Gilani orders Balochistan to Improve Law and Order

QUETTA: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Sunday directed the Balochistan chief secretary and home secretary to take steps to improve law and order situation in the province.

Talking to a delegation of Hazara community at Governor's House, the prime minister said that a concerted strategy must be evolved to ensure peace in Balochistan. He said any leniency on part of law enforcers would not be tolerated. He also expressed his sympathies with the families of six people killed in a gun attack in Quetta on Sunday.

Separately, Gilani said he had directed the Balochistan chief secretary to identify 35,000 graduates of Balochistan to be given jobs by the government.

"Fifteen hundred jobs in Federal Levies Force have already been provided to the people of Balochistan," he said while talking to a PPP Balochistan delegation led by its provincial president Mir Sadiq Umrani.

"1,500 more jobs will be created in the Federal Levies Force in Balochistan this year," Gilani said, adding that the government would further recruit 10,000 youth in different departments. Out of them, 5,000 would be sent abroad to acquire required skills in their respective fields, the prime minister added.

He said that under the 18th Amendment, provisional autonomy had been granted to provinces in order to empower them. He said that under the 7th National Finance Commission Award (NFC), the share of Balochistan had reached Rs 120 billion as compared to Rs 40 billion in the past. He said the government had allocated Rs 6 billion to provide scholarships to the youth of Balochistan.

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Gen.Kayani Invited to Moscow

Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kanayi has been invited to visit Moscow and the visit may take place shortly. Gen. Kayani may visit Russian Federation later this month.

It is believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to visit Pakistan in the second half of this year and his visit may open a new phase of Pakistan-Russian relationship. Early this week Russia’s Special Envoy on Afghanistan Ambassador Zamir Kabulov visited Pakistan and had meetings with Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and a separate meeting with Gen. Kayani.

Presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Vladimir Putin are expected to meet in China the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Council Summit June 6-7.

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Armies of India, Pak biggest hurdle in solving Siachen: Pak minister

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of its key talks with India on the Siachen issue, Pakistan has claimed that the biggest hurdle in resolving the military standoff on the world's highest battlefield are the armies of the two countries.

Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who was the defence minister till yesterday and has now been given the water and power portfolio in a minor Cabinet reshuffle, said India and Pakistan both stand to benefit from resolving the Siachen issue.

Both countries stood to gain nothing from the standoff on Siachen and the matter only served to satiate egos, he claimed during an interview with BBC Urdu.

He said the only way for India and Pakistan to coexist was to sit at the table and discuss the Siachen issue.

The Pakistani minister claimed that the biggest hurdle in resolving the military standoff on the Siachen glacier are the armies of Pakistan and India.

Senior Indian and Pakistani officials are set to hold talks on the Siachen issue in Islamabad on June 11 against the backdrop of renewed calls from the Pakistani civil and military leadership for the demilitarisation of the world's highest battlefield.

In response to a question, Mukhtar claimed Siachen was Pakistani territory and Pakistan had "responded" when India claimed the glacier.

"We think we can come to an agreement. India wants to talk on the Sir Creek issue first, we want to talk about Siachen first - the same issue of egos," he claimed.

"I think (Pakistan army chief Gen) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani understands this issue better than all of us and will help reach a decision when the time comes."

Asked how the Defence Minister, who is placed higher than the army chief, would allow a subordinate to take a decision, Mukhtar said that "Kayani would offer guidance (and) support, just as the government cooperates and supports the army."

Responding to a question why Pakistan is not making the first move of unilaterally withdrawing its troops to resolve the Siachen issue, Mukhtar contended that India was a big country and Pakistan expects it to demonstrate magnanimity by making the first move.

In response to another question, he said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh want to resolve the Siachen issue through dialogue.

Indian and Pakistani troops have been engaged in a standoff on Siachen since 1984.

The guns have largely been silent since late 2003, when the two countries put in place a ceasefire along the frontiers in Jammu and Kashmir, and more troops have died on the glacier due to adverse weather than combat.

Since an avalanche killed 139 people at a high-altitude Pakistan Army camp in the Siachen sector in April, security analysts and civil society groups have questioned the deployment of troops in the hazardous terrain

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