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Pak finally admits to having 182 Indian prisoners

     Islamabad: Pakistan has finally acknowledged after years of denial that it has as many as 182 Indian prisoners, including five women, languishing in its jails. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao will present the classified report in the Senate today, reports The News. This is the first time that a Pakistani government has officially recorded data of Indian prisoners, many of whom entered mistakenly into Pakistani territory. A copy obtained by The News reveals that out of 182 prisioners, 30 are Muslims and a few are Christians. Rest of them are either Hindus or Sikhs. The report is silent about whether the prisoners were ever produced before any Pakistani courts and formally chargesheeted or not.

     An official said the report suggests the detainees were never produced before any court. It also fails to explain what charges were framed against the prisoners and what kind of arrangements were made with the Indian government to help their release and reunion with families across borders. Similarly, the report does not give details whether the government had any plan to release them if it had no sound cases against them as a gesture of goodwill and friendship with India. The report has also not given the names of jails in Pakistan where these Indian prisoners have been kept. However, the report says the government had given Indian consular access to only 50 Indian prisoners.

     The report is also silent about the place of birth of these prisoners that could have helped their heirs in India to identify their dear and near ones. A number of the unfortunate prisoners, according to the sources in the ministry, have lost their memory and are suffering from depression and psychiatric problems. The Indian government had handed over a list of its 54 citizens believed to be in Pakistani jails. The exchange of list was also made part of 98 confidence building measures that India exchanged with Pakistan. The Pakistan government had tried to find out those 54 Indians but could not do it. Now the Interior Ministry after a hectic survey of Pakistani jails has successfully identified 182 Indians staying in Pakistani jails.

Not paying bribes can brand you Bin Laden in Pak  (Go To Top)

     Karachi: Failure to pay a bribe to Immigrationn officials in Pakistan may lead to you being branded as an Al- Qaeda terrorist and handed over to the American FBI. According to Onlinenews, this is exactly what happened to a Pakistan born Canadian citizen, who was handed over to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by the Pakistani Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) and Immigration authorities on false charges of suspected links with the Al-Qaeda after refusing to pay them 5,000 dollars as a bribe. The paper quoted Malik Muhammad Azam as saying that he was tortured for three days and then deported after refusing to fulfill the FIA personnel's demand. " I was later boarded on a PIA flight to be deported. Another FIA personal contacted me saying that it is time to give them bribery otherwise I was going to be handed over to USA on the suspicion of having links with Al-Qaeda, " Azam was quoted as saying. After deportation, Azam was picked by FBI officials from the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, who took him into a room and interrogated him for five hours following which he was deported to Canada. Canadian immigration officials then took him into custody at the Toronto Peterson airport, where he was debriefed for one hour, before being set free.

Govt approves 74 per cent FDI in telecom (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Union government on Wednesday cleared the proposal of raising the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit, for the telecom sector, from the current 49 per cent to 74 per cent. ''The FDI cap on telecom has been hiked to 74 per cent,''said Finance Minister P Chidambaram after a meeting of the Union Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). The Government had announced in the last budget that FDI limit would be hiked in telecom, civil aviation and insurance sectors. While in civil aviation sector, the FDI cap was hiked from 40 to 49 per cent as proposed, telecom sector move met strong resistance from the Left parties citing security concerns. Government is targeting to raise the tele-density in the country from the present 9.5 per cent to 20-25 per cent by 2007, raising the numbers from 95 million to nearly 200-250 million phone connections. But the telecom industry says this kind of huge expansion needs between 1,000-1,500 billion rupees and such resources are not available within the country so foreign investment must be welcomed for ensuring the ambitious growth rate. Chidambaram also said the Cabinet has accepted the 12th Finance Commission recommendations "in toto". The Commission had submitted its report, regarding the distribution of central pool taxes to states for the year 2005-10, to the President on December 13, 2004. According to the minister, the Cabinet also cleared the National Electricity Policy.