PM sacks acting chairman of Pakistan Steel

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked the acting chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Rasul Bux Phulpoto.

According to reports, the appointment of Phulphoto as acting Chairman PSM has been annulled by the PM Gilani as he was not taken into confidence by the Ministry of Industries and Production over the decision.

On Tuesday, Premier Gilani had dismissed the then PSM chairman Moin Aftab Shiekh for corruption charges.Link...

Employees to get OGDC shares worth Rs36 billion

ISLAMABAD: Over 10,500 employees of the Oil and Gas Development Company will get 438 million shares worth Rs36 billion from government holding from Aug 26, says federal Minister for Petroleum Naveed Qamar.

Mr Qamar, who announced the scheme at a press conference here on Wednesday, said: ‘Twelve per cent shares will be allocated from government holding of 73 per cent in the company’ under the Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme in State-Owned Entities.

Mr Qamar said that an employee would get between Rs270,000 (1 x 3,000 shares x Rs90 per share) and Rs5,400,000 (20 x 3,000 shares x Rs90) on the basis of the length of his service.

Based on the dividend paid last year, the employees would also benefit from dividends ranging from Rs14, 250 (3,000 shares x Rs4.75 per share) to Rs285,000 (60,000 shares x Rs4.75 per share) each.

He said employees would form a trust in which three representatives each of employees and the government would be nominated.

The minister said the shares being offered to the employees would be bought back on their leaving the service. In the event of death of an employee, his or her legal heirs would get the amount.

He said the shares could not be sold in the market. ‘The scheme would create a sense of ownership among the workers and they would do more drilling and discoveries which would directly benefit the entity, government and the workers in the future. The necessity to implement BESOS in the loss-making units was of much importance to make such entities profitable,’ he added.

Qamar said the government was trying to solve workers’ problems. ‘We are … reinstating sacked employees, restoring trade union activities and repealing anti-worker laws.’

He said the government would aggressively implement the workers’ shares scheme to make workers partners in the country’s future.

Corporatisation of state-owned entities established under a special act or ordinance would also be taken up soon by the Privatisation Commission. A cell will be created in the Privatisation Commission for the purpose.

OGDCL was established as a statutory corporation in 1961 and made self-financing in July 1989. The company was incorporated as a public limited company in October, 1997.

OGDC’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) of five per cent shares was conducted in November 2003 while Secondary Public Offering (SPO) of 0.5 per cent shares was held in April 2007.

The Global Depositary Receipt with 0.5 per cent shares of OGDC was conducted in December 2006 with its listing on the London Stock Exchange in December 2006.Link...

Two thousand tons of LPG reach Karachi

LAHORE: An imported parcel of 2,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas on Wednesday arrived at Karachi port to assist LPG marketing companies meet additional demand during Ramazan and mitigate pricing pressures.

A spokesman of the LPG Association of Pakistan (LPGAP) in a press statement said the LPG sector’s commitment to keep the demand-supply gap in check was evident from the record-high imports made during this calendar year by the private sector.

He said various LPG marketing companies increased prices this week. ‘Price rationalisation necessitated and regulated by market conditions and are being effected by LPG companies and retailers in response to these conditions,’ he said.

‘The prices of LPG marketing companies are and shall continue to remain well within the range of reasonability prescribed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra),’ he added.

He said the LPG marketing companies was providing an 11.8-kg cylinder to their distributors at an average mid-country price of Rs725 in the first half of last month. This price dropped to Rs680 on July 18 and further came down to Rs670 on August 3, and settled at Rs640 on August 8.

He however said this average mid-country price was increased to Rs650 on Monday (August 17). Based on the current ex-plant producer price, the sale price of LPG marketing companies during the current month had been at an almost breakeven level, he added.

The real producer price for the month was Rs49,500 per ton.

The spokesman said that with the latest price increase, the average mid-country price charged by LPG marketing companies was close to Rs670 per 11.8-kg cylinder.

He said the price was Rs830 during last Ramazan. ‘LPG marketing companies shall closely coordinate with their distributors and the authorities to ensure product remains available at reasonable prices across the country in Ramazan,’ said the spokesman.Link...

Beer-drinking Malaysian model wants public caning

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will be the first woman in the multicultural country to be caned under Islamic law

KUALA LUMPUR — A model who will be caned six times in Malaysia next week for drinking beer appealed Thursday for her punishment to be carried out in public to deter other Muslims.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, was also fined 5,000 ringgit (1,400 dollars) last month after she pleaded guilty to drinking alcohol at a hotel nightclub in the eastern state of Pahang last year.

She will be the first woman in the multicultural country to be caned under Islamic law, with the punishment set to be meted out in a female prison.

But the Malaysian mother of two, who lives in neighbouring Singapore, said Thursday that she wanted to be caned publicly.

"It will be a more effective way to educate Muslims not to drink if I am caned in public. I want to send this message to other Muslims and I am sincere," Kartika told AFP.

"I am willing to be caned publicly or in front of a mosque, but the prosecutor has told my dad today that this cannot be done. I also requested for journalists to witness the caning in prison but it is not allowed."

Kartika, who has lived in Singapore for 15 years after marrying a citizen of the city-state, said she had the support of her parents and husband to be publicly punished.

She denies using her sentencing as a way to boost her part-time modelling career.

"I am not thinking about popularity or modelling, I am only thinking about my religion and want to tell Muslims to stay away from alcohol," she said.

Malaysia, which has large Chinese and Indian minorities, has a dual-tracked legal system and sharia courts can try Muslims for religious offences.Link...

Reality TV star sought in death may be in Canada

This image provided by the Los Angeles Police Department shows Jasmine Fiore, who has been identified as the woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase and placed in a dumpster and discovered Aug. 15, 2009. Police said Ryan Alexander Jenkins, 32, a reality TV personality, is a "person of interest" in her death. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department)

BUENA PARK, Calif. — A county sheriff's office in Washington state said Thursday that a former reality television contestant wanted for questioning in the death of his ex-wife has apparently escaped into Canada.

Ryan Alexander Jenkins, 32, was a contestant on the VH1 reality TV show "Megan Wants a Millionaire." Police said Wednesday that they want to question him as a "person of interest" in the death of Jasmine Fiore, 28, a former model whose nude body was found over the weekend stuffed into a suitcase in a Buena Park, Calif., trash bin.

The Whatcom County Sheriff's Office in northwest Washington said deputies received word Wednesday that Jenkins, who is Canadian, could be in the county. They found his car and an empty boat trailer at a marina in Blaine.

They had a report that a man matching his description arrived by boat at Point Roberts, U.S. territory about 10 miles away at the tip of a peninsula reachable by land only from Canada. Authorities believe Jenkins walked across the border to British Columbia.

After taping for the VH1 series finished, Jenkins met Fiore in Las Vegas casino in March and the two soon got married, said Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore.

But in May, "they had a big blowout," Lepore said. "She had the marriage annulled."

At least one actor who appeared on "Millionaire" with Jenkins at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills was shocked by the latest developments and remembered a suave bachelor who grew in confidence as taping progressed.

Jenkins earned the nickname "Smooth Operator" because of "his cheeky cockiness. And I mean that in a friendly way," said Rob Locke, who played the host, a butler named Niles.

"We were all under the impression that he was single. Then I saw on Facebook that he got married and there were photos of him and his wife. My personal observation was, 'Wow, that was quick,'" Locke said, adding that taping ended in March.

Fiore's mother said her daughter and Jenkins had been fighting after a quickie Las Vegas wedding, and that he was jealous of her ex-boyfriends.

Court records show that Jenkins was charged in June in Clark County, Nev., with a misdemeanor count of "battery constituting domestic violence" for hitting Fiore in the arm and will be tried in December.

Jenkins also has a criminal history in his hometown of Calgary, Canada. He was sentenced to 15 months of probation in January 2007 on an unspecified assault charge, according to the Alberta, Canada Ministry of Justice. No further details were available.

Neal Tomlinson, a partner at the law firm representing Jenkins in the Nevada case, declined to comment and declined to say if his firm was representing Jenkins in the current matter.

Fiore was last seen alive with Jenkins at a poker game in San Diego. Jenkins reported her missing Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, police said.

It's still not clear how Fiore died, although a preliminary coroner's report indicated she was strangled.

Jenkins, variously described as an architect, real estate developer and investment banker from Calgary, appeared in three episodes of the series "Megan Wants a Millionaire," about a woman seeking to land a wealthy bachelor by putting suitors through their paces, such as designing a marketing campaign for her pet Chihuahua.

On the show, Jenkins was identified as an investment banker who had a couple million dollars.

A resume posted on the professional networking site LinkedIn.com says Jenkins graduated from Mount Royal College in Calgary in 1999, has a license to fly commercial airplanes and worked in investment sales and as president of a boutique development company focused on cutting-edge green technologies.

Fiore and Jenkins got married in Las Vegas on March 18, according to a Clark County marriage certificate.

It was a spontaneous marriage and by May, Fiore had the marriage annulled because "she didn't trust him because he was doing (things) behind her back," Lepore said. She declined to say what the incident involved.

Jenkins then went to Mexico to do another reality TV show, but struggled to get Fiore back when he returned. It was not immediately clear which show he appeared on.

"He convinced her during that month that he was really the guy for her," Lepore said. "He wrote poems and stories, and prayed, and (claimed he) had this huge spiritual awakening."

VH1 said in a statement Wednesday that it has postponed any future airings of the show. The statement also said that the show was an outside production licensed to VH1, but that it was produced and owned by 51 Minds Entertainment.

A message left at 51 Minds was not returned.Link...

1.3 million IDPs return home

ISLAMABAD: About 1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled a military offensive against the Taliban in Malakand Division earlier this year have returned home, a United Nations official said on Wednesday.

The push against the Taliban forced 1.9 million civilians from their homes, most seeking refuge with relatives and the rest packing into refugee camps, creating a humanitarian crisis for impoverished Pakistan.

"The best estimate that we can make now is that approximately 1.3 million displaced people have returned home," Pakistan's UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Mogwanja told reporters in Islamabad.

Pakistan launched the military operation in the districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat after armed Taliban advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad last April in defiance of a peace deal.

Pakistan Army says it has now cleared the three districts of insurgents, and officials have urged the displaced people to return.

"While many of the IDPs are returning to Buner and Swat, the military operation is still going on in some parts of Swat and Lower Dir," Mogwanja said.

He said the UN had so far announced no individual awards for outstanding performance of any individual or any one organisation, outfit or entity.

He, however, announced an award for the media for outstanding reporting of the calamity and the problems of the IDPs.

Mogwanja said relief for the IDPs was an enormous challenge but the conduct of the government, the NGOs and the CBOs and above all the local community who opened their arms, hearts and even houses for the IDPs, was laudable and appreciable.

He also quoted a couple of examples where locals not only handed over their houses to IDPs and moved to relatives’ houses, but a widow even sold her jewellery to help the IDPs. He spoke highly of President Asif Zardari and the government for commendable efforts to provide relief to IDPs and announcement of the Award for them by Zardari on the Independence Day. agencies
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