GSP+ AND SRI LANKA; BENEFITS AND CALLENGERS

DRI.-29/04/2017

The Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) of the European Union (EU) is a trade arrangement that allows developing countries to pay less or no duties on their exports to the EU. The EU offers GSP programmes to help vulnerable countries to reduce poverty, improve governance and foster a process of sustainable development.

The Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) is a special component of the GSP scheme that provides additional trade incentives to developing countries already benefitting from GSP. The EU introduced GSP+ with the aim of providing more extensive market access than the standard GSP scheme, giving beneficiary countries duty free access to EU markets for over 7200 products.

In return for these incentives, the recipient countries must ratify and effectively implement core international conventions in the fields of human rights, labour rights, the environment and good governance. Revised in 2014, GSP+ now incorporates strict monitoring mechanisms and a role for civil society in that process. The addition of non-state actors as observers in the scheme renders the monitoring mechanisms more transparent and objective.

CONDITIONS OF GSP+

GSP-and-Sri-Lanka_ENG-1.pdf by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

New anti-terrorism law undermines RTI

The word ‘Espionage’ dropped, but originally listed offences reintroduced

By Namini Wijedasa -Sunday, April 30, 2017

The Counter Terrorism Act policy framework approved by the Cabinet this week has reintroduced  offences originally listed under “espionage”– whilst merely removing the word “espionage” from the document.
As such, the draft makes it an offence to voluntarily engage in any illegal, unlawful or unauthorised act for the purpose of gathering any ‘confidential information’ — or directly gather confidential information — “for the purpose of supplying such information to a person who is conspiring, preparing, abetting, or attempting to commit terrorism or any terrorism related offence or any other offence contained in this Act.”
It is also an offence to provide to another person any confidential information, knowing such information will be used by such other person to conspire, abet, attempt or commit terrorism or a terrorism-related offence or any other offence contained in the Act.

All these provisions were included in the original 57-page policy framework that this newspaper first published in October 2016. The latest draft — which was rushed through the Cabinet on Tuesday in anticipation of a vote in Brussels on a motion to deprive Sri Lanka of the GSP+ on Thursday — is 73 pages long and has been fleshed out. The Sunday Times obtained a copy of the final version which was revised on April 23, 2017, and approved two days later by the Cabinet.
Confidential information has a broad definition under the CTA policy framework. It includes: “Any information not in the public domain, the dissemination of which is likely to have an adverse effect on national or public security.”
Questions now arise on the position of the CTA against the Right to Information Act, also enacted by this Government, which denotes that public security is not a ground to restrict information. The RTI Act only permits information to be withheld on the grounds of “national security, defence of the State or territorial integrity”. This means that the proposed CTA now contradicts the RTI Act. It would also prevail over the RTI Act because the draft CTA states that once enacted it will have priority over past laws.

A second draft of the CTA policy framework that was recently leaked to the media had removed the word “unity” from Part III which relates to Terrorism-Related Offences. This word has been reintroduced to the final draft under “Abetting terrorism, terrorists and Proscribed Terrorist Organisations”, where it states: “By words either spoken or intended to be read or understood or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, instigates the committing of acts of violence or ethnic, religious, racial or communal disharmony, or feelings of ill-will or hostility between different communities or other groups so as to affect the unity, territorial integrity or sovereignty of Sri Lanka or any other sovereign country”.
On right of access of a suspect to an attorney-at-law and the right to representation by an attorney-at-law, the draft continues to be tied to the re-drafted amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP). The Act to Amend the Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Act, which was first published online by Groundviews, states that that “an attorney at law representing a person in police custody shall, from the time such person is taken into custody, be entitled to have access to the police station in which such person is being held in custody” on certain conditions.

But it also states that, “However, such access may be delayed to the extent provided herein, if the officer in charge of the police station has reasonable grounds to believe that the exercise of such right of access at the time such right is sought to be exercised” may lead, among other things, to the destruction of, interference with or harm to evidence that is connected with the committing of a cognizable offence, etc.
It also makes any statement made to a police officer by a person in police custody having had access to an attorney-at-law and in the presence of an attorney-at-aw “admissible in judicial proceedings against such person, subject to the provisions of the Evidence Ordinance”.

A May Day Pledge: Towards A New Economic Revolution

By Arun Kumaresan –April 29, 2017

Arun Kumaresan – Air Vice Marshal (Ret’d)

Year after year we have witnessed the working masses are congregated by our political masters and trade union pundits carrying slogans of promises giving hope of better quality of life of the working class. Unfortunately, it has done nothing but only ensured the numbers to remain intact to enable them to congregate for the next May Day. The only way to overcome these woos of the working class, we as a nation have to dedicate ourselves for an economic revolution. A simple road map towards this is to;

• Build on the benefits arising from regaining the GSP plus to increase our exports.(33% of our exports are to EU)
• Bring in investments thro’ the proposed trade agreements viz a viz China, India, Japan Singapore etc, etc.- to increase inflow of foreign exchange and reduce the impact due to the debt servicing. This will also create opportunities for new jobs.
• Translate the investments to churn the economic mill thro’ increased production in all sectors for exports – Industrial, Textiles, Agriculture, Diary,, Fisheries eic etc.
• Set targets to ensure the revenue of exports eclipse and surpass the cost of our imports.
• Develop from benefits arising from the economic activity for socio – economic development in areas of infrastructure, health, education and at some point of time reduction of taxes to benefit the populace.
• Uplift the economy of all regions – north, east south and west and unify them thro’ socio economic equality to overcome the divisions arising out of poverty and other divisions such as ethnic, religion or other informal social classifications.

The increased production whilst catering for the local need will ensure higher volume of exports that eventually will tip the scales of our imports. This surplus in dollars will ensure us to be debt free and self sufficient. This is the simple logic mere slogans will not achieve.

We should set ambitious targets to enrich our rupee to increase the buying power to uplift the living standards’ of all especially the grassroots who enrich our nation thro’ their hard work. (i.e similar to the current rate of Indian rupee – SLRS 65 for 1 USD. in 5 yrs??)

Rank and file of the society also need to be educated the benefits of economic liberation and in particular to the foolish protesters who are being misled by JO/GMOA/TU’s. These protesters are primarily targeted by these groups solely due their poorer socio economic status.

We should also go ahead with the plan just initiated and much talked about to bring some semblance of order thro’ democratic iron rule; if required, appoint a suitable person with clear and transparent terms of references. Singapore and Malaysia are what they are today due to the firm rule to ensure law and order. It is an absolute pre-requisite for economic development.
Dedicate ourselves to practice and implement zero tolerance to corruption and criminal behavior; punish all and sundry, irrespective of their social or positional status.

Read More

Celebrating the life of a Jesuit Socialist: Fr Paul Caspersz, SJ (1925-2017)

Fr Paul Caspersz

by Rajan Philips-April 29, 2017, 7:19 pm

"My legs have carried me for 90 years. Now they have earned their well-deserved rest", he would tell his visitors at the Jesuit House in Akkara Panaha, Negombo, where he spent the last years of his life confined to his bed and a wheel chair. Now his entire mortal coil has earned its rest. Fr. Paul Caspersz, a priest of the order of the Society of Jesus for 65 years, died last Wednesday at the age of 92. His funeral was in Kandy, where he lived for over 40 years, and he was laid to rest at the Lewella Jesuit cemetery. It was difficult to see Fr Paul unable to walk, although he was otherwise his usual self. Tall and handsome, he was well proportioned in physical appearance. He was equally well adjusted in his character and in his bearing. He was inspired as a teenager to become a Jesuit and to go to Oxford as a Jesuit "after reading a page or two about Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits in the context of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation", in the unlikeliest of sources: ‘A History of England’ by T.F. Tout. He accomplished both and remained true to his faith, his celibate life, and the fierce commitment of Jesuits to the first cause that inspired them. Fr. Paul was much more.

Celebrating the life of a Jesuit Socialist.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

A Case for curbing the Israeli Embassy

by Izeth Hussain-Apr 29, 2017

( April 29, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This writer’s last article Israel and Sri Lankan Islamophobia provoked a great many replies in the Colombo Telegraph including of course from Backlash, one of the two chief propagandists against this writer. He came out on April 23 with a spectacular revelation that merits dissemination on a national scale. He wrote “Israel’s contribution to the good of mankind, then and now, is unmatched in the annals of man’s history”. That of course is mind-boggling for its hyperbole. But the dog-like devotion to Israel that it displays is the sort of thing one has to expect from a fierce Islamophobic racist such as Backlash. It does not therefore merit status as national news. What does is the following: “That the Israelis backed the BBS is the worst kept secret in the country”.

That has to be regarded as a spectacular revelation. Every Muslim with whom this writer has checked – all of them very well-informed persons – reacted uniformly by stating that Israeli backing for the BBS has been widely suspected among Muslims but nothing has been established. None of us has seen anything to that effect in print. It is therefore not one of the worst kept secrets in the country but one of the best. Why is Backlash making the revelation now? According to a contact who has made a professional study of propaganda Backlash is resorting to a well-known ploy: when a propagandist loses credibility he does something to restore it so that his further lies will be believed. Backlash was losing credibility with suspicions being roused that he is an Israeli agent – so he distances himself from Israel by making the seriously incriminating revelation about Israel’s backing for the BBS.

However he has made it clear that he remains staunchly pro-Israel. His bizarre hyperbole about Israel’s unmatched contribution to the good of mankind, then and now – meaning today’s expansionist apartheid Israel that outrages most of the rest of the world – declares unequivocally his continuing dog-like devotion to Israel. That devotion is apparent also in his virtual justification of Israel’s backing for the BBS. His panegyric is worth quoting in full: “This may be because misguided Muslims unnecessarily annoyed the Israelis by their weekly demos opposite the US Embassy in Colombo. This went on for years – until the Israelis obviously retaliated. The Tamasha demos after Friday Jumma prayers at Kollupitiya stopped immediately. Another debacle like the ill-considered Halal misadventure”. This writer cannot vouch for the accuracy or otherwise of what Backlash is claiming. What can be said with certainty is that he has been so accustomed for so long to being economical with the truth that the divide between fact and fiction no longer exists for him. A glaring instance is his assumption that three editors continue to publish this writer’s weekly articles – which are no better than excrement – knowing that they make most readers “grin and bear”. He expects others to believe that!

The contradiction between Backlash’s devotion to Israel and his exposure of Israel’s criminal backing for the BBS is beyond this writer’s comprehension. What is important is to examine the implications of his spectacular revelation. We know that the BBS was funded with extravagant munificence supposedly by Norwegian Islamophobic groups. We know that the BBS was in association with the Wirathu gang in Myanmar, both of which had the same force behind them. We know that Wirathu has been forced into silence by the Buddhist authorities in Myanmar while the BBS leader was received the other day by President Sirisena along with nationally respected Prelates. We have good reason to suspect that the last Government knew the Israelis were backing the BBS but chose to keep quiet about it.

We can have many convictions and suspicions of the order outlined in the preceding paragraph but what evidence is there to show that the Israelis really backed the BBS? Backlash, a propagandist devoid of moral scruples, may be lying. He may be lying for some unfathomable reason because he is an unbalanced person. After all, who but an unbalanced person will expect anyone to believe that three editors publish this writer’s weekly articles in the knowledge that they make most readers “grin and bear”? That surely bespeaks a pukkah lunatic. However, there are sound commonsensical reasons to incriminate the Israelis. We know that former President Rajapakse believed that the BBS hate campaign was part of the machinery set up by the West to topple him. Norwegian fundamentalist groups could not have been interested in effecting Governmental change here. One or more Governments had to be involved in that, and the most plausible candidate for the major role is surely Israel. By backing the BBS it could help the West in toppling the last Government and at the same time spread Islamophobic hatred. That would be consistent with the argument in the last article of this writer: an apartheid system in Israel would have the best prospect of enduring if there is an apartheid world order in which the Muslims in particular are held in special loathing as a lesser breed.

What should be done? It is relevant to recount a development that took place when this writer was Ambassador in Manila in the first half of the ‘eighties. He was asked by our Foreign Ministry to report on how the Philippine Government treated the Israeli Embassy. Foreign Secretary Pacifico Castro said that this writer’s impression was quite correct that the activities of the Israeli Embassy had been severely circumscribed. Castro had crafted the policy, got his Government’s approval, and summoned the Israeli Ambassador to tell him that the Philippines was facing a serious separatist rebellion in Muslim Mindanao and therefore the Israeli Embassy had to be virtually non-functional. The Israeli Ambassador, a very nice man, abided by that rule scrupulously.

Backlash’s spectacular revelation has to be officially investigated. He may be unbalanced in some ways but not in every way, and therefore he has to be taken seriously. Besides, the writer has given a very cogent reason above why we can be practically certain that Israel backed the BBS. The findings may show that the national interest requires that the activities of the Israeli Embassy be severely curbed. The writer will assert two principles. One is that a Government that acquiesces in a foreign-backed hate campaign against one of its minorities deserves to fall. The last Government fell. The other is that a nation that acquiesces in a foreign-backed hate campaign against one of its minorities is not fit for Independence. It will lose it.

There cannot be the slightest doubt that there has been a concerted smear campaign against this writer over a very long period. Common sense dictates certain conclusions. No one reads all the articles that become available to him, particularly today when there is so much excellent reading material to suit every taste through the internet. The reader will therefore eschew in particular articles they regard as no better than excrement by writers whose guts they hate – which is how Backlash and Kettikaran view this writer and his articles. But they obsessively read him week after week and month after month. In exchanges in the Colombo Telegraph they have been repeatedly asked to explain this paradox, but unsurprisingly they have failed to do so. Both specialise in the bucket attack in which fact and reason don’t matter, and only the dirt thrown at the writer does – as shown in the last article. Kettikaran clearly showed his extreme Islamophobia when he imaged Muslim children as “piglets”, and he has made it clear that he sees nothing wrong in that. Backlash concealed his Islamophobia but he now declares his dog-like devotion to apartheid Israel which goes together with Islamophobia.

Both have clearly been engaged in an Islamophobic hate campaign. In whose interest? All the indications are that they are servitors of Israel, may be without knowing it. The important point is that Israel is the only country in the world that could have an interest, a vital interest, in promoting Islamophobia on a world-wide scale. The Government should make investigations, particularly into the revelation about Israeli backing for the BBS, and take appropriate action, if necessary severely curbing the activities of the Israeli Embassy, as happened in Manila.

A squandering Sabaragamuwa Road Transport Authority!

Apr 28, 2017

The Sabaragamuwa Road Transport Authority (SRTA) has become an institution squandering public money. Together with the Sabaragamuwa provincial council, it spends public money lavishly on religious and various other functions.

Last year, it spent Rs. 312,550 on dancing troupes and pandals for the pageant of Maha Saman Devale at Bolthumbe. The SRTA is unable to give a breakdown of how that money was spent. The reasons for the money spent as mentioned to the director board are different to what is mentioned in the receipts.

 

Also, Rs. 192,500 had been spent on deploying buses to transport the SRTA staff, drivers, conductors, bus owners and transport officials in the province to the May Day rally at Samanala stadium in Galle.

 

Furthermore, Rs. 744,000 had been estimated for 49 buses to take transport sector employees in Kegalle and Ratnapura districts to the 65th anniversary of the SLFP in order to appease the president.

 

A sum of Rs. 500,000 had been spent on the transport of participants of an eye clinic held at the Base Hospital by the provincial council in 2016 to mark the president’s birthday.

 

The Authority alone had paid Rs. 142,500 in October as the fuel bill for the escort vehicles of the province’s chief minister Mahipala Herath.

 

Await further information on such wasteful expenditures…

Surrounded by supporters, Rasmea Odeh pleads guilty

Rasmea Odeh, second from right, with supporters outside the federal courthouse in Detroit, before a hearing in which she entered a guilty plea on immigration charges, 25 April.

Ali Abunimah

Charlotte Silver-25 April 2017

Accompanied by dozens of her friends and supporters, Rasmea Odeh travelled to Detroit on Tuesday for one of her final hearings in her three-and-a-half-year legal battle with the US government.

The plea hearing in the packed, wood-panelled courtroom on Tuesday afternoon was brief.

Before he accepted the agreement, US District Judge Gershwin Drain asked Odeh a series of questions that established Odeh had accepted the plea deal freely and voluntarily.

Odeh, who was clearly emotional as she stood before the judge, was reluctant to say she was guilty. Drain asked her several times if she was guilty of the charge – “procuring [US] citizenship contrary to law” by failing to disclose a 1969 conviction in an Israeli military court.

“I think to sign this, it makes me guilty,” Odeh said after a long pause, holding up a copy of the plea agreement.

Odeh signed the deal last month, in which she pleaded guilty to knowingly making false statements about her history in her immigration and naturalization applications.

Before the hearing on Tuesday, dozens of supporters, many from as far away as Chicago, Minneapolis and Cleveland, rallied outside the federal courthouse in Detroit, as a lone counter-protester stood nearby.

 Follow

Ali Abunimah 

✔@AliAbunimah

On the right are Rasmea Odeh's supporters. On the left is one pro-Israel counter-protester

1:30 PM - 25 Apr 2017

 
•  3434 Retweets
 
•  4444 likes

Deportation

The agreement will see her stripped of her US citizenship and deported, but restrict her prison sentence to time served. Odeh spent five weeks in jail in 2014 after she was found guilty of immigration fraud.

Drain will formally sentence Odeh on 17 August and indicated that he would accept the sentencing recommendation in the agreement. After her sentencing, US immigration authorities will decide the date she will leave the United States, most likely to Jordan where she holds citizenship.

Since Odeh was indicted in October 2013, she had maintained her innocence, choosing to take her case to trial instead of accepting the plea deal that was offered at the time.

She was convicted in a trial in November 2014, but won an appeal in February 2016.

She was prepared to go to a new trial to argue she had failed to disclose her conviction and imprisonment by the Israeli military on her immigration forms due to her post-traumatic stress disorder.

But during the preliminary phase of the new trial, federal prosecutors expanded their indictment against Odeh, adding charges that she was a member of a “terrorist” organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

No chance of fair trial

Speaking to supporters and journalists outside the courthouse after Tuesday’s hearing, Odeh’s lead attorney Michael Deutsch explained why she had now chosen to take the deal.

Video: supporters greet Rasmea Odeh after hearing at which she pleaded guilty under deal. pic.twitter.com/ejNQVindWL

— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) April 25, 2017

 Follow

Ali Abunimah 

✔@AliAbunimah

Video: supporters greet Rasmea Odeh after hearing at which she pleaded guilty under deal.

3:30 PM - 25 Apr 2017

 
•  5858 Retweets
 
•  6464 likes

“What happened here is that the government took a run of the mill immigration violation case and they made it into a terrorism case,” Deutsch said. He added that her victory on appeal meant that she would have been able to speak about her history of torture and rape by the Israelis in a new trial.

Odeh was originally charged with immigration fraud for failing to disclose her conviction by an Israeli military court in 1969 for alleged involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem, one of which killed two civilians.

She was also convicted in 1969 of alleged membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that was designated as a terrorist organization in the US in 1997.

“We knew that given the climate and given all the things the government was prepared to do, she was not going to get a fair trial around these charges,” Deutsch said. “At the end of the day, if we won this case, the government could still deport her. The finding of not guilty in the criminal case would not have protected her from a deportation proceeding by the government.”

“A decision was made that the best result was to avoid having this woman go to prison and having to go into immigration custody and to let her leave with her head held high and with her principles and integrity intact,” Deutsch said. “That is what happened in court today, the beginning of that process. It’s not a joyful process, but it’s one you sometimes have to choose, weighing all the circumstances.”

Hatem Abudayyeh, director of the Arab American Action Network, where Odeh has worked for years establishing women’s empowerment programs in Chicago, paid tribute to his colleague.

“She’s guilty of one thing,” Abudayyeh said. “She’s guilty of dedicating over 50 years of her life to the liberation of Palestine.”

Abudayyeh also lauded the supporters who had traveled long distances to Detroit for every hearing in the case, and to her lawyers.

“For three and half years we put Israel on trial in the United States,” Abudayyeh said. “We put their treatment of our political prisoners on trial. We put their military courts on trial. We put their torture on trial. We put their sexual assault of our prisoners on trial.”

Abudayyeh urged her supporters to show up one more time in August, when Odeh returns to Detroit for her sentencing.

Ali Abunimah contributed reporting.

Duterte opens ASEAN Summit with call for regional anti-drug campaign

Police investigate the body of Herman Cunanan, whom police said was killed by men riding in two motorcycles, in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines October 19, 2016. Cunanan was a drug user, his unidentified live-in partner told reporters. Source: Reuters/Erik De Castro/File Photo

A policeman installs a police line as his colleague inspects the body of a suspected drug pusher, who was shot and killed by unidentified men, along an alley in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines March 7. Source: Reuters

29th April 2017

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte kicked off the ASEAN Summit on Saturday by evoking his brutal and highly-criticised anti-drug campaign.

In his opening speech to the 30th annual regional summit, Duterte called on the bloc’s leaders to work together to end the illegal drug trade.

“We must be resolute in realising a drug-free ASEAN… I have seen how drugs have ended hopes, dreams, future and even lives of countless people, especially the youth,” said the President.

“The illegal drug trade apparatus is massive, but it is not impregnable. With political will and cooperation, it can be dismantled, it can be destroyed before it destroys our societies,” he told members, as reported by ABS-CBN News.

SEE ALSO: Asean summit in Philippines amid drug war a ‘scandal’ – rights group

Many commentators believed Duterte’s bloody war on drugs would be largely ignored and brushed under the carpet at the summit as it was conspicuously missing from a draft statement to be issued by the Philippine president at the end of Saturday’s summit. But in placing his campaign centre stage in his opening remarks of the regional meet, Duterte has shown that he will not be fazed by the fierce international criticism he has faced in recent weeks.

International rights group Amnesty International called the Philippines’ chairing of the summit against the “horrifying” backdrop of the brutal war on drugs a “scandal”, and called for the government to make “independent and effective investigations into unlawful killings an immediate priority.”

On Tuesday, a New York Times editorial called for the world to condemn Duterte and to consider imposing economic sanctions on the Philippines to force the president to answer for his role in the killings.

It is currently estimated police and unidentified gunmen have killed more than 9,000 suspected drug users and dealers in the anti-drug crackdown.

Police claim to have killed 2,690 people, but this number doesn’t include the drug war victims Duterte calls “collateral damage” – including children killed by stray police bullets.

SEE ALSO: Lawyer of ‘Death Squad’ hitman files complaint against Duterte at ICC

Duterte’s opening statement comes just days after Filipino lawyer Jude Sabio formally asked the International Criminal Court on Monday to charge the president and 11 officials with mass murder and crimes against humanity over the extrajudicial killings.

On top of this, the embattled president is also facing an impeachment bid at home.

As he continues to court a storm of criticism from international governments and the media, some feel Duterte may get a more sympathetic audience within the ASEAN leadership.

“The ratbag of dictators, autocrats and juntas that dominate ASEAN’s ranks perceive transparency, accountability and rule of law as existential threats rather than foundations of good governance,” said Phelim Kine of Human Rights Watch, as reported by The PhilStar.

“Expect ASEAN leaders to yet again throw the human rights of an Asian country under the bus by remaining silent about Duterte’s abusive drug war by implicitly or explicitly invoking the organization’s ‘non-interference’ principle”. 

Pakistan PM fires advisor over newspaper leak, army rejects actions

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attends a ceremony to inaugurate the M9 motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad, near Hyderabad Pakistan February 3, 2017. REUTERS/Caren Firouz/File Photo

By Drazen Jorgic | ISLAMABAD-Sat Apr 29, 2017

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday sacked one of his special advisers and sanctioned another bureaucrat after an inquiry into a newspaper leak, but the country's powerful army rejected Sharif's directive as "incomplete".

The report's findings and recommendations threaten to reopen a rift between the army and the civilian government at a time when relations between the two have been relatively stable.

An article published in the English-language Dawn newspaper in October, detailing high-level security talks, had angered the army and led to the firing of then-Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, who was a Sharif ally.

The military's tough response, which included asking intelligence agencies to identify the journalist's sources, drew widespread criticism from rights groups who accused it of curtailing Pakistan's press freedoms.

The prime minister's office said Sharif had "approved the recommendations" from the report into the leak, which included the removal of Syed Tariq Fatemi, Sharif's special assistant on foreign affairs, from his post.

Sharif's office, in a statement, added Rao Tehsin Ali, principal information officer at the information ministry, will also be sanctioned on the basis of the report, which has not yet been published.

The Dawn newspaper, its editor Zafar Abbas and article author, Cyril Almeida, have been referred to the All Pakistan Newspaper Society for "necessary disciplinary action".

But the army swiftly rejected Sharif's directive.

"Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected.," the military's spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said on Twitter.

He did not elaborate on what other actions the government should take.

In October, the prime minister's office said the story was "planted" and termed it a "breach of national security."

The Dawn newspaper has stood by the author. Dawn journalists could not be reached for commen

Quoting anonymous sources, the Dawn article said civilian government officials called for the military not to interfere if civilian authorities tried to arrest members of anti-India militant groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Westerns powers and India have criticised Pakistan over its links with home-grown Islamist militant groups which carry out attacks in neighbouring India, though Islamabad denies supporting them.

Relations between the civilian government and military have often been strained in a country where several prime ministers, including Sharif himself, have been ousted in coups.

The appointment of Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa as the country's new military chief in November led to easing of tensions between Sharif's government and the military.

(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Trump is now talking about consolidating his power

By Aaron Blake April 29 at 9:30 AM

President Trump has suggested that the judiciary doesn't have the authority to question him. He was a very early proponent of nuking the filibuster for Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. And he recently raised eyebrows by congratulating Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the expansion of his presidential powers — echoing his previous admiration for strongman leaders.

Now Trump is talking about consolidating his own power.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Friday night, Trump dismissed the “archaic” rules of the House and Senate — using that word four times — and suggested they needed to be streamlined for the good of the country.

A sampling:

• “We don't have a lot of closers in politics, and I understand why: It's a very rough system. It's an archaic system.”
• “You look at the rules of the Senate, even the rules of the House — but the rules of the Senate and some of the things you have to go through — it's really a bad thing for the country, in my opinion. They're archaic rules. And maybe at some point we're going to have to take those rules on, because, for the good of the nation, things are going to have to be different.”
• “You can't go through a process like this. It's not fair. It forces you to make bad decisions. I mean, you're really forced into doing things that you would normally not do except for these archaic rules.”

And then Trump came out and just said it: He doesn't like the filibuster.

“I think, you know, the filibuster concept is not a good concept to start off with,” he said.

So there you go. Trump is frustrated with the pace of legislation after 100 days, and his answer is that he wants to change the rules.

Whether this is just him blowing off steam or signaling what lies ahead, it's significant. Because it suggests a president, yet again, who doesn't agree with his own powers being limited or even questioned. Remember when senior policy adviser Stephen Miller declared “the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned?” This is more of that kind of attitude.

He wants more power — and he wants it quickly. It's not difficult to connect this to his past admiration for authoritarian leaders, and these comments are likely to give Democrats (and even some in the GOP establishment) plenty of heartburn. This is a demonstrated pattern for him, for all the reasons listed at the top of this post.

We're a far cry from the presidential candidate who decried President Obama's executive orders, suggesting they were an indication of a weak leader who couldn't bend Congress to his will. Trump is now admitting that he can't bend Congress to his will, but he blames the system rather than himself. Who knew governing was so tough, right?

And it's difficult to overstate how significant it would be if he actually went after the filibuster. The 60-vote threshold for passing legislation in the Senate — which still exists for everything except presidential nominations — is the last vestige of Democratic power in Washington and really the only thing standing in the way of the majority party doing whatever it wants. Getting rid of it completely would change the face of American politics for good and clear a major hurdle for Trump in passing his agenda.

He'd still have to get Republicans to unite behind his priorities, which hasn't proven easy. His health-care push, for example, isn't stalled because of the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. It's actually not even subject to it; his problem is getting House Republicans to agree.

Whether he targets the filibuster specifically or not, his attitude toward his own power is clear: The more, the better. He's already gotten a taste for rolling back the filibuster, and after just 100 days of frustration, he already wants more.

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been chaotic and unpredictable. Reporters who covered it recount the events that dominated the news. (Alice Li, Jayne Orenstein, Julio Negron/The Washington Post)