Zardari to be Pakistan President candidate
August 23, 2008
Islamabad: Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be a candidate for president, an official of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said on Saturday.
The Pakistan People’s Party wanted Zardari to run for presidential election which will be held on September 6 to choose a successor for Pervez Musharraf, who resigned on Monday.
“Mr Asif Zardari has accepted to contest the election for the office of president of Pakistan after the party unanimously drafted him to do so,” PPP deputy secretary general Raza Rabbani told reporters.
Rabbani said Zardari had been chosen in part in tribute to the sacrifices of his wife, who was killed in a suicide attack at an election rally in December.
The party official said the PPP, which is the main party in a fragile coalition government, had consulted its partners before announcing that Zardari was their choice to lead the nation.
“The coalition partners were informed about this decision and we are optimistic that the coalition will remain intact,” he said.
The PPP and the party of former premier Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, have been at odds over how to reinstate dozens of judges sacked by Musharraf last year.
Sharif has said he would back Zardari for president if he were to do away with the presidential power created by Musharraf to dissolve parliament.
On the issue of the judges, Rabbani said the “judges will be restored” but said a timeframe would be announced at a later unspecified date.
Tata threatens to move out of Singur
August 23, 2008
Reacting strongly to the persisting disruptions and protests against Tata’s land acquisition in Singur, Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata conglomerate has threatened to move out of West Bengal.
Tata has invested about Rs. 1500 crore in setting up manufacturing and assembly unit in Singur for world’s cheapest car, Nano, scheduled to be out on roads in October this year.
Addressing reporters in Kolkata, Tata said that if disruptions continue at its factory site then they will relocate to some other state. Meanwhile, Tata has received invitations from several states for setting up their production facilities there.
“If anybody is under the impression because of this investment we would not move, they are wrong,” he told reporters.
Linked to the Nano are not only the hopes for a Rs 1 lakh “people’s car”, but thousands of industrial jobs in a state where new investments in manufacturing have virtually come to a standstill.
His statement has even surprised the main opponents of the project, Trinamul Congress. However, Mamta Banerjee, leader of Trinamul Congress said she would not give up until some 400 acres — out of 997 acres leased to Tata Motors for the Nano project — acquired without consent, are returned to their owners.
Her political rival CPI-M, however, felt that Tata’s threat might work to the benefit of Left Front and isolate Mamata on the issue. The state government rushed its industry minister, Nirupam Sen, to Singur where he sought to rally support from local people.
“This is not a fight to save the factory. This is a movement to restore Bengal’s lost glory,” Tata said.