Regional peace in focus as Iranian, Afghan leaders reach Islamabad

Islamabad: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived here yesterday for a two-day visit to attend the Pakistan-Iran-Afghanistan summit aimed at enhancing cooperation for peace and security in the region.

Earlier in the day, Afghan President Hamid Karzai flew into the Pakistani capital. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani welcomed the visiting heads of state at the President House.

Karzai and Gilani held a meeting during which they discussed the regional situation and bilateral ties and ongoing efforts for restoring peace in conflict-hit Afghanistan, officials said.

President Zardari was to host a banquet for the Iranian and Afghan leaders and the trilateral summit will be held today.

Afghanistan is likely to be the focus of the summit, whose agenda includes border management, cooperation on counter-terrorism and combating trans-national organised crimes, including drug and human trafficking.

He expressed the hope that the summit would be a significant step in promoting the agenda of regional peace, stability and prosperity.

The head of Afghan section at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mohsen Pak-Aeen, was quoted by Mehr News Agency of Iran as having said: "Tehran has a positive view on the trilateral summit... in line with the efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan."

President Ahmadinejad is expected to focus on energy cooperation with Pakistan. He is likely to seek concrete assurances from the Pakistani leadership that Islamabad will not backtrack on a gas pipeline and electricity import projects because of pressure from the United States.

President Karzai is expected to seek Pakistan's support for peace talks with Afghan insurgent leaders. Pakistan has frequently expressed its resolve to support Afghan-led and Afghan-owned efforts for reconciliation with the Taliban.

“I thought I had a good case”, says Gilani’s lawyer
Ruchika Talwar : New Delhi, Fri Feb 17 2012, 00:55 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/I-thought-I-had-a-good-case—says-Gilani-s-lawyer/913064/

With the way the Supreme Court is framing contempt charges against Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, even Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Pakistan’s star advocate, may just fail to successfully defend him when he appears in court on February 22.

“I thought I had a good case, but the court thought otherwise,” rues Ahsan.

Gilani heads the Pakistan Peoples Party-led federal government which dragged its feet over the reinstatement of the judiciary and the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) — both deposed in 2007 by the then president Gen Pervez Musharraf. The same Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is now trying Gilani over a matter pertaining to President Asif Ali Zardari.

Ahsan says Pakistan’s judiciary has “now become a decisive factor in many issues” and is a “major player in the constitutional scheme of things,” which was not the case earlier.

It is now the CJP versus the PPP. Some say it was clever of the PPP to seek the services of Ahsan, who is not just a legal luminary of Pakistan, but also the advocate who got the CJP his job back. Ahsan had resolved to never appear before the CJP in court. “I recused myself for four years from appearing before Justice Chaudhry as it could be misread as conflict of interest. This time, I made an exception because Gilani’s was a difficult case. It was a testing experience for both the CJP and me,” Ahsan told The Indian Express over the phone from Islamabad.

“He did his job, I did mine,” he said, adding that his resolve to not appear before Chaudhry remains intact. “I won’t appear before him unless the case is pro bono or I am called as an amicus curiae,” Ahsan stated.

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