Opinion Disappearing act

Daily Times reported on December 13: “Dr Zamurad Yasmeen Rana,a member of the provincial assembly from the PML-N,filed a resolution in the Punjab Assembly Secretariat against a foreign visit of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer… She said the governor was bound to follow the decorum of a constitutional office… She claimed Taseer took a Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Karachi to Colombo and… returned… on December 8… Dr Yasmeen said the governor had violated Article 104 of the constitution.”

The News added on December 14: “Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal Khan will soon formally approach President Asif Zardari and PM Yousuf Raza Gilani to proceed against Punjab Governor Salman Taseer under Article 6 of the Constitution… Because of his unannounced disappearance from the country,there has been no acting governor of the province,which was,otherwise,mandatory.” Dawn reported on December 15: “Salman Taseer sprang a surprise on his detractors by making a sudden appearance at an exhibition amid rumours that he had surreptitiously flown to Dubai… ‘I am not going anywhere. When I leave the country I inform the presidency and it is up to the presidency to issue a notification’…”

PakiLeaks fallout

The News reported on December 13 that Mohsin Baig,the chief editor of the Pakistani news agency,Online,lost his job after its circulation of “planted” news was outed: “An inquiry found him solely responsible for releasing a fabricated story on WikiLeaks disclosures.”

Holbrooke mourned

The demise of former US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan was mourned in Pakistan,reported The News on December 14: “Pakistan mourned the passing away of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke… with those who had worked closely with him these past few years remembering him as ‘a diplomat par excellence’ who had been the moving spirit behind upgrading the Pak-US Strategic Dialogue to the ministerial level… President Asif Zardari,PM Gilani,Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir,all paid tributes to the US envoy,who visited Pakistan frequently and always reached out to the media here. Zardari… called him ‘a friend of Pakistan and a personal friend of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and himself,and the best tribute to him was to reiterate the resolve to root out extremism and usher in peace and stability’.”