Support after restoration of judges by Monday: Sharif

LAHORE: Taking a tough stand, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif on Saturday cut short by two days the Wednesday deadline for restoration of the deposed judges and linked the issue to his party's support to PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari's candidature in presidential polls in Pakistan.

"It will take Parliament 10 minutes to pass a resolution for reinstatement of deposed judges after which an Executive Order should be issued by the Prime Minister in the evening," the former prime minister told reporters here after a meeting with PPP leaders at his residence.

Sharif advanced to Monday the deadline set for Wednesday by him for restoration of the judges sacked during last year's emergency rule by former President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned from the post early this week.

All the deposed judges should now be reinstated by Monday in view of the announcement of the presidential election on September six, he said.

Sharif conditioned his party's support to candidature of Zardari for the Presidential polls with the repeal of the 17th amendment empowering a President to dissolve Parliament and dismiss an elected Premier as well as with the restoration of deposed judges.

"We have asked PPP to inform us by Saturday night whether the judges will be reinstated by Monday," Sharif was quoted as saying by ARY One channel, adding that his party would announce its strategy after PPP response.

His remarks came after a three-member PPP delegation led by senior leader Raza Rabbani met Sharif at his at his Raiwind farm house residence here and sought his support for Zardari's candidature for the post of President.


Source : Times Of India

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Northeast must 'agitate' with Centre for development: Aiyar

NEW DELHI: Noting that India's 'Look East' policy was yet to reap benefits for the country's northeastern region, Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has said these states must "agitate" with the Centre to seek development.

Aiyar, the minister for Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER), said efforts were on to make the region a gateway to the prosperous South East Asian nations.

"Now we are focusing on linking the region to South East Asia on the basic assumption that South East Asia begins in North East India," he said.

There is an urgent need to link the markets of the eight northeastern states with the emerging economies of the South East Asian countries, he said.

"That's why I have been urging northeastern states to agitate much more with the Central government to argue their case before us, to factor in the importance of developing NE and determine what our strategy should be for development of the region," Aiyar said.

Contending that the Look East Policy had so far primarily benefited the southern and western India, he said the impact of the policy on Northeast has been negligible.

Aiyar, who took over charge of the ministry in 2006, said the economy of the region may look up as private sector has also evinced interest in investing in the region.

The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd has received investment proposals amounting to Rs 14,000 crore from the private sector, half of them in the last one year.

The DONER Ministry has organised a North East Business summit on September 15-16 to attract investment from the ASEAN and other neighbouring countries to the North East.

Source : Times Of India

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Chiranjeevi hosts tea party for filmstars

HYDERABAD: Actor Chiranjeevi, who has stepped into politics, hosted a tea party for the film fraternity at the Rama Naidu studios at Jubilee Hills on Saturday.

Amongst those who were present were actors Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Tarun, producer D Rama Naidu, Tammareddy Bharadwaja and others.

Interestingly, actor Mohan Babu who is known to have a running a feud with Chiranjeevi also came for the tea party. "He invited me with love and I came," Mohan Babu said.

Nandamuri Balakrishna and NTR Jr from the Nandamuri clan were conspicuous by their absence. Recently, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu has pulled in NTR family members into the active politics to try out their charisma against the Chiranjeevi factor.

Addressing the film fraternity, actor Chiranjeevi said that even in his political life, he will see to it that the film fraternity gets its due respect. He also explained why he was getting into politics.

Source : Times Of India

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Land-for-job: NDA team meets PM, demands Lalu's ouster

NEW DELHI: Keeping up the pressure on railway minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, a delegation of Opposition NDA on Saturday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded that he be sacked from the Cabinet in the wake of the alleged "land-for-jobs" scam that came to light after an expose telecast by a private TV channel.

Taking a dig at Prasad, who has been credited for his "management skills" for turning around the Indian Railways into a profit-making enterprise, BJP leader Muqhtar Abbas Naqvi said that the scam has exposed that the "management guru has turned into a corruption guru".

The NDA leaders claimed to have documentary evidence showing that people who got jobs in the railways had transferred their land to close family members of Prasad. They also accused the railway minister of giving jobs to those who had deposed in his favour earlier in the fodder scam.

Armed with documentary evidence like registration certificates of land that has reportedly been transferred to the names of Lalu Prasad's family members, the NDA members demanded an inquiry into the scam.

The delegation, comprising BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav and his colleagues Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Shivanand Tiwari, said they submitted "proof" relating to the scam to the PM.

The PM, according to Naqvi and Yadav, assured the delegation that he would "look into" the matter. The leaders claimed that the documents proved the involvement of Prasad, Union ministers Prem Chand Gupta, Kanti Singh and Raghunath Jha in the scam. Hitting out at the UPA government over the issue, Naqvi said, "First we had the cash-for-vote scam and now land-for-job. These incidents signify the height of corruption."

"The Prime Minister should not maintain silence on the issue as this sends a wrong message that he is also hand-in-glove," he said, in an attempt to rope in Manmohan Singh into the issue.

Source : Times Of India

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