Election 2010: Labour slumps to six month low in latest ICM poll

Labour's election campaign suffers a fresh blow with support for the party slumping to its lowest level for six months, a new ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph has found.In the latest Sunday Telegraph/ICM opinion poll, the Conservatives are up two points on 35 per cent, the Liberal Democrats are up one on 31 per cent while Labour is down two on 26 per cent – compared with the last poll by ICM last week.

While giving the Tories a clear lead, the poll shows that they are still well short of where they need to be to win an overall majority.

With less than two weeks to go before 6 May, the figures also suggest the Lib Dem bubble has not burst. All respondents were polled after the second televised election debate between the three main party leaders last Thursday.

If the figures were repeated on polling day, they would give the Conservatives 284 seats, Labour 232, and the Lib Dems 102 seats. The Conservatives would be the largest party but still 42 seats short of a majority.

Labour and Liberal Democrats would be able to form a majority coalition – but only just.

The Tories will also be buoyed by the fact that the Liberal Democrat vote is less solid than the other parties. Only 56 per cent of Lib Dems say they have definitely decided to vote, compared with 78 per cent of Tories and 74 per cent of Labour.

The Lib Dems are attracting the most support among 18-34 year-olds.

Asked who would make the best economic team, 30 per cent voters picked David Cameron and George Osborne, while 27 per cent picked Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling and 22 per cent picked Nick Clegg and Vince Cable.

John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde university, said: "The Prime Minister is in danger of leading his party to its worst electoral defeat since 1918. At 26 per cent, the party’s poll rating is even less than the 28 per cent it secured under Michael Foot’s leadership in 1983.

"It seems unlikely Mr Brown would survive long as Labour leader should such an outcome occur on May 6th. Only the vagaries of the electoral system potentially stand between Labour and complete disaster."

ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1020 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 23rd April 2010. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults.

Tories bank £1.45 million in donations in first week of election campaign - twice that of Labour

Wealthy Tory supporters swelled the party's election war chest by nearly £1.5 million in the first week of the campaign - nearly double the amount Labour wrung from its backers.

Gordon Brown was bailed out by two unions that threw more than £600,000 into Labour's campaign to try to match Tory spending.

Donations to the big two parties dwarfed the £20,000 given to the Liberal Democrats - and entirely failed to prevent Nick Clegg's poll breakthrough thanks to the free exposure provided by the leaders' TV debate.

Half of the LibDem's paltry donations came from longstanding supporter Paul Strasburger, a figure touched by controversy since he helped the party's disgraced benefactor Michael Brown in his legal battle against fraud charges.

The donations in the week after Mr Brown announced the election date on 6 April reinforced David Cameron's heavy advantage in campaign spending power.

Among the 33 contributors to the Conservative's £1,455,811 total named by the Electoral Commission yesterday were City fund manager Michael Spencer, whose IPGL company gave £250,000, and manufacturing tycoon Chris Rea, who gave £100,000.

The Commission's list of donations does not include smaller gifts of under £7,500. Tories claimed yesterday that they have received £250,000 in payments of £50 made by ordinary supporters.

Liberal Democrats banked only £20,000 from big-spending backers in the first week of the campaign, with £10,000 each from longstanding supporters Paul Strasburger and Stephen Dawson.

Mr Strasburger, who runs property and security companies, helped Michael Brown with his legal defence.

Liberal Democrats took £2.4 million from Brown, money that boosted its 2005 election effort, before his reputation collapsed.

Brown fled the country and was convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison for seven months in his absence in 2008.

However Mr Clegg's party is thought to have pulled in £120,000 in small donations after his dramatic success in the leaders' TV debate last Thursday.

Tories accused Labour of relying on union paymasters. Party chairman Eric Pickles said: 'Not only is Gordon Brown failing to convince voters, he’s also failing to convince donors.

'With his campaign in trouble, he turns again to the striking unions to bankroll his tired and discredited party.'

But former Labour Cabinet minister David Blunkett said: 'The support that Labour are receiving from ordinary people - many of whom have not been party activists in the past, but are drawn to us now because of the vision we're offering for the future and the threat posed to that by the Tories - is breathtaking.'

PayPal in Pakistan – Looks Possible, but it May Take Time!

Talk of PayPal entering Pakistan got buzzed up in previous 2 days, especially after some professionals got involved in discussion on TGP.

As always, Fouad Bajwa was amongst the campaigners, who announced that Mr. Ibrahim Qureshi (Director Raffles Pvt. Ltd) has promised to voice the need of PayPal in Pakistan during Obama’s presidential summit.

Discussion caught further attention when a member revealed that Paypal’s advance team recently visited Pakistan. He further said that PayPal is already engaged with local lawyers and other related institutes to start building their infrastructure to offer Paypal services in Pakistan.

This looked quite fascinating and importantly it made sense, particularly, after a recent announcement by PayPal to aggressively campaign in Asia (to be number one in region like they are in Europe and America) with an evident focus towards the mobile commerce along with traditional e-commerce services.

For the purpose, PayPal announced last month to double its employees from 1000 to over 2000 this year, with 100 new jobs alone for Singapore, company’s regional headquarter.

Though, PayPal has officially not authorized all this. Anuj Nayar, Director, Global Communications at PayPal in a communication with ProPakistani accepted that like always, PayPal is looking at ways to grow the business in Asia. However, he said that he has nothing in hands to announce about PayPal’s specific plans for Pakistan market.

A source at PayPal, who wanted to remain unnamed, told ProPakistani that Pakistan has some serious issues relating to its ecommerce infrastructure, payment gateways, which make it impossible for PayPal to step in to Pakistan. He said, PayPal’s usual feature of linking an email with customers’ bank account will never be possible in given banking infrastructure of Pakistan.

He admitted that PayPal has studied Pakistan, and recognizes the potential, however, stated problem is not in hands of PayPal.

In his opinion, PayPal may start operations while accepting limited banks, probably starting with Citibank (which has payment gateway), and then rolling out solution for other banks of the country.

Regulatory issues with State Bank of Pakistan are considered as hurdles too, but as stated earlier, there is no question of arguing over regulations when there is no infrastructure in place.

This is where our local banks and of course the government has to play some role. Payment gateways are a must have thing. We had reports of PTA working on it, but nothing concrete could be said on it, as of now.

So as a crux, one can safely say that its not PayPal who is not coming in Pakistan, its our banks who are not well equipped.

On a side note, as PayPal has plans to offer mobile banking solutions in the region, companies like EasyPaisa can come in, and join hands with PayPal (given that their banking partner– Tameer Bank, starts offering electronic payment solution).

But only time will tell that EasyPaisa and PayPal will work in hands or will become rivals.

Wateen and IPO: Insight

Wateen Telecom is easily one of largest WiMAX service providers in the world, offers LDI connectivity, holds 10,000 KMs long haul fiber optic throughout Pakistan, FTTH, satellite-internet, interconnection agreements with leading international telecom operators and what not?

One may agree that Wateen didn’t get a sparkling go in terms of WiMAX services, maybe due to an early start to counter the news that Mobilink is launching, however, today it has bunch of retail and wholesale services and probably the only network that can challenge PTCL.

Today Wateen has 12,000 broadband customers over fiber with 2,700 corporate links including 26 out of 31 commercial banks, 8 media companies, 13 telcos & carrier companies. Wateen processes over 1 billion minutes per year including direct LDI routes / interconnects with major incumbents i.e. Etisalat, STC, BT, MOC Kuwait etc.

On retail side, Wateen had to face several network issues due to technology constraint and a fact that it was deploying world’s first and largest commercial WiMAX network. Despite all this, company managed to gain 150,000 customers (claimed by internal reports), and probably un-beatable wireless broadband prices due to unmetered bandwidth on its WiMAX offerings. Wateen covers 22 cities for its WiMAX broadband, backed by 984 towers in total.

During the course, Wateen faced managerial and financial crisis as well. It had to lay off well over 500 employees last year for right sizing and to cut the operating cost. People like Tariq Qureshi, Javed Malik (now COO of Cybernet), Nadim Dogar now VP at Infotech, Athar Abbas- now CEO of a company in USA, left early.

Late last year we heard about Wateen in talks with foreign operators for partial sell out, however, deal didn’t go through for many reasons, price being one of them.

In October we heard Tariq Malik, CEO Wateen saying that company has decided to go for Initial Public Offering. At same time, Wateen recovered considerably huge payable amounts from domestic and international clients. That was time when Wateen revived from cash in hand problem, in fact it announced bonuses for employees.

Company kept working on IPO options and ultimately decided to go public with 110 million shares for institutes with greenshoe option of 90 million shares for general public. With total of 200 million shares at Rs. 10 per share, Wateen planned to raise PKR 2 billion.

IPOs usually happen to pay debts of yester years or to cash out. In Wateen’s case, they will achieve both the goals. Wateen is going to pay PKR 1.469 billion debt that it had acquired from commercial banks for network expansion. While another PKR 490 million will be paid to acquire company’s subsidiary ‘Wateen Solutions’ (formerly known as National Engineers (Pvt) Limited).

It merits mentioning here that Wateen currently holds 50.99 shares of Wateen Solutions, while 49 percent shares are owned by Mr. Jehangir Ahmed.

Post IPO

Wateen’s IPO is showing good signs as of now. Company’s 19.8 million shares were sold with-in first two days, while company CEO said that strategic investors, banks and different investment houses have already under written the 110 million shares, therefore, there would be no question of under subscription of the company’s issue.

Share prices that started from Rs. 10 per share are hopping around and over Rs. 11 mark.

As mentioned earlier, another 90 million shares would be offered to the general public and small investor in comparatively smaller lots of 500, 1000, 3000 and 5000 shares from 20^th and 21^st April 2010.

If, the IPO goes through, which apparently it will, Wateen has a network that can challenge PTCL.

Project Ranim Confidential Management Presentation 19th March 2008

Dozens of airport in Europe are Closed: Air traffic woes

Authorities say a volcanic ash cloud sweeping across Europe will continue to disrupt air travel this weekend.

Analysts estimate the chaos is costing the industry some 150 million euros per day.

Air traffic controllers say 28,000 flights normally operate daily in Europe. Just 11,000 took off on Friday.

A volcano in Iceland erupted on Wednesday, spewing out an ash cloud that is drifting eastwards across the continent.

Euronews correspondents at Brussels Zaventem airport and London Heathrow said check-in areas were completely deserted as officials cancelled all flights.

The shutdown of northern Europe’s airspace is also having a knock-on affect across the continent. There were bottlenecks at Istanbul airport on Friday where passengers face at least another 24 hours of delays.

National carrrier Turkish Airlines cancelled more than 80 flights to 14 countries over safety fears.

More than 1,000 dead in China quake

Originally used for a horse racing festival, a field on China’s remote and mountainous Tibetan plateau is being used as a temporary shelter for some who survived Wednesday’s deadly earthquake.

A lack of supplies and medical facilities mean tough conditions for those who have already lost their homes, belongings and, in many cases, loved ones.

Official Chinese media sources are now reporting more than 1,100 lives lost in the 6.9 magnitude quake, its epicentre in Yushu county. Some survivors say people from outside the quake-hit zone have been stealing tents destined for them.

But as tensions rise, rescue teams have found more survivors in the rubble.

As heavy equipment starts to arrive, Tibetan monks continue to use their bare hands to help. But with nearly 300 people still missing, as time passes, the chances of finding anyone else alive are diminishing.

Bhutto murder investigation flawed: UN

Pakistani police deliberately failed to properly investigate the 2007 assassination of former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto — a political murder that could have been prevented, a UN report says.

A special United Nations commission began looking into the assassination last July as part of a deal with the Pakistani government. It delivered its conclusions Thursday afternoon.

"There was little to no focus placed on investigating those further up the hierarchy in the planning, the financing and the execution of the assassination," Chile's UN ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, who chaired the commission, said at a news conference.

Munoz also said the Pakistani government "failed in its primary responsibility to provide protection" to Bhutto on the day of her death, despite clear warnings of threats on her life.

Bhutto, whose family constituted a political dynasty in Pakistan, served as prime minister from 1988-1990 and 1993-96 before she went into exile amid corruption allegations. She returned to her homeland in October 2007 to lead the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party in a parliamentary election campaign.

On Dec. 27, 2007, Bhutto had just finished addressing thousands of supporters at a rally in the city of Rawalpindi, about 18 kilometres south of Islamabad, when a man stepped from the crowd and shot her before blowing himself up. Bhutto was hit in the neck and chest, and 23 other people died in the ensuing suicide blast.

The government at the time of Bhutto's murder, led by President Pervez Musharraf, blamed the killing on Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant commander with reported links to al-Qaeda. Officials at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency also said Mehsud was the chief suspect.

But the Pakistan People's Party repeatedly hinted that Musharraf or his allies were involved and demanded a UN probe, asserting it was the only way the whole truth would be revealed.

Munoz on Thursday refrained from directly inculpating Musharraf, but he said a new, proper criminal investigation into Bhutto's death needs to look at not only the possible involvement of al-Qaeda, Mehsud and the Taliban but also the Pakistani establishment, including the military, intelligence agencies and the country's business elite.

"The criminal investigation of the assassination … must include a focus on those who might have been involved," Munoz said. "It should follow all leads and explore all reasonable hypotheses."

'Hindered and prejudiced'

The UN report levels 15 major criticisms at the Pakistani government's actions around the Bhutto assassination, including that the subsequent murder investigation was deliberately slipshod.

Video footage of Benazir Bhutto's last moments shows a man in a crowd aiming a gun (circled) at the Pakistani opposition leader. A suicide bomb went off seconds later. (CBC)

Pakistani officials announced just 24 hours after the killing that Mehsud was their primary suspect, "well before" it was reasonable to do so, the UN report says. This "hindered and prejudiced the subsequent investigation," Munoz said, adding that, to this day, police still have not seriously rethought whether Mehsud was involved, despite his denials.

The police probe was also marred by the involvement of the country's intelligence agencies, which meddled in crime-scene evidence gathering and drew hasty conclusions about the culprits that "pre-empted, prejudiced and hindered the subsequent investigation," Munoz said.

"The pervasive reach, control and clandestine role of intelligence agencies in Pakistani society," he continued, "has undermined the rule of law and distorted civil-military relations. At the same time it has contributed to widespread public mistrust."

The UN panel concludes that the assassination is still "shrouded in mystery and controversy" and desperately needs a fresh criminal investigation to end continuing impunity.

Police in Pakistan arrested five suspects, including a 15-year-old boy, in the months following the incident, alleging that they were part of a hit team of 12 militants. Three of the remaining conspirators are now dead, while four are at large, Pakistani officials say. Mehsud was assassinated last summer by the CIA.

In the wake of Bhutto's death, her party won parliamentary elections and eventually forced Musharraf to resign. Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, became president in September 2008.