soldiers of the Dir Scouts triggered clashes in the region. The forces, according to the sources, launched an attack on militants and pounded their positions in the area.

Troops also fired artillery and mortar shells from Tiarza and Shakai forts on militants’ positions. Residents said exchange of heavy fire continued till midnight. It was later reported that the militants had vacated hilltop positions in Laddah area.

The clash took place in the Mehsud area three days after the government had directly implicated the leader of the recently-formed Tehreek Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“The attack could be a reaction to the government blaming Baitullah Mehsud for the assassination. Baitullah possibly would be targeting security forces to pre-empt any possible action against him,” a security official said.

Inter Services Public Relations said that five militants had been killed and 20 arrested. It said that a jirga had been convened which decided to enforce a ceasefire for 24 hours

ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said that his party will accept whatever decision the Election Commission takes about the coming polls.

Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, he said the PML-Q was ready to take part in the polls, whether they were held on January 8 or on a later date.

He said his party would, however, inform the commission about the law and order situation in Sindh created by certain elements after the assassination of Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

He said that if he demanded a postponement of the polls it would be taken as a sign of his party’s weakness and if he agreed to the January 8 date, the PML-Q leaders from Sindh would find it difficult to accept it in view of the precarious situation in their province where even offices of the EC had been attacked and election material destroyed.

Asked if he would like to demand dismissal of the Sindh government which had failed to protect people’s life and property, Chaudhry Shujaat said: “It did not have adequate means to control law and order”.

The PML-Q chief said his party would like the conditions to be made more conducive to the holding of elections.

He said the parties which had been demanding elections on time were interested only in grabbing power and were not concerned about the integrity of Pakistan.

PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed, information secretary Senator Tariq Azeem and former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim were present at the press conference.

Earlier, Chaudhry Shujaat presided over a meeting of the party’s candidates for the National Assembly from all over the country.

Sources told Dawn that Arbab Rahim had given an account of the ‘horrendous situation’ in Sindh over the past five days. He said that homes of PML-Q leaders had been attacked in the interior of the province.

According to the sources, the candidates from Sindh said that elections should not be held in the next couple of months, but most candidates from Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan wanted the polls to be held on schedule.

The meeting adopted a resolution criticising PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for levelling baseless allegations against the PML-Q and abusing the name of the Quaid-i-Azam by calling it ‘Qatil League’.

Through another resolution, it demanded formation of a commission to probe into the circumstances leading to the assassination of Ms Bhutto and to punish those who were falsely implicating the PML-Q leaders in her murder.

ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: Although two main opposition parties, the PPP and PML-N, have strongly opposed any postponement of the coming election and the PML-Q has also said that it is willing to take part if the polls are held on January 8, there are strong indications in the capital that a delay of a few weeks is on the cards.

Official sources told Dawn that the caretaker provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh have sought a postponement till the end of Muharram, citing a breakdown in law and order as the main reason and that an announcement about deferment of the polls was expected on Wednesday.

In a report sent to the Election Commission, the Sindh government is reported to have pointed out that the collapse of communications system and destruction of poll records during violent protests following the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto have created a situation in which holding elections on January 8 was not possible.

The Punjab government had said that holding polls under the prevailing law and order situation would not be possible, but had not suggested any date, the sources said.

The Balochistan government has also referred to the law and order situation, but said that it would be possible to hold the polls under ‘enhanced security’ in the province. The NWFP government has suggested that the polls should be held on schedule, except in some troubled areas, like Swat. Almost all the provinces, however, were of the view that the present situation was not ideal for the elections, the sources said.

Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad told Dawn that the commission was in contact with all major political parties and the process would be completed late on Tuesday night.

He confirmed that a decision about elections would be formally announced on Wednesday. He said the commission had in its meeting on Tuesday decided to consult political parties before taking a decision.

The commission was reported to be ready to announce the postponement on Tuesday but withheld the decision keeping in view the strong reaction from the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), and decided to consult all major parties.

When asked about the postponement of polls in some districts, the EC secretary said: “There is no possibility for it. Elections would be held on the same date across the country.”He said that election material in 14 districts had been burnt or badly damaged and it might take some time to meet the logistics requirements.

After consultations with the parties, the commission will meet again on Wednesday to take a final decision.

However, opposition parties said on Tuesday they had not been consulted by the commission.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said his party had not been consulted by the Election Commission. He added that the party’s central executive committee and federal council would meet on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

Sources in the PML-N also said that the party had not been contacted by the commission. “The PML-N wants polls held on schedule,” a party leader said.