Manika raps Punjab govt

PAKPATTAN:-

                           Former Federal Minister Ghulam Muhammad Manika said that the Punjab government had failed to appropriately run the affair of the province.

He said that prices of daily use items were increasing and the Punjab government was not able to control them. He said that fertilisers’ prices were also out of reach of farmers and fake pesticides were openly selling in the market but nobody making efforts to control it. He advised the PML-N to quit from the Punjab government and sit on the opposition benches.

Talking to this scribe at his residence, Manika praised the role of TheNation Managing Director Majid Nizami and said that he was a true Pakistani who was working for the sack of the country. He said that Nazria-i-Pakistan Trust under his leadership was leading the nation

Zardari staying execution of 6,000 inmates for three years

LAHORE:-

                    More than 6,000 condemned prisoners are not being executed only for the reason that President Asif Ali Zardari has been granting stay for the last three years, sources in the prisons department confided to TheNation on Wednesday.

They said 33 condemned prisoners were hanged in 2008 after which the president granted stay in their execution after every three months. Last stay orders were issued on July 24 with reference no-F-No-8-11-2008 (PTN) part wherein the interior ministry through the Punjab home secretary said the president was pleased to grant stay in execution of the condemned prisoners up to September 30, 2011. As per jail population statistics there are 6,063 condemned prisoners in all the 32 jails of Punjab with 23 women prisoners also. Most of the condemned prisoners are involved in murder cases while some of them are involved in narcotics (9C), anti-state and terror activities (7-ATA). The stay order was not implemented in cases wherein the prisoners were involved in cases of anti-state activities and 7-ATA.

A senior jail officer seeking anonymity said 537 condemned prisoners were kept in central jail Sahiwal, 502 in central jail Gujranwala while the Faisalabad central jail stood on number three with 485 condemned inmates. Sources in the prisons department claimed the jails of the province were already overcrowded since more than 55,000 prisoners had been locked there against the capacity of more than 21,000 inmates.

The above-said situation has left no option for the jail authorities but to accommodate five to six prisoners in a death cell which is meant for the accommodation of single inmate.

As per details, there are 461condmned prisoners in central jail Lahore, 274 in district jail Kasur, two in district jail Lahore, 303 in district jail Sheikhupura, 290 in district jail Sialkot, 376 in central jail Rawalpindi, 148 in district jail Attock, 192 in district jail Gujrat, 166 in district jail Jhelum, 130 in district jail MB Din, 259 in central jail Minawali, eight in district jail Faisalabad, 241 in district jail Jhang, 268 in district jail Sargohdha, 119 in district jail Shahpur, 154 in district jail Vehari, 154 in district jail TT Singh, 361 in central jail Multan, 299 in central jail Bahawalpur, 204 in central jail DG Khan, 42 in district jail Multan, 84 in district jail RY Khan and four condemned prisoners are at present in women jail Multan. It is also noteworthy that 58 condemned prisoners out of 6,063 are enjoying B class facilities in different jails of Punjab.

A jail officer seeking anonymity demanded of the Supreme Court to take sou moto of the situation. The only reason behind granting stay in the condemned prisoners’ execution could be that the president wanted to send a message to international community that there was no death sentence in Pakistan, he added.

Govt’s writ to be ensured in Karachi

KARACHI:-

                      (Agencies) - Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wassan asserted on Tuesday that the government’s writ would be ensured in Karachi at every cost, saying the Sindh government could take firm steps to maintain law and order in the business hub city, but its aim was to take all stakeholders along while taking important decisions.

“I can take strict measures to restore peace in Karachi. But my purpose is to take all stakeholders with me because people hailing from different races, sects, languages are living in Karachi,” asserted Wassan while talking to the media.

He said it was the vision of President Asif Ali Zardari to take along all parties for the sake of peace and that it was in the interest of all inhabitants of Sindh. Wassan, while admitting that “Karachi is a den of illegal weapons”, contended that some miscreants had been creating trouble in the city since 1985. “Karachi has to be cleansed of illegal weapons.”

The minister told reporters that law enforcement agencies had rounded up over 100 suspects during a search operation in various neighbourhoods in Karachi, adding that arms and ammunition had also been retrieved from the miscreants apprehended from Gulistan-e-Johar. He claimed that the government was trying for effective implementation of the writ of law and elimination of criminal and unscrupulous elements. “It is due to this approach that action has been initiated, since Monday evening, against those creating law and order situation.”

He said that the search operation would continue and investigations were underway to identify the real culprits behind the recent mayhem.

The minister said that Karachi was the hub of business, therefore, peace in the mega city was vital for improving image of Pakistan in the world. The government, he maintained, supported commissionerate system in the province but as the people were not satisfied with the “black law” of dictator Pervez Musharraf, it should be changed.

In reply to a question, Wassan said the government would never allow germination of any sense of insecurity among the people of Sindh. The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had rendered great sacrifices for the cause of Sindh, he averred while saying, “PPP’s share of sacrifice for Sindh is much more than any other political party.”

Meanwhile, US Consul General William J Martin, during a meeting with Manzoor Wassan at his (Wassan’s) residence on Tuesday, said that the United States would provide updated gadgets to the Sindh government for maintenance of peace in the province, particularly in Karachi.

The US diplomat said that cooperation and coordination in other sectors would also be offered to the provincial government.

Briefing the media on his meeting with the US consul general, Wassan said the US official noted that peace was crucial for the business hub of Pakistan.

Wassan told Martin that peace had to be restored in Karachi to dispel the negative impression created on foreign investors and international community in general about the city.

The Sindh home minister asserted that there were drug mafia, land mafia and other criminal elements who were responsible for law and order situation in the province

PSO records Rs 14.7b earnings after tax

ISLAMABAD:-

                           Pakistan State Oil (PSO) posted record results for the financial year 2011 and announced an after tax earnings of Rs14.7 billion as compared to earnings after tax of Rs9.05 billion during the previous financial year. These results were declared after PSO’s Board of Management (BoM) convened on Tuesday at PSO House to review the company’s performance over the fiscal year 2010-11.Despite financial challenges posed by the ever increasing circular debt and the economic slow down, PSO maintained its position as the market leader with a market share of 78.2 per cent and 54.4 per cent in the Black Oil and White Oil segments respectively, thereby contributing to an overall market share of 65.6 per cent. PSO sold 12.6 million tons of POL products in FY11 with net sales revenue growing to Rs975 billion in comparisons to Rs877 billion in the previous year. The BoM declared a final cash dividend of Rs 2 per share in addition to the already paid interim dividends at Rs8 per share. Earnings per share also registered an improvement to Rs. 86.17 per share from Rs52.76 per share last year.While expressing their confidence in the strategic vision and managerial skills of the PSO management, the Board nevertheless expressed serious concern on the spiralling receivables which stood at Rs138.2 billion as of August 9, 2011. They observed that the financial costs associated with servicing this debt coupled with consistent delays in payment from the power sector continued to hurt the overall profitability of the company. The BoM also directed that efforts be made to reduce the impact of the burgeoning financial costs through constant pursuit for recovery of receivables from the power sector entities as well as from the Government of Pakistan.

Govt may opt for review petition

ISLAMABAD:-

                          Two days after the announcement of apex court’s judgment regarding reinstatement of Zafar Ahmad Qureshi, Additional Director General Federal Investigation Agency, to carry out investigation of the cases in NICL scam forthwith and complete the inquiry expeditiously the Interior Ministry seemed perturbed by the verdict, has started making efforts to delay the implementation. Sources told TheNation that Interior Secretary Khawaja Saeed Akbar on Wednesday held a meeting with Additional Attorney General K K Agha in his office at the Supreme Court building.

Though agenda of the meeting could not be ascertained, yet a senior advocate of the Supreme Court stated that might be the government was considering to file a review petition on the judgment instead of implementing it in letter and spirit, as directed. When this scribe contacted the Additional Attorney General on his mobile phone for the confirmation of the news, he just said: “I don’t want to comment on it,” and disconnected the call. The Supreme Court on Monday had quashed the federal government’s order of July 4, 2011, suspending Zafar Qureshi from service.

DG FIA Tehseen Anwar Shah, ADG FIA Zafar Qureshi and other government authorities have been directed to ensure that public money, sent abroad, is brought back. The DG FIA and other relevant authorities were ordered not to create hindrance in the investigation being conducted by Zafar Qureshi under the directives of this court.

In the prevailing political scenario, the Pakistan People’s Party government does not want investigation in the NICL multi-billion scam in which PML-Q leader Pervaiz Elahi’s son Moonis Elahi and other big names including the PPP’s own minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim have come up being carried out by Zafar Qureshi.

The political analysts say that the PML-Q has joined the government so that the investigation against Moonis Elahi is halted. Zafar Qureshi has collected incriminating evidence against Mohsin Warraich, Habibullah Warraich, Moonis Elahi and Raja Muhammad Ali. He has also succeeded in obtaining information from Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), UK, about the bank account of Moonis Elahi with EFG Private Bank Ltd. worth £1,138,792.53, in the name of a company owned by Moonis and another account in Barclays Bank in the name of Beenish Khan, wife of Mohsin Habib Warraich, worth £ 102,307.63 (transferred from the account in EFG Private Bank Ltd). The Supreme Court in the judgment authored by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has ordered that in pursuance of its order on 13.7.2011 no action shall be taken against Zafar Qureshi without prior approval of this court. The FIA investigation team, already been assisting him, would join him as team-mates. The Court vide order dated 1.7.2011 suspended the operation of notification dated 18.4.2011, whereby services of Zafar were withdrawn as additional DG FIA

Haqqani accuses US of acting with ‘gun blazing’

Haqqani accuses:-

                            Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington has accused the US of acting in a trigger-happy manner, alienating ordinary Pakistanis by the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.

“When the Americans come into Pakistan in a military fashion, unilaterally with guns blazing, essentially they are creating fear amongst the populous, which instead of looking upon them as friends starts being suspicious,” Husain Haqqani said in an interview with Washington’s WTOP radio. The Navy Seal raid in May has caused intense anger in Pakistan, where the military and civilian leadership were given no advance warning for fear the plans would be leaked. Relations were already at a low after the US asked that a covert CIA agent arrested in January after shooting dead two Pakistani men in Lahore be released and given diplomatic immunity. A third victim was killed by a four-wheel drive vehicle sent to rescue Raymond Davis, the spy.

Since then American diplomats have complained they face harassment in Pakistan and delays in obtaining visas.

Haqqani said the two episodes had escalated levels of distrust but that the two had to try to rebuild relations. “There are enough suspicions about the US in Pakistan already,” he said.

“There is a lot of negativity, which the US needs to fight to change public opinion and win over hearts and minds, but in a circumstance like that, to do something like this, results in more negativity.”

150 villages to get Sui gas soon

HAFIZABAD :–

                             PML-Q MNA Liaqat Abbas Bhatti has assured the locals villagers that the government would provide all sort of facilities at their doorsteps. He was addressing sui gas supply inauguration ceremony in Nawan Manika here the other day.

He said that the project had cost Rs1.5million. He further said that federal government has approved sui gas supply to 150 villages in Tehsil Pindi Bhattian during the current financial year.

He said that the government has allocated Rs250.0 million in this respect.

Rs250m REleased: The Punjab government has released Rs250 million under the Development Package for the district, it was officially learnt here. According to the package, Rs70.338 million would be spent on Jalalpur Bhattian-Sukhke Road metalling, Rs75 would be spent on the embankment of River Chanab from Qadirabad Barrage, Rs99.992 for the metalling of Chak Chattha-Qadirabad Colony Road, Rs4.080 for Sports and gymnasium at Hafizabad, Rs51.414 has already been spent for the project. Similarly, Rs21 million would be spent on the installation of water filtration plants in Lalke, Ramke Chattha, Sooianwala, Kolo Tarar

Zafar to complete NICL probe before Sept 30

ISLAMABAD:-

                          The investigation team of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probing National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam believes that Zafar Ahmad Qureshi will complete the investigation of the case before his retirement till September 30 if the government issued formal notification of his restoration early, an insider in FIA informed TheNation.

The government till Wednesday did not implement on the Supreme Court’s order even after the passage of three days that required issuance of a notification for the withdrawal or cancellation of earlier government orders of July 4 suspending Qureshi. Consequently, Zafar Qureshi could not resume his duties as chief investigator officer in the scam, TheNation learnt reliably.

However, the sources in the Interior Ministry revealed that the government might file a review petition in the Supreme Court against its orders resorting to Zafar Qureshi as Additional Director General FIA and Chief investigator officer in NICL scam to gain more time till September 30, the day he will reach the age of superannuation. Sources close to Qureshi claim that he is determined to complete the investigations of the multibillion mega corruption scandal till September that involved Moonis Elahi, member Punjab Assembly and son of Pervaiz Elahi

Want to Start a Company in the World's Sixth-Most Populous Country? Time to Move to Pakistan.

I recently returned from a reporting trip to Pakistan, one of the most fascinating countries I’ve ever visited. My first story, “Into the Fray,” ran in the July 20 issue of Forbes. It’s a profile of Monis Rahman, an entrepreneur who was born in Lahore and educated in the U.S., where he started a tech company during the height of the dot-com bubble. After running out of money in 11 months— and unable to raise more— Monis realized that if he started another venture, he would need to be hyper-vigilant about managing expenses. To do so, he took a drastic step, selling everything he owned and moving back to Lahore. Read below to find out how he did it, and whether his bet paid off.

During my trip, I had the privilege of meeting with members of the Lahore chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs, a networking group for entrepreneurs from the region. We spoke at great length about the challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs in Pakistan, the world’s sixth-most populous country. High on their list of grievances was the absence of a strong rule of law: Entrepreneurs have limited legal recourse if a competitor steals their IP, or an investor violates a contract. Pakistani entrepreneurs also struggle to attract talent, both because they can’t offer new hires equity and the prospect of big IPO, a la U.S. startups, and people working outside of Pakistan often refuse to relocate there, due to safety concerns. VCs, angels and incubators are nonexistent, and banks rarely give commercial loans. But for entrepreneurs like Monis and many other people I interviewed, the promise of doing business in Pakistan outweighs the frustration. The country has over 187 million people, a nascent online economy, and—for startups—limited competition from big multinationals.
I could spend days writing about what it felt like to travel alone in Pakistan as a blond, female American, a month after U.S. forces killed Osama Bin Laden. The very fact that I got there was something of a miracle, courtesy of the consulate staffer in D.C. who agreed to give me a journalist visa. I’ll write about my trip in subsequent blog posts. For now, enjoy Monis’s story and, as always, feel free to comment below.
In the game of can-you-top-this entrepreneurial hardship–who slept the least, whose office was tiniest, who choked down the most Ramen noodles–Monis Rahman holds some formidable trump cards.
Four years ago Rahman, a serial entrepreneur, launched Rozee.pk, now Pakistan’s largest jobs website, with 500,000 unique visitors a month. While Rahman was raising money in 2007, terrorists bombed the homecoming procession of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The Pakistani government subsequently suspended its constitution and declared a state of emergency. (A gunman assassinated Bhutto the following month.) When one of Rahman’s potential investors called to express his firm’s misgivings, Rahman e-mailed him a “Top Ten Reasons to Invest” list. Reason number nine was: “‘We’re headquartered in Lahore, where there haven’t been any blasts,’” he recalls. “Then I pressed ‘send.’ The next day in Lahore, the high court was bombed.”
Welcome to the Wild East of Web prospecting. Over tea on a 102-degree morning in Lahore, Rahman explains why now is the time to invest in Pakistan, the world’s sixth-most-populous country, with 187 million people and plenty of inexpensive labor. Obstacles abound, starting with the fact that only 17% of Pakistanis have Internet access. The country also suffers from low literacy rates, massive corruption, frequent blackouts and a weak judicial system.
“You tend to hear the worst 5% of the Pakistan story 95% of the time,” says Rahman, 41. “There’s a perception arbitrage, and it’s providing a window of opportunity for entrepreneurs.”

Rahman was born in Lahore but spent his childhood in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as an urban-planning advisor for the United Nations. He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and then helped develop the Itanium microprocessor chip at Intel. That experience led to his first venture, a chip-design consulting firm that he abandoned after a year, seduced by the dot-com boom. In 1999 Rahman and a partner started a company that installed cameras in day care centers, allowing parents to watch the video streams online in real time. Edaycare.com attracted $2.5 million from investors, including Ron Conway, an early backer of Google and PayPal. A year later the men ran out of money, forcing them to sell the company for stock that was ultimately worthless

After living on consulting gigs for four years, Rahman–inspired by the success of Friendster.com–decided to start a social networking site for Muslims in the United States and United Kingdom. He named it Naseeb.com, or “destiny” in Urdu, Arabic and most other languages in the Muslim world. “I decided not to go head-on as a matchmaking site,” says Rahman. “‘Dating’ has a negative stigma from a Muslim viewpoint.” There was a dating hook, though: Users could fill out a personality test with questions about whether they drank alcohol and how often they prayed–topics Muslims often discuss before they marry, says Rahman. Intrigued, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman invested $25,000, as did Mark Pincus and Joe Kraus. (The latter two founded Zynga and Excite, respectively.)
To conserve cash Rahman moved back to Pakistan and into his parents’ house, where he converted a guest room into an office. (He registered his parent company, Naseeb Networks, in the U.S. to make it easier to raise money and subleased a small office in San Jose, Calif.) This time he spent only $60,000 in total startup costs, in part by doing some of the initial programming himself. To prime the market, he used equity in the company to buy the electronic greeting card site eidmubarak.com, which Muslims used to send cards for Eid, a Muslim holiday. Three thousand people from the site’s 1-million-strong mailing list signed up immediately. Annual memberships cost $40, and by 2005 Naseeb.com was generating $300,000 in revenue.
Rahman soon needed more programmers and support staff, and buying ads in local newspapers was expensive. So he decided to build a “quick and dirty” job site to post his own job openings. Other local companies noticed, and Rahman agreed to post their ads for free to help boost Naseeb’s traffic. He offered the largest companies the ability to search for résumés, as well as software to power their own company job boards and the right to post their logos on the front page of his new site. He named it Rozee–which, roughly translated, means “Blessed Livelihood.”
By 2007 Rozee.pk was generating more traffic than Rahman’s thinly veiled matchmaking site. He used Naseeb’s proceeds–and $2 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and ePlanet Ventures–to hire salespeople to go after large corporate clients, most of which still advertised job openings in newspapers. Today 5,000 companies actively post openings on Rozee.pk, paying between $29 for a single ad and up to $20,000 for a suite of services. (For now Rahman isn’t focusing on Naseeb.)
Bartering is a big part of Rahman’s low-cost strategy. Three hundred rickshaw drivers in Lahore use Rozeebranded vinyl wheel covers and glow-in-the-dark stickers that Naseeb provides for free. Rahman convinced Sign Source, an advertising agency, to promote Rozee on 300 baggage trolleys in the Karachi airport in exchange for helping the company build a website that tracks the availability of outdoor media, like billboards. “We have to measure advertising dollars very carefully because it’s easy to spend and not recuperate,” says Rahman.
Huge short-term challenges remain. Turnover on Rahman’s 45-person sales staff drains capital: For every three salespeople he hires and trains, only one stays on for more than a few months. Then there’s the matter of collecting payment. Only 10% of customers–contributing 5% of sales–pay online using credit cards, while 60% pay with checks and 20% pay with cash, mailing payments to one of the company’s four outposts. A Rozee.pk rickshaw also travels around Lahore and picks up checks and cash.
Tougher still will be avoiding the fate of Monster.com and other U.S. job sites that are gradually taking a backseat to LinkedIn, where employers conduct targeted searches through their own professional networks. “I think it’s a difficult business,” says Salim Ghauri, chief executive of software company Netsol Technologies, a Rozee.pk client. “If companies don’t get good service, they will find another way, because they can’t stop hiring. The biggest challenge is quality control, which is not that easy.”
Rather than go head-to-head with the big social networks, Rahman aims to join forces with them. When employers post a job on Rozee.pk, they can simultaneously broadcast it on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. “We’re prepared so that when the technology evolves here, as it has in the United States, we’ll be in a position where we already have a social graph on our site,” says Rahman.

Easier said than done, perhaps. Monster recently rolled out an application that lives on Facebook, giving users a place to interact with professional contacts, without sharing photos and other personal details. In July LinkedIn prevented users of the application from inviting their contacts directly from LinkedIn.
Rahman says that Naseeb Networks pulled in $1 million in sales last year and turned “cash-flow positive” in March. He wants to mount a broader assault on the Middle East this year. “If I want to get bigger from a market-size perspective, I need to move beyond Pakistan,” he declares.
That means more turbulence ahead–and, chances are, more ways to win that can-you-top-this game.

Ssatellite, the PAKSAT-1R launched by China

BEIJING:

                 China is all set to launch Pakistan’s communication satellite into space at an appropriate time in the coming days, a Chinese news service said on Wednesday.

According to Xinhua news, a spokesman for the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province said Wednesday the satellite, the PAKSAT-1R, will be carried by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

PAKSAT-1R will replace PAKSAT-1 which is likely to complete its useful life this year.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Masood Khan said the launch will broaden the horizons of cooperation between the two countries.

“Launching of a communication satellite is going to be a symbolic development in Pakistan-China relations, as this will broaden the horizons of our cooperation,” he said

PM assures Shahbaz of addressing concerns

ISLAMABAD:

                          Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani assured the Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who called on him at Prime Minister’s House on Wednesday evening, that all their reservations regarding the devolution of ministries to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment would be addressed. In the meeting Premier Gilani was assisted by Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar and Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah while Senator Ishaq Dar assisted the Punjab Chief Minister.

A two-member committee comprising Syed Naveed Qamar and Senator Ishaq Dar was constituted to work on the differences of Punjab government with the devolution process and afterward the Prime Minister and Chief Minister Punjab would thrash out these differences between the two sides.

The sources informed that Punjab government had raised serious concerns over the devolution of ministries at the last leg and also raised the issue of distribution of assets of the devolved ministries with the federal government.

It is pertinent to mention here that Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif had written to Prime Minister twice in the recent past asking him to convene a meeting of the Council of the Common Interests so that they could raise their concerns regarding the devolution process at that forum.

Meanwhile, according to the press release issued by the media section at Prime Minister’s House, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani directed the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs to clear the file of Nandi Pur Power Project, which after completion will generate 400 Mega Watt of electricity.

The Prime Minister issued the directive in his meeting with Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif who along with Senator Ishaq Dar, a PML-N leader, called on him here at the PM House on Wednesday. Syed Khurshid Shah, Minister for Religious Affairs and Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Water and Power were also present in the meeting.

In the meeting, it was also decided to convene an energy conference to set a national programme and agenda to address the problem of electricity loadshedding in the country.

It was also decided to hold an education conference in Islamabad to set national standards for education. Education ministers of all the provinces and senior officials of respective education departments will participate in the conference

Shujaat, Fazl take up issues with Zardari

ISLAMABAD:

                        President Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday met separately with two political leaders including PML-Q chief Senator Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman and exchanged views with them on the political situation in the country.

According to the informed sources, President Zardari took them on board over PPP’s decision to restore Local Government Ordinance 2001 in Karachi and Hyderabad to woo back MQM, and Sindh government efforts to restore the system through out the Sindh province.

The sources said they also discussed the idea of creating Saraiki province and the President took them on board over efforts being made in this connection.

Meanwhile, some sources claimed that PML-Q chief has renewed party’s demand to make Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as Deputy Prime Minister as agreed before PML-Q joined the ruling coalition.

According to the informed sources, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain made it clear to the President that PML-Q joined the government on the condition that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi would be made Deputy prime Minister instead of senior minister.

PML-Q Chief said that if the government did not realise the demands of PML-Q, this could put the future alliance in danger.

President Asif Ali Zardari assured the PML-Q chief that both the pledges would be met after consultation with other parties in the coalition government. He said that the matter regarding the deputy prime minister is a constitutional subject and it would take some time. However, this could not be immediately confirmed from the PML-Q quarters.

Calm returns to British cities amid heavy security

After several nights of riots, Britain's major cities were relatively quiet early on Thursday amid heavy security and rain.

A day after British Prime Minister David Cameron said that police will be allowed to use whatever tactics they deem necessary to restore calm, the night was relatively quiet in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Nottingham and other cities that saw several days of riots, arsons and looting.

It was the second relatively calm night for London, where 16,000 police officers were patrolling the streets. Media reported that objects had been thrown at officers in south London's Eltham suburb, but police said the group was quickly dispersed.

Court were open on Wednesday night to hear cases of all those arrested during the riots.

According to the latest police statistics, over 800 rioters have been detained in London since the riots began on Saturday and some 250 of them have been accused of disrupting public order, destroying property and theft.

Violence began in the British capital's northern district of Tottenham on Saturday over the fatal shooting of a young man by police. On Sunday and Monday, it spread to other areas in London and Birmingham