Nine miners feared dead in KP after landslide

MANSEHRA: Police say at least nine miners are feared dead after they were buried by a large landslide in northwest Pakistan.

Local police officer Ali Zia says the phosphate miners were eating lunch Wednesday in the mountain village of Tharnawai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the accident occurred.

Zia said rescue efforts have been hampered by bad weather and the inability to get heavy machinery to the site. It had been snowing and raining before the slide occurred.

Eyewitness Mohammad Khurshid Awan said rescue workers were using shovels in an attempt to uncover the buried miners.

Zia, the police officer, said no bodies have yet been recovered.

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LHC declares drug-reaction petition maintainable

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday accepted a petition filed by judicial activism panel over the deaths allegedly caused by reaction of cardiac drugs prescribed by Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), FTNews reported.

The LHC registrar declared the petition maintainable.

The petitioners adopted the stance that the federal and provincial governments including health secretary and chairman PIC were responsible for loss of dozens of precious lives in Lahore.

Justice Omer Ata Bandial will hear the case on Jan 26.

Around 70 cardiac patients have died so far for using the medicines allegedly prescribed by the PIC.

A senior health official Saeed Illahi said that an investigation has found that a total of 419 heart patients have become sick from taking the drugs, and that 45 of them remain in critical condition.

Opposition in the Punjab Assembly has been showing resentment over the deaths for last couple of days.

They brought up the question of finding responsibility for the deaths on Tuesday.

They demanded Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s resignation and registration of a criminal case against him.

Speaking to media representatives outside the assembly, Leader of Opposition Raja Riaz urged chief justice of the apex court to take notice of the matter. “He (CJ) only finds faults in Pakistan People’s Party, he should take care of this matter too,” he added.

Moreover, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that an inquiry by the provincial government was underway and all those responsible will soon be held accountable.

While, PML-N leader Dost Mohammad Khosa said that the deaths by substandard medicines was a criminal act and admitted that it was a difficult task to run the ministry of health by a person who is also chief minister of the province.

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Posted in: REGIONAL

Fraud case: Three officers face legal action

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take legal action against three senior government officers for their alleged role in letting off the hook former PTV adviser Khurram Rasool who is wanted in a fraud case.

The three officers are: Khushnood Lashari, the principal secretary to the prime minister, and former directors general of FIA Waseem Ahmed and Malik Iqbal.

Headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the bench directed the FIA to also record the statement of the petitioners, Karachi-based businessmen Pervez Hussain and others.

According to the petition moved in December 2011, Mr Rasool working as prime minister’s media coordinator allegedly deceitfully minted over Rs430 million from the businessmen in 2009, promising that he would manage a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) quota and a lincence to export oil for the Nato forces in Afghanistan for their Sahara Gas (Pvt) Limited and Pak Delta Enterprises.

The court expressed dismay over the absence of FIA director general Tehseen Anwar Shah in the court who left for London to attend a certain official job, as he was required to arrest and present Mr Rasool before the court on Tuesday.

Petitioner’s counsel Rasheed A. Razvi read out a report prepared by intelligence agencies on the basis of which former Principal Secretary Nargis Sethi had ordered registration of a case against Mr Rasool in December 2010.

However, the case was registered after a delay of three months. The report did not rule out the possibility of senior government and bank officers’ involvement in the scam.

At the last hearing, the counsel had also accused Mr Rasool of forging signatures of the secretary petroleum with the help of his brother Shahid Mehmood and Ghulam Ghous on various agreements.

The accused also allegedly got the support of officials of a bank in Islamabad, the counsel said, adding the accounts were opened in the name of fake partnership without observing the State Bank instructions.

When the matter was brought to his notice, the prime minister ordered his principal secretary to write to the interior secretary for initiation of an inquiry.

The inquiry found Mr Rasool guilty and an FIR was registered against him, his brother Shahid Mehmood and other accomplices and officials of the bank.

The counsel, however, regretted that the FIA neither arrested any accused mentioned in the FIR nor conducted an investigation which forced the petitioner to file a petition with the Islamabad High Court against the FIA chief.

The whereabouts of Mr Rasool is still not known, the counsel said.

In July 2011, the high court ordered the FIA to proceed with the matter strictly in accordance with the law but so far no action has been taken, the counsel regretted.

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Posted in: REGIONAL