DINA for the issue of May 03, 2013

	Friday 3rd May 2013 | Jumadi-us-Sani 22, 1434
The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.
Imran vows to bring plunderers to book By Mansoor Malik LAHORE, May 2: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan said on Thursday that after coming to power his party would bring “big plunderers” to book. He said poor people were sent to jails for committing minor thefts but big plunderers held important posts and became members of the national and provincial assemblies.	For suggestions and comments: Email: webmaster@dawn.com Website: http://dawn.com Fax: +92(21) 35693995 Karachi Stocks Up 52.11 Points: KARACHI, May 02: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 19034.53, up 52.11 points. Forex Update : KARACHI, May 02: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at 100.10 to the US Dollar in the open market.
Election violence: 74 killed and counting By Imran Ayub KARACHI, May 2: Thursday’s bomb blast outside an office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was the 42nd attack on electioneering since April 11 when the May 11 polls were exactly a month away and the deadly trend, including bombings and armed assaults, has claimed more than 70 lives, including two contesting candidates, and left over 350 injured as both the security administration and caretaker government find it the “most bloody and challenging elections” of Pakistan’s history. It is already looking like one of the worst waves of pre-election violence in the country’s history.
Two polling stations blown up QUETTA, May 2: Two schools designated as polling stations for the May 11 elections were blown up in the Chatter area of Nasirabad district on Thursday, official sources said. Police sources told Dawn that an improvised explosive device planted in a government middle school in Tahir Kot was detonated on Wednesday night and a primary school was blown up on Thursday in a nearby village in Chatter tehsil.
70,000 troops to protect poll process By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, May 2: Around 70,000 troops will be deployed across the country to perform security duties till the completion of the electoral process. Addressing a media briefing here on Thursday about the security plan prepared by the army, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said deployment in Balochistan had almost been completed while the process in Sindh would begin on Friday.
Pirs in politics By Omar Waraich MULTAN: Just before Zain Qureshi steps into his campaign Prado, a woman and her daughter approach him to ask for a prayer. Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s son and heir duly raises his cupped hands and obliges. In Multan, as in many rural parts of the country, the Makhdooms are seen as intercessors. Their status, as custodians of revered local shrines, can also lend candidates an advantage in the “city of saints”. “The pag carries a lot of weight,” says one of Qureshi’s supporters, looking on approvingly from the back of the vehicle.The contest in Multan’s mostly rural constituency of NA-148 pits two Makhdoom families against one another. The quarrel between the Qureshis and the Gilanis stretches back to before elections came to the country. Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Yousuf Raza Gilani both entered local politics in 1983, running for Multan’s District Council. They both secured seats in the 1985 non-party NA elections. And until two years ago, the pirs of Multan were members of the same PPP-led cabinet. Now Gilani’s son Musa is taking on Shah Mehmood in the former foreign minister’s traditional seat, reviving an old and fierce rivalry. Sitting in his redbrick compound, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani receives guests who stoop to almost genuflect. Before they can touch his knees, he grabs their hands and lifts them back up. Before he ventures out into the constituency, he flicks open a gold-plated mobile phone and summons support. “Go find me a ’70 model or an ’88 model,” Gilani says to a voice at the other end. He isn’t in search of cars, but PPP supporters from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto’s first election wins.
Protest lodged over Afghan shelling ISLAMABAD, May 2: Pakistan summoned the most senior Afghan diplomat in the country on Thursday to protest against cross-border fire in which, according to officials, two Pakistani soldiers were injured and an Afghan guard was killed. The Afghan chargé d’affaires was summoned to the foreign ministry to protest against “unprovoked firing”, said a statement.
ATC allows grilling of Musharraf over Bugti murder By Malik Asad RAWALPINDI, May 2: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) allowed the Balochistan police on Thursday to interrogate retired General Pervez Musharraf over the murder of Baloch nationalist leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti. The Balochistan police had sought permission of ATC Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman to arrest Gen Musharraf because he had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case last year.
Balochistan teachers agree to perform election duty QUETTA, May 2: The Government Teachers Association (GTA) Balochistan agreed on Thursday to perform election duties after a government team assured it during talks that adequate security would be provided to the polling staff. At the talks, Munir Ahmed Badani, secretary secondary education, led the government side and teachers’ delegation was headed by GTA chief Noor Mohammad Jhattak.
Nawaz vows to steer country out of crisis By Iqbal Khwaja THATTA, May 2: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said if voted to power his party will eliminate poverty, illiteracy, load-shedding and lawlessness and steer the country out of the present quagmire. Addressing a large public meeting at Naka ground here on Thursday, he pledged to revive the Keti Bunder Port of Thatta, bring an end to gruelling power load-shedding, electrify 2,000 villages and supply gas to almost all villages in the area.
Nine injured in attack on MQM office By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, May 2: At least nine people were injured when a bomb ripped through ablution area of a mosque adjacent to an election office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement off the Burns Road here on Thursday evening, officials and witnesses said. Police confirmed that a bomb had been planted in the narrow lane near the Fresco Chowk on the busy road.
Body handed over to India By Asif Chaudhry LAHORE, May 2: The authorities handed over the body of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh to Indian officials at the Allama Iqbal International Airport on Thursday after conducting his postmortem in Jinnah Hospital. According to the initial postmortem report, the ‘confirmed condemned prisoner’ of Kot Lakhpat jail had died of massive internal bleeding from a 5cm head injury, an official told Dawn.
Sarabjit to get state funeral amid anger By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, May 2: Who was Sarabjit Singh? The question remained as important after his death in a Lahore hospital on Thursday as it should have been in 1991 when the mysterious man arrested in Kasur was handed the death sentence for a string of terror attacks, which he carried out as an alleged Indian spy. As the news of his death travelled in India, rage, accusation and threats followed. There was grief too, as Congress scion Rahul Gandhi broke down consoling the uncontrollably sobbing sister. There was shock and disbelief too. The sister began to deliver a political speech, calling for a united India to deal squarely with Pakistan. She accused Pakistani activist Ansar Burney, the man who had been helping the family all along to keep Sarabjit’s hopes of being freed alive, of quietly demanding money to facilitate Sarabjit’s freedom.
‘Rs2bn being spent daily on thermal power’ By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, May 2: The government disclosed in the Supreme Court on Thursday that about Rs2 billion was being spent daily (Rs749bn a year) on purchase of furnace oil for thermal power generation. “This Rs749bn is in addition to Rs250bn which the government has to incur in terms of subsidised electricity provided to certain consumers,” Managing Director of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) Zarghoon Ishaq Khan informed a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry which had taken notice of the rising electricity loadshedding.
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