The Indian Express brings you clippings from the Pak mediaRepublicans pull out anti-Pak voteThe Nation: In A major victory for the pro-Pakistan lobby, the Republican leadership has pulled out in the House of Representatives a resolution condemning the military coup in Pakistan and calling for immediate restoration of democratic rule. Only last week the resolution, introduced by Democrats Sam Gejdensen and Sherrod Brown, was adopted by the House International Relations Committee by a vote of 21 to 4, with many Republicans voting for it.Congressional sources acknowledged that since then the pro-Pakistan lobby had been working on Republican leaders to prevent scheduling of voting on the resolution. A senior aide to House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt said by pulling out the resolution, ``basically what you have here is the Republicans in Congress endorsing the whole coup in Pakistan.'' The aide said the move came after Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush's answer in aquiz that the coup in Pakistan ``is good for stability in the subcontinent. Now you have Republican Congress saying it's good for regional stability.''Pak SC refuses plea against coupDawn: THE Supreme Court has refused to register a petition challenging last month's military coup, court officials have said. ``The Supreme Court has not entertained the petition because of legal lacunae (missing parts) and asked the petitioner to follow the Supreme Court rules,'' the official Associated Press of Pakistan said.The petition, filed on Monday, was the first legal challenge to General Pervez Musharraf who seized power on October 12. It was filed by Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a lawyer and member of the Pakistan Muslim League party, led by ousted premier Nawaz Sharif. ``We have sent the petitioner a letter on Tuesday asking him to fulfil the legal requirements," the news agency quoted a court official as saying. Shah named Musharraf, the federal government and a local army commander as respondentsand claimed the coup and subsequent detention of Sharif was illegal.Jansher not in British Open drawDawn: Jansher Khan, winner of the World Open a record eight times and of the British Open six times, did not feature in the draw made here Tuesday, for a British Open for the first time in 13 years. The absence from the world's longest-established tournament of arguably the most complete player of all time suggests Jansher is unlikely to be a serious contender again for the big titles. Despite knee problems that have limited the 30-year-old Pakistani to only a few appearances, he often claimed during 1999 that he could return for significant challenges.But Jansher's decision not to compete here next month (December 6-12) follows his absence from the World Open at the Giza pyramids two months ago. ``The Squash Rackets Association wanted to give Jansher a wild card. But when it became clear he would not accept, it was given to England's former world number two Peter Marshall instead,'' saidBritish Open organiser Alan Thatcher.
