Monday, November 9, 2009

Aitzaz confirms he was offered govt position

LAHORE: Former president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Aitzaz Ahsan Monday confirmed that he was offered a position by the government.

Talking to media at Aiwan-e-Iqbal here, Aitzaz said he is associated with Pakistan People’s Party and that he finds nothing wrong in accepting a position in the government. However, he said, if he disclosed more details about the offered position it will result in sleepless nights for some people.

Earlier, addressing a seminar on the occasion of birth anniversary of national poet Dr. Allama Iqbal, he said after 62 years Pakistan finally has independent judiciary and now nothing can stop it from progressing.

Aitzaz advised the people, who were protected in criminal cases under NRO, to get themselves pre-arrest bails while those whose cases were in NAB should approach the Supreme Court.

Pak security apparatus geared to meet all challenges: CJCSC

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), General Tariq Majid, NI(M) has rejected the article by Seymour M. Hersh, published in The New Yorker' terming it as absurd and plain mischievous.

He stated, "we have operationalised a very effective nuclear security regime, which incorporates very stringent custodial and access controls.

As overall custodian of the development of our strategic programme, I reiterate in very unambiguous terms that there is absolutely no question of sharing or allowing any foreign individual, entity or a state, any access to sensitive information about our nuclear assets,” said an ISPR press release issued here Monday.

Our engagement with other countries through IAEA or bilaterally to learn more about the international best practices for security of such assets are based on two clearly spelt out RedLines - non intrusiveness' and our right to pick and choose'.

Also, our security apparatus has the capacity and is fully geared to meet all conceivable challenges, therefore, we do not need to negotiate with any other country to physically augment our security forces, which in any case, we believe, are more capable than their forces."

Commenting on the question raised through an article captioned Pakistan Nuclear Security Plan: How much does US really know?', which appeared in The News', Islamabad on November 9, General Tariq responded, "only that much as they can guess and nothing more".