ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) is continuing hearing the petitions against the National Assembly speaker’s ruling on the issue of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s conviction in a contempt of court case Friday, Geo News reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, resumed hearing the petitions filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), advocate Azhar Chaudhry and others challenging the NA speaker's ruling of May 28 that there was no question of PM's disqualification.

During today’s proceedings, Aitzaz Ahsan submitted his request on behalf of the prime minister to form a larger bench and told that the contempt of court is of three types.

Aitzaz contended that the speaker does not act merely like a post office and that the latter can use his right. He said that PM’s conviction does not mean his disqualification.

On this, the CJ remarked that the PM decided not to appeal against the verdict which means that he has accepted the verdict.

Aitzaz replied that his party has accepted the verdict but not PM’s disqualification from his office. He continued saying that he was not showing his disapproval of the court’s judgment but trying to convince the court that the PM has not been disqualified on the basis of verdict.

He further said that his client did not need to appeal against the verdict and that he was not asking to change it. He said that the show cause and the charge sheet against the PM did not mention the contempt of court.

On Thursday, the counsel for petitioner Azhar Chaudhry , Advocate AK Dogar said that the SC disqualified Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, however, he is still holding his office. He said that Gilani deliberately insulted the court, and that the speaker’s ruling was against the verdict announced by a seven-member bench.

He argued that the prime minister was disqualified because of the application of Article 63 (1) (g) of the Constitution.

"And with the insertion of the above said article the role of NA Speaker and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) regarding disqualification of a member has ended, thus, she (the Speaker) has no authority to rule against the court order."

Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel for Gilani, said he would like to submit the power of attorney on behalf of his client and asked the bench to allow him time to prepare but the CJ asked him to prepare till Friday.

Hamid Khan, counsel for PTI Chairman Imran Khan, also appeared before the court and contended that the NA speaker's ruling was without jurisdiction and unlawful.

"The sentencing of PM Gilani stands final as no appeal was filed against the conviction," Hamid said.

During the hearing, an altercation started in the courtroom after some lawyers and Attorney General Irfan Qadir exchanged harsh words.

The argument started when the attorney general said that all the lawyers had “run away” from the court premises when the SC announced its verdict in the contempt case against the prime minister. He said this while the media was still there but no lawyer was seen there.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry told Qadir not to undermine the reputation of the court by making such statements. Justice Jawad S Khwaja remarked that the attorney general should “not create noise” as he was a senior law officer. Lawyers started chanting slogans against the attorney general.

The police were called in the courtroom to control the situation. Police officials tried to calm down the infuriated lawyers and told them to take their seats.

Later, the court adjourned the hearing till today.

PALO ALTO, California: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose limited role in promoting the No. 1 social network's market debut has drawn criticism, laid out its growth strategy to investors on Friday, saying that transforming its mobile and advertising experience are top priorities in 2012.

Integrating online apps more strongly into Facebook is also a major goal, he told hundreds of investors at an event that capped the first week of Facebook's cross-country "roadshow" to pitch its highly anticipated initial public offering.

Facebook aims to raise about $10.6 billion, dwarfing the coming-out parties of tech companies like Google Inc and valuing it at up to $96 billion - rivaling Amazon.com Inc's.

Zuckerberg, 27, who started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room 8 years ago, said Facebook's key priorities in 2012 were to improve its mobile application, to build stronger ties incorporating its social network with other online apps and to create a "transformative" advertising experience.

The company is "just getting started" with its mobile app, said Zuckerberg, who appeared on stage in a grey T-shirt and dark trousers at Palo Alto's Crowne Plaza, flanked by Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and finance chief David Ebersman.

With 900 million users, Facebook is the world's dominant social network. Zuckerberg was Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2010 and was depicted in the fictionalized 2010 movie "The Social Network".

"Over the next 10 years or so, every consumer category should be transformed to be built around people," Zuckerberg told fund managers and Silicon Valley glitterati such as Netscape co-founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

"People will listen to music and watch TV with other people" through Facebook.

"We only recently reached this tipping point," Zuckerberg said as the audience consumed a lunch of curried chicken salad and chocolate-chip cookies.

"It is a bit of a celebrity event," said Alice Evans with London-based F & C Asset Management. "You're not expecting to learn that much but it's as close as you can get to kicking the tires."

NO STOPPING IT?

Wall Street had been concerned about the company's ability to wring revenue from mobile users, considered crucial for long-term growth, as well as slowing growth in Facebook's main advertising business.

But that may not dampen demand for shares of the high-flying Web company, which is as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a business success story. On Thursday, a source close to the process told Reuters its IPO was already oversubscribed, a week before final pricing.

Facebook has indicated an IPO price range of $28 to $35 a share on Thursday, which would value the company at $77 billion to $96 billion.

Zuckerberg - sans his trademark "hoodie" sweatshirt - made brief introductory comments at the event, which took place 8 miles from Facebook's new Menlo Park headquarters at One Hacker Way, before opening the session up to questions.

The company had provoked some grumbles from investors earlier this week, when it took limited questions from the audience at an event in New York. And Zuckerberg skipped other stops on the roadshow this week, such Boston.

Investors managed to get in more than 10 questions at Friday's event, ranging from capital spending to regulation, even as Facebook maintained tight control over the proceedings, forbidding follow-up questions.

Zuckerberg and Sandberg said Facebook's overall advertising business was gaining steam, with increased spending by most of its marketers. The two executives highlighted social ads as an important tool for Facebook to tackle its mobile challenge.

The ads, which incorporate information about Facebook users' friends who "like" certain products, are better suited to the smaller screens of smartphones, from which more than half of Facebook's users access the service, executives said.

As Facebook collects more user data, such as location, it will be able to offer more relevant mobile ads, executives said.

Asked about Facebook's $1 billion purchase of mobile app maker Instagram, its largest acquisition, Zuckerberg said the deal was under consideration for one to two months before it occurred. Media reports had said it was forged over a weekend.

The number of Instagram users has already grown from 30 million to 50 million since the deal was announced in early April, he noted.

Facebook's offering marks a watershed moment for the new generation of Web companies that are challenging established players such as Google and Yahoo for consumers' online time and for advertising dollars.

The company's shares, which will be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol FB, could begin trading as soon as May 18.

"They did a good job of addressing the tough questions. They have a clear vision," said one investor who attended the event but did not want to be named. (Reuters)

MOHALI: Kings XI Punjab recorded a thrilling six-wicket win against Deccan Chargers in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League here at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium on Sunday.

Chasing a difficult target of 191, Punjab completed their well-paced chase as Gurkeerat Singh hit a boundary off the final ball of the match delivered by Manpreet Gony.

Australian batsman David Hussey was declared the man-of-the-Match for his brilliant unbeaten innings of 65 in just 35 balls. He struck five sixes and four fours.

South Africa’s fast bowler Dale Steyn and Australia’s fast-medium bowler Daniel Christian took two wickets each.

Earlier, Deccan Chargers batted first on an easy wicket after captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss.

Deccan amassed 190 runs for four wickets in the allotted 20 overs as Shikhar Dhawan and Cameron White were the prominent scorers with 71 and 67, respectively.

For Punjab, Pakistan allrounder Azhar Mahmood captured two wickets for 39 runs.

Geo Super showed this high-scoring match live from Mohali, Chandigarh

RAWALPINDI: PML-Q leader and senior federal minister Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi issued an ultimatum to the PPP government to solve the power crisis or his party would go its separate way.

Speaking to party workers in Rawalpindi, Elahi also criticised the PML-N saying that they were raising the power crisis issue for their own gain.

Elahi claimed that if the formula put forward by Chaudhry Shujaat was implemented than the power crisis would be solved.

He said that during the tenure of the PML-Q government there were four projects for power generation while during the tenure of the PML-N government in Punjab there have been none.

PESHAWAR: At least seventeen militants were killed and several injured, while three hideouts were destroyed in security forces actions in Khayber and Kurram Agencies, Geo News reported.

On the other hand, one Razakar of Aman Lashkar died and four were injured in an attack of the militants in Mohmand Agency.

Security sources said that nine militants were killed, several injured, while three hideouts were destroyed at Kot in central Kurram area in an action by the security forces.

Security forces while moving ahead at Shalobar in Tehsil Bara area of Khayber Agency clashed with the militants leaving eight militants dead, while the other took to their heels.

In Mohmand Agency, the militants attacked the joint check post of the Levies and Aman Lashkar ar Tehsil Khawezai triggering a shootout that left one Razakar dead and four wounded.

WASHINTON: Taliban can be defeated militarily in Afghanistan but the job is not done, a key U.S. senator said on Sunday, noting that the insurgents still control more than a third of the populated areas of the country and have a "safe harbor" in Pakistan.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told "Fox News Sunday" that Pakistan is the key to defeating Taliban in both countries and expressed frustration that Pakistan has failed to deprive them of a safe haven in the rugged mountain areas along its Afghan border.

"Militarily, I think the Taliban are not going to beat us," she said. But the Taliban "have a safe harbor in Pakistan and the Pakistanis are doing nothing to abate that safe haven," Feinstein said.

What "the Taliban has done is insinuate itself in a shadowy presence, with shadow governors. They controlled over a third of the land which people live. They expanded into the north, into the northeast," Feinstein said.

"And while we were there in one province, they closed 14 schools in 17 districts and then they killed five education officials and wounded others," she told Fox News.

"And now, there's this latest assassination of someone who's been a leader in the Peace Council," she said.

Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul on Sunday, dealing another blow to attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.

Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, 68, was one of the most senior and important members on Afghanistan's High Peace Council set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with the insurgents. The Taliban denied involvement in the killing.

"What this does is demonstrate to many of us that Taliban is just waiting to come back" when U.S. troops leave the country over the next few years, Feinstein said.

The Taliban "are taxing the poppy in the south to the tune of $125 million, which in 2011 - this is the United Nations figure - went to support their operations."

"The question comes 'can they come back?'" said Feinstein, who visited Afghanistan as part of a congressional team last month. She said Karzai had assured her he would not allow the Taliban to return to power.

Feinstein said assurance by the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, that the number of trained Afghan troops will reach 362,000 was "very positive."

KATHMANDU: An aircraft with 21 people on board has crashed in a mountainous region of northern Nepal, police said on Monday.

"There were 18 passengers and three crew members. It's a remote area so there is no telephone network but we fear there may be many deaths," police spokesman Binod Singh told AFP.

Singh said the Agni Air plane crashed into a hill near Jomsom, a popular area for trekkers near the Annapurna mountain range.

ALGIERS: Algeria's ruling party tightened its grip on power in an election that bucked the regional trend of Islamists gaining strength since the Arab Spring, according to results Friday that drew accusations of fraud.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) won 220 out of 462 seats up for grabs in Thursday's election, improving on its share in the outgoing national assembly.

The seven Islamist parties contesting the polls could only manage a combined 59 seats, a major setback after predicting victory during the campaign, according to a copy of the official results obtained by AFP.

The National Rally for Democracy (RND) of Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, a nationalist party close to the military and loyal to Bouteflika, was second with 68 seats, compared to 62 in the outgoing house.

While the results largely maintain the status quo, one notable change was the number of elected women, which rose to 145 from seven in the outgoing assembly following the introduction of quotas.

Algeria's governing coalition so far included the FLN, the RND and the largest of the legal Islamist parties, the Movement of Society for Peace.

Friday's provisional results, which have yet to be confirmed by the constitutional council, mean the FLN and the RND could form a majority without the Islamists.

Green Algeria, a three-party Islamist alliance, garnered a paltry 48 seats and charged widespread fraud.

"There has been large-scale manipulation of the real results announced in the regions, an irrational exaggeration of these results to favour the administration parties," it said in a statement.

The Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) -- the main party in the alliance -- marvelled that it did not obtain a single seat in the constituency of Blida, an Islamist bastion where the party was created.

"It exposes the people to dangers for which we do not want to take responsibility... We will take the necessary measures and will put the blame squarely on the the president of the republic," Green Algeria said.

In the wake of the popular revolts that became known as the Arab Spring, moderate Islamist parties recorded electoral victories in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco.

Turnout had been expected to be low after a campaign that produced no new faces and failed to draw crowds.

But Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia announced a "remarkable" rate of 42.36 percent which he said confirmed Algeria's democratic credentials.

Pro-government newspapers said voters had expressed confidence in the political system by taking part in the election, which comes after a reform package initiated in the wake of the Arab Spring.

"If there's a winner on this Algerian spring day, it's undoubtedly the people," El Moudjahid wrote in a front-page editorial.

The governing coalition and many Algerians argue that the country has already experienced the consequences of Islamism during the deadly 1991-2002 civil war and that the dynamics of the Arab Spring cannot apply in Algeria.

Ouyahia also argued that the Arab Spring was hardly an attractive scenario, calling it a "plague" that had resulted in "the colonisation of Iraq, the destruction of Libya, the partition of Sudan and the weakening of Egypt."

Many Algerians and observers had predicted that ever deeper mistrust, especially among the country's majority of young people, could lead to an even worse turnout than the historical low of 35 percent recorded in 2007.

The opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy, which chose to boycott this election, claimed the announced turnout was fraudulent.

"The turnout as recorded by the local commissions, infiltrated by the administration though they may be, did not exceed 18 percent," the party's chairman said at a press conference.

Some 500 foreign observers brought in by Bouteflika to monitor the vote reported only minor hiccups but they were denied access to the national electoral roll, which grew by four million voters since 2007.

Former colonial power France said it was pleased polling operations were smooth.

Bouteflika was a minister in Algeria's first independent government in 1962 and, at 75, he is keen to burnish his legacy with large-scale projects such as the world's third largest mosque.

Analysts say the legislative election was acting as a kind of primary for the 2014 presidential poll, which Bouteflika is not expected to contest. (AFP)

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will show its strength in Kammu Shaheed area of district Ghotki while Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will hold rally in Khushab city of Punjab.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Syed Khursheed Shah and various other central and provincial leaders of PPP will address the public gathering.

Chief Minister and President PPP (Sindh) Syed Qaim Ali Shah told the media on Friday that they did not want to confront the PML-N but it was the right of every party to demonstrate its 'political strength'.

Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif among various other leaders of PML-N will address the rally in Khushab.

On the other hand, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will visit Bahawalpur where he will meet the party office bearers in Circuit House and address the party workers.

Shahbaz will also meet leaders of Bahawalpur movement.

PESHAWAR: One cop was killed and seventeen others were injured in a blast that targeted a police convoy near Gulbahar police station at GT Road on Saturday, Geo News reported.

According to police, a remote-controlled bomb exploded as a police van carrying four prisoners passed by an abandoned tin of vegetable oil in Peshawar city, killing one policeman and wounding 17 others. A woman and four policemen were among those wounded who were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital.

Several vehicles including a police mobile were damaged in the blast.

Initial investigation by the bomb disposal unit unveiled that at least five kilograms of explosives were used in the blast.

Soon after the explosion, security forces reached the scene and cordoned off the area while further investigations are underway.

It is pertinent to mention that Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Banaras Khan narrowly escaped a life attempt when a remote-controlled bomb exploded at Chughul Pura road in the jurisdiction of Faqirabad Police Station on Friday.

Unknown miscreants had planted IED containing one kg explosives near a manhole in Chughal Pura that exploded with a bang, however, the DSP remained safe.