DINA for the issue of December 21, 2011

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D A W N I n t e r n e t N e w s A l e r t
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December 21, 2011 Wednesday Muharram 25, 1433
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The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news-service
from Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the Daily
DAWN.

We encourage comments & suggestions. We can be reached at:

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(c) Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan - 2011

The link at the end of each extract can be used to access the
complete story on DAWN - the Internet Edition.


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Gilani, Asfandyar call on Zardari
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By Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, Dec 20: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Bilawal House here on Tuesday and enquired after his health and exchanged views on the political situation, including the memo case, and the stance the government had taken for the supremacy of parliament, informed sources said.

This was the first face-to-face meeting of the prime minister with the president since Dec 6, the day Mr Zaradri left for Dubai for treatment...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/gilani-asfandyar-call-on-zardari.html


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Nawaz advises PPP to go for early elections
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By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Dec 20: Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif came up with a tricky piece of advice for the People's Party-led government on Tuesday: go for early elections in order to salvage credibility.

"Wisdom demands that the PPP seek a fresh mandate because it is the only way to wriggle out from the morass they find themselves in," the former prime minister said while talking to media at a hotel...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/nawaz-advises-ppp-to-go-for-early-elections.html


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Former FM Kasuri joins Imran's party
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By Afzal Ansari
KASUR, Dec 20: Former foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and a number of other political figures announced their decision to join the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) at a big public meeting here on Tuesday.

The major loser was the PML-Q as a majority of those who jumped on the Imran Khan bandwagon had been loyal to the PML-Q leaders, the chaudhrys of Gujrat, during the Musharraf rule and even after the 2008 election...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/former-fm-kasuri-joins-imrans-party.html


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Inquiry blames weather, pilot for Airblue crash
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Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Dec 20: An inquiry report placed before the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday held inclement weather and pilot of the plane responsible for the Airblue crash which had killed all 146 passengers and six crew members on July 28 last year.

Air Commodore Khwaja A. Majeed, head of safety and investigation board of the Civil Aviation Authority, submitted the report before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/inquiry-blames-weather-pilot-for-airblue-crash.html


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'I acted on Islamabad's instructions', says Haqqani
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By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: The country's former ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, appeared before the Abbottabad inquiry commission on Tuesday and said that whatever he did during his three-and-a-half year service was in the line of Islamabad's instructions.

The former envoy focused his statement on two specific issues —'the aftermath of the May 2 operation' and 'issuing of visas to Americans by the Pakistani embassy in Washington'...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/i-acted-on-islamabads-instructions-says-haqqani.html


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Rally in Lahore sends alarm bells ringing
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By Cyril Almeida
IT was an extraordinary spectacle in Minto Park at the foot of the Minar-i-Pakistan on Sunday: jihadists, sectarian warriors, orthodox mullahs, Islamic revivalists, all banding together under the banner of the Difaa-i-Pakistan Council (Pakistan Defence Council) and vowing to 'defend' Pakistan against external aggression.

Headlined by Hafiz Saeed, leader of the Jamaatud Dawa, widely perceived as a front for the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba, Sunday's event was a massive show of right-wing strength and has come in the wake of a heightened public profile by the JuD in recent months. Was the PDC rally, then, meant to signify the entry of Hafiz Saeed into national politics, though perhaps not of the electoral variety?..

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/rally-in-lahore-sends-alarm-bells-ringing.html


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Pakistan should follow independent policy, says Karzai
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KABUL, Dec 20: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday urged Pakistan not to forge its policy on Afghanistan based on its rivalries with either India or the United States.

"We want Pakistan to have an independent policy towards Afghanistan. It should not look at Afghanistan based on its relations with India and America. Pakistan should approach us as its neighbour," Mr Karzai told local television...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/pakistan-should-follow-independent-policy-says-karzai.html


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Al Qaeda, not Taliban, is the enemy: Washington
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By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, Dec 20: The United States did not invade Afghanistan because the Taliban were in power, said the White House while defending US Vice-President Joe Biden's statement the Al Qaeda, and not the Taliban, was America's real enemy.

"We didn't invade Afghanistan, we did not send US military personnel into Afghanistan because the Taliban were in power," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told a briefing in Washington. "They had been in power. We went into Afghanistan because Al Qaeda had launched an attack against the United States from Afghanistan."..

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/al-qaeda-not-taliban-is-the-enemy-washington.html


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More smiles than frowns in NA despite Musharraf exit row
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By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: It was more smiles than frowns in the National Assembly on Tuesday despite a recent government-opposition standoff and a challenging statement by the interior minister in the house that former president Pervez Musharraf was allowed safe exit from the country in late 2008 with the agreement of "all stakeholders".

In what looked like a change in the opposition mood, a usual rabble-rouser from the opposition PML-N, Hanif Abbasi, complimented the government for responding to opposition "cheerfully" and then got an assurance from Interior Minister Rehman Malik that severe gas shortages in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, which provoked violent protests on Monday, would ease by the evening with the removal of a "technical fault" in the supply system of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/more-smiles-than-frowns-in-na-despite-musharraf-exit-row.html


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SC asks tax ombudsman, NAB, FBR to jointly probe container scam
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By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: After countless investigations and months of inquiry, government departments still have no single authentic figure on the infamous missing containers.

Since the Federal Board of Revenue and National Accountability Bureau submitted conflicting accounts of the number of containers that have escaped the authorities' 'eagle eyes' as they go back and forth from Afghanistan, the Supreme Court ordered the Federal Tax Ombudsman, NAB and FBR on Tuesday to launch a joint inquiry and expedite the recovery Rs55 billion which, according to NAB investigations, had been lost...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/sc-asks-tax-ombudsman-nab-fbr-to-jointly-probe-container-scam.html


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Dr Chishti's plea against life term rejected
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Monitoring Desk
Hopes of elderly Pakistani national Mohammad Khalil Chishti to return home after 20 years were dashed on Tuesday when the Rajasthan High Court rejected his appeal for release on humanitarian grounds, upholding his life imprisonment in a murder case.

A division bench of the court dismissed Dr Chishti's appeal against the order of a lower court in Ajmer convicting him in the murder case after a trial lasting 18 years...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/dr-chishtis-plea-against-life-term-rejected.html


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Kashmir officials charged over textbook
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SRINAGAR, Dec 20: Authorities have filed charges against education officials in Indian-held Kashmir over a textbook for first graders that illustrates the word 'oppressor' with a sketch resembling an Indian police officer.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, where violent confrontations routinely erupt between stone-throwing protesters and baton-wielding police...

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/21/kashmir-officials-charged-over-textbook.html


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Karachi Stocks Up 242.39 Points:
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KARACHI, Dec 20: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 11325.42, up 242.39 points.
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Forex Update:
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KARACHI, Dec 20: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at 90.5 to the US Dollar in the open market.
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