Constituency matters: ‘Sindh police to get better housing, compensation’

By Hafeez Tunio

Published: July 19, 2011

President Asif Ali Zardari presiding over a meeting at the Bilawal House in Karachi on Monday. PHOTO: APP

KARACHI:  Officials from the Sindh police demanded that they should be paid on par with their colleagues in Punjab, a demand that President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to in principle, in addition to demands for better housing facilities.

At a meeting held in Bilawal House, the president’s personal residence in Karachi, President Zardari met with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Home Minister Manzoor Wassan, Sindh Police Inspector-General Wajid Durrani and the head of Karachi police Saud Mirza among other officials to discuss law and order in the province.
The conversation quickly turned to building up institutional capacity of Sindh Police to deal with criminal elements. Sources familiar with the discussion say that the Sindh Police demanded that their compensation levels, currently lower, be brought in line with those of their colleagues in Punjab.
In addition, they asked for permission to recruit as many as 10,000 additional personnel in Sindh Police and build 30,000 apartments for police officials to solve the department’s chronic housing shortage. Sources say that President Zardari agreed in principle to both demands.
Separately, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik met with the Sindh chief minister at his residence to discuss security arrangements for the upcoming elections for the seats representing the Kashmiri diaspora in Karachi in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
Energy crisis meeting
At a separate meeting at Bilawal House, the president met Sindh Power Minister Shazia Marri to discuss the energy crisis in the province.
Marri reportedly told the president that the management of the Karachi Electric Supply Company has refused to cooperate on the matter of its sacked employees, who have gone on strike and begun disrupting the ability of the utility to serve its customers. The president is reported to have expressed concern.
“This is a political problem now that needs to be solved politically,” the president is quoted by sources as having said.
In addition, Marri briefed the president on gas production in Sindh, specifically highlighting a number of dormant wells in the province. President Zardari promised federal assistance for reviving those gas wells.
Marri referred specifically to four wells in Sindh – two in Thatta and one each in Ghotki and Sanghar – that were discovered up to 15 years ago and have yet to be utilised.
After the 18th amendment to the constitution, the federal government and the provinces are entitled to a 50-50 split in profits from natural resources.
The Council on Common Interests (CCI) had initially decided to hand over those wells to Sindh to develop but then had referred the matter to a sub-committee after encountering strong opposition from the management of the state-owned Oil and Gas Development Corporation, the largest oil and gas exploration company in the country.
Marri demanded that the original decision be upheld, to which the president agreed to offer his support.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2011.

Af-pak relations: Zardari to hold talks in Kabul today

By Zia Khan

Published: July 19, 2011

Visit to focus on counter-terrorism and peacemaking with the Taliban. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

ISLAMABAD:  With US and other Nato forces racing to train enough soldiers and police to take over completely and allow all foreign combat troops to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Pakistan’s leadership has stepped up efforts aimed at seeking a ‘regional’ solution to the unrest in war-torn Afghanistan.

President Asif Ali Zardari is due to visit Kabul today and during his visit he is expected to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai to discuss issues of bilateral importance as well as counter-terrorism and peacemaking with the Taliban, his spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said.
Babar said the bilateral and regional issues would also be part of the discussion during the day-long trip, not giving any specifics about the issues to be discussed.
The president’s visit to Kabul comes after his trip to Iran earlier this week in which he reportedly held in-depth negotiations with the state’s leadership on the future of Afghanistan.
According to officials at the foreign ministry, the Iranian leaders were not against Pakistan military’s support for the Taliban but they were wary of them becoming as powerful as they were in the 90s. China, another key power player in the region, also has the same opinion and conveyed it to Pakistan, the officials added.
“That’s what we are trying to build on … there is support for our narrative and these efforts are aimed at exploiting that,” commented one of the officials.
Officials said the president’s visit is meant to take further the consensus on peacemaking with the Taliban as both countries had already evolved between themselves.
President Asif Ali Zardari will also convey his condolences to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the death of his brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, Babar added.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2011.

Gas pipeline to reach border next year: Iran

A handout picture released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him (R) meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari in Tehran on July 16, 2011. – Photo by AFP

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Tehran was hopeful of completing its section of the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline by the end of next year.
“Construction of the pipeline to export Iranian gas to Pakistan is under way, and we hope it will reach the frontier by the end of 2012,” he said of the multi-billion-dollar project after a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari.
President Zardari, who arrived in Tehran on a day-long visit, held two rounds of talks with President Ahmadinejad — first delegation-level talks and then a one-on-one meeting.
The two leaders also reviewed progress on a proposal for the transmission of electricity from Iran to Balochistan.
They expressed confidence that joint efforts would prove helpful in countering terrorism, terming the menace a common enemy for the region and the world.
Mr Ahmadinejad said his country looked forward to a new era in relations with Pakistan.
“Iran is ready to reinforce its cooperation with Pakistan in every field,” the Iranian president said.
Mr Zardari said relations between the neighbours should be strengthened, and proposed that “trade between the two countries be conducted in local currency, and not the dollar, to curb smuggling”. He also proposed a bilateral free trade agreement.
The President said Pakistan was already in negotiations with Turkey, Sri Lanka and China for the currency swap arrangement.
He denounced “efforts by our enemies who seek to show that the Pakistan government is unstable by provoking trouble,” saying that those responsible would face justice.
President Zardari praised Iran’s constructive engagement in the trilateral process, recalling last month’s Pakistan-Iran-Afghanistan summit hosted by Tehran.
He urged the Iranian government to consider the creation of an integrated border management regime for tackling militancy and extremism. He said Pakistan and Iran had vital interests in stability and peace of the region.
Mr Zardari called for developing coordination between governments to curb narcotics and human trafficking in the region. He said Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan faced a common menace of drug trafficking and expressed the hope that a trilateral initiative would help counter the curse.
The President said Pakistan and Iran had the potential to undertake joint economic projects in Afghanistan to enhance connectivity, build infrastructure, rail and road links.
Mr Zardari said there was a need to raise bilateral trade to four billion dollars from one billion dollars. He called for working together to identify impediments to implementation of the Pakistan-Iran Preferential Trade Agreement, signed in 2006.
The Iranian president agreed to take full advantage of geo-strategic locations for “ushering in a new era of progress”.
About the Afghanistan issue, President Zardari said Pakistan supported the process initiated by President Hamid Karzai for reconciliation and peace. He said Pakistan supported a reconciliation process which must be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned, adding that Islamabad was ready to provide all possible assistance to Kabul in reconstruction efforts.
It was Mr Zardari’s second visit to Iran in less than a month. He visited Tehran last month to attend the counter-terrorism summit, on the sidelines of which the two countries and Afghanistan reached an agreement to augment cooperation in the fight against militancy.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain and presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar accompanied Mr Zardari.
KHAMENEI LAMBASTS US: Later Mr Zardari called on Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Fars news agency quoted Ayatollah Khamenei as telling the President: “The principal enemy of the Pakistani people and the unity of the country is the West, headed by the United States.”
Iranian officials have been vocal in their criticism of the prolonged US troop deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which are now set to be drawn down.—Agencies