Pakistan, Lebanon agree to boost trade, defense ties AP PHOTOS ISL101-103
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1) Pakistan and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to boost defense ties and increase trade, saying that they shared similar views on regional and international issues.
2) Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who left Pakistan after his two-day visit, said that his talks with Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf were ``very fruitful.''
3) ``The president has said that Pakistan stands by the Arab world and its causes,'' Hariri told reporters after his meeting with Musharraf. ``We stand by Pakistan as well.''
4) Pakistan agreed to help Lebanon in clearing land mines around its capital, Beirut, and southern parts of the country. The areas were heavily mined during Lebanon's devastating civil war.
5) Pakistan plans to send 300 soldiers for the mine-clearing operations, Musharraf said. Also, Pakistan will provide military training to Lebanese officers, he said.
6) ``We had total unanimity of views on all issues,'' Musharraf said. ``We accept increased collaboration in defense field and training areas.'' But he gave no other details.
7) The two countries also decided to increase trade, which at present hovers around dlrs 10.2 million.
8) Hariri said the trade and commerce ministers of the two countries will hold meetings to identify areas of cooperation.
9) The leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East and Pakistan's protracted dispute with India over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
10) Musharraf, while addressing the banquet hosted for Hariri on Tuesday, said that the Kashmir dispute threatened regional peace and security.
11) Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India and has been a cause of two wars between them since British rule ended on the subcontinent in 1947. They both claim Kashmir as their own.
12) Since 1989, Islamic guerrillas have waged a secessionist war in Indian Kashmir, attempting to merge with Islamic Pakistan or declare independence. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting the violence. Pakistan has denied the charge, calling it an indigenous movement.
13) Musharraf, who overthrew Pakistan's elected government in a bloodless coup in October 1999, visited Lebanon in January.
14) Since seizing power, Musharraf has been trying to attract foreign investment in a bid to revive Pakistan's ailing economy.
15) Musharraf says the country's economic revival and sweeping political reforms are priorities before he returns Pakistan to democracy by October 2002.
Once shunned, Pakistan's military ruler expects warm reception in
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1) When Bill Clinton stopped here last year, U.S.-Pakistan relations were so frosty the then-U.S. president refused to allow pictures or TV footage showing him meeting military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
2) As Musharraf flew out Wednesday for a trip to France, Britain and the United States, he can expect the royal treatment this time as the West's most crucial Muslim ally in the current conflict in Afghanistan.
3) What a difference a war makes.
4) Musharraf has already won the lifting of U.S. economic sanctions and pledges of debt relief as part of a series of measures aimed at propping up Pakistan's sluggish economy.
5) He'll be looking for additional political and economic support in his talks with French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush.
6) The Pakistani leader was supposed to leave Wednesday evening, according to the government _ but instead flew out unannounced early Wednesday morning, apparently for security reasons. At the time his flight was leaving, the country's mobile phone system was temporarily suspended, in another apparent security move.
7) Also, Musharraf made unannounced stops in both Iran and Turkey, meeting officials in both countries before continuing on to France.
8) Western countries, along with most of the world, all but shunned Musharraf when he came to power in an October 1999 military coup that ousted an elected civilian government.
9) But since then, the general has been praised for bringing a measure of stability to Pakistan, and his strong support of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan has made him an invaluable ally to the Americans.
10) Musharraf has hosted U.S. Secretary of State Donald H. Rumsfeld and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in recent weeks. His meeting with Bush, planned for Saturday in New York, will symbolize the restoration of the once close U.S.-Pakistan relations that deteriorated over the past decade.
11) At home, Musharraf abandoned Pakistan's support for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, and the accusations that Taliban guest Osama bin Laden was responsible.
12) The move angered Islamic movements in Pakistan that support the fundamentalist Taliban, prompting street protests that occasionally erupted in violence.
13) Opposition groups are calling for a nationwide day of protest on Friday. However, the demonstrations have become largely routine, there has been no serious violence in the past few weeks, and Musharraf is feeling secure enough to embark on a six-day foreign trip, his most important since coming to power.
14) The government has tolerated protests, but has placed several political leaders under house arrest. Qazi Hussein Ahmed, the leader of the largest religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, defied the move by continuing to address rallies by telephone.
15) To keep Ahmed from speaking out, Pakistan authorities on Tuesday moved him to a comfortable government guest house 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the western city of Peshawar. The Tanda Dam guest house is normally used by visiting dignitaries and officials. But that allows the government to keep a close watch on Ahmed _ and keep him off the phone.
16) Such moves have brought Western criticism in more normal times, but the United States and other Western governments have only praise for Musharraf these days.
17) The Americans had imposed sanctions on Pakistan for more than a decade because of its nuclear weapons program. But Bush quickly lifted the punitive measures as the Americans looked to Musharraf for support.
18) Musharraf responded by granting the U.S. military access to four air bases in Pakistan, though the American aircraft are not permitted to take part in combat operations.
19) The general has promised to hold elections next October to restore democracy to Pakistan. But if the war in Afghanistan carries on, the prospect of a chaotic election campaign in Pakistan will force him to choose between going ahead with the ballot or postponing it until calm returns to the region.
20) Musharraf has won wide praise among the elite in Pakistan who control politics, business, the military and the media.
21) But in private, Musharraf has told friends that he had little choice but to side with the United States and abandon the Taliban after the terror attacks.
22) He has recounted a story of a man who came across a lion in the jungle, but managed to survive the encounter and return home safely. When friends praised him for his bravery, the man responded that he did nothing at all _ it was the lion that decided for him, choosing not to attack.
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As Indian dispute escalates, Pakistan's response signifies approach
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1) To the west, Pakistani forces patrol the rugged Afghan frontier, guarding mountain passes to help the United States stop al-Qaida fugitives from creeping in. To the east, as another squabble with India gathers steam, border towns stage air-raid drills and gird for hostilities.
2) Pakistan ends a tumultuous year surrounded by sticky situations. And its dual dilemma illustrates the government's efforts to parlay post-Sept. 11 problems into opportunities for a solidified, more permanent place on the international stage.
3) ``Something different is happening here,'' said Nasim Zehra, a Pakistani political analyst. ``I think there's an internal reassessment going on as to how best promote Pakistan's interests.''
4) Just as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's support of the American anti-terrorism fight gave Pakistan respect and clout, Islamabad's cautious response to fresh unrest with India seems designed to amplify what it is trying hard to project: that Pakistan is a responsible, mature nation.
5) ``Pakistan is in touch with a number of governments, and they all are urging restraint _ which is also Pakistan's position,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said Thursday.
6) Any flareup between South Asia's nuclear rivals understandably makes the world nervous. But given the global anti-terrorism battle and the coalition it has produced, this latest scrap, over a Dec. 13 attack on India's Parliament that New Delhi accuses Pakistan-backed groups of staging, echoes beyond the region more than usual.
7) The United States doesn't want two pivotal friends fighting. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has been working the phones and urging restraint. And China, Asia's most powerful country and a strong ally of Pakistan, said Thursday it was ``deeply worried'' at the tensions.
8) At this moment in his nation's history, Musharraf has every reason to listen.
9) While his ascension to the presidency _ he overthrew Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 _ struck an ominous chord internationally, many agree Musharraf's approach to governing has been pragmatic and geared toward modernization.
10) Even his support of the Taliban militia before September _ part of a Pakistani pattern of secular governments backing militant Islamic movements, which has sometimes backfired _ was more tactical than ideological.
11) But Sept. 11 brought big change to Pakistan. Within days, U.S. President George W. Bush had asked Islamabad for its full cooperation. Musharraf didn't hesitate, and _ for the time being _ his gambit has paid off.
12) ``Prior to Sept. 11, India thought they had the international community on their side and Pakistan was a thing of the past. Now, Pakistan has risen from the ashes. and the Indians are totally stunned,'' said Riffat Hussain, chairman of the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University.
13) Even before that, Pakistan was juggling internationalism with the demands of powerful, more conservative factions. Helping the United States made it harder, producing large, occasionally violent anti-Musharraf protests orchestrated by Taliban-friendly Islamic militant leaders.
14) But Musharraf made a point of publicly saying the critics were a tiny minority who didn't have Pakistan's best interests in mind _ a crossroads that one international scholar calls part of ``a defining moment for the modernizers in Pakistan.''
15) ``Which way is Pakistan going to go? Weak and irrelevant? Seen as a rogue? Or is it going to convert itself into an emerging state?'' said Tom Farer, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in Colorado. ``It needs to choose, and all of what's happened in the past few months has only accelerated the process.''
16) This week's approach to India suggests the process continues. Pakistan froze the bank accounts of two militant groups that India implicated in the Parliament attack, though India wants more action. And unlike previous spats, Pakistan seems more cautious in its rhetoric. Officials, while condemning New Delhi for ``sinister designs,'' say they will not comment on every development so as not to aggravate things.
17) In a major speech Tuesday, the 125th birthday of Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Musharraf echoed Jinnah's vision and cast himself in the same light. He invoked Pakistan's Islamic identity and the importance of tradition, but he condemned corruption, blind fundamentalism and people who have ``undermined Islam'' in the eyes of the world.
18) ``We confront an external and internal challenge,'' he said. ``We have to rechart our course.''
19) Whatever direction the course takes, it seems sure to remain delicate for some time.
20) ``Pakistan knows any increase of the hostilities with India will have tremendous diplomatic and economic fallout. And that will push Pakistan back to the back of the world stage,'' Hussain said. ``It's a difficult tightrope walk that Musharraf has used to pull Pakistan out of diplomatic isolation. But if there's any escalation, much of that will be undone.''
Musharraf, in Washington, seeks U.S. debt relief, trade favors;
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1) In a White House meeting this week with President George W. Bush, Pakistan's president hopes to gain help to rejuvenate his country's economy and bolster his political standing with Pakistan's Islamic establishment.
2) Bush is expected to go at least part way toward meeting President Pervez Musharraf's request for debt relief to revive his country's ailing economy, a senior administration official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
3) Musharraf, who arrives Tuesday and meets with Bush on Wednesday, will not get everything he wants. Southern congressmen, out to protect the South-based U.S. clothing industry, bitterly oppose Pakistan's move to sell more textiles in the United States.
4) Also, top American diplomats have been carefully evenhanded on the issue of Kashmir, to nurture close ties with another key regional player, Pakistan's bitter rival, India.
5) Nevertheless, when Musharraf and Bush get together, the Pakistani will get, along with promises of debt relief, warm thanks from Bush for his decision to support the U.S.-led war on terror.
6) Because of Musharraf's receptiveness to American overtures, the U.S.-Pakistani relationship has made a startling turnaround in a few short months.
7) U.S. officials are keenly aware that Musharraf's decision to align with the United States holds ``inherent political risks'' for him, ``because of the militant Islamic and anti-American sentiments that exist within Pakistan,'' the director of the CIA, George Tenet, told Congress last week.
8) To bolster Musharraf's standing and reward his support since Sept. 11, the United States already has dropped long-standing economic sanctions, committed as much as dlrs 600 million in various loans, and aid and strongly pushed the International Monetary Fund to give Pakistan a dlrs 135 million loan.
9) Military ties are close, and the Pentagon is busy repaying Pakistan for the use of its air bases, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week. He praised Pakistan for ``doing just enormously cooperative things for the United States of America in the war on terrorism.''
10) The September attacks gave Musharraf a chance to set his country on a fresh course away from Islamic fundamentalism, said Teresita Schaffer, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
11) Now, Pakistan wants Washington to reward Musharraf by forgiving the country's dlrs 3 billion official debt, encouraging U.S. investment in Pakistan and opening the huge American market to Pakistani exports, especially textiles.
12) But U.S. textile manufacturers have argued against further lowering of tariffs against Pakistan.
13) Rep. Robert Aderholt, an Alabama Republican, said it makes no sense to worry about Pakistan's economy when so many rural American towns that depend on clothing factories are in trouble.
14) Grant Aldonas, undersecretary for international trade at the Commerce Department, said Monday the United States is having conversations about what it can do to help Pakistan.
15) ``We would like to put together a constructive relationship,'' Aldonas said. ``Anything we can do would be helpful.''
16) Politically, Musharraf cannot afford, in the eyes of Islamic militants, to be seen as selling out to India, particularly on Kashmir, Schaffer said.
17) Relations between Pakistan and the United States, strong allies in the Cold War, had deteriorated over the years, especially after the country tested nuclear devices in 1998 and Musharraf seized power and overthrew an elected government the next year.
18) Pakistan also had been a major supporter of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia.
19) That changed after Sept. 11. Under strong pressure from Secretary of State Colin Powell, Musharraf abandoned the hard-line Islamic militia that ruled next-door Afghanistan and let the United States use its military bases to support the Afghan campaign.
20) A December attack on India's parliament, however, caused a new crisis.
21) India blamed Pakistan for not doing enough to combat Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants, whom it blamed for the attack. The two countries' half-century fight over Kashmir, a Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan that has triggered two of the countries' three wars, put the United States in a delicate position.
22) During visits to Pakistan and India, Powell repeatedly stressed the need for the two countries to fight terrorism instead of each other.
23) Yet almost a million soldiers still face each other, on high alert, along the Pakistan-India frontier, keeping war fears high.
24) Some Pakistanis hope Bush will describe the Kashmir issue publicly as a dispute and urge India to negotiate a settlement. India has ruled out international mediation in the past.
25) Musharraf has cracked down on Muslim extremists in an attempt to placate India, noted Charles Fairbanks, a South Asia expert at Johns Hopkins University.
26) ``But by doing that, he's really kind of exposed himself,'' Fairbanks said.
Pakistan's new government expresses desire to resolve conflicts with India
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1) Pakistan's new civilian government said Tuesday it wants to improve relations with India, especially on the issue of the disputed territory of Kashmir.
2) ``We feel the future prosperity of 1.3 billion people of the subcontinent depends on these relations,'' Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmud Kasuri was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency, the Associated Press of Pakistan.
3) Kasuri's comments came the same day as Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee sent a message of congratulations to Pakistan's Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on his assumption of office. A similar message was also sent to Kasuri by his Indian counterpart.
4) Jamali and his Cabinet were sworn in Saturday as Pakistan's first civilian government since military President Pervez Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup three years ago. Musharraf called elections last month as part of a pledge to restore democracy to Pakistan.
5) India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over Kashmir, a mostly Muslim region in the Himalayas, since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. India and Pakistan each control part of Kashmir region and claim it all as their own. They have fought two wars over Kashmir.
6) India accuses Pakistan of funding and training Islamic militants who cross the frontier to stage attacks in Indian territory. Pakistan denies it gives the militants material aid, though it supports what it calls the freedom struggle in Kashmir.
7) Pakistan and India nearly went to war earlier this year, massing hundreds of thousands of troops along their border after tensions rose following a Dec. 13, 2001, attack on the Indian Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based groups.
8) Tension diminished after high-level international diplomacy, and both sides last month pledged to begin withdrawing their troops.
9) Kasuri said both India and Pakistan have suffered as a result of the tense relations and that ``Pakistan would like to ensure stability and peace both within and on its borders.''
Pakistan's religious extremists fill the void and make anti-war movement their own
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1) From secularists to religious conservatives, there is one thing nearly all Pakistanis seem to agree on _ the U.S.-led war in Iraq is unjust and must be opposed.
2) Yet Pakistan's traditional political parties and the pro-military government have remained largely silent on the war, allowing a resurgent coalition of Islamic hard-liners to fill the void, turning anger over the conflict into their rallying cry against the West.
3) The coalition, called the Muthida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA, has organized massive anti-war demonstrations in the country's four main cities, drawing well over 100,000 people into the streets each time. Some 40,000 people took part in a fifth protest in the southwestern town of Quetta on Wednesday.
4) ``The so-called mainstream parties have abstained from the whole issue of Iraq because they have not wanted to antagonize Washington,'' said Afrasiab Khattak, the Peshawar-based head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. ``So there is a vacuum which is being filled by the MMA. They have an open field.''
5) The religious coalition sprang to prominence last year during nationwide elections amid deep anger over U.S. bombing in neighboring Afghanistan and disgust at President Pervez Musharraf's decision to abandon the Taliban regime and support Washington.
6) The coalition came in third nationwide, by far its best-ever showing, and won power outright in the ultraconservative North West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital.
7) ``They got a big advantage from opposing the war in Afghanistan and they are getting even more support now from illiterate people who are angry about Iraq,'' said Bashir Ahmed Bilour, the president of the Awami National Party, the secular party that lost power to the MMA in the province. ``They will get more and more aggressive.''
8) The national government has toed a careful line on Iraq, calling for peace but also criticizing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for failing to disarm. The official ambivalence has been met with anger by many in this deeply religious country who have demanded an outright condemnation of Washington.
9) The religious coalition has vowed to institute Islamic law, or Shariah, in the North West Frontier, and is planning to unveil a package of Islamic bills to the provincial legislature later this month.
10) Hardline leaders haven't said whether they plan to institute punishments like public stonings or cutting off thieves' hands, but liberals worry the Iraq war will only embolden them.
11) ``The Shariah package is arriving at a time when opinions are very strongly against the West and everything the West stands for,'' said Khattak. ``Definitely, the MMA is using the climate to push their own agenda. People are more likely to buy their stance because the anger over Iraq has closed minds to rational arguments.''
12) For their part, MMA leaders say they are only speaking their conscience, and giving voice to what the vast majority of Pakistan's 140 million people believe.
13) ``The MMA represents the people and their sentiments, while the government is weak,'' leading MMA official Qazi Hussain Ahmed told The Associated Press after a recent conference in Peshawar on the impact of the Iraq war on the Muslim world. ``Naturally, our position on Iraq has already increased our popularity.''
Pakistan's president to visit United States next month
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1) Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington next month to discuss the war on terrorism and possible peace talks with nuclear rival India, a foreign ministry spokesman said Monday.
2) Musharraf will meet Bush on June 24, Aziz Ahmad Khan told a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.
3) Musharraf will discuss a range of issue including the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan's relations with India, Khan said.
4) Musharraf's trip to Washington follows a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Pakistan this month, during which he encouraged Pakistan and India to hold talks.
5) Pakistan is a key ally of the United State in the war on terrorism.
Radical Islamic leaders ask Musharraf to step down as army chief by mid-August
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1) Hardline Islamic lawmakers demanded Wednesday that Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf resign as head of the army by Aug. 14 or face street protests.
2) The opposition politicians, who have a powerful voice in Parliament, have set Pakistan's Independence Day as the deadline for Musharraf to retire from the military and fully become a civilian head of state, said Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, a parliamentarian from the religious right.
3) ``It will be good if Musharraf (takes) off (his) uniform when the nation celebrates the national day,'' Ahmad said.
4) Elections were held in October and a civilian prime minister now runs day-to-day affairs of the country, but Musharraf remains president and head of the military. Before the vote, Musharraf held a referendum that guaranteed him five more years as president and changed the constitution, giving himself sweeping powers to dismiss the government at will.
5) The 54-nation Commonwealth, an association comprised of Britain and its former colonies, expelled Pakistan after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless 1999 coup. Pakistan has spent half of its history under military rule since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
6) Commonwealth foreign ministers said Tuesday that Musharraf needed to work harder to restore a democratic civilian government before Pakistan could be readmitted.
7) The Islamic opposition has paralyzed the legislature for 13 weeks in a bid to force Musharraf to choose between being the head of the military or the government. Talks between opposition politicians and the government collapsed on Monday.
8) The opposition has capitalized on discontent over Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism to make electoral gains.
9) The leader of a coalition comprising six radical Islamic parties called Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or the United Action Forum, urged Muslims to work together to protect themselves from U.S. aggression.
10) ``After attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, (U.S. President George W.) Bush is planning to attack other Muslim countries,'' Qazi Hussain Ahmed, a leader of Pakistan's religious right, told reporters upon returning from Iran, where he met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.
11) Ahmed's coalition organized protests nationwide that drew hundreds of thousands of people in March after the United States attacked Iraq.
12) Pakistan's hard-liners threatened more protests on Tuesday after a public report by the U.S. Central Command said 57,800 air missions over Afghanistan during the war to oust the Taliban crossed Pakistani air space or originated from Pakistani soil.
Musharraf leaves for Britain, United States
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1) Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf left for Britain on a four-nation tour that includes a trip to the United States during which he will seek economic assistance and military hardware, officials said Tuesday.
2) Musharraf, who left late Monday, was scheduled to hold talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair later Tuesday.
3) Later, he was scheduled to travel to the United States for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David on June 24.
4) After his talks with Bush, he will travel to France and Germany before returning home.
5) Before his departure, Musharraf told Pakistan's satellite channel Geo TV, that his country was ``satisfied'' with its relationship with Washington, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.
6) He also said Pakistan would consider reviewing its policy on Israel in conjunction with other Muslim nations in light of recent peace overtures between the Jewish state and the Palestinians. Pakistan does not recognized Israel.
7) The issue of Israel must ``be taken up seriously and not on emotional grounds,'' Musharraf was quoted as saying in the English-language newspaper The News, the country's largest daily.
8) Musharraf's support of Washington in the war on terror has angered Islamic militants. A more mainstream coalition of Islamic political parties has also strongly opposed the president's stance, and their anti-American platform carried them to their strongest ever showing in October elections.
9) But Pakistan has reaped economic rewards for Musharraf's stance, with Washington forgiving US$1 billion in bilateral debt and removing sanctions.
10) Musharraf said he will take up matters like economic assistance, lifting of sanctions, Kashmir, Pakistan-India relations, Afghanistan and Iraq when he meets with President Bush.
Pakistani president confers with Bush at Camp David
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1) President George W. Bush will thank Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, on an arms-buying trip to the United States, for valuable help in the war on terror but will press him to try to ease nuclear tensions with his neighbor India, U.S. officials say.
2) Bush and Musharraf were meeting Tuesday at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland.
3) Musharraf is spending six days in the United States, where he is shopping for non-nuclear military equipment to strengthen his country's defenses, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Massod Khan said ahead of the visit.
4) After Musharraf backed the U.S.-led effort in 2001 to oust the ruling Taliban militia from Afghanistan, the Bush administration lifted many sanctions imposed against Pakistan because of its nuclear arms program and the 1999 coup that brought Musharraf to power.
5) Some penalties remain, however, over both the nuclear program and the coup. For instance, Congress continues to block release of 28 F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan bought 13 years ago, and U.S. officials said Monday that Bush was unlikely to recommend now that the fighters be released.
6) Both U.S. and Pakistani officials said they expected India-Pakistan tensions to be high on the agenda for the Bush-Musharraf talks. The United States has played an important behind the scenes role to arrange negotiations between India and Pakistan, Khan said.
7) Bush and Musharraf both will ``be looking at ways to bring about a reduction in tension and to kick-start a meaningful, result-oriented, composite dialogue,'' the Pakistani official told reporters Monday in Islamabad.
8) Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated a thaw in relations with Pakistan in April, offering ``a hand of friendship.'' The effort has appeared to falter since then.
9) As part of the war on terror, the Bush administration is pressing Pakistan to end its help for militant groups in India-controlled parts of the Kashmir region.
10) Control of the disputed territory, three-fifths of which is under Indian rule, has been a flash point in India-Pakistan relations for half a century. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic militants in Kashmir, which Pakistan denies.
11) Bush and Musharraf probably will talk about ``the growing efforts between Pakistan and India to reach a mutual understanding and peaceful resolutions of their disputes,'' said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
12) Fleischer said Bush views Musharraf as ``a strong leader who is aggressively fighting terror.''
13) Pakistani police have recently been rounding up Islamic militants. On Monday, Pakistani officials announced the arrests of five suspected members of an outlawed militant group blamed for killing Shiite Muslims and the kidnap-slaying of American Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
14) The Bush administration also is encouraging Pakistan to extend formal recognition to Israel to help build Islamic support for a U.S.-backed ``road map'' to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
15) Pakistan, the only Muslim country with nuclear weapons, never has formally recognized Israel's right to exist. Musharraf has recently hinted his country might re-evaluate its position under certain circumstances.
16) That has led to speculation that Bush might offer a more aggressive U.S. role on mediating the India-Pakistan conflict in exchange for Pakistan's willingness to recognize Israel.
17) Pakistan has said it supports the ``road map,'' which would lead to a full-fledged Palestinian state alongside Israel by 2005.
18) ``The war on terrorism and our cooperation with Pakistan, which has been very good and very important, will be high on the agenda of that as well as a variety of other bilateral issues,'' State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Monday.
19) Musharraf is the first leader from South Asia to be invited to the presidential mountaintop retreat.
Top American envoys to visit Pakistan to discuss relations, war on terror
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1) Two top American envoy were beginning a visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations, Iraq, and the war on terrorism, Pakistani and Afghan officials said.
2) U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca were arriving in Pakistan late Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said.
3) The two were expected to spend the day Friday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, before returning Saturday to Islamabad, where they will meet with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
4) They will discuss ``bilateral relations, the regional situation with reference to India and Pakistan, Afghanistan's reconstruction and the country's peace and stability, the war on terrorism and Iraq,'' Khan said.
5) Pakistan's Daily Jang newspaper reported that the U.S. envoys, during their meeting with Musharraf, will request that Pakistan send troops to Iraq. Musharraf has voiced a willingness to join an Islamic peacekeeping force in Iraq under a U.N. mandate.
6) Pakistan had been a key supporter of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. Ties between America and Pakistan have improved since Musharraf switched sides and became an ally to the U.S.-led campaign which ousted the radical Islamic militia in late 2001.
7) In June, during a U.S. visit by Musharraf, U.S. President George W. Bush promised to give Pakistan US$3 billion in military and economic aid, in apparent appreciation of the country's support for the anti-terror campaign.
8) On Sunday, Musharraf returned from another trip to the United States, where he met with Bush and attended the United Nations General Assembly.
9) Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali is in the United States this week for talks with the U.S. president and other officials.
Musharraf says U.N. mandate needed for Muslim peacekeepers in Iraq
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1) Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has stated that deploying Muslim peacekeepers to Iraq should be preceded by a mandate from the U.N. Security Council and the acceptance of the Iraqi people.
2) ``We don't want to go there as an extension of occupation, because we will not be able to do our duties,'' Musharraf said in an interview published Monday ahead of his attendance at a major Islamic summit.
3) Musharraf also told the New Straits Times newspaper that Pakistan would never allow bitter nuclear rival India to gain a military edge and that a recent deal where New Delhi would acquire sophisticated airborne warning technology from Russia and Israel will be countered.
4) At the summit, Musharraf's Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri said Pakistan was thinking of an all-Muslim peacekeeping force comprising troops from countries in the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, whose leaders are due to hold talks Thursday and Friday.
5) ``Pakistan's position is very clear,'' Kasuri told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting. ``First there has to be a United Nations cover. When you have a United Nations cover then you will see other Muslims go with us.''
6) Pakistan would not formally propose the Muslim peacekeeping plan to the OIC, but ``when the U.N. resolution does come up we will talk informally to other Muslim countries,'' Kasuri said.
7) Musharraf, who presides over a country where his support for the U.S.-led war in neighboring Afghanistan and crackdown against Islamic extremism are unpopular, will attend this week's summit.
8) In the newspaper interview, Musharraf said U.S. appeals to ally Pakistan to send troops to Iraq could not be met without a Security Council mandate. Any deployment would be unpopular in Pakistan, he said.
9) ``We have said in principle that we agree, but we would like a United Nations Security Council resolution mandating some other Muslim countries to join,'' Musharraf said. ``These Muslim countries must go there at the encouragement or request of the people of Iraq.''
10) Turkey last week became the first Muslim nation to authorize sending peacekeepers to Iraq without demanding that control over the country first be shifted from the United States to the United Nations. But the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council has objected to Turkish troops, fearing the neighboring country could end up interfering in Iraq's internal affairs.
11) Musharraf noted that relations with India had improved with India granting Pakistan most-favored nation trading status, but the decades of enmity would not be resolved by a ``piecemeal improvement in relations when major causes of the dispute are not being addressed.''
12) India's move to acquire AWACS capability using Israeli technology and Russian planes adds a new element to the nuclear rivalry with Pakistan, Musharraf said. The two nations have fought three wars in the past half-century.
13) Pakistan test-fired two medium-range missiles last week, and Musharraf said Pakistan's strategy remains _ to deny India any possibility of victory in war.
14) ``We will maintain that no-win situation come what may _ this, the world should know and India should know,'' Musharraf said. ``They have reached an agreement and we will counter it. That has to be very clear.''
15) Musharraf asserted that Pakistan's nuclear weapons remain under ``very strong custodial control and no way it can resolve into the wrong hands.''
16) Musharraf, a general before seizing power in 1999, said that unity among Muslim countries would not have stopped the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan or Iraq, and that a confrontational approach by Muslims will not succeed in world affairs.
17) ``Is that a better way to respond, or should we reconcile and evolve a strategy which is win-win for both?'' Musharraf asked. ``We should have an enlightened Islam, but what we are showing to the world is the opposite.''
Hardline religious parties begin anti-Musharraf drive in Pakistan
(APW_ENG_20031218.0088)
1) MULTAN, Pakistan _ Hundreds of supporters of a hardline religious coalition began gathering Thursday for the start of a protest campaign against Pakistan's leader, demanding that he let Parliament vote on his powers.
2) In a late-night meeting Wednesday, leaders of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition decided to make good on a threat to start demonstrations after their Dec. 17 deadline passed without agreement with the government on the issue.
3) Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999. He oversaw legislative elections last year _ but beforehand he'd made drastic changes to the constitution, giving himself powers to dismiss the prime minister, Cabinet and Parliament.
4) Musharraf won a five-year term as president in a widely criticized referendum, and also retains the post of army chief.
5) On Thursday, about 400 coalition members gathered in Multan, a deeply conservative city in eastern Punjab province, before marching toward a nearby town where clerics were to address a demonstration expected to draw thousands later in the day.
6) ``Today's rally will prove that people are with us and want to get rid of Musharraf,'' Qazi Hussain Ahmed, president of the coalition, told The Associated Press. ``Our protest will continue until the ending of dictatorship.''
7) Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or the United Action Forum, holds 77 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly. It fared well in last year's elections on its strong opposition to Musharraf's support of the U.S.-led war to oust the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. The coalition controls one of Pakistan's four provinces, and shares power in another.
8) The government had earlier expressed optimism that it would reach understanding with the coalition on the dispute over the president's powers.
9) Thursday's demonstration comes despite an assassination attempt against Musharraf on Sunday in a city near the capital, Islamabad, when a huge bomb narrowly missed his motorcade. No suspects have been identified in the attack.
10) Multan lies 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Islamabad.
11) The Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA, had set Dec. 17 as the deadline for the government to introduce a bill to Parliament to allow a vote on Musharraf's powers. It also wants him to step down as army chief by the end of next year.
12) Musharraf, regarded as an Islamic moderate, has accused the MMA of trying to implement hardline, Taliban-style rule in Pakistan, and has previously rejected their demands for a vote on his powers.
13) A spokesman for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League, the ruling party in Parliament, said the MMA was wasting its time by holding ``tiny rallies.''
14) ``Musharraf is the president of Pakistan and the time has come when everybody should accept this reality,'' said Azeem Chaudhry.
15) The coalition should engage in ``positive politics, instead of trying to create chaos,'' he said.
URGENT Pakistan's military president agrees to quit top army post by end of 2004
(APW_ENG_20031224.0189)
1) Pakistan's military president agreed Wednesday to step down as head of the armed forces by the end of 2004, part of a deal with a powerful hardline Islamic coalition to end a standoff that has crippled parliament and stalled this nation's return to democracy, leaders of both parties said.
2) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf also agreed to scale back some of the special powers he decreed himself after ousting the civilian government in a 1999 military coup. Under the agreement, Musharraf will remain president, but must seek a vote of confidence in parliament within a month of stepping down as military chief.
3) ``It is good for democracy and good for the stability of the country,'' Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press. ``The president has proven he is sincere about democracy.''
4) Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic coalition, also confirmed the deal. The agreement, which calls for Musharraf to quit his army position by Dec. 31, 2004, was signed at a hastily called ceremony in the capital.
5) The deal is an odd marriage of convenience between the U.S.-backed president and the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA, a coalition of hardline Islamic parties that have been deeply critical of American policy in the region, particularly its ouster of the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan.
6) Opposition lawmakers _ led by the MMA _ have paralyzed parliament for months, harassing speakers, staging mass walkouts, and blocking most legislation.
7) They are angry about special powers Musharraf granted himself that give him the right to sack the prime minister and disband parliament by decree. Together, the special powers are known as the Legal Framework Order.
8) The agreement allows Musharraf to keep the controversial powers, but require him to consult the prime minister before sacking the government, and then seek approval from the Supreme Court for the move.
9) Musharraf's ruling PML-Q party controls a slim majority in parliament, but needs the MMA to reach the two-thirds support necessary to amend the constitution and ratify the powers.
10) The MMA says it will continue to vote in opposition to Musharraf's ruling faction, but would vote with the president's party to formalize the special powers. Ahmad said the MMA would also back Musharraf during the vote of confidence.
11) S.M. Zafar, a pro-Musharraf senator and one of the architects of the deal, said it was a historic moment for the country, which has been ruled by the military for more than half of its 47 years.
12) ``This is a milestone in the democratic history of Pakistan and a triumph for tolerance and dialogue,'' he told AP.
13) Musharraf overthrew the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 in a bloodless coup. He won a five-year term as president in a 2002 referendum in which he was the only candidate.
14) In October 2002, he allowed elections to choose a national parliament and provincial assemblies, permitting a measure of democracy to return to this conservative Islamic country. Both Sharif and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's leading political figures, were barred from taking part in the vote.
15) Sharif lives in exile in Saudi Arabia and Bhutto splits her time between London and Dubai. She faces arrest on corruption charges if she returns to Pakistan.
16) Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a Musharraf ally, now runs the day-to-day operations of the government, but Musharraf has remained the ultimate power in the country.
17) While MMA and government officials have been negotiating for months, the deal was still a shocking reversal for the religious coalition, which won unprecedented support in the October 2002 election on the strength of a virulently anti-American, anti-Musharraf platform. The coalition _ which includes several pro-Taliban parties _ had been threatening mass protests if the government did not compromise.
18) Musharraf had vowed to keep his military post as long as he felt it was in the best interest of the nation. Many observers wonder how long he will be able to remain as president without the power of his army role.
19) The Pakistani leader was jolted by a Dec. 14 assassination attempt that came within seconds of blowing up his limousine as it passed a bridge in Rawalpindi, near the capital. High-tech jamming devices in Musharraf's vehicle apparently delayed the explosion.
20) Hardline Islamic militant groups were believed behind the attack, though no major suspects have been arrested. _ _ _ _
21) EDITOR'S NOTE: AP reporter Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Pakistan's Senate gives final approval to deal that would see Musharraf quit army post by 2004
(APW_ENG_20031230.0137)
1) Pakistan's Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to constitutional changes that grant President Gen. Pervez Musharraf extraordinary powers in return for his promise to step down as army commander by the end of 2004.
2) The legislation _ approved by the house on Monday after a surprise deal between the U.S.-backed president and a virulently anti-American Islamic political bloc, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA _ will now go to Musharraf's desk for his signature. Officials say he is expected to sign it immediately.
3) Supporters say the deal is an important step on the path back to democratic rule after Musharraf ousted a civilian government in a 1999 coup. Critics insist the deal, which amends the constitution to give the general the power to sack the prime minister and disband parliament by decree, simply is further window-dressing on what is essentially military rule.
4) ``The parliamentary system has been disfigured because of this amendment,'' said Sadique al-Farooq, a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. ``All important powers have been transferred to the president, the prime minister will be rendered powerless and the parliament will become a rubber-stamp.''
5) The Senate, dominated by Musharraf's ruling PML-Q party, voted 72-0 to approve the amendment after the opposition walked out. The bill passed the house by a vote of 248-0 on Monday, with nearly 100 opposition lawmakers staying on the sidelines in protest.
6) Under the agreement with the MMA, Musharraf has until Dec. 31, 2004, to leave the army post, the main base of his power. He will remain on as president until his 5-year term expires in 2007.
7) He must also undergo a vote of confidence in the federal parliament, as well as regional assemblies. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said such a vote should take place this week, possibly as early as Thursday.
8) The vote is seen as a formality, as the Islamic coalition's backing gives Musharraf enough legislative support to win.
9) The government would like the matter resolved ahead of a key regional summit to be held in Islamabad starting on Sunday. The summit will bring together the leaders of seven South Asian nations, including India. It is seen as a historic opportunity for Pakistan and India to cement recent peace overtures.
10) The general has become a key ally in the U.S. war on terrorism, backing American military action in neighboring Afghanistan and arresting more than 500 al-Qaida suspects in his own territory.
11) Under the agreement, Musharraf was forced to scale back somewhat the extraordinary powers he'd decreed himself in 2002. He must now consult the prime minister before sacking him, and he must seek approval from the Supreme Court within 15 days of taking such action.
12) The bill ended a yearlong stalemate that had paralyzed Parliament. Opposition legislators _ led by the MMA _ had blocked most debate since late 2002, shouting down speakers, banging on their desks and holding walkouts.
13) The vote comes on the heels of two separate assassination attempts against the 60-year-old leader, the latest on Dec. 25 as his motorcade was making its way through a crowded street in Rawalpindi, just outside the capital. Three suicide bombers detonated two explosives-packed pickup trucks, killing 15 people and getting close enough to crack the windshield on Musharraf's limousine. The general was unhurt.
Divided Senate gives Pakistan's president a vote of confidence as opposition walks out
(APW_ENG_20040101.0023)
1) Pakistan's military ruler won a vote of confidence from a divided Senate chamber on Thursday, the first step in a carefully orchestrated process that would empower him to finish out his five-year term as president.
2) The voting on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's future follows a surprise deal with a coalition of hardline Islamic parties that agreed to support his claim to the presidency in return for a promise that he step down as army chief by the end of 2004.
3) Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, has held both positions since winning a controversial presidential referendum in 2002 in which he was the only candidate. His term as president expires in 2007.
4) The Senate on Thursday voted 56-1 to give Musharraf the vote of confidence he sought, but dozens of opposition lawmakers staged a walkout in protest.
5) Pakistan's 1973 constitution was amended earlier this week to give the general extraordinary powers _ including the right to dissolve parliament and sack the prime minister by decree.
6) The amendment passed with the support of the Islamic coalition, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, after the party reached a deal with Musharraf's supporters.
7) The religious coalition's lawmakers stayed on the sideline of Thursday's confidence vote, neither supporting nor opposing the general.
8) Voting was also underway in Pakistan's four provinces, and the lower house of parliament was taking up the issue later in the day. Musharraf was expected to win easily, though observers said some form of noisy protest could disrupt the sessions.
9) Before the deal between the government and the MMA, opposition lawmakers had paralyzed parliament for months, shouting down speakers and banging on their desks.
10) Musharraf remains the most powerful figure in Pakistan, though he has handed over day-to-day handling of the country to the prime minister, a political ally.
11) The general survived two assassination attempts in December, the last a dual suicide car bombing near his army residence in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad. Musharraf was unhurt, but 16 people were killed and dozens injured.
12) Musharraf's supporters say they hope the confidence vote gives him added clout ahead of a key South Asian summit that begins in Islamabad on Sunday. The summit offers the first opportunity for face-to-face meetings between Pakistani and Indian leaders since relations between the two rivals began to thaw in April.
Palestinian foreign minister holds talks with Pakistani officials
(APW_ENG_20040223.0119)
1) The Palestinian foreign minister held talks Monday with Pakistani officials on how to improve relations, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
2) Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddoumi opened talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Kasuri, in the capital, Islamabad. He is expected to meet with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf before leaving on Tuesday.
3) Kaddoumi is leading a three-member delegation to Pakistan, a conservative Muslim country with strong popular support for the Palestinian cause.
4) Radical religious leaders denounce Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territory.
5) Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel, though Musharraf has suggested holding a debate on whether to recognize the Jewish state.
Government confirms Musharraf will step down as army chief
(APW_ENG_20040415.0533)
1) Pakistan's government on Thursday reiterated that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will step down as army chief at the end of the year as promised, even though he left open the possibility of remaining in the post in a recent interview.
2) In December, Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, promised to retire as head of the army by the end of 2004, paving the way for him to stay on as a civilian president.
3) But when asked in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. whether he would heed calls from supporters to stay on in uniform, Musharraf said: ``We have to wait and see.''
4) It was the first time that the general, who remains the dominant force in Pakistan, suggested that he might not step down.
5) However, the government was quick to react after the interview was aired late Wednesday, saying he would not back down on his promise to step down as army chief.
6) ``He will stand by his commitment with the 17th Amendment. In the 17th Amendment, he will continue to hold only one portfolio,'' Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told The Associated Press.
7) Musharraf made a deal in late December with a coalition of hardline religious parties _ the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA _ to amend Pakistan's constitution to give him extraordinary powers, including the right to dissolve Parliament and sack the prime minister.
8) In return, Musharraf agreed to the religious coalition's main demand: that he leave the army post, which is the source of most of his power, by Dec. 31, 2004.
9) But in the BBC interview, Musharraf accused the MMA coalition of reneging on an agreement to support him in a vote of confidence in January and the creation of a new National Security Council, approved by Parliament this week.
10) ``I am certainly cheesed off with the MMA's attitudes after the agreements that we have reached with them,'' the president said. ``They are going back on their words.''
11) Recently, a pro-Musharraf parliamentary faction led by Defense Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal called for Musharraf to stay on as army chief, saying if he steps down it could cause political instability.
12) Those fears have grown as Pakistan steps up its military campaign against suspected al-Qaida fighters and local sympathizers in tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
13) The offensive is opposed by many in this Islamic nation of 150 million, who view Musharraf as too beholden to the United States in its war on terrorism.
14) Concerns over Musharraf's commitment to strengthening democracy in Pakistan have been further thrown into doubt by tough treatment meted out to secular political opponents.
15) The leaders of the two chief opposition parties, former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, are both in exile.
16) And, at the weekend, the leader of Sharif's party was sentenced to 23 years in jail for sedition, forgery and other charges. Javed Hashmi was arrested in October after publicizing a letter purportedly from an army officer criticizing Musharraf's policies.
17) On Wednesday, Pakistan's Senate passed a bill to create a new security council that opponents claim will further undermine Parliament and give more power to the military to oversee the nation's affairs.
18) In the interview, Musharraf played down the power he wields as army chief _ although he refused to give a categorical assurance he wouldn't stay on longer than planned.
19) ``Things are so much in a flux, that one has to keep all options open, many options open,'' he said.
Pakistani parliament selects Musharraf loyalist as new prime minister
(APW_ENG_20040630.0009)
1) Pakistani lawmakers have elected a top ally of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to be caretaker prime minister as part of a power transition in the government that the opposition decries as an affront to democracy.
2) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was to be sworn in Wednesday but was expected to stay in office only for a matter of weeks. Ruling party officials say Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is to assume the prime minister's spot once expected political maneuvering is completed.
3) "I will continue the policies of President Musharraf," Hussain told lawmakers after he was elected in a rubber-stamp vote Tuesday. He said that his priorities would be to "fight terrorism, improve law and order and eliminate poverty and illiteracy."
4) Opposition lawmakers complain that the process is being manipulated behind the scenes by Musharraf, the nation's ultimate powerbroker. They say it underlines the lack of real democracy in this country, five years after the general took power in a coup.
5) Hussain replaces Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who had served for 19 months but had reportedly
6) fallen out with Musharraf. He tendered his resignation Saturday, without giving a reason.
7) Hussain, the head of Pakistan's ruling party, was easily elected to the premiership by the lower house in a 190-to-76 vote over his only challenger. Parliament is dominated by lawmakers loyal to Musharraf.
8) An opposition religious alliance, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal or United Action Forum, which has 68 seats, stayed away from voting and did not field a candidate, said MMA lawmaker Hafiz Hussain Ahmed.
9) MMA lawmaker and leader of the parliamentary opposition, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, denounced the change in the premiership.
10) "There was no need to change the prime minister, but he was forced to resign," Rahman told lawmakers. "We are working for the supremacy of parliament and our journey toward it will continue."
11) State-run PTV abruptly halted coverage of Rahman's speech after he made the critical comments.
12) Aziz, an international banker, is widely believed to be favored by Musharraf. Aziz is credited with salvaging Pakistan's near-bankrupt economy after international sanctions were imposed in 1998 in reaction to the testing of nuclear missiles.
13) PML-Q party officials have said Aziz, a member of the upper house, or Senate, will be nominated as premier once he secures a seat in the lower house, a requisite for any candidate as prime minister.
14) A Musharraf loyalist will have to resign from the lower house, setting up a by-election that Aziz can win, a process that opponents say makes a mockery of democracy.
15) The change in prime ministers was unlikely to dramatically alter Pakistan's commitment to either the U.S.-led war on terror or fledgling peace talks with nuclear rival India _ matters that are firmly in Musharraf's hands.
16) Real authority rests with Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and has since decreed changes to the constitution that empower him to dismiss the prime minister and parliament.
Pakistani leader to remain as army chief and president, breaking previous agreement
(APW_ENG_20040915.0311)
1) Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf will stay on as head of the armed forces and as this nation's president, the information minister said Wednesday, despite a previous promise that he would give up his military post by the end of the year.
2) "The president will keep both the posts. The national situation demands that he keeps the two offices," Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press.
3) When asked why Musharraf was going back on a promise to quit as army chief, Ahmed said: "The situation has changed."
4) The decision comes after weeks of speculation, some fueled by Musharraf himself, that he was considering backing out of an agreement he reached in December with a hardline Islamic political block to give up his army post.
5) Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and has emerged as a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, said earlier this month that he felt most people in the country wanted him to remain in both positions.
6) "Ninety-six percent (of people) will say 'do not remove (the army uniform),'" he said.
7) Those comments drew an angry response from the opposition, which accused the military leader of having a "lust for power."
8) On Wednesday, the opposition accused Musharraf of lying to the nation.
9) "He is a dictator," said Sadique al-Farooq, a spokesman for the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in the coup. "His claim that he is a man of his word who fulfills his promises has proven false. He has violated the solemn pledge he has made with the nation."
10) Musharraf survived two attempts on his life in December in Rawalpindi _ a city adjacent to the capital that is the headquarters of the Pakistan army, and from which Musharraf commuted to his presidential offices.
11) He announced earlier this month he was moving the army headquarters to Islamabad, an indication to many that he was not expecting to leave either post anytime soon.
12) There was no immediate reaction to Musharraf's decision by the international community, but it was sure to lead to concern that Pakistan's slow and bumpy road back to democracy following the coup has all but ended.
13) The decision comes just one day after a visiting senior U.S. State Department official stressed the importance of democracy in Pakistan to relations with Washington.
14) "I think democracy, the progress toward democracy is absolutely vital for Pakistan's future and vital for the relationship that the United States and Pakistan have," Alan P. Larson, under secretary of state for economic, business and agriculture affairs, told Pakistan's Geo television on Tuesday.
15) Pakistan's relationship with Washington is a complicated one. Under Musharraf it has arrested more than 550 al-Qaida operatives and turned many over to the United States. But it has also at times been criticized for not doing enough to clamp down on the tribal border region where many top al-Qaida figures, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding.
16) Fierce fighting in the region, called North and South Waziristan, has killed dozens in recent weeks.
17) Musharraf may also face problems over his decision from the Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies. The nation only recently won re-admittance to the organization after an embarrassing suspension following Musharraf's coup.
18) The general allowed parliamentary elections in October 2002 and turned day-to-day running of the country over to a civilian prime minister. However, he pushed through constitutional amendments that give him the power to dismiss the premier and sack parliament at his choosing.
19) Former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali stepped down in June, reportedly after a falling out with Musharraf. A pro-Musharraf party leader was named to replace him temporarily while another Musharraf ally, Shaukat Aziz, completed political maneuvering necessary for him to take over.
20) The episode was denounced as a sham by the opposition.
21) Musharraf has also jailed several opposition political leaders including Javed Hashmi, who received a 23-year sentence earlier this year for sedition. The opposition Pakistan People's Party nominated Hashmi to run for prime minister against Aziz in a parliamentary vote, but the government would not allow him out of his cell to participate in the proceedings, prompting a walkout.
22) The deal reached in December between Musharraf and the opposition resulted in a constitutional amendment that appeared to bar a single person from holding both the top army spot and the presidency as of Jan. 1, 2005. But Ahmed said there was an escape clause.
23) "The president can keep both the offices. There is no constitutional complication," he said.
24) The details of the deal with the hardline Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition were never publicized, and Musharraf claims the party broke its promise by failing to support him in a parliamentary vote of confidence soon after the constitutional amendments were approved in January this year.
25) In a bid to pressure him to stick to the deal, MMA lawmakers in Pakistan's conservative North West Frontier province approved a nonbinding resolution earlier Wednesday demanding that Musharraf quit the army job.
26) On Monday, the legislature in eastern Punjab, where a pro-Musharraf group has a majority, adopted a resolution saying Musharraf should continue as army chief "for his policy against terrorism and economic stability."
Hardline religious parties hold anti-Musharraf rally in Karachi
(APW_ENG_20041128.0155)
1) A coalition of six radical Islamic groups kicked off a campaign to force Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf into honoring a promise to step down as army chief with a large rally Sunday.
2) About 15,000 members of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Forum gathered in Karachi, capital of southern Sindh province. Authorities beefed up security by deploying an additional 2,000 police.
3) Musharraf, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999. He held parliamentary elections in 2002, but he changed the constitution first, giving himself sweeping powers, including the right to dismiss the prime minister, Cabinet and Parliament.
4) Last year, the coalition struck a deal with Musharraf, agreeing to accept him as president until 2007 in return for his promise to quit his army post before Dec. 31, 2004.
5) However, Pakistan's ruling party passed a bill this month that will allow him to remain president and army chief until 2007.
6) The legislation came weeks after Musharraf announced he would go back on his pledge, saying people wanted him to keep his uniform to maintain stability as he fights terrorism. He says Pakistan needs the military's firm guiding hand to build a democratic state.
7) On Sunday, opposition leaders asked the general to quit his military post, claiming the masses have delivered a verdict against him.
8) Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of the coalition in his address asked Musharraf to announce his decision to retire as army chief before Dec. 19.
9) "We will convert our peaceful rallies into nationwide protests after it, if you (Musharraf) did not do it," he told the cheering crowd.
10) Another top leader, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman, accused Musharraf of serving the interests of the United States. "Today's massive rally is enough to open the eyes of Musharraf. He should see that people have rejected him because of his anti-Muslim and pro-America policies," he said.
11) Qazi Hussain Ahmed, president of the coalition, in his speech also criticized Musharraf.
12) "Listen Musharraf! People don't want to see you in uniform," he said, adding "we will not accept you the president (of Pakistan) after December 31, if you did not put off your uniform."
13) "Now the ball is in your court," he said.
14) Qazi said that other rallies will be held in Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi, a garrison city where Musharraf lives.
15) However, Mushahid Hussain, a top leader of the ruling party, asked MMA to refrain from indulging in politics of confrontation, saying Musharraf had been elected as the president of Pakistan by the parliament, of which MMA is a part.
16) "They should respect the parliament's decision," Hussain told The Associated Press.
17) He said "MMA should read the writing on the wall. The mood of the people clear. The people have rejected the politics of negativism and they prefer the politics of reconciliation."
18) The coalition holds 77 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. It made strong gains in 2002 elections on an anti-U.S. and pro-Taliban platform. It rules the deeply conservative North West Frontier Province and shares power in southwestern Baluchistan province, both bordering Afghanistan, where troops have been tracking down remnants of al-Qaida.
19) Musharraf is currently on a visit to Latin America, from where he is to travel to France, Britain and the United States.
Thousands of Pakistani opposition activists protest against Musharraf's military role
(APW_ENG_20041205.0103)
1) Thousands of activists from an opposition alliance held a second large rally Sunday to demand that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf keep his promise to step down as chief of Pakistan's powerful army.
2) Supporters of Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Forum, a coalition of six Islamic groups, staged the protest in the central Pakistani city of Multan, amid tight security.
3) The alliance demands that Musharraf give up his military role by Dec. 31. The alliance made stunning gains in parliamentary elections in 2002, mainly on a platform of opposition to the U.S.-led war against terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan.
4) Last week, about 15,000 supporters gathered in the southern city of Karachi for the start of a series of protests against Musharraf. Sunday's rally was held in the central city of Multan, and more demonstrations were scheduled for other cities.
5) Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the coalition, said the protests will continue until Musharraf sheds his military uniform.
6) "We have started a jihad (holy war). It is jihad to say the truth against a tyrant ruler," Ahmed said.
7) He said Musharraf "has cheated the people by breaking his promise with MMA."
8) Amid chants at the rally of "Down with Musharraf and America," Ahmed claimed Musharraf would not remain army chief for long.
9) "This rally proved that people are against Musharraf's government. They are fed up with martial laws every other day," he said. "Whenever the army wants, it conquers its own people."
10) A rally organizer, Kunwar Sadique, said 10,000 people turned out for the more than three-hour demonstration. But intelligence officials said only half that number attended.
11) Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999. Before holding parliamentary elections in 2002, he amended the constitution to gain the authority to dismiss the prime minister, Cabinet and Parliament.
12) Last year, Musharraf announced he would retire as chief of the powerful army _ whose generals have largely ruled Pakistan since its independence from British rule in 1947 _ after striking a deal with the coalition, which agreed to accept him as a civilian president until 2007.
13) But a few weeks ago, Musharraf indicated he might renege on his pledge. Parliament then passed a bill allowing him to remain the army chief and head of state beyond Dec. 31.
14) Musharraf says his decision to retain both jobs will ensure continuity in his policies, including Pakistan's support for the war against terrorism. Musharraf allied Pakistan with the U.S.-led war despite strong opposition from the religious grouping.
Bhutto urges opposition to reject Musharraf's amendments to constitution
(APW_ENG_20050106.0383)
1) Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto on Thursday urged opposition groups to step up pressure on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf by protesting amendments to the constitution that gave him sweeping powers.
2) Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, told the nation in a televised address last week that he has restored real democracy and that he would continue to hold the offices of both president and army chief until 2007.
3) Musharraf held parliamentary elections in 2002 and turned the day-to-day running of the country over to the prime minister. However, he pushed through constitutional amendments that give him the power to dismiss the prime minister and Parliament.
4) "We all should reject the amendments that have been made (to the constitution)," Bhutto told Pakistan's Geo television.
5) Opposition held joint rallies earlier this month, rejecting Musharraf's claim that he had restored democracy. They also vowed to continue protests until Musharraf agrees to quit his army post.
6) Bhutto said Thursday that her Pakistan People's Party was ready to cooperate with a coalition of religious parties, called Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA, to force Musharraf to shed his uniform.
7) "We agree with them (MMA) on some issues, like they say that Musharraf should remove his (army) uniform," she said in the interview in Dubai, where she has lived since fleeing Pakistan in 1999 to avoid arrest over several corruption cases.
8) Bhutto was prime minister in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, but both times her government was dismissed over allegations of misrule and corruption.
9) Last month, Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was released from eight years in prison over corruption cases after the Supreme Court granted him bail. Zardari later traveled to Dubai, where he is living with his family.
Britain confident about Pakistan's handling of rogue nuke scientist, foreign secretary says
(APW_ENG_20050214.0517)
1) Britain has full confidence in Pakistan's handling of the nuclear proliferation scandal centered on its disgraced top scientist A.Q. Khan, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday.
2) Straw made the comments after wide-ranging talks in Islamabad Monday with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri at the start of a three-country South Asian tour.
3) They also discussed issues including counterterrorism, the India-Pakistan peace dialogue and the impasse over Iran's nuclear program.
4) "We have very substantial confidence in President Musharraf and the Pakistani government about the way in which they are dealing with the aftermath of revelations in respect of Dr. Khan," Straw told a press conference.
5) Musharraf pardoned Khan in February last year after it emerged that he sold sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea _ where the communist regime recently made a public declaration that it has nuclear weapons.
6) Pakistan says Khan's black market network has been shut down, but is adamant he won't be questioned by outsiders _ including the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
7) Kasuri, however, declared that Pakistan was committed to nuclear nonproliferation. "If our British friends or American friends bring forward evidence, we will confront Dr. A.Q. Khan and will share the information with them," he said.
8) Musharraf is a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism and has faced little criticism from the West for pardoning Khan _ once a national hero for masterminding Pakistan's nuclear program, but now living under virtual house arrest in the capital.
9) The Pakistani president has also been spared much scrutiny for backsliding on democratic reform. On Friday, ministers of the Commonwealth of former British colonies rebuked Musharraf for breaking a promise to step down as army chief.
10) Straw hailed the Commonwealth for its earlier decision of allowing Pakistan to rejoin the grouping.
11) "The United Kingdom is delighted with the decision ... to ensure that Pakistan is fully readmitted to the Commonwealth and it's a very good sign of Pakistan's maturing as a democracy and a recognition of the great leadership which President Mushrraf has shown during a difficult time for the world," he said in an interview broadcast on state-run Pakistan Television after meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
12) Speaking at the news conference jointly with Kasuri, Straw said Britain welcomed continued progress in the peace process between India and Pakistan, including over their competing claims to the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir _ a dispute dating back to independence from Britain in 1947.
13) "I see a good future from the composite dialogue," he told reporters. "What I look forward to ... is the border breaking down and so once again families which have been separated by that border being able to live in peace and harmony and security."
14) On Tuesday, India's External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh will arrive in Islamabad for the latest round of talks with Pakistan's leadership.
15) An Indian newspaper reported Monday that the two governments will likely agree to set up a bus service linking Indian- and Pakistan-held Kashmir.
16) Straw will travel to Afghanistan and then India after his three-day stay in Pakistan.
Pakistan radical groups stage rally against Musharraf in Pakistan
(APW_ENG_20050309.0513)
1) Thousands of radical Islamic activists marched through the Pakistani capital Wednesday to demand President Gen. Pervez Musharraf resign for supporting close ally the United States in its war on terror.
2) Nearly 10,000 members of a six-party religious alliance, called Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA, held placards reading "Down with Musharraf" and chanted "Musharraf is a dog" and "God is great," as they demonstrated in Islamabad.
3) Alliance chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said Musharraf had wrongly abandoned Pakistan's support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, betrayed Kashmiris by giving concessions to India, and insulted Pakistani nuclear hero Abdul Qadeer Khan, all "to appease his American masters."
4) Qazi said Musharraf was not "fit" to be president.
5) Musharraf, who made Pakistan a key ally of the United States in war on terror after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America, seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
6) He struck a deal with the MMA in 2003, promising to give up his army post by Dec. 31, 2004, in return for the alliance's support in approving sweeping powers he decreed himself before the Oct. 2002 elections that allow the president to dismiss the prime minister and parliament.
7) In December, Musharraf said he would not quit the post of the army chief in the larger interest of Pakistan. Since then, the MMA has been campaigning against Musharraf, who says he will remain the president and army chief until 2007.
Pakistan prime minister praises U.S. decision to sell F-16s
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1) Pakistan's prime minister praised Washington on Saturday for making a long-awaited decision to sell F-16 warplanes to his country, and insisted that Islamabad has no aggressive designs against its neighbors.
2) "It is a good and very important decision. We welcome it," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in an address at a graduation parade for Pakistan Air Force cadets near Risalpur, a garrison town in northwestern Pakistan.
3) Aziz's comments came a day after a U.S. official said the United States has agreed to sell F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan, a move seen as rewarding Pakistan for its support of the U.S. war on terror.
4) The decision perturbed Islamabad's rival, India, whose Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed "great disappointment" to President George W. Bush in a telephone call, according to Singh's spokesman.
5) Without naming India, Aziz on Saturday said Pakistan had "no aggressive intentions against any country."
6) He said "Pakistan believes in peace and wishes to live in harmony with its neighbors."
7) Pakistan signed a deal with Washington to buy the F-16 fighter jets in the late 1980s, but the agreement was scrapped in the 1990s when the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Islamabad over its nuclear weapons program.
8) Although Washington lifted the sanctions because of Islamabad's support for the U.S. war on terror, the sale of the F-16s remained on hold.
9) The U.S. decision came a day after Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told a Pakistani news channel that he was considering giving parts of centrifuges to the International Atomic Energy Agency as part of a probe into Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.
10) On Saturday, Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore that Pakistan "may give some components of discarded centrifuges" to the IAEA, but clarified that any such move should not be linked to a U.S. decision to sell F-16 planes.
11) "These are separate things," he said.
12) Kasuri said there will be no limit to the purchase of F-16 planes and Pakistan will be getting the latest version of the jets. He denied the jet purchases would trigger an arms race in the region.
13) Also Saturday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said the Bush administration had notified the U.S. Congress on Friday of its decision to sell F-16s to Pakistan.
14) "This is a welcome development. The sale of F-16s to Pakistan would help meet some of Pakistan's legitimate defense needs," a ministry statement said, adding "the decision is reflective of the U.S. commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation and building a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan."
15) It said the specifics of the sale of the warplanes would be worked out by the governments of the two countries.
16) Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations. They have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. Last year, the two nations began a peace process to resolve all issues, including a territorial dispute over Kashmir, a Himalayan region divided between the two and claimed by both.
17) Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is to travel to India on April 17 to watch a a one-day match between the cricket teams of Pakistan and India.
20,000 rally against President Musharraf in northwest Pakistan
(APW_ENG_20050328.0471)
1) Thousands of opposition activists chanting "death to dictatorship" rallied in northwestern Pakistan Monday in the latest protest against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.
2) Some of the demonstrators burned an effigy of Musharraf _ who seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999 _ along a main street in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's conservative North West Frontier Province.
3) The protest was spearheaded by the six-party alliance of Islamic hardline groups known as the United Action Forum, which launched a campaign of countrywide protests against Musharraf days after he went back on a promise to become a civilian head of state and leave his army job by the end of 2004.
4) "We will sit in peace only when Musharraf's rule and military interference in politics is ended," the leader of the alliance, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, said at the rally.
5) "Musharraf is not acceptable to us either as the president or army chief. He is an American agent. He is working for American interests," he said, amid chants of "America's friend is a traitor."
6) Witnesses estimated more than 20,000 people protested in Peshawar.
7) Musharraf has allied Pakistan with the U.S.-led war against terrorism _ a decision that angered Islamic groups that accuse him of undermining the country's sovereignty.
8) The United Action Forum made unexpected gains in parliamentary polls in 2002, mainly on a platform of opposition to Musharraf.
9) Musharraf promised to step down as chief of the powerful army after striking a surprise deal with the Islamic alliance to get its parliamentary support for constitutional changes handing him sweeping powers. Musharraf later reneged on his pledge, saying staying on as army chief would ensure stability in Pakistan.
10) On Friday, more than 10,000 people attended an anti-Musharraf rally in the southwestern city of Quetta.
Partial strike shuts down portions of Pakistan in response to call by Islamic groups
(APW_ENG_20050402.0145)
1) A general strike shut down parts of Pakistan on Saturday after a coalition of Islamic groups called for a protest to demand that the country's military president step down.
2) Shops were closed in parts of the nation's biggest city, Karachi, and in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
3) Business activity also slowed in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, where police said men from the Islamic coalition damaged some shops and vehicles.
4) The six-party Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, also called MMA, issued the call for a nationwide strike last month to reject President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's policies and pressure him to resign.
5) On Friday, police arrested hundreds of MMA activists, including five lawmakers, in southern Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital. Dozens were also picked up from the eastern Punjab region.
6) Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said five lawmakers and 250 people had been detained over the past 24 hours to maintain law and order. "We will act against those who will create problems for law-abiding citizens," Jamil said.
7) Quetta police chief Salman Haider said there was some violence in Quetta. "We will arrest those who attacked vehicles and forced people to close their shops," he said.
8) Some Karachi residents said they did not drive due to fears that MMA supporters might attack them. A number of shop owners stayed home out of similar concerns.
9) Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, but the MMA has opposed Musharraf since U.S.-led coalition forces attacked Afghanistan to oust the former Taliban regime for sheltering Osama bin Laden.
10) The MMA has been holding anti-Musharraf rallies since December, when the president reneged on a promise to resign from his position as army chief. Last year, the MMA struck a deal with Musharraf, agreeing to accept him as president until 2007 in exchange for his promise to quit his army post before Dec. 31, 2004.
11) The group has accused Musharraf of serving U.S. interests instead of working to improve his people's lives.
12) Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, was voted in for a five-year term as president in a 2002 referendum in which he was the only candidate.
13) He later changed the constitution to enhance his powers, giving him the right to dismiss the prime minister, Cabinet and Parliament.
Palestinian leader hopes Pakistan's Musharraf can help in Mideast dispute
(APW_ENG_20050519.0769)
1) Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Pakistan's president can help resolve the Palestinian issue in the Middle East, the state news agency reported Thursday, when Abbas made his first visit to this country.
2) Abbas, in Pakistan as part of an Asian tour, held talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad after a red-carpet reception. He also met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
3) "We hope that President Musharraf will put his political weight behind efforts for a just resolution of the lingering dispute," the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency quoted Abbas as saying after meeting with Musharraf.
4) Abbas said Musharraf is an "acknowledged world leader, who enjoys great respect for his vision and policies," APP reported.
5) Musharraf, a key ally of the United States in the war against terrorism, promised support.
6) "Pakistan is always with the Palestinians. Palestinians are our brothers. We will always be with our brothers in the resolution of the Palestinian dispute," Musharraf told reporters.
7) Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Musharraf accepted Abbas' invitation to send an official Pakistani delegation to assess the situation in Palestinian areas.
8) No date for the visit was announced.
9) Pakistan, an Islamic state, has no diplomatic ties with Israel. Islamabad has demanded that Israel end its occupation of Palestinian territories and give Palestinians the right to an independent homeland with Jerusalem as its capital.
10) Abbas left for neighboring India after his daylong visit to Pakistan. He made earlier stops in Japan and China.
11) Abbas heads to Washington next week for his first visit to the United States since he was elected in January. He is to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on May 26, and is expected to seek direct U.S. economic assistance for his administration.
Pakistani leader could face censure for speaking at Jewish conference, organizer says
(APW_ENG_20050830.0509)
1) The head of a leading Jewish organization hailed Pakistan's leader for accepting the group's invitation to speak at its conference in New York next month, but said in an interview aired Tuesday that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was likely to be criticized at home for the move.
2) Musharraf is expected to speak at the interfaith meeting, organized by the Council for World Jewry, while he is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
3) Jack Rosen, the council's chairman, told Pakistan's Geo television that Musharraf's decision to speak at the conference would encourage other Muslim leaders to talk about reconciliation and religious extremism.
4) "What we hope to see is that this is a spark that would create an opportunity for other moderate Muslim leaders to stand and speak of reconciliation, an end to extremism, an end to lack of tolerance and the beginning of the end of confrontation," he said.
5) But he said Musharraf was likely to face censure at home for speaking at a Jewish forum.
6) "I am sure there will be criticism for him making this bold decision," he said.
7) Radical Islamic groups are critical of Jews because they are seen as supporters of Israel. Pakistan has no diplomatic ties with Israel and Musharraf drew flak from opposition groups after he called for a debate on whether Pakistan should recognize the Jewish state.
8) On Monday, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that Musharraf would speak at the conference but did not specify the date.
9) Ministry spokesman Mohammed Naeem Khan said the conference was aimed at promoting interfaith understanding, and Musharraf's participation should not be seen as a move by Pakistan to recognize Israel.
10) Pakistan supports the Palestinians' call for an independent state and demands that Israel end its occupation of Palestinian territory.
11) In the television interview, Rosen said he and two colleagues from the council met Musharraf in Islamabad in May and found him to be "very open and frank ... charming."
12) "I was very much impressed with his grasp on the issues that we wanted to talk," he said.
13) Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, has been urging Muslims to embrace a strategy of "enlightened moderation" as the best way to counter extremism and terrorism.
Pakistan's foreign minister to hold landmark meeting with Israeli counterpart: reports
(APW_ENG_20050901.0224)
1) Pakistan's foreign minister was set to hold talks Thursday with his Israeli counterpart on the situation in the Middle East, a landmark diplomatic meeting between the countries, two Pakistani newspapers reported Thursday.
2) The Dawn newspaper said the meeting, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, between Khursheed Kasuri and his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, was taking place "in response to Israel's keenness to establish contact with Pakistan."
3) The two countries _ which don't have diplomatic ties _ decided to hold the meeting in Turkey because it is a "neutral" country, Dawn said. Turkey is a predominantly Muslim nation that has diplomatic relations with Israel and is a close friend of Pakistan.
4) According to another Pakistani newspaper, The Nation, Turkey also facilitated the Israel-Pakistan meeting. Neither newspaper cited sources.
5) The two foreign ministers will focus on the developments in the Middle East peace process, Dawn reported.
6) There was no official confirmation of the reported talks. Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who is also the chief government spokesman, said Thursday: "I have no information about the meeting."
7) Pakistan backs the Palestinians' call for an independent state, and demands that Israel pull out from the Palestinian territories under its occupation.
8) Representatives from Israel and Pakistan had been secretly holding talks for the past several months through diplomatic and "informal channels," with Pakistan insisting it would wait for an appropriate time to make the overtures public, Dawn said.
9) "After the Israeli pullout from Gaza, Pakistan signaled to the Israelis that it was 'now ready' for an overt contact," the English-language newspaper said.
10) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, has angered Pakistani opposition groups by calling for a debate on whether Pakistan should recognize the Jewish state.
11) Musharraf is also expected to speak at a Jewish interfaith conference in New York later this month.
12) The Foreign Ministry has said that Musharraf's participation in the meeting in New York, organized by the Council for World Jewry, a leading U.S.-based Jewish organization, should not be seen as a move by Pakistan to recognize Israel.
Israeli and Pakistan foreign ministers hold first high-level meeting
(APW_ENG_20050901.0330)
1) The Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers met in Turkey on Thursday in the first acknowledged high-level talks between the two countries, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced _ a diplomatic spinoff from Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
2) The meeting was arranged at the initiative of Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, who asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to arrange it, said Israeli Foreign Ministry officials.
3) Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev confirmed the meeting had begun in the Turkish city of Istanbul, chosen as a neutral venue.
4) Pakistan, a Muslim country which has taken a hard line against Israel, was encouraged to meet the Israelis following Israel's evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, which was completed last week, the officials said.
5) "There is no conflict whatsoever between Israel and Pakistan and no logical reason why the two countries could not have a constructive and positive bilateral relationship," said Regev.
6) Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his Pakistan counterpart Khursheed Kasuri informally met Wednesday night at a dinner in Istanbul, the Israeli officials said. After their meeting Thursday, they were to hold separate news conferences.
7) In Islamabad, the Dawn newspapers said Shalom and Khursheed Kasuri were meeting "in response to Israel's keenness to establish contact with Pakistan."
8) Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the Indian subcontinent, has been gradually moving toward conciliation with Israel, despite the influence of a powerful Islamic radical party in Pakistan.
9) The Pakistani president accepted an invitation to address an interfaith conference this month organized by the Council for World Jewry while he is in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session.
10) The Arabic-language television station al-Jazeera has quoted Musharraf as calling Sharon a "great soldier and courageous leader" after announcing his plan to end Israel's occupation of Gaza. Pakistan says Israel must abandon all other territory it captured in the 1967 Mideast war and clear the way for an independent Palestinian state.
11) Sporadic articles in the Pakistani press also have appeared in recent years urging a reassessment of Pakistan's refusal to consider diplomatic relations with Israel.
12) Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Israel would welcome relations with Islamabad, and has been quietly working toward that goal.
13) "There have been contacts on different levels with Pakistani officials for several years," Shoval told The Associated Press. "Even I myself had contacts with the Pakistani ambassador during my tenure in Washington and I always heard the willingness and desire to establish relations at the right moment," he said.
14) "Israel is of course interested in widening its official diplomatic relations with as many countries as possible and especially Muslim countries."
Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers meet for historic first talks
(APW_ENG_20050901.0902)
1) Israel's foreign minister met Thursday with his Pakistani counterpart for the first time, a diplomatic breakthrough between the Islamic republic and the Jewish state that both sides say is the result of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
2) Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom hailed the public meeting with officials from a country known for its hardline stance toward Israel as a "historic first" that could lead other Muslim countries to open ties with Israel.
3) Pakistani leaders, however, made clear that establishing full diplomatic relations with Israel would be contingent upon Israel withdrawing from all territory it captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
4) Israel has opened diplomatic relations with only four Muslim countries _ Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritania.
5) "This is the time for all the Muslim and Arab countries to reconsider their relations with Israel," Shalom said at a press conference following his meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri. "This is the time to look to the future."
6) Shalom said Israel hoped that the meeting would "lead to a full diplomatic relationship between Israel and Pakistan, as we would like to see it with all the other Muslim and Arab countries."
7) Kasuri called the meeting "a gesture to underscore the importance that we in Pakistan attach to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza."
8) "It is important that Israel is encouraged to continue to pursue the course of peace" and end its occupation, he said.
9) "The meeting today does not mean recognition," Kasuri added. "That stage will come following progress toward the solution of the Palestinian problem."
10) "The Palestinians must see progress toward a realization of an independent homeland with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital," he added.
11) Palestinian authorities were critical of the move.
12) "Pakistan is free to do whatever it wants, and we can't impose a veto on its decision, but I hope that this step will not encourage any Arab country to normalize its relations with Israel in this period," Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shaath told The Associated Press.
13) "The normalization of relations should come when Israel commits itself to the peace process and withdraws from all the Palestinian territories," Shaath said.
14) The meeting between the Pakistani and Israeli foreign ministers was at the request of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who immediately faced opposition at home, where Islamic hard-liners condemned the talks.
15) "The Pakistani nation, openly and collectively, condemns this unfortunate meeting, which the foreign minister has held with a representative of the Jewish occupier of Palestinian land," said Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, an opposition coalition of six Islamic parties.
16) The meeting was held at the Four Seasons hotel, a converted Ottoman prison not far from Topkapi Palace, the seat of the Ottoman sultans who ruled over much of the Islamic world for nearly 400 years.
17) Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in its war on terror, has been gradually moving toward conciliation with Israel.
18) He accepted an invitation to address an interfaith conference this month organized by the Council for World Jewry while he is in New York, and has been quoted by the Arabic-language al-Jazeera television station as calling Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "a great soldier and courageous leader" after announcing the plan to end Israel's occupation of Gaza.
Israel sees warming relationship with Pakistan as heralding more ties with the Islamic world
(APW_ENG_20050902.0070)
1) Israel lauded a diplomatic breakthrough with Pakistan as the first fruit of its Gaza pullout and a harbinger of warmer ties with other Muslim nations, following the first-ever public meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries.
2) However, the sudden public embrace of Israel by the world's second largest Muslim nation worried Palestinians, who warned that any prize for Israel is premature as long as it controls Gaza's borders, expand West Bank settlements and tightens its hold on Jerusalem.
3) Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met publicly for the first time Thursday with Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri of Pakistan, a Muslim country that has long taken a hard line against the Jewish state, a diplomatic breakthrough that both ministers tied to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The meeting took place at the neutral site of Istanbul, Turkey.
4) Shalom hailed the meeting as a "historic first" and said that following the Gaza withdrawal it was "time for all of the Muslim and Arab countries to reconsider their relations with Israel."
5) Pakistani president Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said, however, that talk of formal ties with Israel was premature.
6) "Pakistan will not recognize Israel until the establishment of a free and independent state for the Palestinian people," he told Pakistani media. "The holding of a meeting between Pakistani and Israeli foreign ministers does not mean that we have recognized Israel. We have taken no such decision," he said.
7) Musharraf said Pakistan would send a delegation to Jerusalem, but he gave no details.
8) Shalom said there had been secret low-level contacts between the two countries for many years, but the Gaza pullout, completed last week, provided an atmosphere ripe for a more public dialogue.
9) "This is a historic move because it could lead to other Muslim, Arab countries to understand that this is the right time to do this and to move their ties with us from darkness to light," he told Israeli Army Radio. "After the Gaza pullout, the time is ripe also in the eyes of the public and it is also easier at the moment to do this then it was in the past."
10) In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV, Kasuri gave the meeting a broader context _ countering the image of a world battle against Islam against the background of terror attacks by extremists.
11) "As far as the Islamic countries are concerned, and countries like Pakistan, there can be peace, he said. "We live in a global village, and all this talk about a clash of the civilizations is disastrous and suicidal."
12) Shalom has put a high priority on forging relations with the Islamic world and has said he hopes that 10 countries from the Persian Gulf and North Africa would now set up diplomatic representations in Israel. He has not named the countries.
13) "We saw today that this is more than wishful thinking," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
14) Israel at present has diplomatic relations with few Muslim countries; Turkey _ where Thursday's meeting took place _ Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania and former Soviet republics in central Asia.
15) Palestinian officials insisted that Arab countries should not reward Israel for emptying the Gaza settlements as long as it still controls Palestinian movement in and out of Gaza, expands West Bank settlements and is fencing off Jerusalem from the West Bank.
16) "Pakistan is free to do whatever it wants, and we can't impose a veto on their decision, but I hope that this step will not encourage any Arab country to normalize its relations with Israel in this period," Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shaath said. "We consider that any normalization of relations with Israel in this period would be an encouragement for Israel to continue its settlement activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem."
17) In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the meeting a positive development.
18) There was no immediate comment from India, a major buyer of Israeli defense hardware and a longtime foe of Pakistan, but analysts were convinced that the Israel-India alliance would be unharmed.
19) P. Kumaraswamy, who teaches Israeli politics at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University said India may actually be relieved by a warming of Pakistan-Israel relations, which could well deflect Arab criticism of Delhi's own snug alliance with Jerusalem.
20) "Pakistan's relationship with Israel will likely have a positive impact on India," he said, adding that was true only as long as the evolving relationship excluded defense sales. "If it takes a strategic turn, involving military deals, then India will have to (re-examine) its relations with Israel," he said.
21) Marvin Weinbaum of the Washington-based Middle East Institute said Pakistan was seeking to align itself still further with the United States and promote itself as a force for moderation in the Islamic world.
22) "India won't be a spoiler here in any way, there's no point in that," Weinbaum told The Associated Press. "Anything which would bring Pakistan into the international community's views on terrorism and so on, India looks at that positively."
23) Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the Indian subcontinent, has been gradually moving toward conciliation with Israel, despite the influence of a powerful Islamic radical party in Pakistan.
24) The Pakistani president accepted an invitation to address an interfaith conference this month organized by the Council for World Jewry while he is in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly.
25) Israeli foreign policy expert Uzi Arad said rapprochement with Pakistan should be part of a broader Israeli engagement with Asia.
26) "The action now and in the next decade is clearly shifting toward the Asian continent," he said. "We shouldn't neglect that rising continent.
27) (scw/ml)
Pakistani Islamic groups hold rallies to condemn landmark Pakistan-Israel talks
(APW_ENG_20050902.0213)
1) Radical Islamic groups in Pakistan prepared to hold rallies outside mosques across the country on Friday to condemn the first formal talks between Pakistan and Israel, which critics said were a step toward diplomatic recognition of the Jewish state.
2) "We urge the people to fully participate in today's rallies to tell the rulers that we will not allow them to recognize Israel," said Ameer ul-Azeem, spokesman for Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, an opposition coalition of six Islamic parties.
3) He made his comments a day after Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri met with his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, in Istanbul, Turkey.
4) Ul-Azeem also criticized Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for arranging Thursday's meeting without consulting Parliament, and for planning to send a delegation to al-Quds _ Jerusalem. Pakistan has not announced a date for the visit.
5) Pakistan, a Muslim country that in the past has taken a harder line against Israel than some Arab countries, met with the Israelis following the removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, which was completed last week.
6) After Thursday's landmark meeting, Musharraf told reporters that the government had made no decision to establish formal ties with Israel.
7) "Pakistan will not recognize Israel until the establishment of a free and independent state for the Palestinian people," he said, adding that Thursday's meeting "does not mean that we have recognized Israel."
8) Musharraf has angered Pakistani opposition groups by calling for a debate on whether Pakistan should recognize the Jewish state, and has courted further criticism by agreeing to speak at a Jewish interfaith conference in New York later this month.
Malaysia says Muslim nations shouldn't get too excited about Gaza pullout
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1) Muslim countries shouldn't be too quick to embrace Israel following its Gaza pullout, which is merely "a small step" toward establishing an independent state for the Palestinians, Malaysia's foreign minister said Friday.
2) Malaysia, which chairs the world's largest Islamic political grouping, has no immediate plan to establish formal ties with Israel, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said in response to the first public meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan.
3) "It's not wrong for any nation to have interaction with Israel's foreign minister to convey the desire of Muslim nations to see the establishment of a Palestinian state," Syed Hamid told reporters. "But we shouldn't simply consider that the problems in that region have been solved because of the Gaza pullout, which is a small step."
4) Israel has hailed the meeting Thursday between its foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, and his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Kasuri, in Turkey as a diplomatic breakthrough that could signal warmer ties with other Muslim nations.
5) However, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has said that talk of formal ties with Israel was premature, though his country plans to send a delegation to Jerusalem.
6) Syed Hamid, whose country chairs the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, stressed that Israel "needs to take many more steps to turn a free and independent Palestinian state into a reality."
7) "We welcome the steps to open the door to peace, but the road to peace remains a long way," Syed Hamid said. "In all this excitement in welcoming the Gaza withdrawal, we must not forget that the final goal is to form a viable Palestinian state."
8) Israel currently has diplomatic relations with several Muslim countries: Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania and former Soviet republics in central Asia.
Israel's Sharon and Pakistan's Musharraf may hold historic summit
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1) Israel and Pakistan will decide in the coming days whether the leaders of the two countries should hold a historic summit in their quest to upgrade relations, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Friday.
2) Shalom met his Pakistani counterpart Thursday, in the first-ever high-level contacts between the two countries. The meeting, hosted in Istanbul by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was a direct result of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to withdraw last month from 21 Gaza Strip settlements and four West Bank enclaves.
3) At the meeting, "we also discussed the possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Sharon and President (Pervez) Musharraf. This has not been decided, we will know in the coming days if it will happen," Shalom told reporters. "But even if it doesn't happen, I think the relations with Pakistan have moved to a much higher level."
4) The two foreign ministers plan to meet again in two weeks at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
5) Earlier Friday, Ron Prosor, director-general of the Foreign Ministry, said it was still premature to say whether a Sharon-Musharraf summit would occur. First, the sides have to examine how the Pakistani public reacts to news of the foreign ministers' meeting, he said.
6) In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, about 300 Palestinians who belong to the Islamic Jihad militant group protested Friday at Pakistan's decision to hold a high-level meeting with the Israelis.
7) "We are telling Musharraf and Erdogan: have mercy on the Palestinian people, on their blood that is not yet dry. These negotiations are sticking in our throats," Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed Hindi told the crowd.
Islamists vent anger at Pakistan-Israel talks, but protests draw little support
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1) Pakistan's initiation of high-level talks with Israel prompted fury from Islamic hardliners who stormed out of Parliament on Friday and called protests in major cities across the country.
2) But despite fiery rhetoric, the rallies held after Friday prayers were poorly attended, and newspaper commentators gave the landmark meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Kasuri a cautious welcome.
3) Thursday's meeting, held in Turkey, was first-ever high-level contact between the two countries _ a direct response to Israel's recent removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.
4) However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Naeem Khan said there are no plans for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York later this month _ a possibility which Shalom said he had discussed with Kasuri.
5) News of the meeting in Turkey surprised many people here, and hardline Islamic clerics from an influential, anti-U.S. opposition bloc in Pakistan's parliament responded quickly with a call for protests in major cities across the country.
6) The rallies fizzled. At the largest, about 300 supporters of an opposition coalition of six Islamic parties, Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), gathered in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Smaller protests were staged by the coalition in Quetta and Karachi. At a rally in Rawalpindi, near the capital, only about one dozen people showed up.
7) MMA's chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, sharply criticized Musharraf, rejecting his government's insistence that Thursday's meeting does not signal imminent diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
8) "The meeting between Kasuri and Israeli foreign minister is a first toward recognition of Israel," Ahmed told the rally in Peshawar. "Musharraf wants to sell the blood of Palestinians and we will not allow him to do it."
9) Also Friday, lawmakers from MMA staged a walkout of the lower house of the parliament, accusing the government of not consulting lawmakers before holding the talks.
10) "Only one individual (Musharraf) took this decision. We condemn it," said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, deputy chief of MMA.
11) Hoping to cool tempers, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the decision to hold talks with Israel was based on a request from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. He said Abbas wanted them to play a role in helping to resolve the Middle East crisis.
12) "Pakistan has not recognized Israel," Aziz said, adding that "any such decision would be taken in supreme national interests after due consultation of the parliament."
13) Pakistan has in the past has taken a harder line against Israel than some Arab countries, and Musharraf said Thursday that Pakistan would not recognize Israel until the establishment of a free and independent state for the Palestinian people.
14) Israel currently has open diplomatic ties with only four Muslim countries _ Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritania.
15) In an editorial, Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper said it was time for Pakistan to review its Israel policy, because of archrival India's defense and other ties with Tel Aviv.
16) "It makes no sense for Pakistan to remain wedded to a policy whose course may have run out," the English-language daily said.
17) The News daily in a commentary said ties with Pakistan could bring "credible advantages" for Pakistan, but also warned about the dangers of a "radical departure from traditionally held foreign policy priorities."
Pakistan links recognition of Israel with creation of independent Palestinian state
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1) Pakistan's official recognition of Israel will occur only after a Palestinian state is created, its president said Saturday.
2) The announcement came after Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri held landmark talks with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom on Thursday in Turkey following the pullout of Israeli forces from Gaza. Pakistan and Israel don't have diplomatic ties.
3) "Pakistan will not recognize Israel until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state," President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told a high-level meeting, according to a foreign ministry statement.
4) Islamabad has said Israel must abandon all other territory it captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and clear the way for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital.
5) Pakistan's initiation of high-level talks with Israel prompted fury from Islamic hard-liners in the country. Both Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday downplayed fears that Pakistan had taken a decision to recognize Israel.
6) But Musharraf said the move to open communications with Tel Aviv was "in line with the teachings of Islam."
7) "Islam is a religion of peace and it has lived in peace and harmony with other faiths for centuries, and can do so in the future as well," the statement quoted him as saying.
8) Pakistan _ the world's only Islamic nuclear-armed power_ in the past has taken a harder line against Israel than some Arab countries.
9) Musharraf, who made Pakistan a key U.S. ally of the United States in its war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America, has been gradually moving toward conciliation with Israel, despite the influence of Islamic radical parties in the country, who enjoy a strong voice in the parliament.
10) He has accepted an invitation to address an interfaith conference this month organized by the Council for World Jewry while he is in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly and meet with world leaders.
11) Israel currently has open diplomatic ties with only four Muslim countries _ Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritania.
Pakistan's PM thanks Turkish counterpart for hosting landmark Pakistan-Israel talks
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1) Pakistan's prime minister on Sunday thanked his Turkish counterpart for hosting a landmark meeting between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel last week, his office said.
2) Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz spoke with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan by telephone and thanked him "for his personal role and assistance in arranging the meeting," Aziz's office said in a statement.
3) "The prime minister (Aziz) expressed the hope that the meeting will help promote the Palestinian case, promote peace in the region and develop better interfaith harmony," it said.
4) Erdogan said the meeting "went well and would help promote peace in the region," the statement said.
5) Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel but on Thursday foreign ministers from the two countries _ Khursheed Kasuri of Pakistan and Silvan Shalom of Israel _ met in the Turkish city of Istanbul, the first high-level public contact between Islamabad and Tel Aviv.
6) Pakistan's Islamic groups, which accuse the Jewish state of atrocities against the Palestinians, reacted with strong opposition to the meeting.
7) A predominantly Muslim nation, Pakistan has been a strong supporter of the Palestinian's call for a separate homeland and demands that Israel vacate the Palestinian territories under its occupation.
8) Since the Istanbul meeting with Israel, Pakistani leaders have said Israel can win Islamabad's official recognition only after the Palestinians get their own state.
Pakistan says goal of talks with Israel was to solve Palestinian issue
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1) Pakistan's talks with Israel last week were aimed at persuading Jewish state to resolve the Palestinian issue but did not imply diplomatic recognition, Pakistan's prime minister said Wednesday.
2) "It was essentially meant to engage the Israelis to encourage them to resolve the Middle East problem," a Foreign Ministry statement quoted Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as saying.
3) Aziz made the comments in telephone calls to his counterparts in Syria, Egypt and Jordan, along with Amr Moussa, secretary general of the 22-member Arab League, to tell them about the meeting last Thursday between Pakistan Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri and his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, the statement said.
4) The two countries have no diplomatic relations. The Kasuri-Shalom meeting was the first public contact at that level.
5) Aziz made it clear to the Arab leaders that the "contact in Istanbul did not imply recognition by Pakistan of Israel," the Foreign Ministry statement said.
6) He reiterated Pakistan's position that "recognition of Israel would depend on the establishment of a Palestinian state with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital," it said.
7) The Arab leaders said Pakistan-Israel contact would help the Mideast peace process, according to the statement.
8) Pakistan's opposition groups have criticized the meeting.
9) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, has angered Islamists by calling for a debate on whether Pakistan should recognize Israel.
10) On Monday, Kasuri told reporters that behind-the-scenes, low-level contacts with Israel were a decade old, Pakistan's The Nation newspaper reported Tuesday.
11) Also Monday, the Foreign Ministry said a Pakistani delegation, to be assisted by Israel, will visit Gaza next month. It was not clear whether it will travel to Israeli areas.
Pakistan president vows `relentless' effort against terrorism, extremism
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1) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday vowed "relentless and sustained efforts" to tackle terrorism and extremism, the state-run news agency reported.
2) Musharraf made his comments at a meeting of Pakistan's National Security Council, a 13-member advisory body to the government dominated by military leaders and government appointees. The opposition claims the council undermines Parliament.
3) The Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Musharraf as saying "relentless and sustained efforts would continue at all levels until such time the country is rid of the scourge of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism."
4) But he added that the fight against terrorism "could not be won without addressing unresolved political disputes, including Palestine and Kashmir, in a just manner."
5) The council meeting follows landmark talks in Turkey last week between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel, the first high-level contact between the two governments and a direct response to the recent Israeli withdrawal of settlements from the Gaza Strip.
6) Islamic hard-liners have criticized Musharraf for initiating engagement with Israel, although Musharraf says Pakistan will not recognize Israel until the establishment of a free and independent Palestinian state.
7) Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror. Musharraf claims to have broken the back of the al-Qaida network in Pakistan with military operations against militants along the Afghan border, where it has deployed 80,000 troops.
8) Pakistani soldiers raided a militant hide-out in Shawal, a forested valley west of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, and seized a cache of weapons and bomb-making materials Thursday, an army statement said.
9) It said no one was present. The troops dismantled the hide-out.
(APW_ENG_20050909.0493)
1) Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "courageous" for ordering the withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza, but doesn't plan to follow up a recent diplomatic breakthrough between the countries by meeting him at the United Nations this month.
2) "Why should there be a rush?" Musharraf said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. "We are clear in our stance. We want to progress toward resolution of the Palestinian dispute, and as progress is made, Pakistan would like to keep its reviewing its diplomatic stance."
3) Musharraf's comments follow a landmark meeting between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel in Turkey last week, the first formal high-level contact between the Islamic and Jewish states, which fueled speculation of a possible summit in New York. Though Musharraf demurred on the meeting, he praised Sharon for the Gaza withdrawal.
4) "I think such actions need courage and boldness," Musharraf said. "What we have seen on the TV, Israelis not wanting to leave, being forced out, is a courageous thing to do.
5) "We hope that he shows (an) equal amount of courage finally in the creation of the Palestinian state."
6) Pakistan has in the past taken a harder line against Israel than some Arab countries. Musharraf said that while Pakistan wants creation of an independent Palestine, he hinted that it would consider establishing diplomatic relations for the first time if Israel took concrete steps toward that goal.
7) "I can't really give a cut line," he said about when formal ties could be established, "but I'm always a believer in reacting before events, of foreseeing events and reacting accordingly ... I don't believe in reaction, I believe in action."
8) Despite calls by a hard-line Pakistani Islamic coalition for protests against his initiation of contacts with Israel, Musharraf said the response in Pakistan _ a predominantly Muslim country of 150 million people _ to the Turkey meeting had been good.
9) "I see a positive response on the domestic side," he said.
Pakistani PM briefs Malaysian leader on Pakistan-Israel talks
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1) Pakistan has assured Malaysia that it has not changed its support for a Palestinian state despite a landmark meeting between Pakistan and Israel last week, a foreign ministry statement said Saturday.
2) Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz briefed his Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the meeting between foreign ministers of the two countries in a telephone call Friday, the statement said.
3) Aziz said that Pakistan has not changed its foreign policy and that the talks with the Jewish state were aimed at resolving the lingering issue of a Palestine state.
4) "There has been no change in Pakistan's principled position on the Palestinian issue which called for the establishment of a Palestinian State with Al-Quds as its capital," the statement quoted Aziz as saying.
5) Pakistan and Israel do not have diplomatic relations but their foreign ministers _ Khursheed Kasuri of Pakistan and Silvan Shalom of Israel _ met in Turkey on Sept. 1, the first public contact between them.
6) Israeli officials have said the meeting was arranged at the request of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the Indian subcontinent, in response to Israel's Gaza pullout.
7) Malaysia is the current chair of Organization of Islamic Countries and the two ministers also discussed ways to strengthen the organization, the statement said.
8) "Both the leaders agreed that restructuring of OIC was essential to promote the causes of the Islamic world," it said.
Pakistan's Musharraf leaves for U.N. meeting in New York
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1) Pakistan's president left Sunday for the United States where he will attend the U.N. General Assembly and hold talks on the sidelines with U.S. President George W. Bush.
2) Gen. Pervez Musharraf was seen off at an air base near the capital Islamabad by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other senior government officials. Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri was traveling with Musharraf.
3) Musharraf was to arrive in New York on Monday for the Sept. 14-16 U.N. meeting, a Foreign Ministry statement said, adding that he is to meet with Bush, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leaders from China and several Muslim states. No dates were given.
4) Musharraf told reporters at the airport that he and Bush will discuss the moves toward the creation of a Palestinian state, Kashmir, bilateral relations and the fight against terrorism.
5) Musharraf has made his country a key ally in Washington's war on terror. In return, Bush has promised military and civilian assistance.
6) Musharraf said the meeting with Singh would focus on Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both countries.
7) "I want to promote the cause of peace, resolution of disputes, especially the Kashmir dispute," Musharraf said.
8) The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors have fought two wars over Kashmir, parts of which they both control, since their independence from British rule in 1947.
9) In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Musharraf said hopes were high in both India and Pakistan for the issue to be resolved.
10) While in New York, Musharraf is also expected to speak at an interfaith conference organized by the Council for World Jewry. He said his address will lend strength "to the cause of establishment of an independent Palestinian state."
11) Radical Islamic groups condemned Musharraf after Kasuri and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom held a groundbreaking meeting in Istanbul on Sept. 1.
12) Musharraf has called for a debate on whether Pakistan should have diplomatic ties with Israel, but has hinted that such a move would only come if Israel took concrete steps toward creating a Palestinian state.
Diplomatic payback awaits Sharon in New York after Gaza pullout, but Muslim states waiting for more overtures
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1) Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, fresh off his historic Gaza Strip withdrawal, has been flooded with so many requests to meet with other heads of state during the U.N. 60th anniversary celebrations in New York this week that he couldn't accommodate them all, aides say.
2) That's a big change for Israel, which is used to a much chillier reception at the U.N., where more than 20 anti-Israel resolutions are passed annually.
3) Proving many skeptics wrong, Sharon broke with longtime allies in Israel's nationalist and settler camps and carried off Israel's first-ever evacuation of territory the Palestinians claim for a future state. All 8,500 settlers were removed three weeks ago, and the last troops pulled out on Monday, ending Israel's 38-year occupation of the coastal strip it captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel also dismantled four small settlements in the northern West Bank.
4) Although Sharon's political coup has touched off efforts to topple him in his governing Likud Party, it is expected to serve him well internationally when he and other heads of state convene in New York to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the U.N.
5) Still, there will be limits to the diplomatic payback Israel will receive for having quit Gaza just a day before Sharon takes off for New York. Muslim nations expect major strides from Israel on the peacemaking front _ if not the establishment of a Palestinian state _ before committing to warmer ties.
6) "For the Iraqi state, it is very difficult," Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said recently of the prospect of relations with Israel.
7) Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Sharon's "very full" schedule of meetings with world leaders in New York included talks with U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Jordan's King Abdullah _ in addition to leaders from the European Union, Turkey, Australia and Canada.
8) "I think we're hopeful that there will be meetings with Muslim leaders," Regev added, without elaborating. "There's an enhanced understanding in the international community of what this prime minister has done to try to create a more positive situation between us and the Palestinians."
9) Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom expects to meet with Muslim foreign ministers at the U.N. session, Regev said, but declined to elaborate or say whether Shalom would talk with leaders who haven't met publicly with Israeli officials.
10) In a landmark change, Muslim Pakistan publicly launched talks with Israel _ after having long taken a hard line against the Jewish state _ with the two nations' foreign ministers meeting in Turkey this month. Both countries linked the diplomatic breakthrough to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf later praised Sharon's "courage and boldness."
11) He also backtracked from his initial statement after the meeting that Pakistan wouldn't consider diplomatic ties with Israel before a Palestinian state is established, saying he would consider ties if Israel would take concrete steps toward the formation of a Palestinian state.
12) But Musharraf, who initiated the talks, let his appreciation for Sharon go only so far. He threw cold water on speculation that he and Sharon might meet in New York, saying it was too early.
13) Other Muslim leaders, like Iraq's Talabani, similarly were willing to entertain the once-heretical notion of ties with Israel, while demanding more of Israel before considering them.
14) "There is no animosity in Iraq" (toward Israel), he said in a speech at a Washington, D.C., center funded by Israeli businessman Haim Saban. But a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal would be a prerequisite, he said.
15) Israel's diplomatic ties with Muslim countries are now limited to Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Mauritania.
16) Although the international community is clearly more welcoming of Sharon than it was in the past, it will be awaiting signs from him on what comes next, said Shlomo Avineri, a professor of political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
17) Many are hoping for a return to the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, Avineri said. That won't be easy, he said, because "the gaps between the Israel and Palestinian positions today are as deep as they were" when U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2000, opening the door to 4 1/2 years of bloodshed.
18) For all the constraints on establishing full-fledged ties, gestures such as the meeting between the Pakistani and Israeli foreign ministers could build diplomatic steam in the Mideast, said Cameron Brown, an international affairs expert in Israel.
19) "If it continues to move forward and there is continued momentum, it's hard to know where this will end up," he said.
20) While Regev says he has "no doubt that we will see an appreciation of what Israel has done in our bilateral meetings at the U.N.," he is less confident about prospects for toning down the Israel-bashing in the U.N.'s General Assembly.
21) "I hope it does (change)," he said. "But we will have to wait and see."
Israeli, Qatari foreign ministers hold rare public meeting
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1) Israel's withdrawal from Gaza yielded swift returns on the world stage Thursday: praise from Qatar and an unusual meeting between the Arab emirate's foreign minister and his Israeli counterpart.
2) The meeting, on the sidelines of the U.N. summit, was described as a first step in efforts to arrange a summit between the two nations.
3) The session was Israel's latest diplomatic reward for ending its 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip _ its first-ever evacuation of territory the Palestinians claim for a future state.
4) In a space of just two weeks, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia have all held high-level public meetings with Israel _ a rare event for Muslim countries. The president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, who had long taken an especially hardline stand against the Jewish state, even shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, in front of a host of delegates to the world summit.
5) Arab countries like Qatar are encouraging efforts to renew and expand peacemaking as a way to ease the Palestinian conflict and to blunt the influence of Islamic militants, who are using discontent about the Palestinians and the war in Iraq to stir up unrest worldwide.
6) They have also concluded that Israel is not going to be destroyed _ and that it might be in the Muslim nations' best interests to be involved in the Mideast peace process.
7) But there will be limits to the diplomatic payback. Muslim nations want Israel to return all territory captured in the 1967 Mideast war, not just Gaza. And they're not trying to lure the Israelis with territorial concessions.
8) Using unusually forceful language, Sharon told the summit Thursday that Israel recognized the Palestinians' right to a state of their own. But the ball, he said, is now in the Palestinians' court.
9) "Now it is the Palestinians' turn to prove their desire for peace," Sharon said. "The most important test the Palestinian leaders will face is in fulfilling their commitment to putting an end to terror and its infrastructures, eliminate the anarchic regime of armed gangs and cease the incitement and indoctrination of hatred toward Israel and the Jews."
10) The General Assembly hall gave Sharon courteous applause when he finished his speech, though Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa was shown sitting with his arms folded over his chest.
11) Addressing the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, the Qatari foreign minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, saluted Israel for quitting Gaza and said Arab nations must respond with their own overtures.
12) "Failure to address internal political, economic and social grievances associated with the lack of a just and equitable settlement for the Palestinian question and the conflict in the Middle East strengthens the arm of extremism," he said.
13) On Thursday, al Thani said it was possible to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel before the formation of an independent Palestine.
14) "It could happen," he told reporters before heading into the closed meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. "But we need to see a timetable _ how we will start the peace process and how we will end."
15) Posing for photographs with the Qatari minister, Shalom said he welcomed the fact that Israel's once-covert meetings with Arab leaders were now out in the open. "There's no reason to continue with secrecy," he said.
16) The two foreign ministers said there were no plans yet for a summit between Sharon and the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. On Thursday, Sharon spokesman Asaf Shariv said Israel was working on arranging talks.
17) Shalom urged Arab and Islamic states to open contacts with Israel if they want to help the cause of peace in the Middle East.
18) "I think all the Arab and Muslim countries should know that if they would like to help the Palestinians they should have good contacts with both sides," he told reporters Wednesday. "Otherwise, it will be impossible for them to help the Palestinians."
19) Israel currently has full-fledged diplomatic relations with just four Muslim states _ Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Mauritania.
20) Pakistan set the warming of the Muslim world in motion with a Sept. 1 meeting between its foreign minister, Khursheed Kasuri, and Shalom in Turkey.
21) Musharraf, who has praised Sharon's courage in leaving Gaza, told reporters on Thursday that the pullout led to a reciprocal gesture from Pakistan because "we thought this was a time when we needed to show our own professionalism.
22) "Almost everyone has recognized that Israel is there now to stay," he said, quickly adding, "but then the Palestinian state has to be created."
23) And that's where the limits to the diplomatic rewards come in.
24) Muslim nations expect major strides from Israel on the peacemaking front _ if not the establishment of a Palestinian state _ before committing to warmer ties.
25) Arabs have proposed a peace plan calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which would all be part of an independent Palestinian state. They also demand Israel give up the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria. In return, Arab states have said they will offer Israel normal relations and peace.
26) But the Israelis, mindful of security needs and established Jewish settlements, have no plans to withdraw from all of the West Bank. And they have rejected Palestinian demands to share Jerusalem.
27) Palestinians see the eastern sector of the city as a capital of a future state. The competing claims have made Jerusalem one of the most contentious issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
28) Azerbaijan's foreign minister welcomed contacts between Israel and Muslim nations following the Gaza pullout.
29) "Toleration and dialogue are very important for relations between Islamic nations and the state of Israel. It is a positive process," Elmar Mammadyarov told The Associated Press on Thursday in New York. Israel has an embassy in Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim ex-Soviet republic.
Pakistani prime minister rules out establishing trade links with Israel now
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1) Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday ruled out the possibility of establishing trade links with Israel now, saying his country was not considering it in the wake of the first public high-level contacts between the two countries.
2) "At present, there is no possibility of starting trade with Israel," Aziz told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad, two days after Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shook hands at a reception just before the start of the United Nations summit in New York.
3) The handshake followed a landmark meeting between Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, two weeks ago in Turkey. Pakistan and Israel do not have diplomatic relations.
4) On Friday, Aziz said Kasuri met with Shalom just to facilitate the resolution of the Palestinian issue and that Pakistan will only recognize Israel when an independent Palestinian state is established.
5) "This is the stance of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) and Pakistan also adheres to it," he said. "There is no harm in the engagement if the cause of Palestine is benefited."
6) Aziz's comments were apparently aimed at cooling radical Islamic groups who oppose recognizing Israel. They have said Pakistan's contacts with Israel were a first step toward that.
President Musharraf denounces accusation that Pakistan is not doing enough to fight terror
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1) Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday denounced accusations that Pakistan is not trying hard enough to fight terrorism and extremism within its borders.
2) "Our cities are almost clear of terrorists and in the mountains we have attacked their sanctuaries _ al-Qaida is on the run now," Musharraf said in his speech at Columbia University's World Leaders Forum, which coincides with this week's UN Summit and tries to establish dialogue between heads of states and academics.
3) "Pakistan is a victim of misconception," he said. "Pakistan is considered an extremist country. This is not true, the majority of our population is moderate."
4) The Pakistani leader described his country's booming economy, his program of decentralizing decision-making to promote democracy, and successes in tackling poverty and unemployment _ all efforts that helped build stability in Pakistan, he said.
5) Calling terrorism and extremism the two main obstacles in further improving the overall status of Pakistan, Musharraf, who is a key ally of the United States, pointed out his country's commitment to and achievements in the global war on terror.
6) He said that even though "in today's world of turmoil, Pakistan happens to be in the epicenter ... we are in the lead role of fighting terrorism and extremism."
7) While terrorism had to be confronted with force, he described extremism as "a battle for the minds and hearts of people that has to be handled with care."
8) Musharraf, who is often accused of not cracking down hard enough on radical mosques and Islamic schools preaching hatred against the Western world, claimed that the government was implementing mainstream education in madrassas. The religious schools, which provide free schooling and board to at least 1.1 million students, many of them from poor families, have long been regarded as a recruiting base for "holy war."
9) Musharraf also mentioned his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the UN-Summit Thursday and vowed to work further on resolving the Kashmir conflict.
10) As for his historic handshake with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier this week, the Pakistani leader said that after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, his government decided to step forward to normalize relations with the Jewish state. Pakistan and Israel do not have diplomatic relations but two weeks ago the Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri and his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, met for landmark talks in Turkey.
11) "We see the Palestine conflict as the core of extremism in the world, it needs to be resolved," Musharraf said, adding that on Saturday he will address the American Jewish Committee in New York _ the first time a Pakistani president will address the Jewish community in the United States.
Pakistani president defends his country's recent gestures toward Israel
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1) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf defended his country's recent gestures toward Israel, which have angered some hard-line Muslims, saying the moves were designed to support the Palestinians and pressure Israel into realizing their rights.
2) "We want to strengthen the Palestinian cause and support it. We want to try to influence Israel to establish a Palestinian state," he said in an interview published Saturday in the Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. "We won't have a role to play if we don't deal with them. But if we talk then we can at least ... exert pressure and use our clout."
3) Apparently rewarding Israel for its withdrawal from Gaza, Pakistan's foreign minister met his Israeli counterpart in Turkey on Sept. 1, the first formal high-level contact between the two countries. On Wednesday, Musharraf and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shook hands at a reception just before the start a the United Nations summit.
4) But Musharraf downplayed the greeting, saying it "had no political implications."
5) He also said he had informed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas beforehand of the foreign ministers' meeting in Turkey.
6) He said the gestures "do not mean that recognizing Israel will happen unless we are certain that a Palestinian state is being established. This is the pressure we want to exert."
7) In another interview, Musharraf told Al Hayat newspaper: "We will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until after the formation of the Palestinian state. An exception could be made if we feel on the ground that a state is being established."
8) But some doubt such an assurance and have met Pakistan's recent moves with fury, especially since it has previously taken a harder line against Israel than some Arab countries. Musharraf said he refuses to be cowed by such criticism.
9) "I'm not a man who fears opposition," he told Asharq al-Awsat.
10) On an issue closer to home, Musharraf told the newspaper that Pakistan was worried about military cooperation between Israel and India, but said: "We have many ways to strike a balance and guarantee our own deterrence strategy."
11) Asked why efforts to capture terror mastermind Osama bin Laden have failed thus far, Musharraf pointed to a shortage of forces, a rugged terrain and a lack of intelligence information on his whereabouts.
12) "If someone is hiding in a cave and is moving from one place to another, then it's not the fault of the army or the security apparatus that he hasn't been tracked down," he said. "When we have intelligence information indicating the area where this man is, then moving will be easy."
13) Musharraf had previously said al-Qaida leaders were probably hiding on either side of Pakistan's rugged border with Afghanistan but are isolated and unable to order terror attacks. He added, however, that the terror network and its figures remain symbolic motivators.
Pakistani leader says Israel could gain diplomatic ties by granting Palestinian statehood
(APW_ENG_20050918.0455)
1) Speaking to U.S. Jewish leaders, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Israel could "extinguish" motives for violence in the region and move toward full diplomatic ties with his country by granting Palestinian statehood.
2) Musharraf addressed the American Jewish Congress Saturday night in what the organization said was an unprecedented event, taking another step toward improving relations in the wake of Israel's Gaza withdrawal despite protests by hard-liners at home.
3) "By respecting Palestinian aspirations Israel will attain its legitimate desire for assured security," he said.
4) "It will extinguish the anger and frustration that motivates resort to violence and extremism," he said.
5) Musharraf also said Pakistan would move toward full diplomatic relations if the peace process advances toward the establishment of an independent Palestinians state.
6) "What better signal for peace could there be than the opening of embassies in Israel by Islamic countries like Pakistan?" he added, receiving a standing ovation for the remark.
7) The speech to the American Jewish Congress was yet another sign of thawing relations between Israel and the Arab world after the Israelis ended their 38-year Gaza occupation.
8) On Friday, the king of Jordan, which has a peace treaty with Israel, met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the sidelines of a U.N. world summit last week.
9) And Musharraf, who had long taken an especially hard-line stand against the Jewish state, even shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with Sharon in front of a host of world leaders at the gathering to mark the U.N.'s 60th anniversary.
10) Pakistan and Israel had no formal high-level contact until the foreign ministers of both countries met earlier this month in Turkey.
11) Jack Rosen, the chairman of the American Jewish Congress, praised the comments.
12) "The president recognized the right of Israel to exist, he called for reconciliation between Muslims and Jews, and he talked about the pains of past years of anti-Semitism," he said. "You couldn't have asked for anything better than that."
13) The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations called the speech "very courageous, very brave," but said it didn't go far enough.
14) "I think the time has come for Pakistan, even if not to establish today full diplomatic relations with Israel, at least to go one step further and open some sort of interest office in Israel," Dan Gillerman said.
15) In his speech to the summit on Thursday, Sharon said Israel recognized the Palestinians' right to a state of their own, but he called on the Palestinians to rein in militants and restore order.
16) Musharraf also called on leaders to address the root causes of terrorism around the world by focusing on poverty and education in the Muslim world and he denounced terrorism.
17) "The world today is in the grip of terror," he said. "It cannot be condoned for any reason or cause."
Pakistan's Musharraf tells Israeli daily sides need to talk about creating ties
(APW_ENG_20050919.0146)
1) Pakistan and Israel need to talk about how the sides can move toward establishing formal relations, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in a brief interview published Monday in an Israeli daily.
2) Musharraf, the leader of one of the largest Islamic countries, spoke to The Jerusalem Post just before addressing American Jewish leaders in New York on Sunday.
3) "We need to sit down and talk more and see how to move forward," Musharraf was quoted as saying. "We ought to be taking more steps."
4) Musharraf's brief interview with the English-language daily came after a groundbreaking meeting earlier this month between Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his Pakistani counterpart. Israel and Pakistan have no formal relations.
Pakistan has accepted Israeli offer of help for earthquake victims
(APW_ENG_20051015.0178)
1) Pakistan has accepted Israel's offer to help victims of last week's devastating earthquake even though the two countries do not have diplomatic relations, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said Saturday.
2) Nearly 40,000 people have been killed and millions left homeless by the quake.
3) Pakistan's acceptance came a month after the Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers met for the first time in what was seen as a step toward warming ties.
4) Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel offered the aid through direct channels with Pakistan. Israeli aid officials will decide Sunday what teams and equipment to dispatch to the disaster zone, he said.
5) Regev played down the diplomatic significance of the aid effort.
6) "At the moment, everyone is talking about how we can help hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis in the area of destruction," he said. "There is a clear international effort to help Pakistan, and Israel wants to be part of that."
7) Pakistan, a Muslim country, had long taken a hard line against Israel. In a diplomatic breakthrough, Pakistani Foreign Minister Kursheed Kasuri met in Turkey with his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, last month.
8) Kasuri said at the time that the meeting was meant to underscore the importance Pakistan attaches to Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip. Pakistan has said it would only establish full diplomatic relations with Israel after the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been resolved.
9) Since the Gaza pullout last month, Shalom has also met with counterparts from other Muslim or Arab countries _ Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia. On Friday, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, told an Israeli newspaper he was ready to meet with Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and that the two countries could form ties once a Palestinian state has been established.
Pakistan says it would consider recognizing Israel only after there is a Palestinian state
(APW_ENG_20051112.0173)
1) Pakistan's president told a visiting American Jewish leader that his country would consider formally recognizing Israel only after the creation of an independent Palestinian state, his spokesman said Saturday.
2) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf made his remarks at a meeting with Jack Rosen, chairman of the Council of World Jewry, during a meeting near the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Thursday, said Gen. Shaukat Sultan, chief spokesman for the president.
3) Islamic Pakistan, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel, has long demanded that the Jewish state end its occupation of Palestinian territory and that the Palestinian state should emerge on the world map with Jerusalem as its capital.
4) Pakistan took a bold step on Sept. 1 when its Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri met with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom for the first time in Turkey, a diplomatic breakthrough that both sides at the time said was the result of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
5) Shalom said after the talks that he hoped the historic event would encourage other Muslim countries to open ties with Israel.
6) At Thursday's meeting, Rosen told the Pakistani leader that Israel wanted to establish diplomatic, trade and economic ties with Islamabad. But Musharraf "clearly told him that establishment of an independent Palestinian state was a must for any forward movement" in this regard, Sultan said.
7) Sultan gave no further details, but Pakistan's independent private Geo television quoted Rosen _ whose group is part of the American Jewish Council _ as telling Musharraf that Israel wanted to have friendly relations with Pakistan. It said Rosen also informed Musharraf that the Jewish community in America was collecting donations for the victims of Oct. 8 quake.
8) The 7.6-magnitude quake has killed about 86,000 people in Pakistan and its part of Kashmir, and International lenders have estimated the economic cost of the quake at more than US$5 billion (euro4.25 billion).
9) Pakistan declined an offer of direct aid from Israel after the quake, but said the Jewish state could send aid through international relief organizations.
10) Pakistan did not invite Israel to Nov. 18-19 donors conference in Islamabad to seek more help for what is expected to be a years-long effort to rebuild the quake-hit areas.
Pakistan's president defends engagement with Israel
(APW_ENG_20051114.0018)
1) Pakistan's president is defending his recent attempts to engage Israel's government, saying most Pakistanis support his efforts.
2) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, whose foreign minister recently met with his Israeli counterpart for the first time, said Sunday that there is little danger to his presidency from extremists angered by the diplomatic breakthrough, which both sides have said was the result of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
3) "When we are talking to the Israelis and the Israeli foreign minister, or I address the Jewish congress, I am very clear that this is the strategic direction that Pakistan needs to take," Musharraf said on CNN's "Late Edition." "The vast majority of Pakistanis, the media, the intelligentsia, the masses, have all accepted this. Nobody is questioning me at all."
4) In September, the Pakistani and Israeli foreign ministers met in Turkey, and Musharraf addressed the American Jewish Congress in New York.
5) Musharraf suggested that his grip on power is strong. "It's not a possibility at all" that radicals could take over Pakistan, he said, pointing to what he called their failures in recent local elections.
6) "There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this country is a moderate country, and moderate forces have reasserted themselves, and religious forces have gone down," he said.
7) Pakistani officials said Saturday that Musharraf told a visiting American Jewish leader last week that Pakistan would consider formally recognizing Israel only after the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
8) Islamic Pakistan, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel, has long demanded that the Jewish state end its occupation of Palestinian territory and that the Palestinian state should emerge on the world map with Jerusalem as its capital.
9) While Pakistan is a key Washington ally that supported the U.S.-led war that ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan, some critics have suggested Islamabad isn't doing enough to find al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
10) But Musharraf said Pakistan's intelligence organizations are working with the military to hunt down bin Laden, who some believe is hiding in the region.
11) "They are my enemies," he said of the terrorists. "Quite clearly, we are operating against them. And there is no doubt that we will ... keep operating against them. I'm not scared of that."
12) Musharraf said that relief assistance for the devastating earthquake that struck his country was "reasonably good" and he was grateful for it. But he said international efforts to help reconstruct the country are "certainly not of the level that we expect."
Radical Islamic leader freed from house arrest, calls for new cartoon protests in Pakistan
(APW_ENG_20060221.0041)
1) Radical Islamic leaders called for more rallies against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in Pakistan as lawmakers disrupted a session of Parliament, protesting sweeping arrests before a banned demonstration over the weekend.
2) The rowdy opposition legislators forced the lower house of Parliament, or National Assembly, to adjourn indefinitely after they stood up Monday and chanted anti-government slogans. They also demanded a debate about the roundup of hundreds of Islamic hard-liners before Sunday's protest in the capital, Islamabad.
3) One of those detained was Qazi Hussain Ahmed, a leader of a six-party coalition of radical Islamic parties called Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), or United Action Forum.
4) The MMA sympathizes with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and is fiercely anti-U.S.
5) Authorities held Ahmed and others because they feared the coalition's rally would become violent like others have in the past week. Despite the leaders' detention, protesters clashed with police for about three hours on Sunday.
6) After Ahmed was freed from house detention late Sunday he traveled to Islamabad on Monday for a meeting with senior leaders in the alliance.
7) Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a lawmaker from the coalition and opposition leader in Parliament, jointly announced that a series of new rallies against the cartoons and the government would be held.
8) Nationwide protests will be held after prayers on Friday, Rahman said.
9) "Our movement to protect the dignity of the prophet will continue unless the culprit apologizes and assures that he will not commit this kind of a crime in the future," Rahman said.
10) The coalition also planned rallies on Sunday and March 3.
11) The rallies appeared to be taking on more of an anti-government dimension as anger simmered about the massive roundup before Sunday's rally. About 3,463 supporters of MMA were arrested across the country, said Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman for the group.
12) "This is very unwise of the government to stop us from demonstrations," Shamsi said, adding that Friday's protest will have a dual purpose: condemning the cartoons and the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
13) Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Monday that the opposition should not use anti-cartoon protests for political gains and warned against violence.
14) "The government will not allow anyone to create a law and order situation," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency quoted as Aziz as saying in Islamabad.
15) Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told reporters the government respects the people's right to protest _ if they are peaceful.
16) "When they turn into violent acts, we also damage our image," Aslam said.
17) Last week, a Pakistani cleric in Peshawar announced a US$1 million (euro840,000) bounty for killing a cartoonist who first drew the cartoons for the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. The cleric did not name the cartoonist and did not appear aware that 12 people had drawn the pictures, published in September.
18) On Monday, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said offering the reward was tantamount to terrorism.
19) He also noted that violent protests have tapered off in many Muslim nations while escalating in Pakistan. He accused "extremist forces" of fanning the flames.
Palestinian foreign minister secures US$3 million in Pakistani aid for Hamas government
(APW_ENG_20060607.0468)
1) Pakistan pledged US$3 million (euro2.3 million) in aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government after the Palestinian foreign minister arrived here for talks Wednesday, an official said.
2) Top Palestinian envoy Mahmoud Zahar was met by high-ranking Pakistani officials on landing in the capital, Islamabad, for meetings on cooperation between Pakistan and his government.
3) The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority faces crippling international sanctions _ mainly by the United States, Israel and several European nations _ over its refusal so far to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
4) Zahar, a hard-liner in the Hamas militant group that swept the Palestinian elections in January, met with Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri and was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
5) Kasuri told Zahar that Pakistan will provide US$3 million (euro2.3 million) in aid to the Palestinian government, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to comment to the media.
6) Kasuri also reiterated Pakistan's "age-old" support for the Palestinian cause, the official added.
7) Zahar was in Pakistan for talks on bilateral relations and "how Pakistan can assist the Palestinians," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.
8) Pakistan backs a separate homeland for Palestinians with Jerusalem as its capital and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
9) Radical Islamic groups in Pakistan denounce the Jewish state, accusing it of committing atrocities against Palestinians.
Pakistani president calls for cease-fire in Lebanon, minister sees threat to UN's future
(APW_ENG_20060731.0683)
1) Pakistan's president called Monday for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, as his foreign minister said the U.N. risks losing its moral and legal authority because the Security Council has not stopped the fighting.
2) "The issue has to be resolved through talks and the Palestinian people have got to get their own homeland," President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S. war on terror, told a group of military cadets in Chakwal, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) outside the capital, the state-run APP news agency reported.
3) Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri said a weakened U.N. "could lead to a very dangerous situation," drawing a comparison to the collapse of the League of Nations before World War II.
4) Despite the loss of lives, the Lebanon crisis could be an opportunity to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Kasuri told The Associated Press.
5) However, he said that enforcing a U.N. resolution calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah _ a proposal being put forward by France to the Security Council as a basis for a cease-fire _ would not alone lead to peace.
6) He said U.N. resolutions calling for Israel to exchange territory seized in a 1967 war for peace with its neighbors, passed almost 40 years ago, also needed to be urgently implemented.
7) "Why is there a selective application?" he said. "It is this double standard that is negatively affecting not just the Arab street but the Muslim street."
8) Kasuri said anger against the United Nations was reflected in the attack on the U.N. office in Beirut on Sunday following the Israeli airstrike in Qana that killed at least 56 people, mostly women and children. Dozens of Lebanese stormed the U.N. building, burning flags and damaging property.
9) In the southern Pakistan port city of Karachi, senior opposition leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed told a rally of 3,000 people on Sunday that "Israel is spilling the blood of oppressed Muslims in Lebanon and Palestine but the world organizations have become spectators."
10) Kasuri said Pakistan has consistently stood for a viable and free Palestinian state living in peace with Israel. Pakistan does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, but in September, Kasuri met with his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, a diplomatic breakthrough that both sides at the time said was the result of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
11) Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also called for an immediate cease-fire and said Pakistan was preparing to send two planeloads of food and medicine to Lebanon, in addition to the two planeloads that have already been delivered, APP reported.
Threat of US attack on Pakistan raises tensions, highlights allies ' fragile ties
(APW_ENG_20060922.1818)
1) The threat of U.S. military action inside Pakistan to counter al-Qaida militants inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment on Friday and bolstered widely held views that Washington forced Islamabad at gunpoint to join the battle against al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
2) President George W. Bush, who met his Pakistani counterpart Gen. Pervez Musharraf at the White House on Friday, said this week that he would "absolutely" order military operations inside Pakistan if necessary if actionable intelligence surfaced pointing to bin Laden or other top terrorists hiding here. Bin Laden is believed to be along the lawless Pakistan-Afghan border.
3) Pakistan's government angrily responded, saying it would never let foreign forces enter its territory. Anti-terrorism activities in Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said, were the sole domain of domestic agencies.
4) Separately, Musharraf said that after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Richard Armitage, the former American deputy secretary of state, warned Pakistan's intelligence chief that U.S. forces could attack this South Asian nation if it did not switch support from the pro-al-Qaida Taliban regime in Afghanistan to the U.S.-led war on terror.
5) "The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,'" Musharraf told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview to air Sunday.
6) Musharraf described Armitage's remark as insulting, but said he reacted responsibly. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation and that is what I did," he said.
7) Armitage has said he never threatened to bomb Pakistan but that he delivered a tough message to the Muslim nation that it was either "with us or against us."
8) "These comments only expose how tenuous and fragile Pakistan's relationship is with the United States," Pakistani analyst and retired army Gen. Talat Masood said Friday. "They prove a lot more has to be done to establish a relationship on a much more solid foundation."
9) Bush said during a press conference with Musharraf on Friday that he was "taken aback" by Armitage's purported threat to bomb Pakistan, saying the Pakistani leader's recent comments where the first he had heard of the warning.
10) Bush said Musharraf was "one of the first leaders" to offer his country's support to the war on terrorism.
11) The Bush administration has repeatedly praised Pakistan for arresting hundreds of al-Qaida members operating in this country, the world's second-biggest Islamic state with a population of 160 million.
12) But the United States has also said Pakistan can do more to prevent militants crossing from its tribal regions into Afghanistan, where Taliban-fanned violence has reached its deadliest proportions since the American-led invasion that toppled the hard-line regime.
13) Pakistani officials also accuse Washington of bias toward its nuclear-armed rival, India, by not giving Islamabad the same atomic energy assistance.
14) "Musharraf's comments are verification for many people that the U.S. exploited Pakistan's vulnerability with India," said Prof. Moonis Ahmer of Karachi University. "Pakistan did not want to have two fronts to fight."
15) A spokesman for Pakistan's largest hard-line Islamic group predicted Musharraf's comments would further enrage ordinary Pakistanis, who have long believed that they were forced "at gunpoint" into supporting the war on terror.
16) "The temperature and anger will rise among Pakistanis because they will see that the Americans do not want dialogue or communication, but are instead exploiting a situation and compelling Musharraf to support them," said Ameer ul-Azeem, of the opposition Islamic coalition Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, also called MMA.
17) Some 500 MMA supporters protesting in Islamabad on Friday against the pope's recent remarks on Islam also condemned Musharraf for not standing up to the United States following the Sept. 11 attacks.
18) "Musharraf has sold his conscience, he has laid down under Bush, he has stabbed Afghanistan in the back," said Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, a senior MMA leader.
19) Pakistan had long supported Afghanistan's toppled Taliban regime, which came to power following the 1992-96 civil war in Afghanistan that killed more than 50,000 in the capital, Kabul, alone.
20) But the Taliban's harboring of bin Laden and his al-Qaida training camps made it the target of U.S. anger after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.
21) Analysts also say the United States remains wary of sharing nuclear technology with Pakistan following the scandal surrounding A.Q. Khan, the father of this country's atomic program who also led a black market that delivered nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea.
22) "The Americans have said on a number of occasions that India is a reliable partner (in terms of atomic energy) and Pakistan is not reliable," said Khalid Mahmood, a senior research fellow at Islamabad's Institute of Regional Studies.
23) Musharraf told CBS that his government had no knowledge of Khan's activities and said he was embarrassed in 2003 by then-CIA Director George Tenet, who showed the Pakistani president centrifuge designs with Pakistani signatures that Khan had passed to Iran and North Korea.
24) "It was the most embarrassing moment," Musharraf said. "(Khan) gave them centrifuge designs. He gave them centrifuge parts. He gave them centrifuges."
25) Centrifuges are vital components of the uranium enrichment process, which can be used to generate electricity or to create an atomic weapon.
26) Khan has been under house arrest since Musharraf pardoned him in 2004. Many Pakistanis regard Khan as a national hero for leading development of its nuclear weapons program, which serves as a deterrent to India.
Pakistan police detain 3 hardline lawmakers to foil rally against amended rape law
(APW_ENG_20061130.0496)
1) Police detained three hard-line lawmakers Thursday in an attempt to block a protest in eastern Pakistan against recent changes to the country's Islamic rape laws, witnesses and officials said.
2) A six-party coalition of Islamic groups, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Forum, had been planning the rally for Thursday to protest new legislation they say violates Islamic law. Activists and the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf support the bill as protecting rape victims.
3) The protest, announced Wednesday by MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, called for a march from the eastern city of Lahore to the nearby town of Gujrat. But late Wednesday night, the provincial government issued a statement banning rallies.
4) On Thursday, police detained three lawmakers from the coalition -- Liaquat Baluch, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Farid Piracha -- along with several supporters as they gathered for the rally, witnesses said.
5) Police also swung batons to disperse about 100 people who had also gathered at the rally point.
6) Local police official Amir Zulifquar said police were upholding the protest ban, but he refused to comment on the arrests.
7) Earlier, Munawar Hassan, a senior leader of the MMA, told reporters on Thursday that police had detained scores of supporters and erected barricades to block the planned march route.
8) Musharraf is expected to sign the bill on Dec. 4 at a special ceremony in Islamabad to make the legislation part of the constitution. But the MMA has vowed to step up its protests.
9) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim Ruling League, has meanwhile urged the coalition to postpone the rally and enter inter-party talks on the legislation.
10) Although most lawmakers and human rights groups have hailed the changes in the 1979 Hudood Ordinance-- a law based on Islamic principles that required rape victims to produce four witnesses to the crime-- the hard-line coalition has opposed the amendments, terming them against Islam.
11) Under the new law, approved last week by Parliament, judges can choose whether a rape case should be tried in a criminal court -- where the four-witness rule would not apply -- or under the old Islamic laws.
12) The new amendment also drops the death penalty for sex outside of marriage. The offense would now be punishable with five years in prison or a fine of 10,000 rupees (US$165; euro129).
Musharraf says Pakistan, Turkey agree to work together on Middle East peace
(APW_ENG_20070205.1410)
1) Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Monday said his country and Turkey agreed to work together to inject new life into Middle East peace efforts.
2) "Turkey and Pakistan are in full agreement to act together," Musharraf told a joint news conference with Turkish counterpart Ahmet Necdet Sezer. "We are aiming to contribute to efforts to bring peace to our region, to the world and the Muslim world."
3) Sezer said: "Turkey believes that risk of ethnic and sectarian clashes in the Middle East could have consequences beyond the region," adding that "initiatives with common sense should be undertaken to strengthen a peaceful solution."
4) Musharraf was also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.
5) Earlier on Monday, Musharraf visited Iran and met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the presidential palace in central Tehran.
6) "It is part of consultations with like-minded Muslim countries where we want to address all the problems afflicting the Muslim world, address the Palestinian dispute and bring harmony by attacking the issue of extremism and terrorism," the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Musharraf as saying before his departure from Rawalpindi.
7) Musharraf has been promoting the idea of a forum of Muslim nations to give them a role in trying to resolve the conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
8) In recent weeks, Musharraf has visited several Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia. Turkey which enjoys friendly ties both with Palestinians and Israel has long said that it was ready to help negotiate peace in the Middle East.
9) It is unclear what proposals might emerge from Musharraf's discussions, or how they relate to efforts by the so-called Quartet -- the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia -- to revive stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
10) Pakistan, which has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, backs the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
11) Iran does not recognize Israel and has called for its destruction.
Pakistan to host meeting of Islamic nations on peace effort for Palestine, Iraq
(APW_ENG_20070214.0837)
1) Pakistan said Wednesday that it will host a meeting of foreign ministers from Muslim nations to seek ways to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring peace to Iraq and Afghanistan.
2) Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf recently toured the Middle East and Asia to promote his initiative to give Muslim countries a greater role in resolving conflicts in the Islamic world.
3) Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri said in a statement Wednesday that Pakistan will host the meeting of foreign ministers on the suggestion of several Muslim leaders. He did not say when the meeting will be held or which countries will attend.
4) Musharraf visited countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and Iran in recent weeks to seek common ground for the initiative. However, he has made no concrete proposals on how to stabilize the Middle East.
5) Kasuri said the conflicts in the Muslim world were fostering Islamic extremism.
6) "Pakistan has been in the forefront in arguing that the festering Palestinian dispute is at the very heart of the radicalizing influences at work across the world today," he was quoted as saying in the statement.
7) "To this we must now add Iraq, Lebanon, growing instability in Afghanistan, heightened tension between Iran and U.S. as well as the rising Shiite-Sunni (Muslim) strife in Iraq which can spill beyond its border," he said.
8) Pakistan -- a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism -- has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, and backs the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Report: Pakistan ' s Musharraf calls Palestinian president to discuss Mideast peace bid
(APW_ENG_20070224.0403)
1) Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf telephoned his Palestinian counterpart to inform him of his efforts to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring peace to Iraq and Afghanistan, a news report said Saturday.
2) During Friday's 25-minute conversation Musharraf congratulated Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on reaching a power-sharing agreement with rival Hamas in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca earlier this month, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.
3) Abbas told Musharraf he appreciated the Pakistani leader's peace initiative and "expressed his strong support for his efforts," the agency said.
4) Musharraf has toured several Muslim countries in recent weeks to share his ideas about bringing peace and stability to the Middle East. Pakistani officials have not disclosed any specific proposals, but Musharraf has said he is trying to build consensus among countries who support "a conciliatory approach instead of a confrontationist approach" to the region's problems.
5) Musharraf's conversation with Abbas came two days before Pakistan is due to host a meeting of foreign ministers from Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in a bid to evolve a joint strategy on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and discuss how a durable peace could be reached in Iraq and Afghanistan.
6) Sunday's meeting will also be attended by the secretary-general of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
7) The meeting will lay the groundwork for a summit of Muslim leaders which is expected to be held in Mecca next month.
8) So far, no dates for the summit have been set. None of the countries in the OIC, including Pakistan, has unveiled any specific proposals for the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, seen by many as the main cause of tensions in the Middle East.
9) Pakistan -- a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism -- has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, and has consistently backed the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Israel welcomes Pakistani leader ' s mediation offer
(APW_ENG_20070421.0717)
1) Israel on Saturday welcomed an offer by Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but said it was doubtful the Pakistani leader could make much progress.
2) Musharraf made the surprise offer Friday in an interview with the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya. He told the Dubai-based station that he would even be willing to visit the Jewish state to help bring peace to the Middle East.
3) Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Pakistan's involvement would be welcomed, but said Musharraf's effectiveness would likely be limited.
4) "Israel believes that moderate Muslim countries like Pakistan can play a very important role in helping and strengthening the Middle East peace process," Regev said. "Having said that, experience has clearly demonstrated that the most successful mediators have always been those that have established and solid relationships with both sides."
5) Pakistan -- a key ally in the U.S.-led war against terrorism -- has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel and supports a separate state for Palestinians with Jerusalem as its capital.
Rice signals continued support for Musharraf, calls for more openness in Pakistan
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1) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday signaled the Bush administration's steadfast support for Pakistan's struggling leader but also expressed worry about the country's rising violence and called for stronger rights for opposition groups.
2) Rice's meeting with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri came as Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf faces the biggest political crisis of his eight-year rule, with thousands taking to the streets to demand the president relinquish power.
3) The United States has been criticized for supporting Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and continues to control the military, at the expense of democracy in Pakistan. But Rice said the U.S. is "second to none in continuing to press for openness in Pakistan, for the rights of opposition in Pakistan and for free and fair elections."
4) Rice said the U.S. is concerned about the situation in Pakistan, where lawyers and opposition party members are protesting Musharraf's suspension of the Supreme Court's chief judge. But "Musharraf has been a good ally in the war on terror," she told reporters. "Pakistan has come a very long way since 2001 in its commitment to try and root out extremism, to try to make reforms."
5) The U.S. is eager to support Musharraf, whose country has captured scores of suspected insurgents and lost hundreds of soldiers battling militants along its border with Afghanistan. But the Bush administration also wants to be seen as supporting democracy, a cornerstone of President George W. Bush's foreign policy agenda since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
6) Kasuri told reporters that he and Rice focused in their meeting on the fight against al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and on peace efforts between Pakistan and archrival India.
7) India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over control of the disputed Kashmir province since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, have made a lot of progress in recent talks, Kasuri said, "but the rest depends on political will."
8) On Monday, dozens of lawyers, dressed in black suits and chanting "Death to Musharraf," boycotted courts and staged a rally in southwest Pakistan to protest a raid on a relative of suspended Supreme Court chief judge Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
9) The government accuses Chaudhry of trying to get a job for a relative and using government cars for his family. Chaudhry denies wrongdoing and has challenged his suspension in the Supreme Court.
10) Critics say Musharraf wants to remove an independent-minded judge who might block his disputed plan to ask lawmakers for a new five-year term.
11) As Kasuri and Rice met, about 10 demonstrators outside the State Department chanted "No, Musharraf, no" and held signs that read, "Pakistan is Crying for Democracy" and "Enough is Enough."
12) Kasuri also planned to meet with senior U.S. lawmakers and with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
AP Interview: Pakistan minister says West must do more in fight against militants
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1) Pakistan's foreign minister on Tuesday denied that his country was in turmoil and urged the West to do more to help fight militants in the wild frontier region along the border with Afghanistan.
2) Khurshid Kasuri, in Washington to meet with top administration officials and lawmakers, bristled at criticism that Pakistan is failing to address a rise in militancy in a region where scores of people have been executed for perceived ties with the Pakistani government or the United States -- allies in the U.S.-led fight against terrorists in the region.
3) "Has the West succeeded in Iraq? Has it succeeded in Afghanistan?" Kasuri asked in an interview with The Associated Press. "We live in the real world, and in the real world there is no black and white."
4) The United States is eager to support Pakistan's leader, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, whose country has captured many suspected insurgents and lost hundreds of soldiers battling militants along its border with Afghanistan.
5) But the Bush administration also wants to show its support for democracy, which President George W. Bush has said is a foreign policy priority. Musharraf came to power in a 1999 coup and has yet to relinquish control of the military.
6) Kasuri said Pakistan has worked hard to fight militants that were driven into tribal areas during fighting that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.
7) "A price has to be paid. Unfortunately, Pakistan alone cannot pay that price. The West has to be also sensitive to what has happened," he said.
8) Kasuri's trip to Washington comes as Musharraf faces the biggest political crisis of his eight-year rule, with thousands taking to the streets to demand the general relinquish power. Lawyers and opposition party members are protesting Musharraf's suspension of the Supreme Court's chief judge.
9) When asked if the crisis threatened Musharraf's grip on power, Kasuri said, "Why should it?"
10) "We will accept the judgment of the Supreme Court, and that is a sign of maturity," he said.
11) Despite the judicial crisis, he said, Pakistan's economic development, foreign investment and democracy continue to grow. "People are living their lives in a normal manner."
12) Kasuri met Monday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who signaled the Bush administration's steadfast support for Musharraf.
13) The United States has been criticized for supporting Musharraf at the expense of democracy in Pakistan. But Rice said the United States is "second to none in continuing to press for openness in Pakistan, for the rights of opposition in Pakistan and for free and fair elections."
14) Rice said the United States is uneasy about the situation in Pakistan.
15) But "Musharraf has been a good ally in the war on terror," she told reporters. "Pakistan has come a very long way since 2001 in its commitment to try and root out extremism, to try to make reforms."
16) Kasuri also said that Britain should not be surprised by the violent reaction in the Muslim world to the knighthood awarded to writer Salman Rushdie.
17) "I don't think they are surprised," he said. "The Holy Prophet has a certain position among all Muslims. When we talk of a globalized world, we have to be sensitive to each others' concerns."
18) His comments came as Pakistan's government summoned the British ambassador to protest Rushdie's knighthood. Protesters burned effigies of Rushdie and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, and a Cabinet minister said the award could justify suicide bombings.
19) Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the writer because his book, "The Satanic Verses," allegedly insulted Islam. The threat forced Rushdie to live in hiding for a decade.
Pakistani provincial government dissolved amid disagreement among Islamist groups
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1) The government of a troubled Pakistani province was dissolved Wednesday amid differences between rival Islamist groups that could strengthen President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's hold on power.
2) Gov. Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai dissolved the Provincial Assembly of North West Frontier Province and will appoint a caretaker government chief later Wednesday, officials said.
3) The province has been governed since 2002 by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of religious parties opposed to Musharraf's close alliance with the United States.
4) The MMA initiated moves to dissolve the assembly earlier this month in order to undermine the legitimacy of Pakistan's Oct. 6 presidential election.
5) However, maneuvering among the MMA's leaders meant the dissolution has taken place too late to affect the vote among federal and provincial lawmakers.
6) Musharraf swept the vote amid an opposition boycott, though the Supreme Court has ordered that the results cannot become official until it has ruled on petitions challenging the general's candidacy.
7) The botched dissolution of the assembly has exposed rifts between the country's two main Islamist groups and fanned speculation that one of them will break away and join a pro-Musharraf federal government after parliamentary elections due by January.
8) Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Fazal-ur Rahman is tipped as a possible partner for the ruling PML-Q party and the more liberal Pakistan People's Party of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, who plans to return from exile on Oct. 18.
9) Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of the rival Jamaat-e-Islami, on Wednesday urged the alliance to hold together and fight the election from a common platform.
10) "It will be necessary that the MMA should be kept intact ... despite the differences," Ahmad said on Dawn News television.
11) But some commentators are predicting its demise.
12) "It is clear that the MMA is on the chopping block," the Daily Times newspaper wrote in an editorial on Wednesday, though said it was too early to make out any "secret compact" between Rahman and Musharraf.
13) Despite their strong anti-U.S. rhetoric, the religious parties have supported Musharraf.
14) Most notably, the MMA voted for a constitutional amendment in 2003 that legalized aspects of Musharraf's 1999 coup and allowed him to continue as army chief as well as president.
Pakistan ' s Musharraf met secretly with Israel ' s Barak, Israeli officials say
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1) Pakistan's president held a rare and secret meeting with Israel's defense minister in a Paris hotel last week, and the Iranian nuclear program figured high on the agenda, Israeli defense officials said Monday.
2) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met by chance at the Hotel Raphael in Paris on Jan. 22, where they both were staying, the officials said. They then held a scheduled 20-minute meeting the following day, the officials said.
3) The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Israel's Defense Ministry has not officially confirmed the meeting took place. The two states have no diplomatic ties, and their officials rarely meet.
4) Barak and Musharraf discussed the possibility that Iran would develop nuclear weapons, the Israeli officials said. Iran and Israel are bitter enemies, and Israel -- along with the U.S. and much of the international community -- is concerned that Iran's nuclear program is designed to produce weapons. Iran claims it intends to produce energy.
5) Pakistan, which has close political and economic ties with Iran, has repeatedly said Iran has a right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and that the issue of Iran's nuclear plans must be resolved by diplomatic means.
6) At the meeting, Barak also expressed concern that instability in Pakistan could put the country's nuclear arsenal in the hands of Muslim extremists, but Musharraf assured Barak that Pakistan's nuclear weapons were safe, the officials said.
7) In Jerusalem, Barak spokesman Ronen Moshe would not comment.
8) In Islamabad, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said Musharraf had a "chance" meeting with Barak in Paris.
9) "The president was leaving and the defense minister of Israel entered the hotel lobby and it was a chance meeting," Sadiq told The Associated Press. "I am not aware of any second meeting."
10) Pakistan is the only Muslim nuclear power. Israel will not confirm or deny that it is a nuclear power, but is widely reported to have the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
11) Israel and Pakistan are key U.S. allies, and there have been indications in recent years of warming ties. In 2005, Israel's then-foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, met his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Kasuri, in Turkey, sparking protests from Islamic hard-liners in Pakistan.
12) In September, 2006, Musharraf said Pakistan's government would have to recognize Israel after an independent Palestinian state was established -- but not before.
13) "We cannot do something that sidelines us from the Muslim world," Musharraf said at the time.
Bhutto party woos Islamists to build powerful anti-Musharraf front
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1) Opponents of President Pervez Musharraf are wooing Islamist politicians to bolster their drive to curb the power of the U.S. allied leader in the wake of his party's defeat in recent elections.
2) The negotiations highlight the extent of Musharraf's political isolation following the Feb. 18 vote that was widely seen as a repudiation of the former general's increasingly authoritarian eight-year rule.
3) "We believe that the problems are so big that as far as possible we should take along all the political forces," Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's party, told The Associated Press Friday.
4) Bhutto's widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, warmly embraced Fazlur Rehman, the bearded leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of Islamist parties, when they met in the capital, Islamabad, late Thursday.
5) MMA spokesman Abdul Jalil Jan said the alliance wanted commitments on "Islamization" from a new coalition government. He did not detail the commitments.
6) Babar said the two sides would meet again Friday to discuss including the MMA in a broad "government of national consensus."
7) Jan said MMA lawmakers would vote to strip Musharraf of the right to dissolve parliament and for the abolition of the National Security Council, a body that Musharraf established after his 1999 coup to give the army a formal say in the running of the country.
8) "We will support them on these issues even if we don't join the government," Jan said.
9) Both the MMA and the main pro-Musharraf group were thrashed in the elections. Voters turned to the moderate parties of Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, raising hopes in the West of a firm push against Islamic extremism.
10) Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, which had vowed to root out extremism before she was killed in a gun and suicide-bomb attack on Dec. 27, seems to have little in common with the Islamists beyond a wish to tame Musharraf.
11) Musharraf was re-elected president in October by a parliament packed with his supporters. Opponents are calling loudly for the former military strongman to resign, saying he has trampled on democracy, the judiciary and the media since taking power in a 1999 coup against Sharif.
12) But Musharraf retains some U.S. support for his record in combating the Taliban and al-Qaida along the border with Afghanistan and has shown no willingness to step down, raising the prospect of a showdown with the next government.
13) The Pakistan People's Party won 87 seats in the recent elections. Together with Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party and other allies, they have 171 of the 272 seats in the National Assembly and hope to form a government after parliament convenes next month.
14) The 10 seats won by the MMA or affiliated independents would take it close to the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution or even impeach Musharraf. A two-thirds majority is also needed in the 100-member Senate, the upper house.
15) Pro-Musharraf parties have only a slender majority in the Senate after six senators announced this week that they would ignore the party line in order to promote democratic reform.
16) Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a Pakistan People's Party leader, said his party would move cautiously toward that goal to try to prevent fresh turmoil.
17) "Relations with the presidency is a challenge because as you know the PPP has been talking about a balance of power between the parliament and the presidency," Qureshi told Dawn News television. "One has to tread carefully ... we do not want confrontation."
18) The MMA rose to prominence after the 2002 elections, when religious parties entered the government in both of the provinces bordering Afghanistan, sparking concern about the increasing influence of fundamentalist mullahs in running nuclear-armed Pakistan.
19) Musharraf's government has accused the MMA of vetoing tough action against Islamic militants.
20) But the party cooperated with the former general in the past. It voted for constitutional amendments that rubber-stamped Musharraf's actions after the 1999 coup and allowed him to serve as both president and army chief until he retired from the military last November.