e-paper pakistantoday 03rd october, 2012

Wednesday, 3 october, 2012 dhual-Qi’da 15, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 97 19 pages Karachi edition

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PHC CJ ordersreligious lessons for ‘brothel owner’

Will withdraw FC ifNawaz guaranteesBalochistan peace: Kaira

India will be patient indealing with 26/11 casewith Pakistan: Krishna

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ISLAMABADKASHIF ABBASI

IT seems the federal government is inno mood to comply with the order ofthe Supreme Court in the dualnationality holders case, as theNational Assembly Secretariat on

Tuesday refused to follow the ElectionCommission of Pakistan’s order to get newdeclaration forms filled from legislatorsregarding their nationalities.In pursuance of the Supreme Court orderdated September 20 in the dual nationalitycase, the ECP wrote letters to the secretariesof NA, Senate and the provincial assemblieson September 24, directing them to take freshundertakings from lawmakers about theirnationalities.However, the NA Secretariat on Tuesdayrefused to comply with the ECP order andinformed the commission that it was not theresponsibility of the NA Secretariat to takeoath from parliamentarians.A source in the ECP confirmed that thecommission had received a reply from theNA Secretariat, in which it refused tocooperate with the ECP vis-à-vis taking oathfrom parliamentarians. According to theconstitution of Pakistan, dual nationalityholders cannot become lawmakers, but somehave sneaked into the assemblies as 11 ofthem were recently disqualified by the orderof apex court.The court verdict also directed the ECP totake fresh oath from lawmakers to ascertaintheir nationalities.

Article 63(I) C of the constitution of Pakistanreads: “A person shall be disqualified frombeing elected or chosen as, and from being amember of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)if, he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan, oracquire the citizenship of foreign state.”A senior official of the ECP told PakistanToday that under Article 220, all federatingunits including the National Assembly,provincial assemblies and Senate of Pakistanare bound to comply with the ECP order andif parliamentarians do not submit oath asdirected by the ECP, it can summon theperson concerned.Another senior official of the ECP, wishingnot to be named, said in this particular case,the ECP was following directives of theSupreme Court and if any governmentdepartment did not follow the ECP’sdirectives, the Supreme Court could initiatecontempt of court proceedings against theperson responsible.Meanwhile, the ECP on Tuesday againdirected all members of the NationalAssembly, provincial assemblies and Senate tosubmit undertaking about their nationalitiesby October 9, 2012.“All parliamentarians and members of theprovincial assemblies are once againreminded to submit fresh declaration onoath that they are not disqualified underArticle 63(1)(c) of the constitution,” said ahand out issued by the ECP. The hand out said the ECP was taking thestep in the pursuance of Supreme Courtorder dated September 20,2012 in dualnationality case.

Battle lines drawn overdual nationality issueg NA Secretariat refuses to comply with ECP ordersto take new undertakings from parliamentarians

WASHINGTONSPeCIAl CorreSPondenT

With the surge of American troops overand the Taliban still a potent threat, U.S.civilian and military officials acknowl-edge that they have all but written offbattering the Taliban into a peace deal,a report in The New York Times said.

The goal to force the Taliban into apeace deal was once one of the corner-stones of the US strategy to end the

decade-old Afghan war, the paper notedTuesday. “The once ambitious Americanplans for ending the war are now being re-placed by the far more modest goal of set-ting the stage for the Afghans to work outa deal among themselves in the years aftermost Western forces depart, and to ensurePakistan is on board with any eventual set-tlement,” the Kabul-datelined report said.

According to the report, military anddiplomatic officials in Kabul and in Wash-ington, despite attempts to engage di-

rectly with Taliban leaders this year, nowexpect that any significant progress willcome only after 2014, once the bulk ofNATO troops have left the country. “Idon’t see it happening in the next coupleyears,” the paper quoted an unnamedsenior coalition officer as saying. “It’s avery resilient enemy, and I’m not going totell you it’s not,” the officer said. “It will bea constant battle, and it will be for years.”

UNITED NATIONSAPP

Representatives of Pakistan and Indiahad a verbal duel in the UN General As-sembly on Monday night over theJammu and Kashmir dispute.

Reacting to Indian External AffairsMinister SM Krishna’s assertion earlier inthe day that last week’s remarks by Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari on Kashmir were “un-warranted”, Pakistan’s Deputy PermanentRepresentative Raza Bashir Tarar de-fended the Pakistani leader’s statement,saying the dispute remained unresolved.“Let me begin by emphasizing that the ref-erence to the Jammu and Kashmir disputein the President of Pakistan’s statementwas not ‘unwarranted’,” Ambassador Tararsaid, while exercising his right of reply tothe Indian minister’s statement in which

Krishna also claimed that the Himalayanstate was an “integral part” of India. “Letme also make absolutely clear that Jammuand Kashmir is neither an integral part ofIndia nor has it ever been,” the Pakistanienvoy told the 193-member Assembly.

President Zardari reaffirmed in hisspeech that Pakistan “will continue tosupport the right of the people ofJammu and Kashmir to peacefullychoose their destiny in accordance withthe UN Security Council’s long-stand-ing resolutions on this matter”. Kash-mir, he said, remained “a symbol of thefailures of the United Nations systemrather than its strengths.” The presi-dent went on to say that a solutioncould only be reached in an “environ-ment of cooperation”.

Indian delegate Vinay Kumar, re-sponding to references by Ambassador

Tarar, insisted that Jammu and KashmirState was an integral part of India,adding that Pakistan’s “illegal occupa-tion” of parts of the region was in viola-tion of India’s territorial integrity andinternational law. India, he added, re-jected Pakistan’s claim in its entirety.Exercising his right to reply for a secondtime, Ambassador Tarar said the dis-puted status of Jammu and Kashmir hadbeen set out in Security Council resolu-tions and agreed upon by both Pakistanand India. As such, characterizing theregion as “an integral part of India” wasuntenable, he said, adding that the peo-ple of Jammu and Kashmir had not ex-ercised their right to self-determination.

The Indian delegate, rejecting thecomments by Ambassador Tarar, as-serted once again that Jammu andKashmir was an integral part of India.

US scaling down hopes forTaliban peace deal: report

Pakistani and Indian UN envoystrade barbs over Kashmir

Continued on page 04

A display announces Pakistan’s qualification in the T20 Cricket World Cup

semi final as Indian player Virat Kohli takes the field dejected. Pakistani

cricket team defeated Australia by 32 runs earlier in the day and threw

South Africa out of the contention, but South Africa needed at least 122 runs

to throw India out of the tourney and send Pakistan forward. STORY ON PAGE 20

KHI 03-10-2012_Layout 1 10/3/2012 2:27 AM Page 1

02News

Today’s

LookQuick

neWS

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cartOOn

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infOtainment

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Protests over TV reporter’s killing new extreme sport of Flyboarding takes off in Australia

Wednesday, 3 October, 2012

Zardari to announce end ofload shedding soon: Altaf

LONDON: Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) Chairman AltafHussain said President Asif AliZardari would soon announce anend to load shedding in thecountry. “MQM and PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) have beeneach other’s allies for 4.5 yearsnow and will sustain this bond infuture as well,” he stated. “Besidesoffsetting the deprivations of thepeople of Balochistan, it is highlyvital to make an attempt to recoverthe missing persons of theprovince,” said Hussain. FederalInterior Minister Rehman Malik,who was also present on theoccasion, remarked that PPP and

MQM would maintain their alliance for the stability of democracyand resolution of people’s issues in the country. InP

Peshawar Police defusesexplosive device weighing 5 kgsPESHAWAR: The Peshawar Police on Tuesday defused anexplosive device weighing five kilogrammes in Shekhan area.Talking to reporters, Bomb Disposal Squad Inspector GeneralShafqat Malik said the device was apparently placed to target bombdisposal squad personnel. He said a body had also been recoveredfrom the scene, adding that it could not be confirmed whether it wasbrought there from somewhere else or he was killed while plantingthe device. Malik said the identity of the body would be ascertainedafter autopsy. More than five explosive devices have been defused inShekhan area in the past week. STAFF rePorT

Pak, India forces exchange fireLAHORE: Pakistani and Indian forces resorted to cross-borderfiring at Shakargarh sector on Monday, but no human loss wasreported. Indian forces resorted to unprovoked firing at theLabrial check post at Shakargarh sector and also fired mortarshells which landed in Pakistani territory. Panic spread in thearea after the exchange of firing. InP

Malik backtracks on claimsregarding dual national MPs

ISLAMABAD: Interior MinisterRehman Malik on Tuesday ate hiswords when he told the SupremeCourt in a written reply in the dualnationality petition that he did nothave any information aboutparliamentarians having dualnationalities. Malik had earlierclaimed that he knew of severalparliamentarians who possessed dualnationalities, and offered to presentthe evidence in court on which the SCput him on notice. Meanwhile, theElection Commission of Pakistan

(ECP) has filed a petition in Karachi District Courts asking for acriminal case against Malik and parliamentarians Farah Naz Isphahaniand Nadia Gabol. The court has summoned all three on Oct 9 andissued bail bonds of Rs 50,000 each. onlIne

PESHAWARSAjjAd AlI

A District and Sessions Court on Tuesdaysummoned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ministerfor sport and tourism in connection with afake degree case on October 11.

The regional election commissioner(REC) on Monday filed a complaint in thecourt of the district and sessions judge, say-ing sitting Provincial Minister Syed Aqil Shahhad submitted fake graduation degree duringthe 2008 general election. Syed Aqeel Shahcontested election for the seat of provincialassembly from PF-4 Peshawar constituency.

Following the complaint, the district andsessions judge summoned the minister onOctober 11. The petition said the accusedfiled his nomination papers before the re-turning officer declaring on oath that he wasa graduate, was qualified under Article 62and was not subject to any disqualificationprovided under Article 63 to become a can-didate for the seat of provincial assembly.

The REC said the bachelor’s degree ofthe accused issued by Punjab University onOctober 15, 2002 was inspected by theHigher Education Commission (HEC) andwas found fake on August 5, 2010.

He added that in support, the HEC sup-

plied a copy of a letter of the university stat-ing that no record of the accused existedthere. The petitioner said the accused ap-peared before a nominated officer of theElection Commission on November 29, 2010and submitted another copy of BA degreefrom Punjab University, attested on its backby the HEC.

It was also sent to the HEC for verifica-tion but the HEC reported that it was thesame degree, which had already declaredbogus.

Thereafter, the petition said, the accusedproduced before the nominated officer acopy of transcript of BA marks sheet issuedon March 3, 2007 by Newports Institute ofCommunication and Economics, Karachi.He also submitted an affidavit wherein hedisowned the BA degree from Punjab Uni-versity and claimed that he had attachedcopy of the said marks sheet with his nomi-nation paper.

The complainant added that the saidcopy was also sent to the HEC for verificationthrough Newports, but the institution saidthe marks sheet had not been issued by it. InSeptember 2011, the accused produced aBBA degree issued by American Interna-tional College Lahore, which was sent to theHEC for verification.

ISLAMABADTAyyAB HuSSAIn

Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) hassent its first reminder to Finance Minister DrAbdul Hafeez Shaikh about what it calls a “seri-ous complaint” against the alleged “illegal ap-pointment” of Azhar Abbas Jaffery, a foreignnational, as the managing director of HouseBuilding Finance Corporation (HBFC) and ac-cused him of financial irregularities.

The letter referred to the TIP’s previous let-ter written on April 23, 2012 to the ministerabout the serious complaint against the allegedillegal appointment of Azhar Abbas Jaffery, whothe TIP claims did not possess Pakistani nation-ality and conducted financial irregularities, butno reply or clarification was given by the minis-ter.

The letter, signed by TIP adviser Adil Gilani,also has annexed copies of two letters recentlyissued to the HBFC secretary and managing di-rector by Ministry of Finance on August 15 andSeptember 14.

The TIP questioned the continuation of Jaf-fery as the HBFCL MD after completion of histhree-year term that ended on January 5, 2012,and said the continuation was against the law.

“The matter is also in a court of law (Islam-abad High Court),” the letter added.

“The terms and conditions of his (Jaffery’s)appointment as the managing director for three

years will not automatically apply for the periodbeyond completion of his three-year term i.eJanuary 5, 2012,” the letter said, adding that theHBFCL board of directors and its sub-commit-tee were non existent.

Moreover, the three-years tenure of HBFCLMD already expired in January 2012 and hadnot been extended, and due to his Singaporeannationality, the appointment of Jaffery had be-come controversial at various forums, the TIPsaid.

“It seems the Ministry of Finance has, afterfour months realised that the appointment of MrAzhar Abbas Jaffery was in fact illegal, and hiscontinuation as managing director of HBFC isalso illegal”.

In the changed scenario, the TIP requestedthe minister to find out why the State Bank ofPakistan and the Securities and Exchange Com-mission of Pakistan remained silent, as no in-quiry was needed due to the fact that BanksNationalisation Act clearly stated that a non-Pakistani was not entitled to be appointed.

“Transparency International Pakistan hasalso checked up with the NADRA chairman andNADRA has confirmed that Pakistan OriginCards are only issued to those Pakistanis who arenot Pakistan citizens but are of Pakistani Origin.”

The 2009 claims of Azhar Abbas Jaffery ofbeing a Pakistani citizen with valid NIC No42301-647193-1, if true, are a fraud, the TIPadded.

PNRA authorisesHMC-3 to manufacturesafety equipmentfor nuclear plants

TAXILAKASHIF ABBASI

The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority(PNRA) has authorised Heavy MechanicalComplex-3 (HMC-3) to manufacture class-1safety equipment for nuclear plants. “Class-1equipment is used in nuclear plants to savethem from any sort of destruction,” saidPervez Butt, former Pakistan Atomic EnergyCommission (PAEC) chairman. Talking toPakistan Today on Tuesday, he saidPakistan used to depend on Chinese-madeclass-1 equipment for its nuclear plants. Toa query, the nuclear expert said Class-1equipment meant “all equipment the failureof which could result in nuclear incident”.“In case of any untoward incident, theseequipments will automatically stopoperation so there is no danger of nucleardestruction.” At a ceremony held onTuesday, the PNRA chairman granted thelicence to PAEC chairman. Minister forWater and Power Ahmed Mukhtar was thechief guest. Earlier, speaking on theoccasion, PNRA Chairman Anwar Habibsaid the PNRA awarded the licence to PAECafter complete inspection. He said the PNRAwas requested in 2008 for the licence but ittook 3 years to PAEC to meet internationalstandards to get this licence.

TIP reminds Hafeez aboutHBFC MD’s ‘illegal hiring’

Sitting KP minister summoned by

court over fake degree


03NewseditOrialThe die is cast:

cOmment

articles on Page 14

PPP’s wrong step in Sindh.

dr Hasan Askari rizvi says;The realities of Pakistan: Strengthening positive ones should be priority.

Ajai Shukla says;

Five more years for Zardari?: It’s almost written in stone.

artS & entertainment

Story on Page 13

buSineSS

Story on Page 18

SPOrtS

Story on Page 15

Something beyond ‘Tiger’ to pair with Salman again Asian markets boosted by uS manufacturing data england not good enough, says Broad


MULTANonlIne

PUNJAB Governor LatifKhosa has accused the Sharifbrothers of wanting to dis-member the country by sup-porting the six points of

Balochis and nationalist Sindhis. Addressing a press conference at

Multan airport, he said that the govern-ment has invited the nationalist Balochisfor negotiations. “All the Balochis are pa-triotic and want to live as Pakistanis,whereas the Sharif brothers are deceiv-ing them,” he maintained.

Khosa also demanded the SupremeCourt to dispel the Mehran Bank scan-dal case before the demise of AsgharKhan, so that the country may get ridof the anti-Pakistan politics of the

Sharif brothers. He said Punjab Chief Minister Shah-

baz Sharif is involved in the economicmurder of the people of Southern Punjaband is exploiting them, adding that thetwo brothers are against the establish-ment of a Seraiki province.

Answering a question, he said Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP) would estab-lish a Seraiki province as per wishes ofthe people.

“Dictatorship had paved the way forthe two Sharif brothers in politics andthey do not want to see democracy flour-ishing,” Khosa said.

He said that ‘Tsunami Khan’ shouldnot harm the state with undue criticismon PPP.

He asserted that the federal gov-ernment wanted to better the condi-tion of Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA andPakistan Railways.

Sharif brothers want todismember Pakistan: Khosa

Will withdraw FC if Nawaz guarantees

Balochistan peace: KairaLAHORE: The government can call theFrontier Corps back from Balochistan ifPakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)President Nawaz Sharif is ready to take theresponsibility of the law and order there,Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kairasaid on Tuesday. Talking to reporters alongwith Minister for Religious AffairsKhursheed Shah, Kaira urged the PML-Nchief to avoid issuing irresponsiblestatements that could hurt the government’sefforts of mending the already deterioratinglaw and order in the province. He saidpolitical leadership should avoid indulgingin judicial issues and let the courts decide.To a question regarding cases againstjournalists, Kaira said he would talk to theBalochistan home minister about the issue.Shah said Nawaz changed his statementswith every changing situation which wasagainst democratic and political norms andwhich revealed that Nawaz had no agenda toresolve the issues. STAFF rePorT

WASHINGTON SPeCIAl CorreSPondenT

With drone technology proliferating rapidlyand the US setting a dangerous precedent oftheir use, the world is likely to see a new armsrace between states as well as more securityramifications if insurgent groups or non-stateactors also get hold of the weapon.

According to the New America Founda-tion more than 70 countries now own sometype of drone, though just a small number ofthose nations possess armed drone aircraft.

“The explosion in drone technologypromises to change the way nations conductwar and threatens to begin a new arms raceas governments scramble to counterbalancetheir adversaries,” Peter Bergen, Director ofNational Security Studies at the New Amer-ica Foundation and Jennifer Rowland, a pro-gram associate, remark in a well-researchedpiece posted by CNN on its website.

The experts cite Chinese announcementthat it would use surveillance drones to mon-itor a group of uninhabited islands in theSouth China Sea that are controlled by Japanbut claimed by China and Taiwan.

While in August 2010, Iran unveiledwhat it claimed was its first armed drone.And on Tuesday, the country’s military chief,Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, disclosed details ofa new long-range drone that he said can fly2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), which putsTel Aviv easily in range.

“But without an international frameworkgoverning the use of drone attacks, theUnited States is setting a dangerous prece-dent for other nations with its aggressive and

secretive drone programs in Pakistan andYemen, which are aimed at suspected mem-bers of al Qaeda and their allies.”

“Just as the U.S. government justifies itsdrone strikes with the argument that it is atwar with al Qaeda and its affiliates, one couldimagine that India in the not too distant fu-ture might launch such attacks against sus-pected terrorists in Kashmir, or China mightstrike Uighur separatists in western China, orIran might attack Baluchi nationalists alongits border with Pakistan.”

The two experts feel that moment mayalmost be here. China took the United Statesby surprise in November 2010 at the ZhuhaiAir Show, where it unveiled 25 drone models,some of which were outfitted with the capa-bility to fire missiles.

But so far, according the experts, only theUnited States, United Kingdom and Israelare known to have launched drone strikesagainst their adversaries, although othermembers of the International Security Assis-tance Force in Afghanistan, such as Australia,have “borrowed” drones from Israel for usein the war there. A 2011 study estimated thatthere were around 680 active drone develop-ment programs run by governments, compa-nies and research institutes around theworld, compared with just 195 in 2005.

In 2010, U.S.-based General Atomics re-ceived export licenses to sell unarmed ver-sions of the Predator drone to Saudi Arabia,Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emi-rates. And in March, the U.S. governmentagreed to arm Italy’s six Reaper drones butrejected a request from Turkey to purchasearmed Predator drones.

Israel is the world’s largest exporter ofdrones and drone technology, and the state-owned Israeli Aerospace Industries has soldto countries as varied as Nigeria, Russia andMexico. Building drones, particularly armeddrones, takes sophisticated technology andspecific weaponry, but governments are in-creasingly willing to invest the necessary timeand money to either buy or develop them, asarmed drones are increasingly seen as an in-tegral part of modern warfare.

Sweden, Greece, Switzerland, Spain,Italy and France are working on a joint proj-ect through state-owned aeronautical com-panies and are in the final stages ofdeveloping an advanced armed drone proto-type called the Dassault nEURon, fromwhich the France plans to derive armeddrones for its air force.

Pakistani authorities have long tried topersuade the United States to give themarmed Predator drones, while India owns anarmed Israeli drone designed to detect anddestroy enemy radar, though it does not yethave drones capable of striking other targets.

The Teal Group, a defense consultingfirm in Virginia, estimated in June that theglobal market for the research, developmentand procurement of armed drones will justabout double in the next decade, from $6.6billion to $11.4 billion. In addition to states,insurgent groups, too, are moving to acquirethis technology. Last year, Libyan oppositionforces trying to overthrow the dictatorMoammar Gadhafi bought a sophisticatedsurveillance drone from a Canadian companyfor which they paid in the low six figures. Atiny drone can be bought on Amazon with

mere $250 cost. “As drone technology be-comes more widely accessible, it is only amatter of time before well-financed drug car-tels acquire them. And you can imagine a dayin the not too distant future where armeddrones are used to settle personal vendettas,”the analysts fear.

They point out that given the relativelylow costs of drones — already far cheaperthan the costs of a fighter jet and of traininga fighter jet pilot — armed drones will play akey role in future conflicts.

The experts note that the United Statesis setting a powerful international normabout the use of armed drones, which it usesfor pre-emptive attacks against presumedterrorists in Pakistan and Yemen. “It is thesekinds of drone strikes that are controversial;the use of drones in a conventional war is notmuch different than a manned aircraft thatdrops bombs or fires missiles.”

According to figures compiled by theNew America Foundation, drone attacksaimed at suspected militants are estimated tohave killed between 1,900 and 3,200 peoplein Pakistan over the past eight years.

While there has been considerable dis-cussion of the legality of such strikes in anumber of U.S. law schools, they write, therehas been almost no substantive public dis-cussion about drone attacks among policy-makers at the international level.

“The time has come for some kind of in-ternational convention on the legal frame-work surrounding the uses of such weapons,which promise to shape the warfare of the fu-ture as much as tanks and bombers did dur-ing the 20th century.”

UNBRIDLED DRONES POSE NEW SECURITY RAMIFICATIONS AMID ARMS RACE

SC rejects plea against Suddle CommissionISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has rejected a plea seeking bar on theShoaib Suddle Commission to probe into Arsalan Iftikhar case. During theproceedings, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain remarked that judges also had rightsand asked for arguments to be completed early as Pakistan’s T20 match withAustralia had started. Zahid Bukhari, counsel for Malik Riaz argued thatSuddle had personal as well as family terms with Arsalan Iftikhar and askedthe SC to stop the workings of commission until further orders, because itwas a matter of transactions between two persons, so a commission shouldnot have been formed. He said investigations had not been changed in AliMusa Gilani and other cases. The SC turned down Bukhari’s plea andadjourned the proceedings until October 30. nnI

QUETTA: Afghan women and

children sit in the waiting

room as they prepare to

return to Afghanistan on

Tuesday under the UNHCR’s

repatriation programme. INP


04


News

NEW DELHIonlIne

INTERIOR MinisterRehman Malik hasgiven verbal assur-ance to his Indiancounterpart Sushil

Kumar Shinde that India willbe allowed to examine evi-dence and question the mas-terminds (currently in jail)behind the Mumbai attacks.

The request was raised byShinde on the sidelines ofSAARC Home Ministers’Conference at Maldives.

India may send a teamfrom the National Investiga-tion Agency (NIA) to Pakistanto have a look at the evidencegathered by the Federal In-vestigation Agency (FIA) inthe 26/11 probe and also pos-sibly to question its key han-dlers who are currently in jail.

Seeing it as a significantmove forward, the IndianHome Ministry has asked the

Ministry of External Affairs totake it up formally with Pak-istan and set a date soon forNIA’s visit, according to In-dian media.

Despite getting verbal as-surances from Pakistani inte-rior minister, Home Ministryofficials are doubtful if Pak-istan would stand by its com-mitment or just allow it tomerely complete a formalityand take a moral highground, the paper said.

“Ideally, besides sharingevidence with our investiga-tion agency, Pakistan shouldalso give it access to questionthe seven handlers who gavetraining and instructions to10 terrorists, including thelone surviving terrorist AjmalKasab, accused of killing 166people in Mumbai and alsoallow it to speak to key wit-nesses who have divulged de-tails of their training incamps,” a senior official said.

FIA’s former head Tariq

Khosa, who supervised Mum-bai terror attacks probe, re-vealed recently thatinvestigators had foundLashkar-e-Taiba camps atThatta and Karachi, the capi-tal of Sindh province and hadlocated the Pakistani boatthat was used by the team of10 terrorists to travel fromKarachi to Indian waters.

“These are very importantdevelopments and we hopePakistan would see reason inthese to let the probe reach alogical end,” an official said.Sources said that India wouldalso want Pakistan to allowNIA’s visit before re-sendingits judicial commission tocross examine the four prose-cution witnesses.

Pakistan’s request for re-sending its judicial commis-sion for cross examination ispending with the Indian LawMinistry, which is expected totake a final view on it by midOctober.

KABULAFP

Afghanistan’s senatevoted to cut the word“friendship” from a pactwith France becauseIslamic texts say itcannot be used todescribe relationsbetween Muslims andinfidels, senators saidTuesday.France, which has seen88 of its troops killed aspart of the NATOcoalition backing theAfghan governmentagainst Talibaninsurgents, signed the20-year “friendship andcooperation treaty”earlier this year.“Some senators said thatbased on Sharia rulingswe cannot use the wordfriendship with infidels,so after voting the wordfriendship was replaced

with relationship,”Senator Zahra Sharifitold AFP.The move, whichamounts simply to arecommendation as thesenate has the poweronly to approve or rejectthe document, not toamend it, apparentlyembarrassed somesenators.“We argued, we said thatFrance has been a closefriend of Afghanistan fora very long time,” saidMohammad AlamEzedyar, who chaired thesenate session.“Some senatorsdisagreed, but theimportant thing is thatthe pact was approved,and will be sent to theforeign ministry.”A foreign ministryspokesman, FaramerzTamana, said that after itreceived the document

from the senate, “we willsend the treaty to thegovernment of France,and they will decidewhether or not theyaccept any possiblechange in the document”.The treaty was signed inJanuary by then FrenchPresident NicholasSarkozy and AfghanPresident Hamid Karzaiand was ratified by theFrench parliament onJuly 25.It was also ratified by thelower house of theAfghan parliamentbefore going to thesenate.Afghanistan has signedpartnership agreementswith several countries,including the UnitedStates, but none of theothers had included theword “friendship”, saidSenator Nesar AhmadHaress.

The Times said the failure tobroker meaningful talks with theTaliban underscores the fragility ofthe gains claimed during the surgeof American troops ordered byPresident Obama in 2009. The30,000 extra troops won backterritory held by the Taliban, butby nearly all estimates failed todeal a crippling blow.Critics of the Obamaadministration say the UnitedStates also weakened its own handby agreeing to the 2014 deadlinefor its own involvement in combatoperations, voluntarily ceding theprize the Taliban has been seekingfor over a decade. The Obamaadministration defends thedeadline as crucial to persuadingthe Afghan government andmilitary to assume fullresponsibility for the country, andpolitically necessary for Americansweary of what has already becomethe country’s longest war. “AmongAmerica’s commanding generals

here, from Stanley A. McChrystaland David H. Petraeus to today’sJohn R. Allen, it has been an oft-repeated mantra that the UnitedStates is not going to kill its wayout of Afghanistan. They said thatthe Afghanistan war, like mostinsurgencies, could only end with anegotiation. “Now Americanofficials say they have reducedtheir goals further — to patientlylaying the groundwork for eventualpeace talks after they leave.American officials say they hopethat the Taliban will find theAfghan Army a more formidableadversary than they expect and becompelled, in the years after NATOwithdraws, to come to terms withwhat they now dismiss as a“puppet” government.”However, the report says, theUnited States has not given up ontalks before that time. It agreed lastmonth to set up a committee withPakistan that would vet potentialnew Taliban interlocutors, and theObama administration isconsidering whether to revive a

proposed prisoner swap with theinsurgents that would, officialshope, reopen preliminarydiscussions that collapsed inMarch, current and formerAmerican officials said. Those areboth seen as long-term efforts,however.”With the end of this year’s fightingseason, the Taliban have weatheredthe biggest push the American-ledcoalition is going to make againstthem, said the report. A third of allAmerican forces left by this month,and more of the 68,000 remainingmay leave next year, with the goalthat only a residual force oftrainers and special operationstroops will remain by the end of2014. Bringing Pakistan into thesearch for Taliban contacts is alsoan uncertain strategy, Americanofficials said, according to thereport. The details of the newvetting committee have yet to beworked out, and “if we aredepending on Pakistan, it comeswith an asterisk,” one of theofficials said. “We never know

whether they will see it through.”“The American shift toward a moreperipheral role in peace effortsrepresents another retreat fromWashington’s once broad designsfor Afghanistan, where the surge,along with a sharp escalation ofnighttime raids by SpecialOperations Forces against Talibanfield commanders, were partlyaimed at forcing the Taliban intonegotiations, making a Westernwithdrawal more feasible.” For abrief moment, the strategy appearedto be working: preliminary talks,painstakingly set up throughout2011, opened early this year inQatar, in the Persian Gulf.The effort fell apart when theObama administration, faced withbipartisan opposition inWashington, could not make goodon a proposed prisoner swap, inwhich five Taliban leaders held atGuantánamo Bay, Cuba, wouldhave been exchanged for the soleAmerican soldier held by theinsurgents, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.In Washington, “the tone of the whole

discussion has shifted to a less U.S.-led approach and toward a moreAfghan-led approach, but one thatwill be over a longer term,” saidShamila N. Chaudhary, a South Asiaanalyst at the Eurasia Group. TheAmericans still hope to play a behind-the-scenes role, she said, but whatshape that would take is “not clear.”The Times report also noted theprospects for direct negotiationsbetween the Afghan government andthe Taliban are even murkier.Mualavi Qalanmudin, a formerTaliban minister who now sits on theHigh Peace Council, the Karzaiadministration’s separate peaceeffort, dismissed the notion that theTaliban will never talk to the Afghangovernment. “They will continuesaying that until the day they sit at thenegotiating table,” said Mr.Qalanmudin, who once ran theTaliban’s notorious Ministry for thePromotion of Virtue and Preventionof Vice. Mr. Agha, however, said hehad been asked by the High PeaceCouncil to carry proposals for directtalks to the Taliban and was rebuffed.

US scaling down hopes for Taliban peace dealContinued fRom page 01

KANOAFP

Gunmen massacred at least26 people in a student hous-ing area of northeast Nigeriaon Tuesday, calling victimsout by name before shootingthem or slitting their throats,officials said.

The attack occurred inthe early hours in the town ofMubi, where the military lastweek carried out a high-pro-file raid against Islamist ex-tremist group Boko Haram,which has been waging adeadly insurgency. Some of-ficials however suggested themassacre may have beenlinked to a recent studentelection. According to a po-lice spokesman, the attackersknew their victims and calledthem out by name in an off-campus area near a polytech-nic school where studentslive. The police spokesman,

Mohammed Ibrahim, put thedeath toll at 25, including 19students from the polytech-nic, three students from ahealth technology school, twosecurity guards and a retiredsoldier. A relief official speak-ing on condition ofanonymity said 26 peoplehad been confirmed dead and15 were wounded and takento hospital. The military hadtaken over the area.

“The attackers knew theirtargets,” Ibrahim told AFP.“They were calling out namesof their targets in each housethey entered, and once the tar-get identified himself, he wouldbe shot dead. We strongly sus-pect an inside operation.” Headded that some victims’throats were slit. The sugges-tion that the killings werelinked to the student electionhowever raised questions overhow and why the disputewould have turned so violent.

electricity tarifflikely to go down

ISLAMABADSTAFF rePorT

Electricity tariff is likely to bedecreased by 4 paisas per unit,as the National Electric PowerRegulatory Authority(NEPRA) hears a caseregarding the cut in electricitytariff today (Wednesday).NEPRA said the reduction intariff would be made in termsof fuel price adjustment,adding that the expecteddecrease in tariff was due to anincrease in hydel powerproduction. NEPRA said thecost of electricity produced bydiesel remained at Rs 19 perunit, while that from hydelpower at 8 paisas per unit inAugust. The countrypurchased electricity fromIran at Rs 9.50 per unit.

nearly 300 held inbangladesh for attacks on buddhists

DHAKAAFP

Bangladesh police said Tuesdaythey had arrested nearly 300people after Muslim mobsattacked temples and houses inwhat Buddhist leadersdescribed as the worst violenceagainst the community sinceindependence. A total of 162people were arrested in Cox’sBazaar, which bore the brunt ofthe attacks on Saturday andSunday nights, according toKhorshed Alam, a senior policeofficer in the southeasterndistrict. A further 76 werearrested in neighbouringChittagong and 36 inBandarban district, local policeofficials said. Alam told AFPthat a final tally of the damagecaused by the mobs in Cox’sBazaar had found 11 templeswere torched and seven weredamaged or ransacked in thedistrict. At least 20 Buddhisthouses were also set on fire,dozens of their shops lootedand some 100 houses weredamaged during the attack thatbegan after Saturday midnightat Ramu town, with about25,000 Muslims taking part.

uS weighing

drone strikes

in north africaWASHINGTON

AFP

The White House may extendits campaign of drone strikesagainst Al-Qaeda to target thedesert bases of the group’snorth African arm, theWashington Post reportedTuesday. A spokesman forPresident Barack Obama’sNational Security Councilwould not confirm details ofthe debate, which The Postsaid involved officials fromthe Central IntelligenceAgency, the State Departmentand the Pentagon. But NSCspokesman Tommy Vietortold AFP: “The president hasbeen clear about his goal todestroy Al-Qaeda’s networkand we work toward that goalevery day. “It shouldn’t comeas a surprise that the WhiteHouse holds meetings on avariety of subjects, including anumber of counterterrorismissues,” he added. A Pentagonofficial confirmed to AFP thatdiscussion of Al-Qaeda’snorth African wing had gainedgreater urgency since a deadlyassault last month on a USconsulate in Libya killed fourAmericans including the USambassador.

Afghan senators want ‘friendship’ axedfrom France pact

Malik allows India to investigate evidence relatedto Mumbai attacks

Nigeria student massacreclaims 26 lives

QueTTA: Members of Balochistan union of

journalists protest on Tuesday against the

killing of TV journalist Abdul Haq Baloch. ONLINE


05


News

WASHINGTONSPeCIAl CorreSPondenT

Afghan President Hamid Karzai hasconceded the role of militants from CentralAsian and the Arab regions in continuingviolence in his country as a US channelalso reported increased presence of al-Qaeda in multiple camps and cells inAfghanistan.Citing American reports, the CBS 60Minutes investigative program, which alsoincluded interview with top UScommander in Afghanistan Gen JohnAllen, disclosed that Kunar province hasbecome the base of al-Qaeda operations inAfghanistan.The program revealed that the al-Qaedapresence on the Afghan soil is significantand contradicts earlier claims about themilitant organization’s having been nearlyeliminated from Afghanistan. Gen Allenalso told the program of his forces’ effortsto combat al-Qaeda in the country.In a rare moment of publicly aired andblunt reflection, Karzai, who has beensingling out Pakistan for Afghanistan’stroubles for years, also wondered whyterrorism has escalated in his landlockedcountry since foreign forces’ arrival withthe stated aim of containing the violence.But, in the same breath, Karzai made thesweeping claim that were it not for militantsanctuaries in Pakistan, his country wouldhave been “completely different” in termsof peace and security.The program “The Longest War,” shownSunday also focused on the rising numberof “insider” attacks in which Afghan forcesturn their guns on their American trainers.Allen says he is “mad as hell” about theseattacks.

Afghan forces, the program presenter LaraLogan observed, face a formidable enemyas they move toward assuming security fullresponsibility, before the 2014 end toforeign combat mission in their country.Can you tell Americans what’s still atstake in Afghanistan after all theseyears of war? she asked Karzai,according to a CBS script.Karzai: The reason for the NATO andAmerican intervention in Afghanistan wasterrorism. Terrorism has not gone away. Ithas increased.Lara Logan: When you say thatterrorism has increased what do youmean exactly?Karzai: If terrorism means violenceagainst civilians, if terrorism meansviolence against our allies. It has increased.It has not abated. It has not gone away.Karzai then tells the program that the“Afghan intelligence reports to him on thepresence of foreign fighters - Arabs,Chechens and others, who are capturedand killed on Afghan soil.“Name them al Qaeda, name them IslamicMovement of Uzbekistan, name themHaqqani, name them Taliban, whatever.They’re still there. And they have the abilityto continue 10 years on to come and hurtus and kill your troops and kill our troops,kill our civilians. We must then questionhow come they’ve returned?”Probed further how the al-Qaeda-linkedmilitants returned to the country, Karzaireplied :“Something must have gone wrong for thatto happen.”One place, the program presenter noted,where things have gone wrong is in the“mountains of Kunar in the east of thecountry, which has become al Qaeda’s base

of operations in Afghanistan today.”The program also contained excerpts of aninterview with a man, identified as anAfghan Taliban leader. In the interview -conducted in Kabul – the Taliban leaderclaims that it is the Taliban who are behindthe “insider” attacks. He also talks aboutsome of the deadly skills of al-Qaedamilitants operating in Afghanistan.The program notes that “while the U.S. hasbeen saying for a long time that al Qaeda inAfghanistan is almost defeated, the U.S.military’s own reports from the battlefieldreveal a very different picture.”These reports are “rich with detail about alQaeda’s leaders and operations today,confirming the existence of al Qaedatraining camps and multiple attack cells.”Among those they say they’ve killed are al

Qaeda weapons and explosives experts. Inone month, the U.S. says it killed morethan 25 al Qaeda leaders and fighters.Commenting on the issue, Gen Allen toldthe channel: “al Qaeda has come back. AlQaeda is a resilient organization. Butthey’re not here in large numbers. But alQaeda doesn’t have to be anywhere in largenumbers.”Allen added, “They’re not significant in atraditional military sense. Al Qaeda hassignificance beyond its numbers, frankly.And so for us, our 24-hour-a-day objectiveis to seek out those al Qaeda cells. And, aswe seek them out, to target them andeliminate them. And we’re doing that 24hours a day. We do not want al Qaeda tofeel as though it can put down roots here.That’s the key.”According to the program, Karzai and theUS differ in their assertions on the level ofsecurity in the country, with the Afghanpresident openly airing his grievancesabout the loss of lives.However, both Karzai and Allen claim thatthe militants having safe havens on thePakistani side of the Afghan problem havebeen a big problem.Speaking on the Pakistan factor, Allensays:“Well, we’re doing a great deal right now.The relationship that we have betweenISAF forces and the Pakistani military hasimproved dramatically—Lara Logan: But it doesn’t stopPakistanis helping our enemies killU.S. soldiers.Allen: Well, that’s not going to stopimmediately. We’ve got to work at that. It’snot a solution that can be had ultimately bya military solution. These are policy issues,these are government to government

issues. I’m not going to be able to wage warin Pakistan. But this is hard. There’s a verycomplex relationship with Pakistan. Andwe’ll work very hard and very closely withthe Pakistani military to achieve commonobjectives. But to some extent thePakistani military has been successful incooperating with us in the last severalmonths with regard to complimentaryoperations on both sides of the border butmuch more needs to be done.”Allen added in his comments on thesituation “within the context of myauthorities, we’re going to do everythingwe can to hunt down and kill every one ofthose Haqqani operatives that we caninside this country. And those otherelements that come out of those safehavens that ultimately threaten my troops,threaten the Afghan troops and the Afghansociety, the Afghan civilians, andultimately the Afghan government.”Karzai blames the U.S. for not addressingthe issue of sanctuaries in Pakistan yearsago, says the channel.Lara Logan: Why has the U.S. failedto address the issue with Pakistan doyou think?Karzai: Perhaps politics.Lara Logan: What has been the costof that?Karzai: Heavy for us. Disastrous for us.Lara Logan: Would Afghanistan lookcompletely different today if theissue of sanctuary and safe haven inPakistan had been dealt with yearsago?Karzai: Absolutely. Completelydifferent. Much more peaceful. Muchmore progressed. Much more stable.And a society that would have beenthriving on its own.”

Karzai concedes Central Asian, Arab militants’ role in violenceg Kunar is now base of al Qaeda in afghanistan

QUETTAAFP

JOURNALISTS across Pakistan stagedprotest rallies Tuesday to condemn thekilling of a television reporter in insur-gency-torn Balochistan on the Afghanand Iranian border.

Police said Abdul Haq Baloch, 37, whoworked for private TV channel ARY, was shot lateSaturday while driving home in Khuzdar, 230kilometres (145 miles) south of the provincialcapital Quetta.

Journalists said masked men opened fire onhis car around 100 yards from the local pressclub. Police officer Abdul Qadir Kamrani toldAFP that Baloch died of his injuries en route tohospital.

Police have registered a case against “uniden-tified gunmen”. Balochistan is one of Pakistan’smost deprived areas. Separatist rebels have beenfighting since 2004 for autonomy and a greatershare of oil, gas and mineral deposits in thesouthwestern province.

Human rights groups say hundreds havebeen detained, killed or gone missing as govern-ment forces try to crush the uprising by ethnicBaloch groups.

Farooq Faisal, president of the national press

club, said journalists were protesting against ex-tremely difficult working conditions in Baluchis-tan and northwest Pakistan, where a Talibaninsurgency is concentrated.

“Armed groups are threatening journalistsbut the government is taking no step for theirprotection,” Faisal told AFP.

Nadeem Gorgnari, president of the Khuzdarpress club, told AFP that Baloch and the club hadreceived threatening telephone calls.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik met journal-ists in Islamabad and said a judicial commissionwould investigate the killing, promising a rewardof Rs 2.5 million rupees for anyone who helps toidentify the killers.

Earlier this year, a government commissionfailed to find the killers of a journalist who re-ported that Islamist militants had infiltrated themilitary shortly before he disappeared in May2011.

According to press watchdog Reporters With-out Borders, Pakistan was the deadliest countryfor the media in 2011 with at least eight journal-ists killed in connection with their work.

A driver also working for ARY was shot deadlast month when a mob protesting against a US-made film deemed insulting to Islam set alightand ransacked a cinema in the northwestern cityof Peshawar.

Protests over TV

reporter’s killing

derA GHAZI KHAn: Peter engines are being used to drain floodwater from an area on Tuesday. ONLINE

KABULnnI

Afghan lawmakers are of the view that the planned strate-gic agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan is mean-ingless and any work on it should be suspended untilIslamabad stops cross-border shelling into Afghanistan’seastern regions.

Several Afghan lawmakers, including the speaker ofthe House Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, on Tuesday slammeddiscussions of a long-term deal between the two countries.

“Afghan people are the victims of violence and terror-ism and Pakistan is the real cause of that,” Ibrahim said.“The Afghan government should closely monitor the con-tents of the strategic agreement and consider the issue ofPakistan being a supporter and facilitator of insurgents inAfghanistan.” Ghazni MP Ali Akbar Qasimi said he be-lieved signing a deal with Pakistan was premature andshould be delayed, according to Tolonews.

“Signing the strategic agreement with Pakistan is un-timely because Pakistan is now shelling the easternprovinces,” Qasimi said. “It should be delayed until it

changes its strategy and position against Afghanistan.”Kunar MP Saleh Mohammad Saleh called the agreementmeaningless given just days ago Pakistani military werewarning residents in up to 15 districts of the easternprovinces to leave their homes or be caught up in their in-cursion. The MPs also claimed that Pakistan had clearlyviolated the United Nations Security Council 1373 (2001)Resolution which says all nations must prevent and sup-press the financing of terrorism, as well as criminalise thewillful provision or collection of funds for such acts, and tonot allow their territory to be used as the terrorismfundraising efforts.

“Pakistan is violating the 1373 (2001) United NationsSecurity Council Resolution which prohibits the fundingof terrorist networks and obliges nations to take strong ac-tion against such networks. The United Nations shouldprevent Pakistan’s continued shelling on Afghanistan’seastern provinces and impose sanctions against them,”Kabul MP Baktash Siawash said. The signing of anAfghanistan-Pakistan strategic pact by the end of 2013 wasdecided upon by the presidents of both countries in theirmeeting in the US last week.

Afghan lawmakers call for suspendingstrategic agreement with Pakistang Say agreement meaningless unless islamabad stops cross-bordershelling into afghanistan’s eastern regions



KArACHI: Heavy machinery being used to demolish encroachments on lyari expressway near Teen Hatti. ONLINE

KARAcHIAFTAB CHAnnA

vEHEMENTLY con-demning the Sindh Peo-ples’ Local GovernmentBill, 2012 which theprovincial legislature

had passed the other day, Jeay SindhTehreek (JST) Tuesday announced tolaunch a protest movement in theprovince against the said bill in a moveto press the authorities to withdraw it.

Announcing this at a crowdedpress conference at Karachi Press Club,JST President Dr Safdar Sarki said thatprotest rallies and demonstrationwould be held in all district headquar-ters on October 3. He also said that aKarachi March would also be held onOctober 14 to lodge a historic protestagainst the dual governance system.And the protests would not just end

here, he said. “After the KarachiMarch, thousands of Sindhis under thebanner of JST would take out a longmarch from Jacobabad district toKarachi on November 3, 2012,” Sarkiadded.

Safdar Sarki also congratulatedleader of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) Pir Pagara, Jatoiand Mahar brothers and the PPP MPAswho did not attend the assembly ses-sion in protest. “The JST and the Sind-his believe that passage of thecontroversial bill in a haphazard man-ner is tantamount to betrayal with thepeople of Sindh. People whose lives areto be affected would not take a sigh ofrelief until the said bill of governanceis withdrawn,” he added.

Sarki alleged that the establish-ment, in a move to restrict the philos-ophy of GM Syed, had once again usedthe PPP and MQM in dividing Sindh

and creating hatred among the people.“I want to remind the current PPP

leadership that Mohtarma BenazirBhutto had time and again condemnedthe Local Government Ordinance ofMusharraf and Daniyal Aziz and shepromised that the old status of Karachiand Hyderabad districts would be re-stored.

“But the present PPP leadershiphas included most dangerous clausesin the LG Bill that shift all the powersof chief executive and the Sindh gov-ernment to the mayor of Karachi.” hemaintained.

Sarki, in the end, requested Pir Pa-gara, Shafi Jamote, Hakeem Baloch,Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, Khuda DinoShah and all the nationalist parties tojoin hands to make Karachi March asuccess. He also requested Pir Pagarato lead millions of people marching inprotest.

Sarki requests Pir Pagara to lead march against controversial LG system

KARACHI: The Excise and TaxationDepartment has recovered a sum of Rs4.41 billion in the month of August 2012.

This was stated by Director General ofExcise and Taxation Department Sindh,Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, here on Tuesday.He said the amount was Rs 250 millionmore as compared to the correspondingmonth last year. Shoaib Siddiqui further

pointed out that the overall target for thefiscal year 2012-13 was Rs 29.81 billion. Hewas optimistic that his Department wouldeasily be able to achieve this target.

Shoaib pointed out that in the last fiscalyear the target was Rs 23.7 billion but the col-lection was 28.2 billion. He said that it is thespecial directive of the provincial MinisterMukesh Kumar Chawla that the tax collec-

tion drive be speeded. Shoaib Siddiqui saidthat motor vehicle tax recovery drive wouldcommence in the province from October 15.SINDH WON’t BE DIvIDED:KHORO: Sindh Speaker AssemblyNisar Khoro on Tuesday said that Sindhwill neither be divided nor be brokenwith the new local bodies’ bill. Talking tomedia persons here, the speaker said

that opposition members were also ab-sent when the new local bodies’ ordi-nance was being presented in the SindhAssembly. While expressing unhappinessover the attitude of the opposition mem-bers, Khoro said why did not they an-nounce boycott of the elections under theordinance? He also expressed sorrowover Nawabshah incident. APP

SnP announces hunger strike against lG system

KARAcHISTAFF rePorT

As protests continue against SindhPeoples’ Local Government Ordi-nance (SPLGO) 2012, Sindh Na-tional Party (SNP) announced onTuesday to observe hunger strikeoutside Karachi Press Club until thesaid controversial bill was with-drawn.Addressing a press conference at thepress club, SNP Chairman AmeerBhambhro said that while one sideof the province was protestingagainst the dual administrative sys-tem, the provincial lawmakers hadthe courage to cast away 50 millionvoice of Sindh and passed the con-troversial ordinance most Sindhishad rejected already.Bhanbhro said people had givenmandate to the ruling Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) so that it could fin-ish terrorism and especially torestore peace in the province.He said that Parvez Musharraf’s or-dinance of 2001 was modified andenforced on the people of Sindh inthe name of democracy. He said thatfollowing a dictator’s policy by thePPP was synonymous with causing adisgrace to Benzair Bhutto’s grave.Bhanbhro said further that his partyhad filed a petition in SupremeCourt, on 18 September 2012,against the duel system of govern-ment in the province but to no avail.“Even after protesting in Sindh,Supreme Court is yet to take noticeof this grave issue,” he concluded.

infants’ death toll reaches 15 LARKANA: With the death of anotherinfant on Tuesday at a government hos-pital in Larkana, the number of shock-ing deaths of newly-born babiesclimbed to 15 over the past four days.The babies died because of power fail-ure and subsequent interruption in oxy-gen supply.The Sindh government has ordered aprobe into the deaths. Officials said thegovernor and chief minister have sepa-rately summoned details of the inci-dent.Sources said five children in intensivecare unit on Friday night died after thepower failure in the hospital. The ad-ministration attempted to kick-start thestandby power generators but it alsofailed because there was no diesel in itsfuel tanks. In the absence of backup foroxygen supplies, the babies could not besaved, they said.On Saturday, eight more babies died asthey could not get medical treatmentbecause of power outages and adminis-trative issues at the hospital. One infantdied on Sunday and another died onTuesday, bringing the death toll to 15over the past four days. InP

Excise dept recovers Rs 4.4b tax in August

JST TaKeS umbrage at local government bill


07Karachi


HyderABAd: Members of High Court Bar hold a demonstration against Sindh local Government ordinance outside the press club. ONLINE

KARAcHIInP

At least two people including a policemanwere killed in firing incidents in differentareas of the city here on Tuesday. The po-lice arrested 25 criminals during separateactions and recovered arms and drugsfrom their possession. According to po-lice, some unidentified miscreants openedindiscriminate gunfire near ShershahPankha Hotel (restaurant), killing a man,Abdullah, on the spot and fled the scene.The body was shifted to a civil hospital forpostmortem.

A policeman, Babar, who was injured

in a firing incident in Kharadar, suc-cumbed to injuries at Civil Hospital.

Meanwhile, firing incidents contin-ued in different areas of Karachi, includ-ing Sohrab Goth, Lyari, North Karachiduring which six persons were reportedinjured. The injured were shifted to dif-ferent hospitals of concerned areas.

Unknown miscreants hurled fourhand grenades at cement depot and acrush plant in Shah Latif Town and Man-gopir areas of the city. However, nocausality or injury was reported in boththe attacks. On special directives of DIGEast, Shahid Hayat, the police conductedsearch operation in different areas of the

city during which 25 criminals involved inmurder, attempted murder, street crimesand robberies were nabbed. The policeclaimed to have recovered eight pistols,two revolvers and huge quantity of drugsfrom their possession.CID POLICE ARRESt 2 ttP MEN:The Crime Investigation Department(CID) of Police on Tuesday arrested twomen belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pak-istan (TTP) after conducting raids in dif-ferent areas of the city. According to SPCID Fayaz Khan, the police arrested theTTP men from Mauripur and Federal BArea. The arrested men were involved inseveral incidents of target killings also.

admission test for mbbS, bdS on 7th

HYDERABADAPP

The Registrar Liaquat University ofMedical and Health Sciences JamshoroTuesday presided over a meeting to re-view the arrangements to conduct entrytest for admissions in MBBS and BDSAcademic Session 2012-2013 to be heldon October 7, 2012.It was decided in the meeting to prohibitcandidates from bringing cellularphones, pens, calculators, files andpurses at the centers of pre-entry test.

Varsity syndicatemember nominated

HYDERABADAPP

Sindh Speaker Assembly Nisar AhmedKhuhro has nominated MPA FirdousHameed alias Farheen Mughul as mem-ber of the Syndicate of University ofSindh Jamshoro.The Registrar University of Sindh fur-ther said on Tuesday that the appoint-ment has been made for a residualperiod up to January 11, 2015.

mental Health dayto observed on 10th

HYDERABADAPP

The World Mental Health Day will beobserved across the country on October10 with the purpose to raise publicawareness about psychological problemsand diseases.This year the theme of the day is ‘TheGreat Push Investing in Mental Health’.Eminent psychiatric of Sir Cowasji Je-hangir Institute of Psychiatry (SCJ) Hy-derabad Dr Darya Khan Laghariinformed here on Tuesday that accord-ing to an estimate, over 450 million peo-ple in the world suffer from mentaldisorder and out of these 20 million arein Pakistan.Over one million depressed people com-mit suicide every year across the world.He said initiatives should be taken tohelp the people in grief as they weregoing through a testing time and neededhelp. Different health institutions andorganizations of Hyderabad havechalked out elaborate programs to markthe occasion.

installation of surveillance camerasin final stage

KARAcHIAPP

Inspector General of Police (IGP),Sindh, Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari said onTuesday that installation of surveillancecameras in the metropolis was in thefinal stages.He was talking to the participants ofthe 97th National Management Coursewho visited the Central Police Office(CPO).The IGP said that in the initial phase, 50wireless cameras, 60 automated numberplate readers, 164 PTZ cameras and 656fixed cameras were being installed.He stated that in the next phase, videosurveillance system would be expanded.Leghari also informed that steps werebeing taken for the introduction of thevehicle tracking system technology andthe establishment of the FM Radio Sta-tion.“The nation-wide police-to-police trunkcall system would also be introducedsoon,” the IGP added.

expo Pakistan from 4th

KARAcHIAPP

Expo Pakistan would be held in themetropolis from October 4 to 7.Inspector General of Police (IGP),Sindh, Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari directedon Tuesday that effective securityarrangements be made for the megaevent at the Expo centre Karachi.He stressed that adequate securitysteps be ensured for the foreign dele-gates, guests, diplomats, business-men, visitors and other people.He instructed that such measuresshould also be taken at the district aswell as the Thana (police station) lev-els. The IGP also directed that regularpatrolling, snap checking, picketingshould also be strengthened and thatthese security steps should be com-prehensive.

Two killed in violence

World Space Week

to be marked from

4th in 10 citiesKARAcHI

APP

The World Space Week (WSW), an interna-tional celebration of the contribution thatspace science and technology makes for thebetterment of the human condition, will bemarked in 10 cities of Pakistan includingKarachi, an official statement of the Pak-istan Space and Upper Atmosphere Re-search Commission (SUPARCO) said onTuesday.It was also mentioned in the statement thatthe day was celebrated in some 65 nationsof the world including Pakistan.During WSW, events and educational pro-grams related to space are held globally.SUPARCO, as a national space agency, hasbeen regularly conducting WSW activitieseach year since 2005 to increase awarenessof space technology and to promote itspeaceful usage amongst students and themasses in Pakistan.This year, SUPARCO has extended WSWactivities throughout Pakistan with thepartnership of key educational institutionsof the country.The theme of the WSW 2012 is `Space forHuman Safety and Security’.The National Space Agency will hold an in-auguration ceremony of WSW on October 4at the National Center for Remote Sensingand Geo Informatics (NCRG) Karachi toformally commence World Space Week2012 celebration in Pakistan.The chief guest for the ceremony will bePeer Mazhar-Ul-Haq, Provincial Ministerof Education and Literacy.A specially designed mobile education busequipped with multimedia shall leave tocreate awareness of space through lectures,multimedia presentations and video showsin towns and villages of Sindh.


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SoLo SHoW

date: SePt 26 - Oct 26, 2012 Venue: KunJ art Gallery

little, if anything, deters the artist meerza ali from creating the wayhe does. even though he had suffered a serious illness only toorecently, that he didn´t think that he´d survive. Whose solo exhibitionopens Kunj on September 26, 2012 at 5:30 pm. and the artist , whowas born in calcutta, migrated to Pakistan in 1948. Whose fatherhimself, was an artist. Who had never taught meerza ali, thought. Sothe artist acquired the skills that he needed on his own. Who hasdone especially well with calligraphy and his beautiful figurative work.

gHALIB mADE EASY

date: tHurSday, 7:00 Pm, WeeKly eVent

Venue: tHe SecOnd flOOr (t2f)

Sunny

WeatHer uPdateS

35°c

08karachi

"ExErCIES IN ImAgINNg ...

anWar Saeed ´S neW SHOW ”eXerciSeS in imaGininG

tHe OtHer”, StartS at canVaS Gallery On SePtember

25tH 2012 frOm 5 Pm - 8 Pm.

anWar Saeed iS an eStabliSHed artiSt WHO iS a

faculty member at ...

date: SePt 25 - Oct 04, 2012 Venue: canVaS Gallery

Join us at t2f every Wednesday for interactive sessions onmirza Ghalib’s poetry, conducted by author and translator,musharraf ali farooqi. Ghalib made easy by @micromafthepoetry of mirza Ghalib (27 december 1797 – 15 february1869) has been considered complex, abstract and difficultto comprehend. even for Ghalib’s contemporaries, hislanguage and imagery presented a challenge.


KARAcHIISMAIl dIlAWAr

tHE moment that marks Pakistanicricketers scoring a victory on theplaygrounds of Sri Lankan also wit-nesses this densely populated metrop-olis echoing with life-threatening

gunshots fired, apparently by jubilant cricket lovers.Tuesday was no exception when the green shirts

defeated the apparently confident Australians by 32runs in a make-or-break tie in Colombo.

As soon as the Pakistani side appeared victori-ous, various city neighborhoods started echoingwith ear-splitting aerial firing that sometimes havebeen lethal for the bystanders or passersby or insome cases the shooter himself. Every ball shot fora six by Pakistani batsmen or every wicket fallen onthe Australian side was celebrated by the armedcricket lovers with nerves-wrecking gunshots in theair. The localities most affected were Keamari, Lyari,Landhi, Saddar, North Nazimabad, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

Ironically, the shooters fired at their conven-ience without fearing the police. And aptly so, as thisreporter observed half a dozen people in the portvicinity of Keamari firing shots in the air throughoutthe cricket match with the nearby situated Jacksonpolice turning up to the shooting site not even once.As if this was not enough, a shooter told PakistanToday that he was getting bullets from one of his

friends working in the police department.A realist critique put it more simply saying this

serves a heavily-weaponised city like Karachi veryright where the so-called “gun politics” has necessi-tated the possession and carriage of arms even forthe common man. Needless to mention are the in-cidents of targeted killings that has now becomeorder of the day in this volatile metropolis.

On the face of it, these gunshots are the handi-work of some cricket crazy Karachiites expressingtheir joy through firing multiple shots in the air, butthere are some among the masses who don’t buythis impression and think otherwise.

“They by firing shots in the air on the matchdays test their weapons which otherwise lay unusedfor months,” viewed Muhammad Saeed, a Rent-A-Car proprietor from Bhutta Village area of Keamari.

Saeed’s claim was endorsed by a shooter, re-questing not to be named, saying he shot because hehad to check his now what he called it out-fashioned30-bore pistol. “It’s a 25-year old pistol. I havecleaned it up and now testing its shots as it is not fir-ing properly after lying unused for a long time,” saidthe shooter, who was watching the Pak-Australiaduo in his shop along with friends.

Another such shooter, who introduced himselfas Sabir Shah, came up with more revealing facts.

“Some people go for firing to even their bulletsthat are either Chinese or Pakistan made,” said Shahwho himself was “checking” the bullets he pos-sessed. Shah showed this reporter a handful of bul-

lets that were of China-made “311” brand and thatof the Pakistan made. According to Shah, the retailprice of Chinese bullets was Rs 35 per piece, whilethe ones produced in Pakistan were being priced inlocal market at Rs 12 only. “There is a great differ-ence in the quality and result of two brands and wehere are checking the same,” Shah explained.

Giving an official input, Member of National As-sembly (MNA) and former Sindh Information Min-ister Shazia Marri termed the aerial firing even as ashow of celebration as “dangerous”. “It is danger-ous! Celebrations not at the cost of lives obviously!,”commented Marri who said was herself very happyfor Pakistan’s victory against Kangaroos.

Asked about the role of her government to stopthe life-threatening practice, she proposed “somepenalty” and “awareness” through the media to ed-ucate the people how to handle the national celebra-tions. Then the MNA turned her guns to the mediasaying, “It’s about time the TV channels stop wast-ing money in parodies and songs, there’s so muchto do!” When drew towards some of the shooters’claim that they acquire bullets from the policemen,the former information minister said such securitypersonnel as well as the shooters should be re-formed. “So they need to reform too,” she saidadding, “Remember everyone is from this society.So values at large need to change or improve for bet-ter attitudes and practices!,” Marri said. Asked if shewas putting the ball in the media’s court, the MNAreplied that: “It’s a full circle!”

KArACHI: Fishermen prepare to go into the sea at Ibrahim Haideri. ONLINE

GUNS ROAR TO MARK VICTORYg Heavily-armed

city celebrates cricket with

aerial firing g Shooters

terrorize violence-hit

Karachiites after every

favorable sixer or wicket

fall g Some concede they

fire in the air just to test

their guns and bullets g

Government officials say

celebrations must not be

at the cost of lives


09


Foreign News

DAMAScUSAFP

REGIME forces rainedshells on rebel bastions inand around Damascus onTuesday and extra troopsheaded north to join the

battle for the commercial capital Aleppo,as the conflict roiling Syria intensified.

The fresh offensive came hours afterUN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Damascus toshow compassion to its people and SyrianForeign Minister Walid Muallem said a po-litical solution was still possible if the Westand Gulf states halted support for therebels. The Syrian Observatory for HumanRights said at least five civilians died whenDouma, in the capital’s northeast, wasrocked by shelling following a deadly raidby rebels overnight on an army post therein which six soldiers were killed.

An amateur video posted by activistsreported an exodus of residents ofDouma and showed several vehicles withwomen inside driving off in the dark ofnight. Troops loyal to President Basharal-Assad also blasted a string of rebelstrongholds in towns and suburbs outsidethe capital, including Babila, Hosh al-Arab, Saqba, Zabadani and Jubar, theBritain-based Observatory said.

South of the capital, security forcesraided the Tadamun district and fierceclashes broke in the nearby YarmukPalestinian camp, the watchdog said.

The Local Coordination Committees,an activist network, reported that morethan 100 shells fell on Zabadani, once aresort destination known for its mildweather and scenic views just northwestof the capital but now devastated by thecivil war ravaging Syria.

The official daily Al-Baath on Tues-day said the “end of security operationsthroughout Damascus province” was ap-proaching.

Government forces “have destroyedmany weapons caches and seized largequantities of ammunition and equip-ment... which indicates that the end of se-curity operations throughout Damascusprovince is approaching,” the newspapersaid. On July 18, rebels carried out a mas-sive bombing on a security complex inDamascus, killing Assad’s brother-in-law,the defence minister and a general.

Since then, regime forces havepushed the rebels to the outskirts of thecapital but have lost control of severalborder crossings and are battling to fullyretake Syria’s second city of Aleppo,which has been the focal point of the con-flict since mid-July. Several districts ofAleppo were bombed on Tuesday, the Ob-servatory said, a day after 22 civiliansdied in the violence ravaging the city.

Fighting flared in the Aleppo districtsof Sakhur, Sheikh Khodr, Sheikh Farisand Arkoub, where one rebel was killed,and along Suleiman al-Halabi street inthe city centre, the Observatory said.

Violence also raged on Tuesday in thesouthern province of Daraa, the Observa-tory said, adding that nine rebels werekilled in an explosion at dawn near theJordanian border while another ninepeople, including a pregnant woman,were killed in shelling attacks and clashesbetween troops and rebels in a camp fordisplaced people.

And Turkish troops fired across theSyrian border, killing a member of a Kur-dish militia and wounding two others inthe first such fatal shooting at the Turkishfrontier, said the Observatory.

On the political front, Ban said aftera meeting with Syria’s Muallem at UNheadquarters in New York that it wastime for Damascus to lower the scale ofits offensive against the insurgency.

“He stressed that it was the Syrianpeople who were being killed every dayand appealed to the government of Syria

to show compassion to its own people,” aspokesman said.

Muallem, meanwhile, told the UNGeneral Assembly that France, Qatar,Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UnitedStates “clearly induce and support terror-ism in Syria with money, weapons andforeign fighters.”

Assad was open to reforms if the vio-lence stopped, the foreign minister said.“We still believe in a political solution asan essential way out of the crisis.”

For this to happen, he said UN mem-bers should press for an end to the “arm-ing, financing, harbouring and training ofterrorist groups.”

West waging economic ‘war’ onIran: Nejad

TEHRANAFP

The West is waging economic war onIran in a vain effort to make it yield on itsnuclear activities, President MahmoudAhmadinejad said on Tuesday, amid asteep plunge in the value of his country’scurrency. Western sanctions hitting oilexports generating foreign currencyrevenues and restricting Iran’s ability torepatriate those revenues “is a hiddenand heavy war on a planetary scale,” hetold a news conference in Tehran. “It’s abattle. They have managed to diminisha little our oil sales, but we are going tocompensate for that,” he said. Reactingto the accelerated slide of the rial’svalue on the open market, where it haslost around 80 percent of its value froma year ago, Ahmadinejad said Iran hassufficient foreign currency reserves forthe country’s needs, and that it was “apsychological war on the exchangemarket.” He said that the sanctionswere “targeting the people” and added:“The enemy believes it can break theresistance of the Iranian people, but itis wrong.”

Shells rock rebel bastions as Syria violence escalates

NEW DELHIAFP

One of India’s most prominent anti-cor-ruption campaigners launched a new po-litical party on Tuesday, aiming to tapinto a rich seam of public anger againstthe graft-tainted government.

Arvind Kejriwal said the formation ofhis party would mark a new chapter inthe struggle against a “bribe-taking cul-ture” and pledged to field candidates at ageneral election due in 2014. “Our polit-ical party is the first step in the right di-rection, the common man will soonbecome the lawmaker,” Kejriwal toldAFP, after the launch in New Delhi. Theunveiling of the yet-unnamed party washeld on the anniversary of the birth of thefather of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

“We derive lessons from Mahatma

Gandhi’s teachings. We are determinedto clean up the entire political spectrum.Our candidates will be committed tohonesty and transparency and they willfight elections,” Kejriwal added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’sgovernment has been rocked by a string

of graft accusations, including revela-tions that officials pocketed millions ofdollars when awarding tenders for tele-coms and coal-mining ventures.

Kejriwal, a former civil servant, co-founded a group called India Against Cor-ruption, which caused hugeembarrassment for the Congress-led coali-tion government when another leaderAnna Hazare went on hunger strike. Hun-dreds of thousands of people took part inprotests organised by India Against Cor-ruption. Although the movement hassince largely fizzled out, disquiet aboutlevels of corruption was fuelled over thesummer by a scandal over the allocationof lucrative mining rights.

An official auditor’s report found inAugust that private operators who woncoal blocks without competition enjoyed“financial gains to the tune of 1.86 trillion

rupees ($33.4 billion)” since 2004 — someof which should have gone to the govern-ment. The scandal was particularly embar-rassing for Singh because he served as coalminister as well as prime minister from2004-2009. Hazare has parted ways withKejriwal over his plans to enter politics,which he has described as “full of dirt”.

Kejriwal told AFP that his groupwould continue to “seek Hazare’s bless-ings” despite the rift. The new party’smanifesto details its aspirations for “acomplete political revolution” as well aspledges to expose corruption at all levelsof government and to inspire young peo-ple to participate in the political process.

“We are not greedy for power orhungry for money. We want to bring asocial, political and economic change towipe out corruption,” said Kejriwal in aspeech in New Delhi.

Anti-corruption pArty lAunches in indiA

TBILISIAFP

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashviliconceded defeat Tuesday in parliamen-tary polls that handed a shock victoryto an opposition coalition led by bil-lionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Although Saakashvili remains pres-ident, the defeat of his United NationalMovement to Ivanishvili’s GeorgianDream coalition in Monday’s electionsspells the end of his nine years oflargely unchallenged dominance overGeorgia. “It is clear that the (opposi-tion) Georgian Dream has won a major-ity,” Saakashvili said in a dramatictelevised speech after elections hailedas an “important step” for democracyby international observers.

Without specifying the allocation ofseats in the future parliament, he indi-cated that Georgian Dream would havethe majority in the new assembly andwould form the new government.

“We, as an opposition force, willfight for the future of our country,” hesaid, promising to facilitate the transi-

tion process as president.Georgian Dream was leading

Saakashvili’s United National Move-ment by 53.11 to 41.57 percent after 29percent of electoral precincts declaredresults in the proportional ballot thatwill decide just over half of the parlia-mentary seats. First-past-the-postvotes in 73 constituencies will make upthe remainder of the 150-seat parlia-ment and the opposition was ahead inpartial counts from seven out of 10 such

constituencies in its stronghold Tbilisi.Saakashvili said that although there

were “deep differences” between hisparty and the opposition, “democracyworks and the Georgian people take thedecision and this is what we deeply re-spect”. His campaign was underminedby a prison torture scandal thatprompted nationwide protests ahead ofthe vote in the Western-backed ex-So-viet state and raised fears of more seri-ous post-poll unrest.

OSCE election observers describedthe polls as an “important step in con-solidating the conduct of democraticelections.” “Despite a very polarisingcampaign that included harsh rhetoricand shortcomings, the Georgian peoplehave freely expressed their will at theballot box,” said Tonino Picula, thehead of the OSCE international ob-server mission.

Ivanishvili had declared victory im-mediately after several exit polls sug-gested late Monday that his coalitionwas ahead and his supporters cele-brated long into the night in Tbilisi’scentral Freedom Square.

Saakashvili concedes defeat in Georgia elections

Abu Hamza’s healthhas worsened,British court hears

LONDONAFP

Radical Islamist preacher Abu Hamza’shealth has deteriorated, the High Court inLondon heard on Tuesday, as he made alast-ditch legal bid to halt his extraditionfrom Britain to the United States. TheEgyptian-born cleric with a hook for a hand,and four other men were set to be sent tothe United States after Europe’s top rightscourt gave its green light last week, but areseeking to block their removal. To avoidextradition to a US high-security prison,Hamza and fellow terror suspects KhaledAl-Fawwaz, Syed Tahla Ahsan, Adel AbdulBary and Babar Ahmad must prove thereare “new and compelling” reasons not tosend them. Two senior judges hearing thecase were told in papers lodged with thecourt that Hamza is seeking a temporaryinjunction pending a request for an MRIscan to be carried out due to his“deteriorating health”. Alun Jones, a lawyerfor 54-year-old Hamza, argues that there is“uncontradicted medical opinion that a scanis medically necessary”. “If the applicant(Hamza) is unfit to plead, or arguably so, itwill be argued that it would be oppressive toextradite him.” The lawyer said a judgereferred to Hamza’s “very poor health” at anextradition hearing in 2008. Hamza, theformer imam of the Finsbury Park mosquein north London, is wanted in the UnitedStates on charges including setting up an Al-Qaeda-style training camp for militants inthe northwestern US state of Oregon. Hehas also been charged with criminalconduct related to the taking of 16 hostagesin Yemen in 1998 and with advocatingviolent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001.

ALEPPO: A fighter injured in the

Arqub neighborhood of northern

city of Aleppo is brought to a

hospital on Tuesday, as fighting

in Syria’s second largest city

between rebel forces and

government troops continues. AFP


Pakistan represents a complex re-ality of positive and negativetrends. Like a large number ofAsian and African states, Pak-istan manifests discontinuities

based on ethnicity, language, culture, re-gion and religious orientations. There is nosingle method to cope with these diversitiesand bring them in a state-wide nationalframework. However, the capacity of thepolitical system to moderate these diversi-ties and build these into an overarchingframework goes a long way to determinethe extent to which the state and society canfunction as a coherent socio-political entity.

Pakistan is experiencing different kindsof societal conflicts and violence in differentparts of the country. In Karachi, violencehas become so endemic that during the lastsix months three to five people were killedon average every day. In Balochistan, espe-cially in and around Quetta, sectariankillings have become a routine affair. Attimes, the people from other provinces arealso killed in a pre-panned manner.

Other problems that threaten the fabricof Pakistani state and society are religious

e x t r e m i s m ,hardline socio-religious atti-tudes and theuse of violenceto pursue reli-gious-cum-po-litical agendas.An unfortunateexpression ofreligious ex-tremism waswitnessed onSeptember 20and 21 when theactivists of dif-ferent but rec-o g n i z a b l ehardline Islamicgroups dam-aged public andprivate propertywhile protestingagainst theYouTube-basedfilm on the HolyProphet. Achurch in Mar-dan and aHindu temple inKarachi weredamaged andthe adjoiningproperties ofChristians and

Hindus respectively were also vandalized.In Islamabad, the army was called out tohelp the police to stop the protesters fromentering the Diplomatic Enclave wheremost embassies were located. Had securitybeen weak on September 21, the possibilityof an attack on American embassy could notbe ruled out like the attack on the Americanembassy in Islamabad in November 1979.

It may be pointed out that under inter-national law if any embassy or consulate isdamaged by mob attack the host governmenthas to pay the cost of repairs. In November1979, when the US embassy in Islamabadwas damaged, Pakistan paid the cost of its re-pair which amounted to dollars 13,652,000.

There is another reality very differentfrom the ugly scenes in the streets of majorcities on September 21. On the next day, theyoung male and female students from main-stream educational institutions in Karachi,Lahore and Islamabad decided to clean upthe streets by removing the debris and repairand paint some road signs. They undertookthis task voluntarily and brought the requiredequipment and material needed for this task.It was very encouraging to see the young peo-ple working voluntarily in the streets, show-ing the soft and humane face of Pakistan.

The subsequent protests were peacefuland orderly for two major reasons. First, vio-lence on September 21 was condemned acrossbroad and the media named the Islamic par-ties whose activists engaged in violence. Thepolice used the footage of close circuit TV toarrest some of the violent protesters. Second,the leadership of Islamic parties decided tobe personally present in the protest marchesto deflect the criticism for being absent onthe day Pakistan witnessed one of the worstviolence in the recent past. They wanted toshow that their activists were peaceful andorderly and violence was resorted to by crim-inals and anti-social elements.

An orderly and peaceful protest marchwas organized in Karachi on September 30by various Islamic parties and groups andtheir affiliated madrassas, identifyingmainly with the Barelvi Islamic traditions.The top leaders were present in the march.

By the first week of October, the protestmovement was confined mainly to Islamicparties and groups. The mainstream politi-cal parties returned to their routine politicalactivities. The film-issue has provided themuch needed opportunity to Islamic groupsand parties to activate their workers andshow their strength in streets. The Difa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC), established afterthe Salala border post incident (November26, 2011) to launch a movement for not re-suming the transit of supplies to US/NATO

troops in Afghanistan, became somewhatinactive after the resumption of supplies inearly July. Now, the film-issue enabled theDPC to return to the political scene.

Despite their best efforts, the Islamicpolitical parties have not been able to out-smart the mainstream political parties. Thebest ever vote obtained by Islamic partieswas 11 percent in the 2002 general electionsfor a host of reasons that are beyond thescope of this article. They formed theprovincial government in KhbyerPukhtunkhwa in 2002-2007. They werepushed aside in the 2008 general elections.Now, they want to stage a comeback for thenext general elections. Therefore they willkeep the present protest alive as long as pos-sible. Another significant development isthat some sectarian and militant groups areendeavoring to enter national politics byworking with other religious parties. Theseare expected to enter the electoral contest.

It is a positive development that theprotest marches by religious parties havebecome peaceful. However, the manifesta-tion of religious hardline is noticeable intheir demands, including the display of thephotograph of the killer of GovernorSalmaan Taseer in the Karachi rally onSeptember 30. Some of the Islamic groupsproject him as a hero.

The political and societal developmentsover the last two weeks show that Pakistan’sreality manifests positive as well negativesocio-political and cultural trends. The vio-lence on the religious issue was condemned allover Pakistan, forcing the religious parties andmilitant groups to adopt a peaceful course ofaction and they attempted to shift the blameof violence to anti-social elements. The stu-dents created another positive example.

There is a need to build on the positivereality and discourage the negative reality.Pakistan’s political parties and societalgroups, including Islamic formations, shouldjoin together to build Pakistan’s internalstrength with reference to internal politicalcohesion, a moderate and tolerant societaldisposition and stable economy. This willmoderate various socio-cultural diversities,reduce societal violence and strengthen all-embracing Pakistan-wide social and politicalprocesses. These strengths will increase theircapacity to engage in a dialogue with theWest for convincing them to respect the toppersonalities of all religions and that noneshould be able to use the cover of freedom ofexpression to hurt the religious and culturalsentiments of any community.

The writer is an independent politicaland defence analyst.

Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

PPP’s wrong step in Sindh

the die is cast

On Monday a hurriedly called session of the Sindh Assemblypassed the controversial Sindh People’s Local GovernmentOrdinance (SPLGO) with a voice vote within minutes. Thebill was neither referred to the select committee nor

permission granted for a debate in the house. Request by formerallies belonging to the ANP, PML-F, NPP and PML-Likeminded to beallotted seats on the opposition benches was disregarded, leadingthem to sit on the floor. Some of them tore the copies of the bill intopieces. All shouted slogans against the new law and walked out of theAssembly Hall in protest. The PPP made no attempt to reach aconsensus through the customary give and take with minority groupswhich characterizes present day democracy. It was an exercise in thetyranny of majority.

The PPP has made its bed and will have to lie in it now. A line hasbeen drawn between the urban and the rural population of Sindh whichis highly unpopular in the interior of the province and is even opposedby minority communities in the cities, particularly the Pushtuns. ThePPP has steamrolled the opposition in spite of strong protests,shutter downs and wheel jam strikes and a campaign by the Sindhinewspapers and electronic media. As the law was being passed,virtually all cities and small towns in Sindh were closed. The protestswere peaceful till an activist of a nationalist party was killed in policefiring leading the mobs to torch a police station and several vehicles.

President Zardari met MQM chief Altaf Hussain during a stopoverin London hours after the SPLGO was voted into law. Electoralalliance between the two parties was high on the agenda of the twoleaders. The PPP leadership believes that the Bhutto cult prevailing inSindh would help it tide over any opposition in the interior of theprovince and what it will need after the elections is support fromother parties to form a coalition government at the center. For this itconsiders the alliance with the MQM invaluable. The new LocalGovernment system would strengthen the MQM’s position in Karachiand a number of other urban centers. With the gerrymandering of theearly 2000s under Gen Musharraf’s watch firmly in place, the MQMcan hope to win each of its seats won in 2008 hands down. The MQMis thus in a much better bargaining position than the PPP. It istherefore likely to play its cards closely to its chest, extracting moreconcessions from the PPP during the remainder of its tenure.

The line which has been drawn between two communities in Sindhby the SPLGO would cause further bitterness and give birth to moreconflicts instead of promoting amity in the province. Once the line hasbeen drawn, it would not be easy to undo it. Any government would findit difficult to resist the pressure from a big urban center like Karachi.

The realities of PakistanStrengthening positive ones should be priority

By Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi


There is a buzz on the streets of La-hore where I spent four days lastweek, engaged in a Track-2 dia-

logue between retired military officersand civil servants from India and Pak-istan. Laughing in the face of the “failingstate” narrative, which is the global im-pression of Pakistan, Lahore looks betterthan I have ever seen it before. Clean,green and bustling with the Punjabi en-ergy of old, the Lahori street sends outthree unambiguous, messages: firstly,the “basket-case” story of the Pakistanieconomy is one-sided; since 70 percentof the economy is in the informal sector,micro-boom co-exists with macro-bust.The second message, from millionaireand minion alike, is that India is moreopportunity than enemy. Thirdly, andthis is unusual given the government’s

spectacular non-performance, the Pak-istani people firmly believe that theirarmy should remain in its barracks.

Global headlines tend to depict Pres-ident Asif Ali Zardari as a precariouslypoised schemer, occupied in lining hispockets and manipulating Pakistani jus-tice to keep his Swiss accounts undis-turbed. There may be some truth in that,but the average Pakistani also acknowl-edges Mr Zardari as a skilled politicianand a democrat who has skilfully dribbledaround the Opposition, the Islamists, themilitary and the judiciary, even when allof them have opposed him in concert.Many Lahoris, by definition supporters ofNawaz Sharif (11 of Lahore’s 13 electedlegislators are from his party, the Pak-istan Muslim League-Nawaz), allow MrZardari credit for steering his political al-liance doggedly towards what would bean unprecedented landmark in March2013: an elected government completingits full five-year term.

This achievement, if it happens, willdo much to nurture a democratic ethosin Pakistan. Given that Mr Zardari him-self and his Pakistan Peoples Party-ledgovernment have pursued a determinedcourse of improved relations with NewDelhi, even through objections from thesecurity establishment, India must polit-ically scrutinise this unlikely democrat’sunexpected success.

If a single critical element has en-

sured Mr Zardari’s survival, it is his suc-cess in creating a stable political coalitionand keeping it together through a succes-sion of crises. Respected Pakistani politi-cal scientist Hasan Askari Rizvi suggeststhat political power in that country todayebbs and flows along four major axes: theruling alliance, the Opposition, the mili-tary and (since 2008) the judiciary. Exer-cising influence to a lesser degree are thereligious parties and the jihadi groups.

The ruling alliance, led by MrZardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party-Parlia-mentarians (PPP-P), includes Altaf Hus-sain’s predominantly mohajir (migrantsfrom India) Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM); Asfandyar Wali Khan’s predom-inantly Pakhtun Awami National Party(ANP); and a handful of smaller parties.With a narrow majority in the 342-seatNational Assembly, this coalition hasmiraculously held together.

The Pakistan army has challenged thegovernment on several occasions, mostrecently during the “memogate” crisis lastyear, when Mr Zardari was accused ofseeking Washington’s support against amilitary coup after the Abbottabad raidthat killed Osama bin Laden. Each time,however, Mr Zardari has stared down thegenerals. In the good old days a militarycoup might have followed, but today themilitary does not want to disturb the sta-tus quo. Firstly, the generals have littleappetite for tackling Pakistan’s complex

social, political and economic issues. Thepublic, too, has lost its taste for khaki so-lutions; there is none of the naive publicconfidence of the 1950s and 1960s thatthe Pakistan army would ride in onhorseback and sweep away the problems.Secondly, the military needs politicalbacking for its ongoing anti-terrorist op-erations against the Tehrik-e-TalibanPakistan (TTP) in the tribal agencies ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. Through years offailed peace deals, the Pakistan army hasrealised that this campaign is unavoid-able for Pakistan’s survival.

Only three major political partiessupport military operations in the tribalareas: the three big parties of the rulingcoalition. Nawaz Sharif and his PML-Nhave maintained a craven ambiguity onterrorism. The naive and simplisticImran Khan argues that the tribal agen-cies will return to normal once Americanforces depart the region. Pakistan’s mili-tary, fortunately, now knows better. Theword from within is that operations willcontinue long after America pulls outfrom Afghanistan.

The Opposition is a divided house,with the jihad-ambiguous Nawaz Sharif,the jihad-friendly Imran Khan, and thejihad-supporting Islamist parties all com-peting for the same vote in the comingelections. In the 2008 elections, whichwere boycotted by Mr Khan’s and the re-ligious parties, Mr Sharif reaped the fruits

of growing Punjabi support for militantgroups like the Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Thistime, however, that vote would be splitthree ways. Mr Zardari would obviouslybenefit, given the PPPP’s support base allacross Pakistan. Having gained control ofthe electoral colleges in the general elec-tions, he would be well poised for thepresidential elections next September.

His only challenger at present ap-pears to be Mr Sharif. But the Punjab-centric PML-N must first sweep its homeprovince (which has 183 of the NationalAssembly’s 342 seats) and then garnerindependents to cobble together a major-ity. Mr Sharif will take cheer from the de-clining fortunes of Imran Khan, whoseemed to genuinely believe that he wasriding a tsunami before reality dawned.Insiders say that Mr Khan’s early successwas thanks to the last chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt Gen ShujaPasha, who boosted him to build pres-sure on Mr Zardari. The current ISIchief, Lt Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam, a dry spy-master who focuses on intelligencerather than politics, has reportedly leftMr Khan high and dry.

Is President Zardari all but poised foranother term as president? Yes, if theelections were today. But in Pakistan, asin India, six months is a political lifetime.

The writer blogs atajaishukla.blogspot.com

It’s almost written in stone

Five more years for Zardari?

By Ajai Shukla


Comment 11


The Chief of Army Staff’s visit toRussia on 3 October corresponds withthe Russian Foreign Minister SergeyViktorovich visit to Pakistan forbilateral consultations on the sameday. Both these visits are importantnot only in removing theapprehensions and fallout of thecancellation of Mr Putin’s visit toPakistan but also creating the muchneeded impression that Russia andPakistan are determined to takeforward their mutual relationshipdespite years of neglect in past for thecollective benefit of both the countriesas well as the region. Economiccooperation and peace and stability inthe region seem to be the two vitalareas in which both the States haveagreed to cooperate.

Russia and Pakistan both areconcerned with the likely future USstrategy to manage the post 2014stability in Afghanistan which hasdefinite implications for both Russiaand Pakistan. The manning of

military bases with an appropriateforce level by US may help improvesecurity and shape the Afghan futurebut it may as well draw militaryactions from militant groups thatmay continue to refuse to accept thepresence of foreign troops on Afghansoil. Anyhow, any scenario in whichthe military presence of US inAfghanistan is weak will mean returnto the Afghanistan of 1990’s. Theconsequences of which will have tobe borne both by Russia andPakistan. Russia does not wantproliferation of conflict on itssouthern periphery. These conflictsmay not be the external threats toRussia’s existence but Russia cannotafford to stay aloof from anydeveloping conflicts especially whenit has the military power and muscleto manage and control these conflictsin the region.

The role of Taliban and IMU(Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) inthe post draw down Afghanistan

should be a matter of great concern toall the joint stake holders. The IMUhas declared a jihad against thegovernment of Uzbekistan with itsultimate goal being to overthrow thegovernment and establishing anIslamic state. This makes them theideological brothers of TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan). Attacks plannedand executed by IMU fromAfghanistan’s territory on Uzbekistanin the North together with militaryoperations being carried out byTaliban’s in the South is a ‘securitydilemma’ that may be warranting theattention of all who are looking attaking measures to create a stable andpeaceful Afghanistan. Thedefensive/offensive actions as well asthe likely restrictions/limitations thatcan be imposed to control themovements of the militants on thenorth and south borders ofAfghanistan will remain as the mostimportant common challenge.

Moscow regards NATO’s superior

strength in conventional forces as theexternal threat to Russia. Any USplans to occupy military bases inAfghanistan will not be welcomed byRussians. The strategic cooperationagreement that President Obamasigned on May 1, 2012, withAfghanistan committed United Stateswillingness to retain a militarypresence in country until 2024. Withwhat force and by occupying howmany military bases in Afghanistan noone is clear but what seems to be clearis that the growing Russian-Pakistanimilitary and diplomatic cooperationmay just be the outcome of therealization by Russia and Pakistan tobuild pressure on US to leave theregion and leave the policing of thesecurity in the region to the regionalstakeholders alone. A very interestingtwist in the new great game withhopefully positive outcomes forPakistan.

MUHAMMAD ALI EHSANKarachi

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to PakistanToday exclusively.

the nlc scamAS a part of the on-going cleansing drive

initiated by the media to unearth unholy doing inthe civil society, even some scams such as, PakistanSteel Mill’s Rs 22 billion scam, NICL case,corruption in Pakistan International Airlines andPakistan Railways, Hajj corruption case, NATOcontainers’ case, rental power projects and theephedrine quota case, have been made public. Morerecently, a stage is set against Maj Gen KhalidZaheer, Lt Gen Khalid Munir and Lt Gen AfzalMuzzafar for their involvement in the NationalLogistic Cell (NLC) scandal in 2008. Better late,then never. It goes to the army’s credit that insteadof hushing the scandal up, it ordered investigationsand recording of the Summary of Evidence (SoE).All the three general officers are facing courtmartial after being recalled into service. However,the obstructionists are creating misperceptionsabout the good offices of armed forces. They opinedthat Pakistan Army will hush up to save the sacredcow. Nonetheless, by court martialing the accusedofficers, the army has dispelled all the bickeringand speculations engulfing the country. The case issub judice, while GHQ is evaluating evidences ofthe case.

As the new standard of corruption has gnawedat the innards of Pakistani civility, it has alsopenetrated inside the iron-clad defenses of thePakistan armed forces. Resultantly, a few, at thevery top, have faltered and fallen prey to greed. Towhat extent has much-admired image of Pakistan’sarmed forces – as a highly disciplined, honest,responsible and professional body, turned intoabyss? The defenders of Pakistan’s frontiers takepride in boasting that the service in Pakistan armedforces is not merely a job, but it is a profession thatdemands sacrifice of their lives for the sake of theirmotherland. Any harm to them will invariably

inflict a heavy blow to the sovereignty of thecountry. If we as civilians do not respect theinstitution of military, we ought not to complain ifwe are not adequately defended from ouradversaries in the war. And, if we really want tocondemn corruption, then the civil society will haveto relegate the recognition of corruption, only to befollowed by the military culture – inviting a culturalchange in the society.

MOHSIN MIRZAIslamabad

contempt case against PulseIn any democratic country, media plays the role

of a watchdog to ensure that the executive,legislative and judicial organs of the state performtheir due roles in public interest. An assertiveprivate media is a hallmark of the process ofdemocratization currently under way in Pakistan.One of the country’s leading English magazine’s,weekly Pulse, quest for the purpose has come at acost.

On September 25, a two-member bench of theSupreme Court framed charges against the paper’sEditor-in-Chief Mohsin Jameel and EditorProduction Samar Rao for publishing a news storytitled “SC Registrar oversteps jurisdiction” in itsJune 22-28, 2012 issue. The short story appeared aspart of the magazine’s cover story on Dr Arsalancase questioning the veracity of the SC verdict inthe case, which was hurriedly disposed of ongrounds of being a “matter between two privateparties”. It was based on an email allegedly sent bySC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain to Copperstones, aUK-based public relations firm which reportedlyfacilitated the pleasure trips of Dr Arsalan Iftikhar,the son of SC Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, inLondon.

However, much of the story contributed by

Online – Pakistan’s news agency – was about thedouble extension of the SC Registrar. It raised theissue of two-yearly extensions in the Registrar’sservice after retirement – in 2010 and 2012,respectively – since the grounds on which theextensions were granted seemed to violate thecourt’s own strict rulings concerning the rehiring ofretired public servants.

The court’s response to the Pulse story hasbeen exceptionally hasty, as it took a suo motuaction against the magazine, issuing a contemptnotice to its chief editor and editor production andasking them to appear with replies in person on 1August.

The apparent haste in court proceedings, aswell as the fact of turning the case of a mediaperson versus a public servant, necessitate thatsome crucial facts pertaining to the caseconcerned should be put on record before the trialbegins.

Firstly, the magazine story had not mentionedthe contents of the email in question, and it wasessentially about the issue of double extension ofthe SC Registrar. Yet it is this email that hasbecome the basis of the contempt of courtproceedings. Secondly, the Registrar is not a judgebut a rehired retired bureaucrat. And, thirdly, thesource of the said email could be easily traced byany public or private investigative body, which iscertainly not the SC (even if the honourable judgeson the bench have decided otherwise).

All in all, the constitution of Pakistanguarantees the fundamental right of freeexpression; and, as fourth pillar of the state fabric,the magazine should continue to articulate publicinterest and hold state institutions, including thejudiciary, to account if and when they waver fromtheir respective public responsibilities.

IMRAN ALI SANDANOChina

russia and Pakistan

Shabash Pakistancampaign

This is with reference to newsconcerning a campaign titled “ShabashPakistan” to promote sense ofpatriotism among country’s youth andhelp them play the role as ambassadorsof Pakistan. Though the news was noton front or back pages but it is reallyheartening to see that in thesedepressing and gloomy times, there isstill some hope. It is undoubtedly aproud moment for every patrioticPakistani to see our youth steppingforth to play their part at such a timewhen we seem to be losing everything.

It is our moral obligation now toplay our part of supporting this nationbranding movement “ShabashPakistan” and help it achieve itsobjective of reviving much neededpatriotism and “Pakistaniyat” among allPakistanis to create a positive image ofPakistan in the international arena.

SHAMSA ASHFAQRawalpindi

better be on safe sideThanks to the next general election

which are fast approaching, the federalgovernment was kind enough toprovide some relief to the people ingeneral and motorists in particular bynot increasing but instead reducing thepetrol and CNG prices price by as muchas over five percent for the first week ofOctober 2012. But there is no guaranteewhatsoever that this relief would persistand there is every possibility of yetanother petrol bomb hitting the peoplein less than a week from now.

So better be on the safe side and nottake too much on this temporary relief,despite which the POL products are stillconsiderably high, and continue makingefforts to search some fuel savingtechnique and tricks in order tominimize the petrol expenses to themaximum extent possible withoutcompromising on the long and shortdistances travelling one has to do everyday.

BILAL AHMAD KHANLahore



12

Katy to throw a divorce party?

SInger Katy Perry is reportedly organizing adivorce party on the same date when she marriedcomedian russell Brand. Perry, 27, tied the knot

with Brand oct 23 in India. However, the two partedways after 14 months of their marriage. “Katy has beendreading october 23 for weeks now and has been tryingto think of ways to turn it into something positive,”thesun.co.uk quoted a source as saying. “She hasdecided to call it her divorce party and it will be a day ofdoing what she loves with her favourite people,” thesource added. on oct 25, Perry will turn 28. “It’s herbirthday two days later and the last thing she wanted todo was spend that week depressed and miserable, whichwould then mean not doing anything to celebrate herbirthday,” the source said. neWS deSK

Emma wants musical theatre role

Harry Potter star emma Watson says she wantsto star in a musical stage show soon.pthe 22-year-old actress, who had to perform routines

from famed musical `the rocky Horror Show` for hernew film “the Perks of Being a Wallflower”, said the workgave her a taste for singing and dancing, reported DailyStar. “I love musical theatre, so, I would love to do amusical soon, that would be wonderful... “I was terrifiedof the rocky Horror scenes, but, as it turned out, it wasfun, and once I got over how weird it was to go fromwearing knitted jumpers to corsets and fishnets, I got ittogether... (It has given me) a taste for cabaret andsinging and dancing,” she said. neWS deSK

LOVE in changing times is not linear. Candy flossromances might still be a favourite of small town’sdreamy teenagers, but layered romances with theirshare of odds and eccentricities have become theflavour of changing urban India. Indians are

unapologetic about their feelings and think imperfections can bealluring. There’s a realisation that mistakes in relationships dohappen. And interestingly changing love and longing is finding anew voice in the form of interesting narratives on celluloid.Commitment is no longer seen in the prism of rigidity. For manytoo, love is also now to think out of the box. Teflon romances set in urban India are the flavour of Bollywood.In the last few months, Shakun Batra’s Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu,Ashwini Chaudhury’s Jodi Breakers, Shoojit Sircar’s VickyDonor, Sanjay Gadhvi’s Ajjab Gajab Love, Preity Zinta’s Ishkq inParis, Karan Johar’s Student of the Year, Kunal Kohli’s Teri MeriKahaani, Homi Adjania’s Cocktail and Bela Sehgal’s ShirinFarhad ki Toh Nikal Padi are exploring the highs and lows of lovein today’s world. Filmmaker Karan Johar recently commented,“Today if you show the hero waiting on a bicycle for his girl tocome out from school and just exchange glances, the masses willlaugh at us. Romance is no longer about boy meets girl stories.”From DDLJ and KKHH to a Cocktail, urban romance has beenredefined in Hindi films many times over. Romance is nowdeparting from the usual set formulas and trying new parameterson 35 mm. The days of stereotyped romances are over. If EMAETlooked at friendship and love and the mistake of getting marriedquickly, Shrin Farhad ki Toh Nikal Padi showed love can happeneven when your are past your prime. The canvas has becomebroader keeping in sync with changing relationships in urbanIndia. And filmmakers have realised that every romance doesn’tneed to be perfect.pFilmmaker Shakun Batra says, “I deliberatelykept the two individuals as friends in EMAET because these dayswhen a boy meets a girl, they may not be perfect for each otherand everything does not have to work out perfectly. It is hightime we stopped stereotyping romances in films.” As youngIndians become more vocal about their sexual preferences anddon’t mind relationships without strings, intimate scenes, adultcontent and smooches become integral in a Bollywoodfilm.”Ayushmann Khurrana says, “Romance has found a newdefinition in Bollywood since QSQT hit the screens. Peoplemust relate to the characters they see on screen.” BipashaBasu also feels that just like there are no set rules in arelationship, a Bollywood romance is not “about thehero/heroine dancing around trees anymore.” They say artmirrors society. So, in that light changing contours ofrelationships have found their way to the silver screen. As aslice of real life and reel life coming together. COuRTESY TOI

Pop star Lady Gaga has snubbed thechance to bury the hatchet with popqueen Madonna after she refused tojoin her onstage at a gig. Madonnainvited Gaga to perform with her atthe Yankee Stadium gig in theirnative New York last month.However, Gaga declined the offer asshe was too busy on her Born ThisWay Ball tour to spare the time,reported Sun Online. “Madonnacalled to ask Gaga to perform withher at Yankee Stadium. Hermanager reached out to us and saidMadonna would like Gaga toperform with her,” Gaga`s manager

Vincent Herbert said. “She reallywished she could do it. She said, `Ifwe do it, let’s donate the money tocharity`. But Gaga’s committed toher own tour.”pRelations betweenthe two has strained since Gagareleased her single `Born This Way`last year, with Madonna repeatedlycomparing it to her 1989 hit`Express Yourself`. Onstage inJuly, Madonna declared herself ahuge fan of `Born This Way`because “she helped to write” thesong. “I love her - imitation is thesincerest form of flattery,”Madonna had said. NEwS DESK

Yash Chopra’s retirement will be a loss for actorsActress Rani Mukherjeesays actors will lose outon working with agreat director likeYash Chopra, whorecently announcedhis retirementplans. “He getseverybody toparticipate, giveseveryone lot oflove and everyactor on his sets ispampered. Soobviously actorswill lose out onworking with agreat director likehim. I am lucky to havegot the opportunity towork with him,” Rani toldreporters. Rani`s first film with Chopra was`Mujhse Dosti Karoge` which he had produced,and later she did half-a-dozen films produced byhim including `Saathiya`, `Hum Tum`, `BuntyAur Babli` and `Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic`.Yash Chopra also directed Rani in `VeerZaara`.pOn her experience of working with theveteran director-producer, Rani said, “Myassociation with him has been wonderful. I thinkYash Chopra is a legend; he is one person whowe all look up to not only for the kind of movieshe has made but also because he is a greathuman being. He is a very passionate person.”“There are times when you feel that you couldhave done better and he is like I have seen, Ihave got the shot I wanted. NEwS DESK

Lady gaga turns down madonna’s tour offer

Aishwarya to return withmani ratnam’s rebecca?

After opting out of MadhurBhadarkar’s Heroine due to her

pregnancy, Aishwarya RaiBachchan will reportedly be star-

ring in Mani Ratnam’s next. Thefilm will be an adaptation of

Daphne Du Maurier’s 1938novel Rebecca. “Ash and Rat-

nam go back a long way.Her cinematic debut, Iru-

var in 1997 was directedby him. They workedagain ten years later inGuru. They againworked in 2010 in

Raavan. WheneverRatnam has of-

fered Ash a roleor a script, shehas always re-

spected it.This time too,

it was the same,” asource told MumbaiMirror. “Rebecca, thenovel is about a newlymarried woman who isconstantly comparedto the first wife of herhusband by the house-keeper. While she feelsbelittled by the shadowof the deceased lady of

the house, she later re-alises that her husbandwas never in love earlier.COuRTESY HT


Alot was expected of the Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif pairing in Ek Tha Tiger, andthe rumoured ex-couple did deliver. The

film raked in big money and a super-hit status, butnow, it’s also made the lead pair cautious ofsigning films together. “If we’re a successful pair,why won’t people want to cast us?” asks Katrina,admitting she’s always getting plenty of offers tostar opposite Salman. “But we won’t work togetherunless something is a step above Ek Tha Tiger.” Inthis interview, Katrina discusses her upcomingprojects, fabled house hunt and a fashionmagazine cover. Jab Tak Hai Jaan is nearingrelease. What can you tell us about thefilm?pWe’re almost done with the film. There’sonly one song left to shoot. I can’t talk much aboutmy role, but the film is an intensely romantic lovestory. It’s been hard work, but a lot of fun too. Idon’t get it when people ask me if it’s a ‘typical’Yash Chopra film. I’ve always thought he makes arange of films — love stories, social dramas, andlots more, so it’s not just one genre. Every day, wehear you looked for a new house or bought one

somewhere. Have you? Not at all. I don’t deny thatI want to soon, but I haven’t even started looking.I’ve been living at my current residence for a verylong time now. The rumours are complete rubbish.The worst was one about me buying a place inLokhandwala. You barely got to celebrate thesuccess of Ek Tha Tiger (ETT) because you werebusy shooting for your other films.pShootingschedules are always like that. Around the time ofits release, we promoted the film the best wecould. After that, we just had a small get-togetherat Kabir’s (director Kabir Khan) house to celebrateits success. I’ve never been a very vocal personanyway, so I prefer focusing my energy onwhat’s next. After two back-to-back hits —New York (2009) and ETT — does Kabirconsider you his lucky mascot now?pI don’tknow about that (laughs).He’s finalizing hisnext idea rightnow, but I’m notsure what it is.COuRTESY HT

Former Frenchmodel and designer Ines dela Fressangeposes during aphotocall prior tothe ChanelSpring/Summer 2013ready-to-wear collection show on Tuesday at the GrandPalais in Paris. AFP


13

Bagging

the Best British Boutique brand ‘Moda

in Pelle’ offered its customers

the first invites only sale for

the season at its outlet in

Vogue Towers M.M Alam

Road. The event attracted

socialites and fashionistas of

all ages and backgrounds.

Ayesha Babar

Sehr, Mona, Riffat & Sarah Zermen Sara & Aftab Sheikh

Alishay, Reema & Saira

Saliha

Something beyond ‘Tiger’ to pair with Salman again


14Infotainment


Dog in car’s grill survives ride

ANIMAL welfare authorities say a dogsurvived an 11-mile ride fromMassachusetts to Rhode Island — at speeds

of up to 50 miles per hour — after it was hit by acar and became wedged under the front grill. EastProvidence Animal Control supervisor WilliamMuggle says the female poodle mix ran in front ofthe car in Taunton on Sept. 20. The driverslammed on the brakes, but didn’t see the dog, socontinued driving. Muggle tells the Taunton DailyGazette that it wasn’t until the driver reached EastProvidence, R.I., that another motorist pointed outthe dog. The driver went to the police station,where animal control officials freed the fluffy whitepooch. The dog suffered a concussion and possiblya minor bladder rupture. Authorities are nowtrying to find its owner. AGenCIeS

THERE is one thing mostpresidents have in commonat the end of their firstterms: more gray hairs. Thegraying of the Commander-

in-Chief is symbolic of the stress as-sociated with being top dog in theworld’s most powerful nation. How-ever, research shows that psycholog-ical stress does not, in fact, impactthe color of one’s locks.

For us, gray hair is simply a partof the normal aging process, and therate you go silver is genetically pre-determined. Going gray is not asso-ciated with earlier mortality, andpremature graying is not, generallyspeaking, a sign of a illness or illhealth in younger adults. There are,however, some specific health condi-tions, such as vitiligo (an autoim-mune disorder that causes unevenpigmentation) associated with grayor white hair, but for most of us,going gray is just a fact of life.

Hair color comes from the pig-ment melanin, which has two hues,blackish brown and reddish yellow—the amount and mix of each deter-mines your individual shade. Hairwithout any melanin is pure white.The pigment is produced in cellscalled melanocytes, located at thebase of the hair follicle. Themelanocytes inject pigment into thehair. At some point in everyone’s life-time, these cells slow down and even-tually stop producing color alltogether in what’s called apoptosis, orgenetically predetermined demise.

Scientists have yet to identify theexact mechanism by whichmelanocyte cell death occurs. A studyof more than 4,000 women and menfrom 20 countries determined thatabout 75% of people between the agesof 45 and 65 have some gray hair. Ingeneral, people of European descentgray earliest followed by Asians andAfricans. It’s interesting to note that

a lucky 1 in 10 has no gray hair by re-tirement age. Beginning at age 30,your chances of having gray hair goup 10-20% per decade.

It may feel like you sprout moregrays in the wake of a stressful event,but that’s probably because middleage is basically a series of anxiety-ridden events. Between working,raising kids, and caring for older

parents, the “sandwich” years of 45-65 can be stressful, especially forwomen. They are also when we nat-urally start to look older.

In 2011, L’Oreal announced itwas in the early stages of developinga pill that would prevent melanin re-duction, but at this point, there isstill no silver bullet to keep away thegrays. neWS deSK

70-year-old farmer eaten by his hogs

ON Wednesday morning, Terry V. Garner, a70-year-old Oregon farmer, went to feedhis animals. Several hours later, when he

hadn’t returned, a family member went to look forhim and found, on the ground of the hogenclosure, his dentures. Further investigation ofthe enclosure revealed that the hogs, which eachweighed about 700 pounds, had nearly completelyeaten the farmer, although some body parts werestrewn about the enclosure. According to theSheriff’s statement: There are several scenariosbeing investigated, including that Mr. Garner had ahealth event, such as a heart attack, which then puthim in a position where the hogs could consumehim. Another scenario being investigated is thatgiven the age and health of Mr. Garner, that one ormore of the hogs knocked Mr. Garner to theground, whereupon that hogs killed and consumedhim. This isn’t the first time hogs have eaten theirfarmers. CourTeSy HuFFPoST

Villagers look at dying pilot whale stranded on the shore of Savu island in

east nusa Tenggara province on Tuesday. Fourty-four pilot whales lay

beached on the remote Savu island in a mass stranding that left at least 41

dead and several hacked to bits by locals, an official said. AFP

People form a human chain in the shape of a pink ribbon during a rally to

mark international breast cancer awareness month, in the libyan city of

Benghazi. THE TELEGRAPH

Why does hair turn gray?

Costa Rica fires judge forbeing serial over-sleeper

YOUR honor, you’re late. Again. And you’refired. A judge in Costa Rica has been sackedfor serial tardiness, the newspaper La Nacion

reported Monday. The unnamed 35-year-old judgegot the ax from a judicial oversight board. He hasrepeatedly offered as an excuse that he overslept. “Ihave constantly received complaints fromprosecutor, judges, administrators, technicians anddrivers about his poor performance, such as arrivingat the office late, starting hearings almost an hourlate, and absenteeism, with excuses such asoversleeping,” the judge’s boss, Eladio Sanchez,wrote to the board. The newspaper said the judge,fired in late August, is appealing. AFP

Genetically engineered cow makesanti-allergy milk

New extreme sport of Flyboardingtakes off in Australia

Researchers in New Zealand have ge-netically engineered a cow to producemilk with very little of a protein thatcauses an allergic reaction in somechildren. They hope the technique,which uses a process called RNA in-terference that reduces the activity ofcertain genes without eliminating itcompletely, can be used to controlother traits in livestock. With moth-ers breastfeeding less, cows’ milk isan increasing source of protein forbabies, but the different compositionof cows’ milk can cause an allergic re-

action. He said that although RNA in-terference has been shown to work inmanipulating plants and worms, “ithas not worked in livestock before”.Whitelaw said that aside from ac-centuating or reducing geneticallydetermined characteristics in farmanimals, such as growth rate, thetechnique could be used to improvedefense against infection. “Timewill tell how widely applicable RNAinterference will be in GM livestock.But this is certainly a milestonestudy in this field,” he said. AGenCIeS

Daring extreme sports enthusiastshows off the Flyboard, a combina-tion of a jet ski and a jet pack, in thewaters off Australia’s Gold Coast.The Flyboard is attached to a jet skiby a Kevlar hose that pumps water tokeep it as high as ten metres in theair, enabling riders to dive, dolphin-like, under water from a great height.

They then use their feet to control thedirection in which the board travelsand their hands to keep it stable.The Flyboard was invented by jetskier Franky Zapata in 2011. Thosewho want to try out this new ex-treme sport should be aware that itis not cheap, the Flyboard costsover £7,000. CourTeSy THe TeleGrAPH


Wednesday, 3 october, 2012

Page 18

aussie Open moneyboost pleases djokovic

cOLOMBOAFP

PAKISTAN gave themselves a bigchance of reaching the WorldTwenty20 semi-finals Tuesdaywith a shock 32-run win over

Australia, who reached the last four re-gardless courtesy of their net run rate. Pak-istan made 149-6 after being sent in to batin the group two Super Eights match at thePremadasa stadium, before a five-manspin attack restricted Australia to 117-7.

Prolific spinner Saeed Ajmal claimed3-17, but it was 20-year-old Raza Hasanwho was declared man of the match forconceding just 14 runs and taking two

wickets in four overs of steady left-armspin. Both teams ended the Super Eightson four points each, which knocked win-less South Africa out of the tournament.

Australia advanced to the semi-finalsdespite the defeat due to having the bestnet run-rate in the group. The result leftIndia needing an emphatic win over SouthAfrica later on Tuesday to stop Pakistan'sprogress. Sri Lanka and the West Indieshave already qualified from group one.

Veteran Mike Hussey was Australia'ssaviour with an unbeaten 54 off 47 balls asnone of the other batsmen managed tocross 15 against the rampaging spinners.

Australia never looked comfortableafter their in-form openers, Shane Watson

and David Warner, were dismissed by thefifth over with only 19 runs on the board.

Australia, who needed to make 112 ormore to qualify, achieved the target whenHussey cut seamer Umar Gul to the fenceoff the first ball of the final over. Gul's twoovers at the end were the only ones by aseamer as the spinners shared 18 overs be-tween themselves. Pakistan's innings re-volved around left-hander Nasir Jamshed's55 off 46 balls, which contained fourboundaries and two sixes. After the open-ers were removed by the sixth over,Jamshed put on 79 off 55 balls for the thirdwicket with Kamran Akmal, who made 32before both batsmen were dismissed in thespace of three deliveries.

australia into semis despite Pakistan win

cOlOmbO: Pakistan cricketer nasir Jamshed plays a shot during the icc twenty20cricket World cup's Super eight match against australia. AFP

cOlOmbO: raza Hasan celebrates after he dismissed of Glenn maxwell (unseen) during the icctwenty20 cricket World cup's Super eight match. AFP

cOlOmbO: Saeed ajmal (r) celebrates dismissingPat cummins (unseen). AFP

PAKISTAn:

Mohammad Hafeez lbw b Starc 4

Imran nazir c Bailey b Watson 14

nasir jamshed c Warner b doherty 55

Kamran Akmal c White b Starc 32

umar Akmal not out 9

Abdul razzaq c Watson b Cummins 22

Shahid Afridi b Starc 4

Shoaib Malik not out 4

eXTrAS: (lb2, w3) 5

ToTAl (for six wickets, 20 overs) 149

Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Hafeez), 2-29 (nazir), 3-108 (jamshed), 4-

108 (K. Akmal), 5-136 (razzaq), 6-144 (Afridi).

Bowling: doherty 4-0-27-1 (w1), Starc 4-0-20-3, Watson 4-0-

23-1 (w1), Cummins 4-0-42-1 (w1), Maxwell 1-0-6-0, Hogg

3-0-29-0.

AuSTrAlIA:

S. Watson lbw b Hasan 8

d. Warner lbw b Hafeez 8

M. Hussey not out 54

G. Bailey lbw b Ajmal 15

C. White c nazir b Hafeez 12

G. Maxwell c Hafeez b Hasan 4

M. Wade b Ajmal 13

P. Cummins lbw b Ajmal 0

M. Starc not out 1

eXTrAS: (b1, w1) 2

ToTAl (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 117

Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Watson), 2-19 (Warner), 3-44 (Bailey), 4-58

(White), 5-65 (Maxwell), 6-110 (Wade), 7-110 (Cummins).

Bowling: Hafeez 4-0-22-2, Hasan 4-0-14-2, Ajmal 4-0-17-3 (w1),

Afridi 4-0-33-0, Malik 2-0-19-0, Gul 2-0-11-0

Pakistan win by 32 runs, Man of the match: raza Hasan (PAK),

Toss: Australia, umpires: Ian Gould (enG) and richard

Kettleborough (enG), TV umpire: Kumar dharmasena (SrI),

Match referee: jeff Crowe (nZl)

SCoreBoArd

PALLEKELEAFP

England captain Stuart Broad has ad-mitted his inexperienced team was "notgood enough" after the defendingchampions crashed out of the WorldTwenty20.

England's 19-run defeat against SriLanka in Pallekele on Monday was theirsecond loss in three Super Eights gamesand paved the way for the hosts and theWest Indies to advance to the semi-finals from group one.

"You can look at the missedopportunities. But I thinkthroughout the whole tournament,we've not quite been goodenough," Broad said on Mon-day night as his team pre-pared for the long journeyhome.

England, who won the2010 title in the Caribbeanunder Paul Collingwood, beatonly New Zealand in theSuper Eights but could havemade the semi-finals hadthey defeated Sri Lanka.

Sling-arm fast bowlerLasith Malinga dashedthe champions' hopeswith three wickets in his

first over that reduced England to 18-3chasing Sri Lanka's 169-6.

Broad's men ended on 150-9 follow-ing a half-century fromSamit Patel and his 51-

run stand for the eighthwicket with Graeme

Swann, who swung his bat tohit 34 off 20 balls with fourboundaries and a six.

Patel finished with a glori-ous 67 off 48 balls, but the ef-fort came too late to saveEngland from an early exit.

"It was very disappointingto have gone out, because I be-

lieve we do have the firepower inthat changing room to go far,"said Broad. "It was frustratinglyclose."

The man who could havechanged England's fortuneswas star batsman Kevin

Pietersen, the man of thetournament in 2010 who

was confined to the TV stu-dio in Colombo afterbeing axed for discipli-nary reasons.

Pietersen was cast intointernational exile after

sending text messages toSouth African players that con-

tained criticism of then England skip-per Andrew Strauss during the recentTest series.

Broad refused to dwell onPietersen's absence, but admitted hisside lacked experience to match thefirepower of the other teams.

"What you get with young guys issome days of absolute brilliance, andother days a bit of averageness," hesaid. "I think, as a team, we've probablyshown that. "It has been a learning ex-

perience for us. Obviously, we did nothave enough players firing at the sametime. "The talent is certainly there. Yousee on the domestic scene that these arethe guys who are performing week inand week out.

"But it's a learning experience whenyou come into the international scene."We've got guys here who have notplayed a lot of international cricket. Butas long as we learn from it, we will de-velop."

England not good enough, says Broad

England fans held afterbrawl at NZ team hotelCOLOMBO: Sri Lankan police arrested two England fans who were involved in abrawl after heckling New Zealand's defeated cricketers in their hotel at the WorldTwenty20 tournament, officials said Tuesday. The two fans were taken into cus-tody on Monday night after the bust-up at the luxury Earl's Regency Hotel in thecentral hill resort of Kandy where the New Zealand players were also staying, alocal police official said. "The team was in the hotel lobby when some British fansheckled them and it was turning into a nasty scene," the official who declined tobe named told AFP. "That is when their bodyguards called the local police in." Hesaid charges were not pressed and the two men were freed early Tuesday. An offi-cial who witnessed the brawl but asked not to be named said he saw one memberof the security team assigned to protect the Black Caps come to blows with severalEngland fans. The incident came hours after New Zealand's defeat to the West In-dies in the Super Eights match in nearby Pallekele. The holders England werethen beaten by Sri Lanka at the same venue later that evening. AFP

Patel staystied up in nottsNOttINGHAM: England all-rounderSamit Patel has signed a new three yeardeal with Nottinghamshire, the county an-nounced Tuesday. Patel, a regular in Eng-land's limited-overs teams, top-scoredwith 67 on Monday as England wereknocked out of the World Twenty20 with adefeat to hosts Sri Lanka. The 27-year-oldmade his Test debut earlier this year in SriLanka but is not a firm fixture in the Testside, meaning he remains a valuable assetin Notts' domestic bids for silverware. AFP

PALLEKELEAFP

Hosts Sri Lanka have used a bagful oftricks to outwit rivals on their way to theWorld Twenty20 semi-finals -- evenchanging captains for a match to furthertheir cause. Eyebrows were raised whenKumar Sangakkara, and not regular cap-tain Mahela Jayawardene, walked out totoss in Monday's last Super Eights matchagainst England in Pallekele.

Both Jayawardene and designatedvice-captain Angelo Mathews were

part of the playing eleven, but theteam sheet had senior pro Sangakkaraas skipper in an extraordinary turn ofevents. Jayawardene explained laterthe change was made to prevent himand Mathews from missing out on thesemi-finals since both of them were al-ready serving a one-match notice forslow over-rates.

"The intention was not wrong,"Jayawardene said after the 19-run winover England that knocked the defendingchampions out of the tournament andlifted the hosts and the West Indies into

the semi-finals from group one. "I had awarning for an over-rate issue, and if ithappened again I could have missed thenext match. It's a tough system and it'stough to bowl 20 overs in one hour and20 minutes in a tournament like this.

"We try our best but the penalties areharsh. We don't want to miss the biggames, so we did it with the right inten-tions. "Angelo Mathews was on the sameoffence, so if he got nailed he would havemissed the game as well. We had to findsomeone who didn't have a rap sheet andKumar fitted the bill."

SL switch captains to avoid ban briton admits t20ticket theft in Sl

cOLOMBOAFP

A Briton on Tuesday pleaded guilty tostealing tickets for a crunch WorldTwenty20 cricket match between hosts SriLanka and defending champions England.Police said Caesar Buller, 54, had gone toa sales booth in the capital Colombo onSunday and pocketed four books of ticketsfor Monday's game, which Sri Lanka won,eliminating England from the tournament.He was arrested after sales staff raised thealarm. Colombo Chief Magistrate RashmiSingappuli ordered Buller, from Manches-ter, to appear for sentencing on October 16and remanded him on bail of one millionrupees ($7,700). Under Sri Lankan lawtheft carries a maximum sentence of threeyears in prison and a fine. Police told thecourt Tuesday that the stolen tickets had aface value of 10,920 rupees (around $85),but most of them could not have beenused as they had not yet been validated.

flower hopeful of swiftPietersen solution

LONDONAFP

England coach Andy Flower said he expectsan announcement on Kevin Pietersen's fu-ture with the side before Thursday as hehoped for a positive resolution to the saga.The star batsman was cast into internationalexile in August after sending text messagesto touring South Africa players that con-

tained criticism of then Englandcaptain Andrew Strauss during

the Test series. He missed outon England's failed WorldTwenty20 title defence inSri Lanka and the upcoming

England tour of India,as well as a central

contract forthe new

season.


PUNjAB YoUTH FESTIvAL 2012

Sports 16


cOLOMBOAFP

INDIA'S one-run win over SouthAfrica was not enough to keep themin the World Twenty20 Tuesday asthe former champions were beaten

to the semi-finals by arch-rivals Pakistan,who had a better net run rate. India made152-6 in their 50 overs but they failed tostop South Africa reaching 121 runs, whichwould have put them into the last four atPakistan's expense. South Africa wereeventually bowled out for 151 in 19.5 overs.

Australia also qualified for the semi-fi-nals despite losing their Super Eights grouptwo match to Pakistan by 32 runs earlier onTuesday. Sri Lanka and the West Indiesreached the last four from group one. Indiamanaged 152-6 in 20 overs against SouthAfrica as their hopes of a World Twenty20semi-final place hung in the balance.

Suresh Raina top-scored with 45 beforehe was run out off the final delivery, afterSouth African captain AB de Villiers wonthe toss and opted to field first in the finalSuper Eights group two match at Pre-madasa stadium. India, who need to win by31 runs to oust Pakistan from the semi-fi-nals, found the varied South African attacktough to handle with Morne Morkel taking

2-28 and left-arm spinner Robin Petersonfinishing with 2-25. Australia qualified forthe last four despite losing their last SuperEights match by 32 runs against Pakistanat the same venue earlier in the day. HostsSri Lanka and the West Indies have alreadyqualified for the semi-finals. Raina hit fiveboundaries during his 34-ball knock andadded 44 for the fifth wicket with RohitSharma who made 25. India were off to a

disastrous start as opener Gautum Gamb-hir was bowled by Morkel in the fourth overfor eight, before the in-form Virat Kohli wascaught behind off a rising delivery fromJacques Kallis for two in the next. It be-came 36-3 when Peterson bowled VirenderSehwag for 17, after the Indian opener hithim for a towering six a ball earlier. SkipperMahendra Singh Dhoni chipped in with aquick 13-ball 23 with three boundaries.

Pakistan into semis, India win but crash out

LAHORE STAFF rePorT

As many as 30 sports events were contestedthroughout the province on day three of theDistrict Level of the Punjab Youth Festival 2012on Tuesday in which the selected lot of playersfrom different districts took part. On the daycompetitions were held in eight districts where890 players took part in both the team and in-dividual competitions and 206 won theirevents. Similarly in the non-sporting eventscompetitions were held in naat khani, qirat andmilli naghme and 2054 took part in these cate-gories in all the 36 districts of the province.

In the Badminton competitions held atIqbal Park Sports Complex, Ravi Town beatIqbal Town to win the title with Aizaz Saif beingdeclared the best player of the event. Earlier,Iqbal Town beat Wahga Town 2-0, Ravi Townbeat Data Ganj Bax Town 2-0, Shalimar Towndefeated Aziz Bhatti Town 2-0, Iqbal Town out-played Samanabad Town 2-0, Nishtar Townbeat Gulberg Town 2-0. And in the semifinals,Ravi Town beat Nishtar Town 2-1 and IqbalTown defeated Shalimar Town 2-0.

In bodybuilding event Agha Mehsin of PCCLahore was adjudged winner in the 65 kgsweight class, while Arif Raza of Govt College forBoys Gulberg won silver and bronze went toArif Raza of Islamia College Railway Road. Inthe 75 kgs weight class, Salman Chohan of PCCLahore was declared the winner, Aslam Butt(Islamia College Railway Road) was runner upand Mohammad Faizan (Govt College Shad-man) was the second runner up. In the 75-plusweight class, Yasir Sohail of PCC Lahore wasadjudged Mr Festival while UMair Ashgar of Is-lamia College Railway Road was firs runner upand Mohammad Amir of Govt Science CollegeWahdat Road was second runner-up.

In athletics, Gulberg Town’s Dr Ali Zamanwon 100 metres race wigth 11.38 time, HusnainAli of Wahga Town was second with 11.40. In200 metres, Dr Ali ZXaman was the winnerwith 22.66 time wile MUzaffar of Samanabad

Towb was second. In 400 metres, MOhamamdShafique of Gulberg Town with 52.63 won therace while Irfan of Wagha Town was place sec-ond and in javelin throw, Mohammad Yasir ofWagha Town took the event with a throw of46.80 metres while Nadeem Akhtar of AzizBhatti Town was second. In Arm wrestling, Za-meer Sultan of Data Ganj Bax was winner in 70kgs class, in 85 kgs Usman Butt of Ravi Townwas winner and in 85-plus class Nabeel Bajwaof Iqbal tonw was winner In Volleyball, WaghaTown beat Iqbal Town 2-0, Gata Ganj Bax de-feated Gulberg Town 2-0, Nashtar Townmoved past Gulberg Town 2-0, Shalimar Townoutplayed Aziz Bhatti Town 2-1, Wagha Townprevailed over Samanabad Town 2-0.

In hockey of girls, Kinnaird College willtake on Baghbanpura College in the final. Bagh-banpura beat Kulliyat-ul-Banat 5-0. In the sec-ond semi-final Kinnaird College beat WahdatRoad 4-0 and in third position match, WahdatRoad College beat Kulliyat-ul-Banat 1-0. And inchess Amir Karim of Iqbal Town was winner,Murtaza Faisal of Data Ganj Bax Town was sec-ond and Shahzad Agha of Samanabad wasthird. At Jhelum competitions in athletics, bad-minton, table tennis, billiard and arm wrestlingwere held and around 75 players figured inthese events and 18 took the top honour. Simi-larly, at Gujranwala 90 took part in team eventsand 45 were the winners while Faisalabad had387 participants with win coming 74 peopleway. In the Faisalabad city alone 264 took partin the team events and 33 tasted victory whileat Jhang 41 were lucky from among 123.

Likewise at Mulktan and Lodharan 84 and53 took part in cricket, taekwondo, weightlift-ing, bodybuilding, billiard and hockey respec-tively and winners turned out to be 14 and 26in sequence. And at Dera Ghazi Khan’s two dis-tricts, Layyah and Muzaffargarh 202 with a se-quence of 70 and 132 took part in differentevents and 26 and 29 win their events respec-tively. In the non-sporting events like qirat, naatkhani and millinaghme quite active participa-tion was witnessed at all the 36 districts.

Tough competitions held

IndIA G Gambhir b M Morkel 8V Sehwag b Peterson 17V Kohli c de Villiers b Kallis 2rG Sharma lbw b Peterson 25yuvraj Singh b M Morkel 21SK raina run out (Botha/de Villiers) 45MS dhoni not out 23eXTrAS (lb 10, nb 1) 11ToTAl (6 wickets; 20 overs) 152did not bat IK Pathan, r Ashwin, l Balaji, Z KhanFall of wickets 1-23 (Gambhir, 3.3 ov), 2-30 (Kohli, 4.5 ov), 3-36(Sehwag, 5.3 ov), 4-68 (yuvraj Singh, 9.6 ov), 5-112 (Sharma, 15.6ov), 6-152 (raina, 19.6 ov)Bowling: dW Steyn 4-1-26-0, M Morkel 4-0-28-2, jH Kallis 3-0-24-1, rj Peterson 4-0-25-2, j Botha 3-0-30-0, F du Plessis1-0-3-0, jP duminy 1-0-6-0SouTH AFrICAHM Amla c Sehwag b Khan 0jH Kallis c Sharma b Pathan 6AB de Villiers b yuvraj Singh 13F du Plessis c raina b yuvraj 65jP duminy c Gambhir b Balaji 16

F Behardien c raina b Khan 13rj Peterson b Khan 10jA Morkel b Balaji 10j Botha c raina b Ashwin 8dW Steyn not out 0M Morkel b Balaji 6eXTrAS (lb 3, nb 1) 4ToTAl (all out; 19.5 overs) 151Fall of wickets 1-0 (Amla, 0.2 ov), 2-16 (Kallis, 3.3 ov), 3-46 (deVilliers, 6.1 ov), 4-95 (du Plessis, 12.4 ov), 5-107 (duminy, 14.6 ov),6-127 (Behardien, 17.2 ov), 7-127 (Peterson, 17.3 ov), 8-138 (Botha,18.5 ov), 9-145 (jA Morkel, 19.2 ov), 10-151 (M Morkel, 19.5 ov)Bowling: Z Khan 4-0-22-3, IK Pathan 3-0-26-1, yuvraj Singh 4-0-23-2, rG Sharma 1-0-13-0, r Ashwin 4-0-27-1, l Balaji3.5-0-37-3 Toss South Africa, who chose to fieldresult: Indian win by one runPoints India 2, South Africa 0Player of the match tbaumpires HdPK dharmasena and rj Tucker (Australia)TV umpire Ij Gould (england)Match referee jj Crowe (new Zealand)reserve umpire rA Kettleborough (england)

SCoreBoArd

laHOre: Owner Shaheen butt holds Home child, which staged an upset in the lahore race clubraces. rider Salman is sitting on the horse who rode it to win in 1.12 minutes. favourite Shan-i-tajpurawas placed third and morning Glory got second position in the 5.5 furlong race.


Sports17


Pakistan’s testspinner fails dopetest, faces 2-year ban

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

Pakistan spinner Abdur Rehman is facing atwo-year ban from cricket for failing a dopetest in England. The 32-year-old left-armspinner was representing Somerset inCounty cricket last month and is not part ofthe ongoing World Twenty20 squad in SriLanka. According to a report, the Englandand Wales Cricket Board has informed thePCB about Rehman flunking the test.Rehman is the 17th player worldwide andthird from Pakistan to have failed a dopetest. Fast bowlers Mohammad Asif andShoaib Akhtar had also tested positive.Though not part of the World T20 squad,Rehman is a regular member of the Testand one-day squads. In 17 Test matches, hehas taken 81 wickets and 21 in 25 ODIs.

Khan namesHunter new trainer,to face molina next

LOS ANGELESAFP

Britain's Amir Khan seeking to end atwo bout losing streak has named VirgilHunter to replace Freddie Roach as hisnew trainer and plans to meet unbeatenAmerican fighter Carlos Molina in hisnext bout. The 25-year-old Englishboxer announced on his website that hehad made the switch in trainers and thathis next fight would be against Molina ata US venue with the date yet to be deter-mined."I'm really pleased that Virgil Hunter isto become my new trainer," Khan said."Everyone in boxing knows about hisskills and the success he has enjoyedover the last few years. "I'm looking for-ward to the start of my training campand working on some new things withhim. With Virgil in my corner, I knowthat I can get back to the very top of thelight-welterweight division."

PHf official emailaddress hacked

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

The official email address of PakistanHockey Federation has been hackedand the PHF is facing greater difficultydue to the fraudulent emails being sentfrom the address to various individualsand national hockey federations acrossthe world.“Some hackers hacked our email ad-dress on Tuesday afternoon and sentspurious emails to different people andnational federations whose email ad-dresses were saved in the folder for of-ficial correspondence,” said PHF,Secretary, Mohammad Asif Bajwa.PHF was [email protected] whichis no more the valid email address of PHFwhich has created the new address [email protected].“We immediately informed the Interna-tional Hockey Federation, Asian HockeyFederation and all the affiliated nationalhockey federations across the worldabout the hacking and asked them not togive any importance to what so everemails or messages they are receivingfrom the old address,” he said. He added: “By the time PHF introducedits new email address the hackers senta number of emails to create confu-sion.” Bajwa said they have acquiredthe services of IT experts to determinewho is behind the hacking of theiremail address.

MANcHESTERAFP

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure be-lieves the Premier League champions canwin the Champions League this season, asthey prepare for their first home game onWednesday against Borussia Dortmund.

The former Barcelona midfielder, whowon the competition with the Catalan gi-ants in 2009, said that with other formerwinners in their squad such as Maicon,Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli, they havethe experience to go all the way.

The 29-year-old said: "I have that ex-perience and it is good to have big playerslike Maicon and Balotelli. It is not easy towin the Champions League.

"Here the club just wants to be in thesecond round and we know we have to im-prove because we have a very good teamand with a team like this we can go very farin the competition." After their openinggroup game 3-2 defeat against Real Madridin the Bernabeu, Toure has called on hisside to improve defensively if they are toqualify from the group. Roberto Mancini's

side conceded two goals in the final fiveminutes from Karim Benzema and Cris-tiano Ronaldo in Spain to hand Madrid thevictory. "We are playing our first game athome and we want to show the fans wemade a mistake in Madrid. We have atough game against Dortmund," he added.

"Of course we need to improve whenyou play against a tough team like Madrid,we need to improve in defensive situations.We have to go beyond that and do better.Most important we have to do our job andget a result." Mancini, who was furious withhis side's collapse in Spain in the wake ofthe defeat, insists his side needs to improvequickly if they want to progress.

While it took Champions League regu-lars Manchester United and Arsenal someyears to find their feet in Europe's elitecompetition, Mancini knows his side will bejudged much sooner.

"I know that it is difficult to win theChampions League, every game is difficult,"the Italian said. "This is second year thatwe're playing in the Champions League andthe second time we have the worst group."We know we are a good team like (Man-

chester) United and Arsenal. We improvedin the Premier League and need time to im-prove in the Champions League.

"But we don't have time with only fivegames to go. If we want to go through weneed to improve very quickly."

Mancini accepted that the competitionwas difficult and was frustrated at the toughdraw but was confident that if his side canget out of the "champions" group of Dort-mund, Real Madrid and Ajax, anything canhappen in the knockout stages.

The Italian manager has yet to win thecompetition, despite having claimed leaguetitles in both Italy and England, but hopesthis season could change that.

"The Champions League is a difficultcompetition, the football is the same, theplayers are the same," he said. "Theproblem when you play is that it is al-ways against the best teams from othercountries.

"Every game is difficult. I hope can im-prove my record in the Champions League.I think the time will come when we can winthe Champions League. But we are cur-rently in a difficult group.

cOlOmbO: Pakistan cricketers leave the ground

after victory during the icc twenty20 cricket World

cup's Super eight match against australia. AFP

Man City can be Champions League winners: Toure

Steven Fletcherreturns fromScotland exileGLASGOW: Steven Fletcher made asurprise return to the Scotland squadannounced Tuesday for this month's2014 World Cup qualifiers, followingmonths of international exile. The Sun-derland striker has not featured for thenational side since he texted the ScottishFootball Association to say he did notwant to be selected for a match againstNorthern Ireland in February 2011. Butthe 25-year-old made a dramatic come-back to the squad after a third party toldScotland manager Craig Levein he wasdesperate to play for the national sideagain. He was swiftly included in Lev-ein's 25-man squad for the matchesagainst Wales in Cardiff on October 12and Belgium in Brussels on October 16."It's a big plus for me and the rest of theteam for him to be involved," Leveinsaid. "I got a phone call through a thirdparty during the week and that was anindication from that person that Stevenwas desperate to come back and play.

SCoTlAnd SQuAdGoalkeepers: matt Gilks (blackpool/enG), allan mc-Gregor (besiktas/tur), david marshall (cardiff/Wal)defenders: christophe berra (Wolverhampton/enG),Gary caldwell (Wigan/enG), daniel fox (Southamp-ton/enG), Grant Hanley (blackburn/enG), alan Hut-ton (aston Villa/enG), russell martin (norwich/enG),charlie mulgrew (celtic), andy Webster (Hearts)midfielders: charlie adam (Stoke/enG), Scott brown(celtic), darren fletcher (manchester utd/enG),James forrest (celtic), James mcarthur(Wigan/enG), Shaun maloney (Wigan/enG), Jamesmorrison (West bromwich/enG), robert Snodgrass(norwich/enG)forwards: Steven fletcher (Sunderland/enG), Jamiemackie (QPr/enG), Kenny miller (Vancouver/can),Steven naismith (everton/enG), matt Phillips (black-pool/enG), Jordan rhodes (blackburn/enG). AFP

mancHeSter: manchester city's argentinean forward Sergio agüero (c) warms up along withteammates during a training session at the clubs carrington training complex. AFP

lOndOn: arsenal's russian midfielder andreyarshavin (l) attends training for the uefachampions league. AFP


watch it LiveESPNSports Center07:00PM

Sports 18


tauseef clubwin 2nd matchof the series

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

Tauseef Club has won the 2nd match ofthe best of 3 series when they beat DehliGym by 12 runs at local ground of thecity the other day. Fine batting perform-ances were given by M Ahmed, IbrarBaig. Earlier Tauseef Club had won 1stmatch by 3 wickets. SCoreS: tauseef club 224/7. m ahmed 47, ibrar

baig 43, Waqas Khan 38, Sher baz Khan 33, mohsin

agha 23, israr baig 20(no). naveed zia 2/23,

muhayuddin 2/33, Waqar ahmed 2/39, Haoon

rasheed 1/9.

dehli Gym 212. irfan ali Qadar 48, imtiaz ahmed 45,

ali raza 39, ayaz 19. israr baig 3/38, Sheraz baig

2/23, awais mazoor 2/33, Sher baz Khan 1/11, Waqas

Khan 1/17.

Wahdat eagletsmarch into 3rd round

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

Wahdat Eaglets moved into the 3rdround of 1st Malik Asghar Dogar Me-morial cricket event when they out-played Mughalpura XI by 76 runsplayed at Bara Dari Dharampuraground the other day. Fine bowling per-formances were given by Ali shah andQaiser Ashraf. SCoreS: Wahdat eaglets 227. rohail Hassan bhati

44, Sher baz Khan 31, israr baig 37, Qaiser ashraf

25, ali Shah 15, Haris nazar 15, Salman ali 15. m

rameez 2/36, m afzal 3/35, Haris 2/42, adil 2/32,

nasir 1/25.

mughalpura X1 151. ali raza 47, m afzal 44, ansar 11,

ali Shah 4/24, Qaiser ashraf 3/13, israr baig 1/7,

Sher baz Khan 1/28, ali tipu Sultan 1/42.

Olazabal rules out 2014 Europe captaincyLONDON

AFP

Ryder Cup-winning captain Jose MariaOlazabal said Tuesday he would not leadEurope into the next edition in 2014,after steering the team to a famousagainst-the-odds victory last weekend.

The Spaniard said the tension madeit "torture" skippering the side that cameback from 10-4 down to pull off an as-tonishing win by 14 1/2 points to 13 1/2at Medinah in Illinois. "I won't do itagain," he told a press conference atLondon Heathrow Airport. "I can assureyou that's going to be a no, period.

"(Being captain) is difficult; in away it's torture. "It's really tough onyour nerves but that's the beauty ofthe Ryder Cup. It's a huge adrenalinflow and that's what we live for -- thepressure, the tension the adrenalinflow makes us feel alive." The 46-year-old said there were several othergood candidates to lead the team atGleneagles in Scotland in two years'

time. He named Darren Clarke, PaulMcGinley and Thomas Bjorn -- threeof his vice-captains -- as well as PaulLawrie, Lee Westwood and PadraigHarrington as viable contenders.

"There are a lot of players whoshould have the opportunity to be in myspot," he said. "It would be unfair of meto just name one for the next Ryder Cup.All of them deserve that position."

Olazabal hailed his team's fightback,which has been widely dubbed the "Mir-acle of Medinah". "I don't know if it's amiracle but it's something extraordinary.We haven't seen that before," he said.

"What the players achieved that daywas just amazing. It's up to you to decideif it's the greatest moment or the greatestcomeback in history but they (the play-ers) deserve all the credit," he told re-porters. "We have this wonderful trophyhere with us because of the huge achieve-ment of those 12 men. They didn't stopbelieving and the performance theyshowed on Sunday was just incredible."Olazabal has been deluged with mes-

sages of congratulation from the likes oftennis star Rafael Nadal and Spain's KingJuan Carlos. "He (King Juan Carlos) was,like me, pretty much over the moon,"said Olazabal. "That was a nice one." TheSpaniard was even able to take worldnumber one Rory McIlroy's muddledtime-keeping in his stride.

Thinking that his match with Kee-gan Bradley started at 12:25 pm insteadof 11:25 am, McIlroy was still at the teamhotel when he got a panicked phone calltelling him he had 25 minutes to get tothe first tee. The Northern Irishman hadread the tee times on his phone in East-ern Standard Time, while Medinah op-erates on Central Time, and he was givena police escort to the course by statetrooper Pat Rollins.

Olazabal added: "Luckily enough apolice car was there and he made it ontime. It was no surprise at all he man-aged to win his point." Rollins toldBritain's Daily Mirror newspaper he hadreceived some ribbing from friends forhis part in the United States' defeat.

davis cup finals tobe held in Prague

PRAGUEAFP

The 2012 Davis Cup finals between theCzech Republic and holders Spain onNovember 16-18 will be held in Prague,organisers from the Ceska sportovniagency said Tuesday after some hagglingover the venue.The finals will take place at Prague's O2Arena, sitting about 14,000 people, afterCeska sportovni struck a deal with theorganisers of a dance show originallyscheduled for November 17.On November 3-4, the largest indoorvenue in the country will also host thewomen's tennis Fed Cup finals betweenholders the Czech Republic and Serbia."Prague will be the first city to host bothfinals in at least 60 years," Ceskasportovni chairman Miroslav Cernosektold reporters.

BEIJINGAFP

NOVAK Djokovic Tuesday wel-comed news that AustralianOpen prize money would riseby Aus$4 million (US$4.1

million) but warned that players' fight fora greater share of revenue was "not overyet". The world number two from Serbiadescribed an announcement by the or-ganisers of January's Grand Slam that thepurse would increase to a record Aus$30mln as "positive". He urged the otherthree of tennis's major titles to follow suit.

"It's a step forward, definitely," the25-year-old said following his win in thefirst round of the China Open in Beijing.

"They have clearly shown under-standing for players' demands and whatthe players had to say, so that's really niceto see." Djokovic, a three-time winner ofthe Australian Open, said it was "greatnews for every player that plays thissport" but added: "It's not over yet.

"Obviously there are other GrandSlams that need to react, and we are stillin negotiations and we are still doing itbehind closed doors."

Australian Open organisers boostedprize money on Tuesday following reportsin August that players on the ATP Tour,which runs the men's game, were mullinga boycott of the tournament to try to gaina higher percentage of Grand Slam event

revenues for themselves. At issue is thepay of lower-ranked players, who oftenexit in the first round after making thelong journey Down Under.

While this year they pocketedAus$20,800 ($21,600 US) for a first-round defeat at the Australian Open,some players struggle to make ends meetduring the year as they pay for much oftheir own expenses and travel.

Without a high profile, they are alsounable to score lucrative sponsorshipdeals that could help sustain their careers.

Tennis Australia chief executive SteveWood said officials were seeking furtherinput from the players about a fairer dis-tribution of the prize money.

Australian Open director Craig Tileyadded that the prize money break-upwould be determined after he meets ATPplayers' council representatives includingDjokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Mur-ray in Shanghai this weekend.

But he said the increases would beweighted towards those who lose in theearly rounds.

aussie Open moneyboost pleases Djokovic

BEIJINGAFP

China's Li Na on Tuesday credited her new coach withhelping her keep her emotions in check on court as Asia'stop women's player maintained her recent revival at Bei-jing's China Open.

The 2011 French Open champion hired Carlos Ro-driguez, the ex-coach of former Belgian star JustineHenin, after she dropped out of the top 10 in the world fol-lowing a first-round defeat at the London Olympics thissummer.

Thirty-year-old Li has struggled since becoming Asia'sfirst Grand Slam winner at Roland Garros last year but hasenjoyed a slight uptick in form since appointing Ro-driguez.

"I really have to say he's a very good coach," Li said,following her straight sets second-round win over Russia'sNadia Petrova.

"I mean, he not only teaches me how to play tennis. Heteaches me a lot about how to do (act) on the court.

"Before it was always easy for me to explode on thecourt. Now I think I have changed a lot."

Li won her first tournament since last year's Paris tri-umph in August in Cincinnati -- a victory that came after

the appointment of Rodriguez, who coached former worldnumber one Henin for 15 years.

Li, whose previous coach was husband Jiang Shan,faces compatriot Peng Shuai in the last 16 of the ChinaOpen.

Li credits new coachwith calming influence

lOndOn: european ryder cup captain Jose mariaOlazabal poses with the ryder cup trophy followinga press conference at Heathrow airport. AFP

beiJinG: novak djokovic of Serbia hits a return to michael berrer of Germany during theirmen's singles tennis match of the china Open. AFP

beiJinG: Samantha Stosur of australia returns a ball during her women'ssingles match against Julia Georges of Germany at the china Open. AFP

beiJinG: Jo-Wilfred tsonga of francecelebrates following his win against denisistomin of uzbekistan during their men'ssingles tennis match of the china Open. AFP

murray facestough first match

TOKYOAFP

London Olympic gold medallist AndyMurray stood firm in his service game tobeat Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the firstround at the Japan Open tennis tourna-ment on Tuesday. The 25-year-old de-fending champion came back to courtafter winning the US Open last monthand didn't face a single break point in his7-6 (9/7), 6-4 victory. "A good thing wasI found last night that I was going to playKarlovic, so I had the evening to thinkabout the match a little bit and I was ableto practise this morning," said Murray.



Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi. Editor: Arif Nizami

19

NEW YORKonlIne

INDIA will show patience andperseverance in dealing with the26/11 case with Pakistan withwhich it has a “difficult relation-ship”, Indian External Affairs

Minister SM Krishna said on Tuesday.“In a difficult relationship like the

one we have had with Pakistan, oneshould have lots of patience. India isknown for its patience and perseverance.Patiently we will move in the direction inwhich we want,” Krishna said.

He was asked whether there was

growing frustration with the slow pace atwhich the Mumbai attacks trial was mov-ing in Pakistan.

Krishna had earlier last month heldcrucial talks with his Pakistani counter-part Hina Rabbani Khar in Islamabad,where he had said Pakistan had promisedaction against the perpetrators of the26/11 Mumbai attacks.

India has stressed that it has given“more than adequate” evidence to Pak-istan to enable it to bring the perpetratorsof 26/11 attack to justice and has soughta speedy end to the trial.

On the likelihood of Indian PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh visiting Pak-

istan this year, Krishna said the timing ofthe visit was yet to be worked out.

“The question of Prime MinisterSingh’s visit was never seriously explored.It was mentioned in a press conference”when he was in Islamabad early lastmonth, he said.

While both President Asif Ali Zardariand former prime minister Yousaf RazaGilani have extended an invitation toSingh to visit Pakistan, Krishna said avisit of such importance needed lots ofpreparations.

“As and when those preparations arecomplete I think we will advise the primeminister to visit Pakistan,” he added.

PESHAWARSTAFF rePorT

The Peshawar High Court (PHC)on Tuesday directed a womanaccused of running a brothel to“improve herself” by attendingclasses at a mosque every day fora month.

According to a first informa-tion report [FIR] registered onSeptember 6, police received in-formation about a house situ-ated in Hayatabad Phase 4,being run as a brothel. Policeraided the house and arrestedRabia, Sumaira, Khan Sultana,Rubi and the owner of thebrothel, Neelam.

All the accused filed an ap-plication seeking bail from alower court on September 14,however, Additional District andSessions Judge Asad Hameed

Bangash, rejected the bail re-quest. On Monday, during ahearing of their bail request,PHC Chief Justice Dost Muham-mad Khan accepted the plea offour women and fined themRs50,000 with two sureties.Neelam’s bail was approved con-ditionally.

The court ordered that Nee-lam must visit the Imam ofZarghuni Mosque in Hayatabadeveryday for one month to “re-pent for her sins”.

Chief Justice Khan said themosque imam must submit a re-port on Neelam’s progress oncethe month has been completed.The court also asked the policeto ensure the cleric at themosque provided him with a re-port once the allotted time hadelapsed. Neelam’s lawyers ar-gued that police had concocted a

case against her. They arguedthat her residence was raidedwithout a proper search warrantand that the police were not ableto present any witnesses in courtto support their charges.

Chief Justice Khan said thathe regretted that there were sofew vocational training facilitiesfor jobless women, forcing themto adopt “illegal means” to earna living.

At the same time, Chief Jus-tice Khan was apparently unwill-ing to allow Neelam to walkaway scot free and took the deci-sion for her in effect to receivereligious counseling.

However the cleric assignedthe task of overseeing court sen-tences said that while he hadheard about the order, he hadnot yet been formally asked toimplement it.

SC orders immediate arrest

of former ogrA chief SadiqISLAMABAD

STAFF rePorT

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday ordered the authoritiesconcerned to immediately arrest former Oil and GasRegulatory Authority (OGRA) chairman Tauqir Sadiq andinitiate proceedings against him in accordance with the law. Athree-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a case pertainingto OGRA’s malpractices. The National Accountability Bureau(NAB) officials told the court that the bureau had checked upon all possible addresses to locate the former chairman OGRAand that Sadiq was currently in Lahore, not in the US. Theofficials further alleged that the Punjab Police was providingprotection to Sadiq, who was said to be a close relative ofPakistan People’s Party Secretary General Senator JahangirBadar. Chief Justice Chaudhry ruled that regardless of addressof Sadiq, the former OGRA chief must be arrested. The chiefjustice also ordered the initiation of proceedings against Sadiqin accordance with the law. On the occasion, the NAB’sprosecutor told the court that a reference had been preparedagainst Sadiq that would be filed in two days’ time. Moreover,Chief Justice Chaudhry said NAB’s mandate was to eliminatecorruption, adding that the court wanted the implementationof its orders at all costs. On November 25 last year, the courthad declared the appointment of Sadiq as chairman OGRAillegal and had ordered NAB to investigate corruption casesagainst him and submit its findings within 45 days.

Nawaz ready tomake grand alliance onBalochistan

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)President Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said hewas making efforts to bring peace toBalochistan, adding that he was ready tomake a grand alliance to resolve theBalochistan issue if the need arose. Talkingto reporters at the residence of formerSupreme Court Bar Association presidentAsma Jehangir, Nawaz said free and fairelection in the country was also a demandof Baloch politicians, adding that theelection in 2008 was not transparent. ThePML-N chief urged the government not toignore the Balochistan issue, questioningunder which law were the peopledisappearing across the troubled province.Nawaz reiterated that killers of NawabAkbar Khan Bugti should be brought tobook, adding that wounds of Baloch mustbe healed. He said he was talking aboutnational interest and had no personalinterest. Asma praised Nawaz’s views onBalochistan and said it was a good gesturethat Punjab’s leader was talking aboutBalochistan. She also criticised the PakistanPeople’s Party for its bad governance.

violent protestsagainst Lg system continueacross Sindh

NAWABSHAHSTAFF rePorT

Several cities of Sindh continued to witnessprotests, sometimes violence, on thesecond day running on Tuesday against theapproval of Local Government Ordinance.Per details, enraged protesters blockedroads, burnt tyres and demonstratedagainst the local bodies’ system.Major cities, including Karachi, and othertowns across the province remained closedon a call given by nationalist parties inprotest against the law. Public and privatetransport also remained off roads as thetransporters supported the strike call.Members of nationalist parties continuedprotesting against the Sindh People’sLocal Government Ordinance andobserved a strike and staged protestsacross the province. Police anddemonstrators clashed with each other inGhareebabad, Sakrand, Hospital Roadand Press Club Road in Nawabshah. Apoliceman was wounded in cross firing inSakarand, and the force responded withtear gas shelling and aerial firing. Somemiscreants set a car on fire on SakarandRoad and five motorcycles close to theairport police station. The Sindh BachaoCommittee also called a strike against theimposition of local bodies’ system fivedistricts of the province. Other citieswhere protests were staged includedKhairpur and Noshero Feroz, wherelawyers also boycotted court proceedings.The Sindh People’s Local GovernmentOrdinance (SPLG) bill was passed in theSindh Assembly on Monday amid anuproar by the opposition members. Thebill was presented by Law Minister AyazSoomro. It got the support of 149members and was opposed by 18.

India will be patient in dealing with26/11 case with Pakistan: Krishna

PHC Cj orders religious lessons for ‘brothel owner’Accused woman told to visit a mosque every day for a month ‘to improve herself’

AHMedABAd: Indian students dressed in the attire of

Mohanchand Gandhi assemble for the Ahinsa dandi

yatra to mark Gandhi’s birth anniversary on Tuesday. AFP


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e-paper pakistantoday 03rd october, 2012