e-paper pakistantoday 07th December, 2012

Friday, 7 December, 2012 Muharram 22, 1434Rs 15.00 Vol III No 160 19 Pages Karachi Edition

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Foreign troops in Afghanistanto bear the brunt of TTPleadership change

US, NATO behind 'insecurity' in

Afghanistan: Karzai

Kayani, ISI chief onForbes’ MostPowerful People list

CaiRO: The Egyptian army set up barricades and brought in tanks outside the presidential

palace after ordering protesters to leave the area on Thursday. StORy On BACK PAGe

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KARACHIsTaFF REPORT

THE Sindh Assembly on Thurs-day witnessed a heated sittingthat was full of politicking, asprovincial lawmakers con-

demned the verdict of what they called“Punjab High Court” in favour of the “anti-federation” and “anti-Sindh” KalabaghDam (KBD).

Lawmakers from the two divides of the168-member, PPP-dominated House, how-ever, got into a political infighting when theopposition blasted the ruling PPP for itsfailure to bury the “dead horse” of KBD onceand for all, while the treasury memberslambasted the former for siding with pro-KBD dictators in the past.

At least four separate resolutions weretabled in the House, two by PPP legislatorsand on each by lawmakers from the PML-Fand MQM, in which the decision of Lahore

High Court (LHC) was strongly rejected.Some members went as far as recalling the“judicial murder” of ZA Bhutto at the handsof judiciary in Punjab. Those who movedthe resolutions included Dr SikandarMandhro and Imran Nazir Leghari of thePPP, Khalid Ahmed of the MQM and Nus-rat Seher Abbasi of the PML-F.

The movers were allowed to read outtheir resolutions by Speaker Nisar Khuhro,who said KBD was such an important issuethat could be debated in the assembly forthe entire week. PPP’s Imran Legharislammed Punjab Chief Minster ShahbazSharif for covertly mobilising the courtsagainst Sindh by enlivening the “deadhorse” of Kalabagh Dam.

He held the Sharifs responsible for pit-ting the people of the four federating unitsagainst each other by supporting such un-popular projects. MQM’s Ahmed made“bureaucracy” accountable for not docu-mentarily doing away with KBD-like mega

projects that had been rejected by threeprovincial legislatures of the country.

In, his resolution, the MQM lawmakersaid once completed, the project would“adversely affect” the economy of the threeopposing provinces – Sindh, KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

“We would never allow the building ofKalabagh Dam,” Ahmed said.

Dr Mandhro’s resolution said the con-struction of controversial dam would be“detrimental” to the interest of the federa-tion. The PML-F’s resolution also rejectedthe “dead issue”, saying the move wasaimed at creating unrest among the masses.

While Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza re-peatedly referred to LHC as the “PunjabHigh Court”, the PPP’s parliamentaryparty leader in Sindh Assembly PirMazharul Haque recalled that the samecourt had blood of ZA Bhutto on its hand.

Pir wondered if a conspiracy could re-ally originate from a “sacred institution”

like the judiciary. Agha Siraj Durrani wenta step further and claimed that NawazSharif was financing the entire campaign-ing of the “Khapao Committee” (SindhBachao Committee) in Sindh.

Food Minister Mir Nadir Magsi said thedam could only be backed by the “enemies”of Sindh and that Sindhis would rise againstthe Centre if the project was undertaken.“It’s a dead issue,” he told the House.

The situation, however, turned uglywhen PML-F’s Nusrat Abbasi blasted theruling PPP for not being able to bury theanti-Sindh project once and for all.

She also questioned Federal Informa-tion Minister’s Qamar Zaman Kaira fortalking about developing consensus on theKBD. “The petitioners (in LHC case)should also be exposed,” she said, allegingthat the Ministry of Water and Power hadmisled the courts on the feasibility of theproject. Nusrat alleged that PPP rulers in1973 had approved the feasibility report of

KBD. “Now you have the power, the recon-ciliation, even the ‘Qatil-League’ is sittingwith you. Why don’t you burry this damonce and for all?” she said.

As expected, this hard-hitting speechinflamed and pitched the PPP lawmakersagainst their counterparts from the PML-F. The subsequent moments saw PPP law-makers like Rafique Engineer, GhulamQadir Chandio and Sharjeel Memon ex-changing barbs one by one with the PML-F lawmaker. None among Shehla Raza, PirMazaharul Haq or Siraj Durrani couldkeep their speeches focused on KBD andkept attacking the functional league.

Earlier, Minister for Environment andAlternative Energy Development SheikhMuhammad Afzal responded to starredand supplementary questions of the Houseduring the Question Hour.

The speaker later adjourned the Houseuntil Friday, when it would continue dis-cussion on the resolutions against KBD.

ISLAMABADsHaiQ Hussain

The military top brass will discuss variousimportant matters today (Friday) with afocus on the Afghan reconciliation processand Pakistan’s role in this regard, as wellas the Supreme Court’s orders to the Elec-tion Commission (EC) to verify the voters’lists in Karachi with the help of the army.

The Corps Commanders’ meetingwill be held at the General Headquarters(GHQ) with Chief of Army Staff (COAS)General Ashfaq Kayani in the chair.

According to an ISPR statement, themilitary commanders’ meeting would re-view the professional activities of thearmy. However, an official speaking on

condition of anonymity said GeneralKayani would brief the army’s top brassabout his recent visit to Brussels, where heand Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Kharmet senior NATO and US officials, includ-ing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He said the meetings of GeneralKayani in Brussels were focused onAfghanistan, the US exit strategy, peacedialogue with the Taliban and the rolethat Pakistan could play for its success.

“All these matters discussed in Brus-sels would be deliberated upon at lengthduring the Corps Commanders’ meeting,”he said. The official said General Kayanialso visited Kabul last month to attend thePakistan-US-Afghanistan tripartite com-mission and he would brief the military

commanders on his trip to the neighbour-ing state. He said the military command-ers were likely to discuss Supreme Court’sorders to the Election Commission of Pak-istan to use the army’s assistance for ver-ification of voters’ lists in Karachi.

The official said other important is-sues that would be discussed in the corpscommanders’ meeting included the lat-est situation on country’s border withIndia as well as the military operationsin the Tribal Areas. “Another importantmatter that could be taken up for discus-sions during the military brass meetingis that Supreme Court’s verdict in a caseinvolving former army officials General(r) Mirza Aslam Beg and Lt General (r)Asad Durrani,” he said.

Sindh Assembly up in arms against ‘Punjab High Court’g Lawmakers slam LHC verdict on ‘anti-federation’, ‘anti-Sindh’ Kalabagh Dam g PPP Sindh says Shahbaz Sharif covertly

mobilising courts against Sindh g MQM blames ‘bureaucracy’ for not doing away with KBD

ISLAMABADTayyab Hussain

The Supreme Court on Thursdaydirected authorities to maintain theprices of compressed natural gas (CNG)until December 17 and cancel licencesof CNG station owners who had refusedto get audited.A two-judge bench of Justice Jawad SKhawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussainpassed the order while hearing the casepertaining to CNG prices.Justice Jawwad S Khwaja directedOGRA to take action against all CNGstations who did not maintain theiraccounts, adding that it was theresponsibility of OGRA to safeguard therights of the consumers.He said the court knew the actualoperating costs of the CNG station ownersand that the owners had earned Rs 31 perkg in profit for four years in the name ofoperating costs.He said deciding on prices was OGRA’sjob and if the authority did not workproperly, the court would intervene.Earlier, a report submitted by the FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR) stated that CNGstation owners had paid Rs 4.08 billion intaxes during the past three years.The report added that Rs 1.008 billionwas paid in year 2009, Rs 1.42 billion in

2010 and Rs 1.0065 billion was paid in2011.The Supreme Court had sought the detailsof CNG stations’ tariff accounts.The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority(OGRA) said in a report that 6,471applications were received by OGRA forthe issuance of CNG station licencesbetween year 2002 and 2011, of which6,152 applicants were issued licences,while 380 show-cause notices and 131warning notices were issued during theperiod. CNG station owners were fined Rs10.7 million in three years, the reportadded. OGRA said around 1,273 pumpswere inspected during the last three years.It further stated that per 1992 CNGrules, it was not necessary to submitaudit accounts and income tax returns,adding that it was also not mandatory toissue licences. However, the authorityadded, five pumps had submitted theiraudit accounts.The proceedings were later adjourned untilDecember 17. Talking to reporters outsidethe court, CNG Association ChairmanGhayyas Paracha said OGRA was trying toput the association in a tussle. He said theCNG station owners bought CNG from thegovernment on a higher rate, but werebeing pressed to sell on cheaper rates. Hesaid the OGRA representatives alsoanswered the court’s four questions askedin the previous hearing.

Corps commanders take upAfghan situation, SC verdict today

SC freezes CNGprices until 17thg Orders OGRA cancel

licences of stationowners who did notget audited, did notmaintain accounts

g Says station ownersearned Rs 31 per kgprofit in the name ofoperation cost

KHI 07-12-2012_Layout 1 12/7/2012 1:48 AM Page 1

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naTO, Russia achieve milestone in training drug control officers Chinese astronauts may grow vegetables on moon

Friday, 7 December, 2012

Zardari signs reference in

judges’ appointment caseIsLAMABAd: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursdaysigned a presidential reference seeking guideline from theSupreme Court on the procedure of the appointment ofjudges. According to Law Minister Farooq H Naik, thepresident asked for the advice from the apex court underArticle 186 of the constitution. The reference would now befiled with the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The law ministersaid the reference contained 13 questions related to the ap-pointment of judges to the superior judiciary with specificreference to the Islamabad High Court. The referenceasked for guidance on the role of judicial commission, par-liamentary committee and the seniority of the judges, hesaid. A four-member bench of the Supreme Court headedby Justice Khilji Arif Hussain granted two weeks to Attor-ney General Irfan Qadir on November 23 to file a presi-dential reference in the apex court. OnlinE

1,000 Mehsud families leaveSWA after ultimatum by WazirswANA: More than 1,000 Mehsud families have left SouthWaziristan Agency (SWA) following the ultimatum given bythe rival Wazir tribe. The Wazirs hold the Mehsuds respon-sible for terrorism and violence in the agency. According todetails, the Wazirs of SWA had given a December 5 dead-line to Mehsuds to move out of the area following a failedsuicide attack on Mullah Nazir, threatening to act againstthem if they did not act upon the ultimatum. By Thursday,more than a thousand families of the Mehsud tribe had mi-grated to Tank and Dera Ismail Khan, while over 700 werestill stranded in the area due to various reasons. TheMehsud tribe families still staying in SWA were of the viewthat they were facing severe hardships in immigrationowing to non availability of transport, high fares and hur-dles from security personnel to enter other areas. inP

KARACHIinP

THE Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz,Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Jamaat-e-Islamion Thursday demanded the removal ofSindh election commissioner in order to

ensure free and fair implementation of theSupreme Court’s orders on preparation of error-free voters’ lists in Karachi.

The SC on Wednesday ordered the ECP to con-duct a door-to-door verification of electoral rolls inKarachi with assistance of the army and FrontierConstabulary. Political parties complain that votesof up to three million people living in Karachi hadbeen registered in their native towns of Swat, Min-gora, Mansehra and Attock and other areas, despitethem residing in the city for 10 to 15 years.

Reports said delegations of the three politicalparties separately called on Chief Election Commis-sioner (CEC) Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim andconveyed their reservations over the role of SindhElection Commissioner Sono Khan Baloch.

The leaders submitted applications demandingremoval of Baloch from office in order to ensuretransparent work on correction of electoral rolls anddelimitation in Karachi. Speaking to a private TVchannel, PML-N’s Irfanullah Marwat said the courtorders could not be implemented without removingthe provincial election commissioner. Jamaat-e-Is-lami’s Muhammad Hussain Mehnti said the court’sorder “is an ample proof of Sono Baloch’s involve-

ment in pre-poll rigging”. The Supreme Court hadalso directed the ECP to find out how many voteshave been registered on the same addresses andhow many people had applied for shifting theirvotes outside Karachi and how many of them werede-listed or transferred back to their native towns.

PML-N, PTI, JI demandremoval of Sindh electioncommissioner

RAIWInD/MUZAFFARABADagEnCiEs

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)has constituted a five-member committee tohold consultations for seat adjustment withthe Sindh United Party (SUP).

According to the sources, the decision wasmade in a consultative meeting of the PML-NSindh. The sources said the five member commit-tee included Ghaus Ali Shah, Liaquat Jatoi, IsmailRaho, Shah Muhammad Shah and Mir Inamullah.The meeting also decided to hold public gatheringsin Sindh for mobilisation against local governmentsystem and in support of general elections.

NAwAz AppRovEs pML-N, MC CoALI-TIoN: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has given agreen signal to a coalition with the Muslim Con-ference (MC) party in Azad Jammu and Kash-mir’s (AJK). According to sources, the situationhad stemmed out of rampant corruption, finan-cial crisis, and a massive force of ministers, afterwhich Nawaz followed the advice of SardarMehtab Khan Abbasi and Raja Zafarul Haq andissued separate directives for former AJK primeminister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan and Fa-rooq Haider Khan. Both leaders have been ad-vised to finalise their decisions and dispatchthem to Punjab so the issue could be finalised.Meanwhile, sources have indicated that Nawaz

seemed to have accepted Sikandar Hayat Khan’sformula regarding coalition between PML-N andMuslim Conference sans Sardar Sikandar Hayat,himself, while Sardar Ateeq would also avoidjoining the coalition.

When contacted, phones of both SikandarHayat and Sardar Ateeq went unattended. Acommittee chaired by Majeed Nizami has beenformed to oversee the coalition issue.

The issue had generated ripples in Islam-abad’s ruling circles after AJK Prime MinisterChaudhry Abdul Majeed was ordered byPrime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to proceedto AJK’s capital Muzaffarabad with immedi-ate effect.

Jasmeen Manzoor quitsSAMAA under pressure

MonItoRIng DeSK

SAMAA TV’s an-chor JasmeenManzoor has re-signed from theorgansiation, ap-parently underpressure fromAmeen Lakhani.She said she hadraised a voice forthe Hindu com-munity, butPEMRA and the building mafia forced theclosure of her show. Jasmeen said AminLahkani sent his men to her office, threat-ened her staff and pressurised her, butwhen she refused to budge, he hurledthreats at the channel. She blamed thebuilder mafia for influencing the court ingetting a stay order against the airing ofher show. “Could not fight the buildermafia am sorry friends no one wants to seethe truth thank you for kind wishes!” shewrote on her Twitter account.

PML-n to go for seatadjustment with SUP

QUETTA: A complete shutter down strike was observed in various areas of Balochistan onThursday against Gebon incident in which three alleged militants were killed by Balochis-tan Frontier Corps during a predawn raid. Frontier Corps officials claimed that they hadkilled three alleged militants and arrested two others after an extensive exchange of fire ina raid at a house in Gebon area some 20km away from Turbat.On the other hand, the family members of the deceased who were identified as HakimShahsawar, Rasool Bakhsh and Maula Bakhsh insisted that they were unarmed and were inasleep when they were targeted.Baloch National Front (BNF), an alliance of different nationalist parties, had given a callfor a shutter down strike to protest against the killings. All shops, markets and businessactivities in Turbat, Mand, Tump, Panjgour, Awaran, Kharan and others towns remainedclosed while traffic on the roads also remained thin. Local administration had taken tight security measures to stop any untoward incident bydeploying FC and Levies personnel. Meanwhile, dozens of activists of Baloch HumanRights Organisation staged a demonstration outside Quetta Press Club against Gebon inci-dent.doCToRs’ sTRIKE: Despite the recovery of Dr Saeed Ahmed Khan, Balochistan doctorscontinued their strike on the 51st consecutive day on Thursday in all state-run hospitals of theprovince. The OPDs and operations theatres remained closed in all public hospitals. sTaFF REPORT

Full strike observed in Balochistan against Gebon incident

KARACHI: Chief Election CommissionerJustice (r) Fakharuddin G Ibrahim on Thurs-day said the order of Supreme Court in con-nection with the verification of voter lists anddelimitation of constituencies in Karachi willbe implemented in letter and spirit. The CECheld separate meetings with the representa-tives of various political and religious partiesat the provincial election commission office.The delegations include Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Awami National Party(ANP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the JamiatUlema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). The CEC saidthe election commission had started prepar-ing a strategy in the light of the SupremeCourt’s decisions regarding verification ofvoters’ lists and delimitation of various con-stituencies. He hoped that the work in this re-gard would be started next week. aPP

ECP to ‘implement SC’sdecision in letter and spirit’


03NewseDitoriAl

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Walk the talk is what India wants Pakistan to do.

aziz-ud-din ahmad says;First defeat: Politics trounces calculations.

Jehangir iftikhar says;Burnt to ashes: Smoking – the evil taken so casually.

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stewart and Pattinson will spend Christmas apart President calls for political consensus on economic policies


Pakistan push germany out of medal hunt

ISLAMABADinP

US Ambassador RichardOlson joined politicians,human rights advocates,and religious leaders at an

event called “Engaging men in the fightagainst gender violence” and reaf-firmed the US government’s commit-ment to curb gender-based violence.

The event was hosted by the HigherEducation Commission. Olson joined apanel discussion that was attended byan audience of more than 180 univer-sity students and officials from acrossPakistan. The panel featured ShahnazWazir Ali, special adviser to the primeminister on social issues, UN GenderAdviser Dr Salman Asif, religiousscholar Azhar Hussain and ImranRizvi, head of “Men Engage Pakistan”.

The event highlighted the US gov-ernment’s commitment to seekingways to prevent violence againstwomen and girls and provided an op-portunity for the participants to focuson the important role men and boys

could play in effectively combatinggender-based violence.

“Violence against women and girlsis one of the most widespread viola-

tions of human rights. It is a globalissue that cuts across ethnic, racial,socio-economic, and religious lines,and knows no borders,” Olson said inhis opening remarks.

“Ending it will require fully engag-ing the largest and most natural groupof supporters women should have:men. The United States believes thatinvesting in women and girls is one ofthe surest ways to achieve economicprogress, political stability, and greaterprosperity for Pakistani women andmen.”

He said the US would be ready towork together with Pakistani womenand girls to lift up their families, theircommunities and their nation.

Olson also emphasised on the needfor legislation to prevent gender-basedviolence.

The ambassador said one shouldbegin from his own home by not dis-criminating against anyone.

He said there was a good numberof women legislators and they shouldwork to improve the gender-relatedlaws.

US committed to eradicategender-based violencein Pakistan, says Olson

PeSHAWARsTaFF REPORT

At least four suspected foreign militantswere killed and several others injured ina US drone attack in Mubarakshahi vil-lage near Mirali tehsils of North Waziris-tan on Thursday.

Officials said a US drone fired twomissiles on a compound of militants es-tablished in a house in Mubarakshahi,around 15 kilometres away from Miran-shah. The compound was established inthe house of Shaheedullah Dawar, a localtribesman. Various portions of the com-pound were razed to the ground whilefour of the occupants were killed and sev-eral others injured. The damaged com-pound caught fire after the attack,delaying rescue activities. The militantsfrom surrounding areas rushed to the sitelater and moved the dead and injured toan unidentified place.

The identity of those killed and in-jured could not be ascertained, but localtribesmen said they included foreigners.It was the third US drone strike inWaziristan region in the last few days thathave so far claimed a dozen lives.

TANK: An old man fills water

containers with contaminated

stagnant water due to

persisting water shortage in

the area. Use of contaminated

water is causing viral diseases,

leading to several deaths.

Masses blame the Irrigation

Department for illegally selling

potable water to farmers. InP

US drone killsfour in nWA

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and ISI chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam arethe only two from Pakistan who have made it to a list led by US President Barack Obama, PopeBenedict XVI, Angela Merkel, Facebook’s founder and other global leaders on Forbes’sranking of the mightiest earthlings. The American magazine placed GeneralKayani on 8th spot for “controlling nuclear weapons and one of the world’s

largest standing armies in an unstable country.” General Kayani had earlier givena statement issued by the public relations wing of the Army that caused a stir inthe news. He said: “As a nation, Pakistan is passing through a critical phase.” Fol-

lowing General Kayani is Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) recently inductedchief, Zaheerul Islam. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi have been named among the top 20 most power-ful persons in the world by Forbes magazine. MOniTORing dEsk

Kayani, ISI chief on Forbes Most Powerful People list

IsLAMABAd: Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader and NA Public AccountsCommittee (PAC) Chairman Nadeem Afzal Chan on Thursday rejected theTransparency International’s annual report on corruption in Pakistan, sayingit was based on twisted facts. The TI on Wednesday issued an annual reporton corruption in 2012, raising Pakistan’s rank from 42nd to 33rd. The 2012index ranks 176 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corrup-tion. The index assigns scores of between one and 100, one being highly cor-rupt and 100 indicating no corruption. The global civil society organisationexpressed concern over the growing corruption in the country saying that cor-ruption of Rs 12,600 billion was reported in various sectors of Pakistan dur-ing the last five years. While chairing a PAC meeting in Islamabad, Chan saidhe challenged TI that the report was not prepared in good faith. “We have re-covered millions of rupees and the state institutions are working hard to re-cover money from others,” he said. He added that the situation in the countrywas improving each passing day. inP

PAC chairman rejects TI report on rising corruption

MIRANsHAH: Relatives of the USdrone attacks victims held a protestdemonstration in front of the Miran-shah Press Club against non inclusionof their names for payment of com-pensation money. A protester, IshqurRehman, told media persons that hismother lost her life and eight childrenof the family sustained injuries in adrone attack at Ghundi Killay on Oc-tober 24 that completely destroyedtheir house. He further said the politi-cal administration of North Waziris-tan Agency and the Pakistan Armydid not include their names in the listof those receiving compensationwhich is an insult to their injury. Hedemanded the president, chief justiceof Pakistan, Army chief, Peshawarcorps commander and KhyberPakhtunkhwa governor to take noticeof the miseries of the drone victimsand ensure provision of compensationmoney to them. inP

Drone victims’ relativesprotest in Miranshah



04

ISLAMABAD anwER abbas

THE UN RefugeeAgency, UNHCR onThursday said it hadno evidence to sup-

port the fact that the remaining1.65 million registered Afghanrefugees had been involved inany militancy or drug trafficking.

Addressing a joint pressconference along with Minis-ter for State and Frontier Re-gions Shaukatullah Khan,UNHCR Country Representa-tive Neill Wright said the on-going returns were the largestvoluntary repatriation opera-tion anywhere in the world. Hesaid from 2002 to 2012 theUNHCR Pakistan had facili-tated voluntary repatriation of3.8 million refugees. “In 2012,the UNHCR Pakistan has sofar assisted 71,841 persons toreturn to Afghanistan,” headded. He said voluntary repa-triation remained the pre-ferred solution for refugeesworldwide, adding that mostAfghan refugees voluntarilyrepatriated to Afghanistan

when they believed it was safeto return to their home coun-try. However, he pointed outthat the 1.65 million Afghanrefugees remaining in Pak-istan were a residual caseloadexperiencing challenges totheir prospects for return.

He said as many as 1,807families, comprising 9,793 in-dividuals, had repatriated sincethe beginning of the VoluntaryRepatriation “Surge” opera-tions on October 23, which wasmore than double the figureduring the equivalent period in2011. To a question, theUNHCR country’s representa-tive said the agency had no ev-idence to support that anyregistered Afghan refugee wasinvolved in the ongoing mili-tancy in the country as well asdrug trafficking. To anotherquestion, he said the govern-ment had never deported anyrefugee forcefully.

Referring to the PopulationProfiling, Vetting and Response(or PPVR) project, he said thedata collection began late in2010 and continued in 2011 in20 districts of Pakistan, cover-

ing around 65 percent of the en-tire Afghan population, over135,000 households, or nearly 1million Afghans. “We now haveextremely detailed comprehen-sive PPVR data on socio-eco-nomic issues such as health,education, housing, water andsanitation, livelihood, skills andremittances; on migration pat-terns (including the year of ar-rival, and the intention toreturn to Afghanistan); on in-vestor potential and other pro-tection needs,” he added.

In addition, he said theUNHCR also had informationon the opportunities and skillsthat the refugee population inPakistan would bring to theirhome country of Afghanistanwhen they do decide to return.

He emphasised that thegovernment policy-makersneed this clear profile of therefugees to manage the solu-tion-finding process. “UN agen-cies, humanitarian anddevelopment partners, andNGOs, need this profile to bestaddress the needs of the current1.65 million refugees still inPakistan,” he added.

ISLAMABADanwER abbas

Taking serious notice of thereduction in age limit for im-porting reconditioned vehi-cles, the Public AccountsCommittee on Thursdaycalled the move an open viola-tion of its decision regardingimport of reconditioned vehi-cles that were five years old.

Federal Board of RevenueSecretary Israr Rauf told thebody that reducing the age limitof reconditioned vehicles forimport resulted in revenue lossof Rs 17 billion. CommitteeChairman Nadeem AfzalGondal condemned the recentreport issued by Transparency

International and challenged itto debate the particular reportin the sitting of PAC.

While reviewing the auditobjections and paras in connec-tion with the Pakistan TourismDevelopment Corporation(PTDC), committee directed thedepartment concerned to en-sure recovery of all loans fromthe government officers, or elseblock their Computerized Na-tional Identity Cards. Commit-tee member Saeed Zafar raiseda point that a sub-committee ofPublic Accounts Committeehad earlier recommended ex-tending the age time of recondi-tion vehicles from three years tofive years in connection withtheir import, however, the sug-

gestion was violated by againreducing the age limit from fiveyears to three years. He de-manded fixing responsibility onthose who violated the direc-tions issued by the PAC. FBRSecretary Israr Rauf said theNA standing committee on fi-nance was taking up the issueand was in process of reviewingthe matter. He was of the viewthat the Ministry for Industriestook approval from the federalcabinet for the current decision,however, local auto industryhad not achieved the position ofa manufacturing. PAC directedthe officials concerned to sum-mon a joint sitting of the publicaccounts body and finance bodyto review the issue jointly.

LAHoReinP/ MOniTORing dEsk

Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP)Punjab President ManzoorWattoo on Thursady accusedthe Punjab government of rig-ging the December 5 by-elec-tions, asking the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)to investigate the matter.

Addressing a press confer-ence along with Provincial Secre-tary General Tanwir AshrafKaira, Wattoo rejected the resultsof the by-elections and insistedthat the PPP would form the nextgovernment in Punjab. He saidthe administration, with the help

of the police, education depart-ment and patwaris used threatsto gain more votes. He said theapex court should take notice ofthe rigging in Punjab, just like itdid in the Waheeda Shah slap-ping incident in Sindh. Wattooalleged that the Punjab govern-ment had ignored the federalgovernment’s request to appointPakistan Rangers to administerthe by-polls, adding that PPPcandidates were given threatsthrough police. Another reasonfor the victory of the PML-N wasthat the seats were vacated by thePML-N candidates and the PPPcandidates did not take the elec-tions seriously, Wattoo said.

CJCSC GeneralWynne visitsFrance

ISLAMABADsTaFF REPORT

Chairman Joint Chiefs of StaffCommittee (CJCSC) GeneralKhalid Shameem Wynne, whois on an official visit to France,on Thursday called on Admi-ral Edouard Guilaud, theFrench chief of defence.

On his arrival, the CJCSCwas presented guard of honourby a smartly turned out contin-gent of the French Army. "Gen-eral Wynne also met FrancisDeion, secretary general of de-fence and national security andGeneral Puga, adviser to presi-dent on defence," according toan ISPR statement issued here.Later, the CJCSC delivered a talkat the French War College onPakistan’s security perspective.

Dr Imranmurder case:UK police conduct raid

MonItoRIng DeSK

In an important developmentin Dr Imran Farooq murdercase, the Scotland Yard con-ducted a raid at a businessaddress on Edgware Road, aprivate TV channel reportedon Thursday.

According to sources, theUK police searched an officeand also carried out interro-gation, however, no arrestswere made.

Police officials said theywere committed to un-earthing Farooq’s murderers.“A police team tasked with thearrest of the assassins is con-stantly at work,” they added.

The MQM leader wasstabbed to death by anunidentified assailant outsidehis house in central Londonon September 16, 2010.

Will Obama's illegal-immigrantuncle stay in the US?

MonItoRIng DeSK

After being ordered to leavethe United States 20 yearsago, Onyango Obama, theKenyan-born half-brotherof President Obama's fa-ther, has been granted anew deportation hearingand now has a secondchance to stay in the coun-try, according to a report bythe Atlantic Wire.

"Last week, the Board ofImmigration Appealsgranted Onyango Obama’srequest to reopen his immi-gration case based in part onhis contention that his priorlawyer was ineffective, ac-cording to a government of-ficial with direct knowledgeof the case," reports theBoston Globe's Maria Sac-chetti, and on Tuesday anappeals board ordered a re-view of his case. "The Boardof Immigration Appeals hassent Obama’s case to the Ex-ecutive Office for Immigra-tion Review forreassessment," reported theAP, gleaning informationfrom US Immigration andCustoms Enforcementspokesman Brian Hale.

Sacchetti pointed outthat this was not the firstObama to face deportation.

ISLAMABADOnlinE

The Free and Fair ElectionNetwork (FAFEN) in its pre-liminary report has observedthat an inadequate and weakenforcement of election dayprocedures were seen in theby-elections held in Sindhand Punjab on December 5.

The FAFEN report saidan unusual turnout, incidentsof violence, violation of codeof conduct, suspicious votingpatterns and pressure frompolice inside the polling sta-tions reflected the weakarrangements made duringthe by-election.

The report said the ECP

appeared highly effective inBannu by-elections held inAugust 2012, its enforce-ment appeared to be chal-lenged particularly inPunjab’s by-elections wheredistrict government officials,as well as police, were moreactive than they were re-quired to be and presentwhere they should not be.

The report said the pres-ence of police influenced atleast 638 of 746 (85 percent)polling stations in by-elec-tions in Punjab.

The report added that theECP was yet to release the of-ficial results and FAFEN ob-servation established anunusually high turnout in five

of the seven by-elections heldin Punjab. The unusually highturnouts were only corrobo-rated by suspicious votingpatterns that were recordedin a sizeable number ofpolling stations in these con-stituencies, indicating thepossibility that genuine vot-ers may not had cast theirvotes, the reports stated.

The FAFEN observed thatthe female turnout was muchhigher than male turnout inthree constituencies, PS-21,PP-133 and PP-226.

Although in most casesthe difference was not signifi-cant, females turned up inlower numbers than men inother constituencies, it added.

No evidence of Afghanrefugees’ involvementin militancy: UNHCR

Rs 17b lost by reducing age limitof imported cars, PAC told

Wattoo accuses Punjabgovt of rigging by-polls

FAFEN sees weakarrangements in by-polls

MQM for new delimitation ofconstituencies in entire countryKARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaderFarooq Sattar has reiterated that the new delimitation ofconstituencies of Karachi should be carried out in theentire country. Talking to a private TV channel onThursday, Sattar said the issue of voter lists existed in everypart of the country therefore, “delimitation should becarried out across the country”. “Delimitations ofconstituencies Karachi on the basis of complaints from anysingle party are not fair,” he said. Sattar said differencesand reservations of the MQM were based on principles. Hehoped that the ECP would redress their grievances. TheMQM leader added that the decision of the Supreme Courtpertaining to delimitation of Karachi is being reviewed,adding MQM wants real democracy in the country whererule of law and constitution is followed. inP



KARACHIaFTab CHanna

INTELLIGENCE gathered bythe agencies from the Italianembassy has revealed that fewblue-eyed travel agents of thefederal capital and Punjab

province were being granted visas forthe European countries which has bro-ken all the records of visa issuance fromthe country, Pakistan Today has learnt.In October 2012 only, around 600 visasEuropean countries have issued against700 applications

However, when contacted a seniorofficial at the Italian Embassy at Islam-abad, he rejected the allegations sayingthat the embassy was not working withthe private travel agents. The revelationis the continuity of the country’s law en-forcement agencies who are keeping avigil on the activities of diplomats par-ticularly the Italian ones.

Recently, the agencies had pointedout the alleged involvement of Italian

diplomats in human trafficking and for-warded a detailed report to the seniorauthorities for further action.

According to details, the head ofcommercial section in Italian Embassyand the deputy head in the same sectionare allegedly involved in such illegal ac-tivities.

The said officials are working incommercial section of the Italian em-bassy in Islamabad, however, they havethe authority to process all the businessvisa applications in addition.

Moreover, the head of the same sec-tion had been appointed as the actinghead of the visa section on several occa-sions when he actually issued hundredsof visas abusing his powers. The Italianagency has also reportedly taken up thismatter at their end and investigating thematter seriously.

On the other side, the law enforce-ment agencies in Pakistan have com-piled a complete report on this issue andsubmitted it for perusal of the higher au-thorities, insiders told this scribe.

In the said report, the LEAs had alsoraised previous findings regarding an-other Italian diplomat Fabrizio Vig-nanelli serving as the head of the visasection, who was actually appointed inthe Consular Section. However, the mis-sion changed his cadre internally violat-ing the Pakistani visa rules andappointed him as the head of the visasection despite the fact that securityclearance for the said diplomat has beengiven to serve in the consular section,the sources added.

Vignanelli also reportedly cameunder investigation over some rigorousallegations during his previous postingin Karachi. It is also learnt that severallawmakers have recorded their reserva-tions once again within the parliamen-tary forums and raised their seriousapprehensions after the shocking reve-lations against the said Italian diplo-mats, the sources added.

The matter pertaining to FabrizioVignanelli has already been discussed inthe Parliament and debated in the de-

fense committee meetings few monthsback. However, once again the Italiandiplomats are reportedly involved in il-legal activities as the agencies wereclosely monitoring the alleged diplomatsand a final report has been submitted tothe high-ups in this matter.

After the matter was reported in thenational media, the Italian embassytransferred the diplomat from Pakistanand a new diplomat namely UbaldoCiaviglioli was appointed, they said.

Close monitoring of the new diplo-mat has revealed that the new diplomatUbaldo Ciaviglioli has established strongcontacts with the travel agents - Imran,Malik Naseer and Rizwan Malik ofSialkot and Islamabad.

“No diplomat is involved in anynexus, however, if any staff member isfound doing so, the foreign office of thePakistan will have to intimate the Italianembassy for disciplinary action. Themedia could not seek any official versionfrom the diplomats except the ambassa-dors”, the official added.

g in october 2012 only, around 600 visas for european countries have been issued against 700 applications

KARACHIaaMiR MaJEEd

Public sector universities of the Sindh de-cided to print graduate’ degree papersfrom the Pakistan Security Printing Cor-poration Ltd. (PSPCL) to discourageforger degree mafias as they are known tobe on the payrolls of senior politicians.

This is a bad news indeed for thoseeyeing an MNA or an MPA slot usingtheir fake degrees as ladders. The publicsector varsities were in a fix because ofpolitical pressure which started mountingas general and local bodies elections drewcloser. Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) sent degrees of politicians for ver-ification to these educational institutes.Those candidates who have applied forgovernment jobs on basis of fake/forgeddegrees would also be taken to task Pak-istan today learnt. The names of gradu-

ates’ and their educational degrees wouldbe available in the open market. PT alsolearnt that many universities were sellingdegrees against a sum of RS 30000 butwhen the scribe checked such degreeswith the relevant departments of the in-stitutions, the universities had no recordof such degrees.

Till date, educational degrees of some105 politicians were declared fake by theHigher Education Commission (HEC). Inthe fake degree holders MPA/MNA, ofPakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) top the list with 29 fake/forged de-grees, ruling-Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) has 26, ruling-ally Pakistan Mus-lim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ)boasts 19, Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal(MMA) amassed 5, Pakistan MuslimLeague-Functional (PML-F) has 3,Awami National Party (ANP), Balochis-tan National Party (BNP), National Peo-

ples Party (NPP) have two and JamiatUlema-e-Islam (JUI) and MuttahedaQaumi Movement (MQM) have one fakedegree holder each in their party. More-over 16 independent candidates also en-listed fake degrees.

Aamir Liaquat Hussain of MQM anda TV host was also making hay with a fakedegree. However, he is no longer a mem-ber of the party, nor he is the member ofthe parliament. The degree of Aamir Li-aquat Hussain was challenged while hewas sitting MNA but MQM forced him toresign to avoid embarrassment.

An agent, who sold graduate degreesof public sector varsities of Karachiagainst Rs 3000, requesting anonymitytold Pakistan Today that he was a stu-dent of the Sindh highly-dependableKarachi University that “I have got themaster’s degree from the university in2000 and till that day I am visiting var-

sity on daily basis, he said, adding that Inever applied for job in any public orprivate sector institution because I earnmore by selling varsities degrees in amonth. “I have original paper that isused by the city’s public sector universi-ties for awarding graduate degrees to itsstudent, he said, adding that I am inpartnership with the writers of varsitieswho write graduate degrees. Withoutany political support it is nearly impos-sible to run this high-revenue generatingbusiness and I am a political worker andwhenever my party assigned me for pro-viding fake degree to any other partyworker for contesting election I obliged.”

Earlier, NED University of Engineer-ing and Technology Registrar Engr JavedAziz Khan told Pakistan Today that theuniversities are hapless in stopping print-ing of fake degrees because paper use inprinting graduates’ degrees is easily avail-

able in the open market. He accepted thedisability of the varsity management toovercome the menace and said law en-forcement agencies should play their roleto overcome printing of fake degrees bytaking stern action against fake/forgeddegree holders.

Karachi University (KU) Vice Chan-cellor (VC) and Federal Urdu Universityof Arts, Science and Technology(FUUAS&T) Prof Dr Muhammad Qaisertold Pakistan Today that universitiesacross Sindh would contact PSPCL forprinting of graduates degrees to avoidprinting of fake/forged degrees. Qaisersaid “FUUAST reached an accord withPSPCL while KU will sign contracts withcorporation for printing degrees shortly,and the fake degree holders had earneda bad name for the varsities and thismove of administration may help to dis-courage forgers.”

nO MORe FAKe DeGReeS FOR POLItICIAnSPakistan Security Printing Corporation to print degrees for varsities

kaRaCHi: doctors, paramedical workers wear black bands during a demonstration against sindh Jinnah Medical university. OnLIne

Arms seized atPunjab border, KHi under red alert

KARACHIsTaFF REPORT

Sindh government declared a red alertin the provincial capital shortly afterauthorities seized a huge cache of armsand ammunition on the Sindh-Punjabborder on Thursday.Sindh Minister Excise and Taxation De-partment Mukesh Kumar Chawla, atthe post-session briefing of Sindh As-sembly said that at around 11:30am hewas alerted regarding a truck seized atthe Sindh Punjab border after a tensesituation between the security officialsand the passengers of the truck. He saidthat the driver warned the border secu-rity force that the “the truck would ex-plode if you came closer to it.” Howeverthe security forces managed to takecustody of the truck and found it to becarrying huge quantities of arms andammunition. The minister added that40 kilograms of “dope”, six suicidejackets, 58 hand grenades, 18 commu-nication boxes, 8 detonators, a rocketlauncher and three kilashenkoves wererecovered from the truck apart fromhundreds of 30mm pistols and bulletsof all kinds. Chawla said that during in-terrogation the driver told that thetruck was bound for Karachi and therewere at least two trucks carrying thesame ammunition ahead of him. As aresult red alert was declared in the cityand all entry and exit points of the cityas well.

Shah Faisal towndevelopmentschemes underway

KARACHIaPP

Sindh Assembly Member NishatMuhammad Zia Qadri reviewed the de-velopment work at Eid-gah and modelFamily Park UC-3, Shah Faisal Town onThursday. Shah Faisal Chief Officer,Kamal Mustafa, ulema of Eid-gah Com-mittee and KMC officials were alsopresent on the occasion. Speaking onthe occasion, Qadri said that a long-standing demand of the people to upliftthe main Eid-gah of Shah Faisal as amodel for the metropolis had been ful-filled. He added that construction workfor a model family park adjacent to theEid-gah to ensure healthy amusementand environment to the people was inthe pipeline.

Italian diplomats, travel agents form nexus



06 Karachi

kaRaCHi: Repair work of a flyover on Maripur Road, is underway. OnLIne

no more fire incidents? g Action plan to prevent

baldia factory fire-like

incidents to be

launched soon, says

secretary labour

KARACHIinP

The Government of Sindh has developeda consensus for action plan to preventBaldia Factory fire-like incidents in fu-ture. Secretary Labour Arif Elahi announcedthat the labour department will launchthe action plan by end of January 2013.The action plan will include various ini-tiatives to be implemented for the im-provement of labour inspection system,Occupational Safety and health, WorkInsurance Schemes.The objective of this consultation was tohelp promote safety and health at work-place with the technical support of ILO.Secretary Labour further said that hisdepartment will not tolerate any slack-ness in the enforcement of relevantlabour laws. ILO Country Director Mr.Francesco d’Ovidio said that ILO willprovide all technical facilities to theSindh Labour department for develop-ment and implementation of Plan of Ac-tion to promote safety and health atworkplace.Zahoor Awan General Secretary Pak-istan Workers Federation, while appre-ciating the efforts of the Sindh LabourDepartment and ILO, demanded thatworkers must be registered and shouldnot be considered as machines or tools.Zaki Ahmed, Acting President of Em-ployers Federation of Pakistan also sug-gested that employers should be madeaware of safety related legislations andimplication of non-compliance.This workshop was jointly organized bySindh Labour Department, ILO, EFPand PWF. More than 250 representa-tives of government, employers, work-ers, civil society, academic,International buyers, and Social Audit-ing Agencies participated in the day longtechnical deliberations.The workshop recommended for gov-ernment to consider extending SocialSecurity coverage to the informal sector,government should ensure that em-ployer register their work force underthe social Security scheme; and harmo-nize social security schemes.

ecP’s scheduledmeeting postponed

KARACHIinP

The meeting of Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) scheduled for Friday(today) has been postponed due to someunknown reasons. The ECP was set tomeet today (Friday) to discuss delimita-tions, voter lists and issues arising out ofthe recent by-polls in Sindh and Punjabbesides dual nationality issue.The sources said they could not say any-thing about the new date of the meeting.The Supreme Court of Pakistan had ear-lier issued directions to complete voters’verification in Karachi. Separately, theapex court, during its proceedings on theimplementation of its suo moto noticeon targeted killings in Karachi, directedthe Election Commission to conduct de-limitations in the metropolis to avoidwhat it called political polarisation.

SHc tests on Dec 16KARACHI

aPP

Sindh High Court (SHC) postponedwritten tests for Additional Districtand Sessions Judges. SHC spokesmanon Thursday said that the second writ-ten test for the post of Additional Dis-trict and Sessions Judges would beconducted on December 16 and not onDecember 15. He said that the timeand venue of the test was not changed.

KARACHI

sTaFF REPORT

sPEAKER Nisar AhmedKhuhro on Thursday ranthe proceedings of theSindh Assembly unconsti-tutionally and unlawfully

by allowing former finance ministerMurad Ali Shah to attend the session.

Shah had recently resigned from hispost, perceivably, in response to theElection Commission’s disqualificationwarning for the legislators who wereholding dual nationalities.

The allegation against Khuhro wasleveled by Arif Mustafa Jatoi of the Na-tional People’s Party, which has recentlyallied with other political parties repre-sented, except the PPP and MQM, whohave sat on opposition benches against

the disputed PSLGA 2012.The NPP legislator told a post-ses-

sion briefing that Thursday’s sitting wasrun by the speaker n a manner that was“unconstitutional” and “unlawful”.

Quoting 400-year-old internationalparliamentary traditions, Jatoi saidShah was a “stranger in the house”, inthe presence of whom the proceedings ofthe Assembly could not go on.

He said a non-elected member wassitting in the house, while the speakerwas running the house in contraventionof the Constitution that bars a ministerfrom attending the Assembly sittingsafter his or her resignation.

Vowing to send a written warning tothe speaker, Jatoi said even if that failedto convince the chair he would file peti-tions in the high and supreme courts.

Earlier, the same controversy

marred the Assembly proceedings onThursday where as the speaker calledorder to the house, Jatoi took the floorand pointed out the presence of a “non-elected member” in the house unlaw-fully.

When the debate between Jatoi andthe speaker deepened Shah left thehouse. But, soon he came back after thehouse with a rare majority said yes to amotion of Dr Sikandar Mandhro underRule 5 for changing Clause 7 of the Rulesof Procedures into Clause 9 that author-ized Shah to sit in the house.

The controversy once again madeKhuhro asking Law Minister AyazSoomro to carry out the long-delayedtask of amending the Assembly’s rules ofprocedures necessitated by the historical18th Amendment. “Please come up withserious efforts so these discrepancies

can be done away with,” the speakerasked his ministers.

Jatoi, however, was not satisfiedsaying the speaker was violating theConstitution of Pakistan which could notbe superseded by the Assembly rules.This made the speaker read out Clause 9of Article 130 of the Constitution that hesaid was a proviso for a minister’s ap-pointment within six-month period ofhis predecessor’s resignation.

Jatoi later told the media that thequoted proviso was applicable on the ex-ecutive and not legislative branch of thegovernment.

“This is what we parliamentarianscall a stranger in the house in whosepresence no proceedings could go on,”Jatoi claimed. The former finance min-ister, however, remained present in thehouse during the entire sitting.

Khuhro runs SA unconstitutionally!g Opposition says Shah, ‘a stranger in the house’ can’t attend sessiong Treasury led by the speaker defends former finance minister

70% Sindh rural,says Motiwala

KARACHIaPP

Sindh Board of Investment ChairmanMuhammad Zubair Motiwala said thatSindh is endowed with vast reservoirs ofnatural resources and the potential for so-cial uplifting projects in the province wasbeyond anything witness in Pakistan in sixdecades. Motiwala said this in a meetingwith a delegation of Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB) headed by (ADB) PrincipalPublic Management Specialist YesimElhan. Motiwala underscored the hugereservoirs of Oil, Gas, Coal and 5 millionhectors of cultivable fertile land. Yesminapprised Motiwala of Sindh Growth andRural Revitalization Programme (SGARRP)and said that SGARRP aims to promotebroad base growth and rural developmentin Sindh. She said that SGARRP wished toassist Sindh Goverment to promote broadbased growth in Sindh particularly target-ing rural economies. She said thatSGARRP’s objective was to lure the privatesector investments in the rural areas ofSindh. Muhammad Zubair Motiwala speak-ing on the occasion said that SBI had been afocal body highlighting potential areas forlocal as well as foreign investment.

KARACHIsTaFF REPORT

A four-day training workshop organ-ized by Shehri-Citizens for a Better En-vironment at a local hotel conducted byGulmina Bila concluded that policeneeds to be sensitive about HumanRights and should not only prosecuteviolators of human rights but alsoshould not to be guilty of human rightsviolations itself.

Shehri-CBE, a Karachi based non-profit organization was established in1990 and registered under the Soci-eties Act XXI of 1860. It works on a va-riety of issues with a special emphasison managing dialogues and interac-tions between local people and govern-ment agencies on issues and concernsthat require joint action and participa-tion. The workshop was attended byvarious cadres of Karachi Police. Thefirst two days of the workshop were fo-cused on Constitution of Pakistan

1973; they discussed in detail the im-portance of human rights with refer-ence to the Constitution. KhatibAhmed, member Shehri and the orga-nization’s lead trainer in police matterssaid that when police use modern tech-niques during their investigation, itwill improve policing culture and itwould convert our policing system intoa friendly civilized force. He said thatthere was a dire need to train policepersonnel in this regard and educatethem on human rights.

The last two days were focused onthe Religious Dimension of HumanRights. Professor Syed Asif Raza Zaidispoke on Human Rights and Islam andMr. Fedrick John, Vice Principal St.Thomas Theological College, Karachispoke on Human Rights and Christianity.

The training conducted by Shehri ispart of the national project “NationalProject for Participatory Citizens-PoliceInteraction & training for improvingpolicing of Human Rights violations

and advocating police reforms.ANTI-CoRRUpTIoN dAy wALKoN dEC 7: Karachi district is observ-ing an anti corruption week (December3-7) and Karachi Central Deputy Com-missioner scheduled a seminar and acommunal walk to observe Anti- Cor-ruption Day (December 7). The seminarwould be organized at the office of theDeputy Commissioner Central, nearSakhi Hasan, North Nazimabad.Provincial ministers, members Nationaland Sindh assemblies and foreign dig-nitaries would attend the seminar.sEd TEACHER TEsTs dEC 23-JAN 9: Sindh Education Department(SED) scheduled competitive exami-nations for the posts of high schoolteachers on December 23. Tests forthe posts of Junior School teacherswere scheduled for Dec 29-30. SEDspokesman said that NTS had an-nounced January 6 and 9 as tentativedates for Primary school teachers’-competitive examinations.

Police literacy towardshuman rights stressed


Pakistan and the artof trading castes

low

High

190cSAturDAY SunDAY MonDAY31°c i 18°c 30°c i 17°c 28°c i 10°c

PrAYer tiMingSFajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib isha

06:00 06:10 12:00 15:45 15: 00 18:30

citY DirectorY

reScue 1122

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MotorWAY Police 130

Police 15

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Fire brigADe 16, 99215007-8

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collegeS / univerSitieS

KArAcHi univerSitY 99261300-06neD univerSitY 99261261-8FuuASt 99244141-9DuHS 99215754-7SMic 99217501-3FASt-nu 111128128, 34100541-7SZAbiSt 111922478iobM 35090961-7ibA 111422422ivS 35861039-40

AbbASi SHAHeeD 99260400-09

civil 99215749, 99215960

JinnAH 99201300-39

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07Karachi

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AAKAR PAteL

IMAGINE that, for some reason, all mer-cantile castes were partitioned from Indiaon 31 December. Jains, Khatris, Marwaris,Baniyas, Chettiars and the rest, whatevername you know them by, all forced out in

three weeks’ time. What would happen?First, at a stroke, we would lose nine of the 10

wealthiest people in India.Second, we would immediately lose the experi-

ence and industry of these communities, skills builtover centuries. Third, we would lose, this would takea little more time, their influence on society. Theirculture of pragmatism, compromise and sobrietywould be lost to north Indian cities now dominatedby peasant castes. These are the castes driven by ho-nour, rather than pragmatism. If you were to makea list of communities that do honour killing, theywould dominate that list, just as Baniyas dominatethe list of billionaires.

What would India be like without the mercan-tile castes? I can tell you. Like Pakistan. Four con-ditions trouble scholars of Pakistan: Militarydominance of policy; an economy subservient to na-tional honour; revisionism in Kashmir and an in-ability to come to terms with an enemy (India) it isunable to defeat; and the inability of society to in-ternally resist religious bigotry.

The reasons cited for these conditions are usu-ally disparate. Military dominance is thought to bethe result of the Muslim League’s undemocraticphase after 1947. The real or imagined threat fromIndia explains the revisionist outlook. Society’s ex-tremism is blamed on the US meddling inAfghanistan and on drone strikes.

The real reason for all four conditions is thesame: An imbalance of caste. In a part of the worldwhere culture trumps individualism, Pakistan hasno community left to resist its drift into becomingan irresponsible state and a danger to itself.

The community that could do this, the Khatri-Arora combine that dominates Delhi’s economy,Pakistanis booted out in 1947. My hypothesis is thatthe division of the Punjabi nation in 1947 produceda Pakistani Punjab that was heavily weighted infavour of the peasant castes.

Why is Punjab so important to the argument?Punjabis form over half the Pakistani nation. At Par-

tition, Pakistan got two-thirds of Punjab, while Indiagot one-third. Eighty per cent of Pakistan’s army isPunjabi. All the four conditions we observed arePunjab-specific. More Punjabis live in Pakistan thanin India. However, in the Forbes list of the world’sbillionaires, there are five Indians from the Indianside of undivided Punjab. Malvinder and ShivinderMohan Singh of Fortis Healthcare, Sunil Mittal ofAirtel, Savitri Jindal of Jindal Steel, Brijmohan LallMunjal of Hero MotoCorp and Gautam Thapar ofAvantha. There is no Punjabi from Pakistan. Why?Because the conversion of Hindus has been the con-version of castes, not individuals (for a moment, letus discard the myth Muslims feed themselves abouttheir Arab/Persian/Central Asian origins). All theseindividuals are from trading communities, Baniya,Khatri and Arora.

Few mercantile Hindu castes took up Islam. TheLohanas of Gujarat, who produce India’s andKarachi’s great Memon/Vora/Khoja communities,are among those who did. Lohanas dominate theeconomy of Karachi and its stock market. But notmany Punjabi trading castes took up Islam. AllBaniyas and most Khatris and Aroras in Punjab re-

mained Hindu while some became Sikh. Punjab’sPartition was essentially a partitioning of castes. Indiagot Jats and other peasant castes, but it also receivedmost of the trading Punjabis. Pakistan got only thepeasants. This separation is the critical aspect and itdefines the character of Pakistani Punjab. What hadbeen a stable society in united Punjab became lighteron the side of the castes the Hindus dominated—trade, commerce—and heavier on the side of thepeasant castes, which Muslims dominated.

This has produced the imbalance which ex-plains Pakistan’s fondness for a state dominated bysoldiers. The army under General Ashfaq ParvezKayani (from the warlike Gakkhar caste) runs Pak-istan’s foreign policy, security policy and most of itseconomic policy because the majority of Punjabisare comfortable with the idea of warriors being incharge.

Let’s look at Sindh. The economy of Pakistan iscommanded by one city in Sindh, Karachi. Over50% of all government revenue comes from Karachi.

Despite the violence in Karachi, which is mainlyof a secular nature, Sindh is more normal than Pun-jab. One reason for this is because it has a stable so-ciety. How? The Sindhi Hindus who left at Partitionwere replaced by two communities. One was the ed-ucated middle class of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, theMohajirs. The gap in the trading community createdby the migration of Hindus was filled by Muslim Gu-jaratis of the Lohana caste—Memon, Khoja andVora. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was also a Lohana,one of the most talented and prosperous tradingcastes of India. This is why Sindh is more normalthan Punjab, despite the Mohajir-Pashtun skir-mishes in Karachi. Because it is a stable society interms of balance between those parts that are feudaland those parts that are mercantile. This balance ismissing in Punjab.

It is impossible to understand India withoutbeing aware of caste and I see no reason why thisshould not be true for the area that used to be Indiatill 65 years ago. I would say that the Baloch are anation, Pashtuns are a nation, Gujaratis are a na-tion, Tamilians are a nation and Punjabis are a na-tion. But Punjabi Muslims are not a nation, only halfa nation. This incompleteness in its society, which Isee as a permanent feature, is the reason Pakistanis the way it is.

Courtesy Livemint

Pakistan has no community left to resist itsdrift into becoming an irresponsible state


08


News

Deadly earthquake hitseastern IranTEHRAN: Iran’s Fars news agency said people ran out oftheir homes after the tremor struck the district of Zahan, inSouth Khorasan province, on Wednesday. Walls andbuildings collapsed, and several people were left trappedunder the rubble. “Eight people have been killed in theearthquake area and one person is missing. Unfortunatelya number of those injured have lost their lives in the lastfew hours,” Mehr news agency quoted South Khorasan’scrisis management director Mohammad Ali Akhundi assaying. “Homes have sustained damage and people are outin public places and they need the means to keepthemselves warm because of the cold,” he said. Officialssaid the death toll could rise as rescuers reached theaffected areas. Two villages appeared to have sustained theworst of the damage including the village of Sharaj wherefive people were killed, Mehr news agency quoted districtgovernor Farhad Falahati as saying. “We have what weneed to help but landslides especially on the route to Sharajhave stopped the relief supplies from getting there,” hesaid. Five villages were “destroyed or damaged” in theearthquake, Mohammad Ali Akhoundi, head of the SouthKhorasan provincial crisis management service, told statemedia. At least 12 aftershocks have been registered sincethe quake struck at 20:38 local time (17:08 GMT), theIranian Seismological Centre reported. Iran is situated onmajor fault lines and has suffered several devastatingearthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitudequake in 2003 which flattened the southeastern city of Bamand killed more than 25,000 people. In August, more than300 people were killed when two earthquakes struck inthe northwest. agEnCiEs

Afghan intelligence chiefhurt in Kabul bombingKABUL: The head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service hasbeen wounded in a suspected suicide bombing in Kabul,interior ministry officials said. They said that AsadullahKhalid was injured in the lower part of his body when thebomb exploded. The explosion took place in the Taymeniarea of central Kabul. The Taliban said it carried out theattack. An intelligence official said that the attack took placein one of many guesthouses owned by Mr Khalid. Anotherintelligence official told the BBC that Mr Khalid was “safe”but did not elaborate on his condition. However, a Westerndiplomat told the AFP news agency that he had beenseriously wounded. Afghan officials also told AFP that hewas now in hospital receiving blood transfusions. The attackis similar to a suicide bombing in September 2011 thatkilled the chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council,Burhanuddin Rabbani, officials say. Mr Rabbani was killedat his home by a suicide attacker carrying a bomb believedto have been concealed in his turban. He was meetingmembers of the Taliban at the time. agEnCiEs

KABULinP

AFGHAN Pres-ident HamidKarzai se-verely criti-cised the

United States (US) inan exclusive interviewwith NBC News onThursday, blaming USand NATO forces forsome of the growing

insecurity in hiscountry.

“Part of theinsecurity iscoming to usfrom the struc-tures that NATO

and America created in Afghanistan,” Karzaisaid during a one-on-one interview at thepresidential palace. However, he also ac-knowledged that much of the country's vio-lence was caused by insurgent groups.

The Taliban are regaining land and powerthey lost after they were toppled by US-backedforces in 2001. Meanwhile, Karzai has gonefrom being a favourite of Washington underthe presidency of George W Bush, to a thornin the White House's side with his criticism ofAmerican night raids and mounting civiliancasualties at the hands of NATO troops. Manyin Washington have also grown weary ofKarzai, viewing him as ineffective and presid-ing over a deeply corrupt government.

Karzai, who is serving his second five-yearterm, also said that he had sent a letter to Pres-ident Barack Obama saying that Afghanistanwould not sign any new security agreementswith the US until hundreds of prisoners held

in US custody were transferred to Afghan au-thorities. His criticism of the US, Afghanistan'smost important ally, has come after the start ofcomplex bilateral talks on a security pact onthe role the US would play after most of itstroops are withdrawn by the end of 2014.

Karzai said the inmates in American de-tention in Afghanistan were being held inbreach of an agreement he and Obama hadsigned in March and the inmates must behanded over immediately.

“We signed the strategic partnership agree-ment with the expectation and the hope that thenature of the United States’ activities inAfghanistan will change,” Karzai said. ButAmerican behavior had not changed, he said,adding that terrorism would not be defeated “byattacking Afghan villages and Afghan homes”.

The dispute between the two countriescenters on Bagram Air Base and a nearby de-tention facility, which have long been seen as

a symbol of American impunity and disre-spect by many Afghans.

“I have written to President Obama thatthe Afghan people will not allow its govern-ment to enter into a security agreement,while the US continues to violate Afghan sov-ereignty and result in Afghan loss,” he said.

During the interview, Karzai also saidthat he did not think al Qaeda “has a presencein Afghanistan”. He added he was not sure ifal Qaeda existed as an organisation in themanner it was being talked about.

The US led the invasion in the wake ofthe 9/11 attacks to topple the Taliban,which was harboring al Qaeda and its then-leader, Osama bin Laden. While weakened,especially after the death of bin Laden atthe hands of US special forces in Pakistanin 2011, al Qaeda is still thought to havestrong links with the Taliban and otherAfghan insurgents.

MAnILAagEnCiEs

More than 300 people have died and hundredsmore are missing in the wake of Typhoon Bopha,which cut a swathe of devastation across the south-ern Philippines.

The Civil Defence Office said at least 325 peoplewere confirmed dead and another 379 missing. Peo-ple were killed in eight provinces but eastern Min-danao was worst-hit. In Compostela Valley provincealone at least 184 people died, many when flashfloods hit emergency shelters.

“We have 325 dead and this is expected to risebecause many more are missing,” civil defence chiefBenito Ramos told a news conference early onThursday. “Communications are bogged down,there is no electricity, roads and bridges have beendestroyed,” he said. “We’re still on a search-and-res-cue mode.” The storm struck Mindanao island onTuesday, bringing very high winds and heavy rain.

Roofs were blown off houses and the rain led to bothlandslides and flooding. Tens of thousands of peoplewere moved to shelters ahead of the typhoon, but inone town in Compostela Valley the shelters them-selves were swept away by flash floods.

“According to [survivors], there is a small lakeon the mountain that gave way so the waters floweddown, not just along the rivers... but all across, likea waterfall, bringing a slurry that covered the wholetown,” Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said. Rescueteams are still working to reach communities insome isolated areas. One injured man was foundalive in a river in New Bataan on Thursday morn-ing. Carlos Agang said he had been swept awaywhen flash floods hit his home, ending up pinneddown by boulders and debris downstream. He saidhe did not know where his wife and children were.

“I was shouting for help all the time, but noone came. I don’t know what happened to [myfamily]. Perhaps they are all dead,” Mr Agang toldAFP news agency.

US, NATO behind 'insecurity' in Afghanistan: Karzai

PhiliPPiNe TyPhooN BoPhadeaTh Toll Passes 300

Deadly clashes in

lebanon’s tripoliBeIRUt

agEnCiEs

At least six people have been killed anddozens injured over the past two days inclashes in Lebanon’s northern city ofTripoli between gunmen loyal to opposingsides in neighbouring Syria’s conflict,security officials have said. The fightingon Tuesday and Wednesday in the portcity has pitted Sunni Muslim districtsagainst areas housing Alawites, from thesame religious community as SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad. The Lebanesearmy sent out patrols in areas separatingthe two sides. Tensions had been buildingsince the reported killing last week of 21Lebanese from Tripoli, andone Palestinian, in the town of TalKalakh in the central Syrian province ofHoms near the border. They appeared tohave joined fighters involved in a 21-month-old revolt against Assad. Syrianstate television had shown graphic footageapparently showing the dead men, riddledwith bullet wounds and lying in thegrass. Adnan Mansour, Lebanon’sforeign minister, asked the Syrianambassador to hand over the bodies ofthe men after their families protested inTripoli, demanding the Lebanesegovernment return the corpses anddetermine the whereabouts of themissing. A diplomatic source in Lebanontold the AFP news agency that Damascushas agreed to repatriate the bodies. “TheSyrian ambassador to Beirut, Ali AbdelKarim Ali, contacted Lebanese ForeignMinister Adnan Mansour and informedhim that the Syrian authorities haveagreed” to the Lebanese request, thesource said. Officials from both sideswere scheduled to meet on Wednesdayto discuss the repatriation, the source,who wished to remainanonymous, added.

PhIlIPPINes: Toys are left to dry out among the wreckage

caused by typhoon Bopha in Compostela Valley. AGenCIeS

BeRLInagEnCiEs

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Ne-tanyahu has been holding tense talkswith German Chancellor Angela Merkelas plans to build thousands of new set-tler homes on occupied Palestinian landstrained ties with key allies.

On a visit that risks being overshad-owed by the diplomatic storm, Ne-tanyahu joined Merkel for a meeting onThursday morning after they had a din-ner late on Wednesday, together withmost of their cabinet ministers. The Is-raeli leader arrived from Prague wherehe had singled out the Czech Republic

for its “friendship and courage” as theonly European state to have opposed aPalestinian status upgrade at the UnitedNations last week.

Netanyahu’s first European visitsince the UN vote came amid mountinginternational calls for Israel to dropplans to build 3,000 new settler homesin a highly contentious strip of the occu-pied West Bank near Jerusalem. He an-nounced the move in reaction to theupgrading of Palestine to non-memberobserver state at the UN and has refusedto go back on the decision despite stronginternational condemnation.

German daily Die Welt on Thursdayquoted Netanyahu as saying he was “dis-

appointed” that Berlin had abstained fromvoting at the UN despite reported pleas byIsrael to reject the Palestinian resolution.

“People are convinced that there is aspecial relationship between Germany andIsrael,” he said. “I think Chancellor Merkelwas of the opinion that this vote would insome way foster peace. In fact the oppositeis the case: after the UN vote, the Palestin-ian Authority under president (Mahmoud)Abbas is making plans to join with the ter-rorists of Hamas.”

France, Britain, Spain, the EuropeanUnion, Denmark, Sweden, Australia andEgypt have all summoned the Israeli am-bassadors to protest the plans, which alsodrew criticism from Russia and Japan.

Germany, long considered Israel’s clos-est ally in Europe with ties rooted in thecountry’s bid for atonement over the Naziholocaust, stopped short of such a move.But Merkel sharply condemned the policyas potentially torpedoing hopes for peaceand the viability of a Palestinian state.

“Israel is undermining faith in itswillingness to negotiate and the geo-graphic space for a future Palestinianstate, which must be the basis for a two-state solution, is disappearing,” herspokesman Steffen Seibert said thisweek. The new tensions came just daysafter Merkel had offered Israel full sup-port for its military action in Gaza in re-sponse to repeated rocket fire.

Merkel meets Netanyahu amid tense relations


09


NewsPakistan wants

good neighbourly

ties with india:

Senate chairman neW DeLHI

agEnCiEs

Senate Chairman Nayyer HussainBokhari emphasised that there existed acomplete consensus in Pakistan to fur-ther neighborly relations with India.Bokhari, who is visiting India at the jointinvitation of Rajya Sabha ChairmanMohammad Hamid Ansari and LokSabha Speaker Meira Kumar expressedthese views in a meeting with the IndianVice President. Welcoming Bokhari, Indian Vice Presi-dent Hamid Ansari stated that his visitwould further strengthen relations be-tween the two parliaments and the coun-tries. In this context, he also mentionedthe visits of the Lok Sabha Speaker toPakistan in February and November thisyear, and the warm reception accorded toher. Ansari stated that besides the officialdialogue, the two countries are now en-gaged in numerous Track-II initiativesbetween the civil society. Bokharithanked Ansari for the warm hospitalityextended to him and members of his del-egation upon arrival in India. Highlight-ing that this was the first ever visit of aSenate Chairman to India, he conveyedthe greetings and best wishes of the Pak-istani leadership and people for the lead-ership and people of India.

‘Pakistan, turkey have

unanimity of views

on global issues’AnKARA

inP

Pakistan and Turkey have unanimity ofviews on global issues, Senate StandingCommittee on Foreign Affairs ChairmanSenator Haji Muhammad Adeel said onThursday. A parliamentary delegationfrom Pakistan, led by the chairman of theSenate Standing Committee on ForeignAffairs, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan metForeign Affairs Commission of TurkishGrand National Assembly (TGNA) Chair-man Volkan Bozkir.The Pakistani delegation included sena-tors Muzafar Hussain Shah, AbdulGhafoor Haideri, Sehar Kamran andAmjad Pervez, secretary of the commit-tee. Adeel said his delegation had noticedvisible progress in Turkey in sectors suchas health, education, housing and socialsecurity. “This clearly demonstrates thewelfare-state oriented policies of thepresent government,” he said.Volkan said Turkey supported therights of the oppressed people. He re-newed support for recognising the le-gitimate rights of the people ofKashmir and stressed on the need torespect human rights.

WASHIngtonsPECial CORREsPOndEnT

THE Obama administration hasordered significant cutbacks ininitial plans for a robust US civil-ian presence in Afghanistan

after US combat troops withdraw two yearsfrom now, The Washington Post reportedciting US officials.

“Learning from Iraq, where postwarambitions proved unsustainable, the WhiteHouse and top State Department officialsare confronting whether the United Statesneeds — and can protect — a large diplo-matic compound in Kabul, four consulatesaround the country and other civilian out-posts to oversee aid projects and monitorAfghanistan’s political pulse.”

Planners were recently told to reducepersonnel proposals by at least 20 percent,a senior administration official said. Projectsonce considered crucial are being dividedinto lists of those considered sustainable andthose that will not be continued. “As we sawin the Iraq exercise, you need to be verytough on the numbers going in,” the officialsaid. “We need to have enough civilians toachieve the goals we’ve laid out,” within “afinite amount of money we have to spend.”

Officials declined to identify specific

projects that might end. But the inevitabledecrease in eyes and ears acrossAfghanistan could threaten a range of long-term US investments and priorities, such aswomen’s rights, education, health care andinfrastructure, the Post reported.

The challenge of balancing the Ameri-can civilian presence of what are now about1,000 officials and thousands of contractorswith reasonable resources goes beyondpocketbook and personnel issues, accord-ing to several senior officials, who discussedthe planning on condition of anonymity be-cause it is at an early stage.

On one side of the simmering internaldebate are fiscal constraints, diminishedhopes for progress and national wearinesswith the Afghanistan effort. On the otherside are formal US pledges of developmentsupport, moral and political commitmentsto a country where nearly 2,200 US troopshave died and $590 billion has been spent,and fears Afghanistan could again becomea terrorist haven.

Looming over the debate is the deter-mination to avoid a repeat of the Septemberattack on a poorly defended US diplomaticpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a USambassador and three other Americans.

The report notes that as hard as Iraqhas been, Afghanistan poses far more diffi-

cult security and logistical problems. Thereis little optimism that the war against theTaliban will be over before US combattroops leave or that Afghan security forceswill prove an able substitute. “The problemwith Afghanistan is, it’s not going to looklike success,” James F. Jeffrey, who untilSeptember was US ambassador to Iraq,said in an interview. “It’s still going to bebackward and totally corrupt, with notenough government infrastructure and ahuge burning insurgency. This is terriblycomplicated and hard stuff under the bestof circumstances, and these are the worst.”

According to the Post, US diplomatsand other civilian officials outside Kabul arehoused at military at bases large and small.They depend on the military to protect andtransport them, and provide medical care.They consume imported food and waterbrought in massive military convoys.

The bases are disappearing, and plansfor the Afghans to provide security leavemany Americans nervous.

Where Iraq has been kept afloat by oilrevenue, Afghanistan depends on hand-outs. International donors have promised apost-2014 annual supplement of $4 billionfor Afghan security forces and an equalamount in development and economic as-sistance. More than half of the $8 billion

will come from the United States.Firm decisions on civilian numbers and

locations cannot be made “until we resolveexactly what the military follow-on num-bers are going to be,” one official said. “Thatwill determine . . . where we locate, whatkind of security, medical and other supportwe might be able to get.”

The Kabul-headquartered US-led In-ternational Security Assistance Force ispreparing recommendations for Obama onhow fast to withdraw the 68,000 remainingUS combat troops in Afghanistan.

Plans for the follow-on military pres-ence are being formulated in the Pentagon,where the largest of several preliminary op-tions calls for about 10,000 troops, withseveral other NATO governments penciledin for several hundred each.

Meanwhile, officials say the NATO al-lies are waiting to see what sort of agree-ment is reached between the Americansand the Afghans, and how many US troopswill remain. Although the Afghan govern-ment has agreed to a long-term foreign mil-itary presence in principle, negotiationsover the size and terms have just begun.The main sticking point is likely to be theissue that led to the breakdown with Iraq —whether US forces are immune fromAfghan legal jurisdiction.

US cutting plans for large civilianpresence post-2014 Afghanistan

LonDonsTaFF REPORT

The plan to build Britain's biggest mosque in eastLondon has been rejected by London’s NewhamCouncil. The Talighi Jamaat’s plan to build thecountry’s biggest mosque in Stradford, east Lon-don is in tatters after the council members deniedpermission to the proposed project.

The projected Abbey Mills Mosque also knownas the Riverine Centre would have become thebiggest Islamic centre in the UK and one of thelargest in Western Europe. The new plan includeda main prayer hall for almost 7,500 men, a sepa-rate facility for 2,000 women, along with a library,a dining hall, and visitors’ centre, eight flats forimams and guests, and tennis courts.

According to the UK’s census of 2011, the ma-jority of London’s Muslims are living in the east ofLondon with around 40percent of the population

of Newham Borough Council are Muslims from thesubcontinent and African countries

The Islamic missionary movement Tablighi Ja-maat has been trying for 10 years to build a largemosque in Newham, claiming they needed the siteto accommodate their growing number of follow-ers. They currently use part of the 17-acre AbbeyMills site to house the London Markaz, also re-ferred to as Masjid-e-Ilyas, a temporary hub whichcan host 2,500 people.

The Newham Borough Council’s committee forRegeneration and Strategic Planning voted againstthe plan. Councilor Conor McAuley said the planwas rejected on the grounds that the proposedmosque building is too big and would have an im-pact on important historic buildings nearby. Healso said that the proposed land is designated formixed commercial and residential use, there wasnot enough consideration for transport and itwould not have led to more jobs and homes.

Plan for Britain’sBiggest Mosque rejected

DUSHAnBeOnlinE

NATO and Russia have passed a milestone in 2012with the training of over 2,500 anti-narcotics officersfrom Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, NATOSecretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told SilkRoad Newsline.

Rasmussen hailed the counter-narcotics effortsbeing made by the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) inCentral Asia. “In the last one year, we have achieveda lot. We have passed a milestone with the training ofover 2,500 counter-narcotics officers fromAfghanistan, Central Asia and Pakistan,” said Ras-mussen, who is also the chairman of NRC.

The internalisation of criminal groups, new trendsin drug trafficking, methods of concealment and thenew technologies being used by criminals require co-hesive efforts by law enforcement agencies in coun-tries where these drugs originate and where they are

marketed. “Professional law enforcement personnelmust be equipped with skills and expertise in differentareas of drug enforcement in order to combat this,”said the NATO chief. Currently, more than 100 train-ing courses are being conducted with a total of 2,500officers receiving the training. The training is takingplace at four training sites in Russia, Turkey and theUnited States as well as in mobile training workshopsthroughout the Central Asian region.

According to NATO, the NRC Counter-NarcoticsTraining Project is a joint endeavor of several coun-tries which are part of the NRC. These countries in-clude Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic,Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia,Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia,Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and theUnited States. Non-NRC nations Finland and Ukraineand the beneficiaries Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyr-gyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan andPakistan also took part in the project.

NATO, Russia achieve milestonein training drug control officers

PEsHawaR: dr Fauzia siddiqui, sister of Pakistani scientist dr aafia siddiqui, who is detained in the us, holds a protest demonstration on a donkey cart for her sister’s

release. Former us Congresswoman sandhya Mic keni, and sara Flounders, co-director of the international action Center, also join the protest. InP


Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – 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

walk the talk is what india wants Pakistan to do

A disappointing step

One Indian official after another has been rubbing the point:punish those responsible for Mumbai attacks to improvethe ties. In Pakistan a number of suspects were arrestedsoon after the attacks. Prosecution, however, requires

sufficient evidence. Collecting evidence is a painstaking exerciserequiring a high level of professionalism. The next stage requirespreparing a foolproof case. The legal machinery moves slowly. Butaren’t four years enough to put the act together? Finally, five policeofficers have produced before the court the CID reports about themain suspect’s involvement in running the militants’ camps,including one imparting navigational training at Karachi. Theaccused are in a position to engage high profile lawyers who willmake use of every loophole in the evidence for the benefit of theirclients. This has happened too often in the past. If everybody was onboard regarding improvement of relations with India, one expected abetter and quicker investigation and preparation of the case.

A number of Indian leaders have made it clear, again and again,that relations between the two countries cannot be upgraded tillthose responsible for Mumbai attacks are punished. For the Indianside, the issue is highly sensitive for obvious reasons. The visit byIndian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would have contributed tothe creation of a conducive environment needed to promote dialoguebetween the two neighbours. Its cancellation is a reminder that thereis little possibility of any significant development on issues of majorconcern to both the countries until a more serious attempt is made toprosecute those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attack.

The people on both sides of the border are keen to developfriendly ties. They see mutual trade, which remains limited thanks tored tapeism on both sides, as beneficial for both countries. Theywant more steps to facilitate people to people contacts. Theestablishments in the two countries have, however, yet to fullyoverhaul their old mindsets. They are presumably still double-minded between peace and war, as revealed in the Indian ministerfor external affairs’ recent interview on the right wing channel IndiaTV. He has his counterparts on this side of the Wagah border also.The result: decisions are taken but signatures are delayed andimplementation put off on one excuse or another. The Indian primeminister’s visit could have been instrumental in removing some ofthe hurdles that stand in the way of the improvement of ties. There isneed on the part of establishments on both sides to promote peace sothat both can bring down their defence expenditures, spending themuch needed resources on education, health and social development.


It was one against two in Punjabbye-elections this time. ThePML-N single-handedly tookon the PPP-Q League alliance,winning seven out of eight

seats. The calculations made by the al-liance proved to be baseless. The de-bacle was the result of the alliance’sdefective strategy which was builtaround the simplistic notion that bycombining the votes of the two parties,they could defeat the PM-N.

It was agreed that the PPP orPML-Q’s winner of 2008 electionwould automatically become the jointcandidate in a constituency. In con-stituencies where both parties werelosers, the runner-up either of PPP orPML-Q was to be considered the legit-imate claimant to the seat.

The notion was based on two as-sumptions that the results of the pollshave called to question. First, it wasassumed that the level of popularityof the two parties in Punjab was ei-ther higher than 2008 or at leastequal to it. Secondly, that the votersof the two parties would all vote fortheir joint candidate.

The (mis)calculations have led tothe catastrophic results for the al-liance. The PPP has failed to win evena single seat in Punjab. The PML-Qtoo had to eat a humble pie. The later,however, fared better than the PPP asit managed to snatch a provincial seatin Narowal from the party ruling Pun-jab. In the rest of the constituencies itcontinued to lose by big margins.

Claims made by the new PPP Pun-jab boss Manzoor Wattoo to give PML-N tough time turned out to be empty.

A cursory look on the polls resultsmakes unmistakably clear that manyPPP and PML-Q voters failed to votefor their joint candidates or voted in-stead for the PML-N. This is by no

means altogether baseless. Till theyjoined hands nearly three years back,the two parties believed they had tosettle blood feuds. While the higherleadership has brokered an under-standing, middle ranking leaders andmost of the workers in both the partieshave not reconciled with the decision.They continue to nurse the grouse thatwas cultivated over the years.

The results in some of the con-stituencies amply justify the conclu-sion.

PPP’s provincial information sec-retary Raja Amir, who in 2008 elec-tions had contested for the PP-122,Sialkot-II, had won 11,038 votes toend up as the runner-up. Omer FarooqDar of the PML-Q had secured 9,961votes at the time. Those issuing thetickets believed that with the synergyreleased by the alliance it would eitherlead to victory or a neck to neck race.Raja, however, managed to get only5,1234 votes compared to his oppo-nent who bagged 27,291.

In Gujranwala as well, fewer voteswere cast for the PPP than in 2008.Its candidate Lala Asad had secured23,892 votes emerging as runner-upin the last elections. It was expectedby the planners that he would also getthe 6,019 votes cast for the Q Leaguecandidate in 2008 elections. Thistime his score declined to a mere16,492. The setback of over 7,000votes this time indicates that whilemany of his own party voters ignoredhim, he presumably could not get anyof the votes polled previously by thePML-Q candidate.

The PPP had won NA-162 Sahiwalin 2008. In fact, what it had won wasan MNA but not the constituency. Sowhen Zahid Iqbal resigned and de-cided to contest the bye-elections ona PML-N ticket, the PPP was left withno candidate to fight the elections.The party then decided to back a pro-PTI candidate. This was in line withthe alliance’s policy decision to sup-port the strongest candidate opposingthe PML-N in a constituency where itcould not put up its own candidates.The pro-PTI candidate, supported inaccordance with direction, howeverfailed to win the majority votes. Manyvoters of the alliance obviously lostinterest in the polls and did not turnup at the booths.

Even more telltale is the outcomeof the polling is NA-107, Gujrat-IV,

where the joint nominee of the twoparties lost the elections by a consid-erable margin. In 2008, PML-Q’s ChNaseer Rehman had polled 69,101votes while the PPP candidate had got14,948. Their combined strength ofover 84,000 votes was consideredenough to defeat the PML-N whosecandidate had then polled 75,202votes. Naseer Rehman, however, couldmuster only 76,000 votes this timecompared to PML-N nominee’s over100,000 votes. The results indicatethat instead of voting for the candi-date, who is a PPP turncoat affiliatedwith PML-Q, many PPP voters , out ofsheer frustration and anger, cast theirvotes for the PML-N nominee, thusproviding the latter an unprecedentedlead of over 24,000. It is easier to for-give an enemy than a renegade.

No occasion for the PML-N tocelebrate though. It has just managedto save its skin and no more. Theparty has, in fact, emerged worse offthan in 2008. It lost one provincialseat to PML-F in bye-elections. It re-tained another by deciding to sup-port an independent rather thanlaunching its own nominee. The win-ner subsequently announced joiningthe PML-N.

The PPP has suffered the disasterof its logic. People in the eyes of theParty’s leadership are not the realagents of change. They can be easilyignored be them in Punjab, Sindh, KPor Balochistan. Party workers are to becommanded, rather than listened to.

What matters is wheeling anddealing and alliances that need not beprincipled. What is required to achievepower and to retain it is a policy of rec-onciliation with influential groups ir-respective of the policy they follow,even if this amounts to a betrayal ofthe masses. The formula is simple: ingeneral elections, an understandingwith the PML-Q, MQM and ANP. Addto that what Punjab PPP InformationSecretary Raja Amir told media earlythis month that if they “form an unan-nounced anti-PML-N alliance with thesupport of PTI and JI at local level inthese constituencies” and everythingwill be honky dory. The alliance hasmet the first defeat on account of thestrategy. What remains to be seen is ifthis is going to be the only one.

The writer is a former academicand a political analyst.

Politics trounces calculations

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

First defeat

Smoking is one of the curses whichthe adult human population facesevery day. It is a slow death and

smokers feed their suicidal instinctsdaily by puffing at a piece of paper withthe death herb rolled in it. Smoking isone of the most documented and ab-solutely proved causes of prematuredeaths in the world. Yet smokers neverpay heed to all the health warnings theywitness all around them.

What do cigarettes or cigars or hub-ble bubbles have in common that enticeus to resort to these disease and deathagents?

One of the most celebrated sages ofhuman psychology, Sigmund Frued, re-duced smoking to being stuck in the oralstage of development. He argues that in-

fants who failed to learn that their oralneeds, read sucking, to feed and to livewere not properly developed, and whofrom infancy were always insecure thatthey could die from not getting theirmouths on life inducing goods, breatheda sigh of relief when their fears provedwrong. Stretching his argument tosmokers perceiving cigarettes as safeagents would not be an exercise in futil-ity nor would it amount to turning thescience of psychology on its head. Thereare as many reasons for smoking as arethe number of smokers alive on planetearth. Smoking is indeed a futile activityand smokers resort to inhaling carbonmonoxide when they feel happy, sad,when they want to amplify their happyemotions, when they want to inhibittheir not so happy emotions, when theywant to inhibit their hunger, to cele-brate a meal, to enjoy the scenery, toponder over mathematical problemsand also when they want to scribble withwords on the phenomenon of smoking.There is not one positive externality ofsmoking and yet one could never runout of excuses for not smoking.

An average cigarette of any makehas around 4,000 toxic chemicals, with460 carcinogenic chemicals and nico-tine which is thought to be more addic-tive than heroine itself. The correlationof smoking with cardiac diseases, can-

cers of mouth, larynx, kidneys, throatand liver is no surprise for all exposedto cigarettes. The question that begs at-tention is why do we still smoke know-ing that this is the subtlest form ofpoison? People biased towards smokerswould allege that smokers are short-sighted people who can’t delay gratifica-tion. However, a research published byKings College London last week, togauge effects of smoking on humanbrain using a sample of 9,000, says thatcigarettes are active ingredient of braindegeneration. The research says thatcigarette smoke slowly erodes away ra-tionality and memory and smokersdon’t grasp this fact because their brainpower to comprehend the fact dimin-ishes every time they suck in on a smokebomb.

With every puff a smoker inhalescarbon monoxide in his lungs and everypre-medical student of class X wouldsecond me for saying that carbonmonoxide is more reactive than oxygenand severely limits oxygen absorptionby blood from lungs until the body ral-lies against the brain, gets on autopilotand tries to regain lost ground.

To gain lost ground, the human re-flex mechanism which is again provenby science to be the spinal cord, not thebrain, orders the heart to beat faster, in-creases the breathing rate and con-

sumes glucose in the body to regain en-ergy lost when carbon monoxide formsa compound with hemoglobin in the redblood cells instead of oxygen. The resultis a faster heart beat and a decreasingblood sugar level. Interestingly, ourbrain whose evolution into industrialurban centres is only a couple of cen-turies old and falls back to pre-historictimes for decoding bodily instincts, doesnot believe in an accelerated heartbeatand nausea due to reducing sugar levelsto be healthy signs even after a couple ofhours of cigarette smoke. Compoundthis with the addictive property of nico-tine and you have a recipe for a popula-tion with a bad oral hygiene,plummeting health and scenes of chil-dren falling prey to asthmatic attacks inclosed quarters after inhaling second-hand smoke. Bringing into the equationsmoker’s cough would scare the writerout of his wits.

All brands available in the marketare in fact the same chemically. The dif-ferences in prices are a genius of mar-keting with packs differentiating incolours and their respective brand am-bassadors. Chain smokers would arguethat they can tell the difference betweenthe smokes of good vs bad tobacco butdiffering tastes are not due to the qual-ity of tobacco used but the liquid inwhich the tobacco is soaked before con-

centrating it into paper carcasses. Or-ange juice, apricot stone and oak ex-tracts are considered aristocratic.

The lites version of various brands iswhat interests me the most. The tobaccoused in the lite version of a brand is thesame as that of its rather regular ver-sion. Lite cigarettes are produced by in-fusing tobacco with carbon dioxide andthen superheating it until the tobaccopuffs like expanding foam. The ex-panded tobacco is then filled into papertubes just like the regular version.

The writer did not come across onecredible statistic regarding the numberof cigarette smokers in Pakistan. On av-erage, a person smoking a pack dailythat costs PKR 90 and has been smokingfor eight years has spent 250,000 ru-pees on nothing but harmful smoke.Multiply this with as many million peo-ple as you deem fit and imagine themultiplier effect that would have re-sulted if the money burnt to ashes wasdiverted to employment generation.Now add to it the amount drawn out ofthe public treasury for providing healthcare to smoking induced diseases.

Revenues generate by tobacco com-panies in Pakistan would be a goodstarting point to gauge the size of to-bacco business and could lead one toidentify many untapped niches whichone could exploit to amass extra cash.

Burnt to ashes

By Jehangir Iftikhar

smoking – the evil taken so casually


Comment 11


Democracy is defined as agovernment of the people, for thepeople and by the people but it isdefined in Pakistan as a governmentof provinces, for the provinces and bythe provinces. The preamble of theconstitution has been made asubstantive part of the constitution asper Article 2A. This states that“Whereas sovereignty over the entireuniverse belongs to Almighty Allahalone, and the authority to beexercised by the people of Pakistanwithin the limits prescribed by Him isa sacred trust, and whereas it is thewill of the people of Pakistan toestablish an order, and wherein thestate shall exercise its powers and

authority through chosenrepresentatives of the people.

The refrain in the preamble is onthe people of Pakistan and not on thepeople of provinces exclusively whichdifferentiates the National Assemblyand the Senate from the provincialassemblies as the will of the people.

However, when we quote the willof provinces as the provincialassemblies to decide national issueslike Kalabagh dam this does notreflect the will of 180 million people ofPakistan in as much as people ofPunjab comprising about 60 percentof Pakistan are held hostage when theprovincial assemblies of Pakistanfrom smaller provinces having about

40 percent people of Pakistanoverbear Punjab where majority of thepeople reside. It appears thus that thefate of a national project could alwaysbe decided by 40 percent people ofPakistan and not by the 100 percentpeople of Pakistan by a majority vote.Thus a minority rule would lord overthe majority people of Pakistan.

This is also repugnant to Islamicinjunction in Sura 42 Al-Shurah, verse38, wherein it is prescribed thataffairs of Muslims are to be decided bymutual consultation of the people i.e.,of a country in totality and not byconsent of the minority of peopleresiding in certain parts of Pakistandesignated as provinces which would

denigrate the collective will of thepeople of Pakistan. The smaller unitscan always gang up against the largerunits with majority of people. That iswhy national issues are alwaysdecided by a national referendum andnot by provincial assemblies.

The bane of democratic order ofPakistan lies in a built-in fault alongprovincial lines that would neverresult in a decision by the people ofPakistan at large, and which needs tobe corrected by judiciousinterpretation of the constitution bythe Supreme Court of Pakistan in vitalnational interests.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

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.

Sovereignty or bankruptcySenator Mushahid Hussain has said, as reported

on a television channel, that Kalabagh dam means los-ing the sovereignty of Pakistan. His statement is con-trary to views of his party leader Ch Pervez Illahi whohas said that Pakistan is in vital need of Pakistan i.e.,to preserve its sovereignty. This amounts to spreadingconfusion about the views of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid about Kalabagh dam. In any case, if MrMushahid Hussain opts for no Kalabagh dam, he mustbe prepared for Pakistan being declared a bankruptstate which is a sure way to lose the so-called sover-eignty when we pledge even our Tarbela dam turbinesto qualify for loan from international agencies.

Mr Mushahid Hussain is an accomplished jour-nalist but his views on Kalabagh dam lack perspec-tive about the role of a mega hydroelectric damwhich could deliver at least additional four billionUS$ annually in the form of agriculture and indus-trial output, thus freeing us from IMF trap that hasmade us hostage to severe financial strictures thatare sucking the life out of our people leading tomass poverty, unemployment and crime upsurge.Mr Mushahid Hussain ought to be well informed asa master journalist to see the writing on the well.

DR M Y BHATTILahore

real intel“WikiLeaks”, is not an actual leak, rather it is a

set of internal documents of the US government,where different internal communications or HR filesare discussed. They contain a wealth of informationabout the US government’s thinking style and theiropinion on various international issues. Unfortu-nately, the files contain too much information andrequires years of reading to understand everything.

One interesting point I came across while study-ing the Guantanamo Bay prisoner files of Pakistaniinmates, is how the US Army was duped by theAfghan Northern Alliance Forces. All of the Pakistaniinmates in Guantanamo Bay prison handed over tothe US by the Afghan forces were below the age of 25,with 40 percent even below the age of 18. All of themcategorically stated that they worked as drivers, cooksand cleaners with the Taliban forces. None of them

had any valuable information to offer and most weretransported out of Afghanistan after they were inter-rogated by the US intelligence service on the ground.

The Pakistani ISI had also checked and con-firmed that these prisoners were not dangerous andagreed to accept them to return back to Pakistan.But these prisoners were not ready to denouncetheir hatred for America or the US Army, and thuswere not released from the prison.

This whole information shows how the US Armywas duped by the Afghan Northern Alliance forcesand were not given any actual Taliban prisoners,who could have given them any real intel on Talibannetwork, resulting into the US Army heading blindlyinto occupying Afghanistan.

The US Army is famous for having real time in-formation, but I guess with too many avenues of in-formation collection, most of the time you will getmisinformation.

SALMAN KHANIslamabad

Different blame gameI have said this umpteenth time before and at

many forums that we as a nation have been plaguedwith this infection of blame game. The texture of ourpolitics is coloured with things not done or wronglydone or mishandled. There is a reason to get this in-fection and that is that this government has done in-numerable amazingly wrong things in governance.Since we are fond of filling the archives of GuinnessWorld record, we can surely add this too. A convictand just a matriculate (doubtful too) appointed tohead an institution of vital importance to the govern-ment is a world record of negligence and nepotism, arecord which only Somalians can break.

The recent bye-election to eight seats was inten-tionally done at the closing dates of assemblies toprove to public that governmental machinery wasallegedly used to rig the elections. The message tothe public was to get ready for allegedly massive rig-ging. The political party leaders will not look at theblunders they have made to poor masses duringtheir governance or even take corrective measureeven now to write home something as they say.Blame game stalwarts have unleashed their batter-ies to malign the ECP and conduct of polls. (these

stalwarts live by their efficiency in this art).For God’s sake, leave us alone. Let there be no

government in Pakistan instead of ridiculing what-ever we have. In any case, we have no rule of law, sowhy do we need these fat salaried people in Islam-abad to sponsor breakdown of law. Let us, the 180million, go to jungle law of might is right. We willkill, rape, loot and destroy everything to come to apoint when all these things will become redundantand we will give them up being bored. That willmake blame game players unemployed temporarilybut they can always consume their looted wealth inthe meantime to come back with fresh credentials.

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

birthday celebration at tajOur Interior Minister Rehman Malik has ex-

pressed his desire to the Indian government to cele-brate his 61st birthday with his spouse SaeedaRehman in one of the seven wonders of the world,the Taj Mahal on 12 December, 2012.

According to media reports, Rehman Malik willbe in India from 11 to 13 December.

My advance sympathies are with the people ofAgra. Possibilities are that cell phones might beblocked on the day Rehman Malik visits Agra if hefeels a slightest threat to his life.

M RAFIQUE ZAKARIAKarachi

Judicial commissionsAfter BB murder commission, Abbotabad com-

mission, Memo scandal commission,Missing per-sons commission and Malik-Arasalan commission,we now have another one set up to inquire into LaalMasjid operations. While all these earlier JudicialCommissions are working on extensions much aftertheir prescribed tenures, the fresh one is required tocomplete its task in forty five days, taking it into thecrucial 2013. Without going into the likely outcomeof all these commissions, one thing is clear that thepost retirement employment of the judiciary is welltaken care of, much beyond their superannuation.

HAROON SIKANDAR PASHAIslamabad

Democratic fault line

We are the onesAfter the shooting incident of Dec

03 wherein a madrassah teacher waskilled in Karachi, once again thisunfortunate city saw a lot ofhooliganism mostly by religiousschools’ students and their supporters(named by media as ‘unknown’elements for some obvious reasons).madrassah teacher’s body was later sentto Quetta, from there it was to betransported to Kandahar, Afghanistan.Though everyone shall denounceunnecessary bloodletting in the name ofsectarian conflicts; however, thisshooting incident raises a validquestion: what was this Afghanmadrassah teacher doing in Karachi?

There has been a mushroomedgrowth of madrassas in Karachi sincethe Soviet-American Afghan war of ’80swherein most of the students from KPgot admitted. To align with students’native language most of the teacherswere brought from KP or Afghanistan.It’s everyone’s right to decide the besttype of education for himself/herselfbut why these madrassas wereestablished in Karachi at the first placewhile most of the students, teachersand other working staff have no roots inthe city.

For how long will we continue tobehave in an apologetic manner when itcomes to issues related with peopleattached with religious institutes? Inthe past, we have repeatedly seenviolent acts by these students. Whoknows how many of them end up interrorists’ training centres in Pakistan’stribal areas and how many of themspread all over the country to wage awave of terror? Recently found bombmaking factory in Karachi shows howself-sufficient some of these instituteshave become.

We should stop presuming thatsomeone else will solve the sectarianrelated terrorism. No sir, we are theones who raised, promoted, supportedand financed groups in the name ofjihad who are now killing each other inthe name of their sects. We are the oneswho have to terminate this approach.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arab


12


h OLLYWOOD couple Robert Pattinsonand Kristen Stewart will reportedlynot be spending Christmas together.The pair, who recently rekindled theirrelationship following Stewart’s affair

with married director Rupert Sanders, are plan-ning to spend the festive season apart after shespent a “nerve-wracking” Thanksgiving withhis family in London last month, reportedShowbiz spy. “The family were smiling at Kris-ten and looking totally at ease on the red carpetduring the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part2 premiere — but back at the family homeover the following weekend things weremore difficult. “They had a meal onThanksgiving and it was nerve-wracking for Kristen. She felt veryuncomfortable and Rob’s sisterscouldn’t be completely welcom-ing. It won’t go back to normalstraight away, even if Rob has de-cided to try again. “Rob’s familymade it clear that they reallywant to see him over Christmasand, after the intense promotionaltour for Twilight, Rob liked the ideaof spending time alone with hisfamily,” a source said. nEws dEsk

ChRIsTmAs APARTSTeWART AND PATTINSON WIll SPeND Kylie Minogue

feels horrifiedwhen she seesown face

KYLIE Minogue, who is oneof the most photographedpeople in the world, has

revealed that she is alarmed bywhat she sees when she looks atherself in the mirror. The 44-year-old singer said that gravityhas taken hold of her face. “I amnot going to lie about this. Thereare lots of times I look in the mir-ror and I see that gravity hastaken hold,” the Daily Mailquoted her as telling Elle Maga-zine. “Or suddenly see my face ona phone or on Skype and it’s like aSpielberg special effect and youjust scream, ‘Who is that?’” shesaid. The I should be so Lucky hit-maker who is famous for her loveof hot pants also admitted thatshe frequently forgets that she isno longer young. “Sometimes Iforget (I am 44) and I think, ‘Imust get those hot pants out of re-tirement.’ “And then some morn-ings I look in the mirror and I see94 not 44. That is the reality be-fore the make-up. And midrifftops are definitely out for good,”she added. nEws dEsk

Daniel Radcliffe, who played the titular character in

all the harry Potter films, worried at the end of

his work on the successful franchise that he

wouldn’t be good enough to tackle other roles. The 23-

year-old actor also said that he hated having time off as

his concerns. “With any kind of artistic thing it’s a muscle,

like any athlete, and the moment you’re not doing it, you

lose all confidence,” Contact music quoted him as telling

The Independent Radar magazine. “That’s why I’m

terrible with down time. And actually what’s been great

about the last year and a half is that I have found a

confidence. “Before, basically, by the time we got to the

end of ‘Potter’, I was going, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,

I don’t know if I’m good enough’,” he said. nEws dEsk

Daniel Radcliffe lost all confidenceafter playing Harry Potter

The first film on the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs

since his death, with Ashton Kutcher in the title role,

will debut in January at the Sundance Film Festival,

organisers said. The film jOBS directed by Joshua Michael

Stern, known for the 2008 movie Swing Vote, chronicles “the

defining 30 years of Steve Jobs’ life,” according to a

statement Monday from the Sundance Institute. The film

written by Matt Whiteley is described as “a candid, inspiring

and personal portrait of the one who saw things differently.”

The movie aims to tell the story of Jobs’s life from wayward

hippie to co-founder of Apple and revered creative

entrepreneur. The Facebook page for the film said jOBS “is

the incredibly powerful and true story of the visionary who

set out to change the world, and did.” nEws dEsk

Steve Jobs biopic starring AshtonKutcher to debut at Sundance

Hollywood sign unveiled aftermajor makeover

The refurbished hollywood sign was presented in all

its freshly painted glory Tuesday after its biggest

makeover in 35 years, in time for 90th birthday

celebrations next year. Some 360 gallons of fresh bright

white paint was applied over the last two months to the

Tinseltown icon, which sits atop Mount Lee in the

hollywood hills north of Los Angeles. “It’s our Statue of

Liberty, it’s our Golden Gate... but it’s more than that it’s

hollywood, which is hope,” said Tom LaBonge, LA city

council member for hollywood. “The hollywood sign,

there’s nothing like it in the world.It puts a bright face on

the icon of the southern California lifestyle,” added Chris

Baumgart, chairman of the non-profit hollywood Sign Trust

that manages the icon, at a press conference staged below

the landmark. Over the last two months, workers have

used window-cleaner style platforms to strip down the 50-

foot (15-meter) tall letters, powerwash the corrugated iron

and apply fresh primer and topcoat paint. nEws dEsk

lINDSAy’SBANKACCOUNTSSeIzeDL

INDSAY Lohan’s long list ofproblems is getting evenlonger, as it has beenreported that she has

staggering financial issues. According toTMZ.com, the IRS has seized all ofLohan’s money because she owes thestate 233,904 dollars in unpaid federaltaxes for the year 2009 and 2010,the New York Post reported. This comesafter news of Charlie Sheen cuttingLindsay a fat 100,000-dollar check aimedat relieving the troubled star’s tax situation.However, the gossip site reported thatSheen’s check barely covered Lohan’s debtsince she apparently has unpaid taxes for theyear 2011. Lohan was allegedly given anample amount of time to settle the debt, butthe IRS’ patience has worn thin especiallysince the actress earned around 2 milliondollars this year alone. Hence, the IRS hasseized all of Lohan’s bank accounts. It’ssaid that the once-promising starlet is inpanic mode due to her financial woesand is desperately trying to make moneyto get out of the hole. nEws dEsk

S HE might not have wontoo many accolades for herfilm roles, but Katrina Kaif

has delivered some of thebiggest hits when it comes todance numbers. Tracks likeSheila Ki Jawaani from TeesMaar Khan (2010) and ChikniChameli from this year’s Ag-neepath have established her asa dancing icon in Bollywood. As

a result, her demand for stageshows and performances issoaring. However, on De-cember 31, the day whenmost actors are busy per-forming at such shows, Ka-

trina has decided to take abreak. This year, she

received over

eight offers for New Year’s Eveevents. However, she has turnedthem all down. “Katrina neverperforms on December 31. Thatis her rule. Every year, shespends the time from Christmastill New Year with her family.Even this year, three organisersfrom five-star hotels have of-fered her Rs. 5 crore each, andfour others have offered her gigsworth Rs. 4.75 crore each. Butshe has refused all of them,” saysa source. The actor is expected tofly to London in two weeks tocelebrate Christmas and NewYear with her sisters, brotherand mother. But the shootingschedule of Dhoom:3 mightspoil her plans a bit. nEws dEsk

RS. 5 CROReKATRINA CHOOSeS FAMIly OveR

lOndOn: Duchess of cambridge Kate Middleton,

accompanied by husband Prince William, smiles

for photographers as she leaves King edward

vii Hospital four days after being admitted for

acute morning sickness. agEnCiEs



13

ACTOR Imran

Khan feels there may

be many people who

praise him to his face,

but there are few who give him

honest reviews. Among the rare

ones are his mother, and his

wife, Avantika.

“The biggest critics in my life

are my mom and my wife Avan-

tika. The truth is that when you

become an actor, when you be-

come a celebrity, people will

come and tell you ‘Bro, you are

the best, you have done a good

job’. So those people are every-

where,” Imran told IANS.

“What is very rare is people

who will say these are your

weaknesses, this is your prob-

lem and this is where you have

to work on. People who will

honestly do that, those are

very rare,” he added.

Among Imran’s much-awaited

projects is Matru Ki Bijlee Ka

Mandola, directed by acclaimed

film-maker Vishal Bhardwaj.

The actor feels there is

a tremendous benefit to work

with experienced directors like

Bhardwaj, who has given the

industry a different genre of

cinema with projects

like Omkara, Ishqiya,

Kaminey and 7 Khoon Maaf. “I

never realised it before, but

now I realise that you

get tremendousbenefit as an

actor. earlier, I have worked

with first-time directors orsec-

ond-time directors... there is a

sense of two of us finding our

way together. We used to

find the correct way of working.

“here I am working with some-

one who has consistently

proved himself and he knows

what the correct way of work-

ing is,” said the 29-year-old.

In Matru Ki..., Imran will be see

playing a haryanvi boy. having

played the modern, boy-next-

door roles in the past, he ad-

mits that he was apprehensive

about this one before he began

shooting for it. “I was skeptical.

I had great doubts about

whether I will be able to learn

the body language correctly. I

was very nervous and I spoke

to Vishal about it. he said, ‘I

have immense faith in you’. he

said, ‘if you can put your best

effort, then you can do it’,” said

Imran, citing howencouraging

Bhardwaj was all the time. “he

introduced to me a teacher

named N.K. Sharma in Delhi.

he has a theater group in Delhi.

I spent two to three months in

Delhi working with him to un-

derstand the dialogues and the

body language. everything had

to be learnt from scratch,” he

added. Imran is nervous

about this film, and says it

is quite normal. “I think

that in my experience, any

person, who is an honest

artist or an honest worker,

will always be nervous

about whether they have

done a good job or not. The

greatest people that I

know or I respect would

say, ‘Did I do good

enough and can I do

better?’” nEws dEsk

JOHN Abraham, 39, betrays none ofthe nerves that actors display be-fore the release of a big film, in thiscase Race 2. Instead, Action Abra-

ham takes an afternoon off to chat with usabout his parents, his somewhat unusualschedule and the people he admires most inthe film industry (it has little to do withtheir BO worth).Tell us about your childhood?My father is a Protestant and my mother, anIranian. From the age of four, my father al-ways told me that ‘to be a good man, youdon’t need to go to a temple, church or amosque. You just need to do good’. While Ibelieve in the presence of a supreme being, Iam agnostic. My grandparents from bothmy mother and father’s side had ten chil-dren each, so the original Vicky Donor isme, as the highest propensity to procreate ismine. I studied at Bombay Scottish where Iwas the athletics champion and the foot-ball captain. School is a great leveller whereyou are known not by the money you have,but by how good you are in sport, not evenstudies. At school, even though I travelled intrains and buses, I got all the attention

being the footballcaptain. The

senior girlsin schoolused to callme hand-some and Iwould getembar-

rassed. Butthe myth was

shattered

as soon as I got out of school and realisedthat I was just this middle class ‘Jo’ who didnot even own a car, whereas people aroundme were rich and owned Benz andAudis. Isuddenly felt anonymous. My father hadbooked a Maruti Gypsy, but we couldn’t buyit. I also realised at such a young age thatmoney corrupts. Rich kids know the price ofeverything, but the value of nothing. Myparents made me feel that one rupee was100 paise. Today, I have a Maruti Gypsy,made to order, that I drive. People expectme to drive some fancy car, but I feel richsitting in a Gypsy. And, when I am at a sig-nal and see a guy driving a Ferrari next tome, I feel richer than that person.Are strong-looking men like you soft?My dad is a cancer survivor. But just beforehe was diagnosed, he collapsed and I sawmy mother holding him and saying, ‘Myhusband, my husband — I don’t want to losehim’ and that’s the first time I saw the fer-vour in my mother for my father and feltwhat true love is.

The way she held him impacted me. Thedoctor said that the chances of his survivalwere zero and that hit me. I am soft andbroke down, but I cried alone. I don’t think itmakes a man any lesser if he breaks down.Honestly, I cry pretty much like I cry onscreen. I am also very shy. Once,after Dostana, I needed to change and thesetwo female designers were standing in theroom and said, change. I said, could youplease leave the room, and they started gig-gling. I am also conservative in my views asin I believe in looking after your family andparents. I have a mind of a 50-year-old, but abody of a 24-year-old. I am fiercely inde-pendent in my views and can be misunder-stood. For instance, I will prefer to ride my

motorcycle at night instead of going to aparty. I like to sleep at 10.30 at nightand wake up at 4.30 in the morning, soeven though I am fiercely proud ofbeing a part of the film industry, I op-erate in a different space.How did you get into films?After graduating from Jai Hind Col-lege, I did my MBA and took up ajob as a media planner at Enter-prise Nexus, where coincidentallymy first account was for TheTimes Of India. My running coachalways told me one thing, ‘Younever win a silver, you always losea gold’. I was always competitive

and wanted to be an influencer anda leader and so, I joined advertising

as I felt it was a big influencer in ourlives and could make us change our

choice of the products we use. For one ofour accounts, Live-In Jeans, the model hadnot turned up, so my boss Hiren Pandit cameto me and said, ‘Can you come and just wearthe jeans. You don’t need to show your face’.I obviously did and a woman walked up tome and said, ‘I love the way you fill up the

jeans’. I had a lot of pimples and Atul Kas-bekar walked up to me and said, ‘If you cleanup your face, you can be a combination of thetop four super models we have (MilindSoman, Arjun Rampal, Marc Robinson andRahul Dev)’. I thought wow. And then hecalled me the face of 1999 and asked me toparticipate in a pageant where the judgeswere Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Kapoor andKaran Johar. I modelled for a few yearsaround the world and then decided to comeback to India when Bhatt sahab called meto do Jism. Bhatt sahab always has hisone-liners. After the movie, he toldme Jism stands for ‘John is superb inthe movie’. He is brilliant and I lovehim. If he were ever to direct a movie,I would do it for free. Bhatt sahab wasmy school and Adi my college.Are there people in the industryyou are close to?I am very close to KaranJohar and he is someone Italk to. His problem is thathe is the agony aunt forthe entire industry. Withme, he does not have tolisten to the woes andthe politics that goeson in the industryas he knows thatI am fiercely de-tached fromthat space.For me, I

look atsomeone from

the way the per-son takes care ofhis parents and Ilove the wayKaran takes careof his mother.One man I look up

to and who I loveand whose word I take is AdityaChopra as he has always positioned merightly, be it in Dhoom or NewYork. When I am in a fix, I will pick up thephone and talk to Adi. Uday, Hrithik and Iare classmates from school. I am fiercelyprotective about Hrithik. We never talkabout work and always only talk aboutschool friends. He is hands down moregood-looking than me. I have seen himgraduate from what he was and it makes meimmensely happy to see how he has workedon his body and diction. I am also posses-sive about Abhishek, who was also in myschool. We were in awe of Mr Bachchan,when he used to come to our school. I re-member once he came wearing a kurta anda white shawl and we were looking as ifsomeone had come from another planet.you have spoken about getting married to priya Runchal. what is she like?She is a banker and is currently studying

abroad for at least anotheryear. She is a mature 28-year-old girl, who is ex-tremely supportive of what Ido, but chooses to stay out ofmedia, which works very wellfor both of us. At the sametime, she has a strong sense

of self that I reallylike. COuR-

TEsy TOi

My mom and wife are mybiggest critics: Imran


WE saw some of them o s t - a n t i c i p a t e dcamera refreshes inyears (a new 5D, fi-nally!) not to mention

some groundbreaking technologies(that weird little Lytro!). Here’s arundown of this year’s ten hottestcameras.

1. Panasonic Lumix LX7 Anyone in the market for a top

point-and-shoot camera is probablydeciding between Canon’sS100 and Sony’s RX100. But Pana-sonic is back in the game with theLumix LX7, a sequel to one of thetop shooters of 2010, the wildly pop-ular LX5.

2. Canon Powershot s110The Canon S110 is the most re-

fined little pocket camera Canon hasever made. The core design of theS110 remains unchanged from previ-ous iterations. But with a littlestreamlining and some key new fea-tures, it’s inched one step closer toperfection.

3. FujiFilm X-Pro1If you have the money—and it’s

a lot of money—yes, buy it. It isn’tjust style without substance here. It’snot a point-and-shoot. It is a camerathat might make you work a bit, butit will reward you with great pictures(and jealousy from your photogfriends). It is a bit hampered by thefocusing system and video defi-ciency, but it is still a joy to shootwith.

4. GoPro hero 3 Black EditionThink of an action cam, and the

name GoPro probably comes to

mind. But there are a lot of alter-nates to consider, as a recent actioncam Battlemodo proved. One brand,Contour, has always been just a stepaway from gaining GoPro-style noto-riety. The recently announced Con-tour+2 might change that.

5. sony NEX-5ROver the last year, Sony’s NEX

cameras have been our favorite ofthe compact, mirrorless lot. Theyjust handle so well. And on a smallcamera with big DSLR flexibility, theway you hold, adjust, and operate itmakes a huge difference. The com-pact body, the touchscreen controls,the image stabilization, and the well-designed Wi-Fi—everything about itmakes getting a great photoless difficult.

6. LytroLight FieldCamera

It isn’tvery often wee n c o u n t e rt e c h n o l o g ythat is really,truly new.PCs, cell-p h o n e s ,the Inter-net, mul-t i t o u c h .Those allc h a n g e dour worldwhen theywere firstintroduced.Not to over-state it, butLytro may wellbe the latest mem-

ber of that clique. The selling pointis simple: you no longer have toworry about getting a shot in focus,because any part of the photo can bebrought into focus after the fact.Magic.

7 sony RX100Turns out, this camera is a sig-

nificant achievement for Sony. Infact, it makes you remember thatSony is still capable of making someamazing things.

8. Nikon D800The Nikon

D700 was thelast great pre-

video DSLR. It was an excellent andvery boring camera. Nikon’s newest,a $3,000 body called the D800, in-troduces two major features: HDvideo and a 36-megapixel sensor.

9 Canon EOs 5D mark IIIIt’s been four years since Canon

released the EOS 5D Mark II, thecamera that turned digital still cam-eras into affordable workhorses forvideographers and indie filmmakers.And this next evolution was defi-

nitely created with thosefilmmakers in mind.

COuRTEsy gizMOdO

14Infotainment

Indian village bars womenfrom using mobile phones

Avillage council in eastern India has bannedwoman from using mobile phones, sayingthey "pollute the social atmosphere" by

encouraging women to elope with lovers.The order was issued by the village council inSuderbari, in the Kishanganj district ofimpoverished Bihar state, after a formal meetingon Sunday. The measure was designed to check"the breakdown of the institution of marriage",council leaders said.Penalties range from 10,000 Indian rupees (£115)for unmarried girls caught using mobile phones to2,000 rupees for married women. Women may usea phone in the presence of a male family member,however, according to village leaders."Unrestricted use of mobile phones is promotingpremarital and extramarital affairs and destroyingthe great institution of marriage. We are extremelyworried," said Manuwar Alam, the president of thesocial advisory committee, explaining that at leastsix girls and women had eloped in the past year."We had to hide our faces out of shame," Alamsaid. "We decided to do something that couldfirmly curb such cases, which were earning a verybad name for all of us."A combination of marginally improved education,more mobility and access to television has led tothe traditional authority of fathers, husbands andmale village leaders being challenged in much ofIndia. A growing lack of women, owing to thewidespread practice of female infanticide, is alsoleading to deep tensions. And so-called honourkillings, of couples and particularly of women, whotransgress traditional customs and discriminationare common. nEws dEsk


Parents live longer thanchildless couples, study suggests

The Danish study found that the early deathrate in men was halved if they had children.The effect was biggest among those having

their own children but early deaths were also lowerin those who adopted.The researchers from Aarhus University, studiedmore than 21,000 couples having IVF treatmentbetween 1994 and 2005.In that time 15,210 children were born and 1564were adopted. Also a total of 96 women and 200men died.The findings published in the Journal ofEpidemiology and Community Health showedthere was no difference in psychiatric illness incouples whether they were childless or not,however those who adopted had fewer mentalhealth problems probably because of healthscreening of prospective adoptive parents.The Danish study found that the early death rate inmen was halved if they had children.The effect was biggest among those having theirown children but early deaths were also lower inthose who adopted.The researchers from Aarhus University, studiedmore than 21,000 couples having IVF treatmentbetween 1994 and 2005.In that time 15,210 children were born and 1564were adopted. Also a total of 96 women and 200men died.The findings published in the Journal ofEpidemiology and Community Health showed therewas no difference in psychiatric illness in coupleswhether they were childless or not, however thosewho adopted had fewer mental health problemsprobably because of health screening of prospectiveadoptive parents. nEws dEsk

Chinese astronauts maygrow vegetables on moon

CHINESE astronauts may get freshvegetables and oxygen supplies bygardening in extraterrestrial bases in the

future, an official said after a just-concluded labexperiment in Beijing.Deng Yibing, deputy director of the Beijing-basedChinese Astronaut Research and Training Center,said that the experiment focused on a dynamicbalanced mechanism of oxygen, carbon dioxide,and water between people and plants in a closedsystem.According to Deng, a cabin of 300 cubic meterswas established to provide sustainable supplies ofair, water and food for two participants during theexperiment.Four kinds of vegetables were grown, taking incarbon dioxide and providing oxygen for the twopeople living in the cabin. They could also harvestfresh vegetables for meals, Deng said.The experiment, the first of its kind in China, isextremely important for the long-termdevelopment of China’s manned space program,Deng added.The cabin, a controlled ecological life supportsystem (CELSS) built in 2011, is a model of China’sthird generation of astronauts’ life supportsystems, which is expected to be used inextraterrestrial bases on the Moon or Mars.The introduction of a CELSS seeks to providesustainable supplies of air, water and food forastronauts with the help of plants and algae,instead of relaying on stocks of such basicsdeposited on board at the outset of the mission.Advance forms of CELSS also involve the breedingof animals for meat and using microbes to recyclewastes. nEws dEsk

Top most important cameras of 2012

2012's most looked up words were...Words of the year are a sea-sonal thing, and that season isnow. As we await the #wotydesignation from the Ameri-can Dialect Society, which,breathe, won't be announceduntil early January, Merriam-Webster has revealed anothermuch anticipated word-of-the-year designation: the dic-tionary website's mostlooked-up words of 2012. Thetop two words, for which traf-fic "about doubled this yearfrom the year before," writesthe AP's Leanne Italie, arecapitalism and socialism.Thank the election for makingthose two "kind of a no-brainer," according to diction-ary editor-at-large PeterSokolowski. As he told the At-lantic Wire, "We follow wordtrends by watching whichwords rise to the top of thelookup list on an hourly, daily,weekly, and monthly basis."Leaving out words that arelooked up in large numbersevery day of every year (ubiq-uitous, paradigm, affect, andeffect, for example), "whatwe're left with is a group ofwords that show spikes of in-terest that often correspond tocurrent events: news, weather,sports, or entertainment. Thisis a quantitative measure ofvocabulary curiosity."

This year marks the firsttime a word duo has been

chosen since Merriam-Web-ster began identifying theyear's most looked-up wordsback in 2003. Sokolowskisays, "Sometimes the wordsdon't correlate to one specificstory or a specific utteranceby a newsmaker but insteadare words that are part of thenational conversation. That'strue of socialism and capital-ism, words that trended to-gether, indicating that peoplewere frequently looking upboth words in order to com-pare the definitions." Socialismwas looked up more frequentlythan was capitalism, "but sincethe trend pattern of capitalismso closely matches the mo-ments when socialism wasspiking, they form a naturalpair [logically, lexically, andculturally]. Adding them to-gether gives us a powerful ex-ample of how people actuallyuse the dictionary," he says."Every time that health care isin the news, socialism spikes,"he adds. "Also, Mitt Romneyused the phraseEuropean-stylesocialism in his stump speech,keeping the word in the newsfor cycle after cycle."

Following capitalism andsocialism, top 10 words of theyear (in no particular order,according to Sokolowski) in-cluded democracy, globaliza-tion, marriage, bigot, meme,touche, schadenfreude, and-

professionalism. Biden's useof the word malarkey in hisvice presidential debate withPaul Ryan didn't make the top10, but lookups "representedthe largest spike of a singleword on the website by per-centage, at 3,000 percent, in asingle 24-hour period thisyear," writes Italie. Meme, too,spiked because of the debates(and politics and maybe alsolife in general), "pegged to po-litical-related subjects that in-cluded Romney's Big Bird andbinders remarks, social mediashares of images pegged toHillary Clinton texting, andObama's 'horses and bayonets'debate rebuke of Romney inan exchange over the size ofthe Navy," she explains.

Sokolowski says,"Schadenfreude is a favoriteword among word lovers"—we'd agree—"It's fun to sayand a great example of theGerman compound noun (likekindergarten and another fa-vorite:sprachgefuhl. Butmeme is a special word; it'sone of the few words in Eng-lish about which all is known:who coined it, when, and why.Richard Dawkins wanted tohave a noun for a unit of cul-tural information just as geneis a noun for a unit of biolog-ical information. He createda great word. But in 1976, hecould never have imaginedthe speed with which cul-tural information is shared,so this word is absolutely ameasure of the place of so-cial media in our culture."

Dawkins, 71, was reachedby the AP for comment, andtold Italie, "I'm very pleasedthat it's one of the 10 wordsthat got picked out ... I hope itmay bring more people to un-derstand something aboutevolution." nEws dEsk


Friday, 7 december, 2012

Page 18

More women tennis starsheaded for Sydney int’l

MeLBoURnesPORTs dEsk

GERMANy – pAKIsTAN1-2 (1-0 HALfTIME)

Pakistan earned a spot in the 2012Champions Trophy semi-finals after stun-ning defending Olympic Champion andWorld #1 Germany in a 2-1 decision intoday’s quarterfinal. Is it the first timesince 2004 that Pakistan finds itself in thehunt for a medal at the Champions Trophy.On the other side of the coin, this is thesecond consecutive time that Germany hasmissed the semi-finals at the annual event.

Shakeel Abbasi was the man of thehour for Pakistan. He fired in both Pak-istan goals in the surprising win.

Pakistan was simply the better teamin today’s game, generating more scoringchances and chipping away at the toughGerman defense, which found itself onduty for much of the 70 minutes. The Ger-mans managed just one shot in the firsthalf, but they made it count as veteranMoritz Fuerste, one of only three playersin Melbourne from the 2012 Olympicteam, gave the Germans a 1-0 lead nineminutes into action.

Pakistan was not put off by the goaland maintained its pressure on the Ger-man net. Admittedly not all of the scoringchances were impressive, but it put Pak-istan in a better position to get the oddpenalty corner chance.

Pakistan’s persistence finally paid offwhen Abbasi scored a picture-perfect goalfour minutes into the second half on a fol-low-up play after a penalty corner oppor-tunity to even things up at one. Abbasistruck again with 20 minutes to go on inthe half after he put in another second-ef-fort goal after a penalty corner. The keygoal went to video review, but it was ruledvalid and Pakistan climbed out to its firstlead of the game.

The lead endured through an action-packed 20 minutes as Germany found it-self two men up in the last two minutes butunable to get the equalizer as Pakistanearned their semi-final spot.

Pakistan will take on the winner of theNetherlands vs. New Zealand match in Sat-urday’s semi-final.NETHERLANds – NEw zEALANd 2-0 (1-0 HALfTIME)

After watching fellow European na-tion Germany fall in the quarterfinals, the

Netherlands left nothing to chance, earn-ing a 2-0 win against New Zealand and se-curing a spot in Saturday’s semi-finals.The victory means that the Dutch will gofor their third-consecutive medal at theChampions Trophy and will finish in thetop-four for the 25th consecutive time atthe annual event.

The Netherlands was the clear favoriteentering the game as the top seed out ofPool B and having only lost once in Cham-pions Trophy history against New Zealand.Both teams made the Champions Trophysemi-finals last year as the game was a re-play of the 2011 Champions Trophy bronzemedal game, which the Netherlands won,

Jeroen Hertzberger gave the Dutchthe 1-0 lead 13 minutes into the gamewhen his flick easily found the back of thenet on the second Netherlands penaltycorner chance of the game. The teamswent back and forth for the rest of the halfwith neither having any scoring success asthe 1-0 lead endured.

The second half was much of the sameuntil Billy Bakker finished a good breakoutplay to net the critical 2-0 goal. The markergave the top-seeded Dutch some much-needed breathing room against the peskyand persistent fourth-seeded Black Sticks.After the goal, the Dutch played a game ofcat and mouse, allowing New Zealand veryfew chances to get close to the net.

The Dutch have won bronze at theprevious two editions of the Champions

Trophy and have earned 21 total medalsat the event. The third-ranked team in theFIH World Ranking has not played in thefinals at the Champions Trophy since2006, something they will look to remedyin Saturday’s semi-final against Pakistan.The last time Pakistan played in the finalgame was 1998.AUsTRALIA – ENGLANd2-0 (1-0 HALfTIME)

Host Australia kept its hopes alive towin its fifth consecutive Champions Tro-phy title after earning a berth in the semi-finals with a 2-0 win over England.Australia will take on India in Saturday’ssemi-final game. The Aussies have lostonly twice against India in 11 ChampionsTrophy meetings, with the last defeat com-ing in 2002.

Jamie Dwyer showed that he is stillamong the world’s elite players when his re-verse shot broke the Aussies onto the score-board 15 minutes into the game. It was afrantic pace that followed, but neither teamwas able to score through the rest of the halfas the tournament had its fourth 1-0 scoreat the half on Quarterfinal Thursday.

The teams came out from the breakand picked up right where they left offwith dangerous scoring chances and fastfeet. But again, despite the action, thegoals were at a premium. It wasn’t untilChristopher Ciriello stepped up and firedin a textbook penalty corner goal that theAussies were able to build on their lead. It

was the first game since the tournamentopener that Australia netted more thanone goal in a game.

England put in a gutsy effort after theCiriello marker, but Australia their offensestalled against a strong Australian team.

Saturday’s semi-final game will be ameeting of two teams with very differentfortunes at the Champions Trophy. Aus-tralia now has the chance to go for itssixth-straight medal at the ChampionsTrophy and an unprecedented fifth-straight gold medal at the event. They willtake on India, who has just one bronze intheir Champions Trophy history whichwas won in 1982.

The loss puts England out of the medalrace at the Champions Trophy for the sec-ond consecutive year (the team played asGreat Britain at the 2011 edition). The Eng-lish will take on Belgium on Saturday todetermine which team will play for fifthplace and which will play for seventh.INdIA – BELGIUM1-0 (1-0 HALfTIME)

After sitting out of the ChampionsTrophy for the last six editions, India’sgrand return to hockey’s top stage contin-ued as they earned a spot in Saturday’ssemi-final where they will take on the win-ner of the Australia v. England quarterfi-nal. India’s earned its spot after anail-biting 1-0 win against a persistentBelgium team in an entertaining quarter-final meeting.

The Indians will go for their firstChampions Trophy medal since 1982 andare guaranteed their first top-four finishsince 2004. A massive success consideringthe fact that the Indians came into theeven as the lowest team in the FIH WorldRanking, weighing in at #11.

Nithin Thimmaiah gave India theearly advantage after getting a perfect feedfrom Sardar Singh for the easy 1-0 tap in.Belgium slowly gained momentum as thehalf wore on and gave the Indians someworrying moments late in the half withtwo good penalty corner chances, but ulti-mately, India escaped the half with theslim 1-0 lead.

The second half, it was India’s turn toown the momentum, but they simplycouldn’t convert their chances into goals,as the tension built with only one goal sep-arating the teams. Belgium had a handfulof later penalty corner opportunities,while the Indians had a speedy counter at-tack, but neither team managed to put adent in the scoreboard as Thimmaiah’sgoal stood as the lone marker in the criti-cal quarterfinal game.

Belgium is still looking for the elusivefirst victory at the Champions Trophy. Thenewcomers have put in some strong per-formances, but own a 0-4 record so far.The Belgians will look to get the first winin the placement round.

Today marked Sardar Singh’s 150thinternational cap for India.

Pakistan push Germany out of medal huntGreen shirts face Holland, defending champion Australia awaits India in semis

SYDneY agEnCiEs

Australia recalled top order batsmanPhillip Hughes to replace the retiredRicky Ponting on Thursday for nextweek's first match in a three-test seriesagainst Sri Lanka. The 24-year-old,dropped last year as an opener amidquestions over his technique, was namedin the 12-man squad for the Hobart test

with a strong indication that the toporder will be reshuffled.

"Phillip Hughes has been selected tofill the vacancy created by RickyPonting's retirement," head selectorJohn Inverarity said in a news release."Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Rob Quineyand Alex Doolan were the four batsmento come under consideration to bat highin the order. "Phillip is an improvedplayer and his recent and overall career

statistics present a compelling case. "The(selectors hold) the view that he, havingjust turned 24, is a very significant partof the future. He has received this call-up, his third, as it was considered to bethe right time and circumstances for himto re-establish himself." With openersEd Cowan and David Warner retainingtheir places in the side, Hughes looksmost likely to bat at number three in theorder with all-rounder Shane Watsonmoving down to replace Ponting at num-ber four. Clarke, who currently bats atnumber five, also said after the Perth testhe would consider moving up the orderif coach Mickey Arthur asked him to.

"Michael Clarke will give carefulconsideration to his batting order dur-ing the next few days," Inverarity said."He has a number of options open tohim and Hughes at three is one ofthese." Ponting played his 168th andfinal test earlier this week in Perth asAustralia fell to a 309-run defeat toSouth Africa to lose the series 1-0. Left-arm quicks Mitchell Starc and MitchellJohnson have retained their places inthe squad after claiming all 10 SouthAfrican wickets in the second innningsat Perth, albeit at the cost of 569 runs.

SYDneYagEnCiEs

Shane Warne has done it again. One of themost successful slow bowlers of all time,Warne has consistently shown since his re-tirement from international cricket in2007 that he is also the master of a differ-ent type of spin. Two years ago, he had theAustralian media in his thrall as he hintedat an international comeback in time tohelp Australia try and win back the Ashesfrom England. This week again he said he

could answer the callif his friend theAustralia captainMichael Clarkeasked him to donhis baggy greencap for back-to-

back seriesagainst England

in 2013. There isno doubting the 43-

year-old's love forhis country nor that he

is constantly questionedabout a possible re-

turn, but there islittle doubt eitherthat he knows

how to guarantee back page headlines.What could have been run-of-the-mill runup to his appearance in Australia's domes-tic Twenty20 "Big Bash" league, albeitagainst a team containing his fellow spinbowling great Muttiah Muralitharan, wastransformed into a national debate. Thereality of what such a return would meanwas laid bare when Cricket Australia saidthe man who took 708 test wickets - in-cluding 195 in 36 Ashes tests - would beexpected to embark on a comeback in cluband then first class cricket. At a news con-ference on Thursday, the spin-bowlinggreat "clarified" his earlier commentswithout quite shutting the door on a re-turn. "I'm not asking Michael Clarke. Myquotes were all about if you ask me could Ido it, I have no doubt that I could," Warnetold a news conference on Thursday. "Butit's a big commitment. There's gradecricket, there's state cricket, you have togo through that process and hopefully getselected. "For me it's nothing that I'meven considering. "I'm bowling as good asI possibly have for the last five or sixyears. At this stage if you ask me do Iwant to make a comeback? No." Part ofAustralia's problem has been that Warne,such a potent weapon in test cricket, hasnever been convincingly replaced.

Warne ‘clarifies’ Ashesreturn comments

Hughes recalled to replacePonting in Sri Lanka test


FAySAl BAnK t-20 CuP

Sports 16


LAHoResTaFF REPORT

sIALKOT Stallions, Multan Tigers,Bahawalpur Stags, FaisalabadWolves, Rawalpindi Rams and Is-lamabad Leopards ease to win in

the Faysal Bank National T20 Cup here onThursday. Haris Sohail scored a brisk half-century to give Sialkot Stallions a target theirbowlers defended comfortably against Ab-bottabad Falcons. The 34-run win wasSialkot's fourth success in five matches andthey were second in Group A.

Sialkot's top order had stumbled - theywere 69 for 3 in the 11th over - before Sohailmade an unbeaten 62 off 43 balls to lead histeam to 164. Sohail had a 79-run stand forthe fourth wicket with his captain ShoaibMalik. Fast bowler Junaid Khan was Abbot-tabad's best bowler, with figures of 3 for 22.

Abbottabad overcame the early loss ofMir Azam to reach 79 for 1 in the 13th overbut they failed to accelerate from that plat-form. They lost four wickets for 14 runs toslip to 110 for 6 and eventually ended on 130.

Scores: Sialkot Stallions 164 for 6 (So-hail 62*, Junaid 3-22) beat Abbottabad Fal-cons 130 for 7 (Hameed 37, Naved-ul-Hasan2-26) by 34 runsTIGERs’ RIsE sINK zEBRAs: MultanTigers rose to the third spot in Group A witha 17-run win against Karachi Zebras in La-hore. Put in to bat, Multan lost opener So-haib Maqsood in the second over, but madesteady progress for the next seven overs asZain Abbas and Gulraiz Sadaf scored 48 to-gether. But Karachi's Faraz Ahmed andHaaris Ayas picked up two wickets apiece toreduce Multan to 87 for 5 in the 15th over. Itwas then that Saeed Anwar Jr launched acounterattack, hitting 39 off 22 and sharinga 52-run stand with Kashif Naved to help theteam finish on a high.

Multan carried the momentum intotheir bowling, with Mohammad Irfan strik-ing off the first ball of the innings. Two morewickets went down in the next two overs,pushing Karachi onto the back foot. RahatAli and Anwar Jr shared seven wickets be-tween them to derail the chase and helpMultan win comfortably in the end.

Scores: Multan Tigers 140 for 6 (Zain46, Haaris 2-22) beat Karachi Zebras 123(Rahat 4-15, Anwar 3-22)sTAGs MAINTAIN wIN RUN: Ba-hawalpur Stags maintained their winningrun with an 11-run win against HyderabadHawks, who are yet to register a victory. Ba-hawalpur were set back early after choosingto bat, but healthy contributions of 40, 34and 37 from Ali Haider, Usman Tariq andBilal Khilji ensured the team crossed the 150-run mark. Haider was the most aggressive -his 40 came off 26 balls with five fours and a

six. In their chase, Hyderabad had madebrisk progress to 44 when Ataullah struck inthe sixth over to remove Sharjeel Khan.Other Bahawalpur bowlers soon joined in;they kept the scoring under tight control andpicked up the wickets as the pressure got tothe batsmen. Twenty-eight were required offthe last two overs, but Kamran Hussain andMohammad Talha both picked up two wick-ets each in the last two overs to seal the win.

Scores: Bahawalpur Stags 154 for 7(Haider 40, Riaz 2-26) beat HyderabadHawks 143 for 8 (Khilji 2-24, Kamran 2-26)by 11 runswoLvEs sTAy UNBEATEN: Faisal-abad Wolves kept their unbeaten record in-tact with a narrow two-wicket win againstKarachi Dolphins at the Bagh-e-Jinnah inLahore. Chasing 148, Faisalabad were indanger of running out of batsmen when 19were required off 16 balls and only two wick-

ets were left. But Misbah-ul-Haq remainedunbeaten on 72 and scored 17 out of 19 in theninth-wicket partnership to help Faisalabadcross the line off the last delivery.

Misbah took only 47 balls to score hisruns and hit four boundaries and three sixesin the innings. He didn't receive much sup-port at the other end, 17 being the secondhighest score. Earlier, Karachi were cruisingon 85 for 1 in the 12th over after a half-cen-tury stand between Khurram Manzoor andKhalid Latif. However, both batsmen wereout in the space of three balls off EhsanAdil's bowling and that slowed down thecharge. Adil picked up four wickets asKarachi were restricted to 147.

Scores: Faisalabad Wolves 148 for 8(Misbah 72*, Misbah Khan 3-44) beatKarachi Dolphins 147 for 6 (Manzoor 51,Adil 4-28) by two wicketsRAMs CAGE EAGLEs: A big-hitting cen-

tury partnership between the RawalpindiRams openers helped their team to overhaulLahore Eagles' total with ease - they won byeight wickets with more than five overs tospare. Naved Malik and Awais Zia hit 11sixes between them and put up 135 runs in12.1 overs to make short work of the 156-runtarget. Malik scored 77 off 41 balls and Zia,54 off 36, but both fell with the target insight. Lahore Eagles had chosen to bat andwith the help of contributions from everyonein the batting order, had scored 155. YasirArafat was the most successful bowler forRawalpindi with 3 for 37.

Scores: Rawalpindi Rams 156 for 2(Naved 77, Awais 54) beat Lahore Eagles155 for 5 (Nasim 44*, Arafat 3-37) by eightwicketsLEopARds BEAT BEARs: In a clashthat pitted the bottom-rung Group A teamsagainst each other, Islamabad Leopards beatQuetta Bears by five wickets at the GaddafiStadium. This was Islamabad's first win infive matches, while Quetta remained winlessafter the same number of games.

Islamabad chose to bowl, and the deci-sion paid off straightaway as seamer IftikharAnjum struck in each of his first three oversto leave Quetta reeling at 17 for 3 in the sixth.Apart from getting the wickets, Iftikhar kepta tight leash on the scoring, having conced-ing only 2.75 runs per over by the end of hisspell. The other bowlers too kept things tightfor the most part, and struck with regularityto restrict Quetta to 111 for 7. The chase wasoff to a poor start too, as Islamabad lostopener Shan Masood for a golden duck andNo. 3 Moed Ahmed for 1, but the rest of thetop and middle order produced cameos andthat was enough to propel their team pasttheir meagre target with nine balls to spare.

Scores: Islamabad Leopards 115 for 5(Nadir 32) beat Quetta Bears 111 for 7(Farhan 32, Iftikhar 3-11) by five wickets

Sohail sets up sizeable Sialkot win

KoLKAtAagEnCiEs

Captain Alastair Cook set a recordfor England Test centuries with his23rd as the tourists assumed con-trol of the third Test against India.The opener passed the mark of 22held by Wally Hammond, ColinCowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott andKevin Pietersen. Cook made 136not out as England reached 216-1in reply to India's 316 all out at theclose of day two at Eden Gardensin Kolkata. Cook, 27, also becamethe youngest batsman to reach7,000 Test runs.

The Essex left-hander reachedthe milestone at the age of 27 yearsand 347 days, knocking SachinTendulkar off top spot.

The India great, who has arecord 15,638 Test runs, was 28years and 193 days old when hepassed the 7,000 mark. Cook,whose Test career began with ahundred against India in Nagpurin 2006, has now scored centuriesin all five of his Tests as captain.

He brought up his third ton ofthe series off 179 balls with a sweep

for two off spinner RavichandranAshwin during an opening part-nership of 165 with Nick Compton.While his England team-matesand coaching staff rose in unisonon the balcony to salute their skip-per, Cook removed his helmet,looked skyward and punched theair with both hands. Cook is stillonly joint-20th in an all-time listheaded by Tendulkar on 51, butshould have many years ahead ofhim to move up the table.

"I don't think it will be such abig deal to him," said Boycott onTest Match Special. "At his agehe's going to get quite a lot moreunless he has a serious illness orinjury. "He's in the best years ofhis life and will automaticallyplay, he has a good technique andshould be well on the way to 40hundreds by the time he's fin-ished." Cook also surpassed An-drew Strauss, the man hesucceeded as Test captain beforethe India tour, to move up toninth in the list of England's all-time highest run-scorers with7,048. Graham Gooch holds therecord with 8,900.

MeLBoURneagEnCiEs

Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee believes the na-tional side's current policy of rotating their pacemencould lead to problems within the group. Afterplaying in the second Test, Peter Siddle and BenHilfenhaus were rested for the third and finalmatch against South Africa and with JamesPattinson injured, Australia went with a newseam attack of Mitchell Johnson, MitchellStarc and John Hastings. Because of Pat-tinson's side strain he picked up in thefirst innings, Siddle and Hilfenhausbowled 67 overs between them in thesecond, with the former picking up four

wickets. And Lee feels Siddle would have been disappointedto miss out on the final Test, despite it starting just four

days after the second concluded. "If I was Sidds (Sid-dle), I would have been blowing up," Lee said. "Hebowled so well in Adelaide. "They say it's because ofback-to-back matches but that's Test cricket. It'snothing to do with the planning. "That's what Testcricket is about; a test of character, a test of courage

and backing up within a couple of days. "Ifyou're Peter Siddle and you see MitchellStarc come in and take a five-for, it makesfor an awkward situation." The decision toomit Siddle was criticised by another for-mer Australia bowler Dennis Lillee, whosaid he was far from convinced that theselectors made the correct call.

compton delightedto support cook

KoLKAtAagEnCiEs

Nick Compton was happy to play the sup-porting role as opening partner AlastairCook made a record 23rd Test hundredfor England. The Somerset batsman'smaiden Test half-century was overshad-owed by his captain's history-making 136not out, which also saw the 27-year-oldbecome the youngest player to reach7,000 Test runs. But Compton's 57 in anopening stand of 165 was a valuable con-tribution and he was pleased with his ef-forts. He told a TV channel: "It was nice toget there and support the captain like Idid. "To put on 160-odd with the captainand get that score up front is great and it'slooking good at the moment.

Dutch veterans

to play third

match of hockey

series todayLAHoRe

sTaFF REPORT

The Flying Dutch Hockey team will onFriday play their third and final match ofthe three-match hockey series here at theJohar Hockey Stadium.The match will roll into action at 2.30pm in which the Pakistan veterans willcollide with their Dutch counterparts.The likely chances are that the chiefguest for the match would be Chief Min-ister Punjab Mian Muhammad ShahbazSharif, under whom vision the SportsBoard Punjab organized the Youth Festi-val, which was followed by the Interna-tional Sports Festival.The current hockey series of the visitingFlying Dutch hockey team, which is hereon the combined invitation of TauqirDar, president of Dar Hockey Academyand the SBP, is being held under thebanner of the Punjab InternationalSports Festival.Dutch veterans who are laced with fiveinternationals and Olympians haveplayed two matches with drawing thefirst match 2-all against the AitchisonCollege team and later edged to a narrowand fighting 5-4 win against the youngguns of the Dar Academy.Expected teams: Pakistan Veterans (from): Hasan Sardar,Samiullah, Danish Kaleem, Shahbaz Sen-ior, Mohammad Akhlaq, Rana Mujahid,Khawaja Junaid, Saleem Sherwani,Shahid Ali Khan, Khalid Bashir, AnjumSaeed, Tahir Zaman, Khalid Rasool, Ar-shad Chaudhary.The Flying Dutchs: Rood Ven Rooij,Sander Ven Hyfte, Gerd Scuiatmann,Maarton Ven Grimbergen, GonansGratama, Michel Princen, Williem Bams,Martyn Gosens, Walter Michels, PeterVogeaar, Gys Wetering, Rewe Klaassen,Wouter Ven Pelt, Mark Kleysen, Paul DeRuyter, Jan Chris Pinexteren, SultanAhmed. Win Kemps coach and Rob Lath-ouwers manager.

Cook sets England Test century record in India

Lee questionsAustralia’s rotation

india 1st inningsg gambhir c Trott b Panesar 60V sehwag run out (Finn/†Prior) 23Ca Pujara b Panesar 16sR Tendulkar c †Prior b anderson 76V kohli c swann b anderson 6yuvraj singh c Cook b swann 32Ms dhoni c swann b Finn 52R ashwin b anderson 21z khan lbw b Panesar 6i sharma b Panesar 0PP Ojha not out 0Extras (b 5, lb 13, w 5, nb 1) 24Total (all out; 105 overs; 438 mins) 316Fall of wickets 1-47 (sehwag, 10.1 ov), 2-88 (Pujara, 25.4 ov),3-117 (gambhir, 41.1 ov), 4-136 (kohli, 48.4 ov), 5-215 (yuvrajsingh, 68.3 ov), 6-230 (Tendulkar, 74.1 ov), 7-268 (ashwin,88.3 ov), 8-292 (khan, 93.6 ov), 9-296 (sharma, 95.3 ov), 10-316 (dhoni, 104.6 ov)bowling: JM anderson 28-7-89-3, sT Finn 21-2-73-1, MsPanesar 40-13-90-4, gP swann 16-3-46-1 England 1st inningsan Cook not out 136nRd Compton lbw b Ojha 57iJl Trott not out 21Extras (nb 2) 2Total (1 wicket; 73 overs) 216To bat kP Pietersen, iR bell, sR Patel, MJ Prior†, gP swann,Ms Panesar, JM anderson, sT FinnFall of wickets 1-165 (Compton, 52.6 ov)bowling: z khan 16-4-48-0, i sharma 15-6-35-0, R ashwin 23-4-68-0, PP Ojha 19-4-65-1Toss india, who chose to batPlayer of the match tbaumpires HdPk dharmasena (sri lanka) and RJ Tucker(australia)TV umpire Va kulkarniMatch referee JJ Crowe (new zealand)Reserve umpire s das

sCOREbOaRd


Sports17


PiA beat nbPin nbP goldcup Hockey

LAHoResTaFF REPORT

Pakistan International Airlines scored anarrow 2-1 win over National Bank ofPakistan and Pakistan Army played a 1-1draw against Army here on Thursday atouter ground of the national stadiumhere.Airlines led the first half 2-1 as therewas no scoring from either sides in thefollowing session which narrated thesaga of missed chances and long termbass possession on part of both thesides.Airlines shot into lead with the 5thminute goal scored by Inyat ullah in midfield move. PIA beaming with stars ac-celerated the pace of attacks and de-ployed full force to hunt more goals.Ammad Shakeel Butt scored their sec-ond in the 27thminute before Bankersequalised at 1-1 after receiving 21stminute goals from Arslan Qadir in alovely mid field move aided by right andleft wings.Both the teams did everything expectscoring in the coming half and long timeballs possession mostly confined thegame to mid field.Customs and Army played a goallessfirst half and the real action of the gamewas seen in the second half . Both theteams made desperate productive effortsto score and Customs stamped their su-premacy with the 52nd minute penaltycorner goal scored by Mushtaq. Armysalvaged their pride three minute beforethe close of the when Safeer equalizedoff a short corner.Friday is the rest day. Army vs NBP,Wapda vs Customs are the matches tobe played on December 8 .

national Men’snetball from 16th

LAHoResTaFF REPORT

The Pakistan Netball Federation in col-laboration with Higher EducationCommission is organizing the Nationalmen netball championship from De-cember 16 here at Punjab Universityground.Team’s from Army, Wapda, Railways,Police, Navy, Pakistan Air Force ,Higher Education Commission, LUMS,LGS, Ballchistan, KPK, Punjab, Sindh,Islamabad, FATA and AJK will takepart in the competition which will endon December 19, said Mudassar Arain,Secretary , PNF, here on Thursday. Po-lice will defend the title.He said President, PNF, Zafar IqbalAwan has nominated the following offi-cials for Rules & Technical Committeefor the smooth conduct of the event.Following are the members of the com-mittee, Abdul Razak Arain (Chairman),Nadia Begum (Member),Syed ToqeerAhmed (Member), Ajaz ul Haq (Mem-ber) ,Major Saleem Ahmed Ch. (Mem-ber), Muhammad Rizwan (Member )and Mudassar Arain (Member).

legends golfchampionship

LAHoResTaFF REPORT

A 34-member golf team from Karachiarrived in Lahore ito renew their ri-valry with the Lahore Golf Team andcontest the Legends Classic Golf Eventover three rounds of golf from 7th De-cember to December 9.The first round of this Championshipwill be held at the Defence Raya GolfCourse in Lahore on Friday, December7, with tee off scheduled for9.30am.The second and third roundswill be held at the Royal Palm GolfCourse on Saturday,8th December andSunday, December 9. Competition isexpected to be razor sharp with bothteams evenly balanced.

SYDneY agEnCiEs

John Senden made the most of benignearly conditions to shoot a six-under-par66 and take a two-stroke lead after thefirst round of the $1.25 million AustralianOpen on Thursday.

The Queenslander, going for a secondtitle at his national open after his 2006triumph, believes he is playing the bestgolf of his career and showed why with asix-birdie blitz in his first 10 holes.

He stuttered with bogeys on his 11thand 12th holes but picked up another cou-ple of shots on the run home to stand twoshots clear of world number four JustinRose and four others with a share of sec-ond place after carding 68s.

"We had the perfect conditions thismorning, teeing off at seven o'clock," the41-year-old Senden, who has won once onthe U.S. PGA Tour, told reporters. "Youwon't get much of a better day. I thoughtthere were a lot of birdies out there andthere would probably be some goodscores this morning." Australia's topplayer Adam Scott was also among the

early starters but struggled with three bo-geys and two birdies on his front nine be-fore steadying his round with a singlebirdie in an otherwise flawless back ninefor a 72. The world number seven, freshfrom a victory at the Australian Masters,stuck with his belly putter and said he hadpaid the price for being too aggressive atthe start of his round.

Eight times major winner Tom Wat-son, now 63, and Chinese sensation GuanTianlang, 14, were among the laterstarters and suffered for it as the windpicked up at The Lakes course. AmericanWatson said he was "embarrassed" withhis round after starting with three bogeysand two double bogeys on the front nineand ending up with a six-over-par 78.

Guan, who next year will become theyoungest player to take part in the U.S.Masters after winning the Asia-PacificAmateur Championship last month,failed to record a single birdie in hisround of 82.

"He was unlucky today," his fatherGuan Hanwen told Reuters. "He lippedout on four holes. He played this tourna-ment to get used to these kind of condi-

tions which he is unfamiliar with."Briton Rose, who picked up five

birdies in his first nine holes, was glad tohave taken advantage of his early start tograb a share of second with locals KimFelton, Richard Green, Brendan Jonesand New Zealander Gareth Paddison.

"When you see the draw, you knowyou have one early time when hopefullythe wind will lay down," the Englishmansaid.

"Wind obviously kicked up in theback nine, got a little bit tricky, but all inall, a good start."

Rose, who has never won a nationalopen, said he enjoyed the challenge ofplaying in such conditions.

"You have to control your shots, andjudge your trajectory - it's a lot of funplaying this kind of golf," he added.

Australian Marcus Fraser was thebest of the late starters and also had thebest shot of the day when he hit a hole-in-one at the par-three 15th.

He finished with a 69 to share sev-enth with compatriots Stephen Allanand Nick Flanagan, a shot behind Rose'sgroup.

Jones perplexed

by united lossMAnCHeSteR

agEnCiEs

Missing the start of the new seasonwith an injured right leg, Jones madehis return to Champions League foot-ball in Manchester United's loss toGalatasaray in the previous match day,and he took his place in the startingline-up once more in the Red Devils'final group match-up with CFR Cluj.However, the Englishman ended up onthe losing side again, when Luis Albertoscored a stunning winner midwaythrough the second half to wrap up allthree points for the Romanian side.Speaking to MUTV after the game,Jones was perplexed as to why his teamwere not able to put away an equalizerduring the last 45 minutes."We were probably missing a little bitof urgency in the first half, but I thinkwe had that in the second half," henoted."Cluj were difficult to break down butwe created enough chances, enough towin two games, and we put enoughballs into the box. We just couldn’t stickour chances away while it was unfortu-nate they scored a wonder goal."

Senden swoops early totake Australia Open lead

StAtoil: tim Henman plays

a backhand volley during

the champions tour.

neW JeRSeYagEnCiEs

Formula One could have 20 races again next seasonafter the governing FIA pencilled in a mystery Euro-pean round in July to fill a space left by the postponedGrand Prix of America in New Jersey.

The International Automobile Federation said onWednesday that the German Grand Prix would switchfrom July 14 to July 7 with July 21 now "reserved foranother F1 European event" subject to approval of na-tional bodies. While no further details were given, spec-ulation focused mainly on the possible return of theTurkish Grand Prix in Istanbul. Germany's revised date

would see that race follow on immediately from theBritish Grand Prix at Silverstone on June 30, accordingto the previous provisional calendar, while the newevent would be back-to-back with Hungary on July 28.Istanbul, where the FIA is currently holding its annualassembly and World Motor Sports Council meeting,would be a popular option for teams and drivers whorated the track on the Asian side highly before it wasdropped from this year's calendar.

Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Eccle-stone dropped a hint on Tuesday when he told Italy'sGazzetta dello Sport that he was going to Istanbul "totry and revive the Turkish Grand Prix and take part inthe world council."

Mystery race added to 2013 F1 calendar


Sports 18


watch it LiveESPNSports Center07:30PM

PboA finalises27 disciplines fornational games

LAHoResTaFF REPORT

In all twenty seven disciplines will be con-tested during the 32rnd National to beheld here from December 22-28.This decision was taken at a meeting ofthe representatives of the various nationalfederations held here on Thursday to re-view and finalize the arrangements of theGames. “ We will be holding 27 disci-plines , some of them are for women, dur-ing the Games and we will hold the gamesin a befitting manner “,said Idris HaiderKhawaja, Secretary, Punjab Olympic As-sociation after the meeting. H saidwomen will be featuring in as many asdozens of disciplines. The representativesof all the National Sports Federations,Provincial Olympic Associations, PunjabOlympic Associations, Pakistan Army,Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Air Force, Pak-istan Wapda, Pakistan Railways, PakistanPolice, Higher Education Commission,and FATA attended the meeting. “All the Participating Units have con-firmed their participation in these Gameswith their full fledge Contingents,” he as-serted.The disciplines to be contested aare, Ath-letics (M&W), Baseball (M&W), Body-building(M), Boxing (M), Cycling (M&W),Football (M&W), Gymnastics (M), Hand-ball (M&W), Hockey (M), Ju-Jitsu(M&W), Kabaddi (M), Karate (M&W),Rifle Shooting (M&W), Rowing (M),Rugby (M), Sailing (M), Softball (M),Squash (M&W), Swimming (M&W) TableTennis (M&W), Taekwondo (M&W), Ten-nis(M), Tug of War (M),Volleyball(M&W), Weightlifting (M),Wrestling (M) and Wushu (M*W) will beorganized during these Games.“We will soon be announcing variouscommittees for the smooth conduct of theevent for which we have selected a num-ber of arenas in the city “,said Khawaja.

Vilanova has no regrets over MessiBARCeLonA

agEnCiEs

Messi was stretchered off near the end ofthe game after colliding with Benfica cus-todian Artur, and the Argentinian will haveto undergo further tests on his bruised leftknee before the full extent of his injury isknown.

Most of the pre-match hype onwhether the 25-year-old could equal, oreven possibly break, Gerd Muller's recordof 85 goals in a calendar year, but Vilanovaopted to start the diminutive forward onthe bench and only brought him on just be-fore the hour mark.

With Barcelona having already securedqualification as group winners prior to this

game, Vilanova's decision to bring Messi onfor what was essentially a dead rubbergame for the Catalan giants was not well re-ceived, especially in light of the injury hesustained. However, the 44-year-old tacti-cian declared that his decision to bringMessi on had nothing to do with the record,and claimed that he would have no qualmsin doing the same thing if confronted withthe same situation. "We talked about thepossibility of him playing for 30 minutes,"Vilanova was quoted as saying by the offi-cial Barcelona website.

"He's a player that likes to play ... he'snot focused on breaking the record thateveryone is talking about, if that were thecase he would have played against Alavésand the full 90 minutes tonight [Wednes-

day]. "Playing is part of his physical train-ing. "We should sub him out every timewe're leading 3-0 lest he picks up an injurybut we've never behaved this way.

"If I had a do-over I'd make the samedecision [bringing Messi on] seeing that hecan get injured at any moment."

Nonetheless, Barcelona can now lookforward to the next stage of the Champi-ons League, and although they could bedrawn against the likes of Arsenal and ACMilan, Vilanova remained adamant thathe would be fine with whoever the Blau-grana were drawn to play with next. "Ihave no preference," Vilanova said whenasked about which team he would like toplay against in the next round of theChampions League.

Agassi urges fellowchampions tosupport charities

neW YoRKagEnCiEs

Aussie sports stars should dig deeper forcharity, champion more causes and domore to help our communities, formerUS tennis ace Andre Agassi has warned.The four-time Australian Open winnersaid the biggest names in the gameshould be as focused on issues off thecourt, as their performance on it. "Iwould love to see more tennis playersgetting involved, more sports stars, therewould be more understanding about howmuch can be done standing shoulder toshoulder," Agassi said. Melbourne PGAgolfer Robert Allenby was among thoseto echo the sentiment yesterday. Allenby,who had already raised more than $19million through his charity, Challenge,said that it felt good to give. "I have ahigh regard for charities that work be-hind the scenes for people who are sickor disadvantaged," he said. "To be able toplay a game I love as a career, but alsogive back financially and be a positiverole model for sick kids, has been a verysatisfying experience." Agassi's determi-nation to help underprivileged childrenthrough his charitable foundation hasearned him widespread praise since heretired in 2006.

benitez ready torotate chelsea trio

MADRIDagEnCiEs

Under the reign of former boss RobertoDi Matteo, Hazard, Mata and Oscar fea-tured in almost every starting line-up theItalian fielded. However, Benitez has notfollowed in his predecessor's ways, withMata and Oscar finding themselves onthe bench during Chelsea's recent Pre-mier League encounters with Fulham andWest Ham.The Spaniard also dropped Oscar for theBlues' 6-1 Champions League rout ofNordsjaelland on Wednesday, and heshared with the club's official website theimportance of preventing the star triofrom becoming fatigued."I can see the quality of these three play-ers and when the team is in possessionthey are very dangerous, so we have tofind the balance. Why I am changingplayers sometimes is they were playingtoo many games and you cannot be freshif you are playing two games a week withthis intensity in December," Benitezstated."You have to manage the squad and if youhave some other good players, you haveto use them if you want to stay fine untilthe end of the season when you have tofight for trophies. In a game in which youcan be in possession, you can use themall. If it is a game you have to manage be-cause the opposition are physically strongthen you may have another approach, butthey can play together because they arevery good players."

LonDon agEnCiEs

fORMER world number one,Ivan Lendl, was forced towithdraw from the StatoilMasters Tennis 2012, an ATP

(Association of Tennis Professionals)Champions Tour event taking place inLondon, Great Britain. Elsewhere, TimHenman and Fabrice Santoro stole theshow and progressed on Wednesday.

The Czechoslovakian-born Lendlwas making his debut at the Royal Al-bert Hall. However, he was forced toretire from this tournament with hisknee and hip injury.

Lendl, coach of the British numberone and the world number three AndyMurray, stated in a press conference, “Iam very disappointed that I will not befit enough to play in the Statoil MastersTennis in London. I have been lookingforward to playing in the tournamentall year having heard so much about it.For now I will concentrate on fixingand rehabilitating my knee and hip butI hope to be able to play at the RoyalAlbert Hall in the future.”

In this 16th edition of the tourna-ment, Guy Forget will replace Lendl inGroup A of the Legends category. For-get will face off the former world num-ber one John McEnroe in the eveningsession on Friday. He will then square

off against the former British numberone, Jeremy Bates, in the afternoonsession on Saturday.

In Group B, former world numberone Mats Wilander stomped over Aus-tralia’s Pat Cash in a three-set thriller.

He made an epic comeback from a setdown to manipulate a 4-6, 6-3, 10-6victory. Elsewhere, the British legendTim Henman bounced back to outclassSweden’s Thomas Enqvist in a repeatof last year’s final showdown.

Lendl pulls out fromStatoil Masters Tennis

Australia drop troubledtomic from Davis Cup teamsydNEy: Australia will not consider Bernard Tomic for their Davis Cup tieagainst Taiwan in February because of doubts about his commitment, TennisAustralia said on Thursday.Tomic, 20, was dubbed "Tomic the Tank Engine" this season after appearingto give up towards the end of a string of matches as he tumbled from a ca-reer-high world number 27 to his current ranking of 52."As a team, we just felt that part of the commitment that we make to athletesand athletes make to the sport is they always put 100 per cent commitmentand effort in competing for their country," director of tennis Craig Tiley toldthe Tennis Australia website (www.tennis.com.au)."It's not one specific incident, just an aggregation of his approach to thegame ..."We just felt that this decision should provide additional motivation everytime he walks on the court to be a total professional in his approach to notonly his preparation but competing in the match and post-match."And it would be no different if he was the number one player in Australia, orthe number one player, or a junior."Tomic's late season slump lost him the title of Australian number one withMarinko Matosevic taking over as the country's top ranked player.Australia, who lost a World Group playoff to Germany in September to ex-tend their stay outside the Davis Cup elite, face Taiwan in a Asia-OceaniaGroup 1 tie in Kaohsiung from Feb. 1-3. agEnCiEs

SYDneYagEnCiEs

The women's field for next year's Sydney International isedging towards the full suite of the world's top 10 players,but Maria Sharapova looks likely to ensure there's a gap inthe chain.

World No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska was on Thursdayadded as the top-ranked player for the January 6-12 eventat Sydney Olympic Park, which includes Australia's worldNo.9 Sam Stosur.

Germany's Angelique Kerber (No.5) and Czech PetraKvitova (No.8) were also included in the draw, with organ-isers still hoping to attract the top three over coming weeks.

World No.1 Victoria Azarenka is a good chance of return-ing, given she's the defending champion, and SerenaWilliams made the 2010 final on the way to winning the Aus-tralian Open two weeks later.

But Sharapova's preference for resting the week beforethe first grand slam of the year in Melbourne is set to bluntany hope of all of the WTA elite gathering in the harbourcity.

The Sydney International has gained a reputation for fi-nalists continuing their good form to the Australian Open,with the past four finals at Melbourne Park including aplayer who contested the decider in Sydney.

Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Kim Clijsters, Serena Williamsand Dinara Safina have all benefited from playing all the wayuntil Saturday's final.woMEN sTARs CoNfIRMEd foR THE sydNEyINTERNATIoNAL:Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) - World No.4Angelique Kerber (Germany) - No.5Sara Errani (Italy) - No.6Li Na (China) - No.7Petra Kvitova (Czech) - No.8Samantha Stosur (Australia) - No.9

Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) - No.10Nadia Petrova (Russia) - No.12Maria Kirilenko (Russia) - No.14Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) - No.15Roberta Vinci (Italy) - No.16Lucie Safarova (Czech) - No.17Julia Goerges (Germany) - No.18Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) - No.20Varvara Lepchenko (US) - No.21Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) - No.22Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium) - No.23Zheng Jie (China) - No.26Tamira Paszek (Austria) - No.30Urszula Radwanska (Poland) - No.31

More women tennis stars headed for Sydney int’l

Henman and Santoro advance



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

QuETTa: a large number of motorcyclists and rickshaws swarm at a petrol filling station for

refueling on wednesday due to shortage of petrol in the provincial capital. InP

ISLAMABADagEnCiEs

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ispreparing for a leadership change that couldmean less violence against the state but moreattacks against US-led forces in Afghanistan,according to media reports citing Pakistanimilitary sources.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless com-mander who has led the TTP for the last threeyears, has lost operational control of themovement and the trust of his fighters, saida senior Pakistan army official based in theSouth Waziristan tribal region, the group’sstronghold. The organisation’s more moder-ate deputy leader, Wali-ur-Rehman, 40, ispoised to succeed Mehsud, whose extreme vi-olence has alienated enough of his fighters tosignificantly weaken him, the military sourcessaid. “Rehman is fast emerging as a consen-sus candidate to formally replace Hakimul-lah,” said the army official, who declined tobe identified because of the sensitivity of thematter. “Now we may see the brutal com-mander replaced by a more pragmatic one forwhom reconciliation with the Pakistani gov-ernment has become a priority.”

The TTP was set up as an umbrellagroup of militants in 2007. Its main aim is totopple the US-backed government in Pak-istan and impose its brand of Islam acrossthe country of 185 million people, althoughit has also carried out attacks in neighbour-ing Afghanistan. The militants intensifiedtheir battle against the Pakistani state afteran army raid on Islamabad’s Lal Masjid in2007, which had been seized by allies of thegroup. Mehsud, believed to be in his mid-

30s, took over the Pakistan Taliban in August2009. He rose to prominence in 2010 whenUS prosecutors charged him with involve-ment in an attack that killed seven CIA em-ployees at a US base in Afghanistan. Hisprofile was raised further when he appearedin a farewell video with the Jordanian suicidebomber who killed the employees.

Three senior military officials inter-viewed in this regard said that informers inthe TTP had told them Mehsud was nolonger steering the group. Pakistan Talibancommanders did not respond to repeated re-quests for comment on the possible leader-ship change. US officials said that whileRehman was Mehsud’s natural successor,they cautioned about expecting an imminenttransition. Mehsud’s standing in the Pak-istan Taliban might have weakened, but hestill had followers, they said.

Washington has offered a reward of $5million for information leading to the cap-ture of either Mehsud or Rehman.

One Pakistan military official, who hasserved in South Waziristan for more thantwo years, said his Pakistan Taliban contactsfirst alerted him to Mehsud’s waning powersix months ago, when constant pressurefrom the Pakistan military, US drone strikesand poor health had hurt his ability to lead.

“Representing the moderate point ofview, there is a probability that underRehman, TTP will dial down its fight againstthe Pakistani state, unlike Hakimullah whobelieves in wanton destruction here,” saidthe military official based in the SouthWaziristani capital of Wana.

The official said this might lead to moreattacks across the border in Afghanistan be-

cause Rehman has been pushing for thegroup’s fighters to turn their guns on West-ern forces. Other factions within the TTPsuch as the Nazir group in South Waziristanand the Hekmat Gul Bahadur faction inNorth Waziristan have struck peace dealswith the Pakistani military while focusing at-tacks on Western and Afghan forces inAfghanistan. A change in the TTP’s focuswould complicate Western efforts to stabiliseAfghanistan before most NATO troops leaveby the end of 2014, said Riaz MohammadKhan, a Pakistani diplomat who has heldseveral posts dealing with Afghanistan.

The United States is already fighting theAfghan Taliban and the Haqqani network,which is based along the unruly frontier be-tween Afghanistan and Pakistan and whichis perhaps Washington’s deadliest foe inAfghanistan. The last thing US-led NATOtroops need is a new, formidable enemy inthe approach to 2014. Such a shift in empha-sis, however, could reduce the number of sui-cide bombings that have plagued Pakistan inrecent years, scaring off investment neededto prop up an economy that has barely man-aged to grow since 2007.

The TTP, which is close to al Qaeda, re-mains resilient despite a series of military of-fensives. It took part in a number ofhigh-profile operations, including an attackon army headquarters in 2009, assaults onmilitary bases, and the attempted assassina-tion of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzaiin October, who had campaigned for girls’education. The TTP was also blamed for the2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Is-lamabad which killed more than 50 people.

Under Mehsud, the organisation formed

complex alliances with other militant groupsspread across Pakistan.

But it has long been strained by internalrivalries over strategy. Mehsud has pushedthe war with the Pakistani state, while otherssuch as Rehman want the battle to be againstUS and allied forces in Afghanistan.“Rehman has even held secret negotiationswith the Pakistani government in the pastbut Hakimullah always stood in his way,wanting to carry on fighting the Pakistanimilitary,” a second Wana-based military of-ficial said. The two were at each other’sthroats earlier this year and hostilities wereclose to open warfare, Taliban sources said.

“Differences within the ranks have onlygotten worse, not better, rendering the TTPa much weaker force today than a few yearsago,” the second military official said.

A source close to the Taliban said therehad been months of internal talks on thePakistan Taliban’s decreasing supportamong locals and fighters in tribal areaswhere the group has assassinated many pro-government elders.

“The Taliban know they are fighting apublic relations war, and under someone likeHakimullah, they will only lose it,” added thesource, who declined to be identified becausehe was not authorised to speak to the media.

It isn’t clear whether Mehsud will handover the leadership to Rehman without afight. A power struggle could split the group,making it more difficult to recruit youngfighters and also disrupt the safe havens inPakistan used by Afghan militants.

According to accepted practice, a leader-ship council, or shura, will ultimately decidewhether to formally replace Mehsud with

Rehman. Intelligence officials said Mehsudhad not commanded any recent operations,including an August 16 attack on the MinhasAirbase in Pakistan and a suicide attack on astreet market in May that killed 24 people.Military sources said Rehman planned theApril 15 jail break in Bannu in Pakistan thatfreed 384 prisoners, including an estimated200 Taliban members and an al Qaeda-linked militant who had attempted to assas-sinate former president Pervez Musharraf.fALL fRoM GRACE: Intelligence offi-cials in the area said Mehsud’s brutality hadturned his own subordinates against him,while the more measured Rehman hademerged as the group’s primary militarystrategist. “If a leader doesn’t behave like aleader, he loses support. For the longest timenow, Hakimullah has done the dirty workwhile Wali-ur-Rehman is the thinker. Tal-iban fighters recognise this,” said the firstPakistani military source.

A local elder described Mehsud as“short-tempered and trigger-happy”.

“(Mehsud) used to work 24 hours a day,tirelessly. But he would also put a gun to any-one’s head and kill them for his cause,” saida local shopkeeper who has family membersinvolved in the Pakistan Taliban.

Mehsud gained his reputation fightingwith the Afghan Taliban against US and al-lied forces in Helmand province inAfghanistan. He was later given command ofTaliban factions in the Bajaur, Orakzai, Khy-ber and Kurram regions. He took over thePakistan Taliban after a weeks-long succes-sion battle with Rehman following the deathof Baitullah Mehsud in a drone strike. Thetwo Mehsuds were not related.

CAIRo agEnCiEs

EGYPTIAN troops deployedtanks outside the presidentialpalace on Thursday as the na-tion awaited President Mo-

hamed Morsi's first address since streetsclashes between his supporters and oppo-nents rocked the capital.

The military set up a barbed wirebarrier 150 metres from the palace,after ordering Morsi allies and foesalike to pull back. Confusion reigned asto whether Morsi would give a televisedaddress to the nation, with a senior aidesaying he would, but an official in hisoffice later saying he would "mostlikely" not give the speech on Thursday.

In Morsi's hometown, the Nile Deltacity of Zagazig, police used tear gas to dis-perse protesters who surrounded thehome of one of the president's relatives, apolice official said. On Wednesday night,seven people were killed and 644 injuredin clashes between Islamists and opposi-tion activists, medical sources said. An-other 50 people were arrested.

The anti-Morsi camp is furious withthe president for his assuming sweep-ing powers two weeks ago and by whatit feels was the railroading through byan Islamist-dominated panel of a draftconstitution. Many demonstrators wereinjured by birdshot, the Health Ministrysaid, but it was not immediately clearwho was firing.

"(Hosni) Mubarak was tried for notprotecting protesters. What about Morsi?"said student Korlos Magdy, 21, referring tothe veteran strongman who was sentenced

to life in prison for his role in the deaths ofhundreds of protesters in the uprising thattoppled him early last year.

At least 10 Republican Guard tanksdeployed around the presidential palace inthe upmarket Cairo neighbourhood of He-liopolis as the army gave demonstrators a3pm (1300 GMT) deadline to disperse.

Morsi supporters who had campedout near the palace began packing their be-longings ahead of the deadline, the corre-pondent reported.

Morsi opponents regrouped in asquare about 300 metres (yards) away.

Republican Guard chief General Mo-hammed Zaki said the tanks were de-ployed to separate the feuding sides,pledging that the military "will not be aninstrument of oppression."

Morsi, who often spends the night athis private home in another Cairo suburb,arrived at the palace early on Thursday.

Egypt's top Islamic body, Al-Azhar,told him he should "suspend the latest de-cree and stop using it," while also demand-ing an unconditional dialogue between thepresident and his opponents.

Four of Morsi's advisers have quit overthe crisis, official news agency MENA re-ported, and the head of state television hasalso resigned, the independent newspaperAl-Masry al-Youm reported on its website.

The Cairo stock market took a heavyhit from the latest violence, with the EGX-30 index plunging 4.6 percent at the close.

Wednesday's violence erupted whenthe Muslim Brotherhood, which fieldedMorsi for the presidency, marched to thepalace where opposition protesters wereholding a sit-in.

Pro- and anti-Morsi activists armed

with sticks, guns, fire bombs and rocksclashed with each other through the night.

"It's the beginning of a religious state,"said Sahar Ali, a 39-year-old tour guideand Morsi opponent. "They're trying toturn it into Iran, but we won't let this hap-pen. We got rid of the military -- the Broth-erhood is next."

The opposition says it will not standdown until Morsi surrenders his new pow-ers -- which put his decisions beyond judi-cial review -- and until he cancels a snapDecember 15 referendum on the new con-stitution opposed by liberals and Chris-tians. The Brotherhood urged protesterson both sides to stand down, as did PrimeMinister Hisham Qandil.

The United States called for an openand "democratic dialogue" in Egypt.

"The upheaval we are seeing... in-dicates that dialogue is urgentlyneeded. It needs to be two-way," USSecretary of State Hillary Clinton saidin comments echoed by Britain andthe European Union.

Despite the protests, Vice Presi-dent Mahmud Mekki said a referen-dum on the charter "will go ahead ontime" on December 15.

He said the opposition would be al-lowed to object in writing to articles in thedraft constitution that would be discussedby a parliament yet to be elected.

Prominent opposition leader and for-mer UN nuclear watchdog chief MohamedElBaradei said Morsi bore "full responsi-bility" for the violence.

He said the opposition was ready fordialogue but would use "any means neces-sary" to scupper the charter, stressing,however, that they would be peaceful.

WASHIngtonsPECial CORREsPOndEnT

Pakistan got a boost in its efforts to secure inter-national financing for the massive Diamer BhashaDam, when the United States committed $200million for preliminary work on the multi-billiondollars project. The US commitment, signifying asteady improvement in bilateral ties, was made toFinance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who dis-cussed the major project in a series of meetingswith American officials. According to Shaikh, themulti-year power generation and water conserva-tion project was likely to cost more than $10 bil-lion. Washington’s expression of support for theproject is seen as an important signal to the inter-national finance institutions and rich countries in

terms of financial backing of the project, whichupon its completion would contribute hugely tothe country’s economic development. Rejectingthe reports that the Asian Development Bank hadbacked out of its commitment to financing themega project, the finance minister at a press con-ference said the ADB and the US would financethe feasibility study, surveys and consortium for-mation for the dam, to be built in Gilgit-Baltistanin an estimated 8-10 years. The governmentwould complete land survey, feasibility and landacquisition processes to pave the way for con-struction of the dam. “This is a very good devel-opment,” Shaikh told reporters. Washington’sfinancing of the project would be in addition tothe ongoing support it is providing to revamp ex-isting dams’ power generation capacity.

Foreign troops in Afghanistan to bear the brunt of TTP leadership change

Egypt army deploys tanksoutside presidential palace

US pledges $200 millionfor Diamer Bhasha Dam

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e-paper pakistantoday 07th December, 2012