ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf is still a serving general and lives in the presidency, according to National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) records. Sources said that Musharraf’s address was President House, Islamabad, and his name was General Pervez Musharraf. His place of birth, as per his computerised national identity card, is Delhi, India. Sources said the inclusion of professional titles such as general was not allowed with the name of a card holder, but former Nadra chairman, Brigadier (retired) Saleem Moin, made an exception in the case of Musharraf, who was issued a lifetime card.
First law varsity plan cleared
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will have its first full-fledged law university in the federal capital soon as the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has issued a no-objection certificate (NoC) to expedite work. An official said yesterday that the HEC had issued the NOC to the proposed Federal University of Law and Judicial Administration for which a bill was passed in parliament in 2012. Initially, classes will start on the campus of the Federal Judicial Academy for which a block is under construction. Work on a separate full-fledged building for the university will start after approval from the Ministry of Law and Justice.
$100m Saudi loan for power
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia Riyadh has cleared a $100m loan for swiftly completing work on the 969MW Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project. Sources said a delegation will leave for Riyadh on July 7 to sign the deal with the Saudi Fund for Development. Like China and Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia had withheld the loan during the previous government. “We are also engaged in talks with the Abu Dhabi Fund to release a $100m loan, which was stopped until the settlement of a payment row between the UAE’s Etisalat and the Pakistan government over privatisation of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited,” an official said. China also withheld $448m for the Neelum Jhelum project and cleared it after the PML-N government took over. Delays have pushed the project costs to Rs274.8bn from an estimated Rs84.5bn. “The prime minister has asked the Ministry of Water and Power to probe the delay which also sparked the worst energy crisis,” the official said. The Planning Commission’s energy wing has also questioned the project’s execution programme and revision of costs.
UN: Poll key to Kabul’s future
New York: Afghanistan’s presidential election in April 2014 following the withdrawal of most allied troops will show if the country has gained from democratic reform, a UN official said yesterday. “It is extremely important for the people of Afghanistan, but also for the UN and the many nations that have contributed to this transition, that the country does not fall back into the nightmares of war, the extreme poverty and violations of human rights that we saw earlier,” Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said. Kabul must hold free and fair election early next year, while assuming full security responsibility throughout the country, he said on returning from a visit to Afghanistan. Agencies
