Government to replace contempt of court law

Cabinet endorses DCC’s decision on Nato supply resumption, Approves draft constitutional amendment on dual nationality

Islamabad—The government has decided to abolish the Contempt of Court Ordinance and replace it with new legislation. The Federal Cabinet approved the draft of the Contempt of Court Bill 2012 on Wednesday. The cabinet meeting was held here under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf. Under the new draft bill, the President, Prime Minister, Ministers and Chief Ministers will be immune from contempt of court proceedings un-der article 284-1 of the constitution. The draft bill also states that criticism of court orders if made in the appropriate language would not be contempt of court.

Young doctors end strike

Lahore—The young doctors ended their strike on Wednesday after a delegation of senior doctors held a detailed meeting with Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif. According to the reports, this was announced by Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah during a media briefing in Lahore Wednesday evening. The decision was taken at a 10-member committee meeting comprising five senior doctors and five representatives from the government followed by senior doctors’ meeting with the Chief Minister with lasted two hours. Rana Sanaullah, Zaeem Qadri and Pervez Rashid also attended the meeting. It was also decided that cases against all the detained doctors would be withdrawn and the detainees would released soon.

Interest rate, oil prices, inflation to drop

Karachi—Paradigm shift in domestic and international situation in terms of reopening of Nato Supplies on home front and drop of POL prices are bound to provide a cushion to financial regulators to bring down the interest rate in the forthcoming Monetary Policy review. According to informed sources, after an 8-month standoff, Pakistan and the US have reached a compromise, as the apology sought by Pakistan from the US has come through and Pakistan has reciprocated the gesture by announcing re-opening of Nato supply routes.

No secret deal with US: Hina

Islamabad—Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Wednesday said that decision to reopen Nato supply routes was unanimously taken by civil and military leadership. Addressing a press conference, she said the decision was taken since the United States accepted all the demands tabled by Pakistan. However, she didn’t explain as to which demand except a “sorry” was accepted by the US.

Pak-India discuss ‘all aspects’ of Kashmir issue

New Delhi—On the first day of their talks the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan discussed ‘all aspects’ of Jammu and Kashmir issue and ways to enhance cross LOC Trade. They also focused on terrorism, especially revelations by recently-arrested LeT operative Abu Jundal on Pakistan’s involvement in Mumbai terror attacks, and Jammu and Kashmir Refusing to divulge any details of the deliberations, the official spokesperson in Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akabaruddin only said the Foreign Secretaries, along with their respective delegations, have had “two full sessions of detailed discussions covering all aspects of the agenda under the items Peace and Security as well as Jammu and Kashmir.”

‘Govt makes mockery of parliament’s resolution’

Islamabad—Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Wednesday that the rulers by restoring the Nato supplies without any of its conditions accepted by the US has made a mockery of the parliament’s joint resolution and disgraced the country in the comity of nations. In a statement here, Chaudhry Nisar said such an embarrassing decision could only be expected from the current corrupt and inefficient leaders. “If the rulers were to budge before the US in such a manner then what was the need to stop the Nato supplies, or making decisions through the parliament,” he questioned.

Zardari for expediting power generation projects

Islamabad–President Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday called for expediting, on fast track, the projects of electricity generation which were being undertaken in cooperation with Three Gorges Corporation of China. This he said during his meeting with a Chinese delegation headed by Senior Vice President China Three Gorges Corporation Wang Shaofeng, here at Aiwan-e-Sadr Wednesday.