RAWALPINDI: Chief of Awami Muslim League Sheikh Rashid survived an armed attack on his election office here on Monday.

Sheikh Rashid received minor injuries on his leg when he fell on the ground at the time of the attack. However, four of his guards were killed in the attack.

Armed assailants carrying Kalashnikov(s) attacked Sheikh Rashid outside his election office when he was heading on foot to attend a public meeting.

Eaerlier, Javed Qureshi, the personal assistant of Sheikh Rashid confirmed the attack while talking to Geo News from 1122 ambulance in which Sheikh Rashid was being shifted to hospital.

President Asif Ali Zardari has ordered inquiry into the attack and submission of its report immediately.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also ordered the commissioner and RPO to investigate into the incident.

Some of the bullets hit the Land Cruiser of Sheikh Rashid shattering its window panes.

Later, workers of AML took to the streets to protest the attack.

MULTAN: Member of MQM Coordination Committee Iftikhar Akbar Randhawa Saturday claimed that the public meeting of his party scheduled to be held in Lahore on February 28 will prove that MQM is not just a party of Sindh but of the entire Pakistan.

He said this while talking to journalists here at Multan Press Club.

Iftkhar Akbar Randhawa said MQM is the only political party that is struggling for the rights of 98 percent people belonging to the poor segments of the society.

He said Altaf Hussain aspires for establishment of a system based on justice by eliminating price hike, unemployment and corruption.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday regretted the insinuation emanating from the US about Pakistan’s sincerity in the war against terror. He asked which other country of the world had made more sacrifices than Pakistan in the campaign to eradicate the common enemy. He refuted the reports about the existence of a Quetta Shura or the Afghan Taliban leadership in Pakistan and reiterated Pakistan’s desire to fence its border with Afghanistan in case the US could persuade the Afghan government to do so.

Talking to a US delegation led by Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee, Gilani said greater trust building was in the interest of a long-term strategic partnership between the two countries. He underscored the need to bridge the existing trust deficit between Pakistan and the United States. The prime minister reassured the delegation of his government’s sincere efforts to build upon their traditionally cordial bilateral ties, spanning over 60 years.

However, he urged the US to ensure an early disbursement of the long overdue payments under the Coalition Support Fund, the speedy provision of drone technology and sharing of credible and actionable intelligence with Pakistani agencies.

He urged the US and other major world powers to use their influence with India to help resolve the Kashmir dispute to enable Pakistan to exclusively focus on its western border.

Gilani hoped that the US and the international community would fulfill their commitments to support Pakistan in building the capacity of its law enforcement agencies and undertake the required development in the under-developed areas in order to address the root cause of militancy.

Senator Levin said that bipartisan consultations would be organized to resolve the issue as soon as possible. He appreciated Pakistan’s critical and vital role as the frontline state in the war against terror and lauded the success achieved by the Pakistan’s armed forces in Malakand and South Waziristan regions. Levin said he was more optimistic than ever that the Pakistan-US ties were destined to go from strength to strength. The US senator assured Prime Minister Gilani that disbursement of the Coalition Support Fund would be fast-tracked and support to Pakistan’s exports to US markets would be increased.

RAWALPINDI: The PPP Punjab President Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan and senior provincial minister Raja Riaz Ahmad Khan have declared that enough is enough and from now on, the party would adopt the course of confrontation instead of the traditional conciliatory policy so far adopted.

They said Kamran Khan, Shaheen Sehbai, Ansar Abbasi and Dr Shahid Masood should not become movers and shakers in politics. The hands of those who are attempting to demolish the government would be amputated.

They were talking at the PPP provincial secretariat in Lahore on Monday after presiding over the meeting of the party’s executive council, federal council, district presidents and general secretaries. They said right from the beginning our politics had been based on ideology.

They warned that those targeting the Aiwan-e-Sadr and residing in palaces built of glass would not be spared. They said the PPP had offered tremendous sacrifices for democracy and the country’s security. Now that we are in power it is because of the leadership of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari.

Raja Riaz said power to the PPP had not come through charity but because of a heavy mandate given by the people. Criticizing Geo TV channel, he warned Kamran Khan and Dr. Shahid Masood to avoid becoming champions of politics. The hands of those who tried to dismantle the democratic government will be amputated.

Expressing complete confidence in the party leadership Raja Riaz said the PPP is facing a media trial but everyone must know that the party and Pakistan are inseparable.

PPP leaders also criticised Shaheen Sehbai, Group Editor of The News, and Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigations of The News for their writings. It was alleged that Ansar Abbasi writes an elegy every day.

Earlier while addressing the meeting, PPP Punjab General Secretary Samiullah Khan said the party of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed would not be run according to “Terey, Merey Mutabiq” but the aspirations of the people. Lambasting Geo television channel, he said out of the 841 NRO beneficiaries only one man and the Swiss case was being singled out. Samiullah said the PPP would resist if the judiciary oversteps its constitutional mandate.

The PPP Punjab President Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan warned each and every organisation to confine their activities within the given parameters. He said we are not afraid of jails or police stations as we consider them as medals. Rana Aftab lambasted the intriguers and others who had launched criticism of the party leadership and said henceforth they will be confronted with full force

Much has been discussed about the in-famous National Reconciliatory Ordinance where 5,800 crooks were pardoned by the then President Pervaiz Mushrraf as an attempt to broker a deal for his own extended stay as the President of Pakistan. This NRO in effect opened the flood gates to allow thousands of white collar criminals and murderers to return back to Pakistan and reestablish themselves to (re)loot Pakistan yet again, and by golly in the short spam of three years they have done a brilliant job, heck third time around they went straight into business, since now these were all hardened criminals now given an executive golden key to make millions courtesy of a selfish dictator who thought his own stay in Islamabad was more precious then the country itself

The NRO was brokered in late 2007 where then we all had raised some hell about this criminal bill, but the movers and shakers of the country thought it in “their” best interest to keep this list private and extend large pardoning pleas to all the beneficiaries, be it thousands of murderers in Karachi or the ruthless Mr. 10% criminal like Asif Zardari and his team cronies, all permitted to enter back into Pakistan with a precious to-die-for get-out-of-jail-card.

Now it seems that there is an attempt to turn the tables and some movers and shakers(?) within “the establishment” think that this is now an opportune time to make this list public after almost three years. We must understand this move is definitely a serious attempt to turn up the heat in Islamabad and make all these crooks a little uncomfortable (times-up) and possibly turn the tables, making way for another set of so-called cleaner leadership to assume power, which for now mostly means the Sharif Brothers

The list is endless and features criminal leaders from every corner of Pakistan, belonging to practically all parties which occupy our assemblies and ministries. It should be a shocking that it is at the hands of proven criminals that Pakistan is expected to come out of this economic and security crisis. It is this very same leadership that has been negotiating with the Americans, helping them (or not) in their war on terror and also guiding them in their efforts into Swat and Waziristan.

The list includes leaders from PPP, ANP, MQM, PML-F and some PML-N leaders (the main Sharif brothers were omitted as they then were not allowed to sleep with the enemy) [though they would have loved to]. The list is endless that if the people of Pakistan were to outlaw each and every politician from occupying public office, I assure you most of our parliament and cabinet would be found empty.

Dawn The list has names of about 5,800 people who were facing financial irregularities and criminal cases. The list obtained by Dawn shows that 3,775 cases (mostly criminal) were against leaders and workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-N, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) and Awami National Party are also among the beneficiaries. Prominent leaders and bureaucrats who enjoyed immunity under the NRO include President Asif Ali Zardari, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Nusrat Bhutto, former minister Yousuf Talpur, PPP secretary general Jehangir Badr, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, secretary general to the president Salman Farooqi, former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills Usman Farooqi, Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao, former minister Anwar Saifullah, former MNA of N-League Haji Kabir, Agha Siraj Durrani, former provincial minister Ghaniur Rehman, Habibullah Kundi, Sardar Mansoor Leghari, Mir Baz Khetran, Aslam Hayyat Qureshi, Saeed Mehdi, Javed Qureshi, Siraj Shamsuddin and former secretary to the president Rasool Baksh Raho.

Officials of the law ministry and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were not sure whether cases against Mian Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PML-N leader Ishaq Dar, including the Hudaibya Paper Mills case, had been settled under the NRO or were still pending in courts….