SOUTH ASIA
Green Signal For Mumbai Airport
An environment ministry committee on Wednesday cleared most green hurdles for Mumbai’s second international airport at Navi Mumbai but imposed tough conditions for the project.
The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) submitted its recommendations to environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who is expected to announce his decision by Friday.
“Not yet done,” Ramesh said but refused to elaborate further.
In Mumbai, civil aviation minister Praful Patel announced that the Navi Mumbai airport — to cater to 36 million people every year — had got environment clearance.
The airport had been a bone of contention between the two ministers on environment grounds.
“Most issues have been resolved,” said panel chairperson Naresh Dayal, who submitted the recommendations to the minister.
In most cases, the panel’s decision is final. But considering the minister’s personal interest in the project, the committee decided that Ramesh should take the final call.
Officials, however, said the real concerns about environment are addressed in several conditions that have been imposed on the City Industrial Development Organisation (CIDCO) to build the airport. “If any of the conditions is not met, the ministry has powers to scrap the clearance,” an official said.
Among the prominent conditions is no diversion of Gadhi and Ulwe rivers and a mangrove park of around 300 acres and shifting all non-aeronautical functions outside the main airport area. A minimum flow will have to be maintained in the two rivers throughout the year.
The panel has asked CIDCO to reduce the distance between two runways from 1,835 metres to 1,500 metres to minimise impact on two rivers. Also, Ulwe – a tidal river — will flow below one of the runways, to which CIDCO had earlier objected. Demolition of the hill as demanded by CIDCO to construct runways have been accepted.
Another condition is that the airport cannot be made operational until improved public transportation, including dedicated road or mass rapid transport system corridors to access the airport, are built.
“Mass transport facility, suburban/ metro train may be built to interconnect all major airports of the city,” an official said.
The conditions are described as among the toughest for any airport in India and would mean a higher project cost for CIDCO. The ministry is also looking at the option of third-party monitoring for the project.
-HT
SOUTH ASIA
Pakistani Anti-graft body wants travel ban on Nawaz Sharif, kin
Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has asked authorities to place ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law on the Exit Control List to prevent them from leaving the country.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sent a formal request to the ministry of interior. The interior ministry officials confirmed that the NAB wrote that names of Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar should be put on the Exit Control List (ECL), which listed individuals not allowed to leave Pakistan.
The NAB argued that as the trial of the three nears its conclusion, it is feared that they would leave the country.
Earlier, a similar request to place name of finance minister Ishaq Dar on ECL was not accepted, allowing him to go to London and never return.
Sharif, 68, and his family this week filed an application with the accountability court seeking a fortnight’s exemption from personal appearance from February 19 onwards to let them go to London to see Sharif’s ailing wife. Three cases were filed against Sharif and his family last year, including Avenfield properties, Azizia & Hill Metal Establishment, and Flagship Investments.
Maryam and Safdar are accused only in Avenfield properties case. The NAB had filed two supplementary references against Sharif, his sons Hasan and Hussain regarding Al-Azizia Steel Mills & Hill Metal Establishment and Flagship Investment cases.
SOUTH ASIA
Pakistan “breaches obligations’ on nuclear arms reduction, UN court told
The Hague: Pakistan is violating its “obligations” to the international community by failing to reduce its nuclear arsenal, the Marshall Islands told the UN’s highest court on Tuesday.
The small Pacific Island nation is this week launching three unusual cases against India, Pakistan and Britain before the International Court of Justice.
Majuro wants to put a new spotlight on the global nuclear threat, its lawyers said yesterday, by using its own experience with massive US-led nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s.
“Pakistan is in breach of its obligations owed to the international community as a whole,” when it comes to reducing its nuclear stockpile, said Nicholas Grief, one of the island nation’s lawyers.
DeBrum warned that even a “limited nuclear war” involving the two countries would “threaten the existence” of his island nation people.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
In 1998, the rival neighbours both demonstrated nuclear weapons capability.
The ICJ’s judges are holding hearings for the next week and a half to decide whether it is competent to hear the lawsuits brought against India and Pakistan — neither of which have signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
A third hearing against Britain — which has signed the NPT — scheduled to start on Wednesday will be devoted to “preliminary objections” raised by London.
The Marshalls initially sought to bring a case against nine countries it said possessed nuclear arms: Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States.
Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons.
But the Hague-based ICJ, set up in 1945 to rule in disputes between states, has only admitted three cases against Britain, India and Pakistan, because they have accepted the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction.
Pakistan’s lawyers did not attend Tuesday’s hearings.
It did however file a counter-claim against Majuro’s allegations saying “the court has no jurisdiction to deal with the application” and insisting that the case is “not admissible”, said ICJ President Ronny Abraham.
SOUTH ASIA
Bangladesh to drop Islam as official religion following attacks on Hindus
New Delhi: Bangladesh is likely to drop Islam as its official religion following a series of attacks on people from other faiths in the country. The country’s Supreme Court is hearing a plea challenging the status of the official religion of the country to Islam.
Bangladesh, which was declared a secular country after its formation in 1971, was declared an Islamic country following a constitutional amendment in 1988.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the plea has challenged the declaration of Islam as the national religion of the country.
The move is being supported by leaders from the minority communities like Hindus, Christians and Muslim minority Shiites.
Bangladesh has 90 per cent of Muslims, 8 per cent Hindus and remaining constitutes Christians and Muslim minority Shiites.
In last month, a Hindu priest was hacked to death following an attack on a temple in Panchgarh district. Two others were seriously injured in the attack. There have been several lethal attacks on writers and bloggers.
According to a report in the Independent, Islamist groups Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team are believed to have carried out at least seven attacks on foreign and minority people in Bangladesh in the past year.
