Mediawatch Desi Apr 01: Illegal President and Prime Minister? Beena on Benazir, SB cuts Forecast.

Yusuf Raza Gillani was nabbed and spent five years in jail for what? For this: (And now that NAB is to be consigned to the dustbin the truth would die with it. If this is valid then the country has an illegal president (if you believe the lawyers) and an illegal prime minister!

The former Speaker of the National Assembly was accused of appointing 339 of his cronies and favourites to government departments in violation of the rules, said an NAB statement. It said the induction of these persons inflicted a loss of Rs 30 million annually on the national exchequer. Giving details of the allegedly illegal appointments made by Gillani, an NAB spokesman said as Speaker of the National Assembly, he had purchased luxurious vehicles at exorbitant rates, violating all rules and regulations and causing a loss of Rs 2 million. He also misused 10 vehicles in Islamabad, Lahore and Multan against the entitlement of one car, with recurring expenditure of Rs 3 million, the spokesman alleged. He allegedly got eight official telephones installed at his residences in Islamabad, Multan and Lahore, causing a loss of Rs 2.9 million. Gillani is also alleged to have awarded contracts for the renovation of the National Assembly for Rs 18.7 million on a single quotation and no approval from the competent authority was sought before awarding this contract, he said. Allegations against Yusuf Raza Gillani

The court has also barred the ex-speaker from holding public office or taking any monetary gains from any financial institutions for a period of 10 years.

Turn the president’s house into a library: We are no bibliophiles. Our literacy rate, the number of books published and per capita readership of newspapers is sufficient proof of that. However, this does not mean that we do not have centres of excellence or the country is without impressive libraries. Quaid-i-Azam Library in Lahore, one of the finest around, has been housed in a palatial building that once accommodated a club. Its conversion into a library has symbolic meaning and importance. I propose that the new chief executive should set a precedent by relocating the National Library of Pakistan to Aiwan-i-Sadr. The latter, situated in the heart of Islamabad and representing the spirit and mood of the city, is an ideal location for the library. Placing it at a pivotal point will give the library the prominence it deserves and will symbolise the furtherance of a tradition of scholarship and learning. New agenda for new beginning By Dr Iram Khan

Just over a year ago, Pakistan’s all-powerful president and chief of the army staff was firmly entrenched at the helm of affairs. He had taken several steps to ensure his absolute power; the ‘corrupt’ politicians were in exile, and their parties were in disarray. Indeed, analysts were predicting that Pervez Musharraf would remain in power until 2015. Three factors, occurring over a span of two years, changed this course. First, former archrivals Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif, both then in exile, joined hands in May 2006 to sign a ‘Charter of Democracy’, aimed at ousting the military from Pakistani politics. Second, an increasingly independent judiciary began taking on previously taboo issues, including the disappearances that had taken place at the hand of the intelligence agencies since Pakistan’s alliance with the US in the ‘war on terror’. Third, dozens of independent television channels, which had sprung up since 2002, were covering events critically and energetically. On Benazir - Beena Sarwar

He is a father who must tend to his teenage children suddenly left motherless. Bakhtawar and Asifa must call their dad from Dubai wanting to be close to the only parent now left to hug; Bilawal must need him for the handholding moments while at college in Oxford. But Zardari cannot get away from Islamabad. Besieged by lotas, lotis and carpetbaggers gratuitously converting the Zardari House to a temporary qibla, these opportunists and self-seekers have been camping there grabbing anything from ministries, adviserships, contracts, jobs and lucrative appointments. Men and women of the PPP who were kept in check by Benazir Bhutto are today festooning the television screens and holding forth as though they were the true spokespeople of their late leader; ones closest to her heart. Unfettered, ambitious and hungry for power, they seem to have left the slain leader out of their script. Makhdoom Amin Fahim became churlish when told he could not be the prime minister. He lost his dignity. All In The Family - Anjum Niaz

Dr. Ghayur Ayub here analysis the impact of the abolition of FCR - Frontier Crimes Regulation announced by the PM in his maiden speech.

KARACHI, March 31 (AP) The State Bank of Pakistan has cut its forecast for the country's economic growth this fiscal year to 6.0-6.5 percent. The bank said Monday it was revising its forecast for the year ending June 30 in the light of ''domestic turbulence and external shocks.'' The bank predicted growth of 7.2 percent at the start of the fiscal year. The bank forecast in its most recent quarterly report that this year's inflation rate would be between 8 percent and 9 percent. A new government now taking office in Pakistan is scrambling to protect its fast-growing economy from rising prices and widening budget and trade deficits. State Bank of Pakistan cuts economic growth forecast to 6-6.5 percent