Abbottabad commission not satisfied with evidences, says report

ISLAMABAD: The inquiry commission on the May 2 US operation in Abbottabad had shown its dissatisfaction over the credibility of evidences gathered during the probe.

A BBC Urdu report quoted a security official familiar with the investigation as saying that the members of the commission had formed a list of ‘important witnesses’ and conducted lengthy interviews.

But the information gathered from these interviews was not sufficient to prove that the al-Qaeda leader and his family were present in a compound which was raided by the US Special Forces, the report said.

Only credible information about the presence of Osama in the compound came from the women who were said to be the wives of al-Qaeda chief, the report added.

Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, the chairman of the commission, had said after the formation of the commission that he would ask the United States government to provide evidences.

But, a spokesman of the US embassy told the BBC Urdu that the commission had not yet contacted them on the issue.

SC directs Reshma Power Plant to pay Rs 4.5b by Friday

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Reshma Rental Generation Company Limited to deposit remaining 14 per cent advance mobilization amount taken for installing rental power plant which stood around Rs4.5 billion with markup by Friday or face legal consequences.

A two-judge bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain issued directive on a suo motu case after it was informed that the Reshma Power Plant had returned Rs2.5 million with the NPGCL, a government’s generation company.

An advance mobilization fund of $55.27 million was paid to the Reshma Plant on October 3, 2009 after securing a loan from the banks on 16 per cent markup but the project was yet to achieve the commercial operation date (COD).

The bench observed that the plant which should be producing 201 MW by now was only generating merely 55 MW to the national grid.

During proceedings, Federal Minister for Housing Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat requested the Court to order the return of the advance mobilization amount in dollars as the RPPs received the amount in this currency.

He prayed the bench to pass an order rescinding licenses awarded to the RPPs and all those involved in the scam should be handed down exemplary punishment.

“My case is that complicity, collusion and connivance was committed at all level in the award of contract to the RPPs,” he alleged.

He conceded that the country was facing power shortage but the RPPs were not a suitable answer to the looming shortfall.

Faisal defended a cabinet’s decision regarding RPPs and said the water and power ministry had deliberately misled the cabinet which still decided that projects which failed to achieve crucial milestones should be cancelled with heavy penalties.

“Whatever is being done today by Nepra and Gencos is all cover and they suddenly woken up out of slumber after the apex court’s taking the suo motu,” he added. Comparing the tariff of the RPPs with that of the IPPs, he cited the example of 232 MW ship mounted Karkey Karadeniz Elek trik Uretin AS Turkey Korangi project, the said the plant was producing electricity at 4.5 to 6 cents when it should be less than what the IPPs were generating at 2 cents per unit.

The Pakistani nation had to give $564 million or Rs60 billion to the Karkey project in five years as rent to produce 231 MW and another $394 million or Rs35 billion in five years as rent to 201 MW by Reshma plant. “Thus we will pay Rs90 billion or $450 million in five years just to two plants but claims that we do not have enough money to clear the circular debt,” he added.

He said recently Pepco had floated Rs30 billion bonds in the market to clear the circular debt but had enough money to pay Rs90 billion to the two RPPs, and he was unable to understand what was the logic behind this.

He also lamented that the electricity produced by the Karkey plant would cost the government $2.2 million per MW that too through outdated machinery when brand new machinery was easily available from US, China, Europe etc; could produce per MW of electricity at $150,000 to $200,000.

He said the 425 MW combined cycle power plant at Nandipur ( Gujranwala ) for which China had offered brand new machinery that eventually would be our property would cost $750,000 per MW of electricity.

The Chief Justice questioned why the think tanks and concerned authorities did not care about such things.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussain observed that the government opened the letter of credit at 14 per cent mark up knowingly the current recession in US would increase our liability. Further hearing was adjourned till Monday.

Hussain Haqqani offers resignation in memo row

ISLAMABAD: The government said on Thursday that it has not decided whether to accept a resignation offer from its ambassador to the US over a reported attempt to enlist Washington’s help to rein in the country’s military after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The government has summoned Ambassador Husain Haqqani to Islamabad to question him about any role he may have played in the growing controversy, which was first disclosed in an Oct. 10 column in the Financial Times, said Farhatullah Babar, a Pakistani presidential spokesman.

Mansoor Ijaz, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, said in the column that a senior Pakistani diplomat asked him on May 9, a week after US commandos killed bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town, to pass a message from President Asif Ali Zardari to the US asking for help. Ijaz did not name the diplomat.

Zardari was reportedly worried that the US raid had so humiliated his government, which did not know about it beforehand, that the military may stage a coup, something that has happened repeatedly in Pakistan’s history, said Ijaz.

The memo sent to Adm. Mike Mullen, the top US military officer at the time, reportedly offered to curb support to militants from Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the ISI, in exchange for American assistance, Ijaz said.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry has called the Financial Times column ”a total fabrication.”

But Mullen’s spokesman, Capt. John Kirby, confirmed to Foreign Policy’s website on Wednesday that Mullen did receive the memo from Ijaz, but he did not find it credible and ignored it.

Haqqani said on Thursday that he did not write or deliver the memo, but offered his resignation to end the controversy.

”I do not want this non-issue of an insignificant memo written by a private individual and not considered credible by its lone recipient to undermine democracy,” Haqqani told The Associated Press.

Haqqani is expected to travel to Islamabad in the next few days so that the government can determine who should be blamed for the incident, Babar said. He said the government has not received a formal letter of resignation from Haqqani, and talk of what would happen to him was ”premature.”

The controversy is said to have outraged the Pakistani army, considered the most powerful institution in the country. The army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, met with Pakistan’s president in recent days, but the outcome of those discussions is unclear.

Haqqani’s resignation would create more uncertainty in the already troubled relationship between Pakistan and the US. The bin Laden raid in the town of Abbottabad severely strained ties, as have US drone strikes targeting militants in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area along the Afghan border.

Current News: Salman Rushdie claims victory in Facebook name bat...

Current News: Salman Rushdie claims victory in Facebook name bat...: Author Salman Rushdie says he has won a battle with Facebook over what to call himself on his profile page on the social network. Mr...

Salman Rushdie claims victory in Facebook name battle

Author Salman Rushdie says he has won a battle with Facebook over what to call himself on his profile page on the social network.

Mr Rushdie's dispute with Facebook began after he asked to be allowed to use his middle name Salman - the one he is known all by across the world.

But Facebook, which has strict real name policies, had insisted on Ahmed - the novelist's first name.

Mr Rushdie says Facebook has "buckled" after he began tweeting about the row.

"Victory! #Facebook has buckled! I'm Salman Rushdie again. I feel SO much better. An identity crisis at my age is no fun. Thank you Twitter!" wrote the British Indian author, who is known as Salman Rushdie (Malooon) on Twitter.

"Just received an apology from The #Facebook Team. All is sweetness and light."

'Twitterverse ridicule'

Mr Rushdie, aged 64, told about his run-in with Facebook in a series of tweets.

He says the social site even deactivated his account over the weekend "saying they didn't believe I was me".

Mr Rushdie recounts that he had to send a photo of his passport to Facebook, which led to the reactivation of his account - but only as "Ahmed Rushdie".

Angered by this, Mr Rushdie then decided to turn to what he described as "ridicule by the Twitterverse" about the row.

"Dear #Facebook, forcing me to change my FB name from Salman to Ahmed Rushdie is like forcing J. Edgar to become John Hoover.

"Or, if F. Scott Fitzgerald was on #Facebook, would they force him to be Francis Fitzgerald? What about F. Murray Abraham?" he tweeted.

A number of Mr Rushdie's followers retweeted his posts and shortly afterwards Facebook changed his account to Salman Rushdie.

Mr Rushdie lived in hiding under police protection for many years after the fatwa issued in 1989 against him by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini over his novel The Satanic Verses.

It was regarded as blasphemous by many Muslims, who protested by burning the book in public.

NZ mission to salvage ship's containers 'too dangerous'

New Zealand Maritime has said that salvage crews are facing difficulties as they try to remove containers from the grounded Rena cargo vessel.
On Monday officials said all the oil had been pumped out of the ship.
But subsequent plans to use workers in a cage suspended from a crane to remove the 1,300 containers were proving "too dangerous", the organisation said.
The Rena, which got stuck on a reef last month and was in danger of breaking apart, initially leaked 350 tonnes of oil, killing more than 1,000 sea birds.

Occupy Wall Street: New York police clear protest camp

New York police have dismantled the Occupy Wall Street camp in Zuccotti Park and arrested more than 70 people following a late-night raid.

Protesters were ordered to leave at about 01:00 (06:00 GMT), before police began removing tents and property.

The New York camp was set up in September to protest against economic inequality - it inspired dozens of similar camps around the world.

A camp in Oakland, California was cleared overnight on Monday.

Police in New York gave an announcement as their operation began, telling protesters: "The city has determined that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park poses an increasing health and fire safety hazard."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office released a message on Twitter saying protesters should "temporarily leave and remove tents and tarps" but could return once the park was clear.