ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira Wednesday denied earlier reports that the black box (Flight Data Recorder) of the crashed plane has been found, Geo News reported.

He also announced for compensation of Rs 0.5 million to the victims.

Earlier in the day, the federal cabinet announced a day of national mourning. He also informed the journalist about a relief camp established in Aab Para, which would start functioning from tomorrow.

The minister said, they would have to use DNA tests to identify charred bodies plucked from the wreckage of the airliner.

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GENEVA: Pakistani High Commissioner in Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan headed a secret operation in Geneva and received at least 12 cartons comprising the original documents and evidences against some Pakistani high-ups in Swiss money laundering case, Geo News reported Tuesday.

According to Geo News correspondent, the Prosecutor General of Pakistan in Geneva deposited these cartons in the era of former President Pervez Musharraf.

The sources said the secret operation was carried out at the bidding of a top personality of Pakistan, as these evidences could be used if Swiss Money Laundering case is reopened after the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) terms comes to an end.

The sources at Pakistan embassy said if the concerned officials or the courts do not interfere by taking the evidences back from Wajid, then these documents would be wasted for good.

The secret operation begins at 9am on Monday when Wajid arrived in Pak High Commission’s car along with NAB’s senior official Danishwar Malik at the office of Prosecutor General in Geneva.

According to sources, the Prosecutor General kept refusing to give the documents for some hours, as nobody from Pakistan embassy was formally receiving them.

It should be mentioned here that after the NRO, these cases were closed. However now that the term of NRO is over, it was all the more likely that these cases could be re-opened and these evidences could be employed against Pakistan’s high personality.

Geo News team secretly filmed the whole episode from an undisclosed location after receiving tip-off from reliable sources.

The sources in Geneva told Geo News that Wajid Shamsul Hasan is arriving in Geneva from London, so that these documents could be destroyed or shifted to some safer place.

The Pak embassy in Geneva was kept aloof from the operation.

Geo News correspondent Javed Kanwal approached Wajid and Danishwar, as both of them appeared from the office. Both of them looked perturbed at the presence of Geo News reporter there.

When approached for comment, Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said he is absolutely unaware of any such operation; however, he would assert a portion of media is victimizing President Asif Ali Zardari with its heinous campaign.

The high-ups in Interior Ministry also said they are not abreast of any such report, adding the matter relates the NAB and Law Ministry.

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Iqbal was more than a poet or philosopher: Dr Javed

LAHORE: Justice (R) Dr Javed Iqbal, the son of poet laureate Allama Mohammad Iqbal said the Ulema of subcontinent have neglected the ‘dynamic’ aspects of Iqbal’s thought due to considering him just a poet or philosopher.

Dr Javed expressed these views while addressing a seminar on ‘Iqbal and present day Pakistan’ organised by Iqbal Academy Pakistan and Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman Memorial Society at the occasion of 133rd Iqbal Day on Monday.

Dr Javed read out his thesis on: ‘Islamic State of Pakistan in the Ideology of Iqbal – How to achieve an ideal secular state’.

He said the ability of a nation for being talented and powerful lies in its capacity of bringing up unique and distinctive personalities.

‘Allama Iqbal also urged for encouraging the creation of self-identifying individuals’, he added.

Meanwhile, on this occasion renowned Religious Scholar Dr Israr Ahmed said that Allama Iqbal was a harbinger of the renaissance of Islamic Millat and resurgence of Islam as well.

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ISLAMABAD: Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer prize winning journalist, stood by his report containing comments offered by former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf about President Asif Ali Zardari. He disclosed that the former president had given even harsher comments about his successor but in the ultimate scrutiny he made them mild and allowed the remarks that he made part of his article. Hersh will appear in Geo News programme ‘Meray Mutabiq’, at 2:05 pm today (Tuesday). Renowned journalist Dr Shahid Masood hosts the programme. Group Editor of The News Shaheen Sehbai will also participate. It is the maiden interview of the US investigative journalist in the wake of his thrilling write-up in the New Yorker magazine.

Hersh also discussed the role of the US embassy in Islamabad. He said it was the report that was received from the US embassy in Islamabad that highly classified US military and civil-emergency response team was put on alert indicating that a Pakistani nuclear component had gone astray. The team, which operates clandestinely and includes terrorism and non-proliferation experts from the US intelligence community, the Pentagon, the FBI, and the DOE, is under standing orders to deploy from Andrews Air Force Base, in Maryland (Washington), within four hours of an alert. When the report turned out to be a false alarm, the mission was aborted. By the time the team got the message, it was already in Dubai on its way to Pakistan. Hersh made several startling disclosures in the interview with Geo News.

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CHARSADDA: At least 15 people have been killed and various others injured in a powerful blast in Charsadda area of Farroq-e-Azam Chawk, Geo News reported Tuesday.

The place is usually crowded one. The people on their own kick-started the relief activities and rushed the bodies and injured to the nearby hospital.

The blast was so power that the windowpanes of nearby buildings broke and the smoke is seen billowing from the blast site.

The state of emergency has been declared in the hospital.

According to Geo News correspondent, at least 15 bodies have been taken to the District Hospital and some injured are in critical condition.

Some injured have been rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital.

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LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson may be headed to the top of the charts again — this time at the movie box office.

“Michael Jackson’s This Is It” took in $2.2 million domestically from its first late-night screenings, setting it up for a big full opening day Wednesday and a strong shot at a No. 1 debut weekend.

Those evening screenings alone were enough to top the $1.7 million that Paramount’s fright flick “Paranormal Activity,” last weekend’s No. 1 movie, pulled in over the entire day Tuesday.

With Halloween at hand, “Paranormal Activity” expands into its widest release yet, about 2,400 theaters, compared to about 3,500 for “This Is It.”

Distributor Sony said Wednesday matinees for “This Is It” already had surpassed the film’s haul from those first evening screenings. The studio paid $60 million for worldwide rights to the film, which was distilled from more than 100 hours of footage shot as Jackson rehearsed for what would have been a 50-concert comeback run in London starting last July.

While “This Is It” is not quite a concert film, box-office watchers are gauging its success against “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” the biggest concert movie on record. “Best of Both Worlds” had a $31.1 million opening weekend last year and pulled in $65.3 million domestically during its entire run.

“This Is It” so far has not approached any major box-office records. The best results ever for advance evening screenings came from “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which took in $13.2 million Thursday night ahead of its official Friday release in summer 2006. “Independence Day” had the best Tuesday night advance results, with $11.1 million in summer 1996.

Still, “This Is It” already is well on its way to becoming a top-grossing music documentary.

Last March’s “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” runs a distant second to “Best of Both Worlds in the concert-film record books, topping out at $19.2 million. “Madonna: Truth or Dare” follows with $15 million, and last year’s “U2 3D” is fourth with $10.2 million.

“As a genre, concert movies and even documentaries aren’t usually the type of films to bring in big box-office bucks, but because of his name and also the timing of it, I think it’s a winner,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst. “That $60 million investment I think was worthwhile.”

Sony, which opened “This Is It” simultaneously in 99 countries, plans to release worldwide box-office results Thursday for the film’s first full day.

“This Is It” faces some hurdles over its first weekend, which falls on Halloween, when the main competition will be scary movies such as “Paranormal Activity” and “Saw VI.”

Halloween day itself, which falls on Saturday, typically cuts into theater business, with many fans skipping movies in favor of parties.

With Jackson’s death just weeks before the concerts were to open, the rehearsal footage now stands as a final curtain call, and fans have been happy to get one last glimpse of the singer at work.

Some came away surprised at how precise and hands-on the soft-spoken Jackson was as he developed the musical numbers with his backup dancers and musicians.

“He was very, very much into every detail of his work,” said Marilyn Morrison, who saw “This Is It” in New York City. “I always thought that he was so quiet and shy, but he was very authoritative, very detail-orientated.”

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