The Londoner

QUETTA, May 23: Mir Shahzain Bugti, son of Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti, was released from the Mach jail on Friday. Shahzain disappeared in May 2007 and it was announced in June that he had been detained. Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zafar Zehri went to the Mach central jail to welcome him. A procession of leaders and workers of the Jamhoori Watan Party brought him to the Bugti House in Quetta. Talking to newsmen, the home minister said the provincial government wanted to release all political detainees. He said that Shahzain and before him Sardar Akhtar Mengal had been freed under Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani’s policy of reconciliation. JWP chief Talal Akbar Bugti said his son’s release was a victory of democratic forces and a blow to dictatorship. He said his party would continue its struggle for accomplishing the mission of Nawab Akbar Bugti to secure the national rights for Balochistan. He said the JWP and other Baloch parties had rendered sacrifices in the struggle against d...

QUETTA, May 22: Lawyers boycotted courts on Thursday in response to a call given by a national conference of lawyers to press for reinstatement of the deposed judges. A meeting of lawyers, presided over by Baz Mohammad Kakar, president of the Balochistan Bar Association, decided to join the long march scheduled to start from Multan on June 10. The meeting decided that disciplinary action would be taken against any member of the bar attending courts in violation of the general body’s decision. The meeting emphasised that the judicial crisis could not end without the reinstatement of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and all other deposed judges.

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Population Welfare, Mir Hamayun Aziz Kurd here on Saturday hosted a reception in the honour of Privatization and Finance Minister Naveed Qamar and Chief Minister of Balochistan Nawab Aslam Raesani here at a local hotel. During the reception, they discussed matters of mutual interest with special reference to enhance allocations for the province in the forthcoming budget 2008-09, says a statement issued here today. The representatives of Balochistan were assured that in the National Budget 2008-09 more allocations be made to the province budget with special focus on its development for the welfare of the people. The Provincial Finance Minister Asim Kurd and Secretary Finance of the Province Mehfooz Ali Khan were also present on the occasion who appraised the Federal Finance Minister of their proposal and suggestions with regard to the budget.

ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Industries and Production, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo Wednesday directed officials of the Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USC) to expand its existing network in Balochistan. ‘Special arrangements may be made for opening more utility stores in Balochistan so that people may get essential commodities at the subsidized rates’, said Wattoo. Chairing a meeting on the USC performance, he said there was a need to open more utility stores in the urban areas to facilitate poor people, who were affected with rising prices of essential commodities especially, the wheat flour. Wattoo said role of the USC should be enhanced further so that people could benefit from the relief provided by the government through utility stores network. Managing director, USC briefed advisor about the structure and working of entity. He said 4500 utility stores were operating through out the country on no profit, no loss basis and during the last two years, a relief of Rs...

Pakistan has announced that a bus service to the Islamic Republic of Iran is to be started in the near future.Pakistan said a bus service to Iran would commence soon and a private company had been entrusted to operate the service. The two countries had decided to start the bus service during a meeting held at Zahidan in Iran in November last year. "The bus service between Pakistan and Iran is expected to commence in the near future," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a news briefing. A private Pakistani company had been entrusted to run the service. More than 400 Pakistanis travel to Iran every day and 10 buses would ply daily, he said. Transport means vital for supporting trade with Iran: Turkey On the other side, the president of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) has met with the Iranian transportation minister to discuss how they can strengthen trade between the two countries. Visiting T...

Pakistan’s central bank announced a series of measures on Thursday to counter inflation and widening fiscal and current account deficits. The steps announced by Shamshad Akhtar, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, include the following: * Discount rate increased by 150 basis points to 12.0 percent with effect May 23. * Increase in cash reserve requirement for all deposits upto one year maturity by 100 basis points to 9 percent while keeping the CRR for deposits by over one year maturity unchanged at 0 percent. * Statutory liquidity reserve requirement is increased by 100 basis points to 19 percent of the total time and demand liabilities. * Effective June 1, all banks are required to pay minimum profit rate of 5 percent on interest bearing checking accounts. * Effective May 23, Letter or Credit margins on all imports, except for oil and selective food imports, is being imposed at 35 percent. This is in response to the 44 percent growth in imports excluding the oil and food items. *...