Karachi project: LNG terminal poses health hazard

ISLAMABAD: Alarm bells are ringing in Islamabad over a $160 million dollar project to develop a floating Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal adjacent to Karachi.

As the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) starts public hearing on the project from Tuesday, certain officials feel that safety measures for such a project would need to be extra tight. The hearing seeks to give formal approval to Pakistan Gasport Limited (PGL) to set up the LNG terminal.

This multi-million-dollar deal was approved in 2007. Ogra granted a provisional licence to PGL on May 14, 2009, to complete the formalities for importing LNG. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) also immediately gave its ex-post facto approval to the implementation agreement.

After three years, the project is being launched and Ogra has announced that it will conduct a public hearing today. However, Ogra has advertised the announcement about the hearing in only one English newspaper.  An official said that this could be an attempt to avoid public debate on this sensitive project as the paper in which the advertisement appeared was not widely read in Karachi. He said that many people in Karachi would be unaware that their fate was being decided in Islamabad at a public hearing.

Eid-ul Fitr on Saturday

KARACHI: Chairman Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Mufti Munibur Rehman has announced that Shawwal moon has not been sighted and Eid-ul Fitr will be celebrated on Saturday.

He made the announcement while addressing the media after the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee meeting for the sighting of Shawwal moon.

The meeting was held at the Pakistan Meteorological Department Building in Karachi. Zonal and District Ruet-e-Hilal Committees also held meetings in their respective areas.

Saudi Arabia to celebrate Eid on Friday

Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon are set to celebarte Eid-ul Fitr on Friday. The Supreme Court in Saudi Arabia ruled that since the Shawwal moon was not sighted on Wednesday, Eid would fall on Friday.

Most of the Gulf countries follow the lead of Saudi Arabia to set the day of the Eid feast.

Egypt’s Darul-Ifta, the body that issues Islamic edicts, also announced Thursday to be the end of Ramazan for the country.

Following suit, Lebanon’s Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s highest Sunni authority, likewise said that Eid-ul Fitr would be celebrated in Lebanon on Friday.

Christian community protests burning of the Holy Quran

GAINESVILLE: The Christian community in Lahore protested against the proposal of a Florida church to burn copies of the Holy Quran.

Hundreds of Christians gathered outside the Lahore Press Club on Thursday and staged a protest against the plan.

They raised slogans against the authorities of the church and burned an effigy of the pastor.

Addressing the protestors, leaders of the Christian community said the Holy Books have descended from God and show the right path to humanity, it is the moral duty of every person to protect the Holy Books and pay respect to them.

The leaders said they will support Muslims in raising their voice for the honour of the Holy Quran.

Church defiant

The Church shrugged off global outrage and vowed to go ahead with a Quran burning ceremony amid growing fears it will ignite a wave of Islamic rage.

Condemnation rained down from top US officials, the military, the Vatican and other religious and world leaders, but the church refused to halt plans to torch the Islamic holy book on Saturday’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“As of this time we have no intention of canceling,” Pastor Terry Jones told a press conference here Wednesday, adding his evangelical church, the Dove World Outreach Center, had received numerous messages of support.

Jones had indicated he was praying for guidance on whether to go ahead with the incendiary event after warnings from US Afghanistan commander General David Petraeus that US and allied troops could be targeted in revenge.

“We understand the general’s concerns and we are still considering it,” Jones said, but swiftly added he had been contacted by a special forces soldier who told him “the people in the field are 100 percent behind us.”

Former DPO Waqar Chauhan to appear in court

SIALKOT: The former District Police Officer Sialkot, Waqar Chauhan was arrested on Tuesday and is expected to appear in court tomorrow in connection to the Sialkot lynching case.

Five other police officials will also be presented in court along with the former DPO. However, prime accused in the lynching of two brothers, SHO Rana Ilyas, has managed to evade custody along with one other police officer involved in the brutal killing.

Earlier, Justice (retd) Kazim Malik, who was given the task to conduct an inquiry into the lynching stated that the Supreme Court would start its hearing of the case on September 1. Justice Kazim added that statements of 101 people, who were directly or indirectly linked to the case, have been recorded. He added that it would be upto the apex court to decide on whether they want to make the report public or not.

DPO held under house arrest, Rescue 1122 pleads innocence

SIALKOT: Former Sialkot district police officer Waqar Ahmed Chohan has been placed under house arrest here for 30 days.

He was detained by the Sialkot police on Monday on charges of negligence and for failing to stop the merciless lynching of the teenage brothers on August 15. According to reports, the new DPO is residing in the civil rest house in Sialkot.

The inquiry commission constituted to probe the barbaric incident of lynching of two brothers in Sialkot will submit its report to the Supreme Court (SC) today (Thursday).

Meanwhile, Director General Rescue 1122 Punjab Dr Rizwan Naseer claimed that the rescue centre is not responsible for negligence, as they tried to contact the police but they did not arrive promptly.

While speaking at a press conference in Sialkot, Rizwan Naseer said that the rescue team had put their lives on the line to protect the two brothers who were killed by the mob.

The Director General said that a cleric had brought the two teenagers to his office and were given full protection. He also claimed that the two boys had demanded that they be handed over to the police.

JI, PTI announce demonstrations

3.2m hectares of crops destroyed in floods

SUKKUR: Over 1,600 people have died while 15.4 million have been affected by the floods in Pakistan, said chief of United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Daniele Donati on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference along with the country representative FAO Luigi Damiani and Dr Faizul Bari, the project director of Food Facility Pakistan, Donati said millions of livestock have been affected by the floods. Hundreds of thousands of them need emergency assistance, and if immediate action is not taken then tens of thousands of them will die.

According to Donati, over 200,000 cattle have been killed in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa alone. Approximately 80 per cent of the population in the affected areas depends on agriculture and 3.2 million hectares of standing crops have been destroyed.

Rice, maize, cotton, sugar, tobacco and vegetables have also been damaged. Seeds saved by households for the coming seasons have been ruined or lost, he said, adding that livestock is “the poor people’s mobile ATM”.

“Every animal we save is a productive asset that poor families can use to rebuild their lives after the floods,” said Donati.

Sindh and Punjab provinces are part of the country’s breadbasket and if the fields are still flooded in the next few months, there is a serious risk that the wheat-planting season in October will be affected.

PML-N submits privilege motion against Altaf Hussain

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday submitted a privilege motion against the statements issued by Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain.

At least 87 PML-N members signed the privilege motion which was submitted in the National Assembly Secretariat.

The motion says that the statement issued by Altaf Hussain is against the spirit of democracy and the sanctity of the parliament. The motion will be forwarded to the national assembly’s standing committee on privilege.

President Zardari slams MQM chief’s pro-martial law statement

Reacting to MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s support to martial law to weed out corrupt politicians and feudal lords, President Asif Ali Zardari said no one in his right mind will want to take this responsibility and that only democracy can carry this yoke.

In an interview to Western journalists,  Zardari denied that the country’s worst humanitarian disaster would impair the military’s fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants, conducted under US pressure in the northwest.

The president called on Washington to make more efforts to win over hearts and minds from entrenched anti-Americanism, such as by reducing tariffs on cotton exports.

Zardari denied that the country’s worst humanitarian disaster would impair the military’s fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.

14 arrested in Sialkot lynching case

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that 14 people including four policemen have been held in the brutal public killing of two brothers in Sialkot.

Addressing the media in Sialkot, Malik said the culprits involved in the heinous crime would be duly punished. He appealed to the citizens of Sialkot to come forward and provide any information they had regarding the incident. He added that authorities have compiled a list of names of those under investigation and the federal government will be providing support in terms of intelligence and logistics as investigations continue.

Strike announced

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Liaqat Baloch also visited the family of the two brothers who were beaten to death by a mob in Sialkot. He said the party has announced a nationwide strike on Friday against this atrocity.

Updated from print edition (below).

Prime suspect SHO Rana Ilyas escapes from custody

The prime accused in the lynching of two brothers in Sialkot, SHO Rana Ilyas, managed to evade custody on Saturday and is currently at large. Ilyas, who fled from the office of the DSP Sialkot, was brought to the office so that he could be produced before a court for a judicial remand.  The District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sialkot, Mujahid Sher Dil, has confirmed that the lynched youths had no criminal record. Sher Dil held the Sialkot police responsible for the incident as police officials witnessed the whole incident as silent spectators.

Police claimed to have arrested two police officers and five others who were present at the time the two brothers were beaten to death in public. Police contingents also stepped up efforts to apprehend six other officers who witnessed the murder but made little attempt to stop the mob.

Water level at Kotri Barrage crosses 900,000 cusecs

Several villages in Hyderabad are inundated as Kotri Barrage braces for the worst flood in 50 years. The super flood passing through Kotri will take at least six days to subside.

The provincial government is monitoring the situation at dykes as the water pressure builds up. More than 900,000 cusecs of water is likely to pass through the barrage.

Irrigation experts said that the current flood torrent has broken the record of the 1976 floods.

Meanwhile flood water has entered parts of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) building in Hyderabad. Water has already caused devastation in Ghauspur, Thul, Jacobabad, Garhi Khairu and other adjoining areas.

Water pressure at Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) III has been reduced by making breaches at three points and efforts are underway to keep the safety dyke in ShahdadKot intact.

Flood torrents from Garhi Khairu and Balochistan have reached Hamal Lake. For the past ten days, transport of food items between Sindh and Balochistan are at a halt due to suspension of the road link between the two provinces.

150,000 survivors at risk again

Fresh flood warnings were issued in Rajanpur district on Monday as district officials ordered the emergency evacuation of areas previously untouched by the fury of the raging torrents.

The warnings put about  half a million people at risk, including 150,000 who had taken refuge from the surrounding areas and were being asked to evacuate on an emergency basis, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A 40-kilometre tract of land stretching from Jampur to Rajanpur tehsil is now under threat. “The second wave has hit us badly,” District Coordination Officer (DCO) Muhammad Usman told The Express Tribune. He said these are areas where people had gathered after escaping the earlier floods.

“We are trying to plug the breach but we have also warned the people to evacuate the area,” he added. He said the River Indus had overflowed its banks and washed away a 20-foot long bank of the Qadra Link Canal. He said the administration was working to strengthen the second embankment wall at Hazoori Wah.

According to him, breaches have been made on three other embankments to deflect som of the water pressure but there was another threat as well because the waters had also washed the bank of the Qadra Link Canal, which is five kilometres away from Fazilpur.

Over 150,000 people from the surrounding areas who had taken refuge in Fazilpur are being asked to evacuate yet again.