MURREE: An inferno completely burnt down a school building located at Kashmir Point, Geo News reports on Tuesday.

The fire ignited at the top floor of the building which engulfed the whole school structure in no time.

The fire brigade teams from Murree and Rawalpindi had to be called to extinguish the blaze, whereas PAF vehicles had also been pitching in into dousing efforts.

The rescue teams evacuated school?s hostel and safely rescued almost 150 children out the building.

The fire extinguishing crew has been busy in limiting the fire from creeping into the adjacent buildings.

The district Forest officer, Jawed Gul has told Geo News that the incident occurred either due to electricity short circuit or by gas.

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KARACHI: Despite uncertain political and law and order situation in Pakistan, the foreign investors are taking interest in share market of the country, Geo News reported Tuesday.

According to analysts of stock market, the foreign investors kept on buying the scrips despite the twin bomb blasts in Lahore and Rawalpindi and carried out new buying worth $3.4 million.

According to an analyst Muzzammil Aslam, the political stability would come in handy to restore the trust of local investors on the market, adding that in view of interest of foreign investors, a road show for them is being convened in New York.

He hoped that such road shows as these will help aggrandize the volume of the investment in the national share market.

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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said we are sincere about the promises made in charter of democracy and we will eliminate 17th amendment and 58-2B.

Addressing in National Assembly, Gilani said Peoples Party had never accepted emergency and always put resistance against it. Parliament should not be split over non issues as the decision of not presenting NRO in parliament has been taken in accordance with the desire of the parliament.

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ABU DHABI: Pakistan left out middle-order batsman Shoaib Malik as they won the toss and opted to bat in the first of three one-day internationals against New Zealand at Abu Dhabi Stadium here on Tuesday.

Malik, who scored a hundred against India in the Champions Trophy last month, was dropped to adjust a regular opener in Khalid Latif, while allrounder Abdul Razzaq also returned to the side after a two years gap.

New Zealand decided to leave out paceman Kyle Mills, who is nursing a shoulder injury.

The second and third matches will be played here on Friday and Monday.

Pakistan: Younus Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Yousuf, Umer Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brendon McCullum, Aaron Redmond, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Shane Bond, Ian Butler

Umpires: Bruce Oxenford (AUS), Asad Rauf (PAK)

Tv Umpire: Zameer Haider (PAK)

Match Referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)

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KARACHI: Nine persons have been killed when Allama Iqbal Express collided with Super Parcel Express near Jumma Goth railway station.

According to reports, AIE being on its way from interior Sindh, met a head-on collision with a goods? train near Jumma Goth killing four persons and critically injured 35 others.

Local residents, rescue workers and fire and rescue service workers launched rescue operations at the incident site. Later, police, Rangers and Railway teams joined rescue operations. Initial reports said four persons including a child have been killed and 35 wounded in the collision that were rushed to Jinnah and other hospitals.

Deputy Director Jinnah Hospital Semi Jamal told Geo News that injured included women and children. The names of wounded are Abdul Ghani, Wasim, Yasmeen, Shoaib, Nawaz, Johar, Ilyas, Nazia, Moazzam, Saqib, Tahir and Areesha.

DS Railway Aftab Memon said the driver of Allama Iqbal express has crossed the train despite not receiving the signal and rammed into goods train coming from the opposite direction. He said rail traffic will be restored within three to four hours. Railway issued emergency numbers 9920113 and 99206112 for the enquiry of the incident.

Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah and MQM leader Altaf Hussain have expressed grief over the incident. A high level committee has also been formed to probe the incident.

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ISLAMABAD: A proposal regarding two weekly holidays in the government offices and the industrial sector has been hammered out in the meeting of a Committee to recommend austerity measures.

The federal cabinet will grant final approval for these measures in tomorrow?s session. Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin presided over the meeting of the Austerity Committee.

NWFP province and Punjab also gave their consent to the proposal of two weekly holidays in the wake of Sindh and Balochistan during the meeting.

The drafted proposals said that travel expenditures for the members of the Parliament should be curtailed by 70 percent.

The 50 percent cut has been suggested in the limit of fuel and vehicles used for convoys of ministers and chief ministers.

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KARACHI: Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Parliamentary leader of the MQM Dr Farooq Sattar Tuesday welcomed the government?s decision not to table the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in the Parliament.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the legal experts of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) hold meetings for several days to mull over the legal aspects of NRO, adding the party proposed to National Assembly?s Standing Committee on Law that tabling the NRO in the National Assembly would be a futile practice, which should be avoided and if the NRO was presented before the House, the MQM would be forced to oppose it.

Farooq Sattar said the government decided not to bring NRO in the House in the light of proposal put up by the MQM, and the party welcomes this step and deems it a well-meaning step for the democracy.

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KARACHI: Pakistani stocks ended up on Tuesday after falling more than 3 percent the previous day but turnover was low as investors stayed on the sidelines because of worry about security and political uncertainty, dealers said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’’s benchmark 100-share index ended 0.75 percent, or 66.59 points higher, at 8,938.99 on turnover of 105.86 million shares.

“Volumes were on the lower side mainly on the back of political uncertainty regarding the NRO (National Reconciliation Order) issue,” said Furqan Punjani, an analyst at Topline Securities Ltd.

Pakistan’’s government has averted a potentially destabilising coalition split by abandoning a bid to get parliamentary approval for an amnesty from graft charges for the president and other senior politicians.

Former president Pervez Musharraf introduced the amnesty, known as the National Reconciliation Order (NRO), by decree in 2007 but the Supreme Court said in July that it had to be approved by parliament.

Dealers said security fears also cast a shadow over the market as Taliban militants have responded to an offensive launched against them last month by stepping up bomb attacks on urban targets.

However, dealers said institutions accumulated shares at lower levels as the market was offering good valuations.

The KSE-100 index is up 52 percent this year after losing 58.33 percent last year.

In the currency market, the rupee ended weaker at 83.68/78 to the dollar, compared with Monday’’s close of 83.65/70.

The rupee has weakened 5.47 percent this year after losing 22.12 percent last year.

Dealers expect pressure from importers will further weaken the currency and the worsening security situation could also have a negative impact.

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LAHORE: Punjab Assembly has passed a resolution against November 3, 2007 emergency and unconstitutional acts of former President Pervez Musharraf.

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah tabled the resolution whereas opposition staged walk out in protest of presenting the resolution in the assembly.

Semal Khan of PML-Q said those passed the resolution are the product of these unconstitutional measures.

Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly congratulated the members for passing the resolution. The House also passed another resolution for ending wedding functions till 10:00 pm.

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WASHINGTON (Sami Abraham): Expressing the hope that Pakistan’’s current domestic political situation would not get parallel to March 16 crisis when top US officials had to make phone calls to Pakistani leadership to sort out the issue of restoration of judiciary, Special US Presidential Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan , ambassador Holbrook has said that United States never chooses sides but only supports the leadership of constitutionally elected Governments.
Giving an exclusive interview to the Geo News at the State Department here on Monday evening ambassador Holbrook said though during the recent trip of secretary Clinton to Pakistan ,this issue of NRO was not much discussed but the US officials were fully aware of it.” Pakistanis are very sensitive to the issue of their sovereignty that?s why I don?t want to say any thing about it ?he added

Ambassador Holbrook when asked does he believe that the unfolding events, due to NRO issue, would lead to the point where Washington would have to make the phone calls to scale back the situation, ambassador Holbrook said ” I hope not. But let’’s see what happened. We are interested in stability, democracy and active leadership and people working in the system in an orderly way”. He further said ?We got involved in March because the issue had potential to spiral out of control into the streets and secondly all sides had thought that if we made some phone calls it would help so we did it .But we never supported any cause. We only asked all sides to show restraint” he added.

Holbrook when asked to comment on the reports in which top US officials had said that Pakistani security forces were not going after Alqaeda the way they should have been, he said that Pakistani Government was very serious about routing out the miscreants and militants at highest levels. Now does this mean that every person in the Pakistan army is equally committed to this cause the answer is ?probably not” he added.

Ambassador Holbrook said that Gen Ashfaq Kayani and Gen Pasha had said to Secretary Clinton, in a meeting in Islamabad that ?we are as committed as you are to this cause ” and I believe in them, ambassador Holbrook added. He further said that security operation in Waziristan was going very well and he was not saying this because Pak army was telling him this thing. Independent residents of the area have told him that this time the security forces are coming on these militants very heavily, he added.

To a question about Pakistan?s complaints that India was supporting militants in tribal area and insurgents in Balochistan , he said Pakistani leadership did raise this issue in the meeting and US officials fully understands these concerns.

Ambassador Holbrook said that the trip of Secretary Clinton was, perhaps, one of the most remarkable trip he ever had with any Secretary of state. He said Secretary Clinton, during the trip spent most of the time with public besides fielding the toughest questions imaginable. And she also had very useful private meetings with President Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, leaders of JUI and military leaders. He also mentioned how Secretary Clinton got emotional during the reception at the Presidential palace when she threw away her speech for the toast, went up to the podium and leaned into the podium, talked about Benazir Bhutto in a very emotional way how much she admired her and what she meant to her.

When asked does he believe that opponents of Kerry Lugar bill were, now convinced, that it was not a compromise on Pakistan’’s sovereignty, ambassador Holbrook said that he does not know whether they were able to convince any body but he said it was explained fully.

He said those who attacked the Kerry Lugar bill did not understand it. It did not have any set of condition for Pakistan. It has set of reporting requirement on US Government which was a standard practice in the case of all such legislation’’s. He said enemies of relationship between India and Pakistan portrayed Kerry Lugar bill as an attack on Pakistan?s sovereignty which was ?ridiculous”

He said those who oppose the Kerry Lugar Bill are the ones who either oppose the present Pakistani Government or supporting the Taliban

Ambassador Holbrook said as Secretary Clinton mentioned in one of her conversation that there should never have been any issues with Kerry Lugar Bill because these kinds of reporting requirements had been attached with every aid bill to Pakistan and any other country. But there was a communication failure on the part of US officials for not explain it properly to the people of Pakistan

He said that there should have been more money allocated for people of Pakistan in Kerry Lugar bill but it was upto the Congress to take a decision in this regard. He said strategic dialogue will be resumed between the United states and Pakistan, next year , and US secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lead the US delegation whereas previously deputy secretary of state used to lead such dialogue. He said now under the Kerry Lugar bill US administration will move for the full appropriation of the money besides making efforts to get the ROZ’’s legislation done in the US Congress.

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