Absentee Zulqarnain to return Pakistan

KARACHI: Former Pakistan wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider, who fled to London last year citing death threats from match-fixers, has said he will return home and cancel his application for asylum in Britain. Zulqarnain was reassured by a meeting with Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik in London last week, and will seek to resume his cricket career, he said. "After meeting with (the) interior minister and getting assurance of my and my family's safety in Pakistan, I have decided to return home on April 24," Zulqarnain, 24, told Pakistani private TV channels GEO and others from London. "After getting this assurance there is no need for me to continue with my asylum application, which I will withdraw," he said late Saturday. Zulqarnain fled the team hotel in Dubai on the morning of the fifth and final one-day international against South Africa on November 8, saying he had received death threats from unidentified people seeking to draw him into match-fixing. After flying into London, Zulqarnain sought asylum in Britain and said he was retiring from international cricket. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) terminated his contract and formed a committee to establish the facts surrounding his disappearance, which described him as "mentally ill". Zulqarnain said Saturday he has now contacted the PCB and wants to resume his international career. Zulqarnain made a successful Test debut in England last year, scoring a brilliant 88 in the second innings to help Pakistan avoid follow-on. He also played four one-day and three Twenty20 internationals for Pakistan.

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Eight bodies recovered from dry well

 ATTOCK: Four days old eight dead bodies have been recovered from a dry well in China Chowk area of Attock, Geo News reported Sunday.

DPO Attock told media that the bodies were four days old and they may have been killed due to personal enmity. Bodies have been shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.

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SIC announces to take part in politics

LAHORE: Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Sunday night while announcing to take part in the politics vowed to enforce the Nizam-e-Mustafa in the country.

A large number of party workers from the country gathered in a public meeting, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Conference, at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore.

Addressing the public meeting, Chairman SIC Sahabzada Fazal Kareem demanded the Chief Justice of Pakistan to alleviate corruption from the judiciary and take suo moto action against suicide bombings.

He said that his party would end the politics of horse trading.

Chief of Sunni Tehreek while addressing the meeting said that those involved in shrine bombings are not Muslims.

Leader of JUP Haji Haneef Tayyab in his address said that they would not let Pakistan to become a colony of United States.

Demands consisting of 31 points were presented in Istehkam e Pakistan Conference which included the dismissal of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, detentions of terrorists involved in bombings at shrines and open trial of those terrorists.

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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would consider his job “well done”

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would consider his job “well done” if ties with Pakistan return to normal before he leaves office, local media quoted him as saying on Sunday, weeks after Singh’s diplomatic push at the cricket World Cup.
The neighbours have slowly tried to rebuild a fragile trust shattered by the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which Singh’s government blamed on Pakistan-based militants in collusion with the country’s spy agency.
According to a recently released Wikileaks cable, Singh has led the push for peace with Pakistan despite misgivings from members of his own administration, including the National Security Adviser.
“Well, if I can succeed in normalising relations between India and Pakistan as they should prevail between two normal states, I will consider my job well done,” Singh told reporters on board his plane returning from a visit to Kazakhstan, according to the Press Trust of India.
Singh had invited his Pakistani counterpart, Yusuf Raza Gilani, to watch their two teams square off in the semi-final of the cricket World Cup at the end of March.
In a major confidence-building measure ahead of the match, Islamabad also agreed to let Indian investigators travel to Pakistan to probe the Mumbai assault. Their foreign ministers are due to meet in July.
For Singh, the push for peace may be a way of regaining the policy initiative after his government has been battered by months of corruption scandals that could dent the ruling Congress party’s chances in state elections this year. – Reuters

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Rains lash Pindi, Islamabad, Muzaffarabad, Swat

ISLAMABAD: Intermittent heavy downpours today lashed Lahore, Gujranawala, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar Division, Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir, while in the northern areas and upper Pakhtunkhaw the spate of sporadic rain continues.

Met Department said that upper Punjab including Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Islamabad and several areas in the upper Pakhtunkhaw likely to witness rains with thunder and lightening in the next 24 hours.

Swat and its surrounding areas continued receiving rains for the second day today. Weather turned chill after showers and light snowfall in Astur and Skardu.

District Kohistan, Mansehra, Islamabad and Pindi also witnessed rains this morning turning the weather pleasant. Heavy downpours lashed in different upper areas of Azad Kashmir including Neelum valley in Muzafarabad, upper Hathyan and Chakar. Shahrah-e-Neelum at a place Dhongacus, Srinagar-Muzaffarbad Road at Chakoti and Islamabad-Muzaffarabad Road at Kohala were closed due lashing rains and land-slidings.

Maximum rain in last 24 hours was recorded at 48mm in Rawalakot, Murree 46mm, Sibi –Patan 35 each, Muzaffarabad 31, Garhi Dopatta 30, Barkhan 27, Malamjabba 23, and Kotli—Risalpur 21mm each. 

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Six killed in Karachi violence

Updated at: 1245 PST,  Sunday, April 17, 2011
 KARACHI: At least six people were killed including three women and a policeman in Karachi while six were injured in different areas of the city since last midnight till this morning in a spate of firing that continues holding the city in its grip.

In New Karachi area, a former SHO of Shareefabad Police Station Zulfiqar Qaimkhani was shot dead at his home.

Another policeman residing in police quarters committed suicide within jurisdiction of Jackson Police Station, Geo News reported.

Sources said that husband and wife in Baldia town, two persons in Korangi industrial area and Manzoor colony, three persons in Mauripur barracks and Lyari area and one person in Baldia town were killed by unidentified persons' firings.

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