Malaysia's civil aviation chief resigns following MH370 report
Kuala Lumpur, July 31 : Malaysia's civil aviation chief resigned on Tuesday, a day after a report into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 showed lapses by Kuala Lumpur's air traffic control centre.
In a statement, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said although the investigation report "does not suggest that the accident is caused by the Department of Civil Aviation then, nevertheless, there are some very apparent findings with regards to the operations of the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre; where it was stated that the Air Traffic Controller did not comply with certain Standard Operating Procedures", reports Efe news.
"Therefore, it is with regret and after much thought and contemplation that I have decided to resign as the Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia effective fourteen days from the date of the resignation notice which I have served today," Azharuddin said.
The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, around 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, 154 of whom were Chinese.
On Monday, an international team of experts from eight countries presented the report of a four-year long investigation, but they were unable to determine who was responsible for the plane's disappearance.
The document indicates that the course of the flight was changed manually after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. The report also points to failings in Malaysia's surveillance systems and does not rule out interference by third parties.
Investigators believe the aircraft crashed into the Indian Ocean and 27 fragments of the plane have been recovered from beaches in Reunion, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa and Pemba Island (Zanzibar).
Specialised search teams combed an area of 120,000 sq.km and experts believe the plane was likely to have crashed, but called off the operation after they found nothing.
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If Muslim-majority Wayanad can elect non-Muslims, surely Rae Bareli can elect Muslims: Owaisi
New Delhi (PTI): If Muslim-majority seats like Wayanad can elect non-Muslims, surely Rae Bareli, Amethi and Etawah can elect Muslims, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said on Wednesday, lamenting the small number of Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha.
Reiterating B R Ambedkar's views, Owaisi said for India to be democracy in the substantial sense, political power must be held by the most marginalised and the weakest.
"He (Ambedkar) repeatedly said political power is the key to social progress. You have only four per cent Muslims here. The ruling party has no Muslim member," he said in a debate on election reforms in Lok Sabha.
He lamented that the small number of Muslims in Lok Sabha.
"Muslims are not there, they are not reflected in the secular parties for example if Muslim-majority seats like Wayanad can elect non-Muslims, surely Rae Bareli, Amethi and Etawah can elect Muslims," Owaisi said in an apparent swipe at the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are MPs from Wayanad and Rae Bareli respectively. While Amethi and Rae Bareli has been the bastion of the Congress and the Gandhi family, Etawah has been an SP bastion.
