Nation and  States

Pakistan goes in for a new 
prime minister

What is India News Service, June 30, 2004, 1700 hrs

Amid all the excitement about improving ties with India, Pakistan on Tuesday elected Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as its new prime minister.

Jamali, the earlier prime minister, resigned on Saturday after being in office for 20 months. Chaudhry Shujaat, who was the joint candidate of Pakistan Muslim League and its allied parties, polled 190 votes in the 342-member house, against 76 secured by People's Party Parliamentarians president Makhdoom Amin Fahim. The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal abstained from the election process. 

Persistent reports said Jamali was being eased out as he and president Musharaff had not been seeing eye to eye. The outgoing prime minister gave no inkling of
his differences or disappointment. "Every party takes its own decisions," he said, "and no-one has the right to criticize or interfere in another's decisions."

Follow Chinese model: The prime minister urged the states to draw from the Chinese model and develop agriculture by promoting agro-business hubs. 

He called for a uniform vision for rural development that could also respond to varying situations in the states. The strategy for rural development must be fashioned to unleash the productive potential of agriculture and allied activities, he said.

"We need to learn from the Chinese model of rural business hubs that add value to agricultural produce within rural areas. There is a new big opportunity in terms of the herbal wealth in tribal areas, which can greatly benefit from the attention now given by the business to non-timber wood products", Dr Singh said at the chief ministers' conference on panchayati raj and rural development in Delhi on Monday.

He regretted that the annual plan allocation of Rs 17,000 crore for rural development and poverty alleviation schemes was not being properly utilised.
He said decentralised electricity generation and use could make the Gandhian vision of decentralised production "not only an ethical idea, but also a viable economic option?.

IIMs revert to old fees: The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the six Indian Institututes of Management today arrived at a compromise formula over the fee structure in B-schools. Consequently, minister Arjun Singh withdrew
the February order issued by the previous government asking the IIMs to reduce their fees.

The IIMs agreed to provide need-based financial assistance for students unable to afford the fees.

The minister said students whose family income is less than Rs 2 lakh would be eligible for financial assistance, which could amount to a full fee waiver.
Hostels and mess charges could also be waived, he added. 

Lashkar plan foiled: The Mumbai police have killed two men, who they said were top militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, and claimed to have busted a network allegedly involved in six suicide attacks over the last two years. The two men, both Pakistani, had allegedly planned to blow up the Bombay Stock Exchange.