By Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: A commission set up to probe bank loan write-offs from 1971 to 2009 has given a clean chit to politicians and civil or military bureaucrats.

In a report spread over three volumes and 2,200 pages, the commission put the amount of waived loans over the past four decades at Rs87 billion, including Rs84.621bn from 1992 to 2009 and Rs2.3bn from 1971 to 1991.

By Iftikhar A Khan

ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: The government will soon approach Interpol to seek repatriation of senior commander of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, now under detention in Afghanistan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters here on Saturday that Maulvi Faqir was involved in a series of terror attacks in the country. The government wanted his deportation from Afghanistan so that legal action could be initiated against him, he added.

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Feb 23: Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the JUI-F chief, said on Saturday that a grand jirga constituted by tribes of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas wanted to meet national leaders in order to have their support for peace efforts in Fata.

“During (the proposed) meeting with the political leadership, the jirga will discuss proposals for bringing peace to Fata,” the JUI-F leader told newsmen after meeting the Jamaat-i-Islami leadership at Mansoora.

By Ismail Khan

PESHAWAR: A fast-changing political scenario, changes in the political and military command due this year and dithering by both tiers of state in the face of an existential threat to the country may already have closed the option to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, senior government and security officials acknowledge.

In retrospect, say officials interviewed for this report, the political and military leadership should have seized the opportunity to launch a decisive military operation against local and foreign militants, following back-to-back victories against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Swat, and its parent organisation in South Waziristan in May and October of 2009 respectively.

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, Feb 23: In Pakistan, the United States was dealing with a government that was not always able to deliver, said a former US ambassador, Cameron Munter.

In an interview to CNN, Mr Munter also urged the US administration to consider how their policies would affect the people in Pakistan while making policies for that country.

By Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Three months after its failure to get the dual nationality bill passed by the Senate due to lack of the two-thirds majority, the PPP-led coalition government is gearing up to make an attempt next week to get a bill seeking creation of the south Punjab province adopted by the upper house of parliament.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that the PPP leadership at a recent meeting held at the Presidency had decided to bring the bill on the new province for voting in the Senate during the ongoing session, expecting that the move would leave the opposition PML-N party in isolation.

By Bakhtawar Mian

ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: The Wafaqul Madaris Arabia Pakistan, a conglomerate of seminaries, urged the government on Saturday to carry out an operation against the killers of ulema and madressah students in Karachi.

In a statement on Saturday, religious scholars belonging to the WMAP regretted that several ulema, teachers and students of seminaries had lost their lives in targeted attacks but the government had failed to take effective action against those responsible.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 23: At least six tanks containing radioactive waste in the US state of Washington are leaking, the state said on Friday, urging more federal help to clean up a site used to make cold war-era bombs.

Washington governor Jay Inslee said the extent of the leaks at the Hanford site — which first produced fuel for nuclear bombs in World War II and closed down 25 years ago — was “disturbing”.

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI, Feb 23: A leader of the Awami National Party’s student wing was shot dead in SITE area on Saturday night, police and party sources said.

The police said armed men attacked Painda Khan when he was treating patients at his clinic. “The victim was a homeopath and his clinic is on the main road in the SITE area,” said a police officer.