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India’s federal power minister on Tuesday asked the states that are away from coal resources to consider setting up nuclear-based power plants, besides identifying and listing the power utilities to meet investments to support growing power demand.

The Indian government in its federal budget this year had proposed to partner with private players to develop small nuclear reactors to increase the amount of electricity from sources that do not produce carbon dioxide emissions.

States should consider setting up nuclear power plants at the sites where coal-based thermal power plants have completed their life, Manohar Lal, the country’s power minister, told states as per a government statement.

India’s stringent nuclear compensation laws have hampered talks with foreign power plant builders such as General Electric GE.N and Westinghouse.

The country, which currently has about 8 gigawatts of nuclear capacity, aims to increase it to 20 GW by 2032.

The minister also asked the states to identify and list their power utilities in the country’s stock exchange to meet increasing investment demand in the power sector as well as improve the transmission system to add more renewable capacity.

India has pledged to achieve a net zero carbon emission target by 2070 and has a target of 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030.

Twenty-two people drowned, while one person was saved on Tuesday after a bus carrying them plunged into a river in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district on Tuesday, according to rescue officials.

“Sixteen dead bodies have been recovered from the river, while the search for the remaining persons continues,” Senior Superintendent of Police Diamer, Sher Khan, told Dawn.com.

He added that a woman, who was a bride, had sustained injuries and was receiving treatment at a hospital.

Sharing details of the accident earlier, Rescue 1122 spokesperson Shaukat Riaz told Dawn.com that a bus coming from Astore fell into the Indus River from Telchi bridge in the limits of Diamer district in Gilgit-Baltistan on Tuesday afternoon.

“The vehicle was part of a wedding procession heading towards Punjab’s Chakwal district,” he said.

He added the passengers who were onboard the bus had been identified and women were among the drowned.

“Nineteen of them belonged to Astore while four were from the Chakwal district of Punjab,” he said.

The district administration officials were also present on the spot and supervised the search operation in the river, Riaz added.

President Asif Ali Zardari expressed his grief and conveyed his condolences to the victims’ relatives.

Road accidents are frequent in KP and GB, exacerbated by harsh weather, rugged terrain, poorly maintained roads, overloaded vehicles, and minimal traffic regulations.

The narrow, winding routes and driver fatigue further elevate risk, making these regions especially accident-prone.

In October, two people were killed and 36 others were injured when a Rawalpindi-bound passenger bus fell into a ravine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Upper Kohistan area.

A suspect who was allegedly involved in the 2023 blast at Peshawar Police Lines mosque, that claimed 84 lives, was arrested a day earlier and has been identified as police constable Muhammad Wali, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police (IG) Akhtar Hayat Khan Gandapur revealed in a press briefing on Tuesday.

On Jan 30, 2023, a powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in Peshawar’s Red Zone area where between 300 and 400 people — mostly police officers — had gathered for prayers.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack. It later distanced itself from the blast but sources earlier indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the outlawed group.

Addressing the press conference in Peshawar today, IG Gandapur said the “remaining missing link” was related to who had facilitated Qari, the alleged suicide bomber.

“As a result of that effort, […] we arrested this person along with two suicide jackets from near Jameel Chowk on Peshawar’s Ring Road on 11/11, meaning yesterday,” the IG stated, referring to the facilitator.

“Based on the interrogation, it was deduced that the facilitator was our own policeman,” who he identified as Muhammad Wali.

“The suspect operated in line with the order of the banned organisation Jamaatul Ahrar and has received Rs200,000 through the hundi-hawala system,” KP IG said, adding that the policeman also received Rs40,000 to Rs50,000 from the banned group per month.

“He received Rs200,000 which cost the lives of hundreds of people who were martyred. He sold his [own] brothers for this,” the IG added.

The top cop further revealed that the suspect dropped off the suicide bomber at the Pir Zakori bridge.

“After the blast occurred, he contacted his handler named Junaid and informed him about the success of the operation via Telegram,” he stated.

While the police already knew that Jamaatul Ahrar was involved in the blast, the suspect was the “missing link” who acted as a local facilitator.

The police inspector general said that Muhammad Wali was also involved in other incidents.

In Feb 2024, the suspect handed a pistol to a person from Jamaatul Ahrar named Saifullah in Lahore to target a member of the Ahmadiyya community, the KP IG said.

He targeted a priest at Peshawar’s Jameel Chowk in Jan 2022, he added.

According to Gandapur, social media played a key role in such incidents, adding that “Fitna al Khawarij and other extremist organisations use social media to brainwash and radicalise people”.

In July, the government, through an official notification, designated the TTP as Fitna al Khawarij, while mandating all institutions to use the term khariji (outcast) when referring to the perpetrators of terrorist attacks on Pakistan.

Then-KP IG Moazzam Jah Ansari had said in February last year that the suicide bomber was “clad in a police uniform”. He had said that technical evidence and information collected suggested that the blast was the work of TTP’s Jamaatul Ahrar faction.

In March 2023, the KP Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said the mastermind and the handler of the suicide bomber had been traced, stating that both of them were Afghan nationals.

Then-CTD chief Shaukat Abbas said the suicide bomber was identified only by his alias “Qari” and his handler was identified as Ghaffar aka Salma. He had further confirmed that the attack was carried out by Jamaatul Ahrar.

AFTER silently watching Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza for the past one year, the leaders of the Arab and Muslim countries have once more met in Riyadh to discuss the escalating conflict.

The so-called international alliance conceived by Saudi Arabia, with its aim of pressing for the establishment of a Palestinian state, failed to formulate a concrete plan of action to stop the Israeli invasion that has been extended to Lebanon.

Interestingly, the resolution issued at the conclusion of the joint summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Arab League is restricted to the usual condemnation of Israeli aggression. It doesn’t even plainly describe the ongoing Israeli military action in Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 people, mostly women and children, as a genocide.

There is no suggestion to sever the diplomatic and trade ties with Israel that some of these countries continue to have, despite the war crimes being committed by the Zionist forces. With the complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, more than a million people face death by starvation and disease. Mere condemnation cannot stop Israel’s genocidal war. It is nothing short of a betrayal of the hapless people of Palestine.

In fact, the inaction of the Muslim world has given impunity to the Zionist state, which is now threatening to annihilate the entire occupied territory. The latest summit was held a year after a similar gathering in Riyadh. Then, too, the leaders had merely condemned the Israeli military action in Gaza. They could not agree on even a minimum plan of action to stop Israeli atrocities.

The OIC-Arab League resolution does not go beyond the usual condemnation of Israel.

They did not even leverage their oil and economic capabilities to apply pressure on countries supplying arms to Israel to stop the war. One year of war crimes doesn’t seem to have brought any change in their position, which can be described as capitulation. The resolution is as toothless as the previous one.

The most shocking part of the resolution is the decision “to affirm support and express appreciation for the tireless efforts made by the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Qatar in cooperation with the United States of America to achieve an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip… “. It couldn’t get more outrageous given that the ongoing genocide in Gaza is essentially supported by the US. It is massive American military aid that has helped Israel sustain its war.

Notwithstanding the occasional rebuke by US officials, there has never been any real American pressure on Israel to implement a ceasefire. In fact, the Biden administration has repeatedly vetoed resolutions in the UN calling for one. Some of the Arab rulers are believed to have tacitly supported what Israel has described as its war against Hamas. Moreover, America has its bases in Arab countries, and concerns have been raised that they could have supplied Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians. These countries have not prohibited the use of these bases.

Significantly, the latest summit took place soon after Donald Trump’s victory, which has been hailed by some member countries, prompting observers to conclude that it was meant to send a message to the incoming US administration. It seems that the ‘international alliance’ is now pinning its hopes on the incoming Trump administration to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire and accept the creation of a Palestinian state.

For instance, while addressing a Council of Foreign Ministers preparatory meeting a day before the summit, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed the hope that the incoming US administration would “lend its weight to reinvigorate efforts for peace in the Middle East”. His remarks show his utter ignorance about Trump’s hard-line approach to the Middle East conflict.

Such expectations from the president-elect, who is considered even more pro-Israel than the outgoing Biden administration, are unrealistic. During his election campaign, Trump had called on Israel to finish the offensive and “get the job done”. He has stated that he would “defend our friend and ally in the State of Israel like nobody has ever”.

How can one forget that in his previous term he shifted the American embassy to occupied Jerusalem? The move defied Washington’s earlier position of not recognising one of the most sacred of Islam’s holy places as Israel’s capital. In his previous term, Trump had also endorsed Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law. Under the so-called Abraham Accords, he oversaw the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.

Although Saudi Arabia did not enter into such an agreement, it did indicate its willingness to recognise Israel in return for security and economic benefits, though insisting there would be no diplomatic ties without a Palestinian state. Some analysts believe that the Riyadh summit has sent a clear signal to the incoming Trump administration that it can rely on the kingdom as a strong partner in extending American interests in the region. The summit has pushed for greater American leverage in bringing the war to an end.

But it is very clear that the incoming Trump administration will not push for the establishment of a Palestinian state as envisaged by the ‘international alliance’. There has been no mention of the two-state solution in his recent statements on the Middle East conflict.

Since winning the election, Trump has spoken to the Israeli prime minister more than once. Therefore, it’s not surprising to see the right-wing Israeli government harden its position after Trump’s election.

In a recent statement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying it was “unrealistic”. Surely the inaction of the Arab and Muslim countries has made things worse for the Palestinians. The joint resolution indicates that these countries do not have any intention of using their leverage to put pressure on Israel and its allies to end the war.

The writer is an author and journalist.

zhussain100@yahoo.com

X: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case has put off ruling on whether the president-elect’s conviction should be thrown out on immunity grounds, enabling prosecutors to weigh next steps following his November 5 election victory.

Justice Juan Merchan had been due to rule on Tuesday on Trump’s argument that the US Supreme Court’s decision in July that presidents are immune from prosecution involving their official acts meant the New York state case should be dismissed.

Instead, Merchan granted a request by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to have until Nov 19 to consider how to approach the case in light of Trump’s looming inauguration in January 2025, email correspondence made public on Tuesday showed.

Trump’s scheduled Nov 26 sentencing is now widely expected to be postponed.

Trump in May became the first US president — former or sitting — convicted of a crime when a jury in Manhattan found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a potential sex scandal shortly before his first election win in 2016. Trump, who pleaded not guilty, has vowed to appeal the verdict after sentencing.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote there were “competing interests” between ensuring a criminal case proceeds as usual and protecting the office of the president.

“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances,” Colangelo wrote.

Trump is set to be the first felon inaugurated as president after his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

At issue in the six-week Manhattan trial was a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she said she had with him in 2006 but which he has denied.

Trump’s defense lawyer Emil Bove wrote that the case ultimately needed to be dismissed to avoid interfering with Trump’s presidential duties.

“The stay, and dismissal, are necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern,” Bove wrote.

Trump faced four criminal cases

Trump, 78, is hoping to enter office unencumbered by any of four criminal cases he has faced and which once were thought to have threatened to derail his 2024 candidacy to return to the White House after having served from 2017 to 2021.

The Republican Trump has portrayed the hush money case brought by Bragg, a Democrat, and the three other state and federal criminal indictments brought in 2023 as politically motivated attempts to harm his presidential campaign. He pleaded not guilty in all four cases.

“It is now abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement on Tuesday.

Special Counsel Jack Smith brought two of the cases against Trump, one involving classified documents he kept after leaving office and the other involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. A Florida-based federal judge in July dismissed the documents case. The Justice Department is now evaluating how to wind down Smith’s election-related case.

Trump also faces state criminal charges in Georgia over his bid to reverse his 2020 loss in that state, but the case remains in limbo.

The Supreme Court, in a decision arising from one of Smith’s two cases against Trump, decided that presidents are immune from prosecution involving their official acts and that juries cannot be presented evidence of official acts in trials over personal conduct. It marked the first time that the court recognized any degree of presidential immunity from prosecution.

In making the case for immunity, Trump’s lawyers said the jury that convicted Trump in the hush money case was shown evidence by prosecutors of his social media posts as president and heard testimony from his former aides about conversations that occurred in the White House during his 2017-2021 term.

Bragg’s office countered that the Supreme Court’s ruling has no bearing on the case, which they said concerned “wholly unofficial conduct.” The Supreme Court in its ruling found no immunity for a president’s unofficial acts.

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