Pakistani stocks lower, rupee weakens, Over night rise

KARACHI: The benchmark 100-share index of Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange closed 0.05 per cent lower on Friday. The index fell 9.65 points to 21,005.69.



Activity was slow on the last trading day of the 2013 fiscal year. Index heavy weight Muslim Commercial Bank and Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd again fell, forcing the benchmark index to close in negative territory.

Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd fell 2.35 per cent to 242.75 rupees, while Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd was down 0.42 per cent to 228 rupees.

The rupee ended weaker at 99.40/99.50 against the dollar, compared to Thursday's close of 98.89/98.95.

Overnight rates in the money market rose to 9 per cent from Thursday's close of 8.75 per cent.

Four-member FIA committee to probe Musharraf treason case

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's federal government has moved one step closer to putting former military dictator General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf on trial for treason, by appointing a committee to investigate him for subverting the constitution.

Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan informed the National Assembly on Thursday that a four-member committee of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been constituted to probe treason charges against the former military chief.

Nisar said the investigating team comprises of two directors and two additional director-generals of the FIA, and that the team would complete its investigations over treason charges against Musharraf and submit a report to the government soon.

He added that the committee would hold meetings with him on a weekly basis.

Ppposition member and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senior leader Makhdoom Amin Faheem said Article 6 of the Constitution should be applicable on everyone from October 1999 onwards. He said that applying the law only to the former dictator's November 2007 actions was tantamount to double standards.

Faheem said his party had supported Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's announcement to try former President Musharraf in the high treason case, adding that it was for the first time in the country's history that the government has moved the court on Article 6.

He further said that justice should be served and accountability should be carried out across the board.

Speaking to a private television channel earlier on Wednesday, Faheem had said that the apex court should have also taken up the 1977 coup by former military dictator Zia ul Haq.

Another opposition member of the National Assembly, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, said that Article 6 should be applicable to all who committed treason 1956 onwards.

Speculation has been rife during the past two days over the seriousness of the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) government in pursuing the treason cases against Musharraf.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of the treason case against the former military dictator for an indefinite period to hold consultations over setting up of a special court to hear the case against the ex-army strongman.

The apex court also rejected a plea to order the formal arrest of Musharraf citing that no formal charges against the former president had been put before the court.

Earlier during the hearing , Attorney General Munir A. Malik submitted the government’s line of action in the case which said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ordered the FIA to conduct an inquiry into the actions of Musharraf on November 3, 2007, the day when he held the constitution in abeyance and imposed emergency in the country, sacking dozens of judges of the superior courts.

AFP adds: Musharraf's lawyer Ibrahim Satti urged the Supreme Court to give his client a fair trial, accusing the media and Sharif of being biased against him.

“In this background the answering respondent is expecting and having full hope that this bench will safeguard and protect the interest and civil right of him regarding fair trial,” said Satti, speaking in English.

Presiding judge Jawwad S.Khawaja said he would deliberate further on the issue and set no date for another hearing.

Later, the bench adjourned the hearing until further notice, in order to hold consultations with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry over the constitution of a special court to hear the treason case

Supreme Court to hear treason case against Musharraf on day to day basis

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the ambiguity by stating that the judgment in high treason case against former president General Retired Pervez Musharraf case was not reserved as carried out by a section of media.

This was stated by a three-judge bench comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan hearing the case.

Justice Khawaja remarked that the bench would hear the proceeding of the case on day-to-day basis and would like to provide equal opportunity to the all litigants in the case to argue.

Moving one step closer to putting the former military dictator on trial for treason, the government on Thursday had appointed a four-member FIA committee to investigate him for subverting the constitution.

Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan informed the National Assembly that the committee had been constituted to probe treason charges against Musharraf.

During the course of proceeding at the apex court today, Malik Qamar Afzal, counsel for Musharraf, wished to make oral submissions. However, the bench directed him to file a written submission in a formal application.

Later, the bench was informed that Attorney General Munir A. Malik was busy in case before Bench 1 and thus he would not be available during the course of the day.

Nawaz Sharif finalises new national energy policy

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Friday said that the new energy policy would turn out to be “panacea of Pakistan's energy ills.”

“People and economy have suffered badly at the hands of crippling power crisis. It is high time that prudent and consistent policies were pursued to come out of this morass,” said the prime minister while chairing a high level meeting to give final touches to the new power policy here at the Prime Minister's Office in Islamabad.

The meeting not only discussed the broad contours of the new energy policy, which is expected to be revealed shortly by PM Sharif, but also analysed the minute details threadbare.

The finalised national energy policy is set to increase electricity generation to 26,800MW, reduce average electricity rates by more than 30 per cent, achieve zero loadshedding, encourage huge public and private investment and import electricity from India, Iran and Central Asian states in three years.

Those who attended the meeting include Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rashid, Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Special Advisor to PM Dr Musaddiq Malik, Shaukat Fayaz A. Tarin and other stakeholders from private and public sectors.

Pakistan ranks second in the world for Out-of-school childrens

KARACHI, June 27: Pakistan ranks the second with the most out-of-school children in the world with only Nigeria ahead of it, said a child rights body on Thursday.

In its annual report titled ‘The state of Pakistan’s children 2012’, the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) said about one fourth of the 19.75 million children in Pakistan aged five to nine were out of school and factoring in adolescents increased the number to 25 million. Of them, seven million children (aged three to five) had yet to receive primary schooling.

“The country reduced its spending on education from 2.6 per cent to 2.3pc of the GNP (gross national product) over the decade and ranks 113th of the 120 countries on the Education Development Index,” said the Sparc report launched in a hotel here on Thursday.

At the provincial level, Punjab has the highest NER (net enrolment rate) for children in primary schools at 61pc followed by Sindh with 53pc, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 51pc and Balochistan with the lowest at 47pc. Pakistan has an NER of 74.lpc for all age groups enrolled either in primary, secondary or higher education.

Pakistan has the lowest youth literacy rate with 70.7pc. Only 61pc of girls are literate as compared to 79pc boys in the age group of 15-24 years.

Progress has been slowest in low-income countries, especially Pakistan, where only 15pc children received pre-primary education in 2010. It quoted a recent report saying 63pc of children aged three to five years were not receiving any education related to early childhood development.

The country ranks 129th among the 135 countries on the Gender Gap Index 2012 according to the Global Gender Gap Report. Data shows that gender parity for primary schools in Azad Kashmir is close to 1 (0.97). The GPI for Punjab stands at 0.98, in Balochistan it is 0.83 and in Sindh 0.81.

The report said 43pc children born in Pakistan were afflicted with stunting. It was estimated that 21.7pc children were severely and 21.3pc were moderately stunted.

It quoted the United Nations Children's Fund as saying that under five years mortality rate had declined from 122 per 1,000 births in 1990 to 72 per 1,000 births in 2011; far from reaching the assigned target of 52 per 1,000 births as per the millennium development goal.

More than 423,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday, and almost one in five of these deaths are due to pneumonia.

Pakistan accounted for nearly 30pc of all polio cases recorded worldwide. A total of 142 cases were reported in 2010; 198 cases in 2011. In 2012, the official reports show, 58 cases were recorded, excluding cases in the North and South Waziristan agencies.

It is estimated that 2.1 million cases of measles are reported annually in Pakistan and 21,000 of the reported cases die of complications from the disease. Pneumonia and diarrhoea account for 29pc of deaths among children under five worldwide or more than two million a year; with Pakistan ranking fourth among the countries with the highest prevalence of the disease.

A total of 55 of 96,000 infants, children and adolescents had been identified as HIV positive in Pakistan In 2012, around 5,659 cases of violence against children were reported across Pakistan from January to October 2012. These included 943 murders, 1,170 cases of injuries, 302 of sodomy; 204 of child trafficking, 410 of forced marriages and 164 of Karo-kari (honour killing) incidents, and 260 cases of missing children. Other incidents of violence included 407 cases of sexual assault, 547 torture cases, 323 child suicides, 530 kidnappings and 176 Vani cases.A total of 3,861 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in different parts of the country last year. Most of the cases were reported in Punjab (68pc), followed by Sindh (19pc), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (5pc), Balochistan (3pc) and FATA (3pc).

The report said 197 of the 3,581 victims of drone strikes since 2004 were children.

The participants said children in Pakistan had to cope with a lack of educational opportunities, poor health conditions, a near absence of protection for poor and vulnerable children, miserable conditions in juvenile jails and continued employment of children in hazardous occupations.

Violence against children remains culturally entrenched as children in Pakistan have to cope with physical violence, sexual abuse, trafficking, recruitment in armed conflicts and acid attacks. In the absence of a national database on violence against children, the report relied on secondary sources to give the prevalence of various forms of violence against children.

The story behind Sethi's appointment as PCB chief

When Najam Sethi sat at the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) Annual Conference in London on Wednesday, he must have felt a little out of place.

For someone accustomed to holding his own as one of Pakistan’s savviest media personalities, the discomfiture of performing as Acting Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in the company of well heeled chief executives of other full member countries would have been daunting.

These chief executives are required to deal with contentious issues, which necessarily bring into play in-depth knowledge, sharp skills to demonstrate viability of ideas and a certain ability to negotiate for a favourable response, especially when an issue goes down the voting route.

Sixty-five-year-old Sethi’s second consecutive high profile but non-career positioning following a just concluded stint as the caretaker Punjab chief minister is a subject ofintense speculation and scrutiny.

Unlike the chief minister stint, which had a mandatory limit, controversy over his nomination as PCB chief is likely to accompany him wherever he goes until he calls time or a gavel clinches the issue before that — as is often the case these days in Pakistan.

The Islamabad High Court is already seized of the matter. A petition has been filed by Abdullah Tahir, an amateur cricketer and law graduate, seeking Sethi’s removal, on grounds that his appointment is a violation of the PCB constitution.

The IHC has quite a task at hand since it was only recently that Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi suspended the previous chairman, Zaka Ashraf, in response to a petition challenging his “dubious” election under the new PCB constitution and ordered the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination to appoint an interim chief in his stead.

The commotion surrounding Sethi’s new role is not without basis. For starters, even though the job is temporary, the veteran journalist has never been considered to have intricate knowledge of the game, much less having played at the highest level.

To be sure, there have been administrators before him, who have made the count with or without experience, but Sethi has never held a post associated with a sport touted as second religion in this part of the world.

Intriguing appointment

This brings into sharp focus the intriguing appointment made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — himself an inveterate cricket-lover, who overlooked the credentials of someone as erudite as the Cantabrigian Majid Khan, a former Pakistan captain and an astute cricket administrator.

The perception that Sharif didn’t want Majid to hold fort because he is related to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman (PTI) Imran Khan doesn’t stick because the two cousins are estranged with Majid not having spoken to Imran after the then-skipper first dropped his maternal cousin from a Test eleven on the 1982 English tour.

A source privy to the surprise development confided to Dawn.com, on condition of anonymity, that the ‘out-of-the-box’ appointment has come at the request of a leading media house eying lucrative broadcast rights of Pakistan’s forthcoming cricket series. The current ruling party is said to have long benefited from its popular reach.

What this will do for the interests of Pakistan cricket is a moot point. Transparency International Pakistan has, through an official communication, even urged the ICC to take notice of the appointment that it says is unlawful under the PCB constitution, which stipulates that only board members can elect an acting chairman in the event of the post falling vacant for more than 45 days.

After initially pledging to sort out the mess at the PCB and pleading for time, Sethi is now vowing to vacate the “temporary” slot once he is through with the ICC conference ending Saturday, approving the team for the tour to the West Indies and conducting the election of a full-time chairman.

That Sethi has been ill-at-ease in the new role is evident from his admission of being a little lost with the rather large PCB empire — more than 900 employees weighing down the Titanic, and whose departmental heads notoriously work at cross purposes.

Former South African President Mandela's condition improves, but still critical

PRETORIA: A gravely ill Nelson Mandela showed tentative signs of improvement Thursday as South Africa-bound US President Barack Obama led a chorus of support for the “hero for the world”.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who had abruptly cancelled a trip abroad to be near the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon, reported he “remains critical but is now stable”.

“He is much better today,” Zuma said in a statement without giving more details. “The medical team continues to do a sterling job. We must pray for Tata's (father's) health and wish him well.”Grandson Mandla Mandela said the Nobel Peace laureate's fate “lies with God and our ancestors”.

“Every improvement in my grandfather's health is cause for celebration.””He is a personal hero,” said US President Barack Obama, who is due to fly into Pretoria later Friday.

“I think he is a hero for the world, and if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages.”Obama recalled how Mandela had inspired him to take up political activity, when he campaigned for the anti-apartheid movement as a student in the late 1970s.

He was speaking on Thursday from Senegal, the first leg of an African tour.

As Mandela fights for his life after three weeks of intensive care, South Africans remain braced for the worst. A large number of family members gathered Thursday at the hospital where he was admitted on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.

“I won't lie. It doesn't look good,” oldest daughter Makaziwe Mandela said. But “if we speak to him he responds and tries to open his eyes -- he's still there.

“Anything is imminent, but I want to emphasise again that it is only God who knows when the time to go is,” she told local radio.

Clan elder Napilisi Mandela told AFP late on Wednesday that the former South African president was “using machines to breathe”.

A group of family members on Thursday walked to the wall of messages and flowers where emotional crowds have been holding vigils, offering their prayers for one of the greatest figures of the 20th century.

Supporters, including members of Mandela's African National Congress, sang songs in tribute to the man who led the transition from centuries of white minority rule to landmark multiracial elections.

“There is no sadness here. There is celebration. He is a giant,” said Nomhlahla Donry, 57, whose husband served time with the revered leader.