Tag Archives : reform

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama has decided to postpone the scheduled tour to Indonesia and Australia to June in order to stay in Washington for pushing the health care reform, said the White House on Thursday. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters at the daily press briefing that President Obama has called Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and would call Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over the postponement. It is the second time that the Obama”s tour was delayed. President Obama, who was originally scheduled to visit Indonesia and Australia from March [...]

LONDON: In his article published Monday in a British daily, President Asif Ali Zardari has pledged to defeat the terrorists and said Pakistan’s security is backed up by democracy and a strong economy. He said the army offensive against insurgency in Swat and other tribal areas is successfully going on right track. “The government is struggling hard for strengthening democracy and implementing the constitution in Pakistan”, he said. The President wrote that the war against terrorism has cost Pakistan not just in lives but also in economic terms, freezing international investment and diverting [...]

Brown Has 9.6% Lead in New PollInsideMedford Brown supporters focused most on pocketbook issues, Coakley supporters on healthcare reform, undecided voters split A poll conducted by the Merriman River Group (MRG) and InsideMedford.com indicates that Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 50.8% – 41.2% in the contest to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Liberty Party candidate Joe Kennedy pulls in just 1.8% support, while 6.2% of voters are still not sure. Brown and Coakley both have most of their supporters locked in. 98% of both candidate’s supporters say they are definitely or probably [...]

BEIJING: A Beijing court on Friday sentenced leading dissident Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for subversion, prompting the United States to accuse China of persecuting its political opponents. The 53-year-old Liu, a writer who was jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, was tried on Wednesday for “inciting subversion of state power” after co-authoring a bold call for political reform last year. He co-wrote Charter 08, which calls for human rights protection and the reform of China”s one-party communist system. It has been signed by more than 10,000 people, [...]

THE STANDARDBy Isaiah Lucheli Chief Mediator Kofi Annan turned up the pressure for the need to try chief suspects of the post-election violence. Annan, who was giving his parting speech at the end of six-day visit in Nairobi Tuesday said the arrest and prosecution of powerful politicians suspected to have funded and fanned post-election violence by the International Criminal Court would not frustrate reforms. His remarks are in tandem with those of ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo who has said he would like to make Kenya and example of how end impunity. “We should encourage the [...]

Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy is a vocal critic of Pakistan’s Higher Education Reform initiated by Dr. Ata ur Rahman, adviser to President Musharraf, in 2002. This reform resulted in over fivefold increase in public funding for universities, with a special emphasis on science, technology and engineering. The reform supported initiatives such as a free national digital library and high-speed Internet access for universities as well as new scholarships enabling more than 2,000 students to study abroad for PhDs — with incentives to return to Pakistan afterward. The years of reform have coincided [...]

ISLAMABAD: A delegation of PML led by Ch. Shujaat Hussain called on Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani at his Chamber in Parliament House and discussed with him matters pertaining to new reform package on Balochistan. Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee gave a detailed briefing to the delegation on the package. Welcoming the proposals, the delegation expressed confidence that the new reform package which also incorporates recommendations of Balochistan committee, headed by Ch. Shujaat Hussain, will give Balochistan a healing touch and help in removing the sense [...]

ISLAMABAD: The Strategic Trade Policy Framework2009-12 aims to bring about a structural transformation in Pakistan’s exports to make them competitive in the international market. It would ultimately set the country on the path of sustainable high economic growth and prosperity. This was stated by the Federal Minister for Commerce, Makhdoom Amin Fahim while addressing the launching ceremony of Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2009-12 here Monday. The minister said that in line with the demand of the business community and advised by the academia, Ministry of Commerce has come up with [...]

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) has said that every Pakistani citizen evaded tax amounting to Rs 4800 in the year 2007-08, while the total tax evaded in the period stood at Rs 796 billion. The World Bank’s Pakistan Tax Policy Report 2009 revealed this — Tapping Tax Base for Development released on Saturday. The report has been jointly prepared by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Andrew Young School of Public Policy, Georgia State University. The report said a large tax gap in the country suggested that the tax system was likely to under perform in terms of revenue, efficiency, equity [...]